Damn it. Had he managed to get hotter?
“Someone like me?”
He nodded, spinning me away then twirling me back into his arms. “You’re special. Something else you probably don’t hear enough.”
I dropped my head to his chest to break the eye contact because I couldn’t think when he looked at me like that. His hands slid up my back and I inhaled his cologne. This wasn’t any better. My body was on fire, celebrating being in his arms and demanding I see the night through to its natural conclusion. I glanced back up and he smiled, a private thing, made just for me.
“If I’d known how right this would feel, we’d have done this so much sooner.”
I giggled like I was sixteen again. “Does that kind of stuff actually work on women?”
“I don’t know,” he whispered, leaning closer. “Is it working on you?”
I should have said no. I should have called him a dick, punched him in the arm, and gone back to ignoring the way my heart skipped a beat every time he walked into the room.
But I didn’t.
Maybe it was the drinks.
Maybe it was the music.
Maybe I was just tired of fighting the way I felt.
“It seems like it is,” I whispered, my chest heaving.
Jude’s smile was electric as he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Good.”
He danced us into a corner, cupped my cheeks, and kissed me. I sighed into him, exhilaration winging through me as I draped my arms over his shoulders. I’d wanted him for so long.
So long.
This stolen moment felt like a dream come true.
To finally have the man I wanted want me back?
I melted. Putty in his hands. Every silly daydream coming back to me while my heart sang because good things did happen to good people and Jude’s hands on my skin felt like triumph.
“You wanna get out of here?” he murmured, his lips grazing the shell of my ear then going back to tease, tease, teasing their way to my mouth.
I nodded and he took my hand, leading me out of the reception like a man on a mission.
Chapter Two
Izzy
My bridesmaid dress was a heap of red silk on the floor. His tuxedo told a tale of seduction, trailing from the front door of his house to his bedroom upstairs. Jacket crumbled in the foyer. Cummerbund forgotten in the hall. Bowtie dangling off my heels, which sat cattywampus near the bed.
The sheets tangled in our legs.
Our chests heaved and our hearts pounded.
Jude flopped back onto his pillow, grinning at the ceiling as he wiped a bead of sweat from his temple. “Marry me, Izzy.”
“Ha ha.” I scoffed, relaxing my grip on the headboard and wiping my hair out of my face. “Very funny.”
He rolled onto his side, his expression dead serious. “No. I mean it. I want you to marry me.”
I snorted and stared at the ceiling, shaking my head. Why did he have to ruin something so wonderful with a joke? “Stop being an ass, Jude.”
“I’m not being an ass. I’m being real.” He pushed up on his elbow. “I’m asking you to be my wife.”
Slowly, I turned my head to meet his gaze, completely unable to compute the turn we’d taken. “You want me to marry you.”
He nodded as if this conversation made perfect sense. “I was gonna ask at the reception, but then we started having such a good time, one thing led to another, and here we are—” he waggled his eyebrows “—but yeah. I kind of need a wife.”
He kind of needed a wife?
Who kind of needed a wife?
Was he actually asking me to marry him? Even worse, did he sleep with me to butter me up so I’d say yes?
Forget punching him in the arm. I wanted to punch Jude in his disgustingly handsome face. I clutched his sheet to my chest and willed my eyes to shoot lasers.
“You look mad.” Jude’s blond hair was adorably tousled and his butterfly-inducing grin faltered as I glared.
“Mad? I’m furious! If I ever figure out how to make looks actually kill, you’re in so much trouble.” I increased the amperage to the eye lasers to no avail.
He sat up, his abs flexing, his bronze skin doing its best to make me focus on his sex appeal rather than my murderous intent. “Izzy, wait. Let me explain.”
My eyebrows hit my hairline. “Explain?” I shook my head as I staggered out of bed, dragging his sheet right along with me with a decisive tug. “If all of this is part of some master plan, don’t you think you should have done that before you got me into bed? So help me, Jude. If you’re using sex to manipulate me, then you and I have nothing to say to each other.”
I am such a fucking fool.
I’d started the night thinking dreams really could come true, and I was ending it realizing that sort of stuff didn’t happen in real life. Decade-long crushes stayed unrequited. The boy who chose my brother over me didn’t grow up to realize he’d chosen the wrong Prescott.
I snatched my dress and shoes off the floor, then turned in a flustered circle, searching for my bra and panties. I found the bra draped over the lamp on the end table and if the underwear didn’t make themselves known soon, I’d commando my way on out of there because this evening was done.
“Izzy…” Jude huffed as he ran a hand through his hair. “I swear to you, this? Us? The sex? That was not planned. Not even a little. We were just having such a good time and I got a little carried away…”
“Carried away? For fuck’s sake, Jude. Are you serious right now?” I pointed one of my heels his way, then let it drop. At the very least, he deserved a chance to explain. “How does a man like you find himself in a situation to ‘kind of need a wife?’”
“Everything about this is coming out wrong. I thought asking you to marry me like that would be funny…” He held up his hands. “I see now that I was wrong, but in my head it would be something we’d laugh about for years. You’d grin and say, ‘The sex was so good he proposed on the spot!’ and I’d just grin and shrug, like, ‘Yeah. It really was that good.’”
My jaw dropped. “You thought what now?”
“It was a spur of the moment thing. I wasn’t prepared for us to be that good together and I just said the first thing that came to mind. Can I plead temporary insanity, apologize, and explain what’s actually going on?”
He looked so desperate, I started to believe him. “You have five minutes, Malone. Make ‘em count.”
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Acknowledgments
Mr. Wonderful—Every time I write a love story, I fall a little deeper in love with you. Thank you for being the man I base all my heroes on. Thank you for making me feel safe to be me. Thank you for taking such good care of us. Here’s to many years of swooning over you.
Thank you to O, T, and C. You guys are turning into the kind of people the world needs and I am honored to share a life with you.
Thank you to Linda, Nickiann, Joyce, Candy, Stormi, Kieran, Elaine, and Suzanne. You guys are the rocks I lean on when nothing makes sense in the story. Thank you for making sure I add stuff like Jackass Meetings.