Chapter 2: The Rub

Emily awoke first, feeling absolutely no guilt about what she’d done, in fact feeling great pride that she’d helped Chris get through a rough night.

Chris came downstairs an hour later and found his step-sister sitting at the kitchen table munching on cereal, his mind still processing the sensation he’d felt last night as he fluttered in and out of sleep. He wasn’t sure if he couldn’t believe what Emily had done for him, or if it made perfect sense. Maybe both.

He grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl. “Yeah…” he said, his voice coarse and groggy, “Me and Courtney, um, broke up.”

“I figured.” Emily replied softly.

“Thanks…” Chris said with a mouth full of apple. “For last night… for what you did. I mean… thank you.”

Mom and Dad had already left for the day so there was no reason either of them had to talk in code, yet Chris found himself hesitant to speak plainly about what had transpired between him and his step-twin. There was something just ever-so forbidden about it. He wondered if she felt it too.

“You’re welcome. It was nice.” Emily answered.

“Would you consider…tonight again, maybe… ” Chris began to ask, then stopped, thinking it might be best not to push it. “Nevermind. I gotta get to work.”

Luckily it was a slow day at his internship. Or maybe not luckily. Slowness gave him lots of time to think. And he realized he wasn’t thinking about Courtney… not at all. He was thinking about Emily. Nothing gross, just how much he loved her, how much of a good person she’d become, how pretty she’d become. But if these thoughts weren’t overtly prurient, he had good enough awareness to recognize that maybe there was something untoward lurking in the back of his mind.

He told himself he wouldn’t jerk off today. He jerked off most days. But today he knew if he did, his thoughts would surely turn to Emily… maybe even explicitly so. Sure, he’d occasionally fantasized about the things her lesbian friends were doing in private, and yes, Emily was sometimes in those fantasies, in a faceless and unavoidable way, but he’d never thought about her like that. At least, he was pretty sure he’d never thought about her like that.

The rest of the day passed as normally as could be expected. When he got home he joked about the stupid things people were doing at work and Emily showed him a funny TikTok.

Things weren’t awkward. Things were normal.

In the evening he got a call from his best friend Kellen to meet up and hang out.

“You’re not going to tell Kellen about it, are you?” Emily asked as he was putting on his shoes.

“The thought hadn’t even occurred to me,” he answered honestly. Sure, he and Kellen talked about everything, but some things were too private and too special to count as “everything.” Besides if there was one person in the world who ranked above Kellen, it was Emily.

“Thanks.” She said, “I mean… of course. Right? There’s nothing to tell.” She leaned in and gave Chris a peck on the cheek, which was different. But kinda wonderful.

The outing with Kellen went normally except for the few times Chris had to be tapped back to reality from his thoughts about Emily.

When he got home part of him was hoping that she’d already be in his bed waiting for him. But she wasn’t. Then for a brief moment he wondered if he should go to her room. No, probably not a good idea. Best to just enjoy what was one lovely night, even if he found himself wishing it could be every night.

An hour later he was awake, and his body pulsing with joy as he heard his door open and Emily’s footsteps approach the bed.

Much like last night, no words were spoken. She pushed in next to him, he pressed up close to her. They fell asleep together quickly.

That night Chris had a sex dream. Not about Emily and not about Courtney, but about some girl he’d never seen before. But she was absolutely beautiful and beguiling. She looked at him with total unabashed lust and he slowly stripped her out of her yellow dress and wrapped his lips around her big nipples.

When he awoke his hand was in Emily’s crotch again, but not just resting there. His fingers were pressed hard up against her shorts and pushing into her soft slit, and even with the fabric between his fingers and her flesh he could feel the contours of her most hidden secret spots.

Of course it took only two seconds to realize this was happening and another two seconds to realize that Emily was not stopping it from happening. Instead her body pressed into his eagerly as she moaned very, very quietly.

He opened his eyes and all he could see was the back of her neck. But it was a lovely sight, especially as his fingers located her sweet clit and very tenderly began to rub against it, still over her shorts, not remotely daring to attempt skin to skin contact.

He took a deep breath and could smell her neck, some combination of body lotion and her natural smell. He told himself to lean in and kiss it. But he didn’t dare.

This was all wonderful but unknowable territory and it was impossible to know where to go next.

He knew that Emily could feel his growing erection against the back of her thigh. And he knew that she knew that he could feel her own moistness coming through the thin fabric that separated his finger and her forbidden flesh.

Eventually things just sort of cooled down. They had to. They couldn’t escalate to something furious and loud.

Neither Chris nor Emily said a word as they drifted off to sleep together.