Baiting the Maid of Honor

by Tessa Bailey

  “Pole dancing,” she blurted. “They’re from pole dancing. Not on a stage, mind you. It’s a class at the gym, you see. I thought I’d signed up for cardio kickboxing, but when I walked in, I found sweet Ms. Vaughn, an honest, churchgoing woman if I ever met one, standing there next to a pole. Pretty as you please. She looked so excited that somebody actually showed up, I just couldn’t turn around and walk out. By the end of the hour, she’d signed me up for an eight-class package.” Julie peeked up at him through her fingers. “Now…I think I kind of like it,” she whispered.

  For long moments, he only stared at her in disbelief. Then his big body began to shake with laughter. It sounded surprised at first, but it quickly turned pained.

  “Just what are you laughing at, Reed Lawson?” She sat up and poked him in the chest. “I’m darned impressive on that thing. Last week I learned the Bendy Diva Dive. Do you know how difficult that is? You have to—”

  “Stop. Stop right there.” He pressed a finger to her lips, then sighed over her still-disgruntled expression. “Baby, if I don’t laugh, I’ll cry.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t understand you.”

  Reed took her mouth in a slow, thorough kiss. Tongues met and savored. Lust, simmering and desperate, once again chased the anger from her body. He pulled back to speak against her parted lips. “The only thing you need to understand right now is the way my mouth makes you feel here.” Julie gasped as he penetrated her with two thick fingers, slid them in and out, pushing deeper each time. “You spent the whole night making everyone else happy. Now I’m going to use my tongue to reward you for it. Be selfish for a little while, pixie. God knows I’m selfish to get a taste.”

  He gave her a gentle push and she fell back, moaning when his fingers began to stroke her faster. Julie closed her eyes and let sensation take over. When his middle finger crooked and rotated, finding that delicious spot inside her, her back arched on a cry. She felt the heat of his mouth between her thighs. He flicked her aching clitoris with his tongue, in perfect rhythm with his pumping fingers. Julie could feel her sex begin to clench, the heat within her rising to a boiling point. Reed’s fingers moved faster, in and out, urging her closer. Dangling over the edge, she felt him suck her clitoris into his mouth, rolling it on his tongue and growling. His fingers pushed deep and held. Julie screamed as the orgasm rushed through her, legs and stomach shaking, but even then Reed refused to stop. Seemed as though he couldn’t stop.

  “Again.” He dragged his tongue up her center, causing her already-sensitive flesh to contract and spasm. “Want more. Again.”

  Julie’s limbs felt liquefied and the thought of lying back and letting Reed’s mouth work another blistering climax out of her sounded like absolute perfection. But her firmly ingrained need to please simply wouldn’t allow it. Before she’d consciously made the decision, she’d sat up and tugged his head from where he’d tucked it between her thighs. When his gaze met hers, he looked just as delirious with pleasure as she felt, but it couldn’t be possible. She’d done nothing for him, yet his erection, thick and heavy against her thigh, told her how badly he needed her to reciprocate.

  She gave in to the temptation to lean forward and kiss his wet, muscular chest as her hand moved of its own accord to wrap him in her fist. The second she touched him, he let out a loud groan, hips driving forward to be stroked in her palm. “Squeeze it tight, baby. Show me how it’ll feel when I fuck you between your legs.”

  Julie whimpered, a new, intense throb forming low in her belly. The kind that could only be assuaged by one thing. “Why don’t you just find out right now?”

  Reed growled. “That’s how it’s going to be.” He yanked her to the very end of the rock bed by her knees, then his hands slipped up her belly to palm her breasts. When he rolled her nipples between his thumb and forefinger, her thighs pressed together tightly in response. It felt like a snapping live wire ran directly from her breasts to her core. “You weren’t wearing a bra underneath your dress that first night. Every time you moved, they bounced a little. Just enough to be a hot fucking tease. God, baby, it made my cock hard.”

  Her breath rushed in and out past her lips. To know she’d turned him on, fully clothed in a room full of people, made her feel outrageously sexy. Something she wasn’t familiar with. People tended to view her as the one who ran the show. The tireless, unflappable one who dressed stylishly, yet sensibly. Oh boy, she liked this sense of desirability much, much better. It made her feel daring. Powerful. Combined with the near-darkness and unconventional setting, it also made her just a little crazy for more.

  “How about I make it up to you?” Before she could stop herself she slid his erection onto her damp chest. Then she pressed her breasts tight around him, trapping him in between the supple flesh.

  Reed’s breath grew choppy, scraping over her heightened senses. One hand gripped her head and tilted it back roughly so their gazes could meet. “I ought to put you over my knee.” His eyes were nearly hidden by the darkness, but she somehow sensed they were burning into hers. “You want me to despoil you? I hope you’re ready, because I don’t fuck politely.”

  “I’m counting on it,” she answered breathily.

  He slid himself upward between her breasts, in one long, slow push. Julie moaned quietly at the illicitness of it, but Reed drowned out the sound with his own wild groan. Their position, the new experience, the delicious feeling of his smooth flesh slipping through her breasts, intoxicated her. Her usual self didn’t seem present any longer. Had been replaced by someone else entirely. Someone whose every thought was driven by feeling. Taking and giving.

  As his movements became faster, impatient, Julie reveled in the harsh sounds emanating from his throat, the way he swelled larger with each measured drive. She pushed her breasts tighter around him and whispered his name.

  His movements stuttered and he looked down at her hard. “Open your mouth. You want my name on your tongue, you’ll get the rest of me, too.”

  Julie suddenly couldn’t think past taking Reed into her mouth. Closing her lips around him, feeling his weight. She dragged her nails down his belly and grasped him at the base of his erection, then led him to her mouth. No teasing, or licking, she took him as deep as she could and swirled her tongue over his hardness on the way back up. Fingers sank into her hair and she heard him shouting harshly in the distance, but she’d lost herself in the need to please. Her hand worked him in time with her mouth and when she felt him coat her tongue, shaking against her in his climax, she continued milking him until he gently tugged her head away and fell back a step in the water.

  “Jesus. Jesus, baby.” Reed’s chest rose and fell rapidly as he tried to catch his breath. Julie didn’t stop to question herself. She went to him, arms cinching around his waist to bring them closer. He seemed unsure of how to proceed, his muscles tensing beneath her, making her throat close. She was the sole participant in the hug, his arms never coming up to encircle her like she craved. Her brain commanded her to pull back but she didn’t want the embarrassment on her face to show. Not over what they’d done, but over her spontaneous embracing of a man who had all the sweetness of a cobra.

  And then he laughed uncomfortably. “I guess we know that mouth is good at more than just talking.”

  Julie released him and was out of the hot spring in seconds, pulling on her clothes as the words continued to hang in the air. That’s all he could think to say to her? Anger had a stranglehold on her throat so tight she couldn’t speak past it. What had she been thinking? This man couldn’t even muster a decent hug for the woman he’d just been intimate with. She didn’t want to spend one more second in his presence. Julie was also honest enough to admit that maybe, just a little, she was shaken up by the way she’d lost herself in him so completely.

  His dripping hand closed around her arm as she buckled her sandals. “You hold on one damn minute. I was making a joke and you know it.” His voice boomed in the still, quiet forest. “What is this really abou
t? You want me to hold you and tell you you’re pretty? That’s not me, Julie, and I think you already knew that.”

  “The only thing I know is this won’t be happening again.”

  “Now, that’d be a damn shame, pixie.” He tipped her chin up with his fingers. “You just fucking burned me alive.”

  The air left Julie’s lungs. She struggled to come up with a reply as her brain projected explicit images of them together. God, why did she still want him?

  He must have sensed her resolve slipping, because his fingers left her chin to slip into her hair, gripping the strands firmly. “You already want more, don’t you? You know that what I give you is better than the warm, fuzzy bullshit you’re used to.”

  His bluntness slapped her across the face, as did her resurgence of need to get away from him. “Well, I suppose we’ll have to savor this one memory. We’re not making any more.” She double-checked that her hotel key was still tucked securely into her dress pocket before snatching the flashlight off the ground and striding toward the path.

  “You’re not walking back alone.”

  “Watch me.”

  Julie heard him growl behind her as he pulled on his own clothes. She increased her pace, practically running by the time she reached the hotel. As she yanked the door open, she turned and saw him coming down the path, shirt untucked, hair a mess. Barefoot. Why that made her want to smile, especially after his cold treatment of her, she had no idea. Ignoring the object of her irritation, she let the door slam behind her and speed-walked to her room. How her body could feel so satisfied when her mind felt like it had been pulled through a knothole backwards, she couldn’t fathom.

  One thing she knew for certain? It was Reed Lawson’s fault and she needed to remember this hinky feeling the next time his big shadow darkened her path. The man was flat-out dangerous for her sanity. No more. This ill-advised association was over.

  Chapter Nine

  His and Julie’s association was far from over.

  Reed crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the brick building. He’d given up on sleep sometime around four in the morning and had decided to make himself useful. He still couldn’t believe how he’d gone about making himself useful, but it was too late to change it now.

  Irritation rumbling in his throat, Reed dragged a hand down his face. He had a serious problem and the crisp mountain air was doing precious little to fix it. How exactly had he managed to fuck up a chance to spend the week in Julie’s bed? On the surface, the answer was deceptively simple. He’d opened his mouth and let the worst possible post-orgasm sentiment known to man escape. Truthfully, though? He still wasn’t 100 percent sure he hadn’t done it on purpose. She’d thrown him for a goddamn loop, going from skittish good girl to a heck-I’ll-try-anything-once sex goddess in mere minutes.

  The girl he’d assumed to be an uptight Georgia debutante took regular pole dancing classes. Enjoyed them. If he ever got the image of those legs wrapped around a pole out of his head, he might have the chance to register surprise.

  Lord, the things they’d done. Things she’d initiated. He’d never, ever, expected it from her. And damn it if that wasn’t what made it so fucking hot. Everyone’s favorite, lovable Goody Two-Shoes turned into a very bad girl under the right kind of touch. His touch, specifically. The thought made the ever-present fire in his belly burn brighter, even as he reminded himself how dangerous that type of thinking could be. He didn’t have a claim on her. He didn’t want or need any emotional entanglements, especially with some upper-class daddy’s girl with a wardrobe that likely cost more than his car. Yet the thought of unleashing all her pent-up sensuality, coaxing it to life, then walking away at the end of the week made him…oddly anxious. Okay, sickeningly so.

  When his intention had been simply to get under her skirt, stamp an expiration date on the outrageous attraction he felt for her, everything had been so incredibly simple. Show the spoiled, uptight brat what real passion felt like and walk away without a single regret. Someone hadn’t passed the memo on to Julie, however. Or maybe she’d gotten it, and he’d decided to ignore it instead. Now that he knew what lay underneath the top coat of perfect polish, he saw way too much when he looked at her. As if one glimpse at the Julie beneath now made it impossible for him to see the other one.

  Yet after what they’d done together, to each other’s bodies, she’d turned right back into the vulnerable girl she’d been walking into the forest. She’d wrapped her arms around him and he’d…felt something. Right before panic set in.

  He didn’t cuddle or reassure. He didn’t dole out sweet nothings. He didn’t get close to women, or anyone for that matter, save his two closest friends. And it would be a cold day in hell before he whispered sweet nothings in one of their ears. Even after such a short acquaintance, he sensed Julie knew this about him. So why she’d gone and hugged him, held on to him tightly as if she wanted to absorb him, Reed couldn’t guess. He supposed his panic stemmed from the fact that he’d liked her arms around him. He’d wanted to gather her up against his chest and sink back into the water. Let them both recover for a while as they drifted. God knows, he’d needed a damn minute after what she’d done to him. He still hadn’t completely recovered.

  Instead, he’d recognized the dangers of giving in to the urge. This insanity between them needed to find a way to remain casual. To begin with, they were far too different. He didn’t even say the word “relationship” out loud. Julie, being less experienced than him, could easily mistake sex for something more. She would start expecting things from him. Things he didn’t have a hope in hell of getting right. Growing up, he’d had no example to go by. His parents had been enemies right up until the point his mother died. Even before she’d been diagnosed with cancer, she’d simply been a shell. Made that way from constant criticism—a product of his father’s alcohol-fueled hatred. No. It would be up to him to make sure he and Julie didn’t go any further than casual. It would only lead to disappointment. He would only lead to disappointment, because that was all he’d ever learned how to deliver. It was in his blood. Just look at how he’d gone and offended her two seconds after…

  Jesus, after what she’d done with her mouth.

  Why then did he wish like hell he could go back in time and pull her closer in that spring?

  One thing he harbored zero doubts about? The week wouldn’t go by without him having Julie again. Even now, he wanted to go pound on her door and demand to be let in. If luck was on his side, she slept naked so he’d have nothing to stop him from fucking her where she stood.

  He shook himself when he saw Brock approaching, looking nearly as frustrated as he felt.

  “What the hell are you doing up this early?”

  Reed raised an eyebrow at Brock’s tone, so different from his usual teasing drawl. “I could ask you the same question.”

  “Well, keep it to yourself, because I haven’t got a damn answer.”

  “I could hazard a guess.”

  “Same goes.” Brock practically threw his body against the wall to join Reed. “You reckon there’s something in the water in Colorado that only the women are drinking?”

  He cleared his throat, the words “in the water” hitting a little too close to home after his and Julie’s episode at the hot springs mere hours ago. “Could be the altitude.”

  “Altitude,” Brock snorted. “More like attitude. Let me tell you, I’ve been getting more than my fair share of that.”

  “Told you she was trouble.”

  “Trouble is a significant underestimation.”

  Reed glanced at Brock in surprise. “Did you swallow a dictionary last night?”

  Brock looked affronted. “I can use words longer than one syllable when I put my mind to it. When did everyone start thinking the opposite?”

  “You mean, when did you start giving a shit?”

  “That, too.”

  Reed shrugged. “Maybe it’s the altitude.”

  …

  Jul
ie mounted the treadmill and tightened her ponytail so hard she winced. Her fingers stabbed the buttons, entering a punishing pace and time for herself to contend with. Good. She needed her butt good and kicked. Maybe if she’d had the foresight to work out yesterday morning, she wouldn’t have been so tense she lit up like a Christmas tree around Reed Lawson.

  The smug, irreverent son of a—

  No. Her speed-walk sped up into a run. She wouldn’t let one albeit incredible night with Reed turn her into an irritable, insulting person like him. That simply would not do. She’d followed him into the woods like a lamb to slaughter, planning on ridding herself of the inconvenient yen he’d plagued her with. It was her own stupid fault if she’d expected him to soften up a little afterward. They hadn’t even had sex, but it certainly felt like they’d been as intimate as two people could be. Her inexperience must have been glaring. Hugging the man as though he were the only shelter in a storm. After only reaching third base.

  Honestly, Julie.

  Truth was, she didn’t reveal her grief and vulnerability regarding her sister to many people. Hated the idea of someone taking pity on her. She’d dealt with enough of that after Serena’s death. Perhaps his response had been abrupt, slightly harsh, possibly inappropriate, but at the very least it had been honest. If Serena was the perfect one, what does that make you? She suspected Reed had no clue how squarely on the head he’d hammered her biggest insecurity. The very same question she’d asked herself throughout her life. One she didn’t have an answer to. For a brief moment, she’d felt as if he could see her. See the horrible guilt and vulnerability she usually kept hidden so well underneath a mask of perpetual perkiness.

  Sometimes the burden of it felt like concrete blocks on her shoulders. As the younger sister by five years, she’d grown up abhorring responsibility. Assuming Serena would handle anything and everything like she always did. Without complaint. Julie had flitted off to college with visions of toga parties dancing in her head, leaving her sister with the mighty tasks of catering to their parents’ constant whims, running various charities, learning the family business. Julie had never even given it a second thought. She’d wanted to discover herself, as far away from Georgia as she could reasonably get.