Mockingbird (A Stepbrother Romance) (8 page)

"Should we take her to the hospital?"

"She's drunk, but I don't think she has alcohol poisoning."

"Are you even old enough to drink?"

"Is she?"

"Good point."

Okay. Mom should be home by now. If not, I've got my phone and Bob is a call away. My mind is made up. I drive.

It's about a twenty minute ride from Lucas' house back to the museum. When I pull up to the gate, the security guard takes a good, hard look at Apollo before we pass through and drive up to the house.

"Fancy. You have your own guards?"

"No. We live on the museum grounds. My mother runs the place."

"Oh, that's pretty cool. Can I get a private tour?"

"At least you're not asking for a tour of my privates."

He raises an eyebrow and leans back. "Are you offering?"

I can
feel
myself blushing. I don't even know where
that
came from.
 

Charity stirs in the back seat, and mumbles. "That's right, Mister Giraffe. Get all the marmalade."

"You think she's okay?"

"Better than she'd be if we just left here there," I sigh. "Here we are."

Once I pull in the garage, the two of us carry Charity inside, and to the couch in the sitting room. Apollo props her up with a pillow and turns her head as she begins to snore.

"We need to make sure she doesn't choke on her own puke."

"Lovely," I sigh.

Apollo drops into one of the side chairs, and yawns. "What was she even doing there?"

I shrug. "Not much else to do around here."

"Why weren't you there?"

I glance at Apollo and sigh. "Something to drink?"

"Sure."

I bring him a can of Coke and sit down to crack mine open. I feel like I'm a million years old and my joints are made of balsa wood.

"My mother thinks Lucas and I are a perfect match. She's been pressuring me to go out with him for years. I can't stand him."

"Need I ask why," Apollo says, smirking. He downs half the can of soda and burps into his hand. He's even hot when he's burping.

"Anything to eat around here?"

"You like tofu?"

He makes a face that makes for a passable imitation of one of the ornate Japanese samurai masks in the museum collection.

"That's a no."

"Can you order food here? Like pizza?"

"Yeah. I'll call something in."

He reaches for his wallet, twisting to reach his back pocket.

"It's okay."

"I insist."

He gives me forty. I order three mediums and a triple order of boneless chicken bites, in case Charity comes around, and the breadsticks are free with the order and so on and so forth. After I call George the gate guard to let him know the food is coming, I settle back down in the living room.

"So, um, I have no idea who you are. Why are you here?"

He laughs. "We just moved to town. My father wants to retire here. He's out on a date with some local girl tonight, so I'm on my own. I wanted to explore, and the bookstore felt like a good starting point. Are you into all that stuff? Crystals and spells?"

I shake my head. "Nah, I just like to drink the coffee and hang out with Charity, and it's the only bookstore in town. They have some regular stuff, too."

After staring into my soda can for a while, I sigh. "I should thank you. That would have gotten really weird if I didn't have your help. How did you do all that stuff? Like that neck jabby thing and the swingy stuff with Lucas."

He shrugs. "Practice."

"So you're just a man about town," I say, eyeing him. "What are you planning to do here now that you've moved here with your father?"

He shrugs. "I don't really need to work. It's sort of taken care of. I saw a help wanted sign at the bookstore. I might start there."

"I think that's a joke. Like, the owner needs help because he's crazy. Charity is the only employee."

"Oh."

The pizza chooses that time to arrive. I add some cash of my own to make for a generous tip. Apollo takes it all from my hands and moved it to the kitchen, spreading it out on the table. Paper plates and some microwaving later, we sit at the kitchen table while Charity groans and wanders into the room, plops down, and looks at Apollo.

"Are you a vampire?"

He blinks at her a few times. "No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

She looks at me. "Did
 
he make you invite him in?"

"Eat your chicken."

She shrugs and pulls the tray of chicken in front of her, slathers the pieces in the buffalo sauce lining the bottom of the tinfoil pan, and scoops up great big gobs of blue cheese dressing before gobbling them down. I resolve to eat some pizza before I lose my appetite from watching.

"Damn," Apollo blurts out, "This is better than I expected."

"It's Antonio's. Local place. They know me."

The three of us eat in silence. Charity eats almost all the chicken, but Apollo tries it and eats the rest, complete with the dressing, while I polish off half a triple cheese meat sensation pizza by myself. Antonio is creative with his naming. When Charity finishes eating, she wanders back into the sitting room and sprawls out on the couch, thankfully laying on her side as she begins to snore.

"She's going to have a monster headache in the morning," Apollo notes, peering past me to watch her.
 
"She only has her mother?"

"Yeah, her Dad was killed in Iraq."

A pall falls over the room.

"Oh. Shit."

"You didn't know. She's a mess. Charity's uncle does a lot for them, gave her the job. She'll probably take over the shop one day. She likes it."

"She have a boyfriend?"

"No. She did but they broke up when he moved away."

"How about you."

"No, I don't have time for-"

He's grinning.

Oh.

I turn beet red. "As I was saying, no time. You don't get a 4.0 average at a private school by twiddling your thumbs. It took a lot of work."

"School's over, right? You can let your hair down."

"Hardly. Now I have to go to college."

He turns solemn, staring at nothing. "That's how it is, isn't it? You finish one thing and then there's another thing and something else after that, and it's like all the time between them just goes up in smoke."

I get up and move to the fridge, to grab another soda. As I pass he catches my wrist, lightly, and pulls me to him. A squeak jumps out of me as I fall right in his lap, wide-eyed. Our faces are inches apart. I can feel his breath tickle my chin, warm my lips. Holy crap he's handsome, like model handsome. Just looking at him makes my heart flutter, and more than that, I feel a stir between my legs that makes me bite my lip and rub my thighs together, like an itch.

Then he kisses me.

Sparks fly. The world swims around me, and I feel something I've never felt before. This is
supposed to be happening
. Right now there is a center to the universe, and it is in this room. I slip my arms around him, and he feels so warm under that tight shirt. His arms fall around me, settle around my waist and I breathe against him, pressing my chest to his. The kiss deepens and I feel like I'm falling into a pool of warm syrup, heat flushing through my body.

As first kisses go, this is pretty good.

Then I hear my mother's voice, and soft laughter, then concerned voices. Mom walks into the sitting room with her new boyfriend, and they contemplate the drunken girl with the buffalo sauce smeared on her lips currently lying on the one hundred and ten year old antique couch, and then they both look at us.

Still sitting in Apollo's lap, I smile weakly. "Uh, hi, Mom."

"Hi, Dad," Apollo says.

Wait,
what?

Chapter 5: Apollo

Well, this is a problem.

I remember this happening when I was in ninth grade. I had an erection and I had to stand up for some reason. That was merely embarrassing, this is a little different. This isn't one of those involuntary teenage boners. I have a raging hard-on from Diana sitting on my lap. I very slowly move my hand down her side, away from her breast, as our parents stare at us. When she moves on top of me to swing her legs around and stand up, it's agony. I want her right now, bent over the table, and I don't care who sees. It takes everything I've got not to pull her back into my lap. As she stands up I cough and try to figure out what the hell I'm going to do. I could try a reach-and-tuck while they're all distracted. As I stand up, I poke Diana right in the butt. She flinches and glances over her shoulder at me.

"So," she says. "Hi."

"This is awkward," I mutter.

Her mother speaks in clipped tones. "Diana. Upstairs.
 
Now."

I turn around and smooth back my hair with one hand, and tuck myself up with the other. It'll have to do. Dear God, please don't let Diana's mother look at my crotch.

"What are you doing here?" Dad asks.

"It's a long story…"

He sighs and folds his arms over his chest. I can't tell if he's acting or not. He may genuinely be mad or he may expect me to play along. Either way the safest option is to act naturally.

"I ran into Diana at the bookstore. Her friend," I nod towards the passed out goth on the couch, "was at this party at this kid Lucas' house. We went to get her," I consciously leave out the bit of tossing Lucas and his friends around, "and ended up eating some take-out."

"You neglected to mention the part where you groped my daughter," Diana's mother (Carol, right?) chimes in, scowling at me.

"I, uh, didn't know she was your daughter…"

I must have carried the lie off well enough. She looks stern until she catches a hint of a smile on my father's face, and a little smirk cracks on hers. She is actually pretty, Diana's mom, but doesn't hold a candle to her daughter. I shift on my feet, stick my hands in my pockets and look apologetic and sheepish.

"Have you been drinking?"

"No. She has," I nod out to the living room. "We didn't
attend
the party. We just went to get her."

Carol scowls at me. "How old are you?"

"Twenty."

"My daughter is eighteen years old, young man."

"Uh, good?"

Her scowl turns into a sneer, and Dad grabs her arm.

"It's fine, hon. Just a… misunderstanding. I'm sure it won't be a problem in the future, will it?"

I look at him and then look at her and nod. For some reason I feel genuinely sheepish about this.

My head is still swimming. The memory of the taste of her lips, the soft warmth of her body cradled in my arms, the way she kissed me harder and writhed in my lap when I put my hand on her breast. I was this close to getting my hand in her underwear before they walked in. Good think I didn't.
That
would have been a sight to see, I'm sure.

"We should be going," Dad says.

He leans down and kisses her.

I turn away. I mean, really.

"Are we on for Friday?"

"Of course," she smiles warmly at him. "I'll have a talk with Diana about this." Her mouth twists down. "Then we need to sober up her friend."

Dad nods and I rush to his side, and we're out the door and through the garage to the waiting car. He gets in the driver's seat and I can feel his glare when I sit down and pull my door closed.

"Are you getting too close to this?"

"Um. No."

He scowls at me. "Lucas, I told you to track her down and flirt with her a little to keep our options open, not follow her home and feel her up. It's a good thing we arrived when we did or her mother would have walked in on you fingerbanging her daughter. You're going to put the whole operation in jeopardy."

"What's the big deal? It's not like-"

He slams his fist on the wheel.

"I told you how important this job is," he snaps, his face turning red. "You don't realize what's at stake here. We could lose everything."

I sit there in shocked silence while he starts it up and we pull out. His head shakes and he mutters to himself for half the drive, until I work up the courage to say something.

"The mom likes you."

"She's supposed to," he sighs. "Apollo, don't forget this is just a job."

"Do you like her?"

He looks at me like I've just sprouted a third arm. "What? I'll admit, she's more fun than she seems. The sex is good-"

"Jesus Christ!"

"What?"

"Too much detail. Keep it general."

"I'm setting the hook. I need to get the passcode and a fresh encryption key out of her." He drums his fingers on the wheel. "The only woman I've ever loved or ever will love was your mother. This is just a job, son."

"What about-"

"A man has needs. That's all. Don't tell me you don't understand. Or are you pining for what's her face from the necklace job?"

"Her name was Brenda. I hope she's okay but I don't-"

"You'll get over this one, too. Trust me. Look, I'm old, I'm not dead. She's a very attractive girl, but you need to be thinking with this head." He taps my forehead. "Do I need to spell it out? We're working for a difficult client. I want to make it out of this alive as much as I want to hit it big and retire."

"Right," I mutter.

He is right, though. I mean, I've known her for what, a day? And by known I mean I met her twice. Sure, there's a spark…

A spark. Nobody I've ever met has made me feel like this. Just the sight of her. It's more than the lush curves of her body and the sparkle in her eyes. She's bold and smart, she takes charge and stands up to people. I like that. I like it a lot. Still, it's only a backup plan, and I have an excuse to avoid her. How much longer will it take for Dad to work his magic, a week? A month?
 

All I have to do is hang back and watch, and go over the plans to extract the merchandise. I'm already thinking about that. We could replace it with a dummy crate, buy us a little more time. Getting onto the compound will be easy, but getting inside… some kind of distraction would be needed. If I can figure out what, I know he'll be impressed with me.

When we arrive back at the house, I feel like I'm dragging bags of sand behind me. I ache with unfulfilled want, and I can't shake the image of Diana's face filling my vision as she leans in for a kiss. There's a kind of purity about her, innocence. She's like some kind of rare and beautiful creature from another world, a world I'm not welcome in.