by H. M. Irwing
“Come to me,” Jace said, throwing her a mock lascivious grin. Lucy grinned back, shaking her head at his antics and ignored his summons. Instead she went about the usual routine of preparing for bed.
Lucy sat on the edge then swung her legs in beneath the covers before propping up her pillows beside Jace’s. Then she turned to address his pout. Pressing her lips to his to kiss it away.
After a while, they pulled back, breathing hard and distancing themselves awkwardly from each other. Lucy slid down to rest her head on his chest and hear him breathe. He stuck his hand in her hair to run a caressing hand down its short length. Petting. Lucy smiled.
“Will you go?” he asked simply, and she knew at once just what he was referring to.
“Must I?” Lucy whined instantly.
“I would like it if you were there,” Jace replied simply.
“Okay,” Lucy muttered unhappily, knowing she would be unable to deny him. She’d known Jace for too long not to be able to read between the lines. What he really meant was that he needed her there. Why? She didn’t know.
“But the whole weekend is going to be horrible,” Lucy said decidedly.
“With that kind of attitude, how could it not?” Jace grinned down at her in askance. But Lucy only grimaced in return. There was no changing her mind about it. Richard may be important to Jace and his family, but he was not important to her. And they both knew exactly what they were up against when it came to Richard.
There was no sugar coating it now. Richard meant business, and he was making it his business to come between Jace and Lucy. She felt like a bone of contention between the two. It was an unsettling feeling, not necessarily knowing which way she would crumble. There was no questioning her love for Jace, but Richard’s draw was dark. He had sultry hidden depths Lucy didn’t even want to think about.
“Shall I get Celine to take you shopping tomorrow?” Jace asked.
“Celine?” Lucy gasped out in horror. His fiancée in all but name? Really?
“I’ll take that as a no then,” Jace sighed. Lucy couldn’t resist the swift smack to the back of his head that he promptly dodged. They really knew each other too well. Was that a good thing?
“I can’t take you myself. I have some office matters to attend to. I have been playing truant these last few days and spending most of my time with you. And you only have tomorrow left to shop,” Jace finished persuasively.
Lucy knew Jace had been bunking work. His pointing it out only served to make her feel guilty, which she knew was his intention all along. They really did know each other too well. They knew exactly which buttons to press, but that made what she had to do next tricky.
“Okay, I’ll go shopping with Celine if you’ll return your copy of the house keys to me,” Lucy bit her lip and waited nervously for his response.
It must have been when she was twelve that Jace tricked her into handing over a spare key to their home to him. It had been a dare that Lucy and her sisters lost to him. As a forfeit, he requested a key to their home. They had thought nothing of it back then and simply handed it over, thinking they had gotten off easy.
But now, looking back, she wanted to know why he’d asked for it. A mere key instead of anything else. He never did use it all that much before now, with his visits usually being at regular hours where a simple knock on the front door would give him entry, but she knew he’d kept that key in his wallet ever since.
“No! I’m not handing it over. Why would you ask that?” Jace asked, looking hurt.
“It’s not that I want it back or that I don’t want you to have it. I’m just not comfortable with how you’re using it,” Lucy started to explain, even as her actions belied her words and she snuggled up against him.
“When we were kids, and even until recently, it was fine; you’d use your key mostly to play pranks on us, but now,” Lucy paused, wondering how best to say this, “Your coming to my room each night is betraying my dad’s trust in me. I don’t like doing that to him.”
She fell silent then, unable to look him in the eye as she felt so bad. She hated that she had to say it, and hated more that he had to stop sleeping over every night, but recalling her dad’s unhappy face over dinner tonight, Lucy couldn’t in all honesty betray his trust in her anymore and that meant they had to stop sneaking around under his roof.
“Jace?” She called out tentatively when he didn’t respond. Finally, she looked up to see his expression and what she saw left her breathless and wanting.
“What…?”
Lucy was pulled up hard against him.
“Just tell me one thing. Do you want me to leave? To not return here, night after night, to hold you in my arms as you sleep?” Jace paused then to stare at her earnestly.
“I want you here,” Lucy said unhesitatingly.
“Okay then. I agree with everything you just said. Only, I know you want me here so how will you sleep without me? You crave me as much as I do you.” His seductive words were accentuated with little kisses down her heated cheek. He stopped as he reached her collarbone to raise his head and pant down at her.
“But you’re right, we are not playing fair by your dad. So, here’s the deal. We both know I am not going to simply release the key without an unfair fight. You do your best to make me cum and the key is yours.”
At that, his impish grin was back full throttle.
Lucy scowled up at him. Both turned on and aghast at his demand of her. This was not how she’d envisioned this conversation unfolding. But Lucy couldn’t help the spark of excitement flaring up in her veins. She was always up for a challenge, and Jace Neil was a delightful challenge. A delicious one, even. The tip of her pink tongue peeped out and then with a resounding lip smack she turned an equally lascivious grin on him. Time to make him sweat a bit.
Turnabout was fair play, and she’d certainly suffered her fair share of intense heat at his hands. Lucy shifted to rise and straddle him. Her fingers itched to have her way with him. But not yet. She bit her lip indecisively, bracing for control until the very tips of her fingers shook with the restrained urge to touch him… to ravage him.
“You answer my one question truthfully and your wish is my command,” Lucy said instead, seriously even if her voice did come out hoarsely.
“Ask!”
He all but snapped urgently at her. She could see his anticipation building even as hers was swiftly raging out of control. His hips moved involuntarily to buck against her and Lucy pressed back down soothingly, both pacifying his urge and inciting him further. She lifted a trembling hand to smooth through her ruffled hair, not breaking eye contact as she did, “Why did you ask for the key? When we were younger and lost the dare to you, why did you only ask for a key? I never understood that, and I would like to,” she asked simply.
That question had been put off for too long and Lucy was done with dealing secrets. She had enough skeletons in her closet not to want any with Jace.
“I wanted to be a part of your family,” said Jace, simply. He tore his gaze away from hers to stare over her shoulders distantly. “Mine, as you know, were never really there for me. After spending his earlier years making his fortune, Dad took to the route out to enjoyment too quick. He would be off on some golfing expeditions when he wasn’t working.”
“The company suffered, and I did too. Mum, as you know, was never one to hang around either. She was trying to fit in with other rich wives and make a mark in their society. That was why I was often left with your family.”
OMG! That was why he had been left with them so often. Lucy had never questioned that before. She’d never questioned why Jace, a rich kid, spent all his free time with them. It had made no sense, but Lucy had been too busy enjoying his company to ever ask what had become a haunting question over the years.
She guessed she must have realised from early days yet that there was more to Jace than he led them to believe. But he hadn’t been ready then to share. He was now.
“Your parents always trea
ted me as their own, and I didn’t want to lose that. That warm feeling of actually belonging.” His gaze moved back to meet hers, his blues piercing with the intensity of his emotions. “I was probably fifteen when I became smart enough to realise this. To realise that nothing was ever going to change in my own home, and that if I wanted a home at all it would be with you, in yours. So, I did the only thing I could. I asked for a key. That way I could never be locked out. It was silly, I know, but at that time it had felt right,” said Jace, shrugging his shoulders indifferently.
Lucy felt her eyes well up and overflow, forgetting that she didn’t, as a rule, cry.
“Don’t cry,” Jace groaned, before rolling her over to come to rest on top of Lucy. He buried his face in her neck, breathing her in as he held her tight. Lucy gripped him as tightly, holding him to her as she tried to contain her sobs.
Looking back, Lucy felt awful. She had been terrible to him in their childhood. Playing him trick for trick. Teasing him mercilessly and then laughing at him whenever he faltered at a challenge. She had been plain mean and all that while… all that while… he had been just lonely. Oh, but she was a bully! Secure in the love and support of her family, she’d paid no regard for the lack of family in his life.
Lucy realised then that while she had often been envious of Jace and his privileged life, she was the spoilt one of the two. Lucy had been showered with the abundance of love from her parents and siblings. And she’d always had Jace too. And yet, she had constantly bemoaned to him of the difference in her looks, and later when she found out why, she’d bemoaned her missing twin and the father she had never met. And with this eventful past weekend, given time she would have also bemoaned to him in having had a kidnapper for an aunt. All she seemed to have done was gripe. While Jace had quietly suffered. While Jace had out on a brave front, a laughing front, a teasing front… Oh god!
Her tears poured out freely, aghast at her own callousness in their past. It had to be a crime to be so oblivious to the plight of another, especially one so close to her heart as Jace. Lucy was overcome with sorrow over their past and regret over their future where they would have to remain apart, at least in bed. She held him tightly and sobbed her heart out with crazy intensity. She knew her tears were not all about Jace. It was everything else as well, chipping in to lend flood-filling waters to gush down her cheek.
“Honey… stop… this is not what I had in mind when I asked you to get horny with me,” Jace protested jokingly. Lucy lifted thick drenched lashes to flick light ambers tearfully up at him. Jace smiled down lovingly at her, involuntarily making Lucy sob all the harder still.
“You… don’t deserve… me,” she hiccupped out incoherently.
“O-kay.” Jace quirked a brow down at her in askance.
Then, realising what she’d said, Lucy panicked, “No!” She yelped out frantically. “That’s not what I meant.” She panted then sobbed out brokenly, “I meant you deserve so much better, Jace.”
“You’re so funny, Lucy,” grinned Jace, not at all put out by her weirdness.
She gave a watery smile back. Feeling suddenly tired out, Lucy pushed Jace back onto his back and climbed on top of him.
Sighing heavily, Jace cuddled her close. “Our last night together and I can’t believe we’re going to waste it sleeping,” he groaned out grumpily. Lucy smiled sleepily and pressed a kiss onto the chest beneath her.
Chapter 13
The birds fluttered their wings outside Lucy’s window. It was morning. The start to a new day and the last day of the year. A day to plan, and one for reflection, certainly. The morning rose bright and cheery for all the inhabitants of Merryville Drive, but the Littles were wrought with distress. A new form of uproar held them distraught.
This one decidedly more alarming and disturbing than all past moments of outburst within the Little family. But with the sensitive nature of the matters being discussed, this upheaval was more of the hush-hush kind. It was whispered in secret between the three Little sisters.
“I lost my virginity.”
“You what?”
“I lost my virginity,” repeated Cat simply, as if she had just lost her pet cat and not something vitally important like her V-card.
Lucy stared at Cat, flabbergasted. Was this a joke? But this was Cat, she wouldn’t joke about something like this. But then she wouldn’t have been the one spouting off this nonsense either. Cat was the bookish one. How the hell…???
Lucy rounded on Emily, “How could you be so irresponsible, Emily?” She demanded of her little sister. “How could you let this happen to you?” Lucy demanded, forgetting her own many near misses with Jace.
“Why are you scolding me? Cat’s the one who did It!” Wailed Emily, protestingly.
“Just how stupid do you think I am? I know Cat is just covering up for you! She’s taking the blame onto herself for your wrongdoings like always,” Lucy said sarcastically.
“Well this time she isn’t. This time she did the wrong all on her own,” barked Emily angrily.
“Hey, you guys, I’m right here. I can answer to my own mistakes,” said Cat mournfully.
Lucy turned on her then. “What is wrong with you? How could you just go and…? Oh My God! Were you raped?” Lucy asked horrified.
Cat stared back transfixed. Her eyes widening and turning glassy, she looked more cat-like than ever before, if one discounted the blue-and-not-green hues of her iris. She contemplated the question seriously before concluding quite decisively. “No… No! I don’t know just how it happened, only that it did.” Cat reiterated unhelpfully.
“Alright, let’s all calm down,” Lucy said more to herself than to anyone else, “I want you to tell me exactly what happened.”
Then another horrifying thought struck her, and she burst out again ahead of herself, “Did you use protection?”
“I… I don’t know!” Cat erupted into an uncharacteristic wail. Lucy scrunched her face and clenched her teeth in agitation. This behaviour was exactly what was expected from Emily, but Cat? She just didn’t understand it.
“Just tell us already!” Emily interrupted, demanding impatiently.
They were all gathered at their usual sisters-meeting place, perched on Lucy’s bed. The amount of drama that had unfolded over its soft contours over the years had been nothing short of astounding, but this… this took the cake. Thankfully, Jace was already gone that morning before her sisters had come barging in with this… this news!
“I was at the party last night with Emily,” began Cat stupidly, for that they already knew. Lucy rolled her eyes but otherwise did not interrupt.
“He came up to me at the party—”
“Who?” Both Emily and Lucy yelled impatiently.
“I don’t know! I don’t even know his name!” Wailed Cat.
“Did he spike your drink? It could be that date drug!” Lucy cried out, fitfully.
“No, I was not drugged,” Cat replied earnestly.
Lucy just didn’t understand it. She looked at Emily confused, but Emily only said tightly, “Stop interrupting and let her tell how it happened.”
“So, like I said, this guy turned up at the party looking completely out of place and I knew instantly he was a gate crasher. That he shouldn’t even be there,” Cat began her explanation, sending butterflies of tension crawling in Lucy’s midsection. She shuddered in immediate horror, expecting the worst.
“He was soooo cute. I mean cute. You know how I’m unlike Em in thinking that every guy is the cutest thing on earth but this guy. This guy! He really was!”
That made absolutely no sense to Lucy, and turning to catch Emily’s gaze, she knew it made no sense to her either. Cat just didn’t notice things like men. Her nose was too buried in her books for that. Always.
“I was struck standing there watching him, and he noticed. Over the din and in the crowded room filled with girls dressed to impress, he saw me,” she related, matter-of-factly, then added as if in awe. “Plain and simple me.”
<
br /> Lucy cringed, feeling somehow at fault. She should have been there to protect her little sister. Never mind that she wasn’t invited. There were other gate crashers there weren’t there? He had been a gate crasher. She should have been one too.
“There’s nothing plain about you, Cat,” added Emily, unhelpfully, for there really wasn’t.
Cat really was anything but plain. She was, after all, Emily’s identical twin. She may not be as flamboyant in her dress sense… alright she dressed as badly as Lucy, but otherwise she looked hot. Lucy didn’t get how she could miss it. She was Emily’s twin for goodness sake. Didn’t that particular two and two add to four in her book?
“I watched him approach me, looking amazingly sexy and ruffled, and I wanted to get all over him like a rash,” Cat explained, and Lucy winced, having been catapulted headlong into the past, to her own sixteenth birthday to be exact. The very one she’d celebrated at Jace’s in a pool party that had landed her first soul-scorching kiss. The very one that had lent her half-crazy over Jace ever since. Oh god!
“He approached me and leaned down close, so he could speak right in my ear, so I could hear over the din, you know, and he said, ‘Want to fuck?’, and I just said ‘Yes!’,” Cat explained simply. It had really seemed like the only option for her at that time. He had been so sweltering hot; how could she not have melted into a puddle at his feet?
Lucy felt faint.
“You see! You see why I had to keep dragging Cat along from one party to another. She hasn’t a clue how to respond to an interested male.” Emily was swift to go on the defensive, but Lucy was not about to let her off so easily.
“It was your dragging her off to one of your parties that landed her in hot soup in the first place. You should have just left her alone or, better yet, keep her with you at all times at those parties.”
“I am not a child who requires constant looking after,” protested Cat in affront, but she was only lambasted for her efforts with piercing gold and blue hues of incredulity. Cat was not ordinarily known for being stupid, but there were clearly exceptions for everybody.