The Right Choice - Chapter 4

A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.
Ingrid Bergman

~*~*~*~*~*~*
By the time I had reached my front door I realized. It hit me like a ton of bricks. He wasn't a werewolf, but I had gotten so comfortable around him that I'd forgotten. And now he was going to wonder how I could run so fast. I groaned and clapped a hand to my head. A minute later he clattered to a stop in front of me, hands on knees, panting. Ironically, like a dog. I laughed in spite of my situation. He looked up and shook his head.

"How...did...you...run...so...fast?" he rasped. I bit my lip, this was the crucial moment. I had to try and persuade him that I hadn't.
"What you on about?"
He just stared at me.
"I just got here. A few seconds before you. If you weren't so lazy," I grinned "you would have easily beat me!".

He straightened up, still breathing heavily and narrowed his eyes.
"Nah nah nah. You shot past me! I don't know what madness you're chatting, but I know what I saw. Felt in fact!" he added. I shook my head.

"I think you're not getting enough oxygen. It was a really close call. Stop trying to put yourself down" I frowned, and then unlocked the front door.

"MUM!" I called.
"We're in the kitchen!" she answered.

Me and Stephan saw both my mum and Alyssa sitting at the breakfast bar, eating some of my mum's fruit salad.

"Hey. Where's dad?" Stephan asked, sliding onto a stool and shoving a grape in his mouth.
"Unpacking the rest of your stuff for you" Alyssa replied in a tone that said she thought he should be doing it himself. I watched, in a mix of amazement and disgust as Stephan shoved a whole handful of grapes in. He saw me and like a little kid, opened his mouth wide and grinned. I turned my head away. He laughed,

"I hope you choke on them" I told him playfully and sat next to him. He pinched me, and I punched him in the thigh. He cried out and sat there rubbing his leg, and glaring. My mum glanced at me. Are you alright with him? She mouthed. I nodded slightly still chuckling.

"What did you do today?" Alyssa asked, obviously not bothered whether we told her or not.
"Played some tennis," Stephan grinned at me and I tried not to burst into giggles "ate some fatty foods and then went to an art gallery"

Alyssa nodded.
"Yeah, you like drawing don't you babe? This morning he made us kind of late because he was drawing a tree or something". I saw him go slightly red and stuff his mouth some more.
"Tomorrow I thought we'd go to the beach" I announced, half to my mum, half to him. He looked up and nodded slowly. My mum did too.

"Cool. I can uh, do some more drawings" he mumbled.
"I wanna see them. Do you mind showing me?" I asked. Alyssa shook her head at me a little. I frowned.
"He doesn't really like -" she started saying when Stephan interrupted her.
"Yeah sure. Do you wanna see them now?" he stood up.
"K"

I grabbed an apple and we left, to the surprised gaping jaws of my mum and Alyssa.
It took us about ten minutes to get to Alyssa's house, which is about five streets away from ours.

There was an SUV parked in the driveway.
"My dad's" he explained as he let me in the house.
Their house was the same as mine but even it hadn't been I was familiar with every room anyway. Alyssa and my mum were basically in each other's back pockets. Graham appeared at the top of the stairs, arms filled with clothes.

"Hi Stephan...Nikki"
"Hey" we said in unison.
"I'm just showing her something" he said as we passed Graham. Graham winked at me and I grinned. He was suddenly very cool. Stephan had the room at the far right side. It was the second biggest. There was a massive window/balcony that took up a whole wall, just like in my room. The walls were a beige color, and the carpet was black. The room was plain, but I could tell by all the stuff piled onto the bed, that it wouldn't be that way for long. He went to the wardrobe, dragged a box out and dumped it at my feet. Then he bent down, ripped the tape off and rummaged through it.

He pulled about twenty drawing pads out and splayed them out on the carpet, then pulled even more. He looked up and laughed.

"There's more but...we can look at those another day perhaps". I nodded and then settled down next to him as he opened the first one.

"Oh my...Stephan these are amazing!" I breathed.

There was a drawing of two dolphins on the first page. It was like looking at a real dolphin. Then there was a drawing of a forest, and it was sinister and eerie enough to give me goosebumps. There got more and more amazing as we went along. And by the time we had finished with what was on the carpet in front of us, hours had passed and I wanted to look at the rest. I could tell he was about to say no. So I jumped up, grabbed a pad, and ran to the window.

"If you say no, this ends up outside" I teased. Instantly he got up and stalked over to me. I was scared he was pissed off, but there was a smile on his face.
"There are simpler ways to persuade me" he whispered, our lips inches away.

I looked down, interested in the way his lush lips parted and his sweet breath fanned on my face.
"Oh really?"
"Uh huh" he murmured before kissing me.

As before, it was madly explosive. It made my toes curl. I managed to reign my strength in and fling my arms around him somewhat gently.
About a minute later he tried to pull away but I breathlessly threatened to chuck the pad again and he laughed before tipping my chin up and nibbling my lip. It sent me wild.

I don't know how, but he had got past every defense I had, which looking back I don't think were all that defensive. And I didn't really mind, when he kissed me like that...