I just wanted to get used to being around Caspian again, push all this awkwardness in the past, and get over this stupid crush. Lately, his teasing felt almost cruel. As if he were flaunting his sexual appeal knowing full well what it was doing to me.
“That picture has been so annoying,” I grumbled about the snapshot that started all this drama.
“The picturewassomething though,” Caspian said, opening his phone. I grimaced. Did he have to admit it so casually? I'd looked at it more than once. It was a bit odd to see, like different people. His long fingers gripping my face, our bodies crushed together, our eyes burning into each other, our mouths cracked open and merely inches apart.
Had we really been that close? Had we really looked like that?
The two people in the picture looked a moment away from sex. The girl looked like she could barely stand—clinging, desperate, wanting. The man looked solely focused, completely consumed.
That wasn’t us.
Videos from the concert had surfaced too, him stopping the song to call me forward, him crawling on the stage toward me.
Everyone was completely convinced we were having sex and had been since we were teens, living in the same house as step siblings. That tasty scandal was being eaten up by every hungry mouth wanting a bite of something juicy.
It was also making me even more aware of Caspian. All the while he was completely unaffected. He thought it was funny people said we were sleeping together.Funny.
He stretched his arms and his shirt lifted a little, showing off deep, cut hip muscles and a flat lower stomach. Caspian was a rare type of creature. Almost too sensual and yet it didn’t seem an effort at all.
“Tell me, step sis,” Caspian started while still eyeing his phone. I rolled my eyes. He was calling me that to be annoying. “How was last night?” He asked with a slight purr to his words.
“I was up all night because of you,” I grumbled. He bit his lip, his body racking with laughs. He was acting weird.
“See, nothing strange going on here,” he said, lifting his phone. I saw he was recording a video and my mouth dropped open. “Me and mydearstepsister are completely platonic.”
“Caspian,” I said in desperation. “Stop.” He hummed and tapped his chin.
“That wasn’t what you were saying last night,” he said with a chipper smile. “You said, we aren’t stopping till morning.”
“I— I wasn’t…” I fumbled for words. I had said that exact thing but I was talking aboutdriving. “This better not be some live feed,” I practically growled.
“Do you want to go live? Show the world what’s really going on?” He asked with a dangerously sexy smirk. He lowered his phone and leaned in close, his mouth near my ear.
“There’s one way to get them to stop asking if we’re fucking, Ava.” His voice was smooth. I felt my heart rate quicken.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Say we are,” he commented. He pulled his phone back up and I watched on the recording screen as he licked up the side of my neck. Goosebumps broke out over my skin, a shiver rolled up my neck, and my nipples hardened to tingling needy points.
“Gross.” Which would have been more convincing if I hadn'tmoanedit. I inhaled sharply as he sucked my earlobe into his mouth, rolling it over his tongue. My head swam as I tried to look at the road instead of the phone’s screen, recording Caspian and me.
He reached out to grip my thigh. His fingers dug in as he ran his hand a few inches higher, his pinky coming dangerously close to the juncture between my legs. I squeaked in shock. The wheel jerked and I nearly rammed into his bandmates’ car. They swerved while honking angrily at me. Great, another reason for them to dislike me.
“You're going to get us killed,” I said as he pulled back with a look of satisfaction on his face. He clicked around on his phone.
“You better not post that,” I said shakily, trying to recover from what he’d just done. Had that really just happened? I could still feel where his mouth had been on my body. It was making me feel lightheaded. I was wet, I realized, feeling the dampness between my thighs. I wanted to groan in dismay but swallowed it up, trying to act nonchalant while my panties soaked through.
“What’s so wrong with everyone thinking we’re together,” Caspian said with a sigh, looking out the window. “Is it that big of a deal?” He didn’t care. Why would he? It was a big deal to me though, but how was I supposed to relay that to him without giving myself away?
Ten minutes later the sun had fully crested the little mountains and we were riding the off-ramp towards New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia.
This was the start of something big, life-altering. Sasquatch Inc. was paying me to travel around the country to different national and state parks for an entire year. They wanted me to take product photos of their outdoor gear while running a travel blog. Mostly they sold coolers, insulated cups, and things like that.
I may not have been some famous ghost chaser or an acclaimed horror writer but I was chasing my dream of photography for once, leaving behind that horrible desk job that nearly killed me the past two years.
I steered the 4Runner on a one-lane road. Trees were packed tightly on both sides of us. I clicked the window down as exhaustion began to take its toll. The cool, wet air of morning spilled in from the window and breezed over my face.
The sounds of birds were all around, all different little chirps and songs. The canopy of trees parted and suddenly we were right next to the New River itself. Ironic name since it was one of the oldest rivers in the world, having spent millions of years slicing through the Appalachian mountains.
