Chapter 1

“Frickin’ zombies,” Jeff muttered as he shot flaming arrows into the blocky monster biting his avatar in the game. His tablet flashed a popup warning about low battery power, but he dismissed it and kept playing.

The resort bedroom was crowded with open suitcases and the resulting explosion of his cousins’ clothes. His teenaged girl cousins. There were bathing suits, brightly colored shirts, matching shorts, and more shoes than he’d ever owned. And then there were hair doodads, sparkly jewelry, and every kind of electronic gadget. The sight of it all pissed him off even more.

He continued to fire flaming arrows into the shambling zombie bonfire. “Die,” he muttered at the zombie while he glared at Amy, Shelly, and Lori laughing and talking on the other bed.

The adults were staying in the adjoining room. His dad shot him a sympathetic look through the open door. Then he raised a silver flask to his lips, tilted his head back, and shut his eyes. Lucky bastard.

Jeff was the oldest cousin and, apparently, that made him the unpaid chaperon for the other three. He glared at Amy. She’d been a bitch ever since their family had shown up earlier that afternoon. Amy’s fraternal twin, Shelly, had been mostly quiet but had shot him dirty looks every time she caught him looking her way. Lori had just turned fourteen but seemed far less mature than her age. And all of them treated him like he was their servant.

He’d been looking forward to this vacation all year, but it was all ruined now. What had started as a reward for graduating from high school with good grades now included his mother’s twin sister and her family. Uncle Bob laughed too loud at his own jokes and farted all the time. Aunt Jackie might look like his mom, but she was a total flake. And her three daughters were just as flaky.

When they’d met up for lunch, Amy was moaning about her ex-boyfriend. Apparently, he broke up with her on the last day of school because he was going to hook up with a girl he knew at summer camp. Jeff said he sounded like a stand-up guy. Amy lost her shit when he tried to point out that a lie would have been easier than being straight with her.

After that, none of the girls would talk to him, but their parents still expected him to keep them from getting into trouble. That was complicated by the fact that Amy kept running off with douchebags and leaving him to watch over her obnoxious sisters. He had finally given up and left them to drown.

The battery finally failed on his tablet. Jeff sighed as he reached over to plug it into one of the dozen free charging cables on his nightstand. He’d left it plugged in when they’d gone to the pool earlier, but one of the girls had unplugged it to plug in her phone instead of using a free cable.

“Mom, there’s not enough room for all of us in this bed,” Lori whined to Aunt Jackie. Jeff smirked at her complaint.

Aunt Jackie said, “I bet your cousin Jeff wouldn’t mind sharing—”

“Fuck that!” Jeff spun around on his bed to face the girls and their mother. There was no way he was going to let one of them sleep in his bed after being bitches to him all day.

“Jeffrey Allen,” Mom said as she stormed through the connecting doorway.

“No, Mom, this is bullshit. You promised me this trip if I made straight As senior year. I worked my ass off for a trip with you and Dad. Then last month you told me Aunt Jackie, Uncle Bob, and their spoiled brats were coming. This isn’t the trip I worked for. I got stuck watching them all day while y’all got to relax and have fun at the bar.”

“That’s enough!” Mom crossed her arms and frowned. “This is a family vacation and you’re part of this family just like Bob, Jackie, and their kids.”

Jeff pinched his lips together to keep from saying something that would get him in even more trouble. His cousins stared at him in open-mouthed shock. Aunt Jackie looked like she was going to cry.

Mom speared him with a hard look. “Apologize. Now!”

“I won’t and you can’t make me.” His stomach clenched as he defied his mother. “It’s not fair!”

“It’s okay, Sis,” Aunt Jackie said and sighed. “He’s right.”

“I invited you,” Mom said. “He has no right to be rude to you or the girls.”

“And we had no right to make him watch out for them all day. This is his vacation, too.”

Jeff scooted back to lean against the pillows with his arms crossed. Amy kept peeking over at him like she was ashamed, but he ignored her.

“Jeff, I’m sorry,” Aunt Jackie said as she sat on the corner of his bed. “I never considered how you saw this trip or all of us coming along at the last minute. Will you forgive me?”

Jeff took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Yeah. And I could’ve been nicer about what I said.”

“I’m sorry, too,” Amy said as she crossed to Jeff’s bed. “You were right and I was mean to you all day for no good reason.”

Jeff looked her over. Soft brown hair, braided with beads for swimming. Pale blue eyes. Her creamy skin was smooth and clear. The long nightshirt she wore stopped mid-thigh, displaying her long slender legs. If she wasn’t his cousin, he’d have to admit she was really attractive. He decided there was no point in holding a grudge and ruining his own vacation.

“Forgiven.”

Mom finally stopped frowning and let her arms drop. “Good. Now let’s all go to sleep so we can have fun tomorrow.”

Aunt Jackie got her girls in the other bed and turned off the lights. The television was still playing that stupid teenaged princess show. Jeff rolled over to face the bathroom wall and tried to tune out the noise.

The most frustrating part of sharing a room was the lack of privacy. Jeff usually rubbed one out to get sleepy. He slipped his hand under the elastic band of his boxers and ran his fingertips around his shaft and balls.

Even when he had a girlfriend who was willing to hook up, Jeff still popped the top once or twice a day. It wasn’t about sex, he just craved the physical release. As his cock grew in his grip, he began moving the skin up and down the shaft. He smiled to himself while he controlled his breathing so no one would suspect what he was doing.

Images sprang to mind as he stroked himself in his underwear. There was that cute girl at the pool he saw earlier. She was laying out with her legs slightly spread. He had positioned himself in the pool to be able to see her cloth-covered pussy. Dark sunglasses kept her from noticing he was staring at her.

The bikini she had been wearing had formed to her body. He could see her lower lips and pronounced mound clearly through the cloth. He imagined kissing the smooth fabric, tracing the outlines of her curves with his lips.

“Shit,” Amy exclaimed from behind him as she fell out of her bed with a thump.

Jeff froze. He heard her mutter and complain as she stood. He slipped his hand out of his underwear as she walked around his bed toward the bathroom. She went in and he could hear the sprinkling sound of her peeing followed by a flush. She didn’t wash her hands, he noted with a frown. He kept his eyes closed when she stepped between his bed and the wall to kneel near his head.

“Jeff,” she whispered. “Are you awake?”

He took pity on her and pretended to wake up. “Oh, hey.”

“My sisters just pushed me out of bed in their sleep. Would it be okay if I sleep in your bed? I swear I won’t bother you.”

She had already bothered him, as his raging boner testified with its mute plea for release. He sighed. “Sure, just turn off that stupid show first.”

Amy walked around to use the remote. The silence was welcome, as were the slow, deep breaths of her sisters. He rolled over on his back as Amy pulled the covers down and climbed into bed beside him.

“Thanks,” she whispered as she rolled to face him. “I really appreciate this.”

He rolled to face her and whispered back, “No biggie.”

“I thought about what you said. About Ben, I mean, being honest. I’m not happy he dumped me, but you’re right about it being better than him lying to me all summer.”

“I never said it didn’t suck to be dumped or that you shouldn’t be pissed off. At least now you can go chase guys with a clear conscience. Just watch out for yourself. The ones you were with today pinged my douchebag radar.”

She smiled in the dim light and stared at his face. Their parents had the door between the rooms mostly shut, but the sliver of light from their room made it bright enough to see her.

“I just want a vacation fling. It’s not like I’m ever gonna see them again.”

“True.”

“Besides, that one guy asked me for a handjob ten minutes after meeting me. I have no illusions about what kind of guy he is.”

Jeff rolled his eyes. “God, what a pig. Did he at least offer to give you a handy, too?”

“No,” Amy laughed.

“Hey, demand equal rights and all that.” Jeff smiled back at her. She smelled clean and her breath was minty.

“Besides, I don’t even know how to do it for a guy.”

Jeff was tempted to suggest that might be why her boyfriend was so fired up for a summer camp hookup. “It’s not that hard. I mean, if a twelve-year-old boy can figure it out all by himself, you can probably do it too.”