194 — Growing Tension

Ah this bad, obsessive, loving Noona saying this kind of cute stuff!

I felt something in my chest clench at her words. Another wire trip in the minefield I'd been traversing since I fell into bed with my sisters. Except this one went deeper—it bypassed everything and slammed straight into my poor heart.

I wanted to laugh at her, to lighten the moment with witty banter about how of course no one could please me like they did.

Instead I released her foot and let both my arms cage her where she lounged against those pillows painted crimson by her light design.

Her hair splayed all around her, amber eyes blinking in surprise, lips forming an involuntary, perfect 'o'—every motion, every feature, every imperfection (perfection) only further accentuating her innate, natural beauty, so vivid and so bright.

We were very much wrong for each other.

Her fingers instantly threaded themselves into mine and held tight. I pressed down, applying a little bit of force, just like how Su Ah might've loved. Mia's hands were now locked in a tight grip.

A dangerous smile emerged, quickly spreading through the rest of her features. The gleam of victory.

'Look at him.' That look seemed to say. 'It's mine. I caught him.'

In more ways than she could understand, she did.

"I could never see myself in anyone else's arms, Noona."

"In nobody but my own, is that what you are saying?"

Her lower lip was stuck between teeth. She looked pretty and dangerous all at once.

She didn't include Su Ah, and if I did, those pretty teeth would tear away at me like a rabid dog.

A rabid Noona.

"Hmm.... something along those lines."

The lustful curve in her lips shifted towards a warm, soft curve. I bent down, kissed the soft skin along her jaw, drawing an involuntary noise from the depths of her throat. I wouldn't indulge myself further than this, tonight. And I hoped Mia was on the same wavelength, because we all knew how little it'd probably take this vixen to break me.

I had to be as steadfast and unmoving as that one Chinese mountain.

Gosh.

Tempting, wasn't she?

But no... nope.

Must... resist....

"No kiss?"

Mia's arms wiggled and protested, and if I released her right here and now, she'd use them to ensnare me into her embrace. It wouldn't have made much of a difference since I usually threw myself there of my own will.

But a kiss?

That much I could do.

"Want one, do you?"

She nodded vigorously. So adorably child-like. Her thighs squirmed underneath me. Uh-oh. Those weren't pinned and restrained like her arms, leaving her full access to use whatever means necessary.

One more moment, and she'd drag her legs to cross my lower back and tug me inside her nethers, mind and heart, whether or not I wished.

Yeah, it'd be hell for me if that happened.

I was definitely no mountain.

Caving to her coquettish request, I lowered my head to cover her mouth with my own, sinking deeply into that addictive sweetness, the desperate, rough manner in which Mia pulled me closer and welcomed me further into her territory, into her.

My hands were quite hyperactive during passionate moments. I couldn't help myself but fondle every delectable part of her voluptuous figure. Everything about her was appealing and sensual, an erotic goddess straight out of myth.

"Jae-il~"

She liked the full weight of me upon her, my hair in her fingers, her name spoken and reiterated again, her tongue to suckle and moan for.

Oh boy.

I stilled myself with a great act of restraint, though a minor tremor—maybe two—still shook the underpinnings of my carefully built levee, but they had done far more than quake its structure.

This wasn't just a quake, though.

"Hmm?"

She looked at me through lazy, sexy slits.

Our breathing merged together. Red shadows painted her features like warpaint.

God but something about this house now was as thrilling as a cliff edge.

Something about standing here between these warring goddesses gave me exactly what my jaded older soul never knew it secretly craved: danger, yes; but also this intense feeling that somehow—insanity and impossibility—that everything might yet end well despite everything.

It was ridiculous.

I was ridiculous.

And it was dangerous.

I pulled back, exhaling, looking down at her flushed and flustered form. Mia watched me quietly as I found the ability to sit back.

A furtive grin, one almost mischievous. "Did I scare you?"

"Yes."

Her grin widened, cat-like, smug in a way only a Noona could get.

I was just starting to realize how unavoidably attracted I was beginning to get to Mia's own brand of deviancy.

This could only mean worse news was soon to come.

And by the glint in those cunning, cat eyes, she knew she'd hit a weak point—something she'd no doubt milk until I went into cardiac arrest from her provocations.

Ahh... such a cunning witch, and such a wicked heart she kept inside those ample breasts, made to cause me trouble.

"Noona, behave." I flicked the tip of her nose playfully.

"Fine~ I won't do anything, but don't go yet—!" She said as soon as she saw my feet land back onto the floor.

"It's late, Noona."

"I'll behave!" Mia clung to me before I even had a chance to react. She scooted over a few inches and lifted the sheets. "Hold me? Just for a bit..." Her voice, oddly enough, carried a small tint of vulnerability.

"Just until you fall asleep, Noona."

That's my ultimate weakness: Noona sleeping.

I settled under covers with her.

Mia smiled contentedly as she snuggled up beside me, nosing under my neck and nearly crawling over me like some kind of cat.

We spent some time together in the red glow. The color became hypnotic, after a while. And when she lay there with her eyes closed, head resting on my arm, hair spread around her in waves, skin lit by crimson glow, so pale and fair, I thought I'd gone to heaven.

Her quiet breaths caressed the sensitive skin of my arm. I wished I could let this go on forever, stay like this in this cozy place between the sisters. The scent of her was overwhelming. Like standing beneath a fruit tree in summer, the ripest, reddest, juiciest, sweet-smelling peach.

Mia fell asleep within seconds, literally.

My shoulder had become a pillow. I used the opportunity to brush the hair off the right side of her face, letting its length flow past her exposed ear, trailing gently, tenderly along her jaw, her neck, all the way until the last strands traced her collarbone.

My heart sank slightly at the thought of this all blowing up.

Mom didn't deserve that mental gymnastics routine every morning over cereal. "Honey, good news! Your successful professional athlete son is having orgies! Bad news! It's just with your daughters!"

I shook my head at the thought. Yeah, let's not go there.

I then let myself remain next to Mia Noona for the shortest duration of time, because her irresistible, somnolent sex appeal was melting my resolution to an absolute puddle. It was another fifteen minutes until I slowly dislodged myself. I laid her head gently back on the pillow.

Carefully, as though Mia were a set of fragile Ming Dynasty porcelain, I climbed out of the bed.

The gentle smile on Mia's relaxed and contented face stayed with me well beyond when I shut her bedroom door.

I slipped from Mia's room. This navigation between their bedrooms felt dangerous.

Finally back in my space, I closed the door and pressed my forehead against it. Exhaustion didn't describe what lived in my bones.

In my room, I considered throwing some essentials into a bag. The sane option, but definitely not the one I'd actually choose. They'd hunt me down, drag me back, then the true punishment would begin, probably something involving restraints and creative forms of sensory deprivation that I'd probably enjoy before regaining my senses and hating myself.

So yeah, I wasn't going anywhere.

Instead, I collapsed across my bed, thinking about everything that happened these days.

...

Sunlight streamed unforgivingly through a gap in the curtains when my eyes finally cracked open. I smelled the coffee before anything else; I wasn't a coffee person. I could chug a can of Monster at the early wisps of dawn, only to be judged by coffee drinkers.

It's a war, I tell you.

Pulling on the nearest clothes and washing up, I trudged toward breakfast, my empty stomach already growling for proteins. Since I didn't hear any screaming or fighting, I could presume Mia and Su Ah were still asleep, or by some miracle, behaving and reconciling.

So I walked down with some trepidation.

Eun Ha was surely awake and making breakfast. I doubted those two were crazy enough to fight right in front of her.

I walked into the kitchen as nonchalant as I could, but already looking for any bloodstains or missing tufts of hair.

And then I stopped dead.

At our dining table, among the mugs of coffee and plates, sat a man I hadn't seen in a long while—our father, Yeong Gu.

His sharp suited presence sat there, calmly, a newspaper in his hands as per usual, while Eun Ha fluttered like a panicked hummingbird around the kitchen, mixing batter with trembling hands.