Open-Minds

After the will was read and the estate was settled, we both realized we didn't ever have to work. It was I who wanted to work. I had worked too hard to get my education not to use it, even if it was only for a few years. The feelers for work produced a few interviews for me to attend.

A couple that appealed to me the most would mean I could work at least eighty percent of the time from home, using technology for things like conference calls. I was relieved that Shauna had Clare to turn to on the odd occasion I would need to be out of town. Hell, they were already as thick as thieves in the Mall twice a week now. They had jointly worked their way through all the coffee shops and now had a favorite. One interview led to another and a strong offer brought about the destruction of my relationship with my sister.

*******

Alcohol. The one thing I had banned from my sister's life was now her undoing. The empty bottle and two glasses still sat on the coffee table in the day room when I placed my suitcase in the entrance hall. My one fear was when I checked our room, then I opened the door to the guest bedroom, they looked so peaceful sleeping together. Although they had a blanket covering them, the top of their shoulders showed no sign of straps of any kind, so it was easy to see they were at least naked to the waist. My slim grasp on sanity didn't want to know anything else.

There wouldn't have been any point in confrontation; to me the deed seemed like it had already been done. I left them to sleep in the guest room while I went and packed. My life took twenty minutes to place into two suitcases, and I was out the door before the sun was fully up. It was only when I pulled into a gas station to re-fill that I had noticed I had traveled over two hundred miles from the place I once called home.

My mind wanted to re-visit that morning. My heart overruled it in the hope of keeping me sane. In the space of one morning, I had lost what I thought was a friend and my sister. There was nothing but a vacuum in my life, and when my heart called for calm, my soul shared my pain with it and for now would keep its own peace as the vacuum in my life would become the norm. In an effort to keep my mind distracted, I would visit places I had never been before in the hopes that new sights and sounds would somehow drown out that morning.

For six months I had tried, and in all those months I knew I had failed. Shauna showing up three days ago only proved that. The smell of breakfast crept into my room reminding me that she was still there. Although the shorts and bikini top had changed style and color, nothing else about her had. Even as we sat down to eat, she had said nothing since her initial outburst the evening before.

It was only when a thought struck me that I asked her.

"Raise your left leg."

My sister still took a moment. She hadn't even looked up from the table. The pause before she then placed her hands on the table seemed like a slow-motion moment. Finally, her leg came into view and the ankle chain glistened, the chain a contrast to her skin tone.

Something didn't seem right; she wasn't wearing that last night. "Let me guess, you wanted to wear your collar?"

Shauna nodded her head as her leg once again disappeared from view and she picked up her knife and fork to eat.

"I had to hide it from you because I knew you would be angry, I've wanted to wear my collar ever since I came through that door; this morning it had to be the ankle chain."

Even when I returned to my breakfast, I knew I had given her a lead-in. It took her all of five seconds to use it.

"Please, Andrew, we need to talk."

"Not anymore, Shauna. I can't do this anymore."

The silence was only filled by my sister sliding off her chair and kneeling on the floor. Her hand held my leg and when my hand went to remove it from me, she grabbed my hand instead. Her words were slow to begin with, but with each word that left her lips, her own confidence grew.

"Please, Andrew, both your sister and your one love asks this. Please hear me out."

The pain of that morning when I opened the door to the guest room and watched them sleeping together blocked all else out. My hands instinctively went to my temples, hoping for some kind of respite. Standing and taking a step away from the table caused the chair to scrape on the cabin floor before pitching over with a crash. Its noise pierced the atmosphere as my mind played in a loop the sight of my own sister curled into Clare as both slept soundly.

I staggered for a few steps before the force of my sister hit me, her arms wrapped themselves around my neck as her whole body glued itself to me. The momentum sent us both into the middle of the couch. My hands were torn between trying to push her away from me or to hug her tightly.

Shauna retaliated the only way she knew how. Her own hands came to my cheeks and we kissed. In desperation, I tried to shake my head. Her hands held me in place as her lips worked their magic, I was toast and she knew it.

*******

The sun had passed across the window before Shauna felt safe enough to untangle herself from me. The calmness of my heart wouldn't let me be angry, even when I moved my arm so she could sit up. The clock showed we had been on the couch for close to an hour. When my sister wasn't kissing me, she held on tight, her words came in waves, depending on what she picked up from my mood.

Finally, she knelt on the couch by my side facing me. Shauna felt confident enough within herself to wait me out now.

"You may be my sister and you are my one true love, but the urge to place my hands around your neck and squeeze is still there."

She winced, her cheeks flushed and she looked down just long enough to pull air into her lungs and re-group before once again looking at me.

"I deserved that, we both deserve that. I betrayed you in so many ways I could spend the weekend counting them all and still miss a few. I beg your forgiveness and just hope you can find it within yourself to forgive your sister for the betrayal."

For the first couple of months I toyed with the idea of wanting to know why. My mind quickly realized that in the fragile state I was in, knowing the answer to that question was truly a bad idea.

"Where is she now?"

It was maybe me asking for such details that gave her hope that there was a chance for us.

"Clare stayed for another day in the hope that you would return, so we could explain together. When she realized that wasn't going to happen, she went back home."

The fact she had placed herself in the same sentence as Clare made me angry enough to lean forward and finally sit up on the couch.

"What's to explain? I leave you two alone for one damn night, and when I return, you're in her bed, the picture is clear enough after that, don't you think?"

Her hand reached out and grabbed mine. The strength of her grip surprised even me.

"I am my mother's daughter, Andy. When the storm hit and the lightning came, Clare found me cowering in the corner of our bedroom screaming. When she tried to calm me, Clare knew that she had no choice and she took control."

Now I was so damn confused I couldn't even see straight.

"What damn storm?"

Shauna pointed to the laptop on the desk in the corner of the room.

"The same night of the storm the barn on Keller road was hit by lightning and it took the Fire Department half the night to put it out."

Still seeing the confusion of what she was saying, she again pointed to the laptop. It took me five minutes to find the online local newspaper for our area and check the paper's news archives on what my sister had just said. The storm hit the town late evening causing a few minor flash floods and raising the water level of the river by a couple of inches. The barn was the thunderstorm's parting gift to the town, and was reported to be on fire just after one in the morning.

Since the barn was fully loaded with hay for the winter, the fire department was still dampening down the fire well into the morning. Other than a few tiles reported off of roofs in the surrounding area, none of them did any real damage when they hit the ground, so there was no report of any loss of life. As I stood, Shauna walked towards me. Her words came to me as I watched both her and the pictures of the burned-out barn on my laptop.

Again, she took a few tentative steps towards me as she said, "Your plane landed at six fifteen that morning. The storm had long been over by then and since Keller Road is the other side of town, you wouldn't have known about the storm or the barn."

Still the image of them both in bed together would override what I had just read on my laptop.

"But you were naked and in her bed; I saw you."

Shauna now stopped and knelt in front of me. With my back now against the wall, I simply slumped to the floor.

"Clare knew from our folks the effect that thunder and lightning have on me. She found me screaming my lungs out in our room. I was terrified, Andrew, and Clare knew it when she held me and looked into my eyes."

I was still confused as my sister told me about that night in more detail. The tone that Clare used would tolerate no refusal, and she set about calming Shauna. With the storm now directly overhead, it was taking its toll on both of them.

I had seen first-hand the effect thunder and lightning had on my sister. When we were twelve, our folks had rented a cabin perched on the edge of one of the national parks. When the storm hit Shauna became a basket case and frightened us all. Dad simply lifted her into his arms pulled a light out of the kitchen drawer, and both spent an hour in the closet until the storm passed. Mom and I just watched the effects of the thunder and lightning as it traveled along the valley from the day-room window while we listened to Dad and Shauna singing songs in the closet.

Thunder and lightning were my sister's Kryptonite.

*******

Fearing the worst, yet now intrigued by her telling of the events of that night, all I could do was listen. Clare then grabbed a hand full of hair and dragged her into the bathroom and both climbed into the shower and closed the door and sat with her back to it. To distract her, Clare turned on the shower and held on tightly as the water cascaded down on both of them.

Nothing happened for close to an hour. The water had long ago turned cool then cold, neither could hear if the storm had passed on by until she opened the door and listened by the bathroom door.

Clare repeated the same actions a few minutes later. Both could only hear the silence of the house. The calmness about her, as she told me about that night, didn't sound rehearsed. If anything, any emotion at all had been taken out of her during that evening with Clare. My name came from her lips as my thoughts went over and over her explanation of that night, piercing through every thought.

"Andrew."

When I looked towards her, Shauna was waiting.

"When we discussed our lives together going forward, you told me you could not share me. Clare never forced herself on me. I would have refused because I knew your concerns. Plus, she is also our friend."

Once again, she leaned in close.

"What you saw when you opened that bedroom door was the frightened child within me being held by our friend. We may have been skin to skin, because when we exited the shower, we were thoroughly soaked through and both freezing. We needed our shared body heat. Clare and I did have panties on and yes, we were naked but for them, but I assure you, those panties were the buffer between us at all times."

It took me a good ten minutes of staring at my one love and her staring back for me to admit what my lips gave voice to. "I'm an idiot, I didn't wait around for an explanation, instead I ran away like a petulant child."

All Shauna did was watch me for a moment and then smile, I knew it was coming. I had no choice but to wait for it and accept it when she said. "Yes, you are, I gave you six months to grow up and in the end I had to come here and make you."

Her smile softened her words, I suppose I got off lightly. I got up off the floor. Love made me hold out my hand and help Shauna up. I made us drinks and headed for the couch, when I looked up Shauna was coming out of her room. She knelt on the couch next to me and held out her hand a small card sat snugly in her palm. I took it and read it, still confused I looked towards my sister. She had been waiting.

"Before I left to come to you, I went over that night in my head and looked at it as you would have seen it. I know I did no wrong, Andy, but Clare did what she could to prevent me becoming a basket case. But the explanation of that night still leaves doubt."

Shauna pointed to the card.

"I'm willing to sit a lie detector test to prove all that I said, Andy. That man is a professor that the police consults with on occasions. An expert with both human behavior and lie detectors. Go over what I have said to you, Andy. If any doubt still remains, write down questions and we will visit this man, and connected to his machines, I will answer them for you."

*******

The card sat on the coffee table for the next two days; I even placed a notepad next to it. The pad was never used. Shauna was right all along; this woman knew I had my limits, her being intimate with anyone else was a major one. From the day of her confrontation she shared my bed. Oh, she was sneaky about it, the t-shirt she came to bed in was never on her body by the time I woke up the next morning.

By the fourth day, the pad was just as empty of questions as it was the first day, by mid-day Shauna came out of the bedroom naked and stood in the middle of the room.

"Please, Andrew."

When I looked over, she was placing her hands on my cheeks.

"Please, Andrew, I need to breathe. For four days now nothing has been said of the conversation about that night. Please, Andrew; your sister did no wrong other than my childhood fear and what our friend did to save my sanity."

Sitting on the couch next to her was the easy part. For four days I had thought long and hard on what Shauna had said, and to be honest, Clare did everything that I would have done in those same circumstances.

Shauna was fluid motion as she walked to me, climbed onto the couch and sat with her legs under her body. Her hand came out and the warmth of her hands was shared with my cheek. I grasped her body and pulled her close to me, I even went to kiss her cheek before she figured out what I was aiming for and adjusted her head.

We sat for so long just trading kisses. I tried to say I was sorry, but she figured it out and her hand instantly came to my neck and pulled me close to her as she almost buried her tongue down my throat. I guess I was forgiven for dragging my feet.

Only when Shauna was ready, did she move away from me and rested her head on my shoulder so we could talk.

"I cannot take back what happened, Andrew; if your job interview had been the weekend before or after that fateful time then we would not be here. But we are and now you have to decide." Her eyes grew moist. "I want us together forever, Andy."

This time her lip quivered before she said. "But I can't stay here if you still refuse to believe me. Now is the time, Andrew. Yes, means I stay by your side and never leave you. We forge a life together. Or no, and I pack and leave for home in the morning."

*******

It still took me the rest of the afternoon to decide, even when Shauna typed in the professor's name into Google and his information came up. I got up off the couch, walked over to the laptop and closed the lid. The clicking sound it made as the catch caught was perhaps the final reference either of us would make of that time.

I lifted my naked sister close to me and carried her to the couch, she just knew and the second her knees touched fabric she turned and faced the back of the couch. Her eyes closed and her hearing picked up the rustle of clothes as I undressed myself. Her smile grew as her cheeks flushed and her nipples hardened, my hands held her hips and Shauna's head lowered to rest against the back of the couch as my aching hardness entered her.

Instinct made Shauna move her knees further apart so that my intrusion into her now soaked pussy would be more pleasurable. The moan that escaped her lips was simply confirmation that both were sure going to enjoy what we did next. My hands held her hips and fingers tightened their grip, Shauna smiled, more so when her head again lowered to rest against the back of the couch.

I took her that afternoon and she loved every second, every thrust into her soaked pussy and every grunt that escaped her lips as I took her. She came first, she looked like she didn't want to, this act was supposed to be for her man, but I just kept plowing into her, there on the couch. That afternoon a part of me felt like I had reclaimed my sister and she wanted me to. The swelling of my cock inside her forced her to push back against me. She wanted me deep inside her, so my cum would soak her insides and paint every wall it touches.

I rested against her back for a moment, my hands gently pulling on her nipples, causing another flood of her juices to mingle with her brother's cum.

I still felt I needed to apologize to her. I knew she wouldn't let me, so it was time to treat her.

"I'm going to shower and then go into town, I'm cooking tonight and you get to sit around naked so I can stare, maybe even drool."

Shauna giggled; we both knew that wouldn't happen. After all, helping in the kitchen was therapeutic. Not only that, she also told me that she did intend to blow me at least once before dinner was ready to eat.

*******

Shauna watched as her brother waved and got into his car. Out of love for that man she waved back. He smiled at her and she felt her legs go weak. Her stomach fluttered as the car slowly reversed, turned and then head into town. He said he would be gone only an hour since he was only going for some groceries. Shauna looked down for a moment, her thumb working the screen before lifting her cell to her ear.

It rang four times before a woman answered it. "Hey girlfriend. So how did it go? I've been on edge ever since you left."

Shauna watched the road that the love of her life would return on in an hour. She doubted very much that she would go far from this window until he did.

"Hey, Clare. It went well, better than well." Her eyes misted and a tear moved gently down her cheek, she gulped so that she could continue. "It all went according to plan, Clare. You were right; he didn't believe me and I'm glad I came armed with the professor's card."

Shauna heard the sigh of relief come down the phone.

"We're staying here until the end of the week and then closing the cabin down. Andy owns it, Clare. We plan to come back here when we feel like a change. Anyway, the love of my life has asked me to invite you both for dinner at the end of the month. He plans to thank and apologize to you. I have little doubt we will talk before then on the details of the evening, so see you two then okay?"

"You betcha, girlfriend, see you both soon."

As Shauna terminated the call a wave of relief captured her. Happy tears enveloped her and she just knew that her body was simply along for the ride. Shauna's hand lowered to her side as her forehead rested against the window. She openly cried. Her fingers relaxed and her cell slipped from her fingers to the floor with a thud. Her body rested on one knee as she once again sent a silent prayer to her folks.

"I'm sorry, Mom and Dad. I ran away to Oxford rather than be honest with Andrew. It was four years of madness, a madness that I've gotten out of my system. Andrew is mine now and I'm not giving him back. I love you both for giving us this second chance, when you sent us to the resort to make up, I love you, we love you and when it's our time then..." Shauna sucked in a breath before saying. "I sure miss our talks, Mom."