Page 4 of Accidental Attraction

Chapter Two

I had given my first kiss to Liam, and in that moment, I didn’t regret it at all.

I stared at Liam after we pulled away from the kiss. My lips were tingling and felt swollen. In fact, my whole body felt like it was tingling, and my knees were threatening to give out. Since that was my first kiss, I had nothing to compare it to, but I knew Liam was experienced, and with the way he was acting, it had to be good. Right? He was staring down at me almost in shock or even surprise.

The longer he stood there staring at me in silence, the worry that the kiss wasn’t good or that he would turn away from me was starting to grow. I was still pressed tight against him, my heart beating hard in my chest. Automatically I moved my head back, waiting for Liam to blow up and start yelling at me.

“Okay, enough smoochy-smoochy. Time to take pictures with the rest of the wedding party,” Leonardo said, interrupting our staring contest. With Liam’s silence dragging out even more, I felt my heart start to sink. He thought the kiss was a mistake. He would probably yell at me the moment we got home so his parents didn’t think anything was wrong between us. Pushing back the tears that wanted to fall, I swallowed the lump in my throat. It was stupid of me to think Liam would like or want to kiss me. I was so repulsive that the moment after I kissed him, he regretted it. Just as I was starting to move out of Liam’s strong hold, he surprised me by planting a small kiss on my lips again before unwrapping his arms from my waist.

I stood there shocked, trying to process the fact Liam just voluntarily kissed me, again. He wasn’t running away or yelling at me. In fact, he was looking down at me with a small smile on his face. As he held his hand out, I slid mine inside it, swallowing the shock I was feeling. I needed to relish the fact that he was acting normal around me. I trailed alongside him as we walked back to the house, our silence actually comfortable. The moment we stepped into the house everyone stood up, and Lennon shot me a wide grin like she knew what just happened. Next to her Blake smiled, winking at Liam and me.

“Liam, go and put this on under your dress shirt,” Blake said, throwing something blue toward Liam, who caught it one-handed. He nodded like he knew what it was before sending me a small smile and dropping my hand, heading to the bathroom to change. I stared after him, my emotions going everywhere. Maybe this was what Lennon was talking about, how Liam was great once you got to know him.

“Bridesmaids and groomsmen, come here,” Leonardo yelled, even though we were all right there. I looked over at the photographer, but my attention was drawn to the new arrival. He was cute. Very cute, actually. As he stood next to Blake, I could see he was the same height, maybe an inch shorter, with short, light brown hair. I could only see half of his face, but from here I could see a great jaw line. There was something hot about a man’s jaw line. He was dressed like Liam and Blake, with a white dress shirt that showed off his well-built arms, and he also wore black dress pants. I stood there wondering who he was and why he was here, not hearing anything Leonardo was saying. I felt a soft nudge on my arm, so I pulled my eyes away from the new guy and saw Liam standing next to me, looking the same as he did before.

“Ready to go?” he asked.

“Uh, what?” I asked, confused.

“You didn’t hear a word he said, did you?” Liam asked, a grin spreading across his face.

“No, of course I did. I just didn’t hear you,” I lied, lifting my chin up and folding my arms across my chest. I turned to face him.

“Uh-huh.” He looked at me with a smirk. He obviously knew I was lying. “Then where are we going?” He took a step closer to me. His close proximity to me made my mouth dry and my mind blank for a minute. “Jenna,” he taunted.

“We are going outside,” I said. “Come on, we don’t want to be late.” I smirked at him, grabbing his hand and pulling him behind me out the door to the backyard.

“There you are. Would you two stop making out so we can get this done?” Blake yelled at us the moment we stepped outside. I blushed but continued pulling Liam with me.

“Jenna, you are more than welcome to walk with me instead of Liam,” Brian called from ahead of us. I let out a laugh as Liam, Blake, and the new guy immediately started yelling back at him about him being too old and to find his own girl. It might seem weird that a guy that could be my grandpa’s age was flirting with me, but it really wasn’t. It was who he was, and besides, it was friendly flirting, not I-want-you-now flirting.

“So who is the new guy?” I whispered to Liam as we followed Leonardo.

“That is Grayson Patterson. He’s a friend from college and works at the company with me,” Liam answered.

All of us, Liam’s parents and Brian included, walked through the backyard for a few minutes before we finally came to a stop in front of a gorgeous lake. It wasn’t huge, but it was big enough for canoes, and it would be a workout swimming from one side to the other. Trees lined the edge of the water, making it almost secluded and shady. There was a deck that led a little ways onto the lake. Taking pictures here was definitely a good idea.

“Okay, first, let’s do a couple with the bride and groom, then with the rest of you,” Leo said, interrupting my staring. Pushing aside the awkward feeling of having everyone watch Liam and me pose for pictures, I let Liam pull me to where Leo wanted us. “I want you guys to hold hands between your bodies and lean in toward one another. Go.” When I rolled my eyes, I earned a chuckle from Liam as we did as we were told. I couldn’t help but feel like Liam and I were pieces of clay being moved and sculpted the way Leo wanted.

“Why did you pick him?” I muttered to Liam, leaning my face toward his.

“Well, you know he is hot. He’s kind of my type. Didn’t you know?” he answered, grinning at me. I couldn’t help but grin and laugh. I wanted to shake my head at him, but with Leonardo yelling at us to stay exactly like that, I didn’t.

“I didn’t know you fancied men, especially Italian men.” I grinned at him.

“Don’t you know the accent is one of the reasons he’s my side babe?” He wiggled his eyebrows at me, and I let out a loud laugh.

“Good, now turn around with your backs to one another. Bride, make a face while you, groom, smirk.” With Liam’s lower back pressed to mine, I crossed my arms over my chest and scrunched up my face. I could practically feel Liam wearing a giant smirk. We only spent a few more minutes posing before Leonardo gestured for the rest of the group to come over. Having not paid attention all afternoon, I suddenly realized Julie and Lennon were my bridesmaids, while Blake and Grayson were Liam’s groomsmen. I felt sad that I didn’t have a say in who my bridesmaids were, but at least I had two great, nice girls. Besides, I didn’t want to drag Sophia or Candy into my mess of a life more than I had to.

“So we are trying the pose that one of the bridesmaids thought of?” Leonardo asked, and I glanced over at Liam’s sister and Lennon, confused.

“Yes.” Lennon nodded, then turned to me. “You are going to love this idea. I gave each of the boys a superhero t-shirt to wear under their shirts, so while we stand next to them, they will open their shirts and like they are ripping their shirts with it underneath. I saw it on Pinterest and knew we had to do it,” she explained. I liked the idea, and I was about to say yes when the voices of the boys echoed around us.

“Dude, I still don’t get why I had to be Iron Man. Why couldn’t I be Batman?” Grayson asked, almost whining. All three guys were unbuttoning the tops of their shirts, showing what superhero shirt they got.

“Because I am cooler than you,” Blake said with a smirk.

“Nobody is cooler than Superman, dip-weeds,” Liam shot in. The three of them were acting like kids, arguing who was the better hero.

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