Seduction - Chapter 32
Saturday
I ate another forkful of the plate of mini crab cakes that had magically arrived in place of the first course.
I knew James had arranged it. Which was incredibly sweet.
But he hadn’t been sweet ten minutes ago when he finger fucked me until I was two seconds away from coming and then stopped.
I licked the side of my fork. It was really fun to do.
Because I was pretty sure the fork was made of pure gold.
All the silverware was. And so was the little tray underneath the inappropriate ice sculpture.
James lowered his eyebrows as he stared at me.
“Girl, I get it,” Kristen said. Who for some reason was seated next to me. “You suck Professor Hunter’s cock on the regular. Stop rubbing it in.”
I was so shocked by what she’d said that I dropped my fork onto my plate. I opened my mouth to say something salty back to her, but I stopped when I saw Tim’s arm around her shoulders. He’d had zero reaction to what Kristen had just said. How was he not fuming?
“You must be Tim,” I said and reached across her plate to shake his hand. “It’s so nice to finally meet you.”
“The pleasure is all mine,” Tim said. But instead of shaking my hand, he pulled it to his lips and gently kissed the back of it.
“I have to say, the two of you make a perfect couple,” I said as I quickly pulled my hand away from his lips.
I wasn’t sure if they actually made a perfect couple or not.
But I sure wanted Tim to start being more possessive of Kristen.
Kind of like the way James was possessive of me. Driving me slowly insane.
Tim touched his chest. “Why thank you, you gorgeous specimen.”
“You’re very welcome. Seriously, you two look perfect together.”
Kristen raised her eyebrow at me.
“We really do, huh?” Tim said, pulling Kristen closer to his side.
My work here was done. Hopefully he’d hold her closer for the rest of the night. “Mhm. Absolutely.” I took another big bite of crab cakes.
James put his hand on my thigh. “Aren’t you going to thank me?” he asked.
“For what?” I looked up at him. “For sexually torturing me?” I whispered and took another slow bite, licking the side of my lips.
He lowered his eyebrows.
I’d recognize the heat in his gaze anywhere. He wanted me. Well, good. I wanted him too. I bit my bottom lip as my gaze dropped to his mouth.
“I have to make a speech any minute,” he said. “So eat your crab cakes and stop giving me sex eyes.”
“Are you sure you’re not just aroused by the ice sculpture?”
James laughed. “I’m sure.”
I took another very seductive bite.
James groaned and adjusted his tuxedo pants.
I smiled to myself when I saw that there was a tent in his pants. I hoped he did have a huge erection when he stood up to give his best man toast. Wait…no. I didn’t want that. Because Kristen would be staring at him.
“Dead kittens,” I said, because it was the first unsexy thing that popped into my head.
James frowned. “What?”
“Just tons of them. Dozens of dead kittens.” I frowned. Gross.
“Why are we talking about dead kittens?”
I leaned closer to him. “I don’t want Kristen to see what you’re packing. I’ll stop torturing you now, I swear. Just undo…that.” I gestured toward his pants.
“By thinking of dead kittens?” he asked.
I nodded.
He took a deep breath and sighed. He looked up at the ceiling of the tent. And for some reason staring at the tent thankfully made the tent in his pants start to disappear.
“It worked,” I said.
“Mhm.” He took a sip of his drink.
“Was it the kittens thing?”
“No.” He leaned closer to me so no one could hear. “I was thinking about Kristen staring at my junk.”
I smiled at him. “Thank you,” I mouthed to him.
He put his arm behind my back, pulling me closer to him. “You have nothing to worry about with her. You act like you don’t know how pretty you are. When I tell you on a daily basis. I want you and only you.”
“Then have me.”
He leaned back, letting his arm fall from my shoulders. “Dead kittens,” he mumbled and stared up at the lights that were strung around the top of the tent.
I smiled to myself. I loved James’ domineering side. But I loved his sweet side just as much.
Justin popped up out of nowhere behind James. “James,” he whispered.
James jumped in his seat. Apparently he hadn’t seen Justin approach either.
“It’s time for your speech.” Justin rubbed his shoulders. “Are you ready? Do you need anything at all?” He kept rubbing his shoulders.
Dude, I just got Kristen out of the way, and now I had to get Justin to stop hitting on James too. And I kinda wanted him to give me James’ pants back while we were on the topic of inappropriate things.
“Yeah, no, I’m good,” James said and gave him a weird look.
Justin sighed and removed his hands. “Okay then. I’ll let you get to it. And remember the grand speech finale.”
The grand speech finale? What was Justin talking about?
The light music faded completely as James stood up and tapped his knife to the side of a champagne glass.
The room hushed as all the guests turned to him. It reminded me of what Bee had said earlier. How sexy it was when a man could control a room like that. She was damn right. I crossed my legs under the table.
James looked over at the sweetheart table where just Rob and Daphne were sitting. “Rob took his sweet time asking me to be his best man,” James said with a laugh.
I smiled up at him.
“And honestly? I would have been a little offended if he’d asked anyone else. Rob has been by my side through so much. The good. And the bad. And I’m sorry that there’s been so much bad.” He nodded to Rob.
Rob smiled. “I forgive you.”
James smiled back. “I think usually little brothers say this to their big brothers. But Rob, I don’t know what I would have done without you by my side growing up.
You always had my back. 100%, without any question.
Even in fights with our friends.” He nodded toward Matt and Mason.
“And God knows I was usually in the wrong.”
I knew that James had lost touch with Mason and Matt after college. I wondered if that was what he was referring to. I was so glad they all found their way back to each other.
“And you always make me laugh, especially when I need it. I gotta say…I’m used to having your undivided attention. And I’m a little jealous that I have to share you now.”
Daphne laughed.
“But seriously…you and Daphne? I see the way you look at her. And the way she looks at you. I’ve always wanted the best for you. And I’m glad you took your damn time to settle down. Because Daphne is the best. She understands you. And she’ll pick up the slack when I’m not always a good brother.”
Daphne smiled again, but there were tears in her eyes now.
“Welcome to the family, Daphne.” He looked back at Rob. “I love you, man,” James said. “And I love that you found love. Because if I’ve learned anything over the past couple years…nothing is more important than that.”
“I love you too, big bro,” Rob said and lifted his glass in the air.
“Now what eloquent thing did you say when you were the best man at my wedding?” James pretended to think. “Oh, right. I can’t wait to be an uncle to all the kids you’re certainly going to have because you never wear a condom.” James winked at Rob.
Rob laughed.
And so did I. I was so shocked when Rob had said that at our wedding. It was completely inappropriate. Payback was supposed to be a bitch, but Rob just kept laughing.
“Ow ow!” Bee yelled.
Mason and Matt both whistled at the same time and then started laughing.
And Daphne looked very, very pale.
I exhaled slowly as I looked from her pale face to her untouched glass of champagne. Damn it. I had for sure lost the bet. She was already pregnant. The Hunter brothers really should wear condoms more often if they didn’t want millions of kids running around.
James sat down to the applause of the guests.
I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Very eloquent speech.”
He laughed. “Right?”
There was a loud popping noise and I almost screamed again. But then I saw it was just all the waiters popping more champagne. Well…not popping. They’d just cut off the tops of the bottles with freaking swords.
What the actual hell?
“What is all this weird stuff?” James said with a laugh. “I’m pretty sure Justin gave Rob a list of all the craziest things they could do at their wedding, and Rob said yes to all of it.”
“Sounds about right. I guess this was the grand speech finale?”
James shrugged.
I plopped another mini crab cake in my mouth and rested my head on his shoulder.
“Barehanding the food now?” he asked with a smile.
“I’m a barbarian.”
He kissed the top of my head and barehanded another crab cake to feed me. As I ate the last bite, I swirled my tongue around his thumb.
“Fuck,” he groaned.
I tuned out the next few speeches as I just stared up at James.
He’d promised to get me alone under the willow tree. Was now a good time? I almost asked him to sneak away but the main course had just come out and there was bacon wrapped something involved, so I wasn’t moving an inch.
You’re welcome, little dude , I said to myself and put my hand on my stomach.
I looked over at James. He was smiling at me.
“What?”
“Are you talking to her again?”
“ Him. I’m right about this one.”
“This one?” He raised his eyebrow.
I sighed and put my fork down. It was time to admit defeat. “I think that Daphne is…”
“Ladies and gentlemen, may I please have your attention!” Rob said, cutting me off from having to concede. “We have so much to celebrate tonight.” He grabbed Daphne’s hand and pulled her to her feet. “My beautiful new wife.” He kissed her cheek.
A little color went back to her face.
“And a beautiful family.” He lifted his glass in the air.
Well…I mean…he could have just been referring to all of us sitting at Table 1. Maybe. Possibly. Probably not.
Bee leaned around the ice sculpture so she could see me. “Shotgun wedding,” she mouthed silently at me from across the table.