Bad Idea: Bad Boy Romantic Comedy (Dante Brothers Book 2) Page 7

  I slipped out and shut the door behind me.

  I WATCHED HER GO into the bustle and bright lights of the reception hall, where I hadn’t planned on going at all.

  My plan had been fast entry, swift retreat. An extraction mission. Get in, see Ben, attend the wedding, get the fuck out.

  No reception, no chit-chat, no going where I didn’t belong. No nothing.

  But Cassidy was there now, and she didn’t belong almost as much as I didn’t. She was waiting for me.

  It suddenly felt like a retrieval mission.

  For my heart.

  11

  I WALKED OUT for the introductions with someone whose name I couldn’t quite remember, the beat Trey had unleashed in my body still pulsing through me.

  To be honest, I was still orgasming. It thrummed in intermittent, tiny, electrified pulses through me as I did all the normal, bridal party things. No one knew I was lit up like a Christmas tree.

  The reception moved through the toasts. I rose and explained how Ben had modeled for me, his little sister, all the kinds of mayhem a person could get into, then left me to my own devices as he moved on into being a respectable, well-loved member of polite society, the pinnacle being this night, his union with the eminent, respectable Rothsman family, and a marriage to the most gorgeous member of all the many gorgeous Rothsmen, Amber, and therefore they couldn’t blame me for whatever happened next.

  They all laughed. Ben drew me into a tight hug that went on a little long for the etiquette-conscious Rothsmen, but hey, I’d warned them.

  Everyone thought all I could think about was Ben and his new life.

  All I could think about was how to get Trey Dante back into my bed. Table. Whatever.

  Maybe into my life, permanent.

  But first, bed.

  We sat at the high table like kings and queens. I joked and chatted the way you were supposed to, but I scanned the room to find Trey regularly, seeking signs on how he was doing.

  He sat at a far table with a whole table of extras. He seemed to be talking with the other humans perfectly well. He even joined a toast they all made, standing up and crashing their glasses and bottles together over top the center of the table. But I knew he didn’t want to be there. I knew he felt like a curtain on the wall, blowing in an unseen breeze.

  We were kindred souls. Although his might be a little more banged up than mine. All the more reason to draw near.

  Trey smiled at something someone said, his head tipped down, but my God he looked so good when he tipped his head to his side, that little smile curving his mouth.

  I felt a little hole in my heart, that he was so far away. Smiling at someone else.

  The dancing started, first Amber and her father, then Ben and me, seeing as we had no mother.

  All I could think of was Trey.

  Perhaps it showed.

  “I invited him to sit with us at the main table,” Ben said quietly as we danced.

  I looked into my brother’s handsome, kind face, and smiled. “He wouldn’t want that, Ben, sitting up there on a stage, being watched.”

  Ben touched my cheek. “He’s like you.”

  “Yeah, but no one’s looking at me.”

  “Trey is.”

  I shot a glance over and saw Trey watching us. A woman at his side laid a hand with French-tipped nails on his arm and murmured something. He looked away from me.

  A nip sawed through my chest, cutting through the light feeling. Jealousy.

  Okay then.

  The music ended, and so did our dance. People clapped and others moved to the dance floor.

  I started to head to Trey, to extract him from that woman.

  “Didn’t see you during the lights out, Cass,” Ben said.

  I snapped back around. “That’s because the lights were out!” I quipped and laughed pretty hard.

  Ben’s squint narrowed on me. “Puck?”

  “Yeah?”

  He looked across the room at Trey, then back at me. “Just…be careful,” he said quietly.

  “No,” I retorted, and backed up a step, moving away from his caution. “No, I don’t want to be careful. I want to have fun. I want to be with him.”

  He blew out a breath and tugged at his bowtie. “He’s kind of broken, Cass.”

  “So? So what? I’m not scared of broken—it’s the story of our lives. And maybe I think he’s worth fixing.”

  My words were fierce, and Ben looked wary. “I agree. He is. But I didn’t think… I don’t want to see you get hurt being the one who tries to do it.”

  “I’m happy tonight, Ben. Happy,” I said, getting closer to him. Around us, people were starting to dance. “Do you know the last time I was happy? Because I don’t. I can’t even remember the last time I felt—”

  I stopped talking because I was suddenly both furious and about to cry.

  I actually did remember the last time I felt even close to what I was feeling tonight.

  It was the night Trey stayed with me to make sure I didn’t get my son-of-a-bitch ex-boyfriend’s name tattooed on my shoulder with a stake through his eye.

  He’d sat there all night, arm slung over the chair beside him at the tattoo parlor, watching me, sitting with me, never leaving my side.

  Ben’s eyes widened at my mini-explosion, because I never got intense. I never got dramatic.

  Maybe it was about time.

  “Jesus, Cass,” he muttered, then wiped his hand through his hair. “He’s not going to stay, you know.”

  I looked up sharply. “What?”

  “He’s leaving. I can’t believe he’s even still here.” He nodded over my shoulder, at Trey no doubt. Then he looked back at me. “He’s always going to be leaving, Cass. Just be….” His words dropped off.

  Be what? What did he want me to be? Probably not the things I was right now: scared and falling in love.

  Heck, I’d been falling in love with Trey my whole life.

  And he was leaving?

  I thought about his ever-present duffle bag, his hesitation in the peacock room when I said I’d see him later.

  Amber came over and looped her arm through Ben’s, then she leaned in and kissed my cheek.

  “Thanks for everything, Cass,’ she said softly. “I know I was a bitch today, and…thanks.”

  I smiled. “Everyone’s a bitch on their wedding day.”

  She laughed and started drawing Ben to the dance floor. He leaned in to kiss me too before he backed up, and I knew it for what it was: a goodbye kiss.

  Goodbye to everything that had been. I was changing the beat of my drummer.

  Ben looked over his shoulder at me one last time before he disappeared into his future and all the happy people on the dance floor.

  I turned away to find mine.

  I’d known Trey my whole life and tonight I’d finally found him.

  No way was he leaving me.

  12

  WATCHING CASSIDY was a good night.

  At the bridal table, I watched her talk with people and laugh, clink glasses, give a toast that made people actually laugh, for real, and it was good.

  I watched her gaze skid to me, over and over and over again.

  It was good.

  She danced with Ben, and they both looked my way. Uh oh. When the dance was over, I watched their whispered, intense conversation, saw Cass take a sharp step back, and Ben glance over at me again. We exchanged nods.

  Fuck.

  Then Cass came to me, skirting tables but always moving closer. My heart slowed to a sluggish beat. Like it knew something good was coming.

  “Hey,” she said when she drew up at the table I was standing behind.

  “Hey back. Nice toast.”

  “I found it online.”

  I smiled at the joke, but she didn’t. She looked me over like I was a used car she was thinking of buying, then turned and glanced at the table and the edge of my duffle bag sitting underneath. Her deep brown eyes came back to me.

  “You
really don’t have a room, do you?” she said.

  Shit. I did not want to have this conversation.

  “No.”

  “You’re leaving tonight?”

  I hesitated, then nodded.

  “You weren’t even going to stay?” Her voice carried accusation. And hurt.

  “Stay for what?” I said, real low.

  Her eyes met mine. “For me.”

  Sweet little Cass, calling me on my shit.

  Our eyes held.

  She took a step closer. “Listen, Trey, I don’t know a lot of things. I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life. I don’t even know where I’m going to get a replacement card for Ben and Amber before the morning. But I know one thing.” Her voice broke a little but her eyes never left mine. “We’re going to spend the night together, you and me.”

  Call-you-on-your-shit Cass.

  Like I was watching myself do it, like it was inevitable and unstoppable, I cupped her cheek, my fingers curling around the side of her neck.

  “Yeah,” I said softly. “We’re going to do that.”

  Her lips parted and then she smiled at me. Big, radiant, happy. No fucking lies anywhere in this woman.

  I think I’d do a lot for that smile.

  At least I’d stay put for the night.

  She stepped to me, an inch away. “Let’s go, soldier.”

  I glanced back at the party on the dance floor. I suddenly heard the music; I’d have sworn everything was quiet a second ago.

  I hesitated. “Don’t you want to wait?” It was her brother’s wedding after all.

  She looked around, tugging her ponytail over her shoulder so it draped down the front of her, between her breasts. We stared at the gyrating dance floor, the flirting, the money, the glitz and glam.

  “Wait for what?” she asked softly.

  “Yeah, I agree.” I reached for her hand. “Let’s go fuck.”

  She laughed as I guided her out of the room.

  I felt Ben in the background, watching us go.

  13

  WE WALKED OUT of the banquet hall, headed to the elevators, when Cass gave a soft little cry and started…running away from me.

  The fuck?

  She got low, her hand out, looking down the hallway. I followed her gaze and saw a puppy.

  Cass got on her knees. “Hey little guy,” she said softly. “It’s okay. Come here.”

  Brown-eyed and black-furred, he stared at her like maybe he wanted to, then a sound came from down another hallway, and he took off running.

  She got to her feet, looking sad. “Poor little guy.”

  “Whose is he?” I said, sliding my hand behind her back.

  She looked down the hall. “Humane Society. He got left behind. But once the hotel people find him, they’re going to stick him out in the cold.”

  I looked at the empty place the dog had been. “You want that puppy?”

  She flushed a little. “Well, you know, just to feed him. I mean, I’m not even going to have a home in a month, so I can’t keep him. But I think he’s hungry.”

  “We’ll keep an eye out,” I promised, and she smiled at me as we went to the elevator.

  We rode up in silence, holding hands, walked down the carpeted hallway, and drew up outside her hotel door.

  Cass leaned against the wall beside it, smiling at me, one foot hooked behind the other, the way she’d done when I first arrived and knew I needed to have her.

  Hadn’t admitted it yet, of course, was still telling myself I could stand back, not look at her breasts, not smile into her eyes, could treat her like the rest of the world. Like she didn’t matter.

  Well, damn. One night couldn’t hurt. And it was definitely going to help.

  She looked like some kind of nymph, with her long dark hair and her shattering red dress and her red-painted toenails. Red lipstick. Sweet, lazy smile.

  Ready to be fucked. I wanted to slide my dick into that mouth, watch her eyes close as she took me deep.

  I smiled back.

  She kept smiling.

  I cleared my throat. She lifted her eyebrows in a lazy, silent question.

  “Key?” I said.

  Her face fell and she straightened away from the wall. “Oh, right. My room.”

  “It’s all yours tonight, sweetheart.”

  She turned her smile over her shoulder to me as she unlocked the door and we went inside.

  Yeah. A whole lot for that smile.

  We drifted in. Neither of us hit a light switch. The curtains were open, and the mountainside stretched out beyond. Snow was falling, swirling against the window.

  Cassidy came in as far as the table by the door and stopped. I went further, did a quick survey of the sitting area and bedroom. I checked out all the corners, then shrugged off my jacket and dropped my duffle bag on the floor.

  She had an arm crossed in front of her stomach, the other elbow resting on it, her fingers curved slightly around her throat as she watched me check out the rooms. Giving me space.

  I sat down in a big, deep chair and leaned back, taking a long minute to look her over, then nodded toward her dress.

  “Take it off,” I said quietly.

  She released a little breath that made me hard, then curled her fingers around the hem of her dress and yanked it up.

  “Slow,” I said, real slow, showing her how.

  As if my words were connected to her body, she slowed. Everything I did seemed connected to Cassidy right now. My body had circuits of electricity moving through it as she started doing exactly what I said. My lightning rod.

  Fucking sweet Cassidy.

  The dress came off, leaving her pale and curving in the middle of the room, wearing high heels and red garters with little red bows mid-way up her thighs. The silk ribbons went the rest of the way, to the belt over a pair of red panties.

  “Yeah, I thought they were red,” I murmured.

  “It was a theme.”

  I smiled.

  She extended her arm, the dress dangling from her fingertips, then she let it drop. It floated to the floor and puddled in a silky red heap beside her heels.

  I smiled. “Nice.”

  She started to take off her heels.

  “Stop.”

  She paused, mid-bend. Her face tipped up to mine, hair falling beside her face.

  “Leave them on.”

  “Oh,” she whispered, straightened. “Right. Guys like heels.”

  “Fuck guys; I like them.” I dragged my gaze over her body like I was touching her. Her nipples were hard, pushing at the lacy red bra. “You ever strip for anyone, Cass?” I asked lazily.

  She shook her head fast. “No.”

  “Good. Let down your hair.”

  She pulled the band around her hair and tossed it away. Her hair fell to her hips, straight and dark. Her shoulders were pale.

  “Turn around,” I ordered.

  “Oh boy,” she whispered, and turned.

  Her body was sweet. Pale beneath the fall of her hair, her tight little ass streaked by the silk ribbons of her garters, her feet in those fuck-me heels.

  “You look good.” I took my time looking her over. My dick was hard. I laid a hand over it and stroked it once though my pants.

  She peered over her shoulder. Her gaze dropped to my hand, and I stroked it again for her. Her mouth curved into a little O as she blew out a breath.

  “You like that?” I asked in a low voice.

  “I like it a lot.”

  “You’re going to like everything I do to you tonight.”

  Her body shivered, shaking the strands of her hair falling to the curve of her bottom.

  “What’d you like best, Cass? Earlier, when the lights went out?” I asked conversationally, unbuttoning my trousers and shoving them and my underwear down so she could see my dick.

  Eyes on the prize, cheeks flushed, she trailed her heavy-lidded gaze up to mine. “Well, I liked that thing you did with your tongue…” She poked the tip of her
s out and swirled it through the air, then gave two little jabs.

  I laughed and got to my feet, yanking my pants off. “Yeah, you seemed to like that a lot.” I kicked the trousers aside.

  She turned to face me, staring at my body. I liked her looking at me. It made my dick stand at attention.

  I wanted her on her knees in front of me, mouth open.

  She nodded. “I’d give it a definite eight.”

  I snorted. “Eight? A fucking eight?”

  She shook her head. “No, a definite eight.”

  “You screamed like it was eleven point five.”

  She gave a little shrug. “You need to reassess your scream rating. That was a point eight level scream. Now, the stuff where you pushed me onto the table …”

  “Eleven point five,” I said proudly.

  She smiled. “A solid nine.”

  “You don’t know your own body, woman.”

  She gave a little shrug. “I’m just saying I think you can do better.”

  “Fucking right,” I said, and sat down in the chair. “Come here.”

  She drifted over, sort of meandering. She touched the wall as she came, then skimmed the bedpost with her fingers, always coming nearer on her tippy red heels, but really fucking slow.

  “Kneel down.”

  Breathing fast, she dropped to her knees between my legs. Her eyes were pinned on my dick, her mouth open to breathe. She spread her hands over my stomach and pushed me back in the chair, then leaned forward and licked up the length of me.

  It was a slippery wet, light touch, her panted breaths coming soft behind her tongue, but I felt like she’d knocked me sideways.

  I leaned my head back and let out a groan. “What would you give that, Trey?” she said, her voice teasing, her mouth so close to me the breath of her words heated my dick.

  Reaching down, I knotted my fingers in her hair and gave a little tug. The breath panted out of her. “Not sure. Better do it again.”

  Brown eyes pinned on mine, she did me again with her tongue, her fingers curling into my chest.

  “A five,” I said hoarsely. “Do it harder.”

  She smiled and licked me again, but as she came up this time, she wrapped her fingers around the thick base of me and gave a fast, hard pump.