Now it was my turn to try not to stare. Sure, I’d goaded her into this, but as big of an asshole as I was, I also wasn’t about to leer at her, trapped alone in the steam room with me. That kind of behavior suited lesser men, men with zero willpower. And as delicious as Alice’s breasts were in my peripheral vision, I wasn’t going to take my eyes from her face.
She held my gaze steadily, only breaking to lean down and pull her shorts off. When she rose, that defiant, daring look goaded me to push further. There, she said, whatcha got next? It was that expression of defiance more so than her naked body that threatened, alarmingly, to make me hard.
Shit. Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea after all.
“Well,” I said, snapping the tension. “Looks like we’re ready than.”
“Looks like it,” she replied coolly.
I turned and walked into the steam room, feeling the humidity immediately sap at my energy. I sat as quickly as possible and tried to conjure up the flabby faces of my investors to kill my attraction. Keep it cool, Mac. I’d been naked with dozens of hot girls before, but never had the goal been not to get hard. I needed distraction and I needed it fast.
Alice sat on the other side of the room. I cranked the steam up, and it created a hazy mask over my more exposed area. That would have to do.
“Are you happy now?” she asked as we sat.
“Very,” I lied. “You should be too. Beck and Sam can relax knowing their great protector is on the case of the devilish groomsman.”
“Be sarcastic all you want,” she said pointedly. “But you’ve been at the heart of every issue this week.”
“‘Every issue’? What issues?”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t pretend like you don’t know what I’m talking about. First Mariana, then whatever the hell that was last night. What’s next on the docket? Fire? Plague?” She cocked an eyebrow. “Bees?”
“Yer not giving me enough credit, love,” I said, stretching my arms up to rest behind my head. I caught her stare flash up my biceps before pulling back to my eyes. “I told you. Mariana was an accident, the strippers a well-intentioned mistake. Trust me, if I wanted to ruin this wedding, I could. Easily. Whether you follow me around or not.”
Her eyes narrowed. “How?” she asked.
“And why would I tell you that?” I asked. She couldn’t call my bluff. The truth was that if I knew a way to stop this wedding without losing Sam as a friend forever, I would. In an instant. And even without Alice watching me, I had to watch my step. Sam had made that very clear last night.
After the strippers had dispersed and I was back in my room, regretting the amount of liquor and gummies I’d put in my stomach, he’d knocked on my door.
Sam had gotten right to the point. He’d fixed me in that cold, ruthless stare I’d so missed and said, “If you mess up this week for Beck, we’re done.”
He’d meant it too. Sam was a man of his word. And while the threat was undercut by the fact that we were done anyway once Beck officially sunk her talons into him, I didn’t want to be the one to blame.
“Don’t worry,” I said to Alice, “I’m not going to do anything. And anyway, I haven’t done anything. None of that stuff was my fault. Trouble just seems to follow me. I’m not doing it on purpose.”
“Sure,” Alice said. “So then you’re actually really excited about the wedding?”
“Ecstatic.” The word dripped with sarcasm and it escaped my mouth before I could pull it back in.
“What’s so bad about Sam getting married?” Alice demanded. “He’s not dying.”
He might as well be. But I didn’t say that. I was tired of thinking and talking about this damn marriage. It dominated every aspect of the week and was starting to make me nauseous. I had to say something though, so I turned it back on her. “Well what about you?” I asked.
“What about me?” she replied, surprised.
“I’m sure you’re just dying for your best friend to get married to a billionaire. And I’m sure the others are too. Except maybe Jules. I doubt she gives a shit since she’s gunning for her own.”
Alice flushed. “What are you insinuating? That I can’t be happy for my friend?”
The tables were turned and I was much more comfortable this way. “I’m just saying, you’re awfully invested in making everything perfect. Any chance it’s atonement? Having some thoughts you’re guilty about?”
She crossed her arms. “Not at all.”
“Bullshit,” I pressed. “The last person you dated was that dick I punched. There’s no way you don’t compare the two of them, him and Sam. Ever wonder why Beck got Prince Charming while you’re stuck dating frogs?”
Alice looked like she could have punched me. “That’s got nothing to do with it!” she insisted. “I’m happy for Beck. Do I wish Daniel was as great as Sam? Sure. But that’s not exactly a revelation. Most girls would think the same.” She paused. “And not that it’s any of your business, but I’m not looking for anyone right now, anyway. I’m taking some time to be single.”
I snorted. “Oh yeah? And how’s that working for ya?” She shrugged and I laughed. “Sounds about right.”
“Well what about you?” she asked. “Do you really find a whole lot of satisfaction in what I assume is a lot of casual sex?”
“Yes,” I said honestly. “I fuck them to get off and I do. Mission accomplished.”
“So you don’t see the point at all in a normal relationship?”
I leaned forward in the sauna. The heat was ramping up as the minutes ticked by. The conversation and distracting arousal wasn’t helping either. “No, and I’ll tell you why. Because marriage doesn’t last. All of this,” I indicated the resort around us, “isn’t just a waste of money, but a waste of time. In five years or in ten, they’re going to hate each other and all of this shit is just going to be an unhappy memory. Because people change. Our minds change. Our likes and dislikes change. In seven years, those two aren’t even going to be the same people anymore. Who the hell knows what they’ll like, let alone if they’ll like each other.”
“They’ll grow and change together though,” Alice insisted. “And yeah, maybe it won’t work out, but love is a leap of faith, a blind commitment to doing your best for each other.”
“And when the years roll by and one is still trying while the other has moved on, what then?” I asked. “We outgrow each other. We find new people, new girlfriends, new friends. And the people that are stupid enough to cling to the past are the ones that get screwed.”
“You sound like a kid with divorced parents,” Alice said. “Am I right?”
I snorted. “Never were married in the first place. Mum left before I was old enough to miss her.”
Alice’s face dropped. She looked embarrassed. “Sorry,” she said.
I waved it off. “Don’t be,” I said gruffly. “Like I said. Never even knew her to miss her.”
“My parents were divorced,” she said. “I knew them both though.”
“Then I don’t understand how you can sit there and wax on about marriage,” I said, irritation growing in my voice. “You know firsthand it doesn’t work.”
“Yeah but my parents hated each other before they got married. They were never the picture of marital bliss.” She paused, then said decidedly, “I’m going to marry someone I actually love.”
“Good luck with that,” I said.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
The steam room descended into stony silence. I watched Alice and she stared back at me. It was hard not to let my gaze drop to her tits. What I could see of them was distracting enough. But I couldn’t let Alice see that I found her toned body attractive. And as strong as the pull was to wonder just how soft and firm she’d feel as my hands roamed her body, I refused to allow it. What I did wonder was if she was thinking the same thing. Was she thinking about the muscles on my pecs, about the stretch of my shoulders? Or maybe a bit lower, to where my cock was now st
arting to twitch again.
To distract myself, I tried to think of a new angle, a probe to get a biting remark or a roll of those stunning brown eyes. I had to admit, she wasn’t a bore like most of the women I was attracted to. She could keep up and every cutting comment stung with a painful pleasure. Maybe if I said—
Wait a minute! This was all starting to sound dangerously close to attraction. Not just sexual attraction but that other kind, whatever devious spell that had been cast over Sam and Keegan. Hell no. That wasn’t going to happen to me. Alice could fuck right off and I’d be completely happy about it.
Suddenly I had the intense desire to be anywhere but here, alone and naked with this woman.
“I’m about done,” I said, standing. I went to the door and paused before leaving. “You better move fast if you’re going to follow me to dinner.”
I left before she could comment, her surprised eyes following me past the door.
I dressed as quickly as I could and went into the hall. Alice was still getting dressed but I left her. My brain was hot from the steam room, confused and annoyed by Alice and whatever she’d done to me. I needed distraction. I needed selfish sex with a woman I couldn’t give a damn about.
I started walking and passed another corridor. As if summoned by my brain, I saw a familiar face walking down it.
Margot, the blonde from the bar, turned at my presence. She didn’t look surprised at all to see me and shot me a sultry smile. She put her hand on the door to her own private steam room and then, as I watched, she loosened the tie of her bathrobe, letting it fall to the floor, leaving her completely naked in the empty hall.
She shot me a wink and then went in, closing the door with a snap behind her.
I looked over my shoulder. Alice was still changing. I went down the hall until I was at the door. Then I pulled at the handle. Locked. I knocked lightly, but no response came.
It was a continuation of whatever strange game the woman was playing with me. But I’d be happy to play it if it meant my apparently sex-starved brain would forget for just a little while about the auburn-haired beauty somewhere behind me.
10
Alice
Mac had barely acknowledged my presence since the steam room.
Afterward I’d followed him to a restaurant where we’d eaten sushi with Mason, Kylie, and Sarah before going as a group to the pool to meet up with the rest of the group.
Sometime around seven, Beck and Sam reappeared. Beck was as relaxed as I’d ever seen her and the two of them suggested taking a boat out on the ocean for cocktails and the sunset.
It was a quiet evening compared to the previous one. No drama or strippers. Everyone got along and nobody got trashed. We finished the evening with more cocktails in the resort lounge before retiring to a more-or-less early bedtime.
Mac hadn’t made any moves to disrupt the evening and had buddied around with the other Knights on the sailboat. He’d even carried on a polite-ish conversation with Sarah and Kylie. There were no signs of devious plans or outright drunkenness, and as the night faded to sleep, I wondered if perhaps I was going a little overboard on watching Mac’s every move.
None of the others commented on my crusade, though I got the impression that they thought I should be enjoying the resort and letting Mac do whatever he wanted. Jules remained the outlier; she still hadn’t forgiven him for the stripper thing.
Of course none of them knew about Mariana, who was staying in the shadows.
As much as I hated to admit that Mac had been a help at all, even inadvertently, the quality of Mariana’s feedback to my questions and concerns had greatly improved since the scene in the bathroom. Where before it sometimes took her hours to get back with me, now she answered immediately. Now all I had to deal with was Beck telling me to stop getting distracted by wedding stuff.
The next day was spent together as a group again. We took a boat out for a day of fun on the ocean — swimming, snorkeling, jet skiing, and sailing. The weather was perfect, warm and sunny once more.
Again, Mac was courteous and friendly. The smile on his face looked a bit plastered on, but otherwise, you’d have thought that the last two days of glowering and gloom had come completely from my imagination. And when we returned in the late afternoon, I was tempted again to admit that maybe I’d been a bit over-paranoid.
It didn’t help that the girls wanted to do a girls night.
“Come on,” Kylie begged. “We need all of us. It won’t be the same without you.”
We were sitting around a large table at the dinner buffet and making plans for the evening.
I grimaced and looked at Mac where he was talking in Mason’s ear, making the gray-haired man chuckle at whatever play-by-play he was being fed. Kylie snapped her fingers in front of my face.
“Dude. I don’t know what your issue with Mac is, but it’s fine. He’s not messing with the wedding. You need to chill.”
I sighed. “Fine, maybe you’re right,” I admitted. “I’ll go with you.”
“Yes,” Kylie said, making a fist pump. “Trust me, this is going to be better than whatever the guys have planned for tonight.”
What the guys had planned was apparently a whole lot of nothing. “The pool, some drinks, maybe the cigar lounge,” Henry told us at dinner. He looked to Sam and Keegan. “Sound about right, boys?”
Sam nodded. “Gotta conserve some energy for the bachelor party,” he said. “I think I’m starting to feel the effects of the thirties.”
“Speak for yourself, old man,” Keegan said. “But I am down for a quiet night.”
I left them talking about the game on Thursday to go to the bathroom. I lingered in front of the mirror after washing my hands, my mind on Mac.
It wasn’t like me to admit defeat, especially not so quickly. But the girls were right. Mac hadn’t been messing with anything. And as much as I’d like to say that was because of my expert babysitting skills, it was just as likely that Mac was starting to get more comfortable with the inevitability of the ceremony and was no longer acting out because he wasn’t getting his way. Beck and Sam had obviously forgiven him for the stripper incident, so why couldn’t I?
His words in the steam room floated back to me. Was I really just being a control freak? It was a possibility. The wedding meant a lot to me. But there was also something thrilling about trying to anticipate Mac’s next move. Watching him from the corner of my eye as he chatted with my friends, wondering what was going on behind those cunning eyes.
Mac’s motives and history were a mystery to me, ones that I wanted to solve like a modern day Nancy Drew. But that was hard with the way he was ignoring me. Maybe it would be better for all of us if I backed off a bit. Maybe it would lead to him opening up more.
On the way back to the dining room, I passed a cracked door. As I was walking by, a clatter and the mutter of voices drifted out of it.
I paused. A sign indicated that it was a banquet hall, one that was not in use at the moment. A gnawing suspicion struck me and, before I could fight it, I peeked into the door.
It took a second for my eyes to adjust to the gloom, but once they did, I saw the figure of a bulky man that could only be Mac whispering into the ear of a very tall, very leggy blonde woman in a silver dress. He blocked her mostly, pressing her against the wall as his hands traveled her body.
I pulled my head back out before they saw me, but not before I heard her say, “No, not now. Later. Come at eleven.”
I didn’t bother to wait for Mac’s reply, walking angrily back to the table. It didn’t matter and it was stupid that I was annoyed by it. Mac could screw anyone he wanted, as long as it wasn’t the wedding planner or really anyone who had any effect on the wedding. I shouldn’t care. I didn’t care.
I sat back down and started eating my crab legs aggressively, ignoring the conversation that had shifted to Beck’s and Sam’s simultaneous bachelor and bachelorette parties on Friday.
Mac returned with a plate of food a short time
later, like all he’d been doing was getting something to eat. He dipped into his food and I watched him out of the corner of my eye.
I was annoyed more at myself than I was at Mac. There was absolutely no reason for me to care about this woman he was going to hook up with. She posed no threat to Sam and Beck’s happily ever after. No, the only reason I was mad was because a horrible emotion had reared its ugly head: jealousy.
In that brief moment that I watched Mac push the girl to the wall, his strong form enveloping hers, his lips inches from her ear, I had wished that I was in her place. My obvious lust for Mac threw dust in the eye of my logical side. It wasn’t a fair fight at all and Smart Alice needed to gain the upper hand somehow. Because there was no possible chance that I was going to fall for another guy that was just as wrong for me as Daniel.
I was waiting for someone who fit my idea of a future husband. And while old Alice might have convinced herself that hot, aggravating bad boys could change their ways, I didn’t think that way anymore.
I couldn’t let myself fall into the trap of the mysterious, gorgeous foreigner across from me. Let him have his blondes. I didn’t need the distraction.
11
Mac
Ignoring Alice for the past twenty-four hours had been an exercise in self-control, something I’d never been the best at.
I distracted myself by engaging with the others, focusing on their words so I never found myself drifting off to thoughts of biting comments or which buttons I could push next. The self-control extended to my alcohol intake. I kept it at a minimum, the better to avoid any awkward glances or tempting words.
My plan worked well, the first to do so this week. Actually, it worked a little too well. As I talked to Mason, describing in great detail the lengths to which I would go for a properly cooked rack of lamb, I overheard Alice agree to go with the girls for the evening.
The Groomsman: An Enemies-to-Lovers Romance (Billionaires of Club Tempest) Page 11
