All of Me (Inside Out #5.5)(41)

Appalled, I sit up and grab his arm. “Don’t you dare leave me like this!”

His eyes dance with mischief. “I told you, just a taste.”

“You’re teasing me,” I accuse.

“Yes. Yes, I am.”

“If you’re going to start something, you have to finish it.”

“What about the no-sex-this-morning rule?”

“It’s silly.”

He laughs. “Is it, now?”

“Yes.” The doorbell to the rental house rings and I walk on my knees toward Chris. “Don’t get it.”

He flattens me against him, running his hand up my back, melding my chest to his chest. “It’s my tuxedo.” He kisses me and then releases me.

Defeated, I fall back on the bed and moan. “This is not how a bride should start her day.”

“Tonight.”

I rise up on my elbows to find him in his pajama bottoms, and sigh. “Right. Tonight.”

As he disappears through the door, I roll out of the bed and search for my robe. Not seeing it, I snatch up Chris’s shirt from the floor and slip it over my head. Eager to make sure his tuxedo is right, I rush down the hallway and reach the door as Chris is hanging a garment bag on the coat rack.

“Is it what you wanted?” I ask as he unzips the bag.

“Yes. I tried it on yesterday and left it to be pressed. It fits.”

I run my hand over the lapels. “I’d have been happy with you in your leather jacket.”

He faces me, towering over me. I forget how big he is sometimes, but he is. Tall, broad, and so very masculine. And he gives me one of his smoldering looks that say “I own you,” and my skin heats all over again.

“I like you in my shirt,” he says, his voice a low, raspy promise of hot kisses in all kinds of wonderful places.

“I like me in your shirt.” I sound breathless. I feel breathless.

We stare at each other, the air crackling with electricity.

“I know what I promised about this morning,” he says, “but do you know how hot it makes me to think about you being my wife?”

And that’s all it takes. I sway toward him, and just like that, we snap. Suddenly we’re kissing, his hands cupping my backside as he lifts me and sets me on the entryway table, tugging his shirt up.

Then I hear a car door slam, and my eyes open. The next sound I hear is Katie’s voice.

“Oh God. The window. The window by the door, Chris.”

He lifts me and sets me against the door, out of view of prying eyes.

“That was so close,” I say. “I didn’t even hear the car.”

“Why is she here?”

“To help me get ready, and probably to split us up. Which means it’s already noon.”

He glances through the glass pane next to the door and laughs. “Can you imagine her face if she’d caught us?”

The doorbell rings, and I push to my toes and kiss him. “Do you know how hot it makes me to think about you being my husband?”

And then I dart away, laughing when he groans. I think it’s safe to say we’re both looking forward to tonight.

? ? ?

Appalled that Chris and I spent the night together, Katie chides us for our bad wedding etiquette and hovers as I shower and pack. I have a few minutes alone as I finish gathering my things, then I head to the kitchen to find Chris and Katie standing by the coffeepot. I have no makeup on, my hair isn’t done, and I’m wearing his Harley T-shirt with a pair of sweats. He looks his normal biker hottie self, with jeans, a T-shirt, his leather jacket, and biker boots on. I drool.

“This instead of the tux,” I say. “I approve.”

His eyes light with mischief. “I’ll wear this if you wear my T-shirt,” he says, clearly referencing our hallway encounter. “Or not.”

Katie steps between us. “Stop it, you two. You aren’t even supposed to see each other until the wedding.” She turns to me. “I booked a massage for you in fifteen minutes. It’ll relax you.”

My throat thickens. “Massage? No. I just . . .”

Chris drapes his arm over my shoulder. “She doesn’t like other people touching her. Unless it’s me.”

I don’t know how he knows this. Maybe I’ve told him. Or maybe it’s just the way Chris gets me. But since Michael, I’m weird about being touched. It’s part of what made my intense physical reactions to Chris so surprising from the beginning.

She looks at Chris, her gaze soft, and I’m certain she senses he’s being a big, protective bear. “Sure, no massage.” The doorbell rings. “I’ll go tell her the massage is cancelled, then we should head to the chateau.”

She leaves me alone with Chris and I face him. “You knew.”

“Of course I knew.”

“I trusted you from the beginning. It’s like some part of me just knew you were safe.”

Katie pops her head in the door. “Let’s go. And break it up, you two.”

He grabs me and kisses me firmly. “See you soon, baby.”

I back up and wave and then turn and follow Katie outside, aware that the next time I see Chris, it will be to say “I do.”

The idea has me smiling as I slide into Katie’s BMW.