Page 20 of Hot Mess Wedding

“No, she’s perfect just like that,” he says, then stands.

I take off my shirt and the women in the audience go nuts until Wendy shushes them in the mic. “Now, now, ladies.”

“Let’s start with you on his lap, just straddled across his thighs.”

Cleary’s eyes go even wider.

I nod at the photographer who has told us his name is Lance.

“Come on, lil’ darlin’. You just crawl onto my lap.”

“This isn’t going to work,” she hisses.

I pick her up and place her on me. Her flirty little dress rides up on her creamy thighs. But she’s still balancing on her knees.

“It’s not going to work unless you relax and right now no one in this room believes we’re newlyweds.”

She rolls her eyes.

I grab onto her plump ass and pull her flush to my body, forcing her to put her weight on me.

There are a couple of gasps out in the audience.

“Nice, Ian,” Lance says.

I can hear the click of the camera working, but I keep my eyes locked on Cleary.

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” I say.

“I’m thinking that you definitely belong on the cover of a romance novel. I mean, my goodness, you look like the living embodiment of my hero.”

I know she means that as a compliment. But damn something about it still rubs me the wrong way. I want her to see me. The real me. But that’s not what we’re talking about right now. Right now, this is about her.

“But?” I ask.

“We don’t match. We don’t look like a couple. And we’re not going to fit on the cover. We’re going to look…” she shakes her head. “No, I’m going to look like an idiot trying to be with a man as hot as you.”

I lean in and run my nose up the column of her throat. There’s a cluster of freckles across one of her collarbones and I want to memorize their shape; suck them into my mouth and find their taste.

“Here’s the thing you need to understand, sugar baby. You are sexy as fuck.” I dig my fingers into her hips and she arches against me. “I don’t give a possum’s ass what anyone else thinks. You look good next to me because you’re my fucking wife.”

I reach up and grab her throat to force her to look at me.

She bites down on her lip.

“Do you understand me?”

“Yes,” she breathes.

I shift my hand a little. “Put my thumb in your mouth,” I tell her as I angle my digit towards her pouty lips.

Her tongue flicks out and slides against my thumb and pulls it to her. Then my finger is sucked into her hot, wet mouth.

“Fuck,” I whisper. “All you have to do is just pretend it’s just us. Like we’re upstairs in our hotel room and it’s just you and me.”

She looks up at me, those big green eyes of hers so innocent, yet full of heat. Her rosy lips are wrapped around my thumb and I can’t help thinking about how much better it would be if she were sucking my cock.

“So hot, you two,” Lance says, circling around us. “Push on his chest, Anita. Shove that man of yours down on the bed.”

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