She quiet, probably contemplating my demise. “I’ll go if you promise me one thing.”
I hate making promises.“What?” Right now, I’ll promise her anything if she leaves this room and the bar.
“Come home tonight, Ky.” I can hear her moving about in the room. She presses into my back and her hands snake around my waist. “Just come home so we can talk.”
I nod without any hesitation and say nothing. I stand there, staring at the wall until I hear the door shut.
After I close the bar, I sit in my car for a bit, wondering how I got myself into the situation I am in now. I’m supposed to go to a fight. I’m supposed to be in some makeshift ring, in some hidden warehouse, fighting for money. After Thea left the bar, I texted my friend and said I couldn’t make it. Of course, this didn’t make anyone involved very happy, except for the guy I planned to beat the shit out of tonight and I promised to make it up to them.
There’s that word again,promise. It’s not a word I ever use unless it’s with Lacey. For her, I’ll never go back on my word, but for anyone else, I never want to say it. Thea made me do so tonight and because of her, I had to make another promise, one I can’t break no matter how badly I want to.
You would think Thea held a gun to my head, but all she did was ask me to come home and I couldn’t tell her no. Her voice . . . it’s been my weakness from the get-go. It’s the way she asks me for things or how she says my name. More so, it’s when she calls me Ky that I can’t say no. I wish I could. I wish I was strong enough to push her away, to keep her out of my thoughts. I’m weak when it comes to her, and I hate it. Not because of how she makes me feel, but because of my life, and hers. She’s my friend’s little sister. She’s forbidden.
Not to mention she has a boyfriend.
“Yep, there’s that,” I say to myself.
I finally start my car and pull out onto the traffic-free road, and within ten minutes, I’m climbing the stairs to the house. When I get inside, the hallway light illuminates the figure sitting on the stairs.
“Hey,” I say quietly.
“Hi.”
“Where’s Jude?”
“He’s not home,” Thea says. “Some hook-up or something.”
I nod but expect she can’t see me. When I get to the steps, she stands. “Are you hungry?”
“Did you cook?” I ask her.
“No, but I could make you something.”
“No, that’s okay.” We stand there for a second, neither of us knowing what we should do. She wants to talk, and I said I would. We never said where or when, although the when is implied by her waiting up for me. “I need to change.” I climb the stairs and get to my room, only to find her hot on my heels. When I turn the light on in my bedroom, it’s exactly the way I left it weeks ago . . . a mess. “Fuck,” I mutter.
“We can go to my room,” she says.
“No!” I say a bit too loudly and with too much force. I scramble to pick up the crap on the floor and throw my blankets back. It’s doable, but not great. “I’ll be right back,” I tell her. I grab a pair of sweats from my dresser, knowing they’re at least clean and then toss a shirt in her direction. She’s wearing some skimpy tank top thing which causes her breasts to invite too much attention from me. “Put this on if we’re going to talk.” Because that’s what we’re going to do—talk.
When I come back into my room, Thea is sitting on my bed, wearing the shirt I gave her. I never bothered to look at what it was and now she’s has it on, my dick is ready for some action. She’s wearing a T-shirt replica of my hockey jersey. The one and only time I wore this shirt was for a charity event last year.
Thea giggles and I look at her oddly until I follow her gaze.Fuck my life.She can see I’m sporting a hard-on through my sweats. “I’m glad you think this is funny for me.”
“I’m giggling because you put on gray sweats. Those are magnets for attention.”
“Is that so?”
Thea nods. “Yes, the female population loves men in gray sweatpants. The thinner the material, the better.”
“Duly noted. I’ll buy some black ones tomorrow,” I tell her.
“Please don’t.” Her giggly voice is now soft and sweet. “Can you sit by me?”
I go over to my bed and sit on the edge. Only, I’m fucking tired and want to lie down. It’s my hope that Thea takes the hint and will say we can talk tomorrow, but she doesn’t. She lies down next to me. When she rolls to her side, I do the same. We mirror each other, one hand under our head and the other on the side.
“I didn’t know you worked at The Crease.”
“I figured.”