Daniel 2

UNEDITED!

This is for Sakura_Kaichou24 Hope you don't mind the name and the sisters I gave you! Let me know if you hate/disagree with them and I'll change them.

Wedding tomorrow! Please read the A/N at the end too! VERY IMPORTANT!

Sarah, xx

~*~*~

Trailing kisses along my jawline, Sophie runs her hand across my chest, her fingers tickling against my skin. Leaning my head backwards against the pillow, I hear- and feel- Sophie giggle. The noise is melodic and I can't help but smile at her reaction. Since Tuesday night, all Sophie's done is giggle and smile and glow. Damn, she looks breathtaking when she's like this.

"What are you doing today?" Sophie asks as she moves her legs so that one is either side of my body, and she's straddling me. Sitting up with her back straight, her hands press down against my stomach, Sophie's weary eyes look down on me. I shrug, moving my arms so that they're bent under my head. If I didn't do something to restrain myself, I might just go in for round three. Sophie, unaware of my thoughts, shakes her head. "Well, the bridesmaids are all going for a spa day- you know, nails, waxes, facials... girly stuff that I have no patience for. Now," she sighs. "I highly doubt you'd want to come to that, so I'm leaving you here. Alone. By yourself. In my house."

"You don't want me here, along, by myself, in your house?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

Moving away from me to sit at the edge of the bed, Sophie slips on her t-shirt and boy shorts, flipping her hair over her shoulders. "It's not that I don't trust you," she attempts to explain. "It's just... my dress is here and I don't want you to see it."

"Ah," I nod, finally understanding. For some reason, the Clément-Delaney girls were being secretive about their dresses. Whenever someone asked about it, they went into shut down mode and refused to give us any details. Last night, over dinner, even Jimmy Delaney, the Bride's father, had tried to get details of Emma's dress but she shot him a glare and turned to talk to someone else. After the way Jimmy was slighted, I didn't even attempt to ask Sophie about her dress. Following Sophie's movements, I get out of bed and pull on a pair of boxer shorts, walking around to her side of the bed and stealing a kiss from her. "I have a cousin that lives here and it's been ages since I saw her, so I'll go hang out with her while you're with the girls."

At the mere mention of my cousin, Sophie frowns. Of all my cousins, Sabah and I are the closest. Despite a huge age difference, and the fact that she grew up thousands of miles from me, our personalities were similar. Painfully shy to the point that she would shut down in front of people that she didn't know, Sabah is an introvert and is more an observer than a participator. I remember attending a family wedding a few years ago and she and I ended up sitting at the same table. No words were passed- just looks- but she and I understood each other perfectly.

The daughter of my mother's sister, Sabah had been born in Dubai after my aunt, Vanessa, married a wealthy real estate developer from the UAE. The youngest of four girls, Sabah had always been different to Maryam, Noor and Reem bint Zayed Al Khaja. While the other girls were outgoing and more than happy to stand in the shadow of the men, Sabah wanted to follow her passion for photography. Moving to NYC six years ago, she's been making a name for herself in the art world for her amazing photographs. Last year on my birthday, she sent me a print of a photo she took, along with the film, making sure that I was the only one in the world with that particular picture. It's now framed and sits on my desk at home.

"You've never mentioned cousins before," Sophie comments, following me to the bathroom. Turning to look at her, I motion for her to leave, but she just rolls her eyes and perches herself on the side of the bath tub. "Just pee, Daniel. It's not like I haven't seen-" her eyes trail down to my crotch area. "-it before. Anyway, you have a cousin?"

I don't answer her until I flush the toilet and wash my hands. "Of course I have cousins," I say, wondering what had ever made Sophie think that I didn't. "Her name is Sabah. My mother has two sisters and a brother and I have nine cousins in total. So, are we going to talk about last night?"

Since we returned from the fiançailles dinner last night, Sophie and I had made a concious decision not to talk about what had happened. From the way she grimaces, I doubt Sophie wants to talk about it even now, but the longer we left it, the more it would fester.

The family dinner was a bigger event than I expected it to be. Sophie's entire family was there- both the Irish side and the French side- as well as Emma's fiancé's family, which I learnt was Indian-American. Walking in, I felt completely out of my comfort zone. The only faces I recognised was Sophie's immediate family, but from the way that Camille Clément stared me down, I wasn't in a rush to speak to her. Instead, I flit between talking to Sophie's brother, Lucas, and her sister, Charlotte.

The dinner was all going swimmingly until I was cornered by Camille at the bar, her beady eyes on me the entire time. I'd stuttered my way through a greeting, stammered out an awkward 'How are you?' and barely managed to finish asking her if she wanted a drink before she pounced.

"Why are you here?" She demanded, stepping forward to close the distance between us. Jabbing a finger into my chest, she scowls at me. "I thought I'd told you to stay away from my daughter."

Immediately, I was reminded of the way Camille had last cornered me like this, the afternoon of The Courtenay Foundation Board meeting. That day she had told me, in no uncertain terms, that I was not to go near Sophie and to put some distance between us. I'd told her then that I wouldn't comply to her demands, saying that I was in love with Sophie and that she was in love with me too and that, one day, I was going to marry her whether Camille liked it or not. While we stood at the bar last night, I told her the same thing.

"I'm not leaving, Camille," I'd reiterated. "Sophie and I are together now and if I had my way, I'll be with her until the day I die. Either except that or don't but whatever happens, I'm marrying your daughter so get used to the fact that you'll be gaining another son-in-law."

To my horror, stood behind me as I gave Camille my speech, was Sophie. When I'd turned to make my dramatic exit, I came face to face with Sophie, a look of pure amazement on her face. Her eyes were wide and her jaw was slack, but she said nothing, apart from, "They need you, mum." After that, she and Camille stalked back to the dining room, where Sophie spent the rest of the night ignoring what she'd overheard.

Now, there was no escaping it.

"Soph, we agreed that we were going to be honest with each other," I remind her of the pact we'd made Tuesday night. Her shoulders sag and she breathes out a long sigh, finally nodding as she wraps her arms around herself. Stepping closer to her, I take my place next to her on the edge of the tub and hold her hand in mine. "I'm in love with you. I'm not sure if I've mentioned that these past three nights, but I am in love with you. Because I am in love with you, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Oh God, this sounds like I'm proposing to you," I groan, reaching up a hand to rub down my face. "I'm not proposing to you. At least, not yet. I mean, I've dreamed of every conceivable way that I could ask you and none of them involved us sitting at the side of a bath, half an hour after we made love-"

"Daniel," Sophie says my name with a small laugh in her voice. She squeezes my hand and reaches up to kiss my cheek. "You're blabbering."

I nod. "Yeah, right... Basically, what I'm saying is that you are The One and I would very much like to marry you," I admit. "Just after we've dated for longer than a week. You do realise that I still haven't taken you out on a date yet."

"But at least I'm not allergic to your semen," Sophie jokes. I can't help but laugh, looping my arm around her shoulders and pulling her to me, planting a kiss on her forehead. She pulls away slightly, tilting her head backwards so she can look up at me. "We better shower and get ready for the day. I've got a girly spa to get to and you're supposed to be meeting your cousin."

An hour later- Sophie and I got a little distracted in the shower, again- we were both dressed and ready to leave, having wolfed down a quick breakfast. We were lingering in the hallway when the doorbell rang. Opening it, Sophie was pushed aside as a woman with dark hair ran passed her and flew through the house shouting, "Sorry, I need to pee!"

I recognised the voice as Charlotte Clément. However, if I wasn't sure if it was really her, the hulking body that lingered in the doorway confirmed it. I'd met him last night. Borgan Greyson. Badger Guy. The ice hockey player that Sophie had gotten friendly with. When we were introduced last night, I was intimidated. The bloke is about an inch taller than me at six-one and his biceps were huge. He had a hardened look on his face and his eyes surveyed me carefully. When his initial assessment was done, he simply nodded at me, offered out his hand to Charlotte and escorted her to their places at the table.

Apparently, they're seeing each other.

"Hey, Brogan," Sophie smiles up at her friend. She ushers him inside and closes the door after him. Pointing deeper into the house, Sophie asks, "Is she ok?"

"Um..." Brogan's cheeks turn crimson as he rubs the back of his head in embarrassment. "She, uh... she has an urinary tract infection."

Instantly, Sophie bursts out laughing. "She has a UTI? See that's what happens when you have too much sex," she tells Brogan. A second later, she suddenly stops laughing, her own cheeks flaring up. Dipping her head, she starts to look through her bag, mumbling something that sounded like, "Where's my phone?"

She- like I did- knew that her phone was in the front pocket of her denim shorts, the outline of the handset clearly visible. Brogan must have noticed it too if the way his eyebrow quirked upwards and his lips pulled up into a knowing smirk.

Brogan opened his mouth to say something but before he got a word out, Charlotte walked back into the hall, her face contorted in pain. Glancing from Brogan to Sophie and then to me, Charlotte frowned. "What? What did I miss?"

"Nothing," I laugh, shaking my head. Placing a hand on Charlotte's shoulder, I guide her to the door, practically shoving her out into the humid New York morning. "Anyway, you girls have a spa day to get to, I have a cousin to meet and Brogan has... something he needs to do, I'm sure."

"Actually, I'm driving the ladies to the spa," Brogan announces, making my insides twist slightly. He walked down the few steps that was outside the townhouse and unlocked the car, opening the door for Charlotte. Moving to open the rear door, he frowned when he saw that Sophie was still at the door of the house. "Sophie, come on!"

"In a minute," she shouts down at him. Pulling the door shut behind us and checking that it was locked, Sophie quickly turned to me and pulled me in for a kiss. "Enjoy your day with your cousin."

"I will," I say, stealing a kiss back from her. "Enjoy your day at the spa."

She frowns. "Yeah... I'll see you later?" I nod in confirmation. "Cool. I love you, baboon."

"I love you too, 'gator."

~*~*~

A/N

Ok, so can any of you help with details for the interfaith wedding tomorrow? When I worked it out, Emma's Irish-French and Adam is Indian-America, so there are FOUR cultures and traditions I'll be mixing. I'm fairly familiar with Celtic, French and American wedding traditions, but the Indian (Hindu) traditions I'm not too sure of. (I remember some details from Religious Education class in school, but that was like, ten years ago!)

If anyone could give me some pointers- and Hindu wedding traditions/customs/rituals- I will forever be in your debt! Here's some of the things I've found (mainly from some Google searches) but I'm not sure if they're correct and/or if they're considered important in a wedding ceremony.

1. Kanyādān - From what I've read about this, it's really quite romantic! So, to include or not to include? Personally, I like it and want to include it.

2. Mandap. (I read that the bride and groom sit on thrones/chairs under the mandap. In French wedding tradition, the bride and groom sit on red velvet cushioned chairs under a silk canpoy, so this could blend the two cultures.) Yay or nay?

3. Saptapadi - So, this (from what I understand) is very important in Hindu weddings. Can someone explain it to me a little more? I read that it's about seven steps, but I need a little more detail so I can write it better.

Anything I missed? Comment herewith your suggestions/thoughts/opinions.

Also, I need to very traditional name for Adam's grandmother? Indian, in her 70s, formidable! Adam's last name is D'Souza, but his grandmother would have a different name.

Thanks in advance and I hope I don't disappoint with the wedding chapter tomorrow! Just a heads up (warning), I will be using the multimedia functions a lot tomorrow. I'll be adding photos of dresses, weddings, flowers, shoes, receptions, a video of the song for the first dance, a video for Sophie and Daniel's dance (a song I personally LOVE!) so... yeah, if you hate random photos and videos in the middle of the narrative... Tough. #sorrynotsorry

Sarah, xx