Tempting the Best Man - By J. Lynn Page 0,47

to dance under the low lights and candlelight, but he knew something was up with her. He just wished he could figure out where it’d all gone wrong. He could have sworn when he’d gotten up that morning they were both finally on the same page.

Acid gnawed at his belly like no tomorrow. He tried to convince himself that it was an ulcer. Hell, an ulcer would be better than what really had his insides churning and spinning on themselves.

All night, Chase had tossed and turned like he’d drunk a bucket of coffee. Maddie’s words lingered with him long after they’d been said. He replayed them over and over again, analyzing them like an obsessive teenage girl. That’s what he’d been lowered to. Damn.

Chase leaned back in his seat, idly turning the stem of his flute of champagne.

The way things had been left between them wasn’t good, and it made him all kinds of itchy giving her the space she obviously wanted.

He felt like shit, unsure if it were something physical or more. Throughout the day, he’d convinced himself that when he returned to the city, there’d be enough going on to distract him. There was the responsibility of running his clubs to lose himself in; the plans to open a fourth, which meant a lot of meetings to occupy his time; and there were women…

Chase’s stomach soured at the thought, and he didn’t like it.

His gaze slid back to where she sat beside her parents. Shit. He needed to stop staring at her like a lovesick hound. Someone was bound to notice. Hell, people had already noticed, including Mitch.

Against his will and common sense, he was staring at Maddie again, practically willing her to look up and notice him.

And she did.

Chase sucked in a breath, barely aware that Mitch had stood and was giving a toast to his new wife. He wasn’t hearing a damn thing except the pulse pounding in his ears. A simple look from her and his body was already coming alive. He was hard as forged steel. Freaking ridiculous. Aw hell, it was more than that—this instantaneous physical reaction that just wouldn’t go away.

“To us!” Mitch cheered, holding up his champagne glass. “To our future!”

Madison raised hers, her gaze still locked with his. Her lips moved, mirroring the same words he murmured, “To our future.”

Chapter Twelve

Chase woke up Sunday morning, covered in a cold sweat. Either he was coming down with the plague or he was having withdrawals from the pollution and smog of DC.

Or it was something entirely different and it had a name.

Maddie.

He rolled onto his side, opening his eyes and squinting at the rays of sun seeping in under the blinds. One look at the clock, and he knew he didn’t have a whole lot of time to lie in bed. Mitch and Lissa would be leaving soon for their honeymoon in the Bahamas, and Chase wanted to see them off.

There was also a hidden agenda.

Chase wanted to see Maddie, and he hoped he could corner her before she left for the city. They needed to talk, and with the wedding celebrations over, it would be the perfect time to do so. No distractions. No family or friends lingering around to overhear the conversation. No way for her to escape.

Kicking off the sheets that were twisted around his hips, he stood and stretched. It had taken until the wee hours of the night, but Chase had finally figured out what had Maddie running scared. She’d claimed she just wanted to be friends now, but he was calling bullshit on that. If that were the case, she wouldn’t have been so offended when he’d suggested hooking up. And she wouldn’t have been his little shadow for the last several years.

No. She was lying. Lying to protect herself, and he got that. After all, he’d done nothing to show her that he felt any differently than what he’d been saying all these years, that he was no better than his father. If anything, he’d proven she was right time and time again. The first time had been the opening of the nightclub.

Stepping under the hot spray of the shower, he cursed. Remembering how delectable she looked in her black dress that night, staring at him with those wide, innocent eyes, and he was hard as a rock.

He had wanted her then, had come so close to taking her right there on the couch in his office. Her brother hadn’t been the only thing that