Page 49 of Close to My Heart

I paused when Sutton appeared in the doorway wearing a pale pink silky lingerie set, which consisted of a lacey tank top and shorts. Technically, they covered everything, but her nipples were visible beneath the silk top, and it took every bit of restraint inside of me not to cross the room, drag her against me, and kiss her. Would her skin be as soft as the silk?

She smiled shyly. “Thank you for tonight. It was the best New Year’s in recent memory.”

I didn’t seem to be able to work my mouth. The words were stuck somewhere in my head, and all the blood was rushing south.

“Oh, do you need help with that?” Sutton was moving toward me, brushing my hands aside as she untied the bow tie, setting it aside, then moved to the buttons.

I could barely breathe. The scent of her perfume tickled my nose, and her hair brushed against the scruff on my chin. Why was she tempting me?

When she got to the bottom, she shoved the shirt off my shoulder. “There you go.”

“I’m good. Thanks,” I said to get her to move away. If she helped me undress, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from doing everything I’d imagined when I was outside.

With a smile, she turned and walked out of the closet. The lacy edge of her shorts played peek-a-boo with her ass. Was she trying to torture me?

Was she playing a game? Maybe she was tempting me, but she didn’t realize it wouldn’t take much for me to lose control. I wanted her in the worst way. But I had to share a bed with her and not touch her.

She might have felt comfortable kissing me at a party and wearing sexy lingerie, but we always went to sleep on our side of the bed. Where we ended up in the middle of the night was another story.

12

SUTTON

Icouldn’t believe I was going wedding dress shopping. Fiona insisted on picking me up for the big event. Daphne was already in the back seat with her daughter, Izzy, who wore headphones and was watching something on a tablet. Cole was watching Colson.

I climbed into the front passenger seat while Fiona rattled off her plans for the day. “I have the whole day booked. First up, is dresses. Then we’ll do lunch and finally, a spa afternoon.”

My stomach sunk. “Oh, you didn’t have to go to all that trouble. This isn’t real after all.”

Fiona waved a hand in my direction. “Nonsense. It’ll be fun.”

Daphne touched my shoulder from the back seat. “Wes insisted we spoil you.”

I shifted in the front seat so I could see her face. “He did?”

“Oh, yeah. This was all his idea. He said you’ve been working so hard on the wedding and your job; he wanted to do something nice for you.”

My heart squeezed at the idea of Wes wanting to treat me. “I arrange tours for the house, but that’s about it.”

Fiona’s eyes widened. “What are you talking about? You have a big following online for your posts about the estate’s history.”

“You looked at that?”

“I was curious about this estate you wanted enough to marry my pain-in-the-ass brother,” Daphne said, and Fiona snorted.

“The space where you’re holding the wedding looks amazing,” Daphne said.

I’d filmed that room, mentioning that I was planning to get married in the space, and in the comments my followers asked about this mystery guy I was dating. I’d never included Wes in any of the videos before because it was mainly about the estate, the grounds, and the history. I rarely talked about my life. Probably because nothing was ever going on.

“They want to meet Wes, and he’d hate it. He doesn’t like social media.” But the response to my wedding had been so great; it would have been nice to keep filming the wedding preparations.

“What are you going to tell your followers?” Daphne asked.

Neither one of them seemed upset that I’d mentioned the wedding on social media, so I took that as a good sign. “I’ll tell them he’s camera shy.”

Daphne snorted. “I guess you could say that. I just think it would be sweet to see you on camera talking about your wedding.”

I turned slightly so I could give her a look. “You know it’s not real right?”

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