My Future Stepbrother

Chapter 162

It’s crazy how quickly we slipped back into things being just the way they used too be. One minute we're sitting in silence, laying stiff as boards after he decided to wear practically nothing. The next we're laughing and joking like we haven't spent a day apart. We'd started off just chatting about the show but soon we'd moved onto a huge catch up about everything we've been doing for the last three years.


His love for basketball hadn't wavered at all and despite the fact he was trying to act modest I could tell how excited he was to start in the NBA. I told him he had to sign some balls for me to flog on eBay when he got all rich and famous in case I ever needed to make rent.


He told me all about the trip he had planned and my body was riddled with jealousy. He was going to get to live out my dream but I guess if it was going to be anyone but me, I'm glad it's him. Although I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about smothering him with a pillow right now and stealing the Wilson for myself.


We'd now got to the point where I was berating him for his total lack of pop culture knowledge and shovelling him full of junk food.


"Do you like it?"


He practically has to force the mouthful of Oreo and canned cheese I just gave him down his throat.  "Who taught you this travesty?"


I scoff. "Travesty? Where is your sense of adventure Jayce Thompson? This guy from my women's studies class used to crash at ours when things got to crazy at dorms, he showed me this and how to make the best damn ramen noodles you've ever tasted. Student life has actually been good for my complete lack of culinary skills, low budget - high sugar all the way. Although Josh still just calls me the queen of pop tarts."


Jayce becomes slightly stiffer. "You had a guy stay with you from your class?"


"Yeah of course, have you stayed at dorms? Some Saturday nights you'd have a better chance of surviving The Hunger Games!"


".. So this guy.. Was he like your..?"


I try not to laugh at the obvious green aura circling in his blue eyes. "God no. Let's just say he took one look at Josh and suddenly became very keen to spend more time at our place."


Jayce smiled. "So Josh finally found a guy?"


I shake my head. "He's still his usual oblivious self when it came to guys liking him. He's just not ready, I hoped he'd get there by now but I think it's going to take someone really special to pull him away from spending every night with his memories. Not that I can say much..."


Fuck. Word vomit.


Jayce’s eyes widened as he laid back and looked up at the ceiling. "So since you've been there, you haven't had a...?"


Can he really not say the word? I shake my head and try not to look at him in the eye but I could sense his whole body seemed to relax tremendously as he realised the only guys I'd been spending my nights with since going to college were Ben and Jerry.


I needed to know what was happening with him. Had he been seeing anyone or just sleeping around? I'm not sure which one was going to hurt more but I needed to know either way. I tried to steady my voice, I didn't want to sound as nervous as I felt. "What about you? Captain of the team... you must have had girls throwing themselves at you left, right and centre..."


He turns his head on the pillow to face me but I keep focused on the Oreo I'm dismantling for no good reason. "There hasn't been anyone... I just... I didn't think it would be fair for me to be with someone when I couldn't give them my all..."


My fingers drop the crumbled pieces of Oreo back into the pack as my hands start to shake. There hasn't been anyone...


I try to focus back on the TV but I can feel tears of relief swelling in my eyes so I lay back and stare up to the ceiling to force them back into my body.


This is stupid, I shouldn't even be here like this with him. We need to be working on getting past this stuff not letting us get back to it. Even if he still feels the way I do, which I don't know he does, it doesn't change anything. We still burn everything we touch with the flames of our passion.


Dad and Tara are so good now, I won't send them back to the heartache both of them felt three years ago or put Elizabeth and all the people who loved Chad through the pain of watching us walking around happy together.


We sit and watch the show for a bit, waiting for the tension to leave the room.


"Do you realise you stop paying attention to anything but the TV every time that guy comes on?" He smirks at me as I continue to stare endlessly at a young David Boreanaz.


"Well have you seen him? Cute, dangerous and brooding with eyes for only one woman who he thinks is perfection. What girl wouldn't want that? Plus he's all bone structure and tattoos, always nice to have a pretty package. You know he's kind of Josh's dream guy? Angel is universally appreciated amongst the masses."


We watch as Buffy kisses Angel, leaving her cross necklace burnt into his chest. Jayce turns his whole body to face me, reaching around to my hip and turning me onto my side to face him too.


We lay inches apart as Jayce looks at the mark on my chest. "You never try to cover it.." His fingers running over the raised surface and sending a shiver down throughout me.


"I used to, not anymore. It's all a part of me now." I haven't been this close to his shoulder since he was shot and as he moves under the sunlight I can just make out the entry mark of the bullet through the layers of black ink. "Is that why you had this, to cover the scars?" My fingers running across each one now I can see them up close, there are so many from the operations too. It's a miracle he can still play.


"I just wanted to take back ownership of them, it's my body. I didn't want marks made by Victor or some surgeon to be what people saw when they looked at me, so I put my art directly on my own canvas. My work has always spoken louder than my words anyway." His voice coming out slightly more husky as he leans into my touch.


My finger follows the swirling pattern as it runs down over his pec, then back up over his shoulder. His work is so intricate, I can't imagine how many hours this would've taken to complete. "It's beautiful...”

I need him to do something... “Will you draw one for me?"


His eyes spark as he looks down on me. "You want to get a tattoo?... Where?"


I bite my lip. I've always wanted a tattoo but something that's worth having on my body for life, having a Jayce Thompson original is definitely something I would be able to look at for eternity. I take hold of the hem of my dress, raising it slightly on one side until I expose my hip and tracing my finger along the inside of the bone. "Here."


Jayce follows the trail of my touch, stopping when he sees the lace waistband of my thong. "Stay still..." He reaches over me into my drawer and takes out one of my eyeliners, popping off the cap and settling himself between my legs. I take a deep inhale of breath as I watch him in this position but nothing in me is saying I should stop him.


My skin becomes covered in cold bumps as he gently raises his fingers up my thigh until they brush over my hip, his face leaning in so close I can feel his breath against my flesh. He starts to draw directly onto my sensitive skin with the liner, each stroke triggering a physical reaction so strong I have to force my body back into the mattress.


I know I shouldn't be doing this, he's touching me in a way no friend ever should...


He takes his time, concentrating on each curving line and I'm made to bite my lip again not to let out an embarrassing moan as his hand grazes at the top of my thigh. Shit, can he see he's making me so fucking wet right now? His touch is so intimate, I haven't been touched like this in so long I feel like a virgin being caressed for the first time.


His touch, his pace, the familiarity. It's all so overwhelming. As the minutes continue to pass I feel like I'm already about to burst when he pulls his hand away and starts blowing on the ink to dry it quicker, undoing what little control I have left as my fingers curl into the sheets.


"You can see it now.." I take a deep breath, forcing myself to steady before I sit up and look down at my newly adorned skin.


Wow...


Laying across my hip is collection of three uniquely different but equally beautiful butterflies, dancing on the wind above a field of heather.


Heather - Mum. It's a tattoo of memories.


I look at each butterfly, the first is so familiar in its design. It has an intimate row of lines and dots... Harley. The beautiful wings he wore on his back the night of the party more simply represented here, the motion of the wings almost alive with his joyful presence.


The second is much smaller than the others with very little pattern at all, almost as if they hadn't been given the chance to grow into their colours yet... Our beautiful baby. Their wings so delicate they almost resemble that of an angel. A tiny tear leaving my eye as I look down at her.


The last one is clear. The lines bold and strong, the wings striking with their masculinity and a pattern on their chest like the points of a crown. My prince. Chad.


It's perfect.


Jayce's thumb rubs away the tear that has made it's way to my jaw.


"Thank you." I'm not sure he can understand what having something like this would mean to me.


He reaches over, putting back the liner and picking up my phone, taking a picture of the design for me before it's rubbed away.


I continue to stare at it as Jayce moves back to my side, his hand moves to my lower back and I want to let the tears flow at the comfort just having him here brings me.


We stay silent for a while, the weight of the beauty he just created holding me down as we just watch the TV, his hand never leaving me.

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