Page 14 of Bliss

Lifting Bliss’s hand that was still in mine, I kissed it. “This is our first official date.”

“Interesting. But like I said, you should probably check her for knives. With Bliss, you never know when she might feel stabby.”

“Why are you being such a dick, Cutter?” Shaya snipped. “Bliss is hot, brilliant, kind, and, overall, one of my favorite people in the universe.”

Evan gagged. “That’s my cousin you’re calling hot, Shaya.”

A coordinator asked us to move up the line to the next logo-filled backdrop. We were positioned for a group picture, with Bliss and Shaya in the middle and me beside Bliss. Evan ended up beside Shaya with Xaden on the outside, his hand on Evan’s shoulder. Someone yelled for us to squeeze in closer, and Evan draped his arm around Shaya, who pressed into him.

I watched the two of them look at each other as they moved, and I witnessed something passing over Evan’s face. Quickly, I glanced at Xaden, who was studying them closely without speaking. His eyes narrowed at whatever he saw on his daughter’s face, and his hand flexed on Evan’s shoulder hard enough that the younger player winced.

A few more players and their plus-ones joined us, and an attendant asked the women to move out of the photo so it was just me and the players. When Bliss started to shift away, I kept my arm around her waist. “She stays,” I barked at the man.

Bliss put her hand on my chest and patted it twice. “I’ll just be right over there with Shaya.”

“You’ll be right here. Shaya can stay too.”

Her eyes darkened, her body arching into mine when I pulled her tighter against me once again.

More pictures were taken without anyone asking the women to leave the group, and then we moved on to the next stopping point. In total, we spent over ninety minutes on the red carpet alone. When we finally reached the banquet room, the cameras didn’t magically disappear. If anything, there were double the number of photographers.

Three hundred round tables had been placed around the room, each seating ten people. A live orchestra took up one corner of the space, along with an area large enough for people to dance comfortably. Armed guards protected the section containing the silent auction items that had been donated for the charity event.

Catering staff dressed all in black walked around with trays loaded down with flutes of champagne and canapés.

An entire line of attendants waited to show people to their assigned seats. Xaden, Evan, and I ended up at the same table with Ted Hawkins and the new general manager, Harlem Smith. Neither Evan nor Harlem had brought a plus-one, and since Ted was still socializing with his date, four seats were still empty.

I wished all four of those seats had remained vacant.

Bliss

Noah’s attention had always been addictive. Having it while surrounded by more than three thousand people made it infinitely more potent. All his hungry, lingering glances. Those soft touches to my arm, my waist, the way he held my hand, occasionally kissing it without seeming to realize he was doing it.

Seven years ago, I would have given anything for an evening just like this one. Now it felt as if we were in an entirely different world, one where we might actually stand a chance of getting to that magically happily-ever-after.

Pulling out my chair for me, he waited for me to take the seat before positioning himself beside me. Shaya took the spot next to me, with Evan quickly moving to claim the one on her other side. Xaden raised a brow at him but didn’t comment on it as he sat beside Harlem Smith, the Titans’ new GM.

Draping his arm along the back of my chair, Noah leaned in. I heard him inhale deeply and caught his eye. “Are you sniffing me, Kavanaugh?”

“As delicious as you smell, meleğim, how could I resist?” He skimmed his nose over my ear, just a quick graze before he pulled back a respectable distance and allowed the men to pull him into a conversation about the upcoming preseason.

Shaya joined in, but I didn’t have much to contribute since I avoided all things sports-related religiously. Instead, I people-watched, waving to several people I knew well as they arrived and were shown to their own tables. I wasn’t surprised when my cousins, Luca and Violet, arrived. Vi blew me a kiss as she passed the table but didn’t stop to chat as her husband guided her toward their seats. Their table was already filling up, most of them prominent within the sport of football in some shape or form. One Hall of Fame quarterback and his third wife. A sixty-seven-year-old NFL team owner whose family had made their fortune primarily in ketchup, who was seated beside his twenty-two-year-old wife.

At the neighboring table to Vi and Luca’s, I recognized a baseball player. The only reason I knew him was because his divorce from Shannon Stewart’s elder sister had been ugly and incredibly satisfying to watch play out in the tabloids. Right before she’d filed for divorce, he’d gotten some major new contract, and her lawyer had been such a shark that Shannon’s sister had ended up with seventy percent of that money, along with ninety percent of their other assets and full custody of their kids.

Shannon and Arella had worked on a few movies together. She could be a bit vapid, but her stepdaughter, Kin St. Charles, was like family to us. Hell, Kin was Evan’s godmother.

Plenty of tables within our vicinity were A-list celebrities, not just athletes. I recognized musicians, actors, and influencers. I spied more than one politician, not all of them representatives of the state of California. As the tables filled up, I wondered if I’d see more of my family members and then immediately tried to push the thought away because it would only summon them.

To my left, I caught sight of someone and sat up a little straighter. Evan must have seen them too, because he went from slightly slouching in his chair to sitting fully upright, and he took his elbows off the table. There was no time to warn Noah before the couple reached our table.

“Bliss, you look beautiful, sweetheart,” Aunt Emmie said as she came around the table. “And that necklace is gorgeous. Your mom will love that.”

I stood to embrace her. “Thank you, Aunt Em. As always, you are rocking the emerald green.”

She stepped back, and Uncle Nik kissed my cheek. “Drake didn’t mention you would be here. Honestly, you’re the last person we expected to see, honey. Normally, you avoid anything remotely related to athletes like the plague.”

Emmie’s curious gaze went around the table, greeting the others whom she already knew, pausing on Evan. “Are you staying out of trouble?”