Page 4 of The Best I Never Had

“I’ve been telling Stella for years that you don’t pull your weight,” he says, clucking his tongue. A lie, and we both know it. “Sitting down while poor Lindsey’s managing eight tables.”

“Lindsey’s managing eight tables tonight—just like me—because you fired everyone,” I say through gritted teeth.

He shrugs. “The restaurant industry’s tough.”

The fucking audacity. A couple of days after he let go over half the staff, he was bragging to Lindsey about his raise and promising if she said yes, their date would be epic. Gordon’s two specialties—selfishness and sexual harassment.

“If by ‘tough’ you mean full of dicks who fire hardworking staff to give themselves raises, you’re right,” I spit out. “Pathetic.”

He stands abruptly, knocking over the Coke Zero on the edge of his desk. I get a perverse sort of pleasure watching him scramble to right it while the dark brown liquid soaks through his papers.

But the frantic moment fades, leaving him towering over me with a sinister glee in his eyes. “I can tell you I’m of greater value than a bitchy waitress who thinks too highly of herself.”

My eyebrows shoot up my forehead. He wants bitchy? I can give him bitchy. “Not sure why I’m surprised. Useless assholes always put others down to make themselves feel better.”

Gordon’s face turns a satisfying shade of puce. “Get out! If I see you on this property again, I’m going to send your ass to jail where you belong.”

“Don’t worry about that, Gordo,” I say. “I doubt any woman comes back for seconds after an interaction with you.”

His growl of irritation is like a balm to the open wound of losing Cibare. I turn my back and force my head high, letting the back door close behind me with a dramatic final thud.

I’m left in the alley behind the building with nothing but the hole in my heart where Cibare had been. Another home lost because of my temper. Like all those times I picked fights that led to Addy and I being moved again.

The thought of Addy brings me crashing back down to reality. Addy, still sitting in the restaurant daydreaming about her too-soon wedding. How am I supposed to help her connect with her new family when I’m a mess who can’t control her temper? No matter how hard I try, I always end up blowing up my happiness, and nine times out of ten, the blast goes wide enough to hit Addy, too. I refuse to let it happen again.

I can do this. I’ll be the perfect, drama-free maid of honor at the perfect, drama-free wedding.

I’ll get her the family she’s always deserved.

Chapter 2

OWEN

“What would you do if this was real, Owen?”

I stare down at a vision of perfection in a flowing red dress. My hand on her hip flexes involuntarily, bunching the fabric and pulling her another centimeter closer.

“If this was real?” I ask.

Her eyes flick down to my lips. “Yeah. If we weren’t putting on a show.”

I tense and glance around the dance floor to make sure no one’s close enough to hear. I shift closer still, suppressing a groan when her chest brushes mine. She lets out a little gasp at the contact, sending signals my body is desperate to answer.

I hold her eyes, the dark brown like a cavern, tempting me to jump just to see how far I can fall. “I’d drag you off this dance floor and around the back of the building so I didn’t have to share you in that incredible dress.”

She bites her plush bottom lip, her eyes never straying from mine. “Then do it.”

I turn, my grip slipping from her waist to her hand, and tug her along behind me, her laughter echoing off the wall of windows overlooking the vineyard. A few of my family members watch us with knowing smiles, but I’m not letting anyone distract me.

I pull her behind the stand-alone ballroom. She stops, walking back a few steps with her eyes pinned to mine. Her back hits the siding, and she smiles, wide and tempting.

“Then what?” she asks, a breathiness to her low, sensual voice.

“Then I’d pin you to that wall and kiss you until you knew you were mine.”

Her eyes flare. “Then do it.”

I’m on her in a second, her body braced between mine and the wall behind her. I moan at her taste as our tongues tangle together. My hands grip her from behind, lifting until her legs wrap around me, the slits on each side of her dress dropping away from her thighs. She grinds against me, making me harder with each movement until I’m sure I’ll die if I’m not inside her.