Christian shakes his head harder. Then harder again.
“Why, why, why …” he chants.
“It’s almost over,” I reassure him.
“They … tickle.”
“Only flies.”
“Annoying …”
“I know.”
“They …” A flick of his head. Again and again and—
“If there’s anyone who objects to this couple being married—”
A loud scrape of metal against stone cuts off the officiant’s words as Christian jumps up with an “Urg!”
Every head snaps in our direction. Christian freezes. The entire courtyard balloons with the tension of unspoken words, and I swear I can feel Christian shriveling up inside.
I jump to my feet and pretend to clap my hands over my face. “Oh, thatsmell!How dreadful.”
I nudge Christian out of our row, and he follows my lead like a puppet. Every single eye is on me as I shove him into a seat across the aisle and inhale deeply. “That’s much more pleasant. Sorry for the interruption, but staff really should look into that. Carry on! No objections from us.”
When people begin turning back to the front, I drop into the seat beside Christian, hand still pressing against his shoulder to keep him slumped forward and out of view.
It’s not until I’m sure there’s no attention on me that I spare a glance his way. His face is buried in his hands, ears red, with those three stupid flies still circling.
“Just kill me now.”
Chapter 6
Christian
“Technically not your fault,” Émile shouts over the hand dryer, fingers raking through my hair. As soon as the ceremony was over, he dragged me down the hall to the bathroom and steered my head under a tap. The gel Madden gave me is long gone and now Émile is attempting to tame a head full of cowlicks and wayward curls. I’d let him know it’s hopeless, but … it feels nice. And it’s helping distract me from bringing a whole fucking wedding to a standstill.
“Thanks for trying to make me feel better about this, but I didn’t have to jump out of my chair like a moron, I just … I couldn’t stop. It was getting overwhelming.”
“Understandable,” he says in that sexy accent of his.
I’m literally kneeling at his feet, hot air beating down over my head, while Émile massages my scalp. Every second that passes in this bliss makes it harder and harder to worry about what happened.
I still can’t believe the way he effortlessly took the heat off me, though there’s still a lot of wedding to get through, and bythe end of it, I wouldn’t be shocked if all he wants is to put as much distance between us as possible.
But for now, this is nice.
“Thank you.” I raise my voice so I can be heard, and his pink lips curl up in the corners. There’s something about the way his face is put together combined with his natural charisma that is making me so damn attracted to him with every moment that passes.
It also doesn’t help that I’m kneeling face-high with his junk.
I’m not about to pull it out in a public restroom, but I can’t say it’s not tempting.
He holds out a hand and helps me to my feet. The hand dryer cuts off a few seconds later.
“Come on, the reception will begin soon.”
“Yeah, no. Not going to that.” I’d rather slink away into the night and pretend today never happened.