“You don’t have to be sorry, Riley bear. I know what you’re thinking about, and it’s ok,” he whispered, kissing me again. He rolled off of me and gripped his arms around my waist, pulling me on top of him instead. I instantly took my weight on my hands and knees so I didn’t hurt him. He laughed and ran his hands down my back, gripping my ass and pulling me down onto him. “I know you’re worried about hurting me, but I think this position would work really well. I could just lie back and let you do all the work,” he teased, waggling his eyebrows at me.
I laughed uncomfortably, “Clay…..just a little longer. Please?” I begged, I needed him to stop doing this to me because every time he did my will to say no crumbled a little more.
He smiled his sexy little smile that I loved so much and nodded. “Know what I really dreamt about last night?” he asked, changing the subject.
I lowered myself down on him a little more, but still being careful. “What baby?”
He smiled and tucked my hair behind my ear, his fingertips brushing across my cheek lightly, making my skin tingle where he touched. “We were in Vegas like I said, but we’d just got married again.”
I smiled, “We did?” I asked, my heart was starting to drum in my chest again. I didn’t think Clay wanted to marry me again, usually whenever I mentioned it he changed the subject immediately. Maybe he felt a little rushed, maybe he was secretly glad we weren’t married so young.
He nodded and kissed the tip of my nose. “Yeah, and you looked beautiful in your white dress.”
I gulped, was he ready to talk about it now? “I didn’t think you’d want to marry me again….”
He frowned and looked at me like I was crazy. “Riley are you kidding me? Of course I want to marry you again, you’re the love of my life. I just wanted to wait a little while before we spoke about it, I just wanted to make sure that you were ok being tied to someone like me.”
Someone like him? He thought he was doing this for me again? Did he really still not understand how much I loved him? “Why wouldn’t I want to be tied to the most perfect boy in the world?” I asked, trailing little kisses along the line of his jaw, making his hands tighten on my hips.
He moaned breathlessly, pulling on my ass again so I pressed against his crotch harder, I could feel how excited he was and I started to feel guilty again. He was a guy and he hadn’t had any physical attention for eight weeks, this was probably killing him.
“I was wondering, Riley bear….” He trailed off as I bit his chin lightly.
“Wondering what, Clay?” I whispered, licking the rim of his ear.
“Shit Riley, I can’t concentrate while you’re doing that!” he moaned. I laughed and pulled away from him slightly, looking him in the eyes, nodding for him to continue. He took a deep breath, looking a little nervous as he took my left hand, rolling my engagement ring around my finger. I wasn’t wearing my wedding ring anymore, I’d taken it off and had it handing on my necklace instead, because technically we weren’t married. Clay refused to take his off though.
“Riley, I know I already asked you once before and you said yes, but things have changed a little since then….” I swallowed loudly, was he going to say what I think he was going to say? “….But I love you more than anything in the world. I will always love you, and I wondered if you would do me the honour of marrying me……again.”
I couldn’t breathe, I felt the smile stretch across my face as a hundred butterflies seemed to take flight in my stomach. Clay Preston wanted to marry me again and I couldn’t be happier about it. He was just looking at me worriedly, and suddenly I realised I hadn’t actually answered his question.
I bent my head and kissed him softly, relishing in the feel of his lips against mine. Kissing Clay just seemed to make everything right in the world. With his lips against mine I felt like the luckiest and most special girl in the world because the most amazing boy loved me and wanted me. He kissed me back immediately, tangling his fingers in the back of my hair, pulling me impossibly closer to him.
By the time I pulled away we were both a little breathless. I looked him right in the eyes and smiled, “Of course I’ll marry you again, Clay,” I whispered. He really had no idea how much I loved him, I would do anything for him and yet he still worried that I would change my mind. Maybe he’d gone crazy or something.
He laughed, grinning as ran his hand down my back. “Thank you Riley bear. I’m gonna be a great husband, you won’t regret it.”
I brushed my nose against his lightly, “I know what kind of a husband you’ll be, baby.” He would be the best husband in the world, I knew that from personal experience.
* * *
Clay’s POV
I couldn’t be happier, I had the girl of my dreams sitting on top of me and she’d just agreed to marry me again. Nothing could make this moment better. I trailed my hand down her back until I got to the waistband of her jeans. Scratch that, we could be naked, that would make this moment better!
“Are you ready to go, baby?” she asked, stroking my face softly.
I nodded, I couldn’t wait to get out of this place. I’d been here for six weeks and although it was a nice place, I just needed to get out, be with my girl in familiar surroundings, start to move on from this and look to the future.
She smiled and pushed herself off of me, I resisted the urge to pull her back down on top of me again, I had missed her like crazy last night, the same as I had done every night since she first left when I was in the hospital. Riley felt like home to me, and I couldn’t get enough of her time or attention. She held down a hand to me and I took it, letting her help me off of the bed and onto my feet. I hated that I needed help for things, but I guess there was nothing I could do about it. I just needed to accept that until everything was back to normal then there would be little things that would have to change. My body was getting stronger everyday, if I carried on with the training the way I had been then in a few months everything would be perfect again.
She went to grab my suitcase so I took her hand, kissing the engagement ring that she still wore, before taking the handle of the case. It was a pull along so I wouldn’t have to lift it anyway, she was just being over cautious as usual.
I said my goodbyes to all of the staff on my way out, ignoring the one nurse that I tried to stay away from because she was an obsessive flirt. She really was terrible, she wasn’t too bad in front of Riley but in the evenings she was boarding or sexual harassment. I couldn’t keep the grin off of my face as I walked out of the front door for the last time, heading over to Riley’s car. She was obsessively tapping away on her phone, she looked so happy that it made my heart drum in my chest.
Riley drove us back to her parent’s house. We were going to be staying there for a while so I could recover little more. Our apartment was on the second floor, so Sarah and Brian had offered to let us stay at their house for a month or so, so I wouldn’t have to trudge up and down stairs to get home each time. Apparently they’d converted one of the downstairs rooms into a bedroom for us.
As we pulled up, I glanced over to my parent’s house, next door. I didn’t really want anything to do with them anymore but Riley being Riley, had convinced me to give them a second chance. I know they didn’t do it on purpose but I just didn’t understand how they could not know that it’s something I would have wanted to happen. Riley wouldn’t tell me exactly what happened while I was in a coma, but the general gist was that my mom had told the doctors that she was seventeen and that her age made our marriage illegal. I think there was more to it than that, I think that Riley was more upset with them than she let on, but if she didn’t want to tell me then there was nothing I could do about it.
I got out of the car and held Riley’s hand tightly. I couldn’t wait for just some me and her time. I knew she was going to make me wait to get my hands on her, but at least I got to hold her tonight while I slept which I was excited about. I could wait for sex, I could wait forever if she wanted to. I was actually thinking of suggesting we wait until after we’re married again, so that I could give her the proper wedding night that we missed out on last time because she’d fallen asleep in the bar.
We walked up to the front door she looked strangely excited. She pushed open the door and nodded for me to go in first. As I walked in, the room exploded into cheers and clapping. I jumped a mile until I looked around and spotted all of our friends standing around, balloons everywhere, banners on the wall saying welcome home. I grinned as I understood while she looked excited. She’d arranged a welcome home party for me.
I laughed and pulled her closer to my body, kissing the top of her head and she hugged me, grinning happily. Jeez, I had the most perfect girl in the world!
Tom and Ben came bounding over and pulled me into a hug, “Hey man! Finally you’re out!” Tom chirped, grinning like an idiot.
I looked around and saw practically the whole football team standing there, eating and drinking, laughing. I felt a little overwhelmed that all of these people would turn out for me, I really had some great friends.
“Yep finally.” I hugged them both back, still a little shocked that they were all here, I wasn’t expecting this at all. Tom pulled me away towards the food, Riley winked at me and mouthed that she loved me as she blew me a kiss. I laughed and followed him over to the table of junk food that had been laid out for us, all of my favourite foods where there, she’d gone to so much effort and I really was a lucky guy to have her.
My parents were here as well, they literally only said hi and welcome home before they excused themselves back to their house. I think they knew not to push it too far, they could probably sense that I wasn’t ready for much yet and I was grateful that they were giving me some time to work out everything on my own terms.
Brian and Sarah where there too. I headed over to them as soon as I broke free of Tom and Ben’s grasp. I hugged Sarah and held out a hand to Brian but he pulled me into a hug instead. I’d been getting on really well with them in the last few weeks, they really were great people and had come to visit me every other day at the centre. In fact everyone had been great, my friends came to visit every weekend too just for moral support. In some ways, I didn’t realise how lucky I was until this all happened.