Dangerous Curves Ahead: A Perfect Fit Novel (7 page)

Mike passed the bar. He passed the gang of hot skinny girls. He passed the bathroom
. Frick.
It was like she was watching him in slow motion, like this was a scene from a movie and she was the fat nerdy girl in love with the quarterback who would never notice her. Except this was no movie. She definitely wasn’t in love and the hot guy was heading directly toward her, his blue eyes never leaving her face.
Frick!

“Don’t let me do anything stupid,” Ellis said grabbing hold of Belinda’s hand.

“What? Seriously, Ellis it’s just trivia. We aren’t going to stone you if you answer wrong.”

“Belinda!”

“What?” Belinda asked, following Ellis’s gaze. “Oh, the hot cop you were making goo-goo eyes with is on his way over and he’s bringing that sexy Irishman with him.”

“You know his friend, Belinda?” Cherri asked, clearly interested. Ellis hadn’t even noticed the man leading the detective but there he was, just as tall dark and handsome, with that same bad-boy gleam in his eye.

Hunks for sales. Two for the price of one.

“Yeah. He restored my mother’s old antique chest and believe me when I tell you that man is good with his hands.”

Cherri looked toward the two approaching men. “I bet he is,” she said softly.

“That’s riveting,” Ellis interrupted, “now back to me. Don’t let me do anything stupid. Mike’s looks seem to affect my brain cells. I need you to remind me that I don’t like him.”

“But you do like him,” Cherri pointed out.

“I can’t like him. I’m off men, remember? And he’s like junk food on a Tuesday. Strictly off limits.” She let out a frustrated sigh as Mike drew closer. There was no mistaking where he was heading. His eyes were still on her. She wished she’d never stuck her tongue out at him. “He slept with my sister,” she reminded them at the same time she reminded herself. “Don’t leave me alone with him.”

“Why not, Ellis?” Belinda asked grinning. “I think you’re pretty capable of handling yourself.”

“You’re wrong there. I’m a stressed-out basket case with an unstable future and Mike’s the type of guy who could—who could … Holy crap, you guys, I haven’t had sex in a really long time.” Ellis spoke faster, trying to get it all out before Mike reached her. “Just be good friends and save me from myself. You know I would do it for you.”

“Do what?” Mike asked.

Whoa Nellie.

Ellis took a breath and composed herself. She never got so worked up over anybody before but he looked good tonight, really freaking good in a black T-shirt and a pair of low-slung jeans. He looked equally good in a suit and in only a pair of Calvins.

“Nothing.” She forced herself to make eye contact and not stare at his chest. She wondered if she could bounce a quarter off it. “What are you doing here, Mikey? Looking for new conquests?”

“Nope.” He sat next to her on the booth, his big body pressing into hers and invading her space. He smelled good. Not like cologne but like shampoo and clean skin. It was much different from Jack’s expensive scent. It was damn near refreshing. “This is my friend Colin.” He pointed to the tall man still standing. “We’re joining your team.”

“What if we don’t want company?” Ellis said feeling the need to rib him. “What if we want a girls’ night out?”

“We don’t really care.” Mike’s eyes locked with hers. “Now mind your manners and say hello to my friend.”

“Hello, Colin.” She didn’t want to say hello to his friend. She wanted to say
Go away, go away, go away
but her mischievous side reared its ugly head. “I must not be memorable.” She looked at the Irishman with mournful eyes. “I guess you don’t recall who I am, either.” She glanced at Mike and then back at his friend. They exchanged a glance.

“No, love, can’t say I do.” He slid his long body into the seat next to Cherri. “Can you tell me what kind of underwear I wear?” He grinned at her.

So Mike had told his friend about her. Ellis wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. Probably bad. It was never good when men spoke to each other but she looked on the bright side. Mike didn’t remember her, so he couldn’t have said much to his equally charming friend.

“Oh, Colin, we both know you don’t wear any,” Ellis shot back.

Colin’s grin melted away and both men stared at each other for a long moment and then looked back at her. Mike did not look happy. Aha! She’d gotten them.

“That was a lucky guess, I swear!” She laughed.

“Brat,” Mike said under his breath, shaking his head at her naughty behavior.

What was wrong with her? She was a Harvard Law grad, a business owner. A grown-up, for God’s sake. Why was it that every time she got around Mike she acted like a hormonal thirteen-year-old? There was just something about him that made her want to act up. And it was fun.

“I’m sorry, Colin.” She did some head shaking of her own. “We’ve never met before and I didn’t know that you enjoyed going commando but now that I do, I know what not to get you for Christmas.”

“I like her,” Colin said to Mike with a grin before he turned back to her. “It’s nice to meet you, Ellis. Introduce me to your lovely friends.”

Ellis made the introductions and didn’t fail to notice the extra attention Colin gave to the too-young-for-him, very mild-mannered Cherri. Oh Lord, Ellis thought. Cherri would be no match for the sexy grinning Irishman.

“Did you guys order any food yet?” Mike asked as his eyes passed over the menus sitting before him on the table.

Ellis pulled her attention away from her friend and back to Mike. She was about to answer when Belinda beat her to it.

“We can’t.” Belinda pouted. “Ellis has a no-junk-food-on-weekdays rule and she sort of resembles a starving puppy when we eat it in front of her. We’re not sure if we should feed her or send her to the pound.”

“What?” Mike slowly perused Ellis’s figure, which immediately caused her to shrink back in her seat and get goose bumps all at once.

She inwardly sighed. Her food rule was no secret but for some reason she didn’t want Mike and his very cute friend to know about it. She didn’t want any excuse for him to study her less-than-skinny body or her eating habits. She knew his type. He went for girls like her sister. Girls with less than 5 percent body fat. It made her wonder why he was sitting with them tonight.

“Ask her about it,” Belinda continued, causing Ellis to wonder if she could kick her friend under the table without anyone else noticing. “If it’s not Saturday or Sunday she won’t eat anything with any fat or sugar.”

Mike narrowed his eyes as he studied Ellis once again. She hated it when he looked at her like she was a specimen in a petri dish. “When I met you it was a Tuesday and you were getting a Black and White.”

Damn it
. He remembered. He witnessed that entire mortifying scene between her and Agatha Toomey. “I was having a shitty day.” She shrugged. “I made an exception.”

“Why don’t you just eat what you want, Ellis?”

“Because Mikey, us fat girls can’t eat what we want when we want it. It’s so much easier for you men. You can eat whatever you want and the most half of you get is beer bellies. It’s really very sickening. I eat a bag of chips and I can’t button my pants. You never have to worry about your ass jiggling or squeezing yourself into a pair of Spanx. Do you know how hard it is to put on a pair of Spanx? Have you ever had to wear a girdle? Or worry about cellulite on the back of your legs? And back fat! Oh, don’t get me started on back fat. Nobody ever tells you that you need to lose weight. People don’t come up to you in coffee shops and offer to put you on a diet. You don’t cringe every time you have to put on a bathing suit.” Ellis took a breath. “And why the hell are you letting me rant about this?” She turned to her two silent but grinning friends. “Remember when I said don’t let me ramble on like a crazy person? That was your cue to stop me.”

“We like it when you rant,” Cherri told her. She turned to Mike. “Have you read Ellis’s blog? She is hysterical. She says all the stuff all the girls like us think but don’t have the guts to say out loud. Her blog is the reason why I went to work for her. Her store is a dream come true for girls like me. It’s finally a place we can be ourselves.”

Ellis felt a rush of affection for Cherri in that moment.

Guess who’s getting Employee of the Month?

“Blog?” Mike looked at Ellis. “Girls like you?” He blinked. He looked at her confused. She wasn’t surprised. Men never got it. “Ellis, what kind of store do you run?”

“It’s a store for what I like to call the hard-to-fit yet extremely fashionable population,” she explained. “You know, the long and lanky girls. Our large-footed sisters. The petite yet full-figured and your run-of-the-mill plus-sized divas. It’s hard for us to find clothes that are cute so I decided to open the store and fill that gap in the market. And if it doesn’t fit I tailor clothes upon request.”

“What kind of girl are you?” Colin asked with a slight smile. Both men actually seemed to be interested in what she was saying—either that or they were really good fakers.

“Me?”Ellis pointed to herself, surprised he had to ask. “I’m what the politically correct call plus-sized but what most people call fat. But I also have big feet and tend to be on the taller side.”

“You’re not fat.” Mike shook his head. “I think your rule is dumb.” He picked up the menus and handed them out, neglecting to give Ellis one. He seemed serious, like he really believed himself when he said she wasn’t fat. It made her not trust him. “Everybody order what you want.” Mike looked at her and shook his head again.

“I never said they couldn’t,” she said hotly. He had no right to pass judgment on her eating habits. He was just like Jack, except in the opposite direction. “Just because I want to maintain some kind of control of my weight doesn’t mean my rule is stupid. People do what I do all the time. I’m trying to watch my figure.”

“I like your figure.” He looked at the menu and briefly at her, his eyes lingering on her lips. “I’ll watch it for you.”

Is he hitting on me?

“What?” She felt a warm flush creep up her neck.

He ignored her outburst. “What do you want? I’m buying.”

“You’re not buying anything for me.” She firmly shook her head. “I had soup before I came. I’m not hungry.”

“You don’t have to be hungry to eat dessert.”

He turned the menu over to the back side, wrapped his long arm around her middle, and grabbed ahold of the menu with his other hand, encasing her in his arms. Her immediate reaction was to snuggle close, but her brain was screaming to get away. Her body betrayed her and instead of fleeing, tingles ran over all the parts of her that had come in contact with him. For a moment she wondered how all this would feel if neither of them wore clothes.

Bad girl. Dirty thoughts. He slept with your sister!

The menu was in front of her face and she had no choice but to look at it. The other options were to look at her traitorous friends, who were doing nothing to stop this man from wrapping himself around her, or at Mike. And he was just as bad for her as junk food.

“What looks good, Ellis?”

She glanced at his profile for a moment.
You
, she thought. He had just a hint of five-o’clock shadow making his already rugged face even better. “Mike, I don’t want—”

“I saw your eyes linger on the chocolate nachos.” His gaze remained on her face for a moment. “You’ll share them with me.” He waved his hand, and immediately a cute waitress appeared to take their orders.

Mike had busted her yet again. Her eyes had lingered on the chocolate nachos. Cinnamon tortillas, topped with powdered sugar and drizzled with a decadent hot chocolate sauce. The creator of this masterpiece, the wicked man, placed fresh strawberries, homemade whipped cream, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. That combination shouldn’t be good together but it was one of the best things Ellis had tasted. When she was feeling really naughty, she would indulge.

Tonight she was feeling quite naughty.

“You shouldn’t have ordered those,” she told him as the waitress took the rest of their party’s order. Chocolate was her downfall, the only thing that could cause her to break down and binge. “Chocolate is like good sex with a hot man. It’s great for a while but eventually it will make you sick.”

“What?” Mike’s eyes fell on her lips. “Say that again?”

Had she spoken out loud? And why the hell did his eyes always focus on her lips? This day couldn’t possibly get any worse—first Jack and now Mike. She had reached her quota of men for the year. The thought of entering a convent entered her head. Her Jewish mother wouldn’t appreciate that, but Ellis couldn’t please everybody all the time.

She made the mistake of looking into his eyes.
Shit.
He was looking at her with male interest. Well, of course he was. She’d said
sex
. “I didn’t say anything. Now get the hell off of me.”

Ellis wised up and finally shook herself out of his hold but his skin left its impression on hers, and she felt the warmth from his touch linger long after he let her go. She took a short deep breath, composing herself, and looked toward her friends who were happily ensconced in conversation with Colin.
Traitors.
They were no help at all. She was going to do something stupid shortly.

Mike turned his body toward hers. “What did I do to you that caused you not to like me?”

“Do you remember who I am yet?”

His eyes searched her face once again. “No.” He shook his head. “But I know we were never together. I stopped doing the one-night-stand thing a long time ago, and I know that four years ago I would have never gone for you.”

“I know,” she said, slightly miffed. “Guys like you never look at girls like me.”

“I’m looking now, Ellis. Hell, I probably looked then, too, but you look like a breeder.”

“Excuse me?” Her defenses went up. If he was referring to her as livestock she’d pop him in the mouth. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Relax.” One corner of his mouth curled. “We call women like you breeders because you look like baby makers. The type of women who want to get married last week and start popping out a bunch of kids. You appear serious when a guy like me is just looking for a little fun.”