Seducing the Bridesmaid (Wedding Dare, #3)(30)

No, the only man she wanted to climb was whirling around the room with another woman in his arms.

…

Brock could barely focus on interrogating Sophie when he was so distracted by the way Regan beamed up at Logan. And why shouldn’t she be f*cking beaming? Being wrapped up in Logan’s arms was what she’d spent the last few days working toward. She was exactly where she wanted to be.

“You’re going to need dental work if you don’t stop gritting your teeth like that. Not to mention the tension migraines.”

He turned his attention back to Sophie, still not really able to believe how she’d shown up dressed to this shindig. The red dress hugged her like a second skin, showing off a body he might have looked twice at if it wasn’t attached to Colton’s baby sister. “Are you sleeping with someone from the wedding party?” He wanted to hear her say it—to confirm his suspicions about Logan.

She made a choked noise. “Brock Christopher McNeill, I know you did not just ask me that.” But her eyes made a quick, involuntary detour over to Logan and Regan, and snapped back brimming with the same dark, edgy emotions that swirled inside him.

Holy shit, he really was right in his suspicions. “Don’t try that middle name bullshit. You know damn well that only works when my mother does it.” He leaned in. “You know, Sophie, I’m not a stupid man.”

“Could have fooled me,” she muttered.

“Why does everyone keep saying that?”

“You know exactly why. You define the word underachiever, which is fine. It’s just what you do, even if you are wasting your potential.” She cocked her head to the side, the anger leaching out of her voice. “How’d I do? I think I embodied your dad pretty well.”

Some of the tightness in his chest evaporated. She’d just been joking. That wasn’t what she really thought of him. “He’s a bastard.”

“And he’s never seen you for what you are. His loss.” She sent another turbulent look over his shoulder and muttered, “A lot of people are losing tonight.”

“Don’t think for a second that you’ve distracted me. I want to know what’s going on with you. You show up to find Christine and Tyler looking like you’ve been rolling around in the sheets, and now this dress.”

She looked down. “What’s wrong with this dress?”

He bit back a sharp reply. In all the years he’d known her, she’d never taken much interest in prettying herself up. Which she didn’t need to—he’d always thought she was cute in a little-sibling kind of way. But he really would be a bastard if he cut her down right now. “There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s a stunner.”

“Liar.”

“You know better than to call me that.” He spun her out and pulled her back into his arms. “What’s his name?” Would she come out and say it? Sophie had a stubborn streak a mile wide, but he wanted—needed—something to distract himself from the sound of Regan’s voice somewhere behind him.

“So you can run to my brother and tattle?”

“Hell no. I’ll take care of this one myself.” He leaned down. “Though I might bring Reed into it.”

Her eyes widened. “You wouldn’t.”

“Again, you know better.” He started to go in for the kill, but Regan’s laugh rang through the hall. Brock looked over in time to see her go up onto her tiptoes and kiss Logan’s cheek. His stomach dropped out, and for a second, he thought he might be physically sick. The moment passed, but the feeling remained. Beside him, Sophie hissed like an angry kitten.

Raised voices snapped his attention from Regan and Logan to where Christine and Tyler faced off. She screamed something at him and then covered her face. Tyler snarled something back, and then handed her the crutches leaning against the wall. Both Tyler and Christine left, though not together, and Kady started yelling. By the time he turned around from the debacle, Regan was gone.

The only reason Brock didn’t lose his shit then and there was because Logan hadn’t left. He cursed himself for being the idiot everyone seemed to think he was and stalked out. What did he expect? Regan wanted Logan and she seemed well on her way toward achieving that goal. It was exactly what she’d told him her plan was. And if he confronted her now, that’s exactly what she’d say to him.

If that wasn’t bad enough, now he had little Sophie to worry about. If Logan fell head over heels for Regan, she’d be crushed. Brock shook his head, going back over the look on Logan’s face this morning. That wasn’t the expression of a man who was just using a pretty girl for sex. There was a whole lot in the way of emotions behind it.

Christ, this was a shit show.

He needed some distance from this mess. And as he stormed out of the ballroom, he headed to his room to keep from doing something stupid like showing up at Regan’s room and demanding she change her goddamn plan to incorporate him.





Chapter Twelve


Regan ran until her legs shook. She still couldn’t outrun her thoughts—or the realization that Logan was seven shades of wrong for her. The man scaled the sides of cliffs for fun. What the f*ck did he think she was—a mountain goat? The only thing Regan liked to scale was a few sets of stairs if she was feeling ambitious. If humans were meant to scale the face of death, then God would have given them claws or hooves or unbreakable bones or something.