Neighbors Ch. 01

A few weeks later, I took it upon myself to ask Kim over for dinner and drinks, and a movie. It simply didn't occur to me that I was essentially asking her on a date, but when she heard my offer over the phone, she laughed and with playful mock-disbelief, asked me, "Oh, so you are finally asking me out on a date?"

I laughed with her, and awkwardly fired back, "well only if it means you'll come over." After a moment of reflection, I added: "No pressure of course. I just felt like I could use some company."

"You know I'll be over," she told me modestly. "What time?"

When I answered the door several hours later, she was standing on my porch in a stunning emerald-colored evening gown that I had never seen before; it was simple in design, with a moderate cut at the breast and a larger cut in the back, but its simplicity made it all the more elegant, and it fit the curves of her body exquisitely. It was perfectly tasteful; not too dressy, although I instantly wished I had worn something a little nicer than an old pair of khakis.

"Wow," I exclaimed lightly, feeling just a little overpowered.

The smile on her lips was one of the warmer ones she'd ever flashed in my direction. "Well...are you gonna invite me in, or do I have to beg?"

I returned her smile, bowed slightly and ushered her in with a sweeping hand. She was so naturally charming that it hurt.

"I must admit," I began casually, closing the door as she walked into the foyer, "...that I feel a little underdressed. That gown is fantastic!"

"Eh," she muttered slyly. "It's comfortable. Besides, I don't get out too often these days." We both laughed. She was definitely in good spirits.

"Cocktail before dinner?" I quipped.

"I'd love one." She walked into the living room and sat down on the sofa. "Maybe...a gin a tonic?"

"Right away," I declared, and retreated into the kitchen.

We had an immensely stimulating conversation over dinner, talking about all manners of things; upcoming holidays and plans, how her daughters were doing at college, a possible vacation, my own desire to get a puppy. The dinner I had cooked- chicken marsala with buttery garlic mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli with lemon- was a huge hit with Kim. We remained at the table long after we had finished dinner, drinking a second, third and even fourth gin and tonic before adjourning to the living room to watch a movie.

She had sat down on the sofa at one far end; I had to search for the remote for a moment, and took up a seat just a cushion away, probably overthinking the importance of the seating arrangements. I didn't want to sit too close, and if I positioned myself too far away, it could seem off-putting.

"Damn, I forgot how comfy your sofa is!" she complimented. "Mm, you sink right into it."

"I'm probably going to be devastated when I have to get a new one, but let's not talk about that," I joked. In truth, it was a very comfortable piece of furniture.

Our conversation from the table had never actually ended; we found ourselves largely talking through the movie. I had selected one for exactly this purpose- Diehard. It was a good film, a classic; you had to love it, but we both had seen it a thousand times.

"Can you believe it's officially been a year without sex for me?" Kim asked me boldly, out of the blue.

"Huh," I muttered, smiling. "No...I guess I can't."

"You?" She had just finished her fourth drink. I wondered what her goal was here; I knew I was certainly feeling the effects of the alcohol, and I had at least a hundred pounds on her. She must have been feeling pretty good by now.

"Probably about half that," I admitted flatly, "six or eight months."

Truthfully, I'd had a girl over less than a month ago, but it was nothing special, and certainly nothing memorable.

"I've been kinda busy on the house lately to worry about chasing girls."

"Gotcha," she nodded.

"Well...are you doing alright Kim? Like, honestly?"

"Yeah, I think so," she replied unconvincingly. "I get pissed off with Kendra a lot. We had a fight about her going down to Palm Beach for spring break with her boyfriend."

"Ah, I see." I stretched both my arms out atop the sofa cushions, and even from a few feet away, she took the gesture as an invitation to draw closer. She scooted over to me and nestled up closely under my shoulder.

"Little cold," she smiled innocently.

I wrapped my arm around her, rubbing her shoulder.

"Yeah, I wish I didn't go off on her like I do. I know I shouldn't be so hard on her..."

"Someone has to though. Her dad won't." I drifted for a moment, remembering the first time I'd heard Rick insult his wife in front of me. I realized my mistake in bringing him up in our conversation, when I saw Kim move a hand to her face and sniffle loudly.

Oy. "Hey," I urged her, rubbing her shoulder a little harder. "It isn't worth the tears. Put it out of your mind."

"It's not just him," she told me, her voice faltering. "It's...everything. I'm so lonely. I know you try really hard to be around, and I appreciate it. But...I have needs and I've been frustrated and worrisome and stressed," she continued, mere seconds away from breaking down into sobs. "And..." she had to pause to catch her breath, "...I've had it all pent up inside of me for more than a year and it just sucks."

"I can't even imagine," I breathed in a sincere tone. "You're such a strong woman to come as far as you have, and so quickly too. I'd be completely devastated in your shoes."

Her tears were subsiding for the moment, at least. I could tell her getting this all off her chest was highly therapeutic.

"I mean, I try to go out and meet people but I just can't let it go. I don't know how."

At that instant, an idea flashed across my mind, a provocative, sensual, dirty idea.

"You're probably worried that it won't work, right?"

She looked up at me and sighed heavily, wiping her eyes again. "Yeah...yeah I am."

"That's exactly how I felt for a very long time after Anna," I confided. "I still do to some extent."

We were both silent for a bit. Her body felt good against mine, I was glad she had moved closer to me. In the pit of my stomach a slight discomfort was growing. Butterflies? I hadn't experienced something like this in at least five years. It was like the best first date I could remember, but for some reason I was more nervous than I had any right to be.

Diehard was ending, and I switched to the cable to find something a little lighter, though I ended up not finding anything, and merely channel surfing.

The very same idea I had several minutes ago flickered in my mind again, briefly.

"Kim?" I asked anxiously, trying to hide the feeling in my stomach that was growing very quickly.

She looked up at me. "Mm?" I was relieved to see her eyes were dry.

"I...want to do something for you. I think I can help relieve some of your stress."

"Oh? How?"

"You'll just have to trust me."

She smiled, raising an eyebrow. "Okay, sure. Take all my stress away!"

I slid off the couch and onto my knees, and turned to face her.

"What are you doing," she uttered quickly, but otherwise flatly; a thoroughly surprised look on her face.

"This will only work if you trust me." It must have been the way I emphasized the word trust, but I could tell as I stared into her eyes that I had won her over. I placed my hands on her thighs, feeling the soft satin of her dress.

"Um, okay," she said nervously, with an awkward smile to match.

I slipped my arms up the gown to her waist, found the fabric of her panties, and gently tugged them down. She shimmied, raising her hips off the couch to help the effort, and I pulled the tiny piece of lace out from beneath the dress and off of her bare feet.

Keeping eye contact with her, I pushed the dress up to her waist, exposing her naked thighs and lower abdomen. She had a neatly-trimmed little strip of short public hair adorning her skin.

I thrust my hands underneath her, grabbing her butt, and I pulled her closer to the edge of the sofa's cushions. Her body was almost horizontal, with her head and shoulders propped up a little so she could see.

Without another word, I lifted her crotch to my face, holding her lower body quite literally in the palm of my hand, and I ran my tongue lightly up between the folds of her lips, exploring them as her legs hung helplessly by my shoulders.

She inhaled sharply, making an audible gasp, and I watched over her mound as she brought a hand up to her breasts.

I turned my attention back to her vagina; I worked her lips one at a time, taking them into my mouth and tugging on them gently. I pressed my tongue flat against her slit and licked it, up and down for several strokes before completely burying my face in her labia, and thrusting my tongue as deep inside her as I could.

Her natural juices and oils quickly saturated my beard and skin; her musk, subtle and delicate, overtook my senses. I couldn't have been any more aroused in that moment. Or so I thought.

As I continued to explore her with my tongue and mentally map the intricacies of her pussy, I felt a hand slip across the back of my head. And as I was about to pull back for air, she placed her other hand on the back of my neck and pulled me into her so forcefully that she may as well have tried to shove my entire head up into her vagina.

"Oh, fuck yeah," she exclaimed in between labored breaths. "Oh that feels so good."

I was desperate for air, and when she let up a little, I threw my head back, gasping. I took a few breaths and dove back in, not wanting to lose all the momentum.

Finding the folds of skin over her clitoris, I started working my tongue a little faster, adding gentle pressure to each lick. I wasn't doing that long at all when she moaned loudly with unparalleled pleasure.

"Don't stop, don't stop, fuck!" she cried, and she hurriedly hooked her ankles around my neck and pulled me closer.

"Matt, I'm gonna come," she warned, and I licked her even faster still. I worked at her furiously, eating her as though my life depended on it, swallowing mouthful after mouthful of her liquids mixed with my own saliva. My face was a mess. A hot, slick, wet mess.

And then she gasped again, and pulled me even tighter; she contracted her abs to raise her shoulders and head up, a mixed look of pain, pleasure and total ecstasy written on her face and her glazed, widened eyes.

She tried to moan, but only wimpered an "Oh, god..." before I felt her hips buck heavily against me, her back arching and driving her ass powerfully against my open hands.

I continued to wildly lick, my face sliding across her pussy in desperate effort to thrust my tongue deeper and deeper. Her body convulsed and kicked a second time, and a third, which was accompanied with an exhaustive grunt from Kim. As I felt the spasms reduce to light, fluttery twitches, I pulled my head up and lowered her still shaking body back down to the sofa cushion.

Kim's head and shoulders were still slumped against the back of the sofa, and there was an expression upon her face of utter peace, despite her being just a bit out of breath.

"Wow, I..." she muttered, shaking her head. "How did you learn all that? That was...Oh my god...amazing and...just...holy shit."

As her breathing slowed to an even pace and her heart settled, her eyes met mine. She didn't need to say anything; they said it for her.

Regardless, after another few minutes,which could have just as well lasted an hour for me, she said in a quiet, grateful voice, "Thank you."

There was something incredibly sexy and infinitely erotic to seeing her like this; half naked, euphoric, exhausted.

"I think it worked," she told me with a laugh. "I feel one hundred and ten percent stress free." She closed her eyes for a moment and a smile spilled across her lips; there was a pause, and she breathed, finally, "Just...wow."

Still on my knees, I rose up and pulled her dress back down to cover her, and sat down beside her on the sofa.

"You look kinda hot with that mess all over your face," she joked, sitting up. "So...how can I repay you?"

"Don't," I offered simply, taking a tissue from the coffee table to wipe my face off with. "I didn't do it to get something in return," I said evenly, with a laugh. "I did it because I wanted to. I wanted to make you feel like a queen."

"Well holy shit, it worked! But I have to. I want to, I really do."

My cock was still stiff in my khakis. I had never experienced anything as sexy and arousing as her body exploding in an orgasm, the way she buried my face in her snatch, her primal urge to force my tongue deep within her. And honestly, I wanted to do dirty, dirty things with her. I wanted to grab her and throw her down on the sofa, spank her ass and fuck her from behind. I wanted to fuck her in every position ever imagined.

I couldn't though. I knew it would still feel as though I was taking advantage of her, and that wasn't a notion I wanted to deal with. I had done her a kindness, a favor of some sort; I had only wanted to help her. She did have her own needs, as she had told me.

"Kim," I began, searching for words I was certain I didn't have, "...if we do this, everything will change. I can't take that risk of losing you. You're one of my greatest friends and if I were to destroy our relationship, personally, by getting too intimate with you, well...I couldn't live with that. See, there would be expectations to be met, and pressure, and probably stress."

"Well, if you think we're better off pretending we don't want to be more than friends, than actually taking a chance and having a little faith, I guess you don't know me as well as you think."

"No!" I cried. "I don't think we would be better off pretending!"

"So you admit you want to be more than friends and neighbors, then."

"Well yes, but..." I was clearly losing her. "I just...need time to think, that's all, I promise you."

"Wow. You can't even put yourself out on a limb, can you? Do you think I wear my heart on my sleeve Matt, for the entire world to see? Do you think this is easy for me? Do you think it's fair?"

I didn't know what to say. My mind had been turned upside down. I hadn't foreseen this backfiring on me. And now, it was probably too late.

"Why the fuck did you ever think this would help me?" she asked with a tone of hostility.

"I spend hours looking at myself in the mirror wondering if I'm good enough for you, and I come over here knowing I need to be cautious, because I don't want to ruin what we have either, and then, then you think, oh gee I'll just go down on her and that will be that! You tell me you want to take my stress away and then you make me feel something I haven't felt in years, and I open up my heart, but for what? You're the only man in my life, oh, and my best friend too. But that's pretty sad, isn't it? Oh, but it's okay, because I was supposed to 'trust' you, right? Yeah."

She jumped up off the couch and was at the door before I could even get to my feet.

She opened the door and stopped before walking over the threshold, and turned a little, glancing up at me.

I had stood from the couch and had gotten half way across the living room, but when I saw her eyes I froze.

And in the next few moments, time stopped and my seconds became hours.

Instantly I knew I had hurt her a great deal more than I care to think about. Her eyes were red and they pooled with tears that had already started streaming down her cheeks. Pain and embarrassment and confusion and despair had been painted across her beautiful face. I'm sure if I listened closely enough, I could have heard what was left of her heart shattering. Her eyes asked why I had done this to her, begged for an explanation as to why I would want to betray her in such a way.

And then, with that image and those thoughts burned into my head, Kim stepped onto the porch and slammed the door shut behind her.

Hours passed as I lay in my bed, awaiting sleep that would never come. I couldn't wrap my head around what had happened. Where were we now, where did we stand?

I remembered the day she came over to the house, crying because she had finally signed divorce papers, and had them served to Rick. She had told me how he'd said he never really cared about her. She was 'a dime a dozen' and 'nothing special'. He told her he had been cheating on her less than two years into their marriage. Fuckin' ouch.

I lay awake, staring at the ceiling and trying to imagine what kind of life she could have lived, what it was really like for her. Wondering how she had gotten this far. She had bled enough for a lifetime, I was certain.

I wasn't sure I had done anything explicitly wrong, but having hurt her by effect made that completely irrelevant, as far as I was concerned.

There had to be hope, right? Some chance I could still save it. If I did value her friendship this much, maybe I did want to be more than friends, more than neighbors. But what did that leave? Marriage?

The thoughts in their entirety had nearly fried my brain. Though my head ached and my mind was tired, sleep wouldn't come. I kept seeing her face as she had stood in the doorway.

Then, as though it were a dream, my bedroom door swung open slowly, and from the nightlight in the hall, I could see it was Kim standing there, not in the gown she had worn to dinner, but in a dark-colored nightie, which extended to a point halfway down her thigh, and well above her knees.

Of course I had given her a key to watch the house when I was gone, but...what could she be doing here?

She walked across the carpet in her bare feet and stopped just a short distance from my bed.

"Matt?"

I propped myself up on one elbow. "What?" I asked quietly; listlessly.

She closed the gap, lifted the sheet and blanket and crawled into the bed.

She lay on her side, facing me, and scooted up very close, until her face was so close to mine I could feel her breath.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I said. Take all the time you need to think about it, all the time in the world. But...just don't think about it tonight," she pleaded. "Because I can't be alone right now."

Before I could respond, she leaned in and kissed me. Her lips had a firmness that I inherently associated with a sense of conviction; she brought a hand up to rest on my cheek as her mouth opened a little. I felt her tongue dart across the inside of my top lip and I shimmied and maneuvered in the bed to put an arm around the small of her back.

I pulled her entire body closer, until the bare skin of her legs and shoulders were touching mine, and the lingerie's thin fabric was trapped securely between our stomachs. I kissed her even more passionately, more heatedly; more intimately as I wrapped a leg around both of hers. I needed her to know I was sorry too.

With her lips still seated heavily against mine, she pushed on my shoulder until I rolled over onto my back, and she swung a leg over my body, straddling me. She squeezed her legs tightly against my waist as our necking grew even more intense.

And then she tugged my boxers down and grabbed my semi-hard dick in her small hand, and held it against the fabric of her satin panties, rubbing the two against each other with the combined motions of her wrist and her hips.

She finally broke the seal of our kiss as her body straightened and she rose up a little. She didn't bother removing her panties; but simply pulled them aside as she guided my cock into the mouth of her vagina. I might have heard her gasp as she lowered herself gradually on top of it, if not for my own very audible groan of pleasure.

She was so wet, she was nearly dripping- I felt the warm, slippery intimate embrace of her body taking my penis into it, completely, up to the hilt.