13

BRICE

I'm on the balcony in the master bedroom watching A Nightmare On Elm Street projected onto the big screen. Most of the audience is in the water lazying on a floatie.

I tip the bottle of Dom I'd raided from my mom's private fridge. It's the only thing she drinks. If I wanted to get fucked up, I would have gone for the Henny. But Hailey's thrown this party that has a larger turnout than expected, and I have to be the responsible one between the two of us.

Last time she threw a party there were so many broken and irreplaceable items around the house mother went on about it for the better part of a year. I have security on patrol and to prevent people from wandering upstairs to the sleeping quarters.

At 1 AM I want this place cleared out. I am in no mood to greet random strangers the morning after, especially ones I did not invite.

I see a group of people making their way to the drinks table near the pool area and my eyes zero in on the girl with the patterned skirt and matching, form-fitting top.

My stomach tightens in recognition of Soleil and her hand nestled in Mark's.

I'm grinding my teeth so hard that it's only by tipping the bottle back to take a lengthy drink that I get some kind of relief. I would ask why she's here but at this point its pretty self-explanatory.

I look down at my brown robe then at Mark in his Letterman jacket and jeans. He looks cool.

She looks cute on his arm and they're happily chatting away in a group like this is some great party - a scene straight out of a teen movie. I feel out of place despite being in my own home. I'm at the event but haven't been present, not until now as my feet carry me to her.

Thierry is an idiot. He told me to ignore her.

I had hoped she would miss me.

Text me.

Call me.

Confess her feelings for me.

SOMETHING

...just not running over to Mark.

Forget the fact that Hailey was one of the reasons I had sequestered myself upstairs. She was DTF and I was out of patience. I may snap at her or give in and fuck her, I was so on edge.

The temptation becomes a fleeting thought as my eyes feast on Soleil.

She usually keeps her hair tied up. Tonight it falls down her back teasing the exposed skin of her top. This is the first time I've seen her with her hair down.

She's stunning.

It's Hailey who breaks me out of the spell as she welcomes Soleil and Charlondra. My eyes rake over the former.

"Yes, what an unexpected surprise," I think out loud.

Before I can think any better of it, I'm entering the mix and introducing myself into the fray. If you had asked me a month ago what I thought of Mark, I would have told you he was cool. I even considered him a friend. At the moment, I could barely stand to be around the guy but here we were because of her.

Someone asks about my shitty costume. It's the monk Dom Perignon.

I tip the near empty bottle to make a statement and steel myself for Soleil.

She hasn't acknowledged me, simply focused all her attention on the big screen. I don't know what I was expecting but I can't blame her. I've been giving her the cold shoulder since the last time I had my tongue down her throat.

I attempt to approach her and find out how she is but she moves away from the group. I thought I was giving her space but the tension between us has been thick. I suspect she nearly quit her job with me yesterday.

The bottle in hand is near empty. I decide to fish one out of the pool. It's been tradition at my parties to toss a few bottles of liquor in the swimming pool. Seeing tonight is the last time I'll be seeing most of these people, I've been generous and thrown in champagne.

I take off the brown robe leaving me in a pair of swim shorts and dive in to retrieve one from the bottom. The cool off is needed. I emerge out of the water having garnered some attention even from my little minx. I look better in the flesh than the rags I had on. I still think it's a better costume than coming as Louis XVI – the pompous prick.

I hand the fresh bottle to the dude that asked about my outfit. "This may be the last one."

"Sweet! Thanks Chief." He puts his fist out for dab and I acknowledge the gesture along with the others extended.

My image needs some rehab and a humble monk will do nicely especially one that had taste. Cheers to the father of champagne.

I turn my gaze back to Soleil and catch her looking over. She's not the only one, but she pretends and returns her gaze to the projector screen. She's stretched out on the pool chair, her thigh exposed by that sexy slit.

I want to touch her, run my hands along her smooth skin, and trail my tongue down her neck.

I've missed her.

I fill a cup with bubbly and hand it to her taking the seat next to hers.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"

She gives me some BS excuse about us only discussing school and a shallow compliment on my home. One of her little friends intrudes on our time alone and I swallow my protest. She won't give me the time of day with her attention fixated on the gotdamn movie.

Zanele asks if we know each other and she denies me. My chest burns in hurt.

I press her to at least admit to the time we've spent together but she's flippant at best then excuses herself.

"I'm going to get a refill." She stands up and heads for the drinks table.

I hang back to gather my thoughts and composure. I need to speak to her before I have a conniption. Hailey is hovering and I couldn't care less. She wore the tight number for me. Ever since I told her about my fetish for women in red, she dons the colour given the opportunity. I recall her telling me her favourite colour was blue.

I can't muster the energy to reiterate my reasons for why we will never work. It's the reason why I was upstairs watching this party from a distance in the first place. Instead of Soleil returning to the group, I see her headed for the kitchen and follow her in.

I stand back, watch her pour from a bottle of vodka, and throw the drink back.

My left hand caresses her exposed back and the right reaches for the skin on her stomach. I draw Soleil flush against me and inhale her scent. She smells delicious and feels soft. However, she didn't come here for me.

"Did you wear this to please him or upset me?"

"What?" She tries to pull away and turn around but I don't let her. "Let me go Brice."

Pas une chance bébé. Not a fucking chance baby. My mind protests.

"No. Now answer my question."

"Did it ever cross your ego driven mind that I wore this dress for me?" she asks, prying my fingers off her and eventually breaking free after bending a couple of the digits at a very awkward angle.

"Why are you here with him?"

I reach for her arm which she snatches away from me like I'm some kind of vagrant.

"He invited me and a few other friends. Wish I could say the same for you but whatever."

"I'm only here to make sure people don't trash my house."

"OUCH! So we hang out for weeks and you don't make mention of this only for me to arrive and you to embarrass me in front of people I've just met by acting like something is going on between us."

"Firstly, this wasn't my idea," I say throwing my hands in the air. "It was Hailey's. And secondly, what? You don't want Mark to know what we've been up to behind his back?"

"We've been up to nothing behind his back unless my 'tutoring'," she stresses with air quotes, "was some bullshit farce. And please explain to me, like I'm a five year old with limited vocabulary, how this is Hailey's party that's taking place at your house yet nothing is going on between you two."

She lowers her voice towards the tail end of her sentence and looks behind me. I turn and notice a few people looking our way. When she turns to leave for the door I take hold of her wrist.

"Not now!" She mutters under her breathe breaking free of my hold.

I refuse to let her walk away from me again. Even though Thierry may know a lot about the old world, the occult, and creatures men think are myth. I know enough about my girl to know that any allowances I give her only come back to bite me in the ass.

Not caring about the spectators around us, I throw her over my shoulder and head upstairs where no one will disturb us. She pounds her small fits on my back demanding I put her down. I swat her ass and tell her Hush!

She submits and hangs over my shoulder, a prize in conquest.

I walk past security and make a beeline for my bedroom.

"I was with you yesterday and you failed to mention you would be coming or was it because of who you were coming with?" I ask, shutting the door behind us and setting her on her feet.

"Funny you mention that considering you didn't say a damn word about this party anyway. I only found out last night though, so you can stop whatever train of thought is running through you mind."

Last night?  All is forgotten as I focus on those two words.

"Was this before or after you saw me?"

"Before? After? What does it matter?" She shrugs in exasperation. "What am I missing? You're with Hailey; I'm with Mark. What's the problem?"

I don't think she means to but Soleil is pissing me off. If it were possible steam would be coming out of my ears.

"You're with Mark?" I ask approaching her. She takes a few tentative steps back. "Since when? Does he touch you the way I do? Has he put his hands on you?"

Her back hits the opposite wall and I cage her in with my arms.

"I'm nothing but the consummate professional," she says with little to no conviction.

"Liar!" I growl then smash my lips against hers.

I'm stroking, teasing, and nipping, trying to taste more of her unique flavour between the notes of Bubbly and vodka. I'm fueled by lust, anger and jealousy.

She denies me at every turn but gives into him. I drop my arms from the sides of her head and place them on her waist.

Her hands wrap around my neck and she opens up wider giving me full access to taste her tongue. The tension around my shoulders and chest ebbs. The tension in my gut is still there and primed to fuck.

I trail my hands down her body, mapping the contours of her curves and grab hold of her ass, hoisting her legs to wrap around my waist. She complies and parts her lips with a sigh, her forehead pressed against mine.

"You're mine." I don't know where it comes from but I've said it.

I never thought I would be one of those territorial guys but here I am claiming her and willing to maim a man over her.

"Brice..."

I carry her over to the king sized bed and lay her over the dark blue sheets.

"Let's not argue over this. Just agree."

I give her my best smile as I settle between her thighs and explore the soft skin on the leg that's been teasing me tonight. She doesn't smile back or respond.

I kiss her lips sucking on the full bottom and make a trail down her neck. My hands cup her breasts as I acquaint myself with her body. She's so responsive. I kiss her again just because I can. Because I want to. Because I cant help it.

One hand massages her breast while the other trails down her skirt to the apex of her thighs. I find her center, ease the seat of her panties to the side, and ease my middle finger in.

She's so tight with just one finger that I'm not surprised by her moans when I add another. She's so responsive. I massage her walls, preparing her to stretch for me. She tears her lips away from mine with a gasp, mouth parted and eyes closed.

I watch her head thrown back in ecstasy as I pump my digits into her wishing it was my dick.

I graze the thin membrane of her virginity and commit this moment to memory; dark lashes fanned across her brown skin, her dark hair spread over the white pillow, the way her teeth are biting into her bottom lip attempting to suppress her love sound.

I cant wait to see the face she makes once I put my mouth on her other set of lips.

I struggle to loosen her top and pull down the cup of her bra with one hand as I continue to pump into her with the other. When a supple breast falls out, I wrap my lips around to her dark nipple. A moan falls from her lips which are now shaped in an O.

I release the hard bud with a reluctant pop and continue trailing kisses down her sternum. I remove my hand from her wet center and settle myself lower on the bed. My fingers curl around the waistband of her panties, but before I can go any further the door is thrown open.

"Oh my god! You bitch."

Hailey's indignant voice throws cold water on the once hot scene.

"Oh my god. Mark." Soleil looks sexy with bed hair.

However, the look of contrition on her face eviscerates the lusty haze that was clouding my mind as she scrambles to adjust her top and get off my bed.

I try reach for her, panic written all over her face but she pulls away. I hate when she pulls away. Her gaze is stuck on him. I don't dare turn around fearing what I might do.

"How could you do this to me?"

It's Hailey again and it sounds like she's about to cry.

I stand up to adjust my dick. He started deflating when I saw Soleil get up with that stupid look on her face.

I turn around and I'm met with a pair of big, glassy blues about to spill over. I would apologize but it wouldn't be sincere. I'm not sorry.

Soleil sounds like she is as she says it over and over again to Mark who's looking between her and me as if trying to figure it out.

"Aren't you going to say anything?" Hailey screams, the tears finally running over.

"We're not together."

"What?!"

"I told you when the adoption was finalised that this would never work. You're my sister. It's weird and inappropriate."

Soleil has stopped the pitiful apologies and is looking at the soap opera that is my life. This explanation is as much for her as it is for Hailey.

"We aren't even blood related." Hailey continues uncaring of the big secret we've been keeping from everyone in school. "We slept together in Cannes in July." She sputters trying to make me seem like an asshole as always.

I have to salvage this situation.

At the back of my mind, I knew messing with Hailey in Cannes would be a mistake and I gave into temptation anyway. I admit, at one point she in time I found her irresistible, but that was before the bullshit with her family and the drama she created with mine. Not anymore. I needed to regain control of my life. To be clear is to be kind I was once told.

"I was drunk. It was a mistake. I don't want you. I want Soleil."

WC: 2746

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Asante

Ngiyabonga