Dating a Metro Man (10 page)

Seth reached for the phone. His chest was heaving from exertion still, but he answered as calmly as he could. While he conducted the conversation about a product he’d been seeking, Seth watched sadly as Jenna put on her clothes. She tiptoed quietly into his bathroom and closed the door. His attention no longer divided, Seth mostly tuned into the conversation and managed to hang up before Jenna came out.

“Stay,” he said. “There should be no more interruptions.”

Jenna shook her head. “I need to go. I have the dress fitting tomorrow and a new client at work. I’m getting to design my dream house.”

“Wow. That’s great.” Seth blinked, surprised that Jenna had so easily shared her work with him. “I mean it is great, isn’t it?”

Jenna didn’t seem very pleased at the prospect, Seth thought. This was her chance to make her dream come true. She’d told him about wanting this kind of opportunity long ago.

Jenna shrugged. “Some mystery man has ordered a custom designed house. I’m going to do my best of course, but it seems very strange to not be able to interact with the client who’ll be living in the house eventually.”

“You’re going do a great job,” Seth told her, confidently knowing it was true. “Ever since I met you, I’ve dreamed of making enough money and letting you build a house for me. I bet you’d know exactly what I would like.”

Jenna walked over and perched on the side of the bed. “Probably, but I’d still want to ask you to help me make design choices.”

“Well, if your mystery man doesn’t step forward, count me in as an alternative opinion,” Seth said on a laugh. “I’d love to see the process of building a house and learn what to do when my time comes.”

Jenna laughed at his earnestness. “You would do fine,” she told him, “but I may take you up on your second opinion offer.”

“Call me anytime,” Seth offered. “Are you sure you can’t stay—for one more time?”

Jenna sighed and leaned in to kiss his mouth. “Not tonight. Maybe after the wedding.”

Seth kissed her back, sweeping the hair from her face so he could see her clearly. “I’ve never had after-the-wedding sex before. Is it good?”

“I don’t know,” Jenna said, laughing. “I’ve never had after-the-wedding sex either.”

“I’ll look it up on the Internet and let you know what we need to do,” Seth said, liking her answering giggle.

“I can only imagine what kind of hits will come back on that search. Be careful there. I can’t see you again until after Lauren’s wedding no matter how churned up you get,” Jenna told him.

Seth smiled as she headed to the bedroom door. At least some part of Jenna seemed to recognize that if he was churned up, he’d look to her to take care of it—and him.

“Text me when you get home,” Seth ordered. He watched her nod as she left. He listened for the click, and then slid down on the pillow to rest and wait.

A half hour later the phone vibrated.

Home safe. Thinking of wedding sex now and wish I had stayed. Going to be a long 3 days.

Seth’s laugh rang out in the empty bedroom as an idea occurred to him.

Wish you had stayed too. Going to be a HARD three days.

He hit send and waited. When the phone buzzed again almost immediately, he laughed harder.

No sexting! I hate walking around in wet underwear. Go to sleep Seth.

Seth chuckled at being admonished, but was happy as hell about making Jenna wet.

It’s HARD to sleep when I want you this much, but I’ll try. Goodnight, Jenna.

“Damn, lady—I love you so much,” he said to the phone and hit send again.

When it buzzed a few moments later, he picked it up reluctantly. He knew their fun moment of texting had ended. For a little bit there, it had almost seemed like she liked him.

Goodnight Seth. See you in 3 days.

“Absolutely,” Seth said to the phone. Then he closed his eyes and willed himself to sleep without her.

Saturday was a great day for the wedding. The country club had donated their facilities in appreciation for all the work that Lauren had done over the years. Though it was interesting to Jenna that the strange change of heart from their board of directors had come suspiciously close on the heels of her mother making a personal visit and buying a lifetime membership for her, her family, and friends. The clear implication being that they could either accept her family and friends as upstanding members of Falls Church society, or they could end up working for her after she bought the place.

Jenna knew from a distance people would think her mother had used her money to buy loyalty for Lauren’s sake. Jenna well knew her mother used her wealth and everything else at her disposal to help her friends and people she loved. It was one trait Jenna admired greatly in her mother. Money was a power tool to Alexa Ranger and she knew how to use it well and to the best advantage.

However clever her mother had been in securing the country club for the wedding, Jenna had quickly learned that opting to have the whole small ceremony under one roof meant both wedding party and guests were never out of each other’s sight.

As Jenna smiled for the flashing camera, her thoughts and gaze were with the man across the room talking animatedly on his phone. She couldn’t remember ever seeing Seth so excited over a phone call, and heaven only knew, she’d seen him take a lot of damn calls.

“Smile, Jenna,” the photographer ordered, pulling her attention back to the wedding party.

When the final photo was snapped, Jenna reached out and took the bouquet of flowers from Lauren’s hand. She waved the flowers in the air to a man in a large white hat across the room and received a nod in return.

“Okay, so now this is the part where the bride gets to go stuff her face as much she wants before she has to deal with talking to all her guests,” Jenna said easily. “The chef is plating up food for you and Jim right now.”

Lauren closed her eyes in bliss. “You are the best MOH ever. I feel like I’ll pass out if I don’t get food shortly.”

Jenna put both bouquets in one of her hands, and then laughed and took Lauren’s free hand in hers. It was a two-for-one deal as she tugged Lauren across the room because Jim seemed permanently attached to his bride today. The man wouldn’t leave her side. Jenna had to fight sighing in envy every two seconds.

Jenna’s smile of pleasure was making her face hurt by the time she finally got the bride and groom over to the food. Her mother and Regina were already nibbling, and they looked up as most of the wedding party approached.

“Sydney outdid himself again. I can’t believe he missed another wedding where his clothes were being shown to perfection,” Alexa exclaimed, shaking her head. “Lauren, you and Jenna both look so beautiful.”

Alexa then turned to Jim with a dazzling smile. “You look good too, handsome.”

“I have to say that I do like my suit,” Jim agreed. “Sydney Banes is an extortionist, but the fit of this jacket is amazing. I guess I’m going to have to buy more. Damn Kaiser anyway. It’s his fault I’m developing a clothes fetish.”

Ben walked up laughing. “One great suit does not make a fetish, Gallagher. Trust me—I know these things now. I’m sleeping with a sex therapist.”

“Well, we didn’t sleep much last night,” Regina corrected, laughing softly at the glare her husband gave her.

“Maybe you won’t have to worry about that for a week or two,” Ben said sagely, his focus only on Regina and her laughing mouth as he spoke.

“Forgive me, Benjamin. I’ll behave in public,” Regina said, hooking her arm through his.

“And that will cost you a damn month,” Ben declared softly, grinning at her outright belly laugh. He was still so much in love, he was stupid with it, Ben thought.

“Sorry,” Regina said, finally noticing the whole group was watching and listening to Ben and her. “It’s the whole wedding sex thing. It’s easy to get caught up in the vibes coming off the bride and groom, especially these two.”

The sigh Jenna released was so loud, it had everyone looking at her. Her face flushed at the same time as her breasts buzzed.

Lauren looked down from her six foot height in heels at the cleavage of her much shorter maid of honor with fascination. “Jenna, honey, that’s not where a portable vibrator goes. There are much better places.”

“
Lauren!
” Jim protested in a pained voice, even as he had to laugh. Not that he missed the overly polite woman Lauren once was, but Jim still hadn’t gotten used to hearing her true thoughts every time she opened her mouth.

Alexa, Regina, and Ben laughed too.

Jenna snorted and then laughed, a mannerism so like her mother’s that even she couldn’t deny it. “Sorry to disappoint, but it’s just my cell phone, Lauren. I have a new client who’s going to make me rich and famous. I didn’t want to miss any calls from work. Sorry. I thought I was being discreet hiding it in my dress.”

Turning her back to the group, Jenna fished the phone out of her bust and hit the button to unlock the screen.

She had to read the message twice to figure it out, and then again to believe what he’d sent.

Wedding sex: a condition where a man wants to F the MOH really HARD until she screams with pleasure. Sound about right?

Jenna made a sound of alarm, and her breathing became erratic as her mind conjured up images of other times she and Seth had—oh God, she thought. This is insane. How did he do this to her?

Her gaze raked the room, but she couldn’t find him in the crowd. If she were as tall as her mother, she could have seen over all the people mulling around.

“Jenna? Everything all right?” Alexa asked, concerned at the strangled sound her daughter had made over the message she’d received, and the way Jenna’s body was now tensing up.

Jenna turned back to the group and held the phone against her chest, keeping the message private. “It’s fine, Mama. Everything’s fine. Just—just something I wasn’t expecting has come up.”

Shit. Now I’m lying to people who know me too well
, Jenna thought, feeling the blush creeping higher
.
Besides—she knew exactly what had come up. It was just that she didn’t know the exact location of the man who owned it.

The phone buzzed against her chest again. They all just looked at her when she didn’t immediately acknowledge it and check the message. Jenna realized if she didn’t do it, they would all start to suspect something other than a business call was going on.

Then the grilling would begin.

“Honey, your MOH duties to me are over. You can take all the calls and messages you need to now. Go ahead,” Lauren encouraged, waving her hand that now had a half-eaten roll in it. “You provided food. I’m going to be occupied with this and talking to guests for quite a while.”

Jenna pulled the phone away and hit the button to read the message.

Too HARD to wait. Need you NOW!

She groaned and hit reply before anyone could sneak a look at the screen.

Not now. LATER!

Almost a full minute passed before the phone buzzed again. This time Seth told her exactly what he needed to do and how he planned to do it when he got his hands on her. Jenna started to sweat thinking about how it would be, and didn’t even want to think about all the things happening under her dress. Walking was now going to be a challenge in her highly aroused state.

She typed furiously and hit send.

Fine. WHERE?

The phone buzzed back and she had to read the message twice to take it in. All she could think about was getting to him.

Meet me in the hall. I know someplace private.

Jenna sighed and looked at Lauren in apology. “I need to go take care of something. It shouldn’t take long. Give me twenty minutes. I’ll be back for the cake cutting and the dancing.”

Lauren patted Jenna’s shoulder in understanding before she dashed off.

“Sorry, Lauren. Jenna’s been as bad as Seth today about her electronics,” Alexa said sharply, rolling her eyes. “Seth has been on the phone since the wedding ended. He’s supposed to be helping Casey provide security.”

And Alexa had been hoping he’d be paying more attention to her daughter, who didn’t bring a damn date for once.

Lauren shrugged. “Jenna’s been great. I couldn’t ask for a better MOH. She’s done a lot and deserves a few minutes of relief,” she said, smiling at Alexa.

And if Lauren had read the text message correctly, Jenna was about to get some major relief. Lauren would bet her trust fund and Jim’s money that the sender of the sexy message she’d seen on Jenna’s phone was Seth.

“So what’s with the MOH stuff?” Alexa said laughing. “We have to talk in acronyms now?”

“It’s efficient and effective—like sexting—I mean text messaging,” Lauren said, looking at her husband and giggling at his blush. “It was a Freudian slip. I swear. I am seriously trying to behave.”

“What’s wrong with sexting?” Ben asked, looking at Jim’s flushed face. “I like it.”

“Why is everyone looking at me? I didn’t say there was anything wrong with sexting,” Jim said, defending himself, and giving his bride a don’t-you-say-anything-more look.

Lauren giggled again. She sent sexy messages to Jim all the time. Sometimes he sent her one back, but he’d be embarrassed for anyone to know it.

“Well, I don’t know what the big deal is,” Alexa said, shrugging her elegant shoulders. “If I want to tell Casey something sexy, I call him up and tell him. I don’t know what’s so great about seeing it in black and white.”

Regina patted her arm. “Some of us like the titillation of reading the words over and over throughout the day. Plus it’s fun to play word games,” Regina explained. “We’re not all as brave as you are about telling men what we want or need. Sometimes it’s easier to do when you can’t see his face, and it gives him time to think about it.”

Alexa snorted. “I guess I like a more direct approach and face-to-face communication.”

Ben linked his fingers with Regina’s and leaned in to kiss her cheek. “I want to sext you for the rest of my life.”

“Kaiser, you’re so you are pathetic,” Jim said, smirking at the man he now considered one of his truest friends.