Page 101 of My Best Friend's Mardi Gras Wedding

“Argh!”She threw the liquid eyeliner tube into the sink and blew out a breath.There had to be an option here.She’d slept past the makeup session with the other bridesmaids.And the hair session.And probably some other session she didn’t remember.

She figured Paisley already had a voodoo doll of her and Tori expected to start feeling pain from it any minute.

Then she stared into the mirror again.Maybethiswas Paisley’s voodoo-doll revenge.

“Tori?”

She jumped as she heard Josh on the other side of the bathroom door.She’d left him sleeping in bed two hours ago.It had been the hardest getting-out-of-bed-morning she’d ever had.“Uh, hey.Good morning.”

“Mornin’.”

Gah, that husky drawl first thing in the morning made her tingly all over even through a wooden door.

“Uh, you okay in there?”he asked.

No.She wasn’t.At all.She went to the door and pulled it open.“Nope.”

His eyes widened as he took in the sight of her.She was dressed in a silk bathrobe.Her hair was pinned up on one side, but for some reason she couldn’t get the other side up properly.And, of course, the eye situation.

But she didn’t care how she looked at the moment.Because he was wearing only a pair of jeans that he hadn’t even buttoned up fully.His hair was short enough that it didn’t really get mussed and he always had the short beard, so he didn’t look morning-disheveled exactly, but he did still manage to exude an I-just-rolled-out-of-bed-and-would-love-to-take-you-back-there vibe.

“What’s going on?”he asked, propping a shoulder against the doorjamb.

Tori sighed.She couldn’t jump on him.“Pictures are in an hour,” she told him.“And this”—she waved her hand up and down her body, indicating, well, everything about her appearance—“is not going well.”

He bit his bottom lip, looking very much like he was trying not to grin.

“You can laugh,” she told him.“It’s ridiculous.Everything about me and makeup is ridiculous.”

He reached out, hooked a finger in the tie of the bathrobe, and pulled her close.Then he kissed her, cupping her face, and making her whole body ache even as she felt all the tension melt away.

Worth.It.

Whatever else happened.

He let her go after a few delicious seconds.“We can fix this,” he told her.

“This?”

He started backing her into the bathroom.“Yeah.”

“Wecan fixthis?”she asked, waving a hand in front of her face as her butt hit the counter.

He nodded.Then he lifted her up on the counter and stepped between her knees.

“Uh, Josh.”Her heart was fluttering, and she was forcing herself to remember that she had to get ready for the wedding.Because she really just wanted to lose the robe and let Josh do…whatever he wanted.“I need to get my makeup on.”There, that almost sounded like she meant it.

“I know.”He studied her face.Then he leaned in…reaching for something behind her.He straightened with a tube of concealer and a wedge sponge in his hand.He uncapped the tube, as if he actually knew what he was doing, and reached toward her face.

Tori jerked back.“What are you doing?”

“Applying your makeup,” he said simply.“Concealer first, set with powder, then foundation,theneyes.”

She waited a second, waiting for him to laugh.He didn’t.

“You know how to do makeup?”

“I do.”

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