Never Standing Still (The Never Duet #1)(31)
“Here you go,” he said, sliding a glass my way, then picking up his pizza and taking a bite.
I sat on the couch, eating my pizza, waiting for something to happen; for Marcus to realize there was a stranger in the house and throw a tantrum, for Riot to decide he actually wanted nothing to do with my brother and me, that we were too much to take on. But both of those boys just sat there, watched TV, and ate their pizza. I gave myself a mental shoulder shrug, and decided to try and relax.
“Are you using a fork?” Riot’s voice called me out of my haze.
“Um, yes?”
“Who eats pizza with a fork?”
“Kalli does,” Marcus piped up. “She’s weird about some stuff. Always eats pizza with a fork.” He didn’t turn to look at Riot while he spoke, but the humor in his voice was apparent.
“I don’t like pizza grease all over my fingers,” I said in my own defense.
“She’s also a half-drinker,” Marcus supplied.
“A half-drinker?” Riot questioned with a laugh.
“Yeah, she only drinks half of whatever she has. She’ll never finish an entire can of soda. She always leaves it half full.”
“Okay, well, that’s true,” I admit, shrugging. “There are exceptions to that rule though. Coffee and beer,” I say, lifting my glass to my lips with a smile. “Can’t waste either of those.”
“Huh,” Riot said, just before taking another huge bite, sounding like he’d just tucked a little piece of information away about me, as if he put it in his pocket to pull out later and think about.
“If you used a fork, your pizza might last you more than three bites,” I said, laughing at him.
He looked puzzled. “Pizza isn’t a delicate food, babe. You’re supposed to eat it with your hands and without napkins. It’s best that way.”
My eyes widened at his term of endearment, my gaze shooting over to Marcus, waiting for him to react, but he didn’t. I raised my eyebrows at Riot in warning, but all he did was take another giant bite, all while smiling.
After we’d all had our fill of pizza, Riot asked Marcus about his Wii and then I watched as the boys played two hours of Mario Kart. For a while, I stayed close, making sure Marcus was comfortable. But after forty-five minutes of Riot gently probing him with questions about school, how he spent his free time, and endless superhero comparisons, I began to think that they would be fine on their own for a while.
I stood and started cleaning up our mess from dinner, which led to me doing the rest of the dishes left over from the day, which sparked my interest in the laundry. Before I knew it, an hour had passed and the boys had been alone the whole time. I walked back into the living room to find them both in the exact position I’d left them in, only both looked much more relaxed and they were laughing loudly.
“Hey,” I said during a lull in their laughter. Riot’s head turned to me, as did Marcus’, and I couldn’t help but laugh at their matching expressions. They both looked a little frazzled and a smidge irritated that I’d interrupted their game. “Marky, you’ve got half an hour until you need to get ready for bed.”
His shoulders slumped but he turned back to the game with an, “All right.” I spent the next thirty minutes sitting on the couch, watching as the two boys played their video game. Riot was surprisingly good with him, congratulating Marcus when he won a round, not being terribly obnoxious when he lost. It was a new feeling to see Marcus with a man, besides Mr. Bob, and having fun. There had been so many instances in the past where new experiences and changes in routine had thrown him over some proverbial edge. But Marcus seemed to really take to Riot.
When his bedtime approached, Marcus politely said goodnight to Riot.
“There’s a new game coming out next month and you can use characters from your favorite movies in the game. Kalli said that she’d get it for me. You should come back and we could play it together.”
“Sure thing, buddy. Sounds great.” Riot clapped Marcus on the shoulder and we watched as he headed down the hallway toward his bedroom. Riot turned to me with a smile, eyes gleaming.
“He’s a good kid.”
“He is,” I agreed. “You were smart to go the video game route.”
“I used to play a mean Mario Kart. It was like riding a bike.” He stood up from the floor and came to sit by me on the couch, closer than we had been earlier, and his smile changed from amused to sultry. My heart quickened at this new smile and his closer proximity. He turned his body and faced me, still smiling, still making my breath hitch. His hand at the back of the couch reached up and gently fingered a tendril of my hair, twirling it around, pulling tenderly, then tucking it back behind my ear, making every part of my body tingle. “What was your favorite thing to do as a kid?”
I had to swallow down all the swirling feelings he was bringing out of me with his gentle touches and smoldering looks. I coughed a bit, trying to use my ‘I swear I’m not totally turned on by you’ voice.
“Well,” I managed, swallowing again. “After my dad left, it was just me and my mom for a while so I didn’t really get a normal childhood. Mom was always working, and I was either with a babysitter or home alone. My mom didn’t like me to play outside if she was at work, ya know, in case I got hurt or kidnapped or whatever, so I mainly just stayed in my house and read or drew. I think that’s where my love of fashion and design came from, actually. I would read all these books and then imagine what the characters were wearing and draw it.” I laughed to myself as a memory surfaced; something I hadn’t thought of in years. “At one point, my entire room was wallpapered in drawings I’d done of costumes. I was particularly fond of ball gowns. Dresses really. Anything fancy.” I blushed as I realized I was rambling, but Riot was just staring at me with his sexy caramel eyes and I couldn’t think about dresses anymore. All I could do was look into his eyes and smile like a fool.