"Wait, not so fast."
I placed a hand on Dwain's chest and stopped him from walking out of the kitchen.
"You haven't told me what you came to look for in here. Don't tell me, that you followed me all this time, it won't make sense. Apart from playing with my sanity, you didn't do any other thing. . ."
"Lisa, can you stop talking and breathe?"
He pinned my mouth with his fingers and made breathing gestures with his free hand.
"Since when did you become a perpetual talkative? I must admit that your use of words and body language has changed so suddenly. But, guess what? Your thoughtful brain is more appreciated and your enriched vocabulary is spectacular."
I nudged his chest with my fingers.
"Is that an insult? It's like you forgot that the person you are insulting is right in front of you, Mr. Horton."
"Hey, I was just saying that I like your new mannerisms and vocabulary more as compared to, you know, some few months back when your. . . I don't think it's worth mentioning now that you have embraced change. Don't get me wrong, I'm complimenting you and I think I should spend money on buying you more storybooks so that you keep raising that vocabulary."
"Good try, but that's not the answer to my first question."
"Come here, " he pulled me into his arms and placed his head on my shoulder. " I needed a glass of water but then, you walked into me remember?"
"No, you did."
I rushed out of his embrace.
"Let's let you win, anyway, I'm no longer thirsty for water. " He held my hand and pulled me towards the dining, "they shouldn't think any weird thing about our absence."
We retired to the living room on time before anyone could get suspicious of our whereabouts even though Brielle cocked a semi-shy, semi-funny brow at me before mounting the coffee table and calling on everyone's attention with her brand-new microphone.
Mercy on my soul, I couldn't believe my eyes.
Brielle clasped an enormous black hairbrush to her mouth while Leonard climbed on a stool to reach her height.
He steadied a blue piece of paper in one of his hands for Brielle to read while his other hand held a hairdryer close to Brielle's hair which created a funny wind effect on her hair and her face as she spoke.
I couldn't stop picturing her as one of those witches from Disney land.
My lungs hurt watching Brielle's hair fly to the ceiling.
Before she could ever clear her throat from her far-fetched accent and start reading in a normal tune, her ugly British accent threw everyone across the room on their knees, and they begged for a fun relieving drug.
Her accent could be associated best with the sound a loose cord of a broken guitar would play before an audience.
"Now comes family game night and we got to shake some ass. Which game has no rules? Well, none I can think of... All the games will be played and the scores shall be recorded on the various score sheets at the end, the top three people with the lowest score will be in trouble. There are a bunch of penalties for the losers, best of luck to you all. Can this get the game night started?!"
"Yes!"
The first game which opened game night was, 'Puddle Jumper, ' with a little twist of rules and a penalty to any losers.
Three plastic cups were filled with water and lined up and a ping pong ball was placed in the first one.
The game aimed to blow the ball from one water cup to the next in one minute.
If the ball fell on the table, or the ball didn't reach the third cup before the one minute was over, the person scored a zero.
Leonard took the lead on this challenge, and won, Dwain equally, and the rest of us embraced our zeros.
The twerking line was long, and Brielle took the lead in shaking her ass damn quick such that it flipped to all angles ignoring gravity.
Why would they expect me to do such?
The fun in the room burst out from my stiffness even Dwain poked fun at me.
Liam's own was a kick to my stomach, how could my buddy mock me so badly?
In the next game, 'Ponginator,' the goal was to bounce ping pong balls so that eight of the balls would land in an empty egg cartoon within one minute.
For this game, we were grouped in pairs of two and each group that lost had to dress like the opposite sex for the next two rounds.
Dwain looked cute in shiny red lipstick which Brielle smothered on his lips.
It was so artistic of her to sprinkle water on his mouth and bring out the beauty of his lips.
I couldn't stop laughing, Lucky for me, I paired up with Leonard.
Liam couldn't stand the extensions added to his hair, he stroked his skull so badly.
I couldn't hold my laughter.
Camilla didn't stop wailing and unconsciously started mowing at the top of her lungs.
"I have an endless bunch of words to describe how wonderful you all made my night, but apparently, it's getting close to midnight and our streets aren't safe these days. So, I think, it's best if my fun ends here."
Jana stood on her feet after a few other rounds and clung the strands of her pouch to her shoulder.
"Goodnight everyone, I got to go."
Brielle caught Jana in her tracks and abruptly stopped her with a firm grip on her arm.
"No, you can't leave just yet. Remember, we got more plans for the night and I can assure you that, my room is large enough for both of us and Leonard can agree with me that, it's late to let you wander on the street." She stole a glance at him and rolled her eyes back to Jana, smiling, like crazy, " my room is next to his, he won't mind."
"Brie, my room is next to yours too, I won't mind. Leo, will you mind?"
Liam skipped to the rug and sat in Leonard's embrace.
Leonard went speechless, and as usual, the laughs came tumbling after, damn facial expressions could cut glass with one stare.
Two horns should have popped on his head if Camilla hadn't picked Liam from him.
"Kiddo, Leo won't mind."
Brielle pressed a protective hand on her abdomen, choking on her phrase.
We played another game that wasn't related to the others but had all to do with flour and LifeSaver.
A mound of flour was made on a plate and a LifeSaver was placed with utmost care on the top of the mound.
We took turns cutting the flour, trying not to allow the LiveSaver to fall.
The candy didn't have to fall, but if it did, the person who caused it had to retrieve it with his/her mouth.
Who could think that our escaping Jana would fall victim to this game?
She fumbled over the plate, trying to retrieve the candy without getting her face full of flour, but then, her head sipped in and spewed everything on her clothing, bathing her in flour from head to toe.
Even little Liam raised his hands over his head to laugh at her.
We settled around the dining table for a common meal that Perez and some other kitchen staff had concocted for us.
Liam fell asleep a short while later, so Camilla carried him to bed.
when we least expected Tasha's presence, she joined.
Tasha walked in at quarter past ten, her hair high up in a braided bun.
The dangerous lap slit on her red cocktail gown shifted at each move, showing off her pedicured toenails which rested in her black lace high heels, designed with an opening at the tip.
Her make-up glowed with a blush on her cheek as she made her appearance.
The dining went silent.
Dwain dropped his fork and wrapped his hands into a ball before placing them under his chin. "It's late, not an hour for the mother of the house to be outside. Où es-tu allé?"
Dwain secured his stare in her blinking eyes while I rested a hand on his thighs, signaling him to calm down.
"Well, " she held out a chair and sat into it, " Son, welcome home. I hope you enjoyed the surprise we made for you and the other surprise, you know the one in New York City, " giggles fluttered out of her lips.
"That's not an answer."
"I went to a friend's husband's funeral. One of my long-time no-see friends met me on my way home and suggested that we should go loitering around her newly opened club to celebrate our come together which I didn't refuse and I'm not drunk yet."
She raised her five fingers and counted them, "My four fingers are still intact, take a look son."
That was all we ever heard of her for the rest of the night.
Her fall onto the floor didn't close the evening yet, Leonard picked her up in his hands and took her upstairs.
Brielle still had a game for all of us.
Well, the house staff went to bed earlier than expected, so we couldn't assemble the scores on the score sheet.
Hence, no losers for Brielle's planned-out list of horrible punishments.
Yet Brielle managed to make me twerk and lap dance on Dwain for like three minutes during the Truth or Dare game which closed the night.
"Do a sexy belly dance to the person next to you."
Leonard raised his head after reading the paper he picked from the Dare box resting at the center of the circle we had made.
Jana was blessed with the most steamy waistline tricks of all time, and Leonard was a pro.
"Permit me to mark you, " he placed a wet kiss on her neck.
"One, initiate a lip kiss, two, tangle your tongues, three, eat the person to your right until the person responds to your kiss, and make it raw and steamy?!"
I raised my eyes from the dare sheet of paper.
"Guys, c'mon, this is crazy, it's Leonard! I can't, not even in my dreams."
"No big deal, you are free to pick another Dare, but take note that it must be done this time around, " Brielle smiled and brought the box close to my feet.
"You got an hour to serenade the person to your right. . . upstairs. . . In a bed?!"
I widened my eyes after reading the content of the next paper I picked from the Dare box.
"How should I serenade Leonard? I won't."
I crossed my hands on my chest, tucking a lip under my teeth.
"Then serenade Dwain, " Brielle and Jana chorused.
There wasn't any way anyone was making me do such, twerking and lap dancing for Dwain was enough.
In the minutes that proceeded my thoughts, Dwain's hands snaked around my waist and picked me in his hands, holding me to his chest in bridal style.
"My wife is a shy Lady. Wish me luck."
He carried me up the stairs straight into his room and placed me to stand on my feet after a series of hits and twirls.
"You better get to doing the Dare or we come to a mutual agreement. "
His lips pressed into a thin line and he walked to his closet to take off his sticking outfit from his muscular body.
"Which agreement?"
"Let me freshen up first, we still got a lot of time to discuss."
He took a bath and changed into sweatpants, and no top, letting his bare chest wander in the cold of the night while he sat on his coffee table.
He didn't bother me later on since his files and Mac Book Pro stole his attention.
Could this man forget to be a CEO for a single day?
"What a workaholic!"
I cursed under my breath.
"Hey, I heard you."
"Whatever."
I strolled to the bathroom, ignoring his naughty laughs, and washed my hair thoroughly before taking a long cleansing bath.
Twenty minutes were left for both of us to join the others in the living room, so I changed into a pair of grey shorts and threw a flowery sleeveless top over my head.
"Shouldn't we meet the others downstairs?"
I stuffed my finger into my mouth and bit my nails.
"What if instead of serenading me, you used that energy to give me a back massage? Huh? What do you think?"
He stood from his desk and stretched his hands over his head.
His broad chest and hard abdomen stood in my line of sight.
"I can tell them that you did what the Dare asked of you, if not, I could. . ."
"That's blackmailing, Mr. Horton."
I wrapped my hands around my chest.
"You to choose. Choose wisely."
He hopped on the bed and spread his legs and hands while his muscled back faced me.
"Ten more minutes."
"Fine, " I unwrapped my hands from my chest and climbed on the bed.
With my hands placed on his spine, I applied a light force up and down his back, controlling his flattering groans and ugly grumbling.
"This is the last time that I'm doing this."
"You are seriously molesting my back, can you be gentle?"
Somehow, this massage was lighting a fire in the wrong spots, and listening to his moans wasn't helping either.
I heaved a sigh at my frustration and picked up a quicker pace to get his massage dealt with, but the fading scars on his back caught my attention, and I traced them times without a number.
"Like that, now a little up, up again. Oh! Crap, that's it. Good. Very good."
"You didn't tell me who did this to you." I stopped massaging his back and snuggled into a pillow next to him, my eyes glaring at the lights in his room. "The scars on your back are still visible. Did you go around fighting with the friend you helped out of custody? Or gangsters on the streets did this to you?"
He didn't say a word, but his shifting towards me stroked my vigilance, and I rolled my eyes to meet his blue ones staring at me.
His face didn't have any emotions and his eyes weren't as glimmering as usual, they weighed with a certain dark cloud that I couldn't wrap a finger around.
"The scars aren't from a friend, because first, it was a makeup story, and second, no gangster did this to me. . . I did this to myself. I partook in a street fight out of my own will and my opponent wasn't that weak. He measured up to me just as I did with him, but I still defeated him, like always. Happy now?"
I gasped. "Why did you have to make a story up?"
"One day, I will answer you but for now, let's go meet the others."
He picked me once more in his hands and walked me out of his room.
"I got a surprise for you, " his lips brushed my ears.