Rockstar Bay Academy: A Stepbrother Romance

Chapter 18: A Serious Case of Déjà Vu

Sunday morning, I wake up just after eight. I roll over and try to go back to sleep, but Asher's promise of working on our song today fills me with too much energy to laze around. Our song needs a lot of work, but I'm no longer dreading the work, nor am I dreading the thought of spending time with Asher. It's still a bizarre feeling, not dreading Asher. Bizarre, but not unwelcome.

After throwing a light sweater on over my sleep singlet and shorts, I make my way downstairs and rifle through the kitchen cupboards, assessing the cereal situation. There is plenty to choose from, but after opening the fridge and seeing fresh eggs and bacon, I decide I'd rather cook breakfast.

The Cassidys had a full-time chef until Jesse married Mum. Now, he is only around part-time, and he often leaves us prepared or pre-prepped meals instead of being on site to prepare everything. Mum does the shopping for any meals the chef hasn't prepared, and I hope she doesn't mind me getting stuck into the eggs and bacon. I'll make enough for everyone so that people can heat it when they're ready.

Aware that the rest of the household is asleep, I set up my phone to play through the wireless speakers with the volume low enough that it won't wake anyone. Immediately, I dance around as I take the pans out of the cupboards and start cracking eggs. I'm so busy singing along to The River by Delta Goodrem that I jump through the roof when a hand grazes my shoulder. Whirling around with my hand on my heart, I glare at the culprit - Asher.

"You scared the shit out of me."

"Sorry," he says, trying and failing to hide the smile pulling at the corner of his mouth.

He reaches past me to pull a glass down from the cupboard I'd been standing in front of, which is probably the reason he'd touched my shoulder.

"Yeah, I can see that."

I watch as he fills the glass with water and downs the contents in one go. My eyes trace the movement of his Adam's apple before dropping to his bare chest, and lower to the sweatpants riding low on his hips. I suck in a breath as I realise just how pronounced the v line below his six-pack is.

In the past, we must have stood this close before while Asher has been topless, but if he has, I didn't react the way I am now - lightheaded, throat dry, hands clammy, heart beating too damn fast. My breath lodges in my throat as I register just how broad his shoulders are and how huge his muscles are. I'm also horribly aware of how close Asher is standing to me.

What the fuck?

"You were in the zone. I didn't want to interrupt your dancing."

"Sure."

There is every chance he deliberately tried to give me a heart attack. I drag my gaze up from the tattoos which pop on his golden tan skin up to his face, only to find Asher looking down my body. To the short sleep shorts I'm wearing. Goosebumps break across my skin at the same time as heat explodes through me.

I don't realise I'm holding my breath until Asher's gaze finally slides back up my body and his dark gaze locks with mine, at which point my stomach tries parachuting down to my feet.

"Your bacon is burning," he says, the corner of his mouth turning up into a near smile I haven't witnessed before.

"What?"

"Your bacon. It's burning," he repeats.

It takes a second for the smell of burnt bacon to tickle my nostrils.

"Oh, shit."

Relieved for the distraction, I turn back to the stove and deal with the burning bacon before starting on my second batch.