I hold her until her breathing slows. “Sorry about the interruption, but I’m pretty sure they left. I’ll go out to get your robe and make sure they’re gone.”
She hops off the counter and strokes me through my unbuttoned jeans. I’m painfully hard, and the feel of her hand rips a groan from my chest. “What about you?”
“Later.” I take her hand and bring it to my lips, kissing her fingers one at a time.
“But don’t you want . . .?”
I kiss her palm, opening my mouth to suck lightly on the pad of her thumb. “If we’re going to be lovers, you’ll have to accept that sometimes it’s going to be about you.” I brush my mouth across hers. I want more. Deeper. Longer. I resist. “Sometimes the thing I want most is to feel you come.”
With those words, I button my jeans and slip out of the pantry to get her robe.
“The coast is clear,” I say, opening the door for her. “My brothers left.”
She squints into the light, and I memorize her face. I love the way her cheeks are flushed and her lips are dark pink from my mouth. “Why were they here?”
I shrug. “My family doesn’t need a reason. I’m guessing they wanted to talk about our plans for tonight.”
“Oh, right. The bachelor party.”
Nodding, I follow her gaze to the clock. “I didn’t give you much time to get ready.”
She grins. “Worth it.”
“What time does the party end tonight?” I’ll have to find a way to distract myself so I’m not counting down the minutes until I can touch her again.
“They have the room until eleven, but we should be mostly done by the time they clear out. I’ll be home by midnight.”
“I can sneak away from the party early and come help you clean up if you want.”
She shakes her head. “No. I’m pretty sure I’d end up locking us in my office so I could have my way with you.”
“So that’s a yes?”
Heat flares in her eyes. “I had no idea you had such a wild streak, Mr. Jackson.”
I rub my thumb over her bottom lip. “I don’t. Only a weakness for you.”
She touches my shoulder. There’s a small red mark on the spot where she bit me to quiet her moans. “Sorry.”
I grin. “Worth it.”
Brayden
Ethan only had one request for his bachelor party, and it was simple: No strip clubs.
Since strip clubs make me want to bathe in rubbing alcohol—no offense to the lovely ladies working in them—I was more than happy to oblige. My brothers and I took the groom-to-be to the family cabin, where we played paintball in the snow; then, after we all showered and changed, we went to a restaurant in Grand Rapids known for its bourbon selection.
We finished dinner an hour ago and are lingering in our private room in the back of the restaurant. Everyone’s having fun, and they’re nice and loose from the bourbon samples—everyone but me, that is, since I’m taking it easy on the booze tonight. We have a driver taking us back to Jackson Harbor, but the last thing I want is to be too drunk to seduce my beautiful roommate.
Of course, I’ve been thinking about her since she left for work, and all of my brothers have noticed how distracted I am. Despite my efforts to be fully present for them, my mind is at least eighty percent in the pantry, calling up the feel of her breathy moans against my ear.
“Brayden?”
I spin around at the sound of that familiar voice and see Sara, her eyes bright, her hand pressed against her chest.
“It really is you. What are the chances?” She turns her head to take in each of my brothers at the table one at a time. “All of the Jackson boys are here.”
I feel the irritation rolling off my brothers, but they all stay silent, letting me decide how this will go. “Bachelor party,” I say, hoisting my barely touched bourbon.
She pales and stiffens. “Congratulations,” she says to . . . me. She thinks I mean my bachelor party. She must be thinking of the way Molly slung her arm around my waist at the tasting room—a deceit I didn’t like but didn’t correct.
“Ethan’s,” I say gently.
“Oh!” I’d be a fool to miss the way her posture loosens. She shifts her attention to Ethan, and her face goes soft. “I heard about Elena. I’m so sorry. She was a good woman.”
“Thank you,” Ethan says. Once, he would have said more. Once, he would have shared his feelings with Sara as easily as he would with one of us, because once, Sara was as much a part of our family as Ava and Nic are today. But tonight, she gets two words and no more. I’m not the only one she hurt when she disappeared.