I settled on top of her. “I’m cutting to the chase, here. I figured you don’t mind.” At last, she was naked and underneath me. Finally. And everywhere our skin touched, it burned. She leaned up and, with a delicious moan, took my mouth again, opening her legs for me.
And I was in such a trance that I almost—almost—entered her right there and then.
Rocking against her, I breathed heavily, suddenly snapping into reality with an urgent thought. “Please tell me there are condoms in the bag.”
Moving her hips again in such a way as to demand I enter her, she let out a long breath. God, it was so tempting. But these days, we strictly observed the adage No glove, no love.
Her reply came in a gruff whisper. “Um, what? Why would there be condoms in the beach bag?” I let out a long sigh of frustration, resting my forehead against hers. She smoothed her hands down my back. “Use the one in your wallet.”
I raised my head and looked her in the eye. “I never carry a condom in my wallet. That’s something only frat boys—and Jordan—would do.”
She leaned up and kissed me again, her tongue tempting me with every fluttery movement inside my mouth. She was so goddamn irresistible. “Why don’t you pull out this time?”
Shifting my hips a fraction, I was all ready to take the plunge before actually considering that insanity. I shivered against her. “There’s no way in hell that I’m trusting myself to pull out. Besides, that is the least effective method ever.”
“But what about your legendary self-control?”
“Today, I’ve got none. Damn it.”
“Shit.” Her head flopped on the headrest, and we held each other’s gaze for long minutes.
“Let’s go up to our room. I have condoms in the luggage,” I said.
“We’re not in the same room tonight.” She sighed. “It’s the night before our wedding. Your luggage is in the honeymoon suite.”
“Then let’s go there.”
“We’ve got the picnic and bay tour in a half-hour.” She rolled her eyes. “After that, we have our spa appointments. Today’s agenda is packed.”
I chewed on my bottom lip. “Tonight after dinner?”
“Our rehearsal dinner?”
I hesitated. “Sure…we’ll have time. We’ll meet in the bathroom of the restaurant. A last sexcapade while we’re still unmarried people.” She laughed and shifted under me, and I had to suppress a groan at how good it felt. I kissed her nose. “We better get dressed before I consider doing something very foolish.”
Her eyes closed. “I don’t wanna. I want to be ravished.”
“Oh, you will. You will be ravished…but not right now.” I pushed off her. “Now I have to figure out how the hell I’m going to stuff all this back into that fucking Speedo.”
She cackled with laughter before pushing herself off the lounge and moving over to the beach bag, unzipping a side pocket—a secret compartment!—pulling out my trusty swim trunks and flinging them at me. “No way is that banana going back in the hammock. At this point, it would be indecent to walk around like that.”
“Not liking the marble bag look anymore?” I gave her a goofy grin before pulling on the trunks.
“You mean the weenie bikini?” She winked. “You’ve got the goods, sure. But I think you forgot how to use them.”
I jutted my chin out at her. “Tonight. Wear easy-access underwear.” She flung the Speedo right at my head, and I dodged. “Or better yet, go commando.”
“So full of talk.”
“Oh, I’m making it happen. Just you wait.”
But for the moment, we had an agenda to follow, and I would have protested the goddamn agenda were I not the person who had created the shitty thing in the first place.
Chapter 20
Mia
“Making it happen” was easier said than done. What I’d realized hours ago, after the sailboat tour of the bay—and what Adam was coming to realize only now, in the middle of the rehearsal dinner—was that the day before a destination wedding, the bride and groom are never left alone. It was like some secret, unwritten rule.
For all that they’d be bending over backward to give us our privacy on our wedding night and during our honeymoon, our friends and family were having none of it right now.
The girls wanted to get together for appetizers before the rehearsal. The guys had made it to the bar for beers and dude talk—which apparently included a surprise dunk of the groom in a hotel swimming pool.
Fortunately, he’d been able to change into dry clothes quickly, so that he wasn’t dripping all over the wedding rehearsal. Afterward came the quiet, intimate rehearsal dinner with our tiny wedding party: Heath, Jordan, my mom, Peter, and the two of us.
The good part? Dinner was intimate and quiet and really rather nice.
The bad part? Dinner was intimate and quiet and nearly impossible to slip away from long enough to go have a quickie in the bathroom.
While we awaited dessert, Adam nudged me hard under the table and began to excuse himself for a restroom break. I folded my napkin, planning to follow suit when Peter stopped Adam, saying he was about to make a toast to us.
Well, shit. How could we miss that?
With a stony face, Adam raced off to the bathroom and returned in a few minutes. His dark eyes found mine, and I shrugged at him. Despite his grumpiness, he looked good tonight, even with the last-minute clothing change. His dark, damp hair had been slicked back, and he was freshly shaved. He wore a light blue, exquisitely tailored button-down shirt, chinos, and deck shoes.
I smoothed my cute floral cotton frock across my lap, all too aware of the barely there, “easily accessible” panties I’d worn underneath. All he had to do was stared at me, like he was doing now, and they grew damp. I squirmed in my seat as Peter cleared his throat and took up the fresh flute of champagne the server had placed before him—as he had done with all of us.
We all mirrored his action. “Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your lives, and this step you’re taking will be the most important. Adam, I’ve known you your whole life, and since you were a small boy, I’ve watched you overcome obstacles that would have stopped men three times your age. You have grown into the strongest and most determined human being I’ve ever met. You’re at once a man I admire and, also, part of my pride and joy. I can’t tell you what it means to me to see you so happy. Mia completes you, and everyone who knows and loves you knows that.”