Tastes Like Candy

Four

 

Four

Jenny

"Jennifer!"

Jenny bit her lip and tried not to laugh. "Wait for it," she told Colin, who was sprawled across her too-small bed, a sleeping Jack resting on his flat stomach.

He grinned, and the blended sweetness and naughtiness of the expression made her want to stretch out on the bed beside him. Not that Jack would have slept through anything like that. Oh Lord...babies. She adored her child. More than life itself. But sometimes Colin sent her the sorts of looks that got her hot and bothered when they were unable to do anything about the sudden flare of sexual tension.

"Jennifer!" Candy repeated, hollering, and she heard him stomping through the suite a handful of seconds before her door was flung open.

She turned to face her brother, and this time, no amount of lip-biting could hold her laughter at bay. He stood in the threshold in nothing but his boxers, hair plastered to his head, wet and angry as a doused cat.

"Get caught in the storm?" she asked, innocently.

He aimed a finger at her, and she choked on a giggle. "Why the fuck is there some teenager in my room?"

Colin laughed and Jenny turned around, swatted his knee, and then faced her brother with a shaky semblance of aplomb.

"I don't know any teenagers," she said with dignity. "I told Michelle to use your bathroom instead of the communal dude bathroom. And she's twenty-six, I'll have you know."

He was too overcome with...something...to be his usual collected, cocky self. "That's my bathroom."

"I know that."

"My personal bathroom."

"Uh-huh."

"Why didn't you tell her to use yours?"

"I had to give Jack a bath."

He started to retort, realized that she had a damn good excuse on her hands, and scowled instead. "She's in my room," he said through his teeth.

"So I heard."

"Get her out."

"It's your room, and your clubhouse. You get her out," Jenny suggested, and silently prayed he wouldn't take her up on it. Mostly, she just wanted to watch him squirm some more; it was such a rare occurrence.

It was hilarious to watch him regain his composure, but regain it he did, hands pressed together in a meditative pose, breathing deeply. "Fine," he said at last, and the word promised all sorts of future payback.

Then he squared up his shoulders, lifted his head, and walked away with as much dignity as a mostly-naked man could possess.

When he was gone, Colin sat up, careful to keep the baby against his chest. "Jen. You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

Jenny shrugged. "Turnabout's fair play. If he can play matchmaker, then so can I."

~*~

Candy

After he'd come home from New York, after he'd cleaned out and restocked the club, and construction on the sanctuary was finally finished, he'd realized how desperately he'd needed this added-on space in his clubhouse. The raucous party crowd scene of the common room had no longer appealed to him, and he'd quickly come to love his narrow bed, his tidy room with its own private bathroom.