Aggie stared after him, confused by the longing and remorse on his handsome face. Did he wish he’d found his roots here, or was something else bothering him?
Chapter Seven
During rehearsal, Jace stood where he was told to stand and said what he was told to say and tried to listen to the battery of instructions that Charity relayed with utter professionalism and patience. It wasn’t easy to get a twelve-member wedding party working as a cohesive unit. Especially when Eric was in such a good mood.
“Stand closer to her, Tripod,” Eric said, shoving Jace in the back. “She doesn’t have cooties.”
Jace stepped closer to Aggie. She definitely did not have cooties and if she did, he was willing to be infected.
“Closer,” Eric urged.
Jace and Aggie each took a step closer. Except where their hands were joined, they weren’t touching, but her body heat warmed his chest and a familiar and welcome surge of longing throbbed in his groin. He had a powerful need to get lost in her so he could get over the unexplainable feeling of loss that had consumed him in Katherine’s tomb earlier. He obviously hadn’t known the woman, but as the others had discussed her, he’d felt as if he were yanked from his body, floating away to avoid the crushing reality of the death of someone he loved. He’d felt much the same when he’d learned of his mother’s death and his first love’s—Kara’s—and even when he’d learned of his abusive father’s passing. He was not a stranger to surviving unfathomable losses, but what was truly unfathomable in this case was that he’d never met the woman in question and she’d died almost five hundred years ago.
Standing back to examine the bride and groom, Eric stroked his jaw and chin with one hand, as if contemplating a work of art and finding something off. “Still too much daylight between you,” he claimed.
Eager for distraction, Jace wrapped his arms around Aggie and tugged her against him—belly to belly, breasts to chest.
“Is this close enough?” Jace asked Eric.
“Not quite,” Aggie whispered in Jace’s ear. “I want your skin against mine. Your hard cock inside me. Filling my core. Making me whole.”
Jace couldn’t resist rubbing his overwarm face against hers as it was the only bare skin they currently had available. Her turtleneck sweater needed to go, even if it did hug her large breasts just right. His fingers tightened in the soft fabric at her hips as he fought the urge to make her naked so they could be closer.
“What do you think, Charity?” Eric asked. “Isn’t that better?”
Charity pressed her fingers to her very red cheeks. “Yes, well, uh… I’m not sure… It’s not quite… proper.” The last word came out in a loud whisper.
“There is nothing proper about these two,” Eric assured her.
Jace reached over and smacked him in the arm while the rest of the wedding party laughed at their expense.
“Indeed,” Charity said.
Two practice runs later, everyone knew their parts and now seemed to think they were having their intelligence insulted. Charity proclaimed them ready and they filtered out of the church toward the ballroom where their rehearsal dinner/costume ball would take place as soon as everyone picked up the costumes Eric and Rebekah had selected for them based upon precise measurements collected weeks before. Jace didn’t mind Eric and Rebekah throwing a party—he wouldn’t have even known where to begin—but he did think they’d overreached their bounds by dictating what each person wore. Rebekah waved Aggie over to the rack of ball gowns in one corner of the room. Eric was arguing with Sed over a pair of velveteen knee britches on the opposite side of the room.
Aggie brushed a kiss against Jace’s cheek. “Hurry back to the cottage. I need you buried balls deep inside me.”
Jace flushed with heat. “One nap coming up,” he said.
“Is that what you’ve decided to call it? Your nap?” Her hand brushed against the front of his pants. “I want to do wicked things to your nap, Jace. Don’t let Eric distract you with nonsense.”
Jace chuckled. Eric was an expert at nonsensical distractions. “I’ll hurry,” he promised. He strode over to Eric, who was now arguing with Trey and Brian over lace collars or some such nonsense.
“Why do I always end up wearing the most girly costume?” Brian complained. “Year before last, Trey and Myrna conspired to dress me as Prince Charming and now this? I’m not wearing a cape.”
“It will look good on you,” Trey said, flipping a cape around Brian’s shoulders and tying it under his chin. “See, you look—” He broke off with a snort before bending over to laugh himself breathless.
“Yeah,” Brian said, yanking the bow at his throat to untie it. “That’s what I thought.”
“At least it’s not blue velveteen,” Sed grumbled, holding up his very poofy knee britches. “Who in their right mind would wear these on purpose?”
“It was the epitome of high fashion back in the day,” Eric said, holding a surprisingly straight face. He glanced at Jace and winked before handing him a big white box with his name on it. No sense in standing there arguing, not when he’d soon be mixing nap and Aggie. Box in hand, he turned and stopped just in time to prevent himself from careening directly into Dare.
“This wasn’t your idea, was it?” Dare asked, one dark eyebrow arching high over a piercing green eye.
“No, I voted for a pirate-themed rehearsal dinner,” Jace joked.