Chapter Nine
Abby
Luca hit the button lowering the partition between us and the driver. “Step on it, Chuck! We’ve got a wedding to plan!” Chase pounced on me, laying me out on the seat and hitching my leg up around his waist. He pressed his growing hardness against me just as Luca positioned himself at my head.
I shivered with desire.
But as much as I wanted my two men to take me in the back of that limo, we had work to do. “What if,” I said with a coy smile. “What if we waited until after the ceremony?”
Neither one looked thrilled at the idea.
“I know, I know, I want you too,” I said sitting up in my seat again. “But we have a lot of details to work out. And I think keeping a clear head to do that might help us get everything done.”
Chase sighed and Luca made the cutest pouty face. But I plowed onward. “Okay, the fastest way to Spain is—”
“Jet,” Luca said.
“We can charter the flight for later today,” finished Chase.
I nodded. “Okay, hotel. We’ll need to book a few rooms, there are people I want to invite.”
“I’ll have my assistant take care of that,” Luca said. “And I’ll have her find an officiant of some sort, one who won’t care how many people he’s marrying.” Luca pulled out his phone and made a call.
Chase looked at his watch and pulled out his own phone as well.
I only heard the first few snippets of their conversation before I’d made my own call. My father’s groggy, sleep-thickened voice answered on the second ring. “Abby? What’s wrong? Are you all right?”
I took a big, big breath. “I’m fine, Dad. I’ve got some great news.” He was the last person whose judgment I was afraid of. The last person I had to fess up to. “We’re getting married.”
My father was silent a very long while. When he finally spoke I could tell nothing from his tone. “We who, Abby?”
“Me, Chase and Luca.”
My father ended the call.
The phone slipped out of my hands to the floor. Luca absently picked it up and set it in my lap.
I took two minutes to feel sad about it. Two minutes to feel sorry for myself and then I snuggled between the two men whose opinions were the only ones that mattered from now on.
I thought when we got to the condo I’d have to pry my men off me again but as soon as we stepped foot in the foyer, exhaustion hit all of us. It had been a big day. We crashed in the huge double-king bed and slept until noon. As soon as we got up we resumed making plans. I called my sister first and invited her. She didn’t seem to care that I was marrying two men, only asking if she could bring a date. “Sure,” I said, “just make sure he brings a camera.
Then I called Belle and told her what the situation was. She screamed so loud I had to pull the phone away from my ear. She said she’d take care of the dress for me and also asked if she could bring a date. “Yup, have him bring a camera,” I said.
“Oh, you’ll never guess who I ran into at the ball last night,” Belle said as I was about to end the call.
“Who?”
“Ella Tremaine.”
“No kidding! She’s back in town?”
“Yeah, she was with Kase Waldorf last night.”
“Well, I have to invite her, do you have her number?”
“I don’t but I have Kase’s if you want it.”
After an awkward conversation with Kase Waldorf, one where he grilled me for descriptions of Fording and Night Manager, I was finally talking to one of the sweetest people I’d ever known. I hadn’t seen Ella in years, but I definitely wanted her there to celebrate.
“Of course I’ll be there, Abby. Seems like everyone’s getting their happy ever afters,” she said.
“It does, doesn’t it?”
“I can take care of the flowers if you like.”
“Oh, Ella, that’d be wonderful! Thank you. And feel free to bring Kase, too. Just make sure he brings a camera.”
It only took three people, their friends, contacts and a small fortune a few hours to plan a destination wedding. By seven that evening we were all taxing on the tarmac, about to take off.
The men gathered in the back of the jet, drinking whiskey, trading business stories and bonding while the girls and I caught up.
“So wait, you were in Delaware?”
Ella nodded.
“And you’re opening a sex club?”
Belle grinned, “Kind of.”
“And you bagged Liam Waldorf? Daddy’s head of Internal Affairs? How’d he take that?!”
Alica jabbed me in ribs. “A lot better than he took you marrying two guys,” she said with a smile and a hug. “You know everyone’s talking about what you did last night.”
Last year those words would have turned my stomach into a pit of knots. But now, not only did they not have an effect on me, I truly didn’t care.
“Don’t say it like that, Alicia,” Ella said sweetly. “Everyone is talking about it in a good way. People are really happy you put an end to that Page Six leak. A lot of them really admire the courage it took. At least, that’s what I’ve been hearing.”
I couldn’t help but smile. I guess I cared a little.
“Look at you, Ella. Not even back here a whole day and you already have a line on the latest gossip,” Belle teased.
Ella shrugged and smiled. “People just tell me things.”
Belle shuffled around in her suitcase for a moment and pulled out a gift box. “I know it’s last minute but I really wanted you to have some semblance of a shower.” She handed me the small box wrapped in black foiled paper and smiled. “Open it,” she said when I hesitated.
“Ooooh,” I said, pulling out two silver bangle bracelets connected by a thin chain. “It’s lovely, thank you, Belle.”
Belle smirked. “It’s not just pretty. It’s functional, too.” She slid one bangle on each wrist, effectively handcuffing me. “In case you want to get spicy,” she said.
I giggled a thank you and slid the kinky bracelets back into the box. Alicia handed me a bigger box. Beyond far to many layers of tissue paper was the most beautiful white lingerie I’d ever seen.
“Should be just your size,” she said as I hugged her.
“Thank you, Alicia.”
Ella gave me her present. “Belle said she was taking care of the dress so I thought I’d take care of this.”
“Oh but you’re already doing the flowers, Ella, you didn’t have to— oh my god! Ella these are just gorgeous!” I held up the crystal encrusted, glittering shoes and everyone sucked in their breath.
“They were my mother’s,” Ella said. “So they’re only on loan. But they’re real Swarovski crystal slippers.”
“Ella! Thank you! They are stunning!”
It was only a few hours before we landed in Spain and were piling into two limos to our hotel. Luca’s assistant needed a raise. The accommodations were perfect. Every couple had a whole suite to themselves and a concierge greeted us to go over the ceremony details. “The officiant will be here within the hour,” the portly gentleman said with a thick accent. “Please get yourselves ready quickly and meet outside on the hotel’s private beach.” He handed room keys to everyone and the girls and I ran to one the room that would become my honeymoon suite.
All three went to work on me. Ella twisted my hair into a beautiful updo, leaving a few stray pieces around my face. “It looks more romantic that way,” she said.
Belle set out a department store full of makeup on the vanity.
“Don’t worry,” she said when I eyed the black eye shadow she packed onto a brush. “I studied under some fantastic makeup artists before I decided fashion was my true calling. I know what I’m doing.” When she was done I looked like me on my very best day with twenty hours of sleep.
“Wow,” said Alicia. “Let’s get you into this dress without messing up all their hard work. The three of them slipped the dress over my shoulders, zipped me up and twirled me around to the mirror without misplacing a single hair.
“Whoa,” I said to myself in the mirror. The dress fit me like a dream, hugging and draping every place it should.
Alicia smiled. “Okay, let’s get those shoes on you and get you married to your Princes.”