shouldn’t stir her so readily when she curled up next to him every night. “Is Alec?”
“Not really,” he answered, though his words were almost drowned out by the way Carmen growled lustily as she crawled over the back of her chair and launched herself at Alec.
Alec was sober enough to catch her, but they careened backwards into the wall with a clatter that had Sera whooping her approval from across the room.
Kat seemed less amused. As Alec caught Carmen’s lips in a kiss that looked likely to last a good long while, Kat covered her eyes and groaned. “God, someone give them the keys to upstairs. She’s a drunk empath. This will not end well.”
Nick approached with a laugh, key ring in hand and her gaze averted. “They might not make it if we don’t, um, point them in the right direction.”
Kat hid behind her phone. Sera turned back to Tarzan.
Mackenzie sighed. “Fine. I’ll pry her off, but someone better keep Alec from punching me, or I’m kicking him in the balls.”
In the end it took a coordinated effort, but they managed to exchange Alec’s truck keys for the keys to the upstairs apartment and get them both shoved out the door. Mackenzie collapsed on a bar stool and groaned. “At least they’re having fun. I guess that’s the goal.”
Nick dropped beside her with a giggle. “We should’ve gone co-ed.”
“Oh Lord, no.” Mackenzie caught Nick’s gaze, then flicked her head toward Kat, who had returned to staring at her phone. “Can you imagine the mess?”
“Maybe, but you never know ’til you try,” Nick replied cryptically.
Mackenzie didn’t want to imagine the mess that could come out of Andrew, Kat, Miguel and the volatile introduction of strippers and alcohol. “Do you need some help cleaning up, or can we shove off? I need some sleep before all the rehearsal crap tomorrow.”
“Me?” Nick recoiled a little. “Hell, I hired a crew to come in first thing in the morning. I’m not cleaning this shit up.”
Jackson laughed and kissed the top of her head. “And Alec says you’re snobby.”
“He what?”
Mackenzie was too tired for this. She grabbed the back of Jackson’s shirt and hauled him toward the door. “Tomorrow, Nick. Tomorrow, and then the next day, and then this will all be over, and life can go back to normal.”
“Such as it is,” the tiny brunette called after her.
Jackson huffed out a laugh and stroked the back of Mackenzie’s neck. “Such as it is.”
She shivered, the heat from before blossoming into something a bit more urgent. Suddenly she needed to get Jackson home—or at least to his truck, which was old enough to have a bench seat with plenty of room to maneuver.
Pushing open the front door, she hauled him into the night. “Why don’t we...” Carmen’s car sat a dozen feet away, a silhouette inside clearly visible. They’d taken Alec’s keys, but not Carmen’s. “Shit, we can’t let them dri —oh, they’re not driving.”
“No, they are not.” Jackson wheeled her around. “Should we...do something?”
She wanted to run like hell. “Are they going to get arrested? Can you make sure no one sees them?”
“Yeah, I think so.” He whispered a low incantation, then gingerly touched the hood of the car. It immediately ceased its subtle rocking. “Best I can do, darlin’.”
It would have to do. “Let’s get the hell out of here. And not have sex in the truck.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Aw, damn it. Were we going to?”
“Were.” And maybe someday she could get rid of the mental image of the ways Carmen had to bend to screw Alec in the front seat of a Camry. “Take me home, Jackson. I’m really tired of wedding stuff.”
“Your wish is my command, Kenzie.”
T-1 Day
He found Mackenzie in front of the mirror, smoothing the fabric of the deep red bridesmaid dress over her hip. “It’s not so bad,” she murmured, meeting his eyes in the mirror. “For a bridesmaid’s dress, I mean.”
“No,” he whispered, sliding an arm around her. “You’re beautiful.”
“You’re biased.” But she smiled and leaned back against him. “Are you going to put on your tux so I can admire you?”
His lips brushed the side of her neck. “Last minute alterations. Gotta pick it up tomorrow before we head out to Alec’s.”
“Too bad.” She shivered and tilted her head, a quiet invitation he recognized by now. “Suppose it’s good, though. I’ve been a little unsteady. Don’t want to accidentally rip it off of you.”
He clutched her tighter for a split second. “Aren’t you supposed to be making Carmen’s life easier instead of ripping up the groomsmen?”
“Sera took her to a spa to hide from Alec’s mother.” Mackenzie’s eyes drifted open, bright blue and full of mischief. “If Geraldine Jacobson gets irritated that she can’t find her future daughter-in-law, I get to have at her.”
“Finally?”
“Maybe you should save her from herself. Help me get this dress off and distract me.”
Peeling the satin up her body would distract them both. Jackson eased the dress up her legs. “You gonna wear your hair up or down?”
“Up.” Every deep breath she dragged into her lungs pressed her breasts against the dress’s low-cut bodice. “Out of the way, in case a brawl starts. You know I’m hoping for one.”
“Better forgo the dangly earrings then.”
“Jackson?”
“Mm-hmm?”
“Will you marry me?”
The words stopped him stock still, and he stared at her in the mirror. “What?”
“Tomorrow,” she whispered, meeting his gaze. “After Carmen and Alec survive their ceremony. Can’t we just...get on a plane and go to Vegas?”
His mother would flip her shit, but Mackenzie had faced down enough mother-in-law crap to last a lifetime. “Just us?”
“Mmm.” She twisted in his arms and rocked up on her toes, lips sliding along his jaw. “I made friendly with Alec’s pilot buddy. I bet he’d fly us out there. He’s a spell caster too.”
“I know.” Jackson turned her and met her gaze evenly. “Do you really want to do this, or do you just not want what Carmen and Alec are getting? Because I swear, Kenzie, I wouldn’t let anyone make you.”
She swallowed hard. “I don’t know. I just...I want to already be married to you. I need to be already married to you.”
The emotion that welled at the thought threatened to choke him. “I know the feeling. If you really want to do it... Fuck it. Let’s go.”
Her brilliant smile was reward enough, but a second later she had both hands in his hair and her mouth crashed into his, kissing him like she couldn’t help herself, like she needed him more than life.
Like she needed him as much as he needed her.
“We’re crazy,” he murmured against her mouth.
“Always have been.” She bit his lip. “Get me out of this dress before we rip it.”
He tugged at the zipper and groaned when it held fast. “One problem. Zipper’s stuck.”
Mackenzie dropped her head to rest against his shoulder and whimpered. “I hate weddings.”
