Luke
“Never. There that was simple, wasn’t it? Want me to expand?” Tina nodded.
I pulled the duvet around us and we snuggled into each other more, “Sam’s my sister, but it’s not about morals or legalities, sure they are stoppers, but they are inconsequential compared to the real reason.
“Morals are only the standards that the society you live in dictates to you. Incest is illegal here based on supposed science, though it’s more a moralistic thing. In France, Spain and Japan, just to start, certain levels are perfectly acceptable. We are allowed to marry first cousins, yet in parts of the US, that’s illegal.
“Soft drugs are illegal here, cross the Channel to Amsterdam and you can buy them in cafes. Go to Africa and some other countries, the legal age to get married and have kids, can be as young as thirteen, maybe less.
“No, my reasons are all about my relationship with Sam. Where we are, is the best place for both of us, so close a cigarette paper couldn’t get between us, but both knowing there is a very clear line we don’t cross. Neither of us ever will, because we would be scared it would ruin what we have and that saved, I think, both our lives.
“I bet you’re wondering what I said on the field today?” Again, she nodded.
“Sometimes, especially when there’s alcohol or there has been a lot of emotions, Sam gets very clingy, you’ve seen it over the last day. There have been times when the line has dimmed, for both of us, but not to the point of crossing. With Sam, her teasing gets very questionable, shall we say. Me, I just get wracked with guilt.
“This afternoon, when I caught her, I told her she needed a good spanking, to keep her in order. Did you see her look back at me?” A small nod from Tina, “She got a look in her eye, it’s like Aite takes over her body and then she was telling me I was too fat and weak to give her the spanking she needed. That’s when I just threw her over my shoulder.
“Who knows, maybe if we lived in one of those other countries, we may have crossed some lines, but I still wonder if our relationship may have held us back.”
“Who or what is Aite?”
“Sorry, the Greek goddess of mischief, granddaughter of Nyx, the goddess of night.”
“You really are a dork!”
“Thank you. You might be more familiar with Loki, but it would be wrong seeing him fill her.”
“Pervert!” she said, as she slapped my chest, then asked, “What about us?”
“In what sense?”
“If you’d been able to cross lines with Sam. Also, you said your relationship is too much to risk on crossing the line, but we’ve crossed that line.”
“If we’d crossed, possibly you wouldn’t be here. Not because I think more highly of Sam, but because I wouldn’t have gotten to know you, not as we do, at least. I’m afraid, I’m a bit of a one-woman man, once I make some sort of commitment, sorry.” I got a kiss on the chest for that one.
“We’re different, other than societal norms, our relationship, all aspects of it, have been developing together. Finding out about each other and our friends and families, finding out about our sexuality and exploring each other’s bodies and minds. It’s a package deal, a package I’m very happy with.”
Tina looked up at me smiling, “You may have spoiled her, you know that?”
“What you on about?”
“Sam. How will she ever find anyone that comes close to matching you?”
“Doesn’t matter, she’ll always have me. If I’ve got the time or money, I’m quite happy to keep spoiling her.”
“Oh, Luke,” she sighed, “for someone as perspicacious as you, you are so naïve at times. What man would want to share his wife with her brother?”
“She’s my sister, I’ll carry on spoiling her, it won’t affect her husband.”
Tina sighed, “You really don’t understand women or men.”
“You don’t need to worry, I’ll always spoil you first.”
Tina burst out laughing, “Too late, you’ve spoiled me already.”
“And I’ll keep spoiling you.”
She then started to kiss me so delicately; it was almost as if she wasn’t touching me.
“Such an adorable doofus.”
It wasn’t until a few years later that I understood what Tina meant and the distinction she had put on spoiled as opposed to spoilt.
The kissing progressed further and further. Eventually, leading to us making love again, before falling asleep, once more, in each other's arms.
Tina
I awoke before Luke and again we were all tangled up. I kissed his nose, then slipped out of bed, put on his gown and ran to the loo. When I came out Mrs Evans was just walking past.
“Morning love, everything okay?”
“Yes, thank you.”
She smiled and said, “The coffee machine is on if you want to get a cup or two.”
“Thank you.”
I went downstairs, there was no one else about and wasn’t surprised when I saw the time, just before seven. I got two cups and filled them, Luke would be fine, he was happy with coffee that had gone cold. I put his cup on his side of the bed, then walking around to mine, I noticed two things.
First, how possessive I was getting over things to do with us, our room, our friends, our lives, my side of the bed; some things you don’t share, like Luke, for starters. That said, I knew, in my head, I had already given Sam an exception to that last rule, Luke told me they had not and would not cross that line, but that was physically, in their heads and hearts they had crossed it.
The really curious thing was I was one hundred per-cent comfortable with where Sam was in our lives. Excluding the physical aspects, I could almost imagine her being in a relationship with us. Given my vast experience of relationships, I then went on to wonder if this was common. When I got the chance, I would speak to Diane about it.
The other was the two books Luke professed to get out for me, sitting on his desk, ‘Feeling Good’, a book about mood therapy and ‘A Princess of Mars’, a novel, that on reading the summary, seemed to be a science fiction romance. I took them both and slipped under the covers. Deciding the mood book needed better attention, I turned to the novel.
It was a light book, written in 1912 it was certainly a book of its time. Within an hour I was halfway through it. There were solid good guys and evil bad guys, a beautiful princess and monsters and battles, it reminded me of some of the Saturday morning cinema films. My father would have said ‘a good old-fashioned romp’.
Other than learning a little about Luke’s reading interest, I learnt something of great interest. In the book, you could only call someone 'my princess', if you had declared your love and commitment for her, in other words, asked her to marry you and she had accepted it. I think this might have been Luke’s way of telling me how he felt, maybe I was reading too much into it, but I hoped.
“Morning, beautiful,” Luke said, not even looking up at me.
“Morning, sweetie, there’s a coffee for you, might be a bit cold.”
“I have all I need right here,” he moved down and rested his head on my lap.
With an arm behind me, curled around my bum and the other holding onto my leg, it was a perfect moment, after the chaos of the last forty-eight hours. It was only when I put the book down to look at him, I realised he had pushed the covers down. I smiled at how different I was with him and how comfortable it was. I started to stroke his hair and carried on reading.
Luke gave me a little squeeze in response and I swear he was purring. At one point, I rested the book on the back of his head, so I could carry on reading, while I sipped my coffee. When I picked the book up, I tittered.
“What’s funny?”
“You. For a second, I thought it looked like you were listening to my vagina.”
He snorted, “And you call me a doofus.”
“I only thought it, because you are and it’s the sort of thing I can imagine you doing.”
There was a light tapping at the door, “It’s me, Sam, you decent?”
Luke sat up, pulled the covers over our laps and told her we were. As the door opened, I remembered, I wasn’t, quite.
“Crap,” I whispered, as I put the book against my chest.
Sam only opened the door a fraction and put her head through, “I just wanted to check in on you both, before we got caught up in the herd downstairs.”
Luke waved her in and unlike the first time I met her, she perched softly on the edge of the bed, looking from one to the other of us. I could see what Luke meant about the change in her once things had settled.
“I’m good,” he showed her his wrists. “Still thinking, still living.”
She smiled and looked back to me, “I think I’ll be fine. Luke’s already getting me reading and I found out some interesting things.”
I elbowed him, “We’ll be alright, we can help each other, now and if you need either of us, I’ll make sure you have my room number before I go.”
Sam squeezed my foot through the covers and got up before she could leave, Luke held her wrist and pulled her back. As she fell onto the bed, he put his hand on her chest just below her neck, holding her in place, across our legs; there was absolutely no resistance in her.
He asked, “And you? You okay?”
She thought for a moment, then said, “Yes, yes I am. We are, all three of us.”
He leant down and kissed her forehead when she got up she walked around to my side and kissed my forehead. Then she paused, before pulling the top of the book away from me.
“Boobies!” Sam laughed and skipped out of the room.
When she left the room, I leant over to Luke, dropping the book away, “Decent were we?”
“Ah, fuck, sorry,” he said and pulled me into a hug.
I smiled, “As I said, you’ve spoiled her.”
“Uhuh. So, tell me, what did you learn?”
“Well you’ve fought for me, you’ve certainly won me and yes, you too are a strange mix of man and child. The book is over eighty years old, so I’ll let you off the last bit, my chieftain.”
He pulled me to him and kissed me softly, but possessively, slightly open-mouthed but no tongues, exchanging our life’s breath between us.
He paused and said, “I’m sorry, I stumble over words. I know loads of them, I’ve read loads of books, but when it comes to you, no words can justify how beautiful you are to me, your heart, your soul, your mind and yes, your body. No words can explain the feelings I have for you, it’s like the deaf man and the cliff. Like a lot of things I try and say, I find metaphor often work best.”
