The Harem

The Harem Ch 2

Mark took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Exams were over and he had passed. His final grades weren't posted, but they were good enough for him to graduate. Maybe even good enough to get into a state college. Not that he was going to apply to school just yet... if ever. He was going to spend the summer working with a construction crew that he had worked with every summer for the last four years. He was going to spend the fall doing more of the same, assuming he didn't find any job offers he liked better, and in the spring he would consider the question of applying to college again.

He took another deep breath.

It was a good plan. Mom, River, and Rachel all agreed. Liz was acting kind of weird about it, but she was staying at home and attending the local community college for the next two years at least. They could stay together for a little longer and Mark couldn't understand what her problem was. Things had been getting weird ever since finals. Like she had expected him to fail?

He shook his head. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that he was on edge even though exams were over. School was basically over and he was still on the edge of losing his shit every time someone from school so much as looked at him. Even the friends he had made in his grade were grating on his nerves with every weird glance and awkward joke.

Deep breath. "Focus on the now."

He opened his eyes and looked at himself in the mirror. He looked good in a tuxedo. It was a simple, traditional black tuxedo and vest with a white shirt and black bow-tie. Simple, elegant. Classic. He felt powerful in a tux. He felt good dressed up, like maybe people would finally pay attention to him and treat him like a man instead of a problem child. For the first time in a while, he felt the beast steady in his chest. He was absolutely convinced he could go to prom without getting into a fight.

He straitened his tux and went to the basement where his family was waiting for him with cameras. Everyone loved photography. They had temporarily converted the basement into a quasi studio with a bookcase for a backdrop and three different cameras on tripods for different angles and frames. After a handful of different poses Rachel jumped into the picture. The rest of the family was planning to go out to fancy dinner themselves once Mark left, "So I don't stay up all night worrying about you," Mom had said.

Rachel wore a simple, red evening dress that draped over her body, completely obscuring it from view. It would have been a flattering dress if she had a body like a rail, or if it had been the least bit tailored for her, but she was too curvy for it and the dress ended up hanging off her breasts like a sack. She liked it because she thought it hid her belly and butt, but Mark thought she would have looked much better with something more form fitting. He often day dreamed about the kinds of clothes she could wear, the kinds of outfits she could pull off with just a bit of confidence. He often day dreamed, as he did at that moment, about how sexy and beautiful her hourglass waist could look with the right clothes... or no clothes at all. As Rachel took his arm, Mark rather self consciously used his tux to hide what he felt was an obvious and still growing bulge in his pants. She took his arm like she was his date for prom and pressed into him until he felt her breasts warp around his arm and press into his side. He knew she was wearing a bra - her breasts were too large for her to go out comfortably without one, but he couldn't feel it.

He wanted to feel it, but even more he wanted to not feel it. He wanted to think that Rachel was braless there, pressing her tits into him so that he could feel her. He knew it wasn't right to think of his sister this way. He knew that he should love her and respect her enough to think of her as a beautiful, lovely, wonderful person and not just as a sexy and incredibly hot piece of ass pressing her almost naked breasts into him. But he wanted to feel those breasts. He wanted to feel her hard nipples pressing into his side. He tried to adjust a bit more so that his growing cock wouldn't be forever memorialized in his prom pictures with his sister.

"That's a great picture," River said as their mom snapped shots of the two of them. "How about a kiss for the camera?"

Rachel smiled, reached up on her tip toes and planted a kiss on Mark's cheek. Mark, believing he was supposed to kiss Rachel on the cheek, leaned his face towards Rachel and the same time and what should have been an innocent, chaste display of affection between siblings, turned into a startled, lingering kiss on the lips.

At first they froze, as they realized what happened. Mark panicked thinking that Rachel would think him a freak for kissing her like this even as he thought of himself as a freak for wanting it so much. He panicked even more because he knew that he enjoyed the feel of her breasts and lips against him and that the evidence of his enjoyment would soon be noticeable to her. He panicked because he quite simply didn't know what to do.

Then he felt Rachel melt into his lips. He felt her body relax into his more. He felt her submit to his kiss and he wanted to hold her, to cradle the back of her head with one hand as he gently took her with his lips. Everything happened so quickly that Mark wasn't sure if it had lasted too long for it to be unnoticed for all that it felt too short to be satisfactory.

It lasted a moment.

It lasted an eternity.

"Hey Mom," River said, startling the two out of their kiss. "You should join them."

Mark saw his mom start at the suggestion as River took the camera control from her. "Stand on Mark's other side and I'll get some pictures of the three of you."

Mark watched his mom as she walked toward them. It wasn't a long walk, just a handful of steps, but Mark felt like he was watching her saunter towards him across an impossible distance. Her hair was piled up atop her head, showing off her delicate neck. The black cocktail dress had full length lace sleeves that showcased her olive skin, and lace decolletage showing off her cleavage, which while modest compared to Rachel's, was nonetheless enthralling. The black dress clung to her as she swung her hips towards the two of them in strides that revealed more of her thighs than Mark thought women in their 40s were supposed to show. Not that he was complaining. His cock expressed just how much it appreciated the display of mature confidence and allure as Mom took her place on Marks left, opposite Rachel. She didn't cling to Mark's arm, but she did wrap one arm around his shoulders as she tucked in close enough for Mark to feel the heat of her bare skin against his tux. She hugged him fiercely.

"My Little Man has grown up, hasn't he?"

Mark struggled to process the words as he felt his mom's very much braless tits press into him. He felt her nipples harden through the fabric of her dress and through his tuxedo. He felt the heat of her legs rubbing against left thigh until he thought she was going to lift her leg all the way to his now obvious bulge. Mark thanked God for his meditation practice that helped him to keep his breathing steady, even as his heart pounded in his ears and the desire to wrap his arms around both his mother and sister and hold them and possess them dragged at him like the tide. He wanted to caress and lick and kiss every inch of their bodies. He wanted to feel them quiver with pleasure under his touch. He wanted to own them.

"How about a kiss for Mom?" River said from behind the camera. "Like you did with Rach?"

Mark hesitated. He felt the Beast rise up in his chest with rage at being denied this conquest it so fiercely desired. He was torn up from every angle, he felt his control hanging by a thread as he wanted to kiss his mother and more while at the same time, freaking out over the possibility.

Then he felt his mother's cool hand on his cheek, turning his face to her. Their eyes met, and Mark thought he saw understanding and compassion in those eyes as he always did. Eyes that said she'd love him no matter what happened. The look and touch soothed the Beast enough so that when Mark, unable to hold himself back, leaned in to kiss his mother, he did it with gentle love and not uncontrolled desire. Just as Rachel had, Mark felt his mother's body submit to his kiss that was simple, loving, almost chaste, except for the heat of Mark's lips on his mother's, and for the brush of Susan's hard nipples against her son.

When Mark pulled back, he looked from his mother, to his sister, to his brother. "Set the cameras to take shots every couple of seconds," Mark said, "and join us. Family photo time."

His words were calm, banal even. But his tone was demanding and left no room to argue. River didn't even try. He set the timer on the cameras then stood in front of his family. "How should I stand?" He asked.

"In front of me, of course. You're short enough that you won't block Mom in heels or me." Mark freed his left arm from his mom and gestured to the space in front of him.

Once again, his words were simple and plain, but his tone was commanding and River did not conceive to do anything other than exactly what his little brother had told him to do. River wore a suit that was too large on him. Unlike Rachel, his primary motivation was not to hide his body (although he liked that he could), but to make himself appear larger than he was. The effect was the opposite of course and made him seem all the smaller and more frail. As with Rachel, it didn't take much of Mark's imagination to envision his baby brother in something that fit him better. But he only could think of women's clothing. He imagined River wearing a suit cut for a woman's body, or a dress like the one Mom was wearing. He could probably pull off the dress Rachel was wearing since he didn't have the cleavage that hid her body.

Something about that was especially enthralling. As River turned to face the camera, Mark took his free left hand and wrapped it around his brother's waist.

"Closer," he softly commanded. He didn't pull River in. He wasn't going to force him, but Mark wanted River as close as he wanted his mother and sister. He wanted to be touching all of them, and he wanted them touching him.

River took a half step back.

"Closer," Mark said again.

"If I'm any closer I'll step on you," River argued as the pictures flashed.

The Beast swelled out of Mark's chest and surged down his arm. In a single forceful move he pulled River up against his body until his cock was pressed firmly into River's ass. River let out a gasp of surprise, (a gasp of pleasure?) but did not fight Mark as the lights from the camera flashed.

Mom was straddling his left leg. Rachel was hanging on his right arm. Both women had their breasts pressing into his body, and Mark ground his cock into River's ass. He was so hard he could barely contain himself. He was certain this was going to end soon. He was certain someone was going to call a halt and say, "that's enough for now." He was certain this was as good as it was going to get until River pressed his ass against Mark in an act that was unmistakable for anything other than what it was. River let out a slight breath with the barest hint of a moan as he repeated the move and Mark felt his cock looking for the cleft of River's ass.

"A kiss?" Mom asked, "You kissed Rachel and me; you should kiss River as well, don't you think?"

Mark was head and shoulders taller than the twins, so it was easy for him to look down at his older brother who looked up at the same time. In the split-second River looked up, Mark saw the heated, glazed look in his brother's eyes, the slightly parted lips of his mouth and the flush creeping up from his collar. Then he bent down and kissed River with all the same tenderness and dominating gentleness he had expressed with his mother and sister. He felt River nearly collapse in his arm. Had Mark not pinned River to his body, River would have fallen to the floor.

Mark expected kissing River to be noticeably different than kissing his mother or sister if only because River was a man. And for all that Mark thought he could feel the slight brush of River's soft and generally invisible faicial hair, Mark was surprised at how normal it felt to kiss him. He had never experimented with boys before, and he wasn't sure if he ever would. Except for River. He'd make an exception for River every time.

No one knew what to do next as the lights continued to flash. They might have stayed that way for hours. They might have canceled their plans and done something else entirely. Things might have progressed right then and there if Mark's phone alarm, telling him that he needed to go pick up his girlfriend, hadn't sounded just then.

Susan and her twins went to dinner at a French restaurant on the riverfront called Dinons Sur le Rhone. Not that the river was the Rhone, it was the much more prosaic Potomac, and they did not dine ON the water so much as BY it, but such semantics were wildly unimportant as the Amren family parked the family Crossover SUV. River was driving. He was rather insistent on it which was so completely out of character that Rachel and Susan acquiesced with little fuss. He drove them to dinner. He got out first and opened the car doors for them. He held out an arm to each in an awkwardly contrived gesture which the women took with equally awkward contrivance, and the three of them walked to the front door giving River the opportunity to be the man of the hour, triumphantly escorting his ladies to dinner.

The restaurant was lovely. Decorated in a comfortable, intimate old world style it only offered private booths for the diners. It wasn't that the restaurant was exclusive, it was that they purposefully limited the number of guests to provide as intimate and personalized an event as possible.

"Would you care to order any drinks before your waiter arrives?" The hostess was a lovely woman a bit younger than Susan, dressed in an impeccable pant suit that was as sexy as it was classy. River didn't know how to describe it beyond that.

"I think-" River said about to order for them all, but Susan interrupted.

"I'm sorry dear, but your taste in wine is... not mine," she finished. "The Bordeaux please."

"Yes Ma'am," the hostess said. Her attention was completely off River, and entirely on Susan as though the former had never been anything more than a secondary thought.

River hunched his shoulders and withdrew into himself as the hostess poured their water and left to place their wine order.

"What is up with you?" Rachel asked her brother.

"Nothing," River said, "I'm just feeling off."

"It's Mark, isn't it?" Susan asked. River and Rachel both flinched slightly in their seats and yet managed to turn innocent, unknowing expressions at their mother. Susan just smiled. "It's one thing to see him grow up. But to see him in a tux for prom really brings it home. Our little man is all grown up." She sighed. "Pretty soon he's going to be thinking about moving out and finding some girl to settle down with."

"Mom don't be like that," River said, "It isn't like he's moving out tomorrow. He'll stick around a while longer."

"And so will we," Rachel said. "Right, River?"

"Yeah," River reached across the table and took his mom's hand. "It's not like the family is dispersing to the four winds tonight."

Susan took her children's hands in her own. The three of them exchanged looks that clearly told each other just how much love they shared. Was this the moment Susan had been waiting for? They were pretty much alone, no one would overhear them, the mood was right, and she was reasonably certain that everyone was thinking about their own kiss with Mark earlier in the evening.

"Listen guys -"

But then the waitress appeared with their wine and menus and the moment was lost.

Mark did not scowl. He smiled politely and even managed to be charming as Liz's parents insisted on taking picture after picture of the two of them. But it wasn't the pictures that made Mark want to scowl. It wasn't the artificiality of Prom, or the constant nagging of Liz's parents, or the posturing of her dad which was laughable, or even the way that her younger brother kept on making snide comments about Mark. Mark knew the little shit was trying to get under his skin, he was trying to provoke Mark into beating the snot out of him, but the Beast didn't care about Liz's Dad or her idiot, snot-nosed little brother.

The Beast was angry because Liz looked like a little girl.

Her blond hair was done up in elaborate princess braids that emphasized her youthful face. Her make up made Mark think of bubble gum and pink plastic tea parties. Her dress was an eye watering watercolor mix of pink, rose, and pale lavender with a bodice/skirt design that flattened her chest and evoked the sense of a girl traipsing out on stage for her first ballet recital in a romantic style tutu. When she leaned against Mark in a pose very similar to the one that Rachel had taken in the basement it felt like he was a prop for a pre-pubescent girl to express her budding sexuality rather than a partner. Rachel and Mom, hell even River had made him feel like he was standing with partners. It didn't matter that they let him take the lead, that there had been a moment of erotic submission - that didn't matter. They accepted him on equal grounds first. They made the Beast feel at home. Now he felt used - as though she had paraded him around like a trophy she had recently won: the Beast on a Leash.

Her mother thought it was adorable. Her father did as well. Mark was embarrassed, but he kept his mouth shut and his temper even all the way to the house where the pre-prom party was being held.

As Marked parked the car he realized that Liz had stopped talking a couple of minutes before and they were sitting in blissful silence. Enough silence to settle his nerves. Enough silence to pull the Beast back from the ledge. He closed his eyes and took a deep, but quiet breath, hoping that Liz wouldn't notice.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"Nothing's the matter," Mark lied. "I just need some air."

"You know half the guys at school would be thrilled to have me as their date for prom. Not their girlfriend, just their prom date. You know that right? And you didn't even make a big deal about asking me to prom."

"Liz -"

But she didn't let him finish. "No great prom-posal, no grand gestures or signs or roses in the middle of class. Nothing. You sat next to me in the cafeteria and said, 'Are we going to prom?' Like it was a chore."

"Liz I'm not a gesture kind of guy."

But Liz wasn't listening to what he had to say. "You haven't even said anything about my dress. I thought you were going to beat up my brother back at the house, and my dad was ready to call the cops. You haven't said one nice thing about me or to me all night, and I'm supposed to believe you "just need some air"?" She threw her hands up in disgust. "Ugh. Whatever. I'm going inside. Let me know when you're ready to be my boyfriend, and maybe we won't skip the after party." She opened the door of Mark's old sedan and stalked towards the house party, slamming the door behind her.

Mark didn't flinch at the display of his girlfriend's temper or the slamming of the door. The threat rankled though. Because of course they would still go to prom together, but she got to decide about the extra's afterwards. If SHE didn't go to the after party, he would not be allowed to go. Even if he went but "we" didn't go to the after party, then they were definitely not going to the hotel. That threat, more than the display of temper, had his hackles up and it took him an extra minute or two to calm down. He looked at the prom tickets and the hotel key card he picked up earlier as he rolled down his window to get some of that fresh spring air he had been craving. If he was a Beast on the Leash, then she obviously thought that sex was the leash. She wasn't all wrong. The sex was good enough that it kept the beast quiet. Not as quiet as an hour of meditation, but quiet.