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Chapter One
My brother’s wedding
“Excuse me, but I believe it’s my turn, they’re playing our song,” Tricia, the smoking hot, fiesty maid of honor advised my dancing partner.
Gingerly, she squeezed between the pretty wedding guest and me. The tone of her voice left the girl in no doubt she was being excused.
Without another glance, Tricia tucked my arm under hers, dismissed her, and dragged me away. Once we were alone, she wrapped her bare slender arms around my neck in an intimate gesture and pressed herself against me like she’d done that same move a thousand times before.
My arms immediately behaved as if they had a life of their own and wrapped around her waist before my mind had fully engaged to my action. I wasn’t surprised by Tricia’s forwardness; I had known from the moment I met her she was a straightforward woman, who looked like she took what she wanted.
Nestling her body close to mine, she tilted her head back to look at me with a satisfied sigh.
Feeling her soft warm body close to me filled an immediate sense of longing and I instantly yearned for more. When her long fingernails grazed my scalp, she grabbed a handful of hair, sending small shivers of desire radiating through me. They strummed just above the nape of my neck, and with each cunning stroke, she made me crave her more.
My body hummed as I played dumb and flashed her a look of amused confusion. While inside, my heart raced as I tried to mask my delight at finally being able to touch more of her.
Mature and elegant, everything about her appealed to me, but nothing had prepared me for the electrical surge that charged through my body when we were first introduced.
With my confirmed bachelor lifestyle in the past, I had figured there wasn’t much left to learn about women. That was until I encountered Charlotte.
Right from the start, my sister-in-law Billie’s best friend unsettled me. From the moment I saw Tricia Mattison, I hadn’t known which way was up. It had only taken a few minutes of conversation with her to know she was an extraordinarily complex woman, and unlike any other I’d connected with before. Don’t ask me how I knew, it was nothing she said, just a way she had about her.
Tricia wasn’t just a looker, she was exquisite, but how pretty a woman looked had never mattered to me if the chemistry wasn’t there.
The connection we’d shared from that very first day was electric. It had only taken a few minutes in her company for my shirt collar to suddenly feel too tight and the temperature in the room became roasting. Being around her made me feel restless, thirsty, hungry, and horny all in one hit. The verdict? I was in lust.
When our eyes met, the connection tested me as she held my gaze and my mind emptied of all other thoughts. For a moment, I lost myself in the unwavering challenge she silently communicated to me by way of an incredible piercing stare.
At first when she spoke, it had sounded assertive—sassy even—and my pulse raced faster at the tone in her voice. But it was the way she looked at me, like she could see my inner thoughts, that unnerved me. A breath or two after that, the euphoria of that first connection came to a screeching halt when I saw her eyes narrow as she assessed whether to trust me or not.
I glanced toward Billie and caught her watching me and instinct told me Tricia knew about my history with Sawyer’s ex-girlfriend, Charlotte Harrison. My heart sank that she had prior knowledge to judge me with.
Sleeping with Charlotte was something I’d neither planned for nor had ever wanted to happen. In fact, I had done my best to avoid her. However, my best had been no match for a conniving bitch like her.
My first mistake had been to think I could handle Charlotte’s unwarranted advances toward me in Sawyer’s absence. My second had been to get drunk to the point where Charlotte had seen her opportunity and had made her move to ensure she got what she’d wanted. My third was allowing her to blackmail me into continuing a relationship I’d felt trapped in, when I should have come clean from the moment the deed was done.
At the time Tricia and I had first been introduced, I was still finding my feet in a tentative reconciliation with my brother.
A romantic Adele song played as we shuffled around in perfect sync on the dance floor, our bodies were so close, every cell I possessed ached. Leaning back, Tricia looked up at me and when I stared into those eyes, I knew I could easily drown in them. Their vibrant green color drew me in and I couldn’t recall anyone I’d ever met who had eyes as mesmerizing as hers.
Everything about her, and surrounding her, from the subtle sweet smell of lilacs present in the light fragrance she wore, to her long slender frame, appeared perfect to me. She was exactly my type: tall and leggy, with delicate facial features, and long silky dark blonde hair.
As we danced slowly around the floor, I imagined letting her hair down and wrapping it tightly around my fist. That wasn’t the first time I’d had that thought. I had pictured doing that in my mind several times since I’d known her. Even during the wedding ceremony her hair had distracted me from the main event itself.
While we shifted from foot to foot, her suspicious gaze held that same testing look in assessment of me. For weeks I’d fought hard to resist her, but since the wedding nuptials had been completed there was nothing holding us back from having some fun of our own.
It had been a while since I’d been in the company of a female who was clearly determined to bed me, and I realized quickly I’d missed that lust-filled look in a woman’s eyes. I was slightly nervous to make my move on Tricia, because I didn’t want to make waves that either screwed up the amicable vibe there was between everyone, or the progress Sawyer and I had made in the months before.
I stole a look at my younger brother and his new bride, and I knew for sure he had moved on to a much better life without Charlotte. Seeing how happy he was made me wonder if I’d ever have that happy ending Sawyer had determinedly gone after.
Dancing cheek to cheek, I watched how possessively Sawyer held his new wife, and my heart squeezed a little in envy for the love he’d found. Since I’d been around Billie and Sawyer as a couple, it had dawned on me, I wanted that as well. I had been single for months and since the wedding was out of the way, I figured it was time I shook off my dark past and lived my life the way I wanted.
“You said it’s your turn?” I murmured, reminding her of her comment by ghosting the shell of her ear with my question. “I hadn’t realized there was a queue.” Tricia shivered in my arms and I hadn’t missed how goosebumps erupted over her skin.
My eyes dropped to her perfect cleavage for a second or two. When I straightened my stance and looked at her again, I bit back a smile at how deliciously responsive her reaction had been.
Reluctantly I dragged eyes away and I glanced over her shoulder toward the other guests dancing around us. I knew my brooding pauses were unsettling her. It had been obvious from the start; Tricia was a woman who was used to attention, and yet every fiber of my being told me to play it cool with her.
