A barrage of sexual images flashed through his mind, images of what he would like to do to her lithe body, and what he would like it to do to him. Jess's stroking hand had been doing nothing to arouse him, but now blood rushed to his groin and caused him to harden. He shifted uncomfortably and clenched his teeth against the lust filling him.
"There are times when I wish I hadn't had a hand in raising you," Jack mumbled unhappily.
"Trust me, Jack, so do I," she replied with a laugh.
She smiled at him as she ruffled his brown hair. Jack scowled at her as he fixed his hair and smiled. Isabelle grabbed the chair from the corner and shooed Jack over to wedge it between him and Mike. She purposely kept her gaze away from Stefan and Jess. Try as she might to ignore him, she was still acutely aware of his presence and the aura of power he radiated.
"The tile in the bathroom is going to be a light rose, and the counters are going to be emerald green," she told them as she settled into her seat.
"Oh, Isabelle!" Ian moaned.
"Don't 'oh, Isabelle' me, mom and I already ordered them," she retorted as she returned the scowls her brothers gave her.
"It's so girly!" Aiden complained.
"You'll be at school most of the year!" she shot back.
"Yeah, but I don't want to get sick every time I come home."
Isabelle rolled her eyes as she folded her arms over her chest. "Just make sure you clean up after yourself when you do."
Ian slapped Ethan forcefully on the back. "Sure you don't want to change your mind and come to college with us?" Ian asked.
Ethan shook his head. "At least I can decide my room and bathroom," he mumbled.
"Well, actually—" Isabelle started.
"Don't even think about it!" Ethan interrupted.
Isabelle smiled sweetly at him. "Who's going out tonight?"
"We are!" Ian and Aiden responded eagerly.
"Jack and I are going too," David said. "What do you need?"
Her eyes involuntarily flicked toward Stefan as she turned toward them. He held her gaze for a charged moment. She was certain the air sizzled with electricity before she tore her gaze away.
"I need some cleaning supplies and other stuff." She was amazed her voice sounded completely normal.
David nodded and leaned back in his chair. "No problem, make a list."
"Thanks." She abruptly stood and fought the urge to flee from the room. "The last load should be done. You guys will be glad to know you won't have to buy new clothes this week; you'll actually have clean ones."
"I like buying new clothes!" Jack yelled after her.
"You'd better fold them nicely!" Ian taunted.
"Go to hell, Ian!" she shouted from the hall.
"I'm going to be living there on school breaks!" he shot back.
"You keep it up, and you'll be living there a lot sooner!"
"You keep it up, and you're going to wake up to a bed full of snakes," Ethan told him with a smile.
Ian shuddered and leaned back in his seat. "Snakes?" Jess blurted.
"Yeah," Ethan shivered as he made a face.
"What are you talking about?" Jess demanded.
They exchanged amused glances that piqued Stefan's curiosity.
"Ian, Ethan, and Isabelle got into a fight when she was what?" Mike asked.
"Fifteen," Ethan answered.
"Ian was thirteen, and Ethan was seventeen. I don't remember what started it."
"Ethan dared me to take all her clothes and throw them out the window," Ian recalled, a small smile on his face as his eyes took on a distant gleam.
"So I did," Ethan said with a grin. "She threw a fit. To get even with us, she put rubbing alcohol in my aftershave bottle and threw all of Ian's clothes into the lake."
Stefan leaned forward; a smile curved his mouth as he listened to the story. They all wore amused grins, and their eyes twinkled mischievously. They picked up the story where one left off with the smooth rhythm of people who know each other extremely well.
"So, of course, we put pink hair dye in her leave-in conditioner. You know, the one women leave in for over an hour or so," Ian said.
"You should have seen her!" Jack laughed. "Her hair was this muddled pink color, but her scalp was hot pink!"
"That was a good one!" Mike cried. "They took pictures of her the minute she walked out of the bathroom. The look on her face was priceless. We all had a good laugh that night."
"Yeah, after you grounded us," Ethan muttered.
They exchanged knowing grins as Ian leaned forward to continue speaking. "So then it was all out war. She put super glue in my shampoo. I had to cut all my hair off to get my hands free, and then it took another week to get all the hair off the palms of my hands. She crept into our room the next night and used Nair on Ethan's eyebrows."
Stefan stifled a laugh as he found his amusement growing by the second. He had a clear mental image of a teenage Isabelle creeping noiselessly into her brother's room with the goal of burning his eyebrows off.
"That's awful!" Jess gasped.
The looks on all their faces told Stefan they found it anything but awful. They thought it was downright hilarious, and he agreed.
"It took over a month for them to grow back, and my skin was burnt for two of those few weeks," Ethan said.
"We have some good pictures of that too," Doug said happily. "Of them both."
"Needless to say, for about a week, no one slept, and we had to buy new bottles of shampoo every day to make sure they weren’t tampered with. Finally, Ian and I cornered her, held her down, and chopped her hair off. It had been down to her waist; we cut it to beneath her ears."
"I regretted that," Ian said sadly. "She cried
