“Stop being romantic or I will just climb right back on you.”

He inwardly gulps, then belches. I push his face away with an “Eww!” But my libido is tamed for now, so I suppose I can get ready for whatever Theresa has in store for me today.

—

It has to be at least ten inches. It smells like a mix of meat sweat and pungent cologne. He really should shave, but I guess some women like that sort of thing.

Well, looking around, a lot of women like this sort of thing.

Theresa fixes my bachelorette veil on my head while the ten-inch-long beard on the guy lap-dancing on top of me tickles my chest.

“Okay…” I laugh, sticking a buck in his electric blue briefs—that match his do-rag. That’s enough for me.

Bearded stripper winks and moves on to the next. Apparently it’s biker theme night. Lots of leather and facial hair. Theresa laughs behind her hand when I stand up and tell her to lead me to the stage, where Penny, Jaycee, and even my mom are waving bills at the dancers. Watching gyrating penis dances from afar is more my style anyway.

My phone buzzes in my pocket again, and I sit at the table, order rum and Coke—and don’t get ID’d, which is a first—then pull out my cell.

Landon: 12 hours!

Lizzie: I am not going to sleep at all tonight.

Landon: That’s cute, Tumbles. I probably won’t sleep either.

Lizzie: I’ll be having nightmares of sweaty, bearded men.

Landon: ?

Lizzie has sent an image.

Landon: Yeah…I’ll be having those nightmares too.

“Put your phone away!” Theresa bats at my hand. “It’s singles night.”

“Sorry, Mom,” I tease, but I turn the screen off and tuck it away. The stage performers are dancing to “Wild Thing,” and the guy in the assless chaps keeps making eyes at me. At least he’s just got scruff and not a full-out ten-incher.

Normally, I’d give Theresa a “hell no” to a place like this, but maybe bachelorette nights are more for the best friend than they are for the bride. Tonight will be our last night together like this. She’s keeping me company while Landon crashes at Alec’s, and I’m going to make sure she’s okay after the robbery. They still haven’t caught the guy, and though Theresa puts on a brave face and says she’s over it, I find her rubbing her neck and frowning at times. And I wonder just who that necklace was from and why it’s so important. I’ve asked, but she told me it wasn’t a big deal. She just really liked it.

“Hey!” Theresa calls over the music, and I lean in close. “I wanna know…who caved?”

“What?”

“We didn’t exactly catch y’all clothed this morning.”

The music thumps louder, covering my laugh.

“Looks like I’ll be packing a winter coat.”

Her mouth drops open and she tosses her hands in the air. “Liz! You had two days! You couldn’t wait two days?”

I shrug with a wide grin, and bring my rum and Coke to my lips.

“Well, damn you. All this attitude, all the chocolate, everything you went through just to give in two days before. And you don’t even look sorry about it!”

“I’m not.”

“You should at least apologize to me. I had to deal with your uptight ass.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re not.”

She’s right. “It was well worth it.”

“It better have been. Now, give me that veil so I can get a group lap dance.” She fights the veil from my head, since that thing has been attracting almost every stripper in the place, and Mom and Jaycee come join me at the table. Mom doesn’t sit down, but leans right up against the stage, and her Southern accent really comes out when she starts yelling at the dancers to “take off them clothes!”

I take a sip of my drink, trying to stay in the moment and be single for one more night, but the truth is, I haven’t been single since I met Landon. And my mind keeps drifting to last night.

He washed me in the shower. I don’t remember the last time he did that for me. I washed him too, and there weren’t many kisses shared, but we touched in other ways. His fingers ran over every inch of me, and I did the same to him. And I knew when I’d hit his hills, his valleys, his ridges, and though it didn’t feel new…it felt better. I knew the stories behind all the marks and muscles. I knew why he had a tattoo and why he hated it. I knew about the roller-coaster scar and the table-saw scar and the tattoo he wishes he had but hasn’t been able to afford.

And because I knew every one of these things, and he knew every inch of my body and the stories under the skin, we didn’t have to say anything. We did, because both Landon and I can’t help but open our mouths during foreplay, but during the quiet moments I knew I didn’t have to ask about anything to bring us closer.

He helped me out of the shower, and we didn’t make it out of the bathroom for another twenty minutes. He laid a towel across the counter and his strong arms lifted me from my feet and he kissed me as deep as he ever has. It was swimming in an ocean of fire, and it swept me into a storm of heat that leaves me breathless just thinking about it.

Then I felt it kick in my stomach. That need and desire for so much more than peas-and-carrots lovemaking, and suddenly we were the main course, the appetizer, the palate cleanser, and we had moved from room to room, from floor to couch to bed, touching and kissing and loving each other so much I thought I’d burst from the fill I was getting.

But when we got to the bed, and he laid me down on the pillows, Lord Landon ready to enter at last after the most erotic foreplay we’d ever had, Landon tucked me in, pulled me against his chest, and said, “I want to save it.”

“Save it?”

“We’re so close, and I want to save it till our wedding night.”

I nearly laughed at him, but I was so deeply satisfied with what we’d done already that I couldn’t find it in me.

“Can we have a sexfest?”

He smiled. “You can have whatever you want.”

I wanted to tell him he just gave me everything I wanted. But as always, I chose sarcastic comment over cheesy honesty. However, I think that’s part of the reason he loves me, because it’s definitely part of the reason I love him.

“Prepare your thrusters.”

He laughed and weaved his fingers through my hair, wrapping his hand around my head and pulling me close. He squeezed my entire body twice, and I squeezed back. We may not have had sex, but it was how we loved each other last night, and it was magnificent.

And as I blink back into the present, girls throwing money at strippers, people drinking and having fun, and my own mother getting a lap dance, maybe I’m ready to give up on strawberries and whipped cream for something a little healthier.

Chapter 34

Deep breaths. This is it. You can do this. Just stand up straight, hold on to something, and eye on the prize.

“Okay,” I tell Theresa and my mom. “I’m ready.”

Theresa nods once and then pulls on the zipper.

I suck in as hard as I can. We’ve gotten the dress on about 96 percent of the way, but whatever alterations Gina did weren’t for my bustline.

“Come on, come on, come on!” Theresa yells at the thing, but I can tell it’s not going to budge. THE dress, my dress, doesn’t fit. And it’s my wedding day!

I lean against the vanity in the bridal room, trying desperately not to tear up because my makeup is already done.

“It’s just a little bit,” Mom says. “Maybe the veil will cover…” She drifts off as she settles the veil down my back. I know it won’t cover it with the transparent material.

“I don’t get it,” Theresa says, shaking her head. “We gave Gina the same measurements that woman took at the dress shop. I don’t know why—”