He saw me with Adam and was jealous. So jealous that he stormed inside to break us up. That thought fills me with a thrill. I, Jane Sinclair, made the great Reid Matthews jealous.
“Alright, well it’s girls night, so it’s time for you to go,” Kate instructs. She makes a shooing motion with her hands and Reid takes a step back.
“I’ll walk him out,” I offer. Whatever she says in reply gets lost as a new song starts pounding through the speakers in an effort to get the morale back up in the bar. I watch Kate saunter off, already back to waving her hands over her head on the dance floor. My eyes catch on Jessica, who is glaring in my direction, her fingers curled around her drink so tightly her knuckles are white. Her eyes slip to Reid, then back at me with a new fire in them before she turns around.
Reid drops my hips, but his fingers intertwine with mine, and just like that I’mback to focusing on him as he leads me to the door. I follow him outside into the night, a gust of wind has me immediately wishing I had a jacket tonight to wear over this black slip dress Kate forced me into.
But when Reid turns around and backs me up against the brick building, all the chill melts away into a heat instead.
“So I made you jealous,” I taunt.
“Incredibly jealous.”
“I didn’t realize I had that power over you.”
He presses his palms on either side of my head, caging me in against the wall. His voice is low and dangerous and tempting as he says, “Jane, you have so much power over me right now it’s ridiculous.”
I can’t breathe with him so close. I can’t think. I’m frozen, hypnotized by him. Finally, I get out, “Is that so?”
“All I want to do is talk to you. All I do is think about you and plan what I’ll say when I see you again or what I can do to win you over. I think about whether someone like you would ever want to be with someone like me.”
He draws in a breath to continue, but I press a finger over his full lips, effectively stopping him. “What do you mean someone like you?”
“I’ve never dated. I have no clue how to impress you or make you happy. And you’re this . . . this ray of light. I don’t feel like I deserve to even be in your orbit, let alone your presence.”
He drops his hands and rights himself, running his hands through his dark hair. I’m still pressed against the wall trying to catch my breath. He paces a few steps, and the idea of him leaving right now has me panicking. So I call his name and he stops, turning his head to look at me with an expression full of hope.
A smile touches my lips, which seems to make his shoulders relax slightly. The fact that I canrelax him the same way he can relax me makes me feel proud and thrilled and happy.
I smile at him. “I like it when you’re in my presence. In fact, I would like it if you were in my presence more.”
Now his lips are the ones curving into a smile and he steps back toward me, taking my hands in his. He stares down at our intertwined fingers, opens his mouth, shuts it. I find myself leaning closer in anticipation of whatever he might say next. “When this whole wedding is over, can I take you out on a date?”
He sounds so nervous, and when he lifts his gaze to mine, I find a hint of worry in his bright gray eyes.
I nod vigorously, the smile still on my face. “I would like that.”
The nerves fade away, an excitement quickly replacing his features. “Thank god.”
A laugh bubbles out of me, until I hear my sister shout my name again from the door of the bar, music falling onto the street as she does so. “Jane! Come on! The bachelorette party is in here!”
“I’ll be right there!” The door slams shut, taking the music with her. I squeeze my eyes shut and groan. “That’s my cue.”
Soft, warm lips press to my cheek, lighting my skin on fire in their wake. My eyes pop open just as Reid pulls back. “I’ll see you soon, Jane.”
And with that he drops my hands and walks down the sidewalk. When he turns back after ten steps and finds me watching him go, he chuckles, ducks his head, then continues on.
As I watch him walk away, I lift my fingers to my cheek and rest my back against the wall, thinking about how this wedding can’t be over soon enough.
Chapter 16
“How are you in first class?” I ask Reid as I snatch the boarding pass out of his hand and double check the seat number on it just in case he read it wrong. Sure enough. Seat 2A.
The entire bridal party, including my parents and Jason’s, are all milling around the airport gate in various levels of boredom and anxiety. Charlie sits with his arm around Elise’s shoulders as she reads a book. Brad understandably declined spending thousands on a trip to Italy for his new girlfriend’s sister’s wedding, so Lydia and Jessica are sharing earbuds and listening to music as Lydia swipes the occasional tear from her cheek over his absence. Mom and dad are sitting side by side but otherwise ignoring each other. Kate and Jason are just down the hall bickering with each other very animatedly about who knows what.
And I’m sitting on the uncomfortable black pleather chair attached to Reid’s, trying my best not to lean into his touch and smile too brightly at him even if it is killing me to be so close to him and not rest my head on his shoulder or intertwine my fingers with his.
Reid shrugs, snatching his boarding pass back outof my hands, his fingers blessedly brushing mine. “I had flight credits.”
