The wedding party practiced marching out. As usual, Mariah was paired with a groomsman a few inches shorter than her heeled six feet two inches. But he was one of the groom’s brothers, married, with a kid on the way, and not bothered by the height difference. And tomorrow, all the bridesmaids would be wearing gold sparkling ballet flats, so he might even be taller than her.
As the group prepared to drive to the restaurant where the rehearsal dinner was being held, Mack moved beside her and slipped his arm around her waist. With great difficulty, she kept her face neutral, though her heart was giving a repeat performance of its reaction to the threatened attacker.
“Why don’t you ride over with me?” Mack asked, snugging her close to him, as if having his arm around her were a normal, everyday occurrence.
“I should probably drive my own car.”
“I’d rather you didn’t.” His casual expression was gone, a dark one replacing it.
Of course! Mack would be especially sensitive to her being at risk while driving, since that’s how Brooke was attacked. For a second, she’d forgotten. No one blamed Mack for the incident. No one, but him. Cole had told her how Mack had agonized over it, even turning in his resignation, which Cole had promptly torn to shreds.
Guilt hit her square in the face. Mack had seen this as an opportunity to redeem himself, and she’d fought him, humiliating him in the process. He was a good man. Only trying to do his job.
“Okay. I’ll ride with you.”
“Thanks, sweetheart. Maybe we can drive really slowly,” he said, his voice loud enough for all her friends to hear. He bent down and pressed his lips against her neck, his short beard scratching her skin and sending a ripple of sparks down her spine.
He straightened, a smug grin on his face.
Maybe he’s not so good after all.
Chapter 5
Mack was getting frustrated, and Mariah probably knew it. The first five minutes in the car, she hadn’t spoken a word. He’d even tried apologizing for kissing her neck, but her jaw had only tightened, the corners of her mouth pulling down. Maybe because she knew he wasn’t really sorry. Once his lips had touched her soft skin, he’d been in Heaven. Her scent was sweet and maddening, and he’d breathed in her essence in desperation, like a suffocating man seeking air. It had taken every ounce of his control to keep from sliding his lips across her cheek to capture her luscious mouth.
No, he wasn’t sorry he’d kissed her. Not one little bit. But he was sorry she was mad. Her being mad meant that kiss was unlikely to happen again.
As he drove, following the voice commands on his navigation system, he tried to stay focused on his surroundings, ready to react in case of a threat. Her silent treatment wasn’t helping his concentration. He was fairly certain he could goad her into talking.
“You know what? I lied. I’m not sorry I kissed your neck,” he said. “I’m not sorry about anything I did, because you asked for it.”
Her mouth dropped open, her glare shooting flames. She wasn’t going to talk… she was going to bite his head off.
“I didn’t ask for any of that! You showed up after I warned you not to! I was ready to give you the benefit of the doubt… to think you were only doing your job and you couldn’t help that my brother had sent you here against my wishes. But then you pulled that stunt… kissing my neck! What did you expect?”
He fought back a smile. This was much better than the silent treatment. He could fight with her all day and never tire of it.
“I expected you to appreciate what I did.”
She sputtered at him, her brows raised in disbelief. “Appreciate what you did?”
“Absolutely. You’re the one who decided to say I was Pewter. All I was doing was trying to act the part.”
“You started it when you told Cora you were my boyfriend.” She shook a finger in his face. “I was joking when I said you were Pewter and you had social anxiety. I thought you would come clean and confess who you really were.”
“Is that what you want me to do? Because I’ll do whatever you say.” He thought better of his promise and added, “Except I’m not leaving, Mariah. No matter what you think, this threat is real.”
Her lips pressed together. He thought he’d made her angry again. To his surprise, she nodded, shrugging her shoulders. “I understand why you’re here, even if I’m not happy about it. So I won’t ask you to leave.”
He wondered why she’d changed her mind, but he didn’t dare ask.
“Do you want me to tell your friends the real reason I’m here?”
She let out a resigned sigh. “I know Allie’s mom, and I’m pretty sure she’d go into panic mode if she heard about the threat.”
“Is that what happened to Pewter? Did he cancel because he was panicking about the danger?”
“He got a better offer.” The muscles flexed along her jaw. “He went skiing with his old frat buddies.”
“He chose skiing over you? What an idiot! I hope you dumped him.” What man in his right mind would choose to spend time in the ice and snow with a bunch of guys when he could be snuggling with Mariah instead?
“I gave him the boot.… a sharp, pointy one.” A cute wrinkle formed on top of her nose. “But I was too embarrassed to admit what happened to my friends, so all I said was something had come up.”
Mack sensed a raw wound, just below the surface, and he hated being powerless to heal it.
“I don’t mind pretending to be Pewter. I know I’m not as smart and polished as him, so I get if you don’t want me to.”
“It’s not that, Mack.” Her denial was probably an effort to save his feelings. “But I hate lying.”
“Honestly, it’s a perfect cover for me to do my job without getting everyone upset, if you can handle it until the wedding’s over.”
His sideways glance caught her chewing on her delectable lower lip, and he found himself jealous of her teeth.
“I guess I could keep pretending for that long. It’ll be over by midnight, tomorrow.” Her brows bent over her eyes. “But no more kisses.”
“Won’t your friends be suspicious if we aren’t affectionate?” He hoped she wouldn’t notice his fingers crossed on the steering wheel.
“You’re right. We need to be affectionate, but not that affectionate.”
So much for crossing his fingers.
“I could kiss your cheek, and we could hold hands.” Could she tell he was sweating just from the thought of touching her?
“That sounds reasonable,” she said, in a breathy voice that made him want to pull the car over and kiss her right then and there.
He’d better get himself under control. He had to stay sharp. To remember why he was there in the first place. His job was to protect Mariah, not to slobber all over her like some hormonal teenager.
“I… uh… think you missed it.” She pointed at the restaurant he’d just passed, over the objections of his navigation system, which was now telling him to make a U-turn.
Crud!
“I know. I wanted to check it out first. Make sure it looked safe, before we pulled in the parking lot.”