My Brother's Best Man

She swallows. “It’s just… your hand, what you were doing. What you were going to do.”

“Yeah?” I say. “You don’t want me to?”

She laughs quietly, shaking her head. Her hand flies up to press against mine, pushing with pressure. It’s as though she doesn’t want me to release my hold on her face.

“It’s not that. Of course, I want you to. It’s just…even if Mom and Dad weren’t waiting, there are obstacles.”

“The two months,” I mutter.

“No, Ben,” she says sassily, letting her hand drop. “Please, just let me finish. Or maybe I don’t need to tell you.”

“You do,” I snarl. “I can tell how badly you need to. So do it, Becca. Tell me. Now.”

She tilts her head, her eyes all vivacious. She looks ready for a fight.

“You’re pretty bossy, you know that?”

I smirk. “If you’re trying to sound like you don’t like it, you’re doing a bad job.”

She flushes again, the sweetest sight, her cheeks turning the most adorable and compelling shade of red.

“Stop pretending you can read me,” she murmurs, but then she laughs in the cutest way. “Okay, maybe you can a little because you’re right. I do kind of like it. I can’t believe it’s happening….”

“Why?”

She looks at me as though I just asked the most basic question imaginable.

“Because you’re you and I’m….”

I step forward. It’s like a reflex.

When I sense she’s going to speak negatively about her appearance, my instincts kick in, and suddenly I’ve got my hand on her hip, pulling her close, pushing our bodies together so she can feel just how hungry she makes me.

“You’re beautiful, sexy, funny, intelligent. You’re you, Becca, and I don’t want to hear you putting yourself down again.”

“This is too crazy,” she whispers. “It’s like a freaking dream….”

“A dream?” I ask.

“Come true,” she says, pushing the words out as though she finds it difficult. “I had a crush on you, Ben. For a long time. For years.”

I shrug. “I didn’t know. But it doesn’t matter. All I care about is the now.”

She gasps. “I thought you’d be more shocked.”

“It’s not that I’m shocked. Or not shocked. I just don’t care.”

“You don’t think I’m a weirdo creep for…for fantasizing about you for so long?” Her cheeks have turned red, a deeper shade this time. “Because a lot of people would.”

I grip her other hip, trapping her like the predator she makes me, then lean down and push my lips against hers again.

As we kiss, something unfair happens.

My best man speech returns to me in snippets.

“Alex is the best friend a person could ask for…always loyal, always has my back…and he knows I’ve always got his. I know he’ll do the right thing because he always does….”

I do my best to push it away, to focus on the feel of Becca’s lips, on her breasts pressing against me.