Chapter 19
NINETEEN
Keeping his hands off of Shaun was proving to be impossible.
He had no self-control, no will to even try.
She called to him like a goddamn siren, and he was powerless against her.
He’d promised Freeman to leave her alone until after the wedding…
but nothing short of his own death—or Shaun choosing to stab him in the back of the hand with the tines of the fork resting on the black tablecloth—could have stopped him from sliding his palm over the smoothness of that bare thigh.
And when she shifted her leg toward him just a hair, seeking more, he knew he was in far more trouble than he’d realized.
The long, loose braid that her hair was pulled back into fell over her shoulder, tendrils framing her face as she went back to pretending he wasn’t there. She sipped her champagne, ate the delicious meal in front of them, chatted and laughed and drove him damned near crazy.
The lights in the private room dimmed as the waitstaff cleared the dinner plates from in front of the guests, and their attention was directed to the emcee as he called to them as Free led Jodi out to the center of the dance floor.
True to the nature of their relationship, they’d chosen a classic 90’s country ballad for their first dance as a married couple.
John Michael Montgomery serenaded them to ‘I Can Love You Like That’ as they watched Freeman take his bride into his arms like she’d always belonged there.
Shaun had risen from her seat, making her way around the tables to stand closer to the dance floor, and he watched her as she swayed to the music.
Levi stepped up beside her and draped a burly arm around her shoulders, drawing her into his side as he spoke directly to her.
Kasey was too far away to hear what was being said, but his heart did something painful in his chest when she reached her arm around her father’s back and hugged tightly.
Levi’s hand rubbed down the outside of her bare arm, then reached out his other hand and took her left hand in his, drawing it to his bewhiskered mouth and kissing the bare knuckles there.
Was that why that douchebag hadn’t shown up?
Was all not well between Shaun and Tommy, despite her insistence that she was happy?
Was that why she didn’t wear her ring? Hatred for the man that had abandoned her when he should have been here with her bloomed fierce and ugly inside his chest. As happy as he was that Tommy Chandler hadn’t shown up, the cowardice of the man who had this woman’s heart when it should belong to him… it burned inside his entire being.
Levi turned her in his arms, spinning her gracefully, and when she looked up at her father and bestowed him with that hundred-watt smile, Kasey knew he needed her to grace him with that smile.
The smile that blinded anyone near her. Her sassy, snarky attitude was maddening, yes, but the heart that beat beneath those breasts was fierce and wild and he’d give anything to be the one to tame it.
As the song came to a close, Kasey watched as Shaun danced lightly with her father on the edge of the light, just far enough in the shadows to not take any attention from the bride and groom in the center of the dance floor.
The emcee asked Levi to join Jodi in the center of the dance floor then, and Levi leaned down to press a kiss to his second born daughters’ cheek before ambling out to meet his eldest. Freeman walked to the edge of the polished dance floor and extended his hand to Serenity.
The older woman took it with a dazzling smile, though Kasey could tell it wouldn’t be long before tears would be sliding down her cheeks.
Sauntering over to the bar, Kasey ordered two highballs of bourbon, then crossed to where Shaun still stood. Holding one out to her, he grinned lopsidedly down at her when she glanced up at him. “Truce?”
He loved the skeptical side eye she bestowed upon him, the way those red painted lips pursed in deliberation before finally reaching up and accepting the glass he offered her.
They clinked the glasses together lightly, but before she raised it to her lips, she said dryly, “I don’t believe your truce for a second, Kasey Corcoran. ”
Fuck if he didn’t love the way his name sounded coming off her lips. He wanted to lean down and kiss her, taste his name on her lips while he did deliciously decadent things to her.
But again, that awful reminder that she wasn’t his, didn’t belong to him no matter how badly he wanted her to, came unbidden to his mind.
“But thank you for the drink,” she continued, giving him a reluctant smile, her dark sapphire eyes sparkling in the low light of the room, surrounded by hundreds of candles.
The candlelight caught the tiny crystals pinned into her curls, and he could just imagine running his fingers through her hair to find every last one of them while her head rested against his chest as they lay in bed.
Anger and bitterness at the unfairness of it all, how badly he wanted her when she wasn’t his, how she belonged to someone that clearly didn’t appreciate the absolute fucking goddess he had in his hands… The one woman that he couldn’t get out of his mind couldn’t be his.
Of course the woman he had fallen in love with had to be engaged to someone else.