An Arranged Marriage

"Deal. Maybe you can teach me Spanish too? I really want to, for you and your family. Seeing as I'll be going back to University to be a Good Husband..."

She laughs. "Me encantaría." I think she's beyond sexy when she speaks Spanish. It's not even fair. "I'd love that."

"Good." I wrapped her into my arms and we held each other for what felt like a long time. For as nice as it was, for as much as I loved having her in my arms, I could still feel the tension in her limbs, the way her hands clawed desperately to my back even as I squeezed her tighter, trying to let her know it was all going to be okay.

During the long silence, something was still brewing. Finally she found her courage and her voice. "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything."

We extricate ourselves from each other's arms. She sorts a bit of hair, then looks at me nervously, like she's about to really put something on the line. "Will you sleep with me tonight?"

"I mean, there's only one bed, so unless you want me on the couch..." I shut up, the correct neurons firing several seconds too late. "Oh."

"Yeah, I meant in the biblical sense. Become one flesh, you know?" It's her turn to practice being a sailor with her fingers.

"No, we don't have to do that." I responded blankly, trying to be polite.

"Oh," She answered, her eyes leaving mine. It's an echo of that sadness that gutted me earlier. "I get it, that's fine."

I'm smart enough to learn from my mistakes, just maybe not very quickly. It dawns on me what she's actually saying. "Did you want to?"

There's a moment's hesitation, as she looks back up again with stressed-out hope in her eyes. "Just after we talked, I guess I'd hoped..."

I honestly can't believe I'm hearing what I think I'm hearing. "I absolutely want to be with you, but only if it's truly what you want. Do you?"

"Yes," she grins again, swaying side to side a little like a giddy schoolgirl. "Very, very much."

"Tonight?!" Yes, I'm back to being a little dumb. A pretty woman making bedroom eyes at you can have that effect.

"Yes!" She thumped me on the chest with playfully irritation.

I'm grinning, and trying not to let my head completely shut down with the thought of getting her naked. "Jeez, sorry! Then yes! Absolutely we will."

"Good. I thought you might not want to for the same reason you didn't want to dance."

"I didn't want to pressure you, especially not with what happened with you and Adrian. We just met, so excuse me for being sure."

"People have one night stands after a night out all the time. We're married, so it'll be way better than that. It's been on my mind all day." Her hand tucks itself under my suit jacket, resting on my waist. She smiles at me, her voice lowers as she stares right into my eyes. "I want my husband. I want you inside of me tonight more than anything."

"Damn." I honestly don't know what to say. "That sounds really incredible, Elena."

"I know, right?" She giggles again, pecking me on the lips as she pulls me close. "I'm getting excited just talking about it."

"Me too." A thought suddenly plagued me. "Won't it hurt for you?"

"Probably. At least the first few times." She says it so easily.

"I don't want to hurt you!"

"It's okay. We'll go slow. Besides, other parts will feel good, and we'll help each other relax." She kisses me like I mean everything to her. "Besides, I want our marriage as God intended."

"As God intended?" It sounds a little silly coming out of my mouth, not knowing what she means.

"I want to spend a lot of time as one flesh. To bind our bodies together as tightly as our hearts and souls. I want to belong to you, and you to belong to me."

"Elena, that's... that sounds amazing." Frankly, I don't know if I'm more stunned by her way with words or just simply turned on by this turn of conversation.

She grins. "Right?"

I realize another necessary question. "Are you on the pill?"

"IUD, actually. Got it a while back, just in case. So there's nothing to worry about."

"Always be prepared, eh?" I laugh at her a little.

She giggled along. "Less boy scout, more boy crazy, like I said." She paused. "But now I'm glad I did, because it's more than that. Of all the parts of married life, this is the one I wanted most. But, now we're here - together - I don't want some abstract man. I want you, specifically. I'm not even sure it really makes sense to me yet."

"I know what you mean. I can't explain it either. It's like by taking ourselves out of the decision making, we're bound to each other by something far more powerful than want. We happened to be searching at the same time, and found each other. It's strangely beautiful."

"Yeah, it is."

"But a little scary too. It's like it's happening to someone else. Like if I let go, you might disappear and our wedding turns out to be just a dream."

"A good dream?"

"The best."

"Then don't let go."

There was a brief moment of quiet, and she laid her head on my chest. I nearly cried, I was falling for this woman so much. I never thought God would provide quite like this, at least not through my parents arranging a marriage. As I played with her hair, I knew I had to be honest with her. "I'm really nervous."

"Why?"

"I don't know. I've never kissed or touched a woman before, and you might be the prettiest woman I've ever met. Maybe I'm too used to thinking of a woman like that as a sin."

"Hey," She starts softly, raising her head up to look at me again. "I'm your wife now." She has the most intense, yet reassuring look. "I think it would be more sinful to not lust for me." She grins a little.

I laugh. "You're right. I just feel so stupid I didn't even know how to kiss you. I don't want to mess this up. I want tonight to be incredible for you too."

"It already is."

"Then more than incredible!"

She laughed softly. "I know. Truth be told... I'm a little nervous too. It's normal, right? We'll keep taking it slow, I just needed to know you'd take me for your wife tonight in your eyes, not just God's."

Something about that didn't sit right with me. "Elena - I don't want to 'take' you or anything from you. I want to give myself and everything I have fully to you."

"You're right, poor choice of words. I want to give myself to you everything I have too. I think I just meant I need you to accept me."

"I do." I kissed her softly, slowly. "And do you accept me?"

"I do." She kissed me back, then grinned. "It's like we're doing our vows all over again."

"I like it. What else should we promise each other while we're at it?" I chuckle.

"I don't know, but promising to ravish me every day for the rest of our lives sounds like a good place to start."

"Every day?"

"What? You can commit to more?" We both giggled.

"How about this: I promise you that you'll forever be the object of my most intense desires and passions, and to love you physically as long as I have the strength, and to love you spiritually when the body is weak."

"Okay, that's a pretty awesome promise." She only took her grinning gaze off of me long enough to place a longing, wet kiss on my lips.

"Thanks. I intend to keep it."

"I promise to never let you doubt how I feel about you, and to always give you my absolute devotion. I also promise you all the lust and love you can handle. Maybe more than you can handle." We both laughed again, even as her nose nuzzled against mine, her lips dragging across my mouth.

"I promise to always let you into my heart, even when telling you the truth is embarrassing or hard."

"I promise to love and support you most of all when it's hardest or most embarrassing, to be a place of comfort and confidence for you always."

"That's a good one. I promise that too."

"I think we both keep all of these promises."

"Absolutely. I promise to learn and grow with you. That I'll always dance with you."

"And I promise every man is going to be super jealous of you when you do."

"Won't that just happen by default?"

She laughs. "You're probably right. Fine. I promise to experience and relish everything in life with you: from travel and adventure and family and love through grief and whatever hardship life may throw at us."

"That's a good one." I kissed her again.

"I thought so." She returned the kiss, then asked, "Can I ask you to promise one more thing?"

"Definitely."

"Promise you'll never stop looking at me the way you are right now?"

"I thought I'm supposed to close my eyes when we kiss?" I tease with a huge smile.

"You know what I meant!"

"I do. And I don't think I'll need to, but I do promise."

"Good."

Quiet contentment falls, and her incredible lips pressed against mine and her tongue slipped in. I sigh a little, our tongues frolicking together again. I'd swear her tongue is heaven. Soon enough, I pressed her up against the nearly solid object, which just happened to be the refrigerator. There's no feeling quite like trying to express an overflow of love and lust like you'll never have enough time to say it all.

--

"You're getting dangerously good at that." Elena's smile is a permanent fixture now. Another twenty minutes just disappeared kissing, until our lips had started to chap and a need to use the absurdly nice bathroom superseded everything else. It was massive, with gold finishings and another floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the city, but we still were still shy enough we took turns.

"I have a good teacher." I grin at her. We're both sipping on a couple of tall glasses of water. Hydration felt delightful after swapping that much spit.

"You might not be the swiftest pupil, but you're a hardworking one." I'm getting used to the fact that she teases me like this.

"Hey! It's hard!" I protest.

"Yeah it is..." Her voice drops an octave with a wink.

It takes a second to sink in, then my jaw drops open. Her eyes flit to a bulging erection that seems proudly ever-present now. "That's not funny..."

She just giggles.

I can't help myself, her soft laugh is too adorable and too infectious. Soon enough I'm laughing too. "Okay, maybe it is."

"It is. But it's also flattering. You're cute. I love that you can't help getting turned on by me."

"Hey, you said it would be a sin not to be."

"True, true..." She smiled, then drained the rest of her water. It clinks on the counter, then she shoots me a look I'd come to know and love. "So, now what?"

I didn't know it yet though. "I think I have an idea."

"Oh yeah?"

"Can we dance?"

"You want to dance with me?"

"I still feel absolutely awful I left you hanging on the dance floor. You looked beautiful then, and even better now, and I'd never forgive myself if I didn't try to make it up to you."

"Oh, don't worry. You'll have your entire life to make it up to me every day, my husband." There's that twinkle in her eye again. She craned up to kiss me. I had a feeling her idea of 'making it up' to her would be very pleasant.

"Me encantaría." I smile, trying my best to make the one Spanish phrase she told me sound good. I don't.

She giggles. "Me encantaría." She repeated, really slowing it down, exaggerating the vowel sounds and rolling the R.

"Me encantaría." I repeat.

"Better!" She grins and looks into my eyes adoringly. Not that she never stopped now. "What do you want to dance to?"

"I don't know. Probably should start with something easy."

"Okay. How about a little salsa?"

"Sure, I guess. This living room has to have a good stereo, right?" I walked over and poked around by the TV. There wasn't a ton of space open to dance between the couches and table by the window, but we'd make do. After a moment of poking, I announce, "They have Spotify."

Elena joined me, wrapping her arms around my waist and leaning her head against my shoulder. She watched me scroll through tracks a moment, then stopped me when I obviously had no idea what I was looking at. "Here, play this one." She pressed a button, and the room filled with the heat of drums and latin trumpet backed by sizzling piano harmony.

I smile, the syncopation is infectious, and I already know she can move. This was going to be fun. "Where do we start?"

"Face me."

"Okay."

"And just count to eight. Like this: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight..." She counts off to the rhythm.

I start counting off with her. Thank you, mom, for making me take piano for ten years. I have a good sense of rhythm, so it doesn't take long for Elena to move on.

"Good, good! Now, we start alternating our hips with the beat - mirror me." She starts swaying with each count, and I follow.

"You make it look really easy." I'm rather robotic compared to her fluid hip movements.

"Lots of practice. Don't worry, you're learning!" She giggles as I try to really get into it. "See! That's the spirit!"

"It's all in the attitude, right? I am a sexy beast of man."

She laughs. "Absolutely." I love seeing her laugh, and it makes it easier to free up a little more, to match the way she's moving. "See? You're getting it."

I can't stop smiling. Why didn't I want to do this earlier? It's fun, and what's better is I'm dancing with my stupidly sexy wife. It's doing wonders for my confidence. "Okay, what's next?"

"Okay, slowly now." She picks up the skirt of her dress a little bit so I can see her feet. "You'll step forward with your left foot on 'one', while I step back. Like you're chasing me."

I step forward and she steps back. "Okay."

"Then put your weight back on your right foot on two, and bring your left foot back on three, and shift weight on four."

We go through the steps. I'm really focusing now.

"Good! Then you step back on five, and I step forward."

"Like you're chasing me?"

"But we both know I don't need to." She grins. She's completely right. "You step back to right on six, and back together on seven, and shift again on eight."

"Like that?"

"Yes, that's it! Now just repeat that over and over while we go around the room."

I start trying to move the beat. It's a little awkward, but I'm getting the hang of it.

"See? It's easy!"

"Easy for you. The way you move your hips is something else." Just about all of my brain power is focused on just moving my feet.

"You like dancing now?"

"I like dancing with you."

"Good answer." She grins again. "Take my hand and back, like this..." She placed one of my hands behind her back, and took the other in her hand.

Suddenly we're dancing very close together. I can feel the rhythm in my feet now a little better, and the heat of her body sliding across mine. Soon enough I'm entranced by her eyes. Those stunning, dark eyes with soft lights shining in them. The way her perfect lips are slightly parted and constantly smiling at me. I ached to kiss her again, but I can't break the spell she's put on me as we dance. Not, at least, until I make a misstep off to the side, threatening to spill onto the floor.

"Ay!" She cried out. I manage to catch myself with a small shuffle. The worry on her face melts in a second when she realizes I'm okay. Then she just laughs softly.

"Sorry." The moment's over the next song is on now, and it's something much slower.

"It's fine, we'll try more later. Just hold me close?"

"Of course." I pulled her into an embrace. She tucked herself into my neck, and her hands snuck under my suit coat. Soon enough, we were gently swaying to the soft jazzy heat of the music.

"Thank you for dancing with me." She whispered.

"Thank you for teaching me. I'm already looking forward to learning more."

I feel the soft exhale of her breath on my neck. "Good." Her fingers stroke along the side of my stomach, her other arm wrapped around my low back. She kisses my neck so softly.

It makes me tremble a little. I run my fingers up and down her back, forcing myself not to hold onto her too tightly. I kissed her on the forehead.

Her hand slides up to my chest. We keep swaying, and I realize she's playing with one of the buttons of my shirt. "I can feel your heart beating," She whispered.

"It's hard to relax holding the most beautiful woman on the planet." Is it cheesy? Sure, it is. It's my truth though.

She thumps my chest even as she giggles, never breaking that stare into my eyes and soul. "Oh stop it, you're making me blush."

"What! It's true!"

"Maybe I can help you relax a little?"

"How are you going to do that?"

"Like this..." She undoes one shirt button at my waist, then another, and a third.

Her hand slides delicately onto my belly, I feel a wet kiss on my throat, and suddenly I'm gasping for air.

She stops a second. "Is this okay?"

"It feels incredible." My abs flex involuntarily against her fingers. "Maybe a bit ticklish, but I like it."

She just smiles as her fingers brush my stomach again, forcing another twitch. "Wow, I really like your abs."

"Thanks." I kissed her, feeling myself getting way harder.

She undid the remaining buttons of my shirt, struggling a little with the last three. "Wow, you've got a really nice body. Can I ban you from wearing shirts?" She tried tucking the embarrassment of her excitement behind a joke.

"But then I wouldn't get to watch this part."

"That's fair." Her hand slid back under the shirt and across my skin with nothing left to get in her way. She kissed my collarbone.

My body quaked from her incredible touch. "You're amazing, Elena," I could feel the slight husk in my own voice now.

She chuckled. "Mmm, I like this. My strong, fit husband, utterly undone by one touch from his sweet, pretty wife." Her fingers traced up to my chest, and my breath hitched again.

She was right. She was completely in control. I just held on to her as my head swam and tingled. After all, there was hardly any blood left over from the raging erection for petty things like thinking or speaking.

She nibbled at my collarbone as her hand slid back down to my hips. She started undoing the belt. "Is this okay?"

"Yes," I husked out. As if I could deny her anything in my current state.

"Good. I really want to touch you." She's not kidding. She's giving me the hottest bedroom eyes I've ever seen.

"I'm really hard, Elena."

"I know. You've been prodding me almost all night now." She grins, then finally gets the pants button undone.

"Sorry." I laughed a little.

"For what? It's nice. I wanted to grind myself against it." Her hand slips between my pants and underwear, finally cupping my throbbing member and rubbing along its length. I'm inwardly grateful I shaved off every bit of hair the night before, the way her fingers drag across the super sensitive skin makes me tingle and tighten.

"Oh, God..." I breathe. It's overwhelming, more than I imagined. I twitch into her hand, her wrist stretching out the waistband. I tighten my grip on her dress and bury my nose in her hair.

"That's my hand, James." She teased playfully, as if to say: don't thank Him, thank me.

"Oh, Elena, it feels incredible."

She grinned, very pleased with herself. "Good. Just relax, let me take care of you..." She kissed me on the lips gently, and her fingers slipped under the elastic band of my underwear, stroking the base of my manhood with her nails. She broke the kiss, looked down, and muttered, "Dang."

"What?"

"You made a real mess of your underwear. You're dripping like crazy."

"Oh." I answer. I looked down to see her hand in my underwear. She was right. The fabric had a giant wet spot where I'd leaked onto it. "I guess I'm just excited."

She giggles. "Guess so." Her fingers stroke my balls, and my shaft twitches, drooling a sticky strand of pre-cum into my underwear and onto her hands. Her fingers trace up the underside.

I'm just an absolute puddle in her hands, grunting and shaking as my knees buckle a little wider for her, making access easier.

"Hmm, I can't wait to feel all of you inside of me. Just touching you is making me feel so hot all over." She dabbed up a bit of my copious pre-cum on a pair of fingers.