Brody shrugged. “If you hurl, you’ll be the one covered in it for the wedding. Max and I are just guests tonight. So maybe crack a window, because I’m not letting you drive the Bentley and Max is packing under his suit.”
Jase shot a skeptical look his buddy’s way, but all he got was the guy’s blank cop stare. “Don’t even think about it.”
It had been worth a shot.
“So you guys know who’s going to be there tonight?”
Brody pulled into traffic and kept his eyes on the road. “Sally’s got three single bridesmaids. But one of them is Emily, and then there’s Peg, who’s pretty and looks like she might have a bit of a wild streak if you get her out of her mother’s line of sight.”
Max was shaking his head. “Don’t go there. Peg’s cute, but she’s got some growing up to do. Don’t think you really want to be a part of that.”
Brody’s mouth pulled down as he tipped his head from side to side, seeming to consider. “Probably right. Which leaves us with Leslie who was at the Skolnics’ wedding, so you already know her. Also Romeo’s got a slew of hot cousins. Just keep an eye out for their brothers. Tight-knit family, you know.”
Jase listened as Brody and Max speculated on which women they’d met from the engagement party would be making the short list for this third go at the wedding. They all had their merits, he was sure, but for whatever reason, with each name they brought up, Jase mentally scratched her from his rapidly dwindling list of potential distractions.
Too quiet.
Too tiny.
Too serious.
Too hard.
Too much like Emily or, damn it, not enough.
And great, now he was thinking about her again. The soft curve of her mouth when she smiled at anyone other than him. The way her hair spilled past her shoulders, just begging him to reach out and play with one of those loose spirals. What it did to him when she let him look into her deep brown eyes—
He was so screwed.
She’d gotten to him, all right. Because that unapproved mental field trip hadn’t even been about the naughty, good-times bedroom stuff. Okay, the eyes maybe. Because the more he thought about it, the more he remembered that deep, soft eye contact had been pretty heart slamming when he’d been pushing inside her—which made him feel only marginally better, but he’d take what he could get.
If he didn’t get it together, and fast, she’d know exactly what kind of messed-up bullshit was going on in his head. She’d be able to see it in his eyes. Hell, maybe she’d even be able to smell it on him. And that was the dead-last thing he needed, because they’d already agreed what had happened between them would be a one-time thing. And despite the way she’d gotten under his skin, he didn’t want any more than that.
The church parking lot was empty compared to what it had looked like two weeks ago. He walked across the asphalt, his eyes scanning the section at the far end where he’d found Emily scrambling to get to the church. The girl had been determined, for all the good it did her.
A hand slapped him on the back. “Dude, get in there.”
Yeah, no sense lingering outside in the hopes of putting off the next inevitable interaction with Emily.
Inside the church, Jase found Romeo with a handful of relatives and the other two groomsmen. He greeted his friend with a hug and then rolled through the lineup of Romeo’s relatives, doing his best to keep everyone’s names straight while the bulk of his brain power was alternately reliving being with Emily and trying to put her out of his mind.
Finally, it was go time. Jase bumped knuckles with Romeo, who headed to the front of the church with his best man, and Jase moved to the back to line up with Emily.
But she wasn’t waiting where she was supposed to be, and a slice of concern skewered through him. Had she not been able to make it? He was sure someone would have told him if that was the case. Hell, after what they’d done, he couldn’t believe she wouldn’t have called him herself.
What if she’d had another accident? What if this one had been more serious? Something in his gut twisted hard. What if she was hurt somewhere, and they were all lined up like a bunch of jackasses when they should have been out looking for—
She was there. Stepping out of the bride’s chamber, holding hands with Sally while she whispered a few words. Words of encouragement maybe, reassurance, he thought, watching as Sally’s anxious face seemed to soften, her eyes filling with hope and joy as they found the doors she was about to walk through.
Sally looked every bit the beautiful bride, and Jase realized that was in no small part because of the woman standing beside her.
For one insane moment, he was filled with a sense of pride.
Intense pride. But then Emily’s eyes came up and met his. Cool and distant. Exactly what he’d hoped he would get from her. Precisely the reminder he needed that she wasn’t his to be proud of. She wasn’t his for anything beyond the few yards down this aisle, and even that was limited to keeping her from stumbling.
Really, it was perfect. Because despite this mess happening in his head, he didn’t want anything more than that. He knew better.
She walked closer, the skirt he’d had bunched up between them two weeks ago swaying in wrinkle-free perfection. Each step bringing her that much closer to him. To the moment when she would tuck her hand around the crook of his arm.
And now he needed to stop thinking about the way her fingers had felt clutching at him two weeks ago, and the punch to his gut when he’d looked up to where he’d pinned her hands above her head and realized their fingers had woven together. He looked at Emily, a question pushing at his chest. She met his stare, unfazed. A pleasant, plastic smile on her lips. Just the way she was supposed to be. Just the way they’d agreed.
* * *
Emily was never going to get through this. Not without giving away how screwed up her thoughts had become.
As if it wasn’t bad enough that the man was in her head every time she closed her eyes. Every time she closed her front door for that matter, and now…having him here in the church? She’d about tapped out the reserve of resistance keeping her gaze from raking over every inch of Jase’s hard-muscled body. Denying the suddenly desperate need to wet her lips and lean into his space and draw a deep breath of that subtle cologne she couldn’t quite get enough of.
Yeah, she was about to blow it big time by eyeing every semi-dark alcove and closed door within the sacred space like they were rife with sexual promise.
Lightning was so going to strike her down.
Which would be totally fine if it meant keeping the fact that Jase had been absolutely correct in his statement that he was going to ruin her from coming to light.
He’d gloat.
And while that wasn’t totally unsexy in and of itself, she really didn’t need the guy taunting her with more of what she couldn’t have. And based on the hard scowl he was giving her, any secret hopes she might have had about the two of them turning just once into just twice were dowsed completely.
Just be cool.
The doors opened and the music changed.
“Em?” Jase murmured, offering her his arm.
She slipped her fingers around his elbow, and her breath caught at the low jolt coursing through her hand and the quiet stir in her belly.
Jase’s eyes were locked with hers, the same kind of inconvenient shock she was experiencing from that single point of contact morphing into a look that was charged, dark, and intense.
* * *
Jase should have been stripped of his groomsman stripes.
The wedding was the longest he’d ever experienced. Whether the stand-in priest was just trying to give these kooky kids their money’s worth or whether Jase was imagining the man’s words dragging on and on, he didn’t know. What he did know was that the ceremony itself had been a torture unique in his life. And through ever
y minute of it, he’d tried—really, really tried—to focus on the couple he was standing up for. He tried to pay attention to the passages they’d chosen to share that day. And above all, he tried not to look at Emily.
On all counts, he failed.
She was gorgeous.
Fine, what else was new? Well, that look in her eyes when they’d touched and the room had practically caught fire around them. Yeah, that was pretty new.
And once he’d seen it, the hot need that matched his own, he’d been ready to pull her straight out of the church and back to… Well, shit. Brody’s car.
Unfortunately that’s when they’d gotten the hissed “Emily and Jase, go!” along with the firm shove propelling them toward the doors and down the aisle…barely a beat out of step.
But the whole way, they’d been casting sidelong looks at each other. And at one point, Emily had needed to duck her head when her cheeks turned a particularly satisfying shade of scarlet.
Oh yeah, just once was off the table.
He was having her again. As soon as this wedding was through.
* * *
Mr. and Mrs. Romeo Santos retreated from the church amid well wishes and congratulations from those able to attend. They’d been quickly ushered away in their black Rolls Royce limo, gleaming beneath the unavoidable salt and sludge splatter of a Chicago winter.
Emily’s heart was filled to overflowing with happiness for Sally and Romeo, but still that wasn’t foremost in her mind. It was the escalating sense of anticipation causing the flutter in her belly she couldn’t ignore. The nervous tension building within her.
Because of Jase.
Because of the way he’d been looking at her and the near-electric charge she’d experienced wrapping her hand around his arm.
Because of that last quiet word—“After”—spoken low enough that it had only been for her as they went to their opposite sides of the church.
Well, it was after, and now she could feel Jase’s eyes on her. She knew he was close.
Knew he was there the second before he made contact, settling his palm at the curve of her waist and gently but firmly guiding her back from the press of family and friends clogging the hall leading out of the church.
She turned to him, thinking he would drop his head to her ear and whisper something about when they would meet. But all she got was a fleeting glimpse of the heat in his eyes as he positioned her in front him, keeping one wide hand around her waist, and the hot press of his body at her back.
He was leading her back into the church. Reaching past her to open the door to the bride’s chamber and then ushering her inside.
“Jase, we’ll have to be quick,” she whispered in a rush. Whatever plans he wanted to make—Her hotel room or his? What time? How best not to get caught, because this was one dirty secret she wasn’t ready to share—that’s all they’d have time for. They were a part of the wedding party, and people would be waiting for them.
But instead of Jase asking her anything, instead of looking over her face like he wanted to kiss her but letting out one of those frustrated growling sounds he made and then taking a step away, he answered with a gruff “Okay.”
And then the hand that had been at her waist slid forward, spanning wide and low across her belly. His mouth opened over the curve of her neck, sending her senses spiraling, and he pulled her back into the startling heat and hard-muscled expanse of his body.
“Jase!”
His teeth scraped over the sensitive stretch of skin and Emily’s knees went loose, her breath rushing out on a hiss.
But Jase had her. He wrapped his arm around her torso so the strength of his arm held her tight against him, leaving one hand to cup her breast and his other to rub lower down her abdomen and pelvic bone, until he was between her legs.
A deep guttural sound rumbled against her ear as he stroked her again. “I can feel how hot you are, Em. Even through all this skirt, you’re practically burning up my hand.”
And oh God, it was good. She was so sensitive from the weeks of thinking—obsessing—over everything Jase had done to her.
“I-I’ve been thinking about you,” she admitted, angling her head to give him more access to her neck.
“Bet that torqued you off,” he said, the jab sounding more playful than antagonistic.
She laughed quietly, melting back into Jase so her bottom met the hard ridge of his erection. Nice. Even more so when he pressed into her from behind as he petted her through the fabric of her skirt in front.
It was too much.
“Jase,” she whispered, her hips moving with the rhythm he’d established.
“Tell me you want this.” His voice was gravel rough, as low as she’d ever heard it. “Tell me you can’t wait either.”
The answer would have been yes to both. But coupled with that last telling word, either, her need skyrocketed toward critical.
Eyes closed, she turned her face toward his. Felt the hot wash of his breath beneath her jaw, over her cheek. And then he was kissing her, his mouth devouring hers as he guided her to the low vanity where Sally had applied the last touches of her makeup and whispered the name Sally Santos like it was a prayer.
They shouldn’t be there. They shouldn’t be anywhere near a spot touched by so many tender moments. The beginning of so many lives together.
But then Jase was pressing her hands into the top of the counter, meeting her eyes in the mirror as he gathered her skirt until he had it above her waist. Until she could see the bare skin of her thighs and the coffee and cream of her panties.
Reaching between her legs, he slid the silk and lace garment down her thighs until it fell around her feet. She stepped out of it and, at Jase’s gentle urging, widened her stance. His fingers brushed over the swollen, too-sensitive folds of her sex, making her moan and tremble from that grazing touch alone.
And then he was pushing inside her.
“Oh God.”
One finger, deep and deeper. Hitting her just right. A second, stretching her as his palm cupped and rubbed against her.
“I can feel how close you are, Emily.”
The sound of his voice rumbling against her ear pushed her even closer.
His teeth closed in a gentle clasp on the lobe of her ear, as he stroked once more across that needy little bundle of nerves no one had ever found but him and—
His free hand closed over her mouth as her moans turned to cries of the most telling variety. She couldn’t stop, couldn’t do anything but ride out the pleasure Jase had given her until it was done.
And then Jase released her, leaving her to support herself where she’d planted her palms on the vanity and stood staring at her breathless, wanton reflection.
Who was this woman?
She didn’t know, but she most definitely recognized the hard-jawed, steely-eyed man behind her. Jase looked like every fantasy she’d ever had mixed with all the ones she’d never dared to dream about.
His eyes were blazing with need, raking down her reflection as he rolled on a condom. And then he was lined up behind her, their gazes still locked in the mirror.
A muscle jumped repeatedly in his jaw, and then he was pushing inside her. Sliding in with one deep, earth-shattering stroke that seemed to push the breath straight from her lungs.
“Fucking beautiful,” he bit out from behind her, his thick fingers flexing against her hips, his throat moving up and down.
She felt beautiful. Sexy.
And when his focus switched from her eyes to where he was thrusting inside her, the heat of that visual pushed her past any state of arousal she’d ever been in before.
Her body pulsed around his thrusts. Closer.
She watched in fascination as the strain built in his features, as his need escalated with her own. She wanted to push him harder, take him further. Make him lose control the
way she couldn’t seem to stop doing around him.
Arching her spine, she rocked back into his next thrust, earning the satisfaction of his eyes snapping up to meet hers in the reflection.
“Emily,” he ground out as if in warning, but of what she couldn’t imagine. Again she arched, pushing back into him as he thrust deep and hard into her.
“More,” she panted, wanting to see him come undone. Wanting to be the reason why.
Heck. Maybe she wanted to ruin him for all other women the way he’d ruined her.
The nod he gave her was tight and strained, a visual that made her clench in need.
And then he was giving her what she’d asked for. Pounding into her hard and deep, again and again. Filling her so completely that she could barely find room for a breath.
Faster, he hammered into her over-sensitized flesh. Then he pulled her up against him, her back to his front, and buried his face in the crook of her neck, as he quaked through his release within her.
It was hot like she hadn’t known existed. And that was before he reached between her legs and gently squeezed while he was still pulsing within her.
Starbursts filled her vision as she bucked, coming from that single touch. Because he was just that freaking good.
After, Jase took care of the rubber by tying a knot in it, wrapping it in a tissue, and tucking it in his pocket. Emily had found her way into the chair where the brides sat and watched, intrigued by his every action.
In awe of his mad skills.
Not caring a lick if he’d well and truly ruined her for everyone else. Forever.
She was pretty sure today would get her through the next few years. At the least.
Or she had been until Jase leaned back into the vanity and, crossing his arms, looked her over like he was thinking about what he wanted to do with her next.
And yeah, just like that, she was ready to go.