Page 57 of Hers to Tame
With very little arm twisting, I joined Colin on a tour of the Guinness Factory. He managed to replace most of the scotch he used for bribes with bottles of Jameson by our last day. Before I can even turn around, we are finishing our last day of the most amazing honeymoon ever conceived. At least in my world, it is. Since people seem to be drawn to Colin wherever he goes, he manages to make friends with a couple of locals.
We end our last night at an Irish pub before making it back to our room sometime in the early morning slightly drunk. When I come out of the bathroom, Colin is lying on the bed with his arms behind his head. He looks stunning with nothing but a pair of plaid boxers on and his wet hair sticking up at crazy angles.
“So counselor, are you about ready to head home?” I ask as I shut off the light in the bathroom.
“Honestly?” he asks, looking up at me. “I am.”
“Why is that? We just have to go back to the real world and all it entails. Jobs, friends’ drama, house remodeling, the list goes on.”
“Exactly. It sounds perfect.” When I give him a curious look, sitting on the bed, he continues. “You see all of the crazy stuff that happens in our life as necessary evils to be dealt with. I see it like this. Every day, I get to wake up holding my wife, then I get to go work my ass off to make her proud of me. At the end of the day, I get to fall asleep wrapped around her body knowing I get to do it all over tomorrow. Everything else is just icing on the cake. As long as I have you, there’s nowhere else I want to be.” I sit for a few minutes trying to hold back the tears of happiness his words just formed.
“Mr. Rhett,” I say, getting up on my knees.
“Mrs. Rhett,” he responds, watching me. His eyes grow wide for just a second before turning stormy as I kick the covers off the end of the bed.
“You might need to get a good grip of that headboard and hang on. The gate is about to open on this rodeo.” He grins up at me. I stop a second as my hands wrap around the waistband of his boxers just to take him all in.
Everyone sees a playboy with movie star good looks. But when I look down at him begging for me to be careful ripping his boxers off, I see a white knight. The man who gave up everything for me, the man who gave me everything including his heart. I see passion, loyalty, justice, protection, and love coursing through his veins. I see my very own hero.
Epilogue
Colin
“You’ve been in this office for months now and it still looks like a fucking bomb exploded? It’s like an episode ofHoardersin here.” I’m sitting hunched over my desk preparing for arraignment this afternoon when I hear my brother-in-law’s voice booming from my office door. Looking up, I find him leaning against the doorjamb with his arms crossed over his chest. I can’t believe my sister actually married the giant fucker.
“Are you offering to do that Japanese organizing shit for me? You should just hand your dude card over now.” Standing, I shake his hand with a grin. Matt holds up a bag of food with the name of the closest deli stamped on it. “When did y’all get back?”
“Last night. Lily has our condo covered in clothes from the honeymoon, so I thought I would escape for a while. She’s like a tornado. I don’t understand what is so hard about throwing the dirty clothes in the hamper instead of on it.” He pulls out the containers of food, handing me one. “Beer?” he asks, pulling one out of a separate bag.
“I have court this afternoon. They get pissed when you show up toasted.” Rolling his eyes, he hands me the bottle.
“It’s beer for fuck’s sake. Chew some gum or something before court.” With grins, we clink our bottles together in a silent toast. “So how is it going?” Taking a big bite of my lunch, I take my time chewing, thinking about it.
“Well, I’m crammed in a broom closet for an office, my caseload is more than three people could work through in a lifetime, my home is torn apart by a contractor that has taken twice as long as I thought and all this while making not even a fourth of what I was.” I look up at Matt, who’s watching me with a smirk. “Living the dream, man. Living the dream.” He laughs before taking another bite of his lunch.
“If it’s any help, Grayson has been talking about opening our own office. He’ll want you to do all of the contracts on the side. Of course, you’ll still get paid shit.”
“Of course. I’ll be surprised if he pays me at all, he’s such a tight fucker.”
“Hey, the last time I looked at your portfolio, I don’t remember you hurting. Oh, speaking of hurting, Lily wants to know if y’all can make it for dinner next week?” Matt stays for a little while longer, shooting the bull through lunch until I have to leave for court.
Somehow, I’ve gone from spending all of my time in a posh office waiting for my assistant to bring my coffee to running to different courtrooms all day. I would never complain though, it feels good to finally feel like I’m making a small difference in someone’s life.
It’s already dark outside when I finally make it out of the office. Climbing out of my car, I stand for a few minutes looking at our house. The construction trucks have left for the day, but I haven’t been able to park in the driveway for months now because of the industrial-sized dumpster.
We had finally agreed to expanding the original master bedroom and building a new library off the living room. The additions were started as soon as we returned from our honeymoon in Great Britain with the hope of finishing within a couple of months. Six months later, we are still living in a war zone.
“If I promise not to tackle you in the entryway tonight, will you come inside?” I hadn’t noticed Maggie come out from around the dumpster until now.
“I don’t know, babe. You scare me when you get crazed horny. I had to kick the front door closed from the floor last night while you were pulling my pants off. Sometimes it’s like you’re Kato in the old Pink Panther movies.” I tease her, pulling her into a hug.
“So, you’re complaining?” We both turn at our neighbor’s voice. I gave up months ago on not embarrassing myself in front of the woman on a regular basis. Dad also blames my lack of filter on Mom’s side of the family.
“Good evening. Once again, I apologize.” She chuckles at me like she does after each one of my word vomits.
“Don’t apologize. Living next door to y’all is better than paying for Showtime After Dark.” With my briefcase in my hand, I carry a giggling Maggie around my waist into the house without another word. I forgetone timethat we don’t have a curtain on the window in the back door to the kitchen and I’m branded the neighborhood porn star for life.
Apparently, before I moved in, the most shocking thing to happen on this block was when the old man two doors down would forget to tie his robe when he got the morning paper. I’ve met him, it’s not a sight you would easily forget. I guess neither is me pounding into Maggie bent over our kitchen island. I’m just glad there were no children within the viewing area.
