Page 162 of Pucking Strong

I prop my feet next to his, tucking him against me with both arms around his chest so he can’t get away. “What do you mean?”

“Nothing. It’s fine.”

“Teddy …” I wait, not letting him go.

After a moment, he relaxes against me with a sigh. “Okay, well we didn’t even kiss at our wedding. Like, I married you, and … nothing.”

I sit with that truth for a moment. He’s right, of course. It hadn’t even occurred to me that he would want that. If my memory serves, he was panicking, and I was just trying to have it all over and done as quickly as possible to spare him any discomfort or embarrassment.

“I had a stolen pen in my pocket, Felix’s dad’s watch on my wrist, and the whole thing was in Swedish,” he goes on. “I could have been vowing to give you all my organs.”

I chuckle again, brushing my lips to his shoulder. I resent the feeling of his cotton T-shirt, blocking me from touching his skin. “You didn’t,” I assure him.

“But that’s the thing, I don’t know. No one does but you and that snobby officiant guy. We didn’t even have a witness. And I’ll be fucked before anyone sees those mugshot pictures they took of us to submit with the license.”

I must admit, I’m a bit distracted from all this talk of weddings and parties. I blame Teddy. His loc oil smells so good, like a soothing peppermint tea. And he’s wearing some of my cologne. The mix of peppermint with the woodsy cologne has him smelling like a crisp winter morning. I press my face in at his neck, breathing him in until he squirms.

“Fuck, babe, come on,” he says on a groan. “I can’t think when you do that.”

“Do what?”

“Breathe me in like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you’re a wolf or something. It’s so primal.”

I smile, nuzzling the soft skin behind his ear. “Stop smelling so good then.” He just hums and my arm tightens around him. I kiss his neck, right at the point where the scents merge. When I flick with my tongue, he gasps. “You smell like me. It’s intoxicating.”

“Well, I’ve been using your cologne, so that tracks.” I don’t need to see his face to know he’s smiling. My distraction is working. He’s coming back to me, floating out of his panic spiral and back into my arms.

“Do you wear it to drive me crazy?”

He huffs. “No, I wear it to drivemecrazy.”

Loosening my hold on him, I let my hands roam over the firm planes of his chest. “What do you mean?”

His body goes slack as I caress him. “I just like smelling like you.”

“Why?” I nip his ear, and he hisses, trying to hold still.

“Makes me feel like you’re there, even when you’re not, like your skin was just touching my skin. It turns me on.”

“So primal,” I tease, slipping my hand up under his shirt. My calloused fingertips trace over his warm skin.

He melts against me. “God, Hen, I seriously can’t think with you touching me, and I need to say something else.”

I go still, both hands under his shirt. “What?”

Pushing away from me with a frustrated groan, he sits up. “Okay, so don’t freak out, but someone said something nasty about us tonight and Karolina heard them.”

I sit up, good feelings gone. “What was said?”

He shifts away slightly so we can face each other. “They said I’m leaving you. Which totally isn’t true,” he quickly adds. “But they said it, and Karro heard, and she was definitely upset.”

My protective instincts surge at the thought of someone upsetting her. “Who said it?”

“Karro doesn’t know.” He places a hand on my shoulder. “But it doesn’t matter. People think it’s true. Whether the guys are gossiping to their wives or the media is still stirring the shit, people still think this marriage is just, like, a publicity stunt, a means to an end. And that end is you getting full custody of Karro. And maybe that is how this all started, minus the interest in publicity,” he quickly adds. “We both just wanted to do whatever we could to protect Karro. But getting married as our solution was impulsive and reckless and—”

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