No Control (Book 1)

59. Alive

I thought for a minute, hatching my plan, then crept out of bed and tiptoed soundlessly to the cupboard and opened my old toy box. On the top was a large doll I'd had when I was a child, that had long blonde hair. I put the doll in my bed facing the wall so only its hair could be seen, then stuffed a couple of towels under the covers in the vague shape of a person. I picked up my phone, made sure it was on silent, then tiptoed to the door.

Looking back at my bed, I grinned. It looked pretty realistic, as long as you didn't look too closely, and as it was past 1.30 in the morning and Calvin still wasn't home, the odds were he was hammered and probably wouldn't even check on me anyway.

I opened my bedroom door without a sound and stepped lightly into the hallway, forgetting about the creaky floorboard in my excitement. I took one step forward in the direction of the spare room and instantly regretted it. The sound was like a gunshot in the silent house, and I froze momentarily. In a split second I had to decide what to do. I casually walked down to the bathroom, past the spare room, and shut the door noisily before switching on the light. The extractor fan roared to life and I sat down on the loo seat for a minute, my heart pounding, while I pondered my next move. Deciding I now had to follow this through fully, I then stood up and flushed, before running the tap as loudly as I could. I shut the water off and then opened the door and stomped down the corridor back to my room and went in and closed the door behind me with a bang.

I waited a minute, hardly daring to breathe, listening to my own pounding heart and the blood rushing through my veins. When my pulse had finally slowed, I opened my door and peeped out into the hall. The coast was clear. I sprang across the carpet, avoiding the creaky floorboard and darted towards the spare room. I silently opened the door, shut it carefully behind me and tiptoed over to the bed.

"Jess?" Harry's voice was barely even a whisper, and I slid into the bed beside him, ignoring the creak of the mattress, and pressed my lips against his.

He moved over me in an instant, his full weight pressing on top of me, his breath hot on my face. I felt him pressing into my stomach, rock hard as he had said, and I gave a small sigh as he broke the kiss.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, barely making a sound.

"I came to talk about the economic crisis in Greece," I whispered, and saw him smirk in the darkness.

"Really? I was expecting a discussion about the faulty traffic lights on the A14."

"I would have thought the teen pregnancy rate would be more your thing," I retorted, "considering you practically impregnate women every time you speak with that voice of yours."

He didn't respond but I could feel him rolling his eyes at me.

"So are you going to kiss me or what?" I breathed.

"Jess," he pleaded. "You know where that leads."

"Exactly," I nodded, pushing him off me and onto his back. He was wearing only boxers now, and his chest was deliciously warm.

"Baby, we can't," he said desperately.

"Why not?" I slowly slithered on top of him and let my legs fall either side of his.

"I promised... your... brother..," he breathed as I leaned forward and began kissing his neck. He gave a quiet sigh and his hands gently squeezed my waist.

"Stop trying to be fucking noble, Harry," I whispered in his ear as I gently wiggled my hips on top of him, extracting another sigh from his lips.

"I'm not...," he whispered back. "Stop, Jess... stop."