20. Wade #2
“It’ll be fine. Just follow my lead.” I leaned down and pressed the quickest, smallest kiss against her lips, short enough that I wouldn’t get overly excited. I just had to avoid looking below her neck for the rest of the night and we’d be golden.
Leading away from the entrance and toward my sister, I could feel every muscle in her body stiffen.
I should have known this would be too much, too fast. I needed to make more of an effort going forward to introduce her to as many people one-on-one as I could.
I shouldn’t have put her in such a position to begin with and I should have known it wasn’t a good idea?—
“Ray! Oh my God, I’m so happy you’re here!”
Chloe snatched Ray from me, wrapping her arms around her as she giggled. Ray laughed, relaxing into her, and I wondered just how much time she and my sister had been spending together in order for her to be more comfortable in Chloe’s arms than mine.
“You look lovely,” Ray chimed, all smiles and giddiness as she pulled away.
She wasn’t wrong. Chloe did indeed look beautiful standing there in a floor-length white gown, little crystals embellishing every inch of it. I wondered how many times over the next few days she’d be in a different style wedding dress.
“You really do,” I added, grinning down at my little sister. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Dad, Dominic and Zane, approaching us from behind her.
“Thank you,” Chloe giggled again, doing a little spin in place before grabbing her drink back from Dom. “This is Ray, Wade’s… girlfriend. Ray, this is my fiancé, Dominic.”
“So nice to finally meet you.” Ray offered her hand to Dom, but he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her in for a quick hug instead.
“You too,” he chuckled. “Didn’t think Wade would ever calm down, if I’m being honest.”
Zane’s eyes flicked between me and Ray. I could see the calculations going on behind them, could see how he was silently dissecting us down to our bare bones. He’d always been tall, just a hair above me, but with the way he looked at both of us, I felt as if I’d suddenly shrunk four feet.
“Not going to introduce me to your new plaything?” he purred, leaning closer as he sipped at his glass of amber liquid. “It’s nice to see you, little brother.”
“I was getting to you,” I said.
Just then Mom approached with a couple of glasses of wine and one crystal glass of scotch. She passed Ray hers and handed the whiskey to me, side-eyeing my father as she wiggled into the circle we’d formed. Dad didn’t do a great job of trying to hide his grimace.
“Ray,” I said softly. “This is Zane, my sister’s stepbrother.”
Ray looked between the two of us, confusion furrowing her brow as she reached out her hand. “Nice to meet you, Zane. But… you’re Chloe’s stepbrother? I’m confused.”
Zane took her hand in his ring-covered one and lifted it to his lips, placing a kiss against her knuckles. “I’m Wade’s stepbrother, as well. He just doesn’t like to acknowledge it.”
“Oh, right,” Ray laughed awkwardly as she discreetly wiped her hand on her dress. “I think he mentioned you.”
“I did. Once, ” I said, the words flowing through gritted teeth. Mom glared at me.
“So, entertain me,” Zane continued, his eyelids dropping as he looked Ray up and down as if she were a fucking feast. “Tell me how you met.”
————
“You can sleep on the couch.”
I tugged at the tie around my neck until it came loose as I stared at her. “Absolutely not. We’re both adults, Ray. We can sleep in the same bed. It’s big enough to keep a comfortable space between us.”
Red bloomed across her face. She kicked off her heels, aiming one directly at me, but I dodged just in time to avoid getting stabbed in the gut by a stiletto. “I’m not sleeping in the same bed as you.”
“I’m not going to let you sleep on the couch.” I hung my jacket in the closet and unbuttoned the sleeves of my shirt before starting on the buttons at my neck. “Besides, my suitcase is there. It’s very heavy.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, causing the deep V-neck to allow me more of a peek at what was beneath it before heading over to the couch and kicking my suitcase off with her bare foot. “You are a child.”
Despite the irritation in her voice, I could see exactly where she was looking. Could feel her tense as I popped another button, and then another, until my shirt hung open and my chest was bare. “You really shouldn’t be looking at a child like that, Ice Bunny.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I’m not your bunny.”
“Then don’t stare at me like you want me.”
“I could say the same to you,” she hissed. “You couldn’t keep your needy fucking glances to yourself all night. You’re lucky I made it through without any hiccups.”
“You’re lucky I made it through without a goddamn erection,” I shot back.
“You knew damn well what you would do to me wearing that. You can’t pretend that you didn’t.
” I tugged my shirt out from where it was tucked in, letting it hang loose around my body as I took a step toward her.
The little squeak that came from her lips made my cock twitch and press against the zipper of my slacks. “You wanted me to want you.”
In truth, I was incredibly proud of her for getting through the evening without a single hitch, but I couldn’t very well say that.
“You wanted me to be frustrated,” I continued. I tugged my belt free from its clasp with one hand, half for my own sanity and half to get a rise out of her. “You wanted those looks from me. You wanted me fucking feral for you.”
“So what if I did?” she breathed, the words barely more than a whisper as she struggled to keep her eyes off my belt. “It doesn’t mean anything. It can’t mean anything.” Her chest rose and fell as she stared me down.
I took another step, closing the distance between our bodies until we were nearly touching. “Why?”
“Because that’s not what either of us want.
Not really.” She swallowed, her throat bobbing, and fuck I wanted nothing more than to fill it.
But there was something else there too, something lurking beneath the surface, something I didn’t dare to acknowledge.
She wasn’t wrong, but it felt wrong to deny it.
“Tell me not to kiss you, then.”
She stopped breathing.
“Tell me you don’t want this,” I said. I lifted one hand to her cheek, cradling it gently, and grabbed her around the waist with my other hand, pulling her into my chest. “Just tell me no, Ray, and I’ll stop. I know how much you love to say it to me.”
Her fingers wrapped around the edges of my collar.
“So go ahead and say it.”
Her lips parted and I fully expected to hear the word “no” come from her mouth but it didn’t.
“I’ll make it easier,” I whispered. I dragged my thumb along her lower lip, pulling the skin to the side and smearing her lipstick. So fucking pretty. “If you want me, tell me so. Say yes.”
“Yes.”
Thank God.
Her lips crashed into mine before I could make a move, stealing the air from my lungs.
She tugged me down to her height with my shirt, and a moment later it was gone, long forgotten on the floor.
It took every ounce of self-control I had not to tear the dress she wore to shreds, but that would mean never seeing her in it again which I was simply not at all okay with.
I wanted her to wear it every day. I wanted her to wear it forever, to never leave my fucking bed, to never be more than arm's reach from me.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled between kisses, and as I freed up her mouth to venture to her neck instead, the words came easier. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m fighting it.”
“You want it,” I breathed. I sucked at the skin beneath her ear, in the little hollow there that I knew made her squirm last time. Her body writhed in my grasp, her hips pressing against mine, and I swear I felt lightheaded for a split second as the blood rushed to my cock. “You want me.”
“I want you.” Her nails pressed into the skin of my chest, hard and needing. “Wade, please.”
I led her backward toward the bed, my fingers fumbling for the zipper of her dress. Just the way her voice sounded was enough to drive me insane. I’d follow it anywhere, especially when she begged like that.
“Where is the…?” I asked, breathy and desperate as I realized I wasn’t going to find the zipper.
“It doesn’t have one.” I let her go for a second, the distance feeling like too much, and fought with myself to not grab her back. Instead, I laid down on the bed and watched as she clumsily grabbed the neckline of her dress and forced her arms out of the sleeves, her breasts bare.
My mouth watered.
She slid the fabric down to her hips, pushing it over the crest, and damn she wasn’t wearing underwear. Not a fucking thing beneath that dress.
“Christ,” I breathed, my legs giving out, my ass hitting the mattress.
I was grateful she hadn’t told me before we’d left the room earlier or I wouldn’t have been able to function around my family.
“Come here,” I rasped, and the way her wild eyes met mine reminded me of a deer in headlights. “ Come here. ”
Slowly, she climbed onto the bed, sinking down beside me.
Her skin felt like velvet beneath my fingertips, each little blonde hair standing on end, every nerve ending firing.
I kissed, nipped, and licked at the skin of her breasts, dragging myself ever closer to her nipple, and cherished the way she shuddered as I finally took it in my mouth.
“You make it too easy to want you,” she whined, the end of her words ending in a gasp as I bit down gently. “ Fuck , yes.”
I didn’t care about the ache in my cock, didn’t care about how much I wanted to sink myself inside of her.
Not when she spoke to me like that, not when she moaned against the top of my head, not when her hips slid back and forth against my slacks in a desperate search for friction.
All I cared about was her , the sounds she made, the pleasure she received.
She wanted me, and that was enough to send me over the edge on its own.