Page 92 of Forbidden Romeo

The neck falls lower than any dress has any right to, held up by tiny spaghetti straps that look like they could snap under the weight of the attention they’re getting from everyone in the room. I try to console myself with the fact the skirt is more modest, but as she descends the stairs toward me, I get a flash of skin. Then another.

The goddamn skirt has two slits in it.

Kate is going to pay for this.

The witch herself reaches me first, just as the murmuring of the crowd starts up again. A coy little grin spreads on her lips as she thumbs something off my face.

“You’re drooling,” Kate says slyly.

“What did you do to my wife?” I growl at her without thinking, and Kate raises an eyebrow at my slip.

“Yourfianceand I have been doing a little retail therapy,” she says, handing me a matte-black credit card.

With my goddamn name on it.

“When did you take this?” I choke out.

But by the time my question leaves my mouth, Kate has already moved on. Leaving me face-to-face with my approaching fiance.

As she gets closer, I can see the warm pink of her flushed cheeks. She practically radiates pure beauty. And she’s staring at me.Me.With those fuck-me eyes and a smile that makes my heart speed up so quickly, I feel a little light-headed.

I feel like the luckiest man in the entire world.

I can’t stand the distance between us a moment longer. I step over my seat onto the row behind to reach her, and she laughs prettily at my antics.

The murmuring around me is getting louder, but I don’t care. All I care about is reaching her and bringing her into my arms. There’s a glint of something in her eyes that I ignore because she comes to me so happily, so willingly. So eagerly, she presses her mouth to mine, and the little demon inside me finally quietens. Everyone knows now.Mine.

She pulls away bashfully and finally seems to notice the crowds staring slack-jawed at the two of us.

But I can’t take my eyes off her. “Too much?”

Aimee gives me a brilliant smile and leans in to kiss my cheek. “No, silly. I think it was just enough to keep me sweet.”

Her words are like a direct kick to the stomach. The world immediately begins crashing down around me.

I try to laugh it off, “What?”

“Isn’t that what you told Padraic you would do?” Aimee says with a tilt of her head.

“Aimee…” I hiss, glancing around at the other people in earshot.Dead Eyes,all of them. Each face reacts to our embrace somewhere on a spectrum from betrayal to amusement.

There’s no going back now. I just kissed a Maguire in front of a room of almost five hundred people.

“My name is Roisin,” Aimee corrects me. Her smile is still plastered on her lips. “Or did you forget that when you forgot to mention the fact that I’m supposed to be engaged to Arnie Knight?”

I have to stop myself from shushing her. “You really want to do this right now?”

Aimee steps around me to make her way to her seat. “No. I just wanted to see your face.”

I’m entirely dumbfounded. This whole thing, arriving late, the goddamn dress, was to show me just how pissed off she was? It would be so cruel if I didn’t fucking deserve it. If I hadn’t been so selfish.

“A–-Roisin,” I try again, chasing her back down to our seats and ignoring the filthy look Buzz gives me as I pass him.

I watch as Aimee sits elegantly and crosses one bare leg over the other. A picture of seduction itself. I hurry to sit next to her.

“Please, we need to be careful,chroí,” I whisper desperately.

Aimee simply examines her nails, the way I’ve seen Kate do a thousand times. “I am. It’s you who looks like a flustered moron with something to hide.”