Trying to avoid beingtooscary when I proposed to Ashton, so I decided to wear a light green dress that was overlaid with white lace. “That’s true. Thank you so much, um…”
“Lindsey,” she replied before looking over her shoulder at her husband. “This is my new husband, Eric.”
“Nice to meet you both. My future husband’s name is Ashton.” The words came out like the sweet taste of honey. I loved announcing it that way. “Thank you. I know you didn’t really intend to be a big, important part of my day, but our families probably aren’t going to be very happy, so I didn’t really think I’d get to talk about it with anyone.”
Her eyes widened, but she smiled. “I’m sorry, but of course! I hope you guys have a long, happy life together.” Eric walked up and took Lindsey’s hand. “Well, we’re off to our honeymoon. Went chintzy on the wedding so we could go to Barbados.”
I chuckled. “Enjoy.”
“Thanks! Congrats again.” With a final smile and wave from both Lindsey and Eric, they walked off, beaming at each other.
The flowers had even more significance than that woman could have ever possibly have predicted. My mom loved to garden, so maybe Ashton could bring them back to her to keep alive. It’d be nice if a piece of our wedding day survived and flourished after I was gone.
After about fifteen minutes, I heard a huffing and looked up to see Ashton running back toward me. “I’m sorry. That took longer than I thought.” He glanced at the flowers in my hand and tilted his head. “Oh. Where’d you get those? I was gonna get some, but I didn’t want to waste anymore time.”
I grinned. “A couple that just got married gave them to me. For good luck.”
“We’ll take all the luck we can get,” Ashton replied. He walked over to me, stood directly in front of me, and then dropped down to one knee. He fished into his pocket and pulled out a little black box. He then tipped the cover back, revealing a beautiful diamond ring inside. “It’s not the customized ring that I might have gotten in any other situation, but—”
“It’s beautiful,” I cut him off.
He smiled. “Denise. Will you marry me?”
My heart swelled. “Yes.”
Ashton pulled the ring out of the box and slid it onto my ring finger, after which he stood up and pulled me into another kiss. With my hand clasped in his, he dragged me toward the courthouse. There weren’t many people inside, but when we had finally processed our paperwork, the few that were around clapped as we shared our first kiss as husband and wife. One of the workers behind the desk offered to take a few photos with our phones, and Ashton got really into positioning us in a few different poses. When we were done, he sifted through them all and picked one for his wallpaper. It was so simple and trivial, but it was otherworldly at the same time. I never expected to mean so much to someone, and even if it was just a rush job to make me feel a little bit better before I inevitably lost my life, I was married, and that meant everything to me.
Parting ways to go to different cars was difficult, but it was just a short drive to the nearest hotel that Ashton had scoped out when he left to get the ring. Like the one we’d stayed in before, it wasn’t anything high-class or fancy, but we wasted no time filling it with the love of our new union.
Ashton took his time, peeling my dress off of me and paying specific attention to every inch of me, kissing me and touching me as if he was trying to commit me to memory. I was trying to do the same. I wanted to memorize the exact way his blond hair sat on his head and the way his eyes shone when he looked at me. His thick arms as they flexed as he handled me with ease, flipping me into every conceivable position and making sure that there wasn’t a single fleck of my skin that was unventured.
“You know,” I said after I’d lost count of the rounds. “I still owe you anapology.”
Ashton raised an eyebrow. The notable tattoo of his name on his peck glistened with sweat. “Oh, yeah?”
I flipped over him to settle between his legs and kissed my way over the flurry of tattoos on Ashton’s chest, down his stomach, and down to his groin. It was delightful that I struggled to wrap my hands all the way around his impressive length. Despite the torrent we’d already been through, it was standing and twitching at attention as I touched it, and resisting the urge to lean in to lick was impossible.
He let out a sigh. “Fuck.”
Even though I wanted to start slow and enjoy the experience, the feeling of him in my mouth was too good to take in slowly. Alternating between my hands and mouth, I worked my way up and down his shaft until Ashton was grunting and moaning with pleasure. His hands laced into my hair and held my head in place, gently guiding my head up and down. I guided my hands up the base of his stomach and smoothed over his abs, letting his succulent sounds sink into my brain and envelop it. If I could just cement the memory of this moment in my mind, it would be all I would need to get through the next few days without breaking down.
From one position to another, we stayed connected, and for the first time in my life, I didn’t worry about the time. It didn’t matter to me how many hours we spent swimming with each other as long as I could enjoy my new husband as much as possible.
I prayed for the morning not to come, but it did anyway. We were so exhausted by the end of our torrent that we fell asleep and slept until well after noon. When my eyes fluttered open, Ashton was already awake and looking back at me. My heart did a backflip at the sight of him. It was Monday, so we had two days until the ambush, but we’d need at least a day to make all the arrangements, so we’d already slept away half of our only day to be together.
“I’m not in any rush,” Ashton said. “Mrs. Carducci.”
“We should probably head back into town tonight, but that still gives us a few hours.” I kissed Ashton’s chest. “What should we do with our time?”
Ashton pulled me close. “I kind of just want to stay here. Does that work for you?”
I grinned, imagining a few more hours of this bliss before having to come crashing back to reality. “Yeah. That works for me.”
Chapter Eighteen:Ashton
I held onto Denise like if I let go, she’d fade into ash. The sun was setting behind her, and it reminded me of that dream I had back when she first showed up. I promised her that I would take her to California to watch the sunset, and I hated that I couldn’t make good on it. I couldn’t blame Denise for the decision that she’d made, but if she thought I was just going to drive off into the sunset without her, she was mistaken. I’d see this plan through to the end, and I would do it by her side. Even if it meant giving up my own life, I was going to do everything in my power to keep Denise safe.
“Wereallyhave to go,” Denise said.
