Save the Date (Modern Arrangements) (30 page)

"Hey, babe!" she moved
quickly, throwing her arms around me.

"Uh…hey" I looked at Phoebe
with wide eyes. "I...uh…thought you couldn’t make it this weekend?"

"Do you think I would miss my
baby’s wedding day? Of course not." She kissed my cheek. "I can’t
wait to meet the man who finally got that big heart of yours." She beamed.
Internally, I groaned.

"You mean with an iron clad contrac
–" Lucky for me a spa worker appeared and interrupted Maggie’s comment.
She called my name.

"Miss Snowe?"

"You know, what? Please, take my
mother back first." I smiled apologetically.

"Of course, whatever you
prefer." She gave me an odd look and took my mother with her. Turning back
to everyone, I got more strange looks.

"Okay, listen. My mom has no idea
about this ‘arrangement’. I thought I could just tell her the truth, but it
seems she is all high off of true love and romance at the moment." I
sighed loudly. "So, can you please not say anything to her? Atleast not
today. I’ll tell her about it tonight after dinner."

"Of course, dear," Viola
leaned over and wrapped her arm around me. "Though, you need to tell Aidan
before he makes a mistake when you introduce them."

"Oh shit!" I went wide eyed
again. "I didn’t even think of that. Viola, you’re brilliant. I’ll be
right back." Grabbing my cell phone, I went into a small changing room.

"What’s the matter, are you already
sick of the spa?" he answered his phone laughing.

"Oh, ha ha. No, I…uh…have a
problem."

"What’s wrong?" I couldn’t
help but feel the warm fuzzies grow inside me at his genuine concern.

"My mother’s here."

There was a long silence.

"O…kay?"

"She doesn’t know…about the
agreement." I bit my lip and waited.

"I thought you called her about
it?"

"I tried to, but she
is…well…remember how I told you my mother was kind of crazy, free spirited and
wishy washy?"

"Yeah."

"Well, Mrs. Wishy Washy is on this
big romance and true love kick right now. So when she said she couldn’t make it
to the wedding I just let her believe what she wanted." I took a deep
breath. "I swear, I’m going to tell her tonight after dinner when it’s
just me and her. I just don’t want to embarrass her in front of anyone."

"Ok." He said quickly.

"That’s it, just okay? You aren’t
pissed ‘cause I didn’t tell her?" I was a little surprised.

"No, not really. It’s not a big
deal. She should stay with us." He added.

"W-what?" I choked. "No, I
don’t think she should –"

"Of course she should. Invite her
or I’ll have Viola do it." He laughed and hung up.

He was up to something. I just didn’t
know what it was.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Aidan

My day had been hell. First, I have to
see Lilli in her barely-there pajamas this morning. Second, I got way too close
to her this morning. The scent of her cherry and floral skin made me want to
lift her on the counter and plow into her until the whole building heard her
scream my name. I needed sex, I needed it soon and I wanted her. Not a good
combination for me at the moment.

Barely listening to another sales
meeting drone on about figures, my phone lit with Lilli’s picture from her
bachelorette party. Muting my desk phone, I answered. Hearing about her
situation with her mother was, at first, a little alarming, but the bastard in
me slowly formed the perfect plan.

It was too good to be true, so I had to
be careful, very careful. If things worked in my favor, then not only would
Lilli have to play along with my advances, but she would end up in my bed.

With the rehearsal dinner tonight, and
the prospect of Lilli in my arms all night, I arrived the apartment by two
o’clock, after I made an important phone call to check on some arrangements. We
had to be at the pier by four with dinner plans starting at six. However, Viola
wanted us there by five thirty. When I got home I could hear Lilli and Phoebe
arguing in her room about the dress she wanted her to wear.

Chuckling, I went to my room to get
dressed and was completely caught off guard when I saw a dark gray suit laid
out on my bed.
Had my future wife laid out my clothes for me?
My
wonderings were interrupted by a knock at my bedroom door.

"Yeah?" I walked toward the
door. Before I could open it, she answered from the other side.

"Put the suit on. Don’t question me
like your fiancée." Phoebe yelled. I shook my head.
Well, that answered
that question.

"Aye, aye Phoebe." First, I
needed to shower.

An hour later, I walked out of my room
and was met by voices downstairs.

"Oh, babe, you look so
beautiful." The voice was unfamiliar.

"Thank you, mom." Yes, the
mother was here.

"Well, this must be Sarah?" I
said it a little too enthusiastically. Lilli eyed me curiously. So did Phoebe.

"Yes, I am. You must be Aidan?"
She eyed me up and down.

"It’s great to finally meet
you." She wrapped her arms around me and hugged me.

"Lilli, you didn’t tell me he was
so handsome." Lilli rolled her eyes.

"Please, don’t. You’ll just make
his head bigger than it already is." Lilli smirked.

So she wants to play. Hmmm
.

When Sarah pulled away from me, I walked
over to Lilli and snaked my arm around her waist pulling her toward me. I
planned to kiss her but her hands went to my chest and she pulled her head
back.

"What are you doing?" She
looked at me with wide eyes. I swear Phoebe awed.

"Kissing my fiancée." I
grinned widely.

She scowled at me, catching on to my
game already. I couldn’t help but chuckle quietly. She started to stutter and I
raised an eyebrow as she searched for a way to get around this.

"Not in front of my mother."
She grinned back.

"Oh Lilli, kiss your man. You know I
don’t mind." I smiled widely and then pressed my lips to hers. I caught
her off guard but didn’t want to push it too far. I still had more to come this
evening, so I pulled back. However, my lips were on fire and my body wanted to
attack her.

"Okay, we better get going before
Viola freaks out."

Thank you Phoebe, for breaking me out of
my naughty thoughts.

"Uhhh…" Lilli stammered and I
smiled wider. "Yeah, let’s go." She turned to grab her coat as I
picked it up and held it out for her. She scowled at me and wrapped the coat
around her.

"Shall we?" I held out my arm
for her mother and then for Lilli. We headed out the door to the awaiting car.

Pulling up to the pier, I exited the car
first and helped each lady from the car. Lilli eyed me suspiciously. I couldn’t
help but wink at her.

Having attended weddings at Chelsea’s
Pier a couple of times before, I knew this place was a beautiful spot. The fact
that it would be my wedding this time, made the whole place seem to glow. Aunt
Vi and the organizer she hired quickly pulled Lilli away to talk about a few
things.

A few quick directions and run-throughs
of the procession was all it took. It was pretty simple and I could only assume
Lilli had been the one who made sure of that. Our last run-through was the
first we did uninterrupted. So, when I turned seeing Lilli and Dixon
approaching my breath caught.

The grin on her face was huge and she
was obviously laughing at something coming from Dixon’s barely moving lips.
They garnered a glare from the organizer for their actions.

Tomorrow would be the day. She would be
binding herself to me, legally. Now, I just had to figure out how to get her to
consummate the relationship. When the time came to finish the rehearsal of the
ceremony, I made sure to pull Lilli into a lip lock that earned us some
hollering and cheering. When I released her, she narrowed her eyes on me. I was
going to pay. I knew it.

Once the organizer released us with her
approval, we grouped together in the lobby waiting for the cars to be brought
around. Decisions regarding who would ride in whose car were discussed and then
we drove off to the restaurant.

We arrived to the restaurant and, while
Sarah and Phoebe climbed out of the car, Lilli pulled me back towards her.

"What the hell are you doing?"
she hissed in a low tone to the side of my head.

Turning my head, my lips were about half
an inch from hers. It was obvious she’d been dying to get a moment to question
me about all my
acting
.

"Playing along, so your mother
believes the ‘true love’ that we share." I grinned.

"You are such a jerk." She
huffed and pulled her head back.

"Hey, I’m just trying to
help." I feigned innocence.

"I’m not buying it, Iverson."
She hissed out before climbing over me and out the door.

I couldn’t help but laugh quietly before
I climbed out behind her.

As I entered the restaurant, Lilli was
handing her coat over to the coat check in. That was when I noticed her dress.
The solid black satin ribbon that wrapped around her neck, the black material
of the top fitted to her curves and gathered at the hollow of her neck
attaching back to the ribbon; a large black bow hugged the back of her waist.
The fabric began to flare out at her hips, transforming into a layer of dark
gray diamonds that faded into a light silver and ended in white fabric that
teased the top of her knees. Her silky arms, shoulders and back were completely
bare and beautiful. Her hair was half up with loose curls hanging down. She was
so beautiful. My body stirred.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Lilli

Oh God, if he didn’t stop I was going to
drag him into the coat room. Not only did he feel the need to play it up at the
apartment in front of my mother and at the rehearsal, but he was still making
advances at dinner.

During dinner he slid his hand onto my
thigh, somehow managing to get under my skirt. His touch sent fiery tingles to my
core. When I tried to cross my legs nonchalantly, he just moved with me.
Did
the bastard know what he was doing to me? Could he tell
?

I was talking to a few guests when he
walked up from behind me, snaking his arms around my waist and brushing his
lips across my shoulder. Plastering on a smile, I fought to keep my cool as I
excused us from the group for a moment.

"Will you stop it?" I hissed
at him in an empty hallway.

"Why? Is it getting to you?"
He laughed and moved closer against my body.

"Aidan, stop it!" I hissed
again. "Why are you being such a pig?"

He glared.

 "I hardly think touching and
kissing my fiancée is being a pig."

"Oh, I think it could be construed
that way in our situation." I poked him in the chest. He grabbed my hand
and kissed the tip of my finger. I faltered for a moment and licked my bottom
lip. A little too breathy I spoke.

"Ai-Aidan stop it," yanking my
hand away from his grinning face. "I will knock that smirk off your face,
mister." He laughed and then his lips were pressed to mine. My hands were
about to slide around his neck when we were interrupted.

"There you two are." I quickly
moved out from under Aidan’s kisses and roaming hands, looking straight at my
mother.

"H-hey mom." I stuttered out
and heard Aidan chuckle at me. He wrapped his arm around my waist tightly.

"Had to sneak off for a moment
alone, I get it." She winked.

I groaned.

"What can I say? I can’t keep my
hands off of her for too long." Aidan squeezed me closer.

I sighed.

"Mom, look I need to tell you
–"

"That you’re staying at our place
tonight. We have a couple of extra rooms to spare, so you’ll stay with
us." Turning to look at Aidan in disbelief, I couldn’t believe how far he
was going to go with this.

What the hell? Is he seriously trying to
play this out like that? Does he really think I’m too stupid to figure out his
game?

"Oh…really? Are you sure? I don’t
want to intrude on you two." Sarah looked so happy when she answered.

"Actually mom that’s not what I was
going to say." I glared at Aidan and turned back to my mother. "Aidan
and I –"

"Aren’t even staying in the same
place tonight," Phoebe chimed in. I shot a confused look at her.

"It’s the night before your
wedding, silly." Phoebe rolled her eyes. "We’re all staying at Viola
and Liam’s while the guys stay with Aidan. I already have everything packed and
at Viola’s." She smiled proudly.

I smiled broadly and turned to Aidan. He
had his eyes narrowed at Phoebe. There was a moment he looked as if he were
going to pout. I laughed and he shot the glare at me. I stopped quickly, seeing
the seriousness behind it.