AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And you’re a mess.”
Leo looked down at himself and seemed surprised to see the state of his clothes. “So I am,” he muttered. “Got changed at the airport.”
Edging dangerously close to mania, Amelia tried to wrangle her fleeing wits. She felt lightheaded and strange. He was very beautiful. But—so what?
He was also late, and that was nearly unforgivable. It was Maggie’s wedding day, and nothing—especially nothim—would ruin it. Even if this was “how he was.” Whatever that meant.
Stomping toward Leo, she ignored the incessant thumping of her heart. He looked even worse—better?—up close. Rumpled. Deliciously so.
Before she could divine what they were doing, Amelia’s hands rose to the bow tie hanging undone at Leo’s neck. She couldn’t fasten the bow until the top button of his shirt was clasped, so she clicked her tongue and pulled at his collar. He rocked forward when she yanked the fabric, letting out a short, low grunt.
From the corner of her eyes, Amelia caught the curl of his lips.
Smiling! At a time like this! Strangling him would be too kind. He deserved to be tickled to death. Or stretched out on a medieval rack and submitted to the most horrid water torture imaginable. Or…or…have every one of his long, full eyelashes plucked out.
Her fingers trembled as they dipped near the hollow of his throat to do up the button. Stubble rasped against her knuckles, and a sharp jolt of heat traveled through her middle.
“This is…unexpected,” he said, voice dropping to a low baritone that did interesting things to Amelia’s inner thighs. Amelia’s inner thighs needed to get ahold of themselves. “Are you sure we should be doing this in a church? You haven’t even told me your name.”
Fury was a rocket launching in her chest. Explosions created a cloud of dust and debris in her veins as anger took off inside her, because he didn’t even seem sorry for being unforgivably late. He wasflirting, at a time like this! Leo St. James, professional annoyance. Who did he think he was? Showing up at Amelia’s sister’s wedding, looking like a disheveled prince, thenjokingabout it!
The.Nerve.
The man couldn’t even dress himself, and he was trying to be cute with her?
“Oh, please,” she hissed. “Spare me.” She scowled at him, flicking her gaze upward to meet his eyes. It was a mistake. As soon as her gaze clashed with his, she saw the gleam that lived in his emerald-green irises. It promised everything dark and dirty, and Amelia wanted to let herself fall into those promises and never emerge again. Her anger was snuffed out in an instant as a wave of unfamiliar lust took over.
Strange. It wasn’t like her to feel this way about men—not even the pretty ones. Flustered, yes. Anxious, definitely.
Aroused? No way.
Her body’s reaction swung her back to anger, and she gripped the feeling with both fists. She was angry at him for being late. Angry at the bridal party for putting her in this position. Angry at herself for finding him attractive.
Maybe the stress of her sister’s wedding was getting to her. Or it was the lack of sleep over the past six months. Her work had been intense, after all. Starting a business usually was.
A small shake of her head, and her mind felt slightly clearer. Today was her sister’s wedding, and this absolute lump of a pretty boy was threatening to throw the whole thing off-schedule. He needed to get himself together, then she’d hold his arm and walk down the aisle ahead of the rest of the bridal party with a smile plastered on her face. Nothing else mattered.
She tugged the collar to straighten it, then set herself to tying the bow tie. It was the same soft lilac as her dress, but against his tawny skin, the color looked rich and creamy. Of course it did. Her frown deepened, and Amelia used the moment to settle her unstable emotions. She tied the fabric carefully, straightening the corners until a perfect purple bow stared back at her.
All the while, Leo’s gaze pressed like a weight. He stood very still to endure her ministrations, arms at his sides, chin lifted out of the way. But she felt it—the heaviness of his stare. He didn’t have anywhere else to look but at her, she reasoned, but it still made her want to squirm.
It was no surprise that Amelia would feel put out by a beautiful man’s gaze. She wasn’t exactly beating men back these days. She’d been focusing on her career; she hadn’t had time to date. Never mind the fact that being this close to a man made Amelia feel like she had a bird trapped in her chest and noodles for limbs. Best to avoid these sorts of situations altogether. She wasn’t known for being a man-eater. More like a man-evader.
Sipping in a short little breath, she frowned at his vest. It, like the jacket and pants, was a navy so dark it was nearly black. His white shirt bunched awkwardly between his vest and pants. He’d have to re-tuck it.
She pointed at the offending area. “Fix this. It looks like a deflated muffin top,” she blurted—and there was the other reason she hadn’t had much luck with men. Words sometimes fell out of her mouth without warning, and often they weren’t exactly delicate. She’d come to learn that her lack of filter wasn’t an attractive trait. There were many, many data points from failed dates and awkward interactions to prove it.
But Leo didn’t seem bothered. In fact, he leaned ever so slightly closer to her, so she could smell the scent of soap rising from his skin. “I was led to believe that fixing my clothing was your job,” he answered, and for a moment, Amelia felt off-balance. It was the velvet quality of his tone and the way his scent wrapped around her like a drugging cloud. Then she registered the laughter in his voice.
Despite herself, Amelia’s eyes snapped up to his once more. He wasmockingher. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and Amelia knew it was her temper.
She just wanted this day to go right. For Maggie. For beautiful, kind Maggie with the luminous smile. Her sister deserved this. She’d found Emory, and they’d fallen in love, and now they’d have a perfect wedding day. Amelia would make sure of it.
This was what shedid. She identified problems, then parsed the data into something useful. Whether it was a complicated data set for a client, or a wedding venue scheduling for today’s event, or ordering supplies for seventy intricate handmade centerpieces (which included twenty-five hundred and ninety individual components, ordered from four different vendors), Amelia could sort any problem into a tidy, efficient solution.
She’d made sense of the wedding preparations, and now it would all go off without a hitch. No matter what the man before her did or said.
Leo narrowed his eyes, seeing something written on her face. What, she didn’t know. Maybe he could hear the thunder just as clearly as she could. Ozone crackled in the air between them, like that breathless, heavy moment before a strike of lightning.
