“But—”
He dipped his head to nip her neck, a move that always caught her attention. She quieted. “No one will know about your books or why you wrote them unless you tell them.” He stroked her lazily, watching her in the mirror. Her lips parted, and her eyes fluttered closed. “I promise you that. Have I ever broken a promise to you?” He increased the pressure over her sweet spot, and her hips rocked mindlessly as little gasps escaped her throat. He let that go on for a while, soaking in her expression of rapturous, sweet surrender before prompting her again. “Answer the question. Have I ever broken a promise to you?”
“You—oh.” She shuddered, so close already. “Your promise…so good.”
“Come for me,” he growled in her ear, and she went off. He loved how she responded to him. He kept stroking her, letting her ride it out. When she finally stilled, he turned her in his arms, and she rested her head on his chest. He ran his hands up and down her sides, reveling in her curves. “We’re not done yet.”
She lifted her head, her dark blue eyes lit with excitement. He sealed his mouth to hers as he backed her up against the wall. She grabbed for the button on his pants, undoing it and freeing him, wrapping her hand around his hard cock. He managed to get the condom from his wallet, always prepared now that they’d crossed that line, and rolled it on. He hiked up her dress and lifted her leg, fitting himself against her wet heat.
She tore her mouth away. “You said you were going to bend me over.” Dammit. She always wanted him to take her from behind. It was her Mia and Damon fantasy, a replay of their guilty weekend of sin.
“I want to see your face when you come.” He pressed at her entrance.
She pushed at his chest. “You just saw it in the mirror. Hurry up. They’re going to notice you’re gone.”
He stepped back, though every cell in his body was urging him forward. “What was it that made Mia face Damon, face their future together?”
She turned, bent over, and spread her legs in open invitation, robbing him of any thought beyond burying himself deep. He grabbed her hips and took what she offered, both of them moaning in relief at finally joining. Her soft moans drove him on from a slow screw to a wild, heart-pounding ride. She shuddered around him with a low keening cry that triggered his own explosive release. He closed his eyes, spent, buried deep inside her.
“We should get back,” she whispered.
He tightened his grip on her hips, not ready to let her go yet. He needed answers. “Tell me what made Mia face Damon.”
She wiggled her hips and peeked at him over her shoulder. “We need to get back.”
He didn’t release her, instead he pushed deeper. She moaned and dropped her head. “What made Mia face Damon?” he pressed.
“You can’t keep me like this.” She tried to straighten, and he pushed her back down, pressing her palms against the mirror, entwining his fingers with hers.
“Sure I can,” he said. “You turn me on enough to stay buried deep for as long as it takes.”
“You’re making me mad.” But her body said differently, trembling under him.
“Just answer the question. It’s just fiction, right?” He did a slow roll inside her that had her breath catching.
“When there were no more secrets between them,” she said in a rush.
“And do we have secrets between us?”
She didn’t answer. He did another slow roll, and she answered on a shuddering breath. “You know we do.”
He stilled, thinking about that. What secrets?
She let out a huffy breath. “If you’re not going to fuck me again, let me up.”
He pulled out and released her hands. She turned and glared at him as she straightened her dress. He didn’t care that she was mad at him. He loved her newly found fighting spirit.
“What secrets?” he asked. They told each other everything. Always had. Well, most everything. Obviously he hadn’t told her about Emily specifically, but that was only because he tried not to hurt her by talking about other women, even though she’d always encouraged him to date. And then it occurred to him that maybe she did the same. He clenched his jaw, both not wanting to know and needing to know.
“Not secrets, secret,” she muttered.
“Just one?”
She avoided his eyes. “One is plenty.”
“Have you been with other men?” he asked through gritted teeth.
She gave him a pained look. “No,” she said quietly. “Let’s just go.”
He racked his brain for what the one secret could be, and then it hit him. The thing that caused her so much shame and regret, them sleeping together and keeping it from Brad. But that wasn’t a secret between them. That was a secret between them and Brad. Who wasn’t around to tell anymore.
“You mean the secret we kept from Brad about us sleeping together?” he asked just to be sure.
“Yes!” she said like he was extremely dense.
He wanted to say that secret didn’t matter anymore, but he knew it did matter. To her.
Before he could figure out the solution, she brushed past him. “I’ll leave my panties off as you requested,” she said over her shoulder before stepping out into the hallway and quietly shutting the door behind her.
He groaned because he hadn’t requested that. Damon did in Fierce Craving. He was starting to feel like she really only liked the two of them together as a fantasy. The worst part was, like an idiot, he did want to do it again, even knowing he was getting further and further away from what they both really needed.
He shoved his hands in his hair and pulled. How could they release their secret when Brad wasn’t around anymore to tell?
Chapter Fifteen
Twenty-four hours later, Angel was about to lose it. He’d looked at it from every angle, and there was no way to let go of the secret that haunted Julia. It was too late for that. He was mad at Julia for being such a good girl that she was still racked with shame and guilt. He was mad at himself for not just shoving the truth in Brad’s face when he had the chance, and he was mad at Brad for getting in between him and Julia.
Besides all that, his stupid hope for the magic of the Italian wedding cookies hadn’t happened either. The cookies were gone by the time he and Julia rejoined the wedding reception.
And now he had to get through a rehearsal for Ally’s wedding across from Julia, bridesmaid to his groomsman, and somehow not wallow in memories of Julia’s wedding knowing what he did now—Julia married Brad out of a sense of duty. And Angel had done nothing to stop it. Somehow he, supposedly an expert at helping people with dysfunctional relationships, had gotten himself into the mother of them all.
And he had no idea how to fix it.
Luckily for Julia, he didn’t see her right away when he arrived at Ludbury House. He was somewhere between yelling and shaking her, neither of which would help his cause. Hailey, who he’d quietly dubbed Miss Perky Princess for her sunny personality and pretty looks (even her nose was perky), greeted him in the empty foyer of the large historic house.
“Welcome to Ludbury House!” she exclaimed, rushing up to him with a bright but tight smile. “No time to linger! Up you go to the third room on the right with the other groomsmen.” She gestured him up the grand staircase. “Wait for your cue!” she caroled before rushing to the front door to greet the next person.
He stepped into a room full of twentysomething guys he didn’t know. They looked like they’d only recently graduated from their college frat. Open snack bags of chips and cans of soda littered the room. “Hey, everyone. I’m Angelo.”
He got a series of grunts and chin jerks in return from the guys.
“Which one’s the groom?” Angel asked.
Everyone pointed to the guy with shaggy brown hair pacing back and forth. Figured. Angel crossed to Mark. “How’re you doing?”
Mark startled and froze, eyes wide. Beads of sweat had formed on Mark’s forehead and upper lip like he was dangerously close to a panic attack.
Mark shifted back and forth on his feet. “No, no, man. I’m cool.”
Angel inclined his head and gave the guy some space. He felt like saying get out while you can! The wedding isn’t until tomorrow! But he knew that was his own shit. He should’ve said that to Julia before she married the wrong guy.
He looked out the window onto the fallow winter landscape, remembering the morning of that long-ago wedding. Brad had been a nervous wreck, like Mark, pacing and talking a mile a minute. He’d confessed to Angel in a fit of nerves that he’d lied about being adopted, which Angel had suspected, and asked Angel if he should confess to Julia so he’d start his marriage with no lies between them. Of course Angel had instantly thought of the lie that he and Julia had kept from Brad, the sex weekend that had happened only eight months before, and he’d kept his mouth shut.
But, later, at the reception, Angel thought Brad should come clean. He’d taken him aside and told him he should tell Julia the truth. Because it would hurt her more not to know than it would to know. Unlike the sex lie, which would only hurt Brad to know.
Brad grinned and slapped Angel on the back. “I will, no worries.”
“When?” Angel asked.
“Not now, man, it’s my big day. Before I ship out. Go find a bridesmaid to hook up with.” Brad elbowed Angel in the gut. “I think the redhead’s been giving you the eye.”
Angel turned just as Julia approached, radiant in her white gown and veil, heading straight for them with a big smile on her face that seemed to take them both in. Brad met her halfway, and Angel took a detour to the bar.
Angel stifled a groan, sick of his Brad memories. He left the room and paced the upstairs hallway, needing to see Julia again, not as a bride, but as a single woman available to him if only he could move them out of Brad’s long shadow.
She stepped out of a nearby room with Ally, who was talking excitedly. His eyes were hungry for Julia, taking in every detail as she approached, her soft pink sweater and gray skirt that clung to her curves, her dark brown hair falling in a soft wave over one shoulder. His heart kicked up as her dark blue eyes met his.
She stopped in front of him. “Everything okay?”
He hugged her. “It is now.”
She sagged against him. “I thought you were mad at me. When you dropped me off yesterday, you were so quiet.” After Luke’s wedding and playing out her fantasy one too many times, Angel had been reeling.
He pulled back. “What if I was?”
“Then I’m sorry.”
“You don’t even know why I’m mad.”
“I know. I just hate when you’re mad at me, so I preemptively apologize.”
He blew out a breath. Weren’t they a pair? “I like it better when you fight me.”
She gave him a strange look. “You do?”
He whispered in her ear, “It turns me on.”
She laughed and whispered back, “Everything turns you on.”
“Only you.”
She met his eyes in a tender gaze that felt like so much more than lust. This was what he’d been missing. This look in her eyes.
“Julia, I—”
“Hello, everybody!” Hailey caroled, appearing in the hallway with the groom and groomsmen. “Bridesmaids, come out here!”
The women filed out into the hallway.
Hailey beamed at everyone. “Thank you all for coming tonight right on time.”
Some of the groomsmen whooped and hollered.
Hailey went on. “The wedding will take place in the foyer with a slow procession by the bridesmaids followed by the bride down the grand staircase. Guys, you will be waiting in the foyer.”
Ally linked her arm with the groom’s, who was pale. “My dad couldn’t make it tonight to walk me down, but he’ll be here tomorrow.”
“I’ll take his place for now,” Hailey said. “Groom and groomsmen, places, please.”
The guys shuffled down the stairs. The groom swayed on his feet. He hoped Mark didn’t pass out on his way down. Angel placed himself just behind the groom as they went downstairs in case he collapsed. They all made it down okay and waited for Hailey to arrange the women.
One day he and Julia would be in a procession just for them. He had to believe it wasn’t too late for them. The groom suddenly swayed, and Angel rushed over to steady him. “You okay?” he asked.
Mark turned, sweating profusely. “Yeah. Just got a little dizzy.”
He could hear Hailey upstairs bossing the women around, so he figured Mark had a little time. “C’mere,” Angel said. “Take a seat and put your head between your knees until it passes.” He guided Mark over to a chair in the adjoining parlor room. The other groomsmen started horsing around, loud and obnoxious in the foyer.
Mark sat heavily and put his head between his knees. After a few moments, he lifted his head. “You ever been married?”
“Nope.”
“You think this is normal? It’s just cold feet, right?”
Angel thought about that. Brad had been a nervous wreck the morning of his wedding, full of anxiety and pacing. But then he thought of his brothers, beaming and enthusiastic, eager to meet their brides at the altar. That was how he would be. If he was about to marry Julia, he’d feel like everything was right in his world. Like their joining together was inevitable just the way their bodies joining together had always been inevitable.
“Do you love her?” Angel asked.
“Sure. Ally’s great. And amazing in bed. She got this book—”
“Don’t need to know that. I’ll get Ally. I’m sure once you talk to her, you’ll feel better.”
Mark grabbed Angel’s arm. “Don’t tell her I got cold feet.”
“I won’t breathe a word.” Not that a pacing, sweaty, dizzy Mark wasn’t already a dead giveaway. Mark wasn’t the sharpest dude in the frat.
He left the groom and joined the women upstairs. Julia looked at him curiously, but he just shook his head and went straight to Ally. “Can you talk to Mark for a minute?”
“Is this important?” Hailey barked. “We need to get through this rehearsal.”
“Yeah, it’s important,” Angel replied.
“Oh, okay,” Ally said before rushing downstairs.
Hailey crossed to Julia and gestured Angel over. “I paired you with Julia to walk down the aisle at the end of the ceremony since you two know each other. Okay?”
“Of course,” he said, gazing at Julia, who was blushing. It amazed him that she could still blush where he was concerned. But it was probably the fact that all the women were eyeing them speculatively. She didn’t like to be the center of attention.
A short while later, Hailey had whipped the groom into shape and lined him up with the groomsmen in the foyer to await the descent of the bridesmaids and the bride. Pachelbel’s Canon in D played as the bridesmaids slowly descended the grand staircase to Hailey’s enthusiastic refrain of “ooh” and “beautiful” behind them. He watched Julia descend, his heart squeezing at the sight of her.
She met his eyes and smiled, making his heart soar right along with the music. He suddenly wanted to propose to her, just put it all out there. All this wedding stuff was to prepare them for the real deal together. He loved her. He had to tell her. Hopefully she’d feel the same, not just the kind of love between best friends who liked to screw. The forever kind between soul mates.
Julia’s gaze shifted to Hailey for Hailey’s abbreviated version of the ceremony. Julia had a pleasant expression pasted on her face. This wedding stuff didn’t get easier. Probably two weddings in three days was a lot for her.
Hailey was a dynamo, directing everyone while acting as father of the groom and then as mayor joining the bride and groom together.
“I won’t sully the sacred vows by repeating them here tonight,” Hailey announced. “Instead I will substitute blah, blah, blah.”
Everyone laughed.
Fina
lly Hailey was satisfied that they all knew their parts, and they were dismissed. Ally and Mark weren’t having a rehearsal dinner. Instead they were heading down the street to Garner’s Sports Bar & Grill. Angel had no interest in getting drunk.
He walked out with Julia, holding the large wooden door for her to go ahead of him. She stepped out onto the porch and turned to him.
“You think they’ll go through with it?” she whispered. “The groom looked so pale. I thought he might pass out.”
Angel chuckled. He couldn’t see Mark from where he stood during rehearsal, but he believed it. “I have no idea.”
They headed to the back parking lot behind Ludbury House, walking in companionable silence. He walked her to her car as he always did at night. She’d parked close to one of the few lights shining off the back of the house.
She turned to him. “Do you mind that I put you in my stories?”
He stroked her hair and cupped her jaw, leaning down to her ear. “I was extremely flattered to be your fantasy.”
She shivered. “I should’ve checked with you first. I’m sorry. I didn’t think anyone would read them or ever know, but…”
“But what?”
“It’s catching on more than I ever thought possible. I self-published it, and agents started emailing my pen name. Now I have an agent who’s sold foreign rights, paperback rights, and audiobooks. I’m getting a lot of interview requests too.”
“Julia, that’s great.”
“I mean, yes, in some ways it’s great. I paid off my parents’ debt from all the damage to their house from the last hurricane. I’m saving now too. I figure if I get a five-year cushion, I might be able to do the author thing full time.” She frowned.
“But?” he prompted.
“It’s exciting, but I really want, no, I need to keep my privacy. I don’t want people to judge me or you. And I really don’t want them to ever find out the truth.”
“What’s the truth?”
“That I craved you while I was with Brad.” The next words came out in a whisper. “Even after my marriage. It’s my dirty little secret.”
“Then it’s my dirty little secret too because I’ve wanted you since the first day I met you.”
A Tempting Friendship (Clover Park #10) Page 17