Free Crush by Caitlin Daire Page A

awkward would it have been if I’d actually gone through with it and had sex with him? I’d have had to try and sweep it all under the rug and ignore the fact that I’d slept with my frigging stepbrother .
    See, this was exactly why hooking up with random guys was a bad idea most of the time. You never knew exactly who they’d turn out to be.
    As for my little crush on Brad…well, unfortunately, it hadn’t dissipated over the last few weeks as I’d hoped it would. In fact, the minute I’d seen him when he arrived in McComb last night, I’d felt it even more. The feeling of wanting him was so strong that it was almost crushing my mind in its intensity.
    Huh. I guess that’s why they call it a crush…

CHAPTER SEVEN
    BRAD
    Standing in the downstairs bathroom of Michael’s house, I fumbled with the hot water tap, trying to get the water in the shower to heat up. It was stone cold, and no amount of playing around with the taps seemed to be able to fix it. I thought I remembered Michael mentioning something about it being broken when I’d arrived in McComb the other night, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember exactly what it was that he’d said.
    Oh well. I’d just have to use the upstairs bathroom. Thinking about that reminded me of when I’d gone upstairs after breakfast yesterday to see Mia washing her face and staring into the mirror, her face stricken. I had to admit, after the way she’d spoken to my Mom, I’d been royally pissed at her at first, but when I’d realized what her tantrum was about, I’d softened a little. Until yesterday, I hadn’t known exactly what happened to her mom, but Michael had taken me aside afterwards and explained that she’d died of breast cancer when Mia was only ten years old.
    The grief that she tried so hard to hide had come to the forefront when she’d thought my Mom had replaced Michael’s old wedding pictures. No wonder she always had that sad tinge in her eyes. Her mother’s death still affected her a lot, and the shock of the new marriage had made it all well up inside her and flood out in a torrent of misplaced anger. I guess I couldn’t fault her for being human. Everyone screwed up and threw irrational tantrums occasionally, and while she’d been a bit of a bitch yesterday, I could see where her feelings were stemming from.
    When I’d seen her in the bathroom, looking guilty as hell, I’d almost said something to her about it. I’d wanted to tell her that if she ever wanted to talk to me about her Mom, then she could feel free to do so, but I decided against it. She still didn’t like me, and I was probably the last person she wanted to talk to about it.
    Still, I felt like I understood her a lot better now, and to be honest, letting out all her feelings in that crazy display yesterday seemed to have done her some good. She’d been much chirpier for the rest of the day, and her birthday dinner last night had run smoothly. Today had been much of the same. I hadn’t really spoken to her, but I’d noticed she’d spent a lot of time chatting to my Mom, and they seemed to be getting along really well now.
    Grabbing my towel, I headed upstairs. The bathroom door was shut, but it wasn’t locked, so I assumed it was free.
    Apparently not.
    The minute I pushed the door open and entered, I saw Mia standing on the bathmat, soaking wet and stark naked. She’d obviously just stepped out of the shower, and little droplets of water ran down her sexy curves in rivulets, making her smooth skin shine. Goddamn…
    As soon as she heard the door open and saw me standing there, she screamed and grabbed a towel off the rack on the wall. Fuck, I wished I was that towel, as creepy as that probably sounded.
    “Brad! What are you doing in here?” she screeched, hastily wrapping the towel around herself. “Did someone leave your cage open?”
    I chuckled at her cage comment. “Oh, ha ha. I couldn’t get the hot water working in the other bathroom. I think the