A Tale Of Two Men

"Thanks sis, wish me luck. Next time you see me I might be engaged." I kissed her cheek and ran off upstairs, suddenly everything made sense. I loved Adrianna and the thought of having a life with her as my wife made more sense than anything I had ever heard, the thought of waking up with her everyday, of her mothering my children and just being there with me as a wife and partner filled me with more joy than I ever thought possible. I just had to convince her of it. I banged on her door and called out her name as loud as I could, after about five minutes of knocking the door behind me opened and a guy stuck his head out.

"You again." He scowled "Stop knocking on that door, Adrianna is not in. some blond girl is apartment sitting for her."

"Where is Adrianna?" I demanded.

"Dunno." He shrugged "Couple of months ago she walked out with a load of bags, haven't seen her since."

"Thank you!" I yelled as I ran downstairs, I launched myself into my truck and drove over to my parents house. It took about an hour to explain to my parents why I wanted my grandmothers engagement ring but once I said that I was proposing to Adrianna they got so excited they wanted to open champagne, eventually I got the ring and spent several minutes in my car looking at it. It was a simple gold band with three diamonds, two were small round ones but the large one in the centre was a sparkling clear oval. It would look spectacular resting on Adrianna's finger. Grinning I drove over to her brothers house and parked behind her parents car, apparently they were all there which made me either very lucky or very unlucky. The door was answered by Adrianna's sister in law Beth, she seemed surprised to see me but invited me in anyway. Ade's parents and brothers were all gathered in the living room when I walked in and Maddox stiffened when he saw me, they all scowled but I expected nothing less.

"I need to know where Adrianna is." I told them.

"Why?" Her father Morgan demanded.

"Because it's hard to ask a woman to marry you when you cant find her."

"Marry you?" Ivy gasped "You want to propose to Adrianna?"

"Yes. I know that it has taken me a long time to realise this but I love Adrianna, I have for years but I never realised it before now. I know that Ade loves all of you and that it is important that I get your blessing, so I'm asking you now. Can I marry your daughter?" I braced myself for their arguments and wasn't disappointed, Maddox surged to his feet and started for me.

"Maddox stop!" Morgan yelled and held his son back before turning to me with a serious expression "If it was anyone else I would tell them to get out and never show their face again, but because it's you I won't. I see the way Adrianna looks at you and the way you look at her, it's the same way Maddox and Beth look at each other and the same way me and Ivy do. You love her and she loves you, I want my daughter to be happy even if it means giving you my blessing but know that if you ever hurt her like this again I will find you and make you wish you had never met any of us. Am I understood?"

"Yes sir." I gulped.

"Adrianna is in Shanghai visiting her grandmother but she returns tonight, I don't know what she has decided but I do know that she left to get some perspective. Good luck."

"Thank you, all of you." I smiled and ran back out to my car. China, Adrianna was in China. She hadn't been avoiding me, she just didn't know I was looking for her. I raced back to my place and groaned when I found my sister, brother and brother in law all still hanging out there.

"Well, did you find her?" Ronnie asked me as I walked in.

"She's in China, Shanghai to be exact."

"What is she doing there?"

"Visiting her grandmother, they have always been really close so I'm not surprised she went to her for help. Her father says she gets back tonight."

"You spoke to her father?" Ronnie bit her lip with a worried frown.

"It's ok, I have his blessing." I grinned.

"Good. Now please for the love of god go and shave, Ade will never say yes with you looking like that."

Hours later I was clean shaven, my hair was clean and dry and I had changed into clean jeans and a smart shirt. I was pacing by the window waiting to see Ade arriving while my brother and sister argued on the couch, Marcus had taken his son home so he could put him to bed but the others had stayed for 'moral support'. I wasn't buying it, I thought they just wanted to rub in the fact that I had fallen for someone. My brother seemed to be really enjoying it. I was in the middle of trying to ignore their argument on whether Sean Connery or Pierce Brosnan was the best James Bond when I saw a cab pull up outside, my heart started thudding when I saw Ade climb out of the back.

"Back later, wish me luck." I called as I ran past them and outside, I caught up to Adrianna in the lobby and smiled at her when she looked up in shock.

"Jack, what are you doing here?" She gasped.

"I live here, remember." I smiled at her "And I saw you pull up so I thought I'd come and help with your bags."

"Oh, thanks. Do you know if Cassidy is still in?" She asked as I picked up two of her three bags.

"She went out about an hour ago but she did stop by to tell me that she would be out all night, hot date or something." I grinned over my shoulder as we made our way up in the elevator, we shuffled out on my floor and I carried her stuff upstairs after her so she could unlock the door. Once inside I dropped them by the door and turned to her, she was fiddling with her keys and looked very nervous.

"Ade... we need to talk." I began but she held her hand up.

"Can I go first? There's something I need to tell you." I nodded and she took a deep breath "I'm in love with you and I think I have been since we first met but you never seemed interested so I hid it and tried to get on with my life but now that we had spent the night together I don't think I can. Jack I have two choices right now, one is to move to New York where I have been offered a Cardiology Fellowship at a very good hospital. But the other is to stay here and try to make whatever is going on between us work."

"New York? When did that happen?" I glared at her, no way in hell was she leaving. At least not without me.

"I applied for the Fellowship before I left and I got the call while I was in Shanghai- that's where I've been by the way."

"I know" I muttered "Are you gonna take the Fellowship?"

"I don't know yet."

"Well maybe what I have to say will help you decide." I smiled down at her before pushing ahead "Ade when I first met you I thought you were beautiful and I think I fell a little in love with you, but you were so different to what I normally liked that I forced myself to be content with being your friend. But once I got to know you better I think I fell completely in love with you but again I forced myself to ignore it and eventually convinced myself that we were completely platonic. Then Evan asked you out and I started picturing you and him together and it drove me mad, but when I saw you all dressed up and excited to be going out with Evan I realised that I had been an idiot." She smiled and I walked over to stand in front of her and cup her shoulders in my palms, she looked up at me with those gorgeous blue eyes and I knew that I was completely lost "Adrianna Clarke, I love you. And I have spent the last two months trying to come up with a better way to say that but all I can come up with is this: will you marry me?"

"Oh..." She breathed when I presented the ring, her hand went to her throat and she looked almost comically surprised. "You really want to marry me?"

"More than anything, all these years I've been focusing only on bimbos and girls with commitment issues because you already had my heart. There was never anyone else."

"Oh Jack, I love you too. Of course I'll marry you." She suddenly grinned up at me "On one condition."

"Name it."

"We name out first born daughter Sakura."

"You've got it, why though?"

"Because it was my grandmother who convinced me to come back and give you a chance. And I am really glad she did."

"So am I, can I kiss you now?"

"If you don't I'll kick your ass."

"I better get a move on then." I grinned and swept her up in my arms so I could cover my mouth with hers, it felt like coming home.

Epilogue: Adrianna

"How the mighty hath fallen." Cassidy sighed next to me, I looked up to see her staring at where Jack was dancing my mother around the dance floor at our wedding. He was looking very handsome in a tux and had the biggest grin on his face, Cassidy was my maid of honour and had been scouting out the groomsmen for the entire wedding.

"What do you mean?" I asked as I fussed with the strapless neckline on my dress, it kept slipping and revealing a little too much cleavage for my taste. But Jack seemed to be enjoying it.

"Well, he used to be Mr. bachelor and now look at him. Married and everything, no doubt you'll be popping kids out soon. How did you do it? Catch that one, I mean."

"I'm still not sure but I am damn glad I did." I grinned at her.

"Ok then, which of these groomsmen are single?" She changed the subject before I started gushing.

"Lets see, Marcus is married to Jack's sister but his brother Jordan is single. As is his friend Rob."

"Hmm, I think I'll check out the brother. See you later." She stood and drifted over to where Jordan was standing at the bar, I smiled until I felt Jack come up and take his seat next to me.

"How's it feel being Mrs Macintyre?" He asked with a smile as he took my left hand and played with my fingers.

"Brilliant, and how does it feel to be married?"

"Well based on these past few hours it's going pretty well, I get to dance with several beautiful women and then come up here and make out with the most beautiful. What's not to love." He grinned.

"I know, I got to be whirled around by loads of hunky men. I'm loving it." I grinned when he scowled around the room "Relax, I don't do this with the others." I told him before kissing him deeply, he slid his tongue in to tangle with mine and that quickly I wanted him. In the past few months leading up to the wedding we had been busy moving all his things into my apartment and selling his as well spending every second we could in bed together. I had discovered that Jack was an insatiable lover yet very generous and giving, my eyes had been opened- or rather rolled back in my head- and I loved it. It took little more than a fleeting touch or even a heated look to get me wet and ready for him, if I didn't love it so much I'd be embarrassed.

"Do you think we could get away with sneaking out to the bathroom?" He murmured against my mouth.

"I'm very tempted, but this dress is a bitch to get in and out of."

"I'm sure I can figure it out, come with me." He took my hand and tugged me to my feet before pulling me down the corridor of the hotel our wedding reception was in, he whirled me into the bathroom and locked the door behind us before pressing me against the sink as he kissed me thoroughly. His tongue thrust into my mouth as his hands tugged down the top of my dress so my breasts spilled out, he immediately filled his palms with me and tweaked my erect nipples with his fingers. I moaned against his mouth until he moved his mouth to my neck so he could nibble a path down to my breast, he teased me by liking and biting his was around my nipple while avoiding the taught peak that was begging for his attention.

"Please Jack." I breathed.

"Please what? What do you want me to do?" Jack murmured against my flesh and I smiled, he always pushed me in bed so that I did things I never would have normally done.

"Suck me, suck me hard."

"With pleasure." He breathed a second before he pulled me deep into his mouth, while he alternately suckled each nipple I was aware of his hands making their way up the inside of my dress to dance along my thigh. When his hand slipped inside my panties to find me wet, ready and waiting he groaned before pushing a finger deep inside me, he rolled his thumb over my engorged clit and I bucked against him as pleasure shot through me. He continued to tease me until I felt my thighs tremble and my body tighten and then he pulled out completely, I whimpered against him as he stepped back but the he moved his hands to the waist of his slacks and I grinned. "Pull your panties down and then turn to face the mirror." He ordered hoarsely, I followed his order and turned so I could brace by palms on the mirror in front of me "Now spread your legs and arch your back for me." I did and then I felt him pushing the skirt of my dress up to my waist "I'll be able to see everything like this, even me going into you. And I want you to watch your reflection as I do it, I want you to watch yourself come."

"Oh god..." I moaned as my brain supplied me with images and sensations, Jack gripped my hips but instead of entering me he ran his fingers over my entrance.

"You're so wet, so ready to come. I doubt I'll even have to move to push you over the edge."

"Why don't you get in me and find out?" I gasped, he suddenly groaned and entered me with one hard thrust. I cried out as my orgasm exploded but then he was sliding in and out of me with slow even strokes that had me tightening again, Jack slid his hands up to my breasts to rub his thumbs over my nipples and I scraped my nails down the wall next to me.

"Look at yourself, watch as you come." Jack breathed by my ear, I looked up in the mirror and saw myself. My eyes were dark and wide and my mouth was plump and red, my hair had come loose from the elegant knot it had been in and my skin was flushed with pleasure. I had never been one for exhibitionism but there was something wildly erotic about watching myself be pleasured by Jack, that sent me over the edge and I exploded in a breathtaking orgasm. Jack followed me with a deep groan and them we were collapsing forward over the sink, we managed to catch our breath and them Jack rearranged his suit trousers while I pulled my panties back on.

"Everyone will know what we've been doing." I sighed as I tucked my breasts back in my dress "They'd have to be idiots to miss it."

"Who cares? There is nothing wrong with a man making love to his wife on their wedding day." He smiled and removed the rest of the pins from my hair so it fell in soft curls down my back "There, beautiful."

"Thank you." I smiled and turned to check my reflection "Well there's no hope for it, come on." He took my hand and we stepped out of the bathroom only to find my grandmother waiting with a knowing smile. She had flown over for the wedding and had even agreed to stay for a while to visit the family, my parents were hoping to get her to move here permanently now that she was older.

"Popo, what are you doing here?" I asked with a slightly strained smile.

"Your mother was wondering where you two got to and was about to send your father to look, I said that I would go. I thought you might have been... celebrating on your own. And I was right." She grinned and turned to Jack "You must be doing something right boy, she was screaming so much I thought you might be killing her." She grinned cheekily and wondered off while I groaned and dropped my head against Jack's shoulder.

"She reminds me of someone." He murmured.

"Who?"

"You." He smiled at me "Which is why I already love her."

"I wonder if our kids will be like her?" I murmured as we walked down the corridor.

"Why don't we find out?" He grinned and pressed a kiss to my forehead, I smiled before stepping into the room filled with all my favourite people. As I looked up at Jack I knew that whatever happened next I'd be happy as long as he was there.