She rounded back to kiss April, doing the same to Anthony and his wife Angie, before she made it to Lyrik.
Only he didn’t lean down to accept her kiss.
No.
Instead, he pulled her onto his lap.
Pulled her onto his lap.
Hugged her and whispered words I couldn’t hear but made her giggle and pressed gentle kisses into the wild curls on top of her head.
Who was this man?
I took a big, steeling gulp of wine and tried not to watch them. Tried to pretend I wasn’t witness to something so sweet and soft. Tried to convince myself I wasn’t witnessing this convoluted, wicked man caring.
God, he made me insane.
He looked up at me from over the top of her head. He held me in the grips of his stare while he held the precious little girl in the safety of his arms.
The air trembled and shook.
No. No. No.
This jerk would wreck me. I could feel it in my bones. In my marrow. In that hollow space inside that no matter how hard I fought it, just kept aching to be filled.
Every part of me was at war. Hate and fear up against the need to be touched. To feel a part of something. Of someone.
I craved it.
Missed it so much it hurt.
Loneliness was a bitch.
But loneliness was safe.
And there was nothing safe about Lyrik West.
Hand in hand, Shea and Sebastian worked their way back over to the wedding party table after making their rounds personally thanking their guests for coming.
Ash raised his voice in a tease as they approached. “Ahh…it’s Baz, the man of the hour, going and stealing my Beautiful Shea away.”
“Damn right.” Sebastian grinned.
“Just how many girls are you going to claim?” April asked with a laugh.
“As many as will have me, of course.”
Shea stepped forward and dropped an affectionate kiss to Ash’s head. “One of these days a girl’s going to steal your wild heart and you aren’t going to know what to do with yourself.”
“Not a chance, darlin’.”
“God, please let someone do it.” Zee walked up, breaking away from the conversation he was having at another table.
“I’m not sure how much longer I can handle the likes of him with the endless string of girls parading in and out of the house. Woke up with a girl curled up next to me this morning…one I never touched, mind you…she just forgot which bedroom she’d come out of when she’d gone to the kitchen to get a drink of water.”
Ash howled and pointed at him. “Hey, man, you’re welcome for that.”
Zee just shook his head and muttered, “Asshole,” under his breath.
Lyrik chuckled in that low mysterious way, the sound wrapping me whole.
Don’t look. Don’t look. Don’t look, I chanted in my head.
Right now what I needed was to shield and protect and fortify. Reinforce the steel barricade guarding my heart.
Yet I held no power to stop myself.
How could I?
Not when I heard Kallie giggle again.
Warily, my gaze flitted their direction, and that wicked, menacing, malicious man was bouncing that angel on his knee.
Dark and light. Corrupt and pure.
My heart clenched in the center of my chest and I could feel those rumbles under my feet, could feel it in the air when that murky gaze locked on me.
I desperately tried to pretend as if he had no effect.
No control.
No intrigue.
All the while that overwhelming awareness spun around me with the force of a windstorm.
Winding and twisting and whirling.
Catching me up in a cyclone of energy.
In his intensity.
In those eyes that saw too much.
He tore his gaze away and looked at Shea, full lips tweaking in affection. “I think there might be someone here who is ready for cake.”
“Me, me, me!” Kallie yelled, as if everyone didn’t know he was talking about her.
“Really? Are you sure you’re ready for cake?” he said while peppering a bunch of loud kisses to the side of her face.
Oh God.
Why? Why? Why?
Sebastian swooped her up and tossed her into the air. She squealed. “Then I think it’s time to get my Little Bug some cake.”
He glanced around at everyone. “You all ready to get this party started?”
“Hell, yeah,” Ash said.
I rolled my eyes at him. Was anyone surprised?
Ash pushed to his feet, lifting his chin to the band who had been playing quietly during dinner. The song they played trickled out and he bounded up the three steps and onto the stage, accepting the offered mic.
Shea stepped behind me, leaned down, put us cheek to cheek. Her voice was a whisper. “Thank you so much for being a part of it. Of this day. I know it’s not your thing.”
I blinked hard.
Because this totally was my thing.
Back before I was who I was today.
“I wouldn’t have missed it,” I promised, my words a little clogged.
As foolish as taking part in this wedding was, it was true.
I wouldn’t have missed this.
Not for old insecurities.
Not for stolen dreams and not for undying fears.
Not for a boy who had me so spun up I was having a hard time recognizing who I was supposed to be.