Four Of A Kind

The room had gone dark around us, nothing but moonlight spilling through those massive gothic windows and casting silver patterns across Sabrina’s bare skin. I should have been exhausted. Should have been thinking about the drive back to Philly, about Iris waiting at home with her sketchbook and her too-perceptive observations about my love life.

Instead I was watching Sabrina trace lazy circles on my chest, her wine-red hair fanned out across my shoulder like silk.

"Stay."

One word. Quiet. Almost lost in the darkness.

"I have to get back. Iris is expecting me."

"Iris is fourteen and perfectly capable of surviving one night without you hovering." Her fingers drifted lower, trailing across my stomach in a way that made thinking significantly harder. "She has Gerald for company."

"The unicorn is not a substitute for responsible adult supervision."

"You’re eighteen. Barely qualifies as adult supervision in the first place."

She had a point. Not that I was going to admit it.

Sabrina shifted, rolling onto her stomach and propping herself up on her elbows. The movement did interesting things to her body, things I tried very hard not to stare at and failed completely. Her purple eyes caught the moonlight and turned almost luminescent, like something out of a fantasy novel.

"One night. That’s all I’m asking."

"Your sisters..."

"Aren’t here. Won’t know. And even if they did know, I won the first rotation fair and square. These two weeks belong to me."

"That’s not what I meant and you know it."

She smiled, slow and knowing, and crawled up my body until her face hovered inches above mine. Her hair fell around us like a curtain, blocking out everything except her eyes and her lips and the warmth of her skin pressed against mine.

"You’re worried about being fair. About giving each of us equal time and equal attention and equal everything." She kissed my jaw, feather-light. "But what if I don’t want equal? What if I want more?"

"Sabrina."

"What if I want all of it?"

Her mouth found mine before I could respond, and the kiss was nothing like the ones before. Those had been exploratory. Tentative in their own way, despite her confidence. This one was different. This one felt like a claim.

Her tongue traced my lower lip and I opened for her automatically, my hands finding her hips and pulling her closer. She made a sound against my mouth, something between satisfaction and hunger, and rolled her hips in a way that made my breath catch.

"You could stay." She pulled back just enough to speak, her lips brushing mine with every word. "You could stay and we could do this every night for two weeks. Every morning. Every afternoon when we should be studying or attending class or pretending we care about anything except each other."

"That’s not the arrangement."

"Arrangements can change."

She kissed down my neck, teeth scraping against my pulse point hard enough to make me hiss. Her hands were everywhere at once, touching and stroking and exploring like she was trying to memorize every inch of me through her fingertips.

"You want Cassidy?" She shifted her voice, dropping it into something rougher. Aggressive. "I can be Cassidy."

She bit my shoulder, hard enough to leave a mark, and when she looked up at me her expression had changed completely. That cool composure was gone, replaced by something fierce and challenging. The exact look Cassidy gave me every time she was about to start a fight.

"The hell are you looking at?" Even the cadence was perfect. The way Cassidy’s words always came out like weapons. "You think I’m going to beg? Think again, scholarship boy."

My brain short-circuited.

Because it wasn’t just an impression. Sabrina had captured something essential about her sister, some quality that lived in the set of her jaw and the fire in her eyes. She looked like Cassidy. Sounded like Cassidy. And when she grabbed my wrists and pinned them above my head with surprising strength, she moved like Cassidy too.

"Fight me for it."

I stared at her. At them. At whatever impossible thing was happening in this moonlit bedroom.

"What..."

"Don’t think." She kissed me again, rough and demanding. "Just feel."

For a moment, I could almost believe it. Could almost pretend Cassidy was the one straddling my hips, the one biting my lip hard enough to draw blood, the one growling against my mouth like every kiss was a battle she intended to win.

Then Sabrina pulled back and the illusion shattered. Her eyes were still purple, still that specific shade that all four sisters shared, but the fire behind them was distinctly hers. Patient and knowing and just a little bit smug.

"Convinced?"

"That was terrifying."

"That’s not an answer."

I tried to sit up but she pressed her palm flat against my chest, holding me down with minimal effort. Strength I hadn’t expected from someone who spent most of her time reading in libraries and avoiding athletic activity.

"You want Harlow instead?"

Her entire demeanor shifted again. The aggressive tension melted away, replaced by something softer. Warmer. She tilted her head and her lips curved into a smile that was pure sunshine, the kind of smile that made you feel like the most important person in the world.

"Isaiah! I’m so happy you stayed!"

The voice was higher. Breathier. Punctuated with the kind of exclamation points that Harlow seemed to speak in constantly.

"I made you something! Well, I’m going to make you something. Eventually. When I figure out what you like best. Do you like cookies? Everyone likes cookies! Unless you’re allergic. Are you allergic? That would be so sad!"

She bounced slightly as she spoke, and the movement was so perfectly Harlow that I found myself smiling despite the existential crisis currently unfolding.

"I want you to be happy. That’s all I want. For everyone to be happy. Especially you." She leaned down and pressed a kiss to my forehead, soft and sweet. "You work so hard. You deserve nice things. You deserve someone who takes care of you for once."

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