Just One Scandal (The Kingston Family 2)

Aww, shit. Now he had a crying female on his hands. He turned back to the bathroom, coming out with a box of tissues in his hand. He approached the bed and extended his arm so she could grab a Kleenex.

“Thank you.” She pulled three sheets from the box and dabbed at her eyes, succeeding only in smearing the makeup around her face.

Settling on the side of the bed, he took her chin in one hand and, with a tissue, gently blotted and wiped the black stains off her soft skin.

“You’re so nice,” she said and immediately began crying again, which meant he had to begin all over cleaning her up.

Knowing she was drunk and the alcohol was exacerbating her shitty feelings, Beck let her continue to sob it out. There was nothing else he could do.

“I don’t get how I could have screwed up so badly. I picked the nice guy, the safe guy, the guy who I thought would never screw me over like my father did to my mom. And here I am, alone on my wedding night.” She lifted her hands and helplessly dropped them back to her lap and continued to list all the reasons she’d chosen her groom.

Not one of them, he noted, was love.

The longer she spoke, the more her hysteria built, and Beck sat back to let her get it all out, only reaching out occasionally to dab at the dripping black tears in order to save the white gown from ruin. If anyone had told him this was how he’d be spending his night, he’d have had a good, hard laugh. The fact that it was Linc Kingston’s sister made it even more ironic.

“We even liked to stay in at night and watch television together,” she said on a wail. “It’s not like he was a guy who chose bars and drinking. So much for playing it safe.”

“Safe isn’t always smart,” he said, handing her another tissue.

She blotted her eyes and nose, then handed him back the Kleenex. He shook his head and put it on the dresser.

“And now I’m stuck with no place to live and a boring job with a brother I love but who won’t let me branch out and … and … what happened to my life?” she asked. She glanced down and started to work an emerald-shaped engagement ring off her finger.

“Wait. Stop.” He didn’t need that expensive rock lost somewhere in this hotel room. “Leave it on until you can put it somewhere safe. Then you can decide what to do with it.”

“I hate looking at it,” she said. Even pouting, she was pretty.

Knowing he was in way over his head, the best thing he could do was get her to fall back to sleep. She’d wake up in the morning no happier, but at least she’d be sober, and, he assumed, calmer.

“Listen, I think you should get some rest. Things will look brighter tomorrow. What do you say?”

She nodded and then, taking him off guard, pushed herself around him to the end of the bed and rose to her feet. Stepping over, she turned her back toward him and lifted her heavy, gorgeous hair and swept it to one side.

“Undo my buttons,” she demanded.

“What? Why?”

She turned her head, giving him a perfect view of her exquisite profile. “Because you said I should go to sleep, and I can’t get comfortable in this dress.”

He swallowed a curse. She had a point, but that meant he’d be left with Chloe sleeping in whatever she had on beneath that dress while he … what? Sat in the uncomfortable chair in the corner? Or stretched out beside her and ignored his aching cock.

“Fine,” he said through gritted teeth. It took a while for his big fingers to slip each tiny button through the small loops, but he finally managed, revealing inch after inch of her porcelain skin. “All set,” he muttered.

“Whew!” She released her hair, and as it tumbled down her back, she shrugged and let the dress fall to the floor before spinning back to face him.

She stood in a strapless white lace push-up bra, sexy matching panties, and a blue garter hooked around her thigh. She was a vision with her blond hair tumbling over her shoulders and the body of a goddess.

He swallowed a low groan of desire just as she reached for the back hook of her bra.

“No!” He couldn’t handle it if she stripped down to nothing, and there was no way she’d be happy with herself in the morning. “Climb into bed. I’m sure you’ll be comfortable like that.”

She pouted but did as he asked, striding to the other side of the mattress, giving him a view of her heart-shaped ass in the barely there panties. He shook his head, wondering what he’d done in this lifetime to deserve such torture.