Tempting the Best Man - By J. Lynn Page 0,34

it’s time for a toast.”

“And hopefully something to eat,” Mitch said, grinning. Lissa playfully smacked his arm, and he laughed. “Go ahead, Chad.”

Chad cleared his throat melodramatically. Half the table was leaning forward, dying to hear what he was actually going to say. One never knew with him.

“I think we can all agree that no one is surprised to be here,” he started out, raising his glass high in the air. “From the moment Mitch and Lissa met, we knew he was whipped.”

Laughter followed, and at the head of the table, Mitch shrugged, accepting what was true. Even though the two had started off as friends, it had been obvious that Mitch had the hots for the pretty blonde.

Chase’s gaze met his eldest brother’s. Chandler quirked an eyebrow and then glanced at Maddie.

“Most of us were taking bets to see how long he went before asking her out.” Chad grinned at Lissa’s surprised expression. “Yep, I said a week. Chandler called two weeks, and good ole Chase said a month and a half.”

Lissa gasped and then grinned. “Mitch asked me out when we’d known each other close to two months.” Her wide smile turned on Chase. “You won.”

He shrugged as he toyed with the stem of his wineglass. Although a lot of eyes were on him, a lot of smiles, Maddie stared straight ahead.

“Betting aside,” Chad went on, “we all knew that Lissa and Mitch were the real deal. No two better people could’ve met. So cheers!”

Glasses rose and a roar of liveliness filled the room. Chase was surprised his brother had relatively behaved himself during the speech. Then it was his turn, and as the best man, he was honor-bound to humiliate his buddy, but like Chad, he kept it simple: short and sweet.

The food arrived and the dinner progressed as it should, for the most part. Everyone around him was celebrating the union of two people who deserved it, but him? He was thrilled for them, but…

Chase glanced at Maddie as she spoke to one of the bridesmaids.

He was an asshole. There was no way around it, and he knew deep down that she was never going to forgive him for his offer. Not that he blamed her. It was tantamount to offering her money for sex. Worse than anything his father did.

Appetite vanished, he pushed his plate back and tried to listen to what one of his college buds was saying. But he noted that Maddie stayed away from the wine. At least there would be no repeat of her dancing with the dickhead.

A possessive feeling surged inside him as he recalled the guy putting his hands on her hips, lifting her off the bench. That guy had no right touching her.

Chase sucked in a sharp breath.

Hell, he had no right to touch her.

When dinner was over, the party broke into small groups and he couldn’t help but notice Maddie steered straight toward her brother and family. Pressure built in his chest, like a sudden weight, settling hard.

Knowing he needed to fix things, but not sure if he could, he felt his mood plummet from bad to shit, which wasn’t improved when Chad sauntered up to him and dropped a heavy arm over his shoulders.

“Little brother,” he said. “You’ve got that look on your face.”

Chase casually shrugged his brother’s arm off but took the beer he offered with his other hand. “What look?”

“The same look you had before you knocked the crap out of Rick Summers for getting too friendly with Maddie in the car that one night.”

Chase didn’t like where this conversation was going.

“It’s the same look you got when Maddie was a freshman in college and some guy in your econ class said he wanted to tap that ass.”

The muscle in Chase’s jaw started to tick. Only Chad knew about that. He’d witnessed it. Recalling the little punk and the horseshit he’d been saying pissed him off all over again.

“And it’s the same look you got on your face last night when she was dancing with that guy,” Chad went on. He smiled when Chase sent him a look. “Yeah, I noticed. And you’ve sat through dinner like someone kicked your puppy into traffic, burned down all three of your bars, then pissed in your face and shoved a fat one up—”

Chase laughed dryly. “I get what you’re saying.”

“You didn’t even smile during my toast.”

He rolled his eyes.

“And man,” Chad said after a moment. “What did you do to Maddie? Because she had the same