He paused. “Why?”
In spite of licking her lips and sending a shot of lust through his core, the expression in her eyes was friendly, not flirtatious. “I don’t rob cradles.”
Damn it. “I’m legal in all states and provinces.”
“You’re a baby. Cute, but a baby.”
“Is that why you wanted to crawl into bed with me when we met at the top of the stairs?” She stumbled and he caught her quickly. “Shit. Sorry, that wasn’t very polite. True, but not very polite.”
“I did not want to—”
“Careful. Maggie told me you were the most trustworthy person she’d ever met. Hate to ruin your reputation.”
She growled and he grinned. Feisty wench. He liked that in a woman.
“Fine. You’re a good-looking guy and yeah, I did picture tangling the sheets with you.” Hallelujah! “But you’re too young and I’m here for the wedding and that’s it.”
TJ tried to keep the image of them naked in bed from distracting him as they walked in silence for another few paces. Unfortunately he had a good imagination. The too-young thing he could work around. The fact she was being stubborn? Oh, he loved a challenge.
“Stop it,” she whispered. Her voice was deep and husky, slipping like a caress over his already super-sensitive nerves.
“Stop what?”
She wiggled her hand on his arm. “That. You’re…rubbing me.”
Oops. He stilled his thumb from the circles he was tracing on the back of her hand. Seemed neither of them could resist touching each other, which only made sense as mates. A faint flush covered her soft skin from the low neckline of her dress up to her hairline, and he had to look away before he did something too wolfish like drop her to the ground and lick her until she screamed in pleasure.
“What happens after the ceremony?” Pam asked. “I forgot to check with Maggie to see if there was anything I needed to do.”
I take you home and make love to you all night long. “We head in, enjoy dinner then I’m singing before the dance begins.”
“You sing?” There was a trace of something in her voice. Doubt?
“I sing. Are you surprised?”
“Not at all,” she lied.
TJ snorted. It was a deception he recognized easily. After too many years of being expected to screw things up, he knew exactly what someone meant when they spoke in that particular tone of voice.
“You want to join me for a few songs?” he teased.
She choked for a second. “Trust me, that would be a bad idea. In fact, for a wedding gift I’m considering swearing to Maggie to never attempt to sing in her presence again.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Put it this way, I can hit notes they haven’t invented yet.”
He chuckled and she joined him in laughing, and suddenly the wall she’d wedged between them crumbled a little. They paced slowly, following Maggie and Erik on the final circle of the yard.
“So if you won’t sing, will you dance with me?” Surely he could keep his feet under him for long enough to dance without making a fool of himself. Of them both.
The grip she had on his arm tightened slightly. “I’ll consider it. Looks like there’s a lot of single guys around to choose from.”
Do not growl. Do not growl. It took all his strength to fight the instant urge to claim her in front of the whole damn pack. Like hell was she going to dance with anyone other than him. “I get first dance though, you know, wedding party and all.”
“That might be…nice.”
Nice? Bloody hell.
He ignored the questioning glances his big brother shot in his direction. Fine, maybe Pam didn’t know about werewolves, and maybe he was in for a hell of a lot of trouble figuring out how he was going to solve this mess, but one thing he knew without a doubt.
She was going to be his. Body and soul.
TJ stepped around her, positioning her at Maggie’s right hand. Pam shivered as he leaned in close and brushed his lips lightly against the skin beside her ear. He spoke barely above a whisper. “I guarantee it’s going to be a whole lot more memorable than nice.”
Pam stood to the side, her fingers squeezing so hard around the flower arrangement Maggie had passed her she heard some of the flower stems crack. Across from her, TJ held her gaze with his and damn, the man was enough to distract a saint. She barely heard Erik and Maggie exchange vows, she was too caught up in admiring his clean-cut good looks. Getting lost in his mesmerizing dark eyes. She wanted to interrupt the ceremony to demand he stare elsewhere, but at the same time she couldn’t help but be flattered.
Maybe a short fling wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all.
The whole service passed in a blur as they locked eyes. Inside, a flame burned, desire wrapped around her core and made her heart pound. There had to be something in the northern air causing her to react like a sex-crazed ninny.
A discreet cough brought her back to her senses, and she hurried to join Maggie and Erik as they moved down the aisle between the chairs, headed for the hall. TJ’s warm hand slid around her waist and goose bumps rose. He ignored her wiggled attempt to dislodge him, instead tucking her tightly against his side and lowering his head until his lips hovered an inch over her ear. She waited for him to whisper something wicked, something in keeping with the heat of passion he’d been throwing at her for the past umpteen minutes.
The anticipation was killing her and she swore her panties were wet just thinking about him saying something sexy.
“Chicken?”
Not sexy. “What?”
“Or fish? What do you want for dinner?”
She laughed out loud and relaxed against him. “You’re a goof.”
TJ sighed mightily. “So I’ve been told.”
For the next hour he proceeded to enchant her, anticipating her every need. They sat to one side of the bridal couple and throughout the meal he touched her constantly.
“You treat all your visitors like this?” she asked. Blood pounded through her hard enough she could have just finished a marathon.
TJ topped up the wine in her glass as he shook his head.
“I can honestly say you’re the first woman I’ve ever treated this way.” He rested his arm on the back of her chair and her nipples tightened. Would anyone notice if she crawled into his lap and sucked face with him for a while?
Someone at the end of the hall tinkled their wine glass, and the entire room joined in. Maggie and Erik rose good-naturedly and when he dipped her, kissing her passionately, the crowd shouted their approval. The whole event was exactly the kind of celebration Pam had hoped for her best friend.
TJ squeezed her shoulder as he stood and made his way to the front. He grabbed an acoustic guitar from somewhere and plopped himself on a stool.
A murmur rose from the crowd and TJ grinned sheepishly.
“Yeah, it’s a new guitar, but this time it’s not my fault. A certain little boy I was babysitting thought the old one would make a dandy boat.”
Gentle laughter carried through the air as TJ tuned the strings, his fingers moving smoothly. He turned to address Erik and Maggie. “I know you requested your favourites, but if you’d humour me, I have a song I wrote a while back. I’ve been saving it for a special moment and I think this is about as special as it can get. It’s called ‘Eternal Love’.”
He strummed a few chords before slipping into a simple melody, fingers picking individual notes to accompany his rich tenor. Their gazes met and he sang to her. Pam’s throat tightened. She shifted uncomfortably in her chair as she listened to the lyrics. It was all so airy-fairy and impossible and yet—something deep inside wished it was possible for a love like he sang about to be real.
A love that lasted forever? Fresh each morning?
Bullshit.