Baiting the Maid of Honor (Wedding Dare #2)(28)

“Oh, you are asking for it now.” Suddenly, she veered to the left and took the path leading toward the hotel lobby. He followed right behind her as she threw open the heavy wooden door and entered the lobby at a dead run. Customers watched curiously as they raced past the plush seating area, dodging luggage carts and stray suitcases as they headed for the check-in area. An older man stepped into Reed’s path, forcing him to slow as Julie reached the front desk first.

When he realized her plan, his booming laugh echoed across the lobby.





Chapter Eleven


Julie heaved the entire stack of newspapers onto the front desk and smiled at the dumbfounded attendant. “I’d like to buy all of them, please.”

The young man studied her for a second, as if looking for signs of mental illness, then shrugged. Julie felt Reed come up behind her just as he finished counting the newspapers. She pulled a twenty-dollar bill from her skirt pocket and laid it on the counter, giving the young man her best smile as she did so. To her left, Reed sighed loudly. She ignored him.

“You wouldn’t happen to have any more in the back, would you, sugar? I’m in a bit of a pinch, you see. I’ve organized a papier-maché craft hour for the children attending the wedding. Would you believe I went and forgot to bring newspaper? The main ingredient. Sometimes I think I’d forget my feet if I didn’t need them to walk. How long have you been working here? If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say quite a while. You’ve got an air of confidence about you. Yes sir, you do. My Aunt Sylvie always said that a confident man writes his own ticket in this world. Would you mind checking on those newspapers, darlin’? Bless your heart.”

As the young man turned, looking more than a little thunderstruck, toward the back office, Reed leaned over and spoke quietly in her ear. She tried unsuccessfully to ignore the hot shiver that ran down her spine. Try as she might, nothing could stop him from affecting her. She’d wanted him on the mountain to a stunning degree, had barely managed to hold back. “You can try to prevent me from getting a newspaper, but what about your bell? You still need one to—”

Without batting an eyelash, Julie slipped the front desk bell into her tote bag. Ignoring Reed’s look of shocked reproach, she tucked a stack of newspapers under each arm and took off in the direction of Starbucks, where Kady was waiting to crown the winner. She glanced back to find Reed breaking into a jog after her and she couldn’t help but laugh. The look on his face suggested he hated losing just as much as she did. Deciding the newspapers were weighing her down, she set them on a high table and made a break for it. Even if he picked up one of the papers and tried to catch her, Starbucks was so close that he’d never catch—

The optimistic thought died in its inception when two strong arms snagged her around the middle, catching her in mid-stride. Even if she hadn’t caught his oaky sent, the wide chest she was pulled back against would have told her it was Reed. Before Julie could protest, he pulled her from the lobby into an adjacent hallway, which led to a series of first-floor rooms. As the sounds of people and rolling luggage faded away, their labored breathing was the only sound that remained. He let her drop to her feet and pushed her against the wall. Suddenly, Julie felt basely desperate for him. Her body begged for his. Adrenaline, the remnants of their fight, the challenge he’d given her on the hunt, had heightened her already-colossal attraction to him. Yet even knowing that, she wanted him with a fierceness that made her moan and close her eyes when he fit their bodies together.

One calloused hand slid up the back of her bare thigh, disappearing beneath her skirt. When it reached her bottom, he palmed it roughly once, then boosted her higher to fit his erection between her legs. Julie’s head fell back against the wall on a gasp. “Any other day, I’d let you get away with that little stunt. Not today. Not when winning means a private striptease from the girl who’s been keeping my cock permanently hard. A striptease that ends in me f*cking her into next week.”

Her breath shuddered out. “Y-you didn’t win either.”

In his left hand, Reed held up a single newspaper, then let it drop. “We’ll keep it between us.”

His hips flexed and Julie bit her lip hard. She could feel the flesh between her legs clench reflexively and go damp at the thought of Reed inside her. Nothing mattered at that moment, apart from the need. Not their differences or what would come afterward. Julie couldn’t see past playing out her hottest fantasy. Dancing for this man. Tempting him. Finally being seen as something other than efficient and pretty to look at. She’d never wanted anything quite so badly.

“Take me to your room.”

Reed kissed her once, long and hard, growling in his throat the whole time. Tangling her fingers in his hair, wanting to get lost in the kiss, she protested when he abruptly backed away, but he simply grabbed her hand and led her down the corridor, turning right at the end and stopping at the second door. Once inside, she expected him to kiss her, throw her on the bed, and finally slake the incessant hunger. Instead, he unbuttoned his shirt slowly, watching her closely like a predator, eyes heavy with arousal. In other words, no way was he letting her forget about their agreement or allowing them to become distracted. Good. Julie didn’t want to forget about it, but now that the moment had arrived, she didn’t know where to start. She worked in the liquor business. In the South, no less. A man’s world that she’d had to bust her behind to infiltrate. And despite what Reed thought, organizing a destination wedding was no walk in the park, either. This was just a simple dance. One she’d walked into with her eyes wide open.