“Okay,” Daniel said, genteelly lifting the first card.
“Read the question and answer if you can,” Kiersten encouraged.
Daniel cleared his throat. “What author created such characters as Little Nell and Estella Havisham?” he read and turned to James, who paled slightly, his eyes growing wide.
“I have no idea,” he said quietly.
Daniel knew this was all about fun and a little theater, so he reached toward the stack of shame and then pulled his hand away. “Charles Dickens.” He set down the card and turned to the next couple.
“Oh, I forgot to explain,” Kiersten interjected. “Once you get a question wrong and pay the price, you’re out and another couple will take your place. The last couple standing at the end of the night wins the wedding night prize package.” She motioned to the other team, who had no idea who the German leader during World War I was, and they had to kiss, which was lame.
“Is that all?” James asked, and they watched until the next couple missed their question and a woman had to paint her husband’s lips with her lipstick. The next missed answer resulted in the couple French kissing. Thankfully, they played it up, to plenty of hoots and hollers.
That round, three couples were out, and others took their place before Daniella picked another card. “What movie featured Benedict Cumberbatch playing the codebreaker who helped usher in the computer?”
“Do you want to answer or just get this over with?” Daniel whispered.
“I wanna win,” James growled softly, and Daniel shivered.
“No dirty talk over there,” Kiersten said. “Save that for the walk of shame.”
“The Imitation Game,” James answered, and the turn shifted from couple to couple until there were only two left. He and James, and Weston and his date.
“We’ll kick that ass’s ass,” Daniel told James and then picked the question. “What is the highest mountain in Europe?” He turned to James. “No idea. You?”
James shrugged. “Mont Blanc?” James guessed for both of them.
“Mount Elbrus,” Kiersten said with too much delight. “Pick your card of shame.” Daniel lifted the card, read it, and showed it to James before standing and kicking the now empty chair out of the way. Hoots grew behind him, but he locked gazes with James and heard very little else. Sauntering closer, slowly rocking his hips, Daniel put on one hell of a show. He straddled James’s legs, lowering himself to his lap and wrapping his arms around his neck, slowly gliding his hips back and forth.
“Good god,” he heard from behind him, but then the rest of the people at the party seemed far away. James’s eyes practically glowed, and Daniel continued slowly gyrating before taking James’s lips in a kiss that stole his breath away. James wrapped his arms around him, hands pressing to his back, and he kissed Daniel hard with heat and passion that left his head spinning.
Applause and catcalls pulled him back and he remembered where he was. James stiffened, not that parts of him weren’t already standing at attention. Daniel pulled back, still gazing into James’s blue eyes, the shade of the deepest ocean.
“Now, that was a winner if I ever saw one,” Kiersten said.
“Ladies, that’s how you get a man’s attention...or standing at attention. Either one works.” Daniel climbed off James’s lap and demurely sat back down as the gathering roared with laughter. The other team didn’t answer their question either, and since he and James had been in the game from the beginning, they were declared the winners.
James accepted the basket, and his eyes widened in surprise at the contents. “We’re going to have to hide this from my mother.” He picked up a box of condoms and placed them back in the basket, grinning. Damn, he looked amazing when he smiled.
“I promise I won’t tell,” Holly quipped as another round of laughter went through the group. Daniel left James in charge of the basket and their loot, some of which was chocolate and a bottle of sparkling wine. The rest, well, yeah, they needed to hide all that from Grace.
“I wonder how many of your mother’s commandments we broke tonight?” Daniel couldn’t help whispering to James, who turned red and then rolled his eyes. “You really need to lighten up a bit and have some fun. Come on, I want a drink.” He tugged James to his feet, waiting while he set the basket aside before weaving through people to the bar.
James got Daniel a martini and ordered a Coke for himself. The air inside was stuffy, so they made their way outside onto the back patio, fairy lights illuminating the trees. The overlapping voices from the party dulled when they closed the door. “I wasn’t exactly expecting that,” James said before gulping his drink.
“You wanted a show and you got one.” He glanced around, making sure no one was within earshot. “Everyone thinks you have a wild girlfriend, and the guys all wish they were you. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
James set his soda on the table and plucked the glass from Daniel’s hand, setting it aside before leading him down the stairs and off the deck.
Out in the yard, the light fell away and darkness closed around them. “Look up. I used to come outside on nights like this when I was a kid. In the city you can’t really see anything, but out here, all the stars are visible.” He held Daniel’s hand as they stood still, glancing upward, the evening mountain breeze as clean and fresh as any air Daniel could ever remember.
“I lived in the city all my life,” Daniel whispered as the sky seemed to draw closer, the ebb and flow of the stars undulating around him as scale and points of reference faded into the background. It was almost like the two of them were floating through a sea of light on some journey that could take them to the ends of the universe. Daniel was tempted to try to reach up and touch them, but as soon as he did the illusion faded and the stars grew distant once again.
“And I grew up out here,” James said quietly. “But I couldn’t wait to get away.”
“I suppose that living the life you want is worth not being able to see a few stars,” Daniel whispered. “Though it would be nice to have both.”
“As much as I may want it, I can’t.” James shrugged. “There are plenty of things that I can’t have. You get used to it.” He sighed and drew out his breath. “We should get back.”
“There’s no rush.” Daniel slid a little closer. “The party is still going on, and I doubt anyone is going to miss us in the next ten minutes.”
“James,” Holly called from the balcony, as if to prove him wrong.
“I need to see what she wants. I’ll be right back.”