Chapter 19: Margi

Whatever tension there had been the previous day between Jean and me was quickly dissipated in a day of glorious diving on the Wall at Little Cayman. Our group was uncharacteristically small. Margi, of course was our Dive Master. Ian and Jan joined us and that was it, just us five while Gladys' other guests choose to take the day off.

Margi said she'd like to dive with us and asked if we might stay well within a safe profile, for she wanted Ian and Jan to stay closer to her. My selfish desire to not be encumbered with less experienced divers was far outweighed by the fun of having Margi along to point out those fascinating sights visible only to the knowledgeable. By the end of the day, we returned in high spirits, laughing and affectionately kidding each other.

"God! Don't you two BREATHE down there?" Jan asked on the trip back.

Jean answered, "Sure we do, but not as often I guess."

Jan protested, "I don't see how you do it. I get a little short of breath just with the excitement of it all. And then there's the work of the sport... "

"If you're working at it, you're not doing it right. It can be almost effortless and if you're not working hard, then you're not using up a lot of air."

They fell into a conversation with Jean explaining that they both carried far too much weight. Soon their conversation had become a distant buzz. I'd tuned out.

A hand touched my shoulder and I turned to smile at Margi.

"How's it feel to be back, Billy?"

"I can't tell you how alive I feel. It's somewhere between wonderful and unbelievable"

"Jean told me that you thought I was a snot."

I was embarrassed. "Well, 'snot' wasn't exactly the expression."

"Stuck up? Indifferent?"

I couldn't see her eyes behind her sunglasses, but that she might see me better, I lifted my glasses as I spoke to her. "First, I'm sorry. I apologize. I had no right to expect anything special. You've always been friendly and fair with me."

Margi reached out and touched my arm. "No, no... please don't think of this as a complaint or a confrontation. It's just that I want us to be friends and I don't wanna appear stuck-up."

I still had a lot of questions about her last year's behavior, but in the spirit of cooperation, I extended my hand and said, "Let's do be friends." I wondered if I sounded as stiff as I felt?

She ignored my hand and grabbed me behind the neck, pulling us together for a quick kiss on the lips. "It's a deal."

A deal? Now I had a deal with two women, I thought to myself, but certainly different deals. The earlier deal with Jean had to do with sexuality. This one with Margi had to do only with being friends... or so I thought.

Back at Pirate's Pub as we were washing our gear, Margi proposed getting together that night after dinner to listen to a few new CD's she had recently purchased. "I know you've heard "Enigma" but I've only caught a few cuts on the radio back home. I'd love to hear all of it with you two guys."

I'd been thinking how Jean and I might spend a little time together but when she replied to Margi with warm enthusiasm, I put that expectation aside for the moment. And if I was entertaining any remote hopes of getting to know Margi better - you know, as in making out - it'd have to be another day. Oh well. <sigh>

Sure enough, right after an extraordinary meal from Gladys, Margi came over to our table and said, "We still on?"

Jean glanced at me and then without waiting, said, "You bet! I'm looking forward to it. Aren't you, Billy?"

"Sure am," I replied with all the confidence of a man who has no idea just what he's looking forward to. If nothing else, I was willing to let things unfold without my direction.

"Cool! I'll get some CD's from my room and come right over to yours, OK?"

"See you there," Jean called to Margi's retreating back, then turned to me and asked, "Ready?"

"Uh... I'm ready to go back. Is there somethin' else I should be ready for?"

Jean gave me a funny smile and said, "What do you mean?"

"Nothin' I guess," I answered, getting up from the table, still with the faint notion that there was something I was missing. But then, that wasn't a new feeling. There were times when I thought that if an instruction book had been passed out on 'How to do Life, ' I'd missed it.

It'd cooled off a little after sunset but the oscillating fans still created a downdraft of sweet, cooling air and I sprawled out under one, arms out thrown.

"I'm going to take another shower," said Jean. "If Margi gets here before I'm done, entertain her, okay?"

I could hear her humming some tune in the bathroom through the open door. A moment later, her clothes came flying out the doorway, piece by piece, landing in a disordered heap by her bed, panties last and on top of the pile.

If I got up and peered around the corner, I'd likely catch her nude, I thought and then smiled to myself. We'd grown increasingly casual about dressing and undressing in front of each other, but I still thought in terms of trying to peek at her. There seemed to be something naughty and delicious about peeking. If I called her, she'd probably walk out nude, but it just wouldn't be the same. Maybe I needed to get away with something. I was pondering that when I heard Margi's voice outside the screen.

"Hi, Billy. Can I come in?"

"Sure, come on in, but I'm not dressed for company." I suppose I offered that as an excuse for wearing nothing more than the shorts I'd left on.

"You naked?" she asked with a little excitement in her voice.

"Nope. Got shorts on."

"Darn," she said as she walked through the door. "Thought I'd get even for you gawking at my boobs last year."

"Margi, if it'd be an acceptable exchange - my being naked for the chance to look at your boobs - why I'll take 'em off right now!"

She laughed but didn't reply to that. Instead, she asked, "Where's Jean?"

I cocked my head toward the bathroom door and almost on cue, the shower started. "She's freshening up."

"I think it's really neat that you guys are so open and comfortable with each other that you share a room this way. I wish I had a brother like you."

Gesturing toward the pile of discarded clothes on the floor, I said, "Jean's not exactly a neat freak as you can see."

"Wait'll you see my room," Margi replied, rolling her eyes.

I caught that she didn't say, 'If you could see my room.'

"Let me ask you something, Billy. I mean, it's kinda personal. You mind?"

I shrugged. "Don't know. Guess you'll have to ask and find out. If it is, I'll tell you, okay?"

"Well, it's like this. I'm a girl and I'm aware of what guys do, especially around other girls. Good lookin' girls, I mean."

I nodded. So far, I understood the words by not the direction. "Yeah?"

She wasn't making eye contact with me and I thought her cheeks were a bit pink. Was she embarrassed about something?

"Uh... yeah. It's like they're always, uh... checkin' 'em out, you know?"

I shook my head to indicate that I didn't know.

"YOU know," she protested, "Like they're always looking at their figures and all."

"So? I do that all the time."

"But your sister?"

"Why not?" I asked. "Don't you think she's good lookin'? I sure

do."

"Well... sure... but... I mean, doesn't it sometimes 'bother' you that she's so good lookin' and you two are so close and all?"

"Margi, you think I'm gay or somethin'?"

"God, NO!" she almost shouted and then blushing, added in a quieter voice, "No, not you. That's not what I mean. I mean, you're all guy and she's a... a really sexy girl and all. Don't that bother you?"

I was beginning to catch her drift. "I think I see where you're going with this. You're wondering how I can travel with Jean and be so physically close to her and not be... excited? As that it?"

Nodding, she answered, "Yeah, somethin' like that."

In an unusual and unbidden action, I walked over and picked up Jean's panties from the pile of clothes and held them to my face a moment before chucking them into her lap. "Things like this you mean?"

Margi gasped, literally gasped and stared at me with round yes.

Jean's voice sang out from the bathroom over the sound of the shower, "Margi, he trying to embarrass you with my panties?" She laughed. Margi was holding Jean's panties and looked confused.

Jean continued, "He did that with me a few years ago. Don't let him get to you."

I jacked my thumb toward the bathroom and rolled my eyes, then I said, "We tease each other a lot."

Holding up the panties, Margi asked, "Like this?"

"The first time he did it, he held them up to his nose and smelled them!" Jean stood in the bathroom door, a towel wrapped around her body and one on her head, her face shiny and beaded with water as she smiled at us.

"Smelled them?" Margi asked, eyes wide with astonishment. Then turning to me, she asked, "Did you really?"

By this time my face was burning. Jean and I were frank with each other and save our little talk with Mom, we'd not come out of the closet about our mutual attraction to each other. Where was Jean going with this?

Attempting to put on a bold face, I said, "Yes. Really. I guess it's the pheromones."

"Fero... ?"

Jean chimed in, "The scent of a woman's sex that appeals to a man, that turns him on. You know, Margi. You've smelled yourself, I'm sure."

By this time, Margi was as red as I was and with Jean's accusation that she had a sexy odor, she began to fidget, looking back and forth between us and then at the panties she still held, perhaps wondering how's she'd get out of this. She was probably used to guys hitting on her, perhaps even girls, but she hadn't ever encountered a situation quite like this, I was sure.

"No... well... sure, doesn't everyone... but who... I mean yuck, who wants to smell that?"

"Billy does," Jean offered, sitting on the bed and drying her hair. With her arms up, the tops of her breasts were pulled out of the towel a tantalizing bit. I watched, fascinated, wondering what the hell kept the towel up anyway?

Margi looked at me as if to ask again, really?

"Sure he does. Most guys do, don't they Billy?"

Jean was dragging me into this loaded conversation, like it or not.

"I can't talk for 'most guys, ' but it's true. There's something powerfully attractive about the feminine odor. More than attractive, it's exciting. Maybe I'm a perv. I don't give a shit. I love it." I finished that declaration in a rush.

"I don't know... I mean, I was always so embarrassed... " Margi started.

"Yeah, me too," Jean piped in, "but my stud muffin brother here gave me a different view of it."

I was watching the towel slip by millimeters, hopefully waiting and not certain whether to be proud or embarrassed by Jean's disclosure.

"That's what we were talkin' about," Margi jumped in, "I never knew anybody like you two... I mean... brother and sister... and so close. You know?"

"Let me ask you something, Margi?"

Margi looked up at Jean and nodded. I thought I could see Jean's areola peeking from the top of the bath towel.

"Do you think Billy's a sexy hunk?"

Christ, I wished they'd stop talking about me in the third person... like I wasn't even there!

Margi slid a glance in my direction and then idly wrapping Jean panties around her finger, blushed and nodded.

"Well, so do I," Jean declared. "Because he's my brother doesn't change that." She hitched the towel up an inch or so and continued, "He's also my best friend. I'd trust him with my life and I think he feels the same way. There's nothing... well, almost nothing... that I can't talk with him about. We share are feelings, Margi... our deepest feelings and I know he'll never judge me. We LIKE each other. Does that make sense to you?"

Margi was looking unfocused at the window, seeming to contemplate her thoughts. "Yeah... it makes sense... it's just that... "

"Just what, Margi?"

"Well, I don't know... I mean, I never had a connection with anyone like that. Someone I could trust, I mean. Someone who wouldn't take advantage of me, I guess."

"We are lucky, aren't we, Billy?"

More at ease now, I could smile and say, "A professor of mine often says, 'It's better to be lucky than good.'"

Jean rubbed her hair vigorously and the towel dropped into her lap, her full breasts bouncing, the nipples erect.

Margi gasped. I stared.

Jean looked down, laughed and said, "Oh screw it."

It was silent for a few moments as we all were acutely aware of this fork in the road. Jean had upped the ante. Now it was in our laps.

I ran with it. "Don't you think Jean has beautiful tits, Margi?"

Margi appeared to be reeling from one emotional blow to another, stunned, not knowing whether to run or stay. She asked Jean, "Doesn't that bother you? Billy looking, I mean?"

"It woulda a couple of years ago," she answered, mimicking Margi's pronunciation a little, "but now it doesn't. In fact, I like it!"

"But it seems so... so sexual, don't you think?"

"I hope so!" Jean replied with a chuckle. "That's some of the fun of it. Oh, there's a real comfort in not being tied up in false modesty, but above that, there's a sweet charge that we admire each other."

"It sounds like... I mean, I've always been so shocked at the idea of... "

"Incest?" Jean asked, cutting to the chase.

Margi again looked at the floor and made a ball of Jean's panties. "I wasn't going to call it that," she protested, "but SOMEthing like that I guess."

"Would it make you feel any better if I told you that Billy and I don't fuck?"

Jean almost never used the "F" word with me. I was startled to hear it come out so easily.

Margi became beet red and sputtered in her confusion, "I didn't think... I mean... "

"Bullshit!" Jean said with a large smile. "You see Billy and I sharing a room, me half-naked in front of him, admitting that he turns me on... you you're telling me you didn't think... ?"

It was getting too warm for me, despite the fact that we were talking about my favorite subject, me. I fell back on what I did so well. I ran. "You girls can continue this chat. I'm going to take a shower." They hardly looked up.

Retreating into the bathroom, I stripped, and copying Jean's actions, I threw my shorts and briefs out the door as if to say, "Here's MY underpants, girls." Brave, huh?

I strained to hear what they might be saying, but their voices were reduced to a muted murmur, so I gave up and jumped into the shower. Starting out hot and then finishing up with a cold shower, I felt physically renewed. As often happened, I'd sprouted a woody in the shower, perhaps because I so religiously washed it. So, drying off I took my time, waiting for the boner to subside.

In the periphery of my vision, I saw motion out the bathroom doorway. Looking that way, I saw that a dresser mirror gave me a view into the room and the movement I'd noted was Jean and Margi. Jean was holding up a bikini top, apparently offering it to our guest. She'd lost the towel and was wearing only a pair of panties, while Margi was still wearing her shorts and a T-shirt.

I froze, aware that I'd walked into a scene. I couldn't hear all the words, just a few here and there. Margi, who's back was to the mirror, was facing away from me while Jean offered a frontal view. Margi was shaking her head and Jean said something like, "... he's in the bathroom." She pushed the bikini top to Margi again who apparently needed just that much coaxing, for she said something and then pulled her T-shirt off. I was right. No bra. I could see her bare back and the side of one breast as she accepted the top from Jean.

As Margi was looking down, adjusting the front of the bathing suit top, I glanced at Jean and found her looking right into my eyes! She knew! Before I could move, she looked back and Margi and made some minute adjustment and then picked up the bottom of the suit and said, "Here, try this."

Margi glanced at the bathroom door. Had she looked in the mirror, she'd have seen me, but she didn't. I turned on the faucet in the sink and began making noises as if I were occupied, still watching the scene unfold in the mirror.

Again, making up her mind, Margi quickly skinned out of her shorts and panties and for a moment, I saw her bare ass. That might be her best feature, I thought. It was like Jean's. She had a narrow waist and jutting buttocks that were made more striking for their whiteness atop her tanned thighs. As she stepped into the bikini bottom, I had a too brief view of her pussy through her legs. Her lips appeared to be shaven and they were wonderfully prominent as she bent over.

I looked again at Jean who surreptitiously motioned to me to come out. Jean appeared to have a plan and was in control. I didn't ponder the decision. Instead, I wrapped a towel around my waist and stepped into the room. "Nice!" I commented, staring at Margi.

They both faced me as one and Jean asked, "So, what do you think, Billy? How's Margi look in something more glamorous?" As she said this, Jean pulled the bikini bottoms from the back as if to 'adjust' them but what it really served was to pull them into Margi's crotch all the snugger.

Pointedly staring at the outline of her feminine slit, I leered and said, "Glamorous indeed."

To my surprise, Margi didn't protest Jean's blatant actions. Instead, she pointed at my crotch and said, "No one had to pull your towel tight, did they?"

In the excitement of the moment, I'd forgotten my woody. I didn't have to look down to know it was making a prominent and unmistakable tent in the towel. At this point, I didn't care. Actually, I was feeling a bit proud of myself and said something like, "Well, it's you guys' fault!"

Jean, clearly the instigator in this play, kept things alive by pulling the string tie of Margi's top with one hand and snatching it off her body with the other, completely baring her pert tits. "There! Now we're even." Jean laughed and threw the bikini top to me.

Margi tried to cover her breasts for a moment and then gave up in laughter. I was mesmerized by the two sets of tits in front of me. Jean's were larger and mostly tanned while Margi's were a bit smaller but with larger nipples and paradoxically, very white. It was clear that her tits and her ass didn't see the sun very often.