Love Me Tender - Please Pt. 07

"I was afraid if I gave you time to think about it you would say no."

"No chance of that!" she replied. "There's a bench over there. Grab a seat while I call Melody. Oh, my God. She'll go berserk."

Chapter 69

"Happy Valentine's Day, sweetheart," Kari said after they kissed with the sounds of their friends' applause in the background.

"Happy Wedding Day," he added and kissed her again.

"I now present Mr. and Mrs. Ray and Kari Royals," the minister said as they turned around to face their guests standing on the beach. "Congratulations."

The casually attired guests broke into another round of applause, whistles, and screams as Ray and Kari walked down the aisle formed by the two groups of guests. Ray was wearing a tuxedo shirt complete with cummerbund and white tie but sans jacket. His legs were bare from below his black, tuxedo-styled shorts to his bare feet.

Kari wore a strapless, ivory-colored wedding dress that came to her knees and she too was in bare feet displaying her treasured ankle bracelet. Her veil blew in the breeze coming in from the Gulf as the guests shook their hands and kissed them on their way through the crowd. Melody and Brian who served as the Maid of Honor and the Best Man, and Corey and her boyfriend as the Matron of Honor and Groomsman followed them.

She was still crying from the joy she felt when Ray slipped her original wedding ring, with the new ring attached to it, onto her finger. She had no idea that he had saved it and modified it to celebrate the beginning of their new life together.

They continued the celebration at a reception held at a nearby hotel. By the time February had come, he had met many of her friends in the real estate and building industries and he was comfortable with them. He was also aware that many of her friends were recovering from drugs or alcohol and were in the AA and NA programs with her. He found them to be mostly upbeat and some of the happiest people he had ever met.

There was no alcohol served at the reception but no one seemed to notice or to mind. They toasted with sparkling grape juice and the huge buffet proved to be a hit with everyone. They had planned to go back to their condo that night but Melody and Brian surprised them with a reservation for the honeymoon suite in the hotel. They suspected that Corey or Adele, who was there with her boyfriend, had something to do with it. They offered to repay them but they denied any involvement with a twinkle in her eyes.

They ate breakfast with the kids the next morning before taking them to the airport for their flights back to their schools. It had been a whirlwind two months or so since Ray had proposed that they get married. They had spent Christmas in Corpus with their children and over a period of a few weeks he had moved all of his personal items and some furniture from Savannah to Kari's, now their, condo.

The unit next door to theirs was going up for sale and they planned buy it and to enlarge theirs by opening up the wall between them.

In addition to the wedding plans, which were mostly handled by Kari and her friends, he leased an office for his new architectural firm and arranged to transfer his certification and licenses to Texas. The house in Savannah was still on the market and they were discussing renting it out until the market improved.

Life was good!

Chapter 70

Work on refurbishing the condo building was going well. The proceeds from the house sale in Savannah helped and they bought it for a decent price, Ray turned it into a luxury building with condos that were going to go on the market for $1.4 million and up. They had already sold about half of the units and the word was getting around that this was going to be the new "in" address.

Ray and Kari were standing near the construction trailer going over some details with the superintendent when Ray heard Kari gasp and say "Oh, no!"

"What's wrong?" he asked worriedly.

"Oh ... nothing. I thought I noticed something but it's OK. Now where were we?"

Kari tried to concentrate on the information that the super was trying to show them but she could not. Her body was trembling and her mind was in a whirl. She had just seen someone who looked like Montrell drive a pickup truck in through the gate and head towards the back of the site.

"What's he doing here?" she asked herself. "How did he get here? Maybe it wasn't him."

After trying unsuccessfully to focus for another few minutes, she excused herself and told them that she was going to go check on something. She picked her way through the maze of equipment and material until she could see the truck that had come through the gate.

Staying out of sight as much as possible she got closer to the truck and watched two men studying a large blueprint spread over the hood. It was Montrell. His muscles and huge shoulders bulged out of the wife beater shirt he was wearing.

He suddenly raised his head and caught sight of her before she could duck behind a stack of material. His eyes widened when he spotted her under her safety helmet and pushing the other man aside he started towards her.

"Karen, Karen!" he called and reached her before she could turn and move away.

Karen did not respond but she could not get away from the huge hand holding onto her arm.

"Well, well, well!" he smiled. "If it isn't my little fuck buddy that got me put in prison. How have you been you coke snorting bitch? Getting any in the ass lately?"

"What are you doing here? Let me go, let me go," she yelled and tried to pull away.

"I got out early for good behavior," he laughed. "I wondered where you had gone. I couldn't find you back in Savannah. I wanted to have another go at your pussy. It was fine, fine, fine. It wasn't worth the trouble I got into but I lived through it. C'mere, baby!"

"Montrell!" his companion yelled. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Get your ass out of here or I'll stomp you," he snarled at him.

Pulling her by the arm he half dragged her around the corner of a masonry wall to where they couldn't be seen.

"Want some good stuff?" he sneered into her face. "I'll bet you're still a coke whore. What the fuck are you doing here?"

"I ... I own it," she replied. "Let me go or I'll scream and have you arrested."

"You own it? Who did you have to fuck to get it? Stop fighting. No one can hear you over all of this racket," he warned and roughly squeezed her breast. "Are you still married to that wimp? You want a real man to fuck you? You do remember our fucks, don't you?"

"You're out of your mind. Now let me go or I'll scream!"

"You would have screamed already if you really wanted to get away," he sneered at her again. "You want some more of me, don't you?"

Another voice came to them over the sound of machinery and tools.

"The lady told you to let her go!"

Montrell's head snapped up and his eyes locked on Ray standing at the edge of the wall.

"Ray!" Kari yelled and tried to pull away from Montrell's grasp.

"Well, well, the wimp is still around. She's a good fuck, isn't she? Does she suck your cock as good as she sucked mine?"

Ray advanced towards the pair carrying a long-handled spade in his hand.

"Let her go!" he ordered and spoke into a hand-held radio he pulled from his belt. "I'm back near the pool and I need help! Call the police and come back here."

Holding onto Kari's breast with one hand and her waist with the other, Montrell pulled her back against his chest.

"You're not going to let me have my fun, are you? I've already fucked your wife and I'll bet she likes my cock better than your wimpy one. Don't you?" he said to her and squeezed her breast so hard that she screamed and tried to pull his hand away off of her.

Dropping his hand to her crotch he cupped it and bodily lifted her up in the air in front of him.

"She feels wet already. All I had to do was promise her some coke and some cock and she was ready."

Ray kept advancing and Montrell kept retreating to maintain the distance between them.

"You try anything with that shovel and I'll snap her neck like a twig. Remember what happened the last time," he threatened and leaning back he peered around the edge of the wall to see if anyone was nearby.

Ray stopped advancing and waited for help to arrive.

"You remember the last time you tried to hit me with a shovel, don't you? This time I'll take it off you and cut your head off with it. Now I'm going to put her in my truck and we're going to go someplace where we can be alone. I'll let you know when I'm through with her. Not that she'll ever want you again."

"Let her go and you can drive out of here and we won't say anything to anybody. Don't hurt her."

"It's too late for that. I'm already wanted back in Georgia for skipping out on my parole. I had to get back here to my roots where I have friends and family that could hide me. Now she's fucked that up. What a surprise to find my favorite pussy down here in Texas. Now stay away or she gets hurt!"

"He's back here somewhere," a voice shouted from near them. "Look around behind the wall."

Ray was already moving when the voice distracted Montrell. When he pulled her back with him to look around the edge of the wall again, Ray swung and the sharp edge of the shovel caught him just behind the ear. He didn't make a sound as the blood spurted out of the slice in his skull.

Kari fell to the ground and scrambled away from him. They watched as Montrell's eyes widened and his mouth opened as he tried to gasp for air. His body was just hitting the concrete floor when the super and some of the men came running around the corner. They stood and watched in horror as Montrell's body flailed in what looked like a seizure before it went limp and lay on the ground with open eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.

"Sweetheart, sweetheart? Are you all right?" Ray pleaded as he knelt and cradled her in his arms.

"I'm OK," she said and wrapped her arms around his neck. "My King of the Mountain."

"What were you doing back here?"

"I thought it was him coming through the gate but I wanted to make sure before I told you so I followed him back here."

The police arrived and were closely followed by a television reporter with a cameraman who happened to be in the area and heard the radio call. They recorded the scene and interviewed the witnesses. Ray and Kari didn't volunteer any information that might reveal their past association with him.

Later reports indicated that he had been jailed for transporting drugs while back in Savannah but no mention was made of any connection with Kari or Ray.

Cocaine and meth amphetamines were found in the truck. It took over a week, but the results of the lab tests showed that were also in Montrell's blood. It was considered to be a random attempted abduction and rape by an addict high on drugs.

There were enough witnesses to testify that Ray had acted to save Kari's life and no charges were filed. The publicity didn't hurt his reputation and he found doors opened and investors coming out of the walls wanting to hire him to design their projects. It was a heady time for them and they enjoyed the notoriety and the publicity that went along with their success.

They enjoyed time on their new sailboat and they became closer to each other than they ever had been. After Melody was graduated, she joined her father in his firm. Brian started talking about getting a law degree and they kidded him about going into real estate law so he could join in what was now the family business. His baseball career didn't take off as he had planned but he was good enough to earn a starting role on the TSU team.

He and Madison were no longer a couple. Their long-distance relationship didn't survive their first year of college but his new girl friend was a "keeper" as Ray called her. They wondered if their youngest child would be the first one married.

Ray was just leaving his office in the building his company shared with her firm when the sounds of "Love me Tender" came from his cell phone.

"I love you," he said into the mouthpiece.

"If you love me so much how come we haven't made love in five days," she pouted into the phone.

"It's actually been four days and eight hours. I'm counting."

"Well hurry home before it gets to nine hours. We're slipping."

"That's because we're an old married couple who are tired of each other," he kidded.

"Yeah, right!" she replied. "Well, I'm on my way home and I need a new pair of shoes. Do you happen to have any?"

"Yep! I always keep a pair handy just for an occasion such as this. I'll be there in a jiffy."

"You'd better or I'll slap you silly!"

"I can't wait," he laughed and climbed into his car.

The End and The Beginning.

Thank you all for your patience and your comments on the Royals' story. I am trying to answer all of the emails that I received but it will take time. I'm overwhelmed at the responses. Don't expect an answer if you demeaned my husband or if you attacked me personally by calling me a whore, a slut, an asshole, or all of the other names. I will try and answer all of the others. Kathi