Page 77 of Iron Will

I think it’s pretty safe to say, we ain’t likely to see Mickey King around here anymore.

Speaking of Mazur, it didn’t take much convincing from the club to get him to decide to leave Bethany alone. He let her quit dancing at his club without giving her any trouble, too — with a little strong-arming from Yoda and me, that is.

Laney and Bailey helped Bethany put together a résumé, and got her some decent interview clothes. With Bailey as a reference, she ended up getting a job in the main office of Ironwood Elementary School. So not only does Bethany now work during the hours Paisley’s at school, she doesn’t even have to pay for daycare. Win-win.

As for Laney, it turned out that when word got around she had quit at the hospital — and why — the women on staff started talking. Long story short, a bunch of them brought sexual harassment charges against Blake Barber. They called Laney about it, and she added her name to the suit. At first Barber vowed to fight it, but I guess his lawyer ended up talking him out of it. Eventually he agreed to resign if the women would drop the whole thing.

Once Barber left, the interim director was more than happy to re-hire Laney to her old position. She’s thrilled to be back.

And me? I’m happy as hell for her.

Just like with the cake,it takes forever for the photographers to stage the bouquet toss. As they assemble all the unmarried women in a group, I stand off to one side, nursing my beer and watching the hoity-toity shitshow in front of me with amusement. I wonder whether they’re gonna do this shit a bunch of times too, so they can get it from every angle. But in the end, I guess that’s too fuckin’ ridiculous, even for them.

With a big, wide smile, Lindsay turns her back away from the crowd of women, winds up, and tosses the bouquet behind her.

In exactly the opposite direction from Laney.

Some chick on the other side of the group catches the thing, and everyone starts clapping and screaming like she just won the goddamn lottery. Beaming, Lindsay goes over to take a shitload of pictures with the lucky winner.

Laney turns and rolls her eyes at me. I wink.

“God, could that have been any more obvious?” she laughs when she’s back by my side. “I bet all the women who stood by me are just kicking themselves. They should have known better.”

“You think they all wanna get married that bad?”

“No,” she laughs. “But did you see how many pictures Lindsay took with the one who caught it? That’s prime social media real estate, being in a picture with the bride of the season!”

“LOL,” I quip.

“By the way, you are really rocking that suit,” Laney tells me with a grin. “And I’m not the only one who thinks so. Do you know, every one of Lindsay’s bridesmaids has been stealing glances at you, trying not to openly lust? I think they can’t decide whether to admire me or hate me for being with you.”

“Well, don’t get used to it. This monkey suit is coming off as soon as I can manage it.”

“Ooh. Is that a promise?” she says, elbowing me and wiggling her eyebrows.

“It is.” I turn and give her a look. “You wanna ditch this reception and go back to the hotel?”

“Do I?” she practically squeals. “Take me away from all of this, and I’ll be forever in your debt.”

We slip out of the party a few minutes later. I open the passenger door of Laney’s car and help her inside, then go around and get into the driver’s seat. She heaves a sigh of contentment and pulls off her shoes, murmuring how happy she is to be out of there.

As I’m driving back to the hotel, I find myself thinking about a wedding of our own. Oh, not like this one. I know without even asking Laney that this isn’t her scene. Besides, her family will probably be so fucking scandalized if and when we decide to get married, they’ll probably all have a collective heart attack and refuse to come.

My sister Regan will be on board though. I know that for a fact. Laney and I rode out to visit her at college about a month ago, and the two of them got along like a house on fire. Regan would love to have Laney as a sister-in-law. Especially since we basically don’t have any other family.

The drive to the hotel is short, and we make it in comfortable silence, each of us lost in our thoughts. When we get there, we go up to our room, and I do to her what I’ve been dying to do ever since I saw her in that red dress.

“Be careful with the zipper,” she says breathlessly, turning her head to look over her shoulder as I struggle with it. “I rented this dress through one of those online companies. It has to go back soon, and I’ll get charged if it’s damaged.”

I’m actually disappointed. “You mean I’m not gonna see this thing on you again?”

“I mean…” she looks at me coyly through lowered lashes as I unzip the thing down to her waist, then turns around. “We still have a couple more days with it…”

A low chuckle rumbles up through my throat as I slide my hands over the smooth, silky fabric covering her curves. It’s soft, but it’s got nothing on her skin. “In that case, I’m not gonna vouch for this thing making it back unscathed.”

I slip one hand under the skirt, gripping her thigh and pulling her back into me, so my cock is pressing against her ass. She moans and leans into me, and I reach around, sliding a finger under the lacy black thong I know she’s got under there. She stiffens, letting out a little gasp, as I find her wet and ready.

“Fuck me, Laney. I’ll never get tired of this,” I growl, my own voice tight as I struggle to contain myself. “I’ll never get tired of you. Of us.”

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