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This was a friend’s wedding. She wasn’t dressed in her typical blue jeans and t-shirt that was her usual attire around Autre. She also wasn’t in her sundresses, Capri pants, or khakis that she wore to work as a kindergarten teacher.
No, tonight, she was in an emerald green dress that had wide straps crossing her shoulders, dipped low in the back, was fitted at the waist, then flared below her hips, hitting at midcalf. The color was amazing, as were her curves inside the sleek, shimmery material.
She was also wearing heels. He loved her just as much in her converse tennis shoes, flip-flops, boots, or flat shoes she wore to school.
But damn, the girl looked good in heels.
It only took him two seconds to decide how this scenario was going to play out.
He stalked across the room toward her, vaguely registering the fact that some guy was leaning onto the bar, facing her.
He assumed the guy was the creep, but he didn’t really care. Whoever it was going to get the full experience of Beau Hebert showing up to sweep Becca Bollier off her feet.
He expected the story would circulate no matter who the witness was.
He approached from the side, so she might have seen him coming in her peripheral vision, or perhaps she just sensed him, but he was about ten feet away when she looked over. Her eyes widened. Obviously, it wasn’t shock. She’d known he was coming. But it could have been the look of possessiveness in his eyes. Beau didn’t even try to hide it. Sure, she might think he was faking it, but no one else in that room would think so.
“Oh,” she said, putting surprise in her tone.
The man leaning on the bar next to her straightened. He frowned.
Beau barely spared him a glance.
Without a word, Beau crowded close to Becca, put one big hand on her ass, cupped her face with the other, and pulled her in for a deep kiss.
twelve
Beau didn’t go easy.The kiss was deep and hot from the very beginning. He opened his lips, tasting her fully, sliding his tongue along her lower lip and then into her mouth.
She immediately opened, as her hands grasped the lapels of his jacket and she gave a little moan he suspected only he could hear over the sound of the music and conversation around him. But no one else needed to hear that. He was an audience of one for Becca’struereaction.
The way she arched into him and completely accepted the kiss without pushing him away was all everyone else needed to see.
But he definitely took note of the way she softened in his arms, pressed against him fully, and met every stroke of his tongue with her own.
Fake, his ass.
“Um, excuse me,” the guy she had been speaking to interjected.
Beau very much wanted to just ignore him. He wanted to throw Becca over his shoulder and ask for her room number.
But that was abadidea. For one, he knew exactly what would happen if they were shut together inside that hotel room. He could keep hold of his emotions when they were out and about in Autre, surrounded by people they knew, or even when they were working on the community play together and having to kiss as characters in the story.
But one-on-one, with no one around, a big old king bed, and no part to play, he was very afraid that every single emotion he felt for this woman would be front and center. He wasn’t sure what to do with that.
Avoiding it, and ignoring it, seemed best.
Besides, this was a game. They were here to mess with her friends, who thought they were setting them up. Everyone wanted to manipulate the situation, and Beau and Becca were teaming up to tease them right back.
That’s what he had to remember. This was all for show.
Which meant staying here in the ballroom. Yes, kissing her, acting possessive, acting like he couldn’t stop touching her—which was far too real—but for an audience.
He lifted his head and loosened his grip. He stared down at her. Yeah, those dilated pupils and flushed cheeks were not fake.
He shouldn’t feel the thrill that he did with that.
What good did it do for them to have an actual attraction? That was just going to make everything more difficult. He hadn’t been kidding when he said that she had to stick around Autre for alongtime before he’d trust that was what she really wanted.
