Page 176 of The Wedding

“Cindy…” Etta looked her up and down, taking in the corset, the hair, the garter, the mask…Does she know what’s going on yet?Did she get that Jamie was here to rock her world as one of Monique’s girls? Like the many she had turned away? Or did she think she was hallucinating, and Jamie was some specter sent to make her feel guiltier about what had happened with those girls, with Adele? “I’ve never seen you around here before.”

“Last I checked, you don’t come here often.”

“I may not, but I know the owner well. You think she doesn’t ask me what girls are the best looking before she hires them?”

Is that true?Who knew what was truth and what was a lie now? “I’m special, if you couldn’t tell. I’m only sent in if it’s a dire situation.” She lifted her leg and rested her knee against the end of the chair. “You, Ms. Coleman, are adiresituation.”

Etta’s lips twitched in amusement, but she managed to keep a straight face as she leveled a haughty look at Jamie. “I hate to break it to you, Miss Cindy, but I’m a woman who is spoken for. I’m not interested in anyone but my fiancée.”

“That’s so noble.” Her knee brushed against Etta’s leg. “Last I checked, though, it’s your bachelorette party. You have a free pass to do whatever you want… with whomever you want.”

“Be that as it may, I’m still not interested. I appreciate your position as a woman out to make money off me, and I’m sure you’re very talented and I would otherwise be quite satisfied with your services, but I’m not into having affairs.” She chuckled. “Sorry. You found the one woman like me who is faithful to a fault. Might seem strange to you, but I actually get off on monogamy.” Etta leaned back in her seat again. “Tell you what. I’ll pay for your services so you and Monique both make money. I just don’t want you to actually do them.”

Jamie put her hands on her hips. “For as much as you aremonogamous, I am honest. I won’t take your money.” She had to say the next phrase with a little hum, so she could keep her ego alleviated. “Don’t insult me, Ms. Coleman. You either want my body, or you don’t.”

“I don’t, sorry.”

Etta was really dedicated to this game. Either Jamie would have to take off the mask and claim her real name… or she would have to go deeper.What does it say if I can seduce my own fiancée? At her bachelorette party?Jamie let her jacket slip off her shoulders before looming over the woman, the Clive Christian cologne especially strong tonight. “You sure there isn’t anything I can do to change your mind?”

She was surprised when Etta responded with, “If five naked women rubbing themselves against me couldn’t change my mind, then what makes you think you could?” She was surprised, because how could she have known that Jamie had seen that?

Fine, then.Jamie could take a note from Adele’s page. She would lean down, kissing Etta’s lips while letting hands roam across her chest and down to her abdomen.

The woman was absolutely frigid. She didn’t move, she didn’t respond, and she sure as hell didn’t kiss Jamie back. The most she got out of her was a tiny groan as she brushed against her thigh.

“Do you feel better now?” Etta asked.

The only reason she was letting Jamie get this far was because Etta knew who she was. Had she been the “real” Cindy? She would have finally removed herself from this cursed room. Was it cursed now? After all, Jamie had made her grand appearance, ready to seduce her fiancée and give her the good time she deserved.

“I won’t feel better until you’re inside of me, Ms. Coleman.” She purred that into Etta’s ear, hoping she would succumb to her base desires. Amasculinewoman, as Adele had put it. There was no such thing as Etta being not feminine enough, though. If anything, she could be a differentkind of feminine right now. Strut her shit all over this room – all over Jamie. Was it too much to ask for her to toss Jamie on that couch right there and fuck her until she begged for mercy? She didn’t doubt that’s how it would go down if Etta finally let herself go. “Any hole you want. It’s not cheating if you taste my pussy.”

Etta shuddered, not in anticipation, but in amusement. “It is to me, and my opinion is the one that matters.”

Jamie did her best not to snort at her fiancée’s dedication. Had it been a vanilla situation between them, she would have had to let Etta know how silly she could be at times. “There’s nothing I can do to change your mind?”

Etta’s amusement only intensified. “Well, itismy bachelorette party, and I do enjoy the company of women. Just not ones grinding themselves all over me when I’m spoken for.”

“If you were single? What then?” The sweetness in Jamie’s voice couldn’t betray the genuine curiosity lurking beneath.

“If I were single?” Etta couldn’t help but smile. “I wouldn’t be having a bachelorette party, now would I?”

Jamie wasn’t going to get anything else out of her about the subject, so she slipped off, buttoning her jacket back up and turning away. “Stay here, Ms. Coleman. I’ll create the perfect atmosphere for you. You may not want my body, but I can guarantee that you’ll have the good time that’s owed to you.” She left the room, knowing damn well she would sit there and see what unfolded – and that this was Monique’s master plan.

There was a reason those two were such good friends and made better conspirators than lovers: they were always plotting and planning their ulterior motives all over the damn place!

Jamie ascended the grand staircase, ignoring the polite glances from the maids and bouncers checking her out and deciding if she was a worker or a guest.“I don’t recognize her as one of the ladies…”their looks said,“but she doesn’t look like a commonguest, either.”

It wasn’t hard to find the party on the second floor. Guests and girls were split between the Cigar Lounge and another salon that overlooked the maze out back. Jamie peered into this room first and didn’t see who she was looking for. That meant holding her breath and braving the smoke in the first room.

Jamie hated smoke.Hatedit. If someone was smoking near her, she got up and moved with a scowl on her face. That was one reason to appreciate Monique’s strict no-smoking rule, except for in a couple of rooms. This was one of them, and this was where she found most of the people at the Manoir.

First, she had to weave through the metric ton of cigar smoke filling the room. A large window was open on the far side, and two vents went into overtime recycling the air, but it wasn’t enough to help her see through the haze.I’m going to smell so bad.

She found her first target with a small group of revelers, none of whom Jamie knew. That only made her bolder when approaching.

“Hey,” she said, forceful. Yvette looked up at her, surprised but not shy about how naked she was. For she wasnaked, save for a barely-there thong holding a small pouch to her person.Keys and sex stuff?Keys and sex stuff. “You’re needed in the lounge downstairs.”

“Excuse me?” Yvette tried not to laugh. Did she know who this was? “I’m working.”