I swallowed hard at that. She had inadvertently guessed exactly the reason why I had gotten into martial arts. She’d been all about them ever since she was a sophomore and I wanted us to have something in common. Little did I know, that I ended up having more of a knack for MMA than karate, and once I went to college I got snapped up into a club, then that was that.
“Not vain at all,” I said, settling down in a chair as she did. “You’ve always been pretty inspiring.”
“Oh, inspiring now, am I?” She laughed, mouth wide and her white teeth flashing. God, I loved how she laughed. She didn’t try to giggle or make herself sound cute. Like everything else about her, she was unapologetically authentic. “I seem to remember being called more… hardheaded and venomous.”
I chuckled at that. “I think I remember… that was Mr. Poponik, right?”
She grinned malevolently and it was like we were right back in high school, with me mooning over her and her continuing on without so much as a notice.
I didn’t resent her for it though, as much as I wished something might have happened between us. I understood that she was a career woman, and relentlessly determined. Maybe one day something could possibly work out between us, maybe it wouldn’t. Either way, I appreciated just being in her presence.
“Yup. He was mad at me because I called him on his inaccurate description of the takeover of Hawaii and I wouldn’t let it go for weeks.”
“He always was a stubborn old man.”
“He really should not have been working in education. Do you remember when he broke that ruler because he was so mad at Scott for something stupid or another?”
“Yeah, I heard about it. You know he wished that he could hit his students with it instead of just breaking them.”
She laughed again and goodness, I wanted her to make that sound forever. But before the conversation could continue further, soft music began to play. I twisted in my seat and saw that the bride and her father were making their way to the wide dance floor in the center of the banquet hall. Ah, the first dance.
“Aw, sweet enough to give me cavities,” Amber remarked, not maliciously, but definitely with some snark in her tone.
Annika and her father embraced, moving together in an obviously very rehearsed, and yet touching, father daughter dance. But as lovely as it was, I found my eyes snapping right back to Amber. I knew her relationship with her parents was pretty nonexistent considering her dad died her last year of high school and her mother had run off to be eloped with some business man from Paris, but I thought I saw the faintest hint of wistfulness to her gaze. I let her have her moment, keeping my thoughts to myself until the father-daughter dance concluded, and more people were heading to the dance floor.
“I’m surprised they don’t have something with the groom and bride,” Amber said, her eyebrows going up. After years together, she knew Annika as well as anyone.
“Oh, they do,” I answered. “They’re just saving it as a surprise for mid-reception after she’s able to change.”
“Of course, they are. Never expect Annika to half-ass anything, ever.”
“Ain’t that the truth.” I watched more and more people joining the dance floor, having fun with a more modern song. Before I could lose my courage and back down, I glanced to Amber again. “Hey, you wanna dance?”
She gave me one of her patented looks while she drained her glass. I watched the column of her throat bob as she swallowed, then gave me a firm shake of her head. “Sorry, I don’t dance publicly as a rule.”
3
Amber
“Oh yeah, baby, come to Mama!”
I picked up five jumbo pieces of shrimp with the tongs that were set out and carefully placed them on my mountain of food. As a rule, I always loaded up on seafood and meat first before going onto more carby fillers, and believe me, my plate was decked out with all sorts of goodies.
There were stuffed oyster shells, raw oysters, clams, crab legs, shrimp, scallops, really the only thing missing was lobster, but even Annika’s family wasn’t that upper echelon wealthy.
Humming happily to myself, I took my overloaded plate and grabbed a glass full of water then headed right back to my spot at my table. I was fairly pleased that I was mostly alone at my seat. Apparently, the couple next to me hadn’t shown up -judging by the fact that there were three seats with their surname, I was willing to bet their kid was sick- and the other couple seemed content to cut it up on the dance floor like they were in a competition. It left me plenty of room to lean back and enjoy my people watching.
Usually I was so focused on work or my next business move that I didn’t get to sit around and scope out all the lovely clothes and styles that were surrounding me. Annika’s people were just wealthy enough to throw a great party and come dressed up in some truly impressive get ups, but not so much that I felt awkward and unwelcome in their presence. It was a nice balance after hanging around some movie folks who thought that they were God’s gift to the earth. And wow, was the food delicious. I didn’t think that anything could-
“Oh my gosh! Is that Ambie-Bambie?”
I froze in mid-chew of the crab in my mouth, looking away from the dance floor to see one of the bridesmaids coming towards me. Except it wasn’t just any bridesmaid. It couldn’t have been Karen or Michelle or anyone I liked. No, it was Shelly MacEntyre, and we did not get along.
“No one calls me that anymore,” I said curtly, trying not to grimace at all the dark memories it brought up. “In fact, no one has really called me that ever except for you.”
“Oh, I know, it’s always been our special little pet name, hasn’t it?”
“Yeah, except I’ve never been your pet, and that’s probably why you were such a bitch to me when we were younger.” Some people liked to play nice, take the higher road, but I wasn’t one of them. Shelly had spent much of her spare time trying to hurt me and my friends all throughout high school and it had taken a whole lot of control back then not to bash her stupid little face in.
It seemed that, while I had certainly gotten older, I hadn’t gotten any more patient.
“Aw, come on now. Isn’t that a bit harsh?” She was giving me a shocked expression, as if she didn’t remember spreading pregnancy rumors about Michelle or paying someone to try to fake ask me out to prom or dumping paint all over Annika’s art project in freshman year. There were hundreds upon hundreds of stupid little slights that I remembered all of my friends going through, and they burned in my belly at the injustice of it all.
I hated bullies, with a passion. Ergo, I hated Shelly. Maybe that was petty, but I could smell it on her that she hadn’t changed one percent. She was like a trapped spider, lurking there and waiting to strike.
“No, harsh would be if someone lifted you up and finally put you in the garbage can where you belong. Unless you’ve turned over a new leaf and aren’t trying to break up people’s relationships by stealing a phone and sending mean texts.”
I figured there were two ways that it could go. That she would either apologize for her past terrible actions, or she would just dismiss it like she always did.
Just as I thought, she rolled her eyes. “Aw, come on. We both know that Morgan was way out of Max’s league. I didn’t do anything but facilitate the obvious.”
“Uh-huh, sure. That’s what it was. Not that you were greedy and upset that someone besides you could possibly be getting positive male attention.”
“Really? You’re going to call me greedy? I’m not the one with a mountain on my plate and a size sixteen jean size.” She smirked down at me as if she was oh-so-clever. “Then again, you’ve always had it out for me, didn’t you? I know it’s easy to be jealous of me, but really, it’s unnecessary.”
I took an especially large bite of food and chewed it with an open mouth without breaking eye contact with her. I held it, and held it, feeling her superior smirk fading more and more with each second. I took my time swallowing, and when I did, I gave her the blandest smile I could. �
�The only thing that’s unnecessary here is you.”
“Clever. You always were so witty, weren’t you? Brawns and brains, right? But, between the two of us, guys never were really into that, were they? That’s why you were the self-appointed guardian of all your friends, right? Living vicariously through them since no one was ever interested in you.”
I snorted. “Please, it’s almost twenty-twenty, thick is in.”
“Oh honey, people say that, but really it’s just something to comfort all you fat girls from feeling too bad about yourselves.”
Now I could throw down verbally when it came to myself for hours, one witty bit after another, but Shelly wasn’t just insulting me, she was insulting every plus sized woman everywhere and I couldn’t let that slide. “Is that so?”
“Isn’t it?”
She looked so self-assured, so snide, that I couldn’t help but wonder why the hell Annika had the foul woman in her wedding party anyways.
“I know you like to think that you’re really getting to me here,” I said calmly, “but I can bag any man in this room without even breaking a sweat, and those men would be jazzed to hit this.”
She scoffed outright. “I highly doubt that.”
“Oh yeah?” I drained my glass then stood. “Alright, watch this.” Before she could say anything, I marched straight towards the wedding party table, eyes locked on Mickey.
Sure, maybe I was cheating considering that he had already asked me to dance, but when it came to Shelly, I felt no need to play fair.
Like I said, I hated bullies.
Once I was close enough, I placed my hand on Mickey’s shoulder. He turned from whatever conversation that he was having with Karen beside him and I swore, he almost lit up when he saw me.
“Amber, did you need something?”
“Yeah,” I said with a curt nod. “I changed my mind about that dance if you’re still offering.”
“Of course.”
He was on his feet in an instant, all muscles and firm body, then he slipped an arm through mine. I shot one last look at Shelly who looked properly shocked, before Mickey and I drifted to the dance floor.
Ha! It served Shelly right. She’d never really known any of us well enough to be aware that Mickey had once been a bit of a sap for me, so I was sure she was absolutely gobsmacked. Especially since he was some sort of rich, borderline celebrity fighter.
I was so busy gloating about her shocked expression that I didn’t really realize what I was doing until I was gently pressed against a warm and solid figure. Oh right, damn, Mickey did really work out.
Geez, it was almost too bad that he had grown out of his crush on me before I was ever really interested in boys. But it wasn’t my fault that I was a bit of a late bloomer. After moving away from where I lived in Toronto when my single mom had passed away from a stroke, I’d gone to live with my Dad. Except my dad turned out to be not cut out for full-time parenting at all, so I’d ended up with my Aunt Trisha.
Now Trisha was a real MVP and ended up becoming my legal guardian. I really couldn’t thank her enough for all of her support and love, and it was only thanks to her and Michelle that I ever survived all that stress and mourning.
But yeah, all that drama and heartache didn’t exactly lend well to a high school romance, so I couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if I had been a normal girl with normal interest. Would Mickey and I have ended up together? Would we be high school sweethearts?
Why was I even thinking about that???
“Hey, you alright?”
“Huh?” I looked up and was surprised to see Mickey’s face so close to mine. Which was silly considering that we pressed into each other for -oh God, was that slow dance music? Yeah, I was definitely hearing some nineties soft ballad about eternal love. How gross.
“I don’t think I got to say it earlier, but you really do look lovely tonight.”
I found myself flushing at his praise. I’d always liked Mickey as a friend. He was funny and smart and into the same sort of weird, fringe stuff I was. He’d always been so lanky and sky, it was still a bit shocking to see him looking so absolutely ripped and confident.
“Thanks. It’s not often I get to get all dolled up.”
He really was something. Around six four and shredded to the gods, I could feel about a dozen appreciative eyes on him with each gentle step we took, his massive hand burning a delicious brand into my soft back.
“Is that so? You should do it more often then. I’m certain there are plenty of people who would appreciate it.”
“Is that so?”
“I know I certainly would.”
Oh really? I raised my eyebrows in surprise. Was the giant of a man flirting with me? Not that I was complaining, but it was a bit surprising. I looked him over again, taking in all the details that had changed since we were kids.
He kept his dark, thick hair cut close to his skull, which I guessed was probably a fighter thing considering that he’d always had a messy mop during high school, and a square jaw that looked like it could definitely take a hit or two. I felt bad that I hadn’t paid nearly as much attention to his MMA career as I should have. After all, he’d always been kind and supportive even with my utter disinterest in romance.
“That’s good to know.”
The conversation faded a bit at that, but it wasn’t out of any sort of awkwardness. No, I was definitely enjoying the feeling of the hard planes of his body pressing against my own soft curves, my cleavage deliciously flush with his. I couldn’t be one hundred percent certain, but I felt like I could sense his heartbeat running counterrhythm to my own.
It was comforting and exciting all at once and I was reminded of how I hadn’t really been touched sexually by a person in two or so years. I was just so busy all the time, I’d forgotten how thrilling it could be.
So, I just let myself get lost in the sensation, feeling desirable and wanted and cherished all at the same time. It was like a scene out of a movie, except I wasn’t being paid to be there and I didn’t have to perform any potentially life-threatening stunts.
The song ended too soon and I pulled away slightly to go back to my table. I had proven my point to Shelly and didn’t need to selfishly take up any more of Mickey’s time. But I was surprised to find his hand still pressing gently into my back, like some sort of promise that I wasn’t used to.
“Maybe one more dance before we go back to conversing like adults with people we won’t see again for a couple years?”
He looked so handsome, and so earnest, I found myself smiling despite the pain starting to radiate from the balls of my feet. Certainly, it wouldn’t hurt to indulge just a little.
“I suppose I could do that. But I’m definitely going to need a drink because my feet are going to be very angry with me.”
He laughed again and it was such a good sound. Rich and rumbling. Masculine. It made me shiver a bit and I began to look at him in a bit of a new light. Maybe I’d been seeing him as a dorky high schooler for too long. I needed to wake up and see the delicious hunk of man in front of me.
Or maybe I should just enjoy the dance as what it was. Just some healthy, platonic contact between friends. After all, hadn’t I just reiterated to myself multiple times that I didn’t have time for relationships? I was barely handling my life as it were!
“I’d be more than happy to get one for you as soon as the song is over. It’ll be the least I can do.”
“Wow, if I knew it was this easy to get a drink, I would have danced with a lot more handsome guys.”
“Oh, so you think I’m handsome?” he said with a wink.
“Uh-huh. It’s a shame that pretty face of yours is probably going to get trashed.”
“Hey, have some faith in me as a fighter. I’ll have you know; I have a very good guard.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you do.” We both chuckled and it was honestly, just so nice. Sighing happily, I leaned into Mickey’s warm, solid form and just let myself be.
&nbs
p; It was actually a pretty great feeling, even with my whole feet thing going on. If I just closed my eyes, it was easy to pretend that it was maybe something more than it could ever be.
4
Amber
I pressed my body up against Mickey’s hard form, desperately seeking his mouth like it was my last lifeline in the world. Because it certainly felt like it. Everything was so topsy, so turvy, that it was hard to tell what was up and what was down.
Or maybe that was because I was drunk
Maybe. Who knew? I didn’t.
What was happening again?
Oh right, I was kissing Mickey. And God, could he kiss.
Our mouths moved against each other, mine starting off demanding, pleading, but his quickly taking over and calling the shots. It was honestly so hot that I thought my skin might slide off right then and there. Speaking of which, it was really warm. Was I sweating? I was pretty sure. I just knew I wanted to get out of my clothes ASAP.
Mickey pulled away from me after thoroughly ravishing my lips and gave me such a roguish look that my knees would have buckled if I wasn’t holding onto him. “Are you certain about this? I don’t want to mis..mis…misinterpret anything.”
It was like… the eighth time he had asked me that, but I couldn’t really blame him. After all, he was about as tipsy as I was, and consent was sexy. Ongoing, enthusiastic consent. And I was definitely enthusiastic about getting on top of him.
“Touch me,” I practically whined, pressing into him further. I could feel through my skin that he was so strong, so powerful, and I just wanted to be crushed by him. He was better than all that expensive seafood that I had stuffed myself with and I just wanted more, more, more of him until I was sated.
Except I was never going to be sated.
As if he could hear my thoughts, he picked me up with one arm -one arm! - and hauled me to him. I happily wrapped my legs around his waist, feeling his thick length poking insistently at my underside.
Beautiful Mistakes: Contemporary Romance Boxset Books 1-4 Page 2
