by Amber Ward
My hands froze in the middle of her back.
Suddenly, my head was spinning, and not just from all the vodka I'd consumed. Since I'd started dating Sonya, I'd been hit on by other women plenty of times—but this was the first case where I felt like something might actually happen; the first time I actually, genuinely felt tempted to go for it. The memory of Tami's naked body flashed through my mind and I felt my gut tighten.
I honestly didn't know what I was going to do.
Claire rolled onto her side, her blue eyes imploring, "Listen, your personal life and what you choose to do are none of my business, but please just do me a favour."
"Sure."
"You wouldn't know it to look at her, but Tami just got through a really awkward breakup with her last boyfriend, and she's going through a pretty rough time right now. If you DO wind up like, doing stuff with her—please treat her well. Treat her like a princess. She deserves it, she's..." Claire looked away from me, her voice breaking as she finished her thought. "She's a special girl."
I nodded in agreement and went back to kneading Claire's back. So Tami's on the rebound, I thought to myself. That explains why she's been so flirty and aggressive all day.
"Nothing's gonna happen between us," I assured Claire, though the words didn't sound particularly confident.
A huge sigh of relief poured out of Claire, and she finally let herself enjoy the massage. The soft moans of pleasure she kept making as I rubbed her body did nothing to slow my racing pulse.
"I'm sorry to get all serious on you like that, Michael. Please don't be offended, I just can't stand the thought of seeing her hurt anymore."
I decided to change the subject:
"So, Tami's newly single, but how about you? What's your relationship status?"
Claire frowned, considering for a moment how best to phrase her answer. "Unrequited," she sighed at last.
"What, is he married or something?"
"No, there's nobody else in the picture right now."
"You mean, you've got feelings for some guy, but he's not interested in you? I have trouble believing that, Claire. You're about the most beautiful woman I've met in my entire life. Not to mention, you're smart, a good friend, and a good Samaritan to stupid people who lock themselves out of their apartments."
"Ha! Thank you, Michael. You're sweet. But sadly, it is the way it is."
I looked at her in the candlelight, our eyes meeting for an instant.
"If it was me," I whispered, "and I was single, there's no way I would ever be able to turn you down."
She smiled, kissed me quickly on the cheek, and then got to her feet.
"I'm off to bed, see you in the morning. We'll have the building manager let you back into your apartment. Thanks for the back rub."
She strolled over to Tami's bedroom and opened the door:
"Okay, honey. He's all yours."
She threw me a final, inscrutable look, and disappeared into her own room, closing the door behind her.
For sixty unbearably long seconds, nothing happened. I just sat there on the floor, alone in the dim, flickering light, breathing nervously. Then Tami opened her bedroom door and walked into view.
My heart jumped into my throat. She had changed into her "pyjamas" alright—though that word typically conjures up images of long-sleeved, button-down flannel tops—not the tiny, pink satin camisole she wore stretched over those massive tits. The scooping neckline was trimmed with white lace, and the whole affair hung limply from a pair of the dinkiest little spaghetti straps I'd ever seen. No support to speak of; her soft, round breasts bounced and swayed totally unsupported beneath the material.
Her bottoms looked like nothing more than a delicate ribbon of pink lace, doing nothing to deter my imagination.
"Wow," I moaned, provoking a big, self-satisfied smile on her adorable face.
"Just the sort of reaction a girl likes to get from a handsome man."
"You look... amazing."
My mouth hung open with arousal as she confidently crossed the room, closing the distance between us. Soon as she reached me, she leaned forward—giving me a torturous eyeful of her heavy, hanging cleavage—and yanked the towel off from around my waist.
I was too dumbstruck to move. We both looked down at my iron bar of a cock, jutting angrily out through the waistband of my boxers.
Her voice was sweet and sexy: "I think I'd like to take you up on that back rub now, if you don't mind."
I gestured for her to lay across the couch, as Claire had, but instead the voluptuous goddess just spun around and settled herself down on my lap. My cock was instantly squeezed between the warmth of her barely-covered ass cheeks, which she wiggled for good measure.
Um, gulp? I'd expected her to be a bit forward, but I never in a billion years expected it to be like this. Keep it in your pants. Keep it in your pants. Keep it in your—crap, you're not wearing pants. Keep it in your underwear.
With every fibre of my being just aching to fuck this woman, I gently placed my hands on her shoulders and started the massage. Tami's head lolled to the side, revealing the feminine curve of her neck and giving me an unobstructed view down her shirt. She felt amazing in my hands, so smooth and yielding.
Absentmindedly, Tami dropped her fingernails to my naked thigh and began tracing random patterns in the skin.
"Just like that," she moaned. She closed her eyes, panting. A faint flush of color made its way down the swell of her bosom.
I honestly don't know if I did it intentionally or not, but as I rubbed her shoulders, the two spaghetti straps holding up her top gradually slipped down over the sides of her arms, taking Tami's neckline down with them.
Millimetre by millimetre, that lace neckline travelled down the slope of her breasts, revealing more and more skin until it finally came to an infuriating stop—held up by nothing more than the plumpness of her aroused nipples. If either of us had shifted even slightly, Tami's top would have fallen to her waist and those huge, naked tits would have swung free.
I couldn't help myself: Slowly but deliberately, I worked Tami's massage from the back of her shoulders to the top of her chest, just below her throat. Daringly, I reached forward, my heart racing from the naughty thrill as my fingertips brushed up against the upper curve of her breasts.
Tami leaned back against my chest, forcing my hands a few inches further in the process. Her head fell onto my shoulder and she moaned, encouragingly, into the side of my neck:
"That feels nice, too."
It was like I was in a trance, watching as another man's hands eagerly slid their way over the tops of Tami's breasts and SQUEEZED. The motion finally made her camisole slide all the way down, revealing her full, beautiful chest in all its glory.
My palms slid down, gently grazing across her erect nipples—
"Oh yeah..." Tami groaned.
What the hell am I doing?! The voice inside my head screamed. This isn't you! This is wrong!
Tami slid her ass off my lap and walked her fingertips up my bare thigh, slowing as she tentatively approached my crotch. I looked down at her, panting huskily, her eyes filled with desire—
Our mouths crashed hungrily together.
The second our lips touched, Tami's hand closed the final centimetre to my cock and gripped it hard, sending shockwaves of pleasure through my body. Our tongues teased along each other's lips—moaning, shaking in each other's embrace—
I was as horny as I'd ever been in my life. That nagging voice in my head sounded like he was shouting at me from the bottom of the ocean.
But nonetheless, I could still hear him.
"Tami, I'm sorry," I said, gently releasing her from my arms. "I can't do this. I've got a girlfriend."
Tami forced herself against me, kissing desperately.
"I won't tell her," she said.
"It's not that it's just—that's not the sort of relationship I want to have. That's not the sort of man I want to be."
God, she was so fucking g
orgeous, looking at me wide-eyed like that. Her nude skin almost glowing in the soft, flickering light.
Tears welled-up in Tami's eyes. She quietly pulled her camisole back on and modestly crossed her arms in front of her braless chest.
I tried to place a reassuring arm around her shoulders, but she angrily shrugged me away.
"I'm sorry, I—"
"Don't fucking talk to me," she whispered. Before I could respond, Tami ran back into her bedroom and locked the door.
Fuck! I collapsed down onto the sofa, my cock still angrily throbbing against the fabric of my underwear. How the hell was I gonna fix this? What was I gonna tell Sonya? What was gonna happen at work tomorrow?
I still had eight weeks to go until Sonya moved out West. Fifty-five more days of being around Tami and Claire. So far, I'd only made it through one day—twenty-four stinking hours!
This was going to be the longest summer of my life.
CHAPTER 2 - WHOOPS.
When the sun came up, Claire shook me awake and curtly informed me that it was time I got the hell out of their apartment. I stumbled around my new apartment complex—still in my underwear—until I finally tracked down the building manager and got him to open my front door.
The power was back on and my cell phone was charged and staring right at me. Three missed calls from Sonya. I felt awful. For a moment, I considered picking it up and calling her back right then and there, but she was probably asleep, and I still hadn't figured out how on earth I was going to explain things to her.
I hadn't let things go THAT far with Tami, but I had still betrayed my girlfriend's trust. I had, to whatever degree, been unfaithful for the first time in my life, and it was killing me inside.
I knew I needed to tell Sonya. No twisting things around to make me sound like the victim, either. But that would come later, when we could actually have a conversation. For the time being, I sent her a quick text explaining about the power outage and promised to call her after work.
Which sucked.
For the first half of the day, Claire barely acknowledged my existence, always finding something incredibly pressing to busy herself with whenever I tried to explain what had happened. She was professional, but dismissive.
Tami, on the other hand, just tried to avoid me altogether. I had hurt her more than I'd realized, and she seemed too embarrassed to even look me in the eye. Since I couldn't exactly talk to her with all the other people around the office, I had the bright idea of writing her a discreet letter of apology, explaining that I thought she was great, and I was so sorry that I had hurt her feelings.
She tossed it in the waste basket without even reading the thing.
I spent about 10 hours at the office that day, and every second of it was so awkward it felt more like 10 weeks. When I finally made it back home for the evening, I got out my phone and called Sonya.
"I love you," I started simply. Right off the bat, my tone of voice told her something was very wrong.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"No, I'm not. I... let something happen. Something really stupid. And I need to tell you about it."
"What are you talking about?"
Every word took tremendous effort for me to force out, like I was pushing a boulder up a mountain. "There's... these two women at my new job. Last night, I—"
"Last night you WHAT?"
"One of them kind of had a thing for me and—I didn't push her away when I should have."
There was a long, painful pause while Sonya gathered her thoughts.
Our relationship had been going great. She was supposed to move in with me in a couple months. A year from now, we both knew I was probably gonna start shopping for a ring. What if my behaviour last night had put a wrench in all that?
"How far did things go?" Sonya finally asked.
"Second base."
"What the fuck is 'second base'? Is that like a blowjob or something?" she snapped.
"What? No! It's, you know, second base. First base is kissing, second base is feeling a girl up, third base is—"
"So, you spent all night making out with some random girl and grabbing her boobs?"
"No, it was just for a couple of seconds, then I stopped it. I swear."
She made me sit through another of those horrible pauses.
"You promise that's all?"
"I promise. And I promise it will never happen again."
"This is so fucking lame, Michael."
"I know, babe, I'm so—"
She hung up.
"Sorry."
The rest of the week creaked by in pretty much the same miserable way, with Claire and Tami refusing to talk to me, and Sonya refusing to answer her phone or return any of my emails. I was so scared of losing her, I even considered flying back out east to see her in person—but ultimately accepted that she wasn't talking to me because she didn't want to. Maxing out my pathetic little credit limit to buy a plane ticket wasn't gonna change that.
I should have spent that first week going out, trying to get a feel for the city, making new friends and building a new life. But frankly, things were so weird I never felt like leaving my apartment. So instead, I cleaned and unpacked, organized all my shit, and then cleaned everything all over again. I filled what free time I did have discovering just how terrible most television shows really are when you watch them all by yourself.
When Saturday rolled around, and I carted my dirty clothes downstairs to the community Laundromat, I stumbled upon Claire, just as she was cramming a load of wet clothes into the dryer. We both froze awkwardly at the sight of one another.
We were all alone. After four days of getting the brush-off from this woman, I finally had her cornered. Finally had an opportunity to explain myself:
"Claire, please just hear me out."
"No need, Tami told me what happened. Honestly, I kind of expected more from you."
"I know, I know, I'm so sorry things got out of hand. But I had to stop it before we went any further. I didn't want anybody getting hurt."
She frowned at me and shook her head. "No, you just didn't want YOU to get hurt. Look, I respect that you're not the kind of person who fucks around behind his girlfriend's back, but I told you—I TOLD YOU—that Tami was in a vulnerable place and you still took advantage of her."
"Whoa, whoa—I never took advantage of her! She was the one seducing me! I never did anything to lead her on!"
"You knew exactly what she wanted, and you did nothing to discourage her. You let her keep coming onto you all night because it was stroking your ego to have some hot chick batting her eyelashes at you."
Claire walked right up to me, her icy blue eyes flashing with anger:
"And then, at the worst possible moment—when she was all excited and happy to have someone being affectionate with her for the first time since her breakup—you pushed her away. Do you have any idea how that feels?"
I looked down at my shoes. "I guess not," I sighed.
"And there are other people out there," she choked, fighting back tears. "People who would treat her so much better than you did. People who would love her and cherish her—but instead she set her sights on you."
