“Yeah,” Marcy sighed. “But what we’ve all come to understand is that our men aren’t really chocolate mousse or salads. They’re more along the lines of…” Marcy struggled to fill in an appropriate analogy.
Gaia helped out. “They’re the whole buffet. A buffet that has every possible nutrient you could need, including the chocolate mousse when you need something decadent.”
Gabby laughed. “Including the bar,” she added in.
All three women sighed with a strange look to their pretty features. “Oh yeah. They’ll make you dizzy too,” Marcy agreed.
Gabby shook her head and laid a comforting hand on Naya’s arm. “We’ll take you out to lunch soon. Once things have settled down a bit, you’ll understand.”
Gaia patted Naya’s back. “Remember, we’ve all fought it.”
“And we’ve all given in,” Gabby said with a cringe and a slight shake of her head, as if she still couldn’t quite believe she was married to the tall, handsome man.
As predicted, four men were standing just on the other side of the ballroom wall, waiting for the ladies to reemerge from the restroom. “Told ya,” Marcy muttered, causing Gaia and Gabby to laugh softly as well. But all three women walked right up to their husbands, putting a hand on their arm, taking their hand, or leaning up to kiss his cheek.
A spurt of jealousy hit Naya as she watched the women, then she turned to look at Luke. The man was looking down at her as if he was starving and she was the main course. “Don’t look at me like that,” she muttered.
“Like what?” he asked but took her hand in his and led her along behind his brothers.
“Like you’re going to eat me.”
She heard his laughter but wasn’t sure what was so funny. And then she realized what she’d said and gasped. “I meant…I didn’t mean…,” and she pulled back, but he wouldn’t release her hand.
“Ah, but I am going to taste you, my lovely little beauty,” he murmured and bent lower to nip her ear again. “I’m guessing you are going to taste delicious!”
Naya had trouble breathing after those words. She felt her cheeks heat up and bowed her head.
“Never fear,” he whispered with that low, husky voice that was now too close to her ear. “I’m very good at things like that.”
Naya wanted to snap at him about his experience, but she was still too shocked at what she’d just said to him. And what he’d said to her. As well as all the images in her mind of him doing exactly that to her! Oh my!
He’d led her over to the buffet line and handed her a plate, which she used it to fan her heated cheeks.
“Hot flashes?” he suggested.
Naya only glared up at him, earning her another chuckle. “Here. Have some broccoli,” he invited and scooped a broccoli salad onto her plate.
Naya glanced at the other options, thinking that the lovely beef with the roasted potatoes was more along the lines of her appetite right now. But there was no way she was going to say anything like that. Not after her comment about…what she’d said.
Good grief, she couldn’t even say the words in her mind!
For the next three hours, she trembled by Luke’s side, talking with various people and trying very hard to contribute intelligently to the conversation. But every time she started to relax, Luke would touch her in some way. It might be a casual brush of her bare arm or his hand smoothing up her back, a touch of his fingers on the nape of her neck…anything so that she was continuously aware of the man beside her.
By midnight, she was exhausted. All she wanted to do was press her body against his and beg him to make love to her. Or run out of the ballroom, hide in her cottage, and never come out again for fear of begging him to make love to her.
The man was the devil!
“I have to go,” she said during a break in the conversation. Marcy, Gaia and Gabby had already left, one by one, their husbands pulling them away and saying their goodbyes. It was only Luke and herself left from the original group and she needed a break from the constant sexual tension.
“I’ll drive you home.”