Leo shrugs. “For a little while. I needed to bleed the lizard.”
“Eww!” I playfully shove him.
“What?” he laughs. “I’d had three drinks without breaking the seal. It was time.”
“Right, you and your Three Drink Rule.”Skinby Rag ‘n’ Bone Man is playing, and I smile wistfully. “I love this song.” It makesme swoony every time I hear it sung, like all the power of every scrap of love in the singer’s heart is being thrown into it. I can’t imagine how amazing it would have been for whoever the song was written about; they must have felt so seen, so loved.
“Right, then,” he says, grabbing my glass and downing it like the cheeky fucker he is, “my break time is over. Let’s go.”
“Wha…” I say, and he tugs me towards the dance floor. “Oh, no, just because I said…we don’t - ” I start to protest, but he just rolls his eyes at me with a smile.
“Come on, you know you want to,” he teases, lifting my arm to give me another twirl and then pulling me closer, making me giggle.
And yeah, actually, Idowant to dance.
He lulls me into a false sense of security at first with some gentle swaying, one hand at the small of my back, the other holding my hand, before the chorus hits. And then he starts turning us, faster and faster, our hips stuck together like magnets. I burst out laughing as I join in, getting dizzy and not caring because I feel so free and light. Typical Leo, taking a bummed out version of me and making her laugh again.
Where on earth would I be without him? Nowhere good. I don’t even want to think about it.
We stop, finally, laughing at each other, and I feel overwhelmed with affection for a moment. If you asked me to pick my all time favourite people, excluding family, Leo would easily be at the top of the list. He makes me laugh every day, challenges me, argues back, cheers me on, and gives me all the hugs I could possibly want. Basically my ideal friend.
His hair is almost out of the tie, so I reach up and tug it free, waving the thin black elastic in front of his face teasingly like I’m going to stop him from tying it back again. But then I notice how soft his hair looks, how it curls at the ends, and… My breath halts. God, he really is the best looking man I know.
Objectively speaking, I mean.
He’s grinning down at me, and I look at his lips, his straight, white teeth, the golden brown beard with darker strands…would it feel soft against my face if I kissed him, or prickly?
Maybe it’s the endorphin rush from the dancing, maybe it’s the wine coursing through my veins, maybe it’s the headiness of the wedding atmosphere. Maybe Wendy’s advice got to me, I don’t know. But without considering it any further, I lift up on my tiptoes and press my lips against his.
Why does he taste so warm and familiar, like home?
Before I can second-guess my sudden impulse, his hand travels up to my face, not to ease me away, but to gently hold me in place. His mouth is moving with mine. Leo iskissing me back. We’re kissing.We’rekissing. Like real lovers. My head is swimming. All I can think about is how good this feels, how simply and meltinglygood, and how badly I want more, how much I need this to go on, and on, and on...
And it does.
The kiss builds, gets deeper. His tongue meets mine, and that one illicit, never-dreamt-of touch severs something I didn’t realise was there and makes everything explode. I tangle my fingers in his hair and press my body close to his. He’s hard. I can feel his erection against my belly, and it’shuge. It makes me hungry and thirsty and desperate for something, anything, to relieve this feeling pulling at the centre of me. He knows I need more, and he doesn’t let me down, backing me against one of the tables next to the dancefloor where we all ate just a few hours ago.
It’s like we’ve been taken over by mindless beasts, clawing at each other, a deep and painfully sharp hunger unleashed. My head is cradled in his hands, his fingers pressing into my skull, and he urges me up until I’m sitting on the surface of the wood, opening my legs to allow him closer, his cock grinding at my coreuntil I want to scream with frustration at the fabric separating us. I take it out on his mouth, returning him kiss for kiss, bite for bite, trying to make him as crazed and ravenous and needy as I feel, and oh fuck, I feel like I could come right here, right now, and Iwantto, if he could just...
“Fuckingfinally!”
Dimly, through the fog of lust, I hear a voice whooping and cheering.
And it’s like a bucket of cold water over me.
Breaking away abruptly, I look in the direction of the voice. It was Tippi. She’s a few feet away, rolling her fist in the air like she’s at a ball game, alongside an impressed looking Liaden and a full on delighted Em.
I’m damn near dry humping Tippi’s brother, my best friend in all the world, on a table in front of her.
In front ofeveryone.
At our best friends’wedding reception.
My stomach falls through the floor as I see how many people have been watching us, some openly, some pretending not to. Our friends, our families, all wearing varying expressions of disbelief, glee, embarrassment, or combinations.
What the fuck did I just do?!
I look up at Leo, and he’s smouldering down at me like he wants to start up kissing me again.
