Chapter 21
21
YOU LOOK LIKE A GODDESS TONIGHT, PRINCESS
T he elevator dings and the light above the door glows brightly with an L announcing that someone has arrived at the lobby. I sit at the edge of a white leather chair on the opposite side of the room waiting for Amelia to come down. I don’t bother looking up, the last four times I did I was forced to make awkward eye contact with four different people.
The moment that someone steps off the elevator, the click of a heel hitting the marble alerts me of her arrival. I raise my head up and my eyes lock on hers. The source of the noise on the stone; heels showing off exposed feet held in place by a few crisscross straps. My gaze drifts upwards, admiring her bare legs until they are met with a silky black material right above her knee, a slip type dress made of such thin material that if it remains intact all night it would be a small miracle.
I stand to my full height to greet Amelia, adjusting the front of my tailored, Italian made, navy-blue suit. I pull my shirt sleeve to cover my grandfather’s Patek Philippe watch that I only ever wear for special occasions and make m y way towards her.
Everything about this woman spews sex appeal and the sexiest part of all is her lack of awareness of it. I have no clue what the hell I was thinking when offering her this arrangement. I already have a hard enough time keeping my hands off of her and now I will have to be in closer proximity to her while respecting her rules.
God help me.
When I approach her, I reach out and pull her in close enough that her inebriating scent wafts into my nose and goes straight to my groin. Controlling the urge to say screw the damn rules and take her back upstairs, I lean in and whisper against her ear. “You look like a goddess tonight, Princess.” Then plant a delicate kiss on her cheek.
Amelia offers a barely audible “thank you,” before awkwardly stepping away. She quickly walks to the exit ahead of me trying to hide the crimson color rising to her cheeks, but it’s too late. I see how affected she is by my touch as much as I have been by hers.
I’m in trouble and I know it.
I shake my head and try to remind myself there are two other people in this lobby and I need to get a handle on my thoughts before I end the night before it even starts. I catch up to Amelia by the front door and we step outside together.
We have a car waiting for us in front of the building, the nightclub is only five blocks away but Amelia said she only has a limited amount of time in her shoes and she shouldn’t waste them getting to our destination, so I had a car reserved to take us to and from the party tonight.
I step in front of her before she has a chance to grasp the metal handle of the back door. “Always the gentleman,” she says with a sarcastic grin on her face as I open the d oor for her.
“You’ll get used to it eventually.”
Squinting her eyes in playful distrust, “or you’ll get used to the fact that I can open my own doors.”
“It’s not a matter of can you, Princess. It’s a matter of should you need to. Two very different things.” I lay a hand low on her back to guide her into the car before I shut the door and round the vehicle to enter from the other side. We sit side by side, comfortably quiet until the car pulls up to a building with large neon lettering informing us that we have arrived at our destination.
“There you are!” A blonde shrieks loudly as we make our way to the barricaded VIP section that seems to be reserved for tonight’s birthday group. The blonde is discernibly tipsy. “Finally!” pulling Amelia into a tight hug, “and who’s this stranger?” She asks, unable to hide the fact that she already knows who I am, which means Amelia’s talked about me to her friends before.
“Sam, Riley. Riley, Sam,” Amelia’s attempt at making a quick introduction by swaying her finger between her friend and myself.
I lean in close to her friend’s ear to wish her a happy birthday over the loud bass of the music as I pull a small velvet box from the inside pocket of my jacket and hand it to her. Sam and Amelia, both slack jawed at Sam receiving a gift from a practical stranger. She opens the box and admires the simple round diamond at the end of a thin white gold necklace. Simple being an understatement. The diamond sparkles under the lights to flaunt each facet. If I thought Sam’s voice to be a shriek earlier, then the sound that comes from her throat now would be considered ear piercing and deafening.
“OMG THIS IS BEYOND GORGEOUS! THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU!” Sam jumps up and down while also trying to get me to clasp it around her neck. A laborious task for someone resembling a jumping bean, but somehow I successfully attach both ends together in record time. Her hand comes up to feel the diamond at the base of her throat and skips off with glee to show the rest of her friends the newest addition to her jewelry collection.
“Kiss ass.” Amelia mumbles under her breath.
I shrug. “I figured it was a sure way to get her to like me.”
“Isn’t bribery a crime, Mr. Anderson?” Her eyebrow quirks up while simultaneously trying to hide her smile.
“Depends. Would you consider your friend’s approval of our relationship worth any value? If the answer to that is yes, then to your question, the answer is also yes. Either way, I figured it was worth the risk.” I tilt my head towards Sam, still leaning over with the necklace on full display for anyone willing to look.
“Doesn’t make you any less of a kiss ass, you know? It just makes you a law-breaking kiss ass.” Amelia rolls her eyes as I offer a mischievous smile at her.
She guides me towards the center of the group and I reach down to interlace my fingers with hers. Her body tenses and I can’t hide the satisfied grin on my face knowing I can make her body react to my touch. This touch is subtle, innocent, but possessive to leave no room for interpretation. To the world, you’re mine . The words I said to her ring so vociferously between the two of us that the surrounding music becomes a soft hum of background noise.
Amelia is so lost in thought she barely registers me making my own introductions to her friends. It takes h er a few moments of being pulled along before she shakes out of her reverie and realizes I have made my way through half of the party already. I’m two feet away from meeting the last brunette sitting on the sofa before she’s on her feet, prancing excitedly towards us. I recognize her as the third person in the photo in Amelia’s home.
“Ah! You must be Riley. I’ve been waiting to meet you!” the brunette says ecstatically. “Amelia’s been hiding you from us.” Amelia glares at her friend in warning. “I’m Lauren.”
Accepting her outstretched hand with mine, I brush her knuckles with an innocent kiss. “Riley.” I turned to face Amelia in time to see her roll her eyes at her friend.
“I haven’t been hiding him. We’ve just been busy.” Amelia responds defensively. Lauren says nothing in return and instead leans over to give her friend a quick peck on the cheek to put an end to her interrogation. Amelia lets out a sigh of appreciation.
The night carries on as expected, starting with questions on how we decided to start dating after Amelia repeatedly told Sam and Lauren we were just friends. She left me to take the lead on the elaborate false elucidation.
I go on to spin a tale of how, while casually hanging out one night, it just clicked for me. That being friends with Amelia wasn’t going to be enough, that somehow, I realized, she had become everything I needed. A story so romantic that hopefully there would be no more questions after tonight. I ended the tale with a tender kiss to the sensitive part of her neck below her ear.
Not fucking smart.
The sweet touch of vanilla tonight mingling with the smell of her usual rainwater invades my senses, causing my resolve to weaken, added with the way her breath hitch es when my lips make contact with her skin making it near to impossible to pull away. If it wasn’t for the group of people watching us and awing in unison loud enough to distract me from every thought of Amelia that crashes into me, I don’t know if I could pull away.
When her friends finally stop with the questions and move on to shots, dancing, and laughing, I take this opportunity to pull her away from the group.
“Dance with me.” There isn’t a hint of a question to it and I don’t wait for an answer. I pull at our interlocking hands and leave her friends behind at their VIP section while I guide her to the middle of the dance floor.
I spin her out and around until her back is pressed firmly against my chest. Every part of her fits into each part of my body, like a puzzle that’s been waiting to be completed. The sounds of Disclosure and Sam Smith’s Omen surrounds us. Our bodies move with such awareness of one another and to the rhythm of the music.
The only thing I care about is how Amelia seems to melt into me instinctively. Where my hips sway, hers follows. The rest of the dance floor disappears from view and all I can see and feel is Amelia. My hand, still laced with hers, is resting on her hip. Her free hand reaches up behind my head to thread my hair between her fingers, causing her back to arch against me. A guttural moan escapes my lips when I look down to see her chest pushing, straining against her dress, the thin material doing little to hide her arousal from me.
Amelia lets out a surprised yelp when I reach up to grab her hand and spin her back around to face me. She wraps her hands around my neck while I hold her against me. The rise and fall of our breaths are in perfect harmony. Each measure of music becomes our own flawlessly curat ed symphony. Every move, controlled by the beat of the song.
One hand still on the small of her back firmly holding her body in place against mine and the other, coming up to cup her face, drawing her closer to me.
My forehead rests against hers, her lips are so close to mine I can smell the lingering scent of mint on her breath. All she would need to do is angle her head up a half inch and she would close the distance between us.
I’m not sure how long we’ve been lost in our own world, but the moment quickly shatters when I hear her friend, Sam, making her way to the dance floor towards us. The muscle in my jaw tenses in frustration at the untimely intrusion but I quickly realize I should be grateful for the interruption.
Had we continued on the way we were, I can’t confidently say I would’ve adhered to the rules she demanded we follow. And as much as I need her right now, I promised I’d respect her rules. Dumb mistake on my part but I’d follow through regardless.
Sam, seemingly oblivious to the situation she stumbled upon, starts dancing with her best friend as Omen fades into a different club remix. I take this as my cue to excuse myself to grab a drink from the bar.
Grabbing a whisky from the blonde bartender, I make my way back to the couch behind the velvet rope barricade. It doesn’t take me long to find Amelia in the center of the dance floor. She continues moving to the beat of the music sandwiched between Sam and Lauren.
The residual fervor that scorched my skin from her touch mingled with the heat of warm bodies that surrounded us on the dance floor has me grateful for the near empty section I’m sitting in with the added cur rent from the A.C. unit above my head.
The majority of the party has already meandered to the floor by now to join in celebrating Sam. I see Amelia take that as an opportunity to slip away without the notice of her friends. She weaves through the crowd to join me on the couch.
Dipping her head. “Your usual?” Glancing down at the glass with its amber liquid instead of the clear vodka and tequila options offered with the table.
“Your margaritas weren’t available for order so I settled for a whisky.” I say as I smile at her before taking a sip.
She groans at the memory of her margaritas and the hangover that followed. I’m assuming she wants to avoid tequila at all costs when she requests a cranberry vodka with a splash of pineapple juice from the server and joins me on the couch.
Unanimously deciding, without voicing it, that it’s best not to bring up what we may or may not have felt when we danced, so instead we sit in peaceful silence together and watch as the rest of the club continues on around us.