Shifting her in his arms, he carefully withdrew from her. She unwrapped her legs from his waist, unwound her arms from his neck, and dropped down.
The slight scrape of his chest hair against her nipples sent a shiver through her. She was surprised to find she had any trace of libido left—but apparently she could be ready to go again soon. At least with Grant, anyway.
Dropping to stand on her tiptoes in the sand, she discovered that her legs were more than a little wobbly, too.
That was one hell of a seduction.
Even if she still wasn’t sure who had been seducing whom.
Or what she should do or say next.
For that matter, she had no idea how much time had passed since they had left the rest of the beach.
“Do we need to get back to the boat yet?” she asked, straightening her suit. The wrapper of the condom she had brought made a slight crinkling noise, and she grinned, delighted that he had obviously been every bit as interested in seducing her as she was in him.
Grant blinked at her, trying to make sense of her words. “I don’t know,” he finally answered. “Probably.”
This time when she headed toward the water, she took his hand in hers. “Follow me.”
Eight
The music started, and Ava’s heart pounded as hard as if this were her own wedding. It was silly, she knew. With a wedding this small—only the officiant, the bride and groom, and two witnesses—there wasn’t much chance of anything going wrong. There was no reason for Ava to be nervous.
Grant stepped up beside her, elbow crooked out to take her arm, and her heartbeat sped up.
Well, maybe she had one reason to be nervous.
Once they were all back on the boat the day before, Grant had stretched out on the deck next to Ava, leaned back on his elbows, so close that she could feel the heat coming off him in waves. Seth’s gaze flickered between the two of them suspiciously until Kristin whispered something in his ear. After that, her brother alternated between staring at the ocean and frowning at his fiancée.
Kristin ignored him, choosing instead to chatter away about the various things that they would all need to do to prepare for the wedding the next afternoon—or rather, the things the wedding coordinator had done that Kristin wanted Ava to double-check before the ceremony.
Ava might have assumed the other woman was oblivious to the underlying tension among the other passengers if not for the fact that as they disembarked, Kristin took the chance to lean in to Ava and say, “Don’t worry about Seth. I’ll make sure he’s okay. You and Grant have a great time.”
With that, she had invited Grant to join her in her room, where he had spent the night.
This time, he had stayed through breakfast—and although she was exhausted, Ava couldn’t quit smiling. She hadn’t seen Grant again since he had left, though she knew he was helping Seth get ready, just as she had kept Kristin company in the honeymoon suite while the various people the bride had hired to do their hair and makeup had buzzed around them.
Now, Ava and Grant walked down the short aisle into the gazebo and took their places on either side of the officiant. Rose, the wedding coordinator, gave some sort of signal, the music changed, and Seth and Kristin appeared at the end of the aisle.
Back in Necessity, Ava had been certain that Kristin’s decision to have her wedding dress altered to tea-length was a bad idea.
In Necessity, she had thought that everything about this trip was a bad idea.
Unexpected tears popped up in Ava’s eyes. Only a few days ago, she had feared that Seth was making the wrong choice by marrying Kristin. Now she was certain that they belonged together.
The light wind blew the scent of flowers through the gazebo as Kristin and Seth vowed to love, honor, and cherish one another. Rose, who was moving around to take pictures, leaned over and tucked a tissue into Ava’s hand.
She gazed down at Seth’s ring in her hand, turning it over a few times until it was time to hand it to Kristin, who looked as beautiful as ever.
As the officiant announced, “You may kiss your bride,” Ava’s gaze flicked toward Grant, only to discover him staring at her intently, his expression inscrutable.
Then the wedding was over. The whole thing hadn’t taken more than ten minutes, but it was one of the most beautiful ceremonies Ava had ever seen.
“We have a small cake and a bottle of champagne waiting for you in the restaurant,” Rose told them, moving them along so she could make sure the gazebo was ready for the next wedding later that day.
“Will you go on a picnic with me after the cake and champagne?” Grant asked as Kristin and Seth left, oblivious to everyone but each other.
“I will.” Flustered by her own word choice, Ava turned away from him and took one long, last look out at the ocean, then followed her brother and her new sister-in-law back toward the resort’s buildings.
I need to get Ava to come stay with me in Nebraska until this job ends. Then maybe I can get one closer to home.