SIX

"Nickolas," she said, weakly. Her eyes went from his toes to his chest and then to his face. "You're really gotten so um---." She pressed her lips together, pausing with a flutter of eyes.

Her heart rate was moving suddenly a little too quickly. Her body too, it was starting to heat.

The small interaction was making her feel strange. "---Big." She was fighting to keep her eyes on his face and not towards the other thing that had grown far too well.

"It surprised me too, Liz!" Louise laughed, taking a seat on the longue sofa. "To think our little boy would turn out this way." She looked at Nickolas with a motherly gaze. "How awful it is!" She lightheartedly feigned a frown.

"Oh, enough with your joking and playing, Louise." He lightly patted the back of her head as he took a seat next to her on the longue sofa.

"Oh, my goodness! Nicky just hit me!" Louise loudly exclaimed with expanding eyes. "See Liz? I told you he grew up to be a monster!" she said, trying to sound urgent with concern but her lips were curing upwards into a smile.

Elizabeth created a feeble laugh as she down in the lounge sofa opposing them.

She was more than happy to see her old friend, but she was finding it hard to ignore that her mouth was watering and her heart rate had already risen. She hadn't expected to see Nickolas, especially not with him looking like some... dangerous seductive Casanova.

'Dangerous seductive Casanova?'

She criticized herself for even thinking and considering such things.

She had known Nickolas as Louise's adopted brother and she had always seen him like a friend by extension. Never once while they all grew up together did she entertain any inappropriate thoughts about him. And now that she was married, she absolutely did not have room for those ideas now.

Besides, her heart was set on Benjamin Raynes since the day they become promised to one another.

But her body?

She pulled her legs in closer together. She didn't know what in the world it was doing...specifically not so rapidly abrupt and intense.

"S-so?" Elizabeth exhaled hot air, trying to keep her eyes solely on Louise. "How um, how have you both been? I trust you all have been ...." She trailed off, her attention continually travelling to the handsome man seated across from her. "...Looking good?"

He suddenly met her eyes, and she nearly jumped. "Looking good?" He laughed, speaking sweetly. "What's that supposed to mean, Miss Raynes?"

She clenched her jaw. The emphasize of her name was not doing any good for her. She hated how just a few words made her flush with heat. "Um, what I mean by that is that, is um, well I haven't seen both of you in so long. You both look great, and I must assume you've both been well?"

"I've been alright." Nickolas was first to respond. "I've recently finished from university."

"Oh?" Elizabeth widened her eyes. "I didn't know you even had plans to attend. Which school did you go to?"

"Hartmond University. I studied classical Newtonian physics and mechanics."

Elizabeth was slightly taken aback. "Wow, Nickolas. My greatest congrats!"

Ding!

He glanced at the grandfather clock. "Thanks. And I wasn't going to say anything, but that clock over there must be fixed."

Elizabeth gaped. "You noticed it was broken?"

"I noticed it the moment I walked in. It appears the calculations behind its exact timing are off by a microsecond and 3/4th." He leaned towards her as he spoke. "We ought to schedule a time that I can come by another day and fix it for you."

Elizabeth sucked in the air, whispering, "...Another day?"

Was he suggesting to come by again? To visit her?

She blinked.

Would he come alone?

Her heart hammered over the thought, and for some reason the longer she considered on the idea, the longer her mind went to other places.

One mental image particular was taking ahold of her wandering mind:

Sweat trickled down her glistened skin and she a rumbling heat burning in her pelvis as she moved her legs. She parted her knees slightly feeling a moistness growing damp on her thighs. She felt a raw hot tongue tracing over her pointed nipples and a free hand roaming wildly.

She panted, struggling to speak through trembling teeth. "...It's...not..." She sputtered out words through moans. "...It's not enough...Nick---."

---" 'It appears the calculations behind its exact timing are off by a microsecond and 3/4th.' " Louise mocked Nickolas's voice with a gesturing of her hands. "Who would've thought our Nicky would turn out to be such a learned and scholarly man? Next thing you know, Liz, he'll be wearing glasses and debating to us the nature of reality., she spat, her loud voice pulling Elizabeth from her thoughts.

"You're so annoying, Louise." He shook his head, pushing her shoulder.

"Aww you know you love me you little brat." She pushed him back with a sly laugh.

"Louise." He groaned. "I'm too old for you keep teasing me like I'm 10."

"Oh, please. You'll always be my little Nicky!" She smooched him on his cheek.

"Louise! I told you I hate when you do that!"

"Don't be so shy, Nicky. You're too old to be embarrassed by a mother's kiss." She grinned, using his own words against him.

"You're not my mother, Louise."

"But you're my baby, Nicky~!"

As two siblings bantered and goofed around, Elizabeth struggled to gain her composure.

She didn't know why she had suddenly thought her wet dream from earlier, and she certainly didn't know her mind was suddenly replacing images of her husband with another man.

She gulped down rocks.

It was just a fleeting silly thought, she assured herself. She wouldn't ever be unfaithful to Ben, and besides, it wasn't a crime to have...thoughts.

Trivial meaningless thoughts at that!

She wasn't ever going to act on them.