Get ready for another Sullivan to fall in love in Bella Andre’s bestselling contemporary romance series!

Sophie Sullivan, a librarian in San Francisco, was five years old when she fell head over heels in love with Jake McCann. Twenty years later, she’s convinced the notorious bad boy still sees her as the “nice” Sullivan twin. That is, when he bothers to look at her at all. But when they both get caught up in the magic of the first Sullivan wedding, she knows it’s long past time to do whatever it takes to make him see her for who she truly is…the woman who will love him forever.

Jake has always been a magnet for women, especially since his Irish pubs made him extremely wealthy. But the only woman he really wants is the one he can never have. Not only is Sophie his best friend’s off-limits younger sister…he can’t risk letting her get close enough to discover his deeply hidden secret.

Only, when Sophie appears on his doorstep as Jake’s every fantasy come to life—smart, beautiful, and shockingly sexy—he doesn’t have a prayer of taking his eyes, or his hands, off her. And he can’t stop craving more of her sweet smiles and sinful kisses. Because even though Jake knows loving Sophie isn’t the right thing to do…how can he possibly resist?

Reader Comments

Bella Andre has delivered again. Every book that I have read written by her has been great. This is the best book so far; I couldn’t put my kindle down until I got through. I love how Jake was in love with Sophie, but don’t want to tell her. This book was full of intense pleasure and passion. The Sullivan Series just keep getting better and better. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series. Definitely a Must Read!!!

– Amazon Reviewer, 5 Stars

This was my favorite book of the series so far! Loved how Sophie and Jake’s relationship unfolded and thought that there were so many sweet scenes between the two of them. These two were meant to be together! Some surprises added excitement to the story and as always it was great to see the other Sullivan’s as well. I’m so looking forward to reading the remaining books in the series!

– Amazon Reviewer, 5 Stars

And here, for your reading pleasure, is our free excerpt:

Sophie Sullivan surveyed the final wedding preparations with satisfaction. In less than two hours, her brother Chase and his fiancee, Chloe, would be saying “I do” beneath rose-covered arches with three hundred guests looking on. The Napa Valley vineyard owned by her oldest brother, Marcus, was not only the perfect backdrop for the wedding, but was also where Chase and Chloe had first met and fallen in love.

The bride and the other bridesmaids were already in the guest house having their makeup and hair done. Sophie should have been there half an hour ago, but she’d wanted to make sure everything outside was perfect first. She was a librarian, not a wedding planner, but she’d leapt at the chance to help plan Chase’s wedding, and it had been so much fun. Well, apart from all those meetings with—

“Hey, Nice, looking good.”

Every muscle in Sophie’s body tensed at the low drawl from behind her.

Jake McCann.

Her brother Zach’s closest friend…and the object of twenty years of her unrequited love.

Of course, not once in those twenty years had she ever been anything more to him than Zach’s little sister.

“My name is Sophie, not Nice,” she said, without turning to face him.

She felt him move closer, his innate heat searing her even from several feet away. She’d always been overly attuned to him, instantly alert to his presence in a room. As a little girl, she’d made excuses to hang out with her older brothers just to be near Jake, keeping extra quiet so no one would remember she was there while they played pool in the basement and made off-color jokes.

The urge to turn and drink him in, to lose herself in the spark of wicked in his chocolate-brown eyes, was so strong she almost gave in. Instead, she kept her gaze trained over the wedding layout and the rolling hills of grapevines and mustard flowers as if she didn’t care one way or another if he stayed to talk to her.

“Hard to believe the day has finally come.” He paused, and she could hear the humor mixed with a faint disdain in his voice as he said, “A Sullivan is actually taking the plunge.”

Sophie was known as the clear-headed, soft-spoken one in the family, the one who always thought things through before taking action. She’d never been prone to violent outbursts…or to giving in to crazy inner urgings. That was her twin sister Lori’s territory, which was why Lori’s nickname was Naughty and Sophie’s was Nice. But Sophie rarely felt level-headed anymore around Jake. How could she when her heart always beat too fast at the thought of what it would feel like to be in his arms…or because he was making her mad with some macho comment? Usually both at the same time. Just as he was doing right now.

Her fingers curled into fists as she lost the battle with self-control and whirled around to face him. Unfortunately for her traitorous hormones, Jake was more gorgeous than ever in his tuxedo. His crisp white dress shirt opened up just enough at the neck for her to see the dark hair curling up at the vee of his chest. His tattoos were covered up, but just knowing they were hidden behind a thin layer of fabric always sent a kick of forbidden desire rushing through her.

“Chase and Chloe are in love,” she told him in a sharp voice made even sharper by her disappointment with herself for not being even the slightest bit impervious to Jake’s good looks. “Their wedding is going to be beautiful and perfect and incredibly romantic.”

It was even more beautiful and perfect and romantic that Chloe was pregnant and absolutely glowing. Sophie couldn’t wait to babysit, to endlessly spoil her niece or nephew.

“It’s going to be one hell of a party, at least.”

What was wrong with him? Sophie wondered for what had to be the thousandth time in twenty years. How could he look at a lifetime of love and only see a party?

Then again, given the fact that he blew through women at a shockingly fast rate, it wasn’t hard to guess that he was one of those imbeciles who didn’t believe in love. A rich, good-looking guy like Jake McCann would just be in it for the sex.

Sophie was neither a virgin nor a prude, despite what people might otherwise assume about librarians. On the contrary, if people knew just how well-read she was on the subject of sex, they would likely be shocked. Especially Jake. Wouldn’t it be something to shock someone who thought he was so utterly unshockable?

But she knew better than to let her fantasies run away with her where Jake was concerned, even if her body had stupidly fallen in lust with him from the first stirring of teenage hormones. Even now, she couldn’t help but breathe in his scent, a faint hint of hops and something she’d never been able to categorize beyond night and darkness.

She moved to straighten an already perfectly straight chair. “I checked over the bar setup earlier and it looks like everything is in place.” She grudgingly had to admit, “You’ve done a good job with it.”

She could feel his dark eyes on her as he said, “You sure I can’t hire you to run my pubs? We could use someone like you to whip the business into shape.”

A burst of pleasure at his compliment shot through her, warming her all over. That was the problem with Jake. Even when she was irritated with him, even though he’d never return her feelings for him in a billion, kazillion years, she couldn’t help but be charmed by him.

Still, knowing she’d never forgive herself if she melted into a gooey puddle of lust in the middle of Marcus’s vineyard, she simply told him, “I’d miss my books too much, thanks.” All her life, Sophie’d had stacks of books in every room, beside her bed, and in the kitchen. She loved the way her new e-reader fit in her purse.

Knowing that prolonging their close proximity in this uber-romantic setting would only mess with her head, she said, “I’d better get over to the guest house.” But just as she was turning to go, a sudden gust of wind whipped her hat off her head.

Jake reached out and caught it before she even had time to react. “Got it.”

He moved in front of her and slid a lock of hair that had caught on her mouth back under the hat as he settled it into place. Her cheek tingled from the gentle brush of skin on skin and she nervously licked her lips.

His hands stilled on the brim of her hat, his dark eyes turning almost jet black as his gaze held on her mouth. Neither of them moved for several moments, but then, suddenly, he was stepping back from her, the slightly cool wine-country air pushing in where his heat had been just seconds before.

His frown was deep, heavy, as he tore his gaze away from her mouth and quickly scanned her outfit. “You’re not wearing that to the wedding, are you?”

Still working to catch her breath from the shock of his touch, it took far longer than it should have for her to register what he’d said. She couldn’t miss the mocking tone, however.

Months ago, when Jake had volunteered to run the bar at Chase and Chloe’s wedding, she’d impulsively decided to teach him a lesson about his arrogance, along with the way he insisted on continuing to look at her as little more than a child, rather than a full-grown woman. She’d planned to make him want her, to somehow figure out a way to make him desperate with longing…before she scorned him, leaving him high and dry for the first time in his life.

Only, had she made good on those big plans to attract and then reject Jake in the past four months?

Ha!

“Of course this isn’t what I’m wearing for the wedding,” she finally replied, her words a hard snap of breath and teeth. “I’m one of Chloe’s maids of honor, with Lori.”

The perfect planes of his face shifted again from frown to scowl, before settling back into indifference. “You’d better go get pretty then, shouldn’t you, princess?”

Jake’s harsh words landed with a hard thud between them. She didn’t know if he’d intended to hurt her with his words, with the implication that it would take some time, along with a good amount of effort, to pretty her up…but whether or not that had been his intent, that was exactly what he’d just done.

A few minutes ago she’d felt proud of what she’d accomplished with Chase and Chloe’s wedding. Now, that pride was all but erased by the way Jake looked at her and found her so wanting, so utterly devoid of female allure. Because even though she knew better than to care, even though she knew better than to give him the power to hurt her, a handful of his careless words did more damage than her twin’s hair-pulling ever had.

Had she imagined that hunger, the longing, in his eyes? Or had she simply wanted to feel those sparks so badly that she’d manufactured a split-second connection that would never actually be there between them?

Oh, how she hated the way he’d just talked to her—like she was still a little girl rather than a fully grown, successful, adult woman. Princess. He’d called her princess.

Somehow that was worse than Nice. At least her family nickname had been born of love.

In one fell swoop, all the resolve she’d had such a hard time holding on to where Jake was concerned gathered up inside her, settling in just over her breastbone. What she wouldn’t give to shock him, to show him that he didn’t know a darn thing about who she really was, that the “nice” girl he’d seen grow up was more than woman enough to run him in circles.

Growing up in a family of extraordinary siblings, Sophie had known better than to try to compete with them. She’d never glide across a dance floor like Lori, or lead a team to a national championship like Ryan. She didn’t save people’s lives on a daily basis like Gabe. She’d never be passionate enough about photography or cars or vineyards to turn them into successful careers and businesses.

But as she stood with Jake in the middle of Marcus’s vineyard barely an hour before Chase and Chloe’s wedding, Sophie couldn’t have been happier that she’d read thousands of novels. Enough, she hoped, to pull together a quick plot that would give Jake a taste of his own medicine…and at long last, a run for his money.

“You’re right,” she said softly, “I should leave soon to get pretty.” The words tasted like grit on her tongue and she could have sworn he almost winced as she repeated them back to him. “But there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you first.”

“What’s that?” he asked in an easy voice. One she thought sounded a little too easy.

“Well,” she said slowly, “I just found out that an ex-boyfriend is one of Chloe’s last-minute guests.”

It was true, she’d dated the guy—Alex—for a few months last year. Neither of them had been particularly serious about the other, however. She hadn’t even slept with him.

Still, that didn’t stop her from spinning the truth a bit for Jake’s benefit. “He’s someone I’d really like to make jealous.” She slowly lowered her eyelashes as if she still wasn’t over the pain of being left so callously.

Although she’d only been in the chorus of a handful of elementary-school stage productions, she tried to channel the way she imagined Smith would play this scene onscreen. With pathos. And a faint hint of shame at the way she’d never managed to be good enough for her ex no matter what she did. She waited a beat before lifting her gaze to Jake’s again.

“Would you help me?”

He stared down at her, clearly unable to believe what she was proposing. “Hold up a second, Nice. You want me to help you make some loser ex-boyfriend jealous?”

She gritted her teeth at his use of her nickname—and the fact that he immediately assumed any boyfriend of hers had to be a loser—but forced herself to let it go. For now.

“You didn’t bring anyone to the wedding, right?” A few weeks ago he’d told her he was coming stag so that he could keep watch over his staff at the bar. Sophie figured it was also a good way to make sure he had his pick of hot single guests for an after-party in his bed. She forcefully tamped down the surge of jealousy at that vision as she said, “Please, Jake, will you help me?”

But he was already shaking his head. “No one will ever believe it. And your brothers will kill me if they think I’m looking at you that way.”

Damn his bad reputation and her crystal clear one.

And damn her brothers for being so protective.

Jake was right. They would tear him to shreds if they ever thought he’d so much as had an impure thought about her or Lori. But she refused to give up now, not with his disdainful, “You’d better go get pretty then, shouldn’t you, princess?” still running through her head.

“Are you kidding?” she said with a laugh. “Of course none of them would believe it. You?” She laughed harder. “And me?” She shook her head as if the whole idea were utterly preposterous…even though she’d written their love story a thousand times in her dreams. “We’ve all seen the kind of girls you go for. I would be surprised if half of them can even spell their own names.”

When he scowled, she belatedly realized she might have gone too far.

Oops.

“Don’t worry,” she reassured him, “we’ll make sure none of my family or friends sees us. Just my ex.”

“Does this guy have a name?”

The way Jake looked right then, like he was going to tear her ex apart with his bare hands, she didn’t think it would be fair to give him Alex’s name.

Thinking fast, she said, “I don’t like saying it aloud.”

“Did he hurt you?”

She was glad she hadn’t had too much to eat for breakfast, otherwise it would have threatened to come back up as she moved her hand over her heart and said, “Only here,” in an overly theatrical way.

Sophie was certain anyone else would have seen through her terrible acting job, but Jake was so bound and determined not to notice anything about her it looked like she was actually going to get away with this.

Knowing it was make-or-break time, she played her final card. “Please, Jake. You’re the only one I can ask to help me get a little revenge on a big jerk.” She leaned in close to his ear and said in a hushed voice, “It will be our little secret.”

God, he smelled good, so good she wanted to rub her lips over the faint stubble on his cheek. Instead, she forced herself to shift her weight away from him.

Finally he said, “Fine. If you’re that desperate, I’ll do it. Although I still don’t think this plan of yours has much of a chance of working.”

“Oh,” she said softly, the word desperate grating along with princess and Nice, “it will work all right. I’ll make absolutely sure of it.”

* * *

What the hell had just happened?

Jake McCann knew how he was supposed to feel about Sophie Sullivan. He was supposed to love her the way a guy loved his little sister, to watch over her, to make sure she was safe and happy. He was supposed to be blind to the way Sophie had filled out over the years.

He shouldn’t have been appreciating her curves beneath her clothes as she’d stood in the middle of the vineyard and surveyed the wedding preparations. And when he was putting her hat back on her head and her eyes had gone all dreamy, he sure as hell shouldn’t have felt the crazy urge to drag her against him and kiss that soft mouth.

But he couldn’t take his eyes off her as she walked away, couldn’t stop thinking about how soft her cheek felt against the pad of his thumb and the way her hair slid like silk through his fingers.

Damn it.

How long had he worked to deny the way he felt about Sophie? How many years had he told himself it was nothing he couldn’t work out of his system with other women? Women who were good for a few hours in the sack, but who didn’t have an ounce of Sophie’s natural elegance. Her brains. Her gentleness.

How was he going to make it through an entire wedding with Sophie when his self-control had slipped a little more each time he saw her over the past months? Sitting close to her as she ran through the wedding plans with him, breathing in her sweet scent, wondering if she would taste just as sweet against his tongue, had been slowly driving him crazy. Day by day she’d crept into his thoughts, his dreams, more and more.

Standing in the middle of Marcus’s vineyard with Sophie near enough to pull her into his arms, he’d been caught between two impossible choices. Reach out and finally claim her the way he’d fantasized about taking her for far too long…or push her away for her own good.

His chest clenched with regret as he remembered Sophie’s wounded expression after he’d made those cracks about her clothes and needing to be made pretty for the wedding. She was the last person in the world he wanted to hurt, which was exactly why he’d made sure to keep his distance as much as possible over the years.

Jake hated to think that some guy she’d dated had done a number on her, and actually had the nerve to show up at her brother’s wedding. She deserved to be with someone who would give her everything. A house in the suburbs and a white picket fence. A handful of cute kids with big brains like their mother.

He knocked his knuckles hard into his sternum to physically shove away the tightening at those images of Sophie being picture-book happy with some other guy. Jake wasn’t sure about her plan to make her ex jealous, but he was already planning to get the guy alone and teach him a lesson about what happened when somebody messed with a Sullivan.

Just then, Chase stepped out onto Marcus’s terrace and called Jake’s name, jolting him out of his thoughts.

Chase’s brothers were all groomsmen with Marcus officiating the wedding. Jake was the only non-Sullivan to be given the honor of standing up with Chase, even though he had plenty of cousins who could have been chosen.

The ninth Sullivan. It was always how they’d made him feel, like he was one of them. All those years he’d hung out at their house, Jake had pretended he was home. And the truth was, Mary Sullivan’s house had been the only real home he’d known until he bought his own place with the profits from his Irish pubs.

Jake was happy for Chase. Sure, he was surprised by the way his friend had fallen so quickly, and by how happy he was about the whole husband/father thing being dropped into his lap, but just because Jake wouldn’t ever let himself get caught up in that ball and chain, he would always support a Sullivan.

Being a groomsman at Chase’s wedding and running the bar was all part of giving back to the family that had helped raise him when his own family hadn’t given a damn.

“How’re you feeling on the big day?”

Chase grinned. “Good.” His grin widened. “Really good.”

Jake had seen Chase and Chloe together enough to know this was one seriously happy dude. Chase didn’t seem to have one regret about giving up having his pick of hot models.

“Have you seen Chloe?” Chase asked. “Do you know if she needs anything?”

As soon as Chloe had announced her pregnancy, Chase had become a carbon copy of every other overprotective dad-to-be. It was exactly the kind of crazy behavior Jake would never understand. Which was why he made damn certain none of his sexual partners could get knocked up.

“I was just talking with Sophie,” he told Chase. “Sounded like everything is under control with the girls.”

“Good.” Chase nodded, then grinned at him. “Come inside. Smith is telling us about an orgy he walked in on a couple of weeks ago. I’m guessing it’s a warm-up for his speech after the wedding.”

“So you’re really not going to miss giving it all up, huh?”

Chase didn’t hesitate before shaking his head. “Chloe is worth a thousand orgies.”

Jake could hear the Sullivans laughing as he walked inside. He loved that family as if they were his own, would take a bullet for any of them. Especially the dark-haired beauty he couldn’t manage to shake out of his head.

Or his heart.

* * *

“We were just about to send out a search party for you.” Kalen, the makeup artist Chase usually worked with on his photo shoots, grabbed Sophie the second she stepped into the guest house. “Everyone else is putting on their dresses already. Fortunately, all you need is some light mascara and lipstick.”

Normally, Sophie would have agreed to keep her face close to bare. She’d never been all that comfortable in makeup. Lori had been the one who’d always liked to play with their mother’s eye shadows and powders. Sophie had been more interested in finding the books to tell her sister how to put it on, rather than playing mannequin.

“Actually,” she said, “I was hoping you could work a little of your magic on me.”

The woman raised an eyebrow. “Magic?”

Sophie nodded. “There’s this guy…”

Kalen gave Sophie a slow grin. “Well, in that case, I’d be happy to work a little of my magic on you. He won’t know what hit him.” She called out to the hairstylist friend she’d brought with her. “Jackie, can you come here for a sec?”

A few minutes of hushed conferencing later—in which Sophie made it clear that she didn’t want to look overly made up or trashy, just a whole lot sexier than she normally did—the three women had a plan.

Sophie sat back in her seat and tried to ignore her rapidly beating heart as they transformed her from Nice to something entirely different.

* * *

Jake stepped out from behind the bar just as the wedding march started up and a cute blonde kid skipped down the aisle, tossing flower petals into the air. Charmed, the crowd laughed and admired Gabe’s girlfriend’s daughter. Marcus and Lori came next, the oldest Sullivan and one of the youngest. Lori took her place as one of the Maids of Honor and Marcus moved to the center in preparation for officiating the ceremony.

Yet again, Jake could hardly believe this day had come. There were a few things he’d always been able to count on in life.

Beer always tasted better from the tap.

His father had never been anything but a worthless drunk.

And the Sullivan boys weren’t going to be heading to the altar any time soon.

Ellen caught sight of him and waved him over to his place by the bridesmaid he’d be escorting. He hadn’t met her yet, but he hoped Chloe had good taste in friends. At this point, the only way he had even the slightest chance of working Sophie out of his system after a long day together at the wedding, was to make sure he ended it in bed with a gorgeous woman who was her polar opposite.

He was almost to the bridesmaid when his heart—and his feet—stopped cold.

What the hell had Sophie done to herself?

Jake blinked to try to fix his vision as Sophie and Smith rounded a row of vines and continued walking down the aisle. When he was still seeing things a few seconds later—crazy, insane things—he ran a hand over his eyes.

But nothing changed the fact that Sophie was looking like walking sex in a silky pink dress and high heels. She sure wasn’t wearing that sweater and skirt he’d been so rough on anymore. But the dress wasn’t the only thing different about her. What had she done to her hair? And why did her eyes look so big, her mouth so red?

His body reacted to the shockingly sensual picture of her before he could stop it, all of the blood that was supposed to feed a brain that knew not to ever look at Sophie Sullivan like that—especially in front of all six of her brothers—shooting south.

Ellen’s hand at his elbow jolted him. “It’s almost your turn to head up the aisle, Jake.”

He heard what she said, knew he needed to join the rest of the group, but even as he held out his arm for Chloe’s friend—he didn’t catch her name and didn’t bother to ask her for it again—he couldn’t take his eyes off Sophie.

The view from the back didn’t help his current problem, damn it. Sophie Sullivan had a perfect ass and right then she was showcasing it to three hundred people in that dress that slipped and slid over her curves so tightly he knew she couldn’t possibly be wearing anything under it.

An urge to drag her away from the wedding, away from all those hungry male eyes drinking her in, to make her change back into her normal clothes—clothes that covered her up the way she should be covered!—came so fast, Jake was hard pressed to ignore it. He couldn’t stand knowing dozens of guys in the audience were drooling right now, even the ones who were married and had no business thinking those kinds of thoughts about little Sophie.

Although…she didn’t exactly look young and innocent, didn’t seem quite so untouchable anymore, did she?

Ellen said his name again and he took it as his cue to start walking. Gabe and Megan, who were walking up the aisle in front of him, impeded his view of Sophie for a few seconds and he had to crane his neck to keep his eye on her as she took her place beside Lori beneath the rose covered arches.

A moment later, Sophie looked up and caught him staring at her. Jake tried to look away.

And failed.

The woman on his arm had to tug him to keep his feet moving in the right direction. The last thing Jake saw before taking his place beside Gabe in the lineup was Sophie’s soft mouth turned up into a sensual, utterly feminine smile.

* * *

Sophie had always loved weddings and, despite her nerves, she couldn’t help but get caught up in the romance. Of course, Sullivan Winery was quite possibly the most glorious wedding venue she’d ever seen. The budding leaves on the vines, the mustard flowers blooming in every free patch of dirt, the rolling hills, the bright blue sky above, the masses of flowers in pots and displays at the end of every row of seats—they were all breathtaking additions to the love between Chase and Chloe.

Marcus was doing such a beautiful job officiating Chase’s wedding. Sophie could tell he was as choked up as the rest of them, but his voice was steady and solid as he asked Chase and Chloe if they would love, honor, and comfort each other.

Sophie had to reach for Lori’s hand and hold it tight as she waited for that perfect moment when her brother declared his love to his bride. It felt as if the entire world stood still as Chase turned to Chloe and smiled at her. Sophie’s chest squeezed tight at the undying love radiating out from her brother to his bride.

What, Sophie wondered, would it feel like to have a man look at her like that? Like she was absolutely everything to him?

Chase said, “I will love you forever, Chloe,” and a soft sigh left Sophie’s lips as a tear slipped down her cheek. A few moments later, as Chloe made the same vow to Chase, more tears fell down Sophie’s cheeks, one after the other. And as Marcus pronounced them husband and wife, everyone cheered, but none louder than quiet Sophie Sullivan.

* * *

Jake had never cared for weddings. As far as he was concerned, they took up too much of a perfectly good weekend and were a waste of hard-earned money. Especially given that at least half of the unions ended in divorce.

For some reason, though, this wedding was different. He’d spent enough time with Chase and Chloe to think they actually had a shot at making this thing work. With that kid in her belly, he sure hoped it would.

Not, of course, that he was paying much attention to the actual wedding taking place…because he couldn’t take his eyes off the groom’s sister.

When Sophie walked up the aisle, he’d been struck stupid at how sexy she was in that dress. He almost hadn’t recognized her as the sweet girl always hanging around his heels when they were kids. But, then, as he’d watched her during the ceremony, she’d transformed again.

Still ridiculously sexy, but sweet again, her eyes big as she listened to the vows, leaning in toward the bride and groom as if she wanted to become a part of their happiness. And in that moment when she’d reached out to grab Lori’s hand, he’d had a split second of wishing it had been him she was grabbing for.

And that he could be the one to hold her.

Jake felt like someone had reached a fist into his chest and grabbed hold of his heart, squeezing until it was nothing more than a messy pile of blood and veins. He’d never be able to erase the memory of the hope, the longing, in Sophie’s eyes as she watched Chase and Chloe pledge their love to each other.

Before he knew it, Sophie was taking Smith’s arm and walking down the aisle, her perfect little backside swaying in time to the classical music playing.

“Earth to Jake,” Gabe said, elbowing him just before he headed toward Megan to walk her back up the aisle to the crowds that were already surrounding Chase and Chloe. “It’s over. Time to go.”

* * *

There was only one sure cure for Jake’s sudden bout of insanity. He’d tend the bar…and then he’d find himself a willing single woman who didn’t have anything to do with the Sullivan family. And he was going to steer completely clear of Sophie for the rest of the wedding. A little distance from all those soft curves and those plump red lips would help him get his head back on straight.

“I’ve got this,” he told Sammy, one of his best bartenders at the original McCann’s in the city. “You can circulate with the trays.”

Fortunately, the wedding guests were thirsty, clearly needing some vino or hops to wash the taste of the syrupy vows from their tongues. Pouring drinks for strangers was as natural to Jake as breathing, and he immediately got into a rhythm in the middle of the vineyard as the meal was served and people kept a running line behind the bar between courses. He couldn’t remember a time he hadn’t been drying clean glasses, rearranging bottles. As a kid, when his dad had been the one running the taps, Jake had been in the back loading and unloading the dishwasher for a few extra bucks while the cooks at whatever pub they were at slung together plates of fish and chips and colcannon.

When the female guests flirted with him at the bar, he flirted back. So what if none of them were even half as pretty as Sophie? The Sullivans might be pairing up one after the other like they’d been infected by the same virus, but Jake had had his shots.

Love wasn’t going to take him down.

He knew better than to think that love meant a damn thing when the going got rough and it was easier to split. No wife, no kids, plenty of pretty women, but no rings, was what Jake’s future held. He’d play with all the kids the Sullivan clan was bound to pump out, would enjoy being Uncle Jake, but he wouldn’t make the mistake of thinking he’d ever be a good husband or father.

McCanns didn’t come with those genes.

“You haven’t had anything to eat yet.”

The slightly husky female voice reached in and grabbed him a split second before he looked straight into Sophie’s eyes. Her soft sensuality in that pink dress, the sweet smell of her perfume, were a one-two punch straight to a gut that hadn’t yet recovered from watching those tears slip down her cheeks, or the radiant smile that had followed.

Without waiting for an invitation, she put a full plate on the back table for him and moved around the bar to stand next to him. “Scoot over. I’ll help out while you eat.” She bumped her hip into his, causing him to become rock-hard in an instant, his body not giving a damn that she was OFF LIMITS.

How could her brothers have let her out looking like this? What were they thinking? Didn’t they care even a little bit about their sister’s welfare?

While he was standing there losing his mind, Sophie took drink orders and deftly poured glasses of wine and mixed drinks for the wedding guests. She was a librarian, not a bartender. She shouldn’t be so good at serving drinks. And no librarian should ever be this hot, either, Jake thought as he clamped his jaw so tight his temple started throbbing. He’d let her help for five minutes, and then he’d send her back to her table to celebrate with the rest of her family and make sure she stayed there for the rest of the reception.

Even if he had to tie her to her seat.

A beer bottle nearly slipped from his grip as Jake was hit with a crystal-clear vision of Sophie tied to his bed, naked and begging for him to touch, to taste, to—

“I hear you’re a librarian. Read any good books lately?”

Jake surfaced from his triple-X daydream just in time to notice a male guest leaning on the bar and looking down the top of Sophie’s dress.

She didn’t seem to notice any of that as she smiled back at the guy. She was too innocent to realize when a guy like this was aiming for one thing, and one thing only: to get into her panties.

Panties Jake was almost certain she wasn’t even wearing.

“Mmm,” she said in that seductive voice, still slightly hoarse from her tears, causing Jake to be slammed with another crazy vision of her lying naked beneath him, crying out his name again and again until her voice gave out altogether. “I’m always reading great books. What do you like to read?”

The guy shrugged, not seeming to care that there was a huge backup of thirsty people bottlenecking behind him. “I’m a doct—”

“What are you drinking?” Jake broke in.

The guy shot him a look that said, Can’t you see I’m about to score here?

“Corona,” he said to Jake before turning back to Sophie’s phenomenal breasts. “As I was saying, I’m a doctor, so I don’t have too much time to read. But when I do, I usually read thrillers. Medical thrillers, to be more specific.”

Jake couldn’t believe it when Sophie leaned over the bar and said, “Oooh, how exciting. Medical thrillers always leave me breathless.”

Didn’t she get that this loser was way beneath her? She should be throwing a drink in his face, not giving him a better view of her perfect body as she leaned down to grab a bottle of beer. Dr. Dickwad looked like he’d hit a home run, was counting the minutes until he could strip that dress from her tanned skin and find out if she tasted as good as she smelled.

Like hell. Jake would kill him first.

Jake snatched the bottle from her hand. “Here’s your beer. Time to let everyone else get a drink.”

He could feel Sophie frowning at him as he pinned the guy with his hardest look. If she couldn’t pick good from bad, he was going to have to save her. Whether she wanted him to or not was irrelevant.

Although the guy flinched at Jake’s silent promise of violence, it didn’t stop him from saying, “Be sure to save a dance for me, gorgeous,” before he walked away.

Jake held on to his control by a very thin thread. Nothing would feel better than to jump over the bar and tackle the guy to teach him what happened when he flirted with the wrong girl. A girl who was too sweet, too pretty, too damn perfect for him to ever even think of touching one hair on her head.

“You’re not dancing with him,” he growled. “Not tonight. Not ever.”

“I’m a big girl, Jake. I’ll dance with whomever I want.”

Serving the customer always took priority. But not this time. Turning his back on the crowd still in line, he slid between Sophie and the bar, then put his hands on her shoulders and gripped her hard.

“No. You won’t. He’s not good enough for you.”

“It’s so sweet of you to be concerned, Jake,” she said in a soft voice. “But I can take care of myself.”

“Your brothers would kill me if anything happened to you.” Hell, they’d kill him if they ever suspected the way he was thinking about her.

“Actually,” she said as she looked over his shoulder, “I think my brother’s guests might kill both of us if we don’t keep serving them drinks.”

Very reluctantly, Jake shifted back into position. But even though he didn’t spill a drop and his fingers didn’t slip on any more bottles, his attention was wholly focused on Sophie. Which was why he saw her shoot a glance at the a-hole who had been flirting with her just before saying, “I think he looks perfectly harmless. In fact…”

Jake tossed an empty bottle into the bin beneath the bar with a loud crash. “In fact what?”

“Since you don’t want to help me out with my plan to make my ex jealous, maybe I should use that guy instead.”

“Sammy,” he called out across the reception area, motioning for his employee to take over the bar again. He didn’t wait for Sam to make it to the bar before wrapping his hand around Sophie’s wrist and pulling her out from behind the bar. He didn’t stop walking until they were hidden behind a large storage shed, just on the edge of the reception area.

“No.”

She looked down at his hand where it was still clamped around her wrist. “There are thousands of other words in the English language, you know.”

He ignored her sarcasm and told her flat out, “You are not getting within a hundred feet of that guy again.”

Anger flared in her eyes. Eyes that had been full of happy tears, full of pure joy, just a short while ago. “You can’t tell me what to do.”

“Like hell I can’t.”

She yanked her arm from his and started to walk away, but he couldn’t let her go. Not when she was bound to do something stupid, like kiss a smarmy doctor. And maybe even offer him her body, those sweet curves slipping and sliding beneath him as she gave herself to him.

Furious at the picture of anyone touching Sophie like that, instead of just grabbing her wrist or her shoulders, this time Jake wrapped his arms all the way around her and pulled her into him. He held her tight, her chest pushing into his forearms, her height matching his so that her hips fit perfectly between his open legs, her soft hips pressing into his groin.

“Let go of me.”

“No.”

His new favorite word was muffled by her hair, so soft, so silky against his chin and lips. And the truth was, he couldn’t have let go of her for the world. Not just because he didn’t want that other guy touching her…but because he’d never wanted to hold anyone more than he did Sophie.

How long had he dreamed of holding her? Too many years to keep count. And yet, he’d never had a clue just how incredibly good she would feel in his arms, her dangerous curves pressed into him, her chest rising and falling against his arms.

“I’m not going to let you go until you promise me you’ll stay away from him.”

Now it was her turn to say, “No.”

He shifted his hand enough to slip a finger beneath her chin and turn her face so that he could look into her eyes. “Promise me, Sophie. It’s for your own good.”

Sophie yanked her face away from his hand, then her whole body, and when she turned to face him head-on, her eyes were flashing. “I can’t believe you just said that! Especially since you of all people have no idea whatsoever what’s good for me.”

“Wanna bet?”

His mouth was on hers before he could put the brakes on his desire.

Continued….

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