Chapter 14: Gucci sandals and vintage Harleys

“I just can’t picture it. Teague cracking a piece of fine china over Levi’s head, with the pasta still on top, is almost too ridiculous for my mind to comprehend. Next time you guys have a large family dinner like that, you must invite me to dinner,” Aiko said, still shaking her head in disbelief.

Aurora tugged her striped silk Marc Jacobs cardigan around her chest. She took a long sip of her Chai while Aiko waited to hear the rest of the story. “Levi was out cold. I honestly thought Brighton would never stop crying. Even when Levi woke up and after he tried to talk him out of it, he still wouldn’t calm down.”

“Well, imagine watching that happen to Kale or Brody if you were a kid. You can’t really blame him. I’m just surprised Teague flew off the handle like that, but with Levi, it’s to be expected,” Aiko commented with a deep frown marring her features. A knot of agitation grew in her stomach. She wouldn’t pick sides since she hated straddling the fence with those two. Aiko knew from firsthand experience that Levi and Teague would let their grudges linger. And after that, they’d let them linger on some more.

“What do you mean? Do they fight often?”

“No, only once in a while, but every time it gets worse. It’s not as obvious with Teague, but they’re both extremely competitive, plus as much as neither of them would like admit it, they envy each other,” she paused, taking a long sip of her iced white mocha latte. Aurora waited to hear more while Aiko cast a few glances around, looking like she was debating something. “I’m not going to lie; I thought, even that first night after his birthday party, that Teague had a bit of a crush on you. And as much as he tries not to, the looks he gives you aren’t exactly platonic…I kind of expected this.”

“Well, that’s natural. We only just found out that we were related and not by blood. I don’t think he’ll pursue—he’s got Alexandria, anyway,” Aurora answered. Her voice was tinged with disappointment that she couldn’t hide if she tried, and didn’t bother around Aiko. It was pretty obvious she was holding a torch for both Levi and Teague.

Aiko rolled her tawny eyes and sat up. “If denial’s the river you want to follow,” she commented with a grin on her face.

Aurora wasn’t exactly pleased with her clever comments. Actually, she didn’t find them clever at all. “I’m not going to ruin things at home for Teague—for anybody. As much as I fucking hate Michelle, I never knew my mom and my Dad hasn’t had anyone for sixteen years. I’m not going to be the one to screw up their marriage.”

“And there’s also the fact that you’ll be heading over Levi’s house in a couple hours a late night dose of skinny dipping; there’s no way in hell Teague’s gonna be pleased about that… Shouldn’t we get shopping on that, anyway?” Aiko rose and popped off the top of her Chai and tipped the last bit into her mouth. “I needed this, but now I’m ready to shop.”

While retelling Aiko about the fiasco that was dinner a couple days ago, Aurora almost forgot why they were at the Starbucks across the street from the mall. “Late night skinny dipping? I don’t think so. We’re going to dinner.”

“He asked you to bring a swimsuit,” Aiko protested once they both reached the garbage cans to dispose of their garbage. “When you’re dealing with Levi that can only mean one thing. And that one thing is—”

“But why would I bring a swimsuit, or why would he ask me to bring one, if it was his intention for us to end up naked anyway?” Aurora held open the door, as her friend backed out of the coffee shop, grinning flirtatiously at the cute twenty-something guy behind the counter.

“So—and it seems obvious to me that you must know why, so I’m only humoring you by having this conversation—that his intentions would seem good, when he’s really just hoping you’ll let your guard down. That way, he can get on with the nakedness much faster than you’d consider…It’s all pretty ingenious, right?”

Aurora gaped, but was resolute. One rule of hers to live by was no nakedness on the first date. Shit, she was down with having zero nakedness until at least the fifth. “I—well, I hadn’t taken it that far, but I thought he’d try. You know, after dinner he’d suggest a trip to the hot tub and it’d escalate from there.”

“It’s a good thing I’m here to keep your naiveté at a minimum…I have a question for you on another subject entirely… How much are you willing to spend on shoes, because there are these Gucci sandals that I think you must buy? The price isn’t that bad if you think of it as an investment.”

Aurora smirked. Just how she’d lucked out in finding someone who viewed clothing and accessories in the same warped sense, Aurora didn’t know, but she did know she was damn lucky in doing so. “Gucci shoes are always an investment. Always.”

--

Aurora knew when Levi called, two days after the epic battle of Levi versus Teague, and two days of them completely ignoring each other, it was time for her to make a move. Or at least give up most of the hard to get game she’d been playing with him for a week. She wouldn’t want him to get bored.

That’s why they were going out tonight and also why she had to go shopping this morning. The Gucci shoes, the skirt, and the many shirts in various styles—meaning they were all alluring in many different ways—were all bought for this weekend.

She was wearing the leather pants for their date. Usually Aurora had strict rules on never letting any guy she considered boyfriend material see her in the same item within a two month period. Although in her experience, most boys forget what color you’re wearing when you’re standing right in front of them, but Aurora thought Levi had an eye for detail.

He made the request, and she might as well oblige. It was either that, or…actually, there was nothing else; Aurora really loved to be appreciated and in those pants, Levi’s attention was extremely gratifying.

Along with that, the short white flapper dress, and when referring to that dress short translates into, barely ass-grazing length, she picked up today went perfectly with the leggings. She might have thought about wearing it alone, but there was a good chance she would be apprehended for indecent exposure if so.

Tomorrow she’d at wow him with the little gold micro-mini Aiko convinced her to buy today and one of her brother’s black oxfords that she planned on shrinking, over and over again in the wash, with nothing underneath. Katrina finally managed to get her “Welcome Back” party planned and it was tomorrow night at her mega mansion across town.

It was supposedly amazing. Aurora’s new home was in an upper-middle class neighborhood, but Aiko told her the gated community Katrina lived in was beyond exclusive.

They weren’t going together. Tomorrow Aurora had to pick up a few friends from the airport. They’d finally get a chance to visit, after their trip got delayed about four times.

She’d just slipped a robe over her clothing when her door creaked open. She was too eager to get dressed after she did her nails the first time and ruined them within minutes. Aurora had to re-do them now and she was slight pissed about it.

She was slapping a bottle of gunmetal colored nail lacquer in her palm and glanced over her shoulder to find Teague leaning against the doorframe. He was dripping water onto her bamboo floors, because he’d just showered, and was wearing only a pair of low slung shorts with nothing else.

Way to make me regret who I’m going out with tonight, Teague, Aurora thought while trying her hardest to keep her eyes away from his bare chest, with only a slight smattering of pale golden hairs and so much definition that it was virtually a sin to ignore. And for Aurora, who was usually quick to condone some sinfulness, this was one that pained her to participate in.

Seriously, he could walk around with a giant neon sign following him, telling everyone to admire his abs and the effect would be the same for Aurora. She just could not look away…well, at least not until he spoke.

“Aiko and Kale told me about your plans for tonight. Did you forget to tell me about your date or was it calculated discretion on your part?” Teague ran a hand through his wavy blond hair and Aurora watched the water dripping from it fly forward and hit the floor.

All that water puddling around his feet was really starting to bother her. She was wearing four inch heels. Yes, they had an ankle strap and were platformed too, but still; one could break a leg slipping on one of those puddles. Plus his roundabout insinuations were not what she needed right now. Aurora turned back forward and zeroed in on her hands.

Aurora paused long enough to paint a thick coat of polish on her nails. She spun around and crossed her legs at the knee, exposed her legs clothed in leather legging-like pants. “You didn’t ask, Teague. Nor did you give me any specific reasons not to go out with Levi… Care to share any?”

“I told you he’s just using you—” Teague repeated his usual go-to reasoning to demonize Levi. In Aurora’s opinion, he didn’t need to be demonized; she already viewed him in that light. She couldn’t really tell Teague she planned on playing his best friend. However he might feel about Levi now, Aurora knew they’d get over it within a few weeks. Then her plan would fall to pieces, and if Aurora had to name something that pissed her off the most, it’d be foiled plans.

God, she sounded like an evil villain plotting someone’s demise, which, aside from the evil part, she really was.

“I’ve heard that one before. Don’t you have any new material?”

Teague swallowed hard and mashed his lips together for a few seconds. “What if I told you that I didn’t want you to go…for personal reasons; what would you say them?”

“I’d ask you to state those personal reasons,” Aurora answered and when she finished painting the last nail on her other hand, her fingers were shaking. God, she did not want to go down this road.

She pretended not to believe Aiko earlier today, pretended not to hope Teague liked her. But that’s just it; Aurora wanted Teague just as much as he supposedly wanted her. And she was screwed if he did, just as much as she’d be screwed if he didn’t.

Her nails definitely weren’t dry, even though the label on it professed the polish to dry almost instantly, but Aurora didn’t really care. She stood and shook her robe off of her shoulders; Aurora had to watch him while he answered.

“I just don’t think he’s right for you,” Teague mumbled. Aurora couldn’t lie; it gave her self esteem a little boost seeing the way his eyes lingered all across her body before his eyes met hers. “I know he’s not right for you.”

“Who is then, Teague? Cause I don’t know if you’ve noticed but Levi’s the only prospect right now and I—,” Aurora started, hoping, with the last bit of her dignity, that Teague would answer himself and she could skip out on the date with Levi tonight.

Maybe she and Teague could curl up on the couch downstairs, put a DVD in—preferably The Notebook or something as remotely romantic as that—and Aurora could forget about teaching Levi and his hoe-bag fuck-buddy, Katrina, a lesson. If Teague would just stop being so—

“There are plenty of guys at school who’d gladly date you, gladly even get a chance to talk to you,” Teague answered in a halting tongue.

Aurora took a few long strides forward and tried not to let her surprise show when Teague didn’t move away; she was practically two inches away from him now. “Could you be a little more specific?”

He opened and closed his mouth about three times, behaving a bit too much like a broken record. Finally the words spilled out of his mouth, firm and calculated; it took him a few seconds to come up with this flimsy excuse that wasn’t even an answer to her question.

“I have a girlfriend.”

“You have a girlfriend,” Aurora repeated and the dry humor in her voice made Teague take a step back. Just a split second later, the doorbell chimed startling them both. “Is that your excuse not to, or to keep yourself from liking me? You could have salvaged your dignity better by ignoring my question? It would have been better for you to keep me in the dark about how you feel.”

“I wanted you to know that nothing can happen between us, not just because you’re my step sister, but because of Alexandria, too.” Aurora wanted to tell him how reluctant his face looked when he said that last line, but she wasn’t about to press him. Desperation was not Aurora cup of tea.

Aurora clenched her jaws together as the risk of her mouth slipping into a pout increased. “Thanks for that update, Teague, but it did nothing to make me not want to date your best friend,” she paused at the sound of Michelle, the only other female voice in the house, called her name up the steps, “And that’s my cue to leave, I guess…unless you’ve got anything else to say.”

She, in stark contrast to her words, didn’t give him a chance to say anything else by slipping around him and out the doorway to her room.

“Have fun,” Teague called and Aurora hardly flinched at his callous tone. Obviously he didn’t give a damn about how well her night would go, unless it was a disaster. He’d probably whistle a tune if Aurora came home early with her eyes red around the rims.

Aurora had two reasons to keep her pace leisurely as she walked down the steps and into the foyer. She could easily break an ankle skipping down the steps in the heels she wore tonight, and secondly, Levi would take her eagerness the wrong way.

But, damn, she was eager and he looked good enough to eat. Actually, the word delectable comes to mind whenever she thought of Levi. But tonight, good God, she couldn’t wait to get her hands on him.

Wow, Aurora thought as she stepped down the last few steps of the winding staircase in her new home, I cannot believe that thought just crossed my mind.

He had on a leather jacket, either distressed by the designer or was well used by Levi himself, a bright cobalt blue Dior Homme sweater—she recognized it from her excursion to the mall earlier today—and tight-in-all-the-right-places black jeans. Her eyes stopped at his feet.

Levi was wearing these high-top lace-up black leather shoes that she could only call a perfect meshing of gym shoes and biker boots. Actually, they were exactly what she’d expect an extremely well dressed man, who happened to ride a motorcycle, to wear.

But that of course was just her imagination running wild. Levi didn’t have a motorcycle; no one’s hotness quota can go that high. She refused to believe it, and maybe he just had great taste.

A beat passed before Aurora remembered to place a demure smile on her lips and look down at him through her eyelashes. Levi grinned up at her, rakish and all too alluring, with his inky black hair slicked away from his face unlike its usual unruliness. It was just so unfortunate how he could tell when his sometimes-purple-and-sometimes-blue eyes, creamy white skin, ever so lightly tanned, in opposition to his Stygian waves, and long sinuous body made her breath catch.

Aurora froze with her hand gripping the staircase’s banister.

“Thank you,” Levi said abruptly, without any preamble, and Aurora’s eyes widened significantly. “Very, very much, Aurora.”

“For what,” she sputtered.

“Gimme a second; I’m trying to make sure I never forget the image of you in those pants. I want to have perfect recall, so I can remember this moment forever,” Levi quirked his lips and, after making eye contact for a split second, his icy blue eyes slid back to her body.

Aurora fought to keep from squirming as the moment stretched on towards forever. He seemed to be cataloging, rating, and stamping a price tag on her body, outfit, and everything in between.

“Everything up to par, Levi? Do you want me to go upstairs and change into something more to your liking?” As an excuse to switch positions without looking like a worm, Aurora rested both her hands on her hips and cocked her hip to the side. “Is there anything else I can do to further your viewing pleasure?”

“I honestly don’t you could, at least not in the presence of your stepmother,” Levi cocked his thumb to the left and a familiar blonde head stepped out of the shadows. Aurora recognized Michelle from overhead and skipped down the steps without even thinking about it.

Aurora stopped storming across the marble floors right next to Levi without really looking at him. Translation: she really must have been pissed, because ignoring the way Levi looked just then—even though she’d already gotten an eyeful—was a travesty. “What do you want?”

“Relax, Aurora, your father asked me to see you out since he had to run out after a business emergency came up,” Michelle’s light airy voice answered, much cooler than it had been since the big blow up a few nights ago. She’d been tip-toeing with her words around Aurora, especially when Blaine was present, but she seems to have abandoned that plan tonight.

“Oh,” Aurora said as all the anger she bottled up from her earlier encounter with Teague came bubbling back up to the surface. She twisted doorknob and swung open the door. “I guess your job’s done now. Goodbye.”

Aurora stomped out of the doorway, without giving Levi the chance to hold it open for her. Lately Michelle and her knowing smirks really got Aurora’s blood boiling. She still hadn’t found any way to get Michelle kicked out of the house on her ass, but then again, she hadn’t been thinking hard cause she didn’t want to ruin Teague, Jason, and J.P.’s lives along with their mother’s.

Right now she’d gladly fuck Teague over, unfortunately Aurora cared too much for his younger brothers to really do anything.

“So things haven’t smoothed over at the O’Neill-Jacobson household then,” Levi asked, jogging a few steps to catch up with her. The pace at which she was trotting away from their front door alarmed him. Levi wanted to have at least thirty seconds to warm her up to the idea of riding his bike.

“No, and you should know, before you do anything stupid, that I can hold a serious grudge,” Aurora stopped abruptly, realizing how rude she was being to Levi—and hello, she couldn’t have him thinking she wasn’t nice—and spun toward him with one finger-combing her bangs and the other on her hip. “So…where are we going?”

“There’s this little Cajun place in town,” Levi stepped forward and reached for her hand. Aurora almost flinched away. Holding hands with Levi was somehow more intimate than any of the stolen and sensual kisses they shared and she preferred to keep him at a distance. In their relationship, control was her top priority.

Levi intertwined his fingers with hers and pulled her closer. Once in his vicinity, Aurora was shocked he didn’t wrap a lecherous hand around her waist or shoulders. “So, what’s with the shoes?”

Aurora peaked over at Levi, whose eyes were staring far past her, down the walkway. Aurora couldn’t exactly what he was staring at but she could guess. “Then you did notice the shoes?”

“Why haven’t I seen you riding it before?”

“I had to get it fixed, after someone tried to drive over it one day in the parking lot at school,” Levi shrugged, trying make light of it all. But Aurora couldn’t see how to take someone crashing into his bike on purpose lightly.

“What did you do to her?”

“It was…her brother and I really didn’t do anything to her. It was all a mis-understanding,” Levi’s shoulder brushed up against Aurora’s as he shrugged.

“You mean she wasn’t aware of your inability to stick to one girl at a time? That’s fucked up; all of your ex’s should do a public service announcement to be aired across the country,” Aurora deadpanned. Her smirked turned sour as she realized exactly who that PSA needed to be directed towards.

“Well, I’ve never tried, so you can’t call it an inability, Aurora. Maybe…well, we’ll see how much self control I really do possess,” Levi’s thumb traced a pattern on the back of Aurora’s hand. She was concentrating on how nice it was and that’s probably why it took her more than a second to really understand what Levi was saying.

“Is that a disclaimer? Sorry if I end up fucking someone else; my self-control made me do it,” she countered, ripping her hand from his. “God, you have some nerve. Seriously, you cannot expect me to think that’s okay, right? You do realize you just spouted bullshit, complete and total bull? ”

“I didn’t say it was okay,” Levi chuckled and Aurora really did start to regret not listening to Teague earlier. This guy could not be for her; if they were meant to be together that had to say something terrible about her own character. “I was just mentioning it, Aurora. You have to understand, this is weird for me too.”

“What? Why, because I’m not one of your usual groveling sycophants that worship the ground you walk on? Or is there some other reason I’m not aware of?”

They were finally close enough to the driveway to see the outline of the bike. She squinted into the darkness, but the bike was mostly recognizable. Somehow, the black vintage Harley was not what she expected. Aurora couldn’t really say what she did expect exactly, but this was not it.

Aurora always wanted to date some hot-artsy guy who lived in Brooklyn, attended an alternative school for the arts, and could pick her up from her Manhattan apartment on his old, refurbished Harley. Somehow it never happened and she really didn’t think Levi, in all his suburban glory, would make up for that boyfriend she never had, especially because they’d never get skip school and spend the afternoon at the Brooklyn Museum…

Jeez, Aurora thought; she never realized how extensive that fantasy was.

“Aurora?”

“Yeah,” Aurora answered, with her mind still lost in visions of New York.

“I was explaining that the difference is that I’ve messed up with you twice now and I’m trying to redeem myself, only I’ve never really cared about doing that before,” Levi half mumbled it, going for embarrassed, but it didn’t really work. Aurora’s never been that naïve.

“I bet, but you should know that if that was you trying to make headway, then I’m sorry, but you’ll have to try much harder,” Aurora grumbled when they finally stopped next to the bike. “Please tell me you brought me a helmet?”

--

A/N: I have got to get better at this updating stuff. Really. I’m sorry for all these long waits. Hopefully I’m more annoyed with myself than you guys are, because if so, I’ll be losing a crapload of readers. But anyway, sorry for the wait and I hope everyone likes this chapter.

Thanks to: Welcome To Meganlanddddd x3, chubbly4eva, sarah12345, xorosieox, Allie92, and SuperSecretMusicMission for reviewing!

sirNancelot: Glad you love the story, I just hope my delayed updating doesn’t keep you from hating it! Lol, thanks for the review!