“Just the blinds for now,” she said with a shy smile, blushingslightly at his choice of words. “Oh, and maybe a mirror somewhereon the bathroom wall where I can reach to see myreflection.”
“Oh… Becky, poor little thing.” He chuckled, leaning forwardand resting his forehead against hers. “Of course.”
The very nextday, a proper set of blinds were hung in place at the bathroomwindow along with an ergonomically correct mirror for Becky’spersonal use. She watched from the hall as Kelley attached theblinds and Crispin hung the mirror.
“How’s this, Becky?” Crispin asked, gesturing for her to stepup next to him. He chuckled when he still had to lower it a fewmore inches to accommodate her.
“Thank you,” she said, looking bashfully between Crispin andKelley.
“Now you can take your showers without worrying about exposingyour girlie bits to the world,” Crispin teased.
“Right…” She blushed.
“No more falling in the tub,” Kelley said, ruffling herhair.
“And now with this mirror, you can primp all you want for whenJax comes to call,” Crispin said with a conspiring wink.
“Yeah, right,” Kelley huffed, taking his tools and walkingoff.
“Why would you say that?” Becky asked Crispin with afrown.
“Come on, Becky, you know Jax is smitten with you. Somethingabout you calls to Goth boys, I suppose,” he said with a curioussmile.
Becky couldn’thelp but pout. There was only one Goth boy she was interested in.But so far, Kelley hadn’t shown any romantic interest in her. Well,except for that time at her locker. Actually, there had been othermoments she could have sworn she sensed his attraction to her.There was something there in the way he had run his hands over herbody when she’d fallen in the tub. The few times she’d snuck intohis bed, he’d held her so tenderly, whispered so many reassurancesin her ear. Then again, perhaps he was only being kind since hergranny had so recently passed away.
In actuality,Becky was quite confused about the whole thing. She hadn’t evencontemplated Jax as a possible romantic interest. Not that therewas anything wrong with Jax. Despite his extreme Gothness, andmultiple piercings, he had a sweet enough face and he had shown herquite a bit of attention, so much so that she tended to shy awayfrom him when he came by the house. Which, by the way, had becomequite often, ever since that first night when he had dropped by tohang out with the guys, and found Becky in their midst. He’d beenquite pleasantly surprised to be introduced to her that firstnight. In fact, he hadn’t been able to take his iceberg blue eyesoff her.
Jax was notquite as tall as Kelley, Crispin or Dorian. He was just under sixfoot. Tall enough for her, though, being only five foot nothing. Hehad platinum blonde, shoulder length hair that he wore flat ironedstraight. He was extremely slim, but in a good way, like a model ora runner. There was definitely nothing wrong with Jax, but he justwasn’t Kelley.
“Are you telling me that you’re not the least bit interested?”Crispin asked with a frown. In his mind, this was a perfectsolution to his anxiety about Becky coming in between Kelley andthe band. “He seems like a super nice guy.” He added with aconspiring wink and an enticing smile.
“I’m sure he is,” she said with a sigh. But he’s not Kelley.
“You could do much worse,” he said, leaning down, looking intoher green eyes. “He talks about you all the time when you’re notaround.”
“Oh? What does he say?” she asked, suddenly curious.
“Well, just that he finds you quite to his liking,” Crispinsaid, not wanting to give specifics. Truth be told, Jax had beenquite graphic in his admiration of Becky’s womanly attributes. “Heasked me if you were seeing someone.”
“What did you say?” she asked, furrowing her brow.
“I said no, of course. I’m right, aren’t I?”
“I suppose,” she said pensively. Even though her heart wantedKelley, it didn’t mean he wanted her back.
“He even asked me to put in a good word for him. He wanted meto ask you if had any interest in him. Apparently he thinks you’reavoiding him.”
“I’m not avoiding him… not really. I just don’t know him,that’s all,” she explained.
“Well, perhaps this is a good opportunity to get to know him,”Crispin said. “Don’t look so worried, dormouse. Apparently he’squite into vanilla, so you’ll be just fine, if not a tad bored, butwho am I to judge?” he added with a mischievous grin. Then hisexpression softened ever so subtly, his grey eyes taking on a warmglint. “I suppose under the circumstances, I might even consider –oh, never mind.”
“What does that even mean, vanilla?” she asked, watching himchuckle and shake his head, ruffling her hair with his largehand.
“What does Kelley think about all this?” she asked when hedidn’t elaborate.
“Kelley… what does it matter what he thinks?” Crispin scoffedimpatiently. “This is between you and Jax.”
“And you, obviously!” she said, getting frustrated at hisinsistent matchmaking.
“Fine, forget it! Stay a naive little virgin forever, for all Icare,” Crispin spat as he stalked off.
Becky couldn’thelp but frown at Crispin’s insensitive comment. Perhaps he wasright, though. Being a virgin forever wasn’t in the least bitappealing. Besides, Jax wasn’t such a bad guy, and if Crispinthought she should get to know him, then what would it hurt? As forthe vanilla thing, she really had no idea what he meant bythat.
All she didknow is she didn’t want to stay a virgin forever, no matter howscary surrendering her body to a guy she didn’t really know mightbe. Maybe she should get to know Jax a bit better. Perhaps nexttime he drops by she won’t be so eager to retreat to her room.
Chapter 15
“Not that Icare, but what’s with you pushing Becky onto Jax, all of a sudden?”Kell asked as they set up for band practice.
Crispin scoffedincredulously. “Because he likes her?”
“So what if he likes her?” Kell insisted. “What’s in it foryou?”
“Peace of mind,” Crispin said with a shrug.
“That way he doesn’t have to worry about Becky coming inbetween you and the band.” Dorian chuckled. “Isn’t that right,Crisp?”
“Really?” Kell asked with a scowl, wishing his nosy housemateswould stay out of
