Page 45 of Xander

I wanted to hold her one last time to reserve the indescribable warmth being snatched from me. Call it a parting gift.

“Do I get a hug for my service?”

A perplexed expression crossed her face. She quickly camouflaged it with another award-winning smile and stepped forward. Two arms circled my neck for a quick hug.

She tried to pull back at the involuntary tensing of my shoulders, but my hand landed on the small of her back. “Are you in a rush to get somewhere?”

She laughed softly. “Just my wedding.”

“We have time.”

Jordan relaxed in my hold. I closed my eyes, nose digging into her hair. This was far past inappropriate, but I couldn’t hold back. She was warm like the sun, though her presence made me feel like I was floating in an ocean.

I never entirely understood what happened at that moment, except it felt right to stay wrapped up in her and wrong to let her go.

Giving her away was starting to feel like a regret I’d never overcome.

Jordan let go when one of the wedding coordinators poked her face inside the yurt. “Ready? Ceremony is about to start.”

Forcing my gaze on anywhere but her, I shoved my hands in my suit pocket.

“Let’s do this,” Jordan said happily as she ushered me out of the yurt.

She was momentarily successful when she wrapped an arm around my bicep with her bouquet in the other. I was distracted by the heat emanating from the touch and the scent of her perfume. She must’ve dabbed some on her pulse points again.

I swallowed thickly when my gaze landed on her slender neck.

When I blinked next, we were walking toward the altar. Prelude music hushed the guests’ chatter. My father and a reverend in all-black took center stage. The reverend asked the guests to rise and welcome the bride. There was a unanimous gasp when they saw Jordan in her gown.

My cousin, Caden, was right. Beauty was in the eye of the beholder. Others were unaware that science dictated her as the most beautiful woman on earth and couldn’t pinpoint what about her face made her so aesthetically pleasing to them, so they leered at her to figure it out.

It wasn’t her face that enamored me, though. Even without the app, I knew she was the most beautiful and special person to me.

The heels of my shoes suddenly dug into the ground. I was significantly larger than her five-foot-seven model-like frame, so she had no choice but to come to a screeching halt before reaching the aisle.

“Let’s leave.” The words tumbled out of my mouth at the sight of everything that’d be taking her away from me.

Jordan giggled under her veil, assuming it was an oddly timed joke. “Great idea. You distract the guests while I take off my heels and run⁠—”

“Don’t marry him, Jordan,” I hissed forcefully.

Her smile faltered at my words, which were devoid of humor. The crowd waited eagerly, speculating on the holdup. She turned red from embarrassment. “W-what?”

I didn’t have a plan, and we were ten feet from her wedding ceremony, yet my lips moved of their own volition. “Don’t do this, Jordan.”

Jordan stared at me like the carpet had been yanked out from under her feet. “Oh, God. Your father was right. You think I’m just a cheap floozy marrying him for money, don’t you?”

I reeled back, affronted. “That’s not it.”

If I had to guess, Henry told her that Jasper and I didn’t have a high opinion of her. It hurt that Jordan believed him. Did she think I’d been faking our friendship all along?

“He’ll make you miserable, Jordan,” I tried again. “He doesn’t love you.”

She closed her eyes and heaved a sigh as if she had been anticipating this reaction. “Xander, I know your father remarrying is difficult for you to process⁠—”

“I don’t give a shit what he does. I just don’t want him doing it to you.”

“He isn’t doing anything to me,” she whispered, mortified over having this conversation in the middle of her wedding. “He’s a good man.”