All Consuming

by Jaci Burton

  And then Rafe and Carmen came in, everyone applauded and the wedding party took their seats at the main table. The best men and the matron of honor gave toasts to the bride and groom, everyone applauded and then there was a break.

  “Rafe looks damn happy,” Miguel said.

  “Doesn’t he?” Adrienne nodded.

  Hannah felt a touch on her shoulder and turned to find Kal smiling down at her. “How’s it going over here?”

  “Just fine.”

  “Hey, we’re taking good care of your woman,” Aaron said.

  Hannah’s entire body warmed at Aaron’s comment. She most certainly was not Kal’s woman, but she appreciated that they thought she was.

  “Thanks. Got a second, Hannah?”

  She nodded and took Kal’s hand as she stood. He walked her past the tables and outside the ballroom.

  “I’m sorry to leave you for so long. I had no idea all that picture taking and the rest of this stuff would take so much time.”

  She laid her hand on his forearm. “Don’t worry about it. Your friends are great, and we’re having fun.”

  “You sure? I have to sit at the main table for dinner, and then once we do the official wedding party first dance thing, I’ll be free and I can come sit with you.”

  She loved that he was thinking of her comfort. “I’m fine. Really. You do what you need to do for your brother.”

  “Okay. But I want you to know I really want to spend time with you tonight.”

  “Thanks. I appreciate it, but really—don’t worry about me. I’m having a great time.”

  He escorted her back inside, and Hannah saw that they were serving dinner, so Kal walked her back to her table. He leaned in and kissed her, briefly, then headed to the main table. She couldn’t help but let out a soft sigh.

  “Hmm,” Adrienne said, offering up a smile. “He really likes you.”

  “We’re just friends.”

  “I don’t kiss any of my friends like that,” Penny said.

  “Can’t tell you how relieved I am to hear that, honey,” Ethan said.

  Penny laughed, and Hannah’s cheeks warmed. Fortunately, at that moment, the servers started delivering their food, so she and Kal ceased being the topic of conversation. Then all the talk was about the delicious seafood and steak and amazing side dishes.

  Hannah absolutely loved the sea bass, which was melt-in-your-mouth tender. And she couldn’t get enough of whatever that sweet potato fluff was, but she wished she had a recipe for it. She also had brussels sprouts, and it was the best wedding food she’d ever eaten. Certainly better than the homemade food they’d had at her super small wedding to Landon.

  Of course they’d had no money, but to her it had seemed fine. At the time she’d been way more interested in their impending move to Georgia and less engaged in the fuss and expense of a wedding. Her mom had been the one who’d insisted they do something, so she’d agreed to the bare minimum, just to get it over with.

  She should have taken her lack of enthusiasm over the whole ceremony as a warning. But she’d been oblivious back then, only wanting to escape. Seeing Rafe and Carmen’s wedding today made her realize what she’d missed out on—and what she hadn’t had with Landon in the first place.

  She wouldn’t make that mistake again.

  Not that she was planning on another wedding, or falling in love again. She had way too many things going on in her life to even entertain the idea. Her focus was on raising Oliver and growing her business. And that was all she had time for.

  But tonight? She intended to enjoy this wedding and have some fun.

  CHAPTER 12

  There’d been standing and photos and toasting and photos and eating and photos and smiling and photos and dancing and photos. And videos. All the videos. So much talking and videos. Hopefully, now he was done. Because if he never got his picture taken ever again for the rest of his life, Kal would be a happy man.

  Though he had to admit, he couldn’t have asked for a better partner in all this than Tess Blackstone. She was Carmen’s coworker and good friend, and she was funny and sarcastic. And also six months pregnant, so he’d been solicitous of her feelings and her condition the entire time they’d had to pose together. Not that she’d needed it. She was a nurse and on her feet all day. She’d told him this had been easy. Except for wearing heels.

  Once they finished the wedding party dance, she looked at him. “I am so putting my sandals on.”

  “Jealous.”

  She laughed. “What? You didn’t bring yours?”

  “Didn’t think of it.”

  “Loser.”

  “You said it.” He kissed her cheek, then turned her over to her husband, George, who had showed up on the dance floor to take over.

  “Thanks for taking care of her,” George said.

  “It was truly my honor. You have a treasure in this woman.”

  George’s eyes sparkled with love as he drew Tess into his arms. “Don’t I know it.”

  Tess shot Kal a look over her shoulder. “Because I tell him every day how awesome I am.”

  Kal laughed as he left the dance floor. He stopped at the bar and grabbed a beer, then wandered through the crowd, stopping at a few tables to say hello to people he knew. But the person he really wanted to see was currently laughing with her head thrown back at something Miguel Acosta had just said.

  He was glad she was comfortable with the people at the table. He felt bad about inviting her to the wedding just to abandon her for half of it. There wasn’t much he could do about it since he’d had brotherly duties he had to perform, but at least now he was free.

  He made his way to the table to hear the end of a dirty joke that Adrienne was telling everyone.

  “The more you play with it, the harder it gets.”

  Everyone groaned, then laughed. He was sorry he missed it.

  “About time you made it,” Ethan said. “I was about to fix Hannah up with another guy.”

  Kal pulled up the empty chair next to Hannah and sat. “Not funny.”

  “Three guys have already asked her to dance,” Callie said. “We had to run interference for you.”

  “Also not funny.”

  “And not true,” Hannah said, laying her hand on his arm. “I’m just sitting over here like a wallflower.”

  He cocked his head to the side. “Now that I don’t believe.”

  “Okay, maybe one man asked me to dance. I politely declined.”

  He was relieved to hear that. If he’d seen her dancing with some guy—especially if it was someone he knew—he wasn’t sure how he would have reacted.

  Okay, he knew exactly how he would have reacted. He’d have been jealous and pissed-off. He stood and held out his hand for her. “Then may I have this dance?”

  She stood and put her hand in his. “I’d love to.”

  He led her out onto the dance floor, happy to hear a slow song playing so he could hold her against him. He drew her into his arms. Her body was warm, and she smelled so damn delicious he wanted to lick her neck. He laid his cheek against hers and whispered in her ear.

  “You smell nice.”

  She pulled her head back, swept her knuckles over his lower jaw. “So do you. And you look pretty, too.”

  He laughed. “Pretty, huh? I prefer ruggedly handsome.”

  “I don’t know about that. You’re wearing a tux. You’re a little too GQ right now to be considered rugged. Maybe in your jeans and T-shirt when you’re all sweaty.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Just then a hand touched her arm. She looked around to see the beautiful bride grabbing her hand.

  “Time to meet the family, Hannah,” Carmen said.

  Kal bit back a groan at the interruption. “We’re dancing here.”

  “You can have her to yourself la
ter,” Carmen said, giving Kal a look. “Becks and I are dying for a chat.”

  Hannah was amused by Kal’s worried look, but actually, she’d been waiting for a chance to congratulate Carmen on her marriage to Rafe. Now was her opportunity. She followed Carmen off the dance floor and out of the ballroom. Carmen used a key card to enter a private room with tufted seats. There was champagne chilling in a bottle there.

  “This is for the bride and groom to have time away from the stress of the wedding reception,” she said. “If we need it.”

  “It’s very nice.”

  There was a knock on the door, and a beautiful blonde came in. She was wearing a short yellow dress, her hair plaited in a braid that rested on her shoulder. Hannah was drawn immediately to all of her amazing tattoos.

  “Hannah, this is Becks, Jackson’s fiancée.”

  “Hi, Becks, it’s wonderful to meet you.”

  “Nice to meet you. Wow, what a party, right?”

  Hannah nodded. “It’s lovely here. You picked an amazing reception venue.”

  “All Rafe’s idea,” Carmen said. “I would have been happy with the church hall, but he said I deserved something spectacular.”

  Becks popped the cork on the champagne, then poured it into three glasses and handed them out. “It’s definitely spectacular.” She held her glass up. “Here’s to you and Rafe, Carmen. May your life be as fizzy and fun as this champagne.”

  Carmen laughed. “Thanks.”

  They all sipped the champagne, which tasted delicious. “The food was amazing, too.”

  “That was my favorite part,” Carmen said. “Okay, the wedding part was nice, too, but I was starving. Don’t tell Rafe I said the food was my favorite part.”

  “What happens in the private suite stays in the private suite,” Becks said, leaning back on the chaise. “And speaking of that, we wanted to get to know you, Hannah, since you’re dating Kal now.”

  “Oh. We’re just friends.”

  Becks looked over at Carmen, and they both laughed.

  “What?” Hannah asked.

  “We’ve both heard that one before,” Becks said.

  “Yes,” Carmen said. “Because we both said it before. To each other.”

  Hannah looked at both of them. “No, really, we are just friends. I mean, we dated in high school, but we broke up and then we saw each other at our ten-year reunion. Now we’re just catching up. As friends.”

  Becks kicked her heels off. “Uh-huh. And does any of this ‘just friends’ stuff involve smoking-hot chemistry between the two of you?”

  “Or kissing?” Carmen asked. “Have you kissed him yet?”

  “I . . .” Hannah was at a loss for words. “Yes. We’ve kissed.”

  “I don’t know about you, Becks, but I don’t kiss my guy friends. And I sure don’t dance close with them and run my hand over their muscles like Hannah was doing with Kal out there on the dance floor.”

  They noticed all that? She thought they’d just been on the dance floor for about a minute, and she couldn’t remember touching him like that, or him looking at her that way. Then again, she’d been happy to be with him, and maybe she had smoothed her hand up his arm, and maybe he had given her that hot look that never failed to turn her temp up a few degrees.

  They definitely had chemistry. They always had. There was no denying it.

  “Okay, so maybe more than just friends. But it’s complicated.”

  Becks nodded. “It always is.”

  “And we have history together.”

  “So did Jackson and I. When we first ran into each other again, he didn’t even remember me.”

  Hannah stared at Becks in shock. She had strawberry blonde hair and was covered in tattoos. She was gorgeous. Who wouldn’t remember her? “What?”

  “To be fair, I was a kid the last time he’d seen me. I’d changed a lot.”

  “Okay, so that makes sense.”

  “And he’d been called to a fire scene—my tattoo shop. So he was kind of busy that day.”

  “Oh, Rafe told me this story,” Carmen said. “But Rafe said he recognized you right away. So Jackson doesn’t get a pass.”

  “True. But Rafe and I always hung out together when we were kids. To Jackson, I was just one in a long line of kids he had to watch over on the streets. So it made sense he wouldn’t remember me.”

  “So you were homeless with the Donovan boys?” Hannah asked.

  Becks nodded.

  “That must have been so hard. I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

  “Thanks. It wasn’t easy, but I had Jackson and Rafe and Kal. They were like my brothers. Okay, Rafe and Kal were like my brothers. I crushed on Jackson hard when I was a preteen. And when we ran into each other again as adults?” She gave an enigmatic smile.

  “Then it became love,” Carmen said with a wide smile.

  “It did. Well, first we argued with each other a lot. Then it became love.”

  Hannah laughed.

  “See?” Carmen said. “It was complicated.”

  She did see. And then again, she didn’t. Not the same way as her situation, anyway. “Not at all the same thing.”

  “Well, no one’s relationship is the same,” Carmen said. “Mine and Rafe’s was completely different from Becks and Jackson’s. But ours was complicated as well. The thing is, we made it work because we had feelings for each other. So we worked our way through the complications.”

  Okay, that part she did see. Sort of. “I’m divorced. And my ex was a lot to handle. And while Kal is nothing like my ex-husband, I’m just not ready to jump back into a relationship yet. Plus I have a seven-year-old son to consider, too.”

  “I can understand that,” Carmen said. “I went through the same thing. Marriage, divorce, you feel like you made all the wrong choices and you don’t want to do it again. It’s hard to put your heart into the hands of another man when someone hurt you.”

  “You do get it.”

  Carmen smiled and stood. “Yes, I do. But I also wasted a lot of time second-guessing myself and all the choices I made. Don’t do what I did. And speaking of time, I have a husband waiting for me.”

  They all left the room, and Hannah was happy to have finally met the women who captured Jackson’s and Rafe’s hearts.

  Those guys were very lucky, because Becks and Carmen were incredible. Open and honest and fun to hang out with. She hoped she’d have more time with them in the future.

  They met up with the men, and Kal slipped his hand in hers. “I thought maybe they kidnapped you for an inquisition.”

  Her lips curved. “More like getting acquainted. Becks and Carmen are lovely.”

  She followed Kal’s glance to the table where Rafe and Carmen sat with their hands entwined, their gazes only on each other, then to the dance floor where Jackson and Becks rocked slowly together.

  “Yeah, they are. They’re family.”

  She knew that Kal loved his brothers, so she was happy to see how much he appreciated the women who were now part of their lives. He walked her over to the main table and pulled up an extra chair for her to sit.

  “Something to drink?” he asked.

  “Wine would be great, thanks.”

  He dipped down to drop a short kiss on her cheek, then whispered, “Be right back.”

  She smiled up at him, then watched him disappear into the crowd. While he was gone, she observed Carmen and Rafe, the way they held each other’s hands and looked at each other. There was so much love on their faces. Even if someone stopped to chat with them, they’d still steal glances at each other while they were talking to the other person.

  Her attention drifted over to Jackson and Becks, who walked off the dance floor. They did the same thing, focusing only on each other as if no one else existed for them. Jackson had his arm around Becks, holding
her close, his love for her obvious.

  If she ever fell in love again, that’s what she wanted. She realized now she’d never had that with Landon. Even at her wedding reception he’d been in a corner with his best buddies getting drunk and laughing while she’d mostly entertained their guests.

  Of course they’d been so young. But was that really an excuse? She’d long ago had to face that they’d never really shared the kind of love she’d witnessed today. Landon had been her escape, and he’d just wanted a partner—maybe even a mother figure, and he’d targeted her because she’d been mature enough to deal with all his bullshit.

  Which hadn’t been romance. Or a marriage. Or anything even close to love.

  She inhaled, then blew out a breath, determined to eliminate those memories. Tonight wasn’t the night for it. Not when so much love and happiness surrounded her.

  Kal came back with her glass of wine.

  “I ran into Rafe at the bar. He told me they’re going to cut the cake next. You like wedding cake?”

  She tipped her head back to meet his gaze. “I’m fine with cake. But I know how much you like it.”

  “It’ll be the high point of the night for me.”

  She fought back a laugh. Kal always did have a thing for sweet stuff.

  He took a seat, then draped his arm over the back of her chair. “Are you having a good time?”

  “Yes. It’s a lovely wedding.”

  Just then, Kal’s parents came over, so Hannah stood while Mrs. Donovan pulled her into a hug, then held on to her hands.

  “Hannah McKenzie? It’s so good to see you again.”

  “You, too, Mrs. Donovan.”

  Mrs. Donovan looked over at Kal. “You didn’t tell me you were dating Hannah again.”

  Kal scratched the side of his nose. “You’ve been busy with wedding things, and we haven’t had a chance to talk. There’s a lot to catch up on.”

  His mom sent him a look. “Apparently, there is.” She turned her attention back to Hannah. “I heard you were in Georgia.”