From This Day Forward (The Wedding Belles 0.5)(7)

Normally Leah would have been thrilled to be part of what was sure to be one of the more lavish weddings she’d ever worked.

But right now all she could think about was that it meant more time working alongside Jason.

And yet you agreed to go to dinner with him.

“Well, I’ve been assuming I’ll take the whole spa-day portion,” Leah said, forcing her attention back to work. “Unless of course you’re desperate for some girl talk.”

“Spa day’s all you. Much as I do love debating nail polish colors, early mornings aren’t my thing, and the calendar Alexis sent over said that the first mani/pedi appointments start at seven a.m., so they’ll be done in time for a champagne brunch. Pass.”

Leah smirked. “Well, did you also see that the guys’ tee time is five a.m., and they want shots of the groom and former president teeing off?”

“Shit,” he muttered. “I knew there was golf involved, I just hadn’t looked at the time yet.”

“Good thing we’re doing an early dinner,” she said, popping a piece of bread in her mouth.

Leah glanced up and found him watching her—or, more specifically, watching her mouth. The bread suddenly felt dry, and she took a sip of water, both to wash it down and to cool her suddenly flaming lady parts.

What was it with her body’s reaction to this guy?

“Red.”

She forced herself to meet his eyes, alarmed to find that they were smoldering. As though he knew her every dirty thought and wanted to act them out in a slow, torturous pace. And then repeat.

“What?” Damn it. Her voice came out all husky.

“I booked the early dinner reservation on purpose. And not because of our early-morning wake-up call.”

Leah was already shaking her head. “Don’t do that. I already told you—”

“I know what you told me.” He leaned closer to her and lowered his voice so only she could hear. “I also know the way you’re looking at me. I know that if I took you back to my room right now and dipped my hand into your panties, I’d find you wet and silky and ready for me.”

Leah’s fingers clenched around her wineglass.

“Or if you weren’t wet before, I bet you are now,” he murmured. “I remember how much you like the way my fingers rub against you, Leah. Slow and teasing and—”

“Well this is interesting,” a voice interrupted.

Leah didn’t realize she’d been holding her breath until it whooshed out in agonized relief at the interruption.

She whipped her head around just in time to see Alexis Morgan and her assistant making their way over to their table.

In a crowd dressed mostly in Hamptons beach casual, Alexis’s royal-blue sleeveless sweater dress should have looked amiss, but of course, this being Alexis, she instead looked like she owned the entire place.

Leah caught her friend’s surprised lift of the eyebrows as they hugged.

Leah only rolled her eyes in response. Girl code for I’ll tell you later; don’t make it weird.

Alexis and Jason exchanged quick friendly pecks on the cheek.

“Not going to lie, when I got in today, I half expected to find one of you gloating over the other’s dead body,” Alexis said.

“That’s definitely on the docket for later,” Leah said.

“And yet, she agreed to have dinner with me,” Jason said, giving a very self-satisfied smirk.

“Yes, that is interesting,” Alexis murmured.

Leah’s only response was a roll of the eyes, because the truth was . . . she didn’t have the faintest clue what had made her say yes to Jason Rhodes’s dinner invitation.

At first it had been about proving a point, mostly to herself, that she could work with an ex-boyfriend without letting her personal feelings get in the way of a job.

But by the time she’d made it back to her room after drinking her white wine too quickly, suddenly she was feeling a whole lot less “modern career woman” and a lot more “lust-addled moron.”

The entire time she’d been getting ready she’d tried to talk herself out of dinner—they could divvy up photography tasks by email, for God’s sake. Or by daylight. Safe, rational, very unsexy daylight.

She’d tried to remember all of the pain, all of the reasons she absolutely should keep her distance.

And even after she’d met him in the lobby, her brain had tried to come up with rationalizations: that she hadn’t wanted to eat alone, that she’d wanted to prove to him and herself that she was over him.

But the truth was, sitting across from him today when he’d come to terrorize her in the lobby bar of their hotel had caused memories to come flooding back, and not the bad ones. At least not just the bad ones.

So tonight—for tonight only—she was letting herself take a walk down memory lane with blinders on. To remember what it had been like when they could talk for hours, the way he could make her laugh . . . and yes, maybe the way his cinnamon-flavored tongue had tasted, the way it had felt when it trailed down her neck and lower . . .

Leah coughed and gulped some water. Both Alexis and Jason were staring at her. Alexis in amusement, Jason with a sexy-eyed smolder, as though he knew exactly what she was thinking.

Alexis cleared her throat. “So the hotel’s good?”