Love and the White Wolf - Book 1

12. Wedding Vows and Michael Bublé

The phone in the hotel rang and I sleepily answered it. A perky female voice was on the other end of the line.

"Time to get up!" said Pepper. "You need to get some breakfast. I'll be there in five minutes!"

"Who is that at this ungodly hour?" asked Alison in a muffled voice.

We both peered at the clock. 8:00 am. Groaning inwardly we both sat up and looked at each other. Alison's eyes were barely open and her blonde hair was all askew. She saw me looking at her and harrumphed.

"You don't look much better, sweetie," she mumbled. "I've got dibs on the bathroom."

She threw off the covers and went to relieve herself. I walked over to the curtains and pulled them back. The morning sun was so bright it hurt my eyes and I put my hand in front of my face to block it. It looked beautiful outside at least. There was a discreet knock on the door and I opened it to Pepper.

"Where's Morgan?" I inquired.

"She's having breakfast with the Barton's," replied Pepper. "Did you order breakfast yet? By the look on your face, I think not."

She picked up the phone and dialed room service. She ordered a fresh fruit plate, two yogurt parfaits, two orders of plain scrambled eggs with whole wheat toast, and a pot of coffee. Alison came out at that time. She had taken a quick shower and motioned that the bathroom was now mine. By the time I finished and had put on a robe breakfast had arrived.

"Eat," ordered Pepper. "This will get you through til afternoon. If we have time you can have a salad for lunch."

"Yes, boss," I said meekly.

Pepper smiled warmly at me and continued checking the messages on her phone. My phone chimed with a message from James. Alison's chimed immediately after with a message from Sam. Both men's messages were of the rise and shine variety. Alison and I started chuckling and I commented about having three drill sergeants on our case. Pepper overheard us and urged us to eat again.

Soon we had finished eating, had dressed and were now entering the hotel salon for our hair and makeup. Makeup was being applied first and my makeup artist was raving about the quality of my skin. While sitting there Pepper checked my toenails and fingernails. Alison and I had had a mani/pedi the day before and it still looked good. Pepper crossed that off her list. Finally it was time for my hair.

The stylist escorted me to her chair and proceeded to lift and drape my hair in various configurations.

"I would like it long with wavy curls down my back," I requested.

She agreed and after washing my hair spent the next two hours applying her magic. When she finally revealed the finished product I was stunned. I had never thought of myself as beautiful but the woman in the mirror was stunning. She reminded me of someone but I couldn't put a name to who it was. Both Pepper and Alison raved about my look. I thought Alison looked gorgeous as well and told her so. She beamed and then suddenly blurted out the word Venus.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You look like Botticelli's Venus," she exclaimed. "Art History 101?"

She pulled out her phone and searched for an image of the painting. I looked from the image to my reflection and back several times. I did look like it but I didn't want to acknowledge that I resembled one of the most famous women in a Renaissance painting. The stylist peeked at it and let out a little scream. She called others over and they all agreed on the connection.

On the way back up to the room Pepper commented that we had an extra hour to kill since our mani/pedis were still good. She announced she was going to see Morgan for a bit and come up with the photographer when he arrived. It was just past noon so we decided to order salad from room service. As we waited I received another text from James. He and Sam had checked in and he wanted to send Sam to our room with my gift. I agreed and within a few minutes Sam knocked on the door. Alison checked the security viewer to confirm it was only him.