Jane was a light sleeper to begin with, but the night in question she hadn't been sleeping at all, merely lying in bed letting her mind wander. It was a Friday night, and her son and daughter had left her with a large, empty house. This was happening much more frequently now that it was summer and her kids were spending more nights out with their friends. This probably wasn't enough to bother most widowed mothers, but Jane's maternal instinct was on edge.
Mia and Ben were as close as any pair of siblings Jane had ever seen. The only possible exception was her relationship with her own brother, Henry, but lately she suspected her son and daughter were unnaturally close. The root of it went back ten years, to the time the kids' father was tragically dying. At the time, Mia was nine and her brother eleven. In his final days, Ben's father took him aside and explained that he would be the man of the family, and that it was up to him to look out for his little sister.
"What about Mom?" the concerned boy had asked his fading father.
Jane had been eavesdropping, and Ben's question brought tears to her eyes.
"Of course you'll need to look out for Mom, too," her late husband replied in the weak voice he had in those last few days. "She'll need you to be strong for her, but she also has her own big brother, your Uncle Henry. He'll be checking in from time to time, I'm sure. But Mia," the dying man paused, "she looks up to you and she's gonna need you to show her the way and keep her safe."
Jane had always been so impressed that Ben took his father's deathbed advice to heart and barely left his little sister's side for the next ten years. He treated his sweet little Mia like a princess, and there were a few times he got in trouble for beating on boys at school who'd said things to make her cry. This became a more common occurrence as Mia entered her teen years and began developing curves that wouldn't stop blooming. She wasn't a chubby girl, by any means, but she was thickly built and shapely. By the time she graduated she was as voluptuous as any bikini model, and more than most.
It wasn't like Mia was unaware of the effect she had on the males around her. She was. She simply wasn't fully aware. During her school years, she became more interested in fashion and makeup than her studies with the unusual urge to make sure she always looked good for her brother. She loved that Ben was so proud and attentive toward her and she wanted to keep it that way. Yet this also drew the attention of every other man and boy in town. But after the first couple of overzealous boys ended up with blackened eyes and bloodied noses, courtesy of Mia's protective big brother, the local males safely adopted a look-but-don't-touch policy.
Realizing his little sister's effect on men, Ben started working out and studied martial arts. He wanted to be ready to handle anything when and if he were called upon to defend his curvaceous sister's dignity.
Now that Mia was nineteen and Ben was twenty-one, the pair acted more like a couple than siblings, which caused their mother no shortage of concern. Mia now idolized Ben like no one else after years of looking to him for advice, love and protection. And Mia was Ben's princess. In his eyes she could do no wrong. Ben was a straight A student on top of being fit and capable. He was popular with girls, but Mia was the only one he treated like an unblemished angel. It shouldn't have come as a surprise to Jane that on top of everything else, her kids were best friends and did things together far more than they ever dated anyone outside the family.
Jane understood how her kids felt about each other probably better than they did. Now forty, she was still fit and beautiful, with looks and a body that left no one wondering where her daughter's incredible appeal came from. Yet she was a woman with secrets. The kind she could never tell anyone, least of all her own offspring. But she often thought she might have to in order to save them from suffering the same kind of heartache she had.
It was past midnight that Friday night, now Saturday morning, when Ben and Mia came into the house laughing. It was far from the first time Jane had heard her daughter and son come in late giggling over whatever fun they'd been having. Mia let out a sudden shriek that was louder than she meant it to be, which was followed by more laughter between the siblings with Ben cautioning her to keep from waking up their mother.
After that, the giggling became softer and their voices dropped to murmurs Jane couldn't distinguish. There was no way she was getting to sleep anytime soon, so she quietly got out of bed and tiptoed toward the end of the hallway.
The ground floor of the house was mostly an open floor plan except for a guest room and home office toward the rear. The rest was kitchen, dining area and a living room that all flowed together without walls. The upstairs was built as a loft that took up about two-thirds of the area the first floor had. Past the bedrooms was an open, balcony type area with a railing that looked down on the floor below.
There were only two houses like it in the wooded development they lived in. Jane's late husband had been in the construction business and had maneuvered his way into a good deal on a large tract of land that he divided into individual plots and built upscale houses. He'd kept the nicest for his family, while Jane's brother lived in the only comparable house about a quarter mile away. With a few of the properties also being held onto as rentals, the family had been left extremely well off.
Jane came out as far as she dared, not wanting Ben and Mia to know she was awake. She'd had unsettling feelings about their unusual closeness for a long time. She didn't know what to expect, and based on her own history she could never be sure just how close they were. Yet. But in the back of her mind she knew it was only a matter of time before the unthinkable happened. Or was she simply being paranoid and letting her own past cloud her judgement?
She spotted her son now sitting at the end of the couch with his sister sitting half sideways, leaning her back against him. He had his arm around her shoulders and was lightly stroking her arm. This was nothing unusual for Ben and Mia. They'd been affectionate that way for years already. Jane never thought there was anything wrong with it. Despite her own personal history, she didn't think it would lead to anything shameful. If anything, it made her happy to know her kids weren't afraid to show they loved each other. So many of their friends had siblings they constantly fought with.
But that night they'd been out and Jane could tell they'd probably done some drinking with their friends. And the way Mia was dressed wasn't the most appropriate way for cuddling with her big brother. She was wearing a tight pair of white denim shorts and a pink tank top that scooped down low between her outsized tits. Jane wore C cup bras herself, so she knew her daughter was at least a D cup if not even DD. It was also easy to tell she wasn't wearing a bra and with her brother's arm around her his hand was dangling close to his sister's bust.
The way Mia and Ben were sitting might've been unusual for average siblings, but it was perfectly routine for them. It was the conversation they were having that really made their mother's ears perk. She knew they've been doing a little drinking with their friends, but they never seemed to overdo it so Jane didn't say anything about it. She supposed she shouldn't have been surprised that people their age liked to experiment in other ways too, but her son and daughter were about to open their mother's eyes to something she'd tried not to think about.
"I can't believe you actually kissed me in front of everyone," Mia giggled heartily, like she was boasting and not at all complaining about being kissed by her brother. "Did you see the look on everybody's face? They couldn't believe you really did it."
Jane's heart nearly stopped at the sound of her daughter's words.
"They were just jealous 'cuz I got to kiss the most beautiful girl there."
"Awww, Benny, you're sweet."
"It's true, though. Besides, you kissed me back so I guess you didn't mind."
Mia made a distinct purring sound. "I liked it," she admitted in a loud whisper. "Besides, I didn't want to kiss any of those other guys."
"They all sure wanted to kiss you, though," her brother mused with a light chuckle.
"They were watching us like horny hawks," Mia giggled.
"We gave them a pretty good show, didn't we, sis?" her brother said, laughing again.
"They'll be talking about it forever," she said proudly. "You're a really amazing kisser, you know."
"You, too, little sister."
"I guess I just liked it so I got into it. Is that really weird?"
"Nah. I was into it too."
They got quiet a minute or so after that. In her shaded hiding place, their mother felt relieved. So they shared a naughty kiss. They were probably goaded into it by their tipsy friends. Peer pressure. Sure, they liked it, but it looked like they were back to normal, or at least what was normal for them.
"Benny? Can I ask you something?" Mia broke the silence.
"Of course."
"Did you ever kiss anybody you really loved ... like a lot?"
