Four Together

Sophie and Josh were the couple who still whispered and kissed and made out in public long after everyone else had stopped. They kissed a lot. They always had. They groped each other in public. When they were near each other, they wanted to be physically close. They hugged while they walked. They kissed each other in the middle of conversations. They tried to sit beside each other in crowded rooms, and made other people move so they could.

After six years together, Josh still wanted Sophie. He wanted her like none of her friends were wanted. He chased her around the house if he saw her in her underwear, and he followed her into the shower when she was trying to get ready for work. Everywhere they went they were late, because one pulled the other back inside for a quickie on the way out the door. They had a lot of sex, so much that Sophie felt guilty and lied to anyone who asked. Two or three times a day, pretty much every day, even after six years. They had it often, and in stupid places too. They were always on the verge of being caught. He fingered her at the movies and she blew him in the car and they had sex in other people's bedrooms, at parties, just because they couldn't wait to get home. Neither of them could wait, once they got started. They both still ached for each other.

That was what Sophie was. No children, a dull job, mostly financially dependent on Josh. She hadn't much that other people would envy in her life, except the intensity of their relationship. It was a good relationship. It was solid. It was love as well as sex. They were close, and still talked, and were kind to each other as much as they could be.

Their friends pretended to be sick of them, but most, Sophie thought, secretly felt they were sweet. She and Josh were lucky. She didn't know why this had happened to them, why they'd ended up like this, but it had, and they were, and she was very glad.

*

Walking home from town one night, late, a little tipsy, Sophie started kissing Josh. Kissed, just to kiss him, then got distracted and started wanting more, because it was late and quiet and no-one else was around. And because that was just what they did.

She stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, so he had to stop too, pushed her hands up inside his shirt and opened her mouth and kissed him until he started trying to grope her back.

She'd worn jeans because it was almost winter and the nights were getting colder. He tried to get his hand down the front of them, but it didn't really work. The jeans were too tight. After this many years she should know better than to actually wear jeans, ever, but she still did.

Josh gave up and unzipped them, and got his fingers inside her pretty quickly. Sophie was used to being felt up fairly publically, but not so used to it she'd actually fuck on the side of the road. While Josh fingered her, she started looking around for some cover.

She'd got good at finding it, since they had been together. Overhanging trees, and bus shelters, and the dark hidden space between two parked cars. She'd had sex a lot of odd places, where she had to balance and lean and hold herself up, and by now she'd try almost anywhere except an actual public toilet, because that just seemed a bit grotty.

There were terrace houses all down the street. Bigger houses, with front gardens and fences, but all with their walls touching each other and no alleys or parks or laneways between them. There were cars all down the street to hide behind, but it was fairly open, and fairly brightly lit.

Sophie looked backwards. The house behind them had its lights off, and a hedge along the front path. That looked promising. It was two in the morning. Everyone would be asleep, and would stay that way, if Sophie and Josh were quiet.

"Hey," she said, and walked backwards, pulling Josh with her. Little shuffling steps with her mouth still on his, and his fingers still wetly deep inside her.

It was an older house, but tidy, done up with bright-colored paint. Someone had renovated it, Sophie thought. The garden was neat, so there wasn't anywhere much to hide. There was a covered porch, but going right up to the house and basically inside seemed a little much like trespassing.

There was a waist-high brick fence between the garden and the street, though, and the end nearest the path was shadowed from the streetlamps, secluded in beneath the hedge.

Sophie pulled Josh over, and leaned on the fence. Close against the hedge, where they shouldn't be seen. She undid her jeans some more, pulled them all the way open, and started kissing Josh again. "Just finger me," she whispered. "I'll blow you in a sec."

He did. He kissed her neck and breathed against her hair and rubbed her slippery wet as she perched on someone's fence. She was already quite close. They were good at this, had a lot of practice. Each knew how to do the other, and what to do to themselves to hurry it along. Josh could get her off in three or four minutes, and she could do him in two, and she was actually quite proud of that. They'd been doing this for years without embarrassing themselves, or anyone else.

He pushed his fingers against her, slid into her, rubbed gently, slippery over her lips. She undid his pants and started rubbing him too, because touching him when he was hard turned her on, and would make him quicker when it was her turn.

They could have just gone home and had actual sex, but Sophie liked not waiting. She liked that they couldn't control themselves, and wondered how many of her friends got finger-fucked by their partners, on the side of the road, on the way home, like they were still horny teenagers.

Sophie was almost there, wasn't really paying much attention to anything around her, when Josh's hand stopped and he said, "Wait, hold on."

Sophie moved her head, tried to breathe gently. Tried to listen, without pressing her ear to his chest.

Someone was coming down the road. She heard heels clicking on the asphalt, heard low voices, a second pair of feet. Another couple walking like she and Josh had been, she assumed.

"Wait," Josh whispered, his fingers still inside her, and she bit her lip and nodded.

The other couple walked closer. Sophie turned her face away, pressed it against Josh's chest. Josh looked past her head. They'd both learned long ago that other people noticed movement and they noticed faces and they didn't really see you otherwise, if you weren't moving or looking at them.

The other couple walked up the street, and then stopped beside their house. Stopped beside the path Sophie and Josh were standing in, and then the woman said, "Hi."

The owner of the heels, Sophie thought, without looking. Didn't look, because she felt embarrassed.

"Um," Sophie said, her face against Josh's chest. "Hi."

After all this time, doing things like this, they'd finally got caught and she was embarrassed.

"This is our house," the woman said.

"Yeah," Sophie said. "Shit. Of course it is."

Reluctantly, she turned towards them. She wasn't sure what else to do. Josh seemed to be embarrassed too. He looked like he'd been caught doing something terrible. Sophie tried push him away, but he held on. He seemed to be trying to hide his cock inside her hand.

"This is awkward," the woman said, but just kept standing there, which didn't really help. She sounded more like she thought it was funny.

"A bit," Sophie said. "Um. Sorry, by the way."

"It's fine," the woman said, still watching. "Happens more than you'd think, around here."

"I'm really sorry," Sophie said, and hit Josh to make him let her go. "We're stopping."

"You don't have to," the woman said.

Sophie stood there for a minute, not sure what to say.

"Seriously?" Sophie said.

The woman shrugged.

"You know what we're doing, right?" Sophie said.

"I can guess."

The woman was grinning. The guy beside her was smiling too.

Sophie stood there for a moment, startled and a little turned on. She looked at Josh and decided he wasn't horrified by the idea either.

"Dare you," the woman said.

"You dare me?"

"Yeah," the woman said. "I dare you. To finish what you're doing."

"And what, you'll owe me a dare back if I do?"

"Yep."

Sophie thought about that. She wanted to laugh, and ask if they were all twelve, and suddenly she really didn't, both at once.

"Any dare I like?" Sophie said.

"Sure. Anything."

Sophie looked up at Josh. She was wet. She was halfway through sex and had expected to come and Josh knew her well enough to know she wasn't going to be horrified by this. It wasn't like they weren't both halfway to being exhibitionists anyway, they'd just never been put on the spot before.

And it wasn't like anyone was actually going to see anything. The light was bad, and Sophie was hidden against Josh.

Sophie decided. "Want to?" she said to Josh.

"I will if you will."

Sophie looked at Josh, looked back at the couple, then reached down and pulled his hand back into her jeans. "Okay," she said.

She stood there. It was easier to get off standing up in jeans if she just stood up, and held his wrist, and pushed herself into his hand. It wasn't really getting fingered as much as wanking herself by humping his hand, but it worked. She kissed him, and ignored the other two, even though she was painfully, sexily aware of them. She pressed onto Josh's hand and thought about what they were doing and got very turned on. He was moving his fingers now, quick, round and round strokes on her mound that always made her come. She listened to the quiet sounds of the city at night, and breathed in the cool night air, and pressed herself into Josh's hand and got herself off as quickly as she could.

She came. She grabbed Josh's shirt with one hand and screwed it up into her fist, trying to avoid making any noise. She closed her eyes and bit her lip and made herself not moan. It was sudden and intense and more than a handjob orgasm usually was. She stood up on her toes, reached up and grabbed Josh's hair, and pulled his mouth down and kissed him.

He kissed her back, and grinned.

"I love you," he said, very quietly into her mouth. "You're fucking incredible."

"Yeah?" she said, into his. "You too."

She leaned against Josh, hugged him for a moment until her breathing went back to normal, then looked over at the couple watching her. She'd just let Josh get her off while two strangers watched, and she didn't seem to care at all. She glanced around to make sure no-one else had seen.

"I'm Sara," the woman said, holding out her hand. "This is Owen."

Sophie reached out and shook. Josh took his hand out her jeans without thinking, and reached over too. Sophie grabbed his wrist, and stopped him.

They all looked at his hand. At fingers shiny with Sophie's wetness, even in the dim light.

Sophie yanked on Josh's arm, pulled it down between them. Pulled it between her thighs, outside her jeans, and wiped it before they looked any more. She suddenly felt a bit embarrassed.

"Well," Sara said. "Shit. You'd better come in for a drink or something." She took keys out her pocket and walked past Sophie and Josh, up the path towards the door.

Sophie looked at Josh, and at Sara, and decided the whole thing was so strange and odd that she didn't want it to be over. She actually wanted to go inside and hang out with Sara and Owen, and she wasn't really sure she should.

"I need a drink," Josh said, as if he knew what she was thinking.

"Yeah," Sophie said. "Actually, I really need a fucking drink."

"Yes?" said Sara, and pushed the door open.

Sophie nodded.

"Come on then," Sara said, and went inside.

Sophie kissed Josh. "I think we just got picked up as a couple," she whispered, and he just grinned.

*

The house was nice inside. Big windows, wooden floors, leather couches in the lounge, everything very modern and open-plan. Sophie walked around and looked at things because she liked to get ideas. "This is nice," she said.

Sara said thanks, vaguely, like you did when guests told you things like that.

Sophie was watching Sara, curious, now she could see properly in the indoor light. Sara and Owen were about the same age as her and Josh, around thirty. Owen was probably a little older, like Josh. Sara had nice shoes, and expensive hair, and the house looked like they earned a fair bit of money. About what Josh did, and more than Sophie. They must have been out somewhere fairly formal, Sophie thought, perhaps a work do or at a restaurant, because Owen was wearing a suit without a tie, and Sara had a party dress and heels.

They looked like ordinary people, she thought. Just like she and Josh probably did. Not like the kind of people who watched strangers get handjobs on their front path.

Owen asked what they wanted to drink, and took Sophie's coat and hung it up in the hall, and it all started seeming like a normal evening with a normal couple, and everyone was suddenly very polite.

Owen and Josh started talking about work, and Sophie stopped listening.

It was like a dinner party, she decided, and that was very nice, but she wasn't sure she liked the change. She wanted the tingle, the little buzz of flirty anticipation there'd been as they all walked inside. She didn't want to make friends, she wanted to tease, and push, and see what happened next. She didn't want a dinner party. She wanted it to be like visiting two strangers who'd just watched her come, and knew every secret sound she made when she did.

She thought she knew how to fix it. "You owe me a dare," she said to Sara.

Sara grinned. "I do," she said. "What is it?"

Sophie smiled, and didn't answer, and wandered across the room.

It worked. Right then something changed. Sara followed her, was watching her, was wondering where this was heading again.

Sophie didn't know where it was heading, but she at least wanted someone else to be curious too. Not just talking about a brokerage firm that Josh and Owen both dealt with at work. Which they were.

"I like that," Sophie said to Sara. A photo of a model in a big multicolored peasant skirt. Like a woman wearing a quilt. It was very high fashion, very Vogue.

"I did it," Sara said.

Sophie looked at her, surprised.

"I did all of them," Sara said. "Except..." she pointed. "That one. What's the dare?"

"I'm thinking."

Sophie looked at the other photos. Mostly models, a few of faces. Sara followed her as she walked, and was standing a little too close, all the time. Shoulder to shoulder. Not flirting exactly, but not exactly not.

She had just watched Sophie come, so maybe a little flirting made sense.

"You're a photographer?" Sophie said.

Sara nodded.

"You're good."

Sara kind of shrugged.

"No," Sophie said, looking at a picture of a woman jumping, pulling her shirt open as she moved. "I buy way too many magazines and you're really fucking good."

Sara stood there and looked at her and didn't move, and Sophie had the strangest feeling she was about to get kissed.

She stood where she was too, didn't go back and didn't go forward and just waited to see what happened.

Nothing happened. Owen brought her a glass of wine, and Sara took one too, and Sophie sipped, and didn't know what she was doing, so she just kept looking at photos.

Josh and Owen seemed to have stopped talking. They were watching Sophie and Sara, like they were trying to decide what was happening.

Sophie still wasn't sure herself, but she liked that everyone else cared too, now.

"We were just saying I owe Sophie a dare," Sara said.

"And I was thinking of one," Sophie said.

Josh and Owen sat down. There were two couches, and one of them sat on each. Sara was sticking close to Sophie, and Owen was sitting well away from Josh. Sophie thought that was interesting.

She wondered about sitting too, but didn't. She stood beside Sara, stayed too close to Sara, just in case Sara wanted to try something. She looked over at Josh, and he grinned back. They were being hit on. Sophie was almost certain they were being hit on, although she couldn't quite decide how it was going to happen. Neither she nor Josh seemed to care. They'd never done anything like this before, but it wasn't like they had some rule they shouldn't. Just that no-one had ever offered, she supposed, probably because everyone looked at them groping all the time and assumed they were happy with each other. Which seemed to be turning out not to be entirely correct.

Sara took off her shoes. She had strappy heels, and she lifted up her feet one at a time and took the shoes off, then dropped them on the floor beside the hallway door. She stayed close to Sophie while she did it, was watching Sophie look at her photos.

Sara's dress was short and even without her heels, her legs were very long and very bare. Sophie knew she was suddenly noticing, when she didn't normally, and she was pretty sure Sara knew she was noticing too.

Sophie liked girls, a bit. She'd tried enough to know she did, but not enough to settle down with anyone she'd met, and that was all before she'd become happy with Josh anyway. She knew she liked women's softness and smoothness and especially their smell, and that she didn't care at all what their legs looked like at all, except that right now, here with Sara, she did.

She looked at Josh, and wondered if they should talk. If she should make sure he was okay, with whatever this was. He knew she'd tried women, because that was the kind of thing you ended up telling your boyfriend, especially during sex, but he might not know exactly how much she'd tried, or how willing she was to try again.

She should ask him, she decided, but was reluctant to in front of Sara and Owen. It felt like something that should stay between Sophie and Josh, like it would be giving away some private couple secret. She hesitated, but in the end she asked. Because she was playing sex stares with Sara, and still standing too close, and because she was flirty and wet and everyone here knew she was wet, so she owed it to Josh to make sure he was okay.

"Hey," she said. "Partner. Man. Are we all good?"

"We're fine."

"You're sure?"

He nodded.

He and Owen still weren't talking. They were just sitting, watching Sophie and Sara.

Sophie felt somewhere between a stripper and a public speaker, sexy, but under pressure to perform. She didn't know why.

"Do you want to sit down?" Sara said, still too close, looking from Josh to Sophie.

"I could," Sophie said, and didn't move.

"What's the dare?" Sara said.

"I'm thinking."

Sara sipped her wine, and waited, and stood there looking at Sophie.

Everyone looked at Sophie, and Sophie went around the room, looking at photos again.

"Dare?" Sara said after a while.

"Thinking."

"Want see some more photos?" Sara said.

Sophie nodded. "All right."

"Come on."

There were stairs in the hall, and more framed photos on the stairs, and up around a landing at the top. Always people, always their expressions a little aloof. The colors were rich and the photos were sharp. It looked like fashion photography, except one photo was of a homeless guy, one of a tattooed man holding his cock, and one of a tagger being grabbed by neck by a police officer, and pushed against a wall.

"You're really fucking good," Sophie said.

Sara nodded. She didn't say no and she didn't say yes and Sophie liked her for that.

"Are these work?"

"Mostly." She touched the picture of the tattooed guy. "Not that. He's my ex."

Sophie thought about that. "Owen doesn't mind?"

"I've always had them up. He doesn't mind."

Sophie nodded, she understood that. "He looks sad. The ex."

"I took it after we broke up. That might be why Owen doesn't mind." Sara pointed to the homeless guy. "He bit me."

"He bit you?"

"I'd followed him for a while and he didn't like it. Just after I took that he bit me."