The Step-Brother

Chapter 3:Coworkers

Jade's classes through the rest of the week were hell. But, being at home was hell for her too! Every single time she bumped into Zach she would become so flustered she quickly moved out of his way. She spent the rest of the week in her room and spent it writing poems. Most of them were about forbidden love, or love in general. She hardly ever wrote about love, since she never knew what it was like. But, ever since she saw Zach without his shirt she just couldn't stop thinking about him.

"But, dammit he's my stepbrother," she moaned out, while lying on her bed. "Maybe, this is just normal between siblings. Or.or.or maybe it's just a phase!" she said to herself. Oh hell! She knew it wasn't normal to have daydreaming fantasies about him. Or wake up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat from a steamy dream about him. If he wasn't stuck in her mind all day he was in her dreams. What would she do all day with him in the house? She just had to get over this feeling she had for him.

She turned over and hugged onto her teddy bear that she got from her mother. She looked at her computer desk and got up.

"I guess I can check my e-mail or something," She said turning the computer on. After, turning her computer on, she heard a soft knocking at the door. She froze at the sound and all together stopped breathing.

"Jade! Are you up?" Zach's muffled voice said. Jade bit her bottom lip. "Jade! Come on its 10 a.m. on a Saturday, you have no classes and you didn't leave the room. So, I know you're in there.now open up," Zach yelled. "I'm coming in, at the count of three. 1.2.3." he said opening the door quickly.

Jade spun around in her chair, to find Zach busting in.

"Since you're so insistent on invading my privacy.what the hell do you want?" Jade tried to say as casual as possible. Zach sat on the edge of her bed and looked at her.

"I called in for a favor and I got you a job," he told her.

"And that made you force open my door?" Jade asked. She got up and walked to the door knob and jiggled it, "This thing was locked!"

Zach watched Jade open and close her door, which made his eyes wonder over her body. She was only wearing her night shirt, which she usually wore at night, but he never noticed how smooth her legs looked. He just wanted to touch them to see if they felt the way he thought they would. What was he thinking? Suddenly, his eyes stopped to watch the shirt she was wearing moving up and down on her thighs! The air, which came from the movement the door was making, blew the shirt up over her hips, exposing her black panties every now and then. Zach's breath caught in his throat and he began to sweat, trying to look somewhere else. But, it wasn't helping he just couldn't stop staring at the way her hips were moving.

"I think you broke the lock Zach!" Jade turned around and yelled at him. He stood up quickly, happy to for the distraction, and moved toward the door.

"I didn't break the lock," Zach exclaimed closing the door. He pushed the button on the door and twisted the knob. "You see it's locked," he told her.

Jade pushed him away from the knob and twisted it herself. She sighed and tugged on it one more time, "Well so it's locked, but I tried to lock it just now and it wouldn't."

"Well it's fixed now," Zach said. Jade pressed the button again and tried to pull the door open. She looked at Zach and tried pulling it again.

"Dammit, now it won't open," she complained.

"Don't panic.let me try," Zach said. Jade stepped back and watched him twist and pull.twist and pull, but the door didn't budge. Suddenly, Zach banged his head on the door and sighed, "Ok it's not opening. I think we need to pull it together."

Jade shrugged her shoulders and stood alongside him.

"When I twist the knob, we have to pull ok?" he asked her. Jade shook her head in compliance and turned to the side ready to pull.

Zach turned to his side and twisted the door knob and gazed at Jade. Placing her hands on top Zach's she began to pull alongside him. With a couple more of hard pulls and loud grunts the door flew open, sending the two people hurling backwards. Jade yelped stumbling backwards, as the back of her knees hit the edge of her bed. They buckled and sent her falling backward on the bed, just inches from the edge. She looked to see Zach falling backward on the floor and quickly sat up. She grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him toward her.

Falling softly on the bed Zach sighed, "That was close, but look we got the door opened." He looked down, noticing Jade laying beneath him. She was looking at him with her green eyes opened wide and she was breathing deeply. He swallowed and breathed out a shaky breath. Her hair was spread out on the bed, like a big black fan. It took everything he could muster not to weave his fingers through it. His heart was beating frantically and he didn't know why! How could she possibly have this effect on him?

"Yea, we did!" Jade whispered out. She was becoming distracted by his lips as he licked them. She closed her eyes and turned her head to the side, trying to get rid of the thoughts that were swimming around in her head. She felt the bed move and looked up to see Zach get up. She felt relieved, but something in her chest told her she felt differently. "So uh tell me about this job."

"The job." Zach said. Jade had propped herself up using her elbow, but she didn't seem to notice the shirt was showing her lower half. His eyes quickly scanned the exposed skin, which was just above the rim of her panties. He let out a frustrated sigh and turned around, "I just came up here to tell you, you can start today, or you can just check it out. So, you might as well get dressed."

"Ok.but what about my door? Are you going to fix it?" Jade asked sitting up and pulling down her shirt.

"I'll take a look at it, but if I can't fix it I'll call the landlord. So, just don't lock it or anything. Keep it open just a bit I'll knock when I want to came in and talk or something," he said walking out of her room.

"Alright, I will be ready in thirty minutes," Jade told him.

Zach shook his head, and then softly closed her door, but leaving it cracked just a bit.

"I need to get out of this house," Jade said and walked to her dresser. "I need to get away from him."

Thirty minutes later Jade was ready to go. She was a little tense when she had to ride behind him, but she made it anyway. She decided to focus her attention everywhere else, like the different kinds of buildings and the scenery. Zach turned and pulled up to the side of a building and stopped. Jade looked up at the building and her jaw dropped at the name: Barnes and Nobles.

"You want me to work at a fucking book store?" she asked as she got off the motorcycle.

"Well why not? A job is a job and the manger tells me it pays well." Zach chained his motorcycle up and grabbed Jade's helmet. He placed both of their helmets on the ends of the motorcycles handles. "Come on!" Jade moaned, but slowly followed after Zach.

Jade was surprised to see a lot of people walking about, talking amongst themselves and looking for books. Bookstands and bins covered the entire store, but music was being sold on another section, while the smell of coffee and Danishes wafted through the air. Jade smiled weakly at an old woman she passed, making her step on the end of her pants and tripping up, bumping her into a guy.

She sheepishly looked up at the guy and weakly smiled. "I'm sorry!" she said.

"It's no problem ma'am, may I help you?" he asked. Jade stepped back and took a profile of the guy. He was slightly taller then she was and had a well defined tanned body, from what she saw. She was more curious about his blonde spikes in his hair. "You want to feel it," the guy asked.

"Uh.no." Jade said, blushing at being caught. "Umm.my stepbrother and I are looking for the manager."

"What brother?" the guy asked. Twirling around, Jade noticing there wasn't a single sight or Zach anywhere.

"Well. I guess he's stalking around," Jade nervously laughed out. "But, let me get down to what I was asking. May I please speak with the store's manager?"

"You're speaking to him," the guy said with a smile. "Are you Zach Harris's stepsister?" he asked. Jade narrowed her eyebrows and scoffed.

"I am!" Jade said. "And you're the manager?"

"Yes, why do you sound so shocked," the guy asked stepping closer to the perplexed girl.

"Aren't you a little." Jade started off. "Young to be a store's manager?"

"My name's Josh Wittiker and yours?" Josh said going off of topic.

"Jade Harris, I thought you would have known that if you knew my stepbrother. Are you going to answer my question Mr. Wittiker, or are you going to side track it?" Jade asked.

"I'm 23, but I don't' consider that to be that young," He commented. Jade licked her bottom and smiled.

"No, I don't Mr."

"Just call me Josh.Jade," he said with a smile that Jade couldn't help but stare at.

"No, I don't think that is considered to be young Josh, but it's young enough."

Josh gave her a sly smirk and laughed. "That's interesting coming from you; Zach always told me you weren't the complimenting type!"

"Josh, that's because Zach is an ass, which can make it hard for me to compliment him in anyway," Jade said with a hint of sarcasm behind it. "That means my compliments go to the best of the lot."

"So, what you're saying is I'm not an ass and you think I'm the best of the lot?" Josh softly asked. Jade was so interested in Josh's boldness, that Zach made her jump when moved beside her.

"Ah man, I was looking around for you. It looks as though Jade found you!" Zach said shaking Josh's hand. "So are you going to get her started? I have stuff to do so I can't stay around man."

"Hell yea man, I think she'll do well here," Josh answered looking Jade's way.

"I'm going then, what time should I pick her up,"

"I know were you live I can take her home." Jade looked back at Zach and pleaded with her eyes not to let Josh take her home.

"Sure!" Zach said and looked at Jade. "I'll see you later!" He waved bye and walked out of the store, leaving Jade with.Josh.

"Don't I have a say in this," Jade said. But, Josh didn't seem to hear her.

"Are you ready to work?" Josh asked her.

"Not particularly, I don't even know what I'm doing!" she told him.

"I'm going to have you start with putting books up and taking down the displays. I think you can do that, you seem like a big girl!" Josh flirtingly said.

"I hope your talking about my age!" Jade informed him.

"How old are you anyway? 17, 18 what?" Josh asked with a smile.

"I'm 19!" Jade snapped at him. Josh's smile widened and he rolled back on his heel.

"That's just excellent," he told her. "Well I think we should get you started right away. So would you follow me?"

Giving a weak smile Jade shook her head, "Well why not since everyone seems to want to rule my life." Smiling Josh walked away and Jade followed. At least this would get her mind off of Zach all day!