Painted Ivy and Wax Hearts
AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Hey there my wonderful readers! I know it's late but here's the next chapter! I hope you guys enjoy it, we get to see a little bit of whats going on with that love triangle. Is it what you expected? Don't forget to let me know and I'll see you guys next week!
Chapter 18
Bo was having a hard time with this.
He thought getting first dibs on Charlie would change things, but he was starting to fear that Vincent had too much of a head start.
He tried to engage Charlie in the little things that seemed to work for Vincent, but the patterns and routines were already ingrained between the two of them. Now that Bo knew, they just weren't so secretive about their closeness.
Like morning cartoons. Before she had always sat a little too close to Vincent, sometime she'd drop her head onto his shoulder. But now, now she was practically on top of him, curled into his side like she belonged there. Both of them eating their cereal and watching old Scooby-Doo reruns.
If Bo reminded her that he was supposed to get first dibs, to get him on a more equal footing with his brother, she would switch and cuddle into him. But Vincent was always her first choice.
She always made him his favourite meals, they were constantly going to the House of Wax to read, she was always down in his lab as he worked. And most distressingly, if she had nightmares it was Vincent's bed that she crawled into.
Oh yes, her and Bo were having sex, in fact that was the only thing he could count on. If he took her on a date it almost always ended in sex. Like phenomenal-blow-your-back-out sex. But that hadn't been enough to sway her.
And she never seemed all that impressed with whatever it was he was doing with her, even if it was the same kind of stuff that Vincent did with her.
Honestly, he was starting to get really frustrated with her.
That day he had done something that was sure to wow her. Guaranteed.
He had gone to pick it up, and then returned back to the house doing his best to hide his surprise for Charlie behind his back.
When he got into the house he found that Charlie and Vincent were exactly where he had left them when he had left that afternoon. They were still sitting together on the couch watching TV. Charlie was leaning back on the couch, and Vincent was in between her legs. His back was to her chest cuddling into her for once instead of the other way around.
When he left Charlie had been braiding his hair.
Vincent now had a Viking braid style going on. She had given him a half up do, with a crown of braids as the up part and the rest just hanging down.
She was really getting pretty good at that and he was thinking that maybe he should grow his hair out so he could get her to do it for him. Maybe then she'd spend more time with him.
"Hey Charlie," he called as he walked into the house. "I uh… I got you something."
Charlie turned around, no longer paying attention to the movie her and Vincent were watching. Vincent sat up and he watched as Charlie disentangled her legs from around him.
"You did? Why?"
She still didn't trust it if he bought her things. Which was fair, out of the three Sinclair brothers, she was closest to Vincent. He was also the only one out of the three that hadn't hurt her.
"I just did," he said. "Can you come here please?"
He was struggling to keep his squirming surprise behind his back, so he missed Charlie exchanging glances with Vincent, who nodded at her to go over. Like she needed her permission… or maybe his support.
Still she hopped over the back of the couch and approached him.
"Kay… what is…?"
The question died on her lips when he brought it out from behind him. Firstly because she was gasping in excitement and then she was squealing.
"A puppy!" she cried. "Is… is it…"
"For you? Yeah."
Charlie's mouth dropped in surprised. "Can… can I hold him?"
Bo nodded and offered the little guy out to her. Charlie took a hold of him right away, her smile growing. She took the black and white puppy and clutched him to her chest.
"Is it a boy?" she asked and then before he could answer she was focusing in on the puppy again. "Aww, hi puppy."
She had bowed her head to it and the puppy began to lick her chin. "Aw… hi baby… hi puppy…"
Bo would have thought that this was going great, that this had made her happy, except she had started crying. Why was she crying?
"You really mean I can keep him?" she asked as she hugged him tightly to her. Oh, so these were happy tears, wonderful. "It's a him right."
Bo nodded. "Right on both counts."
She smiled through her tears whispered and breathy thank you and then turned around to show Vincent her new puppy.
Bo had to stand there and watch the two of them play with the puppy he had got her, basically forgotten, a complete third wheel once again.
At the end of the night, the dog's name was Spot and Charlie joined him in bed that night… but she didn't stay.
She said it was cause she wanted to stay with the puppy, but in the morning both her and the puppy came out of Vincent's room.
-HOW-
A week or so later, after a few more small dates with Charlie that didn't end in the way Bo wanted, he knew he was going to have to amp things up.
Yes they were still having sex, a lot of it actually, because she was making up for all the sex she and Vincent had had before. To make things fair, Bo had reminded her. She still ended up in Vincent's room a lot.
Not having sex though, apparently she just liked sleeping there with him.
Again, bullshit.
Charlie's nights with him were supposed to be Charlie's night with him. Not sex with Bo and cuddle with Vincent.
He was perfectly capable of cuddling, she just never wanted to cuddle with him. It was sort of like she only wanted him for sex, and while that was every man's dream… it was not his. Any more. Now he wanted the whole picture, because he could see it with Vincent and it looked amazing.
Imagine how amazing it would look with the brother who had a whole face.
He couldn't say that though, because Charlie didn't like that stuff. She always protected Vincent from him.
So after a week of still not getting where he wanted to get with Charlie, Bo decided to do the one thing with her that Vincent couldn't.
"Hey do you wanna go shopping today?"
No girl could ever say no to shopping and Charlie was one of them. She practically jumped off of Vincent's lap and jumped towards him with a million happy yeses tumbling from her lips in her excitement.
She had been sitting on the couch with Vincent, as most of their time together was spent cuddling and watching TV. It was actually kind of super domestic and Bo was like super jealous of it and trying not to show it.
But she had literally just dropped Vincent for an activity with Bo. For the first time ever.
Yes! Take that Vincent!
He smiled at her excitement, but then he watched it fade right off of her face. She then turned around to face Vincent who had also turned to watch her as she interacted with Bo.
"Oh… Vincent… I know I said we'd do that movie marathon today but…"
"It's fine," Vincent said right away and she smiled.
She turned that big grin up to Bo and he smiled along with her.
"Can I get changed or do we have to leave right now?" she asked.
"Nope, you have time to get changed."
Charlie nodded and then scampered off to the top floor. That left Bo and Vincent alone together.
Things had been awkward between them since this had started. Mainly because, yes they were sharing, but they were also both very much fighting for the same girl. And Bo was out for blood.
"Sorry if I derailed your uh… would you call this a date?"
It was an apology that I didn't mean, wrapped up with an insult. A combo, his dream combo. Normally Vincent would be browbeaten by something like that, but he wasn't the least bit impressed.
Instead he said: "You're not sorry at all."
And he was right.
He then turned around, leaning against the couch he shot him a dark glare.
"And for your information, you don't need big things to wow Charlie. She's happy with small things, liking hanging out on the couch."
That was bullshit. No girl only liked small things, girls like expensive gifts and large romantic gestures. His brother was an idiot but it was going to work in his favour, because it meant that he was going to win the girl in the end.
So Bo said nothing, he let Vincent think that he was right and then he sat back and waited.
He didn't have to wait long, of course, Charlie came skipping down the stairs. She had changed into her pair of jean shorts that he loved taking off of her, a white tee-shirt with a baby-blue plaid shirt he had bought her last time he was in town.
It had been called a "Boyfriend shirt" and he figured that as her boyfriend he should get it for her, so he had and she had loved it.
But instead of rushing to him she rushed to the couch where she then hugged Vincent from behind. She kissed his cheek, whispered something in his ear and then turned back to him.
Yeah, Bo wasn't too impressed with that show of affection, but she skipped up to him, threw herself at him, and used his shoulders to pull herself up to press a kiss to his own cheek.
Now that made him smile again.
"Okay, we good to go?"
"We are," he said with a nod.
"Bye Vincent," she called as they headed to the front door. "Don't forget to get sunlight!"
Then that was the two of them leaving for the day.
-HOW-
Bo had decided that this shopping spree was going to be a "Treat Charlie to whatever she wants" day. And she was loving it.
He started by driving her to the nearest outlet store and having her pick the stores she wanted to go in. In each and every store, he encouraged her to try on everything that she liked, then when it was on he threw all the compliments he could at her.
Then he bought her whatever it was she liked the most. No matter the price, he paid it.
He did his best to encourage her to buy skirts, because that was his favourite thing ever. Pushing her skirt up to get the prize inside, but he wasn't too forceful about it. At least he didn't think so.
But it wasn't all that Charlie wanted to look at.
She went into the bookstore, the computer store, to get to their DVD section. She wanted to go into the toy store and eventually they ended up in a craft store.
And he could tell, from everything that she was buying in those other stores that they weren't just things for her. She was buying things for Vincent, which was annoying.
But he figured if that was what she wanted to do, well he'd buy something for himself.
So he went right into the nearest lingerie store, pointed to Charlie who was across from them and buying food and told them to find him something sexy in her size.
Normally, Charlie's lingerie consisted of this black lacy bra and then whatever underwear she had on. He liked black against the contrast of her skin, so he was surprise when the shop helper handed him a cream color contraption.
It was basically a cream lacy tank top that wouldn't have reached her belly button. It was completely see through, covered in draw strings and bows. And the underwear, which were more boxy and less stringy matched in both color, bow and draw string. It too was made of that cream lacy and was completely see through.
He was hard as fuck staring at it, just thinking of it on her, imagine what it was going to do to him on her?
He bought it right away.
After that they went home, she unpacked everything, showing Vincent all that she bought.
She once again did a runway show for both of them for all that she had bought, except for the lingerie of course. Because she didn't know about it yet and that little outfit was for him and him alone.
Then she sat down with Vincent showed him all the movies she had gotten so they could watch them together, and then the craft that she had bought at the store for them to do together.
After that Bo was stupidly forgotten, as the two of them spent the rest of the night on that craft, just the two of them together, to make up for the shopping trip they went on without Vincent. Bo was livid.
But that night, he had gotten her into his room again. He handed her that bag with the lingerie and told her to put it on.
He had turned his back so that he'd get the reveal, and oh boy was that reveal amazing.
The cream against her skin looked ethereal. She looked like a sexy lingerie bride. He could see through to her pale skin, could see every inch of the pieces of her that he loved the best all highlighted in that lace.
It felt even better under his hands.
Was more fun to peel off of her and throw across the room.
That night the sex was slow, torturously slow, slow but hot. It felt like, because he was working so hard to keep himself from going to face, because he was trying to savour it, that it was harder to work. His whole body shook with the effort of it. And it felt… it felt different in his chest.
It was also the first night Charlie stayed in his bed and cuddled with him. For the whole night. It was just as cute and domestic as he thought.