The Vine

by C. A Ellis

  “Anyway, by some miracle, Luke survived. He came to Verona to find me, and whether it hurts your feelings or not, the one thing I have been completely honest with you about from the beginning—and maintained throughout our friendship—is nothing would ever happen between us. I will always be your friend, Luca—if you want me to be, that is—but I will always choose him. And yes, I most definitely will marry him, because I have never wanted anything more than that man in my whole entire life.”

  I think back to the conversation Luke and I had in the taxi before I say, “I will not feel guilty about wanting to be happy… not anymore. I’ve finally realised that life is too short for all that crap. I deserve a chance at happiness, so excuse me for grabbing it with both hands.” I finish my speech, barely taking a breath, and I must admit I feel great for getting that all off of my chest, because it’s exactly how I feel.

  Before I can think anything more, I am spun around into an embrace and an amazing, I-own-you kiss, and I melt. When I pull away, Luke has yet again taken my breath away. I can tell by the way I gasp a bit before I say, “Luke, I’m so glad you are, but why are you here?”

  “You didn’t answer your phone like you promised you would, so I came to find you. I won’t lose you again, Lizzy, not for a second,” Luke answers while rubbing my cheek with his thumb.

  I lean my face into his hand as I ask, “How much did you hear?”

  Luke smiles bashfully at me and says, “Pretty much everything from you asking him if he remembered meeting you on the aeroplane.”

  “I love you so much, Luke,” I say with tears in my eyes.

  “I love you too, Angel.”

  I ignore her, but I can hear Katy making gagging noises from her position at the table.

  “Do you need to keep talking to him?” Luke asks rudely, pointing toward Luca with his thumb.

  “No, I think we’ve got all what we had to say out in the open, and I’m hoping our friendship will remain because of it,” I reply, looking at Luca for a response while my fiancé rolls his eyes. Luca nods to me, knowing any love battle is lost to him, and now he can hopefully move on and we can be the good friends I’d always hoped we could be.

  “Good,” Luke replies, “let’s get out of here, because I have got one hell of a surprise for you, my Angel.”

  “A surprise for me?” I squeak excitedly.

  Luke slings his arm over my shoulder—which isn’t quite his usual style, but is sexy as hell—and we walk out like two teenagers in love. We head up to my room and when we are inside, he looks at me smiling, saying, “Very cute.”

  I smile back at him. “It’s lovely, isn’t it? And it’s been my home for a little while now.”

  “Whatever,” Luke says, looking confused. “I wasn’t talking about the room.” He smiles again.

  Maybe I should just stop wearing knickers, I think to myself. They just end up damp, and I keep getting the urge to lose them every time Luke smiles at me. He either doesn’t see the pools of desire in my eyes, or he chooses to ignore them, as he just holds my hands excitedly and asks, “Guess what?”

  I push my erotic thoughts to the back of my mind and join in with Luke’s enthusiasm. “What?” I prompt, my eyes widening in excitement for what is coming.

  “I know we are going back to London soon—and I hope you won’t be mad at me for this—but I’ve booked a place for our wedding in a month’s time.”

  “You have? That’s fantastic!” I enthuse. I am definitely surprised, and in no way mad at him; looking at his excited, handsome face, how could I be? And also, organising a wedding is my idea of a nightmare, so the more people who will arrange it for me, the better. Plus, if I know Luke, no matter how much I say I just want a simple wedding, he’s probably booked the best hotel in London. “Well,” I encourage, “where is it going to be?”

  “I’m keeping it simple like you asked, just close friends and family, but I’ve booked the wedding here in Italy. Well, here in Verona, to be precise.” He stops abruptly, awaiting my verdict.

  “Oh, my God, Luke, that’s wonderful! I love it here; it’s so beautiful and so romantic.” I look up dreamily.

  “Okay, well it bodes well for me you’re into the whole romantic notion of our wedding, because that’s where I am too, but the fact it’s taking place here in Verona is not the best part.” Luke now looks like he’s about to burst. My eyes widen, encouraging him to just spit it out as I don’t think my heart can take any more. “Okay, Okay! We are getting married on…” he hangs this word out, watching me squirm while he takes a good ten seconds to heighten my anticipation before blurting out quickly, “Romeo and Juliet’s balcony.”

  I gasp in total shock. “Are you for real, Lucas Joseph Castle? Because you better not play games with me, not about important things like our wedding.”

  “Angel, you know me better than that. I looked into it, found out it was totally possible and booked it for September fifth.” I squeal and run into his open arms. “Are you really happy, baby? All I ever want to do in this life is take care of you and please you endlessly.”

  “Luke, I am absolutely thrilled and excited to be marrying you, but that venue—wow. It’s just the icing on the cake for me. You’re never to doubt that you please me; you do daily, on so many levels. In fact,” I say as Luke nibbles my ear, “how about pleasing me again right here and right now?”

  Luke pulls me back to look at me, saying, “You’ve got a naughty look in your eye, Angel.” After seeing the wanton look spreading across my face, he smiles his panty-dropping smile, and so I do just that, all thoughts of my spa date forgotten.

  Chapter Thirty-one – Katy

  Luke and Lizzy walk out of the conference room like two high school kids from an American sit-com, and it makes me smile. I look over to the gorgeous, Italian stud muffin. Yeah, sure, I know his name, but GISM suits him perfectly. He looks at me like he didn’t even realise I was here. Wow, he really did only have eyes for Lizzy. Well, she sure put him straight. That’s my girl; I taught her well, and finally, it’s paying off, I think to myself, smirking.

  GISM walks over to me—Whoa, he really is one hot son of a bitch—and I go to stand. Uh oh, my legs of jelly won’t let me.

  I am a strong, confident woman! I think, annoyed at my obvious lack of power and control around this man. GISM is now standing right in front of me, clearly about to introduce himself, and it is so rude for me to still be sitting down, but I don’t know what else to do. Eventually I stand up, but not in my normal, poised manner I adopt when there’s man candy around. Instead, I sort of stumble up awkwardly.

  “Hello, sorry you had to witness all of that, but please let me introduce myself. I’m Luca Goretti,” he says in that fantastic accent, and he holds out his hand for me to take. Oh, dear Lord, help me. That accent is amazingly sexy, and it’s going to get me into so much trouble.

  “Katy,” I say. I don’t elaborate; not that I wouldn’t like to, but I can’t. My lips and tongue seem to have joined forces with my jelly legs—Well thank you very much, body, for letting me down just when I need you most.

  I hold out my hand for him to shake, and I so want it to come across as an elegant gesture like something Audrey Hepburn would do, but surprise, surprise—my hands have also joined up with the tongue that’s too big to fit in my mouth, the numb lips and the jelly legs. Great! Even so, GISM takes my hand, turns it over and kisses the back of it.

  Keep in mind, before this moment, I would have classed that sort of gesture as tacky, sickly and smarmy, but now, as I feel his molten hot lips touch the skin so gently on the back of my hand, I am so turned on by it—I mean like proper turned on, as in the undies I am wearing are flooded, my nipples are like bullets and—oh, dear God, please don’t tell me that’s a bit of drool running from my mouth.

  I put my hand up to the corner of my lips, hopefully in a discrete manner, and wipe the wetness away with my finger. Yep, I’m drooling. GISM is smiling at me; I don’t know if it’s because he is aware of how
he’s affecting me, or if he thinks I’m some kind of simpleton who needs his care and pity. Okay, enough is enough; I’m going speak to him, and I’m going to be breathy, sexy and sultry about it…so here goes nothing.

  “I’m very pleased to meet you too, Luca.”

  Oh, dear Lord, I think to myself, that wasn’t breathy, sexy and sultry—that was husky, croaky and more like a dirty phone call. I’ve officially lost my power over men, because it doesn’t matter how good I look—and I do look fantastic—no man is ever going to fall for a manly-sounding stalker girl with no control of her limbs, and who’s probably coming across like a complete psychopath.

  “Katy, under normal circumstance I would take a gorgeous girl like you out for a drink, get to know her better and then make wild, passionate love to her for hours, but seeing as though your best friend has broken my heart right here in front of you, you probably wouldn’t want to go out with me right now anyway.” He smirks before becoming serious again. “I know I’ll get over Lizzy; well, I’ll have to, because she is a very good friend of mine and I really don’t want to lose that friendship with her. So I guess we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other, so maybe one day in the future—you and me, who knows?—but for now, ciao.” And with that, GISM turns and exits the conference room, leaving me with my mouth open in shock, and probably with my tongue hanging out.

  I’m gobsmacked, but even more than that, I am just so relieved that even with my drooling, the fact I can’t talk properly, my failing limbs and my lovesick puppy act, he was still interested. Just imagine if I was up to my full flirting potential—the poor man wouldn’t have stood a chance.

  Not only that, he’s basically just told me he wants to take me out, wine and dine me and then fuck me senseless for days. Look, I know he didn’t actually say that, but it’s what he implied, so I fluff up my hair, gather myself and strut sexily out of the room and out of the hotel. Well, I strut as sexily as I can while wearing a pair of soggy knickers. What I need is to go back to my hotel, have a bit of fun with my battery-powered buzzing friend who doesn’t talk back and always satisfies, and then have a rejuvenating shower. I’ll catch up with Lizzy later, when I’m less sexually-frustrated and in a better mood.

  Chapter Thirty-two – Lizzy

  We’ve been back in London for a few weeks now, and it’s a week until our wedding. Just one week before I will finally become Mrs. Elizabeth Castle, and I can’t wait. I still get a little bit teary when I think about it; I mean, before Luke had come to find me, I had thought this was never going to happen.

  We are heading over to Italy and I am so excited. We haven’t had much need to go over there while planning the wedding, as Stef, Isabella and Luca have done everything for us on that end. The last few weeks, I have been spending quality time with George, Luke’s family, Katy and of course, Luke, who I just can’t get enough of.

  I told George I would not be coming back to work for him, as after the wedding I am going to spend all my free time writing my book. He knows I’ve always wanted to write one, so he was completely understanding. I think he was just glad to have me back safe.

  Luke and I are going to Verona first, as we have a few things to sort out, including a last-minute dress fitting for me, and then Luke’s family, George and his family and Katy will join us out there a few days before the wedding. We are having a close friends and family meal when they arrive—sort of like a traditional rehearsal dinner—even though our wedding is far from conventional.

  Katy is giving me away, and Stefano is my manly maid of honour. Luke has both Cole and Smyth as his best men—Smyth to do all the important stuff, and Cole to arrange the stag party and do the best man speech. God help poor Luke; Cole wanted them to all go to Las Vegas for the stag party, but Luke got out of it by saying with us getting married in just a month it was too much, and they could have a perfectly good night out in London.

  The truth though was with all that had happened, he didn’t want to leave me for too long, and to be honest, I didn’t want him to either. I wouldn’t have stopped him from going, but after almost losing him, I am just as protective of him as he is of me.

  Cole was initially disappointed, but soon got into organising a stag night that apparently Luke wouldn’t forget. The funny thing was, I encouraged Luke to invite Stefano, and he did, but Stef brought Luca. I never want to know what happened that night, and thankfully, none of them are very forthcoming anyway. Luke just came home looking absolutely exhausted, telling me how grateful he was to be marrying me and how wonderful it was to be home.

  Cole just kept saying annoyingly, “What happens in London stays in London.” I don’t think he’ll ever really forgive Luke for stopping him from booking Vegas. I kept thinking of them all out in London—Luke, Cole, Smyth and Luca—all looking gorgeous, but with Luke giving Luca a hard time all night, and then my darling Stef brightening things up. Oh, to be a fly on the wall.

  My hen party basically involved me, Katy, Stef, takeaway, champagne and face packs. It was a great night—we laughed, we cried and we laughed until we cried. It was perfect and exactly what I wanted, and Stefano was just thrilled he had gotten to crash both the hen and stag parties.

  So Luke and I are flying to Verona today, and we will be glad to have some time alone on the aeroplane at least. It’s been a crazy few weeks, all so full-on in London, and we know when we arrive in Verona it’s going to be equally as busy. We’ll be lucky to get any more time alone before the wedding. As a surprise, Luke has hired us a private jet, so we have a wonderful journey, making the most of our time together talking, eating, drinking champagne, kissing, cuddling and of course, joining the mile high club…a few times. It is the perfect start to our wedding celebrations.

  Finally, Luke and I arrive in Verona acting like two excited kids. We giggle our way through meeting after meeting as we go through all the wedding arrangements. Isabella has been in charge of organising all the food, including our wedding meal, evening buffet and most importantly, the cake. She takes us through everything and we are ecstatic.

  Luca has been in charge of the ceremony itself and has arranged for our close friends and family to see us have our wedding in Juliet’s beautiful house. We will have our wedding photographs taken on Romeo and Juliet’s famous balcony, and then we will be welcomed to The Vine Palazzo by the rest of our friends and family for more photographs in their amazing gardens. We’ll end there, having our wedding dinner and our reception. We chose the location since we have such fond memories of it. Luca has done a sterling job.

  Stefano is obviously in charge of hair, and the wedding dress; we’ve had weeks of emails going back and forth to get it right, so I am really excited for my fitting. Luke and Stefano are going to collect their suits today, and Stef has arranged for me to have a dress fitting at The Vine. We are in the bridal suite again, and a lady called Sabrina is meeting me there for my fitting today. I hope she arrives on time because I have just received a message from Luca saying he will pop by to see me later. I have to smile to myself because he obviously knows Luke isn’t going to be here, or else he wouldn’t have even attempted to come over, no matter how much he had missed me and wants to see me. What I didn’t want though is Luca turning up while I had the wedding dress on. I don’t want him seeing it before Luke; it would feel like a betrayal to my beautiful man.

  At 2 pm on the dot, I hear a knock on the door, and when I open it, it’s Sabrina and I instantly love her. She is even more enthusiastic and bouncy than Stefano, which I didn’t think was humanly possible. I welcome her and help her in with the huge dress carrier as we both introduce ourselves. Sabrina excitedly gets to work on revealing the dress I’m going to wear when I marry my soul mate in just a few days, and a shiver of anticipation runs through me at the thought. She asks me to turn my back and tells me not to peek until the dress is ready for viewing.

  After a few minutes, she says quietly, “Okay, you can turn around now.” I smile thinking how hard it must be for Sabrina to act so serene
when clearly she is naturally giddy and hyper. I turn around slowly until I am face-to-face with my wedding dress, and the smile instantly slides from my expression and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. This is what happens when I get Stefano to organise things for me; I should have known.

  I hear Sabrina’s voice, “Lizzy, is everything okay? Do you not like it?” She sounds worried; I need to put her mind at ease.

  “Sabrina, it is absolutely exquisite.” And I mean it—it really is beautiful—it just isn’t what Stef and I had agreed upon via our endless emails. I had never wanted a white dress; I had told him ivory would be acceptable, and in the pictures I had sent, the dresses were all very me—quite plain and simple in design, but still beautiful and elegant.

  It is still quite warm here in Verona at the moment, so I wanted a strapless dress that would also show off my lean arms and shoulders. I wanted a tight bodice of silk, satin or lace, and from the waist, a silk skirt that floated out slightly but would cling to my thighs as I walked. The work of art in front me is nothing like that. I hear Sabrina’s voice, all high-pitched and excited again. “Come on, Lizzy, I can’t wait any longer! Let’s get you in it, shall we?”

  I nod and feel a bubble growing in my belly, a mixture of nerves and excitement. After much effort from me and Sabrina, the dress is finally on and she delicately places the tiara on my head. She asks me to close my eyes while she turns me to face the large, gilt mirror in our bedroom, and starts running around me and moving parts of the dress to where she needs them to be. She’s mumbling about how glad she is I had just gone for a tiara and not a head dress or veil of any sort, as the dress really didn’t need it. Finally, Sabrina is obviously happy with her work and is ready for me to look. She asks me to open my eyes, and as I do, I see her step back out of sight from the mirror and then I take myself in.