The Wedding Affair (The Affair Series Book 2) Read Free Page B

realm of reason. It seemed like a stroke of luck when she found an almost matching pair of stretchy lace boy shorts. Not much better but a lot more coverage.
    “Will these do?” she asked waving both in her friend’s face after rejoining her in the bedroom.
    Andi was busily tapping away on her cell phone and did nothing more than briefly glance her way. “Perfect,” she said with an approving nod. “Now get dressed. And hurry! Kyle and his best man are waiting for us on the terrace by the waterfall. “
    Dismissed, she heard Andi laughing quietly as she wandered away. Kyle was the last to arrive, so this would be the first time she’d see her bridegroom in more than a week. Sam was happy for them. Andi and her golf pro hottie were the perfect couple. They shared the same goofy sense of humor, and Kyle clearly thought his fiancée walked on clouds of pixie dust. He’d take good care of her, and that was what really mattered.
    Fifteen minutes later, she stood in front of the full-length mirror and stared at her reflection. Completely made up in an outfit only Andi would choose, she wore a sleeveless cocktail dress with a gold sequin bodice and a short pleated chiffon skirt. The open cut-out back and black satin bow barely covered the useless bra. A pair of strappy Jimmy Choo sandals completed the look.
    The image of a young but far-from-innocent woman stared back at her. Quite a change from the dependable, no-nonsense visual she was used to.
    Biting her lip, Sam studied the high-heeled sandals. Damn, these things are sweet . Mimicking every show-offy runway trick she could think of, she pirouetted and posed until nearly out-of-breath with excitement.
    Andi strolled in just as Sam was stuffing a few necessities into a tiny clutch purse. The flabbergasted expression on her dear friend’s face bolstered her confidence better than a room full of magic mirrors. Though the bride was the fairest of them all, her maid of honor came in a close second.
    “Samantha May Evers. You look gorgeous.”
    Andi twirled a finger. Sam laughed and did a klutzy spin, ending with a boom-shaka-laka-laka gyration. Licking her finger, she touched her ass and made a hissing sound. “Hot!”
    The boisterous laughter and applause from her friend filled Sam with delight.
    “Honey,” Andi drawled—nobody had a better snarky purr—“you might be too hot to handle. Those long legs of yours make the skirt look shorter than it is. Girlfriend”—she chuckled—“you need to dress like this more often!”
    “Don’t think I have the energy. The hair, the face, the lingerie, the shoes. When do you find time to breathe?”
    Andi took her arm and started them toward the suite’s doors. With a surprisingly wistful sigh, she hugged her tighter and said, “I breathe when Kyle sees me, and I feel the rawness in his gaze, Sam. There’s no other sensation like it. It’s like his heart beats for me.”
    Sam was startled when she felt a shudder roll through her friend.
    “That’s what I want for you too, babe. A man who looks at you and sees. Sees the real you. The you who wants, at last, to be seen.”
    Her words would be cryptic to anyone else, but Sam knew exactly what Andi was getting at. They wore masks. Every day. Had to. It was how the world functioned. No one really gave a shit about you as an individual. Hard fact but a real thing. She and Andi were realists. Always had been. Whatever it took to be successful. To be secure. To be a functioning adult in a fast-paced world.
    All the real you stuff happened in private. And the sad truth for Sam was that as time went on, the private held less and less sway. She was on the sidelines because somewhere along the line, she stopped caring about the real you stuff.
    “Until you found Kyle, I started to wonder if those types of guys really existed.”
    Andi snorted. “ Pfft. Word. It’s like you need special glasses to pick out the carefully camouflaged alphas. They don’t like to show themselves,