Zeke plucks the pink fabric away from his chest.
Me:She liked the idea in theory but decided against it when she was faced with putting the shirt on?
“Stop that.” Livvie snaps her fingers in between Zeke and me, breaking our eye contact. “Those two were having a whole conversation without us.” She links her arm through the roommate’s. “Let’s go to Soma’s. I’ve got some panty shopping to do.” Livvie looks over her shoulder. “You two coming, or you going to watch the embroidery machine all day?”
A tiny part of me wants to say that I’m going to watch the embroidery machine all day, because that shit’s kind of cool, but also because I’m a little worried about how strong my self-control will be in a store where Livvie’s handling stuff that covers her tits and cups her ass.
“Ah, maybe this isn’t such a good—”
“You told me if she comes home with a stitch of lace, you were murdering me.” Zeke punches me in the shoulder and shoves me forward.
“Right. That plan is still on,” I tell him but follow Livvie down the mall corridor.
“You’re here. Make her stop.”
I stare at Livvie’s swaying ass and my mouth starts watering. We both know that I can’t tell Livvie to stop doing anything. My whole existence centers around making sure she gets everything and anything she wants. I shove a hand through my hair, not caring that it’s going to stick up in a thousand directions. “Fine. Let her buy the lace. It’ll make it easier to rip it off her when the time comes.”
I regret that statement five minutes into shopping at the bra store. First, the place is tiny. Between Zeke and me and the display tables, there’s hardly any room to maneuver. Second, it smells good. Like some vanilla and flower mixture. Livvie likes it, too.
“Are you burning candles here or some kind of scent thingy?” she asks.
“Scent diffuser. We have a whole line over here. The one we are using today is Vanilla Breeze,” the sales lady informs us.
“Oh, great. Erika, do we need this?”
Fuck, no. I’ll associate that smell with an almost nude Livvie and nothing else. I don’t need that kind of hassle. “I’m allergic to vanilla,” I lie.
“Since when?” Livvie asks.
“Since right this second.”
“Fine. No scents.” She rolls her eyes. “I’ll just use the extra money to buy more undies. I like this nightie. What do you think, Erika?” Livvie holds up a pink and black lace get up that has ruffles and some kind of shoelace tie up the middle. I about swallow my tongue. Panic sets in and I rush over the bottles Livvie had just abandoned.
“We’ll take a half-dozen,” I say, shoving them by the armful at the sales lady.
“And I’ll take one of these in every color you’ve got.”
I turn to see Livvie holding up a sheer bra in blue. There’s a tiny satin bow in the center of two cups and darker blue satin shoulder straps. Livvie’s lips curl up. “There’s not a piece of lace in sight.” She swings the bra toward me.
I catch it because I’ve been cursed with great hand-eye coordination. I look toward my brother for help, but his face is tight and his pupils are dilated. The boy is imagining what Livvie’s beautiful tits would look like covered in the blue thing I’m holding. I realize then that we’ve been bested. If we spend another second in this store, we’re bound to attack Livvie right here in public.
She’ll be spread across one of these round tables, with her legs draped over my shoulders and her tits in Zeke’s mouth. I’ll be tearing her panties off and getting her cream all over the new merch.
I sag in defeat. “You win, Livvie. You can have your box back.”
Livvie sets down the handful of lace and satin and bows and ruffles and gives me an angelic smile. “Sounds like a plan.”
She waltzes over and plucks two bottles of the cursed vanilla air freshener out of my grasp. “We only need two. Thanks so much for your help.”
Zeke collapses against a drawer full of bras. “We are so fucked, brother.”
I grip the back of my neck and squeeze. “I know.”
CHAPTER10
OLIVIA
I lieon my bed reading over my schedule and putting everything into my calendar, making sure I have the required items the professor said we need. I hate being unprepared for anything.