Partners

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“You may now-” the pastor was cut off by Chad swooping Andrea over an arm and sealing his mouth over hers, but merely adjusted his glasses before continuing. “…kiss the bride.” Andrea wrapped her arms around his neck and he smiled at the resultant din of whoops and cheers as she whole-heartedly returned his kiss. When they finally drew apart, the pastor had them turn to face the wedding guests. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Shelten!”

Andrea’s fingers tightened on his, and he glanced down to see the unshed tears of joy in her eyes. Chad felt an answering ache in his own chest, still unable to believe that he’d finally become her husband. They’d overcome so much together and she’d stayed by his side, believing in him when not even he had. Now they were married, and she was carrying their daughter – he wasn’t sure what he had done to deserve her, but he knew he’d spend the rest of his life trying to be worthy of being her partner.

The rest of the afternoon went by in a blur, the reception and the dancing blending together until Chad wasn’t sure if he’d be able to remember a single thing about their wedding day. Even the appearance (and subsequent removal) of his ex-wife didn’t ruin his mood, though Andrea seemed to take an inordinate amount of pleasure in the fact that his sisters ripped Rita’s dress when they hustled her out.

Chad pressed his face against his wife’s curls as they danced, every scrap of his awareness centered in the way her body pressed against his as they swayed together. Andrea sighed and snuggled closer, slipping her hands into the open front of his jacket and past the vest. “Today was a good day,” she murmured.

“Didn’t have the best start,” Chad replied, rubbing a hand up and down the smooth skin of her back. “I know how we could make today even better,” he hinted.

“Really, Mr. Shelten?”

“Absolutely, Mrs. Shelten.”

Andrea looked up at him, resting her chin on his collarbone. “I like the sound of that.”

“What – my idea, or my calling you Mrs. Shelten?” he teased.

“Both.” Andrea glanced around. “You know, we could just sneak off to our room while nobody’s watching.”

That was an idea he could get behind, though he made a show of looking over in his sister’s general direction. Annie seemed to be happily bossing around the caterer, who still looked more than a bit frazzled by his earlier encounter with Joe Battle. “Isn’t that against International Wedding Law or something? Ann’s gonna kill me if she found out we left without saying goodbye to everyone…”

“No, she won’t – I’ll just remind her that I would be very upset if our daughter never got a chance to meet you,” Andrea said. He jumped slightly as she managed to get one hand down the back of his pants to pinch his ass. “Now, I’m gonna be the one to kill you if you don’t take me to our room right this instant so I can take this beautiful suit off your body. With my tongue.”

“Your tongue,” Chad repeated, bemused.

“Wasn’t that a fearsome enough threat?” Andrea wondered. “I’ve been told that I can be pretty intimidating, but maybe I need to work on that a little.”

Chad retrieved her hands from out of his vest, not exactly sure how she’d loosened his belt without him noticing. “No, no… color me terrified.” Glancing over where Faith was busily canoodling with Justin, he caught his friend’s eye and signaled that they were leaving. Faith gave them a wink, a thumbs-up, and time to escape while she slid from her husband’s lap to distract Annie. “Okay, let’s go.”

After slipping out of the ballroom, they stopped so that Andrea could kick off her heels and grab the train of her wedding gown before they ran down the hall to the elevators, holding hands and laughing. “So, do you actually know which room is ours?” she asked him between kisses.

“Of course I do, what kind of a question… well, I’m pretty sure I know which one it is,” Chad frowned. “Crap.” He hit the button to close the doors and they went back down the ground floor, running up to the reception desk. Andrea lost one of her shoes and doubled back for it while he checked the room number and got an extra key card, then they ran back into the elevator to try again.

He scooped her up into his arms as soon as the door was unlocked, carrying her through past the bags that one or more of their relatives had transferred to the larger room and depositing her on the bed. “Chad? I know I promised to do that thing with my tongue, but there’s no way I can wait that long,” Andrea announced, wriggling around trying to find the zipper on her dress.

“That’s fine with me,” Chad agreed, loosening his tie and tossing his jacket on a nearby chair. He undressed quickly, watching his bride growing rapidly frustrated with her gown. “Need some help with that?’

Andrea huffed loudly, blowing her hair out of her face as she twisted around to present her back to him. “Yes! ”

_ _ _ _ _ _ _


She shivered as she felt the warm exhalation of his breath on the back of her neck. Chad brushed aside her hair and nuzzled her skin, then closed his teeth on the tab of her zipper and began to draw it down. “That’s not fair,” she pouted, trying to reach back to touch him.

Chad released the zipper and slowly dragged his tongue up her spine. “Life isn’t fair, but I do know how you like it when you’re still dressed and I’m completely naked.”

“This is true,” Andrea admitted, turning in his arms. “I need to get a good, long look at what I just married.” He laughed and she reached up to trail her fingertips across his face, smiling up at him. “You put the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign up, didn’t you?”

Chad slid his hands down her sides, tugging at her dress so that it fell down to expose her chest. “I might have.” His eyebrows arched in surprise at seeing the pasties covering her nipples, and he shot her a lecherous grin as he reached to cup her breasts in his hands. “These are different.”

“One word about Vegas showgirls and I’m leaving,” she teased, arching her back and moaning when Chad rubbed his thumbs over the small pads of fabric. Andrea reached down to fondle between his legs, and Chad hurriedly rolled the pasties from her hardened nipples so that he could take first one, then the other into his mouth. “God, that feels good,” Andrea moaned, trying to caress whatever part of him she could reach after his shift in position dislodged her grip.

Her fingers rubbed lightly over his stomach, making him shiver and inhale noisily. Chad kissed her deeply before sliding down her body to shove her dress up around her waist and press his mouth between her legs. Andrea’s hips rose up off the bed as he licked and sucked at her folds, sliding a finger inside her. She rubbed the back of her head into the pillow, crying her pleasure as Chad brought her to the brink of orgasm before heaving himself up onto his forearms and pushing himself deep into her core. “So good, Andy, yes…”

She rocked beneath him frantically, lifting her hips to meet his thrusts until she wrapped her legs around him, her orgasm surging through her in wave upon wave. Chad ground against her helplessly, grabbing fistfuls of her gown to hold her body against his until she started to slump back, then thrust into her furiously before groaning out his own climax and collapsing atop her.

Andrea combed her fingers through her husband’s sweaty hair, luxuriating in the pleasurable aftershocks of their lovemaking. Chad shifted his weight off of her with a sigh, throwing an arm across her chest and nuzzling her neck. “My poor dress,” she lamented.

“Oh, sorry,” Chad apologized, pushing himself up onto an elbow to look down at the bunched-up fabric around her waist. “I didn’t rip it, did I?”

“Just be glad I’m not thinking of marrying anyone else in this thing,” she said, sitting up to try to struggle out of the tangle of tulle and satin. “Damn, I think it’s hooked on something – help me with it?”

After her dress had been rescued and placed in the closet for its continued safety, they made love again and Andrea snuggled against Chad as she unwrapped the gift that his teammates had insisted they open as soon as the reception was over. “That could’ve waited until morning,” Chad yawned.

“I know, but you know how I am when there’s a present to unwrap…” Andrea’s patience with neatly trying to take the paper off evaporated and she tore the rest off, making Chad laugh at her. “Sweetie?”

“Hmmm?”

Andrea frowned down at the set of black plastic guns. “Why would they give us Laser Tag?”


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Driving back from dropping Meredith off at his parents’ house, Chad dialed their home number and lifted his shoulder to prop the cell phone up against his ear. “Pizza Hut,” Andrea answered cheerfully.

“Yes, I’d like to order one beautiful blonde wife to go,” Chad teased. “You ready?”

She sounded out of breath, but he supposed that she’d been trying to cram everything and the kitchen sink into their bags again. “Almost,” she panted. “I need you to zip my bag up, and then the plants…”

“…are taken care of, since they’re plastic.”

“Plastic? Really? When did that happen?” she wondered.

Chad snorted as he checked his blind spot, flipping on his turn signal to merge. “It happened the second time you killed all of them by overwatering.”

“Oops,” she said, not sounding sorry at all. “Well, as soon as you get here we can go to the airport.”

He pulled in the driveway to find her hauling their bags down the steps, and slammed the car to a stop to run over. “Hey, what did the doctor say about lifting heavy stuff?”

“They’re not that heavy,” Andrea scowled at him. “And she said I was fine to lift things until next month, mother.”

“I just don’t want you straining anything…little girl.” He grinned and pretended to cry when she smacked him on the arm. “Hop in; I’ll lock up the house.” After checking the locks on the windows and flipping the deadbolt on the back door, Chad locked the front door and slid into the driver’s seat. “We should get there in plenty of time for our flight.”

He handed Andrea the envelope containing their passports and the plane tickets, and she dug them out excitedly. “I still can’t believe the guys got us tickets to Germany – this is going to be so much fun!”

“Be better if you could drink beer with me,” Chad reminded her. “Maybe when she’s born we could go back, if you like it there.”

They checked their bags and stopped at the sourdough bakery since Andrea had been having cravings for the stuff lately, then navigated the maze of terminals until they found the international terminal and settled near one of the windows so that she could look out at the runway.

Chad reached over and ran his fingers through the ponytail she’d fastened at the nape of her neck, watching as she alternated her attention between the window and the travel guide he’d bought her on the way back from his parents’ place. It was fitting that they were going to Germany together – he looked forward to making new memories there to replace the ones about plotting to distance himself from her. The only secret he kept from her now was leading a SWAT contingent being posted to Metro, only a floor away Narcotics.

He grinned, imagining her reaction… and Hopper’s, too.

Glancing down at the book Andrea was holding open in her lap, he moved his other hand to cover the swell of her stomach. “Think she’s excited about her first plane ride?”

Andrea laughed and placed her hand over his. “Maybe we can get the pilot to give us a pair of wings? We could put it on her diaper when she’s born.”

He laughed with her, wondering yet again how it could be that she was as much in love with him as he was with her. “You know, it’s funny – I would have never thought we’d be here together, just like this, when we first met. I wasn’t that nice to you.”

“You were the biggest jackass ever,” Andrea confirmed.

Chad raised his eyebrows. “You’re not supposed to agree with me. As my wife, it’s your sworn duty to protect my reputation no matter what anyone says; it was in the vows, in case you can’t remember.”

“What am I supposed to say? You were a big, sweaty bastard.”

“Hey! When did my sweat glands come into this?”

“When did you start making up fake vows?” Andrea countered.

Chad shook his head. “No, that was definitely in there, along with the part about giving me head whenever I want. You just weren’t paying attention.”

Her eyes gleamed with amusement. “Whenever you want. Really.”

“You don’t remember that? It was the best part of the whole ceremony!”

Andrea gave him the ‘I call bullshit’ look. “Right.”

“True story,” he maintained.

Andrea smiled. “The best part of the whole ceremony, Mr. Shelten, was finally getting married to you.” She leaned over to kiss him, and the guidebook slipped to the floor unheeded.


fin

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