It's not what you think. Not what it looks like. You didn't see what you thought you saw. You're dreaming. Go back to bed.

All of these explanations rushed through my head as I stared at the boy silhouetted by moonlight in Katherine's bedroom door, but what I really wanted to say was, take a good look. 

I knew that I should be scared, worried, filled with dread - and I was - but the part of me that was in control of my body then had finally gotten confirmation that the dream I had been living for the past year was real. We had been witnessed, our love made flesh. There was no denying it.

I had drawn myself out of Katherine at the sound of the voice and shrank back from her. Kat had pulled the blankets up to cover herself, looking fearfully from Hunter to myself.

"Holy shit, shit!" Hunter said, more loudly this time.

I was still hard and, when I stood up from the bed, Hunter looked away as though he'd only walked in on me showering.

"Shhhh," Katherine said behind me.

"You'd better come in, son" I said, bending for my discarded underwear.

A dread buoyed up like rot inside of me, a rushed panic as my mind followed the flows of what had to happen next. Agatha would find out. Then the neighbors. Then the school. Then the police. Then the news. They would take my daughter. They would take our unborn child. And it was all because of this boy.

My jaw was working silently, but the words to explain it all, to make him go away did not come. 

"Holy shit," Hunter said again. "Shit! Shit!"

Katherine had pulled the covers up around her breasts, but let them fall just then, as though the motion to hide herself had been a nervous tick, a forgotten impulse. While I knelt on her bed searching my rotting mind for a way out, Kat acted.

She slinked to the floor on all fours, the bedsheets trailing behind her. I watched her ass, the crease between her legs where I had found love again, as it arched away from me.

"Hunter," she whispered, almost crooning.

She was free of the blankets. Her naked body stretched out in the moonlight, nude and shimmering as though she swam beneath a sun-spattered lake as she inched towards him.

Hunter's face had gone limp, bloodless. I understood what she was going to do. The pangs of jealousy I'd felt when I'd first seen the boy could not penetrate the black storm eating away at my lungs.

"Hunter," Kat repeated when she had inched up his legs to clutch at his loose waistband. Hunter's eyes had gone wide, reflecting something like the fear that was inside of me.

His right hand twitched. His eyes flicked to me. My mouth snapped closed.

"Kat?" he said. "What the fuck..."

The question died on his lips. Even as he placed a warning hand on Kat's shoulder, his right hand closed around the knob and he eased the door closed.

When Kat pulled Hunter's cock out of his shorts, it was already hard. I was surprised that my own erection had not faded, nor did it soften as Kat's lips closed around the other boy's cock. Hunter's head lolled back.

~~~

Katherine could feel her father's eyes on the back of her head as Hunter slid into her throat. A whirl of emotions spilled through her head. Fear, lust, and love being the most prominent. In one moment, she was in love with her father, doing this for him. In another, she was afraid of what might happen if she didn't do it, if this didn't work. But then, she wanted Hunter and her father at once so badly that she didn't care so long as she could have them. Right now. Together.

As Kat's fingers came up to gently squeeze Hunter's balls, another feeling came with the others: guilt. Shame. She shouldn't be enjoying this, but the shocked silence that had passed from Hunter to Adam had been enough to excite her beyond what was reasonable. But she knew that her father could stop it at any moment. Break down and call it off. He can't, Kat thought. Doesn't he see this is the only way?

She prayed a little prayer to whatever god accepts such wanton desires as this that Adam would understand.

The God of Whores, Kat thought, when Hunter's hands clasped around the base of her neck, That's what I am now. A whore.

Katherine had never been shy, never been coy about what she wanted. But two men? In one night?

Slut, she called herself. Fucking slut.

Even as the tears burned in her eyes, Kat felt a second wind of excitement blow through her as another pair of hands raised her ass out of a kneeling position and gently eased her back. Her father entered her from behind.

Kat nearly squealed around Hunter's girth.

~~~

Every ounce of my body quivered, railing against what was happening between my thighs. Katherine rocked against me. My cock, hard in spite of itself, plunged deeper and deeper into her while she held the boy's slavishly in between her lips. Even as I pulled her hips into mine, my eyes were locked on her face, on her clear eyes darting upward at the college boy she had been fucking behind my back. Is she nervous? Or is she...

I wasn't sure if it was the thought that her first instinct - her desire even - had been to fuck the boy again to hold his silence or that it was working that had stirred the flames of anger in my heart. 

Hunter was letting little moans escape his lips, his fingers tangled through her hair.

I worked the anger into my thrusts, hardly caring that Katherine's own moaning had become labored and loud.

"This is wrong," Hunter breathed. "This is wrong."

Yes, I thought. You're sharing your daughter. She isn't for him.

But I knew I had to paly the part, play this off.

"You're in it now, son," I grunted, hating every word.

I dug my fingernails into Kat's ass and clapped into her harder.

Katherine let Hunter's dick out of her mouth and clung to his trunk for support, whispering, "Fuck me, daddy, fuck me. Fuck me."

"Holy shit," Hunter said again, a hand still wrapped in her hair.

Katherine ran her tongue along the shaft of his penis and went in again, enveloping it in her mouth, spitting on the head. The sight of her with another man's cock in her mouth incensed me, but it reminded me again of the day I watched her in the barn with another boy, a time when I had only loved her from afar when I'd had to spend my self in the grass and watch her ride bare-chested on the county road. I had her now, still, between my legs, pressed against me, loving me. She was fucking this boy to be with me, in a crooked sense.

You're sharing your daughter, the little disgusted voice in my head reminded me. But it was quieter now.

I exploded out of Kat and spilled myself across her back, feeling the release from months of distance marred only by the strangeness of our reunion.

"Yes, daddy," Kat gasped. "I want more."

I dragged Kat away from Hunter and spread her across the bed, kneeling between her thighs to taste her. 

"Hunter," she moaned.

I felt a twisting inside of me, but stood up and went to the other side of the bed, letting my cock fall beside Kat's face. Hunter stepped between Kat's legs and, half looking at me, pushed inside of her. Kat's response was electric. Her stomach scrunched in and her arms flew out to clutch for the bedposts. She found my arms instead and gripped tight, mouth working in a wordless fury as Hunter pounded into her. The bedsprings groaned.

I raised Kat's chin up to kiss me, ignoring the shadow of the boy's cock on her tongue, so that she could see my eyes. I kept the anger out of them and left behind the love. She squeezed them shut and clenched her teeth as Hunter continued pumping. Her kiss was sweet. She held my head to hers as though using my lips to quiet her rising moans.

I need to be in bed, I thought. If Agatha caught us now it would all have been for nothing.

But now, Kat's lips were caressing my cock and I was growing hard again and Hunter's chest was slick with sweat.

~~~

Behind Katherine, a curtain swished shut in the kitchen. She knew that her father had been watching her as she walked Hunter out to his car. The snow that had fallen throughout most of the night, deadening the secret sounds that had passed from her bedroom, had been swept away, leaving behind an ice blue sky. Hunter stopped on the little walk to the drive and took Kat's arm.

"How long has he been... doing that to you?" Hunter asked. It was concern, not anger in his eyes.

Katherine blinked up at him, shocked.

"Doing 'that' to me?" she said.

"Katherine," Hunter said. When he said her name now, he sounded more like a father than a boyfriend. The music he had once put into the name had gone out. "I promise, I won't ever let that happen to you again. I'll take you away from here. I'll-"

Katherine's mouth fell open. Her hands went instinctively to her belly.

"Hunter!" she said. "It isn't like that. It's not. I - I love him."

Hunter paused. Now it was his turn to look down at her with confusion.

"Of course," he said. "He's your father, but-"

"No, Hunter. I love him," Kat said, more firmly. "I want this. I've always wanted this."

Hunter's mouth moved but no sound came out.

"He's your father."

Katherine knew her relationship with her father was not normal. But why shouldn't it be? She had more in common with that man than any other. Hunter was a boy. Adam was a man. She was a woman. She was carrying their child. Still. Hunter was looking at her differently now. The love or lust or whatever he had been feeling for her was replaced in his eyes by pity. This was how the world would see her. And her baby, if they ever found out.

"What we did..." Hunter started, but stopped.

"You won't tell anyone, will you?" Kat said. "At school?"

"Tell anyone?" Hunter was aghast.

"Not that I'm ashamed," Kat said. Am I? she added to herself. "But... people wouldn't understand it, right?"

"No," Hunter said. He scraped above twice against the faint layer of snow that had fallen in the few minutes since he and Adam had cleared the drive, looking like some mule digging in or a bull ready to charge. "What about us?"

Kat swallowed the hot pit of emotions that were threatening to overwhelm her. She wanted to look back to her father. She wanted him to tell her what to do. But she knew what he would have her say.

She couldn't say it.

She only shrugged and shook her head, tears finally coming to blur her vision.

"He's - and you - that's - what about everything we talked about?" Hunter spluttered.

"I still want all that. It's just," Katherine took a deep breath. Am I really going through with this? "This is important too."

"Did you ever," Hunter started. "Did you never feel... anything for me?"

Katherine's belly lurched. It wasn't the baby. Hunter's watery eyes burned through her. She saw hurt in them. And shame. And desire. Through the fog of his other emotions, she could see a truer one. Love. Katherine had to look away. There had been a moment, maybe a host of moments, when she had loved him, or wanted to.

Morning sickness had come with midterms and he'd found her curled in her bunk, clutching her churning stomach and using a calculus textbook for a pillow. He'd brought her soup and chocolate and his brother's detailed notes and kissed her lightly on the forehead. For that moment, she had been a sick college student. The secret in her belly and the secret back at home had been so far away and Hunter was there.

Now, though, she was home. And everything was at risk.

"Of course I did," Kat said, unbidden. "I do."

She stepped closer to him and pressed a small kiss onto his lips, feeling a tear streak off his face and onto her cheek. His arms came around her and held her there. 

~~~

The hug had been going on for a long time when Agatha came up behind me.

"Won't you leave those two alone?" she said. I spun around to stare at her as though she had struck me. Then, relaxed.

Still, I probed her words, her tone for any hint of suspicion. When I returned to bed the night before, leaving Hunter behind in Kat's bed, I found Agatha sleeping soundly. But I had been gone long and after Hunter showed up, it had gotten... loud.

"I'm just watching," I said, reaching for an already dry coffee mug to pretend to clean off.

"Watching her like you watched her with that field hand of hers?" Agatha said.

A sliver of ice slipped into my belly. Again, I sensed her voice for signs of danger. But, no, she was teasing. She couldn't know about that, could she?

"What?"

"Two summers ago, wasn't it?" Agatha said. She took the mug from my hands and poured herself a cup of coffee. I had forgotten that I'd made it. "You practically followed them around to make sure she wasn't up to something, right?"

She was looking away as though hiding something... or as though she were looking for the sugar.

"You have to let her live her life sometime," Agatha said, spooning two sugars into her coffee and resting her back against the counter.

I went back to finding dishes to dry, letting the ice melt in my belly. It's okay, I assured myself. It's okay. Relax.

Kat and Hunter had broken apart, finally, but he was holding on to the tips of her fingers. There was a small, playful smile on his face that I didn't like.

"She'll catch cold," I muttered.

"Did something happen last night?" Agatha said suddenly. I froze again, the snow outside became a reflection of fear.

I turned to face her slowly, holding my face as still as ice.

"No?" I said, almost hopefully.

"I thought I heard... noises," Agatha said.

"Noises?" My voice had become faint. I was speaking on autopilot.

"Like, from Katherine's room," Agatha said. She sounded equally uncomfortable now. "And you were gone. And you're so... protective of her. I just thought--"

"What did you think?" I snapped. The ice had climbed into my chest and taken hold. My heartbeat slowly, loudly, drowning out all thought.

Agatha set down her mug.

"I thought... were you spying on them?" she said.

"I'm her father," I said. "This is my house. He... she -"

I was grasping for words, struggling to find what she thought and how to ease her away from dangerous territory.

But Agatha raised her hands as though in defeat.

"I know," she said. "I know. I don't interfere in how you raise your daughter. I'm just saying. It's perfectly natural. Maybe you should give her some space."

She picked up her mug and swayed out of the kitchen.

"And that Hunter is a nice boy!" she called over her shoulder.

She left me feeling numb, as though I had just run a marathon. I gripped my chest and caught hold of the countertop to steady myself. She's so close. I thought. She almost knows.

I closed my eyes.

We have to be more careful.

I turned back to the window, carefully parting the curtain.

They were kissing again.