ALONE WITH MY FATHER IN-LAW, DESIRES SPROUT.

LOLA

I froze, every bone of my body crashing with shock.

Greg was standing there — under the stairs, the turn that led to his room.

From where I stood, I could see him in full view — from his hair which was neatly slacked back, too good to believe that he had just woken up, to his toes which were hidden behind a pair of grey stockings.

He was wearing a pair of long soft long cotton trousers and a clean white shirt, his hands folded across his chest and his expression bland, as if I was invisible standing there.

Subconsciously, my eyes blinked up the stairs, my brain checking to see if there were more surprises for the morning.

The stairs were empty and silence echoed off its rails. I swallowed the shock that was lingering around my chest.

Straightening my back, I turned to Greg again, but almost immediately, as if he was waiting for me before he made a departure, he turned around, and continued to walk farther away until the soft latch of his door on its hinges confirmed that I was all alone in the sitting room — finally.

"Maybe he needs a conversation," a voice from the many that had formed in my head nudged me.

"C'mon Lola, there's nothing you can do about it," I cautioned myself, biting down on my lower lip and fisting my palms tight to keep my feet in place, because mentally, I had taken ten steps towards his room.

"Maybe you can talk to him," another voice broke out from my head.

"No. God forbid," I spat out, turning around immediately to do a quick scan just to ensure I was still the only person in the space.

"You can never tell. If he saw yesterday, he might want to, at least, caution his son," another voice insisted.

I pushed down on the lump that was beginning to form in my throat — still unsure of why I should walk straight into my father-in-law's room uninvited, at this time of the day.

Deep down, I knew I had never tried talking to him about Eddy, but also, I knew the reason I was holding myself back from walking straight into that room wasn't because of courtesy.

My head calm of the voices, my heart still and receptive, my thoughts open to confirmation, I told myself the truth I needed to.

I wanted to feel wanted.

I wanted to feel wanted by my father-in-law. I wanted to make sure I wasn't worthless to him either.

I took a heavy step forward. Another. Then another, my mind raced fast to the thoughts that were beginning to form in my head.

A couple of steps more, and I was standing right in front of his door.

I knocked three times in moderate succession. When I didn't hear an answer, I let myself in.

My words latched to my throat and my thoughts melted into a void when I saw him.

He was no longer wearing long pants and a shirt, he was shirtless with just a piece wrapped around his groin area.

His body was pumped up and sweat glistened fine against his skin.

I wasn't able to control my eyes as they trailed up his body, traveling down in a much slower motion.

He didn't even spare me a glance as he gripped the 40kg weight dumbbells like they weighed nothing.

Swinging it back and forth, his legs well separated from themselves for balance and stability, he gasped to every pull, the heaviness of his voice against his throat causing my stomach to rumble from want.

I straightened my shoulders when I felt I was beginning to lean in towards where he stood, my eyes making for his thighs.

I sucked on my tongue as I imagined how good it would feel to suck between his thighs.

I gulped, heat flooding my stomach.

"You don't mind, do you?" he asked, lifting the dumb-bell again with a strained gasp.

My breathing dipped, and I readjusted my stance, that split moment of deciding what to tell him between the truth and what he wanted to hear dawning on me shamelessly.

Of course, I was losing my mind seeing him half-naked, glistening with sweat and dangerously appealing.

He was staring at me now for an answer, so I shook my head hoping it conveyed the right message.

"C'mon, I was joking," he smirked playfully, waving his hands casually to drive his point better.

My eyes narrowed with confusion.

"I'm too frail now to keep a conversation while lifting weights," he finished, allowing the weights to drop out of his grip with a low, heavy thud against the floor.

He was talking about weights? Not the fact that I was barely holding up looking at the bulge between his legs?

I swallowed.

"C'mon! Sit!" Mr. Greg spoke again, his voice clattering through my ears like irresistible poison.

Holding it down, careful not to let my emotions burst through, I walked up to the bed, the exact position he had pointed me to, and sank into it.

I held my breath when he walked around and finally settled on top of the dressing table, his members packed directly before my face.

I swallowed, rubbing my thighs against themselves to ease the feeling traveling through my body.

My eyes flickered around somewhere between his thighs, my heart thumping to the endless thoughts that formed in my head until his voice came through again, pulling me out of my wild imaginations.

"You don't sleep together? I mean, you and Eddison"

The question sent a chill down my spine.

I wasn't so sure where he was heading with this, but I was determined to keep my answer as short as possible.

"He sleeps in another room most times. It's more like a choice."

"It doesn't bother you?"

My eyes twitched at how foreign that question sounded. Eddy's presence bothered me, and Greg had no idea how much it does.

"Not at all," I ended up saying without even batting an eye.

I watched his brows cluster together, his eyes widening in surprise.

I was happy he got my message.

For a second, it looked like he was going to say something else about it, but instead, he just nodded at my answer.

"About yesterday...," he started.

My mind raced furiously, and my ears stood erect.

"You should have excused yourself if you felt too sick to attend the occasion. It was important, not mandatory, especially for you."

I nodded slowly, interlocking my fingers in each other, my body stiffening to how much I hated myself for being with Eddy.

"I'm sorry you had to go through all of that," he concluded, his gaze spreading warmth over my face as I tried not to look him directly in the eye.

I wanted to ask him what he saw exactly yesterday, what he thought, what Eddy said, anything that could jug my frail memory back, but something else occupied my mind.

The atmosphere in the room suddenly became too cold and private. Sitting opposite each other in a conversation started to feel like doing the wrong thing at the right time.

My n*pples hardened to the desire warm between my thighs until they were solid crystals and tugged painfully at the cups of my bra.

"Do you have something to say?"

My stomach tightened. I gripped the sheets beside me until my knuckles hurt. 

I could feel my body shivering as I held my breath to force the words back down into my stomach.

"I want you.”