Page 18 of Midnight Kisses

“You say that,” I said lightly, nudging her chin up. “But take it from me, it’s a lot of pressure being cherished and adored by your parents.”

We were onto our third song now.

“Your mum doesn’t like your siblings more than you?” She straightened her silly mask. I wanted to throw it from the top of the Sky Tower so nothing hid her lovely face from me. I fought the urge. Barely.

“No, I’m an only child. Her little prince, et cetera, et cetera.”

“Ah. So, I should pity the woman she finally tricks into marrying you. She’ll never be good enough.”

“Incorrect. I could marry a bridge troll and my mother would be delighted.”

“As long as she produced half-troll grandbabies?” Perry wrinkled her nose. “Women are more than walking wombs for rich men, Miles. Troll women included.”

“No, you misunderstand. My mother would enthusiastically love her troll-in-law. She’d love anyone I brought home. Mum collects people. Didn’t you notice her collecting you? She and my dad always wanted a big family, which they couldn’t have. I quite literally broke the mould. Helen has basically adopted Sadie, my Executive Assistant, and you’ll probably have to move and change your name to avoid the same fate.”

“You have an assistant? What do you do for work?”

“I run our family business. Into the ground, Sadie says, but she’s a liar. Our numbers are excellent. Sadie is here tonight. I let her come. Actually, I paid for all her friends to come too.” I needed Perry to know I wasn’t stingy, and had women friends.

Sadie always said she didn’t trust men who didn’t have female friends—though I technically only had her, and she was more foe than friend. But I wasn’t above misrepresenting things to make me look better in Perry’s eyes to get what I wanted. Right now—the way she looked in that dress, the horny as fuck way she swallowed when she stared at me—there wasn’t much I wouldn’t do to elevate myself in Perry’s eyes.

God, I wanted to take her home.

“Sadie’s over there.” I nodded to the side of the room where my mother, Sadie, and her tallest friend sat at a table, watching us. My mother looked thrilled, Sadie was sizing Perry up, and the tall friend was… I don’t know, tall? I didn’t care. “You could make your business a family business too, then all your kids would be involved,” I continued. “Take it from me, nepotism is great.”

Perry looked over her shoulder. “Is Sadie the thin, white woman with brown bangs who won’t stop staring at me? Or the thin, white woman who is very tall who won’t stop staring at me?”

“Bangs.” Over Perry’s head, I glared at Sadie, silently urging her to be cool. She waited until Perry had turned away, then used one hand to mime winding up the middle finger of the other.

“I see.” Perry stretched up and put her arms around my neck, which pushed her tits into my chest and very effectively brought my attention back to her—I could have kicked myself for letting it wander. We were onto our fifth song now. It was a fast one, but we stayed clasped together, moving slowly. I gave in to the urge to wrap my arms around her to pull her up against me and she didn’t protest.

Her breath danced on my neck and my shoulders loosened, but the tension collecting elsewhere was becoming distracting.

Fuck, she was a delicious armful.

“Are you close with your assistant?” Perry murmured below my ear. “It sounds like you are..”

“Like black mould on a wall,” I replied. “I’m the wall—structural, important. Sadie is the fungus—unpleasant, deadly.”

Perry leant back to study my face and I tightened my grip in case she got any ideas about deserting me and my erection. Again.

“I think you might be unhinged,” she said, shaking her head. “I can’t believe I let an unhinged man go down on me.”

“Possibly. But I’ll never be mediocre.”

She rolled her eyes but leant into my arms again, and we swayed for another song.

“I can still feel their eyes burning holes in me,” she said.

I looked over at the table. “My mother has been distracted by Otis Blake, thank God. Probably trying to get us to buy his wines, even though they taste like vinegar. Sadie and her friend are still watching. Is that why you haven’t tried to make out with me yet?”

“I prefer to do that sort of thing in private.”

When I grinned, she blushed—realising what she’d confessed.

“Excellent.” I stopped dancing and put an arm over her shoulders. “Let’s get out of here.”

She planted her feet. “If I leave with you, your mother will get her hopes up.”

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