"But I am. Woh nah litruly shtahving but ree uhgree," Charis said with her mouth full. I was leaning on the other side of the counter, my chin propped on my fist, watching her avoid my eyes and shovel food down her throat.
Which action, by the way, I found mesmerizing. Yup, seems I'd missed watching this girl stuff her face like food was going out of style these last few months. I found it refreshing after watching Aura pick at her food meal after meal.
And I wondered if she threw herself into everything with such passion.
A woman doesn't always make love like she eats, but usually. Aura enjoys the fuck out of food but wouldn't admit it for the world. Similarly, she acts cool and calm, but in bed she's a ravenous gourmand.
Was. Past tense.
And Charis? What was she like in bed?
All right, that did it. Now I couldn't help but try to visualize her naked as I looked at her. Usually I'm pretty good at X-ray vision, but damn, it's hard with Sloane. It's all those layers working against me.
She went through most of the curry and a quarter of the Pad Thai before sliding off the stool and flopping down on the floor.
"Thanks. Oh, my, that hit the spot."
"Welcome." Joel was now sprawled on the sofa deep into his phone, not paralleling my fascination with Charis's eating habits in any way.
While my thoughts were zinging around. It hit the spot? And which spot would that be, pretty girl? Tell me more about hitting your spots.
Right, Norrell, you're going off the deep end.
But seriously, was it only eating she did uninhibitedly? Mama loved having her over for meals due to her effusive love of food.
But in the sack … did she fuck like the sale on fucking ended tomorrow? Rush through it, or savor every little sensation? Was she quiet and sweet as she came or did she lunge at an orgasm like she lunged at spring rolls?
I wondered so hard what her banging style was that my cock hurt.
Completely oblivious to my fantasies, my innocent friend drew her legs up and rested her cheek on her knees. A common pose that made her look like a child.
Usually.
Today it just made me want to unfold her and lay her out and look at her. See her. See her as she was now to me.
I went over and squatted down next to her. "Hi."
"Uh, hi?" She was looking off to the side, but slanted a quick peek at me.
So she was aware of me.
Interesting.
I let my gaze wander deliberately up and down her body. Because that's what you do when your cock turns you into an idiot.
And suddenly my hand was under her chin, tilting it up to get her to meet my stare.
Her eyes grew huge. What the frigging fuck are you doing? shouted my brain. Shut up, this is critical, huffed my cock.
"Where's your ring?" I demanded.
She didn't answer or move. To me she looked a little pale.
"Um, I don't have one yet?"
With her knees scrunched up and her hair all wild, it was easy to forget the age barrier between us. It killed me that I'd let something so insignificant stop me for so long … just because Charis insisted on thinking of herself as an older sister.
That habit was going to end starting now.
"So what's up with you, Asher?" she said a little too loudly.
Yes, definitely aware of me.
I sat back, releasing her. "I'm not the one under interrogation here, Sloane. You don't announced a fucking engagement and then drop the subject and pretend it doesn't exist."
Her head jerked back just as Joel's popped up.
"I don't?" she said, and Joel said, "Engagement?"
My voice carried grim accusation. "Sloane's engaged to be married."
Joel was less excited by this news than my earlier bombshell about my breakup. "Cool. Congrats." He slanted me a sidelong look.
"Thanks!" Charis threw him a grateful smile.
"You must be excited. When's the big day?"
"A week from Saturday. You know, I guess I am kind of excited, actually."
Kind of? What bullshit was this?
Then her answer registered.
My heart skipped a beat, and then my blood started to boil. "The fuck it's next Saturday. Thanks for the notice." And where the hell is my invitation? my glare said.
Her smile turned wan, her gaze sliding away. "Sorry."
I crossed my arms. "And she hasn't thought fit to mention who the dude is. If he even exists. Which I'm beginning to have serious doubts about."
"Ah-hah. I get it now." Joel regarded me, amused.
"What?" I demanded.
"I get why you've been hanging out here. You wanted to catch him in the act."
"The act?" Charis sounded mystified. "What act?"
"Of being engaged to you," he explained patiently.
"Normally I consider you decent to hang with," I told him coolly.
His eyes widened. "Oh, hey, did I say something wrong?" Like he didn't know he'd just exposed my spying intentions to the world. "I mean you obviously came here hoping to find out more ab-"
I grabbed his ankle and knocked him off the sofa, being considerate enough to snatch his phone as it went flying through the air. With calm composure, he swung me by the arm, actually lifting me a few inches-being considerate enough to make sure my head avoided the coffee table. Though I wasn't sure if that was out of care for my noggin or the furniture.
Charis shrieked and jumped on both of us.
And what had started as a simple tussle was now mayhem, with the three of us entangled and we possessors of the Y chromosome hampered severely by having to avoid knocking out the double X-er. Not that she seemed aware we were gentling it up-she went all out on us. On me, actually. The zeal with which she tackled me was something new.
Meanwhile, Joel was laughing maniacally and I was growling-only half kidding as I tried to punish my betrayer. Everything stopped when I found myself twisted half onto my back, my chest pinned by Charis's palm. She was crouched over me, breathing hard, a leg hooked over one of mine, looking pink-faced, exasperated, and flustered.
I gazed slowly from her hand to her face, my grin fading.
"You! Asher! What the fuck!" she demanded.
"You," I mimicked, and then my voice deepened. "Charis. What. The. Fuck."
We stared at each other.
"Riiiight."
That was Joel. The next moment he was detangled from our Twister game and on his feet. "Cheerio, you two. Have fun."
I barely noticed him go. I saw Charis give him a little wave and try to rise.
Before she could escape my clutches, I grabbed her and pulled her back down toward me, so low her breath washed over my face. I noticed that her mouth, while primly thin-lipped, was also wide, soft-looking, and moist. I fought the urge to pull her down the extra few inches and learn the taste of that mouth.
I half expected her to yell at me to let go of her arms, but no.
She was as frozen as I was.
"Who is he?" I demanded. "Well? And I can't believe you didn't tell me-your supposed best friend-" I enunciated all the consonants-"that you were dating someone." Unfair tactics to play the platonic card at this particular moment, but I went there.
She seemed to deflate and mumbled something I didn't catch.
"What was that?"
"I said, you were unavailable at the time."
"Yeah, well I'm available now. So tell me. Do I know this fiancé of yours?"
"Uh, yeah. Yeah, you do. In fact he was going to tell you himself."
A sick feeling twisted in my gut. So I knew the bastard. My God, who could it possibly-
"It's your brother, Karl."
CHAPTER 10
Two Years Ago-A Moment of Panic
Charis: If you ever marry someone-
Asher: Oh, I will marry someone.
Charis: How do you know? How do we ever know what will happen to us? I'm not sure I'll ever get married.
Asher: Why the fuck not? Marriage rocks.
Charis: You say that only because you come from a crazy-happy family. Try growing up with a pair of self-absorbed artistes. Then you won't assume marriage is the surefire path to happiness.
Asher: You'll marry.
Charis: We'll see. Anyway, so if you're right and you do get married, will you have a huge wedding with lots of pomp and circumstance?
Asher: Sure, probably.
Charis: Why? It's A), money you can never recover, B), just setting yourself up publicly for failure, and C)
Asher: Hold on, wait, go back to B for a minute. Why failure?
Charis: Give me a mo and I'll get you the hourly statistics on divorce. It's decreased slightly in recent years, but-
Asher: Nuh-uh. You're suffering from a common misconception. A distribution curve has absolutely nil predictive value concerning any one data point on that curve. There is no reason to assume my n=1 marriage will fail.
Charis: ANYhoo, may I go on? This is the most important point, so listen closely. C), it's embarrassing.