“I can’t argue with any of that.”
She tugged on my tie and adjusted the knot with the slightest pressure, but it might as well have been a punch to the gut. A light floral scent crept up from her hair, and I just wanted to lower my face to her neck and see if her skin smelled as good.
“I’d say you look pretty good yourself, except I’m the one to thank for that.”
“Is that so?” I asked, my voice rumbling out of my throat. Could she even see what she was doing to me? Part of me hoped not, because how embarrassing to give her an upper hand and fodder for future teasing. But part of me wanted her to know, to explore what her reaction would be, what her next move would be. If we’d tiptoe around this with jokes and banter, or if we’d near a continuously blurring edge until there was no coming back. I needed to know.
“The tie is everything. Without it, you might as well be in your touristy shorts.”
“We both know what happened to my last pair of touristy shorts.”
Her cheeks flushed.
I cracked a smile. “Thanks for completing my look.”
Her hand slid down to the end of the tie. The warmth of her touch seared through my shirt, to my abs. I had to focus, to remind myself that we were in public, in the middle of a crowd.
Not alone where I could place one hand on her waist, drawing her near, the other at the base of her neck, stroking her throat with my thumb as I kissed her. Where I could press her body against mine, eradicating this annoying space between us so that she was clutching the sides of my shirt, tugging it out of these slacks, letting bursts of chilled air hit my skin to cool me off but in no way actually cool enough. Probably nothing would cool me off at that point unless someone shoved me into a freezer.
We weren’t alone, so I couldn’t skim my hand across the exposed part of her chest and down her arm, to her hands, which would be unbuttoning my shirt. But first, the tie. Her fingers slipping into the knot and dragging it off me, her eyes locked on mine so that I could see the need in them the way she could see the need in mine.
Off with the tie and the shirt before I hoisted her onto my hips, my hands underneath her dress to hold her in place, feeling the roundness of that backside that I’d admired way too much this week. She’d gasp against my lips and…
Bane snapped her fingers, and I came back to reality with a jolt. Shit.
“Where did you go?” she asked, then gave that smart-ass smile of knowing. “Good thing I don’t dress like this all the time. You’d never get anything done.”
I tilted my head. “No, I’d definitely get something done.”
She shook her head, her skin still flushed. “Can I ask you something, and you be honest?”
“Of course.”
“Am I not supposed to wear white? Is that why everyone is looking at me?”
I glanced around and promised, “You are wearing the perfect dress. People are looking at you because they weren’t expecting a fucking goddess to walk among them. They can’t help but stare. And I stand by them.”
She bit down on a smile. “You’re so corny.”
“Where’s the lie?”
She lifted her chin. “I’m a goddess, huh?”
“Every inch of you.”
Chattering pierced our bubble of solitude, and a soft melody began to play; a signal that we would begin shortly.
Bane looked around as people began claiming chairs. “I better find a seat.”
“Sit anywhere you’d like.”
She spotted one behind me. “I’ll take that one in the back.”
“Sure you don’t want to sit closer? You can fawn over me in a tie with a better view.”
She rolled her eyes, the sparkle of her eyeshadow catching the light. “So full of yourself.”
A few rows away, Aamar motioned for me to meet him.
“We’re about to begin,” I told her. “I have to go. Try to enjoy yourself. It’s an all-expenses-paid wedding, you know?”
“Lucky me.”
“Which means reception afterward.”
“I know.”
“If you’ll be okay. I know it’s a lot of people, but if you’re drained or bored—”
“I wouldn’t ditch you.” She smiled and walked past, brushing my arm with hers, her hand gliding across my stomach, which had me instantly clenching my abs.
I had to calm down around her. As much as I enjoyed teasing her, I was pretty sure she was teasing me back, trying to get to me in order to win some unofficial game we’d been playing, to best me at something we were both so good at doing.
Bane took a seat in the very back, adjusting her dress as she sat. Damn, it was hard to peel my gaze away from her as we moved into place. Sejal grunted at my side as if having to be paired with me was her worst nightmare. But it was easy to ignore her when Bane had established herself so fully in my headspace.
I even found myself smiling.
Aamar gave me a look.
