Thorns & Oranges

Just Oranges

Needless to say, my brother wasn't happy.

Before I could even finish, he had me by the arm and hauling me out of his office. What he thought was a lunch date with his sister had turned into something else entirely. As Dom was driving me back to our parent's house, I decided I needed to do something drastic. So like any young girl my age in my situation, I gave up my virginity only to get my brother's attention.

He wasn't happy about that either.

He accepted my pledge in one breath and had The Thorns' mark slapped on my shoulder the next. The artist was well aware of both of my conditions, one being my diabetes, the other being if he messed it up, Vin would rearrange his face. It didn't matter that he'd known the guy forever. If he fucked it up, he'd get it back in kind and not in ink.

"Brothers for life," Dom whispered back.

*

"Em, is that you?" Michelle called from the kitchen.

"Yeah!" I called back. "I just got back."

"Dom get you the juice?"

I entered the kitchen and leaned against the doorway. "Yeah. He's still working that cigarette but when he's done, he'll be in."

She nodded and continued to scramble the eggs in the frying pan. "Good. Can you go wake up your brother and Rey? If you do it now, breakfast should be done by the time they get down here. They all need to get to work."

"Anything for you."

I wound up my iPod and jogged up the stairs. I checked on my brother first, knocking and calling his name. There was a groan from inside followed by, "Check your sugars."

I chuckled. If he was conscious enough to tell me that then he would be up without anymore prodding from me. Informing him I'd already checked my sugars would've only resulted in a back and forth discussion on if I really had. Even I wasn't awake enough for that. I checked all the rooms down the hallway since I didn't know where Rey ended up crashing last night until mine opened and he stepped out. I frowned at him, trying not to notice how even in the morning he was hot. I'd seen a lot of guys stumble out of their rooms in college but none of them had anything on him. Even with tousled hair and sleep lines across his chest...

"You're doing it again," he said in a husky voice.

My eyes popped up from the clearly Aztec inspired collar tattoo, one that ran from shoulder to shoulder and dipped down a little in the middle to look like it was draped that way, in an attempt to meet his eyes.

"Sorry." I squeezed mine closed when they obviously weren't going to stay on his face and ticked my head to the side, trying to remember what I was supposed to tell him. "Michelle said..."

Before I knew it, two warm arms slipped around me, causing me to jump a little. My eyes popped open and I looked up to meet his brown ones. They were only a couple shades lighter than black.

"Breakfast will be ready soon," he whispered. "I know. I can smell it. Just like I can smell your sweat." He walked me backwards until I was pressed up against the wall with him at my front. "You smell like oranges." He kissed my throat softly and I tried my best not to moan but melted completely on the inside. "Taste like them too."

It wasn't my sweat that smelled like oranges, it was my breath. Diabetics tend to have fruity smelling breath when their blood sugar was too high and in my case, right after I took my insulin. I wasn't about to tell him that though. I'd learned talking about my little disease wasn't exactly the biggest turn on.

And I wasn't completely upset with the fact he was turned on.

My hands were pressed between us and the lusty haze in my head cleared enough that I pushed him away a little.