Page 30 of Because You Loved Me

“So you don’t love him?”

Of course she loved Ryan. She inhaled slowly and her fingers drifted to the rose necklace.

“It’s complicated.”

Noa nodded. “I’ll always love Ryan. But, not in the way you should when you get married.” She laughed at herself. “There’s that word again. Truthfully, I never wanted to get married. I never saw myself as a bride.”

“You make a fucking gorgeous bride.”

The compliment was delivered with such sincerity that it took her off guard. “You think so?”

“I’ll be honest.” Asher shrugged, and his fingers stilled on her feet. “Brides aren’t really my type, but you make a very sexy one.”

Noa laughed. “I’m not a bride.”

He raised an eyebrow and used his head to gesture to the piles of satin and tule peeking out from under the blankets. “You sure look like one.”

Maybe it was the heat in the room, or more likely, in Asher’s gaze as he looked at her, but Noa grew suddenly and completely uncomfortable in the massive dress. She shrugged the flannel she was still wearing off her shoulders, and before he could stop her, pulled her feet from his grip and stood, shaking the blanket from her lap as she did so. “Maybe you could help me change that?”

Noa spun so her back was facing Asher.

“You want me to take your dress off?”

She looked over her shoulder at him. “Well, I can’t do it myself. And I don’t know if you noticed, but it’s not really very practical clothing for a cabin in the middle of nowhere.” When he didn’t move, she groaned and twisted her arms around her back in an effort to reach the approximately eight million tiny buttons that held her prisoner.

“What are you doing?”

“I told you, I’m taking this dress off. It’s incredibly uncomfortable. Not to mention heavy.” She twisted and turned while she spoke. “Whoever came up with the idea of wedding gowns should be?—”

“Given a medal.”

His voice was laced with desire, and when Noa stopped what she was doing and turned to look at Asher, he wasn’t even bothering to hide the look in his eyes.

“No,” she said simply. “Now, are you going to help me with this, or just stand there gawking all night?”

* * *

Asher stroked his scruff of a beard and considered his options. Either way, she was determined to take her dress off. If she continued her attempts to do it on her own, it looked as if she might put her back out or pull a muscle.

Asher stepped forward.

Noa turned away, presenting her back and a ridiculous number of tiny buttons.

He meant what he said. The designer of this dress had obviously understood the assignment. Noa was friggin’ stunning. The right combination of classy and devastatingly sexy. Her groom was a damn lucky man.

No.

Asher corrected himself. It washewho was the lucky man because, for reasons he still couldn’t understand, it wasn’t her groom helping Noa out of her dress, but him.

Oh yes, he was definitely the lucky one.

He let his fingertips skim her bare shoulders and slid the veil to the side. She shivered under his touch; was that a little gasp he heard?

Damn.

There were a million reasons Asher should turn and walk away before things went any further. Or at most, help her out of her dress and retreat to the opposite side of the room. What he most definitely should not be doing was entertaining any thoughts at all of what wasunderthe dress. Or the kiss they’d shared the night before and what could have happened between them.

No. He shouldn’t be inhaling her sweet scent and wondering about how she would taste, or the sounds she would make when he laid her down on the couch and buried his head between her legs.

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