Three Little Words Read Free

circle. His sheepish smile wreaked havoc on her booze-addled senses. His thighs brushed the fabric of her dress. The silky material slid over heated skin. Suddenly she didn’t miss her trusty control-tops one bit.
    Snug against the solid length of him, she craned her neck to meet his gaze. “What are you doing here?”
    “Eating the medium-cold stuffed chicken, drinking free booze, trying to make time with the prettiest lady in the room.”
    The glib answer tripped off his tongue, a short, simple reminder of who her partner was. Will Tarrant was more than a flirt. He was a man disarming enough to be dangerous.
    “I meant, how do you know Ben and Kaylin?”
    “I’ve known the groom since his mommy and daddy said, ‘Oops!’”
    “Oops?”
    “Oops. That’s how a good guy like Greg ends up wasting twenty years of his life with a woman like stick-up-her-ass Emily. Oops.”
    His derisive tone made her eyebrows jump. At least, she thought they jumped. The buzzing in her blood made every movement seem super-sized. “Are you mocking him because he stepped up and did the right thing?”
    “He did the expected thing. Their marriage didn’t last past Ben’s twenty-first birthday, so it wasn’t the right thing, after all, huh?”
    “I forgot how jaded you are.”
    “Realistic.”
    “I bet you’ve never married.”
    “Never found the right girl.” A wicked glint lit his eyes as his fingertips bumped along the line of her spine. The heel of his hand came to rest above the curve of her ass. “How are you? Only good things happening for you?”
    She almost choked on the question’s casual assumption. Will was the kind of man who never did anything he didn’t want to do. How could she possibly tell him she’d given up having choices mere hours after he left her bed all those years ago?
    “Yes, my life has been a dream come true.”
    His snicker told her the sarcasm hit its mark. “Good, I’m glad.”
    The gentle pressure of his fingertips in the small of her back held her snug against him. He led with the easy confidence of an expert. She shouldn’t have been surprised. Will had been waltzing his way through women since he mastered the art of the sustainable hard-on.
    “So, Josie.” He drawled the nickname directly into her ear. “Anyone waiting at home for you these days?”
    She stiffened and pulled away, prying her reluctant body away from the heat of his as her mind raced. The smug smirk on his face should have made him look like a complete dick, but it didn’t. He was a man made to observe humanity with a hefty dose of amused contempt. And she was a woman determined to reshape her destiny.
    Jo didn’t want to flirt. She had no patience for being coy. The days of playing the unattainable woman of mystery were long behind her. She had the cards she’d been dealt. Damned if she’d give in and fold just because life was playing with a marked deck.
    “No, but I do have a giant hole in my porch and a thousand termites. So, I’ve got that going for me.” She attempted to tug her hand from his, but Will held fast. “I don’t want to play this game. I don’t want to dance with you. I want—”
    “Easy. Not a game, just a dance.”
    She squinted up at him, trying to decipher the hidden agenda lurking behind his devil-may-care exterior. At last, full lips settled into a grim line of defeat. He heaved a put-upon sigh.
    “I was flirting, Josie.” He took her pause as permission to pull her against him again. The carefully cultivated scruff on his cheeks and jaw snagged her hair. His lips grazed the burning tip of her ear. “You used to be much better at this.”
    The whispered chastisement cooled her ire. “Yeah, well, I used to be better at a lot of things.” She pressed her cheek to his lapel, and settled into the smooth pattern of his lead. “You’re not exactly out of practice.”
    “Oh, don’t be so quick. Now I’ve seen you again, and I’m thinking my number might be up.”
    The blatant