Jesus. He was wearing a pair of black combat shorts, trainers, a pair of aviator sunglasses…and nothing else. His tanned skin shone in the summer sun, a sheen of sweat across his forehead and water dripped down his chest – lots of water. I correctly surmised someone had soaked him from head to foot and that was the laughter I had heard.
I could feel a small pool of drool forming in the corner of my mouth and had to resist the urge to wipe it away with the back of my hand. The man had me actually salivating now.
I glanced down at myself and felt my heart sink. We both wore almost the exact same uniform – him in black shorts, me trousers, navy blue polo shirt, and we both filled it out, but where Micah filled his with pure, solid delicious muscles, mine was more like a jelly, overfilled and not quite set. His chest rippled, mine wobbled.
There had to be some sort of mistake. Men like this, men with finely tuned abs, just the right amount of chest hair, and that ‘v’ that I had read about in so many of my books, they didn’t like short fat ginger girls with giant boobs, love handles and tree trunk legs.
And yet as I looked at him with what was surely obvious lust written all over my face, I could have sworn I saw the exact same expression reflected back in his eyes. And I decided that even if it was just a dream, I didn’t care. Everyone had fantasies, right?
He had spotted me immediately and walked right up to me, his eyes never leaving mine. He smirked and raised a hand, cupping my chin and gently pushing up, closing my mouth. I didn’t even realise it was even hanging open.
Doomed. That’s what I was. Completely and utterly just…doomed.
“Afternoon, Jewls.” He said with a wink.
“Afternoon, Micah.” I said, unable to wipe the stupid look of obvious awe from my face. “How are you? Besides wet?”
“Very well, thank you. You? Sleep well?”
Why did he want to know that? “Not really.” And why did I say that?
“Me neither. I have a present for you…”
“Oh yeah…?”
“Yeah.” he took my hand and popped something in it. I looked down to see a name badge like his, with Jewls written on it.
“Ooh…so I’m officially a staff member now?”
He nodded, grinning. “Yes, with all the perks that go with it.”
“Perks?” I said, grinning too.
“Yeah. Another shift in my dazzling company, for one.”
I laughed at that. Damn, he made me happy, just with a simple smile. His happiness, his positivity, it was infectious. Of course, there was the fact that he was still soaking wet and shirtless. That didn’t hurt.
“I suppose so…” I managed to say.
He grinned again and put his shirt back on. I felt an odd combination of relief and disappointment. He nodded towards the waltzer. “Boss wants me to show you a few different things tomorrow but for tonight the waltzer is ours. You ready for this? It’s gonna get crazy.”
I let out a sigh and nodded. I was as ready as I was ever going to be in any case. “I’m ready.”
“Well then…let’s get this show on the road.” With that, he jumped up the steps to the waltzer and went into the office, while I stood there wondering where the hell to put myself.
He came back out again, his arms outstretched above his head, as though waiting for something, and wiggled his eyebrows at me in a way that I was to learn in time, meant he was up to something.
And then the music kicked in, Freddie Mercury’s voice filling the park
‘Tonight…I’m gonna have myself a real good time
I feel alive…and the world…
Turning inside out yeah
Floating around, in ecstasy, so…’
“Don’t stop me now…” Micah sang at the top of his voice. Other staff members walking past looked at him, smiling, as though used to his antics. I just stood there open mouthed, wondering what on earth had gotten into him. “Don’t stop me, cause I’m having a good time, having a good time..!”
And with that he had switched the rides lights on, and he started doing what Micah likes to do best when he’s at work. He danced, like no one was watching, like he was at the best party of his life.
~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~
Jewls
By seven that evening I had come to the conclusion that Micah was destined for the performing arts. He would have made a great backing dancer, or children’s television presenter. I guessed he must have just been distracted by the bright lights of the fairground, mesmerised as a child and drawn in.
The man never ever stopped moving, and I mean that literally. Giving him control of a huge ride, flashing lights and any music he wanted at full volume had been a genius idea on someone’s part, he took it and well and truly made it his own. He sang and danced non-stop, and encouraged anyone daft enough to join in. He tried to get me to dance a couple of times, and I politely declined. I was clumsy enough, try to dance and I would likely be in traction by the end of the week. By contrast…damn the boy can’t half move. Watching him was almost hypnotic and sexy as hell. His energy seemed to have no limits, he never got tired, and the sheer…joy that he radiated seemed to rub off on absolutely anyone in close vicinity.
I could see why he had made the waltzer his, and why Mason very rarely had him working on anything else. He could persuade anyone passing – and I mean anyone – to ride the thing. There was never an empty car, always a queue – and with free entertainment from Micah, they were willing to wait – and it never, ever stopped.
My job was simple – help the people on, and help the people off. I didn’t think I could ever do what Micah did. He jumped around on the moving ride the whole time, grabbing cars and spinning them and never once losing his balance and falling over.
I laughed so much, so hard all night, that by the time midnight rolled around I was exhausted, purely from laughing. My chest felt tight and my face hurt from the side splitting grin that had been stuck there the whole time.
I had…an absolute ball.
~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~
Micah
She had a great time with me, I know she did. She laughed so much, and so hard, her pale pink cheeks turned a deep rosy red and her eyes lit up with it. Absolutely beautiful, she had me spellbound.
For the first time – but not the last – I got to see her without any walls up, just enjoying herself. She forgot to be nervous, forgot to hide who she truly was – or who she thought she truly was – and she just let go. She wouldn’t dance with me, no matter how hard I tried, so there was still some work to do, but…I was breaking down those walls and I was determined to smash them to bits, eventually.
Because we’d had so much fun, I was sure that this time she would take me up on my offer of a takeaway and walking her home, which I really wanted to do, because I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to her yet, and it was midnight after all, but…once again, she politely declined and went on her merry way.
I didn’t matter. If it was a long game, I had all the time in the world to get her to come round.
I wanted to make her mine. I couldn’t stop thinking about her, and I had decided I would make it happen, no matter what.
~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~
Jewls
Once again, he asked me to go with him for chips, and once again I knocked him back. I’m sure it was all just an innocent, nice guy thing he was doing, but I didn’t feel confident enough to be in his company outside work, and I couldn’t understand why he kept asking me. Had I really fooled him so well into thinking I was a normal, interesting person?
Being around him in work was flummoxing enough, outside of work I didn’t think I could cope. And still, I kept seeing him with Alex, talking in low voices whilst looking over at me.
We carried on for a week or so in much the same way, although not always working together all the time. Gradually he introduced me to other staff, who were all as lovely and welcoming as he was, and I was shown other jobs around the park – in the arcades, on the various stan
ds, and I steadily grew in confidence with great people around me supporting me. I could see why Micah loved the place so much, everyone who worked there was like family.
One the seventh day it finally dawned on me just how screwed I was, when two things happened in the same day. I realised how strong my feelings for him were, how much I wanted him.
And he asked me out.
Chapter Three
~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~
Jewls
I was on one of the stalls, working with Alex, directly opposite the waltzer where Micah was working alone and on top form as usual. Today he had apparently decided was a reggae sort of day, and Bob Marley blasted from the speakers. One of the other lads – Johnny, I think it was, was talking to Micah and they were both laughing about something.
The sun had well and truly gone behind the clouds and didn’t look to be returning any time that afternoon, but I kept my sunglasses on. I felt like a spy – probably because that’s what I was doing, spying. From behind the safety of my glasses I could watch him, and I did. A lot.
He was wearing that tee shirt that day, the one that was a little too small and stretched across his chest. The one that, when he leant forward, rode up his back a little and when he stretched to yawn or whatever, exposed his toned, flat stomach.
I realised then, he had ruined me for all other men. No man I ever met in my life could ever hold a candle to him. It was like someone had reached into my head, taken my idea of my dream man and made him into a living breathing apparition for me.
I continued to pretend to do stuff – there were no customers at that time – and occasionally risked a glance in his direction, moving my eyes but not my head. Discretion was my middle name, oh yeah I was good at this…
Holy fuck, I thought to myself, look how he moves, he’s so graceful…
I assumed he was having his break, and watched as he jumped off the ride and had a drink from a bottle of water.
My eye was automatically drawn to the tattoos on his sculptured arms. God those muscles were going to be the death of me. He set the bottle down on the floor between his feet, reached in his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes
God, please don’t light that, please…
Sure enough, he lit himself one and took a long drag. He took his phone from his back pocket and stood there scrolling through it, typing away leaving the cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth. That was what I had been afraid of. Standing there like that, in his tight jeans, his hair slicked back perfectly as usual, he looked like a fifties movie star, a rebel without a cause and sexy as hell. Thanks to that cigarette hanging there, I could not stop staring at his mouth. I wasn’t the only one – he turned the heads of practically every female that walked past him, and he was oblivious to them all.
Get a grip, Jewls, for God’s sake…
And then to my utter horror it was like he sensed me. He looked up and around him and his eyes finally settled on me. Could he see me watching him? Did he know?
He raised a hand, smiled and waved.
Rumbled.
If I waved back, I knew I would be giving away that I had been watching him. But if I didn’t…crap, I realised it was much too late. He already knew. He knew what a creep I was.
I waved back. It was meant to be a casual thing, but it came out anything but. I lifted a hand to give him a simple wave in return and instead sort of flung my arm to the side in an exaggerated gesture that surely would have gotten me a job at an airport directing planes, and opened my mouth, most likely to say something quite normal like ‘hi’, but instead letting out a sound that didn’t quite manifest as a word and was closer to a weird giggle. He actually frowned a little and then his face cleared into a wide smile. He dropped his cigarette end into a nearby drain, picked up his water bottle and strolled back to the ride, his gorgeous backside pressing tight into his Levis.
“Nice one, Jewls.” I muttered to myself.
“He likes you, you know.” I jumped at the voice of Alex, back from the café with two cans of coke for us. “He really likes you.”
I rolled my eyes involuntarily. “Of course he does. Cause he would look twice at me, cause I’m really his type.”
“Okay, there’s two things wrong with that statement, Jewls. First…why on earth wouldn’t he look twice at you? And second…Micah doesn’t have a type, he likes who he likes.” He put his hands on my shoulders and turned me to look at him. He was smiling, but seemed amused about something. “You don’t even know it, do you?”
“Know what?”
“That you’re beautiful.”
I frowned and then I remembered…the two of them, watching me, smirking and then shaking hands. Okay, here it was, the start of whatever they had planned. Already I felt a pang of sadness, regret and just a hint of humiliation. So this was what they were going to do. I was so sad, because I already loved my job, and liked both Micah and Alex in a friend sort of way and they were going to ruin that now, bring me back down to earth with a bump. I might have known I couldn’t have something good for long.
I involuntarily rolled my eyes. “Funny…” I muttered.
He shrugged. “I’m not even kidding. You really don’t know it, don’t believe it?” he raised his eyebrows, seeming genuinely surprised. Yep, he was good at this. “Wow. Well, believe it or not, he has a soft spot for you. You uh…you don’t like him?”
It was my turn to shrug. How to answer that? “I thought we were friends.” I said eventually. “He seems like a good guy.”
He considered that and nodded. “Okay, friend zone. Cool. So if he’s not your type, am I?”
“Alex…please, don’t do this.” I said, and it was a far more desperate plea than – thankfully – showed in my tone. I didn’t want them playing these games with me, but more than that, I didn’t want them to get a reaction from me, or at least I didn’t want them to see that they were affecting me. Then they would move on to something else before any real damage was done.
“Cause I was gonna ask if you fancied going out with me some time?”
I opened my mouth to respond and it took far longer than it should have for any words to come out. “Uh…let’s just…pretend the last five minutes never happened.”
He smiled a little at that. “Is that a no?”
I found myself involuntarily glancing over at Micah. To my surprise I found him looking over at us, making no real secret of it either. And his expression looked…worried? Maybe he had a conscience after all. Second thoughts about using me for their sport. He seemed to think it would be safe to smile a little. I was so thrown by it all that I don’t think I even smiled back. All I could think about was how bloody beautiful he was. And how I wished every word Alex had said was true. But it couldn’t be. It just couldn’t be.
I glanced at my watch, seeing it was nearly four – that day I was on from two until ten at night – and clapped my hands together. “Can I go on my break?”
He let out a sigh, but nodded with a wry smile. “Course you can. But Jewls?”
“Uh huh?” I muttered.
“Think about it. Yeah?”
I didn’t answer him, just moved around to the front of the stall and started to head over to the café. I got myself a bacon sandwich – fast becoming my staple diet – and a coffee, and headed through the park, out the gates and found myself a seat on the sea wall, slipping my shoes off and sliding my toes into the soft warm sand.
I wondered if I would ever get over the novelty of living on the coast. Having been born and raised in the midlands, a beach was a luxury to me and one I promised myself I would never take for granted.
“Room for a little one?”
I looked up, squinting in the hazy late afternoon sun, to find Micah smiling down on me. I smiled back, completely against my will as usual and nodded. “Sure.”
He sat beside me on the wall, shuffling up close to me, and let out a contented sigh. “You like the beach, huh?”
“Yeah, I do.”
&
nbsp; “It’s even nicer at night. Nice walk along the sand.” He thought for a minute, and his expression was almost shy. It seemed out of place on him, but it kind of suited him. “Jewls…?”
I nodded absently, taking a bite of my sandwich and then a swig of my coffee, almost choking and spitting the lot back out when he then said,
“Would you go out with me?”
I coughed and spluttered, struggling to get my breath and he frowned, concerned, patting my back. I never could understand why people do that. I mean, it doesn’t ever work, does it?
To my surprise, I could feel anger bubbling to the surface, and I didn’t do anger. Maybe I was confusing anger with hurt.
I finally managed to get my coughing under control and stood up, beginning to immediately pace up and down.
“Micah…do you think I’m stupid?”
He frowned again. “Huh?”
“I mean…I know the first time we met it was because I fell over my own shoelace…and I know I’m not the most…” I stopped, closed my eyes and let out a deep sigh. “I’m not the sharpest, not the brightest sometimes…but I’m not an idiot, you know?”
He half smiled, obviously still confused. “Uh…okay…”
“So give me some credit. I know what this is. I know, okay? And bearing that in mind, I’m gonna give you one chance, to either say that again, or leave it alone. Think carefully about what you wanna do.”
He stood up too and we stood facing each other on the sand. My heart was just racing; I so badly wanted him to be the better man here, to not go through with whatever he and Alex had planned.
“Jewls…would you like to go out with me? On a date?”
I scoffed before I could stop it. “No…” I said, as though that answer should be obvious.
He raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Ouch. Can I…can I ask why?”
Gypsy Kiss: Book 1: Micah (The Gypsy Kiss Series) Page 4
