Don't Catch Me!

Chapter 6 - House Rules

Chapter 6 – House Rules

Joel smiled smugly at me as I sat there gaping at him.  He was obviously misreading my facial expression. Clamping my mouth shut with a snap, I silently stood up and dragged him off towards the guest bedroom.

“Umm Cissy,” he looked shocked and more than a little confused, “I really like you and all but... I am quite bruised.”

“Ohh, shut up!”

He looked at me surprised as I shut the door and stood with my back to it.  I closed my eyes and hoped that the walls in our tiny house would muffle this conversation.  I loved my mother and I didn’t want her to hear this.

“So, we are locked in the bedroom because...” he looked at me with a suggestive smile playing on his lips.  His weight on his good ankle he stepped in so that he was close enough for me to feel his body warmth.

Refraining from hurting him further, I placed my hands on abs, well away from his shoulder and strapped up arm and pushed him back so that I could clearly see his eyes.

“I need to know.”I whispered through clenched teeth, “Are you my Father’s love child?”

“What?”  His eyes flung open and searched mine.

“Are you my half brother?”   I said the words slowly so there was no misunderstanding.

His expression oscillated from confusion, to shock, and then to pure humour.  A smile danced across his face.

“I’m not a relative of yours,” his face came down to mine so that his lips brushed my neck, I tried very hard to smoother the small ripple of emotion that coursed through me,  “So you are free to fall deeply and madly in love with me.” He whispered against my skin.

“Don’t be patronising!” I really tried to be forceful but my breathlessness betrayed me.

“I’ll be anything you want me to be...”

“That’s enough unless you want more bruises.”  I pushed him away again both hands spread across his hard abdomen. “Don’t lie to me.  I have to know the truth.  Was your Mother having an affair with my Father?”

He held back the laugh as his eyes smouldered into mine, “No Cissy, James is ... was totally devoted to Katherine.  He would never even look at another woman.  He was a two woman man.”  He smiled tenderly at my confused look, “Katherine and you were his world.  He loved you both.”

“But I don’t understand.  You look so much like him!”

“Really?”  His brow furrowed as if thinking deeply, “You have never told me that before.  I look like him in his youth? Really?  Wow.  Maybe that explains your attraction to me.”

I ignored his playful teasing, “If it wasn’t that then how?  How did you know him so well?”

His jaw flinched, “I can’t tell you.  I’m not ready to tell you.  Please trust me Cissy.  It is better that you don’t know.”

“No, you have to...”

The knock on the door interrupted me.  We both stepped backwards towards the bed as the door opened inward.

“Rule number two, no cavorting behind closed doors when I am home.”  Mum stood there in the door way looking concerned.

“Cavorting?” Joel looked at me, still standing too close to him, a half smile curling on his lips. “What’s with the rules?”