Chapter Four
1265 Words
Amelia
“What’s up with you?”
I paused with my drink part way to my lips and flicked my eyes over the table to my closest friend. What was up with me? How could I explain to her that the previous night I had some how managed to agree to become the fiancé, well fake fiancé to a man I didn’t know. Who just happened to be a creature I loathed.
It would be hard enough to explain to someone who understood the community. It was impossible to explain to someone as human as Annie. She didn’t even know about witches and Shifters let alone that I was one.
And I wanted to keep it that way.
“I just need to unwind that’s all” I sipped the cool clear liquid. “And you are always bugging me to come out, so here I am” I shimmied in my seat. She had been annoying me for weeks to head out with her and her other girlfriends.
My statement had the required effect. She grinned widely and I sighed a sigh of relief. Subject changed.
“About time, you work too hard”
That was true, I did. But work and falling into bed exhausted was much better than laying staring at the ceiling and remembering until the early hours. Still I was young, I did deserve a life outside of the office.
I made a mental note to go out with my friends more. To be a better friend.
If I got out of this alive of course.
“Actually, I’m going to go away for a few weeks tomorrow” I slipped it in with ease. It wasn’t that I was lying to them. Not completely. I just wasn’t telling them the whole truth.
“You are taking time off?” The shock in her voice should have hurt but what could I say. I had not taken a holiday since I started with the company two years ago.
“Just a short break, I’ll work remotely” I couldn’t meet her eyes.
“So not a holiday then” She sounded exasperated as she continued to search my face and I continued to keep my eyes on the glass in front of me.
“A working holiday” I admitted finally giving her a smile. “To wales”
The whole table erupted into giggles. “Wales?” Annie hiccupped into her cocktail. “Wales as in hills, rain and sheep?”
“It’s a beautiful country”
“Could you not afford the Caribbean? I mean you earn enough. A working holiday on a tropical beach sounds so much more … appealing”
“Wales is beautiful” I countered again. “The history, the countryside”
She gave me a look. “Has this got something to do with a guy?”
Damn it she knew me too well.
I bit my lip again.
“I knew it…” She laughed outrageously. “You kept that quiet, spill”
“It has nothing to do with a man, get your mind out of the gutter” I fished the lime out of my empty glass, and sucked it between my lips. It was a strange habit of mine but one I just couldn’t seem to shake. “Shall we dance, I love this song”
As I slid from my seat, careful on my heels. The floor was slippery with spilled drinks and the last thing I needed was to fall and break a bone. Though maybe a broken which wasn’t much use to the oracle? Probably wouldn’t get me out of it though.
Still it was great to dance. I had forgotten how much in had enjoyed letting loose in university. How music could instantly put you in a better mood. How dancing was a relief. So, I swayed my hips in time with the music. My arms above my head as I shimmied. Knowing from the appreciative glances of the men around me that I at least looked good.
“Damn girl” I hadn’t seen him approach, I had been to busy in my own head, but I stiffened as his hands slipped around my waist. “You look fantastic”
“What do you think your doing?” I reached for Annie’s hand and she pulled me with a gentle tug out of the arms of my ex-lover.
She was good friend.
“You look fantastic” He stepped forward again, leaning down so he could be heard over the music. A swatch of green light cut across his handsome face and I could see the jealousy there.
That’s what this was about. He was jealous because other men were looking at me. He had always been the jealous type. It was one of the reasons we had never become exclusive.
“You have said that before” I turned my back on him. Moving my body again. I did actually love this song.
“Yeah piss off Matthew” Annie flicked him a finger and laughed as he scowled at her. She had never liked Matt. He played at being an alpha male, and he played it badly. It drove him crazy that she could see straight through him.
It had taken me a few months to see what she saw but I got there. And since then he had wanted me even more.
Desperate,
And so unattractive.
“Ami I just want to talk; you haven’t been returning my calls” His voice had turned whiny. How had I ever thought him attractive. His entitled personality overshadowed his handsome face.
“I am out dancing with my friends” I countered.
“And maybe you should take the hint” Annie giggled.
He didn’t move, I sighed heavily. “Fine…” I sounded resigned.
I could hear him out. Its not like he could follow me to wales He would grow bored long before he even found me. He had the attention span of a gnat.
I let him slide his hands around my waist, felt his hips start to move against mine and cringed. He was pressed so closely to my backside he was practically dry humping me right there in the club.
“Talk you said” I tried to move away, tried to give myself an inch between his body and mine but his hands were vice like on my hips. “Dammit Matt, let go of me”
“Come on Ami, you know you don’t want that” He ground himself against my butt.
Son of a b***h was getting off on this, I was pretty sure of it. I turned wide eyes to Annie, but she was standing there with her mouth open. I couldn’t see what she was staring but it had to be a man. She always got this dumbfounded look about her when she saw her prey for the night.
“Think Ami asked you to let her go”
I froze. I knew that voice. The lilt of the accent. The deep masculine growl of it.
“Get lost” Matt clutched me a little tighter, as if I was some toy he didn’t want to share.
“I said get your f*****g hands off of her”
- Writer
