Chapter 19 Rayna
Rayna
Now that Jill is in on my secret, instead of our Christmas Eve sister sleepover entailing of us watching Christmas movies in my bed with a bottle of wine and snacks, it’s filled with her cheeky double entendres, repetitively asking if I want her to swap rooms with Koby so he can be in here with me.
“Oh my gosh, Jill. You’re like a dog with a bone.”
“I bet I know someone else with a bone-r.”
I slap my pillow across her face.
“So rude!” She laughs. Reaching over to pick up her glass from the bedside table on her side and also my eReader. Opening it up to where I stopped reading, it was right in the middle of a spicy scene. “Alright! Now we’re talking. You can totally do this with Kobs.”
I’m reading a contemporary romance set in Switzerland, and the couple are doing it up against a tree on a ski run.
“I’ll get straight onto booking that ski trip.
” Rolling my eyes at her. She scrolls through some of my ebooks, jumping to the spicy scenes and reciting them for me.
I mood read, so there is variety. Masked men in alleyways, cowboys in stables, F1 drivers in pit boxes.
That’s a little close to reality and has my face flaming.
Jill doesn’t miss a second of it and remarks, “Right! Looks like it’s a winner. Taken from behind in the pit box.” She snaps closed the eReader and hands it to me.
“Like we’ll ever have any opportunities to do that.” I take the device off her and place it in the drawer on my side’s bedside table.
A knock disrupts our conversation, and she perks up. “Oh! Maybe that’s lover boy!”
I scowl, getting up to open my bedroom door. “You are so the annoying middle child.”
Swinging the door open, Louie stands at the other end.
“Louie, what are you still doing up?”
He runs a hand through his dark-cherry hair. “Sorry, I heard you both murmuring, so wanted to come and apologise.”
Jill gets up from the bed and heads out past Louie. “I’m just going to grab some water.”
I wave Louie into my room, and Jill catches my eye and motions between me and Louie and moves both her hands to mime two people talking. To be fair; looks more like two ducks quacking at each other, but I know what she means. Nodding, I wave her off before shutting my door.
Louie sits on the bed and pats it for me to sit down next to him.
“I wanted to come up and say sorry about lunch. I know you’re fine on your own, but I worry if you’re happy.”
This is my moment. “Sorry for snapping too. Truth is…I am seeing someone. But it’s brand new.”
“Koby, right?”
Exasperated and amused, I throw my hands up. “How did you know?”
“Educated guess. But I’m really happy for you, Mum. Koby is great, and I’m happy to see you taking a step forward. Dad’s been gone for a while. I didn’t want you to miss out on finding someone special.”
“It means a lot to hear you say that, honey. I knew you wouldn’t have had an issue, but I wasn’t sure how to approach it.” I take a moment. “Well, that’s you and Jill who know.”
“Just embrace it, hey? Lean into it.”
“I will.” I smile at him and put my palm on his face.
It feels like only yesterday he was ten, sitting by my side, telling me about the latest console game he was playing. Enthusiastically informing me of his feat in progressing through the levels. Time passed by so quickly, but in the moment, it felt like it would never end.
“I’ll leave you and Aunty Jill to get back to your giggle party.” He leans over to hug me, giving me a kiss on the cheek.
“Love you, Louie.”
“Love you too, Mum,” he replies and gets off the bed and heads downstairs.
My phone buzzes on my bedside. Vibrating against the hardwood.
Forgot to tell you, hope you don’t mind, but Aria guessed we were seeing each other.
Ha! Jill worked it out when you left to drop off Aria, and I just told Louie. But he guessed too. I thought we were hiding it well?
How do you feel about them knowing? How do you want to go forward?
Looking away from my phone and thinking about the fact that people know, I’m filled with happiness.
Lifting my phone back up, I reply:
I’m happy they know. I don’t see a need to keep us hidden anymore.
Jill enters my room, and I beam up at her.
“That’s a happy smile. Things went well with Louie?”
“Really well. And Aria knows.”
“What does this mean?”
“Means we aren’t going to hide from everyone.”
We both turn when we hear the door on the opposite side of the landing creak open. Koby smiles at me, the doorframe encapsulating him. I smile back, seeing him clearly from my position.
“Oh, my goodness. You guys are fucking adorable. Go make out with him for a bit. I’ll pause the movie and wait for you.”
Getting up from my bed, I walk by Jill, who gives me a squeeze on the shoulder and a reassuring smile.
I draw her in for an embrace. While she is my sister-in-law.
There is no doubt in my mind that she is my sister.
She has always accepted me from the moment I met her and was always there for me when Wesley passed away.
I didn’t realise I needed her approval, but it feels ratified now that she knows about Koby and I.
“Get out of here.” She nods in Koby’s direction once we split from the embrace and steps to the side so I can walk through my door. She closes it behind me, and I make my way over to Koby. He steps to the side, giving me room to enter his room before he closes the door behind me.
“This doesn’t change anything. We progress our relationship as fast or slow as you want. Okay?”
I nod. “Okay.”
“Now come here.” He smirks, reaching out to grab my wrist to yank me over to him, causing my feet to lift and his arm to scoop around my waist. My toes skim the carpet.
He drops my hand on his shoulder, and my hands find the back of his neck to loop together.
His hand trails down the side of my face.
He smashes his mouth against mine, my mouth instinctively opening for him.
Why does a few days not being this close to him feel like years?
The feel of his fingers gliding down my spine, gripping my ribs.
Jill’s words help me realise I was deep in my head about my flaws. Koby doesn’t see them. He looks at me like he always did when we were teenagers. Infatuation. Exactly how I look at him. Knowing him inside and out.
I squeeze my hands around his neck, pulling my body even closer to his.
He steps backwards until he hits the bedframe and sits down on the edge.
My shins hit the mattress on either side of his legs.
Koby’s hands wrap tightly around my torso.
Pulling me down to sit on his lap. My thin pyjamas, doing very little to provide any kind of barrier between his own thin shorts.
His hands pull me further down against him.
Feeling his cock growing underneath me. My fingers make their way up his head to thread through his hair.
Interlacing and drawing him into me. One of his hands travels down to my lower back as my hips roll of their own volition.
Koby’s the one to break away first, resting his forehead against my shoulder. “We better stop. Not exactly the setting I had in mind to announce us to the family.” Pressing down on my lower back and pushing his cock against my core, making me moan softly. My pussy aches for him.
Still kneeling, I lift myself up and off his lap. I don’t know which is the better position to be in. Breaking contact with his cock or having my tits in his face.
He groans in response. “Yeah, better stop…When is everyone leaving again?”
“We’ll have an empty house in a week.”
“Fuck,” he whispers, running his lips down my sternum. Softly grazing his teeth against the delicate skin of my tits, “It’s going to be a fucking long week.”
Sighing as I close my eyes, I relax into his body. “So fucking long.”
I feel his lips continue to trail around my sternum. His hands move to my hips. “Might have to help you out and give you something to hold you over?”
“What did you have in mind?”
His teeth find my nipple pressing against the soft t-shirt material, causing me to gasp. His thumbs move down to dig into where my hips and thighs meet. Circling the delicate skin.
“MUUUUUUUUUM. Dec’s being a dick.” I hear Marla flying up the stairs, with the thudding of Declan’s feet following.
“No, I’m not!” Declan’s reply is muffled on the other side of the door.
“You guys are eighteen and twenty-two. Why am I settling this?” Jill’s voice is distant but laughing.
Koby and I still. Our eyes open instantly. While I know they wouldn’t be barging into Koby’s room, more people are coming up to this level of the house and muffled talking beyond the door is a bit weird.
Planting a very chaste kiss on Koby’s lips, I get up from the mattress. “Let’s put a pin in that.”
“Good plan,” Koby agrees, getting up from the mattress as I head towards the door.
“Night, Rookie.” I turn around and hug Koby.
“Night, Raven.” He squeezes his arms around me and reluctantly lets me go.
I return to my room and, once Jill’s kids take off back downstairs, she starts relentlessly teasing me. “That was a quickie! Have you been so backed up all he had to do was put it in and out and you were spent?”
I balk, “Didn’t even get that far! Your children ruined the mood.”
“Naw, I’m sorry. Eighteen and twenty-two, and you’d think I wasn’t going to be roped into their sibling stuff.”
“Just means you’re their safe space still.”
Jill and I wake to hear Teddy and the kids making breakfast. Jill and I exchange Merry Christmases' with huge hugs, and very respectful of our aging bodies, get out of bed, use the bathroom, and bound sensibly down the stairs for some Christmas cheer.
Our children come over to us as soon as our feet hit the bottom step and embrace us with tight hugs. Teddy comes over to kiss Jill and give me a firm hug.
I look over to Aria and Koby sitting on the lounge with bright smiles on their faces. Aria gets up to give me a warm hug and whispers. “I’m so happy for you both.”