Red After Dark (Blackwood Security #13) - Elise Noble Page 0,106
mild heart attack, which was how we found out. They all started panicking and someone called an ambulance.”
I gasped and covered my mouth.
“You’re kidding.”
“No, I’m not. If you look at birdguru.com and search for ovenbirds near Antibes, you can still find a picture of my ass.”
I absolutely wouldn’t be doing that…until I was safely tucked away in the privacy of my own bedroom.
“What happened to the man? Was he okay?”
“Fortunately, I underwent a reasonable amount of medical training in a previous job, so I asked around for aspirin and then kept him comfortable until the doctors took over.”
A bridesmaid walked past and gave me an odd look. I realised I was holding two champagne glasses up to my ears and hurriedly dropped my hands. Oops. Alaric was watching me closely, but what could I say? His tale was funny, whereas mine was more… Wait a second… What did he say?
“You were fooling around with a girl?”
He shrugged as I dumped the glasses on a waiter’s tray. “I’m forty years old, Beth. I’ve never been a saint.”
“But…but I thought you were gay,” I blurted. Oh, hell. I clapped my hands over my mouth, then mumbled through them. “Not that being gay isn’t perfectly fine, of course. And I realise some men don’t come out until later in life. My old showjumping trainer, he was married for years, but then he got divorced and moved to California with a guy who made magnetic horse blankets.”
“What makes you say that?” Alaric asked mildly.
“The blankets? They sent me one as a gift.”
“No, why do you think I’m gay?”
Oh dear. Was it too late to drown myself in the swimming pool?
“Because…because you dress well?”
“Beth…”
“Okay, okay. Uh, Judd might have mentioned it. To Gemma. That you were with Ravi. And Emmy said Ravi was gay and so I just assumed… Can I go home now?”
“I’m not gay, Bethany. I’m bi, and so is Ravi.”
“What does that mean? Actually, forget I asked. I sort of know, I mean, logically…”
“It means I fall for personalities rather than body parts.”
“Oh. Oh!” I thought about his words for a second. The champagne was already going to my head, so the cogs whirred kind of slowly. “That really sounds quite lovely.”
“Lately, I’ve been more into women. Well, one woman. And not exactly into her, but…”
“Who?” I asked.
He didn’t answer, just brushed his lips over mine.
“Feel free to slap me.”
No, I didn’t want to do that. I dropped the two champagne glasses into a flower border—they’d done their job now—and wrapped my arms around Alaric’s neck.
“Can I kiss you instead?”
He didn’t wait for me to make the first move. When our lips met, I forgot where I was and who might be watching and melted against him. My head screamed that smooching with my boss was a terrible, terrible idea, but my heart beat it into submission. My toes curled in my shoes as Alaric’s tongue teased the seam of my lips, and I let him in on a sigh. Heat crackled in my veins as long-dead parts of me came to life.
Alaric was the easiest man to kiss. Hard and soft at the same time, gentle and strong. His hands parted, one sliding to my bottom and tipping me against his… Oh, wow. Bigger might not always be better, but I hoped I’d get the opportunity to experiment for myself. His other hand came to the back of my head, tangling in my hair and then tugging it sideways so he could feather soft kisses along my jaw.
Then he pulled away.
“Shall we skip the audience this time?” He glanced at his watch. “We’ve got an hour and a half to fill before the farce continues.”
“You’ve got a sister of the bride to get into,” I murmured, then my brain caught up with my mouth and I screwed my eyes shut, which did absolutely nothing to help. “Can you just pretend you didn’t hear that part?”
“I could, but I’m not going to.”
Holy hotness. I grabbed his hand.
“The stables. We can go to the stables. Nobody keeps horses here anymore, so they’re empty. And I’m quite sure there are no ovenbirds.”
Alaric chuckled. I loved that he didn’t take himself too seriously.
“Lead the way.”
The stable yard had eight loose boxes set in a U-shape, plus a tack room on the end of one row and a feed room on the other. The boxes were all shut up and probably a bit dusty, so I tugged Alaric towards the tack room.