Waking, she found two things; first that she was naked and exposed to the hot morning sun; and second that there was someone else in the room. Then she identified the woozy indifference as not only the pleasant stupefaction of heat, but a hangover. Nora tried to remember last night: a bottle of wine, two bottles? Who had she been with? Was the other person in the room now someone she should be concerned about? Involuntarily she closed her eyes again, lulled to somnolence by the twin baths of warmth. A footfall.
'Oh it's you,' she said when she looked over and saw her brother Tim. There was a tent in his pyjamas indicating how he felt as he scanned her body. 'Did you put me to bed?'
'We were both pretty wrecked. You said you slept naked.'
'I do. You undressed me?'
'You weren't really able to consent to that, but I thought it was harmless.'
'Do anything else to me?'
He shook his head. 'Like I said, no state to consent.'
'Did you want to?' Nora asked with a smile. Until now she'd been resting on her side, the pale expanse of her hip closest to him, large breasts folded under her arm. Now she moved onto her back, giving him a clear view of all her front. The tent around his groin became sharper and he moved forward. She wondered why he was wearing pyjamas and whether her hangover needed a pill.
Tim knelt at the bedside and bent down slowly to kiss her nipple. She admired his brown curls and glanced down appreciatively at her other one, rosy and soft. She touched this, waking its tingly sensitivity as Tim licked around the first one and began to suck it in.
'You're so expert.'
'Would you like a cup of tea?'
'Yes, love one. What's the time? Oh gawd, it is Saturday, isnβt it?'
'Yes!' Tim laughed as he went to fill the kettle. 'You won't have to tell the mad old codger you're too drunk to come in.'
'I should get up anyway. I was going to do something today, what was it?'
'Shopping? There's not much in the fridge.'
Nora stood naked beside her brother at the sink and drew the kitchen window curtains. She was as tall as he was and statuesque where he appeared slight. The hair on her head was a ruddy auburn, a close to impossible colour, and Tim looked down again at her pubic curls like his own. His erection had faded but this enticed it back.