Three Weddings And Forever (Wedding Season Series) Read online

  “Why are they coming to your wedding?” I asked, laughing.

  “Because my mom said we couldn’t un-invite him. It’s a waste of money, in my opinion. But whatever. He’ll have a miserable time, if I can manage it.”

  “Stop it! He’s not worth any effort past you putting him in table Siberia,” I said, laughing harder. “He’s just not.”

  “Well, I can’t kick him in the nuts, so let me be,” Talia grumbled. She’d been even angrier at him than I had, and that was saying something.

  “Se—I mean, I noticed at Leslie’s wedding that the hussy didn’t have the look of a happy woman,” I said. I didn’t want to talk about Sebastian, or his observation.

  “Good. I hope she kicks him in the nuts.”

  “Well, she has them in a vise grip in her tacky ass purse,” I said.

  We talked for a few moments more and then hung up. This was getting serious if my friends were calling to see if I was all right with Sebastian. If I could bail on the wedding to avoid any further… whatever, I would. But as I was a bridesmaid, and I loved Talia, that wasn’t going to happen. I would need to fake my way through it.

  Over the next two weeks, I did all right. I only looked at his social media once—okay, maybe twice a day. He posted a lot of pictures at work, and I noticed that he was both intense and relaxed in a way I’d never seen him at school. It was obvious he really liked his job. The contradiction of intensity and ease suited him.

  Two days before the wedding, I was doing my laundry, and the blue panties and bra were in the bottom of my laundry basket. I left them and finished the rest of my laundry. I wasn’t bothering this time. I deliberately packed mismatched bras and undies. No special panties this time around. Lesson learned.

  I avoided his social media. Better practice being polite and aloof. It had just been some fun at a couple of weddings. This was the last one of my friends who had weddings planned for the summer, so I wouldn’t have to worry about seeing him again. Not with him out in Aspen.

  This would be a piece of cake.

  Sebastian

  I noticed that Mallory didn’t post a lot on social media. I was posting pictures every day, hoping she’d respond, like them, comment, something—but nothing.

  She’d run off and hadn’t said anything to me since. I didn’t understand what had happened. She wanted to have sex as much as I did. If she hadn’t been over the line tipsy, I would have never left her room. So obviously, she’d had second thoughts. And rather than pretend to be polite and nice, she’d spared us both.

  Which was good, I guess? I sighed. I didn’t like this feeling, and this, this right here, was why I didn’t do relationships. I’d put more thought into Mallory Simmons than I had into any woman in the past four years, and what had it gotten me?

  Nothing. Nada. But I’d had to. There was a spark. I knew it. It couldn’t be just me.

  But apparently it was.

  All I needed to do was get through the wedding. I’d gotten an email from the wedding planner. We weren’t partners in the ceremony, so that was good. Then I’d never have to see her again, and I wouldn’t need to feel this way, or put all this thought into something that was going nowhere. The spark had been a fluke. The thought disappointed me more than I thought it would.

  At work that night, I noticed that Sarah, one of the waitresses, was making serious eyes at me. I smiled a lot at her that night. I was taking off tomorrow to go over to Glenwood Springs for the wedding. If she was still making eyes when I got back, I’d ask her out.

  After making things clear. I wasn’t doing this feelings thing again.

  Particularly as I knew that I was hoping some kind of miracle would happen with Mallory, even as I knew it wouldn’t. If I wasn’t in the wedding, and I hadn’t already taken the time off I would have skipped it.

  But I didn’t shirk my responsibilities, and Mark was one of my closest friends. I sighed. One more weekend, and I’d put this crap to bed. Then I could get back to my life, being the me that had always worked for me.

  I smiled at Sarah as I left that night, telling her I’d see her when I got back. I wasn’t into it, but maybe I would be later. Maybe not, I thought as I thought about seeing Mallory.

  All I needed to do was get through the wedding.

  Talia & Mark’s Wedding

  Mallory

  I looked at myself in the mirror. Our dresses were called sea foam green, and this one was pretty flattering, as the bridesmaid’s dresses went. It had a satin belt high on the waist, and there were vertical ruffles that ran down the front from the belt. Simple, almost Grecian looking. It made me look taller, and because the neckline plunged, I’d splurged on a major bra. The result was that my chest was quite impressive.

  Too bad there was no one here that I wanted to impress with my all out to there chest. I sighed. It seemed a waste of good hair, makeup, and bra. But I knew that I was just moping. Two weeks hadn’t helped a thing. I knew I was moping, and my friends were pointedly ignoring the whole Sebastian angle.

  Which told me that things were bad.

  I’d need to get everything out in the open with them, so that they stopped tiptoeing around me. I knew that it was partly because of Chase, and that I had to see him again. But part of this was because of their suspicions about Sebastian.

  I’d need to pull off a hell of an act today, and no champagne. Not even at the toast. It was all water all the time for me.

  When we lined up for the ceremony, I was paired off with a guy named Gary, who was a cousin of Mark’s. Sebastian was behind me with someone I didn’t know, another cousin of Mark’s. But I could hear the deep timbre of his voice and her stupid giggling.

  Get over yourself, I told myself angrily.

  “Ready?” Gary asked, holding out his arm to me. He was tall, with blue eyes and dark hair, and good looking. To hell with Sebastian and that stupid giggler.

  “I am,” I smiled brilliantly as we walked down the aisle in time to the music.

  When Sebastian came in, he was focused on his partner, but he glanced at me and for a moment, I saw the guy I’d spent two weddings laughing and dancing with. Then his face shuttered, like someone closing a door, and he moved off to the groom’s side.

  I tried not to stare.

  This time, I focused on Talia, and got misty-eyed when I realized she was trying not to cry. She was the toughest of the four of us, and it made me so happy to see her happy. After the service, we all filed into the reception room—if I ever got married, which was not looking likely—I’d do one of these wedding destination hotel things. No driving, rooms for guests, everything in one place.

  Gary was attentive, and after dinner, asked me to dance. He was nice, but I knew at the first touch there was nothing there.

  Well, nothing for me. Damn that Sebastian.

  As if called, the devil himself showed up. “Mind if I cut in?” He asked Gary.

  Gary looked to me. I nodded.

  “Sure,” Gary said. “See you later, Mallory,” he added, giving me a wide grin.

  It was too bad I didn’t feel a thing for Gary. He was nice and nice looking.

  Sebastian, on the other hand, set my body aflame the minute he took my hand and placed his hand on my waist.

  “How are you?” He asked.

  “I’m good. Busy at work. How about you?” I kept it light.

  “Yeah, I heard. You left the wedding before having breakfast.”

  I stared at him, then it clicked. “Oh! You mean Cara’s wedding.”

  His red gold brow went up into that perfect lock of hair that never stayed in place. “You’ve been to another wedding since then?”

  “No,” I laughed nervously. This wasn’t going how I thought it would. My cheeks flamed hot at the remembrance I’d been trying to forget. He’d walked away from me, because… well, it didn’t matter why. The point was, he didn’t want me, even after I’d literally laid myself bare for him.

  With special underwear, even. That I couldn’t look
at. That was still sitting in the bottom of my damn laundry basket. Why was he bringing this up?

  “I was sorry that I didn’t get to say goodbye to you,” Sebastian continued.

  Like I wasn’t dying of embarrassment right here, in the middle of the dance floor.

  “Well, I got a work call—”

  “Did I do something wrong?” Sebastian burst out. “I keep going over what happened, and I walked you to your room, and you’d had too much to drink, so I put you to bed. I—”

  “Wait, what?” I held up a hand that had been resting lightly on his shoulder. “I was not drunk.”

  “You weren’t sober,” Sebastian said immediately. “There was no way I was doing anything other than walking you back to your room.” He grinned, but it was tentative, not his normal wide, cocky grin. “You kissed me, which was… amazing, but then I left.”

  “I think I’m dumb tonight, because I feel like I’m totally missing the point. Why was it you wouldn’t sleep with me when I got all dolled up and practically had a bow on?”

  Sebastian looked at me, and we stopped dancing. Then he burst into laughter, letting go of me.

  “I don’t see what’s so funny,” I said. People were starting to stare. What was his problem?

  He pulled himself together, and put his arms around me, bringing me close to him. “You think I turned you down?”

  “I woke up by myself, underwear intact,” I said crossly.

  “You don’t know how hard it was for me to walk away. You asked me to stay, and I thought about sleeping next to you, but I wanted you so badly, and I didn’t want there to be any mistakes.” He looked directly at me. “I didn’t want to leave.” He leaned in closer. “I had to go back to my room and jack off,” he added in a whisper. “With the vision of you in your lacy underwear dancing around in front of me.”

  “You were being a gentleman because I was drunk?” My voice rose even as my entire body shuddered at the thought of him taking care of himself. God, wouldn’t that be a thing to see?

  “You’re mad about that?” He pulled back from me, his eyebrows in his hairline.

  Sebastian

  Were we really having a fight about me doing the right thing in the middle of someone else’s wedding? I didn’t even know what to say, but I couldn’t walk away from this. Not now. My heart raced in my chest, and I could feel my temper rising, along with my cock.

  She was hot even when she was mad and feisty. Although perhaps this wasn’t the best time to alert her of that small fact.

  Mallory glared, and then her head dropped. “I’ve been beating myself up for two weeks about why you walked out on me. It didn’t even occur to me that I was too drunk for you.”

  “Only for the first time,” I whispered into her ear, feeling hope rising like a phoenix from the ashes. “After that, I’ll happily have drunk sex as long as you’re up for it. There’s usually lots of laughing.”

  Mallory looked up. “You didn’t want to leave?”

  “Haven’t I been saying that for the past five minutes?” I struggled to keep my voice down.

  She stared at me for what felt like an eternity. “I almost bailed today,” she said.

  “So did I.”

  We stared at each other; dancing totally forgotten. I felt someone tap my shoulder. I looked over to see Chase the douchebag standing right up in my personal space, glaring.

  “Can I help you?” I asked.

  “I’d like to dance with Mallory,” he said.

  “Well, that’s too bad. She’s taken,” I said, smiling at him.

  “Mal?” Chase turned his angry gaze to her.

  “Go away, Chase. I’m busy,” she rolled her eyes. I felt her tug at me a little, and I moved her away from him.

  Chase caught my shoulder. “I said, I want to dance with Mallory.” His voice was ugly.

  Mallory stepped out of my arms, which I didn’t like, but this was her deal, not mine. She was strong enough to handle this asshole.

  “I do not care, Chase. We’ve been over for months. There is nothing to say, and I don’t want to dance with you. Now go away before I ask Talia to bounce you out of here.” She moved closer to me. “Let’s dance,” she smiled up at me.

  I moved her away. If he grabbed me again, I was punching him. At that point, he’d be my deal. The nerve of that guy. But he seemed to have a lick of common sense, and he let us go. As I spun Mallory around, I could see him at the edge of the floor, glaring, with his arms crossed.

  Back to the matter at hand. “You still have that lacy get up?” I asked.

  Mallory shook her head. “It stayed home this weekend.”

  “Well, that is a shame. But maybe you have something else that could work?” I wanted to laugh out loud, but I was afraid to jinx anything.

  “Maybe,” Mallory said with an almost shy smile. “You know, if you’re not going to walk away this time.”

  “That’s a hell no. In fact, I’d like to get out of here right now, so we can see if you have a suitable replacement.”

  She stared at me and then laughed. I joined her, mostly out of relief.

  “Let’s go,” she said.

  Hand in hand, we all but ran from the ballroom.

  Mallory

  Now I was kicking my ass again for not bringing the lacy number. The current bra was a workhorse, built to hold up this dress and make my boobs look spectacular. It had apparently done its job. I led the way, bringing Sebastian to my room again, although this time, he wasn’t leaving.

  At least, not until tomorrow morning.

  “Ah… we need to stop at my room,” Sebastian said, slowing my pace.

  “Why?”

  “Did you bring anything?” His eyebrows went up.

  “What? Oh, um, no,” I said.

  He smiled, seeming to be pleased that I hadn’t been prepared for wild monkey sex this weekend. That had been a couple of weekends ago.

  “Then let’s stop in my room.”

  “You were planning to get laid?” I asked, indignant, not walking with him.

  He stepped closer to me, bringing me into his embrace and leaning down to kiss me with a scorching kiss. When he took his lips off mine, I felt dazed.

  “I hoped,” he said quietly.

  I nearly melted into a puddle of goo. “OK, your room then.”

  He practically dragged me to the elevator. I wasn’t paying any attention to the floor, to other people, nothing. Sebastian kept leaning down to kiss me, his hands playing with the wisps of my hair that had come out of the updo. His entire person was focused on me. I felt intoxicated.

  When he opened the door to his room, he pulled me in, and his hands were everywhere. Exactly where I wanted them. I shoved his dinner jacket off, and he unzipped my dress. Shades of Leslie’s wedding—and then the comparison shattered. Sebastian shoved my dress off my shoulders and made quick work of my bra.

  He cupped my breasts in his hands and then took one nipple in his mouth. He sucked hard, and I arched into him, feeling wetness in my panties. His teeth nibbled at me as I went weak at the knees.

  Sebastian scooped me up, taking me over to the bed and kissing me, holding my face in his hands. “Hang on, let me get what we need, because I can’t stop again.”

  I watched as he tore into his suitcase. “Neither can I. Get a couple,” I said.

  Sebastian whipped around, stopping in mid-motion. “I like the way you think.”

  “Don’t just stand there! Hurry!”

  We both laughed. He found a small box, and came back, setting the box on the nightstand.

  I reached out and pulled his shirt from his pants. He was unbuttoning the shirt, and one of the buttons popped, hitting my forehead.

  “Ow!” I said.

  “Are you blind?” Sebastian asked.

  “What if I was?”

  He laughed. “Could I tell you to close the other eye and enjoy it all?”

  “Jerk!” I laughed, playfully pushing his shoulder. “For all that kind of talk, you�
��d better be one hell of a shag.”

  “Oh, I think I’m up for the challenge,” Sebastian said, and the timber of his voice made every nerve in my body tingle. Especially those nerves below the waistline.

  I stood up, stepping out of my dress. I put my hands on my panties and he stopped me.

  “Will you leave those?” He asked.

  I nodded, and he shucked his pants, standing in his boxer briefs. The outline of his cock was huge, and I felt a surge of lust that I hadn’t felt in… ages. Then he stripped off the briefs, and it was all that I could do not to gasp. He was delicious.

  Sebastian Colton stood in front of me completely naked, looking at me like I was equally delicious. The intensity of his scrutiny made me want to cover myself up, but I straightened my shoulders and returned his gaze.

  Then he nodded.

  “What?”

  “You look even better than I remember,” he said, his voice low.

  I scooted back onto the bed. “Come here,” I said. I was ready to stay in bed with him for days, and his words warmed me in a way I didn’t think words could.

  He joined me, crawling over me like a panther, or some other big cat stalking its prey. I lay back, and he settled himself on top of me, his cock nudging between my thighs. I let them fall open, wrapping my arms around him as he took my mouth with his. His kiss was hungry, fierce.

  He wanted me. He wanted me.

  Sebastian bit and sucked down my neck to my collar bone, and then his mouth latched onto my nipple. He sucked hard, making me arch up off the bed. Then he turned his attention to the other one, and I heard a moan escape from my lips.

  His lips traveled down my body, and then just above my panties, he stopped. He slid a finger inside the panties, and then inside me. His finger curled, making my legs curl up with it.

  “Sebastian,” I said.

  “Say it again,” he said in a husky tone, kissing just above my panties.

  “What? Say what again?” I gasped, trying to speak as his finger kept moving.

  “My name. Say it again, Mallory.”

  The way he said my name nearly made me come all by itself. “Sebastian,” I breathed, trying to catch my breath. He literally took it away.