“Nor I you, and yet here we both are.” Tasha smiled before she felt Jim’s lips moving against hers, only to be interrupted by the phone ringing again.
Jim frowned and growled at the same time.
“Be nice, please. She's been through a lot,” Tasha repeated, placing an encouraging hand on Jim's arm.
“Okay, baby, but you hold all thoughts of our honeymoon,” he told her as he answered the call. “Hey, Lizzie, are you okay, sweetie?” he asked gently, making Tasha smile at the gentle man she’d married then felt sad at the guilt he’d begun to express at what had happened to her, Lizzie and Juan at Mickie’s hands. The truth was he’d been a victim of Mickie for years without realising it. “Not tonight, no. Lizzie. Where is everyone else? Uh-uh, okay. We’re all meeting for lunch tomorrow before you go back to L.A. with Philip. Yes, Tasha is fine. I love you too.”
With a long sigh Jim sat on the edge of the bed, worrying Tasha.
“Is she alright?”
“Yeah, she's had a fight with Alexi which then means she's had a fight with Abby. Juan and Philip are out so she just wanted to hear a friendly voice.”
“You're worried about her.” Tasha loved the father her husband was. “We could meet her at their hotel and have dinner if you want or bring her back here,” offered Tasha genuinely as she got on her knees to crawl across the bed until she had her front pressed firmly against Jim's back, her arms draped around his neck with her hands resting on his chest.
“Not a chance in hell, baby. This is our honeymoon and this is why we should have come here alone, just the two of us, but we didn't, but thank you. I love how you love my kids. We’ll do lunch though, tomorrow, like we arranged.” With the subject closed for him, Jim lifted one of Tasha's hands to his lips then kissed the finger with her wedding ring on it.
She nodded, accepting his decision not to alter their plans but then had an idea. “Could you pass my phone, please?”
His response was a shake of his head and a frown.
“Please, just two calls and two minutes.”
Conceding, Jim freed himself from his wife's embrace and passed Tasha her phone. With a smile, he watched as she first called her grandparents and asked them if Lizzie could hang out with them, maybe sleep over and then she called Abby and told her that Lizzie had been invited to spend some time with Pippa in the suite her family were occupying. Abby huffed and groaned but put Lizzie on the phone to Tasha who sounded close to tears as she agreed to the plans Tasha had made for her. Hanging up, Tasha returned to her place beneath the bed covers and realised Jim was on his feet and rummaging in a bag. As he turned, he held up a selection of handcuffs, rope and ties.
“You are the best wife and stepmom my children or I could ever wish for, so I think you should be rewarded and you have waited for this since New York. Happy wedding day, Mrs Maybury.” He grinned as he pulled the sheet off her and momentarily joined her on the bed where he stopped at the juncture of her thighs and leaned down to kiss his gift, her wedding present to him. “You really have taken that whole branding idea quite literally, but I fucking love this, baby.” He grinned.
“I thought you might, well, hoped.” She glanced down at the sight of her new husband kissing her bare sex emblazoned with her fresh tattoo declaring her as:
Owned by
James Maybury
“Did it hurt?” He slowly traced the letters with his finger.
“Like a bitch.” She laughed when his touch began to tickle. “Were you surprised?” His expression when he’d first discovered it when stripping her suggested he had been shocked and surprised by the tattoo.
“Mmm, but I understand why you ditched security to get my gift and I now know why you decided on no sex until we were married.”
“I wanted it to be a surprise and it was a little sore because of the earlier waxing and the tattoo.”
“The bareness was as much of a shock as the tattoo, honey, but I kind of like that too.” He grinned before sitting back and holding the handcuffs aloft. “Time to get your reward, baby.”
****
Tasha and Jim were the last to arrive for lunch, but as Jim held out the chair next to Lizzie for his wife everyone smiled.
“Did you all have fun last night?” Jim glanced around the huge table they all occupied.
A variety of yes, muttering and smiles were heard in reply to his question.
“We went to the casinos, how about you two, what did you get up to?” Philip asked, almost instinctively.
Everyone stared at him disbelievingly.
Tasha broke the silence with her retort. “You so don't want to know the answer to that question, Philip. You really don’t.”
“Enough you two.” Smiling, Jim took Tasha's hand in his beneath the table.
