Page 92 of Love and Other Champagne Problems

He saw through me. “Margot?—”

“I was thinking,” I said as we approached the lobby. “We should go on an official first date, shouldn’t we? I never got a chance to take you to Pierre’s to eat—you’ll love it.”

“You just want your avocado toast.”

I cracked a smile. “You do know me.”

I reached for him, but Sumner slid just out of reach, eyes shifting around. “Not here.”

“Here” meant down the hallway from the elevator, just in front of one of the staff rooms. If we continued down the hallway, we’d get to the lobby. Right here, though, no one was around.

In that moment, a voice floated from the direction of the lobby, just loud enough for the owner to register. “It’s great that you flew in early,” Aaron Astor said, sounding as if he were walking closer. “We can get a round of golf in before?—”

Sumner’s reaction was far quicker than mine. He gripped my wrist and tugged me toward him, simultaneously slapping his ID card on the staff only door. He rushed us inside, sealing it quickly and shutting us inside the narrow darkness.

I blinked, but my view didn’t change. “So, you can recognize Aaron Astor by his voice now, can you?” I mused as I stared at him in the black. Or, really, stared in his general direction. “I take it back. My parents won’t be pissed if you run off into the sunset with him, but I will be.”

“I was waiting for him to appear, actually.” Sumner flicked the light switch on the wall, and then the small closet brightened with light. It was a storage closet for linen and towels, most likely an area where someone folded them, because there was a long countertop stretching against the back wall. “The bridal party has been helping set up for thewedding all morning. I figured he’d turn up sooner or later, and it had to be the moment I found you.”

I hummed a little as I glanced around the space. Sumner stood just in front of the door, blocking any escape, but also blocking anyone from being able to come in. Aaron, even if he had seen us, wouldn’t have been able to follow without a key card, so we were safe in here. Most likely, Aaron was already gone, disappeared into the main ballroom. I almost told Sumner this, that we could probably step out now, but in the small space, my thoughts began to tip-toe down a different path. A path that chased away those negative thoughts and feelings of the previous conversation, at least for a moment.

A small smile tipped my lips.

Sumner watched my mouth as it smiled. “What?”

“I’m leaving the hotel today,” I said, taking a slight step closer.

“To someplace other than Nancy’s?”

With a slight touch, I rested one hand on Sumner’s side, feeling the firmness through his polo. “I’m leaving the hotel,” I repeated, watching as his breath hitched. “Which means you’re going to tell Mr. Roberts you had to come with me. Which means you’re mine now.”

I loved that Sumner wasn’t too much taller than me, so I didn’t have to fight to draw his mouth to mine. All I had to do was tip onto my toes and lean in, and that was what I did. With my hand curving around his side, I leaned into him, kissing him without a trace of delicacy in the small space of the closet.

Even if his words had been ever true to his positivity, I hoped this moment could chase away any shadow of adoubt, if it lingered with him. I didn’t care about Aaron and my parents and what they wanted. I just wanted Sumner.

“Margot,” he murmured against my mouth, but his lips were yielding against mine. “We should?—”

“Kiss. We should kiss.”

Sumner melted into me, responding to my touch, my lips. And for a moment, the power balance weighed heavily in my favor, the kissmine, under my full control. He let it go on for a few more moments before shifting.

His mouth became a firmer pressure on mine, the confidence building from my encouragement. One of his hands came up to cup just under my jaw, the other falling to the flare of my hip. The two points of contact were the grounding points of electricity, and it hummed through me, sparking each time his lips parted from mine and returned with urgency. With his grip on me firm, he pushed closer.

Sumner walked me backward, backward, until my spine collided with the housekeeping cart that was parked in the corner of the closet. Sumner pressed me firmer against it, the plastic digging into my back, but I could barely feel anything other than his hands as they roamed over my body. The thin linen cloth was a cruel barrier. My own hands were aching to run underneath the polo, to feel the smooth skin of his stomach, but for some reason, wouldn’t go any further than pressing against his cloth-covered chest. My mind was brave, but my fingers were shy.

He clasped my waist, and without breaking his mouth from mine, he lifted me up onto the housekeepingcart. At this angle, he had to tip his head back to kiss me, but I was at the perfect angle to taste him deeper. He stepped between my knees, his hands tightening on my hips in a way that caused my heart to race faster and faster.

“Okay, okay,” Sumner gasped, pulled back from me, chest heaving. “Let’s—let’s stop here.”

I watched him attempt to recover from the moment, his swollen lips parted as he tried to catch his breath. Something about the sight of him undone lit a warmth inside me, a flame licking along my insides. I locked my legs around his waist, holding him to me. “Not yet,” I murmured, reaching my hand around the back of his neck to twine my hands into the ends of his hair. “Not that easily.”

“You…” Sumner let out a small breath, and he laid his palm on the surface of the housekeeping cart beside my hip to brace himself. “You’re a bad influence.”

“Why bad?” I slipped my fingers further into his hair, pressing into his scalp. “You don’t like it?”

Sumner’s eyelashes fluttered, the blue in his eyes growing stormy. “A bad influence,” he repeated, though this time far, far breathier. “Listen, I wanted to tell you before you found out from anyone else—your parents told me I’m not working the wedding.”

“Like, not being my babysitter during it?” It made sense he wouldn’t be needed, since I’d be either on Aaron’s arm all night or with my parents. “Or not catering?”

---