Page 117 of The Grand Duel

When I hang up the phone, I sigh.

“What’s the matter, husband?”

“There’s going to be a wait.”

“So?”

“So, it might be a while before you get inside.” I look her over, her dress beautiful but barely covering her upper body.

I remove my jacket and place it over her shoulders.

“I knew you liked me, Aldridge.”

I smile, watching as she kicks off her shoes and slides down the wall, sitting outside the room. “Tonight was fun,” she tells me, finishing off the last bite of my pizza and then popping open the ice cream. “Thank you for bringing me.”

I lower myself down next to her, resting my arm behind my head and propping myself up against her thigh. “Thank you for coming.”

She holds up the bottle of champagne, and I take it, taking a sip.

“You didn’t order any ice cream,” she says.

“I did. I ordered five scoops of triple chocolate knowing if you ordered you’d ask for Neapolitan and then steal mine.”

She points her spoon in the pot. “But this melted mess is mine.”

“It’s ours.”

She dips the spoon in and begrudgingly takes a scoop. “A bite.”

I open my mouth, distracted by hers as it mimics mine. Just before the ice cream can melt across my tongue, she pulls back and smears it across my chin.

“Obviously that’s hilarious,” I say flatly, fucking fighting my smile as she chuckles.

I go to wipe it away, feeling it melt down my chin, but she grabs my hand.

She has no idea what it does to me when she touches me like that.

“You’ll get it all over your suit.” She leans in, oblivious, and licks the dollop of ice cream from my neck and jaw.

I stiffen at the heat of her tongue against my skin, at the act of it, barely breathing as she hesitates for a second before pulling back an inch.

My cock twitches in my trousers, and I close my eyes, knowing I can’t fixate on it, on the way her mouth on me just felt.

“Lis?”

“Yeah?” she whispers, and I can tell she’s as lost in this moment as I am.

“Did…did you just sniff me?” I ask.

Her eyes peel open, her cheeks flushed. “Maybe. You smell…like something I remember. I don’t know what, but it’s so fucking good.”

I shake my head, a little dumbfounded by the woman beneath me. “That’s not at all weird.” I chuckle, knowing I need to pull us back a little.

Knowing I can’t do this with her if I’m not going to tell her what happened between us in the club.

Because if I continue to want her in the way I do right now, I can’t just leave it in the past.

“You started it. You sniffed my cardigan.”