“Shut up, you pig!” Wendy screams. “My husband is calling his father right now to fire you.”
“Wendy, calm down,” I say, but my words are like oil on the flame.
“I will not calm down. I will not have you two continue to ruin my day. I can’t believe you brought your fake boyfriend here and then proceeded to have him do everything he could to make this day all about you!”
I know this is Wendy’s wedding, but I can’t listen to this Jack slander. If she’d stuck to insulting me, I would’ve grinned and bore it. “It was your husband’s friend who got so drunk he couldn’t show up for the ceremony. Jack stepped in at your insistence because you didn’t want the numbers to be off. It was Greg who nearly pushed you over at the altar. Jack saved you. And, it was me who—”
“Yes, it was you!” Wendy cries. “You can’t keep a man and deep down you know you’ll never get any fool to ask you to marry you and because you won’t be able to have a wedding like this”—she swings her arms out and her bouquet goes flying—”you had to destroy my day. It’s your selfishness that makes you single. You’ll die single because no man wants you!”
“I want her,” Jack growls. “I want her so damned bad that I’m going to do the one thing that I’ve been telling myself I shouldn’t do this whole fucking ceremony.”
My whole world tilts off its axis as Jack swoops down and captures my mouth. I part my lips in surprise. Jack takes immediate advantage. His tongue darts in and licks the roof of my mouth. My knees buckle, but Jack’s strong arms catch me and hold me against him. I’ve kissed a few men in my lifetime—mostly to help me forget about Jack—but I’ve never felt anything like this. I’ve never realized that the touch of one man’s lips can make the world fade, can raise you up so high you feel like you’re floating in the clouds, can light a fire in your belly that no water could ever douse.
I wend my arms around his neck and forget that I’m in a church. Scratch that. I forget everything. I forget my vow to never let my want overtake reason. I forget that friendship lasts forever and romance always dies. I forget my own name.
The wave of sensation that flows from his lips to my core makes me tremble. I’m nothing more than a mass of nerves, and with each pass of his tongue against mine, I move closer to the edge of the cliff.
I clutch him closer, full of desperate, unsated need. His hands drop from my waist to cup my ass, pulling me tight. Even through the multiple layers of cotton, wool and satin, I can feel the burn of his hard shaft. My entire being lights up. I raise my leg, opening for him, making way—
“Daphne Sarah Davidson! You stop that right now!” my mom shrieks.
Her high-pitched mom cry breaks through my lust-induced fog. My leg drops to the floor. I stare at Jack’s red, swollen lips and raise two fingers to my own bee-stung mouth. The rational thoughts that had fled the moment that Jack started kissing me wash over me like a giant, engulfing wave. A yelp of alarm escapes my mouth. I slap a hand over my mouth, reach inside Jack’s suit coat, grab my phone, and do what any other reasonable person would have done in the same situation.
I run.
I run and run until I reach the ladies’ bathroom. I hit the door with the flat of my hand and it bounces open. In two seconds, I’m inside a stall with the door locked. With trembling fingers, I manage to call Crystal. She picks up on the third ring.
“I’m sorry, babe. I was feeding fish sticks to the kid. What’s going on? Your mom giving you a hard time?”
“Yes, but that’s not my problem.” In fact, I’d suffer a year’s worth of verbal abuse from my mom if, in exchange, I could rewind the past—I pull the phone off my ear to check the time—five minutes. That was all the time that had passed? It felt like I had kissed Jack for an eternity.
“What’s the problem? No, Jay, do not eat that. That’s plastic. Sorry, you were saying you have a problem?”
She’s busy with her family and any other time, I would’ve hung up, but this was an emergency. “I kissed him.”
“Who? Jay, I said don’t eat the plastic. Oh my gosh, why does Jay think plastic is tastier than peas and wait—did you say you kissed someone? Other than Jack? Oh my gosh. Was he pissed off? Did he get in a fist fight? What happened?!!”
She rattles off so many questions, but only one sticks out. “Why would Jack get into a fist fight if I kissed someone?”