Chapter Seventeen: To Build a Home for You
They left the reception laughing, leaving amidst cameras flashing and music playing and their guests cheering. They stumbled into the limo, hands clasped together, happy and nervous and anticipating all at once.
But as the car moved through the streets and towards Jack's home, they fell silent.
"We're leaving on our honeymoon tomorrow. I booked a cabin. It's in the woods, kind of remote. I thought you'd like that," said Jack awkwardly, after a long stretch of silence.
"That sounds nice," she agreed. Slowly he let his arm wrap around her, conscious that in her sleeveless gown she might be cold. She moved closer to him. He relaxed, but only slightly: ever since he'd proposed to her, he'd been fairly sure how things were going to proceed. That they'd marry quickly, that Margo would attempt to plan their whirlwind wedding, that everything would go as he planned until this moment, after the wedding, when anything could happen. He could not predict how it was going to happen, and he still could not read her in this sense.
The limo pulled up in front of Jack's house and they got out. It was dark already, the neighbourhood was quiet. He felt uncertain, and was reminded of so many earlier nights in their relationship when he'd expected this to happen. With much less ceremony, with much less formality. Just two people getting to know each other on their third or fourth date. Now she was his wife, and it was all different.
Kate smiled slightly as he stopped her just outside his door and lifted her into his arms. He carried her into the house and up the stairs.
He nudged the door of his bedroom open and walked in. Setting her down on the bed, he kicked off his shoes and untied his tie.
Kate watched him, his eyes expressionless as he turned back to her.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Do you really want to do this?"
"What?"
"I mean it. I was happy when you said you'd marry me, but I never thought you would. I just needed things to move forward, and I didn't know how else to make it happen. Now things are moving forward again. Is it what you really want?"
Kate looked sympathetically at him. No wonder he was confused.
"Of course," she said, empathetically.
"But then why..."
"Jack," said Kate, somewhat sternly, rising slightly as she spoke. "Stop talking."
Kate moved, as if about to get out of the bed and stand, but before she could Jack moved toward her and pushed her back down onto it.
He began to kiss her, slowly at first. Faster as her hands found the buttons of his shirt and she undid them hurriedly, her hands running down his hard chest as she did so.
Cautiously his own hands made their way to the zipper in the back of her dress. As he slowly unzipper it, her flesh was revealed to him: the strapless bra she'd been wearing under her wedding dress, lace covered and erotic. He unhooked it, feeling that she had been unknown to him for far too long. He admired her naked form as she slid all the way out of her dress and wrapped her legs around him, their naked flesh touching intimately all over.
He groaned in anticipation, forcing himself to hold off as his wife moved beneath him, already passionate, already desiring.
"I love you," he managed to say, when she was ready for him. For a moment he thought she was going to say it, too, but their next movements overrode all thought.
They lay together between the sheets, both smiling thoughtfully. Jack could not remember a time he'd been happier, more at peace. He'd thought them to be intimate before this, back in their days of dating, but he'd never felt as intimate, as connected, as he did now.
"Thank you. That was incredible," she said, breaking the silence. He turned to her.
"It was. You were so..." Kate blushed, realizing his implication. It had been a long time since she'd been with a man, and her tightness must have been a giveaway.
"It's been a while," she admitted. She leaned in to kiss him again.
"Ever since that night at the bar, I've..." He cut himself off. What he was about to say, he knew he couldn't say while conveying the proper meaning. He had wanted her desperately ever since that night at the bar, but it didn't mean he wanted her only for that.
"I know you have. Me too." She smirked. "You totally thought you were going to get lucky that night, too. That Doctor line really work on the ladies, Jack?"
"Hey!" he said indignantly. "It's not really a line. I am a Doctor."
She moved in closer to him to cure his injured pride.
"I know. I guess you figured out pretty early that I wasn't that kind of girl," said Kate. Jack smiled and kissed her again.
They kissed again, their desire once again inflamed. He moved on top of her to kiss her again.
She wrapped her arms around his neck as they began to kiss, lovingly and longingly. He looked up to meet her eyes as his lips began to slid down her neck.
"I still know so little about you," he said, gazing into her green eyes. She nodded.
"One day I'll tell you," she promised.
And she meant it. One day, she would. One day she would tell him, and it would destroy them both. As his lips began to explore her body once more, she knew that they had to cherish the time they had together until then.
When they awoke the next morning they were pressed together, as close as when they had fallen asleep.
"What time's our flight?" she asked when he awoke, slightly after her.
"Not until the afternoon. Are you packed?" he asked. She laughed.
"My whole life is in boxes at my apartment. I was going to get the movers to bring it over here while we're away, but I set some stuff aside," she explained.
"So I guess we don't really have anything to do," he commented.
"Yeah," she said, agreeing. Her brain was telling her to do her normal morning things: get up, get dressed, make coffee. She was telling herself that things needed to be done but really all she wanted to do was lie in bed with her husband and do nothing at all.