The Bridal Squad Page 20

  Before she knew it, he swung her up in his arms and carried her to her bedroom.

  A small gasp of surprise escaped at his sudden action and she realized just how small she was compared to him.

  And she also found she liked being literally swept off her feet.

  This was a total night for firsts and they hadn’t even started yet!

  She had planned for this all afternoon so the stage had been set – clean sheets, dim lighting and every inch of her body was pampered and prepped. There was so much lotion on her legs that she was surprised her jeans didn’t slide off on their own already.

  But then…they did.

  Well, not on their own, but with a little help. Brady slid them off and left her clad in only her bra and panties. Then he knelt over her to straddle her and looked his fill. One big hand splayed across her belly and then moved back up to her breasts. When he gently kneaded it, she was nearly panting with need.

  “Brady…please…”

  “I want to know what you like, Harper,” he said lowly. “I want to know everything that makes you feel good. All I want is to make you feel good tonight.”

  She was hoping for a lot more than just tonight…

  “I want to hear every moan, every sigh…” he said as his hand continued to tease and torment her. “I don’t want you to hold anything back. Because when you tell me all your sexy secrets, I promise to fulfill them to your heart’s content.”

  Talking in bed was new and more than a little exciting. She had a feeling that if she encouraged it even a little, Brady was definitely the kind of man who talked dirty in bed. She’d never been bold enough to try it, but now?

  She licked her lips as she let her gaze roam all over him and when her eyes met his, the intensity she saw there made her bold.

  “I want to see you,” she said, hating the slight tremor in her voice, the uncertainty.

  “You are seeing me,” he teased.

  “All of you,” she corrected. “Take your pants off, Brady.”

  A slow smile crossed his lips as he slid off the bed and out of his jeans. In nothing but dark boxer briefs, he stood and let her look her fill once again. “What now, beautiful girl?”

  She could lie there and look at him for hours, she thought. She knew his body was spectacular, but nothing prepared her for the reality of seeing it when stripped down.

  “Harper…?” his voice was a husky whisper.

  “I want to feel you on top of me again.”

  Slowly, he did as she asked. Climbing onto the bed, he stretched out on top of her and Harper’s legs slowly wrapped around his waist, her ankles locking at his lower back. And for a few minutes, it was all she wanted – the feel of him settling over her. Everywhere he was hard, she was soft and she couldn’t help but sigh at the simple pleasure of this moment.

  Her hands slowly made their way up into his hair – so thick and silky and just long enough to give her something to hold on to. She pulled him to her so she could kiss him – and it was sweet. Like their very first kiss. If possible, she melted a little more beneath him, could feel herself sinking just a little deeper into the mattress.

  He rained gentle kisses along the swell of her breasts, his breath so hot and wonderful. “Tell me more, Harper.”

  She wanted it all. She wanted to feel him everywhere. So many thoughts ran through her mind that she had no idea where to begin. He chanted her name in between kisses. His hands worshipped every inch of skin they touched. She was writhing and squirming and she said the first thing she could force from her lips.

  “Fuck me, Brady. Please. Now,” she begged.

  Just before his lips claimed hers he said, “Such a dirty girl.”

  And she was lost.

  Eleven

  It took three days – three whole days – before Natalie felt like she could handle leaving her phone on. It wasn’t as if she was hiding out from everyone. She had called her parents and let them know she was all right, she’d called in sick to work and ordered takeout. Other than that, the phone stayed off.

  Julianne had reached her through Kayla that first night to let her know that Jayce was gone and to tell her what transpired between him and Gavin.

  “Well, he’s pissed,” Julianne had said when Natalie got on the phone.

  “I figured that out from all of his messages. Please tell me he didn’t do something stupid to Gavin.”

  Julianne chuckled. “According to Gavin, he came here and started yelling and demanding to see you, but after Gavin let him search the whole house and he saw that you weren’t here, he calmed down.”

  “O-kay…”

  “They sat and talked for a while. Gavin sort of took the guy approach…”

  “Guy approach?”

  “You know…the whole ‘What do these women expect from us?’ sort of thing. And in Jayce’s mind, the two of you have traditional roles. You’re the woman and you take care of the house and anything that goes with it – cooking, cleaning, laundry – and he works to pay for it all.”

  Natalie wanted to argue or at least be upset but she knew she was as much at fault for that thinking as he was. She liked those roles – she wasn’t the kind of woman who was looking to rule the world; she wanted to marry a man who would take care of her and be her equal, her partner.

  “So basically, he thinks he married a housewife from the fifties,” Julianne stated.

  “What else did he say?”

  “Gavin tried explaining to him how it needs to be a partnership between the two of you and why it’s important to help each other out so it’s not just one spouse – you – doing all the work.”

  Natalie could only imagine how Jayce had taken that.

  “He called Gavin a pussy.”

  Yup.

  “How long did he end up staying?”

  “He was here for about two hours and…from what I got from the whole thing…eventually, Jayce seemed to understand the problem.”

  “O-kay…” she said again slowly.

  “However,” Julianne said cautiously, “this is not going to be a quick fix, Nat. This is something that’s going to take time and you’re going to have to know that if you go back, it’s going to be hard.” She paused. “Do you…I mean…have you thought about if you want to go back?”

  “It’s too soon…”

  That had been Sunday night and here it was Wednesday night and she still wasn’t any closer to knowing what she wanted.

  Staying at Kayla’s was a godsend. It was a little weird to be alone so much, but not completely in a bad way. One of her biggest struggles was how she knew she was a creature of habit and if her husband truly wanted to see her and talk to her, he could have found her. He knew when she went to the gym and…well, okay…she hadn’t gone to work so he wouldn’t have found her there, but through process of elimination, he could have figured out where she was staying if he really tried.

  But Jayce never tried. He was content to let others do the work for him.

  Which was why it surprised her Wednesday night when she received a bouquet of flowers from him. Roses. She hated roses. Rolling her eyes, she put the vase on Kayla’s kitchen table, then stood back and looked at them with mild annoyance. With a heavy sigh, she took the card from the bouquet and opened it.

  I miss you. Jayce

  Not even signed with love…

  He probably got her parents or Gavin to tell him where to send them.

  And without an ounce of regret, she picked up the arrangement and threw it in the trash.

  How many times had they had the flower conversation? Dozens! She’d told him her aversion to them – from the smell, to the fact that they were the most common flower you could find. She loved lilies and wildflowers and flowers that were big, bold and different. Roses? Um…no.

  On Thursday morning, she went to work. Luckily her office wasn’t far from Kayla’s place and she opted to walk rather than drive. The weather was mild enough to pull it off and it felt good to be out in the fresh air. Her
job managing a doctor’s office was challenging and wonderful and she worked with an amazing group of people. When she had called in on Monday, her assistant didn’t ask for any specifics, but Natalie knew she’d only be able to keep her situation to herself for so long.

  When she walked in the door, half of her staff looked at her with big smiles on their faces.

  “Um…what’s going on?”

  “Well…,” her assistant Patti said with an even bigger smile. “At first we thought that maybe it was your anniversary, but then I remembered that wasn’t until next month. And it’s not your birthday…so we figured it had to be something big!”

  Confusion was making her head spin. “I don’t understand…”

  They all stepped aside and motioned to her office. Dread threatened to choke her as she got closer. More roses. A giant teddy bear. And a box of chocolate – and not even the kind she liked.”

  With her head hung low, she let out a breath and mentally cursed. She knew her staff was standing behind her expectantly and she forced herself to straighten and face them.

  “Okay, here’s the deal,” she said firmly, “I left my husband.”

  They all gasped and looked at her in shock. Natalie was certain they all had questions, but she wasn’t ready to answer them yet.

  “So if you all don’t mind, I don’t really want to talk about it and I don’t really want all of this stuff either. Help yourselves to the flowers, the candy and the bear. Just…take it. I don’t want it.”

  “Natalie,” Patti began, but she immediately cut her off.

  “Please. I just can’t deal with it right now.”

  They offered kind words and sympathetic looks as they removed all of the gifts from her office. If the chocolate were her favorite kind – dark chocolate truffles – she might have forgiven the damn flowers. All it did, though, was prove that her husband paid no attention to her at all. How had she gone for so long without noticing that?

  Oh yeah…because she bought most of the stuff herself or Jayce’s assistant did.

  That stopped her and her heart squeezed painfully in her chest.

  His assistant knew all the things she liked – Natalie had given her the list herself! So if all of this stuff coming to her was wrong, it was because…

  Jayce was doing it on his own.

  Slowly, she walked around her desk and sat down.

  It wasn’t enough to make her want to go home, but it was enough that it gave her the tiniest glimmer of hope.

  For now, it was something.

  And it was more than she had when she woke up this morning.

  ****

  “Good morning! I’m Julianne and this is Zumba! Do we have any first-timers here today?” Julianne said as she began her usual dialogue. Several people raised their hands. “Awesome! I am so glad you decided to join us today! This is a cardio dance class but don’t worry if you don’t have any dance experience, you don’t need any. And don’t worry if you don’t pick up the steps right away because we’ve all been there!”

  The music started and everyone started moving and. if anything, there were too many people. There was filling a room and then there was filling the room. Julianne looked out and made eye contact with Harper and she knew what she was thinking…help! Nodding, Harper danced her way toward the exit and went to go find Debbie and see if she could possibly move some of the people to one of the other studios with another instructor.

  At least…that’s what she hoped Julianne was trying to say.

  Ten minutes later, there were about twenty people less in the room and everyone shifted and seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief. Harper danced her way back to her spot next to Natalie and gave her sister a thumbs up.

  She was on her game today –she was revved up and energized for class and she was excited to go with Julianne to Enchanted Bridal afterwards and talk to the girls there about shoes and flowers and photography…yup, she was looking forward to it all.

  Her good mood was absolutely attributable to Brady. Specifically, incredible morning sex with Brady. While part of her had wanted to just lie in bed and be boneless after the multiple orgasms, she also felt invigorated and ready to take on the day. Of course, Julianne had taken one look at her and smirked, “Do you really need another workout this morning?” to which Harper laughed. No, she didn’t need the workout, but this was their thing and it was bad enough that Kayla wasn’t here to make their little squad complete.

  Neither Harper nor Julianne had the courage to ask Natalie if she wanted to come with them after class. After all, it just seemed mean to be including her in wedding plans when her marriage was such a mess. Still…she knew they’d have to address it after class.

  Pushing all negative thoughts aside, she cha-chaed. She mamboed. She belly danced and she flamencoed. And by the time the class was over, she was dripping with sweat, her heart was racing and she still felt good.

  Yay, me! She cheered for herself in her head.

  “Anyone up for brunch?” Natalie asked after the room cleared out.

  “Um…” Julianne started.

  “Uh…” Harper said at the same time.

  Natalie looked between them. “What? What’s going on?”

  Julianne sighed. “I have to go by Enchanted this morning. Penny mentioned some stuff about shoes and flowers and a potential photographer and so I called Hailey to see if I could come in this morning after class.”

  Natalie frowned for a minute. “Oh.” Then she looked at Harper. “And you’re going with her?”

  She nodded.

  “Is this just a sister thing or can I come too?” Natalie asked.

  Both Julianne and Harper’s eyes went wide with surprise. “Of course you can!” Julianne cried. “I didn’t want to ask you because I didn’t want to drag you someplace that may make you sad!”

  Natalie waved her off and they started to walk toward the locker room. “I’m fine. Really. And helping you plan your wedding is actually a nice distraction. I can see now how I was ignoring the things about Jayce that I didn’t like in hopes of him changing. I never should have done that. Probably shouldn’t have married him either.”

  “Nat, come on…not everything about Jayce is bad,” Harper said and then almost tripped when Julianne smacked her in the head. “Ow!”

  “What is wrong with you?” Julianne hissed.

  “No, it’s okay,” Natalie said as they came to stand in front of their lockers. “She’s right. Not everything about Jayce is bad. But the things that are? They’re big. And they’re things that I know I can’t live with.”

  With towels and toiletries, they walked over to the showers and each took a stall. “Have you heard from him?” Julianne asked.

  She probably didn’t want to share these details in the public shower stalls, but for the next ten minutes, that’s exactly what Natalie did.

  “So…wait…,” Julianne said as she wrapped a towel around her and stepped out of her stall. “He has sent…how many dozens of flowers?”

  “One on Wednesday, there were four when I got to the office on Thursday and then yesterday he changed it up and sent me another four – but they were tulips that time.”

  “Okay, so he’s learning. Kind of,” Harper said as she stepped out and joined them. “Have you talked to him at all?”

  “I texted him after the tulip delivery to tell him that they were lovely.”

  The sisters looked at her expectantly.

  “Nothing more, nothing less.”

  “And how did he respond, Nat?” Julianne demanded.

  “He asked if we could talk and I told him I wasn’t ready yet.”

  “Wow…good for you,” Harper said. “Standing your ground. I’m proud of you.”

  They all got dressed and by the time they were in Julianne’s car heading to Enchanted, the topic changed from Natalie’s marriage to Harper’s new and incredible sex life, which was not a topic Julianne was particularly interested in. She loved her sister and they shared everythi
ng with each other, but this whole Brady thing still left Julianne feeling more than a little weird. She wanted to be okay with it, to be able to admit that she’d misread the situation and move on but…she couldn’t.

  And she couldn’t for the life of her figure out why.

  “Oh God…and the dirty talk…”

  Yup. She wanted to plug her ears and sing out “La-la-la-la-la-la-la!” but she couldn’t. For starters, she was driving. And also, it was childish. She should be so happy for Harper. She was dating a great guy and she was happier than Julianne had seen her in a long time. But the thought of having to face Brady – which she had been really good about avoiding – made her feel…awkward. Uncomfortable.

  And incredibly stupid.

  All the things she hated feeling.

  Luckily, the drive was short and she managed to quickly change the subject as soon as they were all out of the car. “So…shoes!” she said brightly. “I’m hoping to tackle the shoes first, then flowers, then photographer. Sound like a plan?”

  “I love the idea of shoes first,” Natalie agreed. “You know I love to shop for them any time.”

  So it was agreed.

  And for a couple of hours, Julianne managed to put herself in wedding-mode – the place where all she had to think about were secondary details and nothing life-changing.

  And it was wonderful.

  ****

  “Is it wrong that I’m dreading going home?” Kayla asked as they waited for the plane to taxi to the gate.

  Tilting his head toward her, Adam frowned at her. “Depends on why you’re dreading it. If it’s because we had a great time away together…”

  “We nearly got swept away in a flood,” she interrupted. “I lost one of my cameras and a shoe.”

  “Okay, so it wasn’t one of our better trips…”

  “That’s one way of putting it,” she muttered.

  Straightening, he turned toward her and sighed. “Why are you dreading going home? Is it because of Natalie being there?”

  It sounded bad enough in her own head. Hearing Adam say it out loud was even worse. “I’m a horrible person, right? I mean, seriously horrible! The poor girl has no place to go and I offered her a place to stay and now…now I kind of regret doing it because she’s going to be there and there’s no space for the two of us…”