My Everything - Seth & Amber (34 page)

Everyone laughed as the countdown started
once again. The DJ yelled 3, 2, 1! Jamie’s arm once again flew up
in the air. This time she released the bouquet and it went tumbling
through the air. Right toward Amber.

Uh oh.

--- ~ ---

Seth leaned against the wall, sipping a beer
as he watched Amber waiting on the dance floor with his cousins. He
hadn’t been able to stop staring at her all day. She would look
sexy in a garbage bag. But, man - that dress was no garbage bag. It
hugged every one of her curves and when she moved, it was as if the
gown moved with her.

Damn, he couldn’t wait to get her home and
out of that dress. He glanced at his watch. It had been less than
ten hours since they had made love in the shower this morning and
already Seth wanted her again. Badly.

Cam threw his arm around Seth’s shoulders.
“You think about my proposal yet?”

“Yes,” Seth knew his friend had been waiting
for an answer; he had just needed to be sure before he gave it to
him.

“Yes, you’ve been thinking about it? Or yes,
you want to do it?” Cam asked hopefully.

“Both,” Seth said.

Cam’s face lit up as he yelled, “Hell, yeah!
That’s what I’m talkin' about.”

Seth was glad the music was so loud no one
was able to hear Cam’s outburst.

“So what about the lovely Miss Webb, what’s
the dealio?” Cam asked happily.

“We’re together.”

“Daaaamn, good for you!” Cam said as he
slapped Seth on the back. “But I was actually talking about the
shit that went down in the hospital parking garage.”

Jason leaned forward so that his face was
between their shoulders, “You didn’t hear? My brother is a hero. He
caught that asshole and pinned him up against the wall until the
police got there.”

Seth shook his head. “Amber’s the hero.”

Cam (of course) ignored Seth’s statement,
only commenting on what Jason had said, “
You
had him against
the wall and you didn’t
kill
him?”

Seth watched as Jamie threw her arm up but
did not release the bouquet. He saw women scrambling when they
thought it was airborne. Amber stood in the back watching. She
looked as if she had absolutely zero interest in catching the
symbolic flowers.

“You going in for the garter toss?” Cam asked
Seth, and didn't even give him a chance to answer before issuing
the challenge, “Bet you twenty I’ll get it.”

“No.” Seth replied flatly.

“No, you’re not going in? Or no, you won’t
bet?” Cam asked, seeking clarification.

“Both.”

“Man, you’re no fun.”

Seth watched as Jamie again threw her arm up
in the air. This time she let go of the bouquet and it flew high in
the air. Girls were falling over themselves. He thought he saw a
couple of them throw some elbows.

He tracked its trajectory and quickly scanned
to Amber, who was staring as it flew straight at her. For a moment,
he thought she was just going to let it hit her in the chest and
bounce off of her onto the floor – or, more likely, into the
grasping claws of one (or more) of the other women. But at the last
minute, she raised her arms and caught it.

Cheers erupted from around the room. Well,
mainly from his sisters-in-law and cousins, but they were
loud
. Jamie walked over and gave Amber a hug. He noticed
that she whispered something into Amber's ear, but Amber just shook
her head.

She almost looked sad, or anxious, about
having caught the bouquet.

“Bet you’re gonna try to get that garter
now
, huh, buddy?” Cam laughed.

The DJ once again came over the loud speaker
as Katie’s Aunt Wendy brought out a chair for Jamie to sit on while
his brother removed the garter. Jamie moved to sit as Alex kneeled
before her. He couldn’t see his brother’s face, but he did see
Jamie’s as she blushed at something Alex had said. Seth saw her
mouth, “No, be good. Joey’s here.”

Seth smiled as he moved behind Amber and
slipped his arms around her waist, pulling her close to him.

“Hi.” She turned and gave him a quick kiss on
the mouth before snuggling up tighter against him.

He bent and whispered in her ear, “I want to
take you home and strip you out of that dress. I want to kiss every
inch of your body. I want to hear you say my name as I bury myself
inside of you.”

Amber’s breathing was labored and he felt a
shiver run through her body. “That sounds like a good plan.”

Everyone started cheering as Alex pulled
Jamie’s garter off with his teeth.

He began to move away from Amber but she
pulled him back for one more kiss. Damn, he loved her.

As he stepped onto the dance floor, Cam stood
beside him as several other guys got into football stances. Alex
spun the garter around on his finger before turning his back and
shooting the garter over his shoulder. Guys jumped and dove. Seth
watched it fly and reached his arm out, snatching it out of the air
right before Cam had a chance to.

The guys all cheered and his brother hugged
him. He turned and saw Amber standing beside the wedding
photographer. She looked…nervous.

“What’s wrong?” he asked stepping closer to
her.

“She wants to take a picture.” Amber lifted
her bouquet and nodded to the garter he held in his hand.

“Okay.” Seth kissed her briefly.

Her eyebrows shot up. “Really?”

“Yeah.”

As the photographer was telling them how she
wanted them posed, Cam yelled good-naturedly from the side of the
dance floor, “You know what this means, right? You two are
next.”

Amber sat on Seth’s knee as the photographer
had instructed. She looked at him with her hazel eyes clear and
bright. She said evenly, “Don’t worry. I know this doesn’t mean
anything.”

“Or, it could mean everything,” Seth
replied.

“What?” Her brow furrowed in confusion.

The photographer asked them to hold their
poses. She said she needed to change her battery and began digging
in her bag.

He knew this wasn’t the right time, that he
should wait and talk to her when they were alone, but that didn’t
stop him from blurting out, “Marry me.”

Amber’s eyes widened as she breathlessly
asked, “What?”

“Marry me,” Seth repeated, a little harsher
than he had meant to.

Her eyes never left his as the corner of her
mouth turned up. “Are you asking me or telling me?”

“Amber,” he growled. Normally he loved it
when she was a smart ass but right now he just wanted to know what
her answer was.

Then, thankfully, the small tugging up of the
corners of her mouth blossomed into a full-blown, mega-watt smile
as she declared happily, “Yes. Yes, I will marry you!”

“Okay, if you two could just look over here,
I’m ready,” the photographer said cheerily.

Seth cupped Amber’s face in his hands as he
crushed his mouth to hers, pouring every last ounce of love and
passion he felt for her into the kiss.

“Oooookayyy, I guess that’ll work, too,” Seth
heard the photographer say as he kissed his fiancé.

“Can we get the entire wedding party on the
floor for a picture,” the DJ announced from his booth. The rest of
them began to make their way over.

Seth and Amber stood as his brothers and
their wives all joined them on the floor. He wrapped both of his
arms around Amber’s waist, holding her tightly. Riley held baby Mya
in one arm and had his other wrapped around Chelle. Alex picked up
Joey as he kissed his new bride, and Bobby and Jason both held
their wives closely to them.

The photographer quickly adjusted Jamie's
dress before stepping back and saying, “Smile.”

As the picture was snapped, Seth realized
that for the first time in his life, he felt whole. Surrounded by
his family and with Amber by his side, he felt totally at peace,
with himself, with his life, and with his future.

RED HOT PRIVATE EYE
SERIES

Chapter One

You are focused. You are capable. You are in
control. No one can hurt you. You can handle anything.

It’s going to be a great day!

Raiza sat in her Prius, looking into the
small square mirror that was built into her sun visor as she
applied a coat of lip gloss to her full, naturally red lips. She
finished her fourth round of daily affirmations at exactly the same
moment she finished applying the gloss. She loved that!
Synchronicity.

After her last check in the mirror, she
flipped up her visor and replaced the tube of liquid shine in its
designated slot in her make-up bag, then replaced the bag inside
the left compartment in her purse.

She smiled.

Every time she looked inside her purse it
made her happy. There was nothing out of order. Anytime she needed
to add a new item to carry she would immediately find a home for it
to live in, and every time she would use said item she would always
immediately return it to its rightful place.

Order + Structure = Sanity.

That was the equation she lived her life by,
and it had served her well. Her life as a child had been anything
but predictable. As an adult, when her life was in her own hands
and not subject to the whims of others, Raiza had made sure that
her life was just that - predictable.

Predictability had its advantages, one of
which was a sense of security. That was a feeling she had longed
for as a youth. Of course, everything in life is a trade-off, so it
also had its drawbacks. One of those was complete and utter
boredom, which was something that she definitely did
not
crave.

This tightly structured world that she had
built for herself ensured that there were never any surprises.
Which was great except for the fact that...well...there were never
any surprises!

A loud knock on her driver’s side window
ended her short jaunt to the island of self-reflection and yanked
her abruptly back into reality. She looked up to see who had
interrupted her rather pleasant reverie and found that there was a
rather tall and lanky police officer standing beside her car
waiting for her attention.

She opened the door and he stepped back to
allow her to exit.

“Can I help you with something?”’ She asked
as she swung her legs out of the car gracefully, setting her black
Jimmy Choos on the pavement and smoothly rising to stand next to
her car.

He looked momentarily stunned as she stood.
She patiently waited. She was used to men, and even sometimes
women, needing a moment after they saw her. It took them a minute
to collect themselves, before they could remember what they had
been about to say...and where they were, what year it was, etc.

Her Aunt Margie used to tell her that she was
the living, breathing definition of a stunner. Well, being from New
Jersey, she had actually said ‘stunna.’ But Aunt Margie’s point had
been that when people saw Raiza, nine times out of ten they had a
very strong reaction to her.

Which was fine with Raiza. The attention was
fine. Certainly, if she had been forced to choose, she would
definitely prefer to be attractive rather than not, she always
thought. But, still, sometimes it was a little isolating. People
usually didn’t really
see
her, or listen to her. They almost
always had preconceived notions about her, theories about
everything from her intelligence to her level of promiscuity. And,
of course, these assumptions were wrong ninety-nine point nine
percent of the time, as assumptions generally tend to be.

This was one of the reasons that she loved
her job, and loved the people she worked for and with so much. They
saw her – really
saw
her.

Most days it was just her and George in her
office. She loved George. George didn't care what she looked like,
he didn't judge her by the size of her cleavage. He was responsive
to her every request. He was the perfect man, basically. She sighed
to herself. If only George wasn't her computer!

But, she reflected, most of that could also
be said for her co-workers. They saw her for who she was - brains,
wit, creativity and all.

She did
not
believe the same could be
said for the police officer standing in front of her right now. She
didn't think he had the ability to see anything beyond what was
right in front of his nose, and he was having trouble processing
what he did see. She shook her head. She needed to move this along
if she was going to be on time for the Monday morning meeting.

She cleared her throat to get his attention.
“Can I help you with something?” she repeated slowly.

The officer looked into her eyes, finally,
and furrowed his brow as he said, “I was about to ask you the same
thing.”

Oh, you’ve
got
to be kidding me, Raiza
thought to herself. At least he had the good sense not to look
self-satisfied at what he must think was a very clever line. “Oh,
is that what you were working up to?” she asked sardonically.

Her tone must have been a little too
sarcastic for Mr. Law and Order’s liking because his posture and
demeanor did an immediate one-eighty. His voice lowered an octave,
and he planted his feet and puffed out his chest in what must've
been an attempt to seem authoritative. It didn’t work. “Ma’am, I am
going to need to see some ID,” he said gruffly.

Raiza was not about to give this man anything
until she knew he was on the up-and-up.

She smiled a slinky smile and said, “Show me
yours and I’ll show you mine, officer”

He raised an eyebrow to her, seemingly
unimpressed by her charms, and tapped on the badge pinned to the
upper left side of his uniform.

“That’s a very nice badge, but I'd like to
see your identification card,” Raiza said, politely but firmly.
Uniforms and badges were very easy to fake, Raiza knew this all too
well. The same could not be said for identification cards.