“Just never in front of me, okay?”
“She’s in a mansion housing a BDSM club, and she’s friends with several subs. I think they’ve talked. So it shouldn’t come as any big surprise to her. Fine, I won’t say anything about my sadistic tendencies, okay?”
“And I wouldn’t say anything about attending the class reunion . Just let her be surprised.”
“I wasn’t going to since you need to be with us before I say anything about…you know.”
“Right. So just establish you’re the nice guy she remembers and you’re still single. And try not to give her the impression she’s in your sights.”
“Our sights.”
“Whatever. I’m not getting my hopes up until I get a green light from her. I have to go. My ganache is thickening.”
Gazing at her delicious form from the rear, he admired the sensual sway of her hips and the graceful curve of her bare back and neck as she moved past a window. “That’s not the only thing thickening. Later.”
“Pervert.”
He slipped his phone in his pocket and followed at a distance, smiling when she cast a quick gaze behind her and spotted him, the pace of her steps increasing as she headed toward the stairs.
“Run…for now, chiquita,” he murmured to himself. The thrill of the chase curled tight in his gut, but he followed at a slower pace down the stairs. He didn’t want her to trip in those heels.
Her cheeks were flushed a moment later when she returned up the stairs, Bunny’s younger brother, Tristan, in tow.
“Is she okay? Did she change her mind about me walking her down the aisle?” the fifteen-year-old asked as he followed in her wake. She’d lifted the long skirt of her figure-hugging red dress so Tristan didn’t accidentally step on the hem, affording Samson a brief view of her shapely calves and ankles.
“No, she’s fine, Tristan. It’s nearly time to start, and she wanted you to walk her from the suite upstairs.”
“Oh, okay. She shouldn’t have to walk by herself, huh?”
“No,” Cassandra replied as she smiled at him and shared some of her sweet smile with Samson as they passed each other. Her scent drifted past him, flowers and vanilla, and he was seized by an urge to lick her.
Maybe after we tie her up and decorate her with buttercream frosting.
A little while later, Samson observed Joseph, standing at the front, waiting for his bride-to-be as she made her way down the aisle on the arm of her brother. Bunny had brought happiness and joy into Joseph’s life as his new little sub, and the emotion in Joseph’s eyes told Samson that, while Bunny might enjoy submitting to Joseph, it was he who was enraptured with her.
“Well done, my friend,” Samson whispered to himself when the ceremony concluded as Joseph took Bunny in his arms. He bent her back as he kissed her so she had to hold on to him. She came up bubbling with laughter, threw her arms around his shoulders, and hugged his neck as he twirled her around.
Sitting in the row of chairs directly in front of him, Cassie was brushing tears from her cheeks with the sides of her hands as she applauded. Samson thanked his lucky stars he had a clean handkerchief. He stroked her bare shoulder with the backs of two fingers to get her attention and held it out to her. She looked up at him with her teary eyes and blinked, so he gently blotted her cheek for her.
“Oh,” she said as she reached up and her hand made contact with his, holding the soft square of fabric. “Thank you.”
“Of course.”
Guests flowed from the seating toward the large white tent set up nearby, and she pointed at it. “I’m supervising the cake cutting so I’d better get in there. Thank you, for your hankie.” She sniffled and smiled at him, and he nodded. She looked back once as she hurried to the tent, and he chuckled.
“At least she wasn’t practically running this time.”
Once the wedding dinner had been served and the cake had been cut, the reception guests meandered back and forth between the gardens, the tent, and the lower floor of Hazelle House. The club itself was closed in honor of the bride and groom but would open for late-night pleasures once they’d left on their honeymoon trip. Unfortunately, Samson would be overseeing the club festivities along with Randall Butler, who was Joseph’s other trusted man. If he’d realized Cassie would be at the wedding, he’d have made other arrangements. Randall could handle the club on his own for one evening, but with two levels, the main club floor and the dungeon, it needed at least two people in charge besides the monitors. And it wouldn’t be right to beg off at the last minute just because he had a hot brunette in his sights.