I’d seen the women he was usually photographed with. Curvy, youthful, objectively beautiful.
That wasn’t me.
At my sound of derisive amusement, Ian turned my way. “What?” he asked, seeming genuinely confused.
“You’re used to models and actresses and red carpets. I cannot imagine that me in a bridesmaid dress I’m never gonna wear again is what does it for you.”
I could feel him staring at my profile, and it made me want to squirm. I’d said all that offhandedly, but maybe it revealed too much. How aware I was of his celebrity life. How unsettled he made me feel. How I’d never fit in his world.
I should have just taken the fucking compliment, but it had seemed so ridiculous in the face of what he was accustomed to. I knew my strengths. Being glamorous wasn’t one of them.
“None of that is real, you know?” he said quietly.
“What isn’t?”
“The red carpet. The women I’m photographed with. My manager sets me up with those people. Whoever needs media attention at the moment or to distract from whatever scandal is happening. It’s all a game of you scratch my back, I scratch yours. I haven’t been in a relationship—a real one—in a very long time. It’s too hard to meet people. To trust them.”
I met his gaze and nearly winced at the intensity there—the honesty so bold and unabashed.
“But you trust me?” I asked.
“Yeah, Joan. I do. You’re loyal and dependable. You’re one of the very few people who know about Georgie. For me, it doesn’t get any more trustworthy than that.”
Maybe it was the jittery adrenaline sparking inside me since we’d danced. Maybe it was the wedding and the fairy-tale bubble we’d been trapped in all day. Maybe it was hearing him call me loyal with such earnest reverence that I wanted to remember the moment forever.
Maybe it was every single one of those things that had me leaning in, closing the distance, and surprising him with a kiss.
Ian made a sound, something slightly dumbstruck and arousingly needy. Like I’d put my hands down his pants instead of where they lay, innocently over the railing.
But he recovered quickly, slotting his upper lip between mine and cupping my jaw. He drew me close, the heat and size and sultry scent of him only making me ache to be closer.
I felt his other hand move beneath my jacket—his jacket—to touch my waist. His hold was unsteady as he gripped the fabric of my dress and then smoothed it back out. I smiled against his lips, liking that he’d caught himself, been unsure. He could have torn the thing in his excitement, and I wouldn’t have been nearly as affected as I was by the hand that was currently shaking against me.
I wanted him unsettled. Needed him to be just as out of sorts as I was. No one liked making bad decisions alone. And nothing about this was going to end well.
Maybe two months ago, we could have had a no-strings fling to keep the celebrity entertained while on location in the mountains. But now?—
Everything was different.
He wasn’t some spoiled actor I tolerated occasionally. He was my teammate. My friend. He was George’s uncle. My dad’s poker buddy. My brother’s workout partner. He’d married my sister and my friend today. The lines were well and truly blurred.
We’d somehow tangled ourselves up in each other. And now his hands were on my body like I’d been thinking about for weeks.
My lips parted as urgency flared to life. Ian took the invitation and slid his tongue into my mouth. He tasted like the champagne I’d watched him drink—bubbly and sweet.
Suddenly, I didn’t want to be out here in the cold in semipublic. I wanted to be someplace private, where I could see him and feel him and do every dirty thing I’d never let myself imagine.
My hands stroked over his pecs, the muscles flexing beneath my curious fingers. I slowed our frantic kisses, knowing that we couldn’t do this here. Ian might have been seen as a commodity, but I wasn’t about to treat him like one by putting him on display.
He pressed his lips gently to my upper lip, the corner of my mouth, my chin, my eyelids. I felt him sigh as he placed a final kiss against my forehead.
Reluctantly, I opened my eyes.
When he leaned back, he was already smiling. Whatever he saw on my face must have been amusing because his grin widened. “Nice to see you out of breath for once.”
I huffed a laugh into the cold night air. Clouds of my amusement drifted away over our heads.
Ian’s eyes danced in the glow of the Christmas lights. His happiness was so tangible, I felt like I could reach out and touch it, wrap it around me to keep me warm.
