Seducing the Bride

He’s too close. I can’t take it.

I wrench away and shake my head. “You don’t get to do this. I gave you an opportunity—”

“You were too young.”

“That didn’t make what I felt any less real. But if you think you can swoop in four years later and take me up on my stupid offer now that I’m ‘old enough,’ you’re sorely mistaken.”

“Does he make you happy?”

“Derek has been so good to me. And for me.” It’s the truth.

“Are you kidding? He fucking patronized you. He made your career seem like something cute and barely worth his notice. That can’t be okay with you. I know you way too well to believe that.”

“You don’t understand.”

“Maybe you don’t,” he argues as he advances on me again. Backed into the kitchen, the stove behind me, I have nowhere to go. “You deserve someone who’s so proud of you he’s willing to shout your praises. Hell, you deserve a man who worships you. I don’t think that’s him.”

“It’s not you, either, so it’s none of your business.”

“What if I make it my business?”

My heart stops. “What does that mean?”

“Can you look me in the eye and tell me you love this man?”

“I love Derek.”

Hayden grinds his teeth as he scrutinizes my expression, taking me apart second by second.

What if he really can see through me?

“Does he make you breathless as a lover? Are you eager to marry him? Do you want to have his children? Are you in that kind of love with him? Because so far, I’m not buying it.”

“Why can’t you stop playing twenty questions, congratulate me, and let it go?”

The smile that plays at his lips makes me nervous as hell. “One reason: I think you still have feelings for me. And you know what? I’ll come clean. I wanted you back then, too. That hot-as-fuck kiss has haunted me since you left, and if you’d had any idea how close I was to tossing you on your bed and being the first—and last—man inside you, it would have scared the hell out of you.”

My heart chugs in my chest, and I cross my arms to hide my trembling. “Why tell me now?”

“Because I don’t think you and I are through.”

I shake my head. “I’m getting married.”

“I know you think so. But I want to see just how attached you are to him.”

He charges into my personal space and seizes my face in his hands, his lips hovering a breath above my own. We pant. Our breaths mingle. He’s so, so close…

Oh, god, Hayden is going to kiss me. I’m ashamed to admit how desperately I want it.

The slamming of the back door and the rumble of Derek’s voice blending with my father’s sends me wrenching from his arms. “Leave me alone.”

He curses softly, then holds up his hands as if he’s giving up. “For now.”

But I know better. Once Hayden decides he wants something, he’ll stop at nothing to take it. He will come at me relentlessly until I get married…or get weak.

God help me.

2

Hayden

Over the next couple of days, Perrie is gone more than she’s around. I can’t decide if she’s hurriedly dashing here and there to whip this wedding together or to avoid me.

Either way, it hasn’t escaped my notice that Derek hasn’t lifted a finger to help her to plan their nuptials.

Lazy asshole. If I were marrying her…

But I can’t go there. That thought only drives me insane.

The bottom line is, I don’t like it—and I don’t like him. Am I jealous that he’s had the woman I’m aching for? Sure. But he’s also a jerk, holing himself up in the study and pounding on his laptop, phone seemingly glued to his ear. Does he think he’s too important to help her? I don’t get what she sees in this guy.

It’s time I found out.

Making my way down the hall, I spy Derek in the study, working frantically, hair disheveled, tie thrown across the room.

I don’t bother with hello. “I need to talk to you.”

“It will have to wait. Would you mind telling Perrie that I can’t go with her to the cake tasting? A damn conference call just cropped up, and it’s really important.”

But your wedding isn’t?

It’s all I can do not to roll my eyes. “If you give me five minutes, sure.”

It shouldn’t take me that long to figure out why Perrie said yes to this asswipe, but I’m giving myself extra time in case he proves to be as slimy as I suspect.

From what I’ve seen, he’s done nothing but put her last. He’s a younger, shinier version of Dan. But if Derek bailing on her—yet again—convinces Perrie not to marry him, I’m happy to pass the message along.

“All right. What do you need?” Derek looks ready to dive back into work now that he’s found an errand boy to blow off his fiancée for him.