unreasonable.”
“Look, Stella, I promised Jess I would not interfere unless she asked me to, but I’m not above locking you outside and pretending it was an accident. If you push me, I will push back.”
He caught a brief glimpse of her outraged face just before he stalked off. He found Jessica caught in the group embrace of her best friend, Beth, and Sed’s two sisters. He breathed a sigh of relief at seeing the wide smile on Jessica’s face. The photographer, who had followed him into the building, hurriedly snapped several pictures. He probably wanted something to show for his efforts before chaos reigned over the event once more.
They were supposed to be standing side by side and greeting their assembly line of guests in cool, calm formality. Apparently that plan had also been abandoned. Eric was the first to wrap Sed in an enthusiastic hug. Eric tilted back, lifting Sed’s feet off the floor, and shook him for good measure. But Eric didn’t keep Sed airborne for long since Sed outweighed the drummer by dozens of pounds.
Eric punched him in the biceps several times. “That was a total Sed move, sending the guests scattering with a rainstorm and getting the goods immediately following the ceremony.”
Sed grinned. “Yeah, well... Old habits die hard.”
“Did you even say I do?” Trey asked. “I couldn’t hear a thing over the wind.”
“We said something I-do-like.” Sed drew his eyebrows together. “But not what we were supposed to say.” They’d chosen their vows carefully. He’d have to say them to her that evening when they were alone together.
“Is she upset?” Brian asked. “She has to be upset. Myrna said their morning was hell.”
“She seems fine until her mother starts harping. She just can’t handle her today.”
Brian glanced behind him and shook his head slightly. The woman in question had just stormed into the building, wielding her hairbrush like a broadsword. “Speaking of her mother…”
“Would you guys do me a huge favor and keep her occupied? If she confronts Jess one more time today, it’s not going to end well.”
“I’m on it,” Trey said.
Sed turned to watch the man in action. Trey walked directly into Stella as if he wasn’t watching where he was going. When he hauled her against him to rescue her from falling and said something in her ear, her knees buckled and she swayed against him.
“He’s still got it,” Brian said with a smirk. “He better hope Reagan doesn’t catch him flirting with another woman.”
“As if he’d actually do anything with Jessica’s mother.” Sed shook his head in disgust.
“Are you kidding?” Brian said. “He loves older women. If he wasn’t currently in a committed relationship—”
“Two!” Eric threw in.
“Two committed relationships—isn’t that an oxymoron?” Brian shook his head. “Anyway, if he wasn’t in love, he’d have no problem keeping your mother-in-law entertained for the entire evening.”
“I bet she was hot in her day,” Eric said. “Not as hot as Brian’s mom, of course. I already told Rebekah that Claire Sinclair is my free pass, should the opportunity ever present itself.”
Sed laughed at the green tinges that suddenly graced Brian’s light skin.
“Ugh, God, stop,” Brian said. “If you ever bone my mother, I will cut your dick off and use it to disembowel you.”
“Sounds painful,” Jace said.
Sed sidled over to his bride, who was laughing at something his grandmother had said. Knowing his memaw, it had probably been something entirely inappropriate.
“Are you ladies up to no good?” Sed asked, slipping an arm around Jessica’s waist and holding her securely at his side.
“Memaw said your parents had their reception at a roller rink,” Jessica said.
“That’s right. It was an eighties thing,” he said. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Harold and I had our reception at a bowling alley,” Memaw said. “Now how did she ever talk you into this big ol’ fancy place, Sedric? It doesn’t seem like something you’d pick out for your celebration.”
“I picked out something else for our celebration, Memaw, but she doesn’t know about it yet, so shhh…” He covered his lips with one finger.
Memaw blushed. “I’ll never tell.” She pinched Sed’s cheek and patted Jessica’s before ambling off to find her place card in the dining room.
“What are you talking about?” Jessica asked, appraising him closely with those devastatingly gorgeous jade-green eyes of hers. “You picked out something else? How come this is the first I’ve heard of it?”
Sed grinned. There was no way he was telling her about their dinner plans in advance. He wanted it to be a surprise.
“Shhh…” He covered his lips with a finger again. “I don’t want Jessica to know anything about it.” He jerked away with feigned shock. “Oh, hey, Jess. When did you get here?”
“You’d better tell me.”
“Nope,” he said, brushing his lips against her temple and inhaling her scent. “You smell like the ocean, by the way.”
She stiffened slightly.
He whispered into her ear, “It makes me want you.”
“We should probably change out of these wet clothes,” she said.
She grabbed his crotch and gave it a squeeze. Stunned, he glanced down and was relieved to see her intimate and inappropriate action was hidden behind the skirt of her gown.
“After we dance,” he said. And after he worked her body into a frenzy under the dining table.
He took her hand off his thickening cock and smiled like a simpering idiot as every person from the wedding, plus a few hundred additional guests, entered the reception hall and required a personal greeting. When he and Jess were finally able to sit down, the wait staff rushed forward with plates of salad and bowls of soup. Most of their guests had long since finished their soup and salad. The loud din of their chatter filled the cavernous room as they awaited the main course. Sed was starving. He’d refused breakfast despite Brian’s harping, and it was already after noon.
The lobster bisque was exceptional. He would have to thank Stella for her excellent taste. He didn’t even want to know how much the meal cost him. He and Jess could live off generic mac and cheese for the next few years, no problem.
Jessica leaned close to his ear. “I need to get out of this corset,” she said. “There’s not enough room for me, the baby, and my lunch in here.”
“Why are you wearing a corset anyway? Is that usual?”
“I was too fat to fit in my dress without it,” she said, pouting down at her salad.
“You’ve never been more beautiful.” And he wasn’t just saying that to make her feel better. “I like a little meat on your bones.”
“I think there will be more than a little meat on my bones by the time I have this baby,” she said.
“More cushion for the pushin’.”
She smacked him.
“Sit still and I’ll loosen you up a bit,” he said.
He leaned behind her and lowered the zipper on her dress. He untied the stays of her corset and worked them loose by a couple of inches.
“Better?” he whispered into her ear.
“Mmm hmm,” she murmured. She peeked at him from beneath her eyelashes and slid a hand up his thigh. “Let’s let you loose too.”
He leaned his belly against the table, hiding his lap in the folds of the tablecloth as her hand found home.
“Baby, as much as I’d love for your hand to be wrapped around my cock at the moment, we’re going to have to stand up soon, and I don’t want to scandalize my entire family.”
Her thumb rubbed the sensitive head of his dick through his pants.
“I’m not planning on making you come,” she said. “I just want to make sure you remember you’re mine.”
“I’ll never forget,” he vowed.
“Though your cum is a lot more appetizing than this lobster bisque,” Jessica said, stirring her soup with
her nose crinkled in displeasure.
“Did she just say what I think she said?” Trey asked from behind Jessica’s chair. He was filling the empty seat beside Jessica with her giggling mother. Apparently Trey had introduced her to the champagne before the toast. Or perhaps she was just giddy from Trey’s attention.
“She said come sit down and have a lot more of this appetizing lobster bisque,” Sed told Trey, forcing a smile in Stella’s direction.
“Don’t mind if I do,” Trey said, sitting on Stella’s lap and helping himself to her soup.
Stella’s raucous laughter caused the entire room to fall silent as everyone turned their heads looking for the source of the obnoxious sound. Trey paused with his spoon to his mouth, his gaze meeting Reagan’s across the room. He dropped the spoon in the bowl with a splash that flecked the once spotless white tablecloth.
“Sorry, Stell,” he said. “The old ball and chain summons.”
He rose from her lap and leaned over Jessica to whisper at Sed. “That’s all the neck I’m sticking out for you, dude. You’re on your own.”
Sed tried making shut-the-hell-up motions with his eyes, but Jessica was too sharp to miss the gist of Trey’s words.
“What’s he talking about, Sed?” she asked.
“I’ll tell you later.”
“Are you going to eat that soup?” Trey asked Jess.
She shook her head. He picked up her bowl and carried it with him back to his table. He took a seat next to Reagan, but it was Ethan who looked the most displeased with Trey’s farcical seduction of the mother of the bride.
Stella sighed. “He’s really good looking.”
“Trey?” Jessica lifted an eyebrow at her mother.
“Oh, is that his name?” Stella asked, giggling as she tugged her partially eaten bowl of soup toward her chest. “He was so interested in me that he never said what it was.”
She smiled at her soup as she took a bite. At least she was in a good mood now.
A loud clanging drew everyone’s attention to their table again. Brian stood from his seat and lifted the glass he’d been striking with his spoon.
“It’s tradition for the best man to say a few words about the newlyweds at the wedding reception,” he said, smiling warmly at Sed and Jessica. “But I was never the traditional sort.” He sat down again.
The entire room burst out laughing.
Myrna shoved him until he stood again. “Well, I guess I have to say something or tonight my wife will have me sleeping in the dining room with the strippers.”
Sed laughed, but Jessica twisted her brows together at the inside joke. “I’ll explain later,” he said under his breath.
“Raise your glasses in a toast to Sed and Jessica,” Brian said, “the most sexually explosive couple to ever rock the Vegas strip.”
Jessica tossed a roll at Brian. It hit him in the arm and bounced onto the table.
“Here, here,” several guests shouted.
Brian tipped his glass toward them. “May your marriage be as long and healthy as Sed’s—”
Myrna grabbed her husband’s arm and yanked him back into his seat. “What?” Brian said, trying to look innocent. “I was going to say battle cries.”
Sed glanced at Jessica to find her laughing. She lifted her glass of non-alcoholic bubbly, and Sed clinked his glass of alcoholic bubbly against it. They linked their arms together and did their best to drain their glasses in the uncomfortable position while a camera flash repeatedly went off near their faces.
The waiters immediately began to serve the main course—steak tartare, seasoned long-grain rice, and steamed asparagus.
“I think it’s still mooing,” Jessica complained, prodding the piece of meat with her fork. She grabbed a waiter by the sleeve. “Can I get the vegan selection instead?” she asked.
“Sure thing,” the man said and hurried off to the side of the room where the meals were being kept warm.
“You don’t like the food?” Stella asked. “It cost forty-seven dollars a plate.”
Sed cringed, but didn’t say anything. He’d just have to sell autographed CDs and calendars of himself naked to avoid bankruptcy. No big deal.
“My stomach can’t handle rich food these days,” Jessica said, her tone surprisingly steady and not argumentative. “Must be the baby.” She covered her belly with one hand, looking slightly nauseated.
Stella nodded in acceptance, and Sed released a sigh of relief that their exchange hadn’t escalated into another argument.
Sed loved his steak so much, he ate Jessica’s as well. He felt sorry for her as he watched her pick at a plate of steamed vegetables while the flavorful meat practically melted on his tongue. She didn’t know what she was missing. As the dinner plates were cleared, Sed rose and took Jessica’s hand. She caught her loosened bodice with one hand as the weight of her skirt pulled it down. As discreetly as possible, he zipped the back. It was a struggle, but with a bit of muscle, he brought the pieces of her dress together.
“You got it?” she whispered.
“Yeah.”
“I should have had you help me dress.”
“That would have been bad luck.”
“But less stressful,” she said. “I cried so hard when it wouldn’t fit. Thankfully, Aggie came to my rescue.”
He gave her a gentle hug. Her morning really must have gone horribly if she’d cried and allowed someone to rescue her. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help.”
“We figured it out,” she said. “Don’t feel bad.”
“Cake, cake, cake!” Trey began a chant that soon circled the entire room.
Sed took Jessica’s cool hand to lead her to the five-tiered wedding cake that had four additional round cakes circling its square base. Nine cakes? Who needed nine cakes? He assumed they’d be eating leftover cake for the next millennium. Either that or they could use it to celebrate their children’s birthdays for years.
As they joined hands and sliced through the largest tier, Sed watched Jessica for direction. He didn’t particularly want to shove cake in her face, but if she did it to him, he was prepared to retaliate with a vengeance. No one got the better of him. Not even his beloved wife.
She slowly lifted a bite of cake toward his mouth, staring up into his eyes with tenderness and affection. He got lost in that green-eyed gaze, which is probably why he didn’t realize she was smearing icing up his chin all the way to his lower lip until it was too late to avoid it.
She grinned crookedly as she placed the bite gently in his mouth. She probably should have let him go first. Determined to retaliate, he grabbed her piece of cake, but before he could lift it, she looped an arm around his neck, rose to her tiptoes, and kissed the icing off his chin and lower lip with enough passion to melt his socks. Catcalls from the guests encouraged her daring, and the photographer caught it all. When Jess drew away at last, he was uncomfortably aroused. Very uncomfortably because his memaw was watching.
“Delicious,” Jessica murmured, staring into his eyes. “Can I have some more?”
He lifted the bite of cake to her mouth and fed it to her. She chewed slowly, making his mind race through dozens of naughty things he wanted to do to her sensual mouth. After she swallowed, she released him hastily and backed away. A grin of triumph graced her beautiful face. She even lifted a hand in the air to claim herself the victor of the cake battle. That’s when Sed realized he’d been had.
Chapter Six
Jessica kept her distance from Sed as he cut a rather large slice of cake, set it calmly on his plate, and returned to the table without her. He wasn’t going to retaliate? Was he actually mad? She’d only been teasing. He could shove all nine cakes in her face if it would prevent him from being mad at her. She really counted on him to be calm and levelheaded for her today, which was somewhat hard to admit to herself. How much she counted on him.
Chin up, if not a bit quivery, she collected her own slice of cake and went to join her unreadable husband at the main table. The serv
ers began to cut the cakes into uniform slices and set each slice on the gold-rimmed china dessert plates her mother had chosen.
The rest of the table was empty as she sat beside Sed. He didn’t so much as look at her when she sat beside him. Well, fine,
Sinners on Tour Page 29
