Days had dripped painfully by without a word from Dani, and she was all I could think about. I couldn’t even concentrate at work, sneaking off to the bathroom countless times during the day to jack off to the pictures she had sent me.
I begged her for more, but she wouldn’t respond to a single one of my texts. Hell, she was probably deleting them as soon as she received them, afraid that my brother, Mike, would catch the screen lighting up with a text from me begging to see more of her body.
Countless times during the week I thought of excuses to head over to Mike and Dani’s house, but I always backed out at the last minute. It would raise suspicions, we never hung out during the week. Besides, I’d see her in a few days at the wedding.
Our cousin was getting married, and the thought of Dani in a flowing summer dress was driving me insane. I made sure that my suit was tailored and sharp. There was no way she’d be able to ignore me when I was dressed to the nines. I knew that she wanted me just as badly as I needed her.
I didn’t bring a date to the wedding, much to the disappointment of our parents. Standing in the back row as the guests began to file into the seats, the coastal breeze doing a number on everyone’s hairdos, my mother berated me for being single.
“You need to settle down, Alex,” she said, glancing over at the bevy of lovely bridesmaids. “You know, Martin’s wife has quite a few single friends here. And I think I’ve seen a couple of them ogling you in that fancy suit.”
“Jesus Christ, Mary,” my father groaned. “Leave the kid alone. He’s only twenty-four, and when the perfect girl comes along he’ll sweep her off her feet. Trust me, he’s got my blood running through him.”
My mother rolled her eyes, jabbing me with her elbow. “Well, now I’m definitely worried for you.”
We both laughed for a moment, that is until I caught sight of the perfect girl.
Dani was walking up the path to where the ceremony was being held, her black heels striking the pavement in time with my pounding heart. Where other girls shielded themselves from the aggressive wind, Dani embraced it, letting the breeze caress her red dress and furl her black hair out like a pirate’s flag. She wore a black cardigan over her shoulders, just enough coverage to make you have to peak if you wanted a look at her curves being strangled beneath the dress.
And I did want a peak. I wanted more. I wanted to walk right over to her and fuck her in the sand.
“Oh, there’s Dani,” my mom said, waving her over. “And your brother.”
I didn’t even hear the last part, mumbling stupidly to myself. “I see her…”
Out of my peripheral vision, I caught my dad giving me a strange look, so I swallowed down the lump in my throat and composed myself.
“What’s up fam!” Mike called out, and I sighed at his stupidity.
The two hugged everyone (I thought about strangling my brother during our embrace), and finally, Dani stepped up to me. We awkwardly put our arms around each other, careful not to ignite under the already rising heat between us.
“Hi, Alex,” she said as we parted.
“Hello, Dani.”
We all exchanged pleasantries until we were ushered into our chairs for the ceremony. I tried to position myself to get a seat next to Dani, but my mother plopped me down next to some friend of the bride.
“She’s single,” my mother whispered in my ear as she took the seat next to me. “I checked…”
“Mom, please stop trying to pimp me out…”
The ceremony dragged as I stole glances in Dani’s direction. She had one leg crossed over the other, letting her dress ride up a bit. The way her foot was dangling in her heels was already making me hard, which isn’t an easy thing to hide in a pair of slacks.
Finally, the ceremony ended, and I counted backward from a hundred to get my boner to back off before I had to stand up.
The reception was quite the ordeal. My cousin’s parents had money, and they spared no expense. The whole thing was set under this massive tent, sort of like an old-school circus, that let the breeze roll gently in from the sea. There was a beautiful spread of seafood, an open bar, and probably two hundred people in attendance.
Myself, my parents, my brother, and Dani were assigned a table with another aunt and uncle. This time, I made sure to get the chair next to Dani. Mike didn’t bother to pull her chair out for her when we first sat down, so I jumped at the opportunity, even taking her cardigan from her and sliding it over her chair as she sat down. I let my fingers linger on her shoulder blades where no one could see, and Mike was already halfway to the bar by the time I had laid claim over the seat next to his wife.
“Thank you, Alex,” Dani said with a smile, but there was lightning in her eyes already. I was pushing it, hoping she would push back.
Mike came back with a handful of shots, eager to get the party started. It did not take long before things started to get risky between Dani and me.
I was three shots in, and the conversation was flowing at our table. Everyone was laughing, shouting across the table, and my dad wouldn’t stop trying to flick grapes into people’s drinks. At one point, he nailed a shot into my uncle’s whiskey sour, and the table launched into uproarious laughter.
This was my chance. I shot my hand under the long white tablecloth, finding Dani’s bare leg and running my fingers down her calf. She tried to hide her surprise, but I felt it in her skin. Goosebumps had pocked her thighs, and I let my fingers run gently over the bumps as I laughed with the others at the table.
After a few moments, Dani cleared her throat and repositioned her chair so she was facing me. I had no choice but to retract my hand, and I glanced down to make sure that the table cloth was hiding my massive erection.
My father had begun to tell one of his famous stories about his time in the Air Force, and Mike had gone off to the bathroom. Everyone was looking at my dad, listening and laughing at the appropriate times when I felt something soft brush against my leg.
It didn’t take me long to realize that Dani and taken one of her feet out of her heels, running her toes up my leg under the table cloth. I reposition my chair a few inches towards her, not enough to make it obvious but enough to lean my leg out and give her more access.
I felt her snake her way into my crotch, and I glanced down to see her beautiful toes flexing and groping at my erection. She began to run the sole of her foot over my shaft, and I scooted the chair in a bit so that the scene was completely out of sight. She was going to make me cum in my pants, and she fucking knew it.
I threw a pleading glance in her direction, and she met it with a devilish grin as she twirled a few strands of her black hair with her fingers.
Another minute of that and I would cumming at the table in front of my parents, so I shot my hands down and grabbed her foot. Feeling her skin in my hands nearly drove me over the edge, but I took a few deep breaths and regained control, massaging her sole and running my hand up her ankle.
I watched her miss a few breaths, slinking down a bit in her chair as her chest heaved and her cheeks went flush to match her dress.
Her body was calling out to me, sending me fucking smoke signals that I couldn’t ignore. But suddenly everyone was looking at me and I had missed some crucial cue in the conversation.
“Isn’t that right, Alex?” My dad asked, smiling at me like he was setting me up for the big punch line.
*Fuck.* I thought. *What the hell was he talking about?*
I had to take a guess. There were several stories that my dad liked to tell where he expected my brother or me to come in with a big assist at the end. But which one was it?
Given the setting and the amount of liquor he’d knocked back, I took an educated guess.
“Right!” I yelled, bringing up one hand and slapping the table. “And then your commander asked: is that your monkey, sergeant?”
Everyone’s heads tilted back like wolves howling at the moon as they died laughing. I’d hit the mark. In the time it had taken for me to come up with the big save, Mike had returned to the table and Dani and taken back her perfect foot.
As the night wore on, the drinks kept flowing. Everyone at the table was good and drunk, but Mike just kept bringing back shots from the bar. But around the sixth shot, I noticed something. As we all clinked glasses, I glanced over at Dani and watched her pretend to take her shot, dump the whiskey under the table, and slam the shot glass down.
I don’t know how long she had been doing that, but I followed suit. She was getting Mike drunk; well, Mike was getting Mike drunk, but she was keeping her wits about her.
When everyone started dancing, I knew this was my time to get Dani alone. The guests were mingling together like the blowing sand on the beach, and everything was becoming more chaotic. People switched tables at will, drinks spilled and glasses shattered, and the good times kept rolling.
Dani had asked Mike to dance, but he was too shitfaced to even register the question. I watched him wander off towards the bar as I talked to my cousin on the other side of the tent, and Dani sat alone and sullen at the table. What a tragic sight, someone so beautiful but so alone.
“Alex, man. You know that half of these women have been eye-fucking you all night,” Martin said, stumbling over his words. He was enjoying his wedding night. “Get out there, son. Make your move.”
As he said that, Dani grabbed her cardigan and headed to the far side of the tent, walking out into the breeze and towards the beach.
“That’s good advice, Martin,” I said, slapping him on the back. “Wise words from a married man.” With that, I headed out of the other side of the tent so that no one would know who I was following.
Walking away from the tent and out onto the sand was like walking away from the sun and into the void of space. The party was lively and bright underneath the canopy, but out on the sand, things were peaceful under the cover of night. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I found that the stars were putting on a show above us all. The waves fell gently over the shore, and I spotted Dani near the tide in her red dress. Her heels were dangling in her hands, and jet-black hair flowed wildly around her like the night was trying to take back some of its darkness.
She saw me coming, flashing me a smile as she dipped her toes in the retreating waters.
“I was hoping you’d follow me,” she said as I descended down the berm of sand that the tides had built. It dropped us down a few feet, low enough to not be seen by anyone in or near the tent.
I walked right up to her, cupping her face with one hand and taking her leg with the other. “I know.”
We kissed as if time had stopped; as if we were suspended in the void of space and no one could reach us. There was no hurry or panic, no urgency as our hands explored each other’s bodies again. I lifted her dress until her ass freed itself, her pale cheeks dropping into the night like passing comets.
Her heels fell to the sand.
My belt became unbuckled.
And soon I was laying with my back against the berm, watching Dani ride with the stars blanketed across the night’s sky behind her. Her hands reached up to free her breasts from her dress, lowering the straps until they perched themselves beautifully in the air. Her body moved with slow, passionate purpose, and she gasped each time my shaft sunk deep into her.
“Alex,” she moaned, again and again. “Oh, Alex!”
This time, I didn’t have to tell her to say it.
“I love you! Alex! I’m in love with you!”
Our bodies began to crash violently together like two galaxies colliding. All of the pleasure and pain and sorrow and joy coalesced into a dazzling cosmic display of pure perfection grinding herself into me. Her face was wrought with the terrible mixture of sorrow and hopeless optimism, and I pulled her close as I filled her under the milky way.
As we trembled together, reality slowly made itself known. First, I heard the waves, then I felt the breeze. All of it took away from the pure experience of her flesh against mine.
Then, to my dismay, I heard the party in full swing in the distance. I suppose it could have been my imagination, but I swear I heard my brother screaming like an idiot somewhere in that tent.
I held onto perfection for a moment longer, whispering in her ear. “I love you too, Dani. Everything is going to be alright…”
It was a lie, no matter how many times I told myself it was true.