The Resort Brother and Sister

For a few minutes they stood there, simply enjoying the feel of each other's bodies, and then they separated. Jessica was inexperienced, but she knew that had he continued escalating by doing something as simple as putting his hand on her ass or even under her skirt, she would have turned into a begging, pleading mess. She would have absolutely been the same as the girl that they had seen earlier that day, asking to be taken right there in front of everyone. Not out of exhibitionism, but out of simple need. She took a moment and closed her eyes, breathing hard, and leaned against her brother's chest. It didn't hurt that she could better feel his erection this way.

"Uh," Jessica said after a long moment. "I'm sorry. I got a little bit carried away."

"Don't ever apologize for your passion," Marcus said, and Jessica saw he was breathing hard too. "That was...um...special."

Jessica nodded and looked down. Even though he was clearly happy with what had just transpired, she had shocked herself with how forward she had been. She glanced shyly at Marcus, and could quite easily see the tent in his shorts. She had felt him growing hard against her body, but it was different to watch it. He did not seem ashamed of it, nor did he shy away from her gaze.

I did that, she thought to herself. He's that turned on for me.

"How do you feel?" Marcus asked.

Jessica raised an eyebrow. He could clearly see her flushed face and that she was breathing hard. But she knew her brother, and knew how protective he was of her. He would never push, never let himself hurt her. Jessica smiled, just a bit.

"I feel really good, Marcus. Can we go back to the room now? I want...I want to do more, if you're okay with it."

Jessica couldn't have said what she wanted to do exactly. She knew that there was some kind of guide and that Marcus was following it, but she wasn't aware of how fast or slow he planned to go. She was very nervous, thinking about Marcus touching her or holding her or even pulling her panties down slowly and...

"Let's go back then. We can order dinner from room service later if you want."

Jessica couldn't help but smile as they walked back to the hotel, arm in arm. It was twilight now, and she wondered what the night would bring.

Victoria had started reading the insanity that the Resort called "The Guide" almost as soon as they had gotten to their room. She eventually had to set it down. The whole thing worked her up far too much to focus. When reading some of the advice on how to seduce her own little brother, she felt worried for the first time about him. Yes, he was an adult, but was she putting him in some kind of danger here? Eric, for his part, was standing out on the balcony. She could tell he was enjoying the sun, but also observing the people moving on the beach. For all of his uncertainty, she was perfectly confident that he would help her achieve her goals, just like years ago when they only had each other to rely on. She took a long moment and watched him. The sun outlined his torso through his plain white cotton shirt, showing off a physique that was much more toned and...adult...than when she last saw him. It wasn't hard to imagine what he would look like without it.

And wouldn't she get a chance to watch his body if she wanted? They were at the beach, after all. She just needed to suggest going for a swim and she could see the very things she was fantasizing about, and more. Victoria felt her face redden and stopped thinking for a moment, mind blank. What the hell was wrong with her? She was here for a purpose and the purpose was not to stare at her own brother. She sighed and stood up. Sitting here wouldn't do any good. She knocked on the balcony door and opened it, stepping outside. The breeze caught her hair and she immediately felt refreshed.

"I could get used to island life," Eric said, "but I'm not sure about that."

Eric nodded down toward and Victoria followed his gaze. In the shade of a small patch of elegantly landscaped trees, right by the beach, a couple was making out. To her surprise, the man loosened and removed the woman's bikini top. The woman simply giggled and shoved her hand down his trunks. It was shocking to Victoria, if not particularly pornographic. Even from a distance, it was easy to see how similar they were in hair color, skin tone, and features: the pair were definitely siblings.

"Jesus," Victoria said.

"Yeah. Anyway I guess I should acclimate myself to seeing that kind of thing. What are we doing now? Are we going investigating?"

Victoria smiled. The guide had recommended something that suited her purposes. She needed to get around and see things, watch security, and witness more scandalous activities.

"Nah," she said. "We're going on a date." She smiled at her brother's obvious confusion, but simply took his arm and led him back inside. Soon they were riding the elevator down, chatting almost like a normal couple. She hadn't told Eric where they were going exactly but he knew the general plan was to blend in and observe, so that was fine.

They grabbed some food at a small taco shack first. It had gotten to be around lunch and both were famished despite breakfast. The shrimp tacos that they split had been the best that Victoria had ever had, which did tend to line up with this place in general. She might judge the Resort's morals, but the quality of service here was five star. Apparently Jessica and Marcus agreed, as Victoria had seen them leaving the nearby tables as they approached the shack.

After lunch, Victoria led Eric down the beach until she found what she was looking for.

"Oh my god, you have to be kidding," Eric said as he finally realized where they were going.

"Not even remotely. Come on!" Victoria said, laughing. For a moment, despite shaking his head at her enthusiasm, everything was fine again, and they were kids, enjoying a summer's day outside.

THEN:

The last nice day they had spent together had been in summer. It was before they had escaped their parents, which released them from a lot of pain, but also how they ended up living with Jeff.

Jeff had been the saving grace for them, Victoria knew. He paid their bills, and kept them fed and sheltered. He lived in a nice apartment in a decent part of town. But monsters sometimes didn't look like monsters.

One of the benefits of their parents' neglect is that they didn't much care what their kids did during the summer days. Today, Victoria had taken Eric on a long ride on public transport through the city, all the way to a park that sat on the water. All they had really done was walk and talk and eaten some decent, if cheap, food. She'd managed to get a local job with a restaurant that didn't much care if she wasn't an adult yet, waiting tables and sometimes working in the kitchen or even running errands. She didn't care that it exhausted her. Most of the money was being saved, but sometimes she couldn't help but splurge and make sure Eric had good days.

The truth was that even though she was the eldest, Eric had it tougher than her with their parents. Mostly she was ignored, but Eric seemed to become the focus of their father's drugged aggression more and more. She couldn't do anything about it, and she knew that the local authorities wouldn't or couldn't help because of his connections, so all she could do was plan to take Eric away from all of this.

Oh this day, Eric had spoken a lot about getting a job, too. He wanted to help. He really wasn't that much younger than Victoria, and she was tempted to agree, if only for the practicality of having more money so they could leave faster. Instead, she had told him to stay in school and find more activities there. Even then, she had wanted him to have as close to a "normal" life as possible.

It was that day, watching Eric take his shirt off due to the summer's heat, that she realized that she felt more than simple protectiveness over her brother. Maybe it was the intensity for which she cared for him, or the casual abuses of their parents that pushed them together unnaturally. It didn't matter. After feeling her heart race as the sun glinted off of his sweat, she knew that she was sick.

Victoria had sworn to protect Eric as their parents never would, and now she understood that one day she might have to protect him from herself.

NOW:

"I don't know," Eric said. "This doesn't seem all that bad."

Victoria smiled. "See? You're having fun, right?"

Victoria picked up her putter and moved to the next green. So far she was beating Eric by three strokes but he was always good at coming back at the end. Mini-golf had been a passion of theirs growing up, one of the few things that they could afford to do at least once a week with her waitressing job.

"I am," Eric agreed, smiling widely. "What about you?"

"I have to say, I love the place. And it's really good to be here with you," Victoria said, without thinking. "I, uh, mean that we haven't seen each other face to face in a long time, much less hung out."

"I know," Eric said. "I hate that."

Victoria blinked. She did not point out that she had been facing mild hostility from him ever since she had gotten back in touch with him to invite him on this "vacation". In this unguarded moment there was no anger in him at all. He was relaxed and happy. Wistful, even. Victoria knew that this wouldn't last, but she would enjoy it for now.

"Well, maybe after we get home we can change that," Victoria said. "Like we could make vacations together a thing."

Eric nodded.

"I don't make a ton, but I could pretty easily save up for one good trip like this a year."

"You know...you wouldn't have to pay," Victoria said as she lined up her next shot. She was concentrating so hard on getting the ball past the spinning blades of a fake boat propeller that she didn't realize that she had crossed a line until she looked back at her brother's face. Fuck.

"I don't need charity," he almost hissed back. Victoria wanted to get mad, demand what was wrong with him to say something like that, but she knew what was wrong, and it was her own fault. She looked away and sighed, and so she didn't see Eric's expression soften.

"I...I didn't mean it like that. I just meant I really want to see you, and I don't want money to get in the way. I'm not like, rich or anything, but the interviews and the freelance work and the website are getting profitable. I make enough to live and...and to take you on several vacations a year if you want, without it impacting me. This is selfish of me, not selfless."

"Really?" Eric said. "You'd really want to do that?"

Victoria looked back, and she hated that her eyes were wet with the tears she could not quite suppress.

"Yes. Yes I would. I know you'd never ask but I owe you. A lot."

"You don't owe me any money or vacations or..."

"I owe you my time and my presence and anything else you want. Anything you ask for that's in my power, I will give you. All of what I am...I mean what I own...is yours. I know how dramatic that sounds but I also know now what a mess I made when I left when I did. I mean...I do think I had to go but I could have waited until I explained things better. And I could certainly have kept in touch better than just a call and an email every now and again," Victoria said, before stopping. She had startled Eric and, if she was honest, herself too. She'd been assembling that little speech in her mind almost unconsciously, but it was honest, and it consisted of things she'd had a great deal of trouble admitting to herself, much less her only real family.

Eric stood silently for a moment and then lined up his next shot. It was expertly done, ricocheting off of the wall and going straight into the hole. Victoria worried that she may have gone too far, but when he turned around he was smiling faintly. She relaxed then. He had believed her. She had been terrified that he would not.

She would get her story, expose this place, and get her brother back in her life. Everything would work out for the best.

Victoria and Eric had finished the course, grabbed some delicious food from a stall that sold street food from various Caribbean nations, and walked for hours as the afternoon turned to twilight, and finally it was dark out. They'd talked about everything and nothing, catching each other up on life and laughing about movies and telling stupid jokes and it was wonderful and easy like it had been in the past. Without thinking, she reached out and grabbed Eric's hand. He didn't stop but he did shoot her a confused glance. She thought quickly.

"We're supposed to be finishing our first date. I read the guide and we've gotta give off the happy romantic vibe. Maybe uh...maybe we should kiss in public somewhere."

"So," Eric said, "you're really okay with that?"

Victoria sighed, suppressing her nervousness and trying to sound like a cool professional journalist who simply was doing what she needed to get the story rather than an anxious girl who desperately wanted to kiss her brother inappropriately.

"Y-yeah. Don't worry, it won't be weird. We just need to look right in public, you know?"

"Okay," Eric said and turned to face her. They were in fact, very much in public. The main path ran through here, between the main hotel and the outlying bungalows, with the many restaurants and activity centers situated in between them.

Victoria stood up on her toes to kiss him. She figured it was only right that she would initiate it. It wasn't a surprise to her that he was a good kisser, and knew how to start slowly and escalate. It wasn't even a surprise to her when he allowed her to slip her tongue inside of his mouth, and she wouldn't pretend that she didn't enjoy it. It was a bit of a shock to her when Eric put his hand on her ass, squeezing it and pulling her crotch into him. Now she could feel his hardness, feel how very much he wanted her. She might have intended this to be performative, but now she knew that neither of them were acting. He was giving her everything of his, like he always had, and it felt wrong to do less, so she kissed him back. She ground herself against him, wrapping one of her long legs around his, as if to draw him inside of her and running her hands all over his back.

When the kiss ended, both were left panting in public. The crowded path parted politely around them, with no one commenting but more than a few watching. They stared at each other for a long time, Victoria feeling the guilt and desire warring within her.

"That was definitely believable," Eric said, with a wry smile. "I really could get used to..."

Eric stopped talking and his gaze drifted off to her left. God, she thought, if he's looking at another girl right now I'll kill him. She turned to follow his gaze. He was looking at another woman, but as it turned out, she was not upset.

"You wanted me to be looking for things that didn't seem right. Well, I'd say a crying girl all alone in the dark fits that description," he said quietly into her ear. Victoria shivered as she studied the girl.

It was hard to tell at first because she sat by herself on a bench swing in a secluded spot, but her shoulders were shaking in that unmistakable way that only sobs can cause. It was close to the path they had been walking on but it was shadowed from all the artificial lights in the area, probably intentionally. Victoria would never have seen her.

To her shame, she did not want to talk to or help this girl. She wanted to take Eric back to their room and...claim him. She had lost control in the moment, and kissed her own brother far too passionately to just be 'for show'. Her urges were getting tough to deal with, and her resistance to them was lessening. But she only had to be strong for a week. She took a deep breath and steadied herself.

"I'm going to go talk with her, see if she's okay and if she wants to tell me anything good," Victoria said.

"Do you want me to go back to the hotel or wait for you?"

"Wait for me. I think we should stay close," Victoria said, desperately hoping that he only sensed her protectiveness and not her possessiveness. She was still unsteady and she walked away before she could hear Eric's response. As she approached the girl Victoria felt her cool collected self take over again: taking in everything about the girl as she walked, describing her in her mind's eye as she would in the article.

She had seemed younger at first, but now Victoria could tell that the girl was in her early-to-mid twenties. She was black, with long braids that framed her face. She had enticing curves and a very girl-next-door look to her features, enhanced by plain, practical glasses. Her crying didn't make her any less pretty. She wouldn't have blamed Eric for looking at her even had the girl not been crying. When Victoria approached, the girl looked up in shock. Victoria stopped and gave her gentlest, most supportive smile. She did not want to scare the girl away from talking.

"I'm sorry," Victoria said. "My, um, my brother and I were walking by and we couldn't help but see you here. Are...are you okay? Do you want to be alone? I'm Victoria."

The girl smiled back, with a bit of difficulty.

"H-hi. I'm fine, I guess. I thought I just needed some time to myself, but...I wouldn't mind some company, I guess. I'm Molly."

Victoria took that as an invitation and sat down. They sat together in the dark as Molly pulled herself together.

"Is...is everything okay, Molly? Did someone hurt you or...or make you do something?"

Victoria kicked herself after saying the words. She had led too hard. But Molly just laughed softly.

"No, no one hurt me. No one here anyway. I'm...I'm actually doing pretty well. Mostly. I'm just...I guess I'm really overwhelmed."

"I can understand that. There's a lot of...weird stuff going on here. I never expected all of this."

Molly shook her head.

"The resort is fine," she said. "It just gets better every time we visit. Me and Terrance, I mean. Terrance is my older brother."

Victoria nodded, and tried to pretend that it was all normal.

"And...you and Terrance, had a fight? Or..."

"No. Um...I want to be clear just so you don't worry. Terrance didn't do anything to me that I didn't want. And he never would."

Victoria tried to keep her expression calm but some of her skepticism must have shown through. Molly sighed before explaining.

"I...I didn't want to come here with him at first," Molly said. "I just wanted to spend my spring break with my friends at some beach. But Terrance was going through kind of a hard time and his therapist suggested that he come here with me. And, I was like, well...it was a free trip to a resort for a week. And I had really missed my brother. He'd been at college for a year and didn't come home for visits or anything. Shit, I'm sorry, I'm telling you my life story and you just came to check up on me. I overshare sometimes and..."

"It's fine," Victoria said, sensing more of a story here. "I, um, in my life away from here I kind of listen to people a lot. So, if you want to talk about things or if you feel that would help, I'd love to listen. It will stay just between us, of course. I won't even tell Eric. That's my brother lurking over there by the way. He's just waiting for me."

"He's cute," Molly said. Victoria felt a flush of anger come to her face, but she suppressed it. Molly noticed again. She was a perceptive girl. "I was just looking, don't worry. Terrance and I are...I guess you could say we're monogamous now. We kind of kept it light after our first trip and dated other people but...it became really clear to me after a while that I was meant for him and I just wasn't interested in other guys."