by Adler
“Once again, we have given her too much thought. Let’s enjoy a Marion-free day from this moment forward.”
I lean up and kiss his cheek, “Sounds like a plan.”
He takes me to a place called Underground City. It is literally a city underground that is full of shopping, restaurants, a subway system, and it connects to attractions above ground without exposing the shopper to frost bite. We have lunch at a little bistro and enjoyed a dish called poutine, which is essentially French fries covered in brown gravy and sprinkled with cheese curds. I feel guilty afterward, as if I should take a run through the fifteen miles of underground shopping.
We finish selecting our last minute Christmas gifts and head out to the waiting limo. Once our packages are stowed in the trunk and we are snuggled next to each other in the car, Harrison announces that he has a surprise for me.
“After a long day shopping, I thought this would be a nice way to unwind.”
“What is it? Where are you taking me?” He puts his sunglasses on, though he doesn’t need them with the tinted windows.
“I’m not telling you. It’s a surprise.”
“Ugh! You know how surprises make me antsy!”
He crosses his arms and stares at me through his tinted shades. Disconcerting to say the least.
It is not a long before we are pulling up in front of a grand old hotel called Hotel Le St James. The hotel is a landmark in old Montreal, so I am told by Harrison. “It used to be a merchant’s bank building, now it’s a famous hotel.”
“It’s beautiful, Harrison, but what are we doing here?’
“You’ll see.” He takes my hand and leads me out of the car and up the stairs to the hotel entrance.
Inside the lobby, he leads me over to a set of elevators. Once we are on the elevator and the doors shut, Harrison cups my chin and presses his lips to mine in a quick but passionate kiss. As he pulls away, he looks into my eyes, “I have been wanting to do that for hours.”
Okay, that was yummy. I decide to flirt back. “I have been wanting you to do that for hours.” Just as he is about the lean in for more, the elevator comes to a stop and the doors open. We step out into a tranquil spa called, Le Spa. How fitting, I guess. The walls are stone; the lights are dim. I hear water rushing down a water wall to the right, reminding me of all the water features at the Towers. Harrison steps forward to the reception desk. He speaks to the lady behind the counter in a hushed tone, as she looks from him to me and then back to Harrison. I notice that she is busy batting her eyelashes at him. I don’t know what she thinks that is going to accomplish. I roll my eyes, walk over to the water feature, and watch the water rush down into the catch basin. I turn around and both of them are looking at me. “What?” I say quietly.
The woman responds. “We are ready for you.”
I turn to Harrison, searching his face for some kind of clue. “Are you going to tell me what we are doing here now?” I say softly so only he can hear.
“We are here to get a couple’s massage.” He smirks.
“Oh?” Hmm, I hope it is a normal massage and not one of those “special” ones where they walk on your back and swing you from the rafters. The last time I had a massage in a foreign country, I felt as if I was in training for Cirque de Soleil.
“You may change into a robe and stow your belongings in here,” says the receptionist, as she points to an open doorway. She turns to Harrison and points to another room “And you may change in there.” When you are ready, meet me back out here, and I will show you to your treatment room.”
After I change, I lock away my things in a cubby, stashing the key in my robe. I head out to find my husband.
He is already waiting and looks hot as ever, standing there in a white spa robe and matching slippers. I shuffle over to him, wearing the same ensemble. “Okay, if you are ready, follow me.”
We follow the heavy-set, flirtatious gal to the treatment room. She opens the door to an even more dimly lit room. It smells of lavender and mint. There is a pan flute playing in the background and there are flower petals, perhaps roses, scattered about. The massage therapists are waiting for us by each bed. Once we are settled in, we spend the next hour and half relaxing and having our stress and troubles rubbed away.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
It’s Christmas Eve and the house is bustling with activity. Harrison and I wrapped the gifts we bought yesterday when we returned from our massages. It was so relaxing at home that we opted to eat leftovers from the refrigerator and skipped going out to eat. After we wrapped everything, we had a sensual lovemaking session in his favorite location, the bathtub. We washed the massage oil residue off each other’s bodies while we explored our sensual limits. After that amazing day and night, we both collapsed into bed.
It is another sunny but cold day outside, and I feel inspired to finish decorating the house. “Harrison, shouldn’t we finish decorating the house and put up the tree today? Tomorrow is Christmas Day and where is Santa supposed to put his present for you? I stick my lip out in a fake pout.
He grabs me and throws me back onto the bed. “Just put a bow on like you did for my birthday, and we won’t need a tree.” He growls seductively into my ear. I feel my pussy get wet just from the thought of him unwrapping me like a present again.
I try squirm away from him. “Very funny. Now seriously, can we decorate the tree with my folks and Clarke today?”
He kisses me quickly, letting me out of his grip, “Of course Cheri, whatever makes you happy. I will ask Clara to get Samuel to help her get the decorations out of storage.”
“Oh, I am so excited!”
After we eat a dinner of roasted herbed chicken and vegetables with a salad of greens, beets and goat cheese, we enjoy a traditional sweet called Bûche de Noël. I am told it is simply a sweet cake-like loaf. I notice that it is shaped like a Yule log, hence where it gets its name, I am guessing. With the cake, we eat a divine creamy cheese, whose name I can’t seem to pronounce very well, Vacherin Mont d'Or. Once I feel thoroughly stuffed to the point that I am wishing I had on stretchy pants, I suggest we decorate the tree. We manage to get the staff to help us decorate the rest of the room, leaving the tree for this evening.
“Harrison and I would love it if you would all join us in decorating our first Christmas tree together.” My parents are both beaming and Clarke looks to Garrin, who nods in agreement.
“Let’s get to it.” Clarke rubs her hands together and heads over to the boxes of ornaments and trimmings. She begins pulling out the decorations and placing them on the floor. All of the baubles are placed so we can assess what we have to work with; we realize there is nothing but different sizes and shapes of balls. There are gold, silver, red, green and even pink balls, so we decide to load the tree down with a ball theme.
It does not take long to finish trimming the tree, and once we were done, we step away to admire our work. I noticed that the three women did the bulk of the work. I am not sure what, if anything, the men contributed. I look at the tree again and notice that the tree topper has not been placed. “Harrison, do you think there is a tree topper somewhere?”
“Yes, there should be. Let me look.” He digs through a couple of the boxes, producing a white box from which he removes a white angel. “And here it is!”
“Great, now can you put it on top for me?”
He pulls over the step stool that we were using and steps up to place the angel atop the tree. He steps down and goes behind the tree to plug in the lights. Voila, our first Christmas is lit.
I turn off the overhead lights, and we all sit down. Harrison cracks open a couple bottles of Barefoot Bubbly Extra Brut Champagne. My favorite. I didn’t realize they have it up here. We toast to the tree, Christmas and family. That about covers it.
My parents disappear up the stairs to their room after an hour of laughing at funny Christmas mishaps of the past. Harrison and I are now alone, since Clarke left with Garrin to stay at his place for the night. I pull out a pa
ckage that I had stowed in a cabinet by the fireplace. I hand it to Harrison. He looks at me and shakes his head. “Shouldn’t we wait for tomorrow?”
“No, I want to give this to you when we are alone. I think now is a good time.”
“Ok, then stay right here, I want to grab your present.” He disappears through the archway. A few minutes later, he reappears with a small box in his hand and a huge smile on his handsome face.
“Okay sit, open mine first.”
He picks up the flat package and tears the colorful paper, letting it drop to the floor. He studies it for a moment, runs his hands across the cover of the book, and then he looks at me, locking his crystal blue pools with mine. “This is beautiful.” He opens it up to the inside of the cover and reads what I wrote.
Harrison,
To a man who seemingly has everything in life, but someone to share it with. I am humbled that you chose me to be your someone. This is the story of us in pictures, the best gift I could come up with for the man I love.
After he thumbs through the pages, he closes it, and without saying a word, he leans over and kisses me with a tenderness that I had not expected.
He takes my hand in his. “Someday I want to add children to this story, Danielle.”
I melt and tingle at the same time. “I do too Harrison, someday. For now, I love it being the story of us!”
I glance down at the book he has placed on the sofa between us. On the front of the black leather-bound book, the words “Our Story” are embroidered in white.
I collected pictures of us off my phone and had them made into a hardbound book. The pictures date back to our trip to New York, when we first became lovers. Then the ribbon cutting ceremony, where we became public, and the gala in Hood River, where I learned of the sensitive and generous man that he is. I think of the time we took a picture of ourselves sitting on the wooden swing at the country house and our night of lovemaking at the Hollywood mogul’s house in Palm Springs. As the book continues, each picture shows a love story that has already weathered many storms and is emerging with a rainbow at the end. The end of this book is of Harrison and I kissing on the beach, just after we said our vows. With any luck and with the passage of a little time, I look forward to the book that says, “Our family.”
“Mon Amore?” He laughs. “Did I lose you to your thoughts again?”
“I’m sorry, I was just reflecting.”
‘Good, now open mine; although, I don’t’ know how I can compete with a book dedicated to our story.”
He hands me the little box wrapped in white glossy paper with a bright red satin ribbon tied loosely around it. I look up at him, knowing how he feels about red ribbons. He wiggles his eyebrows at me as if we just shared a thought.
After the ribbon and paper are stripped away, they reveal a white box with the words “Kensington’s Fine Jewelers Since 1975, Georgetown, Caymans” in a script font. I open the hinged box to reveal a beautiful ring to be worn on my right hand. A cocktail ring, of sorts. It is a white gold setting with a shiny black polished stone of some sort, alternating with pave diamonds. Harrison gently takes the box from me and removes the ring from its nesting place. He places it on my right hand on the second finger in from the pinkie. “This is black coral, found in the Caymans. I had it specially made for you.”
I wrap my arms around his neck and give him a generous kiss. “Thank you, it’s simply gorgeous! When did you have it made? I don’t think we were apart from one another more than a half hour while we were there.”
He chuckles, “I have my ways.”
While still in an embrace, he whispers in my ear, “Merry Christmas Mon Amore.”
With my parents tucked away in bed and Simone gone for the night, Harrison and I make love under the mistletoe and the lights of the tree.
Christmas Day is lovely, with church service first thing in the morning, followed by brunch at the home of Harrison’s maternal uncle, or should I say, yet another mansion. I meet so many people of whom I am completely losing track. I cannot keep who is married to whom and whose kids belong where straight for the life of me. I am thoroughly exhausted and we still have the evening dinner at Harrison’s parent’s house. Before we left the house for church this morning, we exchanged gifts with my parents along with Garrin and Simone, who returned early to partake.
In the limo on the way to the Tower’s home, my dad is chatting away with Harrison and us ladies are left to discussing the status of wedding preparations. It is going to be a week full of wedding related activities, mixed in with a little fun. I am excited to get to my wedding day. The last ceremony was for us and no one else. This one is for our families.
The Towers welcome us into their amazing home with open arms. It is the largest mansion I have ever stepped foot into. Not that I have been in many. It is old world charm at its best, situated on a family estate on a body of water with its own private beach. It has a whopping thirty-seven rooms, nine of which are bedrooms and twelve bathrooms. The grand ballroom is where we will hold our wedding reception. After dinner and gifts, we are going get the tour of the ballroom, and then I will try on my dress in one of the guest rooms. One of my favorite features that I have seen so far in this house is the iron scrollwork railing on the double staircases in the foyer.
We are shown into the large formal dining room and are seated around a large table with Mr. and Mrs. Towers at each end. The table seats eighteen, just like the old table in the manor house. The Christmas dinner is delicious and very French with a Succulent Goose, Ham, Gratin Jurassien, which are basically scalloped potatoes, Brussels sprouts in a lemon dill butter sauce, Green Beans Provencale with rosemary and shallots. For dessert, we have a variety of sweet cakes, candies and pies. I feel right at home at Harrison’s side enjoying a family Christmas. He has been playing footsy with me most of the evening, and I find it to be so sweet and endearing. Mr. and Mrs. Towers suggest that we all move to the living room to sit around the tree and open presents. We all find new places to sit in the massive living room. I would have expected the room to be draft, but instead, it is warm from the fireplace and rather cozy. After we finish opening gifts from the Towers and our gifts to them, some of the family gathers by the grand piano to sing Christmas Carols. The children are excitedly dancing around the room, as Mr. Towers is playing the piano. I notice Harrison watching his family, and I see a look of contentment across his face.
Mrs. Towers motions for me to join her at the entrance to the living room. I walk over to her, she takes me by the arm, “Let’s go look at the ballroom while everyone’s attention is occupied. Let’s get your mother and Miss Clarke to join us.” She smiles warmly at me, and I return the gesture. I wander back in to fetch Clarke and my mom. I look over to where Harrison is standing and we lock eyes. He mouths, “I love you.” Dear God, when he does that I feel weak each and every time. I am so blessed that this man, who makes me feel this way, is my husband. The man with whom I will be exchanging vows in front of our families in a less than a week. The man who will someday be father to my children. I mouth, “I love you too.” He gives me his sexy smile, to which I doubt that I will ever be immune. I think to myself that I can’t wait to get him back home, so I can screw his brains out. In the meantime, I need to collect the ladies so we can view the ballroom and look over my dress.
Chapter Thirty
It’s Monday morning, and Harrison is heading in to town to meet with his attorney about obtaining a restraining order against Marion. I am trying very hard to not give her much thought. I have resolved that she is just a lunatic, and that Harrison and his family will take care of my safety. At times when I think about it, I no longer feel scared, but sorry for her. She was left at the altar, not once but twice. At least that is how her convoluted mind processes it. I think she needs mental help, a huge slap some on the face, and some time locked up. She needs to be held responsible for the pain and suffering that she has caused me.
Harrison called the security company, and they are c
oming to the mansion tomorrow to update the system. A locksmith is coming tomorrow to re-key all of the locks. Harrison hired two more guards who will patrol the premises throughout the night. He feels that since we are ignoring her threats, she will likely combust any day now, and he doesn’t want to leave any holes in our armor. What is frustrating is that we still do not know if she really has hired someone to do something drastic to me. Thus, I am staying inside as much as possible. Once again, I feel like a prisoner. At least this is an exquisite place to be held up!
When I tried my wedding dress on, I was relieved that it fit fantastic and I couldn’t have been happier. I just know that Harrison is going to love it on me! Mrs. Towers suggested that I get a second, less formal, dress to change into during the reception. Since the reception is also a New Years Eve gala, I should change into another dress once the cake has been cut. People will be ready to party. Clarke called around and is having a local dress designer that is jumping at the chance, bring a collection of dresses for me to try on here at the mansion. Harrison and I also haven’t met with the minister who is officiating yet, so he is coming by later this afternoon to meet with us.
Mrs. Towers is using her event planner to handle all of the details of the wedding, including the rehearsal dinner. She has run a lot of ideas by me, and has allowed me to be involved in the decision making. I figure since Harrison is her only child, I will let her take the reins. I also suspect it has enabled her to keep her mind off recent events involving the revelation that Garrin is her husband’s son. I am sure that it still stings a bit, even though it was not a big surprise.
It’s the morning of the rehearsal and my nerves are beginning to set in. I didn’t feel like this when we got married in paradise, but I suspect it was because it was low key and just between us. This wedding has all the usual trappings, which include the rehearsal dinner tonight.
