Just This Once by Evelyn Jeannie Hall
Three
Since Katrina asked both her sisters to run defense on Benji to keep him from seeing her in her gown, Lacey guarded the dressing room door like the main vault at Fort Knox. Barring him from their domain struck her as funny, though. The engaged pair had played fast and loose with all the various traditions at this celebratory bash of theirs from the beginning.
She knew for a fact they’d ignored the whole sleeping in separate beds one even though Elizabeth had arranged for both Benji and Katrina to have their own individual bungalows. At least if the steamy make-out session Lacey had personally broken up between them this morning was any indication. And that was after pounding on Katrina’s door and then, upon hearing Benji’s voice, calling out with a ten second countdown.
There were other wedding traditions they had chosen to observe while tossing many others. So far, it’d gone like this…
Garter belt, no. Veil, no. Bouquet, yes. Throwing the bouquet, no. Cake, yes. Feeding one another cake, yes. Smushing cake into each other’s pieholes, no. Rings, yes. Personally written vows, yes. Special lingerie for the bride, yes. Lots of real flowers, yes. Wedding party, yes. Lighting a candle together, no. Something old, new, borrowed, and blue, yes.
To Lacey, these decisions seemed mostly arbitrary. So why her eldest sibling felt dead set against the idea of the groom catching a glimpse of her in her dress before the ceremony remained a mystery.
“Where’s the mascara? It was right here just a second ago,” the bride called out, and Lacey watched as Elizabeth calmly pointed to a narrow black cylinder. This was the third time Katrina had lost one item or another since they’d started getting ready for the main event.
Elizabeth continued to arrange sprays of pearl strands into the bride-to-be’s hair and affix them with a decorative abalone comb that had belonged to their mother. The accessory with its delicate swirls creating the shape of a peacock had been her something old. She’d chosen the piece because even if exposed to salt water the sterling silver backing wouldn’t be damaged. Elizabeth was doing such an intricate job of braiding it in that Lacey figured it’d take Benji an hour to take the thing back out.
The three siblings had decided to diversify their individual hairstyles. Katrina’s would be half up, half down. First, Elizabeth had straightened most of Katrina’s curls, which was so bizarre Lacey couldn’t keep from staring at the effect. Then, she fashioned the bride’s locks into an elaborately braided bun that resembled a rose with the comb at the top. The pearls had been laced throughout both the bun and the tendrils that draped down from the nape of her neck like a waterfall. Finally, a few of her natural ringlets had been left around her face to frame it softly.
Elizabeth had secured hers into a tight coif, though how she’d gotten it so smooth baffled Lacey. Lacey didn’t dig the whole high maintenance concept and would be going with her hair collected at the back of her head with a simple ribbon of lace. All of them would also be wearing the national flower of the Republic of Maldives which was called a finfenmaa. The bright pink bloom reminded Lacey of the knockout roses her mom had planted in her flower garden, which made them nigh-on perfect.
Thoughts of Chérie filled her head then, making the backs of her eyes all prickly. She took in a breath through her nose and blew it out her mouth, bucking up. She needed to hold herself together.
“I’m so nervous,” Katrina cried out, her hand going to one of her ringlets and causing the charm bracelet she always wore to glitter. Her flawlessly made-up face looked stricken. “Why am I nervous when I want to marry Benji more than anything on the planet?”
“Probably a Duncan flashback,” Lacey mumbled, and at the startled silence that fell, glanced up. She’d meant for that to be under her breath, but evidently, it hadn’t been.
Katrina and Elizabeth goggled at her, their mouths agape. Elizabeth had a deep crease in the middle of her forehead and her hands were palms up as if to criticize her with an unspoken, “Really?”
“Sorry,” Lacey offered quickly. “I wasn’t thinking. He’s the last person I should be bringing up today.”
Katrina’s first husband and ex had not only broken into their attic apartment in Jersey City over a year ago last December, the psycho had threatened Elizabeth with a butcher knife and had beaten Benji black and blue. He was also the reason why Katrina would never be able to bear children, something she and Elizabeth had only learned after that. It’d been a miracle that they’d all escaped the violent criminal alive.
Lacey truly regretted saying anything.
“It’s okay,” Katrina gusted out. Then, she did something Lacey didn’t expect. She grinned. “That helps, actually.”
“It helps?” Elizabeth asked in disbelief.
“Yeah. It puts things in perspective. Here I’ve been worried about the minutiae of everything today, when all that matters is in a couple of hours I’ll be Katrina Farrell-Torres.”
“That’s true.” Lacey couldn’t help feeling relieved at this dismissal of her faux pas. “Benji is the mother of all keepers.” But shit, she’d done it again. Because the second she said “mother” both Katrina and Elizabeth’s eyes reddened.
“I wish she could be here,” the bride whispered.
“I know,” Elizabeth hugged her from behind.
“Me, too,” Lacey added, even if it was unnecessary. It had been her idea to bring a large ten by thirteen picture of Chérie and place it in a chair at the front as the couple delivered their vows.
“But I think she is here. I don’t think she’s ever far away. None of our loved ones are,” Elizabeth stated, her eyes brimming.
They were missing several people today. Their mom. Elizabeth’s husband Glen. Benji’s older brother Sebastian. It made Lacey feel weepy until she sniffed it all back. Katrina and Benji deserved this wedding, but in truth, so did the rest of them. They all needed to be able to concentrate on something cheerful, something that was a gift. And she couldn’t imagine any greater gift that loving someone as unapologetically as her sister loved her childhood best friend.
For the third time that day, there was a knock on the door. “No, Benji, we’re still not quite ready,” Lacey said automatically, despite the fact that she and Elizabeth had been ready in their fuchsia bridesmaid dresses for a good twenty minutes now. It was Katrina’s day, not theirs. “And you can’t see Katrina till she is.” She turned to her siblings. “Why is he being so persistent with this? It’s not like you two didn’t already spend the night together.”
“We did,” Katrina confirmed. “But we kept things… platonic.”
“You did?” Elizabeth asked, sounding as surprised as Lacey felt. Maybe that was why they’d been necking like teenagers this morning. No herkie jerky.
“Why?” Lacey asked.
“Because I thought it’d make tonight more memorable,” the bride said, her lips lifting into a smirk.
“Benji,” Lacey cried through the bamboo. Now that she knew the deal, she would let him have it. “Leave your wife-to-be alone. You’ll have to wait for your consummation nookies until after you’ve been pronounced, you impatient horndog.”
“Uh, it’s not Benjamin,” a deep jovial voice chuckled from the opposite side of the door.
Well, hell.
Katrina and Elizabeth burst into laughter, and unfortunately, Lacey felt her complexion heat. If she’d known sleeping with Zane would make her so self-conscious around her siblings, she wouldn’t have done it. She peeked over at her sisters who’d gone back to completing Katrina’s finishing touches. “Hang on, girls. I’ll be right back.”
Lacey opened the door as narrowly as possible in case this was some sort of trickery on Benji’s part to use Zane as a shield to sneak in. When she crossed the threshold into the corridor, though, the groom was nowhere to be found.
“Where’s Benji?”
“I’ve got the photographer taking single shots of him.”
“Good thinking. The man’s been driving us crazy.”
“He’s just full of piss and vinegar, eager to get this show on the road,” Zane explained, “Though I will admit to not having witnessed him being this wound up in a while. Not that he’d ever skip out on Kat or anything.”
“Oh, I know,” Lacey waved her hand in a dismissive gesture, her palms briefly grazing his elbow. A shot of pure electricity zipped up her arm and across her body to the fun bits of herself she liked to refer to as various and sundry. Shit on a stick, the man in front of her was hot at blue blazes. It almost wiped the conversation she’d overheard this morning from her mind. Almost.
“I’m here to wrangle an ETA out of you, to be honest,” he said next, his mouth quirking up with slow deliberateness on one side. Lacey’s insides clenched as an ache developed low in her belly. The expression Zane gave her was half of what she referred to in her head as the Smoldering. All he had to do was add his obsidian-eyed stare promising filthy, lewd things and it’d be the full version. And that version had convinced her to sleep with him that first time. Not that it’d taken much convincing. Also, she shouldn’t be waxing poetic about Zane’s overabundance of sex appeal right now. “I think he’s just, you know, anxious.”
“Anxious to bed her, you mean, since Katrina’s holding out on him.” The sentence popped from her mouth like a jack in the box. For God’s fucking sake, she hated her inability to keep her thoughts inside her own brain sometimes. She felt like a blithering idiot way too often.
All Zane did though, was blink. At least until he bent at the waist so he could whisper in her ear. “Well, I’ll never claim that my gender is overly fond of going without.”
He straightened so she had to peer up at him, and by up, she meant up. Even when she wore heels Zane stood much taller than her, especially when in such close proximity. And since this would be a beach wedding with the sandy toes and salty kisses motif going, she’d be barefoot like everyone else, even if she had on her sandals at the moment. His gaze went to her feet, which he’d shown a specific affinity for during both times they’d been together.
Stop it. That will not be happening again.
“Well, be that as it may, I think Benji will live,” she murmured into his ear. Or as close as she could get, anyway. Two could play at this game. “And so will the rest of your gender.”
With that, she twisted back around and returned to her sisters.
A half hour later, the wedding party had reassembled outside. Their resort had been built over the crystalline blue waters of the Arabian sea. But it was attached to a tiny tropical island dense with palm, ficus, and coconut trees at the center and ringed with white sands along the perimeter. She, her siblings, and the groomsmen stationed themselves on the beach, awaiting their cue to stride toward the officiate and the groom who stood under an arbor made from driftwood and finfenmaa flowers.
Music echoed through the summerlike air, the beat coming from a pair of steel drums nearby. The rhythm being tapped out was a song Lacey didn’t recognize, but it sounded like something indigenous to the area. The photographer snapped photos with a high-end camera, capturing every moment as Elizabeth lined up with Rookie, his blond head bright yellow in the descending equatorial sun.
While Lacey had been designated the maid of honor and Elizabeth a bridesmaid, all this had technically been decided years ago when Elizabeth had married Glen. Her youngest sibling hadn’t known how to choose one triplet sister over the other, so ala Friends, they’d made a plan and flipped a coin. Katrina won the coin toss to be Elizabeth’s maid of honor, Elizabeth would be Lacey’s—like that wedding would ever happen—and Lacey would be Katrina’s. So that meant today as the maid of honor, Lacey had been paired up with best man Zane.
The problem was that her dress had been chosen with the warm climate in mind, which meant that both her arms were utterly bare. The men were all in short sleeved white linen shirts and black linen pants. So, when Zane took her arm in his, it was the most contact she’d had with him in over a year. The zing of being skin to skin with him again distracted her so much that she tripped. Had he not had a firm grip on her, she might’ve even gone down.
That would’ve been humiliating.
Luckily, she arrived a few feet away from the officiate without further incident while Zane took his place beside Benji. Elizabeth and Rookie trailed in next, revealing the bride in all her finery, and Lacey heard the groom take in a sharp breath. Katrina stood at the end of the sandy aisle in a tailored strapless wedding gown with a sweetheart neckline. It’d been created with a beaded bodice, and had a short train made out of a white mesh-like material that floated behind her like a cloud.
The band—well, really, it was just the two drummer guys—changed tunes to the Wedding March, and Katrina began to make her way toward them by herself. Lacey had attempted to argue with the bride about going it all alone. Her idea had been for Katrina to traipse down the aisle between her two sisters. But the bride had said she’d be fine striding towards Benji on her own.
Now that it was happening in real time, Lacey could understand why. This moment wasn’t about Katrina being given away, it was about her and her groom. And while the bride was definitely everyone’s focal point, Lacey couldn’t help but watch the reaction of her future brother-in-law. Benji beamed incandescently at his wife-to-be as she approached, and the depth of pure fucking adoration in his eyes made Lacey’s chin wobble.
She bit her lip to try to control herself.
Here they all were, the sound of waves lapping the shore behind them, tropical birds cawing overhead, and the music of the steel drums echoing over everything. At the horizon, the sun had started to dip toward the edge of the Earth, altering its strong penetrating light into a softer tangerine hue. Lacey’s emotions swelled again, and she had to work to stifle them. But in all honesty, the entire scene couldn’t be called anything less than magical.
Once at Benji’s side, Katrina handed Lacey her bouquet of finfenmaa and stargazer lilies. Then, she and her groom clutched hands as if they hadn’t touched each other in far too long.
“Greetings, dear ones,” began the local officiate, a woman in a loose robe. “We are gathered here today to celebrate the marriage of Benjamin and Katrina, a couple who have known each other since they were toddlers. What a joy it is to witness love blossom between a man and woman who were friends long before they discovered their feelings went deeper. Love is by far the single greatest power on this earth, and it is for love’s sake that all of you are present to help support these two for a lifetime.”
“Now,” she continued, “as the couple has prepared their own vows for the occasion, we shall listen as they make their promises to one another. Beginning with the bride.”
The woman gestured at Katrina, who sniffled. For the sake of maintaining her equilibrium, Lacey pretended not to hear it.
“Benji, I’ve been thinking of what to say to you today for months. What you mean to me is beyond words, so nothing I came up with at first seemed good enough. You were and are my best friend. And though we were apart for nine years, I’m thankful for that time because it made me appreciate you so much more once we reunited. It wasn’t until after we were separated that I realized how much I took you for granted when we were kids, and one thing I can pledge to you is I will never do that again. Not ever.”
Katrina’s voice caught, making Lacey’s throat burn. She couldn’t make out much more than a sliver of her sister’s profile as she stood behind the bride, but she could view Benji’s expression without difficulty. His features were reverential and transcendent as he broke protocol and brushed his lips along his soon to be wife’s temple.
“You are the center of my life, my guiding light,” she went on. “You make me laugh. You make me feel safe. You’ve literally saved my life and the lives of my sisters. You made me believe in love again, even when I never thought such a thing would be possible. I know that the decades coming to us will be filled with goofiness, passion, and simple comforts because you’ve already given all that to me. You give them to me every day. I’ll probably never be able to express how much and how deeply I love you, but I look forward to trying.”
For God’s fucking sake, that’d been beautiful. Like, really, truly beautiful. Concentrating on the bouquet of tropical blooms in her hands, Lacey had to swallow twice to keep her eyes from leaking, but she managed it. Barely. Now, it was Benji’s turn.
“Kat, I fell in love with you long before I grasped what that actually meant, and through all these years, I haven’t stopped. It was so easy to fall for you, for your dedication to your family, your sarcastic sense of humor, and your willingness to get into trouble with me.” The wedding party chuckled at that. “You’re the single most mesmerizing woman I’ve ever known, but you’re not just gorgeous on the outside, you’re a genuinely good person, too. Having you back in my life has brought me so much joy, and the first time you told me you loved me…”
He paused, and Lacey peeked back over at him. His deep brown eyes shimmered noticeably, and Lacey wanted to smack him. How was she supposed to keep her shit together as the maid of honor if the groom lost it?
“I’d been dreaming of hearing you say that all my life, even as I feared it wouldn’t happen. Before you came back to me, my world was a bleak and desolate place, but now it’s full of color. I know whatever challenges we might face, we’ll make it, because we’ve already been to hell and back. Someday, when we’re sitting next to one another old and gray, we’ll hold hands in pure contentment because at the end of the day, we’re still best friends. We’ll always snort over our own private jokes and reminisce over a lifetime of adventures because we shared them together. I promise to love, honor, and cherish you, and also to bring you an unending supply of Snickers bars. You’re my heart and my soul, mi alma, and it’s going to be such a privilege to call you my wife.”
Lacey had been to weddings before, but not once had she heard so much dedication in a husband’s voice. She wondered if any man would ever say something similar to her and mean it. But that was stupid. Getting married wasn’t something she aspired to, but as she took in Katrina and Benji’s radiant faces, it was hard to deny that it could work under the right circumstances.
The officiate took charge again. “The symbol of the wedding ring is one of unity and infinity. It represents a perfect circle with no end because it stands for love everlasting. The love that Benjamin has for Katrina, and the love Katrina has for Benjamin. Now if each of you would collect your wedding bands…”
Oh yeah, that was Lacey’s cue. Holding her sister’s bouquet in one hand, she slipped Benji’s ring off her thumb and handed it to Katrina. She saw movement out of the corner of her eye as Zane did the same for Benji.
“Place your beloved’s ring on the third finger of their left hands and repeat after me.” She waited for the bride and groom to position their rings properly. “Now say, with this ring, I thee wed.”
“With this ring, I thee wed,” the couple said in unison. Benji didn’t look at their clasped hands, though. He gazed straight into Katrina’s eyes. And from the angle of her sibling’s chin, Lacey thought her sister must be gazing into his.
“Then by the powers vested in me, I am proud to pronounce you husband and wife. What has this day been united in holy matrimony, let no one tear asunder. Benjamin, you may now kiss your bride.”
Benji laughed out loud as he reached for Katrina. It wasn’t a sound produced by humor or by nervousness, but by sheer, unadulterated elation. He looked like a man who’d just been told all his most heartfelt wishes had been granted, which in his case, might well be true. Dipping her backwards in the sand so that she released a surprised little squeal—this hadn’t been the way they’d rehearsed this—he planted a steamy smooch on Katrina. In less than a second, she relaxed into his hold and kissed him back, obviously trusting him to not let her fall.
He didn’t, just like Lacey had known he wouldn’t. Not for the rest of their lives. And it was that thought that made her tears gush forth like a freaking fountain. She might’ve felt mortified by this had so many of the other attendees not been in the same state. Elizabeth was full-on sobbing behind her. Rookie was teary, too, though he stayed quiet about it. Tandi cried loudly and a bit theatrically, which made her baby daughter bawl to match her.
Even the officiate and steel drum players were somewhat misty-eyed. The only ones who weren’t melting into weepy puddles were Humberto and—Lacey felt chagrined to notice—Zane.
What was wrong with those two? Were they made of stone?
Deciding it didn’t matter, she watched as the sun set behind them in zigzagged stripes of rich crimson and deep purple. The steel drums started to play “Over the Rainbow,” as Benji hoisted Katrina up into his arms and carried her into the surf, the photographer tracking their movements with his lens. Swinging her in a circle, Benji kissed her again, then strode out further into the waves.
“The bride and groom have a special request,” the officiate spoke up again. “They would like everyone to join them.”
“What? Out there?” Zane asked, skeptically raising an eyebrow. He didn’t seem too happy about this turn of events, which made Lacey want to giggle.
So, she did.
“Come on, big guy,” she taunted him. “You’re not made of sugar. You won’t melt.”
Zane scowled but did as she said. Not to be outdone, Lacey hurried in after him, followed by Elizabeth and Rookie. Humberto and Tandi took their crying daughter back to their bungalow as the officiate called out, “They’ll be cutting the cake in thirty minutes.”
Humberto waved his acknowledgement and kept going.
The photographer took shot after shot while the newlyweds kissed and the rest of them played in the low breakers. As Lacey began a splashing war with Elizabeth, Rookie, and Zane, she couldn’t remember ever having more fun at a wedding. Zane had growled at her at first as if annoyed, refusing to participate, but when she didn’t stop, he then peered over at her, smiling evilly.
“Don’t start something you can’t finish, Lacey Farrell.”
“Oh, see that’s not a problem, because I fully intend to finish this.” And with that, she’d renewed their battle so fiercely that Elizabeth and Rookie backed off. Katrina and Benji continued sucking face a few yards away, oblivious.
Lacey had waited for him to do something like cannonball right next to her, but he didn’t. Instead, he closed the distance between them. She shot him a warning with her eyes. If they acted too familiar with one another, it might give their secret away. Despite her warning, he kept approaching. Next, moving more swiftly in the waves than he should’ve been capable of, he picked her up and threw her in so that she went completely under the water.
“You shithead,” she sputtered at him the second she broke the surface, trying to dunk him to return the favor, but he was so tall and solid she couldn’t. Laughing at them—while also keeping their distance—Elizabeth and Rookie began to leave the water, and Lacey overheard the receptionist murmuring under his breath.
“Hot damn.”
Lacey followed his eyeline directly to Zane. All the men’s white linen shirts had become transparent after being soaked, showing off their fine, muscular physiques. Rookie apparently appreciated this despite having a nice body himself, though on a more compact frame than either of the other men. Lacey caught the younger man’s gaze and winked at him, which caused him to flush adorably. Rookie knew Zane didn’t swing that way.
She couldn’t blame the guy for appreciating the scenery, though. Lacey had seen Zane’s body up close and personal. She knew exactly what all those ridges and valleys of his torso not only looked like but felt like. And tasted like. Her memory flashed to the last time she’d been with him…
The moment she’d arrived, she’d flitted about his condo like a skittish cat. To his blazing slate-tiled fireplace. To the wall behind his dining room table decorated in red Detroit hockey memorabilia. To the pictures of people she assumed to be his family lining his hallway. To the highly polished bar separating his living area from his kitchen.
All the while, Zane’s dark eyes followed her, his high forehead marred by lines of worry. He didn’t ask her if she was all right, however. Instead, he communicated his concern through his cautious stance and crossed arms.
Feeling chilled, Lacey returned to the hearth, standing there on the two-inch-thick gray rug he’d laid in front of it. Kicking off her shoes, she skidded her bare feet along its surface. The material it’d been made of had the unique quality of changing colors depending on which direction you pushed the fibers. Sometimes it looked plain and matte-like while at others, it shined almost like liquid silver, and she decided this was as good a place as any to ask for what she needed. Staring him in the face, Lacey removed her clothing piece by piece.
“I’d like to lose myself for a while. You don’t mind, do you?”
“I don’t mind.” He didn’t make a move, though. The only change in his demeanor was the heat in his gaze and the added gravel to his voice. “But… are you sure?”
She crossed over to where he stood in his foyer, pushed up on her tiptoes, and pressed a finger to his lips. “I am. No kid gloves either,” Lacey ordered him, reaching down to unfasten his belt buckle. She’d never been this bossy in her life, this forward with a lover, but she yearned for him to do as she said. “Don’t be gentle.”
“I got you,” he’d told her.
He had, too.
Zane sealed his lusciously full lips to hers and consumed her all at once, his palms searing her body so that the only thing she could feel was him. Next, his hands threaded themselves in her hair so that she could feel the tug, and it was glorious. There were no delicate fluttering fingertips or barely-there caresses. His grip stayed hard and firm without going too far, which was precisely what she required.
After several more rapturous yet unyielding kisses, one arm went behind her back and the other under her knees. She’d become surrounded by Zane, and as he hoisted her off her feet, she felt grounded by him. Centered by him. The strength and power of his presence made everything else melt away, even the fact that yesterday the madman who was Katrina’s ex had invaded the sanctity of her and her siblings’ home.
Finally, Lacey again felt secure.
Zane’s physical prowess thrilled her, especially when he carried her back over to his fireplace with an attitude both cocksure and willing to let her take the reins. Laying her down on that opulently plush rug of his, he pillaged her mouth with his tongue, then reached between her legs.
“Fuck,” he rasped out as he broke their kiss, his voice strained with desire. She’d been drenched. “You weren’t kidding about needing this.”
“Less talking and more fucking,” she commanded him, pulling up his t-shirt and licking a line up the defined muscles of his pecks.
“Yes, ma’am. Just need one second.”
He stepped away, shucking his attire as he went, then rifled through a drawer on the opposite side of his gleaming bar. Popping it closed with his bare hip, he hurried back to her, his enthusiasm for their impending activities more than evident. She eagerly took in the image of him sheathing himself in protection.
“Wait. You keep condoms in your kitchen?” she asked, this notion jerking her temporarily out of the moment.
“Sure do. Right there by the Saran Wrap. I also keep them in my medicine cabinet, top dresser drawer, and in the entryway table where I pick up my keys on the way out.”
“Seriously?”
“Yep. I don’t believe in taking chances.”
Ironically, Lacey had always prided herself on taking chances, on being adventurous and brave. Yet when the situation had called for her to stand up and utilize that bravery, she hadn’t. Instead of helping Elizabeth when a lunatic had broken into their apartment and held her at knifepoint, she’d stayed huddled in their bathroom like a scared mouse. Even after hearing Katrina scream and the thuds and grunts that meant Benji was being beaten to a pulp, she’d cowered in her bathrobe rather than coming out and facing the danger.
And if she thought about all that anymore she’d throw herself headfirst off the roof.
“Never mind.” Now that Zane had returned to her, she reached up to touch him, delighting in the feel of his thick and lengthy erection. An erection she wanted inside of her immediately. “Back to our regularly scheduled program, please.”
“That’s a plan I can take action on,” he said, and he hadn’t been kidding.
With one of his slow smoldering grins, he seated himself beside her on the rug, the firelight playing off every rounded bicep and pectoral muscle, off every divot and crest that defined his abdomen and torso. Raising her up as if she weighed nothing, he placed her body in a seated position over his, her legs on either side of his hips. Without pause, he then impaled her from below in a single swift motion…
In the present, Lacey felt her nipples tighten and her core ache. The memory of that afternoon from over a year ago remained potent as all hell. Also, being around Zane and having his flawlessly maintained bod on display everywhere she looked had upped her horniness quotient by a factor of ten.
The rest of the wedding party plodded themselves back up onto the white sands. But when Lacey glanced behind her, she found her sister and her brand-new husband almost doing each other out in the water, each kiss growing more ardent than the last. She shook her head, nudging Elizabeth. Elizabeth blushed and kept going but Zane came to a halt, leveling his gaze at the couple before pivoting his head in a dramatically purposeful fashion to look at her.
Lacey’s mouth turned to cotton.
Zane’s dark eyes basically shouted their lust at her, and Lacey caught her breath at the thought, unable to break their connection. A heartbeat passed between them, then two, and Lacey lost track of just how much time was going by.
“Lacey?” Hearing her name, she snapped out of her reverie to see Zane moving off as if nothing had even happened. Reclaiming her bearings, she squinted around to find the bride regarding her quizzically. Katrina’s lips were swollen from Benji’s kisses, but her waterproof makeup had stayed in place. When had the newlyweds called off their make-out sesh? “You coming?”
“Yeah, of course,” Lacey said, feeling off kilter. “Wouldn’t miss it.”