Complete Indelible Love Series

by Cee, DW

  “Break it up! You’re in public.” Bee slapped her nephew on the shoulder and surprised the both of us. “Have you no decency even on the streets of Paris?” she asked with a quirky smile. “Let me take my future niece in with me, lest you molest her in public.”

  “Auntie...” Donovan pretended to whine. “We were just getting started.” He grinned and looked so beautiful.

  “Have you two not been spending every night together since you reunited? Must you do this in public and make us single people mourn being single and celibate?” she kidded.

  “You mean you’ve haven’t been molested by a Reid, lately?” I posed this question as a dare.

  Bee laughed loudly, and I mean—LOUDLY—and walked away.

  I asked Donovan, “What do you think that laugh means?”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t know, don’t want to know! Nick is in London right now, so who knows if those two have made time for each other?”

  “Have they been together all this time?”

  “I don’t think so, but Bee hasn’t been forthcoming with her information.”

  “You better get going. I don’t want a call from Grandfather telling me I’m a bad influence on you.”

  “Good-bye, Princess. I love you.”

  “Good-bye, my prince. I love you too.”

  “You two seriously depress the entire single population.”

  “Why?”

  “Laney Reid, you really don’t know?” she asked with aplomb.

  “Bee Taylor, I really don’t know!” I answered with equal aplomb.

  “You’re both gorgeous. Donovan is at the top of the food chain in looks, profession, and charm. You are equally gorgeous, a genuinely nice person, and brains to match that stunning body of yours. And now, you’re both off the market. I think I hear the cries of every single man and woman mourning your loss.”

  “Stop, Bee. You are a hoot. When this is all over, I want info about you and Nick.”

  “Yeah, don’t hold your breath on that one.”

  “You know he’s in London?” I stared at her to get some sort of reaction. She was like a robot where her emotions for Nick were concerned. “I assume you two have met already, or will be meeting once this show is done?”

  “You know what they say about the word assume?” I shook my head no. “It makes an ‘ass’ out of ‘u’ and ‘me.’”

  “Ha, ha,” I answered sarcastically and asked Bee if I could borrow her phone. “Hello, Cousin!” I smiled devilishly and stepped away from Bee who was about to maim me with her long, sharp scissors.

  “Laney?” Nick asked. “Isn’t this Bee’s phone?”

  “It is. Whatcha’ up to today?”

  “I’m helping with these critters while Emily and Jake get settled.”

  “Who’s there with you?”

  “Everyone—your brother, Max, Jane, Garret, and your wanna-be boyfriend, Josh.”

  “Can you get away today?”

  “NO!” I heard Bee crying from the other end of the room. Obviously, she was listening to our conversation.

  “Well, you see, I’m in this fashion show in Paris, thanks to a designer friend of mine. You might know her? Donovan’s aunt, Bee Taylor?” The pretense of coyness was causing a chuckle on the other end of the phone line. “Do you know her?”

  “I might...”

  “It only takes two hours on the Eurotunnel to come into Paris, and I was hoping you might want to come watch me on the catwalk.”

  “So then, should I bring the whole family?”

  “Oh, no, Nick!” I kept up the pretense. “Then who would help Jake and Emily? Since I got you on the phone, why don’t you come and represent the Reid family?”

  “And what’s in it for me if I spend all that money and time to get into Paris?”

  “You’ll see me, Donovan, and both our families. It’ll be fun! Say you’ll come,” I begged.

  “Will there be a place to stay if I come into Paris?”

  “Grandfather’s apartment is completely full with the six of us staying there, but Bee told me you could stay with her.” I saw Bee crossing her arms and making a huge X to signal a big, fat “NO!” but I turned my body and pretended I didn’t see her.

  “Really?” He knew I was lying, but kept up the farce. “I’ll think about it, Laney. Things going well with you and Casanova?” he chuckled.

  “It depends on the day and time you ask. About twelve hours ago, I thought I might castrate Casanova, but right now, things are beautiful. I’ll tell you all about it when I see you soon in Paris?”

  “See you soon in Paris,” he confirmed.

  Doing my catwalk swagger all the way back to Bee, I gave her the Cheshire cat smile.

  “You are so busted, Laney Taylor. I’m going to have you model some lingerie now in retaliation.”

  That was a horrifying thought! “You are NOT! My parents will be here, Donovan’s parents will be here. There is no way I am modeling lingerie!”

  “I think you are,” she said confidently, but quickly added, “Come on, Laney. It looks so good on you. My lingerie is meant for women with tits and ass—and not these skinny-ass models who look like boys.”

  “I resent the tits and ass statement, but in any case, no.”

  “Yes!” she argued, so I used Bee’s phone again and got Donovan on speakerphone.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi Donovan. Am I bothering you?”

  “You can bother me anytime, Princess. What’s up?”

  “You auntie here is threatening to make me wear lingerie in the fashion show. I keep telling her that I won’t wear it, but she won’t listen to me.”

  “Hell NO! Bee! Delaney is not showing her body to anyone.”

  “She’ll be a knockout, Donovan. The audience will love it.”

  “I do not want men ogling her and Ma and Pa will be there as well as her parents, Kelley, Becky and their husbands.”

  “Come on. They’re all family and the men in the audience are mostly gay. If they ogle anyone, it won’t be your princess.”

  “Bee.” Donovan used his most convincing lawyer voice. “Delaney has never shown her body to any other man. I plan to keep it that way.”

  “Seriously?” she asked me and I nodded yes. “You’re shitting me.” She didn’t believe me.

  “Seriously!” Donovan confirmed. “I need to get back to my meeting. I’ll see you both in a few hours. Bye Bee, and love you, Princess.”

  Bee rolled her eyes and hung up the phone before I could respond. “Oh, all right!” She conceded. “But I do have one more dress I want you to wear tonight. This is the outfit that will close the show.”

  “What dress is that? I didn’t know you had another one.”

  “I didn’t think I’d get it done in time, but it’s finished and no one has seen it but me. You’ll see it right before you go on.”

  “Ooh, sounds exciting. I can’t wait.”

  The rest of the morning was a blur. Mom and Ma came early to help Bee with what they could and of course, Mom ended up helping the set designer more than Bee. Ma was quite handy with the sewing machine, so she helped Bee make last minute adjustments. I...really could do nothing but simple errands for Bee. I picked up lunches, went on latte runs, and soon sat to hair and makeup before it was time to put on the gown.

  Bee’s collection would start from casual day dresses, to bathing suits, to evening wear to lingerie to her final surprise, whatever that might be. Originally, I was to model a casual dress, then an evening dress, but Bee decided to have me come out only in the end.

  “Hi, Daddy. Hi, Pa.” I greeted the two men who comically sat in the front row of this show.

  “Hello, Sweetheart.” My father greeted me with a hug and a kiss. Pa greeted me with the same affection. “You ready for your fifteen minutes of fame?”

  “I am praying that I will not make a fool of myself and of Bee’s clothes. I have this fear I’ll fall f
lat on my face.”

  “You’ll be beautiful, no matter what happens,” Pa encouraged.

  “I’ve got to get back, but I wanted to pop out and say hello to the both of you.” I patted both men on their shoulders and walked away.

  “How are you going to let her go, Henry? She’s a doll,” I heard Pa say.

  “I was hoping I’d have her with me for at least another five years...” Dad sounded sad making this statement. I knew regardless of when I married, our families would always live close to one another and practically in each other’s pockets.

  The show began and Bee’s early creations were well received. I peeked out into the audience and saw everyone, Nick included, but no Donovan. It was unreasonable for me to want him there, late afternoon on a workday. Nevertheless, I was bummed.

  “Laney,” Bee called. “There’s a change in the line-up. You’re going on at the very end, one gown only.”

  “So no red dress?”

  “No red dress. Go back to hair and makeup. They need to change a few things.”

  I did as I was told and the hairstylist put my hair up in a glamorous, messy-with-intent chignon. The front of my hair was slicked to the side with tons of gel and hairspray and the back of my head was a blob of hair all rolled into one. It looked messy and yet so cool. My natural curls rioted in just the right places and though the front looked like it was styled, the back looked as casual as if I was talented enough to whip it up. Once the makeup gal made me look like more of a model than a wanna-be model, I was ready to put on the last dress.

  “Um...why are you blindfolding me?” I asked the gal who was supposed to help me get dressed.

  “Because you’re not to see the dress till the very last moment. Bee needs that element of surprise from you. She says your expressive face will put everyone in the right mood for this last number.”

  “OK...” Who was I to question? I did as instructed.

  Embarrassingly, the gal undressed me completely—thank God we were in a private dressing room—and put one of Bee’s lingerie pieces on me. Then she had me step into a dress that was strapless, tight on the body, and very sheer. I could feel something similar to sequins, thought it wasn’t sequins, circling the dress every few inches, from top to bottom. It was a long dress and by the way air blew into parts of my legs that weren’t covered by the lingerie, I knew Donovan would not be happy with this dress.

  “Um, I have to ask, is this dress completely see-through?”

  “It is, but you’re covered in all the right areas,” she said while snapping a belt on the dress.

  “My parents and possible future in-laws are in the front row. Will I mortify my parents and horrify the in-laws?”

  The gal chuckled. “Not at all. You look positively stunning. You’ll put everyone in awe. I promise.”

  “I don’t care about putting anyone in awe, I just don’t want parts of my body playing peek-a-boo in this dress.”

  “I promise, you won’t be embarrassed to be seen in it. Can you stay here a second? There’s one other part to this dress I need to get.”

  “Sure,” I answered casually, wondering where she thought I would go since I was blindfolded.

  She came back in a flash and snapped a big piece of fabric all around my hips. Once again, feeling the fabric for information, I could tell it was layers of tulle wrapped around my bodice. The part right on top of my hips felt like tulle had been folded over and given a wavy, multi-layered look. Who knew if I was correct? For all I knew, I could be walking out there with only a slip over the lingerie. I trusted Bee would not embarrass me or Donovan in this way.

  “It’s done and it’s the most beautiful piece tonight, by far!” The gal exclaimed. She held my hand and carefully took me to an area where I was to sit and wait for my next instruction. But before she left, she placed what I was sure was a tiara on my head. Now I was truly confused as to what I looked like.

  Not long after, the music began and if memory served me correctly, it was the tune that Cinderella sang before the morning gong forced her out of bed to do the work of those nasty stepsisters and mother. I started softly humming to “a dream is a wish your heart makes...” when I felt a door of some kind open, a hand gently grabbing mine, and the audience gasping.

  “I believe this is our ball?” An amused and familiar voice called out as he undid my blindfold.

  Donovan! My Prince!

  Taking in my surroundings, I noticed I was in a “makeshift” carriage. It was technically a picture of a carriage drawn on a large wooden board. The door was partially cut out so it could be opened from the outside and my seat was just a large chair on the other side of the board.

  While I was still seated in my “carriage,” Donovan kneeled and put the “missing” Swarovski glass slipper on my left foot. In all the craziness of the blindfolding, I didn’t even realize I had walked barefoot and while the tiara was being placed, another person had put only one shoe on me. Donovan…glass slipper…Cinderella music…my Prince…all of this was over-the-moon, around-the-galaxy, to-infinity-and-beyond, romantic. We could hear the women sigh.

  As the music changed to Bibbibi-Bobbidi-Boo, Donovan helped me out of my seat, lifted my hand and placed a gentlemanly kiss on it. I was in such a daze, it took me this long to realize Donovan was in a suit that looked like Cinderella’s prince at their wedding. He had on a long dark yellow half coat with blue emblems and tassels as accents, and red pants with double dark yellow stripes on the side.

  “Never in my wildest dreams would I have believed that primary colors could look so good on a man.”

  He gave me an adorable grin and whispered, “Enjoy it now, my princess. You’ll never see these colors on me again.”

  I giggled and as soon as the song changed to, So This Is Love, the song Cinderella and her prince danced to at the ball, Donovan brought me close to him, and we danced for the audience.

  “Was this part of the script?”

  “No. I thought I’d make my aunt happy since she did such a stunning job on this wedding dress.”

  Wedding dress? I stopped and took a good look at myself. Oh. My. God! It was a very fancy party dress by itself, but with the addition of the wedding dress-like tulle around my hips, and the tiara that also had a short veil flung to the back, I was in a wedding gown.

  The music changed again and once Wagner’s wedding march played, Donovan placed my hand on his arm and now we were the bride and groom walking down the aisle.

  “This is the path we are meant to take, Princess. No matter the obstacles that come our way, we will end up in each other’s arms, pledging our love for one another in front of family and friends. Just think of tonight as practice.”

  I focused very hard on not crying happy tears.

  I only realized we were at the end of the catwalk when everyone stood to give us—or better stated, Bee’s creations—a standing ovation. Donovan took this opportunity to take his wedding kiss and kissed me in front of the entire audience. Various hoots, hollers, and whistles ensued as Donovan’s kiss went longer than was expected or appropriate.

  “I love you,” he professed when we came up for air and kissed me one more time. This kiss was only half the length of the first one.

  “That was the most romantic show we’ve ever had!” Donovan and I got congratulated by throngs of people as we headed to the dressing room to get changed. “You were beautiful together.” “Would you consider modeling for us?” “Bee, your creations are genius.” Those were just some of the repetitive questions and comments from other designers and staff. Donovan and I were thrilled for Bee. She deserved every adulation as her edgy creations wowed everyone in the house.

  “Can we change now, Bee?” I asked.

  “Sure. Take that room over there.” She pointed. “And Donovan, your suit should be in there for you to change back into.”

  We got into the dressing room and Donovan took his sweet time unzipping me from this dress.


  “Donovan.” I tried to muster some sense of exasperation. “Everyone is waiting for us. Your sister, Becky, will get all pissy with me again if I keep her from dinner. She already told me several times that she was hungry.”

  “I don’t care.” Donovan said between kisses. “Do we need to wait till our wedding night to make love? Because if that’s the case, we’re going down to city hall right now and getting hitched.” He couldn’t stop touching me.

  “Um...we don’t have to wait till our wedding night, but I think we should wait till I can break up with the man who’s technically still my boyfriend, and figure out if I want to get into a relationship with the man who’s fondling me right now.” The giggling wouldn’t abate no matter the seriousness of this situation.

  “I’m on such a high right now, I may just take you back to the empty apartment and show you the proper ways of fondling a princess.”

  “How about you show me some other time? I promise to wear the lingerie, tiara, and high heels when that happens, but for now, we need to get to dinner.”

  “You’re not helping, Princess. You don’t understand how aroused I am by the sight of you in the lingerie under that dress.”

  I laughed before saying, “I don’t know if that Hot-dog-on-a-Stick suit of yours does it for me, but let’s talk about it tonight. We need to get going.” I literally pushed Donovan away, stepped out of the dress and quickly put on another dress over the lingerie.

  “You going to keep that on tonight?” he groaned.

  I nodded yes. “Bee said I could take it with me.”

  “And how am I supposed to concentrate on dinner knowing you have on a garter belt that’s holding up your equally sexy stockings?”

  “Change!” I commanded and left the dressing room.

  “You’re out of the room,” Nick gave me a rascally smile.

  “Of course I’m out of the room. What kind of question is that, Nicholas Reid?”

  “Just saying...” He grinned his sweet know-it-all grin. “You and Donovan looked good out there.”