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She blushes as if they’re having their own conversation. With a small shake of her head, they both concentrate back on us.
“Dom!” Vanessa hollers, seeing him approach. “You outdid yourself.”
He looks confused for a moment before Vanessa signals to the ring. Then his eyes, cold and hard, turn to mine as though he’s reminding me that it’s nothing. He didn’t buy it. It’s a loaner he probably borrowed from one of his hot-shot clients.
“Thanks.” He sips his scotch neat, looking anywhere but at me.
The lights dim and go back on.
“Dinner’s ready. Thank goodness, I’m starved,” Maddie says. “Afterward, the guys are taking Luca out and the girls are heading to a suite. You should all come. Grab Annie too.”
Dom never said anything about that to me.
“We’ll see. Thanks.” I smile so Maddie knows I appreciate the invitation.
Maddie spots Mauro coming to find her, and she makes her way over to him. He leads her by the small of her back into the banquet area where dinner will be served. What that must be like? I find myself jealous of all the relationships in this room.
“Come on, we’re over here.” Bella signals us to our table, though Carm’s voice could be our navigation. She must notice too because she says, “He’s so damn loud.”
Dom stays two paces back. His hand doesn’t guide me, and when we get to the table, I’m surprised he picks the chair next to mine.
Luca and Lauren stand and grab the microphone that’s been set up at the front of the room. “We just wanted to thank everyone for coming…”
They continue thanking everyone, and my mind wanders, the metal on my finger cold and unwelcoming because it’s not real. All of this is fake. Why did I ever sign up for this? What am I, thirteen years old? Mama guilt shouldn’t still force me to do something I don’t want to do. We’re both thirty-six.
My gaze slides over everyone in the room and stops on Anna. She smiles wide and bright. Because she believes that I love Dom. She’s always watching us, always dissecting what we’re doing. With Dom’s arm over the back of my chair and me slightly swayed toward him, we look like a couple. He’s really good at pretending when he needs to, which frightens me.
“We also want to offer our congratulations to our cousin Dominic, who just got married.”
Everyone claps, and Anna signals for us to stand. Dom slides his chair back and lightly grasps my elbow, helping me up. I feel my cheeks heating as everyone looks expectantly at us.
“Thanks, Luc,” Dom says.
Then Carm taps his glass with a utensil and Bella joins in. Soon the entire room is clinking their glasses with their silverware.
Someone should tell them to stop. Please stop. I’m hanging on the last inch of a very thin thread.
But no one stops. The clinking and calls for us to kiss only become louder.
Dom’s large hand slides against my skin to cup my cheek, and his head dips down to mine. He doesn’t ask before his lips press to mine. At first there’s a hesitancy and I think he’s going to leave it at that. A light kiss to appease the crowd. But the longer his lips remain on mine, the closer his body presses to mine. His free hand slides around me, pulling me into his hard chest as his tongue slides along the seam of my lips. I happily open them, and our tongues reunite with a taste so sweet and divine, I moan. His hand grows firmer, his fingers threading through my hair, and he pushes harder against me as his tongue slides faster.
My hands seek anything to grab hold of, and I find it as my fingers dig into the waist of his slacks.
“Okay, this isn’t your wedding,” Enzo says.
Dom stops the kiss like a motorbike—fast and skidding to a stop. Our eyes catch, and the heat overflowing his sparks every cell in my body to life.
“Well, congratulations you two. Now go to your room next time,” Luca says over the microphone.
I look down, embarrassed for making such a spectacle.
“As delicious as always,” Dom murmurs but untangles from me, holding out my chair.
I sit down, unsure of what to do. I reach for my water goblet and catch Bella and Annie staring at me with dumbfounded expressions.
Shit. That was so believable, I almost thought it was real.
