Sam looked beautiful in a deep purple lace dress, her brown hair curled and held back in intricatebraids.
“I’ve been good! Quite the wedding, huh?” she remarked, watching everybody on the dance floor. Tommy was wearing his tie on his forehead, dancing like ababoon.
“Yeah, it is,” I smiled, relieved that everything had gone so wonderfully for Brock and Tessa. Sure, we’d had a few hitches—like the slight tear in Tessa’s dress after the last bathroom trip, and the whole Alex and Elle situation. It was the first wedding I had been a part of, but I’d heard a lot of horror stories from the girls atwork.
“That first dance song was incredible, wasn’t it?” she asked, her eyes darting back to mine andtwinkling.
“Yeah, it was incredible.” My gaze drifted back to Travis. He sat at a table with Brock’s old friend from work, Grayson, and his fiancé—Everly Daniels, the lead singer of one of my favourite bands. To say I’d been shocked when I saw her walk up to the microphone to join Travis in a duet was an understatement. I hadn’t even known my brother knew her, let alone that she’d be coming to the wedding to sing withTravis.
They’d sounded incredible together, and I’d been reduced to tears while I watched my brother and his new wife spin around on the dance floor and listened to their soulfulduet.
“Did you figure it out with him yet?” Sam askedtentatively.
I bit my lip and shrugged with one shoulder, glancing back to her. “Not really. Did you figure it out withTommy?”
“Not really,” she responded with a small laugh. “He still looks at me like afriend.”
“But he invited you to the wedding. That has to meansomething.”
“It means he didn’t know who else to ask and didn’t want to show up alone,” Sam shrugged. “It’s cool though, I have a secret addiction to weddings. They’re so beautiful and dream-like.”
“Well, I’m glad you came,” I told herearnestly.
“Sam! Come dance!” Tommy called out, waving herforward.
Sam downed her glass of wine and gave me a timid smile. “At least everybody’s drunk enough to not notice how terribly Idance.”
“And with Tommy as a partner, I’m sure you’ll look like a pro,” I laughed, watching as Tommy did the sprinkler. She smiled, shaking her head as she walked out to joinhim.
The next few hours slipped by quickly, and around midnight, Tessa and Brock left for the airport. Soon after, the night started to wind down as more and more people began to leave the dance floor. Tommy and Sam left when she could no longer stand, and Katie and Ben had taken off shortly after. Gordon, Annaka, Grady, Paige, and to my complete surprise—Bill and Sue—were still tearing it up on the dancefloor.
My feet were throbbing and my cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing so much. I had danced a lot, although not with Travis. I’d wanted to, but I hadn’t trusted myself to keep it PG, and I wasn’t ready to come out in the open with whatever it was we weredoing.
Our eyes met from across the dance floor, and the look within his hazel depths had me putting my glass down and turning to leave the reception tent. His desire roared through me, tangling with mine and adding fuel to the fire within me. I knew if we met out on the dance floor, I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands off him. The seven glasses of wine I’d consumed throughout the night made certain of thatfact.
I could hear someone following me, and I knew without looking that it was Travis. The gravel crunched beneath his dress shoes, and he came to a stop just behindme.
“Come back to my place,” he whispered, catching a curl and tucking it behind my ear. I couldn’t help but melt against him, the feel of his lips on my neck made me grind my ass against his thickeningerection.
I turned into his embrace, my hands tightening their hold on his crisp dress shirt. “Okay,” I whispered. He kissed me. I responded ardently, my tongue dancing with his, my teeth gently biting into his bottom lip. My need was blinding my ability to take thingsslow.
“I want you; so fucking bad it actually hurts,” he toldme.
“Let’s get out of here then,” I said, swallowing hard as I gazed up at him. I was drunk enough on him to not care where we ended up, so long as we weretogether.
“Rob’s already pulling the car around,” Travis admitted with a sly grin, his hands massaging my ass as he tugged me closer to him. “Come on,” he added, seeing the slick Escalade pull out of its parking spot. He grabbed my hand and we hopped into the back seat without a backwardsglance.
I half expected him to maul me on the drive to his place, but Travis kept a respectable distance between us. His arm was slung around my shoulders, and my head rested against it, my chin turned to look at him while he watched me with quietreverence.
He lowered his lips to my ear, his tongue gently flicking out to lick along my lobe. “I can’t wait to see that dress on my floor,” hewhispered.
Travis
“TravisChanning.”
“Kimberley Channing,” I said, matching my mom’s stern voice with one of my own. I arched a brow at her, trying to keep the arrogant grin from my lips, lest I earn a slap in the back of thehead.
“I already told you to stop spending money on me,” she lectured, hands on her narrow hips. Mom had always been thin, especially back when I was a kid. She’d sacrifice everything on her plate so I could have a full meal in mybelly.
