House of Bones

Chapter 9: Fight

"You can't keep your mind on fighting when you're thinking about a woman. You can't keep your concentration. You feel like sleeping all the time."

~Muhammad Ali

"Amina," Brandon called as they both stepped into their room. Her skin prickled at his voice. The night's light and the fireworks going off in the distance illuminated their shared space. The house was quiet with just the soft whisper of their breaths.  They took their leave of the crew before midnight - Candace and Amy met some fae that were teaching them the art of fireworking and Nasir found a chess partner. Karley reluctantly went along with Nasir  but read her book on an old tree stump while Nasir bested his challenger for the third time.  Mama was lost to the crowd again, but Amina had her suspicions as to where she was... that old lady was up to something.

"Brandon?" She answered as she crawled into bed fully dressed too tired to do anything else.

"Thank you for giving me tonight." He walked closer, removing his shirt before folding it neatly and placing it on the dresser top. He paced around the room, tidying up small messes they made while getting dressed, closing the blinds and wiping off the bathroom counter top.

Amina watched as he moved about, finally giggling at what was happening, "Are you nervous Brandon?"

"No, I just -" he stopped moving and sat at the foot of the bed. He started again, "Do you want some popcorn?"

She smirked and nodded. Popcorn was her favorite--- aside from cold fried chicken, she loved late night popcorn. They both hopped out of bed to head to the kitchen.

"Ummm, can you change into more clothing though? I can't concentrate with your shoulder strap slipping," His eyes grew darker sending a thrill down her body.

"Yeah, I'll get cleaned up. Maybe you can find something on Netflix and we can watch it here?" 

He nodded sweetly and went off to start.

She went to the bathroom,  took a quick shower and pulled her hair up in a big puff.

Dag, I left my pjs in the suitcase.

She quickly wrapped herself in a huge towel that swallowed her generous curves.

Note to self.... spend money on nice towels!

Brandon walked in the room with the popcorn and two bottles of water, just as she was rummaging around in the drawers looking for something to wear. "Amina, why are taking so l--," he paused and took a deep breath. She could feel the heat of his gaze on her body.  Prey or Witch?

She turned around to see the fire in his eyes and claws on his hands. 

Prey

"I ummm, was looking for my pajamas, but I think I left them at home."

"Mina, I think you enjoy torturing me. " The words sounded like a joke, but his eyes did not have a smile.

He walked to the drawer and pulled out a shirt, "you can put this on..."

She took the shirt from him allowing the towel wrapped around her to drop. She put on his shirt fully aware that he was watching every move she was making. She walked to the closet and found her favorite long socks and crawled back in bed.

He handed her the popcorn and water after she was settled then climbed into the otherside of the bed.  He was too far away.

Amina came closer.

Brandon fiddled with the remote and searched for something on Netflix. It was clear he wasn't really reading the movies and just clicking. 

Amina placed a hand over his to get control of the remote. "How about we just put on an Audiobook? I have my speaker and we can listen to Empire of Storms?"