And she cried again when Marty handed over little Gregory and she held him close, watching him make sucking motions in his sleep, her tears falling onto the soft blue blanket his mother had swaddled him in. Marty promised to write and urged Leah to call her, not if but when, baby Grace was back in her mother’s empty, aching arms.
The honeymoon started in the limo on the way over to the hotel. Rob had booked a room overnight in the Fort Shelby-their flight to the Caribbean didn’t leave until the morning-and the two of them made out like teenagers in the back of the Rolls-Royce Phantom in spite of the driver being able to glance in the rear view mirror and see them. That just made it all the more exciting.
“I can’t wait to get you out of these clothes,” Rob whispered into her ear, his hand moving up under her skirt, stroking the exposed expanse of skin on her thigh above her stocking. “You’re mine, sweetheart. All mine.”
“Yes,” she breathed, squirming on the seat, arms twined around her neck, breath coming so fast she thought she might faint. “Always.”
She could barely believe it was true. Leah heard the man behind the concierge desk in the Fort Shelby address them as Mr. and Mrs. Nolan with a sense of wonder and awe. The bellhop brought up their luggage, taking them down the hallway to their room. Rob tipped him and the bellboy tipped his hat and grinned, handing over the key and thanking him before heading back down the hall.
Leah remembered staying at Fort Shelby during their annual end of the school year trip to Detroit’s local amusement parks. They had run around like little kids, she and Erica, so young and carefree. Leah had been head over heels in love with Rob and neither of them could deny it anymore, in spite of Erica’s misgivings about the relationship. He had proposed to her that very weekend, and she thought they were going to live happily ever after, that she finally had the fairy tale.
So much time and heartache between then and now, so many losses, so much sacrifice. But none of it mattered when Rob unlocked the door to the honeymoon suite, sweeping her off her feet and carrying her over the threshold, nudging their suitcases in and kicking the door closed behind him. She laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing his cheek, leaving a visible lipstick print.
“What should we do first?” Leah pondered aloud when he set her on the bed. She leaned back, kicking off her high heels. “Take a shower? Watch TV? Order room service?”
Rob crawled onto the bed, onto her, making her lean back on the pillow. “The first thing I’m doing is getting you out of these clothes and making love to my wife.”
“Your wife,” Leah repeated, trying it on for size.
“My wife.”
“I like the sound of that,” she whispered.
“So do I.”
Her whole life started then, right there in the Fort Shelby hotel, when they made love for the first time as husband and wife. She didn’t understand it and she didn’t have to-her body had already decided for her. It had picked Rob without hesitation, making her palms sweat whenever he was around, her bottom clench, her breath quicken, and her nipples harden. Her body had chosen it all-even the spark of life that had grown inside of her as Grace, finally birthing her right into Leah’s own hands.
“I love you, Mr. Nolan,” Leah whispered as he kissed her blouse open with every button.
He smiled up at her. “I love you too, Mrs. Nolan.”
Mrs. Nolan. She was Mrs. Nolan. She belonged to him.
He rained kissed down on her as he undressed her, kissing every exposed bit of skin as he revealed it, bit by bit, until she was just in her stockings, bra and garters, her panties down at her knees. She wanted him so much by then she was shaking with it, but he ordered her to stay there, right there on the bed, while he stood and pulled off his tie, tossing it aside and beginning to unbutton his shirt.
“Hurry!” Leah complained, holding her arms out to him like a child. “Faster!”
“Brat.” He peeled his shirt off, tossing at the foot of the bed, unbuckling his pants.
“I’m your wife now,” she reminded him, sticking out her tongue. “You should be a good husband and say ‘Yes, Dear.’”
“Yes, Dear,” he replied, sliding his trousers and boxers off and adding them to the pile with his shirt.
“Socks, too,” she instructed. “I can’t make love to you if you’re still wearing your socks. That’s just wrong.”
He rolled his eyes, and she laughed at the way he looked, his erection bobbing as he pulled off first one sock, then the other. “Better?”
“Much!” She opened her arms and he went to her, sliding inside of her before she could open her mouth to say another word, his aim shockingly accurate, the drive of his hips forcing her thighs apart and her knees up.
“Now what was that about being a good husband?” he whispered, looking into her eyes as he pulled his hips back and thrust again.
“I don’t remember.” She put her arms around his neck, pelvis rocking to meet him.
“Sure you do.” He rolled his hips between her legs, grinding slowly. Leah moaned, feeling every bit of him touching her inside, front, back, filling her completely. “What am I supposed to say?”
“Yes, Dear,” she cried as he gave her a sudden, sweet pulse of thrusts, short, hard blasts that made her teeth rattle and her breasts bounce and her sex ache. “Ohhh yes! Yes!”
“That’s my good little wife,” he teased, giving her more of that-hard and fast was the ticket, and she let him know with her moans, hips gyrating, hand slipping down to rub herself. “Tell me how much you like it.”
“Oh Rob,” she cried, looking up into his eyes. “I love it, I love you.”
“I love you too.” He smiled, kissing the tip of her nose.
Leah had been anticipating this moment all day, her whole life, and she worked toward that moment of bliss, feeling it hovering just out of her reach as Rob pounded her into the bed, the headboard banging hard against the wall, making her flush with embarrassment at the thought of their neighbors hearing, whoever they were-what if they ran into them in the hallway, what then?
But the thought was fleeting because Rob was taking her now, giving into his own lust, taking her with him on a one-way ride to ecstasy. Leah cried out when her head hit the headboard, putting her other hand above her head to keep herself from sliding further up, her other too busy between her legs to move it, but Rob didn’t notice.
“Oh yeah,” he groaned, and she felt him swelling inside of her, just when she thought he had filled her completely, there was more. Leah’s body stiffened, her toes curling into the small of his back, calling out his name, screaming it as she came, feeling him exploding like a rocket burst into space, leaving trails of white streams in its wake.
Leah blushed and buried her face in the pillow when she remembered how loud she’d been, how the headboard and banged and shuddered. Rob just laughed, gathering her up and kissing the top of her head.
“They really should nail these things to the wall,” she mused, pressing her hand against it, making it rock. “See? Too loud!”
Rob chuckled. “I’ll leave a note on the suggestion box when we leave.”
They both drifted for a while, exhausted from not only the wedding, but from the tension and strain of the court case coming up.
“We will be back in time for court, won’t we?” Leah asked for the hundredth time at least, but Rob reassured her again anyway that yes, they would be home on a Friday night and the court date wasn’t until Monday. They’d make it back, even if the flight was delayed or cancelled.
“I want to look for a house,” Leah said, fingers trailing over Rob’s chest hair.
“A house?” He didn’t even open his eyes.
“I want to move out of the warehouse,” she said, leaning up on her elbow. “I want a real house with walls and rooms and a deck and a backyard and a fence and a dog and a nursery for Grace…”
“Wait…” Now his eyes were open. “A dog?”
“If you buy a house, you have to buy a dog. I’m pretty sure there’s a law.”
He smirked. “And where do you want to buy this house?”
