Semper Fidelis (16 page)

Jared gave the command, “Officers, draw swords!” The men withdrew their sabers in sync in one continuous motion, raising them into the arch position, tips touching.

“Ready?” Cary asked, and Owen nodded.

They clasped hands and began to descend the steps, passing under the arch of steel. After they’d reached the bottom of the steps, they paused for a moment.

“Kiss!” someone yelled, and there was laughter and applause.

Owen smirked wryly at Cary. “And so it begins.” He bent to kiss Cary, making sure to hold the kiss for long enough for the photographer—and Jia—to take some pictures.

When they parted, Jared called, “Officers, return!”

The swords were all brought back to the position of ‘resent arms’, then returned to the scabbard for all but the last about three or four inches. At a signal from Jared, the final inches were completed in unison, the swords returning home with a single click from the group.

“Perfect,” Cary said in a low voice. “I suppose that means you want something to go wrong at the reception,” he teased.

Owen nodded his agreement as they walked to the limo waiting to take them to the restaurant where they were holding the reception. “Don’t forget. We’ll be cutting the cake with my sword.” He waggled his eyebrows up and down.

Cary inhaled and stopped short. “You wouldn’t dare!”

Winking, Owen urged Cary forward through the open door. “You’ll see.”

Chapter Seven

It was late by the time Cary and Owen drove back to the beach house that night. Cary had left the driving to Owen, even though they were in Cary’s car. His ears had finally stopped ringing from the noise of the reception, which had still been going strong when they’d left. It was a good thing they’d been in a separate banquet room adjacent to the restaurant instead of the main part—their friends and family weren’t exactly a sedate group. Everyone had celebrated long and loudly between the traditional bits—the introduction of the couple, the first dance, the buffet style dinner and of course, the cutting of the cake.

Cary smiled to himself. He’d been sweating the moment that they had to do the cake after Owen’s comment when they’d been getting into the limo to the reception. All sorts of scenarios had popped into his head, from Owen decapitating the cake to the cake-shoved-in-the-face thing that some people inexplicably felt they had to do to their new spouse.

But it was Owen, and Cary couldn’t really picture him doing anything
too
crazy.

So after they’d held Owen’s sword against the cake for what seemed like an hour while dozens of people took pictures, and they finally made the first few cuts to form bite-sized slices to feed each other, no one had been more surprised than Cary when Owen had deftly balanced the taste on the blade of his sword then made Cary eat it off.

The symbolism wasn’t lost on anyone present, but thankfully even their parents and commanding officers had had a laugh over the slightly risqué take on tradition, though Cary was dreading the pictures.

He’d gotten his revenge, though, because when it had been his turn to feed Owen his piece of cake, he’d balanced a much bigger piece right on the tip…

Besides that, the reception had been very like most he’d been to in his life, with the exception of no bridesmaids. He loved that everything had come off without a hitch, and now here they were on their wedding night.

“Here we are.” Owen turned into the dark, short driveway of the vacation house. They had the house to themselves again tonight.

When they got out of the car, Cary could hear the waves in the distance. The sky overhead was completely clear and here, where lighting was minimal, the stars were out in abundance.

He had the key, so he preceded Owen up the steps and after a bit of fumbling, managed to get the key into the unfamiliar lock. Before he could open the door more than a few inches, Owen slid his arms around Cary’s waist from behind.

“Shall I carry you over the threshold?”

“Try it and die. I’m not the damn bride.” Cary tried to keep a straight face and look indignant, but it was a losing battle. They both laughed as they walked inside, still back to front.

Cary could feel Owen hardening against his backside and gave a little wriggle as Owen kicked the door shut.

“Alone at last,” Owen murmured in his ear. “No one can save you now.”

“Mmm. I don’t want to be saved.” There was a time for banter and a time for action, and Cary was ready to get his husband into bed. He stepped away and turned the deadbolt, then took the stairs two at a time.

He heard Owen following suit after only a brief pause and grinned. The great room lamps were on a wall switch that he flipped on when he strode past, then headed down the hall to the master suite.

At first when planning tonight, he’d considered having champagne and candles and all sorts of props, but then he’d thought about him and Owen and the way he loved them best—and that sort of thing didn’t seem to fit. So all he’d done in the way of preparations were the basics—a couple of water bottles at the bedside and plenty of lube. He slid the door to the deck open and the sound of the surf filled the room. With the flip of another wall switch, the gas fireplace blazed to life.

Then he turned to look at Owen.

“Have I mentioned how much I love you in uniform?” Owen asked as he strolled across the room.

“Once or twice.”

“I love you even more out of it.”

“Same.”

There was one more moment of mutual appreciation, then the race was on to see who could shuck their clothes the fastest. Usually, Owen and Cary were both super careful about their uniform, but tonight, the best they could say was that everything ended up on the overstuffed chair instead of the floor. By the time they were naked, both of them were hard and Cary was more than ready to do something about that.

“Fuck me tonight.” He sat on the very edge of the bed and Owen moved between his legs. Cary’s hands went automatically to Owen’s muscular ass, stroking and kneading the firm mounds.

“Is that what you want…first?”

Cary moaned as that conjured up visions of act after act. “You are such a…” His brain short-circuited as Owen ran his hand along Cary’s erection, petting it.

“A…?” Owen continued to tease, rotating his palm on the head of Cary’s cock and making him crave a firmer touch.

“Mmm. What?”

Owen pushed Cary back on the mattress then straddled him, bracing his hands by his shoulders. He dove into a kiss that sent Cary’s libido skyrocketing, Owen’s tongue mimicking what he hoped they’d soon be doing, fucking into Cary’s mouth and possessing him.

When Cary was breathless and aching, Owen backed up and stood, then knelt between Cary’s legs, eye level with his hole.

“God. Owen…”

Slicked fingers brushed against him, disappeared then returned. One penetrated him easily, and Owen slowly began to fuck Cary open with his fingers.

“Will you please just fuck me?”

“Love how you ask that so politely—with a please.” Owen continued his assault but this time slid his mouth down along Cary’s shaft then back up.

“Such a fucking tease.”

“Yeah, you love it. Those swear words start flying when you’re turned on.”

“Owen!”

Owen had enveloped his cock in the warmth of his mouth, which almost did it for Cary. The combination of his touch and his lips and tongue were driving him to distraction.

About to burst, he groaned with relief and frustration as Owen pulled away. He added a bit of lube to his hand, then jacked that gorgeous, thick cock while standing over Cary, still sprawled open before him. He couldn’t feel any embarrassment, though, not with Owen.

“Scoot up to the head of the bed,” Owen directed and Cary held his gaze as he moved into place. Owen kissed his way up Cary’s leg, then teased him by bypassing his straining cock in favor of tracing up his hip bone.

Unable to wait another minute, Cary reached for Owen and pulled him off balance so he fell atop him. God, he loved the feeling of Owen’s weight pressing on him.

Owen must have been done with the teasing too because he wasted no time in levering up enough to place his cock at Cary’s entrance. The pressure increased until the head popped through the muscle, uncomfortable at first but at the same time possessing Cary in a way he would never tire of. Inch by inch Owen lowered himself until his chest rested on Cary’s then he flexed his hips bit by bit to drive deeper into his ass.

With Owen’s weight on him, Cary wasn’t able to get a hand to his cock, so instead he ran both hands up Owen’s back then down to his ass. The discomfort had passed and now each stroke ratcheted Cary’s desire even higher. Owen did a push-up of sorts, and Cary grabbed his cock, giving a few desperate pulls and tightened his grip.

“Owen, Owen.”

“Yeah.”

The next thrust fucked the orgasm right out of him, and he cried out as he spurted onto his stomach.

“Oh yeah.” Owen didn’t stop moving, chasing his own climax, and Cary helped the best he could, trailing his fingers to Owen’s sensitive nipples, brushing and flicking them, all the while working Owen’s cock with his channel.

Owen groaned. He tucked his arms under Cary’s shoulders, cupping his head and devouring his mouth with a thorough kiss as he came, holding hard against Cary for a moment before the shuddering of his body stole his rhythm.

The kiss went on until they were forced to part in order to clean up. Owen went into the bathroom and Cary heard some water running, but he was falling into some serious afterglow, so he barely swiped at his stomach with a couple of tissues then crawled over to the opposite side of the bed.

The bed dipped and heaved as Owen got in next to him and adjusted the covers over both of them. He pulled Cary into his arms and their breathing slowly regulated itself.

“Night, Care Bear,” Owen rumbled in his ear.

“Night.”

“Happy dreams tonight, huh?”

Cary was half asleep already but he nodded. “The best,” he managed, and he somehow knew that it would be true.

Epilogue

“I think if we just move the rest of the boxes into the garage now, we can still get the rental truck back before they close.”

Owen looked into the truck then at the early evening sky. “It’s not that big a deal if we don’t.”

“Yeah, I know, but I’m starving. And if we take it back, we can stop somewhere to grab a bite.”

“Good point. Okay, we’ll do it that way. But,” he added as he walked up the ramp into the back of the nearly empty moving truck, “we’re not putting them in the garage and leaving them there until we buy our next house.”

“That would never happen. Plus I’m pretty sure one of these boxes has the bedding in it, so unless we want to sleep on a bare mattress, we’ll get at least one more taken care of tonight.” Cary hefted a box and grinned at Owen as he walked by.

Owen picked up an end table—carefully since there were drawers still filled with stuff in it—and followed Cary into the garage of their new house. After getting posted to the FAST unit in Norfolk, he’d done some training up in Chesapeake while Cary had immediately started house-hunting in Norfolk and Virginia Beach. Cary had remained with his same squadron after they’d re-upped, so it made sense to purchase a home and start building some equity since they’d both be here a while.

Once they had everything moved out of the truck, they hopped in then drove it back to the rental office—just in time too. The employee scowled at them, but processed the return anyway, and soon they were back in Cary’s car.

“What do you want for dinner?”

“Chinese takeout.” Owen had already pulled out his phone and was searching for the number of a place they’d eaten at while looking for a house.

“Takeout?” Cary glanced at him, eyebrow raised. “I figured we’d eat in somewhere. We don’t have a table set up—or stools for the counter.”

“I’m sweaty and gross and so are you—don’t deny it.” Owen winked to make sure Cary knew that wasn’t a criticism. Hell, he always smelled great to Owen. “We can eat cross-legged on the floor, for all I care. Or on the deck, maybe.” He reached over to rest his hand on Cary’s leg. “I just want to get to our new home, clean up, eat something then find a blanket and christen the house.”

Cary gave him a slow smile. “I like how you think. No more objections. Dial away.”

Owen navigated to the restaurant’s menu. “Besides, we should take advantage of the quiet while we’re still childless.”

“What?” Cary stared at him until Owen started fearing for their safety.

“Watch the road.”

“I am. I am. What exactly do you mean…while we’re still childless? You don’t have something to tell me, do you?”

“Actually I do.” Owen nodded, enjoying Cary’s stunned expression. “We have a house now.”

“Right…”

“I want a dog.”

Cary’s shoulders slumped with relief. “Damn it. You really scared me for a minute there. I was in no way prepared to have the ‘let’s be parents’ talk tonight. And why haven’t you mentioned you wanted—? Never mind. That’s cool with me. I should know by now that there’s no reason to freak out over anything you might say.”

“Well, you don’t know what
kind
of dog I want yet.”

About the Author

Devon started reading and writing at an early age and never looked back. At 39 and holding, Devon finally figured out the best way to channel her midlife crisis was to morph from mild-mannered stay-at-home mom to erotic romance writer. She lives in Oregon with her family, who are (mostly) understanding of all the time she spends on her laptop, aka the black hole.

Email:
[email protected]

Devon loves to hear from readers. You can find her contact information, website and author biography at
http://www.totallybound.com
.