I feel the heat of her body on my front, and if I’m not mistaken, she leans back just a little more, increasing the contact. I want to wrap my hand around her waist and pull her fully against me, but I’d never have that luxury with my family around.
We’re a secret. Actually, we’re less than a secret. We’re having a little fun until the weekend is over. She probably won’t even look me in the eyes after we part ways. I can’t read anything into the way she angles her body slightly at the photographer’s urging.
I can’t feel an ounce of hope when her hand skims mine and instead of moving away, she tangles our fingers together.
“I think I’ve got it,” the photographer says as she looks down at the back of her camera.
And that’s all it takes for the woman of my dreams to step away.
The reception gets underway, everyone happy and celebrating my sister’s and Spencer’s love for each other. I’m ecstatic for both of them, but that also doesn’t keep me from wanting that for myself. It’s no secret to anyone I’m close to that I’m near desperate to have that for myself. Being single has its many advantages, but at the end of the day, I want an amazing woman to come home to, someone to share my bed with. I want someone passionate and unable to take their eyes off of me.
I watch Beth and Spencer dance in the middle of the room, both so wrapped up in each other that it seems the world fades away.
Jules is running around from task to task, making sure everything goes smoothly. It seems she won’t have the opportunity to take a breath and actually enjoy this part of the evening.
“You’re picturing her naked, aren’t you?”
I scoff at Jason and turn back to the bar, only mildly ashamed for whatever expression I had on my face as I watched the woman who moaned my name so many times last night.
“I’m sure my thoughts wouldn’t do her justice,” I mutter, flagging the bartender down for another drink.
I’m buzzed already, the alcohol I’ve been consuming the only thing keeping my hands busy enough to prevent me from crossing the room to her and spinning her around the dance floor.
I don’t think anyone would bat an eye at the sight of the two of us dancing. As my sister made perfectly clear, Jules is a part of our family, but I know I couldn’t keep it respectful the way they would all expect me to. I’d pull her too close, making sure she could feel my erection. And fuck being able to keep my lips off her skin. I’m too familiar with her body to keep it platonic. She must feel the same, with the way she seems to be avoiding me as the night drags on.
“I have to say, I thought you gave up on the idea of it.”
I nod a thank you to the bartender as he refills my glass. I went from whiskey and coke to just plain whiskey about twenty minutes ago.
“Idea of what?” I ask, playing stupid to his insinuation.
“You and her. You know Beth would kill you. She’s always been on the no-fly list. She’d never go for it. There’s no way she’d be down with you when she cut me off at the knees in college.”
My head snaps in his direction with this news. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
He shrugs, a slow grin playing on his mouth. “I’m kind of glad she turned me down. She’s built for sin, and as addictive as I imagine she’d be, Becca is the love of my life.”
“You fucking hit on her?” I snap, pissed that my oldest brother would have the fucking nerve.
“Don’t get that attitude with me, little brother. It’s not like you ever had a chance.”
I swallow, knowing that he’s right. He met his wife Becca his senior year in college, which means this had to have happened before that. I was still in high school at that point, and although Jules and I talked and were what I would’ve considered friends, I never had a chance with her. She’s three years older than me. I have no real idea when she started to see me as a real man, but I know it wasn’t back then.
He chuckles again, making me narrow my eyes even further at him.
“Just stop. She’s Beth’s best friend.”
“Didn’t stop you from shooting your shot though, did it?”
He smirks again.
“What would you have done if she didn’t turn you down, huh? Would you have told Beth?”
“No fucking way. I’d never intentionally bring on that wrath. Beth would’ve strung me up by the balls.”
I look across the room at the woman in question. She’s still dancing with Spencer, their own little world consisting of only the two of them.