“There’s a price,” he said, his voice lowering to a barely-there whisper.
“Yeah?”
He nodded, his lips moving against hers. “I’ll be nice, but only if I get to do nasty things to you later.”
Heat swamped her, and she was glad she wasn’t wearing heels. She would’ve toppled right on over. This whole keeping her distance thing was increasing her cravings for this man. She wasn’t sure what she’d been thinking when she came up with the idea.
“You good with that?”
She nodded, accepting the sweet kiss he offered.
“Nasty things,” he whispered. “Really nasty.”
Oh, boy. It was going to be a long night.
Several hours later, feeling weightless thanks to the champagne, Violet was proud of herself. She made it through the entire ceremony without a tear. It helped that there was a bit of comic relief compliments of Reese’s brother, Z.
As promised, Simon was a perfect gentleman throughout. He even managed to navigate her well-meaning and extremely annoying family members, who didn’t hide the fact they were sizing him up. Including the introduction to her mother and her sisters. Thankfully, Daphne was far too concerned with Harold not showing up—her father was notorious for that shit—and her sisters were bickering about … well, to be honest, Violet hadused Elana to get her out of that one, choosing to do the official introduction of her best friend and her boyfriend.
She liked that term, although Simon wasn’t her boyfriend. He was just a fling. A more-than-one-night stand. With an end date looming, he couldn’t be her boyfriend in the traditional sense, but it was nice to pretend for a little while.
Oh, geez. She needed more champagne.
Good thing it wasn’t difficult to get her hands on another glass. She snagged one from a passing waiter, then snagged another for good measure.
Better.
Mostly.
She was grateful the champagne was flowing like water. It was going a long way toward numbing both her body and her thoughts. When left to her own devices, she thought about Simon because she refused to think about what her father had done.
However, thoughts of Simon always led to her thinking about the countdown timer that was taking them closer and closer to his departure from Coyote Ridge. He hadn’t told her when he was leaving yet, but he’d been there for fifteen days already. Even with Paige and Archer there, she figured they would be moving on soon. After all, the story Simon was really after—Max Adorite—was much, much closer to home. His home. Not hers.
“It was a beautiful wedding, huh?” Elana prompted as they sat at the table and watched several couples dance, including Brantley and Reese.
She was so thrilled for her cousin. Brantley and Reese had endured some rough times these past couple of years. Now that she thought about it, the roughest patch they’d had linked right back to a specific mobster whose name she didn’t want to think about.
“Violet?”
She looked at Elana. “Hmm?”
“Beautiful wedding?”
“Oh, yeah. It was. But I think JJ might’ve outdone herself with this,” she said, gesturing to the decor that converted this metal building where they were holding the reception into a fairy tale.
“Have you introduced Simon to Brantley and Reese yet?”
“Briefly.” She’d managed to get a couple of minutes of their time after the ceremony. Because so many people wanted to congratulate them, she hadn’t monopolized their time.
And during the quick chit-chat, she’d purposely left off what Simon did for a living. This was their day, and Elana told her the entire team was going to great lengths to ensure they didn’t work today or tomorrow.
Someone cleared their throat, causing Violet to look to her left. She couldn’t stop the smile that split her face.
“I’d like to dance with the most beautiful woman in the room,” Simon stated, holding out his hand.
“Is she here?” Violet teased.
“Right in front of me, baby.”
