Just for Today.... Emmie Dark

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СКАЧАТЬ his brother as best man. He’d been adamant that they use his brother’s pride and joy as the bridal car. Hailey had cried buckets because she’d wanted white limousines, not a red ’70s vintage muscle car with black stripes down the hood.

      It had been Jess who had suggested that perhaps the groom should have just one thing in his own wedding that he’d decided upon. Jess had tried—gently—to advise Hailey that a great deal of marriage was about compromise. But then her own marriage had not exactly been a shining example to hold up for comparison, so once the irony of the conversation had occurred to her, she’d shut up and kept her advice to herself.

      Something of that conversation must have penetrated Hailey’s wedding-addled mind, though, because in the end, Rob had been given final say over the wedding cars. And truly, Jess had thought the car was a fun and quirky touch this afternoon as the happy couple had climbed into it outside the church.

      “It’s a nice car,” Jess said, as she knew she was expected to.

      He looked pleased, and Jess steeled herself for a conversation about carburetors and horsepower. The guy was too good-looking not to be totally self-absorbed. But he surprised her by asking instead, “So, do you know many people here?”

      He sat sideways in the chair, resting his arm over the back. It made his jacket gape, revealing the crisp white of his shirt, and sending a ribbon of his scent in Jess’s direction. Something spicy and forbidden, rich and romantic. Something unique and penetrating among all the clamoring smells in the room: food, wine, flowers, the suffocating perfume of the older woman at the table beside them.

      “Not a soul,” Jess admitted.

      “Me, either.” He leaned forward and said it in a whisper, as if he were confessing a sin.

      “But what about your family?”

      He gave a twisted smile that hid as much as it revealed. “Well, I know Mom and Dad of course. Be a bit strange if I didn’t. But I’m not really... Well, Rob’s the one who’s good at keeping up with all the rellies. Wouldn’t know my great-aunt Sally if I fell over her.”

      As if to prove his point, a ruddy-faced portly man clapped him on the shoulder as he walked past. “Sean!”

      Sean gave Jess a highly amusing “uh-oh” look before tilting his head up to the man. “Uncle Stuart.”

      “Good to see you.”

      “You look well.”

      “You, too, son. You still off doing those funny books or have you got a proper job now?”

      “Uh—”

      Uncle Stuart didn’t give Sean a chance to answer. “No, that’s what I thought. When are you going to get your head into gear and go back and finish that accounting degree so you can join Paterson Associates?” His tone was jocular, but there was no missing the fact that Uncle Stuart wasn’t joking.

      A flash of something crossed Sean’s face, too quick for Jess to really analyze it, but if she’d had to guess she’d call it anger. And it was totally understandable. Uncle Stuart was being incredibly rude.

      But then Sean was smiling that carefree, easy smile again. “How’s Auntie Laura?” he asked pleasantly.

      “She’s good, good. And you are?” Uncle Stuart leered at Jess, sending a puff of foul breath over her along with his lecherous gaze.

      “I’m Jess, Jessica Alexander.” She introduced herself for the second time in as many minutes.

      “Jess is Hailey’s boss. She’s a vet,” Sean added.

      Jess started with surprise. He knew who she was? Why had he asked her name?

      “Well, you just be careful with this one then, Sean.” Uncle Stuart gave a wink that made Jess want to cringe, and she saw that dangerous flash pass through Sean’s eyes again. “Don’t need Hailey to find she doesn’t have a job when she gets back from her honeymoon!” Uncle Stuart chuckled as if he was the most amusing man in the room before stumbling off to share his halitosis with others.

      Sean blinked a couple of times, as if mentally erasing the incident from his memory. “Where were we?” he asked.

      Jess found herself tilting forward. She told herself it was just to move away from the pungent aroma Uncle Stuart had left behind, but that wasn’t true. She felt as if Sean was somehow magnetic, and like an iron filing she couldn’t help but draw close to him.

      It wasn’t as if anything was going to happen, so taking a deeper whiff of him couldn’t hurt.

      “I think we were talking about cars.”

      “Really? I’d much rather talk about you.”

      Again with the cheesy line. Somehow, he managed to carry it off. Maybe it was his seemingly unshakable confidence.

      “I’m not that interesting,” Jess said, as flippantly as she could manage. She was enjoying flirting with him. It felt fun and kind of dangerous. Things she hadn’t let herself feel in far too long.

      “Now, I think that’s a lie.”

      “Really?” She raised an eyebrow and twisted in her seat to echo his posture. Like exercising a long-atrophied muscle, something inside her began to warm up.

      “Really. You’re certainly the most interesting woman in this room.”

      Jess managed to stop herself rolling her eyes. But only just. “And what makes you so sure of that?”

      “Because you’re the only person here I want to talk to.”

      He managed to sound so sincere when he said it that it didn’t even sound like a line. Jess was rapidly realizing Sean deserved the reputation Hailey had reported. He clearly worked hard for it. The polar opposite to his responsible, down-to-earth younger brother, who’d joined the family accounting firm and married his high school sweetheart. Sean had a woman in every town—in every suburb, if Hailey was to be believed.

      He’d be good in bed, then.

      The thought sent a wave of heat through her body. It had been a while. Too long, really.

      She shook it away. “And why’s that?” she countered.

      “Everyone else is incredibly dull. I know. I’ve pretty much worked the entire room. Not an original thought to be found.”

      “So I’m just the best of a bad lot? Hmm, that’s very flattering.” Jess stroked a lock of hair behind her ear before she realized what she was doing.

      The side of his mouth quirked and she watched his eyes follow the movement of her hair before returning to meet her gaze. “You could see it that way, I suppose.” He leaned back languidly, one hand toying with a crumpled menu card on the table. “Or you could see it as an opportunity.”

      Jess gave him an exaggerated quizzical look. “An opportunity? An opportunity for what?” She ran her fingers around the misty stem of the glass of champagne on the table. Oh, how easily the old moves came back!

      “To get to know СКАЧАТЬ