Athy's Brother

It was a gorgeous Tuesday evening on the deck. Dinner was over and the setting sun had turned the sky electric peach streaked with purple and fading shards of brilliant blue. We'd finished the last of the wine. Mom was murmuring something to Dad, and Jack was leaning back in his chair, almost asleep, away wherever his own thoughts take him.

Content. It seems such a little word, with little feelings. But content was what I was, and I felt my heart swell in my chest. I looked over at my parents. They were wrapped in a tiny world of intimacy, eyes locked, their voices barely audible. Smiles flickered at the corners of their mouths, and occasionally one or the other would stretch out a hand, making contact, holding it for a scond before breaking it.

I checked out Jack. He was slumped in his chair, ankles crossed on the table. His eyes were closed, and I let my glance linger over his body. Of course I was madly in love with him, with every inch of him. The pounding started in my chest as I looked. He was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, but I knew him without his clothes. I knew him the way he knew me. Hot blood rushed up to my cheeks and down between my legs. It was always the same. I needed him.

It was starting to be too much for me, but even as I felt my thighs open and my butt slide forward over the chair, I knew I couldn't give in to this here. I straightened up and looked back up at the sky. The purple took over from the pink and blue. I could hear the soft buzz of my parents' chatting. I closed my eyes and let the contentment wash back over me.

When the phone rang, Mom twisted up out of her chair and said she'd get it. I swiveled my head to follow her as she walked to the sliding door, and then sneaked a look back at my father. He was half-way out of his his chair, his eyes fixed on her retreating form. I'd seen that look in his eyes often enough over the summer. Evenings here were getting predictable.

As he stood, his eyes darted from my mother back to me, and he smiled.

"Good night, Kath." He bent down and kissed my forehead, then looked over at Jack asleep in his chair.

"Kiss Jack goodnight for me, OK?"

I smiled up at him. "Will do, Dad."

He walked away and I imagined him catching up to my mother on the stairs and what might happen after that. Then I thought about kissing my brother goodnight.

Jack was still asleep. There were so many places I could kiss him. The corners of his mouth. The corners of his eyes. Right there where his shoulder met his neck. Hell, Mom and Dad were probably upstairs by now, fucking like newly-weds. I could kiss him wherever I wanted.

I sat up, lifting my top to bare my breasts. I knew now exactly where I wanted to kiss my brother, and I knew exactly where I wanted him to kiss me when he woke up. I slipped off my chair and straddled Jack's legs. Oh, god, the heat of his thighs against mine. My fingers fumbled at the button of his shorts.

"Kathy, it's Lydia."

Oh, shit. I leapt off Jack and tugged my top down. My mother was standing back-lit in the sliding door, holding the wireless receiver in her hand.

What had she seen? The sun had set, the sky was dark behind me, and Mom was standing in the brightly lit house. I decided to brazen it out.

"That's cool, Mom. I'll take it inside."

I walked toward her, panic flickering through me. I'm sure my hand was shaking as I reached for the phone. Mom's eyes bored into mine, and my knees quivered.

"You must have missed having someone to talk to, with all that's been going on this summer," she said, handing me the phone.

I took the phone from her and covered the little hole you talk into with my finger.

"Hey, Mom, I've had you to talk to about everything."

Blood crept up her cheeks, and she looked deep into my eyes. Then she smiled and leaned forward and cupped my neck with her hand. She pulled me to her and gave me a brief kiss on my lips, then drew away.

"I know Lydia is dying to talk to you." She walked to the stairs and I put the phone to my ear.

"Lydia?"

"Kath! Are you there? What's going on?"

Good question. Up till this moment it had all seemed so normal. I got a job with Sheila, and I got a whole new idea of myself. Jack comes home. Then I'm fucking Jack and Jack's fucking me. Mom's fucking Dad and Dad's fucking Mom, which must of course have been happening forever. But there was certainly something going on this summer. There was sex in the air in this house. There's been sex in the air all summer.

"Hello-o-o? Kathy?"

"Oh my god. Lydia. When did you get home? Can you come over now? Or should I come over there?"

"Kath. We've been flying for like seventeen hours straight, and we started sometime yesterday morning. I don't even know what time it is here, but I do know I'm about to pass out. I'm dying to see you. God, I've got so much to tell you. But it's got to be tomorrow."

"OK. Tomorrow. Um, wait. I'm working tomorrow."

"Working?"

"I'm sure I mailed you."

"Oh, right. I'm just so stupid right now. The nasty underwear store, right?"

I burst out laughing. Lydia and I had walked by Sheila's shop in the mall a thousand times and ogled every time the stuff in the window, but we'd been afraid to go in, and we'd dubbed it the nasty underwear store.

"Yeah. You'd be surprised, though."

"Really? Not as nasty as we thought?"

I thought about what I'd bought there, and what Mom had bought, and what we'd shown to Jack and Dad. "Well ..."

"Aha. Girl, you and I have got to talk. What time do you get off?"

Oh. about ten minutes after I hook up with Jack. I couldn't believe that just popped into my mind. I felt myself blushing and answered, "I can be home around 4:30."

"Four-thirty it is, then, at your place. I've got some stories."

"I can't wait. See you tomorrow." I walked into the kitchen and hung up the phone.

Outside on the deck, I looked up at my parents' window. There was just a pale gleam, probably from a bed-side lamp. I knew they wouldn't be coming back down.

Jack was still asleep, slumped in his chair, his ankles crossed on the table. I remembered where I'd been before my mother had called me to the phone, and what I'd wanted him to see and kiss.

This time I pulled my top off over my head and stripped out of my shorts and panties. I let them all fall into a little pile on the deck.

Walking to his chair, I changed my mind about what I wanted when he woke up. I turned my back to him and raised my left leg until I was standing astride the chair. His shorts were un-buttoned from before, and I leaned over and slid the zipper down.

When my hands slipped into the loose waist-band and circled his hips, Jack's feet lifted off the table and came to rest on the deck. I was pretty sure he was awake now. I pushed his shorts down to his knees and watched his cock twitch and grow. A tiny mewl escaped from my throat.

I knew for certain Jack was awake when his hands slid up the backs of my thighs, and I leaned back into his touch. When he grasped my cheeks and spread them wide, I gasped. And when his tongue touched me, a deep shuddering moan rose from somewhere inside me.

As I half-sat on his face, I grabbed his cock and started stroking it up and down. At that moment I don't think I could have said what felt better, Jack's tongue in my pussy or his big, fat hardness in my hand. A second later, it didn't matter. As much as I wanted to watch what I was doing to him, what he was doing to me made my eyes squeeze shut.

My breath was rasping through my throat and my legs were about to fall out from under me. I pushed myself harder onto Jack's mouth and then the hurricane hit me.

I must have invoked the wrong god, or the right one, just then. The hurricane was followed by a tempest, then a cyclone. When my head stopped spinning, I was slumped over Jack. Shock-waves rippled through me, and I realized I was strangling Jack's penis.

He didn't seem to mind. I sat up straighter and slid down until I was sitting on his stomach. The storm in my brain was beginning to ease, and I became fascinated once again by the way Jack filled my hand.

I held him tight and pushed down. His hips rose to meet me, and I felt his breath on my back as he groaned. I eased my grip and let my fingers float over him on the up-stroke and heard his spasmodic intake of air.

The sight and feel and sound of him was killing me. I slipped down until my clit was crushed against the base of his cock. The sudden swelling in my palm told me Jack was about to come. And, oh jesus, oh damn, oh fuck. So was I.

This time I could just hold myself together enough to watch. As often as I've fucked Jack these last few weeks, and as often as he's come in me, in my pussy or in my mouth, I realized anew just how much I loved to watch that hot white liquid, the visible, tangible proof of what I was doing to him, spurt out of his cock.

I held him mashed against me, and I squeezed with both hands. The head of his cock, already purple and distended, grew under my gaze. Gobs of clear liquid oozed out of him, and his shaft expanded in my grip. His hips plunged at mine, and from behind me I heard him groan. One little squirt made it just over my hands and landed on my belly.

I held my breath, my pussy clenching, my hands tight around the pole of flesh rising between my legs.

Oh. Oh, oh oh god. There it was. Jack's cock was pulsing in my grip and I was coming again. I fought to keep my eyes open, and saw the first wild string leap out of him and up over my head. It tickled my hair and striped my back, and then my vision deserted me. I could still feel his prick throbbing in my hands, and hot gobs splashing my chest and face.

When I had calmed down a little and Jack had stopped spouting, I stood up and turned around. I sank down onto my big brother and wiped my face with my fingers. I leaned forward to kiss him. His arms wrapped around me and I squished into him.

Our tongues and lips slid over each other for a soft, glorious moment, and then Jack placed his hands on my shoulders and pushed me upright.

I put my hands on his chest and looked down at him. He was smiling up at me.

"God, you're gorgeous," he told me.

Heart-throb time. But really. When I felt in control of myself again, I sighed and looked deep into his eyes.

After a long moment, I tore my eyes away from his and looked down at myself.

"Well, maybe not like this," I giggled. I was covered, dripping, with his cum.

Jack raised a hand and let it slide through the slick moistness between my breasts. "Especially like this," he said.

I kissed him again and buried my face into his neck. He held me tight, forcing me down onto his body. I felt his heart pounding against mine, and then I must have fallen asleep.

When I awoke, I knew it was time to go inside. The only light on the deck was from a sky full of stars. I stood up, peeling myself off Jack, and brushed my hair back with both hands. It was knotted with dried semen, and I smiled to myself. I bent, thinking to shake Jack awake, but he looked so peaceful lying there.

"Tomorrow, bro," I whispered, and went up to bed.

When the alarm clock went off at 8:30, I jolted awake. It took a minute before I remembered where I was and why I felt so excited.

Oh, yeah. Lydia was home, and she had stories to tell.

I got up and walked to the bathroom. Last night came back to me, and I knew I'd need a couple of minutes extra to wash my hair. And Lydia thought she had stories.

Stories. As private as I held everything Jack and I had done and seen this summer, I was bursting with the whole experience. I could talk to Jack about Mom and Dad. That led to talk about Jack and me, and that led to, well you know. More of the experience. But I was in love for the first time in my life, and I had no one I could talk to about Jack. But I needed to tell someone. I couldn't hold this all inside forever.

I'd almost confided in Sheila. More than once. I knew how she felt about me, and I was sure I could tell her anything. But even when I thought I'd die, keeping it bottled up inside me, and she'd look at me, full of sympathy, I just couldn't get it out.

Of course it was going to be Lydia. I think I'd known that from the beginning. Since second grade there was nothing we hadn't shared. Crushes on boys and teachers, dreams, embarrassments. First kisses. She'd always had a lot more to tell than I did. I wondered what she'd make of this.

I left work early. I was used to butterflies in my stomach as I drove home to meet Jack, but today I could barely hold onto the steering wheel. I wanted to get home and out of my Sheila clothes. I loved them, and the way I looked in them, the woman I'd become, but when Lydia came over I wanted to be just plain Kathy. So she'd see me the way she'd always known me and maybe she could understand everything I had to tell her.

I was in my bedroom and half-way out of my skirt when I heard the unmistakable purr of a Jaguar engine in the driveway. Jack.

"Hey, Kath. You home?" he called out as he came in the door.

Of course he knew I was. My car was parked outside.

"Yeah. Hang on. I, I'll, " I was tripping over my panties and I suddenly couldn't figure out the clasp on my bra. " I'll be right down."

Damn it. This was not at all the way I'd imagined finally getting together with Lydia. I wanted to be home alone with her, up here in my room, having all the time in the world to tell her, to explain, to make her understand.

I knew I was losing it. I forced myself to sit down and try to relax. Maybe I'd gotten myself too wound up, waiting for this moment. Nothing said I had to pour my heart out to Lydia the second she showed up. She'd said she had stories. It might be better to hear them first before I bared my soul.

I let my heart-rate slow, and got into cut-offs and a T-shirt and pulled my hair back into a pony-tail, and went downstairs. Jack was on his back in a chair on the deck with a glass of lemonade in his hand. He looked up at me and smiled.

"You do that on purpose?" he asked.

What was he talking about? "Do what?"

"Look so sexy I can't think about anything else."

Jesus. My heart melted and I pulled my shoulders back, sending my boobs arching through my T-shirt. My hips picked up a twitch as I walked toward him.

"Really?"

While my grin widened, Jack's face turned thoughtful.

"Damn it, Kath. I'm serious. At work, here, wherever. All I can think about is you. What are we going to do when we get to school?"

I felt weak all over. And I had a good idea of what we'd do when we got to school. I tried to shape my mouth into a pout. "But, Jack, I never meant..."

Then we were both laughing and I threw myself onto him. His arms were tight around my waist and mine were loose around his neck. Jack leaned his head back and looked into my eyes. We held there for a minute, in total connection.

Jack kissed my lips and my eyes drifted shut. He backed away before I could devour him, and he waited for my eyes to open again.

His lips were smiling, but his eyes were serious. "Kathy?"

"Umm?" I just wanted his lips back, but he waited until I was focused on him again.

"I think we may be in real trouble."

"Oh. You, too. But not yet, right? Not right now?"

It was a moment of sheer perfection. Our bodies melted together, almost not sexually, but then oh, so consummately sexually. I felt him rise to me, and our eyes locked. We basked in that sweet moment, neither knowing who would give way first, whose hands would tear at the other's clothes.

That's when the door-bell rang.

I jumped up. "Lydia!"

"Huh?"

"That's Lydia."

"I thought she was in France," Jack mumbled.

"They got in last night. You were, well, you were asleep."

I was suddenly in panic mode. The moment was gone, and Jack was looking at me like I was crazy.

"So go let her in."

Yeah. That made sense. I straightened my clothes and went in to open the front door.

When the door was open wide, Lydia and I just stood there staring at each other. Then she squealed, or maybe it was me, and we were dancing around in each others' arms. We calmed down a little and caught our breath, and Lydia pushed me away from her. She looked me up and down, and her huge dark eyes sparkled.

"Damn, Kathy."

"What?"

Lydia appraised me again, slowly this time. She let out a low whistle.

"Well look who turned into long, lean and sexy over the summer."

I blushed. I knew the summer had transformed me, but I'd put it down to Sheila's clothes. Now I remembered Mom eyeing me appreciatively and saying something about how I was a woman now, and then Jack just now on the deck. I felt my body lengthen to its full height, and I sensed my long legs under my shorts and my breasts under my top. I was aware of my neck, and my shoulders, and my hips stretching my shorts.

Suddenly feeling awkward, I inspected Lydia. She'd never be long and lean, but the summer had changed her, too. Her dark skin was burnt chestnut brown, and surely the breasts welling up over her halter top had never been so prominent before. She waltzed past me, her dark curls swirling. Her short skirt flared up, and I caught a glimpse of rounded, muscular thighs. Lydia flung herself onto my father's reclining chair, pushing it back and crossing one spectacular shining leg over the other, baring herself to, well, to the minuscule string of the underwear she was wearing.

I sat down on the couch opposite her, and we stared at each other.

"So?" she said. "Aren't you going to tell me how good I look?"

After a minute I told her, "You look like such a slut."

It hung there for a second.

Finally she narrowed her eyes at me and said, "You really think that?"

"Absolutely."

"You're not just saying that to make me feel good?" The corners of her mouth were starting to turn up.

"It doesn't look like you need any encouragement."

When we stopped laughing, Lydia jumped up and landed on the couch next to me. "Nope. None at all." She was positively beaming. "Kathy. God, I'm so glad to be back. You're the only one I can talk to."

"About what?"

Lydia giggled. "About being a slut. Or trying to."

She was obviously dying to tell me all about it. Perfect. Then I could tell her. There was only one problem.

"Um, Jack's outside."

"Jack? Hey, cool. I haven't seen him in what, more than a year now? I'll just go out and say hi." Lydia was up off the couch and sliding the door open before I could say anything.

All my plans fell apart then. Of course I couldn't tell Lydia. I couldn't tell anyone who knew Jack or my family. One misplaced smirk, one sly comment, and we were done. I looked forward to the day we'd be at college, away from here, alone together, anonymous.

And then that all fell apart, too. As anonymous as we might be behind closed doors, everyone at school would know we were brother and sister.

This was way beyond anything I'd contemplated. It had seemed so easy, this summer. Everything that might have stood in our way just dissolved. Our parents found themselves again and didn't have the time or inclination to worry about us. Day after day, we had the house to ourselves. I was eighteen, out of school, newly and by all reports irresistibly sexy, and wildly in love with my big brother. It was the perfect summer.

And then my best friend, the one missing link to my happiness, comes in, and this little cocoon that I abruptly and for the first time realized I'd been living in, that we'd all been living in, Jack, me, my Mom and Dad, started to disintegrate.

I went upstairs to my room and lay down and pressed my hands to my head.

A few minutes later my door opened and Lydia came in. The smile on her face disappeared when she saw me.

"Kathy? Are you OK?"

I looked up and saw the concern in her eyes. Obviously, none of what I was going through was her fault. She'd just opened a window to the real world, and I'd looked through it. Looked through it and seen how impossible my situation was.