My Future Stepbrother

Chapter 155

My heart stings at the word. Lee. No-one else had dared to call me that since him, you'd think it would sound foreign after so long but it just makes my heart flutter in familiarity.


I don't turn, I don't want to look at him but I can't stop staring at his face in this photograph. Why had Tara kept it? What did she think when she saw it? Why hold onto something that caused her and my Dad so much pain?


The alcohol makes itself heard again as I feel myself growing tired, today has been a lot. I try to subtly slide the image back into its pocket but my eyes can't focus enough to find it.


I hold the picture tight instead, hugging it to my chest in order to hide it from him.


It’s too late. Jayce sits in the space next to me, his back lent against the foot of the couch before unwrapping my hands from the paper and taking it from me.


I see him glancing at it from the corner of my eye. "I didn't realise she printed it, I thought I had the only copy."


My body stills, my breath frozen. He has a copy? That was present tense not past. "Why did you do that?"


His head falls back to meet mine on the sofa and we turn to face each other. Even with my hazy vision I can see how beautiful he still is, his skin radiant and tanned from spending college in the sun, his thick eyelashes still perfectly framing his sparkling blue eyes. I'd tried to forget them, tried to tell myself I wasn’t remembering them properly because nobody's eyes are that blue, but his really are.


His plump lips part as he lets out a deep exhale, his peppermint breath fanning my face. "I just couldn't lose it. I'd never seen a photograph of such a perfect moment, or such a perfect person. You were just so..." He stops himself and the weight in my eyelids forces them to close. "It was just a really special moment with you, I had to keep more than just the memory."


Memories. So much of what we had is just that now. I don't want him to think I'm weak or pathetic, I want him to know that day at the hospital I meant what I said, I want him to be happy. "Your girlfriend is beautiful. I'm sure you have a hundred better photographs than that one now... I'm happy for you Jayce, she seems lovely."


A chill runs over my body as sleep beckons me and I settle my head further into the seat of the couch, my legs going dead as I continue to sit on the floor. I’m not sure I truly meant the words but they needed to be said.


Something brushes against my cheek but I'm so exhausted I can't even bat it away now. My head swirls and I know I need to find a way to my bed.


A pair of strong hands pull me up from under my shoulders, my arms and legs wrapping around the body instinctively as I'm pulled from the floor.


He moves my arms up to around his neck and holds me against him by my lower back, one arm under my thighs as my eyes lay still closed and I settle down against his chest like koala bear wrapped around a tree.


His scent, his grip, his heartbeat. All of it combining to make me feel safer than I have in so long. My fingers run over the back of his neck as I caress his delicate skin, the feeling of his warmth broken only slightly as I sense the shudder run through him at my touch. I stop, I shouldn’t do that.


I don't want to let go but as my body hits the bed the weight of the day pulls me from him, my hand against his heart the only part of him left to touch as I grip his t-shirt between my fingers.


He gently wraps his hand around them, pulling him from my grasp but taking my hand in his instead. I want to open my eyes but I just can't, I have so many questions but not a single one will force itself from my lips.


"She's not my girlfriend Lee. I told you about Lisa, she was my roommate at the clinic, she was just staying with me for a night before driving up to pick up her girlfriend from college this evening... I haven't been with-"


But he stops, a tremble in his voice as I sense him sit on the floor next to me, his head resting against the mattress directly across from my own. "Do you have someone now?... Someone who takes your breath away..."


I can feel the weight in my head ready to push me off the edge into oblivion. "No... I've only ever been with one person who takes my breath away."


I don't hear what he says next, each perfect tone of his voice becoming a the background melody to my night time lullaby until all that's left is the fluttering of the butterflies that fill my dreams.

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