Better (Too Good series) (31 page)

“Grow. Up,” the other employee snapped as he skated past her
on the outside edge of the rink.

“I can’t,” he replied, breathing heavily. “Why do you think I come here?”

She rolled her eyes and turned her back on him.

He looked around for Red Shirt
, spotting him hanging near Cadence. He skated over to them and clasped hands with his opponent.

“A draw,” he said.

“No way, man. I beat you,” the kid replied.

“No
, you didn’t,” Mark countered. He looked at his girlfriend. “Cadence, who won?”

“The kid,” she replied.

Red Shirt smiled brightly. “Buy me some nachos.”

“That was our agreement?” Mark asked.

The kid nodded. “I yelled ‘Nachos’ on the floor when I passed you.”

“
You little liar,” Mark replied, pulling a five dollar bill from his wallet.

“Thanks!” the kid exclaimed
, snatching it. “Call me,” he said to Cadence, then turned and skated to the snack counter.

Mark raised his eyebrows.

Cadence shrugged and held up a little piece of paper with a phone number scrawled on it. “He thinks I’m in middle school.”

Mark shook his head
and laughed.

“You were sexy and dorky out there,” she said. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with that.”

He took her hand. “It means you’re supposed to do me when we get home.”

Cadence laughed hard.

“I’m sorry I ruined your skate lesson. I don’t think they’re gonna let me back on the floor today.”

“I have a feeling that happened a lot when you were younger,” Cadence said, letting him lead her to a bench.

“Uh, yeah,” Mark replied. He pulled off his shoes.

“Expensive to only go around the rink a handful of times,” she pointed out.

“I know. But my dad was just as bad, if not worse. We were banned for a month or so.”

Cadence giggled. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“So we skated around the neighborhood instead until we got in trouble with the homeowners association.” He looked around the rink and sighed. “God, I miss my dad.” He scratched the back of his neck and looked at Cadence.

“I miss mine, too,” she said softly. “I mean, I miss the dad I knew before all this happened.”

Mark pulled her leg over his knees and untied her skate.

“Is it my fault?” he whispered.

“What? That my dad disowned me?” she asked.

He nodded.

“Mark, are you serious?”

“You would still have a relationship with your parents had I not come into the picture,” he pointed out.

“You coming into the picture shed light on my tenuous relationship with my parents,” she explained.

“Tenuous. I like that word.”

“I just used it in an English paper. Still fresh in my mind,” Cadence said.

Mark chuckled.

“Look at me,” she demanded.

He pulled her skate off
, then looked at her face.

“Do you think for a minute that I feel like it was a big mistake starting a relationship with you?” she asked.

“I hope not.”

“It wasn’t. I know I was meant to be with you. And I don’t care who accepts it and who doesn’t. Fuck ‘em because I love you. And you were given to me. I recognized that from the beginning.”

“And who gave me to you?” he asked.

“God.”

Mark thought for a moment. “You know, you like to credit God for every good thing . . .” He blushed.

Cadence grinned. “You can say you’re a good thing because you are. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Mark squeezed her foot. “I just meant that even when it’s people doing nice things for you, you always credit God.”

“You think he’s not using those people to help me?” She draped her other leg over his knees, and he went to work on her skate.

“I never thought of it that way,” Mark said.

“Well, that’s because you’re angry with God and cut yourself off from him. Doesn’t mean he can’t still use you for his purpose. He uses people
all the time who don’t believe in him.”

“Puppets, huh?” Mark asked, sliding off her skate.

“No.”

“Chess pieces?”

Cadence paused then leaned over and kissed his cheek.

“I will never understand your pain,” she whispered. “I don’t think I’m supposed to. But I’m here. Always. And I’ll come skate with you whenever you want.”

Mark tensed.

“And if you need to talk about Andy and your loss, you can. Anytime. If you wanna talk about your dad, I’m here. I may not be able to understand, but I’ll listen. I’ll comfort you. Because I love you, Mark. You were meant to heal my heart last year when I was lonely and lost. I think maybe I’m meant to heal yours
, too.”

Mark looked out on the floor as he absent-mindedly rubbed Cadence’s foot.

“You realize I didn’t even make it a full circle around the rink?” she asked.

He chuckled. “Baby steps.”

“Gotcha.”

He turned to her once more.
“You ready, Sweet Cheeks?”

She nodded and leaned in for a
nother kiss. It was an innocent roller rink kiss. No tongue. No deep-seated passion. Just a boy-and-girl-on-a-date kiss. He drew back and smiled at her.

“I’ll behave the next time,” he promised.

“Okay,” she replied.

They w
alked out of the rink leaving their baggage on the waxed floor.

***

“Hey, this sounds familiar,” Cadence said, rounding the corner of the kitchen.

Mark hovered over the record player.

“I should hope so,” he replied, watching the vinyl spin. “One of the best love songs of all time.”

“I know this song,” Cadence said. She thought
for a moment. “This is a Killers song!”

“Oh. My. God.”

“What?” she cried. “It is!”

“No, honey. No, it’s not. They covered it. But this is a Dire Straits song,” Mark explained. “
Give credit where it’s due, okay?”

“Never heard of them,” Cadence replied, shrugging.

Mark turned around and took Cadence in his arms. He sighed patiently. “Thank God you’re dating me.”

She burst out laughing.

“Wanna slow dance?”

She grinned.
“You know I can’t dance.”

“I don’t know about that,” Mark said. “Your
Tori Amos interpretive dance was pretty good.”

Cadence giggled. “That was just silly. I’m talking real dancing. I’d do better to stand on your feet and let you move us around.”

Mark looked at her thoughtfully. “You know, if you’d have said that to me a year ago, I might have agreed. But you’re not a little girl anymore.”

Cadence shook her head. “No, I’m not.”

“But you’re my girl,” Mark said, pulling her close. “And you’re little.”

She looked up at him and smiled.

“Put those little arms around me,” he said.

She complied, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“Just follow my lead,” he whispered, moving her side to side.

They danced to the story of Romeo and Juliet, and Cadence thought it couldn’t be more fitting.
Forbidden love. The world against them. Well, maybe not the
whole
world. Just the right amount of melodrama. Mark kissed her neck and hummed the tune in her ear. She kept stepping on his feet until he finally picked her up and let her legs dangle as he continued around the living room.

“See,” she said softly. “Should have let me stand on your feet.”

He chuckled and squeezed her tightly.

“I love you, Cadence.”

She pressed her mouth to his and spoke against his lips.

“I love you, too,” she replied. “Now put me down.”

He looked at her confused but did as she asked, setting her on her feet and watching as she strode to the record player. She stopped the player and put away the vinyl.

“But it wasn’t over yet,” Mark objected.

“I’m over it. I’m over anything sweet and sappy and tears-inducing and heavy and deep. You got it?”

Mark cracked a smile and nodded.

“Now go sit on the couch. Well, wait. Move that coffee table aside and then sit on the couch.”

He had no idea what she was up to, but he was intrigued. And turned on. He liked when she bossed him around. He sank into the couch and waited for her next demand.

“You have an obsession with ass,” she said thoughtfully. “I thought this could be your theme song. I heard it last year on the radio.”

She pressed PLAY on the CD player, and Mark listened as the whine of an R&B song filled the apartment.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” he laughed, watching her walk to the center of the living room.

“I should have taken a shot first,” she mumbled to herself
as she bent her upper body side to side. Next, she did overhead tricep stretches, and Mark stared at her, confused. She dropped her arms and looked him straight in the eyes. “Okay. Here goes. You want my ass? You’ve gotta beg me for it.”

Cadence spun around and rolled her hips from side to side
to the beat of the song. Mark watched, noting how round and perky her backside looked in her skinny jeans. It was monstrously unfair, the way she teased him. He reached out to touch her, but she swatted his hand away.

“Nuh uh,” she said, running her hands all over her thighs and bottom. “I can’t slow dance, but I can bump and grind.”

“Fuck. Yeah,” Mark replied, gawking at her tiny frame moving fluidly to the most ridiculous song he’d ever heard. Some guy searching for booty. Obsessed with it, really. But he liked it. And he liked her. He especially liked her dancing for him. Not sad Cadence when she danced to Tori Amos. Not scared Cadence when he took her to the club. Not stumbling Cadence when he held her in his arms and rocked her to the soft melody of “Romeo and Juliet.” Nope. This was sexy, exhibitionist Cadence, and he thought he’d come in his pants when she looked over her shoulder, grinned at him seductively, and shook her tiny hips.

“Get over here,” he said huskily.

“Nope. I’m not done,” she argued, turning to face him.

“Yes
, you are,” he replied.

“
I’ll be your personal stripper,” she purred.

“Oh my God,” he breathed. He looked down. “Cadence, I’m hard as a rock. Please come here.”

“Nope,” she said.

She pulled her shirt over her head. And
then she did a sultry move where she bent over, ran her hands slowly up the front of her legs, then ended standing upright with a finger in her mouth. She shook her hips again.

“I learned that from
Carmen Electra’s Aerobic Striptease
.”

Mark’s mouth hung open.

“I’ve been practicing with Avery.”

All he could
do was nod.

She wiggled out of her jeans and tossed them to him.

“You wanna see some floor moves?” she asked.

He
stared at her through bug eyes.

“Mark?” she asked, grinning.

“Here. Now.” That was all he managed to get out.

“But don’t you wanna see me gyrate on the floor?”

“Yeah. Under me,” he replied.

She cracked up. And then she pounced on him, straddling his hips and sinking her teeth in his neck.

“Ouch!”

“Am I sexy?” she whispered.

“So fucking sexy,” he replied. “I want you to dance for me like that every night.”

She sat up and looked at him. “What are you gonna do for me?”

“Anything,” he said quickly. “Whatever the hell you want.”

She chuckled then leaned in and whispered the dirtiest thing he’d ever he
ard.

“Are you sure?” he asked.
His face sported the widest grin.

She nodded. “But I’ll have to take a shot first.”

“I’ll give you the whole bottle, Sweet Cheeks,” he replied. He tossed her over his shoulder, stood up, and walked with purpose to the kitchen. He grabbed the vodka and headed for the bedroom.

“Who booty, babe?” she squealed when he dumped her on the bed.

“Yours, Cadence. Only yours. Now use correct grammar and turn over so I can smack that booty around,” he ordered.

She laughed. “Not like the last time!”
she warned.

“Oh, this’
ll be sweet punishment,” he said, popping her bottom. “And you’re gonna love it.”

She squirmed and shrieked
as he slid her panties off. And then he set to work delivering his promise to do whatever she wanted. She thought it was all for her, but he knew better.