Marry Me, Stranger

The Wedding

"Ren, I think there might be a problem.." He was in the groom's waiting room, sorting a few of the documents he'd be needing for tomorrow's board meeting when Orphie interrupted him.
His friend's brows furrowed when he noticed the laptop and the papers in front of him. "Are you working?"
Ren's eyebrow went up in confusion. His friend looked incredulous. "Uh.. yeah?"
"On your wedding day?"
"We have a board meeting tomorrow."
Orphie was even more horrified. "You're working tomorrow??"
"What of it?"
"What about your honeymoon?"
"I'm ditching it."
"What?"
"Don't worry, I'm not cancelling it. Gab can go with her girlfriends."
Orphie crossed his arms in front of him. "Well, does Gab know about this?"
"Not yet. I'll tell her after the ceremony."
"IF there's a ceremony to begin with. And even if there is, your wife will probably file a divorce once you tell her you are ditching your honeymoon."
"What do you mean by that?"
Orphie sighed. "Do you even know that you're marrying a very stubborn woman? She won't wear her wedding dress."

He found her in a thin shift dress in front of the mirror. Her arms were crossed with a hard look on her face. She looked stubborn alright.
"Gab, the wedding's starting in an hour, you know?" Orphie's wife had her back on them so she didn't realise they were there.
"Give me the damn dress I picked, Lucille, I'm not wearing that!"
"I already told you, Ren changed the order, he told me to get the dress you like best."
"We had an agreement, I'm buying my own dress! You should know, you were there."
"He just wants you to have the best."
"Well, he just might as well wear it himself! I'm not marrying a self-righteous, arrogant, chauvinistic pig who doesn't know how to respect my decisions."
"Does it help that that self-righteous, arrogant chauvinistic pig is sorry?" He interjected.
Lucille sighed in relief when she saw him. "You two work it out, will you? Your fiancée is so hardheaded."
Gab just scoffed.
When the door closed behind the couple, Ren walked towards her and stopped behind her chair. He looked at her reflection in the mirror. She was already fully made up and her hair was up just like what he wanted. She looked like a vision. An angry vision, that is.
"I'm not marrying a pig," she declared. "You can find another woman you can boss around and follow your every whim."
A sudden burst of emotion shook him. "We ARE getting married."
She looked at him, surprised by the hard edge on his voice.
"I've already decided on you, Gab and I never go back on my decisions."
"Well, good luck with that, as far as I know, both parties should agree in a marriage."
God, she's stubborn. He took a deep breath and thought it through. If he wants to persuade her, he had to exploit her weaknesses. Wasn't that his strategy in every business venture he takes on?
First, her family.
"We can't cancel the wedding now. Your mother and family will be upset. You said they are really looking forward to seeing you get married, right?"
She snorted. "This is my wedding and my marriage. It's my decision to make. Besides, I've always been selfish. I know they'll accept whatever my decision is."
If that didn't work, then..
"Look, I'm really sorry. I didn't know you'd take it very seriously. I only want to give you the best wedding I could give you. You said we are going to be family, so I thought spending this much for my family wont be a problem. After all, when we are married, everything's mine is yours and everything you have is mine, right?"
He saw her eyes wavered. He fought the urge to smile. Second weakness, she's a softie.
"I know.. but you don't understand. I still have my pride, you know. I have nothing to offer you. This is our wedding so I should bring something to the table too, right?"
How could she be so adorable in this situation? He gently pulled her up to face him. She limply let him. She looked so forlorn he almost laughed. He knew she'd kill him if he did though.
He wrapped his arms around her and tucked her head under his chin. "Don't you see? I'm the one whose got nothing to offer but money. You spent every penny you got to buy that dress, right? I'm the same, I want to give you everything I have for our wedding."
Seriously, only Gab could make him say something like that. But strange, the words seemed to just flow out of his mouth without him even trying too hard.
She didn't say anything for a while. She seemed to consider his explanation seriously. "I haven't thought about it like that," she said quietly after. She looked up at him with her innocent eyes gazing straight at him. "I guess I'll forgive you."
Before he could process what he was doing, he dipped his head to kiss her unsuspecting mouth. It was a quick kiss meant to just taste her but the bemused look on her face made him want to do more. He leaned down again to claim her lips, but this time, his tongue slipped between her lips in blatant possession.
They were both panting for air when he released her.
"I'm asking you again for the last time, Gabriella Consuelo.. will you please marry me?"

They were married at the church where her parents were married. Most of their guests were of course her relatives. She's disappointed but she couldn't do anything about. Her only consolation was that his closest friends were in attendance.
Everything was perfect during the ceremony. Her brother and mother gave her away. She almost teared up when she saw him waiting for her down the aisle. He looked so handsome and dashing in his white suit. They were really getting married!
A handsome stranger is now going to be her husband.
"Don't cry, they might think I'm threatening you," he whispered when he took her hand from her family.
She smiled despite her unshed tears. "We're really getting married!"
"Well, it's nice of you to notice. I just wished you realised that earlier though."
She laughed.
It was a happy day after all.

"You're so pretty and your gown's gorgeous!" Caren, Mike's wife told her as they congratulated them.
"Yeah, the groom couldn't find take his eyes off of you the moment you appeared through the doors!" Her husband agreed.
"Shut up, it would be weird if I'm not looking at the woman I'm marrying, wouldn't it?"
"Tsk tsk.." Andrei shook his head at him. "You're already married, what's wrong about admitting you're mesmerised by your wife?"
"The kiss was a little too prim in my opinion though," Jin said while stroking his non-existent beard. "What are you, grade schoolers?"
Gab's face was getting redder and redder by the moment.
Maia, one of the younger wives in the group clasped her hand and whispered in her ear, "Good luck!"
"On what?" She asked her.
"Tonight.. among other things." She winked at her.
She felt like her face would explode. THE WEDDING NIGHT! How she forget about that?!
She felt Ren's grip on her hips tightened. Apparently, he heard what Maia said. Didn't he say it before? The wedding is for the bride and the wedding night is for the groom?

The reception went by in a breeze. She couldn't even remember most if it. She just did as she told and plastered a smile on her lips.
"Aren't you going to change?"
She was awakened from her stupor and found herself sitting in bed in a hotel suite with her new husband who's now only wearing a white towel on his lower half fresh from the bath. His muscles and abs on full display.
"The bath's free now."
She looked down, panicking. "I'm fine, thank you."
"What?"
"Uhmm.. Yeah, I need a bath." She started to walk to the bathroom but Ren stopped her when she passed him.
"You're going in there wearing that?" He indicated the large skirt of her beautiful wedding ball gown.
She immediately fumbled at the zipper on her back. She then realised how foolish she was acting. She sighed. "I'm an idiot."
He smiled. She sounded and looked so dejected he reached for her without thinking.
She didn't resist. She just let him embrace her. He thought it was a good start.
"You're not an idiot. You're just scared."
She took exception. "I'm not scared. I'm just... nervous."
He tried hard not to laugh. "Okay, if you say so."
She turned in his arms to look up at him. "You're making fun of me, aren't you? I'm already 29, of course I know how sex works!"
He couldn't suppress his laugh.
She tried to wiggle out of his embrace but he wouldn't let her. She glared at him.
"Don't worry about it, Gab. At least for tonight."
"What?"
"I won't touch you tonight."
She acted as though he slapped her across the face. "What?"
He was perplexed at the sudden burst of anger. It was a hard decision for him and he thought it was the noble thing to do. But here she was, spitting fire with her eyes instead of thanking him.
"Why? Because I'm not really attractive so it doesn't really matter if we have our wedding night or not? I really should have known! You probably have a sex friend or two lying around so it doesn't really matter! It suits me just fine! I'll be a virgin for life despite being a married woman. Everyone will probably laugh at me but hell, I've been prepared to live alone til the day I die before I met you so I'll just go back to those times. Shame on you though, 'cause you won't get anything out of this marriage."
She was going too fast on her own he was struggling to keep up.
"Is this your way of saying you want a wedding night?"
She clammed up.
He dipped down and kiss her lightly on the lips. "Have your bath now, Gab. We'll sort this out later."
He reached for the zipper on her nape and pulled it down to her waist. Revealing her shift dress underneath. She stepped out of the wedding dress quietly.
Ren could feel the heat rising from the pit of his stomach to his entire being. There's no way she could have known that the thin fabric barely covered her body.
"Just to be clear, I am not eager for a wedding night, I just want our marriage to be on the right track. You understand?"
Her voice seemed to be so far away. He just nodded at anything she said. His mind's full of all the erotic things he wanted to do with that body of hers. How could she even think she's not the least bit attractive?
He shook his head to clear his thoughts. He's been without sex for too long. Surely that's why he's acting like a besotted teenager with his first sexual experience.
He tried to calm himself down by doing breathing exercises. Oh, boy.