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“Don’t mind if I do,” Trey said, sitting on Stella’s lap and helping himself to her soup.
Stella’s raucous laughter caused the entire room to fall silent as everyone turned their heads looking for the source of the obnoxious sound. Trey paused with his spoon to his mouth, his gaze meeting Reagan’s across the room. He dropped the spoon in the bowl with a splash that flecked the once spotless white tablecloth.
“Sorry, Stell,” he said. “The old ball and chain summons.”
He rose from her lap and leaned over Jessica to whisper at Sed. “That’s all the neck I’m sticking out for you, dude. You’re on your own.”
Sed tried making shut-the-hell-up motions with his eyes, but Jessica was too sharp to miss the gist of Trey’s words.
“What’s he talking about, Sed?” she asked.
“I’ll tell you later.”
“Are you going to eat that soup?” Trey asked Jess.
She shook her head. He picked up her bowl and carried it with him back to his table. He took a seat next to Reagan, but it was Ethan who looked the most displeased with Trey’s farcical seduction of the mother of the bride.
Stella sighed. “He’s really good looking.”
“Trey?” Jessica lifted an eyebrow at her mother.
“Oh, is that his name?” Stella asked, giggling as she tugged her partially eaten bowl of soup toward her chest. “He was so interested in me that he never said what it was.”
She smiled at her soup as she took a bite. At least she was in a good mood now.
A loud clanging drew everyone’s attention to their table again. Brian stood from his seat and lifted the glass he’d been striking with his spoon.
“It’s tradition for the best man to say a few words about the newlyweds at the wedding reception,” he said, smiling warmly at Sed and Jessica. “But I was never the traditional sort.” He sat down again.
The entire room burst out laughing.
Myrna shoved him until he stood again. “Well, I guess I have to say something or tonight my wife will have me sleeping in the dining room with the strippers.”
Sed laughed, but Jessica twisted her brows together at the inside joke. “I’ll explain later,” he said under his breath.
“Raise your glasses in a toast to Sed and Jessica,” Brian said, “the most sexually explosive couple to ever rock the Vegas strip.”
Jessica tossed a roll at Brian. It hit him in the arm and bounced onto the table.
“Here, here,” several guests shouted.
Brian tipped his glass toward them. “May your marriage be as long and healthy as Sed’s—”
Myrna grabbed her husband’s arm and yanked him back into his seat. “What?” Brian said, trying to look innocent. “I was going to say battle cries.”
Sed glanced at Jessica to find her laughing. She lifted her glass of non-alcoholic bubbly, and Sed clinked his glass of alcoholic bubbly against it. They linked their arms together and did their best to drain their glasses in the uncomfortable position while a camera flash repeatedly went off near their faces.
The waiters immediately began to serve the main course—steak tartare, seasoned long-grain rice, and steamed asparagus.
“I think it’s still mooing,” Jessica complained, prodding the piece of meat with her fork. She grabbed a waiter by the sleeve. “Can I get the vegan selection instead?” she asked.
“Sure thing,” the man said and hurried off to the side of the room where the meals were being kept warm.
“You don’t like the food?” Stella asked. “It cost forty-seven dollars a plate.”
Sed cringed, but didn’t say anything. He’d just have to sell autographed CDs and calendars of himself naked to avoid bankruptcy. No big deal.
“My stomach can’t handle rich food these days,” Jessica said, her tone surprisingly steady and not argumentative. “Must be the baby.” She covered her belly with one hand, looking slightly nauseated.
Stella nodded in acceptance, and Sed released a sigh of relief that their exchange hadn’t escalated into another argument.
Sed loved his steak so much, he ate Jessica’s as well. He felt sorry for her as he watched her pick at a plate of steamed vegetables while the flavorful meat practically melted on his tongue. She didn’t know what she was missing. As the dinner plates were cleared, Sed rose and took Jessica’s hand. She caught her loosened bodice with one hand as the weight of her skirt pulled it down. As discreetly as possible, he zipped the back. It was a struggle, but with a bit of muscle, he brought the pieces of her dress together.
“You got it?” she whispered.
“Yeah.”
“I should have had you help me dress.”
“That would have been bad luck.”
“But less stressful,” she said. “I cried so hard when it wouldn’t fit. Thankfully, Aggie came to my rescue.”
He gave her a gentle hug. Her morning really must have gone horribly if she’d cried and allowed someone to rescue her. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help.”
“We figured it out,” she said. “Don’t feel bad.”
“Cake, cake, cake!” Trey began a chant that soon circled the entire room.
Sed took Jessica’s cool hand to lead her to the five-tiered wedding cake that had four additional round cakes circling its square base. Nine cakes? Who needed nine cakes? He assumed they’d be eating leftover cake for the next millennium. Either that or they could use it to celebrate their children’s birthdays for years.
As they joined hands and sliced through the largest tier, Sed watched Jessica for direction. He didn’t particularly want to shove cake in her face, but if she did it to him, he was prepared to retaliate with a vengeance. No one got the better of him. Not even his beloved wife.
She slowly lifted a bite of cake toward his mouth, staring up into his eyes with tenderness and affection. He got lost in that green-eyed gaze, which is probably why he didn’t realize she was smearing icing up his chin all the way to his lower lip until it was too late to avoid it.
She grinned crookedly as she placed the bite gently in his mouth. She probably should have let him go first. Determined to retaliate, he grabbed her piece of cake, but before he could lift it, she looped an arm around his neck, rose to her tiptoes, and kissed the icing off his chin and lower lip with enough passion to melt his socks. Catcalls from the guests encouraged her daring, and the photographer caught it all. When Jess drew away at last, he was uncomfortably aroused. Very uncomfortably because his memaw was watching.
“Delicious,” Jessica murmured, staring into his eyes. “Can I have some more?”
He lifted the bite of cake to her mouth and fed it to her. She chewed slowly, making his mind race through dozens of naughty things he wanted to do to her sensual mouth. After she swallowed, she released him hastily and backed away. A grin of triumph graced her beautiful face. She even lifted a hand in the air to claim herself the victor of the cake battle. That’s when Sed realized he’d been had.
Chapter Six
Jessica kept her distance from Sed as he cut a rather large slice of cake, set it calmly on his plate, and returned to the table without her. He wasn’t going to retaliate? Was he actually mad? She’d only been teasing. He could shove all nine cakes in her face if it would prevent him from being mad at her. She really counted on him to be calm and levelheaded for her today, which was somewhat hard to admit to herself. How much she counted on him.
Chin up, if not a bit quivery, she collected her own slice of cake and went to join her unreadable husband at the main table. The servers began to cut the cakes into uniform slices and set each slice on the gold-rimmed china dessert plates her mother had chosen.
The rest of the table was empty as she sat beside Sed. He didn’t so much as look at her when she sat beside him. Well, fine, if he was going to be a big baby because she’d outsmarted him, then—
She gasped as an entire piece of cake was squashed on her chest. Sed used his plate to spread it over the tops of her breasts and
into the cleft between them.
“You may have won the battle, sweetheart,” he said. “But I won the war.”
Her mouth dropped open as he lowered his head to lick the frosting off her chest, nibbling bits of cake as he very effectively one-upped her. She reached under the table and grabbed his fly, unfastening a button before he caught her hand.
“You do realize where I have to put my cake now, don’t you?” she said.
“Can’t let me win, can you?”
“Nope.”
