The Wedding Read online

  Having momentarily forgotten about her last message to Michael, Lily glanced at her phone still clutched in her hands to check if he’d replied.

  Michael: The tip’s weeping with want of you

  Still looking at the phone, Lily blushed a lovely shade of red only to glance up when Sebastian roared with laughter.

  “Some message,” he smirked.

  “Sebastian, don’t you have something better to do than embarrass Lily?” Pippa questioned, not quite managing to hide the amusement in her voice.

  Sebastian was handsome with perfect features. His raven-black hair fell onto his forehead and was the perfect contrast to the suntanned skin on his square jaw lightly dusted with yesterday’s growth. His dark eyes flashed with amusement; his long eyelashes and high cheekbones the envy of any girl. He moved from his spot on the bed, his tight body moving with the fluidity of a panther with sleek, well define muscles. He was breathtaking, but despite his raw, animal appeal, he had nothing on Michael.

  “I’m not the one who embarrassed Lily, but I’ll leave you two ladies alone and go and find Michael,” Sebastian announced. About to close the door behind him he popped his head back in and looked at Lily. “Don’t forget to reply to Michael,” he said seriously.

  Lily blushed even more as his mom shooed him away, but she could hear his laughter echoing down the hall, even through the closed door.

  Chapter 3

  <><>M<><>

  After his text message to Lily it had taken sometime for Michael to leave his room with thanks to the hardness in his jeans.

  Presentable once again, Michael had made his way to the kitchen to eat breakfast with his dad and brothers while his mom had gone upstairs to be with Lily.

  His dad had been quiet and brooding, which wasn’t exactly unheard of as his father was known as ‘a man of few words’. When he’d finished his breakfast, he’d cleared his throat and told Michael how proud he was of the man Michael had become and that he looked forward to welcoming Lily into the McKenzie family. After his words he’d made a quick exit leaving his sons in the kitchen shocked.

  That of course had been about four hours ago before he’d taken another shower and dressed in his dark grey morning suit with a lilac cravat, to match Sylvia’s bridesmaid dress, or so Lily had told him.

  He was wearing a lilac and silver waistcoat on top of a crisp white shirt. His mom had insisted she press his trousers again because she’d caught a wrinkle on the front, much to his amusement.

  It had brought back childhood memories of being dressed in neatly pressed clothes for church, and having his dad glaring at him and his brothers, who had been made to sit in a line on the two sofas in the lounge, while waiting for their mom to come downstairs so that they could leave. No one had dared move with their father being on guard.

  Shaking his head at the memory, Michael sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled his boots on before he moved to stand in front of the full-length mirror. He pulled on the jacket and looked at himself. Not bad. Not bad at all.

  His six-foot muscular frame filled out the suit perfectly, and all he needed was the boutonniere to finish the look.

  Michael turned at the sound of someone knocking on his door, he shouted, “Come in.”

  His mom came through the door as though she was frightened of what she might find, but when her gaze fell on Michael, she burst into tears.

  Stunned, he walked over to her and tried to wrap his arms around his mom, but she pushed him away.

  “I’ll mess your jacket up,” she said sniffling into the tissue Michael passed her.

  “Mom, come and sit down.” Michael tried to lead her over to the chair in the window, but she slipped her arm free from his.

  “Oh, I’m fine. It’s just seeing you dressed up like that, knowing you’re about to make Lily a part of this family officially as your wife,” she continued to sniffle. “I can’t believe one of my sons is about to get married.”

  Realizing his mom needed to get things off her chest, Michael sat on the edge of the bed and waited, wondering what she was about to say next.

  “My only hope is that your brothers start acting grown up and find someone nice to settle down with instead of acting like man whores,” she informed Michael seriously. Well he hadn’t expected that.

  Michael looked stunned for a split second before he burst out laughing at her name for his brothers. It was spot-on, but hilarious coming out of her mouth.

  Sitting on the bed, he leaned over and grabbed a couple of tissues to wipe his tears away. “Mom, no one is as bad as Sebastian, and besides, Ramon has a woman,” he told his mom, taking a drink of water and wishing it was a whiskey to calm his nerves.

  His mom slid into the chair that she’d ignored earlier and gazed out the window. “Ramon’s woman is named Carla. I’ve only met her once or twice, but she seems lovely. I’m just not sure Ramon’s that keen. We’ll see. And going back to Sebastian, it’s a wonder his tinkle hasn’t fallen off with over use.”

  Michael choked on the sip of water he’d just taken. Tinkle! What the fuck? “Have you been drinking?” he spluttered.

  His mom rolled her eyes. “Really Michael. I can rephrase it if you like?”

  Jumping to his feet, Michael waved his hands in front of her. “No, the first time was enough,” he said with a laugh, wondering why the hell his mom would suddenly come out with something more personal than ever before.

  “Sit back down. I promise to behave,” she admonished just as someone else knocked on the door.

  “It’s open,” Michael shouted, taking his seat on the bed again as he watched Sebastian come through the door half dressed.

  “What did I miss?”

  Winking at his mom, Michael grinned at her panicked expression, and replied, “Mom was saying she couldn’t understand why your ‘tinkle’ hadn’t fallen off with overuse.”

  Sebastian stopped in his tracks, his face going a dark red as he sputtered, clearly at a loss for words. Well that was a first. Michael mused.

  Sitting on his bed, Michael watched him struggling for a reply, his face getting redder with each second. Michael tried to hide the smile – it was too damn amusing that he couldn’t.

  Coughing, Sebastian glared at Michael before ignoring him and turned to his mom.

  “Dads looking for you. He’s having trouble with his neck thing.”

  “Heck, there goes my five minutes with your brother,” she said, standing up, she smoothed an imaginary wrinkle from her dress. Reaching the door, she turned back to the room and gave each of them a pointed stare, “I can’t wait for the day all my sons are married with babies. A house full of grand-babies,” she finished with delight.

  Michael’s grin nearly split his face in two especially when he caught the pale complexion of his brother.

  Just about to close the door, their mom turned back and narrowed her eyes at Sebastian.

  “I also expect my grand-babies mamma to have a wedding ring on her finger… preferably, from one of my sons.”

  With those words spoken she made a quick exit.

  “What the fuck’s gotten into mom?” Sebastian finally choked out. “I know before you hooked up with Lily she was always talking about us getting married and giving her grand kids, but, well… Tinkle?”

  Michael burst into laughter just as his three remaining brothers walked into the room looking full of mischief.

  Chapter 4

  <><>L<><>

  Looking through her bedroom window as she watched the antics of some small children near the fountain, Lily thought back to breakfast with Pippa that morning. They’d both decided they needed to have another wedding within the next twelve months. Lily wanted some sisters to join her, and she wanted more babies in the family so that her and Michael’s children would grow up with their cousins; more like brothers or maybe brothers and sisters.

  Lucien would be the most difficult, although she had plans where he was concerned. Ramon was dating Carla and, apparently, had been for s
ometime, which he’d neglected to inform his mom about so that hadn’t gone down too well for him when he first told her. Carla seemed really nice, a bit reserved and not exactly how Lily expected a girlfriend to behave towards her boyfriend. The first time she’d met Carla had been at the ranch about three Sunday’s past. At first, every time Ramon went to kiss her, which hadn’t been that often, Carla jumped as though it was unexpected. Sighing, Lily wasn’t sure if they were the right fit. Maybe Carla didn’t have those feelings for Ramon, or maybe she had been shy being around some of his family. Either way, something seemed off between the two of them.

  Sebastian. He was a player, but damn cute, which Lily had the good sense to keep to herself. He needed a sweet woman; someone so out of his league that he wouldn’t have a clue what to do about her. Someone who would ignore his flirting, someone who would make him chase her instead of the other way around.

  Lily hadn’t a clue about Ruben because he’d started to keep to himself. When she’d first met him he’d flirted with her and she’d thought he was fun, but something recently had changed him. He was open with his brothers and joined in the skirmishes when they got a rugby ball between them. But Ruben was never seen with a woman and seemed to spend all his time recently at that club of his, Kenza. She’d overheard Michael at the house the other day commenting about his lack of female companionship while he was sitting outside with his brothers. Ruben had commented he hadn’t had time with the new business. He’d then changed the conversation, obviously wanting the attention away from him.

  Brought suddenly back to the present by Sylvia's screech, Lily blinked rapidly and stared at the McKenzie brothers receptionist, who’d become a good friend over the past month. Sabrina, her friend from high school, should be here too, but had been delayed in England.

  “Lily. You look gorgeous. I cannot wait to see Michael’s reaction. He’s a big softy with you,” she told her while slowly turning Lily around for a better view. “I love the flower detail on the bodice here.” Sylvia smoothed her hand over the flowers while Lily looked her over. Sylvia was always dressed in beautiful clothes; her make-up always spotless. No matter how busy or harassed she was behind her desk at McKenzie’s, it stayed in place. But today she seemed to glow within and Lily didn’t think she’d be the only one to notice.

  “You don’t look so bad yourself. Some of those McKenzie brothers are going to be doing some drooling of their own when they catch sight of you in that dress,” Lily said grinning at the blush working its way up Sylvia’s face.

  Sylvia was wearing a lavender A-line dress with a strapless bodice, which showed off her slender figure. The hairdresser had swept her blonde hair up and secured it to the top of her head with jeweled clips. She looked older than her twenty-three years, although she usually looked about seventeen. The blush, which she displayed when Lily mentioned the McKenzie brothers, made Lily wonder; was Sylvia attracted to one of them?

  “Lily, stop switching off.” Sylvia admonished.

  “Sorry.” Lily took a deep breath and moved to stand in front of the mirror, which had been brought into the room for her to use.

  “I actually came to tell you that we had about five minutes before we have to head downstairs, and I think Lucien is waiting at the bottom of the stairs for us.”

  “Oh boy. Okay, let’s do this,” Lily said smoothing her hand over her stomach, which was full of butterflies.

  Sylvia opened the door and led Lily towards the stairs to meet up with Lucien.

  Despite being Michael’s brother, Lily had felt an instant connection to him. He was the brother she never had so it was only logical that he give her away. He had choked up when Lily asked him to lead her down the aisle. After he’d come back down to earth, Lucien had tried to talk her out of it. His excuse had been that it would draw more attention to himself, which he’d been avoiding since the accident. Lily had dragged him down to the sofa with her and eventually received a tentative acceptance from him.

  The thing was, although he was scarred, it wasn’t as bad as he thought it was, at least the bit, which was visible. The scarring started on his right cheek and traveled down his neck, underneath his clothing, which she hadn’t seen.

  Once he realized Lily really did want him by her side on the day, he accepted and threw himself into helping organize the wedding with his mom.

  Lily tried to pull herself together because it always upset her when she thought about Lucien and what he lost because of the accident – and there he was, standing at the bottom of the stairs watching her walk down.

  “Gorgeous. My brother is a very lucky man… and he knows it as well,” Lucien stated grinning.

  The whole house had been transformed with ribbon and flowers while Lily had been upstairs with Sylvia being primped and waxed.

  Taking hold of Lily’s hand, Lucien brought it up to his lips and placed a gentle kiss to her knuckles before wrapping it around his arm, and not forgetting Sylvia, he held his arm out to her and escorted both ladies outside.

  Lily pulled up short as she took in the transformed ranch. The marquees for the reception and dancing had been set up to one side of the barn, which had also been decorated in lilac, pink and white ribbons. Everything was transformed with the ribbons from the house to the paddocks close to the house. The horses had been moved into the far pastures so as not to ruin the day with the racket they could make.

  The transformation was amazing and brought tears to her eyes.

  “You ready?” Lucien asked.

  “Yes. Yes I am.” Lily turned to look at him and saw him shift slightly, his nerves clear in the way his fingers clenched together and his gaze looked everywhere but up. She knew he was trying to hide it from her and that he was willing to suffer through this for her brought tears to her eyes. “Lucien, thank you for doing this for me,” her voice cracked slightly on the emotion working its way up her throat – she felt loved by everyone in her new family, “I know how much you’d prefer not to, but it means a lot to me. I couldn’t think of anyone else I’d rather have walking me down the aisle.”

  Lucien opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

  “I’ll wait over there,” Sylvia interrupted, putting some distance between them.

  Lily had momentarily forgotten Sylvia was walking with them.

  “Lily, I love you.”

  Lily’s eyes opened wide in shock, which caused Lucien to laugh and flash his gorgeous smile.

  “I love you like a sister, Lily. You’ve made my brother a pussy, but we wont get into that today.”

  Lucien’s laughter deepened as she swatted him on the arm. “There isn’t a great deal I wouldn’t do for you. I hope you know that. And if Michael screws up again, although I think he’s learned his lesson, but if he does, don’t hesitate to come to me again. I’ll always be there for you. Now considering how me and the others have been winding Michael up all day, I think we need to get a move on.”

  Chapter 5

  <><>M<><>

  Standing with three of his brothers in front of everyone while waiting for Lily to show up on the arm of Lucien, was damn nerve racking. The fact that his brothers had spent the morning telling him Lily had probably snuck away, or even worse, that she’d run off with Lucien hadn’t helped any.

  He’d finally settled down over his possessiveness towards Lily and accepted the fact she was best friends with one of his brothers. It hadn’t been easy and every now and again he would have to stop himself from making a comment, which Lily found amusing and would plant a hot kiss to his lips before disappearing for coffee with Lucien.

  Glancing around him, Michael saw all his family and friends; employees of McKenzie Holdings were all smiling in his direction with quick glances towards the back to see if Lily had arrived.

  She didn’t have far to walk, just from the house where they’d both spent the night in separate rooms. That had been hard, having never slept apart from Lily for about a month, but he’d managed it.

  Sebastian nudged him,
which caused Michael to look at his brother, who was looking towards the back of the seats.

  Michael followed his gaze and his breath stopped at the same time as his heart started to beat wildly in his chest.

  “Breathe, Michael,” Ramon whispered into his ear.

  He let out the breath, which had gotten stuck in his lungs at the vision of Lily, while he watched her walk down the man-made aisle on the arm of his brother.

  Lily never once moved her gaze from him as she glided closer and closer to him, with a slight smile on her lips and eyes bright as the sun.

  She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen as she came to a stop beside him. Lucien took hold of her hand, kissed her knuckles before placing her hand into Michael’s. He gave him a serious look and then stepped back to stand beside Michael and his other brothers.

  “Breathtaking,” Michael whispered to Lily before leaning in and giving her a soft kiss. “I missed you,” he said against her lips, finding it difficult to pull back.

  Lily smiled and caressed his face with one hand before pulling back when Sebastian started to cough rather loudly.

  Hearing a few snickers in the background Michael and Lily smiled at each other before turning to face the front so they could be married.

  The whole wedding seemed to pass in a blur, one minute they where exchanging rings and the next he was being asked to kiss the bride, which of course he had no problem with.

  The minute his lips met Lily’s everyone and everything else was forgotten, as he tasted his woman; his wife.

  The sound of cheers and the annoying call of loud wolf whistles, obviously from his brothers, pulled Michael from the sweet embrace of Lily and into the present.

  He moved a breath away from Lily as he caressed her face. “Hello wife,” he said grinning.

  “Hello husband,” Lily replied, reaching up for another toe-curling kiss.

  “Okay, you two. That’s enough. There’re four bachelors here,” Sebastian stated, dryly.