“The booze is only half gone. This is sure to go on for hours,” Flint whispers in my ear as we leave the dance floor.
“Oh, yeah. My brother hasn’t even gotten into the schnapps yet.” I lean against my handsome husband all decked out in a black tux to die for.
“So you’re ready to escape?” The shimmer in his eyes makes me smile and wonder.
“Escape?” I start laughing. “What do you have up your sleeve?”
He points to the sky. There’s a tiny light growing closer and closer. So does the sound of the helicopter blades.
“What’s that?”
“Our limo driver,” he jokes. “Did you really think I’d be that predictable?”
“Where are we going?” I ask, breaking into a smile.
Honestly, it doesn’t matter. I’d go to the moon with this man, and the way he surprises me is pretty great, too.
“Only one way to find out,” he says, grabbing my hand with a devilish grin.
The crowd erupts with cheers as the helicopter shines a purple spotlight on the party before it lands in the grass behind the beach.
Flint leads me through the crowd, pausing now and then to accept more congratulations and tell our families we’ll see them in a few days. Then we board the chopper.
The pilot lights up the waving crowd again as we ascend, and then we’re flying high over the water. The headphones smother most of the noise.
Flint taps my shoulder and points out the window. I laugh at the shimmering reflections of a few straggler turtles. They’re just slipping off the beach, back into the ocean for night.
It’s a short ride to a fairly remote end of the island. One of the privately owned areas that butts up against several protected parks. The noise has me holding back my questions until we’re out the door, and the chopper takes off again.
“So where are we?”
“A private spot,” he says, taking my hand. “I cashed in some favors. Turns out, the Damysus name still carries a lot of weight with a billionaire I protected from a hit job six or seven years back. It’s ours for the next week.”
I squeeze his hand, telling him that’s all I need.
We step into a clearing, then, and my breath nearly gets ripped away. It’s a gorgeous bungalow with tiki lanterns glowing along the front porch. “Oh, Flint, I love it!”
“And I love that I’ll get to do this again when we’re home.” He scoops me into his arms and carries me to the porch, right over the threshold into this charming little place.
After a kiss that makes me want so much more, he sets me down.
That’s when I notice it’s not just a porch, but an entire outdoor bedroom, screened in and complete with a four-poster bed surrounded by delicate white curtains.
“Ours for a week, you said?” I reach up and loosen his tie.
“Damn right.”
I unbutton his shirt. “Sounds rough. I mean, what are we going to do in a secret hidey-hole, all by ourselves, for an entire week?”
My dress is a simple, long, white, sleeveless dress made of silk. It’s held up by two thin shoulder straps.
He pushes one strap aside and kisses my shoulder blade. “This. Lots and lots of it, babe.”
“Hmmm…” I keep unbuttoning his shirt as he blazes a trail of kisses along my neck. “I think I like this very much.”
We take our sweet time undressing, exploring, and just loving each other.
By the time we’re on the bed, we’re totally beyond waiting to waste another second.
I shout with joy as he slides inside me, filling me both physically and emotionally.
We’re man and wife, two twined souls joining our tangled bodies.
The pleasure he brings is as phenomenal as ever, but it’s the love that totally encompasses me.
Even as my climax builds, as the friction of his cock thrusts in and out, driving me to the brink, I can’t stop smiling like a fool.
I love everything about him. About us. About our future.
Life with him was hard-won, but I know a man who’s been my shield will always be there. Protecting what’s his.
Before another mind-blowing orgasm shatters my entire being, I hold on tighter, driving my hips into his, begging him with every breath. We hit the pinnacle and lose it together.
We come with one heart, one breath, one big, happy forever.
The afterglow is glorious. We lie there, still folded together, as I trace my hand up his muscular neckline.
“I think I’ve decided something,” I say, touching his new tattoo.
He’d gotten it several weeks ago, a dark turtle shell on his shoulder with two dates inside it. The day we met and our then-imminent wedding.
“Hell of a time for deciding. What’s so important?” Flint laughs, bathing me in another gentle sea glass blue gaze.
“I’m going to start a turtle sanctuary. For real.”
He rolls off me. “You’re serious?”
“Yeah, some place where injured turtles can heal and find their way back to the wild, to live out the rest of their lives.” That’s exactly what he’d done for me.