Stock Ch. 19-33

“I shudder when I consider how I was committing emotional suicide by locking myself up in my own little world until you rescued me. A lot of my time was spent sulking over the past, but you changed all of that. You now make me look forward to a future that I had never addressed.” Sean pulled Elizabeth in close and held on to her firmly. “Do you know what that means? I have a life now. I was as good as dead before with nothing to live for. But now I have a purpose and it is all thanks to you. So, there were a few scares and there have been a few sacrifices that I have had to make. It’s no less than those you’ve made. And do you know what else? There are likely to be more obstacles that will pop up as we proceed, but they won’t matter as long as we stay together. Okay, so I’ve nearly been mugged by Charles’ goons and yes I’ve been run over...”

“We’ve shared a lot of wonderful times together too, or have you forgotten our first kiss or our first fight, which by the way happened in the same night. I won’t forget the first time we made up after our fight, the making up was and is the fun part. What about the wonderful time we spent in Lake Tahoe or Thanksgiving with your family? You can’t forget how well you nailed me with the water balloon. It’s times like those that make all of it worthwhile. I would go through it all over again, the good and the bad, just to know that you love me. I’m better off living dangerously having a life to lose than living securely leading a life not worth losing.”

Elizabeth was pacified by Sean’s sincere words and finally allowed herself to collapse in his comforting embrace. “I did get you good with that water balloon, didn’t I?”

Elizabeth felt Sean’s chuckle and couldn’t help smiling herself. It still caused a strain on her long wearied features but it was a welcome feeling nonetheless. She pulled Sean closer and returned his firm grasp and slowly let some of the worry drain out. Still, a part of her worried that his life would be less threatened without her in it and she said as much.

“I’m just going to do the smart thing and agree with you. But,” he slipped in, “I think it’s more interesting this way, much more exciting. Kind of like my own personal adventure story.”

“That would make me the damsel in distress?”

“I said as much the first time I met you.”

“True…but Prince charming is supposed to marry said damsel and live happily ever after with her.”

“Well, then I suppose we should get hopping on those wedding plans.”

“You mean I should get hopping on them. You will only sit on the side and try to cut down on the costs.”

“Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do?”

Elizabeth sighed. “Yes, dear; I suppose.”

***

Elizabeth laughed until she was sure that she popped a rib out of place. If Vanessa weren’t there to catch her she would very well have fallen off the bed and onto the floor. Thank God Sean was busy cramming for an exam and Eric was having a meeting with his publisher, or their little joke would not have been so unanimously received. Elizabeth had forgotten how much fun it was to have some time alone with her best friend. Sprawled about the bedroom were countless magazines and personal referrals for nearly every little detail for a proper wedding. They even mailed a copy of everything they had to her mother and Vanessa’s mom to better make a decision. The floral arrangements were still up in the air, Vanessa and Elizabeth’s mother couldn’t agree on them, and the bridesmaids’ gowns were still being fought over. Luckily they did settle on a date, Elizabeth managed to schedule it for the same day that she and Sean met at the GenenCorp. meeting. That should keep things simple for her fiancé in the future should he ever become absent minded enough to forget. So far he had been pretty good with keeping track of those sorts of things but he was still a man.

“Now, about the invitation list,” Vanessa began. “I take it Sean hasn’t set a ceiling on the number of guests we can invite.”

“Of course not,” Elizabeth answered cheerfully. “As soon as I so much as think about wedding plans Sean says that everything that we come up with will be perfectly fine. It’s so nice being married to a millionaire, and a naïve one at that. I honestly don’t think Sean knows just how expensive a wedding can become.” Actually, Elizabeth reflected, she was starting to feel a little guilty over her use of the blank check that Sean had issued, yet she knew at the same time that Sean was banking on that very guilt to serve as her restraint. Inwardly she sighed. Sean knew her too well. Still, that didn’t mean she wouldn’t spend all of his money.

“Did he give you a list of those he wanted to invite?”

Elizabeth snapped out of her thoughts and rifled through a pile of papers. “Yeah, he gave me some names before he left for the library.” Elizabeth hadn’t looked at it yet but did so now. She couldn’t help but smirk as she looked it over. She handed it over to Vanessa and voiced an observation. “Check out the top three names on the list.”

Vanessa looked as indicated and snorted. “Ha, ha. ‘Elizabeth, Eric, Vanessa’. Sean’s got some sense of humor. The bottom of the list says ‘Sean’.”

“Glad he didn’t forget himself,” Elizabeth commented wryly when handed back the sheet. She gave it a more thorough inspection and felt that it was a little too short, as if it were missing someone crucial. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it. She had met everyone named but it seemed to be incomplete.

“Have we settled on what kind of invitations to send?”

Elizabeth soon forgot about the list as more of the seemingly endless details swept her away.

***

Elizabeth was busily stirring the pot when she heard Sean come home. She called out to him and told him that dinner would be ready in ten. Sean gave her a quick peck on the cheek and said he’d be in the shower. Elizabeth continued to busy herself in the kitchen while thinking about the numerous minutiae that she and Vanessa had so far accomplished to organize.

A pair of arms encircled her waist and Elizabeth smiled to herself. It felt so nice to be adored. “Molesting me in the kitchen, again?”

“What can I say,” Sean replied. “There’s something about a beautiful woman doing the domestic that I find very attractive.”

Elizabeth sighed sarcastically. “Here I am, under the heel of my male oppressor.”

“Male oppressor, huh?” Sean gave her a gentle squeeze and nibbled down her neck. “I doubt a male oppressor would take the time to make sure that the woman he loves is sexually satisfied.”

“That’s what you think,” she teased.

“Oh really? Let’s see and find out for certain.”

“Not now, Love. Dinner’s ready and the stew won’t taste as good when it’s cold.”

Sean began nuzzling her earlobe and suckled on it. “You sure?”

Elizabeth felt her pulse rise and warm up; regretfully she fought it. “Yes, I’m sure. Now go set the table.”

He gave an exaggerative sigh. “Yes, dear.”

Elizabeth smiled to herself. Whipped!

Over dinner they talked about their day. Considering what Sean had undergone recently the university was willing to let him resume his courses later. However, at the moment Sean was considering just finishing the classes along with everyone else. When the conversation shifted to wedding plans Sean began to realize just how complicated it all really was and Elizabeth silently thanked God that she wasn’t marrying a man entirely oblivious to so important an event. After dinner was cleared away Elizabeth once again found Sean’s questing hands all over her body. He may have been in a coma for over a month but he certainly hadn’t lost his touch. She melted into his steady hands as he led the way to the bedroom.

As always Sean was frustratingly slow and tender as he undressed her. Elizabeth did not possess his patience when it came to unwrapping presents and would have shredded his clothes to ribbons if she had claws instead of fingers. He rained kisses down her throat to her breasts and Elizabeth shook as her heart quickened. Already she could feel the familiar flush between her legs that made her thighs raise and greedily rub against Sean. She both loved and hated how Sean made her lose control. Her hands raked his hair and pulled him even tighter to her hungry nipples. When his mouth closed over the left one she shuddered from the ecstasy. Her breath now doggedly hurried behind her pounding heart as passion raced through her veins. She moaned when he broke away from her breast but relished in the sensations as he attacked the one on the right. Oh, she loved how he took his time with her breasts.

Once he had teased her to a frenzy by simply making love to them for a little over half an hour. However, today he was less patient and spent only ten minutes attending to them. It was just as well, she wanted him in her and it would have been difficult for them to pull that off with his height and sore hip. When he slid into her, she hissed and her legs constricted around him like a vise. He attempted to kiss her as his hips stroked deep within but all Elizabeth could manage was to gasp into his mouth with ragged huffs of air. The air felt so thin and Sean felt so powerful. Her body exploded in a thousand different colors. He would not stop. Sean continued to piston in and out of her quaking womanhood and the thousand colors stretched and mixed and burst into a million, trillion… Oh, God!

When Elizabeth could once again grasp her surroundings she was soaked through from her exhausted passion. Their bodies were slick with sex. Sean flopped beside her and nuzzled her ear in that wonderfully familiar way of his. Elizabeth idly caressed the firm muscles of his arm that was draped over her torso. As her body cooled and her breathing leveled out she thought of how lucky a woman she was. She still didn’t believe that she was worthy of him and thought again of their conversation last night. Part of her still worried about Sean, about all the trouble she had caused him. But she knew such worries were fruitless and Sean was as stubborn a man as she had ever known. She couldn’t get rid of him. The blasted man was as in love with her as much as she was with him. She would just have to spend the rest of her life and then some making it up to him. Elizabeth snuggled closer.

Within moments Sean was snoring gently, right into her ear.

Chapter 33

Elizabeth woke up slowly with the familiar feeling of Sean’s warm body beside hers. Of the many things that she loved doing with him, waking up with him beside her was one of her favorites. She cracked her eyes open and found that her fiancé was already awake.

“Mmm. Morning, handsome.”

“Hey there, cutey,” he greeted in return and lightly kissed the tip of her nose. Elizabeth could smell the minty scent of his toothpaste.

“You’ve been up for a while?”

“’Liz, it’s ten in the morning. I’ve been awake for quite a while. Stretched out my hip, went for a walk, and found some breakfast.”

“My my, haven’t we been busy?”

“Not ‘we’ but me,” Sean grinned. “You have been asleep all morning.”

“Sean, it’s Saturday. People sleep in on Saturday’s, especially after a good round of sex the previous night.”

“Oho,” his grin stretched into a broad smile. “So I take it that this male oppressor has sated his woman’s lustful wants?”

“Eh,” she teased. Elizabeth laughed and pulled Sean in close for a proper good morning kiss. “Oh yes, you most certainly do fulfill my needs. You can consider me thoroughly ravished.”

“Good, because if I had to pick up the pace anymore than it already is, my hair will turn gray before my next birthday.”

Elizabeth laughed with him and then yelped in surprise when he rolled her out of bed. She tumbled off the mattress and landed most ungracefully. She frowned at her plight and shook her fist at Sean before crawling towards the bathroom. Sean stepped around her and playfully slapped her bare behind on his way out. Elizabeth mumbled a few choice words out of earshot and started in on her morning routine.

Refreshed by a hot shower and a round with the toothbrush, Elizabeth headed out to the kitchen and found Sean stooped over some paperwork. She ignored him for the moment and addressed her gnawing belly. She seemed to have worked up quite the appetite from last night. “Sean, I was wondering,” she called out over her shoulder as she rifled through the sparse fridge. “I was going over your guest list and you forgot to put down any of your family members.” Only silence answered her. Looking around the fridge door, she saw Sean sitting at the table with his back to her; his hands stalk still. “Sean?”

“I told you. I don’t talk to them.” His words were terse and sharp.

Brought short by his attitude, Elizabeth grabbed at an orange for now and shut the door. She sat down across from him and studied his pained gaze into history. “Well, how about extended family? Aunts, uncles, or cousins?”

“My father was an only child and I never knew my mom’s side of the family.”

“But don’t you want to…”

“No, ‘Liz, I don’t. If I wanted to invite them then they would be on the list.”

“Well, what if I wanted to invite them. Or at least meet them.”

Sean sat tensely and quietly. “I will not talk to them.” He stood up abruptly and left the table. The apartment door slammed shut on his way out.

***

“Elizabeth. Hey ‘Liz!”

Elizabeth snapped to attention and looked questioningly at the magazine in her hands. “Huh?”

“I asked if you wanted to have identical wedding gowns.”

Elizabeth took a moment to switch mental gears before she answered. “No, I think you and I would never settle on the design.”

Vanessa scooted closer to her on the couch, concern creasing her brow. “Something’s bothering you isn’t it?”

She didn’t answer, not trusting her voice at the moment.

“Alright, what did Sean do this time?”

“Nothing.”

“Bullshit, nothing,” her friend exclaimed. “You’ve had that spaced out look all morning. Now tell me what Sean did so I can pound some sense into him.”

Elizabeth smiled at her friend but the upset lines settled back in at the corners of her mouth. “It’s nothing, really. Sean and I just have a few wedding plan disagreements to work out.”

“Well, that concerns me and Eric, too, so spill.”

“In this instance it doesn’t,” Elizabeth argued. Surprised at her own vehemence, Elizabeth took a calming breath and slowly released. “Trust me. It doesn’t.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” she growled

“No, you won’t. I don’t need your protection. Not from Sean. I’m sorry but this is between Sean and I.” Rarely had Elizabeth argued with her friend but right now she was not in the mood for her wheedling. As promised, Elizabeth kept Sean’s painful past to herself. She understood what it was like to keep one’s pain a secret. Elizabeth never told anyone what happened to her during the final years of her marriage to that monster, Charles, until Sean came along and Sean never said a word about it to anyone. She wouldn’t know what she would do if he let slip what had happened to her in those dark years. So, Elizabeth knew better than to tell anyone, best friend or not about Sean’s hurt. Sometimes Elizabeth felt that her life was irrevocably intertwined with Sean’s; his pain was her own as he bore her pain with him. Their pasts were an inviolable private place.

Elizabeth stood up and neatly stacked the magazines strewn about the coffee table. “I don’t think that I’m in the right frame of mind to handle this right now, maybe tomorrow.”

“’Liz…”

“I’ll call you later. I’m not mad at you. I just…I just need some time to piece things together, okay.”

“Yeah, no problem,” Vanessa answered. “Just take it easy. And give your fiancé a good sock in the arm for me while you’re at it.”

Elizabeth smiled at her friend as best she could as she headed out the door. “Sure thing.”

A chilly breeze from a nearby air conditioning blew across Elizabeth’s taut face. She drove back to Sean’s empty apartment and looked around. Elizabeth now paid attention to the stack of papers at the dinner table where Sean was working having previously ignored them after his stormy exit. It was the final paperwork for the house they were going to move into. With everything so hectic the last few months, and Sean routing her attention to wedding plans soon afterwards, Elizabeth had completely forgotten about their dream house. When Sean went into his coma all of their plans were postponed indefinitely. Elizabeth didn’t want to move into an empty house.

Dusk crept up on Elizabeth as she thought of what to say to Sean. Finally he came home to the cramped apartment with a pizza. “Oh, you’re home already. I thought you were with Vanessa.” Elizabeth didn’t answer, not sure what to say to him. “Well, I wasn’t in the mood for fixing lunch.”

Elizabeth didn’t say anything and watched as he crossed the room, put down the large flat box, and went to the bedroom. Sounds from the shower distantly hissed in her ear as she waited for him. He came out dressed in simple blue jeans and a navy blue breaker she bought him on his birthday. Never before had she ever felt the strange tenseness between them, like a string stretched taught with too much burden. He sat down across from her and slipped a steaming slice of pizza from the box. Elizabeth sat quietly and waited for him to finish the first piece. He looked at her.

Weariness from the previous morning’s argument was etched into the corners of his eyes and set a firm line across his brow. They stared at one another, communicating more in a glance than could be said in a lifetime. Elizabeth gazed at him firmly, knowing her request was not irrational; but neither was Sean in the wrong.

Sean let out a breath and closed the pizza box. “Come with me,” he said and stood up. He walked over to his bookshelf and reached above. Hidden from view was a large leather photo album, its worn cover free of dust. He held it close in one hand and stretched out his other to Elizabeth. She felt her hand in his and let him guide her gently out the door.

They drove through the warm afternoon sun with neither saying a word. Elizabeth looked over at Sean and saw sadness shrouding his eyes. They made a stop by a flower store where Sean bought a single orchid and a rose. Elizabeth didn’t know what to make of his purchase so continued her silence. Sean drove on and pulled up to an open gate, passing a large stone sign.

“Rose Hills Memorial Park,” Elizabeth read aloud. Sadly, she pieced together the clues and laid a comforting hand on Sean’s as it rested on the shifter.

They drove up the steep green hills that seemed to roll on and on into the azure sky, weaving back and forth through various roads to the dead. Sean found their stop without much effort. He had made this trip many times. Elizabeth stepped onto the springy grass and looked at Sean. His face was an unyielding mask. He wrapped an arm around Elizabeth’s shoulder and began walking. They arrived at a pair of stone plates lying in the grass. Inscribed were the names of Sean’s parents. Sean searched the grass and found the two metal cups hidden within. He pulled them out and walked over to a nearby spigot, filling them with water. He placed them back in their holes and slipped the orchid into his father’s cup and the single pink rose in his mother’s.

“This is my family,” Sean said. “Mom, Dad. I’d like you to meet someone very important to me. This is Elizabeth. We’re going to get married. I just thought you’d like to know.”

Elizabeth didn’t know what to say. Her mind fumbled for words but found none. She held Sean’s hand tightly. Sean stooped down and sat in the grass, pulling the previously hidden photo album out. “These are the only pictures I have of my parents. In many ways, these are my only memories. I told you about them before but I never showed you.” Sean opened the album. Elizabeth sat beside him and laid her head on his shoulder. He flipped through the pages one by one and told him about his earlier family life or what he remembered of it. There were quire a few photos but he didn’t have a memory for all of them.