Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94686 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94686 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
We finished our meals and drinks in silence, each of us probably pondering some dark memory or realization that we’d desperately tried to forget. By the end of the hour, the stewardess had served more wine. Each of us alone may have consumed a bottle. Once I started singing “Yesterday” by the Beatles, Chase decided to pick me up and carry my drunken body to bed.
I lay on his chest as he wrapped his big arms around me. But for some reason, as he held me in the shadows of the jet’s master bedroom, I could swear his fingers shivered against my skin and his heart boomed erratically in my ears.
Chapter 8
TROY
The lights were dim in the cabin. Viv lay in the seat next to me, her head leaning against the window. Any other time, her being so close to me would be unsafe, but the stewardess sat in the row in front of me and guards sat farther up front. I was never the type of person to fall into public displays of affection. I always hated to see it. I’d grown up in a house where we kept our business behind closed doors. We never told anyone what went on inside unless they were the most trusted friends of the family. That meant shutting our mouths around counselors and teachers.
Mom would always say, “Don’t have those white people at my damned house.”
As a kid, I trusted her on that statement. It was the only thing I knew she meant.
So I sat next to Viv with the urge to touch her bubbling inside of me, but my mind on board with holding it all in.
“What are you thinking about?” Viv’s voice was art, her words, paint coloring an empty canvas. It was a no brainer that she would become an artist one day. No one was shocked, except Benny. Her whole style sang of creativity. Even right after leaving the hospital, she managed to clean up and toss on a pair of aqua blue shorts, a white tank top splattered with various shades of blue, and these pretty little earrings that curved into a swirly shape that kept turning and turning. The cabin’s dim lighting would flash off the earrings’ edges as it moved.
“Troy?”
I miss her saying that.
“What’s up?”
“What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing.” I gripped the arm rest and inhaled her for just a few seconds. Viv did odd things like buy up tons of perfume and mix them into a bowl until she believed it was the right scent. Because of that, I could never peg her fragrance. She just smelled sweet and lush, reminding me of better days, something like a vacation.
That’s what Viv’s scent was— a damned vacation from everything else.
And like fun trips, they never lasted. At some point, I had to leave and go back to whatever was waiting for me.
“I’m scared for Jasmine,” she whispered.
I’m scared for us. Right now, I want to kiss you, and that’s so sick I can’t even deal with myself.
“I don’t think she should be around Chase,” Viv continued.
“Me, neither.”
“Then why don’t you do something.”
“Like what? I’ve never been able to change Jazz’s mind. When she wants something, she goes after it. If I had it my way, she would be with Gabe. He’s nice, not a player, and I can beat his ass with no problem if he messes up. Instead, she falls in love with some guy that possesses women and could hire an army if he wanted it.”
“But, you guys are twins. Doesn’t that mean you both have special powers or something?”
I squinted at her. “I think it’s time to stop smoking the ganja.”
“Never that.” She laughed. “I’m actually wondering how I’ll get some in Italy.”
“Ask Chase. He’ll do anything right now.”
“Hmmm.” She rolled her eyes. “I still don’t like him. I don’t think he’s changed. He’s just going to have Jasmine as girlfriend number one and start grabbing more females to fill that pretentious house of his.”
I barely computed all her words as I focused on those lips. She had a way of twisting them after she made a point. If I told her, I was sure she would deny it. She was stubborn that way, just like Jazz. She placed her finger in her mouth and starting biting the nail. That was another one of her nervous habits that she denied. Once she spotted the chewed nail, she would be all shocked and amazed that it had gotten that way.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
I turned away and leaned my head on my seat. “No reason.”
“None at all?”
“Naw.”
“I think you’re lying.”
“Does it matter?”
She leaned in. “Always.”
Those full breasts pressed against my arm. Shivering, I moved it off the arm rest and shifted away from her. She laughed. “What? Was I too close?”