disclaimer: I do not own Life with Derek or its characters. I'm merely borrowing for my own amusement.

Alone in the empty hallway, blinking at nothing, Casey was reeling.

She felt like she'd just been zapped by a live wire.

Her body was both frozen with shock, yet thrumming with energy all at the same time.

She was trying to process what had just happened, only she was having a hard time thinking at the moment.

In fact, she was having such a hard time, she decided just to stop thinking.

Just for a moment.

Casey took the opportunity to inhale a deep, calming breath. In for four, hold for seven, out for eight. Just like her mediation podcast instructed.

Then, she was moving. Walking. Advancing forward down the hallway.

She came to a stop in front of the closed door and knocked twice.

It swung open after a long moment.

They reached for each other at the same time.

Derek's arms sliding around her waist, Casey's fingers gripping his shirt as they tripped backward into his room, mouths melded together.

Hot, hungry, a tad desperate.

Derek pressed Casey up against something hard - a dresser she suspected, by the way it shook when he backed her into it, his hands moving to her hips, his body pushing into hers.

They kissed and they kissed and they kissed.

Like they couldn't get enough.

Like the world was set to end at any moment and they had to make up for all the time they'd lost not doing this before.

Like Derek had no intention of pulling away this time.

Like Casey had any intention of letting him.

As if of the same mind, Casey moved to wrap a leg around his, just in case he was even thinking of it, and Derek gripped her thigh, helping her, pulling her closer, fingers on bare skin, his touch turning possessive.

Casey woke with a start.

Feverish and breathing hard.

She was momentarily discombobulated by her moonlite surroundings until realization dawned.

Then she grabbed a pillow and smothered her face into it.

"Fuck!"

xxx

The dreams had started three nights ago. Three sleepless nights ago.

I know I'm not your fucking brother Casey.

That's what Derek had said. That's what he'd said after kissing her.

Quite soundly.

So soundly, she found herself still thinking about it days later.

Or, should she say, nights later.

During the day, it was easier pretending the kiss had never happened. It was only when at night after she fell asleep she had trouble repressing the memory.

Damn her overactive imagination! It seemed hellbent on conjuring up alternative endings to the ordeal that only got wilder and wilder as the nights progressed.

The truly maddening part though, was that they all ended the same way. With Casey lying awake at three o'clock in the morning, unable to fall back asleep from frustration.

Mental...and sexual.

The latter of which only caused more frustration.

This was Derek, for crying out loud. Derek.

The bain of Casey's existence.

Why was she losing her head over Derek?

He hadn't meant anything by the kiss. He'd only been looking to prove a point.

He wasn't her brother.

Message received.

Even though she'd already known that.

She'd only said he was having brotherly instincts because she knew it'd rile him up.

Stepbrother. He'd always been clear to correct that. As had she.

It was the one thing they agreed on.

Stepbrother. Stepsister.

The last thing she wanted to be mistaken for was a relation of Derek Venturi's.

They were family, but only by force.

She should have been dreaming up ways to get him back for the kiss. Ones that included revenge and death and murder. Not more kissing.

And certainly not more than kissing.

Maybe the shock of the kiss had actually caused some kind of internal head injury and that was why she kept having these distressing dreams.

That would explain a lot.

And wouldn't that be just so typical of Derek, causing her a mental breakdown like this...

That's probably what he wanted.

This was probably his way of kicking her out of his apartment without getting a guilt trip from their parents. He'd wanted her moving in with him less than she'd wanted to. And that was saying something. They're been no other choice at the time though. She'd needed a place to live after her other arrangements had fallen through and he had needed a roommate. Now, he was going to drive her so crazy, he'd get her shipped off to a mental institution to get rid of her.

Only…it hadn't felt like Derek had wanted to get rid of her as he'd been kissing her.

It had kind of felt like the opposite, in fact.

Sure, it could have all been part of his ploy, but if there was one thing Casey was certain of in this life it was that Derek was a terrible actor.

They'd done that silly pirate play in high school together, after all. She knew firsthand he had no acting skills.

And there had been that split second after they'd kissed. The one between after they'd broken apart and before Derek had walked away, when he'd been looking at her like ... well...

You know I don't share Case

...like he had meant something by it.

Like he'd been trying to make a point, after all.

Casey grabbed for her pillow again.

"Fuck!"

- GoddessoftheMaan