“Thanks, Bec’s. So do you,” I replied. And she did, if she wasn’t my best friend I would totally hate her for upstaging my wedding day with her beauty, but I was just too happy to care.
“Johnny’s shitting bricks out there,” Becca giggled.
I laughed and nodded, “I know he is. He’ll be fine though.”
There was another knock at the door, we both turned as Chris entered. Chris was the one giving me away today. Although he was technically just part of Johnny’s band, I had known him as long as I had known Johnny, and I’d always liked him. I didn’t have any other men in my life that I could ask to walk me down the aisle, I still wasn’t talking to my parents and had no plans to either, and I didn’t have any other family that could do it. So Chris had dutifully stepped up to the task.
I smiled as he walked in, he was pulling on the pale blue tie that was round his neck. “Stop fidgeting, Chris!” I scolded playfully.
He grunted and pulled on the knot of the tie again, “These things are so uncomfortable! Why do we have to wear these again?” he grumbled.
“Because they look nice, now stop whinging and suck it up. It’s only for the ceremony then you can take it off,” I said, laughing at how put out he was by a scrap of material.
He sighed, still looking disgruntled. “Yeah, that’s what Johnny said.”
“Well Johnny’s very right,” I said smiling happily.
Chris sighed again, “Anyway, I came in to get you. They have everything set up, the registrar said they’re ready to start as soon as you’re ready,” he held out his arm for me to take and his other arm for Becca. I linked my arm through his, he smirked as Becca did the same. “A hottie on each arm, I’m so in luck tonight……”
Becca slapped his shoulder with her flowers, making a couple of petals fall off. She gasped and looked down at them, “Chris! Now look what you made me do!” she whined, pouting at her flowers.
He grinned and rolled his eyes, “Yeah, because I made you hit me with them, didn’t I?” he said sarcastically.
“Oh just shut up for once,” Becca snapped, sounding exasperated.
I smiled to myself, they were always like this, it was a total love hate relationship, he loved her and she hated him. Well, she acted like she did anyway, but to be honest there was always a little smile pulling at the corners of her mouth when she fought with him, so maybe she liked him too. I had no clue, she always denied it vehemently when I asked her about him.
“Err hello, if you two could hold off on the flirt-fighting until after I’m married…..” I teased, smirking at them both.
Chris laughed and Becca hit him with her flowers again, which just made him laugh harder. He led us out to the main waiting room, just outside the little wedding Chappell that we’d chosen to commit to each other in. I suddenly felt nervous, not because I didn’t want to marry him because of course I did, but because people were going to be watching me in there. I had to stand in front of a small group of family and friends and speak words while they all watched my every move, waiting for a mistake. Why couldn’t we have just slipped away and done this on a beach or something? Just the two of us and a couple of strangers for witnesses?
The music started and Becca giggled. “Oh my god, you’re really getting married!” she squealed excitedly.
I laughed at her excitement, I was that happy about it too, but just not for the whole, speaking in front of people part! “Yeah, come on, let’s get it moving before he thinks I’m not coming!” I joked, giving her a little nudge towards the door. She beamed a smile at me before walking in.
She looked genuinely happy for me which made me smile, I never thought that she would approve of this marriage. She basically hated the groom and wanted to rip his head off, I’m pretty sure she’d had words with him today about hurting me and losing a part of his anatomy if he did. She always was over-protective of me.
Chris squeezed my hand to get my attention. “Last chance to run off with me……” he teased, smiling wickedly.
“I’ll pass, but thanks for the offer.” I smiled at him warmly as he sighed and pouted at me jokingly.
An usher was standing by the door, he watched Becca walk up the aisle and then turned to us and smiled, nodding us in as well.
I took a deep breath and gripped Chris’ hand, smiling a forced smile as the nerves started to build up. “Come on then, Ali,” he whispered, kissing my cheek gently as he urged me forward, around the corner.
My eyes took in the room for the first time, I hadn’t been allowed to do anything today, just relax and have the massage and mani / pedi that had been booked for me by my husband-to-be. I looked round the room, taking in everything, from the bunches of orange sunflowers tied to the end of each row of seats, to the ivory ribbon and bows that were looped everywhere, making the whole room look a little magical. I felt my eyes fill with tears that he had gone to this much effort, just for me. I felt so special, so wanted, so loved, that it made my heart start to race in my chest.
My eyes settled at the end of the aisle. Johnny was standing there, in his black suit, his blonde hair in his usual messy blonde style. He looked devilishly handsome, his blue eyes sparkled as he looked at me, watching my every step. He smiled and I couldn’t help but smile back.
Then my eyes drifted to the person who was standing next to him. He wasn’t looking at me, he was standing with his back to me, his hands in tight fists, his shoulders hunched. He was probably fighting the urge to turn around and look at me. I’d made him promise not to watch me walk, he would make me fall over or something if he did. I would be lost in his eyes and I’d stand on the bottom of my dress and fall on my face.
I felt my breath catch in my throat and suddenly I wished I hadn’t made him promise, I needed him to turn around and smile at me, I needed that reassuring smile and presence that could only be one man. The total love of my life. Ethan Scott.
I felt all eyes on me as I made the short walk up the wooden floor, but I didn’t let myself look at them. I kept my eyes focussed on the back of Ethan’s head. He’d had his hair cut a little shorter since I last saw him last night, hopefully it wasn’t too short that I’d still be able to grip my hands in the back of it when I kissed him. As soon as I thought about kissing him, my mouth started to water and I couldn’t wait for this whole wedding ceremony to be finished.
He must have lost a little of his control because he started to turn his head towards me, but he seemed to stop himself, and his face snapped back to the front again, his fist getting a little tighter. I couldn’t help but giggle, I bet this was killing him, everyone else allowed to look at me except him.
When I finally made the last step up to his side, he turned to me. His eyes raking down my body slowly, a beautiful smile stretched across his face and I felt all of my nerves disappear as I suddenly remembered why I was here. Today one of my dreams were coming true, I was marrying the most perfect man in the world. It didn’t matter that everyone was staring at me, that they would be listening to me saying my vows, or that they were probably thinking we were getting married because of the bump that was straining against the midriff of my dress. None of that mattered, because Ethan Scott was making me his wife.
He bent his head towards me and I felt my heart pick up another level. “You look incredible, Lia. So beautiful,” he whispered, his nose brushing against the side of my face, making my hands tighten on my flowers. I could smell his cologne, it filled my lungs and unconsciously made me step a little closer to him. I didn’t take my eyes off of him the whole time, I listened to the words that were said: love, honour, cherish, and I promised to do all of those things. It would be my privilege to do all of those things for Ethan, I would do anything for him, I always would.
How he doubted that I loved him after what happened with Ben, I’ll never know. He put himself through hell because for some idiotic reason he thought I was going to see him differently because of what he did. It took me the whole night of whispering that I loved him, for him to
finally start believing that I wasn’t going to leave him for Johnny. He’d somehow convinced himself that he wasn’t worthy of me, when in reality it would always be the other way around. I would always be the one striving to be a better person for Ethan, I would always be the lucky one in our relationship because this amazing guy wanted and chose me. But he just refused to see it that way.
Johnny stood off to one side, a nervous smile on his face as he clutched the rings for dear life. Ethan and Johnny had become close in the last eight weeks. I think the whole Ben thing brought everyone closer, so Johnny was acting as best man today. A job he was terrified of, he’d literally been throwing up all morning from what Chris had told me. The guy stands in front of thousands of people, singing in his stadium tours, but yet apparently he was terrified of losing the rings and making a best mans speech at the after party.
Johnny had been doing really well lately. He’d enrolled himself in rehab, finally deciding that he needed to get himself clean. He – stupidly - blamed himself for what happened between Ben and I.
He thinks that if he had been clean that he would have noticed something wrong, or that I would have felt like I could go and talk to him. He had been so upset about it, feeling like he’d failed me somehow because of the drugs.
He’d been clean for the whole eight weeks, not even having a drink since the thing that Ethan and I refer to as “the incident”. He’d even met a nice girl a couple of weeks ago. He met her in a supermarket, apparently she was struggling to reach something from the top shelf and Johnny got it down for her. They’d bonded over something as silly as a can of tomato soup. They were taking everything slow though, Johnny said he wasn’t ready for anything yet, what with everything else going on in his life. But I could tell they really liked each other. She was here today to support him, I noticed him flicking little glances her way while we were doing our thing. I really hoped it worked out well for him, he deserved a nice girl to treat him right, goodness knows I was never right for him, even though I tried my hardest.
Finally, after what could have been either hours or seconds of staring into Ethan’s eyes, it was all over. People cheered and clapped as a breath-taking smile stretched across Ethan’s face.
His hand came up to cup the side of my face, his thumb slowly stroking my bottom lip, so gently that I could barely feel it. The soft and tender way he was looking at me made my legs feel a little wobbly. He hadn’t moved an inch towards me and all I could focus on were his lips that were supposed to be heading towards mine. We were married, people we expecting a kiss, but he was still just gazing at me like I was the most precious thing he’d ever seen in his life.
I couldn’t breathe, my lungs were starting to burn as his eyes met mine, my whole body was on a slow burn as the passion built and built. The moment was actually becoming painful, it felt like hours had passed while I waited, but in reality it might have just be a spilt second, Ethan always did seem to have the ability to stop time.
Finally, his eyes left mine and flicked down to my lips, and his mouth started inching towards mine.
I couldn’t hear or see anything other than him, my excited breathing was making everything worse because his smell was all around me, making my body tingle.
His nose brushed across mine teasingly, making me tilt my head, trying desperately to seal the deal with a touch of those sweet lips of his. He chuckled quietly to himself, his lips brushed across mine as he spoke, so quietly that I was sure no one around us would have heard him.
“I love you, Lia.”
I whimpered at how those four little words seemed to make my insides dance with happiness. Four little words that on their own were nothing, but when put together like that, in Ethan’s husky voice, made my whole body break out in goosebumps.
I shifted on my feet, pressing my body against his. Smiling as my belly got in the way a little. I couldn’t take anymore teasing, I needed him to kiss me, this was torture. “I love you too, Ethan,” I replied, just as quietly.
His nose brushed mine again and I could feel my pregnancy hormones starting to rage. He was five seconds from having me throw him on the floor and ravage his body in front of the guests. He knew what I was like lately, my craving for his body had seemed to go through the roof recently, to the point where I would wake him in the middle of the night begging for attention because I couldn’t wait for the morning – not that he ever complained about that of course! This teasing and waiting was driving me into a state of wild abandon. I had a feeling he was doing this on purpose.
“Ethan Ryan Scott, I swear to god if you don’t kiss me I’m going to kick your ass down to the divorce courts before we even get to consummate the marriage,” I warned, pressing into him a little harder.
He chuckled again quietly. Oh yeah, he was so doing this on purpose!
“Is that so?” he teased, his other hand coming up to cup my face as well.
“How many times do I have to tell you not to tease a pregnant woman?” I asked, starting to get a little desperate. People must have been wondering what was going on, what the holdup was with the kiss. I wasn’t even sure if they were still there, or if they were still clapping, maybe they’d left the room, I had no idea because I couldn’t drag my eyes away from Ethan’s.
“Just tell me one more time,” he breathed, pulling me impossibly closer to him.
“Don’t tease a preg-”
He cut me off by pressing his lips to mine. I felt all of my frustration melt away instantly. My stomach did a little happy dance. Literally. The baby was going crazy inside me, which Ethan was sure to have felt because I was pressed against him. He kissed me so softly, like he was afraid that if he pressed too hard I would break or evaporate into a cloud of smoke or something. I kissed him back just as softly as he was kissing me, showing him with one kiss just how much I loved and appreciated him.
He pulled away after a couple of seconds before pecking my lips again, smiling his dazzling smile at me. The first kiss of our marriage was incredible, tender, mind-blowing and just…...perfect. Just like how I imagined our whole lives would be. Ethan and I had everything to look forward to in life now, and everything that came at us we would deal with together, as a team, a family.
His hand slid down my body, caressing my swollen tummy. I could feel the heat of his hand through the flimsy material of my dress and it made me close my eyes at the sheer luxury of it.
He laughed quietly again. “Looks like both of my girls are happy that we’re married,” he whispered, grinning as the baby did a little jig against his hand.
I giggled, smiling like an idiot. He was always saying thing like that lately. We went for the twenty week sonogram a couple of weeks ago and ever since they announced that the baby was a girl, Ethan had been introducing me to people as “my two girls.”
Happiness seemed to flow through my whole body. He was going to make the best dad in the world, the baby in my stomach was one seriously lucky little girl that Ethan Scott wanted to be her daddy. I couldn’t think of anything better that I could ever give her, than the gift of him being her father.
I raised my arms, wrapping them around his neck, tangling my fingers into the back of his hair. I smiled to myself because, thankfully, he hadn’t cut it too short for me to still be able to do it. I pulled him closer to me, crushing his hand between our bodies.
“Just shut up and kiss me again,” I whispered, grinning at him.
He laughed and crashed his lips to mine, this one was not quite so soft or tender, not quite so chaste or refined. Though it was completely different, the second kiss of our marriage was just as perfect as the first and I looked forward to many more to come. My life with Ethan was only just beginning and I was planning on enjoying every single second of it.
THE END
Kirsty Moseley, Stalkers, Secrets & Lies
(Series: # )
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