And even before the weekend, I had been thrilled. Mark's company had just gone public and he was feeling lavish. And whenever my stepbrother was feeling lavish, I always liked to be right in his line of sight.
It wasn't hard. Mark was ridiculously easy on the eyes. That handsome face of his, topped with that floppy hair that he was perpetually running his fingers through in a sexy but unselfconscious way, that trainer-honed body that he like to show off in tight ski sweaters...yeah all of those things made it very easy to look at Mark.
Listening to Mark, well, that was another issue entirely.
I had been listening to him non-stop for three days now.
The storms rolled in the last night of our stay. I had all my bags packed already, my boarding pass already printed and folded into my purse. It had been a nice visit, but I knew what would happen with too much family togetherness. My stepfather would drink too much and challenge Mark, never quite getting over the sting of having a son who did so much better in life than he did. My mother would whine and plead, begging us all to get along, martyring herself in the most annoying way possible. I would retreat into my room and sulk, somehow still a brooding teenager when it came to my family, even though I was on the wrong side of twenty-five.
And Mark would be above it all, somehow. Still grinning, still joking, even as the situation deteriorated. It was like he didn't believe bad things could happen to him, so they just...didn't.
And now that a bad thing had happened, he refused to admit it.
"It's not a goddamned adventure," I seethed. "I have a job. I have appointments. I have..." I searched for an appropriately dire consequence and couldn't find one. "...plants that are dying," I finished, lamely.
Mark snorted into his Scotch. "When this is all over, I will buy you some new houseplants, Chanel," he promised me, laughing into the back of his hand. "I wouldn't want you to go one moment without your houseplants."
I blushed furiously into my drink. "Go to hell Mark," I seethed. Mark laughed all the louder.
My mother sat up in a huff. "Well," she announced, "I'm going to bed. I don't need to sit up and listen to you two bicker like a couple of children." She punctuated her tirade by stomping across the marble kitchen tile and down the hallway to the guest bedroom.
Mark turned to me, wide-eyed, and started giggling like a schoolboy caught goofing off in church. I rolled my eyes even harder, trying and failing to keep the smile from playing around my lips. "I think she's handling it almost as well as you, sis," he told me in between gasping laughter.
"Oh go to hell, Mark. You have no idea what it's like being…" I couldn't think of what it was I was trying to say. The word I was going to use was "normal."
Because my stepbrother definitely was anything but normal. Superhero good looks mixed with superhero smarts was not a normal trait.
But my resentment of him was completely normal.
Mark spread his hands innocently. "Hey, the way I see it, were all enjoying an extra long vacation together. I have more than enough food, more than enough logs for the fire, and the power should come on at some point. We have booze, we have books, and we have cards. What more could we ask for?"
Privacy? I thought. But instead of speaking my mind, I looked down at my empty drink, swirling it around so that the ice cubes clinked against the glass. "I could ask for more bourbon, I suppose," I smiled.
Mark laughed in triumph. "There it is! There's my sister smile. You should try doing that more often."
"Oh really?" I arched my eyebrows. "And why is that"
He grabbed my glass and turned his back on me his broad shoulders filling out the dove-gray cashmere sweater a little too well. "Because it makes you look really pretty," he told me matter-of-factly
He was out of reach of my swat and I think that was deliberate. "What are you saying?" I demanded.
Mark turned and handed me a glass filled to the brim with Chanel colored liquid. I gulped looking at it, there were at least four shots in there. I was going to get hammered if I finished that.
I lifted it to my lips, as my stepbrother knocked back a huge glug of his. "What I'm saying is," he cleared his throat, "is that you look really pretty when you smile, Chanel."
I blushed all the way down to my toes. And steadfastly stared at my drink. Was he being serious? Or was this some sort of horrible tease. I could never tell with Mark. The normal rules didn't apply to him.
"So what's your plan?" Mark asked.
I opened my mouth and croaked, "What do you mean?" There was an implication in his question that I did not understand.
Mark gestured towards the hallway. "You going to bed or what?"
I shifted on the barstool. Sleep was the last thing from my mind. I was filled with angry pent-up energy, that creepy crawly sensation of cabin fever. If someone asked me to right now, I would gladly run a marathon, and probably have energy left over to ski down a black diamond slope.
I shook my head "I'm not sleepy."
Mark's eyes twinkled. "Well good then, you can keep me company." He stepped off of the kitchen and into the sunken living room, moving to stand over the fire and rub his hands over the warmth.
I moaned. "Just promised me we're not going to have to have some life-changing talk. I've had enough of those to last a lifetime this weekend."
Mark laughed and turned to an end table, opening a drawer. "Nah," he said, "how about a game instead?"
I sank into his deep leather sofa, mindlessly rubbing my fingers over the buttery softness. It smelled like wealth and good taste, only one of those things I actually attributed to my stepbrother. He must've hired a designer. "Sure, whatever…" I sighed. The Bourbon was strong, and I yawned unobtrusively into the back of my hand. The alcohol was burning a penetrating heat through my body, hotter even in the fire that roared in the grate. I grabbed the woolen throw blanket off the back of the sofa and snuggled up underneath it contentedly. Bourbon made being with Mark actually tolerable. I grinned sleepily.
"What are you smiling about?" Mark teased as he began dealing cards.
"You playing host," I shot back.
Mark looked up from his cards, a wounded expression knitting his eyebrows together. "Playing?" He asked. "Why do you say I'm playing?"
I shifted uncomfortably in the sofa. "Well…" I gestured futilely.
Mark sat back on his heels. "Oh, I get it," he said, all the warmth streaming from his voice. "You think I'm showing off, don't you Chanel?"
"Well…" I hedged. I slid my hand around to take in the gorgeous mansion he called a cabin. A huge bank of plate glass windows would have afforded us a stunning view of the slopes if it weren't obscured by whiteout conditions. The broad deck overlooked an expansive rolling lawn that led directly to the chair lift. Inside it was all blonde wood and light, accentuated by dark touches like the brown leather sofas and cast iron appliances. The whole place oozed money and careful attention to detail. "I mean, it's understandable that you would," I tried to soften the sting of my words. "This place is gorgeous."
Mark bent his head, his heavy lids shading his deep brown eyes. His long dark lashes cast a shadow across his cheekbones that danced in the firelight, angling up the swooping line of his sculpted cheekbones. The effect was breathtaking and he had no idea that it was even happening.
"I'm not trying to show off, Chanel," he retorted, my name on his lips like some kind of curse word. "I'm trying to have a good time with my family."
"Oh never mind, I don't know what I'm talking about," I laughed breezily.
Mark shook his head as if trying to clear it. "Wish I had a tape recorder when you said that, sis." He arched one eyebrow as he glanced at me devilishly, the dimple in his left cheek coming out of hiding.
I took another sip of Bourbon, even though I was already feeling incredibly drunk. That was the only explanation for why I kept looking at Mark the way I was. There was a softness about him that I had never seen before. Maybe it'd never been there before.
I leaned forw
ard eagerly, wanting for the very first time to please him instead of antagonize him. "So what are we playing?"
Mark sat back up again. "How about a little five card draw?"
I raised my eyebrows. "I have no idea how to play that."
"That's okay, I can teach you."
There was something in his voice that made that sound like a threat. "That some kind of poker, right? Gambling?" I demanded.
Mark shuffled the cards expertly. "Yep," he agreed his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth in concentration.
I looked down at my drink. "I don't have anything to gamble with, though."
Mark was steadfastly refusing to meet my eyes, fixing his gaze down at his hands. "We'll think of something…" he assured me. "What do you have that you value?"
"Um, here?" I took another sip of the Bourbon. This conversation was setting me on edge.
"Well, yes." Mark slowly and methodically began dealing out cards.
"Well," I took a deep breath, "Here, I only have my clothes."
Mark reached over and took a sip of his Bourbon knocking back an entire shot in one open throated swallow. "Then we play for clothes."
A shiver went through me. His words echoed in my head, ringing like a bell that wouldn't stop tolling. "You mean, you want to play strip poker?"