Red

Wounds

Finally arriving at my mom's house at five o clock and smelling food being cooked was like walking into a dream. I sniffed the air as we walked inside the house and followed my nose to the kitchen to find Evan in front of the stove stirring something in a pot.

He didn't know I entered yet as he faced away from me so I just watched as he pulled something from the oven and placed it on some oven mitts that were lied on the counter.

"If you're just going to stand there checking me out, you may as well help." My face flushed, I thought he couldn't tell I was there.

I joined him at the stove and looked at everything he had already prepared. "I didn't know you could cook."

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me, Valerie. You barely know my name."

"Well, I do know your body." I grabbed a spoon and started spooning batter into the baking cups he just finished greasing. "By the way, Valeria is my middle name." I looked up at him, meeting his gaze, "I told you I didn't lie to you."

He looked back down at his task at hand, "Valeria. Hannah Valeria." My name spilled from his lips like a sinful secret and I felt my panties getting wet. "And you don't know my body as well as you'd like to think." His eyes met mine again, "But I could show you, if you'd like." He winked at me when my face burned bright red and then turned his attention back to the food.

"You're such a tease."

"I don't tease. I always live up to my promises."

I sighed and decided I should probably tell him. "Your sister knows."

"Really? Which one?"

"Lacey."

He looked at me, "You told Lacey?" Why would you do that? That's my baby sister."

"First off, you've got two baby sisters and they are the same age."

"You know what I mean, she's the innocent one. I want to protect that for as long as I can."

"Secondly, I didn't tell her. She figured it out on her own."

He frowned, "How could she have-"

"The hickeys. I guess they seemed familiar." Recognition dawned in his eyes and he cursed under his breath. "That and she heard us talking last night."

"Great." The sarcastic tone in his voice and the rigid posture of his body told me his fun-loving-teasing personality was no longer present.

"She isn't going to tell anyone. We talked."

"So, what? You two are besties now?" I giggled at the way said the word 'besties', like it was a foreign word to him.

"Is that a problem? We are going to be sisters. I've always wanted a sister. And now I get two!"

He took a deep breath and pulled the cornbread muffins from the oven and set them on the table with pot holders underneath. "Not a problem with me, but I don't really want my sister knowing all the details of my sex life." His eyes met mine, "And I know how girls gossip."

"Why do you think she will find out anything about your personal life when neither-"

"If you think I'm done with you, you're dead wrong."

"Evan-"

"Until the day your mom has my father's last name, you belong to me." His pointer finger lifted my chin so my eyes could meet his darkening gaze and I sighed.

Is there no getting through to this man?

I pulled away and started setting the table just as our parents walked into the kitchen. "Aww, babe, look at our kids working together to make us a nice dinner."