if he was going to be a big baby because she’d outsmarted him, then—
She gasped as an entire piece of cake was squashed on her chest. Sed used his plate to spread it over the tops of her breasts and into the cleft between them.
“You may have won the battle, sweetheart,” he said. “But I won the war.”
Her mouth dropped open as he lowered his head to lick the frosting off her chest, nibbling bits of cake as he very effectively one-upped her. She reached under the table and grabbed his fly, unfastening a button before he caught her hand.
“You do realize where I have to put my cake now, don’t you?” she said.
“Can’t let me win, can you?”
“Nope.”
He chuckled. “I honestly don’t mind losing to you, Jessica Chase.”
“Lionheart,” she corrected.
He grinned up at her, both dimples on full display, and then lowered his lips to sample more frosting from her cleavage. When his tongue slid beneath the leather of her corset—shockingly close to her nipple—waves of pleasure made the tip of her breast tighten. She squirmed in her chair, uncomfortably aroused.
“Are you really going to allow him to do that in public?” Jessica’s mom said as she returned to the table with her piece of cake. Monica was right behind her and took her seat on Sed’s opposite side.
Jessica wanted him to do even more to her in public, but she forced herself to push him away. “He was cleaning up his cake, Mother. You wouldn’t want to let two-dollar-a-slice cake go to waste, would you?” Jessica said tersely.
Jessica stiffened when Sed’s hand brushed the bare skin of her inner thigh. How he’d gotten it under her skirt, she didn’t know.
“It is delicious,” Monica said. She gave her son a disapproving look and his hand disappeared from Jessica’s quivering thigh and reappeared above the table.
“What time is it?” he asked. “We have to be out of here by four.”
“Four!” Jessica’s mom said. “But we have the hall rented until eight.”
“And you are more than welcome to stay and party until eight, but Jessica and I have plans for this evening.”
“What kind of plans?” Jessica asked.
“Good plans,” he assured her with a nod, but he remained tight-lipped about the details.
She leaned close to his ear and, careful not to be overheard, whispered, “Does it involve you filling me with this?”
She grabbed his semi-hard cock through his pants. It jumped against her palm, rapidly engorging with excitement. So he was as hot and bothered as she was. Good to know. Fortunately, her ardor was a bit easier to hide.
“It might,” he said.
He took her hand from his lap and lifted it above the table to brush a kiss over her knuckles.
“Patience, love. We have to dance soon,” he said.
She supposed she should try to be patient, but it wasn’t easy to keep her hands to herself with her virile hunk of a husband within reach.
She ate her cake—which was a far cry more delicious than a plate of steamed vegetables—and allowed her mind to conjure up all sorts of naughty adventures Sed might have planned for their wedding night. She somehow refrained from showing her enthusiasm for the idea and kept both hands above the table.
“Can I have a bite?” Sed asked after a long moment of watching her eat her cake.
“Didn’t get enough off my boobs?” she teased. They were uncomfortably sticky. She was looking forward to getting out of her ocean-stained dress and hopping in the shower. Of course thoughts of showers conjured thoughts of Sed naked in the shower with her. Her hand was trembling as she used the side of her fork to cut a bit of cake from her rapidly dwindling piece.
She offered it to Sed, who leaned forward to take a bite.
“It’s okay this way,” he said after he swallowed. “But it tastes a lot better when eaten off you.”
A sudden loud thud made Jessica jump. The wail of an electric guitar followed an instant later. The band had taken up their instruments, and the entire crowd of wedding guests turned toward the open dance floor beyond the sea of tables; it wasn’t every day that Exodus End played at a reception.
“Sed told me that we were to begin exactly at two thirty,” the vocalist, Maximilian Richardson, said into his microphone. “Something about wanting to dance with the most beautiful bride ever to be drenched in a downpour.”
Sed pushed his chair back and helped Jessica to her feet.
“Congratulations, Sed and Jessica,” Max continued. “I’m not sure your song will sound quite right played by a metal band. Dare insisted on changing it up a bit when we rehearsed yesterday.”
Dare played a rapid-fire string of notes on his electric guitar that shot sparks of excitement down Jessica’s spine. The man had a gift with six strings.
At first, Jessica didn’t recognize the song they were playing. Exodus End’s cover of Elvis’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” took certain liberties with the tempo, and she didn’t remember any wailing guitars in the original. And Max’s voice, while deep and edgy, didn’t quite have the slow sensuality of the King’s. Sed stared at her, mouth and eyes wide. She was just as flabbergasted about how to dance to the song as he was. It felt like an opportunity to head bang and mosh to her, so she went with it. Sed caught her against him when she bounced her chest off his. He was laughing so hard, his entire body shook.
“I do love you woman,” he said, “but this isn’t what I had in mind when I selected this song.”
“It sounds awesome!” Jessica said. And she wasn’t lying. If anyone could take a sappy love song and turn it into a work of metal perfection, it was Exodus End.
“Stay here,” he said.
He released her and stalked across the empty dance floor to the stage. The astonished look on Max’s face was priceless as Sed yanked the microphone out of his hand.
The guitar stopped instantly. The drums faded after several more thudding progressions around the toms.
“Max apparently doesn’t know how to sing this song properly,” Sed said into the microphone.
The band stared after him as he crossed the dance floor toward Jessica. Her heart was thudding like a jackhammer when he wrapped one arm around her waist and tugged her against his body.
“He must not have realized that I picked this song so I could hold my gorgeous wife close, and feel her heart beat against my own.” He smiled and she flushed with pleasure.
Staring deep into her eyes, he started the iconic love song, taking no liberties with the tempo or the perfection recorded by Elvis decades past. “Wise men say…”
Lost in his gaze and his serenade, Jessica swayed in time to the music in her heart. She was vaguely aware of a piano starting to play along and a moment later a very subdued drumming filled out the tune, but it was Sed’s satin-smooth voice that carried the melody.
By the time he sang, “Take my hand…” she could scarcely see him through the tears in her eyes. She blinked rapidly, sending warm droplets cascading down her cheeks. His hand moved from her waist to the back of her head, and he pressed her face into the hollow of his neck. She tightened her arms around him and pressed a kiss to his throat, immersing herself in his scent, his warmth, and the broad, hard length of his body. She was drowning in the sound of his voice and the emotions it stirred as she clung to him.
The song ended much too soon. Why couldn’t he have chosen “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” as their song? Not nearly as romantic, but it would have lasted much longer. He extended the microphone from his body until Max came to reclaim it, and then wrapped her in both arms, kissing the top of her head. She lifted her face so she could look at him.
“I really couldn’t help falling in love with you,” he said.
She nodded, unable to find her voice or strong enough words to describe what she was feeling for him. Love seemed too ordinary a word for the overwhelming rush of emotion swirling in her chest, clogging her throat.
“Can we play o
ur version now?” Max asked through the microphone. Sed gave him a thumbs-up.
Jessica turned to the stage. Jace climbed out from the piano that had been hidden near the back of the room, and Eric handed a pair of drumsticks back to Exodus End’s drummer, Stephen. Knowing that a pair of Sinners had taken over to make her first dance with her husband as romantic as Sed had intended warmed her heart. What a couple of saps.
“How many more traditions do we need to endure before I can get you naked?” Sed whispered.
“Hmm… tossing of the bouquet and garter,” she said, speaking loudly since Exodus End had begun to play. The band didn’t know the meaning of understated or quiet. “That’s about it.”
Monica tapped Sed on the shoulder. “May I have this dance?” she asked her son.
“You forgot the mother/son dance.” Sed beamed and kissed Jessica before releasing her and tugging his mother into his arms.
“Not sure how to dance to this kind of music,” Monica said.
“Just improvise,” Sed said, and then he swept her across the dance floor.
Jessica smiled as she watched. She hadn’t forgotten. There would be no father/daughter dance for her. She started to leave the floor, not wanting to be completely conspicuous in her lack of a paternal parent. Before she could find a spare seat, she ran headlong into a very tall and lean body. Surprised, she stared up into the smiling face of Eric Sticks.
“Now that Sed is occupied, I’m faced with the opportunity to finally seduce you,” Eric said.
She laughed, so grateful that he’d spotted her dilemma that she could have kissed him. In a totally platonic way, of course.
Eric took her hand and led her to the center of the dance floor. Their dance was anything but seductive—it involved a lot of head banging, thrashing, and a bit of air guitar. Soon others began to join them until she was completely surrounded by family and friends and having the time of her life. Instead of playing their own songs, Exodus End took great liberties with the standard list of popular reception songs. This made it fun for everyone as they tried to figure out if the wailing guitar music, thudding drums, and hard core vocals was Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight” or the Temptations’ “My Girl.” The band even did a metal version of “Ice Ice Baby,” made awesome by Logan’s skill on bass guitar. Jessica had never been to a more rockin’ reception. She was drenched in sweat by the time Sed took her hand and led her off the dance floor.
“We need to leave!” he shouted over the metal version of “Twist and Shout.”
She nodded. “Just let me get my bouquet.”
She rushed back to the table and grabbed her pretty-much-demolished bouquet before heading to the stage with Sed on her heels. They waited for the current song to end and then climbed the stage to orchestrate their final tradition of the day.
“All the single ladies are needed in the mosh pit,” Max said, winking at Jessica. “Time to toss the bouquet.”
Jessica waited until everyone who wanted to participate was standing before the stage. She already knew who she was aiming for, so she took a mental snapshot of the crowd and turned to face the opposite direction. She tossed the bouquet over her shoulder and then spun around to see if she’d hit home. Aggie stood staring at the bouquet in her hands as if she didn’t recognize what it was. Score! Jessica barely suppressed her victory dance. Aggie received numerous congratulatory pats, but she didn’t seem to notice or remember how to blink. It was only when Jace approached her and gave her a playful shove that she awoke out of her stupor.
Jessica laughed when Jace interlaced his fingers and stretched his arms in front of him, limbering up to catch the garter. Jessica was directed into a chair on the stage, and Sed knelt on the floor between her feet.
The look he gave her could have melted the polar ice caps.
“All right,” Max said in a farcical emcee voice, “it looks like the bachelors need to line up for the delivery of their life-without-parole sentencing.”
Most of the younger men entered the dance floor only when shoved forcefully in that direction. Lawyers and rock stars alike fidgeted as they waited for the verdict.
“Jace,” Jessica whispered to Sed, and he nodded.
He nibbled on his lower lip, as if hungry with anticipation while he waited for his cue. His cue was a chorus of “take it off, take it off” from the married gentlemen in the room. Sed delved beneath her skirt. Not just his hand but his entire upper body, including his head and both hands—which he immediately put to good use.
“What is he doing under there? Is he using his teeth?” Max asked.
“Yes!” Jessica squeaked. And that wasn’t all he was using.
His mouth moved against her inner thigh, his tongue swirling against her skin between nibbles. The fingers of one hand tugged the garter slowly down her thigh; his other hand moved to the rapidly swelling flesh between her thighs. One finger found her cleft and slid its length, starting at her mound and working its way back until it slipped a scant inch inside her. Her jaw dropped in surprise as her body went from willing to eager in the span of a second. Her mouth opened wider as his mouth began to work its way up her thigh, closer and closer to the throbbing ache at her center. He wouldn’t really put his mouth there in front of hundreds of guests, would he?
Oh fuck, he would. No one could see what he was actually doing under the wide skirt of her gown, but they had to be able to tell where his head was and where it was going. Dear lord, she should probably stop him before… His tongue flicked against her clit, and she nearly exploded out of the chair. Probably would have if he hadn’t been gripping her thigh with one hand.
He suddenly withdrew, leaving her disoriented and needy for his body. The man was far more daring than most—she loved that about him—but one day he was going to go too far. At least he hadn’t made her come in front of everyone.
Still kneeling at her feet but no longer beneath her skirt, he grinned up at her crookedly, clearly challenging her to admonish him for taking such liberties. She wiggled her eyebrows at him instead, and he laughed. He mouthed, You rock, baby, before climbing to his feet. He leaned in to kiss her before lifting the garter he’d received at Eric’s wedding over his head in victory.
Everyone cheered until he turned to face the bachelors and took aim. Instead of shooting at Jace, he slipped his finger into the stretchy band and let it fly high. Being one of the more vertically challenged in the crowd, Jace was at a disadvantage. That didn’t stop him from making a dive for it and landing hard on the wood floor with one hand extended, the garter gripped tightly in his fist. He climbed to his feet and stared directly at Aggie, pointing at his chest and then at her before making a twirling motion with his finger. She beamed a wide smile at him, a flush staining her porcelain-white cheeks, and nodded.
“Wanted to make him work for it,” Sed said to Jessica as he helped her to her feet. “Is it time to get naked now?”
“Oh, it’s past time for that,” she said.
She snatched the microphone out of Max’s hand.
“Thank you, everyone, for coming,” she said. “Now it’s my turn to do just that. Enjoy the rest of your evening. I’m sure I will.”
The guys got her joke immediately, but she wasn’t sure if many of the women had caught on to the double entendre. But she didn’t have time to explain it. She needed her husband and she needed him immediately. She tossed the microphone to Max, who had definitely gotten her joke, if his appreciative grin was any judge, grabbed Sed by the jacket, and headed for the exit at a run.
While they waited for the limo outside, Jessica pulled Sed against her and kissed him deeply. One hand clung to the back of his head, the other began to work the buttons of his shirt. She wasn’t going to wait until they got home to have him. If the limo didn’t hurry the fuck up, she’d be having him right here on the sidewalk in front of the reception hall.
“Really, Jessica?” Her mother’s voice was like a bucket of cold water over her head. “I have never been more mortified
in my life.”
Jessica kept right on kissing Sed, hoping her mother would take a hint and get lost.
No such luck.
“You have got to be the biggest slut to ever wear white on her wedding day.”
More stunned than outraged, Jessica went still. Her mouth remained pressed against her husband’s. Sed yanked her away from him and shoved her behind his body.
“I don’t give a fuck who you are, lady. No one talks to my wife that way,” he growled, cold venom dripping from every word. “You apologize to her and then get the fuck out of her life. She won’t be tolerating your abuse anymore. I won’t allow it.”
Jessica stiffened as his words sank in. That was probably the most controlling thing she’d ever heard anyone say in her entire life. And it was such a huge and blessed relief that she began to shake uncontrollably.
“Apologize?” her mother screeched.
“Now!”
She narrowed her eyes at him before looking at Jessica. “I’m not sorry I called you a slut,” her mother said, “but I am sorry you married an asshole.”
Her mother stomped off, and Jessica stared after her, so astonished she could scarcely breathe.
“Are you going to let her talk to me like that?” Sed asked in a teasing tone.
Actually, no, she wasn’t.