Read Online Snark and Stage Fright by Stephanie Wardrop - Free Book Online

bikes so fast that their wind blew my skirt a little.
    “This isn’t the place,” I whispered.
    “But don’t you? Want to be alone with me, I mean?” he asked and his eyes looked at once determined and pleading.
    “Yes,” I assured him, because I did, more than anything I have ever or will ever want in the world.
    “Maybe on our beach, tonight?” he sighed into my hair.
    “Definitely,” I promised.
    We went back to the reception and danced some more. I didn’t even object when Catalina cut in on us.
    When we got back to the bungalow after the reception, however, it was pretty clear that all of his cousins and other guests were going to continue celebrating on the beach well into the night. And Catalina seemed to have nominated herself as chairwoman of the party committee.
    “Come join us,” Catalina pleaded, pulling Michael’s arm as he stood resolutely on the porch of his parents’ beach house. She even added, “You, too, Georgia. Please.” Before I could object, Megan and Charlie both grabbed my hands and soon Michael and I were pulled down to the beach by the force of the family’s goodwill. Someone had lit a small bonfire and his cousin Jack was playing the guitar and there was champagne and glasses and lots of laughing. Megan and Catalina felt the need to describe what we’d missed at the rest of the reception when we’d ducked out and exactly how beautiful Rose’s dress had looked as she took off on her honeymoon to Capri. As they argued for about ten minutes over whether Rose had worn a Monique Lhuillier or custom-made Vera Wang gown, I looked over at Michael. He took a seat on some driftwood and we both settled in for a different kind of fun than we’d anticipated.
    After an hour or so, we gave up hoping that everyone would get tired and leave the beach to us. We went inside the house instead and snuggled up on the denim-covered couch, half-watching an old episode of The Big Bang Theory and listening to the celebration that was going to outlast us. Later, we went upstairs, brushed our teeth together, and made big frothy smiles at each other in the mirror. He put his arms around my waist from behind and began kissing the back of my neck in ways that sent prickles of pleasure up and down my spine. I felt my limbs melt but came back to reality when I jumped at the sound of a firecracker going off outside.
    “You Endicotts like to party,” I said.
    “It’s kind of hard to ignore, isn’t it?” he agreed with a sigh. Then he walked me to my room and paused at the door to kiss me good night.
    “You looked really beautiful today,” he said, tugging at the belt of the patterned kimono-style bathrobe I had borrowed from Tori and asked, “Can I at least see your pajamas now? I didn’t even try to sneak a peek this morning and the suspense is killing me.”
    “Are you sure you can handle an onslaught of sexiness?” I asked. He nodded solemnly so I looked up and down the short hallway and then flashed him. He groaned in disappointment.
    “A PETA T-shirt and boxer shorts? Seriously?” He leaned his head against the doorpost, deflated. “ That’s what I’m missing?”
    “Yes. So cheer up, baby. You’ll sleep better now, right? Though there are a few holes in, um, strategic places in this shirt, actually.”
    He brightened. “That shirt just got a whole lot sexier. Where are these strategic holes?”
    I kissed the tip of his nose and opened the door to my room, saying, “I’ll leave that to your imagination,” and when I shut the door behind me I heard him say on the other side, “You’re killing me, Georgia.”
    At least tonight I was frustrating him in a good way.
    As I hugged my pillow to my ear, I wondered, despite teasing him about the strategic holes in my T-shirt, if I was really ready for him to see me in much less than that. He’d seen me in my bathing suit, of course. And a bra. But never naked. He’d never seen my body in all its dubious glory. And once he saw it, he