She also bit back a sigh of disappointment. Although with the gravity of the situation and the viable tension hanging heavy in the air she shouldn’t be ogling Jason’s bare chest anyway.
“Look, I told you. I can explain.” Jason moved as if to put his arm around Chloe, but then seemed to think the better of it. But he remained close by her side. His stance was almost protective, as if shielding her from Danny’s anger.
The gesture made her heart go all mushy.
She didn’t want to hear what he was going to say to her brother. After what had just happened between them before Danny had interrupted, not the almost sex, but the embrace, she and Jason needed to talk.
She didn’t know what he was going to say to Danny, but she wanted him to say it to her first.
“No, I’ll explain.” She took a deep breath. “I asked Jason to help me with something.”
Jason’s eyes widened. “Chloe, I don’t think…”
“It’s okay.” She turned to her brother. “This whole thing was my idea.
“Your idea?” Danny’s eyes bugged.
“Yes. I had this list. A list of things I wanted to do before I turned thirty.”
“Chloe.” Jason’s voice held a warning.
She ignored it. “Like getting my tattoo and driving a convertible. And…and one of the things on the list was to have a night of really great sex.” She raised her chin a notch. Let Danny think what he would of her. She didn’t want him to be angry with Jason.
The red color of Danny’s complexion inched closer to purple. “A night of really great…” He rubbed a hand over his face. Then he glared at Jason again. “You were going to help her with that?”
“Look, it’s not what you think,” Jason said.
Danny folded his arms across his chest. “It sure the hell looks like it to me.”
“We didn’t do anything. I wasn’t going to sleep with her.”
“Then why were you both half-naked?”
Chloe ignored Danny. A raw ache spread through her chest and settled in her stomach at Jason’s words. “What? But you promised.”
“I can explain.” Jason reached a hand toward her.
But she backed away and crossed her arms over her chest. “You lied to me.”
“It’s not like that.” His eyes pleaded with her to understand. “Just let me explain.”
She shook her head. “No, I-I think you should leave.” She hugged herself to keep the pain of his betrayal from slicing her in two. “Both of you.”
“Chloe…” He touched her shoulder.
She cringed away. Had it only been minutes before that his touch had inflamed? Comforted. Felt so right. Now it only intensified the ache in her soul.
“I told you not to touch her,” Danny ground out.
Jason ignored him just as she had before. “We need to talk.”
She jerked her head back and forth. “I don’t want to listen to anything you have to say.” She walked to the door and held it open. “Get out.” She willed the tears threatening to spill over not to fall. She didn’t want him to see her cry. To see how much he’d hurt her.
“Fine, I’ll go.” He paused in the doorway. She sucked in a breath so her body wouldn’t brush his. “But when you’ve calmed down, we’re going to talk about this.”
She squeezed her eyes shut and listened to the tread of his steps on the stairs. The downstairs door opened. Then closed with a soft finality.
For the space of several, aching heartbeats, she didn’t move. But feeling the weight of Danny’s stare, she forced her lids up.
Before he could say anything, she held up her hand. “I don’t want to talk to you either.” Her head spun from the nauseating shift of emotions over the last ten minutes. The change from aroused to comforted to angry to touched to hurt had happened so fast her brain felt like it was being rototilled.
Worst of all, the hurt of Jason’s betrayal lingered in her heart. She’d trusted him. Believed him. Fallen for him. And he hadn’t meant any of it.
“Please. I just need to be alone right now.” Did she sound as tired and emotionally drained as she felt? She didn’t care.
Concern replaced the fury in Danny’s eyes. “Are you going to be okay?”
“Sure.” She hugged herself to stave off the pain of the untruth. Besides, this one didn’t hurt half as much as Jason’s lies. He’d never had any intention of sleeping with her. How could she have been so blind? Because she’d let her emotions get in the way. Again. She’d gone from wanting one great night with Jason to wanting more. Much, much more.
“Please.” Her voice wavered. Moisture pricked her eyes. She didn’t know how much longer she could hold it together. And she didn’t want an audience when she collapsed in a sobbing heap on the couch.
“Okay.” Danny brushed a kiss across her cheek as he walked out the door. “I’m only a phone call away if you need me.”
She nodded.
As soon as the door closed behind him, she swallowed a hiccup. Crap. She wasn’t even going to make it to the couch. She slid down to the floor and hugged her knees to her chest. Burying her face in her hands, she let the tears fall.
Chapter Nine
Jason stood staring at the closed door for long moments. The conversation ahead was going to be difficult. But in the long run, it would by far be the easier one of the two he needed to have.
He took a deep breath and knocked.
Danny’s eyes darkened when he saw Jason standing there. “What the hell do you want?”
“I’m in love with Chloe.” So much for finesse and leading up to things.
Danny’s expression remained stoic for several drawn out seconds. Then it relaxed a fraction of a millimeter. “Is that supposed to make everything okay?”
“No, but I was hoping you’d give me the chance to explain.” He paused. “Have you talked to her?” What other sordid tales had she told him?
“No. Have you?”
He shook his head. “She won’t talk to me. I was hoping you would. Look, we’ve been friends for a long time. You know I’d never do anything to hurt you. Or Chloe. Can we talk?”
“If we do, I’m not saying it’ll change anything.”
“I know. I just want you to hear my side of things. And then I’m hoping you’ll help me.”
“Help you?” Danny raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, I need you to convince Chloe to talk to me.”
Danny snorted. “You know Chloe as well as I do. If she has her mind set on something, or against something, nothing short of a miracle or force of nature is going to change that.”
“True. But I’m hoping we can try. The rest of my life kind of depends on it.”
****
“Why did you tell Danny you were in love with me?” Chloe folded her arms across her chest and stared up at Jason. The past forty-eight hours had been hell. She’d avoided his calls and his texts asking her to let him explain. She’d also ignored Danny’s message with the cockamamie story about Jason being in love with her.
Figured he’d take Jason’s side. It was like the unwritten law of brotherhood…buddies always stuck up for each other. What had happened to all of Danny’s righteous indignation and whoop-ass attitude from the other day?
After his call she’d decided she didn’t care if she saw either one of them ever again. Or for a long while as far as her brother was concerned. She could make it to at least Thanksgiving. Christmas if she pushed it. Unfortunately, today she hadn’t been able to avoid Jason, who had knocked on her door for the better part of an hour, making good on his threat to not leave until she opened it. Finally, not wanting him to continue to disturb Mrs. O’Connley, she’d let him in.
Now that he was in, she wanted to know why he was still making excuses. Hell, most men declared their fictitious love to get a girl to sleep with them, not to get out of it.
He sighed. “Because I’m tired of pretending I’m not. And I think both of you deserve to know the truth.”
“Dann
y’s not here. You don’t have to keep lying about what we were doing.”
Jason smiled, but the expression didn’t make it to his eyes. “I just told you I’m in love with you and you’re calling me a liar?”
Her heart thumped madly. A mix of emotions tangled inside her. Hope. Fear. Joy. Uncertainty. She ignored it all and tried for nonchalant. “You don’t have to keep saying that.” Her quavering voice ruined the effort. “You don’t need to make excuses for what we were doing. Danny’s a big boy. He’ll get over it.”
Would she? Jason had told Danny he’d never had any intention of sleeping with her. Even after he’d promised to help her with her plan. He’d lied to her then. How was she supposed to believe him now? With something a billion times more important.
Jason stepped closer and took her hands. “I don’t give a damn about Danny right now. I don’t care what he will or won’t get over. I care about you. Deeply. Unconditionally. And I’m not making excuses.” The deep blue of his eyes provided a mirror to his soul. “I. Love. You.”
The bold confession made hope bloom in her heart, but doubt, like clouds on a rainy day, lurked in her soul. “But you told Danny you weren’t going to sleep with me.” She couldn’t keep the hurt out of her voice.
He brought one of her hands up to place it over his heart. “I’ll admit it, when you first told me about your crazy plan, my only intention was to stop you from doing something you’d regret. So I played along.”
“So you really weren’t going to?” The hurt squeezed her heart. She blinked back tears. Despite his declaration of love, he didn’t want her.
“At first no.” His grip on her hand tightened when she tried to tug it away. “I’m not saying this to hurt you. I want to be honest. At first it was all about not wanting you to make a mistake. About protecting you. Then it changed.” His voice caught.
Her breath hitched in synchronization.
“It became about me. And protecting my heart. Because I realized that the one great night you wanted would never be enough for me.” His voice turned husky. “Oh, it would have been great. But I would have always wanted more. And it would have killed me to have you walk away after that night was over. Because as desperate as you were to avoid the emotion, I wanted it. Needed it. Craved it.”
Her heart pounded. Her knees trembled. A tear trickled down her cheek.
He wiped it away with the pad of his thumb and then cupped the side of her face. “I don’t want one great night with you, Chloe. I want thousands. Tens of thousands.” His eyes darkened to that midnight shade of blue that always set her pulse racing. “No matter what we do, they’ll be great, because we’ll be together. You see, I’m selfish and I want it all. The emotion. The love. The commitment. A life with you.” He took a deep breath. It rushed out with his sigh. “But if all you want from me is sex, then I’m sorry. I can’t be that guy.”
Chloe’s world tilted. Spun. Turned upside down. Everything she ever thought she wanted disappeared. Her life reshaped itself around his heartbeat racing beneath her palm.
His gaze didn’t waver from hers. The emotion in his eyes burned strong and steady. And true.
“Oh Jason.” She sucked in a shuddering breath. “I want all those great nights with you, too.”
“Are you sure?”
The uncertainty in his voice caused another tear, followed by another, to slip down her cheek. She was the selfish one. So caught up in what she thought she wanted, she’d almost failed to see more than she’d ever wanted or thought she’d have had been right in front of her all along. “I’m sure.”
“I love you, Chloe.”
“I love you, too, Jason.”
And then his lips took the words from hers.
****
The bouquet of violets shook slightly as the first piano and string strains of The Wedding March began. Beneath the pavilion tent, friends and family rose from their white wooden chairs.
This was it. In less than thirty minutes Chloe would be Jason’s wife. Hard to believe only six months had passed since he told her he loved her. Sometimes it seemed like just yesterday. Other times it seemed like an eternity ago.
But time was funny like that. Especially when you were waiting for something. And Chloe couldn’t wait to be Jason’s wife.
She also couldn’t wait for the honeymoon to start. Who would have thought he would turn out to be so old-fashioned he wanted to wait until after they were married? Wait as in she still hadn’t gotten her one great night.
Well, make that her first of many great nights.
Oh there had been plenty of lessons in the meantime. They’d learned about each others’ bodies. She’d learned a lot about her own, too. Like how the touch of his lips just behind her ear made her tummy quiver. How the brush of his fingers over her peaked nipples echoed in her womb. How warm, moist heat pooled between her thighs when they lay in a tangle of limbs on the couch, and he kissed her until her head spun and she couldn’t breathe from the want of having him inside her.
“Chloe?”
She jerked back to the present.
“You okay?” Dad squeezed her hand. “You look a bit flushed.”
“I’m fine.” At least as fine as she’d be until she could finally get Jason naked later.
“Okay, well then that’s our cue. Whenever you’re ready.”
“Oh, I’m ready.” She looped her arm through his and stepped onto the white, petal-strewn runner. They made their way down the aisle; guests smiled as they passed. Kelly winked. But everything and everyone faded away the moment her gaze met Jason’s. He stood next to Danny beneath the ribbon and flower bedecked arbor. His face lit with a smile that took her breath away. She tightened her grip on Dad’s arm to keep from sprinting the rest of the way.
At the front, Dad kissed her cheek and Jason took his place at her side.
He squeezed her hand. “You look beautiful.”
“You look…tempting.” No lie there. In his formal tuxedo he looked good enough to eat. Or roll around with on the manicured lawn outside the tent.
His grin widened. “And you have a one track mind.”
“Whose fault is that, Williams?”
“‘I have a head for business and a bod for sin. Is there anything wrong with that?’” He winked.
The preacher cleared his throat.
Right. The wedding. First things first.
“Dearly beloved…” The minister began with the traditional words of the service that would bind her and Jason together as husband and wife. His message spoke of love and commitment and how the joy of finding the one whose soul spoke to yours was right and good.
And then he got to the really good stuff.
“Chloe Isabella, do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
“I do.” Two simple words were all it took to pledge herself to Jason forever.
“Do you Jason Eric take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
“I do.” Those two little words again. How was it possible for them to hold so much emotion? But those two syllables overflowed with love and reverence and promise.
Tears pricked her eyes. She blinked them away so nothing would impair her vision of the man facing her, holding both her hands. Vowing not only with his words, but his gaze and his soul, to cherish her forever.
Rings, the outward symbol of their commitment, were exchanged, and then the preacher got to the really, really good part. “You may now kiss the bride.”
Jason’s soft smile settled into her heart. His crooked finger traced down her cheek. A shiver, like a warm, spring breeze, fluttered through her. He cupped her face. “I love you,” he whispered. His lips brushed hers, softly, gently, but the light touch held a billion and one promises.
“I love you too.”
The guests broke into applause.
Chloe grinned. Now they could officially get to the great stuff.
Chapter Ten
Chloe surveyed herself in the bathroom mirror for the hundredt
h time. She smoothed her hands down the satin of the long, white nightgown. She’d gotten plenty of racier items at her bachelorette party, but she hadn’t been brave enough to wear any of them. Would Jason be disappointed? Would he be expecting her in something sexier?
“Chloe?”
She jumped at the knock. And had to clear her throat twice before answering. “Y-yes?”
“You okay in there?”
“Yes.” There. Her voice was steadier. “I’ll…I’ll be right out.”
“No rush. Take your time. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Okay? No, she wasn’t okay.
Excited. Nervous. Eager. Scared. Impatient. Anxious.
Apparently the final exam was multiple choice.
She gulped. Her eyes were wide in the mirror.
“Don’t be a wuss. This is what you’ve been waiting for.” No. That wasn’t exactly right. Jason was who she’d been waiting for. Her entire life. The one who completed her. Made her whole.
She took a deep breath. She wasn’t keeping him waiting any longer.
Chloe walked out into the suite. Jason turned. He still wore his tuxedo pants, but the jacket lay over the back of a nearby chair. His crisp, white shirt was untucked and unbuttoned, leaving a tantalizing glimpse of smooth, bare chest. She licked her lips. The heat of his gaze as it swept over her made her blush. More physiology at its finest.
Without a word he held out his hand. She only hesitated half a second before taking it. But of course he noticed. He tugged her into his arms and rocked her. “We could wait until we get to Paris.”
She leaned away but kept her arms around his waist beneath the shirt. “No we cannot. No more stalling, Williams.”
He feathered a kiss across her temple. “I don’t want you to be nervous.”
“Paris isn’t going to help that.”
He nodded. “You know…” He traced the shell of her ear with the tip of his finger. A fine tremor shook her. “I’m just as nervous as you are.”
“Yeah. Right.”
“No, really.” His lips brushed her cheek. “There’s a lot for me to live up to, what with all of those romance novels of yours.”
One Great Night Page 9
