Shock - Marie Johnston Page 0,14

family life has balanced him.” She tips her head toward two young girls in twirly white dresses. Girls who could’ve been nieces had I been allowed to be some sort of brother to Ryan and Karoline.

Lia remains quiet as we take our seats. Thankfully, we don’t have to talk to anyone else before the ceremony starts.

Lia crosses one long leg over the other. The movement catches my eye, but my gaze lingers on her satiny skin. She has amazing legs. Shoulders. Legs. What body part am I going to admire next? Fucking toes?

On cue, my gaze trails down her legs to her white strappy sandals and the breath whooshes out of me. Her toenails are bubble gum pink.

Bubble gum pink.

Lia Wescott. The woman who never wears jewelry, has never been seen with a manicure, and doesn’t use a dab of makeup paints her damn toenails.

Lust rips into me. I clear my throat and tear my gaze away. Lia peers at me from the corner of her eye, no doubt concerned that someone else is approaching to piss me off. I wish that’s what had caused my reaction and not that I want to strip Lia down and find out what other surprises are in store.

She’s my friend. Is it normal to want to fuck your female friend so bad you can barely breathe through the need?

It takes the whole damn ceremony to calm my body down. It has to be the abstinence. I’ve been laid too regularly since Cass dumped me. My only other stretch of abstaining was when Cass was pregnant and cut me off, but even then I didn’t have a case of blue balls so bad it strangled me. Over bubble gum pink nails.

Fuck.

I manage to smile and clap when Karoline flounces down the aisle in a wedding dress that billows out in a circle around her.

Ryan lingers behind to invite everyone to the reception and dance afterward. Lia’s arm is back in mine and I fight an internal battle to keep my dick down where it belongs. I refuse to get an erection at my stepsister’s wedding.

“Want to leave?” I quietly ask Mom.

Mom shakes her head. “We made it through the ceremony, and the RSVP was more for the dinner. It’d be rude to leave before eating. But then I’m taking off. I’ll leave it up to you two what you want to do the rest of the reception. You’ve done enough already. I’m…enjoying myself.”

“Are we going to stay for the dancing?” Lia’s eyes are bright. My partner who is all-business and no play is actually looking forward to playing. She goes somber. “I mean, if the dinner goes well.”

I want to leave now. Our encounter with Ryan wasn’t bad, but we still have to face Karoline and her mother. It’s Karoline’s big day. I can’t be a dick to her if she says something insulting. Yet, I’m caught not wanting to disappoint Lia. “If everything’s going well, I don’t see why we can’t stay. It’s just dancing.”

My body, against hers, shaking and grinding… Just dancing. Right.

Lia

Ford has a body cut from stone and right now he’s moving like a giant slab of granite.

When I glance in the direction he’s looking, I see the reason. A matronly woman wearing a mother-of-the-bride dress is cutting through the crowd. Her expression is the same I’d imagine on revolutionary soldiers marching into battle. Stoic, girded, prepared. Her flinty gaze travels over Maggie Monroe to Ford and skips over me. I guess since I’m with Ford, I mean nothing.

“Maggie,” the woman greets in a tone that could ice over a lake. Her neat blond bob is losing ground to silver, but she’s owning it. Her shoulders are back and her chin’s up, like the chip she carries on her shoulder has long since cemented itself into place.

Ford’s mom keeps her expression pleasant. “Helen, what a beautiful wedding.”

Helen’s smile solidifies until I think it might crack. The way she greeted Maggie, and that she kept her married name when Maggie didn’t, is telling. Ford was never adopted and as soon as his stepfather was in the ground, Maggie went to the courthouse, proudly claiming I was born a Monroe and my son is a Monroe.

I’ve seen it enough in my parents’ social circle. Helen Jensen was still in love with her husband when they divorced and he married Maggie. It didn’t matter that he was a cheat and a grade-A loser. Her loyalty and love couldn’t reform him and perhaps she