Epilogue.

Amanda plopped down on the bed with a tired sigh, the full skirt of her gown surrounding her in layers upon layers of white satin. A gloved hand was brought up to cover her mouth as she let out a yawn.

“Tired?”

She glanced toward the doorway of what had been her bedroom for the last month and smiled.

AJ leaned against the frame, the coat of his tuxedo slung carelessly over his shoulder and the tie loosened considerably. The smile on his face and sparkle in his eyes, however, would lead anyone to believe he wasn’t tired himself.

“A little,” Amanda admitted. “You?”

“Not in the least,” he chuckled, crossing the threshold and walking across their bedroom to the bed. “But I do want to get in that bed...” he trailed off, laughing a little harder when his wife’s eyes grew wide with surprise.

His wife. Finally, in all sense of the word, and then some, his wife.

“You’re not tired,” Amanda began, rising off the bed and walking into his arms, “Yet you wanna get in bed. Hmm. What’re you planning to do, stay up all night?”

“That would be the idea,” he nodded, stealing a kiss from her.

“Well...” Amanda trailed off pensively. “All right then. Just keep it down, though. I wanna get a good night’s sleep.”

AJ’s eyes grew wide as he registered what Amanda was saying. At her mischevious grin, he laughed.

“Why you little..” he trailed off, wrapping his arms around her waist and picking her up, causing her to shriek amidst her laughter.

They fell to the bed together, side by side, and the laughter grew sparse as they gazed into eachother’s eyes. AJ propped himself up on his elbow and, with his free hand, brushed a few loose strands of hair from Amanda’s face. At his touch, she closed her eyes slowly and leaned into him, taking in his scent as his breath beat against her face softly.

His hand travelled from her face, down her neck, curving her shoulder and down her arm, taking the white satin glove with him as he went. He took her hand in his and pressed his lips to it, leaving a trail of small kisses all the way back up her arm, her shoulder and across her neck, before turning his attention to her other arm. When the second glove was gone, he kissed her full on the lips, his heart racing when she opened up to him, allowing him every liberty imaginable as their bodies began to react to one another.

“Did I tell you how beautiful you looked today?” he asked her gently, trailing his index finger across the fine embroidery of the bodice of her gown.

“Once or twice,” she smiled up at him.

“You did,” he told her again, reaching around her and taking hold of the zipper, slowly bringing it down. “So very, very beautiful.”

He smiled at her blush. No matter what she’d lived up until this night, her innocence in their most intimate moments never ceased to amaze him. It was, without a doubt, one of the many, many things that made him fall in love with her every time he so much as looked her way.

Her arms circled around him the moment the gown joined her gloves at the foot of the large bed, bringing him as close to her as she could then. Without words, she conveyed every wish and desire to him through her gaze, and she knew perfectly well the moment he conceded to fulfilling each and every one of those commands.

“I thought you were tired,” he whispered teasingly. “You should really get under these covers and get some rest.”

She chuckled then. “Touche, Alex, but I think I’ll stay up with you. That all nighter is starting to appeal to me greatly.”

They kissed again, initiating what others called ‘a dance as old as time itself.’ To them, however, nothing came close to what they shared. Nothing compared to the passion, the purest feelings of love shared as they became one time and again. What they had was more than just a good thing. More than perfect.

What they had was each other.

[the end]

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