The Forfeit Jar

She had spent an interesting evening - although nerve-wracking in some places - with two of the most handsome and eligible men in the entire world. She sighed with happiness as she thought of Gabriel who, when he had sobered up, was the most delightful man she had ever met. 

“So Amelia, what do you like to do in your spare time?” Gabriel asked as he poured the rich deep red wine into her glass. 

“I like to cook, I love trying out new recipes, and please call me Millie, Amelia is just a Sunday name.”

“Oh, we will definitely be your guinea pigs for that, Millie,” he said.

He teased her gently, making her blush and giggle, and being around him did something to her insides low down and deep. Making her very warm and her tummy felt almost liquid as he had made her laugh with his silly jokes. He didn’t treat her like staff, he’d made sure she had everything she needed, and she felt more like a revered guest.

Nick, although just as gorgeous, frightened her to death in a way she had never been frightened before. The gentle, sweet warmth that Gabriel induced in her had turned to a bubbling, boiling storm that clenched her womb. Her core felt heavy and swollen, her knees turned to jelly, and it drenched her panties with her arousal. 

He watched her every move from deep, half-closed eyes like a languorous tiger stalking its prey. He didn’t say much, except how perfectly cooked his steak was, and she wondered just how he cut it and eat it without ever taking his eyes off her.

Thinking of wildlife, the resident vultures in her life called her as she was getting into bed. Her twin sisters, Pearl and Ruby. Pearl was the elder by ten minutes and never let her twin Ruby forget it. Millie felt the familiar and unwelcome knot of tension starting to pull in her stomach when she heard the ring tone.

She thought she had escaped them, and now... Oh God, what did they want now?

They had thrown her out of their apartment for scorching a new top that Ruby had just acquired, except that she hadn’t been the one to ruin it.

Millie sighed, she knew she had better answer the phone, otherwise, she knew her sisters wouldn’t stop calling.

“Millie? Where the hell are you?” Pearl screeched down the phone. “We’ve just got off a plane and there was no one to pick us up, we’ve got nothing to eat in the fridge and we need you to unpack for us!”

Millie was astonished; just what the hell were they playing at?

“Pearl, may I remind you that you threw me out, I left just like you said I should, and besides I’ve got a new job” Mille mumbled, determined not to let her elder sister make her feel guilty.

“What! But you work for us, we need you, we came home from Spain and you weren’t here!”

“But you threw me out and sacked me after you scorched Ruby’s new top,” Millie said in disbelief.

Pearl jumped in straight away, “I did not scorch that top!” She yelled down the phone

“Oh well, dearie me, it must have been the ironing imp then,” Millie muttered. “Well, the fact is I have a new job, so I’m staying here. I love it here.” Millie bit her lip. That was a stupid thing to say, Pearl wouldn’t let it drop now.

“Who are you working for? You can’t like it as much as you like working for us. I mean, we have all those clothes you could borrow...” 

“Shame you’re too fat to borrow them.” Ruby chipped in over the hand's free call.

The tears shimmered in Millie’s eyes. These were her sisters! They had never had a happy home life together, and Pearl and Ruby took sibling rivalry to the absolute limit. Working for the twins meant no pay, and money coming out of her savings to pay for food. She was sick of being yelled at for the slightest thing and being blamed for things other people did. And as for the clothes, she wouldn’t be seen dead in them, anyway. “Well,” she said through clenched teeth, “I love this job and I’m staying!”

“But Millie...we’re your sisters!” Pearl said in about as begging a tone as Millie could ever hope to hear.

“That maybe so, but Nick Henderson will pay me, you know put money in my...

“Who did you say?” Pearl screamed down the phone. “Tell me, tell me now!”

“Nick. Nick Henderson.”

Pearl and Ruby screamed in delight, and Millie had to hold her phone away from her ear. Oh God, now what had she done? If those stupid girls lost her this job, she would never ever forgive them. 

Millie cut them off and turned her phone to mute. She pulled the duvet up around her shoulders and closed her eyes, she needed a good night’s sleep and the last thing she wanted was to listen to her stupid sisters raving over her men...

Millie’s eyes shot open! Had she really just thought they were ‘her men’?

Oh, if only! Just thinking about Gabriel when he hugged her or put his arm around her shoulder made her nipples tighten up, and Nick didn’t even have to touch her. He only had to speak for her to have shocking sparks of arousal coursing through her body. This was no good, she had to stop this; they were very nice to her, but that was as far as it would go. Bloody hell, she was twice the size of the girls they normally went on dates with. Millie shut her eyes tightly, trying to block out their handsome faces from her mind.

Millie’s dreams were, in part, wonderful.

Gabriel stood in front of her, his hands holding her face as he murmured words of love. His lips touching hers. And then a delightful shock as Nick stood behind her, his arms around her waist as he held her against his strong, magnificent body, as he whispered in her ear and nibbled on her neck. His lips were warm and sensuous, and his hands smoothed over her curvy hips.  In the frustrating way of dreams, she remained dressed, but the men were shirtless and all she wanted was to feel their skin against hers.

Gabriel pressed his body to hers,  his hips rocking. She could feel him, hard and long, and pressing against her. His hips rolled and his hands moved to cup her breasts, his thumbs tormenting the stiff peaks of her nipples which sent shards of delight coursing across her body. Amelia felt relief as his firm and smooth lips met hers instead of the loose, wet mouth of the boy who had kissed her once before.

Behind her, Nick pushed his hips into the sumptuous cushion that was her bottom. He seemed to move faster than Gabriel, more determined that she should accept them. He whispered in her ear, “Do you want us?” His words echoed around her, repeating the phrase over and over again.

She was just about to scream that yes she did when the nightmare of her sisters appeared yelling and screaming at the men to let her go.  

“No, Pearl it’s okay I want them!” Amelia yelled under the mistaken apprehension that Pearl was looking out for her.  Pearl laughed at her, “You can’t have them, you’re too fat, men don’t like fat girls like you!”  

In an instant, the men had vanished as if they had been spirited away by the fairies.

Millie woke with a shock, eyes bursting wide open and gasping for breath. She could still feel the warmth of both men and she clung on to that wonderful feeling. She closed her eyes trying to get back into the dream trying to get back to the warmth and the sensuous feel of the dream, but it was no good, they had gone.

It took a moment to realise where she was, and slowly it came flooding back to her, and although her excitement grew as she remembered who she was working for, she had an underlying sadness that what she had dreamed about could never be. Her sisters had won again even in a dream. Heaving a sigh she grabbed her phone to see what time it was, the alarm hadn’t gone off so she knew she had woken up early.

Shit! It was nearly eight-thirty! Her bloody sisters had called seventeen times and now because she had turned her phone off she had missed the alarm. Millie jumped out of bed and took the quickest shower in the world, a quick straight in and out, and not even washing her hair. She dressed in double quick time, and taking a deep breath opened her door to the kitchen.

Millie could smell the coffee as soon as she opened her door. Her heart sank at the thought that they were actually up and doing her job! She was sure they would still be sleeping, didn’t rock stars work all night and sleep all day? She felt extremely nervous as she walked down the length of the kitchen and her breathing hitched when she saw them. All she could think about was the dream.

Both men were sitting at the table Nick reading the morning papers on his iPad and Gabe sorting through the post. They had almost empty plates, half-eaten slices of toast still on them.

Gabriel looked up when he heard her footsteps.

“Amelia, good morning did you sleep well?” He asked with a smile on his face. “Let me get you some coffee,” he got up gathering both their mugs and taking a clean one from the shelf for her. “Go and sit down.”

Millie smiled her thanks as she sat opposite them. “I slept very well thank you and I’m so sorry to be late on my first morning, I had to turn the sound off on my phone off last night so I never heard the alarm.”

Nick carried on reading as if he had never heard her. When he didn’t say anything back to her she stayed quiet. Gabriel put the coffee in front of her and went back to opening his post.

Millie sat there quietly drinking her coffee. God this was so uncomfortable she should go back to her room at least then she could drink her coffee in peace. She closed her eyes trying to give herself a good talking to and was just about to get up when Nick spoke.

“Why did you have to turn the sound off?”

Millie jumped at his voice. “Oh! Er... Taxi, someone kept ringing me wanting a taxi, I had seventeen missed calls this morning.” She blushed, OMG! Now they would think she was telling a huge whopping lie. She couldn’t tell them, the last thing she wanted was her sisters getting in on the act.

Nick never altered his expression as he leaned back in his chair, one ankle resting on his knee. “We have a forfeit system in this house,” he kept his eyes locked on hers, “depending on the misdemeanour, being late for work would be one of them, you would pay with a forfeit.” He pointed to a large crystal sweet jar sitting on the shelf behind him. It was filled with black, red and gold paper all folded up into little squares. “That’s the forfeit jar, each one of those squares has a forfeit written on it. Some are funny.”

So why the hell wasn’t he smiling then?

“Gabriel ended up wearing a pair of yellow rubber gloves all day the other week.”

Gabriel laughed, “it’s really hard trying to play the guitar wearing a pair of Marigolds.”

Millie gave a watery smile, she wasn’t too sure where this conversation was going.

“Some of the forfeits are just” he shrugged, “inconvenient.”

Gabriel chuckled again, “Nick had to put up without electricity for a whole day, it nearly drove him mad especially as he was trying to find out the football results, no phone, or television and no internet. I let him keep the lights on, though really I should have made him sit in a darkened room, we wouldn’t have been able to play poker then.” Gabriel scowled “ I should have definitely made you sit in the dark, you took thousands off me that night.”

Nick ignored his friend’s moaning. “And some, well some of those forfeits make you... “ he paused “specifically interact with others,” he said slowly.

Millie’s brows drew together, “what do you mean?”

“You might have to show us something, or teach us how to do something,” Gabriel suggested waggling his brow and grinning at her.

“What like show you how to make a cake or something?”

“Or something, yes.” Nick chipped in.

Millie gulped, what did he mean by that? “Are you going to make me take one out now for being late? She realised that something so automatic as breathing was now very difficult to accomplish.

Nick kept on looking at her, his eyes narrowed slightly as if he was contemplating that thought. Suddenly he pushed his chair back. “Not this time seeing as it’s your first day plus the fact that you have already cleaned the kitchen before your working contract started.”

Millie felt an overwhelming rush of relief, and her lungs magically started working again.

The relief stopped when he said, “Who did you say called you?”

“I...I don’t know, just some girls wanting a taxi, they had obviously been drinking and they were screaming and shouting down the phone,” she said trying to incorporate a bit of truth in there and feeling quite vindicated as a result. Pearl did use her as a taxi service, and it was quite obvious that they had been drinking, and there was definitely a lot of screaming and shouting going on.

She was grateful that her phone was still on silent, though she knew the girls wouldn’t be up yet. But Millie knew without a doubt that her phone would be ringing all afternoon.

She looked up at Nick who was sliding his suit jacket off the back of the chair next to him. It was obvious that today they were not going to be doing the day job.

“Five minutes Gabriel.” He said glancing at his Breitling as he left the room.

Gabriel noticed her watching, “it’s dressing up day today Millie, we have a board meeting with a charity we work with this morning, then out to lunch with some bigwig who says he can help. Most of it is going to be so tedious, and really all I want to do is lounge about here with you and watch Good Morning with Phil and Holly.”

Gabriel pulled a face at the thought of his day. He really did want to stay at home so that he could watch this gorgeous girl all day long. She looked so ...adorable, her skirt nipped in at the waist and then outlined her fabulous hips and thighs. Gabriel glanced down and almost drooled at the sight of her slim ankles and pretty calves in sheer almost black stockings. He knew they were stockings because he had seen the outline of the clasp of her suspenders under her skirt.

“We need to swap numbers with you,” Gabriel said, “you’ll want to know if we are coming home for dinner. Or,” he leaned across the table towards her, “we can send silly texts to each other while we’re being bombarded with boring stats,” he smirked at her “ that will certainly relieve the tedium, or, you might just want to tell us something, like...you’re missing us.

Millie’s heart lurched when he leaned towards her and she laughed nervously and sat back in her chair unable to move any further away from him. “I’m going to be far too busy cleaning to do anything like that.”

“Give me your phone and I’ll put our numbers in.”

The last thing Millie wanted to do was give him her phone, what if the twins called while he was putting his number in? Millie knew she was being unreasonable, they are probably still fast asleep, but she didn’t want to risk it.

“I can tell you my number, then you can call me so that I have yours.”

Gabriel shook his head, “my number’s blocked if I don’t put the number in you won’t be able to call me back.”

Gabriel held his hand out for her phone, and Millie knew she was going to have to take a chance. She pulled it out of her skirt pocket and handed it over.

“Gabriel get a move on!” Nick called from the top of the kitchen stairs.

“Yeah yeah, I’m coming,” he rolled his eyes at Millie, “he hates being late.” He looked down at her, “I hate leaving you like this we should be here to tell you where everything is.”

“It’s okay, I’ll find everything,” Millie reassured him.

Gabriel’s fingers flew over her phone and in seconds she heard his own phone buzz in his pocket

“You must text me if you can’t, and I’ll call you at lunchtime just to see how you’re getting on.”

“I’ll be fine, honestly.” She shooed him towards the stairs before Nick yelled again.

Millie stood at the bottom of the stairs listening intently, she could hear Gabriel speaking to Nick, but his voice was low, too low to hear what he was saying, but she did hear the words ‘forfeit jar’ and then both of them laughing as the door slammed behind them leaving Millie to blush alone.