He pulled away, framing my face in his big, strong hands, his own suffused with aching tenderness. “The sea always returns to kiss the shore.”
He kissed me then, lips soft, tongue a lullaby soothing me from the ecstasy of my orgasm.
I wanted to ask him what was haunting him, what demons lurked in his soul and stole his sleep, but there was something so fragile in the big, strong man who loved me that I didn’t push it. Instead, when he stood, our mouths still fused, I wrapped myself under him and let him carry me to our bed where he made love to me until the earliest hours of the morning, and then he finally fell into a deep sleep with a small smile on his gorgeous face.
* * *
It was strange, maybe, to visit a prison on your wedding day, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way. The girls, Benny, and I spent the morning in the cabin getting ready, drinking champagne and laughing about the antics of our men, but the levity flattened like stale beer when we got in the car to visit Ford Mountain Correctional.
I wore my dress.
Rainbow and Benny begged me not to because they feared the visit would ruin it, but Loulou and Harleigh Rose had been particularly quiet about it either way. I knew it was because they understood why I wanted to wear it, and they approved, but they didn’t want to pressure me because it was my day.
What Rainbow and Benny didn’t understand because they couldn’t as non-members of The Fallen was that it wasn’t just my day.
It was King’s too.
And The Fallen’s.
I was, after nearly five years, finally, legally and spiritually, becoming a member of their family.
So I wore the dress even though the prison guards gave me odd looks, and I had to carefully traverse the dank halls holding the train of the gown aloft.
It was worth it just to see Zeus Garro’s face when they opened the door for me, and I walked into the telephone bank.
He was unutterably handsome but not at all like King’s perfectly carved and symmetrical beauty. Instead, Zeus was rough hewn and textured, made of wood instead of his son’s granite, warm and alive in a way that begged touching and holding. That great, beautiful face grew even more beautiful as he took me in standing there in the dress I would wear to marry his son.
It was entirely lace; a thin, gauzy material that was sheer enough to cast the hint of my body beneath it but covered me from mid-shoulder to my feet where it ended in a small but whimsical train. It made me look, I thought, as if I’d wandered through an enchanted forest and got caught up in silken webbing like some ethereal being, some fairy goddess. With my hair done up in waves and braids with a gold clip like a wreath of ivy sitting at my crown, I hoped I looked as magical as King’s love made me feel.
“Fuck me,” Zeus mouthed at me, eyes shining more than just silver, wet with happiness.
I beamed at him, a smile so wide it hurt but still I pinned it to my face so he would know just how much it meant to me that he approved.
When I sat down and lifted the phone, the first thing he said was, “Lookin’ at you like that makes me wish I’d been patient ’nough to get Lou a proper walk down the aisle. Women like you two were meant to be seen like this.”
“When you get out,” I suggested. “You could have a vow renewal and do it up properly?”
He laughed, but it was broken and bruised. “Wanna spend time with my babies and woman when I’m outta ’ere. Don’t need anythin’ distractin’ more from them. It was just nice to imagine for a second.”
“I’m sorry you’re missing this,” I said, cutting through the fat to the heart of it. “I’m so sorry that I could cry. I really wanted to do this with you there. I wanted it with my whole heart.”
His smile was weighted with sad appreciation. “Yeah, Cress, I know it. Thing is, and you hold this closer than your bouquet when you walk down that aisle, I’m with you there even if I’m locked up here, yeah? I’m gonna lie in my bunk, close my eyes, and I’ll picture it all as it goes down. You in that fuckin’ stunner of a dress, King lookin’ like some kind of biker prince waitin’ for you with a smile that could light up the dark, and all our family there smilin’ like loons, high on all that love in the air… Yeah, you can bet I’m there with you even if I’m locked up here.”
Tears warmed the backs of my eyes like elements on a stove as I struggled not to lose it at the beauty of those words.