Climb on My Stepfather (Ashley and Alex)

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I'm lying on my bed reading a magazine when Alex stops at my open door. "Ashley," he says, "I'm running to the store. Do you want to go with me?" "No thanks," I reply. "I'm still in my nightshirt." "Do you need anything?" "Cond-oms."

He does a double-take. "What?" I giggle. "Just joking."

He frowns. "That's nothing to joke about." "Relax, Dad. Don't take things so seriously."

My stepdad is a cool guy, but he's a little uptight. Especially when it comes to the subject of sax. Even though I'm not his real daughter, he's very protective of me. He didn't even allow me to go on a date until I was sixteen, and I had to call him every half hour to let him know I wasn't rapped and left for dead in a ditch somewhere.

Now, two years later I'm eighteen, and I don't have to call Alex when I'm out on a date. But he grills every guy who comes to pick me up like he's the CIA interrogating a terrorist.

Of course, he would totally flip out if he knew I'd lost my verginity a year ago. Not only that, I'd been saxually active since then. From the way I always hear him and my Mom in their bedroom arguing about sax, I probably get laid more than he does.

need anything," he says, "text

look he's wearing a red and black plaid flannel shirt over his lean,

"Thanks," I reply.

disappears down

window and look out at our driveway. A minute later his SUV backs down onto the road and heads off. Finally, I'm alone in the house. I've been waiting for

downstairs and grab a chair from the kitchen, carrying it down the hall to the closed door to Alex's home office. Placing the chair in front of the door, I stand on it and reach up to the top of the frame, feeling for the

down and move the chair out

a writer, and instead of

he stays at home and writes. What does he

a brick wall on the subject. Not only that, he keeps his office locked at all times he's not in there. And any time I do come in to visit while he's working, he quickly closes his laptop screen so I can't see anything. It's so frustrating. When I ask Mom about it, she just says it's 'technical instruction

carpet in the hall, and I accidentally bang the vacuum cleaner against the base of the door to Alex's office. As if by magic, a key falls from the sky

him to just reach up and grab it. Since I'm not alone