Forbidden Christmas With The Bellamys

#2

Chapter 2

~ Hailey ~

Navine approached us when we stepped fully into the house, and that infuriating smirk never left his face.

He stepped into the light, and I got my first real close look at him. He had sexy dark blue eyes that locked onto mine immediately, making my heart make silly flutter that annoyed me.

A red mark blooming across his temple where the stone had struck. His hair was messy, like he'd been running his hands through it. He was devastatingly attractive in a way that made my stomach flip.

"Navine, come meet your future….” he thought of the word to use so as not to sound weird, “...step-aunty." Jackson let out a wry laugh, to ease the tension, his voice was warm. "This is Hailey, Yvonne’s step-sister and her friend Trice."

Navine's eyes never left mine. The silence stretched, sharp and uncomfortable, until Jackson cleared his throat.

"We had a bit of a... misunderstanding earlier." Navine's voice was low, rough. His gaze dropped to my shoulder where his stone had hit me, then back to my face. "Didn't we, Hailey?"

The way he said my name made my skin prickle.

"Must have been someone else." I lifted my chin. "I don't know what you're talking about."

His smile was dangerous. "Right, someone else threw a stone at me. My mistake."

Yvonne looked between us, confusion flickering across her face. "Do you two... know each other?"

"No," I said immediately.

"Not yet," Navine said at the same time.

Jackson laughed, completely missing the tension. "Well, you'll have plenty of time to get acquainted! Two weeks together for Christmas — we'll be like one big happy family."

"So…" He crossed his arms, "...this is really happening."

Jackson clapped him on the shoulder. "I know it's sudden, son, but Yvonne is…"

"Fast." Navine's eyes slid to Yvonne who looked away immediately. "Very fast."

The temperature in the room dropped. Yvonne's smile faltered for just a second before she plastered it back on, brighter than before.

"Navine." Jackson's voice held a warning.

"What?" Navine spread his hands, all fake innocence. "I'm just saying, three months is pretty quick to decide you want to spend the rest of your life with someone. But hey, what do I know?" His gaze shifted to me.

"Maybe love at first sight is real after all."

I understood him immediately. He didn't want Yvonne here. Probably thought she was a gold-digger, and honestly? He wasn't wrong.

But that didn't mean I had to like him.

This arrogant, handsome asshole had hit me with a stone, chased me through the streets with his gang, and now stood here acting all up.

The red mark on his temple should have made me feel guilty. Instead, it just reminded me that he deserved it and more.

"Navine," Jackson said firmly. "Why don't you show Hailey and Trice around while Yvonne finishes preparing dinner?"

Navine looked perplexed "You want me to play tour guide?"

"I want you to be welcoming, Navine. Show some love," Jackson's tone left no room for argument. "They're family now."

Navine looked at me again, like he was trying to figure out what kind of threat I posed. Then that smirk returned. "Sure. Why not? Come on, step-aunty."

He turned and walked deeper into the house without waiting to see if we'd follow.

Trice grabbed my arm. "This is insane," she whispered. "He's gorgeous and terrifying and…"

"And an asshole," I finished. "Come on."

***

The room Yvonne had assigned us was bigger than my entire apartment.

Two queen beds with white silk sheets. A sitting area with a velvet couch. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the gardens. A bathroom with a tub that could fit four people and a shower with rainfall heads and jets on every wall.

"I could live here forever," Trice breathed, throwing herself onto one of the beds.

I set my suitcase down and started unpacking mechanically. My hands were still shaking slightly from the weirdness of this entire situation.

"So…" Trice propped herself up on her elbows. "Yvonne really has good taste. Jackson is stinkingly rich and hot."

"He looks sixty."

"A hot wealthy sixty. And that beard?" She fanned herself. "Distinguished silver fox energy."

I pulled out a sweater and shoved it into a drawer harder than necessary.

"He's going to be our step-brother in-law, Jesus Christ!."

"Your step-brother in-law. I'm just visiting." She grinned. "But his son, Navine... now he's something else."

My stomach did something unpleasant. "Don’t even talk about him. He chased us with a motorcycle gang, Trice."

"After you threw a rock at his head."

"After he hit me first!"

"Accidentally." She rolled onto her back, staring at the ceiling. "Did you see his arms? And that jaw? God, I wonder if he's single."

I slammed the drawer shut. "You can't be serious."

"Why not?" She sat up, eyes bright with that look she got when she'd set her sights on something. "We're here for two weeks. Christmas romance. It's perfect."

"He's arrogant and rude. And…"

"Hot. Say it. He's hot."

I turned away, focusing on hanging up my clothes. "I have no interest in their looks. Jackson or Navine. I'm just here because Yvonne invited me, and I really can’t wait to leave already." I slumped on the bed. “This isn’t what I planned or envisioned, I just thought it would be a girls holiday…”

"Mm-hmm. I love it this way, would have been boring if it was just us" Trice's tone was knowing. "I'm determined. By the end of these two weeks, I'm getting somewhere with Navine."

I thought about the way he'd looked at me with all dark intensity and barely contained fury, he definitely hates us. "I don't think that's possible. He’s a douchebag"

"Watch me."

We went downstairs for dinner and it was awkward sitting at a table that could seat twenty, just the five of us clustered at one end.

Yvonne had made ham and roasted vegetables and some kind of fancy potato dish. Everything tasted bland in my mouth.

Jackson asked polite questions about the journey over. Navine said nothing, just watched his father and Yvonne with an expression I couldn't read. Trice kept trying to catch Navine's eye, laughing too loudly at Jackson's jokes.

I pushed food around my plate and counted the minutes until I could escape back to our room.

But by the time we finally finished dinner and I came back from the restroom, I realized Navine was already talking to Trice.

Not just talking, they were actually engaged. Asking her questions. Smiling at her responses. And Trice was eating it up, touching his arm, tilting her head, giving him that look that said ‘I'm interested, are you?’

I sat on the couch next to Yvonne and watched them. Something hot and ugly coiled in my chest and I wondered why.

"They're getting along well," Yvonne observed, following my gaze.

"Yeah." The word came out clipped.

Did that mean everyone got along here except me? Jackson and Yvonne were all over each other. Trice and Navine were building some kind of connection. And I was just... here. Watching. Always watching other people live while I stayed stuck.

…

By ten PM, I couldn't take it anymore.

I retreated to our room with my laptop, determined to get some work done. I had a presentation due upon resumption, and sitting here dwelling on my pathetic life wasn't going to finish it.

But I couldn't concentrate

I closed my laptop and stood, restless energy humming under my skin.

Maybe a walk would help. The house was enormous; I could explore without running into anyone.

I slipped out of the room in my pajama shorts and tank top, bare feet silent on the floors.

The hallway was dark except for small lights along the baseboards. I wandered past closed doors, down a grand staircase with an iron railing, through rooms filled with expensive furniture covered in shadows.

Then I heard a moan… feminine and breathless

I froze.

Another moan, followed by a deeper sound, satisfied.

My feet moved before my brain caught up, following the sounds to a partially open door. Light spilled through the crack. I shouldn't look. I knew I shouldn't look.

But I looked anyway.

Through the gap, I could see Yvonne pressed against a wall, dress hiked up around her hips. Jackson's silver hair caught the light as he moved into her, his hands gripping her thighs. Her head was thrown back, mouth open, making those sounds that sent heat straight through me.

Jealousy slammed into me like a punch to the gut.

When was the last time someone had touched me? Two years. Two years since my ex, and even then it had been... mediocre. A mere routine.

Nothing like what I was watching now.

I was so horny it hurt. My skin felt too tight. My body ached with want that had nowhere to go.

I turned away, shame burning through the arousal. I shouldn't be watching this. I was pathetic, spying on my step-sister's s*x life because I didn't have one of my own.

I needed to find Trice. We could watch a movie or talk or anything to distract me from the growing certainty that there was something fundamentally wrong with me.

I headed downstairs, toward the back of the house where I remembered seeing a pool during Navine's reluctant tour.

The pool area was lit with soft blue lights, making the water glow. And there, in the shallow end, were Trice and Navine.

My feet stopped moving.

Trice was in her bikini — when the hell had she changed? — and Navine's arms were around her waist, holding her against him. They were laughing about something, faces close together. As I watched, he lifted her slightly, and she wrapped her legs around him, easy and intimate like they'd done this a hundred times before.

I stumbled backward, my hand hitting the glass door. The sound seemed impossibly loud.

Navine's head snapped toward me. Our eyes met across the distance.

Trice didn't even notice. She was too busy trailing her fingers through the water, saying something that made him look back at her.

I took that opportunity to run.

Back through the house, up the stairs, down the hallway. I slammed our bedroom door behind me and leaned against it, breathing hard.

What was wrong with me?

I walked to the mirror on shaky legs and stared at my reflection. Nothing had changed. Same face I'd had this morning with the same body and attractive ass.

I wasn't ugly. I knew that objectively. My body was curvy in the right places — breasts, hips, waist that dipped in and an enormous ass that gets people’s attention a lot.

If anything, I was prettier than Trice. Definitely prettier than Yvonne with her sharp features and too-thin frame.

So what was it? What invisible thing did they have that I didn't?

Yvonne could sleep with my boyfriend, destroy my relationship, and still end up with a gorgeous, wealthy man who worshipped her. Trice could walk into a stranger's house and within hours have that same stranger's hands all over her in a pool.

And I couldn't even get a nice boyfriend in twenty-eight years.

My ex had been the only real relationship I'd had, and even that had been... lackluster. He'd never looked at me the way Jackson looked at Yvonne.

Never touched me with that hungry desperation. And when Yvonne had offered herself to him, he'd taken her without hesitation.

It was consensual, he'd said. She was better.

I pressed my palms against the mirror, my reflection blurring with tears I refused to let fall.

Trice had a boyfriend. Had had several over the years we'd been friends.

And now, apparently, she was making another man for herself, collecting them like trophies while I sat alone in a borrowed room in a stranger's house.