KristoI served up and took my seat opposite her, grabbing myself a water from the fridge.“You want a drink?” I asked, and she shook her head and took a spoonful of the curry, blowing on it softly.“No, I’m fine,” she replied calmly. That tone of voice was the thing that was driving me the wildest because it seemed so removed, so uninterested, so bored. Like she couldn’t wait for me to shut up and stop talking already. I sat down slowly, letting out a long breath as I did so, trying to get a hold on my annoyance. It had been a long day at work, that was all. I could handle myself.“How was your day?” I asked carefully, and she shrugged.“It was fine,” she replied. “And yours?”“It was kind of stressful,” I replied, eyeing her, waiting for her to respond with something, anything. But she just nodded.“I’m sorry to hear that,” she replied mildly. She took a bite of her food.“This is nice,” she remarked. Everything had suddenly become so bland with her, as though she had shaved the rou
AmayaAs soon as the door was shut behind me, he pushed through it. I let out a yelp of annoyance as the door busted open and swiveled on my heel to see what the fuck he wanted.“How can I help you?” I demanded, furious that he was coming into this place like this. My room was meant to be my space. That was how I understood it. And I had worked so hard keeping him out of here, keeping him at arm’s length, keeping him so far from me emotionally that I could begin to convince myself there was nothing going on, not really. I planted my hands on my hips as he stood there, chest rising and falling quickly, trying to think of something to say.“Well?” I prompted him.“You need to talk to me,” he shot back finally. He was never much good at coming up with what he needed to say at the time he needed to say it, but he seemed to be filling in the blanks a little with everything else, piecing things together slowly but surely. I could see it in his eyes, those feelings for me beginning to swell
Amaya“You too,” I replied as the two of us undressed each other. My hands were shaking as I plucked at his shirt and unbuckled his jeans, and there was still some part of me, paranoid, that was reminding me this wasn’t going to make getting over him any easier. But I didn’t care. After how distant we’d been, I craved the connection to him, that way of pulling ourselves back to each other the way I needed right now.Once he had me fully naked and I had stripped him down, he pushed me back on the bed and ran his hands all over my body. I traced the muscles on his shoulders, wondering once again what the hell a man like this was doing interested in someone like me. He could have had his pick of supermodels with a body like that, yet he touched me like I was fine velvet, expensive, precious, rare.He was already hard, his cock pressed against my inner thigh with an eagerness, and I just wanted to feel him inside me. He was kissing me as he reached over to the bedside cabinet, making out
Kristo“Good morning.”“Morning,” she replied nervously, arms wrapped around herself as she stepped out of the bedroom. She was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, somehow looking even hotter than she did when she was all done up in her fancy work dresses or to see my family.“You have the day off today, right?” I remarked, and she nodded.“Yeah, it’s a holiday,” she replied. “Why?”“Let’s go out,” I suggested. I had woken early this morning and called work and told them I would be taking the day off. I had no idea what holiday it was, but I was celebrating it with Amaya for the rest of the day and nothing anyone could say was going to stop me.“Are you sure?” She arched an eyebrow. “I have some work to catch up on. I was just going to stay at home and get it all done.”“Do you need to do it?”“No,” she admitted.“Then let’s get out of the city for a while,” I implored her. “Not far, I promise. Just shake off the steam a little, huh?”“Okay,” she replied carefully and glanced down at what
Kristo“It’s going to be all right,” I promised her as I helped strap her into the harnesses. Up front, Nathan was getting everything in hand for us to fly. I had called ahead with the details this morning, and I was looking forward to getting out of the city for a while, especially with Amaya on my arm.“You took my airplane virginity and my helicopter one.” She managed to tease me, even though I could still see the slight panic pulsing in her eyes.“I think that’s it for airborne vehicles,” I jibed with her, hoping it would distract her. “Unless you want me to fire you into space.”“We’ll see about that,” she replied, and she tensed as the safety checks were finished the rotors began spinning above us. “Oh my god, this is crazy.”I suddenly realized she’d reached over and was grasping my hand tightly, her knuckles so tensed, they looked as though they were going to pop out from under her skin. I squeezed her hand, letting her know it was going to be all right as the pilot pulled up
Kristo“They died a long time ago. I told you that,” she replied. “In an accident. I was just eighteen. I was so young, and Jolene was barely a few years old, and I had to step in and look after her. There was no one else in the family who could do it, so I …”She hesitated again, catching her breath.“They gave us a payout, the insurance people, for the accident, and I took it so I could go off to college and support my sister at the same time,” she explained. “But when I finished up, I realized I couldn’t hold down a job and look after her.”“Hey, you don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to,” I assured her swiftly. “Really.”“No, it’s okay.” She brushed a few tears away from her eyes, as though angry at herself. I fell silent and looked at the store assistant, who was lurking nearby awkwardly and watching us. I shot her a look that told her to back right the hell off, and she scurried away to the other end of the store and left us to it.“I wanted to be with her,” she wen
AmayaI didn’t like talking about Jolene. He must have sensed that because he let it go soon enough. The hurt in my voice must have been clear to even someone as unemotional as him, and he didn’t seem to know how to handle it beyond throwing money at the problem. And hey, if that worked for him, then I certainly wasn’t going to complain.I could feel it nagging at me in the back of my mind. I still felt so guilty so much of the time for not being with Jolene. Here I was, spending all this cash and traipsing around these fancy shops across the state line just because he could and he wanted to take me. It didn’t feel right, knowing she was all the way back in the home and waiting for me. She would have told me to stop being such a worrywart and to enjoy myself while I could, but I was her big sister, and it was my business to worry about her. Going over everything that had happened to us just stirred up those feelings all over again, the ones I had done such a damn good job ignoring ove
Amaya“What’s up?” I asked softly, and he turned to me and cocked his head.“I was just thinking,” he began, and for a split second, I had this crazy thought that he was going to suggest we make things serious, that today had convinced him as much as it had convinced me that things needed to be more secure between us once and for all. I shoved those thoughts to the back of my mind. Of course, he wasn’t going to say anything like that. He would have come out with that already if he was going to. He wasn’t going to start with that shit now, just because I wanted him too.“Oh, yeah?”“We should invite Jolene up here for a day out,” he continued, and my heart twisted in my chest.“You’re serious?” I raised my eyebrows at him.“No, I just came in here to tease you about it,” he shot back, grinning. I fell silent for a moment. This was a lot, even for him. Did he have any idea how big a deal this was to me? No guy I had ever dated had suggested involving Jolene more in our lives. In fact, m