Page 26 of Bad Boy for Hire

Instead, she touched May’s arm. “The truth is, even though you’re the one who dumped his ass, seeing him move on packs a punch. You’re fine without him. I know that. You came here for Posy, for me, and for Mom and Dad. But you were denied the opportunity to properly prepare for Prescott.”

“May, my beauty!” Cherie Stanton swept in, radiant in a teal dress and a shawl intricately embroidered with gold thread. “I’m so glad you’re here. This wedding would not have been the same without you.”

“I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.” Even after being confronted by Prescott and his child bride.

“I enjoyed the ceremony,” Cherie said, folding her arms over her ample bosom, “but the reception is out of hand. Did you know Posy isn’t tossing a bouquet, or having a father-daughter dance? No cutting the cake? What’s there to do?”

“Dance,” May answered. Posy and her new hubs, Marcus, hadn’t left the dance floor yet. “I’ll have to cut in if I want to say hello to her.”

“I’ll take you out there,” Xavier interjected.

“You dance too?” Paisley asked.

“Who doesn’t?”

Paisley pointed at Terrell, who took immediate offense purely for comedic reasons. “I dance,” he argued.

“Not well,” Paisley quipped.

Xavier offered May his hand. “What do you say?”

Her heart raced. The thought of being in his arms, his hands on her body, their mouths close, their eyes locked…

There was only one answer.

“Yes.”

Chapter Nine

Xavier had told the truth about being able to dance.

May was impressed by his fast moves and his slow ones. Their slow dance had been cut short when Posy finally made it over to say hello, which had left May no choice but to step away from the hottest man in the room and turn her attention to the youngest Stanton.

May leaned back against the passenger seat of Xavier’s Range Rover, her skin still warm where his palms had flattened against her back, her nipples still tingling with awareness from the brush of his wool coat while they’d danced.

He hadn’t brought up kissing her again at the reception, which was for the best. Making out in front of her ex and his entire family would have been poor form. Now that they were driving down a dark road flanked by tall pine trees, however, her thoughts returned to the kiss she hadn’t yet received.

“I was thinking of driving up to the Bluffs.” Xavier slanted a glance her way. “Unless you wanted to go straight home?”

Not ready for the evening to end, she shook her head. “I haven’t been there since high school.”

“Damn. I have to take you now. What kept you away? Fear of heights?”

“Heights are fine, it’s falling from them that’s scary.”

He chuckled.

“The bad girls went to the Bluffs after school, so whenever I felt rebellious, that’s where I’d go. Then I realized it was just a ragged cliff edge which was not that safe, so I didn’t go back.”

“Did you go with your boyfriend?”

“No. I went with my friends. We would drink cheap wine and play music really loud.”

“Bad girl,” he growled, his tone approving. “I promise not to walk close to the edge of the cliff. But on a night like this”—he leaned forward to look out the windshield at the full moon—“I can’t not take advantage of the view. You can see every star in the sky from there.”

“And you like stars.”

“Love them. Even so, the view from the Bluffs is only the second-best view on the lake.”