Loving Siblings: Aidan & Dionne (17 page)

Finding the university he wanted to attend
wasn’t working out, for one. Then there were his friends pressuring
him to go to the beach or some lame camping trip up in Arrowhead or
Big Bear. And there was Candace. There was always Candace, but she
was being extra clingy those days although he was pretty sure he’d
told her at least twenty times he wasn’t interested. The girl was
thick in the head. She didn’t seem to hear anything she didn’t want
to hear. Spoiled brat.

Pff! As if he’d want Martin Phillips’ sloppy
seconds.

But there was something
much
more frustrating he’d been
forced to struggle with. He had been feeling as if he were in a
constant battle with his own body. Or better said, in constant
battle with the unwelcome, uncontrollable physical reactions he’d
been experiencing.

Ever since the event by the poolside,
he discovered he’d been suffering a perpetual hard-on nearly every
minute of every day. One, that just wouldn’t fucking
quit
.

That alone was enough to make any guy
grumpy.

The whole situation was enough to
drive him mad, actually, and
this
just ONE
single week
after he was
convinced his dreams had finally come true. He had thought his
secret suffering had finally come to an end.

But no.

Was it just eight days ago when he’d
felt life couldn’t be more beautiful, more perfect, and any more
sweeter? His future had seemed so crystal
clear; one
that inc
luded his sweetheart, Dionne. After the way
she reacted to him by the poolside, he had been convinced she
agreed with him that they belonged together. He had every reason to
hope she no longer saw him as her brother, and that she’d finally
understood he didn’t see her as his sister.

So, what happened between that soul
shattering moment and more than a week
since
?

He wished he knew. But he had NO clue. He
was simply . . . stumped.

Something made Dionne go from a fiery, sexy
vixen, who had made his blood boil with a promise for more, to a
frigid ice queen in less than twenty-four hours! In fact, it was
even less than that. But it took a hell of a lot more time for it
to sink in with him although he had sensed her eventual 180 degree
change the moment she had returned from her shower that
afternoon.

Although he fought it tooth and nail, he had
to eventually come to terms that she really did have a change of
heart. Whatever it was that made her do it, didn’t really matter
because the end result was the same: they were back to square
one.

Damn it!

But if she thought things could go back to
way things were between them, she had another thing coming. Even if
he could, he wouldn’t let that happen. You just can’t go around
doing what she did and then think everything was going to stay the
same. It just didn’t work that way. And he was going to make that
very clear to her. She needed to understand going back to how
things were was no longer an option. Not after what had happened
between them.

That incredible, unforgettable day was
forever seared in his brain. If he can’t forget it then he’ll be
damned if he’d let her. It just wasn’t fair of her to think she
could play with his emotions that way, leaving him confused, angry,
frustrated and in limbo once again while acting like nothing
happened and not giving any explanation why she felt she needed
to.

He was back to feeling as insecure and
afraid as he had before, and he hated it. But he wasn’t planning to
mess things up, either. Despite everything, he believed the
situation was still salvageable. He knew, though, that if he pushed
too hard, she’d bolt. But if he didn’t push hard enough, she just
might get comfortable with pretending that Saturday never happened.
And he wouldn’t let
that
happen, either.

“
This is a fucking nightmare,” he
grumbled.

The most painful part of it all was,
Dionne didn’t seem to notice. Or if she noticed, she didn’t seem to
care. She went about her daily routine and was, those days, very
little around the house and
him
, as if what they had shared meant nothing to
her. And that hurt.

Another hurtful thing was, she hadn’t broken
up with that blond gorilla.

After what they shared that afternoon,
he expected she’d at least do that. Even if she didn’t want to be
with him, he would’ve expected her to break up with
Hel
mutt
. Girls like Dionne
just didn’t do what she did and go on their merry way! And they
certainly didn’t go right back to their boyfriends afterward. It
just wasn’t done.

Well, not only did she not break up
with Hel
butthead
, she didn’t
make any overtures
his
way.
It was as if she suffered acute amnesia about what they shared that
afternoon by the poolside. It was as if her memories went down the
drain with her shower water that afternoon.

At first he thought she was acting like a
big sister again because she wasn’t ready to let their family in on
their changed relationship. It wasn’t inconceivable for her to want
to keep it a secret for a while longer. He could understand that,
and he had been willing to give her that time, reasoning that she
wasn’t around when Dad made clear he damn well knew what was going
on.

So after a couple of days passed and she was
still acting as if nothing happened between them, he decided to
help her out a little. He’d decided he was going to tell her about
that little conversation he and Dad had after she’d gone upstairs
to shower.

He recalled approaching her in the kitchen
where she was busy helping herself to a piece of fruit. She just
got home and was on the verge of going out again when he saw his
chance to catch her, so he followed her into the kitchen. He
surprised her that he was home—something she clearly didn’t
expect—and he immediately told her what Dad had said to him. He
also told her he was certain Dad and Mom both knew they felt more
for one another. But her reaction then and there should’ve told him
there was something horribly wrong.

She just . . . didn’t. React, that is. It
was as if she hadn’t even heard him.

“
Dionne?” he recalled saying, and he
recalled her pause in step, unable to look at him.

“
Yes, Aidan?”

“
Did you hear what I just
said?”

“
Yes.” Then she looked over her
shoulder at him with almost blank eyes.

He recalled growing increasingly impatient
and frustrated. “So, don’t you think we should both go and tell
them how we really feel? Get it out in the open?”

“
Really feel, Aidan?” she asked almost
cool now. “What do you mean by that?”

“
Damn it!” he cursed beneath his
breath, but that didn’t even get a reaction from her! Instead, she
merely looked at him as if she hadn’t heard him. “You know what I
mean by that, Dionne. I’m talking about how we really feel
about
each
another
.”

“
That’s the question, isn’t
it?”

“
What?” he had cried in disbelief, but
beneath his breath. “What do you mean “that’s the question”? I
thought that question was answered last Saturday
afternoon.”

She had looked down at the apple in her
hand. “Yes. I guess you’re right. It was.”

And with that, she simply exited the kitchen
leaving him more mystified than when he’d entered. It was as if
she’d been invaded by a body snatcher or something as strange as
she’d acted toward him. She just wasn’t herself.

He just couldn’t understand what could’ve
gone wrong. But damn it! Now he realized her aloof behavior meant
exactly what he was afraid it would: she’d rejected him. He
should’ve known it then, but he was too confused to get it.

In the following days, when she began
avoiding him whenever she could, he could no longer deny she was
trying to send him a message that she’d reconsidered. Now, over a
week later, he was slumped in one of the big leather armchairs,
outwardly lazy, inwardly furious and frustrated, and not knowing
what to do, but still unwilling to give up.

He had a lazy arm over his head with his
lean hand hanging listlessly down the other side of it, over his
ear, while he listlessly zapped through the many channels on the
television. He wore a simple tee and jeans with one muscular leg
lazily hanging over an armrest. He was sitting exactly where he’d
been sitting, even exactly in the same position, when Dionne came
home and tried to strike up a friendly conversation with him.

But by then he was so frustrated, he was in
NO mood for it.

He knew it troubled her, maybe even hurt
her, when he pertinently ignored her. She had finally given up and
went upstairs, not knowing what he’d set up for her to find. But he
needed to know just how she really felt about him and there was
only ONE, sure fire way to find out.

It wouldn’t take long for her reaction
as she stalked
right back down
the stairs on angry, swift stamping feet.

Angry? Hell. Dionne was
furious
!

She was still wearing her white tennis, so
she had to be really pissed off. She usually removed her shoes the
moment she entered the house, but she was apparently too pissed off
to either even notice or bother.

“
Aidan!” she had called to him with
barely contained temper. “We
really
need to talk.”

Yep. She was pissed off. “GOOD!” he thought
vengefully. Now she’ll know how he’d been feeling . . . and he was
very happy to know he could thaw that polite iciness of hers
because it was really beginning to get on his nerves.

He’d rather have her angry than
nonchalant
any
day
.

But before that explosion happened, he had a
great deal of time to think about the past week. It didn’t help his
mood any, but he fought to understand why his sister had been
acting so crazy when they should’ve been busy celebrating their
newfound love.

Before she entered the house, he’d
seen her walking up the path to the front door with a fucking
bounce in her step. He was so pissed off by then that he decided he
was going to ignore her usual chipper greeting because she looked
too damn smug since she appeared to be under the
wrong
impression he’d given up
pursuing her.

Maybe she was right. Maybe he was,
subconsciously, finally coming to terms that it was best to just
let it go. But the moment that thought rose, he had felt his heart
sink, and he knew he could never go back to the way things
were.

So instead, he did what he can only do in a
situation like that.

He moped.

When she had entered the living room that
Sunday afternoon, he’d completely ignored her chipper hello. He
didn’t even bother taking his stare off the television. He had
wanted her to feel how she’d upset him, and he wanted her to know
she couldn’t make a week’s worth of agony right just by being her
perky, cheerful self.

Did she think he could just forget what
they’d shared? Just like that?

When he didn’t respond, she’d quieted.
He could feel hurt bunny eyes on him, and it delivered a pang of
regret for acting like such a jerk toward her. But
damn it
. He was hurting, too. And it
wasn’t as if she were in any hurry to talk about
that
. It was as if she just didn’t
care about his feelings. So, he reasoned, why in the hell should he
care about hers?

She’d given up and quietly left him alone.
He’d listened to her soft footfalls as she climbed the stairs to
her room before he allowed himself to look into her direction.
Although he knew she knew he was ignoring her to prove a point,
while also being as belligerent of an ass as he possibly could just
to vent a little, she didn’t try to reprimand him.

‘
Damn it!’ he’d cursed inwardly. She
was simply going to act like nothing ever happened! “Yeah, well,”
he scoffed with an evil twinkle in his eyes, “we’ll see about
that.”

He KNEW he should’ve returned the favor that
day when he had the chance! She was laying right smack on top of
him and she really couldn’t get away. Not if he really didn’t want
her to. He should’ve put more effort into seducing her, and to let
her body feel the pleasures he could give her. She wouldn’t be able
to just dismiss him after that. He was sure of it.

But dumbass that he was, he was so goddamn
cocksure of himself that he lost focus of his goal. He believed
he’d finally had her where he wanted her because she’d behaved like
his former girlfriends in the past. That turned out to be a big
mistake. He missed another golden opportunity to solidify their
newfound relationship, and he had no one else to blame but
himself.

He should’ve known something was up the
moment she came down again that afternoon. She was showered,
dressed, and the prettiest girl he’d ever seen, but she was also a
helluva lot more aloof than when she went up. He would’ve noticed
were he not distracted by her Dove soap scented skin that filled
the house, making him dizzy, and scattering his thoughts. The sight
of her conspired with her scent to wreak havoc with his insides,
and he just couldn’t think straight.

Had that not been the case, he would’ve paid
closer attention to her change of demeanor.