Literotic asexstories – No Room at the Apartment by TexRiffraff,TexRiffraff
Author’s notes: This is a work of fiction. In this fantasy, nobody has to worry about STDs. In real life, all non-monogamous sex should be practiced using accepted safe-sex precautions.
This story revisits the characters of several earlier stories, No Room At the Inn, No Room At the Hotel, and No Room At the Cabana. This story stands alone, you don’t have to read any of them to understand this one. However, if you want to read them in order to understand the characters and their history better, No Room At the Inn comes first, then Hotel, then Cabana, then this one.
This story, like the earlier ones, is written in multiple first person – all four main characters narrate the story. It may take a bit more effort to read, but the benefit is we get to see things from multiple points of view in real time. To me as the writer, that is a net gain, and worth the effort. I hope you, the reader, agree.
Special thanks to Sidney43 and Ravenna933 for their time and effort. Their insight made this a better story.
Be warned that there is some plot before the action begins. If you’re looking for non-stop excitement, this may not be a story for you.
All persons involved in sexual activity are at least 18 years old.
: : : : :
S H A N N O N : : : The hotel front desk was crazy busy. Dozens of guests were in line, waiting for their rooms. There was a clerk at every station, working frantically, but the line was growing faster than they could check people in.
I grinned and strolled past the line. I had been stuck in such a line many times, but this time the delay didn’t affect me — this hotel was barely fifteen minutes from my apartment and I wouldn’t be staying. I was there to support a friend of mine who paints, quite well, actually. She had a booth at an art show that weekend in the main ballroom, showing — and hoping to sell — prints of her latest work. The hotel was on my way home from work, so a Friday evening visit was super convenient.
There was signage from the lobby to the art show, but the signs weren’t very helpful. I had never been in that building before, so I didn’t know where the ballroom was, and I took a wrong turn. Instead of the art show, I ended up in front of a seafood and steak restaurant that anchors the front corner of the building. It has an entrance on the sidewalk for non-hotel diners, and an entrance down the hall from the hotel lobby for guests. I wasn’t going to eat until I got home, but as long as I was there, I took the opportunity to use the Ladies’ Room.
On my way out to look for the art show again, I noticed a table in the back corner. It was small, only two seats, private and cozy, isolated beside a large column next to the entrance to the kitchen. What made it interesting was who was sitting there: my co-workers Jason and Holly.
They were so preoccupied gazing into each other’s eyes and holding hands that they didn’t notice me. There was a half-full glass of white wine in front of Holly, and a half-full cocktail in front of Jason — Pinot Grigio and Bourbon and Ginger Ale, respectively, if I know them. Which I do. Jason and Holly are much more than co-workers, and much more than friends.
We met several years ago when I started working at ZNN, the cable news network. ZNN is a pressure-cooker of a workplace. By its nature, news is very unpredictable, and the news business is very deadline-oriented. We often have to work late, or on the weekend or a holiday, frequently with no warning. As a result, ZNN churns through employees quickly, so there are always many new faces. In my first week there I met Holly, Jason, and Mark, all of them also recently hired. We began eating lunch together daily.
We soon discovered that we all love to travel. The way the chaotic hours of our jobs kept each of our personal lives completely out of balance, though, none of us had ‘a significant other’ to take trips with. We came up with a delightful solution: the four of us began traveling together.
J A S O N : : : At first it was very innocent and platonic, four travelers in four single rooms. Then a hotel screwed up our reservations and only had one room available. It was a large one, though, with two queen beds. The math was simple: two large beds, four people, that’s two people per bed. We paired up boy/girl in each bed, but we turned out the lights that first night all believing that we were just going to sleep. That’s not how it turned out; Shannon and I ended up screwing each other’s brains out. In the other bed, Holly and Mark did the same.
Of course, in one room there were no secrets. At breakfast the next morning, we discussed what had happened and what we should do about it. We decided, unanimously, that while we liked the idea of traveling ‘with benefits,’ none of us wanted to be paired up. The solution to that was easy: each night we switched partners. I’d be with Shannon one night, Holly the next, then Shannon, and so on.
S H A N N O N : : : That’s how it’s been for several years and many trips. I know it’s odd. I certainly never imagined I’d be open to such an arrangement, much less be living it.
One complicating factor has arisen, and it is huge: I’ve come to realize that while Holly and Jason are quite special, I really like Mark. I mean, I really like him. I’ve felt that way for quite a while, and I’m beginning to suspect that he might feel the same way about me. I also think it’s possible that Jason and Holly are in the same boat. I haven’t acted on those feelings, though, and neither have any of the others. None of us would want to do anything that might disrupt the wonderful arrangement we have as a traveling foursome.
At least that’s what I thought until I saw Jason and Holly together at the restaurant. They were clearly on a date. WTF?
: : : : :
M A R K : : : Saturday morning, slightly after 9:00, my phone rang. I answered it reluctantly; usually a call that early means I’m being called in to work. It was Shannon, though — cool. I had been lying in bed that morning thinking about her, wondering what I should do. More and more, I wanted to be with her even when we weren’t traveling. I wasn’t positive that she felt the same, though, and I couldn’t figure out how to test those waters without possibly upsetting the balance of our wonderful travel arrangement.
I clicked the phone on and said, “Good morning, sunshine.”
I could almost hear her grin in return. “Good morning yourself,” she said cheerily. “You busy?”
“Not really. Going to run some errands later, but I’m taking it easy this morning — I had a tough week.”
“Yeah, me too. Um, I was wondering if, uh, see, the thing is…”
“Spit it out, Shannon…”
“Well, I’m not sure what to say. Are you, um, are you doing anything later?”
“No, not really. One of my neighbors is co-hosting a party at the clubhouse here. I’ll probably go to that.”
“Oh, okay…”
“What’s up, Shannon? This isn’t like you.”
“Well, there’s something I want to talk about, but it doesn’t have to be tonight.”
“No need to wait. Can we talk about it now?”
“It’s kind of a ‘face to face’ topic. Later is fine, though.”
“How much later? Days? Hours? Minutes?”
She paused, like she was struggling with her thoughts. “Naah, it’s not urgent. It’s probably nothing.”
“Now I’m curious. This evening would be fine. I don’t have to go to the party, it’s not a biggie.”
“No, that’s okay. I’ll see you Monday at lunch.”
“Why don’t we meet for dinner? There’s a great little Thai place between your apartment and mine.”
“Oh, I don’t know. You’d be late to your party.”
“Just come over here, then, we can go to the party together. There’ll be food and drink there, and plenty of places to talk.”
“I don’t want to intrude.”
“You’re not. Be here around seven.”
“Okay, see you then. You’re sure I’m not imposing?”
“I’m sure. See you tonight.”
“K. See you. Bye.”
Wow, Shannon was never that indecisive. Something deep must be on her mind. I noticed that she didn’t mention including Holly and Jason. Could it be that she wanted to talk about ‘us’? I never intended to wait for her to take the next step, but if that’s what she just did, it would solve a major problem that I hadn’t been able to solve on my own…
: : : : :
S H A N N O N : : : The clubhouse at Mark’s apartment complex was huge. The word ‘sprawling’ came to mind — it was wide, with a tall vaulted ceiling. Opposite the entrance there were massive floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the pool, which had a huge deck on the other side. There was a band outside, and both inside and out there were bartenders and platters of assorted finger foods. We grabbed some food and drink, and found a table in a quiet nook.
I hadn’t figured out the best way to tell him what I had seen. Actually, I hadn’t figured out any way, and it showed. “You know, all the traveling we’ve done, and some of the situations we’ve found ourselves in, uh, you know, through no fault of our own, I mean, unintentional, really, um, not that any of us wouldn’t have, uh; some of the decisions, um, as a group, you know. Shit, this is so hard to describe. Let me just say it this way: I have something to tell you — this is, um, I mean, it could change everything.
“Dammit, I’m not making any sense at all, am I?”
M A R K : : : I couldn’t believe it. There she was, talking about us. Awkwardly, but I probably couldn’t do any better.
“No, I mean yeah,” I said. “I think so. If I’m following you at all, and I think I am, I know what you mean, and I’m glad you brought it up. It’s been on my mind too, especially recently.”
She looked incredulous, and said, “So you’re saying you know?”
I smiled — the weight of the world was lifting off my shoulders. “Well, yeah, at least from my side of things.”
“Well, I didn’t have a clue until I saw them last night.”
“Wait — saw who?”
“Holly and Jason,” she said, “that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. I saw Jason and Holly on a date last night.”
“Oh… Oh… That’s, uh, that’s not what I thought you meant.” I felt like the world’s biggest idiot. I tried to keep my face from falling, from showing the depth of the disappointment I felt.
“What did you think I meant?”
“I thought, um…” She looked so adorable I couldn’t find the words to finish the thought, and I panicked. I felt any possible future with her quickly evaporating as I watched her face cycle through layers of confusion as she connected the dots on how I had taken what she said. I have never wished so deeply for an ‘undo’ command in real life.
The more I watched her though, as realization washed over realization, I noticed that she didn’t seem horrified at all. Actually, she seemed to accept my confusion at face value. Was that the trace of a smile? I have never felt so exposed — what I said left no place to hide. My secret was out in the open. I felt like I had one tiny moment either to do the perfect thing and recover, or do the wrong thing and possibly ruin everything forever. I had no idea what the perfect thing to do was, so I just went for broke: I kissed her.
S H A N N O N : : : I resisted his kiss for an instant. I thought he was, well, I’m not sure what I thought. It took me a long moment to realize that this kiss meant something different than any other kiss with him had ever meant, and I melted. I realized that not only had he thought I had been talking about him and me — us — but that kissing me in response to that must mean that he wants me as much as I want him. I threw myself completely into this kiss, as if our future together depended on it. I guess, in a way, it did.
M A R K : : : Suddenly this party seemed very crowded.
I don’t remember returning to my apartment. I do remember standing in front of her while she sat on my bed. She unbuttoned my shirt and unbuckled my belt. It was almost unbearably sexy: she flipped the script and she undressed me. While she removed item after item of my clothes, her hungry eyes scrutinized every inch of my body, including possibly the hardest erection I have ever had. She kissed my chest and tummy, and caressed my back, my sides, and my ass.
She kissed my dick, right on the tip, and stood. I sat, and it was my turn to undress her. We had been paired up on our trips dozens of times, sometimes in the same room with Jason and Holly, sometimes alone together in our own room, but as I slipped her blouse and jeans off, it truly felt to me like it was our first time together. I’ve seen her in bikinis smaller than the bra and panties she had on that evening, but just seeing her bare tummy, her smooth, firm thighs, the valley between the cups of her bra, it was thrilling like it was my first time seeing her undress. Actually, it was more than that… her body, as I uncovered it, never looked so lovely, so vulnerable and exposed, so naked. I haven’t been this excited, this over-stimulated, this electrified to get a girl’s clothes off, since my first time ever. I wanted to get her naked and on her back now, if not sooner, but luckily a tiny rational part of my brain suggested that I take my time and savor the moment, that we’d enjoy looking back on this much more if it lasted more than an instant.
I reached behind her and unhooked her bra. I slipped the straps off her shoulders, but I didn’t so much pull it off her as let gravity claim it. The bra took its time separating from her chest, teasing that it was going to fall and reveal her tits for what seemed like hours before it finally did. I cupped her breasts, squeezed them, and kissed each of her nipples. She considers her boobs too little to be attractive. I guess they are on the smallish side, b-cups maybe, but I love them. To me they are perfect, soft but firm, with the most delightful wiggle when they bounce. They feature small, tan areolae and pencil-eraser-sized nipples that grow incredibly hard at any opportunity. This time, when they hit open air, they reached for my lips and trembled under my touch.
I took my time sliding her panties over her sweet hips and down her legs, and kissed her tummy just below her navel. There it was, my all-time favorite pussy. She keeps it almost completely shaved, except for a small circle at the top of her slit, about the size of a quarter. She keeps that tiny puff untrimmed, dark curly hairs that remain quite long. They were drenched in droplets of arousal.
After a nice long look at her immaculate figure, I pulled her onto the bed and into my arms.
All the manic energy of a first-time encounter sizzled through me, that vigorous, eager joy of exploring a special new bodily landscape, of finding your desires accepted and returned. I think she felt it, too. However we also touched each other with the informed subtlety of a couple who know each other well, indulging each other in personal, intimate nuances we have learned are special for each other. Her arms were so welcoming. Her body was so soft, so gorgeous, so curvy, so angelic. Her mouth was so eager. Her pussy had never seemed so warm, so wet, so tight on my finger, so willing. My dick had never felt so long, so thick, so hard.
S H A N N O N : : : We explored each other slowly, luxuriating in the moment. I ached for him to bury himself in me, but he held back. He caressed me sweetly, gently, electrifying the parts he knows I love, yet seeming to discover each special place as if it was the first time he had ever touched me there. I smoldered under his touch. I took my time exploring every inch of his physique, starting with my fingers, following up with my lips. He was so comfortably familiar, yet so excitingly new.
When he finally slipped into me, we took it slow and gentle. Like his hands did to my nipples, his rock-hard cock greeted the inside of my pussy like an old friend who hadn’t visited in too long. He may have been sliding in and out of me, and I may have met every thrust of his with a gentle push of my own, but it was still foreplay — we went slow and deep, feasting on the sensations of slick, intimate penetration. My passion fed his passion, which fed back into mine, spiraling upward to heights I — we — had never experienced.
We finally began to hit our stride, find our pace. I began pushing him harder and harder. He followed my lead, long-stroking me with more and more urgency, and before long we were pounding into each other with a ferocity I had never felt. It was intense, but eager rather than rough, an explosive release of the anticipation that had been building and building within me, and apparently also within him, for months.
M A R K : : : I blissfully hovered right on the brink of cumming but never quite fell over the edge. I felt attuned to her like I never had before, in awe of her beauty, her face, her boobs, her tummy, her hips, her legs, and the eager joy she showed at sharing sex.
She came multiple times. At each one, her body stiffened more than I had ever felt before. She moaned louder than I had ever heard, and wrapped me tighter in her arms and legs than she ever had before. Each time, I was ready to give her a break, let her rest a bit to recover. I was sure I’d get to cum later. I loved that I was able to give her so many releases. Each time, though, she pulled my hips forward and made it clear she wanted to keep going. Then she’d cum again, and keep me going again. When the inevitable washed over me, I came harder than I ever had.
S H A N N O N : : : When we were done, we rolled onto our sides, facing each other. He straddled my thigh, his cock still in me, our arms and legs wrapped around each other. It took me a long while to catch my breath. We slowly caressed each other’s backs. I tucked my chin into his shoulder, he cradled the back of my head. I kissed his chest, he kissed my hair.
I glowed with joy to have finally burst the bubble of dealing with how much I wanted Mark, and finding that he wanted me too. Time stood still as we simply, tenderly touched each other all over. I felt wrapped in a safe cocoon of warmth and serene happiness. Talking seemed too complicated, too harsh, too intrusive, but we said enough to establish that neither of us needed to be anywhere else until work Monday morning, then fell back into silent cuddling.
An hour later, maybe two, I was ready to venture out of our radiant bubble and discuss real-world topics, and it seemed Mark was, too. I was about to say something, but he beat me to it. “We need to talk to Holly and Jason.”
We searched for a comfortable way to approach them about what I had seen, but neither one of us could come up with one. Everything we thought of felt confrontational, and neither of us wanted that. I’m all about confronting someone who deserves it, at the right time and place, but this was Holly and Jason, our closest friends. Neither of us wanted to put them on the defensive, not the least because they weren’t doing anything we weren’t doing, even if they did it first…
When we were both clearly out of ideas, Mark said, “Maybe we’re making it too complicated. Let’s just get together and tell them about us, and not even mention that you saw them.”
I considered that for a quick moment. “Perfect.”
: : : : :
H O L L Y : : : I woke up beside Jason, and immediately scoured my brain to figure out where we were. I mean, if I’m with Jason, we must be traveling, right? I couldn’t remember checking into a hotel, flying, or even planning a trip. I didn’t feel hungover, so this amnesia wasn’t alcohol-based.
My usual pre-morning-coffee fog began clearing from my brain, and bit by bit I recalled the last few days: Jason, more nervous than I’d ever seen him, asking me out, my inner voice rejoicing ‘at last’ while my outside-the-head voice more calmly accepted, a cozy table at a nice restaurant Friday evening, some ferocious sex Friday night, some delightfully tender lovemaking Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon spent running simple domestic errands and doing chores together as a couple, followed by cooking dinner together and another night of spectacular sex, even more passionate than before. As things came more into focus, I realized it was Sunday morning, this was his bedroom, at his apartment, and I felt a smile forming. My mind spun in ecstatic circles as I realized that it all meant that what I had wanted for months, Jason and I becoming a real couple outside of traveling together with Shannon and Mark, was actually happening.
I also realized my cell phone was ringing. The screen showed it was Shannon. I almost didn’t answer. I had no idea what to say. How could I explain what we had done, what we were doing?
J A S O N : : : I was having a wonderful dream, where I had gathered all my courage, asked Holly out, and she said yes. Then the sound of somebody else’s ringtone shattered that little slice of heaven, and the happy glow of the dream crashed around me as I emerged from sleep and realized that’s all it was, just a dream. The infernal ringing stopped, and I heard Holly’s voice, right beside me in bed, say “Hello?”
My mind could barely comprehend that she was here, beside me, in my apartment, in my bed, but my dick could — it instantly sprung to attention. I couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, but Holly’s side consisted of a series of rather evasive generalities. “Oh, hi,” “Fine,” “Not much,” “I’m not sure,” “Um, okay,” “That’d be fine,” and “Okay, see ya.”
While she talked, I took the opportunity to look at her fine body, all over, indulging myself in enjoying the scenery. When she answered the phone, the sheet covered her all the way up to her chin, but as her body shifted while she talked, the sheet seemed to be under my mental control, slipping lower and lower. It uncovered her upper chest, then revealed her tits, her tummy, then as she shifted her weight from one hip to the other, her sweet pussy.
I had always thought that Holly was drop-dead gorgeous, but somehow that morning, in my apartment, in my bed, softly lit by the morning light filtering through my window blinds, she was the loveliest creature I had ever seen. Her face, framed perfectly by wispy curls of blonde hair, was angelic. Her tits, aw jeez, her tits, nothing angelic about them! D cups, maybe even DD, nice, high, round and firm, with huge tan areolae easily three inches across. Her tummy was somehow both tight and soft, leading down to her pussy, which she had been letting go native, a full bush so blonde it was barely distinguishable from her skin tone. She only trimmed around the edges so it wouldn’t leak out of her bikini.
H O L L Y : : : Shannon wanted to meet for dinner that evening. I was probably more abrupt with her than I meant to be, but I was beginning to freak out that maybe we had been found out. Besides, I couldn’t exactly concentrate on the conversation while Jason unashamedly ogled my body from right beside me. I admit I teased him: as I noticed the tent in the sheet over his waist getting taller and taller, I stealthily tugged the sheet lower and lower, revealing my naughty bits one by one. I loved watching his hard-on grow as his eyes feasted on me. My nipples usually lay flush on my boobs, but the heat of his gaze warmed them up, and I felt them reach for the sky.
Even though I was getting seriously aroused, as soon as I hung up my gut clinched tight, fearing the worst. I was sure that we had been discovered, Shannon and Mark felt betrayed, and our friendships were ruined. I was sure they wanted to get together to tell us off and officially un-friend us. Jason calmed me, though, reminding me that her call to get together outside of work wasn’t unusual. It often meant it was time to plan our next trip, or even better, that someone had an inspiration for a place for us to go. “If she calls me next,” he softly said, “then all is good. We’ll meet and talk about our next trip.”
J A S O N : : : Right on cue, my phone rang. I grinned at Holly, and answered the phone.
My calm vanished In an instant. It was Mark, not Shannon. He also wanted to meet for dinner. Because he called me rather than Shannon calling both of us, I panicked. The normal pattern was, if one of us had an idea for a trip, he or she would call all three of the others. Shannon calling Holly, then Mark calling me meant something different, probably that Holly was right and we’d been busted. My anxiety shattered Holly’s short-lived calm, which agitated me more. I said, “They both called us — shit, they know.”
“I told you I saw Shannon at the restaurant.”
“I still can’t imagine why she would be there. What should we do? They’re gonna be so pissed off.”
She didn’t say anything for a moment, then she almost whispered, “We’ll have to face them sooner or later, it might as well be tonight.”
We decided to ride together, openly admit we had gone a step further, and face their anger.
: : : : :
S H A N N O N : : : Mark and I reached the restaurant first, so we saw Holly and Jason arrive in his car. It was sweet — they didn’t try to pretend they weren’t ‘together.’
M A R K : : : We all ordered drinks, and I told them that Shannon and I had begun seeing each other outside of our travel. Shannon added that it was recent, actually this very weekend, and that we wanted to be completely open about it. Holly and Jason were visibly relieved, then they tensed as they realized that they hadn’t shown us the same courtesy. Jason took a deep breath and said that they had also spent the weekend together. Holly added that Friday night was their first time together outside of our travel foursome. She apologized for being so absorbed with each other they hadn’t gotten around to telling us, but Shannon and I waved it off, saying it was not a problem.
Our drinks came, and the waitress took our food orders. When she left the table, I said, “So, what do you guys think about continuing to travel together?”
Jason said, “Well, we haven’t talked about that at all, this is all still so new, but I can say for myself that I’m sure Holly and I will continue to travel, and I love traveling with you guys.” Holly said she agreed, and I smiled and said I did too.
Shannon added, “You guys are great road companions. I don’t see any reason we shouldn’t travel together.” She paused a moment, organizing her thoughts, “What I haven’t thought about, at all, is whether I want to continue partner swapping. Most of my brain says that doesn’t make sense any more, but there’s still a tiny part of me that says maybe since we’ve done it so long some swapping would still be nice.” She took my hand in hers and said, “I don’t know how I’ll end up feeling about it, and Mark and I haven’t begun to talk about it.”
Holly said, “I also don’t know about continuing to swap, but if you’re not ruling it out, I guess I won’t either, for now, anyway. Obviously, Jason and I also have a lot to think and talk about.”
Jason said, “A decision this big should be unanimous — if we’re going to continue swapping, all four of us should want to.”
I said, “Well, one thing I know is that I can’t decide anything tonight, it’s all too new. Except, it sounds like we all want to keep traveling together, right?” I looked around the table and got three firm nods. “Cool. With that thought in mind, I have an idea. I haven’t even told Shannon about this — we’ve had ‘other things’ on our minds…” I got three laughs.
I continued, “I’ve been looking at things to do in the ‘four corners’ region — its correct name is the Colorado Plateau, but many of the highlights are in southern Utah. A trip there would center around hiking, and we’d see some of the world’s most spectacular scenery. In two weeks we could visit as many as six National Parks in Colorado and Utah. They might not be as famous as Yellowstone or Yosemite, but if anything the scenery is more amazing.” I pulled up photos on my phone of those and some other locations and showed them what intrigued me about the area. It would be a different sort of trip for us, focusing on landscape rather than architecture and culture, but they all seemed to like the idea, and asked me to send them links to the sites I had shown them. We parted with hugs all around, congratulating each other on our breakthroughs as couples.
The following Friday at lunch, we agreed upon dates for the hiking trip. The sites we planned to visit are far enough apart it would be a true road trip. We would need to stay in multiple hotels, and we agreed we would get two separate rooms at every stop. We also agreed that we wouldn’t decide about partner swapping until later — “it’s all so new.”
: : : : :
M A R K : : : Shannon and I were spending weekends together, some at her apartment, some at mine. Over the next couple of weeks, we spent a lot of time researching activities and locations in our target area. Jason and Holly texted and emailed us sites that they liked. We found site after site that looked amazing, but we also found warning after warning that hotels and campsites fill up early, and that not having reservations could be a serious problem. To avoid possibly having the four of us sleeping in a rental car, it was obvious we needed to make reservations as soon as possible.
We met Holly and Jason after work and sketched out a loose, tentative itinerary. We had to make some broad assumptions about how long we’d spend at each locale, but in every case there would be more to do there than time to do it. It was exciting to be planning something so different from our usual trip. With dates and locations agreed upon, we went to work reserving rooms.
S H A N N O N : : : The towns we would be staying in were tiny, and although some of them had chain hotels, the name-brand places were more expensive and less interesting than the places we booked. Most of them were very old-school motels, the kind where it’s a single row of rooms and you pull your car right up to the door of your room.
The upside of such places is they cost less, and are charming. The downside is that almost all of them have zero flexibility in their cancelation policy. Every room we booked was non-refundable. Mark and I had our first disagreement as a couple. He thought we should use our credit cards to guarantee two rooms at each place. We’d get Jason and Holly to reimburse us as soon as possible. I thought we should only pay for our rooms, give Jason and Holly a list of which properties and dates we had booked, and leave it to them to get rooms at the same places.
He prevailed. I gave in, mainly because he made the point that there was a very real possibility that one or more of those places could fill up and have no room available by the time Jason and Holly tried to reserve them. The end result was, we used our credit cards to book the dates. Every one of them was non-refundable, but we reassured ourselves that wouldn’t be a problem. Holly and Jason would pay us back. We were going to have a great time.
M A R K : : : I started out thinking that now that we had broken the bubble and were now an official couple, of course we should no longer swap partners. I mean, duh, of course. That was obvious.
Except, part of me didn’t want to give it up. We had been doing it so long it felt natural and normal, and the more I thought about it, it didn’t necessarily violate our ‘couple-ness.’
I was reluctant to say that to Shannon, though. If she didn’t feel that way, saying that could be hurtful. I didn’t want to be the one who didn’t seem to be committed to us.
S H A N N O N : : : My mind went back and forth; the idea that we probably weren’t going to swap anymore felt odd. Logically, we were two formal couples now, not four individuals, and we shouldn’t swap anymore. We had been doing it for such a long time. Emotionally, however, it seemed okay to continue doing it. It shouldn’t threaten anything or anybody. I didn’t want to say that to Mark, though. I didn’t know if he felt the same way, and if he didn’t, I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. I didn’t want to be the one who didn’t take our new ‘couple’ status seriously.
J A S O N : : : Holly and I started spending more and more of our free time together. We always spent weekends at one of our apartments or the other, except when one of us had to work, which was often. Weeknights were even more complicated, since her department and mine worked somewhat different hours even when we weren’t working overtime. Also, our apartments were in opposite directions from the ZNN building downtown. Some weeks we spent a night or two together, some weeks none.
Over those first few weeks, Holly got more and more uptight about our travel plans. At first she denied it, but I could tell, and finally she admitted she had changed her mind about several important things.
H O L L Y : : : The more I thought about it, the more uncomfortable I became with the trip we were planning. It wasn’t the traveling. I love traveling, and Mark and Shannon are always interesting and fun to travel with. There couldn’t be any better travel companions than the two of them.
What bothered me was our history. It was simple: I no longer wanted to share Jason. I dearly love Mark as a friend, but I no longer wanted to sleep with him, even if all we did was sleep. We had all swapped partners so often, for such a long time, I feared that once we were out of town, some of us would still want to swap. I didn’t want to be under any pressure to do that. I hoped that if Jason and I skipped this trip, our new monogamy would be cemented more firmly in place, and we could resume traveling together later.
For now, I simply couldn’t find a way to be comfortable with this trip, even if each of the new couples had a separate room. Jason disagreed with me, and insisted we should go. He said that if we were ultra firm about our new boundaries, Mark and Shannon wouldn’t be difficult. It wasn’t that I was worried they would be unreasonable, I just felt extremely awkward about it. I finally brought him around to my side.
M A R K : : : The balance on Shannon’s and my credit cards for two weeks of hotel rooms was huge. When Holly and Jason backed out of the trip, I thought the correct thing for them to do would be to reimburse us for their half, even if they weren’t going to use the rooms.
They made no such offer. I understood the discomfort Holly felt that caused them to back out, although I mourned the loss of our travel partners. What I couldn’t understand in any way was their financial obliviousness. They were sticking us with paying for their half of the lodging as well as ours.
S H A N N O N : : : They stopped joining us for lunch. Maybe it was a heavy load at work, that wouldn’t be the first time. I thought that it was too much of a coincidence, though, considering their inaction over the money. And when a second week went by without their workload ‘easing up,’ I was sure they avoided us because they felt uncomfortable about leaving us holding all that expense.
One day, a little less than two weeks before we were going to fly out on our trip, Mark and I were almost finished with lunch. There were two empty seats across from us where Jason and Holly used to sit. I was ready to head back to the pressure cooker of my office when two people I didn’t know approached our table. I glanced at Mark. He didn’t seem to know them either. Their employee badges clearly identified them as ZNN staff. They were about our age and quite attractive. He was tall, clean-shaven and sandy-haired. She was almost as tall as him, blonde, and quite shapely. They both looked very fit, probably from regular hiking or running, or maybe from gym workouts.
Interestingly, neither one of them was carrying a food tray, so it didn’t look like they were there for lunch. She said, “Are you Mark? And Shannon?”
Mark said, “Yes,” and gestured at the empty chairs. They sat.
She said, “Hi, I’m Andrea, and this is Drew. I work with Holly.” She paused a moment to let that sink in.
Drew picked up the conversation. “Like the two of you, and Jason and Holly, we love to travel.”
Andrea said, “Holly told me about the trip the four of you had planned, and that she and Jason have had to back out due to her mom’s upcoming surgery.” I found it interesting that Holly had made up a cover story about why they were backing out.
Drew said, “She also told us about the non-cancelable hotel rooms.” He glanced at Andrea, and said, “We both can get time off for the dates of your trip…”
Andrea continued his sentence, “…and we love that part of the country. I hope you don’t mind, Holly shared your itinerary with me, and it looks fabulous. I’ve been to two of those National Parks…”
Drew finished her sentence, “…and I’ve been to one. I loved it. The others look fabulous, too.”
They glanced at each other, I think to decide who was going to ask the obvious question. Andrea did. “So, would you guys be open to a couple of strangers buying into your trip?”
Shannon and I stayed up late that night discussing it. We tried to call Holly to get her assurance that she thought we would be compatible enough with Andrea and Drew to be able to enjoy sharing our vacation with them. Her phone went straight to voicemail, though, and she never called us back.
We decided to go ahead with bringing these two strangers on-board. If we truly couldn’t stand them after a couple of days, we’d pick up a second rental car and spend the rest of the trip separately.
: : : : :
M A R K : : : We met them at happy hour after work the next day to firm up our plans. Shannon said, “Before we get started, I have a question.” They looked at each other like they knew what was coming… I didn’t have a clue. Shannon said, “Drew as in Andrew, right?” He grinned and nodded. Shannon laughed and said, “So, Andrew and Andrea? Um… Drew, is that why you’re not ‘Andy’? To avoid ‘Andy and Andrea’?”
Drew shook his head, and Andrea said, “He was already Drew when we met. We were on our second date when I pieced together that we have almost the same name. He says he had already realized it, but I have my doubts.” He grinned sheepishly. Obviously they had explained this to new acquaintances multiple times, and had their explanation down to a standard routine. He picked up the narrative, “We’ve been together a year and a half now, and her mother still thinks it’s hilarious. She calls us ‘the Andys.’ I prefer to spell it ‘Andes,’ like the mountains in South America.”
With that out of the way, and a round of drinks in front of us, we talked about the trip. They gave us checks to cover the hotel expenses. Drew said, “Obviously the dates the hotels are booked determine the overall itinerary, but within that, how tightly have you scheduled what you’re going to do when?”
I said, “We like to stay flexible. We’ve compiled a list of places we want to see and things we want to do. Most of our target sites are near one of the hotels, usually less than an hour of driving. The few that aren’t near one hotel are clearly on the way from one place to the next.”
Shannon continued, “We’ve divided the sights we want to see into groups according to which hotel they’re near. Other than that, we like to leave it so we are free to do something else we discover later, and also bail out of anything that isn’t turning out to be as interesting as we expected.”
Drew replied, “Great, because there’s a place I’ve been wanting to go to that I think we should add to the list. It’s right in between two of the hotels, so it should be convenient to slot into the running order.” He told us about Hovenweep National Monument, which like Mesa Verde National Park, is about abandoned Native American adobe ruins rather than spectacular scenery. It looked amazing; it was a no-brainer to add it to the list.
Shannon said, “There’s only one remaining question I can think of. We’ve rented a four-door Jeep Wrangler for the duration of the trip. It’s plenty big for the four of us, if you guys don’t bring too much luggage.”
We need not have worried. Before we departed, they gave us some amazing tips on how to pack more lightly and compactly. Mark and I each had the smallest amount of luggage we ever had, and Andrea and Drew were as space-efficient as we were. We ended up with room to spare in the back of the Jeep.
: : : : :
M A R K : : : Andrea and Drew were fabulous to travel with. They were super upbeat, they enjoyed everywhere we went, and were hugely helpful in organizing our daily excursions. They suggested places we hadn’t heard of that turned out to be great, and they never argued when we took the lead.
We started in Colorado at Mesa Verde National Park and worked westward, hitting Hovenweep and each of the ‘big five’ National Parks in Utah: Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Zion, and Bryce Canyon. In between the big destinations, we took side trips to some ‘lesser’ canyons and waterfalls. I say ‘lesser’ in quotation marks because they were every bit as awesome as the National Parks, just not as famous. As a bonus, they were also not as crowded.
In the evening, and by that I mean every evening, Shannon and I were quite active, as only a new couple can be. Each night began with a fresh exploration of each other’s bodies, focusing, of course, on the sensitive bits. At first I thought it was all familiar territory. Delightful, but familiar. I had ‘been with’ her dozens of times. I knew what her boobs responded to and what they didn’t like, and I knew exactly how to excite her pussy. I didn’t think there was anything new to discover. I was so wrong.
It turned out there were plenty of new things. Before, these little details hadn’t been important enough for a casual hook-up to know, even a frequent casual hook-up. Now those same details were worth sharing with a more serious partner. Things such as, she loved having her back scratched with the backs of my fingernails as lightly as I possibly could. She had erogenous zones I had never heard of: she loved having the inner parts of her forearms stroked from her wrist to her elbow super lightly, and she loved having me kiss the inner backs of her knees.
I already knew that she loves to receive oral, but I never realized that she loves giving oral as much as I do, maybe even nearly as much as I love receiving it. Talk about your win-win! I also didn’t know that even though we had done sixty-nine many times during our trips, she doesn’t like it at all. “When I’m blowing you,” she said, “I want to concentrate on blowing you. I can’t do you as well when I’m dividing my attention between your cock and what your tongue does to me. And when you eat me,” she added, “I want to be able to enjoy that fully without worrying about keeping your dick entertained.” I couldn’t have agreed more.
Becoming exclusive awakened her inner tigress. Now she showed an enthusiasm, an eagerness, a ferocity, that was off the charts. She continually amazed me. I actually began to wonder if, for the first time in my life, my partner’s sex drive might exceed mine.
One afternoon, we had planned two fairly major hikes for the day. The scenery at the first one was so spectacular, though, we spent far longer there than we had planned. When we got back to the car, there obviously wasn’t anywhere near enough daylight remaining to try to do the second hike. While we were all loading our backpacks into the Jeep, Shannon fired up the GPS app on her phone. “Hey, everyone,” she chirped, “on the way back to the hotel we go right past a hot spring. Looks like a 10- or 15-minute drive down a gravel road, then about a 10-minute hike. The hot spring gets a rating of 4.8 out of five stars from over a thousand reviews.”
We agreed it sounded like a great way to finish the afternoon.
S H A N N O N : : : I naively assumed that the hot spring would just be another stunning sight to see. We’d hike to it, be awed by its natural beauty, and return to the Jeep. That’s how every side trip we had already taken went. I assumed we wouldn’t get in the water because none of us had bathing suits or towels.
When we got there, we had a couple of surprises. The first was, the hot spring was spectacularly un-beautiful. It was the plainest terrain we had seen since we started, nothing but a tiny flow of water seeping up out of the ground. It didn’t even bubble or gurgle. The water formed a tiny streamlet which flowed down a long slab of slightly sloping slickrock into a creek. There were a few very plain drops of a foot or so, not even interesting enough to be called mini-waterfalls. There was some bland vegetation around the creek at the bottom, and nothing else to entertain the eye.
The only thing of any interest at all was, previous visitors had stacked rocks into a series of large-ish rings at some of those drops in the slickrock. They were somehow sealed to hold the water in without much leaking, creating shallow pools, about the depth of children’s inflatable backyard splash pools, and twice as big around. There were five or six in all. The water from the spring flowed into the first one, from there into a second one, and so on.
M A R K : : : Our second surprise was, the pools contained more than water. The largest one, in the middle, contained several people. It looked like two couples and two more women, by their body language all traveling together. I wondered for a moment if they had come prepared with swimsuits. Piles of clothes and a quick glance at their bodies indicated they were naked.
I worried briefly that we were intruding on their privacy, but one of the women eased that by saying, “C’mon in, we have no secrets here.” The man who seemed paired with her pointed at the first pool nearest the spring and said, “The first one is the hottest, then they get cooler as the water flows downhill. That first one is way too hot. The one at the bottom is barely warm. This one here is just right. C’mon in, there’s plenty of room.”
S H A N N O N : : : The pools were out in open, almost flat terrain. They weren’t shielded by any sort of cliffs or canyon walls. You could see for what was probably miles in all directions — while we were standing we could still see a tiny dot of color that was the Jeep at the trailhead. I really didn’t want to show my naked body to those strangers, or Drew and Andrea either. I also didn’t want to be the only prude who didn’t indulge, though, so I gave in to peer pressure and took my clothes off. There was no shelter, no plants or rocks to hide behind, so we all stripped out in the open. The folks already in the pool didn’t stare, but they didn’t look away, either. And there were Andrea and Drew, too, who we barely knew.
I tried not to look like I was rushing into the water to hide my body, but I didn’t linger, either. None of the four of us dallied any, except possibly Andrea. She took her sweet time stripping. I can’t say for sure that she intentionally made her body available for viewing for an extra-long time, but let’s just say it never takes me that long to wrap my hair up into a bun.
The other people had been scattered around the perimeter of the ‘just right’ pool when we arrived, but while we undressed they slid around to one side leaving the four of us a nice empty spot to settle into together. The result was, we didn’t interact with them much. They carried on their conversations, we carried on ours.
M A R K : : : The pool wasn’t quite deep enough to sit comfortably with shoulders submerged. To my delight, when Shannon and Andrea settled in, the water only came up to the underside of their boobs. Their breasts (and the other four women’s) were the only ‘scenery’ in the area.
When I first lowered myself into the water, it felt too freakin’ hot. I watched in dismay as the others settled in and seemed comfortable. After barely a minute, though, the warmth soaked into my muscles and felt deeply soothing. Places I didn’t even realize were sore stopped aching, and I felt deeply relaxed. I wondered if the water had some natural minerals in it that heightened the relief. That thought required too much effort; I settled back and simply enjoyed how it felt.
Before very long the other people got out. It would be snarky to say that they were older than us and not as fit. They didn’t have any towels, but it turned out they didn’t need them. They simply sat on the edge of the next stone ring and let the open air dry them off. It was so arid it only took a few minutes. They got dressed, we all wished each other safe travels, and they were gone.
We had no other plans after that, so we soaked for a nice long while. Even though we’d been on the road with ‘the Andes’ for over a week, there were many ‘getting to know you’ stories we hadn’t shared, such as how we met our partners. The soothing hot water was an excellent place for such conversation. Interestingly, Andrea and Drew met almost exactly like Shannon and I did, in the large food court at work.
S H A N N O N : : : When we were ready to get out, Andrea was definitely the first to stand. I can’t say for sure that she stood still, without turning her back, a little longer than necessary, but she definitely let all the water drip off her before she stepped out. Mark and I had been on an earlier trip where we ended up naked in semi-public a couple of times, so we’re not as shy as most people, but Andrea seemed almost eager for her body to be seen.
M A R K : : : I must admit, my eyes sometimes have a mind of their own… I can’t help it. They are enchanted by the sight of an attractive woman. The more skin showing, the more I am unable to look away. On the rare occasion that there are naked boobs, or bare ass, or an exposed muff, such as there at the hot spring, I am practically helpless. It takes a superhuman effort not to gawk, and I try, but I almost always fail.
Andrea was very pretty fully dressed, but she radiated a special aura with her clothes off. She just stood there, full frontal, looking good, for such a long time. My eyes uncontrollably zeroed in on her like a moth to a flame. I was afraid Shannon was going to be aggravated with me for staring at her. I always say, “I’m only reading the menu, I’m not going to order,” but I didn’t need to say that this time. She was too busy gawking at Drew to be offended by me.
S H A N N O N : : : I thought by now I only had eyes for Mark, with a situational exception for Jason. I caught myself, though, enjoying how good Drew looked as he stood in the water. I pulled my eyeballs back into my head so I wouldn’t have to use Mark’s line about ‘only reading the menu’ back at him.
When we got out, we followed the other people’s example and simply sat out in the open. The humidity was so low, we were bone-dry in a few short minutes. I did notice that Andrea was the last to finish getting her clothes on.
: : : : :
S H A N N O N : : : Because we skipped our second major hike that day, we got back to our hotel earlier than usual, even with the side trip to the hot spring. That evening was our last night at that particular inn. We were going to leave before dawn the next morning to drive to our next destination.
This hotel was very rustic, on a large lot that ran from the road all the way down to a large creek. It had picnic tables and grills in a common area. The guys left on a store run to get charcoal and ingredients for burgers. The air was wonderfully cool but not chilly, there was a soul-stirring breeze, and the late-afternoon sun cast an array of amazing colors onto the cotton-ball clouds. I was still very relaxed from the hot spring.
Andrea said, “Holly was really drunk when she told me about you guys and this trip.”
“Really? Holly? That’s not like her.”
“I told you I work with her. She had a terrible day at work. Actually, it was our boss who had a terrible day. She took it out on everyone in our department, but Holly bore the brunt of her verbal abuse. I’ve never seen Holly so down in the dumps. I took her to happy hour that evening. I just intended to help her relax over a drink or two. I didn’t expect her to tie one on like she did. It turned out that more was bothering her than our boss being a flaming douche. She was afraid that she and Jason had alienated you and Mark, and that your friendships were in trouble.”
I was surprised. “I don’t know what to say. I admit, we were irritated with them, but they avoided us. I’m sure they felt awkward about all that money for the hotels. We weren’t going to let it threaten our friendships, but since we never saw them, we never got to tell them that while we were aggravated in the short term, it wasn’t friendship-threatening.” Andrea nodded that she understood, but as we talked she had a certain gleam in her eye and a lilt in her voice that got me wondering what else Holly might have said while she was drunk…
Later, as Drew turned the burgers one final time and Mark set out an array of condiments, Andrea said, out of the blue, “I have to say, Holly had been telling me since I met her how great the two of you are to travel with. Holly may not always be right, but she was right this time.”
She grinned and glanced at Drew, who nodded his head in agreement. He said, “We’re having a fabulous time with you guys. I love how the trip is organized but loose. We have an overall itinerary, but we’re flexible within it. Like the hot spring this afternoon, that was fun.” I had a feeling they were leading up to a particular topic. I also had a feeling I knew what that topic was.
M A R K : : : It seemed like Drew and Andrea were setting us up to talk about partner swapping. I wasn’t sure I was ready to even consider that; I definitely wasn’t ready to discuss it with them. Shannon and I were doing so well as a monogamous couple, I didn’t want to do anything that could mess that up. Now that they had me thinking about it, though, I vividly remembered how many trips we had swapped with Holly and Jason. It had kind of become ‘normal,’ but most important, we never had any drama.
S H A N N O N : : : The Andes seemed to know we used to couple-swap with Jason and Holly. The only way that could be is if Holly had told Andrea. I couldn’t imagine that Holly would have revealed that, even falling-down drunk. They didn’t actually say the words, but they sure seemed to be implying that they would be open to trying it.
I wasn’t sure what I thought about that. Mark and I were thriving as an exclusive couple, and I didn’t want to do anything that could upset that. However, we had swapped with Holly and Jason for such a long time without anyone getting hurt, so maybe…
M A R K : : : Later on, back in our room, Shannon caught me staring at her face. I had been thinking about how gorgeous she is, but also how her beauty is so much more than skin deep. I felt incredibly lucky that she seems to enjoy being with me as much as I like being with her. However, seeing Andrea naked this afternoon had me intrigued with the idea of swapping with them, and I wondered if it would hurt her feelings if I said so. I had an inkling that maybe it wouldn’t — I had seen how she gawked at Drew like I had ogled Andrea. Even so, I had just about decided that it wasn’t worth taking a chance and I wouldn’t say anything, but she made eye contact and said, “What?”
“What do you mean, ‘what?'”
“What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing, really… What are you thinking about?”
“Just what you said, nothing.”
A couple of moments of silence later, she said, “I wonder if my ‘nothing’ is the same ‘nothing’ that you’re ‘not’ thinking about. Look, if I wanted to say something…”
I continued her thought, “… if either one of us wanted to say something, neither one of us would want what we said to be taken the wrong way, or…”
She finished the sentence, “…or anyone’s feelings to be hurt.”
We sat in silence for a second. I decided to get straight to the point. I said, practically whispering, “How do we know whether it’s okay if we don’t try?”
S H A N N O N : : : I grinned at his directness, but also that he said out loud exactly what I was thinking. There it was: we were both intrigued with the Andes, but neither of us was willing to be the first to say it. Abruptly cutting to the chase like he did probably saved us ten or twenty minutes of beating around the bush. I smiled bigger and said, “That’s exactly what I ‘wasn’t’ thinking.”
We talked a while longer, but we were so closely aligned all we did is verify that we agreed on several key things. First, neither of us had hinted, teased, or done anything to lead the Andes into this. I was as surprised as Mark was that they knew about our history. This was all them, in response to whatever Holly had told them.
M A R K : : : Second, if we were going to try it out, it was from a sense of adventure, definitely not any dissatisfaction with each other.
Third, most important to me, and Shannon said it was to her also, was that neither one of us would get our feelings hurt. I was only willing to try this if Shannon was 100 percent okay with it, and she said the same about me.
Finally, neither one of us would make the first move. They would have to bring it up if it was going to happen.
S H A N N O N : : : It didn’t take long. Since day one of the trip, whenever we drove any longer than a couple of hours, we all took turns driving, especially when we had a long drive and started early. That next morning, we left before sunrise. I was driving, with Andrea riding shotgun. She had our route loaded in the GPS on her phone, and for the first half-hour on the road she navigated, guiding our path through some rather obscure rural roads until we were on a two-lane highway and our next turn was over an hour away. It was so early Mark and Drew went back to sleep in the back seat. When I had the cruise control set, she said, “Holly told me this amazing story about a hotel screwing up multiple reservations, and how it put the four of you in one room with only two beds. She also said the four of you did more than sleep that night.”
I assumed she was leading up to suggesting that Mark and I swap with her and Drew. I interrupted her spiel before she even got there.
“Our situation is different now. We did the switch partners thing because none of us wanted to be paired up. That was several years ago. In that time I’ve realized that I do want to be paired up with Mark. What Holly told you about her mother’s surgery isn’t true. She and Jason-”
Andrea interrupted me, “Yeah, I figured that out. Once Drew and I bought into this trip she forgot to pretend any more that she was worried about her mom.”
I nodded. She continued, “The last thing either one of us would want to do is disrupt anything between you and Mark. Drew and I are not ‘swingers.’ Not that there’s anything wrong with that lifestyle… We just find you and Mark really attractive, and, well, what Holly told me sounded freakin’ hot. We wouldn’t normally consider such a thing, but I told Drew that I keep thinking about how exciting it could be to switch partners a time or two. He said he agrees. I hope that doesn’t seem sleazy.”
I said, “We think you guys are attractive, too. I’ll just say for now, maybe let’s not rule anything out. Mark and I need to talk about it. Give us a night or two to work it out.”
She nodded, and we moved on to other topics.
: : : : :
M A R K : : : A couple of nights later, I said, “This feels awkward.”
Andrea sat on the foot of the queen-size bed in her and Drew’s room and said “Yeah, I’m glad you said that, it does.” She stood and said, “We don’t have to do anything. It’s okay if we don’t.”
I started to explain, but she cut me off and said “Mark, I’m serious, no pressure. Relax.” She smiled, stood, and said, “I’m taking a shower.”
Ten minutes later, she stepped out of the bathroom, wearing nothing but a towel… around her damp hair. I must have gawked at her naked body.
She said, “What? You saw me naked at the hot spring. I sleep this way.”
I showered. I stood in the hot spray for a long time, overthinking how I should exit the bathroom. If I was naked, it might seem I was encouraging sex, and I didn’t think I wanted to do that. But if I wore pajama bottoms or wrapped in a towel, I might look ‘judgy’ about what she did. I finally decided to go for naked.
There’s a certain ‘glow’ my body gets when it realizes that it’s going to be uncovered in front of another person. It felt different at the hot spring. That was gradual, one piece of clothing at a time, building up to being completely naked. Plus, everyone else was undressing at the same time. They were in their own zone of what it felt like to reveal themselves, with all their own personal layers of shyness to distract them. Here, now, when I opened the door, Andrea would be looking straight at me. The rational part of my brain had dozens of reasons I didn’t need to worry about it, but it was overruled by the part that seemed to want me to be paralyzingly nervous.
I needn’t have worried. When I turned the knob and pulled the door open, the room was dark. Andrea was lying still, breathing deeply — she was already asleep. That was a huge relief. I didn’t have to make any decisions about what to do or not do. I slipped into bed as gently as I could so I wouldn’t disturb her.
I happened to be falling asleep facing her, and she happened to be facing away from me. The bed was large enough to allow a reasonable, chaste gap between us. She stirred in her sleep and turned over, now facing me. Her feet and forearms bumped mine, and that woke her. “Oh, hi,” she said.
She slid over and initiated a hug. I must have tensed. She said, “It’s just a hug. I hope you don’t mind. I’m a hugger. Being way over there without touching felt so distant and cold. We can ‘spoon’ while we sleep without doing anything sexual.”
She paused, choosing her words carefully. “Let me just say, it’s obvious how much you and Shannon love each other. I would never want to do anything that would threaten that. And I love Drew, deeply. Nothing you and I could possibly do is going to change that.”
Those were perfect things to say, and I relaxed into her hug. In addition to arms around each other’s backs, we intertwined our legs. Before long, even though I didn’t intend to, I was fully hard. I couldn’t help it; she was, after all, a very lovely creature, and she was so naked. As we shifted around, getting our body parts perfectly braided together, my boner pressed against her upper thigh. I was sure she noticed.
“Mark?” she said.
“Yes?”
“In case you haven’t already noticed, I’m weird.”
I had no idea how to respond to that. I started to say something blandly reassuring like ‘Everyone I know is either weird or boring,’ but she cut me off. “Don’t worry, it’s okay. I’ve been the way I am for a long time. I realize it, I’m used to it, and I accept it. When I was younger I used to try to hide how different I am, but in the long run it simply took too much effort. Pretending to be ‘normal’ all the time was exhausting. It’s much easier to just be okay with being odd.”
I wondered where she was going with this line of talk. She continued, “You seem to be a no-bullshit kind of guy, so I’ll just say it: I know it can be uncomfortable for a guy to get hard and not do anything about it. I sense that you’d feel disloyal to Shannon if we fucked, and I’m okay with that. But, uh, I wonder if, um, if you’d let me blow you. See, I know this is super odd, but I’d really like to just give you some relief right now. I hate hand jobs, they’re so cold and impersonal; sucking you off is the best way I know short of fucking. Then we could hug some more until we fall asleep.”
I had no idea what to say, so I didn’t answer right away. I didn’t think the state of my libido was her problem to solve. She took my silence to mean I needed to be sold on the idea. “I’ve been told I’m a really good cocksucker…”
My thoughts bounced around the inside of my head like a pinball. The end result was I didn’t say no, or at least I hadn’t said no yet. She took that as a yes. She crawled down the bed and took me into her mouth.
She felt freaking incredible. Once her mouth surrounded me, so soft, so warm, saying ‘no’ was impossible.
I hadn’t been with anyone but Shannon and Holly for several years. I had forgotten how different each girl’s mouth feels, and how exciting that is. It’s not that Andrea’s mouth felt better than Shannon’s, it didn’t, but its newness gave it a distinct thrill.
She was quite energetic and enthusiastic. She held the base of my cock steady with her thumb and forefinger but did all the stroking with her mouth, with plenty of suction. Unfortunately, after only a few strokes, she lifted off. I groaned in frustration. Despite my uncertainty mere moments ago, I was afraid she had changed her mind. She hadn’t; she just wanted to say, “Just lie back and have fun. You don’t have to worry about taking care of me afterward, I’ll be fine. I bet your cum is going to taste awesome. I’m going to enjoy swallowing it almost as much as you’ll enjoy letting it go.” My cock jumped and became even harder at the words ‘taste’ and ‘swallow.’
To be brutally honest, she didn’t turn out to be ‘really good’ like she claimed. Not at all, not even close.
She was better, much better. She was damn good. She did some amazing things with her tongue, and she had crazy stamina. She sucked so hard, so steady, at such a manic pace, she got me right on the edge of cumming, but then she had such an intuitive, balanced touch that she was able to keep me there. I nearly came early on, but once I got past that initial urge she settled me into a zone of steady bliss. I lasted what felt like forever. She didn’t miss a beat, all with her mouth, barely touching me with her hands.
The only ‘break’ she took was every minute or so she would change from a fast regular tempo to a few long, slow, deep strokes. She didn’t take me all the way down her throat, but I could feel my cockhead nestle between her tonsils, then she’d pull all the way out to the very tip. She would take me in slow and deep for two, three, sometimes four strokes, then resume fast and steady. Each time she did that, even though I already felt like what she was doing felt as freaking good as was possible, when she went back to her regular quicker pace, it felt even better.
It was during one of the slow and deep parts that I couldn’t hold back any more. When she felt the first burst of cum erupt into her mouth she changed her focus from stroking my entire length to concentrating on my tip. She kept a strong suction going and sped up her tempo. Her tongue cradled my cock from below, and her lips practically vibrated over my tip and the first couple of inches. I felt like I floated up off the bed. She didn’t completely stop when I finished squirting, she knew enough to ease her suction and tempo, gently settling me back down to earth.
After a long moment, she said, “Thanks for letting me do that. I couldn’t help myself. Your cock is such a nice one.” I was still on my back, my head elevated on a wadded-up pillow. She eased up beside me and tucked in, resting her head on my shoulder. We lay that way for several minutes while I caught my breath.
After the great job she did, there was no way I could just turn over and go to sleep. I needed to return the favor, show her the same oral excitement she showed me.
What I said earlier about new girls’ mouths, that’s also true with pussies. They’re all different, and it’s always exciting to explore a new one.
Hers was nice, a bit ‘lippier’ than Shannon’s or Holly’s, and my tongue had great fun playing with it. I didn’t do anything different to her than I usually do to Shannon, or did to Holly. I worked her slit from bottom to top with my tongue, pushing a tiny bit deeper between her outer lips each trip. At the top of each stroke, I surrounded her clit with my lips, vibrating the tip of my tongue across it, sucking on the soft flesh surrounding it, a little more deeply each trip before I’d disconnect and start again just above her taint. She seemed to like it. More than ‘like’ it actually. She softly rocked and rolled her hips up against my face, and gently stroked my scalp with her nails.
It didn’t seem to take her long to cum, but I was enjoying myself so it actually might have been awhile. She was magnificent. I had my hands resting flat on the outer curve of her upper thighs, and I felt her muscles there become rock hard. The gentle rocking of her hips became a frantic vibration. She arched her back and her neck, she grabbed and squeezed huge handfuls of sheet, and her boobs shook with the sweetest wavy ripples. A deep, guttural rasp escaped her mouth, almost a growl. Her orgasmic shudder lasted an amazing long time, every muscle in her body flexing and releasing together. With the last iota of energy she had, she pulled me up beside her. She snuggled her face into my shoulder. I cradled the back of her head and palmed the small of her back.
She lay still, motionless except for breathing heavily. After a couple of minutes, she felt my hard-on brush her thigh. She said, “Damn, boy, you’re ready for more?”
I answered, trying not to sound defensive, “I can’t help it, I find a woman cumming on my face very arousing.”
She stared at me like she had just noticed I was a pink and purple unicorn and had just farted a rainbow. She said, in a barely audible, sultry tone, “Shannon is one lucky girl. I hope she realizes it…”
She started to move around like she was going to blow me again, but I said, “Don’t worry about it, I’m fine.” I pulled her into a hug to keep her from blowing me. She pushed me onto my back and arranged herself on top of me, her legs folded froggy-style on either side of my hips, her chest resting flush on top of mine.
“Okay,” she said, “if you’re sure you don’t…” but she ran out of energy before she finished.
She lay still. I thought she had fallen asleep on top of me. My hard-on was trapped between her tummy and mine, but it would relax in a minute or two. She began rocking her hips, though, so subtle it took me a few moments to notice. Her outer lips were perfectly centered on my shaft, and her clit rubbed directly on my sensitive underside. Her rocking motion grew and she got into it, sliding across more and more of my length.
I barely had to shift anything to guide my tip into her. She mumbled, “Wait, we weren’t going to fuck.”
I answered, “That was before… um.. before… shit, I don’t know what it was before.” I pushed up into her, inch after inch of her channel enveloping me in intense wet heat. She was so ready that even though she was delightfully tight, I buried my entire length into her in one long, slow push. I grasped her hips and ground the base of my cock into her clit. She, um, she felt incredible.
She stared into my eyes and said, “Would you be okay letting me drive?” That wasn’t what I had in mind, but I nodded.
She raised up and braced herself with her hands on my shoulders. She began rocking her hips, long, slow, and deep. Her eyes lost focus and she shut them half-way. Her mouth came half open, and she tilted her head forward, her hair drooping, hiding her face. Then she stalled and held still.
She rearranged her legs slightly, getting everything in perfect position. I thought I had been bottomed out in her, as deep as I could go, but with her body realigned I actually slid in a bit deeper. She resumed rocking her hips, sensuously sliding up off of me, then easing me back into her. Her channel was so welcoming, so warm, it felt like molten velvet. At first I hoped she was going to speed up, but how she straddled me, and the way she slid her pussy on and off me, long, slow, and deep was perfect.
She was a force of nature, the perfect sexual storm. She thrust over me harder and harder. Her focus on her pussy enveloping my cock was absolute except for one brief moment, when she located my hands and placed them on her tits. I cupped them and squeezed them, earning deep, raspy moans, but she responded the loudest when I softly rubbed her nipples between my fingertips.
Cumming in her was the last thing I remember.
The next thing I knew I was waking up. My dick had slipped out of her. As a single two-headed organism we had rolled onto our sides, our arms and legs still interwoven. She stirred enough to turn over, snuggle her back into my front, and pull my arm over her waist and nestle it between her boobs, holding my hand in hers. The bedside clock said only 2 a.m., so I went back to sleep.
When I woke up again, dawn light was leaking through the hotel drapes. For a few moments, I was disoriented and couldn’t tell where I was. All I knew was I wasn’t in my and Shannon’s room. Then I realized that it was Andrea asleep beside me, breathing deep and slow. It was 6:15 in the morning. My mind couldn’t seem to get past that weird, groggy zone between fully asleep and partly awake. I could tell I was going to toss and turn for awhile even if I did make it back to sleep, so I slipped out of bed as stealthily as possible.
This hotel had free breakfast in its quaint old lobby, with orange and apple juice, fresh fruit, those little single-serve boxes of cereal, muffins, frozen waffles and white, wheat, and cinnamon bread with a toaster, but most important, coffee. I poured two cups. I didn’t remember how Andrea took hers, so I took a couple of packets of sugar, the same number of both the pink and yellow packets of sweeteners, and a couple of those little cup-lets of creamer with the peel-off lids. As I headed back to the room, I saw Drew coming the other way, with an ‘I can’t believe I’m up this early’ look on his face, probably similar to my own expression.
“Hey,” he said. “You wanna go back to your room, and I’ll go back to mine?”
I must have looked at him questioningly, so he explained, “It’s all good either way, I just thought…”
I said, “Uh, yeah, that’s a good idea.” We exchanged room keys. “We’ll see you guys in a little while.”
I entered my and Shannon’s room. She was fast asleep. I took a quick shower, as quietly as I could. She slept through it. I dried off and crawled under the covers beside her. I tried to be subtle and not wake her, but I did spoon into her back. She barely stirred, not even opening her eyes, and turned over. I could tell the exact moment when she realized it was me and not Drew. She gifted me with the sweetest smile I’d ever seen, wrapped me in her arms and legs, and nuzzled her face into my shoulder. I felt like I had returned home after a long, lonely absence. Her hugs and kisses were warm and deep.
S H A N N O N : : : A little more sleep would have been nice, but it was barely thirty minutes before the alarm was set to go off.
I teased him. “So, how was she?”
He stammered, “Oh, she, um, she was, uh…”
I smiled and said, “Sorry, that was mean. I’m not really going to put you on the spot like that.”
He looked relieved and nodded. I continued, “At first, I wasn’t going to do anything; hug him back if he started it, and nothing else. I took my shower first. After the hot spring, I couldn’t decide whether to wear a t-shirt out of the bathroom, or be naked.”
Mark looked like he was going to jump in, but I held up my hand in the universal ‘stop’ gesture. “It turned out I hadn’t brought a t-shirt into the bathroom. I wasn’t going to put my dirty clothes back on, or wrap in a damp towel, so that meant naked. When Drew finished his shower, he also came to bed naked. We turned out the light, and again, I intended to only go to sleep. But not touching at all seemed rude, so we hugged. At first it was kind of a brother-and-sister hug, but as they say, ‘One thing led to another.’ Full disclosure: I blew him, he ate me, and we fucked. He’s an excellent lover, by the way. I confess, I came on his face, he came in my mouth, I came twice on his dick, and he came in me.”
I couldn’t tell how Mark was taking that. I said, hoping I didn’t sound as nervous as I felt, “I hope that’s not a problem.”
He left me hanging for what was probably only a few seconds, but felt like an eternity. I think that was probably his revenge for my snarky “how was she” question a minute ago. Then he smiled and said, “I also wasn’t going to do anything intimate with Andrea, but I confess too, ‘one thing led to another’ for us as well. We ended up doing all those things. So, no, not a problem.”
Then he said nothing. I wanted to ask, just to be sure, ‘So are we okay, then?’ but just like when we saw Jason and Holly at the restaurant, I couldn’t think of a neutral way to ask the question. Silence hung between us, for so long it started to feel ominous.
He finally said, “Here’s the thing, though. She isn’t you.”
I paused a second and said, “And Drew isn’t you.” We fell into a hug, an intense kiss, and then ‘one thing led to another’ all over again. It was the best ‘another’ I had in a long time. I think the Andes were late meeting us for our day’s plans, but I’m not sure, because we were also late.
M A R K : : : The rest of the trip was uneventful, by comparison, anyway. We saw some amazing sights. We got up super early one morning in order to go to a particular natural arch that we had read about. The sun came up dead center under the arch, showing some spectacular scenery underneath. I got a photo of the sun barely peeking up over the horizon, lighting up the underside of the arch in nature’s vivid colors. The photo turned out so good, I had it enlarged to nearly poster size and framed. It’s hanging in my living room. Everyone who sees it can’t believe it’s a photo and not a painting.
Shannon and I fucked like bunnies every night. We couldn’t get enough of each other.
S H A N N O N : : : One afternoon we found ourselves at another hot spring. This one was as pretty as the first one was plain. We never saw where the water came up out of the ground, but it flowed down a series of natural pools in craggy rock before it disappeared into a small, lushly wooded canyon. One pool, about halfway down the slope, had a well-worn path through some smallish trees to its edge. Water cascaded into it across a wide shelf of rocks, falling three or four feet. It was the perfect almost-too-hot temperature, and just large enough for four people. It looked deep but that was an optical illusion. It actually turned out to be shallow, but deep enough to lie in, barely. No one else was there. We got naked, of course, Andrea displaying herself the most unabashedly. Of course.
It was heaven. After all the hiking we had done, there wasn’t a muscle in my body that didn’t ache. The heat from the water soaked into my bones and began to do its magic. Soreness eased, and stiffness loosened. It was so soothing that even light conversation seemed like too much effort.
I opened my eyes and looked around. I saw three bodies posed exactly the same as mine: legs stretched straight out, arms casually resting at their sides, heads leaned gently back, eyes shut. In other words, pure relaxation.
I stifled a small chuckle as I noticed my and Andrea’s breasts, and Mark’s and Drew’s flaccid dicks, all bobbing at the surface of the water, lazily floating, swaying gently back and forth with whatever micro-currents coursed through the water from the spring’s flow.
: : : : :
M A R K : : : We got home Saturday night. Maybe we could have had one more day of vacation, but we learned long ago that we do better having a full day of rest and recovery before going back to work on Monday.
We stayed together at my apartment. Two weeks on the road with someone can be very stressful, and reveal weaknesses in getting along that had gone unnoticed yet. You might think that wouldn’t apply to Shannon and me. We had traveled together before, many times, but never as a couple, and that made the dynamic between us completely different. It’s not exaggerating to say that in a very real way this was our first trip together. After two weeks on the road with her, I’m happy to say I felt closer to her than ever. Based on the sex we had the night we got home, and the cuddling as we fell asleep, and both of those things again when we woke up Sunday morning, she felt the same way.
Jason phoned me late Sunday morning. He and Holly invited us to dinner that evening. It was time well spent. We discussed the hotel money, and they said they didn’t reimburse us immediately because they thought Andrea and Drew were going to approach us sooner than they did about taking the trip with us. We described how the Andes had approached us about swapping, and Holly admitted being so drunk that she told Andrea about our history of partner swapping. She apologized for being so indiscreet. Shannon and I admitted that we had in fact swapped with the Andes the one time, but that it hadn’t felt right and we had no intention of doing it again.
Once we had cleared the air about those things, everything else was easy. We agreed that our next trip would be the four of us, two hotel rooms, no swapping. We discussed possibly including the Andes, expanding our traveling cadre to a six-some, but we agreed not to decide that until later.
Sunday evening, back at my place, as Shannon and I undressed for bed, she said, “I’m glad we’re back on good terms with Holly and Jason. I didn’t like being tense with them.”
I nodded that I agreed and said, “They seem really happy together.”
S H A N N O N : : : I tucked my head into his shoulder and said, “Not as happy as we are.”
The muscles in his chest flexed slightly against my cheek as he nodded that he agreed. He said, “Do you like the idea of including the Andes in future trips?”
I thought about it a minute and said, “I don’t know. It might be fun to have a third couple. Our trip with them was pretty complex, and they were pleasant the entire time. My only hesitation is I wouldn’t want them to press us any more about swapping.”
He said, “I wondered if they were going to suggest it again, especially after we all got naked at that second hot spring.”
I said, “Yeah, I wondered that too,” and paused. “I’m glad they didn’t. I think they were probably waiting for us to suggest it. If so, I guess they were disappointed.”
He nodded again that he agreed and paused, pondering his next words. “Do you have any second thoughts about what we did?”
“Not a bit. You?”
“Nope. I’m glad we did it once. If we hadn’t, I’m pretty sure I’d be wondering.”
“Yeah, me too. Now we know.”
He closed that topic with a kiss, which I returned enthusiastically. It started easy and gentle, but quickly morphed into something deeper. He helped himself to a handful of tit. I pushed him onto his back and straddled him, supporting myself with my hands on his shoulders. I didn’t guide him into me yet, trapping his hard-on between my groin and his abdomen. I pressed my clit down against him, lighting me up with all sorts of bright, sparkly sensations. He slid both hands down my back, across my waist to my ass, and massaged it.
After that, let’s just say that one thing led to another…
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