‘Hi.’
My tongue unwittingly strokes my lips where I’d like to feel his.
‘Gregory, we were just saying how we always invite you to Friday drinks and you never come,’ Emily teases.
‘Are you sure I’ve never been? Not once?’
‘You know you’ve never been,’ Emily scolds.
‘All right then, maybe I haven’t.’ Gregory smiles.
After the stress of the week, his good-humoured mood seems both misplaced and incredibly charming.
‘I always try to force him, Emily,’ Williams says, striding into the group.
Amanda watches him as he chats merrily with Harry. I raise a brow when I catch her eye. She rolls her eyes in response but continues to listen intently to Williams’ stories and bumps her shoulder into his when he teases her. Gregory stays by my side through another glass of champagne and maybe thirty, forty or more introductions. I lost count some time ago. Even when I step inside to say hello to Sandy, who’s making demands of the agency wait staff, he’s with me. Everywhere I go, scowls follow me. Little do those women know that I’m terrified my bubble could burst at any time.
Lara makes a speech around eleven o’clock, dragging an uncomfortable-looking Lawrence to the front of the big swing band’s stage to say a few words.
Gregory wraps an arm around my waist as we listen to his mother’s speech and I imagine I’m the envy of every female at the party.
At the end of her speech, she announces the final set from the band. ‘Before the fireworks take place at midnight and the party continues,’ she says, receiving a chorus of cheers.
The swing band strikes up with Michael Buble’s ‘Everything.’
‘I love this song.’
‘Would you like to dance?’ Gregory asks, holding out a hand expectantly.
I let him lead me to the dance floor. Holding up my right hand, he pulls my waist tightly into him. He winks and the weight falls out of my legs. My breathing quickens in anticipation as I will him to kiss me. Instead, as the chorus kicks in, he turns us around the dance floor, increasing speed until I thrust my head back with laughter.
When the verse returns, he twirls me under his arm then spins me into his body, my back against his chest. He wraps his arms around me and holds us still, his warm breath at my lobe making the hairs rise on the back of my neck, each of my sensitive spots whirring to action. Then he spins me away from him and back, readying us to turn our way through the second chorus. The band picks up pace at the key change and Gregory spins me away and back to him again but this time, he puts his hands beneath my arms and lifts me straight above him, turning me in time to the beat as I gaze into his alluring, brown gems. The music slows and he lowers me down to him. Returning my feet to the floor, he takes my cheek in his hand and rests his brow on mine.
‘Kiss me, Gregory Ryans.’
Our mouths meet, slowly, purposefully, full of everything I feel and hope he feels. He swallows my moan as my body moulds to his. My breasts rub against his pecs, my thighs lock onto his, my hips subtly grind his crotch. We’re the only two people in our dark, twisted but perfect world.
‘Don’t do that to me.’ His words are heavy and said through gritted teeth.
I open my eyes and look directly into his, starving, craving satisfaction from the only man who can sate my hunger.
‘How much do you want to see the fireworks?’ he asks.
‘Not at all.’
His irises darken and his pupils dilate. Despite all these people, I could make love to him right here and now.
‘I’ll get Jackson.’
I nod and he leaves to find Jackson while I locate Amanda, who’s still quaffing free champagne with Williams, Emily and Harry. By the time Gregory leads me out front to the Bentley, the first firework goes off. I start as it squeals and explodes in a thunderous roar.
Gregory sits in the back of the car with me but the partition remains down. Our moods have changed – his no doubt following his conversation with Jackson and the team, mine inexplicably. The black leather of the seat is cold and chills my skin through my coat, making me shiver. Tension creeps into my neck and limbs. Gregory places an arm around my waist but for a change, it doesn’t remove the uneasiness building inside me.
‘You okay?’
‘Mmm, sure,’ I lie.
The back roads that Jackson takes through the city are pitch black and sinister.
