The Things You Make Me Feel Ch. 02

"You were crying. You were saying things... things that made me feel... things for you."

Tears ran down Ellie's pale cheeks as she didn't know how to feel about what he'd just said: ecstatic or dejected.

"What are you doing?" she whispered, a quiver threading the words. "Are you trying to destroy my life? Are you doing everything in your power to destroy me?!"

"What?" he murmured, his expression clouded with pain. He walked up to her, stopping a foot away. "I don't want to destroy you, Ellie. I want us to figure this out."

"There's nothing to figure out! We were drunk and—"

"No," he cut her off, shaking his head. "We agreed we weren't drunk. Alcohol had nothing to do with what happened, and you know it."

"It was late, and we were tired, and we were emotional because of Michela, and that's why—"

"Ellie, you were kissing me! You were telling me you didn't want to lose me! That you wanted me from the second you saw me! That had nothing to do with tiredness or Michela."

Ellie burst into tears. She walked up to the closet and propped her back against it, shaking like a leaf in the rain.

"Ellie..."

"What is it that you want from me, Oliver?" she sobbed. "Do you want to feel what it'll be like to fuck me? You want to satisfy this sick curiosity? Is that what you want?"

Oliver approached his sister and cupped her tearful cheek. "How can you say that? I don't want to fuck you. I want..." He sighed and paused to weigh his words. "This entire week, I couldn't stop thinking about you and about that night. I know it's messed up, but I can't help it: I want you, and I don't know what else to do about it. And I know you want me, too."

"No, I don't want you." She wiped her tears away. "I want my fiancé."

"You don't want me?"

"No, I... I don't want you."

"So everything you said that night... was what exactly?"

"Ramblings of a disturbed and horny woman who was ovulating, is all it was."

"So the part of you never feeling like that was a lie."

"Yes."

"And the same goes for how I make you feel?"

"Yes, that was a lie, too. It was all a lie."

"So you don't want me inside you?"

"It grosses me out."

"Grosses you out?"

"It makes me sick just thinking about it."

He nodded, unconvinced, and reached for the lace of her short shorts. "So if I pull down your shorts, there won't be a nice stain there in your panties?"

"No!" she spouted in dread, praying to god he didn't pull down her shorts.

He rested his forehead on hers and started to slowly undo her lace.

Ellie wanted nothing more than to stop him, but she felt helpless against him. Her brother was bringing her defenses down with ease; moreover, she knew there would be a stain there. She could feel its insufferable existence against her sensitive nether lips.

He hooked his thumb into her waistband and looked down into her eyes. "No stain?"

"Oliver, please," she mewled tearfully. "I'm begging you..."

Considering her blue eyes, Oliver deliberated if he wasn't getting carried away when his sister was making it very clear that she didn't want him. He didn't want to force himself on her; he would never. Sorrowfully, he withdrew his thumb and stepped back, mulling all of this over.

Ellie breathed a muted sigh of relief when he was with his back to her and tied her lace back as tight as she could, making a triple knot. "Oliver?"

He swiveled to her, absorbed in thought.

"You cannot pursue me."

"I don't know if I can do that."

"You have to stop with this. You can go after any woman on this planet for god's sake, any woman... except me."

"Because you don't want me?"

"That, and much more importantly, because we're blood-related."

He gauged her face again, and he could tell she truly meant for him to back off.

"Yeah, you're right." He inhaled and exhaled, releasing. "I'm backing down now. I promise."

"Good," she sighed, heartbroken. "Let's pretend that none of this ever happened and work on our relationship as siblings to our best ability. Let's better it, even if we can never go back completely to what we were."

"Yeah," he said, crestfallen. "We'll work on it." He faked a smile. "We'll fix it in no time."

***

Three weeks later, and Ellie and Oliver had been slowly mending their relationship as siblings. Ellie had started coming over thrice a week and spent a significant amount of that time with her niece. She was in awe with Michela: with her sensitivity and intelligence, her cheer and vitality, and she felt vast grief for her not having a mother. She and Oliver were getting along better, even if most of the time it felt strained. Ellie, however, was content with that. As long as she didn't need to confront her true emotions for him, she considered it a huge win.

Oliver wasn't winning though. He started resenting Ellie. He felt that if she hadn't made her move on him that night, he would have never been in this dire situation he was today, for no matter how devoted he'd been to the eradication of the romantic feelings he was having for her, he couldn't. If anything, they'd blossomed into a sensation he felt only once in his life, years ago, when he had fallen for Bianca.

Outside the scope of their troubled relationship, Oliver managed to score a position as a junior analyst in a young hedge fund company, and Michela's grandparents enrolled her in preschool. Michela's fear of abandonment had been gradually subsiding, and she even allowed Oliver to leave her with her grandparents for two whole hours last week when he'd gone out for drinks with Dave. They were constantly on the phone though.

***

It was a hot Friday afternoon when Ellie pulled into her parents' driveway. She parked amongst a heap of cars and climbed up the stairs to the front door. She could hear the booming music from the outdoor speakers her father had set up years ago. Their parents were away for the weekend to a company-paid resort, and her twin had been confidentially plotting a pool party for a handful of their friends all week long.

Ellie felt good about herself today. She was wearing a sexy white bikini underneath a tube top and a short skirt, both white, and her blond hair cascaded down her back like a golden waterfall. Her bikini was outrageously tiny and revealing, and although she knew that around Oliver it would be wise to keep herself as covered as possible, there was a—sick and substantial—part of her that wanted him to look, to leer at her, to lust after her.

It was that trite conflict she'd seen in so many movies. She was fearful of him forgetting her in the very same way she'd insisted he should never look at her. She herself was constantly checking him out and getting wringing wet every time just to fuck Jason in the sick manner he had grown accustomed to—and love. She unleashed her slutty tongue in bed as her brother—via Jason's dick—made her climax in ways she couldn't even dream of.

For that to work, only positions that negated eye contact were in play. She couldn't look Jason in the eye and keep Oliver in her head, and she was certainly not about to retreat to her old orgasms that she so used to appreciate. Yet equipped with today's knowledge, she felt they were unjustly revered. If she weren't coming to her brother, she wasn't coming at all.

She joined the party and saw that many of her friends were already tipsy. Jack and Dave were playing hosts, and the atmosphere was great. It was a modest revel of about forty people as Jack had kept a tight guest list. She was disappointed to see that their friend Eva had brought her infamous cousin Rita along but thought nothing of it minutes later. She stripped down to her eye-catching bikini and quickly got some alcohol into her system while discreetly scouting the place for the youngest of her brothers, who was nowhere to be seen.

Jason arrived twenty minutes later straight from work and joined his fiancée in his board shorts. Ellie was uncomfortable with the thought of him meeting Oliver, but she'd put it off for too long, and Jason was beginning to get suspicious. She didn't know if Oliver would be attending the party, but if he were to be attending, then a pool party that was serving alcohol was the optimal time and place to get it over with, she figured.

"What an awesome idea, Jack, this party," Jason said. "Kudos."

Jack swigged his beer and grinned. "You welcome. You just make sure to keep that idiotic smile on my sister's face."

"Hey!" Ellie feigned anger before she proceeded to giggle, clearly lightheaded.

"Will do," Jason said as he crushed the empty beer can in his massive hand.

Jack, Ellie, and Jason were hogging the Jacuzzi along with Eva and Rita.

"When are we closing up shop?" Ellie asked before she hollered to Dave to fetch her another fruity cooler.

"I don't know; we'll see. When it's Michela's bedtime I guess." He chuckled.

"Speaking of which," Eva said, "where is your brother and niece? Don't they live here?"

"They do," Jack said. "I don't know where they are though. Oliver isn't picking up."

"I have to say," Jason said, "I'm excited to finally get to meet him. Ellie has kept him under wraps for so much time."

"I haven't kept him under wraps! I just waited for the right moment."

He smiled as he gave her a peck on the lips, and opened another can of beer.

Dave handed Ellie her cooler and joined in, forcing Eva and Rita to part as he squeezed himself between them, which elicited big laughs from all.

"Is he seeing anyone?" Eva asked a moment later while ignoring Dave's lewd grin.

"Who, Oliver?" Jack said. "Not that I know of. He's got his hands pretty full with his new job and Michela." He sipped his beer thoughtfully. "Don't get me wrong, I love that little Italian girl to death, but I sometimes really feel for him."

Jason drew on the marijuana cigarette Rita had fired up and passed it on to Ellie. "I don't even know him, and I feel for him. I mean, a single dad at his age? A widower? You gotta feel for that."

"It sometimes really blows my mind," Jack said as he snatched the marijuana cigarette from Ellie. "The guy became a dad at 18. That's... ridiculous."

"How old is he now?" Eva asked.

"He'll be 23 in December," Ellie replied and sipped her cooler in thought, wondering why Eva was showing so much interest in her brother.

"He is quite young," Eva said.

"Quite young for what?" Ellie said with mild hostility, starting to lose the buzz she'd been enjoying the past hour.

"Young to be a dad to a 5-year—"

"4," Ellie corrected.

"Sorry," Eva emphatically said, more than feeling Ellie's inexplicable ire. "A 4-year-old kid."

"Funny you should mention a 4-year-old kid..." Dave said, gesturing at the patio entrance with his head.

Ellie spun around and saw her brother in his suit and tie holding Michela in his arms. He was so handsome in her eyes, like a hired model rather than a financier. He was pointing at things and then speaking to his daughter as if he were explaining. Ellie instantly grinned at the sight of that.

"Oliver!" Jack beckoned him over.

"That's your brother?" Jason asked as Oliver plowed his way through the half-naked crowd that was drinking and dancing while sheltering Michela with a smile.

A groggy simper crossed Ellie's face as she looked at them from afar, as if she were dreaming it. "Yes..."

"Hey! Some party, huh?" Oliver chuckled, standing next to them with Michela in his arms. "Eva... Rita."

His bashfulness as he looked at Rita hadn't gone unnoticed by Ellie, nor did Rita's teasing smile. She wanted to off her right there in the bubbling hot water.

Everyone said a warm hello to Michela; Ellie did one better and rose to kiss her from inside the Jacuzzi.

Oliver really wished she hadn't. Her body emerged from the water, and that white bikini was trouble, he instantly knew. She was showing too much cleavage, and her blond hair flowed down her fore in a way he couldn't stay indifferent to. Ellie was an angel in his eyes. He hated her guts, especially when he noticed a large chunk of muscle hooking an arm over her delicate shoulder.

"Aren't you going to introduce us, babe?" Jason said.

"Oh, yeah, of course," Ellie mumbled, her anxiety sky-roofing. "Um... Jason, Oliver. Oliver, Jason."

They shook hands and swapped customary greetings.

"Now that we're done with the pleasantries, where the fuck have—"

"Uh, uh, uh," Oliver said, his head gesturing at his daughter.

"Oh, sorry, Michela," Jack chuckled in embarrassment. "Where have you been? And why aren't you picking up?"

"Battery died. Michela will tell you the rest." He looked at her in anticipation and noticed that she was shy to speak in front of so many people. "Go ahead, piccola mia. Don't be shy; tell them."

She smiled sheepishly. "Papi and I ate gelato."

Oliver laughed at her shyness. "And what else?"

"We went to the park."

"And...?"

"And I made a friend."

"Yes you did!" He made a show of it and kissed her. "Your first friend here. Soon, you'll have many more, belissima."

The reason Oliver was excited was because Michela had been feeling lonesome without children her age to play with; a sore topic which they'd been discussing before going to bed for a few days now. He couldn't bear the thought of her feeling lonely.

"Why don't you get out of that suit and join us?" Dave said.

"I don't think so," he chuckled knowingly. "This is not really what Miche—"

"Don't worry about it; I'll look after her," his sister chimed in, desperate to get him topless as it had been a while.

"I appreciate it, Ellie, but I still don't think—"

"Then let's ask her, shall we?" Ellie said. "Michela, do you want me to help you put on your bathing suit, and then we'll go swimming in the pool?"

"Yes!"

"Ellie, this is not a place for a child her age."

"Nonsense. Just because there's music and booze doesn't mean she can't have fun here. Leave her to me."

Ellie stepped out of the Jacuzzi and took Michela in her arms, crushing Oliver's heart in the process as he drooled over that tantalizing mirage that was shaking her sculpted rear away from him in her sexy white bikini.

*

Ten minutes later, Michela and Ellie were making their way to the busy pool while Oliver was closely watching. He'd put on his blue swim trunks, and the view of his bare abdomen was hurting Ellie just as much as she was hurting him. He jumped in and joined his sister while she was coaching Michela on how to remain afloat on her back.

"He's nice," he opined a minute later.

Ellie glanced at him before she looked back at Michela, who was floating on her back while her aunt's arms were providing her with support. "You don't have to do this."

"Do what?"

She looked deep into his bright brown eyes. "Pretend."

He snuck a peek at Jason, who was dancing with his brothers, and heaved a sigh. "Thank god."

Ellie let it slide and remained focused on his daughter. "You're doing great."

"Seriamente?" Michela asked nervously while drifting like a log.

"Si," Ellie said with a warm smile, utilizing the little vocabulary she'd managed to pick up.

"You couldn't find a tinier bikini in your closet?"

"Oliver..."

Visibly upset, he gave a nod and averted his eyes. "It wouldn't have killed you to wear something more dignified, I'm just saying. Looks like a sad cry for attention if you ask me."

"Do you really believe that I need this bikini to get attention?"

He kept quiet and watched their brothers dancing to some hip-hop song that he hated. He knew she didn't need the bikini. She was the most delicious eye-candy there by far, and she was an easy target to endless obscene looks.

"I'll be in the Jacuzzi," he said dismally and left.

Ellie hated to admit it to herself, but she got a perverse kick from watching how unsettled her kid brother was growing from her swimsuit, which, incidentally, was the very motivator for her wearing it in the first place. She was just so afraid of him forgetting her, and although she was saddened at the thought, his behavior was making her weekend.

*

Oliver sipped his beer in the Jacuzzi while brooding on how badly he hated his sister. He hated how he needed to keep pretending he wasn't in love with her, that he was fine with her marrying that hopping muscle, that he hadn't memorized by heart every tearful whisper she had said that night: that she wanted him from the moment she saw him; that she never felt like that with any guy; that she didn't want to lose him.

"Hey," he heard a vague uttering.

He snapped out of his ruminations and saw Rita sitting to his right, having a cooler and seeming quite amused. She looked even hotter than he remembered now that she was reduced to a yellow bikini—which was much more conservative than his sister's. Her shoulder-length, dark brown hair was swept up into a ponytail, and he found her dense makeup pleasing to the eye. She was quite yummy.

"Hey," he replied, feeling a surge of anxiety. "How long have you been here?"

"Not long." She smiled. "A few minutes."

He returned her smile before he turned away and observed Ellie and his daughter laughing in the pool.

"She's cute."

"Who is?" he said absently, unsure of who she meant.

"Your daughter."

He ripped his eyes from his sister and smiled proudly at Michela. "Yes, she is."

She gave him the one over while sipping her cooler. "I have to admit, I was mildly offended by you."

He swiveled on her, his eyes drawn wide with confusion. "Why?"

"I just thought we had a good time that night, but apparently I was mistaken."

"You weren't mistaken, Rita. We had a great time. At least I did."

"I don't believe you. I don't think you were enjoying at all."

"What makes you say that?"

"You didn't ask for my number."

His brows furrowed in surprise. "Really? I honestly thought I blew my chance with the single dad, widower thing who had to leave on account of his daughter, so I didn't even think to... because I was having a really good time with you, Rita. I really did."

"Then you just assumed I hated kids? Is that what you think of me? A hater of all children?"

"No! Rita, I didn't mean..." He sighed, furious with himself. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made that assumption. If I'd known it wasn't an issue, I would've definitely taken your number."

"So, what you're saying here isssss... that you like me?"

"Oh, yeah! I mean, I uh..." He scolded himself for sounding too eager.

Rita laughed, feeling great satisfaction at how agitated she was getting him. "Am I making you nervous, Oliver?" she purred. "Because if I am, it's a good way to show me how sorry you are for not asking for my number."

He punctuated his gulp with a downcast nod.

Rita found his bashfulness almost surreal. She never came across a guy who she thought to be this good-looking with such blatant lack of confidence.

"Are you always this shy around girls?"

"No, I'm not shy. I'm just... I guess," he sighed, excited that a girl as hot as Rita was even giving him the time of day.

"You fascinate me, Oliver."

"I do?"

"I don't think I've ever met a guy quite like you."

"Quite like me? In what way?"

She smiled cryptically and finished her cooler. She then exited the Jacuzzi, her bronze tan glistening under the sweltering sun. "Why don't you show me around your house? Give me the tour?"

"It's my parents' house, but I uh... I'd be happy to give you the tour all the same."

"Then shall we?"

He scrambled out of the Jacuzzi, his excitement as visible as Rita's mirth from witnessing how excited he was.

"Give me a second. I'm... I'll just update my sister."

"I'll meet you at the door."

Ellie and Michela were still in the pool working on the latter's buoyancy skills when Oliver approached. "Ellie, I'm going in for a few minutes."