Last week's Trade Show in Latvia turned into an emotional roller coaster. Not the business side of things, that went well, in fact brilliantly; but everything else associated with the trip had me bouncing up and down like a bloody Yo-yo!
Oops, I almost forgot; my name's Ariana and I'm a Director, along with my father Jack and elder brother Jamil, of our family owned -- possibly the largest in Europe? -- plastic moulding company. That's what the show in Latvia was for and though we'd staff running our stand, the three of us were on hand to schmooze our larger customers and make close-call decisions on any major negotiations.
Dad's the technical genius, while Jamil deals with production operations and logistics and I'm the Sales and Marketing Director. I'll concede that being the MD's daughter is what got me the job in the first place, but my success is not just down to my short skirts and tight, low-cut blouses -- though they definitely help - I'm damned good at my job too!
That'd been proved once again in Latvia; I'd managed to secure us more new contracts than we could possibly handle. But no worries, Jamil had signed some favourable contracts for the purchase of new equipment, while other than the dotting of I's and the crossing a few T's, Dad had agreed our takeover of a Spanish based competitor. We were now definitely Europe's largest privately owned plastic engineering company!
Such success called for a major celebration and our staff were certainly going to enjoy one, but the three of us wouldn't be able to join the party. Instead we were leaving before the show had even quite finished, rushing away to catch a Friday afternoon flight back home; it was my mother's birthday, so her party would have to take precedence.
That was 'The Plan', but as with so many other plans related to our Latvia trip, it crashed and burned:
It had always been mum's birthday today and the original intention had been that we would celebrate it here in Latvia. Mum and Jamil's wife Priscilla would fly out with us on the Monday, spend their week shopping and doing the tourist-bit in Riga; then we'd have a whole weekend of birthday celebrations before flying home. Even my boyfriend Tom had been going to fly out and join us for the weekend.
That plan foundered when the show's organisers sent us an email six weeks ago; there had been a major fire at the exhibition centre in Riga so the show was instead to be held in a town on the coast called Salacgriva. Having Googled the place, first mum and in her turn Priscilla, announced that they weren't going and that we would have to be 'home by Friday evening'.
My own disappointment on hearing this news was ameliorated by the questioningly raised eyebrow and wicked smile which Jamil surreptitiously directed toward me. Those lasted for only a moment, but were enough to raise my heart rate and trigger a flutter in my belly, which quickly spread to my groin; I could feel moisture dampen my panties.
Jamil is beautiful and I use that adjective rather than handsome intentionally. Jamil inherited far more of our mother's Iranian genes than I did and looks every inch the Arab prince. Tall, slim and olive skinned, with both eyes and hair -- he's no shortage of the latter -- a gleaming, obsidian-black; Jamil is blessed with an ethereal almost feminine beauty, which is perhaps why he gets almost as many men hitting on him as girls.
Growing up with Jamil for a brother was a pain in the arse; bad enough when we were at school, but it became far worse once I got to college. Although Jamil's almost two years older than me, with the way that our birth dates fall, we were only ever separated by a single school year and while we took different courses, we both studied at Manchester University and shared an apartment nearby.
I rarely knew for sure whether someone was a genuine 'friend' or just angling for an introduction and to hopefully score a date with Jamil; by the end of my first year at Uni I was beginning to wonder whether I was Jamil's sister or his pimp! One night, after drinking far too much, my frustration got the better of me and I very loudly and very crudely, told Jamil just that!
Jamil's response floored me completely, thank God we were alone: After a few seconds silence Jamil burst out laughing and followed that by suggesting "You're not really annoyed Ariana, or at least not in the way you used the word. It's jealousy... You're frustrated because I'm fucking your friends and classmates rather than you."
I was absolutely gobsmacked; beyond speech, indeed I could barely draw breath. I felt my cheeks redden and heart begin to race, while trembling legs struggled to keep me upright. Jamil was silent too, simply smiling in just the way I'd seen him do with so many other girls; that was when the butterflies took flight in my belly, had that too happened to my friends?
Jamil stepped forward and caught me in his arms; my initial thought was that he did so to prevent me tumbling to the floor. That thought was short lived: While Jamil's left arm wrapped around me, his right grasped my bum and pulled me in so close I could feel his cock press against my belly; Jamil then kissed me and not in a way that he'd ever done before.
In that moment I didn't think... I was beyond thought! I just responded... Not like a sister, but in just the same way as all those other girls had; my arms clasped around Jamil's neck and I kissed him back, hard, long and deep, my tongue was exploring Jamil's mouth even before he'd explored mine. I have no idea how long our clinch lasted, but I can recall it's ending.
Jamil's left hand transferred from my shoulder to my right breast and when it closed around that soft orb, reality hit home with a bang. I pushed Jamil away and stepped back with a yelp, I was kissing my fucking brother! Things were now worse not better: The shortness of breath, racing heartbeat and trembling legs were still there, but those damned butterflies had now migrated to my groin.
As so often in the past, Jamil hit me with that beaming smile of his and held out a hand toward me as he spoke: "You know I'm right Ariana; you've been fantasising about my taking you to bed for months. We both know it's going to happen at some point, so why don't we make it sooner rather than later?"
My head swung from side to side in the negative, but I couldn't get my lips to form the word 'No'. "We... we can't Jamil... It's... It's wrong."