Wicked Wedding

by Bennett, Sawyer

  I step up to him, none too gently patting his shoulder. “Do the right thing, Jesse. If you ever really cared for her at all, let her move on.”

  His head drops… hangs low.

  I stare at him a moment before pushing roughly past him. He won’t do the right thing for Brynne, but he will do it for himself.

  That will work for me since it will free Brynne from this sad part of her past, and she’ll finally be able to move forward.

  With me.

  CHAPTER 16

  Brynne

  “Oh, God, that feels good,” Andrew groans.

  “Yeah?” I ask teasingly. “Want it deeper?”

  “Not sure I can handle it deeper.” His voice is gruff with a combination of pain and pleasure.

  “You can totally take it,” I assure him. Digging my thumbs down into his lower back, I rotate them into the tight muscles there.

  “To hell with dentistry,” he murmurs as he squishes the pillow up under his chest and bows his head over it. “You should become a professional masseuse.”

  I laugh as I continue to rub his muscles, moving up and down his back with leisurely strokes punctuated with some deep-tissue digging. I don’t have a single amount of discomfort or modesty that I’m straddling his back while completely naked. How can I when I let him do the most immodest things to me when we woke up this morning? Besides, the soreness between my legs actually feels really good to me.

  “What do you want to do today?” I ask him.

  “How about we hang out at the beach?” he replies lazily. I bet if I keep this up for a few more minutes, he’ll fall back asleep.

  Which is fine by me, because Andrew always wakes up in a “mood” and the benefits of such moods are amazing.

  There’s a chime from the bedside table. Peeking at my phone, I see Jesse’s name come across the screen with the first few words of a text he just sent me.

  Grimacing, I dig down into Andrew’s scapulae. He groans, and I ease up on the pressure.

  Another text chimes through—Jesse, again. This time, I’m the one groaning.

  “What is it?” Andrew asks, angling his chin over his shoulder to see me.

  My nose involuntarily wrinkles. “Jesse.”

  “What does he want?” he asks, settling his head back down.

  “No clue, and I don’t want to deal with him.”

  God knows I’ve dealt with him enough this week at work. It’s bad enough I can’t get him to entertain a legitimate conversation about letting me out of the dental practice, but that he acts like there’s nothing wrong between us makes me see red.

  He pretends as if we’re still friends, and it’s more than pissing me off.

  This past week, Jesse has tried to joke around with me and engage me in social conversation in front of other patients or staff, where I’d be obligated to be civil, if not downright chatty, with him so it wouldn’t be uncomfortable to anyone else. He even had the nerve to ask me out to lunch a few days ago. Thankfully, we were alone as I gave him a piece of my mind he won’t soon forget. I think my exact wording was to tell him he was a narcissistic nut sack, and I hoped Tara had given him gonorrhea.

  He was so exasperating. My blood boiled when he gave me a patronizing smile and said, “Now, now, Brynne… there’s no reason we can’t be friends.”

  After I flipped him the bird, I stomped off to hide in my office. I had wanted to call Andrew and bitch to him about it, but held myself in check. I didn’t want to burden him when he had so many more important things on his plate. For God’s sake, he was trying to eradicate blood diseases, which was just a tad bit more momentous than my issues with my ex.

  “You should see what he wants,” Andrew suggests. The mellow tone of his voice tells me he couldn’t really care less about what Jesse has to say, but he knows I just might.

  My hands resume stroking his back, just the palms of my hands caressing his warm skin. “No way. I’m tired of all his bullshit, and I’m sure this is more of the same.”

  Andrew lifts from the pillow, his rumpled hair adorable. “He might have an offer for you.”

  “He won’t,” I mutter stubbornly. “He’s a dick. He could only be contacting me for dick reasons.”

  Andrew snorts, but then nods toward my phone. “Just check. Because now I’m curious.”

  “Fine,” I grumble. I lean over to place a hand on the mattress, extending my other arm to nab my phone. When I have it in hand, I sit back up straight again, still straddling Andrew’s naked ass.

  I unlock my phone, flip to the text icon, and read. I sent you an email with an offer last night, but I haven’t heard anything from you. Have you seen it? Please read it and get back to me.

  “Holy shit,” I murmur.

  “What?” Andrew says. With a gentle move, he capsizes me off his body so he can face me. I go to my knees at his side, reading the text out loud to him.

  Andrew jackknifes upward in the bed, then rotates his hips so he’s sitting next to me, leaning only slightly to rest his chin on my shoulder. His stubble is scratchy and oddly comforting.

  He nods to my phone. “Pull up your email.”

  I stare at Jesse’s text only a moment more before I move to action, easily finding his email since it’s the only unread one in my inbox.

  I tap on it, then begin reading out loud.

  Brynne,

  I’ve given it some more thought, and I think it’s best that perhaps we part ways amicably. As such, I would like to accept the proposal you made, which includes the amount for Tara’s share. I will be purchasing her portion of the practice myself, as she’s also going to be leaving.

  That startles me, and I side-eye Andrew. He merely shrugs before nodding back to my phone for me to continue reading.

  I’ve also decided to give you six months’ severance pay, which will allow you to take some time for yourself to determine what you may want to do with your future career.

  I’m sorry for all the pain I’ve caused you, and I hope this gesture shows you that I do still care about you. I will have a certified check by the end of the business week for the buyout.

  Love always,

  Jesse

  I stare at the last three words.

  Love Always, Jesse.

  My nose wrinkles at the thought he’s doing this out of love. I don’t trust that one bit.

  “Well, that’s a nice change of attitude from him,” Andrew says with a blasé tone.

  I squint, doubt swirling inside. “I don’t buy it. This is a trick somehow.”

  “I doubt it,” he replies.

  My gaze goes to him. “You don’t know him the way I do.”

  “Do you really know him at all?” he suggests softly. “He did things to you that you didn’t think possible. Maybe you should just take this at face value and run with it.”

  His rebuke wasn’t meant to sting, but it does and only because it rings with truth. I didn’t know Jesse at all, so perhaps I have no right to even attempt to judge this action.

  “Listen,” Andrew continues as he pulls my phone from my hand, then tosses it onto the bed. His arms come around me, then he brings me down beside him until we are cuddling in a warm embrace. “He’s just said—in writing—that he’s going to accept your proposal. That’s a done deal in my opinion. If he tries to weasel out of this—although I doubt he will—then I will have my attorneys step in and sue the shit out of him.”

  My sigh is audible, and it causes him to squeeze me. “I know I should give him the benefit of the doubt, but it’s hard to.”

  Andrew’s hand goes to my lower back, and he rubs gently. The repetitive motions cause me to relax some.

  “Why don’t you come to Vegas with me?” Andrew says with his lips resting against my temple. “Until you decide what to do. That six months’ severance gives you room to take a step back and really think about things.”

  While my heart leaps at the thought of going to Vegas with Andrew and leaving all this behind, I find myself shaking my head
. “I have patients coming in on Monday. I can’t just not show up. I’ll have to figure out how to withdraw, then transition my patients to either stay with Jesse or go elsewhere.”

  “That doesn’t change my offer, Brynne,” he replies smoothly. “Go in on Monday; hell, take the week. Figure it out. Transition patients. But then come to Vegas with me. Just to relax for a while and figure things out, or perhaps to stay there permanently.”

  I freeze, taking in his expression through the curtain of my hair as I try to decide if he’s serious. “Permanently?”

  Andrew reaches to tuck a lock behind my ear, eyes boring into mine as if he’s trying to peer inside my own thoughts. I’m not sure what he sees, but whatever it is, he seems confident in his next revelation. “I’m falling in love with you, Brynne. I know this might seem fast, but fuck convention. I’m following my heart. Since you don’t have anything really tying you here, I would like you to consider moving to Vegas with me permanently. Get a job there, open a new practice, or hell… I’ll get you a job at Caterva. I just want you there with me, permanently.”

  “You’re… you’re serious about this?” I stutter.

  Andrew’s hand comes to my face, his thumb gliding along my cheekbone. “More serious than I’ve ever been about anything in my life. I love you, Brynne.”

  There’s no describing the fullness within my heart or the utter peace that flows through my veins upon hearing those words.

  I smile. “I don’t love San Diego.”

  His smile back at me falters. “Well, that’s a weird response to me telling you I love you.”

  My smile turns into a thousand-watt grin. “And I don’t love Jesse or my dental practice. I don’t love my house or my neighbors. My friends are my friends regardless of where I live.”

  Andrew’s eyebrows knit together. “I sense you’re going somewhere with this, but fuck if I can figure out where.”

  I laugh and lean toward him, pressing my lips against his for a moment. When I pull back, I look him dead in the eye. “My point is… there’s nothing I love enough here to hold me. There’s only one thing I love, and he’s in Vegas.”

  “That would be me, right?” he asks, his lips peeling back to expose a brilliant smile with a slightly relieved tilt to it.

  “That would most certainly be you,” I say with an exuberant nod.

  Andrew kisses me, flips me to my back, and brings his body on top of mine. His hands press into the mattress, and he gives every single bit of himself to me in that kiss.

  When he withdraws, it’s to slide his lips along my cheek and whisper in my ear, “This is going to be epic, Brynne.”

  “What’s that?” I ask breathlessly.

  “Our love,” he replies ever so gently before biting my ear. “I’m headed to D.C. on Tuesday, and I’ll be back for you on Friday. By Saturday, I’ll have you installed in my condo and I’m not letting you go.”

  I swoon with a theatrical sigh, copying the feeling in my heart, and he laughs before nuzzling into my neck. “It’s going to be so epic,” he affirms.

  CHAPTER 17

  Andrew

  “While it is always good to share a meal with you, Dane, I suspect you want something of me?”

  Thane Kingsley III is a shrewd businessman, but he’s also a straight shooter, which I know Dane appreciates.

  As expected, this amuses Dane and he starts to laugh. He sets his fork and knife down, forsaking his seventy-five-dollar bone-in ribeye to look Thane straight in the eye.

  My eyes cut to Thane’s son, Thane Kingsley IV—better known as King—and his lips tip upward in an acknowledging smile of amusement as we settle in to watch these two entrepreneurial greats do business.

  “I want to know about Stephen Court,” Dane tells Kingsley, whose eyebrows shoot straight up in surprise. “He’s in the running for a seat on our advisory board, and I consider this conversation to be part of the vetting process.”

  Kingsley money is old and Dane’s is new, but they speak the same language and they’ve done business together in some capacity or another over the years. There’s a mutual trust there, which will come in handy right about now, because Dane is trusting Kingsley to shoot straight with him. Stephen Court used to work for Kingsley, but the rumor is he left on bad terms to go to another company. It says a lot that Dane is asking the man’s objective opinion seeing as he probably has reason to try to screw Court over.

  “He’s an honest man,” Kingsley says tightly, and there’s no mistaking the bad blood between them.

  This is the point I decide to tune out because whether Court makes it through the vetting process means shit to me. As chief scientist for Caterva, I really don’t care who sits on our board as long as they’re fair and impartial. I trust Dane’s decision, and he trusts that Kingsley will be honest with him.

  This trip to D.C. had been planned for me as a follow-up to my visit here three weeks ago when I visited Johns Hopkins. Dane invited himself along so he could talk to Kingsley about Stephen Court, but I know better than that. He could have totally had this conversation over the phone, and I can only surmise he felt the need for some one-on-one time with me for some reason.

  Most likely to put his nose all up in my personal business regarding Brynne.

  Just thinking about her makes me smile. I glance at King, and he’s engaged in the conversation between his father and Dane. Using the opportunity to check my phone, I smile even bigger when I see the text from Brynne.

  Saw my last patient today. Everyone else has been transferred. I’m free except for signing the buy-sell agreement with Jesse, and he gave me a rough draft to review today.

  One step closer to Brynne leaving all of that behind.

  One step closer to her truly becoming mine.

  The game plan this week was for me to take this trip to DC, then I’d fly back to San Diego and help Brynne pack. While most of her stuff is going into long-term storage so she can put her house up for sale, we’re going to rent a small U-Haul trailer to drive behind her car. She wants to bring all of her clothes, personal mementos, and one of her bedroom sets, which will go in my spare bedroom. It’s been empty since I’d moved in my condo eleven years ago.

  I shoot her a quick text back. Great news, baby. This is getting real.

  She writes back. I love real.

  Me too, Brynne.

  Me too.

  ♦

  “So are you going to approve Court for the advisory board?” I ask Dane as he pours us two bourbons from the wet bar. We’re sharing a two-bedroom suite at The Ritz.

  It’s not where I stayed three weeks ago, as I don’t need the glam when I’m on business trips. But Dane always travels first class, so here we are.

  “It’s clear there’s bad blood between him and Kingsley, but he thinks the guy will do a decent job for us, so that’s something to really consider.” Dane hands me a glass, then takes a sip from his. “What do you think?”

  “You know I don’t care who you put on that board. As long as they have an open mind to our research.”

  “You could try to be a little more actively involved in stuff outside of the science, you know,” he grouses as he crosses the living area and sits on one of the oversized wing-backed chairs that flank a fireplace that remains unlit given the heat of a D.C. summer.

  I snort and take the other chair, propping an ankle on my knee. “I do the science; you do the other shit. That’s how it works.”

  “Touché,” he replies with a wry grin, holding his glass up to me.

  With a deliberately regal nod, I take a sip of my drink before cracking a grin. The alcohol goes down smoothly, and I’m enjoying the company.

  “You’re going to make me ask, aren’t you?” Dane says as he stares at me with accusing eyes.

  “Ask what?” I take another sip of my bourbon, trying not to laugh.

  “That’s low, dude,” he mutters before sitting forward in his chair. “You run your trap to Avril all the time about Brynne, but you haven’t sa
id a damn thing to me.”

  “You jealous?” I taunt.

  “Of the fact you gossip like a woman with my wife?” he says with a sneer.

  “Then why ask about it?” I reply smoothly, very much enjoying Dane’s frustration. He’s not had a chance—as my friend—to be interested in my love life because I haven’t really had a serious one since undergrad.

  And what I had with him and Avril doesn’t count.

  Dane ignores me a moment, staring into the amber liquid of his glass while he swirls it around. Finally, he says, “I want you to be happy, man. Avril says you are, and while I trust my wife, I really want to hear it from you. I want to make sure she’s not seeing things with a woman’s romantic heart.”

  “Your wife is one of the most objective people I know,” I say with a laugh. “You’re the big, soft romantic these days.”

  “Fine then,” he snaps. “Give me the romantic details then, you asshole.”

  My laughter goes belly deep, and Dane scowls at me. I take another small sip of my drink. After I swallow it, I tell it to him real. “I love her. She’s going to move to Vegas.”

  Dane whistles low through his teeth. “Dude… that’s momentous.”

  “Yes, it is. She’s wrapping up her dental practice and transferring patients this week. I’m heading back to San Diego on Friday to help her get loaded up, then we’ll drive to Vegas on Saturday.”

  “Too fast?” he asks, simplifying his basic worry for me.

  I shake my head. “Not for us. It feels right, and I’ve never been more sure of anything.”

  He nods pensively, dragging the pad of his finger along the rim of his glass. When he looks back to me, his eyes are warm and… filled with happiness.

  For me alone.

  “I’m glad,” he says gruffly. “There’s no one who deserves happiness more than you.”

  The emotion in his voice hangs heavy in the air. And I understand it.

  Where it’s coming from.

  Dane is never going to stop being grateful to me for backing out of our little three-way with Avril. I cleared the path for their love to be realized. While it would have eventually happened between them, it would have taken longer had I not decided to tap out when I did.