Dangerous Curves Ahead: A Perfect Fit Novel (8 page)

“Ha! See how much you know. I don’t want kids, Detective Know-It-All. I don’t want to get married, either. That’s so typically male of you to assume that all fat girls are dying to get married and have babies. Some of us are capable of more than domestication.”

“This has nothing to do with weight. What is with you?” Annoyance passed over his face. “Why are you so obsessed with fat? Ellis, you’re soft and beautiful. You’re the kind of woman a man can picture holding his children. You’re the kind of woman who seems like she can manage it all.”

She rolled her eyes. “Your perception of me is all wrong. I’m a mess. I quit my high-paying job, I cashed in my 401(k) to open my shop, and I’m holding on by a string. Kids and a husband are the last thing I could possibly want.” She laughed bitterly. “Even if you don’t remember how we met four years ago, I do. You ignored me and went on with your hot girlfriend. I’ve spent my whole life being overlooked by men like you. And you think I want to get married? Ha. I never wanted to be chained to one man for the rest of my life. Maybe I’m just looking for a little fun myself.”

He looked at her with interest. “You don’t believe in marriage, either?”

“I do, but for other people. I’ve worked too hard to get my life the way I want it for some man to come around and screw things up for me.”

“I don’t believe in marriage for anybody. Go out with me.”

“What?” She laughed. A date was the last thing she expected from him. “No!”

“Why not?” He frowned.

“Oh!” She laughed harder. “You’re not used to being turned down. Are you?”

“No, so don’t turn me down.”

“Why are you asking me out?” Ellis stopped seeing the humor in the situation.

She couldn’t date him or anybody. It was too soon after her last failure, and there was something about Mike. There was something between them. She didn’t like him now, but she could, and if somebody like Jack could knock her on her ass then a man like Mike could destroy her altogether.

“I don’t know why.” He looked as perplexed as she felt. “We don’t even like each other.” His eyes returned to her face. “Go out with me anyway.”

“No.”

They looked at each other for a long time, their eyes locked in some kind of unspoken battle. Four years ago he had kissed her and forgotten her. Would he be any different now? She wasn’t stupid enough to find out.

“Sorry for the wait. The kitchen’s backed up,” the waitress said, breaking the spell between them.

Ellis blinked, trying to clear her head, and focused on the huge platter of cheese fries in front of Colin and Cherri. Belinda had ordered a basket of chicken fingers—but when the waitress placed the nachos in front of Ellis and Mike, Ellis forgot about everything else. They looked better than she remembered. The red of the strawberries beautifully contrasted with all the white of the cream and the darkness of the chocolate. She pulled her lower lip between her teeth. She wouldn’t indulge. She had two more whole days until she could.

Thou mustn’t eat chocolate nachos on Thursdays.

“Eat one,” Mike whispered in her ear, playing the role of naughty devil.

She shook her head. “I can’t.” But God, she wanted to.

“A few won’t hurt.” They would. They would hurt her very much, making her feel guilty and punish herself tomorrow by eating nothing but wilted celery. He didn’t seem to care about her inner turmoil. She watched as he picked up a chocolate-drenched chip, dipped it in cream, and dropped it in his mouth. “Damn, Ellis,” he moaned, and her stomach clenched. “These are amazing.”

“I know,” she said mournfully. “I hate you, Mike Edwards, and everything you stand for.”

He grinned at her, placed another nacho in his mouth, and moaned again. “You’ve got to eat one.”

“No.” She folded her arms over her chest and shook her head.

“How about just a strawberry then?” He lifted a whole strawberry, dipped it in chocolate and cream, and held it up to her mouth. “Strawberries are good for you.”

“Not the way you dress them.” She grabbed hold of his wrist as his hand hovered in front of her mouth. “Mike, no.”

He rubbed the strawberry against her lower lip, back and forth, leaving creamy chocolate behind. “Come on Ellis. Just try it.”

Her tongue darted out to lick off the mess he made. And as if a choir of angels took up residence in her head, she heard
AH!

No willpower. She had absolutely no willpower.

“Fine.” She relented and took a bite of the ripe strawberry. It was plump and good and sweet, all the things a good piece of fruit should be … plus it was covered in chocolate.
AH!

“Is this a fetish of yours, Mikey?” she asked as she finished chewing. “Does hand-feeding fat girls satisfy some kind of yearning you have? Or does it bring you some kind of wholesome joy like feeding animals at the zoo? Am I like feeding a broodmare?”

“Stop it.” He grabbed her chin between his thick fingers and forced her to look him in the eye. She saw anger there. He was angry with her. “I don’t ever want to hear you talk about yourself like that again. Do you understand me? It’s not funny,” he said in a low voice. “It’s not some kind of goddamn joke. You’re beautiful. You’re sexy and any man in his right mind can see that. Why can’t you?”

Ellis froze. For a second she felt like crying. After hearing nothing but put-downs from Jack for the last six months of their relationship, Mike’s words were like balm to her bruised soul. She had a hard time seeing herself that way, a hard time believing his words because somewhere along the line a tiny part of her had started believing what Jack had said.

His cobalt eyes bored into hers. “I don’t want you calling yourself that word around me anymore. Okay?”

She nodded. It was all she could do. He lifted the strawberry to her mouth and this time without protest she opened her lips and let him feed her.

Suddenly the emcee’s voice sounded across the bar. Sheet of papers and pens were handed out. Trivia night was beginning.

*   *   *

Mike noticed that Ellis had gone quiet during the first few rounds of trivia. She gave answers when she knew them, showing off her intelligence. He had no idea who wrote
The Glass Menagerie
or the year the first
Peanuts
comic premiered. Colin seemed very pleased with her performance. He nodded at Mike three times, their private signal that he approved of a woman. How could he not approve of her? By the end of round three they were tied for first place and Colin was enjoying himself with Ellis’s friends. Or at least he was pretending to.

Colin had always been a good wingman and tonight was no different. He managed to keep Ellis’s friends well occupied while Mike was doing things to her he shouldn’t have. Rubbing the strawberry across her lips, for example, but Ellis had such pretty pink lips and watching her lick them was like watching one of his fantasies come to life. He was attracted to her and damn it, he didn’t want to be.

Sitting next to her, with her soft body pressed into his side, talking for those few minutes, Mike got the chance to learn about her in a way he never got to learn about most women he came in contact with. Some man, somewhere along the way, had convinced her that she wasn’t beautiful, which was a shame, because her brown eyes contained little flecks of gold and her skin looked as smooth as the cream they were eating. That man also had probably broken her heart. Mike didn’t do needy, insecure women. They were too messy. But Ellis didn’t strike him that way. She had steel running through her, and he liked that. She also wasn’t looking for the package. The husband-and-family thing. He could be around her without worrying that she had ulterior motives. Tonight he realized he did want to be around her: Even though they bickered and things weren’t as easy as he liked, there was something about her that kept him wanting to get closer.

“I like you much better when you’re quiet,” Mike said into Ellis’s ear between the third and fourth rounds.

“Bite me,” she griped.

He grinned at her. “Only if I get to pick where.” He deliberately took his time studying her body. She wore tight black jeans tonight, with black leather boots and a red wrap top. It was sexy without being slutty and had him wishing she would stand up just so he could see how well her jeans fit her backside.

“God, you’re such a smarmy pervert.”

He shrugged, unrepentant.

“And why are you sitting so close to me?” She wiggled slightly to get away from him but all she managed to do was rub against him in the process. “You’ve been with so many women I’ll probably get a STD just sitting next to you.”

He took slight offense to that. It hadn’t been that many. “How do you know how many women I’ve been with? You don’t know me that well.” He frowned. “I think.”

“I’ve seen you out in the city at Machado’s a few times. Each time with a different girl.”

He looked at her. The Cuban restaurant was one of his favorite haunts while he lived in Manhattan and a place he often took women on first dates. “We lived in the same neighborhood?” he asked. She nodded once. “And I never noticed you?”

“You did notice me, but I guess I’m just forgettable.”

He racked his brain, searching for her face in his memory, but came up blank. “Don’t you think it’s time you let me in on this little secret? Tell me how I know you.”

“Nope.” She shook her head. “Can I have the last strawberry?”

“Yeah.” He picked up the last chocolate-and-cream-covered strawberry with his fingers and presented it to her mouth. “I don’t see why you just can’t tell me. We live in the same town again. We’re bound to see more of each other. This game is stupid.”

She shrugged, taking a bite of the berry. “I think it’s fun.”

He watched her chew for a moment, her lips once again driving him to distraction. She was right. He liked feeding her, and not for the reasons she thought. He just liked to see her mouth work. He mentally shook himself out of her spell. This woman was going to cause him to do something he regretted. “Why don’t you like me?”

“Can’t stand it, can you?” She gave him a slight grin and pulled his hand to her mouth to deposit the last bit of strawberry. “There’s more chocolate on your fingers than was on the damn strawberry.” She lifted his thumb to her mouth, placed it inside, and removed all traces of food with her tongue.

Holy shit.

His entire body went rigid. All his blood, every ounce went rushing from his head, flooding into other places.

“What?” She looked up at him, his thumb still in her warm, moist mouth.

The silly girl hadn’t meant to make him harder than cement, but she had. Mike heard a choking sound and looked up to see Colin wide-eyed. Nothing shocked his friend, but today Ellis had managed to do it. Ellis slowly removed his thumb from her mouth and turned to look at Colin and her friends. Cherri’s mouth hung open; Belinda stared at Ellis as if she had never seen her before.

“It’s not what it … He had chocolate on his…” Ellis groaned. “I need a drink.” She climbed over Mike, her breasts brushing against his cheek, and quickly headed for the bar. “So freaking stupid,” she muttered. “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.”

*   *   *

Ellis made her way up to the bar, her chest heaving, her mind racing. How could she be so stupid? How could she let such an infuriating man make her lose all common sense? She let him feed her! Multiple times! And then she got so caught up in their back-and-forth that she forgot to be rational and sucked on his thumb. The worst thing about it was that she didn’t realize how intimate it was, how wrong it was, until Mike froze and looked at her like she was a total slut. And she was a total slut. Who else would suck on a man’s thumb in a bar?

“Hey, Red,” Ellis heard behind her. She ignored it, thinking the man behind her was talking to someone else. The line at the bar was long and Ellis really needed a drink. She wasn’t going to have one, though. A bottle of water was all she was going to be drinking. Who knew what another dose of alcohol would cause her to do? “Hey, Red.” This time she felt a tap on her shoulder.

She turned to face the tapper. “Yes?” It was one of the frat boys she had seen earlier.

“What are you drinking?” He slurred and then looked at her breasts. “I’ll buy.”

“No thanks. I’m just going to have water.” She turned around to wait patiently for her turn. She didn’t need this bullshit.

“Oh come on, Red. I’ve got a bet going with my friends that I could get you back to my dorm before the final round.”

She turned around again.
Oh no, he didn’t.
“Well, honey, I think you might want to tuck your tail between your legs and head back to your friends because that is a bet you are going to lose.”

“Oh, don’t be such a stuck-up bitch. How many guys want to take you home tonight? You’re like a six. Tops.” He wavered on his feet. “You just better be glad I like ’em a little fat.” He drunkenly grabbed Ellis’s arm. “Give me a kiss.”

“Hey, buddy.” Ellis looked up and Mike was there. He grabbed the kid’s wrist and twisted it into the most unnatural position Ellis had ever seen. The frat boy dropped to his knees. “Watch how you speak to her and the next time the word
bitch
comes out of your mouth you better be referring to a dog. Got it?”

“Yes,” the boy panted.

“Yes, what?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Now take your drunk ass home.”

Mike let the guy go but before he could turn his attention back to Ellis, she left.

*   *   *

Ellis escaped through a side door to the alley. Her lungs squeezed, gasping for air. Mike had nearly dismembered that kid and all because he called her a bitch. What was up with him? And why did have to look so damn good doing it? Thirty seconds later Mike came barreling through the door, his eyes searching for her in the dark. Why couldn’t he be the same asshole who’d tried to get it on in her bed? Why did he have to do little things that made her not hate him?

“Are you okay?” he asked when he found her.

No, she wasn’t okay. She was a nut. “Why the hell did you do that?” she yelled at him. “You had to act all macho and nearly break the kid’s wrist. I didn’t need to be rescued. I could have handled him. It was nothing.”