For His Trust (15 page)

Nicole was shaking her head in sheer awe of the situation. Red was standing in his black tuxedo, waiting for her at the end of the isle. Standing next to him was a tall, older gentleman in a gray suit. He had a small book in his hands and Nicole knew he must be the minister.

But standing just to the side of them were the only other two witnesses to the ceremony.

Danielle and Kane were there, as if they’d stepped into her dream. Danielle was wearing a gorgeous, violet gown, and Kane was wearing one of his dapper blue suits.

Somehow Red had gotten this all together for her—she didn’t know how he’d managed it. And she couldn’t believe he’d been so gracious as to allow Kane Wright to be there for something so intimate.

But then again, Red loved her, and maybe that was all there really was to it.

Nicole smiled at Danielle and Danielle smiled back at her with tears in her eyes.

Even Kane Wright, normally as cold as steel, was emotional. He grinned and blinked and she knew he was holding back the water works himself.

Finally, she reached Red and the two of them held hands, staring into one another’s eyes.

The minister took a breath and stood before them, opening his book. “We’re here on the beautiful day, in this tropical paradise, to witness something special between two people. I know that it’s special, because when I spoke with Red a few days ago, he explained what this ceremony meant to him. We had a long, surprisingly candid conversation about his life and the woman who came into his world and exacted a profound and moving change upon him.” The minister paused and looked at his tiny audience.

Red squeezed Nicole’s hands and she squeezed back, a recognition that they were in this together. His eyes were as kind and loving as ever, and Nicole knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that he would love her forever and she would love him back.

“Now we are here to help Red and Nicole enter into a sacred commitment, a lifetime commitment to honor and cherish one another through their spiritual growth as human beings. From Red’s poignant description to me, I know that their journey has already been undertaken, and that both of them are looking forward to taking the next steps as man and wife. So let us begin.”

The minister looked at Red now. “Do you, Red Jameson, take Nicole Masters to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?”

“I do.” Red said it with conviction, looking into Nicole’s eyes without wavering in the slightest.

The minister turned to Nicole and repeated the vow for her. “I do,” she replied.

“Please bring forward the rings,” the minister stated.

Danielle walked over and presented the rings.

The minister smiled. “Now place this ring on her finger, and say, “With this ring, I thee wed.””

Red placed the ring on Nicole’s finger and said the words. The band was a platinum band inlaid with diamonds, and it glittered on her finger. She nearly lost her breath when she saw it.

“And now your turn, Miss Masters,” the minister told her.

Danielle passed a simple gold band to Nicole, and then she slipped it on Red’s ring finger, saying, “with this ring, I thee wed.”

“I now pronounce you husband and wife. Please kiss the bride.”

And then Red did kiss her, and although they’d kissed so many times before, this time truly was different. Nicole hadn’t realized that it would actually feel this way, but she was now being kissed by her husband. Red Jameson was truly and actually her husband.

It was official.

***

Later that night, in a state of utter post-wedding bliss, Nicole could only seem to recall flashes of the previous hours spent celebrating with Red and Danielle and Kane.

Red kissing her on the beach as Danielle and Kane hooted and clapped.

The four of them on a coastal boat ride as the sun dipped in the sky, drinking champagne and toasting to love and life and friendship.

Danielle and Nicole laughing with each other as they watched their husbands try and go shot for shot with each other at the bar on the beach.

Dancing with the tourists and locals as the sun set and the music played and Nicole and Red held each other close, sometimes swaying to their very own rhythm.

Finally, bidding goodnight to the two people who’d shared this special day with them, Nicole and Red came back to their little island hideaway, craving one another’s bodies, craving each other’s touch.

Nicole was hot and sweaty from a day of celebration, and she’d changed from her beautiful wedding dress into tiny shorts and a bikini top. Red was also in shorts, and a black t-shirt that hugged his muscular frame.

The little bungalow was dark and muggy, and Nicole was certain that their skin would be sticky and hot and slippery when they finally lay close together in bed.

“You made this day perfect for me,” she whispered, lying across the satin sheets as he took off his sandals and came towards her, climbing onto the bed and pulling her to him, greedy for her as always.

“I had to wait all day and night to get you back here,” he growled. His hands slid up her bare legs and she shrieked with delight and anticipation.

Red began to kiss her feet, slowly, gently, savoring her skin against his lips.

“You taste amazing and I want to learn every bit of you with my mouth. I want to feel every curve, every pore of you. I’m going to study you the way Da Vinci studied the Mona Lisa before he painted her.”

His lips singed her bare skin and she moaned as he touched her again and again and again.

She was so wet. She was so loved. Her body was open to him to do with as he pleased. She trusted him completely and utterly, and she was totally unselfconscious in his presence.

Red took his time with her. He’d always taken his time in bed, but now more than ever he seemed to be taking pleasure in the waiting, the savoring.

It made Nicole so hot for him. She wanted him now, and she wanted to feel him inside of her, filling her completely, pressing down on her and letting her know that he was never going to leave her.

But she knew that this exquisite torture of waiting was part of Red’s love for her.

He touched and kissed her instep, her ankles, her shins and thighs. He spent a great deal of time licking and tasting her thighs, and sometimes it tickled and she squealed.

Yes, it tickled, but also it got her that much more wet because now he was so close to opening her fully and completely.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity of wanting, Red slowly took down her shorts, beneath which Nicole was completely bare and slick. Her mound was swollen with desire.

“God, you’re sexy,” he whispered, as if in disbelief.

A man who’d been with some of the most beautiful women on the planet was looking at her body and counting himself lucky. Nicole didn’t quite know how that was possible, but she knew it was real.

She wanted him to kiss her down there, but first he kissed everywhere else. His lips touched her hips, and her belly and then her breasts. He sucked each nipple, insistently, as they stiffened and she cried out, her hips arching against him.

Finally, he kissed up her neck and then his mouth was on hers, tasting her tongue, his lips brushing hers as he found her again and again.

Red looked into her eyes as their tongues and lips connected with passion. She loved the way he tasted—minty, but also salty from kissing her skin.

His body was on hers now and she loved how his weight pressed against her, the way his muscular arms encircled her, a circle of protection from the rest of the world.

Nicole reached up and ran her fingers through his curly dark hair and smiled.

Red gazed lovingly into her eyes and she into his.

“Do you know that I’m the luckiest man alive? I’m even the luckiest man who ever lived. Even if I die tomorrow, I’ll have lived a full life because I met you—the woman of my dreams, my soul mate.”

“I feel the same way,” Nicole said. Her heart was pounding.

“I want to be inside of you all night,” he said, his eyes searching hers, as if he wanted to possess her, to get even closer than humanly possible.

“That would be amazing. I’m so ready for you, Red.”

“I want to feel how ready you are,” he rasped. And then his hand was working her entrance, opening her, his fingers sliding in.

“Oh, God,” she whispered, because she was already about to come.

“Nicole, I want you to be mine and now you are mine. We said our vows and now we’re going to be together always.”

“Always, you promise?” she said.

“Yes.” He slid himself into her, the hardness and fullness of him surprising her all over again—as if for the first time.

“Yes,” she said to him.

His breathing came in short gasps as he found the rhythm of her body, the movement her hips wanted to make against him. They began working against each other’s bodies in the darkness of the bungalow, in the heat of that tropical night.

Their bodies wrapped around one another, so close that nothing could come between them, their skin sticky and tacky with sweat and lust and their mouths joined by kisses.

That night, Red went deeper than she ever imagined possible.

And he went for a long time inside her, seeming to bask in the glory of possessing her body and her openness to him.

She came again and again, and eventually she lost track of how many climaxes, how many minutes they spent together.

Eventually she couldn’t tell where she ended and he began, but she could feel him giving her endless bursts of pleasure as he slid in and out, in and out, always finding a way to take her higher than the moment before.

And when he finally finished, she felt it go deep inside and she wrapped her legs tightly around him, locking her ankles and squeezing him deeper still.

“Oh, Nicole,” he whispered. “Nicole, my love, my love. I finally found you.”

***

Had it all been just a dream?

Nicole couldn’t believe how the time had flown since coming back from Belize.

It turned out that there was a price to pay for turning off cell phones for days and days on end.

And both of them were paying a high price indeed.

As soon as they got home, Red was back at the agency, working fifteen and even some eighteen-hour days.

As it turned out, Erikson Bikes had loved the pitch and given Red’s company a huge amount of work. They wanted him to help them roll out an entire new line of bikes and it meant print ads and TV ads and web advertising.

After a week of barely seeing her new husband, Nicole had come back to work as his executive assistant, and she’d been right by his side for many of those eighteen-hour days. It wasn’t easy, but it was exciting. They were, after all, building something together.

The days blended together and then became weeks. She hardly had time to return Danielle’s calls, let alone see her for lunch. Nicole didn’t see anyone, except for her coworkers and Red.

Eventually, she knew, things would slow down. Something would have to give.

And finally it did.

On a day like any other, everything changed yet again.

It was perhaps six or seven weeks after their wedding that Nicole got a very strange email.

It came in at just after seven in the morning, when she’d barely even managed to open her eyes. She was in the office, of course, because Red was coming in so early and he demanded it of everyone else. Besides, she was his assistant and his wife.

Still, at the moment in question, she was cursing the day he’d started this company.

Sipping her coffee and wishing the caffeine would hurry up and kick in, Nicole saw an email appear in her inbox with a familiar name attached.

Opening the email, Nicole found that her heart was now racing and she had an uneasy feeling in her stomach.

Dear Nicole,

I know you are probably surprised (and likely not in a pleasant way) to hear from
me in this fashion. Not a day has gone by since my visit that I haven’t thought about my
poor treatment of you.

And of course, I’m not proud of the way I treated my son, either.

The truth is that I was scared. I was scared because for the first time in Red’s
life, he’d found a woman that he cared about more than me. I know that sounds silly and
perhaps even sick.

But it’s the God’s honest truth and I feel I owe it to you to be honest.

I miss having my son in my life, Nicole. And I miss getting to know the daughter
that I could have had, if I’d only been able to see past my own selfishness and insecurity.

I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me and perhaps allow for the
possibility of me returning, in some small way, to play a part in your new family.

Hopefully this email finds you well. I am so happy to know that the two of you are
married and starting your lives together.

I will wait to hear from you.

Love,

Erica

Nicole closed the email and turned away from the computer, suddenly aware that her stomach was churning and bubbling in a most unpleasant way.

“Oh, God,” she muttered, before leaning over and throwing up into her wastebasket beside her desk.

She quickly grabbed a tissue and wiped her mouth, crumpled it, and threw it in the basket.

Was it possible that reading that email from Red’s mother could have so upset her?

Nicole didn’t think so. In fact, as she considered it further, she realized that it had been too long since her last period. And this upset stomach was incredibly similar to what she’d experienced the last time…

She shook her head. No, she couldn’t allow herself to get her hopes up again.

But what if?

Nicole thought back to the wedding. It had been just about seven weeks now, and so it made sense from that perspective as well.

Heart pounding again—but this time for a different reason—she got up and ran from the office.