Page 31 of The Bad Wedding Date

“Yeah.”

Before I could even question any of it, he was digging around in the pockets of his suit jacket to retrieve his phone, and then he walked away, bringing it to his ear with one hand while his other sank into his trouser pocket.

All I could do was drop my chin to my fist and sigh dreamily.

My eyes trailed up and down his body before landing on that incredibly tight arse that was stretched against the fabric of his trousers, begging to be touched.

“It isn’t real, Charlotte,” I whispered. “None of this is real.”

8

Fraser

Istepped out into the corridor, dropped my phone from my ear, and inhaled a deep breath to try and slow my racing heart. Me, the guy whose face didn’t so much as twitch when he had a man in a choke hold, listening to him taking his last breaths while he begged for forgiveness in the form of his life.

What the hell was Charlotte Grant doing to me?

Her innocence made me want to wrap her up in my arms and shield her from these blood-thirsty sharks.

The way she sank her teeth into the pink flesh of her lip made me lose coherent thought, and I knew there and then that I had to get out. What the fuck was I doing here?Wade, Joey, Dean, and Ray were going to have my balls in a nutcracker for this, and who could blame them? We had one golden rule in our business: never get involved with anyone on the job. Keep it clean.

The phone in my hand vibrated, and Wade’s name lit up the screen. I couldn’t keep them away for much longer.

“Yep,” I answered, looking behind and all around me as I made my way to a secluded corner of the hotel corridors.

“What in the fresh fucking hell is going on?” Wade shouted. Wade always shouted when angry. He was the hysterical, over the top alpha of our firm once his buttons had been pressed. My second in command. The vice president to my reign. “Tell me you haven’t fucked this entire thing up already.”

“I haven’t.”Yet.

“What were youthinking? The job had been assigned to Dean. He was meant to be the guy next to her, not you. We had a plan, Fraser. One you set. We have rules and we follow those rules religiously.”

“I know.”

“You never, ever get involved. That’s not your role. You’re the man in the shadows. You cannot be seen. The more you are, the more—”

“We weaken who we are,” I finished for him. “I know that rule, too, Wade. I fucking made it.”

“Then, you’ve got to give me some answers, man. We’re all going out of our shit here.”

“Losing your shit or going out of your minds. There’s no such thing as going out of your shit, Wade.”

“Don’t you start that smart mouth crap with me. Not tonight. Not after you changed the rules on us at the last minute.”

“Special circumstances.”

“Care to tell us what the fuck those circumstances were?”

She looked too tempting, and I followed my gut, not knowing why I needed to be by her side but knowing that I needed to be there all the same.

I couldn’t tell him that, though. Instead, I sighed heavily, acting bored by his aggression. “Look, I acted on instinct. You and the guys know that’s what I’ve always done. I saw her sitting there at the bus stop. I knew Dean was about to go to her, but one look at her face, and I also knew that Dean wouldn’t make it work.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because he’s all or nothing. He’s either too docile or too abrasive. He would have rubbed her up the wrong way, and she’d be at this wedding alone.”

“Dean can make the straightest man or the gayest woman fall in love with him. The guy never loses.”

“He would have done this time.”And there was no way I was letting her fall for him and his act.

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