Lila's Thunder: The Almeida Brothers, Book One (13 page)

His gaze fell to her expo
sed legs, so soft and chocolate-y.  She dipped her fingers into her panties and pushed them down to her ankles.  Jack finished the job, but then found himself unable to move at the sight of her hooded eyes and exposed, swollen mound.  He greedily took hold of her thighs, pressing his fingers hungrily into her warm skin while he struggled to find his breath.  Lila held his stare while she opened her legs to him, offering herself completely. His throat went dry at the glorious picture she created. 

“Lila…”
  He fell to his knees and gripped her plush thighs, spreading them farther apart. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”  He kissed her inner thigh, tasting her, before darting his tongue out for more, lapping his way up her leg to her hot center. His eyes fluttered shut when he felt her hand go through his hair. “All I do is think about you,” he rasped, reaching up and spreading her heat with his fingers.  He licked his lips before diving in.

Lila threw her head back and cried out.

---

An hour later Lila was sitting across from Jack in just a bra and panties, legs crossed.
  He sat facing her, leaning against the headboard as he took her in.  His black shirt lay unbuttoned, exposing little hints of his strong chest and stomach, making Lila yearn for more.  She reached out quietly and dipped her hand into the folds of his shirt, pushing it away to reveal more of his glorious body, her eyes drinking in the sight.  He watched her watching him, unable to hide the spark in his eye or the smile on his lips. Before he knew it he was reaching out himself, fingers brushing through her hair and tucking it behind her ear.  The sentiment immediately reminded her of Chase, and it startled Lila so much that she snatched her head away, breaking their eye contact in embarrassment.

Jack was thrown, unaware of why she’d suddenly pulled away.
  His fingers fell from her hair to her cheek, which he brushed softly with the back of his hand until her eyes met his again.

Lila tried to smile, but it came out shaky.
 

“I uh…”
  She blushed and reached up to wrap her hand around his strong wrist. After staring down at her comforter for a long while she looked up at him, again. Her words caught in her throat when she thought about what he’d said to her the other night.  He hadn’t brought it up, but she could feel it every time he looked at her—he was waiting.  For what, she didn’t know.  She reached up to cup his face in her hand, as well. 

“You are one good looking man, you know that?”
  Her eyes searched his face and she brushed her thumb across his plush lips.  He took it in his mouth, sucking, before biting it gently between his teeth with a smile.  He had the same smile as Chase, but he was still so completely... different.

She reclaimed her thumb. “
You should be in a magazine,” she said, before climbing off of the bed completely.  She took her robe from her bedside chair and wrapped it around her body before going to the window and staring out, jamming her eyes shut.  Within moments, she felt his breath soft against her ear.

“I hope you’re not just using me for my body.”

Lila sighed deeply when he wrapped his arms around her from behind. “Shouldn’t you be at work? It’s almost 8am.”

“I’m due to be at work in an hour, which means I’m already fucked. ‘If you’re an hour
early you’re ten minutes late’,” he said, nasally, smiling when she laughed. “That’s what they say to the interns. The scary part is that they’re not kidding.”

“Well I don’t want to be
the reason you’re late for work,” Lila said.

"Look, Lila.
  We can keep this casual." Jack squeezed her from behind, really squeezed her, pressing his chin into her shoulder.  “I’m not asking you to…”  He made himself to stop talking.  “We don’t have to…”

Lila waited anxiously for his words with wide eyes
, and when he paused her heart stopped.

Taking a deep breath, Jack told himself to relax.

“Don’t be nervous,” she whispered.

"I'm not nervous."
  He could almost taste the lie on his tongue.  "Just because I'm not a steel trap..."

"And I am?"
 Lila beamed before rolling her eyes.  "I think you know me better than that."

"I don’t.
  Not like…”  Jack bit his tongue, placing a kiss on her shoulder.

“Well,”
 she started.  “Now that Danielle is gone I’m an only child.  My parents have been married for thirty years and they live in California. My first concert was Nsync in 1999. I have huge hands... like a man."  She felt his lips smiling on her shoulder.  "I don't like the color yellow because I think it brings me bad luck.  I hate sad movies and I hate sad songs even more--I always change the station when they come on the radio. And…”  She smiled, then laughed when she heard him smile.  “And that’s all I can think of right now.”

Jack tucked his nose into her hair and breathed deeply, seriously contemplating calling in to the office for the first time in his entire career.

---

"
'Men I may not know, but
shoes?
Shoes I know!'"

Lila brought the
walkee talkie up to her mouth with a bored expression. "Carrie Bradshaw, 'Sex and the City'... god Tracy you're not even trying anymore, are you? Over."  Lila disarmed the walkee talkie while shaking her head.  She had somehow gotten trapped into performing hallway monitor duty that morning and was in the middle of a rousing game of "Guess That TV Show” with Tracy to keep herself entertained.  As she passed the boy's locker room she came to a quick halt when she heard a rustle.  She turned off her walkee talkie just as Tracy was responding so as not to blow her cover.

Another rustle.

Yep. There were definitely some students ditching class in the locker room... something she herself had been guilty of in her younger years.  She made her way into the room, hesitant but curious.

And there he was.
  It had been the longest she'd ever gone without seeing or talking to him, but she'd never expected their next meeting to be like this.

Chase's head was thrown back, jeans
and boxers at his knees. His full lips were moist and parted as his fingers dug deep into the blonde head of a student Lila didn't recognize.  The blonde was on her knees in front of Chase, mouth open and ready to take him.

Lila jolted.
"Hey!"

At
the sound of her voice she could tell that she'd scared the shit out of them, watching as they scrambled to get their clothes back on.  She couldn't take her eyes off of Chase, and it seemed like he was experiencing the same phenomena.  A feeling she couldn't describe washed over her as his eyes bore into her.  She wasn't familiar with what tumbled in her gut, but she knew she disliked it.  So much so that she had to excuse herself.  "Get yourselves together and meet me outside."  She'd meant to sound firm, but her voice was shaking.

Lila paced outside of t
he locker room. The blonde girl was the first to emerge.  "I am soooo sorry, Ms. James."

Lila noted that the young girl before her was breathtakingly beautiful, flawless actually, and probably came from a family with money.
  Sending her to the office and, subsequently, dealing with the bullshit her rich family was sure to start was not something that was high on Lila's priority list.  She crossed her arms over her chest. "What in god’s name are you thinking about?  You're far too beautiful and, since you're going to this school I'm going to guess--far too bright--to be on your knees in the school locker-room…” She was on a roll until Chase emerged behind the blonde, tucking his shirt into his pants.

Lila faltered at the sight of him.
  The last time she'd seen him his hair had been brushing his eyebrows but it was now cut into a short, sharp do.  It was shorter in the back and on the sides, leaving just a bit of length at the top.  It made his blonde hair look almost dark brown, causing his serious green eyes to scream out at anyone he looked at. He looked much older, his face more handsome and refined. 

"Chase,” Lila
said, blinking at him. "I don't even know what to say."  Whether she was talking about his new appearance or the unfortunate state she'd caught him in in the locker room, she wasn't sure.

Chase tried to speak, but couldn't find his voice for a moment, holding her ey
es. 

"Hey,"
 he finally whispered.

"Hey?" Lila repeated.
  "That's all you have to say?"  She looked back and forth between the two before holding her hand out.  "Look, I'm not going to stand here and pretend that I didn't have my fun when I was in high school, but there's a time and a place and 10:30am on a Wednesday in the boy’s locker room is not it!  Understood?"

Chase and Ashley both hesitantly nodded.

"Good."  She straightened her jacket.  "Now I've got better things to worry about than getting you two in trouble," she said, while adjusting the walkee talkie in her pocket.  "So I'm going to pretend like this never happened... but don't let me catch you again or I might not be so forgiving."

"Thanks, Lila,"
 Chase said, motioning to the girl with him.  "This is Ashley."  When Ashley looked at Chase like he was crazy, he rolled his eyes.

"I uh..."
  Lila motioned to him.  "I like the hair."

"I cut it for him,"
 Ashley jumped in, proudly, turning to Chase and reaching up to run her fingers through his hair.  "I don't know why he was so desperate to hide this amazing fucking face of his for so long.  I was more than happy to chop it off for him."

Lila watched silently as Ashley ran her fingers through Chase's hair, not missing the slight hint of discomfort in his eyes.

"Okay, well... get to class, both of you," she said, crossing her arms over her chest.  "And I'm serious...  I don't want to catch either of you doing this again, do you understand?"  She watched Chase and Ashley smile softly to each other and blinked against her raging stomach. 

Ashley passed Lila with a smile and just as Chase was passing her, he brushed his fingers against he
r stomach.  "You look beautiful," he whispered.

Lila looked up at him, still barely recognizing him with that haircut, and couldn't speak as Ashley pulled him away.

---

Later that night, against all of her better judgment, Lila found herself at the bar of The Wicked Spoon Restau
rant waiting for Jack, Chase, Bitsy and Frank.  As she sipped on her second Martini of the night she wondered where her party was and just how in the hell she'd gotten harangued into coming to this dinner.  She was sure that once she was through with her second drink things would run a lot smoother, but when she smelled the cologne of the man who'd been in her bed that morning and the voice of the man who she'd caught getting a blowjob in the boys locker room that afternoon surround her all at the same time she realized that she was definitely in over her head.  And not nearly drunk enough.

Turning in the bar seat Lila came face to face with Chase and Jack and immediately wished she were anywhere else.
 Her eyes shot from one brother to the other, astounded by their stark differences and their amazing similarities all at the same time.  Both were toweringly tall and handsome.  Jack was polished in his signature suit, but Lila now knew what the suit really contained-- an eager man who knew how to touch a woman, and exactly what to do with his tongue.  She felt herself getting wet at the mere sight of him.

Then there was Chase, the young man in her life who was simply no longer a young man-- but a man. He wore a pair of dark washed jeans and a white polo like it was made for him.
  It was a casual restaurant, so the black baseball cap pulled low over his electric eyes didn't make him stand out-- not to anyone but Lila.

"Hey,"
 she said, softly.

"Hey yourself,
"  Chase blushed.  Lila was sure that he was recalling the embarrassment from early that day.

She looked to Jack, and saw him looking at her in a certain way.
  Her stomach flipped. 

"Where's Bitsy?"
 she asked.

Chase took a deep breath.
"At home sick."

Lila raised an eyebrow and h
er eyes met Jack's.

"Really?"
 she asked, with concern.

"Really,"
 Jack said, dryly, with no concern, at all. It was clear that clever little Bitsy was far from sick. “She just called us a minute ago.”

"So it's just us then?"
  Lila tried to smile.

Chase was looking off into the distance an
d Jack right at her.  "Just us," he answered.

As Lila nodded
, she contemplated whether she could make a run for it without either of them noticing, but before she could really entertain the thought, the hostess had come up behind them and announced that their table was ready.

Things were uncomfortable from the moment all three of them sat down. It was the strangest sensation Lila had ever experienced in her life.
  She had such a strong bond with each of them individually and, even if they were reluctant to admit it, they with each other, but none of them knew how to behave when all of the crazy ingredients they brought were thrown into the same pot.  They were worse than oil and water… they were explosive.