Pandora’s Other Box: The Three Way

Author's note:

This short story is more myth than fantasy or Sci-Fi. All characters are over the age of eighteen.

Thank you for reading!

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"Alright everyone, please, take your seats. I know today is the last day of classes, and for some of you," the professor said, looking for a few especially broad smiles among his students, "the last day of your university career."

There was a smattering of jealous groans and congratulations, but as they waned, the professor continued. "Regardless of whether you'll be back on campus in the fall, I believe you'll enjoy today's lecture. Who knows the story of Pandora?" He selected from among the few raised hands. "Yes, Colette, what can you tell us about this myth?"

"All the evils of the world were kept in a box, which Pandora opened, releasing them."

"Evils such as?"

"Disease, sickness. I'm not sure, exactly."

"Right. Hesiod himself didn't specify when he recorded the myth."

"It seems misogynistic," said another student.

"How so?"

"Well, it's a woman releasing the evils, just like Eve tempting Adam with the apple. It's meant to oppress women."

"The myth is commonly interpreted that way, yes. But," the professor continued, pacing along the front of the lecture hall, "what if I told you that Pandora also released good into the world?"

A rustle of surprise moved through the room.

"I've never heard that before," Colette said.

"No one has. Or at least, not until recently. You may have heard me mention that I have a graduate student working in antiquities at the British Museum. He's helping translate newly discovered texts, and it turns out that Hesiod made another mention of Pandora that was only recently identified."

"What does it say?"

"This part of the myth is a bit spicy. If you're offended by sexual content you may leave now. But if you want to get a glimpse of the cutting edge of ancient literature and myth, stick around and I'll share it with you."

No one left.

***

It was like the breath of Hades himself.

Just one month earlier a tranquil Ionian evening had been rent by a nightmarish shriek of pain and lament. A heartbeat later a blast of wind hotter than any from the height of summer blew across Elias's olive farm, carrying with it a stench of sulfur and rot.

In the days and weeks since, Elias and everyone he knew had experienced the evils released by Pandora that day. Livestock fell ill, biting insects arrived in greater numbers than ever before, wells became unreliable, and a dozen other afflictions plagued the people. If the whispers were true, life in Greece would forever suffer under these new miseries.

Still, thought Elias, life was good. He rose from his olive press, stretched, and lifted with each arm an amphora filled with fresh oil. He was healthy, strong, and unlike some of his less fortunate neighbors, his orchard was thriving and the crop generous. Elias took a moment to thank the gods, then carried the amphorae to the cellar.

Tonight, he and Elena would bathe away the day's dust, enjoy a simple meal, and later make love. Though the couple had passed more than a few seasons together his wife still had her beauty. A proud, straight nose and playful eyes were challenged only by her soft, full lips. Her wild, dark hair was so rebellious that most days she had to restrain it with clasps, but when the two made love, she set it free to toss around them.

Only the sameness of their encounters nagged at Elias. After sweet talk and kisses the two would become aroused and ready. Elena would lay on her back, part her thighs, and allow Elias to enter her and pump until they climaxed. In all other ways, Greek life was uncertain and varying, but in the bedroom, there was but a single way.

As Elena tidied up the kitchen she noticed their neighbor through the window. "My heart goes out to Iris."

Elias nodded. Iris's husband Alcides had been injured in battle just the year before. He had returned to Ionia and his wife's side, but the injury had proven too great and he had passed away within the month. Though her grief had ebbed, Iris still cut a lonely figure tending her garden.

The couple went to visit their neighbor, waving to her as they approached and offering dried figs and wine. The three chatted, but as they did so, something quite strange happened. Although all who heard it would later describe the sound as a soft sigh or a moan, it nonetheless reached every corner of the land. Then, moments later, a gentle but insistent breeze swept across them. Elias caught the scent of honey, herbs not in season, and ripe fruits he could not name. His skin tingled at the touch of the breeze and, though it passed, the memory of the sensation seemed to sink deep into him.

"Oh! Oh, my," Iris gasped. "What was that?" She pushed a strand of gold hair behind her ear.

"I don't know," Elena said. "It reminds me of what happened a month ago. First the sound, then the wind."

"But that was an evil sound and a foul wind," Iris said, shuddering at the memory. "This was as if all of spring arrived and passed in a moment."

"And yet lingers," Elena said. She took Elias by the hand. "We're going to go back inside," she said, already tugging her husband away. "May Hera bless you!"

*

Elias knew at once that tonight their lovemaking would have a different character. Unfamiliar, urgent impulses moved within him, and his hands were on Elena's body even before she had finished shedding her clothing. Nor did his wife object. When Elias buried his face into her hair she sighed, and when his hands found her heavy breasts she let out a soulful groan. For a moment the couple remained standing, husband's hands caressing and exploring his wife's body eagerly. Then he urged her forward and the couple tumbled onto the bed.

Their session followed a new script. Elena was slick with arousal, but instead of mounting her, Elias slipped one finger then another into her slit. Rewarded by a gasp, he continued by moving them inside of her, watching the play of bliss on her face. Elena writhed against him, whispering encouragement, moaning, and nibbling at his neck. She reached to his already hard cock, stroking it, drawing it ever closer to her center, and throwing a leg atop Elias to better open herself to him.

"Surely, Eros is with us tonight," Elias groaned. The plump head of his engorged cock pressed against the slick flower of Elena's slit.

"Yes! You've never taken me like this before."

Why hadn't he? On their sides facing one another, the couple could remain hot and close without Elias needing to hold himself above her or for Elena to bear her husband's weight. He eased himself into her, marveling at how ready she was, how eager for their coupling.

The memory of the earlier sound and breeze seemed still to wrap Elias, and he found himself touching Elena with greater passion and curiosity than ever before. His tongue found her breasts, the hollows of her neck, and the inside of her elbow which he tongued indulgently while Elena moaned. And his wife reciprocated, tugging on his balls and kissing his ear. The bed creaked as his plunging cock found her depths again and again. Surely they would cum together soon.

Then Elias noticed Elena looking past him. At first, he ignored the glance but when his wife's gaze didn't stray, he turned to see what had caught her attention.

In the doorway of their home stood Iris, lips slightly parted, watching them. She was wearing a gauzy chiton, a type of tunic that hung loosely except at her waist where it was belted. Though darkness was falling, their cookfire highlighted her figure, throwing inviting shadows across her hips, legs, and breasts.

"You felt it, too," Elena said, eyes still locked on Iris.

Iris spoke in a whisper. "Yes."

What was happening? Elias watched as Iris stepped into the room and then walked to the far side of their bed, behind Elena, who now turned her attention back to her husband.

"Keep going."

Somehow it felt natural that they would continue to make love as Iris watched. Soon he was moving inside of her once again, his ardor undiminished.

"You miss your husband," Elena said, speaking to Iris, but facing Elias.

"Yes."

"How long has it been since you lay with a man?"

"Since Alcides returned from battle, mortally injured. More than a year."

Elena nodded sympathetically. "Undress."

Elias watched as Iris complied. With no show of modesty, his neighbor loosened her belt and then tugged the tunic over her head. The blonde was slighter than Elena, with slim arms and thighs, less swell to her hips, and small, perky breasts. Her milky complexion stood out in contrast to Elena's olive-hued skin.

Without being asked, Iris slipped onto the bed behind Elena. She snuggled close, laying an arm on the brunette's hip. "Is it nice," she asked softly, "to have your man inside you? As I remember?"

"It is." Elena drew Iris's hand from her hip and, as Elias continued to move inside of her, began to kiss the younger woman's fingers.

"That's nice, too," Iris whispered.

Elias's mind spun. Lovemaking was between one man and one woman, with no exceptions. Even in his most unbound fantasies or boisterous drunken talk with his fellow men neither he nor they ever considered that the definition might be stretched. Two women couldn't share a bed, much less be joined there by a man. It wasn't that it was considered taboo, just that the concept lay outside imagination.

Until today.

Elena continued to tease and suck at Iris's fingers while the blonde pressed up behind her. But shortly she winked at Elias, nudged him away from her, then rolled to face Iris. The brunette placed Iris's hand on her breast and they kissed, warm, tender, and wet.

"I never knew," Iris gasped.

Elena giggled. "Me, neither," she said before kissing Iris once more.

"You're both so beautiful," Elias marveled. His love for his wife was boundless, and cheating unimaginable, but seeing the two women together he came to understand that there was a third way. He re-entered Elena from behind, planting several more deep strokes. For a time the two moved together while Elias soaked up the erotic spectacle of his wife in an intimate embrace with another woman every bit as desirable. Watching their soft lips and slick tongues dance and swirl together was almost more than he could bear.

Perhaps sensing this, Elena once again signaled for her husband to pull free. She turned to whisper to him.

"My love."

"Yes?"

"Our neighbor, our friend, lost her husband."

"I know."

"In her place would you want me to be forever chaste, or feel a man's touch once more?"

"I'd want you to be happy."

"Then give her what she craves," Elena insisted, kissing Elias.

Again, the bed complained as the inhabitants shifted positions. Elena sat up, crawled behind Iris, and nudged her toward Elias. Her friend, catching for the first time a look at the man's swollen organ, made a small gasp.

"I don't know..." she said.

Elena snuggled up behind her. "I endured him on our wedding night and found bliss," she said, her voice warm with the recollection. "You're no virgin. I promise by morning you'll beg for it."

Elias hardly cared if his wife's assurances were effective. After watching the two women make out he was more than half mad with lust. No sooner had Elena urged Iris forward than he grabbed the younger woman by her hip and drew her to him.

"See?" Elena said. She favored her husband with a wicked glance shared only between the two, then guided Elias to Iris's wet center. "Give yourself to him."

The final reality was half give, half take. Elena's skilled hand guided Elias as he surged forward, parting Iris's folds. The blonde cried out, but with Elena kissing her ear and whispering assurances, allowed Elias to open her. She was tighter than Elena, slick with desire, but carried a look of uncertainty in her eyes.

"No other man has had me but Alcides."

"There is no shame in this union," Elias said, immediately knowing it was true. There could be no limit on love or lust when given freely. He nudged his cock deeper, then gave Iris a kiss.

"He's a good man," Elena said, kissing the widow on her neck and shoulder.

"He's a big man," Iris groaned, but Elias moved in her ever more freely as her body welcomed him.

Together, man and wife sandwiched the young widow, pleasuring her from both sides. Elias drove his cock into her with vigor while Iris ground against him and pulled him close. From behind, Elena pressed close against Iris, nuzzling against her neck and reaching around to fondle her breasts. All the while she whispered to the entwined pair.

"Is she sweet?" she asked Elias.

"Like honey."

"And is he powerful?" she asked Iris.

"Like a god," Iris whispered back.

"Yes," Elena sighed. "Tonight he will claim you as he claimed me."

For a time the three moved languorously toward release. The cookfire dimmed and the outside breeze picked up, caressing the lovers. Elias caught a hint of the same exotic scents from earlier, waning but still present. Time seemed to slow as he drove himself into Iris rhythmically, but though he wanted the evening to unspool without end there were limits to his endurance.

Elena also noticed. "You're nearing the precipice, my love."

"Yes," Elias lamented. "She's too snug, too sweet."

"Embrace it, my love. Iris draws near, too. I feel it in her, trembling against us."

Elias could only groan, eager for the promised release.

Elena giggled. "But first, turn her to me. When she cums it should be at our shared touch."

So although his body cried out for release Elias pulled his organ free, glistening in the last of the firelight. Iris whimpered and clutched at him, but he soothed her with a kiss and nudged her toward Elena.

"We'll all cum together."

Already Elena was embracing Iris, tongue-kissing her mouth, then her neck. "Take her from behind," she suggested.

Elias did so, raising Iris's leg and pushing his cock toward the young woman's center. Once again Elena helped guide him, and soon he had buried his organ in Iris's deliriously blissful depths.

He knew immediately that he wouldn't last long. Not only was he already trembling with an approaching orgasm, but watching his wife and the younger woman together was devastatingly erotic. Elena's unruly black locks were tossed behind her in a cloud, merging with Iris's blonde strands. Blonde and brunette kissed wetly before Elena moved lower across Iris's neck, chest, and breasts. She found a nipple and tongued it greedily.

"Oh, Elena!" Iris gasped.

"Is it nice?" Elena asked with a leer that revealed she already knew the answer.

"It's beautiful." Like Elias, the blonde was trembling, nearing release.

"Do you like my husband's cock?"

"Oh, yes. He is like thunder within me."

"And do you like my tongue?"

"Like a kiss from Aphrodite." Iris was writhing and panting between her neighbors, lips parted and eyes shut.

Elena gave her husband a knowing look. "Then cum," she said, then moved a hand to Iris's clit.

Elias climaxed first, at last succumbing to the unendurable sweetness of Iris's slick depths, and driven over the edge by his wife's filthy talk. He felt the familiar tightness behind his balls, drove a final, hard thrust into Iris, then unloaded a heavy spurt of cum.

"Fuh, huhhhh!" he cried out as pleasure swallowed him.

The second Elena's fingers slid over Iris's nub, the blonde joined Elias in bliss. Her slender, pale body shuddered with release and she sighed out an exhalation which ended as a cry of delight. The combination of Elias's demanding cock and Elena's sweet touch carried her along through the arc of release as she gasped, shuddered, and sighed before at last reaching contentment.

The night wrapped them.

***

"What did you think?" the professor asked the stunned students. When no one responded he added with a smirk, "If we blame Pandora for disease when she opened the first box, should we not also give her credit for the three-way when she opened the second one?"

Colette nodded mutely before asking, "What other pleasures were in that box?"