Page 108 of Best Man Speaking

“I just need…” I don’t know how to finish the sentence, but I keep touching him, winding my hands around his neck, scratching through the short hairs on the back of his head.

Whatever self-control is holding him together snaps in a burst of movement. My feet leave the ground as he slides his hands down my hips and around my thighs, lifting me against him. My silky dress rides up completely as my legs find their home around his waist as he walks us back and away from the door. My back is now pressing up against the wall, there’s no space between us, hardly a breath that isn’t shared as our lips clash. All rational thought leaves me, the muscles low in my stomach clenching with desire as he nips my lower lip, and I grasp his hair, pulling him farther into me.

It’s not enough. I don’t know if it will ever be enough.

Eventually, Marcus returns me to my feet, our kisses slower, lingering, before he steps back. My eyes are on the ground, mind whirling, chest thundering as the words I’ve been searching for finally form.

“Look at me,” he demands softly, arms still wrapped around me possessively.

I do, and what I see strikes me silent.

“Hallie, I don’t know what you’re thinking. I might not deserve to know, but I want you to know that I’ve always wantedyou. That I loved you then enough to let you go. And I love you now in the very same way.”

His words knock the breath from me, and all conscious thought flees me completely.

The silence of the space around us, of this bubble we’re in, bursts with the sound of conversation and music as the door opens.

My head snaps around to find Erica and Katie, mouths agape, just inside the room. I can only imagine how this looks, how I look.

“Well, that was remarkably bad timing on our behalf,” says Erica, looking pained.

Katie stands next to her, looking awestruck at the two of us.

Marcus lets out a laugh, followed closely by a groan of dire frustration. “You have no idea.”

And because I’m disgustingly afraid and deeply untrusting of anyone’s ability to truly care for me and me alone, I do the worst thing possible. I turn and make to leave.

Except I don’t make it far. A gentle but firm hand wraps around my arm, not letting me go.

“Hallie,” Marcus says. “Will you stay?”

And it’s…

It’s a relief to be asked. To be still next to him.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Marcus

I’d been shocked when Hallie had dragged me from the dance floor back to the bridal room, too desperate for her attention to have thought about refusing her, to have stopped her and talked to her before she had started touching me. I knew that she was tactile, that she loved to be touched, and I’d hoped it’d been a positive sign.

A sign of her trying to show me…something.

But then I’d gotten caught up, my mouth had opened, and out had spilled a truth I’m worried she wasn’t ready for. Except when she’d had the chance to run, to leave me and our conversation behind, she’d stayed. She’d pushed through the awkward chitchat with Erica and Katie until we’d headed back out to the reception together. We hadn’t been able to talk any further, and she hadn’t acknowledged my admission, but she hadn’t run for the hills either.

“Are you all right?” Erica asks me now, moving to sit next to me back at the bridal table. I can’t work out if she’s eager to hearwhat I have to say or if her dress is keeping her in beyond perfect posture.

“Depends. Do I still look all right?” I ask, pulling on the cuffs of my shirt.

Erica rolls her eyes, and the response is so very Hallie it’s easy to tell that their friendship had been forged at an impressionable time. “While I normally appreciate your vague, asshole-esque nature, dear brother-in-law, I’d have guessed after what I just witnessed, you might have a little more to say.”

Oh, how I’m going to enjoy having Erica as a permanent part of this family. Thinking about the absolute honesty she’s asking for, I have to resist the temptation to squirm in my seat. I steel my voice so as not to sound like a complete gossip, regardless of her opinion potentially being useful.

“When we were dancing, I told Hallie I wouldn’t begrudge her if she decided to leave—that she should go. And then she dragged me into the bridal room, and, well, I’m guessing you can paint that picture yourself. I told her I loved her—enough to let her go then and enough to do the same now.”

Erica absorbs this with a straight face before a smile cracks along her face. “Julian owes me fifty bucks.”

“Excuse me?” I assert, trying my hardest to keep my voice from rising in an unreasonable manner.

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