His gaze returned to Isabelle as she climbed gracefully to her feet. Her hair, damp with sweat, was a tangled mess in its loose ponytail. Dirt streaked her delicate nose and high cheekbones, emphasizing her tomboyish nature. The filthy clothes she wore accentuated her full breasts, slender waist, and round hips.
Even though she was a mess, she was still exquisitely beautiful, and the most tempting thing he ever laid eyes on. The erection he'd managed to rid himself of suddenly reared back to life.
Isabelle stared back at him, her heart hammering as she fought to breathe normally. She was acutely aware of how awful she looked, especially compared to Jess, and for some strange reason, it bothered her. She didn't want him to see her looking like this. Silently, she cursed herself for behaving like an idiot. She didn't care what he thought of her, or how she looked; she wanted absolutely nothing to do with him or his bitch of a girlfriend.
The gleam in his eyes left her breathless and trembling. A gleam telling her he didn't think she looked as awful as she felt. In fact, he looked as if she was the most desirable woman in the world, as if he wanted to devour her. A shiver made its way down her spine; it caused her to tighten in places she’d never felt sensitive before. Part of her desperately wanted to be devoured by him, while the saner part wanted to run screaming for help and never look back.
"You look tired, Stefan, why don't you take a break?" Jess's voice was so chilly Isabelle finally tore her gaze away from Stefan.
Apprehension filled her as she turned to look at Jess. The girl was focused on Stefan, but her amusement had vanished as she stared at him with a locked jaw. When she glanced back at Isabelle, her eyes flashed with malice before she turned back to Stefan. Isabelle stepped to the side, eager to get away from all of them.
"I have to get the laundry," she said, desperate to escape.
"Why don't you wait, I'm sure Jess will help you," Stefan said coldly.
"I offered, but Isabelle said she didn't need my help," Jess replied sweetly.
Isabelle's mouth gaped open in disbelief as she spun back around. Jess batted her lashes as if she were the most innocent thing in the world. Exasperation blazed to life in Isabelle as her hands fisted at her sides.
"The hell I did!" she retorted, unable to keep her temper under control for a second longer. It usually took a lot to annoy her, but when she did blow, she could put Mount Vesuvius to shame with the force of her explosion. Jess's lie, on top of everything else, was the final straw.
Stefan tried to suppress a smile of amusement. The teddy bear Doug described was gone, and the grizzly bear took its place. He'd seen her sister subtly tell her to keep her mouth shut before, and felt Isabelle trying to control her temper, but it seemed as if her control finally snapped. The fire in her eyes, and her rigid stance, were both fetching and appealing.
"Of course I did," Jess lied smoothly.
Stefan found his amusement fading as she persisted in the lie. Vicky and Abby leapt to their feet. "Come on, Issy, we'll help you," Vicky said as she pulled at her arm.
Isabelle angrily shrugged them off, determined to bring Jess's lie to the forefront and wipe the smirk off her face.
"Mom," Abby whispered so softly Stefan barely heard her.
Isabelle closed her eyes and took a deep breath for control. She longed to lash out at Jess, to put her in her place, but she couldn't. She just couldn't do anything to upset her mother. Jess wasn't worth it. She turned quickly on her heel, determined to put as much distance between herself and Jess as possible.
"See, that proves I'm right," Jess said victoriously.
Stefan's irritation continued to mount as he turned back to her. She smiled up at him seductively as she leaned back in the chair victoriously, stretching her arms behind her head in a gesture meant to make her breasts more alluring. She failed.
"We both know you're lying," Stefan stated.
Her eyes narrowed as she leaned forward in the chair, her blatant attempt at seduction forgotten. "You would believe her over me?" she demanded haughtily.
"Yes." He didn't wait for her reply as he turned and headed back to the house.
Chapter Six
Stefan leaned back in his chair as he surveyed the group of people surrounding him. The dining room was large, but it seemed minuscule with everyone crammed into it. Ethan, Ian, Aiden, and Doug were sitting on the left side of the mahogany table, casually sprawled in their chairs. Mike sat across from him at the head of the table while David, Jack, and Jess took up the right side.
Jess's hand rested on his thigh as she teasingly drifted it toward his crotch and then back down again. Her earlier ire at him seemed to be forgotten. He grabbed her hand and, for the fifth time, dropped it back down.
Even if she wasn't still mad, he was, and he was also more than a little disgusted with her. She shot him a cross look, but he turned his attention away from her as he listened to Ethan argue with Aiden and Ian over the best way to finish off the last bathroom in the new house.
"You're not going to be living there!" Ethan announced.
"We will when we come home for vacations," Aiden reminded him.
"Why are you guys arguing about this? You know Isabelle is going to be the one who decides what color tile you use," Mike interrupted.
The two sides scowled at each other, but they quit squabbling over blue versus green. "Where is Isabelle?" Doug asked.
Stefan wondered the same exact thing.
"Finishing the laundry," Ethan answered absently.
"We are going to smell like a girl," Jack muttered dejectedly.
"This room looks pretty good, and it smells like lemons instead of flowers," David defended. "Did you know those curtains were blue?"
"I'd forgotten," Doug replied with a laugh.
"It's nice to have the place clean again, but if my laundry comes back smelling like flowers or perfume, I’m not going to be happy," Jack said.
"Trust me, Jack, perfume won't help you," Isabelle said.
Stefan's gaze darted to the doorway when she swept inside. A red bandanna covered her thick hair, but strands of it straggled free to curl around her exquisite face. Her high cheekbones, delicate chin, and small nose were now free of dirt, and he could see the creamy perfection of her porcelain skin.
A barrage of sexual images flashed through his mind, images of what he would like to do to her lithe body, and what he would like it to do to him. Jess's stroking hand had been doing nothing to arouse him, but now blood rushed to his groin and caused him to harden. He shifted uncomfortably and clenched his teeth against the lust filling him.
"There are times when I wish I hadn't had a hand in raising you," Jack mumbled unhappily.
"Trust me, Jack, so do I," she replied with a laugh.
She smiled at him as she ruffled his brown hair. Jack scowled at her as he fixed his hair and smiled. Isabelle grabbed the chair from the corner and shooed Jack over to wedge it between him and Mike. She purposely kept her gaze away from Stefan and Jess. Try as she might to ignore him, she was still acutely aware of his presence and the aura of power he radiated.
"The tile in the bathroom is going to be a light rose, and the counters are going to be emerald green," she told them as she settled into her seat.
"Oh, Isabelle!" Ian moaned.
"Don't 'oh, Isabelle' me, mom and I already ordered them," she retorted as she returned the scowls her brothers gave her.
"It's so girly!" Aiden complained.
"You'll be at school most of the year!" she shot back.
"Yeah, but I don't want to get sick every time I come home."
Isabelle rolled her eyes as she folded her arms over her chest. "Just make sure you clean up after yourself when you do."
Ian slapped Ethan forcefully on the back. "Sure you don't want to change your mind and come to college with us?" Ian asked.
Ethan shook his head. "At least I can decide my room and bathroom," he mumbled.
"Well, actually—" Isabelle started.
"Don't
even think about it!" Ethan interrupted.
Isabelle smiled sweetly at him. "Who's going out tonight?"
"We are!" Ian and Aiden responded eagerly.
"Jack and I are going too," David said. "What do you need?"
Her eyes involuntarily flicked toward Stefan as she turned toward them. He held her gaze for a charged moment. She was certain the air sizzled with electricity before she tore her gaze away.
"I need some cleaning supplies and other stuff." She was amazed her voice sounded completely normal.
David nodded and leaned back in his chair. "No problem, make a list."
"Thanks." She abruptly stood and fought the urge to flee from the room. "The last load should be done. You guys will be glad to know you won't have to buy new clothes this week; you'll actually have clean ones."
"I like buying new clothes!" Jack yelled after her.
"You'd better fold them nicely!" Ian taunted.
"Go to hell, Ian!" she shouted from the hall.
"I'm going to be living there on school breaks!" he shot back.
"You keep it up, and you'll be living there a lot sooner!"
"You keep it up, and you're going to wake up to a bed full of snakes," Ethan told him with a smile.
Ian shuddered and leaned back in his seat. "Snakes?" Jess blurted.
"Yeah," Ethan shivered as he made a face.
"What are you talking about?" Jess demanded.
They exchanged amused glances that piqued Stefan's curiosity.
"Ian, Ethan, and Isabelle got into a fight when she was what?" Mike asked.
"Fifteen," Ethan answered.
"Ian was thirteen, and Ethan was seventeen. I don't remember what started it."
"Ethan dared me to take all her clothes and throw them out the window," Ian recalled, a small smile on his face as his eyes took on a distant gleam.
"So I did," Ethan said with a grin. "She threw a fit. To get even with us, she put rubbing alcohol in my aftershave bottle and threw all of Ian's clothes into the lake."
Stefan leaned forward; a smile curved his mouth as he listened to the story. They all wore amused grins, and their eyes twinkled mischievously. They picked up the story where one left off with the smooth rhythm of people who know each other extremely well.
"So, of course, we put pink hair dye in her leave-in conditioner. You know, the one women leave in for over an hour or so," Ian said.
"You should have seen her!" Jack laughed. "Her hair was this muddled pink color, but her scalp was hot pink!"
"That was a good one!" Mike cried. "They took pictures of her the minute she walked out of the bathroom. The look on her face was priceless. We all had a good laugh that night."
"Yeah, after you grounded us," Ethan muttered.
They exchanged knowing grins as Ian leaned forward to continue speaking. "So then it was all out war. She put super glue in my shampoo. I had to cut all my hair off to get my hands free, and then it took another week to get all the hair off the palms of my hands. She crept into our room the next night and used Nair on Ethan's eyebrows."
Stefan stifled a laugh as he found his amusement growing by the second. He had a clear mental image of a teenage Isabelle creeping noiselessly into her brother's room with the goal of burning his eyebrows off.
"That's awful!" Jess gasped.
The looks on all their faces told Stefan they found it anything but awful. They thought it was downright hilarious, and he agreed.
"It took over a month for them to grow back, and my skin was burnt for two of those few weeks," Ethan said.
"We have some good pictures of that too," Doug said happily. "Of them both."
"Needless to say, for about a week, no one slept, and we had to buy new bottles of shampoo every day to make sure they weren’t tampered with. Finally, Ian and I cornered her, held her down, and chopped her hair off. It had been down to her waist; we cut it to beneath her ears."
"I regretted that," Ian said sadly. "She cried for a week."
"Yeah, that one wasn't as funny," Ethan said ruefully. "But she declared a truce."
"Our mistake was believing her. We should have known that wasn't going to be the end of it. Two weeks later, when we were certain she wasn't going to do anything else, she got us. She hunted up dozens of snakes," Ian continued.
"It took her the entire two weeks to get them all. She went out every night and caught a few more. She waited till we were sleeping, tied our hands to the headboards, and put them in our beds."
"That's awful!" Jess cried.
They were all smiling now, and Stefan found himself chuckling. He couldn't remember the last time he laughed, but the picture in his mind was vastly amusing. He could only imagine the victorious gleam in her eyes when they woke.
"It was horrendous," Ethan said with a shudder. "We hate snakes! I woke up to them slithering all over me. I've never screamed so loud in my life!"
"Isabelle got good pictures of that too," Jack said. "It was hilarious!"
"Mom freaked out," Ian continued. "No one would come close enough to untie us, and Isabelle refused to. It took a whole lot of threats from our father before she finally relented and took the snakes away. For months afterward, we wouldn't go to sleep without making sure there weren't any still in our room."
"We called the truce after that. The only one in our family who can stand snakes is Isabelle, and there isn't anything worse than the thought of waking up to them again," Ethan said.
"Needless to say, we declared Isabelle the winner of the wars and never did anything to her again," Ian said.
"Yeah, they focused their torment on me instead," Aiden said. "Unfortunately, I hate snakes too."
Stefan started to laugh. He could picture how awful, and wonderful, it must have been to grow up in such a large household.
"That is the most horrendous thing I’ve ever heard!" Jess cried indignantly.
Suddenly they were all laughing.
"What's so funny?" Isabelle asked.
He looked up to find her standing in the doorway, her brow furrowed as she balanced a laundry basket against her hip.
"We were telling Stefan and Jess about the Snake War," Mike answered.
Isabelle’s smile was dazzling; her vivid eyes twinkled as she glanced at him. For the first time since he’d met her, she was smiling at him, and he found it amazing. The smile slipped from his face as a powerful wave of lust rocked him. Her smile vanished, and she ducked her head.
Stefan felt an odd sense of loss when the intimate contact broke. The breath rushed back into his lungs as he inhaled briskly. He shifted again as his erection suddenly became unbearable.
"You named it the Snake War?" Jess's eyes were full of hostility as they focused on Isabelle.
All his humor vanished as a fresh wave of annoyance washed through him. Isabelle met Jess's gaze before turning her attention back to her family. Jess touched his leg again; he instantly batted her hand away. She glared at him before plastering a fake smile on her face and turning away.
"We’ve had a few wars," Ethan answered. "We started to name them when I was about twelve."
"That way we could keep track," Ian explained.
"What were some of the other ones?" Jess inquired. She looked exceedingly innocent, but Stefan could feel the resentment seething within her.
"Well, let's see." Mike leaned back in his seat as he thoughtfully tapped his chin. "There was the Ice War, the Water War, the Fire War—"
"The Paint War," Ian chimed in. "Mom almost killed us over that one! I've never seen her as mad as she was that day!"
"What did you do?" Stefan inquired as he tried to divert his attention from Isabelle and the throbbing of his dick.
"Our mom left out a bunch of paint she didn't want," Ian explained.
"Red paint," Ethan elaborated. "We found it and decided to paint each other with it. I was eleven at the time, Isabelle was nine, Ian was seven, and Aiden was four."
"I never stood a chance," Aiden declared. "These guys cor
rupted me!"
"Hey!" the other three protested.
Stefan found himself grinning again in response to Isabelle's infectious smile and gleaming violet eyes. When she smiled, she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. He found himself oddly captivated by her, and the realization was more than a little unnerving.
"By the time we were done, we were covered with paint,” Ethan continued.
"It was in my hair for a week," Isabelle said.
"At least your hair was already darker by then; I looked like Opie for a month!" Ian cried.
They all laughed loudly as their faces and eyes took on fond looks of remembrance. Stefan found himself enchanted with the entire group. He couldn't imagine what it must be like to grow up in such a warm, loving environment. Especially since his childhood had been a cruel time he'd spent his entire existence trying to right.
"There was also the Dare War. Whoever did the dumbest thing, and survived, won. Ethan won it by throwing himself off a forty foot cliff," Aiden continued.
"We quit after that move," Isabelle laughed.
"You're lucky you weren't killed!" Jess gasped in horror.
They all exchanged secret smiles.
"Broke a few ribs, but I heal quick," Ethan said with a wink causing all of them to chuckle.
"There was the Fish War, the Parakeet War—"
"That was the least funny," Isabelle interrupted Ian. "Vicky and Abby cried for a week."
They all looked pointedly at Aiden who threw his hands up defensively. "Hey, it's not my fault! They thought they were old enough to get involved, and how was I supposed to know the birds would die? Besides, they started it by putting itching powder in my bed."
"He retaliated by turning their ten parakeets loose in December. We found five of them frozen in the front yard, the others disappeared," Mike shook his head disapprovingly.
"Vicky and Abby never got involved in anything after that," Aiden said.
"Yeah, and we've gotten too old to torture each other continuously," Ian said. "But Willow, Julian, Kyle, and Cassidy have taken up where we left off with a vengeance."
"Except they're more likely to get themselves killed," Isabelle muttered. "I think they're crazier than we were."
The Vampire Awakenings Bundle: Books 1-5 Page 35