“Very funny.” I tap his cheek after he sets me on my feet on the sidewalk outside. A cab is waiting for us. After helping me into the back and getting in with me, he gives the driver directions to our venue. Since it’s New Year’s Eve and there are so many roads blocked off, it takes a lot longer than normal to make it across the city.
Once we arrive at the event space, I take in its beauty. Cipriani’s limestone architecture blends in with the rest of the buildings across from Grand Central. But what’s inside makes it one of the most sought-after places for parties in the city. Jack and Vivian, the owners of Jack’s, grew up with the owner of Cipriani’s children, so every year they allow Jake to use the space for next to nothing when I’m sure it would normally cost tens of thousands of dollars for New Year’s. Once we get inside, we stop at the coatroom and then make our way to the main room. Every year when I come here, the ballroom makes me want to take a trip to Rome to see the architecture there firsthand. I’m so in love with the marble columns that stretch up and up to the cathedral ceilings. The room screams elegance.
“Do you know where we’re sitting?” Wesley asks as we move through the crowded room with my hand tucked in the crook of his arm.
“Elizabeth told me last night that I’m sitting with her and Tex,” I tell him, looking around for my friends. I met Tex and Elizabeth at Jack’s. We bonded over our mutual love for the Mets and have been friends ever since.
“Do you see them?”
“No.” I shake my head, scanning the room.
When I finally see them in the back, at a round table, my stomach turns. Tex and Elizabeth are sitting at a six-top table with Edward and Bonnie and two empty chairs. If the two chairs are really ours, I’ll have to sit across from Bonnie the entire night without blurting out anything about Edward being a cheater. I need a drink—not that I can have one, but I need one. Then again, it’s probably best that I can’t drink because when I do drink, I tend to talk a lot. “I found our table,” I tell Wesley, and I feel him tense when he sees where my eyes are pointing and who we will be sitting with.
“Are you going to be okay sitting at a table with him?” he asks, moving his hand to my lower back, then sliding it around to my hip so he can hold me closer.
“I think so, but I think we should make up a safe word,” I whisper, looking up at him.
“A safe word?” He raises a brow. “What do you know about safe words?”
“Not much more than is explained in Fifty Shades of Grey,” I admit.
His eyes change ever so slightly.
“You read those books?” he asks quietly, turning me to face him.
I look around, realizing that we are standing in the middle of the dance floor and that there are people all around us dancing.
“Yes.” I shrug as his fingers dig into my hips.
“Well, things in the bedroom are about to become a little more interesting,” he mutters.
My stomach does a flip, but I ignore it. I need to concentrate on what’s happening right now. I can’t let him sidetrack me.
“Focus.” I smack my hands flat against his chest. “We need a safe word so if I start to feel like I can’t keep it together any longer, if I can’t keep myself from blurting out to Bonnie about Edward, I say the safe word and you get me out of there—pronto.” I snap my fingers.
“Okay, what’s the safe word?”
“I don’t know . . .” I look around. “How about octopus?”
“So you’re randomly going to blurt out octopus?” He raises one brow.
“When you say it like that, it sounds like a stupid idea.” I sigh, and he laughs.
“How about you just say, ‘I love this song, dance with me’?”
Tipping my head to the side, I study him, then ask, “Do you know how to dance?”
“Maybe.” He kisses my nose. “You’ll find out if we need to make an escape.”
“Fine.” I pull in a breath, then let it out. “I really hate the idea of sitting across from her and breaking bread knowing that her man is a dick.”
“You’re not Mafia, so you’re not ‘breaking bread’ with her; you’re sitting at a table with her at a charity event.”
“Tomato, tomahto.” I wave him off, and he smiles, then dips his head, kissing me.
“It will be fine. Now come on, I’m hungry.” He puts my hand back in the crook of his arm before leading me across the room toward our table. We stop a few times to say hi to people I know so I can introduce Wesley to them.
When we make it to the table, Edward gets up and comes around the table to hug me. I feel Wesley tense up.
“You look amazing,” Edward says against my ear before Wesley pulls me away from him. Giving his hand a reassuring squeeze, I turn toward Tex and Elizabeth.
“Hey, guys.”
I greet them both with a hug, then introduce them to Wesley, whom they haven’t met until today. While Wesley is busy talking with Tex, I turn to Bonnie.
“How are you?” I greet her with a smile and a hug.
She hugs me back and replies, “I’ve been good.”
“Great.” I take a step away from her. “I love your dress.”
“Thank you.” She runs her hands down the silky black material at her sides and hips. She really does look beautiful. It accents her long, dark-blonde hair perfectly, and her California tan makes her big blue eyes stand out.
“Elizabeth, seriously, you look amazing, too,” I say to my friend.
Then I look up at Tex, who towers over her by at least a foot. “That dress shows off her long legs, and the red is beautiful on her. How hard was it for you to let her out of the house?”
“Hard.” He grins. Tex and Elizabeth met on an airplane going to London from JFK. When they arrived in London, they spent a week together. When they came back to the States, Tex moved from Texas to New York to be with her, and they’ve been together ever since. And now they are working on Tex’s football team—they’ve got three boys already, and a few weeks ago, Elizabeth told me that she’s pregnant again. She keeps trying for a girl—and Tex just keeps trying because he secretly loves Elizabeth pregnant.
“Here, gorgeous.” Wesley pulls out a chair for me, and I take a seat, then rest my hand on my own flat stomach. “You have that look I hate,” he says close to my ear.
I turn to look at him. “What look?”
His fingers touch my chin, then run across my jaw. “The one that says you’re about to run on me.”
“I’m not going to run.” I take his hand off my chin and twine our fingers together. “I promise.”
“You better not.”
“I won’t.” I smile and he leans in, kissing me softly.
Sitting back, I take a breath to steady myself. Bonnie’s ring catches my attention, and I can’t help but admire it again. It’s beautiful, with one large, center diamond that’s somewhat elevated above the rest of the stones that drip down the band.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” Bonnie asks, holding it up.
I meet her gaze and nod, giving her a smile.
“It’s really beautiful. He did a good job.”
“I know.” She turns her hand from side to side. “It’s a little small, but Edward promised that when he makes his first million, he’ll get me a new one.”
“Oh . . .” I try not to frown.
Edward shifts like he’s uncomfortable. Not that I can blame him. His fiancée just said that the ring he gave her isn’t good enough
. Maybe they deserve each other.
“So, Wesley, tell us a little about yourself. What do you do for a living?” Edward cuts in to break the awkward moment.
“I’m a detective with the NYPD,” Wesley answers, sitting back and undoing the button on his tux jacket.
“He actually works with Fawn’s fiancé, Levi,” I explain, covering his hand with mine on the top of the table.
“Is that how you two met?” Elizabeth asks.
I feel a blush spread up my neck and cheeks.
“No, we actually met before we knew about that connection,” I say.
She squints her eyes at me, and I shift uncomfortably.
“It seems like there is a story there. You need to come over for wine so you can fill me in on all the dirty details,” Elizabeth says.
I smile at her. “I know! Plus, I need to see the boys—I haven’t seen them in ages.”
“We’ll make a date.”
“Gorgeous, dance with me.” Wesley cuts into the conversation and stands suddenly. I tip my head back to look at him and instantly register the look on his face.
“We’ll be back.” I smile at everyone at the table as he pulls out my chair, then let him lead me out to the dance floor. I smile at the other couples, then rest both my hands against his chest and look up at him. “What’s wrong?”
“Besides Edward looking at your tits every five seconds, that chick tried to feel me up under the table.”
“What?” I shout, stopping in place. Looking around his shoulder and back toward the table, I narrow my eyes at Bonnie when our gaze locks.
Forcing me to move along with him, he holds me tighter. “The first time it happened, I thought it was an accident. Then it happened again.”
“That’s . . . that’s . . . I don’t know what that is. Rude just doesn’t cover it.”
I look over at the table again. Both Edward and Bonnie are looking at us, but Tex and Elizabeth are busy making googley-eyes at each other. Glaring at Bonnie, I see her frown before Wesley forces me to look at him.
“I can’t believe that she would hit on you when I’m sitting right there.”
“Don’t think about it.” He wraps his hand around my jaw, then lowers his mouth to mine. The kiss is soft and sweet, and it does exactly what I need it to—forget about everyone around us. When he pulls his mouth from mine, I smile. “Better?”