The Wedding Steal

by Layla Valentine

  I checked my phone and groaned when I saw it was only five thirty. We’d been asleep for just over three hours. “I don’t function on less than eight hours.”

  “I noticed that,” Colton said, his mouth lifting up in a smile.

  I frowned. “What does that mean?”

  “It took me ages to wake you up. For a minute, I thought you might be dead.” He stifled a laugh, and I reached out and slapped his arm.

  “Never make fun of the way a lady sleeps. It’s rude.”

  His smile shifted into a grin that split his face. He was luminous. “Good thing I’m not in the presence of a lady.”

  I raised a finger at him in warning, though I was secretly pleased he’d remembered my joke from the night before. “I wish we had time for some witty, pre-dawn banter, but we don’t. What are we going to do?”

  Colton’s expression grew serious, his lips twisting into a nervous knot in the corner of his mouth. “I’m supposed to be delivering Jenna to Tony tonight, so we have most of today before he comes looking for us—or rather, gets someone else to do it.”

  “You think he’ll send someone after us?” I asked. Even though I’d known it was a possibility the entire time, I’d always assumed it wouldn’t get to that point. But Colton made it seem like a surety.

  “If I don’t show up with Jenna, then yes,” he said.

  “Right, he isn’t after me. I keep forgetting.”

  It didn’t make any sense, but I was almost disappointed to remember Colton and I weren’t in this together. Tony wanted Jenna. Like always, she was the star of the show. Of course, I didn’t want to swap places with her, but still, the entire situation reeked of familiarity.

  Colton stood up and pinned the comforter around his waist, holding it to his hip the way men hold onto towels after getting out of the shower. “I should have let you leave as soon as I realized you weren’t Jenna, but I didn’t know then what I know now.”

  “I understand, Colton.”

  He waved a hand to stop me. “You shouldn’t have to understand, Rachel. I’ve screwed up your life enough. You have nothing to do with this, and I don’t want to drag you down.”

  “You haven’t screwed up my life. Everything is fine. I’m perfectly fine.”

  “Right now you are,” he said. “But I don’t know what will happen if you stick around here any longer than necessary. It’s probably best if you just go and let me deal with this on my own. Now that I know Tony lied to me, I might be able to convince him to end our agreement and let this be my last job for him.”

  “Am I just supposed to take a cab all the way back to Pineville?” I asked. “That’s hours away.”

  Colton was pacing across the small room, the comforter trailing behind him. “Right. You’re right. You can ride with me.”

  My heart leapt at the thought of more time with him. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Colton. I was just getting to know him. If we parted now, the last…had it only been eight hours? The last eight hours would have felt like some kind of fever dream.

  “Yes,” Colton said, nodding his head, settling the plan in his mind. “You can ride with me, and I’ll drop you off in Pineville on my way back to Jersey. Then, I’ll face whatever is coming to me alone.”

  For the second time that morning, it felt like someone had knocked the wind out of me. He still didn’t want me to go with him. He wanted to do this without me. Picking me up had been a mistake that he wanted to correct and then forget about.

  For a minute, I almost let the small voice in the back of my head win. I almost convinced myself to stay quiet and do whatever he wanted. I didn’t want to force myself on him, after all. Colton was gorgeous—a Greek god in the flesh. He probably had a girlfriend back in Jersey, which would explain why he hadn’t made a single move on me in the entire time we’d spent together.

  Of course, he’d spent most of the time we’d known each other trying to kidnap me or figure out how to avoid being killed by a mobster, so that could also account for his lack of interest, but the point remained. Colton didn’t want to be with me.

  Or, maybe he did.

  I’d been wrong about so much. Jenna thought I was judgmental—and Miss Goody Two-Shoes herself had dated a mobster for almost a year! If that could be true, then wasn’t it possible that I was wrong about Colton?

  I stood up and crossed the room before I could change my mind, my bare feet silent on the floor. Colton didn’t see me standing behind him until he turned away from the window and we were less than a foot apart. His green eyes widened, and then slipped down my body. His cheeks turned a light shade of pink and he looked over my shoulder towards the bed.

  I hated that he didn’t want to look at me. I grabbed his hand—the one not holding onto the fabric at his hip—and ran my thumb across his knuckles. My hand looked so small in his. He had callouses along his joints and the palm of his hand, and his tan skin made me look so pale in comparison.

  I tried not to pay attention to that, though. I had enough doubts floating around in my head. There was no need to add any more.

  Finally, after a few seconds, Colton shifted his gaze back to mine. His green eyes captivated me, drawing me in until the dingy motel room disappeared, and I was lost in him. I had to blink a few times to refocus my thoughts and remember what I’d crossed the room to say. As soon as I remembered, I squeezed his fingers.

  “I’m in this with you,” I said. He opened his mouth to argue, but I waved his words away and took a small step closer to him. “I lied to you about who I was and made everything more difficult for you. Tony may not want me, but I’m part of the reason you’re here, and I’m not going to abandon you now.”

  Colton squeezed my hand back, his fingers warm and strong around mine. “It isn’t safe, Rachel.”

  “Is that why you don’t want me to come with you? Because it isn’t safe?”

  Something shifted in his face. A small crease formed between his eyebrows for just a moment until his features smoothed. He looked at me as if he was seeing me for the first time. “You think I don’t want you to come with me?”

  I nodded.

  He stepped forward so our chests were almost touching. I could feel the warmth coming from his body and his breath moving in my hair.

  “If I was going anywhere other than into a den full of mobsters, I’d invite you to come along, Rachel. Really, I would.”

  My heart floated in my chest, hovering in the cavity of my body as if in stasis. Colton wanted to be with me. His only concern was for my safety. I digested this information, mentally chewing on it for a moment before I did anything. I wanted my next words to be thought out and well planned. I wanted to mean them.

  Except, I was almost pressed against Colton’s chiseled bare chest. I was staring up into his forest-green eyes and his tan, beautiful face. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t plan. I could only do.

  I took one final step closer until our bodies were pressed together. I’d expected Colton to give way slightly, to stumble backwards in order to catch his balance, but he stayed as still as stone as my body melted against his. I stretched up onto my tiptoes, the top of my head still only reaching the bottom of his chin.

  “I want to stay with you,” I said, my voice little more than a whisper.

  Suddenly, Colton came to life. The stone structure I was resting against wrapped his arms around me and lifted me up until our noses brushed. His eyes closed, and then he pressed his lips against mine.

  The moment our lips touched, something that had for too long lain dormant inside of me woke up. My entire body came to attention. I wrapped my arms around his neck, running my fingers across his soft dark hair, and arched my chest until we were melded together.

  Colton’s mouth moved across mine, feeling both gentle and crushing, and I opened my mouth wider to let him in. To let him take whatever he wanted. He nibbled on my lower lip and swiped his tongue across mine, making me glad I wasn’t standing on my own two feet, because my knees felt weak.

&n
bsp; Then, suddenly, he lowered me down to the ground and tried to step away. I kept a hold on his neck.

  “I don’t want to—” he started, his voice trailing off.

  My entire body went cold. He didn’t want to. I wanted to release him and throw myself out the window, but I couldn’t move. I was frozen solid with embarrassment.

  Colton seemed to pick up on my body language, and he quickly bent forward and pressed his palm to my cheek, cupping my face.

  “I didn’t mean that. I meant, I don’t want to do anything you don’t want to.”

  So, that’s what it felt like to have a heart attack.

  Slowly, I began to defrost, my hands rubbing circles across his shoulder blades. “I want to.”

  Colton’s eyes darkened. His hands gripped onto my hips as if he was afraid I would vanish into thin air. “We just met, and I don’t—”

  “I do.” I pressed the words to his lips like a finger, silencing him.

  I could see him warring with himself, and I was cheering for the side of him that had just been kissing me silly to win. I wanted more of those kisses. More of his touch. More of the heat between us.

  “Colton,” I whispered, not too proud to beg.

  He sagged under the weight of my tone and leaned forward, his lips resting against my forehead. “I like it when you say my name.”

  I tipped my head up and pressed down on his shoulders, lowering him to a height where I could reach him. “Kiss me, Colton.”

  Suddenly, he was on me and around me, pushing me back towards the bed in a jumble of arms and legs and kisses. Except, we missed the bed and hit the wall instead. Colton pinned me against the maroon-and-green wallpaper, holding me in place with his hips as he kissed down my jaw and throat, trailing fire with every brush of his lips.

  Somewhere inside, there was a part of me that knew I was being reckless. I didn’t know Colton. Not really. I trusted that he was telling me the truth, and I was undeniably attracted to him, but beyond that, he was a stranger. Sleeping with him would complicate things for me. He had connections to the mob, regardless of how tenuous they might be, and that was a risk.

  What if Tony didn’t let Colton go? What would I do then? Would I stand by his side or run?

  Colton took my earlobe into his mouth and sucked, running his tongue across the skin, and every worry in my head evaporated. I buried my head in his neck and moaned, giving myself over to what felt good, regardless of whether it felt right.

  I slid my hands away from his neck and down the hard lines of his chest, remembering only then that he was already down to his boxers.

  “You have a lot of catching up to do,” he said, tugging on the hem of my shirt.

  In response, I lifted my arms over my head. Colton tugged his shirt off me in one move and tossed it over his shoulder. Then, he pressed his palms against my stomach and moved around to my sides until he was gripping the smallest part of my waist. I felt like a porcelain doll in his large hands, delicate and fragile. Still, I wanted him to break me. I didn’t want careful touches and gentle kisses. I wanted fire and passion.

  I pushed on Colton’s chest, forcing him to stand a foot away. He looked confused until my hands found the rolled waistband of his shorts and pushed them off. It took one tiny shove for them to fall all the way down and land in a puddle around my feet. Colton let his eyes travel slowly down my body and back up. They were wide, as if he could take in more information that way, and I had never felt so exposed before. Nor so cherished.

  Colton stared at me the way people studied famous paintings, as if there was more going on than he would ever understand, but he wanted to try and take it in anyway.

  “You’re so beautiful,” he said, shaking his head like he didn’t believe it.

  My entire body filled with heat, and I knew even my scalp was blushing. People had told me that before. Men had told me that before. But I’d never really believed it. Their words felt like part of the exchange, something they had to reluctantly give in order to take what I had. Colton sounded like he was speaking a higher truth, like he wasn’t even aware he’d spoken at all.

  I couldn’t wait any longer. I threw myself at him, wrapping my legs around his waist, and he caught me easily. His hand pressed into my lower back, and then he fell back onto the bed. Our lips found each other like they’d done it a million times before, and my body responded to his in ways even I couldn’t anticipate. Moving over him, kissing him, didn’t feel like a chore that had to be completed before we could move on to the next step. It felt like a luxury. I wanted to know every inch of him. His skin tasted like sunshine, and he smelled like the forest after a storm.

  My fingers followed paths over his abs and across his chest while my mouth drew a line down his center, tasting my way across the mountains and valleys of him. His stomach rose and fell as his breathing became more labored, and I reveled in knowing I could do that to him, that I could make him feel good.

  Suddenly, Colton’s hands were on my waist, rolling me onto my back so he was the one hovering over me. His hands massaged up and down my thighs, his fingers sneaking inwards, tickling the sensitive skin there. When his fingers hooked around the band of my panties, I lifted my hips and allowed him to take them. I couldn’t deny him anything. He kissed me everywhere, claiming my skin as his own, and I ran my hands through his hair like I’d hungrily watched him do all night, aching for the chance to do the same thing myself.

  “Colton,” I whispered, tipping my head back and clenching every muscle I had as he slowly kissed me right in between my legs.

  My hips rolled against him, and my voice grew stronger as the wave inside of me reached its crest. I called out to him for more, all the while my hands digging into his hair and his shoulders, begging for something to grip onto before I slipped from the bed and landed on the floor in a heap. Finally, the wave crashed, warmth rushing towards my fingers and toes, filling my head with thoughts of nothing but more, more, more.

  He was being gentle with me, tracing lines across my collarbone and staring down at me, letting me catch my breath, but I didn’t need it. My body didn’t run on oxygen anymore. It ran on this. On him.

  I sat up and forced him back on the bed, letting the control I had over him go to my head. I pinned his hands to the mattress, smiling at the absurd idea of me ever being able to overpower him. He raised his eyebrow in a question, but I pressed my lips to his and silenced it. Then, I moved down his body, shedding the last layer of his clothing, tossing it blindly over my shoulder. As far as I was concerned, he wouldn’t need it anymore.

  “Do you have a—?”

  In a flash, Colton lifted me off of him and crossed the room to his duffel bag. I watched him search in the bag for a few seconds, a stupid grin plastered on my face. When he came back, I sat up to reclaim my position on top, but Colton shook his head and laid me back on the bed gently. My legs were hanging off the side, and suddenly, his knee was between mine, pushing them apart. Then, his body was everywhere, and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out anything that wasn’t him.

  Colton tangled our fingers together, his thighs pressed into mine, and his lips were everywhere. He kissed fire down my chest and circled a necklace of kisses around my throat. All the while, I fell apart beneath him.

  His breath was hot against my neck, my name crossing his lips again and again. He lifted our joined hands above my head, bending me entirely to his will, pinning me to the bed with his strength and his passion, and I didn’t care. I wanted more. And I told him so.

  The motel room was heaven and the bed was a cloud. I floated beneath him, blissed out and exhausted, content in a way I had never experienced before. When he curled up against my side, his arm laying across my stomach, my last thought was that this was the happiest I’d ever been.

  Chapter 14

  Colton

  I didn’t want to take advantage of Rachel. As soon as I’d decided I couldn’t take her to Tony, I tried to make it clear she wasn’t my prisoner. But still,
part of me worried about her motivations. As she crossed the room and stood in front of me, looking up at me with the blue eyes that could knock a grown man back on his butt, I wondered if it was a trap. Was she only doing this because she thought she needed to lull me into complacency? Or was she being honest with her feelings?

  I tried to stop it, to tell her she didn’t have to do anything she didn’t want to, and as I got carried away in the vanilla scent of her hair and the soft lines of her body, I prayed it was real. It felt real. As real as anything I’d ever experienced before. And even as I woke up next to her, my arm draped across her stomach, my happiness overshadowed my still-lingering doubts. Rachel Kendrick was beautiful, and for the moment, she was mine.

  Her forehead wrinkled and slowly, her eyes blinked open, squinting against the sunlight coming through the curtains.

  “Hi,” I said, kissing her shoulder and nuzzling my face against her neck.

  She smiled and stretched her arm over her head, her back arching. “For a minute, I thought you were a dream.”

  “A good dream?” I asked.

  “The best.” There was a pause, and then, “Except for the mob stuff.”

  I groaned. “Right. We still need to make a plan.”

  “Sorry, I may have caused a bit of a distraction,” she said.

  I lifted myself out of bed and turned around to look at her lean limbs sprawled in the tangle of sheets. “It was a welcome distraction, but now, the only thing I care about is what we’re gonna eat.”

  Rachel’s hand fell onto her stomach and she frowned. “You’re right. I’m starving. Hungrier than I’ve ever been in my life.”

  “There’s a diner a few blocks back. I saw it as we were driving in last night,” I said, grabbing the comforter from the floor and wrapping it around my bare waist. “We could shower and then head over for breakfast? Maybe discuss our next move while we’re there?”