Aggie supposed Eric was an attractive man. His personality was so large it completely overshadowed his physical attributes, so she tended to forget how good looking he was. When he kept his mouth shut. Which was pretty much never.
“And he’s so enthusiastic about everything,” Charity gushed. “As is his wife. What a pair. They have brought such energy to the castle since they arrived yesterday.”
Aggie was more likely to call said energy obnoxious, but she supposed Charity hadn’t been living with them in close quarters for months. Their type of energy exhausted Aggie quickly, but she’d never meet a couple more suited for each other. Except perhaps herself and Jace.
“The chapel, with the exception of the flowers, is set up for the ceremony. Those will be brought in tomorrow so they’re fresh,” Charity said.
“What kind of flowers did you get?” Mom asked, sitting up straighter in her chair.
“Black and red roses,” Aggie said.
Mom giggled like a schoolgirl. “Should have guessed.”
“I believe both the bridal party and the groom’s party have now arrived.” Charity consulted a list and added checkmarks to the top two names—Agatha Christine Martin and Jason Michael Seymour. She ran a finger down the side of the list slowly, as if calling up the faces, or characteristics, of each person. “You have some, er, interesting friends.”
Interesting? Aggie’s bridesmaids included one notorious porn star and Jace’s groomsmen were all rock stars. She supposed they would be interesting to some people. To Aggie and Jace, they were just friends.
“They’ll be well-behaved,” Jace said, looking uncertain.
Aggie rubbed his back. They would, but who cared if their entourage got a little rowdy? She liked them for who they were. And she knew none of them would go on a drug-induced rampage and destroy the castle or anything.
“I can’t believe you asked Starr Lancaster to be in your wedding party,” Mom said, craning her neck to read the list. “Isn’t she that porn star you used to hang out with?”
“Well, yeah, when she’s not stripping and not dominating her slaves,” Aggie said. “She’s a good friend of mine; I’ve known her for ages. Why wouldn’t I ask her?”
“Uh, does Jace know about her?” Mom asked.
Aggie bit her lip. She still hadn’t divulged how intimate her relationship with Starr had once been. Hadn’t thought it important. Or maybe she was afraid of Jace’s reaction.
Charity cleared her throat, the ruddiness in her cheeks increasing.
“Starr’s a sweetheart,” Jace said. “Not half as vicious as Aggie with a lash.”
Now it was Jace’s turn to go red in the face. “Uh, I mean…”
Aggie chuckled. She wondered if he’d feel awkward standing before everyone saying his vows with Starr in the wedding party. He hadn’t questioned a single person she’d asked to stand up with her, but he was very good at hiding his true feelings—except embarrassment. Aggie would have been able to tell if Jace was embarrassed by Starr. When they were choosing their supposed-to-have-been small wedding party, he had mentioned in passing that Eric would be his best man, hinting that Aggie ask Rebekah to be her maid of honor. Even though she’d only known Rebekah for a year, she’d had no qualms about asking her to head her bridal party. To prevent hurt feelings, Jace had then asked the rest of his band to be his groomsmen, which made Aggie feel obligated to ask their significant others to be her attendants. They were left with Dave—Rebekah’s brother and Sinners’ lead soundboard operator—who was easy enough to pair off with Aggie’s cousin Beth. Beth had been thrilled to walk with Dave as she hadn’t shut up about the guy since she’d met him at Sed’s wedding. Trey was walking with Aggie’s mom because his significant others, Ethan and Reagan, had been unable to attend. And then there was Dare Mills—who Jace idolized second only to Eric. As Dare was rather tightlipped about his romantic prospects, Aggie had asked Starr to walk with him. Starr hadn’t protested. More like swooned. And Starr really was her closest friend outside the Lady Sinners. She just hadn’t told Jace how close. What happened in the dungeon, stayed in the dungeon. And her sexual relationship with Starr had never left the dungeon. Not once.
Aggie glanced up when she realized Charity was explaining how the rehearsal would go. She should probably pay attention, so she didn’t make a fool of herself.
“So that about sums it up,” Charity said. “Are you ready for your practice run?”
Aggie cringed. She’d missed more than she’d assumed while daydreaming. As in, she’d missed all of it.
“Could you repeat that one more time?” Aggie asked.
“It’s easier to get instructions while you’re all in your places,” Charity said, standing and moving out from behind her desk. “Don’t worry. You’ll have it down by the time we’re through.”
The event planner followed Mom out of the office, saying how unusual it was for a mother to be a bridesmaid.
“Yeah, well, that’s my Aggie,” Mom said. “No one could ever accuse her of fitting a mold.”
Was that a hint of pride in her tone? Aggie was sure she’d imagined it.
“Distracted?” Jace asked as he climbed to his feet and offered her a hand up.
“A little,” she admitted.
“About?”
“Everything,” she said vaguely. She couldn’t very well say, One of my few long-term romantic relationships was with a woman. And she’s in our wedding party. And has seen you naked. Maybe asking Starr to be one of her bridesmaids had been a mistake. Aggie didn’t like to feel guilty, yet intentionally keeping secrets from Jace had that effect on her.
“Me too,” he admitted.
He held her hand as they followed several paces behind chatting Charity and wide-eyed Mom. At least, he held her hand until the members of his band, along with Dare Mills and Dave Blake, came out of the ballroom. As soon as the rowdy bunch of men spotted Jace, he dropped Aggie’s hand as if she’d suddenly contracted leprosy.
“You know,” she said, “you’re going to be saying some really mushy and embarrassing stuff to me in front of all these guys tomorrow. Are you sure you can handle it?”
Jace took her hand again and smiled crookedly. “Yep.”
The guys were in various states of annoyance over Eric’s rehearsal-dinner after-party.
“You don’t really expect us to wear those clothes do you?” Sed said in his deep baritone.
“You better wear them,” Eric said. “You were the most difficult person to fit. Do you know how rare it was for a human to reach your size centuries ago? You’d have been labeled a freak and had to join the circus as a giant.”
“You’re taller than I am,” Sed pointed out.
“By an inch,” Eric said. “It’s those extra-wide shoulders of yours.”
“That drive the ladies wild,” Sed said with a wink.
“I’d say it’s your ass that drives the ladies wild,” Mom said. And she was not hiding the fact that she was checking it out. With excessive appreciation.
Sed wrapped an arm around her shoulders and drew her up beside him so she couldn’t ogle what he had going on behind. “My wife gets very jealous when MILFs check out my ass,” he said.
Aggie chuckled when her mom tripped over her feet as the definition of MILF sank in.
The guys followed them outside—ribbing each other as if they were brothers—and over to the church. Aggie’s attendants were already congregated in the back of the building, surrounding the tomb of Queen Katherine.
“Did you know her third husband was Henry the Eighth and her fourth was Thomas Seymour?” Myrna asked anyone who would listen.
“So Aggie isn’t the only woman willing to marry a guy with the last name of Seymour,” Eric said.
“How did she die?” Rebekah asked and was immediately engulfed in her husband’s embrace.
“About a week after her and Thomas’s daughter was born, Katherine died of childbed fever,” Charity said.
“I bet Thomas was devast
ated,” Rebekah said.
Charity lifted a scandalized eyebrow. “So devastated that he turned to the ladies of the court to ease his broken heart. He was courting a princess within months of Katherine’s death.”
“I can understand that,” Sed said. “Nothing like copious sex with strangers to ease a broken heart.” His words earned him an elbow in the stomach from his enormously pregnant wife.
“He was an ambitious man. Incredibly charming,” Charity said. “And apparently attracted to powerful women.”
All eyes turned to Jace and Aggie. Aggie grinned. She knew for a fact that her man was attracted to powerful women.
Trey whacked him on the back. “Maybe you are related to this dude,” he said with a laugh.
Jace gnawed on his lip, but didn’t respond.
“Did Seymour remarry?” Myrna asked.
“No.” Charity shook her head. “He was beheaded for thirty counts of treason only six months later. He was accused of conspiring to kidnap his nephew King Edward—Jane Seymour’s son.”
“Nice relatives you have here, Tripod,” Eric said.
“History has painted him in a rather villainous light,” Charity said, “but I believe he loved Katherine. He loved her before she married into the royal family.”
“I’m sure I’m not related to the guy,” Jace said. “He didn’t leave any sons to pass on the family name.”
“But he and Katherine did have a daughter,” Aggie pointed out. “What happened to her?”
“She was taken in by her mother’s lady in waiting because her father wanted nothing to do with the child after Katherine’s passing. There are no records of the girl beyond her early childhood. It’s likely that she died.”
“No records?” Aggie said. “Not even a death certificate?”
Charity shook her head.
“So maybe she is Jace’s great-great-great-great-grandmother,” Eric said.
“She would have passed her husband’s name, not the Seymour name, to her children,” Charity said.
Eric lifted a finger and pointed at an unseen idea. “If she married. Maybe she had a child out of wedlock.”
Charity crossed her arms. “Tut! Pure speculation.”
“Indeed,” Eric said, “but it is possible that Jace is the descendant of a queen of England.”
“Queen by marriage, not blood.”
“He does sort of look like her,” Brian said, tilting his head to contemplate the carved visage of Katherine lying in peaceful repose.
“He is quite lovely,” Eric teased and poked Jace in the shoulder. “Definitely my favorite of all the princesses.”
Jace started, released Aggie’s hand, and turned toward the exit of the tomb. “Shouldn’t we be rehearsing?” he asked. “I no longer wish to be in here.”
Aggie stared after him, confused by the longing and remorse on his handsome face. Did he wish he’d found his roots here, or was something else bothering him?
Chapter Seven
During rehearsal, Jace stood where he was told to stand and said what he was told to say and tried to listen to the battery of instructions that Charity relayed with utter professionalism and patience. It wasn’t easy to get a twelve-member wedding party working as a cohesive unit. Especially when Eric was in such a good mood.
“Stand closer to her, Tripod,” Eric said, shoving Jace in the back. “She doesn’t have cooties.”
Jace stepped closer to Aggie. She definitely did not have cooties and if she did, he was willing to be infected.
“Closer,” Eric urged.
Jace and Aggie each took a step closer. Except where their hands were joined, they weren’t touching, but her body heat warmed his chest and a familiar and welcome surge of longing throbbed in his groin. He had a powerful need to get lost in her so he could get over the unexplainable feeling of loss that had consumed him in Katherine’s tomb earlier. He obviously hadn’t known the woman, but as the others had discussed her, he’d felt as if he were yanked from his body, floating away to avoid the crushing reality of the death of someone he loved. He’d felt much the same when he’d learned of his mother’s death and his first love’s—Kara’s—and even when he’d learned of his abusive father’s passing. He was not a stranger to surviving unfathomable losses, but what was truly unfathomable in this case was that he’d never met the woman in question and she’d died almost five hundred years ago.
Standing back to examine the bride and groom, Eric stroked his jaw and chin with one hand, as if contemplating a work of art and finding something off. “Still too much daylight between you,” he claimed.
Eager for distraction, Jace wrapped his arms around Aggie and tugged her against him—belly to belly, breasts to chest.
“Is this close enough?” Jace asked Eric.
“Not quite,” Aggie whispered in Jace’s ear. “I want your skin against mine. Your hard cock inside me. Filling my core. Making me whole.”
Jace couldn’t resist rubbing his overwarm face against hers as it was the only bare skin they currently had available. Her turtleneck sweater needed to go, even if it did hug her large breasts just right. His fingers tightened in the soft fabric at her hips as he fought the urge to make her naked so they could be closer.
“What do you think, Charity?” Eric asked. “Isn’t that better?”
Charity pressed her fingers to her very red cheeks. “Yes, well, uh… I’m not sure… It’s not quite… proper.” The last word came out in a loud whisper.
“There is nothing proper about these two,” Eric assured her.
Jace reached over and smacked him in the arm while the rest of the wedding party laughed at their expense.
“Indeed,” Charity said.
Two practice runs later, everyone knew their parts and now seemed to think they were having their intelligence insulted. Charity proclaimed them ready and they filtered out of the church toward the ballroom where their rehearsal dinner/costume ball would take place as soon as everyone picked up the costumes Eric and Rebekah had selected for them based upon precise measurements collected weeks before. Jace didn’t mind Eric and Rebekah throwing a party—he wouldn’t have even known where to begin—but he did think they’d overreached their bounds by dictating what each person wore. Rebekah waved Aggie over to the rack of ball gowns in one corner of the room. Eric was arguing with Sed over a pair of velveteen knee britches on the opposite side of the room.
Aggie brushed a kiss against Jace’s cheek. “Hurry back to the cottage. I need you buried balls deep inside me.”
Jace flushed with heat. “One nap coming up,” he said.
“Is that what you’ve decided to call it? Your nap?” Her hand brushed against the front of his pants. “I want to do wicked things to your nap, Jace. Don’t let Eric distract you with nonsense.”
Jace chuckled. Eric was an expert at nonsensical distractions. “I’ll hurry,” he promised. He strode over to Eric, who was now arguing with Trey and Brian over lace collars or some such nonsense.
“Why do I always end up wearing the most girly costume?” Brian complained. “Year before last, Trey and Myrna conspired to dress me as Prince Charming and now this? I’m not wearing a cape.”
“It will look good on you,” Trey said, flipping a cape around Brian’s shoulders and tying it under his chin. “See, you look—” He broke off with a snort before bending over to laugh himself breathless.
“Yeah,” Brian said, yanking the bow at his throat to untie it. “That’s what I thought.”
“At least it’s not blue velveteen,” Sed grumbled, holding up his very poofy knee britches. “Who in their right mind would wear these on purpose?”
“It was the epitome of high fashion back in the day,” Eric said, holding a surprisingly straight face. He glanced at Jace and winked before handing him a big white box with his name on it. No sense in standing there arguing, not when he’d soon be mixing nap and Aggie. Box in hand, he turned and stopped just in time to prevent himself from careening directly into Dare.
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br /> “This wasn’t your idea, was it?” Dare asked, one dark eyebrow arching high over a piercing green eye.
“No, I voted for a pirate-themed rehearsal dinner,” Jace joked.
“You know, if we didn’t like you so much, we wouldn’t put up with this bullshit.”
Jace felt the familiar heat of embarrassment rise up his throat. He had no idea how to respond to declarations of affection from Dare Mills. “I—uh. Thanks. Eric convinced me that this would be fun.”
Dare shook his head, smiling. “Yeah, well, his sense of fun is a little different.”
“Everything about him is a little different,” Dave Blake said. Jace hadn’t noticed him standing, wheelchair-less, behind Dare. “I’m not sure why my sweet baby sister fell for the guy.”
Jace didn’t feel inclined to remind Dave that his sweet baby sister was a little different herself.
“So what’s the story with you and the porn star?” Dave asked Dare.
Dare’s dark brows drew together. “Porn star?”
“Yeah, that redhead you’re walking with in the wedding. She’s a porn star. A stripper. Prostitute?” He glanced at Jace for verification.
Jace shrugged and shook his head. He didn’t know if Starr was a prostitute. She was a friend of Aggie’s, so she was all right in his book.
“No story between us,” Dare said. “Though I did notice she’s a little hands-on.”
“I’d think you’d be used to that,” Sinners’ soundboard operator said with a laugh.
“I think you’re confusing me with my little brother.”
The three of them glanced at Trey, who happened to be getting hands on with his best friend, Brian, at the moment. He had him in a headlock while Eric tried to force a white stocking on one bare foot.
“I figured he learned it from you,” Dave said.
“Not me,” Dare said. “I’m a paragon of self-control.”
Jace busted out laughing. He’d spent four months on tour with the guitarist and his band, Exodus End, over the summer. Jace didn’t think self-control was quite the right word for Dare’s interactions with the female gender. Speaking of females… He could be enjoying his favorite female’s company right now, rather than shooting the breeze with the guys.
Sinners at the Altar Page 38
