Dinner for Three Ch. 02

Cotton mouth, dry eyes that were reluctant to open and a slight headache were Adam's first impressions of the day. Recollection of the evening before came next and served to counter the dilatory effects of the wine that had been consumed. A self-satisfied grin materialized with the awareness of a blond head on his left shoulder and darker brown on his right. Laurie and Natalie were motionless and both had arms draped across his mid-section under the comforter. The open window had significantly cooled the room with early spring air. They'd achieved that magnificent equilibrium where the temperature of the bed matched their bodies perfectly. Cool air to breath but a warm nest with mixed company. He couldn't think of a better way to start a day.

The shrill beeping of a truck backing down the alley behind the building disrupted the tranquility. A crow squawked indignantly from a tree branch close enough to the window that he seemed to be admonishing them for their lethargy. Natalie was the first of the girls to stir but she seemed to be wallowing in the realm between sleep and consciousness. Adam turned and placed his lips on the crown of her head. She gave a small squeeze with her hand on his ribs in response.

The first clue from Laurie that she'd emerged from the depths was a muffled request. "Anyone know the time?"

Natalie groaned a little and then turned on to her stomach and elbows. She blinked a few times and focused on the clock. "Almost nine-forty." She dipped her head and yawned expansively. "Well this is different." She gave Adam a quick smile.

"Mmph. I can't believe I've got to get out of bed." Laurie still hadn't moved, but was clearly having to come to grips with being awake. "I've gotta meet my Mom down at the farmers market on the Park blocks at ten-thirty." She gave a disconsolate growl. "And I blew her off last week—so no getting out of this one."

Laurie untangled herself from Adam and managed to mostly sit up. She was leaning on her right hand and rubbing at her eyes with her left. Adam stroked her lower back and took in the roundness of her right breast. It gently rolled with her movements, the nipple peeking into view and then away again. He reveled in the relaxed comfort of her nudity.

Glancing over at Natalie with a smirk, Laurie said, "If you were a real friend you'd come with me, Nat. I need help." She slipped into a shrill, unkind impression of her mother's voice. "So many girls are making money now—times have changed—you don't have to be teaching. That was all my mother and I were allowed to do. This is not a life for you, especially working with those poor children."

Natalie giggled at how close Laurie's mimicry was to the real thing. "Not this time, kiddo. You're on your own. Anyway I promised Sasha I'd swing by around lunchtime. And..."

"And you need to...sorry... want to be here for a bit." Laurie maneuvered to face Adam, giving him a fantastic start to his morning. She put a hand on his chest, leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. Mock hurt stole into her voice, "I can tell when I'm the third wheel."

Natalie reached over and put her hand on her friend's. "Thanks, Laurie."

Laurie detached herself from the womb of the bed, goose flesh pimpled her skin and her nipples tightened in the cool air. "Okay kids. Don't do anything I wouldn't." She flashed a smile and hurried out of the room, pulling the door closed behind her.

"Well, I think that leaves just us." Natalie said while idly tracing her fingers along Adam's collar bone.

"Yeah, it does. Well it will after I get back from the bathroom that is." Adam said and then slid sideways to excuse himself.

When he'd dropped his feet to the floor, Natalie had enjoyed her own moment of voyeurism. She could tell that the combination of it being morning and Laurie's body had somewhat aroused him. She observed his lean frame and liked how the slanting sun from the window backlit the small hairs along his butt and legs. She said, "I don't usually like such hairy butts."

"Hey!" He said and covered his rear with his hands while heading for the door.

When he'd gone she flopped onto her back and tried to make sense of the situation. Things were complicated. She was committed to Laurie...she loved her. But Adam had triggered similar feelings which made things messy. It'd be so much easier if he was just a fling; a boy-toy for the occasional dalliance when she was craving a change of pace. Undoubtedly true. Yet the past few months hadn't been a mistake. She sought his company. She wanted to spend time with him and it was certain she wanted to remain physical with him as well.

She heard Laurie and Adam bantering in the hall. Laurie was in the shower and there was only one bathroom in the place. She realized she'd be lucky if Adam came back to bed at all.

She expected his return, but he was taking his sweet, damn time. Another few minutes slipped by and Natalie said out loud to no one in particular, "That hussy." Laurie had probably lured Adam into the shower. But just when Natalie was about to go investigate, Adam returned carrying a plate of toast and a steaming coffee mug for her. The mental image of him moving around their kitchen, nude, to make her breakfast was both sexy and romantic at the same time. Yeah—she was in trouble.

He said, "I'm sure there are guys out there who'd whip up a soufflé or something for you, but I got the toaster to work and even managed to get that contraption to produce coffee. Milk and sugar—I believe."

Natalie gave an ear-to-ear smile. "We'll have to train you. What did you stir the coffee with?"

Adam looked down at his nakedness and laughed. "Ooh—no, no. That'd not be good. I managed to locate a spoon."

"I see." Natalie pushed back the covers. "Hang on. I'll be right back—nature calls."

Adam was walking through a dream. A few minutes earlier when he'd been going to the bathroom, Laurie was showering and the translucent glass had given him a suggestive view which had made willing away his hard-on difficult. Then she'd opened the shower glass door to stand facing him while water ran from her body. She'd given a wicked grin and ran a finger along her slit and it was clear her finger had penetrated herself. He'd pointed out that she was a little twisted, but it didn't seem to phase her in the least. Before getting derailed from his mission to bring Natalie breakfast, he'd had to leave one beauty in order to get back to another.

Natalie's lithe form approached him from the bed. She had a narrow waist, flat tummy, hips and thighs framing a light brown triangle. When she walked, there was almost no movement from her breasts, they were close to her body, but the underside curve from her ribcage was satisfyingly pronounced and her nipples had a decidedly upward inclination to them.

"Mmmm..." Natalie had taken the mug and sipped the steaming restorative. "Oh, that's good. Did you make one for yourself?"

"Yeah, and one for L too."

"Okay—put the toast over there. I'll be right back."

Adam set her breakfast on the night table and went back for his mug. He could hear Natalie and Laurie talking in the bathroom but didn't stick around for the conversation. He set himself up with some stacked pillows and grabbed the book off the nightstand to see what Natalie was reading.

In a few minutes, Natalie came back into the room and he could tell that she'd been teary. He said, "Hey, what's up? You okay?"

Natalie alternated dragging an index finger under each eye to wipe away the salty drops. "Yes. Fine. Laurie is amazing, that's all." She sat on the edge of the bed, with one knee flopped over toward Adam. She grabbed her coffee mug. "This is harder than I thought it would be. And Laurie not only knew it but...well...she's just amazing."

Natalie could see that Adam wasn't completely clued into what was going on. Until last night, he had no idea that the girls were more than roommates. Quite possibly, he thought that the threesome was some sort of fluke where Laurie joined them rather than the truth which was that Adam had been the outsider who'd joined the girls.

Adam had decided to focus on Natalie's face, he didn't want to be like a horny teenager and stare at her exposed body. Her position was overtly suggestive, but clearly this was not the time for that. The furrow was back on her brow, just the suggestion of it, and he knew she was working through things.

"Natalie, I don't want this to be difficult. The truth is..." Frustration welled. How could he possibly be nervous about talking to her given what had happened the previous night? "For god sakes, look I..."

Natalie put a hand on his arm. "Adam, I think I know. This is something that..."

"I'm sorry—I don't mean to be rude, but I need to say this. I'm just annoyed at myself for not being good at this sort of thing. The truth is pretty damn obvious at this point so I don't know why I have so much trouble saying it." He loved how much concentration was in her dark eyes. He continued, "For a few months now, I've been trying to find the right time to say something about how I feel, but I've had the hardest time reading you. Sometimes it seems like we're dating...we spend time on the phone, we go do stuff, I'm over here all the time."

"I'm sensing a 'but' coming..."

Adam took a sip of his coffee which was more of a delay tactic than anything. "But...then it's like you pull away. I haven't wanted to screw up my time with you, but I want more than hanging out. I don't know how to say this without sounding like a creep, but I plan my time around your schedule. When we set something up, that's the thing that the rest of my week suddenly becomes about. Then a thing like yesterday happens and I get totally confused."

Natalie raised her eyebrows in surprise, "Last night was confusing?"

"Not that. No. I mean when I saw that picture. I could have sworn you were going to kiss me, but Laurie came home and I ended up thinking I'd misread the whole thing. I can't read you worth a damn and that's why I haven't said anything." Once again, he sipped some coffee and took a moment to collect himself. "And there's more to it—but I don't want to burden you with my bullshit."

He'd looked away from her. She was roiling with a mess of emotions. Elation mingled with fear, frustration with relief. If she could've seen them, her feelings would have looked like a splattered Pollock canvas. There was pain in his eyes, which she'd not expected to see. She leaned forward and lightly pulled his chin back toward her."

He pursed his lips and then said, "Remember what I told you last night...about my Mom and Dad?"

Natalie nodded—she didn't say a thing.

"I don't let myself get close to people. Ever. But you've somehow wormed your way in, and it breaks the rule."

Natalie asked, "What rule? Is this like the rules that say I shouldn't love Laurie?"

Adam leaned his head back and closed his eyes. So that was it. She was—what—a lesbian? She was in love with Laurie? He was fucked. One-hundred-percent-pure-fucked. His chest tightened with a sense of failure. How could last night have been such a high and be followed by this?

"You love Laurie. Yeah, that probably breaks some rules. Yeah. Wow, did I misread you on this one." He started to get out of the bed. "I'm sorry that I loaded my crap on you."

Natalie leaned across the bed and grabbed his arm. "Where the hell do you think you're going? What rules? Or rule. Or whatever. Finish what you were going to say, god damn it."

"What's the point? Look, I had no idea that you and Laurie weren't just roomates. I'm just creating a problem here and that's on me. Not you."

Natalie said, "The point is that this is life and you have to face it sometimes. You're right that you're creating one hell of a mess. But no one has pointed out to me the fucking owner's manual with instructions about how we live our lives. You came along and have up-ended things that I thought I understood as well. I want you in my life." and again in a smaller voice. "I want you in my life." She was pulling at her eyes again. "What rules for Christ's sake?"

Adam sat with his back to Natalie, his hands braced on the mattress and feet on the floor. He was sitting right where he and Natalie had finished the night's sexual exploration yet his thoughts were a million miles from that.

"My mother and father were in love."

"And that's a bad thing?"

"God damn right it was. They spent more than twenty years deeply in love with him on one side of the bars and us on the other. I listened to her cry herself to sleep through the wall of that shit-for-nothing apartment of ours more times than I could count. I don't think she wanted to love him but she did and it destroyed her opportunity at living a normal life. No divorce, living close to a prison so it was easier to get there on Saturdays, working crap jobs, all because she couldn't move on. And my father, for all his tough-guy bullshit was torn up because she wouldn't leave him. I think he wanted her to, but at the same time he needed her as much as she did him. So not only did he physically live in hell, lucky guy, he got to feel hell every day that he wasn't with her."

This was more information about his past than she'd ever heard him say. Not just about his parents, but even about growing up or simple things like sharing stories about friends or high school. Without being overt about it, he'd managed to completely obscure his past throughout the years they'd known each other.

Natalie said, "And you saw that as pain?"

"What else was it?" Sarcasm laced Adam's voice. "Bliss? They were both tortured by their separation and I was the collateral damage."

"So you, what? Decided not to love anyone?"

He didn't respond, but he didn't disagree either.

Natalie said, "That was your solution—your rule? To isolate...or insulate yourself from that ever happening to you?"

Adam inhaled deeply. He wiggled his toes and stared at them absently.

Natalie waited for him to decide what he wanted to say.

A minute passed. Adam finally said, "It worked for a while."

Natalie shook her head. "No it didn't. It just made you unhappy."

"Don't confuse lonely with unhappy. The lonely part wasn't bad until I met you. Then we started hanging out all the time and I ended up wanting more than you were willing to..." Adam realized what he'd just said. "...that came out wrong. This isn't your fault. My baggage isn't your problem and you've got Laurie."

Natalie slipped off the bed and walked around to stand in front of Adam. She didn't reach out to him. She just stood for a long time looking at him. He wouldn't meet her eye. His gaze was purposely directed over her shoulder.

She said, "Look at me, Adam. No -- not just my eyes. Look at all of me. I'm here and want to be here with you. I also want to be with Laurie and that's been tearing at me for the past few months." She stepped closer to him, placing her breasts at eye level. "You've got your shit and I have mine. What am I? I'm not a lesbian, or am I? It's like everyone wanting to label kids with disabilities—to classify them. They're 'people,' that's their label. She placed a foot between his on the floor and straddled his right leg. Her chest was now only an inch from his face. She pulled his head into her body and started stroking his hair. "All of the rules say that I'm not supposed to love Laurie, but I do. Then there are people who say that if I do that, I shouldn't love you, but I do. So how's that supposed to work? Huh? I'm a fucking freak and probably monstrously unfair to both of you."

Adam was busy dealing with a cacophony of thoughts. She did care for him, but what about Laurie? What did that mean? Unfortunately he was also painfully aware of the soft skin that pressed into his face. He wrapped his arms around her waist and held on. They stayed that way for a few minutes -- just being together.

Natalie broke the silence first. "What am I going to do with you?"

Adam gave a grunt and said, "Keep me around as a sex toy?"

"Nice." Natalie said through a smile. She leaned back into his arms and said, "While that idea has definite merits, we're going to have to deal with this. There's too much risk in this whole thing for all three of us."

Natalie lowered herself onto the leg under her and gave Adam a long kiss. When her sex made contact with his thigh, she realized how very sore she was from the night before. The last bit had been rougher than she was used to...in a good way...but definitely rougher. Yet despite the discomfort, she could feel herself getting worked up again.

The kiss deepened and Adam's hand came up to cup her breast. He alternated his attention from her mouth to her neck, and back again. Her hands were busy as well; they'd dropped into his lap. She was using just her fingertips to explore his cock. She was tracing the head and sliding the other hand down the length of him.

Adam leaned back onto the bed and brought her with him. They repositioned themselves into the center of the bed. Natalie was concerned about the sensitivity of her pussy and tentatively pressed one of her fingers inside herself. It was no good—way too tender.

"Adam. Hang on. I'm too sore from last night." She gave an involuntary giggle at the mix of concern and guilt that vied for dominance on his features. "It's okay, but I need a little while."

"Oh. Ah, of course. I'm so sorry...I didn't..."

"Adam." She loved the fact that he was trying to extract himself from the bed out of concern for what he'd done. Leaning over him, she could see the straining hardness that he was fighting against to be considerate of her. She'd said his name to stop him from moving away from her. "I'm sore, but you're not. Kiss me again and stop trying to be such a gentleman for once." She reached between her legs to wrap her hand around the base of his cock and gave it a slow stroke.

Natalie pushed her pussy back against the smooth head of his cock and using the pressure of her hand, rubbed it up and back along her opening. She was dying to have him enter her again, but the tenderness was just too much. So she decided on fulfilling another desire from the night before. He'd made her come with his mouth and now it was her turn to do the same. She planted kisses on his ear, then his neck, then his shoulder. She paused for a time at his chest and gave each reddish-brown nub a warm, moist nuzzle. While she was doing that, she'd let go of him and was rubbing the taught muscles of his stomach. She reveled in the movement of his skin over the toned ridges beneath. Her mouth worked its way onto each hip, into the cleft between his leg and scrotum and finally up from the base of his cock to the top.

Much like the night before, a steady stream of pre-cum was beading out of him. She closed her upper lip around the back side of the head and dragged her tongue up the underside to capture it all. Natalie shifted back down to his balls and sucked first one and then the other into her mouth. She rolled them back and forth with her tongue before progressing back up to the head. This time, she engulfed his whole girth and slid down toward the base. While he was in her mouth, she pressed a flattened tongue against the underside of the head and alternated it from side to side.

His breathing was labored, and she loved hearing it catch when she would change the pattern. Long slow licks up the side, a turn of the head to take toothless bites sideways, quick strokes with her hand, and then dropping back down as deep as her throat would allow. She could never match Laurie's technique for opening her throat completely, but she managed to get much of him into her mouth.

Adam's legs had gone ridged under her and he was pushing his hips up to meet her mouth. She could sense that he was getting close. Natalie positioned herself as much above him as possible so she could get the best angle. She pumped him with her hand and encircled the head completely with her mouth. She swirled her tongue and began turning her head from side to side in opposite directions from each tongue swirl. Saliva made a slick trail down his cock, over her hand, and onto his pubic hair.