I swallowed thickly as he carefully swept my hair off my neck and looped the cold gold necklace across my throat so that the ten-carat yellow diamond gleamed in the hollow between my collarbones. Once done, he helped secure the matching cluster of yellow and white diamonds in my ears.
“Your hands are bare,” he murmured, taking them in his own and smoothing his rough thumbs over my knuckles.
I curled my fingers into fists. “None of my rings felt good enough to wear tonight.”
I’d bought most of them from consignment shops and at markets. Only the pearl piece from my friend in Hawaii was worth anything, but it didn’t quite go with my dress.
Adam raised each hand to press a kiss to the back of both.
“You could wear those sweatpants that cling to your hips and one of those cut-off tees you like, and you’d still surpass anyone there tonight,” he assured me with his particular brand of cool authority that made you believe everything he said. “Are you ready to go? Sebastian is waiting in the living room to see you before he takes off.”
“Yes.” I reached out for the tube of lipstick that the makeup artist had left for me to add to my clutch, along with a mini powder puff and a travel vial of my perfume. “I want to give him something before we leave.”
“Good idea.” He frowned. “I hate that he has to go by himself.”
“He’s taking Giselle,” I reminded him. “But I know what you mean. There’s nothing for it, though.”
And truly, there didn’t seem to be.
I was marrying Adam to keep him from public scandal. Arriving at an award show with a woman and a man on his arm would truly change everything about his life and career for the better. After years of blackmail from Oscar Hampton, he deserved some peace.
Even if I felt Sebastian deserved our love in the shadowsandthe light.
An impossible universe, Seb called it, and I thought he might be right.
“Speaking of Sebastian,” Adam said as he escorted me down the hall toward the living area. “Brace for impact.”
“What?” I asked, but I was immediately distracted by the sight of our Italian standing in a puddle of sunlight spilling in through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
The beams turned his eyes to liquid gold as they rose to lock on us, the color utterly arresting against the depth of his tan and all that raven-black hair that waved a little long over his ears and spilled over his forehead. He had grown out his usual stubble so that it was almost a short beard, the inkiness contrasting with the soft texture of his full pink mouth.
The dark to Adam’s light and just as utterly magnificent.
“How do you say breathtaking in Italian?” I asked Seb.
His mouth twitched. “Mozzafiato.”
“Sei mozzafiato,” I told him in my best Italian.
“Bella come il sole,” he returned, and I knew enough Italian to translate that before he did. “Beautiful like the sun.”
His suit was as dark as tar, the velvet blazer sleekly tailored to his tapered waist and broad shoulders. The only spot of collarwas a light grey button-up, and I was grateful it wasn’t black because otherwise my idea might not have worked.
If I was feeling particularly whimsical, I might have said Adam and Seb, as they came to stand together before me, looked like day and night, and I, in my dress, the sunshine between them.
“We both have something for you before we leave,” Adam told him, pushing me gently in the back so I stepped into the circle of Sebastian’s waiting arms.
He grinned down at me. “A present?”
“Yes,” I murmured, suddenly shy. “If you don’t want me to do it, you can just say so, but I wanted to mark you as mine before you went out there. I didn’t like that you were alone and so far from us at the Critics Choice Awards, that there was no way to look over and know just with a glance you were ours.”
Sebastian's throat worked around a hard swallow, and his pupils dilated with lust as he held me just a bit closer. “I can tell you right now that I will like whatever idea this is. I want to be marked as yours just as you want to mark me.”
“Good,” I breathed, smiling wide. “Because everyone will know you’re taken if I do this. But only you, me, and Adam will know by whom.”
I only had to tip my head forward thanks to my sky-high heels in order to take the edge of his collar in one hand to steady it so I could press my vibrantly painted rose pink lips to the pale fabric. I’d had the makeup artist apply the pigment liberally with exactly this in mind so when I pulled away, I was satisfied to see the distinct print of my mouth on his shirt.
“There.” The word rumbled out of me like a purr. “Now everyone will know there is a lucky lady in your life who is allowed to kiss you however and whenever she wants.”
