Needing Happily Ever After - Elena Aitken Page 0,53

guy. To Jeremy. With his arms on either side of her, blocking her in as if he were having an intense conversation. He couldn’t see Katie’s face, but he could see the way Jeremy leaned in toward her. He could see the proximity that the other man stood to her. He could see him with her. And she wasn’t trying to get away.

“Fuck.” He muttered under his breath, but Nick heard and chuckled with a shake of his head.

“Looks like you have your work cut out for you. A firecracker, is she?”

Damon’s vision clouded and any hope in hell that he had for keeping his jealousy in check went straight out the window as Jeremy leaned in to kiss his wife.

“What are you doing?” Katie squirmed out of Jeremy’s arms, just a little because he was standing too close to get away completely. But enough to stop his lips from touching hers, which seemed to be the most pressing matter. His arms caged her in against the wall. “Jeremy,” she hissed. “I’m married.”

“No.”

He pulled away enough to look in her eyes. They were full of hurt, and Katie felt a rush of sympathy for him. But also a rush of anger. What exactly did he think he was doing?

“This is crazy, Katie. This…whatever it is.”

“It’s a wedding, Jeremy. My wedding. Well, not today but…” Katie tripped over her words, flustered by his presence or his words, or both. She didn’t know. “A few days ago, Jeremy. You can’t do this. I’m married to Damon.” She tried to look over his shoulder to see whether Damon was nearby. She both wanted him to see what was happening so he could put a stop to it, and at the same time, she desperately hoped he hadn’t seen anything because the last thing she wanted was to make a scene or have Damon misconstrue anything.

“You need to talk to me about this, Katie.” Before she could object to what he was saying, Jeremy grabbed her hand and pulled her through a door into the kitchen. “You need to help me understand.”

As soon as they were alone, or at least out of sight from their friends, Katie spun to face him. “Understand what?” He’d clearly had a few drinks, but Jeremy had never been the type of guy to drink much. In all the years they’d been friends and dated, Katie had never seen him drunk. “You can’t do this, Jeremy. I’m with Damon.”

He laughed. Jeremy took a step back from her, dropped his head back and laughed. It was so unexpected that, at first, Katie didn’t know how to react. She stood and watched as humorless laughter overtook him. When Jeremy showed no signs of stopping, Katie turned to leave and rejoin the party. The very last thing she needed was to deal with this. Not now.

“Stop.” The laughter cut off abruptly. “Don’t go.”

Katie froze in place but didn’t turn around.

“Katie, please.” Jeremy’s voice dropped. “You need to explain this to me because I just don’t understand how this happened.”

He sounded so sad and confused that Katie’s heart broke a little bit. She hadn’t led him on. Not really. And definitely not intentionally. But they hadn’t been dating. They’d been… “Jeremy.” She reached out to touch his arm. “I’m sorry if this is confusing for you or if it’s unexpected—”

“Unexpected?” He pulled back and gave her such a harsh look that it hurt her heart a little bit. “I’d say it’s unexpected, Katie. You’ve known Damon for how long?”

She shrugged. It wasn’t a question she needed to answer.

“And for all that time, were you ever interested in him? Like even a little bit?”

She couldn’t answer that. Not honestly. Because the truth was that there had been a few times in the past where she’d considered the idea of Damon as more than a friend. Truthfully, they’d been short-lived and definitely nothing that stuck around as a real thought, but still…there had been times. But if she told Jeremy that, it would hurt him even more and that was the last thing she wanted.

“This is…” He ran his hands through his hair and turned in a slow circle before stopping in front of her. “Is it because of the money?”

Her back stiffened. “Pardon me?”

“It is, isn’t it?” He nodded, as if he’d figured everything out. “I mean, I get it. He’s richer than…well, he’s richer than anyone I know. I get how that would be appealing. I get how—”

“Screw you, Jeremy.” She pulled her