Sandalwood Pt. 03

There stood Maya, resplendent in a bright red sari, her arms and neck adorned with gold jewels, her hair pleated in a single braid, in full bridal makeup. In her hands, she held a thick woven flower garland.

My lord, she's a goddess, Cole thought in astonishment, his fear of the moment melting away. He squinted, wondering if his contacts were in correctly. And is she taller? As everyone's eyes were on her, her eyes were transfixed on him while she glided down the aisle.

"She's marrying you?" Mark whispered to Cole, having never met Maya before. "Punching way above your weight class, huh?" Cole cracked a smile while still staring intently at his approaching bride.

"I think she's letting him win," Rob grinned, patting his elder brother on the back. As Maya reached the front, she smiled at Cole like they were the only ones in the room. Then she gingerly reached over him and placed the garland around his neck, straightening it down and across his lapels as her chosen groom.

"I learned how to walk in the red heels," she whispered, taking his hands. "Izzy and I practiced in secret." At the mention of his daughter's name, Cole turned to see his little girl slip into a seat beside Tejas, with Sunitha right behind her.

He marveled at the matching blouse and long skirt of Izzy's sequined, bright yellow lehnga outfit. Her hands were decorated with fresh henna, and she was wearing her own gold bangles, necklace, and earrings. Tejas and Manav's faces brightened as they told her how great she looked.

"You dressed her? And came out looking like this, yourself?" Cole whispered to his bride. "You're incredible."

"You're not so bad yourself, Teach," she winked.

***Epilogue***

"Maybe we shouldn't have crammed everything into the last weekend before school," Cole said, tossing his keys on the kitchen counter and flipping on the light after they walked in through the mud room door. He took off his blazer and dropped it on the loveseat as Maya tossed her purse atop it.

"We couldn't help it, baby," she said. "The boys needed to be dropped off downtown, it's the first weekend of the month so Janice gets Izzy... and we knew for a couple of months now Rob and Miguel were having their Labour Day party today."

She stopped, a faint smile playing at the corner of her lips. "Still... do you realize this is the first time since we got married it's just been us in the house with no kids?" Cole grinned back at her.

"No. You've been cooking for two days straight, and it's the first day of school tomorrow for me. Just no."

"You dropped the boys off only yesterday while I was prepping the food, and I'll be picking Izzy up from school tomorrow," Maya countered, slowly approaching him. "Tonight is our last chance for loud sex outside our bedroom for an entire month. I promise, it won't take long," she purred, lightly pinning her husband between herself and the back of the couch.

Before Cole could respond, Maya had unzipped him and pushed down both his jeans and boxer-briefs with a single motion. He groaned as she fell to her knees and took the full length of him into her mouth, swirling her tongue around him while running her hands up and down his inner thighs.

Maya's thumbs stroked closer and closer to his scrotum until she suddenly cupped him in her hands and sucked hard on his tip, making him stagger and hold onto the back of the couch for support.

She held on tightly to his shaft while licking the tip and stroking under his balls, when Cole let out a low growl. He gently pushed her shoulders back and pulled her to her feet, kissing her deeply.

Cole yanked her blouse out from her dark blue jeans and let his hands wander north to her bra, still with his tongue in her mouth. A minute later, his lips were on her neck and his fingers were unzipping her jeans, dipping below the waistline of her panties.

"Cole, no," Maya moaned.

"No?" Cole stopped in surprise.

"No, I mean..." she kissed his neck and put her lips up to his ear. "... we can go slow later." Then she softly whispered the sentence that drove her husband mad. "Right now, your wife just wants you to fuck her nice and rough."

Cole yanked off Maya's jeans and panties in a frenzy, half-tripping over his own pants that he'd forgotten were around his ankles. Then he bent her over the wide arm of the couch and stood behind her.

She's not kidding, he noted. The fact Maya was already soaking wet made it easy for him to enter her with one deft thrust, which made her cry out in approval.

"Sweetie, this is what you want?" he made sure as he started to speed up seconds later, his grip tightening on either side of her soft hips.

"Yes, yes, just like that, baby," Maya wailed, her hair flipped over her face in a mop while her toes lifted off the carpet every time Cole drove into her. Her husband grabbed her shoulders just as she clenched tightly around him, then he managed a few final thrusts before he crumpled against her lower back and then slid from there onto the carpet.

Maya pushed her hair off her face and smiled down at him, letting her arm fall down to his heaving chest. His heart was galloping but he grinned back and brought her hand to his lips.

"You were thinking about that all day, weren't you?" he panted.

"And you were completely oblivious," she said breathlessly. "Didn't you see me staring at you when you were loading the dishwasher?"

"Yeah, I did, but I thought I had something on my shirt or on my face."

"I bet even Miguel noticed. Why else did he tell us to go home early?"

"Because you'd been working so hard all day!"

"You didn't see him wink when he said it?" Maya queried. Cole looked away, thinking back.

"Huh. So that's what that was about. I was just happy we didn't have to help clean up."

Maya laughed, marveling at how innocent Cole could be sometimes. After admiring him for a minute and outlining his face with her fingertips, she pushed herself off the couch and gathered the clothing they'd shed.

"If you're not too tired for part two, I'll do all the work," she drawled from the bottom of the stairs. Cole had been ready to fall asleep before he heard that part.

Minutes later, he found himself propped up against the headboard of the bed with a few pillows behind him. His naked wife was straddling him and gradually grinding harder and harder on his shaft, pausing now and then to drop a kiss on his mouth.

How did I ever get this lucky? he wondered, intoxicated by her soft moans and the sandalwood scent that enveloped him.

Cole was suddenly hyper aware of everything in that moment--the new marriage necklace bobbing against Maya's breastbone every time she moved... the feel of her wedding ring against the nape of his neck... the way the toe rings he'd put on her feet during the wedding scratched his thighs while she bounced atop him. She's just for me now, he realized. All mine.

A new fervor came over him as he bent his knees a bit to curb her movements, then pulled her close and took each of her nipples in his mouth. When he'd spent several minutes devouring each one, Maya had tightened around him repeatedly and was whimpering and clutching his shoulders with shaky hands.

He scooched forward with her still on his lap, laid a pillow down beside them at her hip level, and flipped her onto her back without separating from her.

"We still okay?" he asked as he hovered over her and brushed her black tresses off her face.

Maya nodded yes, her lips parted and her eyes wide in surprise.

"Tell me if it's too much," he said, before hooking his elbows under her knees and placing her calves over each of his shoulders. Then he locked eyes with her and plunged deeper than she'd ever felt him go.

She cried out and squirmed, but her husband had her immobilized. He gently drew almost all the way out, then pushed back in while pinning each of her arms down with his. A few more times and Maya was struggling to focus.

"Oh my god, Cole... Cole..." she squealed as her back arched and an earthquake ripped through her core. Cole usually slowed down and held her at this point but Maya was surprised to feel him accelerating. He paused for just a moment to give her a devilish grin when he felt his tip rubbing against the hardening nub inside her.

"No mercy tonight, sweetheart," he whispered.

He kept his thrusts even and quick, watching his wife bite her lip and moan as the throbbing intensified within her. When she squeezed her eyes shut, he let go of her arms and roughly rubbed her nipples again only be rewarded by her screaming and writhing beneath him.

He kept pushing her through this final orgasm, wanting to make it last as long as possible for her. Finally, he slowed down and let go of her legs when he felt her muscles relax several minutes later.

"Don't stop, baby," she breathed. Her limbs felt like jelly but she still loosely wrapped her legs around her husband's waist, her arms around his back, and pulled his head toward her neck.

Cole had never felt safer as he buried his face in her hair and hammered into her a few more times before complete and utter bliss overtook him. As he let out his own muffled cries and lay trembling atop his wife, his mind was silent for the first time.

Maya's chest heaved under Cole's weight. All she wanted to do was hold him and lace her fingers through his hair while his body calmed down.

Just when she was wondering whether he'd fallen asleep on top of her, he pushed himself up with great effort and fell back on his side of the bed. Maya loosely held on to his left hand, twirling the new wedding band around his finger. She delighted in her husband's flushed face and savoured the perfect silence between them.

"What happened back there?" she quietly asked him after a minute. "I mean, you're always amazing but you were giving me this blank stare when I was on top of you... and then you just turned into a demon." Cole laughed.

"Uhhh, thank you?" he said, rolling onto his side to face her. "It kind of hit me that there's no specter of our previous lives hanging over us anymore. You finally have closure about Ram, and we'll barely ever see Janice anymore--fingers crossed."

"You know we've been married a whole month now, right?" Maya smirked. "A little slow on the draw, aren't we?"

"You were correct downstairs," he said, playing with her fingers. "We didn't have a honeymoon because all the kids were here. And I am so, so grateful that we have all of them under our roof, but it didn't allow me to feel what it's like when it's just you and me as husband and wife. No shuttling between here and my apartment, no worrying about how long this is going to last."

"Now comes the boring part," Maya said, curling up against his side, her eyelids growing heavy as she gently stroked his beard. "Me asking you what you want me to pack for your lunch every day, and arguing about how many apples is the right amount to buy each week."

"No, sweetie," Cole whispered after watching her fall asleep and pulling the comforter overtop both of them. "That's the part I was waiting for all this time."

***END***