Meant To Be Yours. Susan Mallery

he’d walked into The Boardroom and sat down at her table, as if fate were stepping in.

      “Tell me about the apple wedding,” he said, leaning toward her. “No one dresses up in an apple costume, do they?”

      She laughed. “No. I promise, nothing like that. An apple wedding is more like a Christmas wedding. The theme inspires the decorations and the colors, not the clothing. Let’s see. The bridesmaid dresses are apple green, there are crab apples in the bouquet and the floral arrangements on the tables. The signature drink is an apple martini. That sort of thing.”

      He stared at her, his expression blank. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

      “What’s confusing?”

      “All of it. I get the bridesmaid dresses. I’ve seen women in those before. But the rest of it? You’re speaking a foreign language.”

      “What about all the weddings you’ve been to?”

      He took another sip of his drink. “I haven’t. I joined the army when I was eighteen. None of my friends were even thinking about getting married then. I got back for a few visits, but no weddings. After my dad died—it was always just the two of us—I never went back. My military friends went home to get married and I usually couldn’t get leave.”

      Now he was the one speaking a foreign language. “You’ve never been to a wedding?”

      “Nope.”

      “That’s not possible.”

      “It’s no big deal.”

      “It’s a rite of passage. It’s how this town supports itself. Happily Inc is a wedding destination town and you have actually never been to a wedding?”

      “Pallas and Nick got married in Italy and I was gone when Carol and Mathias got married.”

      She stared at him. “Come by Weddings Out of the Box sometime and I’ll show you a video,” she told him. “They’re all variations on a theme, so once you’ve seen one, you’ll be wedding literate.”

      “But not fluent?”

      His voice was low and teasing. It sent ripples down her spine and made her wish she was the kind of woman who could look a man in the eye while inviting him back to her place. But she wasn’t and she couldn’t. She might want a let’s get naked night with Jasper, but the truth was she’d never once had sex with a man she wasn’t half in love with and it seemed unlikely she could find the skill set to change that now.

      “I think fluency is a ways off,” she said lightly, hoping he couldn’t hear the disappointment in her voice. As he had no idea what she was thinking, the emotion would only be confusing and misleading. Man, even without a relationship, the whole boy-girl thing was really hard to navigate.

      “You help brides plan their weddings, right?” he asked.

      “Yes, although it’s better when the groom is involved, too. Weddings Out of the Box is a wedding venue. We specialize in theme weddings. We’ve done princess weddings and cowboy weddings and apparently the world’s greatest alien wedding based on a computer game, but that was before my time.”

      “Interesting.”

      She wasn’t sure it was, but it was nice of him to say it.

      They looked at each other, then away. Silence stretched between them, grew awkward, got bigger and started making Renee uncomfortable. Crap, crap, crap, this wasn’t going to work. Who was she kidding? She was only confident in limited situations—like work. She was never going to be the kind of woman who could tell a guy she thought he was attractive and ask if he would like to have his way with her. Which left her sad and depressingly aware of the fact that she might never do the deed again, which made her want to stomp her foot. Or cry.

      Neither response would go over well in public, so it was definitely time to go home. She looked at Jasper.

      “It’s getting late. Thanks for the drink. I had a nice time.”

      He studied her for a second before nodding. “I did, too. Let me walk you to your car.”

      They went out into the night. It was mid-September, so still warm, but they’d passed through the burning heat of summer. In a few more weeks, there would be an actual nip in the air. At least in those hours close to midnight. It rarely got cold-cold in Happily Inc.

      They walked to her black Mini with the white racing stripes on the hood. A silly car, to be sure, but one she loved as much as she could love a car. It was cute, it was zippy and with the back seats down, it held as much as she needed.

      “This is me,” she said lightly.

      Jasper glanced from the car to her and back. “It suits you.”

      She smiled. “Thank you. I try to be worthy of its sassiness, but I don’t always succeed. I suppose that’s a metaphor for my life. I want to be wild, but I’m not quite sure how.”

      “You mean that?”

      She looked up at him. Literally. With them both standing, she was aware of how tall he was, how strong. He exuded power and confidence. He was all things male and maybe that should have scared her, but it didn’t.

      “Renee?”

      “What?”

      “You didn’t answer the question.”

      “There was a question?”

      One corner of his mouth turned up. “I may be reading this all wrong, but just in case I’m not...”

      He put his hands on her waist and pulled her toward him. The move was unexpected and she would have instinctively resisted, only there was something about the feel of his hands and her growing sense of anticipation. Because he was holding her exactly like a man holds a woman he means to kiss and kiss well.

      She looked up to confirm her theory, which gave her exactly half a second to prepare herself for the impact of his lips on hers.

      Her first impression was of heat. His mouth was warm, as was his body, but she was on fire. Need erupted long before he deepened the kiss. Just pressing against him, having him hold her and holding him back was unbearably arousing. When he actually got busy with the kissing part, she wasn’t sure if she was going to melt, scream or fall apart right there in the parking lot.

      His tongue stroked her bottom lip. She parted, then groaned when he slipped inside. They circled and danced and explored. She raised herself on her tiptoes to get a better angle. He nipped her lower lip, then ran his hands up and down her back.

      Everywhere he touched blazed with hunger. She was nearly shaking with need. He might not know much about weddings, but he sure could kiss and right now that was the superior skill.

      But just when she was really getting into it, Jasper pulled back. He was breathing heavily and looked slightly dazed.

      “That was unexpected,” he murmured.

      “Good unexpected?”

      He cleared his throat. “You have to ask?”

      “Just checking.”

      They stared at each other. Here it was, she thought. The moment of reckoning. She could wimp out and walk away or she could be strong and self-actualized by asking for what she wanted.

      “Come home with me.”

      The words came out more question than statement, but she’d said them, so good for her. Unless he said no. Then she would die—right there in the parking lot. They would find her stiff body in the morning and no one would know what had happened.

      Jasper raised an eyebrow. “You sure?”

      She hunched her shoulders. “I’ve used up all my courage, so I can’t ask again.”

      He chuckled. “I’m not looking for you to repeat the question. I’m confirming