Stepbrother With Benefits #9 (Second Season) (2 page)

"I know," I say, hugging my mom tight.  "I don't want him to think like that about Ethan, though.  He really is nice, and I know he's got a reputation for... for Ethan stuff.  I don't think he's like that with me, though."

"Me either," my mom says, smiling and kissing me on the cheek.  "You're smart, Ashley.  If anyone can bring out the gentleman in Ethan, even if that gentleman is a little rough around the edges, it's you.  Then when Ethan's father sees him with you, and sees it's because of you, he'll know.  He'll accept it."

"Are you sure?" I ask.

"Positive," my mom says.  "Let's not worry about that right now, though.  You go shower and get ready, then pack.  Lock your door, too!  Don't let anyone in until you're ready to come out, understand?"

Her warning sounds dangerous.  It really is, too.  Do you know what would happen if I left my door unlocked while I took a shower, with Ethan Colton on the prowl after I teased him horribly this morning?

Um... I know exactly what would happen.  It doesn't take a lot of imagination to figure it out.  And, um... I kind of would not be opposed to it happening?

No!  That's the bad girl talking, Ashley!  Be the good girl you know you are, and um... bad girl things can come later.

My mom gives me one last hug before letting me go.  Out of the corner of my eye, I see Ethan leaving his bedroom, hair wet, freshly showered, wearing shorts and a t-shirt.  I hurry into my room and close my door, then lock it.

Don't even try it, Ethan!  I know what you're capable of!

Seriously, how long does it take to pack for a camping trip?  I don't think it should take that long.  You know how long it took me to pack my stuff?  About fifteen minutes.  Maybe less.  Yeah, I took a shower, too, and I brushed my teeth, got dressed, fixed myself up to look presentable.  I'm not a slob or anything, I like to take care of appearances and look good.

I get that women want to look good, too, but this isn't about that.  They're both showered, Ashley and her mom, and they're literally just packing now, nothing else, but they've been in the house for over an hour.  What's up with that?  Fuck if I know.  It should be easy.  Get clothes, put clothes in bag, get other necessities, put those in the bag, too, done.  Pretty simple, right?

Nah,  I guess not!

My dad and I are in the garage now, fixing everything up.  There's the tents to deal with, fishing poles, some coolers of food that'll keep for awhile.  We can get more when we're down there, but it's a good idea to pack a few bare essentials just in case.  You never know, right?  Don't want to go into situations like this blind and without a backup plan.

"Yeah, uh... Dad?" I say to him.

He looks over at me and grunts.  "What's wrong?"

"Wouldn't it be easier if we took two cars?  It's getting kind of cramped as it is, and who knows what Ashley and her mom have.  I mean, fuck, they could both be bringing three or four bags.  It's taking them long enough."

My dad gives me a straight look for a second, then he grins.  "Would have been simpler with just us, huh?"

I grin back at him.  "Yeah, I guess so.  It's cool to bring them along, though.  It'll be different, you know?"

"I remember the first time we went camping," he says.  "That was horrible, but we made it work somehow.  It ended up being a lot of fun.  I don't know how.  Honestly, after the first day I was considering packing everything up and driving back."

"Yeah..." I say, laughing.  "It was kind of fucked up at first, but it was cool after."

"I'm sorry, Ethan.  You know that, right?  I know I've said it before, but it's the truth.  I'm sorry about how I was back then.  It just..."  He trails off.

"Yeah," I say.  "I know.  Me too."

"Sometimes I think about it," he adds.  "I don't know why.  There was nothing I could have done about it.  We tried.  With your mother, I mean.  We... we really did.  I tried..."

"I know," I say.  "I don't blame you or anything."

That was after my mother died.  I was too young to realize exactly what was going on, I just knew that it was fucked up and it wasn't good.  My dad tried to act like it didn't affect him, but how do you think that went?  It's pretty hard.  It was hard for me, and I didn't even know exactly what was going on.  He was a grown man and had to deal with knowing the full details about everything.

That's not to say I agree with a lot of what he did.  It wasn't even like he did anything obvious, he just... I don't know?  Stopped caring?  Not about me, just about life in general.

Yeah  yeah, whatever.  That's some depressing shit to deal with, and I don't want to do it right now.  Thankfully I don't have to, because the women-folk just appeared.

"Hey!" my stepmom says.  "What are you boys up to?"

"Just packing as much into the car as we can," my dad says.  "I think it might be a good idea to follow Ethan's advice and take two cars, though.  We'll have a lot more room that way."

"Alright," my stepmom says.  "Whatever you two think is best.  You're the camping experts here."

She smiles at my dad and he smiles back at her.  They really do love each other, huh?  It's nice.  I'm glad.  Good job, Dad.

Well, uh... then I do stuff.  Yeah, let's go with that.  I'm about to do some stuff.  Say it, really, but whatever.  Same thing.

"I can drive the second car," I say.  "If that's cool with you."

"Sure, that works," my dad says.

Then, uh... "Ashley, you want to come with me?" I ask her.

She looks at me, confused at first, but then she smiles.  Holy fuck, I love when she smiles at me.  It's like Lady Luck herself, the sun, and every single star in the sky is shining down on me at the same time, beautiful as fuck.

"Sure," she says.  "That sounds fun."

My dad gives me a weird look, as if I just told him I was going to renounce all mortal sins for eternity and become a chaste monk or something.  My stepmom just smiles and nods at me, her little show of approval.  Yeah, you know what?  I'm a pretty fucking nice guy, don't you forget it.

"If you think you're up for the task, have at it, you two," my dad says.

"I think I can handle it," I say, giving him a nod.

"You want to use the old campground rules?" my dad asks me.

"Old rules, huh?" I say, grinning, mysterious.  Ashley and her mom look at us like we're crazy, which I guess maybe we are.  "I don't know.  Do you think they can handle it?"

I give a quick jerk of my head towards the women, and my dad grins at them, conspiratorial.

"We can handle it!" my stepmom says.  "Right, Ashley?"

"Um, I kind of want to know what we're handling first," she says, cautious.

Oh yeah, Princess?  I've got something you can handle.  Let's just go somewhere private first.  I kind of want to say that, but my dad's right here, and uh... well, you know?  Probably not a good idea.

It's my cock, though.  That's what she can handle.  My cock.  I'm really good at this innuendo thing, right?

"Three out of four majority," my dad says.  "Sorry, Ashley, it's old campground rules no matter what."

She mumbles to herself.  It's kind of cute.  I sort of want to go over and squeeze her tight and kiss her until she melts, but uh... yeah, my dad's still here.  Can't do that, either.

"So what are old campground rules?" my stepmom asks.

"No technology allowed," my dad says.  "Besides the cars, which we'll only use for the drive down there, as of right now there's a ban on anything electronic.  This basically means—"

"Wait," my stepmom says.  "I can't bring my phone?"

"Nope!" Ashley says, sticking her tongue out at her.

"This isn't good.  What if I need it?"

"Mom, who do you even call?  Me and Ethan's dad?"

"I might need to check the weather, though," she says.  "How will I know if it's going to rain?"

"Look up?  We'll be outdoors, Mom."

Ashley and her mom bicker back and forth.  My dad and I just stand there, watching them, laughing.  After awhile, we start to load some of the stuff we had into another car.  It doesn't take too long.

"Alright, ladies.  What do we have?" my dad asks them.

They each hold up a bag.  One bag.  Are you for real?

"Seriously?" I ask.  "What took you so long to pack if you've only got one bag?"

"What are you talking about?" Ashley asks.  "How many bags do you have?"

"Uh, one?  It's just a camping trip, Princess.  It's not like you need a lot.  Some clothes, a bathing suit, a couple of towels."

"Wait, we need towels?" my stepmom asks.

"Mom," Ashley says.  "You didn't tell me we needed towels."

"Are you two for real?" I say.  "You took over an hour to pack and you didn't get towels?"

"Ethan, could you just go in and grab a couple of extra towels for them?" my dad asks me.

"Yeah, I guess.  Give me your phones and stuff while I'm here.  I'll toss them inside."

"What?" my stepmom asks.  "I can't just keep it in the car when we're down there?"

"Too tempting," my dad explains.  "It's easy to break the ban if you've got your phone right there.  We always used to leave them here.  There's phones at the campground, so it's not like we'll be completely without one in the event of an emergency.  It'll be fine."

"But..."

"You're the one that agreed without even asking what the rule was," Ashley says, smirking.  "Maybe next time you won't agree so easily?"

Yeah, you should always know what you're agreeing to, huh?  Not sure it works like that all the time, though, Princess.  Did you ever think we'd end up where we are when you first agreed to rule number one?  I glance at her, just can't seem to stop looking at her, and she glances over at me, too.  We look into each other's eyes and smile a little, but I don't think anyone but us realizes it.

Ashley reaches for her pocket, but then realizes her phone is in her packed bag.  She opens the bag to get her phone, and I just stare at her.  Fuck, those are some short, tight shorts, huh?  I'm supposed to be taking this phone from her, but I can't stop staring at her legs.  I kind of just want to lick them.  Start at the toes and work my way up until I get to her sweet, creamy center... delicious as fuck, that's what that is.

Ashley's mom grumbles and hands me her phone, too.  I guess I should stop staring at my stepsister's legs now?  Yeah...

I take both their phones, and my dad's when he offers it to me, then I jog into the house to get some towels.  I leave everyone's phone on the dining room table in the empty stone bowl in the middle where we keep fruit and stuff sometimes.  I get some towels from the linen closet downstairs, then head back to the garage.

Everything's packed now.  My dad and stepmom are getting into one car, and Ashley's standing by the other.

"You ready for the ride of your life, Princess?" I ask her.

"You think you're that good, do you?" she counters.

Thankfully my dad's in the car with the window up, so he can't hear any of this.

"Better," I tell her, smirking.  "You don't even know what you're getting into here."

"I think I have a pretty good idea..." she says, grinning uncontrollably and winking at me.

My dad rolls down the window.  "What's the hold up?" he asks.

"Nothing," I say.  "Little Perfect Princess over here was just whining about not having her phone."

"Stay strong, Ashley!" my stepmom says.  "You can do it!"

Ashley rolls her eyes at her mom and laughs.

Yeah, well, that's it.  Time for a road trip.  We're going camping.

"Are we
there
yet?" I ask, tossing Ethan an antagonistic grin.

"Don't you even start with me, Princess," he says.  He tries to sound angry, but he can't fool me.

I wait a few seconds before asking him again.  "Ethan, are we there yet?"

"Oh, you want to play games?" he asks, laughing.  "Don't make me pull this car over, baby girl."

"What would you do if you did?" I ask him.  "Are you going to spank me?  Huh?"

"What's with the spanking thing?" he asks.  "You like that?"

I shrug.  "I don't know?  Kind of?"

"You either do or you don't," he says.  "You can't be undecided about something like that.  That's not how this works."

"I'm pretty sure I can be whatever I want about anything I want," I tell him, huffy.  "I love pancakes, but I don't really like apple juice, even though I'll still drink it.  That's the same, right?"

"So you're saying that you'd be into it if I spanked you, but you don't really care if I don't?" he asks.

"No," I say.  "I'd probably really like it.  It's just weird, don't you think?  I mean, I don't want you to um... I don't know... I just like it when you grab me, and it just seems like the kind of thing you'd do after being grabby, right?  Spanking, I mean."

"Yeah," he says.  "I guess I get what you mean."

"Do you like it?" I ask him.  "Doing it, I mean.  Not um... not if I did it to you."

"Yeah, I don't think I'm really into the equal opportunity spanking, either," he says, smirking.  "It was cool, though.  I haven't really done that before like I did at the restaurant, but I liked it."

Oh, yes... the restaurant.  I remember that
very
well...

We keep driving, lapsing into quiet conversation and mostly silence, just nice and relaxed.  I stare out the window and watch the trees go by.  We're on a country highway and the only car in sight is the one in front of us, the one our parents are in.  Our parents can't see us or hear us, and it's just the two of us now.  We can do and say anything we want.  For now, at least.  When we get to the campsite, I think that's all going to change.

"You've got your own tent," Ethan says.  "Not sure if I told you that before, or if my dad did.  I kind of almost told him that you and I could just share one, but he wasn't going for it."

"You
almost
told him?" I ask, raising one brow.

"Look, I did, I told him, but he said that wouldn't work.  I didn't really try to fight with him about it, because for all he knows, it wouldn't work.  From what I know, it'd work really well, though.  Except tents are for sleeping, and if I'm in the same tent as you, I'm pretty sure I won't want to go to sleep, Princess.  Maybe this is for the best."