Page 44 of Screwged for Christmas

“Damn you, Aron Mount! Put! Me! Down!”

But all this muscle and body heat can’t be from a dream.

Did he really just call me his?And to my father? Not to mention the entire church full of guests.

I punctuate each of my demands with a hard fist against a solid back but from the way he’s laughing, I don’t think I’m getting my point across the way I want.

“What are you doing? Put me down, Mount or so help me!”

“What? You’ll hit me? Do your best, baby? I can’t take it. What I can’t take is seeing you walk down the aisle to someone who’s not me.” He slaps a hand down on my ass drawing out a high-pitched squeak. I squirm, making him tighten the arm around my waist.

I bury my hands in his back and push up enough that I can spot my brother barreling out of the church behind us.

Oh, crap.

The rage on his face says things are about to get very ugly.

We’re already halfway across the church grounds and nearing the limo parked out front with the traditional Just Married scribbled across the back. But my brother is moving just as fast and we might as well be dressed in red with the way he’s charging.

A beefy hand clamps around my wrist, giving it a hard tug.

“Oomph! Bryan, you’re not helping!”

“I don’t know who the fuck you think you are, Aron, but my sister isn’t going anywhere with you.”

Aron whirls, ripping my wrist from my brother’s tight hold. It hurt, but not nearly as much as my brother’s face when Arron connected a swift right hook across his jaw. Beneath my palms, I feel the bunching and flexing of Aron’s muscles. I’d be lying if I didn’t feel a little turned on right now.

Bryan goes ass first into the snow, freshly-pressed tuxedo and all.

“Fuck off, Bryan. This is between your sister and me. Or do you want to hit the ground again for all the cameras?”

Cameras? Holy crap! I grab a fistful of Aron’s suit jacket and try to angle around. Oh no! Sure enough, three TV cameras are pointed right at us and getting a perfect shot of my ass poised high over Aron’s shoulder. A fierce blush spreads across my face.

Freaking great.

Aron sets me down but keeps a firm arm around my waist. “Tell your brother here you’re going with me, baby. We can do this the hard way or the easy way. It doesn’t matter much to me which one he wants to pick. After I beat some sense into him, I’ll patch him up and then we can be on our way.”

God, his voice is the perfect blend of smoky and rough.

I take in my kidnapper from top to bottom while my brother scurries back like a crab through the snow before he can push to his feet.

Aron is well over six feet and has me leaning back to look him in the eye. Dark and just as piercing as they were the last time I was this close. Six years did the man well. He’s all fierce angles and sharp lines around the jaw and bulging muscles everywhere else. Lean is not the word used to describe Aron Mount. Try pure perfection poured into an impeccable tuxedo. Power radiates off him like he was born to lead. Which makes sense as the star quarterback for his winning team. I can see why his fans nicknamed him the Beast.

“Let go of me and leave before this gets more out of hand more than it already has.” I try to step away from him. To pull back and walk back to the life all planned out for me, but honestly, I know I’m not putting enough oomph into my demand or my attempt to leave his side. The truth of it is staring back at me and he’s wearing an arrogant smirk.

“Hell no. Not happening.”

Aron swings the door open to the limo. The one I’m supposed to ride off into the sunset in with my husband-to-be. I can’t say that fact gives me the tingly feels deep in the pit of my stomach the way standing here with Aron does.

“You’re not marrying that snotty-nosed boy who looks like he never hit puberty, Noella.”

“Harvey is sweet and kind. Don’t hate on him for not having your ability to grow a beard and muscles.”

“I don’t hate him. He didn’t look any happier up there than you would have. Just wasn’t man enough to stand up for himself. So, I did it for both of us.”

He pulls me into his hard body and it’s instant. My body clings to every inch of him like we’re made to fit together. Whatever he’d been up to in the last six years agrees with him. He is somehow hotter than before. Flat out gorgeous with the signs of a little age around the corners of his eyes. Rough, intense and bigger. Which, that alone, seems surreal. Almost as impossible as having him looming over me with a possessive shine in his gaze the longer he looks at me.

“Tell me you wanted that little man to be the one taking you tonight instead of me.”

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