“So, Robbie, what do you do that brings you to Sacramento?” asked Casey tremulously, visibly trying to lighten the mood.
He grinned. “I’m a game designer, I’m here meeting the distributors to thrash out what the requirements will be for the next generation of games; you know, nerd-stuff!”
Casey smiled back. “Sounds complicated, Sarah told us you were very smart, she obviously wasn’t wrong!”
He was pleased Casey thought he was bright, and it unsettled him; why should he care what she thought? But he did. Casey, on the other hand was remembering the feel of him when she hugged him; as far as she could tell, he was all muscle, his chest felt like teak, solid dense muscle mass, his arms like steel cables in their firmness and rigidity. She’d never looked at him properly before, so she’d never realised he was so tall, or so toned.
He’d taken his jacket off, and she could see he must have at least a 42″ chest, tapering down to probably a 30″ waist, wide shoulders, and long legs with tight muscular buttocks. She realised with a start she was checking out her brother, and had to admit to herself, with his expression of mild good humour restored, his wavy, bright chestnut hair, his soft brown eyes and his upright posture, he was a very attractive young man.
This disturbed her; she was not supposed to think this way about her brother, especially one she had treated so badly he’d run away and disappeared.
“So Casey, what are you doing tonight, boyfriend, fiance, plans? Because if you have none, I’m at a loose end, perhaps we can get dinner, tell me about your life!” said Robbie, surprising himself, but also wanting to make it up to her a little after setting-off her grief-stricken outburst with his own hard-edged hostility. Casey smiled. “I’m free now, and no, no boyfriend. If I can freshen up, I’ll take you around my home town; perhaps show you places you don’t know yet.”
“Wait, you live here now?” asked Robbie, “what about your parents?”
Casey grinned. “I did a degree in Hospitality and Hotel Management at UC Davis, now I’m working in the graduate intern program for this hotel chain. I’m done for the week, so I’m free, we can take your car or mine, there are some good restaurants I know!”
They went down to the parking garage, where Casey gaped at Robbie’s car, a Storm-Gray Bentley Continental GT, insisting on walking around and looking at it from all angles. “Wow! What a car, Robbie, you must be doing well!” she gasped, and Robbie grinned shyly. “I got lucky with a game last year, the royalty payments bought it. Actually, it was Joey’s idea, that way he gets to drive it around when he comes to see me!
They explored the town a little, Casey showing him some of the less well known parts, before settling on a nice little steak house, enjoying their first ever meal together as brother and sister. After the meal, they talked about their lives. Casey admitted that, after he’d left, she’d been almost paralysed with guilt, and it had taken intensive therapy to make her face that guilt before she could function normally again. Steve and Angie had become almost recluses, aware of what they’d done but unwilling to accept their guilt, still completely emotionally constipated when it came to him, instead shutting themselves away in their business.
They moved on to lighter topics; his studies, her choice of a career in Hospitality, her ambitions to move into Corporate Leisure Management one day.
At last they broke it up, Casey had something she needed to do at home in the morning, and Robbie was supposed to be heading home himself for a long weekend, so he took her back to the hotel to get her car, and invited her back to his room for a nightcap.
By now, they were at ease in each other’s company, friends at last, and, after sitting and chatting for a while, Casey made to leave, so Robbie stood, Casey hugging him, pulling his head down for a peck on the cheek. She maintained the hug, thinking to herself, “It could have been like this years ago, all along, why the hell did I have to treat him so badly?” and pulled him down to kiss his cheek again in apology, but changed her mind on an impulse, kissing him on the lips instead, startling him into immobility, and then his arms wrapped around her as he drew her in, his lips parting as he kissed her back, with her tongue slipping into his mouth to touch his tongue momentarily. Her arms tightened around his neck as she clung to him. They stayed locked together for a few more moments, lips pressed together as she probed his mouth with her tongue, then drew back to look into each other’s eyes.
“What the hell was that that?” he murmured, looking at her as he felt his lips tingling from the pressure of her soft lips, the slightly stunned expression on her face, and the feel of her pressed against him. Casey was the first to move, stroking his face with her fingertips, running her hand through his hair, tipping his lips with her fingertips, looking at him closely. “You know, Robbie, I spent so much time looking at myself, I never noticed how cute you are!” she smiled. “Just imagine, I had a hottie of my very own in my home all the time, and I never noticed him!”
Robbie flushed, embarrassed at what she said. Casey looked at him closely. “Has no-one ever told you what a cute boy you are, Robbie? Someone must have tried to take a bite at some time, surely!”
He flushed even deeper. “Truth is, Casey, after all that …. business at home, I sort of avoided any… contact with other people, other than work-related, and to be honest, well, you’re the first girl who’s ever kissed me….” he trailed off, looking away in embarrassed confusion.
Casey pulled his face back round so she could look at him properly. “Robbie, are you honestly trying to tell me you’ve never been kissed, that you’re still a virgin? A gorgeous guy like you? Oh my God, what a waste!”
He tried to explain. “Look, where I work, the type of work we do, there’s not a lot of scope for meeting girls, all the developers and programmers are guys like me, so we sort of lean into it, worry about deadlines and delivery milestones, long hours and long weeks. Romance kind of gets left at the starting gate….”
Casey was incredulous. Her mind seemed to be thinking on two tracks at once; one track was thinking; back home, a body like his, looks like his, he would have been mobbed by every unattached girl in sight, and not a few attached ones as well, and he had no inkling just how gorgeous he really was; this was just too much!
But the other track was thinking more sobering thoughts; did we really push him so far into himself that he’s incapable being aroused, of having a sexual relationship? Dear God, what have we done to him?
“Robby,” she began, “I think you and I should talk, but not here, over there” pointing to the bed. “Come with me!” So saying, she led him to the bed, pulling off his tie and undoing his top button. Robbie sat down on the bed, Casey slipping off her jacket and pulling her blouse out of her waistband, taking off her cravat, and undoing the top two buttons of her blouse. She kicked off her shoes and slid onto the bed, patting it beside her, beckoning Robbie up to lie down next to her, confusion and trepidation showing on his face.
“Relax, Robbie, I’m not going to bite you!” not yet anyway, she thought to herself. “Robbie, have you ever wondered about, you know, girls, relationships and sex, and what to do, and how to get the most out of it?”
He blushed scarlet. “Well, I sort of know the basics and I always thought….. umm, er, no, not really, I don’t know about it, no,” he admitted, flushing again. “Why are you asking me, why do you want to know?”
“Robbie, did you never look on the internet at home, anywhere?”
Robbie mumbled “No, I didn’t have a computer at home.” No, you didn’t, did you? I did, but you had nothing you poor, lost, boy, she thought, guiltily.
“We can’t use the internet at work, for obvious reasons, and I won’t have a PC or laptop at home, not after sitting on one 14 hours a day at work. So no, I don’t have any reason or inclination to surf the internet, if that’s what you’re asking!”
No curiosity at all! How deep does this go? What else have we done to him? thought Casey.
“Relax, Robbie, relax and kiss me, you do it good and I want you to kiss me again!” smiled Casey, sliding down to pull Robbie toward her, his hand falling onto her flat stomach. She pulled his head down to her, her lips finally meeting his, her hand resting on the back of his head as he kissed her softly, almost tasting her, his tongue darting in to lick and brush against her tongue, their breathing rates increasing as they kissed and tasted each other’s lips and tongues.
Robbie broke, to look at her strangely. “We shouldn’t be doing this; you’re my sister, this is what boyfriends and girlfriends do, not brothers and sisters. We have to stop this right now!” Suddenly, all the past humiliations, all the loss and the life denied, the hurt he’d endured from this girl flared up inside him. He pulled away from her, looked at her, anger flashing in his eyes.
This was Casey! Everything she’d done to him, everything she’d taken from him, now she wanted to make out with him? Not gonna happen! One evening of friendly chat, and she wanted to waltz back into his life? Pretend nothing happened? No!
Casey looked at him in confusion, seeing his eyes flash and harden, sensing a shutter slamming down behind his eyes, and now he was getting back off the bed, looking at her strangely, hostility creeping into his gaze.
“This was a bad idea, Casey, I should never have invited you here, spoken to you, everything. I don’t need you in my life. You found me, you’ve said what you needed to say, I hope that eased your burden, now you should go, so please leave, I have an early start tomorrow.”