Perfect Alignment (Thorne and Dash 3)
Did she truly think he was that awful? “I would not. I don’t overload her.”
“No, you’d get her to hire a planner who would do it all.”
Was he missing something? “What’s wrong with that?”
“It’s your wedding, Thorne. Don’t you care?”
“I wanted to elope, but you said I should make Riley happy. That’s what I’m doing.”
“Thorne, he’s going to want you to be involved. Otherwise he’ll think you’re just indulging him.”
“But I am.”
“Thorne.” Fuck. She was using that sisterly tone that said he was an idiot.
“I want to marry him, but I agreed to the ceremony and the reception and this whole mess because I want him to be happy.”
“Thorne, this is important. Pay attention to what he wants.”
Thorne sighed. “What about what I want?”
“Don’t you think Riley cares about that too?”
He wasn’t so sure. “I… I guess so.”
“What is important to you?”
“That we take time to be together. That I take Riley to a place he’s always wanted to go. I just want to be married, to have Riley in my life.”
“Thorne, that’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard you say.”
“Shut up.”
“Go work.”
Thorne groaned. “I’m trying.”
“I love you.”
“Yeah, I love you too.”
CHAPTER FIVE
The wedding planning wasn’t as bad as Thorne had feared.
It was worse.
The first night after they set the date, he’d come home to Riley chatting with Kathryn, laughing maniacally, and talking so fast he hadn’t even tried to keep up. The next day Riley had attempted to drag him along to meet Jenna, a wedding planner Kathryn recommended. Thank God he’d had business that was taking him up to Chicago for the day. He’d never been so thankful for an out-of-town meeting.
When he finally met Jenna, she grated on his nerves as expected. She was overly cheerful and way too eager to agree with his sister.
Worst of all, he and Riley had hardly had sex since this nonsense started. Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but they were having half as much sex as usual, or less. A well-timed blowjob would make him a lot happier about looking at paper samples for invitations. With the endorphins of a good orgasm coursing through him, he might even give a fuck which one they chose.
He let himself into their apartment, hoping he was the first one there, a bad sign already. He always missed Riley during the day and looked forward to seeing him as soon as he was home, but now he just wanted a few moments’ peace. He didn’t get that lucky.
Riley was there, sitting on the couch, thumbing through a ringed binder. When he looked up, Thorne instantly recognized the look on his face. This wasn’t going to be a wedding-planning-free evening like he’d hoped. Unless… Surely Riley was missing their usual nightly fuck, if only Thorne could distract him long enough to get something started.
“Come look at these flowers.”
“You do realize that anytime I need to send flowers I have my assistant send them or just tell a florist to pick them out.”
“But those are for someone else; these are for our wedding.”
Riley handed him a different binder, and he reluctantly flipped through it. It was filled with page after page of bouquets, all of which were perfectly formed and coordinated like they were ready for a plastic person’s wedding.
He scowled at the book, and Riley sighed. “I know this isn’t what you want to be doing, but—”
“These are awful. Can’t we get something that doesn’t look so fake, something natural like the flowers that grow by the lake instead of ones that were coaxed along in a greenhouse?”
“Ooh, an actual opinion.”
Thorne glared at him.
“Yes. We can do that. See, letting me know what you wanted wasn’t so bad.”
“It’s more that I told you what I didn’t want, which is any of this crap.” He tossed the binder aside.
Riley smiled. “I love when you act the curmudgeonly old businessman.”
“I’ll show you how not old I am.”
Riley laughed. “Oh yeah?”
“Yes. Let’s forget about flowers for a while.”
Riley ducked out from under his arm. “In a few minutes. Look at these first.”
Thorne grabbed the notebook Riley tried to hand him and put it aside.
“Later.”
Riley raised a brow.
“I swear.” He held up a hand. “Scout’s honor. But I’m not looking at one single petal until I’ve had you buried in my ass and come screaming your name.”
“Oh, Thorne, you beast.”
“If I were a true beast, I’d be doing the fucking.”
“Hmm. Perhaps. But I don’t think Boy Scouts find any of that very honorable.”
“Well, fuck them. Riley, I’ve missed you. Missed us.”
Riley glanced once more at the florists’ demo books and then faced Thorne. “Fine. I’ll satisfy your randy self, and then we’ll get back to these delicate flowers.”
Thorne snorted. “You’re really pushing your luck.”
“Strip.”
In that second, Riley transformed into Dash, the man who knew just how to make Thorne’s body cry out for anything Dash told him to do. He’d first fallen for this side of Riley, and then gotten to know the man underneath and ended up so deeply in love he still couldn’t fathom it. But every once in a while that old dynamic was exactly what they needed. Right now was one of those times.