At the conclusion of the tea, the itch to be alone with Max was nearly unbearable. But Ethan didn’t know how to pull him away from his parents without being obvious about his intentions. It turned out he had a friend in Philip Poole.
“We’ll make plans for dinner tomorrow,” the older man announced as they all stood just outside the restaurant.
Marcela frowned. “Why not tonight?”
Philip cleared his throat. “Because they will be engaged in other business.”
“What? What could they—oh. Oh, my.” Rather than cover her face in secondhand-embarrassment, Marcela shocked Ethan by turning a sly smile on him and Max. “I’d forgotten. Yes, yes, don’t let us interfere with the consummation of your marriage.”
“Mother...” Max sighed.
“What? This marriage won’t be legitimate until you claim your husband, Maxmillian. I’m European, or had you forgotten? You’ve let the Americans rub their prudishness on you.” She glanced at Ethan with a smirk he hoped he never saw from her again. “Though there’s one American in particular whom you should insist rubs upon you—”
“Thank you for this afternoon,” Max said smoothly, acting as though he hadn’t heard her.
“Don’t waste more time, son.” Philip pointed at the escalators. “Ethan has been anxious to leave for a good fifteen minutes now. Go take care of him.” Unlike his wife, he had the grace to blush.
“Oh, god,” Ethan groaned, mortified.
Max pressed a hand to the small of his back. “Indeed, I agree we’d better go. I’ll be in touch later, Father.”
“Have fun!” Marcela cooed as they rode down to the bottom floor.
“Someone shoot me,” Ethan pleaded.
“Then you’d miss out on the juicy consummation sex,” Max murmured into his ear.
Ethan’s cock inflated in his underwear. “Drive fast, Max.”
“I hadn’t intended to dawdle, believe me.”
Fate was on their side, or else the god of love was, because they hit every green light on the way home. In no time they were stumbling into their condo, hands frantic to strip the other of their wedding finery.
After they’d tumbled into bed, though, Ethan placed his hand on Max’s chest to catch his attention.
“Would it be corny of me to say I want it slow?” he whispered.
Max stroked his cheek. “I intend to make love to my new husband. You couldn’t stop me from taking my time.”
He was true to his word. Max worshipped him, from head to toe. His mouth was a heated butterfly. His fingertips were dandelion heads caressing Ethan’s skin until he shivered. Ethan was familiar with dominant, controlling Max, but this Max was a tender, generous lover. Through the magic of his touch he awakened Ethan’s nerves. He set them tingling with delight and then burning with need. Tiny tremors turned into shivers, and sighs turned into moans. Before Ethan knew it, he was writhing in their bed, fingers clutching at Max’s back with a desire that demanded to be appeased.
“Max,” he breathed as he closed his legs around Max’s hips and tugged him down and against him. He nibbled on the shell of Max’s ear. “I want you, husband.”
Max stopped moving and a shudder rippled along the long, strong line of his body.
“I want you,” Ethan whispered before dipping his tongue into the whorl of his ear. “Mr. Winter-Poole. Make me yours.”
With a low groan, Max slowly guided himself inside. Ethan stroked his cheeks, his chest and shoulders, his clenched abs—everything he could reach. Everything that belonged to him.
“Say it again,” Max demanded, his eyes burning bright.
“Mr. Winter-Poole,” Ethan whispered. “Mr. Winter-Poole, I’m so proud to be your husband.”
Max took ownership of him gently, to a breathless chant of “Husband.”
~~~~~
The wedding ceremony in Indiana was everything the one in the White Chapel of Dreams had not been. If the Vegas one was a comedy, the one in Indiana was a romance.
Maxmillian wasn’t a fan of ostentatious sentimentality, but even he felt a tickle at the corners of his eyes as he promised his love and his life to Ethan beneath a cloudless blue sky in front of their friends and family. Plenty of tears were wept around him—including by both mothers. The fact that the wedding wasn’t official had no apparent impact upon how meaningful it was to those in attendance. It was real in the ways that mattered to them.
As he watched his mother and father navigate a dirt field and share food with Ethan’s parents inside a barn, all without protest or complaint, Max hoped he never forgot the feelings he experienced this day. The Pooles and Winters made for an odd-looking family, but he had every confidence—something he couldn’t have said before—that in time they would become very close.
When he led Ethan onto the dance floor for their first dance, Max’s heart was a fluttery thing behind his breastbone. Finding a husband had never been his intention, but what a fool he had been for not believing something so wonderful could be his. Ethan was a handsome, kind angel who brought nothing but joy into Max’s life. No matter what came, Max was never letting him go.
Except he did eventually, when Ethan requested to dance with Marcela. But the tradeoff was worth losing him: Max escorted Jeannie to the dance floor, too. They danced while the sun set and the stars peeked curiously through the windows and doors of the barn. The final toast of the party was made outside, beneath a crescent moon and a velvet blanket of diamonds that stretched across the horizon.
With an arm around Ethan’s shoulders, Max toasted. “To our families, who were there when we needed them.”
“To the future,” his father toasted back, no doubt thinking of his collaboration with Max, and maybe of family, too.
Dale raised a hand, smiling. “To everything we have right now. It’s pretty darn great.”
Ethan, warm against Max’s side, murmured, “To Lady Luck, who was always on our side.”
Read more from Tricia Owens at
http://www.triciaowensbooks.com
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Sin City series
Dom of Las Vegas
Limited Liability
Acceptable Sacrifices
High Roller
Most Wanted
Lessons in Obedience
Death Defying Acts
The Doms Club
Easy Money
Significant Other
Aftermath
Flesh and Blood
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Book Two: Island Paradise
Book Three: Pirate Triumvirate
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Juxtapose City series
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In the Blink of an Eye
The Battle for Black
The Ultimate Team
My Lover, My Enemy
The Sound of Truth
Shattered Alliance
Exchange of Power
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The Gathering Storm
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