She just kept hearing Jackie’s words over and over again in her head.
The producers insisted.
If there had been a chair anywhere near, Thea would have crumbled into it. Sure, she and Jackie had their issues, but they were sisters. That was a sacred bond—one that lasted through thick and thin, through good times and bad, through sickness and in health. But it wasn’t enough for Jackie to want Thea to be a part of one of the biggest days in her life?
Oh, that hurt. Badly. It was the kind of jagged pain that caught her off guard and hit a secret sensitive spot so vulnerable she hadn’t even known it was there.
Desperate for a way out of the reception before the shock had worn off and she did something horrible, like break into tears where the cameras could spot her, Thea’s gaze landed on Kade, the man Jackie was dead set on none of her bridesmaids fucking.
And that was the very moment when a lightbulb blazed to life. Fuck flight. She was going to channel all of this embarrassment and hurt into a fight response—and she was going to fight dirty.
She was going to have sex with the one man here that her sister hated the most.
Tonight.
Probably on top of that hideous bridesmaid dress still strewn across her bed.
And she’d maybe even let him spank her with that damn pink parasol—or better yet, maybe feisty Thea would spank him! It was going to be a glorious anger bang with a guy she’d probably rarely if ever see again after the wedding and who seemed like the kind to deliver on multiple orgasms—which she’d be able to remind her sister of for the next forever.
She’d tell Jackie just how damn good his brother’s rough hand felt against the inside of her thighs. And the thing he’d do with his tongue? All of that, she’d tell her sister all of that every Thanksgiving in graphic detail as her sister passed the sausage-and-cornbread stuffing.
There would be details. So. Many. Details.
Remember how you said you didn’t want any of your bridesmaids to fuck Kade?
Remember how you didn’t even want me as a bridesmaid?
And yet I was and I did. Oops!
Petty?
Yes.
A win-win for her?
Fuck yes.
Okay, maybe having multiple orgasms in a single night of revenge sex was pushing it, but at least one good toe-curling, forget-your-own-name climax that would have her seeing T. rexes in confetti-covered party dresses was definitely what she needed. Was that really asking too much compensation for this wedding-week hell?
Maybe, but fuck it. She was doing it anyway.
Sometimes, revenge came with orgasms. That was the beauty of it.
Fucking Kade St. James—Jackie’s most hated guest—was the perfect way for Thea to get back at her sister.
Crossing her fingers behind her back, she sent up a quick prayer to the patron saint of revenge orgasms and made her way over to Mr. Tall, Hot, and Completely Hated By Her Sister. She reached up—way up—and tapped him on the shoulder before she could lose her nerve.
Kade turned around and smiled. The way his grin was higher on one side than the other sent a wave of desire through her warm enough that she started fanning herself with a crushed tissue flower before she realized what she was doing.
He discombobulated her. It was her only excuse for what happened next. If she would have been herself—a grown-ass woman in her early-thirties, a respected paleontologist, a human who could name every one of the bones in the one-hundred-and-twenty-two-foot-long titanosaur at the American Museum of Natural History—the question would never have tumbled out of her mouth quite like it did.
“So, you want to get out of here and have a no-strings-attached, hate-the-bridezilla fuck?” she asked—right as the extra-loud eighties synth-pop music stopped playing.
There were four whole beats of silence—and then every camera in the room that was live streaming the party turned and focused on Thea.
Chapter Five
Kade had never been caught speechless in his life. Yeah, he wasn’t exactly known for being super talkative, but that wasn’t because he didn’t have the words. He just usually didn’t like anyone enough to say them.
Right now, though? He didn’t have a fucking clue.
But the nerdy-hot bridesmaid with the wide-rimmed glasses and the sexy, gap-toothed smile was turning eighteen shades of red while everyone in the barn watched with eyes the size of salad plates.
He could see the gears working as she tried to figure out her next move, since he highly doubted that telling the entire world she wanted to hate-fuck him had been her plan—yes, there was no way the people watching the live stream at home missed her invitation. Production had the whole barn mic’d up to hell and back.
Then, the whispers started from the wedding party.
The remotely controlled camera on the bar whirred as it no doubt zoomed in on the bridesmaid’s face.
She swallowed and pressed her lips together, beads of sweat dampening the strands of hair that had worked their way free of her ponytail.
He would have sworn he saw panicked tears in her eyes, but she blinked them away before he could confirm. That’s when her chin trembled. It wasn’t a lot, just a couple of twitches, but there was no missing it. And if he caught it, so would everyone else watching live at home and in person. Her gaze veered over to the camera on the bar, then widened as realization hit. Her attention immediately skittered back to him and then dropped to the floor as she let out a quiet, miserable groan.
Oh hell.
He could not let this woman cry in front of the whole world when it was obvious, even if he’d been looking down from the space station, that she did not do public tears.
Fuck.
There was only one option—not that it was a bad option or even one he wouldn’t have chosen otherwise. The woman wasn’t boring or stuck up or self-absorbed. Nah. The bridesmaid who didn’t belong was hot, ballsy, and funny. However, he couldn’t just toss her over a shoulder and walk out of there or even just say yes and walk out with her. He had to sell it. He had to be a fucking actor.
Christ on a cracker.
That wasn’t his job. That was all Dex. And yet…
“Babe,” he said, feeling like a total fool as he put a rough growl in his tone. “I thought I was going to have to keep begging you to give me a chance. You’re all I’ve been thinking about since we met.”
She jerked her head up, something a lot like grateful hope in her eyes.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said, holding out his hand to her.
The right corner of her mouth kicked up in a half smile, and she took his hand. He lifted their enjoined hands and kissed the back of her knuckles before they walked out of the barn as the jackass of a DJ put on Madonna’s “Like a Virgin.”