She smiles. "I know, but we could get a tent and have a camp out. And I don't know, it just feels like where I want to start our life."
When she says that I pull her into my arms and I kiss her long and hard. She’s made me so damn happy with those words; she understands what that land means to me.
Now, though, as we're driving to the property on Meadowbrook Lane, I look over at her. "You sure you want to camp out on your wedding night?"
She grins. "I already bought all the gear. But yes, that's what I want to do. I can even cook us food on the camp stove."
"You're something else, Laura," I say.
"I hope that's a good something else."
"It's a great something else," I promise her.
We spend a few hours setting up our campsite. We get the tent up, the air mattress, sleeping bags, blankets. I build her a fire and we both put on cozy clothes. I make her a s'more and she makes one for me.
"Happy wedding night," she says.
"This has got to be the most unexpected way to celebrate a first night married, but I guess we aren't exactly traditional, are we?" I smile at my wife, my bride. "However, there's one thing we'll do pretty traditionally," I say as she takes a bite of her s'more.
"What's that?" she asks.
"Well, we're going to consummate this marriage on our wedding night."
"Of course we are." She finishes the last bite of her s'more, licks her fingers. "I know we just had dessert, but you think you can handle an extra helping of cherry pie?" she asks, walking toward the tent with a tease, swinging her hips, looking over her shoulder.
"Damn girl," I say. "Your cherry pie is all I want."
In the tent, she undresses for me slowly; I groan with pleasure. "Fuck, you look good. You look good anywhere, in anything, but my favorite view of you is bare naked like you are right now, in this tent."
"I love you, husband," she says, looking up at me as I run my fingers over her folds, feeling how nice and wet my bride is, ready for me.
My cock aches in my pants, and she helps me undress, eager for me to be inside of her. We spent the last few days in a bed at a hotel. So I suppose this is an okay change of pace.
Her father is long gone, sent to rehab. Hopefully he'll stay there for at least 30 days. But when he comes back, Laura and I have made a commitment to protect our new home and our space.
For now though, we don't have to worry about any of that pain. We just have this moment in this tent together. "Thank God Texas in February is warm," she says as I lean down, running my hand over her soft skin.
"I have a feeling with you in my bed, I'll always be hot," I say with a laugh.
"Please, come inside of me," she begs. "I've been waiting for this all day."
"Have I been torturing you with my cowboyish good looks?" I ask with an exaggerated drawl.
She laughs. "Actually, yes you have. You look good in your wedding clothes, Cole. I love it, those jeans that you're wearing, hugging your ass so good."
I chuckle. "You're too good for me."
"It's impossible, Cole. You're the best man in the whole damn world."
I move against her, filling her up, and the smile on her face is the best feeling in the whole wide world. She's beaming, beautiful, bright eyes on mine.
"I'm so happy to be your wife, to be starting a life with you."
I hold her in my arms as we move as one, making love in our tent, on the foundation of our new house, the place that we're going to call home.
EPILOGUE 2
LAURA
In the space of one year, my life changed dramatically. It started with feeling alone in the world, and then I fell in love all in the space of a day.
I got married the same week, and then my husband built me a house.
My dream house, with a library filled with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.
All my romance novels finally have a place. And the kicker is, my husband is such a man, he's not at all threatened by the heroes who grace the covers of those paperbacks. He loves that I can get lost in another world, filled with new ideas about how I want to spend my life with him, especially the ideas I get of how to spend our time in the bedroom.
Over the last year, we've become more adventurous, a little bit more naughty, and it's only brought us more pleasure.
Now, of course, it's a little less kinky because it's hard for me to do much in my condition.
I'm pregnant. Nine months pregnant with twins, and soon enough, Cole will be that dad I thought he could be the first night we were together.