Ah, my heart warms. Tommy and Thea. Cahooting. - Grey

CHAPTER 2

'Tommmmyy! Whatcha doing?' Thea pressed her phone against her ear as she sorted through a drawer of coloured, bedazzled and patterned designer bikinis.

She'd left Felicity down in kitchen of the mansion, planted at the kitchen bench with a cool drink and chatting amicably to Raisa as she'd started preparations for dinner.

Thea picked out a bright orange swirly pair, wrinkled her nose, and released them back into the pool of bathers.

'I, little one, am sitting in my air conditioned executive office at Merlyn Global, enjoying the fruits of my father's labours. I then plan to travel in my air conditioned luxury car, back to my air conditioned penthouse abode, without once touching the heat of this friggin' furnace of a day.'

'Firstly Thomas, I am not little. I am...' Thea became distracted by an aqua blue bikini - perfect! 'Amazonian-ly challenged.'

Ignoring Tommy's snort, Thea launched on, 'And secondly, how about you and Ollie come to the mansion and join a poor, lonely, neglected girl for dinner.'

'But then who will have dinner with you Speedy?'

'Funny, Merlyn.'

'I aim to entertain. Myself, at least. And how did you know Ollie was coming here to see me?'

'C'mon Tommy,' Thea whined, ignoring the question, 'I haven't spent time with you and Ollie for ages. We can have a swim and then enjoy our own little family dinner, just like old times.'

Tommy sighed, recognising an unwinnable battle when he found himself in one. 'Okay, Speedy, when Ollie arrives, I'll let him know we have dinner plans.'

'And don't let him make any excuses and cut out on you!'

'Don't worry, I will deliver us both to the mansion, as promised. Though you better make sure Raisa is cooking tonight. If I'm dragging my ass all the way out there on the promise of a swim and a Queen family dinner, then I want a proper Queen family dinner!'

Thea smiled into the phone, closing the drawer with her hip. 'Great! See ya soon.'

'Bye-' Tommy spoke into dial tone.

Felicity adjusted the straps of the aqua bikini Thea had given her to wear. She stood tall in front of the full-length mirror of Thea's ensuite bathroom, and twisted both ways to see how it looked. The colour suited her and the top half fit, the material cups covering her rounded breasts nicely. The bottoms were posing a trickier beast.

Felicity pulled at the stretchy material as far as she could, but it still only covered half her ample butt cheeks. Felicity was a fan of her ass. Just not it half-naked in public, for all, or any, of the world to see.

'Ah, Thea?' Felicity called out from behind the closed bathroom door.

'Yep?'

'Um, we may have a slight problem. In that this suit - while it's really gorgeous and expensive-looking, and much nicer than anything I would be able to afford - doesn't really cover much. At all.'

Unseen in the bedroom, Thea grinned.

'Let's have a look.'

'No!' Felicity half-shouted, tugging at the bikini bottoms in vain. 'I mean, we just met, kind of, and there's a lot on show here, and I think we should do dinner and a movie first - kidding - sorry, I just tend to say inappropriate things when I'm nervous and 3...2...1...'

'Felicity?'

'Hmmn?'

'I'm sure you look fine. And it's only going to be us girls anyway, so there's no one around to see anything,' Thea featured her most practiced, reassuring tone. The same one she used when she was fifteen and trying to convince her mother that she would certainly be home from her friend Beth's place by curfew. 'Beth' being her ex-boyfriend Vincent, and 'curfew' being 11.30pm through the mansion's oak front door, before sneaking out again through her bedroom window.

Felicity paused in her material-expansion endeavours. Was Thea hitting on her?

'Are you hitting on me?'

Oops, there it was, spoken out loud and everything. Felicity's brain smacked itself around the back of its own head.

Thea laughed. 'Felicity, sweetie, you're not exactly my type.'

'Though there's another Queen I could think of who might feel differently,' Thea said under her breath, enjoying herself way too much. It was rare she got to pull one over on her mysterious, errant brother, and this evening was promising to be oodles of fun.

'What?'

'Nothing. Are you gonna come swim, or stay in the bathroom the whole night? I can fill the tub with cold water if you'd prefer, and you can splash about in there?'

Felicity eyed the marble bathtub, considering. It was certainly big enough.

'Felicity, it's hot! Let's go!' Thea pounded on the bathroom door, the fourth knock hitting air as the door opened.

Thea took a look at Felicity and whistled.

This was going to be wicked good.