I'd never been in a room where the sexual tension was thicker. Nothing had ever felt so dangerous, so near to eruption. I had never so much feared for my flesh, or wanted so much.
The irony? Was that this was at the family reunion. Not very close family, mind, but blood and married, nonetheless.
After my father left, most of my immediate family didn't keep up too well with his side of the family. He certainly didn't. But I alone still felt obligated to be there, once in a while, to go into the lion's den. I'd never fit in well with his people—they were very old-fashioned, a little backward, and insufferably moralizing, nine days out of ten--and they weren't too keen on me, either, what with the tattoos and piercings and immodest clothing and all, but, I figured, they were blood. I used to think that meant something. But maybe I had ulterior motives, too—maybe I just wanted to see Jacob. It's hard to tell, sometimes. And I stayed, even when things started getting scary.
I suppose it started earlier in the weekend, even before I saw the danger signs. When I arrived on Friday afternoon, you see, the very first body I saw there was the tanned, almost-athletic frame of my favorite cousin, Jacob, who had just beaten me there.
Our beautiful Jacob!
He was standing there with his wife, Becca, talking to Uncle Stuart in the driveway, and clearly unhappy about it. Stuart (who is actually my father's cousin, but we still called him "Uncle") was the preacher at the family church--"Stuart the steward," he'd say he was, laughing his deep, booming, pulpit laugh and touching your head with all the gravitas of God. Jake clearly wanted to get away--I couldn't blame him--but I couldn't work up the courage to liberate him. I'd had a crush on him that knocked my knees since I was a little kid and he was a teen bully about to run off to the army. It had mellowed out over the years, but seeing him again, now, looking better than he had since he was 20, it all came back and shot through my stomach like a stray cannonball, and I couldn't have spoken to him to save him.
Now, I should make one thing clear: I hate Becca. I do; I hate my Jacob's wife, and I have since before I met her.
That is how much I wanted this man. There was enough lust there to get past the guilt and confusion surrounding his being my elder cousin and still manage to crest over and make me hate and be jealous of what everyone told me was a perfectly lovely woman, for marrying him. I at least had the decency to feel guilty about that, and feel like I had to be extra nice to her to make up for it or maybe hide it, but it didn't change anything. In fact, it's probably what eventually got me into most of my trouble at the reunion. But I'll get back to that later.
As I headed in from the street, keeping my eyes down as I passed them and hoping to be ignored, Jake caught me. Much to my delicious embarrassment! "Hey--Kid!" he shouted, before catching me by the elbow. He nearly knocked me off my balance, with as hard as he tugged me for a hug, and I fell into the solidness of him with an "Oomph!," mashed up against his chest with my breasts threatening to climb out of the too-low cut of my V-neck. I scrabbled a little over his biceps to try to steady myself. "Hey, easy Kid," he teased, wearing his patented boyish, shit-eating grin, "don't act so excited to see me."
"Sorry, Jacob…" I was scarlet, and tried to disentangle myself, but he practically had to set me on my feet. I think Stuart was giving me a Look.
Immediately, Jake grabbed my duffle bag. "Sorry, Uncle Stuart, gotta' get the kid settled in," he said, trying to get away, and he planted his palm on my back and steered me away and into the house, marching double-time. "So, Kid," he asked loudly, "you're back from school? It's been too long since we've seen you. How long you in town for?"
I didn't really have time to answer between questions. I just stammered up at him and tripped over the steps trying to get into the house, and finally stumbled to a standstill when he stopped and let me rest in the dark hallway off of the entryway. He stunned me with an exaggerated kiss of gratitude, declared me a hero for getting him out of that, and then laughed at my gaping. I wasn't doing so well with the whole being nonchalant thing.
"Don't leave your mouth hanging open like that, Kiddo," he scolded me playfully, "or you'll wind up with something in it." He aimed two fingers at it obscenely, to show me his drift.
"Jacob!" I swatted him, catching my breath.
"What? You're asking for it." He was laughing, again. Jacob laughed a lot.
When I went to swat him a few more times, falling back into the whole baby cousin dynamic too easily, he dropped my bag and caught my arms (in self defense, of course). He held them high over my head as I struggled, laughing despite myself as I tried to kick him, instead.
"Ha, kid. See?" he said. "You get yourself in trouble, doing that. You better watch out."
"Bully," I said, pouting and kicking him again.
"Oh, you like it." He raised my arms higher over my head, forcing me onto tiptoe. "You
know
you like it."
"Oh, right, I'm sure," I tried, but I almost winced at how unconvincing my attempt at sarcasm sounded. I
did
like it.
I knew I was getting caught at it, and I panicked a little, struggling in vain to free my wrists, if just for some kind of distraction. But I'd had no idea just how strong my cousin was. Not until I tried to bend my knees and heave my weight low, to break his grip.
It didn't break. I just lost my footing, and stayed basically upright, suspended by the wrists from his strong, broad hands. He set me straight, again, but up against the wall, this time, and shifted both my wrists to his left hand, still keeping his grip easily. Something inside me twitched at that, and I tried to hate myself for being pleased. Then he pinned me with his body.
I thought I'd snapped, that I was having some kind of daydream! He felt heavy and warm and I could smell him and feel his breathing and--then he just started to tickle me with his free hand. That made more sense. He'd been tickling me since I was five, ever the aggressor. But this time he tickled me until I couldn't breathe, and until I was squealing for mercy. He tickled me until I was jerking desperately (and uselessly) against him to get away.
I read somewhere that that kind of tickling, painful and unrelenting, can be a form of sexual aggression.