The Wedding She Always Wanted

by Stacy Connelly

  “Do you?” Javy asked, pressing. “I did take money from your family. Although I promise you, I didn’t know where Connor got the money until recently.”

  Reaching out, she grasped his arm. “I believe you, Javy.”

  He was silent so long, Emily feared he didn’t believe her, but then the tension thrumming beneath his warm skin caught her attention. Her pulse began to race, until it matched the raw, rhythmic beat she felt in his veins. And every question she had about the strength of his attraction was answered.

  The desire dancing beneath his skin might not be anything new, but at least he felt it. At least she wasn’t alone in her desperation for another kiss, another touch…But wanting to make sure the matter of her family’s money was behind them once and for all, Emily huskily murmured, “What happened back then…none of it was your fault.”

  His mouth twisting into a wry smile, he warned, “Don’t be too sure about that.” Without giving Emily the chance to ask what he meant, he said, “Anyway, all I was trying to say is that I didn’t give Anna the price range of houses you’d be looking for. She assumed that you’d be looking in more…modest neighborhoods. I recognize some of these addresses, and they’re nowhere near where you grew up.”

  The idea of moving out had hit so suddenly, Emily hadn’t had time to give much thought to where she wanted to live. But the idea of a gated golf course community in Scottsdale, where her parents and her sister, Aileen, lived seemed ridiculous. What would she do with six bedrooms and seven thousand square feet, anyway?

  “Well, it’s not like I’m looking for a mansion. Just a house.” A place she could call her own. “This is my decision, and I don’t expect my parents to foot the bill.” Curiosity lifted Javy’s eyebrows, but after her overreaction, Emily realized he wasn’t going to ask. “I came into an inheritance from my grandmother when I turned twenty-five. I left most of the money invested in stocks and bonds, but I used some of it to back a friend’s boutique. She makes gorgeous fashion jewelry and accessories. She designed the purse I carried at the reception.

  “Anyway, I’ll be the first to admit I invested in the shop as a way to help a friend rather than expecting some big return, but a few years ago, this movie star fell in love with some of Cassie’s pieces, and she was photographed wearing some of the jewelry. From there, everything took off for Cassie. She’s opened a second shop in Tempe, and other boutiques are now carrying her designs. It’s been amazing.”

  “Thanks to you.”

  A glimmer of pride shone in his dark eyes—one Emily instantly tried to suppress. “Oh, no! It was all Cassie. I usually put in a few days during the week at her stores, but only to help out and see her latest designs.” She’d taken time off for the wedding and what would have been her honeymoon, but the rest of Cassie’s employees could easily cover for her. “I had nothing to do with it.”

  “You had faith in a friend. You were kind and generous, and you invested in her dream. I seriously doubt Cassie would say that was nothing. She’s lucky to have you.”

  Warmth spread through Emily at his words. She’d never thought of it that way, even though her friend had always given her credit for the part she played as half owner. She only wished she could find a way to convince Javy to believe in his dream.

  But he’d already refused her money, and despite his praise, Emily honestly wasn’t sure she had anything else to offer.

  As Javy drove to the first house, Emily poured over the listings his cousin had printed out. She bit her lower lip in focused concentration, which he might have found as amusing as he did arousing if he wasn’t worried she was setting herself up for disappointment.

  Stopping at a red light, he reached over and brushed a loose curl behind her ear. Her startled gaze flew to his. “Emily, I’m not sure how to say this, but I don’t want you getting your hopes up.”

  Her turquoise eyes widened. Her lips parted, but no sound emerged. “I’m not,” she insisted after that brief pause. “I won’t. Really. I don’t expect…anything.”

  “Good, and it’s not like you have to make your mind up tonight.”

  Emily blinked at him. “Okay.”

  “Anna’s a great agent, and she’ll take you out to look at as many houses as you want.”

  Emily breathed a soft laugh and shook her head. “Right. Anna. Houses.”

  “What?” Javy had to face forward again as the light turned green.

  “Nothing. I thought…Never mind what I thought. You’re right, though. I don’t have to make any decisions tonight.”

  “I know this is a big deal for you, and I just want you to be happy.”

  From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Emily’s smile—a little wry, but genuine all the same. “Believe me, I’m working on it.”

  Her enigmatic response stayed with Javy as he drove her from house to house. He knew finding her own place was one of the things Emily had decided would make her happy. But what else did she have in mind? And how did he fit in with her plans? He liked the idea of making Emily Wilson happy, but he wondered if he wasn’t too much like the places on Anna’s list.

  “It’s nice,” Emily said, cocking her head as she looked at what could only generously be called a fixer-upper. “But I don’t think it’s quite me.”

  No. By no means would he consider the boxy, forty-year-old ranch the embodiment of Emily Wilson. So far, none of the houses fit Emily’s style, class or seven-figure price range.

  And while he’d meant every word he’d said about her family’s wealth not mattering to him, he knew the differences between their lives would make any kind of lasting relationship impossible.

  Which was just as well, he insisted. Especially since he’d never done lasting and could barely call his frequent forays into the shallow end of the dating pool relationships.

  But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t do what he could to make Emily happy now, until she realized she belonged in a much more affluent zip code.

  “Ready to call it a night?” he asked as he pulled away from the house, leaving the overgrown lawn, sagging roof and listing for-sale sign in the rearview mirror.

  “But we haven’t seen all the houses yet,” Emily protested, poring over the list.

  “Is this what you were like in high school?” he asked, glancing at her from the corner of his eye. “Always following the teacher’s instructions to the letter?”

  “Well, yes,” she said, only to temper her defensive response with a laugh. “Pretty pathetic. Always worried about what other people think, right?”

  He’d said pretty much the same thing when he’d challenged her on the dance floor the night of Connor and Kelsey’s wedding. Now that he knew Emily better, he wished he hadn’t. “No, Emily, it’s not pathetic. You wanted to give your parents a reason to be proud of you, and you have. Plenty of reasons, actually.”

  Which was more than he could say.

  He could still see the disappointment in his father’s expression when he made the announcement that he wouldn’t be going to college. At eighteen, he’d felt like he’d spent years chained to a desk. He’d wanted to start his own life—a life that included marriage to the woman he loved.

  He and Stephanie had had it all planned. She had a friend in California, on the verge of making it big in movies, who was sure she could get both of them jobs—Stephanie doing walk-on parts and commercials, and Javy working on set designs and behind the scenes.

  He’d dropped that bombshell on his parents the night of his graduation, the same night he’d proposed with the simulated ring, which was the best he could afford. He’d gone in expecting a fight, and his father had certainly given him one. He could still remember, almost word for word, how the argument had spun out of control, starting with his father’s expected remarks that he and Stephanie were too young, too inexperienced, and building from there, until Javy had felt blindsided by the verbal shots.

  You’re selfish and irresponsible. How can you even think you’d be a good husband when you’ve neve
r stuck with anything in your whole life?

  He’d vehemently denied every accusation, but within weeks his father’s words had been proven true. Once his father got sick, Javy’s promises to Stephanie, along with his own dreams of love and marriage, fell to the wayside. He’d been unable to leave his family to pursue the plans they’d made, and he’d learned the hard way that Stephanie wasn’t willing to wait. Already in a Hollywood state of mind, she quickly found a stand-in to take his place, all without missing a beat.

  And then, as if that hadn’t been enough, the fire at the restaurant on his watch had burned his father’s disappointment into his soul.

  Changing the subject, he said, “Why don’t we get something to eat and save the rest of the list for another time?”

  “One more,” she pleaded. “This one is having an open house, so we can see inside.”

  Maybe the brief trip to the past had more of an effect than he’d expected, but for one surreal moment Emily’s words took on a new meaning as her casual use of the word we turned into something…not casual as the idea of the two of them looking for a place together swirled through his thoughts.

  He gave a mental shake, clearing the idea from his head. Emily hadn’t meant anything by that simple two-letter word. He had no reason for alarm, Javy determined, ready to take a calming breath, only to realize he wasn’t experiencing any of his typical panicked reactions. No sweaty palms, no choking sensation, no urge to jump from the speeding car just to escape.

  “I know this neighborhood,” Emily announced suddenly, distracting Javy, who was starting to freak out over how un-freaked out he was. “Kelsey’s condo isn’t far from here.”

  Emily leaned forward, straining against the seat belt, her excitement brimming as she looked around at the small, well-kept houses, the flower-lined lawns and the driveways crowned by basketball hoops. Javy followed the street numbers until they came to a row of townhomes.

  “Oh, look! They’re so cute!” she cried.

  She had her seat belt off and was out the door almost before Javy brought the car to a stop in front of a two-story unit marked with an open house sign and a bouquet of colorful balloons. Pale yellow shingle siding topped the redbrick lower level, and yellow-and-white-striped awnings shaded the front windows.

  “It’s like…like a gingerbread house!” she exclaimed.

  “That’s about the size of it,” Javy said beneath his breath as he circled the car to join Emily on the sidewalk.

  Even from the outside, and without glancing at the listing, still clutched in Emily’s hand, he could tell the place was tiny. But when Emily turned to him with her blue eyes sparkling and her gorgeous features more animated than he’d seen, any thoughts—negative or otherwise—disappeared.

  “I love it,” she said, wrapping her arms around her waist, as if trying to contain her excitement.

  Javy tossed aside any words of caution. He was here to support Emily on her quest for happiness, not to discourage her dreams. Either she would figure out for herself that the place was way too small or she would turn around and sell it in a year or two, when she started to miss the high-class amenities she could easily afford.

  He knew he’d made the right decision when Emily offered him a soul-stealing smile. Her expression turned more seductive than he’d ever seen, though a hint of shyness remained. “I think,” she began, only to stop and run her tongue over her bottom lip, “this is the part where I get to thank you in person.”

  Any protest Javy might have made dried up in his suddenly arid throat as Emily stepped closer. A part of him wanted to take credit. Not for showing her the house, but for the spark of feminine confidence in her eyes. He wanted to believe he touched something inside her no other man could. And even though he knew better, he was going to let himself revel in the foolish, potentially dangerous thought…just for a little while.

  His pulse pounded in anticipation. Every heartbeat urged him to pull her into his arms and claim her lips with his own, but Emily had accepted the challenge he’d issued, and this was her move.

  The control needed in the seconds leading up to the kiss was nothing compared to the tension building inside him as Emily slid a hand around his neck and pulled his head down to hers.

  The excitement and anticipation she’d shown at her first glimpse of the town house bubbled up inside her kiss and burst against his tongue. He’d never been one for champagne, never understood the popularity or the price, but he thought maybe the most expensive vintage would taste like Emily, and he suddenly understood paying a thousand dollars a pop.

  A brief thought about an addiction to the finer things in life crossed his mind, but he shoved it and every other thought aside to focus on nothing but the feel of Emily in his arms.

  Her shirt had inched up ever so slightly, just enough for him to feel her skin against his palms. He trailed his fingers from her smooth back to the curve of her waist and the faint indentation of her hips. He brushed his thumbs against the underside of her rib cage and absorbed the shudder that quaked through her entire body until he felt like he was the one shaking.

  She whispered his name against his lips as he drew in a much-needed breath, but the split-second window was all reality needed to sneak back in. Somewhere in the complex, a dog barked. A mother called her kids in for dinner, and the scent of barbecue drifted on a hot, dry breeze. Emily blinked up at him, as if waking from the sensual dream holding them captive, to find herself in the middle of a family-friendly neighborhood.

  She ducked her head to hide behind her blond hair and offered a half apology, half explanation. “I—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get, um, carried away. I was just so excited about the house…”

  “The house? Really? I thought maybe I had at least something to do with it.”

  Color burned brighter in her cheeks, and he knew she wasn’t ready for him to joke about the undeniable chemistry between them. And considering the number her fiancé had done on her, who could blame her?

  But he’d needed to lighten the mood, Javy realized, falling back on old habits to hide how deeply the kiss—and the woman—had affected him. Beating back the uneasy thought that the chemistry between them might be something more than fun and flirtation, he took a deep breath and tried to slow his raging pulse.

  Holding out his hand, he said, “Let’s go see this house of yours.”

  Chapter Six

  “I can’t believe I’m buying a house!” Emily had to raise her voice to be heard above the music and crazed fans watching the basketball play-offs in the crowded bar. When Javy had said he wanted to find someplace to eat, she hadn’t expected him to pick a sports bar, but the loud, boisterous atmosphere perfectly fit the emotions bouncing through her.

  Javy smiled at her from across the small high-top table. Leaning closer, he said, “Don’t get too far ahead of yourself. You still need to have the place inspected before you make an offer.”

  Don’t get too far ahead of yourself….

  The warning served a double purpose as she stared into his espresso eyes. Judging by the way she’d completely lost her head when she’d kissed him earlier, it would be all too easy to end up head over heels. And she could end up losing so much more than the house she had her heart set on. If she didn’t watch herself around Javy, she could end up losing her heart.

  Forcing her focus back onto the town house, she said, “I know, but you’ve already said the house was in good shape.”

  “From what I could see, yeah. But you need to let the professionals take a look.”

  Emily would trust what Javy had to say over some hired professional any day. Which showed she was already in too deep. She’d made the mistake of trusting Todd. Shouldn’t she have learned some kind of lesson from her broken engagement?

  And yet Javy was so different from Todd, so different from anyone she knew. Todd had cared only about what he wanted, and her parents had focused too much on what they wanted for her.

  Javy was the first person who had ever aske
d her what she wanted, and more than that, he actually listened. Which wasn’t to say he didn’t have his doubts.

  “Go ahead,” she told him with a wry smile. “You’ve kept quiet long enough. Let it all out. You think I’m rushing this, and you’re trying to find a way to tell me without hurting my feelings.”

  “Well, I’m glad you’ve picked up on what a sensitive guy I am,” he said with his usual grin before he shook his head, “but, nah, I’m not gonna say it.”

  “Why not? I know it’s what you’re thinking.”

  “Maybe,” he confessed. “But I’m also thinking you’re a grown woman who knows her own mind. I watched your face light up when you saw that house. Something tells me you haven’t been so excited about something for a long time.” Leaning forward, his fingers traced from her forehead to her ear as he brushed a locked of hair away from her face. “It’s a bit of a challenge, you know?”

  Eyes widening, she asked, “What is?”

  “Trying to figure out what I can do to make you light up like that when you see me.”

  Feeling her face heat up, Emily bet she was putting the neon beer signs to shame. “I don’t think I’m much of a challenge.”

  She was a novice and Javy was the expert when it came to flirting, dating, making love…She didn’t stand a chance, and if she were smart, she’d run in the opposite direction. But she sat frozen, caught in the spell he wove with his voice, his touch, the slumberous burn in his dark eyes. When Emily finally found the strength to move, she didn’t pull away. Instead, she leaned forward, melting into the heat of his hand.

  “Javy…” Her stuck-in-the-throat whisper was barely audible over the cheers of the crowd and the loud music, but Emily heard another female voice, clear as day, calling out his name.

  Startled, she turned in time to see a gorgeous brunette weaving her way in time with the music through tables and chairs and groups of people to reach Javy’s side. The woman turned more than a few heads as she brushed by several guys, most of whom did double takes at her thick mane of chestnut hair, wide smile and feminine curves, readily displayed by a lollipop-red tank top and denim skirt.