Lauren was nestled into Rachel on the couch. Al watched them both from the kitchen. He'd completely forgotten the pasta he was making. It just sat in the pan off the heat. Suddenly he didn't feel hungry, even though it was after work and he normally ate at this time. The air felt charged, and he found himself crossing over to the armchair to face them, suddenly weak in the knees. Lauren had come here for another reason. He could tell from the way she was working herself up to say something else.

Lauren looked at him for a long moment. Then she looked at Rachel. "I told Joe something too," she said.

Rachel paled. "What did you tell him?"

"I told him about you and me."

Rachel gasped and looked at Al.

"I know too," he said. "I pretty much suspected it since you first admitted to me you were still attracted to her, but Lauren confessed to me on Sunday, while we were looking for you."

Rachel's mouth fell open in disbelief. "And you never said anything since I came back?"

He reared back. "I'm sorry, are you angry with me? Should I have confronted you about it, asked for a divorce maybe?"

Rachel shrank a little. "No, I'm just... amazed you haven't been angry at me."

Al shrugged. "We all had things we were afraid to admit to each other. Maybe it's good Lauren finally said something. Now we're all out in the open."

"And you're okay with this? Me and Lauren?"

Al looked at Lauren's hopeful eyes and said, "Lauren and I came to an understanding. As long as you don't leave me for her, I won't ask you to stop."

"Joe and I came to the same arrangement," Lauren said.

"I can't believe that," Rachel said. "Joe doesn't seem to be the sharing type."

"Well, he can't be too judgemental, can he? With what the two of you did?" Lauren looked away for a second, and Al wondered if there was something she wasn't telling them.

"The important thing is, you don't need to hide it from me anymore," Al said.

"Well, I guess that's a relief," Rachel said uncertainly, "but there was a thrill in the possibility of getting caught."

"So, it's not worth it anymore?" Lauren protested.

"No," Rachel said, chuckling. "Of course it is."

"Good." Lauren turned her head up to look at Rachel. Rachel looked down at her. Lauren kissed her. Rachel's eyes widened. She reared back and sent a panicked glance at Al.

"Do you not want to do this now?" Lauren asked breathily, kissing her neck.

"I don't know..." Rachel looked to Al.

Al nodded assent, suddenly excited that he might finally get to see them together.

Rachel's face softened, and she took Lauren's face in her hands and brought her lips to hers. As they kissed, Rachel kept glancing at Al as if to ask him if what they were doing was all right. He watched them, feeling slightly out of body.

Lauren moved to straddle her on the couch, and their kissing intensified as their hands moved over each other. Their breathing grew heavier. Al felt his heart speed up.

Lauren stood and pulled Rachel to standing. She looked in her eyes, panting, and tilted her head toward the bedroom. Rachel nodded, and then they both looked his way.

He nodded his blessing.

Then they both looked at each other. "Can he watch?" Rachel asked her. Lauren nodded, and then they beckoned him, and walked hand in hand to the bedroom.

Al swallowed a huge lump in his throat, feeling like his heart was going to burst from his chest. He needed to sit there for a moment and catch his breath, and make sure his legs worked.

Once he felt he could steady himself, he stood and walked to the bedroom, where he found Rachel and Lauren already half way out of their clothes. He took the chair in the corner and collapsed, weak-kneed, as he took in the sight of his wife and her lover, who was also his good friend, ripping each other's clothes off and fondling each other's breasts, cupping each other's asses, and crashing on to the bed. Lauren, whose naked body he'd only seen up close once, when they'd woken in each other's arms with no memory of how they'd gotten there, and which had been at rest when he'd seen it, was now in full sinuous motion, curling around Rachel's like a snake as she rolled on top of her, sucking on her nipples, working her way down until she was between Rachel's legs, and Al was in the privileged position of watching how a woman went down on his wife, and he craned his head to examine Lauren's technique and see if he could learn anything new.

Rachel was enjoying it immensely, so Lauren must have been doing something right. Al smiled when his wife turned to him and looked as if she'd just won the lottery, squeezing Lauren's head between her legs and screaming with pleasure.

When Rachel let go of her, Lauren swivelled herself around, and now Al was treated to the sight of them sixty-nining. He longed to touch both of them, but he didn't let himself get up. They hadn't invited him to join them, only to watch, so he would watch and count himself lucky. But, oh, God, he was straining against his pants, the pressure almost painful. Would they protest if he at least touched himself while they touched each other?

After they'd thoroughly eaten each other out, Rachel relaxed, spooning into Lauren as Lauren fondled her breasts from behind with one hand and fingered her with the other. Al had never heard Rachel make noises like this before, and when Rachel writhed and bucked against Lauren, he couldn't take it anymore. He unzipped his pants and pulled them down, and finally released himself from his underwear.

Rachel saw him, smiled lasciviously, and purred, "I was wondering when you'd join in. Enjoying the show?"

"You can see I am."

"You know I told Lauren this was my fantasy, having you watch us?"

"From the very moment you mentioned your attraction to each other, after that first show, I was already picturing you like this."

Lauren peeked over Rachel's shoulder, saw him, and whispered something in Rachel's ear. Rachel nodded, climbed off the bed, strode over to her husband and knelt in front of him.

Then she licked him like an ice cream cone.

"Holy fuck," he breathed, closing his eyes and tilting his head back.

Then he felt another presence at his side. He smelled that pleasantly fruity perfume of the shower gel Lauren used, and then another pair of lips were on his own.

He opened his eyes, startled, and Lauren was above him, one hand on his cheek, tasting his lips. Hers were sweet, not only because they were new to him, but because they also tasted of Rachel. He'd never experienced anything so heart-stoppingly arousing as this, and he could only sit there, weak as a kitten, as Lauren slowly worked her tongue over his while Rachel worked her tongue down below.

Lauren unlocked her lips from his and smiled mischievously. "No tears this time, too bad. But better technique."

He gave a startled chuckle as he realized she was referring to that time she'd kissed him down in Queensborough, when he'd been so despondent over losing Rachel, and now here they both were, loving him, and he wondered what he'd ever done to deserve either of their love.

Rachel stopped what she was doing and looked up at them quizzically. "I heard you say that the night of the party, but I didn't know what you meant."

"After you moved away," Lauren said, "He came to visit, and when he realized you were gone, he cried like a baby."

Rachel's face softened in pity.

"So, I kissed him," Lauren said. "To console him, but I also wanted to taste his tears."

Rachel's brow furrowed. "You were a weird kid."

Lauren chuckled. "You've mentioned that before."

"When you mention it now, it sounds erotic," Al said.

"That's just because I'm standing over you naked," Lauren said with a smirk. "We're going to have to equalize this situation, by the way; that is, if Rachel's okay with it."

In answer, Rachel got right to it, taking his pants completely off, his underwear and socks. Lauren peeled off his shirt. "So, what, were you trying to steal my thunder?" Rachel joked, still on the topic. "Take my boyfriend out from under me?"

"Uh, sorry to burst your bubble," Al said, a little disoriented at this conversation they were having while he was being stripped by two naked women, "but I never got a chance to be your boyfriend by the time I moved away."

Rachel's eyebrows rose. "That was what our first time was for, when I had you shave everything. We were time-travelling."

"And you say I'm the weird one?" Lauren asked, indignant.

"You're both weird," Al said, "and I love you both for it."

"Oh, yeah?" Lauren said. "And what about you, lap dance boy?"

"I know," Rachel said. "I watched you grinding on my husband that night. I was pissed because it was embarrassing having everyone watch me react to you, but secretly I was a little turned on."

Al knew, in fact, that Lauren was referring to whom he'd chosen to give him a lap dance at his bachelor party.

"It went something like this, didn't it?" Rachel said, mounting him on the chair, sliding him inside her, making him gasp in surprise and ecstasy.

She began grinding just as Lauren must have done that night. He looked deep into her green eyes as she rocked back and forth.

Lauren sat on the bed and watched them, fondling herself. "No screen this time," she said. "Even better."

He didn't last very long. Watching Rachel and Lauren, then Rachel's mouth on him, then Lauren kissing him, and now this. He was helpless. He exploded, and Rachel kept grinding, faster and faster, until she screamed her orgasm and collapsed on top of him.

They sat like that for some time, gasping together. "I love you," Al said.

"I love you too," she breathed. She was already sweaty, and he loved the feel of her like that, like he'd given her a good workout riding him.

She kissed him long and deep, then rose off him and pulled him up, and then pushed him on to the bed; she wasn't done with him yet, apparently.

Lauren had scooted over to make room, and now she watched him reclining, and Al felt allowed to look at her naked body. She was small-framed but strong and lithe. Her breasts were perfectly proportioned to the rest of her. He felt himself stirring again already. Her look, unlike that terrible morning they'd woken with no memory of what had happened, was not of disgust.

It was hunger he saw.

Rachel sat next to Lauren and placed a hand on her arm. "Sweetie, you've already kissed him in front of me, and I didn't have a heart attack. I'm up for whatever you want to do, to me or to him."

Al looked at Rachel in surprise. "Whoa, Rachel, are you sure?"

Rachel nodded. "Or if you've had enough, Lauren, and want to go home before you do anything you might regret tomorrow, you can go with our love and gratitude for what's already turned out to be a fabulous evening."

Lauren was breathing quickly, and her eyes were huge. She looked at Rachel and said, "I want a do-over of that night, and I want to remember it this time."

"Oh, Jesus," Al breathed, and now he was as stiff as a board.

Rachel smiled and looked at Al. "I know you're up for it, husband of mine; I knew ever since that very first show mishap, when we talked all about it. You always wanted to be a third."

"Rachel," he said, feeling like he had to say this even though his id was kicking him in the ass for it, "talking is one thing, but do you think you can actually go through with this?"

Her face softened. "Al, you've been cool with Lauren and me fucking each other. The least I can do is reciprocate and, anyway, I've already told Lauren I fantasized about watching the two of you. Besides, you're going to be fucking both of us, so prepare to be used and abused, lover."

"I don't think I can ever be prepared," he said. "You're both so beautiful, I can die happy just looking at you."

"Don't die on us yet, lover," Lauren said, smiling lasciviously, those lovely dimples popping, and he was reminded again of that fateful morning, when she'd called him that by mistake. No mistake this time. "I have a lot planned for you, so you better keep up."

He lay back and took a deep breath, trying to control his racing heart.

She lay herself on top of him, pressing her breasts into his chest, that beautiful smile getting closer. He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his mouth against hers. This was happening. She was kissing him back and gripping his hair so hard he almost cried out, but it was a sweet pain. He ran his hands down her smooth back and grabbed the ass he'd fanatsized about behind her kimono. It was firm, and when his hands sought between her legs he found wetness there, and he moaned at the same time she did. She fed him her breasts like a maiden offering grapes, and he took them one at a time, suckling, taking her nipples between his teeth, and she writhed on top of him, pressing herself into him and pulling away at the same time, emitting noises he'd never heard out of her mouth before, and he throbbed in reaction down below.

"Sit on his face, Lauren," Rachel said. "I want to watch him eat your sweet pussy."

Al watched as Lauren slid herself upwards, and looked up as she bore herself down on his mouth. He sent his lips and tongue on an exploratory mission, and she began to writhe and moan as he found her pebble of a clitoris and trapped it between his teeth. She was delicious, a slightly different flavour than Rachel but still delicious, and he took the time to taste every bit of her as she began riding his face. Then, to his surprise, he felt Rachel down below, working on him again, as if he needed any more stimulation to get him going.

Lauren was bucking so hard it was starting to hurt, and he felt like he might suffocate, but if he did, so be it, he would die happy smothered between a woman's legs, maybe not his wife's but close enough.

"Holy shit!" Lauren screamed. "Yes! Oh my God! That's it!" And then she keened like a banshee and went limp, and Al's whole word was dark and wet and warm, and he could have stayed that way forever.

Then she was off, and Rachel looked up from where she was and asked, "Good?"

"Oh, yeah," Lauren said, still gasping. "You taught him well."

"He didn't need much teaching," Rachel said, oddly proud of him. "Now it's my turn."

"Can I try something while he eats you out?" Lauren asked. "I saw this on the Internet."

She loomed over him, and as Rachel got into position over his face, sitting facing her, Lauren said, "Here, grab his legs."

Puzzled, Al watched as Lauren lifted his ankles and rolled him back, until Rachel could hold them, and then... then... she took him and slid him inside her, and she was warm and slick, and he couldn't believe his luck even as he was being maneuvered into something a little uncomfortable.

Then she started bucking, and her little breasts jiggled as she thrust herself into him, even though that seemed impossible. Her hands gripped his knees, and her breath pumped out of her like a bellows.

He'd been ridden before, but this was something completely new, and his legs were starting to get tired, and he was feeling compressed, but he didn't want this to stop, because Lauren looked so good over him, sweating and panting, and Rachel was leaning in to kiss her while she lowered herself on his face, and they were one writhing, moaning organism.

"Oh, fuck, it's really getting my clit!" Lauren cried, and Al could feel her pubic bone smashing into his. All Al could do was concentrate on pleasing Rachel, because Lauren seemed to be doing all the work on her end.

Faster she pounded, faster. She was so athletic, so tireless. Finally she screamed in pleasure and collapsed backward, and he felt like his cock was being bent at an angle it was never meant to go, and Rachel came too after giving his mouth a good workout, shuddering like she'd been electrocuted. His jaw was going numb.

He stared up at the ceiling for a moment after Rachel climbed off him, feeling slightly dizzy, then sat up and peered down at Lauren, who still lay panting.

"How are you doing, there, Al?" Rachel asked. "Still got some left?"

"I haven't come yet if that's what you're asking. Do you want a turn?"

Lauren turned to Rachel and said, "He's your husband. You get dibs."

Rachel sat in the chair he'd just been in, spreading her legs. "I've already fucked him tonight," she said, reaching down to touch herself. "I want to watch him come inside you. You're still on the pill, aren't you?"

Lauren nodded. "I would like one more round with him."

"Really?" Al asked, surprised.

Lauren reached up and grabbed his hand. "I want you on top of me," she said.

He swallowed hard and said, "It's what you wanted all along, isn't it."

She nodded, biting her lip, and he didn't know if she meant the position or him, but he didn't care, because this was happening either way.

He lay himself on top of her, elbows braced on either side to take most of his weight. She felt smooth, and sweaty, and she smelled of fruity perfume and sweat and sex. She grabbed him and guided him inside her, wrapping her legs around him, and said, "Yes! Finally!"

Rachel sat in the chair and fingered herself while watching Al, and he took a moment to absorb the fact that his wife was masturbating to him fucking her best friend and lover.

Her legs were like a vise around him, and she raised herself to meet him with every thrust. He lasted longer than he ever thought he would, because he'd only come just before, and he was afraid he wasn't going to be able to finish, but Lauren was patient, fully enjoying the feeling of his weight on top of her, and she was kissing him and moaning into his mouth, a sleepy, contented moan, and she was clenching herself around him, and that was what did it. When he came, she clenched him further, as if milking every last drop out of him, and Rachel furiously rubbed herself to climax watching them.

That was when Samson hopped on the bed to see what was going on, because they'd left the bedroom door open, and the three of them collapsed into giggles, which was also rather arousing, because Al was still on top of Lauren, still inside her, and her quivering laughter made her whole body hum. Then she suddenly hugged him to her, squeezing him tighter with her legs, entrapping him, never letting him go, and Al lay panting into her neck, his lips feeling the pulse of her pounding heart.

He just stopped himself from saying, "I love you, Lauren," because that would have been the wrong thing to say. He did love her, one of his oldest friends, but to say it to her after sex while his wife looked on would have sent entirely the wrong message. But holding her to him like this, their bodies breathing together, so close and warm, more intimate than they'd ever been together, made him feel very tender toward her, and he felt like he needed to say something.

Then Lauren broke the spell by grabbing his ass and spanking it. "Damn, Rachel, you were right," she said. "He does have a nice ass."

He chuckled sheepishly and looked down at her, and she looked him in the eyes, and those dimples popped, and he almost felt ready to go again. "Are you trying to make Rachel jealous?" he asked. "Because if you're not careful I'm going to be yours forever." There. That was the right thing to say. Just humorous enough while expressing the tenderness he felt.

She kissed him hard, one last time, and said, "Nope. She has nothing to be jealous about. You've scratched my itch, and now I'm good."

"I'm not, yet," Rachel said, rising from the chair and extending her hand to them. "I'm all sweaty, and I want to shower with you both. It's big enough for three and, Lauren, you need to clean up before you go home."

Lauren looked up at Al and smirked. "You like your showers, don't you?" she breathed in his ear.

He nodded, unable to say anything more. Samson was sniffing at Lauren's hair, but he thought swatting him away would break the spell of this moment.

"Well, as much as I want to keep you on top of me, if you want me in there with you, you'll need to get up first."

He cleared his throat and muttered, "Oh, yeah, of course."

The three of them took a long, hot shower, washed each other's hair and scrubbed each other down with puffs and body wash, and Lauren and Rachel concentrated on each other for a while, masturbating each other in a way that looked almost painful. Al leaned against the glass wall and watched, and wondered if he would be able to go again. He really hoped he could, but that was up to them.

When they finished, Lauren turned to Al and rubbed her soapy body against him, kissed him hard and wrapped a leg around his waist, and he felt himself swelling as he slid his hands over her back, enjoying the sensation of water and skin and lather, and she echoed his pleasure with a soft sigh into his mouth.

They traded off pleasuring each other orally, and were in danger of staying in the shower so long that the water would get cold, so when she thought he was ready, Lauren leapt onto him and wrapped her legs around his waist, and helped guide him inside her. 

She was relatively light, but she felt so good in his arms, he thought his legs would give out from under him from the pleasure, and he braced her against the glass shower wall while he pumped, and she yipped like a cowboy and flung her legs out, holding on to him just with her powerful arms. 

Rachel pressed herself into his back and took Lauren's legs, and helped hold her up while kissing Al's neck, moving her hips in time with his as if she were fucking her too. Lauren crashed her mouth against his, entwining his tongue with hers, emitting little squeaks of ecstasy with each thrust, and Al's whole world was pleasure, and he wished he could stay this way forever. But Lauren was clenching him again (how was she doing that?) and he was helpless, and his orgasm came roaring out of his mouth and into hers, and he thought his heart would give out, because he was done, really done this time, but Lauren wasn't; his climax seemed to get her going even more and, with Rachel still holding her legs up, she ground herself into him just enough to take care of herself, screaming as she came.

He was just able to lower her down so she could stand on her own before he fell to his knees, buried his face in her belly, and fondled the ropy muscles of her lower back. "You... are... fucking... amazing," he panted.

"Aw, thanks, buddy," she gasped, stroking his hair. "I think I am, too."

"Come on, you," Rachel said, helping him to his feet. "I think we've used you enough now."

Used was the right word. They'd taken everything he had, leaving him a puddle of quivering jelly, and he couldn't have been happier.

They rinsed off and left the shower, and just looked at each other as they towelled off. There were no more words to say. They all knew what this was, a one time only event, and they were speechless at the significance of it, because Lauren was still married to Joe, and she would go back to him, and Al and Rachel hoped she wouldn't feel the need to confess this to him. They were also a little embarrassed now, because they'd said things to each other that they'd never say in others' company, and now their friendships with each other were also in jeopardy.

Lauren wouldn't tell. This evening was hers to treasure. Al and Rachel didn't need to worry, because she didn't regret it at all. She only wished they'd recorded it for posterity in case it never happened again, but that might have been dangerous, just as dangerous as Al saying, "I love you, Lauren." 

She knew he'd been on the verge of saying it; that was why she'd grabbed his ass to stop him. His declaration of love would be different from Rachel's, and she couldn't accept it, because there was still only one man she loved that way, with all her heart, and Al already had Rachel to love that way. She knew that love was the only word he knew to describe what he'd felt when she'd held him to her, feeling even more blissfully happy than when she'd first held Joe to her, because she'd finally gotten to feel how gravity pressed a man's body into hers, and with him inside her she could imagine herself completely engulfing him, taking his whole self into her. Consumption. That was what it was.

"I consume you, Al," she said, before she knew the words were leaving her mouth.

"Sorry?" he asked, turning to her as he rubbed his hair with a towel.

She chuckled. "When you were on top of me, after we finished fucking--"

"I love how you say fuck," he said.

"Me, too," Rachel said.

"Anyway," she said, loudly, to get them back on track, "what I mean to say is, you were going to say something to me, something I don't think you would have meant the way it should have meant."

Al blushed and chuckled. "Yeah. How did you know?"

"Oh, come on. We were both in post-coital rapture, of course you were going to say it, and I couldn't have said it back, and that would have hurt you, and you would have hurt Rachel by saying it anyway."

"You mean I love you," Rachel said.

"You can say it," Lauren said, "because ours is a unique love, it's fucking love, you know?"

Rachel's face softened. "That's right. I fucking love you."

"And I fucking love you. But I can only love one man that way."

Al nodded. "I know."

"But I think I came up with a different word we can use, because it expresses how I felt when I had you on top of me, and I wanted to just take all of you into me, your whole body, you know?"

"I know that feeling," Rachel said.

"So... that was a good feeling?" Al asked.

Rachel nodded. "You can't know how good it feels to be underneath a bigger man, to feel his warmth, the strength of his arms, his complete protection as he covers you, like, if suddenly someone shot an arrow at you, it would hit him, not you," she said, surprising Lauren with how completely she'd encapsulated it. "It's primal, the same way a baby would feel in his mother's arms."

"You want that feeling when having sex?" Al asked, confused. "It seems kind of... I don't know... counterintuitive."

Lauren smiled and patted his cheek. "That's the difference between men and women where sex is concerned. You want to claim, while we want to be claimed, well, most of the time, as long as it's loving and respectful."

Al cleared his throat. "Was I that way with you?"

"Ha! Al, you were our plaything tonight," Lauren said. "Did you like that move I did? I can't believe I did it, I didn't think it would work, but it was incredible, you should try it next time, Rachel."

Rachel looked at Al and said, "I don't know. What's it called?"

"The Amazon."

Rachel chuckled. "That makes sense. I liked that I got to sit on his face while you were doing it and I got to make out with you, so we were all enjoying each other at once. That was incredible."

"I felt like I was the woman," Al said. "It was fine, though, for a while, and I'm happy you got so much pleasure out of it."

"I could never do that with Joe," Lauren said, and wondered if he'd planned that move for someone more... Amazonian. "I think we'd wreck the bed."

"You got to do a lot you couldn't with Joe," Al said.

"Who would have thought plain old mish would be my most favourite of all?" Lauren said wistfully.

"I liked the shower sex."

"Of course you did, shower boy," Rachel said. "I knew Lauren would be right up your alley for the up-in-the-air, against the wall stuff."

"Thanks for holding her legs up, honey," Al said. "That was a big help; I was running out of steam by the end."

"I know you were. God, watching you two fuck was so hot."

"I could tell you liked it," Lauren said, smacking her ass. "Rubbing off while watching us. How can you give your husband so freely?"

"Only for you, Lauren, only for you, and only while I'm in the room; I think the picture hurt because it looked like something you were keeping from me. And if any other woman tried that with him, she'd be going down."

"So, then, what was the word you said you wanted to use for us?" Al asked.

Lauren sighed and took his face in her hands. "I consume you."

He held her hands to his face with his. "I consume you. It's perfect. It's like I'm food for you, and you want to eat me alive."

"Not eat, necessarily. More like... absorb you, become one with you."

"I want to be consumed too!" Rachel protested. "That sounds wonderful."

"Don't worry, I'll consume you over and over again," Lauren said, gnashing her teeth at her. "Okay, now, remember, even though Joe knows about me and Rachel, he doesn't know about you, Al, so we definitely can't reveal what happened tonight to him. Sorry, Al, but he'd kill you. Literally."

Al zipped his lips. "Don't worry. I'm happy even if it never happens again."

"Poor Joe," Rachel said. "He never got to have me the way Al had you."

"Poor Joe," Lauren agreed, but again, she suspected Joe would soon find his bliss with Joanie. That was why she didn't feel so bad about tonight. One night of wild abandon with two of her best friends, whom she trusted with her life, who would never hurt her. Whom, in Al's case, she could consume and have all to herself without the obligations of love that came with it. All of the tension built up between them since they'd woken in each other's arms had finally been released, and it had been even better than she'd imagined.

That was dangerous. Because now she wondered when it could happen again.

Lauren hurriedly dressed when she noticed the time. "As much as I'd love to stick around and go over our experience again and again, I do have the kids to pick up from my mom's."

"Are you sure you're okay to drive?" Rachel asked, smirking. "You must be pretty wiped out after all that exercise."

She chuckled and felt heat throughout her whole body. "I am tired, but it's a good tired. I'll sleep well tonight. You two... my God... that beat our Skype shows cold."

Rachel flushed too, and that flush spread across her whole naked body as she stooped to get her clothes back on. Al couldn't hide the tenting in his towel.

She left them with hugs and kisses for both of them at the door, exchanging "I fucking love you"s with Rachel and "I consume you"s with Al. It still astounded her that she was standing there kissing another man, a man who didn't have to lift her the rest of the way to his mouth to kiss her; that, more than his mouth on her breasts, which was wonderful, or between her legs, which was fantastic, or his cock inside her, which was also nice (although without the same filling feeling she got from Joe's), felt illicit and exciting, his lips and tongue so different from those she'd kissed for most of her life, and it made her shiver from her head to her toes. 

She felt like a teenager having her first time again, and it was dangerous. Could she limit her encounter with the only other male sexual partner she'd ever had to one time? It wasn't just Joe she had to worry about. It was Rachel. Could she now be content to limit her encounters to Rachel only, as she'd agreed on with Joe? If she asked Rachel to include Al in their next encounter, would that offend her, make her think she wasn't enough for her? Worse, if she found herself alone with Al, as she had in her house on Monday night, would she be tempted to leap at the opportunity and leave Rachel out entirely? She knew they'd both been on the very edge of it, and she'd been both irritated and grateful for Rachel's timely phone call, because that would have been the worst betrayal of all, of Joe and Rachel both.

She drove home with all of those questions running again and again through her head, and she picked up Naomi and Tosh, sullen and annoyed from being away from home all day, with a numb feeling behind her eyes, and hollow sounding thank yous to her parents. She thought they noticed her absence, and hoped they would put it down to concern for her own husband's health.

Her children's moods improved when she told them Joe was coming home soon, but it was still a tense ride home, and despite what she'd told Al and Rachel, she didn't sleep well that night, plagued as she was by the same questions that devilled her on the drive back, and memories of Al's body on top of her, pressing her into the mattress, squeezing the air from her lungs as she trapped him with her legs, became one with him.

Did you see that coming? When I wrote the first novel in this series, I'd only intended on Al and Rachel getting together, but Lauren just kept creeping into the story. I started this novel with the question, "What would happen if Al woke up in bed with Lauren, both of them naked, with no memory of what happened the previous night?" That was all. I didn't intend for them to eventually have a threesome, but the story just seemed to lead me in this direction, and the storylines that could develop in the aftermath only allow for more novels in this series to be written. If you liked what you just read, hit "Vote" and leave a comment. Now, let's see what Al and Rachel discuss after Lauren leaves, by clicking "Continue reading."