Tempting the Best Man - By J. Lynn Page 0,20

I’m sure some of the other bridesmaids would love to help.”

Being the maid of honor, these were the kind of things she should be doing and she actually wanted to. And the other girls had done so much, stepped in whenever Madison had needed their help. “It’s okay. I can do it. Let them relax.”

Lissa relented, but she passed a look to Mitch.

Madison loosened her grip and smoothed her hands over her denim skirt. Sitting across from her was Chase. Even though he hadn’t said more than two words to her since she crawled out of bed, she could feel his eyes on her.

Last night… Dear God, he’d had to help her change out of her dress and she’d admitted that she slept naked. Well, she definitely added another notch to the humiliation belt. Swearing off wine forever, she stole a quick glance at him.

Their eyes locked just as the tour guide stopped by a large stone building. Everyone unloaded in a rush. Mitch and Lissa in the front, their arms snug around each other’s waists. Her parents were just as cuddly. Like Chase had said earlier, they were treating the trip like a honeymoon. They hadn’t had a real one after they married, so Madison was glad to see them having so much romance and fun.

“Here,” said a deep voice.

Madison looked up, surprised to find Chase beside her, holding a bottle of water. She took it, offering a tentative smile. “Thank you.”

He shrugged. “I’ve seen many hangovers worse than what you have, but the water should help.”

Chase would know, she thought, unscrewing the lid and taking a drink. Besides running three clubs where liquor poured from the ceilings, he’d been quite the partier in college, and then there had been his mother… Chase and his brothers had probably learned how to treat a hangover at an early age. She always found it strange that Chase had gone into the nightclub business, but he was clearly determined to be “like father, like son,” she supposed. His dad had owned dozens of bars and nightclubs. It seemed only natural that one of the brothers would’ve followed suit.

But Chase… He wasn’t like his father, not really. He wasn’t as cold as the elder Gamble or as selfish. A fine shudder rolled through Madison as she recalled the few times she’d been in the Gamble house. Once when she was just a kid and then when she’d been seventeen. Both times, the house had been sterile and frigid. His mother had been a lifeless shell, living from one wine bottle and prescription pill to the next. The woman had loved the boys’ father to the point of death and their father…he hadn’t seemed to care.

Discreetly peeking at Chase from behind her sunglasses, she noticed again how out of the three brothers, Chase was the one who resembled his father, but even with the clubs, the girls, and the success, he was the least like him.

He just couldn’t seem to stop acting like he was.

When he glanced at her, she looked straight ahead. Why was she even thinking about this stuff? It didn’t matter, and if she didn’t start paying attention, she’d tumble right down the narrow steps the guide was leading them down into the wine cellar where thousands of bottles were racked and stocked from the floor to the ceiling.

Something was different about Chase today as he joked with his brothers and Mitch. Like a tension in his shoulders that hadn’t been there yesterday morning had set in. She hoped it wasn’t from sleeping on that terrible couch.

The air was several degrees cooler in the wine cellar, and she rubbed her arms, chasing the chill away. Since wine storage wasn’t of much interest to her, she roamed off, following the maze of bottles.

Good Lord, if she were claustrophobic, being down here would be a problem with how tight and narrow and tall the racks were.

Her flip-flops smacked on the cement floor as she tried to read the names on the bottles. Most of them were unpronounceable to her and honestly, she’d go to the grave before she had another sip of that stuff.

The voices of the group faded off as her fingers trailed along the chilled bottles. She wasn’t a big drinker, obviously. Last night had been out of the norm.

Stopping at the edge of the rack, she glanced over her shoulder, suddenly realizing she couldn’t hear anyone anymore. Frowning, she backtracked to where she thought she’d left them, but no one