Page 43 of Resistance Training

I drive into her, hard and fast. She’s high-pitched panting, and there’s the joyful slapping of skin against skin, and I’m grunting so loud I probably should have gagged myself, but it feels better than anything I have ever, ever felt.

It feels like all the years we spent apart and all the hurt and anger, all the tension has been erased.

It’s all smooth sailing, and there’s nothing between us except her magical elixir and so much love.

She’s screaming yes and my name over and over into the silk scarf, and I come. I explode into her. Every good thing that I am, it goes to her. On the big screen behind my shut eyes I picture myself coating the inside of her. All of her with all of me.

I want to make little people with her and build an empire with and for her and a home and more muscles and everything she wants. I want to be the one who gives it to her.

She spreads her legs and lowers them, circling them around my waist, pulling me into her with her feet.

I rest against her heaving bosom and listen to the heavy beat of her heart.

Hands up in her hair. Burying my face in the curve of her neck, I am about to tell her I love her again and again, when there’s a confident knock at the door.

“Helloooooo? It’s Granny Sparks!”

We both freeze, and then we both shake with laughter.

“Are you in there? There’s no Do Not Disturb sign on the door, so I thought I’d see if you’d like to join me and Wally for a drink downstairs? Vivi? Brad?” She knocks again.

I pull the scarf from Vivian’s mouth. She licks her lips and calls out, “Hey, Gran! We’re kind of tied up at the moment! See you at breakfast in the morning—love you!”

“Okay, honey, we’ll be at the bar if you change your mind!”

“She is relentless,” Vivian whispers.

I kiss her neck and sit up. “Be right back, okay?” I say quietly and then go to the luxurious bathroom to clean up and bring back a hand towel to clean up between Vivian’s legs.

She’s able to sit up without help because she has excellent core strength. Untying her, I ask, “You feel okay?”

“Yep. Slightly better than okay.”

I bring her a glass of water, hold it for her to drink from it, place it on the bedside table, and then cup her face in my hands and kiss her, deeply, tenderly. “Thank you.”

“For shaving my hoohah?”

“Yeah.”

She giggles. “You’re welcome.”

After we’ve showered together, when we’re wearing matching hotel bathrobes, Vivian turns on the TV and gets comfy in bed with her paperback novel.

I go to the closet and unlock the in-room safe, thinking about how much I love that she’s almost always got a book in her hand when she’s at home.

I love being at her place, with all her pink Himalayan salt lamps and throw pillows and Hairy Styles.

We also love being together at my place, with Bella and my bookshelves, and Vivian really loves it when I fuck her standing up against those bookshelves like Keira Knightly and that guy in Atonement .

I take out the velvet box, close the safe as quietly as possible, put the box in the pocket of my robe, and get into bed with her.

I just love being around this woman. I love watching her do her thing while I’m doing meal prep for the week.

She’ll have Clueless on her iPad while she walks around with a paperback copy of whatever we’re reading for ABC that week, singing some ABBA song, and doing Kegels.

She thinks I can’t tell when she’s doing Kegels, but I can tell.

Fluffing up the pillow behind me, I tell her again how great her toast was, how beautiful she was, standing there next to Aubrey, and how mad I am that she made me do the chicken dance with her. Even though I loved it.

I tell her she was the perfect maid of honor because I know she has always had that little-sister syndrome.

“I guess I always will,” she says.

“You know where you’ve got her beat?”

“My boobs have always been bigger, and my booty is objectively more wowza than hers now. It’s more wowza than most people’s.”

“Yes, yes, and absolutely yes. And…she dated Eric for how long before he proposed to her?”

“Over three years.”

“Well. Guess how long you dated me before I proposed to you?”

Her face lights up. “Less than three months?”

I pull the box out of my pocket, like I’m offering her a midnight snack. “Yeah. Less than three months.” I’m not going to get on one knee because I know Vivian would rather I just stay by her side. I open the box, revealing the diamond engagement ring.

Cindy told me that the Aries birthstone just happens to be a diamond.

I wrote about my intention for today in my journal this morning: Lock that girl down.

I spoke to Mr. and Mrs. Sparks before the end of the reception and told them of my intentions. Mrs. Sparks burst into tears and hugged me, thanking me. Mr. Sparks asked me how much I spent on the ring.

Their daughter is just smiling at me, her eyes welling with tears and filled with all the love I can handle, maybe more.

“Vivian Elizabeth Sparks. I love you more than I have ever loved anyone in my entire life. Will you marry me, so I can love you for the rest of my life too?”

She nods. “Yes, sir. I’m going to marry you, Captain Coach Brad Bradley Alexander Mitch Mitchell. I’m going to love you forever and ever.”

Sliding the ring onto her finger, I say, with all the sincerity of a sparkly teenage vampire, “And so the lion fell in love with the lamb.”

She blows out a breath and says with a smirk, “Stupid, stupid hot lamb with womanly curves.”

“What a sick, masochistic, hot, physically fit lion.”