Page 17 of Bliss

Her smile dropped before we got back to the table. “Fuck, she’s going to be eating with us. Damn it. Ted has the worst taste in women. Gods, it’s going to be a long night.”

“We don’t have to stay long,” I promised. “If she starts getting to you⁠—”

“When. There’s no doubt she will.”

“Again, noted. When she starts getting to you, drop the safe word, and I’ll make up an excuse to get us out of here.”

Pink filled her face, and she licked her lip. “You mean our old safe word?”

That quickly, my cock turned to steel, the memories of the times we would play and she knew to use her safe word if anything became too much for her. She’d never used it, though, not once. “Yeah, our safe word. Do you still remember it?”

“Durmak,” she breathed, which was Turkish for stop.

I skimmed my thumb along her jaw, then down her neck to where the pair of angel wings sat so prettily. “That’s right, meleğim. You speak that word, and this night ends. We leave, and I take you home. Or anywhere you want to go.”

Her breaths came in sharp little pants. “Noah.”

Dipping low, I brushed a light kiss over her lips and then forced myself to take a step back. “If I forget to tell you later, Bliss, thank you for taking a chance on me.”

Bliss

Xaden and Harlem were already back at our table when Noah and I returned. Ted had also arrived, a glass of something amber in a highball glass. From the strong odor of whiskey wafting off him, it wasn’t his first drink of the night either.

Seeing Noah, Ted jumped to his feet, hand already extended. “There’s the genius who is going to get us the championship.” He slapped Noah on the back. “The best decision I ever made was hiring you, Kavanaugh.”

The height difference between Ted and Noah was almost amusing. Ted was an inch taller than me in shoes that I suspected had a lift in them.

Ted shifted his gaze to me, his smile changing. “And who is this gorgeous lady?”

Noah’s hand went straight to my hip and stayed there. “My girlfriend, Bliss Stevenson.”

I tried to mask my surprise at his introduction. Girlfriend. It was only supposed to be one date, a test run, really, and now we were jumping straight into labels. Not that I was mad about it. No, the flutter of butterflies swirling around in my stomach was not from displeasure of any kind. My body was still oversensitized after the safe-word conversation.

The billionaire held out his hand to me. Half in a daze, I shook it, still reeling from the whole girlfriend thing. “A pleasure to meet you, Bliss. Wait, Stevenson? Drake Stevenson’s daughter? And you’re related to Cutter, I believe.”

“Yes. Evan is my cousin,” I confirmed just as I spotted him in the crowd. Shaya was at his side, and it was a night full of more surprises because, instead of looking annoyed like she had been when she’d first left the table with him, Shaya was practically glowing.

She had her head tossed back, laughing loudly enough to pull interested gazes her way. Shaya was gorgeous, with her warm honey skin tone that she hadn’t gotten from Xaden, her greenish blue eyes sparkling. Evan couldn’t seem to stop looking at her, affection and maybe something close to adoration crossing his face as his dimples popped while he spoke to her.

Whatever experiment Xaden was performing, I hoped he got the results he was expecting. But if the alternative was him butchering my annoying cousin, I wouldn’t be overly sad.

After we took our seats, Ted asked if we’d found anything at the auction that interested us. I made comments about a few of the items but didn’t encourage the conversation. Thankfully, Evan and Shaya rejoined us, and they were so animated that everyone’s attention turned to them. At one point, I caught Xaden’s gaze, lifted a brow, and he winked at me.

Shaking my head, I dug into the salad that was placed in front of me, the first of multiple courses expected to be served. Evan was telling us about meeting some guy with a monocle, and then he had to explain what a monocle was to Ted, which was actually hilarious.

I’d just taken a bite of the spinach, strawberry, and feta salad when Odette arrived at the table. Everyone was still laughing, including Noah, who was normally pretty reserved, but it died down as she stopped beside the empty chair next to Ted and cleared her throat.

“Oh, there you are,” Ted said, taking a large swallow of his drink. He didn’t stand, which I suspected was what Odette was expecting. When she realized he wasn’t going to pull her chair out for her, she huffed, did it herself, and sat. “Did you find anything you wanted at the auction?”

He sounded bored and a tad drunk. Maybe more than a little of both.

“A few things, actually.” She started gushing about the Asian princess set until she spotted me with another bite of salad lifted toward my mouth. “What the fuck are you doing at my table?”

Everyone seated with us suddenly went silent, their eyes jumping back and forth between Odette and me. Evan shifted, his large body tensing, his eyes turning that dangerous shade that, on his sister, would have been terrifying.

Setting down my fork, I picked up my water goblet and took a drink, my movements unhurried and methodical to push her buttons. “This is the table we were assigned,” I told her with a saccharine smile.

“You have got to be kidding me. Ted, you need to fire that event planner if they’re going to seat trash like this beside us,” Odette complained, her voice rising so high that people at surrounding tables turned their attention to us.