"Where the hell have you been?"
Her smile faltered. Gavin stood there like a storm of his own all packed into a six-foot frame, jaw locked, arms crossed, that glare cutting straight through the car door between them and into her chest. Heat prickled beneath her skin; she ignored it just like she always did and gave him a mean smile of her own.
"Oh you know just canvassing the town for guys to join me in my orgy. Although my birthday is months away, one can never be too prepared. Must make sure the roster is prepped and ready," she said, her tone bright and biting.
"Oh sweetheart, my lovely, beautiful Ebbs. There isn't one guy in Stardust County dumb enough for that, much less two."
"Are you sure about that?" she asked coolly, walking past him, giving him a challenging smile over her shoulder.
"Are you sure you want to take this joke further?" His eyes narrowed dangerously like he was just waiting for her to say the wrong thing.
They were half way up the stairs to the bedrooms when she paused and turned.
"How is it that you’ve had loads of…of…conquests, and I’m supposed to have nothing?" she said, half-joking, but the words held weight. She remembered the box of condoms stashed in his glovebox, the way he came home late some nights ever since his sophomore year. The dates he never admitted to, even though the muffled giggles of girls in the hallway, or the smug glances they threw her way that always soured into hate once they realized Gavin’s attention was never permanent, told her all she needed to know.
His gaze met hers, a hint of cruelty flashing in the dark pupils. "The fact that you sayconquestsand not chicks I fucked should tell you all you need to know."
She moved fast, completely intending on kicking him, but her foot caught the edge of the stair. Panic sliced through her as the ground tilted, and she saw the flicker of alarm flash across Gavin’s face just before her hands scrambled for the railing.
Instinctively she knew Gavin wouldn't just step to the side and let her plummet. It would be the ground or Gavin. That much she was certain. Would he catch her? Would they both go tumbling under the weight of his tackle? In those few seconds of fear, she feared both.
But the tackle never came.
Instead, he caught her in a crushing bear hug. She slammed into his solid chest with a breathyoomfand blinked. Somehow, Gavin hadn’t moved much. He’d planted his feet, taken her full weight, and then pivoted them both against the curving wall behind them. For a moment, neither of them said a word, they just stood there breathing.
Finally, Gavin spoke first. "And you want an orgy. You can't even walk down the stairs without trying to die. The only orgy you'll be having is me, you, the couch, and a packet of Oreos."
Ebony's hands were still clutched onto him, partially digging into the skin of his forearm and back. "Are they double stuffed Oreos?" she asked, her voice small.
"What kind of orgy would it be if they weren't double stuffed?" he asked, making her laugh.
He lied about the Oreo orgy.
She had just changed out of her school clothes when he appeared in her open doorway.
"You want to go train?" His eyes lit up, clearly eager.
She leveled a stare at him. "So you can beat me up? I think not."
"I've never once beaten you up. For starters, Dad would finally get to live out his secret fantasy of filicide. And secondly, I remember quite clearly you beating the shit out of me a few times." He reminded her, a half-smile tugging at his mouth as his eyes glinted with amusement.
"Only because you let me and need I remind you the thousands of times you threw me across the room?!" She jabbed a finger at his chest.
Evil delight widened his smile, showing off his white teeth, much like a shark’s. "Judo is a lovely sport and it's not my fault you never learned to post."
"The answer is no," she said firmly, heading past him.
He caught up in two strides, his hand closing gently but insistently around her shoulders as he turned her to face him. "Come on. I promise I won't throw you…much."
He also lied about throwing her.
She had been staring up at the ceiling when she finally called it quits and half ran half crawled out of the gym. Now here she was in the middle of the den straddling his back on top of the massage table. How did she let him talk her into everything? She could be doing anything right now. Watching TV, calling Jade to see where she currently was in the country, or finally listening to that crazy apocalyptic podcast Taylor wanted her to listen to. Yet here she was working up a sweat as she dug her fingers into the muscles in Gavin's back.
Massages had always been a thing they did after training. A necessity to make the next day bearable. Straddling him however was new.
The first time she’d climbed on his back months ago, it had been a clumsy impulse. The table was too high, he was too solid, and standing wasn’t working. So she’d swung a leg over him without thinking, only for them both to freeze. They stayed like that, stiff and startled, until he cracked a joke about her trying to crush him. It had broken the tension, but not the awareness. The awareness imprinted itself on the inside of her legs where their flesh touched, never leaving her mind.
"I shouldn't be massaging you at all. You threw me," she grumbled as she kneaded just below his right shoulder, earning her a deep satisfied groan.
