𝗧𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸

𝗧𝘄𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘆-𝗧𝘄𝗼│𝗔 𝗖𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗯𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙮𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙨 of running from the sound in his childhood, Michael's attention whipped from the newspaper he was reading and his body sprang taut when he heard keys scraping against the lock of the front door. Some things can't be helped, he reminded himself. But he did want to laugh at the dramatic reaction when he saw that it indeed wasn't his father, but instead the 5'5 physician that had stolen his heart.

Before he could say a word of greeting, his wife all but flew across the entire foyer and into the living room, chanting his name excitedly the entire way. Michael opened his arms in almost the same second that Mallorie threw herself over his body, catching her against his chest. He tightened them around her and staggered from the collision of her paltry weight falling over him, thankful that she had since shed her stethoscope along with her lab coat given the disc might have impaled them from the fierceness of her hug.

At first, his eyes couldn't stay away from the draw of the low, V-cut front of her dress. If not for the way the shape of it brought out her naturally fuller figure in the classic cocktail style and its shorter hem, it would have reminded him of a wedding gown. Except, Michael hoped that her real gown would leave a little more to the imagination. The shimmery, ruched material was brought together in the front by elegant little quarter shank buttons and fit snugly over her ample breasts and narrower waist, then flared elegantly from the peaks of her luscious thighs. The bits of silver embedded into the fabric made her all the more eye-catching and gave the impression that she was an angel that had been rolling in shards of diamond.

"I'm so happy you came, and I couldn't really kiss you when you were wearing that hideous disguise, but I love you so much and you're the best husband ever!" Mallorie said all in one breath, frantically peppering kisses along any part of his jaw, neck and cheek that she could reach. "Thank you for coming today."

Michael laughed and scrunched his nose to withstand the oily feeling of her lipstick being spread all over his face. "You don't have to thank me," he giggled, leaning back slightly to gaze down at her.

A pair of deep, enticing brown eyes stared up at him and were fixed evenly over the sculpted rounds of her cheeks. Cheeks that only grew more plump and made her more pretty as her full lips pushed into a grin and elegantly wrapped around her words. His heart tripped into a slight race at the sight. It was no wonder he grew to have such an immediate, heady attraction to her. Mallorie was the most beautiful woman he'd ever clapped eyes on—there was no question. The only thing he did question as of late was the amount God seemed to have been favoring him when He brought them together.

"I'm very proud of you, you know that?" he told her, speaking on whatever his full heart compelled him to say. "And I'm so glad I could be there. It was a really nice ceremony. Getting out of the studio and house, seeing you up there... Everything was just perfect."

Aside from watching her finally accomplish what he had personally witnessed her work tirelessly for for the past half year, being part of the audience of the graduation was a taste of the normalcy he'd desperately craved. There had been a near tangible animosity he'd felt radiating from her mother all the way from the opposite end of their seating arrangement, but he didn't mention it, not wanting to dampen her infectious high.

"I'm just so glad you made it," she sighed dreamily, hooking her arms around his neck. A low giggle bounced from her throat. "Scared me to death, but I'm happy you were there, and I missed you so much all day, you know that?"

"I know, and I'm sorry," he murmured on his way to planting more kisses along the bridge of her nose. "Do you think your gift makes up for it?"

"Yes," she said, her eyes starting to melt into those sentimental puddles again. One of her hands moved to her clavicle to curl protectively around her locket. "It's one of the best gifts anyone has ever given me."