Family Tensions

Antoine heard his mother's call to him, her sing-song voice echoing in the hallway below.

'You will ring your uncle and tell him that you'll take the holiday job, won't you?'

'I have done that already!' he replied. going to the top of the stairs and meeting her look as she gazed up at him. His choice of career, in accountancy, would see him start a new full-time job in Bordeaux in two months, and after the insanely long summer holidays all workers took in France. He would be joining their ranks soon but for the next few weeks he had time to himself and would gain some experience.

'Good,' she smiled up at him. 'You've done so well and made your father and I very proud of you.' Elise smiled at her firstborn, a handsome young man who was studious and who could count his friends on the fingers of one hand. He had yet to become involved with any girl on a steady basis and she had often fretted about his easy-going ways with them. He must have broken a few hearts by ending a relationship far too quickly, but he never spoke of what played out in that part of his life.

His uncle, Louis Durand, her brother, was an opinionated but clever man and far too quick with his biting wit or use of his critical voice. He would either be of help to Antoine or push him back into his shell. Worldliness was not yet a part of her son's character set, even at twenty-four years of age. He took too much on trust.

At least there would be a counterpoint to Louis' ways. His wife, Margaux, was a homelier and kindly sort and she had said goodbye to her son and daughter. They now worked here, in Paris. For her to have a young man in the house would soften the blow of not having one of her offspring working in their father's wine business. She'd not heard the precise reason for Antoine choosing to go to Bordeaux for his first step in a chosen career, but she would learn of it in time, no doubt.

'Well, I'll see you later!' Elise called out.

'That's fine, mother. I'm meeting up with some people from Uni for lunch Then I'm buying some clothes for my work. Uncle Louis said that I'd get variety, but it also means attending to chores at their place...to 'offset' the cost of me living there!'

He wondered what would be left over from the pittance that he would be paid.

'Trust him!' Elise called back on a flare of anger, as she came into view once more. 'You're not earning so much that you could afford to pay board and lodging as well!'

'Don't fret, mother. I know Uncle Louis from the last time I was there.' He would say nothing of how Margaux had mediated between him and Louis two years ago. Nor would he disclose the bond that had developed between them. It might even become stronger now that his older cousins were no longer about and they had more time together. He had kept a picture of Margaux on his iPhone as a vivid reminder of the woman and her captivating ways and smile, her face framed by a mop of frizzy blonde hair that made her look younger.

How crazy to think that he kept looking for her in the girlfriends that he'd had as if she was an ideal that others had to be judged by. He would soon know if his image of her would again match the reality.

♥

Margaux met him at the station; her nervy, wondering look soon dispelled by the kisses to her cheeks that Antoine offered; the clutch of her hands to his shirt letting him know what it meant to have him by her side once more.

'It's been so long since I saw that look in your eyes upon me, ' she smiled, her lips trembling as she gazed at him. The young man before her could never, quite, keep his interest in her from being seen in his eyes.

'The last six months have been agony for me too, but I had to make it through the exams. I called to hear your voice, and to let you know where my thoughts were.'

'It's not the same...'

They rushed to the city centre car park and fell upon each other and exchanged fiery and deepening kisses when they reached the seclusion of her car. They had thought to end it but the drug had become too strong to give up.

'I stayed true to you, thought only of you,' he kissed, her scent intoxicating and the press of her lips to his mouth like a drug that would enslave him all over again.

'I would have understood if you hadn't done that. It was crazy and wonderful what we found together..' She looked across the space between them as she started the car. 'I had to do what your uncle asked of me, darling, and remain the dutiful wife through everything.' She leaned across the space between them to kiss him again and felt Antoine's hand stroke the soft skin on the inside of her thigh before it moved to press soft flesh under her summer dress. 'Don't...not yet. You know what happens when you do that to me.'

Antoine nodded and chose not to speak as she manoeuvred the car out of the parking garage and began to drive assuredly through the city's traffic. He had sat back as Margaux negotiated every twist in the ramp leading down to the car park's exit.

'I'm with you again,' Antoine smiled and he took to remembering how it had begun between them.

♥

During that summer, two years ago, he had been invited along with his parents to spend a few days in the home of Louis and Margaux. That stay turned from a few days into weeks. He worked as an odd-job guy, sweeping out the buildings where the wine presses were housed and any other work that Louis, or the foreman, instructed him to attend to. The pay was lousy, but it all helped, and what was there to spend it on anyway?

Itinerant workers were company and they'd hang out at the end of the day and play games. Most of them were hooked up and into each other. There was no one spare for him to take up with.

The hard physical work toned him; shaped and firmed his body, and he wasn't cooped up all day in some office looking out of the window and wondering what was going on in the world outside.

Aunt Margaux wasn't seen about much during the day as she had her work in the vineyard's office. She was a buyer of the bottles and corks, along with arranging the printing of labels and stock taking. There were occasions when he would see her in the garden, the sun in her blonde hair. She would be seen wearing a pair of shorts that flattered her slender legs, a cotton cami-top revealing the firmness of pert breasts and toned, tanned, arms. On other occasions, he would glimpse her by the swimming pool as he tended to the grass cutting; but as the summer days grew longer, and hotter, the need for that lessened.

The sight of her, at times, made him regret that there were no girls, or young women, amongst the group of workers to distract him from aberrant thoughts...of him going with her, all thoughts of Margaux being his aunt dispelled by the sight of a vibrant woman in her bikini, sunning herself by the pool. It was a sight that aroused in him and he often felt the gnaw of longing for her, the press of his hardening prick in his shorts.

At supper, they would talk of inconsequential things and Louis would direct proceedings, even when guests were around or came to stay. Then, her attention would be diverted away from him and she would offer soft words of apology that they had no time to themselves to talk or work together, a concern that he had not heard Margaux express before.

To wake in the course of the night, and to find that he had been dreaming of her had its destructive effects upon him until Louis announced that he had been called away to some EU event or other, that he was to attend a conference that meant he would be gone for two, maybe three days.

He exulted at the news and could not believe what he was hearing when Louis said that he would rely on him to help Margaux in every way necessary, in administrative tasks, while he was gone.

'Really?' he had blurted out. 'Are you sure?'

'I wouldn't have asked it of you, better still told you how it's to be! You are doing a business degree aren't you, so you should know about taking orders and processing accounts and money claims from suppliers?'

'Yes...some.'

'Then you'll learn a whole lot more from Margaux. Now, stop doubting yourself and get to work!'

He remembered meeting Margaux's soft smile and thinking how he would be able to endure being in the house alone with her, knowing that he lusted after her and that he felt a teenager's crush on the woman that she was seen to be. All of that had evolved into an emotion so much deeper and what her summer clothes modestly, but surely, revealed to his gaze. The effect that she had on him might yet find full expression and he would learn of it with her.

Margaux, disappointingly, failed to say anything about her husband's trip and the chance for them to be together, when they had a moment to themselves. Her restrained ways only made him hunger for the woman more strongly and he wondered if she sensed that from his behaviour, or the stealing of glance towards her whenever the opportunity arose.

How would he deal with it if rejection, in whatever way it came, was to follow in the next few days?

♥

'What you've produced here is very interesting,' Margaux told him late in the morning of his second day at work in the cramped admin offices set at one end of the cool storage and bottling area. 'I'm not good at spreadsheets, but this way of recording and showing production figures against bottled output is a new view...a fresh, younger man's look.'

She had touched the back of his chair and leaned closer, brushing her fingers over the skin of his neck.

'It's something I produced to help you, Margaux.'

She pouted a smile on hearing his obvious devotion to her and the task at hand. 'I know that. Shall we go and have some lunch just as the others are?'

The staff knew the score, that a nephew was gaining work experience. They had all been told by Louis to answer questions about the business, but not to treat him as if he was the son of the patron. They had seen him before, some of the more loyal employees, so no special favours were to be shown to him.

'I was working on it last night,' he went on, ' so it would be ready and tested by the time Louis came back.'

'In his own time,' she told him.,' He likes these work trips away.'

'Away from you...'

'Yes, so you've noticed how he is with me?'

'Yes, crazy as it is to believe. Perhaps I shouldn't be saying it?'

'It's only the truth,' she sighed and not for effect but by way of an honest answer. 'I heard you come past my bedroom door,' she now said across the small space between them. Margaux took in his changed appearance. Antoine looked so youthful; his slender face showing the hint of a dark beard to his jawline; the shock of his dark hair in stark contrast to his tan, all of it in keeping with a cream polo shirt and chino slacks; scuffed moccasins on his feet. 'You could have knocked on my door.'

He looked at her and smiled. 'I was tempted to, believe me.'

It would have been so easy to do, but it would have been only too predictable...after seeing her through the crack in the door as she undressed for bed and he had lingered. He had wanted to satisfy his curiosity like a peeping tom. He had crept along to his room, laptop in hand, and with his mind crowded with images of her sleek panties and the tumble of her small, pert breasts, revealed after unfastening her bra. He had been transfixed on seeing Margaux stroking her skin to ease the sensation, he thought, of their confinement in her underwear.

Margaux took hold of his arm. 'You were tempted, but then convention got in the way?'

'Something like that, yes,' he nodded, his stilled eyes taking in her look on him. His gaze showed that he had meant what had been said.

Margaux stopped and unlocked the back door to the family home. It was comfortable but by no means palatial, like some owner's houses he had seen. The house had Margaux's unmistakable touches all around, in every room. He wondered how she managed it, juggling work in the business and running the home. Louis didn't seem the helpful sort when it came to domestic chores, a throwback to more traditional married life structures.

'Get some red out of the rack, would you? I'll get the cheese and some bread, Antoine. Do you want some fruit?'

'Of the forbidden kind?'

'I'll have to watch what I say, won't I...and close my bedroom door.'

'You knew that I was there?' he stammered in reply, caught out by making that simple confession.

'Yes, now come on. Lunch will be over before we've had a chance to sit and enjoy it together. I don't get the chance when he's about.'

Antoine heard the change of tone in her voice. 'His moods are unpredictable...you mean?'

'No, they've become a part of him.' Margaux smiled wanly and picked up the tray with their lunch. 'Out on the terrace, vite!' she laughed, her face suddenly transformed. 'Enough of this. I want to learn all about you and what your plans are now that you've become an A student at university. I'd like to breathe some different air, too, while you're here.'

He knew then, after hearing what she had said and with the sun in her blonde hair, that he had fallen under the woman's spell. Lust could so easily take over and he would be in danger of making a fool of himself.

♥

The 'to do' list that he had been set was whittled away far too quickly. The office manager, not Margaux, opined that he had tested his spreadsheet and, he too, liked what Antoine had produced in a matter of hours when he had time for himself. He would talk to Louis and see if an expert in such things could develop it further.

'Antoine had better copyright the idea, he may be onto making his fortune!' The three of them laughed, but Antoine knew that Margaux was being drawn in and that she now took more than an aunt's interest in her 'nephew'.

Alone again, she spoke softly to him. 'Don't rush the work or I'll not know how to distract you or myself.' She was flirting and now stood close as she grabbed at his hand. 'Louis is staying over an extra day...'

'And it bothers you being alone with me for too long?' he answered directly and on meeting her wondering gaze upon him.

'You're learning, darling, how to read my mind.'

'It's the same for me, but then you've known that for some time.' He gave her hand an answering squeeze before leaving Margaux's side. Footsteps were to be heard in the corridor beyond.

The door was pushed open without a knock on it first.

'We need some help in the vat room and cellar,' Jean, the foreman, a short and burly man told them. 'Monsieur Louis said that I should ask Monsieur Antoine if he could help us with the work.'

'I'm coming. I'm through with the work here for the day, if that's alright with you?' he asks of her.

Margaux waved him off, a moment's look being exchanged. She was finding it difficult not to be captivated by her nephew's ways with her. 'Your uncle's jobs for you here are over, so go!'

♥

Antoine was prompted to ask her if they could go for a walk after supper and suggested that they could take the dogs. The air was sultry and he reckoned a thunderstorm was brewing. He had noticed the darkening clouds on the horizon and yet he wanted an excuse to be in her company and not make it obvious that he was besotted with her.

'Good idea! I'll get the leashes and we'll go!'

She knew what was at work in the good-looking young man before her and she had wondered whether to put Antoine out of his misery and say some words of encouragement because she felt involved with him. She had never touched herself before when thinking of Antoine, and when she was alone in her bed, but she had done so during the nights that Louis had been away. She had succumbed to wayward thoughts, her hands moving over her body as she lay alone in the marital bed and she had caressed her hardening nipples, felt the tingling rushes in her body as her other hand stroked over her belly and slicked over the warmth and moisture of her pussy. She had resisted the temptation to go further, to finger herself as she thought of him lying in a room not so far from her

'You won't be cold?' he asked startling her.

He looked at her and took in again, as he had done all evening, Margaux's ochre camisole top, the thin shoulder bands stark against her lightly tanned skin, and the snug fit of Margaux's jeans. He had also noticed the red nail varnish on her slender toes that she soon concealed in some faded leather pumps, every movement observed; how her pert breasts moved as she tied back her hair and quickly fastened it behind her head.

'What? Oh no, I won't be. I know the weather around here...we'll have time for that walk you're so keen on before it breaks.'

They rushed off and had fun, racing the dogs playfully between the wows of the ripening vines, or they threw their favourite toys for them to retrieve; all the while delighting to have the chance to do this. Margaux shouted out in her new happiness.

'It's so good to have you here with me, now come on!' she urged and tugged on his hand whenever he slowed to gather up a ball one of the dogs had dropped at their feet. 'The clouds are rushing in, so come on...I don't want to get soaked!'

They looked skywards even as the first drops began to fall. They soon became a soft rain, then a raging and swirling torrent. They ran in the gathering gloom, the dogs scurrying and barking in their collective fun.

Margaux took off her shoes and ran barefoot. 'Come on!' she urged. 'I'm soaked and wet through already!' She raised her face to the sky and just laughed before she turned to look his way.

But Antoine's gaze was already fixed on her, on how the rain had soaked her top and how delectable the sight of her was. Margaux's breasts were now perfectly shaped and revealed to his gaze. He ran after her and saw her smile as she looked over her shoulder as if to challenge him. They whooped as they ran among the vines and with the dogs barking at their heels.

'Wait!' he called out again, enthralled by the sight of her having such simple fun. She seemed oblivious to the rain and how she would appear to him in her sodden clothes.

'No! Catch me, Antoine...if you can!'

He tried but slipped and fell. He slithered across the slicked grass and simply lay there, laughing, as the rain beat down on his upturned face. His shirt and trousers were sodden and muddy, but so what? He was with her, and the moment to get together seemed to have arrived.

Margaux drew near and fell to her knees beside him. She brushed her fingers over his face and slicked his lips with them. 'You're so good for me...and I'm so glad that you're here and we can do this. I feel just as you do about us being together.'

She bent to kiss him and Antoine rose to meet her. Their mouths clashed in gasping and deepening kisses that he tore his mouth away from. He had to put his lips to her breasts, shaped so enticingly by her sodden top, and tug at her nipples that poked at the fabric. She groped for him, as he lay on the grass, and felt his state of arousal and how his hand gripped her arm to encourage her groping of him.

'Inside...inside...we do it inside...make it real in there,' she moaned and pressed her hands to the swell in his jeans, then stroked his taut belly under his T-shirt that stuck to him like a second skin.

They rushed. They laughed. They had eyes only for each other now.

♥

They fumbled in their efforts to undress the other, to tug away their sodden clothes, and kissed hungrily as they caressed and explored the other's body. They fell on each other with gasping sucking kisses and knew only of an immediate and unquenchable longing to consummate everything that they felt for each other.

Naked, Antoine lifted Margaux into his arms, his caresses coaxing her to spring up and to have him embrace her as she locked her legs about his waist.

'You can have me now!' she exulted on feeling his mouth claim her breasts, to kiss her enervated skin, and to kiss her throat and finally her lips, his tongue swirling and darting hungrily into her open mouth.