Maya’s POV

“I’m not having him babysit me.”

I was fuming. It was midnight. My 18th birthday.

And Dad's car had just died on the highway, and there are only 10 minutes until our camping trip turned into a night-bus nightmare.

But my mom still refused to give up and kept going on and on, telling my stepbrother Jason to take care of me when we got on the bus.

Like I was a baby girl or something?

It wasn’t always like this. When Mom married Dad five years ago, “Jason was forced to leave behind his cutest little sister in the entire world” and boom, I was the replacement sister he never asked for. So he hated me.

He made it obvious from day one. Eye rolls, “accidental” spills on my homework, telling Mom he didn’t need a little sister.

I hated him back just as much. If he didn’t want me, fine. I didn’t want a brother who acted like I stole his family either.

Jason was already there when I turned—too tall, blocking half my view like he always did. Gym shorts, damp shirt too small for his broad shoulders, and of course, refusing to look at me like I personally ruined his life.

“Great,” Jason drawled, looking at his damn phone. “Then we call a tow truck and go home. The trip is cancelled.”

When he raised his shirt to wipe his sweat I refused to look down to see if what they said about six abs were true but I failed, he caught me and smirked.

Bastard, I mouthed without saying it out loud.

“Maya, Jason.” Mom yelled, giving us the deathly stare. “Be nice to each other! Or we’ll have family punishment right here.

Even Jason lowered his eyes. Mom was a tigress and now she was pregnant. You don’t want to get on her bad side.

I swallowed the rest of the curses and shot Jason a warning glare instead.

“No cancelling,” Mom said. Her voice was firm, though she looked wrecked. She rested a hand on the pronounced swell of her pregnant belly, the maternity top straining slightly under the streetlights. “I haven’t had a vacation in years, and we promised Maya a camping trip for her birthday. We’re taking the night bus. It leaves in ten.”

Jason scoffed, pocketing his phone. “Mom...you’re seven months pregnant. You want to squeeze onto a crowded, smelly bus for two hours? Be serious.”

“Your mother said we're going,” Dad said, grabbing the duffels. My stepdad was the kind of man who looked at Mom like she was the moon herself. I loved him for it. I just didn't know how his DNA made that dickhead.

The bus hissed. Doors opening.

Last call.

“It’s fine, Maya,” Mom said, lowering herself into one of the last two seats near the back. Dad sat beside her, his hand on her rounded belly. “We’re all together.”

Perfect. Of course. Because my life always picked the worst possible timing to fall apart.

“Stay close, Jason,” my dad called over the rumble of the engine. He didn’t look at us. “Just... watch your sister.”

He exhaled. “Yeah, whatever.”

Asshole Jason was right for once—the bus smelled. A mix of smoke, body odor, something greasy from food earlier, and dust. Faint perfume. I couldn’t even tell where one smell ended and the next started. But the smell of sweat from soaked clothes dominates them all. I was so soaked in sweat that I couldn't tell that the thin gown I had on had blended with my skin to become one. I swear I definitely wasn’t planning on ending up on a night bus when I picked out this skin-tight little mini dress.

Even though all the seats were full, the driver still didn’t close the door until more people packed the aisle.

Jason and I were pushed by the crowd to the back of the bus. I was standing, pressed against my parents’ seatback. Jason shifted his weight, maneuvering himself until he was standing directly behind me.

I hated how much space he took up. All height and shoulders and that stupid sandalwood smell that always made it impossible to ignore him. Like my brain kept reminding me he wasn’t just the annoying kid I grew up fighting with anymore.

The moment the bus started and lurched forward, it threw passengers standing backward, I stumbled unable to reach for something, I was about to kiss the floor hello until a pair of strong hands clamped onto my waist.

“If you’re not a little girl anymore, then try standing on your own two feet,” he muttered sarcastically, his breath hot against my ear.

“Get off,” I hissed. He let go of me, but the crowd was too tight. There was nowhere to go. Even shifting felt like a whole mission in here.

I was forced to press right up against him, trying to keep my balance as the bus swayed.

Another stop. I didn't see anyone getting off the bus, but the conductor yelled to the crowd, asking them to move back to allow more people onboard.

I was crushed back. Harder. Now there was no air between us.

His chest to my back. His thighs bracketing mine. His breath on my neck.

I could feel every muscle under his damp shirt. Every breath he took.

I felt a little uncomfortable and tried to adjust my position again.

“Stop moving,” he clicked his tongue.

I huffed. “Or what? Hurt your babysitting service rating?”

He muttered something under his breath, annoyed, but I ignored him and rose onto my tiptoes, trying to reach up for the overhead rail again, but my fingers only brushed cold metal. Forgot to mention, I was just 5’2. Ridiculously short compared to the damn jerk.

And another jolt rocked the bus, I pitched forward, my hands slapping against the plastic of my parents’ seat and my ass bumped solidly into him.

“Dammit, Maya,” Jason’s voice was a low growl right by my ear.

And the next second, my eyes flared wide with shock and minor panic because he wrapped his large hand around my tummy and held me still, right in his arms.

Jason and I were always at each other’s neck but he had never put his hands on me.

I went completely still when he tightened his grip, applying a tiny amount of pressure to my stomach as his other hand fisted on my hip. Not enough to hurt though. Enough to hold me still. A sting that shot straight to my spine.

“Maya, just let me hold you and keep you steady, okay?” he said through his gritted teeth against my ear, his spicy smell fanning my neck.

“For once, stop being a brat and making things worse with all your damn wriggling and hissing. Got it?”

My breath caught. I felt dizzy as my heart went crazy. This was Jason. Jason. The guy who put gum in my hair when I deleted his game save. Who ate my last pizza slice last week.

Slowly, I nodded and he let out a deep sigh.

But I don’t know why his hands were still on my hips or the fact that I didn’t move away either.

“Maya, are you doing okay,” Mom asked when I almost couldn’t feel my legs.

The bus stopped at two more stations along the way. Still no one got off. The driver turned off the lights, and the whole bus was drowsy and half-asleep and I was forced to spend an hour pressed up against Jason.

Yeah, cause I’m seated comfortably sipping juice not trying hard to reach for the damn rail and watching Jason playing the perfect baby sitter knowing I won’t hear the end of it.

“I’m having the best time of my life,” I answered sarcastically.

“We are almost there,” she smiled. I rolled my eyes at her but Mom didn’t even look at me twice.

“Hold your sister tight, Jason.” Dad added.

“I’m not letting go,” Jason whispered. His chest was against my back. His heart beating loudly. Or maybe that was mine?

The bus hit a pothole. A collective groan and strings of curses went up from the passengers. The motion shoved me back into him, grinding my ass against the bulge in his gym shorts. Thick and half-hard, pressed into the cleft of my ass.

A sharp, quiet breath hissed out of him. I hated how solid he felt behind me. Hated it more that I noticed.

Another sway. And a flush crept up my neck. Because my stupid birthday dress—a simple yellow sundress with little flowers, crawled higher from the friction between our bodies. I could feel the back of my thighs were now completely bare, pressed against the rough fabric of his shorts. The warm, crowded air of the bus felt cool on my exposed skin.

I tried to reach down and pull the hem down, but my arms were pinned by the bodies on either side of me.

“What’s wrong again?” Jason asked in that strange not-like-Jason tone again.

“Jason, my dress,” I whispered, turning my head slightly.

He didn't answer. He just adjusted his stance, planting his feet wider to brace them both. One of his hands left my waist. I gasped at the loss. But then I felt his fingers, fumbling at the back of my thigh. He was trying to tug the hem down.

But his knuckles grazed my skin. A full-body shiver ripped through me. My knees felt weak. A slick, embarrassing heat gathered between my legs from his touch. I shifted, a tiny, involuntary rock of my hips. And I moaned, to my own shock.

“Fuckkk, Maya?” he curses under his breath. He bent lower at the waist, he was so tall that his body curled around me from behind like a spoon so that his hand could reach the hem of my dress. His nose brushed the column of my neck, and his scent covered me.

He tried a few more times, but my dress was too tight and had gotten stuck around my ass. His fingers had to keep moving around there a little longer before he finally managed to tug it back into place.

My ass was finally covered again. “Thanks,” I whispered. There was no way to make this situation not awkward. Your stepbrother helping tug down your dress and being forced to linger near your private parts while doing it? Yeah. Humiliating. Especially when I could feel how wet I had gotten because of his touch.

Neither of us said anything after that. I just stood there with his breath brushing against my ear, gulping quietly. Somehow, the bus felt even quieter, with only a few scattered passengers still awake.

As the road grew bumpier, Mom woke up a few times too, only for Dad to murmur something softly and coax her back to sleep.

I tried my best to stay still, but the constant jolting made my dress slowly ride up again. I shivered when my ass felt the cold air.

“Your dress is riding up again,” he said quietly. I shifted uncomfortably as his stubble brushed against my cheek, sending a shiver through me. His breath against my face was way too hot compared to the overnight bus’s air-conditioning.

He hesitated for a second, then slid his hand down again through the narrow space between us and my parents’ seats.

“Don’t move. I’ll help you.”

His hand slipped between my thighs, his fingers brushing against the edge of my exposed underwear.

My lips parted, and I sucked in a sharp breath before I could stop myself. Thank God my parents were asleep and didn’t hear it.

Jason froze for a second. Then he kept moving lower until he finally found the hem of my dress and tried to tug it down. I jerked a little when his thumb brushed my hard sensitive spot. I knew better than anyone else in the bus how close his hand was to my pussy.

I unconsciously tilted my head back against him, moaning. The hairs on the back of my neck standing on end.

“It’s stuck, sis,” he whispered, then pressed his fingers against my private part through my panties trying to find where it was stuck. But with each press, I became even wetter.

“Spread your legs a little wider, I cannot see where it’s stuck,” he said in a tone that I’ve never heard him use before.

I did. His fingers slipped under my panties, moving back and forth, stroking up and down, then returning to their original position, reaching deep into my folds, then sliding back down again.

“God Jason...” I gasped and groaned. His fingers went deeper, and his breathing changed as well. He secretly bit my ear with his teeth as he breathed heavily. A wave of pain surged in my lower belly and my walls clenched. I had to bite my lip so my parents wouldn’t hear.

The bus jolted again, pushing his fingers even deeper. “Jason...” I whispered, unsure if it was a plea or warning.

But he pulled his hand out of my panties. I whimpered in emptiness, my hips chasing after his fingers without my permission.

Jason freed the trapped fabric and tugged my dress back into place. Shame hit me all at once. Oh my God. Was I really that kind of girl? Jason had only been trying to be kind and help me fix my dress, and I had reacted like that. I could already imagine how he would look at me from now on.

But then his hand moved back again and pulled my panties down a little. His breath brushed my ear.

“Good girl. Don’t rush. Spread your legs for me.”