Page 77 of The Wedding

She knew she was close when Etta dug her fingers into warm flesh, burying her fingers so deep that Jamie’s inner walls had no choice but to hold them tight. I’m going to do it, ma’am. Come for you. Jamie threw herself into orgasm, writhing against the table as her voice reached new, impossible heights. She was bringing Etta down with her. She was exerting the one piece of power she had, and she was going to enjoy the fuck out of it.

“Shit,” Jamie said again, collapsing against the table. Etta wasn’t faring much better, but she managed to stay standing, one hand on Jamie’s ass. Her breath, however, hung heavy in her chest.All that working out in the office gym and she’s panting after fingerbanging me.Jamie was that good. “That’s all I have to say.” She pressed her face against the felt beneath her.

“I think we should use this color for our wedding,” Etta said, rubbing the dress against Jamie’s back. “It’s beautiful on you, and I want tosee you surrounded by it at our wedding.”

Jamie glanced over her shoulder. “Didn’t know you were a purple gal.”

“When it’s this dark, I can get into it.”

It took them more than a few minutes to gather their bearings and return to reality. Not that they wanted to. Etta now doted on her fiancée, kissing her every chance she had while Jamie fixed her dress and hair in a nearby mirror. Etta made sure there was no evidence of their time together while Jamie ensured they were both presentable.

Someone waited on the other side of the door.

“That was entertaining,” Adele said, smoking a cigarette through a silver holder. “You need this?” She extended the holder to them. Neither moved.Oh my…Had she been listening? The entire time?Who else?Jamie looked around the hall. She didn’t see anyone else, but that didn’t mean a damn thing. “Never mind, then. You two should get back to this party I strained so hard to put together. Don’t mind me. Just needed a nicotine break.”

She stepped away, body moving in ways Jamie could only dream of for herself.Does she naturally walk like a sexpot? Or does she do that on purpose?It couldn’t be good for her hips.

She was…” Jamie began.

“I know.”

“Do you think she…”

“No.” Etta put her hand on Jamie’s shoulder and directed her toward the party. “Let’s go relax.” She stopped to whisper in her ear. “I’m not mad, but you should watch yourself. People will look for a scandal, especially if it’s between either of us or someone of affluence.”

“Surely someone like Ira knows that.”

“They don’t have to care if they don’t want to. They were born with everything. They’re not going to lose everything like…”

Jamie gulped. “Like you could.”

Etta remained unfazed. “The Lord giveth, as they say.”

A guest appeared, extending his hand to Etta and apologizing to Jamie for asking her away. They went to a corner to talk shop for a few minutes. Jamie resumed her path down the hall, happening to look around a corner before she stepped back out onto the balcony.

She saw Adele standing by herself in front of a window, looking wistfully out at the golf course while her cigarette smoke curled around her head. I feel sorry for her.Jamie wasn’t sure why. It didn’t have anything to do with Etta – she didn’t worry about that. But Jamie also knew that, even if a relationship was over for a while, memories still creeped up when least expected.

Amanda appeared, catching Adele’s attention for a fleeting moment. The two of them exchanged some quiet before Adele caught sight of Jamie and turned, footsteps echoing in the hall. Jamie returned to the party, resolved to clear some air – and not just from cigarette smoke.

She found Ira and Kathleen sitting at their table, one’s arm curled around the back of their girlfriend’s seat. Yet Kathleen remained sullen, and her forced happiness as she saw Jamie approach did not do much to make her look more comfortable. Ira flicked a lock of Kathleen’s hair and avoided making eye contact with Jamie.

Before the bride could say anything, Kathleen spoke.

“Sorry my incompetent lover couldn’t help you win your match on one of your biggest days.” She leaned back with a mimosa in her hand. “I’ll kick their ass for you later. She sorely needs it for… other reasons.”

“I was going to talk to you about that…”

Kathleen was too poised to harrumph in front of present company, but she managed to soften her visage in a way that Jamie at least found believable. “Don’t worry about it. She did it to get a rise out of me.”

“And it worked! I mean, maybe I’m nice and helping a lovely lady out?”

Jamie ignored Ira. “Thank you for coming to my party.” She turned, and only then did she let out the anxious breath building up in her body.

Chapter 24

Trapped beneath a pile of soft quilts, surrounded by bags of chips and bottles of sparkling water, and enclosed between two silky couch pillows, Jamie stared at the flatscreen TV in the den and gave herself carpal tunnel by playing a first-person shooter for five hours straight.

I couldn’t sleep last night.It was nine in the morning by now. Etta had only begun to stir in the nearby bedroom, Beatrice walking up and down the hallway with mail before breakfast.Did she miss me last night? Probably not. Etta slept like a comatose patient most nights. Ever since her workload lifted – thanks in part to her occasionally flaky business partner – she was finally sleeping more and taking days off. She even slept in one day, and that wascrazy.