by J. S. Cooper
“You think?” I jumped up and ran over to the mirror and stared at my reflection. My long, brown hair hung in loose waves surrounding my face and down my back. My brown eyes sparkled with excitement and my smoky eyes made me look like a sexy vixen. “Do you think this lipstick is too red?” I asked as I pouted into the mirror.
“No way. Red is hot.”
“I suppose so.”
“And it matches your red dress perfectly. Slip it on now.”
“Okay.” I hurried to the bed and picked up my newly ironed dress and quickly took my clothes off and pulled it on. I had to suck in my breath to get it past my waist and down my hips. “This dress is a lot shorter than I remember it being.” I looked down at my exposed thigh and gulped. “I’m not sure about this, Alice. I’m not a stick you know. Girls like me, with curves shouldn’t wear skintight clothing.”
“Says who?” She shook her head. “You look hot, sexy, beautiful, amazing, and perfect.” She pointed her finger at me. “Fuck those skinny bitches. Every man wants a woman with curves.”
“I don’t know about that.” I laughed.
“Well if he wants a stick, then he’s not for us.” She grinned and pulled on her short, black dress.
“True.”
“Any guy looking for a stick will be disappointed with me.” I giggled. “I’ll never be a stick, my boobs are way too big.”
“Men love big boobs.”
“Well mine haven’t helped me much yet.”
“They will tonight.” She gazed at my partially exposed boobs. “Vaboom vaboom.”
“Thanks, Alice.” I shook my head.
“I’m ready, I think.” She pulled on her heels and then looked at me. “What about you?”
“Yeah, I guess I’m ready.” I nodded and grabbed a handbag from the closet and then slid my feet into my black stilettos. “I hope I don’t fall in these. My feet are already killing me.” I moaned.
“You’ll be fine. Just hold onto my arm.”
“I need alcohol.” I giggled as we made our way out of my bedroom.
“Me too.” She agreed. “I want to get drunk tonight.”
“I want to get slizzard.” I said.
“What’s slizzard?” She asked me in confusion and I looked and her and laughed.
“I have no idea.” I shrugged. “I just heard that term recently and thought it sounded good.”
“It does. It sounds cool. Here’s to us getting slizzard.”
“Slizzard baby.” We linked arms and made our way to the front door.
“Liv.” Aiden’s voice boomed through the house as I opened the front door.
“Yes.” I stopped and rolled my eyes.
“Come into the living room please.”
“Why?”
“We want to see you before you go out.”
“Ugh.” I looked at Alice and we both made faces at each other. “He is so frigging annoying. He needs to get married and have kids already. Oops.” I made a face as I looked at Alice.
“It’s fine.” She gave me a lopsided smile. “I’m sure he’ll make a good father.”
“Let’s face the army and then leave.” I said with an exasperated sigh and we walked towards the living room. “Good evening everyone.” I said as we walked into the room. All eyes fell to Alice and I and I almost laughed at the different expressions on everyone’s faces. Aiden looked stunned, Henry looked impressed, Gabby looked pissed, Chett looked bored, Scott looked excited and Xander, well Xander looked brooding. I could feel his eyes surveying my entire body and I had to tell myself to resist looking at him again.
“So where are you two off to then?” Aiden stood up and walked over to us.
“A bar.”
“What bar?” He asked, this time his eyes looked slightly angry. I wondered if he would ever get over the need to have to know everything.
“I think we’re going to Beach Lagoon.” I said finally.
“Okay, down on Fifth Street?” He asked again.
“Yes Sir.” I nodded and then saluted him.
“Funny.”
“If mom and dad don’t find the need to stay up and ask me, why do you care?”
Aiden stared at me for a few seconds and then turned to Alice. “You look very nice this evening.”
“Thanks.” She blushed as she answered him.
“Are you going to be warm enough in that dress?” He stared at her long expanse of naked leg and bare shoulders and she nodded.
“I’m pretty sure the alcohol will keep me warm.”
“Who’s DD?” He looked back at me with a frown.
“We’re going to take uber there and back.” I tried not to roll my eyes. “We’re not irresponsible you know. We did make it to twenty two with some brains.”
“I just wanted to make sure you didn’t want a ride there and back.”
“I can drive you if you want.” Xander spoke up then and stood up.
“Oh you don’t need to do that.” Gabby sounded annoyed as she glared at me. So much for her I’m sorry shtick. I knew she wouldn’t be able to fake a sweet personality for long.
“I don’t want you girls to get taken advantage of.” Xander stood next to Aiden and stared into my eyes. This time I couldn’t avoid his eyes. His irises looked furious as he gazed at me. I wasn’t sure what his problem was, but I couldn’t stop myself from shivering as I stood next to him. I could feel the electricity flowing between us and I took a step back.
“I think we’ll be fine.” I licked my lips nervously.
“Yeah, we’ll be fine.” Alice repeated and I could see her and Aiden giving each other small looks back and forth.
“Trust me Xander, Alice and Liv won’t have any problems.” Gabby jumped up and walked over to us. “They both pro’s at looking like sluts and not getting bothered.”
“Gabby.” Aiden admonished her.
“What?” She shrugged. “It’s true.” She looked at Alice and I and then at Xander and Aiden. “I mean come on. You don’t go out in heels as high as those, with dresses as short as that and not expect that some creep is going to try and slip his hand between your legs or down your top.”
“Gabby, shut up.” Scott shouted. “What is your problem?”
“Maybe it’s pregnancy brain?” Henry said and gave me a small smile.
“Yeah, but she hasn’t been pregnant all her life.” I muttered. “That doesn’t excuse her lifelong bitchiness.”
“Liv.” Aiden gave me a look and I turned to Alice.
“Ready?”
“Yes.” She nodded eagerly. “Let’s go.”
“Wait a second.” Aiden caught her wrist. “Can I speak to you for a second please?”
“Uh okay.” She looked over at me and made a face and followed him to the corner of the room.
“I need to speak to Liv as well.” Xander said to Gabby and he grabbed my upper arm roughly and pulled me outside of the room with him.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Where do you think you’re going in that outfit?”
“To a club.”
“It’s not appropriate.” He shook his head as he glared at me.
“Appropriate for what?”
“It sends the wrong signals.” He gazed down at my heaving breasts.
“What signals are you talking about?”
“The ‘I’m looking to get fucked’ signal.” He muttered as he took a step towards me and pushed me back against the wall.
“Who says I don’t want to give off that signal?” I said with a gasp as he grabbed my hands and pressed them back against the wall, next to my head.
“Is that what you want?” He leaned in and kissed my neck softly.
“Xander.” I gulped as he kissed down my neck to my collarbone and the top of my breasts. “Stop it, anyone could come out of the room and see us.”
“What do you care?”
“Xander, don’t.” I moaned as his hand ran down the side of my body and stopped on my thighs.
; “Don’t what?” He pushed his hardness into my stomach and moved back and forth. “Don’t show you what you’re doing to me in that sexy almost nonexistent outfit.”
“Was there anything else you needed to say to me?” I turned my head away from him as he leaned forward to kiss my lips.
“Why are you trying to bewitch me?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Nothing.” He sighed and stepped back. “Why did you have to be Gabby’s sister?”
“Why did you have to be her fiancé?”
“You don’t understand.” He frowned. “This isn’t just for me. This is to help protect someone that I love.”
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
“It doesn’t matter.” He shrugged. “It is what it is.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.” He nodded and I saw his eyes fall to my breasts.
“Are you marrying her so you can gain your inheritance?” I said softly. “Does that have anything to do with it?”
“Why do you care?” He asked me angrily and that made me even madder. I couldn’t believe he had the gall to ask me why I cared when he was still trying to get into my pants. Didn’t he realize how fucked up this situation was? What sort of girl did he think I was, if he thought this was okay? What part of this situation was okay in any way?
“I don’t care, Xander.” I huffed out. “Just leave me the fuck alone, okay. You’re the one that keeps coming after me. I’m not the one coming after you. I’m done with your bullshit okay? It’s not cool for you to keep trying to get into my pants and then question me when I try to figure out what’s going on with you and Gabby.”
“You didn’t care who I was or what I was doing last weekend.”
“That was last weekend.” I folded my arms. “This is this weekend. And this weekend, I’m not interested in you and your crap.”
“Me and my crap?” His lips twitched as if he wanted to laugh and that infuriated me even more. How dare he think that this was a funny situation! How dare he look so superior and smug while I was fuming on the inside. My fingers itched to slap him. He wouldn’t be looking so cocky if he had my palm print across his cheek.
“Leave me alone, Xander. I am done with you.” I poked him in the chest. “I’m going out in my slutty dress and I’m going to do what I want. Maybe I’ll meet an even better man and then I can hook up with him and forget I ever met you.”
“I wouldn’t recommend that.” His lips thinned and he grabbed my wrists. “That’s not the answer to any of this.”
“Well that’s not your problem, is it?” I smiled at him widely. “I can do what I want.”
“Liv.” He said my name slowly and his gaze was intense as he stared at me.
“Yes, Xander?” I said lightly. I’m not going to lie. I was getting off on our conversation. I was getting off on the fact that I could rile him up by talking about other men. I was loving the fact that he was acting jealous. The only problem was, he wasn’t giving me what I really wanted. He wasn’t breaking up with Gabby and telling me he had fucked up. He wasn’t pulling me towards him and telling me he wanted me and only me. He wasn’t telling me that Gabby and his family fortune meant nothing to him. All he was doing was showing me he was horny for me. And well, I already knew that. I wanted more than that from him. I wanted him to look at me with more than lust. I wanted to look into his eyes and see something akin to love. I know that was an unrealistic expectation. He barely knew me and I barely knew him, but that’s what I wanted. That’s what I hoped to see. I wanted to see a real emotion. A real, pure and heart stopping emotion that had nothing to do with lust.
“Have a good evening.” He said finally and turned away. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” He said and then walked back into the living room. I stood there feeling gutted and rejected. I could still feel his lips on my neck. I still felt branded by his touch and I hated myself for it.
“You ready?” Alice walked out of the living room, her eyes bright and I nodded.
“What did Aiden say?” I whispered to her as I pulled up the Uber app on my phone.
“Nothing good.” She sighed. “He just asked me to make sure that you didn’t get into too much trouble.”
“What?” My voice rose. “I swear he’s the most annoying man. I know you like him, but ugh, Aiden is so annoying.”
“I think it’s cute that he’s so protective.” Alice looked wistful.
“Trust me, Alice. You won’t think it’s that cute, if you’re dating him.” I shook my head. “He’s bloody annoying.”
***
“Cheers.” Alice giggled as we took another tequila shot and then rose our glasses of vodka coke up in the air. “Here’s to the men we’ve loved, the men we’ve lost, the men we’ve screwed and the men we’ve booed, here’s to the men to come and the men to make us come.”
“Alice.” I laughed out loud. “You’re so bad.”
“I’m not done.” She winked at me and her voice rose above the sound of the music. “Here’s to the men to come and the men to make us come. Here’s to the men that last all night, and the men who make our days bright, here’s to the man we’ll ultimately marry, but his cock be bigger than a ferry.”
“Bigger than a ferry?” I said and then chugged my drink down along with her. “How can a cock be bigger than a ferry?”
“I don’t know what else rhymes with marry?”
“What about, hmm, let me think?” I paused and danced along to the music in the club, my mind spinning as the alcohol settled in my bloodstream. “What about dairy?”
“Dairy?” Gabby giggled. “How can a man’s cock be bigger than a dairy?”
“You know what I mean, may his cock be bigger than a dairy cows.” I laughed hard then. I felt someone behind me start to dance against me and I twisted my head to see if he was cute. It was an older man, with a buzz cut and bad acne scars and I was about to push him away, when I decided to just let him dance with me. What harm was there in that.
“Bigger than a dairy cows, ha ha.” Alice started laughing really hard. “That’s funny.”
“What’s your friend laughing at?” The man behind me whispered in my ear and I felt his hand creeping around my waist.
“You.” I elbowed him and moved away from him. “Let’s go dance on the dance floor.” I said to Alice and grabbed her hand.
“I want another drink.” She hiccupped and I shook my head.
“Not yet, we don’t want a hangover tomorrow. Let’s dance and then get one.”
“Fine.” She nodded and we made our way to the dance floor. I looked back towards the bar and I saw the older man with the buzz cut walking towards the back of the bar with someone and he didn’t look happy. My heart thudded as I wondered what was going on, but tried to forget it as the music changed to one of my favorite Jay-Z songs.
“I think Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake should collaborate on every song.” Alice shouted as we moved our hips in beat to the music. Or as in beat as we could.
“I thought you wanted Jay-Z and Taylor Swift to make a song.”
“Well they can all make a song. That would be cool.”
“Yeah, it would be.” I nodded in agreement and then closed my eyes and danced along to the music. I loved being in night clubs, they always made me feel so alive. Being on a crowded dance floor, dancing along with the crowd to different songs was such a collective high. I raised my hands up in the air and sang along to the song as I moved. Alice grabbed my hands then and we jumped around together singing loudly.
“Oh my God, I love this song.” Alice screamed as an old Backstreet Boys song started playing.
“Me too.” I screamed as well and we giggled, both drunk enough to be really enjoying ourselves. I started gyrating my hips and dropping to the floor and I could feel a couple of different guys staring at me. That encouraged me to start moving my body even more, copying moves that I could remember from Britney Spears music videos. I was even
starting to forget Xander and his arrogance. I grinned when a hot blond guy came up to me.
“Hey.” He said as he started dancing next to me.
“Hey,” I said back.
“What?” He shouted and moved closer to me.
“I said hey.” I shouted back as I gazed into his deep blue eyes.
“Oh.” He laughed. “Want to dance?”
“Sure.” I nodded and he grinned and moved behind me. Alice grinned at me and I winked at her as I felt his hands on my waist lightly moving behind me. I continued dancing to the music and watched as a gorgeous guy, with a bodybuilder’s body, grabbed Alice and pulled her to him. I giggled as she started dancing with him and closed my eyes again, losing myself to the music. However, it only took a few minutes for me to start feeling uncomfortable. I opened my eyes and looked around the crowded club carefully. The hairs on the back of my head were standing on end and I felt like someone was staring at me. I ignored the feeling and continued dancing, but I wasn’t as into it as I had been earlier.
“Do you want to get out of here?” The man behind me shouted into my ear and I felt his hands moving up my stomach towards my breasts. I grabbed his hands once they reached my ribcage and shook my head.
“Don’t be a tease.” He shouted and I felt him gyrating behind me.
“I’m not.” I shouted back at him, annoyed.
“Let’s get out of here.” His right hand fell to my hip and I was about to push his hand away again, when I felt him suddenly pulled away from him.
“What?” I turned around with a frown and saw Xander standing there, holding the guy back in a tight grip. “Xander! What are you doing here?” I muttered, angry and excited at the same time.
“Is this guy bothering you?” He squeezed the man’s arm tightly and I shook my head quickly. “Get out of here.” He pushed the guy away. “And don’t bother this girl again, you hear me?”
“I wasn’t bothering her.” The guy looked angry. “She wanted it.”
“Get out of here.” Xander pushed him again and I was scared that a fight was about to break out.
“What are you doing here?” I shouted.
“What?” Xander moved closer to me. “I can’t hear you.”
“What are you doing here?” I shouted again, this time into his ear as he stood next to me.