The Wright Brother (22 page)

Thinking it was probably safer to do her homework on the couch instead of the bed, she grabbed her books and laptop. Julian joined her just a minute later, bringing her a glass of water and a red apple.

Giving him a grateful nod, she took a bite and then handed it back to him. He took a bite right over the top of hers. They shared everything. Their lives, their bodies, even her apples.

Tossing his legs up on the coffee table, he asked, “So talk to me—what’s wrong with your major?”

“Other than the fact that I still don’t have one,” she snorted, “nothing.”

His lopsided grin caused her heart to stutter. “You’re a junior. I’m sure by now you’ve found something that interests you.”

Nibbling on her lip, she gave him a suggestive wink.

Planting a hand against his chest, he groaned and shifted in his seat as if adjusting himself. “As much as I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing you say that, Smile Girl, I’m pretty sure I know what it is you should major in.”

She frowned. “You do? I’m not even sure.”

With a
tsk
, he pointed to her book. “Do you know how much your eyes sparkle when you’re reading those books? How animated you get when you talk about ancient texts?”

Elisa tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Do they?”

He shrugged. “Heard you talk about library science once.”

“Yeah, but there’s no money in that.” She sighed, thinking about her class. Jules was right, she’d never had so much fun in one of her classes as she was now having in Stringer’s, studying up on the Renaissance, and medieval literature. Learning how to properly have intelligent discourse over the merits of Picaresque versus Bildungsroman.

Bildungsroman, like what in the hell was that, right? She’d never even heard of it in high school, and yet now she didn’t even need to think about the fact that it was a style of writing that focused on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood. She was barely a month into her English course and Julian was right, she was completely fascinated.

Stringer wasn’t really going in depth with the various styles, the course was mainly just an overview of literature through the centuries, but she’d be lying if she said she didn’t wish to delve deeper into the subject matter.

“So what?” he signed a moment later. “As long as you’re happy, then who cares about money?”

She snickered. “Happy doesn’t pay the bills.”

Wrinkling his nose, he patted her knee. “If you can make enough to live, then that’s all you need. Money can’t buy you happiness, Smile Girl.”

Scooting into him until her thigh pressed up against his, she brushed her fingers through the feathered tips of his hair, drowning in his sea-green eyes.

“When did you get to be so smart?”

Her parents were probably not going to be very happy about her pursuing such a degree. When she said there was no money in it, she wasn’t lying. Elisa would basically be little more than a starving artist, but just the idea of someday traveling to Rome, or London, and getting to tour the great libraries, smelling the musty odor of leather-bound books that rarely saw the light of day anymore filled her body with a jolt of adrenaline.

Snorting, he crossed his arms behind his back and, closing his eyes, rested his head against the cushion. Before getting back to work she trailed her finger down his bristled cheek, tomorrow she’d go to her counselor and officially announce her major.

~*~

Gradually they settled into an easy rhythm, and Elisa was happy. Unbelievably, and utterly happy, even if their schedules had become so crazy, stupid busy that they had to schedule date nights well in advance.

“You need to come,” Chas said, her voice clearly exasperated over the line. “Luke set this thing up, and he’ll totally freak if no one shows.”

Elisa sighed. She hated partying. It just wasn’t her thing. Every once in a while, maybe, but she was swamped with homework and training for the final meet of the season.

What made this one so much more important to her than any of the others was that Coach had mentioned the possibility of Clive Amsler being there. Clive Amsler was literally one of the best swim coaches in the world of competition. For the past twenty-six years he’d had the distinction of training five Olympians, two of who were multiple gold medal winners.

Just the thought of it made Elisa want to puke. Coach hadn’t out and out said that Clive was there because of her, but the intent had been clear enough.

“I’m not sure, Chas.”

Julian frowned and asked who it was. For the past two months Jules had been more than a little stressed out. He was just barely scraping by with a low B average in his math course, and he was only doing that good because his nights were mostly spent in the library with his nose in his books.

His eyes were bloodshot and ringed with dark circles. He hadn’t been sleeping much. She tossed her leg over his lap and brushed her fingers through his hair. “Chastity,” she mouthed.

With a weary sounding sigh, he nodded before taking a bite out of the apple they were sharing.

She felt bad for him. Elisa still couldn’t understand why when someone was majoring in the arts, math classes were still such an important requirement, but they were.

This was the first time in seven days that they’d actually had a chance to sit down and eat dinner together.

Her because of her extreme swim schedule, not to mention the twenty hours a week she worked as the campus library secretary, and he because of the major cram sessions he’d been doing just to help him stay afloat in Calculus.

“Come on, Lisa,” Chas wheedled. “Your meet’s not until next Saturday, you’ll have plenty of time to rest and recover before then.”

Elisa was the type of athlete who barely left her house during swim season, let alone to party and drink. She really didn’t want to go, but maybe that’s exactly what she and Julian needed—some time to relax without the stress of books, or meets, or not getting to see each other all piling up.

“Hold on.” Setting the phone on her lap, she looked at Jules.

Tonight he only wore a pair of gray sweatpants, and his naked chest full of tattoos and pierced nipples was making it a little hard for her to concentrate. Dressed up or dressed down Julian was the yummiest specimen of male beauty she’d ever seen. Feeling inordinately pleased that he belonged to her, she flicked his left nipple—just because she could.

The latent heat that always simmered between them flared to life in his eyes. Julian shifted on his seat, giving her better access to his body. She smirked.

“Chas, wants us to go to this party thing that Luke’s set up for Friday. You free?”

Taking the final bite of apple, he tossed it in the wastebasket and nodded. “I was going to meet the tutor, but I could bump it back to Sunday if that helps.” His warm fingers wrapped around her waist, bringing her more firmly on his lap. She nibbled on her bottom lip when he began to kiss the hollow of her throat.

Swallowing a groan, she picked the phone back up. “Chas.” Her voice came out a barely audible sound.

“Elisa?” She could practically hear her friend’s sudden confusion.

“We’ll…ah—” She grunted when his tongue joined in on the assault of her body, and dragging her nails down his scalp, she cleared her throat. She needed to get off this phone now. “We’ll go,” she rushed out.

Her body became warm and languid when his callused palm slid down the waistband of her sleep pants, cupping her ass.

“What in the world are you… Oh,” Chas snickered. “Oh, that’s naughty, Lisa.”

Stomach quivering when his mouth locked over her still-clothed right nipple, Elisa clicked the stupid phone off and tossed it onto the seat opposite them.

Chastity would understand, and if she didn’t, Elisa really didn’t care at the moment…

~*~

She walked out of their bedroom and then did a twirl holding her arms out to her sides.

“Well, how do I look?” Elisa asked once she faced Julian.

It was Halloween night, and Luke had set up a couples-themed dance for his frat. There wasn’t really a set theme so much as a request that if you were a couple you tried to match.

Julian had snorted and said no way in hell would he wear a costume. He had however let her put him in a little bit of color. She’d bought him a dark red plain t-shirt and stylish jeans that were scuffed at the knees. Elisa had also brought him over to the dark side by getting him out of his skater shoes and into black converse sneaks.

She on other hand had gone all out with her costume.

“Well?” She smiled when she walked out of the bathroom, beginning to feel a little awkward the longer he stared. Maybe the wig and makeup had been too much. She patted her head nervously.

But his impassive face soon turned into a large grin. Wiping his palm down his jeans, he signed, “So hot.”

Wearing a lopsided grin now, she patted her stomach. The moment she’d seen the Queen of Hearts outfit in the store window she’d been possessed by the need to slut it up a little for him.

Normally Elisa dressed pretty conservatively. Just jeans and a nice shirt, occasionally a dress or skirt, but nothing super racy. This thing stopped short at mid-thigh and puffed out around her bottom in such a way that every time she took a step it flounced up and down, exposing so much of her thigh that at times she felt a brush of cold air against the bottom curve of her ass.

Chastity had tried to convince her to go for the white thigh highs with red hearts lining the sides and garter straps to hold it up. She’d put her foot down with that one and instead she’d gone for the black fishnet, which, yeah, wasn’t that much better at covering her up, but at least she could pretend. However, she had taken Chas’s advice to get the black suede pumps with the four-inch heels.

Advice she wished she’d now said no to, she was not used to wearing heels at all, and already her ankles were throbbing their displeasure.

Getting up from his seat, he came to her and threaded his finger through her black wig.

Blushing, she snatched the piece of synthetic hair out of his hand. “Feel silly,” she signed.

Julian grabbed her fluttering hand and brought it to his lips, giving her a sound kiss on the back of it, before letting her go to grab their jackets out of the hall closet. A knock sounded on the door just then.

Emotions all over the place, Elisa jogged to open the door. Chastity stood on the stoop wearing a red-corseted devil outfit, complete with horns and tail. Her long dreds were piled high on her head in a sort of modified ponytail. The smoky eye make up she’d done made her caramel-colored eyes pop almost like neon.

Julian whistled as he helped Elisa into her jacket, buttoning her up from waist to neck without missing a beat.

Chastity laughed. “Thanks, Jules. And do you always let him dress you like a baby?” she teased, saying it not only in words, but in sign.

Once Chastity and Luke had discovered how serious she and Julian were, they’d decided to learn how to speak to him. Elisa had the best friends in the world.

“Come on, admit it,” Julian told her back, “you’d love it if Luke was half as romantic as I was.”

“You Wrights were blessed with a healthy dose of ego, I swear.” Chastity slapped his shoulder and Elisa couldn’t help but chuckle, it was so true.

“Now come on.” Chas rubbed her arms. “I’m freezing my ass off in this getup.” Turning on her heel, she jogged back toward her still-idling car.

Locking up behind them, Elisa handed Jules the key and gripped his elbow to help keep her steady. Already she was majorly regretting her decision to wear these heels, but she was stuck for it now.

She settled into Chas’s passenger seat with a loud sigh of relief. It wasn’t horribly cold out tonight, it really could have been worse, but Luke had apparently set the party up to happen in the McCreary Woods. Which was cool, but would mean her nipples would be frozen nubs by the end of the night.

Elisa didn’t speak until they were on their way. “How big is this thing gonna be?” she asked, making sure to sign it so that Julian could be included in the conversation.

Chastity shifted gears as she cruised to a stop at a red light. “Um, well, about that.”

She frowned. “What?”

Tossing her a tight grin, Chastity gave a self-effacing chuckle. “So apparently once everyone found out where the party was going to be held, well, it got kind of big.”

Julian tapped Elisa’s shoulder to ask her what had made her suddenly grimace. Making sure to keep a running narrative of not only her conversation but Chas’s as well, she asked, “Like how many are we talking here?”

“Umm.” She took off again, threading her way through the back roads of the campus that led toward McCreary’s haunted woods. “A couple hundred, I’m thinking. Which is good,” she was quick to interject, “‘Cause you know they were trying to raise money for the animal shelter. And by the way I’m pretty sure the entire swim team is gonna be there.” She didn’t look at Elisa when she said that.

Tossing herself back on the chair, Elisa shook her head. “Chas,” she sighed, “you know I only agreed to go because I didn’t want Luke to have a bad turnout. You know how I feel about my teammates, though.”

Things had not cooled since the night of the “incident” at the pool. In fact, Ava’s hostility toward Elisa had only seemed to increase. She was always careful to never do anything to land herself on Carter’s radar, but the last thing Elisa wanted to do was to spend an evening around her and Thomas. For whatever reason, Ava had it in for Elisa and was determined to make her life a living hell.

Chas tapped her fingers on the steering wheel. “Not my fault. Ava came up and invited herself and Luke didn’t know about you guys. I’m sorry, babes. You really mad at me?” She gave Elisa a brief, worried frown.

Julian patted her shoulder. He wasn’t much of a fan of Ava either.

“No. But don’t think it escaped my notice how sneaky you were by not telling me.”

She shrugged. “Well, I’m not gonna apologize for that. You know how much I hate crowds, but I had to go cause of Luke and you had to go cause of me. But it’s not all bad—Chris and Rome are coming too.”