In the afternoon, beneath a salubrious sun, Sorcha was stretched out on the back deck with Malcolm. They were completely alone. No family to bug them, no homework to concern them, and no pressing life matters bogging them down.
They were just two college students enjoying a relaxing spring day.
Well, she was relaxing.
Malcolm was busy reading the next chapter in one of their textbooks.
After the pressure of the last few weeks, all the tests and papers and projects due, she needed this downtime to recharge. Especially before they headed back and got weighed down with more papers, tests, and other crap before the end of the semester.
Only the sound of Malcolm turning pages broke the quiet. Sorcha heaved an amused sigh as she watched his eyes quickly skim the page.
"You're supposed to be relaxing here, Mal."
"I never relax." His eyes flicked over to hers before returning to the book. "You know that."
Sorcha took the textbook from him and tossed it into a chair. Mal frowned his disapproval but didn't offer a protest.
"We only have three days of vacation left," she said. "Let's enjoy them."
"I am enjoying them."
"Mhm." She traced a finger up his thigh. Playful. Daring. "You're already thinking about getting out your other textbook."
Mal's lips twitched. "Maybe."
"You do and I will be forced to do something drastic to distract you."
Curiosity brimmed in his eyes. Eyes, she saw now as she met them, that are more blue than green. A sign Malcolm was, for the moment, happy.
"Such as?"
"I'll take my top off."
"If that's what you're threatening to do to distract me…" His dimples winked. "Seems I should get out my textbook."
Sorcha snorted a laugh. "Nice to know that you can be distracted by a half-naked woman."
"I'm crazy," he joked, "but not that crazy."
"You're not crazy. Just wound a bit too tight. Though, gotta admit you were pretty relaxed after last night. Even recall you went to sleep without the usual fuss."
"You wore me out."
"Had a feeling that intense physical activity would knock you out for a few hours."
"Right." Mal hummed a laugh. "I didn't expect you to drag me to a shooting range to shoot bow and arrows."
"Where else did you expect us to shoot bow and arrows?"
"We could have set a target up here in the backyard."
"Mrs. Cafferty would call my folks and tattle on us." Sorcha rest her elbows on the sun warmed deck and rest her chin on her hands. "She did after Sean built me a couple of targets for practicing with my paintball gun."
"You do paintball?"
"Oh, yeah." A smirk screwed up one corner of her mouth. "I'm the best sniper on our team, in fact."
Mal snorted a laugh. "That doesn't surprise me."
"Hey, when you go out paint balling with my brother and his friends?" She lazily swatted at a fly. "You will be a colorful mess within minutes if you don't outsmart them."
"His friends don't mind his sister tagging along with them?"
"No way." A grin played about Sorcha's lips as she thought about Reggie, Mike and RJ. "They need me on their team."
A quizzical frown tugged at his brow. "Why?"
"Cause their girlfriends massacre them on the field."
A chuckle burst from Malcolm. "So you defend their honor by taking out their girlfriends?"
"Well, there might be a bit of friendly fire here and there..."
"That's cheating."
"All's fair in love and paint-balling."
"I've never gone paint-balling." Mal's soft sigh blew across her moist flesh, causing her senses to tingle and her blood to boil. "Mother would never have allowed it. Would say it's too dangerous. Messy. Beneath me because I'm rich."
Sorcha had a feeling that why Jessica Whitly wouldn't support her son going out to a shooting range was less about how filthy he might get and more about the violence involved. Anything that in her mind could possibly cause Malcolm to become like his father she'd shoot down.
Sorcha didn't tell him that, though. No, she just said, "When Sean and the others come home on leave we will all go."
She didn't add if they came home on leave. Her brother and his friends would come home from Afghanistan. There was no doubt about that. They'd come home and they'd go paint-balling and everything would be like it always was. She reached for the sunblock next to a bottle of water before sitting up.
"Put some of this on my back, please?"
"You do know that when the skin absorbs ultraviolet radiation from the sun that it increases your risk of skin damage," Mal said as he took the bottle from her. "And that prolonged exposure can result in dry, wrinkled skin, premature aging, and skin cancer."
"Yes, Doctor Carter," she teased as she turned her back to him. "That's why I'm having you put sunblock on me."
"You should have put it on before," Mal chided as he squirted some of the sunblock into his hand. "Especially since you've been laying out... I didn't know you had a tattoo."
Sorcha choked back a laugh. "Way to focus here, Mal."
"Nos mos vallo." His fingers lightly traced the words inked onto the back of her neck. "What does it mean?"
"'This we'll defend." Sorcha silently prayed Malcolm wouldn't notice her voice was lower, throatier than normal. Not that she could help it. Everywhere he touched left a trail of keen-edged longing in its wake. "It's the army slogan."
"You got this for Sean."
"Mhm." Sorcha forced herself to focus on the water glistening in the swimming pool to keep her spiraling thoughts from entering dangerous territory. Not that they weren't already traveling down that forbidden pathway. Now wasn't the time and here definitely not the place for any of the things her overactive imagination was suggesting. "We got tattooed together, actually."
"He got the same tattoo as you?"
"We were going to get matching tattoos originally but Dad suggested getting something that'd be more personal and more closely representative of us."
"Which is why you got the army slogan."
"Yep."
"What did Sean get?"
"The word Ohana."
"Ohana?" Sorcha heard the frown in his voice. "What does that mean?"
"Ohana means family." She reached back to take hold of his hands, drew them, and his arms around her. Subtle manipulation. "And family means nobody is left behind."
His chin dropped to her shoulder. "I'm surprised you didn't get something like the bat-symbol or a lightsaber."
"I have a bat-symbol, actually."
"You do?" His surprise made her smile. "Where?"
Sorcha sent him a playful grin. "Wanna play find the tattoo to find out?"
"No." His eyebrows drew together over the bridge of his nose. "You have more than one?"
"I have five in total."
The way Malcolm's eyes went blurry and unfocused told her he was trying to picture where the tattoos might be located. Sorcha rest back against him, a small, satisfied smile curving her lips.
"Where?" Mal finally asked.
"Uh uh," Sorcha teased. "You gotta find 'em." She waggled her eyebrows at him. Fun. Flirtatious. Openly daring Mal to take the bait she dangled before him. "Be a prize in it if you can find 'em all."
"What sort of prize?"
"Use your imagination, Mal."
A/N: Hello, all! Hope this finds you well!
I just want to send a special thank you to Rookblonkorules for their lovely reviews
