Part 42 – The Gauntlet

Getting ready for the ball was kind of like getting ready for prom except that my mom wasn’t there fussing over me and when I came down the stairs instead of there being a short but adorable basketball player waiting for me in a rented tux, Kevin would be there in a gorgeous Armani tux that he actually owned. 

“If I’d known that I was going to have a sprained ankle for the ball I would have gotten a longer dress…” I said with a groan as I looked into the mirror.  The dress was still absolutely perfect and I felt like a movie star, from the knees up that is. 

“No one will care what your legs look like once they see all of this…” Jules said as she motioned toward my chest.  I had to admit, the boobs did look pretty brilliant in the dress.

I chuckled and did a shimmy in her direction, “I know you’re jealous of my bodacious tatas.”

Jules laughed and rolled her eyes, “Whatever…”

I looked in the mirror again and looked at my Robo-cop brace.  I’d taken it off earlier in hopes of maybe being able to go without it for the night and bring along my crutches, but once I saw how utterly gross my bruises were looking, I decided that covering up the leg was more important.  Thankfully I had a pair of ballet flats that were pretty enough to go with my dress so I at least had one cute leg. 

Jules walked up to me holding my mom’s necklace and helped me put it on.  As soon as it was in place I suddenly didn’t care anymore about my stupid ankle-foot.  The jewelry from my parent’s wedding was absolutely perfect with my dress and seeing that it was the first time I’d finally been able to wear it, I was beyond happy.

“Oh wow…” I sighed.

“Perfect…” Jules said with a grin.  “You clean up pretty well, kid.”

I gave her a hug, “I wish you were coming…”

“Me too, but I’ll be having my own party with Miles tonight and tomorrow you can fill me in with all of the details.”

“Deal.”  I checked everything one last time and then took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  “Why do I feel like it’s my wedding day or something?  I shouldn’t be so nervous.”

“It’s the first time Kevin’s seen you all dressed up and swanky… But seriously, you should not be nervous.  You look absolutely fabulous.”

There was a knock on the door followed by Christian popping into the room all decked out in his tux. I grinned at him, “You look amazing, Boo!”

“Me?  I just put on a tux. But you?  Holy shitake mushrooms, woman!  You are gorgeous!”

I giggled, “Oh hush…” 

“And speaking of gorgeous, our dates are downstairs looking like fucking rock stars.  So. Hot.”

“They are rock stars, remember? Or at least pop stars.”

“I know!  And we’re going to prom with them!” Christian said and giggled like an idiot.

I laughed too, “It’s a ball, babe… not prom.  This is way cooler.  And at the end of the night I’m fucking your date.”

“Does that mean I can fuck yours?” he teased.

“Um no… I think Josef would veto that one.  Plus I think Jules and Mom are going to duke it out over AJ.”

“I love your mother dearly, but AJ’s already admitted to loving my kid.  I think I get dibs,” Jules said as she fixed one of my curls into place with a bobby pin.  “That one curl just wouldn’t stop sticking up… You’re good now.”

“Thanks…” I said and grinned at her.  “Thanks for having a girlie day with me today too.”

“Anytime, Love… now let’s go check out the sexy men downstairs!”

Christian offered me his arm and we walked from the room giggling like the morons we are.  I had to do the oh so attractive one step at a time thing on the way down and was focusing so much on not falling that I didn’t even see Kevin until I was at the bottom of the steps.  It was probably a really good thing too because when I did see him, it took my breath away.

“Holy cow…” I said staring up at him. 

He laughed, “I hope that’s a good holy cow…”

I nodded and grinned, “Really good.  Hot damn, Heartthrob.”

He blushed, which I loved, and ran his fingers through his hair.  He’d told me he was going to get it trimmed but what he’d come back with was more than just a trim.  The hair that had been almost long enough to put into a small pony tail was cut short to his head with the top left long enough to do that amazingly sexy bed head look.  It was a cut he’d had before back in his boyband days and one that was fucking hot.  “I got a little more than a trim…”

“I guess so…” I said and checked out his new do.  Visions of tugging on his hair during sex ran through my head and made all of my happy spots wake up.  “I like this.  A lot.”  Not to mention the fact that the tux he was in was stunning.  The man was sex personified.

He leaned down to kiss my cheek, “You are absolutely dazzling, by the way…”

My turn to blush, “Thanks…”

“Um, excuse me but I’m her date…” AJ said and pushed his way in between Kevin and me. 

“Well hello, gorgeous…” I said taking in AJ in his equally amazing tux.

“Hey, sexy… The dress still looks awesome.”

“Even with my sexy boot, right?”

He laughed, “Even so…”  He wrapped his arm around my waist and looked at Kevin, “So… I did okay, right?  Killer dress?”

Kevin nodded and smiled, “Killer.”

“Sweet!  She’s mine til midnight so go play with Christian…”

Jules insisted that we pose for pictures in the living room and on the staircase like we were going to prom.  It was pretty comical to tell you the truth, and to this day the photos are hanging on my living room wall.

Kevin got to hold my hand and pose with me in photos as we arrived at the ball.  There wasn’t a red carpet, so to speak, but there was quite the row of press to go through that I hadn’t been prepared for at all.  Apparently the ball was a much bigger deal than I’d expected. 

I’d done my fair share of press but I’d never walked the gauntlet with photographers and people with microphones screaming my name.  Thankfully my uber sexy boyfriend was a pro at this sort of thing and helped me through the process, but I did have a death grip on his hand the entire time.

“Holy crap that was intense…” I said once we were though the chaos. 

“You were awesome…” Kevin said and pulled me into a hug. 

“It was kind of scary and yet really thrilling all at once.  And all of those flashes!  I can barely see right now.”

He chuckled, “You’ll get used to it…”

Christian and AJ who had been behind us on the gauntlet finally joined us.  AJ chuckled at the look on my face, “First time?” 

I nodded, “Uh huh…”

“Did you like it?”

“Kinda?” I said and laughed.

“Get used to it, girlie… if you’re with this guy you’re going to be doing this a lot.”

I honestly hadn’t thought about it like that but it was true.  This sort of thing was a regular occurrence for Kevin since he was invited to big events all of the time.  Then of course there was the whole movie thing that my books would be going through eventually.  Everything was changing.

I covered my internal panic with a grin, “I’m just going to focus on tonight…”

AJ offered me his arm, “Good plan… shall we rock this ball?”

I kissed Kevin and then took AJ’s arm, “We shall…”