“Ok, I'm sorry, I'll stop,” Dakota's voice cut through my fantasy of suffocating her, “I shouldn't talk about how hot he is. He's your brother now.”
*****
Chapter Eight
Finn
Allie ran off to her room before I even had a chance to register what in the world was going on. Out of all of the available women in the world, somehow my father had found the mother of the only girl that made me feel the way Allie did.
When we showed up at the farmhouse and I stepped out of the limo, Allie didn't seem to be as shocked as I felt. She probably knew, how could she not? The reach of my celebrity was wide and the news probably found her well before I had any idea. Even so, as she stood there biting her lip nervously with a strand of hair falling down the side of her face, she looked adorable, even if she was unable to hide the hate brewing behind her eyes. The tight, white tank top and tighter blue jeans wrapped her up in a nice little bundle of hate, something I wasn't used to feeling directed at me.
My first assumption was that a prank was being pulled on me, that some tv show somehow knew this intimate and secret detail of my life and in any moment, cameras would emerge to reveal this giant joke being played on me. If that were the case, there would be high hell to pay for whoever was responsible for the idea. It was too cruel to ever be considered entertainment. I mean, Allie made me feel different, way different than I had ever felt before or after I had met her. To myself I may even admit that she made me actually believe in love and hope to one day be able to experience it longer than a couple of days. There were no cameras emerging though, this was looking like it may be just a horrible coincidence.
“There's your room. Bye.”
Allie was curt and to the point of almost being rude. She didn't wait to catch up or to let me explain, instead remaining icy as anger clearly bubbled inside of her. Her hatred so strong she couldn't even look me in the eyes, couldn't even look my way for more than half-a-second. She left us alone almost as quickly as she had appeared, making me to be with feelings of abandonment.
Vida led the way into the room that had been set aside for us, obviously prepared with the assumption that we would want to be sharing a bed. With Allie in the house though, my priorities had shifted. Now Vida and every other woman in the whole world paled in comparison to the beautiful Allie-gator.
We had barely begun to unpack when the younger girl, the one who wanted the interview, poked her head in the room.
“Hope you're decent. I'm going to run to the store, does anyone want anything?”
Before I could tell her that we could get our own stuff, Vida piped in that she wouldn't mind a trip. The two were gone in no time, new best friends who didn't flinch at the idea of leaving me and Allison alone together in the house. Why would they? They didn't know.
After my gorgeous songwriter and the plucky, young lady left for the store, I figured it was a good time to go exploring my father's new house. The tight, black t-shirt I had been wearing all day felt a little constrictive and sweaty so it was discarded onto the bed. I left topless, thinking nothing of it, I was making myself at home.
The farmhouse was well decorated just not with any of my father's personality. He sure seemed happy but I wondered why much so if this home was void of his personal touch. Maybe that's what love is, changing yourself to better fit with the one you love.
The stirring I heard in the kitchen didn't stop me from moving forward, it only encouraged me to go inspect. The sounds of my footsteps clearly disrupted Allison though, as soon as she heard me getting closer, all noise from the kitchen stopped.
“Hey there,” I offered as my head and hulking, shirtless torso entered the room before the rest of me. Allie looked like a deer in headlights, frozen stiff with eyes wide open.
“I'll be out of here in a minute,” she said while spreading something on a bagel at break-neck speed. She looked so damned cute standing there with her hair tied behind her head, concentrating on her snack. It was too much for me to stay away.
“You don't have to leave,” I purred while sidling up next to her frozen stiff body. She wouldn't even look at me, furiously buttering her bread while doing her best to keep her body away from mine, a far cry from just a few months ago.
“C'mon now, it's been so long.” My hands found her sides as I tried to pull her closer into me, something she was definitely not into. In an attempt to make herself very clear, Allie pulled herself away quickly and held the butter knife up in a defensive manner.
“No. Stop. Get away.”
My hands went up to defend myself because, to be honest, I wasn't sure she didn't intend to use that knife in a vicious way. No amount of pleading on my behalf seemed to change her mind, my typically effective charm not making a dent in her hardened defense. Inexperienced with rejection, I continued to try to get her back on my side.
“Why are you being like this?” I asked, certain she'd come around. Instead she looked angrier than she had the whole time I was there.
“You do not get to come into my house and act like everything is ok. I don't know your dad yet but you better pray that he's nothing like you. If he even thinks of hurting my mother...”
Her anger wasn't a surprise but when I saw how hurt she looked, it made me feel really bad. The only thing I could think of was trying to make things better. I opened my arms as I started to approach her.
“Come here...” I offered and only later could see why she looked at me the way she did. The knife in her hand raised again and threatened to pierce through my tanned muscles. Allie backed out of the room while still facing me, the knife ready to come into action if it needed to.
*****
Chapter Nine
Allie
With a seething rage I stormed back into my room to bury my face in a pillow and wonder just how I was going to get through this. The torture from this prick extended past these next few days; Finn was now going to be a part of my family. There was no way I was going to be able to get rid of him. I don't know that I had ever felt such complete helplessness, feeling trapped with no idea of how I could possibly live a life with him as my brother. A cruel twist of fate had let my mother fall in love with the father of the only person that I despised so much.
Alone in that bedroom I closed my eyes tight and tried to think of anything besides Finn. When I tried to remember my life far away in New York City, I thought of work which led me to remember that I had an assignment due. An assignment about the very man who was making me so miserable. The very man who the whole world apparently loved. If only they knew what a heartless prick he was, if only they could see past his taut muscles, his guitar skills and disarming smile. Maybe if I could get people to see past all of that to learn about the shallow prick who didn't give a damn about an inexperienced girl's heart.
”Don't you wish we could stay here together, in this hotel room, just you and me, forever?”
”Finn, we both know this has to eventually end...”
”But why? We're adults, we can do whatever we want. I don't want to lose you, Allie-gator...”
As my mind remembered those days locked away in the hotel room, my body responded on its own by slowly rocking back and forth on a pillow underneath me. My thighs betrayed me by clamping tightly and thrusting my pelvis into the contours of the cushion.
”You're all I want, all I've ever wanted Allie...”
”Finn..,” was all I could mutter as I bit the side of my lip while the boy entered me slowly, sliding himself into my awaiting femininity.
”I think I'm falling too hard, too fast...” He brought himself in and out of me as our arms sought more of each other, pulling and clawing at each other's bare skin, needing to feel all of each other.
“Finn,” I attempted to whisper but was disrupted by the joy his grinding hips were providing me. “Oh my God, Finn...”
The magic we had together in that hotel room was a mirage and I now knew better than to ever hope for something like it again. I had been s
o naive and inexperienced when I met him, too green to know that it was all fantasy. The lesson I learned over the past few weeks was to never let my guard down like that again, never allow myself to be hurt so deep. I'm a bit ashamed though to admit that there were still plenty of times where I closed my eyes and hoped desperately for that Finn to return to me again. I so badly wished I could believe in magic, to know that what I felt in that hotel room was real. I grinded myself harder into the pillow, unable to stop myself from at least pretending that it was all possible.
“Knock knock...” a male voice broke my trance. For the split second before I looked up, I refused to believe Finn would've been so brazen as to show up at my door. Of course he was standing right there.
“Get! Away!” I yelled while throwing a different pillow to try and scare him off. It didn't work.
“Just seeing what you're up to, see if you wanted to hang out.” Out came his cheeky smile, the one that told me how much he was amused by himself. Instead of charming me though, it only made me want to kill him more. It was time to set things as straight as I could. Marching over to the doorway where he stood, I wouldn't have been surprised if steam started billowing out of my ears.
“Listen, I can't stand you. You're the worst person I've ever met. Believe me when I say that I'm devastated that we'll now be related. I want nothing, absolutely nothing to do with you so just leave me alone!”
That stupid grin grew wider. “You're gonna have to work on your bedside manor if you think you're gonna get an exclusive interview. I don't just give them to anyone, sis.”
Both he and I were aware of just how much I did need him. Not only was I forced to interact with him because of my mother's foolish heart, but my career depended on him. It didn't occur to me that he could hold that over my head.
“Don't you think you owe it to me? You know, a gesture to make up for being such a piece of shit?”
I wasn't normally one to curse and after seeing how hurt he was by my statement, I started to regret it pulling it out right then. Finn just shook his head. I'm not made of stone so my arm reached for his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him with an apology, something he completely took the wrong way.
“Finn, no!” I blurted out as his hand found my side and he attempted to pull me in closer. The conflicting emotions ran rampant in my head as I tried to twist away. Rejecting him when we weren't face-to-face was easy. Here where I could feel his body heat and smell the musk I had once known so well, my body screamed for him to take me right there. If I didn't get away from him quickly I wasn't going to be able to control myself. My body leapt to the other side of the room, letting the bed act as a barrier between us, as I straightened my clothes in a huff.
“What's wrong with you? We're going to be brother and sister!”
He looked a bit confused when I relayed that information. His head cocked and his brow furrowed as if this was the first he was hearing of the news. I watched as that confusion slowly left him, his face straightened and he returned to being his true self: a cocky, arrogant ass.
“Not yet,” he said as he winked at me. My arms crossed my chest and a deep scowl formed on my face. The steam that had been building inside of me left immediately as I tried to understand just how demented my new relative was. When my foot started to tap hard against the floor, he understood what it meant.
“Ok, ok. I'll see you later, sis.”
As soon as I knew he was gone, I slammed the door as hard as I could and silently cursed what my life had become.
*****
Chapter Ten
Finn
Hearing the door slam as I walked away wasn't a surprise but I was taken aback by the force Allie had used. It was beyond me that she was so angry with me, especially after the connection we had made together. And the odds of our parents finding each other and getting married? That's insane and proves we were meant to be together, even if it was in a less than ideal way. The labels step-brother and step-sister were just formalities as far as I was concerned.
I wished more than anything I could get her to see that, to get her to look at me the way she did in that hotel room. I still saw her that way, still found her to be achingly beautiful and wanted nothing more than for her to not be mad at me. She couldn't see it but I was dying inside, needing her to look at me that way again.
There was time though, I had some time to get her back on my side. Once I knew I could trust her, I could tell her everything, about why I couldn't come back for her. I could explain Vida and why I have to pretend to be in a relationship with her. My hope was that she didn't kill me before I had a chance to explain everything.
I had wound up on a couch as I daydreamed about Allie coming back around to my side when the intern bounced into the room like the peppy little thing she was.
“Hey you!” she said as soon as she arrived right in front of me. She sure was cute and was way more eager to spend time with me than Allie was.
“There's the prettiest girl I've seen all day,” I said with a smirk, certain she'd realize that I was only buttering up the only person in the house who was starstruck by me. Instead Dakota's face turned bright red and Vida glared.
“How about we start your interview?” the intern suggested suddenly, earning the Dakota her own glare from the pink-haired songwriter.
“Sure,” I agreed to piss off Vida, “let's go get Allie.”
Just when it appeared like my plan was gonna work, Vida, of course, had to step in and ruin it all.
“Dakota, we have work to do,” she said with arms crossed, “Maybe later?”
“Can I write with you guys?” Dakota was very eager to be a part of something.
Vida suggested that it just be her and I for the time being. Dakota just shrugged it off and walked herself over to the bedroom where Allie was. I couldn't help but watch the door to the bedroom as Vida, with pens and paper in hand, landed on the couch right beside me. She got comfortable as I kept my eyes on the door, watching as Dakota opened it just enough to get inside, I couldn't look away. Really quickly I got a glimpse of the beautiful Allie sitting on the bed, looking off into space. Dakota watched me apologetically as she closed the door, blocking me off from Allie once again.
“C'mon dude, let's get this done,” Vida barked, her patience, already paper thin, was being tried to its limit. I squirmed in the chair like a petulant child.
What happened next was an impromptu therapy session with Vida probing my brain to find the treasure from which she assured me my lyrics would spring. Instead I became more guarded than ever, the walls going up higher than she'd ever be able to climb. She wasn't going to learn about the love that burned in my heart, the love that was forbidden, the love that rejected me. She wouldn't find out that my heart beat for the girl behind that door. Vida wasn't going to know that I once loved Allie and she loved me but I screwed it all up.
“I want to write a song about my dick,” I told Vida just to get her to back off. It worked.
*****
Chapter Eleven
Allie
My mother asked for so little and since I was already in town for her wedding, even though I desperately didn't want to go, I couldn't say 'no' when she asked I join them for dinner.
“Family only please,” she clarified and it made my stomach turn. Finn was considered “family” now and I wouldn't have the buffer of Dakota and that songwriting tart to keep him at bay. It was just dinner, nothing crazy so I didn't feel obligated to dress up too much. Dakota had other thoughts.
“You'll be out in public with Finn Aikens and you're gonna wear jeans and a ponytail?!”
It was against my best judgment to let her know she was right so I did my best to pretend that I was just trying to trick her. The simple black dress I packed was my plan the whole time, I assured her. Admiring how I looked in that dress in the mirror, I also got Dakota's approval (though I hadn't asked for it). She kept trying to come up with ideas to improve my outfit further but finally accepted my refusal to do so. T
he dress was fine, I looked good and I knew it.
Though I hadn't asked about how we were going to get to dinner, my mom's text soon answered that. “Finn's going to bring you here. See you at 8.”
Not long after I had received the text than a soft knock at the door made my heart stop. Of course it was him. My throat seized and became dry, hindering my ability to yell “Go away”.
“Come in,” Dakota called out in an annoying sing-song voice with her bedroom eyes welcoming whoever was behind that door, her tone suggesting something a whole lot more exciting was going on in here.
Bush League: New Adult Sports Romance Page 18
