Dragged to the Wedding(18)

“So am I,” Weston countered.

“Then I feel sorry for her. She deserves to be treated better than this.” Daniel caught James’s gaze from across the room, and he made his way over. “James, do you know Weston?” Thankfully, James slid his arm around Daniel’s waist and met Weston’s gaze with a glare.

“Excuse me,” Weston said hurriedly before heading across the room.

“What was that about?” James asked, instantly filling with tension. “Did he give you a hard time?”

Daniel turned away and tried to keep from laughing. “He hit on me. The guy is a scummy lech, and I wouldn’t go anywhere near him without a tetanus shot and maybe a course of antibiotics, but he actually tried to pick me up with some awful line.”

James glared cross the room as Weston continued making his retreat. “Bastard.”

Daniel wasn’t sure if he should be flattered or not. “Hey, think a minute. He’d have been in for one hell of a surprise.”

“Everyone, let’s gather around,” Kiersten called as the bathroom door opened.

“I’ll be right out.” Daniel hurried inside to take his turn, using the toilet, which was no fast process, and then checking his makeup in the mirror. After reapplying lipstick and making sure everything was in place, he washed up, left the bathroom and stepped over to James, who had taken a place toward the back of the room. He was just in time to hear the rules.

“Are all the couples here?”

“James, you and Daniella need to play,” Holly said, with everyone turning toward them. “No chickening out.”

“Come on,” Daniel said, leading him up to join the other couples.

“There are two stacks of cards. The first one is a trivia question, and the second stack is what you have to do if you can’t answer the question.” Man, that woman looked evil, and Daniel wondered just what she’d come up with. “We’ll start with...” She glanced around the room, pointing at James. “You.” Her manicured claws flashed in James’s direction. “You can answer as a team, but if you’re wrong, you have to pick from the stack of shame.” Someone brought a pair of chairs, and they sat down, joining the inner circle. The single friends apparently got to watch.

“Okay,” Daniel said, genteelly lifting the first card.

“Read the question and answer if you can,” Kiersten encouraged.

Daniel cleared his throat. “What author created such characters as Little Nell and Estella Havisham?” he read and turned to James, who paled slightly, his eyes growing wide.

“I have no idea,” he said quietly.

Daniel knew this was all about fun and a little theater, so he reached toward the stack of shame and then pulled his hand away. “Charles Dickens.” He set down the card and turned to the next couple.

“Oh, I forgot to explain,” Kiersten interjected. “Once you get a question wrong and pay the price, you’re out and another couple will take your place. The last couple standing at the end of the night wins the wedding night prize package.” She motioned to the other team, who had no idea who the German leader during World War I was, and they had to kiss, which was lame.

“Is that all?” James asked, and they watched until the next couple missed their question and a woman had to paint her husband’s lips with her lipstick. The next missed answer resulted in the couple French kissing. Thankfully, they played it up, to plenty of hoots and hollers.

That round, three couples were out, and others took their place before Daniella picked another card. “What movie featured Benedict Cumberbatch playing the codebreaker who helped usher in the computer?”

“Do you want to answer or just get this over with?” Daniel whispered.

“I wanna win,” James growled softly, and Daniel shivered.

“No dirty talk over there,” Kiersten said. “Save that for the walk of shame.”

“The Imitation Game,” James answered, and the turn shifted from couple to couple until there were only two left. He and James, and Weston and his date.

“We’ll kick that ass’s ass,” Daniel told James and then picked the question. “What is the highest mountain in Europe?” He turned to James. “No idea. You?”

James shrugged. “Mont Blanc?” James guessed for both of them.

“Mount Elbrus,” Kiersten said with too much delight. “Pick your card of shame.” Daniel lifted the card, read it, and showed it to James before standing and kicking the now empty chair out of the way. Hoots grew behind him, but he locked gazes with James and heard very little else. Sauntering closer, slowly rocking his hips, Daniel put on one hell of a show. He straddled James’s legs, lowering himself to his lap and wrapping his arms around his neck, slowly gliding his hips back and forth.

“Good god,” he heard from behind him, but then the rest of the people at the party seemed far away. James’s eyes practically glowed, and Daniel continued slowly gyrating before taking James’s lips in a kiss that stole his breath away. James wrapped his arms around him, hands pressing to his back, and he kissed Daniel hard with heat and passion that left his head spinning.

Applause and catcalls pulled him back and he remembered where he was. James stiffened, not that parts of him weren’t already standing at attention. Daniel pulled back, still gazing into James’s blue eyes, the shade of the deepest ocean.