The Best for Last

by Maria Geraci

  He’d put in a call to Joanna to ask for an emergency session today, but she still hadn’t gotten back to him. Some shrink she was. What if he was the type to jump off a bridge or something?

  “Steve, my man!” Frank slapped him on the back. “This is quite the party! Care to join The Gregger and me in a cigar on the patio?”

  The Gregger stood over by the French doors that led directly out to the beach. He grinned and held up a couple of stogies.

  “Maybe later?” Ordinarily he wouldn’t have minded a little male bonding time with Kitty’s slightly drunk, soon-to-be stepbrothers-in-law, but the waitress was signaling to get his attention.

  “Cigars are so nasty. I’d much rather have dessert,” Sharon said, catching the tail end of their conversation. Her arm was looped around Alan’s. They already looked like a happily married couple and Steve was genuinely glad for them. “Thank you so much for this lovely dinner, Steve.”

  “Yes, we appreciate it,” Kitty’s father said stiffly.

  If Steve were a betting man, he’d say that despite the polite veneer, Alan Burke wasn’t his biggest fan at the moment. Not that he blamed him. If he were Kitty’s father, he’d probably beat the shit out of him.

  “It was my pleasure,” Steve said. “Excuse me, but I need to take care of something.” He made his way to the other side of the room to speak to the waitress.

  “We’d like to go ahead and serve dessert,” she said. “Normally, in a rehearsal dinner, this is the point where the guests make the toasts. Would you like us to serve champagne for that? We have several varieties—”

  “Sure. Pop out the good stuff and keep it flowing.”

  She looked pleased. “Very good, sir.” He’d spared no expense tonight. An open bar, appetizers, and the full menu. She and the rest of her staff were going to be looking at a very nice tip. He’d even hired a limo to take everyone back home so no one had to be the designated driver, although as the host, he’d limited himself to two glasses of wine with dinner and no hard liquor. Just in case.

  He turned around to find Kitty standing in front of him. It was the first time tonight they’d been in a position to talk semi-privately.

  “Hi, there,” he said. His voice sounded gruff and scratchy, like he was nervous. Probably because he was. The last time he’d been nervous around a woman had been…never. Well, maybe back in the sixth grade or something. He wished he could whisk her away for a week. Just the two of them with no one else around. Maybe he could still make that Hawaii trip work.

  “Hi, yourself.” Her hair was pulled back in a bun, but a few loose fiery strands had worked their way down her cheek. A pair of diamond stud earrings, exactly one carat each, shone brilliantly in her delicious earlobes. A surge of male pride flared through every cell of his body. And not just because she’d chosen to wear the earrings tonight. She was the most gorgeous woman in the restaurant. He had to fight the urge to reach out, grab her into his arms and tell her…and tell her what?

  Going to see Joanna was supposed to make everything easier. Clearer. Instead, after just one session he felt more messed up than ever. She’d called it progress. He called it bullshit. But she’d laughed and said she would see him next week. At this rate it was going to take forever before he could “embrace his feelings” as Joanna put it. Maybe he could get on some kind of accelerated therapy plan.

  “Everything is really beautiful tonight, Steve,” Kitty said softly.

  “Not as beautiful as you. Kitty—”

  “Not now,” she said. “Everyone is sitting down for dessert. We’ll talk later. Okay?”

  He nodded, relieved. At least she still wanted to talk to him. He took his seat back at the long banquet table that had been set up for the occasion. Alan and Sharon sat in the middle. Kitty sat next to her father with Steve on her other side. The guests were served their choice of Key lime pie or chocolate lava cake and the wait staff began popping bottles of champagne and pouring them into the elegant flute glasses.

  Greg was the first one to stand up. He clinked his fork along the side of his glass to make sure he had everyone’s attention then raised the glass in the air. “I’ll make this short, sweet, and simple. To Alan and Sharon, who both deserve a world of happiness!”

  Everyone murmured their approval then raised their glasses in agreement.

  Next came Ginny, who got all weepy and said something about no one ever replacing her father in her heart, but she was glad that her mother had met such a great guy. The rest of her toast buzzed by Steve’s ears. Mainly because at this point, Mallory, too, had started crying and then before everyone knew what was happening, Sharon was hugging them both and even Kitty’s dad had a tear in his eye.

  Joanna would have a field day with this group.

  He shifted around in his chair, wishing he’d had something a little stronger than just the couple of glasses of wine to drink tonight.

  Then it was Sharon’s sister’s turn and then finally, the groom himself stood up to make a toast. Alan cleared his throat. “Today, I consider myself the luckiest guy on the planet. I have the great fortune to be surrounded by the two most important people in my life. My beautiful daughter, Katherine, who came screaming into the world thirty-six years ago today, and Sharon, the woman I can’t wait to make my bride. I’ll be honest; never in my wildest dreams did I imagine this day would ever come for me. Kitty will tell you that, there for a while, I had a bit of an unsavory reputation as a playboy.” As if on cue, Kitty nodded in an exaggerated manner, causing the room to chuckle politely.

  “All that changed the day I met this gorgeous woman.” He reached out and placed his hand on Sharon’s shoulder. “But it wasn’t just the outer woman I was attracted to, although all you have to do is take one look at her and see why I became a blithering idiot around her.” Sharon blushed furiously.

  “It was the inner Sharon who stole my breath away. Her gentleness of spirit, her intelligence, her fierce kindness…put all together I never had a chance. No guy should ever be this lucky. But damn if I’m going to complain.” Everyone laughed, and then he raised his glass high in the air. “Please join me in toasting my beautiful Sharon!”

  “Here! Here!” Everyone began clinking their spoons against the crystal flutes.

  “I think they want us to kiss, hon.” Alan bent down and smacked Sharon one on the lips and everyone clapped and laughed again.

  “Who’s next?” Greg said.

  “A toast from the host!” Frank yelled, causing Greg to laugh at the rhyme.

  “Toast…toast…” they chanted like a couple of frat boys.

  Okay. He had this. He’d anticipated the need for some kind of statement tonight, so he’d rehearsed one. Short and sweet and to the point.

  He signaled for the waitress to refill everyone’s glass then smiled at the occupants of the room. “On behalf of Kitty and myself, I’d like to thank everyone for joining us tonight to celebrate tomorrow’s nuptials. To Sharon and Alan, best wishes, and may you always be surrounded by the love of your families.” He took a sip of his champagne, signaling that the toast was over.

  He waited for the prerequisite polite applause, but instead, Greg shouted out, “That’s it? What about you, dude? Let’s hear about you!”

  What about him? He was about to sit down, but then the spoons began clinking again.

  “When are you and Kitty gonna tie the knot?” This time it was Frank doing the shouting.

  He could feel Kitty stiffen beside him. He wished he had one of those cigars now so he could stuff it down Frank’s big mouth.

  “Aw, c’mon, give a guy a break, huh?” He hoped that would elicit a few laughs and that would be the end of it.

  “Let’s make it a double wedding tomorrow!” Greg yelled.

  “Yeah!” Frank chimed in.

  Mallory and Ginny and the rest of the family looked mortified.

  Why hadn’t he cut those clowns off two bottles ago?

  “So, after dinner tonight, there will be cigars on t
he patio and there’s dancing in the restaurant’s main room, if anyone is so inclined.” He sounded like a damn fool making some kind of public service announcement, but at this point he’d say just about anything to shut those idiots up.

  “You’re not getting off that easy, Pappas!” Greg laughed.

  He gazed around the room. Even the wait staff seemed mesmerized, frozen in their tracks as they waited for him to crash and burn.

  His chest erupted in flames. Maalox. He needed some stat. Or Tums. Or a fire extinguisher. He’d take whatever he could get.

  Kitty firmly placed her hand over the sleeve of his jacket and urged him to sit down. Then she stood up. “Now, now, let’s all play nice here.”

  The room laughed and Steve felt some of the acid eating away at his chest ease off.

  “The truth is I’m the one with the cold feet. But can you blame me? I mean, look at this guy. Okay, so he’s good-looking and rich, but a girl has her standards, you know?” There was more laughter and this time even her dad had a grin on his face. “But if I ever stoop low enough to make things permanent with him; you’ll all be the first to know.” She raised her glass. “Now, please, let’s make one final toast to the stars of tonight, to my dad and to his lovely Sharon!”

  Afterward, Kitty couldn’t meet his eyes. The limo came and everyone piled in, except for himself and Kitty. He hadn’t seen her since she’d excused herself from the table shortly after the toast.

  He’d blown it. Totally and completely. She might be able to fool everyone else in the room, but not him. And now she’d taken off.

  He had to find her and make things right again.

  #

  Kitty walked as fast as she could in her heels, until she couldn’t walk anymore, so she slipped them off, letting the still warm sand squish between her toes. The weather had cooled off, but it was still July, which meant the air was thick with humidity. Her hair had probably exploded into Chia Pet territory. Not that she cared.

  The night couldn’t have gone any better. Or any worse. The limo had taken everyone back to the house or to their respective hotel rooms in Destin. She’d declined a ride, however. She was simply too wound up to go home.

  “You saved my ass in there.” Steve’s deep voice came from behind to cut through the darkness.

  She turned around to find him standing just a couple of feet away. He still wore his jacket, but he’d taken off his shoes and socks. It was no wonder she hadn’t heard him. Had he followed her out to the beach? After that fiasco of a toast (thank you, Greg and Frank, future stepbrothers-in-law, extraordinaire!) she wouldn’t doubt that he needed a walk to blow off some steam. After all, that was exactly what she was doing.

  “It’s such a cute ass, I couldn’t help myself.”

  He shoved his hands into the pockets of his dress trousers. The moon was full, allowing her to make out clearly the weary expression on his way-too-handsome face. He’d worked hard to make tonight a special event and she was grateful for that. But he’d also made it perfectly clear by that awful toast that…that what? It wasn’t his fault that he’d been put on the spot like that. After all, she hardly expected him to declare his love for her in public. At least not the first time, anyway. Steve was an immensely private man. She got that. It was part of who he was and she loved him. But what on earth were they going to say to one another to make it all better?

  “I haven’t had the chance to wish you a happy birthday yet,” he said.

  Her fingers automatically went up to touch her new diamond earrings. “They’re unbelievably gorgeous. Thank you.” This morning around ten, a delivery truck had arrived at her office with two dozen red roses along with a card and a small blue box from Tiffany’s. It was a wonderful gesture, but not the gift she’d really wanted.

  “That’s not the end of your present, you know.”

  “It’s not?”

  “Not even close,” he said.

  He pulled her against his chest and kissed her, and because she wanted it too, she didn’t protest. She opened her mouth and his tongue slid in, familiar and exciting at the same time. Kitty sighed and threw herself into the kiss. She couldn’t fight it anymore. She wanted him. She always had and she always would. Maybe this would be enough for her. Or maybe not. She only knew she wasn’t ready to let go of him yet.

  He broke the kiss and began walking her back toward the restaurant. “Let’s go to my place.”

  His place in Mexico Beach was over an hour away. Kitty couldn’t wait that long.

  “No, let’s do it here.” She began pulling him toward the sandy area below a deserted pier. He hesitated a moment, then followed her lead.

  “Are you sure?” His voice sounded rough, like he was excited by the idea.

  Impulsively, she reached out and palmed the front of his trousers, causing him to suck in a breath. Oh, yeah. He was definitely excited, all right. “I’m positive. I’m thirty-six years old and I’ve never made love on the beach. It’s my birthday, so you have to do what I want.”

  He yanked off his jacket, threw it down on the sand, and then lowered them both onto it. His mouth settled in the sensitive area just below her earlobes with the outrageously expensive earrings, and began placing little kisses there.

  “Steve,” she panted.

  He slid his big hand up until her black dress bunched around her waist. Then, using the tips of his fingers, he lightly drew a pattern on the skin of her inner thighs. It took him forever but he finally reached the edge of her panties. He palmed her through the thin silk crotch, making her hips buck off the jacket. Then he slipped off her panties and used his broad shoulders to spread her legs apart.

  And that’s when she realized he was going to go down on her. Right here on the beach. She should be mortified. Instead, she now understood why he found the idea so exciting. Technically, they were obscured from view by the pier, but anyone could come along at any moment and see them. Or hear them. Because they were definitely not being quiet. At least, she wasn’t being quiet. He, on the other hand, had his mouth occupied at the moment.

  He swirled his tongue, slow and lazy in all the places she liked best, until she couldn’t stand it anymore. Her hips began a herky-jerky, frantic kind of motion. “Damn it, Steve, just do it,” she ground out.

  He laughed against her thigh, but he brought his hands under her bottom and raised her straight up to meet his mouth, flicking his tongue hard and fast against her clit until she collapsed in a heap of liquid bones back onto the jacket.

  He unzipped his fly, pulled out his cock, and guided himself inside her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and let her body adjust to him. They’d made love hundreds of times by now, but every time it felt different. Better. How could that be? Was it the same for him? Or was she the only one that felt that way? “That…it feels…”

  “Fucking perfect,” he moaned.

  “Yes,” she squeaked.

  He began pumping into her, his rhythm slow at first, just like his mouth had been earlier. His hands cupped her breasts through the material of her dress and she wished now that they’d taken the time to take off their clothes, but it was too late for that. She used her hips to subtly encourage him to increase his tempo, and just like that, he did.

  Bracing his hands on the sand above her head so that he didn’t crush her, he began pounding into her. It was rough, not like anything she’d experienced with him before. Her hands slid beneath his dress shirt to run frantically over the smooth muscles of his back. She couldn’t stop touching him. Everything felt more intense. More powerful. This time, when she came she must have screamed because he covered her mouth to stifle it, his own low moan mingling with hers.

  Afterward, they stayed together for a few minutes, trying to catch their breath. And then she began to laugh, because it’s what she always did after sex. It was her body’s natural response to orgasm. Call her weird. But she’d always done it.

  “You are so sexy when you laugh like that,” he said, pulling out slowly.
<
br />   “Yeah, well, I’m not sure either of us are going to be laughing when we stand up. I think we have sand in all the wrong places.”

  He threw his head back and laughed, a natural, deep, rumbly kind of sound that made her want him all over again.

  And then before she knew it, she blurted it out. “I love you.”

  The second she said it, she knew it was the wrong thing to say. Gone was the comfortable camaraderie and after-sex glow of just a few seconds ago. Now the air was thick with an emotion she couldn’t even name. She sat up and began brushing herself off, trying to put her clothing back in place. But her hands were shaking. Oh God. She’d said it. And he hadn’t said it back. It was worse than her worst nightmare. It was the end of the world.

  “I didn’t mean it like that,” she said quickly.

  “Kitty, I… Do you have any idea how much I like you?”

  He liked her?

  How was she supposed to respond to that? Other than knocking him upside the head.

  He stood and adjusted his trousers then gave her a hand up. “Let’s go back to my place. We need to talk.”

  “Your place?” He’d used that term before and while technically, it was true, it sounded as if they weren’t together anymore. “Are you moving out permanently?” she asked him.

  “What?” He looked confused. “You know why I’m at the Mexico Beach house.”

  “I thought I did, but it feels like maybe you’re relieved that we’re spending some time apart. Maybe we should spend some time apart.” She couldn’t be with him anymore. Not if he didn’t love her. It had been different before, but now that she’d exposed their relationship, it could never be the same again.

  What had she done?

  His cell phone rang. He ignored it.

  “Aren’t you going to get that? It’s after ten at night, it must be important. Maybe it’s the limo driver. Isn’t he coming back to pick you up?” Keep talking. Keep moving. Keep…doing something.