The Funeral of a Good Girl

By – TempestRaces

Chapter Twenty Six – Of Betrayals and Credible Stories

Back in the living room, Jesse was watching Dom's mouth open and close like a fish out of water. It was clear that Dom didn't know just what to say to express himself about what he had just witnessed. Letty and Mia both looked dazed and Vince was pacing in front of the fireplace like a caged tiger. Jesse was slightly worried about what was going to happen when the fact Leon and Tempest were downstairs together finally totally occurred to him.

"Explain to me again how they came to decide they wanted to be married?" Dom asked, voice low and dangerous.

Jesse had some qualms on the situation of Dom's reaction too. His friend was seriously annoyed, and that might just have been the understatement of the century. "On the way to the diner for breakfast we took her car, and some song by Led Zeppelin started to play and Leon quizzed her about her taste in music. He sorta jokingly asked her to marry him because with her taste in cars and music it was clear they were meant for each other, in his opinion. She joked back about bein' too young to wanna settle down and that was sorta the end of that. Then she said something in French, just because she knows a little bit of it, and Leon started asking her again, to marry him and talk French to him. She told him she didn't know enough French to actually talk in it to him, and he told her he didn't care as long as it sounded French, it didn't have to make sense." Jesse smiled at the memory.

To the rest of the room, it looked like he was remembering the craziness and actually added credibility to his story.

"And how did that end up with them really getting married again?" Letty asked. She was both put out that someone got married before her and Dom, and shocked that Tempest, who she thought she knew pretty good considering they'd only known each other a week, had done something of this magnitude to Vince.

"Well, from there we ended up at the diner and he kept pestering her to say something else in French, so she said something about loving the pineapple 'cause it was the only phrase she could remember off the top of her head and he laughed when she translated it. Then he wouldn't leave her alone, so she looks up at him with this—at the time fake—look of love and rushed out something in a different language. And Leon's all like, that didn't sound like French, and she's all like, it was Italian. He's like do I wanna know what you said? And she's like, no, and Jesse really don't want to. So she wouldn't translate what she said, but then the dude behind us turns out to speak Italian and he's like she said she wants to pour honey on you and lick it off. And then it was like Leon looked down at her again and the look was just—different. And he made some crack about being willing to let her do so, if she really wanted to, because who was he to keep her from doing things she really wanted to do. But it was like he wasn't really joking anymore. And she looked back up at him and it was like she saw him differently too. And that was when they decided they were gettin' married."

"How'd they end up drunk if they decided to get married sober, at breakfast?" Vince growled.

"They insisted on getting champagne for the ride there. I mean," Jesse stammered in his haste to explain before Vince rushed him. His big friend was seriously as angry as Jesse had ever seen him. "They were gonna go whether I took them or not. If I didn't take them, they were just gonna drink the bottle of champagne on the way there, while one of them was driving. I really had no choice but take them. I couldn't find out that my cousin got killed because I thought what they were doin' was crazy and refused to go. I tried to reason with them, tried to make them take some time to think it over, but they didn't want to wait." He turned to Dominic, who was looking a bit green around the edges now that the anger was receding a bit in the face of what seemed to be the reality of the situation. "My cousin, I know you don't know her that well, but she's like gasoline. When she gets an idea into her head it's like a puddle of gas on fire. There's no dealin' with it until it burns itself out. And Leon never has been exactly the one to take his time and think things over."

"But they married each other after a week of knowing each other and seeming to look at each other as relations," Mia said, clearly in acute shock. She couldn't rationalize Tempest, the most overly analytical person she'd ever met, just up and deciding to marry Leon on a whim over breakfast. Especially not after what she'd seen in the kitchen the night before. There was something fishy going on. She just couldn't figure out what. The pair had looked at each other like they really couldn't wait to go consummate their marriage vows. They were after all, at present, in Leon's room with a bag of, what had looked like, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and honey. But when she and Vince had been together in the kitchen, they had looked so wrapped up in each other. And Tempest didn't seem like the kind of girl with such fickle attentions.

Jesse shrugged. "I dunno what to tell you. I really don't. It was what they wanted, so they said." His happiness that his friends were buying the story was tempered by the extreme anger rolling off Vince, still from Dom slightly too.

"We're going to get to the bottom of this, and the only way we're going to get the whole story is straight from them." Dom stood up. "I'm going to go find out just what they were thinking."

"Shouldn't you give them some time to come back upstairs?" Jesse asked. "I mean, you didn't hear them in the car. They're not likely in a position to talk right now. I'm just glad they waited until we got home. I would've crashed the car into a sign post or median in self defence if they'd gone any closer to finishing what they started while we were still driving along the interstate."

"I'm with Dom," Vince growled. The mental image of 'Trouble' and Leon in the back seat of her car, doing the kind of things together that she did with him was making him so angry he didn't know how it was he didn't have his shotgun in his hands yet, and Leon's besotted face in the sights.

"I think it's a really bad idea," Jesse warned again. When it was clear that Dom and Vince were going to do just what he knew they would, and not what he suggested they do instead, he rushed along with them. He wanted to make sure to pound down the stairs loud enough that his cousin had her 'husband' knew it was time to keep the prank going.

"I'm gettin' stage fright! How long is it gonna take them to decide to come give us the third degree already?" Tempest was still reclined in Leon's bed, licking chocolate sauce off her finger as she waited for the show to begin. It had already been over a minute since they'd gone down the stairs, and she really hadn't figured on Dom or Vince being able to wait more than a few seconds to come and roar at them.

"I dunno. I figured on Vince only being a second or two behind us," Leon answered. "Gimme some of that stuff. It looks good."

"It is, if you like chocolate." She sat up on her knees at the edge of the bed with a grin and squirted some of the sauce on her finger. "Here you go," she held the digit out to him. He surprised her by taking the end of her finger into his mouth and licking the sticky chocolate off.

"That is good."

"You want more?"

"Sure."

She made to hand him the bottle.

"You're not gonna keep on feeding it to me? We're supposed to be newlyweds!" He smirked.

She put another dollop on her finger. "Here you go baby," she crooned, before smearing the chocolate across his bottom lip. He licked it off and as she watched him do so, she squirted more onto her finger and ate it herself.

"Considering how neatly you eat everything else, you sure ain't good at this chocolate sauce eatin' thing. It's all over your face."

"No it isn't," she assured, despite being able to feel the sticky spots around her mouth which were proving him right.

"Yes it is." He took the bottle from her and squirted some of the sauce onto his finger before smearing it across her bottom lip. "Now it really is."

She moved to lick the sticky stuff off her lip.

"No, let me." He stopped her and leaned down close before swiping his tongue across her chocolately lower lip. "It definitely tastes better that way." He coated her lip in chocolate again, and licked it off again. He really wasn't sure what he thought he was doing, but he was going to tell himself he was just getting in character for when his friends came down to finish the prank. He looked down at his slightly dazed and confused looking partner in crime. "Aren't you gonna take care of the stuff on my lip? Isn't it only fair?" He watched as she swayed forward the slight amount needed to allow her to reach his face, watched as she copied his action, her pink tongue swiping across his lip. "Aw fuck it," he growled before taking her head in his hands and leaning down, kissing her properly, his tongue running along the seam of her lips until they parted. Her hands came up into the hair on the back of his head and her fingers started to tease it as she kissed him back almost shyly.

He tasted like chocolate and sin, and she wasn't sure what she thought she was doing. There was making a convincing practical joke, and then there was taking it one step too far. She was pretty sure what they were doing was taking it many steps too far. Like a mile worth of hard running steps past the line of acceptable. And let this be a lesson why you should never allow yourself to be taken into a hot guy's bedroom with a bag of sex food after pretending to be his wife for the last three hours, no matter who he is. Hormones have a lot to answer for!

Much as she tried to rationalize things, tried to tell herself that she had never made any sort of real commitment to Vince, she didn't really buy it, not at all. Maybe she never had made a real commitment to him. But she wasn't the kind of girl to spend a week acting like she was his girl, and then jump into the bed of one of his best friends. Whether she was free to get with another guy if she didn't want to be with Vince or not, it wasn't right for her to pick one of his friends to be that other guy, and no matter how out of her mind she was, she knew it. But it was hard to do anything about it when that other guy had his hands on her body, his lips against hers, and was kissing her in a way that proved he knew what he was about on the subject of kissing girls. Not to mention doing it all while his lips and tongue tasted like chocolate. So, right or wrong, that was why she didn't put a stop to what was going on. She knew she intended to, but the road to hell was paved with good intentions. So she didn't. She let him keep on doing what he was doing instead.

That was until she felt his hand wander down from her neck to cup one of her breasts. Before she could stop him, which she swore was what she had intended to do, he pinched her nipple gently through her shirt. Her head fell back with a moan. She was only human, and Leon knew his way around a woman's body, that was for sure. Her hands slid out of his hair to hold his shoulders. And it felt all wrong. The shoulders under her fingers were too narrow, the bones not covered by quite enough muscle. It was just wrong, and she finally saw that. No matter what he was doing to her sanity. It wasn't him she really wanted. And moreover, since it was one of his best friends that she did want to have doing those things to her, it was doublely wrong. "Leon," she whispered.

"Um?" he grunted as he started to slide the strap of her top down her arm, following its path with his mouth.

"Leon!"

"What?" he muttered against her collarbone. He knew what was coming. Not that he wanted to hear it, but he knew he was going to, and knew it was what was right. But damn, he didn't want to hear it. Not now. Just another five seconds and he would have had the enticing little pebble of flesh still hidden by her shirt in his mouth.

"This was supposed to be a prank. If we do what we're moving toward doing, it's going to stop being a prank and start being real. A real betrayal. I don't want that. I don't want to be that girl. So, much as I actually do want you, in the heat of this moment, this isn't right."

"You had to be the sane one, didn't you?" he asked, cupping her face between his hands and kissing her forehead. She nodded. "Thank you for that. You're right. I don't want to do this to my friends in the name of a joke." He slid the strap of her shirt back up her arm, almost like he needed to do so to remind himself things were done. "Much as I do want to do this for me, myself and I, I don't want to end up hurting you and them as bad as this would."

She nodded that she understood. "So, are we gonna keep up the act if they ever come down here, or just let it end with however well Jess convinced them upstairs?"

"We're gonna finish the act Gorgeous. We made a very brief, very enjoyable, mistake and now we're back on track." He crawled onto his bed and flopped back on the pillows. "Come 'ere."

She settled back with her head on his stomach and her feet hanging off the side of the bed. Just when they were comfortable they heard the sound of Jesse's footsteps pounding down the stairs. "I guess it's on then," she said, smiling. "Think you're ready?"

"I know I'm ready."

She cocked an eyebrow and waited until the footsteps stopped, figuring they were then outside the door. "Oh Leon, you got some of the chocolate in my belly button. How'm I gonna get it outta there?"

"Don't worry 'bout it Gorgeous. I'll take care of it."

She laughed breathlessly, glad that the look on his face cracked her up. "Your tongue tickles in there."

"This won't tickle," he grinned.

She forced a loud gasp. "Oh, you're right! That doesn't tickle. Don't stop!"

He put his mouth into the crook of his arm to muffle his voice and moaned.

"Is that what you were telling me you could do with your tongue in the car?"

He choked on his startled laughter when she asked her moaned question. "When I said I was gonna make you," he allowed his question to trail off, as though he'd gotten in close to her ear and was now whispering.

"Yeah," she gasped, getting into the act now that it was really all just play again.

"No. If I really wanted to make you scream," he raised an eyebrow to illustrate his point, "I'd do that with my tongue while I did this with my fingers."