Page 6 of Off the Naughty List

Maya grinned. “Hear that?” she asked Bennet. “I can wear what I want at the next wedding.”

“That’s not what I said,” Piper cautioned, now imagining the consequences of her words. Maya never forgot a word.

Bennet

“Ihave an idea.”

Bennet lifted a brow as Maya adjusted his light blue tie. She was better than him at making the knots just right.

“You should propose tonight, right after Aunt Anna and Uncle Finn leave. That way, no one else gets to distract you.”

Ben winced. “Well, probably not the best idea. You remember what I said about her thinking I want to do it just because our friends are getting married? Proposing at a wedding would definitely make her feel that way. Besides, it’s tacky.”

Maya’s look made her look fifteen, not ten. “Bennet, you’ve had a box in your jacket for five years. It’s verging on pathetic.”

“You’re verging on getting grounded,” he shot back, grimacing at her.

She grinned. “Truth hurts, don’t it?”

“So do headlocks. Want me to show you?”

He proceeded to attempt to strangle her, or make her laugh herself to death, one of the two.

He’d taught plenty of self-defense moves to Maya over the last few years. Five minutes later, when Piper joined them in the lounge in her lavender silk bridesmaid dress, they were wrestling on the floor, Maya wrapped around him in a way that actually would have kept him pinned down if she were a little heavier.

When the teen years were upon them, Maya would be ready to kick ass.

Piper half groaned, half laughed. “You’re going to mess up your hair.”

“He started it!” Maya said, getting up.

She rushed to the nearest mirror to check her hair, which was still in bouncy ringlets.

“You called me a coward.”

“Well, you are.”

The kid was going to be the death of him.

“Be nice. Both of you.” Piper adjusted his lapels as he got up. “Is Marc here yet?”

“We were just waiting for you, princess.”

She truly looked like a princess right then, her hair braided in a sophisticated updo. She wore more jewels than she ever did, for once showing off some of the parures he bought her every year for Valentine’s Day. She preferred family trips for Christmas, and Piper all but ignored her birthday. She allowed restaurants and little presents like books and homemade things, nothing more. Valentine’s Day was the one holiday where he could spoil her like he wanted to. Mostly because she always forgot about it, and didn’t think to tell him not to buy her anything.

He’d never met anyone less materialistic, although she’d been raised in the same world he had. All that mattered to her was Maya. Maya and him.

Marc drove them to the Hamptons—the Johnsons were getting married upstate, in a beautiful private garden. The setting looked worthy of fairy tales.

He grinned when Maya walked in, carrying a basket full of pale petals she sprinkled on the grass. When the bride walked up the aisle in her satin dress with a translucent lace back, his eyes were set on the gorgeous, sweet, sexy brunette walking behind her.

His girlfriend.

He hated that word. Ten-year-olds had girlfriends. It was so fucking juvenile.

Anna and Finn’s vows were ridiculously geeky, full of half-innuendos Maya could see through, and sweet enough to make half the audience cry. Then they were proclaimed man and wife, and Arabella called for a fucking toast.

Through the entire ceremony, Bennet stared in Piper’s green eyes, never letting go.

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