"Oh, Mark!" DesirЋe cried, throwing her arms around her fiancee's neck. "I thought you would never come home." Oblivious to her parents, who were standing not far away and smiling lovingly, she gave Mark her wettest, most passionate and intimate kiss, pulling herself up on him until her feet left the ground.
Laughing, Mark kissed her back. "I'll have to go away more often. If you act like this after just three days, what will you be like after next month's conference?"
Kissing him, she sniffled back her tears. "Oh, Mark darling, don't ever leave me again."
"But, baby, I've got good news."
DesirЋe's face brightened. Her father had moved up beside them and she turned to him, still squeezing Mark's hand with all her might.
"The Party's given Mark the nod," her father said. "They're going to give him their support for the State Senate. Mark's career is just beginning."
DesirЋe looked at him, then at Mark, back and forth between her parents and her fiancee. "Then we can get married, can't we? Right away. Please!"
Mark looked at her, astonished at her emotional outburst, but she was so sweet, so lovely, so incredibly pure and innocent, that he just couldn't tell her no. Why should they wait any longer? He was on his way, had the backing of DesirЋe's father and of the Party. He would need a good woman by his side, and he stood a much better chance of getting elected if he was married, a family man and not open to allegations that he might be, unmarried at his age, homosexual. Yes, getting married right now would be just the thing.
Mark nodded and hugged her tightly. "Sure, baby. We'll get married as soon as we can put it all together." He looked at DesirЋe's father, who nodded his approval.
And so, less than a month later, DesirЋe became Mrs. Mark Denning, several months shy of her twenty-first birthday. Dressed all in white, she hurried to the limousine with her tuxedoed groom, watched by all their friends, from the community and from their former life in Chicago. Watched by many eyes, she rode away, from their garden reception, with her only love to their honeymoon in the Caribbean, far away where she could forget her troubles, and her sordid and sinful memories.
Many people watched her go, Pastor Hemmings, who had married them, Clete Anderson, who still had his own plans for her, and from the cover of the trees, Lobo saw her and recognized her and waited until she would come back to him one day.