“This doesn’t change anything,” she said quietly, stepping into her dress. Her voice was steady, but her hands weren’t. Her fingers fumbled with the zipper. “We just needed to get it out of our system—that’s all.” She paused. “We can’t do this.”
The words hit me like a left hook to the jaw. Even after what we’d just shared, she was still running. Still keeping me at arm’s length.
But as I watched her fix her hair, smooth her dress, transform back into the perfect bridesmaid, I realized something terrible.
Sleeping with her hadn’t gotten her out of my system at all. It had only made me fall harder.
And that was going to be a problem.
It was a problem that I was stewing over when, twenty minutes later, the boys started giving me shit for what they presumed was a more trivial reason for staring at Faith.
“What’s stopping you from asking her to dance?” Jace asked.
My jaw tightened. The irony of his question nearly made me laugh. If only he knew I’d just had her crying out my name in the bridal suite twenty minutes ago. But that wasn’t the issue. The issue was what came next.
“It’s not just …” I paused, trying to find words that wouldn’t give us away. I wanted to ask her to have dinner with me. To stop finding reasons to push me away, but … “What if she says no?”
Because she would. She’d already made that clear. Even after what we’d just done, even after the way she’d trusted me completely, she’d still say no to anything real between us.
Axel threw his arm around my shoulders in mock sympathy. “Awww, don’t worry, buddy. I heard from Jessica, who heard from Stacy, who heard from Kevin that Faith totally likes you and wants you to ask her to the spring formal. Maybe you two can share a milkshake after!”
“Fuck off.” I shoved him away while he snickered.
If only it were that simple. If only this was just about asking a girl to dance instead of asking her to risk her newly rebuilt relationship with her brother for something she clearly wanted, but wouldn’t let herself have.
“Either make a move or stop staring,” Jace said with typical CEO bluntness. “You’re making the rest of us uncomfortable.”
“Spoken like a true executive,” Axel said. “What’s next, a PowerPoint presentation on Effective Dating Strategies?”
Jace shrugged. “I’ve got another piece of advice: shit or get off the pot.”
I glared at him. “Your romantic wisdom is truly inspiring.”
Easy for him to say. He hadn’t just experienced the most intense encounter of his life, only to realize he wanted more than stolen moments in empty rooms.
“What’s your actual holdup here?” Axel pressed. “You’re a criminal defense lawyer. You’ve stared down murderers without flinching. One tiny woman shouldn’t be this terrifying.”
I rubbed the back of my neck, scrambling for an excuse that wasn’t,I just had her three different ways, and now I want to date her, but she’ll say no. “Blake may have given me a warning that involved the precision of surgical scalpels if I hurt his sister in, and I quote, ‘any way, shape, or form.’”
The warning had come earlier, before the ceremony. Perfecttiming, considering what Faith and I had just done. But that wasn’t what terrified me. What terrified me was the look in her eyes when she’d fixed her dress and said,“This doesn’t change anything.”
Axel burst out laughing. “That’s pretty fucking ironic, considering he just married your sister.”
“Right?” I sighed heavily. “His hypocrisy is stunning.”
“Blake’s all bark,” Jace claimed. But we all knew better. “Besides, what’s he going to do? Stitch you back together wrong?”
“Don’t give him ideas,” I muttered.
Though honestly, Blake’s reaction was the least of my concerns. The real problem was Faith herself. How she could give herself to me so completely behind closed doors, then act like nothing happened in public. How was I supposed to pretend I didn’t know exactly how she sounded when she came apart?
“Look,” Axel said, getting serious for exactly three seconds. “You’re overthinking this. Just ask her to dance. Worst-case scenario: she says no, and you go back to your corner to brood some more.”
“Thanks for the pep talk, Coach.”
I continued staring at the bar where Faith laughed with the other bridesmaids, her face glowing with happiness. No sign of what we’d just done. No indication that anything had changed.
“I’ll ask her out.” I straightened my shoulders, making the decision. Not just to dance. To date. To be together publicly. To stop hiding. “But not tonight. I don’t want to risk ruining Blake and Tessa’s wedding if she shoots me down in flames.”
