When a Champion Wants You (16 page)

Dimitrius wiped tears away
from her eyes with his thumbs, then took her hands into his grasp
again.

“Now, Dimitrius, please
repeat after me,” the minister said.

Dimitrius began, “I,
Dimitrius Champion, take you, Melanie Summers, to be my lawfully
wedded wife. To have and to hold, from this day forward, for
better, for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health,
to love and to cherish ‘til death do us part.”

“Now, if we can have the
rings, please.”

“Wait,” Dimitrius said. “I
need to say something first.” He looked at Melanie and said, “I
know we have a long way to go in our efforts to learn each other. I
don’t know what the future will bring our way, baby. All I know is
that I love you, and that I want to spend the rest of my life with
you, Melanie. These last few weeks with you have been amazing. I
feel like I’m a different man. I feel like I can do anything. For
the first time in a long time, I’m living. I’m happy. And I want to
make you happy…to give you a life that you once had only dreamed
of. And I want you to know that there is nothing we can’t
endure…nothing that will ever stop me from loving you.
Nothing.”

Dimitrius wiped more tears
from Melanie’s eyes and pinched his eyes together tightly before
looking at her again.

Dante handed the rings to
Dimitrius and everyone quietly watched as he slid the rock onto her
trembling hand.

Melanie placed a ring onto
his finger as well and, before the minister could officially
pronounce them husband and wife, Dimitrius gently cupped her head
in his hands and swooped in like a hungry eagle for her lips. He
pulled her bottom lip inside of his mouth, taking his time to savor
her. He wanted her to know how much he cared for her. How much he
loved her.

His brothers clapped and
cheered along with Emily and Sherita.

“We should go celebrate,”
Desmond said.

Emily glanced over at
Dimitrius and Melanie, still kissing, and said, “Um…I think they’re
going to have their own celebration.”

“I think you’re right,”
Dante said, throwing his arms around Emily.

When Dimitrius and Melanie
finally separated, everyone offered their congratulations and
Dimitrius quickly whisked his bride away.

Dimitrius carried
Melanie
to the elevator. When the doors
closed, they kissed passionately, wanting each other with the same
amount of desire. It didn’t matter that there were other people on
the elevator with them. As far as they were concerned, it was just
them.

When they arrived to their
room, Dimitrius broke away from her to unlock the door, then he
picked up where he left off, latching onto her mouth while he
maneuvered out of his tuxedo jacket. When he had successfully done
that, he picked her up, took her to the master bedroom in the suite
and lowered her to the bed, kissing her with the same intensity as
he had on the elevator just a moment ago.

He pulled his mouth away
from hers. “Are you alright?”

As if intoxicated by him,
she stared up into his eyes, seemingly in a trance and said, “Yes.
I’m alright.”

“
I know you’re nervous, but
there’s no need to be, baby. Block everything out of your mind and
focus on me, on us. I love you, Melanie.”

“
I love you too,
Dimitrius,” she admitted, the first time she had ever done
so.

Dimitrius kissed her lips
again, then kissed her neck, massaging his tongue against it,
leaving his mark there before exploring other parts of her
body.

“
Oh, Dimitrius,” she
panted. “Oh…sorry. I forgot you…didn’t like…that.”

“
I love that, Melanie,” he
said, looking up at her. “I didn’t want you to say it back then
because it was a turn on. Now, you can say it all you want,
baby.”

He sank his tongue deeper
inside of her mouth and drowned his hands inside of her soft curls.
Growls escaped this throat as they kissed, at the thought that she
was his and he was having her like she was a juicy steak on his
dinner plate.

She was as good as
devoured.

“
Don’t be afraid of me,
Melanie. Touch me,” he urged.

Melanie strummed her
fingertips up and down his back.

“
That’s it, baby,” he told
her.

Melanie closed her eyes,
feeling the weight of his perfect body pin her to the bed, holding
her hostage before their souls connected and fit together
perfectly.

“
You don’t know how much I
need you,” he said, feeling her steady clenching him, their gazes
locked as tightly as their fit below. “Oh, Melanie…”

“
Dimitrius,” she uttered
softly, rubbing the tip of her finger across his lips while their
gazes held.

At the same time, he’d
locked his hands around her wrists as her arms were extended above
her head – flat against the bed. He was so hungry to have her, so
fortunate to have married the woman he’d wanted for so long, and
now he had her in every way. Had her right where he wanted
her.

* * *

Staring into her face as
she rested now, Dimitrius was at a loss for words. It still amazed
him how she had just the thing to make him want to love again. With
her, he felt things he’d never felt for any other woman. He didn’t
consider himself an emotional man, but his emotions were all over
the place – something he didn’t like, per se but something he would
have to deal with because there would never be another woman like
her. She was his. She would always be his.

That’s all he could think
about while they made love for most of the night – how he would
always love her. Have a family with her. They would have the
perfect life together.

Chapter 21

Dimitrius had
breakfast
delivered to their suite in the
morning. The food had been there for at least thirty minutes while
he waited for his sleeping beauty to awaken. He wasn’t in a hurry
to eat. He enjoyed watching her sleep, her hair a mess and splayed
out on a pillow. She was tired. He’d given her body several
workouts, thorough ones. She was inexperienced in a lot of ways,
and he liked that about her. That would give him the opportunity to
do a lot of teaching.

He watched her change
positions and, at her new resting place, he could see her face. Her
cheeks appeared to be a pinkish color and she had a peaceful look.
A serene one. A satisfied one. Her lips were together and she
breathed so softly, he could barely hear her.

Unable to restrain himself
from doing it any longer, he tenderly stroked her face with the
back of his index finger and watched her eyes open.

“
Good morning, my beautiful
wife.”

She smiled and said softly,
“Good morning, my handsome husband.”

Dimitrius leaned closer to
her, took a kiss from her lips and said, “I got some breakfast for
us.”

Melanie sat up and rubbed
her eyes. “What time is it?”

“
It’s almost
noon.”

“
Weren’t we supposed to
check out at eleven?”

“
Yeah, but I didn’t want to
rush you, so I paid for another night, even though we’re leaving
this evening.” He kissed her lips again and said, “Let me bring the
food over here, and we can eat in bed.”

“
Alright. I’m going to run
to the bathroom real quick.”

Melanie hurried to the
closest bathroom, then washed her face, making sure she didn’t look
too horrible for her new husband. But while she stared at herself
in the mirror, she thought of the secret she kept from him, forcing
it to the back of her mind. For the first time, in a long time, she
was happy and she didn’t want anything to destroy the happiness she
felt with Dimitrius.

* * *

After breakfast, they made
love again. And when they were able to keep their hands off of each
other, they dressed, packed their suitcases and took a taxi to the
airport. Dimitrius couldn’t keep his hands off of her in first
class, on their fight home. All he could think about was the fact
that they were a newly married couple and would be living together
under one roof. He couldn’t wait to make love to her in his bed. In
their bed, and he would do so tonight, under the skylights, until
she had all she could stand.

Chapter 22

Three days
later
, Dimitrius was sitting in Dante’s
office with Desmond beside him, having their weekly status meeting.
Dante told Dimitrius not to come in to work since he’d just gotten
married a few days ago, but he wanted to stay abreast of the
happenings surrounding The Champion Corporation. Besides, this was
the first opportunity they had to discuss the re-launch of eRoll.
And he had something else he needed to discuss with
them.

“
So how’s life on the dark
side been so far?” Desmond asked, then chuckled.

Dante shook his
head.

“
There is no dark side,”
Dimitrius said. “Melanie and I are doing just fine. And since we’re
on the subject of Melanie, I want to let you two know that I do not
want her working here.”

Desmond frowned and snapped
his head back. “What?”

“
What do you mean, you
don’t want her working here?” Dante asked.

“
Just what I said. I don’t
want the both of us cooped in this office. I want her to be able to
do whatever she wants. I want her to start her own business if she
wants to. I don’t want her working here. So I think we should offer
the position to Kurt Hempstead.”

Dante frowned. “Did you
already discuss this with Melanie?”

“
Not yet. I’m going to talk
about it with her tonight.”

Dante shook his head. “And
what if she
wants
to work here, Dimitrius? We already had a two-week delay
because she had to give notice on her job, then Des pushed her
start date back for another two weeks so we could focus our
attention on the Vegas presentation and now you’re telling me you
want to take her out of the equation altogether? She’s supposed to
start on Monday. And she’s no longer working at the hotel,
right?”

“
No, she’s not working
there anymore, nor does she need to. Now I realize the delays in
getting someone in here to assist Desmond, but it’s not going to be
my wife. I don’t want her working here. Period.”

“
Then that sounds like
something you should’ve discussed with her, especially since y’all
haven’t moved in together yet,” Dante said.

Desmond sat up in his
chair. “Y’all aren’t living together?”

Dimitrius shook his head.
“No, not yet. She needs time to get some things in
order.”

“
Hmm,” Desmond said. “That
doesn’t sound good.”

Dimitrius dismissed his
prying brothers and said, “Listen…we have to hire Kurt. End of
discussion.”

“
Okay,” Dante said. “Des,
are you okay with that?”

“
Looks like I’m going to
have to be.”

“
Alright, then it’s
settled,” Dante said. “Moving on, let’s talk about the re-launch of
eRoll. Dimitrius, I know you haven’t been back one-hundred percent
at work, but is your team noticing an increase in the number of new
accounts?”

“
Yes, especially from the
small business side of the house which is the market we were hoping
to see some improvements. And, since it rolled out this weekend,
the new payroll app has had over five-hundred thousand downloads.
That’s an average of one-hundred thousand downloads per day for a
total of over a million dollars in revenue. I say that’s pretty
good.”

Desmond and Dante nodded in
agreement.

“
I’m heading out to New
York on Friday to meet with the top staffing agency in the
country,” Desmond said. “And I will not leave that office until I
convince them to sign up with eRoll.”

“
So I guess the pressing
matter is to get Kurt in here and trained as soon as possible,”
Dante said. “And you’re absolutely sure you don’t want Melanie to
have the position,” he asked, looking at Dimitrius.

Dimitrius nodded.
“Positive.”

“
Okay. Well, Des, when
exactly do you want Kurt to start?”

“
We need him ASAP, man. I
know I’m going to be out of town for the next few days, but I have
to get him in here. Maybe you can show him around for a few days,
and he can shadow Dimitrius for a few hours…”

“
Alright. That’ll work,”
Dante said. “And you’re calling him today, right?”

“
Yep, as soon as this
meeting is over,” Desmond responded.

“
Alright. Well, if there’s
nothing else…”

“
Nope,” Desmond said,
standing. “Nothing for me.”

“
Nothing for me either,”
Dimitrius added, following Desmond to the door.

Chapter 23

Dimitrius changed
into
some workout gear as soon as he was
home, then jumped on the treadmill, running nonstop at a high rate
of speed. He enjoyed working out as a way to relieve stress and to
keep his body ripped, but he also liked to do it to keep his mind
off of something that was bothering him. And the fact that they’d
been home three days after being married in Vegas and Melanie
hadn’t made an attempt to move in his home didn’t sit well with
him. What was she waiting for? Was she still not convinced of his
love for her? How could she not at this point? Had he not shown her
that he’d give her the world? That he wanted nothing else out of
life other than to make her and his family happy?