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“
John has a tattoo. You
don’t.” As realization hit I drew in a sharp staggering
breath. “You’re Tim.”

They must have switched places.
I’d seen them both go out into the hallway. Only one had come
back inside. They must have switched shirts outside. John left the
party and Tim, wearing John’s striped polo, had taken his place
for the strip show.

Thank God. I began to feel light.
Not only light-headed from the drink I’d just downed, but
actually lighter, as if I were floating. Walking on air.

It had to be from the sheer
relief I hadn’t gotten off with my best friend’s fiancé.
John was a good guy. And Tim, my fix up for the weekend, was pretty
damn good with his hands. Though I found it disturbing he’d had
no problem coming all over a stripper in front of a room full of men,
he had done it for a good cause. He’d done it to save his
brother’s relationship. And I’d come pretty hard too, so
I guessed I shouldn’t be too judgmental.

All of these thoughts careened
through my brain and distracted me from Tim, still standing in his
underwear and looking baffled.

“
How do you know about the
tattoo? Who the hell are you?” Before I knew what was
happening, he’d reached out those talented hands and pulled the
mask off me.

I’d forgotten I even had it
on, but now I grabbed for it. “Don’t.”

“
Do I know you?” His
eyes narrowed as he stared at me.

“
No.” That wasn’t
a lie so I tried to say it with confidence I didn’t feel.

“
Look, you obviously know
who I am, so just tell me who you are. Because I gotta tell you, I
know you’re no stripper. Not that I didn’t enjoy parts of
your performance immensely, but still.”

Unsure whether to be insulted or
pleased, I made another grab for the mask. “I’m nobody.”

“
You seem familiar.”

“
I’m not. I’ve
never met you.” Something inside me wanted to see what his
chest felt like, so I reached out and touched him.

It seemed as if all my
inhibitions had fled. It must have been from wearing the stripper
outfit. It was freeing. As if this wasn’t me who wanted to bend
over the sink and have this virtual stranger fuck me hard. It was
some corset-wearing, wilder version of me.

I ran my palms from the narrow V
of his waist, up to his well-developed pecs. He didn’t object,
so I leaned in and pulled one nipple between my teeth.

He hissed in a breath. “What
are doing?”

“
You have a really nice
body.”

“
Um, thanks.” He laid
his hands on my waist.

“
No. Thank
you
.”
I was remembering my orgasm and craving another one. It didn’t
seem out of the question. I mean, he’d already given me one, so
why not another?

I ran a finger over the ridges of
his abs until I reached the elastic of his underwear. “You
should take these off. They’re damp.”

They had to be uncomfortable. I
should probably just take them off for him. Men were so silly. They
needed a woman to take care of them.

His hand stopped mine as I began
to push the briefs down. “Tell me your name first.”

“
If I tell you my name,
will you take off your underwear?”

One dark eyebrow cocked up. “Uh,
sure. It’s a deal.”

Hyper-focused, I didn’t
think past getting him naked. “It’s Rose.”

“
Rose?”

“
Mmm, hmm. Like the
flower.” I had a flower I’d like him to pluck…or
something that rhymed with
pluck
.

I giggled at my own thoughts,
reached inside his briefs and grabbed his cock. It was getting hard
again, right in my hand. I stared at it, fascinated. The male body
was an amazing thing. At least this male’s body was.

Quick as lightning, or maybe I
was just a little slow tonight, he moved his hands from my waist to
my shoulders as he pushed me away. “Wait. Rose, the maid of
honor in John and Beth’s wedding? The same Rose in that
graduation picture Beth’s parents have in their living room?”

With a sigh, I relinquished my
hold on his velvety smooth erection. “Yup. Isn’t that a
coincidence? You, being the best man. Me, the maid of honor. Beth is
trying to fix us up, you know. Isn’t it funny?”

“
Hilarious.”

“
Stop looking so serious.
She asked me to come here and be the stripper.”

“
Beth did? Why?”

“
To see if John was a good
guy. And he is because he left. Isn’t that great?” I
leaned in closer to his tempting lips and wished he would stop
frowning at me. “I really want to have sex with you. Do you
want to have sex with me?”

I reached between us and found
him at full tilt, ready to go. A small part of my brain realized I
must have gotten a little too tipsy on that last drink, because these
bold moves were nothing like me.

“
It’s very tempting.
Believe me.” His voice, low and sexy with just a hint of a
southern drawl, washed over me, ramping up my need for him.

“
Then do it.” I spoke
just a breath from his mouth before I moved in and pulled his lower
lip between my teeth.

He moaned. Without moving away,
he reached out one hand to close and lock the bathroom door. I found
myself lifted until I perched on the edge of the sink vanity. He
pushed his underwear to the floor and stepped gloriously naked
between my spread thighs.

“
You sure?” he asked.

I eyed his cock, bobbing with
anticipation. “Yes.”

The thong was no obstacle. He
slipped the thin strip of lace to the side and plunged inside me.

I threw my head back, and hit
into the mirror hard. That would probably hurt in the morning.

“
Careful, darlin’. I
don’t want you to knock yourself out.” He slipped his
hand behind my head and smiled. “I want you to remember me
tomorrow.”

“
Mmm. Don’t worry, I
will. We’ll have to walk together for the rehearsal.” I
was very much looking forward to my maid of honor duties now that I’d
met the best man.

I stopped thinking about tomorrow
as he plunged deep inside and hit spots that hadn’t been
touched in much too long. My moan of appreciation echoed off the
bathroom walls.

Laughing, he shushed me and then
covered my mouth with his.

I didn’t mind. I grabbed
his head and plunged my tongue between his lips, fucking his mouth
the way he was me. He worked hard enough to work up a sweat. I could
feel it dripping between us. Hot and wet. I tightened my muscles,
gripping him hard enough he groaned against my mouth.

His stroke sped up and I felt the
first pulses of a climax grip me. I buried my face in the smooth skin
of his chest and came for the second time as he held me close. He
tensed, then pulled out and came into a hand towel as I watched,
there but feeling kind of detached. That last drink had probably been
a bad idea. It was making me sleepy when I really wanted to be wide
awake.

“
Can we do this again
tomorrow after the rehearsal dinner?” Maybe before too, if we
had time.

Panting for breath, Tim laughed.
“Sure.”

He wrapped his hands around my
waist and planted my feet back on the floor. The room began to sway
and I grabbed for something to hold on to. That happened to be him.

“
Are you all right?”

His face began to swim in front
of me. “I’m dizzy. And really tired, like I can’t
stand up anymore.”

I felt myself begin to fall. He
caught me. “Rose, listen to me. Did you take something? Any
pills?”

“
No. I don’t do
drugs. All I had was that drink O’Whatshisname gave me.”
I flung my arm in the general direction of the empty cup next to the
sink.

“
O’Hagan gave you a
drink? Dammit. Rose? Rose!” His words echoed through my head.
Arms lifted me and my feet left the ground. I heard the bathroom door
slam against the wall.

“
Can you get my purse? My
phone. I gotta call Beth. Tell her come get…” Leaning my
cheek against his chest, I closed my eyes because it was too much
effort to keep them open.

My head hit the softest pillow
I’d ever felt and a mattress appeared beneath my weightless
body. The heat of his arms disappeared. I missed it. Him. I wished
he’d come back.

Another door banged as I floated
there on my cloud.

“
You drugged her! What the
fuck is wrong with you?” Tim’s voice faded away into
blackness.

Chapter 4: The Aftermath

“
Tell me again about how
you punched O’Hagan right in the nose?”

“
I already told you.”
Tim laughed and spun me around the dance floor to the strains of some
love song the band had started. The way he looked at me, I felt
beautiful even in my cat puke-colored maid of honor dress.

At least I was no longer actually
puking. Though I had all day yesterday. Right up until the rehearsal
when I’d rallied enough to go through the motions and then went
right back to bed without dinner. Beth had made some excuse to the
relatives about my having food poisoning.

“
I know you did, but I
like that part of the story. And you know I’m still having
memory loss from that horrible drug.” I touched my head for
effect, careful not to mess up the sleek and sexy up-do the girl at
the salon had created out of my usual mop of hair this morning.

The humor faded from Tim’s
eyes. “Don’t remind me about the drug. Rohypnol is
dangerous, especially mixed with alcohol. I should have brought you
to the hospital instead of the hotel. When I found your two friends
passed out drunk in your room, I should have never left you there. I
was just so pissed, I had to find John and yell at him.”

My little retired Marine had been
quite the hero. Knocking out the bad guy. Then finding my hotel key
card in my purse so he could deliver me home.

“
Stop. I was fine.”
At least, I had been after the headache and vomiting stopped and
after Beth and John showed up at the hotel, together and happy.

We’d all sat down and
pieced together the events of the evening. The girls had gone back to
the bar for more drinks and in their drunken state had decided it
would be best to wait for me at our hotel rather than in the street
outside the party. Beth had called John, crying, and he’d come
to get her so they could talk. And most importantly, they told me how
Tim had pretended to be John at the party.

Tim had held back the more
intimate details of the evening from the group. He told me those in
private. No need for everyone to know I’d jumped him in the
bathroom. I didn’t even remember doing it.

I blamed my behavior on the
drugs.

I ran my hands over the hard
ridges of his muscles through the tuxedo as he guided me through the
dance. Okay, maybe it wasn’t
only
the drugs.

“
Still, none of it should
have happened. He shouldn’t have hired the stripper after John
asked him not to. He definitely shouldn’t have put the damn
roofie in your drink.” Tim shook his head. “My brother
has some fucked up friends.”

“
Yeah, he does.” But
seeing O’Hagan at the church with a black eye helped me get
over my anger. And the fact none of the guys from the party seemed to
recognize me as the stripper helped too. “I think of it this
way. You and I wouldn’t be talking and dancing like this if all
of that bad stuff hadn’t happened.”

With the two of us barely rocking
to the music, he pulled me tighter against him. “Oh, we would
have met and I would have asked you out before you left this city.”

“
How do you know?”

“
How could I not become
totally enamored with a woman who would pretend to be a stripper just
because her best friend asked her to?”

“
Yeah, I guess you’re
right. I am pretty incredible,” I joked.

“
You are.” He leaned
in and whispered, “And the incredible sex we had didn’t
hurt either.”

“
I wish I remembered it.”
I’d done a little research since the drugging and found
blackouts and memory loss were typical. “Since I’ve
stopped throwing up and the headache is finally gone, I wouldn’t
mind a do-over. With me not high on illegal drugs this time.”

He groaned. “When is this
thing over?”

“
A few hours to go.”
Pressed against him as I was, I could feel he was happy to see me.

“
Do we have to stay for the
whole thing?”

“
It’s your brother’s
wedding.”

“
Yeah. And?”

I didn’t have an answer for
that. Not when he had lust written all over him and I was ready to
rip his tuxedo off in the coatroom. “They’re about to cut
the cake. We’ll sneak out after that.”

“
Sounds tasty... The cake
too.” He broke into a grin. “Come on. We’d better
sit.”

I glanced down at the front of
his tux pants and saw, clearly outlined and very tempting, the reason
Tim wanted to go back to the table. I smiled. “Fine with me.”