Sweeney Sweets

Chapter 24

"Is there a problem?" I asked him politely and he cocked his head to the side. "Not at all."

I didn't know what to say to that.

My brother noticed my very obvious discomfort when I'd gave him a side eye, he was just about to sit up, probably to take me somewhere else when Rhys did instead.

"Are you thirsty?" He asked me as he stood up and I blinked at his hand he held out for me, the other in his pocket and I swallowed but slipped my hand into his anyway.

I stood up to full height, in these heels I was around 5'9 but still not close to reaching his height around what was probably 6'3.

He brought the same hand from my own to my lower back when we'd walked away, making my body warm, and I hoped he couldn't tell that I almost shivered against his touch.

He lead me away from the guys and I slowly felt a little relief swarm within me again.

"Im really sorry." I said when we were a great distance from everyone, far out of ear shot, walking outside to the backyard and he rose a brow at me as he opened the door.

I looked to a table that caught my eye, smiling a small smile before I went over quickly and I took a bowl of caramel flan and then went back to the open door, taking the spoon in hand and licking the caramel off of it.

"Why're you sorry? He's a dick."

I snorted at that as I walked out the open door and he shook his head, walking out behind me and closing it behind us.

No one else was out here and it was kinda dark all except for the lights on the wall and in the pool that illuminated the area.

I walked down the stairs and over to the huge pool, looking around the large backyard full of bright green grass till it tiled off to beautiful cream marble tiles as you got closer to the pool, it looked stunning.

"Did you live here your whole life?" I asked him, not being able to picture children being raised inside this house.

It was absolutely breathtaking, literally one of those houses you'd see in a magazine, but, it wasn't a home for kids.

Everything here was either white or cream colored and spaced out too far away from one another, it wasn't homey, not even close, classy yes, but not homey.

"Majority of my life."

"Did you like it?" I asked him when I took my heels off my feet as I got closer to the pool, pulling the bottom half of my pants up to my knees and sitting down on the tiles, dipping my feet in to the cold but not freezing water.

He watched me but didn't sit beside me.

I took a spoonful of flan and ate it, waiting for his answer.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Its not exactly a place you'd want to raise children, is it?" I mumbled as I looked around the place once more, noticing a hammock too.

He didn't say anything about that, so instead of adding on to the topic I took another lick of my spoon, wiggling my eyebrows up at him and he rose a brow back at me, "Want some?"

"No."

My grin dropped and he smiled softly, shaking his head at me, "Hey you, you're smiling."

"Im not a robot."

"Thats actually debatable." I teased lightly and he scoffed. "Not all of us are happy twenty hours straight Calliope."

"Well you should try it, Emrhys."

"Don't call me that."

I rolled my eyes and he rolled his too, a ghost of the previous smile still on his face.

"You could smile more you know? But you're really handsome either way." I admitted, not really caring what he thought of it. Anyone could be handsome, a lot men were considered handsome to me, it didn't mean anything more, it's just that I found him attractive and thats it.

Maybe.

I swear I noticed a tinge of color over his cheekbones and I almost gasped, but it probably was just my eyes so I refrained from doing so, "You're too nice to people, you know that?"

I shrugged, "Its not all too hard, I just don't say the rude things I think."

"You think rude things?"

It sounded like he was teasing me and I rolled my eyes with a small mischievous grin on my lips. "Of course, the first time we met I thought you were an absolute douche."

He snorted and I grinned happily.

"Yet you weren't exactly a bitch about it."

I shrugged, "You're kinda hard to hate, Rhys."

He bent down to my height, an arm resting between his legs when he tilted my chin up a little with the other hand and I think my breath hitched when his eyes met mine, the same eyes I could spend hours staring at because of its uniqueness alone, "You like me?"

I blinked, but to ease whatever lingered in the air I smirked casually, "I don't not like you."

Surprising me he chuckled in response, a chuckle that made my smirk widen into a smile, a sound i've never ever heard before but I think I wanted to hear it much more often.

I looked away from him and I took another spoonful of flan, just a little bit of the caramel sauce dripping down the spoon and on my hand and I was just about to wipe it away with the napkin beneath the glass when he took it and wiped it for me.

Each finger individually and I watched, a little blush forming on my cheeks when he put my hand back down and I looked away to the pool.

"Thank you, I didn't want to mess my clothes." I said and he hummed.

I looked to him beside me, his eyes meeting mine once again, seconds passing as we stared at one another before he said, "You're really fucking beautiful Calli."

My lips parted ever so lightly at the sincerity in his tone.

He has complimented me before, many times actually, but he just picked small things and said he liked them.

But he has never directly called me beautiful before.

My lips parted, but my thighs? My thighs betrayed me and pressed together, an unusual warm ache forming between my legs and at his words, almost like my body knew what he meant wasn't friendly at all, the compliment seemed to be dipped in what I could only place as desire.

Before my mind could catch up with his words and what I was thinking, to piece it all together and make sure I wasn't imagining this moment he stood up abruptly and said, "Let's go back inside."