Rachel smiled sympathetically and handed her a Flirtini. “You need a drink. And you can stay the whole weekend, if you want. Why be home alone when you can be here drinking cocktails with me?”
Julia giggled and sipped her drink a little too eagerly while she and Rachel caught up with one another. By the time they were working on their second round of Flirtinis and beginning to get a little naughty in their discussion, the football game ended, thus emancipating the men from the large, flat-screened plasma television in the living room. Grace had banished the unsightly thing to the basement. Richard had since paroled it.
The men joined the ladies in the kitchen, passing around snacks and bottles of beer and giving Rachel absolutely unsolicited advice about her free-range organic turkey.
“You’ve cooked it too long. It’s going to be dry, like that turkey on National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.” Scott winked at Julia behind Rachel’s back.
“Scott, knock it off, or I’m going to cut you.” Rachel opened the door to the Viking range and began basting the turkey, peering anxiously at the meat thermometer.
“It looks beautiful, honey.” Aaron pressed a kiss to her cheek as he took the baster out of her hand, slightly worried that she was going to use it to stab her annoying brother.
Scott was the oldest of Grace and Richard’s biological children, and thus five years older than Rachel. He was funny, light-hearted, and frequently bawdy. At six foot three, he was an inch taller than Gabriel and somewhat heavier. Like Rachel, he had his father’s hair and eyes and a very big heart, except when it came to his adopted brother.
“Julia, it’s good to see you again. Rachel tells me that you’ve been doing well in graduate school.” Richard moved to occupy an empty stool next to her.
Julia smiled. Richard was classically handsome, with light-colored hair that had begun to gray and kind eyes. He was a professor of biology at Susquehanna University, and he specialized in human anatomy, more specifically, the neurons of the human brain. Despite his intelligence and charm, he was often the last to speak; his silence had been complemented by Grace’s chattiness. Without her, he seemed…adrift. Julia could feel his loneliness and see it in the wrinkles at the corner of his eyes. He looked thinner and older.
“I’m really glad to be back, Richard. I’m sorry I wasn’t here in September.” She gave him a guilty look, and he patted her hand. “My courses are good. I like them.”
Julia tried hard not to fidget, especially when she felt a pair of intense blue eyes latch onto her.
“Gabriel tells me you’re in his class.”
“Yeah, how’s that going?” asked Scott. “Can you understand a word he says? Or do you need a translator?”
Scott was only joking, and Julia knew that, but she saw Gabriel flinch out of the corner of her eye.
“It’s my favorite class,” she said softly. “Professor Emerson’s graduate seminar is considered the best of its kind at the university. He gave a lecture in October that had over a hundred people in attendance. They put his picture in the university newspaper.”
Rachel’s brows went up, and her eyes narrowed as they traveled from Julia to Gabriel and back again.
“Professor Emerson? That must be quite a turn on, Gabe. Do your women call you that too? Must be really hot in the bedroom.” Scott laughed uproariously.
“In the first place, Scott, I do not have women. And no, the extraordinary lady I am seeing does not call me that.” Gabriel’s voice was cold and unfriendly as he swept out of the room.
“Scott, I asked you to behave yourself.” Richard’s voice was low but reproving.
“Dad, I was only kidding. He takes himself so seriously — somebody needs to loosen him up. And he’s always been a player. So what’s the big deal?”
“It sounds like Gabriel has a girlfriend. Let him be happy.” Aaron’s voice was quiet and surprisingly compassionate.
Richard’s face wore a peculiar expression.
“Look you all, this holiday is hard enough without the passive-aggressive bullshit.” Rachel’s voice was raised over the rest as she stood, hands on hips, scowling at Scott. “Sorry about the language, Dad.”
“Why does everything have to revolve around him? Last time I checked, he was only one out of four.” Scott was no longer joking.
“Because he’s trying! Which is more than I can say about you. Now come over here and drain these goddamned potatoes, so you can start mashing them. Aaron will take the turkey out of the oven, and Julia, would you go and get Gabriel? I’d like him to look through the wine cellar and choose a couple of bottles.”
“I can do that,” Richard protested. “Maybe we should give him a minute.”
“He’s had his minute. As long as Scott agrees to behave.” She glared at him until he nodded. “Besides, Dad, you need to carve the turkey. Julia.”
Rachel angled her head toward the upstairs, and Julia nodded, slipping out of the kitchen. She quickly ascended the staircase and walked down the hall, pausing in front of the half-opened door to Gabriel’s old bedroom.
She knocked softly.
“Come in.” He sounded cross.
Gabriel’s room had not been redecorated since his seventeenth birthday, with the exception of the removal of his old band posters and pictures of scantily clad women. A double bed stood in the center of the room, underneath the large picture window that faced the woods. A large antique armoire stood against one of the walls, and three massive bookshelves and an old stereo covered the opposite wall. Almost all the decor was a masculine shade of dark blue, including the area rug.
Julia watched as Gabriel unpacked his suitcase, methodically placing the folded clothes on top of the bed. When he saw her, he straightened up and smiled.
“Now do you see why I prefer to stay at a hotel?”
“I’m sorry, Gabriel. I should have done something. Said something.”
“You need to do what I normally do — just keep quiet and take it.”
He dropped what he was holding and was at her side in a moment. “It’s a good thing we agreed to keep our relationship secret. Scott doesn’t think very highly of me, and your reputation would be tarnished by association.”
“I don’t mind. Let him tarnish me.”
He smiled and caressed her cheek. “I mind. I mind a great deal.” He cleared his throat. “Tonight, after everyone has gone to bed, I’d like to take you for a walk.”
“I’d love to.”
“At least that will give me something to look forward to.” Gabriel pulled her into a heated embrace. His tongue entered her mouth immediately, his hands resting on her backside, squeezing it without shame.
Julia al owed herself to forget she was in his father’s house for a minute before she struggled to back away. “We — can’t.”
Gabriel had a wild look in his eye. “But I need you.” He grabbed her and wound his hands in her hair. “I need you, Julianne. Right now.”
Julia’s insides liquefied in reaction to the desperation in his words. He drew his lips down the curve of her neck, nuzzling at the opening of her shirt so that he could nibble her collarbone. He closed his bedroom door with his foot, and quickly unfastened two buttons of her blouse, pushing the fabric aside to expose the perfect skin just above her bra. Squeezing the curves of her backside, he lifted her and pressed her back against the door, pulling her legs flush around his hips. Julia gasped at the closeness, at the direct contact between them.
He floated his lips across her upper chest, pausing to dip the tip of his tongue just under the pale pink lace. Julia threw her head back and groaned as her hands sought his hair, urging him forward. He responded by tracing a long finger around the perimeter of her demi-cup, allowing his hand to gently slip inside, while his other hand held the back of her right thigh.
Her eyes popped open as his warm palm cupped her naked breast, his mouth latched onto the skin at the base of her throat, sucking slightly.
Much as it pained her to do so, she pulled his hand away and shifted so that he was forced to release his hold on her neck.
“Gabriel, I’m sorry. We can’t.” She quickly adjusted her bra. She wriggled slightly, but he did not set her down. Flushing furiously, she avoided the blazing color of his eyes. “I know you’re upset. And I’d like to comfort you, but they’re al waiting downstairs. Rachel wants you to choose the wine for dinner.”
Gabriel gazed at her with new eyes and carefully put her down. She quickly buttoned her blouse and tried to straighten her trousers.
“You think too highly of me.”
Julia ran the pointed toe of her ankle boot along the edge of the area rug. “I very much doubt that.”
“What I just did was not appropriate or nice. I’m sorry.” He traced a finger over the red mark that had bloomed where his mouth had tasted her and pulled her blouse closed, fastening the top button. Now she looked like a Mennonite.
She gazed up into dark, troubled eyes. “Gabriel, you’re stil tired from yesterday, and this is a stressful holiday. I know you didn’t mean anything just now. You feel better when you touch me. And truthful y, so do I.” Now she was looking at the floor again.