Threat (17 page)

She shakes her head, her auburn hair pulled
into a high ponytail that resembles a fountain. “Not hungry.”

“Still?”

“Yup, still.”

“A little rude, don't you think? It's our
first family dinner.”

She sucks her teeth. “Family,” she
repeats bitterly.

“And you know you're just going to cause
a load of drama if you don't come down, right?”

She stops her pen and lets out a long sigh,
because she knows I'm right. Also because she's probably secretly
starving, but she'd never admit that either.

“Fine,” she groans, slamming her
book closed and throws it onto the comforter beside her. She marches
towards the door but I don't budge—in fact I stretch my arms
up, grabbing on to the top of her door-frame, completely blocking her
exit. Her fleeting gaze lands briefly on the strip of bare skin above
my waist band. I love it when she can't help but check me out.

“You know it was actually pretty cool of
you not to narc on me earlier.”

Her brow arches. “You're saying something
nice about me? What do you want?”

I chuckle. “Nothing. I was just thinking,
you might end up being a cool sister after all.”

Leah scowls. “Stepsister.
Step
sister.”

I move in closer towards her, leaving just a
sliver of space between us. I can see her whole body tense, as much
as she tries to hide it. Today hasn't been easy for her, I should
leave her alone, but I just can't help myself. Not when she's got
that cute little pony tail. If guilt were a thing I could feel, I'm
sure I'd feel it right now.

“I have to ask why you're so adamant
about making the distinction, hmm?” I lower my voice. “Is
it because you're trying to justify what we did?”

Her jaw tightens. “We didn't
do
anything.”

Lies. All lies, and she knows it.

“Or maybe,” I continue, my lips
just inches from her ear, “it's because you want to do it
again.”

I pull back just enough to look into her wide
eyes, but I’m still close enough to smell her minty sweet
breath. I can't take my eyes off her pouty lips, shimmering in the
light as they part. I can almost taste her, and dear God, I want to
taste her again. Everything about this is wrong. It's down right
dangerous. I'm in her father's house, with the door wide open—anyone
could walk in at any moment. But stealing a kiss from her right now
would be the hottest thing ever.

I wind my fingers around her neck, touching her
with the pad of my thumb in that same special spot I found last
night. She bites her lip, muffling the tiny whimper that escapes her
throat. But she doesn't pull away from me. And just when our lips are
about to touch—

“Hey kids! Dinner time!”

Fuck
.

Fucking cock blocking Colin and his loud ass
voice.

She staggers back. “Coming,” she
hollers in a shrill and frantic voice.

But I catch her as she tries to side step me.
“Oh no you don't,” I growl, pulling her by the waist into
the corner, pressing her tight against the wall. She yelps into my
mouth when our lips crash together, her small body going rigid
against mine. All it takes is my tongue sliding against hers for her
to stop clawing at my shoulders and grip them tight instead. Her body
softens, melting into mine like butter as my lips move against hers.
I can't help but groan into the kiss—she tastes that damn good
and she feels even better. 'Cool step-sister' was understatement—a
fucking
hot
step sister is more like it.

I take her bottom lip between my teeth,
nibbling it softly before tearing away from her needy mouth. I look
down at my handiwork and I’m pleased. Her chest heaves and her
lids flutter, like she's expecting more of something she's not going
to get. Not right now, at least.

When her eyes shoot open she looks baffled and
disappointed.

I look at her tousled locks and say, “You
should fix your hair before you come down stairs.

*

Leah makes it to the table a good five minutes
after me. I'm guessing she spent all that time upstairs regaining her
composure, and frankly, I wouldn't blame her.

“Nice of you to join us,” Colin
calls from the kitchen.

“Didn't mean to be late. I was...”
her voice trails off and she glares at me. “Busy.”

A wide grin creeps across my face. No one's
watching so I hold her gaze and wink. Her eyes go wide, warning me to
stop.

“Dinner is served!” Mom says as she
and Colin enter the dining room, plates in hand. “Leah, your
father told me how much you love his mushroom burgers so I had him
grill a few up. I prepared all the vegetables and sides. I really
hope you like them.”

This can't be for real. Did Susie Homemaker
swoop down and invade my mothers body?

Leah smiles as they set the food down in front
of her. “It all looks delish!” she says as she grabs a
burger from the tray. She has no idea what she's in for. My mom can't
cook for shit. Hell I only remember her cooking for me a few times a
year when I lived with her, and that was only on special occasions.
Every single time it was burnt, flavorless and downright awful.

She smiles down at me. “You can go ahead
and try one, honey.”

Oh God, please don't start with the 'honey'
bullshit—I already know that's just her trying to impress her
new husband.

“Since when can you cook?” I ask.

Her smile fades a little. “Like I said, I
didn’t' cook it all, Colin helped.”

“So by helped, you mean he cooked the
whole thing for you.”

“I...” Her expression falls even
further.

Colin comes up behind her and takes her into
his arms. “She did equal work, hell probably more fixing all
those sides, and it's delicious. I know because I tried them,”
he says, planting a kiss on her cheek.

I'm pretty sure I'm about to throw up the food
I haven't even eaten yet. What the hell did she do, put some kind of
voodoo witchcraft spell on this poor, unsuspecting man? I mean, there
was a gleam in his eyes when he looked at her. A fucking
gleam
.
Someone should probably warn him.

Colin glances down at me with Mom still in his
arms. “Try it and see what I mean.”

My eyes dart to Leah and she gives me
that
look again. I mean, she's already chewing and she isn't dead so, hey,
why not? I begrudgingly grab a burger, give it a quick taste
and—okay, I must be really fucking hungry because it's pretty
damn delicious. Even the mushrooms.

“Good?” he asks.

“It's not bad,” I reply. Mom looks
so proud, and I refrain from reminding her that even broken clocks
are right twice per day.

She and Colin take their seats at the table and
we all shuffle the trays back and forth between each other, scooping
sides on to our plates, politely asking one another to “Pass
the mash potatoes, please” or “Pass the salt, please”.
It's like something you'd see on an old family sitcom. Some real
Leave it to Beaver
shit. Is this what it feels like to have a real family dinner, with
an actual nuclear family? Phoney as hell?

“So, anything interesting happen on your
way up here?” Colin asks, directed at both Leah and I.

“Oh, a good number of interesting things
came up,” I answer. I can feel Leah's anxiety from across the
table but I don't even give the benefit of a glance. I'll just let
her sweat this one out.

“I bet, it sure was a long journey.”

I nod as I chew. “It was. But Leah and I
found our own ways to have fun.” When I finally shift my gaze
towards her she looks pale as a ghost. “Didn't we, Leah?”

She swallows her bite whole. “Totally.
Especially the part when your bike broke down in one hundred degree
heat.”

Thanks for reminding me.

Colin's face scrunches. “Wait, what?”

“And even better!” I interject,
“Leah decided to let me tattoo her when we get back to Nevada!”

The second the words leave my lips everyone
stops. Mom and Colin glance at each other. Leah looks like she's on
the brink of explosion. God, who knew a tattoo would be that big of a
deal? I only
hoped
it would.

“Leah is that true?” Colin asks. He
seems concerned—you'd think he just found out his daughter was
enlisting or something.

She's speechless and shifts uncomfortably in
her seat. “I, uh, we haven't talked about the details yet...”

Colin's brow furrows. “I thought you
hated tattoos? You definitely never showed any interest in them
before.”

She shrugs. “I just thought it would be a
fun going away present to myself? Just something small, maybe.”

He still looks worried. “I mean, it's
your body. It just seems unlike you.”

“People change. People grow up,”
she says, taking another bite of her burger.

“And David can be very persuasive at
time,” my mom chimes in. “Don't let him talk you into
anything you're not comfortable with.”

I roll my eyes hard. Look who's acting like a
responsible mother now. She sure as hell was never this concerned
with my choices. “Seriously? She's an adult. You really think
I'm going to force her to get a tattoo?'

Mom sighs. “I'm just saying, it's
permanent. If you're going to modify your body, be absolutely sure
about it.”

“Like your tit job?” I mumble under
my breath before taking another bite.

“
Threat
—”
Leah reprimands me.

“Uh, that's a little bit inappropriate,
don't you think?” says Colin.

Inappropriate? Hah. So is marrying a fucking
stripper. “I don't know, ask your new wife. She's the queen of
inappropriate behavior.”

“David—” Mom says.

“
Threat.”
My voice elevates as I turn to her.
“My name is fucking Threat, so you can call me that.”

“Seriously, stop,” Leah warns.
“She's your
mother.
”

I laugh bitterly as I chew on my now cold meat.
“You of all people should see through this bullshit.”

“David,” Mom says again, placing a
hand on my wrist. “Can you please at least try. Just
try
.
For once?”

She's practically begging me. I can hear the
desperation in her voice. She's begging me to not ruin this for her.
She's begging me not to reveal all the sins of her past to her new,
unsuspecting family. I just look at her pathetic face and shake my
head. I wonder how many things she hasn't told Colin—hell, I'm
surprised she told him about me at all. If it weren't for this sick
ass pad and that other sick ass pad back Nevada, I'd air out every
thread of her dirty laundry.

“Right, try. The way you tried with me,
huh? Oh that's right, you never tried to be a mother to me once in
your goddamned life.”

Colin wraps an arm around her. “David,
this isn't the time or the place.”

Oh really? Well that's a shame, because I
continue anyways. “But as soon as your shiny new family comes
along you act like a fucking Stepford wife.”

Mom drops her forehead into her hand, and Leah
looks stunned. What did she suspect?

“You need to apologize to your mother,”
Leah says.

Did I just hear that right? She just told me to
apologize to her? You know what? I take all that stuff about Leah
being “cool” back. Deep down she's the same little twerp
I knew back in high school. And the last thing I need right now is
two nagging bitches telling me what to do.

“You know what? I'm out,” I say as
I push away from the table. I throw my napkin down onto my plate. “If
the three of you want to play house, have fun. I don't have time for
this phony ass, fake shit.”

I storm out of the room and out of the house.
Their attempts to lure me back and reason with me are music to my
ears as I go. This isn't going as I planned. I'm starting to think
the house and the bet aren't even worth it. I don't even know why
she's trying to make this work. She clearly cares more about Colin
and Leah than she ever did about me, so why does she bother? She'd
probably be better off pretending I don't exist.

Truth be told, she'd probably be better off if
I didn't.

I'm sure Leah would be too.

LEAH

How can anyone treat the person who gave birth
to them like that?

Watching Threat berate his mother and then
storm out of the house is like watching a horror movie play out in my
dining room. I don't know what kind of shit went down between the two
of them over the years, but it can't be bad enough to warrant such a
brash reaction from him. Can it? Now, my dad is trying to comfort
Janet, who's on the brink of tears.