In reality, she couldn’t lie to herself—the truth was he looked amazing. He’d filled out over the years, and he clearly worked out, his cut biceps straining against his T-shirt, his chest looking like it needed to be pressed up against. Yet again, nope. She could not go there. Never again with Will Montgomery. She’d sooner have a combination lobotomy, tooth extraction, and a hundred stitches with no painkillers than go mano a mano with that boy. But man... oh... man... he sure looked darned good.
Man, oh... whatever.
Chapter Four
It escaped Will why Elise was still clinging so desperately to that bizarre story she’d concocted all those years ago at prom. Why ever would any sane man give up someone like Elise for anyone, let alone that sad, lonely, unkempt Shannon Cadbury, who he liked as a friend and for whom he had a great deal of compassion, but zero interest in romantically, then or now. Hell, he didn’t even know what happened to her since everyone graduated and moved on with their lives.
Evidently for Elise, time had not healed old wounds, and she seemed hell-bent to inflict some of those wounds on him just for good measure. Just like old times. The good news was he wasn’t going to play those games anymore. Sure, he might have some fun toying with Elise because she was so damn dug in, but he refused to emotionally engage with this stuff ever again. Been there, done that, got sick of pounding his head against the wall. He wasn’t, however, sick of banging her up against the wall in the hayloft, but he figured that wasn’t going to be on the menu over the next several days. Shame, that.
He fondly remembered the two of them experimenting as young lovers learning their way around one another’s bodies. Boy, had her figure only improved with age. He tamped down the memory of him plastered up against her only hours earlier and wished that things could be different. Such a shame she held on to a grudge so damn long. Especially considering it was a wrong grudge to begin with! But he’d tried hard to persuade her of that back in high school and she refused to see the light. Oh well. Her loss. There were plenty of other fish to fry, and he’d spent the past few years gladly cookin’ ’em up. Even though he’d dearly love to sauté up something more enticing with her.
He decided to fuck with her some more.
“Will Montgomery, best man for the weekend’s festivities,” he said, extending his hand to shake hers. “Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
Elise grimaced, her eyebrows furrowed so far toward her nose she looked as if she might be in physical pain. Though he knew in her warped mind, he was her pain. At least she was cute when she was angry, resting bitch face and all. Well, not a resting bitch face, more like bitching bitch face. He nodded at her. “Aren’t you going to introduce yourself to me?”
She glared at him, still not proffering her hand.
Will glanced at the rest of the bridal party, who seemed to be enjoying their drinks based on how rapidly they were throwing them back. “Ladies.” He nodded at them.
“I’m Sammi Ferguson,” a little redhead said as she reached out not one but two hands, clasping his with hers and not letting go. It looked like she was staring at his dick. He rolled his eyes at her brazenness. Kids these days. “Hard to meet you.”
He cocked his head. “Hard to meet me?”
Her eyes grew wide, then she reached a hand in the air as if to erase something on an imaginary whiteboard. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I said that wrong. I meant to say ‘glad to meet you.’”
He lifted a brow and decided he didn’t want to pursue that anymore.
“Will! So great to see you!” Jennifer reached over and gave him a hug.
“Glad someone’s happy to see me,” he said, shaking his head.
“Honey, I’m more than happy to see you,” the redhead said, sizing him up from head to toe. Weird—he couldn’t help but feel she was mentally undressing him. On the one hand, this could make things super easy for him this weekend. On the other hand, this could make things super complicated for him this weekend. Red seemed ready and willing. But he knew he was being judged—even if it didn’t matter to him—by the same tall blonde he couldn’t help fantasizing about. One last go-round before the weekend was out would be perfect, but banging her fellow bridesmaid would not contribute toward that elusive goal.
Jennifer stuck a can of Going to the Sun IPA in his hand. “Here. Drink. Now.”
“If you weren’t getting married in a couple of days, I’d marry you,” he said, giving her cheek a gentle squeeze as he opened the can deftly with his other hand.
“Except that I’d have to kill you,” a nearby voice said. Will turned to see his best childhood friend Jamie walk up and kiss his bride-to-be.
Will held up his hands in surrender. “Trust me, I’d never step on your turf, dude. What’s yours is yours and what’s mine is—” He clenched his hand a little too tightly around his beer can as he noticed Elise chatting up some guy he vaguely recalled from high school who looked like he thought could get into her pants with ease. It made him slightly crazy to the point that he suddenly wanted to punch the guy.
“What’s yours is what?” Jamie said, scraping his sandy blond hair back from in front of his green eyes. His gaze fell where his friend was looking. “Aah... You mean what was yours isn’t yours?”
Will glared at him. “Not for lack of trying.”
Jennifer slung her arm over his shoulder. “The good news is that’s all in the past, and this weekend we’ll all be in the best of spirits and there will be no drama. Right?”
“Have you ever known drama to follow me anywhere?”
Jennifer pursed her lips and nodded toward her friend. “Only when it came to Elise. Good thing that is from another chapter long, long ago. Nothing to see here now. Move along.” She waved her hands as if shooing away a pest.
Will nodded as he took a hard slug of his beer. “Not one damn thing.” He cleared his throat. “Now who’s ready to party?”
WILL COULDN’T HELP but notice Elise wasn’t without a rapidly depleting drink in her hand over the next few hours. Nothing good was going to come of that. At some point, she was going to go from holding her liquor to spewing it, and that moment was gonna be ugly. All night long, he’d respected Jennifer and Jamie’s wishes and kept to himself, deliberately not interjecting himself into her business, or even trying to toy with her like he’d started to earlier in the evening. As much as that would have been his inclination, this was their weekend, and he needed to respect that.
But when he glanced over again, he saw that aggressive douchebag—what was his name? Tad, Tod, something like that? And wasn’t his nickname in high school Bird Dog because he was relentless in trying to sleep with as many girls as possible? He had cornered Elise and had started fondling her. That’s where Will drew the line. Elise was too drunk to be on the receiving end of the hard press from some asshole, and it was the gentlemanly thing to do to protect her from his unwanted advances. Well, he sure hoped they were unwanted, at any rate.
“I’m giving you a split second to remove your filthy fucking hands from her ass,” Will said as he reached for Elise’s hand and tugged her toward him.
The guy frowned at him. “Beat it, asshole. She’s mine.”
Will turned toward his former girlfriend, his brow lifted in question. But the unmistakable haze of alcohol intoxication was clouding her eyes and he knew she wasn’t in the right condition to defend herself against this dickhead. “No more chances. Get the fuck away from her, or you’ll regret it.” He gave his best snarl as he put his arms around Elise. He leaned his head toward her ear. “You okay?”
She nodded, forcing out a slurred sentence. “I can take care of myself, thanks.”
He rolled his eyes and pulled her the rest of the way from the Tad or Tod, the Bird Dog, who must’ve decided the shit-faced bridesmaid wasn’t worth the effort.
“C’mon,” Will said. “Let’s get you to bed.”
“With you? Fat chance.” Elise stuck out her tongue at him.
“Don’t tempt fate by y
our actions, sweetheart.”
“You should be so lucky.” Her breath smelled a little like a fraternity house on a Sunday morning.
“You’re not telling me anything I don’t already know. Now, come on. You’ll thank me in the morning.”
“No.” She folded her arms across her chest and thrust out her lower lip in a masterful toddler-tantrum pout. “I wanted to go home with what’s his name.” She aimed her thumb over her shoulder toward the bar, where she had been standing with what’s his name minutes earlier. “Besides, you don’t even know where I’m staying.”
“I’m not even going to dignify that foolish wish with a response. You’ve got two choices.” He held up his hands, first extending his pointer finger. “You can tell me where you’re staying, so I can take you back there before you get into trouble and live to regret it. Or”—he lifted his middle finger—“you’re coming back with me, where at least I know you’ll be safe.”
“Safe like Shannon Cadbury was with you?” He could barely hear it above the noise of the bar, but yeah, he still heard that snide swipe loud and clear.
He shook his head. “I’m not gonna let you push my buttons, Elise. I’m looking out for your safety because you’re in no condition to even recognize when your welfare is in question.” With that, he leaned forward and scooped her up into his arms, then slung her over his shoulder like a Costco-sized sack of dog food as he marched out of the bar, into the lobby, and punched the elevator button.
“You stupid ape, let me down!” Elise spluttered her half-hearted protest, but even that seemed slurred and unintelligible, so he chose to tune her out as the elevator door opened and he entered. She pounded her fists into his backside, which he tried to tell himself was just a little bit of kinky foreplay; otherwise, he might get annoyed enough with her to dump her out onto the curb in front of the hotel. But it had started to rain so she’d be especially displeased with that. Instead of letting her protests annoy him, he looked up to the mirrored elevator walls and took in the view of her luscious backside in the short white denim skirt she had on. Her legs were trying hard to kick him with her beat-up cowboy boots, but he had a firm grip on her so he could take in the scenery without skipping a beat.
He let out a loud whistle. She paused in her protestations.
“What was that for?”
“Oh, nothing much,” he said.
“If it was nothing, you wouldn’t have whistled. What is it?”
He shrugged. “Just taking in the sights is all.”
She tried to reach around him to see what he was looking at, but the elevator stopped and the door opened before she managed to twist herself up, which was fine by him. He knew she’d only flip out on him if she saw what he’d seen. He was already gonna catch holy hell from her for what he was about to do.
“Where are you taking me?”
“I told you, I was taking you out of the line of fire for a while.”
“I am so not going to your room and letting you take advantage of me.”
“Elise Jackson, you may not think much of me anymore, not that I have any control over your thoughts, but one thing I know you know is that I am not a man who would take advantage of a vulnerable woman.”
She muttered, “You sure did with Shannon Cadbury.”
Will took a deep breath and muttered a mantra under his breath. “I am not going to react. I am not going to react. I am not going to react.” He pulled out his room key and pressed it to the keypad, turned the handle, and kicked open the door.
“Quite frankly, now that I’ve gotten you away from that asshole Tad, or Tod, or whatever—and did you know he gave a couple of girls chlamydia our senior year?—I’m sure you’re going to be just fine. But if I were you, I’d take advantage of things and sleep it off right here. I’ll have the bottle of Advil at the ready for you come dawn when you’re hating yourself for the wicked-bad moral hangover I’m sure you’ll experience, not to mention feeling like you got run over in a cattle stampede.”
He plopped her down on the bed and helped her out of her boots, then pulled the covers over her, turned out the lights, and went into the bathroom to get ready for bed himself.
By the time he slipped out of his clothes and slid beneath the covers on the other side of the spacious king-size bed, she was snoring away. He turned his back to her, put a pillow over his ears, and inhaled deeply. Damn, there were times in his life when he’d have practically gotten off at the mere thought of spending a night in bed with Elise. Back in high school, their fooling around options were catch-as-catch-can, wherever they could steal a little uninterrupted time and space. After all these years, here she was, and here he was. But she was passed-out drunk and would wake with a bucketful of regret, no doubt ready to blame him.
The only fun thing was that he knew it would make her crazy tomorrow wondering if she actually did anything with him before she blacked out. And maybe, for the fun of it, he could keep her guessing.
Chapter Five
Elise woke with a start from a dream in which she was straddling her ex-boyfriend Will Montgomery in an elevator, of all places. Wherever that idea came from, her brain was too fogged to decipher. Her mouth was so parched it felt like the dust bowl from the Great Depression. And she had to pee so bad her molars were almost floating. She’d barely spent a minute in her room after check-in that morning, so the landscape of the place was kind of unfamiliar to her. She fumbled her way to the bathroom, filled a glass to the top and guzzled it down, then another, then peed. She spotted a bottle of Advil on the counter—Wow! She had the presence of mind to get that ready!—and knocked back three pills with another swig of water.
She was crazy hot, so she stripped off her shirt and skirt, unhooked her bra, and made her way back to the bed and slid beneath the top sheet. She was probably still drunk after all those shots and cosmos and margaritas she’d consumed.
Note to self: no more liquor for at least the next half a day.
She rolled to her other side, only to find herself making skin-to-skin contact with a man. What? Good Lord. Had she gone back to the room with that big burly cowboy she knew back in high school, the one who’d flirted with her all night? And if so, had she done anything? Impossible—she’d still had her clothes on, right? Unless they’d worked their way around them in the heat of passion or put them back on afterward. Her recollection of what had happened after the sixth cosmo was pretty much zero. But she knew this man felt warm and hard and damn, maybe she ought to make up for lost time in case she hadn’t done anything—if, God forbid, she’d come back and passed out when he was expecting her to be randier. Besides, she’d promised herself she was going to let it all go and have fun at this wedding. Work had been stressful, and frankly, coming back to Bristol had been too.
She wrapped her arms around him so that her breasts pressed up against his back, and her hands skimmed along his chest and abs. Hmmm... he had an amazing body. Broad shoulders, smooth chest, solid abs. And, oh, wow, her hands slid lower only to find there was no waistband beneath which she could slide her exploring fingers. Commando? Yowza. Well, if she was guilty of failure to launch last night, maybe it was time for a little middle-of-the-night romp. After all, she’d vowed to let loose this weekend: what better way than to do this?
Her hands moved lower, circling his sleeping cock as her lips pressed along his shoulders. She heard him groan softly in his sleep. He was going to need to do better than that. Slowly, she slid her hand along the rapidly hardening appendage, and like magic, it grew as she played with it. This was kinda fun, a sneak attack in a pitch-dark room—it was sort of mysterious.
She knew someone who’d dated Tad—oh crap, was it Tod?—back in high school, and she remembered hearing he had quite the libido. Perhaps it would be a good change of pace for her to throw a little caution to the wind. After all, she’d be out of here after the weekend. No need to worry about anything after the wedding was over. A little fun in her otherwise boring life, then back to DC to the job she didn’
t even like anymore, but that was something to worry about for another day. Right here, right now, she was going to seize the moment and not look back with regret.
She inched her way down the bed and shifted herself around, slipping completely beneath the blanket, half-rolling Tad/Ted/Tod toward his back as she planted kisses starting along his quite lovely hard ass, over his hips, half-kissing, half-licking a trail toward where her hands had been busy warming him up. When her mouth finally found his cock, she stroked her flattened tongue from base to tip and licked along the rim before taking the head into her mouth. God, she felt so subversive doing this, practically stranger sex, in the dark. It was so out of character, but it was kind of fun, a little sneaky even.
She leaned forward and situated herself, elbows planted on either side of his hips as her mouth slid down the length of his cock, engulfing it with her lips, her teeth, her tongue.
“Oh, fuck, Elise, don’t stop.” She heard the moans from above, somewhere beyond the blanket, which gave her a nice privacy barrier to keep on doing what she was doing. She slid one hand from the base upward, meeting her mouth as it slid back down. She could feel his hips start to grind, pumping himself toward her eager mouth.
“Oh, babe, I want you so badly.”
And she wanted it just as badly, if for no other reason than that she hadn’t had it for so damn long. Yet she kind of wanted to keep playing this anonymous sexy little game, cloaked beneath the cover of darkness.
She scooted over enough to give him room to settle behind her and position himself at her opening, already wet and ready.
“I want you to take me like this.”
She could hear the voice, still bleary with sleep but rapidly waking. “Are you sure about this?”
“Don’t give me a reason to reconsider.” She pressed herself up against him, and he complied.
He slid his cock along her slick center, circling several passes around her clit with the swollen head before finally pressing it to her opening. They both moaned as he slowly slid into her, and she gasped at the feel of his swollen cock as it filled her. She’d lost track of how long it had been since she’d had sex with a man—it had been at least a year since she’d stopped dating that boring guy Jim from accounting. And sex with him was so tedious that it hardly even counted. But it was like riding a bike, right? Surely she could go from rusty to orgasm in no time flat. He held still, balls deep inside of her and Elise bit her lip at the simmering pleasure, then reached down between her legs to rub herself. That’s all it took before the familiar tingling rose through her pelvis, splintering through her body as Tod/Tad/Ted thrust deep inside her and froze right there as he came apart, pulsing into her warm body as he collapsed on top of her.
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