Page 25 of Aisle Be The Groom
“You’re right.” Ozzie fixed his blanket. On instinct, I reached a hand out to help him to his feet but instantly snatched it back. Better not to touch him. Fuck. Better not to even look at him.
I gathered up my clothes, which were still damp from the rain. Putting them on would be too uncomfortable, which meant marching back to the house with Ozzie next to me, wearing nothing but the damn blanket.
Ozzie’s clothes were in a heap a few feet away from us. I picked them up. “Our clothes are still wet, so we can’t wear them, but no one should—” Something fell out of his bundled clothes to the floor. I bent to retrieve it, and the air punched out of my lungs at the black lace underwear.
“Oh my god,” Ozzie groaned, covering his face with his hands. “Just go away. I’ll take it up.”
“It’s cool.” He thought I’d never touched lace before? I took up the delicate undergarment, the texture of it smooth and inviting under my fingertips. The black lace had patterns entwined with ribbons. An image flashed through my mind of Ozzie’s ass cradled by the delicate material.
So much for trying to stay neutral.
I stuffed the underwear back into the bundle of clothes and thrust them at him. “Just a temporary lapse of judgment. No one needs to know about it.”
Carter doesn’t need to know about it.
Ozzie nodded. “Okay.”
“I’ll go ahead, and you follow. What do you think?”
“Isn’t it better to go together? Then we can explain what happened with the rain.”
Except if we bumped into anyone, I might not be able to hide my guilt. “It’s better this way.”
“But—”
“Ozzie, do you want Carter to find out his father knows what you taste like?”
He widened his eyes and shook his head frantically. “No, no…of course not.”
“Then we have to do it this way. If you run into anyone, say you went for a walk, found the horses, the rain started, so you sheltered in the barn. No one will question it.”
“Okay.”
But I didn’t move. Something about leaving him in the barn and walking back to the house on his own felt wrong. It felt too much like walking away after a one-night stand, but Ozzie wasn’t a nameless stranger. He wouldn’t disappear tomorrow. By god, we still had a wedding to plan.
I’ll find some way to make it up to Carter. They’ll get married, go on their honeymoon, set up a home together, and maybe even have a family. They’ll be happy, and I wouldn’t have destroyed my relationship with my son.
Decision made, I slipped out of the barn without another word. I glanced behind me. Ozzie had the blanket clutched to his chest, his eyes downcast. My chest tightened. From his stance, he clearly regretted what we’d done—no, what I’d done. I was the one who’d climbed between his legs. I was the one who had kissed him. I was the one walking away with the flavor of him on my tongue.
The walk to the house seemed shorter than when the rain had been pouring down on me. I should never have suggested seeking shelter in the barn. So what if we’d both caught a cold? At least I wouldn’t have committed the ultimate sin against my child.
9
OZZIE
“What the hell is this?”
I startled as I came face-to-face with Matty at the top of the stairs. My heart pounded, and my legs shook. It wasn’t just from walking back from the barn. I’d been so afraid someone would see me I’d basically run back to the house while holding my tears in.
How many times had I been with a guy who didn’t want to be seen with me the next morning? Good, chubby Ozzie with the spankable ass, always great for a fuck, but not worth the time out of the bedroom. I’d thought I’d stopped letting men treat me this way since I got into a relationship with Carter. I hadn’t given him an opportunity to hit it and quit it. No, sir. I’d made him work to get me into bed.
But I’d let his father go down on me in one day.
Who had Gray thought he was fooling about us returning to the house separately? His reasoning didn’t make any damn sense. We’d both been caught in the rain and spent the night in the barn. That was believable. The way Matty looked at me with his brow furrowed and eyes narrowed was telling.
I couldn’t blame him. No matter what I said, me sneaking into the house was suspicious. I clutched the blanket tightly around myself.
He can’t possibly know I’d been romping in the hay with his father. Just act normal.
