It had been a tense couple of weeks at Mavers Ranch. The major reason was the undercurrent of tension that had built up between the two younger brothers of the Mavers family.
After Liam, the youngest at eighteen, had caught heatstroke while working in the blazing Texan sun topless without wearing sun lotion, he'd ended up in bed for a while to recuperate. His attractive mother, Marilyn, had been attentive and caring, showing him her bedside manner.
But years of mediocre sex with her workaholic husband Peter had made Marilyn sexually repressed and frustrated, which came to the fore during Liam's recuperation. One thing had led to another and before they knew it, they ended up having full sex in Liam's bed and thought no one could have possibly seen or heard them. Yet, Liam's brother Ryan had been sent to retrieve Liam from his bed to get him back to work. They were busy building a fence for a bigger cattle pen when their father had other business to attend to.
Ryan had heard them having sex as he'd ascended the stairs and had to push the bedroom door ajar so his eyes could believe his ears. He'd seen them fucking, his mother's ankles over Liam's shoulders. After that shock, Ryan had to make a decision as to whether to tell his older brother Judd and his father the truth or protect Liam and his mother. At first, he took the easy option and told Judd that Liam really was still too sick with heatstroke to work. Judd had grudgingly accepted this, even though he later copped it from his father that night for not dragging Liam out of bed himself.
Liam did get back to work the next day, with absolutely no idea that Ryan had seen him balls deep in his own mother. But Liam had definitely noticed that Ryan had been a bit sullen around him ever since and, at first, put it down to resentment that he'd gotten two days in bed while Ryan and Judd had carried on their back breaking labour.
As Ryan's moodiness around Liam continued for the next fortnight, the tension really started to build up between them and Marilyn had started to notice. When they'd sit round the dining table for dinner, she would observe that Ryan would only speak to Judd or her husband Peter and ignore anything Liam said.
She was used to her sons arguing and bickering but the silent treatment was something she'd not seen before. The first week after having sex with Liam, she'd been too consumed with conflicting emotions over what they had done to notice any undercurrent of hostility between her two younger sons.
She'd also had her very hard working husband Peter to deal with, who had been stressing out of various issues with the cattle on the ranch. Problems were nothing new, but, as it became apparent that Ryan and Liam were hardly speaking, her mind naturally started to dwell on what was causing it.
Not for a second did she think it had anything to do with what had happened in Liam's room, at least not at first. But Ryan's unprecedented quietness and sullenness around Liam soon became so obvious to her that she began to grow concerned about it.
Even when she became aware that there was beef between them she couldn't even contemplate the possibility that Ryan might have seen them having sex.
After all, Ryan would have said something to his father, she reasoned. But then, it was such a forbidden thing to have happened that she realized maybe he was carrying around their dark secret...
She tried her best to put it out of her mind as she was having a hard enough time processing her own feelings about what had happened. For a couple of days afterwards she'd felt intense guilt about what they'd done and swore to herself that it must never happen again.
She kept telling herself that over and over, but as the initial guilt began to fade, the memories and feelings of how good the sex had been with Liam seemed to surface in her mind. She realized how the mundane repetition of chores and general married life had worn down her spirit, especially as she wasn't that much required as a mom these days.
But sex with Liam had completely reinvigorated her, she felt alive and a real woman once more. It seemed to have ignited her libido in a major way, dying embers had turned back into a roaring flame.
She suddenly had so much sexual energy and desire that she almost didn't know how to handle it, but she'd told herself that Liam was strictly out of bounds. Even just having sex with him once might have already been enough to cause a family ruction if Ryan has seen them...it was agony for her not knowing.
She didn't dare look at Liam during meal times, in case anyone noticed anything different between them, but this concern was soon superseded by the growing animosity between Ryan and Liam. It became so obvious that their father Peter commented on it one night over dinner.
"Have you two fallen out with each other? I haven't seen you say a word to Liam in two weeks, Ryan. The silent treatment is immature, that's something women and girls do..." he said in his gruff manner.
"Hey! Less of the sexism please, Peter. This is the 21st century, you know!" exclaimed Marilyn, pretending not to be nervous about where this conversation might be heading. She had to hide her hands under the table as she felt them shaking.
Liam was feeling tense too, wondering what the hell Ryan was about to say. Ryan felt self conscious with everyone's eyes on him all of a sudden, his older brother Judd putting down his knife and fork and slowly chewing the food he had in his mouth. Ryan knew he couldn't tell the devastating truth and his mind scrambled to come up with something believable.
"I don't know...maybe it's not my place to say...but I just feel that Liam has been letting the side down for a few weeks and it's been bugging me. Maybe I have been childish by ignoring him..." said Ryan, then turned to Liam.
"I'm sorry if I've been giving you a hard time, you just seem...distracted lately..." he said.
It was smart and fast thinking from Ryan because it had enough truth to it to seem convincing, even if not speaking to him for a fortnight seemed a little melodramatic. But it was music to his father's ears.
"Your brother has a point Liam, I know you got that damn heatstroke and that was your own goddamn fault...but even since then it's like your mind is somewhere else...we need to work as a unit on this ranch, these are hard times we're in, making money is hard...what the hell is up with you? Got your mind on some girl in town, is that it?" he said, making Liam feel uncomfortable.
At that moment Ryan glanced at his mother and she immediately blushed, involuntarily. She could tell Ryan had noticed her cheeks flush red and didn't know where to look.
Liam looked at Ryan, then at his mom and also noticed her embarrassed expression. Marilyn was finding this almost unbearable, it was at that moment that she got scared at the thought of the real reason for Ryan's behaviour.
Maybe he had seen Liam fucking her? Liam was smart enough to suspect it too, he wasn't buying Ryan's explanation. But he knew it was so far from what his father and oldest brother were thinking that he was able to keep up the pretence.
After that moment, Ryan started to find it hard to keep his true feelings to himself, having seen his mom blushing when he looked at her. He saw the guilt and embarrassment on her face as clear as day and it was tearing him up inside to be carrying around such an explosive secret.
He figured he better stay out of Liam's way as much as he could as, the way he was feeling, he wanted to punch his lights out. It was a deep anger he'd never even known before. He couldn't admit it to himself, but deep down he was jealous that Liam had got to have sex with their mother. Ryan had also harbored sexual feelings towards her as a teen, enjoying guilty fantasies about her, then feeling bad about it as soon as he'd climaxed.
In the following few days Ryan managed to keep enough distance from Liam to remain civil and keep his temper, as the three brothers and their father finished building the new fence for the cattle pen.
Once they were finally done they returned to the house in high spirits and Peter even suggested they celebrate with a beer. Marilyn was delighted to see them all getting along with bottles of Bud in their hands, hoping all that tension between Ryan and Liam was behind them.
