Pranks & Promises

Mia and Sam's Aunt Polly couldn't have died at a more opportune time.

Just two months prior to Polly's timely demise, Mia had left a five-year marriage that had gone sour and her brother Sam had lost his lucrative computer job in California due to corporate downsizing. They had both moved back in with the dear spinster aunt who had raised them from teenagers after their parents had died in a car accident. Polly had been showing them the ropes to her successful flower shop when she died one night. She had left both the house and her business to her only living relatives, her niece and nephew Mia and Sam Malone.

Mia woke early on a steamy May morning and slid a smooth white dress shirt over her tank top and panties. It was the one thing she'd taken from her marriage to Frank. He'd thrown it at her the day she left, yelling that she had worn it more than he ever did (which was true, she preferred it to any of her nightgowns) and that it looked better on her slender, petite 5'2" frame than it did straining over the potbelly he'd grown the last months of their stormy marriage. She passed by the cheval mirror in the hallway on her way to the kitchen and raked a hand through her sleep tousled short brown hair and admired how pretty and tan her bare legs looked under the short dress shirt. Luckily, only Frank had gained weight due to the strain of their relationship. Mia, on the other hand, had lost a few pounds and she decided she looked better than she ever had.

In the kitchen, she made a pot of coffee and then stood by the sliding glass doors watching the sunrise and waiting for the coffee to brew. Pale golden rays illuminated the back door of the small guest house that sat opposite the short back lawn of the Victorian home Mia now shared with her brother Sam. Sam had mentioned a few days ago that he had rented the house to an old college pal of his who had lost his job in Canada for similar reasons as he had.

The back door to the guesthouse opened quite suddenly. Mia gasped and stepped behind the vertical blinds that half covered the sliding glass doors. A man clad only in dark sweatpants came out and stretched slowly as he reached bare arms upwards towards the sky. Mia sucked in her breath. Oh, hell, he was gorgeous! The sunlight gleamed on his pale caramel skin and picked out glints in his thick dark hair. He turned to face her and he was just close enough that Mia could see the smattering of hair on his chest and she imagined his eyes were as dark as his hair.

He bent forward from his waist and swept his hands towards the ground, then straightened, his hands clasped above his head. Mia's eyes were drawn inexorably to the vee of hair on his toned stomach that disappeared under the waistband of his sweatpants, an arrow that pointed out the hidden bulge between his legs. He reached up once more in a deep stretch and then began to move his body through a series of slow, graceful postures that reminded Mia of karate mixed with ballet. Tai chi, she thought to herself. She'd never seen it done before except for a time or two on TV and she watched with a rapt fascination. What had Sam said his name was? Mia toyed with her lower lip with her fingers as she thought for a moment. Ahh, she remembered now. Nick..Nick Sebastian.

"Mr. Sebastian, you are yummy!" Mia whispered to herself and giggled. It had been a long time since a man had captured her interest like this. A very long time, indeed. She pressed her forehead against the glass and watched his lean body as he continued with his exercise. At one point, his hips rotated in a slow decidedly sensual gesture and Mia gasped as she felt her nipples tighten under the smooth material of the dress shirt and the flesh petals of her pussy moistened with arousal. She moaned softly. God, it had been forever since she'd been this turned on. She'd masturbated a few times late in the night since leaving Frank, but overall, the acts had felt lonely and uninspired. She could scarce believe it was her standing in the sunny kitchen, watching a half naked man exercising in her backyard and feeling her body begin to drench itself in sexual awareness. It felt very very good.

She absently rubbed the material of the dress shirt against her right nipple as she continued to watch him. Her nipple beaded harder and began to tingle pleasantly. She propped one knee on a nearby kitchen chair and slid her other hand down her body until she cupped her panty-covered vulva. The gusset of her panties was already damp with her warm fluids and she widened her legs a little so she could massage herself better. Nick's shoulders were beginning to take on a polished sheen as he began to sweat lightly from his exertion. Mia imagined her hands rubbing at those damp shoulders as he buried his face between her legs and licked and nibbled at her clit.

"Oh jesus!" she whispered and after a furtive glance at the hall to make sure her brother wasn't there, she slipped a two fingers under the leg elastic and sank them deep into her wet folds. Mia had shaved her pussy bare three days earlier, anticipating bikini season. Now, her labial lips felt smooth and naughty and blood engorged as she rubbed at her clit with quick, smooth strokes of her fingertips. Her legs began to tremble as she saw in her mind, beautiful Nick fucking her, bending her over from the waist and plunging into her wet vagina from behind and dancing his hard cock into her with the same slow grace as her performed his Tai Chi. She pinched at her nipple and she bit her lips. She rubbed herself a little harder and felt the gathering storm of her orgasm as Nick turned to face her and arced both his arms in a wide slow circle above his head. Her muscles began to draw and tighten. She felt her pussy muscles begin to kiss and grab at the fingers she slid deep into her slit every few seconds in time to the rhythmic rubbing of her clitoris. Mia inhaled several gulps of air. Almost...almost...almost!

The heavy sound of her brother's tread on the stairs made her gasp loudly and withdraw her fingers from her sopping sex. She hurried to the counter, wiping her wet hand on the tail of her shirt and hoping furtively that the kitchen didn't smell too strongly of her musk. Her hands trembled a little as she poured herself a cup of coffee and stirred three heaping teaspoons of sugar into her full coffee mug.

"Morning, kiddo," Sam greeted her and then yawned, scrubbing one hand through his fair, curly hair. "Pour me one too, eh?"

"Sure," Mia chirped in response, reaching for a second cup from the cabinet in front of her. "Morning."

Sam wandered over to the half open blinds of the sliding glass doors and peered out at the sunrise.

"Oh cool! Looks like Nick made it in last night, " he commented, rubbing absentmindedly at his belly.

Mia handed her brother the mug of coffee and glanced around Sam's shoulder at Nick as he looped a towel around his neck and went back inside the guest house. She hoped her expression was nonchalant as she sipped at her own drink.

"Yeah, I noticed him a few minutes ago," Mia admitted airily.

Sam grinned at his sister. "I'll bet you noticed him," he chuckled.

Mia's cheeks flamed. "What do you mean by that?" she retorted and knew immediately that she sounded too defensive. "I was watching him...do whatever he was doing, Tai Chi, I think it's called? It's fascinating."

Sam chortled. "Yeah, 'fascinating' is the word," he teased her. "Pretty dishy, ain't he? All the college chicks thought to too, when we were at university together."

This time it was Mia's turn to laugh. "Dishy?" she scoffed. "Since when did you start using words like that?"

Sam threw back his head as he laughed. "Since I moved back in with my dweeby older sister!" he teased and she smacked him playfully on the ass.

"Okay okay okay, so he's cute," Mia admitted with a grin.

"Good, I'm glad you think so," said Sam as he put a couple of slices of bread in the toaster. "I want you to make a delivery to him today."

"Why a delivery?" Mia frowned. "And why me? He lives across from our backyard. Just go take whatever it is over to him yourself!"

Sam shook his head as he took the tub of butter out of the fridge. "Nah, you have to be the one to deliver it. First thing this morning. I don't want him to know it's from me."

"So what am I delivering?"

Sam's lopsided grin made Mia instantly wary. Especially when he didn't say anything right away.

"Sam? What the hell are you up to?" Mia's voice held an unmistakable note of apprehension.

"What? Oh it's nothing really, a plant and something else," Sam replied too nonchalantly as he buttered his toast. "I mean, he'll know who sent it as soon as he sees it, but it's gotta be delivered by a girl. Big inside joke from our college days. Remember I told you we met in kind of a unique way?"

Mia nodded, still frowning. Her brother was a practical joker who was a master at his craft. Mia had been party to them too many times to trust him any further than she could throw him. And her "practical joke radar" was sending her signals big time.

"Well, I'll tell you all about it this afternoon, after you make the delivery. It's a freakin' hilarious story. I just want to make sure you'll do it before he finds out who you are."

"OK, why?"

"Because it has to be delivered by a chick. It's part of the joke," Sam explained with exaggerated patience.

Mia's slim dark brows knitted together and she tapped her foot a few times. "Why, dear brother, do I feel as though I am being had?"

Sam handed her a slice of toast and kissed her on her cheek. "You are not being 'had', sister of mine. I just need a hot chick to deliver a gag gift to an old school chum of mine and I don't happen to know many hot chicks these days, well, at least this early in the morning," Sam grinned at her.

Later, as she was changing into her work clothes for the day, Mia wasn't quite sure why she had agreed to make the delivery for Sam. She suspected a big part of the reason was because she wanted Nick to see her as a woman, before he saw her as his college pal's poor divorced sister...his pal's OLDER, poor divorced sister. Mia was only four years older than Sam, but she'd already been through college by the time he started and sometimes she felt a decade older than him instead of only a few short years.

But that wasn't the reason she picked out the outfit she'd put on today, she told herself. The hothouse part of the flowershop where she'd planned to work today was quite warm and humid, too hot even for her usual baggy white t-shirt and canvas shorts. In deference to the heat, Mia donned a dark red crocheted cotton halter-top and a neat pair of denim shorts. Granted, the top did show off her small but pertly up tilted breasts and her tanned torso nicely, but she did want to look presentable when she met the new neighbor, her brother's old and dear friend.

Mia grinned at herself in the mirror. "Yeah and you are full of shit, lady," she told herself. She wanted to look good for the luscious man she'd been salivating over just an hour or two previously that morning.

She wanted Nick Sebastian to notice her long legs and her petite ass before he noticed the faint lines around her brown eyes and that she was nearly half a decade older than he was.

She only hoped she wouldn't look like too much of a fool if her brother's mysterious joke backfired on her. She was startled to discover that she wanted to impress a man, any man. She hadn't wanted to do that for a very long time. Mia was just beginning to realize how much of her spirit she'd lost in her unhappy marriage. At one time, she'd had a healthy self-esteem and she'd liked herself quite a bit. After her sad, drawn out divorce, Mia had felt too weary and world worn to worry about feeling either sexual or sexy, but today, as she descended the stairs and her brother did a double take and wolf whistled at her choice of outfit, she was glad and ready for Nick to see her as an attractive woman.

"God, Mia, you look great!" Sam grinned his approval. "You'll be perfect for when you take this plant over to Nick."

The plant in question sat on the entryway table swathed in a large red bow and a copious amount of cheerful red foil. Mia blinked.

"Sam, I can't deliver that plant."

Sam was riffling through a pile of envelopes, studiously avoiding her eyes.

"Um, sure you can," he mumbled absently.

"No, I can't!"

Sam waved an airy hand at her. "Sure you can. It's a plant. Just deliver it."

"Sam, that is a POT plant! I cannot deliver that!"

Sam rolled his eyes. "Mia, just deliver the damn plant. I know what kind of plant it is. It's part of the joke."

Mia crossed her hands in front of her chest. "We deliver flowers, we deliver ferns, and we deliver innocent houseplants. We do NOT deliver cannabis to the neighbors!"

Mia knew about Sam's private garden down in the basement but she chose not to mention it. He was normally quite discreet about his extracurricular activities and as long as he was, Mia was willing to ignore it, but this was crazy!

Sam put both hands on his sister's squared shoulders. "Just deliver the plant, sis. It's a joke," he grinned in his best, cajoling voice. "Oh and don't forget the box of Popsicles in the freezer."

Mia blinked again.

"Popsicles?"

Sam nodded as he walked to the front door, sat down on the bottom step of the staircase, and tugged a pair of tennis shoes on.

"Yeah. Top shelf of the freezer." Sam rolled his eyes at Mia's look of consternation. "Trust me, sis! It's all part of the joke!"

"Sam, I swear if you..."

"Hey, I got the van back last night!" Sam interrupted brightly, steamrolling over his sister's retort. "It's so cool. Come see what I had put on it!"

With a dubious expression on her face, Mia followed her brother out the front door. Their delivery van sat at the curb, freshly painted a sparkling pearl gray with whimsical scrolling letterwork in cranberry. Mia walked towards the back end of the vehicle.

"Malone's Flower Shop," she read aloud. "Home of the Love Doctor, Sam Malone."

Sam grinned broadly. "Look at the back door."

Mia walked around to the rear of the vehicle. "On call 24 hours a day for romantic emergencies!" She threw up her hands. "Samuel David Malone, you are depraved!"

Sam rubbed his chin proudly. "And I am cute too!" he crowed.

"Hey, where is MY name?"

"Look on the other side."

Mia circled the van. "Malone's Flower Shop, featuring Creations by Mia." She stuck her ahead around the side of the van. "I still think you are depraved, but as long as I get equal billing!" She stuck her tongue out at her brother then and giggled.

Sam smiled, secretly glad to see Mia amused. She'd been far too quiet and morose lately.

"Fine," Sam agreed, "I gave you equal billing, but don't forget to make that delivery this morning! I have to go run some errands and then get the shop opened up."

He kissed his sister on the cheek. "Get moving kiddo, and don't forget the Popsicles! I'll see you later at the shop."

Mia rolled her eyes dramatically and grimaced, but nodded her agreement, waving him off as he walked towards his car parked on the other side of the house in the driveway. It didn't take long for Mia to slip on a pair of low strappy sandals and gather the offending pot plant and the box of assorted fruit flavors Popsicles from the freezer. She couldn't help but wonder at the strange combination as she carted both articles out to the delivery van, glancing down the street surreptitiously to make sure none of the neighbors saw her with the gaily packaged marijuana plant. Her heart thumped a little in her chest as she guided the van around the corner to the front of the guesthouse. She was going to see the gorgeous stranger she'd been spying on only this morning but up close and personal. She only hoped she wouldn't make a fool of herself, tripping over her own tongue!

Mia parked the van in front of the guesthouse and did a quick check of her makeup in the rear view mirror. She touched fresh lipstick to her lips and fluffed her short brown hair nervously before gathering both items for delivery. Her knees wobbled a little on the walk up to the front door of the house, the top of the plant tickling her chin. She swallowed hard, shifted the plant to her left hip, and then gave the door a firm knock.

She nearly reeled when the door opened and Nick Sebastian stood only a few feet in front of her! His eyes, she thought fervently, oh dear god what gorgeous eyes! Her vision swept downward in an attempt to still the wave of dizziness that assailed her and she took in faded denim jeans and a light green dress shirt left open and unbuttoned over his bare, caramel colored chest. Her pupils dilated slightly at the sight of one copper colored nipple nestled in a whorl of dark chest hair. Oh my! Her eyes moved back up to his.

They were not brown. Not at all. His eyes, under a slash of very dark brows were a shade of olive sparkling with flecks of silver and gold. Mia didn't even realize he was wearing glasses until he reached up and slowly took them off.

"Umm, can I help you?" He asked politely, holding the screen door open with the same hand he held a thick book in. His voice was deep and rich.

Mia forced a bright smile. "Hi I am from Malone's Flower Shop and I have a delivery for..."

She was startled when Nick interrupted her spiel by throwing back his head and laughing heartily.

"Did you say Malone's Flowershop?" he asked incredulously. "MALONE'S Flowershop? As in Sam Malone??"

A little dazed, Mia could only smile and nod. She watched his eyes take in the plant, widen slightly when he realized exactly what it was, and then notice the box of Popsicles in her other hand. A cold drop of condensation dripped on her toe, exposed by her sandals.

He slowly leaned his shoulder against the door jam, crossing one of his bare feet over the other. Mia felt her face grow warm as he regarded her for the space of two heartbeats, sweeping slowly over her face and neck, taking in the skimpy red crocheted halter top and her snug denim shorts and down the length of her tanned bare legs.

"Well," murmured Nick after a moment, "I certainly can't fault his taste." Mia wasn't sure why but the obvious pleasure in his voice curled warmly about in her tummy.

He glanced out at the delivery van sitting at the curb. "Home of the Love Doctor," he read and then chuckled, shaking his head. Mia noticed nice, even white teeth against his ruddy, dark complexion She fleetingly wondered where his parents were from that he had gotten such exotic good looks. "So Sam has a delivery for me...come on in and lets see what you have."

Nick backed away from the doorway and held the screen door open for her. Mia hesitated for only a second. She thought she'd only have to drop off the plant and the Popsicles and then leave. Sam hadn't said anything else beyond that! But she glanced at Nick's face and he smiled encouragingly at her, causing her heart to thump against her breastbone Well, she did have some orders to fill at the shop but she really wasn't due in at any specific time. She decided she could afford to spend a few minutes with an attractive new neighbor who happened to be her brother's old college friend.

"You'll have to excuse the mess, " Nick said apologetically once they were both inside. The front door opened directly into the living room of the guest house which was strewn with an assortment of suitcases and a couple of duffel bags and a box or two of his belongings. "I just got in last night and I haven't had a chance to put much of anything away."

"Oh, that's ok. Don't worry about it."

Mia smiled as Nick walked over to the sofa and hoisted two suitcases off it and gestured to it for her to take a seat. She faltered for a moment with the plant and the box of Popsicles in her hands.