“Are you nervous?”

Sliding on my earrings, I glanced into the mirror and met Astra’s gaze. I shrugged and said honestly, “Some, I guess. I mean, this whole thing rides on him not…”

I trailed off, because I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t say anything. My parents had been awful. The people around us later today would be just as bad, although they might not say anything outright. I just didn’t know. All I knew was that if I had people digging at me like that, I’d strike back.

“He won’t say anything,” Astra said, reading my mind in that annoying way of hers.

I stuck my tongue out.

“You’re so mature.” She clucked her tongue, then flopped back down on my bed to stare up at the ceiling. “He’s not going to. He’s just got that kind of…oomph to him. You can trust him. He’s the guy you call at two a.m. when you’ve got a flat. Even if you’re an hour away, he’d come help you out.”

“Yeah.” I had that kind of feeling from him too. Maybe that was part of why I was so nervous. Granted, this had been my idea – okay, mine and Astra’s – but he’d be the one to deal with some of the harsher things said by people. Sure, they might say things about me and my judgment, but I’d dealt with that plenty.

They wouldn’t be insulting his judgment.

They’d be insulting him, and what was worse, now I knew why he’d made the decisions he’d made.

Groaning, I rubbed my forehead.

“Next time I offer somebody a ludicrous amount of money to do something for me, tell me to ask them why they need it so badly first,” I told Astra, moving to sit next to her. After a moment’s debate, I flopped down flat right alongside her, and we lay there, studying the ceiling.

“You like him, don’t you?”

“Yeah.” Closing my eyes, I blew out a breath. “I really, really like him.”

“Tell him.”

A knot settled in my throat, but I forced myself to ignore it. “No point. He has things to do back in Las Vegas, a life to get back to.”

“And you know this because…?”

Sitting up, I looked over at Astra and shrugged. “We’ve talked. Some. I…I think he kind of likes me too. But the things he’s got going on must come first. I don’t blame him. But it’s too complicated for a relationship.”

“If it’s the right relationship, nothing is too complicated.” She sat as well and hooked an arm around my shoulders, hugging me. “You seem awful happy with him, PS. You really wanna give that up?”

Covering her forearm with my hand, I leaned into her. “I’m not even ready to think about that yet. Besides, I can’t control the things in his life.”

Even though they weighed on me.

Even though Astra wasn’t entirely wrong.

There was a knock on the door, and I squeezed Astra’s arm. “Gotta go. That’s him.”

“Say hi to Mummy and Daddy for me.” She blew me a kiss and wagged her eyebrows.

“You sure you don’t want to come?” I picked up my purse from the foot of the bed and went to open the door. I smiled at Kaleb, then looked back, waiting.

“You’d have to get me even drunker than you two were before I’d consider going through one of your family reunions again. And I’d have to stay that drunk. All day. I’m pretty sure that’s not good for the liver.”

I laughed. “Probably not.”

She winked at me. “Toodles!”

“Toodles.” I made a face at her as I followed Kaleb through the door. Turning my attention to him, I asked, “Are you ready for this?”

“Are you?” He skimmed his fingers through my hair.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” I gave him a brilliant smile and linked our hands. “Let’s do it.”

* * *

The madder my dad got and the more my mother clutched her pearls – she literally clutched her pearls – the easier it got. Sinking down on a padded chaise lounge next to my great aunt Agatha, I gestured to Kaleb. “Aunt Agatha, have you met my husband?”

She gave him a narrow look and a short nod. It was one of the politer receptions he’d gotten, but her attention on him didn’t last long. She was too interested in me.

Holding a cocktail in one hand and a book in the other, she studied me.

“Just what are you up to, Piety?” she asked.

“I’m introducing you to my husband,” I said innocently.

“Humph.” She took a lusty sip of the cocktail and put her book down. It was a romance, one featuring a bare-chested man with a woman bent over his arm, her boobs all but falling out of the dress. The sight of it made me grin. “Your husband. What’s his middle name?”

It caught me offguard, and I felt like an idiot – I didn’t know.

“What’s yours?” Kaleb asked, interrupting smoothly. He sat down on the chaise next to me and gave Agatha a mega-watt smile. “If I’d known Piety was holding out on me, I might have told her no.”

To my surprise, a laugh boomed out of Agatha. “She proposed to you?”

Some of the suspicion leaked from her eyes, and she sighed, reaching out to pat my knee. “Keep your secrets, Piety. I won’t blab. But it’s going to take more than this for them to leave you be.” She leaned back and settled more comfortably against the chaise. “It’s going to take you.”

I wasn’t even going to try to follow that line of thought, and she didn’t give me the chance. “Here,” she said, pushing her nearly empty cocktail into my hand. “Go refill me. I’m thirsty, and I want to admire the arm candy you brought.”

Wariness flooded me. “Aunt Agatha…”

“Oh, relax. None of them will bother him if he’s with me.” Aunt Agatha gave me a serene smile, then one final pat on my knee. “Go on now.”

Sighing, I went on.

As I made my way through the crowd of aunts, uncles, cousins, and various other relations, I told myself I didn’t need to hurry, that Aunt Agatha wouldn’t expose our secrets.

Then I wished I would have hurried, because I came face to face with one of the few cousins I would have done anything to avoid.

“Well, well, well.” Tabitha smiled at me. She was my father’s niece, and she looked far too like me, save for the hair. Hers was a bronzed sort of blonde, and the stylist she used teased out shades of gold and caramel. She was shorter and softer, a gentler reflection.

At least physically.

Inside, Tabitha was a piranha.

“How’s life for the newlywed?” She gave me a look of innocent curiosity. “I hear you married an exotic dancer. Does he still…perform?”

“Hi, Tabitha.” I chose to ignore her latter comment.

“You see, a friend of mine is getting married, and I’m in charge of the entertainment.” She took a step closer and gave me a devious smile before glancing toward where I’d left Kaleb with Aunt Agatha. “And he is certainly entertaining. Easy on the eyes.”

“Nice try,” I said. With a casual smile, I smoothed out a non-existent wrinkle in my dress. “But you and I know none of your friends are warm-blooded enough to enjoy a man of Kaleb’s talents. Snakes have no desire for such…fleshly desires. Unless you’re in a man-eating sort of mood.”

“Oh, I don’t know.” She smiled, although her idea of a smile was just the slightest curl of her lips. Heaven forbid she do something that might lead to wrinkles. “A girl has to experiment every now and then. You clearly have…and look at you. So, what do you say? Does he…hire out his services?”

She lingered long enough that we both knew she wasn’t talking about stripping.

But instead of sinking to her level, I stepped aside and gestured. “I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you go ask? He’s right over there…talking to Aunt Agatha.”

The first few words were all she processed for a moment, and the cat’s smile came, brightening her eyes.

Then she heard…Aunt Agatha.

She sucked in a breath, stopped when she realized I was waiting for her reaction. “You left him with that old hag? Talk about a man-eater.”

“What’s the matter, honey? Jealous?” I asked. “Go on…go talk to him.”

She turned on a toothpick heel that sank into the ground and stalked off. We both knew she’d never do anything that might even resemble confronting somebody near Aunt Agatha. The woman was a lioness, and you had to have a spine to deal with her.

I managed to get Aunt Agatha’s drink – and one for me – without too much additional drama, and I got back to find her and Kaleb laughing as if they’d known each other for ages. It was enough to make me smile, and I turned Aunt Agatha’s drink over to her as I sat down next to him, leaning against him without thinking about it.

“Hmmm…” Aunt Agatha made a low noise as she sipped from her drink, one that had me sliding her a narrow look.

“What’s that for?”

“Oh, nothing. Nothing.” She waved a hand at me and took another sip, looking rather…pleased with herself. “I just thought I had this whole mess figured out, and you just went and dashed it all to bits, that’s all.”

“What mess?” I took Kaleb’s hand, hoping nobody was around to hear. “We’re not a couple of specimens sitting on a slide in your lab, Aunt Agatha.” She’d worked for a biological research facility for years after her husband passed away, choosing science over pursuing a family. A rather strange idea for a woman of her time, she’d once told me.

“Everything is a specimen, in a way.” She reached out, one hand extended.

I took hers, and she squeezed my fingers. “Go on, now, Piety.” She smiled at me and let go. “Mingle and make sure you kiss that sexy Aussie of yours a time or two. Shock the hell out of that stodgy old nephew of mine.”

I blushed at the thought of kissing Kaleb – or anybody else – in front of my father.

“Enjoy the rest of your day, Aunt Agatha,” I said.

“You too, darling.”

As we lost ourselves in the crowd, I hooked my arm through his. “What did you think of her?”

“She doesn’t seem to fit.” He glanced down at me. “A lot like you.”

I laughed, delighted. “That’s the best compliment I’ve ever received. Thank you.”

“That’s the best compliment you’ve ever received?” We’d reached the stone balustrade that separated the wide terrace from the landscape. There, we stopped, leaned against it, and looked back over the crowd. Some of them weren’t paying us any attention. Others were good at pretending not to.

But some didn’t even try. I ran out of fingers counting the ones who weren’t being subtle about their interest in us.

“Look at everybody here. I didn’t have too many role models growing up.” I shrugged, swirling my straw through my drink. “It’s not that any of them are…well, bad people. But they have a certain view of the world that doesn’t fit with mine. Is it any wonder that I clicked with Aunt Agatha?”

“No.” He dipped his head.

He was going to kiss my cheek.

Whether it was because so many were still making little effort to hide their interest, or because so many were making little effort to hide their disdain, I don’t know. But I turned my head just slightly so that his lips brushed my mouth instead of my cheek.

He paused, hesitated.

Against his lips, I whispered, “Kiss me.”

And he did.

It wasn’t a deep, I’m gonna make you naked, kiss. But it was far from chaste.

And when he looked back at me, my heart was pounding, my throat was dry…and I was ready to make him naked.

* * *

Night wrapped around us in a cool, dark embrace by the time we finally reached my room. It wasn’t that it had taken forever to get home. It had just taken forever to get from the elevator to the door, then across the living room and finally to here.

There was a breadcrumb trail of clothing marking our progress and later, much later, I’d be a little embarrassed because no doubt Astra would see it and tease me.

But for now, all I could think was that he wasn’t completely naked yet, and he wasn’t inside me.

Fumbling with his belt, I leaned against the wall as he reached under my skirt and yanked at my panties.

“Open your mouth, Piety,” he said against my lips. “Open…damn it, can’t get enough.”

I laughed shakily, thinking the same thing.

He caught my lower lip and bit down. At the same time, he caught my hips and lifted up. I wrapped my legs around him and arched, pulling him against me.

I was already wet, slick and ready for him.

He was hard, and the head of his cock passed over me, once, twice…

I gasped, shivering in sensation as he teased me. “Stop it,” I demanded. This time, I was the one doing the biting.

“What…stop this?” He slowed his movements and eased back until we barely touched.

“No!” I buried my hands in his hair and pulled, arching closer. If I could have urged him inside me by sheer force of will, I would have. Whimpering and wiggling, I moved closer.

“So…you want this?” He moved back to me and began to pass back and forth over my clitoris, taunting, teasing.

“I want you in me. I want…you.”

His eyes met mine.

There was something utterly raw about it as he sank into me. Something too intimate, more than sex. I wanted to look away, but I didn’t dare.

“Have me then. And I’ll have you.”

We kissed each other as he began to rock against me, slow, subtle moves that barely counted as thrusts, but I felt every nuance of him, every stroke.

And when I came, it was so, so sweet…