18. Chapter 17
Arianna
“Please tell me your mother isn’t joining us for our nail appointment?” Leyla flopped back on my bed while I stepped into my flip flops.
I chuckled. “Nope. She has too many things to do for the wedding and said she’d have a manicurist come to her later.” I couldn’t say I minded. Some time with just Ashley and Leyla would be nice.
“Thank God. That woman gets on my nerves and after the dress fittings, there’s no way we could get away again.”
Leyla had been appalled when my father had Tucker spank me, and Tucker had been a little weird and distant since then, but it wasn’t his fault. I knew that running off that morning would have consequences.
We headed out front to where the cars and guards were waiting, Ashley standing outside the car talking to her husband. Zephyr smiled at us as we approached before taking Leyla into a hug. “You girls have fun. But be good.” He gave Leyla a stern look and she just rolled her eyes.
The drive to the nail salon wasn’t too long and I was so ready to get pampered. I know we’d just been to a spa the weekend before, but after the summer I’d had, I wanted all the finer things in life at once.
Leyla’s aunts met us there and I was glad. I loved these women so much.
As we settled in to get our pedicures, the gossip started.
“So, Leyla. Was that Bradley on the phone last night?” Becky looked at her with a grin.
Sterling, however, rolled her eyes. “Again with that one? Ley, honey, I love you so much, so no disrespect, but how dumb are you?”
I chuckled, but Leyla rolled her eyes. “Yes, it was Bradley. No, not again with that one. I dumped him last night. Turns out he’d gone out the night before with Shawna and thought I wouldn’t find out.
He forgets that I basically run Crestwood Prep so I knew about it before he’d even gotten her chair pulled out at the restaurant.
” She gritted her teeth and basically growled.
“Something he never bothered to do for me.”
“My offer to have him killed still stands. And now is probably the best time. We’re all in New York with alibis."
Sterling laughed. “While I love your spirit and dedication to the girls, Ari, I don’t think putting a hit on someone a couple of days before your wedding is a good move.”
“Why?” It wasn’t like it would come back on me, or like I was going to have to carry out the murder and ruin my manicure.
Jemma chuckled. “Well, it would probably bring bad luck to your nuptials.”
Leyla put a hand on mine, bringing my attention back to her and the smile on her face.
“I love your murdery little heart. But I’ve got it handled.
Charlotte broke into Shawna’s locker at the gym and rubbed poison ivy on the crotch of her panties.
She now has bumps and itching and is telling everyone that Bradley gave her an STI. ”
Sterling burst out laughing so hard that I thought she was going to fall out of her chair. Tears started streaming down her face. The other women just chuckled lightly.
This was why Ley was my ride or die. We both knew that being the bigger person was for someone without the creativity to pull off an epic revenge.
When we walked out of the salon a couple hours later, I felt like a whole new woman. Even though I’d done the classic french manicure that my mom had demanded, I’d let the nail tech talk me into a swooping white heart on my ring finger. It was going to look amazing in the pictures.
It wasn’t too much of a surprise at this point that my mother didn’t want to get ready for my wedding with me. She said that she had her own glam squad to get her ready for the day because as mother of the bride, she had to look epic.
She was going to try to upstage me at my own wedding, but I honestly didn’t have a single shit to give about it.
“Knock, knock.” Ashley and Leyla came walking into my room, our beauty team behind them, carrying the dress bags for the day. They had agreed to pick up the dresses and keep them at the hotel so that Tucker wouldn’t see my dress.
Not that it really mattered. It was a basic as fuck dress that wasn’t going to knock his socks off.
They hung the dresses up on the rack that had been brought in for that purpose, and both women turned towards me with a smile, my bestie being the one to speak.
“We have a surprise for you.” She unzipped the first bag and the dress inside was not the one my mother picked out.
It was the one I’d wanted. “Fuck your mom and her trying to take over your wedding.”
When she unzipped the next bag, it was a hot pink dress just like the one we’d seen on her phone that day and decided we’d wanted.
I was not a crier, but my eyes were definitely stinging right now. “Oh my God.”
Ashley walked to me and took me into a hug. “We couldn’t change the decorations since the wedding is set up here and we didn’t have access, but the dresses were an easy swap. Hopefully at least one part of your day will now feel like yours.”
Leyla joined us, turning the hug into a group hug.
“As much as we’d like to take credit for this, it was Tuck’s idea.
He asked us to do as much as we could to give you the wedding of your dreams, sending us texts about what you wanted that your mom wouldn’t allow every chance he got.
Unfortunately, this and the cake were the only things we could change. ”
I pulled back, looking at them with wide eyes. “You changed the cake?”
Leyla smiled. “Yeah. That was an easy one. She won’t see it until it’s too late, much like the dresses.”
In the grand scheme of things, I’d decided that none of these things were really going to matter.
I was going to be marrying the man I loved, even if it had been arranged for me.
That was what would matter at the end of the day.
But now, having the dress I wanted and knowing the cake would be my first choice too instead of a boring vanilla, I was over the moon and ready for whatever this day would throw my way.
My parents walked into my room, letting me know it was almost time to walk down the aisle.
“Dolcezza, you are absolutely stunning.” My father stepped forward and pressed a kiss to my cheek.
As he pulled back, I saw my mom’s eyes flicking between my dress and Leyla’s. “Those are not the dresses I picked out. You went behind my back?”
Before Leyla could out herself and Ashley, I responded. “Yes. It’s my wedding, not yours, so I took some liberties.”
My father grinned. “There’s my daughter. See how easy that was? You’re way too old for temper tantrums. This is how adults settle their differences." He held his arm out for me. “Come now, it’s time to get this wedding started.”
Things moved quickly while also feeling like it took forever. My mom was escorted down the aisle by Sandro, who then took his place by Tucker. Then Leyla walked down the aisle by herself like the baddie she was.
Finally, the music changed and it was time for my father to walk me down the aisle. When we appeared, everyone stood, but my eyes were locked on the man waiting for me at the altar.
Tucker dressed up frequently, so it wasn’t a new sight, but damn if the butterflies in my stomach didn’t start flapping their wings. He was so seriously handsome I was at a loss for words on how to describe him.
His eyes tracked up and down my body, taking me in and marking this moment as something he wanted to remember forever.
You hear those stories of men that cry while their bride walks towards them. It was a fantasy I think most women wanted, but it wasn’t something I was ever going to get. Men didn’t cry in my world, so if Tucker had, he’d have looked weak.
But the look he gave me as my father handed me off to him was so much better than tears. It was obsession. Possession. Devotion.
As the priest started speaking, everything else in the world seemed to slip away. It was just me, Tucker, and the priest. I listened to the words he said, my eyes never leaving the man in front of me, staring at me like I was the only woman in the world.
“Do you, Tucker Givenchy, take Arianna Vitale to be your lawfully wedded wife? Do you promise to protect her, provide for her, and respect this agreement between your families as long as you both shall live?”
Tucker’s smile widened. “I do.”
The officiant turned to me. “Do you, Arianna Vitale, take Tucker Givenchy as your lawfully wedded husband? Do you promise to honor him, obey him, forsaking all others, and respect this agreement between your families as long as you both shall live?”
I didn’t let the irritation show on my face, but seriously? I had to honor, obey and forsake all others but he just had to protect me and provide for me? These were definitely vows from my father.
But I knew that even if we were taking different vows, what the words actually said didn’t matter.
We were going to love and cherish each other, putting each other first through better or worse for the rest of our lives.
That’s why, when I said the words, I meant them with every fiber of my being. “I do.”
“It is with much honor that I present to you today, Mr. and Mrs. Tucker Givenchy. You may kiss the bride.”
The kiss was chaste and sweet, definitely respectful and appropriate for the situation, but the look in his eyes showed me that he would be making up for it later. I was going to be ravished tonight and I couldn’t fucking wait.