Page 104 of Zimyra

A smile instantly comes to my face.

He lowers the cake to the table and says, “Ain’t nothing over.”

“Ax, where did you find a cake?”

“I had it made for us. They were holding it downstairs in the restaurant.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“Yeah, but we’re about to mess it up. Here’s what I want you to do. Grab a fist full, and cram it into my mouth.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes. Do it.”

I follow his instructions, grab a fist full and smash cake into his mouth, subsequently smearing it all over his face.

Tickled, I say, “You look good in red velvet.”

“You’re about to look good in it, too.” He takes a handful and says, “Open up.”

“But—”

“Nope. Open.”

I open my mouth and he stuffs cake inside and intentionally smears frosting on my lips and down my neck. Before I could protest, he’s nibbling and licking it off. I can barely swallow from the way he has my body shaking.

My robe falls open. His hand touches my breasts. He squeezes and then releases while his tongue wrestles with mine.

He gasps.

He pulls away.

He has never tried to make love to me.

Our rainy wedding day isn’t proving to be the exception. His hesitancy surprises me because I know he wants me. I’m amazed at his willful self-control, but he has nothing to prove to me.

“You okay?” I ask.

“I’m fine. Did you want more cake?” he asks.

“Uh, not if you’re going to cram it down my throat.”

“I have forks,” he says, taking them out of his pocket with his frosting-free, clean hand. “Here you go,” he says, handing me one. “Let me go get some towels.”

He comes back and wipes my hands for me. I’d already cleaned the cake from around my mouth. His tongue took care of the frosting he put on my neck.

With a fork now, we eat like rational, normal human beings.

He says, “It’s not a big deal that it rained, Zimyra. It’s fine. We’ll just have an interesting story to tell our kids.”

“As if we didn’t have that already. I can see myself talking to my daughter now, telling her how you put me under your spell and made me marry you.”

“Made you?” he asks with a brow raised.

“Yep. That’s what I’m telling her.”

“Then I guess it’s up to me to tell her the truth about how youmademe fall in love with you.” He grins. “What do you think your mother will say?”

---