I have to shake these sentimental thoughts from my head. I can actually feel my eyes sparkling. So weird. I walk next to Luke and every time our hands accidentally touch, my insides light up like Christmas.
We’ve moved the party over to the beach to watch the fireworks scheduled to go off tonight. I sense several of Megan’s teenage cousins trailing behind us so they can set up next to us. I really want to growl at them, but I refrain.
It’s hard to find a good spot since it’s so crowded. Looks like everyone in town turned out to see the show. Luke and I decide on a spot close to the water. He spreads out the blanket I brought and we sit down. I try to ignore the giggling girls settling in just a few feet from us. I swear if I see a flash coming from that direction, I will bury them in the sand up to their skinny little necks.
We sit in loaded silence as the fireworks begin. Whistling rockets pierce the night sky, erupting into dazzling colors and shapes that hang in the air over the water, and then slowly fade, only to be replaced my more and more brilliant explosions of light and sound. I stare at the sky, entranced.
Warm fingers on my cheek turn my head so I’m looking into Luke’s color-lit eyes. He intently searches my face. “Just how drunk are you?” he murmurs.
I frown at him. “What? Why?”
He shakes his head once. “I wasn’t going to do this—but, god damn, you are just too fucking beautiful, I can’t help myself.”
“Wha—?”
Luke kisses me. He is kissing me. His mouth is moving against mine in a sensual rhythm that I instinctively follow, opening and deepening until there is nothing but him and me, and what’s happening between us. This kiss…it flows into my blood and pours liquid heat into every inch of my body. I can feel him everywhere. Pulsating waves of warmth and light surge into me; I am the fireworks. I have been waiting for this my whole life, and I never knew it.
Luke hooks an arm around my waist, pulling me up and against him so that I'm up on my knees facing him. My arms go around his neck, and my fingers restlessly tangle into his feather soft hair.
“Open your mouth for me, Andi.”
His voice is rough with need, and I obey blindly. When his tongue touches mine, I let out an involuntarily whimper, and pull him impossibly closer. I have yet to breathe; if this kiss is the death of me, I will go blissfully.
How long does it last for? A few seconds? Minutes? We finally pull apart, both of us panting and gasping for air. Dimly, I realize there are mini explosions around us, flashes of color, and cheering sounds. Surely not for us.
Luke and I are inches apart, staring at each other as if lost in trance. I don’t know what he sees on my face, but he suddenly shifts forward and cups my cheek in the palm of his hand.
“Don’t shut me out,” he says fiercely. “I won’t let you.”
Dazed, I turn my head, touching my fingers to my tingling lips. His kiss is still burning through me, and I feel…I don’t know how I feel. My gaze drifts to the side and lands on Megan’s cousins. All four girls are staring at us in open-mouthed, wide-eyed wonder. I can practically see the OMG! text bubbles floating above their heads. It’s probably the most X-rated kiss they’ve ever seen in their young innocent lives. At least, it felt X-rated to me, despite the fact that there was no inappropriate groping.
Now that it’s over, I feel strangely shy and vulnerable. That kiss touched a part of me that I never knew existed. I don’t even know what you’d call it. That deep dark place where you keep all you’re fears and insecurities and psychological bullshit. I swear there was an emotional connection.
I bring my knees up to chest and wrap my arms around them, putting my head down. A heavy ache seems to be growing in my chest, like I’m slowly being squeezed to death.
“That didn’t mean anything,” I finally say. “And it’s not going to happen again.”
Luke lets out a short laugh. “Keep telling yourself that, Tiger. Not only will it will happen again—next time, you’re going to be naked and under me.”
“In your dreams, Luke,” I say, glaring at him.
He grins back. “Those have a way of coming true.”
Fucker.
Chapter 19
Luke and I are fighting. No, not about that night—or the kiss. He seems to think I’ll starve without his stupid money, though I’ve repeatedly assured him that I have more than enough in the bank to live comfortably until I find another job. He’s just pissed that I quit, and he has no control over what I do from now on. Not that he ever did, but I guess he likes the illusion.
We’re at Susan’s house right now, so aside from a couple of surreptitious gut punches and forehead flicks, we’ve been behaving ourselves. Mostly.
I rub my throbbing forehead and slam my foot down on Luke’s shoe. He flinches as he turns to say something to Aunt Susan. I smirk to myself and pop a piece of bacon in my mouth.
I almost choke on it when Megan comes bursting into the kitchen.
“The wedding is ruined!” she announces dramatically, and promptly dissolves into tears.
Chaos ensues. Megan cries inconsolably until Aunt Susan finally manages to coax the story out of her.
“I just got off the phone with P-pastor Dan. The—the church is infested with b-bats!”
Bats in the belfry, ha. I start to cackle, but someone elbows me in my side. I immediately cut myself off and pretend to sneeze. Why, I don’t know.
“—until they can get an extermination team in there.” Megan drops into an empty chair at the table. She puts her face in her hands, her voice coming out muffled. “We have to call the wedding off! There’s no way we can find another place on such short notice.”
“What about having the wedding here?” Uncle Charlie suggests, rubbing her back soothingly. “I’m sure we can pull together something that would work.”
“The house isn’t big enough to accommodate everyone,” Aunt Susan points out. She shakes her head, looking about to cry herself. “The backyard’s too small, too. Maybe we could call Olivia. She has that huge lot. If we…oh, darn, I forgot she’s in the middle of a renovation.”
Megan just keeps shaking her head like she’s given up. She takes out her phone and stares down at. “Bran’s not answering. They must be taking the cast off right now.”
Everyone has their thinking caps on right now. Well, except for me. I’m eating all the bacon. That’s why I’m startled when Luke stands up, and suddenly hauls me to my feet.
“Don’t do anything until you hear from us,” Luke tells Megan. “Come on, Andi.”
“My bacon.”
I’m just as confused as my relatives as he drags me away from my breakfast and out to his truck.
“I don’t know what you think we can do,” I tell Luke as he backs out of the driveway. “There is no way we’re going to get another venue on such short notice.”
“Have faith, Tiger,” Luke replies with the utmost confidence. “Where’s the best place to have a wedding here?”
“How should I—oh, wait. Sunset Lane,” I say, pointing a finger at him. “Megan always dreamed of getting married there.”
“Okay, then. Tell me where I’m going.”
“Hold on; I’m looking it up right now.” I spare a quick glance at him. “But you know there’s no way—”
“Don’t worry about it,” he cuts me off. “Let’s see what we can do when we get there, okay?”
“Okay,” I agree with a shrug. It couldn’t hurt to try. Also, I’ve seen what fame and money can do. Luke might just be able to pull a miracle out of that amazing ass of his.
Sunset Lane is the exact kind of place Megan would have gotten married at under different circumstances. I’d never been there before, but I remember hearing that it has a beautiful wedding chapel, huge banquet rooms, and a fabulous botanical garden. I also remember Megan saying that if she ever wanted to get married there she would have to book the place almost a year in advance. That’s just crazy to me when the beach is right there. What’s wrong with getting
married on the beach?
I let Luke take the lead as I slink after him into the imposing Colonial style building. We walk into an elegant arctic cold reception area, and I hang back by the refreshment table while Luke approaches the young woman behind a huge marble desk. She glances up with a professional smile—then she does a comical double-take, her mouth falling open in amazement.
Look at this setup—it’s so pretty. They have fancy cookies galore, and foil-wrapped imported chocolates. Is this a help yourself kind of deal? I glance around to see if there are any security cameras in the area. Of course there are. I take the chocolates back out of my pockets.
Luke is in full sexy movie star mode, leaning against the desk and bestowing smile after stunning smile on the overwhelmed receptionist. I can see her shaking her head regretfully, but then she holds up a finger and gets on her phone. A few seconds later, an impeccably dressed woman appears from a back office. Cue the giggling and squealing.
“I can’t give out that information,” the impeccably dressed woman is saying to Luke, while surreptitiously nodding her head toward the tablet in her hand which she has tilted toward him. “But if you were to find out on your own somehow, I can’t stop you from contacting her directly.”
Luke grins. He whips out his phone and taps something into it while looking at her tablet. “You’re awesome, Amy. I’ll be right back.”
He puts his phone to his ear, and with a wink at both ladies, he strides back out the doors. The women look at each other and giggle like giddy teenagers. I just sink into a linen chair in the corner, and hope they don’t notice me. I have bacon grease on my shirt, I just realized. Why does Luke take me anywhere?
Minutes later, he’s back. I can tell by the twinkle in his brilliant gold green eyes that he’s scored big time. Sure enough, he walks over to me and leans over my chair.
“Call your cousin and let her know we have a venue,” he murmurs in my ear. Then he kisses my cheek. “I told you to have faith, Tiger.”
He pulls back, and I stare at him suspiciously. “What just happened?”
“I called the bride who had a wedding booked for this Saturday, and convinced her to give us her reservation.”
I stare at him in shock. “How the hell did you manage to pull that off?!”
He winces only slightly. “You don’t wanna know.”
He goes back to Amy and the receptionist to explain the details, and I call Megan to tell her the good news. Her shrieks are so loud, Luke and the two women look over to see who’s being murdered.
“Is that the bride?” the receptionist calls to me. “Can I talk to her and get her information real quick?”
I hand my phone over to her, and turn to Luke and Amy, the impeccably dressed woman. She’s asking him to step into her office so they can talk prices. I take a deep breath and trail after them. This is probably going to be very ugly.
We’re there for at least an hour and a half while Amy simultaneously talks to the bride whose spot we are taking, and types up the paperwork. I hear her mention that Mr. Greyson is going to handle all the cancellation fees and deposits, and I give a sideways glance at Luke. He’s already got his credit card out, and is busy texting away on his phone. If my shirt had a collar, I would be tugging at it uneasily.
Amy finally hangs up, and gets down to business discussing the jaw dropping sum. Luke doesn’t even blink, of course—he can drop more than that on a daily basis, and still live the life of a jet-setting celebrity. Hell, he gives away more than that on a whim.
Even so, I insist on paying for Megan’s deposit. It hurts a little, especially now that I’m unemployed, but I hold my ground on this.
“Andi, you know I have millions in the bank, right? I got this; you don’t have to—”
“I know,” I cut him off, holding up a hand. “But I want to. I’m not as destitute as you think I am. I’ve got money I’ve saved up, and I still have my inheritance, you know.”
Luke shakes his head at me. “Yeah, but you’re saving up for a reason. Come on, Tiger, let me do this. You know that money doesn’t mean anything to me.”
“But it does to me. That’s why I have to do this,” I say firmly, taking out my bank card and handing it to Amy, who is listening to us argue with rapt fascination.
Luke is looking at me like I’m some kind of saint. Meanwhile, I can barely let go of my card, and Amy has to pry it out of my hand. I slump back in my chair, feeling clammy. I can’t believe I just did that. Can I take it back?
Megan and Bran arrive shortly after. Megan is a crying mess. She hugs everyone, and I can’t help but notice how she lingers on Luke, letting her hands trail down the contoured muscles in his arms and back. Poor Bran stands there like a chump with that one extra skinny and pale leg exposed by his gray skater boy shorts. I have to fight the urge to roll him into a ball, bowl him into Megan and Luke, and watch them all go flying like bowling pins.
Not because I’m jealous.
I did not sign up to be stuck in a pretty cottage with a neurotic bride and a bunch of giggling strawberry-scented girls, yet here I am. I try to maintain a happy expression, but it’s hard when my eyes are stinging so bad I want to claw them out of my face.
I’m slumped over on a couch, staring daggers at the hairdresser who “accidentally” sprayed me in the face with hairspray. It’s Aria, Bran’s cousin. That bitch has never liked me.
“Andi, honey, sit up,” my aunt calls to me. “Your dress is going to wrinkle.”
I quickly straighten, fixing a smile on my face. Aunt Susan smiles back and very carefully walks back into the room Megan is getting ready in.
“That’s a gorgeous dress, Andi,” Julia, one of Susan’s sisters, tells me, sitting down next to me. “You look amazing in it.”
“Thanks,” I reply politely.
“Stand up so I can see all of it.”
She gestures me up, so I reluctantly comply. I have to admit the dress is nice. Sherry, Luke’s friend, had it delivered a few days ago. Megan squealed when she saw it, joking that I was going to look better than her on her own wedding day.
I’m told the dress is cerise, which I guess means pink. It’s long and form-fitting, made out of a soft slinky material that flows over my curves like water. It’s a V-neck in the front, showing more cleavage than necessary. I think it looks like I’m showing more skin than appropriate from behind with the spaghetti straps and plunging back, but whatever. I didn’t have to pay for it, and it fits.
My long thick hair has been is piled on top of my head, secured by what feels like hundreds of pins and gallons of hairspray. I’m not sure my poor neck can support all that weight for the duration of the wedding. Also, I’m wearing more makeup than I’ve ever worn in my life—even when I was little and my mom entered me in all those Little Miss pageants. I put my foot down on the fake eyelashes. It’s not my damn wedding.
It’s almost time for the ceremony to start. Megan finally comes out of the room, and everyone oohs and ahs at her appearance. She looks beautiful, of course. The gown is a perfect fit, and her blonde hair is curled and styled like a renaissance princess. I can see her shaking with nerves and excitement. She keeps looking at her mother with wide doe eyes. Aunt Susan is beaming so hard, I’m worried she’s going to break something in her face. I don’t like how sunken-eyed and frail she looks in her pale pink suit, but I can’t tell her to go lie down at miss her own daughter’s wedding, can I?
The ceremony is being held outdoors in the botanical garden. It’s overcast today, and I wonder if it’s going to rain. That would be funny. I mean, bad. I walk sedately down the aisle when it’s my turn, inadvertently walking to the beat of the sappy song playing. My eyes land on Luke, who’s sitting in the front row next to Aunt Susan. His gaze sears into me, and tiny shivers run down my bare back. His expression is so intense and so…intimate. It’s the kind of look a man gives a woman just before he shoves her up against a wall and has his way with her—consensually speaking, of course.
I tak
e my place at the front without making a fool of myself. It’s Megan’s turn to come down the aisle, but I can’t seem to break eye contact with Luke. He is the most beautiful thing here in his sharply tailored dark blue suit. He should be walking the red carpet right now—not sitting there as a guest in my cousin’s simple wedding in Sea Horse, Oregon.
Sea Wind, I mean.
The rest of the ceremony goes by in a blur. I’m sure it was lovely, but I only become aware of my surroundings when Luke is standing in front of me. For some reason, I am as nervous as a virgin on her wedding night.
Luke runs his warm hands up and down my bare arms, leaving shivers in their wake. “You look incredible, Tiger,” he says in a low warm voice that also causes various neurological disturbances in me.
“I—it’s the dress,” I mumble nervously. I’m not quite sure what to do with my hands, so I clasp them tightly in front of me.
“No, it’s definitely what’s in it.” He lets his gaze drift downwards, lingering on all my tingly parts. Then his eyes move back up to meet mine, and there’s a mischievous glint in them. “So, you think your cousin would notice if I stole you away for a few minutes—or hours?”
“Where—?”
“Andi! Lucas!”
Talon’s obnoxiously loud voice finds us in our hiding spot behind a shed. A second later, he comes skidding around the corner. He wrinkles his nose when he sees how close we’re standing.
“Ew,” he says matter-of-factly. Then he shrugs. “I’m supposed to tell you guys that it’s time for pictures.”
“Great,” I mutter, quickly moving away from Luke. I glance up at him. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”
Luke sticks his hands in the front pockets of his trousers, and continues to stand there. “I’m not in the wedding party,” he reminds me.
CELEB CRUSH Page 18