her aunt and uncle, exchanging kisses and greetings, doing her damnedest to appear as though she had better things to do than engage in eye-foreplay with him. Even though she was burningly aware of him.
Definitely interesting. Maybe this wedding wasn’t going to be all pomp and circumstance, after all.
* * *
SETH TOOK A pull from his beer, not taking his eyes off the redhead who had just walked into the room. She was pretending that she wasn’t aware of him, but he knew she was. He’d known it the moment their eyes locked. She was trouble, with a capital T, and he’d always had a thing for trouble.
He let his gaze slide down her body again. She had a great ass, something that was more than evident thanks to the fits-like-a-glove dress, and unless he missed his guess, she was rocking a C cup upstairs.
Very nice.
He bet she went off in bed—not because she was a redhead, but because of the suggestive curve to her lips. No fake orgasms and holding back for Red. She’d go all the way and then some.
Someone nudged him and he turned to find his brother scowling at him.
“No.” Jason sliced a hand through the air.
“What?” Seth put on his best innocent face.
“That’s Jodie’s little sister, Vivian. She is absolutely out of bounds.”
Vivian. The name suited her. A bit different and naughty.
“She doesn’t look out of bounds.” Seth gave her another once-over. Her high heels were serious business, the stilettos made from shiny silver metal.
Hot.
Jason moved to block his line of vision. “Think of her as a nun.”
“Never gonna happen.”
“Then think of my hand around your throat, squeezing slowly until your ever-loving eyes pop out of your head.”
Seth laughed. “Wow, you are really serious about this, aren’t you?”
“These people are about to become my family. Apologizing for my humpy-dog brother is not high on my list of things to do.”
Seth sighed heavily and turned his back on the siren across the room. “Fine. She’s off-limits.”
Jason stared as though he was trying to work out if Seth was sincere. Seth rolled his eyes and drank the last of his beer. When had his brother turned into such a freakin’ stiff?
“I so need another one of these.” He dumped the empty on the table and, hands shoved into the pockets of his pants, headed for the waiter.
There were four years between him and Jason, but right now it felt like four decades. In the space of a couple of years, his brother had gone from being a fun guy who loved to party and hang out to a stay-at-home, cardigan-wearing family-man-in-training. He’d even bought a set of golf clubs last month, for Pete’s sake.
Seth blamed Jodie. Not that she was inherently evil, but she had clearly done something to his brother’s brain, changed its fundamental chemistry so that Jason was now a different man. And he was about to become a husband.
Seth shuddered. Was there a worse word in the English language? Herpes, perhaps. Maybe fungus. But husband had to be up there.
He snagged a beer and surveyed the room. His parents were schmoozing with Jodie’s parents, all of them looking as pleased as punch that they would spend the next thirty-odd years doing exactly the same thing at extended family gatherings. His grandmother was seated, her cane dangling from the table by its crook. But his gaze kept sliding to Vivian.
To her ass, if he was being strictly accurate.
Her skirt was tight with no V.P.L. He bet she wasn’t wearing underwear. She might be wearing a thong, of course, but he preferred his version.
He glanced to where his brother was talking with Jodie and some of her cousins. Jason was preoccupied, his head tilted toward Jodie as he listened to something she was saying.
So attentive. So domesticated.
Since he was otherwise occupied...
Seth headed across the room, only stopping when he was a few feet away from Vivian in her sexy blue dress. She made him wait a full ten seconds before pretending she’d just noticed him.
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t see you,” she said, her eyes sending him a very different message.
A shame he wasn’t allowed to play with her properly. She’d give him a good run for his money.
“Seth,” he said, offering her his hand. “And you’re Vivian. We’re about to become family, they tell me.”
She considered his hand for a beat before sliding hers into it. Her skin was soft and warm, her nails surprisingly short and businesslike.
“Jodie warned me you aren’t brother material.”
She was more of a strawberry-blonde than a true redhead, he decided. Her eyes were an intriguing blue-green, her skin creamy smooth.
He bet she tasted good.
“Did she? I wonder why?”
“You think maybe it has something to do with the whole Marlon Brando On the Waterfront thing you’ve got going on?”
“Damn. And here I was, aiming for James Dean in Giant.”
“You’ll need a cowboy hat to pull that one off.”
“A cowboy hat, huh? I’ll add it to my shopping list. So, Vivian, what do you do when you’re not being the sexiest woman in the room?”
She huffed out a little laugh. “Wow, you don’t mess around, do you?”
“Just calling it like I see it.”
She took a sip from her champagne flute, considering him over the rim. “So, how do you see this working? We slip out between the main and dessert and I do you in the alley? Or were you thinking the bathroom?”
He choked on his beer, going from semihard to hard in no seconds flat. Then she arched her eyebrows and he knew she was yanking his chain.
“Funny.”
“Just calling it like I see it.” She lifted one shoulder in a casual shrug.
The movement caused the slit in her bodice to flare momentarily, offering him a heart-stopping view of cleavage. He was about to respond when he felt the heavy pressure of someone staring at him. He glanced around and met his brother’s dark glare.
Okay. Time to wind up this little chin-wag before his brother burst an artery.
“Vivian, it was nice meeting you. I look forward to seeing you at the altar tomorrow,” he said, offering her a mocking half bow.
“Tomorrow’s
