Sweet Bitter Honey Page 13

  “Okay, then.” Ryan grabbed his son and took Lynette’s hand. “I’m gonna go remind people we are here for a wedding. That work for you, drama queen?”

  Audrey gave him a thumbs-up.

  “Lovely.” She turned the thumbs-up into a middle finger. “Yeah, that’s the sister-in-law I want.” He tugged Lynette out with him, ignoring Cole completely. Unfair perhaps, but if he didn’t get the hell away from the man, there would be yet another scene, and he figured that could wait for another day.

  Cole gripped the dog’s lead and felt Audrey put her hand through his arm. “I love you,” he said, leaning over to kiss her cheek. “I’m sorry.”

  “What for? I’m the one causing the problems today.” She shivered. But he could hear the comforting and now familiar whoosh-whoosh of her baby’s heartbeat. Now that he was used to it, all the extra-sensory shit like hearing things no one else could was not so bad. He patted her hand when the music changed.

  “Um, is this right?” He shifted from foot to foot, more nervous than he’d been in a long time. The string quartet and piano were playing something, but not quite the song he expected. “Audrey, seriously.” He muttered, then laughed. “Al Green? Jesus.”

  She leaned into him. The strains of Let’s Stay Together became clear. “Let’s go. Walk me down the aisle, damn it. I need to get to my man.”

  He kissed her. “I wish I could see you right now. I know you are beautiful, but…”

  “Shh, Cole.” She put a cool palm against his face.

  “No, I’m sorry for being this huge pain in your ass. Something you have to worry about all the time.”

  “I worried about you anyway, you dummy.” She bumped him. “You’re no more a pain in the ass than you ever were. And I’m glad you’re here with me today.”

  “Me too,” he said and felt a rush of fresh air against his face. Brutus pulled him forward and he heard the sighs and “ahhs” of the crowd as he walked his sister down the aisle. At one point he hesitated, getting a whiff of it again—the sweet smell of honey. The same odd scent he’d caught when Ryan’s date, Lynette, passed near him to hand Audrey a granola bar. It had nearly bowled him over then, and it was now, too.

  “You okay?” Audrey whispered, letting him stop a second.

  “No, but what else is new?” He gulped and kept walking, cursing fate that had taken his sight, blinding him not only to his sister’s wedding day but also to the woman Ryan had brought who smelled so tantalizing.

  Brutus stopped, indicating they had reached the end of the walk. He felt Quinn’s hand on his arm, then gripping his. “Thank you, Cole. I promise I will take good care of your sister.”

  He nodded, unable to form words at that moment, kissed Audrey’s cheek and let the dog lead him to his seat. The ceremony was simple and heartfelt and before he knew it, he was standing, clapping and getting jostled out to the aisle again.

  “Hey.” Ryan’s voice hit his ear, making him want to turn and pull the man to him, to kiss him so hard they’d both collapse from the effort. “Nice job,” Ryan said. A strange sort of anger and sadness gripped him, choking off words. He felt Brutus dancing around beside him, sensing his anxiety. “C’mon.” Ryan’s hand was on his elbow, propelling him forward and out of the crowd.

  Then he sensed Jake was on his other side. “Cole, the car’s this way.” He let the other man turn him from Ryan without a word, but the honey-like fragrance he’d smelled when Lynette had been so near him lingered around Ryan like a fog. He frowned, and Jake led him away from the man he wanted, even more than he wanted to have his sight back.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Lynette stared around at the happy group at the reception. Beer rock stars abounded, befitting the nuptial celebration of two of their own. She’d met more famous owners and brewers than she knew what to do with, up to and including Austin and Evelyn Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald Brewing in Grand Rapids was one of the breweries she’d studied before her interview and their story had stuck with her. Turns out, Quinn and Austin had gone to college together—even been fraternity brothers—and they’d let Ryan come out and brew with them during the early days when he was getting his feet under him.

  The two men were talking now, Austin holding a gorgeous little toddler girl who was doing her level best to break free of her father’s arms and hit the floor running. She smiled, ever charmed by little kids, especially the rambunctious ones, and looked around the room. The tables were gorgeous, yet simple, with cream-colored tablecloths, red roses in the center and rich white china and crystal at every place. But in a nose-thumb to convention, the food was a mash up of gourmet and beer snacks. Everything from the huge pretzels with beer cheese made from the Ypsi Brewing India Pale Ale to burgers that were actually sliders of lamb with rich blue cheese were on hand. It was classy to a fault, but over the top, including the five medium-sized ice sculptures of beer steins that graced the buffet.

  She sat back, sipping her beer and watching the party unfold. She should so not have come here, especially not with a Shannon brother. She closed her eyes a split second, relishing the way she felt—sated, enervated and tingly with anticipation all at once. She and Ryan had been fucking around nearly daily, unable to keep hands off each other, and her body was beginning to adapt and want more, which Ryan was eager to accommodate probably more than was necessary.

  The words ‘just this once more’ had become a sort of code for ‘come over here and fuck me’. Which they had done—in his office, between fermenters, at his house and once, memorably, in her own tiny office while she was trying to conduct a conference call with her on-the-road sales staff.

  She caught Jamie when he ran past her, already high on an unlimited supply of cola and cake. “Hey, mister, come sit with me.” She loved this kid. There was no doubt about that. His endless supply of positive energy was contagious. Ryan stressed over his parenting skills, but she had reassured him more than once that such a happy, comfortable-in-his-own skin little boy did not occur by accident.

  “Lemme go. I want to see the dog.” He squirmed out of her grasp.

  “No, Jamie, don’t bother him.” She startled when a warm, wet, distinctly canine nose shoved her arm. “Hey,” she said, smiling and scratching the boxer between the ears.

  She looked up, taking in the full Marine dress uniform of the man attached to the animal. The crisp, formal clothes seemed to hang on him. While it was obvious that at one time he had been bigger, his classical, masculine V-shape was breathtaking. His shoulders were broad but not bulky, his jaw firm, if clenched with stress that marred it. His golden-yellow hair was thick and touched the collar of the uniform jacket. She bit her lip and dispelled the sudden erotic loop of imagery—Ryan and this man, naked, together. “Hi,” she said, holding out a hand. “I’m Lynette.”

  His face turned to hers, and his smile was so incredibly sexy and innocent at the same time her heart hammered. He held on to her a few seconds longer than was polite. She tugged but he wouldn’t let her go. “I hear your heartbeat,” he said quietly.

  “Oh, wow, that’s…um, cool.” She had no idea what to do with her arms, hands or heartbeat. Jamie was all over the dog, who was panting and wagging his tail like mad. The party flowed around them, getting louder by the minute. Suddenly, Lynette wanted to be alone or more precisely she wanted to be alone with the man in front of her. He wore his emotional pain like a medal on his uniform, and something about him compelled her to want to help—or possibly it was because Ryan still loved him.

  Wow. This could get messy.

  She squared her shoulders and stuck with what usually worked best—brutal directness. “You must be Cole.”

  His grin faded slightly. “Yeah, I guess I am the only blind ex-Marine with a dog date here, huh?”

  She leaned into him, determined to keep to the direct path she’d set for herself. “It’s okay. I know about you and Ryan.”

  “Really. Well, tell me then, Lynette.” He put his lips near her ear. The overwhelming compulsion to put
her hands on him made her knees wobbly.

  She gripped the chair back to keep herself from collapsing. The party noises ramped up around them, but she barely heard them. She was too mesmerized by Cole’s face, voice and the warm hand in the small of her back.

  “Tell me what you think you know about me. And Ryan.” His lips tickled, making her break out in goose bumps. She turned her head and caught Ryan staring at the two of them from across the room.

  “I know he loves you,” she said, then took Jamie’s hand and was about to lead him away before she said or did anything she couldn’t take back with the sad-faced, ridiculously handsome blind man in the Marine uniform.

  But Cole gripped her arm, lighting a small fire on her skin. The dog snuffled around her leg, whining as if sensing his master’s distress. “The hell you say,” he said, his jaw tight. “Besides, he has the smell of you all over him right now. I don’t know if it’s your perfume or shampoo or what, but you smell like rich, sweet honey. And I can tell he’s been dipping into it. Not that I blame him.”

  “I don’t wear perfume and I use unscented shampoo.” She tried to stop trembling at his innocuous yet sexy words. She ran a fingertip down his face, unable to resist.

  “I’m not interested in your type.” But his low voice and the warm proximity of his body—something he’d initiated—said otherwise.

  “You say that now,” she whispered, shocked at herself. How she’d gone from practically celibate to caught between two smoking-hot men more interested in each other escaped her understanding. But she was full-on horny now. And knew who could help her out. Something about Cole’s vulnerable strength made her want to weep, to hold him to her breast and to climb all over him and fuck him silly at the same time.

  Jesus, woman you are out of control.

  Without exchanging any more words, she let Jamie pull her away. “Where’s your dad?” she asked, when he stopped in front of the giant buffet of beer-friendly finger food.

  She spotted Quinn’s sons hovering in the corner and took Jamie over to them. They led their cousin straight over to the chocolate fountain. Lynette resisted the urge to stop them, realizing the kid might as well OD on sugar. It was a party after all. She looked around. Ryan was nowhere in sight. And she had never needed him more.

  Ryan frowned. A shiver slithered down his spine. He sipped, chatted with the owners of a couple of large Midwest breweries and tried to keep a bead on his kid, his date and Cole. This whole scene was beyond imagining. He couldn’t wait until it was over. He supposed he’d be taking Lynette home, to his house. Quinn and Audrey were leaving for their honeymoon in a couple of days—Munich, then Belgium, then France. He shook his head at their beer geekiness. The boys were headed back to the west coast to their mother’s, and Ryan felt at loose ends, as if this were the precursor to everything changing in a way he wasn’t sure he wanted.

  The band was setting up, ready to launch the mild cocktail party to the next stage. That weird tingly sensation hit him again. He looked around, ignoring the people in front of him, seeking the red hair of one and the blond of another. He ended the conversation, wandered back to the bar and had them pour him another mild lager. He was trying to keep it cool, to be the sober one.

  A hand on his waist that then dropped down to his ass made his cock press against the back of his zipper so fast he gasped and stepped away from her. “Cut it out,” he muttered into his beer.

  “Ryan,” Lynette whispered, setting his every nerve ending on edge. “I need you.”

  He pulled her close. “No, you don’t.” But he knew what she meant. He grabbed her hand and tugged her away from the crowd, finding the steps down to the basement underneath the club where Quinn and Audrey were holding their reception. His body was crying out, fairly screaming for contact with her—especially since catching her and Cole with their heads close together a few seconds ago.

  They were both so beautiful, so incredible, yet so terrifying. He felt like a marble bouncing between them, yet pulled equally in both directions.

  Now, he no longer heard the band or the conversations or pretty much anything but her voice in his ear. This sex-soaked journey they’d embarked on was alarming to him on some level. Wild, awesome, hot as hell, but yet, lacking something he wanted from her.

  “Jesus, Red, what’s gotten into you?” He shoved her skirt up, needing to touch her, to taste her. She smiled and handed him a condom from her purse. Experiencing a half second of frustration at the interruption, Ryan wondered just how she would feel without the thin latex between them. But he’d declared this a hard-and-fast rule. Her adaption to it was admirable.

  “You have, Ryan. God, help me.” She sighed. He ran his thumb across her lips and stroked into her warm, welcoming grip, shoving her hard up against the wall. “That’s it, baby. That is exactly what I want.” She gripped his hair, yanked his face to hers and kissed him, pulling him over the orgasmic edge fast.

  “Shit,” he grunted, gripping her ass and pumping into her. “You are…ah, God.”

  She smiled, threaded her fingers in his hair. “Lucky me. I remembered your condoms.”

  “Yeah,” he said, burying his face between her breasts. A sweet scent filled his nose, something he’d noticed before around her but that seemed even more intense right now in this illicit hidden space under his brother’s newly married feet. “Lynette,” he whispered.

  “Huh,” she said, lifting herself up and off him, zipping him back up and adjusting her dress. “That’s me.”

  He tossed the used condom in a nearby garbage can, his face flushed and his heart pounding. He stopped her from fidgeting around with her hair, held her face and stared into her eyes. “You are going to kill me. Or something.”

  She bit his lower lip and slipped out from under his touch, like she always did. “Something, I’d hope. So you’re around for more.” She took a few steps away. He leaned in the doorway to the storage room, trying to recover and get a grip on his roiling emotions. “Oh, uh, hi, Cole.”

  Ryan tucked his shirt back in, reassembling himself fast, then looked up and saw him, the man he believed he loved, standing with a look of disbelief on his face.

  “You know that honey smell I told you about upstairs? It’s even stronger now,” Cole said, leaning into Lynette but keeping his face turned to Ryan. Ryan started to say something but the sight of Cole’s strong, firm, uniform-clad form close enough to Lynette to reach out and hold her close had rendered him utterly speechless. Cole went on. “Sorry to interrupt. But your son is throwing a fit worthy of a pop star diva up there. I was sent to find you. I guess I can thank my dog that I got to catch the last bit of your quickie.”

  He put his lips near Lynette’s neck, and she trembled. Cole licked his lips, then turned and walked slowly back up the steps. Ryan stood, mouth gaping open. Lynette scratched her nose and fiddled with her hair. “Wow,” she said, not looking at him.

  “Yeah,” he said, walking past her. But she put a hand on his arm.

  “You need to clear the air with him. For both of your sakes.” Her eyes were sad and Ryan felt all kinds of shitty.

  “Lynette, I…” He tried to summon the guts to say what he was feeling at that moment—to be honest, like they’d declared they would be. They had no emotional connection, at her insistence. But what was washing through him at that moment was nothing but a raw, aching need to watch Cole kiss Lynette. But the words required to describe that sounded selfish, not to mention depraved.

  She touched his cheek then climbed the stairs, leaving him alone with his ragged, tumbled thoughts.

  .

  Chapter Twenty

  The band was getting ready, and Cole realized he would have to do the first dance with Audrey, in lieu of their long-dead father. He sighed, gripping the dog’s lead tight and accepted the beer that Jake put in his hand.

  He had a brief flash of memory, so incredibly bright and painful he had to put the drink down before he dropped it. Dan’s face, dark, handsome and open appeared
as clearly as if the man were right next to him. He pictured him, the night they’d met, when the guy was transferred into Cole’s counter-intelligence unit. They’d been in crisis mode, and Dan had sorted out a huge network snafu that had threatened to take their entire surveillance program down for several hours.

  Cole had sworn off relationships at that point, having been burned by the last guy he’d cared about and had been fighting a very strong compulsion to jump between the legs of a fellow IT grunt—a distinctly female one—that had made him doubt his sanity.

  But Dan’s amazing mix of tall-dark-handsome, computer savvy, dry sense of humor hotness had him floored within hours. They’d danced around each other a while, always wary of being caught. But when Cole had gone on a well-earned shore leave in Southern France, he’d been thrilled but not really surprised when Dan had appeared at his hotel room, six-pack of beer in hand. They had not left the room for nearly two days. And Cole had been able to not only disperse the odd moment he thought he could find sexual satisfaction with a woman but also to fall deeply in love with the younger man.

  “Dan,” he whispered, hating the way his soul darkened when he thought about what had happened. The reception music faded. He could no longer feel the dog’s head under his palm. It was like a black hole had opened up and consumed him, right in the middle of Audrey’s big day.

  He cursed and rubbed his temple. The headache that usually trotted in on the heels of this kind of slide into depression crouched in the corner of his psyche, preparing to pounce and turn him into a quivering mass of no-fun-at-all.

  “Do you want to leave?” Jake’s voice was at once a comfort and an annoyance.

  “I can’t leave,” he said, flinching away from the hand on his shoulder. “Sorry,” he muttered, picking up the beer and draining it, wishing he could just be alone—or better yet, with Ryan. Or possibly even with Lynette—she of the mysterious honey smell and sultry voice, commanding Ryan to come inside her just a few seconds before. He lifted his face when he sensed Audrey standing next to him.