Jake didn’t have any experience with this kind of honesty, with a women opening up her heart to him like this and laying it at his feet. He could run a business worth millions. He could pilot a 70-foot yacht through rough waters after three sleepless nights. But he couldn’t keep up with the beautiful girl standing in front of him.
He knew his limits, knew that despite the success he’d had with his Irish pubs, he was still just a dumb kid of a bartender. Sophie deserved better, belonged with a guy who had as many college degrees as she did. One day, Jake knew, he’d be here at her wedding, watching her walk down the aisle, even though the vision of Sophie in another man’s arms—in another man’s bed—had him seeing red.
Hadn’t he known better than to let her get too close?
“The dress, the makeup, they look great, Nice.” He purposefully used her nickname, wanting her to remember who he was to her. “But they don’t change the fact that you’re going to have plenty of crushes on guys before you find the one who’s right for you.”
Something flared in her eyes, a look he’d seen flashes of over the past few months. “Do you really think so?” She ran her tongue over her full bottom lip and his blood pressure spiked another ten points. He could have sworn she was purposefully screwing with him when she leaned a little closer and said, “Do you really think I’m going to feel that way again with some other guy?”
Didn’t she realize there was nothing she could have said that would have gotten to him more? He couldn’t have her, but damn it, there wasn’t another man alive who was good enough for her, either. The thought of anyone else kissing her the way he had—the thought of her actively going out there to look for that kind of treatment—made him want to lock her up in a tower.
There was no way she could still be a virgin at twenty-five. But Jake still felt like he’d taken something from her with that rough kiss. That he’d dirtied up her innocence by shoving his tongue in her mouth and putting his hands on her.
“You deserve better.”
Sophie cocked her head to the side and frowned at him just as Lori hurried around the corner of the shed.
“There you are, Soph! I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Lori skidded to a stop when she realized her twin wasn’t alone. “Jake? What are you doing with—” Sophie’s sister didn’t finish her question as she frowned, looking between the two of them.
The Sullivan boys were bound to tear him apart with their bare hands for this.
But Lori? Her punishment was going to be even worse to make him pay for kissing her twin.
“The speeches are about to start. Everyone is wondering where you are, Soph, especially Ellen.” She pinned Jake with a look so sharp it could have sliced right through him. “And you, too.”
“Okay,” Sophie said in an overly bright voice. “Thanks for letting us know. We’ll be there in just a minute.”
But instead of leaving them alone, Lori stepped in front of Sophie. “You can’t go back in there looking like this.” She ran her hands through Sophie’s hair, fixing the mess Jake had made of it when he was pawing her. She brushed off a smudge of lipstick at the corner of her sister’s mouth, and shifted the dress an inch to the right. “That’s better. And, seriously, you should get back there before Ellen has a heart attack thinking some unruly loser of a guest was stupid enough to pull you off into the vines.”
Sophie was silent for a moment. “You’re right. I don’t want anything to fall through the cracks today. It wouldn’t be fair to Chase and Chloe.”
“We’ll be there in a sec,” Lori said. “I need to talk to Jake about something.”
“He kissed me,” Sophie told her sister, her expression stubborn as she faced her. “Now you don’t have to talk about it. Let’s go.” She grabbed her sister’s hand and made sure they walked together past the shed.
Yet again, Jake was impressed with Sophie. Lori had a will strong enough to push most people around. He’d always assumed Sophie was the beta to her sister’s alpha.
Had he gotten it wrong all these years? Had he made the mistake of underestimating Sophie just because she didn’t feel the need to be the center of attention like the rest of them?
“Oh no!” Sophie exclaimed. “That little boy is about to knock over the chocolate Eiffel Tower.” She quickly moving toward the long food table and the hungry boy, leaving Jake alone with Sergeant Lori.
He was a dead man.
“What the hell was going on back there?” She narrowed her eyes and snarled, “What were you doing to my sister?”
Jake wished he knew. One moment he’d been trying to protect Sophie from some worthless wedding guest who only wanted her in his bed...the next she’d been in his arms and he’d been kissing her as if his life depended on it.
Lori took a step closer and he had to fight the urge to take a step back in retreat. “If you hurt her, I will hunt you down and take great pleasure in hurting you, too. Badly.” She smiled at him, a turning up of the lips that promised a great deal of future pain should he ever screw up again where Sophie was concerned. “And you’d better believe that I’ll keep you alive just so that I can send my brothers in to finish you off.” She cleared her face of murder before saying, “Now walk me back to my table and make it look believable that you and I were off getting into our usual trouble.”