One Night to Forever Family
Page 17
He stared back at her through heavy-lidded eyes almost black with arousal and murmured, “I’m not,” in a voice so rough and tight with lust that she shivered. One of those delicious shivers that started at the base of her spine and rolled over her body in deep luscious waves, leaving her senses heightened and her body humming.
Heat swept up from her jittery belly, filling her chest with the champagne she’d consumed before racing up her throat into her face in a hot wave she wasn’t altogether certain was embarrassment. Or maybe not just embarrassment.
Then out the corner of her eye, she caught movement and turned to see Mr. Hands, the groomsman, bearing down on her like the IRS intent on an audit.
Dammit, she cursed silently. Trust him to find her here of all places, just when she was finally beginning to enjoy the anonymity of the dimly lit bar.
The condemnation in Jared’s eyes had her own eyes narrowing in an uncharacteristic display of temper. Decked out in his vintage wedding tuxedo, he looked ridiculously pretentious in comparison to soft faded jeans and a plain white T-shirt stretched across broad shoulders that needed no padding to look wide and solid and safe.
“Amanda,” he clipped out, probably annoyed that she was fondling another man when she’d been evading his hot sweaty hands all weekend. “What are you doing here? I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Hoping to maneuver her into a tight corner, no doubt.
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him for the thousandth time that her name was Samantha not Amanda when she was gripped by an almost savage need to shock that supercilious look right off his face. She suddenly wanted to rebel against everything in her life that kept her from being the woman she wanted to be. She wanted to be bold and face life head-on instead of timidly letting it control her.
It was tempting to dispel once and for all the prim-and-proper image that had been drummed into her since childhood and behave like a normal person for once. A woman with needs and emotions; someone light-years away from the mousey, emotionless and perpetually elegant and dignified woman her grandmother expected her to be.
Well, she thought, wiggling suggestively in the hot guy’s lap and giving herself a hot flash in the process. Damn elegant and to hell with dignified. She’d left that behind in Boston the moment she’d turned away from the sight of her fiancé and his boy toy to walk calmly from the room, shutting the door quietly behind her, leaving them in no doubt that the wedding was off.
Ignoring Jared, she cupped the hot guy’s handsome angular jaw between her palms and smiled into his intoxicating eyes before closing the gap between their lips to place a soft lingering kiss on his mouth. Her blood heated anew when he responded with flattering enthusiasm and smoothed his big hands up the length of her spine.
Shivering deliciously, she gave in to the wild, wanton creature inside of her. After drowning in the taste of him, she reluctantly broke the kiss, her tingling lips remaining on his for a moment longer before she eased back an inch. Staring into his eyes, she memorized the hot potent expression there and the way it made her feel. Like a hot-blooded woman a red-blooded man might desire. Just like a woman bent on experiencing everything life had to offer.
“Duty calls,” she murmured, lightly tracing his bottom lip with one finger. Then with real regret, she slid off his lap, grateful for his supporting hands when her knees wobbled and her head spun.
Whoa. No more shooters for you.
Or maybe that should be no more intoxicating kisses from hot strangers. But damn. She really wanted more of that.
“Sure you won’t stay?” he asked quietly, his eyes locked on hers. She was tempted—boy was she tempted. Then Jared called, “Amanda,” in that peremptory tone she suddenly decided she hated, because it was exactly the tone her grandmother used when she felt Sam wasn’t living up to Gilford standards. Just as Jared was exactly the kind of man the old battle-ax would approve of: good family, great pedigree, oodles of old money.
And boring as hell.
She shook her head regretfully. “I...can’t.”
His gaze, dark and seductive, held hers and myriad messages passed between them that she struggled to interpret. “My loss,” he murmured, his big hand warm and comforting on hers until her fingers slid free.
Copyright © 2020 by Bev Riley
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ISBN-13: 9781488066719
One Night to Forever Family
Copyright © 2020 by Meredith Webber
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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