by Nikki Ashton
“Noah,” Lucia said. “It’s probably best you don’t finish that sentence. You do look beautiful though, Martha. Luciano is a very lucky man.”
“Thank you,” Martha said, blushing. “Do either of you know where we’re going? I assume Betty does, because they’ve been together all day.”
“Betty is coming back in the car with the driver,” Lucia explained.
“Oh, so you did know where they were all day.” Martha grinned and gave Lucia a gentle nudge with her elbow.
Lucia laughed “Yes, but it’s a surprise, which is why I practically ignored you all day.”
“That’s why I went out too. I thought if I saw you I might let the cat out of the bag,” Noah added.
Just then a car could be heard, crunching its way up the gravel driveway. “Ooh here’s the car,” Lucia cried, pushing Martha towards the front door. “Have a wonderful time and I want to hear all about it when you get back.”
“Well it might be late, Lucia,” Martha said.
“I’ll be up,” Lucia smiled. “Don’t you worry.”
At that moment the front door was thrown open and Betty rushed in. She beamed at Noah and Lucia and then looked at Martha.
“Oh Mum, you look beautiful,” she gasped “Luke is going to be hot and horny when he sees you.”
“Betty!” Lucia and Martha cried together.
“What? He will. Anyway, enough chatter, there’s no time to waste, the car is waiting.”
“Do I get a clue as to where I’m going?” Martha asked over her shoulder as Betty ushered her out.
“Nope. Just enjoy it and we’ll see you later.”
“It might be late.”
“We’ll be up,” they all chorused as Martha was unceremoniously pushed into the limo and the door slammed behind her.
Luke checked his watch for the tenth time in as many minutes, as he paced up and down.
“Where is she?” he said to himself. It was almost quarter to eight and by his reckoning Martha should have been there ten minutes ago.
He reached inside the pocket of his slim fitting charcoal grey suit jacket, and fished out his mobile. Just as he was about to dial, the limo appeared around the corner.
“Thank God for that,” he muttered. He wiped his hands on his trousers and then took a deep breath.
When the car pulled to a stop, Luke opened the door to a surprised looking Martha. He held his hand to her, helping her out of the car. Martha stepped out into a gravelled courtyard which fronted a converted barn. A red carpet led up to the open door which was flanked by bay trees.
Luke gazed at her in wonderment. “You look…stunning,” he said. “How did I get so lucky?”
“I could say the same to you,” Martha smiled. “You look very sexy in your suit Mr Mahoney.”
She swallowed hard as her eyes roamed his body in the perfectly fitting suit and white shirt. He wasn’t wearing a tie but had a couple of buttons open, enticing her with what lay beneath.
“Hey, if you don’t stop looking at me like that you’re going to get yourself into a lot of trouble.” Luke pulled Martha to him for a kiss. “Everything fits then?”
Martha nodded and gave a little twirl. “It’s perfect, thank you.”
“I did it all by myself too,” Luke said proudly. “I listened.”
“Well, it’s all beautiful.” Martha kissed Luke softly, breathing in his scent. “Where are we anyway?” she said as they parted.
Luke took Martha’s hand and led her to the carpeted pathway. “We’re having dinner here. It’s called Bay Cottage.”
“It’s slightly bigger than a cottage,” Martha said.
“I guess so,” Luke said. ”Shall we go in?” He puffed out his cheeks and squeezed Martha’s hand before moving towards the door.
As they stepped inside the sight took Martha’s breath away. In front of her was a large open space that was lit only by what must have been a hundred candles of varying sizes. They were spread around the room and casting flickering shadows on the dark blue walls. In each corner stood white rose trees in silver planters, at the enormous arched windows, plush gold curtains were drawn together against the growing darkness, and over on the far side of the room was a huge open fire, roaring brightly as the soft aroma of burning logs drifted around them. The red carpet continued into the centre of the room, leading to a table that was set for two people, and next to it stood a tall, grey haired man dressed in a sharp, black suit, with a white serviette over one arm. He smiled warmly at Martha as Luke led her towards the table.
“Good evening Madam,” he said, pulling out a chair for Martha to sit on.
Martha sat down and continued to gape at the beautiful scene. Luke took his seat opposite her.
“Luke this is fantastic, how did you find it?”
“A friend of mine knows the chef,” Luke said. He looked up at the waiter and nodded.
“Is it just us?” Martha asked, amazed at how Luke always managed to make her feel so special.
“Yep, I thought it would be nice to have some privacy, so hired the whole restaurant for the night.” At that moment the waiter came back with a bottle of champagne and started to fill their glasses. “Thank you,” Luke said. He picked up his glass and almost gulped it all back.
“Hey, steady on,” Martha said. “You’ll be drunk before we’ve even got through the first course.” She took a sip of the champagne and giggled as the bubbles popped on the tip of her nose. “It’s gorgeous, Luke, thank you.”
Luke leaned across the table and kissed Martha’s cheek. When he sat back in his chair he nodded again to the waiter, who quietly withdrew from the room.
“Is there a menu, or have you picked already?” Martha asked, her eyes scanning the table. “I just hope you…”
From the corner of her eye, Martha spotted another figure move into the room. She turned and saw a young man, dressed in black, carrying a guitar. He sat down on a stool near to the fireplace and started to play a beautiful, melodic, soft tune that instantly pulled at her heart and made her stomach flip.
“Oh, wow, that’s gorgeous,” she whispered, looking back at Luke as the sound of the guitar floated around them.
Luke drew his shoulders back and blew out a long, slow breath before taking hold of Martha’s left hand.
“I wrote it,” he said as he squeezed her fingertips. “I wrote it for you. There are words that go with it, but I want to be the one to sing them to you the first time, and to be honest I thought that doing that now might be a little corny.”
Martha’s eyes welled with tears and a lump formed in her throat. “Oh Luke,” she said, “that’s so romantic and beautiful, thank you.”
Luke’s eyes shone as he gazed back at her. As Martha took another sip of her champagne, he took a deep breath.
“There’s so much I want to say to you,” he said. “I’ve told you before that a song just isn’t enough, words aren’t enough, but the words to the song go a little way to telling you how I feel about you. I need you to know that I adore you, I love you, I need you and I am nothing without you.” Luke’s hand was shaking as he brought hers to his lips and dropped a kiss on the third finger of her left hand.
Martha took in a sharp breath, finally realising what was about to happen. Her breath quickened and her hands started to shake.
“Babe, you are the mother of a beautiful girl who I want to be my daughter, and I want to spend the rest of my life loving you, caring for you and…well having lots of sex with you and making lots more beautiful children.” Luke grinned. Martha let out a small giggle as he wiped the tears from her cheeks with his thumb. “Martha, baby will you marry me, please?”
Letting go of her hand, Luke reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small black box and slowly opened the lid. Holding his breath, he held the box out to Martha.
“Oh my God, Luke,” Martha gasped, blinking through her tears. “It’s beautiful.” As her heart thudded, Martha felt as though she was in a dream. She remembered Stace
y telling her on one of their girlie nights that Luke had said that Martha was ‘everything’ to him, but she hadn’t expected him to propose. With shaking hands, she reached out and tentatively touched the ring with her index finger.
Nestled inside the white silk interior was a dazzling square cut diamond, it was absolutely colourless with perfect clarity, and on each side were two diamond encrusted shoulders that held the diamond, leading into a platinum band also inlaid with diamonds.
“Put me out of my misery babe,” Luke said, his voice trembling. “Is that a yes?”
Martha nodded, fresh tears streaming down her face. “Of course, yes,” she said. “Yes please.”
“Thank God for that,” Luke said with a grin a mile wide. He let out a huge sigh of relief and, taking the ring from the box, he slipped it on to Martha’s finger.
She flung herself at Luke, landing on his knee and kissing his face over and over. Luke pulled her towards him for a deep, loving kiss - kissing her as though his life depended on it
“Baby, we need to stop,” he gasped eventually. “I don’t think taking you here on this table would be particularly cool, and it might embarrass the guitarist.”
Martha giggled and gazed at the fairly sizeable diamond on her finger. “It’s beautiful Luke, and it fits perfectly,” she said, taking a closer look at the ring. “I love it, and I love you.”
“Are you sure you like it?” Luke asked, lifting her chin to look into her eyes. “I know you don’t normally like flashy things, but some of the others just looked like little chippings and I wanted you to have the best.”
“It’s perfect, you’re perfect, tonight is perfect, and my song is perfect,” Martha said. “I’ve never felt so happy.”
“Oh, I almost forgot, look inside the band,” Luke said. He pulled the ring from Martha’s finger and then passed it back to her.
Martha peered inside and read the inscription.
My life begins and ends with you - L&M
“Luke, that’s beautiful,” she whispered.
“It’s a line from your song; My Life,” Luke said, his cheeks flushing red. “I’ve written loads of songs in the past, but none with the meaning of this one. This one’s a letter to my soul mate.”
“I love you, so, so much,” Martha whispered, gently stroking Luke’s face
“Good because I love you too,” Luke smiled. “Now can we eat please? I was so nervous before that I felt sick, now I’m starving, I haven’t eaten all day.”
Martha laughed and slid back into her own seat. “Ah poor baby, yes let’s eat. I take it that Betty knew all about this?”
“Yeah,” Luke said, “she came with me to pick the ring up, and to talk to your Uncle Graham.”
“Talk to Uncle Graham?”
Luke nodded. “I had to ask him for permission, because I wasn’t about to go searching for your dad and ask him.” Luke grinned. “Obviously I asked Betty first, but I wanted to be sure that Graham was okay about it too.”
“I’m guessing he was,” Martha said with a smile.
Luke grinned. “Yeah, he was happy, after I’d answered a few questions.”
“Like what?”
“Ah no, that’s between me and him. Let’s just say if I ever hurt you I’ll be singing soprano on our next album.” At that moment the waiter appeared with two plates of food.
“Duke Confit, my favourite.” Martha held her hair back, lowered her face to the plate and inhaled the smell of garlic and herbs. “How did you know?”
“I told you, I listened. Now,” Luke whispered as he leaned closer, “eat up so I can get you home and we can celebrate alone.”
Martha smiled, guessing that their celebration later may well be a naked one.
When they arrived home everyone was, as promised, waiting up for them. Betty was the first to greet them.
“Well?” she asked, grinning widely.
Luke nodded, his eyes bright. “She said yes.”
“Aaaah,” Betty cried, throwing herself at Martha. “That’s so amazing, Mum. I’m so happy for you.” She rained kisses all over her mother’s face, before turning to Luke. “This is so great, thank you Luke.”
“Congratulations, sweetheart,” Lucia said, hugging Martha. “Let me see the ring.”
Martha held out her hand with pride. “Isn’t it beautiful?”
“Oh it is,” Lucia gasped. “Luciano you chose well.”
“Yeah Uncle Luke, you can’t have got much change from ten grand for that.” Noah peered over Martha’s shoulder.
“Don’t you worry about how much it cost,” Luke frowned, knowing that Noah was way off the mark for what he’d paid – but he didn’t care, Martha was worth it.
“Well I think champagne is called for,” Lucia said as she walked towards the kitchen. “Betty, darling, will you help me, please?”
“Yes, Nonna. Come on Noah, you can help too.
Left alone in the hallway, Luke took Martha into his arms and kissed her.
“Do you think they’ll notice if we skip the champagne?” he asked running his hand through Martha’s hair.
“One drink won’t hurt, you can surely wait a little bit longer. But, you know I think maybe we should sneak down to the cottage, while we get the chance before it’s sold.”
“Why?” Luke asked kissing a slow path down her neck.
Throwing her head back Martha groaned with desire, before gently pulling away from Luke’s enticing kisses. “Because,” she panted as she slowly unzipped Luke’s trousers and dipped her hand inside, “I have a feeling we might be very noisy tonight and I don’t want to frighten your mother.”
“Ah fuck, babe,” Luke groaned. He started pulling Martha towards the front door. “Mamma, don’t worry about champagne for us,” he shouted. “Martha thinks she’s left the gas on in the cottage, we’re going to check.”
“Oh, okay,” Lucia said as she came back into the hall just in time to see the front door slam. “Better to be safe than sorry.”
“Oh Nonna,” Betty sighed, appearing at Lucia’s side. “Bless you.”
“What is it, dear?”
“We don’t have gas at the cottage.”
Epilogue
Eighteen Months later
As the door burst open, Martha’s gaze swung to it, waiting in anticipation for Luke to enter the room. Each time she saw him, no matter how long they’d been apart, her heart beat faster and her body yearned for his touch. From the minute they’d talked about her catering his party almost three years ago, she’d been lost to him – she was his completely.
Finally, after Skins, Tom, Jake and a host of technicians and members of team Dirty Riches piled in, she saw him. He pushed through the door, wiping his face with a towel, looking all sorts of sexy. Okay, he was a little sweaty after just performing for almost two hours, but he was still Mr Sex God of Rock. The way his faded, grey, t-shirt clung to his body and his jeans hugged his thighs and perfect backside, sent shivers through Martha’s body.
Luke threw the towel onto a pile of others in the corner, and then scanned the room across the sea of heads. As soon as he saw Martha he gave her a huge smile and pushed through the crowd of people.
“Hey beautiful.” He leaned down and kissed her gently, smiling against her lips. “How’s he been?”
Luke moved his arms towards the sleeping bundle in Martha’s arms and gently cradled the small baby, before dropping a kiss to his forehead.
“He was good; Amber watched him while I was at stage side and she said he slept through,” Martha said as she adjusted the baby’s blue blanket.
The child in Luke’s arms stirred slightly and gave a little whimper.
“Hey Rocco, what’s wrong buddy? Papa’s here.”
As Luke kissed his eight week old son again, Martha thought that her heart would burst. She had never imagined that she could ever be this happy, but she was and it was all because of the six foot three hunk of sexiness standing in front of her – her husband.
They’d had
a beautiful wedding, small, fun, and intimate, with just their families and the band attending, although due to the size of Luke’s family it actually resulted in almost seventy people attending. No celebrities were present and no photographs were sold to the media. It had been perfect, a real Italian family wedding in the beautiful gardens of a Medieval Castle perched high in the Tuscan Hills. Martha had worn an exquisite strapless Italian lace, mermaid style gown that buttoned all the way up the back with tiny pearl buttons. It hugged her curves and she looked stunning, so stunning, in fact, that Luke had whisked her away for half an hour before the reception. Luke looked pretty good too, dressed in a slim fitting, hand made suit, the same midnight blue as Betty and Stacey’s bridesmaid’s dresses. The suit, along with his sexily, ruffled hair and open necked, crisp white shirt gave Martha palpitations before she’d even reached him at the altar. As everyone commented, they made an absolutely gorgeous couple.
They’d wanted to have a child as soon as possible, so seven months later despite the look of shock on Luke’s face when Martha showed him the positive test, he was ecstatic. He called everyone to tell them, even Jake and Tom who were sleeping soundly in L.A. at the time.
“You were all brilliant, by the way,” Martha said.
Luke looked up from their son and smiled. “Yeah?”
“Yes, but to be honest, I only had eyes for the gorgeous, sexy, singer.” Martha licked her lips and shivered as she thought of Luke strutting around the stage, playing the crowd and turning the females in the audience into mush.
“Fuck baby, don’t look at me like that,” Luke groaned. “I’m having a hard time holding it together here.”
“Luke!” Martha said with a wink. “And with our son in your arms too.”
“It’s because of that look that he’s here,” Luke laughed and kissed the tip of Martha’s nose. “Anyway, I’m glad you enjoyed the show.”
“It was fantastic,” Martha replied. “Neil says that the reviews of the new material are really good, so you’ll probably be back performing in stadiums again on the next tour.”
