Hands.
Beth likes to think that's she's well-versed in the world of men's hands. From her father's own sturdy and loving to her friends timid, but sweet and Mark's shy, but gentle. But in a world of hands, Derek Hough's are something new.
*
Her father's hands have been sturdy and loving since the farthest she can remember. From feeling them pushing her on the swings at seven, to pushing her hair back behind her ears at seventeen.
She can't remember a time when they weren't sturdy and loving, so now his trembling hands though still loving, are a new feeling. They're standing outside of the church where in a few minutes she'll be made a wife, and she feels her father constantly wiping his sweaty hands on the gray dress pants Beth wrestled him into.
"Shouldn't I be the nervous one?" She jokingly asked him, her giggles dying in her throat when she saw the tears in his eyes.
"What's wrong, Daddy?" She asked him, lifting her hand to wipe a stray tear from his face since his own are a trembling mess.
"You're not my baby anymore. I know you haven't been for a while, but you're not gonna be a Mota anymore. I know this had to happen someday and I know you're so in love with the man waiting for you at the altar, but I'm going to miss that little seven year old dancing in her pajamas before school. I'm going to miss traveling with you. You've found somebody else that can take you to the ends of the Earth and beyond. Just remember my sweet Beth, I'm always going to love you." He pulls her to him whispering into her hair, his trembling hands pulling her closer to him. "I love you, I love you, I love you." He whispered.
Their sweet moment is interrupted by one of her bridesmaids, telling them that it was time, walking away smiling when she saw them both with tears in their eyes before the wedding even started.
They pull apart, and Tony lifts his hands to rest on her cheeks once more, sturdy now, loving and caring as they'd always been, and pressed one last kiss to her forehead. "Are you ready, Beth?"
She takes a deep shaky breath before looping her arm through her father's now surprisingly sturdy arm, and nods. "Never been more ready."
Soon the door opens and they're making that walk down the altar, and before she knows it, her dad's kissing her hand one last time before pressing it into the love of her life's.
And just like always her father's hands were sturdy and loving, even when they reached to his face to wipe a stray tear, mouthing 'I love you' one last time before she was a married woman.
*
It's weird. With all of her friend's, she would expect their hands to be different. She would expect Connor's to be soft and sweet, Ricky's to be full of joking, and Kian's to be sure and confident, but they're all the same. Not in a bad way of course, but she's really starting to hate their timid hands.
Maybe at one point she expected to fall in love with one of these guys considering their common interests.
She's only talked to them a few times though, when she's realized that she can't really bring herself to crave their touch or love it.
She's sick of the way their hands flutter timidly before resting on her shoulder instead of her waist, because though sweet, she needed someone sure of what they felt and without fear that she was going to break as if she were a china doll.
And when she's finally brought herself to kiss one of them, their hands are flying, never resting on one place for more than two seconds and she finds herself hating the kiss before it really starts. She brings herself to realize that no matter how sweet their hands felt, she doesn't want a second kiss (or another first one) from any of them.
*
The first thing she realizes after being paired with Mark for switch-up week are how different his hands felt on her waist when he picked her up compared to Derek's.
She doesn't know what it is, and whether she likes it or not, but she finds herself missing the feel of Derek's palms on her waist before she realizes what she's thinking.
Those few days without Derek made her realize how much she missed Derek's touch, how much she craved it.
That Monday night, when Mark's hands are on her face when he's kissing her, she finds herself wishing they were Derek's hands on her face and his lips on hers.
Little did she know, Derek was off the the sidelines wishing the exact same thing.
*
Moments after having the feel of her father's hands around her own, she welcomes the familiar feeling of the love of her life's. Holding them at the altar now, they were soft and so full of love, as if holding her hands could express all the love he had for her.
She's felt a lot of hands, and as creepy as it may sound, Derek Hough's were her favorite.
They could be rough when he wanted them to be, pressing his palms into her body when she wanted him to. They were rough when he pulls her into a kiss after a fight. They were never rough in a cruel way, and she loved it more than she should when his hands tighten around her thighs and press her against the wall. Those were the times when she needed his hands to be rough.
They could be shy and timid. She can always see the way Derek's hands flutter and don't touch a new partner after having just met her, too loyal to Bethany to do anything more than shaking a hand. She always finds herself smiling while watching him.
Her favorite way his hands could be though, was loving and sweet, much like now. Much like the way his hands had felt on her face while he kissed, right after putting the gorgeous diamond ring on her finger. She loves the feel of his hands on her face when he kisses her the same way, right after they're officially Mr. and Mrs. Hough.
*
That night she gets to experience all three feelings of his hands.
They were shy and timid in the way he pulled at the clothes on her body, seeing her body naked for the first time as his wife.
They were rough when she told him to be, tugging her gorgeous flower crown out of her hair, pulling her hair to have easier access to his neck. They were rough as he grasped at her breasts, held her wrists above her head, and desperately pulled at her body roughly in a passionate way, stopping to look in her eyes and check that he wasn't hurting her.
Her favorite though, they were loving in the morning when they woke up and he pushed the strands of hair behind her ear and tenderly touched her sleeping face before pecking her lips lightly.
That night, they're in the bathtub together and she gets to live all three, and she knows that she wants to feel his hands on her everyday: roughly, shyly, and lovingly everyday, again and again and again.
********
This is ridiculously short and not very good, but here's to season 22 starting tonight! Hope you guys don't mind this as much as I do!
