Long Night; Part 2

Hope everyone had a great long weekend!  

So it has been a while, but it's time to get back on the cedar falls wagon, so here we go kiddies.  As the incomparable Bette Davis as Margot Channing famously said: 

"Fasten your seatbelts; It's going to be a bumpy night!"

Please see the first installment of this evening's festivities, if you haven't already. 

I'm trying my damndedst to keep them short as hell, since there are so many fucking people present at this damned dinner party! sheesh.

Anyway,  Enjoy!

Oh yeah, this is present day..

Heart!   Thanks again for reading ;)

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It had been close to a month since Jonah had made the worst mistake of his life.  Not yet a month, and already he felt easily a half-decade older than his years.  Every day since that terrible weekend was draining him, stretching him thin, torturing him and testing him at every turn.

And besides Viola, there was Grey’s drastic new situation.  His son had gotten married—to a girl he barely knew, and they’d moved into the guest cottage.  And Avalon was swinging into high gear with all the wedding planning for her own nuptials with Ben.  And it was the twins’ senior year of high school, and he was being considered for a promotion, and everything together seemed to be conspiring to overwhelm him and undo him.

Tonight Velvet had decided they’d have a large extended family dinner so that Maggie could get to know the whole family.  Jonah was beginning to feel like there would never be another free weekend in his life.  The week before had been the small family gathering in honor of Grey’s sudden marriage, the weekend before that had been that Calder charity ball (where Viola had worn that skin-tight black strapless thing), and the weekend before that, well, that had been the weekend he’d descended into hell. 

Now they were having people over again.  Entertaining again.  And all he wanted was to lock himself in his room and sleep for hours.  Well.  That wasn’t really all he wanted to do.  But that was what he knew he should do.

They were expecting Nolan and his family, Caleb and Gideon, Ben of course, but probably also Grace with Holden, and he couldn’t forget: his mother in law.  Jonah rolled his eyes and sighed as he buttoned his freshly ironed shirt in the mirror.  He really couldn’t stand that woman on a good day, and wondered how he was going to endure her in his current mood.

“You look good.  I like that shirt.”

Jonah froze in the act of buttoning his left cuff and met his youngest daughter’s eyes in the mirror.  She stood in his now wide open bedroom door, leaning against the jamb, her legs crossed casually at the ankles, her arms folded across her middle and a sly smirk on her face.

“Thank you.”  He responded, a little stiffly.  Very slowly he resumed buttoning, but his eyes stayed on her.

“How do I look?”  She asked, and pushed off the door frame to do a slow spin for him.

He licked the inside of his teeth and prayed for patience. 

“Very nice.”  He replied in a carefully neutral tone.

She finished her spin with a sassy hair flip and leaned into one hip, arms akimbo.  “Very nice?”  She challenged.  “That’s all?”

He turned as he completed his task and stared her down.  He kept his eyes focused only on her face.  “You look lovely.”  He responded, still more tepid.

She smirked and sauntered into the room.  He blinked rapidly as she approached but made not a move.  He felt a bit like prey in a clever predator’s sights. 

With a too-provocative sway in her hips she stalked toward him and as she got closer he could see better that she was wearing dark eye shadow and liner, and she’d used some blush to bring out the height of her cheekbones, and she wore a soft, tantalizing shade of glossy lip color. 

Closer and closer she advanced, until he felt a light sweat break out on the back of his neck, under his crisp collar, and he weighed his options for extricating himself from her without too much fuss.  He glanced at the wide open door and the dark hallway beyond.  Had the twins already dressed and gone downstairs to help their mother?  Or were they still up here?  Might one of them bounce out of their room at any moment and pop in to check on him?

Viola was smiling at him.  Using as bait that smile that was half coy and half knowing, and he felt an unwanted heat slip down from his collar, down his front and across his chest. 

She leaned in very close to where he stood and he locked up,every muscle stiff and rigid, and she giggled naughtily. 

Then she was lifting something between them.  “You’ll be able to see me better with these.”  She teased him.  His glasses.  She’d leaned in close to grab them from where he’d left them to rest atop his bureau. 

He let out a breath with an audible ‘whoosh’.  “Thank you.”  He said and held out his hand expectantly.

But his daughter shook her head a fraction, pursed her lips into a half-pout, half-smirk and slowly unfolded the arms of his glasses as if it were a highly erotic act.

Jonah frowned at her but she licked her lips provocatively and took another step into his space.  He had no room to back up—he was already at the bureau—but he lifted his hands to stop her from getting too close.

She chuckled low in her throat and reached up, up, her tiny self going on tiptoes to reach, and she slipped his glasses onto his face slowly and carefully, and with a purr of satisfaction.

“There.”  She said, smug and sweet.  “Now how do I look?”

She looked amazing.  Perfect.  Gorgeous.  The short little dress she’d chosen accented every curve and plane she possessed in a sensual, rather than overtly sexual way.  It was mature, but still fresh and young.  The dark navy color looked sophisticated on her, and it made the violet of her eyes seem more bright and vibrant.  She looked wholesome and somehow perfectly fuckable.  Goddamit. 

“You look lovely.”  He breathed, unwilling to give her the satisfaction of hearing his honest reaction.  Her makeup was perfect too—more than he’d like his fifteen year old daughter to be wearing, but not at all excessive.  The smoky eyes were practically hypnotizing him and the mouth—

“Just lovely?”  She asked, forming that adorable mouth into a playful pout.

He shook his head once, weakly, and his palms itched to slip onto her waist, to pull her toward him.  He felt his head dipping down, inching slowly toward her upturned face.  Between those wide, innocent eyes and the pretty pout he was mesmerized.

He swallowed and licked his lips.  “That dress is very flattering.”  He answered, meaning it to sound innocuous, paternal, but when he heard himself he realized it sounded more desperate and eager than anything.

She smiled up at him and parted her lips invitingly.

And the doorbell sounded, causing them both to jump, the spell broken, the moment vanished.

He adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat.  Jesus Christ. 

He realized this was going to be another very long evening.