Maybe it’s completely unrelated. Maybe it has nothing to do with Jordan and me. Something to do with the wedding, or the rehearsal dinner and after party perhaps.
“Yeah dude,” I tell myself in the mirror. “It’s about the wedding. Maybe he’s gonna tell you that you’re the real best man, and you’re not sharing the duty with Brody anymore.”
Are you really the best one for that job when you’re sleeping with his sister?
“Shut up,” I grumble to my brain.
Swiping my phone off the counter, I slide it into the pocket of my gray dress pants, ditching the mirror. I’m more of a jeans and dress shirt kind of guy—hell, we all are—but I had strict instructions that tonight we dress up. Which seems counterintuitive since after the dress rehearsal we’re heading to the adult arcade inthe hotel to play games and have one last—early—hurrah.
Pulling my door open, I’m surprised when the one across the hall opens at the same time, revealing a stunning brunette beauty.
I know I’m wearing the dumbest fucking grin, but I can’t help it. It’s not shocking at this point that I find her gorgeous, but she looks extra tonight in a little black dress and those damn heels that drive me nuts. I’m going to have fun fucking her in those later.
“Fancy meeting you here,” I say, stepping out of my hotel room as she does the same. “You’re looking ravishing tonight.”
The smile that lights her up is shining brightly at me. “Handsome as always, Mr. King.”
Throwing mister in front of my last name has my dick twitching. I love when she calls me by my actual name in the bedroom, but there’s something about the formal title coming from her pretty red mouth that makes me envision her on her knees before me, my cock sliding between those perfect lips.
Taking her fingertips, I raise our hands then spin her around, getting a good look at her while she giggles—fucking giggles—at me. Yeah, this’ll be fun to—
“Wait, are these shorts?” I ask, grabbing the bottom hem of what I thought was a dress.
The giggles dissolve into laughter. “Yes, Liam. It’s called a romper.”
“The fuck?” The disappointment I feel is unmatched. Leaning in toward her, I whisper in a low voice, “The easy access I imagined for later just went up in flames.”
With an inconspicuous glance down the hall, she tries so hard to keep her laughter stifled. “I promise it’s easy to take off.”
I still eye the thing like it’s done me dirty.
“Where you headed? Down for an early drink?” she asks, changing the subject. Probably so I’m not tempted to make hershow me how easy.
Glancing at my watch, I shake my head. “Nope. Headed to Nate’s room. He wants to see me. Where you going?”
The smile on her face dims, and panic starts to cloud her crystal blue eyes. “I—uh… Nate texted me.”
Her entire throat moves as though she’s swallowing a lump that’s formed. I know the one because I’ve got a similar one clogging mine. That uneasiness I couldn’t shake in the bathroom is rearing its ugly head and judging by the frown Jordan is now wearing, I’d say she’s feeling the same.
But it’s beneficial if only one of us appears to be panicking. It’ll be better for both of us if I remain chill about the whole thing.
She steps closer but then thinks better of it and takes a larger step back, her hand falling away from mine. In a whisper I can barely hear, she asks, “Do you think he knows?”
“How would he know?”
“Last night? Or the pool today? We weren’t exactly careful.”
Because I know I need to act as confident as possible, I take the step she put between us and then some. With gentle fingertips, I catch her chin between my thumb and index finger. “If he’d clued in last night, we would have heard about it then. Especially since he was drunk.” I lean in closer, bringing my lips to her ear. “No one saw us today. None of our friends are subtle. Someone would have called it out.”
She shivers when I kiss the spot just under her jaw, along her neck. “Liam, we’re in the middle of the hall. We could get caught.”
“Just a friend telling another friend how amazing she looks tonight, that’s all.”
I know she’s right though. I also know that I needed to close the distance between us that her anxiety was creating. Physically and mentally. Taking a small step backwards, I offer my arm to her. “Shall we go see what big bad Nate wants?”
That gets a simple smile out of her as she takes my offer, pushing her shoulders back and tilting her head up. “Nate? Big and bad? Please. He’s a teddy bear.”
There it is. The confidence that I needed to see in her before facing the big brother. Though her confidence may have been generated by cockiness, it’s spurring my own courage. Everything is fine. There’s nothing wrong. Nate knows nothing.
