Chapter 39

The surprises kept coming when they arrived at O’Hare and were picked up by a limo to go to their hotel.  They looked at each other and shook their heads and took the limo to their hotel.  As they drove the discussed dinner for the evening.  “I honestly don’t know what I want to eat”, Brie said with her head on her husband’s shoulder.

“I don’t know either”, David responded.  “I’m still surprised that we had a limo waiting on us and I didn’t have to set it up ahead of time.”

“Our children have been seriously plotting behind our backs.  I wonder what other surprises are in store.”

“Same here.  I know that Delilah wasn’t home when we left.  Jake said something about she and Maddie had some out of town Continuing Education class they had to attend to maintain their massage certifications.”

“I did some snooping and found that there aren’t any Continuing Ed. Seminars this weekend.”

“Ah, and so the plot thickens.  They’re not doing Continuing Ed.  They have to be here.”

The widow that separated the driver from the passengers in the back came down.  “Mr. and Mrs. Draiman, you have dinner reservations at Shangri- La Fine Dining”, the driver said quaintly.

“We do?” David said.  “Do you know what time?”

“It’s a standing reservation for the weekend.  You can go at any time you like.”

They exchanged a look.  “I wonder if Malachai had something to do with that”, Brie said quietly to her husband.  “He mentioned that he had a friend up here that was buying that place out.”

“I honestly couldn’t say.”  He looked back at the driver.  “Are you our driver for the evening?”

“Yes, sir.  I’m with you for the evening.”

“Can you pick us up in a couple of hours so that we can shower and get ready to go out?”

“Yes, sir.  That won’t be a problem at all.”  He pulled up to the hotel.  He stopped and got out of the limo to let them out.

David slid out first and offered his wife a hand.  “It is.  I wonder how Jordan knew.”

“Levi is a sneaky little monster.  He was probably spying on me one night while you were up here recording with the guys.  And he tells his Mama Jordan everything.”

He laughed.  “That’s not a surprise at all.”  They walked into the hotel together; his arm around her shoulders, hers around his waist.  A bell hop carried their bags in from the limo and they checked in.  They had the nicest suite in the hotel.  “They went all out”, he chuckled.

“So it seems”, she said with a smile.  He took the key cards and the bell hop followed them up to their room.  She looked around the room with wide eyes.  “WOW”, she said.  “So this is what it’s like to live like a rock star.”

“I’ve been trying to get you to come on the road with me for how long?” he chuckled.

“Ten children, David.  Need I say more?” she laughed.  She started pulling out clothes for their dinner date.

His arms slid around her waist and he pulled her tightly against the front of his body.  “Well, now they’re all adults”, he whispered in her ear.

She smiled.  “That they are.  And every time you’ve traveled other than when you came up here to record a couple of months ago; have I not traveled with you at a moment’s notice?”

“Touché, my love.  You’ve got me there.”  He pressed his lips to her neck.  “God, can you believe it’s been thirty years?”

“It’s been rather surreal, to be perfectly honest with you.  I can still remember the day we met.  I thought you were cryptic and rather annoying.  You thought I was being stubborn because I wouldn’t accept the protection right away.”

“Then the next day, you really had no choice but to accept it.  You handled all that shock and trauma with such grace and finesse.  I was amazed by it.  And there were several times that I felt like a heartless bastard.”

“And you were anything but, in my opinion.  You kept me alive.  You were my savior.  Granted, you were a bit harsh, but you had to be in the situation.  You more than made up for it later.”

“Do you wanna know a secret?”

“What?”

“Even when you asked me to sleep with you that night, I still felt like I was taking advantage of you.  Don’t get me wrong, in the back of my mind I celebrated.  I had an image of dancing up and down the streets, but I didn’t want take advantage of you like that.”

“And now look at us”, she laughed.  “We’ve been together for thirty years.  We have ten kids, almost as many grandkids, and we still can’t get enough of each other.”  She turned and stretched up to give him a kiss. 

He started to pull them toward the bathroom.  She protested and tried to pull away to finish grabbing clothes.  “Leave them here”, he whispered in her ear.  “They’ll be here when you get back.”  He pressed his lips to the soft skin of her throat.

She left her clothes in the floor, leaving a trail that led to just outside the bathroom door.  Once the door slid shut he slipped an hand underneath her top and pulled it and her bra off over her head, then started working on her jeans as she pushed his shirt up to remove it.  He pulled her against him as she fumbled with is belt so that his pants would hit the floor as she stepped out of the legs of hers. 

Strong hands lifted her from the floor as she pulled his belt free of his pants.  When her bare ass connected with the cold granite of the countertop, she shivered and her body tightened violently- so violently she moaned softly against his lips.  She continued fighting with his pants until they were finally undone and she pushed them and his boxers down off of his hips and into the floor with her feet.

He pulled her hips to the edge of the countertop pushed her back hard enough that the back of her head connected with the mirror hard.  She grunted from the connection of her head against the glass and gasped as he slammed into her.

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 When the room phone rang, David had just finished putting his boots on.  He reached over and picked answered it as he tied them.  “Hello?”

“Mr. Draiman, your limo is here”, the little girl at the front desk said.

“We’ll be down shortly.  Thank you.”  He finished and looked to see his beautiful wife standing in front of him.  He choked on his pulse.

She smiled.  “What?”

He sat back up after tying the knot in his bootlace and looked her up and down.  Black dress slacks, open toed hills stiletto heels that probably had black ribbons that wrapped around her calves, a thin silver chain around her waist, a red blouse that came off of her shoulders, her makeup done very understatedly, and the platinum jewelry that he’d bought her several years before for an award show.  Her silver hair hung straight and around her shoulders.  He had to do a double take.  “Wow…” he said quietly.  “You… you look astounding.  You’re stunning.  I almost forgot to how to breathe there for a moment.  You are without a doubt the most astonishing creature on the planet.”

She smiled.  “You’re such a sweet talker.  Who taught you to be such a gentleman?”

“My father.”

“A man I would have loved to meet”, she said as she got a little closer and pulled him down for a brief kiss with her fingers laced in the fabric of his shirt.  “Come on, guapo; let’s go eat dinner.  I’m hungry.”

He bent down and kissed her once more before grabbing a jacket before.  “Let’s go, bonita.  I’m starting to 

get a little bit hungry myself.”

She grabbed her purse and a light jacket, then wrapped her arm around his waist as they walked out toward their hotel room door.  They paused long enough for him to grab one of the room keys from the table next to the door, then he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and they headed out and down the hall to the elevators.

Once they hit the lobby, David bent down to kiss his wife’s hair as they walked out the door.  She looked up at him and smiled.  “What was that for?”

“Just being you.”

She smiled a little bit brighter.  “You sweet talker, you.”  She reached over and grabbed his hand to press a kiss into his palm.  “I love you, David.”

He used the hand in her grasp and brought her hand up to his lips to press a kiss to her knuckles as they waited for the driver to open the door.  “I love you too, Brie; and I always will.”

She slid into the limo and he followed right behind her.  Once he was in and the door was closed, she curled against his side like she always did.  She hungered to be close to him.  She hungered for his touch.  She’d felt that way from the first time he touched her intimately.  His touch made her heart fly and her soul sing.  She knew that there would never be a moment, as long has her heart was beating, that she wouldn’t love the man who held her in his arms.  It was too easy to love him; too automatic.  She didn’t even think that there would be ‘til death do us part’ for them because not even death would separate them.

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Dinner was beautiful.  They had a table in a private area of the dining room that was closed off to everyone by a large set of french doors.  The table sat in the floor to make things more intimate.  It was a very elaborate set up.  The dinner was candle lit; there was a bottle of wine chilled by the table.  Brie knew that she wasn’t going to drink a lot.  As they sat and waited on their dinner, they sat next to each other on the cushions and did something that would have made few of their children blanch- they made out.  They felt like they were young again.   They both wished that they had met when they were in their twenties.

Brie pulled back for a moment.  “God, David”, she panted.  “We need to take a few moments to breathe.”

He brushed her hair behind her ear, kissing her again.  “Why?”

“Because oxygen is a necessary part of life and I’m not getting enough at the moment.”

He chuckled.  “Damn it.”  He sat up and took a drink of wine.  “God, I love you”, he chuckled.

She laughed and took a drink herself.  “And I love you.”  She fanned herself with her hand.  “Goodness, it’s hot in here.”

He laughed.  “Are you sure it’s not just us?”

She pulled a compact out of her purse and checked her makeup.  “It may very well be.”  She looked at his face.  “Uh, honey, you’re wearing my lipstick.”

“Fuck!” he said under his breath.  “Let me guess, it looks like clown makeup?”

“I know how afraid of them you are, but yes.  Would you like me to clean it off?”

“Please?  I don’t wanna look like one of those creepy bastards.”

She removed a small bottle of makeup remover from her purse and used it along with her napkin to clean the lipstick from the area around his mouth.  She then removed the remnants of the lipstick from her mouth and applied a clear gloss.  “Better?” she asked.

“Will I end up wearing that and looking like a clown?”

She smiled.  “No.  It’s clear, it’s gloss, and it doesn’t smudge.”

He smiled back.  “Then yes, it’s much better.”  He reached over and took her hand.  “Have I told you today how beautiful you are?”

“Yes.  Before we left the hotel room to come here.  Then again in the limo and countless time since then.”

His free hand reached over and caressed her cheek.  “Well, I’m doing it again.  You, my love, are exceptionally stunning tonight.”

“And you know that when I go out on the town with you that I’m going to look my best.  I’m the wife of a rock star, I should look it when I’m out with him.”

“And believe me, my love, you do.”

She held his hand against her face and turned to press a kiss to his palm.  “Thank you, honey.  I’m glad that you like it.”

“I like it so much that I want to take it off of you, minus the heels, now and not wait until we get back to the room.”

“I’m sure that would get us kicked out of here, baby.”

“I know.  Do I care?  Frankly, no.  I could really care less.”

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After a romantic dinner and a night of passion when they got back to the hotel, David and Brie laid in bed and held each other.  Her fingers played in the hairs on his chest and her head rested on his shoulder as the sun tried to peak over the horizon for the morning.  “I wonder what’s in store for today”, she said absently.

He glanced down at her from the corner of his eye and grinned as his fingers played lightly over her skin.  “I wish I knew, but I didn’t plan this, love.  Our children did.”

“Do you think we might be able to get a little bit of sleep before we go wherever we’re supposed to be going today?”

He chuckled.  “We could try.  Did I wear you out?” he yawned.

She nodded as she did the same thing.  “Yeah, and it seems I did the same to you.”  She rubbed her cheek against his skin as she settled in next to him to try to get a little bit of sleep.

“Well, I plan on wearing you out a lot tomorrow because it’s officially our anniversary tomorrow.  So, why don’t we get a little bit of rest?  It might be wise of us.” He looked down at her where she laid on his chest.  Her eyes were already closed; her face was already peaceful.  He smiled softly and closed his eyes with a quiet sigh.  The last thought on his mind was, This, indeed, is the life.