"I…um…thanks?" I mumble, clutching at the lapels to hold it in place.
"It'd be an absolute tragedy to let those perfect tits get struck by lightning," he says, reaching out to brush his thumb along my cheek. "We can't have that, now, can we?"
"W-what?"
"I said it'd be a tragedy if those perfect tits got struck by lightning," he repeats. "I can't allow that."
So, I did hear him correctly.
"You did not just say that."
"Oh, I did. Meant it, too." He winks at me before turning on his heel and striding away. "See you at the end of the aisle, beautiful."
"Looks like you dried in time," Briggs murmurs after the ceremony, looping his arm through mine.
"What?" I glance up at him, startled.
"Your dress," he says from the side of his mouth, ushering me down the aisle past all of Sophie and Harlan's friends and family. "It dried."
"Oh. Right." My hands clench involuntarily around my bouquet. I almost managed to block out the fact that he saw my boobs a few hours ago. "Blow dryer."
He just grins at me, standing so close I can't breathe without inhaling his scent. God, why does he have to smell edible?
I try to focus on making it down the aisle and then out the doors, but all I can think about is the way he feels pressed up against my side. I don't see any of the smiling faces around us. Everything is a blur as we take our place in the receiving line on the steps outside.
"You look beautiful," he murmurs in my ear.
I startle again, turning a suspicious gaze up at him. "What game are you playing, Briggs?"
"Game?"
"Yes, game," I growl. "You've been weird since we met."
He eyes me levelly for a long moment before a slow grin spreads across his gorgeous face. With a shadow from the awning partially obscuring his eyes and the sun spilling light across his lips and chin, he looks part angel, part devil. "Who says I'm not weird all the time, Tia?"
"I'm not sleeping with you."
A deep rumble of laughter escapes his lips, drawing the attention of everyone around us. I scowl at him, but he just steps closer, crowding me.
"You think I'm after a wedding hookup?"
"Seems like it," I grumble, trying to put a little distance between us. "And if that's the case, you can go ahead and get lost now. I don't sleep with my brother's friends. I don't date hockey players. And I'mnotinterested in you."
Well, that's blunt enough, right?
Wrong.
Briggs just tips my chin up with his fingers, still smiling like I didn't just reject him on the steps of a church. "I'm not trying to fuck you, Tia. If I were, you'd already be naked. I'm after something else."
"Yeah?" I lick my lips, suddenly nervous. "And what's that?"
His brows furrow like he's still trying to work that out for himself. "I'll let you know when I decide."
I can't help the shiver that runs through me. And it's not because I take his words as a threat, either. I think Iwantto know what he wants from me.
And that has bad idea written all over it.
"Do me a favor," I say, sliding away from him, "don'ttell me whatever you decide. I don't want to know."