by Kaia Bennett
"No, it's not! I started the whole—"
"Oh, will you two shut up!" Jackie yelled, rolling her eyes. "All I said was good morning. It's customary for people with manners to say ‘good morning’ back, right?"
"Good morning, Jackie," they said in unison, each of them trying desperately not to laugh as soon as the words escaped their lips.
Jackie rolled her eyes again and waved her hand at them as if she couldn’t be bothered. "Get over yourselves. This isn't nearly as shocking as you think it is. Saw it coming a mile away."
Nicole blinked and Gabriel leaned against the door jamb, frowning.
"Oh, don't give me that look. She's been all over your jock ever since you moved in, and he's been staring at your tits for the past week like he was afraid they would disappear," Jackie said, snorting at her own joke. "Even Ian, who is utterly clueless about these things, wondered if you guys were hooking up."
"Wait...what?" Gabriel asked, dumfounded and blushing at being so obviously spotted memorizing Nicole's frame. "You’re telling me you knew the whole time?"
"And you're not pissed?" Nicole inquired, squinting warily at her somewhat sinister older sister.
"Yes and no," Jackie replied, answering each question in order as she stifled yet another yawn. "Granted, I wasn't sure until just now. Earlier this week when I went to the bathroom I thought I saw your reflection in the TV when I was going back to my room. At the time I thought I was crazy, and then the next thing I know you two are barely speaking to each other, just staring at one another or grinning from ear to ear and shit. And you should have seen Nikki moping around the club when you wouldn't come out with us. Oh, the angst."
Gabriel suppressed a laugh as Nicole shot Jackie her ‘I hope you burn in the seventh circle of hell’ look, which was met with Jackie's ‘I run that circle’ look. Customary silent Langley communication.
"So anyway, I guess I was right. As usual," Jackie said with a girlish smile and a flutter of her eyelashes.
The embarrassed relief rolling off Gabriel was almost palpable. Nicole however was holding on to one last shred of wariness. Maybe she had a point. Could it really be this easy? Was it really too out of character to believe Jacqueline Langley wasn’t breathing hellfire over her sister and her friend sneaking around behind her back, which they never had any intention of coming clean about.
"You sure you're not mad?"
"Ugh, will you stop asking me that?! I haven't had my coffee yet and you know I don't like repeating myself," Jackie huffed, conveying that it was best not to push their luck by looking a gift horse in the mouth. "You almost packed up, Nikki? Or were you too busy checking out what Gabriel’s packing instead?"
Gabriel rubbed his forehead, trying like hell not to smile in mortification while Nicole cleared her throat and nodded.
"Yeah, almost finished."
"Cool. Be out in a jiff," Jackie said, indicating the bathroom she was headed towards. She took a few steps before she stopped and turned on her heels as if having forgotten something as they filed out of his bedroom. "Oh, and one more thing."
With lightening quick speed and deadly accuracy she descended on them, flicking Nicole hard on the mouth and cracking her knuckles against Gabriel's forehead. The sound was an almost simultaneous "pop, pop" that left each of them wailing and cradling their respective injuries.
"That's what you get for sneaking around behind my back like I'm fucking stupid!" she growled, wagging her finger at them. "Ya'll ain't slick."
As she turned again and headed towards the bathroom, Gabriel turned his attention to Nicole. She tongued her rapidly swelling upper lip, blinking away her watery eyes at the pain.
“Fuck!” she growled after a moment. “Is it a prerequisite at older sibling school to be able to flick someone like a demon, or is this all our mother’s fault?”
After a moment of quiet hissing, he assumed her pain had subsided some.
"Well," she muttered nodding as she continued to tongue her upper lip, "all in all, I think that went well. What do you think?"
She turned to see him leaning against the wall, wincing and holding his forehead.
"Ow," was his reply.
"Your head okay?" Nicole asked.
They were standing on the sidewalk about a block away from the apartment building, stalling before he had to leave for work. Gabriel was leaning against his car, which he opted to take instead of the subway this morning. He didn’t say so, but she wondered if maybe it was so he could spend a little more time with her before she left. He was wearing a steel blue shirt and black dress pants, and she was running her hands over his navy blue tie. It reminded her of the way he was dressed when he caught her in his room a week ago, sending a residual pulse of arousal through her entire body.
He laughed and ran his fingers over the knot that had taken up residence on the right side of his forehead.
"Yeah, it's cool. My hair covers it and I took, like, six Advil, so I should be straight,” he quipped. “How's your lip?"
She shook her head and puffed out her lips for good measure. "Not so good. I think you should kiss it. It might make it heal faster."
He didn’t have to be asked twice. He put his hands on her hips and pulled her into him, while she tugged on his tie and drew him closer. They took their time, melting into the kiss and the heat of each other’s bodies.
"Mmm," she moaned as she pulled away, her eyes still closed and a smile on her full lips. She opened them slowly and found him taking in her face. So many emotions were traveling over his, so many things he seemed to want to say. But what he said was the truth for both of them.
"I gotta go," he murmured quietly, yet still not moving.
"Yeah," she replied. The word landed like lead in the thick silence between them.
They both chuckled as they dislodged themselves, Nicole thinking how much this conversation lacked any kind of eloquence. His keys jingled in his hand and she hooked her thumbs in the pockets of her shorts, kicking at a stray rock. He turned to unlock his door and then paused.
"Oh, and I left a book for you on the nightstand in my room. I think you'll like it."
Her heart ached a little at the customary gesture of kindness. Her smile widened even as she tried to swallow down the pain of missing him before he was even gone.
"Thanks."
"I'm sure if you look around you'll find some porn, too—" She punched him solidly in the arm and he chuckled, wincing as he kneaded the bruised flesh. He grabbed her waist quickly and pulled her to him, pinching her cheek. "You Langley girls are so fucking violent!"
"Says the guy who likes to spank and pull hair," she teased with a lopsided grin.
His eyes darkened a bit, but his smile was warm when he said, "From what I can remember you seemed to like that, too."
His hand slid up her back until it was fisting in her soft, dark hair. He tugged playfully, and she groaned with a smile, waiting for him to claim her lips. He did, and did so thoroughly. She marveled at how his real life kisses blew all of her fantasies out of the water as she placed her hands on his narrow waist and pulled him closer still.
Neither was willing to part their lips or part ways, but soon they could feel it. Time was ticking down and getting short and this time he was the one to answer the tug. He pulled away, leaving them both panting for breath, satisfied and yet unsatiated. He lifted his head and placed the softest of kisses on her forehead, before releasing her hair and then her body altogether.
"See you later, Nicole," he said. She knew that someone needed to say the words that would allow him to get into his car and drive away.
She wished she could find something special to say, something that would convey what she was feeling without weighing the moment down with her longing. But she didn’t have those words. She didn’t know how to do anything other than answer him in kind.
She planted a farewell peck on the indent of his chin and said, "Later, Gabriel," before her hands slid away from his hips.
She st
epped back and watched as he got into his car, returning his wave and soft smile with one of her own.
Then he pulled out of his parking space, merging into traffic and disappearing out of sight. She stood there for a long moment, weighed down by stillness and only vaguely cognizant of her thoughts, because she could still feel his lips on hers, his fingers in her hair and on her skin. It made her smile even as her nose began to tingle and her eyes stung with impending tears. But she wouldn’t let sadness ruin this, she wouldn’t engage the drama this time. She wouldn’t cry. There was no need for that because she'd see him again. Maybe not soon, but eventually. After all, he left her a book to borrow. She'd have to return it sometime. She smiled as she headed back towards the building, up the elevator, and into the apartment to finish packing her things.
Hours later on the plane, Nicole opened up the book he lent her and found his number waiting there with a little note. And his words made her marvel at how their minds were just as in synch as their bodies.
Make sure you return it. Soon.
OTHER BOOKS BY KAIA BENNETT
SUNDAY
THE FIFTH DAY
ABOUT KAIA BENNETT
Kaia Bennett is a New Jersey native, college graduate and U.S. Army veteran who loves music, movies, astrology, tattoos, martial arts, animals and, of course, the written word. She heard the siren call of the writer as a teenage girl, but took her sweet time answering it until she had lived and loved enough to share her work with the masses.
She is an erotic author who loves to write stories with depth, realism and viscerally hot encounters that flirt shamelessly with the taboo. A lover of all genres and a voracious reader, she aims to write stories that are transformative for her characters and readers alike.
Kaia can be reached at [email protected].
To find out more about Kaia go to:
kaiabennett.com
www.facebook.com/kaia.bennett
twitter.com/KaiaBennett
kaia-bennett.tumblr.com/