Encore! (Tudor Saga Book 1) (24 page)

"Angel, you are ready for me? Forgive me that I cannot wait to feel you wrap yourself around my cock." He removed his fingers and straddled over me. I felt his tip as he prepared to enter.

I became unhinged with desire. "Oh God, Danny…" I moaned as he thrust inside me.

"Baby, I've missed you," he whispered. "You feel like heaven." He began slowly thrusting in and out in a slow, sensual motion.

"Danny, you feel so good. Oh baby…" I was too caught up in his loving to do anything but respond to his touches.

Finally, I could stand it no longer, nor could I hold back, and he knew it. "Go on, angel mine. Cum for me. I'm right with you, baby." And he was. As soon as I began climaxing, Danny was with me and he thrust hard one last time as he came. We lay like that, breathless, for quite a while. Finally, I felt Danny right himself on both arms and stare down at me, kissing me with soft kisses. "I love you, Mary."

"I love you too, Danny." I replied, rubbing his back with my hands, which were still around him.

"Mary," he began, pushing my hair off my face. He was still hard and deep within me. I squeezed his cock in short pulses. He replied by rooting it deeper. "Mary, I've thought about this for ages. I've imagined every scenario possible, but somehow right here, right now, in this most intimate moment, the two of us still connected as one, seems to be the most appropriate place to ask you this." He gazed down at me, those dark brown eyes searching as he continued. "Angel mine, will you do me the honor of marrying me?"

I blinked up at him as I moved my body in such a way I took him even deeper. "Yes, Danny, I will marry you. I love you more than anything else in this world. I would be honored to be your wife."

He leaned over as my mouth opened to him and we sealed the deal, our future decided. Before he took his lips away, he quietly began rocking into me once more. He looked down at me. "Thank you, angel. I never knew, before now, it was possible to love a woman as deeply as I love you. I can't promise I'll always be as attentive as I should be, but I'll give you all of me. Everything—my heart, my soul, my body and mind. All yours, angel-mine."

"I love you, Danny, all of you."

Any further conversation was interrupted by a second round of love making. This time, Danny rolled off me when we were complete, once more gasping for breath. He pulled me into his arms and I snuggled against his chest. We lay there in a comfortable silence. Finally Danny spoke.

"I have no ring for you yet, sweet. My plan had been to ask you in our new home, the first night. As you can see, I couldn't wait."

"I don't care, Danny. I'm fine without one."

"I thought if you'd let me I would have something made especially for you, unless you'd rather pick one out."

"Danny, this is a huge step for both of us. I would love nothing more than for you to give me a ring that you've either had made or picked out, yourself."

"Thank you. I suppose now we can begin to look and see when might be a good time for a wedding, eh?"

"I don't know. I'm so overwhelmed right now. But yes, we'll look over your schedule and see."

"Would you want to do it with both our families present? Or just go off somewhere by ourselves?"

"Interesting question. We would have to select a date far enough in advance that both our families could get to whatever destination we choose. Or yes, we could just elope."

A deep chuckle emerged from his throat. "I had the feeling you might say that. I, myself, prefer sooner rather than later; but I will accept whatever you want. You want a huge wedding, tell me. This is your first, as it is mine, and I know most women dream of the big, fancy wedding. But don't keep me waiting too long."

"Well, we don't have to make a decision this instant. I'm marrying you, Danny, not my family, not yours. I'm marrying you and I think our vows ought to be between just you and me. I don't want to share our special moment with anyone but you. We can have a party to celebrate with our families later."

He pulled back, grinning, his fingers reaching down once again to the apex of my legs. I spread my legs wider as he touched me. "Then we elope. We'll discuss the details when I'm finished trying to satiate you."

Time passed and the two of us fell asleep in each other's arms. Slowly I felt Daniel rouse beside me. As I slowly opened my eyes, I realized it was late afternoon. He kissed the top of my head as he sat up and stretched. Just the sight of him from behind sent shivers through me.

"It is six in the evening, sweet."

I sat up and glanced over at the bedside clock. He was right, we'd managed to spend the majority of the afternoon in bed. Not that I'd trade it for anything else. "That's what days off are for, Danny. To do whatever you want, even spending the afternoon making love."

"And I suspect we will do it again; but tonight I have plans for us."

"What sort of plans?"

"Well, dinner for one. I had Damien make us reservations at the Space Needle. I thought it would be a perfect spot for us to begin this new phase of our relationship."

"Did you tell Damien why?"

"No, no one knows we're planning to marry; and no one will until after the fact. Not unless you say differently, sweet. I merely told your brother that I needed to take you somewhere nice for all the patience you've shown over the past weeks."

"Thank you, Danny. I suppose we should think about getting ready then?"

"Yes, in a bit. Why don't you see if Damien left any wine and we'll have a glass before we get ready?"

Nodding my head, I climbed out of the bed in search of my jeans, which were in a pile on the floor. Instead, I picked up my panties and put them on, pulling the shirt over my head. I scurried down the hall while Daniel was out of sight. Once we began love making sessions like this, it was hard for us to part, neither wanting it to end. It was true this evening, as well. In a way, we were consummating our commitment to each other.

Finding a bottle of locally grown red, I uncorked it and poured two glasses. Thinking I heard Danny in the living room, I walked in that direction. He was seated on the sofa, cell phone in hand checking for calls and texts.

"Did things fall apart while we were off the grid?" I asked, handing him a glass. He eyed me seductively, his eyes dancing with want.

"No, but if you don't put something less revealing on, we may not make it to dinner, angel-mine." Smiling, his hand reached out and touched the skin of my inner thigh as he erotically moved upwards. "Why are your thighs so wet sweet?"

"Could be it's the fault of some long haired handsome devil I've been seduced by." I taunted. Sitting down next to him I playfully nipped at his neck. "I think you need to move your hand Daniel before we find ourselves on the floor."

His hand moved and he looked devastated. The corners of his mouth curled up as he took a sip off his wine. "Are we good, now?"

"We're always good Daniel. Now I believe we should begin to get ready for dinner. I promise you can have all the dessert you want when we return."

Dinner atop the Space Needle was spectacular. Daniel picked the perfect way to celebrate our engagement. We were both happy, content. He also did his best not to discuss the upcoming last days of his tour or his music. Instead, he brought up ideas for getting married. He was obviously ready for this.

"I was thinking that perhaps we could marry in London. We have to go back anyway to wrap things up before that brief respite. I think it might work. We get married, then disappear somewhere for those two weeks, just you and me."

"You're really ready to do this, aren't you?" I asked, touching his hand. He wrapped his hand around mine.

"Yes, yes I am. The next chance we'd have would be months away and the weather would be changing. I…"

I squeezed his hand. "So we fly to New York and close on the house, meet with the interior designer, then head on to London where you finish up. We get a license and marry, then go hide from the world for two weeks and enjoy our new life together. Did I leave anything out?"

"No, I think you covered it all. I thought that once we were wherever we land for our honeymoon, we'd send out an email, or text announcing our marriage."

"Sounds perfect, Daniel. Would you mind if I had my Aunt Lucy stand up with me? She has been a dear, always keeping my secrets and she foretold that we would marry. I would hate for her to feel snubbed, finding out we married in London."

"That's fine with me, sweet. Then if we're agreed on it, we'll start making plans. You won't feel deceitful when we visit your family knowing what we're about to do?"

"No, not at all, Danny. I explained all that earlier. This is our time. We'll invite our family together in celebration later."

The next three days were, once again, very much Daniel's. I accompanied him to the various interviews scheduled, camera in hand. He was gracious, as always, wherever he went, stopping to chat briefly with fans or, at one point, a class of enthusiastic violin students who had been invited to participate in an interview with him. He gave them tips and insights into what he endured to become the artist he was. But Daniel was more than just another artist or violinist. He had reached a pinnacle few musicians are ever allowed to stand. Daniel was very well aware of this, having never taken his talent for granted nor flaunting it. He had a vision to jump from classical to a fusion of all genres, and was eager to share it with the world.

Damien arrived at the condo the morning after Daniel's final concert. He wanted to visit with Daniel and we invited him to ride along with us to the get-together out at Amadeus and Zara's. When he arrived, Danny was ready but I was still in the midst of chaos.

I found the two sitting in the living room enjoying coffee, talking. I tried to hear what they found so amusing, deciding it was probably me.

"You about ready, sis? You remember we've still got a ways to go."

"Yeah, I remember, ferry boat, second island, not first. Right?"

"You remember well. I'm impressed." Damien took a sip off his coffee, watching me as though he remembered some long ago incident.

"Do you miss living out there?" I asked.

"I used to, but this is my life now. I needed to be closer to things like my doctors. Now I have my sailboat, so it all turned out okay."

He turned back. "Daniel, I'm curious about something."

"What's that?" Daniel asked, finishing off his coffee and handing me his mug.

"Remember that Archangel chick you got up on stage and performed with at Jake's club in London? The one you had to help get out of there? Whatever happened to her?"

I turned around to head towards the kitchen, not wanting to look at either of them. At the same time, I wanted to hear Daniel's answer.

"I can't say," Danny replied. "I dropped her off at what I assume was her apartment and haven't heard a thing out of her. Perhaps she understood just how dangerous it was for a woman to be alone in that environment."

"Pity really, that she couldn't have put together a security team or something. Whoever she was, she was good." Damien put his cup down and smiled. "Better keep an eye out next time you're performing in London, Daniel. She might just pay you back and join you on stage."

Daniel threw his head back and laughed. He was having a good time with this. His eye caught mine for a second.

"Did either of you think perhaps she finally got sick of being treated like a plaything and decided it wasn't worth her effort?"

"Ouch." Daniel snorted. "My little feminist has spoken."

"Not funny, Danny. Now if the two of you are through acting like a pair of rutting stags, I suggest we get on the road."

"Rutting stags?" Damien quipped. "How do you know…?"

"I know a lot of stuff, now come on you two. You're worse than five year olds."

The trip over was nice enough. Damien drove us to the Ferry and Danny sat up front with him, leaving me to fend for myself.

Once we arrived on the island, Damien asked if I would trade place and drive."Why not drive the rest of the way?" I asked.

"Because, if Mother is there, I'll have to listen to her scolding. She doesn't think I should be driving - ever."

"That's the most idiotic thing I think I've heard. Is she afraid you're going to have another stroke?" I know I rolled my eyes.

"Exactly. So, rather than listen to her go on and on and ruin everyone's otherwise good time, it is easier to let her think she's still in charge."

"Well, you've got more patience than I do. And I try, really I do, Damien, but she never listens to me. Never. It's all I can do to keep from ripping her head off. As many times as I've tried to explain to her the reason I left, she always turns the conversation around to suit her." I felt Daniel reach across and lay his hand on my thigh.

"I know, Mary, but she was always like that with you. The three of us have tried talking to her these past few months and sometimes I think we’ve made progress, but then she's right back at the same spot."

"Perhaps it's best to just go about your business and not let her get under your skin, sweet."

"That's what I've been trying to do, Danny. But she doesn't make it easy, does she Damien?"

I could see Damien shake his head in the back seat. "No. She's like an old dog, you can't retrain her. Just adapt, Mary, that's all I know to tell you. It's what I've been forced to do since I got sick—and even more since my divorce."

"Well, get me through today is all I ask."

"Oh, and heads up you two."

"What?" I asked, eyeing him from the rear view.

"If you two ever decide to get married, do us all a favor and elope. By the time it's over, we'll all either be drinking or on nerve medication, not to mention it won't actually be your wedding, sis. She'll turn it into the sort of thing she always dreamed and assumed you wanted."

Quickly I bit my lip knowing if I wasn't careful I might give myself away. I caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye and noted Danny looking out the window trying to avoid eye contact.

"What?" Damien inquired. "Did I say a bad word or something? The M word? 'Cause the two of you are acting rather odd."