Home is Where You Are

Chapter 32

He carried me over the threshold, and walked me around the whole house.

The beach is right outside, and it's so calm.

The only sight is the moon on the water, and the stars.

I'm so nervous about this lingerie thing though. I locked myself in the bathroom an hour ago, and I'm trying to make sure I look perfect.

And, I mean, I look pretty damn hot.

My hair is let out of the getup. I hung the dress up in the closet.

I'm in the bathroom off of the bedroom, and I know he's been out there waiting for me.

I feel so bad for him, but I'm so, so nervous.

My hair is slightly curled and parted. The whole thing is black lace, but it's see-through.

I take a deep breath and force myself to walk out of the room.

He lit candles.

He's waiting very patiently for me to exit the bathroom, just lounging on the bed.

He looks up at the sound of the door.

His eyes widen, and jaw goes slack, and slowly, he sits up.

I just sorta stand there, in the doorway to the bathroom.

He stands up slowly, and walks over to me.

"You..." he gulps. "You look so beautiful. So sexy." He reaches for my chest, grabbing a bit of the fabric, rubbing it between his fingers.

I look up for the first time, my eyes meeting his.

My husband.

"I love you, Liam." I whisper.

He smiles softly.

"I love you too, Abigail Marie Ashton."

The fact that he's using my full name just, for some reason, it just makes me happy.

It's like the final stamp.

Ashton.

"I'm an Ashton now." I whisper, smiling.

"I know." He whispers. "My wife. You're my wife now."

"You're my husband now."

I'm so happy.

Our eyes are still locked, but we're quiet now.

Slowly, he leans downs, and I lean up, my eyes fluttering shut when our lips touch.

<><>

It was like our first time last night.

It was like our first kiss, and our first time, and our first everything.

It's only nine in the morning right now, but back home in South Dakota, it's eleven, so I can't sleep.

I moved to the living room, and I'm standing in the kitchen, wearing just a white thong with black straps, looking out the window.

I jump a little when his arms slowly slip around my waist. He buries his head in my shoulder, taking a deep breath.

"You're a beautiful sight to wake up to." He murmurs.

Chills run down my spine.

I let out a small sigh, content.

"I love you."

"I love you too." He mumbles. "I'm hungry."

"I am too. Let's make breakfast."

"Okay." He laughs quietly.

"What?" I ask, turning around in his arms.

His hands grip my hips.

"I wasn't talking about making food." He whispers. "I mean, I'm hungry, but not for food."

I take a deep breath.

"Yeah?" I whisper. He nods.

"I want to make love to my wife."

<><>

It took us almost six hours to actually have food. I ended up having to put clothes on, because that's what kept us going.

His lack of shirt right now is distracting me.

"So..." he hesitates. "When we get home, we should get rid of one of the apartments until we find a house."

I nod slowly.

"What if we...moved, like, out of Yankton?" I ask.

He raises his eyebrows.

"You want to leave Yankton?"

"Yeah. We can stay in South Dakota."

He's sitting at the table, and he cooked, so I'm cleaning.

I put away the last dish and turn around. I'm not wearing any underwear, just his shirt. I drop down on his lap on the kitchen table, straddling him.

"Where do you want to go?" he whispers, slipping his hands under his shirt on my body, trailing his fingers up and down my back.

"Brookings." I say.

"Brookings." He repeats, thinking. "That's almost two and a half hours away from our family."

"We don't have to...just, I was looking at houses, and I saw one in Brookings, and-"

"Show me." He says.

That requires leaving his presence and going into the bedroom to get my laptop.

I stand up. He does too, and follows me into the bedroom. I grab my laptop and sit down next to him. I go on my laptop and pull up Trulia and I go to the saved home I found, and I slide the laptop over to him.

"Three bedrooms, three bathrooms." He mumbles.

"Yeah, but then downstairs in the basement, there's three more rooms that are getting made into bedrooms, and one more getting made into a bathroom."

"So we could buy it before they finish, before they jack the price up, and we could finish it ourselves."

"Yeah."

He looks through the photos, not really saying anything.

"What if, instead of making a fourth bathroom, we make that room into an office? I mean, it's rather large."

"So we can get the house?" I ask hopefully. He looks at me, smiling.

"You're cute. I'm saying we can look at the house to see if it's even worth our money. If we make it home before it sells."

"But..." I frown. "What if somebody gets it before us?" I ask.

"Then it wasn't meant to be and we find another house." He shrugs, closing the lid to my laptop. I put it on the nightstand. He pulls me so I'm laying down, and moves on top of me, his arms on either side of my head.

"But let's not worry about the house, okay? We have two weeks of pure luxury. No stress, okay?"

I nod, smiling.

"Okay." I whisper. "No stress."

"That's my girl." He smiles, placing a soft kiss on my lips. "I love you."

"I love you too." I whisper, smiling.