Not that Mom was shy when it came to hiding her feelings from me. She only cared about what everyone else thought of her. She was insistent on being here for as little time as possible, and made it clear to me that she didn’t agree with my decision to marry Darcy. I was used to that, though, because there wasn’t much my mother did agree with about my life choices.
“God, Lennon, it’s about time,” Mom frowns. “We’ve been sitting here for hours, waiting for you. If you were going to be late, you should’ve called us.”
“You could’ve caught a cab,” I frown, not sure this is entirely my fault, and I wonder if she didn’t, so she’d have something to whine about. Her eyes widen in shock. You’d think I’d just suggested she hitchhike naked to the resort.
“A cab?” she gasps. “Why offer to pick us up in the first place if you weren’t going to honor your commitment.”
“I didn’t offer,” I point out. “You asked. Or more accurately, you assumed. Demanded. Insisted. And it’s a cab I’ve come to collect you in, anyway—”
“Oh, so this is my fault for thinking my only son might want to pick his parents up from the airport, after they flew halfway across the world to attend some slapstick wedding he threw together in five minutes.”
That hurt, but I roll my eyes and do my best to tune her out, because if I listen to her shit for much longer, I’m going to do or say something I’m going to regret. While Mom frowns at me, I take a handful of their luggage off Dad and lead them out to the cab, not bothering to turn back to check whether they’re following me or not.
The drive back to the hotel is quiet. None of us say a word, but I’m good with that, and to tune out the silence, I listen to the radio. After they check-in and she has the porter take their luggage to the room, I lead them to the restaurant, where I’d made a booking for lunch. My mother had insisted on trying out the food before the wedding reception, and I’m bracing myself since I know she’ll criticize it. Nothing ever seems good enough, and she loves to make sure everyone knows it—especially me.
“How… quaint,” she says, looking around and frowning as we walk through the entrance. I swear, she clutches her purse a little tighter as she passes someone she clearly deems to be unsavory. I groan, just about at breaking point with her foul attitude.
“It wouldn’t hurt you to smile and be pleasant for a change,” I say when she scowls at the maître d’ showing us to our table. I grit my teeth for the umpteenth time. I’ve had enough of her already, and she’s only been here an hour. Well, a little longer if you count the time I made her wait at the airport.
My father chuckles at my comment, and she cuts him down with a glare. I squeeze my eyes closed and take a deep breath, trying to calm myself. This is going to be painful. I’d wanted Darcy to join us for lunch, but my mother insisted on it just being the three of us. She hadn’t seen her little boy for so long, and all that bullshit.
Lunch drags on, but it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. I’d never admit it to her, but I’m having a good time in their company. Mom has relaxed, and even Dad is managing to have a conversation with me. It’s been so long, I’d almost forgotten what his voice sounded like, and I don’t know how things got so bad between him and me.
Maybe it was simply both of us having to put up with Mom’s crap over the years, but if anything, you’d think that would’ve made us closer. I think, in some ways, I resented him for not standing up for me… and himself. He always took her side over everything, which I understand now. After all, he was the one who had to live with her.
A group of girls pass our table, giggling and pointing at me. I frown and wonder why. It’s not the first time since we’ve been in here, and up until now I’ve dismissed it, but this kind of attention from girls isn’t something I’m used to. This feels different, and I’m starting to feel uncomfortable, like they know something I don’t. One of the girls plucks up the courage to walk over to me. She stands in front of me, giggling and flashing looks back at her friends.
“Hello. Can I help you?” I say, raising my eyebrows.
“Sorry, I didn’t recognize you at first with your clothes on,” she giggles.
“Excuse me?” I growl.
I wait for her to elaborate, but she just giggles again and runs off with her friends. I look down at the table, purposely avoiding the glare of my mother. Why didn’t we just elope? Neither of us were into the big wedding thing. I could’ve avoided all of this and taken her somewhere tropical, just the two of us.
“Lennon?” Mom presses, her eyes wide. “Is there something we should know?” and she says it like every step of the way, I’ve fucked up my life. Situation normal.
“It’s fine, Mom,” I sigh. I just wish I could remember what the fuck happened.
What the hell did I do last night?
***
“Greg, Jill,” I say, nodding at Darcy’s parents. I avoid meeting Greg’s gaze because I’m terrified he has something on me from the bachelor party. “These are my folks, Peter and Lucille.”
“Nice to meet you both,” Jill says, warmly. She clasps her hands around Mom’s and smiles. “You must be so proud. Lennon is a wonderful boy.”
Mom smiles wryly. “He was, he had so much potential until…” Her voice trails off and I shake my head in disbelief at her incredible insensitivity toward me, especially when meeting Darcy’s parents for the first time.
“Until I gave up your dream for me, to teach instead? Or, until I met their daughter?” I reply to Mom, raising my eyebrows. I turn to Jill and frown. “Please, excuse my mother. She can be rude, and she often says things without thinking,” I explain. I turn back to Mom and give her a pointed stare. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to find my bride and spend some time with her while you all get acquainted. I trust you’ll be fine here with Darcy’s parents?” Mom smiles so tightly, I’m afraid her face is going to crack. If I wasn’t so annoyed, I’d be amused.
“Of course, we will,” Dad says, sliding his arm around Mom’s waist. She tries to push him away, but he tightens his grip. “Go and have fun. Say hi to Darcy from us.”
I leave my parents with Greg and Jill, and go in search of her. Darcy’s father hadn’t given me any reason to think I’d done something wrong, even when I worked up the courage at the end of the conversation to look him in the eye. Surely, if I had, he’d be ripping me to shreds? Still, the odd looks keep coming, and it’s driving me crazy.
What the hell did that girl mean when she said she didn’t recognize me with my clothes on? And if something had happened, why didn’t Greg say anything? I rub my forehead, unable to shake the sinking feeling in my stomach. Fuck Rick and his juvenile mission to get me drunk. He got me into this mess, so now he’s going to fix it.
***
I’ve searched all over the hotel for Darcy with no luck, so I decide to find Rick instead, and it wasn’t hard. He’s still passed out in my room.
“Get up,” I growl, shoving him with my boot.
“Wh-what,” he says, rolling out of the bed, and he’s much more awake than I’d expected. In fact, he’s fully dressed and holding a phone I don’t recognize.
“What have you got there?” I ask, my mind suspicious, and he tosses it in my direction.
“See for yourself,” he grins. “You wanted answers, and I got them for you, my friend. Sorry, I was having a little power nap here. This detective shit is tiring,” he adds, sitting up. He stretches his arms out and yawns as I sit down on the edge of the bed. I stare at the phone, still not sure what it’s supposed to be telling me.
“Whose phone is this, Rick?”
“Well, it turns out I felt the need to supply Cindy with a running commentary of our whole night out together. You want a recap of what happened?” he asks. “There it is.”
“Right. But why do you have her phone?” I ask. I run through the texts, one by one, feeling better by the second. “If you sent her all this shit, then it must be in your phone too.”
“True,”
he grins. “But then I wouldn’t have an excuse to find out more about Cindy.”
“Dude,” I groan. “Please don’t go there. She’s Darcy’s friend, and I know you. You’ll mess her up and break her heart, then leave us to deal with the aftermath. I don’t want to get involved with that.”
“What?” Rick protests innocently. “You do something once, and suddenly you’ve got a bad reputation? I’m a changed man, I promise.”
I groan and lay back on the bed with relief at what I just read. I feel a hell of a lot better having read through Rick’s texts to her phone since it’s all just innocent banter. Seems we got drunk and Rick dared me to do a lap of the hotel, naked. Which, clearly, I did. No wonder I was getting funny looks all day. I’d normally be worried about what Greg would think about my little stunt, but from the photos, he looks like he couldn’t have cared less.
“See? It was all just a bit of harmless fun,” Rick says with a shrug. “Now, what are we doing tonight? Drinking, strip club, or poker. Your call, man.”
I roll my eyes at him. “How about we attend the rehearsal dinner instead? You know, for the wedding we’re here for in the first place, remember? My wedding, hmm?” I say.
“Well, shit,” he says. “I have to go to that too? I thought that was just for you, Darcy and the bride and groom’s parents.”
“You’re one of my groomsmen and, so far, the only one here, so you’re not getting out of this, dude,” I say, grinning.
“Fine, fine, I’ll do it,” he says begrudgingly. “Hey, that means Cindy will be there, won’t she?” he asks, his face lighting up like a kid on Christmas Day.
“Yeah, she will. How come you’re so suddenly interested in Cindy, Rick?”
“What?” he asks innocently. “Oh, I have to return her phone to her, don’t I?” he says as he saunters into the bathroom. I breathe a heavy sigh. Rick can be such hard work, sometimes.
I reach for my phone and text Darcy to ask her to meet me downstairs. When I walk into the lobby, I’m surprised to find her already there, standing in a darkened corner by a window. She’s the first thing I see. Dressed in a short, black dress that hugs each one of her sexy curves and holding a small clutch purse. She’s away from the bright lights of the lobby, and she doesn’t even know it, but she’s the center of attention. Her long, dark hair hangs loosely around her shoulders, and those legs—God, they seem to go on forever.
I notice I’m not the only one staring, either. They can stare all they want, because she’s all mine. She turns around and sees me, and her smile lights up the room. I walk over and wrap my arms around her waist, pulling her in close to me for a kiss. I don’t care that we’re on show in the hotel lobby, and when my lips touch hers, it’s electric.
“You,” I whisper, “look fucking amazing.”
She giggles, her cheeks flushed as she slaps my hand away from her ass.
“Not here,” she laughs, ducking out of my embrace. “And not now or we’ll be late. We have to be there in ten minutes. What’s gotten into you?”
“We maybe a little late,” I nod, “Because the question isn’t what’s gotten into me, it’s what’s going to be getting into you.”
“What do you mean?” she giggles, almost in hysterics. “What is going to be getting into me?” she says, biting her lip. So, fucking, sexy. She knows exactly what I mean, but her sweet, butter-wouldn’t-melt, coyness just makes me want her even more.
“Me,” I growl, as I take her by the hand and lead her out of view of the Reception desk and toward the door to an empty meeting room. “Come with me,” I order.
“Ooh, so masterful,” she coos, wiggling her eyebrows. She follows me inside the dark room and I quietly close the door behind us. Thank God, we’re alone, because I’m about to take her. Right here, right now.
I pull her closer, lowering the zipper on her dress, kissing her gently on the neck as my hands roam her perfect body. I push her back against the wall, and trail my hands under her dress, pushing her panties over her hips and down her thighs. She wiggles once, and they fall to the floor where she kicks them away with one flick. My fingers find her warm pussy and stroke her wet lips. She gasps as I kiss her roughly, my lips working their way down to her breasts, exposing her pert nipples as the dress falls away.
“God, I’ve missed you,” she says, raking her hands through my hair. I kiss her, tasting her lips on mine as my tongue caresses hers.
“I’ve missed you too,” I mumble as she unfastens my pants and they follow the dress on the floor.
I’m so hard, and as her fingers close around my erection, it grows even harder. She wraps one arm around my neck, gasping as my slick fingers rub her clit in slow circles.
“Wait,” she says, suddenly.
“What is it?”
“Honey, don’t be mad, but as much as I want this, and I do, I can’t go to the rehearsal dinner with your, you know… inside me. I’m meeting your parents for the first time for one thing, and one laugh, or one sneeze, and the game’s up… down there, if you know what I mean?”
I have to stifle my laugh, so I don’t attract any attention to us, then I reach inside my shirt pocket and retrieve the condom I’ve brought with me… just in case of a situation such as this.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart. Your boy came prepared,” I say with a grin, mimicking her words in the car when she picked me up at the airport. She slaps my arm and giggles as I place the foil wrapper between my teeth and rip it open, then takes it from me and rolls it expertly onto my length.
She throws her arms around my neck and I grab her ass with both hands, lifting her onto my throbbing cock. I thrust myself inside her wet pussy as she wraps her long legs around my waist.
“Fuck, yes,” she hisses as I enter her, and bites my ear lobe.
I let out a growl and kiss her roughly, animalistic, nibbling her lower lip, craving more of her, but I can never get enough of her love. She’s irresistible. I groan, feeling her contract around my dick as her fingers rake through my hair. Her lips never leave mine as she rocks against the rhythm of my cock, her stiff nipples grazing against my chest with every movement.
“Ooh, honey, I’m gonna come. I’m gonna come,” she whispers. I grab her ass even tighter, pulling her hard against me as I slide in and out of her. She moans, her legs trembling and locking around me as her orgasm hits. She pants, her body spasming, sending me into my own glorious climax. Growling and grunting, my legs grow weak as I thrust hard and fast inside her. I’m spent, my body is shaking, and breathless, I gently lower her back to her feet.
“I love you, Darcy,” I say and kiss her with the overwhelming passion I feel for her inside.
“I love you, too,” she whispers and, gasping for air, we look into each other’s eyes in the dim light. I can’t wipe the smile off my face, and neither can she. We dress quickly, then quietly exit our makeshift love nest separately. I head for the men’s room to dispose of the evidence of our lusty encounter and wash up, and she makes a restroom stop to freshen up. When she emerges, I’m amazed that her hair looks straight, and her lipstick and makeup is perfect once more. She turns to me, her eyes wide, and an expression on her face that makes me want to ravage her again.
“Do I look like I’ve just been fucked?” she whispers.
“Your cheeks are a little flushed, but no, no one could tell,” I murmur, trying to control a semi-wood trying to get out of my pants.
“Good,” she says, “Now, we really are late. Let’s go.” She turns on her heels and walks out of the room, with me close behind her. I slap her on the ass, making her jump. She turns around, narrowing her eyes at me, and I chuckle. Serves her right for being so fucking hot.
***
We sneak into the rehearsal hall a few minutes late, and luckily, no one seems to have missed us. Our parents are sat together, chatting and barely give us a wave, though I find that a little unnerving considering we’re the bride and groom. The only person who looks remotely suspicious about our tardy arrival is Ci
ndy, but she lives for this kind of stuff, anyway. We sit down next to her at the head table and she leans over and glares inquisitively at Darcy.
“Where have you two been?” she asks, frowning.
“Sorry, Cindy. I had something urgent to take care of with Darcy,” I whisper across to her.
Cindy grins and gives her friend a healthy nudge.
“I’ll bet you did,” she teases. “Was that thing big, hard and in your pants?” She giggles uncontrollably and slaps Darcy’s arm.
“Cindy!” Darcy hisses. She sounds horrified, but I catch the grins they’re exchanging, and I mentally puff out my chest that she thinks I’m big. Did she come to that assumption just by looking at me, or has Darcy been bragging about me, I wonder?
I smirk. Either way, I’m feeling pretty damn good about myself.
Chapter Four
Darcy
It’s the morning after the rehearsal, and when my alarm goes off at ten minutes to eight, all I want to do is roll over and ignore it, and, I do until my back up alarm sounds a few minutes later. Annoyed, I sit up and fumble with my phone, trying to turn off the series of alarms I’d set for myself, and by the time I’ve cancelled them all, I’m wide awake. Then again, that was the plan all along.
I let out a heavy sigh, toss back the covers and perch myself on the edge of the bed. Just as my feet hit the floor, my phone rings, and I recognize the number. It’s the minister’s office.
“Hello?” I say as breezily as I can. Nothing good ever comes from a phone call before 8 a.m., so I’m already bracing myself for bad news.
“Hi, Darcy, it’s Kai here. Sorry to call you so early, and there’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just spit it out. Reverend Kama’s elderly mother died suddenly in her sleep, last night, so I’m afraid he’s not going to be able to perform your ceremony. He’s traveling to her home now.”
“Oh, no! Poor man, that must be devastating,” I practically scream into the phone. This is just way too cruel to be real. “I’m so sad to hear that. Please pass on my condolences when you speak to him.”
Teacher's Pet: A New Adult Wedding Romance (School's Out Book 2) Page 4