Page 76 of Muse (Fighting Fate)

Dean laughed at her. “You can’t talk. What have you got? One brother who’s a pilot, one that’s a major software designer, and one that’s a fucking property tycoon.”

Amber grumbled. “Yeah, it’s great. Try living up to all that expectation.”

Jess laughed. “Yeah, well my parents are still grumbling about Austin’s career choice. Poor guy can’t catch a break.”

Dean gaped at her. “What do you mean? He’s playing for the god damned Rangers. And at twenty-one! How can they grumble about that? That’s huge.”

Jess just shrugged and laughed. “Don’t get me wrong, they’re proud, but Dad still has fantasies about ‘Montgomery and Son’. He wants to be able to hand the business down the generation chain.”

Kaeli thumped her glass on the table and frowned. “Man, I so lucked out in the sibling department. All I’m stuck with is a loser step brother who prefers to live his life leeching off anyone he can.”

“You can have one of my brothers,” Amber said. “Take Alex, he’s in need of someone to watch out for him.”

“Why, what’s going on?” Jess asked.

She glanced over at the bunch of girls who were doing everything they could to get one of us guys alone. “See the skank squad?” she said. I almost spat my drink out at that one. The name suited them. “Put them in designer clothes and Alex in the middle. The only women he seems to get are those with dollar signs in their eyes. I nearly bitch slapped the last one. Ran up over fifty thousand dollars on the home shopping network and wacked it on his credit card.”

Mia’s jaw dropped open. “Are you serious?”

“Oh, yeah. There are some real freaking leeches around.”

Mia looked at me with horror in her eyes. I gave her a look which I hoped told her I had no fucking intention of going anywhere near the skank squad.

After that we spent most of the time just talking quietly to each other. At some stage Rich and Gary, the guy from Leighton’s, dropped by to talk to us, but other than that, I didn’t give a fuck who else was around us. I knew people were curious about what was going on with me and Mia. I could almost feel people’s eyes boring holes into me, but they could all go fuck themselves. They didn’t matter. Mia did.

We’d been sitting there for over an hour when Mia leaned back and gave me a little teasing smile. “Dance with me?”

Oh fuck no. My eyes narrowed slightly as I returned her gaze. “Uh-uh. I don’t think so.”

The smile left her face and her eyes grew all wide and fucking pleading. “Please?”

I dropped my head back against the seat and groaned.

She shifted on my lap and suddenly stood, holding onto my hands as she went. I looked up at her blinking at me all sweetly. “Please?” she said again.

I glanced out to the sea of bodies on the dance floor. This was a really fucking bad idea. “Mia…”

She tugged on my hands, trying to encourage me. “Come on. We can dance just over there – on the edge…”

I let her pull me up, knowing I should be saying no, but it seemed

I had no fucking balls when it came to Mia.

She hesitated when I was up, her courage seemingly faltering. I took her hand and led her to the edge of the dance floor, hoping Aiden wasn’t about to come knock me out. Pulling her into my arms, I held her closely, trying to gauge how she was coping by the tension in her body. She was tense, but I couldn’t feel her heart thumping out of control.

She gazed up at me and smiled. “Thank you.”

I didn’t say anything, I couldn’t. I just gazed at her, wondering how she’d suddenly become the center of my world.

Chapter 35

Mia

I’d never been more proud of myself in my life. I’d actually made it through a whole night at a crowded club without having an anxiety attack. Well, maybe not a whole night, but an hour and a half was like a lifetime to me in a situation like that. Go me!

As Jace walked me out to the parking lot, I beamed. Dancing with him had been the ultimate. Not because of the dancing per se, but because I got to mark my territory.

I was amazed at how brazen some girls could be. Jace actually had a total of five girls, on five separate occasions, approach him like I didn’t even exist. All during the twenty minutes we were on the dance floor. When he just outright ignored them, I could’ve kissed him. In fact, I did. Again, go me!

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