“We need to leave!” he shouted over the metal version of “Twist and Shout.”
She nodded. “Just let me get my bouquet.”
She rushed back to the table and grabbed her pretty-much-demolished bouquet before heading to the stage with Sed on her heels. They waited for the current song to end and then climbed the stage to orchestrate their final tradition of the day.
“All the single ladies are needed in the mosh pit,” Max said, winking at Jessica. “Time to toss the bouquet.”
Jessica waited until everyone who wanted to participate was standing before the stage. She already knew who she was aiming for, so she took a mental snapshot of the crowd and turned to face the opposite direction. She tossed the bouquet over her shoulder and then spun around to see if she’d hit home. Aggie stood staring at the bouquet in her hands as if she didn’t recognize what it was. Score! Jessica barely suppressed her victory dance. Aggie received numerous congratulatory pats, but she didn’t seem to notice or remember how to blink. It was only when Jace approached her and gave her a playful shove that she awoke out of her stupor.
Jessica laughed when Jace interlaced his fingers and stretched his arms in front of him, limbering up to catch the garter. Jessica was directed into a chair on the stage, and Sed knelt on the floor between her feet.
The look he gave her could have melted the polar ice caps.
“All right,” Max said in a farcical emcee voice, “it looks like the bachelors need to line up for the delivery of their life-without-parole sentencing.”
Most of the younger men entered the dance floor only when shoved forcefully in that direction. Lawyers and rock stars alike fidgeted as they waited for the verdict.
“Jace,” Jessica whispered to Sed, and he nodded.
He nibbled on his lower lip, as if hungry with anticipation while he waited for his cue. His cue was a chorus of “take it off, take it off” from the married gentlemen in the room. Sed delved beneath her skirt. Not just his hand but his entire upper body, including his head and both hands—which he immediately put to good use.
“What is he doing under there? Is he using his teeth?” Max asked.
“Yes!” Jessica squeaked. And that wasn’t all he was using.
His mouth moved against her inner thigh, his tongue swirling against her skin between nibbles. The fingers of one hand tugged the garter slowly down her thigh; his other hand moved to the rapidly swelling flesh between her thighs. One finger found her cleft and slid its length, starting at her mound and working its way back until it slipped a scant inch inside her. Her jaw dropped in surprise as her body went from willing to eager in the span of a second. Her mouth opened wider as his mouth began to work its way up her thigh, closer and closer to the throbbing ache at her center. He wouldn’t really put his mouth there in front of hundreds of guests, would he?
Oh fuck, he would. No one could see what he was actually doing under the wide skirt of her gown, but they had to be able to tell where his head was and where it was going. Dear lord, she should probably stop him before… His tongue flicked against her clit, and she nearly exploded out of the chair. Probably would have if he hadn’t been gripping her thigh with one hand.
He suddenly withdrew, leaving her disoriented and needy for his body. The man was far more daring than most—she loved that about him—but one day he was going to go too far. At least he hadn’t made her come in front of everyone.
Still kneeling at her feet but no longer beneath her skirt, he grinned up at her crookedly, clearly challenging her to admonish him for taking such liberties. She wiggled her eyebrows at him instead, and he laughed. He mouthed, You rock, baby, before climbing to his feet. He leaned in to kiss her before lifting the garter he’d received at Eric’s wedding over his head in victory.
Everyone cheered until he turned to face the bachelors and took aim. Instead of shooting at Jace, he slipped his finger into the stretchy band and let it fly high. Being one of the more vertically challenged in the crowd, Jace was at a disadvantage. That didn’t stop him from making a dive for it and landing hard on the wood floor with one hand extended, the garter gripped tightly in his fist. He climbed to his feet and stared directly at Aggie, pointing at his chest and then at her before making a twirling motion with his finger. She beamed a wide smile at him, a flush staining her porcelain-white cheeks, and nodded.
“Wanted to make him work for it,” Sed said to Jessica as he helped her to her feet. “Is it time to get naked now?”
“Oh, it’s past time for that,” she said.
She snatched the microphone out of Max’s hand.
“Thank you, everyone, for coming,” she said. “Now it’s my turn to do just that. Enjoy the rest of your evening. I’m sure I will.”
The guys got her joke immediately, but she wasn’t sure if many of the women had caught on to the double entendre. But she didn’t have time to explain it. She needed her husband and she needed him immediately. She tossed the microphone to Max, who had definitely gotten her joke, if his appreciative grin was any judge, grabbed Sed by the jacket, and headed for the exit at a run.
While they waited for the limo outside, Jessica pulled Sed against her and kissed him deeply. One hand clung to the back of his head, the other began to work the buttons of his shirt. She wasn’t going to wait until they got home to have him. If the limo didn’t hurry the fuck up, she’d be having him right here on the sidewalk in front of the reception hall.
“Really, Jessica?” Her mother’s voice was like a bucket of cold water over her head. “I have never been more mortified in my life.”
Jessica kept right on kissing Sed, hoping her mother would take a hint and get lost.
No such luck.
“You have got to be the biggest slut to ever wear white on her wedding day.”
More stunned than outraged, Jessica went still. Her mouth remained pressed against her husband’s. Sed yanked her away from him and shoved her behind his body.
“I don’t give a fuck who you are, lady. No one talks to my wife that way,” he growled, cold venom dripping from every word. “You apologize to her and then get the fuck out of her life. She won’t be tolerating your abuse anymore. I won’t allow it.”
Jessica stiffened as his words sank in. That was probably the most controlling thing she’d ever heard anyone say in her entire life. And it was such a huge and blessed relief that she began to shake uncontrollably.
“Apologize?” her mother screeched.
“Now!”
She narrowed her eyes at him before looking at Jessica. “I’m not sorry I called you a slut,” her mother said, “but I am sorry you married an asshole.”
Her mother stomped off, and Jessica stared after her, so astonished she could scarcely breathe.
“Are you going to let her talk to me like that?” Sed asked in a teasing tone.
Actually, no, she wasn’t.
Jessica grabbed her skirt in one hand and raced up the stairs, catching her mother by the arm before she could reenter the building. She spun her around and could tell by the open-mouthed look of shock on her mother’s face that she wasn’t expecting Jessica to retaliate. Not when she’d so soundly put her in her place.
“I put up with a lot of bullshit from you because you gave birth to me,” Jessica said, “but you’ve laced my life with poison for as long as I can remember, and I’m through with it. Understand? And maybe my husband brings out the slut in me, but unlike you, I don’t choose a man to love based on how well he can financially support me. I am happiest when I’m with him and the most miserable when I’m anywhere near you.” Jessica barely paused to suck in a breath. She had to get this out quickly because even though she argued with her mother, she had never made it personal. This was personal. And she was going to make it count.
“For the record, Sed is not an asshole. If you think he is, then you don’t know him at all. He’s caring and protective and challenging and a tad egotistical, but there isn’t a vindictive bone in his body. So go fuck
yourself, Mother. I’m sure it will be more pleasurable than screwing that perverted sleazeball you call a husband.”
She didn’t give her mother time to collect herself enough to fire back stinging words of retaliation. And maybe when Jessica’s heart rate returned to normal and her thoughts cleared of rage, she’d feel bad for saying such horrible things to her mother, but at the moment, she felt light as air as she skipped down the steps and into the waiting limo.
Sed slipped into the car beside her just as a large crowd of guests swarmed out of the building to wave farewell. The driver shut the door, and Sed rolled down the window. She and Sed waved at their friends and family—and a few Hollywood actors neither of them knew—until the limo pulled away.
“Are you okay?” Sed asked, stroking her hair gently.
“Are you filing for an annulment after witnessing how poorly your wife treats her own mother?”
“Of course not. She had it coming.”
“Then I’m more than okay. I’m perfect.”
He pulled her onto his lap, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. They stared into each other’s eyes, and she felt that something between them had changed for the better. Or maybe something had changed in her. Her mother’s oppression had weighed her down for so long, she wasn’t sure how to handle having it lifted so suddenly.
“Sed?” she whispered, searching his eyes for something deep and true. She found that and more in the man who stared back at her.
“Yeah, baby?”
“You really do bring out the slut in me,” she said with a laugh and slid off his lap onto the floor of the car.
She gazed up at him as she unfastened his fly. She never took her eyes off his as she freed his rapidly hardening cock from his pants and licked its tantalizing head.
His belly tightened, his breath quickened, and he lifted a hand to toy with her hair as he watched her with a look of fascination on his handsome face.
“All this and brains too,” he murmured.
Her cheeks tightened in a half smile as she descended on his cock, drawing it deep into the recesses of her mouth, determined to taste him before the limo reached their condo. She judged what excited him most by the hitch of his breathing. A combination of bumping his glans against her soft palate and applying hard suction as she backed off had him groaning in bliss. Usually Sed was a man with impressive stamina, so Jessica was shocked when he flooded her mouth with thick cum. She forced his fluids down her throat, not because she hadn’t wanted to swallow, but because she had been completely unprepared to do so.
“Sorry,” he gasped. “Something about you… Oh God!” His fingers tangled in her hair, pulling her onto him as he filled her throat with a second spurt. “About you…”
He shuddered violently and then went limp, his head dropping back against the seat and his fingers loosening their hold.
She released his spent cock with a loud slurp and then opened the minibar to grab a bottle of water. “Something about me what?” she asked as she opened the bottle and took a long drink.
“On your knees in that dress,” he said with a laugh. “Hottest fucking thing I’ve ever seen in my life. I should have taken a picture.”
“So it can end up as our next viral Internet sensation?” She closed one eye and shook her head at the disturbing thought. “No, thank you.”
The limo pulled to a stop and Jessica rose from the floor to sit demurely on the seat and sip her water while Sed returned his cock to his pants and hurriedly fastened his fly.
“Sir”—the driver’s voice came over an intercom—“it seems I need a code to get in the gate.”
Sed hunted for a button and pressed it when he found one. “That’s okay. We’ll get out here.”
“Very well, sir.”
A moment later the door opened, and Sed climbed out of the car before taking Jessica’s hand and assisting her to her feet. He gave the driver a huge tip—as was customary for Sed—and then led her to the pedestrian entrance to the side of the gated drive.
She gasped when he scooped her up in his arms and cradled her against his broad chest. Jessica had doubted the train of her gown could get any dirtier, but dragging it across a parking lot might do the trick.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Carrying you across the threshold,” he said, nuzzling her neck and making her giggle.
“We aren’t even close to our threshold,” she pointed out. The building was across the parking lot, the entrance beyond a landscaped courtyard, and the condo was on the top floor. “Put me down.”
“Nope. I want to make sure this threshold thing sticks.”
“I’ll stick you,” she threatened with a grin, and then she wrapped her arms around his neck to lighten his load.
“I’ll be doing all the sticking in this relationship.”
“You’ll hear no complaints from me about that,” she said.
She rested a hand over his heart, its steady thud as comforting as his easy gait through the palms lining the walkway.
“We’re going to have to start looking for a new house soon,” he said. “My place is great for entertaining, but not so great for raising babies.”
“We should be okay until the little one starts walking,” she said. “Those open-backed marble stairs would give any mother of a toddler a heart attack.”
“We created some great memories on those stairs,” he said, devilishly lifting an eyebrow at her.
They’d created great memories on every available surface of the entire condo. And a few less available surfaces. She decided they’d better enjoy childless freedom while they had a chance. In a couple of years, fucking on the pool table in the middle of the afternoon might lead to awkward questions.
“Are you glad we decided to start having kids early?” she asked. “Our honeymoon will be cut decidedly short.”
“We’ll soundproof our bedroom walls,” he said. “No worries.”
“But we won’t be able to make love on the kitchen counter or the sofa or on those hard marble stairs.”
“We’ll design a huge master suite in our new house. One big enough for a hot tub and a pool table and an entire kitchen if you want. But I’ve been thinking ahead. I already ordered your wedding gift. One that can bend you into a hundred different positions without taking up too much space. Unfortunately, it hasn’t arrived yet.”
“My wedding gift?” She smiled up at him. “Aren’t you my wedding gift? I know you’ve bent me into at least a hundred different positions in the past few months. Though you do take up more than your fair share of space. You’re a bed hog.”
He chuckled. “I’m a required accessory for your gift. Ever heard of a tantric chair?”
Tantric? “Uh, no.”
A doorman interrupted when he greeted them at the entrance with hearty congratulations. Sed nodded at him in thanks and then stepped onto the waiting elevator with Jessica still in his arms. The doorman helped Sed press the button to the top floor and offered them a knowing wink and a thumbs-up before the elevator doors slid shut. Normally Jessica wouldn’t have let Sed carry her like this, but it seemed to make him content. And she loved that his dimples were showing, framing the perma-grin on his handsome face.
When the elevator doors closed, Jessica asked, “So what’s a tantric chair?”
“A surprise.”
“Is it what you’ve been teasing me about all day? You know I don’t like surprises.”
“You like surprises that make you come,” he said, nuzzling her ear, his warm breath sending shivers of delight down her neck. “And both of these surprises should do the trick.”
He wasn’t wrong about her favorite kind of surprise. She was going to google tantric chair the first opportunity she got however.
The elevator opened on the top floor, and he carried her to one of two shiny red doors. There was a pair of sprawling two-story penthouses in the building and one of them belonged to Sed. The other was rarely used by its wealthy European owners, who only s
pent a couple months out of the year there. Good thing, because occasionally Sed and Jessica didn’t quite make it all the way into their condo before succumbing to their insatiable lust for one another.
“Can you get the lock?” Sed asked, holding her next to the numbered keypad.
She punched in the code, and he balanced her precariously as he opened the door and carried her across the threshold. “Welcome home, Mrs. Lionheart,” he said. Then he claimed her mouth in a deep kiss.
He kicked the door shut and set her on her feet, sending her spinning in a dizzying twirl so he could unzip her dress and let it drop to the floor.
“I still have sand everywhere,” she said.
He made an unintelligible sound in the back of his throat. Apart from her partially loosened white corset and the kitten heels she’d rescued from the beach, she was naked. She glanced over her shoulder to find him staring at the lacings down her back and the cheeks of her ass, as if he was seeing her in a state of undress for the first time.
“Do you like?” she asked, doing the slow seductive stripper walk she’d perfected for the runway as she headed for the stairs and a much needed shower.
“Mercy, baby,” he growled. “Show me the front.”
She climbed the first step, pretending to ignore him as she threaded her fingers through her long tangled hair. She doubted she was doing a very good job of seducing him in her current state of disrepair.
“Jessica,” he said, his voice harsh and raw.
She turned on the stairs to look down at him, her full breasts on display above the corset. Her nipples were as hard as diamonds. Surely he must be able to tell how turned on she was by his attention.
“Yes, Sed?” she asked, tilting her head coquettishly, knowing it made his motor run.
“I can’t decide if you look better coming or going,” he said.
“I assure you I look better coming,” she said, grinning. “Wanna help me with that?”
She continued up the stairs slowly. Taking her time to tease. To lure. He stumbled up the stairs after her, catching her on the top landing with both hands on her chest and his cock planted firmly against her ass. God, how her breasts ached as he massaged her nipples. If sex was always this good while pregnant, she’d gladly carry all eight of the kids Sed claimed to want. She rubbed her ass against him, needing him hard, needing him to fill her.
Sinners at the Altar Page 28
