Roommate-In-Law
by Mark Apoapsis

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When my brother Matt brought his college roommate home with him for spring break, my first reaction was that I hoped I’d be half as lucky as him in September.

Then again, Matt and Eric, being sophomores, had been allowed to choose each other as roommates. I’d be assigned a roommate for my freshman year. So it wasn’t totally by chance, but I still thought they were two very lucky guys. I could tell that Eric had become close buddies with Matt in a way than none of Matt’s high school chums ever had. It was obvious in the way they looked at each other, often exchanging a quick smile whenever someone’s chance comment reminded them of an experience they’d shared together. I wanted that for myself, now that I knew it was possible.

Matt looked great. I hadn’t seen him since September; he’d gone home with Eric for Christmas. He hadn’t gotten any taller, but he was noticeably more muscular. As for me, I’d grown an inch or two and put on some muscle, and no one would mistake me for a kid anymore. But if I’d hoped to be able to hold my own the next time Matt and I got into an argument -- the kind that led to wrestling -- I could forget it. I was sure my big brother could still lick me as easily as ever.

But Eric made Matt look downright wimpy. My brother could have rested his chin on his friend’s broad shoulder without bending over. The big blond’s T-shirt strained against bulging chest and arm muscles. He really stood out at the dinner table, surrounded by our dark-haired family. Only physically though. Eric was a good conversationalist and a good listener, and seemed to fit right in immediately.

***

The first evening, the minute our parents had gone to bed, Eric and Matt holed up in Matt’s old room. I wanted to talk to them – find out how Matt was doing, and maybe get to know Eric better – but I found they’d locked the door. I could guess why: I caught a whiff of pot smoke leaking out from the room.

There was no response to my knock except for whispers and some laughter. Irritated at being left out, I took out the long fireplace match I always keep hidden above Matt’s door for just such occasions, and stuck it into the opening in the knob until I felt it pressing against the spring lock and I could turn the knob.

I found them sprawled on the bed, leaning close together, conspiratorially. They’d made themselves at home; both men had their shoes off. Eric’s bare feet looked big next to Matt’s, which are the same size as mine. I’d never met a guy with bigger feet than us. My brother had also unbuttoned his shirt, and for some reason Eric had hiked his T-shirt halfway up, revealing flat, rippled abs.

Eric looked up in surprise when the door opened, and he hurriedly snuffed out the joint and pulled his shirt down. Matt didn’t look surprised so much as exasperated. He got off the bed and stalked toward me, rolling up his sleeves over his now impressive biceps. “You never learn, do you?” he asked in a dangerous tone. But I had learned one thing over the years: not to try running. I stood there and accepted the inevitable.

As he pinned me to the bed, with his roommate looking on in amused disbelief, I realized that I’d been stupid not to remove the ropes Matt always kept under his bed especially for me. I’d had over six months to think of that. It was too late now. He leaned over the edge and managed to retrieve them while I squirmed under him, pinned by his weight. In seconds, he had my wrists tied to the vertical wooden bars of the headboard.

This had happened a hundred times before, but I was amazed he was doing it right in front of Eric. When he was in high school, if I interrupted him when he was with a friend, he would just toss me out. Sometimes later on when we were alone, he’d tie me to the bed, and keep me there until I swore I’d never do it again. But never in front of an outsider.

“ Can I help?” Eric finally asked, his voice a little husky.

“ Nah, I can handle this guy with one hand tied behind my back. Always could.”

Grinning, Eric obligingly twisted Matt’s arm behind his back, and began tying another piece of rope around his wrist. Matt laughed. “Dude, cut that out! Okay, if you want to help, take his shoes and socks off. Then tie his ankles to the bedposts.”

“ His feet look a lot like yours,” Eric observed when he had one bare. I shivered at the feeling of unfamiliar hands cradling my foot.

“ Maybe, but they sure smell worse,” my brother claimed.

Eric stuck his nose right against the toes, and I squirmed in surprise. “No,” he said thoughtfully. “Just like yours.”

My brother ignored him. He had his hand pressed down on my chest. He sat there quietly, just feeling my racing heartbeat through the thin cotton of the tank-top I was wearing, until his buddy had both of my bare ankles secured to the posts. Tying me up and feeling the effect he’d had on my heartbeat was generally enough to show his power over me; it rarely went any further. If I’d still been wearing the button-down flannel shirt I’d worn at dinner, he might have unbuttoned it partway and stuck his hand in to press it against my bare skin. But it would have stopped there. Usually.

“ What do with do with him now?” Eric asked. He was breathing hard, even though he hadn’t had to exert himself at all to subdue me.

“ Sometimes I tickle him,” Matt said. That was only half true: he hadn’t done that in a long time, and probably wouldn’t even have thought of it if his buddy hadn’t been egging him on.

“ No!” I protested. I was, needless to say, in the most vulnerable possible position for tickling: divested of my shoes and socks, and wearing a tank-top, with my arms stretched over my head. An inch or two of my belly was exposed too; my shirt had gotten hiked up slightly when Eric had dragged me by my feet to tie them to the bedposts. “Look, I’ll leave you guys alone, I promise. Just let me go.” But Eric was already running his thumbs along the sensitive soles of my bare feet.

“ If you didn’t want to be tickled,” my brother said, digging his fingers into my armpits, “why did you change into a tank-top before you knocked?”

I didn’t answer, partly because I was already laughing too hard, but mostly because I didn’t know the answer myself. I guess I’d wanted to show off my new shoulder muscles. Show that I fit in with these college men. Almost.

“ You know what I think?” Matt taunted, tickling even more aggressively. “I think you knew I was going to tickle you no matter what, and you were hoping I’d leave your shirt on if I didn’t need to take it off to get to your armpits.”

“ You used to strip him?” his buddy asked in wonder.

“ Sometimes,” Matt said. He reached for the line of wispy hair running from my half-exposed navel down into my pants. I squirmed as he played with it. He pushed my shirt up a little further with each stroke, slowly exposing more and more of my belly as he followed the line of hair up toward my chest. It didn’t tickle, exactly. It was more like it sent warm ripples down my body. I was very conscious of Eric watching us; it might not have been a big deal without him there, but his presence seemed to heighten the delicious feeling of helplessness taking hold of me.

“ These little hairs feel thicker now, and they’ve turned black,” Matt murmured.

“ I’ve got hair on my chest, finally,” I boasted. “More than you.”

He stuck a questing hand up into my shirt. “Hmm. Maybe.”

“ Dude,” Eric said impatiently, “just pull his shirt up all the way already, so we can see!” His words affected me more strongly than the physical sensation of my brother’s familiar touch.

“ I don’t know,” Matt said, looking suddenly embarrassed as he took his hand away.

“ You afraid he’s right?” Eric asked teasingly. “That your little brother’s got a hairier chest than you?”

“ OK, if you want to see his chest so badly, go for it. You do the honors.” He patted my bare belly like you might pat an empty seat to invite a friend to sit down next to you. Eric practically shoved his buddy out of the way in his eagerness to accept the invitation. I could only lie there quivering as my brother’s roommate slowly pushed my shirt up to my armpits.

The sensation of my chest being bared for a stranger’s inspection, the humiliation of being tied up and stripped, had a certain edge to them they’d never had before. Was it because it wasn’t my brother doing it? Or because we were grown men now, so submitting even to Matt had been like yielding power to an equal?

“ Oh, nice!” Eric breathed, stroking the straight black hairs between my pecs as if he owned my body. “He’s definitely got you beat, dude.” To my surprise, he reached into my brother’s open shirt and stroked his chest with his other hand, as though comparing us.

Blushing, Matt stepped back, though not as quickly as I would have expected.

“ Where you going, dude?” Eric said, grabbing onto Matt’s shirt and reeling him back in.

I half expected Matt to deck Eric at this point, but instead he stood there and submitted to the stroking, his eyes downcast.

Having demonstrated his control over my brother, Eric took his time exploring every inch of my upper body with his hand, squeezing my arm muscles, lightly brushing my nipples, and stroking my throat to feel the stubble. I shaved every morning these days, and I still had stubble by evening. Finally, he traced that line of wispy hair that Matt had been exploring, from my chest all the way down my belly, until my jeans stopped his fingers from following it any further.

He took off my belt and dropped it on my chest. The feel of the leather against my bare skin made me wonder nervously if he meant to whip me with it. My brother had never so much as threatened that. In fact, I knew I could count on Matt to stop Eric from doing anything to hurt me. By force, if necessary -- buddy or not. Matt might have played a little rough with me sometimes, but he’d always been there for me when outsiders picked on me. He didn’t look too happy with Eric removing my belt, and seemed to be on the verge of objecting.

When Eric unbuttoned my pants, Matt finally stepped forward and put a restraining hand on his buddy’s shoulder, saying, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“ Chill out,” Eric ordered, opening my fly. My brother grabbed his wrist, but the next thing I knew, Eric had Matt’s arm twisted behind his back. I’d never seen anyone best Matt before. Childishly, I’d always thought he was invincible. “I said, ‘chill out,’” Eric repeated quietly. “Don’t make me force you to suck your own brother’s toes.”

To my alarm, my brother backed off and watched unhappily as his buddy pulled my pants down to my knees --which was as far as they’d go with my legs spread like that. Eric began stroking the ultra-sensitive skin between my navel and the top of my pubic hair --which was sticking out of the waistband of my tightie whities, by the time he finished inching those down. The sensation was driving me nuts, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. I felt humiliated, but also strangely aroused at the same time, being caressed where no one had ever touched me before. I also felt betrayed: pissed at my brother for not trying harder to defend me. At the same time, I almost felt bad for Matt; he looked so helpless, standing there and watching. Either way, it made me realize that from now on, Matt wasn’t going to be able to protect me. Not just tonight, but from now on.

Of course he wasn’t, I told myself. He lived a thousand miles away now, and in September I would leave home myself, moving away in the opposite direction. We’d see less and less of each other with each passing year, as we started our separate lives. Even if my brother were as strong and fearless as I’d always believed he was, he couldn’t be there for me anymore.

I was pulled so many different ways by the conflicting emotions that I did something I hadn’t done since I was a kid: I started crying. At first it was just a tear or two rolling down my cheek, but I knew that both men saw it. Crying in front of a near stranger, and in front of the older brother I was trying to get to accept me as a man, made me feel even more humiliated, and I started to sob openly.

“ That’s it!” my brother said firmly. “Get your hands off him, dude.” He grabbed his friend’s shoulder and spun him around. But the bigger man grappled with him and tripped him up. In less time than I would have thought possible, the burly blond was straddling my brother’s prone body on the bedroom carpet, tying his wrists behind his back with Matt’s own shirt. I’d never seen my brother beaten in a fair fight! Just my luck that he would finally meet his match when I needed him most.

Eric didn’t stop there, either. He stripped my struggling brother down to his boxers, and tied his ankles together with Matt’s own belt. He left him there on the floor to watch my humiliation continue, now completely powerless to help me.

I was crying even harder now, both at my brother’s defeat and at being totally at his buddy’s mercy. Eric leaned his head against mine, once again gently stroking the line of hairs on my belly, and murmured, “Are you afraid of me?”

“ I don’t know,” I sniveled. “Not exactly.”

“ I won’t hurt you, you know. I’d never hurt anyone, but especially not you. Know why?”

“ B-because I’m your buddy’s brother?”

“ You’re smarter than I thought.”

With that, Eric pushed my shirt over my head and up to my wrists. He left my briefs on – just barely – as he continued the gentle stroking. Then, without warning, he launched a long round of vicious tickling that left me gasping for breath. I believed him, about not hurting me because that would hurt Matt. But he sure as hell enjoyed humiliating me. I wondered if humiliating me was another way for him to humiliate my big brother.

After listening to me begging Eric to stop for what seemed like hours, Matt finally dared to voice an objection from his helpless position on the floor. Eric calmly picked him up by the armpits and dragged him over to my feet, and tried to make good on his threat about forcing Matt to suck my toes. My brother refused, though, even when Eric grabbed his balls through his boxers and squeezed hard enough to make him moan in pain.

Eric didn’t try that a second time, but whenever Matt dared to speak up again, he stopped tickling me and spent several minutes tickling Matt instead. I noticed that he went unerringly for the parts of my brother’s body I knew to be most ticklish: his ribs, the backs of his knees, and around his bellybutton.

When Eric finally released us an eternity later, he did it by first picking Matt up in his strong arms and dumping his half-naked body on top of mine before untying him. As soon as he was free, Matt rolled off of me and lay there looking defeated.

Eric gave my belly one last possessive caress. “Have you learned your lesson, kid? Do you promise never to come in here uninvited?”

“ I promise, Eric,” I said solemnly, and he untied me.

I nudged my brother, lying at my side. “Matt?” I asked softly. “Do you want to come sleep in my room?”

“ Huh? What for, doofus?”

So I reluctantly left my brother to sleep in the same room as his sadistic roommate. The same bed, in fact, unless Eric made him sleep on the floor.

***

The next day was bright and sunny. Weirdly enough, we all went to the park and had a picnic: the whole family, plus Eric. None of us mentioned what had happened, not even when our parents were out of earshot. Matt and Eric were as tight with each other as ever, and acted completely normal – at least, if two guys dropping ice cubes down each other’s shirts counts as normal. The only thing that had changed was that Eric was even more relaxed and friendly around me, almost as much as he was with Matt, or Matt was with me. It was as if I’d gained a second big brother overnight.

A big brother, as opposed to a friend. They both absolutely refused to let me tag along when the two of them drove to the lake the next day for an overnight trip.

***

The night after they returned, tanned and relaxed, I once again picked the lock to my brother’s room and let myself in, this time without knocking. To my surprise, I caught them wrestling under the sheets. My brother was losing. But they were both furious at me for barging in.

“ You have two seconds to get out,” Eric said in a quietly dangerous voice. “A lot worse things can happen to you than what we did the first night.”

“ Remember the time with the matches,” my brother added.

They meant business. I hastily backed out of the room, closing the door behind me.

Then I put my ear against the door, just in time to hear Eric ask, “What happened ‘the time with the matches’?”

“ No way am I gonna tell you that story, dude! I don’t want to give you ideas.”

“ Oh, you’ll tell me all right. You know you always tell me everything. Eventually.”

I heard my brother groan loudly, and wondered what Eric was doing to him. There was some low murmuring; I could hear both men’s voices but couldn’t make out any more words except for an occasional Oh God from my brother and more moaning.

Finally I went to bed, feeling vaguely dissatisfied, though I should have been glad to have escaped punishment for once.

***

I was cowed enough to leave them alone until the last night before they headed back to school. Then I couldn’t resist listening at the door just one more time. I padded silently up the door in my bare feet, and put my ear against it. All I could hear was my brother’s loud, ragged breathing and an occasional triumphant chuckle from Eric. And maybe … was that a whimper I’d heard? Curiosity was driving me crazy. I had to peek inside.

Eric, fully dressed, had Matt bound hand and foot, face down on the bed. He’d stripped him of his shirt and shoes, and was running a small block of ice over my brother’s bare back. I stuck my head in a little further and saw Eric was handling it by a popsicle stick protruding from the ice. He must have planned this torment hours in advance.

The door creaked, and Eric looked up sharply. He dropped the ice and sprang for the door. I slammed it shut and ran toward the safety of my own room, but he caught me before I reached it, wrapping his strong arms around me and clapping a large hand over my mouth.

I didn’t even bother resisting as he dragged me back to Matt’s bedroom. If he could overpower my brother, I didn’t stand a chance. I meekly let him take my shirt off and muscle me onto the bed, perpendicular to my brother’s prone body, while he trussed me up too. Then he continued what I’d interrupted.

“ No, dude, please! Not in front of my brother,” Matt begged. But Eric ruthlessly continued his humiliating torment, and I had a front row seat as he reduced my big brother to a quivering, whimpering plaything.

Then it was my turn. He made my brother watch as he ran the ice down my spine. I tried to tough it out, but to tell the truth, I don’t think I even did as well as Matt had. Eric worked with maddening slowness, starting at the nape of my neck and gradually working his way down, practically all the way down to my ass crack.

Then he sat the two of us up, back to back, and wrapped ropes around our chests to lash us together. At least my back was nice and warm now, pressed skin-to-skin against my brother’s. But the relief only lasted for a few seconds; then Eric attacked my chest with the ice, paying particular attention to my nipples. He stopped only when he decided it was Matt’s turn. I could feel Matt’s every shiver, and could tell the exact instant the ice reached a nipple or found its way into an armpit, just by the sudden jerks and shudders, the sharp intake of breath. When it was my turn again, I tried even harder to control my reactions, knowing that Matt was feeling them like I’d felt his.

As ruthlessly as he tormented me, Eric was even harder on his roommate. At one point I definitely heard my brother’s pants being unzipped, and from the way he gasped and writhed against me, I was pretty sure Eric was applying the ice to his naked balls.

“ You want me to stop?”

“ Please, dude,” Matt whispered. “I’ll do anything.”

“ I’ll let you go, if you promise to suck on my toes.”

“ You got it!”

“ How about you, kid?” Eric asked me, holding the ice against my nipple.

“ OK! OK! Anything you want!”

So he untied us and made us get on our knees on the floor in front of him while he sat on the bed and took off his shoes and socks. Matt and I each took one of his huge feet in our hands. I watched Matt, and did everything he did. Kneeling side by side with my brother, both of us bare to the waist, we licked his roommate’s huge feet and sucked on his toes. At least I finally felt like Matt’s equal, thanks to Eric having reduced us both to compliant slaves.

Eric lay back on the bed for the first part of it, sighing blissfully. Then he sat up and leaned forward to stroke the back of my brother’s neck almost affectionately. I caught myself half hoping he’d do that to me too, but he didn’t.

***

After awhile, Eric lay back on the bed again, his arms behind his head, and closed his eyes, still making occasional soft sounds of pleasure. We both kept sucking dutifully, but after some time had passed, Matt looked up at his roommate’s still form, silent now except for soft, slow breathing.

“ I think he fell asleep on us,” he whispered. “The bastard!”

I stood up. It was strange how innocent Eric looked in his sleep. Not at all like a man who would ever think of tying up his roommate and his roommate’s brother, torturing them with ice, and forcing them to lick his feet. Innocent and vulnerable. Now was my chance to pay him back. I pounced.

I actually managed to get his shirt halfway off before he woke up enough to resist, and then he was hampered by his arms being tangled up in the shirt. His chest was smooth, except for some almost invisible blond hair I could feel on his pecs. The hair in his armpits was fine and silky. With his shirt off, his muscles looked every bit as impressive as I’d been imagining. And he was gratifyingly ticklish himself, but unfortunately not so ticklish as to be incapacitated by laughter before he could pin me to the bed, once he got his arms free of the shirt.

I glared at my brother. “You were supposed to help me, stupid.” Matt just laughed at me.

“ What are we going to do with him, dude?” Eric asked.

“ I don’t know, man. Obviously we aren’t safe in our own bed, even behind a locked door.”

“ We’ll just have to keep him close,” Eric concluded.

They stretched my arms over my head and tied my wrists to the headboard. Then they took off my pants, turned out the light, and stripped to their boxers themselves before snuggling up on either side of me. My brother rolled me onto my side so that I was facing Eric, and put his arms around me. He hadn’t shared his bed with me since we were both kids and I was afraid of monsters in the closet. Lying here with him felt different now that we were grown men, although still … well … brotherly. And Eric wasn’t exactly a monster, and I wasn’t exactly afraid of him. “Don’t worry,” Matt whispered teasingly in my ear. “I’ll watch your back.”

His brawny blond roommate ran his hand through my chest hair in a way that didnt feel at all brotherly, and sent shivers halfway down my body. I tried unsuccessfully to wriggle out of reach, but Matt was right behind me.

“ You’re not going anywhere,” Eric murmured, entrapping my bare feet between his own, while intertwining his legs warmly with mine and my brother’s.

“ You still say we should spend the summer at your parent’s cabin?” Matt asked him suddenly.

“ Hmm. We’ll have to talk about that.” He toyed with my armpit hair, gently, just on the edge of tickling. He was still playing with it when I fell asleep.

***

I woke up a couple of hours before dawn to find my head pillowed on Eric’s well-toned chest muscles. His arm was loosely draped over me, his hand resting on my brother’s bare chest. My own arms were free; someone had untied me as I slept. The ropes were still tied to the headboard, in easy reach. I thought of all the things I could do to Eric now, if I could just knot the free ends around his wrists without waking him up. Strong as he was, he’d be completely at my mercy. I could present him to my brother as a gift, like a young hunter returning with his first kill, a young warrior dragging back his first captured foe.

I was still savoring the possibilities as I drifted back to sleep, lulled by the strong, steady beat of Eric’s heart.