One Last Kiss - Jessica Lemmon Page 0,2

was right there. Jayson Cooper and beneath it, the box “attending” was marked with an X.

Taylor snatched the card from him and pointed at the blank area beneath it. “This reads ‘Plus-one, yes or no’ and there is a line there for a name for the seating chart.”

Taylor handed the card back to him. “Yes,” she said and then snapped her gaze to Gia. “Or no. This isn’t twenty questions. It’s one. I don’t care what the answer is, but I need a final headcount for the caterer.”

He narrowed his eyes at Gia and she mimicked his reaction.

“I’m a yes,” she answered cheerily, marking the box with a flourish. “But as my date’s a celebrity, he’d rather not have the catering staff know his name.” She handed over the card, her smile forced, Jayson guessed, for his benefit.

“Really?” Taylor asked, proving this was news to her. “We’ll talk later. What about you, Coop?”

“Same situation,” he answered, marking the yes box. “Ironically.”

Gia crinkled her nose, but he kept his gaze trained on Taylor.

“There. Now was that so hard?” Taylor offered a saccharine-sweet smile and then spun on one heel and left the office.

“Holy Bridezilla,” Gia said once she was gone. “She’s my best friend and I love her, but yikes.” Then she looked at him. “I didn’t know you had a date.”

“I didn’t know you had a date, either.” Going for casual, he tucked his hands in his pockets and waited.

Silence invaded for a few uncomfortable seconds while she examined her fingernails.

“Well, I didn’t want to attend my other brother’s wedding and have a repeat of what happened at Bran’s.” She then fidgeted with a pen. “That was a mistake.”

Her pulling him into a spare bedroom at the mansion and kissing him so hard he saw stars was a big mistake and she wasn’t the only one who thought so. Since then he’d had trouble keeping his mind on work and keeping their aboveboard banter from crossing into sexual territory.

His mind returned again and again to the way she’d tasted that night—like champagne, and a woman he hadn’t had a sampling of for too long. If there was one essence he was powerless against it was the rare and intoxicating flavor of his ex-wife.

They’d made out hot and heavy, hiding in the spare guest bedroom after the wedding. Her dress was rucked up to her waist while she plunged her hand down his pants. The memory of the heat, the want and the sheer high of being able to take her where she needed to go was a memory that hadn’t faded for him in the least.

He clasped his hands in front of his crotch to hide his reaction, and forced his thoughts on what had interrupted them that night.

Taylor’s going-into-labor screech.

There. Thinking of that helped quell the lust.

“I didn’t realize you were seeing anyone,” Gia said, obviously fishing for details. Details she wouldn’t get since Jayson didn’t actually have a date. He guessed now he’d have to find someone. A celebrity apparently, since he’d coat-tailed Gia’s story with a story of his own. He sure as shit wasn’t admitting he lied to save face.

“It’s new,” he answered. “I didn’t realize you were seeing anyone either.” He’d stayed similarly single. Work kept him busy, but even if it hadn’t he had no interest in a relationship. Once bitten...

Last fall he’d attended Bran’s wedding alone, not thinking a thing of it. Jayson was still considered family outside of the office. Bran and Royce were like brothers. That said, even if he’d had one, bringing a date to a Knox family gathering would have been strange for him and stranger for his date.

It hadn’t occurred to him until now that Gia might have a date for this wedding. He’d assumed she was following the same unwritten rule: no bringing dates around the ex.

Guess not.

“The tablet update is nearing release,” he said, guiding the conversation back to the safe, neutral ground of ThomKnox. Where he and Gia were concerned, work might well be the last frontier of neutral territory. They’d had their differences in the past—namely him working hard to make her happy and her resisting his every effort—but here they had the same goal.

ThomKnox was the number one priority in their lives. They’d always do what was best for the company.

And, in this case, he thought as he took a seat to tell her about the latest software update in detail, the best thing for the company was Gia and him getting along.

Together