American Woman: Book 2

Chapter 60

That night after the show, Prince and I made our way back to his hotel room. Even though I knew there probably wouldn't be any sex and maybe much of anything physical, it wasn't bothering me. Just knowing I was engaged to him, and going to spend the night in his arms was more than enough to make me happy. I couldn't stop looking at my ring all night and Prince took notice. As we walked into his suite, he says "so I think you really do love your ring. Every time I looked out at you tonight you were never looking at me or anyone on stage...you were always looking down at your hand."
"I'm sorry babe. I was a little distracted tonight. I do love it and I'm just so happy."
"I'm happy too." He smiles and draws me closer to him. "I'm going to take a quick shower...want to join me? Can't even imagine how beautiful you will look with nothing but that ring on."
"Ok." I grin, feeling butterflies in my stomach. It had been so long since Prince and I had truly connected and it felt so good, so right, to be back on track. Right on cue, there was a knock at the door. Prince makes his way over to answer it and who else would it be but Larry. "Hey brother I was wondering if we could have a chat?" Larry asked.
"Now is not a good time. Is something wrong?" Prince responded keeping the door only slightly open.
"Well yeah something is kinda wrong. I'm not sure what happened today on top of that bus but I need to talk to you about getting married tomorrow."
"Oh...we aren't doing that. I forgot to tell everyone so I will in the morning."
"Oh that's great news. I'm glad to see you've come to your senses. That would have been a big mistake."
"What exactly? Getting married in Vegas or just getting married in general?"
"Getting married to HER..."
"First of all, her name is Jensen. And second, how could marrying the person I'm madly in love with and want a future with be a mistake?"
"I'm not saying getting married in general is a mistake...but as long as she is unwilling to open up to your way of life and get on board, she will only hold you back in every way. You really need a woman who is going to support you in all you do...and that doesn't seem to be Jensen..."
"So who is that woman, Larry? Latia?"
"Maybe. I know I've raised my daughter to be a good wife one day. She would definitely submit to you and your authority as a man. I don't see that trait in Jensen. She wants to share too much of the dominant role."
"I've controlled women all my life, Larry. It got me nowhere. She doesn't let me control her every move...that is one of the things I love about her. She has her own mind. She challenges me. But she also lets me be the man. She's incredible. If you would just look passed her not being or wanting to be a JW, you might see that."
"I've never said that Jensen doesn't seem like a nice person. I don't have anything against her. But she won't make a good wife. She's too demanding...I mean take today for example...you got up on top of that bus basically bc she wanted things her way, am I right? She wants to be the one in control so much that she pretty much planned out her own proposal instead of letting you do it your way. Your whole life will be that way...bowing down to her, doing things she wants to keep her from getting angry, basically letting her wear the pants...that's not Jehovah's intention. You should be the leader in your home and family...Jensen is not a follower and never will be...."
"Larry if you don't mind, I don't want to continue this conversation right now...or ever. There is nothing you could say to change my mind, or more importantly, my heart. You may think those qualities would not make a good wife. Well I don't agree. I don't want a follower. I want a woman with her own thoughts and opinions. Someone who will put me in my place if I need it. And who you have her to be in your mind is not the way I see her or who she is. She doesn't control our relationship. We share the control. And believe me she didn't mastermind the proposal...she would have never chosen it to be on a blow horn and in front of everyone...not her idea at all. She made the typical "shout if from the rooftops" statement that everyone makes and I took it literally...it was mainly to be funny. Bc I knew it would annoy her, but yet make her laugh. We both equally demand things from each other...it's a give and take relationship...nobody is ruling it with an iron fist. And maybe I do bow down to her...but she bows down to me too. And what man doesn't do things the way their woman wants it to avoid a fight...that's just called being smart and picking your battles. She compromises for me too. Now if you will excuse me, I want to enjoy the rest of my evening with my lovely fiancée. Oh and we probably won't be coming out of this suite tomorrow and I don't want to be disturbed unless there is a true emergency. So nobody should be calling my phone or knocking on this door unless someone has died. See you at the next show. Goodnight." Prince clicked the door shut quietly and stood there staring at the it for a few seconds. I walk up behind him, stand slightly on my tiptoes, and wrap my arms around his shoulders, placing my palms on his chest. "I love you so much baby." I whisper into his ear, and then leave gentle, warm kisses along the back and side of his neck. "Thank you for defending me. I love the way you described our relationship. I feel the same way. Now...let me show you how much I appreciate you." I tell him as I start unbuttoning his shirt. I continue undressing him until he is completely naked and then quickly shed my clothes. "Yep. I was right. You are stunning wearing nothing but that ring." He grins at me.
"Thank you. I can't wait to see you in nothing but your ring soon. I can't wait to marry you...to be your wife. Let's go take a shower." I say, grabbing his hands and heading towards the bathroom. Once we adjusted the temperature and pressure we both stepped in and get beneath the nozzle, enjoying the hot water dripping down our tired bodies. Prince pulls me into a tight embrace and we stayed like that...no words spoken, no hands sneaking in any inappropriate touches, no kissing, licking, or sucking any body parts...just standing there clinging onto each other. No words needed to be spoken and no other physical contact needed to be made for us both to communicate our thoughts and feelings. It's like all the weight, stress, worry, and uncertainty of the last six months was being smothered between our bodies. We were letting it run off and go down the drain, cleansing us, making us new and whole again. After awhile I could feel the temperature of the water starting to drop and decided we needed to wash before we lost all the hot water. I grabbed a washcloth and lathered it up with soap and began washing Prince's arms, chest, and back. "That feels nice momma. Thanks."
"Here I'll let you do the rest." I say, handing him the washcloth.
"You don't have to be scared to touch me baby. I'm sorry if I've caused you to be unsure..."
"It actually wasn't that." I giggle. "I just don't really know how to wash 'it.'"
"There aren't any special instructions, you just wash it. But make sure to get the undercarriage and try not to get soap in the hole...it stings a little."
"Oh Prince. It's good to have you back." I laugh while shaking my head. I carefully wash the rest of his body and quickly wash myself and we both towel off and get straight under the covers, feeling refreshed but still exhausted, or at least I was and I knew he had to be. He laid down on his back, pulling me into his chest. I lay there for a couple minutes, enjoying the embrace and listening to his steady heartbeat. "Feels good to have you back in my arms momma. I can't even remember the last time I held you like this. I'm really sorry for everything Jensen. I'm sorry for pushing you away. For kicking you out of our bedroom. For skipping the holidays with you. It was dumb and I regret it. I don't want you to worry about anything like that happening ever again. I still want to grow spiritually, but WITH you...which I think we were doing before I let Larry consume my life. I don't even know why I allowed that to happen. I guess I thought if I walked a more righteous path, something I've never done, I would be a better man, husband, and father. It didn't happen the way I envisioned and then it just spiraled out of control and I got in so deep I wasn't sure how to get back out. And I never had much time alone to truly evaluate what was happening....but I knew I was missing you, missing us. I'll never push you away like that again. I promise."
"I believe you babe. If this didn't break us then I'm not sure anything can. We are stronger than I ever knew. The fact that you were able to hold onto your feelings of love for me with everything that was being thrown at you day after day couldn't have been easy. I don't ever want to be shutout like that again either. I was heading down a path of being as miserable as I became with Lenny."
"I'm so sorry...." I hear Prince choke out and look up to see him wiping a tear away.
"I know you didn't mean to cause me any sorrow. You didn't mean to cause me any pain..."
"You are such a dork...."
"Im reciting something you wrote so I guess you're the dork..."
"You know what I mean...you're always throwing out my lyrics randomly...but it's always to make me smile...just add it to the list of reasons I want to marry you...I'm going to marry the shit out of you momma."
"Let's talk about that." I say excitedly, propping my elbows up on his chest and facing him.
"Ok beautiful." He says, tapping my nose. "What do you want to talk about?"
"How about just doing it at Paisley when this leg of the tour is over in a couple weeks?"
"Ok. That sounds great to me, but you know there really won't be time for a big honeymoon. We will head back out after 8 days."
"I know. I don't need a honeymoon..."
"Is this like the 'I don't care where we get married' but you actually did or you honestly don't care?"
"Baby my whole life will be like a honeymoon."
"That was smooth." He chuckles, bringing my ring finger up and kissing it softly.
"Well isn't it going to be exciting?"
"Yes..."
"Blissful?"
"Uh huh.."
"Eventful?"
"Yep..."
"I have no doubt that before I die I will have been almost everywhere in the world with you."
"You're probably right. Ok so no official honeymoon so nothing to plan there. But I don't know how much can be planned in less than 8 days. We will be in LA in a couple days. How about you don't go to these last few shows and you and your mom can fly back to Paisley in a few days and get a head start? I'll put Diana and Maria on overtime to help with arrangements."
"I don't want to inconvenience them babe..."
"It won't. They will be peeing their pants wanting to help. They owe me anyway..."
"Why?"
"Well I was going to propose to you in Australia all those months ago. And their big fat blabber mouths ruined it by giving you a heads up..."
"They didn't know I was listening..."
"Doesn't matter. They need to learn to gossip more privately. Anyway I decided not to do it once I found out you were slightly expecting it. They were supposed to help me come up with a new way to propose, but since I did it on my own...they owe me."
"So where have you been hiding the ring all this time?"
"Where I hide everything...in the vault."
"Did I force this before you are ready..."
"Did you not hear I've had the ring since last March?!"
"I know. That's kinda the point. You've had it for so long but yet never asked. There must be a reason for that..." I said, looking down sadly thinking that maybe he bought the ring too early in the relationship and then regretted it.
"I would have asked in Australia if you weren't tipped off. Then I wanted to think of something or somewhere else special and I racked my brain for weeks and nothing seemed good enough. And it was hard to find a stretch of time during that point where we weren't arguing. Then I thought about doing it on my birthday to throw you off, but we ended up spending most of the day at my moms and I sure as hell wasn't going to do it there. Then we got home and made that video and I got a little sidetracked! Then that started consuming a lot of my thoughts for the next few weeks...I wish those tapes wouldn't have been put in the burn pile. But we were in such a good place during that time...it was all fucking and no fighting...and a lot of praying. I was about to just ask you at the house, nothing spectacular...but then Larry entered the picture and everything got screwed up for awhile. So if you are thinking you forced me to jump the gun the answer is no. I've been wanting to ask for so long...just couldn't figure out how. Jumping on top of a tour bus in Vegas with a blow horn was never in the plan, and I'm sorry it wasn't ideal. But I'm just glad it's done and we can begin our life together as husband and wife."
"You know I wouldn't have cared how or when or where it was done. I just hope you weren't regretting buying the ring..."
"No. Baby. How can you not get it? Do you think it just magically appeared with me on tour? I made sure to grab it before we left. Even though we were distant and I was feeling the pressure to end it with you, I still brought it."
"Why?"
"Bc Jensen I have never stopped wanting to marry you. Not for a single day." He grabbed my shoulders and pulled me closer to his face. Placing his hands on my cheeks, he leaned into my lips capturing them instantly. We both simultaneously moan into each other's mouth. I pull back from the kiss and lay back down on his chest and start rambling about all my ideas for the wedding. After a little while I notice the steady up and down of Prince's chest and his breathing started to become harder and louder. I raise my head up to see that he had fallen asleep. I pull the covers up higher and settle into his body and close my eyes. I hadn't fallen asleep next to him in so long and I was ready to slumber all night in the arms of my future husband.