The One Adored (The One Trilogy Book 3) (2 page)

“Well, yes, you have that of course, you total and utter player - but I was actually going to say you are
always
positive - you’re great to be around - really motivating and I knew you’d keep me on track today… and you have.”

“Why thank you kind, lady.”

“You’re very welcome. Now enough compliments Mr. Silver, and put your experience with boxes to good use and be gentle with this one, it’s special…” She looks at the label and cross checks it with her list. “Yep, just as I thought, my Grannie Annie’s tea set. She’d absolutely kill me if this gets smashed.”

“I’ll tend to this box, like it’s virginal, stroke it, protect it with my life, lady Lu.”

Her small pink tongue pokes out at me teasingly and for one long second I’m tempted to drop the sodding tea-set and tend to her tongue with my own. My cock twitches in agreement and I bite my lip and inhale deeply to control my actions.
 

Fucking plaits she’s wearing don’t help, cheers for that, Lu - makes you look all cute and sexy, great to have something to pull hard on whilst I… Whoa… down boy! Nope, we are friends and she is with Niall, besides you’re meeting Natalie tonight and she’ll see to that stonking hard-on for you. Yep - Natalie, think about her, blonde, small breasts, tall, long legs…the total opposite to your best friend… brunette, voluptuous breasts, petite… God I’m not helping myself here - think Natalie… yes, Natalie… mmm, we’re back on track - now she has a nice box…

“I’ll go sort this.” I lift the package and shrug in the direction of the door, the moment between us has passed, as Lucia is lost deep in her removal schedule.

“Great, thanks, lovely. Tell Niall to get the kettle on, will you? I’m parched.”

“Will do.”
 

*****

I weave my way between the cardboard boxes piled high in the hallway, and head down the short flight of stairs into the basement kitchen. This place needed a serious sprinkling of Lu’s interior design magic touch, it was like walking onto the set of The Brady Bunch - olive greens, yellows, oranges and browns adorned the walls in floral and paisley patterns. God, where are my Ray-bans?

The kitchen was at least white, but hadn’t been touched in decades and as I slide the tea-set box, onto the chipped Formica top and feel an unsteady wobble I make the snap decision to leave it on the floor, tucked away safely in a corner. I’d seen the wrath of Grannie Annie and was not keen to have it directed at me.

“Good plan, mate. I just made the same mistake and the top nearly collapsed in half.”

I turn at Niall’s voice, watching him close the fridge and nod in acceptance, as he wiggle’s a beer at me.
 

“Removals is a mug’s game - I’m fucked.” Niall pops the tops off both bottles, hands me one and wipes his brow with the back of his hand. “Cheers. Here’s to making enough money so next time I move house I can have someone else do all this for me. ”

“Cheers. Lu, said to put the kettle on.”

“I’ll have to find it first. Any ideas?”

I shake my head. “I’ve not seen that box yet but Lu has the list - I’m sure she’ll know which number it is in.”

“Humph, that bloody list - bane of my life!” Niall snarls.

“I thought it was pure genius!” I smile back taking another swig.

“You did? I mean you do? Well you did always have more patience for Lucia’s eccentricities.”

Those eccentricities make her who she is, you prick. Why are you irritating me so much?

“Couldn’t have done this without you and Nathan though - really appreciate it, Seb.”

“S’cool. I’m happy to help my friends. I’ll let you carry Lu’s shoes up though.”
 

Niall frowns. “Not a chance. She chose to have that many pairs, she can lug them up two flights to the spare room.”

I should laugh at his joke - it’s what it was supposed to be, surely, but I can’t manage a smile.
He was kidding right
? “I’ll sort it Niall. You crack on with the sofas with Na. Imelda can’t live without her shoes.”

“Bloody shoes - I only get
their
worth
when she’s wearing heels and nothing else - do-me-shoes - know what I mean?” His cheesy wink is grating beyond belief. Something that has become more and more apparent of late.
 

I take a long drag on my beer and scan the room. “Nice place Niall. You and Lu got a bargain here.”

“Fucking dive, mate but Lu promises me she’ll wave her designer’s wand over it for little to fuck-all money - just hope she doesn’t expect me to start shopping at IKEA. I won’t become one of
those
guys.”

“She’ll do a great job; she’s bloody good you know.”

“Well, she needs practice, so its a win win. To be honest, Seb I’m not sure she gets that her chosen career is not a
real
job.”

WTF?
I take a deep breath before replying. “Lu will do just fine, Niall. She beat you to a First in her degree didn’t she?” Now that hit him where it hurt.

“Well,
my
career is on the up and I need to make sure that she realises that she needs to be 100% on board to support me, so I can make a name for myself. Men get paid more anyway.”

When did he turn into such a chauvinistic prick? Had he always been like this?
 

“Wait… so you want the little lady barefoot and pregnant and cooking at the stove?” I frown.
Lu needed more than that, she wanted it all, would never settle for just that - surely he understood that by now?

“Fuck no! Cooking yes… pregnant not a chance. Well one day of course,
 
I need to keep the grandparents happy after all for the inheritance, but not for some time. No, I want to play the field, work on my career - have late nights out and long lie ins. No room for crying babies and dirty nappies - God forbid.” His shudder is something I understand right now, I’m only 25.
 

I’m not sure Lu is aware about this plan of his but it really is none of my business. What does he mean by
play the field
though? They were moving in together - taking that next step - surely he was committed to her?
 

I had my own plans for my business and I needed to concentrate on that now - I could see Silver Construction was going to be huge if this next contract took off and it had to have my complete concentration. Odd though, how looking around that 70’s mess of a kitchen I could see myself bashing it about into something fabulous, with Lu at my side.
Now where had that thought come from?
If I’m honest with myself, if I was in Niall’s shoes and had Lu in my bed each night, making babies didn’t sound so unappealing either.
Jeez, vagina alert!

“You still with me mate?”

“Sorry, miles away.”
Searching for my manhood.
“You were saying?”

“I can’t wait to christen each and every room in this dive, with bulletproof protection of course - make Lucia know who’s boss.”

“Well… if you want to start now - that’ll be my cue to leave.” My stomach turns to concrete and throat feels suddenly raw.
You need to get out of here, now.

“Don’t leave on account of his crude talk, Seb.” Lu’s soft fingers brush over my arm and I tense, looking down into her lime green eyes, twinkling happily. Her face is marked with dust and I itch to brush it away with my thumb.
 

Shit, you really need to leave - what the fuck has got into you?
 

She deserves so much more than Niall, that’s what. This shit just got real - they bought a house together - you’re about to lose her for a second time - do you want this?
“Right, guys, I’ll see you in the morning at the wedding.”

“That you will, mate. Going to be a good do, me thinks. Big day for you though?”

“Hmmm mmmm. Got my speech all sorted.” I wink at Lu and she leans up on tiptoes to kiss my cheek and we both feel the static that leaps between us, electricity sparking causing me to step backwards suddenly on a sharp breath. Yep, I need to leave and fast before I knock Niall out cold and take my best friend hard and fast on the kitchen tiles.
 

Do it then you wet bastard. What’s stopping you? Hmmm?

I escape out the back door, with a salute thrown over my shoulder and don’t look back, not once - even though I’m desperate to see if she’s watching me. I don’t need to though. I know she is. I feel Lu’s eyes on my retreating form, and I’m positive their gaze will be uncertain, questioning and as thoroughly confused, as my own. Déjà vu strikes again - sly little bastard. Always there, always stirring things up but this time I’m worried I’ve left things too late. This time I need to let her go completely.
 

*******

“I now pronounce you man… and wife… you may kiss the bride.”

Misty eyed and feeling immensely emotional but with a huge grin, splitting my face from ear to ear I beam at my sister and her handsome new husband, as they promise themselves to one another and indulge in a romantic kiss to seal the deal. I’m a sucker for
the kiss.
It has to be done just right and obvious to all that are watching that when your lips meet for the first time as a married couple, you are 100% soul-mates.
 

At the exact moment Suzie and Gino’s lips connect my eyes lock with the person directly opposite me and I feel goosebumps coat my arms. I wipe a stray tear away with the back of my finger and look back, uncertainly into the eyes of the best man, staring arrogantly and openly back at me, a strange look in his eyes. Licking my lips I swallow. I have the same feelings flooding over me I’d experienced yesterday when he’d helped us move house. Confusing feelings.

God Sebastian looks good today. My gaze travels from his glistening black eyes, down over his strong straight nose, full lips, across his broad shoulders encased in a black wool jacket with tails, which covered the cream silk waistcoat and pale pink cravat. I daren’t let my eyes drop lower, I’d already seen his lips twitch at my open appraisal of him and could feel my cheeks beginning to heat. All the groomsmen wore the same suit, including my boyfriend, who was an usher but somehow Sebastian managed to wear
it
rather than the suit wear him - like Saville Row had tailored it personally for his perfectly sculpted body.

The bride and groom finally part, recognising that they are not the only two people in the room and the guests cheer and applaud raucously and I’m filled with a strong sense of belonging. I truly hope that I can find
THE ONE
; the one that kisses me into oblivion and makes me forget my surroundings.
 

So you haven’t already then - what about Niall? And if it’s not him what the fuck are you doing buying a house with him?

FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!

Like the clanging bells from the tower above, that had rung for ten minutes before the church ceremony, loud and crystal clear, right here and now, as I stare deeply into my best-friend’s eyes, I know in that moment that I’d just moved in with the wrong man. Niall wasn’t t
he one
and he wouldn’t be the one to make me forget my surroundings. Niall wasn’t the one I would be promising to love and honour, in sickness and health, as long as we both shall live. Suddenly that seemed like a life sentence, my pale pink bridesmaid’s dress a straight jacket, constricting my breathing.

I slip my arm through the dashing best man’s outstretched one, maintaining a fake brilliant white smile, his masculine scent enveloping me, as we’re swept forward on a wedding party wave and we follow Suzie and Gino up the aisle in tandem to the cool sounds of Barry White’s The First, The Last, My Everything. I watch as my sister’s beautiful frothy gown of ice white, bobs back and forth behind her, dragging on the dirty stone church floor as she wiggles her butt to the beat and I hastily grab the 10 foot long train, trying not to bare too much of her legs and sexy wedding undies. At the end of the aisle, we all stop and duly pose for the photographer and Seb and I are clicked in that one moment, forever. Just like the time at our graduation and the day he opened his first offices. There’d been many such special
moments
.

As we exit the huge archway with fragrant white lilies strewn all around it, more cameras erupt, flashes, clicks and ‘say cheeses’ follow and I let go of his arm and move away from his proximity. I’m claustrophobic and need air and fast and don’t look back as I make my way towards Jess, who is already drinking from her diamante hip-flask; good-girl, I could always rely on her to supply me with the hard stuff but I’d need more to get through today - a lot more. This wedding was going to be a long do but once it was over, Niall and I needed to talk. He was not my future.
 

*******

    
One of the perks of being Matron of Honour was that I got to sit on the top table; it also meant that Niall and I were separated for a good part of the festivities. The speeches had gone smoothly. Gino had thanked the bridesmaids, managed not to insult his new wife and my Dad had held back the tears before he’d agreed that Gino was the best man to take his youngest daughter on. Sebastian had done a brilliant job of embarrassing G enough without being too filthy and had had guests crying with laughter at his tales of their stag do in Amsterdam. I’d taken great pride in his ability to fit right in to any situation until my Mum, Grannie Annie, and many other members of the family had continually gone on about how wonderful he was and if I didn’t snap him up right now, he’d find someone else -
I was getting on a bit now and the oldest Myers’ girl, after all.