“I don’t mind stepping in and—”
She covered his lips with a finger and shook her head. “No sense in increasing the tension between the two of you. I can handle it.”
He nodded, knowing she liked to handle her problems on her own. He’d just be there to support her if and when she needed him. Sometimes he wished that she’d let him rule her life, fix anything that needed fixing, but then she’d be a lot less interesting and he’d probably have never fallen so hard for her. It was the challenge of Jessica Chase—Lionheart—that kept him coming back for more. Their compatibility in the sack didn’t hurt either.
“Where’s your ring?” he asked, lifting her left hand in his.
“Are you blind? It’s right there where you put it.”
“Your other ring,” he clarified.
“Oh.” She showed him her right hand. “You’re supposed to wear the wedding ring closer to your heart, so I switched it to my other hand for the ceremony and forgot to switch it back.”
He took her hand in his and grasped her engagement ring with his fingertips.
“Allow me,” he said.
He removed the ring from her right ring finger and slowly slid it onto her left to rest against her wedding band.
She shuddered beside him, and he glanced up to find her smoldering gaze on him.
“Why was that so erotic?” she murmured.
“Slowly sliding things into holes is always erotic,” he said with a grin.
“It is when you do it.”
The limo pulled to a halt. Sed tugged Jessica into his arms and kissed her deeply, knowing the next few hours would be chaos and they’d have no opportunity to be alone. And when they finally were alone together that evening, he had some romantic dinner plans in store for her and some rather lame words he planned to sing while there. He couldn’t wait to see her face when they reached their rendezvous point. He was a bit less sure about the song. It wasn’t like anything he’d ever written before. She might hate it.
The door was opened from outside, and Sed reluctantly pulled away from Jess’s soft, warm lips. He stared into her eyes and said, “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“You can count on me, you know. For anything you need or want. You can always count on me.”
She cupped his face between her hands and pecked him on the lips. “I know that. You can count on me as well.”
Sed slid from the limo and extended a hand inside to help Jessica out of the car. All their friends and family were standing in a huge crowd outside the reception hall waiting for them. Their cheers of excitement died as soon as Jessica exited the vehicle. Their slack jaws and wide eyes were probably due to Jessica looking like she’d been rolling around on the mud in her wedding dress. And that was pretty close to the truth.
“Oh, sweetheart.” Sed’s mom separated from the crowd and rushed over to them. “What a terrible time for it to rain.”
Jessica offered Sed a naughty smile before turning her attention to her new mother-in-law. “I actually thought it was good timing,” she said. “I know I look a mess, but I couldn’t be happier.”
Mom wrapped both arms around Jessica and squeezed, swaying slightly with girly giddiness. “I’m so glad you’re not upset. I was worried that you’d be devastated.”
“You can’t stop the rain,” she said.
But nothing had forced them to make love on the beach in it. Except their insatiable lust for each other.
“It’s a good thing you’re level-headed,” his mom said. “You’re going to need a lot of patience to put up with my bullheaded son for the next sixty years.”
“Level-headed? Jessica?” Sed sputtered. “I think you have her confused with someone else.”
His mom gave him a loving smile over Jessica’s shoulder. “Compared to you, doll? Yeah, she’s the level-headed one. I can’t wait to see how your kids turn out. I predict they’ll be a bit challenging to raise.”
Sed’s stomach did a back flip. He wanted eight of them, but if they were all as stubborn as himself and their mother—combined—perhaps he should pare that number down by a few.
His mom tugged away and searched Jessica’s face. Scowling, she pulled the strand of seaweed from Jessica’s hair. “How did you end up with seaweed in your hair?”
Jessica’s eyes widened, and she glared at Sed. He shrugged and shook his head as if he hadn’t noticed it.
“That was some wind,” Jessica said, her cheeks pink.
The photographer sidled over to join their little group. “Do you still want me to take pictures?” he whispered.
“Of course,” Jessica said. “Just pretend I look beautiful.”
“You do look beautiful,” Sed said gruffly. His chest puffed with pride because she was his.
Without warning, Jessica’s mother came at her with a hairbrush. “Dear lord, what a disaster! This will be remembered as the worst celebrity wedding ever in the history of Hollywood. Thank God I was only responsible for the reception.”
Jessica tried to avoid the hairbrush while Sed worked very hard at holding his tongue.
“A, I’m not a celebrity,” Jessica said, cringing when the brush landed in her hair and caught on a snag. “B, we are not in Hollywood. And C, I don’t care what you think.”
“And D,” Mom said, “what’s important is the kids are happy. Right?” She smiled in her ever friendly way, but Stella just scowled at her.
“Celebrities owe it to the world to have fairy-tale weddings,” Stella said. “It gives us regular people something to dream about.”
Sed opened his mouth to argue that celebrities didn’t owe the world anything—not that he considered himself a huge celebrity in the first place. Celebrities had the right to privacy and bad-hair days and cellulite and stretch marks just like everyone else. But he remembered his promise to Jessica and slammed his mouth closed. His teeth clicked together so hard, his ears rang. It was damn hard to hold his tongue when Jessica’s mother was around. Stella was far more outspoken and opinionated than her daughter. And as his opinions always clashed with the woman’s, it wasn’t as if he enjoyed arguing with her. Or watching Jessica try to hold her own. He had half a mind to shove Jessica back in the limo, steal her away without attending the reception, and deal with his wife’s fury later.
While Jessica and her mother argued about Jessica’s ruined hair and her ruined dress and her ruined flowers and her ruined wedding, Sed’s muscles grew tighter and tighter with tension. If his mother hadn’t placed a comforting hand on his elbow, he would have exploded.
“Are you going to say something?” Mom asked quietly.
“Jessica doesn’t want me to interfere.”
“Do you always let her get her way?”
Sed flushed. “Pretty much.”
“You have to pick your battles,” Mom said.
“Yeah.” At his mother validation of his choice, he felt a bit better about staying out of Stella and Jessica’s escalating argument.
“I think this might be the one you should pick.” Mom patted his back. “I’ll see you inside.”
So she wasn’t validating his choice after all. He considered clinging to his mother’s leg and begging her not to leave him with the mother-in-law that came with his new wife, but he wasn’t a three-year-old. He felt almost as helpless as one at the moment. And what must Jessica be feeling having to deal with Stella directly?
“Um, excuse me,” Sed said, trying to gain their attention.
“Those stains will never come out of that dress!” her mother was screeching. “Jesus God, do you even remember how long it took you to pick it out, Jessica Chase? You must have tried on a thousand gowns.”
“Jessica Lionheart,” she corrected. “And it’s my dress, mother. If I want to tie-dye it and wear it in the Thanksgiving Day parade, that’s my prerogative.”
“Do you know what your problem is?” Stella said, eyes narrowed dangerously.
“You! You are my problem.”
; Stella shook her head, sending silky blond locks dancing about her spray-tanned shoulders. “No, your problem is that you think only of yourself, Jessica.”
Sed took a step back as Jessica’s jaw went hard, and her eyes sparked with anger. She’d leveled him with that look on a few occasions. They never ended well.
“It’s my wedding day!” Jessica bellowed. “I’m supposed to think of myself today. My love for Sed and his for me are the only things that are supposed to matter today. You’re the one being a selfish shrew.” She threw her hands up as a plea to the heavens. Or maybe she was praying for a lightning strike to be sent in her mother’s direction.
“Um, sweetheart?” Sed again tried to break into their tirade exchange. He happened to agree with his wife, and not only because he didn’t want to face her wrath.
“Me, selfish?” her mother yelled. “Do you know how much time and effort I put into planning this reception?”
Jessica pressed her fingertips to her forehead. “How could I not know that? You’ve reminded me no less than a million times.”
“Our guests are waiting.” Sed placed a hand against Jessica’s back, hoping to propel her gently in the general direction of the front door. “We’re already late. We wouldn’t want the lobster bisque your mother selected to get cold.”
“I don’t even like lobster bisque!” Jessica yelled and stormed up the cement steps to the entry doors of the reception hall.
“She’s under a lot of pressure,” Sed explained to the startled photographer who had yet to find an opportunity for a candid shot that did not involve flailing hands and angry faces. But at least they were on their way inside. Perhaps Sed could keep Jessica and her mother separated for the rest of the afternoon.
Where was a brick wall when he needed one?
“Speak to her, Sedric,” Stella said. “She’s being completely 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 ex
cellent 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.
Sinners at the Altar Page 26
