Aces Wild (House of Cards Ser...

* Photo of Nanthiel Spade Vega to the side

Nathaniel Vega felt a grin spread across his face as he heard the young woman’s angry father scream after him as he dropped out the window and made his dash away to safety. Throwing his clothes into the passenger seat of his beat up impala, Nate hopped in and drove off, nearly crashing when he started to crack up.

He wasn’t ready to go to his tiny apartment but knew he couldn’t go home in this condition. His mother was an understanding woman, but she had certain views about appropriate behavior that sometimes lacked a sense of humor. His father was a little more liberal minded, but even he’d give Nate that look over this incident. Anastasia was one of Nathaniel’s little sister, Adrianne’s, friends. She was only two and a half years younger than Nate was, but he knew that his sister’s friends were supposed to be off limits. But she was a sultry fox, a buxom and curvy woman that made his hands itch with the need to wander. And at twenty one, Nathaniel wasn’t too proud to have to sneak into her house to seduce her. They’d just gotten to the fun part when her father came storming into the room, screaming bloody murder. Nate had grabbed his clothes and bolted, knowing that the girl was eighteen and at worst he’d get nailed with trespassing. Still that meant his parents would find out and that’d be a drag.

So delaying the inevitable, Nate drove to his best friend’s house, knowing that Grace was easier to deal with than Alice and Malcolm, his parents, are. He pulled his pants on but just carried the rest of his clothes with him as he scaled the tree outside Grace’s window and snuck into the second girls’ bedroom of the night. Since it was near two am, he wasn’t surprised to find Grace sleeping and he took a moment to grin down at his best friend. She was a few months younger than his own sister, but the friendship was between him and her because Adri was far more girly minded than Grace ever tended to be. They got along fine, but the red head liked the kind of trouble Nate usually got them into.

Grace wasn’t living up to her name sake at the moment. She was sprawled out on her bed, comforter kicked off and her arms and legs akimbo. Her red hair was tangled, and her mouth was open and drooling as she snored softly. Nate assessed his best friend, knowing that she was beautiful, and wondering for the umpteenth million time why she didn’t have a man in her life. His eyes snagged on where the hem of her night shirt was riding up and the soft muscles of her stomach were exposed. He knew that her tummy was her weak spot and couldn’t resist the temptation to be an a**hole and jerk her around.

He dropped his shirt to the floor and shucked his pants off again, walking over to her bed side in just his boxers. He carefully crawled onto the bed next to her and lowered himself down so he was eye level with her navel. She smelled faintly of that honey dust body powder he gave her every year for Christmas and he grinned and gently kissed right next to her pierced naval. He knew there was a tattoo on her hip and down her right side a little, a pinup photo of a hunky man tearing off his shirt. He knew the tattoo was there because he was the one who’d gotten her drunk and tattooed her, and he made the man look like himself on purpose. An eighteenth birthday gift she’d remember forever. She’d punched him bloody for it when she’d sobered up.

Nate bit on her navel gently and her breathing hitched. She was waking-up slowly as he continued to kiss her stomach, breathing along her rib cage as she moaned softly in her sleep. He pushed the hem of her shirt up more and kissed along her ribcage and her hands came down to sink into his hair. Nate’s hands came down to her hips and pushed her shorts down lower and bit down on her hip, making Grace wake up fully with a barely swallowed moan. Then Nate rasp berried her belly and make her squeak in surprise.

Grace slapped the back of his head and he pulled away from her belly and grinned at her. “You’re such an a**hole.” Grace growled at her handsome best friend, trying to ignore the way her body tingled with sleepy arousal. B** sure knew how to push her buttons, but since she wasn’t dumb enough to fall for his ploys and actually fall into bed with him, Grace shoved her best friend away by his face.

“Anytime you want me to follow through, you just let me know.” Nate winked at her and wrapped his arms around her waist, snuggling his face against her chest.

“Why are you in your underwear in my bed at two am? Isn’t your own bed good enough? No wait, I know you. Who was she and how far did you get before her father chased you out?” Grace asked, tone arch. She was used to his antics, well aware that he was a heartbreaker and yet women generally loved him anyways. The red head knew that everyone was waiting for the day that the best friends became something more, but she doubted the day would ever actually happen. Not that there wasn’t some chemistry there, but she’d never be foolish enough to give her heart to a man she knew couldn’t remember the names of all the women he’d slept with. Though that never meant that they didn’t sometimes have moments where the line of friendship got awfully hard to see.

“It was Anastasia and I didn’t get near far enough to be happy. Her virtue remains intact.” Nate mumbled into her cleavage and rubbed his face against her chest like a large cat.

“Nathaniel Spade Vega, do not try this crap with me right now.” Grace warned but her best friend was horny and a jerk.

He lifted his face from her chest to bite down on her nipple and his thumbs started to gently dig into her hips. Grace bit her lip to keep the startled moan muffled and grabbed a handful of her best friend’s hair to try and pull his face away. He let her but only so that he could swoop down and kiss her senseless.

One of the highlights and low points of being best friends with a modern reincarnation of Casanova, when she was going through the curious exploratory phases of puberty Grace got a very talented practice partner who now knew all the little things that rang her bells. This was one of those moments Grace wondered what life would have been like with a normal best friend, but she was too busy smacking his hands away from the hem of her shirt while he kissed her breathless. Part of her loved the attention, there were plenty of girls who would die to be in this position and she got it all the time. The thing was: she always put a stop to it because she wasn’t going to be another notch on a bed post.

She felt the unmistakable presence of her best friend’s always eager arousal and pinched his cheek hard. Nate pulled out of the kiss and flopped over onto his back, not complaining when she slapped his chest and threw a cover over his face. “You’re an a**hole.” Grace repeated the insult and Nate laughed at her.

“And you’re a cock tease. It’s why we’re so good together.” Nate replied with a smile, throwing the blanket back over his best friend and snuggling in behind her.

Grace huffed for a moment, annoyed at his behavior but as he settled down behind her, spooning her loosely, she rolled her eyes and forgave him. It made no sense to anyone, but their friendship worked somehow. She wished he’d either stop being a man whore so she could fantasize about dating him, or stop with this sexual foreplay so she could get a normal boyfriend. But she knew some of it wasn’t his fault, he was willing to sleep with her, had said so plenty of times in fact. But he didn’t do girlfriends. Kept saying that he was too young to be that dedicated yet. And Grace refused to be anything but serious with a guy, and so this weird friendship continued. It kept other guys away from dating her though and she was going to have to have a serious talk with him about it one of these days. It was nowhere near fair that he could sleep with whomever the hell he wanted but she could never have a boyfriend.

“I love you Graceless, you know that.” Nate mumbled.

“I love you too Nitwit. Now go to sleep.” Grace replied, patting his hand and letting the sound of his breathing lull her into sleep. She knew that eventually he’d do something to make up for his behavior; he always found a way to make everything alright between them again. Just so he can go and screw it up some more later. Grace felt a smile on her lips as she drifted off completely.

But, unable to sleep, Nate heard the unmistakable sounds of the James family’s permanent house guest roaming the hallways, hardly more substantial than the pale ghost she resembled.  Once again he pulled on his pants, and slipped away from his best friend’s room, past her parents’ door, down the stairs to find the slight figure of a pale woman hunched over her hands in the middle of the kitchen.

“Opi?  You okay?”

Ophelia James startled, straightening enough to reveal the hair clippers clutched in her hands.  She swallowed, smiling wanly at Nate. “Hiding again, Nathaniel?”

Nathaniel laughed comfortably, “Not from you, professor.”

Opi’s expression is a disciplined poker face, but Nate’s long, frequent midnight chats have schooled him in the subtle shades of emotions.   Her lips puckered into a bit of a scowl, hardly enough to mark on anyone else; but telling on this face. “Not professor, Nate.  Not until morning.”

Sinking onto the stool across from hers, Nate nodded to the clippers. “What’s doing?”

Swallowing, Ophelia shakily lifts her hand and combs her fingers through her platinum blonde locks.  Her hair, long enough that it blankets the chest that held the offending cancer, pulled away from her scalp with nothing more than her touch.  Nate covered the strainds of pale hair in her hand, knowing what this must mean to the small woman.

“So, you’re going to . . .” He began.

Ophelia’s eyes shimmer with emotion she struggled to restrain. “I don’t know if I can reach the back.”  It’s the only thing she can think to say.  Actually verbalizing the plan was too much.

Gently taking the clippers away from her trembling hands, Nate stood and, poised to cut away her long, glossy locks, asked one more time, “Are you sure?”

She gave one resolute nod and he began the sheering.  The hair fell to the floor in clumps, making soft puddles of feather-light wisps.  The cancer had robbed her of its abundance. 

“It’ll grow back,” Nate promised, when the last of her hair had fallen to the floor.  Kneeling onto the floor before her, he held her hands and, without anything else to offer the stalwart bravery that refuses to acknowledge the tears welling in her eyes, he repeated the words. “It’ll grow back, Opi.”

Ophelia had lost a disturbing amount of weight and was no longer so animated in class.  It was looking more likely that she would have to take a medical sabbatical before the New Year started and Nate felt badly for the woman.  She was only ten years older than he, and yet it looked as if these were the last years of her life.  Sad and painful for a family that was so protective of each other, Nathaniel tried to be there for Opi just as much as he was for Grace.  It wasn’t hard, as Ophelia was an interesting woman outside of being his teacher.  Yes she seemed cold and robotic, until you picked up the subtle sense of humor.  It was almost like she mocked everyone, herself included, and no one ever noticed. 

“So, what are we doing in class tomorrow?” Nate asked, returning to a safer topic of conversation.

“A discussion of the virtues of the classics,” Ophelia announced, pointedly ignoring the hair that Nate swept away from her line of sight.

“The classics, huh?” Nate grinned, sealing the last of her hair into a clear ziplock.  Ophelia may not want it now, but he can’t be the one to throw it away.  He’ll let someone else do that. “Well what do you think of books like Twilight then? It’s pretty much just a 온라인카지노게임 about the importance of having a boyfriend.” Nate argued.

“True or not, it’s good because it promotes reading in the youth and teen generation. Popular fiction isn’t always the best words, but instead those works that appeal to as many people as possible. Sometimes the reader wants an easy 온라인카지노게임.” Ophelia argued back. A strangely compelling woman, Ophelia seemed an ice princess on the surface but Nate swore he could see a sharp sense of humor under the surface.

 “But that’s like arguing that a one night stand is as substantial as a full romance.” Nate pointed out, liking the way his words made her blush.

“Interesting argument coming from you don’t you think?” Ophelia’s pale eyebrow arched up, her tone slightly mocking instead of harsh. She seemed grateful that he was acting like everything was perfectly normal and that she wasn’t slowly rotting from cancer and chemo.

Nate grinned at her though, recognizing her subtle facial gesture as being all but a full belly laugh from Opi. “I know I’m only one night stand material, but I’m like the silver lining around a storm cloud. Compared to the other crap out there, it sure does pick your mood up.” He winked and Opi blushed at his innuendo, a low chuckle echoing in her chest.

Even harder than the family’s stress or Opi’s illness was the idiotic whisperings of his clueless classmates.  They had a vague idea that it might be cancer, but no one understood the detached woman’s trials. She was still managing to come to class and teach, to hold enthusiastic and logical debates over interpretation and nuance even though he knew she’d spent the night throwing up. Grace’s aunt had been taken into the James family home, Grace’s father West insisting that Ophelia stay with them while she underwent treatment. They lived the closest to the hospital where Opi’s oncologist worked and she wasn’t up to maintaining her apartment on her own. So when Grace was worried over her aunt, Nate was often on the phone talking to her, texting her or physically there comforting her. The entire ordeal cramped his social life but his best friend and her family were worth a little down time.

Nate didn’t get a chance to continue teasing the pale woman because Maddison, Grace’s mother and Ophelia’s sister in law, came into the kitchen. “Am I missing the party?” Maddison asked, smiling at Nate and trying not to stare at Opi’s bald head. She covered her surprise well but both Nate and Ophelia saw it there in her wide eyes and strained smile.

“There’s no party, we were just finishing up here actually.” Ophelia smiled at the short red head.

Mad’s smile softened and she nodded. “Either way I suggest you both quiet the giggling and get back to bed. And Nate, I really suggest you don’t let West know that you’ve spent the night again. It’s bad enough that you’re corrupting our daughter, but if he catches you flirting with his baby sister too, he’ll skin you alive. Otherwise, you’re invited to breakfast.”

"I do not giggle," Nate scuffs. He tries to act sullen at her warning speech, but a smile dances around his mouth and neither woman is deceived.

"Whatever," Mad cants back, shuffling back to her bed.

“Night Opi.” Nate waved at the now bald woman and silently crept back up stairs to crawl into bed with his softly snoring best friend. She was in for a surprise when she saw her aunt in the morning, and Nate was trying to think up a way to help his best friend adjust. And his chest hurt for the woman who was slowly dying far too young.