Nothing More Beautiful

by Lorelai LaBelle

  Saturday morning came and I swore I had more jitters than Danielle, even though it was her wedding day. Everyone from the bachelorette party would be there except Nikki, including big-mouth Bridgett, who couldn’t keep a secret. On a positive note, she was keeping her distance from Vince ever since the theft ordeal, so the likelihood that she’d spill the beans was miniscule. I worried about all the others, though. People would be getting drunk, which meant their tongues would be getting loose, like mine had. Luckily, Vince had to work late Friday night and missed the rehearsal dinner, where I was asked several times if I was switching teams. All the jokes bounced off me for the first hour before I grew tired of them, and snapped at Becky.

  Danielle had packed the schedule for the day full of fun preparatory appointments and tasks. We started the day off right with a delectable breakfast with strong mimosas, then we got our nails and hair done, did our own makeup, and dressed at the venue. The Hostess House, a beautiful, elegant choice for Danielle’s smaller wedding, had a chapel and reception room, and a gazebo outside, where the two lovebirds were to unveil in front of each other prior to pictures.

  I almost cried twice while helping Danielle dress. She was so stunning in her gown, and all the emotion was getting to me, realizing that she was about to enter into a new stage in her life. “Are you ready?” I asked after we finished adjusting her wedding gown. It fit perfectly, the pure white fabric falling in a short train, with the surplice neckline showing off a great deal of cleavage.

  She nodded, happy tears running down her cheeks. She clasped my hands. “I know things are about to change a lot between us when I move in with Ashley, but I want you to know that I’ll always be there for you. Even though we’re not related by blood, you’re my sister, and that will never change.”

  My eyes watered again: I was on the verge of losing my composure. I had no words for her, my emotions too wild, so we embraced each other in silence. “I’m so happy for you,” I said at last. “Come on. Let’s go see your bride.” I took the yellow sash and tied it around her eyes, blindfolding her. I guided her outside to the gazebo where Ashley stood, also blindfolded, next to her maid of honor.

  “Ready?” I asked. They both said “yes” with tense excitement. I nodded at the other woman, and we both untied the blindfolds at the same time, drawing them back. Both brides gasped. Instead of white, Ashley wore a yellow strapless sweetheart dress. The ball gown featuring a dropped-waist bodice bejeweled with diamonds, and a trainless floor-length skirt, layered in six ruffled tiers.

  Tears dominated the next few minutes as they relished the moment. Then we took pictures and the time flew by. We retired to the prep room a half hour before the ceremony. Danielle grew nervous then, pacing.

  “You can do this, Danielle,” I said in a calm tone. “You want to do this.”

  “I’m just worried about my vows,” she said. “I’m worried I won’t be able to say them. I don’t want to be up there bawling the whole time.”

  I hugged her tightly. “When the time comes, so will your voice.” The simple words comforted her enough to where she stopped pacing. Her mother and father also gave her advice each in turn as we waited.

  The wedding coordinator, a slender Asian woman, peeked into the room before rushing in. She wanted no one outside the wedding party to see the brides before they walked down the aisle. She was very particular about it. “It’s time. Maci and Becky”—she waved us over—“come.” She began ordering us around as we filed into line outside the chapel.

  Ashley walked down the aisle first. Unlike Danielle’s parents, Ashley’s didn’t accept her sexuality, so her uncle—who was also gay—gave her away as everyone rose from their seats. Becky and her counterpart walked next, then Lisa, one of Danielle’s friends from grad school, started off with her complement. I went last with Tanisha, Ashley’s maid of honor, who was popping out of her pink pastel dress. The blue pastel dress I wore wasn’t as flattering as I would have liked, but Danielle chose it, and there was no point arguing with a bride.

  Blue and pink flowers filled the candlelit chapel. The site stunned me as we made our way to the front, amazed at how well it all turned out: the streamers and decorations, and all the people who showed up.

  When I took my spot near the Officiant, I spotted Vince in the second row with my mom. He smiled at me with his sweet, intoxicating eyes. Scanning the room, I laughed a little at the ratio of women to men, which was easily four to one.

  A breath later, Danielle entered the room on the arms of her parents. At the arch, they gave her away, and Ashley leaned in and whispered something to her. From there, the ceremony proceeded without incident, their vows prompting more tears. When I finally found Vince afterward, he was in queue for the receiving line. “Hey, you’re looking pretty good in that dress,” he said, giving me a hug and a kiss when he reached me.

  “It’d look better on the floor,” I teased, whispering in his ear.

  He laughed. “True. Where do I sit?” The long line behind him pushed him on as I pointed. After everyone passed through, I found Vince waiting at our designated table with Alma. I touched his chest as he hugged me again. His sharp suit probably cost as much as Danielle’s wedding dress.

  I downed a glass of water, feeling a bit lightheaded. “Wait here. I’ll go get Eric.” Ever since we got back from Hawaii, Alma continued to be nice to me, but her mood had declined, now even more dismal. Luckily, Danielle, Ashley, and I concocted a brilliant plan to set her up with one of Ashley’s rich coworkers.

  Tall, broad-shouldered, muscular, and charming, with a reputation for fulfilling a woman in the bedroom, Eric Dresker fit the bill to get Alma laid. I brought him over to the lonely table and introduced them. Less than enthused for the setup, she took to him nonetheless.

  “I have to go get something out of the dressing room. Will you be all right here?” I asked Vince. After he nodded, I hurried off.

  Digging through my purse, I found a tube of lip balm, and refreshed my coat. I jumped when Vince came in, thinking it was a random guy that figured this was the bathroom. “Becky was just chatting me up good,” he said. “I didn’t know she was such a talker.”

  Oh God, he knows! I had no choice but to confess my crime before it blew up. I couldn’t hold it in any longer anyway. “I did it,” I blurted.

  “What?” His eyes narrowed. “I’m a little lost.”

  “I kissed a woman last Saturday at Danielle’s bachelorette party,” I admitted. “Her old coworker, Nikki.”

  “You what?” he asked, stupefied. His faced turned suspicious. “Did you really, or are you just messing with me?”

  “It wasn’t anything.” My voice took over, leaving my brain behind. “It didn’t mean anything. It was just a stupid drunken mistake, nothing more. I wish I could take it back.” My words turned into nothing but incoherent mumbles.

  “Whoa!” He raised a finger to my lips and stopped me. “I’m not mad, Maci. Relax.”

  “Relax? I cheated on you, Vince, and I feel miserable about it.” Emotions from the wedding, and from the collapse of my life the week before, were now all surging in full force, tears welling, about to break free.

  He took me in his arms, tucking my head into his shoulder, stroking my hair. “It’s okay … it’s all right … I don’t think you cheated on me.” His voice plunged, deep and soothing. “Was it just one kiss?”

  “That I remember,” I said, embarrassed. “The night is pretty fuzzy.”

  He pulled back so that I could see him. “Well, how was it?” he asked with a wicked smile, his intrigue apparent.

  “Better than I thought it would be,” I said. I looked at my feet. “I don’t know how long or how far it would’ve gone … Danielle broke us up, and Nikki left after that, and Bridgett says I blacked out minutes later.”

  “So you were pretty shit-faced,” he laughed. “Better than you thought it’d be … hmmm … I never thought … anyway, I wouldn’t call that cheating. It was a drunken kiss with a woman. How can
I be upset with that?”

  He was taking the news so well—much better than I had predicted—and it turned me on for some weird reason. “I think I want to try it,” I said out of the blue.

  He cocked his head at me. “Try what?”

  “You know … it.”

  “You don’t mean—”

  “Yeah.”

  “Based off one kiss?”

  “You did pegging for me,” I said. “I want to do this for you.”

  “The same woman?” he asked hoarsely, barely able to contain his excitement. His pants betrayed him, his cock stiffening.

  I shook my head. “No, things didn’t end so well with her and Danielle. I wouldn’t want to get into anything with her.”

  “Right. So who?” His cock fought the slacks, and it appeared as if it would win, the material about to rip.

  “I don’t know. Someone I don’t know that well, but not a complete stranger.” Becky popped into my mind again, as she had a few months ago when I considered a threesome. I didn’t like the idea then and I didn’t like it now. Not her, anyway. “We’ll have to brainstorm who it should be.”

  He leaned in for a hard kiss. “Do you know how much I want to fuck you right now?”

  I pressed my hips into him. “I have a pretty good idea, yeah.” I smiled as my hand traveled down his tux to his cock.

  Vince pulled away, locked the door, and unbuckled his pants. “In here?” I asked.

  “In here, right now.” He lowered me to the couch, brushed up my dress, and yanked down my thong. He dove between my legs without another word. His tongue played with my clit and kissed my pussy. After a minute, he pulled me to my feet, and then bent me over the couch’s arm. He entered from behind and I gasped like I always did when he first penetrated.

  He filled me, completed me in the way only his cock could. I buried my head into a pillow so I wouldn’t scream as his hand reached around and rubbed my clit with those incredible fingers of his. He had learned my body so well over the last few months that I came within minutes.

  He bit into my back to control his orgasm, muting his screams, and then rested his forehead between my shoulder blades, his breaths slowly returning to him. I arched back and kissed him, my head swimming in ecstasy. I could feel his semen running down my leg, so I hurried to the private bathroom before it marked my dress. When I came back out, Vince was dressed and ready to dance, though he claimed to be a very poor dancing partner.

  “We might have to do that again before we leave here,” he said. “I don’t know how long I can hold out if you start grinding my crotch.”

  “It’s a wedding, Vince, not a dance club,” I said, smiling. “I don’t think there’ll be any grinding.”

  “It’s my first one, remember? And I know Danielle and Ashley. They can get pretty rowdy.”

  “That’s what the bachelorette party was for,” I reminded him. “Let’s go grab some dinner before it’s all gone from the buffet.” We headed out into the reception hall to the stares of Becky and Bridgett.

  “Your hair,” Becky pointed out.

  “What about it?”

  “It’s all messy,” she said.

  “It’s called sex hair,” Bridgett cut in. “I’m surprised you don’t know that. I thought you got your share.”

  “I’m having a dry spell,” Becky muttered.

  “Okay,” Vince laughed. “I’m going to go get some food.” I joined him after I told the two not to say anything to Danielle about our little quickie. They fed me what sounded like hollow promises, too eager to share.

  My mother snuck up behind me. “You should really fix your hair, darling. Remember to always check the mirror after a little lovin’.”

  “Mom!” I yelled.

  “What? It’s good motherly advice,” she said. “It’s a wedding after all, Maci. You don’t think people will notice that one of the maid of honors went from having nice, beautiful, curly hair to messy hair in ten minutes after she disappears into the bathroom?”

  “The bathroom, mom? Really?”

  “Well, I checked outside and didn’t see you frolicking in the bushes, so one can only assume.”

  I snorted, glad that Vince stood a few platters ahead of us, and that no one else lingered nearby to overhear my mother’s indiscreet tongue. “Oh, mother, how funny you are.”

  She picked up on my sarcasm and shrugged. “What? I’m not saying not to have your fun, darling. God knows I would with a body like his.”

  “Okay.” I stopped her, shaking my head in an effort to get those words out of my head. “I got it. Let’s not go too far.”

  “Too far? Is it inappropriate of me to say you have a handsome boyfriend that most women would kill to get their hands on?”

  “I’m going to go with a big ‘yes’ on this one, mom.” I glanced over my shoulder and saw Danielle’s mom approaching. “Look, mom, it’s Darla. Why don’t you tell her all about those rotten kids at school?” She shot me a look before I rushed off. Oy! That woman is insane sometimes! But deep down, I loved how she spoke her mind like she did, and I couldn’t imagine her with any other personality. She also had a point about Vince. When our eyes locked as I sat down, a spark jolted through my body, a craving for round two. It was hard to deny that his hard body drove me wild like no one else could.

  I kept my urges at bay for as long as I could, through the cake cutting and first dances, stepping in for my brother on the mother-son dance. Vince and I stole away into the private bathroom for round two. A big handicap bar provided support as he rammed me from behind. With the long buildup, my orgasm proved even more explosive, but the music in the reception hall drowned out my screams, or so Vince asserted as he encouraged me to let it out.

  And I did. Loudly.

  I fixed my hair better this time around, hoping to avoid any more comments. That didn’t discourage my mother, though, who continued to explore the topic of sex throughout the night. I picked up on the loneliness in her voice, so I let her talk freely, knowing that it had been fourteen years since my dad died, and to my knowledge, she hadn’t been with anyone since. What harm was there in letting her talk, right?

  “I’m surprised Danielle and Ashley didn’t get married in Portland, since same-sex marriage was made legal on Monday,” my mother said, a wine glass in her hand, dancing.

  “They’ve been planning to get married here for six months,” I pointed out. “Why would they change it at the last second? It’s a beautiful place.”

  “And a lovely wedding,” she agreed. She closed her eyes and swayed with the music, ending the conversation.

  The party died down, and people left in a slow but steady stream, until the crowd had dwindled to 30 or so. Alma had left with Eric, the two hitting it off better than expected, and for the first time since I met her, she actually seemed excited. Vince and I were slow dancing to “Iris” when out of the corner of my eye I spotted blue denim, which I hadn’t seen all night. I tilted my head to the side of Vince’s shoulder for a better view while we continued to make our small circles. My eyes nearly exploded in their sockets. In a panic, I tapped Vince’s shoulder and pointed. “Luke!” I whispered, my voice dry from fear.

  Vince shoved me behind him as Luke strode up to the dance floor with a devilish smile spread across his face. “Well, look who it is? My old billionaire buddy.” In his hand, he flicked out a switchblade in a snap.

  “Luke, think about what you’re about to do, man,” Vince said coolly. “You don’t want to do this.”

  “The fuck I don’t,” Luke spat. “You ruined my life, you rich cocksucker. Well, I hear payback’s a bitch.”

  In a blink of an eye, Luke charged forward, the knife pointed right at Vince’s chest.

  24

  THREE’S A CROWD?

  Vince threw me to the left as he dodged the knife right before it would have plunged into his collarbone. He spun out of the way and let Luke collapse on a dining table. “Come on, man, put down the knife,” Vince urged, as Luke got to his fe
et, more furious than ever.

  “Fuck you,” Luke growled, swiping at Vince, just inches between them. His bloodshot eyes made him look crazed, and I couldn’t see how this wouldn’t end badly.

  Vince sidestepped Luke again, his reaction time slower from five or six beers. I got up and waved people back. “Go get the guys in the black MDX,” he shouted.

  “If you mean the two guys sharing a flask in that SUV parked out front, then I’d say you’re out of luck. I knocked them out cold.” Luke laughed at his vicious handiwork. He slashed at Vince’s stomach again, but Vince sprung to his right. He evaded the blade’s intended head-on mark, but caught the attack in his shoulder. “Looks like this is not your day.”

  “I hope you’re ready for prison, Luke,” Vince retorted.

  Luke lunged at Vince with everything in him. He crashed into Vince’s shoulder, the two dropping to the floor. Vince snagged Luke’s wrist, preventing the blade from plunging into his throat. Despite Luke’s wiry strength, he wasn’t strong enough to overtake Vince, as the blade inched up.

  Instinct took over, and I bolted for a table, snatching a centerpiece vase. Whipping back to the two struggling on the floor, I raised the glass over Luke’s head and brought it down as Vince pushed up. Luke collapsed to the floor while Vince rolled away, catching his breath.

  But the blow didn’t knock out Luke, and he regained his footing before anyone could stop him, running for an emergency exit. Vince leapt to his feet but stumbled, the wound and the alcohol doing him no favors. No one else pursued Luke.

  People had been screaming throughout the incident, but I hadn’t paid much attention to it at the time. The deafening crowd now pierced my ears, but Danielle and Ashley took charge and quieted them down.

  I helped Vince climb into a chair. Paling, he didn’t look so great. “How many beers did you have?”

  “I don’t know, too many,” he laughed, clearly dizzy. “It’s a wedding. I thought you were supposed to drink and dance.”