Just outside the door she paused, shaken from the ordeal. She had never seen Sherry looking so bad, not even during those first few weeks after she found out about Neal’s affair.
Neal decided not to play games with his son that night, and simply announced he was going to bed at eleven, so Josh needed to vacate the den. The boy disappeared without argument or even comment, though there was definitely tension between them and had been all evening.
When he crawled beneath the covers, leaving the TV on to provide a little background noise, Neal slipped off his boxers and his shirt and tossed them aside. He rather fancied the idea of dozing off and then awakening to find his daughter’s mouth on him; this way she had easy access. And, if she wasn’t able to come down to him, for whatever reason, he would at least sleep more comfortably. Thoughts of Sherry, of guilt, of consequences, he pushed from his head. He and Vanessa could not afford to waste time; they must take what they could get.
In his room Josh also stripped down before climbing into bed, and for much the same reasons as his father had. He even left his door open a crack, so Vanessa could come in quietly. He thought about their confrontation in the yard that evening with satisfaction — even if the fucking dog had nearly maimed him for life. It was about time, he had decided, that his sister realized to whom she had real obligations. Playing around on the side was one thing, but he wasn’t about to be passed up in his own home for his old man. They had a history between them, she and he, and she needed to be reminded of that.
Cold or no cold, he opened his window after a quarter of an hour and lit up some chronic, trying to be patient. Before long the room swam in a pleasant mist, and he stroked himself absently, warming up for their session together. He was determined it was going to be a long, hard one.
***
Vanessa took a deep breath and stepped out into the dark hallway at midnight, softly closing the door on Jasper, who was upside down and fast asleep on her bed. Good old Jasper, her protector. She half wished she could bring him with her. Of course, that was out of the question — he’d rip Josh’s balls off.
She didn’t know how things had gotten into such a total mess. And she couldn’t help but feel responsible for it all, despite the best of intentions.
Her mother — oh dear God, her mother. What had happened to her? She had hoped to provide her with a little self confidence, not to mention some much-needed physical relief, when she gave her the dildo and that little woman-to-woman. But from the looks of it her mother was determined to fry her brains instead, and sink off to sleep in a stupor. That alone would be bad enough — but now the poor woman also had her own son coming to molest her at night, while she struggled to awaken. And that too could be laid at Vanessa’s door, albeit indirectly. If she hadn’t “neglected” her brother, he would never have started playing with their mother.
Vanessa wasn’t about to claim responsibility for her brother’s insane attitude or his reckless actions. But she knew he felt betrayed somehow, and felt she ought to have known him better than to risk snubbing him. Josh had always been jealous of her — he had nearly come to blows with Brad a number of times, and over the slightest provocation. But she had never known him to be so brutal, so genuinely frightening. Being stranded in the house for so long had apparently made him a little crazy.
Actually it had made them all a little crazy, she figured. Her mother had chosen to deal with it by self-medicating herself into oblivion. Josh had responded by getting mean. She and her father were the lucky ones, really; they dealt with it by finding each other. Vanessa could not have been happier that they had crossed the line the night before and become lovers. Now her only worry regarding Neal was her nutty brother and his volatile moods. She desperately wanted to keep her relationship with Josh a secret from her dad, at least for a while. But with her brother becoming rash and spiteful, she feared that disclosure, even a confrontation between them, was becoming inevitable.
Her plan for the night was simple — perhaps too simple to work, she worried. She would visit Josh first, as she had promised, and she would play the submissive for him. Since he was long accustomed to her calling the shots in bed, that alone should satisfy his vanity or his wounded pride or whatever his beef was. She would do what he asked and give him what he wanted without complaining, only hoping he didn’t insist on cumming inside her. She didn’t want to just “talk” with her father later, but could hardly go down to him hoping for more sex if she had a pussy full of Josh’s cum.
She pushed his door open slowly and stepped into his room, the pungent aroma of weed invading her nostrils. Everything was dark. She peered through the inky blackness to his bed, thinking that he might be stoned out of his gourd, in which case she could back out and go downstairs with a clear conscience. But just as she was about to open the door again her brother’s voice came stabbing through the darkness.
“You’re late,” he complained.
“Oh fuck, Josh. Don’t push your luck.”
Submissive, submissive, she reminded herself. It was so hard, varying their pattern. The whole crux of their relationship for years had been her mastery over him. She was smarter than he was, more experienced, more sexual even. To let him have control seemed ridiculous, even dangerous, given his lack of caution or restraint.
“Come here,” he ordered her.
She floated through the room to his bedside, arms at her sides. She was hoping that, if she put in her best effort, an hour might satisfy him. Two at the most. She promised herself that she would perform to her utmost, resolved to curb her criticisms and follow his orders. Who knows — perhaps it might be fun, being Josh’s sub for a night or two. He couldn’t really be that mad at her, could he? She was far and away his best lay; hell, until the snow thawed, she was his only lay. When he got himself another girlfriend they’d go back to normal.
Dress was important, she knew, for every occasion. Even for times like this, when she wouldn’t be keeping anything on for long. She had decided to flatter Josh’s masterful mood a little tonight, to encourage his deluded impression that he was the boss. So she’d put on an old, and much too small, pair of flowery cotton panties. They were from the sixth or seventh grade — she couldn’t remember which — one of several pair she had kept expressly to create just this effect. Stretched taut and thin, they barely covered her ass, leaving most of her cheeks exposed, while her wispy, dark pussyhair peeked out both sides of the tiny crotch. The leg elastic bit into her much broader thighs uncomfortably, but then, she wouldn’t have to put up with it long. On top she’d worn the flouncy, lacy teddy top from an outfit she’d received at her wedding shower. Again, the flimsy garment could barely contain her; she’d doubled her bust size since then. Meant to cling tantalizingly close to her pantyline, the hemline instead fell just above her navel due to her sloped belly, so that a good six inches of skin lay exposed.
Naturally she was freezing to death in such a skimpy outfit, even with the heat back on. But that just made her nips rock hard, prominent points in the teddy, something which Josh — which any man, unless he was gay — would surely appreciate. Her legs and arms were covered with chill bumps, too, but that would just make her appear helpless, more vulnerable.
She stood close in the half light, letting her brother, little more than a shadow in the corner, look her over. She could vaguely see him slowly stroking his big piece of meat with his left hand; now his right hand snaked forward to touch her belly, to rub her jutting nipples through the teddy. Then it fell to the hemline, held it briefly, gave it a tug.
“Take it off,” he said to her. She could barely see his glinting eyes in the pitch black corner.
Obediently, she hoisted the top over her head, exposing her breasts and broad belly to the chill air streaming in through the window. She immediately broke out in a new set of chill bumps, but did not dare to complain.
“All of it, panties too.”
Shit, she thought. Nothing, no effect at all. She had hoped the little schoolgirl look would entertain him a while, so he’d be plenty excited by the time they fucked. She didn’t want this to last too long.
“Nice,” was all he said, when she slid the panties off her ass and kicked them off her toe.
There was a click, and she was suddenly blinded by the lamp beside his bed. She squinted at him, finally making out that he too was naked, and that, yes, he had been stroking his cock to hardness. She felt a little thrill pass through her. Crazy or not, he was one gorgeous man, even with the wounds Jasper had left on him, the bite she had left on his shoulder a few nights ago. And he sported an absolutely edible dick.
“Did you leave your music on like I asked?”
She nodded, watching his scratch-mottled hand play over his thick, veiny shaft leisurely. It was a pointless question: you could hear the dull thud of her stereo, even through two walls.
“Good, because I’m gonna make some noise tonight. And so are you.”
What he did next surprised her completely. After their ominous confrontation behind the barn earlier, she expected him to be merciless with her, and entirely selfish. A blow job, some anal — something to make him feel in charge, in control, in possession of her. But, with the delighted leer of a dirty old man, he chose to begin by eating her, swiveling himself on the bed so that his head hung over the edge and his feet were against the wall.
“Come here,” he said. “Let me have it.”