Chapter 8

The day had dramatically risen in temperature and by midday we were all taking a well deserved break.

Letty and I sat in banana chairs in shorts and singlet tops, while the guys sat topless at the outside table talking.

"You guys really should invest in a pool." I lifted my glasses to the top of my head and looked over at Letty.

She did the same and nodded her head over to Dom. "Yeah. Tell 'Mr. Why-do-we-need-a-pool-for?' over there that."

We both rolled our eyes and put the glasses back down over our eyes and lay quietly in the sun. Mia soon came to join us, commenting on the tanning and how it didn't really count as doing work; Letty shushed her and told her to join us, or go back to the shop and work.

Mia would do anything to get out of working at the shop on such a day. Nobody came in when the temperature rose so high, and the shop was closed for the rest of the day. None the customers complained though – so it was lucky for all of us.

The three of us lay quietly under the sun, listening to the hushed talk of the guys with random outbursts of laughter when one cracked a joke.

I closed my eyes and enjoyed the heat of the sun on my skin. The chair next to me creaked and shifted from its position for a second and I knew Letty was turning over. The guys had become very quiet suddenly and I assumed they had gone back inside. I continued revelling in the heat until the sudden shock of cold hit me, and then the squeals of Mia and Letty next to me.

My eyes shot open and I opened my mouth to scream but was silenced by a mouthful of water. I lifted my glasses and looked over to Letty and Mia, sitting exactly how I was, soaked and shocked. Letty's eyes bulged out in anger, while Mia cringed as she looked down at the beads of water on her skin.

Vince, Leon and Jesse stood in front of us, laughing so hard that no sounds came out. Dom held the hose in his hand and a shit eating grin on his face, standing right by the others.

I picked up the bottle of water that I kept under my chair and threw it at Dom. He ducked the air-borne bottle and instead it hit Leon on the back of the head. Mia squealed in amusement, as Letty quickly shot up off the chair while the guys were preoccupied and grabbed the hose, aimed it at them and opened the valve.

The guys shielded their faces from the water and swore at Letty.

"Yeah! Now you know how it feels." Letty yelled at them and then turned the water off.

I chuckled as the guys looked down at their soaked selves and then back up to Letty. Dom lunged towards her and she instantly dropped the hose and ran away; Dom quickly caught up and grabbed her by the waist and lifted her off her feet and over his shoulder. He smacked her on the ass and carried her back to the chair and plonked her back down on it. She said something provocative to him in Spanish, eliciting a growl from him before he picked her up again and carried her off inside.

I shook my head and rolled my eyes, and looked over to Mia who cringed slightly before standing up and wiped off any water that hadn't evaporated off her body.

Vince and Jesse continued to laugh but had now taken a seat back at the table, while Leon stood rubbing the back of his head with his hand. His hair was soaked through and water dripped down onto his bare shoulders and glided down the rest of his body. I swallowed hard as I watched one drop of water travel down his chest, his stomach and disappear into the top of his pants. Subconsciously I licked my lips and clenched my hands. Then I remembered why he was still standing there.

"Sorry Le. Didn't mean to hit you." I cringed slightly, still with a smile on my face trying to look like I really didn't mean it.

He looked over to me and glared, but then smiled and shook his head. "Sure you didn't ..." he said as he started chuckling to himself, "damn that hurt. That's enough to give me a concussion." He held his hand on his head for a couple of seconds before sighing.

I laughed and stood up to examine the damage I'd caused. He removed his hand and I ran mine through his hair and was glad that I hadn't thrown it hard enough to cause any open injuries. "Let's put some ice on it." I grabbed his hand and dragged him inside.

Inside, the radio hummed quietly from the living room and upstairs, you could hear Dom and Letty doing what came natural to them. I snorted in amusement and rolled my eyes again as I led Leon into the kitchen. He took a seat on one of the stools as I opened the freezer door and pulled out an ice tray. I popped the ice out onto a clean kitchen towel and wrapped up the ice and then handed it to Leon who put it on the back of his head.

He cringed again from the sudden cold of the towel but soon became accustomed to it.

"Really sorry about that. I swear I was aiming for Dom." I smiled nervously at Leon as he looked back up at me.

"Yeah, I know. You got one hell of a throw there though." He took the towel off and put it down on the bench behind him.

"Pain gone down yet?" I took a step towards him and turned his head a little to see if the sore had started to swell.

"Kinda. Still throbbing though." He forced his head back and looked up at me.

We both stood frozen for what seemed minutes, but really was only a second or two. My hand rested on his shoulder and hooked slightly around the back of his neck. He brought his arm behind my waist and pulled me towards him as he stood up, causing me to now be looking up at him. His other hand came up and cupped my cheek as he leaned down, and kissed me.

His lips were soft and gentle, and he didn't rush at all. My body tensed up slightly at the sudden rush but soon warmed up to his touch. He pulled back and gazed down into my eyes. His breathing had sped up a little, and I never noticed that mine had also. The colour of his eyes had deepened, making them an emerald green. He licked his lips as his thumb traced over mine and he leaned down again. The kiss was deeper, more passionate and greedy. He pulled me even closer to him, and I could feel every inch of him pushing up against my body, every inch of skin that touched his own burned and I could feel my mind screaming that I was going to explode.

I stood frozen, not sure if this was really happening, or if it was all just a dream. My hand lingered on his stomach, my fingers curled slightly, digging into his skin but not enough to cause pain. He captured my bottom lip in his mouth and sucked on it gently before he pulled away again.

My eyes closed and I involuntarily let out a moan of pleasure. When I opened them again, he was smiling down at me. Our bodies were still pressed up against each other and I couldn't help but smile also.

He caressed my cheek with the backs of his fingertips and then curled a strand of hair that had fallen back behind my ear.

I could feel my face was flushed, and my whole body was burning up – out of pleasure or because of the heat, I didn't know – but I liked it either way. I let out a hushed 'wow' and dropped my hand so they were both resting on his stomach.

There was a shuffling sound coming from the door that led outside, and I quickly pulled away from Leon as I grabbed the towel and walked over to the sink. Leon took a seat again, still with a smile on his face as he looked over to the door. Mia waltzed in, unaware of anything – a towel was slung over her shoulder, her glasses rested on the top of her head buried in her unruly hair, and she held her thongs by the straps with her fingers – a loud sigh escaped her as she walked through into the coolness of inside.

As she approached us, she raised a brow and looked between both Leon and I. Quickly I spun around and smiled at her; she smiled back and pulled the towel off her shoulder and hung it over her arm.

"Are you guys planning on doing any more moving today?" She questioned, dropping her shoes to the floor.

Both Leon and I shrugged. "Depends on what Dom and Let wanna do the rest of the day. It might be too hot to move everything else – it can always wait until tomorrow." I emptied the ice into the sink and used the cool side of the towel and ran it over my arms to cool myself down.

Mia nodded in understanding, "guess we'll have to wait for them to come down then."

"They've gone down alright—" Leon chuckled.

Mia punched him lightly on the arm and he swayed to the side then flicked her on the shoulder. She made a face at him then threw her towel over his head and ran out of the room. Leon pulled the towel off of his head, messing up his hair in the process – I laughed as he ran his hands through it to comb it back down.

"What are you laughin' at?" He teased as he narrowed his eyes and glared at me.

I shifted my eyes away from him and continued giggling. He threw the towel at me – I caught it before it fell to the floor and threw it back at him, along with the kitchen towel. I sighed as I ran my hand across the back of my neck, "I should get back to my place and finish getting stuff packed."

"You want some help? Not like I have anything better to do," Leon shrugged as he placed the towels on the bench.

"Yeah, why not?" I smirked as I walked out of the room and headed up the stairs, taking two at a time. I got to Mia's room and leaned up against the doorframe.

She lay silently on her stomach, diagonally across her bed with her feet bent up in the air – her ankles crossed. Her folder lay in front of her, and she twirled a pen through her fingers as she studied intently. I almost didn't want to disturb her, but by the look on her face, it seemed she would welcome any sort of interruption.

"Sounds like they finally passed out," I chuckled and nodded towards Dom and Letty's room.

Mia's head shot up and when she realised it was me she smiled and laughed. "Yeah… thankfully. I thought I'd never get back to studying."

I held on to the doorframe and leaned my body into Mia's room, using the frame for support. "Le and I are goin' back to my place to pack up some more stuff. So if anybody asks…" I trailed off and gestured with my free hand a little.

"Yeah, that's cool. Are V and Jesse going with you?"

"Haven't asked them. But you know they're like – they'll offer to help, but do nothing when they get there."

Mia laughed again and nodded in understanding. "Yup, you get that with those two. Ok, I'll tell Let and Dom when they get outta there." She used her feet to point to the room across from hers.

I nodded my thanks and started to walk away. "Oh…" I quickly stuck my head back in her room and Mia looked up at me again, "…when they do get out of there, tell Dom to come by – we'll need help with a few of the boxes." I smiled when Mia nodded and quickly ran out and back down the stairs.

Leon waited at the bottom of the stairs with two sets of keys in his hand. He had his shirt back on and a pair of sunglasses covered his eyes. He handed my keys to me and we headed to our cars.

His Skyline was parked behind mine, so I waited for him to pull out of the driveway before I drove out and we made our way to my place. Well, now it was my old place – the thought made me smile – now I'd be living with a group of people, rather than by myself and they were all people I was close with which was even better.

………

I pulled up in the driveway and Leon parked at the kerb when we got there. He pushed his glasses to the top of his head as I quickly unlocked the door and we both walked in and examined the mess.

Boxes were everywhere; most were filled with random things I needed, while others were stacked, empty in the corner. Most of the heavy furniture was still there, while the TV and stereo and other light equipment had already been moved to the Toretto's.

I walked straight into my room and looked for any boxes that needed to be moved out into the main room. The mattresses had been turned on their sides and were leaning up against the wall, and only one box was placed next to them. I picked that up and placed it on top of one of the other boxes in the living room.

"What do ya need me to do?" Leon questioned as he scanned the living room.

I turned and did the same as he did and placed my hands on my hips. "Well, we just need the boxes on this end of the room in one corner so they're out of the way when the couch and bed needs to be moved out of here." I gestured to the living room, then over my shoulder at the mattresses.

He nodded and started to move boxes while I turned back into my room. I opened the doors of the walk-in cupboard and made sure there was nothing left in there – when finding nothing, I closed the doors and stared down at the rug that was placed in the middle of my room.

The rug had been there when I moved in, and wasn't necessarily ugly so it was probably worth keeping. I crouched down and slowly started to roll it up. As more of the floor was uncovered, I noticed a square of the wood flooring had been replaced with just one slab of unpainted timber.

How did I not see this before? I thought to myself as I pushed the carpet out of the way as I rested my knees on the floor so I wasn't crouching.

Leon walked in and gestured outside, "Letty's here. She just pulled up…" he looked down at the floor, "… what's that? Some secret hideout?" He walked up and crouched down next to me.

"I have no idea. I've never noticed it," I shrugged. "I never really rolled up the carpet before."

We heard Letty storm through the front door and ask where we were. Leon yelled for her to come into the bedroom and she soon appeared in the doorway.

"Wassup?" She grunted as she leaned up against the doorframe. I looked up her and commented as to why she was here when I asked for Dom. She shrugged and crossed her ankles as she balanced against the frame. I snickered and looked back down to the floor.

Set in the panel off the trapdoor lay a handle, leaving an unobstructed flat surface. I jimmied the rusted handle up and used all my strength to pull the door up. When that didn't work, both Letty and Leon helped. We finally lifted the door up and cautiously peeked into the black hole that was before us.