She looked at him questioningly but didn’t argue. “Where are we going?”
“To feed you.”
They threaded their way through the tables. He spotted Doug, knew Avery had too because she went a bit rigid, her fingers locking around his. Doug looked her up and down and then dismissed her, turning back to whoever he’d been talking to while his new wife watched Avery with something like annoyance.
Mason squeezed Avery’s hand. “Here.” He stopped at the table to fill a plate, then tugged her into a little alcove in the corner. It was still in full view of anyone who cared to watch them, but at least now her back was to the room so she couldn’t see her ex.
He turned to face her, took a grape from the plate and held it up to her lips.
Her golden eyes lifted to his, a wry expression on her face. “I can feed myself.”
“Yeah, you can,” he agreed. “But I can do it so much better.” He slid the grape along her lower lip, anticipation pulsing thick and heavy in his veins. “Open for me.”
Annoyance flashed in her gaze. She stared at him in defiance a moment, making him hide a grin, then her lashes lowered and she leaned forward to nip the grape neatly from his fingers.
He focused on her lips as they closed around the fruit, just barely brushing his fingertips. He bit back a groan, imagining feeding her something else entirely while she was on her knees in front of him.
Next, he chose a small cube of cheese. She met his gaze again. Their eyes held, the sensual tension between them rising from a simmer to just under the boiling point.
He offered her the cheese, holding it millimeters from her lips. “Take it,” he murmured. A few people were watching but he didn’t care, he was totally absorbed in their erotic play.
His pulse accelerated at the way Avery’s pupils expanded. This time, without looking away from him, she slowly bent her head and parted her lips. The tip of her tongue grazed his skin as she sucked the morsel from his fingers.
A low, almost inaudible growl rumbled in his chest, his dick shoving hard against his fly. He’d set out to seduce her, but he was being seduced in turn. She was challenging him, pushing him. Did she realize what he wanted to do to her? Realize what he wanted from her?
Totally engrossed, he fed her other little bites. A strawberry. A tiny, bite-sized quiche. A bit of pineapple.
She swallowed it and arched a saucy eyebrow. “How do you know what I like?”
“Because I pay attention, angel eyes.” To every little clue she gave him.
A cheer jolted Mason back to the present. The bride and groom had arrived to start the reception. Mason took Avery back to their table, her flushed cheeks and the way she darted sidelong glances at him making the anticipation burn hotter.
He wanted her. Tonight.
Dinner and the speeches went by way too slowly. He was polite, talking with her family, but the entire time he was focused on her. Always touching her. Making sure his thigh brushed hers every time he shifted. Putting his arm around her. Leaning in to nuzzle her hair or graze his lips against her temple. She tolerated it, but he was observant enough to see it was more than that in the flutter of her pulse in her neck or the rush of goosebumps on her skin when he touched her.
She wanted him too.
Finally, the dancing started. As soon as the bride and groom and parents were done, Mason stood and pulled Avery up. “Come on.”
She looked at him in surprise. “You dance?”
“Sweetheart, I’ve got moves you can’t even imagine.”
Amusement and a hint of arousal glowed in her eyes. She didn’t say anything, just followed him out to the middle of the floor amongst the other couples.
He stopped, turned her to face him and locked an arm around her waist, pulling her forward until their bodies almost touched. Avery stared up at him as the music filled the air and other dancers wove around them.
Mason slowly grasped her other hand, raising it to shoulder level. In her heels she was tall enough to look him dead in the eye, and he liked the novelty of it. He read the uncertainty in her gaze, and the desire she tried to hide. She had his entire body hard already, the need to stake his claim on her right here in front of everyone clawing at him.
He began to move, leading her to the beat, sheer possessiveness roaring inside him. This had started off as a kind of game for him, but now he wanted something more. Starting with making her give into the need he could see smoldering in her eyes. Making her surrender to the demands of her body. Make her need him.
It was impossible to tear his eyes from hers as they danced, the heat between them rising with every second. He slowed with the music, swaying gently with her, his arm locked around her waist and the fingers of his other hand encasing hers. Avery’s face was just inches from his own, her golden eyes mesmerizing. Her gaze dropped to his mouth before flicking back up, and the longing she was trying to hide undid him.
He stopped there in the middle of the dance floor to slide a hand into her hair and lower his mouth to hers. When their lips touched, she gasped and tensed for a split-second.
Mason curved his fingers around the back of her skull and angled his head, fitting their lips together. He kept the kiss slow, shoving back the raging need to take, seducing her with every stroke and caress of his lips.
Pure lust and possessiveness streaked through him like a wildfire. He held her to him, battling the need to plaster her body to him, and gave her a teasing stroke of his tongue across her lower lip.
Avery sucked in a breath and pulled her head back to stare up at him. Her irises were nothing but thin golden rings around wide black pupils, her breathing unsteady.
Fuck him. She went to his head like a drug, turning him into a raging storm of need.
She would go on the defensive now, put all her shields up with all these people around, but he’d gotten a taste of what lay beneath them, and he wasn’t giving up now.
Her ex had to be the stupidest fucking idiot alive to throw this amazing, sensual woman away.
Mason was a soldier through and through. He was going to fight for her.
AVERY’S LEGS WERE a bit unsteady as they walked back to their table. Mason refused to let go of her hand and she didn’t feel like fighting him, but holy shit.
She didn’t care that her family were all staring at them, or that Doug and his wife were in the room. She was too preoccupied by what Mason had just done to her.
He’d turned her body against her with a single, barely PG-13 and very public kiss in the middle of the dance floor, and she’d let him. Except it hadn’t been just a kiss. No, it felt like he’d just claimed her in front of everyone.
She’d never known this level of arousal before. Her body was tingly and restless. Her heart was still beating a mile a minute, and the empty ache between her legs was almost unbearable.
Over at their table her sister was grinning at her like a lunatic. Avery ignored her as Mason pulled out a chair for her, then he murmured something about getting her some dessert before leaving.
She let out a shaky breath and bunched her fingers into the napkin in her lap. It felt like her damn insides were quivering.
Her sister leaned over to nudge her. “You’re looking a little flushed. Better have some water.” She thrust a water glass at her.
Avery took it and swallowed a big sip, but it didn’t cool her off any. Mason had her so worked up she was pretty sure she was going to stay hot for a long time. That wasn’t good. What was she going to do when they got back to the cabin later? Because right now she was tempted to throw all caution aside and jump him as soon as they were alone.