PREPARING FOR A GUEST



Poor Jeremy, Kristen thought as she pulled the freshly laundered sheets from the dryer. She walked down the hall with them bundled in her arms toward the guest room. With the kids away at camp she was taking advantage of the uninterrupted days to get caught up on housework and projects. That was, until, her husband's best friend had called and said he'd like to come down to visit for a couple days.



Her husband Brandon, and Jeremy had been friends since childhood. Until recently, Jeremy had been married to Lori and the two couples had been close. They vacationed together and their children were friends, closer really, more like cousins. Jeremy had said that Lori had the kids this week and the he just needed to get away for a while. So instead of cleaning out the hall closet Kristen began making up the guest room for their friend. She went down the list: clean sheets-check, vacuumed-check, clean towels in the closet-check, beer in the fridge and coffee in the cabinet-check.



Just after six Brandon arrived home from work and he and Kristen began preparing dinner together. Kristen, having very little desire to or experience with cooking usually didn't stray farther than chopping vegetables and setting the table. Brandon on the other hand both enjoyed cooking and worked his way around the kitchen easily. He prepared the steaks for the grill, started the couscous salad, and began preparing the blackberry cobbler for dessert all at once it seemed. They moved together comfortably in the kitchen together. Which, after nearly 20 years together was as it should be, Kristen thought.



"How much time do we have until Jeremy gets here? I don't want to put the steaks on too early," Brandon asked. At a breaking point, he stopped, leaned back against the counter and took a pull from his beer bottle. He liked to watch Kristen in the kitchen. Well, he liked to watch Kristen anywhere. The summery skirt she wore today reminded him of sunflowers. All these years together and he thought she was more beautiful now than when they first met. He felt a pang of sadness as he thought of his friend. Jeremy and Lori had been married nearly as long as he and Kristen had been. He didn't understand how they had let their relationship fall apart like they did. Over the past few years it was getting less and less fun to hang out with them as they fought more and more often. Well, the hard part was over for Jeremy and Lori. Now they both were getting their lives back in order, just this time without each other. Brandon was glad his friend was coming. It had been a long while since they had hung out.



"Any minute now, I think. But I would wait on the steaks. Jeremy said he was leaving work early, around two o'clock," Kristen answered. "If he left at two, which is doubtful, he should be arriving about six-thirty." She swiped the last of the cut zucchini into the bowl then turned to face her husband.



"If we have a few minutes, I can think of a few ways to spend them," he said with a grin spreading across his face. Kristen crossed to him and he folded her into his arms and kissed her sweetly. He took her left hand, their wedding rings made that soft clink sound she loved, and he twirled her around so that her back was to him and his arms wrapped around her waist. His erection pressed firmly into her low back.



She smiled and lifted her chin to his neck and laughed, "I think walking in and finding us fucking over his uncooked dinner is not the welcome Jeremy would be expecting."



Brandon leaned down to kiss her again and, as if on cue, truck tires could be heard pulling onto the gravel driveway. "Jeremy's here!" they said together.



When Jeremy swooped in through the door, larger than life as usual, Kristen thought she detected a shadow behind the smile. He stepped into the kitchen extending a hand to Brandon who pulled Jeremy into a hug and, like men do, pounded each other on the back. Then Jeremy turned to Kristen, scooped her into a hug, dipped her just like in an old movie and planted a kiss on her cheek. When he'd stood her on her feet again she'd forgotten about the sad shadow she thought she'd seen.



BETWEEN FRIENDS



They ate on the patio, enjoying the warm summer evening. They talked mostly of work, movies, friends and a little politics. Brandon thought Jeremy sounded sad still when they spoke of Lori or about the arrangement with their kids. He misses them. All of them, he thought sadly. But all in all, the discussions were relaxing and comfortable and gave them the excuse to sit and drink wine until the sun sank low in the purpling sky.



"The stars are amazing here," Jeremy offered as they lay on the blanket Kristen had brought out and spread in the middle of the grass. Kristen laid with her head on Brandon's lap and her feet on Jeremy's legs so that they made a lopsided H on the ground.



Brandon pointed up to the sky above them, "There's a satellite. Heading north, kinda dim, going by that bright star there. It is a wonder that spotting satellites never loses its appeal. They just look like little stars gliding through the sky but I never get bored looking for them."



"I see it," Jeremy said.



"I'd look but I can't keep my eyes open. I was on my feet so much today just getting stuff done around the house. It feels good to close my eyes for a bit," Kristen replied, her voice muddled a little with drink and sleep.



Jeremy sat up and began to rub her feet. He and Brandon continued to talk softly of the stars and satellites and Kristen tried to listen but her head became more foggy for her feet felt so great with Jeremy rubbing them. Tension melted away and the warmth of well being crept through her. It felt divine. Jeremy's hands moved from her feet to her ankles and calf, rubbing in gentle small circles, working out sore stiff muscles and heating her skin. Oh, boy, I should probably move, she thought. Kirsten stole a glance at Brandon wondering if he was noticing that Jeremy's hands were roaming a little farther than maybe they should. Her eyes locked on Brandon's and she knew he had noticed. Just as he noticed that Jeremy's hands continued to move a little farther up her leg and that she seemed to be responding to his touch. Her breath hitched expecting his displeasure but the familiarity of nearly 20 years allowed for so much to be communicated within a look.



At once she was remembering a time a long while back that she and Brandon were making up fantasies and they had talked about one that involved Jeremy. It felt like a harmless fantasy then because it seemed such an impossibility. But now...



Brandon looked away from her and at Jeremy. She didn't know what was said in that significant look, but like she and Brandon, Jeremy and Brandon had been friends most of their lives, and volumes could be spoken in a glance.



Then, on that unspoken word, Jeremy's hand glided up Kristen's inner thigh sending flames of heat up her legs. Trepidation and desire bloomed simultaneously low in her belly - a ball of heat that began to spread. Jeremy leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her back and shoulders. He lifted her and rolled back so that she sat astride him on the blanket. He held her there with his hands on her hips, her skirt draped across his stomach, and he watched her face, his eyes asking and wanting.



She had not expected this. Confusion, fear, and anticipation warred in her head trying to make sense of the situation. Then, through the darkness she felt, more that saw, her husband move to sit behind her and enfold her shoulders with his right arm, holding her comfortingly to his chest. And the war in her head was over. Desire and anticipation won out, all but gagging the little voice of warning that still protested in her head.



Jeremy gently pulled her hips as he pushed his erection up against her sex. Heat pulsed through her and she felt her eyes glaze, her head rolled back onto Brandon's shoulder. Jeremy pushed again, and again she was rewarded with a pulse of heat. Brandon slowly put his left hand under her tank top, under the edge of her bra and found her breast. Her nipple hardened at his touch and sent a fresh wave of desire through her. Could this be happening? she thought. Is this a good idea? She shoved that thought away because her body was too far-gone.



She reached under her skirt to find Jeremy's pants button. She undid the button and pulled to one side releasing the zipper. Under his jeans his dick swelled under his underwear, the material thin enough she could feel the heat of his skin. Jeremy lifted his hips to push his clothes down allowing his erection to spring free against Kristen's clit and she moaned. She pushed against Jeremy rubbing herself against him, awakening her arousal further, her hearing drowned by the sound of her own blood rushing in her ears.



Brandon continued to hold her tight, rubbing her breast, kissing her neck, his erection hard against her backside. He reached under her skirt to find her panties. He stuck his thumbs through the lacey material then pulled out away from her hips and her panties disintegrated. Tossing the wrecked material aside, he lifted her.



But it was Jeremy's fingers that found her. At least she thought so. Her body was a mass of sensations and it had become difficult to differentiate who or what was touching her, urging her on. He slid his fingers into her and her breath caught again. Her mouth open and eyes closed she began to move, to give in to the pleasure of another man's hands on her, in her.



Suddenly, it wasn't his hands but his dick, hot and hard. Jeremy lifted her by the hips and guided her down slowly onto him. As he filled her she let her mouth fall open and her breathing began to come a little more unevenly. Brandon's hand closed around her jaw and he pulled her mouth around to his and he kissed her. His mouth hot and wet and wanting. His tongue a salve, water of life. She had to have it and she eagerly kissed him back. One of his hands held her face to his the other cupped and squeezed her breasts.



Jeremy began to move inside her, so hot, pushing and pulling. Kristen didn't know where she stopped and started anymore. Her need, her desire flashed and burned and consumed her. She felt Brandon's hand move to her bottom and lift her. His cock was hard and wet when he put it to the opening of her ass. He wouldn't push, that was for her to do as they did when they made love just the two them as not to hurt her. But her body was open and wanting and she lowered onto him steadily and easily, sheathing his cock in her ass and Jeremy's in her as well.



Both men froze not wanting to push her beyond what she wanted, not wanting to hurt her. But Kristen was all over this. She had fantasized of this very thing and was now lost in the overwhelming pleasure of it. She began to move. Up and down, tilting her pelvis and enveloping them again and again. She rode them and as she did she climbed higher and higher until her body quaked in wracking spasms. She called out and fisted her hands on Jeremy's chest. Her climax pushing them over the edge, both Brandon and Jeremy found their release. Inside her she felt them pulsing and the heat of their climax explode and spread in her. She collapsed, all her strength tapped, Brandon's arms holding her tight.



They sat quietly a moment catching their breath before Kristen kissed her husband, leaned forward to kiss Jeremy, and got up, "I don't know about all y'all, but I need a shower." She sauntered off toward the house as if they had just finished a picnic but inside her heart raced, her eyes were wide, and she was screaming OH MY GOD! WHAT DID I JUST DO? But she was also so very pleased at the moment. That was amazing, she thought.



TIME TOGETHER



As she showered she wondered what the boys were talking about. She hoped that everything was okay. She didn't start this after all. She decided that she would go out and rejoin them after she got dressed and pretend that nothing had happened, that everything was just like it had always been. She walked into her bedroom wrapped in a towel, her hair still dripping down her back and saw her husband sitting on the edge of the bed, his head down. Uh oh, she thought.



Brandon looked up at her, his eyes somewhere between burning desire and utter panic. "I need to know. I need to know," he said urgently, almost pleading. He stood quickly, moving to her in one step and enclosed her in his arms. In an instant she was under him on the bed, his knees between hers, pushing them wide. "I need you," he said into her mouth as he kissed her. He kissed her mouth and neck with desperation. He ran his hands down her body causing the towel to fall to her side on the still-made bed. "I need you," he said again then entered her.



"Yes," Kristen sought to reassure him with her words, her body. "Yes," she said again, "I need to you, too. I need you, too. I love you."



And he took and felt and found solace in his wife, as he had not done in so long. They looked at each other, eye to eye, into the windows of their souls, to confirm their connection to affirm their love, their relationship, until he was spent and melted into her kissing her softly.



They lay there in each other's arms long into the night. Brandon spoke softly into the silence, "I thought I was okay, you know? We had talked about this kind of thing even if we never thought it would happen and I thought I was okay. And it was so amazing, watching you, with him, being in you and feeling ... everything..."



He ran his hands through his hair as he thought how to say the next part. His wife listened, not wanting to interrupt him, knowing he needed to say what was warring in his head and heart. "It was amazing. Then, I dunno. I began to panic. I worried that maybe I'd just lost you. That maybe I'd just lost you and I was the one that allowed it to happen." he looked at her then, "I just needed to know. Needed to know I still had you. That we were okay, I guess. Sorry. I kind of jumped on you."



Kristen smiled, "I know what you mean. I was feeling a little that way, too. And it's okay, you jumping on me that way. I kinda liked it." She thought a moment, sorting out her ideas and feelings a moment before speaking again, "We're okay. I love you. No chance of losing me. You're stuck, Mister." She smiled and rolled up on her elbow to look at him and kissed him. "We are so okay," and kissed him again. They made love once more before catching sleep in the last hours before morning.



TIME FOR FRIENDS



Kristen awoke, click, like a light being switched on. Brandon still lay asleep, sprawled on his back. It had been a long, emotionally charged night so she left him to snooze while she got up to make coffee and maybe read a while.



As she passed the guest room where Jeremy stayed she assumed that he still slept as well. She busied herself making coffee and then meant to return to her bedroom quietly to get her book before curling up on the couch for some quiet time. But when she passed the guest room the door was open and Jeremy was making the bed. When Kristen knocked on the door jam Jeremy smiled at her and invited her in.



She had wanted to see him last night after her shower. She was anxious to know that everything was good between them and that it wasn't, well, weird. She didn't know what, if anything, had transpired between her husband and Jeremy last night after she left and before Brandon's return to their bedroom last night. She decided to ask, "Hey, Jeremy, I just, I guess, I just want to be sure that we're still good. You know? I wouldn't want one foolish crazy night to ruin things. You know?" Her voice sounded awkward in her own ears. Nervous much, Kristen? Geez.



Jeremy turned to look her, "No. No! Kristen, not at all. Nothing weird here." He started to turn toward the bed again but stopped, reconsidering. He turned back to look at her straight on, "I've been in a bad place a while now. You, and Brandon, I guess. But then that is a little weird so... You are safe. Comfortable. I trust you. Last night, you, your body, shit. Um, it was exactly what I needed. Like you healed me. Like your body healed me a little, I guess." He hesitated, Brandon appeared in the doorway. Kristen turned to see him too and she smiled. He always does make her heart smile when he is near. And after last night, the way they had reconnected, reassured. Nothing could get between them. Amazing.



"I've already had my morning nookie but do I get to watch?" he said nonchalantly leaning on the door jam and sipping a cup of coffee. Kristen started to explain that what he had seen wasn't what he had thought, they were just talking. But Jeremy, having done another best-friend-telepathy-thing again with her husband reached out for her waist and pulled her to him, urgently taking her mouth. His eyes, however, stayed for a moment on his friend, gauging his reaction.



Apparently her husband was indulging his latent voyeur tendencies because Jeremy, satisfied with what he saw on Brandon's face, closed his eyes and deepened his kiss on Kristen. Giving in to this newest onslaught of sensations and emotions she returned his kiss and closed her hands on his biceps. She felt his dick grow hard immediately against her belly and desire tightened like a fist low and hot in her groin.



Jeremy lowered her onto the bed and continued kissing her, licking and biting at her neck and jaw, pressing his cock between her legs. She felt warm and wet beneath her panties. He grabbed at the hem of her nightdress and yanked it up to her ribs. His fingers trailed up from her hips to her side and her breasts. He found her nipple hard and erect, begging to be teased. He squeezed it between his thumb and index finger, making her suck in a gasp of breath and let it out again with a moan low in her throat.



She looked over at her husband. He seemed to be making a study of them, watching appreciatively like one would an alluring painting in a museum. His lips were parted slightly and his eyes seemed to feast on the sight of his wife's pleasure. Kristen closed her eyes and felt, no, absorbed Jeremy as he slid hot and thick into her. She felt full inside and so hot she wondered it didn't burn.



He moved on her, driving her up, fondling her body, desire flashed like fire across her skin. Her mind began to spin, white hot, then colors exploded behind her eyes as her climax built and peaked. Kristen clutched a Jeremy's back holding him deep in her but her eyes found Brandon. He was lost watching her, his own cock hard in his hand, watching her. Her orgasm exploded from her core, clamping down on Jeremy as he came with her, throwing her head back as her body pulsed.



Spent, she let her arms fall wide and her knees splay to the sides. Jeremy lay with his head buried in her ribs, waiting for breath and heart to return to normal.



Though her eyes were closed she heard Brandon rise from the chair. He leaned down to her and whispered, "You are amazing. I love you." Then he kissed her sweetly and before reaching the door he said, "Go get cleaned up kids. I'm making waffles for breakfast!"



She felt Jeremy laugh into her side. He looked up at her smiling. Kristen laughed too, "I guess it's time to get up!"