Just Her Luck (40 page)

"No, he went out with you guys. Reeve checked. He said
'The coast is clear'
," I imitated him perfectly, laughing at myself.

"What did you do next?" Bowen asked, coughing a little in his hand, eyeing Reeve's red face.

"Nothin'. We didn't do nothin'," Reeve growled.

"Yep," I nodded, "He wanted to pretend it never happened. So, technically, we didn't do anything on the wall in the hall, in his bedroom… couple of times against the bathroom counter... on the kitchen table...” I paused and assured them, “Don't worry, though, I washed that puppy good the next day. And then there was..."

"Okay! That's enough!" Reeve cut in.

I stopped.

"There's more?" Sawyer muttered incredulously, "We weren't gone all night!"

"Some of them were quickies," I shrugged, "We agreed to one night. I had to get mine in. Make it count. That's not including the times that I sucked his..."

"Genevieve!" Reeve garbled out in a strangled, choked whisper.

"Huh? Hey, why are you so pink?" I ran the tip of my finger along the side of his neck, tracing along the patterned color sprouting up.

"God, I hope you don't remember any of this later..." he muttered, hopeful at the thought.

I tapped his cheek and smiled. "Probably not."

"Just don't kill me if you do," he grimaced, "And remember I tried to stop you."

"You're not
all
bad, you know that?" I smiled crookedly, nudging him, "I liked when we teased each other and I tormented you, hiding out in the top of the tack room's loft."

"Is that where you were?"

"I was there earlier today too," I sighed, occupied, fascinated with the zipper on my sweater.

Up. Down. Up. Down.

"Oh... this is making me sick..." I mumbled, but didn't think to stop.

Up. Down. Up. Down.

"What the hell did they give her?" Thatcher asked sharply, putting a hand over mine to stop me.

"Whatever it is," Bowen added, "next time I'm hurt, just tell them to give me some of that shit. I doubt I'll feel a thing."

The After Effect

I woke up with my face mashed into a pillow, hand throbbing as I tried to sit up.

Face squished into a wet patch on the pillow, I gave up and rolled.

"Shit!" I oomph-ed, thumping down on the floor.

Groaning, I sat up and blinked, finding myself in the living room.

Brayden looked up from his book, sitting on the couch opposite me, and smiled.

"Feelin' better?" he chuckled, eyeing me openly.

"Define better,” I groaned.

He chuckled and put his fingers to his lips, letting out an ear piercing whistle.

“Gah,” I muttered, ears ringing something awful.

Oh, boy, if nothing else,
that
woke me up.

Ephraim came in then with a glass of water and a pill.

"Here you go, baby," he said sweetly, "It's for the pain." He leaned down to kiss me, handing me the pill, pulling me up to deepen our lip lock.

His kiss turned hot and demanding in a second, making a wave of heat rush through me as I kissed him back, befuddling me even more than my current state would allow.

It's official, I'm mush for brains.

A niggling thought nagged in the back of my mind, but I wasn't un-muddled enough to put it all together just yet.

The kiss ended and he plucked me up and sat me in his lap, plopping down on the couch with me.

I swallowed my pill and leaned back against him, sighing as he cradled me into his chest.

Examining my hand, holding it up to get a good look at it, I counted the stitches.

One, two, three....

Twelve, thirteen…

Wait, I have stitches.

When did I go get stitches?

"A few hours ago," Ephraim chuckled, answering my question.

Guess I said it out loud.

I hope I haven't been saying
everything
out loud.

"Only that your brain is mush, the stitches question and your worry about saying it out loud. Baby, quit thinkin' so hard and relax. You're probably still loopy from when we had to hold you down and let them prick you."

I sat up and turned to face him.

"Hold me down! Prick me? Where the hell did we go? The hospital or the loony bin?"

"If I had to guess," Brayden said wryly, "I'd say both."

I huffed and glared at him, catching his drift perfectly.

"Splain, Lucy!" I grumbled at him.

His laugh rumbled out at the look on my face.

"You were a giggling mess when those boys carried you in the door. Silliest thing I ever saw.” He shook his head, amused. “Singin' and carryin' on. Girly, you had us all in stitches,” he gestured at my hand, “pardon the pun. I don't know what they gave you over there, but you sure were mighty entertainin', little lady," he guffawed, smiling even wider at my irritation.

"I did not!"

"Ya, ya did."

"Ephraim! Your daddy's picking on me!"

They both laughed at that and I sulked, trying to slide off 'E's lap.

The arguing suddenly reminded me of this morning and I stiffened.

"I broke up with you," I blurted, realizing what I’d just done.

Scrambling to get up, I ended up pinned to the couch when Ephraim acted fast, wrapped his arms around me and listed to the side.

"You tried," he grunted, hugging me to him, nuzzling my neck, "But I decided I'm gonna keep ya."

"You can't decide that! You can’t just decide things like that! It doesn’t work that way! It's not for you to decide!"

"Says who?" he teased, biting at my neck.

I squirmed, eyes nearly crossing as he nibbled and pecked at a particularly shiver-inducing spot, blazing a hot trail up the sensitive flesh.

"Says... says... me?" I sighed weakly, biting my lip when he pushed his jean clad boner into my ass, hand cupped over my stomach to keep me in place.

It wasn't supposed to sound like a question.

I looked up worriedly, expecting to find Brayden there, staring at us disapprovingly, but he'd left at some point, his book now lying abandoned on the end table.

Oh, thank you Jesus!
I thought and moaned out loud, grinding back against him.

"You like it when I get all bossy on ya, don'tcha, baby?" he murmured huskily into my ear, nipping at the earring clad lobe.

The front door suddenly burst open and Ruthie came in, arm in arm with Barb, Jep and Phin following shortly after, bags overflowing from the guys’ hands.

"Oh, good!" Ruthie clapped happily, letting Barb lead her in, "You two kissed and made up, that's so sweet! You had me worried there for a minute!"

"But..."

A harried looking Barry came in last and closed the front door behind him, both women's purses slung around his neck as he leaned heavily on the front door for support.

"I am
never
doing that again!" he gasped dramatically, arms flung out at his sides, hair stuck up all over his head like he'd been pulling at it.

Or ripping it out.

Both women took their purses off of him and gave him a grateful peck on the cheek.

"Thank you, Barry, dear, you're such a sweetie!"

"Ugh! Take that to the bedroom, cous', I don't want to see that," Barry groused, eyeing me and Ephraim disgustedly on the couch.

"We weren't doing anything," I protested from underneath Ephraim, batting my dirty minded cowboy’s wandering hands away.

"Speak for yourself." Ephraim grinned.

He waited until the ladies gravitated towards the kitchen to dive in for another kiss.

"Mmmm," he murmured, biting my lip, "You taste good, Genny."

"Ephraim!" I hissed quietly, "Get off of me!"

"Never," he promised, lips nipping playfully at mine.

"We can't... I won't..." I whispered between heated kisses.

"You don't have to," he cut me off, "I'll make this real easy for ya, baby. You're mine. I don't care if you like it or not, and I'll do everything and anything I have to in order to keep you. You might as well give up now, Genny. I won't be losin', not when it comes to you."

Warmed by his vehemence, turned on by his 'she's mine' attitude, yet irritated with the cave man tactic in which he went about all of this, I cried out in fake pain and hopped up when he hurried up to get off, acting like his bum was on fire.

"Why, thank you, Ephraim. So glad you're seeing things my way. I'll just be going to the kitchen to..." I glanced at the clock.
Holy crap! It's almost dinner!
"To go make dinner."

"No need!" Barb came over to give me a one armed hug. "We're going to take you all out to eat tonight! Isn't that going to be just super fun?!"

She jiggled my shoulder as she enthused, and my eyes scanned around the room helplessly, hoping to find an ally in all of this.

Someone please help me! I'm being jiggled by an enthusiastic mother!

"Oh, and I have just the thing for you to wear!" she gushed.

I froze in place, feeling very much like a cat about to be shoved into a bathtub all of the sudden.

"Um... that's not..."

"You
do
want to wear it, don't you, dear heart?" Ruthie asked earnestly, wide eyed.

I recognized the fake innocent look from the other day and narrowed my eyes at her.

"It would be just wonderful to have everyone together, you know,
all of us
." She pulled the 'I'm gonna cry any minute' bit-
classic
- and I caved.

I really need to start working on building up an immunity to her
, I grumbled inwardly.
That woman is terrible.

Or do I?
I thought a little sadly, reminded of her short stay here on this earth.

She wants me to play dress up and go out to eat for one night?
Fine. I can do that.

If it would make the old broad happy, I'd run around the neighborhood in a tutu wearing a top hat, shouting out the lyrics to Abba songs.

Shoot, why haven't I done that yet anyways?

If I really think about it, it's kinda sad how badly that woman has a hold on me, bending me to her every evil whim.

All it takes is a pair of watery, seventy five year old aunt eyes and I'm gone.

Alright, so I'm exaggerating a bit, but it's my mind and these are my thoughts, so I can if I wanna, damn it!

"So... you'll do it?" Barb asked in a syrupy sweet voice, topping it all off with a scary nice smile.

"Uhm, yeah, sure." I shrugged, squeaking when she squealed happily and hugged the shit outta me, giving a pair of vice grips a run for their money.

"Oh, this is going to be so much fun!" she squealed, bouncing us up and down excitedly.

"Love? Let go of her, she needs to breathe," Phin said gently, touching her shoulder.

"Oh, right, sorry." She let go immediately.

I coughed and wheezed for a minute, giving her a small smile when I eventually caught my breath.

"All better now? Oh, good! Okay! Let’s go!" she crowed.

She laughed her tinkling laugh and guided me toward my bedroom down the hall.

I reluctantly let her lead me.

"Don't worry, Vieve," Ruthie whispered, "I washed the comforter while you were gone."

"Oh, thank you," I whispered gratefully, "You know I love you, don't you, favorite Auntie of mine?"

"Of course, daughter of my heart," she said dotingly, squeezing my shoulders.

I beamed at the endearment, entering my room/torture chamber willingly.

Eh, what am I bitching about? It's just them picking my clothes out, right?

I shrugged mentally.

How bad could it be?

****

"This is horrible," I grumbled, tugging at the hem of my way too short dress. "I look like a chubby hooker."

"No, you don't! You look sexy and cute."

I glanced down at the cleavage out on display and the too short for my tastes hemline.

No. Definitely hooker.

"I can look sexy without letting it all hang out,
literally
," I complained, trying to adjust my breasts

"What on earth are you doin', woman?!" Thatcher fairly shouted, eyeing my hands as I groped my tits and tried to push those puppies back down.

"Saving you from being blinded. If my tit pops out, my nipple might take your damn eye out."