The Domville 2 (The Domville #2) (4 page)

Lisa

I quickly wiped my eyes as I watched Brady drive
away, his face set in a hard line. He looked so serious. That was the face he
normally reserved for work, not for personal time. Not for time with me. I
should know, as well as living together we worked together, both of us lawyers
at the London office of Austin, Turner and Finch, a global corporate law firm.
He was always so … dominant at work when he was in the zone. I knew all the paralegals
and secretaries got their knickers in a twist over him. He was so handsome with
his blond hair and vivid green eyes. Being so tall and muscular only added to
his appeal. I couldn’t understand why that persona didn’t translate in the
bedroom. I let out a heavy sigh as his Porsche disappeared from view, then
quickly turned around to follow the porters, with my cases and gorgeous
designer dress, into the lobby of The Domville.

It always took my
breath away every time I walked in here. Highly reflective marble lined the
floor and walls, stunning crystal chandeliers hung from the warm, glowing, 18
carat gold leaf ceiling, huge vases of exotic flowers adorned antique tables
and the artwork on the walls should really be in The National Portrait Gallery.
 

‘Miss Roberts, welcome,
it’s lovely to see you again,’ greeted Anita, our wedding co-ordinator as she
strode across the floor to greet me, with two air kisses to each cheek. ‘Take
her luggage up to the Signature suite please, Renee is there waiting for the
dress in bedroom four, with a mobile steaming closet to ease out any creases
from the journey,’ she ordered over her shoulder. ‘Right, you must be feeling
nervous and excited all rolled into one. The rest of your advance party has
arrived, unpacked and are waiting for you in the Spa,’ she confirmed, checking
her clipboard as she started to walk again, not even noticing I hadn’t had a
chance to say a word. ‘One of your wedding party reserved the entire Spa for
the day for you, as his gift, a Robert Austin?’

‘Seriously? He’s my
boss. Gosh, how kind of him,’ I gasped. That was one expensive gift.

‘Why don’t we get you
settled in to relax in the Hydrotherapy area before we start your individual
treatments. You look a little tense, we need you nice and relaxed for tomorrow
so that you can enjoy your day.’

‘Are they miracle
workers?’ I asked with a wry smile, trying to keep up with her as we hurtled
through the hotel at marathon pace.

‘Darling, it’s The
Domville, would you expect anything less?’ she laughed.

I tried my best to put
on a brave face with my mum, aunt, Mandy and my bridesmaid. I even managed to
switch off for a while and enjoy the hot stone massage, seaweed wrap, body
scrub, mani-pedi and nourishing facial, but Mandy knew me too well. She kept
raising her eyebrows as she looked over at me, so I’d avoided looking at her at
all. That was all well and good for now, but she was sleeping in the Signature
suite with me tonight, in one of the six bedrooms, moving out to her own suite
tomorrow so Brady and I would have it all to ourselves. Assuming there was a
wedding night, that was.

‘Are you ok,
sweetheart?’ Mum asked as she hugged me goodbye, everyone filtering off to get
ready for an early dinner.

‘I’m tired, that’s
all,’ I reassured her. ‘I’ve had a lot on my mind, especially this week.’

‘Don’t lie to your
mother, I can tell something’s bothering you.’

‘It’s just our sex
life. I’m not sure it’s as good as it could be,’ I shrugged.

‘You’ve been together
eleven years, isn’t it a bit late to be worrying about that now?’ she asked, I
just grimaced and shrugged again. ‘How often are you doing it?’

‘Mum!’ I protested,
feeling my cheeks colouring up as I looked around to make sure no one else was
listening. Everyone else had filtered off and Mandy was talking to Anita over
by the Spa reception desk.

‘As if you need to be
embarrassed. I squeezed you out of my vagina, I think we’re beyond being shy
with each other.’

‘A few times a week,’ I
mumbled, feeling mortified to be having this conversation with my mother.

‘A few times a week?’
she exclaimed, holding me at arm’s length so she could look at me properly.
Both of her eyebrows were raised in surprise. ‘After eleven years? Sweetheart,
marry him now and never let him go. After a few years I was lucky if we did it
a few times a year. It was a miracle I got pregnant with you or your sister.’

‘It’s not the frequency
that’s the issue, it’s …’

‘Stop there, this is
territory best left to Mandy. It’s been so long since I had sex I can barely
remember what all the fuss was about. But sweetheart, trust me, when you’re my
age being married to your best friend, a man who adores you and goes out of his
way to make you happy in all other areas, far outweighs an orgasm or two a
year.’

‘Thanks, Mum,’ I smiled
and hugged her tightly, she was echoing thoughts I’d been having all day, but
it would be great to have actually experienced a few before I turned my back on
them. ‘See you in a few hours, they’re serving dinner in the dining room in my
suite so we can be as loud and rowdy as we like. I know how Aunt Jayne loves
her gin and tonics.’

‘O God,’ she groaned,
screwing up her face. ‘Sisters.’

‘Tell me about it,’ I
giggled. I was the hard working, responsible one. Mandy was the flighty party
girl. She worked as a makeup artist for one of the major production studios and
was always coming into contact with film and TV stars, amazing me with tales of
her antics with them. She hadn’t done anything to ease the feeling that I was
missing out, that was for sure. She grinned as I walked over to her and she
linked arms with me.

‘At last, I get you all
to myself and can grill you to a crisp. You’re hiding something. Are you
preggers?’

‘No,’ I shot her a
horrified look. ‘Babies aren’t on our timeline for at least another eight
years. Our careers are more important.’

‘God you two are so
regimented, uptight and repressed. You need to learn to chill and go with the
flow.’

‘And where would the
world be if everyone did that?’ I scoffed, as we followed Anita to the private
lift and she swiped the card for us, before handing it over to me.

‘I concur
wholeheartedly,’ she smiled. ‘There’s a place for order in a chaotic world.
Now, you have two hours to relax before I show your guests up for dinner.
There’s a fully stocked bar and Gaston is your personal butler, he will see to
anything that you need. There’s a touch screen in each room, just press “Butler
Service” and he’ll respond immediately, 24/7. I’ve set your morning alarm for
9.30 a.m. for breakfast in your dining room. You have time to relax and make
the most of the suite facilities until a light lunch at 12.30 p.m. If you’re
tense, call me and I’ll have a masseuse come straight up. Hair and beauty will
be with you at 1.30 p.m. and I’ll escort you down to the gardens at 2.45 p.m.
ready for the ceremony at 3 p.m. Now the flowers and …’

‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. She
gets it, you rock, everything’s organised to perfection, but that’s what she’s
paying you for. She doesn’t need a running commentary,’ Mandy interrupted with
a roll of her eyes. ‘We’d just like to head up and kick back with a glass of
champagne, poured by the hopefully naked and gorgeous Gaston. Now if you can
organise
that
by the time we make it up to the sixth floor, I’ll be
super impressed and tell Brady to give you an extra tip.’ Anita stared at her
for a moment, trying to work out if she was being serious, which she totally
was. Sometimes my little sister had no idea.

‘She’s joking of
course. You’ve been amazing, Anita. See you in the morning and thank you.’

‘Thank you, Miss
Roberts. You have my number if you need to go through anything. I don’t want
you to be at all stressed.’

‘Trust me, half a
bottle of champagne and a comfy sofa, there’ll be no stress,’ Mandy added as she
hustled me into the open lift and pressed the door close button, waving to
Anita as she disappeared from view. ‘Thank God for that, talk about uptight and
repressed. That girl needs a good fuck to loosen her up.’

‘I think I do too,’ I
concurred, looking at her sadly as we were whisked up to the top floor.

‘I knew it! I knew
something was wrong. We’ll get Gaston to open that champagne and you can tell
me all about it.’

We were both open
mouthed as we walked into the Signature suite. I’d stayed in some luxury hotels
before, Brady and I earned good money and with no children we could afford to
splurge, but this was unbelievable. We had a fountain in our own lobby, it was
crazy. When the double doors swung open to the lounge, with a panoramic view of
Green Park and private balcony, Mandy and I just halted in our tracks to try
and take it all in.

‘Jesus,’ she breathed,
as we looked around. ‘This is something else. How much did this set you back?’

‘I’ve no idea, I put my
money into our joint wedding fund and Brady’s handled it all, but it looks like
I owe him some extra. I mean this is … famous people stay here. They even had
Nevada 6 sharing this suite while they were playing Wembley Stadium and the O2.
It has six en-suite bedrooms,’ I nodded, beyond impressed.

‘Good afternoon, Miss
Roberts,’ came a French voice to my right. I turned to face an older gentleman
dressed in formal wear, he wouldn’t be out of place at the wedding tomorrow.
‘I’m Gaston, your personal butler. I’ve taken the liberty of opening your
champagne, if you’d like to take a seat I’ll bring it to you momentarily. I
have my own suite attached to yours, so if you need me at any time, day or
night, just call and I’ll be here. You have your own private chef on standby as
well, should you require anything between your evening meal and breakfast in
the morning. Your suitcase is in the master suite and the other Miss Roberts’
is in bedroom three.’

‘Thank you, Gaston,
champagne sounds wonderful.’ I gave him a warm smile and he nodded before disappearing.
‘Still want to see him naked?’ I asked Mandy with a giggle.

‘Hell no! I bet his
cock’s that wrinkled he’d need to iron it before sex. But if you can ask him
which bed Sam of Nevada 6 slept in, I’m moving into that room. He’s seriously
hot.’

‘They’ll have changed
the sheets since,’ I laughed with a roll of my eyes.

‘Don’t care, it’s the
principle. Lying in a bed he was probably naked in, having sex with God only
knows who,’ she sighed with a dreamy look in her eyes.

We settled down on the
comfortable sofas, using the portable touch screen to adjust the blinds and
select some up tempo music. When Gaston had delivered our champagne, with
chocolate dipped strawberries coated in edible gold leaf, I finally relented
and filled Mandy in on the events of last night.

‘I’m going to fucking
kill him!’ she repeated. ‘He
cheated
on you, Lisa.’

‘It’s not cheating when
you’ve given your consent,’ I reminded her. ‘But yes, I’m pissed that he did it
so close to our wedding. It’s barely given me time to process it. I’d also
liked to have had the chance to decide if it was something I ought to do.’

‘No decision to be
made. You’re supposed to be getting married in less than 24 hours, we’ve got to
get you laid before you put on that bloody dress and decide you’re going to put
up with shit sex for life.’

‘It’s not all shit. I
love kissing him, he makes me come with oral and fingering, it’s just the
actual act it’s so … lacklustre and … boring.’

‘I really didn’t see
that coming,’ Mandy sighed, shaking her head. ‘I mean he’s hot. Great looking, amazing
body, intelligent. You’d think he’d have clued up by watching porn or
something.’

‘Not his style,’ I shrugged,
though I did wonder if that would have helped. ‘Anyway, I’m not going out to
try and pull the first guy I see, just to get back at him.’

‘You’re not getting
back at him, you’re simply taking advantage of a deal that was made for both of
you and making one-hundred percent sure that you really want to marry the guy.
I could ring that escort one of the girls at work used, she raved about him,
what was his name … Logan, that was it, Logan Steele. Apparently she couldn’t
walk for two days after and said she’d never come so many times.’

‘You know, Brady
mentioned that. But if he’s that good, Mandy, he’s not exactly going to be
available on a few hours’ notice. Besides, that’s just setting Brady and I up
for failure. Sleeping with a guy who’s at the top of his game, how many men
would compare to that?’

‘I’d love to find out,
if I had the money to book him. Damn it, I’m horny now. All this talk of hot
musicians and escorts. We’re going down to that bar tonight and we’re going to
score ourselves a couple of guys to bring back to the suite.
Then
you
can decide what to do tomorrow,’ she stated firmly, stuffing another strawberry
in her mouth. I sighed and drained my champagne, wondering if that really was
the way to go.