That earned a choking noise from Lucy and a snort from me. “Aharness?” she squeaked.
“I just feel like there are knots involved. And like…methods.You guys are always tangled up and?—”
“Nah, nah, this is their final form. Tied up and twisted,” Kimi insisted.
“Oh!” I perked up, lifting my head from Callum’s shoulder. “Les twisty-est, non?”
He laughed into his glass, then dragged his hand up Lucy’s side to toy with a long strand of her hair. She looked like she was going to keel over. Poor girl. “Still my favorite Frenglish fuck-up of yours.”
“It was accurate,” I defended. “The corners in Monaco are twisty. And Iwasbruised.”
Kimi gave me a pointed look. “Correct, yes, you were bruised. But not fromles twisty-est virages. Those were from your husband’s mouth.”
Callum didn’t even blink. Just pressed a kiss behind my ear like heagreedwith the assessment.
I gave a slow, lazy grin, sipping my wine without shame. “I crossed the finish line first both times in Monaco. Quite literally in the streetsandin the sheets.”
Marco let out a strangled noise. “Okay, that’s it. I’m filing a formal request for intel. For research purposes. Academic. Curious minds. All that.” He lifted his glass like a toast. “You owe it to the group to share your methods.”
Callum let out a low, amused breath. “The correct term is BDSM, Bianchi. Might wanna do some research if you’re interested in the bondage side of things.”
Ivy choked on her wine.
Marco, unfazed, reached across the cocktail table and patted her back with faux sympathy. “You okay, hellcat? You seem tense. Want me to help you unwind?”
“Donotmake that a pun,” she warned.
He just grinned wider.
“Okay, but you guys didtechnicallytie the knot,” Marco added with a proud grin, spreading his hands wide like a child showing off a prize. His shirt was still half undone, and Ivy was shamelessly ogling the light smattering of hair on his chest and the faded ink peeking from beneath the linen. “Get it? Tartan? Ribbon? You guys were literally?—”
“BOOOOOO,” Kimi groaned, reaching across the tasting bar to steal another cork just as Lucy beat him to it and chucked it directly at Marco’s shit-eating grin.
Marco ducked with a yelp, laughing as it bounced off the edge of their table. “Wow. You people are uncultured. No appreciation for stand-up. That was wedding-themed comedygold! ”
“Oui,” I said sweetly. “We have taste.”
God, I wasbuzzing. From the wine. The laughter. The way my skin still smelled like myhusband. The weight of the ring on my finger. Everything felt liquid and electric andright.
I turned toward him, and he was already looking at me with heat in his eyes, hungrier than just celebration and affection. This was the man I married—unleashed and undressing me with his eyes, every inch of him aching to brand me as his again. I swore, if we didn’t leave soon?—
“Ivy,” Colette said as she emerged from the back room, holding a bottle of dessert wine and smiling with quiet amusement, “I think your friend is about to combust.”
“Which one?” Ivy smirked. “Because Lucy’s been mentally undressing Kimi since before the ceremony, andthose two—”she gestured at me and Callum— “have been dry-humping each other through telepathy for atleastan hour.”
Lucy turned a deeper shade of scarlet. Kimi shrugged and flashed her a sly look that spelled trouble.
“Ilikethem,” Colette murmured to me, watching the group. “They’re unhinged. But they love you.”
“They do,” I said, my throat thick with it. “They really do.”
The door to the tasting room burst open and a gaggle of middle-aged women stumbled in on a wave of floral perfume, laughter, and matching straw hats. A tour group, loud and giddy, shattering the moment like glass.
It was our cue to go.
We all drained the last of our wine—some more gracefully than others—and rose from our seats in a clatter of chairs and half-hearted groans. I stood first and reached for Callum’s hand as he tugged the hem of my dress back into place, fingers brushing the silk.
Colette swept in to hug us both tight, pressing a kiss to my cheek before she turned to Callum. She leaned in and whispered something in French that made his ears go pink.
