by Nalini Singh
David was just taking his seat beside her, Thea on his other side, his mother beside Thea. Then came the two empty seats for Molly and Fox, with Vicente, Kit and Noah, Charlotte and Gabriel on the other side.
“Hey. Stop ignoring your official wedding escort.” Abe put his hand on her knee.
Sarah couldn’t take his teasing anymore; she kicked him under the table.
He nudged his hand an inch higher in punishment. And Sarah saw red. Hoping nothing showed on her face, she used the fact that David was distracted by something Thea was saying to reach across and run her hand over Abe’s cock.
Once, just once.
It was enough.
“Fuck.” He ducked his head to hide the curse word… then finally removed his hand from her knee.
And she missed the warmth, the contact. Him.
“That was mean.” He spoke against her ear. To anyone watching, it would appear as if he was just leaning in so they could speak without disturbing their neighbors.
“You started it,” she said, turning his earlier words back on him while trying to convince herself she’d made the right call.
He stretched one arm out along the back of her seat. “You’re having fun, admit it.”
“No.”
He tickled the back of her neck, well aware it was—weirdly—the most ticklish spot on her body.
“Abe.” Her voice came out strangled, and then she was laughing as she tried to tug away his hand without making a big deal of it.
Abe grinned, so gorgeous and sexy that she just wanted to kiss him.
“What’s so funny?” David’s question came right as Abe stopped teasing her in favor of simply bracing his arm on the back of her seat, his muscled strength brushing her back.
“Just checking if Sarah’s still ticklish.”
Sarah kicked him again as David’s lips curved into a deep smile. “I’m going to kill you,” she muttered to Abe.
His eyes glinted wicked promises at her.
Her breath caught, her face flushed. It was just as well that Charlotte said, “Time,” from the other side of the table right then.
The wedding party stood as one. There was no need to make an announcement. The guests followed their lead, all eyes going to the entrance of the pavilion… just as the air filled with the gritty sound of the hard rock love song Fox had written for Molly. The lead singer and his bride didn’t walk in. They danced in, Molly in Fox’s arms as he spun her around, then caught her back against his chest before they laughingly danced the rest of the way in with their hands linked.
“Rock it!” Abe pumped his fist in the air as the other band members and guests hollered and clapped.
Sarah’s palms stung, she was clapping so hard; her smile threatened to crack her face. This wedding was unlike any other she’d ever attended, and she loved it. When Fox’s love song ended to be immediately followed by a classic rock song by a husky-voiced female singer, the couple waved the wedding party over.
Sarah wasn’t usually comfortable under any kind of spotlight, but today she didn’t hesitate; she went with Abe and they danced. She didn’t even try to fight the sheer joy she got being in Abe’s arms, his body moving against hers.
There’d be plenty of time for that later.
The speeches that followed the first round of dancing were short and funny and wicked.
Noah told a story about finding the newlyweds lip-locked in Fox’s Lamborghini that had everyone laughing as Molly blushed and Fox kissed her cheek, his arm hooked around her neck. Then it was Charlotte’s turn: the petite blonde’s words were sweet and so emotional that they had everyone blinking back tears. Molly rose to hug her best friend, the love that existed between these two sisters of the heart out there for the world to see.
Vicente was the last to speak, his speech that of a proud father on his daughter’s wedding day and his hand resting on Molly’s shoulder. He also made it a point to say how proud he was of Fox too, how much it meant to him to be at the wedding of the “honorable, strong, and talented” man he’d watched grow to adulthood beside his own son.
Fox exchanged a powerful hug with the older man afterward, his eyes raw.
Then the music started up again and everyone was invited to party.
It was the least elegant and most fun wedding reception Sarah had ever attended, and that included her own. She ended up kicking off her heels partway through, dancing until her breath was ragged and her blood pumping. Those dances were almost always with Abe. The only other men to whom he’d relinquish her were Noah, David, Fox, or Vicente, and David’s younger brothers.
It was scary how much she didn’t mind his possessiveness. Fantasy, she reminded herself. It’s just a few hours of fantasy.
When she ended up with Noah just as the pulsing beat segued into a slower song, she didn’t know quite what to say or where to look, but the blond guitarist didn’t push her on the topic of her and Abe.
He just said, “It’s good to see you again, Sarah. Give Abe hell, eh?”
The comment startled her into a smile. “Will do,” she said, and it wasn’t until thirty seconds later that she realized the import of Noah’s words and her response: he’d assumed she and Abe had a thing going, and caught in the fantasy, she hadn’t exactly denied it.
Careful, Sarah, she warned herself, but when Abe came to reclaim her, she didn’t resist. Nothing could happen here with so many people around them. His heart beat steady and deep beneath her ear, his body so warm and strong.
Always, she’d felt safe in Abe’s arms.
She’d never slept well when he was on tour, had counted off the days and hours until he’d be home again… until he’d hold her again as he was doing tonight.
The party went from afternoon to night, as befit a hard rock wedding. Sometime after true dark, Abe bent his head to her ear and whispered, “Put your shoes back on,” in a tone that made her skin go hot, her breasts seeming to swell beneath her dress. She knew she should end this here and now, but oh, how she’d missed him.
Just one night.
She found her shoes, slipped her feet into them, and didn’t resist when Abe took her hand and led her out of the pavilion, his goal the black SUV parked a short distance away. “My car.” She tugged at his hand to pull him back. “I don’t want to leave it here.” Where it’d be discovered the next morning, this fantasy night laid bare to the world.
Eyes hot, Abe kissed her wet and deep as his demanding cock pushed into her belly. “We’ll come back for it,” he promised. “After.”
Sarah’s panties were so wet by then that she didn’t argue or resist when he tugged her toward his SUV once again. They drove to his place in molten silence. In LA terms, it wasn’t too far from Fox and Molly’s home, but it was far enough that it felt as if her body would burn up if she didn’t have Abe’s naked flesh against hers, in her, then and there.
Whimpering when he screeched to a stop in his garage, she drank in his harshly spoken, “Sarah,” and got her seat belt off just in time.
He came around to her side of the SUV as the garage door closed, hauled her out. Pressing her up against the side of the vehicle, he kissed her with such raw passion that she felt branded. Owned. She bit his lip, shoved at his suit jacket. Shrugging it off, he ripped off his tie while she frantically unbuttoned his shirt.
He literally tore the sleeves open, his cuff links making tinkling sounds as they hit the concrete of the garage floor. And then he was pulling off his shirt, sending the remaining buttons flying, and she couldn’t stop from spreading her hands on the mahogany-hued beauty of his chest, leaning in to taste him kiss by openmouthed kiss.
He shuddered, thrust his hand into her hair.
Sarah’s hand flew up. “My fascinator!”
Abe, his chest heaving, gave her a burning look… then smiled. “Come on.” Gripping her hand again, he drew her into the house and up to what had once been their bedroom.
Memories crashed into her, painful and beautiful and heartbreaking
.
“Wait.”
Abe didn’t ask why she’d stopped in the doorway, digging her heels in. He knew. Eyes locking with hers, he said, “I’ve never brought any other woman here. Just you.”
God, this was so dangerous.
But she let him pull her closer, shivered when he kissed the side of her neck; she’d barely begun to process those sensations when he spun her around to kiss her mouth.
Sarah didn’t have the time—didn’t want it—to think about the past. Not tonight.
“This first,” he murmured after their lips parted in a whisper of damp heat.
Lifting his hands to her fascinator while she stroked the warm, smooth skin of his chest, he removed the bobby pins that held it in place, then put it carefully on the nearby dresser. Spinning her around so quickly afterward that she wobbled, might’ve lost her balance had she not left her heels in the SUV, he unzipped her dress. “Don’t want this wrinkled.”
A kiss to her shoulder.
Shivering again, Sarah let the dress fall off her body, stepped out. Behind her, Abe picked it up and threw it over the back of a chair. “There,” he murmured, his hands hot and a little rough on her hips. “Now you don’t have to worry.”
A second tender kiss to the curve of her neck. She’d been hot, wet, ready for a wild session, but this was different, the night changing in front of her. Panicked, she shifted to face him, pressing her body against his in a silent invitation. His erection made it clear he was as ready as she was, but he didn’t take her invitation, didn’t push her down on the bed or against a wall and thrust inside her.
“Now, Abe,” she demanded, dropping her hands to his belt buckle.
“What’s the rush?” He lifted those hands back up to his chest, placed his own hands on her waist. “You are so fucking beautiful, Sarah.” Kisses along her jaw, down the line of her neck. “Let me worship you.”
Panic twined with need, with memory, and it was hard to think, hard to breathe. “Kiss me.” She needed an anchor, needed him.
His kiss was deep and slow and as possessive as the hand he placed boldly over her breast. Shivering, she took and took, drinking him up. His breathing was harsh by the time they separated, his eyes glittering, but still he didn’t strip her naked, finish it. Falling onto his knees in front of her instead, he leaned forward to press a kiss to the black lace of her panties.
“Abe.” Her hand on the back of his head, her knees shaky.
“Shh, I have you.” Kissing a line along the waistband of her panties, he held her up with one arm around her upper thighs. A lick of his tongue over her hipbone that made her moan. Then, at last, he was shifting his arm and tugging down her panties and she was stepping out of them because she couldn’t resist Abe when he was being so tender.
Throwing the crumpled lace aside, he clamped his arm around the back of her upper thighs once more and kissed her again. Only this time it was on her bare flesh. Sarah cried out as her knees threatened to crumple. Her hands fell forward onto Abe’s shoulders, his body the only solid point in her universe.
“I have you,” he said again, his breath hot against her flesh.
Then he did what he’d said: he worshipped her.
Rocked by pleasure over and over again, Sarah felt boneless, liquid, when he rose to scoop her up in his arms. Laying her down gently on the bed, he first got rid of her bra. Then, keeping his eyes on her the entire time, he stripped down to the skin. Taking the thick length of his rigid cock in one fist, he stroked once, twice, his jaw clenched.
Sarah’s back arched, her lower body rising up toward him in a silent plea.
“I can see you,” he ground out. “So fucking wet for me.”
When he grabbed a condom from the bedside drawer, rolled it on, she wanted to protest. He was her husband— But no, he wasn’t. Not anymore. He was her lover for this one fantasy night and tomorrow… Tomorrow she’d think about tomorrow.
She lifted her arms and he came over her, nudging her thighs apart to push into her in a deep thrust that made her want to cry out except that the pleasure was too much, robbed her of sound. Her sense of completion was absolute, her arms wrapping around Abe to hold him close. He didn’t move hard or fast despite the fact he was viciously aroused. He took it slow, each stroke accompanied by a kiss, more than one, their bodies sliding skin to skin all over.
She kissed his shoulders, the curve of his neck, anything she could reach. She had missed him so much. Always she’d missed this man who’d once been her husband, but even more since the emotional, passionate hours they’d shared three weeks earlier.
Tears stung her eyes.
Abe spoke against her ear, the rumble of his voice cascading a thousand memories over her. “I haven’t been with anyone else since that day in your kitchen.” He drew back, thrust impossibly deeper. “You’re in my blood, Sarah.”
Nails digging into his back, she locked her mouth to his. She couldn’t listen to his words, couldn’t start rebuilding dreams that had splintered forever. This was a night out of time. After it ended, she had to put herself back together and figure out how to get over Abe Bellamy all over again.
CHAPTER 14
SARAH FELT LIKE A FALLEN woman—a deliciously used fallen woman—when they drove through the gates of Fox and Molly’s home around four thirty in the morning. They’d planned to come back much earlier but had fallen asleep in each other’s arms in the aftermath of a pleasure that had melted her bones and twisted up her heart, would’ve probably slept through to dawn if Sarah’s phone hadn’t suddenly beeped with a low-battery warning that nudged them awake.
Thank goodness Abe had the code to let himself in, because aside from Sarah’s car, Gabriel and Charlotte’s rental was the only vehicle in the drive, the house quiet, lights all off.
The pavilion hadn’t yet been taken down, but it was closed up tight for the night.
“We are so busted,” she groaned. Someone would’ve noticed her car sitting out here pretty much all by its lonesome, would’ve looked for her, not found her. It wouldn’t take a genius to put together one and one to add up to a sinfully sexy two.
“Everyone will have been too buzzed to care,” Abe reassured her before coming around to help her down from her seat, his SUV high enough that it had a step built in. “They probably figured you crashed here.”
He tapped her ass once she had both feet firmly on the ground. “Go get into your car, drive home. I’ll follow.”
She knew that by “home” he meant his place, but the cold night air finally succeeded in slapping some sense into her. “I think I better go to my place.”
“Sarah,” Abe began, his eyebrows drawing together.
“I have a meeting in the morning.” She opened the driver’s door, threw her clutch onto the seat on the other side. “I need to be up and ready for it.” The meeting wasn’t until eleven, but Abe didn’t need to know that.
Her ex-husband slid his hand around the back of her neck, his hold warm and proprietary. “I’m not letting you go.” It was a whispered promise. “Not this time.”
Sarah shook her head, forced herself to speak. “I’m not yours to keep or let go.” A piercing sense of loss tore through her as she broke away from him to get into her car. She and this talented man, they were so good together when they worked, but when they crashed and burned… “I barely survived our last round together, Abe.”
Her door still open, she looked up from the driver’s seat, met his gaze. “I don’t know if I have the strength to go there again.”
Abe braced one hand against the edge of the car’s frame, bent down. “You’re the strongest woman I know.” His dark eyes held her captive, the look in them beyond passion.
Pure raw emotion.
“And,” he said, “I’m not that asshole, the one who hurt you. I won’t ever let myself become that man again.”
Sarah wanted to believe him. She’d loved Abe so desperately and the place in her heart where he’d lived remained a jagged wound, but she’d
been through too much to believe in rainbows and puppies and happily-ever-afters for herself. For the girl who’d gotten off a bus all alone in this huge city, then found herself alone again less than two years after she fell into the arms of this man to whom she’d given all of herself.
Blinking rapidly in an effort to stave off the torrent of sorrow that wanted to pour out of her, she swallowed, managed to form words. “I better go.”
Abe let her shut her door and pull away, but when she looked in the rearview mirror, he was still there, watching as she drove off: a big, strong, and deeply talented man who still meant more to her than anyone else ever had… and who she couldn’t let back in, not if she was to survive.
No matter if it felt like she was making a terrible mistake.
CHAPTER 15
THREE DAYS AFTER A NIGHT that haunted her dreams, Sarah watched Flossie bound into the house. She’d just picked her pet up from a dog sitter—Flossie loved socializing with other dogs and Sarah didn’t like to leave her alone when she was going to be gone all day.
She’d spent today with her accountant. They’d been working out if she could expand without it having an adverse impact on her compact but currently extremely high-performing business. It had been good to get out, to have business to focus on, think about. It kept her from going over and over what had happened at the wedding, how it had felt when Abe was so tender with her.
Her phone beeped an incoming message.
One glance at it and her lips curved. It was Lola, asking if Sarah wanted to go with her to a play. It’s months away, but I need to get tickets before they sell out, so yea or nay now or forever hold your peace, the other woman had written. Best news: Dad’s well enough that I should be home in a week—though I have organized some home help for him and Mom. Over their objections, I might add. Two more stubborn people you’ll never meet.
Sarah’s smile grew deeper—Lola had inherited that trait in spades.
Kiddo blew off college to come hang with his grandpa and grandma for a few days, her friend had added. That really perked everyone up. Can’t even read him the riot act now, though I am booting his ass back to college tomorrow. Anyway, I didn’t want to interrupt your work day with a call, so ring me when you get home.