Chapter the Twenty-Third
In which Feelings are confessed
A/N This is as far as things will go between Delia and Alexander while they are underage. There's no depiction of anything besides kissing and I've pushed the suggestiveness as far as I dare...one of the reasons that the story is now M.
Her brother was looking at her so intently, Delia felt like he was trying to stare through to the back of her head. She looked down; her hand was still in the ice and it was getting cold.
Alexander removed their hands from the ice and loosened Delia's grip on the can making it to fall back into the bucket, but did not let go of her hand.
She frowned, not understanding what was happening.
Alexander let himself smile. "Delia Thorn, do you know how pretty you are?"
But she could do nothing but stare at him.
"Aaron likes you...a lot. I think it's only the fact that you're Damien's daughter that has prevented him from asking you out. Thomas has probably put the fear of God into him about doing or saying anything to you that's inappropriate. I know one other boy in my class who thinks you're pretty."
"I don't care what they think." She looked down at Alexander's hand holding hers.
"Would you like to know what she looks like, the girl whom I like?"
"Okay." Delia's response was thick with uncertainty.
"She doesn't have tacky blonde hair, she has dark brown hair that shines like brown silk. Her hair is short, which makes her look like Christopher Robin and one of those flapper girls at the same time. She's constantly tucking her hair behind her left ear, which lately I've wanted to do for her. Her eyes are dark, like pools of melted chocolate. When she's displeased, she frowns and while I know it means she's unhappy with something, I've been having to stop myself from smiling whenever she does it because she looks cute. She's the smartest individual I know. The most fun I ever have is when I'm with her and simply being with her, not doing anything? I'd spend every day of my life doing that if I could. I love cooking for her and the look on her face after she eats something that I've made for her...When she comes downstairs in the morning, my chest hurts and I can't breathe and I want to kiss her. I am scared that she likes some boy, even though she says that she doesn't, and I don't know what I'm going to do if she doesn't like me back. And just in case you haven't figured it out, the girl I like is you."
"You mean you like a girl like me."
Alexander could hear and feel her confusion...and fear. "No, Delia, I like you."
And it was like a damn being opened and Delia was overwhelmed, not only with new feelings from her brother, but the release of energy that he had been using to keep those new feelings from spilling out to her.
She pulled her hand away. "We have to clean up." She got up and the two of them began clearing away the dishes, hand washing them because they couldn't go into the dishwasher. There was no food to put away, and once everything had been washed and dried, she stood in front of the hutch waiting to put away the glassware and the plates.
Alexander took the dishes from her and put everything back and looked at his sister, who was staring vacantly into the cabinet. "Delia?" His voice was quiet. He fought the urge to reach out and touch her, he didn't want to make her any more upset than she already was. "Can we please go upstairs and talk? Even in the hallway if you don't want to be alone with me in my room or yours. I don't want to talk down here, in case Cecile comes back early. She probably won't be but..."
She looked at him. "Okay."
The two of them made their way to the foyer and walked up the stairs; the dogs followed behind, their apprehensive moods matching those of their masters'.
Delia walked into her bedroom and stood at the door inviting in Alexander and leaving the dogs outside. After she closed the door, she walked to the back of her room and sat on the window seat, her legs drawn up to her chest and her left shoulder leaning against the glass as she gazed out into the woods behind their house.
Alexander had not ventured past the bedroom door and watched her sit and turn away from him.
"I don't know what happened, but I know when it happened: the pool party that Thomas threw for us when we came back from England. It was fun, and before I knew who I was, it would have ranked it high on my list as something that was all that and a bag of chips. But all I kept thinking was that later on that night, when we got home and once Damien was asleep, we'd get dressed, go outside outback, and really have fun, just the two of us.
"And you were standing there in your green bikini. Aaron was standing next to you, and you were just...you, whom I love, just my sister. You walked back to the table and the next thing I knew...you had hips, Delia, and they swayed when you walked, side to side like a sexy pendulum. Your hair was like brown silk that shone in the sun...I wanted to touch it. You...jiggled when you moved. You sat down next to me and touched my arm and it felt like when you stick your tongue on the prongs of a battery.
"Aaron sat next to you and he laughed at something you said and all I wanted to do was reach out with my mind and kill him where he sat. I've never been jealous of anyone, but at that moment I was jealous of Aaron because you were talking to him. You leaned across me to get my can of soda and...I...I glanced down your bikini top. Aaron and Emily were dragging you towards the pool and you grabbed my arm and I refused to go. I couldn't get up, you would have seen...I had to think of the most horrible things happening to Damien to make it go away, but it went away and all I wanted to do was go home; I wanted to think about you while I was alone. I've never been more happy to leave anywhere in my whole life than when Damien picked us up. I went upstairs to my room and I thought about you in that green bikini, with your hips, your hair, your jiggly bits and that time, it wasn't thinking that made it go away.
"We ended up not going outside that night, but we hung out watching television and all I wanted to do was kiss you. That night in bed I figured...I know what it is that I like about you, I'll simply find a girl who's similar to you. I'm not ashamed for being attracted to you, but, I don't know...mainly, I can't imagine you ever liking me back, so what was the point in hoping for something that was never going to happen? And that's how I fell asleep, pinning my hopes on some non-existent girl on whom I could lavish my affections.
"I came down the next morning, but you were already downstairs and all you were doing was sitting on the floor playing with your dog while Cecile prepared breakfast. You looked up and you smiled and all my big plans were gone. There you sat, in your t-shirt and shorts, smiling up at me with your shiny brown hair that makes you look a girl and a woman at the same time and I knew I had been an idiot for ever thinking that one of them could ever make me feel the way that you do. I've kept it to myself, Deedle, because what could I say? But something made me tell you and now I've upset you and I want to take it all back so we can go back to just being us."
Delia turned her head towards him. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and again, he was torn. Normally, he would have gone over to her, but didn't know what to do seeing as he was the cause of her discomfort. He had enough sense, however, to go to Delia's bedside table, get her box of tissues and hand them to her. He then resumed his post by her door.
"Is that really how you feel?"
Alexander was trying to assess Delia, but she was too upset, as he was, and he couldn't separate his feelings from her. "Yes." Alexander's stomach hurt and he was pretty sure that he was going to puke up the lunch that he had just eaten.
She sat there crying and had gone back to looking out the window. Her dog was whining at the door, sensing his mistress' discomfort; Alexander let him in and closed the door again. The dog made his way over to her, jumped up onto the window seat and began licking Delia's face and eventually settled across from her, but he sat, keeping an eye on her.
She drew in a shaky breath and blew her nose and went into the bathroom and Alexander heard the water running and soon she came out and he fought the urge to tell her that even with her red, puffy eyes she was prettier than any girl, but he had said enough already.
Delia stood near her desk, her arms folded across her chest. "I have to tell you something, but..." she put her hands over her eyes and her chest heaved as fresh tears came and she lifted her head. "But now you're going to think...Alexander, I lied...I've been lying about something."
"About what?"
"When I said that I didn't like someone."
Alexander had never been stabbed, but he had thought about it. It had taken three days after he had found out about who he was to have the same vision that Delia had had: seeing Damien murdered in the church and it had sent him to his father's room at three in the morning with a panic attack because it had felt like he had been stabbed too.
But imagining Delia with a boy? That was worse. Not only had he upset her and ruined their relationship, but now he'd have to watch her be with some boy and watch her kiss him...and touch him. Alexander was too numb to be angry.
"Is it Aaron?"
But she wouldn't answer him.
"Who is it?" Fear engulfed him.
"It's you." Delia stood there, staring at her brother, tears running down her face.
Alexander had misheard her, he had to have because it was not possible that she felt the same way about him that he felt about her...unless. "Don't."
A flash of anger moved through her. "I knew it...I knew that's what you'd think! Do you really believe that I would like you just because you're going to be the Antichrist some day!?"
"I don't know, but just don't."
Delia reached over to the window seat, grabbed a tissue and blew her nose again. She looked over at her brother. "I never understood when girls would talk about having a crush on some boy...not being able to breath, feeling your heart skip a beat, being weak in the knees...it always sounded to me like they were sick with something; how could someone ever make you feel like that?" She had stopped crying.
"Then three days after the pool party, you brought me down to the kitchen because we were going to make chicken pot pie together. I was cutting up the chicken, and you were adding flour to the broth to thicken it. You must have touched your face at some point because the next time you turned to say something to me, you had flour on your face. I laughed and pointed it out to you and you put your hand in the flour and then put your hand on my face and you said something, but what you said, I couldn't hear because where you touched me, it felt like my skin was on fire. And I looked at you and everything went away but you...your lopsided grin, the flour on your face, your hair...polished mahogany, I just wanted to run my fingers through it. I wanted to reach over and kiss you, to feel my lips on yours, my body against yours. Then my chest was tight and I couldn't breathe and for one second I thought that I was doing something to myself, hurting myself somehow, until I realized that I liked someone and that someone was you.
"I'm glad you told me. I wasn't upset because I'm disgusted or bothered by you liking me. When you first told me that you liked a girl, I was crushed; but you're my brother and I love you, so if there was some girl who made you happy, then I would help you be happy. But then you said it was me...I was just overwhelmed and then terrified that when I told you that I liked you back that you would think what you thought, that I was telling you that I liked you just to make you happy, which isn't true. Father taught me better than that, not to do things just because of who you are and I just wouldn't do that. Please don't take it back if it's true that you like me, because nothing would make me happier than you liking me the way that I like you."
Alexander could now feel what she had hidden from him. No doubt, as with him, it had been a strain keeping all of it to herself and he now purged himself of all his fear and reached out to his sister. "Please tell me again...tell me again that you like me."
"I like you, Xander and not just as my brother. You're kind and sweet and generous and cute and handsome and you make my heart skip a beat when I see you; and you're not the only one who has done things when they've been alone." She had looked him in the eyes as she had said it.
She sat on the bed and he sat next to her. "I don't care that you're my sister."
"And I don't care that you're my brother. With few exceptions, same likes same, Xander, it's the way of things. We're the only two sames there are. Maybe if we had more choice, we'd choose others, but we don't, so I'm very happy to have you and very happy that you feel the same way that I do. I'm not going to waste my time feeling guilty for things that people don't understand. I don't think that there's a word for one of us being with one of them. That father took one for the team, so to speak, I'm grateful because we wouldn't be here, but I don't like any of them, I never will."
Her hair had come out from behind her ears and this time Alexander let himself do what he had wanted to do for weeks: he reached over and tucked her hair behind her ear.
Delia giggled. "My eyes are like pools of chocolate?"
"Brown is not one of your more praised colors when it comes to wooing girls, but I'll take brown hair and eyes to blonde hair and blue eyes any day...polished mahogany, huh?" Alexander broke out into laughter and soon the two of them were in a fits of hysterics.
She eventually shrugged. "What else am I supposed to say after I get my hair is like brown silk? Plus, I thought that mahogany sounded masculine." She put her arm inside of Alexander's and leaned her head against his shoulder. "You and father aren't the only ones who think that I look like Christopher Robin. I keep getting 'can Pooh and Tigger come out to play?' from Emily's friends whenever they see me. I think I might have to let it grow out a bit, but you are the only one who thinks I look like a flapper."
Both of them could feel the release of tension and knew it was not just them, as Delia's dog was now curled up on the window seat, asleep.
"Delia, can I hold your hand?"
They turned towards each other and she offered her right hand to her brother and the two of them pressed their palms together and slotted their fingers in between the spaces of the other's fingers. They had, of course, held hands with each other before, but this was different.
They looked at each other and gone were any feelings of doubt. Instead, they allowed themselves to be filled with desire and then each sent it out, letting the tendrils of their arousal encompass the other in unbridled, shameless want.
Delia looked down at the bed on which they were sitting and she stood and Alexander followed suit. Both knew that there was much to talk about, but now was not the time to do it; their minds and bodies wanted other things right now besides complicated conversation.
Alexander took Delia's other hand. "I've never kissed anybody before."
She laughed. "Liar, you've kissed me plenty of times; you've kissed Damien plenty of times."
"Not the way I want to kiss you, the way I'm going to kiss you and please don't let's talk about father right now. What if I'm a bad kisser?" He looked at Delia in horror, suddenly understanding that he might turn her off with his lack of kissing skills.
"Xander, you become a good kisser the same way you get to Carnegie Hall..."
"Practice, practice, practice?" He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Very good." She smiled at him and she looked him in the eyes, not breaking her gaze with him.
"What's wrong?" Alexander tried to not let panic fill his voice, but he didn't do a very good job of it.
"Nothing. I'm about to have my first romantic kiss with the boy that I like; I want to remember it."
"Delia Thorn...so there are some things that you're girly about, after all." He tucked her hair behind her left ear again.
Each looked at the other, fixing in their minds whatever each thought was important about what was transpiring. Finally, Delia put her arms around Alexander's neck; Alexander moved his hands around Delia's waist and each pulled the other closer. Delia tilted her head to the left, Xander to the right and they brought their heads towards each other and their mouths met and time and the world dissolved into nothingness...
The kissing was gentle at first. Each was unsure of what he or she was doing and for Alexander, he was worried about doing anything to Delia that felt like force. He had tried keeping his eyes open, but the feeling of her mouth on his was too much and he surrendered to the experience and closed his eyes.
Delia began pressing her lips against Alexander's mouth with more intensity than he was currently using on hers and she kept up the pressure, but he refused to to return the hardness of her kiss, even after she sent a message that it was okay. She pulled her mouth away and looked at her brother, who still had his eyes closed and didn't hide his disappointment at Delia stopping what she was doing.
"Alexander, I love and trust you and I know you're not going to hurt me. I'm not some delicate flower you're going to crush if you're...enthusiastic."
He had opened his eyes by this point.
She smiled at him, a knowing smile that she had never before given to anyone. "We're competitive with each other, we push each other to do more and to be better, so when I push, push back."
He met her words with his mouth; a mouth whose owner no longer wanted to hide the fact that he wanted to devour Delia and he let her know that his desire for her was unquenchable.
Delia's hands moved from around her brother's neck to his lower back and she began backing them up towards her closed bedroom door. She turned, so that she would be the one against the door, but she tripped and she staggered back, bringing Alexander with her, until she banged her head against the door, which rattled against the impact.
"Are you okay?"
"Don't stop." She pulled him closer to her and placed her mouth back on his, but he pulled away.
"But you hit your head."
The words had barely left his mouth when Delia fiercely pressed her lips against his and he knew she was fine and he allowed himself once more to be swept away in the tidal wave of pleasure, and as Alexander kissed her, he understood. They may not have done anything like this before, but they had not been raised with hang-ups about sex, or taught to be afraid of their bodies; this was about experimenting, as far as Delia was willing to go. Later, they would make rules and boundaries about what could and couldn't be done, but for this moment, he would do, and if she refused him, he would stop whatever it was that he was doing and move on to something else.
Alexander pulled his mouth away from hers and began moving his mouth down her neck and he heard her make a noise that he had never heard her make before. Her hands went to his head and she grasped a fistful of his hair and for one second, he thought that she was going to yank him away, but then realized that she had grabbed him in a state of erotic urgency.
"Alexander," she moaned and then began laughing as what he was doing was also tickling her. She opened her eyes and watched his head nestled into her neck. "Whatever you do, don't give me a hickey."
He kissed up the side of her neck and made his way back to her mouth, but he teased her, pulling away before his mouth landed on hers. Alexander bent down and whispered into her ear and he nibbled her earlobe, which made her giggle again and sent shivers over her body.
"Yay, naughty talk! Shall I show you what kind of interesting words your sister knows? I know lots of them; I know those words, too."
"I wonder what other ones we know that are the same." Both giggled now and he buried his face into Delia's neck again.
"I know a word, Xander, that depending on how you use it can be very naughty." Her voice was sing-song. "And it begins with the letter h."
Full of worry, he regarded his sister. "Do you like the way it feels?"
"Very much." She bit her lower lip and the two of them looked at each other as she kept Alexander pressed against her. "That's as far as I'm willing to go, for right now. I mean, I'd theoretically be okay in keeping doing what we've been doing up to this point, but not more than that, understand?"
"I understand. I would have been happy with you holding my hand." A wicked smile sat on his face. "I'm glad, however that there was more." Alexander was suddenly filled with concern. "You didn't do anything you didn't want to do, did you? I didn't make you do anything you didn't want to do?"
"No, it was all consensual making-out and I'd be okay with us keeping the make-out session going, but Cecile is going to be back soon and I think we need to talk about some things first. However, all the blood from our brains is currently being used elsewhere, so I think it might be better if we do something about that...on our own." Delia reached out and tenderly kissed Alexander on the lips. "You stay here and I'll go to your room, that will give us something to think about later, but I'll do it on two conditions."
Alexander made a noise that he hoped sounded like okay.
"I don't know what you normally do, but if you want to stay here, then you have to take off all of your clothes and second, I'll leave the door open between our rooms if you promise not to come and look...I'll take my clothes off, too."
The thought of his sister naked in his bed was almost too much for Alexander to take and he could only nod in agreement to her request.
She opened her bedroom door for Milo to leave and then closed the door behind him. She then made her way to the door that separated their bedrooms. "Just be careful." She frowned, but it was meant to tease her brother then she opened the door and entered Alexander's bedroom and as promised, she left the door open.
Alexander tried not to think of Delia in there, not yet anyway. He smiled and began taking off his clothes...
...oOo...
He sat on his sister's bed flipping through a sex manual while he waited for her to come back in. The manuals, for she had more than one, were apparently a new addition to the stash of materials kept in the drawers under her bed. Both of their stuff was kept in her room, they figured Delia would be afforded more privacy since she was a girl, so the drawer was full of cherry bombs, firecrackers, cigarettes, and booze syphoned-off from the bottles in Damien's liquor cabinet.
He looked over to the bookcase. He, like Delia, had books about where babies came from and changes to your body during puberty, but those books weren't helpful for what they were now experiencing and she had apparently approached Anna and asked her to get the manuals, no doubt when her feelings for him had surfaced.
All three dogs were in the room when Delia finally returned. She threw herself on the bed, stomach first, and then reached over and pet her dog.
Alexander looked at his sister and smiled. "I got curious and went snooping...good thing...three times...had to look in here to see what was up with that." He held up the book.
Delia laughed. "And that was me being quick and foregoing what could have been at least two more times."
He shook his head. "I think I'm going to have to step up my game."
"I'll say, Quick-Draw McGraw." Delia smirked and sat up and reached over and kissed him on the cheek. "Next time when you're alone, make yourself wait and when you're ready, count to ten and then...you know..."
Alexander gazed into her eyes and she smiled at him. He reached up and touched her cheek and her eyelids fluttered closed and she sighed. "Delia, how do we do this? All I want is you," his voice was a whisper.
She opened her eyes. "I know. It was easier before. It's like it fit in a tiny box, but now, it's all too big to go back in. How do I take everything I feel and hide it?"
"He'll never believe that we can keep this a secret."
Delia snorted. "I'm not sure we can, either."
"Damien Thorn taught his children to be tricky and clever, now we use it to our advantage."
"And hope that if he finds out, he doesn't beat us to within an inch of our lives for making a fool of him. Speaking of things father taught us...I used to have quite the temper when I was younger."
"Used to?"
Delia reached across and punched her brother in the arm. "Yes, used to. Do you remember everything I taught you when father was teaching me?"
Damien had shown his daughter how to visualize her anger, how to make it small enough to fit inside of a box for only when she controlled her anger could she set it free to do her bidding. It had been unsuccessful at first, but when Alexander had bugged Delia to show him what Damien was teaching her, she had obliged her brother and in showing him, she had helped herself, which had, or course, been part of their father's plan.
Alexander closed his eyes, held out his hand and imagined his desire for Delia and it didn't take long until he could see it. "Deedle, it's green and it looks like a lumpy basketball."
"Why green?"
He smiled lasciviously at her. "Because that's the color of your bikini, Junior." As if in response to his lustful thoughts, the ball seemed to darken and get bigger. "What about you?"
Delia didn't need to hold out her hand, she simply closed her eyes. It was a ball of luminous brown, the color of Alexander's hair. It was the size of a softball and smooth and it spun furiously, wanting to take Delia and sweep her up in its turbulence. Learning to reign in her temper seemed like the simplest thing in the world compared to controlling her new found, hormonally-fuelled desires.
"It's in a box, Xander, and that box has a lock. That lock must never be opened when we are not in our rooms, it is that simple." She opened her eyes and looked at her brother; he still had his eyes closed...all she wanted was his mouth on hers again. "Okay, maybe not that simple."
They knew they should keep practising, but it wasn't what either of them wanted right now. Alexander leaned over and kissed Delia, who reciprocated.
"I can't kiss you while we're on the bed."
"I know, it makes it harder to stop at just kissing." He got up, extended his hand to her; she took it and stood. Alexander started to lead them back to the door.
"Hang on." Delia flopped stomach first back onto the bed and reached over for her alarm clock and set it to give them thirty minutes and then joined Alexander. "When it goes off, we go downstairs." She leaned against the door and pulled him to her.
"Not that kissing you right here doesn't make me want to do more."
"I know the feeling."
But Alexander didn't want to talk anymore and he pressed his mouth firmly against Delia's.
Alexander's warm mouth on hers made her knees buckle and what was quickly becoming a familiar sensation of butterflies fluttering in her stomach possessed her, and for the second time that day, everything else except for the both of them disappeared.
...oOo...
Two-thirty found them downstairs. Alexander put some ice cream in a bowl for Delia and vanilla custard in a bowl for him and put fruit salad on both and brought them to the table. She had grabbed spoons and they now sat eating their snack.
Knowing now how much it pleased him, she complimented his culinary skills, since it had been he who had made the fruit salad. "It's very yummy and yet somehow only the second best tasting thing that's touched my lips today."
"I'm glad you like it." He put a spoonful frozen custard in his mouth, and then looked at her. "We're sure we're doing this? Not telling him?"
"You know as well as I do that he'd stop us. If I were him, I wouldn't think that we could keep it a secret. There's too much to lose if this comes out...we know that and that's why we can't ever do things outside of our rooms and for now, when he's at home. That's why we need to take things slowly so that we can get used to these new and very nice things we're doing." Delia tossed a grape to her dog.
"Can I ask you something?"
She smiled at him. "You can ask me anything you want."
"Do you have pretty underclothes?" Alexander was trying to control himself, to ask his sister the question without having that feeling in his gut and elsewhere.
"What do you mean by pretty?"
"You know, like the girls in the magazines wear. Frilly things...pink and lace and silk. Do you have things like that?"
Delia could do nothing but stare at her brother. She never would have pegged him as going in for all that frilly stuff, but she eventually shook her head. "No, but I don't understand...you like those girls? I was under the impression that they left you cold."
Alexander had told her how Ryan Parsons had given him some porn magazines and they hadn't done a thing for him. Knowing who and what he was, he now understood why. "No, they're just women, but I like what they wear. Do you think you could buy some...you know...like a matching set of underthings?"
"Really?"
"Nothing fancy with weird stuff, just the bottom and top pieces that you could wear when we go back to school."
They'd be starting a new school soon and already they knew that for most of their classes, they'd be separated, but it could usually be counted on that they would share a class or two, usually art and gym. Delia thought about sitting in that class, in her frilly underthings with Alexander sitting beside her, knowing what she was wearing under her uniform and a heat began in her stomach and spread up until she felt her face flush.
"Delia, you have no idea how much I like this side of you." All he wanted to do was take her in his arms and kiss her.
"What side?"
"This side, all vulnerable and soft...with the understanding, however, that you are completely capable of kicking my ass at a moment's notice." Alexander was still a few inches shorter than his sister, not to mention thinner.
"And don't you forget it. Sometime this week, I'll get Anna to take me to a real lingerie shop." She was suddenly overwhelmed with fear from her brother. "She's not going to suspect anything. When she first took me to buy my unmentionables, she asked me if I wanted frilly stuff but I said no. She said that most women bought things like that for themselves anyway and that's exactly what I'll tell her."
"And you'll wear them on the first day of school?"
"I'll have more than one pair and I can change into one when I come home from the store...if that's what you'd like." She smiled coyly at him.
"I very much like and Deedle, this isn't about trying to get you to do stuff. If there's anything you want me to do, tell me; I want to make you happy." And it was true. He'd always wanted to please her, but somehow this was different, though he couldn't quite put his finger on how.
"For now, you just keep feeding me; although, if I keep eating it, you're going to end up with a fat sister."
"Just more of you to love, Sweetpea."
"You say that now..."
"And you three." He turned his attention to the dogs, who, realizing that they were being addressed, faced Alexander. "Had better keep what you see and hear to yourselves, or it's off to the glue factory with the lot of you."
"I think the glue factory is for horses."
"Then no more belly scratches." He gave his dog a hard stare, but Milo wasn't buying it and he came over and gave his master's face a sloppy lick. Alexander kissed the top of his dog's head. "I'm glad we all understand each other."
Alexander began clearing away the dishes and Delia followed him to the kitchen. "How was the kissing?" He was busy loading plates and things into the dishwasher so he could use that as an excuse to not have to turn around to look at her.
Again, a blush rose up her face. "The kissing was very good."
"Was it perfect?" He put the last item into the dishwasher, stood up, closed the door and looked hopefully at her.
"Xander, I'm afraid I have terrible news. Your kissing needs a lot of work and I gladly accept the burden of making you a better kisser."
He smiled; she was flirting with him again.
"I liked that it was us; it was fun, but romantic and sexy at the same time. How was it for you?" She too now was worried that she had been a less than acceptable kisser.
"It was way better than I imagined it. It was us. I was worried that it we'd be different, but it was just us doing something new and I really like that you're naughty...and kind of a girly-girl about some things."
"Well, your sister is pleasantly surprise by the girly-girl part, but she's always known that she was naughty and one day, she'll show you exactly how naughty she can be." She winked at him and began pulling out the makings for the condiments that would be used with that night's dinner.
It was while they were preparing dinner that they heard the front door; Cecile was home. Smiles flitted across their mouths as they regarded each other...how much their world had changed since she had been gone.
"Hello, you two." Cecile put her bags on the counter.
"Did you have a good lunch?" Delia looked up from dicing her tomatoes.
"It was very nice, thank-you. I went to that new trattoria. We'll have to go sometime, Alexander; they make great Tuscan food there."
"Sure!" He didn't have to fake any excitement. When it came to cooking, he was a sponge, ready to soak up anything that might make him better.
Delia kept going with slicing, chopping or dicing things and eventually stopped to watch her brother continue. Since he had come clean about his desire to cook, she liked watching him; it was like watching him dance to music that she couldn't hear. Now it was different, now she wanted to watch him because she couldn't get enough of him.
Once everything was cooking, Cecile left; Alexander would finish the meal and it wasn't more than fifteen minutes after Cecile left that Damien's dog got up and went to greet his master at the door.
