Close: Chapter 2

***** Tuesday Night *****

Eric jumped as he heard the front door slam downstairs. He quickly put down the book he was reading and ran downstairs. Vanessa rarely got angry, and it was never bad enough for her to slam doors. He found her downstairs in the kitchen, struggling with a large cardboard box. He grabbed a side, and helped her maneuver it onto the kitchen counter. Vanessa let out her breath explosively, and wiped a few stray locks out of her face. She was breathing heavily through her dark business suit.

"Thanks babe," she said. "Sorry about the noise. Had to kick the door shut." Eric could see she was severly pissed off about something, which meant it was something serious.

"How was work?" he asked tentatively. Vanessa gave him a deadly look.

"Work was fine. I found out my research partner was screwing someone from another company, and passing on all the info about our research, which is supposed to be top-secret. I had to fire him, and now I'm stuck with twice the workload, no help at all, and I have to do all my work from home, cause the idiot still has the keys to the lab. So work was great today." She glared at Eric for another hot second before turning around and beginning to rummage through the kitchen cabinets. Eric watched her for a few seconds, before realizing where she was headed.

"Mom, you know you're not supposed to drink. You're quitting, remember?" he warned her as she took down an unopened bottle of wine. He groaned inwardly as she froze. She turned to him, daggers shooting from her eyes.

"Last I checked, my father's in a retirement home up north," she said quietly, slowly advancing on him. Eric found himself backed up against the kitchen wall. Vanessa was wearing her black high heels, which gave her an extra two inches in height over her already shorter son. "And last I checked, a woman shouldn't have to be questioned by her eighteen year old son anytime she feels she would like a drink." Vanessa was standing so close to Eric now he could feel the breath from her mouth on his forehead. She lightly poked his chest. "You understand?"

"Yes, Vanessa" Eric replied dumbly. Vanessa poked him again in the chest, harder this time.

"What did I tell you about calling me Vanessa? Even though I'm your stepmom, I still want you to refer to me as 'Mom", got it? I want us to be a family, and we can't be if you keep putting that barrier up." Her green eyes sparkled, and Eric could see her chest heaving through her shirt.

"Sorry, Mom. I really am sorry. It was an accident," Eric apologized. Vanessa eyed him for another second, then stalked back over to the kitchen table, snagging a wineglass on the way. "That's better," she said over her shoulder. "Now go out to my car and grab the other box of papers and bring it in here. I've got a lot of work to do." Any excuse to get out of the kitchen was welcome to Eric, and he quickly left the room.

Once outside, he let out a sigh of relief. His slip of tongue had almost sent Vanessa over the edge. The fact that Vanessa was barren, and therefore unable to have children to call her 'Mom' was a touchy subject to her. Eric was mostly indifferent to the entire stepmom/mom thing, but Vanessa was the complete opposite. He knew she would have more words for him if he took his time, so he quickly grabbed the box out of her car, and headed inside. On the way in, he happened to glance at the title of one of the folders within the box.

"Codename Lilliput? What the hell is that?" Eric muttered to himself. He also noticed the red 'Classified' sticker on the folder, and decided not to press the question.

Back inside, Eric noticed that Vanessa had already finished one glass, and was making decent progress on her second. He thought about warning her again about drinking too much, then decided against it. An angry Vanessa was bad enough, but a drunk, angry Vanessa was even worse. Setting the box down next to the first one, Eric turned to go upstairs.

"Eric!" Vanessa's voice cut through the silence, and he froze. He looked at her and noticed her eyes were a little red. Apparently the drink she was working on wasn't her second. "Yeah...Mom?" he said quickly.

"I've been working hard all day. I have to work all day tomorrow. I am extremely tired, and my feet hurt. I would like a foot massage, please." The way she said please strongly hinted to Eric that it wasn't a question at all. "Sure," he said. She stood up, grabbing the wine bottle, which was now half full, and proceeded to the living room, followed by Eric. Eric sat on the couch, and Vanessa dropped herself onto the seat next to him. Turning, she placed both of her high-heeled feet into his lap. "Make it good, Eric," she told him as she proceeded to drink straight from the bottle.

As Eric slowly unstrapped his mother's high heel, he grudgingly agreed that she had extremely pretty feet. Even though she was a tall woman, her feet were not gargantuan, and her long, nimble toes were always polished to perfection. He took her left one in both hands, and proceeded to massage it, the heat from her feet warming his hands. His mom moaned her appreciation, wiggling her toes in his hands, and lay back on the couch, occasionally taking swigs from the wine bottle. As Eric kneaded his mom's feet within his hands, he quickly began to notice that his mom's feet didn't exactly smell fresh after a long day's work. His hands were damp as be began to work on her right foot, working his fingers into the cracks between her toes, but he didn't say a word, striving to keep Vanessa in a peaceful mood.

"Idiot..." Eric looked up, thinking Vanessa was critiquing his work. He was shocked to see she had tears on her face.

"Mom? You OK?" he asked. She didn't hear him, but continued her monologue. "We were so close to finishing this, and he had to go and sell out. We both would've been rich...Rich enough for him to finally..." she shook her head, still lost in her thoughts. Eric patted her leg gently.

"Mom, whats wrong?" he asked again. Hearing him this time, she looked at him with red eyes. "You wanna know whats wrong?" she said, her lip quivering slightly. Without waiting for his response, she got off the couch, setting her now empty bottle of wine on a nearby table. Eric watched her walk unsteadily towards the kitchen, and heard her rummaging through one of the boxes she had brought home. She returned, cradling something in her hand, and roughly fell down next to Eric. He got a whiff of the wine on her breath and refrained from wrinkling his nose at it. Vanessa slowly opened her hand and showed the tiny black bottle held within it to Eric.

"What's that?" Eric asked curiously. He didn't believe that the tiny bottle was the reason his mom was crying.

"This right here was gonna make us all very, very rich," she explained, gazing at the bottle. "This would've given us enough money for your father to retire, and for you to go to any school you wanted to." She unscrewed the top carefully and glanced at its contents. Eric peered at the bottle also, trying to see inside. "Well what's it do?" he asked.

"I can't tell you what it does," she said, replacing the top, and tucking the bottle into her shirt pocket. "I'd be in huge trouble if I did." Eric remembered the large 'Classified' sticker on the folder, and realized that the drink had caused Vanessa to tell him way more than she should have. "But I do miss your father," she mused, biting her lower lip as more tears trickled down her face.

"Yeah I miss him too. But i'm always here if you need company, Mom," Eric assured her, patting her arm. Another giant smile lit up Vanessa's face, and pulled Eric close for a quick hug. "You're the best son I could ever ask for," she beamed, kissing him on the cheek.

"Thanks mom." Thinking of a way to stop her crying, he decided to throw in "The Notebook" again, and offered to actually watch it with her.  His suggestion lifted her spirits immediately, and as he turned the movie on, she arranged herself into a reclining position on the couch. Eric was deciding where to sit, until she motioned to lay next to her. Vanessa laughed at his enquiring expression.

"Well I'm not going to make you sit on the floor, silly! Besides, this way I can still make sure you don't sneak off," she said, patting the couch in front of her. Sighing, Eric lay next to his mother, and she threw a protective arm over him, pulling him closer to her in the process. He could feel the heat from his mother's body over his entire backside, and her breath, hot and smelling of wine, blew over his head. As he watched the movie, he could feel Vanessa slowly drifting to sleep, as her breaths got deeper and deeper. His mother, being naturally clingy, slowly began to claim him as they slept. Her left leg gradually moved to drape over Eric's body, and as she shifted in her sleep, Eric found himself being pushed underneath her body. Trying to avoid a repeat of last night's situation, Eric tried shifting his mom himself, as he had some leverage with his arms. In her still intoxicated state, Vanessa refused to respond to his slight prodding, and instead she simply rolled on top of him once again. This time, Eric was able to position himself higher against her body, and was spared the pressure of her chest. The rest of Vanessa's weight still remained on the rest of his body. She clutched Eric more tightly, and Eric's body was forced to withstand his mom's weight as she cuddled with him. Straddled on top of her son's prone body, her motherly hands wrapped protectively around him, Vanessa was having the best sleep of her life. They remained in that position for a while, and Eric found himself actually able to relax in his closeness with his mother. The beating of her heart reverberated throughout his body, and he found himself breathing in sync with her, almost enjoying the brief periods of intense pressure against their bodies. He softly chuckled to himself, a low noise, so as not to wake Vanessa.

She did not wake, but she definetly responded. Eric felt her body move slightly, and her hand slowly came up to stroke his face. "Mmm...Kevin..." she purred, her speech still slurred. Eric's eyes shot open, alarmed. Kevin was the name of his father! He lay there silently, afraid to speak, as her other hand slowly slid down his back to grasp his backside. Vanessa gave another low moan, and slowly slid her body down Eric's, until her face was near his, and began nuzzling his neck in her sleep. Eric immediately understood what was happening. In her sleep, his mom had mistaken the body she was sleeping next to as his father's, and her weeks of solitude and loneliness were responding to it. Eric began to tap on her back, softly at first, then more insistently as Vanessa began to softly lick his skin. Another low moan escaped her, as she reached up and gently took his hands in her own. She then drew them down to his waist, and too quickly for Eric to follow, pinned each hand under her knees. Eric was about to simply yell out, to snap his mom from her sex-depraved trance, but found himself refusing to utter a word. Despite the obvious fact that his mother was acting like a tigress on the prowl, he couldn't bring himself to wake her up. A small part was because he knew how lonely she had become over the months, and how she had virtually no intimate contact with any human while his dad was away. Another was because he was afraid of how awkward their relationship would become with the knowledge that she had tried to rape him in her sleep. And a final smaller and darker side of him was actually excited about the situation. When his father first introduced him to Vanessa, he knew she was an extremely attractive woman, but he had no idea how alluring she could be when this close. Sighing, he lay back on the couch, and decided to let his mother's dream run its course.

Sensing the tension ease from his body even in her sleep, Vanessa placed a hand on his belt. A fiery spike of adrenalin ran through Eric as he anticipated his mother's uncovering of his manhood. But instead, her hand went upwards, under his shirt, sending sparks of energy through him. Eric unwittingly let out a moan himself, realizing that this was the first time he'd been seriously touched by a girl. Vanessa ran her hands under his chest for a few more moments before stretching herself out once again over Eric. His head came to rest beside her shirt pocket. He could feel the small bottle within her shirt, and managed to squirm underneath it to a more comfortable position underneath her breast. The shirt was slightly sticky here upon his face, and he surmised that his mom had begun to sweat again. Strangely, the moisture on her shirt didn't smell this time, even though the shirt was quickly becoming soaked with her moisture. As it began to pool on his face, Eric wrinkled his nose. Smelly or not, the thought of someone else's sweat on his body made him shudder in revulsion. Unable to do much with his hands mostly pinned underneath his mom's large legs, Eric was forced to ingest small amounts of the liquid, as he had to keep his mouth open to adequately breathe. Eventually, Eric nodded off to sleep underneath Vanessa's bulk, as the strange liquid seeped from his mom's shirt, into his open mouth.

***** End Chapter 2 *****