Page 6 of Jilted

My eyes slanted to the guy standing next to me, my partner, it seemed. He still wore a shit-eating grin and looked pretty proud of himself. But while I continued to scowl, I took a moment to check out the rest of his face, since I hadn’t been able to move past his eyes earlier. Square jaw, defined cheekbones, flawless tanned skin—I wasn’t sure if Bridezilla made the men get spray tans, but his coloring was too golden bronze to have come from anything other than genetics. Not to mention, he was tall—a weakness of mine—with broad shoulders and… I inhaled.Damn, the fucker smells good, too.

I’d been so busy checking him out, I hadn’t realized he’d watched me do it. When my eyes met his again, he raised a brow. “Like what you see?”

Ugh.Cocky and rude. I plastered on a fake smile. “Yes, what a shame something so pleasant doesn’t come with a matching personality.”

Instead of being insulted, his smile widened. If he enjoyed being offended, maybe we were going to get along after all, because I was even more cranky now.

Wilder extended his hand. “Where did you come from, Sloane?”

For some silly reason, I hesitated to put my hand in his. Though the reason became obvious when I did. My body jolted to life.Oh Lord.For six months I haven’t felt a thing, and this guy floats my boat?Between the way he looked and his cocky grin, I was certain he made heaps of boats float.

Heaps?Did I really just thinkheaps? What, was I suddenly British now, too?

Wilder lifted my hand to his lips and kissed it. This time the jolt fanned out a little lower… I cleared my throat. “I’m filling in for a bridesmaid who had an emergency.”

“Must be my lucky day then.”

“Yes, lucky for you, the mother of a dear friend of the bride is currently on life support.”

“Are you always this sassy?”

“Only when the first thing out of the other person’s mouth is an insult.”

He again lifted his eyes to my head. “Is that your natural hair color?”

Hair not hehr. “How come only some of the things you say sound British?”

“Because I’m American. Well, technically I have dual citizenship. But I’ve lived in London for the last decade.”

He still had my hand in his. I pointed my eyes down to it. “Are you going to let go?”

He smiled and laced his fingers with mine. “Maybe later. I wouldn’t want you to run away again, like you did earlier.”

“I wasn’t running away. I had somewhere to be.”

“And now…” He squeezed our joined fingers. “You’re here. So I’ll hold on to this.”

As cocky and rude as he was, there was something oddly endearing about him. I wasn’t sure what it could be. Maybe it was just the hint of an accent that did it.

“Are you friends with the bride or groom?” I asked.

“The hole in my head would have to be bigger than the one in yours for me to be friends with Piper. Aiden is a mate of mine from college. I don’t know how he tolerates her.”

“How do you know I’m not friends with Piper?”

“Because you obviously have good taste. You find me attractive.”

I burst out laughing. “Full of yourself much?”

“Perhaps. But I call ’em like I see ’em.”

“You’re much more attractive when you don’t speak.” I wiggled my hand from his grasp and looked around. “Wonder if they have any hand sanitizer around here.”

Just then, music started playing from behind the doors, silencing our game of insults. A few minutes later, I walked down the aisle on the arm of Azure Eyes. As we took the mandatory stuttered steps, I looked around the beautiful room—filled with flowers and people dressed to the nines—and wondered,What the hell ever made me love weddings so much? How I could have thought this staged ruse was magical?

Halfway down the aisle, my eyes met Elijah’s. His brows nearly hit his hairline when he noticed the man next to me. His surprise gave way to a smirk, and he gave me a secret thumbs-up. Only apparently it wasn’t so secret.

Wilder leaned over and whispered, “Your friend approves.”

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