His hand twitched at his side.Control it. Bury it.He told himself. Instead, he said, "Turn over," his voice rougher than intended. He forced a smirk. "I don’t want you accidentally kicking me in the balls."
Her beautiful face went from startled shock to laughter but she complied and turned over. Scooting backwards she planted herself into the curve of his body, her ass only a few inches from his dick.
"Is that better?"
Gavin resisted the urge to cry into her bonnet and wrapped an arm around her waist. "Not at all," he grumbled miserably.
It was three in the morning when Gavin finally pulled himself out from her bed. He hadn't slept at all. He couldn't let himself, not with her tucked in so close, so defenseless. Scrubbing his face he stepped back and glanced at the paused picture on the projector screen. It was still on the storm scene.
Gavin thought of how she startled out of sleep and her body stiffened in alarm. He could still remember finding her all those years ago sitting in her closet, her eyes wide and full of fear.
He had snuck down the hallway to the solarium where his new stepmom was. She was going to marry his dad. He hated the idea. Not so much about the beautiful woman with the cold eyes because he kind of liked her. She always gave him a warm knowing smile asif she could read his mind whenever he was about to do something he wasn't supposed to. No, he hated it because ofher. Ebony, the woman's daughter.
Just thinking of her made his fists clench and his chest burn. With her stupid big curly hair and wide eyes. He hated the way she just stared at everyone and everything, never talking or making noise. He hated that she had stolen the room across from him. That had been his room. He had been using it to play with his race cars. Now it was filled with pinky girly things. He hated going to school with her and how all the teachers and other kids surrounded her with questions and smiling faces. She was taking everything. But most of all, he hated how his dad smiled at her. Gavin couldn’t remember the last time dad smiled at him. With him he was always yelling and growling out a sigh of frustration when Gavin broke the rules.
But Ebony never got any of that. It had been three months now since she and her mother moved into his house. Dad had told him they were going to get married and they would become one family. He had told him that one night before bed, his face stern and serious and full of warning as he told him, "So that means you need to be nice to Ebony, she'll be your sister in a few weeks."
Gavin had waited until his dad had left and the house was all quiet when he yelled into his pillow. He punched his pillows and tore up his bed until the sheets were barely hanging on and the scratchy fabric of the mattress was uncovered. He never felt so angry and helpless. There was no amount of shouting and pleading he could do. He knew his dad liked the pretty woman and wouldn't call it off no matter what Gavin said or did.
That meant he was stuck with her as his sister. Stuck with his dad showering the weird little scaredy-cat with gifts and attention while he got nothing.
Rain started to hit the solarium windows and Gavin snuck away, back down the hallway. The house was quiet and he could hear the rumbling of a storm. Making his way up the stairs he considered going to his room to play video games but paused outside ofherdoor. The lock on this room had never worked.
Gavin smiled evilly.
Turning the knob he burst into the room. He expected Ebony to be sitting on her bed or be somewhere in sight. But the room was empty.
He frowned and stepped back prepared to go downstairs and look for her. Now that he had the image of scaring her and making her mad in his head, he was determined to see it through. Maybe she was in the den? He turned on his heel just as a clap of thunder shuddered over the house.
Gavin paused. There was another fainter sound just underneath the thunder. Smiling like a wolf who just caught the scent of his prey, he ran to the closet and flung it open.
He had been expecting surprise on her face but secretly he had hoped for fear. He wanted the stuck-up girl with her perfect grades and her high marks in Taekwondo and not to mention his dad's instant devotion to feel fear. But when he stared back at her eyes round and wide with terror the hope disappeared.
Confused, he looked at her, his hand dropping away from the closet door knob. Sitting in the back of the closet next to her unpacked boxes, Ebony sat in a small ball with her knees pulled up under her chin.
"What's wrong?" he looked around searching for something that could be the source of her fear. Did a lizard from outside get inside? Earlier in the yard he had seen her give one a wide berth and he had mentally stored that fact to remind him to chase her with one later.
Ebony opened her mouth to speak but again the thunder rumbled over the house and she looked down. It was like she was shrinking in on herself.
Putting the pieces together a grin pulled at his lips. "Are you afraid of thunder?" he laughed.
Ebony didn’t look up from her knees, her massive tangle of curls shifted over her like a hoodie. "Go away," her voice was small and muffled.
Her words sparked an itch in his head, scratching at his pride and barely suppressed anger. She was inhishouse! He didn't invite her to come ruin his life with her annoying presence. Here he wastryingto do what his dad had told him to do and try playing with the stupid girl and she was hiding in the closet like a scaredy cat over some rain!
"Please just go away." She looked up from her knees, her eyes watery and sad.
He barely heard her through the static roaring inside his head. He couldn’t stand her and he really couldn’t stand her tears. He hated the way it made him feel. This was why he hated girls. He was about to turn and leave when he heard his father's voice.
"Gavin!" The sharp warning in his dad's voice stilled him immediately.
He wasn’t supposed to be in her room. Frantically, he looked around. Could he hide? His dad had made it clear, Ebony’s room was off-limits, which felt completely unfair considering this washishouse too. If he got caught, he was dead.
But it was too late. His dad appeared in the doorway of the closet, his eyes flashing over him and then settling onto Ebony.
Gavin swallowed.
"What did you do?" he asked even as he stormed past him in the now overcrowded closet toward Ebony. Kneeling down in front of her, he gently touched Ebony's elbow, getting her to lift her head. "Darling, what is it? What did Gavin do, you can tell me?"
