And her bodice fit snug against her skin.
She looked cute, damn it, pregnant and all.
“Look at my chest.” Jamie pointed a finger to herself, wondering what exactly she had done to deserve such bad karma.
Mandy’s eyes widened. But she said, “It looks a bit…low, but it’s fine.”
Jamie didn’t believe her for one second. Mandy, bless her heart, was trying to spare her feelings, knowing perfectly well there wasn’t a single thing Jamie could do about the dress two hours before the ceremony.
Allison wasn’t quite as diplomatic when she walked in behind Mandy. “Whoa. Where’s the stripper pole?”
Jamie didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Mandy said, “Allison! That’s a hideous thing to say.”
“I can’t help it. I’m jealous.” Allison looked down at her flat chest and shook her head. “I don’t have enough, Jamie’s got too much. So unfair.”
Jamie yanked the dress again and threw her arms up in despair. “If I could share them I would, believe me. That’s it! I’m getting a breast reduction.”
“Today? I don’t think there’s time, sweetie.” Allison smiled as she patted a hair back into place that wasn’t even out of place, that Jamie could tell.
She laughed, in spite of her dress. “Very funny. I meant later, but soon. As soon as I save up some money.”
Mandy said, “But you know if you do that you can’t breastfeed.”
Jamie hadn’t thought about that, but she was doubtful she would be able to, even though she usually advocated anything natural. “Mandy, can you see me breastfeeding? I’d have enough to feed a small village.”
Allison snorted. “There’s a mental image. It takes a village…or Jamie.”
The buzzer at their front door rang as Jamie wished her breasts to perdition.
Allison rushed to the door and hit the button. “What?”
“It’s us. Come on down, the limo is parked in the fire lane.”
Jamie knew that voice belonged to Jack because of the way her breath disappeared and her legs started to spontaneously wobble like one of her mother’s Jell–o molds.
“Oh, God!” She dug her hands into her bodice and pulled up as hard as she could. Her hand slipped on the satin, and her fist ricocheted back and whacked her nose.
“Ow.” She rubbed her throbbing nose, eyes watering.
Allison ran across the apartment, her skirt lifted up in her hands. “I can’t find my purse, and I told Jonathon we’d be right down. He said we’re late for pictures.” Allison started throwing the sage green couch cushions on the floor in her frantic search.
Mandy had already padded back down the hall, calling, “I don’t even have my shoes on yet.”
The buzzer rang again.
Allison went into the kitchen, eyes darting left and right for her purse. “Jamie, go on down and appease them. We’ll be right down in a sec.”
Great. Just what she wanted to do. Appease Jack.
Grabbing her own clutch and giving her hair, pulled back in a knot, a final smoothing, she took a deep breath and headed for the door.
Walking down past the third floor she reminded herself that Jack was Caroline’s brother and wouldn’t misbehave at her wedding.
Past the second floor she reaffirmed that ending their relationship, such as it was, was the smart, intelligent thing to do.
As she gulped and stepped up to the front door, she told herself that grimacing from desperate lust most definitely would not look good in the wedding pictures.
She pushed the door open, and there he was, his hand in his pocket, rattling change.
If Jack had looked good in a suit, he looked like sexy sin in a tuxedo. Jamie felt longing blaze up in her like a five-alarm fire.
Her mouth went dry.
She might have squeaked.
And she started to wonder if maybe she should just accept what Beckwith and Jack and even Allison were telling her.
That fate wanted her to get naked with Jack.
Jack turned from hitting the buzzer for the third time and stopped cold. Or rather, hot. Holy shit.
Jamie had opened the door and was standing there, a vision in pale blue with her hair tamed and wound up on her head. A picture of passion. His every fantasy called up and brought to life in breathtaking beauty.
She was the most intriguing combination of shy and sensual, naïve, yet knowledgeable. She licked her lips with a little sigh, the wetness of her tongue making a small smacking sound as she rolled it around her mouth.
Blood was rushing in his head, and other obvious places, as he lowered his eyes to her chest.
The sight that greeted him was awe-inspiring. In defiance of the laws of physics, somehow her dress wasn’t in a pile around her waist, but was just hanging there in front of her. Barely covering her considerable assets, and leaving a whole expanse of creamy white flesh exposed.
He came close to passing out, a garbled moan forcing out of his mouth.
“You look…amazing,” he managed to say.
Her cheeks tinted pink. “Allison and Mandy will be down in a minute. Allison lost her purse.”
He didn’t care one flipping bit about Allison and her purse. “This is nice,” he murmured, reaching out and brushing his thumb against the smoothness of her hair, so different from her normal tumble of curls.
A tendril had escaped and spiraled defiantly, and Jack twirled it around his finger. “I love your hair down, but this lets me see your long, luscious neck.”
Before he even knew what he was doing, he had leaned forward and placed his mouth below her ear.
She jerked back and crashed into the door of her apartment building. “Stop that. Steve and Finn are sitting right in the limo.”
He didn’t care about them any more than he cared about Allison’s purse. “So, it would be okay if we were alone, then?”
“Yes.” She clapped a hand over her mouth. “I mean no! Of course not.”
She was flustered, and that was a good thing.
He smiled and started forward, intent on claiming another kiss. He’d thought a lot the night before, wondering what it was about Jamie that he admired so much. After mentally listing about nine hundred things, he had decided the bottom line was that Jamie was totally unselfish and knew herself.
That was very sexy. Except she was completely wrong about what they should do now. She wanted to end whatever was growing between them. He wanted to nourish it, explore it, enjoy it.
“I meant what I said last night, Jamie. I’m not going anywhere. Every time you turn around, I’m going to be there, waiting until you’re ready.”