Chapter 4
Ishould really say something. But it’s been too long now, it’d be weird. He’s trying to be nice, and it feels good, so maybe I should just…ignore it?
“There. Honestly, the hour will fly by, just try not to think about it. Now, how about you ask me what you were going to before mother nature cut you off?” Red bumped my hip with his bulbous glass one, instantly cooling the thin gym short material that was already getting saturated with sweat and steam.
Fuck. Well, I couldn’t ask him that now, not sitting right here next to him and held in place by my hair. It wouldn’t be the joke I intended for it to be, not with an hour—at least—in front of us, stuck in here together.
“Sorry, sorry. It was just something stupid. I was being a little bitchy because you always act kind of weird to me, but I think I’m just letting the school thing get in my head. You’ve been really nice to me today and I appreciate it.” I gave him a half-smile beside me, shrugging.
His thick, glassy fingers unwove themselves from my hair, sliding down the back of my neck and cupping it in a cool palm, his thumb idly massaging a particularly tight tendon. “Come on Jules, now I gotta know. Promise I’ll answer.”
I laughed self-consciously, hiding my face in my hands. “Christ. I was…I was going to ask if you were glass all over. I swear, I’m not being pervy, I was just, you know. Trying to throw you off your game.” Oh god, it sounds even dumber out loud. Shut upppp Jules. Shut up shut up shut up.
Red laughed, his whole hand massaging my neck softly now, expertly enough to draw a pleased sigh out of me as I slumped into his hold without thinking about it. “I wouldn’t care if you were being pervy, you know. We’re both adults, right?”
I froze, and the chills racing over my skin had nothing to do with Red’s cool glass hand around my nape. I laughed nervously. “W-what? You fucking with me, now? We’re siblings, Red.”
Red traced the side of my neck with the back of his thick index finger, sweeping it back up my pulse point to tuck a lock of steam-frizzed hair behind my ear before murmuring into it. “Step siblings, Jules, and barely that. It’s not like we grew up together. I’m a man that happens to be a glass pitcher of liquid, not blind. You’re gorgeous.”
Oh.
I pivoted on the bench, eyes still wide with shock, to face him. It hadn’t escaped my notice that his hand was still firmly in place on the back of my neck. Worse, it also hadn’t escaped my notice that I hadn’t tried to remove it. His usual cocky smirk was firmly in place, but there was a vulnerability in his big, black eyes I hadn’t seen before. “Red, are you trying to tell me…”
“That I have feelings for you? Obviously, Jules. Hell, I have since the wedding, but I kept it under wraps because I didn’t want to mess things up for our parents. And, you know, it’s not exactly something you bring up around the dinner table. It was easier just…you know. Flirting with you a little. It was harmless.”
I rolled my eyes, despite my stomach doing enough flips to make the Olympic gymnastics team. “Harmless, right. I’ve been cooped up in my bedroom because you’ve been blasting those…those sex cartoons all over the living room.”
At his blank look, I gave a growl of frustration, swinging the pitch of my voice up and going nasal to mimic what I heard the animated women panting all the time. “Naneee onii-chan what are you doing??“
I don’t think I’d ever seen Red blush before. It was a curious thing, sort of the opposite of the human reaction to embarrassment, as what passed for his cheeks on his pitcher-faced paled to a barely-rose color. “I’m so sorry, Jules. That wasn’t intentional, I swear to you. I only watch the tamer ones out in the living room, believe it or not, out of respect to you. You’re usually in your room, and I wait until our parents are gone. I didn’t know you could hear it! The resonance of my pitcher means I hear a little differently than you do and I…guess I had it on louder than I thought. I always paused it if you were walking through the room though.”
“Well, I definitely heard it. I thought you were…I dunno. Trying to make me uncomfortable, between that and all the flirting when we were alone.” I rolled my shoulders, offering a weak smile as an olive branch.
“No, I promise. Honestly, I was only flirting with you so much because I thought it was a fun little thing we had, even if the feelings were one-sided. If I’d have known I was actually making you uncomfortable, I would have stop-” He broke off mid-sentence, snatching his hand off my neck like it had burned him, eyes wide before he hastily set his palms back on his glass thighs. “Sorry. Sorry, I just realized that I’m probably sending some really mixed messages here. I was enjoying the moment.” He grinned sheepishly.
“No, I mean, it felt really good, actually. The pillow in my bed is way too soft and my neck and shoulders have been a mess since I came home.” I ignored the proverbial elephant in the sauna like it was my job, marching the conversation back to what felt like safer turf. Okay, so my stepbrother wasn’t weird, he just had the hots for me. It was flattering, really, when I thought about it. I’d never thought of Red like that, but now all I could think about was my unanswered question from earlier.
“Here, then. Turn around for me. I’ll make you feel better.” he draped my hair over my shoulder as I turned, baring my nape and shoulder blades to him. Tension seeped out of me as two large, four-fingered glass hands started to work into my sore spots with expert precision. I moaned quietly, blushing furiously as the sound echoed through the enclosed space around us. Red chuckled. “There she is. I knew the real you was in there under all that school stress, Jules. Just relax, let me take care of you. I got you. Our parents won’t be home for a while, and I’ll hear the car.”