Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 20619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 103(@200wpm)___ 82(@250wpm)___ 69(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 103(@200wpm)___ 82(@250wpm)___ 69(@300wpm)
Claps and cheers fill the air. The whole town has been nothing but supportive and hasn’t shown me any scorn for being an outsider. I feel loved and accepted by the community in a way I just didn’t when I lived in the big city. This is my home now, and forever more.
We are tempted to duck out from the wedding early. We wanted to get home and get to doing what we had the excuse to call “consummation.” But a wedding is a celebration for everyone else, too, not just the bride and groom.
“Hunter’s got himself a ball and chain now,” Bear chuckles as his friends gather with him and me.
“Why’s she a ball and chain?” Hunter asks.
“Dunno. That’s just what people called their wives?”
“It’s some of that old nineteen fifties’ misogyny,” one of his other friends noted. He’s more lean and clean cut than the others in the group, in that he actually shaved his face. Not to suggest my eyes are wandering, but I’d rate him as quite handsome. His name is Hawk, my memory keeping up with the situation. It was a nickname like Bear had, his given name escaping me, so Hawk he’d remain. “Comparing your wife to you being in prison. Like, they used to put an iron ball next to you to keep you from running off.”
“Well, I don’t want him to run off,” I say. “But I do hope I don’t hold him back from doing what he wants to do.”
“It’s really weird how much they were into acting like you hated your wife,” the third friend added. Fox is a bit more gruff than Hawk, but not by much. He’s got that tasteful stubble going. “I’ve never seen Hunter happier than since Savvy entered his life.”
“Past was weird, man,” Bear says, punctuating his words with a drink. “It was a different time.”
The four of them have been longtime friends since childhood, I gather. All of them having nicknames, besides Hunter. I guess it’d be weird for one of them to be named Steve, with Hawk, Fox, and Bear nicknames for the rest of them.
“Think we’d all want a girl like Savvy, but unfortunately there’s only one of you,” Fox chimes in. “And I don’t think she’s the kind of girl that wants four husbands.”
I laugh. “Hunter is more than enough man than I can handle. Sorry, boys.”
“We’re happy for you, too, and proud of you as well,” Bear says. “Y’all are going to make one hell of a couple and have some damn beautiful kids.”
I blush at that suggestion. I’m sure Hunter and I would get to that point, but we’ll get there when we get there.
After paying our respects to the rest of the town, we hustle toward Hunter’s truck. They cheer us on as we pull away from our wedding, the clacking and clinking of empty cans behind us.
We’re both eyeballing one another, ready to pounce. But the road is treacherous and windy, which makes that sort of hanky-panky very ill-advised.
“So, have you developed any strong opinions about where you want to honeymoon yet?” he asks, his eyes on the road. We had decided to wait to plan our honeymoon until a few months after the wedding, not wanting to feel like we were living in a whirlwind.
“I thought you said you’d like to hike together through the Alps.”
“Yeah, but that was my first suggestion. But we only get to have one real honeymoon. The rest are just vacations. How about Japan?”
“If we went to Japan, I’d like to know how to speak a little of the language, so I’d need time to study. That can wait.”
“Paris?”
“Too fancy for us, I think.”
“Okay… Italy?”
“Like the idea of the food, maybe eventually.”
“Bahamas? Maybe somewhere else tropical?”
“Too cliché,” I say. “The Alps sound romantic. I can’t imagine anything better than traveling with the man I love through a majestic mountain range full of new sights and sounds. And a journey that’ll have plenty of little hidden places for us to take a step off to the side of the road and enjoy one another.”
“That last part is very important.”
“We’re going, then. We can start booking it in the morning.”
Finally, we reach his cabin. We rush toward the door, Hunter sweeping me off my feet, ready to carry me across the threshold of what is now our marital home. He takes me right to bed, and sets me down on it, lavishing another powerful kiss.
“I’ve been holding myself back all day, babe. I want nothing more than to tear that gown off of you and fuck you harder than I’ve ever fucked you before.”
“And I’d love that, except that ripping thing. I’d like to save this gown, thank you very much.”
Chuckling, he helps me strip out of it. It’s kind of awkward to wear, and it’s clear why it’s a once-in-a-lifetime sort of thing. I plan to store it away in a wooden box for safe keeping. With me left only in my garters and underwear, I turn to Hunter, in only his boxers and socks. I had to help him out of his twelve layers of clothing too. I never knew that tuxedos were so complicated and that there was a thing called a cummerbund.