I would come home from work and take a shower, and after dinner, she and I would crawl into bed together and do...this. This heaven, this rapture, this eternal daydream—this was what I had to look forward to for the rest of my life.
16
Victoria
My phone rang, and Mandy popped up on the screen. “Hey, girl. Are you coming over for the rehearsal dinner?”
I laughed at her. “Of course! I’m in the wedding party, aren’t I?”
Her voice came from far away. “I guess so.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “All right. Spill it, girl. What’s bothering you?”
“Have you seen Brady Townsend recently?”
My blood ran cold. “I haven’t seen him since Vegas. Why?”
“Charlie hasn’t seen him, either. No one knows what’s up with him. We aren’t even sure if he’s still coming.”
I thought fast. “Why wouldn’t he come? Why would he go to all the trouble of helping us with the wedding plans and coming to Vegas for the bachelor party, only to disappear?”
“That’s what I thought, but that’s what happened. No one knows where he is or if he’s still in the wedding party.”
“Well, has Charlie called him to find out what’s up?”
“No, but...”
“Don’t you think you ought to at least ask him? He’s just a phone call away.”
“I guess so.”
“He’s a busy guy. He runs a huge corporation, and he manages thousands of industrial real estate properties. I’m sure it’s just a miscommunication. Call him up and make sure he’s coming to the rehearsal.”
Mandy’s voice brightened. “You’re right. I’ll call him.”
“Why don’t you have Charlie call him?”
“Actually....” She hesitated. “I was hoping you would offer to call him.”
“Me! Why would I call him?”
“You spent the most time with him after the engagement party. You know him the best.”
I smacked my lips. “I don’t know him better than Charlie. If anybody’s going to call him, it should be that fiancé of yours.”
Mandy laughed. “You’re right again. Sorry to bother you.”
“No, bother at all. I’m sure there’s a perfectly logical explanation for all this.”
“Right. Thanks.”
I hung up, but I couldn’t shake the questions hanging in the air. I hadn’t seen Brady since Vegas. He never called. He never made any lame excuses to spend time with me or ambush me behind the mulberry tree. Maybe he changed his mind about us and everything.
Even if he got busy with work, what could be more important than this baby? So, what if we still had seven months before the baby came around came around? I still needed him. Didn’t he understand that? Didn’t he know I would start to worry if he went AWOL?
I could call him up, too. He wasn’t more than a phone call away from me, either, but he might as well be on another planet as far as I was concerned. What could he be doing? What could he be thinking?
A couple of seconds later, the phone rang. It was Mandy again. “Hey, girl. You were right. Charlie called him. He’s super busy with work, but he’s coming to the rehearsal dinner, so we’ll see him there.”
“What did I tell you?”
Mandy laughed. “You’re always right, Vic. Hey, could you do me a favor?”
“Sure, babe. Name it.”
“I need you to come with me to the final fitting for my dress. I’ve got no one to go with me, and I need someone to...”
“What—no one?”
“Nope. You’re the only one around. My sister Teresa is out of town, Helena had to take Ricky to the doctor, and all the other bridesmaids are too busy with their own stuff. Will you come? I really need you.”
“You know I’ll come. When do you want to go?”
“This afternoon, three o’clock.”
“Sure. No problem.”
“After we leave the fitting, I need you to come with me to the florist. I have to make the final arrangements for the decorations for the hall, and I have to give them the last grand deposit for the flowers.”
“Okay. Since we’ll be out together anyway, I might as well.”
“Thank you so much. You don’t know what this means to me. You know I was never any good at doing this type of thing alone. I need someone holding my hand.”
I sighed. “Don’t we all.”
“Yeah. I’ll pick you up at two-thirty.”
I waited until I hung up again to let my heart sink into my shoes. So, Brady really was busy with work. That only made me feel worse. So, there I was at the bottom of his to-do list. That was just great, and me getting more and more pregnant all the time.
I could understand if he got run over by a bus and was laid up in intensive care for the last six weeks. I wouldn’t even have minded if he got some dread disease and got put into quarantine, as long as only the extreme circumstances kept him away from groveling at my feet.
Okay, so it wasn’t as bad as all that, but how about a little phone call? Even a text would do. What could be so important that he would leave me hanging like this?
I went through all the same agony of uncertainty and insecurity I went through when his grandmother died. What could cause him to avoid me like this? What could cast such an insurmountable rift between us? Was this the relationship I had to look forward to for the rest of this child’s life?
I fretted and worried myself into a state of high tension until Mandy pulled up at my door. I shoved every thought about Brady out of my mind and ran down the steps. I hopped into her car, and away we went.
Nothing was more important than making Mandy feel special on her wedding day. I had nine months to be pregnant and twenty more years after that to be a mother. Mandy had one day. I could put off whatever distress this caused me to focus on her.
She drove to the dress shop and parked in the parking lot. When I threw the door open, her hand fell on my arm. “Wait a second, Vic.”
My eyes popped. “What’s up?”
There, right in front of my eyes, she burst into tears. She covered her face with both hands and blubbered. “I don’t know if I can go through with this. Do you really think Charlie’s the right guy for me? I shouldn’t even be talking to you about this. You’re his sister, for Christ sake. I don’t know what to do. I can’t stop thinking I’m making a terrible mistake.”
I stared at her with my mouth open. “Are you serious?”
She nodded so fast the tears flew of her cheeks. “I mean, I love Charlie and all. He’s the most perfect guy I can imagine, but marriage is supposed to be forever, right? What if I make a mistake? Or what if Charlie makes a mistake? What if I’m certain and he’s not? What if it all turns pear-shaped? What if the wedding is a disaster and I’m humiliated in front of everyone?”
I swallowed hard. I had to pull this situation together if it was the last thing I did. “Hey, hey, hey. Take it easy, girlfriend. Let’s just take a few deep breaths and think this thing through before we jump to any hasty conclusions.”
Her eyes snapped to my face, and I understood everything. The bridesmaids, the maid of honor, even the groom and the groomsmen all had their busy lives pulling them away from her. She was left alone with all her doubts and fears and worst-case scenarios. All she needed was a little reassurance, a little support.
I swiveled around in the car seat and took hold of her shoulders. “Now listen to me, Mandy. I want you to think real hard about this. Are you certain Charlie’s the man for you? Forget all that other stuff about the wedding turning into a disaster and you being humiliated in front of everyone. Just put aside the possibility that he might decide you’re not the right woman for him. Just think about you. Are you sure, in your own mind, that he’s the right guy?”
“Well, yeah, but what about...?”
I cut her off. “Don’t even start with ‘but what about.' You’re sure. That’s all you need to worry about. You let Charlie take ca
re of Charlie, and the rest of the wedding will be just fine.”
She sniffed. “Are you sure?”
“Of course, I’m sure. Now come on. We’ve got a fitting to get to.”
She dragged her wrist over her face. “Vic?”
“What, babe?”
“Do you really think there’s one right person in the world for everyone?”
I stared out the front windshield at nothing. My answer to that changed so many time over the last few months, I wasn’t sure what to say. Did I really think Brady Townsend was the right man for me?
I only had to think about one thing to answer that question: Vegas. Our time in Vegas proved it. He was the right guy for me. I’d bet everything I had on it.
17
Brady
I put the phone down and took another look at the construction plans on the new development project my agent sent over. The project was coming along nicely, even if it did require constant supervision night and day.
Through it all, my mind kept drifting back to Victoria and the baby. I got it all mapped out in my head, just as sure as I had the development under control. I planned to renovate my house, so it wasn’t such a guy pad. I even went down to the local jewelry store and picked out the most perfect diamond for the ring.
Planning to pop the question to Victoria was the easy part. Anytime the construction project started to get on my nerves, all I had to do was lean back in my chair and imagine proposing to her. I would hand her a bunch of long-stemmed roses and ask her to make me the happiest man in the world—like she hadn’t already. That scene calmed me right down every time.
Planning how to break the news to Charlie and the rest of the family—well, that was a different kettle of fish. To begin with, I couldn’t say anything until well after the wedding. I didn’t want to steal Charlie’s thunder by shifted the attention to Victoria and me when everyone should be celebrating him and Mandy.
Then there was the little detail of Victoria being pregnant. Once the news broke, the family would count on their fingers and figure out we did around the time of the engagement party. They would calculate we were screwing around when we should have been supporting the bride and groom.
Not to mention the other bomb that I messed around with Victoria back in college and even as far back as high school. Charlie would explode. Explode didn’t begin to cover it. He would disown me. He would probably knock me out. He would do everything to make sure I never came near his sister again. Was this thing really worth losing my oldest friend?
Heaven knows I spent enough time over the last weeks thinking about it. I decided to propose to Victoria after Charlie and Mandy came back from their honeymoon. All the commotion of the wedding would die down, and I could have a nice heart-to-heart with Charlie. Maybe I could satisfy him with knocking me out. Maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t come after me with a double-barreled shotgun.
Enough about that. Now I’d go back to thinking about the actual proposal. Don’t think about the negatives. Focus on the positives. That was the best strategy.
So that’s why I left the ring at home when I went out to the rehearsal and the dinner afterward. I wasn’t planning on proposing to her then. Mistake number one. I showed up to the rehearsal, but I didn’t see Victoria anywhere. She and Mandy and Helena and all the bridesmaids were sequestered in a separate part of the hall—sequestered for real this time, unlike the bachelor and bachelorette parties where we were all just pretend sequestered.
Charlie and the guys had to go be guys in a different part of the hall. Charlie got flustered putting on his suit. Sam had to tie his bow tie for him ‘because he never wore one before. I took out my own personal tailored tux and put it on while the others tried on their rentals. When I got back into the room, Charlie’s eyes bugged out when he saw me. “Man! You look like you just robbed a bank. You look like Al Capone or something.”
I had to laugh. “That’s what a tailored suit will do for you. You could spend a million dollars on the right suit, and it would still look like chopped liver if you didn’t get it tailored.”
He stared at me like he’d never seen me before in his life. “You really know how to knock them dead, don’t you? I guess that’s one of the perks of living the billionaire lifestyle.”
“It comes with the trade, man,” I told him. “When you attend enough industry balls and evening wear conferences as I do, you learn a few things. They don’t make life any more enjoyable, though.”
I didn’t see Victoria until the actual rehearsal. There I was, standing in line with the other groomsmen when she came strutting down the aisle with the bridesmaids. She looked a thousand times better than the bride. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I stood transfixed and ogled her luscious curves sauntering down the aisle. Flowers decorated her hair, and a close pearl choker accentuated her willowy neck.
What would it be like to watch her walk down the aisle at her own wedding? I let my imagination run away with me. I let myself fantasize I was the nervous groom, and she was coming to meet me at the altar. Her eyes glowed right at me all the way down the aisle. Her lips spread into a bright smile.
Then she slipped out of my sight again. I had to turn to face the altar, so all I could see were Charlie and Mandy. Victoria and the other bridesmaids stood behind my line of sight, but I didn’t listen to the rehearsal service. She occupied my whole awareness even when I couldn’t see her.
Did she think about me? Was she imagining marrying me? Would me proposing to her come out of left field, or would it fall into her vision of us together? Either way, it was meant to be. I understood that when we got together in Vegas. Nothing could keep us apart. It was just a matter of time.
After the rehearsal, everyone went to the dining room for the rehearsal dinner. Long trestle tables stretched the length of the room. Name cards sat at every place, and what do you know, I found myself sitting right next to Victoria.
I murmured to her in an undertone so no one could hear me. “How have you been?”
“Not too bad. You really had Mandy and Charlie worried when you got so busy with work these last few weeks. They wondered if you would show up today.”
My head whipped around to stare at her profile. “Were you worried, too? Did you worry I wouldn’t show up? Did you think I would pull a jailbird on you and fly away?”
Her ears turned pink. “I won’t lie to you. I wasn’t sure if you had second thoughts. I wondered what could be so important that you wouldn’t even text me to say hi.”
“I’m sorry you worried,” I told her. “What was so important was planning the rest of our lives. I couldn’t exactly go public on our relationship in the middle of Charlie’s wedding, could I?”
She whirled around to face me. “Is that the only reason?”
“Of course, it is, Victoria. Don’t you think it kills me that I can’t shout it from the rooftops that you’re having my baby? It’s torture.”
A beautiful flush spread across her cheeks. What it did to me to be sitting nose to nose with her and not be able to kiss her in front of all those people! “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have doubted you.”
“You never have to doubt me. I’ll always be right here, but I can’t make my move until all this kafuffle is over.”
She studied me for a brief instant. Then she nodded toward the door. “Do you feel like getting out of here?”
I swallowed my pate. “You mean, like, ditch the rehearsal dinner?”
“Not ditch it. Just....you know...for a second.”
I glanced around. She wasn’t actually suggesting this, was she? Duck out, just for a second? Fuck! Why ever not?
I slid back my chair and strolled out of the room. I wasn’t sure where to go, so I just went wherever. I had no idea where I was going when I bumped into her coming from the other exit door. She headed straight for me and took hold of my hand.
My heart threatened to break through my ribs. If only I’d brought the ring, I would have gone down on one knee right there in the l
obby. She didn’t give me a chance to say anything. She veered off into the garden outside.
The instant we got out the door, she was all over me. She mangled my lips between her teeth. She slithered her hands inside my jacket to grope all over my chest and under my armpits. She tugged at my belt until I had to grab her hands to stop her dropping my drawers right there in front of God and everyone.
I hustled her into a corner to give us some protection in case anybody walked out on us. Once out of sight, I couldn’t hold her back. She whipped my belt open and dove her hand into my pants. She found my hard-on all ready for her. She bent down and gave it a nasty little suck. Oh, she could suck the life out of any man with those wicked lips of hers. She didn’t finish me off, though.
She stood up and flashed me her come-on-and-take-me eyes. I never could resist those eyes, especially not with her curvy pregnant body so incredibly hot in my hands. I spun her around and shoved her voluptuous chest against the wall. She squeaked in surprise, but I already hitched up her skirts and trailed my cock between her alabaster thighs. I found the engorged slit between her frilly petals, and I was in.
She crammed that ass back against me. Forget delicate and loving and tender. This was all brutal passion and heinous excitement. A few blistering strokes, and she whined in primal desire. Her juices singed my cock, but I wouldn’t stop. I wanted this as much as she did, and we had a dining hall full of guests probably wondering where we were. We had to be quick.
Her ass gave me a dozen hard slaps, and her head pitched forward. Her hair curtained off her face, but angelic whining orgasms rippled from her ruby lips. She gushed all over my cock, and I poured out my soul into her foaming vent.
An explosion of laughter and applause echoed out of the hall and distracted me from doing anything else. Her head shot up, and she shook the hair out of her face. She glanced around. She was thinking the same thing. We had to get back in there.
March Heat: A Firefighter Enemies to Lovers Romance Page 27
