Starburst (4 page)

“Call
me later Trevas, we have to meet the auctioneer at the house Saturday, you are
still coming, aren’t you?”

“I don’t
know Anna, I will call you.”

“Trevas,
you are not making me do this by myself,” she demanded.

“I
will call you later Anna,” he maintained, dismissing him and Alley out the
double doors.

“I
like you grandparents,” Alley told him as they headed back the way they had
come.

“I
think they liked you too,” he smiled at her.

“You
do know that your sister thinks we are a couple, don’t you?” she asked, and he
smiled with a snicker.

“Yeah,
I got that vibe too.”

“What
is wrong with your grandpa Trevas?” she asked sincerely.

“He
has Alzheimer’s disease, today was actually a good day. Sometimes he doesn’t
even know who my grandmother is and they have been married for almost fifty
five years.”

“That
is so sad. Were you and your sister talking about selling their things?”

“Yeah,”
Trevas said with a sad tone. “I’m not looking forward to it at all, but we both
know that they will never go back home.”

“That’s
tough.”

“Yes
it is,” he admitted and changed the subject. “Are you hungry? The food there wasn’t
the best.”

“The
food was horrible,” she agreed.

Trevas
pulled up to the curb of the thrift store. “Do you need some money?” he asked.

“No.
I have money, aren’t you coming?”

“No.
I will wait here. I need to make a few calls. You go, take your time,” he added,
and she disappeared with a big smile.

“What’s
going on Trevas?” Chase answered. “Are you surviving the devil girl?”

Trevas,
for some reason, didn’t like him calling her that, even though he had called
her a little bitch a couple of days before. She wasn’t what people made her out
to be at all, and after being around her for a few days, he felt sorry for her.
He knew she wouldn’t have picked this life, had she had a choice. “Yeah, it hasn’t
been bad. She’s not as bad as I thought she was going to be.”

“Well
that sounds promising. You might just make it yet.”

“She
got kicked out of school for three days for smoking, and I had to get a call
from Fletcher, that wasn’t pleasant.”

“Damn
Trevas, don’t let shit like that happen. It makes us look bad. Search her bag
if you have too.”

“Oh,
it won’t happen again. I know what I’m up against now.”

Trevas
only talked to Chase for a minute. He had to go because whoever he was working
for was ready to come out of the restaurant, and he had to go escort her.

He
called his mom and they talked about his grandparents. She told him that she wouldn’t
be able to come Saturday either because of work, and decided they would
reschedule for the tenth time. He waited for forty five minutes, and was
starting to get anxious, wondering if Alley snuck out a back door somewhere.

He
was just getting ready to go in when he saw her exit with a big bag and an even
bigger smile. She threw the bag in the back and got in smiling.

“I
see you found something,” he said, starting the car.

“That
store is so cool, and the lady told me that they get new stuff every day. Maybe
we can stop if I come with you to visit your grandparents again,” she hoped.

“Oh,
you will come with me again,” he demanded, and she smiled. “And, yes we can
stop again.”

They
actually talked all the way home, and Alley was very open with him as they
discussed unimportant issues and she even laughed a little.

“Can
we get pizza tonight?” She asked.

“How
about I make us pizza?”

“Okay,”
she agreed as they got closer to the house.

“Alley
jump in the back,” Trevas demanded as they neared the gate, seeing the man with
the camera duck behind the stone post. Alley saw him too and dove to the back
seat.

“Stupid
fuckers,” she exclaimed.

“Watch
your mouth. He is just trying to do a job like everyone else.”

“Are
you defending the paparazzi?” She asked in disbelief.

“I
guess so, he has to work too.”

“And
you think being a slime ball is a job?” She asked, with her teenage attitude
back.

“I
think if you are going to be in the spotlight then you have to take one with
the other,” he explained, trying to bring her back but it was too late. She
opened her door, grabbed her bag of thrift finds and slammed the door behind
her, heading straight to her room.

“One
step forward and two steps back,” he said out loud as he walked into the house.

Alley
didn’t come down all evening and refused to come and eat the homemade pizza, he
again fixed her a plate and sat in the refrigerator. He listened for her to come
down, and it was later than she normally did. It was almost one in the morning
when he heard her in the kitchen. He dressed and walked out for whatever reason.

“Do
you have to fucking get up every time you hear me up?” She asked, annoyed that
he was there again.

“Do
you have to stay locked in your room and wait until the middle of the night to
come down and eat?” He answered her question with a question. “And stop talking
like that, it sounds horrible.”

“Fuck
you,” she shot back and he laughed, and she shot him a dirty look.

The
microwave dinged, and she took the plate of homemade pizza. “Just turn around
so I can go upstairs,” she demanded.

“Why
do you insist on running around half naked?” He asked. “Please stay down here
and eat. I’m sorry I upset you earlier, and I can understand how you feel about
being put in the middle of the spotlight. I know you never asked for it or
wanted it, and I agree that it is not fair to you that you are forced to live
in a bubble because of who your parents are.”

Alley
calmed down and breathed a deep breath. She wasn’t expecting an apology and it
kind of blindsided her. She bent to take a fork from the dishwasher, but the
cleaning lady had put them away. “I have to walk to the other side of the
kitchen to get a fork,” she stated, and he turned around on the stool. She wasn’t
expecting him to understand why she hated being put in the middle of something
she didn’t ask for, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about his sympathetic synopsis.

He
slid a stool to the end of the bar and let her slide it the rest of the way,
not wanting to see her half naked body. He still hadn’t gotten the image of the
last time out of his mind.

“Oh,
my God, this is awesome,” she boasted, taking a bite of the pizza.

“Flip
on the game,” he told her, and she did.

She
moved first and took another bite. “No questions this time,” she demanded,
talking around the pizza in her mouth.

Trevas
moved and countered. “Okay, no questions but if I win you have to do something
that I want you to do and if you win I will do the same.”

“Like
what?” she wanted to know.

“I’m
not telling you, besides if I lose it doesn’t matter anyway, does it?” Trevas
was
going to win, and he was going to make her join him for supper every night. He wouldn’t
let her come down after he was in bed.

“What
if there is nothing that I want from you?”

“There
has to be something. Surely there is a concert or something that you could use
to your advantage.”

She
thought for a minute and moved her checker. The game was very intense, and
neither of them spoke. Alley continued to eat her pizza, and Trevas turned his
eyes quickly away from her more than once when he caught himself gazing at her
and locking his eyes with hers.

Alley
pushed the empty plate away and brought both her knees under her butt and
leaned over to study the game. Trevas had to tell himself to keep his eyes on
the game and not stare at her breast through the thin white shirt. Trevas was
down to one single checker, and she had four kings. He knew that he had lost,
and it only took three more moves to trap him.

“Fine,
smarty pants,” he teased. “Name your poison.”

He
looked up at her, and the way she was looking at him was forbidden and he was
entranced holding her gaze.

“What
Alley?” he asked, quietly, and she moved and stood beside the stool.

“Kiss
me Trevas,” she said with the softest sexiest voice he had ever heard, and his
heartbeat picked up as he felt his chest tighten all of a sudden.

“Alley
I can’t kiss you,” he mocked her tone.

“You
have too, you lost,” she demanded.

“I
thought you would want to go somewhere and get out of this house, I would have
never agreed to that.”

“You
are the one that made the rule, not to tell until the end of the game.”

“Alley
I am not kissing you.”

Alley
walked around and stood at the end of the island. He didn’t look down and kept
his eyes on hers but could still see through his peripheral vision, her white,
silky panties, and it stirred something inside of him that shouldn’t have been
stirring. Not to mention what was going on in his jeans.

She
took another step toward him, and he didn’t even have the other stool to use as
a barrier. “Alley stop,” he demanded, but she didn’t listen and walked slowly
toward him as her hand slid across the top of the marble countertop. She
stopped between his legs, and it was all that he could do not to touch her.

“Kiss
me Trevas,” she whispered, close to his lips with her hands now resting on his
legs.

“Alley
I can’t,” he pleaded.

“Yes
you can,” she softly whispered, moving to where her lips were a fraction from
his, and he could feel her words on his lips. He barely had to move, and his
lips were on hers. He was hoping that a quick peck would satisfy her winnings,
but she parted her lips for him, and his uncontrollably took over as his tongue
explored her mouth. He still hadn’t touched her and refused until she wrapped
her arms around his neck and pressed her body to his. His hands automatically
moved to her ribs and back. He didn’t put them under her shirt but could feel
the bare skin from her midsection. The kiss lasted way longer than it should
have, and he had to stifle the moan that wanted to escape as she finally pulled
away. She rested one hand on his chest and kept the other one behind him, and
her forehead was on his.

“That
wasn’t so bad was it?” she asked.

“That’s
not what I was afraid of,” he admitted, wishing she would back away because he wanted
to kiss her again.

“What
were you afraid of?” she asked.

“You.”

“Do
I scare you?”

“You
scare the hell out of me.”

“Why?”

“Because
you are only seventeen and you do something to me when you’re around.”

“I
will be eighteen in less than six months, and you are only six years older than
me. What do you mean I do something to you?”

“You
are still a minor and I could lose my job and go to jail, and forget I said
that last part.”

“You
can’t go to jail for kissing me,” she said, pulling away and walking toward the
steps.

“Don’t
turn around,” he tried to tell himself, not wanting the image of her half naked
body fixed in his mind.

“Trevas,”
she called down from about halfway up, and his head and eyes turned right to
her refusing to listen to his brain telling them not to.

“You
do something to me too,” she stated and disappeared to her room.

“Trevas
you fucking idiot,” he said out loud, but quietly as he ran his hands through
his hair. He sat there for a long time trying to gather his thoughts. He went
to bed and stared at the ceiling. He kept telling himself that it wasn’t
happening again, and then he would have to repeat it and warn himself again
when his mind wanted to wonder right back to her kiss and how good her body
felt.

Alley
lay in bed and thought about him too. He scared her as much as she scared him,
and although she was sure that he had, had these feelings in the past for
someone or more than one someone, she hadn’t and wasn’t sure how to react to
them.

When
Trevas woke, their kiss was the first thing that came to his mind and he
groaned. She hadn’t emerged yet, and he put on a pair of shorts and a
sleeveless t-shirt with open sides. He went into the gym and was just starting
to work up a sweat as he jogged a rapid pace on the treadmill when she came in.

“Good
morning,” he said, not wanting things to be awkward between them and then
wondered if she came into work out or what she was doing when she just stood
there.

He
pushed the buttons and slowed the treadmill to a crawl. “Alley?” he said, and
she ducked under his arm and was walking in front of him. He smiled down at her
and shook his head. She was in a pair of baggy gray sweatpants and a loose
fitting t-shirt, but he didn’t think she could have been sexier had she been naked.

“What
are you doing?” he asked.

She
hopped up and brought her feet to the sides so that she was no longer walking.
“Are you mad at me?” she asked, not turning around.

Trevas
brought his arm around her and stopped the treadmill. “No Alley, I’m not mad at
you. I’m mad at myself. What happened last night was entirely my fault. I’m
supposed to be the adult here, and kissing you was the most unprofessional
thing I have ever done, and I’m sorry, and I apologize profusely. I promise I won’t
let it happen again”

“I don’t
want you to be sorry Trevas,” she said and turned to face him, standing too
close for his control level.

“That
is not what I meant. I just can’t let it happen again.”

“You
can’t let it happen again, but you want to?”

Trevas
smiled a warm smile, “Come on, I will make us some breakfast,” he said, wanting
to get away from her, and making the mistake of taking her hand. The touch of her
caused him to close his eyes and take a breath. She pulled her hand away from
his and stared up at him before he opened the door.