Opting to stand off at the side, he watched the dance floor while he waited for Megan.
A cackle of laughter had the muscles of his spine tightening unpleasantly. And then Gail’s chiding reprimand. “You two are terrible!”
He didn’t want to know. Shouldn’t even have been able to hear over the music.
A less-than-delicate snort from Tina. “Please, it’s pathetic.”
But their voices.
And Jodie. “She can’t stop collecting these guys.”
That brought his head around. They hadn’t noticed him standing behind them, and again they were talking about his wife. The woman who’d fought with him in an effort to respect this day.
“I don’t know who she thinks she’s kidding with this one. There’s no way—”
“No way,” chimed in Tina.
“—he’s anything more than the next ‘friend,’ trying to do her some sort of favor. Keep us off her back probably.”
Gail held up a hand between them. Good. Her cousin, showing some loyalty. Only, then she started talking and his vision went red.
* * *
Megan’s steps faltered as she approached the table.
“...keep wondering with all these ‘buddies’ is if she’s so great to talk with, then what exactly is bad enough to drive these guys away?”
Megan’s breath caught in her throat as Gail sloppily speculated on her life with Connor standing directly behind her.
He’d heard.
She knew by his utter lack of reaction. The stillness in a form that was so much energy.
Jodie nodded sagely as Tina glanced up and, catching Megan’s eyes, let out a snort of laughter.
Closing her eyes, she drew several deep breaths.
They’d already put in their time. They could leave.
Maybe he wouldn’t say anything and they could just forget it.
When Megan opened her eyes, Connor was already around the table, no doubt as ready to make a break for it as she was. More. Gail wasn’t even his relative.
Or...well, not by blood anyway. Lucky.
And then he was at her side, sliding a hand around her waist as he pulled her close. Closer. And closer still until her eyes went wide as his marauding hand slid across her bottom in a slow, blatant caress to rest at the very top of her thigh. Face burrowed into the side of her neck, he drew a long breath, teasing his nose along the sensitive stretch of skin behind her ear.
He was making a point. Letting them see what she’d asked him to rein in for the sake of Gail’s special day. Really, she couldn’t hold it against him. In fact, it sort of made him her own personal hero.
Letting her pull back enough for decency, Connor smiled down at her. “What do you think about wrapping it up here?”
Tina’s chin pulled back and Jodie rolled her eyes. Gail scrunched up her nose and stuck out her bottom lip. “No. You’ve got to stay. Bride’s prerogative and all. It’s my day, so park it.”
Connor’s menacing half smile slanted over his lips as he looked at the table. All nonchalance, with one hand still resting dangerously low on her hip, the other tucked casually in his pocket.
“Bride’s prerogative,” he murmured. “Definitely.”
She should have seen it coming, should have known. But it wasn’t until he’d caught her hand that she saw what he was holding.
The floor dropped out from under her.
“Megan,” he said with a doting smile and a steely glint in his eyes. “I know you wanted to wait to announce our news, but I honestly can’t. Not. Another. Second.”
She was too stunned to react when he slid that gorgeous glittering band over her finger, raising their joined hands for everyone to see. “I know it was fast, but there wasn’t a chance in hell I was letting this woman get away.”
Gail was the first one to pick her jaw up off the floor, her watery eyes now darting between the ring she wore and Megan’s. “You got married,” she gasped. “At my wedding?”
Megan started fumbling for something to say, for an apology maybe, though it didn’t really seem right. She opened her mouth, only to have the air squeezed out of her lungs by Connor’s arms wrapping snug around her. “No, of course not,” he assured with all the sensitivity of an assassin. “We got married first. This morning.”