“Can we eat already? I’d like to get this over with, so I can drown myself in whiskey in the shadows of my rooms.” I draw out turning to face the table once more, fixing my expression into a blank mask.
“Wow, that’s… dark…” Kait laughs.
“Sorry, we’re taking up your time, asshole. You don’t have to be here. We just needed to unwind a bit. Training has been a shit storm of epic proportions lately, and with Cano out on a mission for a few days we thought, no time like the present. Why don’t you ease up and have that whiskey with us?” Trent laughs as he pours drinks for everyone at the table.
I don’t know what it is, but the idea of letting go for a night really does sound like something I’d like to let myself do. I know it probably won’t happen, but the thought sounds good enough to consider. Ella comes skipping out of the house happy as always. I can’t help but look up at the sound of her giggles as she greets everyone. She tells everyone how she beat Trent today in her training. Trent's eyes flash with pride as he watches her, his smile beaming.
Raelle leans in, bracing herself on the arm of my chair, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those on you.” I crane my neck to look at her, my eyebrow quirking.
“One of what?” I say, as my eyes are drawn to the full bottom lip she pulls between her teeth, and then snap back up to meet her gaze.
“A real smile.”
Dinner is served, and it effectively cuts whatever that conversation was turning into off. I hadn't realized I was smiling. There is a reason she has not seen that. Any sense of happiness is reserved for Ella, and Ella alone. Maybe if she would have known me before, she would have seen a different side of me. I was a different person back then.
After we eat, there is more chatting, and Ella is very animatedly telling stories again. The girl has an imagination on her that would rival the best authors of all time. “Ella, it’s getting late. I think it’s time you head back to your room and ready yourself for bed. You still have studies with Ms. Fey tomorrow morning, do you not?” I ask her.
“I do, but I really wanted to—” she starts to argue.
“No, Ella. It’s time for you to head upstairs. There will be time for fun tomorrow after your lessons.”
“I understand.” She says with a sadness in her eyes. She hugs everyone goodnight, and I get another look from Raelle when Ella also hugs me.
“I love you, Dax.” She says as she attempts to wrap her arms around my broad frame. I close my eyes because I can feel everybody’s gazes burning into me. I wrap one arm around her and give her a light squeeze.
“I love you too, sweet girl. Get to bed,” I tell her with a kiss to the top of her head. Ella runs off and disappears into the house a moment later. Kait and Trent start playing some sort of drinking game, but I can feel Raelle’s stare on me.
“What?” I scowl into my glass and take a drink.
“Nothing. It’s just that I don’t think I’ve ever seen you as calm, or almost happy, as you just were with Mel. It’s just a vast contrast to the Dax I normally see, and I’ve been living here for close to a year now. Also, I’ve never heard anyone call her anything other than Mel or Melani, Ella is cute.” She folds into herself on the chair bringing her knees to her chin and resting it there, hugging her legs. I see a chill run down her arms causing goose flesh to appear. It’s early fall and while the days are still warm in Ravendene, as the sun sets the nights are getting cooler.
I stand, grabbing a throw off the chaise just inside the house. I swagger back to where we were sitting and offer the throw to her. She gives a small smile while accepting the blanket.
“Ella is the nickname our parents gave her. I have always called her that. Everyone else calls her Mel, but her real name is Melani. I’m different with her because she deserves it. She has been through enough with losing our parents at such a young age. Ella doesn’t need to have my usual shitty attitude bringing more darkness into her life.” Raelle looks sad for a moment, and then smiles at me causing my brows to stitch together in confusion. She doesn’t say anything else on the subject. However, she does reach over and takes my nearly full whiskey glass. Her eyes flick to mine, as she presses her lips to the glass, smiles, then drinks the whole lot. My eyebrows shoot to my hairline. I’d say something smart about herdoing it, but I’m too dumbfounded to bring the words to my lips, and I’m kind of turned on by her gusto.
Raelle laughs, setting the glass down in front of me. Her eyes smolder as she licks the whiskey off her bottom lip. Standing, she makes her way to the space before the fire and begins to dance. Kait hops up to join her, while Trent moves to sit in the seat Raelle just vacated. He starts telling me his version of what happened in training with Ella, but I can't take my eyes off Raelle and Kait. They look so happy laughing and dancing to the music. I start to relax, for what could be the first time, since my parents were killed. Before long, Trent rises to his feet and saunters to Kait and begins dancing too. Raelle doesn’t seem to mind that she has no partner to dance with, she just continues to sway her hips to the slow beat, eyes closed and face to the stars. She looks like a dream.
I’m splayed out in the chair, whiskey in hand. I let my head lull back as I close my eyes too and let the heaviness caused by the alcohol settle over me. Unexpectedly, I feel the brush of hands on my thighs. Before I can process what's happening, they move up from the tops of my knees, to the bend at my hip and stop with a heavy press. I slowly tilt my head down and open my eyes to see Raelle, nearly chest-to-chest with me. She’s gripping the top of my thighs, bent at the waist, and leaning in to get close to my face. I smirk at her with amusement playing in my eyes.
“Easy sweetheart, if I didn’t know any better I’d think you were looking for something.” She grins locking her eyes with mine leaning in a fraction closer and whispers “I am.”
My gaze drops to her lips once more, “Careful what you wish for, I’m not sure you could handle it.”
“Dance with me.” She laughs.
I don’t know if it is the drinks that I’ve consumed, the fact that she is supposedly Cano’s girl, or that I haven’t felt this relaxed in years. I put my whiskey down on the table and bring my arms up, lacing my fingers at the back of my head. “I’m all for a dance, love.” I jut my chin in the direction of my lap lifting my hips briefly, which causes our bodies to touch.
She laughs a little, and to my surprise she turns around, effectively sitting in my lap, and begins to give me the most undeserving lap dance I have ever had.
I should put a stop to this. She must be drunk, that’s the only explanation. I may be, in almost every way, fucked up, but I’m not into taking advantage of drunk girls. She lifts from my lap, dropping down between my legs. She begins the slow rise to standing, her ass brushing up my legs the entire way, while her hands wave seductively above her head. I take the chance and adjust myself in my pants before she realizes just how much I’m enjoying her… company.
I sit forward reaching out for her hips. She allows me to draw her back, slowly dropping into my lap. My arm wrapping around her waist, I pull her back into my chest and drop my mouth to her ear. “You have no idea what you’re doing right now, do you?” I ask her with my voice low, brushing the shell of her ear with my lips. I hear the quick inhale she sucks in.
She turns her head slightly toward mine, matching my whisper. “I think I have some sort of idea.” She grinds her hips in my lap at that very moment, causing a groan of approval to come from me unabated, and my fingers tighten at her hip. She leans forward slightly allowing space to open up between her back and my front. She turns her head a little more, and we make eye contact. Herlips slightly parted, are only a breath away from mine. I feel like all rational thought has left me entirely, as I stare into her beautiful pine-green eyes.
It’s like she has taken my pain, and erased it completely with just that look alone. Like, I could actually feel more than soul-deep sorrow, something close to happiness again, if I could only allow myself. I know it’s not real. I know I need to stop this, but the heat in her eyes, in the press of where her body connects with mine. I feel that electric sort of energy again in the air around us. It’s everywhere our bodies touch, in the space between our lips. I pull my arm back and splay my hand across her stomach.
“Whhhaaat did I just walk in on?” Trent drawls out. The energy in the air snaps away like a bolt of lightning splitting a tree in half and taking my breath with it.
