Page 106 of Taming Grumpy Dr. Beast

The muscles in my body released one by one at her response. I wanted to tell her I was falling in love with her, but not now. Not here. She deserved to hear the truth about the secret I’d kept from her first, before I declared the depth of my affection.

“I need to talk to you about something.” I couldn’t wait until the end of the night. I wanted to tell her how I felt without the lie between us.

She snuggled in closer to me. “Can we finish dancing to this song first, and then we can talk?”

“Yeah, sure.” What was the harm in waiting a few more minutes?

My gaze glanced around the room not seeing my parents. I needed to make sure they didn’t ruin this moment. At some point, I had to introduce Lily to them, but right now with a house this size and hundreds of guests in attendance, we’d yet to run into them.

Wrapped in each other’s arms, it took me a second to realize Lily was vibrating. I chuckled. “Well now. What do we have here?” If it was some type of sex toy, I was all in at finding out what it was and how Lily wanted me to use it on her.

She giggled. Not exactly the response I expected from her. “Jaxon, it’s my phone.”

“Your what?” There was no way there was a phone tucked into that dress. “Where?”

Lily snuck her hand in between us and reached behind the gathered part of the dress at her waist, and sure enough, pulled out a phone.

There went my sex toy fantasy.

“Jess had the seamstress at the shop come up with the creative idea. While we got our hair done, she had the woman sew in a pocket. Your friend really is so sweet.”

Lily showed me the name flashing across her screen, Janice, her father’s caregiver.

“Take it.”

She tapped the screen to accept the call. “Janice, hi.” Lily’s face scrunched up. “What? I can’t hear everything you’re saying. Hold on, give me a moment so I can find a quiet place for us to talk.”

“Go.” I shooed her away. “I’ll be here when you come back.”

She gave me a grateful smile and a quick kiss on my lips. I watched her ass swinging back and forth as she hurried away. I groaned, thinking of all the places we could slip off to when she returned.

I turned to see if I could find a server with scallops wrapped in bacon. I loved those damn things. Before I could locate one, fingernails bit into my arm, jerking me to a stop. My mother’s blazing blue eyes met mine.

“What the hell are you doing, Mother?” A chill entered my voice.

“Stop being such a prat, Jaxon. You are an engaged man. I can’t imagine Jessamine is okay with you screwing around with that slag.” Her British accent sharpened like daggers with each word.

How dare she. “Jessamine and I are fine, but I’ll only warn you about this once. Keep your mouth shut about her.”

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

Jessamine: Jax, your mom is coming to get you. Show time :(

Me: You’re a little late for the warning. On my way.

“Are you ready now?” Mother asked.

“As I’ll ever be.” I let Mother lead the way. The only saving grace was that this farce would be over soon, and I could tell Lily the awful secret I’d been keeping from her. If she knew why I’d done it, she’d understand.

We wound our way through the crowd until we came to the Billiards room. Walking inside, the faces of my father and Mr. and Mrs. Sulton greeted us. I didn’t care about any of them. Immediately, I zeroed in on Jess’ face. She stood close to Alden, wiping away her tears. Jess rarely cried. What the hell had they said to her?

I strode over to Jess. “You okay?”

She shrugged.

Fuck her family and mine. “Keep an eye on her,” I demanded of Alden.

He gave me a crisp nod and moved closer to Jess. Close enough to protect her, but not close enough for them to touch.