Just Pretend

Chapter Three

Jason

Clarissa is still asleep by the time I wake up for my daily swim and I check in on her before heading downstairs and grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge and walking to the sliding door in the living room.

Most of the houses in the area are designed the same way, because Alyssa insists on living in a private gated community with a pool and a school, a communal game room for the kids, and a whole bunch of unnecessary shit. But Clarissa is happy here with a group of good-natured friends at the school down the street.

I guess I understand the appeal of a gated community, but it causes a shit-ton of gossip when someone behaved oddly. My eyes automatically search out the fence separating Alyssa and Gwen's homes and my heart skips a beat when I see a shorter shadow move past the slats and to the gate. I scowl at myself and grab the towel I'd put out last night, on the way to the gate and open the latch and gate to see Gwen walking to the gazebo, looking slightly uncomfortable, and carrying a steaming cup in her hand.

She sits down on one of the wicker armchairs, sliding down until her lower body as resting on the edge of the chair and placing her cup on the glass table. I walk into the area as she reaches up and pulls a joint from behind her ear and places it between her lips.

She's got no makeup on and her eyes look tired as she looks around the area, until they fall on me. Dark blue orbs look at me from the opposite end of the communal area and she quirks an eyebrow, taking the joint from her lips and lifting it in silent question.

The urge to join her becomes slightly more than the urge to swim and I nod before I know that I'm doing it. She smiles and places it back between her lips, sliding up on the chair to sit up straight and extracting a neon pink lighter from a pocket somewhere in the loose black sundress she's wearing.

When I walk closer, I notice that she's braless and her breasts sat naturally perky on her chest. I swallow hard as my mouth waters and I watch as she lights the twisted end of the joint and I'm fascinated by the way it recedes over the material inside as she inhales slowly.

She passes the blunt to me when I reach her and I sit down beside her, putting the neatly rolled joint to my lips and inhaling the sweet tasting smoke.

'So you're Alyssa or Will's brother?' she asks suddenly and I almost choke in my eagerness to answer the question, but I force myself to exhale slowly before meeting her amused eyes. From up close I can see the denim-coloured rim of her eyes and the faint smattering of freckles over her nose and cheeks; the dots a few shades darker than her porcelain skin.

'Alyssa. She's my older sister,' I say when my throat stops scratching and she nods thoughtfully, taking the joint gently from me when I offer it back to her.

'Where are you from?' I ask, replaying her words in my mind and finding that I can't place her accent. she huffs a soft laugh, allowing smoke to billow from her nostrils, before refilling her lungs and handing it back to me.

'Everywhere. It's useless to try and place my accent, I'm an accent chameleon' she says with a smile, exhaling in the other direction and reaching for the ashtray behind her.

'Where'd you move from, then?' I ask and she smirks, her eyes shining with amusement when they meet mine.

'Spain,' she says and I frown, my eyes searching her body for signs of the exotic location as I take another drag. She laughs and my head almost snaps off my neck when I raise my eyes to hers, the sound both turning me on and instilling an emotion I'd never felt toward the feminine sex that wasn't related to me.

'I avoid the sun like I'm a vampire,' she says softly and I make a point of looking up at the glass gazebo letting the sun shine onto her exposed shoulders. She shrugs with a soft laugh and I hand the joint back. Her fingers brush mine when she takes it back and electricity makes its way up my hand and arm. She jerks her hand back and the joint drops between us and we reach for it at the same time, our hands brushing against each other.