Keryn grabbed the little device and checked who it was. Shit.
"Hey Dad," she said, trying to sound absolutely normal, if that was possible.
"Hey sweetheart!" he replied. "Haven't talked to you in a while, and I thought I'd call and see how you kids are doing."
"Good, good," she said. "Everything's fine. C.J. is playing a show with his band right now. I'm just resting. I had a busy week."
"Oh! You didn't go to see him play?"
"I saw them last night. They're playing three nights at the same place this weekend, and their set will be the same each night, so he told me not to bother coming."
"Oh. Well, okay. So um, how are you two getting along?"
Keryn swallowed. She knew this question was inevitable. "Good. Really good. I was nervous before he got here, you know? Because we used to fight when we were kids. But it's been totally cool. I guess we've both grown up a lot."
"Well, there's a big difference between twelve and twenty-five," he said with a chuckle. "That's good to hear. Have you spoken to your mom today?"
"Mom? No. Oh, she called last night and left a message. I was supposed to call her back today. I forgot."
"Yeah," her dad said. "Yeah, she called me. I guess she's a little concerned as well. I guess everybody's nervous about you two living under one roof again. You guys really had it in for each other when you were little, you know? It was like you were always on top of one another."
Keryn's eyes rolled at how those words were still true today, even if the meaning was totally different.
"Don't worry, Dad," she said. "I'll give Mom a call. Everything is fine here."
"Good," he said. "Yeah, give her a call. But you know, she and I were talking a bit this afternoon, and we thought since the two of you are there together right now, maybe this would be a good opportunity for all of us to get together for a few days. So your mom and I are going to come up to New York next weekend, if that doesn't interfere with any of your plans."
"Oh," Keryn said, springing to her feet and suddenly casting around for an excuse. "Plans, do I have plans next weekend? Let me see." She looked around, trying to think of an excuse, any excuse, to keep her parents away. She knew that she and C.J. would be able to keep up their deception over the phone, but what would happen if they had to look their parents in the eye? She knew their mom especially was practically a mind-reader. It was impossible to get anything by her.
"Well, even if you have plans," he went on, "Sheila and I are going to pop up. We've already booked a room at a hotel, and even if we just see you for a few hours, it will be nice. We want to see how C.J.'s getting along in the big city, and we can do a little sight-seeing too."
Keryn smirked. "You guys are sharing a hotel room?"
He cleared his throat. "We got one with two beds," he said. "Hotels are expensive. We could have gotten two rooms, but it just seemed wasteful. You know how your mother is."
Keryn bit her lip. "Yeah. I know how she is."
"So anyway," he said. "Give your mom a call. And I'll be in touch this week. We'll sort our schedules out and hopefully we can all make some plans together. I'd love for us all to go out somewhere nice to eat on Saturday night."
"That's sounds great."
"Great. Okay, I'll talk to you soon. Love you, sweetheart."
"Love you, Dad." She ended the call.
Keryn took a deep breath and looked around. Okay, there was no more time for fooling around. Her parents-- their parents-- were coming in a week. And she had the strangest feeling that no matter what was going on, they would be able to see right through it. She and C.J. would have to figure things out. And quick.
She went to her bedroom and slipped off the robe. Whipping her closet doors open, she began to look through her things, quickly choosing a matching top and skirt. They were shiny silver, made of a stretchy lycra blend. She wriggled into the outfit, smoothing the material down over her body. "Panties," she said. "Better wear panties too."
She opted for a G-string to avoid panty-lines, grabbed her purse, and headed out into the night.
A cab took her down to Sliders, the bar where C.J.'s temporary band was playing. They were on still stage when she entered, so she got a double whiskey from the bar and quickly drank it down. She shuddered at the strong hit of alcohol, put the glass down on the bar, and went to watch her brother play.
The band was nearing the end of their final set. He smiled when he saw in the crowd. She smiled back, although her smile was more reserved, tentative. He kept playing, and twenty minutes later he was able to climb down off the stage and greet her face to face.
He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her on the mouth. She struggled for a moment and then relaxed, hugging him around the waist and kissing back, letting her tongue touch his.
He looked down and grinned. "Your nipples are hard," he said. "They're poking out."
"I think you said that to me in my dream," she told him. "I have news."
"Oh yeah?" He held her around the waist and swayed back and forth to the house music that started playing the moment the band finished. "What's your news?"
"Kiss me first," she said, and he did, pressing his lips to hers. She could taste the salty sweat on his lips. He'd been playing hard for two hours under hot stage lights, and he was slick with sweat. The taste of whiskey on her tongue met the taste of beer on his. As sore as she was, she wanted to fuck him. Again and again and again...
"Mom and Dad are coming," she said. "They're coming to visit us next weekend."
His face went pale. "Shit," he said. "What should we do?"
"We should fuck," she said. "We've got one week. I don't know what will happen afterwards, but we've got one week. Let's not waste it."
Chapter Ten: Taking a Personal Day
On Thursday afternoon Keryn's boss called her into her office for a private meeting. Keryn knew what it was about, and she dragged herself up from her desk and went out of the big main office area and down the short hallway to Tamara's office.
"Come in and close the door," Tamara said. Keryn did as she was told, closing the door and sitting in one of the chairs next to Tamara's desk.
Tamara had been Keryn's boss since she started working at the clothing label three years ago. Keryn had moved up, taken on new responsibilities, and was successfully developing her career, and Tamara had been there to help her every step of the way. Although they never met outside of the office, they knew each other very well, and had an excellent relationship.
"Keryn, I wanted to talk to you today," she said. "This has been a strange week for you, and I have to admit, I'm worried. You've been late each morning, and you seem very tired and disorganized. And I've had it mentioned to me a few times already by other staff members that you've been very out of sorts with them. Would you like to tell me if there's anything going on?"
It was exactly what she'd expected, and it was all true. Keryn had barely been sleeping all week, and as a result she been late, groggy and disoriented, and she'd been snappish with her co-workers. But explaining the reasons for her lack of sleep wouldn't be so easy.
"I'm sorry," Keryn began. "It's been a really difficult week. I've been having insomnia. I'm just about at the end of my rope. I'm hoping I can catch up on my sleep over the weekend and get back to normal."
Tamara, who was an attractive and stylish woman of forty, gave Keryn a concerned look. "Keryn, this is very unusual for you. You're always so alert and active, really on top of things. What do you think could be causing the insomnia? Is there anything else going on?"
"I'm not sure," Keryn said. "My brother has been staying with me for the last few weeks, but he doesn't cause any trouble. My routines haven't really changed."
"Do you think it could be work related?" Tamara asked. "I know stress can lead to sleep difficulties."
Keryn shrugged. "Nothing I can put my finger on. Maybe I should see my doctor."
"Maybe," Tamara nodded. "Just remember, the company has an excellent support sy
stem in place, and if you need to talk to anyone outside of the company, we can set it up. It can even be anonymous. It's all available if you need it."
Keryn smiled weakly. "I'll let you know," she said. "If this carries on, I might take you up on it."
Tamara smiled. "I need you," she said. "You're one of the people I count on most, and if there's anything I can do to help you, please let me know, okay? Cynthia is caught up right now. Why don't you let her finish for you today, and I want you to take tomorrow as a personal day. You can relax and get your sleep sorted out. We'll count it as a sick day, so you'll still be paid. Come back on Monday and we'll check in again."
"All right," Keryn said. "Thanks."
The two women shared a brief shoulder hug, and Keryn left the office. She collected her things from her desk, checked in with Cynthia, and headed for the elevator.
Outside on the sidewalk, Keryn allowed herself to take a deep breath. She was exhausted, but it certainly wasn't work-related stress that was causing it. And she would never, never be able to let Tamara or even a counselor or therapist know the real reason she was so tired. She'd been up all night, every night, having sex with her brother C.J.
Couple that with the stress of their situation, the plain and simple wrongness of it, and she was not feeling well at all. Plus, their parents were coming to visit this weekend. Their mom had a better nose than a drug-sniffing dog when it came to sniffing out lies, and she and C.J. were both on edge about what would happen if they made the slightest slip and let her tear open their bag of secrets.
Keryn picked up a bag a groceries and a bottle of wine and headed back to her apartment. It was empty. C.J. was typically out during the day, meeting and working with Greg, the song-writing partner who had convinced him to come to New York City in the first place. She hadn't even met Greg yet, and she wanted to fist him up the ass with a broken bottle. If not for him, C.J. would never have come and she wouldn't be dealing with any of this mayhem.
Flopping down on the couch, Keryn thought for a moment about that, about what her life was like a few weeks ago, before C.J. appeared. She'd been on autopilot, but running at fast forward. He life for the last few years had been a meaningless high-speed routine, pounding through the paces of exercise-work-drink-party-sleep, without a moment to breathe. Even her daily yoga routines, which were meant to balance and center her spiritually, had eventually taken the opposite effect of doping her, numbing her; they were another distraction, constant busyness to keep her from looking within.
She needed true transgression to pause and reflect on her life: the transgression of incest, fucking her brother, risking her family ties and sending everything in her well-ordered life off the rails.
Help me, Albert Camus, she thought ruefully, you're my only hope.
Keryn had a sandwich and a long shower. It was still early in the afternoon. She had nothing to do, and she felt exhausted. To hell with everything. She closed the blinds and went to bed.
The sound of the front door banging shut woke her. Keryn's eyes fluttered open, and she looked through the open bedroom door. C.J. passed by on the way to the kitchen, paused, and looked back through the bedroom door. "Hello?" he said, spying her snuggled up in the bedcovers.
"Hello," she said in a sleepy voice.
"You're not usually home at this time," he said. "Are you sick?"
"No," she said. "I was sleepy. They let me go home. I'm taking tomorrow off, too."
"That's great," he said, coming into the room and sitting on the edge of the bed. "Maybe that will give us some time to relax before Tom and Sheila get in."
"Oh god," she said. "You don't actually call them that, do you?"
"Nah, not to their faces. Did you sleep all afternoon?"
She looked at the clock. "About three hours," she said. "I feel like jelly now. What are you going to do?"
"I don't know," he said. Keryn was wearing an sleeveless undershirt, and he reached over to massage her bare shoulder. "I'd like to climb in there and join you. But I should probably get cleaned up first. I think I've had ten cups of coffee today. Might make for some bad breath."
She smiled. "I don't mind."
C.J. leaned down and kissed her on the cheek, then stepped out of the room. Keryn lay there, enjoying the quiet softness of the bed and it's fluffy down comforter, and she began to doze.
A sudden rush of cool air over her body woke her. It was C.J., lifting the blankets so he could slip into the bed with her. She rolled to meet him face to face, and he snuggled into a tight hug with her, their legs intertwining. His body felt deliciously cool. His mouth met hers and they kissed. His breath was fresh and minty, and she opened her lips, kissing with abandon, letting their tongues meet.
Keryn wrapped her arms around him and slid a hand down his back until she was cupping a hand over one of his ass cheeks.
"No undies?" she asked.
"I rinsed off," he said. "There didn't seem to be much point in putting them back on."
"Fair enough," she said. She was wearing a small pair of pink cotton panties. C.J. ran his hand down her side, sending electric tingles through her. It never failed. His fingers, his touch were so exciting, so charged with raw eroticism. As always, the whisper of doubt fluttered through her: was it him? Or was it the excitement of the forbidden?
At that moment it didn't matter. His hand reached her bottom, and he gave the cheek of her ass a good squeeze. "Best ass ever," he murmured as he moved to kiss her neck.
"Oh, too hot," she said, rolling and pushing the blankets off. She was on her back now, and C.J. immediately climbed on top of her, kissing along her neck, up to her earlobe. His hands found their way to her chest, feeling her breasts through the thin white cotton of her undershirt.
She lightly stroked his back with her fingertips as he kissed her neck, taking his time. Over the last week, after the ferocity and animal desperation of their first couplings, their love-making had become much more patient. It was no longer as though they were trying to wring as many orgasms as they could out of their bodies. They now explored each other like condemned lovers, memorizing each other, lingering over caresses, discovering hidden lusts and secret desires. C.J. had discovered how Keryn loved to have her neck kissed, with slow, light kisses, lips brushing gently over the sensitive skin. She purred in response, rolling her hips up to push against him.
C.J. slowly moved down, slithering his body over hers until his lips were kissing at the sensitive skin of her hips. He left the undershirt in place, liking how it framed her figure, as he rubbed the light stubble of his cheeks against her lower belly, bringing forth giggles and sighs from his sister.
She lifted one knee, pushing him off so she could reach down and remove the panties. She raised her knees and slid the small cotton article off, tossing it to the floor, then relaxing again so he could return to his place, his lips over her sex.
Keryn lay with her legs apart, ready for his attentions, but C.J. was not overeager. He took his time, nibbling with little kisses at her groin, and resting his head on her smooth inner thigh, facing her vagina, which had grown wet with building desire.
"This is my dream," he said. "This is my heaven. I'd like to lay here forever, like this, my head right here on your thigh, close enough that I can kiss your pussy."
"So what are you waiting for?" she giggled. "It's not going to lick itself."
He grinned and kissed the outer lips, slowly, teasing her with a trail of butterfly kisses before finally sliding his tongue along the inner folds of her pussy, tasting her, tantalizing her.
Keryn stretched and closed her eyes, putting her hands behind her back and spreading her legs wide as he moved in and began to lick her in earnest. She sighed as his tongue reached her clit, and he used his fingers to tug back the hood of skin, exposing it to his oral attentions. It stood out proudly, and C.J. flicked his tongue back and forth, side to side, before making a long lick, sliding his tongue slowly along, making her coo.
After putting his mouth to
her a dozen times, he knew how she liked to be licked. She hadn't said a word, hadn't reached down to adjust his position. He'd listened to her, paid attention to how she responded to his actions. It gave him pleasure to give her pleasure, and he enjoyed the hell out of it when she groaned or cried out, when she scratched his shoulders or grabbed his head. He wanted her response. He wanted her to come.
She was very wet now, and he moved a finger to her, teasing at her entrance. He didn't stop with his mouth as he slowly moved his index finger inside of her, gliding in with short strokes. He curled it forward inside of her, reaching in deep to find her g-spot, smiling as he felt her pussy muscles tighten.
"Oh fuck, yeah," she whispered as he worked on her, teasing her clit and her g-spot at once. "Two," she said.
C.J. complied, easing in a second finger and working at her more vigorously, sucking at her clit as her pleasure built up. Her breathing became ragged as he slid the fingers in and out, bumping them against her spot, making her moan. He was relentless, alternately licking and sucking, and loving it when he felt her fingers snake through his hair, gripping his head as her body tensed and the orgasm shook her. Her pussy squeezed his fingers and he felt the slippery wetness of her juice as she came.
He slowed his pace, twisting his fingers, giving her pussy more gentle licks now, delicate little flicks of the tongue while she continued to shudder with after-shocks.
Keryn sat up, propping herself on her elbows and looking down at him where he lay, his mouth still on her wet pussy. "Up," she commanded with a smile. "Your turn."
She rolled out of the way and lay him down on his back, then climbed over him in a sixty-nine, lowering her pussy near his face and taking his cock in her hand. Keryn kissed his cock head, while C.J. took hold of her hips, adjusting her position so he could effortlessly lick her. Keryn moaned as his tongue touched her swollen clit, and she paid him back by taking his cock into her mouth, sliding her lips over the head and taking him deep.
His cock had been hard ever since they started kissing, and the feel of her warm, wet mouth was like sweet relief. He had restrain himself, not wanting to involuntarily buck his hips and push himself too deep down her throat. He would keep still and let her take control. So he focused on licking her, while she bathed his cock in the pleasure of her lips.
Into Her Life: (The Complete Taboo Story of Forbidden Love) Page 8