by Joey Bush
“Bob had a pool installed downstairs, just above the basement level,” she’d said the night before. Well, if he had a pool—it was heated, and indoors—I could at least get moving.
I stripped out of my sweated, rumpled clothes and dug around in my bags until I found my bathing suit. I’d packed it as an afterthought, figuring that maybe there’d be a hot tub somewhere I could hit up after a long snowboarding session. This was at least twice as good as that. I grabbed one of the towels out of my bathroom and sneaked out of my room, looking around. I had no real idea of where I was in the house, but I thought about what Mom had said about the pool the night before as she’d been leading me to my room—it was in the same hall as my room, she’d said, down a flight of stairs. I got briefly turned around but finally found the stairway that Mom had mentioned and hurried down the risers, looking around to make sure that no one was following me. I opened a door at the foot of the stairs, and my eyes went wide.
The pool was huge—regulation size. There was a diving board at the deep end, the water was pristine, and there was faint steam rising off of the glimmering light blue. It was gorgeous; it was the kind of pool I would have dreamed of having in my own home when I was younger—perfect for both practicing in and for having people over. The enormous pool was ringed by lounge chairs, little low tables for drinks, and off to the side there was a collection of rafts and toys, even weights for swimming with resistance. It was an athlete’s dream pool, as well as a regular, fun pool—there was a bar, fully stocked, next to the shallow end and I thought that it was probably pretty convenient for anyone who wanted to throw a party. I wondered if there was a stereo system; of course there was. For a moment I was hypnotized by it all. The next moment I was hurrying through the door, letting it slam shut behind me, and making my way across the slightly rough deck. I tossed my towel onto one of the lounge chairs off to the side of the pool and walked over to the deep end, marked eight feet.
I dove in and from the moment my body hit the water, all of the tension inside of me seemed to dissolve. Apart from snowboarding, my favorite thing had always been swimming; I felt like I could really, truly think as I cut through the water, arms moving over and around my head, legs kicking in time, my body moving through the water like a missile. I went from one end of the pool to the other, breathing the way my swim coach had taught me in middle school, feeling all of the stress in my mind fade to nothing. The water was the perfect temperature—warm but not so hot that it was annoying, and it was salt-purified rather than reeking of chlorine. I loved it. I didn’t want to ever get out of the pool—if I could have willed myself into becoming a mermaid, I would have done it right then. All I could hear was the water rushing along my ears, my heart beating in my chest, my breaths as I turned my head up to the air every few strokes. For a few glorious minutes, everything was right with the world; I had forgotten Jaxon, my mom, my new step-father, the whole sorry, awkward, mortifying situation.
I had been in the pool for maybe, at most, ten minutes when something started to feel off. I frowned, keeping my strokes going, wondering if I’d felt a twinge in my back or in my side—a stitch, something that would explain why I suddenly was having trouble focusing. In a moment, though, I realized that it wasn’t something wrong with my body; I could feel someone watching me. It was probably just one of the people on the staff at the mansion, I told myself, keeping my face in the water. Or maybe it was Mom; she’d know I’d gravitate towards the pool like an otter. But the sensation didn’t go away, and after a few more strokes I knew it was no use trying to ignore it. I pulled up, putting my feet down in the middle of the pool; it was towards the shallower end, and as I swung my hair back out of my face and stood fully, I was head and shoulders above the surface.
Looking around, I found the cause of my unease; Jaxon was standing near the lounge chairs, watching me. All of my hopes for a quiet morning swim to clear my thoughts and figure out some way to get through this stupid holiday went away in an instant. It was worse than just his presence; Jaxon was in swimming trunks, his muscular chest and arms showing in all their glory, his flat abs and the cut of his hips attracting my eye. In spite of how incredibly awkward I felt, and how angry I was all at once, I couldn’t help noticing that he was just as hot as ever. I felt a lurch in my stomach. My step-brother was hot. I was getting—at least a little bit—turned on at the sight of him. These were not the kind of feelings that anyone should be entertaining for their step-brother. “Hey, Mia,” Jaxon said, smiling slightly. He came towards the pool and sat on the edge a few yards away from where I’d stopped.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, knowing I was pouting and not particularly caring.
“Same thing you are—I wanted to go for a swim.” I took a deep breath and exhaled.
“Your place, I guess. I’ll leave you to it.” I turned to swim for the shallow end pool steps.
“Mia, wait.” I closed my eyes.
“What?” I turned around to look at him.
“We’re going to have to talk to each other sometime,” Jaxon said, crossing his arms over his chest. I found myself looking at the way his muscles rippled; the sight made my mouth water, and I felt my pussy tightening, remembering exactly what it had been like on the couch with him in the common area of the frat. How good it had felt, how hard I’d come. I clenched my teeth.
“No, we aren’t.” I shook my head. “We can pretty easily just totally ignore each other. It’s a big house. You ignored me just fine in the frat—and that’s a way smaller space than here.” Jaxon groaned.
“We have to get this out of the way, Mia. Come on.” I shook my head again.
“Not interested,” I said. I turned away quickly before I could be tempted by the sight of him any further. I cut through the water, kicking to the stairs. I didn’t even bother with grabbing my towel; I walked out of the pool area soaking wet and walked as quickly as I could to where my room was, locking the door behind me and grabbing one of the other towels from my bathroom. My heart was beating fast in my chest—part of me wondered if Jaxon would follow me, try and make me talk to him. But I was glad for the long silence that told me he had given up, at least for the moment. I decided to take a shower and just stay in my room until it was time for breakfast.
I was too hungry to stay in my room when Mom came and knocked on my door to tell me breakfast was served. “Jaxon mentioned you’d both got in a morning swim,” she said with a grin, leading me through the hall to the dining room. I shrugged. “Are you guys getting along okay?”
“Mostly…we’re just kind of giving each other space,” I said, knowing that Mom wanted me to say something—and that telling her that I couldn’t deal with the idea of being in the same room as Jaxon alone wouldn’t go over very well. “It’s kind of a weird situation, you know?”
“Please don’t be upset—I know the wedding was sudden, but you always did want a brother, and now you have one!” I forced myself to smile—I had always wanted a brother, but I certainly never expected to end up having a brother I’d previously slept with.
The table had a ton of food on it; eggs, bacon, toast, pancakes, home fries, and all kinds of fruit. “Jaxon always eats a huge breakfast,” Bob explained to me, “and your mom told me you’re no slouch in that department either.” I grinned but in spite of how hungry I was being around Jaxon made me queasy. I glanced at Jaxon and it was pretty easy to see that he felt the same.
“Bob and I are going to go skiing—really cut up the slopes. Are you in?” Mom dug into her bacon and eggs with an enthusiasm that I could only hope to match if I were a million miles away from the situation. I piled potatoes and pancakes on my plate and tried to eat as hungrily as I possibly could just to seem normal.
“Kind of want to take it easy today; I think I pulled something at the gym the other day, lifting weights.” I was terrified that if I said I wanted to go, they’d make Jaxon go too—some kind of family bonding thing. “Besides, you’re all…honeymoon-y,” I said with as big of a smile as I could
manage. “I don’t want to horn in on couple’s time.”
“Nonsense, baby—if you wanted to spend time with Bob and me, there’s no problem! We both want everyone to feel like one big family.” I glanced at Jaxon. There was no way that we’d feel like family in the next million years.
“You both look so ready to go,” I said. “I don’t want to hold you up. I’ll just hang out here.” Bob looked excited at the prospect of more alone time with my mom; my stomach churned with the idea that they’d probably not do a whole lot of skiing while they were out. The idea of my mom making out with Bob—even though, objectively, I had to admit it was easy to see where Jaxon got his good looks—was less than appealing. The thought of my mom making out with anyone was less than appealing.
“Since you’re hanging out here at the homestead, Jaxon, why don’t you show Mia around the house while we’re out?” Bob glanced at my mom. “She should know where everything is—this is going to be her place from now on when she’s not on campus.” I wanted to throw up. Instead—because mom was evidently thrilled with the idea—I made myself smile.
“That sounds great, Bob,” I said. “I know I sort of got lost a little bit on the way to the pool this morning, and mom even told me where it was.” I looked from my mom and new step-father to where Jaxon was sitting, across the table from me.
“Ah, yeah—it’d be great to show her around,” Jaxon said; to my surprise he actually looked genuinely interested in the prospect. “Give us a chance to get to know each other better.” It was on the tip of my tongue to point out that he knew me really well—he’d seen me naked! But I remembered that our parents had no idea that we’d even met before we both came home for the holiday.
“Yeah,” I said, keeping my fake smile firmly in place. “It’ll be good to get some time alone to get to know each other.”
CHAPTER 4
The minute our parents were out of the house, Jaxon turned to me and said, “So, where do you want to start the tour?” I sighed.
“Do we really have to?” I asked him, looking around to make sure none of the household staff were in earshot. “It’s not like we actually need to get to know each other better.”
“It’ll be fun,” Jaxon said, smiling slightly.
“No, it won’t,” I told him, shaking my head. “What is wrong with you?” Jaxon shrugged.
“It’s not a bad place, and we’re going to have to do it anyway. Might as well enjoy it as much as we both can.” I thought—I was shocked to realize—that it still looked as though Jaxon genuinely liked the idea of spending time alone with me, leading me through his house and showing off all of its rich person’s treasures. I wasn’t sure what to think about that. I had thought that Jaxon would be just as interested in spending as little time as possible with me as I was to avoid him. It didn’t make any sense; how could Jaxon not be feeling incredibly awkward and uncomfortable? Sure, he’d obviously had more time to deal with the situation as I had, but that would only make him feel worse, wouldn’t it?
“This is so incredibly dumb,” I told Jaxon, looking around once more to make sure no one was eavesdropping. Someone could have been hidden, but I didn’t think they were.
“It’s not that bad,” Jaxon insisted. “And hey—you won’t get lost going around this way.” I couldn’t think of any real way around it.
“Let me get some real clothes on.” I turned away and hurried as quickly as I could back towards my room. I didn’t really want to go on the grand house tour. I didn’t want to spend any more time with Jaxon than I absolutely had to. Maybe, I thought, if I went away—I’d be able to get out of doing the stupid house tour at all. I went into the bedroom and opened up my suitcase. I took out some cold-weather clothes, a thick pair of socks.
“We’ve got a basketball court out back,” Jaxon called through the door. I sighed. Clearly he wasn’t going to give up on the idea of taking me on the tour of the house. I considered the situation. At least, if I let him take me on the tour, there would be no need to lie about it later. The people working in the house would see it happening, and our cover would be safe. Of course, there was very little that Jaxon didn’t know about me already, but we could pretend, ask each other questions that we already knew the answers to. It could—in a way—actually be a little bit of fun.
I got changed into my warmer clothes and finally walked out of the bedroom. “Okay,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “Show me around. Let’s see what’s going on in this place.” Jaxon grinned slowly.
“I think you’ll like what you see.”
I rolled my eyes. “Just show me around this palace.”
Jaxon started outside, taking me around to the basketball court and the tennis court his dad had had installed. The property was huge—there were dormant gardens even with the tennis and basketball courts. “Dad put the basketball court in when I got into it in high school,” Jaxon told me.
“I didn’t know you played.” I’d never really seen Jaxon around the courts on campus. I tried to suppress my curiosity. I really didn’t want to know more about Jaxon than I did. But in spite of the fact that I wanted to completely distance myself from him, I couldn’t help the realization that I was still attracted to him. Jaxon was hot; I couldn’t really lie to myself about that. It was the first time he had talked to me in over a month—it was nice to get back to close to what it had been like before he’d cut me out and started ignoring me.
The inside of the house was even more impressive than the outside. Jaxon took me into the kitchen, and in spite of the huge breakfast we’d both eaten, we both grabbed snacks. He took me through the living room I’d already seen, through the theater room with an enormous screen, a projector, and comfortable seats along with a popcorn machine and a few soda-makers. “So, how exactly did your dad get so rich?” I asked, curious but at the same time wanting to keep the conversation off of myself, and off of Jaxon. Jaxon shrugged.
“He’s been good with investments—I think that’s most of it, to tell the truth. I don’t really know what he was doing before, when I was a kid. He’s almost ready to retire.” Jaxon hesitated a moment. “I’m kind of glad he found your mom.” I stopped short.
“This is just a tour,” I said firmly. I didn’t want to talk about our parents’ relationship, about what the implications of it were to the two of us. I didn’t even want to think about it.
Jaxon fell quiet for a while, leading me through the different guest rooms, the entertainment lounge with the big screen TV and three or four different consoles attached to it. When he offered to show me his room, I told him I’d rather not. I didn’t want to see his space. I didn’t want to be alone with him in a place like that—where it would be too easy to start to act on my attraction towards him.
He showed me everywhere else in the house; the sauna, the pool once more, the hot tub, the gym. I felt weird—hot and cold, tingly and anxious, jumpy. If Jaxon made a sudden movement I startled. I didn’t want to be alone with him but I didn’t want to leave and run away either. I knew that if we were too alone, something would happen, but I didn’t know what. I was torn between wanting to see what would happen and dreading it. I wanted Jaxon to touch me—but I didn’t want him to come near. I was jumbled up and confused. Every time he made a move to get closer to me, or tried to ask about me—more than just regular pleasantries, something that anyone could hear—I reminded him that it was a tour, and that it was nothing more than that. I couldn’t stand the idea of him thinking that there was anything more to it than a cover, an explanation to our parents for what we were doing while they were gone, a sign that we were “getting to know” one another without the need for an explanation as to why we wouldn’t want to.
Finally the tour started to come to a close. “I think that’s everything,” Jaxon said, looking around. Our parents were still out on the slopes. “Want to go somewhere, maybe talk?” I shook my head.
“No. I’m going to go to my room and watch some TV, maybe surf the internet. Thanks for the W
i-Fi password, by the way.” I backed away from Jaxon. My heart was pounding. I needed to be alone and think about what had happened. I took a deep breath. “We should…we shouldn’t talk anymore.” Jaxon frowned.
“What do you mean?”
I looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. I lowered my voice. “Let’s just go back to avoiding each other. Are you comfortable with this?” I gestured around the house. I didn’t even know exactly what it was I meant by ‘this.’
“We’re going to have to talk about it sometime,” Jaxon said firmly, keeping his voice to a murmur. “Like it or not, we have to get it out of the way. We can’t pretend like nothing happened.” I shook my head.
“You were happy to pretend that up until a day ago. We have nothing to talk about.” I darted around Jaxon and found my way down the hallway and to my bedroom. He didn’t follow me. I closed and locked the door behind me and sank down onto the comfortable bed.
I didn’t know what to do. Jaxon had gone from being ice-cold, ignoring me, to apparently being interested in me once more. It was insane; of all the times to get interested in me, he waited until our parents introduced us as new siblings? It didn’t make any sense. I couldn’t think of how to feel about the situation. I couldn’t deny that Jaxon was hot. I couldn’t deny that it was nice for him to pay attention to me once more. I couldn’t even deny the fact that if our parents weren’t married, I would be more than happy to sleep with him again.
But we absolutely couldn’t do anything about it. I might want him, but I couldn’t have him. It would be completely and totally wrong. I would have to completely forget that we’d ever slept together. Thinking of Jaxon that way made me both turned on and nauseated. If anyone found out…
But the important thing would be to make sure that our parents didn’t find out. I would have to spend time with Jaxon, but I decided as I sat in my room pretending to watch TV that I would only spend time with him when we had to—when his dad or my mom was around. I wouldn’t go after him in private; I wouldn’t let him corner me if I could help it. I didn’t want to talk about what we had done. I didn’t even want to think about it. I wanted to get through the holiday as best as I could, and then go back to school and pretend that I had never met Jaxon. If our parents’ marriage worked out, we’d have to deal with being siblings—but for the time being, I just wanted to get over my horror.