The lobster bisque was exceptional. He would have to thank Stella for her excellent taste. He didn’t even want to know how much the meal cost him. He and Jess could live off generic mac and cheese for the next few years, no problem.
Jessica leaned close to his ear. “I need to get out of this corset,” she said. “There’s not enough room for me, the baby, and my lunch in here.”
“Why are you wearing a corset anyway? Is that usual?”
“I was too fat to fit in my dress without it,” she said, pouting down at her salad.
“You’ve never been more beautiful.” And he wasn’t just saying that to make her feel better. “I like a little meat on your bones.”
“I think there will be more than a little meat on my bones by the time I have this baby,” she said.
“More cushion for the pushin’.”
She smacked him.
“Sit still and I’ll loosen you up a bit,” he said.
He leaned behind her and lowered the zipper on her dress. He untied the stays of her corset and worked them loose by a couple of inches.
“Better?” he whispered into her ear.
“Mmm hmm,” she murmured. She peeked at him from beneath her eyelashes and slid a hand up his thigh. “Let’s let you loose too.”
He leaned his belly against the table, hiding his lap in the folds of the tablecloth as her hand found home.
“Baby, as much as I’d love for your hand to be wrapped around my cock at the moment, we’re going to have to stand up soon, and I don’t want to scandalize my entire family.”
Her thumb rubbed the sensitive head of his dick through his pants.
“I’m not planning on making you come,” she said. “I just want to make sure you remember you’re mine.”
“I’ll never forget,” he vowed.
“Though your cum is a lot more appetizing than this lobster bisque,” Jessica said, stirring her soup with her nose crinkled in displeasure.
“Did she just say what I think she said?” Trey asked from behind Jessica’s chair. He was filling the empty seat beside Jessica with her giggling mother. Apparently Trey had introduced her to the champagne before the toast. Or perhaps she was just giddy from Trey’s attention.
“She said come sit down and have a lot more of this appetizing lobster bisque,” Sed told Trey, forcing a smile in Stella’s direction.
“Don’t mind if I do,” Trey said, sitting on Stella’s lap and helping himself to her soup.
Stella’s raucous laughter caused the entire room to fall silent as everyone turned their heads looking for the source of the obnoxious sound. Trey paused with his spoon to his mouth, his gaze meeting Reagan’s across the room. He dropped the spoon in the bowl with a splash that flecked the once spotless white tablecloth.
“Sorry, Stell,” he said. “The old ball and chain summons.”
He rose from her lap and leaned over Jessica to whisper at Sed. “That’s all the neck I’m sticking out for you, dude. You’re on your own.”
Sed tried making shut-the-hell-up motions with his eyes, but Jessica was too sharp to miss the gist of Trey’s words.
“What’s he talking about, Sed?” she asked.
“I’ll tell you later.”
“Are you going to eat that soup?” Trey asked Jess.
She shook her head. He picked up her bowl and carried it with him back to his table. He took a seat next to Reagan, but it was Ethan who looked the most displeased with Trey’s farcical seduction of the mother of the bride.
Stella sighed. “He’s really good looking.”
“Trey?” Jessica lifted an eyebrow at her mother.
“Oh, is that his name?” Stella asked, giggling as she tugged her partially eaten bowl of soup toward her chest. “He was so interested in me that he never said what it was.”
She smiled at her soup as she took a bite. At least she was in a good mood now.
A loud clanging drew everyone’s attention to their table again. Brian stood from his seat and lifted the glass he’d been striking with his spoon.
“It’s tradition for the best man to say a few words about the newlyweds at the wedding reception,” he said, smiling warmly at Sed and Jessica. “But I was never the traditional sort.” He sat down again.
The entire room burst out laughing.
Myrna shoved him until he stood again. “Well, I guess I have to say something or tonight my wife will have me sleeping in the dining room with the strippers.”
Sed laughed, but Jessica twisted her brows together at the inside joke. “I’ll explain later,” he said under his breath.
“Raise your glasses in a toast to Sed and Jessica,” Brian said, “the most sexually explosive couple to ever rock the Vegas strip.”
Jessica tossed a roll at Brian. It hit him in the arm and bounced onto the table.
“Here, here,” several guests shouted.
Brian tipped his glass toward them. “May your marriage be as long and healthy as Sed’s—”
Myrna grabbed her husband’s arm and yanked him back into his seat. “What?” Brian said, trying to look innocent. “I was going to say battle cries.”
Sed glanced at Jessica to find her laughing. She lifted her glass of non-alcoholic bubbly, and Sed clinked his glass of alcoholic bubbly against it. They linked their arms together and did their best to drain their glasses in the uncomfortable position while a camera flash repeatedly went off near their faces.
The waiters immediately began to serve the main course—steak tartare, seasoned long-grain rice, and steamed asparagus.