“Let them wait.” Another deep, long kiss that elevates my heart rate and has my toes curling in my shoes. If he keeps this up, I’m not going to be able to hide how much I’m attracted to my husband-to-be. How much I wish we had a few more minutes to really enjoy this.
“Are we keeping these on later when we have sex?” I ask, ending on a moan when he nips at my jaw and then throat, kissing the spot and licking it with his tongue.
“Yeah.” His voice is deep now, baritone and so delicious. I love when it goes like that, a tone just for me. No one else but me gets to hear it. He groans and pulls away. “We should go.”
We should, but I don’t want to. I mean, I wantto because I want us to get married, but I like being here with him, just the two of us. Even the quiet murmur of voices nearby, where everyone is waiting, doesn’t destroy the illusion that we’re the only ones here.
He fingers my cuff links curiously, twisting my wrist to get a better look.
“They match,” I say happily, touching the diamonds on his tie clip. Now it makes more sense than when Sebastian gave them to me earlier.
“Oh, and look,” I say, jingling my pocket so he can hear. “I brought bells. I am here with bells on.”
Grady stares at me for a split second and then throws his head back with a roaring laugh. One filled with relief, happiness, and well, probably the other part is lust, but that’s from me because he’s arching his neck, and he looks so edible, and also, he’s here, and we’re getting married. It’s nice to see him happy, smiling.
He cups the side of my neck and kisses me softly, breath mingling. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” I’ll never get tired of saying it. It’s my favourite mantra. “So, I was thinking…”
His smile curves to the right, and he raises an eyebrow. “Mmm?”
“Wanna get married? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but some random people set up a whole thing, and there are guests here, and I just thought, seize the moment, right?”
He takes my hand and kisses the back of it. “It would be a waste not to take advantage.”
My face is aching from the wide smile taking it over by the time we leave the tent, hand in hand, ready to start the rest of our lives.
Epilogue—Lake
“Ithinkweranout of dip.” Oh my god, we ran out of dip. Who does that? Dip is a staple of any good party. “I think we’re officially the worst hosts in the world.”
Grady raises an eyebrow at me from where he’s pouring some of his Koshi-No Shinobu into a bunch of fancy glasses. He’s been holding court with Sebastian, Big-Riley, and Avery for the past half an hour. I personally think they’re all avoiding having to socialise with anyone else. Strange little group they’ve made.
Hades has been sitting with them, occasionally trotting over to see where I am and then going back. He won’t need to be fed for the entire new year based on how much people have been feeding him tonight.
“We’re the world's worst hosts because we ran out of dip?” Grady asks.
“It’s the main ingredient.”
“For what?”
“A New Year’s Eve party. Keep up.”
“Ah. And here I thought that was fairy bread,” he teases.
Oh my god.“We don’t have any fairy bread!” Why didn’t I think of fairy bread? That would be fucking amazing after a few hard drinks. I’m salivating just thinking about it.
Grady crowds me against the fridge and massages my shoulder. “Lake, relax.” He swoops down and kisses me, effectively turning my brain off.
With a moan, I slide my arms around his neck and arch my back, deepening the kiss. He tastes like Doritos and his favourite alcohol. An interesting combination. Sweet, salty, and then a dash of a pleasant kind of bitterness. He squeezes my ass and lifts me a little. Fuck, yes. “Think anyone would notice if we disappeared for a bit?” I gasp.
“Then we really would be the world's worst hosts.” He’s laughing at me, I just know it.
He pulls back and then bends for one more kiss before putting distance between us. Good call, or we might give some of the drunks here a show. I haven’t quite had enough to drink for that but get a few more shots in me, and I can’t guarantee anything.
“Everything is fine, Lake.”
He’s right, I don’t know why I’m so nervous. I’ve hosted parties before. Not with Grady if I don’t count our wedding, which I don’t, because someone else made sure that everything went smoothly that day. But I’ve hosted before. Okay, so those times, everyone brought enough that I didn’t even have to do anything. Still. I got this. I should got this. I don’t got this.
