Bedding The Best Man (Bedding the Bachelors Book 7) Read online

  She was conflicted. She wanted desperately to win. But was this cheating?

  “Look,” he said. “If you feel weird about it, you can always pay me back from all the business you’ll be getting from the spread in Life and Society. We’ll work it out. Besides, you’re the one who came up with the glamping idea. It’s not like you stole the idea from someone else. It’ll be seen as daring, unique, exciting. A sure-fire winner.”

  She couldn’t help it. She was intrigued.

  “That’s great,” she said, “and I appreciate it. Believe me. But that doesn’t help me find the people you talked about. The caterers, the bands, everything. We only have two weeks.”

  “You’ll figure it out,” Gabe said. “You always do.”

  “I wish I had your confidence,” she murmured, staring at the spreadsheet on her screen. Nearly all of her go-to food service companies were highlighted in red, meaning she’d called and been nearly laughed off the phone.

  “What about a culinary school? Maybe they could come out? It would probably be less expensive, too,” Gabe suggested.

  Brianne’s eyes lit up.

  “You’re a genius,” she said. “I’ll start making calls in the morning.” She glanced over at him from the keyboard as she typed up notes. “I’m glad I let you in,” she winked.

  “Me, too. I’ve been regretting the way we left things, all day.”

  She stopped typing and set her laptop aside. “Me, too,” she admitted. “I’m sorry I got so angry.”

  “You had every right to be angry. You felt used. I don’t blame you. I blame myself.”

  “It wasn’t even so much that—I mean, it was sort of that. But even more, it was not having a say in anything. You know? Like I’m totally out of control. My happiness isn’t even in my hands. Eric walks out on the wedding. You tell me we can’t be together, that what we did was wrong. I understand why you’d say that but in the end…It didn’t feel wrong, Gabe.” She looked at him, imploring him to understand.

  “I’m having a hard time not seeing it that way—at least, I was. I’m not so much anymore.”

  “No?”

  He smiled. “No.”

  It felt as though someone turned up the thermostat. Brianne’s skin heated. Her breath picked up, her heartbeat pounded a little harder. Everything shifted. Electricity filled the air.

  He moved closer to her, and she didn’t stop him when he began closing the lid to the laptop. “I swear to you, I didn’t come over here for this,” he murmured, his breath hot on her face. “I only came over to apologize, and talk things out.”

  “So what happened to change your mind?” she whispered, trembling.

  “I can’t be near you without wanting you. It was bad enough before we were together.” He kissed the tip of her nose, her forehead. “All I could do was fantasize about you.” He brushed his lips over her chin. Her mouth. She whimpered, then parted her lips. “Now that I know how good it is…better than any fantasy…” He kissed her again, this time touching her tongue with his. She moaned. “It’s impossible to stay away from you. You’re like a drug. I can’t get enough.”

  “I feel the same way,” she breathed, then gasped as his hand caressed her neck, her shoulders. She closed her eyes, allowing him to seduce her. She hadn’t planned on this, either, but now that he’d started there was no way she’d let him stop.

  She leaned her head back, eyes still closed, and whimpered as Gabe’s mouth slowly traveled down her neck. He was just barely making contact, his mouth brushing against her. It was nearly painful, the way she needed him. More than any dream, any fantasy. He lit her up, made her wet and throb with desire.

  Every so often, as he explored her, his tongue would gently lick against her. She cried out softly, falling deeper and deeper into bliss.

  “This feels so good,” she moaned, marveling at how incredible it was to be touched by Gabe. Her body had never felt the way it did when he was pleasuring her.

  “You taste good. I need more,” he whispered, pulling her by the hips until she was stretched out on the sofa and he was kneeling on the floor, leaning over her.

  He kissed her again, slowly, while his hand danced over her flat stomach. She writhed beneath him, arching her back to meet his hand. When his fingers crept beneath her camisole, she shivered, then moaned as he pulled the thin fabric up and over her breasts.

  “So sweet,” he whispered, sucking her bottom lip between his teeth while his hand lightly played over her breasts. She groaned, wetness soaking her panties as his hand worked her.

  His mouth replaced his hand, his tongue swirling in circles over her stiff nipples. Slowly, achingly slowly. Driving her mad. Didn’t he know what he was doing to her?

  Of course, he did. And the more she whimpered and pleaded, the more she urged him for more, the slower he went. He wanted to know how far he could push her before she exploded.

  While his tongue licked her, his hand slid down her bare torso, just skimming the patch of skin above the waistband of her pants. Her hips rolled, her legs pressed together to relieve some of the pressure between them. She was soaked, burning, desperate to be touched.

  “Oh, God!” she cried out, arching her back, when the tips of his fingers dipped below her waistband as his mouth closed over her nipple and sucked. He was just above her mound, close but so far. “Please…please…touch me…” she begged.

  When he pulled down her pants, she sighed. His hand slid between her legs, over the lace of her panties, rubbing. Flicking his fingers back and forth. Brianne spread her legs, thrusting her hips up to meet his fingers. Needing more.

  “Harder…please!”

  He only chuckled, now licking his way down her stomach. He dragged his tongue from one hip to the other, making her arch her back and cry out for more. When his fingers hooked around the waistband and pulled them down, she nearly died from relief.

  But he wasn’t finished. Now his fingers slid along the outside of her slit, slick with her juices. She fell silent, her heavy breathing the only sound she could make as she focused on her pleasure. Eyes closed, her hips moved in time with his careful stroking. If only he would never stop…

  “You want more, baby?” he murmured, licking deliciously lower and lower, until his fingers were spreading her lips apart.

  “Yes!” Brianne cried out, her head rolling from side to side. “Lick me, please, Gabe!” When his tongue made contact with the hard bundle of nerves between her legs, she nearly screamed.

  He seemed to love it, licking all around, thrashing her clit with his tongue. He paid attention to her reactions, sticking to what made her scream the loudest. It was better than anything she’d ever felt, and before she knew it his tongue sent her screaming over the edge.

  “Yes! Gabe! Oh, God!” Her body shuddered, going limp against the cushions. All she heard was the sound of her gasps for breath and his heavy breathing. She knew he needed her, could tell from the way he panted as he continued licking her while she came down from the peak of pleasure.

  Her cell phone rang but they ignored it.

  “Please…” she begged, opening her eyes to find him staring at her with desire. “Please, take me…”

  Quickly, he ripped at his clothes. Then he was inside her, filling her so completely, rocking her world as he moved in and out. Their bodies fit perfectly together, and they matched each other stroke for stroke.

  “That’s it…do it…yes…” she whispered fiercely, staring into his eyes. “Give it to me…”

  Brianne’s home phone began ringing, but of course they ignored that, too.

  He pinned her wrists over her head, taking her roughly. She loved it, releasing control, letting him use her. She moved against him just as hard, taking her pleasure from him as he rode her.

  “Gabe! Oh, yes!” she screamed, quivering from another orgasm as he continued to pound her, not slowing down, grunting as his forceful thrusts slammed their bodies together.

  His grunts pushed her on, higher, hotter, and knowi
ng he was loving their wild connection as much as she did touched her far more than physically. It made her feel in her heart of hearts that they were made to be together. She cried out again as another orgasm built, this one stronger than the others. “That’s it, baby, make me come for you,” she moaned, just on the verge…

  Brianne’s answering machine beeped. And then a man’s voice came on the line.

  Her eyes flew open, meeting Gabe’s own panicked stare.

  It was Eric.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Oh, shit,” Gabe mumbled, sliding out of Brianne, erection already receding in the face of panic. He pulled up his pants.

  It was Gabe’s worst nightmare come true. How many times had he worried that Eric would find out how he felt about Bri?

  Granted, Eric was simply leaving a message on the phone and couldn’t possibly know what was happening. Unless he’d tried to come by and seen Gabe’s car. Or heard them through the front door…

  He was vaguely aware that Eric had stopped talking on the machine.

  He looked at Brianne. Her face was pale, but she averted her gaze as she tugged down her top then pulled her panties on. Finally, she looked at him, and when she did, bitter laughter tore out of her.

  Bitterness soon verged on hysterical. “God, if you could see your face right now.”

  He’d fucked up, pulling out of her and away from her so quickly. As if her touch was toxic. But he hadn’t been thinking clearly. Only he couldn’t stand to see her looking so distressed. Abandoned once again. “Brianne,” he said, starting toward her.

  She held up her hand. “No. Don’t come any closer.” Her voice was like diamond cutting through glass. “Tell yourself whatever you need to,” she said. “Whatever makes you feel better. Tell yourself you tried to do the right thing and I seduced you into being with me again.”

  “Why would I tell myself that?” he barked. “It’s not true.”

  “No, what’s true is you still think of me as Eric’s. That as soon as you heard his voice you couldn’t get away from me fast enough.”

  “Brianne, please. You have to understand—”

  “I understand perfectly, Gabe. And whether it’s that you feel guilty for stealing Eric’s woman even after he threw me away, or whether it’s that you’re afraid you’re going to give yourself completely to me and then Eric’s going to return and I’m going to pick him, I can’t do this anymore.”

  He gritted his teeth, unable to deny that he’d been feeling both those things.

  “Brianne, Eric is obviously reaching out, which means he’s ready to come back. And when he does, we can sit down together. We can work things out.”

  “Gabe,” she said, her voice tired and quiet all of a sudden. “Do you really think that? We stayed away from each other for six years because of our friendship with Eric. I still care about him. I don’t want to lose him completely. And he’s your best friend. What do you see happening? Even if he graciously steps aside, will you really be willing to claim me in public? In front of his family? His friends? Your friends?”

  Her words immediately filled him with shame and panic. Granted, it was no one’s business what had happened between the three of them, and if they could work through it, that’s all that mattered. But some part of him tried to picture it—he and Brianne, holding hands, engaging in PDA in front of people who’d know he’d moved in on his best friend’s girl, and it made him feel sick.

  Obviously seeing that, Brianne smiled sadly. “No. You were right. Eric will always be between us.”

  “Bri—” He knew what he should say. That yes, Eric was his best friend. But that he loved Brianne. And that if he had to choose between them, he’d choose her. He’d choose spending the rest of his life with her.

  But how could he? She could say she was choosing him all she wanted, but it was easy to say that when Eric wasn’t here. Just as she’d said, there was still a part of him that feared what would happen when Eric came back. That she’d realized that she’d made a mistake. That her fantasies of Gabe had been just that.

  She couldn’t realistically choose Gabe over Eric either until she saw Eric face-to-face again.

  Gabe closed his eyes. God, it suddenly hit him where Eric had disappeared to. With everything that had happened, he’d forgotten the one place Eric had always considered home even more than Los Angeles. Or more likely, Gabe had simply chosen to forget, because he’d wanted this time with Brianne.

  When he opened his eyes, Brianne had moved to the front door and was now holding it open. “Please leave, Gabe.”

  With a heavy heart, Gabe walked up to her. Stared at her. Then leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “I’m going to fix this, Brianne, I promise you. Whether that ends up with you and I together in the end, I can’t say. Not yet. But I’m going to make sure we can make the decisions we need to once and for all.”

  For a moment, she looked confused. Intrigued. Then she shook her head. “Goodbye, Gabe.”

  He wasn’t saying goodbye, and he hoped she understood that when with one parting glance, he stepped through her front door and closed it gently behind him.

  Within moments, he heard her crying. His arms ached to hold her, to comfort her.

  He couldn’t do that yet.

  He had a plane trip to make.

  * * *

  Gabe pulled his car in front of a farm house in Buffalo Falls, Utah.

  It had only been two days since he’d left Brianne’s apartment with the sound of her crying ripping his heart apart. He missed everything about her. His body ached for her. He wanted to hear her voice and touch her soft skin. He wanted to be understood, to feel connected to someone the way he always felt connected whenever they were together.

  He stared at his phone, but once again, he held back from calling her.

  He had every hope of being with her again. But that couldn’t happen without Eric’s help.

  Not his permission. His help.

  Help in the form of getting his ass back to Brianne so they could talk things through. Brianne needed the option of convincing Eric face-to-face to stay with her or not, and she couldn’t do that without Eric giving that to her.

  As Gabe got out of the car, he was suddenly thrown back to that day he’d first seen Jamie and Brianne’s family home on Coronado Island. He’d been intimidated. Felt like the odd man out. Eric, especially, came from a similarly affluent background, and it had been easy to tell himself for six years that he was the better man for Brianne.

  Yet when the front door to the farm house opened and Eric stepped out, the only thing that Gabe could think was how, in spite of everything, Eric looked perfectly at home in his jeans and T-shirt instead of the suit and tie he normally wore in LA. Moreover, although Eric wore a serious expression, he looked damn good, as if several weeks on the farm had done him a world of good.

  He belongs here, is what Gabe thought.

  And that’s when it struck him that he’d truly done all of them a huge disservice—assuming that just because Eric and his family were rich, he was the better man for Brianne. But also assuming that Brianne was the perfect woman for Eric. In his effort to keep his feelings about Brianne to himself, Gabe had never really asked Eric many questions about their relationship, including whether Eric was having any doubts before the wedding. He hadn’t asked Eric much about whether he was happy with his life period, working for his father’s company and living in LA. He’d just assumed he was.

  Maybe he’d been wrong. Maybe Eric hadn’t been happy with his life. Maybe, just maybe, he’d called off the wedding because he hadn’t been sure he wanted to marry Brianne. Because Gabe knew how ruthless and stubborn Eric could be. Even if Brianne had said Gabe’s name in his dreams, it didn’t make sense that Eric would simply step aside and not fight for a woman he was truly meant to be with.

  “I’m guessing you know about the dreams,” Eric said, finally speaking. He strode down the porch stairs toward Gabe.

  Gabe cleared his throat. “Why wou
ld you say that?”

  Eric smiled. “Because if you didn’t know, you’d be railing at me for leaving Brianne on our wedding day. The fact you’re not tells me you’re feeling guilty. Because you know part of the reason I did.”

  “Part of the reason?” Gabe echoed dumbly.

  Eric sighed. “Yeah. Part of the reason. Because as much as it sucked hearing her call out your name, I could have dealt with that if I’d thought it was just a sex dream. But it wasn’t just a sex dream, was it, Gabe?”

  Gabe crossed his arms over his chest. “What are you saying, Eric?”

  “I’m saying I know Brianne has strong feelings for you, Gabe. Feelings that are more than physical. And I’m saying I know you feel the same way about her.”

  When Gabe didn’t say anything, Eric continued. “According to the laws of nature, I guess I’m supposed to kick your ass.”

  “I guess so,” Gabe said. He could try if he wanted to. Gabe would even let him get in a few hits. He’d let his friend get his satisfaction. It was the least he could do.

  “Only we both know, in a fair fight, and not one where you were letting me win because you feel guilty, you’d pound me into the ground. The question is, have you two used the past few weeks to finally admit how you feel about each other, or has this all been for nothing? Because if it’s the latter, I don’t care if you can beat my ass into the ground, I’m going to pound some sense into you once and for all.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  The two weeks leading up to the glamping event had been the longest of Brianne’s life, but in the end she’d been relieved to have the distraction. It at least helped her ignore what a mess her personal life had become.

  How had everything unraveled so quickly? One minute she’d been getting ready to walk down the aisle, then that fell through. Then she’d thought she might be on the verge of something with Gabe, but that had been another pipe dream.

  She still hadn’t spoken to him, choosing to keep to herself while she sorted out her feelings and continuing to deal with his assistant. She felt lousy, freezing him out when he was the one going the extra mile to make sure her event would be amazing, but she just couldn’t deal with anything else right now.