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The movie had been torture. Well, not the movie itself,
but just
sitting next to Kevin. Rowena had fought off countless urges
to slide over
and lean against him ... to feel his arm slide around her ... she was
in a bad
way, and she knew it. To make matters worse, she’d felt him looking
over
at her every so often; she wondered if he was thinking the same things.
So, a part of her mind asked her, why are you sitting way the
hell
over here? What would be so bad about a brief fling with Kevin?
She
couldn’t define it ... maybe it was just snobbery. If she slept
with him, Lorri
and Catie would never let her forget it, and if the people at work
found out
she’d had sex with a teen idol, her credibility would be shot to hell.
But, but ... the other, less business-like half of her argued
back,
wouldn’t it all be worth it for just one night with that perfect body?
Nah,
not one night, she told herself silently. It would have to be
at least two.
She giggled out loud without meaning to, and Kevin looked over
at
her quizzically. Suddenly, she was glad the lights were out,
so he couldn’t
see her blush.
No, as pleasant as the thought of a night or two of passion might
be,
she had to keep the relationship professional. Professionalism
was how
she’d built the career she had so far, and she wasn’t about to change
her
ways now.
When the movie was over, she looked around the room. Frowning,
she noticed Catie and Nick laying on another couch, sprawled all over
one
another. Carlos would have a fit if he saw them ... but, Rowena
was tired of
playing mommy. Besides, she wasn’t going to pick yet another
fight with
the seventeen year old with guests in the room.
To cover her frown, she yawned as she stood up. “Well, folks,
I
think I’m going upstairs to bed.”
“Party pooper,” Derek said. “It’s only 10:30.”
“Well, I believe I’m the oldest person in this room, so I reserve
the
right to be an old curmudgeon. So, good night, all.”
She tried to make a graceful exit, but in dodging AJ on the floor,
she
stumbled. A hand reached out to grab her -- Kevin’s hand.
Their eyes met
... god, why did his eyes have to be such a hypnotic color? His
touch was
electric, and for a moment, she was paralyzed.
Finally, muttering an apology, Rowena managed to stand up straight
and exit the room. “God, you’re behaving like a fifteen year
old virgin,”
she muttered on her way up the stairs. “Get over it.”
***
Lorraine was trying to ignore her sister and Nick. She was
trying to
follow the conversation her brother and the other four guys were having
about cars, but she kept hearing snippets of the conversation from
the
couch. “Come get me tomorrow,” Catie was saying, “and I’ll show
you
where I go swimming privately, on the other side of the island.”
When she heard Nick agree, Lorri knew it was all over. Quietly,
she
said her good-byes to the others and excused herself from the room.
She
walked slowly up the back stairs ... dignity, she reminded herself.
You
promised yourself dignity where Catie was concerned.
Only when she reached her bedroom did she allow herself to throw
pillows and stuffed animals at the walls. Her Winnie the Pooh
doll made a
satisfying thudding noise as it hit the poster of Nick Carter square
in the
nose.
She wasn’t pissed at Nick, though ... she knew the male of the
species well enough to know that when a girl offered, they rarely said
no. It
was her sister, her loving twin, that made her blood boil.
At first, down by the beach, Lorri hadn’t understood why Catie
was
throwing herself at Nick. After all, wasn’t her twin the one
that was
constantly making fun of him? When they watched the concert on
TV,
Catie always teased her about how Nick needed to lose weight, and how
dorky he looked when he danced. So, why had she been practically
shoving
her ass in his face?
At dinner, though, it had dawned on her. Who was the BSB
most
often featured on *Catie’s* walls? Kevin, who had eyes for no
one in that
house but Rowena. Catie must have had fits when Lorri told her
about that
pairing ... she’d had some kind of attitude where the older woman was
concerned even before the Backstreet Boys were in the picture.
Lorri didn’t
understand why she had such animosity towards Rowena, but it was there,
nonetheless. The fact that Ro seemed to be “stealing” the man
Catie had
long held up as her ideal was just icing on the cake.
So, since ultra-competitive Catrina couldn’t possibly stack up
to a
woman eleven years her senior, what was left for her to do? Why,
“steal”
her sister’s man, of course. Lorraine hadn’t had any illusions,
really, when
she heard the guys were coming to visit. She hadn’t expected
Nick to fall
madly in love with her or anything ... but it still hurt to see him
falling all
over Catie. Her sister knew it, too -- it was the only reason
she’d gone after
Nick in the first place. Catie just had to be better than *somebody*,
and
Lorri was the only somebody left.
Retrieving her pillows and Pooh from the floor, Lorri sank down
on
her bed and sighed, willing herself not to cry. She’d survived
Catie’s
cruelty before, and she’d do it again, because she loved her, and deep
down,
knew that Catie loved her, too. The twin bond, which had carried
them
through the first seventeen years of their lives, was beginning to
wear thin,
though, and that fact scared Lorraine more than she cared to admit.
