Family Reunion with Cousin Julia

The Annual Striberg Family Reunion had become a capital "E" event, growing exponentially each year since its inception a decade ago. Family members none of us even knew or invited came out of the woodwork for the occasion. None of them caused trouble, and there was plenty of food and drink to go around, so no one minded.

My family has always been non-confrontational. To the uninitiated, that might seem healthy - an essential component for avoiding family dysfunction the likes of a Dostoevsky novel. But really, it's a recipe for resentment. Tension never put into words but still palpably felt. Like a frog in a slowly boiling pot of water. A warmth at first, then a sweat, then a desire to hop the fuck out - who cares where? Anywhere but here.

Such was the case at our tenth Reunion. My dad owed Uncle Rick $2000 from wrecking his fishing boat. Rick told him it was "all good - accidents happen" and that dad could pay him back whenever it was convenient. But it was two years later, and to my knowledge, dad hadn't paid a penny. Our family was loaded with credit card debt (another unspoken resentment, this one between my parents - I only knew about it from seeing the mail on the kitchen table), so a $2000 in cash was hard to find. Uncle Rick, in Striberg style, said nothing of it at the Reunion, but beat around the bush in a way that was almost more aggressive than direct confrontation.

"Haven't been out fishing in a while," he said, his mouth full of cornbread.

"Yeah, me neither," dad said.

"My buddy Randy says there's a real good fishing hole in the middle of Bear Lake, but uh, can't really get out there. Not until, well...anyway, great cornbread, Suzanne."

Dad averted his eyes, sawing through his steak with a plastic knife. Totally ineffective but he kept going at it with a madman's focus.

"We doing the singalong this year?" my aunt Suzanne asked, smiling a little too widely.

"Yuuuuup," Rick said. "God, I need a beer."

Yet another unspoken resentment. No one remembers who came up with the idea for a family singalong. No one wanted to do it, but somehow it happened. And what we all hoped would be a one-time embarrassment became an annual tradition as unbreakable as Christmas ham.

And to think this was just day one of the Reunion. One of three.

I wanted to retreat to our cabin to read or take a nap, but my parents frowned on that and would scold me for being "antisocial." Inevitably, my dad would pull me back to the group for a game of badminton or something else unpleasant. This routine happened every year, so I'd come to expect it even now at the age of 21. Sure, I was no longer a child, but the Reunion may as well have been called "the Regression." Isn't going home always like that? Resuming old roles regardless of how much you've changed.

Still, I was desperate to escape lunch before some great-uncle herded me over to the outdoor amphitheater where we always held our singalong. There had to be some other excuse. A bad stomach. A sore throat. Or, hell, I was of age now - a hangover. Worth a try. I pressed my fingers into my eyes until mom noticed. (How very Striberg of me - passively waiting for someone else to notice your pain.)

"Everything okay?" she asked, grabbing pop cans from the table to throw in the recycling.

"Nope, I uh...it's embarrassing," I said, trying my best to reel in her curiosity.

She put the pop cans down and leaned in close, her hand on my shoulder.

"What's wrong?"

"I think I drank too much last n-"

And in a display of pure theatre, I let out a burp that threatened to become more. For a moment, I worried I'd overplayed my hand.

"Jesus," mom said. "And you didn't share any booze with me?"

For a moment, my mouth hung open like I was an idiot. Had she caught me?

"I'm kidding," she said. "You think I haven't had a hangover before? They're terrible. And they don't mix well with singalongs."

I suppressed a smile.

Mom nodded in the direction of our cabin.

"Go," she said. "You can join us for dinner if you're feeling up to it."

"Thanks, mom."

And with that, I rushed away, tossing my styrofoam plate and silverware into the trash (sorry, Mother Earth.) The feeling of claustrophobia melted away as soon as I got outdoors. The state park was beautiful in the fall - rolling hills as far as the eye can see with golden trees swaying side to side. I took a moment to just breathe deep and listen to the rustling leaves.

"You ducking out, too?" a voice called from nearby.

I jumped, sure I'd been caught in my lie. But no, it was just my cousin Julia, sitting under one of the mess hall windows with a Juul in her hand and a vape cloud floating out of her mouth. A long lock of black hair spilled out from under her hood and brushed the ground. As far as I knew, she had never gotten a haircut in the entire decade we'd been doing these Reunions. It was a ritual at this point for family members to grab her hair without asking and compliment its beauty. Even I couldn't deny it was beautiful.

I snapped out of my daze when I heard a voice inside the mess hall shouting something about the singalong.

Julia took one last hit on her Juul, then reached out her hand to me. I was confused for a second until her eyes went wide.

"Let's get the fuck out of her," she said.

I pulled her up. Her hand was cold but soft, and if it weren't inappropriate, I'd have kept holding it.

We hustled away from the mess hall and toward the woods, away from the cabins.

"Finally some peace and fucking quiet," I said as we slipped passed the dead grass and into the trees.

"Does that mean I can't talk to you?" Julia asked.

"No, we can talk. I just mean, you know, peace and quiet from -"

"I get it, I'm just messing with you. How've you been? It's been what, a..."

"A year," I said. "Yeah, I've been alright. I, uh...dropped out of college. Probably need to mention that to my parents."

"Well, you're one step ahead of me. I haven't even enrolled yet."

Julia gave a pained and gorgeous smile, her dimples on full display.

"My mom keeps pushing me to do it," she continued. "But I figure if I've gotten by okay without a degree for the past three years, I probably don't need one anyway."

"Where you working?"

Julia was silent except for the crunch of leaves under her Converse. Her cheeks flushed bright pink.

"I mean, if it's any consolation, I'm working at a student loan collection call center. Fucking soulless, shameful work right there."

"More shameful than mine, for sure," she said, smirking slightly.

"Well, what's yours? Or, ooh, let me guess."

Julia laughed and shook her head.

"Okay," she said. "But you only get three guesses. If you lose..."

"I've got..." I rummaged through my pocket. "A cough drop?"

"Sure, if you lose, you owe me that cough drop. In case I pull too big a vape cloud and start hacking up a lung."

"Ah, is that a hint? Do you work at a vape shop?"

"Nope. Strike one."

I gazed at my cousin, eyeing her for clues like Sherlock Holmes. Or maybe just eyeing her.

"Hmm...you couldn't be a cook. You'd get all that hair in the food."

"It's happened before," she laughed, pantomiming someone pulling an ungodly long hair out of their mouth.

"Oh, but maybe you're a hairdresser."

She made a buzzing sound with her mouth. "Last chance."

"Uh, you're...a model!" I blurted, my face growing hot the second I said it.

Before I could take my answer back, Julia held her hand out and gestured for the cough drop.

"It's mine," she said.

As she took the cough drop, she tossed her hair like a woman in a shampoo commercial, giggling.

"How's my runway walk?" she asked, stomping blindly into a puddle of mud. "Shit."

"Okay, disregard the model comment," I said. "Anyway, you gonna tell me the right answer?"

"Sure," she said, scraping mud off her shoe and flicking it into the brush. "As long as you promise not to tell my parents."

Now I was truly intrigued.

"Alright, I promise."

Julia sat down on a pile of leaves and took off her shoes, committing to scraping them clean. I sat down beside her.

"I'm a sugar baby."

"No way!" I said as a pang of some forbidden feeling shot through me. "So, like, rich guys pay you to..."

"To go on dates with them mostly. Sometimes more."

"Do you...like it?"

"Yeah, for the most part. Some guys are creepy, but I dump those ones pretty quick. It's easy enough for me to find new ones."

"I imagine," I said, regretting my choice of words as soon as they came out.

But Julia smiled at me without any apparent judgment.

"Thanks," she said. "You're pretty cute yourself."

Oh boy.

"Anyway," she continued. "The money's great and the sex is...okay. Sometimes good."

I looked away for a moment, honing in on a particularly golden leaf, watching as it floated down the path. Maybe if I focused on it long enough, my cock would soften. Julia put her hand on my arm.

"Please don't tell me I made you uncomfortable," she said. "We all have jobs and we all have sex. I just happen to do both at once."

"Sounds efficient," I said, grinning.

Julia laughed, which made me feel better, but her touch wasn't helping the situation in my pants. I shivered and leaned forward to hide it.

"Are you cold?" she asked.

"Yeah, a little."

"Want to go back to my cabin? My parents will be at the singalong, so we'll have some time to ourselves."

"Sure."

We headed toward the cabins, Julia's arm wrapped around my shoulder.

"You don't have to do that," I said.

"Didn't you say you were cold?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"But you don't want me to...?"

"No, it's fine. It's good."

We smiled at each other, a blush on both her cheeks and mine. I'd never noticed it before, but her eyes sparkled a deep emerald. It was hard to look away.

When we got closer to the cabins, she pulled her arm away from my shoulder. On some level, we both must have known it was inappropriate. What would the family say if they saw us like that? Or, more realistically, what nasty thoughts would they think but never express out loud?

The cabin was a welcome reprieve from the cold. This was not primitive housing - it was equipped with heating, air conditioning, electricity, water, and cable TV. The works.

Julia plopped down on the bed and took off her still-muddy shoes. Her socks went next as she threw them into what must have been the dirty laundry corner. She lay down and stretched out her lithe feet, her toes parting and coming back together. Again, I was staring.

"Mind if join you?" I asked, not even realizing what I was saying.

"Sure," she said, scooting over and patting the empty space on the bed.

Deciding to match her, I removed my shoes and socks, then lay beside her.

"What do you want to do?" I asked, my elbow propped up on a pillow as I looked at Julia.

"I want to hear about you," she said. "You got a girlfriend? Boyfriend? Partner?"

"No, but any of the three would be welcome."

"Huh, didn't know that about you."

"Well, now you do," I said, grinning.

It had been over a year since I last dated anyone. Sure, I'd tried my luck on Tinder and Grindr, but no one had quite clicked. There are only so many bad dates you can go on before you decide to take a break. I planned to get back into the dating scene, but figuring out this college dropout business seemed more important at the moment. Still. I was lonely. I longed to be with someone.

"If it makes you feel better," Julia said, "I haven't had much luck myself. Whenever I tell a boyfriend that I'm a sugar baby, he gets all possessive or ghosts me."

"At least you're having sex, right?" I said, unsure if it was the right thing to say.

She rolled her eyes - playfully, not dismissively.

"I guess so," she said, then sat up. "It's just...I don't know. Money complicates things. I'd like to have love with no cash involved. But who am I kidding - the cash is nice!"

Again, she laughed. What a wonderful laugh - full-hearted and genuine.

I reached out my hand and pushed Julia's hair out of her eyes.

"What are you doing?" she asked, her expression inscrutable.

I winced and removed my hand from her.

"I don't know...I should go," I said, standing up. "The singalong is probably just about ov-"

Julia grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me back to the bed, my head landing in her lap.

"Are you kidding?" she said. "They sing for fucking ever! They probably have, like, forty songs to go. What a miserable time!"

My head rested in her lap as I stared up at her.

"You're probably right," I said, my heart pumping doubletime. "I was just thinking about how glad I am to be here instead of there. I mean, in part because the singalong is fucking terrible, but also just...you're really nice, you know that?"

She ran her fingers through my hair. The tables had turned.

"You're not so bad yourself," she said. "A little weird maybe. But I'm a little weird, too."

Tingles ran down my spine. Her touch was electrifying. I closed my eyes, shutting off one sense to enjoy the others all the more. The tingling intensified further, and I nearly arched my back in pleasure. Her scent hit me next. Honeysuckle - the sweetest summer smell here in the middle of autumn. I could have moaned.

Knowing how far things had already gone, I opened my eyes. There Julia was, staring back at me. Did I imagine it, or was there longing in her gaze?

I couldn't help myself. I raised my head up to kiss her. She hesitated for a moment, then leaned into it, her soft lips pressed up against mine. We wrapped our arms around each other. It was the first time I'd felt warm - physically and emotionally - all day.

But then there was the fact that she was my cousin. I pulled away.

"I'm sorry," I said, my neck hot with shame. "I don't know what got into me."

"Don't apologize," she said, a tear rolling down her cheek. "I want it. It feels wonderful."

I stared vacantly at the wall for a long moment, processing what would come next, then nodded.

"Should we close the blinds?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said, stumbling out of bed and nearly falling on my face.

I closed the blinds and, when I whipped around, Julia's shirt was halfway off her body. She pulled it the rest of the way over her head, and underneath was a black lacy bra. This was real, right? This wasn't a dream?

On autopilot, I pulled my shirt off. I didn't look as good as she did shirtless, but my past few months at the gym helped me pack on some muscle. Julia seemed to notice, reaching out to massage my pec. Had I not been so turned on, a massage alone might have been enough to satisfy me.

We made out again, this time gripping each other's backs. Between kisses, we spoke.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" I asked.

"I want this. I don't care if we're -"

Julia reached behind her.

"Unhook my bra," she said.

Never have I obeyed a command so readily. Her bra slid off her chest and unveiled her milky white breasts. Her tits were hard from the cold, and my hand warmed them. I caressed them with vigor, and Julia moaned in my ear.

"What if -" I said, my mouth moving down to close around her tits. "-someone comes in."

"Just keep an ear out. God, yes."

While I sucked her nipples, her hand migrated down to my cock, hard through the boxers. It twitched to life at her touch.

"This is so fucking wrong," I said.

"You can say no at any time. But I'm loving this."

And with that, she pushed my face away from her tits, pulled down my pants and boxers, and ran her tongue down the length of my cock.

"I think I am, too," I said.

She laughed, then took my whole length in her mouth. This was what I'd been missing. So much more intimate and intense than anything I'd felt with previous partners. Julia bobbed up and down, sometimes almost choking. Her saliva dripped down my shaft and balls, dripping onto the sheets. She kept sucking for several minutes, an expert at subtle tongue movements. If we weren't careful, I'd blow my load early.

"My turn," I said, pulling my hips back and my cock out of her mouth.

A web of spit strung from the tip of my head to her bottom lip. The sight alone was almost enough to finish me. But Julia rolled onto the bed as if she were doing a backwards somersault, putting her knees into the air as she peeled the underwear away from her pussy. There it was - dripping with juices and practically steaming with heat. Her underwear remained around her feet as she held them up in the air, intent on letting me climb under to taste her.

And taste her I did, my tongue plunging between her lips and pressing down hard with each lick. Her wetness was tangy and sweet all at once, and I relished it, lapping up her juices in a state of frenzy. Her thighs closed in around my ears, holding me in place, demanding more. I couldn't hear her, but I could feel the vibrations of her moans, the quaking of her muscles as she got closer and closer to orgasm. Soon, the pressure around my head was almost too much to bear, and my jaw was starting to ache, but not long after, her pussy pulsed with pleasure and her grip loosened, her legs shaking as they released me.

"That was..." she started. "God, just fuck me!"

I had no idea how to react, my chin resting on the soaked sheets.

"I...I don't have a condom," I said. "I didn't think I needed one for a family re-"

Julia lurched forward and lifted my chin in her palm.

"Don't finish that thought. You don't need one. I promise. I'm clean and I...well, if anything happens, I have plan B."

"You're sure?" I said, my voice weak.

"Of course," she said, ripping the panties from her ankles and tossing them to the wall.

We'd already crossed several lines cousins should never cross, but this was a whole other level of taboo. And, unfortunately for me, it was not one I could resist.

I ripped my boxers the rest of the way off and crawled, cock in hand, toward Julia. Her legs were splayed outward, knees bouncing lightly back and forth as if she couldn't wait for what was about to happen. I lined my cock up against her pussy, then looked my cousin in the eyes. She nodded, her mouth open and panting.

Without another thought, I plunged inside. And what a fucking glorious feeling it was. The wet warmth of Julia's vagina. How it seemed to contract around me, to clench tighter and suck me deeper in. We rocked back and forth in undeniable pleasure, Julia groaning, her eyes leaking tears.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"I'm just so fucking happy," she said.

"Me too."

We fucked harder and harder, her slickness making the motion easy. Soon, her pussy pulsed once more, the heartbeat of her orgasm.

"Stop," she said, her eyes fluttering. "Just for a second. It's so intense."

I pulled out and took a second to breathe. I still couldn't believe this was happening - it was only in these brief pauses that it occurred to me how fucked this all was. But why should that matter when I was having the greatest sex of my life?

"Okay," she said. "You can go back in."

I buried my cock into her once more, her pussy's depths just as lovely as the last time. So good, in fact, my cock swelled. Something was building.

"I'm gonna cum soon," I said.

"Do it inside me," she said, her eyes closed. "Please."

"Really?"

She nodded, her breath hot on my neck. Her arms circled around my back, and she pulled me deeper into her.

And there it was. That was the moment.

I erupted inside her, a seemingly unending gush, rope after rope coating her inner walls. So intense I felt like my body was melting into hers.

"Oh my god," I said, and lay there, my arms collapsing as I fell onto her, pressed against her breasts. "That was fucking incredible."

"Holy shit, yes," she said.

We rested there for a few minutes. I was reluctant to pull out, knowing this bad decision might be one I get to make only once.