Raymond Travis - The seductive sister-in-law

"Worried about Kent?" Shirley asked in a sure sounding voice.

Betty laughed and sipped from her drink again. "Was that a statement of fact or a question?"

Shirley lifted one delicately curving ankle onto the low-setting cast iron table that separated the two women. Despite herself, Betty felt slightly astounded at the girl's brazenness; her tightly fitting bikini panties just covered the sensuous vee of her crotch and the gentle curve of her genital area was clearly evident from beneath the tight press of the cotton material.

"Probably both," Shirley laughed at herself.

"I know how it is when I miss Bob… when he's been off on a business trip, for example."

"You kids have been married for less than six months," Betty said, her voice rising somewhat. "But I'll confess that I never get used to it either."

Shirley gave Betty a warm-eyed smile, and drew her chair up closer to her and leaned across the coffee table. She ran one of her fingers in an almost conscious gesture across the large smoothly uplifting rise of her breasts, finally settling her hand on the tanned flatness of her belly.

"Speaking woman to woman," Shirley said with a candid look. "There are ways of satisfying yourself without hurting yourself or your husband."

"I-I don't know what you mean," Betty blurted out, feeling herself blush openly for the third time that day. "Kent is a very attentive husband – when he's home – and I really am quite satisfied with our relationship."

The conversation was taking an intimate turn that made Betty uncomfortable again. She took a large gulp from her Scotch and discovered to her surprise that she had finished all of it. Shirley must be trying to appear liberal and modern, she concluded, and it rather irritated her to be lectured about sex by a woman five years younger than she was. Still, she thought she knew what Shirley was talking about, and was frankly quite interested in hearing more. Before she had been married, she had given way to her sensual urges by massaging her nipples and touching herself down between her legs, but she had always felt terribly guilty afterwards. She had never heard any other woman openly admit that she had done it – either before or after marriage, and her own problems with Kent and the needs of her body that she had been made acutely aware of during the last few weeks were too great for her to deny Shirley the opportunity to talk more about it.

"Doesn't it bother Bob, that you, uh, try to satisfy yourself that way?" she asked obliquely, surprised to find her gaze cast at the tight fit of Bob's swim suit and the muscular stretch of his thighs as he bent over the grill behind Shirley.

"Not at all," Shirley said brightly. "As a matter of fact, it's quite the opposite."

"Well, I'm glad," Betty laughed, almost giddily. "I think I'll make myself another drink. It looks like Bob will be working over those steaks for a few minutes."

The sun had set below the gentle rise of hills behind the house by the time the steaks and green salad and potatoes that had been cooked in aluminum foil over the charcoal coals sat before the three in-laws at the dinner table. After her three drinks, Betty felt considerably more relaxed. It seemed that she had been needlessly uneasy with Bob and Shirley earlier, and now that Bob had shown himself quite helpful as chef and Shirley had demonstrated a genuine interest in her relationship with Kent, she felt a tingle of warmth for the young couple. They were happily married, and perhaps their open show of sensual appetite that afternoon merely demonstrated this. It was dark by the time they had finished eating and the plates had been cleared from the patio. The sky was lit with a sparkling of stars that vaguely illuminated the three faces that were occasionally brightened by the ember of a cigarette.

"Bob," Shirley's soft voice interrupted a long silence. "I think we've got an absolutely gorgeous sister-in-law. You two would make a beautiful couple with your matching blonde hair."

Through the shadows Betty could make out Bob pushing forward in his chair. His hand darted to the plane of his wife's knee, then his darkened face turned toward Betty. "No need to break us up, honey. I could handle the both of you," he chuckled dreamily and sank back in his chair. "A blonde and a brunette. One on each side!"

Then he was silent again. This is so odd, Betty shivered with fear as she had done earlier. I have been with these people for six hours and my feelings have already changed towards them twice. She tried to force the next thought out of her mind, fearing that she had let her confidence in Shirley go too far; had she put too much trust in the woman, and had she been wise to express her true feelings about her loneliness honestly? In her preoccupation she hadn't noticed Shirley's hand move from the upper part of his thigh and play over the again slightly rising bulge of his bathing trunks. Had she seen correctly?

Then she saw the hand move again. Shirley shifted her leg slightly and the man's hand slid across the girl's hip that was barely visible lying outstretched to the side of the lounge chair. At first, Betty had thought the hand on Bob's loins might have been a casual slip, but it remained there, and as her eyes became accustomed to the darkness she could see the fingers squeezing lightly at the bulge as though to provoke him into further hardness.

Betty lit a cigarette and pulled back in her chair. She could see a repeat of the afternoon's lewdly playful performance coming on, only this time it looked like the couple were far more serious in their intentions. If she got up now and went into the living room it would be only too obvious why she had left, so she decided to stay for a moment and finish her cigarette. If she could only keep her eyes off the couple who sat just a few feet away from her! Their bodies were like magnets, drawing themselves closer and closer and pulling her eyes to the movement of their thighs and hands as they touched each other. Despite her resolve, she discovered her own nipples hardening beneath the tightly stretching nylon of the bra that pressed down on her full smoothly rounded breasts. She shifted in her seat, hoping the warming sensation would stop, but a softly tingling quiver of lust rippled lightly through her groin, and she sensed a dampness there that made her increasingly uncomfortable. God, it had to stop! The couple was completely oblivious to anything but themselves, and in a moment, she knew they would be engaged in something far more serious than petting in front of her.

"I think I'll go inside and make some coffee," she said lightly and stood up, fluffing back her honey-blonde hair that had fallen loosely across her breasts. "I'll let you love-birds stay out here until it gets too chilly. The coffee will be perking on the stove when you come in."

She looked down at Bob and Shirley still embraced, their hands continuing to wander in sensuous little circles across one another's bodies. Their indifference to her seemed total, and she experienced the odd feeling of being a complete stranger in her own backyard. As she turned to leave, she glimpsed Bob press his face against Shirley's cheek. The moon had risen over the trees that rose up behind the swimming pool and a bright arc of light flowed across the gleaming flagstone patio. Bob's mouth moved closer to Shirley's moist full lips, and suddenly he kissed her. The wetly sucking sound of the girl receiving his tongue seemed to reverberate across the yard. A kiss, innocent enough between two newlyweds, Betty thought to herself as she reentered the kitchen, but somehow it had a deeper significance. What was happening to her? Why did such trivial things make such an impression on her consciousness?

She set the electric coffee percolator on the counter and lit another cigarette. Then she went to the pantry and lifted a cup and saucer from a cupboard. She paused, her mind abstracted again, and set the crockery back on the closet shelf. What she needed now was another drink. Her nerves were on edge, and maybe another glass of Scotch would be helpful. Kent wouldn't be home until quite late – if at all – and she had to have something to dampen that insatiable burning that seemed to erupt inside her belly from time to time. During the first two years of their marriage Kent had been a tender and attentive lover despite the fact that she had been far from the responsive woman in bed she knew she should have been. But during the last few months he had grown increasingly distracted with his job. At least, she thought it had been his growing responsibilities with the corporation that had forced him to stay up nights in his office or their den mulling over contracts. But there had been other signs that indicated that his preoccupation was caused by more than business problems. About a year ago, he began returning from work quite late in the evenings and a few times, without previous warning, he didn't return until morning. They'd had some heated discussions about his prolonged absences, but she'd always tried to avoid turning those slight arguments into full-blown fights. The question in the back of her mind that she scarcely was able to ask herself was whether he was involved in something – she couldn't really admit to herself that Kent just might be having an affair with another woman.