“I no like you,” she states. “My son, he deserves better.”
I nod my head. “You’re right. He does. He deserves a mother who is willing to support any sort of decision he makes.”
She looks at Theo and attempts to speak Italian again.
“Not me,” he says. “Speak to Naomi.”
She looks at me again, her lips pursed, and her arms crossed.
“In all honesty, I don’t care if you don’t want to come. You’ve never made me feel welcome and I think you treat Theo terribly.”
“I love my son,” she insists.
“Do you? Do you think that calling his fiancée a whore is loving him? Do you think refusing to watch him marry the woman he loves, is loving him? If he isn’t doing exactly what you want, you do your best to make his life a living hell. There is no way you’d do this to Marcus – he ran off on us all for two years and you still supported him. Then he ran off again and married a woman you’d never met, and who did you blame? It wasn’t Marcus – you never blame Marcus. All Theo did was fall in love and share his life with me. There is nothing wrong with what we did. You are the one who was in the wrong. You are the one who walked into our house uninvited. You are the one who judged us. And you are the one who is causing all this trouble. We have bent over backwards trying to make this right. We have organised a wedding, and it’s going to be beautiful, and you know what? I don’t want you there. I don’t want your angry, judgemental face watching me as I vow to love Theo with everything I have for the rest of my life. If you can’t share in our joy and smile and show your son love then I don’t want you there. I don’t want you in my life – our life. As far as I’m concerned Mrs Bailey, you can go and fuck yourself,” I say, my body shaking in anger but my voice staying calm.
I glance over her shoulder and see Theo’s father standing a few feet behind his wife. I nod my head once at him. “Mr Bailey,” I say, in recognition. Then turning around, I grab a hold of Theo’s hand before walking straight back to the car.
“Do you think I went over the top?” I ask as soon as he starts the engine. My heart is beating like crazy and I feel sure that my hands are shaking too.
“Babe, you were a hell of a lot nicer than I was earlier,” he grins, pulling into the traffic of the main road. “Do you feel better now?”
“Yeah. I do actually.”
“Then that’s all that matters.”
“What do we do now?”
“Now we move on. We get married like we planned and we live our life the way we want it. It’s you and me babe. That’s all we need.”
I rest my head against the seat and let out my breath to try and calm down.
“You and me against the world,” I state.
He reaches over and takes my hand in his. “You and me against the world.”
Chapter Eleven
With so much going on, time flies by and before we know it, we’re only a week away from our wedding. Everything is planned and despite the fact that Theo’s parents still aren’t talking to us, despite Marcus attempting to also convince them to be supportive - we’re still excited to finally be tying the knot.
At first we were thinking that we might just forgo our buck’s and hen’s nights in favour of a big barbeque or a night out with friends. But our bridal party decided that wasn’t going to be good enough. Jack and Lachlan have planned a big night out in the city for Theo, and Stephanie convinced Paige and Lisa that they just had to throw a hen’s party for me.
I have no idea where it is, but the one thing I’ve asked is no male strippers. I know that strippers are a custom on Hen’s nights, but I really just want to go out and dance and have fun. I don’t want some guy gyrating in my face.
The bridal party have managed to work together and plan both parties so they happen on the same night, so we all head into the city together where we are meeting everyone else at a club in Darling Harbour before we all head off on our separate ways.
“Holy fuck,” Theo says as he enters the bathroom where I’m putting the finishing touches on my makeup. I’m wearing a short skin tight royal blue dress that sets off the colour of my eyes and a very high set of matching heels so I’ll at least be close to the height of some of my tall friends. “Babe, I can’t let you out of here with that dress on,” Theo adds, his eyes going wide as they land on my arse.
I glance at him via the mirror as he stands behind me, looking amazing himself in a fitted white v-neck t-shirt that hugs him in all the right places and a pair of black pants with suspenders. His hair is messy and he hasn’t shaved. I love the messy stubble look about him.
Placing my mascara wand back into the tube, I screw it closed and turn around to face him with a coy smile on my face.
“Maybe I don’t want you out looking like that,” I murmur, moving slowly toward his welcoming arms. I press my body against his as his hands immediately run over my curves and settle on my arse. “I’ve got a hell of a lot more to be jealous about. You’re the lead singer in our band. Girls are always trying to bed you. I’m the fiancée who stands in their way and I won’t be with you tonight.”
He grins. “They don’t hold a candle to you, babe. But you, out in this dress. You’re smoking hot in it, Nomes. I don’t like the idea of you out in the city looking like everything delicious in this world without me beside you to protect you.”
“I’ll be with you, then I’ll be with the girls. From what I hear, we both have massive parties to attend tonight.”
He pulls me closer to him. “I think I’d rather a party for two. I want that dress on the floor,” he growls, dipping his head to take my mouth in his.
My hands go up around his neck as our mouths move together. My core ignites and I half want to make a phone call and cancel tonight to be with Theo. We’ve been so busy lately that we’ve hardly had any time to ourselves. My body craves him and from the feel of things, his body craves me too.
When a horn beeps outside, he groans in my mouth and we pull away from each other, both slightly breathless and incredibly turned on.
“Fuck people and their timing,” Theo grumbles, looking at his watch. “I didn’t think they were picking us up for another twenty minutes.
“Is that all the time you were going to give us?” I ask with a laugh.
“I don’t even think I would have needed that long. It’s been a while. I’ll go out and tell them to fucking well wait.” He turns to leave the bathroom, but I reach out and grab his arm.
“No, wait,” I say. “Let’s get a hotel room. I’ll meet you there when the parties are over. We can spend the night in anticipation before having mind-blowing sex, over and over again until we have to check out.”
He grins and his eyes sparkle. “Book it,” he says, taking my face in his hands, pressing his lips to mine, inhaling as he kisses me. “Tonight is going to take forever now, you know that right?”
“It’ll be worth it,” I tell him, turning back to the mirror to check my makeup one last time. Thank god for lipstain, it hasn’t smudged a bit.
As I follow Theo out of the house, I quickly bring up LastMinute.com and find a hotel room in the heart of the city that’s free and book it.
“Come on you two!” Stephanie yells from the window of the enormous limousine that’s parked in our driveway. She’s in there with her husband Gary, Paige and Elliot, and Marcus and Lisa.
“We’re coming!” I call back, sending the hotel information to Theo’s phone so he can meet me there later.
He leans into my ear. “I’m going to be hard all night thinking about you,” he murmurs before taking a hold of my hand and pulling me toward the limo. Every fibre of my being wants to plant my heels into the ground and drag this delicious man of mine back inside to spend all night having my way with him. But knowing that we’ll meet up later will be sweet torture for the both of us.
“Come on! We don’t have any kids for a whole night. We’re dying to go out,” Paige calls out as we reach the limo and the driver holds the door ope
n for us.
Theo holds my hand to help me keep my balance and my dignity as I slide into the leather interior alongside Lisa and Marcus then say a quick hello to each of our friends. “Well, that explains why you’re so early. You’re escaping the kids,” I grin, wriggling slightly to get comfortable as Theo slides in beside me. He places his arm along the back of the seat beside me and I lean into him, loving the firm warmth of his body in the cool of the air-conditioned cabin.
“You don’t know the half of it,” Stephanie says. “The moment I started to get ready, Amanda lost it. We practically had to run out of there and promise that we were bringing back half of Disneyland.”
“How are you going to manage that?” Theo asks.
Gary chuckles. “We’re hoping she’s forgotten by morning, but if not, we’ll figure something out.”
“She’ll never trust you again,” I laugh.
“That reminds me,” Lisa says. “The resort we’re staying at for the wedding has babysitting if you need it for when your kids get too tired at the reception,” she informs Paige and Stephanie.
“Really? That’s great,” Paige replies. “Thanks.”
“We’re leaving Adam at home with my mum and stepdad. But Gracie will probably get too tired to make it through the night,” Elliot adds.
“You should have been an event planner instead of a muso,” I say to Lisa, giving her a little nudge in the side.
“Sorry. It’s probably a bit of the control freak in me left over from my days organising advertising campaigns. I’m not trying to take over.”
“It’s fine. I’m more than happy for your help. If I forget to say it later, you’ve been amazing. Thank you.”
We meet each others gaze for a moment and give each other an understanding smile. We may not be sisters by blood. But we’ve certainly become sisters through friendship. I can’t imagine my world without Lisa in it anymore.
“Alright you two. Stop having a little moment. Tonight is a party,” Marcus says, handing both Theo and I a glass of champagne. “Now, I think it’s time to make a toast to the happy couple. So raise your glasses.” Everyone does. “To Naomi and Theo, may you live a long and happy life together but tonight, I hope that you both get shitfaced drunk and do very stupid things.”
“Cheers,” everyone choruses on a laugh, clinking our glasses together and sipping at the champagne inside.
Lowering my glass, I take a breath to ask the question that’s been nagging at me all day. “Speaking of getting shitfaced - exactly where are we going tonight?”
Chapter Twelve
“Bad Boys Afloat!?” I say, staring up at the boat in disbelief. “Isn’t that a stripper cruise?”
“Yep,” Stephanie giggles. “Don’t pretend like you don’t want to see it. I know you Naomi Prendergast. You’re going to love the spectacle,” she assures me as she races ahead of everyone and stops to talk to the shirtless guy who’s standing at the gangway to check off all the names on our booking.
“I told her you didn’t want strippers,” Lisa tells me quietly.
“It’s ok. I had a feeling she’d go and do this. She went on it once before and said it was great fun. I don’t know…” I say, feeling slightly disappointed in my friend. I know she’s just trying to get me to experience something that she considers fun, but I’d hoped we could have gone clubbing and dancing for the night instead of watching a bunch of guys run around with their shirts off.
“She insisted that this is a rite of passage,” Paige adds, linking arms with me as we follow the group of nearly fifty women onto the boat.
“I’m pretty sure the guys will have gotten strippers for Theo too,” Lisa adds, like it’s supposed to even things out. But it doesn’t. It just gives me a jealous pang in my chest as I remember what he said to me as we were leaving. I’m going to be hard all night thinking about you. Great. I’ve just sent him to a strip show with a hard-on.
Noticing the look on my face, Paige nudges me lightly. “Hey, relax. He loves you. He won’t even be looking at the strippers. Elliot doesn’t like strippers either. It’s just something you sit through with these things – you know, like a tradition.”
“Well, did you both have strippers at your bucks and hens night?” I ask.
She grins with half her mouth and shakes her head. “We didn’t even have the bucks and hens night. There wasn’t anything too traditional about our wedding.”
“You know what. It’s fine. The strippers. Everything. It’s all fine. It’s about hanging out with friends and having a good time, and a lot of the girls look really excited. This is going to be fun,” I state, although as we climb the gangway and I’m adorned with a bright pink veil with flashing fairy lights all over it, I’m not even sure I believe myself.
***
“Oh no. Hell no!” I laugh, pulling back on the arms that are reaching out and dragging me to the middle of the stage. I catch the eye of Katrina who’s just as drunk as the rest of us and laughing her head off. I squat down and refuse to walk, as Amy and Erica gang up on me and try to get me to the chair that is waiting for me centre stage for my ‘private show’. “Help me, damn you! Use those muscles of yours for good instead of evil!”
Katrina shakes her head. “It’s all for fun, Nomes. Here, give him some cash from me.”
She reaches forward and stuffs a roll of five-dollar notes into the strap of my dress. “You brought stripper bills?!” I laugh, feeling fairly drunk after way too much champagne.
Bouncing her shoulders twice to the music, she lets out a deep laugh that only serves to give me a fit of the giggles. I don’t even know why I’m laughing. I just know that I’m about to be sitting in the middle of a room full of yelling women, while some guy called ‘Ash’, is supposed to come out and dance for me.
Once Erica and Amy have me in the chair, they drunkenly giggle as well and tell me to ‘stay’ while they make their way back to their seats. All of a sudden, that Nelly song, ‘Hot in Herre’ begins playing over the sound system and a very tall, very broad man enters the stage wearing a fireman’s uniform.
He dances toward me as women holler out the lyrics to the song, yelling at him to take his clothes off.
I start laughing. I can’t seem to stop and as he gets closer. I cover my face, watching only through the thin slits between my fingers. I can’t believe Stephanie did this to me. Even though this is insanely embarrassing, I have to begrudgingly admit that I’ve had a good time watching all of the women on the ship go crazy over topless men. It’s like they’re taking a moment to behave like they’re all men on building sites, even though they’re all very ‘normal’ women in their every day life.
Ash, the firefighting stripper moves closer to me and takes my hands in his as he straddles me where I sit. He places my hands on his smooth and incredibly muscular chest as he continues to gyrate to the music.
I squeal through my laughter and ball my hands up so it’s just my fists touching him. “I hate you Stephanie!” I yell out through my laughter.
“No you don’t. You love me! You’re having a good time. Admit it! Admit it!” she slurs, laughing her head off when she flicks her hand and wine sloshes out of her glass and spills on her arm.
I didn’t think it was possible, but suddenly, I’m laughing harder. Then even more when Ash strips off his pants and is standing over me in nothing but a bright red g-string and a belt with a prop axe in it. He flips his hips back and forth so the axe swings at me.
I wave my hands in front of my face. “Stop, stop! I can’t laugh anymore. It’s hurting my stomach.” It’s then that I remember the money Katrina stuffed in my strap. I grab it and hold it out. “Here. I’ll pay you. Go and dance with that woman over there,” I say, pointing directly at Stephanie who is dancing about waving money above her head.
“Song’s not over yet, pretty lady,” he says, continuing to dance around me.
Blissfully, the track changes soon after that and he holds his hand out to me to help me to stand.
&
nbsp; “You’re Naomi from Matiari, right?” he says in my ear. “I’ve seen you play. You’re bloody awesome. There’s karaoke after this until we dock. I hope you’ll treat us all to a song or two.”
Once again, I laugh. Something about a man standing in a g-string and telling me he’s a fan of the band seems hysterical to me.
“I’ll see what I can do, Ash the fireman,” I tell him, patting my hand on his big bicep as I step down into the crowd.
Stephanie reaches up and immediately shoves some money in the waist band of his g-string as Paige, the most sober person here, steadies me so I don’t lose my balance coming off the stairs.
“Ash the firefighter is a fan of my band,” I tell her, the words coming out slowly as my drunken mouth tries to work around them.
She laughs at me. “I think it’s time to get a few coffees into you, or you’re going to be falling off this boat in an hours time.”
Leading me to a table, she waves over one of the topless waiters and asks for a bottle of water and two coffees.
“How come you’re so sober?” I ask, suddenly feeling very mesmerised by the light amber colour of her eyes. “You have really awesome eyes.”
Grinning, she thanks me for the compliment. “I’ve never been a big drinker. It works well for Elliot because he can drink and I can do the driving,” she explains.
“Don’t you like it?” I ask.
“I had a drug problem a really long time ago. So I try to steer clear of mind altering substances.”
“Wow,” I say, slightly taken aback. “How did I not know this about you?”
“It’s not something I share around, Nomes.”
My mouth forms an ‘o’ shape. “I won’t tell anyone,” I promise her as the waiter returns with our coffees and a water for me.
“I know you won’t,” she tells me with a wink before she lifts her coffee to her lips and watches as women dance with the waiters a few feet away from us with an amused grin on her face. “If men acted like this with female strippers they’d get thrown out of the clubs,” she comments.
Devotion: The Beauty in Between (Beautiful Series book 4.5) Page 5