Salvation

Note: This is my 10th story for Literotica and my first story for 2024. It is my second-longest story, just over 26,000 words (you have been warned). [Apologies for missing ending first time.]

SALVATION

Ricky has a complicated summer with his cousin Marilyn

Ron Ehrs

I ARRIVED AT THE TALLEY HOUSE around 9 AM.

I was the first one there. I had been visiting a friend for a few days and got up around five in the morning for what was looking like a long drive to New Hampshire. As it turned out, traffic was pretty light the whole way and so I made much better time than I expected. I had thought it would take about two hours more.

I had forgotten to pick up sunscreen ahead of time, but I wasn't sure when the local stores would be open, so I figured I might as well take my suitcase inside first.

It was a big house, with three floors worth of bedrooms. My cousin Marilyn and I had the two bedrooms on the third floor, the younger kids had bedrooms on the second floor, with the two boys sharing one bedroom and the two girls sharing the other, and there were two large bedrooms on the first floor for both sets of parents.

I went upstairs and decided to take the bedroom on the left side, which had a better view of the lake. I put my suitcase under one of the windows and took a quick look outside. It was going to be a gorgeous day. Then I headed back downstairs and out to my car to look for a store that sold sunscreen.

It was a bit of a drive into town and when I got there the drugstore didn't open until 9:30.

I sat down on a bench in front of the store to wait. It was only a few moments before I heard the front door unlock, and I headed in. I bought three large cans of spray-on sunscreen and headed back.

There were two other cars there when I returned. I looked around and didn't see anyone. Then I looked out at the dock and my parents were out there with the youngsters. I figured I would just go upstairs and put on my suit and join them.

I headed up to my room...

* * *

For anyone who grows up in a normal home, we learn basic rules of politeness. In particular, we learn to respect each other's feelings and each other's privacy, and if we offend against that, even if completely by accident, we try to apologize as quickly as possible.

It's not as if we get individual lectures and lessons on every possible situation, but we learn enough so that we are expected to be able to figure it out anytime the need should arise. So, if you should happen to walk in unannounced to find a member of the opposite sex completely undressed, you should: a) close your eyes immediately, b) turn around and walk out of the room as quickly as possible while apologizing to the other person the whole time, and c) close the door behind you and continue your explanations and apologies through the closed door.

Hopefully, this situation does not arise often, but you should be able to figure out what to do on the spot. Right?

So, when I opened the door and saw my cousin Marilyn standing there completely naked with an open suitcase on the bed, it was completely obvious what I should do.

The problem was, that none of the steps I mentioned were happening. She had been checking her suitcase, but when she heard the door pushing open, she had turned towards the sound and was now facing me full on, giving me a complete view of everything. I was just standing there, eyes wide open, staring at my cousin's naked body. My feet were fixed in place, and instead of uttering apologies, my jaw was just hanging there.

The thing is, I had had a girlfriend, Abbie, in high school this past year, and we had been having plenty of sex. She had a really cute body, along with iconic blonde hair and blue eyes. She had left for Europe for the summer, and was going to be going to college at some fancy private school in the Northeast in the fall, so that was over, but still...

On the other hand, here was Marilyn. Truthfully, I don't think I would've been expecting much if I had thought about it at all. Marilyn had always seemed conservative and dressed in pretty...well, frumpy clothes. But now, looking at her naked body -- I guess gawking at it would be the word -- Marilyn had a rack that would've been right at home in some men's magazine centerfold. Abbie had had nice, perky breasts, but this was a whole different league. And the rest of Marilyn looked almost as good as her rack. A slim waist, a nice ass, and toned legs. Her body looked lean and athletic, which I wouldn't have expected at all. Unlike Abbie, Marilyn had dark brown hair and brown eyes (along with a trim-looking brown bush), but right now that didn't make any difference at all.

I knew I shouldn't keep staring, but part of me also realized that every second I didn't spend staring was going to be time that I wouldn't get to see her naked. And I certainly didn't expect to get to see her naked again after this.

* * *

While I was standing there, fixed in place and staring like an idiot, Marilyn was getting more and more incredibly pissed off. "Ricky? What the fuck?"

I finally managed to blurt out, "I'm sorry, Marilyn. I didn't know you were in here. I apologize for barging in on you like this. I didn't mean to."

Marilyn was having none of it. "Are you sorry for seeing me naked? For still staring? Do you apologize for humiliating me like this? Are you truly sorry?"

I could understand her being pissed. I really hadn't intended any of it, and I totally understood how she was feeling embarrassed and angry. But now things were getting confused. Was I really supposed to be "truly sorry" for seeing her naked? When she had the most amazing body I had ever seen?

Marilyn wasn't done. "You do know we're cousins, don't you? Cousins don't look at each other naked. I mean nobody is supposed to look at each other naked this way, but especially not cousins. What are you anyway -- some kind of pervert? Haven't you ever heard of incest? That's disgusting!"

I was trying to figure out what to say, even as I realized that anything I might say wasn't going to work and was only going to piss her off more.

Besides, she had grabbed a tiny hand towel and was holding it up to try to block my view. The problem was, it barely covered things and it made me work even harder to see as much as I could. So I was still feeling plenty distracted.

"You've humiliated me! And now you're still standing there, just ogling me, without the common decency to look away!"

Nothing good was going to come of anything I could say right now. I just stood there, still staring, of course, wondering what was coming next.

"Do you have any idea what it feels like to be humiliated like this? Well, you're about to find out. Take off your clothes, right now, right here, right in front of me!"

What the hell? Was this for real? Did she really want me to take off my clothes right now, in front of her? What about the cousins thing? The incest thing. We were cousins, after all, and there was no way she should be asking her male cousin to strip for her. I stood there, not knowing if she meant it, or if this was a joke, or what.

"God dammit! Didn't you hear me? Take off your clothes! Right now, right here where I can see you!"

I kicked the flops off my feet, and then pulled my T-shirt up over my head, and dropped it on the floor. I looked at her again to see if she really wanted me to keep going. She wasn't smiling. She did.

I unbuttoned my shorts and pulled them off. I wasn't wearing underwear. So there I was, standing completely naked in front of her. Fortunately, I didn't have a boner -- I think I was too confused to get hard.

Marilyn had been watching me as I took off my clothes. Now she just stood there, looking as if she was caught slightly off guard by the fact that I was actually standing naked in front of her.

After a moment of confusion, she began perusing my body, basically ending up staring at my cock.

I knew this was supposed to be about making me feel humiliated in retaliation for what I had done completely accidentally, but somehow, I wasn't feeling humiliated. In fact, I was kind of enjoying it. I was feeling liberated or something and was enjoying having her looking at me naked. In spite of why this was happening, it felt very sexy. I guess what I was really liking most was having the two of us standing there naked, both of us looking at each other. And the only way this could have happened at all was by my walking in on her. Was this one of those "God works in mysterious ways" things?

By now, however, I could feel my cock starting to respond to the situation, and I knew that it would only take a minute or two for me to have a full-on boner.

Marilyn was definitely getting distracted at this point. She had been holding her towel up in front of her using the thumb and forefinger of each hand to cover herself. But she seemed to have forgotten, and one corner of the towel slipped from her grasp and she ended up just holding the towel up dangling from her other hand, leaving her body once again on full view.

So, there we were, staring at each other's naked bodies. I was loving it. Her body was completely amazing and I would've been happy to just stand there for the rest of the day looking at it. And on her part, I saw Marilyn looking even more intently as my cock began to twitch and grow.

Suddenly, Marilyn seemed to snap back. She noticed her towel was just dangling and grabbed it with both hands once more. "Okay, that's enough, Ricky. Grab your clothes and your suitcase and go over to your bedroom and get changed. Everyone else is down at the dock already."

Reluctantly, I picked up my clothes and got my suitcase from where I had left it and went across the hall to the other bedroom. I got out my bathing suit and put it on. Then I put on a T-shirt and flops and headed downstairs. I grabbed a can of sunscreen from the kitchen counter where I had left them, and headed out to join everyone else.

* * *

Everyone else was out at the dock and beach area. The group consisted of my parents, my eight-year-old twin brother and sister, Jerome and Caitlyn, and Marilyn's younger brother Toby (7) and sister Jessica (just turned 6). Marilyn had driven her younger siblings up in her parents' car. Her parents were on a private vacation of their own, and would be joining us in a few days.

Marilyn appeared about 15 minutes after I came down. She was wearing a pale blue one-piece bathing suit (naturally). It was pretty conventional and even kind of old-fashioned, but at least it didn't have one of those old lady skirts on it.

I could tell she was trying to figure out what to do about me. She probably would have liked to be able to not have anything to do with me, but with everyone else there, it would look suspicious and the kids or my parents might start asking questions.

I offered to spray some sunscreen on for her. She looked at me a little suspiciously, but then relented and even lowered the straps of her swimsuit so I could cover her shoulders. She let me go ahead and spray the back of her legs, but when I started moving around to her front, she took the can from me and said, "I think I can handle that, thank you."

When the two of us had finished, I passed the sunscreen along for everyone else to use.

We spent about two hours swimming and splashing and playing on the beach. Then we went back up to the house. My dad cooked up a bunch of hot dogs for us on the grill and my mom had made potato salad so we had a picnic lunch followed by ice cream.

After lunch, we were moving into the hottest part of the day. I'd gotten up really early that morning for the drive and so I was getting ready for a nap. I think everyone was ready for some downtime for the afternoon.

I went back up to my room for a nap. I took off my damp bathing suit and hung it over one of the radiators to dry out. I didn't bother to put on any boxers or shorts, so I was just wearing my T-shirt, and went ahead and pulled down the bedspread.

* * *

I thought I heard some sort of a sound at the door of my room. I paused for a moment, but didn't hear anything more. I started going around to the other side of the bed, and heard something again. I wasn't sure what was going on. Instead of heading for the door, I walked over in the direction of my closet. Then I walked very quietly along the wall towards the door. When I got there, I pulled the door open. There was Marilyn in her bathing suit, kneeling down and now suddenly caught off balance.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

She looked up at me, totally embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. I don't know what to say, except I'm sorry."

"Were you peeping through the keyhole at me? Why would you do that?"

She looked as if she was ready to cry. "Yes, I was. I'm sorry. I'm just so embarrassed. I don't know why I would even think of doing something like that."

For some reason I wasn't really feeling angry, just curious. "I don't understand. What's going on? Look, why don't you come in and tell me? We don't need to have the kids hear any of this."

She followed me in, and I sat down cross-legged on the bed and motioned for her to sit down facing me. She got on the bed and sat there cross-legged.

I saw her looking down at my cock. "Uh, did you want to put something on to cover up?" she asked.

"You already saw it this morning. No big deal. I just want to know more about what's going on. I mean this isn't the way I remember you being."

"No, it's not. But I really screwed up everything in my life, and now I don't know what to do."

* * *

Marilyn paused, and then began, "I don't know how much you know about my so-called marriage and how it ended."

"So-called? I just knew you had married that guy Billy you had been going with for a long time," I said. "Apparently, you guys ran off and eloped right after high school, and then you ended up getting divorced pretty soon after that."

Marilyn looked down. She said in a quiet voice, "We didn't get divorced. The marriage was annulled."

"Oh?" I said, "I didn't hear that. What does that mean? What's the difference?"

"Basically, it's kind of a way of saying the marriage never happened. It's kind of less complicated legally, and it keeps me from having to say that I'm divorced. Not that that's a big deal these days, but whatever. And the truth is, in a lot of ways, it never really did happen."

"Didn't happen? What?" Was this really the Marilyn who had freaked out her family by eloping with her boyfriend rather than going to college?

Marilyn had always been pretty quiet and reserved. I certainly hadn't been expecting her to be telling me about her personal life like this. On the other hand, how many other people could she talk about this with? I was her cousin, and we had known each other since childhood, so maybe that made me safer to tell her story to.

I guess she decided this was her chance to get all of this out. Even if it was embarrassing.

Marilyn sat there for a moment, as if trying to decide whether to go on. Finally, she said, "The thing is, it wasn't really about the marriage.

"The whole thing started way earlier, back in junior high. In sixth grade, I started developing breasts. I was the first one of my friends with breasts, and by seventh grade, every guy in my class, and pretty much every guy in the whole school, knew who I was, and they were all staring at me every chance they got. The other girls in my class were pissed at all the attention I was getting from the boys. I even had kind of a nickname among some of the kids -- 'Boobs.' I mean no one told me directly, but I overheard it in the hallways more than once. And it wasn't just the guys calling me that. Even girls I knew were talking about me that way. I didn't have anyone I could be sure was on my side.

"I was shy anyway, and getting all that attention for having breasts freaked me out. All the other girls would be talking about the guys in our class and how cute they were and how much they'd like to go out with them. And all I could think was, 'They would just want me for my boobs.' I was on a totally different wavelength from everyone else."

Having just seen her boobs, I could understand how she felt...but, of course, I could also imagine myself as one of the boys... Damn. Why was that image of her boobs from this morning front and center in my mind again? Maybe she could take her bathing suit off and tell her story that way? I mean, I was sitting there with my dick hanging out -- wouldn't it be fair to kind of balance it out?

* * *

"I had met Billy in eighth grade," Marilyn continued, "but we didn't start hanging out until high school. Looking back, I can see he was pretty nerdy -- not smart nerdy, more just socially awkward -- but at the time, I liked him because he wasn't spending all his time staring at my boobs. It was like we were just buddies. I don't think he had any other real friends at school.

"By high school, the other girls were starting to talk about kissing boys and making out, and some of them were starting to talk about more than that. I was still pretty traumatized by what I had experienced with boys and my boobs, and so the fact that Billy and I weren't doing any of that was fine with me -- probably better than fine.

"I knew Billy went to church every Sunday, and his family was pretty religious. I mean, in my family, none of us went to church, but I figured maybe that was part of why Billy was not like the other boys. And back then, I pretty much liked it that way.

"Because we spent so much time together, we became an 'item.' People figured we were going out together and that we were probably doing the same kinds of stuff as other people. We weren't, of course, but at least I didn't have to worry about guys hitting on me, or maybe trying to get somewhere with me just to brag to their friends.

"It was a little strange when there would be school dances, especially junior and senior proms. Neither of us was much of a dancer -- Billy was god-awful, to tell the truth. As far as the shake-your-booty kinds of dances, it didn't make all that much difference. But when it came to the slow dances, it was kind of embarrassing. Other couples would be all over each other, and making out if the chaperones were out of sight, and there we were, bad dancers anyway, but leaving lots of 'room for Jesus,' as they say."

Billy was a total goddam idiot was all I could think. What a fucking moron. What was wrong with him? I was glad my parents never tried to make me go to church.

Marilyn kept going with her story. "It wasn't as if nothing at all was happening, I guess. Billy was fine with hugging -- I suppose people hug in church services all the time -- and I kept telling myself that that was kind of, almost like, making out? I would tell myself that Billy was just going slow, that it was a sign of how much he respected me, and his being so religious? Still, in spite of my history, I was starting to feel envious of those girls who would talk about all the making out they had been doing. I guess I probably wouldn't even have minded if Billy had tried something more than that. I didn't want to think I was horny. That would have been gross. But the feeling of missing out on something was definitely growing.

"I mean the thing was, I knew Billy was really into the whole religion thing, but it wasn't like everybody in his church was all that pure. He told me that there was a girl in his church who'd gotten pregnant with her boyfriend, who was also a member of the church. None of this was announced officially or anything. I suppose that some people thought she might end up quietly getting an abortion and take care of it that way. But she didn't, and they ended up having to get married at the church. After that, people pretended they were happy for them, but everyone knew. And it meant that, whatever plans they might have had otherwise, neither of them was in a situation to go on to college.