His frown deepens and he almost looks hurt, but I decide I’m seeing what I want to see. He’s probably relieved I want to keep it so casual.
“I said I’ll go.” His jaw clenches and unclenches.
“Fine.” I sip my tea and fume internally.
How could I be such a dumbass? I’m just an employee to him and I shouldn’t have deluded myself into thinking differently. The fact we had sex doesn’t mean anything, and the gentleman I fooled myself into believing he had a spark of just simply isn’t there.
Dumb, I scold myself. Really dumb.
I should swear off men forever. As I take another sip of my tea, I wonder if the Buddhist monks would let me hide out in the Tibetan monastery for a while. At least then I’d be safe from bad boys.
***
Felicia’s wedding is spectacular, if you like weddings. Me? I’m more an elope at the last minute type of gal. Oh, sure, I’ve always wanted to find that special guy who can be my friend and lover, but I’ve never been into big weddings. I once made Felicia snort coffee through her nose when I told her all the money wasted on that special day could be put to better use by putting a down payment on a house.
“You just don’t get romance, do you, Christy?” She giggled at me.
I shrugged. “Oh, I get romance. I’ve just got a more practical notion of the word. A man who washes dishes for me is far more hunky than a man who spends way too much money on a dozen long stemmed roses.”
She giggle-snorted at me again.
Now that the ceremony is over, we head to a very exclusive restaurant for the reception. I can only imagine the price tag on the food and rental for the upscale place. Ron and Felicia will be in debt until they retire.
Rider has been quiet and antsy throughout the whole ceremony, and his ready to run attitude is really starting to annoy me. What, did he think I’d march him down the aisle at bouquet-point and make him marry me too?
When we get inside the music, present, people, and food filled restaurant, he pulls me close and whispers, “I think I’m just gonna mingle for a bit. You okay with that?”
I hope my suspicion doesn’t show in my look. Is he planning on scoping out the babes or something? And why am I letting that silly green-eyed monster—jealousy—get the best of me?
“Sure.” I shrug, adjusting the top of my coral, strapless bridesmaid gown. “Do whatever you want.” Thankfully, Felicia picked some satin and chiffon styles that end at the knee and aren’t hideous beyond belief.
He gives me a glance that seems to ask if I’m mad at him, but I say nothing. Instead I wander away first and don’t even bother to take a parting glimpse at him over my shoulder. I snatch up a flute of champagne from a passing waiter’s tray as I go and I down it in two gulps then search for another.
The main banquet room is set up for drinks, hor’ d’oeuvres, and dancing, while the adjoining room is where a huge buffet has been set up for dinner. Felicia had her formal dinner the night before the wedding because she wanted the reception to be all about partying. I wander toward the back of this area where I find Mary and Eve sitting on a bench sipping champagne and perusing the dancers for potential partners.
Mary’s eyes go huge when she sees me and she waves her hands frantically to indicate “Come here!” I wonder what tidbit of gossip she is dying to tell me now, and how long will she keep me here, chewing my ear off with said juicy morsel.
“Christy!” she says it loud enough for half the restaurant to hear. Mary is a sweet girl, but she’s always been a tad over exuberant. “Get your butt over here. I want details!”
I cast her and Eve a confused glance, feeling my brow crinkle with my bewilderment as I move closer. “Details about what?” Then it dawns on me. Dear god, Felicia and Jeanie have told her all about me working for Rider. I try to hunch over and shrink inside myself.
She holds out her hands and grabs mine when I draw close, pulling me to sit between her and Eve. “About what. As if you didn’t know.” She rolls her eyes at me and grins mischievously. “Were you shocked when you found out who he was?”
I squint at her, feeling like I’ve come into a conversation that’s half over and I missed the most important parts. “Shocked when I found out who who was?”
She shakes her head at me as if I’m a three-year-old who keeps coloring outside the lines. “Rider, of course.” And when I still look confused, though my heart has now gone into Jack Rabbit mode, she add, “Seth Sykes. Remember? The kid who kept eating all his erasers in school? Didn’t the teach take his pencil box away because he’d eat like a whole box of erasers a week?” She laughs at this. “You tutored him when we were in high school. Math, right?”
My stomach sinks to my shoes. I look at Rider talking with Felicia and Ron and it hits me. Through the long, curly hair, tattoos, stubble, and royal blue eyes, I see the kid he once was. A geeky BMX aficionado who loved classic heavy metal and horror movies. We used to talk about old Nightmare on Elm Street movies on the playground. He wanted to take me to junior prom, but I wouldn’t go with him. I turned him down every time he asked me out, until he moved away when we were in Grade 11.
Back then, Seth ‘Rider’ Sykes (nicknamed as such for his skill with a BMX bike. Okay, a lame nickname, but we were kids. What do you expect?) had short hair because his mom would never let him grow it past his ears, which he constantly complained to me about. He’d worn thick glasses and had a face full of pimples. He’d also been a skinny, short boy back then.
Time had definitely been kind to him. He’d filled out, shot up at least five inches, lost the glasses, got tats, stubble, and I wonder what his ultra-conservative mom thought about that? But what I wonder even more is why he lied to me, and had Felicia and Jeanie known all along?
And if he lied about this, just what else has he lied about?
Anger starts to grow low in my belly. It is a hot ember that quickly unfurls and climbs up to my chest, making me breathe faster, making my limbs start to shake.
Mary touches my arm. She looks sympathetic when I turn to her, obviously seeing my surprise and fury. “You didn’t know.” Her face crumples and I know she is regretting her trademark big mouth. “Shit, I am so sorry, Christy. I thought he and Felicia had told you by now…”
My rage spikes higher. “Tell me about what?”
She bites her lip and I know she wants to shut up, but there is no way I’m letting her now. So she continues in a small voice, “Felicia, Jeanie, and Seth set you up that night, at the bachelorette. You were meant to meet him and get together with him. They planned the whole thing.”
I don’t wait or press for more details. Instead I snatch another flute of champagne off a waiter’s tray, down it in one swig this time, and I stagger toward them. The alcohol is starting to hit me and I’ve got a slight buzz that bolsters not only my anger but also my courage.
So everyone has been lying to me, huh? Well it’s time for some answers.
I march up to Rider and Felicia, who both smile at me as I draw near. Ron says something to me, but I completely ignore him as I send daggers at my best friend and my current employer/ lover.
“You lied to me,” I slur, pointing my empty champagne glass at Felicia and then at Rider.
Felicia looks at him and he looks back. I don’t miss the knowing glance they exchange, even if I am tipsy.
“What’re you talking about, Christy?” Rider gets in between me and the bride.
I poke a finger into his dress shirt. “You know exactly what I’m talking about, Seth.”
His eyes go wide and then his face falls. “I was afraid this would happen.” He sighs. “That’s why I didn’t want to come to the wedding with you.”
“Ha!” I shove a finger in his face, narrowly missing his eye. My head is woozy and my aim is off. “So you admit you lied! Why? Why didn’t you tell me who you really were?”
He shrugs, looks at his dress shoes. “I thought you’d have figured it out by now, and—”
Felicia pushes around
him, getting between Rider and I. “Christy, you’re drunk, and this is my wedding. How dare you act like this. I’m sorry we lied to you, but this discussion will have to wait for now.”
The champagne has really gone to my head, and it coaxes along a surge of anger at the almost equally furious blonde who stands before me. “No, we won’t talk about it!” I shout, and half the crowd turns in my direction. “Because I’m through with both of you!”
And with that, I smack the silver plate Felicia holds in her hand. A huge slab of her wedding cake rests on top of it, and the cake sails into the air, does an impressive twirl, then lands right along the top of Felicia’s ruby bodice. Sweet icing dribbles down her unconventional crimson wedding dress, and she shrieks like a banshee announcing death.
“I will kill you, Christy Tyler!”
I jump out of my satin pumps and bolt for the restaurant door. “You’ll have to catch me first!” I yell as I peel out of the place.
Her voice follows me. “You’re paying my dry cleaning bill!”
***
“Come on, Christy, you have to talk to me eventually.” Jeanie bangs on my bedroom door again. “Open up. Felicia’s going to be here in one hour, and you two will patch things up, or else I’ll hide your share of the beer.”
“You wouldn’t dare!” I shout back. The first time I’d talked to her in three days.
It has been a week since the wedding and Felicia and I still haven’t forgiven each other. I haven’t forgiven Rider—or should I say Seth—either. Jeanie is also on my do not talk list, obviously, and it’s made being roommates less than fun. But Jeanie is one determined girl, and she’s kept at me until I’ve mumbled replies at times. She says Felicia and I are both being childish and we need to patch things up. She says I need to talk to Rider, too, but I’m not listening on that one.
He called to apologize and asked to explain, but I used the opportunity to quit my job with him and tell him I was going back to my job at Your Daily Cup. Jeanie told me I was a dumbass for not hearing his side of the story. She tried to tell me about their scheme, but I shut the door and put my ear phones in. She even threatened to find another roommate, but I reminded her both our names are on the lease agreement and we’re locked in for one more year. Did she really want the fine and to go back to dorm life? I knew I didn’t.
“You need to grow up!” she’d fumed at me and stomped out the room.
Rider sent texts apologizing, but I stopped opening them after the first two.
How could they have deceived me like that? I don’t care how good their intentions were, they should’ve told me the truth.
Still, I do miss Rider and Felicia, and I hate freezing Jeanie out. Maybe it is time to reconcile things and at least get some closure with Rider then say goodbye.
I hate admitting how much I miss him, but it’s true. No, I don’t love him. Not yet. I’m not falling hard and fast this time. My trust is already in tatters again after my wedding discovery. But I miss those soft blue eyes, that curly mass of hair and stubbled cheeks and chin.
My nights are tortured with images of him fleeting through my fantasies and dreams. His warm arms around me. His soft lips kissing mine, grazing over my skin. How he felt when he pressed his strong chest against my back when I was bound to the pillory. How he would tease my ear with teeth, tongue, words, and warm breath.
And, of course, what haunts me most is that last practice, when we made love—no, screwed. No love talk allowed. It was just sex, pure and simple. But it felt so good, so right. His cock massaging me deep inside is branded into my sex and brain. His hot hands roaming all over my skin. I can almost feel them now as I lie atop my bed and look longingly at my nightstand drawer, where my vibrator waits.
But they’ll be no getting off for the time being. Felicia will be here soon and I’m ready to bury the hatchet with her and Jeanie. So I throw my legs over the mattress, heave a deep sigh, and pad across the carpet to my door.
Jeanie is in mid-bend with her magazine, about to sit on the couch, when I walk in the main living area of our apartment. She stares at me and pauses.
“Friends again?” I say as I blush over my weeklong temper tantrum.
She gives me a wide smile. “It’s about time!”
I move toward the couch and wrap her in a big hug. We giggle and cry and promise never to fight this long ever again, then we sit together after I go grab us some beers.
“Why didn’t you all tell me the truth, though?” I whisper, wanting to know more now my pout marathon is over.
Jeanie’s face crinkles in a rueful frown. “I’m sorry, Christy. We should’ve, but you’d made that no bad boys pact and basically sworn off all guys, so me and Felicia thought you’d run for miles if we set you up on a date with Rider. Especially if you knew who he really was.”
I laugh. “I probably would have.”
“See?” She laughs too and points her beer at me. “There is more to it than that … but I think you should hear the rest from Felicia and Rider.” She pats my hand. “Are you going to talk to him soon?”
I nod. “I’ll call him tomorrow, after work.”
Felicia arrives fifteen minutes later. Her and I are both a touch frosty at first, like two lions sniffing each other over, scoping out the possibility of threat, but Jeanie moves in and gets us hugging, apologizing, and talking within no time.
After she settles in with a beer and we order some pizza, Felicia tells me more about why she, Jeanie, and Rider pulled the ruse on me.
“Look, you were working so hard at those two jobs,” she says, rolling her beer bottle in her hand as she talks. “And you wouldn’t let me and Ron help you out with bills or tuition, even when you were falling asleep in some classes. Jeanie and I were worried about you.”
While Felicia goes to answer the door and pay for the pizza, Jeanie continues, “So I met Rider in one of my night classes—business admin. We got to talking cause he recognized me, and he asked about you.”
“He asked about me?”
Jeanie nods at me and smiles. “He was really grateful for the tutoring you gave him all those years ago. Hell, he’d have flunked grade 7, 8 and 9 without your help, he told me. I guess he never forgot you.”
“Wow…”
I swig my beer, grab a slab of pepperoni pizza, take some time to let this soak in while Felicia finishes the story.
Back in school, I’d never give Seth Sykes a chance in the romance department. I was a brainy good girl and he was one of the school’s BMX biking outcasts who hung out with the kids smoking spliffs in a secret alcove at the back of the school. We were casual pals, thanks to our tutoring sessions, sure, but when he did ask me out, I nicely turned him down. Sure, I wasn’t interested in him but I tried not to be unnecessarily mean, cause he had been a nice kid, even if he did eat all my erasers during our tutoring sessions.
He hadn’t forgotten me, yet I’d forgotten all about him. And as the rest of the story unfolds, I feel like a huge heel, and just wish the carpet would open up and swallow me.
“So, Rider and I and Jeanie devised our plan. Rider would hire you and pay you enough that you could quit your jobs and have more time for school. Plus it meant he got to spend time with you, and that made him pretty happy.” Felicia smirks and waggles her eyebrows at me. “We just wanted to help, but I’m really sorry we lied to you.
“Wow, thanks you two.” I hug them both fiercely again, then I start to tear up and hate myself for getting uber-sappy. “You are the best friends in the world. And I’m sorry about your dress.”
“You picked up the dry cleaning bill and it’s good as new. No worries.”
After we finish up the pizza, I try to call Rider, but his cell phone keeps telling me he isn’t available right now, and the guy who answers at the club tells me he isn’t around. I’ll have to try later.
Then another thought occurs to me. “But where did Rider get the cash to pay me?”
“Oh, that’s the other thing.” Felicia’s smirk turn
s into a full on smug grin. “Rider isn’t working at that club he takes you to. He owns it. But that’s his story and I can’t tell it. He’ll have to fill you in.”
I tell her she’s evil for teasing me with tidbits, then I try getting a hold of Rider again. My head is filled with questions and a need to reconcile.
***
I try to call Rider again the next morning before I leave for my shift at Your Daily Cup, but still no answer and no one at the club can tell me where he is. Now I’m starting to worry, and Jonas asks me what’s wrong when I arrive at work.
“Is it that gronk you were seeing?” He looks at me over the tech magazine he’s reading. “You’re not getting back together with him, are you?”
“He’s not a gronk, and I don’t know.”
He makes a face. “Well if you quit here again, Cassie wants two weeks’ notice this time.”
I roll my eyes at him. “Don’t worry. I’m not quitting. You’ll have someone to cover your sick days.”
No sooner does the promise leave my lip and the little bell over the coffee shop door rings.
“Oh, crap,” Jonas groans. “Don’t you dare quit!”
I look up from the dishes I’m putting away behind the counter. “What’re you—” My words are cut off by Rider’s hesitant smile as he approaches the front.
“Hi,” he says, giving Jonas a look that makes it clear he’d like some time alone with me.
Jonas grumbles, puts down his tech magazine. “Fine, I’ll leave you two alone.” He gives Rider a haughty up and down. “But she has forty-five minutes left in her shift, and I get a lunch break somewhere in there.”
“I promise not to kidnap her until she’s finished.” Rider sits at one of the stools on the right side of the counter. “How’s that?”
Jonas nods. “Deal.” Then he steals a poppy seed bagel from one of the baskets we keep near the front and disappears with it into the back room.
I blink at Rider, twine my fingers into the dish towel I keep tucked in my apron pocket. “I tried to call you last night and this morning.”
BDSM Mega Boxed Set Page 73