Page 580 of Lodestar

Massive snowflakes hung overhead—no cheap tchotchke either. These gleamed with crystals that I knew a place called Swavski or something had donated to the cause.

And with the white dress code and the sparkle of the women’s gems, the placefeltfrosty. Ice sculptures or not.

Snagging a canapé that was shaped into a small mound and topped with goat’s cheese—white was an unfortunate theme with the food too—I accepted a glass of white wine as I cast a glance over the busy party and hunted down my woman.

I’d arrived late because Star had to show her face here while I had to work behind the scenes.

We’d spent the past week preparing to crash thePauks’servers and said crash was due to happen in less than twenty minutes, which meant engaging with Anton was imperative before he figured out what we’d done.

Which, essentially, was destroy the drone footage he had of Star, Dead To Me, Troy, and me in the Catskills with three missing VIPs.

The asswipehadcollected evidence on us.

Yet another reason of, oh, around ten thousand, that he needed to be erased.

I was hoping that once we were in thePauks’ database, we’d have more of a rundown of who was a Brother, but the timing was key.

Scanning the crowd, I eventually found Star hovering beside the table we’d been allotted, her gaze on her phone.

Heading over to her after I sank back the wine and left the glass on a server's tray, I slid an arm around her waist.

Beneath the silk, there was boning that was hell-sent to fuck with my head and my dick as it supported her tits while letting her natural curves shine through.

“Did I tell you how beautiful you look tonight?” I crooned.

“Twice. You can tell me a third time if you want though. I won’t complain.”

While I chuckled, I pressed a kiss to her temple. “You picked this dress to drive me insane, didn’t you?”

“I do most things with the aim of driving you insane, Conor. You need to accept this if we’re going to continue our relationship to its natural end.”

“What’s the natural end?”

“When we’re worm food.”

“That’s my kind of marriage,” I said approvingly.

“You can take the Catholic out of the boy but not the boy out of the Catholic.”

“That makes no grammatical sense.”

“I’m still right.”

I groused, “Actually, it has nothing to do with Catholicism. I just feel like arguing with you until I die. I’m weird like that.”

“Apparently.” She peeked at me over her shoulder. “At least someone appreciates this travesty of a dress.”

“Travesty?” I clutched at my heart. “Harsh, Star. Harsh. I’m taking it that Savannah picked it?”

She harrumphed.Thatwas answer enough.

The halter neck exposed the length of her spine, and above her ass, there was a big bow that my hands longed to pull apart. Unfortunately for me, that wasn’t going to happen tonight.

I knew nothing about fashion design, but I had eyes and the cut of the silk made it so that it sat flush to her curves. It swooped around her feet, revealing shining silver peep toes. I shouldn’t find it endearing that her toenails were bare but I did.

Savannah could drag her into the dress, but never could Star be dragged to the salon though.

Itwasa travesty, however, that I couldn’t fuck her in it, but there were worse travesties in need of handling on our agenda.

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