Sinners On Tour 06 Sinners at the Altar (28 page)

While Jessica and her mother argued about Jessica’s ruined hair and her ruined dress and her ruined flowers and her ruined wedding, Sed’s muscles grew tighter and tighter with tension. If his mother hadn’t placed a comforting hand on his elbow, he would have exploded.

“Are you going to say something?” Mom asked quietly.

“Jessica doesn’t want me to interfere.”

“Do you always let her get her way?”

Sed flushed. “Pretty much.”

“You have to pick your battles,” Mom said.

“Yeah.”
At his mother validation of his choice, he felt a bit better about staying out of Stella and Jessica’s escalating argument.

“I think this might be the one
you should pick.” Mom patted his back. “I’ll see you inside.”

So she wasn’t validating his choice after all.
He considered clinging to his mother’s leg and begging her not to leave him with the mother-in-law that came with his new wife, but he wasn’t a three-year-old. He felt almost as helpless as one at the moment. And what must Jessica be feeling having to deal with Stella directly?

“Um, excuse me,” Sed said, trying to gain their attention.

“Those stains will never come out of that dress!” her mother was screeching. “Jesus God, do you even remember how long it took you to pick it out, Jessica Chase? You must have tried on a thousand gowns.”

“Jessica Lionheart,” she corrected. “And it’s
my
dress, mother. If I want to tie-dye it and wear it in the Thanksgiving Day parade, that’s my prerogative.”

“Do you know what your problem is?”
Stella said, eyes narrowed dangerously.

“You! You are my problem.”

Stella shook her head, sending silky blond locks dancing about her spray-tanned shoulders. “No, your problem is that you think only of yourself, Jessica.”

Sed took a step back as Jessica’s jaw went hard
, and her eyes sparked with anger. She’d leveled him with that look on a few occasions. They never ended well.

“It’s my wedding day!” Jessica bellowed. “I’m supposed to think of myself today. My love for Sed and his for me are the only things that are supposed to matter today. You’re the one being a selfish shrew.” She threw her hands up as a plea to the heavens. Or maybe she was praying
for a lightning strike to be sent in her mother’s direction.

“Um, sweetheart?” Sed
again tried to break into their tirade exchange. He happened to agree with his wife, and not only because he didn’t want to face her wrath.

“Me, selfish?” her mother yelled. “Do you know how much time and effort I put into
planning this reception?”

Jessica pressed her fingertips to her forehead. “How could I not know
that? You’ve reminded me no less than a million times.”

“Our guests are waiting.” Sed placed a hand against Jessica’s back, hoping to propel her gently in the general direction of the front door. “We’re already late. We wouldn’t want the lobster bisque your mother selected to get cold.”

“I don’t even like lobster bisque!” Jessica yelled and stormed up the cement steps to the entry doors of the reception hall.

“She’s under a lot of pressure,” Sed explained to the startled photographer who had yet to find an opportunity for a candid shot that did not involve flailing hands and angry faces. But at least they were
on their way inside. Perhaps Sed could keep Jessica and her mother separated for the rest of the afternoon.

Where was a brick wall when he needed one?

“Speak to her, Sedric,” Stella said. “She’s being completely unreasonable.”

“Look, Stella
, I promised Jess I would not interfere unless she asked me to, but I’m not above locking you outside and pretending it was an accident. If you push me, I will push back.”

He caught a brief glimpse of her outraged face just before he stalked off. He found Jessica caught in the group embrace of her best friend, Beth, and
Sed’s two sisters. He breathed a sigh of relief at seeing the wide smile on Jessica’s face. The photographer, who had followed him into the building, hurriedly snapped several pictures. He probably wanted something to show for his efforts before chaos reigned over the event once more.

They were supposed to be standing side by side and greeting their assembly line of guests in cool, calm formality. Apparently that plan had also been abandoned. Eric was the first to wrap
Sed in an enthusiastic hug. Eric tilted back, lifting Sed’s feet off the floor, and shook him for good measure. But Eric didn’t keep Sed airborne for long since Sed outweighed the drummer by dozens of pounds.

Eric punched
him in the biceps several times. “That was a total Sed move, sending the guests scattering with a rainstorm and getting the goods immediately following the ceremony.”

Sed grinned. “Yeah, well
... Old habits die hard.”

“Did you even say I do?” Trey asked. “I couldn’t hear a thing over the wind.”

“We said something I-do-like.” Sed drew his eyebrows together. “But not what we were supposed to say.” They’d chosen their vows carefully. He’d have to say them to her that evening when they were alone together.

“Is she upset?” Brian asked. “She has to be upset. Myrna said their morning was hell.”

“She seems fine until her mother starts harping. She just can’t handle her today.”

Brian glanced behind him and shook his head slightly.
The woman in question had just stormed into the building, wielding her hairbrush like a broadsword. “Speaking of her mother…”

“Would you guys do
me a huge favor and keep her occupied? If she confronts Jess one more time today, it’s not going to end well.”

“I’m on it,” Trey said.

Sed turned to watch the man in action. Trey walked directly into Stella as if he wasn’t watching where he was going. When he hauled her against him to rescue her from falling and said something in her ear, her knees buckled and she swayed against him.

“He’s still got it,” Brian said with a smirk. “He better hope Reagan doesn’t catch him flirting with another woman.”

“As if he’d actually do anything with Jessica’s mother.” Sed shook his head in disgust.

“Are you kidding?” Brian sa
id. “He loves older women. If he wasn’t currently in a committed relationship—”

“Two!” Eric
threw in.

“Two committed relationships—isn’t that an oxymoron?” Brian shook his head. “Anyway
, if he wasn’t in love, he’d have no problem keeping your mother-in-law entertained for the entire evening.”

“I bet she was hot in her day,” Eric said. “Not as hot as Brian’s mom, of course. I already told Rebekah that Claire Sinclair is my free pass, should the opportunity ever present itself.”

Sed laughed at the green tinges that suddenly graced Brian’s light skin.

“Ugh, God, stop,” Brian said. “If you ever bone my mother, I will cut your dick off and use it to disembowel you.”

“Sounds painful,” Jace said.

Sed sidled over to his bride, who was laughing at something his grandmother had said. Knowing his memaw
, it had probably been something entirely inappropriate.

“Are you ladies up to no good?” Sed asked, slipping an arm around Jessica’s waist and holding her securely at his side.

“Memaw said your parents had their reception at a roller rink,” Jessica said.

“That’s right. It was an eighties thing,” he said. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Harold and I had our reception at a bowling alley,” Memaw said. “Now how did she ever talk you into this big ol’ fancy place, Sedric? It doesn’t seem like something you’d pick out for your celebration.”

“I picked out something else for our celebration, Memaw, but she doesn’t know about it yet, so
shhh…” He covered his lips with one finger.

Memaw blushed. “I’ll never tell.” She pinched Sed’s cheek and patted Jessica’s before ambling off to find her place card in the dining room.

“What are you talking about?” Jessica asked, appraising him closely with those devastatingly gorgeous jade-green eyes of hers. “You picked out something else? How come this is the first I’ve heard of it?”

Sed grinned. There was no way he was telling her about their dinner plans in advance. He wanted it to be a surprise.

“Shhh…” He covered his lips with a finger again. “I don’t want Jessica to know anything about it.” He jerked away with feigned shock. “Oh, hey, Jess. When did you get here?”

“You’d better tell me.”

“Nope,” he said, brushing his lips against her temple and inhaling her scent. “You smell like the ocean, by the way.”

She stiffened slightly.

He whispered into her ear, “It makes me want you.”

“We should probably change out of these wet clothes,” she said.

She grabbed his crotch and gave it a squeeze. Stunned, he glanced down and was relieved to see her intimate and inappropriate action was hidden behind the skirt of her gown.

“After we dance,” he said. And
after he worked her body into a frenzy under the dining table.

He took her hand off his thickening cock and smiled like a simpering idiot as every person from the wedding, plus a few hundred additional guests, entered the reception hall and required a personal greeting. When he and Jess were finally able to sit down, the wait staff rushed forward with plates of salad and bowls of soup.
Most of their guests had long since finished their soup and salad. The loud din of their chatter filled the cavernous room as they awaited the main course. Sed was starving. He’d refused breakfast despite Brian’s harping, and it was already after noon.

The lobster bisque was exceptional. He would have to thank Stella for her excellent taste. He didn’t even want to know how much the meal cost him. He and Jess could live off generic mac and cheese for the next few years
, no problem.

Jessica leaned close to his ear. “I need to get out of this corset,” she said. “There’s not enough room for me, the baby
, and my lunch in here.”

“Why are you wearing a corset anyway? Is that usual?”

“I was too fat to fit in my dress without it,” she said, pouting down at her salad.

“You’ve never been more beautiful
.” And he wasn’t just saying that to make her feel better. “I like a little meat on your bones.”

“I think there will be more than a
little
meat on my bones by the time I have this baby,” she said.

“More cushion for the pushin’.”

She smacked him.

“Sit still and I’ll loosen you up a bit,” he said.

He leaned behind her and lowered the zipper on her dress. He untied the stays of her corset and worked them loose by a couple of inches.

“Better?
” he whispered into her ear.

“Mmm hmm,” she murmured. She peeked at him from beneath her eyelashes and slid a hand up his thigh. “Let’s let you loose too.”

He leaned his belly against the table, hiding his lap in the folds of the tablecloth as her hand found home.

“Baby, as much as I’d love for your hand to be wrapped around my cock at the moment, we’re going to have to stand up soon, and I don’t want to scandalize my entire family.”

Her thumb rubbed the sensitive head of his dick through his pants.

“I’m not planning on making you come,” she said. “I just want to make sure you remember you
’re mine.”

“I’ll never forget,” he vowed.

“Though your cum is a lot more appetizing than this lobster bisque,” Jessica said, stirring her soup with her nose crinkled in displeasure.

“Did she just say what I think she said?” Trey
asked from behind Jessica’s chair. He was filling the empty seat beside Jessica with her giggling mother. Apparently Trey had introduced her to the champagne before the toast. Or perhaps she was just giddy from Trey’s attention.

“She said
come sit down and have a lot more of this appetizing lobster bisque,” Sed told Trey, forcing a smile in Stella’s direction.

“Don’t mind if I do,” Trey said, sitting on Stella’s lap and helping
himself to her soup.

Stella
’s raucous laughter caused the entire room to fall silent as everyone turned their heads looking for the source of the obnoxious sound. Trey paused with his spoon to his mouth, his gaze meeting Reagan’s across the room. He dropped the spoon in the bowl with a splash that flecked the once spotless white tablecloth.

“Sorry, Stell,” he said. “The old ball and chain summons.”

He rose from her lap and leaned over Jessica to whisper at Sed. “That’s all the neck I’m sticking out for you, dude. You’re on your own.”

Sed tried making shut-the-hell-up motions with his eyes, but Jessica was too sharp to miss
the gist of Trey’s words.

“What
’s he talking about, Sed?” she asked.

“I’ll tell you later.”