Read Online The Wedding Must Go On by Robyn Grady - Free Book Online Page A

they’d come this far, what could she do or say to get around it? Maybe if they went to the bedroom and kept the lights off.
    She blinked and came back to the here and now. Nate was peering down at her most curiously. Her face beginning to burn, Roxy eased up and sat alongside him while he studied her face, then carefully cupped her cheek.
    ‘You went all stiff,’ he said. ‘Did I do something wrong?’
    ‘No.’
God, no!
‘I was just thinking, ah … thinking that I should, um …’ She searched her panicked brain, gave a quick smile and a shrug. ‘That I should go freshen up.’
    ‘Well, sure.’ He cleared his throat, siphoned down a settling breath, then looked at her closer still. ‘Roxy, are you sure everything’s okay? Because if you’re uncomfortable with us getting together like this—without any added strings, I mean—tell me. I’d rather know.’
    She took in the earnest slant of his brows, the cautionary tone in his voice, and more of those glorious got-to-have-you feelings fragmented and floated away. Pulling her mouth to one side, she brushed hair back from her face and replied.
    ‘Nate, I don’t need to be told that this is sex for sex’s sake.’
    His expression softened as his eyes dropped to stroke her lips once more. ‘You know that’s not the way I see this.’
    In a skilled fluid movement, he angled to bring her against him again. But a flattened palm against his hard chest stopped him dead. She needed to know.
    ‘How
do
you see this?’
    ‘As two like-minded people moving forward, coming together.’ His hot mouth brushed and tickled her ear. ‘Hopefully coming a lot.’
    Cute. But not the answer she was looking for.
    When a knuckle drew a confident line up her throat and urged her chin back—when she found her mouth a breath away from his again—unease rose higher, her throat closed off and, decided, she got to her feet. Straightening her blouse, she tried to gather her jumbled thoughts. One day he was running and the next he was all over her, but making doubly sure that she knew this meant nothing beyond the physical. A quick romp in the sack. No doubt the same kind of tumble he’d enjoyed with that brunette from the photo, and how many more since.
    ‘Is this how you treat every woman you’re attracted to?’
    He looked insulted. ‘Of course not.’
    ‘Then why
me
?’
    ‘Because, unless you hadn’t noticed, I’m not simply attracted to you.’ A line formed between his brows before he rubbed his palms up and down his long hard thighs. ‘It’s complicated.’
    ‘Unlike a quick shag in my bed tonight.’
    ‘No, actually, that
is
complicated.’ His gaze and voice dropped. ‘More complicated than you could imagine.’
    To keep her heart from dropping any lower, she knotted her arms over her waist. ‘I need some answers, Nate, and I need them fast.’
    ‘You wouldn’t believe it.’
    Her eyes narrowed. ‘Try me.’
    He squared his shoulders, rubbed his thighs again.
    ‘If you really want to know,’ he said, ‘my family is cursed, although
cursed
is an interchangeable term. My parents and grandparents would say that we’re blessed.’
    She edged away. ‘Okay. Now you’re freaking me out. Do you all turn into snarling wolves on a full moon?’
    ‘Only Great-uncle Stuart on my mother’s side.’ Her mouth dropped open and he grinned. ‘Now you can laugh.’
    She glared but refrained from telling him to forget she’d ever asked. A curse. Well, at least he had imagination.
    ‘Go on,’ she said. ‘I’m listening. Although I’m not certain why.’
    ‘From as far back as anyone can remember,’ he said, pushing to his feet, ‘Sparks men have been hit hard when Cupid’s arrow strikes.’
    ‘That doesn’t sound so tragic to me. In fact, it sounds rather romantic.’
    ‘Romantic, lucky, decisive. All those things and, apparently, all good for those who have come before me. Dad, Grandfather Sparks and on up the line … they’ve all fallen and for the