Baiting the Maid of Honor (Wedding Dare #2)(3)

Ever so slightly, possibly out of curiosity, she let her back connect with his chest. With difficulty, he managed to stand perfectly still, watching over her shoulder as her breasts rose and fell, that supple flesh swelling over the top of her dress. When she spoke, her voice stoked the fire inside of him, blistering his insides. “Now, why would I want that?”

“If you have to ask, you need it worse than you think.”

Hoping like hell the move wouldn’t send her screaming, kind of wishing it would, Reed let his fingertips make contact with the top of her back. Still, she didn’t turn around or say a damn word to stop him. He couldn’t believe it. Not her acceptance of his touch, not the incredible softness he encountered. Who felt like this? Heat rushing through his veins, he very slowly trailed his fingers up her neck and let them tangle in her hair. As he’d seen her do earlier, he massaged her scalp, growling low in his throat when she loosened her neck and let his hand support her head fully. Giving him control. This time, she didn’t moan. She panted.

“You’d best stop me now, unless you want to find out what you need.”

“I—” He tugged gently so he could see her upturned face and it nearly sent him over the f*cking edge. Pink-stained cheeks, damp mouth, heavy eyelids. She looked on the verge of climax, just from his hand in her hair. Christ, who was this girl? “I…” she started again, breathlessly.

Reed gripped the strands of her hair and pulled.

A broken sob fell from her mouth as she spun away from Reed, giving him no choice but to let go of her hair. Moonlight spilled over her aroused body, illuminated her shocked face. His instincts told him to reach for her, but common sense kept him rooted to the ground. Finally, finally, distaste crept into her expression. For him. Too bad it had come too late. He felt on the verge of imploding with the severe need she’d stirred up in him.

“Are you always this inappropriate?” She spat the words at him. “Even when a lady has shown exactly zero interest?”

“Baby, if that was zero, I can’t wait to see what ten looks like.”

She laughed a little hysterically. “I guess they’ll let just about anyone stay at this resort. Good thing it’s big enough I won’t have to see you again.”

“Good thing,” he called after her.

Oh, they would be seeing each other again. Real soon.

…

Still buzzing with restlessness and adrenaline after her encounter with the strange man on the patio, Julie rejoined her friends at their table. What in blue blazes had just taken place? Surely she’d dreamed that entire encounter, because ladies didn’t let strange men pull their hair. They didn’t let any man pull their hair, for that matter. And they sure as heck didn’t like it.

The moment she’d seen him leaning against the building in the darkness should have been the same moment she returned to the party without a backward glance. Instead, the challenge in his eyes had kept her outside. With his hard, commanding form and irreverent air, he’d wanted to make her nervous. Expected it. So she’d simply refused. Big mistake. She could still feel his powerful hand in her hair, supporting her, soothing her…then treating her to a combination of unexpected pleasure and pain. The memory of it made her body heat with renewed desire, made awareness spread everywhere it shouldn’t. Not for that man whose taunts still rang in her ears.

A series of feminine sighs broke out around the table, drawing her attention. Kady’s fiancé, Colton, stood at the entrance flanked by four men as he consulted with the hostess. The groomsmen were crashing the bachelorette party? Her fingers itched to pull out the wedding agenda and remind them they were supposed to be elsewhere, doing man stuff, but Kady’s pleased smile stopped her.

“Oh, look! There’s my hot chunk of man love now.” Kady grimaced. “Sorry, Sophie.”

Sophie waved off the apology. “This champagne is definitely softening the blow of hearing you objectify my brother.”

“Aw, you’re a good sport,” Kady said, edging around the table and taking off toward her future husband with open arms, slightly unsteady in her high heels. “Come to mama!”

Her friend’s obvious joy easing her unsettled mood, Julie reached for the bottle of champagne, but her hand froze before she could make contact.

No, it couldn’t be. The tall, broody shadow lurker from the patio had just joined the group of groomsmen. He was the last-minute addition to the wedding party? Quickly, she called to mind the frantic research she’d done on Colton’s childhood friend. Reed Lawson, thirty-one. Also known as the gigantic pain in her backside who’d sent her scrambling when he’d agreed to attend the festivities in the eleventh hour. An Atlanta-based SWAT team commander.

Atlanta. The same city she lived in. What were the odds of a chance encounter in the darkness so far from their mutual hometown?

As Colton, the groom, pulled him into a manly, back-slapping embrace, Reed looked over at her and winked.





Chapter Three


With Kady out of earshot, Regan leaned forward in her seat. “All right, tell me about these groomsmen so I can decide on the lucky one who gets to see me naked.”

Julie was still recovering from her shock over Reed Lawson and the shadow lurker being one and the same, yet somehow her immediate, anxious internal answer to Regan’s question was not him. For the second time in one evening, she frowned. That reaction simply wouldn’t do. Somehow, after exchanging only a handful of words, he’d found a way to get under her skin, and she wanted him gone. Julie didn’t date too often—she simply didn’t have the time between work and being a veritable errand girl for her parents—but on the rare occasion she enjoyed the company of a man, manners were minded. Compliments were paid. Frowns never entered the equation.