by Marr, Maggie
“Nor have I.” I right myself and move to the stall door. “It would seem there’s no one else in here,” I say.
“So uh…”
“Why don’t I go first and clear the way a bit,” I say. “Make certain there isn’t anyone waiting outside the men’s room. How’s that sound?”
Gratitude rushes into her gaze.
“Thank you,” she says.
“Of course. I’m Brett,” I say. “But you know that. I’m afraid I don’t…”
“Torrey,” she says. “Torrey Bliss.”
My eyes widen. She opens the stall door and walks out. For fuck sake, she doesn’t know it yet, but this woman is meant to be my wife.
Chapter 7
Torrey
I walk out of the men’s room, scoot down the hall, and turn toward the host desk where Carmen still stands. Brett follows behind me, his hand pressed against the small of my back.
I close my eyes and sink into the feeling of heat.
What the fuck just happened? I feel absolutely no shame? Nope, instead, I feel foxy-as- fuck and maybe totally strong and super sexy. Damn.
“That took long enou—” Carmen stops speaking. Her gaze travels up and down my body and then glances to Brett. She raises an eyebrow and tilts her head.
I turn to the host stand and clear my throat. “We’ll be sharing the party room,” I say. Eduardo looks from me to Brett and nods.
“Hey, so we thought—” Becca looks past me. “Oh my God! Brett! Jake said you were coming in from Australia!”
Brett wraps Becca into a giant hug and then Tippy. Carmen sidles up to me. “You totally fucked that guy,” she whispers.
I pull my bottom lip beneath my top teeth. I can’t meet Carmen’s gaze because if she looks into my eyes she’ll know. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say and press my hand over my hair.
“Oh. My. God! You did!” she hisses in my ear. “I mean, I wasn’t sure, but here you are blushing and pressing your hand over your hair, which you totally do when you lie!”
“Shhh, not talking about this here.” After hugging Tippy, Brett meets my gaze and cocks an eyebrow. He glances toward Carmen. “And this is Carmen,” I say. They do the introduction and Brett turns toward the party room with Becca and Tippy on either side of him, both yammering away.
“I know you what you did,” Carmen whispers and smiles at me. “And with a man that fine, I think you should do more of it.”
I fight the smile that threatens to break over my face because I completely agree.
* * *
Dinner isn’t what we planned, but it’s still fun. We finish up and head our separate ways. We head toward Venice and a Karaoke bar. Where Brett and the rest of the groomsmen are taking Jake I don’t know. As we stand outside waiting for our respective party limos I glance toward Brett. He smiles at me.
Heat unfurls in my chest. I smile back. I completely want to do more of what we recently did. He’s sexy and funny and as I discovered at dinner—charming too.
“I never got Todd’s RSVP for the wedding”—Becca scrolls on her phone—“and I need to know what he wants to eat next week. The caterer is asking.”
Hearing his name is like a punch to the gut. I take a deep breath. Fuck. What can I say to that?
“I don’t think he’s coming,” I say just as the driver pulls up in front of us.
“Not coming? Why?” Becca looks up from her phone. “That’s totally weird.”
“It was really sudden. Something came up and he can’t go.”
“Okaaaay,” Becca says. She glances from her phone to me and I can tell she’s having a tough time understanding why the man that I was practically engaged to and share a business with isn’t attending a wedding that I’m in.
This would be the perfect moment to tell her about Todd…but would it? The party bus door opens and now we’re going to Karaoke. I really don’t want to spend the next two hours re-hashing a heartbreak, that really if I’m honest, isn’t as much of a heartbreak for me as it should’ve been. Especially since I was actually discussing possible wedding destinations with the guy.
“I’ll check with him again, but I don’t think he can come.”
“Let’s go ladies!” Tippy yells from our party bus.
Pop!
Tippy holds a Champagne cork in her hand. Bubbly spills over the side of the bottle and she jabs it into her mouth.
Mmmhmm. I’m actually thankful for Tippy’s antics. They jolt Becca away from me and discussing Todd.
“You’re hilarious, Tip!” Becca crows. She slides her phone into her purse and doesn’t give my cheating ex-boyfriend another thought.
Thank God. Ten feet to my left, Brett is climbing into the groomsmen’s limo. His gaze locks with mine and he lifts an eyebrow. An acknowledgement, an invitation—both? A tingle pulses between my legs.
Best damn sex ever.
“You totally boned him in the bathroom,” Carmen says and slides past me onto the party bus. I say nothing. A smile bursts across my face. A real smile. Warmth in my chest and happiness. I nod to Brett and give him my very best hair toss. Oh yeah, I totally boned him and I’m going to bone him again.
* * *
“Torrey, I love you,” Becca says. She leans on me, a limp arm slung over my shoulder. Drunk Becca is cute and affectionate, a giggly drunk.
“I’m gonna puke again,” Tippy squeaks and turns to the bushes beside the sidewalk. I avert my eyes. The retching is hard to watch.
While Becca is a cute drunk, Tippy not so much. Karaoke is over and I stand between the two drunk girls while Carmen runs into a CVS to grab Gatorades and ibuprofen for these two because they’re going to need both.
“Okay,” Carmen says, hitching the pharmacy bag over her arm. “Let’s get them back to the hotel and in bed.” We load them onto the party bus. Davis, our driver, smiles at me.
“You got your work cut out for you with these two?”
“Not so bad,” I say and press Becca into a seat. “At least they’re happy drunks.” Davis hands me a little trash can which I pass back to Carmen who’s in charge of watching drunk-girl Tippy. Once we get to Shutters, the personnel are super helpful in getting us back to our suite. Once we’ve gotten both drunk girls in bed I go to my room. It’s really not that late. I could put on my pajamas and go to bed or… I glance at my phone.
“You gonna go out?” Carmen stands in the doorway of my room. Tippy and Becca are passed out.
“Maybe,” I say.
She walks into my room and sits next to me on the bed. “You okay?” she asks.
I sigh. Am I okay? “I mean…yeah,” I say. “I’m okay. It hurts, because…well walking in on that sucked.”
Carmen presses her fingertips to her lips. “Oh my God, you walked in on him with—”
“Oh right, I’m sorry, I thought you knew, but why would he tell his sister that part.” I shake my head and stare at the carpet. The memory of Todd sitting in his office chair with Aubrey straddled over his lap races through my mind. I shake my head and look at Carmen. “Yeah, in the office. They thought I was at dinner with a client, but the dinner got canceled so I came back to see if he wanted to go to dinner with me… Turned out he was having his meals elsewhere.”
“Daayumn, and he can still walk? What the hell did you do?”
“I turned around and left. I mean, they saw me, but I…I didn’t need to see anymore and what was there to say?” I sigh. “I feel more angry at being lied to than sad about losing him.” I lift an eyebrow. “I guess that says a lot about the relationship.”
Carmen puts her arm over my shoulder. “It sure does,” she says.
“What about you? You’ve got plenty going on with Dave and the divorce.”
“Tonight was the first time we were actually nice to each other since I asked him to move out.”
“How’d that feel?” I ask.
“Surprisingly easy and really good,” she says. A small smile curves over her mouth. “We were just s
o deep in our pain, I didn’t know how to get away from all I felt and…I guess I just needed a new start.”
“Who knew all of this would be so tough, right? I mean I always thought I’d find the right guy, fall in love, get married, have kids—” I stop talking. I swallow. Shit, I’ve said too much. The main reason Carmen and Dave decided to get divorced was because of all the tough times they went through trying to get pregnant.
“Don’t,” Carmen says. Her soft smile and warm eyes tell me that she’s not upset by my words. “We all thought that. Even the kids part. But life, right? I mean life does this thing where it shakes you loose from the way you think it’s gonna be to the reality that it is.”
“That’s some deep shit right there, Carmen,” I say and laugh.
“Well, getting divorced from the only person you’ve ever loved will do that to you,” she says softly. There’s a faint smile on her lips. “So this Brett guy…was it good?”
“Oh my God, so fucking good!” I say. I glance at the ceiling. Heat blasts through my cheeks and my chest and even between my legs. “I’ve never done anything like that and it was amazing!”
“Then go find him and get yourself some more of what feels good,” Carmen says.
“You think?” I flip over my phone.
Carmen nods, “Absolutely,” she says.
Brett had given me his contact info at dinner. I pull up his number and send him a text, wondering at the same time if he’s even back at the hotel yet. My heart beats faster. Flashes of earlier tonight in the men’s room at the hippest restaurant in Malibu rush through my mind. I’m two parts horrified at what I did…and two parts turned on. Heat flashes through me.
Bing.
“That didn’t take long,” Carmen says.
“No, it did not.” I read his text. My body is on fire.
“What’d he say?”
“To come to his room,” I whisper.
“So?” Carmen says and tilts her head.
I take a deep breath and blow out all the air. “Soooo…do you think I should go?”
Carmen nods. I blink. My nipples harden. I close my eyes…what should I do?
Chapter 8
Brett
I slide my phone into my back pocket. “Guys, think I’ll call it a night,” I say.
“What the fuck man, you just got here and we just started playing.” Charlie, Jake’s older brother, says.
“It’s two in the morning, you’ve cleaned me out of nearly two grand, and I’m still on Australian time,” I say and stand. “I’m out.”
Grumbles come from Charlie and Dave about me being a lame-ass Aussie, but I’m A-Okay with all the grumbles they want to throw my way because I’m about to hook up—for the second time tonight—with the hottest woman I’ve ever met.
“Fine, bruh, your loss. We’ll see you tomorrow,” Devon, one of the ushers in the wedding party, calls to me.
I throw back my final slug of bourbon and set the glass on the bar in the living room connected to Jake’s suite.
“Wait, dude, did you see this?” Dave asks. He turns his phone toward Jake. “The text from Todd, about how he can’t help us with the golf outing on Friday this week.”
“What? He was all about that,” Jake says and pulls his phone from his pocket. “You know what, he’s kind of pissed off Becca, never sent in an RSVP for the wedding.”
“It’s next Saturday,” Dave says.
“She was going to ask Torrey about it this weekend,” Jake says. He reads the text and slips the phone back into his pocket. “He’s a weird cat. You heard the thing?” He shakes his head.
I walk back to the poker table and pretend that I’m not listening to what they’re saying. I turn my back to them and grab another sandwich from the side table. I turn back with a turkey sandwich in my hand. “We’re playing golf on Friday?”
“Not anymore,” Dave says and throws two chips into the center of the table. “We were but this douchenozzle just bagged on the whole thing.”
“Who is said douchenozzle?” I ask.
“Todd, some guy Torrey dates,” Jake says.
A wad of turkey catches in my throat. I cough. Torrey? Torrey, as in the woman I just banged in a bathroom, Torrey?
“Dude, you okay?” Charlie asks. “Drink a fucking beer,” he says.
I take a long sip of water and swallow.
“Torrey? She’s the one with the—”
“Maid of honor. Had on the purple dress. Smart. Gorgeous.”
“And scary as hell,” Dave says.
All four guys laugh.
“Scary?” I ask. Suddenly not feeling so well. “How is she scary?”
“Well, not scary, I mean, she’s just”—Dave glances around the table—“what is she?”
“Not willing to put up with bullshit,” Jake says. “It’s not scary when it’s the right guy, it’s just I don’t think she’s ever found the right guy, and this dude, Todd, is definitely not him.” Jake glances at his cards and then up at me. “Can’t seem to keep his horse in the barn, you know what I mean?”
“Ah yes, I do,” I say. Hmmm…all this kind of puts an entirely different spin on what happened in the bathroom just a few hours before. Hmm…maybe I’m simply a bit of pay-back for Torrey’s boyfriend’s inability to be appropriately monogamous?
“Okay then, I’m off. Surf tomorrow? Anyone?”
I get the side-eye from everyone at the table, and I’m pretty certain they’ll be at this card game for a long while so probably no takers on getting up and surfing in the morning. I head out the door and toward my suite. The elevator doors open onto my floor and there, standing outside my door, is the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen.
Fuck me.
Doesn’t matter what anyone says ever. This woman is mine. From the moment she followed me into the men’s room, I’ve known. Put a fork in me, I’m done. Yes, I’m the right guy for her. She might not know it yet, but I do.
Torrey isn’t scary.
She’s sexy as fuck and she’s standing in front of the door to my suite in this tiny little slip of a halter dress with her gorgeous legs and full tits and her nipples pebbling beneath the fabric.
Heat roars through my body. More than simple desire. I’m a grown-ass man, I’ve experienced desire. No—this is a feeling that is deeper and more extreme. Like a fucking caveman, I have to possess this woman. Leave my mark on this hot creature standing outside my suite, so that no man on this planet ever makes the mistake of thinking that Torrey Bliss can be his.
“Who the fuck is Todd?” I ask. “And what does he mean to you?”
She gasps. Her eyes widen. She takes one step back. “I’m not fucking around with this,” I say. “I don’t know what the fuck happened, but the one thing I do know is that you’re meant to be mine. Not some douche named Todd who obviously doesn’t understand what a queen you are, okay? So let’s make this clear, you’re mine now. Aren’t you?”
She swallows. I see it in her eyes: a war. A war as to whether she can allow herself to surrender to me and what I want. She wants it too. She wants to be mine—she is mine. I put my arm around her waist and pull her against my body.
“You feel that? You feel my hard cock? That’s yours, just as much as you’re mine,” I whisper into her ear. The scent of her intoxicates me. “My cock is yours and this”—I press my hand up her thigh and stop at her panties, her hot wet panties—“is mine.”
I press my lips to her lips. I tug the patch of underwear to the side and slip my fingertip over her clit and press. Her mouth opens and a moan escapes.
My finger strokes her clit. I gaze into her eyes. She stares at me and her hips roll forward and back, pressing, seeking, needing the pleasure I can give her.
“Got it. No. More. Todd. He’s…he’s been gone for a while,” she whispers out.
“Good,” I say and lift her up. I love the weight of her body in my arms. My nose presses to her hair and I breathe in her lavender and lemon scent. This is so right. Heat pulses
through me. My cock hardens. Time to make certain that Torrey understands what I mean when I say that she’s mine.
Chapter 9
Torrey
I’m his. Not sure why I believe this, but it’s true. Insta-love? Is it real? Definitely wasn’t with Todd. This connection with Brett is heat and lust and physical and more. I know him. Like I’ve known him my entire life—even though I haven’t. And I’m chill about it. He told me that I’m his and in my core—as crazy as it sounds even to me—it’s true. I’m his. Or I will be, eventually, even tonight. What Brett says seems so definite that I know we’re going to end up together.
We enter the bedroom. I slide down his body and lay my hand flat against his chest. The thick muscles beneath his shirt flex beneath my hand.
Heat cascades through my body. My pussy is wet. Intense heat and want flickers in his eyes. This is the second time we’ve been together. At Teatro Del Sol I clawed and ripped and wanted and needed. A fierce lust to be wild and free.
This time we go slower.
He presses his lips to mine. A hot slow smooth kiss. My mouth opens. My tongue caresses his tongue. Tangling and touching. His fingertip skims my flesh. A trail of heat over my shoulder and to the tie of my halter dress. A swift tug and my dress falls away. The fabric skims over my body and drops to the floor. He hooks his fingers into the sides of my panties and pulls them down and over my legs.
He stands in front of me. I’m naked. His gaze razes my flesh. Heat crawls over my skin as though his stare leaves marks upon my flesh.
“You’re fucking perfect,” he breathes out.
I’m wet. My nipples hard and aching for his touch. Need for his huge throbbing cock clutches my sex. His nostrils flare as though he barely contains his desire. His pupils are wide and black with lust. “I want to split that pussy in two.”