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ChapterTen
GINGER
“So, how did he propose?” Mandy, a former dancer and still a friend asked a year after I finally accepted that Damien was serious and wanted a relationship with me.
“How else? With a gift basket full of salted caramel fudge. The ring was wrapped around one of the candies.” I laughed, pushing the train of my wedding gown behind me as I sat down with Mandy.
She and Brian, her one true love, had been in hiding for 8 months. A rival motorcycle gang had put a hit out on her husband, but the Wolves of Chaos, his club, had taken care of that little problem. I noted the way her stomach protruded and nodded at it. I’d have to incorporate that into an update of their book, I decided, plotting out the story already. “And that?”
“What can I say? We didn’t have a lot to do while we were in hiding.” She laughed, her hands wrapping around her stomach. She looked up and I smiled when I saw Jessie, another former dancer and one of the other women I’d written a book about, although I hadn’t used her name.
“Hey, girls! What a wedding, huh?” Jessie sat down, hugging my neck tightly before she let go to lean over to Mandy. “Congratulations, Ginger. I’m glad to see you’re so happy.”
“I’m glad to see you too, Jessie, you look great!” I meant it, and noted how tan and relaxed she was. “Obviously life in California agrees with you.”
“It does and your wedding is the only thing that could have drug Ares and I out of it.” She sighed, her eyes roaming until she found her man.
“Oh, there’s Lacy,” I said, getting up to hug the young woman that had come in to help her friend out and had left a totally new woman. She was the reason my best friend had spent far more time on a tiny Pacific island than here with me, running his Mafia empire. Lacy came over and took a seat with the rest of us. “How are you, honey?”
“Tired! I had no idea twins would be so hard!” She sighed, putting her feet up on the chair across from her once she sat down. “They aren’t even born yet. I have another month to go.”
“Do you know what you’re having yet?” Jessie asked, her eyes on the beach ball that was poor Lacy’s tummy.
“Boy and a girl,” she put her hands on her tummy, but then leaned over to Mandy, her former roommate and still BFF. “How’s my niece doing in there?”
“Kicking away, but not as much as your two, I’d bet.”
“You two are scaring me off the idea, you know?” I glanced between them, but it was Jessie that calmed my nerves on the concept.
“It’s much better once they’re born, Jonah is an angel now that he’s here. The first few months were kind of rough, but he’s almost a year old now. He’s sleeping all night, at least.” Jessie said, reassuring me with her quiet way.
“I guess we’ll see then. Damien and I have talked about it, but I wanted to get the wedding out of the way first.” I looked around, finding the man that was no my husband talking with Fred and Mason.
We still had some logistics to work out, as far as our businesses were concerned, but we’d spent the last year really getting to know one another and learning what it meant to have love for someone. He’d asked me to marry him three months after I let him stay and have a drink with me in the club. I’d made him wait for 9 months. It wasn’t that I doubted him, but it was fun to remind him that he wasn’t always the one in control.
I let him have control in our bedroom, most of the time, but when it came to decisions that would impact my life in the future, I reserved the right to say hell no. Children might need a bit more discussing. I wasn’t sure I was ready to give up that much of my life to someone that needed every second I could give them. I wasn’t quite ready to step away from the business I’d built and at the moment, I couldn’t imagine how I’d juggle the two. I zoned out for a minute, imagining Damien as a stay at home dad, caring for our child as life came apart around him. That made me smile in an evil genius kind of way.
“What’s got you grinning like that, wifey?” I heard him whisper against my ear as he came up behind me.
“Just imagining the future, honey,” I answered with a wink. “How are you?”
“Great now that you’re my wife,” he sat down beside Mandy, nodding at her with a smile.
“Hmm,” I said, smiling at him, but leaving him wondering. I liked to keep him on his toes.
Giving in to him hadn’t been easy, but he’d persisted. I’m glad he had now, and I’d told him that more than once, but I still maintained more independence than I probably should have. Not that we weren’t a team, because we are, it’s just that I liked to know that my whole identity was not wrapped up in him.
That was fine for some people, it made them happy, but I needed to be a person of my own, outside of who I was with him. He got that, he encouraged it, and that was one of the reasons I really did love Damien. “Thank you, baby.”
I leaned over to kiss his cheek, but he still looked confused. “For what?”
“For being so determined, for working hard to win me over, for being the man you are that supports me, no matter what.” I said, listing off only a few of the reasons I loved him.
“You’re worth it, Ginger. Plus,” he paused to move in close to whisper in my ear, “I really love the way you suck my dick.”
“And I love doing it,” I whispered back, looking into his eyes as I said it.
“Does that mean we can leave now?” He asked, but I shook my head.
