What Matters Most: The Billionaire Bargains, Book 2 (4 page)

She looked at Tony. He was frowning at Jeff.

“You knew that I had feelings for her?”

Jeff nodded. “Yeah, man. I know you.”

“But you asked her out anyway,” Tony said.

“You didn’t protest. You didn’t tell me not to.”

Tony didn’t respond right away to that, and Reese found herself crossing her arms and watching him for a moment. Yeah, what was that about? A sudden declaration of love at her
wedding
, but he’d never said a word to his best friend about his feelings for her?

“I’m protesting now,” Tony finally said, giving Jeff a strange look that seemed to be a combination of irritation and pleading.

“Right. Okay. Well, good,” Jeff said, backing up a step. “That’s good. You need to be up front about your feelings. You two should talk.”

Reese came across as what some people would call sweet. But when it came right down to it, she had no tolerance for bullshit, and no one would call her stupid. Something was going on. These two were up to something. Something that was messing up her wedding day.

That was enough.

She handed her bouquet off to her maid of honor and took a tuxedo sleeve in each hand, one belonging to Jeff and one belonging to Tony. She marched them across the front of the altar and into the little prayer room off the sanctuary where the groomsmen had gathered and gotten ready that morning.

She dropped her hold on them and slammed the door behind them.

“
What
is going on?” she demanded. “I want to know now. And I want to hear it from
you
,” she told Jeff.

He looked sheepish. “I’m so sorry, Reese.”

“Sorry for what?” She crossed her arms again and stood in front of the door that was their only escape route. Not that either of them couldn’t lift her up and toss her out of the way. But neither of these men would.

“I can’t marry you.”

“You said that.” And surprisingly, she could label her feelings about that more as surprise than heartbreak.

“I should have told you before.”

“Obviously.”

“I’m in love with someone else. And I cheated on you with her. More than once.”

Reese looked at him for a long moment, processing what he’d said.

“You’re in love with someone else,” she finally repeated.

He nodded.

“And where is she today?”

He had enough conscience to flush at that. “She broke it off when she found out I was engaged.”

“When did she find this out?”

“A week ago.”

Reese felt both of her eyebrows rise. Now that she thought about it, she remembered that she hadn’t seen or heard from Jeff much last weekend. And he’d seemed very distracted this past week. “How long did you lie to her?”

“I met her just after you and I started dating.”

Reese shook her head. “Why didn’t you just break it off with me?”

“She’s…” Jeff trailed off, looking very uncomfortable. “She’s a barista at a coffee house and a single mom. I just thought it was going to be a one-night thing. And then I thought it might be a fling. But I never really thought she and I would be serious.”

Reese felt her gut tighten. She did
not
want to hear the rest of this. She knew she should be upset about him cheating and falling for someone else, but somehow she knew she was about to be way more pissed about his reasons for not being with the
other
woman.

“Why did you not think you could be serious about her?” Reese asked.

“Well, I couldn’t
marry
her,” Jeff said. “She’s got nothing. She has a
kid
. My dad would have freaked out.”

Reese was officially over her fiancé and her botched wedding at that moment.

“She isn’t good enough for you?”

“I have to marry someone that my father approves of in order to inherit my part of the business,” Jeff said.

Reese thought maybe
she
was going to be sick.

Or punch him.

She took a step forward and Tony must have read the intent in her eye, because he stepped in front of Jeff.

But he was facing his friend.

“Jesus, Jeff. What the hell happened to you?”

Jeff sighed. “I’ve got nothing, Tony. You know that. I’ve been groomed for the business my whole life. There’s nothing else I’m qualified for.” He turned to Reese. “I’m serious. Tony’s been buying my way into clubs and taking me cool places and loaning me money as long as I’ve known him. He loaned me the money to buy your wedding ring.”

Reese looked down at the engagement ring on her left hand. Huh, she’d been wearing Tony’s ring all this time.

It took her a second to realize that
that
thought was completely inappropriate.

“How am I’m supposed to turn my back on my only chance at real money and a future for a woman I met having coffee at two a.m.?” Jeff asked Tony.

Reese was pleased to note that Tony looked disgusted at that question. “I’m guessing
this
situation isn’t thrilling your dad either,” Tony said, raking his fingers through his hair.

He was standing in front of Reese, close enough that she could smell his aftershave.

She took a deep breath of it.

That was what was called a silver lining. All of this sucked,
except
that she got to be close enough to Tony to smell him.

“That’s why you’re the best friend a guy could have,” Jeff said with a smile. “If dad believes the story that you’re in love with Reese and I just found out and am broken up about it, then I’m still good.”

Shock shot through her.

No.

Had Tony said that to give his friend an out? She took a step back, out of aftershave range, and took another deep breath. And realized that yes, Jeff and Tony were totally that close.

Tony must have felt or sensed that she’d moved back, because he swung to face her. “No, Reese,” he said, before she could say anything. “That’s not what happened. I am in love with you and I’ve been a complete idiot for not saying it or doing something about it. I know that.”

She stared up at him, into the eyes that never failed to stop her breath. And it happened this time too.

There was something between them. No matter why he’d said what he’d said, there was
something
there. Something that had been pulling at her for months.

“You’re going to have to prove it,” she heard herself say.

Surprise followed immediately by heat flashed in his eyes. “Anything.”

For just a moment, she was tempted to say let’s go back out front and say I do
.
But instead, she said, “Get me out of here.”

He nodded. “How’s Vegas sound?”

There hadn’t been even a moment’s hesitation. And Vegas sounded damned good actually.

She tipped her head. “They’re going to think we ran off together.”

“That works for me.”

He seemed completely confident and not one bit worried about any consequences.

And disappearing with another man and having people gossip about
their
secret love affair seemed preferable to announcing to her entire family and all of her friends that her fiancé had been cheating on her for their entire relationship and had only been with her so he could step into the family business.

Speaking of her fiancé… Reese slipped her engagement ring from her finger. “I’m selling this, just so you know, and blowing all of the money from it in Vegas.”

Jeff clearly wanted to protest, but it took only one look from Tony for him to say, “Have fun.”

She looked up at Tony and slipped her ringless hand into his. “We will. I’m sure of it.”

Tony Steele was the best time she’d ever had. The craziest, oh-my-God-I-can’t-believe-I-did-that time she’d ever had.

Reese tipped her head back, rinsing the shampoo from her hair under the gentle spray of the best shower head she’d ever showered under.

After sleeping in the best bed with the best sheets in the best hotel room—suite, she corrected herself—she’d ever been in.

She was grinning like an idiot but couldn’t seem to stop.

Because the sheets and the shower and the three a.m. room service weren’t the only things that had been the best she’d ever had.

She’d never had sex like the sex she and Tony had had.

Her whole body tingled remembering it.

A tiny niggle in the back of her mind said that she shouldn’t have fallen into bed with him right away. After all, last night was supposed to have been her wedding night with Jeff.

But Jeff had been falling into bed with someone else for months apparently, and well, it was just really hard to be upset or feel guilty or any other negative emotion after the night she’d had.

Besides, she hadn’t fallen into bed with him
right away
. Tony had taken her out. They’d partied and danced, they’d talked and kissed, they’d made several stops on the Strip in fact. Tony had been the perfect combination of gentleman and rouge. He’d been sweet and romantic and sexy as hell all at once. He’d wooed her the entire time.

There had been no way she could have said no—to anything he asked her.

She laughed and shook her head. She wasn’t a spontaneous person typically, but Tony and the romantic fantasy he’d spun around her had been so tempting. She would dare any woman to resist him.

And after all, what she and Tony had done was exactly what was supposed to happen on a wedding night.

Tony Steele really was good at everything.

The memories were so fresh that she felt instantly aroused remembering Tony’s mouth and hands on the skin she was now scrubbing. Her nerve endings were hypersensitive as the warm water washed over them, and when she brushed the washcloth over her nipples, she felt a zing of sensation.

She closed her eyes and did it again, remembering Tony teasing the stiff points with his lips, tongue and fingers. He’d had her writhing on the silk sheets within minutes. Then he’d moved those lips, tongue and fingers lower. Reese took the washcloth lower as well, dragging the terry cloth over her clit and shivering with the memory of his tongue there while his fingers pumped into her. She’d gone beyond writhing to an orgasm faster than she ever had before. She could easily conjure the hot look in his eyes when she called out his name. She was still bursting with her climax when he’d moved over her and thrust deep, her name a gruff whisper.

He’d seemed as lost in their passion as she was, and she’d had her first multiple orgasm thanks to him. The combination of his thick cock, his knowing hands, the look in his eyes that had seemed almost possessive and the dirty words he’d made sound reverent—
“Mine, Reese, you’re mine. I love the feel of your pussy around me. God, you’re so hot and wet, I could fuck you for days and still want more.”

Reese braced a hand on the slick wall of the shower and dropped the washcloth. She worked over her clit with her finger, remembering every moment of the night before. The lemon martinis and tequila shots couldn’t dull a single memory. Those two back-to-back orgasms had been her second and third of the night. When he’d pushed her up against the wall in the private office at the third club she had been ready and willing. That had been a hot, fast joining, but she’d climaxed then too. It was like he knew every single button to push and exactly how to push it. And then he’d awakened her again in the night—or the early morning to be exact.

She should be spent, but her body was humming with need as she touched herself in the shower.

Sex had never been like that. She was very afraid it would never be like that again. Nothing could measure up to…

Her hand froze and her head came up.

Hang on just a second.

Tony was in the other room, still asleep in the bed.

Why was she doing this all by herself?

Grinning, she shut off the water and dried her body. Wrapped in only a towel—and, sticking with the theme, by far the best towel she’d ever been wrapped in—she padded into the bedroom.

At some point, she remembered getting up and pulling the heavy curtains shut when the bright sunlight spilling in through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the penthouse suite had awakened her. But she’d been able to climb back into bed and fall asleep for a few more hours. Now only a crack in the curtains let any light in. Thankfully, it was enough for her to see that Tony was sprawled across the bed, facedown. He’d apparently kicked the covers off, because he was completely naked, his well-toned ass tempting her hands and her lips.

Reese dropped the towel and crawled onto the bed.

There wasn’t one inch of him that wasn’t flawless.