“What I mean is that I wanted us to look like we belong together,” Reesa said softly, hand pressed against his strong heartbeat as he played with the skin of her thighs through the tears in her jeans. She pressed a hand to his knee to shift herself in his lap where she could feel Shane becoming more and more interested in her. He put his knees together and lifted her legs across his lap to make her more comfortable.
“Baby,” Shane whispered, picking up the hand with her wedding band on it. “We definitely belong together regardless of our appearances. I was okay with us not being a perfectly matched set.”
Reesa nodded, her throat tightening as she considered what else to say. Deciding to be braver, she resolutely pushed the nervousness away and let herself just enjoy that Shane felt so connected to her regardless of anything else in their lives. She could tell he really meant it because his true feelings were in the trembling hand he stroked her with.
“Okay. Then let’s just say that I want to look like I belong to you,” Reesa whispered. She bit at his bottom lip quickly, pulling away before Shane could take it farther. Running a hand across his shoulder, she moved it down and patted his arm where he had his tattoo.
“I think this is what I first noticed about you when we met here. I didn’t see what it was on your arm, but I had the sense that it was important, or you wouldn’t have branded yourself permanently with it. You looked a little scary, and I guess I needed the excitement. When you found me and told me what the tattoo was about, I think I fell immediately in love with the part of you that saw the world that way.”
Shane smiled at her words, heart so full of contentment with the woman he married that he didn’t know how to adequately express it to her.
“I don’t see how I could love you more than I do at this moment,” he said against Reesa’s mouth, kissing her softly again. “I want to take you home and show you how much.”
“I want that too, but I asked Joe to bring you here so I could give you a wedding present. I don’t have any words to say this right, so let me just show you,” Reesa said, sighing.
Twisting on his lap, she pulled up her right sleeve, and peeled the gauze patch from her arm.
Shocked by what he was seeing, Shane wrapped a quivering hand around the back of Reesa’s arm, staring at his face drawn on her flesh. “Why did you do this? I don’t understand.”
“This is my hero,” Reesa said softly, patting below the image. “He’s also my husband and the man I love. And now you know my biggest secret.”
Still holding her branded arm in his trembling hand, Shane tucked his face into Reesa’s neck to hide his crying in her hair.
Reesa swallowed, hoping she hadn’t shocked Shane too much. She dug for humor to help them both recover.
“So what this means is that you can’t ever leave me or change your mind about loving me. If you wake up one day and discover this relationship isn’t what you want after all, it’s just tough luck for you, buddy, because you still have to stay with me. No one else is going to want me now that I have your face branded on my arm,” she said, feeling Shane’s laughter with relief.
“No worries,” Shane said finally, the words coming out broken through some sniffling, but strong in the way that counted. “I swear I am going to love you forever.”
Patting the gauze patch back into place, Reesa wrapped her arms around Shane’s neck, hugging him with all the strength she could. When she raised her head again and leaned back to look around, Joe and Jillian had disappeared from the table.
“Did I embarrass them?” Reesa asked.
“Doubtful,” Shane said wryly, blinking to clear the remaining moisture from his eyes. “They’re standing at the bar talking. I keep getting some sort of strange vibe from them, but Joe just laughs when I ask about it.”
“Jillian laughs when I ask too,” Reesa said, picking up one of the beers on the table and taking a long drink. “I hope we’re good now, because that’s all the emotional roller coaster riding I can do today. I have to save the rest of my nerve for tomorrow. Your mother is going to hate my eyebrow rings, but I have to wear them for a month without taking them out.”
Shane’s laughter against her had her smiling.
“So who drew the image of me? Did Brett Hill do this from memory?” Shane asked.
Reesa grinned at his question, which assumed she had gone to his tattoo artist. Her young husband was arrogant and assuming, but right most of the time.
“Sara drew it,” Reesa lied evenly, watching Shane raise the eyebrow with his rings gleaming in it. She reached up and touched the set of rings that matched hers. “Okay—I’m lying. It was Brian. Yes, I used Hill, and your tattoo guy replicated the drawing.”
“It’s really good—I mean artistically, not because it’s me,” Shane said quickly.
“Yeah, I thought that comment was pretty vain, even for you,” Reesa said with a grin.
“So are we wearing our piercings in the wedding?” Shane asked, grinning at the idea.
“After what I went through today to get them? Absolutely,” Reesa said fiercely. “My youngest nephew thinks I’m the coolest aunt in the world now.”
“You’re the coolest wife too,” Shane said with conviction. “Can we go home now so I can show you how cool?”
Reesa nodded and smiled, no doubt in her at all that Shane meant it.
“Yes, but I have to say it was fun running that woman off who was trying to hit on you. I’m so looking forward to reaping the rewards of my bravery tonight. You’re mine, Larson,” she said, laughing when Shane looked totally pleased.
“Yes, I am yours. Come home with me and we’ll reenact the first night you picked me up. You’ll giggle, and I’ll do all the things you like in bed,” Shane whispered, fingers running across her hips as he let her slide off his lap to the floor.
Reesa smiled and held out her hand to him.
As they left the club, a smiling Jillian and Joe both waved.
Chapter 11
Looking at the urgent text message on her phone, Jillian swore softly. “I so do not need this drama right now,” she complained out loud, frowning as she typed a reply.
She looked at Ellen and Jessica, who were flanking Reesa on each side and pinning the remaining white flowers into her dark, curling hair. She looked like a snow fairy, especially with the touches of sparkling white glitter the makeup woman had added to the corners of her green eyes.
And the tiny crystal dangling from one of the glinting eyebrow rings made her look otherworldly.
“I have a tiny emergency I need to take care of,” Jillian said abruptly. “Will you two stay with Reesa until I get back?”
Ellen and Jessica both nodded, continuing with their conversation over the flowers.
“Sara, stay with Queen Melon okay?” Jillian ordered, laughing at the spinning girl in a full dress that was practically a replica of Reesa’s.
“Okay,” Sara happily agreed.
Jillian rushed out of the back room of the church and across to the reception hall, looking for the red-haired man who had demanded her presence.
“Joseph,” she whispered, peering into the kitchen area and not seeing him.
“Down here,” Joe said harshly, standing at the end of a long hallway, waiting impatiently for the elegant dark woman in a silky rose dress to make her way to him.
“This way,” he said even more harshly, his hot gaze raking her as he led her into what looked like a giant storage room.
Joe didn’t care. All he cared was that she came to him and they were alone.
“We’ve got twenty minutes until the music starts. Now what the hell is the emergency?” Jillian demanded, putting her fists on her hips in frustration.
“Me—I’m the emergency,” Joe said abruptly, closing the door behind him. He walked to Jillian, looking levelly into her eyes as he pulled her into his arms, despite her protests. “Kiss me again, Jillian. I can’t stand just dreaming about it anymore. I need it for real.”
“No—Jo
seph. I shouldn’t have kissed you last night. It was Shane and Reesa. I was caught up in the moment. It was just a moment, Joseph. You’ve had them before,” Jillian said calmly, as she tried to ignore the determination in his face. “Let it go this time.”
“Yes, I’ve had quite a lot of those moments, but not as good as the one with you,” Joe said sincerely.
He stopped talking and just stepped more into her, going immediately for her full bottom lip and sucking it into his mouth, thinking again that she tasted better than anything he’d ever known.
Jillian groaned and put her hands on Joe’s arms to push him away, but instead her fingers dug into his hard muscles to hold him in place against her. Then she caught herself and realized what he was doing.
“No. Stop,” she said, pushing against him. “This isn’t right. It’s not what I want.”
Joe’s blue eyes darkened at her lie, and she shivered at the heat in his callused hands moving over her.
“Let’s test that theory,” he said harshly, kissing her deeply while she gripped him.
Jillian squirmed at the rasp of the dress zipper sliding down behind her back, and the cool air on her bare skin shortly after. She pulled away from his mouth, just as breathless today as she had been last night.
“Uhn-uh, Joseph. We are not going there again. I should never have let you do that to me last night. I wasn’t teasing you. I just got a little carried away,” Jillian said.
“You were begging me for an orgasm, and I heard your damn pleading in my head all night long after you stopped us,” Joe said roughly, tugging the dress down over her full breasts, and then tugging down the strapless foundation garment as well.
When her breasts sprang free of the clothing, he groaned at the sight of her aroused, extended nipples with a level of sexual desire that bordered on insanity. He finally understood all those stories of men who got carried away with women and just took what they wanted. He pinched one eager, straining nipple between two fingers while he lowered his hot mouth to the other, bending her backwards in his exuberance.
Jillian cried out at the contact and grabbed his arms more tightly to hold herself up.
Sucking fiercely and lost in the pleasure of her, Joe fought the beast inside him and had a hell of time not ripping away the rest of her clothes. The rhythm of his hands and his mouth set them both on fire, taking up where they left off last evening as if they had never stopped.
A couple minutes of his mouth on her and he heard Jillian call out, knees buckling. Joe caught her against him feeling the surrender from her climax even as he continued sucking for a moment more until the wave had passed.
When he raised his head, Jillian’s face was a portrait of both shock and ecstasy. He had never in all his life wanted a woman so much. She was so damn beautiful.
“Well at least that’s one of us finally getting some relief,” Joe said roughly, putting his forehead against hers in the first tender gesture he had been able to make to her since she had kissed him last night.
“I want you, Jillian. I know this is not the relationship of your dreams, but I don’t feel like being reasonable about it. Be warned because I’m going to seduce you first chance I get. Save us both the torture and sleep with me until this runs its course. I’ve never felt this way about any other woman. I have to have you,” Joe said.
“Joseph, you had no right to make me do that,” Jillian said, pulling out of his arms and pulling herself back together with now trembling hands.
“What? No right to pleasure you when it was what you wanted as well? Honey, I had every right. I would even call it an obligation since I lit the damn fire in you last night,” Joe said softly.
Jillian wondered how much time had passed as she stared in shock at the determined man who had given her an orgasm with nothing more than his mouth on her breasts.
How did such an inappropriate man have such power over her body? No one else had ever had that level of control over her. Why the hell him?
“Reesa is probably wondering what happened to me. I can’t be messing around with you, Joseph. I’m sorry you’re—still unsatisfied,” Jillian made herself say the truth so her apology would ring true. “I’m sorry if you think I led you on, but I didn’t mean to take us beyond friends.”
How long had they been in here? Was the wedding now delayed because of her and Joe? In her haste, Jillian wrestled the foundation garments back into place, but couldn’t reach the zipper on her dress well enough to get it all the way up.
She was surprised again when Joe angrily spun her and yanked up the zipper the rest of the way. She was less surprised to feel the hardness of his erection pressing into her backside.
He put his arms around her from behind and held her to him with more honest longing than she had ever felt from any man she’d dated. Joe rocked against her enticingly for thirty seconds. That was all it took for her tongue to want to order him to lift her dress and end the torment.
And yet at the same time, Jillian cursed herself for kissing him last night. It had just been so long and he had made her laugh all evening. It had all seemed so innocent at first.
Oh, she initiated it. She admitted that. She was the one who teased Joseph until he finally gave in and put his mouth on hers. Then when he had, all hell had broken loose in the parking lot.
They’d been making out inside their winter coats, shirts out and unbuttoned to get to each other, totally ignoring people coming out of the bar and leaving. They were against her car and she’d ended it when she realized how close she was to climax.
Now she was quivering with relief in some ways and wound tighter in others because she wanted another one, but a harder one. One that reciprocated to the man growling in her ear as he ran possessive hands over her curves and down the front of her thighs.
Damn it all to hell, she wanted Joseph McEldowney.
“Joe—please stop,” she pleaded softly. “You’re right. You’re right about me wanting you. But I can’t do anything about this now. I can’t be the one that ruins Reesa’s wedding.”
Joe’s hands calmed, and he finally backed away from her, her concession of desire reaching him when all her other protesting had not. When Jillian turned around to look at him, Joe could see genuine regret in her expression. It was as effective as having a bucket of ice water poured over his head.
Shame for how roughly he’d treated her flooded through him. He shook his head in denial, closed his eyes, and held out his hand to Jillian, not the least surprised when she put her trembling one into it. They had accidentally connected, but they had connected strongly. And while Jillian might loathe that she wanted him, on some level she trusted him instinctively. He could feel that. And he didn’t want to betray it by being selfish, no matter how long it had been or how much he was hurting to have her.
“Larson wasn’t the only one who stopped sleeping around months ago,” Joe said flatly. “But that’s no excuse for what I just did. Not even mutual desire is reason enough to force a woman. I’m sorry if I forced you to take our attraction further than you wanted. It won’t happen again. I promise. And I hope you’ll forgive me.”
He started to drop her hand then, and was surprised when Jillian gripped his fingers hard and held on instead.
“You didn’t do anything but send me soaring to climax and make me want more. You didn’t hurt me or harm me, other than make me question my sanity for teasing you last night. So don’t go feeling guilty for being sexy and having a mega talented mouth. You never forced me to do anything, and I won’t let you think it,” Jillian said firmly. “I’m a big girl, and it was definitely mutual.”
“Thank you for saying that,” Joe said softly, not buying her denial completely, even though he wanted to. Joe well knew how he could get, knew what was in his blood. He also knew he simply wasn’t the right guy for her.
They stood for a moment, just holding hands, squeezing and kneading fingers.
Joe finally turned loose because the comfort of her friendly touch was ge
tting to him and making him crazier than his arousal had.
“We need to get back. Larson’s probably wondering what happened to me as well,” he said quietly, self-loathing seeping into him now that the lust haze was starting to dissipate.
He held the door of the room open to let Jillian walk out, inhaling her perfume as she moved past him, hoping he’d remember it later when he was alone. There hadn’t been a single other woman in his life who smelled as good to him as Jillian did.
“Whoever that guy is you’re looking for so hard is going to be one lucky bastard when you find him,” Joe said firmly, walking away from her with his hands in his pockets to keep them from reaching for her again.
Jillian watched Joe duck out a side door, but turned herself to walk back the way she’d come in. She was running later than ever, but needed just a couple minutes more to steady herself.
She had teased the animal out of its cage last night, and now had no idea how to lure it back inside and calm it down.
And that animal in her had been pretty mean to Joe to send him away aching for her.
***
Reesa stood at the back of the church, her arm tucked through Zack’s.
Brian and Chelsea had headed to get seats just moments ago.
Helped along by Queen Melon, Reesa knew that Sara was now walking down the aisle, spreading yellow and pink rose petals on the carpet.
Reesa smiled at her practical thoughts that there wouldn’t be many petals to sweep up after her dress collected most of them with its full skirt and sweeping train. She sighed at her lack of romance for the moment and laughed softly when Zack patted her hand in support.
At least she looked like the beaming bride, Reesa thought, grateful that the dress captured the magic of the moment even if she couldn’t quite get there herself mentally.
But to be fair, it was hard to pretend to be a blushing bride today when she’d barely gotten any sleep the night before being a loving wife. It certainly didn’t matter to her that they’d had their passionate wedding night before the actual ceremony today. She and Shane had done most everything backwards in their relationship anyway.
Commissioned In White (Art of Love Series) Page 13