Open-Minds

This time she looked me up and down

"Andy, when I woke, I couldn't wait to get down here again. I did as you asked and I promise to remain sober for as long as we do this."

Her smile dropped from her lips and her eyes sought and focused on mine. It was decision time, for both of us. I held off asking her for a moment, my silent prayer that she would come to her senses was still out there.

"You promised to help me Andy, and I understood your condition." Her focus was fully on me when she said. "But I want you naked as well, Andy."

When I went to protest, she used the one thing she was always good at, logic. Shauna reminded me that since the news of the plane crash, and throughout the flight crew's funerals, we had never been closer. Since this next phase of her life required her to be naked, she needed the man she trusted more than life itself to be right there next to her, and naked as well.

"Don't worry about the boner, Andy. In fact, I would be more insulted if I didn't see one."

I suppose I could see where she was coming from, and it wasn't as if this would be the first time she had seen me naked; second maybe, but I understood what she meant. It was as my arms were pulling my t-shirt over my head that my sister spoke again.

"It's something I've got to do, Andy. I loved Mom so much, but I have to know, to truly know why. I've thought long and hard on this, and since neither are here to explain all this then I have to tread the path they took, to feel what she felt, to place so much trust in one man. For me, that's you, Andy. I never heard Mom use a safe word, so we both know that this wasn't a collar in a slave sense."

Her hand sought mine and held on tight as she looked me directly in the eyes, almost challenging me to prove her wrong.

Then she said. "In every DVD we have watched, not once did either look on the other as slave and master. This had nothing to do with BDSM; Mom was a willing partner, just as Dad was, just as I'm no-one's slave. BUT, I do want you to understand when I say, this body is yours and the laws of this land mean nothing while I wear this."

My sister used the back of her hand to finally wipe away her tears; she looked so intense as she fought over her last words. My tee had hit the floor and my shorts parked themselves right next to it. Her hand came and rested on mine. Shauna needed to emphasize her last words before she followed the same journey our mother had taken.

"Please understand what I just told you, Andrew."

Effectively I had been given a free pass at my own sister. As we both watched each other, I felt her hand wrap around my erection and gently hold onto it. Her hand never moved and for such a long time our eyes never gave each other anything but the love we had always had for each other.

I watched her jaw tighten, the stare as she looked once again around our folks' playroom; it hadn't changed. She nodded once, her hand came away from her thigh and touched the collar for a moment before her hand went back to her thigh; she looked directly at me. Her eyes held so much moisture and her smile held so much mischief. I held her hand and she reluctantly let go of my erection as we closed down our parents' hidden room and went back upstairs.

The anticipation was difficult for Shauna. Her reluctance to let go of my hard-on clearly proved this, but my rule still stood. I wanted my sister stone-cold sober before we even thought of going further. We held each other tightly on the couch when we relaxed during the day and that night; she insisted on us being naked and, judging by the hands-on hips gesture, I suspected it would be easier to agree with her.

*******

The next morning, Shauna helped me finish my inventory. She did so in silence. I hadn't asked her to and wasn't even expecting it. In my mind I was already sorting out rules. We couldn't blindly follow the path our parents traveled. They had been in this lifestyle for years, if the DVDs were anything to go by.

I sent my sister to the kitchen to cook us lunch while I went into Dad's den and checked my e-mails. Already a few tentative approaches from companies, I would have to work my way through those tomorrow.

My sister was waiting for me when I came out of the office. She fidgeted for a moment, and asked if we could sit and talk. The word yes had barely passed my lips when she turned down lunch and made herself comfortable on the couch. I followed and sat next to her. It was still difficult for me to maintain eye contact with her. A naked sister was sure a distraction: a perfectly formed Madonna, but still a distraction.

Shauna waited while I adjusted my position so I could look directly at her. She fidgeted for a moment and then looked at me.

"You cannot make me pregnant, Andrew, unless you wish it, that is. I have injections rather than the Pill, not only as my form of birth control, but to regulate my period."

I nodded my head in acknowledgment and realized just how open this conversation was going to be. She nodded her head alongside mine and then licked her lips before she pulled her lips together while she thought on what else to say.

"Please, Andrew, does this body in its form please you? When we watched the DVDs, we both noticed that Mom had no hair from the neck down. Do want me that way as well?"

Even as my eyes traveled down her body, I could see her legs slowly part to expose her intimate parts and the landing strip on her pubic bone.

"Before, I would grow it out over the winter and cut it back to fit a bathing suit over the summer. This body is yours now, so I guess what I'm asking, since technically this body belongs to you now, is some form of direction."

Her eyes watched me as I processed what she had said.

"What else?"

Shauna noticed that I hadn't answered her original questions. As often as her eyes went to my chest they moved back again; she was clearly in conflict with herself. The moisture came first and then a tear trickled down her cheek before one of her hands left her thigh and her fingertips gently touched my cheek.

"I know the fight that's going on in your head, Andrew, and I don't even have to read you to know this. I love you, baby brother. Honest to God, I do. Please, Andy, you promised. I have to do this and you promised you would help me."

Even as my hand went to hers, she stared back, waiting. I pulled her hand away from my cheek, held it close and kissed her palm before letting go and her hand once again rested on her thigh. With a deep breath, I did what I said I would do.

"From tomorrow you will shave it all off. Any bathing suit you have will be thrown away and bikinis will replace them unless I tell you to go either topless or nude. You will shave every other day in your own time, not mine. So I ask again, what else?"

The flush around her neck crept perilously close to her cheeks, she just couldn't hide the smile that came with it.

"Yes, Andrew."

She paused once more before she continued with this conversation.

"I'm due another implant in six weeks. I suspect this isn't a conversation you want to have, but Mom isn't here anymore, Andy. Neither is that halfwit of an ex-husband, so I need to lean on you as well as my doctor at my next appointment."

"Has this implant you have ever given you any problems since you have been on it?"

Shauna shook her head before she chose to reply.

"I seem to be one of a small percentage who have had difficulty with the Pill. Mom came with me when the doctor and I talked about birth control, and she suggested it. I've been on the implant on the advice of Mom and the doctor, and haven't looked back."

I felt a bit queasy right about then. With us guys there always seems to be a thing about knowing too many details about the woman in front of you, and right about then was mine. It was my own fault. I had asked the question earlier and she felt she had to answer it as honestly as possible.

"Then, since your body is comfortable with the implant, continue with them."

Again, Shauna nodded her head in response to my statement. Her next question seemed to be the one holding onto her voice and refusing to give it sound. This time, I answered her question before my own sister had the ability to ask it.

"You will sleep with me tonight; tomorrow we have a job to do. Our parents are dead. They gave us this house, but we still think they are both going to walk into it at any minute. Tomorrow's task is going to be the saddest for us both. There are boxes and bags in the garage. I will bring them in and tomorrow we will remove all the clothes in our folks' closet. When that is done, we will then move our stuff in and the boxes will go back into the garage for now."

We knew that those boxes wouldn't be in the garage for long. What the charity people could use, they were welcome to. Shauna mouthed a thank you. The days blended into weeks and had now tipped into months since their deaths, and yet we still struggled with that thought.

We had to find a way to move on. We loved our mom and dad so much; even learning of their lifestyle didn't change that. I was hoping that moving us both into the master bedroom and calling it ours would ease the pain and help us turn a page in our lives, so we could start a new chapter.

*******

The next morning came with a certain amount of anxiety and anticipation. This task had to be done by brother and sister. Before we entered the bedroom, I held out my hand and placed it onto my sister's shoulder to stop her, the realization coming to me just in time.

"Shauna, I think it best if you go back to your room and put on a t-shirt and shorts. When you've done that, you need to place your collar on the cabinet next to your bed. I will wait for you here."

Thankfully, it dawned on her as well and she nodded her head as she moved back along the corridor to her own room, coming out a few minutes later with her hand feeling around her neck for her collar and me wondering if she felt naked without it on.

It took us a few days to finally make the main bedroom our own. The emotional drain on us meant we had to stop on more than one occasion and just walk away, be it for a coffee break or to close the door entirely and go back the next day. So many memories lay hidden in that room like booby traps aimed directly at our hearts. Small innocent things, like a photo here or a piece of jewelry there, the tux that Dad wore when we as a family celebrated Shauna's eighteenth at the country club.

Or the dress Mom wore at the country club for my own eighteenth when I stood before her and asked her to dance. The box of tissues got handed back and forth over those days. It was Shauna who found what was an innocent piece of jewelry yet would serve a purpose I had been thinking about for a day or so now, more so when I looked and noticed that before we started on our folks room, my sister wanted to wear that collar all the time.

Easy enough in the house, but it would raise questions neither of us wanted to answer outside the house. It was an ankle bracelet, not a decorative piece. This was a sturdy piece of jewelry made for a purpose, and with style also in mind. Shauna was in the process of putting it into the jewelry box when I spotted it.

"Did you ever see Mom wear that?"

My sister looked closely at it, thought for a moment, and then said no.

"I did, once. Mom was wearing it the day we both went on that camping weekend with the Fitzpatrick's. I thought it odd since it wasn't anything fancy. Just a sturdy looking ankle bracelet. I think mom found a way to control herself when they were outside and couldn't wear her collar."

Suddenly the lights came on in my sister's eyes. "The pants suits, yes of course."

Seeing my confusion, she continued.

"Mom had the most impressive legs and I envied the hell out of her. Have you noticed that a lot of her clothes highlight parts of her body? Let's face it, Andy, Mom had the best-looking legs, ass and tits on any woman we know. I could never figure out the reason she would want to hide her legs in pants suits; it was to hide the ankle bracelet."

Shauna moved the bracelet from hand to hand and then the lights seemed to come on and she looked at me with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.

"Keep the bracelet. When we go shopping or whatever outside the house, then perhaps you can try it out and see if you're comfortable wearing it like she did. You will never wear pants suits and, should you be asked about it, then you or I will explain that it is your memento from Mom."

With a nod of her head, my sister placed the bracelet in the pocket of her shorts and we once again set about the task of making this room our own. When one was full, I moved it down to the garage as Shauna moved her clothes or other items into our folks' bedroom. Then we would work on the next box.

By the time we had done a few boxes and bags, the sun had given up its warmth and all but lost its light as it descended behind the hills just beyond the city limits. We settled on pizza and Shauna had a shower while I went and got it. When I got back, she was wrapped in a bathrobe. I looked twice but made no comment about it. I seemed to be going through so many changes with my sister, either she was totally naked, or when I got used to that, she put clothes on.

As we tucked into pizza, I shared my thoughts with my sister that I had on the way to pick up our evening meal and some of the conclusions I came to on the drive back.

"I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to call our folks' room our own just yet. We need to go shopping tomorrow, so make a note of things like curtains and whatever is required for changing the bed. Mom and Dad had some strange ideas of colors for a bedroom and I can't get used to it."

Shauna nodded her head before saying, "I was thinking the same thing. We only have your clothes to be moved into the other half of the wardrobe after that, as well."

We talked about colors and styles for a while, but it didn't take long for my sister to figure out I was our father in disguise and had no sense of color coordination at all. Shauna followed me into my room since we had been sleeping together for a while now. It was only my clothes that were in this room. Her own room was slowly being dismantled with her clothes and personal items being removed piece by piece to end up in our parents' room anyway.

We both knew it would only be a matter of hours, not days now, before we would stop referring to it as our folks' room. It was as she shed her robe that I noticed that she had made good use of her time in the shower; the landing strip of pubic hair was now gone. After a quick shower, I joined her as she sat up in bed. Her naked form was so familiar to me, yet I still went from soft to firm before I made a conscious effort to keep junior down.

*******

Once dressed, we both decided that breakfast at the mall and then shopping would break the back of the chores we had for the day. As the list of items on Shauna's pad got crossed off and when the bulk of stuff became too much to carry, I would head back to the car, I would load it all in the trunk and meet up again at another store. I also had an ulterior motive for letting my sister know what shops I would meet her at, and it was only when we stopped for coffee outside the last shop that I held Shauna's hand.

The quizzical look was priceless. The color change around her neck as I placed the ankle chain in her hand and told her to put it on was well worth the wait. The look in her eyes as she sat back up again let me know that the adventurous part of her was staring back at me. It was time to set her another challenge.

"The shop behind you is the last on our list of shops. Let's go."

She gave a slight gasp as she stood and turned to see that the shop behind her sold swimwear. Shauna followed as I wandered around the shop totally ignoring the one-piece suits and spending a great deal of time looking at the bikini line. Over the next half an hour, she tried on four that I liked. One I discarded as just not her when she came out and gave me a show. It was when I handed her the last one, she knew I was serious. With the bottoms in her hand, she waited for me to hand her the top, I held onto it.

"When you show me what the bottoms are like on you, I will decide if the top is worth putting on."

That redness climbed her neck and enveloped her cheeks. She looked once more at what she had in her hand and the other half I held in mine before she nodded once. The words "Okay, just remember you asked me to," were barely a whisper as she turned and went back into the changing room.

Considering she only had to remove one bikini and replace it with the bottom half of another, she sure took her time doing both. Her hand held the curtain for some time and I used those moments to do a quick check around the store. With it now being the middle of the afternoon, the office/work crowd were gone, moms were gearing up to head for schools, so that left those few who were career non-workers that were exiting the shop and from my quick scan of the shop, the last of those was already at the till and being handed her purchase before heading out the door.

Although my sister couldn't see it from her position in the changing room, now would be the perfect time to turn things up since the only people now in the shop were the two of us and the shop assistant who had pointed us to this end of the shop when I asked where the bikinis were kept.

Shauna pulled the curtain back and walked out to stand ing front of me topless. Her nipples betrayed the look of fear she had. Her own body was enjoying this a heck of a lot more than she was. I motioned her to turn so I could see the back, just as I watched the store girl start to walk over.

As Shauna finished her turn, I handed her the top and she was in her bikini by the time the store girl got to us.

"Excuse me, sir, we do have security cameras recording in this store and I understand we only sell swimwear, but please keep it decent. Your girlfriend has a hot body, by the way, but the store policy does clearly state..." By this time, she was pointing at the notice by the curtain and one inside the changing room. "Is that all women are covered when they come out of the changing rooms."

Shauna was crimson by now but stood still while the store girl and I talked around her.

"Thank you, but I'm trying to decide if the bottoms are complimenting her ass or hiding it."

This time Cathy - the name on the badge she wore - looked my sister up and down, then went behind her to look more closely at Shauna's ass.

"Ma'am are you okay with me touching you?"

I nodded at Shauna and she in turn said yes. Her voice seemed strained and I found myself having to hide my smile.

Cathy's hand went onto my sister's shoulder and she did something behind her causing her eyes to widen in surprise, the crimson color returned with a vengeance.

"Yes, I see your point. Let me get another bikini. I think we can sort that out, what color by the way?"

We settled on the same or as close to the same color she already had on. As Cathy started to walk past, she glanced down and noticed the wet patch on the bikini bottoms Shauna was still wearing.

"You do understand that your girlfriend has soiled those, so you will have to pay for them?"

I held out the three sets I already had, so another set didn't bother me in the least. Cathy shrugged and came back within minutes and handed my sister another bikini. Shauna thanked her and walked back into the changing cubical.

She took another breath. "I'm sorry for your loss." My look of surprise was genuine just as I knew her words were. "I read about it in the paper and was saddened to hear how it happened."

"You should check your late mom's closet. All her swimwear was bought from here. I liked your folks and was ever so sorry to hear about the accident. I've kept up with events via the scandal sheets as best I could. My partner designed and made the ankle bracelet your girlfriend is wearing. When I saw that I knew who you were."