Page 65 of The Spice Play

I nodded just as much as his hand would allow.

“Then we just need to get you to the bathroom unnoticed.” He pressed a kiss against my cheek and turned thedoor handle, letting the soft light and booming music pour into the outdoors.

“Wait,” I said, reaching up and grabbing a fistful of his suit jacket to get his attention. “I don’t care what they think. I’d much rather spend the rest of my night with you.”

He huffed out a chuckle and poked his head inside the door before turning back to me, a playful little grin on his face as he squeezed my chin. “You,” he rasped, pausing for a beat as he studied me, “will have all the time in the world with me after this.”

We slipped back in through the doors, his hand clutching mine instead of my face as he kept me behind him and shielded me from view. I clutched at his jacket with my free hand, determined to hide my face in the rigid muscles that covered the expanse of his back if someone so much as dared to look at me.

We came to a T in the halls, and he peeked around the corner, his broad shoulders hunched like we were sneaking into some top-secret government facility instead of navigating the halls of a wedding I didn’t even want to be at. “All clear,” he whispered, glancing back at me with a stupid little grin on his cheeks.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “This is not a joke.”

His smile fell, and he flashed the same look I gave to him back at me. “Obviously,” he said, completely deadpan in delivery, but the little twitch at the corner of his mouth betrayed him.Why did he have to be so cute?“I’m taking thisveryseriously. Now come on, agent, let’s move.”

Going right would have led us back to the reception hall, so he pulled me to the left, his head swiveling every few seconds to check behind us. My heels clicked too loudly on the marble floor, but I hoped and prayed that theCha Cha Slide was doing enough to cover it as it boomed from the speakers down the hall.

In front of us, twenty-odd feet down the hall, a single foot appeared around the corner of the hall, and Seb immediately blocked my line of sight. By the time he finally shifted enough for me to see, the man’s waistcoat and empty tray tucked against his side made it obvious enough that he was staff — and he was walkingawayfrom us.

With one last check over his shoulder, Seb whipped me around to the front of him, both hands firmly on my shoulders as we came to a stop a few paces from the ladies’ room. “All right, agent. This is it. Go in, fix your face, and I’ll stand guard. Anyone comes this way, I’ll distract them.”

I snorted. “What’s your plan for that, exactly? Noteveryoneknows who you are.”

“I know that,” he chuckled. “But I’m sure I could get just about anyone to speak to me. And as soon as I start speaking about hockey stats, they’ll run as far as possible.”

Despite what had happened this evening and the horrible ache of even being here, I cracked a laugh for the first time since we’d been plotting ways to make the two of them uncomfortable. It was a small one, but it felt good, and even better because it was because of him and nothing else. “You’re ridiculous,” I said, shaking my head.

“And you’re stalling.” He shot a smirk at me as he stepped back and leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. “Go on. I’ll be here when you get out.”

Sighing and deciding that being in there was far safer than being in the hallway, I slipped inside the little lounge area with plush blue carpet and white recliners before pushing open the swinging door to the bathroom.

The tile was ornate, laid out in zig-zag patterns that formed a cohesive image of a geometricallioness in the middle of the floor, and the second my heels touched down, I worried the clacking of them would break the tile — but the sound of irritated grunts coming from the handicap stall immediately drew my mind elsewhere.Fuck. Someone’s here.

“This dress is such a nightmare to get back down over you,” a voice I didn’t recognize huffed.

I turned to look at myself in the mirror over the sinks, watching in horror as my tanned skin paled significantly.

“No. You know what the fucking nightmare is, Mags?”

Shit. Shit, shit, shit?—

“Nelly having the goddamn nerve to show up,” Ruby growled, her voice barely concealed by the shuffling sound of layers upon layers of tulle sliding against each other. “I mean, when she said she was bringing herboyfriend, I almost laughed. I was positive she’d made it up. But she justhadto show up with Sebastian fucking Blue.”

Swallowing down every bit of bile that dared to rise in my throat, I dug through my bag silently, pulling out the little tube of concealer I’d stashed in it before making quick work of my under-eyes. This was nauseating and satisfying all rolled into one horrifying, hilarious package — I’d gotten under her skin. Both of them, hopefully.

“Does it help that I don’t know who that is?” Another voice asked, and that one had a specific ring to it, a cadence that hit my ears and felt somewhat familiar.

“No, that doesn’t fucking help,” Ruby hissed. “It doesn’t matter if you know who he is. I do, Morris does, and half of the guests do.”

“What does he even do?”

“I don’tknow, Sarah.”Sarah.I remembered Sarah. She was one of Ruby’s backup singers when she was in her wedding singer days. “I just know he plays for theAtlanta Fire. He’s some billionaire’s son or something, it’s ridiculous—ouch, ouch, don’t tug on the laces.”

I froze with my fingers on my cheeks, halfway through tapping the hell out of my concealer since I’d forgotten a blending brush.

Did she say billionaire? I must have misheard her. Surely.

“He probably just owes her some kind of favor,” Sarah said, barely covering the scoff and aggravation in her voice. “Do you honestly think he’d be with her if he didn’t? I bet she convinced him to come and pretend to be her date to mess with you two. Didn’t you say she knew Mor is a fan?”

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