A Beautiful Rock (18 page)
Authors: Lilliana Anderson
Our suite is enormous. It’s been such a long time since I’ve been privy to such opulence, but it’s gorgeous and I feel like a princess the moment I step through the door.
“Go and look in the bedroom,” Marcus whispers in my ear. “You have one hour, and then a car is coming to collect us.”
“Ok.” I lean up and give him one last kiss before entering the bedroom and seeing a rack with various beach wedding dress styles hanging on it.
They are all so beautiful, but as I flick though the garments, there is
one that stands out most to me - it’s a cream silk one with spaghetti straps that hangs loosely down to my ankles. It’s shaped a lot like a slip really, but its fabric is much more decadent and feels like it’s caressing my skin as I move in it.
I choose
a pair of sandals to go with it. They have a simple Y strap that is decorated with small pearls.
My hair is simple to do.
I spritz it with a little wax spray and scrunch it up before putting a pearl and diamond clip in one side.
I a
pply a small amount of makeup - it’s basically mascara and pink lipstick. Everything is simple. Everything is perfect. It’s exactly what I’ve always wanted.
“Are you ready?”
he asks at the door. I turn to him smiling. “You look stunning.”
“You look breathtaking,” I comment, taking in his crisp linen pants and pale blue shirt. It’s a perfect m
atch for his eyes causing them to stand out even more than they normally do. He’s even managed to do something with his unruly hair. He’s styled it so it’s supposed to look messy. But really, he’d look delicious no matter what he did.
“Then we make a good pair,” he grins.
The journey to the alcove is short and when we get there everything is set and ready to go. There are flowers for me and everything.
Our ceremony is
simple and traditional, in front of two witnesses and the celebrant. He reads from an open folder in front of him as Marcus and I hold hands and beam at each other.
When it’s time for the vows
, we’re asked if we’d like to say our own or have him read something for us.
Marcus jumps in. “I’d
like to say my own,” he smiles, rubbing his thumbs soothingly over the backs of my hands. “I didn’t even know I had a heart capable of love until you came into my life and set it beating again. Before you, I was a stone, cold and unfeeling. I need you Lisa. You are the very epicentre of my being. I want you – for your mind, your ability to see me for me and your willingness to fight for what you think is right. I love you, Lisa and I want you to be by my side always.”
I lift his hands and kiss them as happy tears fall from my eyes. “Marcus, in a room full of people, it was your eyes I found. They drew me in and captivated me from the get go and I should have trusted in that feeling instead of fighting it. I have a lot of regrets surrounding our early days Marcus, but you need to know that every moment I shared with you fuelled my happiness until the next time we’d cross paths. You are also the epicentre of my being. When we’re apart, I swear that my soul cries. I promise to stand by you, to love you and to support you until the end of my days.”
By now, I’m crying quite convincingly and one of the island girls who is standing i
n as witness hands me a tissue which Marcus takes and wipes away my tears.
“I hope these are happy tears,” he whispers, kissing each of my cheeks.
“Very happy tears,” I whisper.
“The rings?” the celebrant asks.
Marcus pulls them from his pocket and hands the one for him to me with a wink. I can’t help but smile. These are the perks of being a rock star. If you can throw enough money at something, you can have the perfect wedding organised in a very short amount of time.
As Marcus repeats the words of the ring ceremony, he holds his hand so I can’t quite see
the ring but when he pushes it onto my finger and removes his hand, he reveals the most beautiful diamond solitaire I’ve ever seen.
“Wow, that’s a beautiful rock,” I comment, watching it sparkle in the fading sunlight.
He grins, holding his hand out so I can go through the same for him. “Look at the engraving first,” he tells me.
I hold the platinum band between my fingers and look inside ‘Together we are one’ it says.
“How did you…?” I ask.
He responds with a wink and a knowing look. “It’s inside yours too. I told you, the song spoke to me.”
I struggle to keep my voice level as I repeat the ring ceremony, feeling so glad when we get to the point where we both say ‘I do’.
“I now pronounce you husband an
d wife,” the celebrant announces.
Wrapping my arms around Marcus neck, we seal our union with a soul searing, head-spinning kiss. He picks me up and twirls me around
before setting me on the ground and kissing me again.
“I love you Mrs Bailey, my wife, my life.”
“I love you too, Marcus. We’re married,” I grin, not quite believing this is really happening.
“Yes
we are, and no one is going to get in our way.”
twelve
months later…
After spending our first week as a married couple, blissfully away from the Australian media, it was a bit of a rude shock to arrive back home and have the media swarming again.
While we searched for the perfect location
for our seaside retreat, we stayed in my apartment. For two weeks, the picketers and the media hung around, waiting for either Lisa or I to do something newsworthy. We didn’t, and the world gets very tired of a happy couple very quickly.
Eventually, my fans started to come around to the idea of Lisa and I together. We released the news that
‘Together we are one’ is actually her song about her time away from me. We did a few interviews – one of them being with Sandra Haegan of course, who was very annoyed with Lisa for brushing her off, but after finally getting the full story, she was more than happy to forgive her friend.
The only people who continued to be annoyed with me were my parents. Naomi and Theo understood why we went and el
oped – they wished they had been there, but they understood that we wanted one day of complete privacy to keep it special. My parents however, didn’t see it that way and have made Naomi and Theo promise them that they’re going to do the ‘right thing’ and have a family wedding.
My mother wore black for the first three months of my marriage
. But when a pipe burst in their roof, they came to stay with us for a couple of weeks and got to see how happy Lisa makes me. So she’s finally wearing colour again and my father is speaking to me in longer sentences and grunts less these days. It’s a slow process though.
My record company didn’t
take any action against me for refusing to tour as long as I agreed not to sue over the stunt Craig and Karen pulled. In the end, the competition was voided and nobody won. Lisa came to me all on her own.
I finally got the chance to talk to Karen about her reasons behind supporting Craig for the competition
, and when she explained that she was just trying to find Lisa for me before Craig took over and things spiralled out of her control, I understood and kept her on as a personal assistant even after I left the label.
And
after everything, I’ve never been happier. We’ve found this amazing house right on the ocean and we’ve had our own recording studio built in. Together, we’re making some pretty amazing music and we’re in control of all of our own stuff.
We’ve even done some really amazing songs together, our first single being
‘If Only’. Lisa’s family background in the music industry means that she really knows her stuff and I love spending time with her, working together.
We play small gigs around the country and
occasionally overseas, but we only do what we absolutely want to. Everything is now by choice.
A few years ago, I was angry and selfish and I’d closed my heart off to the possibility of anything like love.
I know now, that I just hadn’t met the right woman yet – I guess she was too busy driving cars through people’s front windows…
Standing in our kitchen drinking coffee,
I say a silent thank you to the universe as I look through our back windows and watch my wife, running along the beach with Perry. She’s laughing and smiling as he repeatedly chases a stick that she’s throwing into the water.
Placing my mug on the bench top, I venture outside to where she’s standing and wrap my arms around her middle.
“Having fun?” I ask, gently kissing her neck.
“
It’s more fun now that you’re here,” she grins, turning around to wrap her arms around my neck.
I pull her closer, bringing
my mouth to hers, and kissing her passionately as the salty sea air whips at our hair and clothing.
“Hmmm, I think we should take this inside,” I murmur
as she starts those little whimpers again.
“I couldn’t think of anyth– , Perry!” she shrieks, just as he
returns the stick to us and shakes his wet fur all over us.
“Perhaps we should continue this in the shower then?” I suggest with a laugh.
The benefits of having your own private stretch of beach is that when your wife decides to reach down and pull her dress over her head, no one else can see it.
She grins at me,
drops the dress on the ground and walks into the house in nothing but a pair of barely there white panties.
“Are you coming with me?” she calls over her shoulder.
Quickly, I follow after her, closing our back gate so Perry is safely inside before I race in after her. “I’ll come with you anywhere,” I growl out as I race up behind her causing her to laugh in delight as I pick her up and throw her over my shoulder.
It’s moments like these when I realise how much happier I am now.
Who needs to be a rock star? When you’ve got a woman whom you love and who loves you in return (and it doesn’t hurt that she brings the great love of a bounding dog named Perry into my life as well).
Everything about her makes my life better
- there’s nothing in this world that compares. Nothing could ever come close.
The end…
The Beautiful Series continues with…
Devot
ion – The Beauty in Between (Naomi and Theo’s Wedding) – June 2014
A Beautiful Star.
Releasing November 2014.
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