by K. Z. Riman
“Oh, please, cousin.” Alicia headed over to me and hugged my arm. “Please just let me have good company tonight. I’m not in the mood to read anything and I don’t want to be alone in the house.”
I shot Keiff an accusing glance and he grinned. He had planned this, and had used his sister as an excuse to go out. “Fine.”
While in the car, I tried to call Kelsey, but she wouldn’t pick her phone up. You have got to be kidding me. She was mad at me for not staying with her at the mansion, leaving in such a hurry right after having sex. I was sure about that. I called Leo’s phone and he picked up on the second ring.
“Sir.”
“Where’s Kelsey? She isn’t answering her phone.”
“Shall I call on her, sir? She is in the living room with Mister Povenmier.”
Fuck! What the hell was she doing? I thought I had made it clear she was not to receive any visitor when she was alone in the mansion? Didn’t we have that argument this morning?
“Yes. Now!” I replied.
Kelsey giggled a little as she took the phone from him. “Well, if it isn’t…”
“I thought I told you not to entertain suitors in the house?” I was almost yelling inside the car. It was a good thing that Alicia hadn’t insisted she ride with me.
“What do you care?” She snapped at me, almost as sour as I was about this. “You wouldn’t pick up your phone. I called…”
“Where is he?”
She didn’t answer.
“Where the hell is he?” Did I have to yell for her to answer me?
“He just left! He brought me some fruit and that’s all!” She paused. “Can we stop fighting about it, please?”
I stopped, breathing heavily. I needed to be calm and rational about this. I was beginning to wonder why my blood boiled each time I imagined her having Carter for a suitor, or any other man for that matter.
“How are you?” I changed the topic. I wanted to know if she was fit enough to join Alicia. I wouldn’t let Keiff go anywhere near her. It was bad enough I had to deal with Kelsey always entertaining Carter. I didn’t need it from Keiffer.
“Do you really care when you ask that?” Stubborn ass!
“Well? Are you fine or not?”
“I’m fine,” she said impatiently.
“We’re going out with Keiffer and Alicia.”
“The twins?”
“Yes. Glad you remember them. We’re almost home. Go and get dressed in something suitable for going clubbing,” I said, swallowing hard as I wished she wouldn’t wear anything too revealing. “Alicia wants your company.”
She hung up on me.
“Idiot!” She annoyed me with every move she made, and drove me crazy with all her looks, the sounds she made when I touched her, and the natural scent she used.
She was still upstairs when we got there. Leo prepared a simple dinner for all of us and the twins waited in the dining room, chatting with him.
After changing into something a little less formal, I knocked on Kelsey’s bedroom door, with my heart banging against my chest. I hadn’t been this excited to see a woman’s dress before, and it was for the wrong reasons now.
“What?” She knew right away that it was me. She snapped at me at the door and opened it slightly.
She was stunning. She was wearing a black, shimmery, halter tank top and very tight jeans that showed her ass to everyone. “Aren’t you ready yet?” I pushed the door open and she shook her head, sitting on the bed to put on her high-heeled boots.
She smelled divine. I could smell the oil she had used on her skin. She was a different woman again, now with her dark makeup and high ponytail, showing her neck and her shoulders. When she was done, she sat straight and looked at me. “I’m going with you, under one condition.”
What the hell? I snorted as I crossed my arms over my chest. “What, you think you can blackmail me?”
“Fine, then I’m not going.” She started removing her boots.
“What do you want?” I would never hear the end of it from her or from Keiff, if she didn’t go. Besides, I didn’t want to leave her here with Carter always waiting for an opportune moment to see her.
Fucking dilemma!
She looked at me, a ghost of a smile on her lips. She looked like a temptress, a mistress of the underworld. “If I go with you tonight, we go to Brockswind on Friday.”
Ha! I knew it. “Not a chance.” I turned my back on her.
“I knew you wouldn’t go, even if I asked nicely.” She stomped her foot as she went into her closet to change. “I’ll ask Leo to drive me there.”
Hell, no! Was she deliberately annoying me? Why was I even annoyed? “Fine! Ask him.” She wouldn’t be able to use this conscience shit against me.
She was already in her underwear when I turned back to look at her. She was determined to not go out if I didn’t drive her to Brockswind myself. The hell do I care! She could go there by bus. “Leo’s schedule is full,” I said.
“Oh, that’s right. You can leave a woman alone, now that she needs you.”
“Why do you need me to drive you all the way to Brockswind?” I went inside her closet. She didn’t seem to mind anymore that she was in her underwear as she moved about, removing her accessories.
“Because I want you to drive me there!”
“I don’t want to go there!”
“Fine!” she yelled at me. “I will take the bus, you asshole!” She shoved past me.
Asshole? Where did that come from? She wouldn’t even utter a single curse under her breath and she called me an asshole? How could this trip be that important to her?
I pulled her back, shaking, eager to hear her apologize to me. “You have no right to call me…”
“I have every right to call you an asshole because that is what you are, Scott. That will never change.” She yanked her arms away from my hands. “You will never grow up, and you will remain to be a child who knows nothing but how to mess up his life and those around him.”
“Do not speak to me…”
“I’m going to speak to you however I want!” She turned and ran out of her closet. I ran after her and she looked back at me, as if scared that I’d catch up to her.
“Stop this!” I kept telling her, as she tried pushing me away. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“You’re what’s wrong with me!” she yelled back.
I knew what it was she couldn’t say to my face. She was angry that I would have sex with her but not have the decency to make her feel she was safe. It wasn’t because I didn’t care enough. Of course, I cared. I wanted her to be safe. Why else would I always check on her? I just didn’t want to go to Brockswind and give Mother and Father the wrong idea about why I was there.
Before we both knew it, she was slapping me across my face. “I hate you!” she yelled. “I hate you, for the man you are and for the man you will always be!”
I was staggered.…for the man you are and for the man you will always be.
I didn’t know she was hurting that much.
I could feel her anger and her fear. What she said, what she did, were things that I couldn’t bring myself to ignore or forget.
“Kelsey? Is that you?” I heard Alicia’s voice before I saw her. Kelsey stopped, wide-eyed and turned to face her. “It’s Alicia Bonafante! Don’t you remember me? Are you guys okay?”
She remembered her. It just took her a while to compose herself, to fix on a fake smile—trying to show that there was nothing wrong.
“Y-yes. Hi!” She walked over to Alicia to give her a hug. “It’s nice to see you!”
“You too!” Alicia rubbed Kelsey’s back and held her arms out to look at her. “My! You haven’t changed a bit. Well, except, you look even more gorgeous. What’s taking you two
so long? We’ve eaten dinner.”
“I’m not feeling well, Alicia.” Kelsey shook her head and then glanced at me. “I don’t think I will be able to go clubbing tonight.”
“Really?” Alicia said, in plain disbelief. “You’re wearing makeup.”
I snorted. She forgot about that tiny detail. “She’s coming. She just wants to see who’s coming with the two of us.”
Alicia rolled her eyes at me as she pushed Kelsey away. “Of course. That is very smart of her. Come now, Kelsey. I will help you get dressed.” As they reached her door, Alicia turned back to me. “Go ahead and eat your dinner. Kelsey will have hers in five minutes.”
I didn’t think I would ever say this, but I really thought Alicia was a lifesaver.
Chapter Fourteen
Kelsey and the Asshole She Loved Having
Asshole!
I hadn’t said the word in years and when I said it again, it had to be to the man I first said it to.
This morning should be the last time I would ever allow him to touch me. I didn’t deserve this. Why was he always trying to make love to me, whisper passionate words to woo me, and then go running away from me? I would go to Brockswind tomorrow, with or without him, and when I returned, I would find another job, which did not involve having him around me all the time.
“Wow. Are you sure you were not planning to go out?” Alicia asked, as she picked up the clothes I had thrown everywhere when I first changed.
“Well, I…tried these on when I heard you were coming but I wanted to be sure it was really you and Keiffer,” I lied, as I took my clothes from her.
Alicia wasn’t that close to me. She couldn’t tell when I was lying.
“Oh. I see.” Alicia handed me my accessories. “These are lovely.”
“You look gorgeous in that dress.” I smiled at her. She was wearing a purple shimmery dress that hugged her perfect figure and matched her purple eyes. She was beyond gorgeous. I found it hard to believe she wasn’t a model like her mom.
“Well, I don’t go out often.” She shrugged her shoulders as she went to sit on my bed, looking everywhere while I got dressed. “I like to look good.”
I wanted to ask if she was planning on catching a man’s attention tonight so she could start dating. How old was she again? Thirty? Thirty one? “I’m sure you’ll catch a man tonight.”
She laughed aloud. “Oh, Kelsey, I have no plans of catching a man.” She rolled her eyes as she fixed her beautiful hair. “I just want to go out and have fun with you guys.”
That was indeed what she did. By nine that evening, she hadn’t gone, even once, to the dance floor without me. She and I danced continuously with each other.
“Oh, my! I’m having so much fun!” she announced as we returned to our table.
“I told you, you would.” Keiffer placed his hands over his sister’s shoulders.
“We could do this every week.”
Keiffer forced a laugh, which told me Alicia’s idea wasn’t a very good one. It would take a miracle for these guys to baby-sit her and drag me to tag along once a week. It would ruin their usual scene.
It was a miracle, too, that Scott had spent the hour sitting with Keiffer talking nonsense, like women, and bar hopping, and gambling. In that hour, Scott and I didn’t say a word to each other.
“Kelsey, are you having fun, too?” Keiffer turned to me.
I nodded, smiling weakly. “Yeah. A little.”
“A little?” He chuckled with interest, leaning towards me to hear what I had to say next. “You’ve been dancing nonstop with Alicia. That doesn’t look like a little to me.”
“I’m starting to have fun.”
Alicia laughed. “Now that is true.” She pointed her finger at me while she held her margarita in the same hand. “Hey. Maybe we could find you a man to dance with. Don’t mind me. I could dance with Keiffer all night.”
“Too bad, Sis. I don’t have the same idea,” Keiffer said, looking at me and then at Scott, who was sitting beside me. “Besides, Kelsey has had too many margaritas. She couldn’t go dancing with anyone she doesn’t know well.”
“She could dance with Scott then.” Alicia winked at me.
“No. With me.” Keiffer winked back.
I chuckled. “I’m sorry; but I do not know you that well, either.”
I didn’t trust Keiffer. He had a reputation that exceeded Scott’s, but it never bothered me before. He never bothered me before. Why did it seem he was going to start now?
“See, cousin. I told you she doesn’t give a shit about men,” Scott said bluntly, before drinking his martini. I didn’t like his tone at all.
“Oh, come on, Kelsey. Don’t tell me you haven’t dated a single guy since…”
I cut Keiffer off. I knew what he was going to ask and I really didn’t like hearing about Seth’s death over and over. “No.”
“Not even once?” Alicia was wide-eyed. Talk about overreaction when the woman’s still a virgin.
“No.” I took a sip of my drink.
“No suitors?” Alicia asked. She just would not give up.
“No.”
“Ask her about Carter,” Scott said suddenly, his eyes on me as he drank his martini. “She has a lot to say about him.”
“Carter Povenmier? He’s courting you?” Keiffer let out a quiet groan.
“No!” I shook my head, and then turned to Scott. “Why do you keep saying Carter is courting me? He isn’t!”
“He keeps visiting you, and you allow him to,” he added, in a loud voice. “In my parents’ house!”
“I was sick! He visited me. He’s allowed to do that because he’s been a friend to me for years!” I used the same volume of voice.
“Not when you’re alone in the house!”
Many people from the tables nearby turned to look at us. He yelled at me, almost getting off his seat as he did.
“Okay, okay.” Alicia stood up. “I think you two need to cool it down. You have been fighting for ages. Come along, Scott.” Alicia pulled Scott off his seat. “Why not give your gorgeous cousin a dance, and be the envy of all the men here?”
“I think that’s a good idea.” Keiffer was on his feet as well, giving me a bad feeling. “I think it shall be me, who’s to be the envy here,” he added, as he pulled me up.
I could use a little time away from Scott. Keiffer might not be a good idea for company while I was drunk, but Scott would be far worse. We headed to the crowded dance floor ahead of the cousins and began dancing.
“You’ve changed a lot.” He yelled over the loud beat of the sound system, his face illuminated by colored lasers, bleeding into the air.
“I know,” I shouted back.
I could change more than this. All I needed to do was forget about Scott and the fantasies I had been chasing after the past days. I honestly thought making love with him would change him and the way he was with me. I thought that with everything he told me about needing me and being unable to keep away from me, he would stay. Then there was that trip to Brockswind. What was it that he didn’t like about it? Was it me? Was he trying to get back at me for entertaining Carter? I didn’t ask Carter to come and visit me. I even asked him not to come.
Was it Scott’s parents? Somehow, as I looked at him, I thought I finally understood.
“You are very beautiful.” Keiffer stepped towards me. I masked two cautious steps back with my dance moves.
“Thank you.”
“You’re not dating anyone now?” he asked.
I unintentionally glanced at Scott, who was dancing with Alicia, but his eyes were on me.
“No.” I shook my head. Definitely not!
“Good.” Keiffer took a few steps closer again. This time, he held both my hands and placed them on his shoulders.
“I would like to ask you out.”
I knew it. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Keiffer. I mean your mom and my father-in-law are…”
“Brother and sister. Uncle Keith wouldn’t mind, I’m sure,” he said, as he wrapped his hands around me. I was beginning to feel really uncomfortable. It was silly, because the man and I never argued about anything before. He was always a gentleman, though a playboy.
Yet, why did I feel more comfortable around Scott than him?
“I do. You are Seth’s cousin.” It was supposed to be a little less scandalous than going out with Scott.
“I know exactly what you like in men,” Keiffer replied. “I mean, Seth was a great guy and he took care of you well. I believe you deserve someone like him.”
Exactly.
I shook my head. He could not possibly be thinking about replacing Seth. He was a far worse kind of rogue than Scott. He was just lucky his playboy qualities were often overlooked because of his passionate ways of wooing. “No, Keiffer. I really don’t think that’s a great idea.”
“You know you are just teasing me with your attempts to ward me off.” He grinned at me, still convinced that he could change himself to be a guy like Seth.
“I’m sorry if that is what you think I’m doing, but I’m not.”
Besides, I bet Keiffer was only trying to make a move on me because he thought I was desperate to be with a man.
With Scott, perhaps.
Wait. Why did I even think of that?
I searched the floor for Scott again and found him twirling Alicia while they laughed. At least one of us was genuinely trying to have fun.
“I need a drink,” I shouted at Keiffer and he nodded, gladly escorting me back to the table with his hands on my shoulder. It took two light shrugs before he got the idea that I was really not comfortable with his hands on me.
Half an hour later, Alicia and I were on our seventh round of margaritas. She couldn’t keep a straight face as she kept trying to go back to the dance floor, giggling and shouting, really having fun. I was starting to feel a little dizzy.
She asked me to accompany her to the bathroom, which I would have done without her asking me. She was too drunk to go alone.