Forbidden Kisses (3:AM Kisses Book 9) (13 page)

“Excuse me,” a photographer calls to us, breaking the spell, and we look past him to see the entire wedding party making its way in this direction.

“I guess I’ll see you at the Black Bear.” I blink myself back to life as I struggle to find Cassidy in the crowd.

“I guess you will.” Rex pulls me in a moment with his strong, thick arms. His cologne blankets me like a testosterone charged reassurance. “It’s all going to work out,” he whispers directly into my ear. “I promise.” He takes off before I can respond, before my body can fully clamp on to his the way it wants, and I’m left shivering there in the late afternoon heat, longing to hold a boy who moments before I could hardly stand to look at.

What the hell is happening to me?

* * *

T
he Black Bear
is festooned with paper wedding bells both out front and inside, but the deeper in you venture, the more elegant the affair becomes with the entire back of the restaurant draped in white linen and miles of tealight candles giving it a fairy-tale appeal.

Cassidy shuffles us to the bar where a skeleton crew mixes, shakes, and stirs to the patrons’ delight.

“Two piña coladas. Make ’em rough and dirty.” She winks my way. “Just the way it’s gonna be the second you and Sexy Rexy fall into the sack.”

I frown into this rough and dirty fantasy of hers. First, there is something disarming about Cassidy’s wide-as-a-Tennessee-sky accent that makes no matter what she says come across as the most benign news on the planet. And second, this is one of those rare unforgiveable instances where no matter how deep she dips herself into that country batter I will never find those words acceptable.

“I don’t drink, but I can see that you’re already tipsy as evidenced by your delusions of grandeur.” Not that there would ever be anything grand about me landing horizontal with “Sexy Rexy.” My soon-to-be stepbrother would be missing two very valuable balls if he ever attempted it.

“Oh, hush, you.” She waves me off as the bartender slides our drinks over, and she shoves one my way. “I saw the two of you out there, chitchatting,
holding
one another, him wiping the tears from your eyes. Please, you were practically Romeo and Juliet. All those sparks you were shedding, it’s a shocker that altar didn’t erupt in flames.”

“I suggest that
you
, my lovely childhood friend, is the one who hushes.” I take a long smooth drag from my white frothy drink and marvel at how well coconut is able to mask the disgusting taste of alcohol. Any and all liquor is sort of what I imagine nail polish remover to taste like. Nothing I would ever seek out willingly. “This is how rumors begin, and I’m all about keeping myself drama-free.”

“Speaking of drama.” She nods to the middle of the room where Savannah and a few of the girls from her slutty little pep squad skip over in our direction.

“Hey, Scarpette!” Savannah lunges over me with a spontaneous embrace, and for a moment, I’m trapped between her sweaty yet baby fresh armpit and a sea of blonde hair. “So, like, where’s your brother?” She and her sidekicks do a quick scan of the area.

Cassidy and I exchange brief glances as I choke on my next words. Just as I’m about to say something, anything to get her bouncing cleavage out of my face, Rex steps into the room with Owen.

“Actually, it’s
Scarlett
,” I correct. “And he’s right over there.” I give a friendly wave in his direction, and he offers a pleasant smile back before his eyes round out once he spots his own little personal cheer-bot bopping over in his direction.

“Is she for real?” Cassidy clucks her tongue as she takes her next sip.

“As real as silicone comes.”

“Is she datin’ him?” She gawks as Savannah hops up onto his waist and dry humps him for all to see.

“Who the hell cares?” My stomach swims in its own juices as if the sight of the two of them makes me want to hurl.

“Oh, hon”—Cassidy bumps me with her shoulder as we watch Rex pluck the dumb blonde off his body like prying barnacles off the bottom of a boat—“the sooner you stop denying your attraction to one another, the sooner the real party begins. Until then, you’re going to have her little slutalicious behind trying to storm your man.”

“My man?” I mumble, baffled by Cassidy’s insistence that I’m attracted to Rex, let alone ready to claim him as my anything.

The rest of the wedding party ambles in to raucous spontaneous applause, and Cade sweeps Cassidy off to the back to continue the celebrations. The music starts up again, loud and aggressive, as if the party were merely getting started, and Savannah begins swaying her hips over Rex’s. Her lips brush over his chest as if she were laying claim.

“Quite a show.”

I glance up to find Piper watching the debauchery right along with me.

“Although”—she grunts as we spy Savannah trying to dig her paws into the back of his trousers—“he is trying his best to evade her.”

Rex gives a nervous laugh as he brings her hands back to the front and tries to deposit them onto her lap, but Savannah’s tentacles are too busy moving and grooving all over his stately frame.

“So”—Piper nudges her elbow into my ribs—“what were the two of you discussing today out by the altar? It looked pretty serious.”

“Life and his mother. My general dislike for her, and why I can’t seem to pinpoint what exactly it is about her that I can’t stand.” I wrinkle my nose in his direction. “It actually wasn’t that abrasive. He was pretty nice. He seems really understanding of how I feel.”

“Is Operation Drive a Hatchet into Your Father’s Wedding Plans still a go?”

“Yup. Next week we’re meeting at my father’s stuffy old country club. I’ve no doubt once their geezer friends spot Rex and me shoving our tongues down one another’s throat it will sink them straight to the bottom of the social totem pole.”

Piper balks. “You think that’s all they’re in this for? Some slimy social circle? Don’t you think what they have is real?” She waves her hand in front of my face in an attempt to capture my attention.

“No, I don’t,” I say, craning my neck so as not to miss a minute of the Savannah takes Toberman hour. Dear God, according to that disgusting look on her face, she’s moments from dry humping herself into a bona fide orgasm. Sure, Rex looks physically uncomfortable as he tries to carry on a conversation with Owen as if the blonde anaconda wasn’t about to wrap herself around him and strangle the life out of his penis, but still, my money says he takes her home at the end of the evening, and, that, right there, draws the bile to the back of my throat.

“
Geez
, Scarlett.” Piper steps square in front of me. “You look like you’re about to be sick. Come on, I’m not letting you torment yourself like this.” She scoots me to the back of the bar where the wedding party is toasting through tears while Bryson and Holt take turns saying nice things about Annie. Both Cade and Piper step up and say a few words about their brothers, and before I know it, my eyes are running like a damn faucet again.

“There’s a drought in California.” Rex lands in the seat next to me and tosses me a napkin.

“I bet you’d like to get rid of me.” I dab the tears from my eyes with such violence it wouldn’t shock me to wake up to two black eyes in the morning. “Is that what this is about?” I scoff at his meager attempt to make me disappear. “Once I break that spell your mother put over my poor unassuming dad, you can bet the entire lot of us will be out of your hair.”

His head ticks back a notch. “Are you calling my mother a witch?”

“If the broomstick fits.”

Rex gapes at me as if I’ve just initiated a war, and so what if I did? It’s been a long time coming.

“I’m willing to overlook that because I know you’re hurting.” His eyes lock with mine, and as much as I may not like it, the words reek of sincerity. “But for your own good, stop acting like a child and admit to the fact you’re in pain instead of resorting to name calling. It’s not a good look on you.” His eyes soften. “You’re better than this, Scarlett. You’re a good person with a broken heart, and, believe me, I know how you feel.”

“Do you know how I feel?” Now it’s my turn inching back with righteous indignation. “Or do you know how Savannah Anderson feels pawing all over your body as if you were her new favorite chew toy?”

“So that’s what this is about. You don’t like Savannah?” A snide grin springs to his lips. “Or is it that you don’t like
me
with Savannah?”

I suck in a sharp breath, so fast and hard, I almost inhale my own tongue.

Dinner gets underway as Piper, Owen, Cassidy, and Cade sit down with us at our small round table. Owen engages the three males at the table in a snooze-worthy conversation regarding how valuable Rex is to the WB football team. And when he or Cade isn’t putting us to sleep singing Rex’s prize fighting praises, Piper and Cassidy fill them in on what a skilled huntress I am—completely incorrect because archery and hunting are literally two different animals—pun intended—and, on top of that, Daisy bops by and adds to the conversation telling everyone what a magnificent GPA I’ve managed to amass my first year at
uni
, and also regales our male guests with the fact I hardly snore at all.

The brides and grooms all file out toward the dance floor, and the room evacuates right along with our friends. Soon it’s just Rex and I staring one another down.

“So, what do you think of that hour long infomercial on all my best attributes?” The words drift out far angrier than I intended. Oh hell, I don’t know what I intended. Rex has my emotions hopelessly tangled like a necklace.

He pushes out a sleepy grin. “I think I’d much rather listen to you snore than meet up with you in a dark alley and risk an arrow to the heart.”

“Oh, come now”—I lean toward him as the heady scent of his cologne pulls me in—“I’d aim for far more creative places.”

We share a heartfelt laugh as the music switches rhythms, something hopelessly romantic that affords a lifetime’s worth of first dance memories.

Rex ticks his head toward the exit. “You want to hit the dance floor?”

“Sure thing. You’d better get out there before that Savannah cat drags you off to her twisted den. I’m pretty sure cheerleaders aren’t allowed to snore, but, then again, I’m sure the things you two do in private involve very little sleep.” That lemon chicken I just inhaled does a clucking revolution in my stomach at the thought of what Rex and his sex kitten might be doing behind closed doors.

“I meant dance with me.” He helps me up and lands his warm arm over my back as he leads us out to the bar proper.

“You mean I get to dance with the boy who scored the winning touchdown for every single winning game WB has ever had going back from the dawn of time?” I bat my lashes up at him as we make our way through the tangle of bodies.

Rex laughs as he lands his arms around my waist, and we begin to sway to the music. “They did lay it on a little thick, didn’t they?”

I bite down on a smile as I lock eyes with this tall, handsome boy that my father is determined to add to my sibling roster, and, for the first time, it doesn’t seem fair. But what doesn’t seem fair? I’m baffled by my own defenses. I don’t want Rex in my life as my brother or my anything, do I?

“I guess they like the idea of us getting along.” I swallow audibly, but thanks to the volume of the music, Rex isn’t privy to my “embarrassment.”

He shakes his head. His face inches closer to mine, and my entire body freezes solid as an iceberg. “You and I both know they’re gunning for a little more than that.”

My heart races as his lips hover inches from mine. Everything in me demands to lunge in and land my mouth over his for a moment, just to see how it feels in an effort to quell this dull ache in the pit of my stomach. That sweet spot between my thighs goes off as I indulge in a series of mini orgasms.

God, this is going to be one for the family album—the day I climaxed sixteen times in my new stepbrother’s arms. Our family Christmas cards are going to be rife with alarming secrets. My present orgasmic state of existence is a prime example of why my parents should never have divorced to begin with. Everyone knows that stepbrothers are off limits, and whatever could have been between Rex and me is forever forbidden no thanks to yet another unwanted benefit of my father’s new familial arrangement.

A hard tap falls over my shoulder, and I turn to find Savannah and her frosted powdered donut lascivious smile just waiting to devour Rex in three easy bites.

“Hey, Starla, can I have this dance with your big brother?” She bats her lashes at him, but Rex’s hands only secure themselves tighter over my waist. It feels amazing with him holding me, with his strong protective body wrapped around mine, but this feeling was never really meant for me. I may as well relinquish him right here and now to the vapid skank by my side. They’ll probably end up together one day, and I’ll have an entire lifetime of watching Savannah enjoy Rex Toberman’s perfect body. The urge to weep comes again. This time it’s all for me.

“Not now.” Rex twirls me around so that he’s the one next to Savannah. “I need to talk to my little sis about a few things.”