Page 67 of Not Part of the Plan
He tossed the envelope on her desk.
“What’s this?”
“Open it and find out, smart ass.”
She slid the stack of pictures free, and Niko found himself holding his breath.
“Oh! The wedding!” She looked up at him, eyes dancing, lips parted. He shifted away, straightening from the desk to pace. He didn’t trust himself to not bend her over the desk when she looked at him like that.
He shoved a hand through his hair. “I emailed them to Phoebe and she was… pleased.” She’d been thrilled. The number of exclamation points in her email outnumbered the words she’d used. But Niko didn’t trust that she wouldn’t be just as enthusiastic if Aurora and the twins had recreated the wedding in crayon and macaroni.
Emma was watching him closely. He pointed at the pictures. “I want to know whatyouthink.”
She gave him one last searching look before dropping her focus to the stack of photos he’d printed.
“Oh, Niko,” she breathed, holding up the first, a photo of Aurora hiding under the table with her contraband cake. “It’s perfect. Absolutely perfect.”
He said nothing and waited while she paged through the stack.
Her breath caught on one, and she stared at it for a long minute before carefully shuffling it to the back. “Are you trying to murder my heart?” she asked, holding up the last shot. It was the one of her and Franklin sharing a dance.
Niko shoved his hands into his pockets. “Well?” he asked her.
Emma paged through the photos once more before tucking them carefully back into the envelope and stood. “Nikolai Vulkov, how can you possibly doubt yourself after that?”
He blew out the breath he’d been holding. “You like them?”
“They’re beautiful, and I’m keeping them. Phoebe can get her own when she comes back from the Bahamas.”
“Is that so?” he asked, hooking his fingers into the front of her very sexy black Oxford and drawing her in.
“Not in the office,” she warned, putting her fingers over his lips.
“Jax and Joey do it in the tack room,” he argued.
“Stop distracting me. Tell me how you feel about the photos,” she ordered.
“They’re good. But I wanted to hear you say it so I’d know if I was delusional.”
She laughed, hooking her hands behind his neck. “My delusional artist friend.”
“While I have you softened up, I’ve got a proposal for you,” he said, brushing a tendril back from her face.
“We’re definitely not getting married,” she smirked, batting her eyelashes at him.
“We’ll put that in the To Be Discussed pile,” he shot back. “I’ve been thinking a lot about…” his eyes raked her. “Us.”
“There hasn’t been an ‘us’ for a full twenty-four hours yet,” she reminded him.
“Our friendship goes way back,” he insisted, and Emma laughed.
“Please continue.”
“I’m going to be here for a few more weeks,” Niko began. “And there’s no way what happened last night was a one-time thing.”
“Hmm,” she said blandly.
He tickled her under the ribs until she cracked. “Okay! Okay. I wouldn’t say no to a repeat performance,” she gasped.
