Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 30472 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 152(@200wpm)___ 122(@250wpm)___ 102(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30472 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 152(@200wpm)___ 122(@250wpm)___ 102(@300wpm)
“Hey, think I can get my husband back now?” I asked.
“That’s probably a question for your husband.”
Shit. He had a point.
“Jesus, Caden,” Alex gritted out.
“I missed you,” I said stupidly.
“Aww,” his dance partner replied.
“You said you didn’t want to dance.”
“That’s because I’m fucking this up. I just…” Hell, I didn’t even know what to say.
“You guys are the cutest,” Pretty Boy said.
I still didn’t have my words, so instead of thinking, I reacted. My hands were shaking when they fisted in Alex’s polo. I tugged him closer, and I could see the moment he realized what I was doing. His eyes widened, his mouth opening in a small O before he asked, “Caden?” He hardly had time to close his lips before mine collided with his.
We were both stiff at first, as if we didn’t know what to do. It made sense for me, but he’d done this with a guy before. At the thought, I smiled and asked, “This your first time too?” close to his lips.
“Bastard,” Alex replied just before I crushed our mouths together again.
We didn’t have the same problem this time. He opened for me, and I pushed my tongue inside. He tasted like soda and toothpaste and Alex. His arms encircled me, my hand on the back of his head as I threaded my fingers through his hair and tugged him closer, like it were possible to have him melt into me.
He felt different from a woman, clearly, but he was Alex and I knew his scent, his feel, how he breathed, almost felt like I knew how he kissed too because everything between us was just so natural. So right.
I growled into the kiss. His hands went to my waist, his fingers digging in as we moved together in the sand. It wasn’t until the annoying guy who’d been dancing with him said, “Damn, the two of you are hot,” that reality set in and we jerked apart.
Alex’s eyes darted down, and it became obvious just how into it I was, which he likely already knew since I was pretty sure I’d been riding his thigh.
“I…” Alex reached up and touched his lips. “Why— I can’t do this with you,” he said and walked away, and my world shattered.
Chapter Seven
Alex
My feet couldn’t take me away from Caden fast enough, while everything inside me, especially in my chest, was begging me to turn around and go back, to grab him and kiss him and take advantage of whatever it was he was offering me.
The thing was, that would likely end in my heart being broken.
Also, Caden was a stubborn son of a bitch, so he was chasing after me regardless. “Alex! Wait!” But I kept moving, kept going until I got to the elevator, which of course had to take a lifetime to arrive. “Hey, what are you doing? Why’d you run?”
“You kissed me,” I said, as if that hadn’t been obvious.
“Yeah, I was there.”
“You’re also supposed to be straight.”
“That didn’t stop me from marrying you either.”
He had a point there, but still. “I can’t talk about this down here. But I also need you to take this seriously. It’s…” It was different for me.
“I know,” he replied, but did he? If so, what did it mean that he’d never mentioned knowing how I felt? And why was he doing something now?
The elevator finally came back down. The doors opened, a group of guys got out, and we stepped in. We didn’t speak all the way up to our floor. When we got to the room, I walked in first. I made my way to the window, looking out at the ocean. It was so dark, it looked black.
I closed my eyes when Caden came up behind me. He pressed his forehead to my shoulder, held my waist. “I don’t know what came over me. It killed me to see you dancing with him. I know it’s stupid, but I kept thinking…he’s mine…he’s my husband, my Alex, and this is our honeymoon. Which I get is fucking crazy. You were supposed to marry another man. This isn’t our anything. I’m just along for the ride.”
I opened my mouth to counter what he said, but Caden anticipated it, lifted his arm and pressed his fingers to my lips. “Shh. I’m not done. I hated Jackass, and not because of anything he did wrong other than having you. It killed me to be supportive of your marriage, to be your best man. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me, just knew it felt wrong. You felt like mine.”
My heart beat so hard, I worried it might break through my chest. I sighed. How many times had I wished he would say something like this to me? Had hoped and prayed that Caden would want me… “It’s because you’re jealous, not because you really want me. You were feeling insecure about what my getting married meant for our friendship, and that caused issues with Jack. Now…I don’t know. You’re riding the confusing feelings from that; oh, and there’s the fact that we’re married. But all of that doesn’t mean you suddenly want to start kissing me when you’re not interested in guys.”