“Good,” he said, with a note of satisfaction. “I can’t even remember anybody else but you,” he said.
“And that’s the way it should be,” she whispered, and finally he was seated right to the hilt. Home. And that’s what she felt like, that she had come home.
She whispered, as she pulled him closer, “It feels like a homecoming right now.” Then he started to move, and she realized that, although everything had been perfect, it would get so much better. By the time he finally tossed them over the edge, she was screaming, mindless with joy, her body trembling beneath him. When he rolled over to the side and pulled her up close against him, she was trembling everywhere.
“Are you okay?” he asked tenderly.
“I’m fine,” she answered, when she could. “I’m so damn fine.”
“You don’t look like it,” he said bluntly. “I’m scared I’ve hurt you.”
She tilted her head back to look up at him, even as her shakes calmed down. “When you haven’t done something like this before, and you’re overwhelmed with passion and emotion and love,” she said, “this is what happens.”
“Just so long as you’re okay.” Then rolling over, he pulled her close and whispered, “And anytime you want to return to your island, just say the word.”
“And you’ll drop everything and make it happen?” she asked, a twinkle in her eye.
“I promise.”
“And you promise that you’ll come with me, every time?”
“That’s a deal,” he said and pulled her close.
She smiled, tucked in closer, and said, “Actually the island would be a great place for a wedding.”
He nodded, looked down at her, and said, “Or we can do it here.”
“We could,” she said. “I’ll have to think about it.”
“You do that,” he said, “and, yes, if need be, the wedding can be at the island.”
She chuckled and said, “We’ll talk about it tomorrow.” Then snuggling in, she closed her eyes and slept.
Her heart, mind, and soul, for once, were at total peace beside her gentle warrior.
Epilogue
It wouldn’t be the easiest thing to get everybody to the island, but everybody wanted to attend, so that’s how the plans were laid out now. Even Levi and Ice were coming, toddler in tow, and so was all of Bullard’s crew, with all their women too. It had been Leia’s decision to return here and to say goodbye to the island temporarily, but also to say hello to her new life. She had friends on the island, she hadn’t had a chance to say goodbye to, and new friends she wanted to introduce to such a lovely place. So the entire entourage would be here eventually.
In the back of Bullard’s mind, he couldn’t help but think that somebody there had betrayed her. Somebody had told the outside world that they were there on the island, so it still may not be quite the place that she expected it to be. So Bullard still had to find that snitch. But he was willing to go along with Leia’s plans for her island wedding. They would be here for two weeks, with his team coming and going in the meantime. At least that’s what it looked like at the moment.
At that thought, Fallon walked over to the pool to join Bullard, and so did Ryland and Kano.
“So it’s your special day,” Fallon said.
Bullard nodded. “Well, next week is, yes. Why?” He looked at them, and the three men looked at each other and shrugged. “Come on. Spit it out,” Bullard said.
“Well,” Ryland said, “we were actually wondering if you might enjoy a bigger wedding than you had initially planned.”
Bullard frowned.
“Or if you needed it for just yourselves?”
“What are you talking about?” Bullard asked.
“We all have some shy lady friends, being a little too slow about getting up to the altar,” Kano said. “Lots and lots of promises about forever, but we wondered about putting them on the spot and having one big joint wedding ceremony.”
Bullard grinned, then chuckled, then laughed uproariously. “I’m okay with multiple weddings,” he said. “I’m just not sure about putting your ladyloves on the spot.”
“I think that,” Fallon said, “once we present the idea of an island wedding, we might get more than we bargained for. At least I’m hoping so.”
Bullard looked at him and said, “Are you actually expecting to get your lady friend up to the altar with you? You too?” he asked, looking at Ryland and at Kano. All three men nodded. “Well, let’s just do a wedding for everyone then,” Bullard said.
“I overheard the women say something about it should be your day,” Kano noted.
“I don’t care about that, but maybe it should be Leia’s day,” Bullard said, with a frown. “I suppose you want this to be a secret?” The guys nodded. “So how about our wedding happens solo, and you guys stay afterward to have your big mass weddings right afterward—or even the next day?”
“As long as you’re open to it, we may discuss it among ourselves,” Ryland said. “The minister will be there for more than a day anyway.”
“True.”
They all thought about it for a long moment.
“Change of subject,” Kano said. “Did anybody consider the fact that somebody from the island must have leaked or even sold information to the outside world?”
Bullard nodded. “I am worried about that,” he said. “I don’t think it’ll be a big deal, but we may have to stop some gossip and the media.”
“And that’s likely a leak from the island too, right?”
“Yes, I would think so,” he said. “I don’t want anything to ruin her wedding.”
“Right. So we’ll have to look into that,” the men said. Looking at each other, Ryland said, “Damn. It still sounds like a fun holiday though.”
“And one we all need,” Fallon said, with that confident certainty in his tone. “Now that you’re settled, Bullard, I’d love to see Dave find somebody.”
“I would too,” Bullard said. “He’s been alone for a long time.”
“Well, we’ll see. Everybody’s been very lucky so far,” Fallon said. At that, the men were willing to leave it.
As Bullard walked away, he thought about having all the weddings on the island and realized it could be a hell of a nice thing for everyone. Then he thought about Dave and the caterer who he had used to see off and on. Bullard was pretty damn sure that Dave was a big fan of the caterer still, but the two of them had been slow to pull things together—most likely Dave being the stumbling block. Maybe this could be something that would push them closer. As Bullard walked into the compound’s kitchen, Dave was there with a long list.
“Everybody’ll be on the island,” Dave said. “We’ll have to haul in a fair bit of groceries.”
“What about your caterer?”
“Yep, she’ll go,” Dave said, “with a lot of food that she can finish on board the boat and bring over, in case there are no cooking facilities.”