Raymond Travis - The seductive sister-in-law

She pressed her head back into the pillow and her green eyes blinked painfully through the sunlight at the ceiling. She wasn't so sure now that she wanted to wake up. Not if it meant facing the sad worrisome thoughts that were already lumbering through her heavy stupor. She turned on her side, a sense of anger growing in her chest, and once again studied her husband's methodically heaving back.

A deeper fear underlay her irritability. Where was Kent last night? The question throbbed persistently through her brain. Kent's new job at IHT Marketing was a demanding one and his ability to meet its challenges had brought them worldly success. But IHT just didn't require that its men work 'til three of four in the morning. She knew he was being unfaithful to her! She was sure! But she couldn't ask him, and she continued to watch his deeply breathing back, her anger mounting as he slept peacefully while she worried. She felt like digging her nails into his tanned skin until he woke up with a loud scream of pain. But instead, trembling with fury, she rolled over and drew herself slowly up on the bed.

She sat on the edge of the bed, still groggy with sleep, and slid her feet into white satin slippers and pulled her robe over her shoulders without putting her arms in the sleeves. She hesitated a moment, trying to decide whether she should shower now or later. Outside the window the Clark kids, home from school on a Saturday morning, were riding their bikes up and down the driveway and it looked to be about nine o'clock.

What was the window doing open in the middle of the summer? she wondered with suspicion.

Suddenly the events of the previous evening… the overheard debauchery between Bob, her brother-in-law, and Shirley, his new young wife, after she had turned off the air-conditioning, her own disgusting fingering of her vagina… came back to her with all the painful abruptness of an electric shock, filling her brain with an overwhelming shame and humiliation, and she raced to the window and slammed the frame closed with a loud force that seemed to reverberate through the entire house, causing Kent to mumble and pull the pillow over his head. He had been so intoxicated he hadn't even noticed the air-conditioning was off, she thought with a feeling of dismay. But her own degeneracy was much worse, almost unspeakable, she shuddered. She stepped to the window and drew the heavy drapes closed with a jerk, enveloping the room in darkness, then dressed as quickly as she could and hurried to the kitchen with tears brimming her eyes.

"Oh!" she started as she walked into the kitchen to find Bob drinking a cup of coffee over the sink.

"Good morning, sister-in-law," he choked in surprise, then turned and leaned his back against the sink. His eyes glittered with amusement above the cup as he took another sip of coffee.

"Oh… I thought everyone was still sleeping," Betty said in an embarrassed rush.

"Not me," he finished off the coffee and set the cup and saucer in the sink. "I'm going to paint my new apartment."

He smiled at her, and once again Betty experienced the strange feeling of being ill at ease in familiar territory, this time her own kitchen. She couldn't for the life of her remember what she had intended to do when she rushed into the room. She looked at her handsome brother-in-law: yes, he was dressed in old jeans and a sweatshirt suitable for painting. She knew she looked flustered and she moved quickly to the stove, but his eyes followed her. She could feel them traveling a slow burning path up her firmly molded thighs and the smoothly rounded outline of her buttocks as she stood facing the stove, and a blush began tingling warmly along her hairline.

"You know, you look awfully good," he laughed warmly behind her. "Maybe too good for a sister-in-law."

Betty reached for a copper pot and headed for the sink. "Thank you," she said in a thin dry voice that sounded cold even to her. "You look well also. And Shirley is a real beauty."

She came to a start in front of the sink hoping he hadn't caught the unconscious sarcasm in her voice. God, what was the matter with her? Everything seemed to be falling apart and she was losing control of her own emotions. "She has lovely hair," she tried to add in a more enthusiastic tone. "She's so tiny. She reminds me of a little doll."

God, there it was again, that ugly note of bitterness and resentment, she thought guiltily, and poured just enough water from the tap for a cup of coffee. Yes, what she needed now was a cup of coffee, and at this rate it would have to be "instant", or she would break out in helpless crying. But he didn't seem to notice at all. She wouldn't look at him, but she could hear him open a cupboard door on the other side of the kitchen, taking out a cup and saucer for her.

"Yup," he said goodnaturedly enough. "I'm already going crazy over the idea of being alone with two lovely young women in the house."

"Well, you're not alone," Betty said in a more confident voice and leaned against the stove, smiling at him for the first time.

"Kent?" he said and shrugged his shoulders. "I heard what time he came in this morning. That's no competition."

"I'm sure he thinks he is," Betty blurted out. Then the flood of tears she had been holding back all morning broke through as though a wall had given on a dike. In one quick moment, Bob had crossed the room and wrapped his arms around her heaving shoulders. She pulled away at first, but the touch of his hand sympathetically patting her blonde hair sent her into renewed bursts of sobbing. She didn't know what had gotten hold of her but she still felt uneasy with him pressing his warm body close to hers.

"I-I don't think you're such a nice person as you used to be, Bob," she choked. "Or you wouldn't joke so lightly about such things… and you wouldn't criticize your brother."

"Oh, gosh, Betty, I'm sorry," he said, and stroked her shoulder. "You know I admire Kent more than anyone in the world. He's my ideal. And I wouldn't hurt you for anything… I know I seem different, and in some ways I have changed. But that doesn't change anything between us. Remember those days when we were back in college and you'd tell me all your problems and I'd tell you mine?"

"Yes," Betty smiled wanly as Bob lifted her chin in his hand. A faint glimmer shown behind her long wettened eyelashes as she did remember. "Well, what is your advice now?"

"It's not that easy to explain. I mean, we are young people, and we have to be influenced by modern ideas."

"I'm not sure what you're getting at," she said curiously. Bob was always the more reflective of the two brothers, and he had a way of putting things that was often quite obscure. "Are you suggesting that I'm a bit old fashioned?"

"No," he said flatly. "You aren't old fashioned, but perhaps some of your values about marriage that you've been saddled with are."

She looked petulantly across at him and said: "Bob, I still don't follow you exactly. You put things too abstractly sometimes, I think."

"Don't take things so seriously," he said in an even concerned voice. "All I'm trying to say is you've got everything in the world. Relax and enjoy it."

"You take your advice not to be serious awfully seriously," Betty giggled suddenly.

"I guess I do!" he agreed and smiled, and she stepped away.

Still laughing, Betty walked over to the kitchen sink and turned on the tap, splashing her face with icy cold water. Behind her, she heard Bob open the refrigerator, then a loud clicking as he popped some bread in the toaster. She dried off her face and hands with paper towels and turned from the sink. "OK, I will try to enjoy life," she repeated and giggled again.

"And if you get tired of enjoying things by yourself, remember you've got a damn good-looking brother-in-law that would be more than willing to help you out."