I stride toward the door, my hand still behind my back, trying to get at the zipper. I throw the door open and step into the hallway.
Only to come face-to-face with Will.
I gasp in shock, taking a quick step back.
Will looks just as shocked as I am. His eyes widen. “Oh, sorry. I was, uh, just on my way back to my room.” He inclines his head to the door right next to mine. I don’t remember taking the room right next to his, although I guess he wasn’t around when I’d picked this room.
Surprised and at a loss for words, I don’t say anything.
“Are you okay?” he asks, noticing my lack of footwear and my arm wrenched awkwardly around my back.
“Yes, I’m fine,” I stutter. “I just, uh … I need one of the girls’ help getting out of my dress.”
“Oh,” he says. But he doesn’t move out of the way.
I brush past him to the room across the hall. I knock lightly on the door. “Chloe?” I call. There’s no response. I knock again. “Chloe?”
“I, uh … think she’s with Turner,” Will says from behind me.
About to knock for a third time, I let my hand fall to my side. “Oh.” I turn around. I glance up and down the hall. I don’t quite remember which rooms the girls had taken and which are occupied by the other groomsmen.
“I can help you with it,” Will says.
I look up. There are those inscrutable blue eyes again. I swallow. My head is telling meno, no, no, but what else am I supposed to do? Sleep in the dress and beg Chloe for help in the morning?
Honestly, that’s not so bad of an idea.
At my long silence, Will sighs, inclining his head toward my room. “Come on, I’ll help you.” He walks inside, leaving me with no choice but to follow.
The door automatically closes behind me as I patter after Will and into the main section of the room. Avoiding eye contact, I turn around, pulling my hair over my shoulder and exposing my back. “I think the zipper’s just a bit sticky,” I say quietly.
I hear his footsteps coming up behind, and then I feel his presence. The soft exhale of his breath against my skin, his hands grabbing the fabric against my back. I feel him pulling on the zipper, but it does nothing. He tugs a bit harder.
“It’s … not working,” he eventually says.
“Try harder,” I say. “It’s just stuck.”
He tugs harder, jostling my body. I grit my teeth, remembering the last time we were this close. The things he’d done to me, the things he’d made me feel. Fuck, just the proximity of him again is turning my brain to mush.
He continues tugging, but the zipper doesn’t want to budge.
“Harder,” I say, the word catching in my throat.
He yanks violently, enough to pull me back against him, and suddenly the zipper gives way, tearing all the way down my back, my dress sliding from my grasp and pooling on the floor around me. Will catchesme as I stumble backward, his arms wrapped around my waist.
I gasp, staring down at my body, only clad in a white, lacy bra and panties. Will seems frozen as well, his hands hot on the skin of my stomach, but he doesn’t move. He doesn’t move a muscle. I feel my breath quicken, my chest rising and falling, images of our night together two weeks ago flashing through my mind. The way he’d touched me, the way he’d filled me, the way I’d moaned his name.
And I hate myself for it—because I know I’m just falling again for someone who’s only going to brush me aside come morning—but I desperately want the rush ofhimall over again.
So maybe I could take the heartbreak just one more time.
Unable to take the tension any longer, I spin around, Will’s hands still on my waist, grab the collar of his shirt, and pull his lips down to meet mine. There’s surprise in his response, but only for a second. And then he’s devouring me.
He claims my mouth as his, forcing his tongue in to tangle with my own. He grips my hair tightly at the back of my head, holding me steady as he deepens the kiss.
He pushes me backward until I’m pressed up against the wall, and then he reaches down to grab my leg under the knee, pulling it up so that it rests around his hip.
He breaks the kiss to stare into my eyes, pinning me with his gaze as he lowers his hand between my legs, under my panties, to find my soaking wet center.