“Ian, we are not getting married.”
And then the smirk appeared. “I know, but it took your mind off them.”
Blinking, it took me a minute to process his words. I looked around the room to find the dancefloor empty and the couple sitting at their table. He’d distracted me. He’d noticed my discomfort and distracted me. It was such a typical Ian move, yet it came with a warmth seeping deep into my bones and had a fire burning up the back of my throat. “Thank you,” I whispered.
“Anytime.” He patted my hand and turned back to the table. “Now let’s eat. I’m starving.”
Like the rest of the wedding, the meal was delicious. The night moved quickly. The cutting of the cake, toasts, and speeches given, before the dancing finally commenced.
Ian and I were standing at the bar when Jake and Jackson finally came by.
“Hey, gorgeous,” Jackson greeted, wrapping his big arms around me.
“Hey, handsome. Beautiful wedding.”
Jackson had been the catalyst to the end of mine and Jake’s relationship, but in the time he’d been part of that relationship, I’d grown close to him. I hadn’t loved him like Jake, but I’d still loved him. Now, we were just three close friends who shared a painful past but didn’t let it define our future.
“That would all be Joanne’s doing,” he said, talking about Jake’s mom.
“Carina.” Jake pulled me into his arms and held me for a while. “Thank you for being here,” he said against my neck.
I had to swallow the lump in my throat. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
A throat clearing behind me broke us apart, and I turned to find Ian awaiting introductions, all humor and jokes missing from his eyes.
“Jake, you know Ian. And Ian, this is Jackson.”
Handshakes and congratulations were exchanged. Ian was stiff, and as soon as his hand left Jackson’s, it went to my waist, pulling me close to his side.
“Make sure you save a dance for me,” Jackson said.
“We’ll see if I let this wild woman out of my arms,” Ian joked, but a hard edge cloaked the light words.
A part of me wanted to be embarrassed about how possessive he was acting when we weren’t even a couple, but in that moment, it felt good to have someone to be possessive over me. Even if it wasn’t real.
“Well, I’ll leave you to it,” Jake said. His eyes flicked between the two of us before giving me a knowing smile. Except he didn’t know. Because Ian and I weren’t a couple.
Ian led me to the table only to set our glasses down before pulling me out on the dancefloor.
He twirled me out, my silver silk dress flowing around my legs, before pulling me back into his chest.
“I may have to do that again so that I can see the peep show again.”
I scoffed. “That was hardly a peep show. At most, a thigh.”
“The most delicious thigh I’ve ever seen.”
Biting my lip, I held back a sigh, heat blooming on my cheeks at his compliment. My dress was a floor-length wrap that—when moved the right way—exposed a slit that reached my upper thigh.
“You look beautiful,” he said smoothly, holding me so close to him, I could feel the words rumble in his chest.
“You don’t look too bad yourself. Your silver tie matches your eyes perfectly.”
“I was just trying to match you. I wanted it to be like prom night all over again. Sorry, I forgot the corsage,” he joked.
We settled into a comfortable silence and moved around the other couples on the dancefloor. We were in a long stretch of slow songs and the way his thighs brushed against mine, the way his shoulders flexed deliciously under my touch, they could have played slow songs all night.
Something about the comfort of his arms around me, or the way he saw the hurt that still lingered, had me confessing. “It’s my fault, you know,” I said, staring into his chest. “It’s my fault that he left me.”
When he laughed, I looked up to find one eyebrow arched high. “How’s that?” he asked.
Slicking my tongue across my lips, I took a deep breath, about to admit what only the three of us knew. “I invited Jackson into our bed.” Ian gave barely any reaction beyond that arrogant, all-knowing eyebrow lowering. “I could feel the distance between Jake and me. Or maybe it was harder to lie to myself about the fact that we were just friends, staying together because it was comfortable. But it was my crazy plan to have him join us in the hopes of masking it all with sex.”
“You had a threesome?” Now both his eyebrows shot high.
“For a while.”
“So, this wasn’t a one-time thing. A wild night?”
“No,” I said slowly, waiting for the judgment.
Like the Cheshire Cat, his lips curled up, and his silver eyes turned charcoal. “You dirty girl.”