Gypsy Kiss: Book 1: Micah (The Gypsy Kiss Series)

by Heidi J Thomas

  I immediately decided that I hated that – Mic – and vowed that whether he approved or not, I would always call him Micah. His proper name, the sexy name – the one as unique as he was.

  “…stick to him like glue, for the first couple of weeks. He’ll show you the ropes and teach you everything he knows. Right, Mic?”

  And suddenly that smile was back on Micah’s face, like he took great delight in that knowledge, even as my heart sank. God, stick to him like glue? I’d never survive that. And nor would Micah, give him an hour and he’d be sick of being stuck with the likes of me cramping his style. I decided his smile must be fake, why would he think that was a good thing?

  “Sure will, boss.”

  Mason nodded, apparently happy with that and turned back to me. “You’re in good hands, but…don’t take none of his cheeky mouth, alright? He’s a unique one, our Mic…”

  I resisted an urge to roll my eyes. Unique was right, if he meant uniquely gorgeous, which he was. “Okay…” was all I could manage to say.

  “Don’t worry, boss…” Micah said with a wink in my direction, “I’ll take uh…good care of her…”

  Mason laughed and shook his head as he walked away. “That’s what I was afraid of…”

  Micah laughed at that and when Mason was gone turned to me and, incredibly, held out his hand. “We don’t open for another hour. Coffee and bacon sandwich? On me..?”

  With no reason springing to mind to say no, I found myself nodding. “Okay…thanks.”

  I slipped my hand into his, and felt that pull between us again. His hands were rough – working hands – but warm and not at all sweaty like some men’s hands can be. My hand fit perfectly in his, and in spite of myself I liked the feeling, even though as he marched across the park, almost dragging me along, I felt like a child.

  Along the way we saw several other staff members, all busying themselves doing something and Micah acknowledged them all with a wave or his trademark salute. I figured I’d meet them all eventually and just smiled politely.

  He took me to the on-site café and gestured to a table in the corner, releasing my hand and heading for the counter.

  I sat down and watched him, admiring the view in spite of myself. He really was gorgeous. Absolutely knock-out gorgeous. I had no idea how I was going to survive this.

  He came back to me carrying two coffees, with sugar sachets hanging between those lips of his and sat opposite me, putting everything down and smiling.

  “So…your accent, it’s not from round here.”

  “No…” I said, instantly uncomfortable. “It’s not…”

  “How long have you lived here?”

  Oh God, already those questions were starting. Dangerous questions – questions I wasn’t ready to answer. “Uh…about three weeks. I just…decided I fancied a change of scenery. Fancied a move and always wanted to live near the coast. What about you?” I asked, hoping to deflect from me.

  “Born and bred here…” he said, “this is my main job, but I have another one too, when I’m not here I work in a restaurant. Used to come here as a kid, loved it…when I turned sixteen I got a job here – just as a fetcher and carrier back then – and I’ve been here ever since.”

  “What do you work on?” I asked. I liked listening to him talk. His voice was soothing, slightly rough and deep, but at the same time so smooth, like velvet. I could listen to him talk all day. He was surprisingly well spoken, like his voice somehow didn’t match his look. Not only that, but he spoke of this place with such fondness, his enthusiasm was infectious.

  “Mostly the waltzer, that’s my thing. But I go where I’m needed, now the insurance covers me to work pretty much any of the rides.”

  “You love it here, don’t you?” I said with a small smile.

  “I do, yeah. It’s my second home. I hope you’ll love it too.” He looked into my eyes and smiled again. “You’re nervous, huh?”

  “A little bit…” I confessed.

  A lot was more accurate, I was terrified. For my own reasons, I hadn’t ever had a proper job before, this was my first. I had talked and talked out of sheer nerves during the interview, sure I had blown it with my rambling but Mason had told me when he called to offer me the job that he had liked that about me, liked my ‘outgoing’ personality. Ha, if only he knew me.

  “Don’t be…I’ll take care of you.”

  A woman came out and gave us our bacon sandwiches and I watched as he tucked into his like a man who hadn’t eaten anything in years. I wondered how he ate stuff like this, worked on a fairground surrounded by rock, candy floss and burgers and still managed to be packed full of muscles. It didn’t make sense. I already knew that I was inevitably going to get even fatter working here if I wasn’t careful. And I couldn’t afford to get any bigger.

  “Thanks…” I muttered, not sure what else to say.

  “So…you live alone?”

  “Yeah…” Oh good, back to me.

  “No uh…no boyfriend?”

  He seemed unsure of himself when he asked that, and I had no idea why. Why would he even want to know that? Small talk, filling a gap in the awkward silence? My scoff was out before I could even think to stop it.

  “Ha, no. Just little old me, in my little old flat.”

  “Right, right…” I didn’t dare ask him about his love life, even in small talk. I just knew I would blush ridiculously crimson, and give my crush on him away. “I’m single too.” He said, as though reading my mind.

  I was stunned at that, and it probably showed, though I tried to hide it. How was he single? Then it dawned on me – he preferred to play the field. I mean, as if there was a girl on earth could hold a guy like Micah down.

  “Really?” I blurted out, before I could stop myself.

  “Really…” he grinned. “Does that surprise you?”

  “A bit…” I said. Wow, my mouth was on a mission.

  “I could say the same about you, Jewls.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that, so I didn’t say anything. Instead I used a diversion and ate some of my sandwich. Oh God, it tasted so good, I just knew I would be eating here every damn day. If I looked in the mirror and saw a fat girl now, six months down the line I would be seeing a morbidly obese girl unable to fit through her flat door. In short, all the promises I had made myself about new starts – including a new diet – were out the window.

  He ate too, and while he was looking out of the window, I took the opportunity to just look at him.

  I searched my brain looking for a word to describe him, and only one sprang to mind – perfect. He was absolutely flawless. I had thought his hair was brown, now I could see it was actually black and literally not a strand was out of place, his side-parting a perfect line across his head, his fifties style cut suited him perfectly. There was something…exotic about him, with his dark skin and deep brown eyes, long thick eyelashes and lush, full lips. I guessed he probably spent at least an hour each morning primping and preening in front of his mirror before he left his house. He was vain, that much was clear. He had to know how irritatingly perfect he was.

  And yet he was so…friendly. His personality didn’t match the preconceived idea of how he should behave based on how he looked. My preconceived idea I mean. He was giving me the time of day for a start, and that alone wasn’t normal, or not how I would have expected someone like him to behave. He seemed to genuinely like my company and that had me confused because I was such a bore. So bland in his company.

  I studied the tattoos on his arms more carefully, trying to make them out. On his right arm there was a portrait of a woman, with long dark flowing hair, and under it, it simply said Mamma. Surrounding that were bands of colour, ribbons I think. It was really pretty. As he raised his left arm take a bite of his sandwich, I got a proper look at the others on that arm, and I was taken aback – his whole left arm was covered, in of all things, butterflies, every little bit of space between them filled with flowers of every colour imaginable.
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  It was only then I realised I had been staring, and that he was back with me, a curious look on his face. I blushed – again – and managed a smile.

  “Your tattoos…they’re really nice.”

  “Thank you…”

  “Um…are they…?”

  He took a sip from his coffee and shrugged. For the first time since we had met I saw a slight crack in his cheery, nothing bothers me personality. For the first time I saw a glimmer of vulnerability, reminding me that he might be gorgeous, but he was also human. With scars. Like me.

  “For my mamma…” he said, “she liked colours. And she loved her garden. Flowers, butterflies…” he looked down at his arms, “all for her. She’s dead; she died when I was six.”

  I opened my mouth, probably to say something stupid and predictable like I’m sorry, but before I could say it; he clapped his hands together and let out a sigh, indicating a subject change.

  “So Jewls…Mason wants you with me for two weeks, huh? You’re gonna be sick of the sight of me.”

  I highly, highly doubted that, but I didn’t say it. Instead, I surprised myself. “Nah…I’m sure you’re not that bad. So long as you don’t have me doing all the hard work to give yourself more time to perfect your hair.”

  He frowned playfully, and I could tell he was resisting an urge to touch his head “What’s wrong with my hair?”

  “Absolutely nothing…not a thing…it’s…annoyingly neat. I only wish I could have the same luck with my hair. You’ll have to tell me what hair products you use. Or would it be quicker to say which ones you don’t use?”

  He raised both eyebrows at that. “Oh, so that’s how it is? At last, she lets down her guard and I meet the real Jewls. She’s feisty, I like her. You all done?”

  I looked down at my empty plate and let out a nervous sigh. With all our talking, I had relaxed so much I had forgotten all about my nerves, but now they were back with a vengeance. Part of me truly wanted to just turn and run, my anxiety was so high in that split second. But if I was ever going to survive on my own, I was going to need to stand on my own two feet and the job was part of that.

  Didn’t stop me being terrified though.

  Micah had stood up, and he was frowning at me. “Are you okay, Jewls?”

  I nodded, finding my smile in an attempt to prove it. “Yeah, fine.”

  “Right, well…” he held out his hand again, and this time I took it without hesitation, “let’s get this show on the road. We’ll have some fun, me and you.”

  I had no idea that day just how much fun we were going to have. But I already knew that things would never be the same for me again. I didn’t know why, or how…I just got that vibe. This feeling, that everything was going to be alright, and that Micah was going to be somehow…significant.

  Well…for the very first time in my life, my instincts were spot on.

  ~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~

  Micah

  That first day with Jewls was one of the most interesting days I’d ever had working at the park, and the most fun I’d had in years. It was fun just watching her, she was so…awkward, so shy, it was so endearing. She reacted to everything I said and everything I did in such a way that I knew she was in to me, even if she didn’t know it herself yet.

  I had grown bored with the girls that usually caught my eye, the girls I usually…well, let’s be honest, slept with. It’s not like I’d ever really had a proper relationship, just a string of sexual ones.

  Jewls made me want more than that. She made me want the whole package – a girlfriend, dates, hand holding, the works, and I had never felt that way before.

  I don’t know what it was about her, because I still didn’t really know her. She wouldn’t talk about herself without deflecting the conversation back to me, and she was guarded, her walls built so high she was swamped by them, but I made myself a promise as I watched her that day, that I was going to break those walls down, brick by brick.

  We worked well as a team and by lunchtime she seemed to have relaxed into it, losing a bit of the tenseness she’d had in her shoulders all morning. Her smile seemed more genuine, and man, it was beautiful. She was a contradiction in terms – she looked so vulnerable and fragile but at the same time I just knew she had survived something, she had an air about her of a woman who was just…determined, hell bent on proving something, to herself or to those around her. She made me want to wrap my arms around her and protect her from anyone who might do her harm, I almost felt possessive of her, which was crazy, as like I say, I barely knew her.

  I watched her closely all day, and unlike the way she was watching me – out of the corner of her eye when she thought I wasn’t looking – I made no secret of it. I wanted her to know I was admiring her, that I liked her. I had never been shy about such things before, I wasn’t about to change now.

  The more I looked at her, the more I liked her, the more attracted I became. She was the opposite of me in so many ways. I had dark, rough skin, the black hair and dark eyes inherited from my father and at six foot two I was fairly tall. Jewls was lucky if she was five foot two, that amazing strawberry blonde hair, the sexy big blue eyes, small waist but big chest and hips…oh yeah, she was fit. A little firecracker masquerading as a frightened little sparrow. She just needed some gentle coaxing, that was all.

  I rode the waltzer all day like I did every day, managing to keep my eye on the job well enough that no one got injured, but by the afternoon break I had already decided that before she left I was going to ask her out. I had an hour spare before my shift at the restaurant. Maybe something simple for starters, like going for a walk with a bag of chips. Like I say, I knew she fancied me, I recognised the signs, she didn’t have a boyfriend, there was no way she would knock me back, it was a given.

  “Mic!”

  I turned to my friend, here to take over for the next shift and grinned.

  “Alex…how’s it going, mate?”

  We shook hands and he nodded. “Good, Mic. You? Busy day?”

  I shrugged, untying my money belt and transferring all the tokens and change into one of the parks canvas ones. Mine was leather, a twenty-first birthday present from my sister, and I always took it home. Damned if I was going to let any of this lot on the park near it. It was superb and one of my most prized possessions, when I tied that bad boy round my waist and stepped on the waltzer I felt complete. I know that sounds absurd but…well, it’s true.

  “Steady today…could be busy tonight though, it’s pay day.”

  “And you got the night off, huh?”

  “Nah, I’m working in the restaurant in an hour.”

  He nodded and gestured over in the corner to Jewls. “Who’s the girl?”

  “Jewls,” I said, feeling ridiculously protective of her. I didn’t like the way he was looking at her and licking his lips. “She started today; she’s with me a couple of weeks while she gets her bearings.”

  “Lucky you…look at that figure, she’s nice huh?”

  I shrugged, pretending not to have noticed. “Yeah, I suppose so. I wouldn’t even try and go there though.”

  He frowned. “Why not? Is she…you know, does she like girls?”

  I scoffed and glanced at Jewls. “No! I mean, I don’t know…she’s a mate, is all. And she seems to just want to keep herself to herself…”

  He looked at me for a moment or two as though trying to work something out, and then a stupid grin spread across his face.

  “What you mean is, you’ve tried it on and she’s knocked you back.”

  Again, stupidly, I scoffed. Playing it cool, apparently, was not an option, not when it came to Jewls. I didn’t want him anywhere near her, in my head she was already mine. I know that sounds arrogant, because it is arrogant. But that’s how I felt.

  “I’ve known the girl eight hours. I haven’t tried it on with her, fucking hell Alex, it’s her first day!”

  He narrowed his eyes and glanced at Jewls. She was eyeing us both carefully, as though a
ware we were discussing her, and she looked very uncomfortable at that prospect. I saw this, but Alex didn’t, and waved at her, smiling.

  “Twenty quid, Mic. I got twenty quid here says you can’t get Jewls to go on a date with you by the end of the month.”

  I smirked at that. “Twenty, huh? And you think she won’t go out with me?”

  “Not a chance she will, mate.”

  And then I did something that granted, was pretty foolish, but I wasn’t thinking straight. “Okay, I’ll take that bet. Another twenty…another twenty says not only will she go out with me…but she’ll be my girlfriend.”

  He laughed at that and looked over at Jewls. She was busying herself doing nothing and pretending to be not looking our way. “Oh, I will take that bet, Mr Machvaya!”

  I shook his hand, sealing the deal, wishing I had kept my mouth shut.

  I felt a twinge of worry – maybe he was her type, not me. He was my polar opposite – tall, slim, blonde hair and blue eyes. Maybe she went for blonde over tall, dark and handsome? If that were true, if Jewls liked Alex, I had no chance at all. My mouth dried up instantly and I couldn’t stop a small sigh escaping when she returned his wave uncomfortably. And then to my horror, she came over.

  Truth be told there had been a lot of other staff I could have introduced her to today and hadn’t. I had avoided introducing her to ones I didn’t like, or couldn’t trust, or who the girls seemed to like…I didn’t want her hitting it off with anyone else, at least not until I had established a proper…what? I didn’t know. Friendship, maybe. I wanted to be the main one she talked to, hung around with…turned to. The idea of her hitting it off with any of the clowns on this park sat bitterly in the pit of my stomach.

  “Jewls, this is Alex…Alex, Jewls.”

  “Hi…” Jewls said. God, she was cripplingly shy. It was sexy as hell.

  “Hello, Jewls…” Alex purred. “Nice to meet you, has Micah been looking after you? First day gone okay?”

  She nodded and glanced at me, just briefly. Why couldn’t she ever seem to maintain eye contact with me for more than a few seconds?