An Ordinary College Sex Life

Chapter 9: Brothers and Sisters

I stirred awake when a beam of sunlight, coming through the crack in my curtains, drifted directly across my face. Grimacing against the unwanted illumination, I simply rolled back into the shadows and slept for another few minutes.

Unfortunately, that first attempt by my body to wake stirred my consciousness enough to become aware of the extremely painful splitting headache that throbbed against my skull. And eventually, after those few minutes drifting between sleep and wakefulness, the pain won out and I sat up in bed. I held my temples with both hands, hunched over and wincing. And I desperately prayed that someone ... anyone ... would stop ringing that damn oversized bell.

Sometime later, the ringing in my head faded to a dull roar, and I was able to pry my crusted eyelids open. I turned sideways to kick my legs over the edge of the bed, resting my heels on the bedframe.

I’m not sure how long I stayed there, perched at the edge of my mattress, wishing I could somehow go back to sleep. My mouth was parched and I was desperate for a drink of water; but I was still too tired to muster up enough energy to go get it.

Eventually, I managed to stagger to my feet and tottered over to the door, wincing with every single step. I’d had some hangovers in my life; but never anything this bad.

The hallway was filled with WAY too much light. I actually had to stop and shield my eyes against the glow when I opened my door. But feeling my bladder screaming at me, I forced myself to squint and stagger forward, heading for the bathroom.

“It’s alive!” Dayna laughed from the living room as I came into view. My eyes were still barely cracked open and I grimaced as I turned to look at her. Brandi sat up from her spot on the couch and turned to look at me as well. But I was already continuing on to the bathroom.

A few minutes later, feeling somewhat relieved after emptying my bladder and splashing some water on my face, I staggered back out en route to my bedroom. My older sister met me in the hallway.

“Here.” Brandi handed me a tall glass of orange juice. Gratefully, I took it and downed the entire contents in one long pull.

Then, smacking my lips and gasping for air, I handed it back. “What time is it?” I asked groggily.

“Just after 11am,” Brandi answered. “What time did Adrienne say she was coming back?”

I scowled, the act of searching through my brain physically painful. “Noon. Said we’d pack up and go then.”

Brandi nodded. “You should eat something first. Go get dressed and I’ll fix you a plate.”

I winced and started to turn away, but the search through my memory also pieced together some of the things that had happened last night. I stopped and touched Brandi’s arm before she left. “Uh, did you see Gwen?”

Brandi sighed and nodded. “She left a couple of hours ago. You were still dead to the world.”

I sighed. “I should call her.”

Brandi shook her head. “She doesn’t want you to.”

I paused and frowned. “Huh?”

Brandi sighed, looking away. “You shouldn’t have done that last night, Ben. I know you were upset, but you shouldn’t have just dragged her into your bedroom. Not right in front of Rick.”

My eyes popped open. “Huh?” I’d grabbed Gwen in front of her boyfriend?

My sister arched her eyebrow. “You didn’t know? She was dancing with Rick when you came up and just... took her. He was banging on the door for a while. The guy was pretty upset. Started interrogating the rest of us about whether we knew about you two and how long it’d been going on.”

Ah, hell. I winced, feeling a wave of guilt sinking down around me. I’d slept with girls who had boyfriends before, dating back to Tara Abbott in High School and even just recently with Julie Carpenter. But I’d never done it right in front of the guy.

Brandi just shook her head disapprovingly of me. “Someday one of these indiscretions is gonna bite you in the ass, Ben.”

I closed my eyes and nodded, holding the bridge of my nose. I knew firsthand how cheating could fuck up a relationship; and I wasn’t exactly proud of being the “other man”. All of the crimes had been committed while I was in a weird place mentally, and I’d never pressured a girl, but those reasons didn’t make it right.

“So, Gwen said she had to talk to Rick,” Brandi continued. “She was breaking up with him anyways, and she’d already told him she wanted to see other people. But last night complicated things. She said she’d call you after everything died down.”

I nodded. And then I glanced sidelong at the other bedroom door connected to the hallway. “Have you seen Dawn?”

Brandi sighed and bit her lip nervously. A feeling of dread settled over me while my sister glanced away and remained silent for a few long seconds. But eventually she collected herself and answered, “She went out with Ryan this morning. Dayna and I are driving her back home for dinner and we’re going to spend the weekend with the Evanses.”

I stayed quiet and waited, knowing there was more. Brandi wouldn’t have gotten nervous over just that.

My sister took a deep breath, blinking slowly and then fixing me with an apologetic expression. “I’m sorry, Ben. But we’re supposed to call her after you’re gone. Dawn said she doesn’t want to see you before you leave.”

Good God, could it get any worse? Adrienne, Paige, Gwen, and now Dawn ... My list of failures was snowballing.

I am alone.

“Holy shit, Ben. Are you okay?”

I looked up from my spot sitting on the daybed to see Adrienne standing in the doorway, silhouetted against the bright sunlight in the hallway. I could only imagine how I looked to her. My hair was an unkempt mess. Great big dark circles hung beneath each eye. And I was pretty sure my skin was a sickly, pallid shade. I was clad in shorts and a T-shirt, slumped against the wall, with my knees pulled up to either side of my chest. My forearms rested on each knee while my head hung down.

“Must’ve been some party last night,” Adrienne whistled.

“Something like that,” I groaned in reply. Then I took a deep breath and managed to lift my head. “Hangover.”

“I figured.” Adrienne nodded and looked concerned. “You okay to drive?”

I just nodded in response, then got off the bed and slipped my feet into my sandals.

Adrienne frowned and glanced around the empty state of the room. “Uh, did you already load my stuff into the car?”

I nodded again. After getting dressed, I’d eaten a little and then rather listlessly prepared for the drive home, loading both of our belongings into the trunk and backseat of the Mustang. I had very much enjoyed my first year at college and living in an off-campus house with my roommates; but right now all I wanted to do was go home — far, far away from here — and crawl into my own bed.

“Ben, I’m really sorry about everything,” Adrienne began, furrowing her eyebrows as she saw how pathetic I looked. “I never meant for—”

I held a hand up to stop her. Then shaking my head slowly, I looked her in the eye and said, “It’s okay. I understand.”

“You do?”

I sighed and nodded. The sense of hope that I could somehow talk Adrienne into taking me back had faded away. Our romance was over and I knew it. So I tentatively walked straight over to my girlfriend of the past year. She tensed up just slightly at my approach, and then relaxed as I simply gave her a warm hug. “I’ll always care about you, Adrienne. I’ll always love you.” Heck, I was still IN love with her. But I’d have to learn to let that part fade away.

She shivered in my grasp before answering, “I know. I love you too, Ben. Forever and always.”

I pulled back and held her at arms length. The energy was fading away again and I felt like collapsing straight onto the floor. “Let’s go,” I patted her shoulder.

Together, we went outside and took a last look around the house. True, we were coming back to the same place in three months, but there was still a certain nostalgia at leaving a place that had been home for so long. We exchanged goodbye hugs with Dayna and Brandi, and then turned for the front door.

“Where’s Dawn?” Adrienne asked as we descended the steps and turned the corner into the driveway.

I hung my head, sighing softly before saying, “It’s complicated.”

Adrienne gave me a funny look, but noticed the expression of infinite sadness that had crossed my face. And for a moment, it looked like she was going to move in and hug me again. But then Adrienne’s eyes popped open and she looked over my shoulder.

I was just about to turn around myself to see what Adrienne was looking at when a sudden weight slammed into me from behind. I heard a choking sob as arms circled around my body, and a pair of firm breasts was pushed against my back.

“Dawn?” I instantly gasped as my hands came up to touch the arms wrapped around me. She didn’t answer immediately, but I felt the soft touch of her lips as she kissed the back of my neck.

In that moment, a mountain load of tension slid off my shoulders as I sagged in blissful relief. She’d come back. She’d kissed my neck.

She still loved me.

“I’m sorry, Ben,” Dawn said softly, right into my ear from behind.

I didn’t answer. I didn’t even turn around to look at her. I just bent my head and gently patted her hands.

She kissed my neck again and sighed. “I’m your Dawn. Forever.”

I cracked a smile. And only then did I turn around to give her the warmest hug I could imagine. She pushed her chin against my shoulder and I dipped my cheek against hers, feeling the moisture of her tears. We twisted together for a good minute, hugging each other tighter and tighter until neither of us could breathe.

And then I turned and kissed her cheek, whispering, “And I’m your Ben.”

Happiness is relative; it’s all a matter of what came immediately before it. And right now, my life didn’t feel quite as bad as it had just last night.

If you’d told me a few months ago that Adrienne would break up with me and plan to separate herself from my family, I would have thought I’d be completely distraught. If you’d told me a few weeks ago that Paige would also be freeing herself of me, I would have felt even worse. Plus the Gwen thing. Plus this splitting headache. All of it bad, bad, BAD.

Well, while I wasn’t thrilled my situation, I had to admit that I was feeling rather ... accepting ... of it right now. And it was all because Dawn had come back to me just before we left.

If Dawn hadn’t come back, I wouldn’t recommend anyone getting in the car with me. I would have been liable to flip the damn thing on purpose.

No, Adrienne wasn’t getting back together with me. She was still planning to separate herself from my family. But I was okay with that. I could see in her eyes that she still loved me, in her own way. And she would still be around. Heck, maybe I could talk her into still coming with us to summer camp, and then I’d have a full month of distraction to try and change her mind.

So I drove the Mustang at a cruise-controlled 80mph, passing the occasional Buick-driving walnut and getting passed quite frequently as well. I never knew a Tercel could hold that speed without overheating.

And Adrienne and I talked about the future.

“So where are you thinking of living?” I asked, one hand on the steering wheel and one eye on Adrienne.

The stunningly gorgeous blonde leaned onto the door’s armrest and played with her hair. “I don’t know yet. I talked to Candy on Thursday about us. I floated the idea of getting an apartment together for the summer, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. It’s not that she can’t afford it, but she actually likes living with her parents for a few months out of the year.”

“No need to rush. You know Mom and Dad are never going to kick you out.”

She nodded. “I know.”

I raised my eyebrows at her. “And broken up or not, there’s really no reason we can’t live under one roof. We’ll always be your family.”

“Bennn,” Adrienne sighed regretfully.

I put both hands on the wheel and turned forward. “I’m not going to say any more. I don’t want to make you feel awkward about it. And ... Okay, just one last thing I’m going to say.”

Adrienne smirked and looked at me. “What?”

“You’re running away again.”

“Am not.”

“Sure you are. And if Lynne were here she’d tell you the same thing. You’re only moving out because you’re running away from me. Because you don’t want to feel awkward around me.”

“I’m moving out because I’m not really a part of your family,” Adrienne insisted. “Because I don’t want to intrude any longer.”

“It’s not intruding if we WANT you with us.”

“Fine,” Adrienne huffed, looking down. “Because I need to put some distance between us, okay?”

“At least you admit it. You’re running away from me.”

“It’s not ‘running away’, Ben!” Adrienne barked indignantly. Then she exhaled and visibly shrank. “I just ... If I stay living with you, I’m going to want to get back together with you. I love you so much, and I can’t make these feelings go away if you’re too close to me. Do you understand?”

“Sure,” I grinned. “So if you stay living with us, I’ll get you back. Now I’m NEVER letting you leave.”

“Bennn...”

I sighed. She was probably right. If we were really going to stay broken up, and breaking up seemed to be the right thing to do for both our futures, getting some space between us only made sense. “Can you blame me for not wanting to break up?”

“No. But you know this is what’s best,” Adrienne said solemnly. “You DO understand, don’t you? I can’t be what you want forever. We both have to move on.”

“Can’t we postpone the ‘moving on’ until later?”

“No. We’ve gone as far as we can go.”

I frowned, feeling dejected and yet resigned to our fates. I stared straight ahead and sullenly asked, “So there’s nothing in the world that can change your mind?”

Adrienne shook her head. “No. Absolutely nothing.”

“Anybody home?” I pulled my key from the door, glancing around the foyer. I moved forward and Adrienne followed in after me, dropping her purse and duffel bag onto the floor.

“Oh, I want a bath,” Adrienne groaned, grimacing groggily. She’d fallen asleep for the last two hours of the trip and was still trying to wake up.

“You’ll have to wait until we unload the car,” I informed her, a goofy grin on my face.

She noticed the grin. “What?”

“Well, if I was still your boyfriend, I’d probably tell my girlfriend to go ahead and take a bath, get relaxed, and then I’d give her one of my famous massages. I’d tell her I’d take care of all the luggage, because that’s what a good boyfriend does.” I pinched my lips and shrugged. “But I’m not your boyfriend anymore.”

Adrienne rolled her eyes and slapped my arm. “Jerk.” But there was a teasing smile on her lips. She turned and went back out the door, heading for the car.

I was about to follow her when a voice called out, “Ben! We’re in here!”

It was Eden, if I had to guess, though I’d been gone long enough that I wasn’t entirely sure it wasn’t Emma. In any case, I headed through the house and into the family room, where I stopped in surprise.

Eden and Emma had grown up even more since the winter. Only 13-and-a-half, they’d seemingly grown another inch in height and even more in curves. The twins were well on their way to becoming young women, and they sat side-by-side on one of the sofas wearing the skimpiest of summer tank tops that exposed their bra straps, and the shortest of shorts that revealed their creamy legs.

But they weren’t the reason I stopped in surprise. If nothing else, I was expecting the twins to look more grown up. I stopped because there was a man in the family room with them, a tall, blonde guy who looked like he was in his late twenties. And as he knelt on the carpeted floor in front of the couch, each of his hands was on a thigh of one of my baby sisters. “Who the hell are you?” I barked.

The guy looked eerily familiar somehow as he turned around and flashed me a charming smile. There was a twinkle in his hazel eyes as he looked at me, patting the twins’ knees absentmindedly. “Relax, Ben. I’m just introducing myself to your sisters. Aren’t they just the prettiest girls you’ve ever seen?”

I wasn’t sure exactly why, but something seemed definitely... wrong ... about the way he was touching their legs. And I couldn’t help but angrily bark, “Get your fucking hands OFF them. And you either tell me who the FUCK you are or I’m calling the cops.”

“Bennn!” Emma whined. “Relaaaax. He’s practically family!”

“What?”

“We know the rules,” Eden said firmly. “When we’re alone in the house, we’re not to let in any strangers. But Adam’s not a stranger; he’s Adrienne’s brother!”

Holy shit. My eyes flew open and I went rigidly still.

A few seconds second later, Adrienne shrieked beside me as she entered the room and saw who was there. “Holy SHIT!”

Two conversations proceeded simultaneously from that point onward.

In one of them, I rushed forward, ready to kick the shit out of Adam Dennis, Adrienne’s seven-years older rapist brother. But he backed away, so I went straight for Eden and Emma, grabbing their hands and rather violently jerking them off the couch and pulling them away. “What are you girls thinking?” I hissed. “You do NOT let in a stranger!”

“But he’s not a stranger,” Eden protested.

“Had you ever MET him before? How do you know he’s who he says he is? He could be ANYBODY!”

Emma blanched, but Eden insisted, “We’re big girls, now! We can take care of ourselves!”

“CLEARLY, you CAN’T!!!” I thundered, perhaps gripping their wrists a little too tightly.

At the other end of the room, Adrienne was yelling even louder than me. “What the FUCK are you doing here, Adam? You get out, RIGHT NOW! You have NO RIGHT to be here!”

“I have every right, Punkin,” the blonde guy sneered. “You thought you could just take all the money and I’d never find out? There’re millions. I’m here for my share of the inheritance.”

We overheard that part, and the twins chose to ignore everything but the confirmation of his identity. “See...” Emma waved toward Adam. “He IS Adrienne’s brother.” She then struggled to break free of my grasp.

But I held on and dropped to one knee, tugging both girls to bend over and bring our faces closer together. I yanked their wrists toward me as well and growled with obvious rage on my face. “That man is a BAD man. Do you understand me? You are NOT to talk to him anymore. Do. You. Understand. Me?”

Emma looked frightened. Eden just whimpered, “Ben, you’re hurting us.”

Startled, I let go of them. The girls backed up, rubbing their wrists. But they looked over my shoulder to where Adrienne was still before her brother, tears streaming in rivers down her cheeks with her hands clenched in front of her chest.

“Go away! Please? Just go away! You talk to whatever lawyers you want,” Adrienne blubbered. “I don’t care. Just go away!”

I instantly moved beside her, wrapping my arm around Adrienne’s waist and staring down the slightly taller man. “Leave this house. You are not welcome, and if you don’t leave right now I WILL call the police.”

The blonde guy held his hands up defensively and backed away. “Okay, okay. I’m leaving. But this isn’t over, Punkin. I ain’t leavin’ town until I get what’s mine,” he growled. And then with a sneer, he looked past us to Eden and Emma. “And I’ll see you girls later, huh? Maybe next time Uncle Adam will show you all that... fun stuff we talked about.” And then he laughed.

The laugh was short-lived as I stepped forward and clocked him right in the face. The big guy staggered from the punch and immediately went up to hold his nose, which wasn’t quite broken but certainly looked rather pink. “That’s fucking assault!” he yelled behind his hands.

“That’s defending my home against an unwanted intruder,” I snarled. “Now get the FUCK out!”

Adam wiped his nose and narrowed his eyes, looking at me with a world of hatred in his hazel irises. But he turned and quickly left, hustling out the front door and leaving it wide open in his wake.

I followed Adam out to the foyer at least to be certain he was gone. Then I turned around and looked back toward the family room. Adrienne and the twins had come to the hallway entrance as well, looking shaken but unharmed. Only then did I exhale slowly and begin to calm my racing heartbeat.

I blinked twice and sighed. “You know, I used to think that everyone had some good inside. Even guys like Drew Walker were just being hormonal, reckless boys. I’ll always hate him for what he did to Brooke, but I can almost understand.”

I put my head down and then looked out the open doorway. “But that man is just evil.”

Adrienne turned and bent over, planting her hands on her knees as she stared the twins dead in the face. With tear tracks still running down her cheeks, she made sure she had their undivided attention before intoning, “You both stay the HELL away from him. Got it?”

The girls nodded ‘yes’, their eyes wide.

And then Adrienne collapsed.

With a reminder to the twins not to let ANYBODY in the door, I scooped Adrienne into my arms and carried her upstairs to my bedroom. And while straining my arm muscles to keep us balanced, I maneuvered myself onto the bed with my back against the headboard and Adrienne cuddled up beside me.

She was a sobbing mess against my chest while I held her in my arms. I wanted nothing more in the world than to soothe her in this moment as I rubbed her back and repeated over and again that I loved her and that I would always protect her, no matter what. I may not have been her boyfriend anymore, but I knew that she still needed me.

She gripped my arms so tightly that her nails were digging rather painfully into my skin. But after a few minutes, Adrienne managed to get her sobbing under control and relaxed her hands. She made no move to free herself of my embrace, simply laying her head against my chest as she let out a final, keening wail. “How did he find me? How did he FIND me?”

I didn’t know how to answer her. Sure, Adrienne had lived just a few houses away for most of her life, and most of Adam’s childhood; but that still didn’t point to our family. Unless...

I sighed. “He said he was here about the inheritance, right? Well, if he’s got any lawyers, they can track down records that Mom and Dad took you in after your father died. And that would give him our address.”

“But it’s not right! He shouldn’t be allowed to come near me! Not after what he did to me!” Adrienne wailed.

I patted her back and buried my nose in her hair. “Adrienne, please.” My mind raced to figure out what was going on. “Did your parents ever report what he did?” I didn’t remember all the details she’d told me so long ago. I was pretty sure they hadn’t.

She exhaled with a mournful tone. “No. Nothing official. They just shut down his college fund and told him never to come back.”

“Never disowned him, legally?”

She shook her head. “Don’t think so.”

I sighed. “But your father left you everything in his will, right?”

Adrienne nodded. “Yes. But I’m guessing Adam can still challenge it, though.”

“But they can’t let that... monster ... take all that away from you!” I growled. “Maybe if you tell them what happened when you were younger? No judge would give him part of your family’s estate knowing the circumstances around why he left.”

“What will I tell them?” Adrienne whimpered. “At this point, it’s just my word against his. There are no records that he raped me. My parents are both dead. I don’t know if there’s anything I can legally do if he denies it.” She sniffled and buried her nose against my chest. “I don’t care. If giving him half the estate makes him go away, then give him half. I just don’t ever want to see him again!”

She started sobbing again. I squeezed Adrienne tighter and started rocking her gently. And then I was back to trying to calm her down.

The twins were still freaked out when the rest of our family came home. The parentals had been running errands and Brooke was visiting friends. Eden and Emma immediately told Mom and Dad what had happened upon their arrival, and of course our parents immediately came to find Adrienne and me.

We were still in my bedroom when they came bursting in without knocking. Mom immediately opened her arms to Adrienne as she slid onto the bed and Dad stood nearby looking righteously angry.

When Adrienne slid away from me and fell into Mom’s hug, I rubbed my sore arms and stood up from the bed. Dad nodded to me and I went to him, standing off to the side.

He glanced back at Eden and Emma, who were cowering in the doorway. “The girls said Adrienne’s brother was here. They said you and Adrienne told them that he was a bad man, but they don’t know exactly why, and you had to hit him to get him to leave. Ben ... what’s going on?”

I bit my lip nervously and glanced back at Adrienne. Up until now, no one but Brooke knew the history Adrienne had with her brother. All my parents ever knew was that he was estranged from the family, but not for what reason.

Adrienne overheard what my dad was asking and met my gaze. Taking a deep breath, she looked at me and nodded.

I winced and then glanced over at the twins. “Maybe the girls should leave.”

“Ben!” Eden complained, immediately defensive. “We’re old enough to know!”

Before I could say anything Adrienne spoke up, “Go ahead. They need to know why they’ve got to avoid Adam and people like him.”

I grimaced and looked around for my desk chair. Half-moving to it and half-rolling it to me, I sat down heavily and collected myself. This was Adrienne’s story, but she clearly was depending on me to tell it for her. I paused and looked around the room, meeting each of my family members in the eye. And then I told the story in much the same way Adrienne had told me two years ago.

“I first met Adrienne when we moved into the neighborhood. We were both ten. I was the new kid and looking for any potential friends my age. Plus, Adrienne was quite pretty even then.” That drew the faintest of smiles from both Adrienne and Mom.

“But something happened that summer.” I sighed. “Both of Adrienne’s parents were workaholics, rarely home before like nine or something.” I waffled on the exact hour, not quite remembering it. But I pushed on. “Adam, Adrienne’s brother, was seventeen and going to be a Senior in High School. Being the big brother, he was in charge. And he was old enough that they didn’t need a babysitter. So it was just the two of them alone in the house all summer.”

Mom and Dad started to get an idea of where I was going with this, and looks of horror began to creep across their faces. I didn’t delay. “Adam started raping Adrienne that summer,” I said plainly. Then I waited while my other four family members all gasped in disbelief. Even Eden and Emma, while still very young, understood the concept of rape.

I started breathing hard, old fury building inside me. My hands gripped the armrests on my desk chair so tightly that I felt the entire chair vibrate. I looked at Adrienne and she simply stared back at me with a blank expression. She’d already lived this nightmare enough times.

“Look, I’m not going to get into the details. The point was that he kept raping Adrienne throughout the year. She couldn’t escape and as a 10-year-old, she didn’t fully understand what was happening to her. And then the next summer he went away to college.”

Mom and Dad started breathing a little easier, thinking it was over. But it wasn’t. I took a deep breath and continued. “But Adrienne was pregnant. Only eleven, and she was pregnant.”

As expected, Mom and Dad gasped again. Eden and Emma just looked nervous. I pushed on. “Adrienne’s parents found out and eventually got the story. They talked down Adam and got him to confess. Then they cut him off financially from the family and told him never to come home. And Adrienne got an abortion.”

Mom looked ready to collapse herself. Dad looked ready to run out and strangle Adam with his bare hands. I knew how he felt. And even so, I still wasn’t done. “Adrienne’s mom couldn’t handle the whole thing. She became an alcoholic and shortly after, died in a drunken car accident. Her dad buried himself in his work and Adrienne has more or less been alone ever since.”

I went quiet, lost in my thoughts. No one else in the room said anything, either. The twins were pale and frightened. And Mom just looked too shell-shocked to even move. She wasn’t doing Adrienne much good anymore so I got out of the chair and returned to my ex-girlfriend, wrapping her up in my arms and rocking her once again.

Dad found his voice first. “Why is he here?”

I sighed and rubbed Adrienne’s back. “Adrienne’s father left the entire estate to her in his will. Plus, there was a substantial settlement from the cab company.” I grimaced. “Adam’s here for the money.”

After getting reassurances from Mom and Dad that they would do everything they could to protect Adrienne, and promises from the twins never to see Adam again, my family broke up and went their separate ways. The twins holed themselves up in their bedroom, no doubt to discuss the whole thing. I stayed with Adrienne in my bedroom while she cried herself to sleep on my chest.

It was a somber house Brooke walked into an hour later. When confronted, she admitted that she’d known Adrienne’s secret, and she quickly made her way up to my bedroom.

The mere sight of my sister brought back to mind all the drama around Adrienne first discovering that I was sleeping with Brooke. I couldn’t blame her at the time; her brother had left her nothing but a legacy of fear and confusion. And now he was back, bringing all those painful memories with him.

But when Adrienne woke up and saw Brooke this time, it was as if she’d forgotten entirely that Adam had returned. After brushing the tears out of her eyes, she sat up and started grilling my little sister about everything she’d been up to the past semester.

I was a little surprised. “You want to gossip about what Brooke’s been doing in High School?”

Adrienne furrowed her eyebrows at me. “Yes,” she answered flatly, almost robotically.

I frowned. “You don’t want to work out what we’re going to do about this Adam situation?”

Adrienne shook her head and just as flatly replied, “No. I don’t.”

I looked at her in confusion and worry, wondering about Adrienne’s mental state. But her voice perked up as she added, “Now why don’t you leave us girls alone for a bit? I don’t want Brooke to feel self-conscious about dishing all the good stuff in front of her overprotective big brother.”

My jaw waggled up and down while I stared at her in astonishment. But I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, Adrienne’s modus operandi for dealing with these traumas was to shut it out. When her dad died, she’d gone catatonic. When she’d first caught me sleeping with Brooke, she’d walled herself away from me. Avoidance was her thing.

Eventually, I figured out that she just didn’t want to think about Adam for a little while and I got up off the bed. Brooke was thinking a little more clearly as she sat up and said, “Let’s go to my room.” It certainly made more sense.

But as Adrienne got up to leave, she stopped and came back to me, hugging me fiercely with her arms flung around my shoulders and her cheek pressed tight to mine. “Thank you, Ben. You’re always here for me.”

“And I will keep being here for you, if you’ll let me,” I said softly.

Her eyes were liquid as she searched almost nervously through mine. Then she pecked my cheek and turned to leave with Brooke.

My stomach gurgled. Dinner sounded like a really good idea right now.

There was no sign of Adam the next day, and no one volunteered his name, either. It’s not that we pretended he didn’t exist and that yesterday’s incident had never happened; but we didn’t try to think about it, either. The idea that there was an unresolved issue hovered in the background, unforgotten but unfocused on.

Besides, I had something new to freak out about.

It was a casual Sunday and I decided to take Adrienne for a walk. The silver lining in the whole Adam-incident was that any plans she had for moving out on her own were put on the back burner. Here, she was surrounded by people who cared about her. Here, she had security, and a group of defenders to help ward Adam away. For the foreseeable future, she would remain with our family and remain a significant part of my life. And this afternoon, with absolutely gorgeous Orange County weather in May, it seemed like a good time to get out of the house and get some fresh air.

We took a loop through the neighborhood out to one of the many parks in our hometown. I held Adrienne’s hand the entire time, the way I used to when we were still together (or even “nottogether” for that matter). And for a few moments I let myself believe that we hadn’t actually broken up.

But the one time I tried to kiss her, Adrienne turned her face away, mumbling, “We shouldn’t, Ben. I still need to find a way to get over you.”

“I still want to be here for you until this whole Adam-thing is taken care of.”

Her hazel eyes flickered up to me and she gave me a serious look. “Then be here for me, but not as a boyfriend. Or do you really have to fuck me to be supportive?”

“No, of course not,” I protested indignantly.

“Then be here for me, Ben, like a brother. You keep saying I’m a part of your family; I need you to mean it.”

I nodded and hugged her platonically. It was easy, actually. I knew she wasn’t in a lustful mood so I simply embraced her with all the intimacy of our prior relationship, but with none of the sexual pressure. Adrienne sensed it as well, and she happily sagged into my arms.

She felt better after our walk, and we were almost back home when I came to a dead stop on the sidewalk, jerking suddenly enough to throw Adrienne off-balance. My jaw dropped and my eyes went wide in disbelief.

The statuesque blonde re-set her feet and then looked at me curiously. “What?”

I didn’t answer, and Adrienne simply followed my line of sight. And then she gasped in surprise, bringing her free hand up to cover her gaping mouth.

Keira McNeil had been kneeling in the little flower garden in front of her house. A red bandanna covered her dark hair and a full-length, green-patterned gardening apron covered her torso. But the apron couldn’t hide the curvature of her body. The beautiful older woman sat up straight as Adrienne and I looked over at her; and then she tossed off one of her gardening gloves before laying a bare hand on her round, distended belly.

Keira was pregnant. Certifiably pregnant.

I stood shock-still on the sidewalk, not able to believe my eyes. Adrienne wasn’t much better off.

Keira’s green eyes glittered as her gaze met mine. Carefully, she stood up and arched her back, stretching against the rotund weight attached to the front of her torso. Then she smiled and said, “Hi, guys. I think I should explain.”

“Would you like some iced tea?” Keira came out of the kitchen with a pitcher of the dark refreshment. Still slightly shell-shocked, Adrienne and I just nodded from our spots at the dining table.

“The baby is Sean’s, before you start to freak out,” Keira said plainly, focusing on pouring the drinks. “He went out to pick up lunch and will be back soon. I keep getting these cravings for spicy Mexican food.”

I exhaled slowly at mention of Keira’s ex-boyfriend (current boyfriend?). It was too late for me not to freak out, but I started to relax at Keira’s pronouncement that the baby wasn’t mine. “You got back together with Sean?”

She chuckled. “Sean is a wonderful man and we make a very good couple. But I guess he needed to see what he was missing to realize it. After spending almost a year without me, he came crawling back and begged me to give him another chance. He said he’d changed his mind; that he wanted to settle down and raise a family with me. And now he’s making good on his word.” Keira patted her belly lovingly.

“I’ll say,” Adrienne remarked, staring at the belly.

“We’ll have a Spring wedding, after the baby is born,” Keira continued. “I’ll get you the invites as soon as we lock down a date.”

“When’s the baby due?” Adrienne asked, managing to look at Keira’s face. My own gaze was still stuck on Keira’s belly.

“Mid-November,” Keira said before glancing away. I wasn’t looking at her face but I caught the almost nervous twitch as she turned to the pitcher. “More iced tea?”

I looked down at my nearly-full glass. I’d barely taken two sips and shook my head as I did the math. Mid-November would place her last period in mid-February. Meaning she had have been knocked up well AFTER we’d had sex. So the baby really wasn’t mine. “Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.

Keira looked out the window, her lips quivering. She took a big gulp and then exhaled slowly before saying, “I’m sorry. I was going to tell you and I know you would have wanted to hear the news sooner, but I...” She sighed. “I didn’t want you overthinking things, Ben. I didn’t want ME overthinking things. It was an intense thing I asked of you. I’ll be forever grateful for your willingness, but this is what’s best for me and Sean.”

Keira then fixed me with a serious look. “Ben, I’m not ashamed of what I asked from you. But ... ah ... I’d rather that Sean didn’t know ... ah ... about us...”

Suddenly all of Keira’s awkward looks and hesitation to inform me made perfect sense. “Oh!” I blinked and sat up straighter in my chair. “Oh, right. Yeah. I completely understand.” If I were Sean, no way would I be comfortable with the idea that my fiancée and the mother of my child had been looking to get knocked up by the teenager down the street only a month before. Keira had probably just pushed me out of her mind and tried to focus on building her new family.

Keira then rubbed her belly again, looking down at it with a serene smile before glancing back up at me, her green eyes sparkling. “Thanks for understanding.”

I nodded.

“We had a good thing, Ben.” Keira moved over and touched my shoulder. “But we both knew it would never last. I don’t like to think that I’m old, but I’m definitely in a different place from you. You have your whole life ahead of you. I’m just happy I got to be a part of it.”

I reached up and touched her hand on my shoulder. “A very important part; one that I’ll never forget.”

Keira smiled sweetly at me, and in that moment I realized she and I would never be together again. That was okay. In the end, she got what she’d wanted. And I’d already gotten more than enough from her.

Just then, the garage door started rolling up and a black BMW X5 turned up the driveway. Keira smiled. “There’s Sean. I’ll introduce you.”

An hour later, I was still in a state of shock as I sat on my bed, staring at nothing. The past week had just been WAY too intense for my poor brain to handle. Exactly seven days ago I was on top of the world, celebrating my anniversary date with Adrienne. Now, everything was different. My world had turned upside-down.

I heard a light knock at my door, and still in my own little world, I didn’t answer. No matter, a few seconds later, it began to swing open. Extra hallway illumination spilled into my bedroom.

“Hi, Ben.” “Hi, Ben.” The twins chirped as they came into view. For a moment, I thought there were two copies of Brooke standing before me. My baby sisters were certainly growing up.

Without another word, the girls closed my door and moved to either side of the bed. From both sides of me, they crawled on, Eden moving in front of me and Emma sliding up to cuddle next to me. In my addled mental state, I never considered why they were coming to me and simply opened my arm out to hug Emma while Eden straddled my lap.

But then Eden made her intentions quite clear as she brushed my hair back from my forehead and stared adoringly into my eyes. “Hi, big brother. We missed you.” Then she held my face, tilted her head, and moved in to press her lips against mine.

I startled for just a moment, but Eden held my face firmly in her hands. And then the winter break’s makeout sessions suddenly came back to me as Eden parted my lips with her tongue, taking charge of our kiss with an expert skill that belied her youthful age. My baby sister had been practicing.

For a few seconds, I thought of stopping her. After all, the twins were so very young and supposedly not ready for these sorts of things yet. But Eden’s probing tongue and soft lips seemed to indicate that she was ready for these sorts of things; and after all, it wasn’t like we hadn’t done this before.

More to the point, Eden’s kiss felt very, VERY good. And after all my heartaches over Adrienne, Paige, and Dawn, I could use some “good”.

So I just let myself go.

Eden sensed my acquiescence and pressed on my shoulders while she attacked my lips with a new fervor. She was wearing a summer sundress and I shifted my hands beneath the skirt, cupping her perky, panty-clad buttcheeks. And my baby sister moaned into our liplock when I automatically began massaging her tender butt flesh.

Belatedly, I realized that Eden had moved her crotch directly over the bulge in my shorts, rubbing herself along my length. Her moans turned into breathy gasps and her kisses trailed off my lips, across my cheek, and over to my neck while she shifted her focus to the sensations coming from her loins. The sensations on my dick were so good that I didn’t stop her, and indeed I helped grind her body against me by gripping her ass and guiding her rhythmic movements.

But before we got out of control, Emma whimpered, “It’s MY turn.”

Eden whimpered herself, but came to a stop a few seconds later. I opened my eyes and turned to look at the younger of the two twins, popping my eyelids even wider when I saw Emma pull her fingers out of her own crotch and rather obviously lick the female nectar glistening on them. And then my eyes got even bigger when Eden reached out, grabbed her sister’s wrist, and re-directed the honey-coated digits into her own mouth, moaning in heat.

I make no excuses for what happened next. The girls pushed me, and I let them. I gave them an inch, and as Brooke would say, they took the whole baseball field. Well, out to third base at least.

It started with Eden getting off my lap and then re-positioning me to lie down across the bed, my head propped up on a pillow. Then Emma leaned over me, grabbing my face to take over kissing duties. I felt my heart racing as I realized I could taste the flavor of her pussy on her lips, the flavor of my 13-year-old baby sister. And my arms circled around her head to pull her closer, mashing our mouths together and letting our tongues do an erotic dance of incestuous, lustful pleasure.

Eden pushed things further by unzipping my shorts and reaching in to take hold of the throbbing piece of man meat she’d been rubbing herself against. I was aware that she held my naked cock in her bare hand and was stroking me rhythmically, but no warnings of conscience flashed into my brain to tell me to stop her. It just felt too good. And the way I was feeling, I just didn’t care anymore. Eden probably could have impaled herself on me right then, shredding away her virginity, and I wouldn’t have stopped her. But thankfully, she didn’t.

She did, however, suck me into her mouth. I groaned into my kiss with Emma when I felt Eden’s hot warmth surrounding my tender flesh. And I whimpered and let my head sag deeper into the pillow when Eden began pumping my shaft in her hands while delicately sucking on the mushroom head.

Emma noticed my distracted state and pulled her mouth off of mine. She panted for air and turned around to see what was causing my distraction, and she gasped as she realized her sister was once again giving me a blowjob. And then Emma gasped again in surprise when I suddenly grabbed her waist.

I was losing my mind. Eden still had a long ways to go in matching her older sisters in the art of fellatio; but just like Brandi and Brooke, she was proving to be quite the natural talent. Her hands instinctively knew just the right grip and just the right speed to maximize my pleasure. And her cute little whimpering moans, muffled by my dick in her mouth, were music to my ears. With all the action going on below my waist, I had to find something... anything ... to occupy myself up top. And Emma was the obvious choice.

My youngest sister squeaked as I grabbed her and tried to yank her back down onto me. I would have been happy just to keep kissing her, but she panicked in my grasp and kept trying to sit up. So rather than try to drag her face back down to mine, I settled for gripping her hips and physically hoisting her body onto my chest. I filled my hands with precocious teenage butt flesh and scooted her forward until her crotch was right in my face. And without further thought I shoved the gusset of her panties to the side and dove in.

I was pretty sure the twins were shaving themselves a la Brooke and Brandi, and it wasn’t that they hadn’t grown pubic hair yet. But either way, Emma’s pussy was as bald as a baby’s. And there was nothing in my way of thrusting my rigid tongue between her spread labia and into her pink center. My nose nudged up against her round, protruding clit. My fingers tightened against her firm asscheeks. And my little sister went absolutely NUTS.

“Ohmigod! Ben’s eating me! Ben’s eating me!” Emma squeaked.

There was a brief pause below my waist as Eden stopped what she was doing to look, and then the hot mouth was once again on my dick, sucking me even faster and harder than before. There was no conscious thought in the way Eden was going about her task. She wasn’t trying to push any buttons or titillate my senses. She simply went for the power suck, trying to get me off as fast and as forcefully as possible. And there was no way I was going to last much longer.

Emma actually beat me to it. My baby sister squeaked and wriggled, clamping her thighs around my ears so tightly I could barely hear. My hands left her firm ass and reached straight up, slipping beneath her shirt and forcefully shoving her bra cups aside to palm her equally firm titties. And with my fingers tweaking her nipples and my tongue doing its magic on her pussy, my youngest sister stiffened and came.

“Nnnnghhh!!!” Emma bit down on her lip and groaned. Clearly, she’d orgasmed enough times in the house to know to muffle her scream. The walls were pretty soundproofed but subtlety was still the name of the game.

But there was nothing muffled about the copious amounts of honey flooding out of her pussy and onto my face. And there was nothing subtle about the way her pelvis thrashed and bucked, threatening to snap my neck.

And then I was joining her. My hands reflexively squeezed tighter onto Emma’s tits as I felt the ejaculation bursting out of my cock. Eden had no warning and didn’t know enough to recognize the signs before her mouth suddenly filled with more cum than she was expecting. She’d had me shoot off once in her mouth, but it was a long time ago.

“Aack!” Eden choked and pulled off my prick. Her hand continued pumping me while additional jets blasted off right in her face. And for the second time in her life, after only two blowjobs, she found herself covered in cum from cheeks to chin.

Emma recovered fast. She turned around, absentmindedly groping for my hands when they slipped off her perky breasts. And when she saw her twin sister with multiple cum splatters decorating her face, she quickly dismounted my chest. “Ooh!” Emma giggled. “We talked about this! I’m gonna lick it off you!”

Eden giggled almost identically, scraping some of the creamy goo from her own cheek and then popping it into her mouth. And with her finger still in her mouth, she nodded happily. “Uh-huh!”

Emma slid forward, first pausing to kiss her sister on the lips, tongue swabbing the insides of Eden’s cheeks for traces of brotherly semen. And then just before moving to start licking up the outsides, Emma paused to look her twin in the eyes. “You HAVE to try Ben eating your pussy. He’s SO good!”

Eden just nodded rapidly, giggling. “Looks like you got to go first at something.”

Emma giggled in response and then turned back to face me. “Don’t go anywhere.” The young pixie grinned. “I get to give you a blowjob next!”

The girls made good on their plan to swap places. Eden got two good orgasms riding my face before I fired away into Emma’s mouth. Emma did a much better job than Eden of swallowing, managing to take the first three shots of my reduced load before choking and having the rest splatter across her nose.

I then found the girls weren’t that experienced at doing two things at the same time. We got into a triangle of oral sex, me eating Emma, Emma eating Eden, and Eden trying to give me another blowjob. The problem was that Emma couldn’t concentrate on eating Eden while I was going down on her. And Eden couldn’t concentrate on blowing me when Emma was able to properly focus. They were aware of their own limitations and didn’t even sixty-nine very often, spending more of their playtime eating each other out separately. But they agreed it was something they’d have to practice more often.

The three of us were still naked when the door cracked open. We were all immediately in a panic but Brooke quickly slipped inside and closed the door behind her. She turned to survey the scene and let out a forlorn moan. “Aww ... you actually used him up. I thought it would be like winter when you two got him all hot and bothered and I got to finish him off.”

The twins just giggled and grinned their shit-eating grins.

But I felt a fresh stirring of life at the sight of Brooke. Here was a 17-year-old young woman, in the flower of her youth and yet fully grown, with the 5’7” height, C-cup tits, and full hips to prove it. She’d come a long way since being a coltish, bratty little sister. And I had absolutely no mental hang-ups about bending her over and fucking the living shit out of her.

“Actually,” I began. “The girls didn’t quite finish me off.” I pointed down to my growing erection. I’d only popped off twice and I was always good for at least three.

Brooke grinned and moved toward the bed, already working to strip off her clothes. “Get lost, girls.”

“Aww...” Eden whined. “Can’t we stay and watch?”

“NO!” Brooke and I both barked at the same time.

“Stupid older meanies,” Eden grumbled as she picked herself off the bed and searched around for her clothes. Emma griped around as well, but the twins took their sweet time getting dressed.

By the time they finished, Brooke was already naked and panting while I leaned over her, feasting on her nice breasts while she moaned and tangled her fingers in my hair. And the twins didn’t look like they had any intention of leaving. “Out, girls!” Brooke hissed. “Hurry! Hurry! I can’t wait any longer!”

The twins had seemed ready to give in and leave at Brooke’s urgings to hurry. But when she cried about not being able to wait any longer, patented Brooke-like evil grins spread across both their faces and they stopped at the foot of the bed, folding their arms across their chests. “Okaaayyy,” Eden snarked. “If you can’t wait...”

“OUT!” Brooke yelled, a little too loudly. Only then did the twins finally slip out the door and close it behind them. I wasn’t worried about them hovering in the crack to peek. It was too likely someone would catch them in the hallway.

“FINALLY!” my not-so-little sister sighed, grabbing my hips and pulling me over her crotch while she spread her legs to the sides. “I missed you, big brother,” Brooke moaned as my mushroom head notched at her center. And then she moaned again as I began my descent.

“Ohhh, Brooke...” I groaned as I finally felt a warm, loving pussy surrounding my hard column of flesh. No matter how many girls I slept with, there would always be something special about Brooke. “I missed you, too.”

She giggled, just a slight pitch different from the twins. “But we have to hurry. Mom sent me up here to tell you dinner’s just about ready.”

It was 10pm, bedtime for the twins, when I returned to their room. They were not yet out of Junior High and Sunday nights were school nights. But that didn’t mean they were asleep.

“Ooh! Can we play some more?” Eden perked up when I entered in, her perky nipples quite obvious through her thin T-shirt without a bra.

I held both hands up in a ‘calm down’ gesture and shook my head. I then moved to sit down on Eden’s bed. Emma similarly sat up and looked over at me. I gave the girls my best “big brother” stern look, and thoughts of sex vanished from their heads. “I just need to know what you two have been up to since I left. You both have grown up quite a bit, and I know I’m not the only boy to notice.”

The girls blushed, giggled, and looked at each other. As usual, Eden took the lead. “Boys have noticed.” But she frowned and sighed. “But not that much, really. All the boys are paying attention to Gina Hooker. She’s got really big boobs.”

There was something in Eden’s voice, and I ventured carefully, “All the boys? Or one boy in particular?”

Eden blushed and looked down, not answering. Emma ratted her out. “Justin Curtis. Eden’s got a crush on Justin Curtis, but he’s giving all his attention to Gina.”

“Emma!” Eden whined.

“What?”

I held my hands up. “Hey, I’m not going to get upset if you’ve got crushes. Crush on any boys you want. I just want to make sure you’re careful with them. Adrienne, Brooke, and I have all warned you about boys and their roaming hands.”

“Ffpt,” Eden groaned. “No boy would want to roam on us. Our boobies are so small.” She cupped her own chest and pouted, and not in an enticing way.

“I like them just fine,” I assured her.

“That’s because you’re our brother. You love everything about us.”

I mused on that. “True. But really, guys like all boobs, in any size.”

“But I still wish mine were bigger,” Eden whined.

“Ours,” Emma added.

“Relax and give it time. Look at Brooke; she eventually got big ones, bigger than Brandi.” I waved vaguely in the direction of Brooke’s bedroom. “Anyways, you’re only thirteen.”

“Thirteen and a HALF,” Eden corrected.

“You’ll grow into them.” I looked at her encouragingly while feeling amused inside. Only thirteen (and a half), growing faster than their older sisters, and absolutely beautiful: and yet the twins were STILL insecure about their appearance. Teenagers...

Then I smirked to myself. Hell, I was still a teenager. So I revised my internal comment: Teenage girls...

“Anyways, stop distracting me,” I huffed. “The reason I came in here was because you both have gotten a lot ... better ... at what we did.” Indeed, both had semi-developed blowjob techniques and showed vast improvement at kissing since I last saw them. “So I have to know: Have you been practicing on anyone?”

The girls blushed and looked down.

“Girls...” I warned.

“No, we haven’t.” Emma looked almost embarrassed. “I started to, once, with Bruce Kang. We started kissing a bit. He’s not very good. Not like you. But I was helping him get better and he got kinda excited, then I got kinda excited ... But I ... well ... I felt all weird. I was too nervous to be naked in front of a boy or to let him inside my shirt. Maybe even a little scared. Not like with you. It doesn’t feel ... scary ... when we’re with you.”

“Me, too,” Eden added. “Some kissing and some groping, but only outside our clothes.”

I smiled warmly and nodded. But I arched my eyebrow and looked at the girls. “Then where did you two get so good?”

“We did good?” Emma asked excitedly.

I nodded.

The girls beamed and looked at each other again. “Actually, we’ve only been practicing on each other,” Eden chirped. “Oh, and with Brooke. She’s finally playing with us and teaching us. She said our kissing got a lot better, too. She even has this dildo — she says it reminds her of you — and we practiced our blowjobs on that. So we really did good?”

“You did ‘very well’,” I replied, emphasizing the proper grammar. Eden just rolled her eyes at me.

Emma perked up. “So does that mean we can keep doing it? I mean, I know the rules last time were only for kissing. And we, uh, did a LOT more than that. So can we keep going? I really loved sucking on your dick and the way you licked me down there was sooo different and so exciting and I just can’t wait to—”

“Whoa, whoa,” I held my hands up to slow her down. Like it or not, her enthusiasm was starting to get me hard again, but I couldn’t let myself lose control. After all, Mom had laid down the rules that began and ended at first base, rules I’d already ignored once. So if the twins and I were going to continue exploring our way around second and third base, we were going to have to be careful about it. Playing around before dinner and before our parents came home would be the safest. And I didn’t want to get caught with my dick in one of the girls’ mouths at night.

Besides, Mom wouldn’t have any problem catching me in Brooke’s room this late at night. So I had another outlet.

“Tomorrow, after school but before Mom comes home, okay?” I gave the girls a sly grin. “And keep a lid on things. We don’t want to get caught.”

Life for the next week was pretty smooth, all things considered. I might have thought it a radical culture shock moving back home after a year at school, living under my parents’ roof again and not having my normal group of friends around.

But really, it wasn’t shocking so much as a welcome dose of home. The sedate life of a summer break was a welcome respite after all the craziness of Finals Week at Berkeley. I didn’t have to go to class. All my meals were provided. And instead of friends, I had family, always a trade up in my book.

Especially when my family was so ... affectionate.

The twins, of course, were thrilled by my return. They’d seemingly stockpiled all their sexual energy from the past semester and seemed determined to take it out on me. Now that we’d crossed the line from just kissing to groping and oral sex, it seemed I couldn’t go more than a few hours in the afternoon without one of them (or both) shoving my dick into her mouth or my tongue into her pussy.

And Brooke seemed even happier by my return than the twins. It turned out, she’d been pretty down the last few weeks because of social dramas. She told me Monday afternoon that she was no longer on speaking terms with Jennifer Vo, her best friend since the girls were eight.

“What happened?” I asked.

Brooke just shrugged and looked off into the distance. “It’s simple: She wanted Kenta. But he’s mine. She can’t have him.”

I winced and looked at her. “But she’s your best friend. You’re the one that invited Jennifer into your relationship.”

Brooke shrugged listlessly and frowned. “Fucking him was one thing. And she was really good with her tongue, too. But I won’t let the bitch take him from me.” She sighed. “I dunno. I saw how Megan and Cassidy shared you and made it work. I thought we could do the same.”

I sighed. “They were equals. And obviously, it didn’t work out in the end.” I pointed to myself, all alone.

“Whatever. We’re not friends anymore. Shit happens. I’m hanging out with Erin and Kady more now, anyways. I’m over it.” The bitter tone in Brooke’s voice belied her claim of being “over it”, but I didn’t push the issue.

Instead, I let my hand drift across her shoulder. “You want me to relieve you of some tension?”

Brooke chuckled. “Did you get all horny with me and the twins at school all day?”

I moved my hand to her neck, rubbing gently. “Hey, I was just talking about giving you a back massage.”

“Sure you were,” Brooke said sarcastically. Then she sighed. “I would, but I need to get over to Kenta’s place. My boyfriend needs that kind of attention from me so I make sure HIS attention is on me and not that bitch of a former best friend. Between me and Mizu, I’m sure Kenta will see the right way.”

I shrugged and stopped rubbing. Then Brooke’s hand went to cover mine, trapping it against her neck. “But I’ll fit you into my schedule: come home, eat dinner, finish homework, fuck Ben’s lights out,” she said with a smile. “Don’t you worry.”

I didn’t worry. Brooke spent her afternoons working on her relationship with her boyfriend. She spent her evenings playing with me. With Adrienne out of the sex picture, Brandi in Berkeley, and the twins too young, she had exclusive access to big brother sex. And she made the most of it that week.

Not that Adrienne was completely out of the picture. The specter of Adam’s presence still hovered in the background, and she wasn’t even thinking of moving out until after that whole issue was resolved. She moved into Brandi’s/her old bedroom and neither of us mentioned to our parents that she’d considered leaving.

And even if we weren’t having sex, I was being very good at being supportive. And some of Adrienne’s and my old spark started coming back.

While the younger kids were at school, Adrienne and I spent our days talking, walking, and generally hanging out. I was making good on my promise to be supportive without sex, concentrating on being just a brother to her, which was ironic since she was now the ONLY sister I WASN’T doing something sexual with.

Things could have been awkward between us, but with Adam at the forefront of Adrienne’s mind — and my desire to simply keep Adam OFF her mind at the forefront of MY mind — we were too distracted to be awkward. It helped that we were able to visit with friends, hanging out with Candy, Mizu, Heather, and Lynne a couple of times and meeting up with Megan, Cassidy, and Kaito another time.

It was Thursday, after meeting up at the beach with her old cheerleader friends, that I got the first hints that Adrienne and I might actually resume our previous relationship. As usual, it had just been me and five unbelievably hot women wearing bikinis for a few hours. As usual, I wound up flirting with all five of them, making suggestive comments with a comfortable familiarity only possible because I’d previously slept with them all.

And as usual, Adrienne and I gravitated together.

It was impossible not to. It had become habit. Even at the times when we were ‘nottogether’ and she had me hooking up with her friends, Adrienne had still spent a good chunk of her time sitting with me, talking with me, or otherwise being my most constant companion.

This Thursday was no different. When Adrienne needed a backrest, she nonchalantly grabbed my legs and propped them up for her leaning convenience. When she needed a reapplication of sunblock after we’d played around in the surf, she simply handed me the bottle and let me go to work. And when my hands started wandering, she merely flashed me a teasing grin and let me grope her a bit.

It was enough for Heather Wilkinson to comment, “Are you sure you two broke up? ’Cuz you look pretty cozy to me.”

I just blinked in surprise and stopped my hands. At the time, Adrienne was sitting in the sand between my legs while I gave her one of my patented turn-her-body-into-jello backrubs. Adrienne herself had her head hanging down, moaning lightly in pleasure as my fingers worked their magic. And when I stopped, Adrienne simply stayed put, whimpering for me to keep going.

I stammered for a second, trying to think of something intelligent to say. But Adrienne finally picked her head up and replied, “Yes, we’re broken up.” Then she patted my hands to get me to resume massaging.

“I see,” Heather mused. “So you wouldn’t mind if I, say, asked him to make me feel as good as you look right now.” The dark-haired, aqua-eyed beauty with big tits smiled seductively at me while leaning forward, making those big tits threaten to spill over the top of her bikini.

Candy, Mizuho, and Lynne visibly perked up and paid more attention to us, turning their heads while continuing to sun themselves.

Adrienne chuckled, her eyes closed and her head hanging as I continued rubbing her neck muscles. “Of course not. It’s not like he hasn’t done that — and more — to you before.”

“Uh-huh...” A sly smirk crossed Heather’s face. “And what if I just asked him to go out with me for dinner tonight? Alone. At someplace nice. In a nice cocktail dress. Hm, maybe we could go dancing.”

My hands slowed down as I arched an eyebrow at Heather. She merely flashed me a cute smile, a twinkle in her aqua eyes.

“You HAVE a boyfriend now, Heather,” Adrienne said darkly.

“So? It’s not like we’re serious. And I’d certainly drop his ass in a heartbeat if Ben’s available now, almost as fast as I’d drop my panties. Come on, Adrienne. Ben’s the greatest boyfriend any of us has ever met. You don’t seriously think we’re just going to hang back forever now that he’s back on the market, do you?”

Now Adrienne’s eyes flashed open, and she gave Heather an intense look. Loaning me out to fuck had never been a problem for Adrienne, especially with her friends. But then, none of them had ever seriously asked about dating me. And while I wasn’t certain, I imagined that girls had similar rules about dating someone’s ex.

“Back off, bitch,” Adrienne said shortly. “Ben’s not going anywhere but with me tonight.” And then she closed her eyes and patted my hands to get me to resume again.

My hands went to work, but my eyes drifted over to Heather. The gorgeous, raven-haired beauty lowered her oversized Chanel sunglasses back over her eyes and smirked knowingly. Perhaps she had never been serious in her request to go out on a date with me. After all, despite our sexual chemistry, Heather and I never had romantic feelings for one another.

But Heather’s little stunt DID make me realize one thing: Adrienne could be jealous; not about sex, but about me as someone else’s boyfriend. And if she was jealous, then she still had feelings of ownership over me. And if she still had feelings of ownership over me, then maybe we weren’t history just yet.

I still had hope.

True, Adrienne didn’t sleep with me that night. After leaving the beach, we hung out and talked like always until the younger ones got home from school. Then the twins dragged me away for playtime while she chatted with Brooke. And at night we went to our individual bedrooms with nothing more than chaste hugs and pecks on the cheek. But that was fine. I knew she still loved me. And there was a lot of summer to go. I was just happy that after the stressful Finals week, the painful breakup, and the trauma of Adam’s sudden reappearance, Adrienne and I were having a solid week of peace and contentment.

Still, after a week of smooth sailing, it was inevitable that the storms would come.

“Hello, Punkin,” a deep, male voice sneered from behind us.

Adrienne turned and practically jumped into my arms. I quickly moved to interpose myself between Adam and Adrienne, holding up one hand in a clear “stop” gesture. “What the hell are you doing here?” I growled.

“It’s a mall,” Adam held his hands up innocently, looking around. “Clearly, I’m doing some window shopping.”

There was a sickening grin on his face and the tall, blonde guy nodded past my left shoulder. The thing was: the children’s carousel was behind my left shoulder, not any particular stores. And I got the decided impression that Adam was “shopping” for kids, not clothes. A cold shiver ran down my spine.

“You stay away from her,” I barked angrily. Adrienne cowered behind me. “You have no right to be here.”

“Like I said: It’s a mall.” Adam shrugged before giving me a hard look. “I have every right to be here.”

I clenched my teeth and took a step back, nudging Adrienne with me. “You stay away from her,” I said coldly. And then I half-turned, nudging Adrienne to keep walking away.

Adam just flashed me a lopsided grin as we left. “I’ll be seeing you, Punkin!” he called out. “I promise!”

Adrienne didn’t stop shaking until we got back home.

At this point, only one person could unsettle me more than Adam.

That person was my mom.

“You KNOW they’re not protected, Ben.”

A chill went down my spine and my shoulders tensed at the sound of Mom’s voice. I’d already been on edge for most of dinner. Eden, always the bolder of the twins, had really been pushing the envelope tonight. We just HAD to have steamed baby carrots. And while the small, orange objects weren’t big enough to be properly phallic, the young girl still got quite a kick out of miming oral sex on them whenever she caught me looking. It wasn’t that she was turning me on; she was scaring me that we’d get caught.

I knew I should have just stopped looking. Without an audience, she would have no reason to play naughty with her food. But I just couldn’t help myself. And Mom glaring at me from across the table didn’t help, either.

After dinner, Dad went into the family room to watch TV while Adrienne and Brooke went into the kitchen to start the dishes. It was their turn.

Meanwhile, the twins had giggled flirtatiously with me before running off to their bedroom, no doubt to plan their next seduction of big brother. And I’d remained sitting at the dining table trying to calm myself. That’s when Mom dropped her bomb of a statement about the twins being protected.

I propped my elbows on the table and dropped my head into my hands. Then I nodded slowly. This was it, we’d been caught.

Mom just waited for me to look up at her then she pointed across the living room. “Office. Now.”

Ah, hell.

Obediently, I got up and moved into Dad’s home office, a place Mom often dragged us kids into whenever we needed a stern talking to in private. I remembered being a 10-year-old when we just moved in, sitting on the couch looking up at the massive shelves of books and feeling quite intimidated. Now, nine years later and two feet taller, I was still pretty intimidated.

Mom closed the door with a heavy [thunk], shutting us in. Then she stood before me and folded her arms across her chest while her eyes narrowed. Then taking a deep breath, she said, “Tell me you’re not having sex with the twins.”

I took a deep breath of my own and looked her straight in the eye. “I’m not having sex with the twins.”

She went through her Mom-Lie-Detector-3000 routine, and then paused to wait me out. I just held her gaze with what confidence I could muster and she finally sighed. “And you’re not going to?”

“No,” I answered firmly.

“How far have you gone?”

Now nervous, I bit my lip and glanced away before looking sheepishly up at her. “Oral.”

“You on them? Them on you?”

“Both.”

She exhaled slowly and dropped her arms before immediately raising one hand and rubbing her forehead with it. “I thought you weren’t going to do anything more than kissing.”

I winced. “The girls are kind of pushy. You knew things would progress.”

Mom sighed, with more than a touch of exasperation in her voice. “Progress a little more slowly! Don’t you kids have that baseball thing? I thought it would be second base next. Third base could wait for next winter ... or summer ... or college...”

That got a small smirk out of me. “Have you MET the twins?”

“That’s why I was depending on you to keep them at bay a little longer.” Mom glared at me.

I wilted a bit beneath her gaze. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled. “I ... uh ... With this whole Adrienne thing...”

Mom sighed, rubbing her forehead again. “They’re only thirteen, Ben.”

“Thirteen and a HALF,” I emphasized defensively. “And they’re not that far ahead. Brooke was messing around with her boyfriend when she was fourteen.”

“Brooke still waited to have sex until she was fifteen. Do you really think the twins are going to keep their panties on for another year and a half?”

I frowned. “They’ll wait for me,” I insisted. “They promised and I’ll make them wait for me.”

Mom came to a dead stop and leveled me with her gaze. “Will YOU wait for another year and a half? Look at them, Ben. They’re almost as developed now as Brooke was at fifteen.”

I winced, my body reacting faster than my brain. “I ... uh...” She was right. Even though the twins themselves thought they weren’t developing fast enough, the girls WERE growing up fast.

Mom sighed. “You know, I’d be very tempted to use that dull butcher knife on you if I didn’t think that would make the girls go straight to some stupid boy at school.” She exhaled slowly while I subconsciously cradled my balls. “You’re right about one thing, though: They will wait for YOU.”

I felt just a little bit of my confidence coming back and managed a weak smile. But Mom looked at me sternly. “But they won’t wait forever,” she added.

I bit my lip and looked up at her. “What do you want me to do?”

Mom took a deep breath and moved to the door, leaning on the handle. “Don’t hide anything from me. Or I WILL use the butcher knife.”

I nodded quickly.

“And use your head, Ben, the BIG one. They may be ready physically, but they are NOT ready emotionally. Take care of your sisters. Always think of what’s best for them. Understood?”

I nodded again, this time with more solemnity.

“And NO, I’m not putting them on the pill; I’m drawing the line there. The girls may look more grown up, but their bodies are developing faster than their minds. They’re not ready.” Then Mom opened the door and went out.

“Pleeeease? Oh, Ben! I’m so HOT. Please? I need you! I want to feel it! Maybe just put the head in?” Eden was practically shivering on the bed, despite being overheated and covered in sweat. Her lips were right in my ear as she clutched my head to her neck.

My own hands were on Eden’s naked body. Mom had been right; the twins were just about as developed as Brooke had been at fifteen. They were sprouting like wildflowers, nearing 5’5” with coltish, but girly bodies. The breast I held in my right hand was a solid A-cup, its erect little nipple so hard against my palm. And as I slid my left hand down to cup her hip, just beginning to jut outwards in a womanly curve, I felt the urge to roll on top of her and brutally shove my way inside.

“Pleeeease? You know it won’t even hurt me. Emma and I broke our cherries last year with one of Brooke’s dildos. I’m big enough now, Ben! I can take you. I want you!”

The devil on my left shoulder whispered seductively. ‘Go on. Do it. It would be so naughty. So wrong.’

The angel on my right shoulder pleaded. ‘You promised! She’s not ready. She’s too young!’

‘Clearly, she’s ready. She wants this. What are you waiting for?’ the devil insisted.

‘Her hormones want; but her brain doesn’t understand yet. And what’s going to happen to her when you go back to school? Once you pop her, she won’t be able to stop, ‘ the angel reminded.

‘So she’ll be sexually active. She can handle it, ‘ the devil argued.

‘She might be able to. Might. But what boys around her will?’ the angel shot back. ‘Remember what Mom said. They may be ready physically, but they are NOT ready emotionally.’

Emma, on the other hand, couldn’t hear the conversation between my angels. But my youngest sister was on the side of the devil as she pulled my throbbing cock out of her mouth and directed me over, aiming my prick between her sister’s thighs.

My horny little twin baby sisters had been teasing me and titillating me for an hour now, not letting me cum and hoping I would lose control. Up until now, they’d simply enjoyed our usual sexual frolicking without directly trying to get me to take their virginities. But Eden had just today escalated things to pleading verbally with me in such a cute, erotic voice, and I could feel my control slipping further and further away.

I couldn’t lose it.

I groaned in frustration and moved my hand off Eden’s breast. Eden got to feel the penetration, but it was the penetration of my fingers as I dug into her and quickly found her G-spot. A week-and-a-half worth of exploring their bodies and searching out their buttons had given me all the user manual information I needed on them, and while my left hand found that sensitive nerve just above Eden’s right hip, I fingerbanged my 13-year-old sister to a trembling, twitching orgasm where she grabbed my head and practically shattered an eardrum with her piercing scream.

“AAAAAAIIIIIII!!!”

Eden flopped around like a fish on the deck for a few moments, dragging me around with her before she finally sagged and went limp. No longer did she exhort me in such a sexy voice to deflower her, and I felt myself able to pull back from the brink of violating the promises I’d made to my mother and to myself.

But I still had to cum.

Freeing myself from Eden’s grip, I rolled onto my back and seized my cock in my right hand. Still coated in her orgasmic juices, my fingers pressed down with perfect pressure as I rapidly jacked my hand up and down. It wasn’t as mentally thrilling as having one of the twins do it for me, but I knew exactly what speed and with what force I needed right now as the climax built in my balls and radiated outwards, ready to explode.

Realizing I was about to pop, Emma greedily parked herself right over my crotch in anticipation of my load. I don’t know if something genetic was passed through all my sisters to make them such sluts for my cum, but they certainly were. Perhaps I simply tasted better since we had shared DNA. Whatever the reason, the twins were just like Brandi in their desperate desire to swallow me down, and as I reached the point of no return, I suddenly released myself to grab Emma’s head and force her down around my shaft.

“Mmph!” Emma mumbled as the thick head pushed between her lips. “Mmph!” she mumbled again when the first jet of semen splattered against her tongue. And then I pumped my spending down my skinny baby sister’s throat, firing away over and again while she practiced her newfound swallowing skills.

When I was done, I finally rolled back to Eden, who was simply watching us with a beatific smile on her face. “That was very naughty,” I told her, waggling a finger in her face. “You know we can’t have sex yet. Not until Mom puts you on the pill.”

The little cutie just grinned back at me. “And what if I can get her to put us on the pill early?”

I snorted dismissively. “Good luck with that.”

She smiled grandly and looked at the ceiling. “A girl can dream.” And then she opened her arms to me for a warm hug.

Annoyed or not, Eden was just WAY too adorable when she looked at me like that. I cracked a smile and dropped down into her embrace, letting my baby sister happily wrap herself around me.

“Then again,” Eden mused. “If we’re talking about dreams, then maybe I can get Justin Timberlake to pop my cherry instead.”

“Hey!” I protested.

“You can have JT,” Emma drawled. “I want Clark Kent from Smallville. Or that Dean from Gilmore Girls.”

“Emma!”

“Or Aaron Carter,” Eden giggled.

“Hey!” I whined.

“You and pop singers!” Emma teased her sister.

“Least they’re real men and not characters on a show,” Eden drawled.

“Hey!” I whined again.

“We’re just kidding,” Emma giggled and then pressed against my other side, sandwiching me between the two identical beauties. “We love you, Ben.”

I sighed and said, “I love you too, my princesses.” I patted Emma’s back.

Eden then perked up. “Ooh, Em, you’ve got some cum on your lip.”

Emma rolled her head back and reached a finger towards her mouth.

“No-no!” Eden interrupted her. “Lemme lick it off.”

I am the luckiest shit in the world.

“So how goes the sexual education of the twins?” Adrienne asked off-hand while we walked into Lowes. Since I was home on vacation and had neither work nor school, my parents had seen fit to have me do all the fix-it stuff around the house they’d been putting off for the past year. For example, they wanted to redo the master bedroom with new light fixtures, crown molding, and paint. I didn’t mind. I rather missed doing all my handyman-type things.

I glanced at Adrienne, looking for any signs of disapproval. After all, this was the girl who’d been sexually abused as a pre-teen, and by her older brother who was back in town, no less. But there was none. So I just shrugged and answered, “It continues. They’re very eager students.”

“I’ll bet.” Adrienne nodded. “I remember all the hormones shooting through me when I was their age. I was still half-afraid of sex, but I got SO horny. I think that was around the time I seduced my first girl.”

I smiled at the momentary image of a precocious, stacked, 13-year-old Adrienne making out with one of her best friends. Then I arched an eyebrow at her and asked, “Speaking of which, when are you going to jump in on the instructing? I can only give the girls the male point of view. And I certainly can’t teach them about girl-on-girl.”

Adrienne shook her head and looked away. “I can’t.”

“Why not? Don’t tell me it’s because of their age.”

“No. I’m okay with that.”

“The monogamy thing with Grace?”

“Well, maybe. But then teaching the girls might not really count.” Adrienne waggled her head in indecision.

“Then what?”

“I just can’t get involved.”

“You’re already involved. You taught them how to masturbate last year.”

“Not anymore. I’m not really their big sister. That’s Brooke’s or Brandi’s role.”

I came to a dead stop in Aisle 20 and glared at Adrienne. “Back to this again, huh? We’ve talked about this, Adrienne. Whether you like it or not, you’ve become a part of this family. The girls look to you as their big sister. And you’ve been shirking your duties, lately. They miss spending time with you.”

“I’m not shirking anything. I’m not their sister, so there’s no duty. It’s that simple.”

“They still miss you. You’re their idol.”

“Well they’ll have to get used to it. I won’t ever be totally gone, but they might as well get used to me not being around so often so they’re ready when I move out.”

I looked up and down the aisle to make sure we were still alone. This was the first time since Berkeley that Adrienne had explicitly talked about moving out. Then I stepped forward and held her arms. “Then don’t move out.”

Adrienne took a deep breath and looked at me sadly. “Ben, I’m only staying here until Adam’s gone.”

“And what if he never leaves?”

“Don’t say that!” She shook herself from my grasp and moved a quarter-turn away from me, hugging herself as if suddenly cold.

“I’m sorry.” I HATED to see Adrienne like this. She had turned from confident and collected into something so ... vulnerable. So beautiful and yet fragile. I hugged her for warmth and protection. “I just don’t want to lose you.”

“You’re not losing me, Ben. This is all so that I don’t lose YOU.”

“If you don’t want to lose me, then don’t move out,” I said petulantly.

“Doesn’t work like that.”

I shook my head. I’ll never understand women, but sometimes I felt like I understood Adrienne even LESS than most. “So what prompted this?” I asked wearily, seizing on what little insight I did have. “You haven’t talked about moving out for weeks. Something happened.”

“I was never going to stay forever.”

“Still, what prompted this? Did something happen in the lawsuit?” I inhaled sharply and looked alarmed. “Did Adam run into you again?”

“No, no. Nothing like that,” Adrienne sighed, the air whistling between her clenched teeth. She hugged herself again, unconsciously thrusting her breasts up and distracting me. But her next words made damn sure I wasn’t thinking about sex. “Adam got a judge to issue an injunction. The execution of my father’s estate, the inheritance, everything is on hold while they hear his case. Adam’s not leaving anytime soon.”

I grimaced and moved in to touch her arm. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. This was expected.” Adrienne sighed. “It’s almost enough to make me give in.”

“You can’t.”

“That’s what my lawyers tell me. One of them, this woman with three kids, I think she’s even more pissed off than I am. I had to tell them the story of why Adam left the family and now she not only wants to shut down this case without Adam getting a penny, but she’s digging into his records trying to find a way to get criminal charges against him.”

“Good.”

“Ben, it’s pointless. There ARE no records of what he did to me. No police reports. No medical files. Nothing.”

I shrugged. “Maybe they can at least get a restraining order? Keep him away from you?”

Adrienne sighed. “Maybe.” She started rubbing her forehead. I smirked, noticing it was the exact same way Mom rubbed her forehead. The more time Adrienne spent with us, the more she picked up our family mannerisms. She was even arching her eyebrow from time to time.

“It’s all just so exhausting,” Adrienne exhaled. “I know I supposedly have nothing to do but relax for summer vacation; but I feel three times as stressed out now than I ever have for a stupid test!”

I patted her arm. “You shouldn’t have to do this alone, Adrienne. Maybe you should let Mom and Dad talk about—”

“No!” she cut me off. “This is my thing, not theirs.”

“You’re their daughter.”

“That’s the point.” Adrienne shook her head sadly. “As much as I would love to be, I’m really not.”

Daughter or not, Mom and Dad still treated Adrienne as one of the family. Even though she had not yet informed them she planned to move out, she had begun to distance herself from the core family activities, something which our parents noticed and made extra efforts to draw her back in. They thought she was just feeling upset with Adam’s return, and they went out of their way to shower her with extra affection and support.

One very important example was the family’s annual trip to Morris Camp. We were scheduled to go a little later this year, from July 5 to August 2, but it was still fast approaching and the legal case with the Dennis Estate didn’t look like it would be coming to an end anytime soon. Midway through June, Adrienne made her first big decision to step away from my family.

“I’m not coming to camp with you guys.”

Conversation around the dinner table came to a dead stop. Dad sat up straight and arched his eyebrow. Brooke looked confused. And the twins were ashen.

Mom was a little more pragmatic. “This is because of the legal case, right?”

Adrienne nodded. “I can’t leave until it’s done.”

“Really, dear. Do you think anything would be served by you staying in town?” Mom asked gently. “We’ll have phone access at the camp so you can stay in touch with your lawyers. And I think it would be good for you to get away from this town for a little while. He can’t come near you at camp.”

Adrienne shook her head. “Maybe. I thought about that. But I just couldn’t relax and enjoy myself knowing everything that was going on. I don’t want to ruin your guys’ vacation.”

Mom glanced at Dad, something communicating in her eyes. She turned back to Adrienne. “You wouldn’t be ruining it. Everyone has things going on in their lives. And honestly, I don’t think any of the kids would be distracted from their activities anyways.”

Eden and Emma just frowned, wondering what the heck was going on. It was telling that even here, at home, they weren’t really aware of Adrienne’s legal troubles. Heck, they were too busy finishing their school year, being 13-year-olds, and trying to crawl into my pants. Even Brooke seemed only peripherally aware of the legal wranglings, since Adrienne never wanted to discuss them with her, either.

Adrienne sighed. “More than that, I couldn’t help but worry about not being here in case something does happen. If they call a hearing, I HAVE to be there. I have to deal with it. And I have to see it resolved one way or another.”

“We could always drive back,” I put in quickly. “I’d be happy to bring you back down here, and we could let the rest of the family stay up north.”

“No,” Dad entered the fray, his voice carrying much more weight and silencing everyone. “We’re not going.”

“What?” I barked in surprise, with similar exclamations following from the twins.

“If it comes to it, we’re not going to camp this year.” Dad sighed heavily and reached across the table to Mom, where they joined hands and squeezed each other firmly. Clearly, this was something they’d already discussed. “This is a family; we’re not splitting up. The problems of one are the problems of all, and we’ll stand by you, Adrienne, until this is resolved.”

“Dad!” Adrienne gasped in surprise. I found it ironic that she still naturally called him ‘Dad’ despite her insistence on separating herself from us. “But you’ve been going for years.”

“And the camp will still be there next year,” he replied patiently, giving Adrienne the calm, measured look only an experienced adult could pull off. “It’s not like this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity being missed out. We’ve been to camp before.”

My younger sisters were conspicuously quiet. They obviously looked forward to this trip each and every year; but it was a testament to how fond they’d become of Adrienne that they weren’t immediately protesting Dad’s decision. I, myself, had already decided I wasn’t going anywhere without her.

“You can’t just cancel it,” Adrienne protested.

Dad shrugged. “I’m still hoping we won’t have to. From what the lawyers are telling us about the case, there’s still a good chance Adam’s suit will be thrown out in the next few weeks. And we won’t have to cancel.”

“But—”

Dad waved her off. “Besides, we still have the vacation time set aside. I’m sure there are lots of things we can all do together as a family right here.”

At first, Adrienne seemed to shrink in her chair. She’d worked up the nerve to make her bold statement about not coming with us at camp, only to have the whole thing snowball into none of us going to camp. I reached my hand out and dropped it on her knee, squeezing and looking at her reassuringly.

She blinked several times before glancing over at me, seeing the look of love, warmth, and support on my face. I made absolutely clear that I would stay with her no matter what. And as she turned to scan the faces of the others in my family, she was met with similar expressions. And at that, a smile crossed Adrienne’s face.

“Thank you,” she said softly. Despite all her insistence that she wasn’t a part of our family, it still had to feel really, really good to know that we were all behind her in this time of need.

I reached out with my arm, wrapping it around her shoulder as I pulled her to me in a hug, pecking her cheek with a soft kiss. “We all love you.”

She sighed. “I know.”

It was after midnight and time for me to go to sleep. But before getting into bed, out of curiosity I went to the window of my bedroom. The curtains were cracked just enough for me to see out across the street, and sure enough, there was the silver Ford Taurus parked on the curb, as usual in front of the Malicks’ house. I’d seen the car start showing up for a couple of weeks now. It wasn’t there every day; but when it was, it was only at night. Initially, I’d thought that it was a neighbor’s new car or more likely a rental. After all, I didn’t think there were ANY generic American sedans on this street. It was Orange County, after all. Everyone around here drove a Japanese or European import, with the odd Lincoln or Cadillac thrown in. But never a Taurus. And I never saw one of the neighbors, including the Malicks, getting into or out of it.

Shaking my head and wondering what it meant, I finally dropped into bed and went to sleep.

The last week of June turned out to be the most dramatically intense week of my life. I’d lived through my cheating problems in High School. I’d dealt with Dawn’s rape. And I’d gone through my Adrienne drama at the same time as the Drew Walker incident with Brooke. This turned out to be far scarier.

But before the fit hit the shan, I had one day of fun: Adrienne’s birthday.

June 21 fell on a Saturday this time, and the family spent the entire day together celebrating. We went to Boomers and played mini-golf. We ordered pizza and threw her a birthday party, despite Adrienne insisting that she was nineteen and too old for birthday parties.

But after Adrienne had blown out the candles and made her wish, the older teens packed up and made ready to leave for Adrienne’s more “adult” party.

Mizuho had driven a big Lexus LX470 that sat seven, and she loaded in Adrienne, myself, Candy, Heather, and Lynne for the drive out to her dad’s place in Newport. And with enough begging, Brooke managed to wrangle permission from our parents to occupy the seventh seat. She was 17 now, and thrilled to be coming along with the “big” kids.

I was pretty excited as well. I was sitting in an SUV with six beautiful babes, all of whom I’d had sex with. And if last year’s birthday party was any indication, I’d soon be reacquainting Mr. Happy with their nubile bodies.

Only two things might have stood in the way, but both of them had been resolved. The first was Adrienne’s commitment to monogamy with Grace. All this time, she’d kept her word by not having sexual contact with anyone else, managing to keep her libido in check and helped in that her usual temptations like Candy, Heather, and Brooke respected her commitment. But Adrienne had been keeping Grace informed about everything going on in her life, especially the Adam-situation. And after all the stress, it had been Grace’s idea to let Adrienne blow off some steam for one night, as long as Adrienne promised it would just be the one night.

Second could have been Brooke. But after some short discussions, we realized she wouldn’t be a deterrent to the sexual activities. After all, every one of the girls had been made aware of my less-than-appropriate relationship with my little sister, with Candy, Heather, and Lynne having been brought into the secret during the resolution of Adrienne’s and my “nottogetherness”, and all seemed accepting of it. We were all friends and they knew me well enough to have an open mind.

Mizuho, of course, had actually participated in an incestuous foursome with us, although that wasn’t public knowledge. Only Adrienne and Mizuho had ever actually seen the little nymphomaniac in action, but from the tension in the air, the others wouldn’t have to wait long.

Soon enough, the seven of us were streaming through the huge crystal-clear front doors and into the massive Newport Coast mansion. We wound up in the Solarium, staring in awe at the breathtaking view of the Pacific Ocean far below. With the walls of windows and even the ceiling of transparent glass, I finally got to the see the brilliance of sunset from our perch atop the elevated bluff.

It’s strange now, looking back at that night. We were so carefree, so happy. For a few hours, Adrienne forgot about her life, forgot about Adam, and even forgot about her place in my family. She had absolutely no idea that this night nearly became her very LAST birthday. I had absolutely no idea that I very nearly never saw another one of mine.

It was better that we didn’t know. Not knowing let us just cut loose for an evening, enjoying all of the pleasures we could find that night. And even if our lives had ended the following week, at least we would have died having experienced one final out of control party.

Chatting while enjoying the sunset view was accompanied by lots of drinking. Lots of drinking led to Candy’s suggestion to play strip poker. And strip poker inevitably led to sex.

I won’t bother you with the details of the poker game. Suffice to say, everyone ended up getting naked, which was even more of a thrill once the sun went down and we felt gloriously exposed in this massive room made of glass. Mizuho assured us no one on Earth could possibly see us due to the angles. But we always had to wonder if there was anyone floating above the Earth in a helicopter with a powerful zoom lens or anything like that.

Also, as with any stripping game, people didn’t get naked at the same rate. Those who wound up without any more clothing to give up had to perform tasks to remain in the game. Lynne, as always, felt a little awkward at first. But with judicious use of tequila, she quickly found her courage and got herself into the mood to re-practice her developing Sapphic skills.

Brooke, on the other hand, was absolutely fearless in diving into her tasks, whether on the giving or receiving ends. She looked around and saw five gorgeous babes, three of whom were brand new to her. My little sister stared at them as if she was a predator lioness and they were the juiciest steaks imaginable. In fact, it was actually Candy, Heather, and Lynne who were initially nervous about her. But they quickly found she was an adept kisser and even better with her tongue in ... other ... places.

Later on, I’m not sure which sent the room into a tizzy more: a gaming outcome which required Brooke to go down on me, or an outcome which required me to go down on Adrienne. Either way, I won. Listening to the girls oohing and ahhing when Brooke slurped my dick into her mouth only heightened my pleasure and nearly made me cum. I know Candy actually did cum, suffering a self-inflicted orgasm while watching my little sister’s head bobbing up and down my rod. I always thought that girl had a long-buried crush on her own older brother.

And while it would turn out to be my only sexual contact with Adrienne, that night, I was very happy to find that her pussy tasted just as sweet as I remembered. I also swore to myself I would never again wash my hands after I’d gotten to grope her massive tits. And she practically made me blow my load when she gave me a nuclear kiss in thanks for the orgasm I gave her.

Not unexpectedly, Heather was the first to declare, “Fuck the game” as she literally vaulted across the coffee table and shoved her tongue down my throat. At first, Lynne protested that this was Adrienne’s party. But beside me, Brooke simply took my cock in hand and aimed it while Heather straddled my lap and promptly impaled her juicing pussy onto my cock. I soon filled my palms with the perky asscheeks of the raven-haired, aqua-eyed beauty, guiding her up and down thrusts while she wrapped her arms around my head and pulled my nose into her big, bouncing bosom. And my little sister was right beside me, turning Heather’s head so that the two of them could passionately lock lips just inches away from my face.

Candy and Mizuho then moved to take care of Adrienne, Candy turning to Lynne and curling her finger. “Put your mouth where, uh, your mouth is,” Candy stumbled momentarily over the idiom. “We let you off the hook last year because Adrienne was feeling sore. Now we’re not gonna let you up to breathe until you make the birthday girl cum.”

Emboldened by alcohol and her own lust for the stunningly gorgeous blonde, Lynne simply moved to kneel on the floor between Adrienne’s spread legs. And then all I could see was Lynne’s soft brown locks, held up by a hair clip, as her head wriggled in Adrienne’s crotch. Candy ducked down to slurp one of the birthday girl’s pink nipples into her mouth. And Mizuho took the top, exchanging tongue-filled kisses with the birthday girl that smacked wetly in the open air.

The orgy devolved from there.

Heather shrieked her way to two orgasms while riding me before flopping off onto the floor and panting for oxygen. That led Brooke to follow the raven-haired beauty down, molding herself chest-to-chest on top of her, while the two of them made out and ground their pussies together.

I saw the opportunity and knelt between the girls’ outstretched legs, re-fucking first back into Heather before pulling out, aiming higher, and burying myself in my little sister’s snatch.

Brooke screamed a climax into Heather’s mouth and I was getting close myself when Candy suddenly showed up next to me. Her blue eyes were aflame as she watched me fucking my sister, and she leaned in, stating breathily, “I have a fantasy I HAVE to make come true.”

A minute later, I was seated on the couch with Candy humping up and down my cock in a reverse-cowgirl position, my lips against the back of her shoulders and my hands reaching around to grip her big tits. Meanwhile, Brooke was completing Candy’s fantasy, kneeling between her spread thighs and licking her clit. The beautiful, blue-eyed brunette was in seventh heaven, getting double-teamed by a brother-sister combination, sending her into pleasure orbit while she screamed her pretty little head off.

Candy screamed even louder when she felt my spunk erupting into her pussy.

After that, Candy and I just rested for a few minutes, enjoying the view of what the other girls were doing to Adrienne while Brooke slurped my spending out of Candy’s crotch. For Candy, it was a period of rest. She’d had so many orgasms she appeared ready to go to sleep. For me, it was my first time watching Adrienne have sex since she was having sex with me back on our anniversary. And I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

She was glorious. Those massive F-cup tits (G-cup!) were firm and didn’t sag much despite her lying flat on her back. It helped that Brooke had moved over and was currently fondling them and raising them up so that she could nibble on the erect, pink nipples. Adrienne’s tummy was still tight and flat. And her legs were so long, creamy, and smooth as they extended over Heather’s shoulders while the raven-haired babe ate her out with enthusiasm. Only Adrienne’s face was fully obscured, since petite Lynne was currently sitting on it, getting eaten out in return. Overall, I’d forgotten just how unbelievably gorgeous and sexy she could be when aroused, and I couldn’t help but feel a pang in my gut watching her.

It didn’t seem fair that we could still love each other, still be attracted to each other, and NOT be able to have sex. Hell, there went Brooke, moving into a sixty-nine with Adrienne while Mizuho returned with a strap-on and started fucking Heather from behind. My own sister could still have sex with Adrienne; and it seemed like I was the only one in the world who couldn’t.

But I tamped down on my dark thoughts. Sex wasn’t a requirement for me to love Adrienne, and we were at a point in our relationship where she needed this separation so she could make a clean break from dating me. Only the poker rules had brought us together for that one momentary act.

Hmm, maybe I should come up with more contrived situations, huh?

But I didn’t have one at the moment, so I was resigned to watching Adrienne get fucked by the other girls around me. Believe me, it was stimulation enough. Mizuho had brought more toys than just the strap-on, and Brooke was currently working a pink vibrator in and out of Adrienne’s pussy while they continued sixty-nining.

Plus, here came Lynne.

“Hiii, Ben,” the pretty brunette said shyly. The lust in her eyes was unmistakable. Plus, Lynne was still toward the hetero side of that Kinsey scale, and I was the only male present. It only made sense that she’d come to me at earliest opportunity.

“Hi, Lynne,” I answered warmly, reaching my hand out to wrap around her waist and pull her onto the couch beside me. Candy just giggled, kissed my cheek, and then moved off me to go back and shower more pleasure on the birthday girl.

“I missed you,” she said softly, reaching down to wrap her small hand around my throbbing shaft. Her dark eyes focused on my dick for a moment before she flicked her gaze back up to my face. “You think we’d have found more ways to meet up during the school year.”

I shrugged. Stanford was pretty close by, but life had certainly been busy. “I missed you, too. I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too. And you’re sorry. So now that we’re done with that, how about we forget about it and get to the fucking?” Lynne giggled.

My dickhead twitched agreeably. My bigger head nodded as well. Then I grabbed the petite girl, flipping us over to plant her butt at the edge of my seat while I nudged my new erection into her folds. She squealed when I flipped us and then moaned when she felt the pressure at her gates, her tight labia stretching only reluctantly to fit around my thick member.

“Will you cum in me, Ben?” Lynne asked huskily. “Will you spill your hot essence inside me?”

I grinned. “I think I can manage that.”

The aforementioned last week of June was the most dramatically intense week of my life for more than just scary moments. It was intense in both incredible high points and terrifying lows.

Sunday started off with the twins becoming absolutely livid with our mother.

“It’s not fair!” Emma protested at the top of her lungs.

“You’re being unreasonable!” Eden yelled just as loud. They were in the kitchen with Mom while I was in the family room trying to watch TV. And every time they screamed my splitting headache was made worse. Ordinarily, I was very good about controlling my alcohol intake so as not to get hangovers this bad. But apparently (A) my sense of control wasn’t what it used to be before the breakup with Adrienne and (B) I hadn’t had any alcohol since Berkeley, which meant my system was a bit out of practice.

Plus, I was pretty dehydrated. After all, with six girls and one me, I’d been drained rather completely dry last night. I had managed a fifth ejaculation: Mizuho riding my dick while Heather sat on my face as the two of them pawed at each other’s tits and french kissed. That final orgasm meant I’d “spilled my hot essence” inside every girl present but Adrienne, but there wasn’t much left to spill. Brooke certainly didn’t get much slurping my jizz out of Mizu’s box.

The point is: I wasn’t feeling very well. I certainly had neither the energy nor desire for sex at this very moment, which was ironic given the topic the twins were currently arguing over with Mom.

“I am NOT putting you two on the pill early and that’s FINAL,” Mom insisted. It was a good thing Dad was out of the house at the moment, golfing with some of his business partners. I was certain Dad knew I was messing around with his daughters, but it wasn’t a subject we ever talked openly about like I did with Mom.

“But Ben absolutely REFUSES to have sex with us until we’re protected!”

“That’s the point.”

“But we’re ready! You’re not seeing reason!” Emma insisted.

“You’re not ready until you prove to me you’re ready,” Mom said as calmly as she could, which meant her volume was still short of yelling (barely) and all her annoyance was in her tone. “And throwing a tantrum is NOT going to prove your readiness to me.”

“This is SO unfair! I wish I’d never been born!” Eden yelled. Good lord, was I this annoying when I was their age? I guess this was the definition of being thirteen (and a half): Physically, the twins looked fifteen. Seductively, they could seem seventeen. But when they didn’t get their way, suddenly they were NINE.

The twins never convinced Mom to get them on the pill. But like I said, at least for now, it wouldn’t have mattered.

I think I’m going upstairs to take a nap.

So no, Sunday wasn’t the end of the world, although the twins might have disagreed with me.

Monday wasn’t the end of the world, either. Actually, Monday started off as a GREAT day.

“Ohmigod!” Adrienne came rushing into my bedroom, waving me towards her frantically even though she was coming to sit on my bed. I sat up in curiosity, taking note of the cell phone welded to her ear and the tinny sounds flittering out from the speaker. Her hazel eyes were bright and she had the biggest smile on her face. “Ohmigod!”

Adrienne looked right at me and beamed a smile. Then she looked down and nodded her head, her mind clearly going through the phone. “I understand. I understand. This isn’t over, but it’s a very good step. Uh-huh ... Uh-huh ... Okay. Yeah ... This is something you can tell them? Great! Okay! Thank you SO much. Uh-huh. Buh-bye!”

Adrienne hung up and then dropped the phone onto the mattress, throwing her arms into the air. “The judge dismissed the case! And Adam’s GONE!”

My own face lit up in a smile as I thrust my arms out and Adrienne gleefully threw herself at me, letting me wrap her up in a warm hug. I still had the vivid memory of her naked body, thrashing in the throes of orgasm while three hot girls titillated her to ecstasy, but I shoved aside those thoughts and concentrated on being happy for her. “What happened?”

“Ohmigod! So much!” Adrienne could barely contain herself. She had so much to say and only one mouth to say it with. “That lawyer I told you was going into Adam’s records? She did some digging and found out he’s wanted in Alabama, New Mexico, and possibly other states on multiple counts of lewd acts with a minor and sexual assault on minors, using different names.”

“What?” I stared at her, goggle-eyed.

“Adam’s GONE! They sent some cops to arrest him and extradite him to Alabama, but he took off! The judge dismissed his lawsuit, so that’s all done. And now he’s on the run. He’s GONE!”

“Holy shit!” I exclaimed. “So it’s all over?” I asked while hugging her tightly, holding her while she wriggled in my embrace and crushed those glorious tits into my chest.

“It’s over!” Adrienne crowed, panting out of breath. She sat back and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “I think it’s really over!”

I smiled, Adrienne squealed, and she dove back in for another hug. I wrapped her up tightly and she hugged me back so hard that we lost our balance, rolling over and onto our sides on the bed while Adrienne threw her head back and giggled in delight.

Hearing the happy tone in her voice and the musicality of her giggle, I suddenly felt playful and my hands slid lower to tickle her sides. Adrienne cracked up and started wriggling against me, laughing uncontrollably while also getting her own hands to my sides to tickle me back.

“Wha-ha! Hee-hee!” she giggled while we fought back and forth, escalating the tickle fight. Heads thrashed, bodies rolled, and hands were everywhere as we simultaneously tried to get to each other’s sensitive spots and twist out of the way of the other’s attempts.

But then Adrienne stopped trying to get away from me. Her hands went up around my head, yanking my face to hers while she rolled on top of me and slammed her lips against mine. Her tongue snaked into my mouth and she moaned heatedly while giving me the most explosive nuclear kiss I’d felt from her all year.

“Ohhh...” I couldn’t help but groan, feeling every nerve in my brain lighting up at the exact same moment.

“Bennn...” Adrienne groaned into my mouth, kissing me harder and even more fiercely than before.

My hands automatically slid upwards to grip her shoulders, only I found that my hands were sliding underneath her blouse and across her naked skin to get there. I pulled her and shifted to settle her crotch directly over the growing bulge in my shorts, and Adrienne instinctively began grinding herself against it.

“Oh, Ben,” Adrienne gasped, pulling her mouth to the side while I continued kissing her cheek. She was panting oh-so-sexily and my skin felt like it was on fire. This was me and Adrienne, doing what we did best. It just felt so right.

“I want to fuck you,” Adrienne moaned. My hands tightened on her shoulders and my hips surged, pressing my boner against her pussy.

“Oh, I want to fuck you,” she groaned in an even deeper tone. But after turning her face and madly kissing me for another few seconds, she abruptly rolled off me and rolled off the bed.

“Adrienne!” I barked in surprise, sitting up and staring after her as she got to her feet and practically sprinted for the door.

“I’m sorry!” Adrienne whimpered as she literally turned the corner and started pounding on Brooke’s door. A moment later, I heard it swing open and then my little sister grunted in surprise.

I managed to roll to my feet and headed for my door, turning the same corner and coming to a dead stop in the doorway into Brooke’s bedroom. Adrienne was already half-naked, her blouse and bra on the floor while she practically assaulted Brooke on her bed. Clearly, Adrienne was hyped up with sexual energy and she had to let it out ... somehow ... just not with me.

“Fuck me, Ben,” Adrienne crooned as she rolled onto her back, now naked with those glorious tits pointing to the ceiling. For a moment, I had the urge to march into Brooke’s bedroom and do just that.

But I didn’t. Adrienne had her neck arched away and her eyes closed while she was gripping the bedsheets tightly. Brooke was now naked, a strap-on dildo buckled around her waist with the head of it pressing against Adrienne’s sopping wet labia.

“Fuck me, Ben,” Adrienne repeated, still with her eyes closed. She wanted me. She still wanted me. But she couldn’t really have me. And I couldn’t really have her.

I turned away and closed the door while Brooke leaned her hips forward, pushing the fake cock inside. And then as the erotic moans of two beautiful women floated through the air, I went back into my bedroom to jack off and dream.

Tuesday started off quiet. Adrienne made no comment about the previous day’s “almost-sex”. But she also made no comment about moving out, so I decided to let things just be as they were. We were cordial, but quiet, to each other for the rest of Monday, even at the restaurant when we’d gone out as a family to celebrate the end of the whole Adam-incident.

Since Adam had left town to escape extradition and his lawsuit had been dismissed, I harbored hope that nothing new would surface. As long as nothing did, we could all go to summer camp as a family. And once Adrienne was up there with us for a full month, I felt certain that I could talk her into staying with the family permanently, as well.

I then went out to visit with old friends. Now that my entire High School crew was out of school, we all met up at the beach as a group. It was quite a pleasure for me to see how much the girls in the group had been growing up. I’d seen them go from skinny, pre-pubescent 10-year-olds to very pretty high schoolers. And now that we were turning nineteen, it was amazing to see what beautiful young women they’d become. Elaine and Megan, while still petite, had developed full curves. Cassidy was becoming quite the stunner, her freckles only enhancing her beauty as her face had elongated into that of a runway model’s. Even Abbie and Allie were now recognizably adult females, no longer possible to mistake them for children. Abbie was quite the little hottie with her streaked blonde hair and Allie was quite a bit more “sexy” than “librarian”. Plus, even Stephanie Vo joined us this summer, the elegant Asian babe looking more exotically beautiful than I remembered.

And I got to see them all in bikinis. Yeah, it was a different type of group than Adrienne’s birthday party filled with naked cheerleaders, but no less exciting. For one, this crew wasn’t nearly as casual about sex and it didn’t seem likely I would be jumping into bed with any of them anytime soon. But I still had the memories of what it had been like to bed each of them, save Elaine; and the glimpses of skin I got and the various opportunities I had to rub sunblock onto them or give them backrubs were quite pleasant on a subtle level.

In a different kind of excitement, I also got together with the boys and we agreed that it had been FAR too long since we went mano-a-mano on a basketball court. Despite finding the occasional time to ball with Ryan, Matt, Kevin, and the others at Berkeley, I knew I was quite rusty. Kenny gave me his usual trash-talk and we all agreed to meet up on Thursday morning to play. I was eagerly looking forward to it.

And so I was in quite a good mood when I returned home. The twins were feeling frisky and we had our little playtime for an hour before our parents got off work. Brooke had spent the day with her friends, but hadn’t gotten a good chance to fuck Kenta’s brains out; so she was making eyes at me that indicated she would want to burn off her sexual energy later that night. And even Adrienne had gotten over her initial awkwardness over the previous day and seemed back to normal with me.

But then Adrienne dropped her bomb on Wednesday.

Adrienne told me what she planned, shocking me to my core. I had known this day could come for a long time, but actually hearing that she would announce her decision made me sick to my stomach. I very nearly heaved up that night’s dinner.

“What are you talking about? You’re moving out?” Mom wasn’t too happy. This time, her idea of “as calmly as possible” was a full on YELL.

“Have you thought this through?” Dad asked a little more gently.

Adrienne had sat my parents down in the living room while Brooke and the twins were entertaining themselves in the family room. Knowing what was coming, I’d insisted on being present myself. And of course, the sound of Mom shouting had instantly brought my younger sisters scurrying to the doorway. So the entire family was together for this.

Adrienne’s eyes flickered nervously to the doorway once she realized she had a larger audience than originally intended. “Please, Mrs.—”

“Don’t you DARE start calling me ‘Missus’, young lady,” Mom cut her off. “Not when you’ve been calling me ‘Mom’ for the past year. Not when you’ve become a part of this family!”

“But that’s just it,” Adrienne practically whimpered. “I’m not actually a part of this family. I’m Adrienne Dennis. I have blonde hair. We share no DNA. Technically, I haven’t even been your ward since I turned eighteen.”

“That’s legal mumbo-jumbo and family is more than just blood,” Mom hissed. “You’re our daughter now and that’s all that matters.”

Dad was a little more calm. “We agreed to take responsibility for you, Adrienne,” he said sagely. “That doesn’t magically go away with some date passing.”

“Believe me, I’m appreciative of everything you’ve given me,” Adrienne said placatingly. “But I’ll be just fine on my own and I can take care of myself.”

Mom sighed, shaking her head with a knowing expression on her face. “Is this because you and Ben broke up?”

“No!” Adrienne replied quickly.

Then Mom did what she does best. She leveled her gaze at Adrienne, boring her eyes into the back of the blonde girl’s skull. She folded her arms across her chest. And then she waited ... and waited...

Adrienne cracked. “Okay, maybe a little,” she blanched and turned her head to the side.

“Sweetie, you can’t just run away from your feelings.”

“I’m not running away!” Adrienne insisted.

Mom stopped, gave her the look, and waited again.

“Okay ... maybe a little...” Adrienne crumbled. Clearly, she had no experience dealing with a concerned parent and she was cracking faster than the twins would have. “But it’s so hard to be this close to him, Mom,” Adrienne whimpered. “I still love him.”

“I know you do.”

“But we can’t be together forever.”

Mom sighed. “I know you can’t.”

Adrienne perked. “You do?”

Mom nodded. “Ben loves you. And you love him. But more than that, you need him.”

“I do,” Adrienne said softly.

“But you don’t need him as a husband, as your partner in life. You need Ben as your rock, as that guy you can always depend on when things go wrong. You need Ben only sometimes, not all the time.”

Adrienne nodded, looking surprised. “Exactly.”

Mom leaned forward and held Adrienne’s hand in both of hers. Gently, she patted the blonde’s knuckles, staring down at them before flicking her gaze up into Adrienne’s eyes. “You need Ben as a brother.”

Adrienne whimpered.

“And we’re your family, Adrienne. Yeah, we’re new. Yeah, it’s only been a year. And yeah, you managed to survive almost eighteen years without us. But were you really happy for all those years by yourself? We’re here for you. You are NOT intruding. And we DO want you here. Eden and Emma adore you. Brooke loves spending time with you. And you know Ben just plain loves you and needs you in his life.”

“Stay with us, Adrienne,” Dad added warmly. “We’ve welcomed you into our family and we want you to be a part of us, right guys?” He looked around the room and got confirming nods from his biological daughters. I nodded and squeezed Adrienne’s leg.

The gorgeous blonde exhaled slowly and hung her head down before putting her hand on top of mine. She squeezed my fingers for a moment before turning to me, abundant moisture in her eyes. I knew, as Mom had also recognized, that this had nothing to do with Adrienne feeling like an outsider to our family. It was only ever about her and me.

“Can we really do that, Ben?” Adrienne asked as twin tears overflowed her eyelids and began rolling down each cheek. “Can I just be one of your sisters, forever? Can you just be my brother?”

I sighed and nodded firmly.

“But you wanted more from me.” Adrienne furrowed her eyebrows. “You wanted partnership and family from me. Can you handle not getting it?”

“I have to,” I replied wearily. I took a deep breath and squeezed her leg again. “I love you, Adrienne. I want to be here for you, however you need me. And maybe this is the best way for me to do that.”

Adrienne hung her head and leaned forward. I met her halfway in a hug, her chin over my right shoulder and mine over hers as I wrapped my arms around her back while she clutched my biceps.

“We talked about this before, Adrienne, last year. You’ve got me. I’m your rock. As your brother, I can love you forever and always,” I sighed. “You’ll never lose me.”

“But won’t it hurt if you want me to be more than just a sister?”

I sighed and patted her back. “It would hurt more if you left.” I bent my head over her shoulder and fought back tears of my own. Strangely enough, it felt like I was breaking up with her again. “Just don’t leave me.”

I woke up Thursday morning feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, better than I had in more than a month. I hadn’t realized the tension I’d been subconsciously carrying around since my ill-fated anniversary with Adrienne. There had been enough highs and lows since then to make me feel like I was stressing and then relaxing it all away. But as it turns out, there was an underlying stress that had never actually gone away for that entire time ... until now.

Adrienne wasn’t leaving.

Yeah, we were still broken up.

Yeah, we still couldn’t have sex.

But she wasn’t leaving. Even though we were not bound by blood, Adrienne had accepted a place in our family, a place in our hearts. We’d rallied around her and made her one of our own, and she would forever and always be one of the most important people in my life. We would never again have to worry about losing each other.

Plus, Adam was gone. His lawsuit was over. Adrienne would be getting her inheritance. He was currently on the run to escape his criminal charges, and I sincerely hoped we never saw or heard from him again.

In little more than a week, we would be able to get away from this all by heading up on our annual trip to summer camp. Adrienne and I would have a full month to redefine our relationship, to figure out how we could love each other and come to understand each other within the boundaries of what we each wanted. Magical things always happened at camp. I knew with certainty that my newest sister and I would find our way.

And right now, I was going to play basketball again. I was excited. I anxiously looked forward to the competition, the rediscovering of how to play the game, and re-bonding with my old friends.

I was happier than I’d been in more than a month, happier than I’d been since my anniversary. I was living on an incredible high.

The lowest low was just hours away.

“BENNN!!!” Adrienne screamed so loud into the phone that I had to jerk my head away and wince in pain. “BENNN!!!”

I recovered enough to shove the microphone end of the cell phone under my jaw, ignoring the bead of sweat that dropped off my chin to impact against the silver aluminum. “Adrienne? What? What happened?”

“It’s Emma!” Adrienne shrieked. “He TOOK her!”

“Emma? What? Who?”

“ADAM!” Adrienne shrieked even louder. “He TOOK her!”

My jaw dropped. My skin went pale. And I nearly dropped the phone. Holy SHIT.

Daniel Chen was right beside me, patting my shoulder. “Hey, man. You okay?”

I didn’t even answer him. The phone was back up in my ear and I was sprinting to my car. “Adrienne! WHERE ARE YOU?”

I didn’t do a very good job parking the Mustang. I didn’t really care, either. I just left the key in the ignition and the door ajar as I dashed up to the front door while Adrienne came racing out. She was bawling in tears, and Brooke was right behind her.

I wanted to freak out as well, but now wasn’t the time. I was angry and upset but remarkably clear-headed. I simply gathered my two sisters in my arms and ushered us back into the house. Dad was on the phone, talking to the police. Mom was comforting a sobbing Eden on the loveseat in the living room.

As calmly as possible, I sat Adrienne down on the couch and held her cheeks in my hands, forcing her to look straight at me. Once I knew I had her attention and she stopped crying for the moment, I looked her dead in the eye and asked, “What happened?”

Adrienne sniffled and explained, “The twins were going out to visit a friend a few blocks away or something. Eden says Adam screeched up to the curb, jumped out and chased them. The girls ran screaming, and Eden got away, but Adam got to Emma and tackled her. Eden was too scared to turn around and go back while Adam threw Emma into his car and drove off. That’s all we know.”

I glanced over at Eden, who was sitting with her knees pulled up beneath her chin, rocking and crying and looking absolutely scared shitless, no matter what Mom tried to do.

To the left, I heard Dad yelling in exasperation, “I’ve said it three times already! We’re SURE of his identity! My daughter has MET the guy! It’s Adam Dennis! There’s a warrant out for his arrest! He’s driving a late-model silver Ford Taurus! He snatched my daughter off the street and drove off!”

I felt my mouth go dry at the mention of the silver Taurus. Ah, hell...

Adrienne squeezed her eyes shut and hunched over. Brooke molded herself against my side. But just then, Adrienne’s cell phone went off. Confused, she dug into her jeans pocket, struggling a bit even though the phone was tiny because her jeans were so tight, and she showed me the display. It was a 949 area code, but we didn’t recognize the number.

Nervously, Adrienne answered the phone. “Hello?”

“It’s me,” Adam’s voice came through menacingly, just loud enough for me to hear.

“Oh, God...” Adrienne whimpered. She paled and just about dropped the phone.

Just before it tumbled from her grasp, I snatched it out of the air and pressed it to my ear. Brooke was hurriedly asking, “Who is it?” But I just waved her off and listened.

“You come to me, Punkin, alone, and I’ll let the little one go. I just want to talk to you. But just you! If I even hear a fucking cop siren I swear to God I’ll kill her.”

“You sick fuck!” I couldn’t help but growl in response. “You expect us to believe you’ll really let Emma go?”

“Who is this? Ah, the boyfriend?” Adam snickered. In the background, I heard Emma scream, “BEN!”

I gritted my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut at the sound of Emma’s voice. At least she sounded alright.

“Tell you what, boyfriend: You can come too. I’ll give you your little sister, I swear. But I just HAVE to talk to MY little sister. But remember, no cops. And you two come alone. If I have any reason to think you’re bringing any help along, I’ll make you watch me rape this sweet young thing before I slit her throat.”

“Where are you?” I gruffed.

“Tustin. Red Hill and El Camino. The Key Inn. I’ll be watching. I see a cop and you’ll find nothing but a dead little girl. You take too long to get here and I’ll know you’re setting something up.”

“What room?” I asked, but he’d already hung up.

I should have thought about things more clearly. I probably should have still called the cops. At the very least, I should have told my parents.

But I was nineteen and impulsive. And I HAD to rescue my sister.

So I grabbed Adrienne’s elbow and ran out the door.

I pulled off El Camino and into the small parking lot of the Key Inn. The place was a hop, skip, and a jump away from Red Hill and access to the 5 Freeway in both directions. I rolled along until I saw a familiar silver Taurus, and then immediately glanced around looking at doors at the two-story strip motel. Just then, I saw Adam come out and stand at the railing on the second level. I immediately opened my door and poked my head out as I double-parked the car. Adrienne was quickly getting out of the other side. Adam saw us and then he rapidly backed away toward the open door, scanning the street for any signs that we were being followed.

I ran around the car, grabbed Adrienne’s hand, and we headed for the stairs.

Now up until this point, I had been relatively calm over the whole situation. Yeah, Adam had threatened to kill Emma if we brought police with us, but I’d thought those were just idle threats to ensure we came alone. There was nothing to make me think Adam was a particularly violent person, or that this was a situation that couldn’t be handled with an intense conversation. He’d made it clear he wanted to meet with Adrienne, and kidnapping Emma had simply been his means for getting her to come.

So I was surprised as all hell when I turned to enter through the open motel doorway and came face to face with the barrel of a gun. I stopped dead in my tracks and nearly soiled myself.

He had a gun.

He had a fucking gun. Not some toy kids played with. This was a real fucking GUN. I have no idea what kind of gun it was. It was big. It was black. And did I mention it was a fucking GUN? I’d never even SEEN someone actually holding and aiming a gun in real life before. And this one was pointed at ME.

But after another second, the gun tracked to Adrienne. “Stay right there, Punkin,” he said almost sweetly, gesturing to her feet with the gun. Adrienne rooted in her spot.

“You,” he pointed at me. “You can have your sister.”

My baby sister was huddled on the furthest of the two double beds, duct tape wrapped around her wrists and ankles while she sat with her knees pulled up to her chest. Another piece was across her mouth, gagging her. I moved quickly, perhaps too quickly. And as I moved forward I found the gun barrel quickly aiming back at me. “Whoa, whoa,” I held my hands up defensively.

“Don’t come at me,” Adam said crossly. “Climb over the bed.”

I did as he asked, getting onto the nearest bed and knee-walking my way across it, still with my hands in the air. At the same time, I grimaced and mentally cursed myself for being so stupid as to not tell anyone where we were going. I hadn’t wanted police or anyone following us so as not to alarm Adam, but now that he had a gun on us, I seriously wished someone had been following us. Hell, the guy could potentially kill us and get onto the freeway before anyone realized what had happened. This was REALLY poor planning on my part. But in my defense, I never dreamed it would escalate to anything like this.

Once I got to Emma, I reached out to begin peeling off the duct tape. But Adam cocked the gun and growled, “The tape stays on.”

Adrienne started moving forward.

“I said ‘don’t move’,” Adam barked, turning to re-aim at his sister.

With a preternatural calmness, Adrienne slowly turned to her older brother and said, “You promised you would let her go.”

“Not yet,” he growled.

“Yes, right now. You’re not going to shoot me, Adam,” Adrienne said softly. Hopping over the bed just like I had, she kept her distance from Adam and yet stared him down the entire time. And then she moved forward to take the tape off Emma’s mouth, interposing herself between us and Adam. I bit down on my urge to move myself into a more protective position to defend Adrienne. Right now, it really did seem like he wouldn’t shoot his sister, and sighing, Adam just let us go to work.

To her credit, Emma barely whimpered once her mouth was free. She didn’t scream or say anything further. Adam looked visibly upset, but he didn’t move to stop either of us. He simply stood there, shaking slightly while both Adrienne and I slowly removed the rest of Emma’s binding tape one piece at a time.

Eventually, Emma was completely free and Adrienne pushed her in my direction. I wound up sitting on the bed while my baby sister crawled into my lap and quickly huddled up to my side, hugging me firmly while I wrapped an arm around her waist. She cried softly into my shoulder, her back to Adam.

Only then did Adrienne turn to face her older brother. With a strength, fire, and confidence as if she were staring down incoming-Freshman cheerleaders, she drew herself to her full height and asked clearly, “What do you want, Adam?”

“It’s simple: I want you,” he said plainly.

“Excuse me?” Adrienne took a step back, her eyes going wide.

“I want you, baby sister. He can have the girl. I get to keep you.”

Red adrenaline shot through my veins at that pronouncement and I practically shoved Emma off me while I got to my feet. “You can’t take her!” I barked.

Instantly, the gun tracked over to me and I saw the tension in Adam’s trigger finger. He didn’t fire, but he glared at me. “I can do whatever the fuck I want.”

I gulped in the face of the gun barrel. Adam waved it and said coldly, “You: stay right there.”

And then after making sure I wasn’t about to jump him, Adam returned the aim over to Adrienne. “As for you, back to the doorway. We’re leaving, Punkin.”

“I’m not going with you,” Adrienne replied harshly.

Adam shook the gun in her face. “Yes, you are!”

“We already established that you won’t shoot me, Adam.”

“The fuck I won’t!” He pulled back on the gun slide, re-cocking it and then aiming with both hands right at her face.

“Okay, okay...” she said softly, raising her hands. Adam was now standing by the motel room’s television while Adrienne and I both stood next to the bedside table in between the two beds. With her head down, Adrienne slowly began walking toward him to get out from between the two beds.

“Adrienne...” I whimpered, feeling helpless. Fuck it, man! I’d just gotten Adrienne back! I was NOT about to lose her again! Right in that moment, I wanted nothing more than to rush the guy; but some part of my brain was awake enough to tell me not to try anything stupid against a guy with a gun.

Apparently Adrienne held no such compunctions. When she reached the foot of the bed, bringing herself achingly close to Adam in the process, she suddenly threw herself into him, reaching for the gun with both hands and screaming a howl of pure rage.

“AAAHHHH!!!” Adrienne shrieked as she attacked him.

“Wahh!” Adam barked in surprise, throwing his arms up and shoving Adrienne away.

[BANG!!!]

The gun had gone off. And Emma was screaming.

Everything happened so fast. One moment, I was clenching my jaw and scrambling to think of something to do while Adrienne calmly walked to the doorway and certain doom. The next, the gun had discharged and Adrienne had been flung against the TV, knocking it and herself to the floor. And Adam staggered to keep his balance.

I saw Adrienne fall. Nothing else mattered anymore. I ran at Adam.

“ARRRRGHH!!!” I yelled.

“BENNN!” Emma screamed behind me.

[BANG!!!]

The gun went off again as I tackled Adam against the dresser, bending him over the top of it. A searing pain lanced across the left side of my face, but I ignored it as I focused on pummeling his head in with my fists or knocking the gun from his hands.

I’d been in a fight or two in my life. I was never very good at them, but I was relatively big and relatively fast. I basically flailed around, hitting him as hard as I could before I saw his gun hand and went to grab it with my left hand.

[BANG!!!]

The gun went off AGAIN. This time, flaring pain exploded along my left side near my hip. I cried out in pain, and far worse, I felt the hot metal slide out of my grasp. Adam once again had control of the gun. I braced myself and winced, certain that he would now be able to get in a killing shot.

But all of a sudden, the weight in front of me was gone. Adam was no longer trying to fight me; he was trying to escape. A second later, I watched him run out the door while I sank to my knees, holding my left hand to my side. And then to my great surprise, he grabbed the second-story railing and literally vaulted himself over it, arcing into the air before passing out of my sight.

There was a ringing in my left ear that drowned out a lot of the sound, but I swore I could hear shouting coming from outside the room, followed by the noise of police sirens in the distance. Someone had heard the gunfire.

Only then did I take a deep breath and look around. Desperately, I glanced back at Emma. My baby sister was curled up in a ball, crying in absolute terror. But she seemed to be unharmed. I couldn’t say the same for the headboard behind her. The wood was splintered from a bullet hole, only a few inches away from her. She’d been that close to getting shot.

As for me, I looked down and saw that there was blood on my left hand, where I was holding my side, and more blood spreading outwards along my shirt. Ah, FUCK. I’d been fucking SHOT! Plus, my left cheek still burned, and I raised my hand to touch it, wincing at the stinging sensation. There was more blood on my fingertips, but I wasn’t entirely sure if my cheek was bleeding as well or if it was leftover blood from my side. I’d gotten lucky with the face, but more blood was leaking out my left side and I was starting to get dizzy.

And then my eyes drifted to the right, looking at Adrienne. She was facedown on the carpet, her left arm pinned awkwardly beneath her torso and a broken TV beside her. She wasn’t moving. From what I could tell, she wasn’t breathing. And then I saw the blood trickling out from beneath her body.

Holy fucking SHIT.

Oh, no...

Oh, no...

Oh, dear GOD no!

I’d just gotten her back...

Adam had gotten away. Emma was crying. I was bleeding to death. And Adrienne might very well already be dead.

My world was coming to an end.