The Kings of Kentworth

110.

Caleb and Stephanie

Caleb slowly moved through the array of pictures hanging on the living room wall. He felt a smile pull up on his face as his eyes glided from one picture to the other. He chuckled when he saw the picture of a little girl with red hair hugging a large teddy bear tight in what looked like an amusement park in the back ground.

She looked no older than four years old. His eyes moved to another picture of that same girl smiling up at the camera from a swimming pool with her tiny eyes reduced to slits and her red hair soaked and cascading down her back. She looked older now; nine to ten years old at most.

He moved through pictures of weddings and birthdays before he stopped infront of a certain picture that seemed to tug at his heart. The smile on his face widened as he stared at a picture of Stephanie with a toothy smile on her face as she held up a small trophy.

“Ugh.” He heard Stephanie grunt behind him before he spun and saw her walking towards him and handing him a steaming mug of hot chocolate. She kept her eyes on the picture he was looking at and sneered. “I hate that picture so much.”

Caleb took the mug from her, spun to the picture and looked back at her with a smile. “Why?” Caleb chuckled. “I think it’s cute.”

She looked up at Caleb and deadpanned. “Caleb, I look like a weasel.”

Caleb threw his head back with laughter in response to what she had just said. He looked back at her, turned to the picture and looked back at her again. “Not to me.”

“Yeah, right.” She rolled her eyes before raising her own mug to her lips for a sip.
“I’m serious,” Caleb said as he moved close to her. “You’ve always……you’ve always been beautiful…..to me.”

She slowly looked up at his green eyes and saw them well with sincerity. It was strange how the heat created by the closeness of his body to hers made her want even more of him. His scent; an overwhelming musk of masculinity. 

As they both stood there, staring at each other in an awkward silence, it intrigued Stephanie how calm he was, but yet surrounded by an aura of dominance.

Lightning flashed and thunder rolled before they both tore their eyes from each other and looked away.

Stephanie walked away from him and moved to a couch. “So,” she exhaled in an attempt to make things a lot less awkward. “How are exams so far?”

Caleb looked at her and shrugged with a smile.

“You’re not going to flunk,” she teased. “Are you?”

Caleb brought his mug down from his lips after a sip and chuckled. “I hope not.”

She smiled and then looked down at her mug in her hands. She rubbed the smooth white ceramic with her thumb and savored the warmth it gave her.

She looked up again and watched Caleb as he kept wandering along the walls, oozing with an eerie innocence as he furrowed his brows at some more pictures and some paintings. She let her eyes move down to the yellow sweater and ash sweat pants he had on. She honestly didn’t think yellow would have been a good colour on someone like Caleb, but she was amazed at how well it suited him.

She remembered walking back with the towel, the sweater and the sweat shorts a few minutes ago to meet a completely shirtless Caleb after he had walked in drenched by the rain.  This sight of his body always did things to her. Things she liked, but wished she could control.

The way every fibre of muscle moved under his skin as he used the towel on himself.

“What’re you thinking about?”

Stephanie shot her head up with raised brows and looked at him with a smirk on his face as he raised his mug to his lips for another sip. “What?”

He walked over and dropped to a sit beside her on the couch, the smirk on his face suddenly widening into a smile. “You seemed far away,” he uttered.

She lost the ability to speak for about three seconds, before she looked at her mug again and shook her head. “Nothing.”

“Liar,” Caleb chuckled.

She looked at him with a smile and shook her head again.

Caleb kept his eyes on her for a while, before he shrugged. “Okay then.” He took his eyes away from her and moved towards the large CD shelf at the corner. Stephanie watched him scan through the rack before he pulled out a CD, turned to her with wide eyes and held it out.

“Mandy Moore,” he gave a quiet gasp.

At that moment, Stephanie felt her heart skip a beat when she saw him that way…..in those clothes.