Sold #3 - A Haunting Hope

Chapter 7

No-one could understand why Michael would keep his marriage to Darcy a secret, and still not admit to having snuck off to get married when Paul had blatantly brought the topic to a boiling point and asked him to confirm the suspicions that his new wife had set in their minds. It was complicated enough trying to wrap their minds around the fact that they had become engaged after only just having known each other for eight days, not even months but it was an entirely different thing for them to have acted on it and gone through with a marriage after those eight days. Although not one of his friends could say, as the happy couple walked back to their table, Darcy holding Michael's arms around her waist as they talked in hushed whispers and laughed together, that they looked anything other than surprisingly happy. It was almost impossible to believe that they had only been together for a week but with the happiness they displayed so openly, the way they talked and looked at each other, it would have been difficult to believe they hadn't been together their entire lives, as though they had been the best of friends since they were young. "What have you two been up to?" Paul asked them accusingly, smiling as Michael sank onto the single armchair at the opposite end of the table, only to wrap his arm around Darcy's waist and pull her onto his knee, as though he couldn't bear to have her sit anywhere else because it was too far away from him. "You both look guilty, as though you've been up to something naughty...now come on, tell your good pal Paul what you've been doing." He urged them jokingly, only for their smiles to prove that they had been up to something, even though neither of them went on to admit what it was.

"We were just getting a little frisky, we're we baby?" Michael teased, gently brushing his hand over her hair as he kissed the side of her head, her soft giggle shushing him to keep their private affairs just that, private and only between them. But she was so amazing and so mind-blowing half the time, in everything she said and did, that he just couldn't keep it to himself, he wanted everyone to know how perfect she was. "My little hellcat just can't keep her hands off of me, can you?" There was nothing more adorable to him then, than the way she gently clutched the front of his shirt and lifted her head from his shoulder, looking up at him with a soft smile as she bit her lower lip, only to nudge closer and treat him to a lingering kiss that said she couldn't disagree with him. She had a look of trouble in her eyes that even Darcy was unaware of but she couldn't help but love the way he talked about her, especially when he chose to call her his little hellcat. There was something positively luscious about it, that made her want to get on her knees and beg him to make sure they were alone, comforting even that made her love him all the more for the very fact that he was the only person in the world who ever saw her as a woman and not a little girl.

"I'd take that to be answer enough." Ben laughed at the obvious meaning behind her stare as neither of the two lovebirds took their eyes off each other, Michael brushing the hair back from her eyes as he caressed his face, an undeniable smile of happiness unwavering from his lips, which only grew as his new wife kissed him once more. "So now that you've gone off and had your frisky moment together, how about we settle this business about you two being married. You want to tell us why we weren't told about it...or even asked to be at the ceremony? I mean, I know it was on short notice but I'm sure for a wedding I could have got the day off work." He smiled, trying to put the matter as delicately as possible, without making him feel as though they should have asked for their permission before going ahead with their wedding. But Michael understood where he was coming from and knew that for how long they had been the best of friends, it must have seemed like such an insult to not even be told of such an important thing.

"Well..." He wasn't sure how to explain himself and it didn't help to have everyone staring at him expectantly, as they waited on an explanation to say why they hadn't been invited when he had been invited to Ben and Nara's wedding and little Keiko's christening. The only person not staring at him was Darcy, at least not the eager way everyone else was staring at him, it was a dreamy stare of adoration as she gently ran the tip of her finger over the base of his neck, just daydreaming to herself happily. And just as he was about to speak, to find some sort of explanation, knowing that he had already told the boys of Darcy's past, but not feeling that the absence of her parents was going to be enough for them, his wife beat him to it.