Exposure (9 page)

There were no signs that our wedding day
would be disastrous at first. The summer weather was perfect. I couldn’t plan
for sunshine in Scotland. But not even that let me down. We could have had the
ceremony outside after all. There was no howling gale to blow my veil away or
rain to ruin the bridesmaids’ hair.

But I’d chosen to get married in the old
chapel. This marriage was forever and it felt like the right place to make our
vows. We would last for years just like that building. I knew it for sure.

The old gray stone walls of the castle
looked perfect with the white flowers I had chosen and the main part of the
ceremony went off without a hitch, with Nathan looking into my eyes with such
love as he said “I do” I thought I would melt into the flagstone floor.

But after the ceremony, the meal, and the
speeches, and the first dance, I was done with being the center of attention,
and I was ready to let my hair down.

One of the few things Nathan had wanted for
the wedding was a
ceilidh
band for Scottish country dancing. He’d been
to a wedding like that in Scotland when he was a kid.

It was a hit. The guests loved it. Young
and old joined in, and the band guided the dancers through all the steps. Even
so, there were plenty of us getting it wrong. We were in stitches, probably
fired up by the champagne that had been flowing all day. Everyone was
dancing—Justine with her fiancé Robin, Suzanne and Kyle, both sets of parents
and all my aunts. I was worried Hannah might feel out of it. Her boyfriend hadn’t
made it in the end. He had the flu. But James Willoughby was paying her a lot
of attention.

“Having fun?” I asked when I managed to
catch up with her.

“Yes, lots,” she said. “I can hardly
breathe after that Strip the Willow.”

“Sure it’s not James making you breathless?
You have to watch him. I told you what he’s like.”

“I know. He’s a real flirt, but I’m
managing to resist his charm. It’s good for my ego though. I’ve never had a
bona fide TV star asking me to dance before.”

I laughed. “I’m sure they’re the same as
other guys when they get the flu.”

“I know. Men are so pathetic when they’re
ill.”

James came over and took her hand again.
Another dance was starting.

With everyone fully in the party mood and
having a good time, Nathan decided he wanted to celebrate with me in his own
special way.

He kissed me.

“Happy, Mrs. Waite?”

“Totally. You?”

“Best day ever.”

“As good as the premiere?” I knew that had
been a highlight of Nathan’s life.

“Better.”

I grinned at him.

“You know what would make it even better
still?”

“What?”

“An encore.”

“What? You want to get married all over
again?”

“No, I mean, an encore of that time we had
here out in the woods, right now, just you and me, while they are all busy at
the party.”

“No way. We can’t just disappear. And my
wedding dress will get ruined out in those woods.”

“No one will miss us. Look at them, they’re
all having a whale of a time.”

He was probably right. The guests were
intent on nothing more than enjoying themselves, but even so, someone was bound
to wonder where we were.

“We won’t be long,” he said. “No more than
half an hour. They’ll just think we’ve gone off for some ‘you and me’ time. And
we will. Just not where they think we’re going.”

“What about my dress?”

“You can take it off. Pity not to show off
what you’re wearing under it.” He grinned. “Besides there’s been no rain for
days, you’re not going to get it covered in mud or anything.”

“Won’t it be dark and spooky out there?”

“I’ll hold you tight.”

He gave me a big hug. I always felt safe in
his arms, and I wanted some time alone with him. It had been a long day, and we
hadn’t had a moment to catch our breath.

I kissed him.

“Time to love, honor, and obey?” he said.
He wasn’t going to let it go.

“You know, we changed the obey bit in the
vows.”

“I know, just teasing, but Mel, obey me for
one night. Do that for me. You know you want to.” He looked at me, so full of
love, eager for me to say yes.

“I can’t go through the woods with these
shoes, anyway,” I said pointing to my three-inch stilettos that were beginning
to pinch. I would be pleased to take them off at the end of the day.

“Don’t you have any others with you? Go and
change your shoes. If you like, I’ll get someone to cover for us. We won’t be
missed for half an hour.”

He had a counter-argument for every reason
I put forward. In the end, I gave in. Otherwise, it would be hours before we’d
be alone.

I met Nathan by the back door. My feet were
a lot more comfortable in my Converse, though they didn’t exactly look right
with my gown. When I lifted the hem of my dress and showed them to Nathan, he
laughed.

“You look just as lovely in them as you did
in your wedding shoes,” he said. “Come on.”

He took my hand, and we slipped out of the
door.

It was cool outside but not cold, yet I
shivered. Maybe I knew we shouldn’t be doing this. Maybe I already knew I
should have talked Nathan out of it. But I was happy to be out there alone with
him in the moonlight. We got off the path as quickly as we could, afraid we
would be spotted from the windows. It was dark, but the moon was bright and the
white fairy lights the hotel staff had put among the poplars lining the drive
meant we could have been spotted.

As soon as we were under the cover of the
trees, Nathan pulled me to him and kissed me.

“Alone at last, Mrs. Waite. I love you.”

“I love you too, Mr. Waite, a million
times.”

“Only a million?”

“At least a million.”

“I missed you last night,” he said. “Stupid
custom making it unlucky to fuck the bride the night before the wedding.”

“It’s good for you to miss me sometimes.”

“I always miss you when you’re not there.”

He pulled me farther into the trees. We
walked quickly. He seemed to know where he was going even though it was a few
months since we’d been out there together. He always did have a great sense of
direction whereas I could never remember where I parked the car when it was
time to go back to it even if I’d only been shopping for half an hour.

I held my skirt up to avoid the hem
trailing in the dirt. At least Nathan was right. The ground was dry, and it
wouldn’t get too muddy.

Every now and then, we stopped to kiss,
deep kisses that made me forget all about the party going on. My mind was all
on Nathan.

“I’m so pleased I married you,” he said.

“Just as well you haven’t gone off the
idea. I thought we would manage to last longer than a day. A lifetime at
least.”

“We’re going to last all right. A lifetime
and a half. That’s my final offer.”

“A lifetime and a half it is.”

All alone, kissing Nathan, my new husband
who wanted us to last a lifetime and a half was something I would treasure
forever, especially given what happened later. But we were so happy, so unaware
of anything that might come between us then.

His hands roamed over my body, eager for
more.

“There are a million buttons on this dress.
Better be quick if I’m going to get you out of it.”

“They’re all fake. You can unzip me.” I
laughed.

“I love whoever made this dress,” he said.

“And here was I, thinking it was me you
loved...”

We were at the part of the woods I
recognized now. We looked at each other, remembering how it had been earlier in
the year, and without saying anything more, Nathan unzipped my dress, pulling
it off my shoulders. I wanted to hold my new husband naked against me. I wanted
him inside me. I wanted it to be so that there was no space between us at all.
The dress fell in a pool around my feet, and I stepped out of it. He had the
presence of mind to hang it over a low-hanging branch before we stepped all
over it.

“I even love you in your Converse and
stockings,” he said, and we giggled. My beautiful handmade lace ensemble,
carefully chosen to go under my dress, looked ridiculous with those shoes. I
unlaced them and kicked them off.

“Beautiful, fucking beautiful,” he said.

He took everything off me piece by piece,
first my bra, then my panties and then my lace-topped thigh-highs until I was
quite naked. My skin was glowing despite the cool air of the evening, my
nipples swollen with need. I gasped as he took first one and then the other in
his mouth, while I fumbled with the buttons of his shirt.

I planted a line of kisses down his body
from his chest to his stomach and down, unzipping him, taking his hard length
in my mouth, working him with my tongue, making him moan. He ran his hands
gently through my hair calling obscenities as I pleasured him.

“Stop,” he said, his voice gruff, “or I’m
going to come. Hold onto that tree. I want to come inside you.”

I leaned over, panting, my heart thudding.
I wanted him so badly at that moment. His fingers ran over my folds, stroking
me, making me groan, taking me to the edge and over it, just as he entered me,
and I completely lost all sense of where I was, who I was.

“Fuck me,” I called out as he drove into me
over and over and I pushed back to meet him. “Fuck me,” I begged as our bodies
rammed against each other, the slapping sound of flesh on flesh mingling with
the slight breeze rustling the leaves in the trees and the calls of unknown
creatures in the night.

He grasped my breasts almost painfully as
he plunged in again and again until he released into me with a groan.

“So fucking good,” he said. “We are so
fucking good together,” and we held each other.

I could have stayed with him in that little
copse of trees forever, but I knew we had to get back before we were missed by
the wedding guests. I gathered up my panties and put them on. Nathan zipped
himself up. He was a fine sight in the moonlight, his shirt open, his dark hair
all messy where I had run my hands through it. We kissed, not wanting to leave
our little peaceful haven and return to the fray.

He looked up. “What the fuck!”

Nathan’s voice and the sudden tension in
his body startled me. I looked around and squealed as people started coming out
of the trees, catching us half naked, me in my panties against Nathan’s bare
chest, my dress in a tree.

I blushed to the roots of my hair seeing
all those people surrounding us, and I grabbed my dress. My face must have been
a picture of the mortification and shame I was feeling. My legs were shaking in
shock. I didn’t know what to say. My mouth opened but nothing came out. No one
else knew what to say either.

I saw my sister Suzanne in the middle of
them all in her turquoise bridesmaid’s dress, but I couldn’t look at her. I
couldn’t look at anyone.

Though it had felt like there were a
hundred people coming out of those trees when I first saw them, there were
actually about twenty. Twenty too many. Some turned, as embarrassed to have
caught us as we were to be caught.

A couple of Nathan’s friends whooped with
delight. “Just like Nathan.” one said. “Yep, just like him. Atta boy!”

My face crumpled. I grabbed my dress. This
was a disaster. I wanted them all to go so I could get dressed.

Nathan came behind me and held me. “It’ll
be okay,” he whispered. “It’s just our friends. They won’t think anything of
it.”

My sister was crying too now. “I’m sorry,”
she said as people started to leave us alone, seeing how upset I was,
embarrassed they were the cause of it, even though I knew I’d caused my own
misery.

“I thought you were trying to make a quick
getaway without saying goodbye. I couldn’t let you go without your friends
sending you off.”

“Oh God, Suze, how long were you there?
What did you see?”

“Nothing really. We just came through the
trees and saw you kissing.”

“You were supposed to cover for us,” Nathan
said, more bemused at what had happened than angry.

“I didn’t want you to go without a proper
send off. We decorated the wedding car earlier in the old stable, and we wanted
to watch you go off in it. I thought you just didn’t want a fuss, Mel. You know
what you’re like. Nathan just said to cover for you. He didn’t say why,
otherwise I’d never have followed you, got everyone to follow you,” and she burst
into tears again.

I held her. I knew she would feel terrible.
At least I would have felt like that, if I was her.

“When you weren’t at the stable, I wondered
if you wanted to be alone, but the others decided to make a game of it and see
if they could find you. I couldn’t stop them. I tried, but I couldn’t stop
them. I’m so sorry.”

“Never mind, Suze.” I gave her another hug.
She could always get me to forgive her no matter what she did from when she was
a little girl. “Just help me get my dress on. We’d getter get back or everyone
else will be wondering what’s going on at the party. You don’t think they’ll
tell everyone else, do you?”

She didn’t say anything. Of course they’d
be talking about it. I hoped the other guests wouldn’t catch wind of the
sensation we had caused. At least they hadn’t seen anything. And the music was
so loud I hoped it would drown out the sound of gossip.

Nathan held my hand, rubbing my palm with
his thumb, trying to calm me as we walked back to the castle. I felt sick with
shame. In my mind, I kept seeing all those people appearing from between the
trees. Back in our room, Nathan tried to reassure me again.

“Don’t worry. Just pretend nothing
happened.”

My heart still hadn’t calmed down, but we
couldn’t stay long in the room. I put my bridal shoes back on, tidied my hair
and make-up and we rejoined the wedding to face the music.

If anyone had heard anything, they were too
polite to mention it when we returned. The party was still in full swing. If we
hadn’t been followed, no one would have been the wiser about our little
adventure and all would have been well. Though I kept a smile on my face and
pretended nothing was the matter, I didn’t feel easy for the rest of the party.
Being caught sobered me up and took the shine off a great day. I couldn’t put
the sickening thought of what some of the guests had seen out of my mind.

Near the end of the evening, we did the
bouquet toss, and I made sure my sister caught it. I didn’t want her thinking I
hadn’t forgiven her. It was all my fault. I didn’t think she knew what we were
up to when we went off.

At the end of the night we kissed everyone
goodbye, and she helped me into our decorated wedding car with my dress. I gave
her a hug.

“Where’s Kyle?” I asked.

“I don’t know. He was here a minute ago,”
she said.

“Don’t forget you caught the bouquet. Hang
onto him. He’s a keeper.” She needed someone as good as Nathan in her life,
someone stable. Maybe Kyle was that guy.

As we waved to everyone from the car, I
wished we’d booked somewhere else for the wedding night. Our venue was the best
place for miles around and having looked at the other options we had decided to
spend the night in the honeymoon suite there, as we had in May, and surprise
everyone at breakfast.

The chauffeur was as good-natured and
discreet as the rest of the staff and didn’t seem to mind that his car was
decorated with shaving foam and old tin cans.

“Congratulations,” he said. “I’ll just
drive around for half an hour and take you back.”

I hoped all the guests would have gone to
bed by then. Nathan put his arm around me and held my hand tightly in the car.
I was subdued. He must have known I was thinking about being caught in the
woods. He kept saying, “It will be okay. Don’t worry,” planting little kisses
on my cheek and in my hair.

The chauffeur brought us to the side
entrance, and we were able to get to our suite without seeing anyone. But our
little ruse just felt like another sneaky thing we were doing now. It was
supposed to be fun.

“So serious?” Nathan said, once we got to
our suite. “It’s our wedding night,” and he lifted up my chin and tried to kiss
away my cares.

“I can’t help thinking about all those
people seeing us.”

“I know you’re upset, but if we just say
nothing, just pretend as if it was nothing, they won’t bother about it either.”

“It’s okay for you. Your friends just
thought it was funny. If my mother hears about it...and what will your family
think of me?”

“They’ll think I led you astray. Anyway, I
can’t think about your mother, my mother or anybody’s mother right now. It’s
our wedding night. Come here,” and he pulled me into his arms. If anyone could
help me forget, at least for one night, Nathan could.

And when he was naked and inside me, that
was all that mattered, me and him, together. He took me all kinds of ways that
night, as if obliterating every thought, one mass of need and pleasure in equal
measure. We went on and on until we were exhausted and fell asleep in each
other’s arms.

It was only in the morning that I started
to worry again.

“Stop it,” he said and kissed my nose. “It
will be okay.”

If only he had been right.

***

At breakfast, the guests cheered and
clapped when we arrived. I even managed to eat. I was famished after that night
in bed and relieved no one was saying anything. Nathan smiled over at me as if
to say, “See, I told you it would be okay.”

I polished off a plate of bacon and eggs as
if I hadn’t eaten for a week. There hadn’t been a chance to eat properly in the
time leading up to the wedding, and I hadn’t eaten much of the meal at the wedding
either.

I smiled watching Nathan. It was good for
him to be able to catch up with his family before we had to go off on our
honeymoon later that day and they returned to the States. He didn’t get to see
as much of them as I got to see my family.

Suzanne seemed a bit down.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, fine,” she said. “Bit too much
champagne.”

“Me too.” We both made a face.

“Kyle hasn’t even made it to breakfast,”
she said. “Some people have no stamina.” I wondered if there was more to it
than that. She wasn’t her usual self at all.

Anyway, I gave her a hug and said I’d see
her when we got back. I hoped she didn’t think I was mad at her still. Maybe
she’d had a fight with Kyle or something. But then it could be anything. You
never knew with Suzanne. Up one minute, down the next. And thinking about it,
she probably wasn’t worrying that much about her part in my embarrassment in
the woods. Guilt wasn’t a big thing with Suzanne. She wasn’t forever beating
herself up about everything, like I was.

Everyone waved us off again as we went off
to the airport. Suzanne and Kyle were together again. He had his arm around
her, and I was pleased about that. It seemed as if they were still going
strong.

As the plane took off for London, it was as
if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. All the months of planning and
making arrangements for the wedding were over, and we could relax and enjoy our
honeymoon.

A few resident photographers were hanging
around Heathrow looking for stories and took our picture but we were used to that,
and we’d be okay on our honeymoon. Nathan had asked around to find somewhere
exclusive. He had chosen a resort in Mauritius that had been used by other
celebrities and minor royals. It was going to be perfect.