The Price of Empathy

I didn't hear the car pull up. Normally, he'd rev the big V8 as he pulled into the driveway and slam the door as he got out. The horn would sound as he used the clicker to lock it as he crunched over the gravel drive toward the door, but today I didn't hear any of that. I'd missed the sound of the lock turning, or the rattle of his keys as he dropped them on the table beside the door -- I'd only been aware of her moaning as I'd pulled her nipple with my teeth and slid my hand over the soft curve of her thigh.

The sunlight pouring through the window lit her red hair, the bright curls softened by grey as it flowed over the pillow, and making her pale skin glow against the dark, crinkled sheets. The soft pink of her tightened nipple glistened slightly, the wetness of my mouth leaving droplets on its peak. Our lips met and she hungrily devoured my tongue while wrapping her legs around my hips, groaning into my mouth as I penetrated her, sliding my cock deep inside her. Her back arched, and her nails dug into my back as her body stiffened.

Her body stiffened.

'What was that?'

'What was what baby?' I pushed myself into her again, gliding my full length through her wetness. Bonnie made a choked gasping noise.

'Downstairs. There's somebody downstairs. Christ, Tom, your father...' That got my attention. I looked up and met her eyes; there was panic in them.

'It was probably nothing, just the wind maybe?' But I was already on my feet, my cock flapping wetly against my abdomen as I pulled out of her and struggled off her and to the windows, peeking around the open curtain.

'Fuck. Fuck!' I snatched at my clothes on the floor.

'What?' There was fear in Bonnie's voice now too.

'His car. The fucking Ford is parked in the street. Why is he home now?' I paused a second and stared, horrified at my step-mother. 'Jesus, he doesn't know anything does he?'

'No! At least I don't think so.' But I wasn't listening anymore. I was frantically searching for all my clothes.

'My jocks. Where the fuck are my jocks?' I was getting frantic and I knew it.

'Forget them! Get out! Get the fuck out of here!' Bonnie hissed. 'I can hear him on the stairs!'

I was already at the door and looked back at her one last time. Here she was, naked, on the bed -- she hadn't even managed to close her legs yet, her slick pussy lips still peaked between her clipped, red bush. As if reading my thoughts she snapped them closed and snatched at the blankets.

'Go!' There was anger in her voice now, as if this was all my fault. 'Get out!'

And with that I was in the hallway, naked, the ponderous footsteps of my father creaking slowly up that stairs. Heart pounding, I dashed as quietly as could to the nearest door, swinging through it and softly pulling closed the last few inches, falling against it in the darkness of the room. I closed my eyes, listening as Dad flung open the bedroom door his raised voice muffled to the point where I couldn't distinguish the words. Something about being caught -- the tone was angry.

Bonnie's voice now, barely audible over the dull thudding of doors being wrenched open. I could picture the old man, rifling the wardrobes and checking under the bed. He was a thorough old bastard: he would probably yank the curtains off the rails and look under the cushions just to make sure. I released a breath I hadn't realised I'd been holding and slumped to the floor. Too close. Way, way too close.

The movement caught me by surprise; I hadn't really considered where I was until it happened. It started as a slight movement of the covers as Jess moved in her bed, and in a heartbeat I knew I was fucked. I took it all in -- the sheets, the cluttered dresser covered in makeup and hair product, the drawn, contemporary floral curtains, everything. Jess' room.

Me: collapsed by her door and as naked as a baby, with my cock still hard and covered in her mother's juices.

Again I stopped breathing. Just go to sleep.

Go back to sleep!

There it was, the outside chance, a barest thread of hope at which to grasp. Her eyes fluttered open.

Fuck

. They took a moment to focus in the dim light; took just a second for her sleep affected brain to begin to register. Her step brother, naked, hiding on her floor. And there she was, suddenly bolt upright, her back hard against the bed head, fully awake and glaring at me in incomprehensive anger.

'What the fuck are you doing? Get out of here!' Loudly. Too loudly. I winced, and pressed my index finger to my lips. It was shaking. At least I found the presence of mind to finally cover my cock with the clothes I still clutched.

'Sssh! Quiet!' I said. 'Oh please Jess, please. Just be quiet.' I was just plain begging now.

'Seriously what the..?' She was cut off by a muffled shout from outside the door, followed a moment later by her mother's raised voice. 'Why are you naked? What have you done?'

'I'll explain everything, Jess. Just please, please, be...quiet!' I said, without once pausing to wonder how. The abrupt banging on the door startled my already tattered nerves.

'Jessica?' My father. 'Everything all right in there? I thought I heard you call out.' I swear I could hear the pounding of my heartbeat as silence descended. Jess regarded me coldly, her furious glare burning into me. I tried to sink deeper into the floor, as the longest half a second ever ticked slowly away. Jess' jaw clenched.

'It's fine,' she called out, her emerald eyes never for a moment leaving mine. 'I just woke and heard shouting. What's going on out there?'

'Your mother and I are...well, it's none of your business, really.' I could hear his footsteps stomping off, followed by a door slamming.'

The room again descended into a chilly silence. Even the argument in the bedroom down the hall had faded away.

'Well?' Jess demanded. She swung her legs out from under the covers, her tight bikini panties concealing only what they functionally had to: the long pale skin of her legs very reminiscent of her mothers. I tried hard not to notice. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out, so I closed it again and swallowed. 'Out with it Tom. Out with it right this instant or I will march down there and tell my mother that-' she stopped. 'My mother,' she said again, distantly. 'Oh my God. My mother.' The realisation gradually dawned. 'That's what got Daryl in such a mood. You...you're sleeping with my mother.' She stared at me, mouth open. I clenched my jaw.

'Yes. Alright? I'm fucking Bonnie. And if you don't shut the fuck up, Her, me, Dad...even you; we're all screwed. Everything will be gone, just like that. You want that? Yes, we're horrible people. Yes, we deserve everything we have coming. But fuck Jess, let's try to avoid that yeah?' My voice was just a whisper, quiet enough that my step-sister stepped toward me automatically to hear. The tight, olive t-shirt she wore fit her well enough to hug the curve of her waist and breast, fitted enough that even in the dim light I couldn't help but note she wasn't wearing a bra; the peak of her nipples visible bouncing slightly under the fabric. When she spoke, Jess compliantly lowered her voice.

'So what? I'm just supposed to ignore the fact that you've betrayed you own father and defiled my mum? Fuck, Tom. I thought you were a better man than that.' The barb stung, as it was intended. I clambered awkwardly back to my feet, clutching my bunched clothing against me to cover my still engorged cock.

'No, I'm sure the subject will be discussed at length,' sounding more sarcastic than I'd intended. I placed my ear against the door. The corridor outside was quiet, and I hadn't heard the master bedroom move since it had been slammed. 'Now, if you'll excuse me?' I reached for the doorknob.

'Where the fuck do you think you're going?' I was genuinely surprised.

'Well, I didn't think you'd want me here...'

'No. No way. We talk about this now. I don't give a fuck if you're uncomfortable, naked and reek of sex. We sort this out now.'

'"Sort this out?" How in the hell are we going to do that Jess?' I grabbed the handle and turned toward the door.

'Get back here or I swear I'll scream.' I stopped cold, gradually turning to meet her gaze, horrified to discover that I was genuinely scared. There was something in the tone of her voice, some underlying edge which told me she meant it.

'Why? Why would you do that Jess?' I whispered, suddenly a whole lot less secure than I felt a moment ago. She shrugged.

'Because I really don't give a fuck? Because you've behaved like a proper arsehole, and genuinely deserve what you've got coming to you? Because while it may suck, Mum and I will get on with our lives, because that's what we have done before, and what we'll do again? Who knows.' My blood turned to ice.

'Jess, please...' It was all I could manage, suddenly without words. 'Why?' I repeated. It seemed like a reasonable question. Dad and Bonnie had been married five years now, since Jess and I had both been in our late teens. Her older sister, Rebecca, had left home since then so it had mostly just been the four of us. We'd always got along well enough considering all we had in common was our parent's relationship, so the fact that she was now threatening to tear it all apart was disconcertingly out of character. The fact that her stepbrother had just shown up bare arse naked in her bedroom while she slept notwithstanding, we had rarely had cause to clash. Jess just eyed me coldly.

'I want to know the same thing. Seriously. Why? Why are you fooling around with Mum? You look after yourself,' she nodded to the considerable muscle definition on my chest, 'and you could pull in any bar on any day of the week if you tried. So why screw over your own Dad for the sake of pussy?' She ran her the tip of her index finger across my chest, pausing when she reached my sternum, where she jabbed me hard enough for me to lose my balance. 'You cannot,

cannot

be that desperate for a fuck, surely.' I was taken aback by her abruptness. Quiet, reserved Jess didn't speak like this; the woman had blushed uncontrollably last Christmas during a discussion on the mating habits of dolphins for heaven's sake. 'So. I'm asking again. And I want an answer. And you'd better make it good.' I swallowed.

'Your mum and I...' I grasped for the words that might appease her, something, anything that might make this horror end. 'We're in lov-' In the dim light, I didn't even see her hand move, it just crashed into the side of my head like a brick. Suddenly the room was full of dancing bright lights and wouldn't stay entirely still.

'Bullshit! Fucking bullshit!' her voice was starting to rise again, the rage in her tone unmistakable. 'Why lie to me Tom? What do you gain from it?' Her seething face was now just inches from mine and I was struggling to focus. 'Now,' she hissed. 'One. Last. Chance. The truth this time. Or I will burn you both I swear to God.' I took some deep breaths, or tried to: they came in ragged, short gasps.

'She...she came on to me,' I began. Jess's hand struck again like a snake, latching onto my balls like a vice. The pain was instant and nauseating.

'My mum's no slut-'

'Wait!' I choked. 'It's the truth! Dad...he wasn't taking care of business, yeah? It was only meant to be a onetime thing. To help her out, until things got better between them. But it never did.'

'So...she came back to you? After that first time? Think carefully, Tom.' The grip on my gear was blinding, the two balls grinding together like millstones. I tried to breathe, fighting back the rising nausea as I looked into her eyes.

'I...offered. To her. That maybe we could...continue, as a more...permanent arrangement.'

'Because...?' Jess began to twist. I groaned.

'Because...' My temple throbbed where she'd hit me, and my balls felt as through she'd tear them off at any moment. 'She was an easy lay. Ok? There. Your fucking Mum is hot. Is that what you want to hear? I fucked her because it felt amazing and I can't wait to blow my load into her. Or all over her face.' Jess's expression barely changed, but the corners of her mouth might have drawn up into the vaguest smirk. 'Are you happy now? Is that what you wanted?' The grip on my sack relaxed slightly, and I felt a little less like I wanted to vomit on the floor.

Jess stepped closer, close enough to feel her breath on my cheek and the barest touch of her breasts on my chest. She smelled feminine; the scent of her floral scent of her hair filling my nostrils.

'See? The truth wasn't that hard, was it?' The words were soft, barely a whisper in my ear. With her fingers still tightly coiled around my balls, I couldn't bring myself to agree with her. 'So it boils down to this. You're a horny, miserable arsehole who is prepared to knife his father in the back to get balls deep in a forty something year old woman.' Her whispered breath on my ear was electric as the softness of her breasts again brushed over my body.

Oh God, no. Please not now

. The sensation was unmistakable; the slow, inexorable hardening of my cock against my body. With her hand where it was there was no way Jess would fail to notice. There was no fucking way that would make the situation any better.

'I'm...sorry.' It was all I could think of to say. What more could I? There was no taking back what we'd done, no pretending it didn't happen. We could stop, sure, and live our lives carrying an awkward, malignant secret, forever living in fear that someday somebody would get just a little too drunk or a bit too angry and spill the beans. And what about Bonnie? Shall I tell her we were busted, found out by her daughter who would now forever have that over her? Or just stop, leaving her to wonder why, whether she just wasn't quite good enough, or just a little too old.

'Sorry isn't good enough. You've hurt us. Hurt me.' Again the whisper against my ear. I swallowed.

'What more can I do Jess?' My voice came out shaky, my mind awash with horrible emotions and the inevitability of a bitter, destroyed future full of regret and lonelinss. So when Jess' teeth lightly clamped down on my earlobe, gently tugging the skin toward down toward her, there was a moment's confusion.

'I want you to make it up to me.' She may as well have been speaking Greek, as incomprehensible as the statement was to my emotion addled brain.

'You...want me to what?'

'I want you,' she began slowly, 'to make it up to me.' Her grip on my balls relaxed and whatever relief I may have felt evaporated instantly, as her long, warm fingers wrapped gently around the shaft of my cock, sliding gently over the soft skin. I jerked in surprise, inhaling sharply enough to elicit a flash of dirty amusement from my step-sister. 'I'm hurt,' she continued, a mock pout replacing her smile. 'Hurt that when you went trolling for pussy in my own house, you went to my mother. Not me. Mum.' Her hand slid languidly up and down, the shaft now fully erect. 'So what the fuck, Tom?' she whispered idly, her breath giving me goose bumps down my side. 'I mean, what's wrong with me? Are my tits too perky? My arse too tight? What? Whatever drove you to fuck Bonnie without even trying to hook up with me?'

My head swam. There were far too many conflicting thoughts and emotions barrelling around inside my skull; everything was changing too quickly. I tried to wrap my head around a coherent answer.

'I...never thought...I mean...' Jess raised her eyebrows in anticipation, patiently waiting for an answer as she idly played with my cock. 'I didn't think you'd be into it,' I finally managed to spit out. 'You didn't really ever strike me as being into...casual sex. And I'm your step brother for fuck's sake.'

'I see,' Jess replied flatly. 'Well, aren't we Mr. Moral High Ground now? Let's ignore for now the fact that instead you slept with your father's wife.' Oh, yeah. That. In one smooth motion, Jess lifted the t-shirt over her head, her naked breasts jiggling slightly in their freedom. I stopped breathing. Their milky, round bulk were topped by tightened, pink nub of her nipples; a smattering of freckles danced across her chest.

'This is how it is, Tom.' The words were whispered into my ear as she pressed herself against my chest, the bulk of her tits grinding against me. Her hand moved back to its place around my shaft. 'You are going to make it up to me. You and I? We're going to fuck. Long and hard. I want to come over and over again and you're going to make sure that happens. Her lips brushed my ear. 'Make me squeal. Or I will.'

The fact that I had just been effectively blackmailed was the furthest thing on my mind. Never, ever had I seen this dark, dominant side of my step sister before, never even had the idea that it might exist. She stepped back away from me, absently brushing a strand of her long red hair away from her face. It fell haphazardly over her pale, freckled shoulders. So like her mother, I couldn't help but notice. A lithe, firmer Bonnie; a little less rounded perhaps without the fuller, curvy figure, but the likeness was unmistakable. Jess read my thoughts.

'We've been mistaken for sisters, you know.' She didn't seem to expect a reply, just took my hand and led me toward the bed. 'Even naked we look similar.' She gave a sharp laugh. 'It grinds on Bec no end, always being the odd one out. Mummy and her little girl; like peas in a pod.' Jess moved against me, sliding around my body and forcing me against her bed. I felt the edge of her mattress press against the back of my knees. 'I wonder how else we're the same. I wonder if we feel the same, when you're inside us, Tom. Do we taste the same, do you think?' she leaned toward me and her lips closed over mine, her tongue probing inside my mouth, her hand firmly holding the back of my neck. 'Hmmm,' she said as she pulled away. 'You're going to have to do a lot better than that.'

She didn't even shove me hard, but I was distracted and already off balance. I fell backwards, landing amongst the crumpled duvet and cotton sheets. They smelled of her, the deep earthy aroma of body and it occurred to me briefly that I wasn't sure to which 'her' I was thinking -- so alike the two women were. She stood above me hands on her hips, the curves of her body lit by the afternoon light. Slowly, she pushed her underwear over her hips, over the creamy curves of her arse and down her long, pale legs. She bent to disentangle them from her toes and her breasts hung, dangling under their modest weight. With her legs apart slightly, she smooth bare skin between them starkly different from the ginger mane I had been enjoying earlier that day. Jess smiled.

'Of course, we're not exactly the same.' I couldn't decide where to look first. Her round, pale breasts, with their pale pink nipples tight and erect, the perfect curve of her hips as they glowed slightly in the diffused sunlight, or the way the pink folds of her pussy peaked from the shadows between her mound, as if a shy and withdrawn mystery. I certainly couldn't meet her eye.

'So,' I began, 'if we do this, you'll keep quiet? What will I tell your mother?' Jess made a mock pout, placing her knees wide over my legs, kneeling open over me on the bed.

'"If?" I really don't think you quite understand your position here Tom.' She leant forward, placing her hand either side of my chest, and her body prowled forward, a great cat closing on her kill. When her eyes looked down into mine she stopped, her lips just brushing mine as she spoke: 'and I wouldn't mention anything to Mum if I were you. Can't imagine I'd be too pleased if my daughter stole the man I was fucking.' I could feel the heat from her pussy hovering over my cock, and she rocked her hips just enough to graze the tip along the length of her cunt. I felt it glide effortlessly though the wetness.