For certain it was that moment when Karen climbed on top of her son and took him inside her as they shuddered from the pleasure of tasting forbidden fruit. That was certainly the moment when they went from being mother and son to being lovers.
When they awoke the next morning, their bodies entwined, Karen and Paul were satisfied and remarkably guilt free. Taking a peek outside his bedroom window everything looked just as it should. The sky hadn’t fallen, the earth hadn’t cracked open and swallowed them up, and life went on as before. But they had changed, and the notion that the night before would be a one-off to get the thing out of their systems was forgotten.
Before breakfast they made love again, and in the coming days could hardly keep their hands off one another. They lounged around the house naked, went for a naked midnight swim in the pool, made love in the shower (and pretty much anywhere else that was handy when the mood hit them), and each night fell happily into bed together.
They knew of course that this stage of their new relationship could not last. Life would once again intrude. Paul’s father would return home in a few weeks and they had to work out their behavior and boundaries when around him and others. Karen and Paul became quite adept at concealing the true nature of their relationship to the outside world.
By the end of the summer Paul left for grad school, but it was only 90 minutes away, and he had a nice apartment all to himself, so Karen was able to pay occasional weekend visits and they could freely enjoy one another. She also encouraged Paul to date girls his own age, which he did to the extent his busy schedule allowed.
Since she was still sleeping with her husband, Karen didn’t object if Paul went to bed with these girls; she had no cause to claim exclusive rights to her son. But the emotional and physical intensity they felt when together could not be replicated with others, and they didn’t try. They just accepted and enjoyed it for what it was, something unique and intensely pleasurable.
Karen completed telling her amazing tale and Vanessa sat next to her, dumbfounded. As a show of good faith in her discretion, Vanessa made an aside about her relationship with her own brother, and the women seemed to bond over this shared, but very unusual experience. Karen was the only person aside from Josh and me who knew about Vanessa’s affair with Josh, and now Vanessa and I were the only ones who knew about Paul and Karen. To expose one side was to expose all and they were delicious secrets to keep.
The heat of the day was at its peak and the ladies decided it was time to go in and cool down. Emotionally they were spent from the telling of Karen’s extraordinary tale, but now felt a bond of friendship that seemed unusual for knowing each other such a short time.
As they approached the fork in the path, one lane leading to Karen’s place and the other leading to ours, Karen paused.
“After you’ve changed why don’t you come over for a drink? Paul won’t be home for dinner and we have some Bloody Mary mix in the fridge.”
Vanessa happily agreed.
I was still in the village when Vanessa texted to say she was going over to Karen’s for a while. My imagination ran away with me, thinking Karen and Vanessa might use their time alone for a tryst. I wasn’t yet aware that Karen had been with other women, but I knew V’s history and thought it was possible. After all, Karen was a woman sleeping with her own son. Was there anything not within her grasp?
Vanessa was so excited by the riveting story of Karen and Paul that she thought about fudding herself in the shower, but she was eager to get over to Karen’s place so they could talk some more. Over drinks, Karen probed V for details on her affair with Josh.
Like Brandon and Karen, Vanessa’s parents were well-to-do; the family money was so old no one could remember where it originated. When V was in college her father was semi-retired from the family business so he and his wife traveled a great deal.
During the summer between her junior and senior years, when she was not yet twenty-two, V got it into her mind that older brother Josh would be fun to get in the sack. He was twenty-five at the time and living on his own, but over at the house a lot to keep an eye on things. Turns out he was also keeping an eye on his younger sister.
Before long they realized a strong mutual attraction and decided there wouldn’t be any harm in trying it out. The two kids found their way into bed, thinking, like Karen and Paul originally had, that it was probably a one-time experiment. But they awoke the next morning to an inconceivable secret world all their own.
After a passionate and sex-filled summer, they carried on at intervals for nearly six years, until Josh got married. A few years later, Vanessa met and married me.
Josh and Vanessa never did anything exceptionally kinky, unless you count doing it in their parents’ bed for a sizzling thrill, but they did feel comfortable enough to experiment with all kinds of different positions and they particularly loved to share their fantasies that they knew would never be lived out.
Their relationship was safe and secure, and while neither would concede that they were in love in the traditional sense of the expression, they loved each other deeply as both siblings and lovers. V told Karen that while our married sex life was very satisfying, there was, as she recalled it, something about sex with Josh that just couldn’t be duplicated. And it was more than just the physical chemistry. It was, as Karen put it earlier, the sweetness of the forbidden fruit that heightened the physical sensations beyond imagining.
Regrets? None whatever, Vanessa told Karen. No guilt, no angst, no shame. Simply the happy memories of a mutually beneficial and satisfying relationship. They knew it couldn’t go anywhere. It was carefree fun, and even after it was over they got along beautifully. They effortlessly returned to their platonic roles as brother and sister, but with the added memory of something altogether rare. Although no virgin at the time she started sleeping with Josh, being with him made Vanessa more confident and comfortable in her sexuality, able to express her needs, and very skilled at pleasing a man.
Like Vanessa and Josh, Karen and Paul both knew that their relationship would not last. At some point Paul would naturally settle down with a woman his own age and the affair with his mother would become a happy memory. In the meantime, they were enjoying themselves immeasurably.
Paul’s tremendous sex drive was just what Karen needed at that point in her life, and the safe haven within which they could indulge their taboo appetite was a cocoon against a capricious world. Although when not in bed (or coupling elsewhere), Karen maintained her status as the parent, but when together as lovers Paul showed himself to be a real man in every sense of the word. Because Josh and V were siblings they didn’t have to navigate the treacherous waters of the considerable age gap that existed between Karen and Paul, but the latter couple took care and managed it superbly.