Drilled by K.M. Neuhold

Chapter 23

APOLLO

“We should get married,” I blurt in the afterglow of not one but two orgasms, our naked bodies stuck together by drying sweat and cum, our breath just starting to return to normal. We’ve spent the weekend naked, doing our best to make up for lost time, only getting dressed long enough to accept food deliveries before getting lost in each other all over again.

It’s been perfect.

“Don’t fuck with me, Pol,” Ridge murmurs and then yawns.

My heart beats faster, and I tell myself to make a joke of it, brush it off, but I can’t. My mouth might’ve run away with me, but I think I mean it. I let myself imagine for a second wearing a ring around my finger that matches one on Ridge’s hand. I picture coming home to him every night and sharing the rest of my life with my absolute best friend, with the man I’ve been in love with before I even knew what love really was.

“Marry me,” I say again, more firmly this time. He sits up, bracing himself on one arm and staring down at me with a mixture of hope and bewilderment in his expression.

“I’m going to punch you so hard if this is some kind of stupid joke,” he says, twisting his lips into an attempted grin, but the quiver in his voice gives him away.

I pull myself up into a sitting position as well, letting the sheets pool around my legs. I look directly into his eyes so he can see just how serious I am when I say it this time.

“Marry me.”

“Okay.” He unleashes a full smile this time. “Fuck yeah, let’s do it.”

“Today.” Apparently, my mouth has a mind of its own, but fuck it, why not today?

“Afraid I’m going to leave you at the altar if we wait too long?” he quips.

“I feel like I've been waiting for you my whole life. Isn't that long enough?”

“Yeah.” He leans forward and presses his lips to mine, the kiss somehow rough and tender all at once. “It really fucking is.”

Ridge tugs me close, climbing on top of me and kissing me until we’re both breathless in the cocoon of the bed. When he pulls back, he’s wearing my favorite smile: sweet and relaxed, his lips slightly swollen from the kiss.

“Shower first?” I suggest, noticing how sticky our skin is, the smell of cum and sex clinging to both of us.

He chuckles. “Yeah, that’s probably best.”

Ridge rolls off of me and gets out of bed with a distinct bounce in his step, checking over his shoulder a few times during the short walk from the bedroom to the bathroom, as if he’s afraid I’m going to change my mind and bolt. With a lazy smile, I swing my legs over the side of the bed and follow him.

There’s an unfamiliar buoyancy in my chest, a laugh bubbling up without me even meaning for one to. Ridge pushes back the shower curtain to start the water and then straightens up to grin at me, his whole expression radiating warmth and awe as if he’s the one who’s trying to figure out how he got this damn lucky.

I wrap an arm around his waist and pull him close, kissing him again because I can’t fucking get enough of the taste of his mouth, and I’ll never have to. I can kiss him every day for the rest of my life.

Another light sound rumbles out of my throat, coming out muffled against his lips.

“What?” he murmurs, trailing his fingers up and down the back of my neck, causing goosebumps to rise in their wake.

“I’m just really fucking happy.”

I can feel the curve of Ridge’s smile in the next kiss, his flavor somehow sweeter all of the sudden, like I can actually taste the happiness on him.

“Me too,” he says.

The bathroom starts to become humid, steam from the shower wrapping around us and warming our skin. He steps into the shower, and I’m right behind him. After two rounds already, our cocks stay soft as we kiss and wash each other. It weirdly feels like a deeper level of intimacy, kissing and touching, being naked together and not working toward sex. There’s an odd amount of charm to his soft cock and the way he giggles just a little when I run my soapy hands between his ass cheeks to clean him up.

“I’m afraid I’m going to wake up any second and find out this isn’t real,” he confesses, tilting his head back to rinse the shampoo out of his hair.

“It’s real,” I say firmly. I may not have planned to ask, but now that it’s happening, I can’t think of anything in the world I could possibly want more. This feels right in a way nothing else ever has.

“I believe you, but maybe just pinch me really quick so I can be sure.”

“I’m not going to pinch you.”

The water chooses that moment to turn from hot to ice cold, sending Ridge scrambling into my arms to get out of the direct spray.

“Well, that’ll fucking do it,” he says, hurrying to turn the shower off while we both laugh.

We dry off and get dressed. I don’t want to wear the same clothes I wore over here last night, so Ridge lets me riffle through his closet for some. We’re close enough in size that I find pants and a button-up that work.

We both spend a few extra minutes glancing in the mirror and straightening our clothes, reality seeming to set in on what we’re about to do.

We’re getting married today.

RIDGE

I’m so excited, I think I might throw up. I really hope I don’t because that will probably ruin the mood and will definitely ruin my nice white button-up shirt.

On our way out of the apartment, I give Logs and each of the kittens a quick kiss on the head, promising them we’ll be home a little later, and then we tromp down the stairs, the same stairs I go up and down every day to innocuous places like work and the grocery store. Except today, when we come back, I’m going to be married to the love of my life.

A giddy feeling ricochets through me, putting a bounce in my step and the world’s biggest smile on my face.

“You can drive,” Apollo offers, veering toward my car.

“Wow, you must be in a good mood today,” I tease.

We get in the car, and I pull up the courthouse on my Maps app, and then we’re off. My heart flails wildly, my hands so sweaty I have to keep wiping them off on my pants to keep them from sliding off of the steering wheel, and I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my life.

When we get to the courthouse, I find a parking spot, and we both get out.

“Damn, should we have picked up rings?” Apollo asks, his forehead wrinkling with a frown.

“Uh…” I dip my head to look into my car again, searching for anything that might do in a pinch until we can get the real thing. There’s are a couple of bits of cut wire that are in my cup holder, fuck knows why, but they’ll do the trick for now. I snatch them up and hold one out across the roof of the car toward Apollo.

“That’ll do,” he agrees, taking it and sliding it into his pocket while I do the same.

He grabs my hand as we jog up the steps to the entrance. It takes us a few minutes to find the room we need to go to, but we manage it eventually, approaching a bored-looking woman behind a counter.

“Hi. We want to get married,” I say with a dopey grin.

She reaches under the desk and pulls out some paperwork. “Fill this out. I’ll need photo IDs. It’s a hundred and ten dollars and a six-day waiting period.” She slides the papers across the desk, and my shoulders slump.

“Six days?” I look at Apollo. We probably should have thought of that. “Six days isn’t so bad. As long as you still want to marry me in six days.” I try not to sound as disappointed as I feel. In the grand scheme of the rest of our lives, six days is nothing. We’ve waited a hell of a lot longer for this moment than that, and I’m sure six days will fly by. There was just something extra thrilling about the spontaneity of this idea.

“It has to be six days?” he asks. “No exceptions?”

“Well…” She wobbles her head back and forth. “Technically, it can be expedited if there’s a dire need like if one of you were deploying. There’s an extra fee though.”

Apollo reaches into his pocket and pulls out his wallet. “The dire need is that I’ve already waited a lifetime for this man, and he doesn’t feel like waiting six more days. Help me be a hero?” He puts on a charming smile I didn’t think he had in him and flashes two fifty-dollar bills. “Please?”

She takes the money, giving us a conspiratorial smile. “All right, I’m a sucker for love. Fill that out, and I’ll expedite it.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” I hurriedly scribble all of the necessary information onto the application, and in no time at all, the two of us are standing in front of a judge, facing each other and repeating the standard vows.

Apollo’s palms are just as sweaty as mine, and he stumbles nervously over his words a few times. There’s a noticeable tremble in his fingers as he twists the piece of wire around my ring finger.

“I’m so in love with you,” I tell him when the temporary ring is in place. His nervousness melts away with the flicker of a smile.

“I’m so in love with you,” he echoes, leaning in and brushing his lips against mine.

“Hey, not yet,” the judge says with a laugh.

“Sorry, couldn’t help myself.” Apollo doesn’t sound sorry at all, and neither am I.

This is a more perfect moment than I ever could have imagined. Maybe our friends and family will be annoyed that we didn’t tell them right away, but this right here, just the two of us, feels exactly how it should be.

Me and Apollo against the world, just like it always was, how it was always meant to be.

“I now pronounce you married,” the judge declares. “Now you can kiss.”

And boy do we.