Breaking Brent (8 page)

“A cock—”

“Damn it,” he cursed. “Stop saying that.”

“I’ll stop saying it when you take it back.” She gave in to her temper and popped him once on the arm with her bouquet of blossoms, causing three or four to fall to her feet.

“I did not call you—”

She cocked her head, set her jaw and waited as he stuttered and stammered. “Look, I’m not going to get into this with you. I am trying to apologize. Try being a grown-up and accepting it.” She watched as he dusted away the imaginary petal from his jacket sleeve.

“I am being a grown-up. Where do you get off telling me how to act and how to dress? From what I hear the girls you like have on far less than I would ever think about wearing out in public.”

“Been askin’ around have you?”

“No, I’m just saying. Mind. Your. Own. Business.” She slapped him with the bouquet once more for good measure.

“It’s kinda of hard when you keep getting in the way.” Jason offered her his arm. She realized she was holding up the start of the ceremony and took his arm and hooked her hand in the crook of his elbow. They were supposed to walk close together at a paced speed, but Jocelyn’s temper powered her forward. The faster she was away from Jason’s side the better. She couldn’t take it anymore.

This was supposed to be a happy day.

A happy day.

Even repeating the mantra in her head did not stop the tears from forming in her eyes. Maybe everyone would think they were tears of joy instead of the frustration she felt forming in her belly.

“Slow down a bit.” Jason’s whispered tone struck home and she altered her steps, slowing down her quick gait and turning it into a timed stroll.

“That’s more like it. If I didn’t know better I would think you wanted to get away from me.” The tone of his voice was playful and even a bit flirty. Jocelyn couldn’t handle it. He was putting on a show for the audience, playing the part of dutiful escort so well.

As they walked she could see several female guests studying Jason. Some of them raised their hands in slight waves. Jocelyn noticed how they scanned his body from top to bottom and then back up. Once they had finished their appraisal of him they looked to her. One woman smiled sweetly and another set her mouth into a thin line and looked away. The last one Jocelyn could stand to look at actually giggled before turning and whispering something to her friend. The friend giggled too.

The tears threatened to fall even though Jocelyn willed them not to. She closed her eyes for a second, trying her best to stop a single one from falling. When she opened them once more she caught sight of a familiar and friendly face in the crowd. Peyton.

She sat at the far end of a row close to the front but slightly out of the way. Jocelyn saw Peyton lean her head to the side in a questioning manner and lift her shoulder at Jocelyn.

Her body language asked what was wrong. Jocelyn looked to Jason, who was concentrating on a blonde in the third row, and then looked back at Peyton.

She saw Peyton narrow her eyes in Jason’s direction and then roll them. She then looked at Jocelyn, shook her head slightly and smiled. When Jocelyn didn’t return the gesture, Peyton placed the small black clutch purse she was carrying under her arm and lifted her fingers to her face. Without drawing attention to herself, she placed two fingertips at the corners of her mouth and lifted it into a smile.

Jocelyn took the hint.

She smiled.

She remained that way as Jason walked her to her designated spot across from Brent’s. Brent looked up at her. Those dark eyes of his hid everything from everybody. He smiled slightly her way and then returned to scanning the audience.

Jocelyn watched him look over the crowd once from left to right and then again from right to left. Was he looking for someone? She tried her best to follow his line of sight as it went back and forth. She lost track for just a second and then realized his eyes had stopped. No longer were they moving back and forth. They were set on one person and one person only. They were set on Peyton.

The smile that came to her face while watching Brent watch Peyton was extremely real. Extremely wide. And extremely filled with giddiness. Standing on the third step from the bottom, moving slightly with the music, Jocelyn watched Hayden walk Blaire down the aisle. Jocelyn barely saw them. She was too busy singing in her head,
Brent and Peyton, sitting in a tree
… This might not turn out to be such a shitty day after all.

When Brent caught sight of Peyton he felt his chest draw up as well as his balls. What the fuck was she doing here? Then he remembered. The half-pint standing at his feet had something to do with it.

Lucas James swayed back and forth from foot to foot as he balanced the white satin pillow on his hand. It was a good thing the pillow was just for looks, and that the actual wedding bands were in his pocket. Standing still was not one of the four-year-old’s strong points.

Brent scanned the crowd looking for the boy’s parents, but only saw Peyton and Murphy in attendance. Murphy’s wife, Lucas’s mother, was, big surprise, absent.

He didn’t care if she was here or not to tell the truth, because Peyton was. And all of Brent’s present attention was on her and her alone.

The dress she was wearing draped every soft curve of her body. Even though it covered more than it revealed, Brent could fill in the gaps. Her legs were toned and tan. Her stomach was flat and made Brent yearn to run his tongue the length of it. That brought him to her breasts. The dress she wore had a deep V dipping in between them—nice. Too nice. He felt the tell-tale beginnings of a hard-on. What the hell was the matter with him?

Last night he’d blamed the alcohol for his impaired state and throbbing cock. What was his excuse today? He didn’t need to get laid. Or maybe he did. Maybe he needed it worse than he thought.

His time spent searching the crowd turned up numerous possibilities of one-night or two-night stands. Hell, some of the women in attendance probably wouldn’t turn down a quick ride in the barn in the near future. But he didn’t want them. He wanted Peyton. That didn’t surprise him. He had wanted her for longer than he could remember.

Peyton with her thick hair. Hair that would skim and caress a man’s stomach as she licked and sucked at his dick.

He couldn’t see her eyes, she was too far away, but he knew that when she was aroused those dark eyes burned—burned for more.

Last night, in his inebriated sleep, he’d seen her eyes, seen them blaze as she’d ridden him fast and deep and hard. Did she still like it hard?

Or was Peyton now more of the slow, sweet type. He doubted it.

She wanted it as rough and as wild as he did. Another thing had haunted his dreams last night. He wondered if she still screamed when she came. He wondered if she still loved the thrill of almost getting caught. He wondered if she still got wet at a moment’s notice.

He also wondered how long she had been staring back at him.

Breaking the connection their eyes had created, Brent returned his attention to the catastrophe unfolding before him. It was about that time. About time for Brother Jim Thomas to join the happy couple with the rings. The rings. Brent’s hand went to his pocket and found Willa’s ring resting safely inside. Earlier, he’d toyed with the idea of leaving in the top drawer of his dresser where it had been for the past week, but he’d decided against it. The last thing he wanted was for his brother to commit murder on his own wedding day.

Before they could get to that part, Brent risked a quick glance back at Peyton. She sat with her legs crossed, one slightly bouncing across the other. The high-heeled sandal she wore threatened to fall from her foot with every swing of her leg, but it never did. Her legs.
God
, he thought. How good they would feel wrapped around his waist, his thighs and his head. While his tongue played and teased the soft flesh of her pussy. He drew in a deep breath.
Damn
.

He placed Peyton far away from his mind for the time being. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jason giving him an odd look. Jason, the ever-observant one that he was, turned his head casually to the left and looked right in Peyton’s direction.

Brent groaned to himself. He knew the second Jason’s head turned back around. He heard him laugh, and then he felt the slight pat his brother gave him on the back.

If that wasn’t bad enough, he then leaned into Brent’s back and whispered loud enough for only him to hear, “Don’t worry about it, man. Everybody gets horny at weddings.” With another pat, Jason laughed again and then leaned back to his original position.

Horny. Hell, yeah he was horny. But the wedding had nothing to do with it. The person to blame was sitting to the left, a few rows back, bouncing her sweet leg back and forth and lightly letting her tongue play with her upper lip. Brent wondered if she knew she was doing it or how much he would have liked giving her something to lick from those lips.

On cue, Brent handed the gold band over to his brother and watched as he slid it onto Willa’s shaking finger. It was over. Just like that, his brother had taken his life as he knew it and flushed it straight down the toilet. He had officially given Willa permission to break his heart this time.
Oh well
, Brent thought,
better him than me.

Chapter Seven

Peyton like weddings, she didn’t love them, but she liked them. She liked having the opportunity of getting out of her usual jeans-and-T-shirt combo and trading them in for a dress. Especially this dress. She’d bought it over a year ago on a whim and until today had never had the occasion to wear it. It was short and satin with a light floral print around the hemline. The sleeves were slightly puffed and the V in the front was just deep enough for the outfit to be appropriate.

Standing away from the crowd of well-wishers, Peyton watched the blushing bride and the gorgeous groom prepare to cut the cake. Saying that Chase Kiel and Willa Tate, Willa Kiel, were a good-looking couple was an understatement. He was tall and dark and she was small and blonde, they were perfect. Peyton felt a smile cross her lips as Chase leaned in and briefly kissed his new wife’s lips. She wondered if anyone besides her had noticed his tongue flick across them. Probably not.

“Why are standing by yourself, pretty lady?” Startled, Peyton jerked her body around to see the man who owned the voice so close to her ear.

“Shit.” Hissing, she slapped at his broad shoulders. “Jason, don’t do that.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” He chuckled and stepped up beside her, sliding his hands into the pockets of his tux and looking at the crowd before them. “Who you hiding from?”

“No one. Just trying to stay out of the way. What about you? Why aren’t you out there looking for your next conquest?”

“Just trying to lay low for a minute is all.”

Peyton knew the one and only reason Jason Kiel ever laid low. “Who is she?”

Jason winced. “Tessa Trapp.”

Peyton rolled her eyes.

“Jason! She’s engaged to be married.” As a matter of fact, she and her fiancé at the present moment were speaking to the bride and groom. “You know one of these days you are going to stick your hand in the wrong cookie jar.” It was the truth.

Jason’s ways would catch up with him and take toil on his body—in one form or the other. He would either end up with a daddy aiming a shotgun at his back or a boyfriend, fiancé or husband aiming one at his dick. It was a tossup which one would happen first.

“It’s not my hand I’m worried about.” He wiggled his eyebrows at Peyton, causing her to laugh. “And just so you know, it’s Tessa wantin’ to mess with me, not the other way around.”

“Wantin’ to? You mean you haven’t taken her up on her offer?”

“No, ma’am. Not a one.”

“Well, good. I’m proud of you, Jason.”

“Yeah, yeah. Stop braggin’ on me. You might make me blush.”

“Now that’s a sight I’d pay money to see.”

The pair was silent for a moment as they watched the married couple take the center of the dance floor that had been laid especially for the wedding. The band began playing an old George Strait song, one of Peyton’s favorites, and the groom held the bride close to his body. The love that flowed from Chase oozed over Peyton. A complete idiot could see how much they loved each other. Wanted each other. Needed each other. Speaking of complete idiots, Peyton’s eyes danced across person after person until she saw the one she was looking for.

There he stood, far away from anyone else, with that damn sullen look on his face. Peyton blew out a frustrated breath, which caused Jace to look her way. He didn’t seem to notice who she was staring at—thank heaven for small favors.

Brent had disappeared just as soon as the ceremony ended. At least he’d decided to return to the festivities. That was something. Peyton actually was a little surprised to see him here, glad that he was, but surprised nonetheless.

“Dance with me.”

“What?” Peyton’s attention was pulled away from Brent and all his animosity and focused on Jason and his outstretched hand.

“Dance with me.”

“Why?”

“God, Peyton. Just do it. Don’t ask a million questions. Just go with the flow.”

“Fine, but keep your hands to yourself, cowboy.”

“I’ll try, darlin’. I’ll try.”

Letting him pull her to the floor was probably a bad idea. Tomorrow the entire town would be gossiping about her and her dance with Jace Kiel. She wondered who would be the first to call Carter and express their concern. She wondered how Carter would respond to the concerned call. Would he let the cat out of the bag about their broken engagement? She hadn’t even gotten around to telling her parents about it yet. She was too embarrassed. She could hear the gossip now, “Poor Peyton James, she just can’t get a man to marry her”. She wasn’t ready for that. She sure didn’t want the majority of Millbrook knowing about it before she could break the news to her mama and daddy. She also wondered if Carter would answer their call when he wouldn’t answer hers.

“Relax, darlin’, let me take care of you.”

“The last time you said that I ended up in a jail cell with you as a roommate.”