Chapter 4

I damn near fainted more than once, not being exactly a spring chicken anymore, as Consuela, my lovely bride, wore me down at last. I had beads of sweat dripping off my flesh, and she had them, too, until I licked hers off her skin, of course. Consuela Jackson, nee Dominguez, was truly the most erotic and sensual woman I had ever known. I had no idea what I was getting into that first night that I hired her services as a lady of the night, but I was damn sure glad that I did so.

“Oh, papi ... it’s okay ... we don’t have much time left, anyway, until that meeting with Nadia and James, you know. I really put you through your paces tonight, didn’t I? As you can see, you chose well. I will be the best wife ever, I swear it!” the Nicaraguan beauty that I had taken to wife reassured me, though her actions had already made that clear enough.

“You know, I think that I’ve fallen in love with you. That might be an odd thing to say to one’s bride on one’s wedding night, but we entered this as a marriage of convenience, of course. Being with you ever since ... seeing you constantly, seeing what kind of woman you really are, damn, girl, you impress me, especially since there is no way that you could fake being this good for that long!” I grinned as she began kissing my chest repeatedly.

“Oh, honey ... I have to confess ... I’ve been in love with you since you offered to marry me. What, couldn’t tell? Men! Well, I suppose that you guys can never really read us that well, can you? You had absolutely no obvious motive to take me as your bride, yet you did. You put up with awkward questions from ICE now and then, with them examining every aspect of our marriage, all of that ... damn! Seriously cool, papi!

“It wasn’t just that, though. You thought me worthy of your last name. You thought of me as worthy of having your babies. Despite not wanting to raise false hopes, you managed to give me hope for ... acceptance. There’s a song, by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers ... it goes, ‘you don’t have to live like a refugee.’ Well, partly because I started out as a refugee, I’ve lived like one most of my life. You fucking changed that, Jack! You’re to me what Tom Petty was to the girl in the song.

“So, yeah, I’m more than a little smitten with you, babe. You have me ... believing that love really can win for a change. In any case, how about a quick shower while we grope each other ... okay, maybe not a QUICK shower, more an excuse to see if I can revive him one last time before our date ... you get the idea,” Consuela made it clear that she hoped to make my little soldier salute at least one more time before we met up with Nadia, James, Jill, and Karen.