Page 4 of Wild Card

Jen beamed her a grin conveying exactly that message. “I’m fine, babe. Really.”

Her friend grabbed her hand and smiled back. Tess looked gorgeous in a red sleeveless sheath that perfectly showed off her shoulder-to-elbow tattoos. Tess’s latest ink, a heart emblazoned on the middle of her chest with Dan’s initials in the middle, peeked from the dress’s sweetheart neckline. Everyone would be able to see the full ink tomorrow, thanks to the breathtaking cut of the cream-colored gown Tess had selected to become Mrs. Dan Colton in.

Mrs. Dan Colton.

Wow.

It hardly seemed real, but couldn’t have been more perfect. Tess was the chick in the Lesange nest always causing folks to wonder who’d messed with the family’s DNA strand. Though Tess shared her sisters’ button nose, heart-shaped chin, and huge green eyes, she’d been gifted with fuller lips and brilliant red hair, helped by vivid color washes. For the wedding, Tess had chosen a rose red hue, undoubtedly to match the wedding’s color theme. It gleamed beneath the salon’s lights as her friend cocked a skeptical stare and accused, “Why do I not believe you?”

“Because you’re a dork,” Jen teased, though quickly sobered. “Really, Tess. Chill. I just need to practice a bit more in these heels.” And face the grim truth that Sam will be here to catch every wobbling moment tomorrow, too.

“Well.” Mattie’s matter-of-fact tone was likely the closest she’d come to comfort. “At least nothing valuable seems broken.”

“Of course not.” The rejoinder came from Viv Lesange, who’d slipped in next to her sister. She clearly didn’t have the same designs on Sam as Mattie, being the girl who gravitated toward pretty boys who had twelve opinions on every trending Twitter tag—with a matching number of piercings. “Our thorny boo is made of Teflon.”

Jen didn’t bother with a glare. Tess flung one good enough for them both. Mattie and Viv blinked back, clueless as chalk sticks, before Mattie offered, “Maybe it’s best that she rests. I’m more than happy to walk the aisle again, so she can get how the heels are handled.”

“No.” Jen borrowed more of Sam’s growl. Owing a “favor” to Mattie Lesange, however small, would’ve been equal to jabbing a spike into her brain. “I’ll get it right,” she insisted, using a pew to herself rise. “I just need to—”

And right on schedule, her ankles protested the Louboutins again. Just two seconds, and she teetered precariously—

Directly into Sam.

Oh, God.

And oh, wow.

His body really was as hard as it looked—and the fulfillment of her wildest fantasies. As she grabbed on, truly not wanting to fall again, she wrapped hands around biceps that felt like bocci balls from the grass court on the ground floor. Her thighs hit a couple of pillars that were his legs. Her breasts smashed into a brick wall of a chest—except for the heartbeat that pounded relentlessly from between his ribs. Or was that hers?

“Shit. Sorry.” It spilled out as breath more than volume—zapped that way by the energy arcing between their bodies, hot and electric…and wonderful. It sizzled through her nerves, bubbled in her blood, invaded places that made her pulse and throb and need…

“Why?”

Her head jerked up. Her eyes locked with his.

His eyes. The voltage was on full blast in them too. Their silver brilliance almost didn’t let his voice register in her brain, let alone his meaning.

“Why what?”

“Why are you sorry?”

“I…what?”

Sam swallowed hard. Suddenly glanced around. Only then did Jen realize what a spectacle she’d made of herself—and him.

“Hmmm.” Once again, Tess intervened with ideal timing. “Isn’t this interesting…”

“Isn’t what interesting?” Dan, walking up behind his fiancé, issued it with knowing suspicion. Apparently, isn’t this interesting carried the same meaning for him as let’s go shopping. If Tess knew it too, she didn’t let on.

“I think I have an idea about how we can—”

“No.” Dan moved around, swinging down a sharp look. “No more ‘ideas’, rose.”

“But—”

“Uh-uh.” His hand, now at her nape, tugged back sharply. Nobody noticed the action except Jen, who forced her eyes not to widen at the telling gasp that spilled from Tess. “No more ‘buts’. No more ‘ideas’. You’ve worked for weeks on this ceremony, baby. It’s going to be fantastic—just the way it is.” He didn’t raise his voice above a murmur though Tess swallowed like he’d bellowed a command. She did it again as he trailed his lips to her ear. “Right now, it’s time for my little ruby to relax and have some fun.”

Tess’s eyes drifted shut, soft as her assenting whisper. “Yes, Sir.”

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