THREE: Wicked coincidences.

BRITNEY ASTON

Within the span of barely 24 hours, I’d gone through a series of emotions. It had been a roller coaster, ranging from happiness, sadness, lust, despair, anger, frustration, hope, intrigue- the list could go on. But not even a single one of them could match up to the emotions that suddenly overwhelmed me as I stared at the good looking stranger from the club introduce himself as my step brother.

“Why are you two silent?” My mum asked, effortlessly clueless. “Britney, say something. Aw, are you shy? Travis, say hi to your new sister.”

She kept on talking to us like we were kids who were incapable of making up words ourselves. We probably were because at that moment, I couldn’t come up with a single word even if I tried.

I was horrified, to say the least, memories I’d uselessly tried to get rid of resurfacing in the worst possible manner. I couldn’t get it out of my head. Especially not when the main character of all my dirty thoughts was only a few inches away from me.

Travis on the other hand, had a blank expression on his face. For a second, he seemed taken aback by the wicked coincidence but the moment it set in, his blank expression returned to his face. If anything, he looked genuinely uninterested in everything going on when I just wanted to be smacked and told it was all nothing but a bad, wild, dream.

“Are we going to have dinner or not?”

I almost hiccuped as he spoke up, his voice having the same effect on me as it did the last time he was close to me. Goosebumps immediately flooded my skin and in an attempt to cover it up, I wrapped my arms around my body.

My actions birthed a quick smirk on his face, followed by him walking over to one of the empty seats on the dining to get comfortable. I couldn’t immediately do the same though, taking my time to process my new wicked reality.

“Please excuse Travis,” Jack appeared behind me to say, causing me to almost jump. “It’s not about you. He’s just naturally a cold person.”

“Oh,” I swallowed. “Oh. Okay.”

If only he knew. If only.

“Alright, get seated,” my mum spoke up again, ushering me to an empty seat. “I hope you’re all hungry. I made pasta.”

Under normal circumstances, I’d cringe at the fact that my mum normally wasn’t that much of a cook but at the moment, I had more pressing issues to deal with- like the fact that I’d slept with my stepbrother.

“You know I can never say no to your cooking,” Jack replied affectionately as he grabbed his cutlery. “Please fill up my plate and you trust I’ll be devouring every bit.”

“Oh, Jack,” my mum giggled. “You’re so flattering.”

“I’m not,” he replied. “I’m just being honest. You cooking for me- it’s amazing. I’ve always loved the feeling of being cooked for by someone I love. You know it just makes me-“

“Oh, please, drop the romantic man act.”

Silence immediately filled the air, heads turning in Travis’ direction as he interrupted his dad with a scoff.

“Travis, what do you-“

“I don’t care if you want to act like who you’re not and make her completely fall for it,” he continued, cutting his dad off again. “But please, don’t do it when I’m around. I’m here at this table to eat, not to puke and your hypocrisy right now is making me really nauseous.”

Again, silence filled the air but this time it was accompanied by a tension so thick it threatened to suffocate even me. Fingers gripped cutleries anxiously, no one other than Travis daring to take another bite of their meals.

“Travis,” Jack finally spoke up, his voice suddenly stern. “I asked you to move in and join us on this table so we could have a normal dinner as a normal family-“

“That we aren’t,” he cut him off again, this time slamming his cutlery on the table. “We aren’t a normal family. You and I are barely a normal family and your great idea of getting things better was by bringing in new random people? What is this? Do you think “the more the merrier” is a concept that applies to people like us too?”

“Travis!” Jack yelled, his patience visibly tested. “I would not tolerate this type of behavior from you. Not in the presence of your step mother and sister. You should apologize to them this instant!”

“I have a better idea,” he rose to his feet, making noise with his chair as he pushed it away. “I should have just stayed in the U.S.”

“Travis!”

With a final hiss targeted at his dad, he tossed the napkins in his way and stormed out of the living room, heading straight upstairs.

“Jack, dear.”

The aura around the table immediately changed and more than anything, I suddenly wished I remained in my room and went to bed hungry. My appetite had suddenly travelled far away and I didn’t need to be told it wasn’t just me that felt that way.

“Britney, I’m sorry,” after a couple deep breaths, Jack finally said to me. “Travis- he- it’s all my fault. He’s spoilt and it’s all my fault and I’m so sorry he ruined the night. Please forgive me and please excuse me.”

He didn’t wait for a response from me before getting up to leave the dining. With me obviously being a minor character in the dramatic showdown between the father and son, my mum also rose to her feet and quickly rushed towards Jack, making consoling sounds as she did.

Left with nothing else to do, I followed the pattern and only rose to my feet to head back to my room. From the movements, I could tell my mum and Jack were somewhere on the ground floor while Travis was somewhere upstairs, in his room.

I swallowed, the mere thought crossing my mind. It was all strange and happening rather quickly. I needed some sort of guidance. Something, anything, to not make me lose my mind.

With slow steps, I walked up the stairs leading to my room. But I wasn’t heading to my room. I couldn’t head to my room. At least, not yet. Not with the raging anxiety in me.

There was no way I would get a second of rest knowing Travis was in the same house after what happened between us. I needed to at least speak to him. Get to know things from his point of view without our parents in sight.

All it took was a wild guess for me to figure out the room that belonged to Travis. Much to my horror, it just had to be the room directly next to mine.

Standing right in front of the door, I felt my heartbeat pounding all over again, almost like it was about to rip out of my chest. I was nervous and I had every reason to be. I wasn’t ready to face him but I knew I had to be regardless.

“Breathe, Britney,” I muttered to myself. “You didn’t sleep with your step brother. You only slept with a guy that ended up being your step brother.”

It took about a dozen nods and more words of reassurance and finally, I placed a knock on the door.

No response.

Pushing my luck, I knocked one more time.

Still no response.

With a deep exhale, I knocked again, deciding to call out to him this time. “Travis? Are you in?”

It was almost like he was waiting to hear my voice before opening as almost immediately, the door was swung open to reveal no one but my step brother.

“What are you doing here?”

“Um, hi,” I hiccuped.

He checked me out from head to toe and I did the same, my eyes lingering around his body for longer. He was shirtless and without our parents around, I could finally look at him as much as I wanted.

Dressed in nothing but shorts, he was almost naked, water dripping from every inch of his body. He was clearly coming from the shower as even his dirty blonde hair was wet, wet strands hanging loosely around face.

I swallowed, my eyes trailing from his face to his neck and then his arms. With one arm rested on the frame of the door, the other tugging at the band of his shorts, his veins were on full display. Skillfully, I managed to stare at his and too, in general awe of how gorgeous he looked standing in front of me.

I could swear time froze as I continued to stare at every inch of his body, taking in his features almost like I was scared it was going to be the last time. I swallowed, bit my lip, visibly salivated and just as I was about to subconsciously move close towards him, was pulled right back to my senses.

“You didn’t come here to stare at my body, did you?”

“What?” I almost choked on my saliva, immediately adjusting my posture. “What? No- I-“

“Then what are you doing here?”

“I-“ I scratched the back of my neck then looked around me. “Um, I wanted to talk to you. Actually, we need to talk. Can I come in?”

He shrugged in response, leading the way in. With a deep exhale, i followed him and walked in, gently closing the door behind me.

“So what’s this about?” He asked me, walking around his room to disconnect his phone from the charger and then project his entire attention to it.

“Um, I wanted to talk to you.”

“You said that already,” he barely spared me a glance. “What do you want to talk about?”

Taken aback by his calm behavior in great contrast to mine, I took another deep exhale before speaking up again. “Us. You and I- you know- you know what I’m talking about.”

He finally looked up from his phone and immediately arched an eyebrow at me. “What?”

“You know what I’m talking about!” I almost raised my voice. “Don’t you remember? Why are you acting so clueless? We’ve met once. The other night, you know- we- I mean, we-“

“Oh, you mean the night we fucked?”

My cheeks immediately turned bright red, taking aback by his bluntness. As much as I wanted to deny it, it was quite plainly true.

“Well, yeah,” I finally looked away from him. “Yesterday night.”

“So what about it?”

It was my turn to arch an eyebrow at him. “What do you mean what about it?”

Serving me a confused stare, he dropped his phone on the bed and walked up towards me. “Wait, why are you here?”

“Because,” I started but the moment he took a step towards me, watched all the words disappear from my brain. “Because we- it happened between us- what happened between us that night- aren’t you bothered by it?”

“And why should I?”

“Probably because we’re now step siblings?”

“Oh please,” he rolled his eyes and let out a scoff. “It was just a one night stand. I was bored, you were horny. I was down for it and so were you.”

“What?”

“We didn’t care about our backgrounds when it happened so why are you suddenly bothered?” He continued. “It was just a one night stand and that’s all. You were just another girl and we fucked and ended it that night. So what’s the big deal?”

I blinked and took a double take. He couldn’t be serious. There was no way he was that cool over the fact that we once slept together and now had to be siblings.

“Travis-“

“Or,” he suddenly cut me off, immediately resuming his steps towards me. “Are you here for another reason?”

“What?” I could feel my brain turn into jelly as he moved closer towards me. I tried to walk away but for some reason I was frozen in my tracks, my feet refusing to move a single inch.

He was coming closer, his intoxicating scent immediately approaching me. Feeling my toes curl as fresh shivers ran down my spine, I shut my eyes, only to open them and immediately meet him right next to me, barely any distance between us.

“Are you here-“ He spoke up, leaning close to me so I could literally feel his breath against my skin as he spoke. “Are you here because you don’t want it to end as a one night stand?”

His breath hit my neck, my eyes immediately going shut as my body exploded with emotions. Fighting it, I tried to open my eyes and then push him away or finally keep my distance from him.

But instead, he leaned even closer to me and whispered into my ears.

“Do you want me to fuck you again?”