Boxed Set

by Brenda K. Davies

  "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 co
ntinue 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 corrupted 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."

  "You forget about the time you climbed to the top of the same sycamore tree and threw yourself out of it hoping I would catch you," Ethan reminded her.

  "Which you did," she said with a grin.

  "You broke my ankle!"

  "Stop complaining, mom babied you for a week, and I got stuck on diaper duty with Kyle and Cassidy. I got the raw end of that deal."

  "Yeah," Ethan smiled fondly. "That was a good week."

  Stefan watched the exchange with a small amount of awe. It was becoming increasingly clear Ethan and Isabelle were exceptionally close as they smiled at
each other. A small bolt of jealousy ripped through him. He was acting like an idiot, he realized as he tried to force himself to relax. He didn't know the girl, yet she fully aroused him, and suddenly he was jealous of the relationship with her brother.

  He shoved the thought forcefully aside as he forced his gaze away from her.

  David stood and leaned his hands on the table as he spoke. "I think we'd better get going."

  Aiden, Ian, and Jack swiftly stood. "You got that list?" David asked.

  "Oh, yeah." Isabelle shifted the laundry basket, pulled a piece of paper from her pocket, and handed it to him.

  David glanced at it and nodded. "No problem."

  "Thanks." Isabelle left the room, and the others filed out behind her.

  Stefan sat for a while contemplating his strange thoughts and behavior. The room was oddly quiet without the laughter filling it —without Isabelle. That realization did nothing to ease his darkening mood. He folded his hands behind his head and pretended to listen as Ethan, Mike, Doug, and Jess exchanged pleasant conversation and stories. He didn't hear a word they said, and he found his gaze drawn to the door every few seconds. It wasn't until the fiftieth time he looked, he realized he was hoping for Isabelle to reappear.

  When she didn't, and Jess placed her hand on his thigh again, he decided it was time to go to bed.

  Chapter Seven

  Jess was wide awake, still yelling at him, when Stefan left the room and slammed the door in her face. He was edgy, restless, and aggravated. He wasn't going to waste his time, or energy, fighting with her. She wasn't worth the headache. The thing bothering him was what started the fight. For the first time, in his exceptionally long life, he was unable to keep an erection.

  Only when he'd pictured a set of violet eyes could he respond in any way to Jess's seduction attempts. It didn’t last long. When Jess crawled on top of him, a feeling of revulsion had instantly flooded him. He had shoved her off, unable to stomach the feel of her any longer.

  Now he felt like a caged animal, desperate to escape, as he made his way quickly downstairs. He didn't know what was the matter with him, but he didn't like the feeling at all.