The Wedding Must Go On by Robyn Grady Page A

previously pushed at him was now, of necessity, gripping one exceptionally firm pec. He checked out her hold and arched a brow.
    ‘I think you’re enjoying this.’
    She growled. ‘Enjoy this.’
    Reaching down, she swept up a handful and flung water up at his face.
    His every fibre seemed to tense before he shook his head quickly to shift the glistening droplets from his hair. Growling himself now—but with pleasure, not irritation—he pinned her with a devilish look that made her regret she’d tested him. His grin slowly grew, then, without warning, as she’d feared, she was dropped into the drink.
    Two seconds later, she came up spluttering—and, damn the man, ready to fight.
    She jumped at him—
on
him—and somehow managed to push him over. Or had he simply let her? Either way, she was on top now and intended to take every advantage. Pushing on his shoulders, she forced his smirk under the ripples. The next instant, he was pushing back, jettisoning her over and into the stream.
    She battled back and he let her gain ground before he secured her—his hands around and near spanning her waist—while she thrashed and twisted. She’d never been more riled … and he’d never seemed more attractive, particularly with his chest filled with rumbling laughter.
    Thing was that she was laughing too—and so hard, she felt
filled
with it.
    As the moment stretched out the struggling and laughter eased, but they continued holding and steadying each other. Her hands at the base of his neck, his clasped around her middle, their laboured breathing evened as Roxy grew profoundly aware of those male fingers digging into her flesh, of the way his gaze stroked her lips and how desperately she wanted him to act again without asking permission. This minute.
Now
. She needed him to go ahead and kiss her till the world stopped turning and she couldn’t remember who she was, or where, or why …
    Without conscious thought, her fingers filed up the cool wet column of his throat, over the hot pulse that beat below his ear, then around the sexy sandpaper-rough of his jaw while his loaded gaze smouldered into hers. As her heartbeat thundered on she drew a line along the bow of his full lower lip and marvelled at how his expression intensified and the muscles in her belly contracted and warmed.
    With painstaking care, he lifted her a little higher so that her still-sandalled toes left the creek floor. Falling deeper into the trance, she allowed her eyes to drift shut while she waited for their lips to touch … for his mouth to capture and consume her. Instead she heard her name murmured as if the words had come from afar.
    ‘Roxy, it’s over.’
    Her eyes dragged open. His face—that mouth—was tantalizingly close and his breath was teasingly warm on her cheek. Wasn’t this what he wanted? Why on earth was he waiting?
    ‘What’s over?’ she asked.
    ‘They’ve gone. Or at least I’m pretty sure they are.’
    Her first thought was to bat those words aside. All she cared about was melding into Nate’s caress, knowing moreabout this sizzle and pull. But as he continued to look down at her, dark brows knitted, her mind shifted and she swam up from the haze. The splashing, joking
—flirting
.
    This wasn’t for
their
benefit. It was for Marla and Greg’s.
    If she’d thought her heart had hammered before, this moment her chest—her entire body—felt as if it were booming. Nate’s charm never failed to entice her.
Entrap
her. She was as vulnerable this moment as she’d been every other time they’d touched. Her nerve-endings buzzing, she felt aroused to her very core.
    But more so she was embarrassed. He’d told her they should let their friends believe they’d got past their differences. But Greg and Marla weren’t the only ones fooled. And why shouldn’t she be convinced? Nate should give lessons.
    Water dripping down her face, she angled to see. Where previously their friends had stood, only dry gum leaves now lay.