Page 10 of Hot n Bothered

H ands covered her eyes.

“Gah!” Isobelle screamed in shock.

The hands moved and she could now see Ben chuckling at her.

“Dick.” She shoved him. “Why did you make me jump like that?”

“You were ignoring me when I called your name. You were so locked in. Here.” He held out a bottle of water. “You need to keep hydrated.”

She took the bottle, meaning to put it straight down. But she realised how thirsty she was, so instead she drained half of it in one go. Then stretched, wincing at her cramping muscles.

“How long have I been writing?” She asked trying to rub the kinks out of her back.

“About three hours.” Ben replied moving behind her. Knocking her hands away and replacing them with his. “What’s this one about?”

She almost groaned in pleasure at the magic his hands were working on her back.

“This one is what happens if Death falls in love and you can’t kill the one you love.” She sighed, relaxing back into his touch. Her muscles melting as he worked on them.

“Wow, that’s a strong hook. So who is the lucky immortal girl? Or is it a boy?”

“Woman, not girl. Her name is Calliope, but she wouldn’t say she’s lucky.”

“Oh no? Death not a good enough boyfriend? I thought it would be cool having Death being in love with you.”

“Well, the reason why she doesn’t think she’s lucky is that she has no idea. Death cannot tell her so she has no idea why she’s immortal.”

“Why can’t he tell her?”

“Because of the Rules the Perpetuals have to live by.”

“Perpetuals?”

“Yep. They are made up of Death, Time, Dream, Fate, Faith, Truth and Deceit. Death has to watch Calliope fall in love with someone else, have her heart broken, be hounded out of her home several times, be tortured for being a witch and come to hate him for his decision and not ever be able to explain why.”

“Those are some shitty rules.”

“It’s to protect them. If he tells her then that means mortals can have dominion over him.

Can you imagine a world where Death is captured?

Everyone will grow old, but no one will die.

There will still be wars and disease and famine.

Imagine the eternal suffering. That’s why he can never say it to her, no matter how much he wants to. ”

“Fuck Belle, your mind is astounding. Is this almost done because after I read the one about Morgan and Eric I have to read this.”

“You don’t have to say that. I’m sure you’d hate them.”

“Do I have to pinch you again?”

She went to scuttle away from him, but he caught her round the waist keeping her in place.

“Well?”

“No. But I thought your reading level was cooking books. Or Disney. No! Ben! Stop!” She squealed laughing as he pressed his lips to her neck blowing raspberries. Her elbow caught his gut in her attempts to move away.

“Oof.” He grunted dropping his forehead onto her shoulder. “That’s a vicious assault there.”

“Sorry.” She winced. “Are you alright?”

“I will be. Seriously though, do you sharpen those elbows? They are lethal weapons.” He chuckled and pressed a kiss to her neck. “You ready to pack up? Those clouds are looking a little threatening.”

“Yeah… hang on. Did you say I’ve been writing for three hours?” She checked her watch. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because I was also locked into working and didn’t notice the time myself.” He said. “Can you stand? Do you need help?”

She huffed a sigh. “I know you think I’m just Darren’s baby sister. But I’m not an actual baby. I can stand easily.”

She pushed herself up mentally pleading with her legs to keep her upright. The way she had been sat meant her left leg was completely numb and she wasn’t sure it could support her.

Thankfully it did so she helped him pack everything up into the basket. His hand slipped into hers again, fingers interlocking. It was stupid how such a small thing felt so good.

“So what do you want to do tonight?” He asked as they walked.

“You don’t have to do anything tonight. You’ve already spent most of the day with me.”

“Yes I do. Remember you totally suck at lying. The twins are apparently going to be asking you lots of questions trying to trip you up.”

She frowned up at him. “How do you know that?” She asked.

“Darren texted me earlier. He said T and A will ask what dates we’ve been on. So I figure if we go on plenty of dates for the next three days then you can talk about them. You don’t have to give them specific dates or times.”

She chewed on her nail, it would make sense.

“Also you have to tell me why you call them T and A. Because each time I ask Darren he just laughs and says to ask you.”

She burst out laughing. “Yeah, that would be my fault. Ok, first you need to be made aware their names are Tanya and Anya.”

Ben snorted. “Now I know you’re taking the piss.” He glanced at her, then did a double take at her raised eyebrows. “You have to be kidding. What parent in their right mind would name their twins Tanya and Anya?”

“That would be my parents.” She grinned wickedly, knowing where his next thought would be.

“So obviously, T is Tanya and A is Anya?” He raised his eyebrows at her grin. “Or is it? Why little Miss Belle, did you give them nicknames?”

She shrugged innocently. “I may have.”

“So come on, share with your boyfriend.”

“It’s the way to tell them apart. T is actually Anya.”

He frowned at her, dropping her hand to fish his car keys out of his pocket.

“Don’t make me beg Belle.”

She held up her hands in front of her chest in the universal sign of big tits. He stared at her for a moment before he doubled over laughing.

“Yep. As Joey would say, if she ever fell over she’d be fine as she’s got her own set of airbags.”

She loved it when he laughed this hard. Especially when he did the cutest little snort which showed he was completely out of control.

“Oh God don’t tell me.” He gasped.

She nodded. “Tanya is all arse.”

There was that cute snort making her giggle.

“You have to be making this up. Please tell me you are making this up.” He was leaning a hand on the car still laughing hard. “No way can my sweet little Belle be that catty.”

His what now? Had she heard him correctly? She could feel her face heat as her heart pounded at those four simple words.

My sweet little Belle.

She was frozen in shock, her stupid mind overthinking it, trying to find meaning in it when it was glaringly obvious what he meant.

Sweet little baby sister Belle. That’s it.

Now her flush was embarrassment and anger at herself for being so stupid. Thankfully Ben was putting bags in the car so couldn’t see her.

“Yeah, well I’m not as sweet and innocent as you think I am.” She muttered. “Besides, they really pissed me off.”

“What did they do?”

“Made a sandwich.” She got into the car.

“How did..?” He stopped, the realisation dawning on him before he started the car. “They didn’t.”

She nodded, looking down at her hands. “It was Mike.”

Ben knew who Mike was. A few years ago a drunken night of truths had everyone talking about who had taken their v-card.

While she had joked about it, he had known she was hiding something.

So while everyone else snored in his house, they’d sat out on the decking talking.

She’d confessed that Mike had been her first love and pretty much the day after she slept with him, he’d dumped her.

He’d commiserated her and called him every name under the sun. Being a good friend, he’d also said that he was the one missing out because any man would be lucky to have her as a girlfriend. Up to now she’d never told anyone, other than Darren, the reason behind the breakup.

“Fucking Hell. Who goes after their sister’s boyfriend?”

“T and A.” She shrugged. “It’s my fault. I mean, it’s not like they haven’t done it before.”

Ben’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. His knuckles were white and he clenched his jaw. She’d never seen him this angry before.

“Looking back it was a good thing.” She said. “I mean he was a shit shag anyway. Besides they also destroyed him. He dumped me for them and after they’d got the desired effect they ghosted him.”

He looked at her. “A shit shag huh? I hope you found someone who treated you properly.”

“The next one was pretty good.”

He raised his eyebrows as he started the car. “Pretty good? That sounds like they did the bare minimum. You shouldn’t settle for that.”

She snorted. “The bare minimum would still be better than Mike. No, the next one went above and beyond.”

“Do I get a name?”

She blushed. “Absolutely not.”

“Why not? I need to know who my competition is.”

She rolled her eyes. “Firstly no competition. No one has come close to him.” What had possessed her to say that? Technically it was true, he just didn’t need to know it was him. “You’re not even going to try and secondly you’d tell Darren.”

“And you don’t want him to know?”

“No.”

“So it’s a friend of his?”

She shot a glare at him. “I’m not telling you just drop it.”

“Alright. But there is something that you need to hear.”

“What?”

“I’d never cheat on you.”

“Of course not. Darren would kill you. But seriously, maybe I should show you what the twins look like. Just so you can see if you can withstand the temptation.”

He sighed as he pulled into a parking spot outside her flat, turning to her.

“Belle. You didn’t hear me. I’d never cheat on you. Don’t care what they look like, what they do or say. If they’re not you, I’m not interested.”

Those beautiful blue eyes of his never left hers as he spoke. And dammit if she didn’t want him to mean it because she actually fell even more in love with him right then.