Page 21 of Wedding Crasher

‘I was working in the back this morning. Left this in there.’ Dan wiped the mug clean on the edge of his dark T-shirt.

Emily unscrewed the cap from the red wine and sloshed the mug half-full, then saluted him with it before taking a good long swig. It was a little cold, but she welcomed it all the same.

‘Better?’

‘A bit.’ She had another glug. ‘A lot.’ She grinned.

Dan laughed and refilled her mug.

Emily sighed heavily. ‘It’s my birthday tomorrow.’

‘No way! Let me guess …’ He turned her chin slightly towards him to study her face. ‘Twenty-four?’

‘I wish.’ Emily looked at her watch and groaned. ‘I’ve got exactly two hours left of my twenties.’

Dan whistled under his breath. ‘Well, here’s to you, Mrs Robinson.’

‘Don’t. You make me feel even older.’ She sipped her wine and idly wondered exactly how much younger than her he was. Couldn’t be much. A year. Two, maybe?

‘So … Is there anything you’ve always wanted to do before you hit the big 3-0?’

Emily shook her head, unwilling to allow herself to even think about the obvious baby-related answer to his question.

‘Skydive, maybe?’ he suggested. ‘Bungee jump?’

Emily wrinkled her nose with distaste at his daredevil suggestions. She preferred to get her kicks on terra firma; even domestic flights had her swigging Rescue Remedy in the airport loos.

‘How about wild sex in the back of a hearse?’ he added.

A charged silence crackled between them as his question hung in the air.

Emily had known where this was headed from the moment she’d got into the hearse back in the village. She hadn’t planned it, but then again, she hadn’t resisted it either.

And she didn’t resist now as Dan reached out to cradle her jaw, tracing her cheekbone with his thumb. She didn’t resist him, because shecouldn’t. She turned her face into his hand and pressed her lips against his warm palm. A shiver of pleasure rocked through her at the intimacy of his unknown taste against her mouth, and she knew from the way his breath quickened that he’d felt the heat kick up a notch too. He took the mug from Emily’s fingers, slung it out of the open window, then promptly pulled her across onto his lap, leaving her in no doubt of exactly how much he wanted her.

He was different, he was exciting, and he made her feel like someone else. His kiss left her breathless, and Emily opened her mouth to let his tongue slide in.

Michael Hutchence had nothing on Dan when it came to sexy moans. Any last vestige of common sense followed the KitKat mug out of the window when his hands moved underneath her T-shirt to stroke her breasts through the lace of her bra.

She was lost in him. In how new and adored his hands made her feel. In how his ragged breathing gave away the extent of his arousal. In the erotic power of being wanted again.

Emily needed more. Right there and then she needed all of him, and she reached down to where he strained against the confines of the buttons of his jeans. He swore into her mouth, and in one swift move, he dropped the seat and hauled her over into the back of the hearse.

‘Dan! We can’t … not in here!’ she squeaked, and somewhere in her head, Emily actually meant it. It was scandalous on just about every level to steam up the windows of a hearse, but on the other hand, itwaskind of perfectly proportioned for stretching out.

‘Oh yes we fucking can,’ he muttered, pulling her T-shirt over her head without breaking their kiss, like a magician pulling out the tablecloth without upsetting any teacups. He unfastened her bra with the ease of a practised man, and Emily’s protests dissolved as his warm hands and wet mouth roamed over her body. He licked and sucked until she gasped and begged. Somehow, he managed to wriggle off both her trousers and his own in one go and settle back over her, warm skin against warm skin. He was hard and heavy between her legs, but it was Dan’s kiss that tipped Emily’s world upside down.

Slow, sweet and exquisite over her mouth.

Feather gentle over her squeezed-shut eyelids when he pushed himself all the way inside her. Outside, the hearse creaked to the rhythm of INXS and Emily and Dan’s efforts.

Inside, she buried her tear-damp face in his neck and clung to his broad shoulders for safe harbour while he rocked her to the moon and back.

Sometime later, Emily opened her eyes as Dan’s mouth traced a lazy pattern on the sensitive hollow below her ear. She gazed out at the moonlit river, still and serene despite the fact that three lives had just changed forever on her banks.

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘Gerroffme …’

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