He re-adjusted my dress and opened the door, but I grabbed his shoulder.
“Wait...Can you please tell me where we’re going? I need to make sure my staff has some of type of idea over the next two weeks...Just in case there’s an emergency and they need to contact me...I know you said we’re not supposed to do any work but—”
“First of all, we’re going to be gone for four weeks, not two.” He held my face in his hands and narrowed his eyes at me. “Second, your staff will not be allowed to contact you. At all. Neither of us is doing any work and if there is an emergency, you’ll find out about it when we get back. Third, we’re going to eight different countries and you’ll find out what they are when we get there. And fourth, since you’ve always wanted to go...We’ll take a yacht through the Panama Canal on the way back.”
I cut him off with a kiss and cried.
“Come on...” He led me out of the car and up the plane’s steps.
I didn’t wince when the plane roared down the runway, and I didn’t shut my eyes when we ascended into the air. I kept my gaze locked on his and smiled until the pilot said the newest set of secure words, “All clear, Mrs. Statham.”
As the flight attendant served us a bottle of champagne, Jonathan took my hand in his. “So, Mrs. Statham...Was our first time as a married couple special to you?”
“Yes...All four...”
“Hmmm.”
“You know sex doesn’t happen as often after marriage right? That after the first six months or so, the honeymoon phase ends and you’re so busy that you have to schedule sex sometimes...”
He smiled and unbuckled my seatbelt with his other hand. “Claire Statham...” He pulled me into his lap. “What makes you think you and I will ever have that problem?”
“It’s natural. That’s just how it works. Now that we’re married, we don’t have to do it so much.”
“I’m going to fuck you every day.”
“No, listen—”
“Every. Day.”
I smiled. “You are so charming when you talk like that...”
“I’m well aware.” He smiled and eased me out of his lap before standing up. “My wife loves when I talk dirty to her, but she won’t admit it.”
“She sounds like she’s too classy for you.”
He rolled his eyes and led me into the private bedroom at the back of plane. Locking the door, he pressed his lips against mine. “For the record, Mrs. Statham, our ‘honeymoon phase’ will never end.”
“You don’t know that for sure.”
“Shhh.” He kissed me. “It was torture not being able to make love to you for weeks, Claire...You damn near broke me...You don’t even understand how badly I wanted you at your bachelorette party, how much it hurt to lie in bed next to you without being allowed to have you...But now that I know what it feels like to be with you again, I can fucking guarantee that I will never go a day without making love to you.”
“Is that another one of your agreements?”
“No.” He smiled and pulled me over to the bed, unzipping the back of my dress. “It’s a promise.”
Epilogue
Claire
One year later...
I stood in front of the bathroom mirror with a pair of scissors poised high above my head. I made sure to hold the strands taut, and then I counted.
One....Two...
“What are you doing, Claire?” Jonathan walked into the room with his eyebrow raised.
“I spotted two gray hairs today.”
“And?”
“And I want to get rid of them.”
He rolled his eyes and took the scissors out of my hand, placing them back into the drawer. He wrapped his arm around my waist and led me out into our living room.
“Every man in my family started graying at thirty five.” He smiled. “You should leave your hair alone so we can match.”
“You’re just saying that to make me feel better...”
“It’s true. My mom’s side of the family started graying at thirty. I’m sure it’ll happen to me soon.”
“I’m not sure if gray hair will look sexy on you, Jonathan.”
“Everything looks sexy on me.”
I laughed as he handed me a box of tree ornaments.
Since we’d spent last Christmas overseas, we were hosting the holidays at home this year per his request. He’d never had a “real Christmas” before so he insisted on having his mom and Hayley over so they could all share their first one together.
“Hey mom?” Ashley walked into the room with a pan of burnt black brownies. “I followed the directions and everything...I even used the right pan. What the hell is up with these things?”
I stepped over and looked into the pan, sighing. “You make straight A’s in college?”
“Yeah, so?”
I shook my head. “What temperature did you put them on?”
“Six hundred.”
“Six hundred?! I thought you said you followed the directions?”
“Caroline’s casserole needed to be baked ASAP, so I just halved the time. Thirty minutes at three hundred degrees equals fifteen minutes at six hundred. That’s basic math. You of all people should know that.” She shook her head at me and shrugged at Jonathan. “This was clearly an expired box of batter...I’m going to go buy some more.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but Jonathan pulled me into his arms and kissed me.
“She’ll learn. My mom is going to help them with everything tonight.”
I sighed and kissed him back.
I hooked a few more ornaments onto the tree and could literally feel Caroline walking into the room.
“Yes, Caroline?” I looked over my shoulder.
“I just got me and Ashley’s final placement scores from the FAA practice-test. Our demonstration flights are in May. May fourteenth to be exact.”
“Okay?”
“I’m telling you now because we have to book a time slot in your schedule six months in advance if we want you to be there. You’re always working.”
“What? That’s not true!”
“I’m not complaining.” She smiled. “I’m just saying that—Wait, why am I even telling you? I’ll call both your secretaries and make sure they put it into your schedules.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket and left the room.
I shook my head and let out a sigh. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, she was right: C and C’s Charming Designs was still making a name for itself, but it’d been growing beyond my wildest dreams—so fast that I was opening a new store overseas in a year. Statham Industries was now worth more than Jonathan’s largest competitors combined, and he’d been considering taking an extended leave of absence—just to spend more time with me.
In fact, every morning when we woke up for work, he’d kiss me and whisper, “Say the word,” waiting to see if I would ask him to step down, practically begging me to.
On the one hand, I wasn’t completely sure if I wanted him to do that—even if it was “only six months.” He was excited about the changes his company was making—all the new products they were releasing next year, and I didn’t want him to think I hadn’t noticed that.
On the other, even though our sex life was fucking incredible—I couldn’t think of a single day when we didn’t have sex at least once, we didn’t see each other that much. Unless Ashley and Caroline came home for a visit or we threw a party, we both worked extremely hard during the week and we only got to share small parts of the weekend with one another.
Don’t get me wrong, he always did small things to let me know I was on his mind—endless flowers, beautiful gifts, and home cooked dinners that I could never master, but I spent more time at work than I did with him and it hurt me sometimes...
“What are you thinking about?” Jonathan tilted my face towards him.
“Nothing...Can I ask you something?”