Page 7 of Found Forever

He swallowed, waiting for the backlash. The slap.

One of his skills had always been reading people quickly. He could scan a crowd, and within ten minutes select his target, profile them and know exactly how to approach them, manipulate them, and get what he needed from them. Usually without any torture or bloodshed.

Usually.

Her eyes bore into him with an intensity he wasn’t prepared for and he squirmed again, then cleared his throat. “I uh …”

But she shook her head to shut him up. Her eyes grew watery with unshed tears and when she blinked, those tears spilled over and down her cheeks. “You’re right. I’m lost. I’m sad. I’m in pain. And I’ve been faking everything.” She glanced in the direction of Mieka who was slow dancing with Nate, an enormous—real—smile on the bride’s face. “Because it’s not my day. And she doesn’t deserve to be saddled with my problems. She found her happiness here, and I’m happy for her. But we can’t all marry sexy ranchers and move in next door to our sister.”

“No, we can’t.”

She huffed a sarcastic laugh. “I’ll figure it out. I always do.”

His grip tightened on her waist, and it forced her to look up at him. “Hey, it’s okay to bereal with me.”

She swallowed, then a hardness caused lines to crease beside her eyes. “Want to get out of here?”

Decker McKnight was very nice to look at.

Joanna fancied him the moment she saw him last night as he arrived at the farmhouse with his twin brother, and the bachelor party headed out for their night of “tame debauchery.”

However, even though Ryker and Decker were absolutely identical, she didn’t fancy Ryker the way she did Decker. Sure, Ryker was good looking—obviously—but he didn’t make Joanna tingle when his gaze skittered over her, the way Decker’s gaze did. Maybe it was Decker’s broodiness, or that he didn’t crack a smile when he arrived. He remained stone-faced and mysterious. And Joanna had always been a mystery buff.

She’d peppered Mieka, Triss, and Hannah for information about him all night, but they had very little to report.

Besides the fact that he was a SEAL like the rest of the guys, had an identical twin brother, was very quiet and a little shy, they knew rather little about him.

Joanna then turned to social media, but as Triss and Mieka told her, she would find nothing. The guys weren’t on social media. Decker McKnight was a ghost.

A sexy ghost.

A sexy ghost who smelled like musk, danger and fresh pine, and he was driving her bloody bonkers.

He couldn’t dance, but that wasn’t a deal breaker for her.

What he could do, however, was hold her tight, hold her close, and read her like a fucking book. And that scared her as much as it exhilarated her.

She shifted uncomfortably under his unreadable gaze, waiting for his reply to her bold proposition.

Desire burned in his amber eyes. He wanted her as badly as she wanted him. But the longer she held eye contact with him, the more she started to see his resolution forming. And he was resolved to turn her down.

He hadn’t even said anything yet, and she already had her answer.

Her chest tightened and prickles of embarrassment rippled along her arms. She tried to pull out of his embrace. “Right. Well. I guess I totally read things wrong. Terribly sorry. My mistake. Call it poor judgment of sad drunk twit.”

But he didn’t let her go.

She pushed against his chest, desperate to get away from the humiliation of his rejection.

“Joanna,” he said softly, holding on tighter. “Stop.”

“Decker, let me go.”

“No. Joanna. STOP.” His voice remained low, but the authority, the command, was so inherent that she stopped, and her back snapped straight before she even had a chance to register what happened. “Look at me.”

Reluctantly, almost like a petulant toddler, she lifted her head, but kept her gaze on his chest.

“Eyes, too.” Humor tinged his tone. He knew she was being defiant.

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