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But Jack sure as shit wasn’t going to pour his heart out on the man’s wedding day. He wasn’t going to stand here in the desert and admit he’d lost when it came to the thing that mattered most—the woman he loved.
“Let’s fucking hike.” Jack picked up his pace, his jaw tight and every muscle in his body tense. “First one to that canyon wins.” He nodded to a peak in the distance.
“You’re on.” Cade stepped off the path and moved around his teammate. “And Jack, I know you think it’s over, but you should tell her.”
Jack shook his head and started to run for the canyon. “First one to the canyon and back wins. I don’t want to walk back listening to you go on and on above love.”
Two months after her first shift at Bottom’s Up, Natalie had stepped in front of a drunken sailor, a young man who had just flunked the SEAL’s rigorous training camp and hated the world, including the not so intoxicated soon-to-be SEAL who’d succeeded. For a second, she’d thought the drunken sailor would hit her instead. While he’d failed BUD/S training, the man was built like a tank.
But he’d lowered his fist and allowed her to call him a cab. And in the process, he’d cemented her reputation as the bartender who could take on anyone and anything.
Including an early morning trip to a Sin City sex toy store.
“When you said we needed to take a detour on the way to the hair salon, I thought you meant coffee,” Lucia said. “Or maybe a grocery store for champagne and sparkling cider, something to drink while we get ready for my walk down the aisle.”
“This won’t take long.” Natalie stared up at the Sizzling Secrets sign and waited for the lights to blink on. She could see a salesperson moving around inside. It wouldn’t be long now. “But if I’m going to try to fix things with Jack, I need to do this. I ran away from him in the middle of wild, crazy bathroom sex.”
“If you’re sure sex toys will fix your relationship—”
“It’s not a relationship,” Natalie insisted. “Not yet.”
And please don’t jinx it.
That was the last thing she needed.
Lucia took her hand and stood by her side, staring up at the unlit sign. “I hope you know what you’re getting.”
“I do.”
“Good, because we need to get to hair and makeup soon. We’re both walking down the aisle in a few hours.”
“While I wear one very terrible tutu,” Natalie said with a sigh. “Jack might take one look at me and run away. I’ll never get a chance to show him my toys.”
“You’re not wearing the pink dress.” Her sister squeezed her hand. “I was planning to tell you later, do a big reveal in the bridal suite. I found an elegant and sexy maid-of-honor gown for you. In charcoal, not pink. The skirt is floor length and it has these long bands of fabric that cover your chest, tie at the back of your neck and then twist together to form a long rope down your back before wrapping around your waist. And if you don’t like the twisted fabric down your back, there are half a dozen other ways to wear it.”
Natalie stared at her sister. No Terrible Tutu. An elegant gown. “So you’re saying I don’t need to be here, waiting for the sex store to open? I could let Jack tie me up in my dress?”
“I’m saying that I love you. We both did what we needed to do to survive after the crash. But it’s behind us. And I’m getting married today. In a few hours. If we make it to the salon.”
Natalie glanced at the storefront. The lights in the Sizzling Secrets sign flicked on. Could she put the past behind her and have a relationship with a man who just might battle her for control every step of the way?
“Thank you for the dress. After your honeymoon, I’ll invite you over and we can burn the Terrible Tutu together.” Natalie drew her sister through the open door. “And in five minutes, I promise to take you to the salon. But right now, I need to find out if Sizzling Secrets carries black silk bondage ties. Because I’m going for it. I’m trying for a second chance with Jack. Something real, not based on a bet.”
Lucia laughed as they bypassed vibrators. “I never would have guessed that bondage was the way to Jack’s heart.”
This was only one piece of the puzzle. But she was determined to show Jack that he’d been right—they fit together. And even if it frightened her, she wasn’t going to walk away this time. If he let her back into his life and his bed.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Natalie walked through the empty courtyard that separated the hotel’s main building from the Roman-style outdoor wedding venue. She cursed her shoes with each step. It was impossible to run in heels. And Lucia was waiting for her on the other side of the decorative columns along with the wedding guests. Her sister was ready to walk down the aisle and meet her groom. Or she would be ready once Natalie returned with her sister’s bridal bouquet.
“She’s probably the only bride to leave her flowers in the bathroom before the wedding ceremony,” she muttered, pausing to shift her grip on the cascade of roses. With a firm grip on the bouquet she stepped forward—then stopped when she heard Jack’s voice.
“Colton, it’s over.”
Jack’s voice had the power to tease, to command, and right now, to stop her dead in her tracks. She moved behind one of the pillars dividing the empty courtyard from where the guests had gathered and pressed her virtually bare back—minus one twisted length of charcoal fabric—against a fake column.
She held her breath. Five minutes, probably less, until Lucia walked down the aisle and the best man was on a call with Mr. Belt Buckle?
