Storm Warning

The topic is avoided for most of the day. They set off walking from the cottage and Jeff takes her to all his favorite spots, starting with breakfast brunch at the tiny cafe in town. The other patrons greet him by name, the waitress knows his order without asking, and the busboy apparently shares some of the same friends with him, having been at Steven's party the day before. She glances over at Jeff when the guy mentions it and he shifts uncomfortably in his seat like he really doesn't want to talk about it but he humors the guy anyway and once they're alone again, she changes the subject completely, pretending like it hadn't even come up at all.

After eating, they move on to the rest of his list and Lyla definitely didn't wear the right shoes for all the walking but she doesn't complain because he seems really excited to show her each of the places he takes her to. It's nearing three o'clock by the time they reach the final spot and she can definitely see why he left this one for last. There's nothing nearby so it's easily hidden, the opening completely covered up by trees and thick brush. The pathway takes them deeper into the woods but only a few minutes later, they emerge on the other side, coming out directly at the edge of the lake. There's a short dock a little further down so they walk along the edge of the water down to it and then out to the end to sit down with their feet dangling over the edge.

"This view is gorgeous," she says dreamily, looking out at the landscape before them. The sky is a dull gray and the wind is starting to pick up a little, rustling through the trees around them, but this is the prettiest scene she's looked at in awhile.

"Better with you in it," he mumbles in return, and Lyla grins at his use of the phrase again as she laces her arm through his and leans her head on his shoulder.

"So can I ask you a question?"

"Anything."

"What exactly did you say to them?"

Jeff sighs because he knew it was coming eventually and he's a little embarrassed about how pissed off he was. "I told them if they wanted to talk shit about someone right in front of their face, they should try using a language that person isn't fluent in. "

"You didn't," she says, the laugh she's trying to hold back seeping though into her words anyway as she sits up straight to look at him, biting her lip to contain her smile.

"I did."

"And what did they say?"

"They started trying to stutter out excuses and apologies. Mia cried and then everyone else had to know what was going on."

"Oh God," she groans, shaking her head and dropping her face into her hands because now all of his friends probably think she's some whiny tattle tale. That was so not the point of having that conversation with him last night.

He reaches around to rub her back before settling his hand on her shoulder and squeezing reassuringly. "They had to know it's not okay with me, them talking about you like that. They're supposed to be my friends."

"Did you ever think maybe she's jealous?"

"No, she's the one who broke it off. She's just a bitch."

"She had no idea what she was giving up then and I think she knows that now. Maybe she's just realizing how wonderful you are and regretting letting you go."

Jeff flushes a little and ducks his head down bashfully, trying to hide the little grin that's denting his cheeks in. "She's just pissed I'm doing fine without her."

"Well I, for one, am really happy about that." She grins and bumps her shoulder against his, or against his upper arm anyway since his shoulder is so much higher up than hers, and a looks up at the dreary sky just in time for a lone raindrop to splat right down against her cheek. "We should get back to the house before it starts pouring," she says softly, swiping at the moisture with the back of her hand.

"Yeah," he agrees, but he makes no move to actually get up from the dock. Instead, he leans in to press his lips to hers and she knows the rain is coming and they should probably get going like right now, but she lets him kiss her anyway because she knows he needs to and besides, she enjoys it too much.

The rain starts to fall more into a steady drizzle than just a few sporadic rain drops and she finally pulls back a little to catch her breath, resting her forehead against his and softly saying his name. "Yeah," he agrees, already knowing what she was going to say. "The house."

He gets up first and then pulls her up next to him and they take off back down the dock and into the woods. It's quite a little trek all the way back and the rain only starts coming down harder the longer they're out there in it. By the time they finally reach the perfectly manicured front yard of the house, they're both soaked to the skin; it wasn't even hot today to begin with, but adding the rain and cool winds is enough to have them shivering as they finally stumble through the front door. Lyla kicks off her pretty much ruined sandals and tightly crosses her arms over her chest to conserve her warmth as Jeff shuts the door behind them and kicks off his own shoes and then when he finally turns back around to face her, it's immediately tense like it never has been before.

They kind of just stand there staring at each other for a few moments, still breathing heavy from the running and both tentative, unsure of what the other is going to do next. Finally, Jeff begins to move toward her, bottom lip caught between his teeth, and her arms drop to her sides in preparation. He comes to a stop right in front of her and he seems impossibly tall and broad, like he's bigger now than he was even ten minutes ago. She feels so small in front of him, even though he's actually only a couple of inches taller than she is, and she can feel the warmth of his body before she's even touched him. He's soaking wet too and shivering a little but he feels warm compared to her so she crowds up against him, closing any inch of space there was left. One of his arms immediately wraps around her and he pushes her wet hair out of her face with his free hand before brushing his thumb across her cheekbone and leaning down to kiss her again.

This kiss is different. There's a new spark to it that's there maybe because this one is going to lead to something more and they both know it. She's holding on to him so tightly that she's got handfuls of the back of his soaked tee shirt balled up in her fists and he's keeping her tight against him with one arm while his other hand is wound into her hair at the back of her neck. She lets go of his shirt to gently pat his chest as she breaks the kiss and he seems confused for a moment, releasing her completely, only for her to grab his hand and lead him into the bedroom. He kicks the door closed behind him and leans his back against it, just watching her in awe as she strips off her wet clothes and drops them carelessly at her feet before moving back over to where he's standing to help him remove his own.

Once his clothes have been added to the pile on the floor by the foot of the bed, she walks backward toward it, pulling him along with her, and he manages to get a foot tangled in the discarded blue jeans, causing him to trip and crash into her, sending them both flying back onto the bed. She laughs hard at that, all of the pent up tension suddenly dissipating, and when she opens her eyes again, he's propped on one elbow, halfway lying on top of her and halfway hovering over her, and watching her with a fond look on his face.

"Didn't you do figure skating before the whole hockey thing? Figured you'd be more graceful than this."

"I'm graceful," he retorts, trying his best to sound offended, but it's not even possible with how big the stupid grin on his face is right now. He is so in way over his head and he fucking loves it.

"Okay," she says just to humor him and the soft smile on her face is just too much and he can't help saying it.

"God, you're beautiful."

Lyla just softly brushes her hand across his cheek in response and he leans into it, enjoying even the smallest piece of affection she gives him. His fingers absent mindedly play with the dainty silver chain around her neck for a few moments before he works up the courage to move on to trace the outline of her collarbones and down between her breasts to dance across each and every rib. The goosebumps erupt all over her with how lightly his fingertips move across her skin, leaving tingling trails in their wake and when he leans in to capture her lips with his again, his hand gripping tightly onto her bare hip, she silently admits to herself that she's in way over her head too.



Is it going to be this hard to get out of bed every time? Lyla asks herself as she carefully slips out from under the thick gray comforter and the cold air in the room hits her naked body like a bucket of ice water. She can't put back on what she was wearing before, or even Jeff's tee shirt, but since they're all alone in the house now anyway, she supposes it really doesn't matter. She glances at the clock when she reaches the kitchen and, holy shit, that nap lasted a solid two hours; she grabs a gatorade from the fridge and takes a few sips while she checks her phone, which had been left on the counter this morning before Jeff whisked her away. There are about a dozen missed texts from her group chat with Jillian and Erica, plus another five from Tessa, and one from Kyle so she responds to all of them quickly before she replaces the cap on her bottle and sneaks back into the bedroom to leave it on the bedside table for Jeff when he wakes up.

The amazing bathtub she's been eyeing since she got here is all hers so she runs the water as hot as she can stand it before sinking down into it. There's no bubble bath around but she doesn't even care because the water feels so good, soothing her tired muscles. It's ridiculous that she's so sore already, but hey, it's been months so she guesses she has a good reason anyway. She gets way too relaxed in it, so much in fact that she dozes off again and it isn't until the bathroom door creaks open that she's roused, looking over to find Jeff's head peeking in. He grins when she waves him in, still holding his gatorade bottle that's almost empty now, and she draws her legs up to give him room to sink down into the no longer hot water on the other end of the tub. He grabs a couple of towels from the cupboard, dropping them on the floor next to her before he gets in, and they spend a solid five minutes just looking at each other and smiling like idiots.

"Your sisters want us to meet them and Ben for dinner," she finally says, breaking the silence, and he just nods.

"What time?"

"Seven."

"Babe," he laughs, and Oh God, the weird swoop her stomach does when he says that is ridiculous. "It's seven now."

"No, it's not."

"It is," he insists, and when she narrows her eyes at him and he doesn't relent, she curses under her breath in every language she knows and climbs out of the tub, sloshing water all over the place in her hurry before telling him to hurry up as she rushes out of the bathroom wrapped in her towel. "But I haven't showered!"

"No time!" she shouts back from the bedroom and Jeff begrudgingly climbs out of the bathtub too, letting the water out before he returns to his room to get dressed. Lyla's standing in front of the mirror in a little burgundy dress trying to do something with her messy hair as he goes over to his suitcase to grab fresh clothes for himself and the whole time he's pulling on some shorts and a tee shirt, she's making dissatisfied noises at herself in the mirror. Finally, she just gives up and throws all her hair up into a knot almost on top of her head then huffs in annoyance as she goes to grab her shoes. They're leaving less than five minutes later and Lyla's phone is constantly going off the whole car ride, the Skinner sisters responding doubly faster than Lyla can type out replies. It's 7:25 by the time they finally walk inside the front doors of the restaurant and the hostess shows them to the table where Erica and Jillian are waiting impatiently, next to Ben who doesn't look put out in the least.

"It's about fucking time, you guys," Erica grumbles as they take the empty seats across from her and Ben. "We're starving here."

"I fell asleep in the bathtub," Lyla confesses apologetically. Luckily, Jeff's siblings think that's funny even though they don't understand how exactly it's possible. "I don't know, I was tired and cold. We got caught in the rain earlier and-....it was so warm, I just kinda-...."

"And where were you?" Jillian asks, looking at her brother in amusement. "Why didn't you wake her ass up?"

Jeff just shrugs. "I was napping in the bedroom."

"You two are ridiculous," Erica sighs in fond exasperation, and the waiter finally approaches to take their orders.

While they're waiting for their food, Erica, Jillian, and Ben fill Jeff and Lyla in on everything they missed at the party last night and everything that's happened today as the party still raged on well into the afternoon. She feels a hand slide into her lap, slowly slipping under the hem of her dress to settle high up on her thigh. She glances over at him, somewhat surprised, but he's just looking straight ahead and listening to the story Ben is telling so she sits back in her chair and just waits. He's being incredibly bold, at least compared to the way he was just this morning before they slept together, and she never minded the shy Jeff, in fact she thought it was ridiculously cute, but she's definitely not going to complain about this new found confidence of his either. She goes back to her conversation with Jillian and pretends she's not affected as his hand creeps a little higher, lightly stroking her inner thigh.

The first graze of his fingertips against her center sends a jolt of electricity up her spine and she almost gasps out loud but luckily is able to catch herself, instead biting down hard on her lip. She regains her composure after a moment but he doesn't let up, keeping his fingers moving in a slow but steady rhythm, and she's trying really hard to think about something other than what he's doing right now, anything else- baseball, pizza, the fact that three of his five siblings are currently sitting around the same table. Nothing works though and it's starting to affect her more and more. She shifts slightly in her seat but that only makes the pressure more direct and she ducks her head down, squeezing her eyes shut as she grabs onto his wrist.

"Lyla, you alright?"

"Mhmm, fine," she says after clearing her throat and she tugs his hand away completely so that she can cross her legs and deny him further access. There's no way she's letting him do that anymore with how close she just got to being caught. Jeff's just grinning a little as he sips his drink and she is so gonna make him pay.

She waits for a bit, just to catch him off guard.

He's nearly finished his massive steak and she's long since finished her chicken so she takes a page from his book and slowly slips her hand over into his lap, just resting it there for a few moments. She can feel his whole body tense up next to her and she smirks a little as he falters with his fork halfway to his mouth. He's half hard already and she wonders if that's because what he did to her was having such an effect on him too but she keeps stroking him through the fabric of his shorts, slow enough that her arm isn't moving enough for anyone else to be able to tell but firmly enough that his knuckles are turning white from how tightly he's gripping his fork. Thank fuck this restaurant uses long tablecloths that can hide things.

She was way better at the subtlety than he is because he is not handling it well at all. His forehead is collecting a couple of beads of sweat and he's breathing just a little bit heavier and he's having a difficult time focusing on anything anyone is saying. Lyla's not letting on anything though, instead casually picking up her glass with her free hand to take a sip of her water. He eventually gets to the point where he can't just sit there and endure the torture anymore so he pushes her hand away, adjusts himself as best he can to not be obvious when he gets up, and then he makes a beeline toward the restroom.

Safe to say, Lyla wins.

It's not even thirty seconds after he leaves the table that Erica turns to her seriously. "So Mia was over at Steven's again today," she begins, and Lyla just raises her brows in response because she knows Erica has more to add. "Talking more shit, even after everything that's already happened."

"I'm not surprised," she says evenly, careful not to put any emotion into it. "You probably shouldn't tell your brother though."

"Why not? He already talked to her once about how he felt about everything. You don't think he'd like to know she's still trying to start shit even when she begged forgiveness and promised to fuck off?"

"Like you said, he already talked to her once. It didn't change anything."

"Lyla-"

"Erica."

The two girls stare each other down across the table until the blonde finally sighs in resignation and sits back in her chair. "Fine. But if I hear it again, I might have to beat the shit out of her."

"And that's your prerogative," Lyla grins.

Jillian amuses them with a story about her adventure playing chicken until Jeff comes back to the table and when he does, his face is flushed, the way he looks when he gets off the ice or, as she is now familiar, after he comes. She smirks a little as he slides back into his chair and all three siblings are immediately concerned with his appearance, though luckily they don't suspect the actual reason.

"You feelin' okay, bro?" Ben asks him and then Jillian adds, "You look terrible."

"Yeah, I'm just-...need to go home and go to bed, I think."

He glances over at her when he says it like he's checking to see if she caught that double entendre there and she just shakes her head in amusement. Jeff pays for dinner because he's a great brother and then they go their separate ways for the night. Once they're alone back inside his car, Jeff starts it up and turns to her feigning serious.

"That was a dirty play."

"Hey, you started it, buddy. I just finished it," she chuckles, and then adds, "Or, well, I guess you kind of did."

He barks out a surprised laugh and leans over the center console to kiss her. "Now let's go home and I'll finish you."