Wild for You (Crave Book 2)

by C. C. Wood

  "So I take it you don't want dancing at our wedding?" he asked.

  Then he grunted when I stomped on his toe.

  "Shit," I whispered. "I'm sorry. That was an accident. But you can't say I didn't warn you."

  "That you did," he replied.

  He'd started doing this a few months ago, randomly mentioning marriage and wedding plans. It took me a while, but I finally understood he was trying to get me used to the idea. I was doing a lot better with my reactions because the first time he'd brought it up, I'd nearly choked to death on a garlic knot. At least this time, I'd only maimed him a little.

  "I'm not really a traditional kind of woman."

  "So no dancing?" he prompted.

  "Do we have to have a wedding?" I asked.

  Ben stopped swaying and I realized how that sounded.

  "I mean, can't we elope?"

  He resumed the gentle movement, taking me with him. "What about your parents? Won't they want to be here?"

  I shook my head. "I doubt it. I haven't heard from them in..." I thought hard, but still couldn't remember exactly how long it had been. "Six months or more. When I mentioned I was moving in with you, my mom said, That's nice, dear. And went back to talking about their upcoming trip to Santorini."

  Ben grimaced. "Okay. But what about Cam and Brody?"

  "They can come to the courthouse with us. And so can your parents."

  "And the McClanes. And Lee," he continued.

  Okay, so a courthouse wedding wouldn't work.

  "What about a barbeque? Weren't there some celebrities who invited their friends and family over for a barbeque and then they surprised them with their wedding? Can we do that?"

  Once again, Ben stopped swaying and stared down at me. Then he grinned. "Next weekend too soon?"

  It was my turn to freeze. "What?"

  He released my hand where it rested against his chest and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a box.

  My heart stopped. Okay, so not really, but if it could have, it would have.

  When he opened it, I gasped. Inside was a gorgeous ruby ring, the oval stone a deep blood red and surrounded by a halo of tiny diamonds set in curved filigree that resembled vines. I wasn't well-versed enough in fine jewelry to be able to tell if it was set in white gold or platinum, but the silvery metal gleamed beneath the dim lights.

  "Are you seriously proposing to me at your brother's wedding?" I whispered.

  "It was the first time you essentially agreed to marry me, so I wanted to get it locked down before you had a chance to change your mind," he murmured back.

  I glanced around quickly but Ben had swayed us into a darker corner and no one was paying attention.

  "So, next weekend?" he asked.

  I huffed out a laugh. "Not next weekend. But maybe the next if everyone is free. But I want the barbeque catered. Neither of us should have to cook or clean up on our wedding day."

  Ben released my waist and pulled the ring out of the box. He slipped it onto the ring finger of my left hand then kissed my knuckles.

  "I love you," he murmured as he tugged me back into his embrace.

  "I love you, too."

  In the shadowed side of the dance floor, it felt like just the two of us, surrounded by music and love.

  "Did this just happen?" I asked, leaning my head against his chest.

  "Did what just happen?"

  "Are we really getting married?" I lifted my head and looked up at him.

  His arms tightened around me. "Definitely. It's too late to change your mind. There's no escape."

  I laughed a little. "That sounds like a threat."

  "Never. But I can't promise I won't hold on to your pant leg and cry and beg if you try to leave me."

  "Never." I wrapped both arms around his neck and pulled his head down toward mine so I could kiss him. "I can't imagine life without you and I don't want to."

  What was supposed to be a sweet kiss quickly became something more. We separated, both of us breathing hard.

  "How much longer do you think we have to stay?" Ben asked.

  "At least another hour," I said. "You're the best man and I'm the maid of honor. We can't leave before they cut the cake."

  "Damn, I was afraid you'd say that." He relaxed his hold on me just a bit. "Think we could sneak off into the field for a quickie?"

  I laughed and smacked his shoulder. "Behave yourself, Benjamin Sebastian Murphy."

  Furtive movement caught my eye and I turned my head toward the back door of the party barn. My mouth fell open when I saw who was sneaking out the exit.

  "Besides, it might be too crowded in that field. J.J. just escaped out the back door with someone we both know," I said.

  Ben's head swiveled around but he was too late. "Damn, I missed it. Who?"

  "Lee."

  "Lee?" he asked, a blank expression on his face.

  Seriously? "Lee, the assistant manager of Crave," I explained.

  His eyes widened. "Oh, shit."

  I nodded, mirroring his expression.

  Then, he grinned, his hazel eyes sparkling with humor. "J.J. is toast."

  "What do you mean? Do you think he's going to hurt Lee? Because that's not cool."

  Ben shook his head. "Oh, no way. He's not going to hurt her. He's going down. Hard."

  I frowned at him, not understanding what he meant.

  He laughed. "I guarantee you that we'll be going to their wedding by the end of next year."

  "Oh." I considered it. J.J. had come into the shop a few times since we hired Lee and I hadn't noticed anything at the time. But looking back on it, there was definitely something to his words. The way J.J. looked at Lee. The way he talked to her.

  "I'm not sure if I'm excited to see how this plays out or worried that it's going to be a drama fest," I said.

  "J.J. is a good guy. I think it'll work out fine."

  "Why?"

  "If I could get you to fall in love with me, then he could do the same with Lee."

  Okay, first of all, that was an incredibly sweet thing to say, but that wasn't what I was concerned about.

  "I'm more worried about him not returning Lee's feelings."

  "I don't think that'll be an issue."

  I shrugged. "Then again, weddings make people horny. Maybe they're just going to blow off some steam."

  Ben kissed me, hard and fast. "That sounds like a fantastic idea. Since the field is taken, what do you say we find a secluded closet?"

  I had to laugh, my worries about J.J. and Lee fading. They were adults. What they did was their business.

  "I think I know just the place," I murmured. "Follow me."

  Ben held my hand as I led him toward the stairs. There was a chain across the entry to the stairway with a sign that said, "Employees Only". I ducked under it and darted up the steps. I'd been up here yesterday when we were setting up for the reception, and I knew of a spacious storage closet that was now empty since all the chairs were downstairs for the reception.

  Ben tried the knob and said, "It's locked."

  I reached into the pocket of my dress. That's right, my maid of honor dress had freakin' pockets. Yet another reason I loved my friend so much. She chose a dress that I could wear again and it was useful.

  I pulled out a stretchy, twisted band that held a key ring with a single key on it and shook it at him.

  He grinned and unlocked the door before he pulled me inside. "A devious, well-prepared woman. If we weren't already engaged, I'd have to drop onto one knee right now."

  I reached for his belt buckle. "Well, there is something else you can do while you're down there if you'd like to try anyway."

  Ben laughed and hiked up the hem of my dress. "I like the way you think."

  His fingertips slid along the waistband of my underwear and I shuddered against him.

  Even after a year, his touch affected me like nothing else. And I hoped it never stopped.

  Ben lowered his mouth to mine and I whispered, "Thank you for f
alling in love with me."

  "That's my line," he replied, kissing me lightly. "Because I'm lucky as hell that you fell in love with me."

  "Maybe we should go to Vegas to get married," I suggested, arching my back when his fingertips slipped beneath the fabric of my underwear.

  "Nice try, but you're not getting out of a backyard barbeque wedding in two weeks," he said before he kissed me and took my breath away.

  I was too busy celebrating with him to admit that I didn't care where we got married as long as he was my husband in the end.

  The End

  Sneak Peek of Only for You (Crave, #3)!

  Thank you for reading Wild for You! I hope you enjoyed it. Here is a short excerpt from the first chapter of the next book in the series. Please forgive any typos. This is unedited and may change before publication!

  You can also pre-order Only for You here.

  Chapter 1

  This was not going as planned.

  And I hated it when that happened.

  See, this was supposed to be the weekend I lost my virginity. Yes, that's right. I was a twenty-five-year-old virgin.

  Having four older brothers who were known around our small town for being full of piss and vinegar meant that I didn't date in high school. Ever. No boy would even talk to me, much less ask me out, for fear of the wrath of the Prescott boys.

  Well, I wanted that to change.

  I had it planned out. I didn't want a relationship because men were a huge pain in the butt. Again, four older brothers had taught me that. Watching them screw up their relationships throughout my teen years had been extremely informative.

  If they weren't taking their girlfriends and later wives for granted, they were cheating, or carousing, or just plain being jerks. It was enough to turn a girl off from romantic relationships.

  I knew that not all men were like my brothers, but even they didn't act like that in the beginning. Who would?

  I didn't want to waste my time trying to get down to the truth of a man, only to have him prove that he wasn't worth the effort.

  Now, don't get me wrong, I loved my brothers dearly. I just didn't want to date anyone like them.

  So, losing my virginity would have to be a casual sort of thing. Sure, I could wait until I was ready to deal with dating and everything that came with it, but I had more important things to worry about.

  Like grad school.

  I was starting my first semester this fall. It would be another eighteen months to two years before I would be done and I really didn't want to be a twenty-seven-year-old virgin.

  I had no idea why that seemed even worse to me, but it did.

  Where was a good place for a single woman in a small town to troll for a one-night stand?

  Not The Red Boot, the local pub. Or online hook-up sites.

  That was a guaranteed way for word to get back to your overbearing, butt-head brothers that you were trolling for a quick roll in the hay.

  The only chance I would have without having to drive an hour and a half away to a club in Dallas would be my employer's wedding.

  I decided to lower the skeeziness factor of picking up a guy at my boss's wedding by arranging a date for the following night or even the following week. I hated to do it but my options were extremely limited and I knew that I wouldn't have time to take care of this issue once the fall semester started.

  There were single men from out-of-town coming to celebrate Cam's upcoming nuptials to Brody Murphy, her fiancé. Brody had spent several years living away from our little town of Farley and he had lots of handsome single friends. They were also older than me and likely a great deal more experienced, which meant that my first time might not completely suck.

  The problem was Cam's brother, J.J.

  Since the moment I'd bumped into him outside the rehearsal dinner, he stayed glued to my side. It wasn't necessarily a hardship because I'd known him most of my life due to his friendship with my brother, but he was also throwing a monkey wrench in my one-night-stand plans.

  Jackson James McClane had been the star of many of my adolescent fantasies, but I'd grown out of that. Mostly. He'd already graduated high school by the time I was a freshmen, but he was the same age as the youngest of my four brothers, Scott, so I saw him constantly at my brother's basketball games in high school.

  When I was twelve, I thought he was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. And he was always nice to me. He picked on his little sister incessantly, but he never picked on me.

  When I was thirteen, I went from innocent admiration to full-blown crush. I could barely speak around him. I always felt flushed and hot in his presences. He was still nice to me, but his smile had the power to make my heart race.

  And when he came over to our house to spend time with Scott, God, I wasn't sure if I wanted to hide in my room or lurk outside Scott's room just so I could hear his deep voice as he trash talked my brother while they played video games.

  But right now, I wished he were far, far away.

  I couldn't sleep with my boss's brother and he was making it impossible for me to find another candidate. Though I doubted he wanted to sleep with me because he didn't seem interested in flirting. Just talking and dancing. On any other day, I would have loved it because I sincerely liked J.J. He was a good guy. Just not the guy I needed for tonight.

  It hurt, though, just a little, that he wasn't as attracted to me as I was to him. I understood why. Growing up, I'd always been Scott's little sister. It didn't surprise me that he wouldn't see me as a woman even all these years later.

  Unfortunately, J.J.'s refusal to let me get more than a few feet away from him meant that I wasn't able flirt with any of Brody's friends either.

  Not that I had a lot of experience flirting, but I figured maintaining eye contact, listening, smiling, and encroaching on a man's personal space would get the point across.

  I couldn't suppress my sigh when J.J. pulled me out onto the dance floor once again, this time for the bridal party's dance with the new couple.

  His arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me in close, but not too close. I could feel the heat of his body through his suit, but the only parts of us that touched were when our thighs brushed together as we moved.

  "What was that for?" he murmured next to my ear.

  I didn't look at him, just kept my eyes glued to his shoulder as I focused on not stepping on his toes or tripping over my shoes. I didn't often wear heels and it took a lot of concentration to walk in them, let alone dance.

  "What was what for?" I asked, absently.

  His arm tightened around me just a shade. "That sigh."

  "Just hoping I don't injure you," I lied. "It's been a while since I danced with someone."

  "You're doing fine," he murmured, his breath warm against my temple.

  As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the toe of my heeled sandal caught on his dress shoe and I stumbled.

  J.J. pulled me into his body to steady me and I inhaled, a sharp sound. My arm ended up along his shoulder and my hand curved around the opposite side of his neck as I clung to him.

  Essentially, he carried me for a couple of steps before I got my balance back and I could feel each and every one of his strong muscles working to hold my weight.

  It was then that I realized his shoulders were broader than they had been twelve years ago when I'd first developed a crush on him.

  He'd filled out. He no longer looked like a teenage boy, but a man.

  My stomach twisted and I felt a twinge between my thighs. I might not have dated all that much, but I was no stranger to what arousal felt like and I was definitely experiencing it at the moment.

  Just the smallest spark.

  And it wouldn't take much to fan it into full flames.

  Once my feet were beneath me, I kept my firm grip on J.J. and tilted my head back to look up into his face. His eyes were golden brown and gazed into mine without blinking.

  "That's exactly what I was afraid of," I murmured.r />
  That familiar flushed feeling crept back in as J.J. and I maintained eye contact. I hadn't intended to start a staring match, but now that I was so close to him, looking into his eyes, I couldn't tear myself away.

  When his grip on me loosened, the hand I'd placed on his neck tightened reflexively. I wasn't ready to let him go yet. Not when I could feel almost every inch of him for the first time.

  Any plans I'd developed, any thoughts that I might have had, disappeared in a puff of smoke. There was only his body and mine, the heat that slowly filled me, and the throb low in my abdomen.

  J.J. stopped leading me around the dance floor then. "You shouldn't look at me like that," he whispered.

  I swallowed and licked my lips. "Like what?"

  Oh, God, he didn't seem unaffected now. In fact, despite my inexperience with me, I was pretty sure he was experiencing some of the sensations I was.

  His gaze never broke from my face. "Like you want to take a bite out of me."

  I didn't have the mental capacity to be embarrassed at the moment, I was too distracted by the reactions of my body. "Why not?"

  His face suddenly seemed even closer than it had been before. "Because I might take one out of you, too."

  About the Author

  Born and raised in Texas, C.C. Wood writes saucy paranormal and contemporary romances featuring strong, sassy women and the men that love them. If you ever meet C.C. in person, keep in mind that many of her characters are based on people she knows, so anything you say or do is likely to end up in a book one day.

  A self-professed hermit, C.C. loves to stay home, where she reads, writes, cooks, and watches TV. She can usually be found drinking coffee or wine as she spends time with her hubby, daughter, and two beagles.

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  Also by C.C. Wood

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  Girl Next Door Series:

  Friends with Benefits

  Frenemies

  Drive Me Crazy