Chapter Two

 

The sunlight outside the church was dazzling and the mid-afternoon heat intense. Luckily the photographer appreciated this and kept photographs to a minimum. There would be more later for a glossy magazine, but these were for Samantha and Vadmir’s personal album, not for the press.

After smiling on demand and bustling in and out of shots with several players who I’d admired for years, including Raven Starr and Todd Carty, it was time to head to the Russian-themed reception.

Vadmir and Samantha climbed into the lead car, a white limousine with pink ribbons, amidst much confetti throwing and laughter.

Darya and I were traveling in the next car, another limousine, smaller than the bride and groom’s.

“Shall we go now?” Darya asked.

“Yes,” I said, “Samantha might want help freshening up before she greets everyone.”

“I agree. She has no lipstick left after that kiss.”

We climbed into the welcome cool of the car. The leather was soft on the back of my bare thighs and I carefully placed my bouquet to one side, relieved to be out of the sun.

Suddenly the door pulled open. “Wait.” It was Jackson.
“I’m coming with you,” he said.

“But you’re in the car with the ushers,” I said, blinking at the bright light he’d let in.

He grinned and dropped next to me. “Not now I’m not.”

I frowned. This wasn’t the plan. But it seemed Jackson wasn’t good at sticking to plans.

“Hey,” he said, holding his hands up. “There’s not enough room in that one. Nine of us in an eight-seater and look how much space you girls have.”

“Yes, it makes sense you travel with us,” Darya said. “You are my brother’s best man, after all.”

The car began to move and as it did I slid slightly on the seat and my leg came into contact with Jackson’s. I held my breath as a tingle shot up my thigh and created a tug in my stomach. He was so solid and dense with muscle, and his presence, next to me, felt huge and consuming. It didn’t help that I couldn’t stop thinking of him naked and rubbing against me. Ripping at my clothes and then...

“So have you and Vadmir been friends since he came to America?” Darya asked Jackson, interrupting my racy thoughts.

“I only started playing for the Vipers this season. But we get on well, he’s a great guy and a brilliant player.” Jackson slid his hand down his leg, the leg that was now pressed up against mine. His fingers skimmed my naked flesh right down to my knee and back again.

I sucked in a breath. What the hell was he messing around at?

“And you have met Harmony before?” Darya asked Jackson, then glanced between us and gave me a quizzical look.

“No,” I said.

“Yes,” Jackson said at the same time.

Darya gave a slow nod and her eyes sparkled in the same wicked way her brother’s did on occasion.

“What I mean is...” I said, “we’ve met once before. Only once.” Heat was spreading over my chest and onto my neck. “Just by chance, really. Nothing to talk about.”

“No,” Jackson said, tipping his head and studying me with that cocky tilt of his lips again. “Not much talking was there?”

I frowned and spoke to Darya. “We just, you know, hung out for a bit. Samantha and Vadmir, it was they who got together, hit it off, we just kind of...” My brain fuddled and my words ran out.

Jackson was thoroughly enjoying my ruffled state, I could tell. He was waiting for me to continue digging, become more of a bumbling fool than I already was.

Fuck it. I’d just say it. What did it matter? We were both free agents. “The thing is Darya, Jackson and I spent an entire night, about three months ago, fucking each other stupid and then in the morning we parted ways. That’s it, the sum total of our history, except today that is, when it seems he’s everywhere I turn.”

Darya’s mouth opened and shut and then she let out a hoot of delight. “Oh, I love honesty,” she said. “And I could tell, you know.” She tapped the side of her nose. “I can tell these things between people.”

Jackson chuckled, his big shoulders shifted against mine and the material of his suit was soft on my skin. “Yeah, baby,” he said looking at me. “You’re right there, we did fuck each other stupid.”

I folded my arms, unfolded them, then fiddled with my new necklace. “Except those shrimp were bad,” I said, tutting. “The ones you ordered at about two in the morning. I was laid up for a week.”

“Ah, I didn’t eat any of them, just the pizza,” he said, “but damn, I’m real sorry.” He frowned and a modicum of his cockiness evaporated. “That must have sucked, being ill for a week.”

“Yeah, I made it as far as New York on my flight and then spent four days in an airport hotel thinking my guts were going to come up.”

He grimaced. “Nice.”

Yeah nice, Harmony! Here’s the hottest guy ever sitting next to you and you’re talking about puking up shrimp.

“Never again,” I said. “Damn takeouts.”

“But the shrimp is your only complaint of that night?” he asked, doing that thing with his hand again, pretending to slide it down his leg but actually stroking mine.

I glanced at Darya, heat popping in my cleavage and on my temples despite the air-conditioning. “I don’t know what you mean.”

He leaned closer and the scent of his musky, black pepper cologne invaded my nostrils. “I mean was everything else to your taste?” He swept his tongue over his bottom lip.

I pushed at his shoulder and pulled my leg away. “Oh, grow up, will you?”

“Not in this lifetime,” he said with a laugh. “And it’s hard to be serious with you around, baby. I keep having all these dirty flashbacks.”

I huffed and stared out of the window. God, what would Darya think of me?

 

The reception went like a dream. The welcome cocktails were apple juice and Smirnoff laced with edible gold leaf, the venue a luxury boutique hotel that had been filled with snow-white flowers. A harpist, who looked like an angel, played in the corner of the room.

Thankfully, I’d orchestrated it so I wasn’t sitting next to Jackson during the wedding breakfast—one advantage of helping plan the wedding with Samantha and offering to draw up the seating plan. Though when we arrived I saw him glance my way as we took our seats. I wouldn’t have put it past him to try and switch so that he could irritate me further.

But why? Why did he want to torment me? I just wanted to get through the day with a scrap of dignity and not fall for him any more than I already had. Because falling for him was exactly what had happened when we’d spent the night together. How could it not? I’d been lusting after him for so long; checking him out at every game I’d attended and eagerly drinking up any gossip I could find online about him. Spending a night with the object of my affection had only served to make me more obsessed. Which was why I’d hoped for a clean break. One night of fun and then cut the ties. Except my best friend had gone and married his best friend, which meant we were thrown together again, here, at a goddamn wedding.

Samantha’s father tapped a silver spoon against a glass and stood. The room fell silent. “I apologize in advance for my lack of Russian language,” he said. “Though I am grateful, beyond grateful, for my new son-in-law’s mastery of English and that of his family who have joined us today. I’m sure next month when we travel to Sokol for more wedding celebrations I will be feeling as bemused as some of you are today.”
I smiled politely and glanced up the long table I sat at.

Samantha was smiling up at her father. Vadmir was twisting his hands together, no doubt a little nervous about making his speech next, and Jackson. Damn, Jackson was staring straight at me.

The chink of glasses told me toasts were being made. I tore my gaze from Jackson and raised my champagne flute. “To Mr. and Mrs. Arefyev,” I said along with everyone else.

Vadmir stood and cleared his throat. “On behalf of my wife and I, I’d like to thank you all for being here.”

A chorus of whoops and whistles rang out from the table that held the Vipers captain, Rick “Ramrod” Lewis, the team’s best forward, Phoenix, and all-round mayhem causer Brick. A child let out a squeal and I noticed Phoenix’s wife, Brooke, gathering a toddler onto her lap.

Vadmir sat down abruptly.

There was a moment of hush, of expectancy, then Jackson stood up, whacked Vadmir on the back. “Thanks for that, buddy, I always knew you weren’t a man of many words and that just proved it.”

There was a gentle ripple of laughter.

“Shall I?” Jackson said, indicating to several bunches of flowers set behind the top table.

“Oh, crap, yes, I forgot,” Vadmir said, shaking his head. “Sorry,” he mouthed at Darya and then turned to me and shrugged with an apologetic expression.

Jackson reached for one of the large bunches of flowers, all white, and then raised his glass. “To the beautiful bridesmaids,” he said with a grin. “Who’ve made a beautiful day even more so.”

“To the bridesmaids,” everyone said.

A blush crept over my cheeks and I glanced down at my name card.

“Harmony.”

I looked up.

Jackson was looming over me, his shadow blocking out the light from the window and his scent once again swirling around me. He stooped, got closer and closer and pressed a kiss to my cheek. His lips were a little damp and the designer stubble on his jawline scratched my face.

I shut my eyes. For a moment there was only us in the room. No, we were back in his apartment, clothes a thing of the past and pleasure the only objective.

He lingered over that delicate kiss, I was sure he did, and pulled in a deep breath, as though my perfume was taking him back to another time and place, too.

Then he was gone, passing Darya her flowers and quickly pecking her cheek.

My heart fluttered. I reached for my drink. The urge to stroke my face, where his mouth had just been, was almost overwhelming but I resisted. The whole room would guess how he affected me if I did that. Damn, they could probably already tell.