Husband Material (London Calling, #2)

by Alexis Hall

We need to find a way to distract each other.” He laughed. “I could run another bath.” “But think of your water footprint.” “Is your way to distract yourself teasing me?” “It’s working.” I grinned. The other issue with the hour of all-nighter criticality was that it always passed incredibly slowly. I glanced around the room, looking for anything to occupy us. And it couldn’t be the bed because that was a one-way ticket to sleeping through Alex’s wedding. Unfortunately, while our surroundings were sumptuous in many ways, they were surprisingly short on entertainment. I suppose when you could ring a bell and get a servant to bring you a live peacock and a hand job whenever you felt like it, there wasn’t much need to also keep a Snakes and Ladders set handy. Finally, my gaze settled on the fireplace, which was still crackling merrily and casting orange shadows over what I suspected was a very expensive Persian rug. “Oliver?” I said. He gave a little jolt. “Yes, I’m awake. I’m definitely awake.” “Oliver,” I said again. His eyes narrowed warily. “That’s your I’ve-got-an-inappropriate-idea face.” I did. I totally did. “You see that offensively posh rug by that offensively pretty fireplace? That’s an actual fireplace with, like, fire in it?” “I’d do a great many things for you, Lucien, but I draw the line at arson.” Because Oliver kept relentlessly to a very sensible bedtime, I’d never seen him quite this dazed before. It was, honestly, kind of adorable. I stared at him. “Oh my G...