In good hands
Chapter 1
Today was a wrong kinda day. Chayenne knew as much, even if she couldn’t exactly pin down why. Life was good for all she could tell, if maybe a bit too good and plain. It was… Okay, screw it, maybe it was a bit boring some days. But if anything it was the sort of boredom that everyone desperately sought after. She had a stable job at the local post office, a lively circle of friends, private but all the more enjoyable parties with said friends at least once a month if not more often and of course she had a loving family as well.
Even if half of it was currently out of town.
She was not going to complain or anything. Really, she couldn’t. That would be horribly ungrateful. One didn’t win a round-the-world trip every day and if she knew anyone who deserved it her parents definitely were first to come to mind. So she was happy for them. She really was.
She was a lot less happy that when they could bring another person with them, their choice had been her aunt Grace. Not like she disliked the elder woman or some such. Most certainly not. And true, ever since her divorce Grace had cooped herself up at home far too much to the point where someone needed to gently urge her out sometimes. Chayenne could understand that.
None of that changed the fact that she would have loved to go on that trip herself. Naturally, it all had its ups and downs. If she’d been brought along, she’d have to spend weeks supervised by her parents almost the entire time. On the other hand, like this she was pretty much free to do what she wished as soon as work ended. If she wanted to bring a guy home with her, well, her parents certainly would not object for another week or two. Which she reasoned was a decent tradeoff under most circumstances.
Except that the one guy she would have considered bringing home was a rather common guest at their house already as it was. Chayenne actually considered herself one lucky girl for the fact that her parents and her boyfriend got along pretty great. Levin was athletic, nice, had taken jobs as a fashion model a handful of times (though he admitted it was just to fill in for actual models if they called in sick at the last minute) and despite still being a college student he was CEO of his own startup. Something about metal working. Or so he said. As a matter of fact that was still awfully recent and his only real product to date was a new-ish kind of door lock. But he had ambitions and as it would seem the partners to make them happen. So she was looking forward to where that would go. As were her parents, apparently, since they pretty much treated him like their son-in-law already.
Including never saying a single word about the noises they must have heard many a night from her bedroom when he stayed over. They were her parents. Of course they knew. But never once a complaint or reproach. Life, at least if anyone asked Chayenne, was good.
Which made it all the more irritating that today made itself known as a wrong kinda day.
You had those sometimes, days that felt like someone forgot to wipe them from the calendar. Days meant to go wrong in some sort of way. It wasn’t a big way by any means but if anything that just made it harder to bear. Like, she could have understood if something big or significant happened to go fail. That was bound to ruin a good mood and nobody would think otherwise. It would have a clear cause and as regrettable as it were, she’d known what to blame. But today was not a big-mishap-day. Just a wrong day. Stuff that simply better did not happen seemed to all happen today. Sometimes so small that she didn’t even notice, the vague impression of yet another wrong thing sticking to her and pile on until she thought the weight of it all would press her flat into the ground—except it seemed like the weight of nothing at all. No target to blame, no identifiable cause in sight.
Twice she’d called Levin just so she’d hear his voice only for her co-workers to glare at her. Suzanne didn’t have a boyfriend and her stare was pure jealousy even if the blonde was a bubbly sweet person most other times. Mr. Thomson for that matter just kept reminding her of the clock—even though she made sure to never go beyond her allotted break time! Yet another wrong thing falling onto the pile.
Levin had asked if he should rent a movie and stop by later. They both knew his “rented” movies often enough were just brought from home.
And that neither of them would know what it was about afterwards.
But even as she squealed inwardly at the thought she had to refuse. Ironically, she was much more conscious of the noises from her room now than she was when her parents were actually home.
The reason lived two rooms away from her own.
About a week before her parents went on their trip her cousin Wesley had shown up on their doorstep. Yeah, fine, maybe not really that sudden or unannounced. As it turned out, dear aunt Grace was much more depressed than she meant to let on, which inevitably would be noticed by her son while he was at home. So after some debate it was decided he could come and spend a while at their place.
“It’s not forever,” her mother had misinterpreted her reluctance, “Just until we got my sister a change of pace.” Which was about the only reason Chayenne had never so much as thought to voice her interest in coming along on that trip. That, and who in their right mind wanted to go travel the world with their own parents when their amazing boyfriend would have to stay behind?!
Chayenne’s dismay at having to play the babysitter for her cousin had one simple reason. She felt weird for saying so about a relative of hers, but… to be blunt, she and Wesley were like water and oil. Really not a good combination.
Maybe it was the fact how she was three years older than him. When you were twenty-two instead of nineteen, perhaps that gave you more maturity and a different outlook on life.
At least it would be an explanation she could live with for why being with him felt so wrong on occasion. Like when all she wanted to do was listen to some calm classical music with a good book in hand only to hear his darn rock bands roaring from his room on full blast. Or when she wanted to watch TV only to have him grab the remote without ever asking to swap the channels.
Explanations or not, however, it was certainly wrong how he looked at women when he thought nobody noticed. Levin had never looked at women like this, of that much at least she was sure. Perhaps it came from his experience—or possibly a lack thereof? She’d never heard any news about him dating someone, even after he had moved here there was no mention of a girlfriend missing him back home. And to be perfectly honest, Chayenne couldn’t imagine him having one, either.
Not because he was ugly or anything. Though she’d have struggled to call him a looker by any definition. Fair, not like he had to be one either! But… If she were the type to show off, she would be unable to deny that she was hot. Tall, if perhaps only thanks to legs that seemed to go on forever if she placed them right, with a pair of tits that looked just the perfect amount of too large on her frame. She never cared for dieting, but her daily workout routine helped her keep in shape—which in this case meant hips which she was aware caught many an appreciative eye when she walked, their sway as much a result of dance practice as teenage desire. She’d never slept around, but was evidently far from being a saint too. Sex was amazing when done right and Chayenne had been all too interested to learn what right would mean for her. There had been a fair number of guys before Levin. One of the reasons probably for why her parents were so glad she’d found him, though she would never feel secure enough to ask how much they really knew. Some things you just didn’t discuss with family.
While her figure was able to wrap any guy around her finger if she wanted to, it was her face that earned her the highest compliments. Be it her almond shaped eyes, her bronze complexion or plump lips. Or simply the way her locks framed it all with cascades of glossy brown hair. It still managed to stir up butterflies in her stomach whenever she recalled how Levin had sheepishly glanced at her over dinner one night, whispering: “Sometimes I only stare at your body because if I dared meet your eyes I’d be a drooling simpleton for the rest of the day.” He could be so shy and adorable sometimes!
Where she was all those things, Wesley was… well, Wesley. There was just nothing at all that stood out about him. Which she happily acknowledged meant nothing negative or appalling either, but that’s where the compliments ran dry already. He was a tad shorter than her, but not enough to consider him short for a boy, kept his sand colored hair neatly combed without much care directed at wearing a certain style and while he never had to worry about acne the fact that skin care existed might as well be a secret to him. If someone were to ask Chayenne to define being invisible, she wouldn’t think of someone hiding under an enchanted cloak. She’d picture Wesley.
Nothing wrong with that, honestly. She would be the first to agree average men of that type were not necessarily bad. It could be worse, severely so. They just tended to be overshadowed by the real hot guys all too easily. Guys like Levin. Guys that didn’t believe their average looks were enough to hide how they undressed everything female with their eyes.
Nobody else seemed to notice him do it, much to her dismay. Had her parents noticed, surely they’d never let him and her stay at home under one roof? Separated by merely a few paces, two flimsy wooden doors and far, far too thin walls?
Perhaps they simply figured she was going to spend most of their vacation at Levin’s place. Not the first time she’d be staying over there, in fact it was a fairly common occurrence and had only happened more frequently after Wesley moved in with them. Surprise, surprise, right?
But even the most perfect boyfriend had things to do every other day or so. His business partners were a dream come true from a certain perspective, but even still he needed to show his face at places a couple of times. Some months that meant overnight stays. And of course one such stay had to happen as soon as she was all alone with her annoying cousin.
Even if Levin seemed to miss her as much as she wanted to see him, even if he offered to sneak out and drive the two hours to meet up with her. Reasonably speaking he couldn’t, not until tomorrow at least. And if she hated one thing, it was being a clingy girlfriend. Three loves of her life walking away on her for that reason had made her careful about it. Did she want him to hurry and take her to the bedroom so that he’d embrace her and hold her and maybe make her become a bit loud and teary eyed with what his tongue could do to her girl parts? Of course. Was she gonna say so? No. Not when the responsible thing was to let him settle everything at work. While sitting home alone. With her cousin just down the hallway.
Turned out she was wrong about that part if nothing else. As she stepped into the house she could hear the TV running. He wasn’t in his room, he was sitting in the living room watching some… Wait a second, was that… She froze in her tracks, listening closely before grimacing in disgust. She’d recognize those moans and wet slurping sounds anywhere. That freak was watching a porn movie. In someone else’s fucking living room! “I’m hooome!” Despite her better judgment Chayenne decided to be the adult here. He was still a bratty, hormone driven boy barely out of puberty. It didn’t take much fantasy to imagine how much of an awkward tension it would create between them if she’d just bluntly lecture him about his mistake—even if what she really wanted to do was bash his head in for crossing pretty much all lines of decent behavior in one fell swoop.
Nervously, she waited. But… nothing! He didn’t even turn the volume down! Let alone scramble for his room as she’d expected him to. “Damn, I’m beat,” she kept yelling, hoping for whatever brain cells of his were left on lookout to pick up on the danger he was in, “If I can’t have something to eat and watch the news in ten minutes I’m gonna murder someone!” For five of those minutes she anxiously waited, half considering to grab her dad’s old baseball bat (if only for the dramatic effect, she wasn’t really angry enough to use it) or instead heading to her room. And locking the door. Maybe put a chair… Oh for fuck’s sake, what was she talking about? When everything was said and done, Wesley was family. He wasn’t going to… do something. Not to her. Chayenne doubted he’d ever so much as held hands with a girl, let alone more. It wasn’t even watching cheap things like that which made her angry, but he should just do that silently behind closed doors!
Then, just as she was bracing herself to storm the living room, the sound changed to the familiar jingle of the news before she heard feet shuffling in there. Moments later his head peeked around the corner, seeing her stand near the entrance. “Hey, welcome back. I didn’t notice you there. Why aren’t you coming in?” He wasn’t flushed, not even the faintest bit out of breath. Two innocent eyes sparkled at her as if he’d merely watched a harmless documentary. “Is that a bad joke?” Chayenne was so close to snapping. “No. But pizza. It’s on the kitchen table, if you’d like. You look really famished! Had a hard day at work?” “Not just there,” she growled. “All the more reason to grab a bite of food. Believe me, it works wonders for a cranky mood. ”
Calm down. She had to stay calm and collected here. She was the adult. “I think I’ll go for that pizza while I watch the news.” With ever so subtle emphasis on the last three words. He wanted to beat around the bush, okay. But if he thought she was just going to forget this incident, he was wrong about that.
“Sure thing. Just let me take out the trash while you go fetch yourself a drink?” “Fine.” More to cool off than to actually comply with him she went over to the kitchen, meanwhile hearing him open and close the door. By the time she entered the living room he also returned—and seated himself next to her on the couch!
“So what was wrong today?” Seriously?! That was his angle? “Some bastards just wouldn’t shut up and leave a girl alone.” He had to take a hint! “Damn, sounds like a pain!” After a critical glance from the side he slowly noted: “Actually, you do look like you’re in pain. Let me guess, a headache?” Chayenne wanted to laugh, wanted to ask him what the hell else he expected with the annoyance of coming home to find her cousin watching porn in here?
Instead she swallowed her remark and just gave him a cold nod.
“Want me to do something about that?”
The question seemed so out of place that she just stared back at him wordlessly. “I mean, of course you can take some painkillers,” he seemed to read her reaction as something else, “But why use those when there’s an easier—and cheaper—way to do it?” “What do you mean?” “It’s a trick my doctor showed me a while back,” he grinned and suddenly appeared so friendly and approachable that Chayenne was almost willing to believe the earlier provocation to be a figment of her imagination. Almost.
“A simple head massage. It’s not going to take long. Then again… I am really out of practice. It’s something hard to do on your own, so it might take around ten minutes? If you feel no effect, it’d not be too late for the drugs either way. How about it?” He was making an honest effort at getting along. And with a mental reminder of how long they would be the only ones in this house, she hardly had a choice other than to soften a bit.
“Give it a go, but I must warn you. I am really irritable tonight.” “Duly noted.”
Chayenne probably wanted to say more. But before she could, the tips of his fingers found her head and she cooed, surprised at how gentle his touch was.
Then came the scritches.
From the second his fingers began to move it was like somewhere in her head an off switch got flipped. She noticed her jaw going slack while all muscles in her body seemed to be flooded with hot, relaxing happiness. No. No, that was an understatement. They felt like they themselves where melting into pure, weightless clouds that floated and pulled her thoughts along with them. For an exhilarating moment she believed that if not for his fingers pressing down on her skull with exactly the right kind of force she’d drift off the couch and be carried off somewhere by the wind.
The wind? Nah, that wasn’t a breeze she heard… He’d asked her something. She wanted to reply, but all that her voice amounted to was a long drawn out groan. And Chayenne honestly couldn’t care less. She’d have no clue what to say anyhow.
It must have told him something though, or maybe it was just the way this trick of his went, because his fingers shifted to a few new spots. Spots that unleashed a jolt of tingling pleasure through her spine all throughout her body. It felt shaky… wait, that was not him, it was her trembling under the impossibly great sensation. Before even her vision grew clouded with warm, saturated pink light. Chayenne couldn’t comprehend it and she didn’t want to. It felt far too fucking good for that! So she merely allowed his touch to do whatever he did for as long as he wished.
The TV screen was dark when she stirred, rubbing her eyes before with a confused glance around the room realizing she laid on the couch covered by a soft blanket. All that was to be found of Wesley was a simple note on a piece of paper he must have torn from his notebook or something. Saying he’d gone to bed and wished her a restful night. And that he hoped his massage helped her feel better.
As she staggered up the stairs to try and reach her room, she couldn’t stop chuckling about that. Help?
She felt like being completely reborn. High. She felt high. And it frightened her how much she loved it.
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