Beautiful Boxset: Beautiful Series, books 1-4

by Anderson, Lilliana

  “Can I touch you?” I return, turning my head toward the sound of his voice. I can feel his breath on my cheek – it’s as heavy as mine.

  “Soon,” he whispers, his lips lightly brushing against my ear as he speaks. A gasp sneaks out over my lips and I hear him chuckle lightly as he pulls at the curtain again.

  The metal clangs and a gust of air fills the cubicle, feeling cool against my heated skin.

  “This way.” He slides his arm around my waist and takes me by the elbow to guide me out of the change room.

  I can feel the length and the weight of the dress as I move. Both David and the dressmaker have to help lift it as they guide me so I’m standing on some sort of platform.

  “Now, stand very still,” he orders me. The dressmaker fawns over me, pinning here and measuring there, while she mutters to herself about what she needs to do. The entire time, David keeps physical contact with me. He holds my hand and gently strokes my skin, moving around me so he isn’t in the way. I still can’t see anything. All I can do it feel, and try to keep my breathing steady.

  “You know, I’ve never had a blindfolded bride before,” she comments. I can hear the scratching of her pencil as she jots something on a notepad. “You think you’ve seen it all when you deal with people all your life, but this one is new to me.”

  “I’m glad we could surprise you,” David says, causing her to laugh in that way that women do around him. He’s obviously won her over with his charm. He’s probably smiling at her – that dimple does it every time.

  David takes me by the hand and helps me off the platform, guiding me once again into the change room to help me out of the dress. Each time his fingers make contact with my skin, I flinch – I’m that turned on right now.

  The dress pools around my feet and I expect him to place my hands on his shoulders again. He does, but when he slides his hands over my lower leg, he doesn’t lift, he keeps sliding upward. As his fingers brush my thoroughly damp panties, I suck in my breath sharply.

  “Shhhh,” he whispers, so quietly even I barely hear it. He slips his fingers underneath the fabric and moves through my juices. I hear his breath blow out slowly, he’s trying to keep calm and quiet. I try to do the same, but my heart is thudding so loudly in my ears that I feel sure the dressmaker can hear us.

  He removes his hand and slides my panties down my legs, before guiding me so I’m leaning against wall in the corner of the stall. He pushes my legs slightly apart and returns his hand to my centre, slipping his fingers inside and massaging my core. I feel his breath against my mound and almost gasp out when I feel his tongue slip between my folds and over my clit.

  My hips flinch and I bite down on my lip, riding him. My orgasm explodes within seconds and I shudder, holding my breath so I can’t be heard.

  David withdraws from me and stands, pressing himself against me so I can feel how hard he is for me. “We need to go home. Now,” he growls in my ear.

  He lifts me over to the other side of the cubicle and I hear the material sound again as he lifts the dress off the floor and hangs it up, before returning his attention to me to once again get me dressed.

  “Where’s my underwear?” I ask in a whisper when he’s standing in front of me doing my zip up.

  “In my pocket. One less thing to remove when I get you home.” My insides clench with excitement as we leave the change room and head straight for the car, barely taking the time to say goodbye to the dressmaker.

  “Leave the blindfold on,” he tells me when he sees me reach for it in the car on the drive home. I lower my hands, and shift my weight, squirming in my seat.

  I’m starting to think that every woman should let her man organise their wedding. All the anticipation and mystery has me in a constant state of arousal.

  David is so ready, that the moment we get home, he gets me out of the car and throws me over his shoulder cave man style.

  If this was any other time I’d be laughing over the fun of it all, but I’m so on edge that I gasp instead. I can’t wait to get inside…

  Eleven

  David

  While I knew that organising a wedding was a big deal, I didn’t realise quite how huge it really was. Even just a small one. I’ve set the date, organised the venue, the dress, my suit, flowers, food, music, a photographer, and of course - a celebrant to marry us. Now all that’s left is the cake and the guest list.

  I’m inviting our families and a few of our work and uni friends that we actually spend time with outside of work. We’re not massively social – we go out with other people once every month or two if we’re lucky. We prefer each other’s company above anyone else’s.

  Scanning the list of names, I dial the first number and place the phone to my ear. I’m calling everyone personally since it’s a surprise and I need to swear them to complete secrecy. Plus, I can’t risk invitations being stuck to people’s refrigerators where Trina could accidentally see one.

  She’s kept in touch with Kayley, who is now married herself to an Aussie guy called Chad. We probably see them as a couple three times a year, and get along really well together. Kayley and Trina have lunch once a month as well. So they are top of the ‘friends’ list.

  “Kayley,” I say as she answers in her familiar Irish lilt. “It’s David. How are you?”

  “I’m great. It’s unusual for you to call me. Is everything alright?”

  “More than alright actually. I’m calling to invite you to Trina’s and my wedding,” I tell her. It’s so hard to keep the smile off my lips, so I don’t bother. I just grin like an idiot.

  She lets out an excited little yelp. “Finally! I’m so happy. When is it?”

  I fill her in on all the details, smiling the entire way through my description about what’s going to happen, and how I’m going to get Trina there without her knowing it’s her wedding day until the last minute.

  “Sounds amazing David. I can’t wait.”

  “Me either. It’s been a long time coming.”

  When I hang up I’m still smiling. As I go through my list and make call after call I smile the whole time. By the time I’m finished – my face hurts.

  Katrina

  Today David is out doing wedding stuff. His actual words when I questioned him about it were ‘wouldn’t you like to know’. He then winked at me, grinned and walked out of the apartment without me. So it’s obviously wedding stuff.

  While I’m loving the excitement of it all, I’m dying to have some sort of information. It’s like everyone around me has a secret and I’m left out of it. I only last fifteen minutes alone in the apartment before I go snooping. There has to be something in this house that will tell me what he’s planning.

  First, I look through his drawers. I’m careful not to mess anything up, but besides some mobile phone and internet bills, I can’t find anything.

  Pressing my lips together, I look around the apartment and try to think about where he would hide something. It dawns on me that he might use the same hiding places I would and I go through the hall closet. I’m not too careful looking through here as I can at least claim I was cleaning up if he notices things are moved… but nothing.

  “Hmmm,” I say to myself. “If I was a secret wedding planned by David. Where would I hide?”

  I have a light bulb moment and go into the office. We both use the office so there’s no way he’d leave a paper trail in here, although I do a quick check anyway while I wait for the computer to power up. Immediately I open up the browser and pull up the history. Surely there will be something in there that will tell me what he’s planning.

  My mouth drops open and my heart sinks. All I find is page after page talking about getting married in Vegas.

  “Oh no,” I breathe, my hand covering my mouth. This isn’t what I wanted. Why would he do this?

  David

  “You are so predictable,” I say from the doorway behind her. I’ve just walked in and she was so engrossed in spying on me that she didn’t hear me come th
rough the door.

  The moment she hears my voice she jumps in her seat and spins around to face me.

  “David! I… I ah…” she stammers, trying to shut down the screen and explain herself at the same time.

  “We’re not getting married in Vegas Trina,” I tell her.

  “What? We’re not?” Her face is bright red from being caught out, but the relief is obvious.

  “No princess. I wouldn’t do that to you.”

  “But what about all the websites? Were you thinking about it?”

  “No not at all. I did that on purpose because I knew you’d spy. You won’t find a single detail about our wedding Trina. There is such a thing as an inPrivate browser. You won’t find anything here.”

  “Come on David. You’re killing me. Just give me something.”

  I move closer to her and kneel at her feet, taking her hands in my own as I look into her eyes.

  “Do you want me to tell you all about the wedding?”

  “Um… yeah, I do. I can’t stand not knowing anymore.”

  For a few moments I study her expectant face, she’s beautiful like this, her eyes shining with interest and her expression slightly creased from her stress. I reach up and smooth my fingers over her forehead which causes her to relax her frown, then I rise up a little higher on my knees and press our lips together. Then I whisper. “No.”

  Her head jerks back. “No?!”

  “No. I’m not going to tell you.” I push up to standing and lean down to kiss her on the top of her head. “You’ll just have to wait.” I stride out of the office and head towards the kitchen. “I’m making a coffee. Do you want one?” I call out.

  “I hate you!” she calls after me.

  “No you don’t,” I laugh. “You love me. True love forever remember? You drew the symbol enough times in your wedding album. I don’t think you can go back on that.”

  She appears in the doorway of the kitchen behind me. “You’re right. I do love you. Even though you’re a shit stirrer who won’t even tell me the date of my wedding.”

  “Well princess, you’re going to know it when you see it. I can promise you that much.”

  Twelve

  Katrina

  The weather is starting to warm up and David and I are heading to Bondi beach to enjoy sun and the sand. It was all my idea, so no wedding surprise today. It’s just me and my man, spending some quality time together.

  Since we moved to Surrey Hills, we’ve come to the beach a fair few times, although David still isn’t interested in surfing. I think he’d look really hot in a wetsuit, pulled down around his waist as he strolls along the beach with a board under his arm. It gives me shivers just thinking about it. But he’s adamant that surfing isn’t his thing.

  “You’re lucky I swim at the beach. There’s freakin’ blue bottles, jelly fish and sharks to worry about close to shore. Why the hell would I want to swim even further out to surf? God only knows what’s lurking around out there.”

  His fear of ocean animals makes me laugh. He would take down anyone or anything in his bid to protect me, but he’s scared of a blue bottle sting. Instead, he’s happy to spend most of his day laying on a towel and reading. He had to get a pair of reading glasses while we were still uni, so I love it when he reads, especially on weekends when he hasn’t shaved. There’s something about seeing him with his hair stylishly messy, his face scruffy and a pair of glasses that is so appealing to me.

  “You should surf because it would mean that you were a definitely going to get lucky once we got home - especially after I’ve sat around watching you all day.”

  “Princess, you can’t keep your hands off me,” he grins, looking at me over the top of his glasses. “I’m lucky all the time.”

  I laugh and flick him with some sand and he gives me a half amused, half unimpressed look as it clings to the sun cream on his chest and refuses to move.

  “Come and swim with me, I’ll wash it off for you,” I suggest.

  He raises his eyebrows and lets his eyes wander over my bikini clad body. My body tingles under his gaze and I half think that maybe we should go home and shower together instead.

  “David, Katrina. Hi,” a voice says from above us. I cover my eyes against the sun and look up to see Elliot standing in front of us, clad in a pair of board shorts and nothing else. His chest is still as defined as it always was. He really looks like he belongs on the beach, or at least on a billboard advertising it.

  Behind him is Paige who is wearing a simple black string bikini that has little gold embellishments on the ends of the ties. With her curves, she looks amazing in it. I can see her standing right next to him in that billboard ad.

  Looking at her body, I feel like I’m all bones and hard angles in my own royal blue Seafolly bikini, although I have to admit, this one makes me look like I have curves. The bodice is ruched, and twists in the middle to make you look a little fuller in the chest, and the bottoms are topped with a little ruffle that kind of gives me hips. So I shake the tiny insecurity away. I’m fine in my own skin.

  “Hi,” David and I say in unison. No one speaks for a beat until I ask, “Where’s Grace?”

  “Oh she’s with my dad and his wife Erica,” Elliot tells us.

  “I think she might be taking her for hair extensions,” Paige puts in. She’s smiling, so I wonder if perhaps she doesn’t hate me after all.

  “Seriously?” I say, crinkling my nose up.

  “No,” Elliot laughs. “She just spoils her rotten and Paige likes to joke about it.”

  “Oh. Ok.” I laugh a little. It sounds forced. I don’t know how to take Paige yet.

  “So, um, mum tells me she’s having a BBQ between your family and ours at the beginning of December,” Elliot starts. “I was going to call you and maybe say hi. Get the ball rolling on this ‘getting along’ thing. But we saw you here and thought we’d come over instead.”

  We all kind of just nod and look at each other, not really knowing what to say until David comes to everyone’s rescue.

  “Listen, we were just about to go and get an ice-cream or a cold drink from across the street. You want to join us?” David says. I slide my eyes over to him – no we weren’t.

  “Um. Sure, that’d be ok,” Elliot says glancing at Paige who isn’t showing any obvious yes or no signs.

  David

  Everyone seems fine heading off to get something to eat and drink together. I know it’s a little odd, but I figure we’re obviously going to see them or run into them occasionally. Especially when you consider how close Kathy and Carol are - it’s inevitable that we’re going to be in the same room. We may as well make friends as far as I’m concerned.

  “So how’s life in the legal world?” Elliot asks me as we cross the busy street via the zebra crossing.

  “It’s busy. I like it though. I get all my arguing out at work so I’m pretty calm outside the office,” I laugh.

  “What area did you go in to?”

  “Employment law. I’m all about fighting the good fight for the little guy, although half the time I find myself assigned to a case where we’re fighting for the multi-million dollar company. But such is life huh.”

  “Yeah, I can definitely relate. You start off with great intentions and you get stuck doing what you’re told – good or bad.”

  I nod my head in agreement. “How about you? How’s life as a personal trainer?”

  “It’s great. I really enjoy it actually. I take a lot of clients here actually and run them along the shoreline. It’s a pretty nice office.”

  “I reckon. I think I chose the wrong profession.”

  We laugh a little and continue an easy conversation. I can tell that he’s doing the same thing I am though, we’re both half listening to each other and half listening to our other halves behind us.

  Katrina

  “Listen, I know it was a while ago now. But I really wanted to say that I’m sorry for mentioning the photos at your welcome home BBQ. I really didn’t m
ean anything. I was just nervous and well, I kind of started talking and couldn’t really stop,” I laugh uneasily.

  Paige glances at me and wrinkles her nose slightly. “It’s ok. That was a really hard day. I was jet lagged and at the time. I still didn’t like people seeing it. It was very private to me for a long time.”

  “You obviously don’t mind now,” I say nodding towards the bare skin on her back.

  “No. I wear it proudly now,” she smiles. There’s a pause and I wonder if I should ask more questions, but she changes the subject. “So Elliot tells me you’re a lawyer.”

  “Yeah, a solicitor. I work in a little office focusing mainly on family law. It’s a bit like living in a soap opera half the time. You can’t imagine what goes on in half of these marriages. So many secrets.” I tell her widening my eyes and shaking my head as I think about the stories I hear.

  “Oh, I can imagine. Everyone has their secrets. I’m a hairdresser by trade and you wouldn’t believe the things clients like to tell me. It’s like I’m a confessional or something. I don’t get it, but they love sharing their problems with me.”

  “Really? You know, I’ve never been chatty at the hairdressers. Is that bad?”

  “No. Not at all. You’d be a good client, we could actually focus on cutting your hair.”

  We laugh a little together, the atmosphere between us much easier than it was the first time we met.

  David and Elliot wait up for us to enter the ice-cream shop and we split off into pairs while we order and then go back outside to where there are a few tables and chairs.

  “So I hear you two are getting married soon,” Elliot comments between licks of his ice-cream.

  “Soon?” I say immediately, hoping to get some information out of him before David silences him, but I don’t get the chance