My Step sister's cousin

Chapter three_ Mixed feelings

Night deepened

Everyone had dinner and settled for the night in their rooms. I kept tossing and counting the ceiling while laying down on my bed.

Reflecting on that time when Raphael held my waist and whispered in my ears. It was not like I wasn't blushing or anything. I was just wondering what he meant by, ‘You’re really pretty’, and ‘Good thing we aren't related,’.

I didn’t want to think too deeply about it even though I knew an answer was nagging at the back of my mind

Just then I heard a knock on my door.

"Who is there?" I asked.

But no one answered

This has never happened before which meant there was only one person in the house right now that would pull something off like this.

“Raphael I know it's you come in when you're ready,”. I said as I reached out to one of my textbooks, opened it and laid back down on my bed.

He laughed when he opened the door.

“How did you know it was me,”. He asked.

“Well, except my mom and dad who already looked pretty much exhausted, no one else knocked before entering my room. Tasha would just barge in like she owned the place. That leaves you our new guest. The only other person in this house right now,”. I answered, feeling like a detective solving a case. It even looked cooler since I didn’t look up from the book.

“New guest? Do you still see me as one?”. He asked.

I slowly looked up at him, smiled and looked back down at my book. I honestly had no idea what I was doing right now.

“You're studying?”. He asked.

“Trying to,”. I answered.

“Anyways,”. He started. “I came for clean bed sheets. Your mom told me to ask you because Tasha was already asleep. Deep asleep,”. He said.

“Oh okay,”. I said.

I stood up from the bed and walked towards the cupboard. It was a bit high so I tried stretching to reach the bedsheet but immediately he grabbed it while behind me.

“Always learn to ask for help sometimes, you're not Supergirl,”. He whispered gently.

‘s**t!’ I yelled in my head. The goose bumps appeared again all over my body. I didn’t know what to do with how close he was to me right now.

“What do you mean?”. I asked, trying to act pissed. “I normally bring down my bedsheets myself. It's not like I'm short, the cupboard is just a bit high and I could have reached it even without your help”. I added.

“Here you go again acting all unbothered and mighty,”. He said.

I faced the cupboard on purpose, pretending to organize things that were already organized.

“What?” I asked.

He leaned in slightly placing his free hand to the right of my head.

I turned towards him and our eyes met. We stared at each other for about thirty seconds.

“Nothing. You’re just… different from how Tasha described you,”. He said.

My eyes narrowed at him.

“How did she describe me?”. I asked.

He hesitated.

“Quiet. Emotionless. Unbothered,”. He replied without taking his eyes off mine.

I had to look away as a small flare of annoyance burned in my chest.

“I don’t act emotionless,”. I defended as I tried pushing him away gently.

He pulled me back by grabbing my waist softly and our bodies clashed firmly. I knew I collapsed into his arms with how weak my knees got immediately this happened. It was at this point I even noticed he was wearing shorts.

His expression softened.

“I know,”. He whispered.

My breath caught in my throat at the gentleness in his voice. My heart was beating fast already but when his hand on my waist went further down, just above my butt, it started pounding as if it would burst out of my chest.

‘I knew it! He was drawn to my butt!’ I screamed in my head.

I could feel his breath on my face and mine on his.

Wasn’t he going to say anything? This was already driving me crazy at this point. Was I nervous or turned on? I had no idea. My eyes were already glazed over and if he had closed in to kiss me at that moment, I would have melted into him.

Then he realized he had done something too intimate. He looked away.

“Thanks for the bedsheets,”. He said quietly.

He walked towards the guest room but paused halfway, turning to look at me again.

“That song earlier…”. He said.

“Yes?”. I managed to croak out.

“You really thought it sounded familiar?”. He asked.

I hesitated.

“…Yeah.”

“Maybe I’ll finish it soon,”. He said.

He gave a small smile.

“Goodnight,”. He said gently.

I turned toward the door.

“Goodnight, Raphael,”. I responded.

As he left, I closed my bedroom door behind me and leaned against it, heart still pounding like crazy.

Something had shifted tonight.

Not loudly.

Not dramatically.

But quietly—

soft as a guitar string plucked in the dark.

Raphael had been here less than a day,

and already the household atmosphere had changed.

But the change wasn’t in the house.

It was in me.

And I didn’t know whether to run from it

or let it pull me in

But one thing is for sure

It seems like he was attracted to me and me to him

But we are family, we can't be doing certain things right?

I wondered to myself. Come to think about it, we were not exactly family at all. He was the cousin to my step sister. We didn’t even have the same blood running through our veins.

But I guess I'll just have to avoid him from now on.

Sleep refused to come.

I rolled over on my bed, frustrated and groaning into my pillow as I kept picturing what had happened.

I need to stop thinking about this. He is literally family now. Step family though.

Still… forbidden enough or was it.

Besides, he isn't the first person I've fallen for, or even my first love.

This reminded me my first love has always been a childhood friend of mine, Desmond. The only other person that had made my heart race like this.

No. This was even different. It felt raw and wild unlike the calm I felt with Desmond.

My mom and his parents were close friends, they would always jokingly refer to us as a couple because of how close we are.

We had feelings for each other but we weren't old enough to turn it into a relationship.

Until Desmond traveled abroad for his studies. He assured me he would be back though, but who knows.

We haven't been talking much online lately. He was probably busy.

Anything could happen.

However, this whole Raphael tension had already begun to have an impact on me.

Like my heart didn’t care about it.

I need to listen to my brain and not my heart.

I scolded myself as I sighed and forced myself to sleep.

The following morning I woke up later than usual.

Everyone had woken up earlier, had breakfast and went on with their daily activities except me which didn’t exactly feel awkward.

I went into our parents' room to greet them but Mom said Dad had already left for a hangout with his buddies.

It was a Saturday anyways so nothing weird there.

“Why did you wake up this late? It's unlike you,”. Mom asked. “or did you sleep late?”.

“Well…. Ummm.. Sort of,”. I responded.

She casually answered with an okay.

“We'll be going to the mall soon so get ready and let the others know,”. She said as she continued scrolling through her phone.

“Others as in, including Raphael?”. I asked

“Yes of course, we need a lot of hands and he might want something for himself as well,”. She responded in confusion, wondering why I would even ask that.

We usually go to the mall on weekends to get stuff for the house and personal use so it wasn't new.

I went to my room, freshened up, and wore something simple like a sun dress.

Immediately I came out of my room Raphael was also coming out of his room

We both paused, staring at each other again.

“Wow!”. He exclaimed as he looked me up and down.

I took a deep breath and said, “We are going to the mall soon, mom said to tell you,”. Finally broke the silence.

“Are you serious? Must I go too?”. He asked.

“Yes, we are all going,”. I responded.

Then I moved to Tasha's room, knocked, and told her as well before I went downstairs to grab my breakfast.

Later that afternoon everyone was ready and we were off on our way.

I sat in front while Mom was driving, Tasha and Raphael were at the back.

They kept giggling as usual, while I kept scrolling on my phone pretending not to care.

We got into the mall, picked what we had to and it was a whole lot.

All our hands were filled with bags of the things we had bought.

Driving back was so quiet, too quiet.

Tasha was also surprisingly quiet, I guess she was tired already.

I was so hungry, I started thinking of how we'd get home and the time we'd use to start preparing food so I had to come up with an idea.

“Can we get ice cream and pies at our regulars before heading home?”. I asked loudly.

Immediately everyone agreed, including mom.

I guess I wasn't the only one hungry.

We got our snacks and headed home

Later that evening, Dad was back and we all had dinner.

I was doing the dishes in the kitchen while others were watching a TV show in the sitting room.

Raphael came in.

“Do you need help,”. He asked.

“No thanks,”. I responded immediately without turning to look at him.

He then kept the cup at the sink and was about to leave the kitchen, but he paused and turned to me.

“Are you scared of something? You have been avoiding being in the same space with me even for a minute,”. He said while coming closer.

“Scared… What…. What do you mean…by..”.

Before I could finish, he pressed himself against my butt and wrapped his arms around me, just under my boobs.

I was so shocked and frozen with the soapy sponge in my hands. I could feel his soft b***r pressed way too much between my ass cheeks because I was wearing romper shorts that kinda split my ass nicely. I felt his warm breath against my neck. It made me close my eyes and bite my lips. But this was very, very risky.

He was about to whisper in my ear when I gathered courage to try pushing him away. Immediately after I turned to him and was about to warn him that our family was just in the sitting room, I realized it was already too late. My Mom was at the doorway for who knows how long.