He takes my hand and bends to kiss it, but Oz grabs my wrist, pulling my hand back and kissing it himself. The other man laughs.
“Never thought I’d see the day,” he says, and for some reason, I feel a sense of pride. Oz has only ever wanted me.
I look around the room and see others looking at us, but they turn away when my eyes meet theirs. There might have been some buzz about Oz and me possibly dating, but everyone will know now that it’s much more than that.
“The day was long ago. She’s been mine for years, just not here in the city for me to be able to bring her along,” Oz corrects, making me smile up at him. Every time I tell him we might be moving too fast, he always corrects me, too. He says we’ve been together since the day he laid eyes on me, and I roll my eyes. But inside, I always melt. It’s still hard to wrap my mind around the fact that this man waited years to be with me. Which makes me understand even more why Oz is so stingy with sharing me. He’s waited all this time, and he’s selfish when it comes to me. How could I not adore that?
“No more Vivien then?” I can see the disappointment in the man’s face, and it sparks my interest. I’d never even thought about Oz’s mom dating, but clearly Tom’s interested if the look on his face is anything to go by.
“Not tonight,” is all Oz offers, and even I’m a little disappointed at that.
“I’ve seen your face around on buildings, haven’t I?” I ask, drawing Tom’s eyes back to me.
“God, those things are haunting me.” He laughs. “My marketing team’s idea. Suffice it to say, I will not be doing that again.”
“Why? I think you look handsome on them.” Oz’s hand on my hips flexes, and I elbow him. “I remember I saw one when I was with Vivien and she said the same thing.” I can’t stop the little white lie from slipping free.
“Really?”
“Don’t you remember, Oz? It was last week.” I look up at him, encouraging him with my eyes, but apparently he doesn’t read my body language like Paige does. So I elbow him again because that seemed to work last time.
“I don’t recall,” he says drily.
I see Paige rush by out of the corner of my eye. She and Captain both came to the event tonight but dressed inconspicuously so as not to look like bodyguards. Oz offered the two of them, along with a few others, for security tonight—what with there being high-priced auction items up for bid they wanted all the security they could get.
Paige got her makeup and hair done at Oz’s with me, but she went home to get dressed. I look her up and down as she approaches wearing a tight strapless dress that goes all the way to the floor. It looks conservative until she takes a step, and then I see that a slit runs all the way up to the top of her hip. I’m pretty sure underwear isn’t an option when wearing a dress like that, and it makes me smile. She looks incredible, and Captain looks like he’s chewing on glass.
“Excuse me,” I say, but Oz doesn’t let me go. “Ladies’ room.” He looks over my head and must see Paige, because he releases his death grip on me.
“Come back to me.”
“Always,” I tell him, getting another quick kiss before I turn to follow Paige. I can tell by the look on her face that she’s pissed.
I catch her outside the ladies’ room and grab her by her arm. “Listen,” she snaps, but stops short when she sees it’s me. It’s then I get a good look at her face. Her lipstick is all kinds of smeared.
“Who’d you suck face with?”
“Grr,” she growls, reminding me of her brother. I still forget they’re related, but every now and then something like this makes me remember. She grabs my hand, pulling me away from the bathroom and down a little hallway into what looks like some fancy sitting room.
“Captain kissed me!” she finally says, using the back of her hand to wipe at her mouth. “Or maybe I kissed him. I don’t know. I wanted him to stop talking. Then, well...” She throws her hands up in the air like she doesn’t really know what happened at all.
“Was it good?”
“Mal, I’m serious here.”
I want to tell her I am, too, but I decide against it. I don’t know why this is such a big deal. Haven’t they been dancing around this since they met?
“What happened?” I decide to ask instead.
“He kind of cornered me about the pregnancy test.”
“Oh, God, you didn’t tell, did you?” I haven’t even told Oz yet, and I have a feeling he’s going to be disappointed when he finds out I’m not pregnant.