Beautiful b.a.s.t.a.r.d.
Beautiful Boss.
Christina Lauren.
One.
Will.
One drive to Boston down.
One rehearsal, one rehearsal dinner, one raucous night out with the guys down.
A wedding tomorrow, and one wife-to-be sleeping . . . down the hall.
I had a feeling this arrangement wouldn"t last. Hanna hated sleeping apart on her recent trips for faculty position interviews nearly as much as I did. And the night before our wedding her mother gets us separate rooms, to keep tradition, build suspense?
Forget it.
It wouldn"t last.
I reached behind me, fluffing the pillows, and then stretched out on the giant king-size bed.
My cell phone buzzed on the bedside table and I laughed, saying, "Called it," to the empty room before answering, "Hanna, my love."
She skipped the greeting entirely. "I"m nervous."
I smiled into the phone. "I"m not surprised. You"re promising to obey me and be my s.e.x slave for the remainder of your days. You know I won"t go easy on you."
She didn"t even spare me a laugh. "Can I come to your room?"
"Of course," I said. "I"ve been hoping you would come down-"
"No," she interrupted with force. "No, I can"t. That was a test, Will. You"re supposed to say it"s bad luck."
"But I"m an atheist," I reminded her. "I don"t believe in luck. I believe in intent. I believe in discovery. I believe in s.e.x before the wedding. In fact, I believe you are three doors down, completely wigging out, when you could come in here and talk. And then let me put my p.e.n.i.s in you. I"ll stare at you the entire time, too, and our marriage will still be the most amazing marriage in the-"
"My b.o.o.bs look enormous in my wedding dress."
I groaned, throwing my arm over my face. "Are you trying to kill me?"
"I just wanted to warn you." Her voice grew slightly slurred and I could immediately imagine her nervously chewing on a fingernail. "I think maybe it"s overboard. I wanted it to be a cute thing between us-your b.o.o.b obsession, our wedding; I mean, you-"
"Hanna," I cut in. "I promise to do my best not to motorboat you at the altar."
"That isn"t what I mean."
"Plum. Breathe." I heard her take a long inhale and slowly let it out. "Tell me," I said quietly. "What did you mean?"
"Just that . . . what if I look . . ."
"Perfect?" I suggested.
She blew out a burst of air and admitted in a rush, "Busty-like a busty wh.o.r.e bride."
I held back a laugh, because while this was ridiculous to me, I knew it wasn"t to her. "Are we seriously doing this right now? This is your pre-wedding freak-out? That your b.o.o.bs will look too awesome tomorrow?"
Hanna had dealt with the wedding planning with ease, handing over the final details to her mom while she traveled all over for job interviews. She was being recruited by schools in nearly every corner of the country, sometimes going to two different places in a single week. And she"d never once complained about the madness of the past few months. I knew my Hanna was laid-back, but-Jesus-given everything, I had expected . . . something. A meltdown while we packed, maybe? But no, we got into a playful laundry war and ended up having s.e.x in the hallway. Maybe a nitpicky fight on the drive up to Beantown? But no, she gave me head. Even a tantrum once we reached the hotel? Nope. She grinned and stretched to kiss me before yelling, "Here we go!"
I looked around the empty hotel room, saying, "I feel like I"m getting off easy."
Her little growl made my mouth curve into a smile, but it straightened when her voice came out reedy and stressed. "What if my dress is all b.o.o.b and you"re like the only one who doesn"t think it"s obscene?"
"If you came down the aisle topless I would be completely okay with this. And mine is the only opinion that matters tomorrow."
"Then why did we invite a hundred and sixty-four other people?"
"Hanna. Shut up, right now. Come to my room to get laid."
The line clicked dead, and a few seconds later I heard feet shuffling in front of my door, a long pause, and then a quiet knock.
"Close your eyes," she called from the hallway.
I walked over, closed my eyes tight, and opened the door.
"Keep them closed," she warned.
I squeezed them tighter, obediently.
Her hands moved to my neck and slid up to my face, fumbling in her nervousness before finally managing to tie something around my eyes. And then she fell quiet. I couldn"t see her, couldn"t feel her.
Reaching out, I found her waist, pulled her to my bare chest. "Tell me what"s really going on."
"I don"t like not being with you the night before our wedding," she confessed into my skin. "I need you."
Blindly, I ran my hands up her sides, over her shoulders, and along her neck before cupping her face. My fingers met soft silk, and I followed the path of the fabric to a knot at the back of her head.
Hanna had tied a scarf around her eyes, too. Oh, this one.
Laughing, I kissed the top of her head. "So stay with me."
She groaned. "This tradition sucks, but I feel like if there are any traditions I should listen to, it"s the ones about how to not mess this marriage up. We can"t see each other until tomorrow."
I held her face in my hands, tilting it so I could kiss her. My lips met the tip of her nose first, before traveling south to their target. "There is no way to mess this up," I said, right against her mouth. "Even if we didn"t get married tomorrow, you"re the love of my life. I"m with you until we both die, at the same time, when I am one hundred and you are ninety-three."
With a quiet laugh, she turned me, guiding me to the bed and carefully pulling me down onto it. She pushed me until I was lying on my back and then climbed over my hips.
"Are your eyes open now?" I asked her, teasing.
"I lifted the blindfold for a second, but they"re closed again. Someone had to navigate us here safely."
"I mean, I think the rule is the groom can"t see the bride, right? You can look at me," I whispered.
She paused. "Really?"
"Yeah, Plum."
After a short hesitation, I heard the shift of her blindfold as she removed it and then the sound of her quiet breaths.
"There you are." She ran a hand up my chest and over my neck, and then a single fingertip traced the shape of my mouth. "Husband. Isn"t that crazy?"
My skin ignited, hungry. "Hann-"
Her mouth came over mine, shutting me up, lips wet and so f.u.c.king full, hands working my boxers down my hips. She licked my neck, her hair tickling my skin as she made her way down my chest, past my stomach . . .
"It"s good luck to give head before the wedding," I confirmed when she wrapped her hand around me, licking near the base and dragging her tongue to the tip. "So we"re on the right track."
Her giggle vibrated against me as she kissed and sucked, licking me hard as f.u.c.king stone in her grip.
"G.o.dd.a.m.n," I whispered, hips arching from the bed. "Plum, this blindfold . . . your tongue. f.u.c.k."
She played with me just enough to have me rocking up from the mattress and then I felt her shift and pull her little nightie up over her hips and straddle me.
Her mouth came down against my ear. "No grabbing my b.o.o.bs."
"Whatever you say," I swore immediately. "Just don"t stop."
"You have a gift for bruising b.o.o.bs. My dress shows b.o.o.b."
"You mentioned this."
"If you bruise them, no head for a year."
Even though she was probably-I think?-joking, the idea made my heart stop for about three beats.
I gave her a reverent "I promise."
She reached for me, rubbing me over the perfect, slippery skin between her legs. My hands made fists around the sheets at my sides.
"Hanna?" I asked in a breathless burst.
Pausing, she asked, "Yeah?"
"Can I grab your hips, though?"
I could feel her go still over me and then start to laugh. "What in the world kind of dress would show my hips?"
"Sorry, sorry," I said, laughing. "I"m not thinking. Holy f.u.c.k, Plum, just get on my d.i.c.k."
But she didn"t. I could feel the heat of her, so close, and she slowly settled back down on my thighs, her hands running up over my stomach.
"You okay?" I asked, sitting up beneath her and clumsily finding her face again with my hands. "You"re freaking out about the dress again?" I tried to surrept.i.tiously swipe my thumbs beneath her eyes to make sure she wasn"t crying, but she ducked away.
"I"m not crying."
I nodded, going quiet, wanting to tread carefully.
"I"m just nervous," she said.
My chest twisted. "You know that just because we"re getting married doesn"t mean that anything between us changes, right? We"re still Will and Hanna. We"re still us."
"It feels different already," she said, and slid her fingertips over my lips when I opened my mouth to protest, quickly adding, "I don"t mean that in a bad way. I mean, it feels deeper. It feels more important. Before, I would look at your body and think, "Wow, I get to play with this all night long!" Now, I look at your body and think, "Wow, I get to play with this, and Oh my G.o.d what if anything ever happened to him and-" "
"Hanna. Breathe," I said gently from beneath her fingers.
She took a calming breath, sliding her hand down my neck almost as if she was tracing a line to my heart. "I"m only twenty-five," she said after a long pause. "And I know my life would be ruined if I lost you."
The idea of it stabbed sharply into my gut. "You"re never going to lose me."
She didn"t say anything, just drew tiny circles on my chest with her fingertip.
"Plum, come on. We already take such good care of each other. This just makes it official."
Her finger came up again, crossing from one side of my bottom lip to the other, stroking. Thunder pounded through my blood.
"I take care of you?" she asked.
"You do. And when you"re not sure how, you ask."
After a few breaths of silence, she said, "Like now?"
I both loved and hated the darkness of the blindfold. I wanted to see her face, but from her voice alone I could imagine it: lip being gently chewed between her teeth, eyes fixed on where her fingers touched my skin with maddening care. This was how we started. She asked, I guided.
"You"re not sure how to take care of me right now?"
"I"m just anxious tonight," she whispered. "It helps when you tell me what you want me to do."
My heart seemed to stutter and then explode. It had been a while since we"d played in these roles.
"Bring your hips back over me," I instructed, my voice a rough growl.
I felt her shift, and then the heat of her, so intense, barely pressed down on my d.i.c.k. I bit back a groan.