CHAPTER SIX
2217 Words
Mia parked her truck in her apartment's garage and got out, feeling like she had just ran a hundred mile marathon. She trudged up to her apartment and fumbled in her bag for the keys. When she finally got the door open, the acrid smell of smoke hit her. Panicked, she started screaming for her sister.
"Maria! Maria where are you? What's with the smoke?"
She finally found her sister perched on the sitting room floor, roasting marshmallows from a little fire she'd made from a bundle of old clothes.
"Hello, sis" Maria said around a mouth filled with marshmallows, "What's up"
Mia seethed,
"What's up? I come back home and find out that my kid sister almost set our apartment on fire. What's up young lady is that you're in serious trouble."
"Oh come in." Maria whined, "I was hungry, for junk food. The marshmallows were very available."
"I don't have time for this" Mia huffed "I'm gonna go take a shower 'cause I'm way beyond exhausted. When I'm done, we're gonna discuss your punishment."
Mia walked over and stomped out the fire with her boots.
"Hey Mia, while we're discussing my punishment, why don't we also talk about why your cheeks were all pink and cherry when you got in here, huh?"
Maria gave her a wide, mischievous grin and a small wink. Mia on the other hand was stunned, but she recovered quickly.
She licked her dry lips
"Well that...that was because it was so hot in here. Because a little somebody thought it was appropriate to set up a bon fire in our sitting room" Mia said, narrowing her eyes.
Maria just gave her a dull look.
"You're the queen of exaggeration, sis, you know that?"
Mia slanted her a don't-mess-with-me look and Maria had the grace to look ashamed.
"And anyway, I'm sorry for the fire situation. Promise it won't happen
again."
"That dosent alleviate your punishment but for your own sake, it better not happen again."
Mia quickly added,
"Hey, and I was not blushing. Seriously."
Maria gave her a knowing look.
"Nobody said you were blushing."
Mia heaved a tired sigh,
"I'll talk to you when I'm out of the shower, okay?"
"Kay Kay."
Mia turned and continued to the room, feeling oddly uncomfortable that her sister had seen her blushing. She dropped her tote bag on the bed and her keys on the dresser. Then she sat down to take off her boots, panties and the dress came off next. When she was totally naked and about to enter the bathroom, she caught sight of her reflection on the mirror.
Over the years, the men she'd slept with told her that she had the body of a demi god. She had never truly believed it though, because the comment had always been made after their c****x had maxed off half their brains. Mia rolled her eyes and got into the bathroom. She turned on the shower and relished the feeling of the hot water as it sluiced down her bare back.
Of course she knew why she'd been blushing earlier. All through the ride home, she had done nothing but imagine what being in Cole Anderson's strong arms would be like and how having s*x with him would feel. Three words came to her mind: hot, sweaty and fabulous.
Mia, she mentally chided herself, you know you can't get involved with him. It's too dangerous. She turned off the water for a while and started scrubbing slowly, her mind going back to their stand off earlier in the kitchen. When he'd come come close to her, his body radiated a kind of heat that had sent a sweet little jolt down Mia's spine. The muscles on his forearms bristled with barely restrained energy. Mia had almost given into the little voice in her head that told her to run her palms over the rough stubble that had began to grow on his slightly crooked chin.
Mia turned on the shower again and began rinsing off the soap suds. She had to stop thinking of Cole, it wasn't doing her mind any good.
She walked out of the bathroom and towelled off her wet, heavy hair. Then she slathered cream on her body, put on her Terry cloth robe and went to watch television. As she passed the kitchen, her stomach as if in cue gave a low rumble. She'd not eaten anything since consuming a bowl of ice cream earlier and since that made her think of Cole, she resisted the urge to have any more ice cream that night.
She retraced her steps and went into the kitchen to fix herself a huge tuna sandwich. She munched on her sandwich as she padded barefoot out of the kitchen to the sitting room where Maria sat on the rug, eyes glued on the TV as she watched some reality show on Fox. All traces of marshmallows being roasted earlier was gone and the floor was spotless. Good, Mia thought.
She picked up the remote and switched off the television. Maria immediately turned towards her, managing to pull off both surprise and shock in one expression. Mia mentally rolled her eyes. Maria could always be trusted to be a drama queen.
"Mia pleeeaaaassse," she whined "How can you do this to me. That was the juiciest part."
Mia just munched on, watching her sister from beneath her long lashes.
"You have a cell phone. You could download that season later."
Maria was not pacified.
"Oh, come on. We all know watching it on TV is way better 'cause the characters appear larger."
Mia couldn't help but notice that her kid sister looked so cute when she sulked.
"You're talking like a five year old, Maria. I thought that everyone's into cell phones now. Nobody even watches TV anymore."
Maria rolled her huge eyes,
"I'm not 'everyone' sis and besides, I'm the teenager here so I know more about these things."
Mia dropped her sandwich on her laps and raised both her hands.
"Okay. Teenagers know more than adults do. Anyway, let's change the subject."
"You know that's not what I meant" Maria muttered, "And yeah let's definitely change the subject, to your brand new job and your hot new boss."
Maria gave her a knowing wink as Mia almost choked on her sandwich.
"Hey, I never told you he was hot. You haven't even met him, how did you know then?"
Maria rolled her eyes again.
"See Mia? That's why people say that twenty five year olds must have been created way back in the sixteenth century."
"No one says that and you haven't answered my question."
"Okay sis. As you know, this is the twenty first century and in this century we have the internet," Maria stressed the word like she was talking to a six year old.
"The internet is where we find out stuff that we ordinarily wouldn't know ourselves. That's how I found out that Cold Andy is hot. I simply asked Google."
Mia huffed, trying to keep herself from laughing at her sister's serious sarcasm.
"In my defense, I know what the internet is and how it works, my thought just didn't travel that route, okay?
And who the hell is Cold Andy?"
" Oh sis," Maria said tapping her forehead, "Cold Andy is Cole Anderson's professional wrestling name. Like Nicki Minaj or Lil Wayne."
"Oh, Mia said, clearly speechless.
"Anyway," Maria continued, "I browsed on him extensively, you know, to check if he has any criminal record, that kinda stuff and guess what? He's the longest reigning men heavy weight champion and once, he beat up ten men when they attempted to launch a surprise attack on him in a wrestling ring in California. Come on sis, how cool is that?"
Mia could definitely see Cole beating off ten men. His huge forearms and massive chest and biceps flashed in her mind. She was sure he could even wrestle a grizzly bear to the ground and he was sexy as hell.
"Hey sis," Maria snapped her fingers in Mia's face, " Earth to Mia."
"Sorry, my thoughts kinda ran away with me there."
" Anyway," Maria blabbed on "The Anderson family is one of the richest and by far the most powerful family in the world." Maria gave Mia a serious look.
"I'm talking serious money and lots of power to purchase their very own town. However, tragedy struck when they lost both their parents in a boating accident some years ago and their Grand dad has been taking care of them since."
Maria looked at Mia again,
" I wish we had a Grand pa when the whole world came crashing down on our heads years ago."
Something hollow and painful squeezed in Mia's chest as she took in her sister's sad expression. Quickly, she sat up and pulled Maria in for a long, tight hug, wrapping her arms around her while she whishpered into her apple shampoo scented hair.
"I know we may not have a lot of support right now but we have each other and that should be enough to keep us going. Let's try to put the pain in the past where it belongs. I swear Maria I'll figure out a way to make all this right. I promise we'll be okay and will live normal, happy lives like everyone else. We won't look over our shoulders forever."
Maria nodded and sniffed as she held on tight to Mia's robe, then she lifted her head and gave her a watery smile. She took up her phone and began talking again. That's my girl, Mia thought, brave to a fault. Mia knew of few teenagers that would have handled witnessing their parents being brutally murdered and her sister being tortured as well as Maria did.
"Cole has four more siblings though. His twin brother, Callaway Anderson..."
"The famous basket ball player?" Mia asked
Maria gave a rueful smile,
"The very same. And he's also a powerful business man and self made billonaire. Then there are his older brothers Eli and Jack Anderson. Eli owns a huge oil mill factory, the best in Russia and Germany and Jack is a co-owner of one of the largest web companies in the world. They have a sister though, her name's Marjorie Anderson. She was a top Victoria Secret model but now, she owns her own agency. She's also a seasoned writer. Man, Mia, they sound so intimidating and it says here that they would be visiting Hilltop Creek in the next two weeks, they'll all be coming here!" Maria squealed in excitement.
"We'll be surrounded by hot shot billonaires. It says here that Cole also does part time modelling."
Mia's head shot up at what her sister said. She gasped, obviously surprised.
"What? Why, 'cause he needs the money?"
Maria rolled her eyes,
" No Mia, seriously. It's not because he needs the the money. It's because he's hot and only hot guys become models ya know." Mia scrolled through her cell phone.
" Here, let me show you some of his modelling photos."
"No...no" Mia started to protest, knowing fully well what a picture of Cole could do to her momentum at this moment.
"Yes...yes. Ooooh, here's one" Maria shoved her cell phone in Mia's face and she had no choice but to look at the screen. Her breath caught in her throat as the picture and of Cole shirtless, every inch of his mouth watering body shining with the effect of body ointments, filled her vision.
Everything about him screamed MAN, in block lettering. Man, he was sexy as hell. Because the picture was too disturbing, she gently pushed Maria's hand away. A shocked Maria said,
"Okay, I did not expect that reaction. I expected you to say something like 'woah, look at those abs, this guy is hot'."
"Well, Maria, what Cole Anderson lacks in the human relations department, he certainly makes up for in the looks department. How's that?"
Maria was taken aback,
"What d'you mean by that."
"Well, just trying to say that Cole Anderson is one rude, arrogant ass of a man. That's my take on him."
"Did he do something to hurt you, sis?" Maria asked in a worried tone. Mia knew that her sister was thinking about the past again. About Mia's previous abusive relationships and she quickly regretted her words.
"No, he did not hurt me. That's never going to happen again. He's just arrogant, typical of men like him with egos the size of a small planet. Anyway, I can handle him, trust me."
Maria heaved a sigh.
"Well, his Grand father looks nice though."
"I'm glad you think that. Infact, his Grand father is nice. This means that you're gonna enjoy your punishment."
"Hey" Maria whined, "I thought you forgot about that."
"Nope" Mia grinned at her "and for your punishment kid, tommorow's Saturday and you're coming to work with me. Let's put those little marshmallow roasting hands to good use."
"Oh, come on! Work on a Saturday? That's just mean sis, just plain mean."
Mia stood up and kissed both of Maria's soft cheeks and her hair.
"Goodnight, kid. Don't stay up too late, tommorow's gonna be a long day."
- Writer
