Opposites Attract (18 page)

‘I don’t know. We’re still awake.’ She smiled, tilting her head back to look at him. ‘You’re not half bad some of the time, Ethan.’

‘You’re pretty OK yourself sometimes, too, Sam.’

She chuckled, burrowing closer to his side. ‘Samantha Wellington is my middle name. I didn’t really lie about it.’

‘You have four names? Alexis Samantha Wellington Grant?’

She laughed harder. ‘My mother said it should be a prerequisite for being born into money. It sounds more impressive. Either that or you tack on the titles, so and so the third, the fourth, Jr, Sr.’

‘I like it when you laugh,’ Ethan said, not knowing what prompted him to admit it. He’d been so angry with her all day, but now she was being so likeable. He smelled her lotion, the sweet blending of cucumbers with a hint of mint. Her body was soft next to his, comfortable.

‘So, four brothers? Or did you say five?’

Ethan wondered at the change of subject and decided to keep compliments to himself for the time being. ‘Mm, five total including me. Jack, the oldest. Then Rob, second oldest. Me. Hugh. And Jon, the baby.’

‘What was that like? I can’t imagine. The only children around in my house belonged to the maids. I wasn’t allowed to play with them.’ She kneaded her hand softly along the centre of his chest, smoothing and crumpling his T-shirt with her palm.

‘Well, I was the middle child, so I didn’t get beat up as much as the younger ones. Though, we did give our mother many grey hairs doing all the normal boy stuff.’

‘Like what?’

‘Well, let’s see. We spray-painted skulls on the house for Christmas one year, set a shed in the back yard on fire, tied Jon naked to a tree and left him for a few hours.’

‘What? Why?’

‘He was the bait. We were trying to catch a cougar.’ Ethan chuckled at the memory.

‘Did you live in New York?’

‘Nope, Kansas. Midwest born and bred. We’re scattered all over the country now. My parents live in Kansas still, but are currently travelling the globe. Last I heard they were on their way to Slovenia.’

‘And you wanted your little brother to get eaten by a wild cat?’

‘No, he was just bait,’ Ethan said. ‘The plan was to fight the cougar with sticks once it got there.’

‘That’s not a very thought-out plan.’

‘You weren’t around boys too much growing up, were you?’

‘What was the naked part for?’ Alexis asked, leaning up to study his face.

‘Little brother torment.’ Ethan curled the arm under her head around so he hugged her lightly to his body. ‘Jon ended up being the biggest one out of all of us. He’d kick our ass now if we tried it again. Actually, we’re kind of waiting for him to take his revenge.’

‘Really?’ Alexis asked, her eyes round.

‘No, not really.’ Ethan chuckled.

‘What about your parents, were they around?’ Alexis draped her arm around his waist, holding him gently. Ethan heard the loneliness in her voice.

‘Every day.’

As they continued to talk, their bodies relaxed more and more into each other. Ethan felt bad for Alexis. The poor woman had missed out on so much growing up. She had everything handed to her, every materialistic comfort known to man. She’d lived in a mansion, and not just one, as her family owned several. He’d lived in a modest middle-class home, sharing a bedroom with Jack and Rob until he was fifteen and then he’d shared with Hugh and Jon for another three years.

Alexis had tutors that travelled with them. Unfortunately, the tutors spent more time sleeping with her mother than actually schooling her. She’d spend her days shopping while Ethan had gone to public school in hand-me-down clothing.

Alexis spent holidays abroad, opening a mountain of Christmas presents alone or sometimes with a maid. His family got together every holiday, no matter what. Hearing her story really made him appreciate his family. Until Susan, Alexis had no real friend but he’d always had his brothers.

‘Why do you suppose we always fight?’ she asked softly, not meeting his eye.

‘We’re both hard-headed and come from different worlds.’

‘Does this truce mean we’re friends?’ She drew her arm from his waist and laid it between her body and his side.

‘I’d like it if we were. We have a lot of miles left to travel together. It’d be cool if we could get along at least half the time.’ Ethan wanted to kiss her, but held back. He couldn’t be sure she’d want him to. The last thing he wanted was to push her away and start another fight. It’s the same reason why he didn’t ask her about her little comments to Tressa.

Somehow, during their talk, he’d managed to keep his arousal from becoming fully erect. Her hand brushed over his chest, passing absently over a nipple. Hot desire washed over him, filling his loins. His breath caught and held. He looked at her. Her dark eyes stared at him and for a moment he felt lost. He wanted to make love to her, wanted to strip her of her sexy little camisole and kiss every inch of her body.

He glanced at her lips, wondering if his kiss would be welcomed. His instincts said yes. Every nerve pulled him towards her, urging him to roll over and pin her beneath him. But theirs was a very delicate truce and he didn’t want to break it. Ethan decided to take her friendship and stick to the original plan not to get involved with his travelling companion. It would make things too awkward between them.

A knock on the door saved him from having to decide. Ethan untangled his limbs and answered the door. It was their food. He paid the delivery boy and set the bags on the table. The enchanted spell between them lessened, leaving behind an easiness that had not been there before.

‘I was thinking,’ Alexis said, biting into an egg roll.

‘What’s that?’ Ethan reached over and stole a second egg roll from her plate. She made a slight face of annoyance but didn’t stop him.

‘Well, after the boat thing, I really don’t want to work my way across as a maid. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll work, just not cleaning anything. Believe me when I say I’m not cut out for it.’

‘What if that’s the only job we can get?’

‘Well, then I guess I have to do it.’ Alexis shivered in disgust. ‘But no more vomit and dirty condoms.’

‘I agree. That was bad.’

‘Anyway, you said you make a decent enough living with these party things, right?’ Alexis set her egg roll down and gave him the most adorable wheedling look he’d ever seen.

‘What?’ he asked, almost scared.

‘Well, what if I helped you somehow?’

‘Huh? You want to be a tattoo artist now?’ he asked, confused.

‘No, nothing like that. What if I lined up some people for business and helped you do those design layouts? I can run the computer. And if you go through that care stuff, I’ll type it out and give it to everyone.’

‘It’s already typed out.’

‘Oh,’ she looked a little disheartened. ‘Then I could still trace the layout thing on that purple stuff. And get you water. And, um, you know, stuff like that.’

Ethan tried not to laugh, but it was hard.

‘You hate the idea, don’t you?’ she asked.

Ethan studied her. He really didn’t need any help and it would be more profitable in the long run if he’d just tell her no, but something in the way she looked at him made him say, ‘OK. Sure. We’ll try it out and see how it goes.’

‘Really?’ Alexis squirmed excitedly in her chair.

‘Trial basis, mind you,’ he said, wondering what he’d gotten himself into. He had no problem paying for things if he had the money. Greed had never been a big problem for him. ‘And you can’t get that look on your face when you talk about the art.’

‘What look?’

‘The one of disgust, like you just ate a sour pickle.’ Ethan reached for a box and scooped some noodles onto his plate. ‘You have to at least pretend you get the tattooing thing.’

‘But I kind of don’t get it,’ she said. ‘Why would you want to mark yourself up like that? It’s so permanent.’

‘Why do you dye your hair or put on make-up or wear designer clothing? It’s a form of self-expression. It says who you are to the world. Sometimes tattoos show memories of the past, like when a loved one dies. Sometimes they represent who you are, where you’ve been. And sometimes, they’re just something cool you do for fun.’

‘You make it sound poetic.’

‘Ah, well.’ He shrugged, not wanting to get too preachy. ‘It’s what I do.’

‘So, how about that movie?’ she asked, wiping her hands on a paper napkin.

‘You want action, funny, or funny-action?’ Ethan stood, putting all the containers into the plastic bag. Tying the bundle up, he threw it in the trash.

‘Action-funny.’ Alexis grabbed her toothbrush and went to the sink next to the bathroom.

‘I’m going to go get a soda from the machine, you want?’ Ethan asked. ‘I’ll go pay the clerk and order the movie while I’m at it.’

‘Sure, anything diet,’ Alexis said.

‘Got it,’ he said, walking out of the room wearing only his pyjama pants.

Alexis finished brushing her teeth and went to sit on the bed. It had been an amazing evening. Ethan was actually very sweet. He was funny, kind and when he talked about his family she could tell they were close. She was almost jealous of him in that regard, which was strange. She’d been raised to believe that everyone was jealous of her because she was rich. Maybe there was more to the world than having money.

Ethan came back, set two drinks on the dresser and toyed with the TV, setting it to the right channel. Alexis watched him in silence. For a moment, right before the food came, she’d been sure he was going to kiss her. She’d wanted him to, desperately. She’d wanted him to touch her, make love to her. She’d even settle for one of the tightly pressed dry-hump sessions she was always yelling at him for.

Ethan turned off the lights and crawled into the bed next to her. The room darkened and lightened with the glow from the television. He adjusted the pillows against the headboard. Then, without asking, he pulled her next to him, draping his arm around her shoulders. Alexis didn’t really pay attention to the movie, as she enjoyed the feeling of being held.

Alexis slept by Ethan all night. The next morning, her body nearly stung with longing. She was so aroused she could barely stand it. Lying in his arms, she’d waited for him to make a move. Her breasts ached and just the idea of having sex with him had dampened her panties. She even wiggled against him, hoping he’d start touching her. He didn’t.

Alexis ended up masturbating in the shower, touching herself, pinching her breasts, stroking her tender body to climax. She was left unfulfilled. It had definitely been too long since she’d been intimate with a man. After her shower, just one look at Ethan’s butt in his loose-fit blue jeans brought all the longing back tenfold.

Susan said she felt much better, though she swore off all dairy products. No one felt like getting back into the car, so they took a short trip into downtown Iowa City. They parked, opting to walk the city streets. Alexis took her camera, aimlessly taking pictures of everything. She even managed to get brave enough to put Ethan in the shot several times.

Downtown was filled with a strange mixture of business people, artists, writers, college students and families. Children played in a water fountain, which sprayed straight up from the sidewalk in the middle of a cement square. It was a little warm and Ethan and Ted were only too happy to join the kids running through the water. The kids thought it was hilarious and Alexis was sure she’d never laughed so hard in her life. Afterwards, Ted had run up to Susan, getting her wet as he smothered her in kisses. Alexis looked at Ethan. For a moment, he looked as if he might do the same. Instead, he shook his red-tipped hair, sprinkling her orange cashmere sweater with droplets of water.

As Ethan and Ted air dried, they browsed a novelty toy store. Ethan bought two Chinese-influenced lunch pails and a postcard book of old cult classic movies. Ted bought Susan a wind-up cat made out of tin. Alexis refused to spend any of her yacht-cleaning money on toys.

Susan and Ted decided to check out a used bookstore while Ethan got directions to a zine shop. It was on the top level of an old building. Alexis went with Ethan, wanting to give Susan and Ted time alone – or that’s what she told herself as she watched Ethan’s tight butt as he climbed the narrow stairwell.

The wooden floors creaked and there was only a little stream of light coming from an outside window. The owner, a man in his mid-twenties, seemed to know a lot about a great number of things. He had short cropped hair, metal hoops in his ears and a large black swirl of tribal art tattooed on his right arm from wrist to shoulder.

‘Hole . . . teenage angst . . . comic . . .’

Alexis only caught part of Ethan’s words. She didn’t understand half of what they said as she flipped through the independent writings showcased on the walls. As she browsed, the two men continued to discuss politics, tattoos, comic books, punk music and underground publishing. She’d never felt so stupid in her life.

Comic books she understood. She didn’t like them, but she understood them. The shop had several she’d never heard of. It wasn’t too surprising. If Hollywood hadn’t turned it into a movie, she didn’t know what it was.

A lot of the zines were collections of poetry or political essays. Some of them were photocopied pages, whereas others were books built by hand, cut out and pasted with string binding. Many of them were quite artistic. She would never have imagined a place like this existed and it completely fascinated her.

Finally, after an hour of looking around, she settled on some homemade soap the store had displayed by the old cash register. There were little buried trinkets in the middle of the bars. Ethan bought the owner’s self-published book and got it autographed.

‘That guy’s going places,’ Ethan said about the owner, as they walked out of the building. Then, eyeing her bag, he asked, ‘What did you get?’