Here Comes The Bride (5 page)

"Okay
…" I sighed. Getting into my bag again, I pulled out my IPod and book. Lying across a couch on my stomach, I put my ear buds in and held my book in front of me.

I’d gotten one chapter finished when I suddenly felt self-conscious. Looking up, Aidan was watching me, so I pulled out my ear buds.

"What?" I wrinkled my eyebrows.

"You’re just interesting to watch." He shrugged. "Sorry if I made you uncomfortable."

"It’s okay, I guess." Looking back to my book, I still felt his eyes on me. Looking up again, I raised my brows at him.

"What? You said it was okay."

"I meant it was okay for making me uncomfortable, not to keep doing it." I shook my head laughing lightly. "I mean, come on…aren’t you bored with looking at me yet? You’ve seen me before." I laughed harder.

"True, but no." I looked at him confused. "No, I’m not bored looking at you." He grinned.

"Well stop. You’re making me self conscious." I scowled playful.

"You have a habit of
sucking your bottom lip," He blurted. My face heated up as I fought the reflex to suck my lip. He started to laugh. "You’re trying to do it now, aren’t you?" He laughed harder.

I tossed my book at him.

"Shut up!" I laughed. He doubled over in laughter.

I
stood up and walked out onto the deck of the boat. Leaning on the side, I couldn’t help but close my eyes and absorb the warmth surrounding me. The air and sun were so warm. I opened my eyes and looked out into the turquoise and light blue water surrounding us.

Aidan approached in my peripheral vision.

"Hey," I smiled and turned back out to the water.

"Hey," he leaned next to me.

"The water is ridiculously pretty." Not hiding one ounce of the awe I felt.

"It’s definitely a break from the murky skies and water
surrounding New York." He stood tall. "You want a drink?"

"Sure." I shrugged.

"Have a seat, I’ll go grab…what do you want?"

"Water’s fine." I sat on a lounge chair.

Aidan returned a few moments later with two bottles of water. We sat talking about the island and how his grandfather had acquired it through a bet.

"You’re kidding
, right?" I looked at him in disbelieve.

"Nope," He shook his head. "At least that’s the story my grandfather always told us and to be honest I haven’t heard anything to conflict with the story." He chuckled a little.

"What the hell was the bet?" I exclaimed, with utmost curiosity.

"Not quite sure. Once he said it was over a woman, another was a poker game and another time it was a horse race." He shrugged and his smile seemed to falter a little.

"I’m sorry." He looked at me confused. "It must bother you to talk about him. I mean, you were close, right?" Completely aware I was sucking on my lip, I would probably always be aware now he’d pointed out my habit.

"It’s okay." He smiled bigger. "It’s kind of nice to talk about him. I just…" he stopped.

"Just what?" I pressed.

"I guess I feel guilty for
being so pissed about his conditions." He looked at me nervously.

"Well…in your opinion, what do you think your grandfather thought your reaction would be to this?" I raised one brow.

"He knew I would flip the fuck out." He laughed loudly.

"Then I think you are safe from feeling guilty." I kept my smile large as I wiggled my brow line.

"Lilli –"

"Is that the
island?" I blurted as green and brown appeared on the horizon. Aidan’s eyes moved to where I was looking.

"Yeah, I didn’t realize we’d been sitting here that long." He sighed and stood up.

As I stood the boat’s engines changed into lower gear, causing me to stumble. Reaching out for the railing, I caught it just as Aidan wrapped his arm around my waist to steady me.

"Thanks," my cheeks warmed.

"No problem." Without removing his arm from my waist, he grabbed the railing next to me. I shifted a little uncomfortably, mostly because the feel of him so close was doing dangerous things between my thighs.

The boat shifted again and I focused out in front of us, we were pulling up to a dock. I could just make out the house set back off the beach.

"Huh." I breathed out.

"Not what you thought it would be, huh?" His warm breath on my ear caused me to shiver.

"Um…no. It’s not –"

"Over-the-top?" He finished for me. With a nod, I smiled.

The boat came to a complete stop and we grabbed our things. Aidan led the way to the house.

As we approached I got a better view of the house. It was more like a beach bungalow, though it clearly cost a great deal of money. It was one story and most of the walls of the house were made up of windows.

We entered through large glass doors into an open living room, dining area and kitchen. Everything was cream, tan and white. The doors we entered were large glass panels that folded into each other, opening the living room up completely to the outside and the patio. You could literally open up the whole side of the house this way. It was amazing, simple, yet completely beautiful. Aidan showed me down a hallway with four doors. He pointed out rooms as we went.

"This is the storage and maintenance room. The laundry machines are in there as well." He pointed to a second door across from it. "This is the bathroom." Pushing the door open, I peeked around his body. It was a simple powder room, no bath or shower, just a sink and toilette.

Reaching a third door, he opened it as well.

"This is the study or office."

Looking in, it was in the same color scheme and large wall of window doors. The only difference was the shelves lining the walls with books, a desk and a couple of chairs.

"This," he moved across the hall, his hesitation s
inking in, "is the bedroom." One bedroom.

He walked in
and threw his bag at the end of the bed. I could almost physically see my body do a happy dance, while my head was screaming ‘holy shit’.

"Through there is the master bathroom." His arm was outstretched and motioning toward a large white door. I walked over and opened the door, looking inside. It was all white and simple again, but it was lovely.

"It’s really nice." I choked out, trying not to sound nervous.

"Lilli," Aidan raised an eyebrow at me.

"Hmm." Keeping my eyes off of him, I walked over to the large window doors and looked out.

"I tried to tell you there was only one bedroom when we were on the boat." He paused.

"It’s fine, Aidan. I mean, we have to sleep in the same bed eventually anyway, I guess." I shrugged still not looking at him, afraid he would realize I wasn’t as disappointed as he thought.

The weight of his eyes were becoming too much. I was never happier to hear a knock on a door. Aidan walked toward the living room. I followed.

"You can take those to the bedroom, please." He ordered two tall, tanned and very well built men.

Stepping back, I let them go around me. Once they
had followed Aidan’s instructions, they appeared in the living room again.

"Anything else?" The man had a heavy Portuguese accent.

"No. Thank you Devan, Bradley." He smiled at them. "Oh, wait. Lilli."

Aidan walked toward
s me and took my hand, introducing me to the two men.

"Devan, Bradley, this is my wife Lilli. Lilli, this is Devan and Bradley. They handle most of the maintenance on the island." He turned to me. I’m not sure what he saw on my face, but I doubt he realized that I was feeling quite thrown
by the fact that I was now someone’s wife. I told you about them, they’ll arrive about twice a week."

"Yes. It’s nice to meet you both." The words finally came out after I got past my mini freak out.

"Our sister, Carmen, will be in once a week to clean, unless needed more frequently." The one, I think was, named Devan smiled at me.

"I think once a week is fine. I can clean up after myself." I gave Aidan a questioning look.

"I clean up after myself." He laughed out at my insinuation.

"Okay guys, thank you for all your help. We’ll see you tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah, see you Aidan. Oh, and congratulations." Devan stated. "Yes, congratulations to you and your wife," Bradley added. Aidan and I both smiled and said goodbye.

He turned back to me. "So, what would you like to do?"

"I’m definitely going down to the beach," Smiling large, I practically ran to the bedroom for my bathing suit.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Aidan

The thought of us having to sleep in the same bed was enticing as well as nerve racking. I obviously wanted to, but at the same time I had to also keep myself in line. Knowing she was pretty adamant on not having sex
made it difficult to have her so close in bed, even a king sized bed.

Introducing her as my wife had rolled off my tongue like it had always been. It was way too easy to label her my wife and feel good about it.

Following her to the bedroom, I walked in on her digging through a large trunk.

"I’m going to kill her!"

"Kill who?"

She jumped and spun quickly with wide eyes. Strips of material dangled from her hands. Then it dawned on me, those tiny scraps were bathing suits.

"Umm, Phoebe," She grumbled. "She completely repacked my luggage. The little evil –"

"What did she pack?" Stepping closer, I leaned over the trunk and caught a glimpse of blue lace before she shut it.

"Nothing." She groaned. I grinned at her discomfort.

"Aww…come on." Reaching down, I lifted the trunk.

"No," she giggled and pushed the trunk down. Luckily I was stronger. "Don’t," she covered her face as I looked inside the trunk.

"Remind me to thank Phoebe." I chuckled and received a slap on my arm.

"I’m not wearing those!"

She pointed to the offending lacy items I’d lifted out of the trunk.
Taking the scraps of material in her hand, she walked to the bathroom, shutting the door once inside.

Getting into my own luggage, I found my swim trunks
, got into them quickly and tossed on a t-shirt. I swore I heard Lilli groan from behind the bathroom door.

"You okay in there?" I shouted
, stifling my laughter.

"No," she groaned and came out of the bathroom. It took everything
in me to keep my eyes from bulging out of my head and my tongue from the floor.

"This! This is what Phoebe considers a damn one piece bathing suit!"

She crossed her arms, attempting to hide herself, but it just pushed her breasts together and up, causing my swim trunks to feel suddenly tight.

Thank you, Phoebe!

Lilli’s ‘one piece’ was navy blue. The top wrapped around her neck and then two strips came down over her breasts in a deep V almost to her belly button. Her abdomen was fully covered, though her sides and back were completely bare. The material continued in a bikini type fashion between her legs and up around her ass, tying very low on her hips. She looked delicious and her anger flushed face made her even more tempting.

"I’m going to kill her when we get back!" She shouted, walked over and pulled out a thin strapless dress. You could
still see the outline of her bathing suit and it was difficult not to feel my balls tighten.

Noticing my long silence, she turned around and looked at me. I cleared my throat
, knowing I had to recover quickly.

"You finally ready?" Sarcasm would work as a cover up. I hope.

"Oh, shut up! You don’t have to wear dental floss to swim." She groaned and headed out the door.

"I could, if that’s what you would prefer to see me in." I grinned and wiggled my eyebrows as she looked over her shoulder at me.

"Loser," she said quickly, trying not to smile.

We got to the beach and I watched her bury her little feet in the sand and look out at the water.

"It’s so clear but so blue at the same time." She was completely in awe of the color of the water. Watching closely, she pulled her hair up on top of her head in a makeshift bun and secured it with a band.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" I kicked off my sandals and yanked my t-shirt over my head. When I looked over at her she was staring at me. I grinned smugly. She was checking me out.

"Shut up." She growled like an angry kitten. She kicked off her flip flops and slid the dress off of her body, finally allowing me to ogle her body properly.

She walked to the water and hesitated at the edge. Running up behind her, I lifted her up bridal style.

"Damn it, Aidan! Stop," She shrieked. The plan was to throw her into the water but my hands were touching so much bare skin, my body lit on fire and no longer wanted to let her go.