Diving Deep (UK Crush #2)

Chapter 31

"Is it me, or is really hot in here?" I asked in the car as we headed toward the pub.

    "Well, your cheeks look really flushed, Tink," Gethin noted. "How much wine did you have back there?"

    "Your teammates were real gentlemen about keeping me topped off," I told him. "My glass was never more than half empty, so I don't actually know how much I drank."

    "Please, please, tell me, darling, you did say you had a boyfriend?" Teddy asked, looking at me. "You did mention that pertinent fact to them, right?"

    I thought about it. "I don't remember." I thought some more. "But Gethin did, right?" I looked at him.

    He shook his head. "Never mentioned it, love, I'm sure of it."

    "Oh." I looked down at my lap. "Well, I'm sure it couldn't possibly matter less. Like I said, they're world famous athletes, they must have women lined up for miles waiting to get at them. They wouldn't have any interest in a dwarfy brunette who plays the piano, knows nothing about soccer, and hates beer."

    "Oh my god." Janelle turned around to look at me, then she looked at Geth, who was sitting next to her. "I see what you're talking about." She looked back at me, hooking her arm over the back of the seat. "Is this how you talk about yourself all the time? Have you looked in a mirror? Have you any idea what you look like? At all?"

    I stared at her. "What are you talking about? I'm not saying I'm ugly or anything. I know what I look like. I'm just saying I'm not glamorous, and guys like that, you know, famous people, people who have their pick, usually go for the glamor, that's all." I looked down at my lap, embarrassed, hoping that the subject was closed.

    "No, no, I'm not going to just let this go," Janelle persisted. I looked back at her, incredulous. Even Geth put a hand on her arm.

    "Jan, come on, it's not important, give it a rest, hmm?" He said in a conciliatory tone.

    She shook his hand off her arm. "No I won't," she said stubbornly.

    "Tinker Bell? Tinker Bell. Listen to me." She put her hand on my knee, which she could just barely reach from her position in front of me. "Somehow, because of how you were brought up or something, I don't know, you managed to live the first twenty years of your life with no awareness of your physicality at all. None. And you seem to think, because you're not very tall and you have brown hair, that this equals being plain or something. I don't know, maybe it's because you're from California, where everyone has long legs and blonde hair." She smiled, and I smiled back in spite of myself. The boys were all watching raptly, Teddy with a hand on my back.

    "Those men? Who 'have their pick', as you said?" She gestured around the car, ending with Teddy and raising her eyebrows at me in a "how can you be so stupid?" expression.

    "When my brother first started talking about you, it wasn't about how you looked, that's true. It was all about how incredibly smart you were, how nice, how fun and funny. And then he started sending me photographs and telling me how pretty you were, how you looked like a Polynesian princess or something." I noticed that Gethin was blushing slightly.

    "I've heard all of the boys tell you how beautiful you are, and I know you think it's because you think they feel they have to, and because they love you, and that's true, they do, but you are, you are. You're a very pretty girl, all the more so around here because you look so exotic, with your coloring and the shape of your eyes.

    "And you have a beautiful figure, Tinker Bell." She grabbed my knee. "Don't think I didn't see you rolling your eyes just now! You can wear all the baggy clothes you like, it doesn't change the fact that you're stacked, and you have gorgeous legs. And you're not  even that short, not that it would matter if you were. It's just that these four great idiots here are extra skinny and tall, which makes you look a little smaller than you are when you're with them." I wondered, in spite of the tension in the car, when was the last time these particular guys had been dismissed as "great idiots", and it made me smile to myself.

    "Anyway, I'm sick as shit of hearing you say you're plain and short and mousey and drab and whatever the fuck else you've been saying since we met. I mean, you do realize that you, drab, mousey, and plain you, somehow managed to grab up the most eligible and sought after bachelor on earth, widely acknowledged as the best looking man in the world, and take him off the market?" She took her hand off my knee and laid it across the back of the seat. "Hmm?"

    Ronan started clapping, and Geth, Theo, and Matty joined him, all of them looking back and forth between Janelle and me. Janelle rested her chin on her arms, looking smug and satisfied. I had no idea what to say or do, so I tried to make myself smaller and looked at my lap, my usual MO. I was torn between embarrassment and gratitude.

    "You are just going to have to admit to yourself that you're nice looking, you're pretty, and people are going to notice it and men are going to admire you for it," Janelle said. "And not just people who know you, who know how wonderful you are and love you for it, like these four." She gestured to the boys. "I'm talking about people who are going to see your photograph, because being this one's girlfriend means you're going to get photographed a lot, and people are going to see it. Not everyone wants a twig in a push up bra. People are going to look at you and they're going to go 'wow, look at that rack, look at those legs, she's hot', and you're going to have to get used to that." My eyes widened at her words.

    "And so," she looked at Teddy with a grin,"are you, Mr. Jealous.

    "Finally, we're here. Smashing, can't wait to get a real drink at last. Let's get in there, people!" And she climbed over Matthew to be the first out of the car.

    "You're going to have your hands full with her tonight, Geth," Matty said in a voice filled with sympathy as he got out of the car. He gave me a wink of a beautiful blue eye as he stood on the curb.

    "Don't I know it," Geth said with a sigh as he, too got out, reaching into the back seat to give my knee a squeeze, along with mouthing, 'love you' to me as he moved past.

    Ronan got out of the back seat and turned to help me out.

    "Hey Ro?" Teddy called. "Give us a tick? We'll be out in a minute, okay?"

    "Sure, mate, meet you inside, then," he said, air kissing me before turning and walking in.

    "You okay then?" He asked me. "She really laid into you." He rubbed my back.

    "Oh yeah, I'm fine. It's only words, and what she said was actually really nice; she was just trying to be truthful and help me, I know that. Some of the things she said, though," I said with a smile. "It's going to take some time to digest."

    "You know that we all agree with her, don't you?" He asked with a smile.

    "I know," I said, smiling back. "I see in your eyes, when you all smile at me, that you like the way I look, and I've gotten used to it. Especially you." I ran my hand under the collar of his sweater, feeling his collarbone. "It makes me feel powerful. Isn't that strange? I like walking away from you, knowing that you're watching me, knowing that I'm turning you on with my hipsway." I leaned toward him. "Very caveman," I whispered, kissing him, slipping my tongue between his lips and sliding my hand up his thigh. He moaned, putting his hand on top of mine and squeezing.

    "I wish we could just go home," he whispered.

    "Just think of it as a really fun and public form of foreplay," I suggested, kissing his ear, running my tongue around the edge before plunging it in as far as it would go.   

    "Ah, god, feels so good," he murmured, pressing his ear to my mouth. He put his hand under my sweater, running it up the front of my tank top to my breast, finding my nipple with his thumb, rubbing it until he felt it harden. He felt the front of my shirt. "No buttons?" I shook my head. "Fuck," he said.

    "Just as well, we should get inside anyway, I suppose," he said resignedly.

    "I'll be thinking of you feeling me up all night, it'll be all I can think about," I assured him. "Sorry," I called to the driver up front, "I couldn't find my phone."