Needing to freshen up, Lauren escaped to her room after the rehearsal before the dinner. How would she be able to get through the meal with Gabe making no attempts to hide his feelings? He might as well have announced they were an item by his nonstop searing looks, his possessive but tender touches.
His forceful focus on her only heightened her need of him. He was an intense and attentive man, and she found herself musing on the vision of what a demanding lover Gabe would be.
As best man and maid of honor, it was hard for anyone to miss their connection, including his mother in the front row, who kept glancing between them. God, what must she be thinking? The man had no concept of subtlety.
It was a wedding rehearsal, not a seduction. He didn’t need to work so hard. She was already seduced. She had been since the moment he laughed in his deep, sexy tone about never ignoring advice from his mother.
Gabe needed to dial it down until after the wedding. Who was she kidding? She didn’t want him to dial it down. How ironic that this dreaded wedding would turn out to be wonderful.
The actual rehearsal hadn’t been as bad as anticipated either. The usual players behaved in their usual manner. Tiffany’s mother demanded that the seating for the fifty guests be rearranged, requiring the staff to realign the angle of the chairs.
Of course, her father was MIA with no communication. Classic Thomas Turner behavior. Tiffany, whose first choice in a wedding wasn’t rural Washington, had chosen the site to fit into Turner’s filming schedule in Vancouver, wanting her famous father to walk her down the aisle.
Mr. Griffin had acted in her father’s absence, escorting Tiffany down the aisle. Charm seemed to be a genetic trait in the Griffin males, like strong angular faces, tall, athletic builds, and confidence. Gabe’s father had Tiffany smiling as she came down the aisle on his arm.
After fixing her hair, as Lauren leaned toward the mirror to reapply her lipstick, she was startled by the loud knock at her door.
“Lauren?”
She hoped no one had noticed when she snuck away as they all opted for the bar before dinner. Of course, Gabe noticed, as she hoped. She opened the door as her nerves ramped up in anticipation of seeing him. He immediately pulled her into his arms and kissed her passionately. His lips molded to hers as he thrust his tongue into her mouth, taking possession.
She melted against him. He had such power over her with a mere kiss.
He traced his calloused thumb over her lower lip.
“I needed this. I needed you. Do you know how damn beautiful you are? And that dress. I might have to injure my brothers if they don’t stop staring at you.”
Lauren glowed from the ferocity of his admiration.
The emerald-green, velvet, mid-length cocktail dress was a very simple design with a cutout back, hugging her curves without actually revealing too much. It was all about nuance, which Gabe could learn something about. She had pulled her hair high into a messy French twist with simple emerald chandelier earrings. But the pièce de résistance was the decadent emerald-green Louboutins.
Gabe rained kisses down her neck. The rasp of his beard scruff sent shivers down to her Louboutin toes. “I don’t know if I can let you go. I want you all to myself. It’s going to kill me to stay seated through this dinner and not jump you in that dress.”
No woman could resist that declaration.
“I wore it with you in mind.”
“To make me drool or grovel at your feet?” He took her lips again, devouring her.
Her breath came in short pants.
“God, Lauren, and the shoes. Do you know what fantasy every man has with you in shoes like those?”
Lauren pressed herself against him, passion flaring by his needs and the world he was creating with his sexy words and rumbly voice.
“Every man is thinking about you with only those shoes on, your legs wrapped around them with the heels digging into their back while you scream.”
Lauren staggered. She kissed him, thrusting her tongue into his mouth, dueling with his. Sucking on the slick slide of it.
He growled before he lifted her with her back against the door. He pressed his erection against her while kissing her sensitive skin along the neckline of her dress. “God, do we have to go to the dinner?”
She couldn’t believe she could laugh aloud with every one of her nerve endings on alert.
“Lauren, tell me to stop. I think you have to be the one in control tonight.”
His desire fed her desire and his desperation fed her desperation.
“We have to stop,” She panted. Of course, she didn’t mean it.
He licked his way up from her chest to her neck, biting her earlobe before exploring her with the tip of his tongue. The touch of his wet tongue was too much and not enough.
She grabbed his shirt, trying to tug it out of his pants.
He took a step from her, their intermingled heavy breathing the only sound in the room.
They stared at each other. Did she really believe she could have resisted Gabe and this fire burning between them? She tried. The well-ingrained fear of depending on an unreliable man, had reared its head. Thank God, he hadn’t caved in to her and her panic. She tried to resist, but who could resist a man like Gabe?
She had no idea how this would all work out. But for some reason she couldn’t make herself worry about the what-ifs. How could she worry with this caring, beautiful man in front of her, the first two buttons of his blue oxford shirt undone to show his thick throat, his broad shoulders encased in his Italian suit?
God, she had to go downstairs and look presentable. She pressed her hands to her hot cheeks. “You’re incorrigible. Now I’m going to have fix my hair and redo my makeup.”
“You don’t have to do a damn thing. You’re already too beautiful for that crowd. My brothers are going to hit on you to give me shit. Try not to encourage them. God, Aiden… I hadn’t even thought about Aiden.”
“What about Aiden? He’s your good friend. Why are you worried about him?”
Was that a blush on Gabe’s face? Bright red spots colored his high cheekbones.
“Well, I might have been a bit obnoxious … when Aiden announced his plans to marry Jordan.”
“Why in heaven’s sake would you be obnoxious?”
“It’s a guy’s thing. He and I have been through a lot of serious shit and I never saw either of us ...ever having a regular normal life. We’ve been nomads for a long time.”
Lauren couldn’t stop the well-being filling her chest and her heart. He admitted to wanting a normal life. What did a normal life mean to him? Not that she knew what that meant for her either, but with this man she would be willing to figure it out.