Chapter Five #2
She puffed air out of her cheeks and then looked away quickly when both Taryn and Abe looked her way. She felt busted, so she stood and looked around awkwardly for something to do. She had to get out of here.
The DJ was announcing that the dance floor was open and inviting all the couples to join in a slow song. Shoot her in the eyeball.
Ren bolted as best as she could in three-inch high heels, and as she saw that sweet daylight outside, someone stood in front of her and froze.
She skidded to a stop.
Mars was standing there, eyes hidden by a pair of sunglasses, wearing dark gray slacks, a white button-down shirt that hugged his arm muscles and accentuated his V-shaped waist. He wore dress shoes, and a tie that was a dusty pink, the same shade as her dress.
He lifted his chin higher into the air as he dragged his gaze up and down her curves, and a wolflike smile curved his lips as he dipped his chin to his chest and looked at her over the upper edge of his sunglasses. His eyes were blazing a frost blue.
His dark hair had product in it, and looked perfectly model-messy, and he’d faded his beard down his jaw, showing off that chiseled jawline.
“I…I thought you stood me up,” she said in a small voice.
“I can explain.”
She crossed her arms and looked around quickly, making sure no one was listening in on this conversation. “You didn’t text me all day.”
“I’ve been in emergency meetings.”
His voice held truth, but she wasn’t ready to forgive him yet.
He gestured to the dance floor. “Do you want to?” he asked in that deep, sexy voice of his.
“Do I want to dance?” she asked, staring at the couples, most specifically Taryn and Abe, the latter of whom was staring at Ren. “Um, sure.”
“You look good,” he said, offering his hand.
“Hmm. That’s what Abe told me too,” she said primly, wanting to punish him for being late.
A growl rattled straight through his chest, and he cast her a glance. “Careful, Ren.”
“I don’t like to be careful,” she muttered recklessly. “I like to be dangerous. And un-boring. And exciting.”
A dark chuckle escaped him as he turned on the edge of the dance floor and twirled her slowly out, then back in.
“Oh,” she squeaked as she hit the solid wall of his chest. “This is like dancing with a statue.”
Mars snorted, and slid his hand against hers, lifted it in the air, and then waited as she slid her other hand to rest on the back of his shoulder.
“Uh, your cologne smells very…good,” she complimented him.
“I wore it just for you.” Truth.
“You wanted to stand me up, didn’t you?” she asked as he began to dance with her easily.
“Is Abe the guy staring at you? Holding the redhead?”
“That would be him.”
“Mmm.” Mars held her closer, and honestly, she didn’t hate this. He was very sturdy and easy at leading the dance.
“You didn’t answer my question,” she pointed out. “You wanted to stand me up, didn’t you?”
“Yep. I tried really hard to do it. Couldn’t pull it off.”
“Why did you want to stand me up?”
“For your safety.” Truth.
Chills rippled up her arms. “What do you mean?” she whispered, pulling them to a stop.
Looking up at him, the world faded away behind him, and it was just them. The song disappeared, and the murmur of people died out. It was just them in the world. She could see the glow of his bright blue eyes even through the dark lenses of his sunglasses.
“I’m paying too much attention to you,” he uttered low. He leaned forward and let his lips brush her ear. “I’m not a good friend.”
“Maybe you could work on that with me,” she said softly, rolling her eyes closed at how good it felt to be held by a big strong man like this.
Mars eased back and spun her out, and then back in, her dress twirling with the movement. She settled close to his chest once more and he pushed her backward in the dance, leading her along the edge of the dance floor.
“He really is interested in everything you do,” Mars murmured.
“We haven’t seen each other since the breakup. It’s probably just curiosity.”
“Perhaps he should pay more attention to his lady. She’s noticing his attention on you.”
“Well, I’m not asking for it,” she griped quietly. “This is uncomfortable for me too.”
Remembering she still had her half-downed wine in her free hand, she chugged it. “Want a drink?”
Mars eased his lips to her ear again and hugged her close. “I’m good. If you want to drink tonight, I can drive you home.”
“I have my car here.”
Mars shrugged. “I’ll get it to your house and do a ride share back to my truck here. It’s easy. Do you want another drink?”
But she already felt a little buzz, and she didn’t want to get sloppy this early in the night. Her whole family would be rowdy later, but for now, she was happy to take it slowly and just enjoy the time with Mars. “Water?” she asked.
His smile was so handsome and exposed a very faint dimple on his right cheek. Hot. God, could he get any sexier? “Come on,” he said, holding her hand like they’d done it a hundred times before. He led her off the dance floor and toward the bar.
There were miniature bottles of water on ice in a whisky barrel right beside the bar, and he grabbed one for both of them, opened his and tinked it against hers in a silent toast.
“So, meetings, huh?” she asked.
His smile faded and he nodded. “The asshole who bought my company is dumping it. He screwed me in the sale and now he’s going against the contract we signed.
The company is going under already. I built it from the ground up, and all of the people I had originally hired are going to lose their jobs.
I was pulled into a meeting with my lawyer and the buyers to try and negotiate the company going back to me so I could run it the way it was intended. ”
“Did you work out a deal?” she asked.
Mars took a long sip of water and replaced the lid, then shook his head and looked toward the door.
“They wanted me to pay double what I just sold it to them for. It was a long day with no solutions and me trying not to go tiger on every motherfucker in that room.” He tilted his head toward her. “You know how it is.”
“Right. Yeah.” Time for a subject change. “Looks like they opened up the buffet table,” she said, pointing toward the wall on the left. Attendees were forming a line. “Want to eat? With me?”
His smile was back, and he offered his arm for her to slip her hand to the inside of his bicep. “I’m starving.”
“I’m always starving,” she admitted.
His chuckle reverberated through him and right into her hand as she squeezed his strong bicep. “I’m sorry about today,” she said.
He made a click sound behind his teeth and said, “No, I’m sorry. I thought about messaging you on a break, but I was busy trying to convince myself the wedding was a bad idea, and you would be better off going without me.”
“I will admit I had a moment or ten of panic when you didn’t show. Look around. Everyone is coupled up.”
Mars wasn’t paying attention though. He was looking at Abe as they passed him and Taryn. Mars pulled Ren’s hand from his bicep and pressed a kiss to her knuckles as he glared at Abe, who ducked his gaze and nodded at something Taryn was saying to him.
“He’s going to get on my damn nerves tonight,” Mars said. “I can already tell.”
She belted out a laugh, surprising herself. “Territorial over a stranger,” she accused him.
“It’s not that. It’s just…” His dark eyebrows drew down. “Well, I don’t know what it is. I just don’t like a man who can’t pay attention to his own woman and is making googly eyes at someone else instead. It’s fucked up.”
“Googly eyes,” she repeated, amused.
“You know what I mean,” he ground out.
The DJ started playing a faster song, and several of the kids and teens at the wedding ran to the dance floor to do a line dance.
“I like this song,” she murmured, watching them.
“I’ll dance to fast songs with you,” he said easily.
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“That surprises me,” she said as they moved up in line and reached the serving plates.
“Why?”
“Because you’re so…cool.”
“You think I’m cool?” he asked through a grin. “I’ll have you know I was captain of the debate team in high school and was the lead in three plays my junior and senior year, and I was in the math club.”
“Liar.”
“I’m dead-serious. I even wore glasses.”
“Did you have braces too?”
“Yep. For three weeks before I got in a fight with my brother, Stellan, and he popped me in the mouth and broke the wire, and my stepdad got pissed and removed the braces with a pair of needle nosed plyers when we got home and said it was going to be too big of a pain in the ass to take me to the orthodontist every time I was an idiot, so I never went back.”
“He sounds like a gem.”
“He was the worst,” he agreed, piling spoonfuls of chicken in a cream sauce onto her plate for her.
“Do you have pictures from high school? Ones with braces on? It would make me feel better about being seen with you.”
“Shut up, you’re hot and you know it.”
She nearly choked on air. “You think I’m hot?”
“Any straight man would think you’re hot. Old Googly Eyes over there can’t stop staring at your tits.”
“Language,” Great Aunt Martha said from the line in front of them.
“Sorry,” Mars mumbled, but he didn’t sound sorry at all, and Ren was having such a hard time containing her pleased smile. Great Aunt Martha was the sassiest of all her family members.
He thought she was pretty. She checked her tits. They did look pretty good all pushed up in this dress. “Aunt Martha, this is my date, Marsden.”
“It’s nice to meet you, ma’am.”
Great Aunt Martha lifted her chin higher into the air to study him, and then nodded once and said, “Hmp. He’ll do.” And then she went back to putting food on her plate from the silver serving platters.
Mars shot Ren a funny look, and she was trying so hard not to giggle.