“You can’t make me,” she insisted. “I’m a guest.”
I turned to Samuel. “Your hotel is depending on positive publicity from this event. I think the last thing you want is some rogue guest ruining the festivities.”
He nodded. “You’re right.” He turned to Lilith and addressed her. “Kai here will escort you back to your room while you pack up your belongings. We will help you find another hotel to stay at.”
Lilith crossed her arms again, making it clear the security guard was probably going to have to pick her up to get her to move. “I don’t think so.”
“Given that she’s trespassing, you could call the proper authorities,” I offered.
That seemed to sink in and she glared at me. “Fine.” She spat out the word. “But you can’t hide him from me for forever.”
I didn’t need to hide Dan for forever. Just for the next few hours. Then Lilith would be free to try casting a spell or sacrificing a goat or whatever it was that she did for fun.
She gave us one final glare and marched away with Kai following close behind. I let out a sigh of relief and thanked Samuel for his assistance.
I hugged Camden. “I’m so glad you were here. I mean, I would have handled it on my own, but having you here with me made it so much easier.”
“You can do anything,” he agreed. “But dealing with Lilith happens to be one of my specialties. We’ll have to keep an eye out for her. I’m still surprised she showed up.”
“Irene won’t be. But we won’t tell anyone until after everything’s over, right?”
“Definitely. Nobody needs to know yet.”
Much as I enjoyed having him hold me, we had a wedding to get to. “We need to go finish getting ready.”
He kissed the tip of my nose. “Yep. Time to go get our best friends married to each other.”
That caused a twinge in my gut, and I tried to brush it off. Sadie was going to tell him and then we’d deal with it from there. “So we should go.”
Problem was, neither one of us was moving.
“I do have one wedding-related concern. If you could step with me into this hallway over here we could discuss it.”
“Of course.” I nodded, playing along.
We entered the empty hallway and he spun me so that he had me pinned up against the wall. “The problem is that I want to kiss the maid of honor and I’m going to have to keep my lips to myself for several hours.”
“That is a serious problem,” I agreed, reveling in the delicious tingles making their way through my body. “You should probably get your fill now.”
“Not possible,” he breathed before pressing his lips to mine. That fire he caused, the one that threatened to overwhelm me every time we touched, roared to life. He kissed me with hot, superlative strokes, and I loved the way he subtly responded to everything I did. Every time I met his feverish kiss, the way I ran my hands through his hair, pressed my body against his, he let out sounds that were an intoxicating and inexplicable mixture of frustration and satisfaction.
Was I ever going to get used to the way this felt? Like being engulfed in a waterfall of pleasure, not being able to breathe, but completely not caring?
He broke off the kiss and stepped back and I leaned against the wall, needing the support.
He took in a few deep, shaky breaths before he grinned and then had the audacity to say, “I hear you’re always supposed to leave them wanting more.”
Then he left.
I couldn’t believe it.
Camden needed to stop messing with me. I wasn’t strong enough to take it.
I arrived back at Sadie’s villa to find total chaos. I located Krista and quickly filled her in on what had just happened. The wedding crasher, not the kiss. I had taken a picture of Lilith while she was throwing her fit and forwarded it to Krista so that she could be on the lookout, too.
She pulled up the photo on her phone. “I don’t want to say this wedding might be cursed, but . . . know that I’m thinking it.”
“Everything will be fine,” I reiterated for both of us. Even though I was kind of starting to think the same thing. Relatively speaking, these had all been minor fires that had been quickly put out. Nothing we couldn’t handle.
I just had to hope things stayed that way.
The makeup artist waved me down, insisting I sit in her chair. I looked around at the rest of the bridal party and the moms and realized I was the only one who wasn’t made up yet.
My phone rang and I tried to brush off the pang of dread that lanced me at who it could possibly be. We’d had our drama for the day, things were going to be fine now. I saw that it was my mom calling me. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or annoyed.