Jared knew that Evan was denying the real truth, but he wasn’t going to push his sibling right now. He knew Evan, and if he didn’t want to talk about his childhood and adolescence, he wouldn’t.
“Because our little brother doesn’t want to admit he’s in love with Mara,” Dante commented right before he slugged another gulp of his beer.
“Because I’m not,” Jared argued vehemently. He wasn’t, right? Just because he lusted after Mara every waking moment of his day, wanted to be with her when he wasn’t, thought of her all of the time, wondered if she was okay. Surely, that wasn’t exactly all about love.
You don’t believe in true love?
Mara’s question drifted through Jared’s mind as he tried to sort out his emotions. Nope. He didn’t believe in love. Or he hadn’t. Now he didn’t know what the hell to think. Was he any less obsessed than his brothers were about their women? At one time, he’d thought they were all crazy. Now he was the one acting like a lunatic.
“Would you walk through fire for her?” Grady asked quietly.
Evan shot him a questioning glance, and Jared almost squirmed as he answered grudgingly, “Yes.”
“What would you do if she didn’t want to see you anymore?” Dante queried.
“I’d seduce her.” I’d fucking beg for the very first time in my life. Holy shit. He wasn’t saying that out loud. Just thinking about it made him shudder, but he knew it was true. He needed Mara just that damn much. “She’s mine. She’s not going anywhere,” he added gruffly.
“Primal instincts,” Grady observed.
“Unable to function without her,” Dante added.
“Staking his claim,” Grady mused.
“Probably thinks about her all the time,” Dante interjected.
“You’re screwed,” Dante and Grady said in unison.
Jared looked at the knowing smiles on Dante’s and Grady’s faces and grumbled, “Assholes.”
“Leave him alone,” Evan ordered commandingly. “I doubt either one of you would have wanted your weaknesses pointed out when you were struggling through your own relationship difficulties.”
Grady and Dante sobered after a moment of thought and nodded slowly, both of them muttering an apology to Jared.
“I thought we were here to play poker,” Evan said evenly. “So far I haven’t seen any of you putting your money where your mouth is or dealing out the cards.”
Even though Jared was irritated, he almost smiled. Nobody could beat Evan at poker, and no doubt Grady and Dante knew they’d get their asses kicked. Not one of them had ever learned to really read Evan in poker, and he had absolutely no “tells.” His eldest brother had been mopping the floor with all of them at poker since they were kids.
Grady got up reluctantly. “I’ll grab the cards and chips.”
Dante rubbed his hands together. “I’m the groom. It has to be my lucky night.”
“We’ll see,” Evan said noncommittally, arrogantly. “But don’t count on it. Lucky at cards, unlucky in love,” Evan quoted the old saying drily. “I believe I’m the only one who can claim that truth anymore.”
A few weeks ago, Jared could have argued with Evan. Nobody had been more unlucky in love than him. Now, thinking about Mara, he kept his silence. He’d happily let Evan take his money if he could just have the woman he wanted.
Evan kicked everybody’s ass and left with a rather large IOU from every single one of his brothers several hours later.
He took his less-than-sober siblings home without ever cracking a smile for the pounding he’d given his younger brothers.
“I’m ruined,” Mara told the four women sitting in Dante’s living room as she downed the last of her second strawberry daiquiri. The bachelorette party was small, just her, Kristin, Randi, Sarah, and Emily. She wasn’t much of a drinker, so after consuming two drinks that tasted like Randi had gone pretty heavy on the rum, Mara had become very talky.
Okay. Yeah. She’d let her relationship with Jared slip, and after that, she’d blurted out most of the story—minus the mind-blowing sex part. Some things were just too private and much too intimate to share, even if she was a little tipsy.
Picking up another satin bag, she started stuffing in the adorable wedding favors that Sarah had picked out: miniature bottles of cognac, gourmet coffee, tea diffusers, and a crystal from Beatrice’s store, Natural Elements. She picked up the tiny card, an inclusion that Sarah had insisted on so that everyone knew about her fiancé’s generous nature. It explained that one of the party favors was a donation to a charity for abused women in the guest’s name. It was a unique idea, and Sarah had related the information to all of them earlier that Dante had donated an enormous sum of money to give a donation from every wedding guest attending. It was a charity being managed by Jason Sutherland, Hope’s husband. Apparently, it was a major joint project for the Harrisons, the Hudsons, Max and Mia Hamilton, and the Colters of Colorado, all billionaires and obviously compassionate families. How many of the ultrawealthy actually gave up that much time to charity? Sarah had told her that Hope’s husband, Jason, personally managed the funds for the charity, and the other billionaires donated a lot of time to fund-raising. Didn’t people that wealthy usually just write a check and forget about it? It sounded like a wonderful cause, and Mara was glad that money had been donated for her by Dante.
Obviously not all of them just wrote a check and forgot about the cause.