The guys all cheered and his brother hugged him. He turned and saw Amber standing beside the wedding photographer. She looked…nervous.
“What’s wrong?” he asked stepping closer to her.
“She wants to take a picture.” Amber lifted her bouquet and nodded to the garter he held in his hand.
“Okay.” Seth kissed her briefly.
Her eyebrows shot up. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
As the photographer was telling them how she wanted them posed, Cam yelled good-naturedly from the side of the dance floor, “You know what this means, right? You two are next.”
Amber sat on Seth’s knee as the photographer had instructed. She looked at him with her hazel eyes clear and bright. She said evenly, “Don’t worry. I know this doesn’t mean anything.”
“Or, it could mean everything,” Seth replied.
“What?” Her brow furrowed in confusion.
The photographer asked them to hold their poses. She said she needed to change her battery and began digging in her bag.
He knew this wasn’t the right time, that he should wait and talk to her when they were alone, but that didn’t stop him from blurting out, “Marry me.”
Amber’s eyes widened as she breathlessly asked, “What?”
“Marry me,” Seth repeated, a little harsher than he had meant to.
Her eyes never left his as the corner of her mouth turned up. “Are you asking me or telling me?”
“Amber,” he growled. Normally he loved it when she was a smart ass but right now he just wanted to know what her answer was.
Then, thankfully, the small tugging up of the corners of her mouth blossomed into a full-blown, mega-watt smile as she declared happily, “Yes. Yes, I will marry you!”
“Okay, if you two could just look over here, I’m ready,” the photographer said cheerily.
Seth cupped Amber’s face in his hands as he crushed his mouth to hers, pouring every last ounce of love and passion he felt for her into the kiss.
“Oooookayyy, I guess that’ll work, too,” Seth heard the photographer say as he kissed his fiancé.
“Can we get the entire wedding party on the floor for a picture,” the DJ announced from his booth. The rest of them began to make their way over.
Seth and Amber stood as his brothers and their wives all joined them on the floor. He wrapped both of his arms around Amber’s waist, holding her tightly. Riley held baby Mya in one arm and had his other wrapped around Chelle. Alex picked up Joey as he kissed his new bride, and Bobby and Jason both held their wives closely to them.
The photographer quickly adjusted Jamie's dress before stepping back and saying, “Smile.”
As the picture was snapped, Seth realized that for the first time in his life, he felt whole. Surrounded by his family and with Amber by his side, he felt totally at peace, with himself, with his life, and with his future.
Sneak Peek: Friction
RED HOT PRIVATE EYE SERIES
Novella
Chapter One
You are focused. You are capable. You are in control. No one can hurt you. You can handle anything.
It’s going to be a great day!
Raiza sat in her Prius, looking into the small square mirror that was built into her sun visor as she applied a coat of lip gloss to her full, naturally red lips. She finished her fourth round of daily affirmations at exactly the same moment she finished applying the gloss. She loved that! Synchronicity.
After her last check in the mirror, she flipped up her visor and replaced the tube of liquid shine in its designated slot in her make-up bag, then replaced the bag inside the left compartment in her purse.
She smiled.
Every time she looked inside her purse it made her happy. There was nothing out of order. Anytime she needed to add a new item to carry she would immediately find a home for it to live in, and every time she would use said item she would always immediately return it to its rightful place.
Order + Structure = Sanity.
That was the equation she lived her life by, and it had served her well. Her life as a child had been anything but predictable. As an adult, when her life was in her own hands and not subject to the whims of others, Raiza had made sure that her life was just that - predictable.
Predictability had its advantages, one of which was a sense of security. That was a feeling she had longed for as a youth. Of course, everything in life is a trade-off, so it also had its drawbacks. One of those was complete and utter boredom, which was something that she definitely did not crave.
This tightly structured world that she had built for herself ensured that there were never any surprises. Which was great except for the fact that...well...there were never any surprises!
A loud knock on her driver’s side window ended her short jaunt to the island of self-reflection and yanked her abruptly back into reality. She looked up to see who had interrupted her rather pleasant reverie and found that there was a rather tall and lanky police officer standing beside her car waiting for her attention.
She opened the door and he stepped back to allow her to exit.
“Can I help you with something?”’ She asked as she swung her legs out of the car gracefully, setting her black Jimmy Choos on the pavement and smoothly rising to stand next to her car.
He looked momentarily stunned as she stood. She patiently waited. She was used to men, and even sometimes women, needing a moment after they saw her. It took them a minute to collect themselves, before they could remember what they had been about to say...and where they were, what year it was, etc.
Her Aunt Margie used to tell her that she was the living, breathing definition of a stunner. Well, being from New Jersey, she had actually said ‘stunna.’ But Aunt Margie’s point had been that when people saw Raiza, nine times out of ten they had a very strong reaction to her.
Which was fine with Raiza. The attention was fine. Certainly, if she had been forced to choose, she would definitely prefer to be attractive rather than not, she always thought. But, still, sometimes it was a little isolating. People usually didn’t really see her, or listen to her. They almost always had preconceived notions about her, theories about everything from her intelligence to her level of promiscuity. And, of course, these assumptions were wrong ninety-nine point nine percent of the time, as assumptions generally tend to be.
This was one of the reasons that she loved her job, and loved the people she worked for and with so much. They saw her – really saw her.
Most days it was just her and George in her office. She loved George. George didn't care what she looked like, he didn't judge her by the size of her cleavage. He was responsive to her every request. He was the perfect man, basically. She sighed to herself. If only George wasn't her computer!
But, she reflected, most of that could also be said for her co-workers. They saw her for who she was - brains, wit, creativity and all.
She did not believe the same could be said for the police officer standing in front of her right now. She didn't think he had the ability to see anything beyond what was right in front of his nose, and he was having trouble processing what he did see. She shook her head. She needed to move this along if she was going to be on time for the Monday morning meeting.
She cleared her throat to get his attention. “Can I help you with something?” she repeated slowly.
The officer looked into her eyes, finally, and furrowed his brow as he said, “I was about to ask you the same thing.”
Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me, Raiza thought to herself. At least he had the good sense not to look self-satisfied at what he must think was a very clever line. “Oh, is that what you were working up to?” she asked sardonically.
Her tone must have been a little too sarcastic for Mr. Law and Order’s liking because his posture and demeanor did an immediate one-eighty. His voice lowered an octave, and he planted his feet and puffed out his chest in what must've been an attempt to seem authoritative. It didn’t wo
rk. “Ma’am, I am going to need to see some ID,” he said gruffly.
Raiza was not about to give this man anything until she knew he was on the up-and-up.
She smiled a slinky smile and said, “Show me yours and I’ll show you mine, officer”
He raised an eyebrow to her, seemingly unimpressed by her charms, and tapped on the badge pinned to the upper left side of his uniform.
“That’s a very nice badge, but I'd like to see your identification card,” Raiza said, politely but firmly. Uniforms and badges were very easy to fake, Raiza knew this all too well. The same could not be said for identification cards.
He looked more than a little put out at her request, not to mention suspicious, but he did supply the card. Raiza examined it closely, taking her sweet time just because she thought it was funny to get his goat. The card was legit. She pulled out her driver’s license and passed it over to him. As soon as he saw her name, his tune changed yet again.
Dude, she thought, bi-polar much?
“Oh Ms. Diaz, yes,” he said checking her name against a list on the clipboard he carried, “umm...you are cleared for entry. Come this way.”
‘Cleared for entry' to her own office? Ooookaaaaay.
What the hell was going on?
Before she had a chance to ask those questions, she rounded the corner of the building where Red Hot was located and saw at least a half dozen uniformed officers and four detectives in plain clothes in the suite next door to the Red Hot agency.
They were all gathered in the offices of Thrive Therapy. Hmmm...Raiza knew that several therapists who each had their own specialty shared that office suite. She knew them all in passing, enough to smile good morning, but not more than that.
She tried to step around Officer NO INFO so she could get into Red Hot and find out what was happening, but the officer held out his arm to block her path just as two paramedics passed in front of them, pushing a stretcher that held a zipped up body bag.
OK, Raiza thought uneasily, that’s not something you see every day. A very unsettled feeling welled inside of her, like a storm brewing in her psyche. Not good. This was not order and it was not structure, in fact, it was the opposite of both of those things. Therefore, she felt her sanity threatened just the tiniest bit.
Raiza did not like being around dead bodies, no siree, not at all, not one little bit. Didn’t like it at all. Probably stuff left over from her childhood, she knew - she had been the one who had discovered her grandma’s body after Grandma Ida had died in her sleep. Raiza shuddered. She remembered how cold the old woman's skin had felt when Raiza had tried to shake her awake. She could still feel the clammy, freezing skin under her fingertips when she recalled that fateful morning.
She shook her head to try and clear all reminders of that day. Yeah. It wasn’t working.
Raiza needed to get into her office, sit at her desk - see her things all in order, everything in their place. She needed to re-center herself among order and structure. She needed to boot up George, to hear the soft swishing sound of him coming to life. She needed to feel the keys under her fingers as she worked.
She closed her eyes, the need to be in her soothing and predictable environment consuming her and making her heart beat faster, until she felt the officer release his arm back down to his side, effectively freeing her. As soon as he did, she started putting one foot in front of the other as quickly as she could. She heard him saying something as she walked away, but didn’t wait to find out what it was. If he needed to talk to her badly enough, he could damn well follow her.
She entered the lobby of Red Hot and felt as though she had tunnel vision. She could see people in her peripheral vision, but did not stop until she made it to the safety of her office. Shutting the door behind her, she leaned against it and tried to calm her racing heart.
“Good morning sunshine. You OK?”
She jumped at the sound of a man’s deep voice. Turning, she saw Mateo sitting at the once unoccupied desk in her office. Now, it certainly looked occupied. Very occupied. His laptop was sitting to the right on the desk and next to it sat a coffee cup and a bottle of water - neither of which had coasters underneath them, she noted with mounting irritation. Not only that, but there were several stacks of papers strewn about on the desk, and none of them were contained in folders or wire baskets! Dammit, none of them were even in symmetrical PILES for God's sake.
What are we, animals? She thought to herself incredulously.
“What are you doing in here?” She asked curtly as she made her way past him and stood behind her desk. She felt the tight knot inside her belly loosen just a little. Looking down at her pristine workspace did make her feel a little better. Everything was just as she had left it the night before. In perfect order. Just as things should be.
She sat down in her ergonomically designed desk chair and placed her hands on the flat, empty surface of her desk. This was her happy place, her safe place. She wasn’t going to let some unwanted visitor take anything away from that.
She turned to look at him, waiting for an answer. He had invaded her personal space, her sanctum, and now he had some explaining to do. But, rather than turning toward her and illustrating the proper contrite manner, he simply sat with his back to her and continued typing away on his computer, not a care in the world. Ignoring her. He could be SO frustrating.
“Mateo,” she said, carefully modulating her voice so that it sounded friendlier...sort of, “What are you doing in here?”
Still no answer. Damn him, she knew what he was waiting for. She just didn’t want to play his little games. Not today. Not after what she had just seen. But she knew for a fact that if she wanted information, she had to play.
Rolling her eyes and trying desperately to suppress a loud sigh, she put a smile (sure it was fake but, oh well) on her face and into her voice and said, “Good Morning, Mateo. You startled me. What, may I ask, are you doing here?”
He turned and she saw a satisfied smile forming across his handsome, chiseled face. “Well, since you asked so nicely - I’ve been assigned to be your office mate. Because of all of the recent personnel changes that have been going on, with Dominic and Cristal bringing on more people, space is at a premium. So we have to double up.”
Cristal Hart was Raiza's best friend and mentor, and now boss, as well. She and Dominic Charles had recently become equal partners in the firm of Red Hot Private Investigations. They each owned 40% and Red, who had started the agency, retained 20%. Raiza knew that things would probably be shaken up a bit when Dominic and Cristal took over, but she hadn’t been prepared for the possibility of having to share her office with someone. Even someone as sexy as Mateo. Hell, especially someone as sexy as Mateo.
She needed to talk to Cristal and get this resolved, asap.
--- ~ ---
Mateo knew that technically he should have waited until after the Monday morning meeting, where Dominic and Cristal were going to announce all of the new changes, to move into Raiza’s office. But he thought that she might take it better if she didn't hear the news in front of ten sets of prying eyes. He knew Raiza. She would need time to process it.
She stood and crossed the small room, quickly heading towards the door.
“Where are you going?” he asked with a smile in his voice.
“To talk to Cristal,” she replied shortly, anger as evident in her voice as it had already been in her body language.
“She's the one who signed off on the move,” Mateo said lightly, “If that influences your decision about whether to go and talk to her. I mean, maybe you're just going to thank her for giving you such a fine-ass office mate. I know that's what I would have done if I had walked in this morning and seen all of this,” Mateo gestured at his face and body, “sitting up in my office.”
This piece of information got Raiza to stop in her tracks. When he was done talking, she pivoted on her heel and crossed her arms as she turned her head and met his eyes, just in time to see him give her a huge wink.
He was slammed with the same overwhelming feeling he always experienced when her large golden brown eyes looked into his. Desire.
“She did?” Raiza asked suspiciously.
It was asked more as a challenge than a question, and was probably meant to be rhetorical, but he decided to confirm it anyway.
He nodded, “She sure did.”
“What happened to your office?”
“Well, since I shared a space with Dominic, and he is now an owner, the general consensus was that he should have his own office.”
“Cristal shares an office,” she snapped back.
“Not anymore. She moved into Red’s old office.”
Raiza stood still, seeming to be assessing the ramifications of the information he had just shared with her. He waited, letting her work it out in her own time.
“Why didn’t one of the guys in my department move in?” she asked suspiciously.
He lifted one eyebrow, barking out a short laugh. “They're terrified of you. From what I hear, Jerry practically peed himself at the mere mention of it.”
She tilted her head and placed her hands on her hips. Damn those hips, he had wet dreams about those hips. “They are not scared of me!”
“They are,” he stated simply.
“They respect me and like me. I’m always fair,” she seemed a little hurt at the implication that her team was afraid of her. He hadn’t expected that.
“As a supervisor, yes. Absolutely! As an office mate? Come on. Do I really need to remind you of poor Kim? That girl barely lasted a month.”
Her sexy, full lips turned up slightly at the corners and he could tell that although the thought of someone who worked for her actually being afraid of her had genuinely bothered her, the thought of someone being scared to share an office with her amused her.
My Everything - Seth & Amber Page 26