Chapter 4: We Try To Solve The Rumour Mill Problem

Despite our fear of what the rumour mill could do to us, it took our friends just a few days to defuse the situation, and by the time exams rolled around, it was almost a forgotten issue. Our secret was still relatively safe, although the number of people that knew about it had doubled. But because we shared similar backgrounds, that first meeting Beckie Sommers suggested became the foundation of strong friendships that have lasted several decades.

It was the week before Christmas, and we were finishing exams. My sister, Tandra, was still writing her English Composition final, leaving me to wait for her at home. I'd promised that we'd take Bill, Cassie, Beckie, and Tanya down to The Fox to celebrate that night. Sitting on our sofa and letting the tensions of the last three weeks slowly seep out of my body, I must have fallen asleep.

"Keith? Keith," a soft voice called to me as I slept. But it wasn't Tandra, and I didn't immediately recognize the voice. I struggled to pull myself out of the comforting arms of sleep to answer.

"Huh? What? Who?" I muttered as my eyes refused to open or focus.

"Keith! It's me. Cassie. Wake up, would you?"

"Huh? How'd you get in here? I thought I locked the door," I mumbled as my body fought my grogginess.

"Same way I got in last time. I talked to the building manager. But I've got something here that you'll need," she whispered as though she was afraid of being overheard.

"What's so important that you have to break in while I'm sleeping?" I questioned her.

"This", and she waved a manilla envelope in front of my fuzzy eyes.

"What is it?"

"Your marriage certificate. I have a friend at school that works in the government offices part time. She got it for me.'

"Umm, couldn't this have waited until later?" What she was waving at me might have been a good idea, but it wasn't earth-shatteringly important, or so I believed.

"The rumour mill's going again, Tanya says, and we have a bad feeling that you'll need this to get a couple of busy-bodies off your ass. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, it's legitimate. Officially, you and Tandra are man and wife, at least in this state."

"What?!" I exclaimed, not believing what I was hearing.

"Your names are on this document, and it's registered. Don't ask how or why, because you don't want to know. The only way you and Tandra can legally split up is to get a divorce — and I'll be really old and grey before that happens. I know you, Keith Hayes, and I know your ... your wife. You two will be together until death do you part."

I was in complete shock. How Cassie had pulled this one off was beyond me. More important, though, was why she'd gone to such lengths.

"Why, Cassie? Why'd you go to all this trouble?" I needed to know from her.

"Probably because after that meeting we all had, I began to realize that you two were meant to be together. That's been bouncing around in my head for the last two weeks. Now that you're legal, maybe you won't have to hide it any more. The fact that I love both of you might have something to do with it, too, but don't tell your sister. Knowing Tandra, she'll have a swollen head for months!"

"Cassie, I don't know what to say. I mean, someone really stuck their ass out if this is what you say it is. But what if Tandra doesn't go for it? What then? Do we really have to get a divorce? You know how I feel about those things."

There were a lot of words in the English language that didn't thrill me. Divorce was way up there on that list. But I still had no idea why Cassie had found it necessary to have the manager let her in. As I was about to ask for the second time, I heard Tandra slipping her key into the lock. For some reason, her finding Cassie and me together like this might have some disastrous consequences.

"Cassie? What's going on here?" Tandra demanded, her voice on the verge of angry panic.

"Relax, Mrs. Hayes. I'm not here to ravish your husband, or steal him away. But the rumour mill is wound up again, and you two are part of its fodder. So I brought something over to shut it up."

"What? What did you bring?" Tandra's curiosity kicked in. "And what's this Mrs. stuff?"

"According to this, Sis, we're married. Cassie tells me that it's a registered, legal license," I tried to explain. Tandra just stood there in shock, her face almost blank except for those raised and unbelieving eyebrows she sported.

"We're ... married?" she finally managed to find her voice. "How? I mean, is that even possible?"

"Technically, no," Cassie answered, "but this is as close as we can get you guys to it. About all that you'll be missing is a wedding ring, and I think your brother can fix that easily enough. But I snuck over here to drop this off, and to explain the whole thing, so you'd have something to cover your asses if you get asked tonight. The way Bill heard it, there are a couple of clowns that have it in mind to challenge the rumour Tanya and Beckie started. There are still several people that keep asking them if you two really are married, and if you can prove it. Just be ready for them if it comes to a showdown, okay?"

"What if I don't want to be married? Not that being Keith's wife is going to break my heart, but it would have been nice to have been asked me before the fact, instead of after, don't you think?"

"We've got until three o'clock tomorrow to cancel this thing, if that's what you want," Cassie supplied.

"Not on your life!" Tandra was adamant. "I just think it would be nice to be asked first, that's all."

"Tandra Hayes," I struggled off the sofa and onto my knees, " would you marry me?"

My sister just stared at me as if in a trance, then ran over to where I knelt, dropped down on her knees, and hugged the stuffing out of me.

"Keith Hayes, I'd love to be your wife!" she squealed with unbridled enthusiasm. Then she grabbed the envelope out of Cassie's hands and pulled the certificate out, almost leaving water marks on it as tears of joy ran down her cheeks.

"Umm, Cassie? Would you excuse us? It looks like we have a marriage to consummate, and that's not something I really want to share with anyone but my wife," I happily teased my ex-girlfriend. "I owe you for this, you know," I added, "but can it wait until after the honeymoon?"

"Maybe," she smiled as she teased both of us. "Luckily for you, Bill's downstairs waiting for me, or I'd stick around just to piss you off. He wanted to come in too, but I thought it might tip off the manager. We'll catch up with you two later tonight at The Fox. Oh, and by the way? Congratulations, from both of us."

For the first time in many months, I had a burning desire to hug and kiss my ex-girlfriend for all she'd done, and I would have too, except that my sister beat me to it. Well, the hugging part. I kissed Cassie twice, once for each of us. They weren't the same passionate kisses we'd shared in high school, but they were warm and heartfelt.

"I guess we have a marriage to consummate, don't we?" I teased Tandra once Cassie was gone.

"According to this, you should have done that back on August 30^th," she read off the certificate. "Either you do it now, or I'm going for an annulment."

With that challenge before me, I chased my sister into our bedroom, with her squealing with glee the whole way. But once in our room, the mood suddenly changed, and she literally pulled me off my feet and onto the bed. She landed on her back and me on my stomach beside her. Those dreamy eyes of hers just grabbed my heartstrings and tugged for all they were worth. Our lips met, our tongues danced, and our hearts soared.

"Kiss me some more, you fool," Tandra's combination tease and plea greeted me as we broke for air. She pressed her lips to mine again, giving me the taste of her that I couldn't resist any more than I could fly.

"What did you think I was doing?" I teased her right back as we stopped for another breather. "Making chicken gumbo, maybe?"

Tandra shut me up as she pulled me to her lips once more, our passion growing in leaps and bounds. We'd developed a bit of a routine whenever we made love, although I was bound and determined to vary it on this special occasion, the first day of our unofficial marriage. Pulling myself up onto my knees, I grabbed her ankle and gently began nibbling on her toes, then ran my tongue lightly along the length of the sole of her foot.

"Keith, I'm ticklish there, and you damn-well know it!" Tandra exclaimed, although she never made a move to pull her foot away.

Slowly and sensuously, I began to kiss my way up her leg until I reached that sensitive spot behind her knee, then moved to her other foot and repeated my assault. Once I'd gotten to the back of her other knee, poor Tandra was beside herself, and her aroma wafted through the air as it called me to her centre. I continued to kiss my way up her inside thigh until I was less than an inch from her pussy. By-passing her sex, I continued up her body, planting kisses over her stomach and midriff, then between her breasts as I sought her lips one more time.

"God, you're a fucking tease today, aren't you?" she almost begged me for more attention, especially for those rock-hard nipples that she loved to have suckled. I went straight for her lips, tickling her lower lip with the tip of my tongue before running it around the inside of her ear.

"Asshole! You know what that does to me," she moaned as her desire burst like a heated flame inside her.

"This may be the only chance I get to have the last word before you start nagging me," I murmured softly into that one ear. "I have all intentions of making it count."

"If I told you that I love you, would it stop you from tormenting me like this?" Tandra moaned.

"I have no idea," I whispered to her. "Try it, and we'll see what happens."

"O-h-h-h-h god! I love you, you cunt tease, you!" my sister howled in her frustration. "This is no way to treat your wife, you know. Dammit, Keith, you've got me so wet, we'll need two showers when I'm finished with you!"

"I love you too, Sis ... but it's not working. I'm still in a mood to tease the hell out of you," I pushed my advantage to the limits.

With an unexpected burst of energy, Tandra rolled me over onto my back, then straddled me as she threatened to take me whether I wanted her to or not.

"I should suffocate you with a boob!" she snarled lovingly. "Would that get your mind back on what you're supposed to be doing?"

"If you snuff me out with your tit, there's not much chance that I'd be any good to you afterwards, is there?"

"You're not much good to me now. What the hell do I have to lose?"

"I don't know, Mrs. Hayes. How you're going to make love to a smelly, rotting corpse is something I can't quite get my head wrapped around," I pushed that envelope just a little harder.

"Argh!" she threw her head back and screamed at the ceiling. "What the hell am I supposed to do with you, Mr. Hayes? Rape you, maybe?"

With that, Tandra reached between her legs and held my cock as though about to aim me at her opening, accompanied by the threat that she'd take me whether I objected or not. I pulled her forward, taking one nipple between my lips and tormenting it as my hand caressed her other breast, its nipple captured between my thumb and forefinger. Slowly and gently, I began to twist and tease it, then pulled it until the skin of her areola prevented further movement without causing pain.

"M-m-m-m-m!" she hummed with pleasured tones. "I love it when you do that," she let me know, "but I just may suck your cock until you're almost ready to cum, then leave you to suffer as badly as you're doing to me. The only thing saving your ass is how good that feels on my tits. Suck them, Keith. Suck my tits until you make me cum for you!"

I answered her by sucking and nibbling on her teats, then lightly nipping them between my teeth. My hands ran over the delicious curves of her firm ass, with one finger tracing the depths of the crease between them. As I neared her puckered rosebud, Tandra would instinctively lift her hips so that I might tickle her rear entrance. With each touch there, she groaned in anticipatory desire, and her pelvis moved a little further down my belly. I could feel her heat and want as the tip of my cock neared her entrance. When she felt me pressing against her pink inner lips, Tandra almost shoved herself down the entire length of my shaft as she claimed my body for her own.

"Oh! God! Yes!" she howled as I felt her silky walls grasping and clutching at my manhood. "Keith, you just feel so good, filling me up like this. I want you, big brother, so badly! Now that I have you inside me, I'm going to fuck you until you really fill me up! I want to cum for you, lover," she vowed, then changed her mind. "No, not true. I want to cum with you!"

Slowly at first, then with increasing rhythm, Tandra began to rock her hips as she slid her pussy up and down on me. She had been lightly supporting herself on straightened arms, her back arched so that she could gaze into my eyes as she made passionate love to me. But once her pace had become faster, she let herself down so that she could kiss me hard and deep, holding me there until her quicker breathing forced her to release me as she gasped for air.

"God, Keith, I'm getting close. Cum with me?"

I loved the feel of her velvety lining on my cock, but that plea of hers pushed me right to the edge in seconds.

"Just about there, my Precious!" I found the strength to cry out. "So close!"

A few strokes later and I knew she had me right at that point of no return. My balls tightened as my cock began to twitch in anticipation of my orgasm. In response, my own hips pushed upwards, lifting Tandra up in such as way that if it hadn't been for our joining, she'd have slid down my thighs. As it was, gravity only pushed her further down my shaft. I thought I felt myself bump up against her cervix, which was something that we'd never had happen before.

"Cum for me, Baby!" Tandra almost screamed as she sank down against the base of my cock, her clit grinding against my pubic bone. As she began to tremble with her excitement, I felt that first spurt of my seed erupt into her.

"Take me, Precious!" my howls almost matched her orgasmic screams in volume. "I'm cumming ... for you, my love! God, I love you, Tandra Hayes!" my over-heated vocal chords told the world.

Tandra continued to spasm as she flexed and gripped my cock briefly but tightly, then relaxed for a second or two before repeating the cycle several times. And each time her walls relaxed, I felt another burst of my seed explode to coat her insides with an intensity that I couldn't remember being that strong before.

To muffle her screams, my sister had buried her mouth into the hollow as the base of my neck, and now I could feel the vibrations as she let her release become vocal, her hips twitching as she involuntarily tried to milk the last of my essence from me. After a little over a minute, she suddenly relaxed and went limp as she diverted all her energy to cling to me, almost like a desperate bid to hold onto reality. We lay together like that for several minutes, our euphoria enveloping both of us like a secure cocoon.

"Keith, what did you just do to me? I've never cum that hard, and you've given me some pretty intense orgasms. God, but I love you!"

"Must have been all that teasing I was doing," I suggested, and felt her teeth begin to sink into my neck in retaliation.

"Oww!" I complained. "My wife's a fucking vampire! You're supposed to suck my cock, not my blood!"

"If you ever tease me like that again, I'll bite your cock and show you what a fucking vampire really is! How'd you like that, husband of mine?" she teased me right back. I gave her gorgeous ass a light slap in answer, then pulled her to my lips and kissed her hard, deep, and with all the love I felt for her. She moaned in mock surrender.

We lay in each others arms for several more minutes, until Tandra finally began to stir as she rolled off me, with my now-soft cock slipping out of her and leaving me wanting it to harden again. She eased herself up and off the bed, walking over to her bureau, then searching in one of the drawers for something. My curiosity was killing me, but I left her to whatever she had in mind. She retrieved something from an upper drawer, then came back to lay beside me.

"Keith, traditionally the husband is supposed to put this on, so would you do this for me, please?" She produced a gold wedding band that had been our grandmother's, depositing it reverently into my open palm. Gently, I took her left hand and slipped the ring on her finger, then kissed both it and the rest of her hand.

"Want me to say a vow or something?" I asked her, seriously ready to do just that if she'd asked.

"I'd love that, Keith, but can we leave it until later? I think that as soon as I do hear that, I'm going to jump your loving bones ... again. But right now, I haven't got the strength. Besides, we need a shower. You stink!"

Under the warmth of the cascading spray, it was like we couldn't get enough of each other as we hugged and kissed, then pleasured each other sensuously. By the time we got out, I wasn't sure if my legs would be able to keep me upright, and Tandra wasn't doing much better. All that loving, and I still hadn't pledged the vows running around in my head yet. I wondered if my sister's passion would become even more intense once I did. Right behind that thought, I wondered if that was even possible.

"You pick a hell of a night to meet everyone," my sister moaned affectionately, "especially after consummating our marriage. How could you do that to me, Keith Leonard Hayes?"

"Tandra Celeste Hayes, getting married wasn't my idea ... but I'll never forget this night, nor have any regrets. That I can promise you," I made my excuses. "If you want to rag on someone for bad timing, you'll have to talk to Cassie. This is her fault ... in more ways than one, I guess. But you have to admit that she went way above and beyond to make this happen. If I didn't love you so damned much, I think I could have fallen in love with her all over again for what she did.'

"Forget it! You're mine ... and I've got that piece of paper to prove it. I want us to be together for the rest of my life, Keith. You're not going to go off and find yourself another girlfriend, are you?"

"Not in this lifetime," I reassured her, and received another warm and loving kiss as my reward.

Reluctantly we got dressed, then headed down to The Fox to meet the rest of our little group. They greeted us with knowing smiles and cheers of happiness, for Cassie had filled them in on her conspiracy. It started a relaxing evening with good friends and good times.

"So did you two find time to do the dreaded deed?" Beckie asked with a knowing look on her face.

"Snoopy, aren't you?" I answered her question with one of my own. Neither my sister nor I supplied a definitive answer, but Tandra leaning against my shoulder as she hugged my arm was answer enough. All those glowing faces of our friends staring back at us were all the congratulations we needed.

But it was the gleam in Tanya's sparkling eyes that really caught my attention, and piqued my curiosity at the same time.

"You look like the cat that ate the canary," I mentioned to her. "Should I ask what's up?"

"Umm, my cousin's coming to Hendrickson next term. As much as I love having Beckie for a roommate, I'm really looking forward to spending my spare time with Jason. He called this afternoon to let me know, and wondered if we could room together. Silly question, if you ask me. I wonder if we should get married, too?"

Tanya was about as far off the ground as Bill had been just a couple of short months ago, leaving all of us feeling happy for her. I expected to see disappointment from Beckie at the news, but either she was just as happy for her roommate as we were, or was really good at hiding her true feelings. I couldn't keep my concerns for her quiet, and later on, asked how she felt about Tanya's news.

"I'm happy for her," I was told. "She deserves this, and her cousin's a great guy. I really hope they can work something out that'll let them be as close as you and Tandra. Besides, my Dad is being transferred to Syracuse, and we've talked about me commuting, as it's only about an hour each way. If Tanya moves in with Jason, I just might move back in with Dad. I'm kind of looking forward to that." There was a reminiscent glaze in Beckie's eyes for a moment before she expressed her hopes. "I miss him, and being around him."

"Am I hearing that you have dreams of rekindling what you once had?" I asked.

"Maybe. If we did, it wouldn't break my heart, Keith. I guess I feel for my Dad about the same thing you feel for Tandra. But I'll know more after Christmas. I'm heading off the day after tomorrow to stay with him in his new place, and we both want to go up and see Brad. In a way, I'm kind of looking forward to the three of us being together over the holiday, especially Dad and my brother. They've been apart for far too long, and not because either one of them wants it that way. How about you and your sister? Are you going anywhere for Christmas?"