Page 150 of Bridesmaid for Hire
And the bungalows around us are silent, which makes our skinny-
dipping in the lagoon the perfect nighttime activity.
“Yeah, it’s my favorite thing,” Brody says as he tugs on my hand, bringing me right to his chest. He’s currently sitting on a fancy version of a pool noodle to hold him up in the water while I straddle his lap.
When I feel his erection press against me, I lift an eyebrow. “Do you have no control?”
“When you’re naked? No,” he says as his hands smooth around my back and we float together under the moonlight. It’s dreamy. Romantic.Everything I dreamt of when I booked this trip—I just didn’t imagine sharing this moment with Brody.
But I’m glad that it’s him.
So glad.
I drape my arms over his shoulders. “Besides my twenty-first birthday and Gary’s wedding, were there any other moments when you caught feelings for me?”
“Every time I saw you in the last few years,” he answers. “When I’d show up at Gary’s house for dinner, I would casually ask if anyone else was coming, secretly hoping you’d be there, and also hoping that you wouldn’t.”
“Why were you hoping that I wouldn’t come?”
“Because I couldn’t take seeing you. It was painful trying to not look at you too long and hiding the fact that I was crushing hard. And Christ, when you did show up, you’d come into the house and head straight for the wine. There was this one time when you unbuttoned your blouse a few buttons, showing off a peek of your cleavage, and I nearly went into a comatose state. Thank God I had the Rebels game to focus on.”
“Wait…was that the night of their first playoff game? I specifically remember unbuttoning my blouse because I thought it was choking me, and then I caught you glance at me, your eyes floating down for a second. I was caught off guard and pleasantly surprised that you actually gave me a second of attention.”
“Yeah, a second too long because Gary caught it too.”
I feel my eyes widen. “Did he really?”
Brody nods as his hands smooth up and down my back. “Yeah. When you were out of the room, he asked me what the hell I was doing. When I told him I didn’t know what he was talking about, he called bullshit and said he caught me looking at you. I just shrugged it off and said I thought you were showing us your new shirt or something.”
“Oh my God, that’s the worst cover-up I’ve ever heard.”
He smiles that beautiful smile. “He went with it. He’s either really gullible or wanted to ride the denial train and not look further into my blatant staring.”
“Maybe a little of both,” I say as his hand runs lower, rounding over my butt.
“Probably. Then there was another evening where we all went out to an outdoor movie and the park, do you remember that?”
“Yes,” I say, the memory popping into my head. “You were wearing a tank top and you turned a certain way and I saw the side of your pec. I remember my face feeling beet red and Patricia even asked me if everything was okay.”
He smirks. “You bent over at one point—your dress rode up and I caught the bottom half of your ass and had to quickly avert my eyes, but that image was in my goddamn head forever.”
“Oh my God, how embarrassing. You saw my butt?”
“The only thing embarrassing about that was the fact that I had to hold my plate of food over my dick because I was reacting like a fucking teenage boy seeing his first pair of tits. Which by the way, you leaned over to hand me a napkin at one point, and I looked right down the front of your dress. I was a goner after that.”
“Brody McFadden, you were a bit of a Peeping Tom, weren’t you?”
“Yes,” he says without even skipping a beat. “Any chance I got, I looked your way. Sometimes it was to convince myself that I didn’t have feelings for you. Other times it was because I was so desperate to look at you again, that I would wait until Gary was out of the room or he wasn’t paying attention and I would glance in your direction.”
I play with the short strands of his hair. “Is it weird that I find that so cute?”
“Think I would say yes to that?” He shakes his head.
“Guess not.” I chuckle. “Well, I got my fair share of looking as well. I remember when Gary proposed to Patricia, all I could think about washow I’d be seeing you more because you would be involved in the wedding as well. And I was excited about that.”
“Hell, you did a good job at hiding it—you really made it seem like I was the most annoying human on the planet.”
“I did.” I lean in and press a soft kiss to his lips. “But I also thought you were a lot of fun, extremely attractive, and someone I wanted to be around, despite myself.”
