Beautiful Beginning(31)

try them and afterward think gasoline tasted like water. And the hooch

would make us randy, oh boy.” Beside me, Bennett shifted on his feet,

groaning quietly. Lyle nodded, pointing at me. “I’d have to walk around

until I found a willing lady, sometimes had to pay for it, but I didn’t

mind.” Lyle looked across the room, raising his drink in greeting to

Elliott and Susan. “The drink was that kind of wicked, what can you do?”

I pressed my hand to my lips, struggling to hold back my laugh. “Oh, I don

’t know, Lyle,” Bennett said quietly. “Maybe you could not point at my

fiancée when you’re referencing hiring prostitutes?”

“That’s probably what I would do,” George agreed.

Oblivious, Lyle turned back to us. “They’d put a cinnamon stick in it

over the holidays. Mark the occasion. Still tasted like fire.”

“Cinnamon fire,” I added, helpfully.

“In the drink or in the prostitutes?” George asked, brows pulled

together.

Lyle didn’t even crack a smile. “The drink.”

“Really could have gone either way,” I said to George.

“I don’t know what women taste like with or without cinnamon sticks in

them, is what I’m saying,” George stage-whispered to me. “Maybe it’s a

thing.”

“One kid from my crew,” Lyle started, rolling back into his memories

again. “Now what was his name?” He took another drink, closed his eyes,

and then opened them in a flash. “Bill. Oh, that Bill, I tell you what. He

was something else. One night he drank the hooch and came back wearing

women’s underwear. Boy, did he get chased around the barracks that night.

”

We all stood in silence, contemplating this for a few beats before George

said, “Like I said. The navy sounds like my kind of place.”

We all turned at the sound of a loud shout. Across the room, Will was

covering his ass with both hands, giving my aunt Mary his sexy-fire look of

oh-woman-you’re-in-trouble before taking several predatory steps toward

her. Mary was covering her mouth in a pathetically inadequate look of

contrition.

George looked over at me. “Should I be jealous that someone else is

harassing my boy toy?”

“Very,” Bennett mused dryly. “I’m surprised Chloe’s aunts haven’t put

a saddle on him yet.”

“Well, then maybe I need to go find him and tell him once he goes gay,

there’s no other way. I think he’ll be particularly interested to hear

about what these magical hands can do.” He wiggled his fingers

suggestively in my

face.

Lyle turned, drink in hand, and gave George a quizzical look.

“To a keyboard. Do to a keyboard,” George added, winking at me before

walking across the room to the dance floor.



On the patio, Bennett and I looked out at the water, and chatted with some

distant cousins he hadn’t seen in years, and whom I’d never met. They

were nice enough, and the conversation entered the familiar territory of

most conversations this week:

How’s the weather been in _____?

Now what is it you do again?

When was the last time you saw Bennett?

The entire time, his hand was around my waist, gripping me as if I was

being punished.

His rough touch pissed me off, and thrilled me. Sliding my hand over his, I

carefully dug my fingernails into the back of his hand. He squeezed my side

harder and I dug in deeper. With a small yelp, he let go of my waist,

glaring down at me.

“Damnit, Chloe.”

I smiled up at him, sugar sweet and giddy from winning the tiny battle, and

felt Max’s giant hand cover my shoulder as he leaned between Bennett and

me to speak to the wide-eyed cousins. “Don’t mind them. This is how they

show love.”

The DJ announced that dinner was ready, and we all filed in to find our

seats. Bennett and I were seated at the front of the room, sandwiched

between our parents and flanked, farther down, by the entire wedding party.

I could still feel the echo of Bennett’s hand on my side, and it ached.

But more than that, it felt cold and hollow. He was the only man I wanted

so desperately that I pissed him off just to relish the satisfaction of

watching him crack and give in to me.

Elliott and my father stood and walked to the front of the room. Elliott

smiled at the DJ as he took the microphone. “Bennett is my youngest, and

his entire life he has been driven, restrained, and poised. When Chloe came

into my life, Bennett was still living in France. At the time, I would have

no idea what she would do to my son’s composure.”

The room filled with quiet laughter and murmurs of agreement.

“I hoped, mind you,” he said, looking at me. “It was hard to know you,

darling, and not want you to belong to us in some way. But, especially with