And right on cue came the witch of unhappiness. The door swung open without knocking. I was feeling really groovy inside, a nice warm and yummy numbness, so her abrupt entrance didn’t faze me. Robert, however, jumped a little in surprise.
“Mom! Do you mind?”
“As a matter of fact, I do,” she snapped hotly, her face filled with disgust for me.
Fuck it. I ain’t getting up. My head repositioned against the bedpost and I mentally prepared myself for whatever scolding she was about to give us.
“You know, there’s a party going on downstairs and your attendance is required. And you know my rules about bedrooms.”
Funny how she only denied us sharing a bedroom. As if we couldn’t sneak off to the media room, the sauna, or any other freakin’ room in this mansion to go at it. Maybe she kept it in the bedroom, but the younger generations tended to explore their horizons…and their sexual locations.
“Yeah, Mom. You’re afraid I’ll have sex with my girlfriend of two and a half years, whom I live with. Trust me, we don’t have to wait until you’re distracted with a dinner party to jump into bed.”
“One less chance at pregnancy, the way I see it. Now hurry up.”
That was the most overdramatic swish and turn exit I think I’d ever seen. No wonder she and Anne got along so well.
Robert was shaking his head with so much annoyance that the darkened features and pouty lips actually aroused me. “You know…” I teased, gently pulling on his tie so he’d lean closer. “Technically, she never said we couldn’t share the shower.”
Huffing under his breath, a growl rumbled from his chest before he pressed hard against my mouth, taking the very breath from my lungs. But his lips pulled away too soon. “Remind me of that when we get back home. When I’m not worried my mom will bust down the door to get in.”
He reached for my hand and pulled my reluctant feet into motion. “I wonder if we have Anne to thank for the authority sweep of the bedrooms again. Bet’cha your mom wouldn’t have cared if she was the one you snuck in here.” Sure enough, as we passed the media room on our way back down, Anne was mysteriously absent from her group of chummy friends.
Robert sheltered me the rest of the night, moving me in and out of rooms opposite his mother. I wasn’t sure if it was for my benefit, or if he feared a stand-off between us in front of their guests. Now that would be a Christmas to remember.
The night finally came to a close and only a few stragglers remained. Anne, of course, was one of them. She actually had the nerve to come up and say goodbye, pretending she had nothing to do with earlier. I’d latched onto Robert the entire night, never letting go, so she finally decided to call tonight a loss in terms of finding him off by himself.
“Well,” she said, looking to Robert and completely ignoring me, “we’ve survived yet another uneventful Christmas gathering forced upon us. Only three hundred and sixty-five more days until we have to do it all over again.”
“Oh, darn,” I lamented. “Anne, the night’s so young. Are you outie like a bellybutton already?” I wrapped my arm around Robert even tighter, who was completely oblivious to my twist of words. Anne, however, understood it completely and smirked. “Oh, well. Thanks for coming. Toodles.” I wiggled my fingers goodbye, Robert quietly said, “goodnight,” under his breath and together we bailed on the few remaining guests. He kissed me long and gentle in the hallway and whispered his love before finally parting ways. I was so ready to sleep I barely had the energy to shower before I crashed into bed.
It took me a moment to figure out what was happening when I awoke. The room was dark, and my insides were all warm and tingly, and Robert was hovering over me, nibbling on my neck. I whimpered my approval and reached around his back to bring our bodies together.
“Merry Christmas, baby.”
“Mmm…” I moaned, realizing he was completely na**d between the sheets. “Merry Christmas. And if you’re staying… Best. Present. Ever.”
“Might as well. What’s she really going to do? Kick us out? Never let us come back?”
I beat my fists against the back of his shoulders and a burst of giggles erupted from my chest, Robert quick to muffle them until they ceased. “I stand corrected. Now that would be the best Christmas present ever!”
We were still chuckling as he slid off the panties that matched the satin slip I was wearing. “Shh… I still don’t want her coming in here.”
I couldn’t help it, my euphoria getting the best of me, but when I focused my mind on the pleasures Robert’s hands and lips were creating, the giggles soon faded to nonexistence.
6
Curse this freakin’ snow! My boots sloshed through the dingy white patches and skidded over the thinner areas, slipping on the frozen water beneath. I’d barely missed my bus and decided it wasn’t worth waiting in the cold for the next one. Boy was I wrong. I knew there was a reason I never walked more than four blocks in the wintertime. I was lucky I hadn’t fallen on my ass or seriously pulled a thigh muscle every time my leg slipped outward. A fine mist of frost coated the air as the constant traffic whipped past, chilling my face, surely giving my cheeks a rosy glow.
So long as my nose wasn’t as red as Rudolph’s.
I stretched the tail of my scarf towards my face and smothered my nose and mouth, the heat of my exhalations warming my wind-nipped skin. But as miserable as the cold numbing me from head to toe was, it was the stuffiness crowding the inside of my head that was really crushing my jovial, post-Christmas mood.
My phone jingled from within my purse, and I groaned as I removed my bulky glove to retrieve it. The familiar tune told me it was Robert, and he was probably wondering what was taking so long.
“Hello?”
“Hey. Where you at? The movie starts in twenty minutes.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m almost home. I missed the bus and had to walk.”
“Jenna, I could’ve come and gotten you.”
“Believe me, I wish you had. I’ll see you in a few.”
We said our goodbyes and I sloshed through two more blocks, finally turning on the avenue that took me to our apartment building. If only I hadn’t been stubborn and just called Robert to come pick me up, then I never would have heard his gentle voice saying my name as he slipped up beside me. My body jerked, setting off a domino effect of fearful vibrations throughout my body.
“Evan!” What was he doing here? How did he even know where to look? A million questions scattered my thoughts as my eyes took in the sight of my once dreamtime lover. But this wasn’t the face of the fun and humorous crush I came to love, but solemn, and quite frankly, way too serious to suit. His eyes seemed almost pained, his smile nonexistent. “Evan…” My words were there but barely audible. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?” He looked so much worse than he did in the hospital. It was the kind of look you typically saw on someone who lost their dearest friend, pale and just absolutely drained of life.
He nodded slowly, his hazel eyes piercing mine, fixing me in a daze that refused release. He stepped before me, so close his breath tickled my cheeks. They were fast and heavy, and something told me it wasn’t ‘cause he just rushed over to catch me. No, he’d been lying in wait for me to arrive tonight.
My chest gasped as his hand caressed my cheek, either from the chill of his bare hand or the forbidden action itself – I wasn’t really sure. We hadn’t been close like this since before he awoke from his coma, when the fear of him forgetting me plagued my thoughts. Now, almost two years later, his sudden nearness had me on the verge of a massive anxiety attack.
His thumb gently stroked the delicate skin under my eye. “I remember,” he said softly, and my chest suddenly became too heavy to breathe, my mind spinning madly with incoherent thoughts that might as well have been spoken in a foreign language, for they were useless to me. “I remember everything. You. Me. Us.”
Mentally, I tried to say no as his face neared, but my body was too stunned to react. I didn’t even kiss him back when his lips first connected with mine, so his hovered, barely gracing the sweetest touch, waiting to lure me in as his hot breath slowly warmed my bottom lip. His lips were cold, like he’d been waiting too long in the chilly air. But they were also familiar, exactly like I remembered from the many nights I spent wrapped up within his loving arms. I caught the scent of musk and citrus and it warmed my insides, just like a shot of amaretto would, and my eyes closed as if suddenly too drunk and heavy to remain open.
But I still hadn’t pulled away, and I couldn’t get my head to figure out why, like I’d been hypnotized into staying put, or a sudden surge of pheromones exuding off his skin were doping me into submission. And my voice…well, the vocal no longer preceded the word chord.
Whatever the reason for my lack of fight, Evan took it as cooperation. My eyes reopened and immediately connected with his, and the longing hunger they screamed. Both hands covered my cheeks now, and he pulled me in the rest of the way, his lips more aggressive this time. They were still light and gentle, but needy, like he’d held it in so long he couldn’t stand it anymore, his moan signaling the release of pent up anguish within.
A whimper escaped my own mouth. If the relay was working between my brain and lips, then they refused to accept the command to stop, that this uninvited, unprovoked, horribly offensive…wonderful, beautiful, seductive sensation caused by his luscious lips was wrong.
I gasped as we were pushed violently apart, Robert’s screaming echoing in my stuffy ears, like an unforgiving game of ping pong between two champion competitors. “What the f**k?” But his attention was more on Evan, who he continued to shove backwards. Not wanting to engage – ‘cause we all knew he was guilty as hell right now – Evan’s hands were thrust up in surrender, but Robert shoved until Evan’s back hit flat against the brick wall.
“Wait. Stop!” I cried as I pulled on Robert’s arm, desperately trying to separate the two.
“Stop?” he mocked, his face glowering in disbelief. “You mean that action you couldn’t seem to do yourself a few seconds ago?” That threw me, ‘cause I knew he was dead on right, and I stuttered over a few incoherent syllables. He turned back to Evan, who still hadn’t moved, though his arms finally fell to his sides. “Tell me,” Robert demanded, “Did you know she had a boyfriend before you did that?”
Evan stared silently for a moment before answering coolly, “Sorry, mate.”
Oh, crap. I saw it coming but could do nothing to stop it. Robert’s fist connected with Evan’s jaw so hard his head spun around and crashed into the wall.
Robert stepped back, fuming. “Sorry, mate,” he spat. “I knew punching you was morally wrong and all, but I still decided to try it anyway.”
Evan cradled his jaw and rotated back, his temple scratched and bloodied from kissing the brick.
“Oh my God,” I said, pushing past Robert to check Evan’s head, ignoring the endless stares of lookey-loos as they did nothing passing by, continuing on their way, as if this show happened at the top of every hour in this very spot. “Damn it, Robert. You’re rightfully pissed, but Evan’s had enough head trauma in his life.”
“Wait,” Robert said as Evan allowed me to dab the end of my scarf to soak up the blood that dripped down his cheek. “This is the guy you went to see last month? Are you shitting me?”
I threw him a nasty glare. “So what? I thought we agreed I could be friends with anyone I chose.”
“Yeah. So long as he’s not trying to shove his tongue down your throat.” He moved in again, his eyes fixed hard on Evan, who met his glare with equal hostility. But it turned out he wasn’t going for Evan. He was coming for me. His face mere inches from mine, he firmly asked, “Have you ever kissed him before, or was this really the first time?”
My body recoiled into itself, my mind searching hard for the right words. “No,” I stammered. And although I spoke the truth – ‘cause Evan and I never had kissed outside that dream world – my conscience, who knew those dream feelings were legit, totally ratted me out by shaking, making it sound like I was lying.
“You know what?” Robert threw his hands up and backed away. “Never mind. She’s all yours. I’m done.”
“What? Robert!” I cried, dropping my scarf and following his quickening retreat. “Stop!”
He didn’t. He turned his back on me, climbed the stairs to our building and disappeared inside. I turned to Evan. “What the hell was that? What were you thinking?”
He pushed off and invaded my personal space once more, causing me to lean away in retreat. Now I felt the urge to shove his ass against the wall. “After everything we had, did you really think I wouldn’t come for you?”
“It wasn’t real, Evan. You can’t go screwing with what actually is. And don’t I get a say in this? Shouldn’t I be able to choose for myself, and not have you doing something stupid like that to jeopardize my relationship?”
“I’ll admit that didn’t go as planned.”
“Oh, yeah?” I mocked, crossing my arms as I glared at him. Clearly, my anger amused him, as that wicked half-smile slowly began to curve. “What exactly was your plan?”
God, I hated the charm behind his smile, the seduction behind those eyes, the way his face could do this sexy smolder thing, and the way they were all chipping away at the grudge I was trying desperately to hold on to.
“Well…it involved me telling you I finally remembered everything we had, declaring my love for you, you throwing yourself into my arms, maybe you throwing me up against that wall in a heat of passion, dumping your boyfriend for me…”