Rich Groom (The Dirty Thirty Pledge 1)

Out of the corner of my eye I see a flash of red and I turn to see Anna coming in the courthouse. She’s wearing a simple white dress that hugs all of her delicious curves, and I know that I’m going to enjoy taking that dress off her later.

When she sees me, her face lights up, and I pull her close. “Am I allowed to kiss you before the ceremony?”

“Please do,” she says, and I kiss her deeply, tangling our tongues and giving her something to look forward to. I savor the low moan in her throat, and she’s smiling when I pull away. “Am I allowed to punch him?” she asks softly, not even glancing in Glenn’s direction.

“Not today. But maybe at some point.”

“Fair enough.”

The court officer calls our names, and I look down at her. “Ready, Mrs. Perkins?”

“Ready,” Anna says, and I’ve never seen her look happier.

Epilogue

Frankie

Six Months Later

It’s a bit too cold for me to be up on the roof, but I’m doing it anyway. Spring is coming. I can feel it, and I’m not about to let that go to waste. I’ve been cooped up all winter, and the fresh air is everything that I need right now. That and the guitar in my hands.

I’ve been trying my hand at songwriting and playing again, motivated by my beautiful wife, who’s constantly filling our apartment with music and who I get to see blossoming in her career like nothing I’ve ever seen.

Strumming a few chords, I experiment, trying to get the melody that I can hear in my head down onto paper. It’s not quite perfect, but it’s getting there. I want to get it right. For the first time in forever, I actually have this kind of creative motivation and it feels good.

The door opens behind me, and I hear padding footsteps before I feel Anna’s arms around my neck. “Hi,” she says, pressing a kiss to my neck. “It’s cold out here.”

“But it’s not freezing, so I’m going to give it a chance.” I own the penthouse in this building, and the roof is private, just for us. It’s got a fucking beautiful view of Nashville. But I’ve got a plan for us to travel the world soon and get more views like this. We can sing our way across continents and find inspiration in unexpected place.

She comes around and makes me move the guitar so she can sit in my lap and look at the song. Now I’m holding her and the guitar. It’s a position that I’ve held a lot in the last few months, and I love it. “What are you working on?”

“Just a song,” I say, hedging. “It’s not ready.”

“It’s never ready.”

I laugh. “But this one really isn’t ready.”

Leaning back so she can stretch and kiss my jaw. “Please?”

“Fine,” I say, smiling. I can’t say no to her, and she’s better than me at this anyway. I play the chords I have, the melody and the chorus.

“That’s really nice,” she says softly. “You have lyrics?”

“First draft.”

This song has been bouncing around in my head for a couple of months, based on us and our story and how we came back to each other. And how we keep coming back to each other even when we mess up, because we’re human and we make mistakes.

I start to play the melody again when she picks up the paper, and she starts to sing. As long as I live, I’m never, ever, going to get tired of her voice. It’s perfect, and it rises up into the cool air, filling the rooftop with what feels like magic. In her voice, my song sounds better than I imagined it could, but it’s still not finished.

Her voice fades away when she gets to the end of what’s written, and she turns to look at me. “I love that.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she says. “I really, really do.”

I set my guitar down as she turns further, straddling me in the chair and kissing me. Just this morning we woke up, tangled together in our sheets, and we fucked. Sometimes we make love, and sometimes we fuck. This morning was the latter. Right now it’s going to be the former.

“Am I finally going to get you naked on the roof?” I ask as I graze my lips down her neck.

She laughs, reaching between us and undoing my belt. “Not a fucking chance.”

“Pity,” I say, licking through the fabric of her thin t-shirt. “I love your nipples in the cold.”

She strokes my cock, not that she needs to. There’s never a time that I’m near her when I’m not at least half hard. I can’t fathom a time when I won’t want her, and I catch her lips again as she sinks onto me. No condom.

We started this not long ago, and it still makes my mind go blank with pleasure. The sheer heat and friction. The sensation is incomparable. And she knows it too, the way she’s smiling.