I WALKED OUT for the introductions with someone whose name I couldn’t quite remember, the beat Trey had unleashed in my body still pulsing through me.

To be honest, I was still orgasming. It thrummed in intermittent, tiny, electrified pulses through me as I did all the normal, bridal party things. No one knew I was lit up like a Christmas tree.

The reception moved through the toasts. I rose and explained how Ben had modeled for me, his little sister, all the kinds of mayhem a person could get into, then left me to my own devices as he moved on into being a respectable, well-loved member of polite society, the pinnacle being this night, his union with the eminent, respectable Rothsman family, and a marriage to the most gorgeous member of all the many gorgeous Rothsmen, Amber, and therefore they couldn’t blame me for whatever happened next.

They all laughed. Ben drew me into a tight hug that went on a little long for the etiquette-conscious Rothsmen, but hey, I’d warned them.

Everyone thought all I could think about was Ben and his new life.

All I could think about was how to get Trey Dante back into my bed. Table. Whatever.

Maybe into my life, permanent.

But first, bed.

We sat at the high table like kings and queens. I joked and chatted the way you were supposed to, but I scanned the room to find Trey regularly, seeking signs on how he was doing.

He sat at a far table with a whole table of extras. He seemed to be talking with the other humans perfectly well. He even joined a toast they all made, standing up and crashing their glasses and bottles together over top the center of the table. But I knew he didn’t want to be there. I knew he felt like a curtain on the wall, blowing in an unseen breeze.

We were kindred souls. Although his might be a little more banged up than mine. All the more reason to draw near.

Trey smiled at something someone said, his head tipped down, but my God he looked so good when he tipped his head to his side, that little smile curving his mouth.

I felt a little hole in my heart, that he was so far away. Smiling at someone else.

The dancing started, first Amber and her father, then Ben and me, seeing as we had no mother.

All I could think of was Trey.

Perhaps it showed.

“I invited him to sit with us at the main table,” Ben said quietly as we danced.

I looked into my brother’s handsome, kind face, and smiled. “He wouldn’t want that, Ben, sitting up there on a stage, being watched.”

Ben touched my cheek. “He’s like you.”

“Yeah, but no one’s looking at me.”

“Trey is.”

I shot a glance over and saw Trey watching us. A woman at his side laid a hand with French-tipped nails on his arm and murmured something. He looked away from me.

A nip sawed through my chest, cutting through the light feeling. Jealousy.

Okay then.

The music ended, and so did our dance. People clapped and others moved to the dance floor.

I started to head to Trey, to extract him from that woman.

“Didn’t see you during the lights out, Cass,” Ben said.

I snapped back around. “That’s because the lights were out!” I quipped and laughed pretty hard.

Ben’s squint narrowed on me. “Puck?”

“Yeah?”

He looked across the room at Trey, then back at me. “Just…be careful,” he said quietly.

“No,” I retorted, and backed up a step, moving away from his caution. “No, I don’t want to be careful. I want to have fun. I want to be with him.”

He blew out a breath and tugged at his bowtie. “He’s kind of broken, Cass.”

“So? So what? I’m not scared of broken—it’s the story of our lives. And maybe I think he’s worth fixing.”

My words were fierce, and Ben looked wary. “I agree. He is. But I didn’t think… I don’t want to see you get hurt being the one who tries to do it.”

“I’m happy tonight, Ben. Happy,” I said, getting closer to him. Around us, people were starting to dance. “Do you know the last time I was happy? Because I don’t. I can’t even remember the last time I felt—”

I stopped talking because I was suddenly both furious and about to cry.

I actually did remember the last time I felt even close to what I was feeling tonight.

It was the night Trey stayed with me to make sure I didn’t get my son-of-a-bitch ex-boyfriend’s name tattooed on my shoulder with a stake through his eye.

He’d sat there all night, arm slung over the chair beside him at the tattoo parlor, watching me, sitting with me, never leaving my side.

Ben’s eyes widened at my mini-explosion, because I never got intense. I never got dramatic.

Maybe it was about time.

“Jesus, Cass,” he muttered, then wiped his hand through his hair. “He’s not going to stay, you know.”

I looked up sharply. “What?”

“He’s leaving. I can’t believe he’s even still here.” He nodded over my shoulder, at Trey no doubt. Then he looked back at me. “He’s always going to be leaving, Cass. Just be….” His words dropped off.

Be what? What did he want me to be? Probably not the things I was right now: scared and falling in love.

Heck, I’d been falling in love with Trey my whole life.

And he was leaving?

I thought about his ever-present duffle bag, his hesitation in the peacock room when I said I’d see him later.

Amber came over and looped her arm through Ben’s, then she leaned in and kissed my cheek.

“Thanks for everything, Cass,’ she said softly. “I know I was a bitch today, and…thanks.”

I smiled. “Everyone’s a bitch on their wedding day.”

She laughed and started drawing Ben to the dance floor. He leaned in to kiss me too before he backed up, and I knew it for what it was: a goodbye kiss.

Goodbye to everything that had been. I was changing the beat of my drummer.

Ben looked over his shoulder at me one last time before he disappeared into his future and all the happy people on the dance floor.

I turned away to find mine.

I’d known Trey my whole life and tonight I’d finally found him.

No way was he leaving me.