All Grown Up (13 page)

"Leo?" I didn’t respond. "Leo, where are you going?"

Once I pulled her through the kitchen to the back patio, I turned to her with a smile.

"Just where it’s quiet
, that’s all. Why?" I watched her eyes shift to the pool house and then back to me quickly. She fidgeted slightly and then seemed to collect her thoughts.

"You kind of surprised me
, I figured after one dance you’d be done. I was just curious as to where you were taking me." She kept looking away from me towards the pool house.

God
it was so wrong. But this was too much fun.

She shivered slightly being outside with such little on.

"We could always head over to the pool house to hang out," I turned to walk that direction but felt her hand on my arm.

"N-no.
Let’s just go back inside, okay?" She smiled quickly and turned to go back in.

Oh
, not yet, Chloe. Not yet.

"It’s so loud in there, how can I talk to you? I’m not going to scream a conversation. Come on." I held my hand out.

She furrowed her brow and looked at my hand.

"The kitchen isn’t that bad, let’s go in there." She opened the door and was stepping in when I got an idea.

I followed behind her and then wrapped her arm in mine pulling her toward the back stairs.

"I’ve got a better idea. It’s still too loud in the kitchen."

"L-Leo, I think we should stay with the party." She tugged her arm away a little but I held it securely.

"You can help me see if Oliver is hiding out up here somewhere." I shrugged and kept climbing.

"Uh, Okay."

Once we got to the top of the stairs
, we walked down the hall and I yelled for Oliver, looking inside some rooms just to keep the act up. Chloe even started yelling with me a couple of times. I almost burst into a fit of laughter. She was really trying to keep this up for Mina.

"I don’t think anyone is up here, maybe he’s down in the group. We should go check." She turned toward the stairs, but I put my arm up on the wall blocking her. She turned around with a shocked look on her face.

"L-Leo, what…" she was stuttering, obviously nervous.

"Chloe, where’s Oliver?" She gave me an unreadable look. "I know you know where he is, so just tell me."

"I don’t know–"

"Chloe, Chloe, you are not a good liar." I smirked. "Why don’t you tell me where Oliver and my sister are?"

"Uh..what? Mina? What does she have to do with–"

I started laughing.

"So, you're going to keep up the lie for them?" I pulled my arm back. "Hmmm…you’ve been pretty eager to keep me from the pool house, so I think I have my answer already." I turned to walk away, but two arms grab my arm and shoulder, spinning me around.

Before I could say anything to her, Chloe’s lips crashed onto mine.

Instinctually, I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her closer to me, melding her soft frame completely against mine. The smell, her smell, was all around me. I prodded her lower lip with my tongue eagerly. When she granted me access, I became greedy to her taste. Our lips and tongues synchronized. Our bodies were pressed tightly together. I could feel my arousal building and if I didn’t shift my hips soon she would feel it too.

I couldn’t pull away. One hand slid up her back between her shoulder blades as I tasted her mouth
, hungrily. The most erotic part, she wasn’t pulling away either. Her hands slid up my forearms to my shoulders. Hands slipping up my neck towards my hair, I moaned as her fingers explored me.

As I began walking our
connected figures toward the closest door, voices came from down the hall. She broke away. I slid my lips over her jaw and toward her ear. The voices got closer.

I didn’t care. I had her in my arms and it was so perfect, so right.

Her hands were back to my forearms but, this time, pushing me away.

"Leo, someone'
s coming."

I hated
that she was doing it but I had to respect her wishes. I stood back from her. I knew lust seeped from every pore and one look at me would tell her how much I wanted her. But Chloe was looking down the hall toward the approaching voices.

One more
shove and we were completely separated. I hated the loss of contact with her. Chloe quickly turned and headed for the back stairs, disappearing before I could calm myself enough to go after her.

Leo! What is wrong with you?

Chapter
Fourteen
What if I don't want to?

Chloe

Oh my
God! Mina owes me big time! I just humiliated myself to save her ass. I’m going to kill her for this. Leo probably thinks that I am a damned idiot.

I didn’t even look back as I headed down the back stairs and straight to the pool house. Leo didn’t seem to be following me, thank
God. I did not need any more humiliation.

I walked in and saw Mina and Oliver sitting facing each other on the couch. Mina turned her head quickly and smiled.

"Hey." Then she saw my face. "What’s wrong?"

"You so owe me
, Mina!" I shouted.

"What are you talking about?" She actually looked genuinely confused. "Oliver could you give us a minute." Oliver excused himself
and Mina turned to me. "What the hell is going on?"

"Leo is what is going on. I’ve been
distracting him for you." I sat, putting my head in my hands.

"What?" Mina looked at me shocked. "But Leo knows about Oliver and my friendship. He confronted me about it after we talked."

I looked up at her with wide eyes.

Oh
God, I was an even bigger idiot. I was distracting him without a reason to. He really thinks I’m a…..WAIT!

"What? He knew?"

Mina nodded.

"What happened…tell me from beginning to end."
She demanded, sitting next to me.

So
, I told Mina the whole unedited story. Her mouth was hanging open when I was done and my hands were back to covering my face. Then she got a smirk on her face.

"Wait, you kissed Leo?" Mina said shocked.

"Is that all you heard?" I looked up at her exasperated. "Did you not get the part that your brother totally played me for the past hour or however long?"

"Yeah, but geez
, Chloe, you actually did that to help me out. Even if he did know, I still owe you big time for going that far." She smiled and then started laughing.

"I’m glad that I amuse you
, Mina. Your brother is a jerk by the way!" I rolled my eyes. A hot jerk, but he was still a jerk. "I can’t even face him, I’m going home."

"NO
, STOP!" Mina grabbed me before I could get up. "Don’t you get it? He is completely into you, Chloe."

"What? There is no way that Leo…." I paused to think.

He didn’t stop me. He didn’t push me away and he didn’t want to let go of me when I tried to pull away. And, if I am being honest with myself, I could still feel the heat on my jaw where his lips traced. I could still taste him. Mmm…the way he tasted was like honey dipped in sex.

"Hello…Chloe?" Mina was waving her hand in my face.

"He didn’t push me away." I said aloud with a blank expression.

"Exactly."
Mina beamed. "This is great!" she started bouncing.

"Mina
, calm down. It was just a kiss and I initiated it, not him." I rolled my eyes and stood up.

"Doesn’t matter," she sang as we left the pool house.

We walked arm in arm toward the house when Mina stopped short. There was Leo standing against the house on the patio.

Shit.

I tensed up and Mina rubbed my back. She whispered, "You can do this. Just talk to him."

"Hey
, Leo." Mina smiled innocently. "Chloe, I’m gonna go see if I can find Roni. Meet me on the dance floor in fifteen, tramp." She winked after she passed Leo so he couldn’t see her.

"Hey," He said.

"Um..." I bit my lip. "Hey."

"Look," I started.

"Chloe," he started at the same time. I knew I would lose my nerve so I just kept talking.

"Leo, let’s just not talk about it, okay?" I went to walk around him
but he grabbed my arm, halting me.

"Chloe
, wait."

I turned around.

"Seriously, Leo." I took a deep breath before continuing. "I know you knew where Mina was and were messing with me." I watched his face fall for a second.

"I’m sorry about what happened. I was trying to distract you for
Mina." I sighed, feeling the redness creep over my face. "I really don’t appreciate you messing with me either. So let’s just call it even and forget about it, ok?" I turned to walk away again, even though every hair on my body was standing on hand and my fingers twitched to run through his hair.

"Chloe, what if I don’t want to forget about it?" He spit out quickly.

I stopped, my breath catching. He kept talking, though I didn’t turn around.

"I'
ve been thinking about you since the night we came back to the beach fire." He paused. "I’m sorry about messing around and lying about Mina. I didn’t realize it would get as far as it did and, well, to be honest, when it did get to the kiss there was no way I could stop." His hand gripped my arm and I turned around.

"Leo, we barely know each other. I mean I’ve known you since I was a kid but we don’t
know
each other. You are my best friend’s big brother, that’s what you are. I’m your little sister’s best friend." I knew the physical attraction was intense. Even now, with him so close, I had to bite my lip and force my hands to stay at my sides so I didn’t do a repeat of our previous encounter.

"I think we should change that," he slid his arm around my waist, flashed an amazing sm
ile and pulled me close to him.

Oh
God…he didn't just taste like it, he even smelled like sex and honey.

"I don’t know–
" His lips cut me off.

"Sorry. I couldn’t help it." He said giving me
the damn amazing lopsided smile again.

Think clean thoughts, think clean thoughts. Don’t think about licking his neck, his stomach, his…! Clean thoughts
, Chloe!

"I think we should get to know each other, beyond big brother and sister’s best friend."

He entwined his fingers with mine and pulled me back into the house with him. The rest of the party Leo made sure that we were together. I went to dance with Roni and Mina for a little while but Leo was never far from me. He was serious about us getting to know each other and pulled me off to a quieter corner of the party to talk about me, him, school, his career plan, books and movies. Mina kept watching us and smiling large every time Leo touched me or moved closer to me.

After the last guest left the party
, Mina, Roni and I went upstairs to get cleaned up and changed. Once we were all showered and in pajamas we stretched out across Mina’s bed.

"So
, Chloe, what’s going on with you and Leo?" Roni raised her eyebrow.

"Nothing, we are just friends." I shrugged and buried my head into my arms. I was tired from the night.

"Yeah right," Roni laughed.

"Since the slut won’t tell you about her attacking my brother, I will." Mina giggled. My head shot up and I grabbed a pillow tossing it as Mina’s head.

"It was all you and your brother’s fault, home-wrecker!" I buried my head again and Roni was cracking up. Mina scowled at me and tossed the pillow back at me.

"Okay, someone please tell me what the hell is going on!" Roni pleaded through her laughter.

Mina went into the whole story, which I had to add commentary since she either exaggerated or left some things out. Roni was quiet and confused for a moment, but then she smirked.

"So, Chloe has got herself a boyfriend." She chuckled. "Leo and Chloe, sitting in a tree…" She sang until the pillow now took its turn against her head.

"Shut up. We are friends, okay?" I huffed at them.

"Oh
, come on, Chloe, spill! You know it’s more than that. I saw the way you two were tonight, you brother whore!" Mina laughed. I glared at her.

"Can’t we just g
o to sleep?" I looked at both of them and saw that it was not going to stop. I sighed and sat up Indian style.

"Okay, fine. We kissed, it was the most intense kiss that I have ever had in my life." I blushed. "Obviously he is beyond attractive and he actually seems to be interested in me. But…"

"But what, Chloe?" Mina asked crinkling her forehead.

"But…he is away at college
, Mina. I am still in my senior year. I don’t think that long distance is a good deal or fair for either of us. I am eighteen years old for God’s sake, not thirty, and he is only twenty one. It’s just best to be friends. And that is what I had told him tonight before we came up here." I shrugged.

"My
God, Chloe, you seriously are like an old woman trapped in a hot young girl’s body, aren’t you?" Roni teased.

"I’m just realistic
, Roni." I twisted my face. Roni always teased me for acting like an old maid. It didn’t hurt, per say, but it was the one thing that would kind of bother me when she teased me.

"Chloe, I’m not trying to hurt your feelings, far from it. But Christ, you have a hot
God-like piece of ass panting and drooling all over you and instead of jumping on that you get all ‘rational’. Could you act like a teenager just once before the ‘teen’ is no longer attached to your age?" She laid back on the bed in a huff.

I bit my lip and then smirked.

"Not all of us got the whores-r-us training like you."

She shot up quickly
, glaring at me.

"
You will pay for that one, Fisher!" She jumped off the bed and ran, throwing open Mina’s bedroom door. "OH LEO! LEO, CHLOE—"

Before she could finish
, I grabbed her, pulling her back to Mina’s bed and kicking the door closed behind us. We all fell into a fit of laughter on Mina’s bed before falling asleep.

The next day brought us a massive mess to clean up. After getting dressed into some sweats and t-shirts
, we headed downstairs to clean up. Oliver and Leo appeared not too long after we had started cleaning. I was leaning forward over the kitchen counters wiping them down when I felt arms wrap around my waist. I straightened up and he pulled me tightly to him.

Leaning into my ear he spoke softly.

"Good morning." I shivered at his breath on my ear and neck.

"G-good morning."
I smiled internally. He let go and walked over to grab something from the fridge.

"Did you sleep well?"

I threw the wet rag into the sink and turned to answer his question. He stood and leaned up against the fridge, looking too good for someone who just got out of bed. His hair was even messier, which only intensified my fingers twitching to grab onto it. He also had that damn smile that ignited a pulsing heat between my legs.

"Yeah
, I did. You?"

He smiled.

"Wonderfully."

"That’s good." I said smiling and then walked out to help Mina with the dining room. Truth is
, if I had stayed in that kitchen, I knew I would attack him. The urge to smell and taste his sweet honey-sex was too overwhelming.

"Kitchen is done, what is my next assignment
, Sergeant Slaughter?" I stood, saluting Mina.

She rolled her eyes at me.

"Help me get all this garbage picked up?" I stood, still saluting her. "At ease soldier." She chuckled.

We continued to clean for the next couple of hours. Oliver, Leo and Max helped move the furniture back into the right places. After it was done, we knew it was time to say good bye to Roni and the guys too. They needed to get back.

Max insisted that Roni go back with them instead of going separately. She agreed a little too eagerly. I could tell Roni may have found herself a permanent man for a change.

Oliver pulled Mina into the kitchen to say a private goodbye while I watched Max argue with Roni all the way to the car about helping her with her bags, which she wouldn’t let him carry. I stood shaking my head when I was pulled into the house and d
ragged into the living room. I tripped over a rug but he kept me upright.

"Uh…hi."
I said as he turned to face me.

He didn’t say a word.
Leaning forward, he slipped his hand behind my neck and pulled my lips to his. Leo moved slowly, but intently, against my mouth. His other hand slid to my lower back, pulling me into his chest roughly. Instinctually my hands went to his forearms and I gasped.

My gasp was the opportunity he needed to slip his tongue into my mouth, massaging
it against mine. I slid my hands into his hair and gripped it forcefully. He moaned into my mouth and moved me back against the living room wall, pressing his body .into mine firmly. His hands slipped to my hips and then grabbed the back of my upper thighs, pulling me up the wall. I could barely touch the floor with my toes. He pressed further into me and I could feel his arousal against me as I wrapped my legs around him. Lightly biting on his lower lip, he moaned my name into my mouth. He tilted his hips into me further and I groaned.