Page 62 of The Spice Play

Thank fuck for that.

I leaned down, bringing my mouth to the shell of her ear and sweeping her hair over one shoulder. “Good. I don’twant to let you go,” I breathed, and her hand squeezed around me, the little hairs on her arms standing on end.

“We can’t exactly steal the show, you know,” she chuckled, her eyes scanning the crowd as people mingled and checked the tables for their assigned seats. “We have to be at least a little reserved.”

I hummed my reluctance to follow through on that and pulled her closer, tucking my face against the side of her head. “Does that mean I can’t kiss you?”

I couldhearher nervous swallow over the background music. “Let’s, uh, keep it to cheek kisses.”

Trying not to show my disappointment with her answer, I swallowed down what I wanted to say and huffed out a simple, “Okay.”

But that didn’t mean I couldn’t touch her within normal societal limits.

We grabbed a couple of drinks from the bar—two glasses of white wine and a glass of water, just to be annoying—and made our way to the table withPenelope MorenoandPenelope Moreno’s Boyfriendwritten on little placards. She grumbled when she saw it, folding them in her fist and dropping them beneath the table.

I scooted my chair close to hers, relieved to see that we were actually within the sight line of the head table. The moment they came through those doors and sat down, it was game on. But we could practice for now.

I let my hand fall on her exposed thigh, my thumb swiping across it. “So,” I smirked, eyeing the plate of chocolate-covered strawberries set out for each guest. “I was thinking that when they sit down, rightthere,” I pointed to the two seats that were clearly for the bride and groom in the middle of the head table, “I could feed you one of those.”

She chuckled as she leaned forward, picking one up anyway, and sat back in her seat. Her eyes studied me, dragging down my suit-covered chest and back up. “I like that. What else have you got?”

My lips tugged up at the edges and I couldn’t fight the smirk. “The suit or the idea?”

Her cheeks deepened, and she popped the strawberry into her mouth, clutching it by the stem. “Shut up.”

I squeezed her thigh, just a little, just enough to make her eyes widen the smallest bit. “When Taryn and I got married, we invited other couples onto the dance floor right after our first dance. If they do that, I think we should be the first ones on the floor. Get right up next to them.”

Nelly snorted, her hand flying up to cover her nose and mouth. “That’s excessive. But God, yes, I want to do that.”

“You thinkthat’sexcessive?” I chuckled. “I guess I should axe the idea of doing a fake proposal, then?”

She burst into a full-on cackle, drawing a handful of eyes to herself but not paying them one single bit of attention. It was so good to see that, sosatisfyingto hear her laugh, and her refusal to pay anyone else any mind left me with a sense of pride in her that she wasn’t giving two shits how anyone else saw her. I’d seen that fear in her the moment I came through the door, and now that I recognized it, I could place exactly what it was back at the arena when I’d blown up.

It was the same fucking thing.

“As much as I would kill to see their faces if you did that, yes, axe it immediately,” she laughed. “Though I wouldn’t say no to you hinting at something like that within earshot of them. You know, saying what you’d change about this ridiculous setup if it wereourwedding.”

I squeezed her leg again, and she leaned into it, her knee knocking against mine. I took that as an okay to move a little bit higher up, and she didn’t fight me on it — but her nostrils flared the moment my fingers began to trace circles on the soft, sensitive skin of her inner thigh. “I’ll happily go so far as to ask him for the contact details of their wedding planner if you want me to.”

“Please,” she grinned. She sat forward again, plucking another strawberry off the plate, her eyes watching it in her fingers in hesitation before she clutched the stem between them…

…and held it out to me.

I huffed out a breath. “They’re not in here yet,” I said.

She quirked a brow at me. “So?”

I wrapped my free hand around her wrist, pulling the strawberry just an inch closer to my lips. “Don’t tempt me, Nelly,” I warned, sinking my teeth into the strawberry and plucking the leftover top from her fingers. “There are plenty of things I’m willing to do right now that you’d think areexcessive.”

She swallowed, her mouth parting just slightly. “Like what?”

“Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Morris Leonard!”

The crowd erupted into hoots and hollers and clapping, but I kept her there, locked in on me, her eyes flicking between mine. I didn’t even know where Morris and Ruby were, didn’t care to take my eyes off Nelly for one second to find out, but I leaned toward her, dug my fingers into her inner thigh, and brought my lips right up next to her ear.

“Don’t for one second think I wouldn’t happily have you on your knees in front of him so he could see what he was missing,” I rasped.

Her hand came down on top of mine, squeezing theback of my palm hard enough I thought she might actually be trying to break something. But when I pulled away, when I looked at her to gauge her reaction and make sure I hadn’t crossed a line she’d laid out, her cheeks were flushed red, and her eyelids heavy.

---