“She gets all the good stuff,” said Abby. “And she gets it fast. I don’t know how she does it. She’s a Howie fan, by the way.”
Nick snorted in laughter. Abby was killing him. He was seeing this whole other side of her. He took the mouse and scrolled down. The two newlyweds looked at the picture in silence. It had been taken at the moment that Abby had blown the kiss to Nick. He had his arm outstretched to her as well. They were staring at each other with adoring eyes.
Nick put his lips at Abby’s ear and crooned quietly, “…til death do us part, I will promise to you…” Abby whimpered softly. Nick tipped her head back and put his mouth on hers. They kissed for a long time, tasting each other, drinking each other in…until the bus went around a bend and reminded them of where they were. Nick released Abby’s mouth. She leaned against him and he put his arm around her. They sat in complete comfort and went back to the computer, scrolling through the threads.
“Interesting,” said Abby. “They’re not all your fans.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Nick, nuzzling the top of her head. “Of course, they’re all my fans. Haven’t you heard, I’m the favorite!” He laughed to show her that he was making fun of himself.
“They’re all talking about you,” she said, “but they relate it to the guy they like the best. Look at their names. Sweetdsgirl offers you congratulations and then says wasn’t it great that Howie gave the bride away. And luvsdabone wishes you well but is disappointed that AJ didn’t have a bigger part in the ceremony.” Abby looked up at Nick. “She’ll feel better about that when she finds out he did a reading.”
“Here’s someone who thinks this is a good thing for me because you seem level-headed,” said Nick. He and Abby looked at each other and said at the same time, “Kevin fan!” Nick put his large hand on top of Abby’s head. “Level-headed, huh? I don’t know about that.”
“It says ‘level-headed’, not flat-headed,” answered Abby, sticking out her tongue at him.
“Better flat-headed than fat-headed,” said Nick. “That would be me!”
“Stop that,” said Abby. She didn’t like it when Nick questioned his own intelligence.
“Okay,” said Nick, and he stopped it by putting his mouth over hers again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~They played on the Internet for an hour or so and came away from it with a good feeling. There had been a few pictures, all variations of the first one, and many, many good wishes. And no bad ones, thought Nick with relief. He hoped it would stay that way.
They stopped for lunch, pulling into the same rest stop as Kevin’s bus. He informed them that he had spent the last hour on the computer as well, downloading the pictures from the wedding. Did they want to see them?
They sat together in a booth at the back of the truckstop and ate burgers and looked at pictures on Kevin’s laptop. There were some good ones, Abby was pleased to discover. Even of her.
“You’re a good photographer,” she said to Kevin.
“We have to pick one out,” said Nick, “to…uh…release to the public.” He didn’t know how well Abby was going to take this. Neither did Kevin.
“You mean like the ‘official’ one?” she asked. She and Nick laughed over their private joke.
“We can make a lot of points with a magazine if we let them publish ‘exclusive photos’ of the event,” said Kevin. He was going to make sure that Abby understood their world. He didn’t think it would be a problem, but…
“Won’t the other magazines be angry, then?” she asked. “I mean…if they don’t get anything. Will they be mean to you?”
“No, they won’t. They’ll buy the rights to the pictures from the first magazine and reprint them and then they’ll tell the story their own way, with different information, to make it look like they have the inside story or something.”
“Hmmm,” was all Abby said. She picked at the fries on the edge of her plate.
“We don’t have to give them anything,” said Nick. “We can keep it totally private. But you know the fans would like to see a picture.”
“Yes, I know,” said Abby. “And there’s no way we can keep it private.” She remembered what Leighanne and Kristen had said. “Because if we show these to anyone…family, friends…they’ll get out there, won’t they?” Kevin and Nick nodded at her. “Right,” she said, resigning herself, “So I guess it’s best if it comes from us first. How many does it have to be?”
“A couple of different ones of the two of you, maybe one posed and one more candid,” said Kevin, “and one of the group.” Abby nodded, thinking that Kevin had obviously given this some thought.
“And we’ll be sure and say that you were the photographer,” said Abby, “so that luvntrain4evr can have something to be happy about along with frackkaosdolphinnickylover.”
Nick and Abby cracked up. Kevin looked across the table at the two of them and felt a warm feeling in his heart. This was so good. He was so relieved. Nick had made some poor choices in women and Kevin had been very nervous about this one. There was the whole way they met…what the hell was Nick doing at a lodge in Michigan, anyway?...and then that nonsense with AJ saying that she wasn’t real. The fact that none of them had met her bothered Kevin as well. Not that he felt he had the right to check her out, but… And then, bam, we’re engaged and bam, we’re eloping…
Meeting Abby had gone a long way to settling his nerves about it, thought Kevin. And watching her interact with Nick had finished the job for him. For a moment during the ceremony, when he’d been reading, he’d thought maybe Abby was going to cut and run. She’d seemed really upset… probably just nerves…but then she had looked at Nick and the love shining out of her eyes had almost made Kevin falter in his words. Yeah, it was all good.
“Kev?”
He looked up. Nick and Abby were grinning at him. He shook his head and smirked at them. “Just thinking about the wedding,” he said. “It was a good day.” He ran his finger over the mousepad on his laptop. “So which ones do you think?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Back on the bus, Nick asked Abby what she wanted to do next. “You don’t have to spend every second entertaining me,” she said. “Play some games if you want. I’m going to read.”
Nick nodded and popped in a game. He settled back into his ‘game chair’, sprawling his legs out in front of him and thumbing his way through the desert fortress, rooting out terrorists. Abby curled up on the sofa opposite, pulling her legs up under her and reading.
The second time that Abby’s head snapped up after she nodded off, she decided to go for a nap. She kept dozing off and she might as well be horizontal. She mouthed the word ‘nap’ at Patrick and Terence and tiptoed to the back room. She slipped off her jeans and folded them neatly. She put them on the dresser and placed her sweater and bra on top. She slid under the covers clad only in her panties. She pulled the pillow down under her head and closed her eyes.
It was the first time she’d been alone since she woke up the day before. This was a whole different thing for her. She was used to being alone most of the time. She knew she’d get back to that when she returned to Chicago, but at the moment, it was unnerving her a little. She wanted some time to get her thoughts together. Then she smiled to herself. She only had one thought she needed to get together. She was happy. She was happier than she’d ever been in her life. If he never saw her again, if he never kissed her again, she was happy.
She was drifting down into sleep when she heard a squeak. The door to the bedroom was opened and closed. She could hear music from beyond it. She kept her eyes shut, as she felt Nick move onto the bed behind her.
“Are you sleeping?” he breathed into her ear.
“Uh huh,” she murmured.
“Not yet,” he whispered, and she felt him get off the bed. She heard the rustling of clothing. Then he slipped into the bed beside her, moving his warm, naked body up against hers.
Abby stayed where she was and kept her eyes closed. She was close to being asleep and that was where she wanted to be. Her fatigue was pulling her in that direction. And she wasn’t having sex on this bus, she knew that, not with two bodyguards just a few feet away. She hoped that if she remained still and silent that Nick would get the hint and fall asleep too.
“Aaabby,” he whispered, kissing her neck. “Wake up.”
“Nnnhhh,” she said, without moving.
Nick moved his lips down her arm. “It’s not time for sleepybye yet,” he said in a sing song voice. Abby kept still. Nick moved his hand over her and ran his fingers across her stomach. She inhaled and clenched her stomach muscles, but she didn’t open her eyes.
“Have it your way, then,” said a whisper in her ear. “But, I’m not tired yet, so I’m just going to play here for awhile.
Nick was beginning to wonder if she really was asleep, or wanting to be that way. Maybe he should just leave her alone. He slipped his fingers under the elastic of her panties and found his way to her centre. The tiny gasp and the slight curling up at the corners of her mouth told him all he needed to know. “Yeah, you just lay there, my dear wife, get your well-earned rest…” He massaged her sweet spot and slid two fingers into her. The resulting whimper made him grin from ear to ear. “…don’t mind me, just go to sleep.”
“Yeah, right, that’s going to happen,” she whispered, opening her eyes and rolling onto her back.
Nick fastened his mouth over hers and kissed her hungrily, while continuing to move his fingers over her and into her. He used his other hand to slide her panties down over her hips.
“Stop,” said Abby, moving her head away from his. “We’re not doing this here.”
“Not doing what here?” asked Nick with a wicked grin that went right to her core.
“Terence and Patrick…” hissed Abby.
“…can get their own girl,” said Nick. He pushed her panties down to her knees and stroked her between her folds, causing her to moan.
“Nick, they’re only fifteen feet away.”
“I closed the door between the living area and here. And I closed the bedroom door. And they got music on.”
“It’s too embarrassing,” said Abby. “What if we make noise? What if they hear us?”
Nick sat up in the bed. He pulled her panties off her. He knelt between her legs and pushed her knees apart. “Then clamp your hands over your mouth, Baby,” he said, “because I am going to make you howl.” And he put his mouth down on her.
Abby didn’t get her hands over her mouth fast enough. She moaned…loudly. She could feel Nick shaking with laughter, but it didn’t stop him from swirling his tongue over her centre.
“Omigod,” she said between clenched teeth, as the sensations whirled through her. She put her hands in his hair and threw her head back. “Niccccccckkkkk,” she cried, as he pulled her bud into his mouth and sucked on it, flicking his tongue rapidly back and forth until he felt her taut body relax and he felt her release her juices over his fingers that were moving inside her.
Nick moved his mouth up her body, kissing every inch of her flesh. He ran his tongue up her neck and hovered above her. He smiled into her passion-glazed eyes. “Sorry, Honey, did I wake you?” he said with a sexy smile. Abby grabbed his head and pulled it down to hers, kissing him wantonly, taking the taste of herself from his mouth.
Abby reached for him with her hands. He was hard. She shifted her hips from under him, preparing to do whatever he wanted. “Tell me what you want,” she said, caressing him.
“You,” he said, simply, pulling her back down under him. “I want you.” And he moved himself into her. He thrust in and out of her, enjoying the sensation of her wet warmth. They both made noises, tiny grunting whispers. And then he shuddered and peaked and cried out her name. Abby held onto him for dear life as he stopped moving and then collapsed on her. She stroked his back and whispered his name as he came back to earth.
Terence and Patrick sat in the living room, looking at magazines. “Next time, maybe we need to have the music up a little louder,” suggested Patrick with a smile.
“Yeah, but we don’t dare touch it now,” said Terence. He looked toward the back of the bus. “Young love,” he mused aloud. “It’s a good thing.”
Patrick nodded his agreement. Yeah. A good thing. But with louder music next time.
