Never The Bride(5)

'Miller action?' I enquired, my curiosity peaked. Who was this supposed Adonis they were all getting worked up over?

'Dean's best man,' Rachel confirmed. 'He wasn't at the rehearsal dinner last night as he lives in New York. He had a business meeting and was getting an overnight flight.'

'Is he still single?' piped up the easily recognisable, high-pitched squeaky voice of Fi-Fi.

'Very much so, but you aren't,' Rachel laughed. Fi-Fi had got married to Dave last year. A looker he wasn't, but he was loaded and she'd always been money obsessed.

'For the love of God, someone tell me why a man that hot hasn't been snapped up,' sighed Julia with a shake of her head.

'He's just not the settling-down type. He's young, rich, and gorgeous. What guy wouldn't want to play the field when women throw themselves at his feet? Not that he does, but he's not exactly made it work long term with anyone either,' suggested Rebecca. 'Right. Much as I'd love to keep talking all things Miller, I'll just have to settle for gazing at him lustfully all day. We have a bride to get up the aisle.'



       
         
       
        

Hmmm, hot and single. If only I wasn't in this damn dress, and I wasn't me, apparently undesirable and undateable Abbie Carter, spewer of inappropriate thoughts, and he wasn't an obvious commitment-phobe, I might have been exploring the whole "bridesmaid and best man" cliché tonight.

I exhaled heavily as Rebecca started herding us all into our positions outside The Abbey door, with me taking the last spot behind the other bridesmaids, Rachel and her father bringing up the rear. Georgie was right. I needed to go out and look for my soul mate. Sitting back and waiting for him to find me was never going to happen. And I seriously didn't want that unlucky thirteenth bridesmaid dress making it up into my attic before I'd got married.

One by one, they all started filtering in as the organist played some tune I'd never heard before. The Abbey was packed, not surprising as Rachel came from a large family, Dean too, and this was the wedding event of the season for this town, in fact the county. I squared my shoulders, positioned my bouquet, and put on my best bridesmaid, "I'm really loving this" smile as I started walking. Crikey, any casual passerby who stuck their head in here would think they were attending a gerbera convention, not a wedding. They were gorgeous, but personally I preferred subtlety rather than a slap across the face. Now for my wedding, I'd have  …  My wedding, yeah right, I silently scoffed. Like that was ever going to happen. I heard murmurs of approval from the crowd who were all facing the back of the church, and deduced that Rachel must have entered and be following me up the aisle, as there was no way they'd be cooing over my dress.

I spotted Georgie out of the corner of my eye and she threw me a double thumbs up and a wink, making me give her a quick scowl. She was trying to make me embarrass myself by giggling uncontrollably, but it was not going to happen. I was going to keep myself in check and for once, not embarrass myself in public. I approached the top of the pews, where the bridesmaids were all lined up on the left, facing me, with Dean and his entourage on the other side, facing the altar.

Nice tight arse, I thought to myself as I studied the blond-haired guy to his right. Very tasty indeed. As if I'd said the words out loud, he turned his head. The air was sucked from my lungs as his rich brown eyes met mine. Holy hell, my ovaries spontaneously combusted as this Greek God smiled at me. All soft, full, kissable lips, movie-star teeth, dimpled chin, and square jawline. My heart started racing and I was suddenly finding it hard to breathe. He was gorgeous. He was staring at me. Why was he staring at me? Did I have something on my face? A bat in the cave? His lips curved up into a sinfully sexy smile. Oh God, my legs had turned to jelly and I felt lightheaded and dizzy. I only had to make it a few more steps and I could just stand and stare at him to my heart's content. 

I tried to put one foot in front of the other as he continued to watch me, but he threw me when he gave me a cheeky wink. What was that all about? Oh crap, I felt myself wobbling. I couldn't feel my feet on the ground. It was like one of those moments when you stood up too fast and your foot was numb because of pins and needles, and you weren't sure if it was actually on the floor or six inches higher. I tried to find my centre of gravity but started swaying alarmingly, unable to right myself. Cue emergency Titanic move. My arms shot out in a "King of the World" moment, causing my bouquet to be flung right at Rachel's mother in the front pew, smacking her firmly in the face as I stumbled forwards on my slender high heels. I tried to right myself and went backwards, then forwards again. My arms were windmilling furiously as I heard chuckles and gasps doing a Mexican wave down The Abbey. No! I was doing the hokey cokey front and centre at someone else's wedding, and I'd quite possibly knocked out the bride's mother's front teeth, split her lip, or given her a black eye. My legs decided to join in on the embarrassing dance party and turned to spaghetti as I teetered like a newborn fawn testing out his sea legs on ice.

'Man down, man down,' I shrieked as I felt myself falling, the ground rushing up to greet me at an alarming pace while the organ abruptly stopped playing mid-tune. I shut my eyes, screwed up my face, and braced for impact.

Nothing.

Instead of the cold hard floor, I felt myself fall into something warm and hard, something that smelled like freshly baked hot cinnamon buns. Hmmm, delicious!

'Are you ok, miss?'

'Huh?' I moaned, trying to bring myself around after being hit with an adrenaline rush from the excitement of seeing a hot man, assaulting someone with a lethal gerbera bouquet, and almost falling. Man, that smooth and sexy American accent, combined with that lickable scent, wasn't doing anything to help slow my fast-beating heart. My eyes fluttered open as I felt myself being levered upright, with a pair of strong arms circling my waist and a firm, muscular chest pressed up against mine. 'Wow,' I murmured.

'Are you ok?' he repeated.

'Super sexy lips. I wonder what they'd feel like on mine, all of them,' I wondered.

'Is that an offer?' he chuckled. I blinked a few times as I lifted my head up from the lips of sin to meet the amused brown-eyed gaze of my rescuer, the gorgeous blond. Crap, had I just said something about kissing him out loud? And  …  and about  …  that?! Nice job, Abbie, I thought. My untainted bridesmaid record was over. I hadn't even made it five minutes through the event of the year without embarrassing myself.

'Sorry,' I grimaced, my fingers curling around his strong and bulging biceps. 'I'm Abbie, frequent-putter-of-foot-in-mouth and apparently says-what-she's-thinking-out-loud, Carter. I seem to have lost my brain filter today.'

'Hey, Abbie Carter,' he smiled, a set of cheek dimples joining that oh-so-sexy one on his chin. 'I'm Miller, best man and rescuer-of-damsel-in-distress, Davis. Pleased to meet you. Are you ok?'

'Just great,' I squeaked, wondering if I was going to embarrass myself any more when he let me go, which he didn't seem to be in any rush to do. 'Ermmm, thanks for saving me.'

'Anytime,' he replied, his voice like warm melted chocolate, sending a delicious shiver down my spine.

'Ermmm, hello?! It's supposed to be me standing in front of the altar, the actual bride,' came Rachel's stressed voice.

'Sorry, sorry,' I muttered, quickly letting go of Miller's arms. He slid his hands from behind my back to support my hips as he slowly backed away, as if making sure I wasn't going to fall again. Wow, hot, sexy, and chivalrous. I felt like I was in Vegas at the slot machines, and the jackpot had just sounded the alarm. I somehow found my feet and hurried over to take my place at the end of one of the rows of bridesmaids, sans bouquet. Miller took his place, and the organ started again to let Rachel make it the last few steps towards her future husband. I looked over the sea of heads, some still sniggering, to meet Georgie's amused gaze. She shook her head with a smile as I grimaced at her. Epic fail, Abbie. Epic fail.



       
         
       
        

I barely took in any of the service, I was too distracted with avoiding the furious looks Rachel's mum kept shooting my way and trying not to look at Miller. I'd caught his amused gaze once or twice and must be having one of my overactive imagination days, as I was sure I'd seen something else in his eyes. A spark of interest, a heated look as he'd scanned my body up and down. I was just plain old Abbie, nothing special, not drop-dead gorgeous like Georgie. My long, mousy brown hair was poker straight, I had a full mouth, pouty lips that looked like a trout's apparently, a small straight nose, green eyes with hazel flecks, and petite ears. I'd say I was pretty, not stunning. Certainly nowhere near his league. I had a curvy size ten figure. Ok, maybe that was wishful thinking, as my jeans were getting harder and harder to pull on. Not even lying on the floor and breathing in hard as I tugged the zip was easy. So, my size twelve figure had some shape. I had a well-rounded backside, decent waist, and my boobs were a good handful. I'd had no complaints from previous boyfriends, but none of them had looked like Miller. I decided I must be imagining his interest and instead focused on a spot on the wall behind him.