The Bridge

The Bridge

Once we had crossed that bridge there was no going back.

Introduction

In 1974 Donald Dutton and Arthur Aron published a now famous psychological research paper entitled "Some evidence for heightened sexual attraction under conditions of high anxiety." This is sometimes described as the Capilano Suspension Bridge Study or The Love Bridge Study.

The Capilano Suspension Bridge is a foot bridge that crosses the Capilano River in North Vancouver, Canada. It is four hundred and sixty feet long and passes two hundred and thirty feet above the river and sways as the wind blows. Several years after the study was performed I crossed this bridge, and I can vouch for myself that it sways back and forth as you cross and is not an experience for the faint of heart.

Dutton and Aron paid an attractive woman to approach men after they had crossed the Capilano Bridge, and to ask them to write a story based on an image she showed them. This image was deliberately chosen to be non-sexual in nature, and she told them (falsely) that she was investigating the effect of natural beauty on creativity. She was then instructed to give each of the men her telephone number which they could ring if they had any further questions about the study. The woman, who did not know the true reason for what she was doing, was asked to repeat the process with a group of men crossing a more stable (and less anxiety provoking) bridge elsewhere in the area.

The results of the study were illuminating. Men who had crossed the suspension bridge wrote stories with more sexual contact than those who had crossed the "safer" bridge. Furthermore nine of eighteen men who crossed the suspension bridge called the researcher as compared with two out of sixteen men who had crossed the more rigid bridge.

This result had two possible explanations. Either the men choosing to cross the anxiety provoking suspension bridge were more sexually adventurous, or the anxiety of crossing the bridge was making the female researcher appear more attractive to them. When the experiment was repeated with one group of men approached immediately after crossing the swaying suspension bridge and a second group ten minutes after making the same crossing when their anxiety levels had settled only the first group of men were more likely to telephone the researcher.

They had shown that it was the stress associated with crossing the bridge that had made the female researcher more attractive to the men.

Dutton and Aron called this "misattribution of arousal" and suggested that the physical symptoms of stress (dry mouth, rapid, pulse sweating etc) caused by the release of adrenaline when crossing the bridge, had been mistakenly thought to have been caused by the attractive female researcher.

1

Some of you may, by now, be asking what is the relevance of this psychological research to the story I am about to tell. I learnt of this study many years after the events I am about to describe but for obvious reasons it resonates with me and may help (perhaps in part) to explain them.

In 1982 my girlfriend Amanda and I visited my parents who lived in Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. It was during the long summer break, and we had arranged to borrow my parents' car and drive down the Pacific Highway to San Diego and back, taking around three weeks to do it. We planned to be in Vancouver for a week prior to this and 10 days afterwards. Amanda had a Finnish friend from university called Marrika who was to join us for our road trip. She flew into Vancouver a few days after Amanda and I had arrived, and we met her at the airport before bringing her home to my parents' house which was close by in Richmond.

I had been going out with Amanda about nine months, since the beginning of the academic year, and it was a semi-serious relationship. I knew Marrika reasonably well because she was Amanda's best friend, and they lived on the same floor in a university hall of residence. This was to be my last holiday with Amanda before she left the UK for a year to live in Sweden where she would study as part of her Nordic languages course. I was in my last year of a physics course and knew that Marrika was in her final year of an honours course in history.

Even though they came from different backgrounds they might have been sisters. Despite her Scandinavian origins Marrika had dark brown hair, full lips, and hazel eyes, as did Amanda. They were both tall, whilst Marrika had a slightly bigger bum and slightly smaller tits than Amanda. They were both undeniably beautiful but where Amanda was outgoing and extroverted Marrika was quiet and introspective and generally shy around me. I had never known her to go out with a man, and it had crossed my mind that she might be gay.

It hadn't been my idea to invite Marrika along, but Amanda who had suggested it, and to be honest It didn't cross my mind that two might be company and three a crowd. And so it turned out. Marrika was one of those rare individuals who can be there when you want her to be, yet, despite her striking looks, shrink into the background the rest of the time.

By the time we set out on travels I was only too happy to be escaping from my parents' house. They were old fashioned and although they must have known I was sleeping with Amanda, their rule was "not under our roof." We all had separate rooms and mine was next to my parents' room. The result was that we had not had sex for over a week, and I was a very horny twenty two year old the morning we left Canada and entered the States at The Peace Arch Crossing in Blaine, Washington State.

Our route took us south past Seattle and on to Portland, Oregon and past Mount St Helens which had erupted so catastrophically two years earlier. The first day we drove until we reached Salem, Oregon at about six in the evening. We had driven seven hours from the US border with a stop for lunch and after we booked into a motel, showered, and changed we went for a walk and then went to a diner for dinner. By the time we had finished eating it was after nine o'clock, and we went back to our rooms.

Amanda and I had a room situated "back to back" to the one that Marrika occupied, and as I banged Amanda and the headboard of the bed banged, in turn the wall, I remember thinking that Marrika was lying in her bed with her head only feet away on the other side of the wall. She must have been able to hear us, but if she did, when we met for breakfast she gave no sign of it.

This is a story and not a travelogue so I will only briefly describe our travels during those very interesting three weeks. We drove down The Avenue of the Giants in Northern California and looked in awe at the giant redwood trees. We saw San Francisco where we drove down Lombard Street (the windiest street in the world) and visited Fisherman's Wharf and Alcatraz. In Los Angeles we spent a day in Disneyland. We drove the Pacific Highway past Monterey, Carmel, Santa Barbara, and Ventura, and in San Diego we saw the zoo. On the way back we took the time to have hamburgers in Carmel at The Hog's Breath Inn owned, at that time, by Clint Eastwood.

My most lasting memory of that holiday is not of any of the places we visited but something that happened one day on the beach north of San Diego. We had gone down to the beach early one morning and planned to sunbathe until the sun grew too strong. Both of the girls were wearing skimpy bikinis which left little to the imagination. Suddenly with no warning Amanda reached behind her back and unclipped her bikini top and seconds later Marrika did the same, and they then rubbed sun oil over each other. I tried hard not stare at Marrikas' breasts which were small, round but perfectly formed, and very firm. I remember that her nipples were erect and, when in turn I started to harden, I needed to go for a swim to cover my embarrassment and give my erection a chance to abate. Half an hour later when I returned they were both lying face down on their towels.

Ninety minutes later we returned to our motel. I can remember being incredibly horny and no sooner had we entered our room that I asked Amanda to remove her bikini bottom and I fucked her doggy style over the end of the bed. As I slid rapidly in and out I remember fantasising that it was Marrikas' body that was stretched out on the bed in front of me and her that I was filling, and I wondered what she looked and sounded like when she took her orgasm(s).

A little later we had showered and changed when Amanda looked coldly at me and spoke.

"I suppose it should have been obvious you would fancy her."

But before I could reply there was a knock at our door, Amanda opened it, and Marrika entered, and the moment passed.

During that period I also started to learn more about Marrika. I already knew that she was quiet and serious about her studies but as she got to know me she started to open up a little. I started to understand that she didn't voice an opinion until she had thought about what she wanted to say and that it was worth saying it. It was this that made her seem quiet. She was not overcritical of others and was kind and generous. She paid her way but did not make a fuss about things being exact. Importantly when living in close proximity for that period of time she was considerate, and neat and tidy.

She was fun to be around.

I had learnt to like her.

A lot.

2

Several weeks later we were back in Vancouver. We had had a busy few days visiting Steveston Fishing Village, Stanley Park with its' totem poles, and China Town, and we had taken a ferry to Victoria on Vancouver Island and had tea in The Empress Hotel. The previous evening my parents had gone to Edmonton to see my grandmother who had become unwell and were not due back for a couple of days, and Marrika was returning to Finland the following evening. Amanda and I were due to fly back to the UK three days later. We were casting around for something to do when I suggested we visit the Capilano Suspension Bridge in North Vancouver.

I was a windy day, and the narrow foot bridge was swaying from side to side as we crossed it. Far below I could see the river as it flowed through the wooded gorge. Four hundred and fifty feet is a long way to walk when your palms are damp, your mouth dry, your pulse racing, and you are walking along a high swaying wooden pathway suspended by cables over two hundred feet above a rapidly flowing torrent. I do not deny that I was nervous, but the girls were walking steadily ten yards ahead of me, and I forced myself to keep up.

Just as we approached the far end of the bridge two young men suddenly appeared from out of the trees and one of them started to gently shake the bridge. It was not a particularly unsafe thing to do, and their actions were likely directed at the two beautiful women who were approaching them and not obviously at me. Nonetheless I reacted instinctively and more out of panic than anything else; and I yelled loudly and angrily across at them.

"Stop frightening my girlfriends!."

They took one look at me, then they stopped doing what they were doing, turned, and ran off.

When I reached the end of the bridge Amanda and Marrika were waiting for me. They were flushed, out of breath, and a little agitated but in that moment I remember feeling a very strong attraction towards each one of them.

"Our hero," laughed Marrika.

"Girlfriends?"

And I explained that in North American English a girlfriend does not necessarily have to be a woman you are having a sexual relationship with. It is in native English that the term girlfriend implies a sexual relationship.

"Freudian slip?" said Marrika as she smiled at me quizzically.

And then she looked across at Amanda who nodded almost imperceptibly, and she crossed to me and with Amanda looking on, she kissed me long and hard on the lips.

"let's go home," said Amanda.

3

No sooner had we reached home, and the front door closed behind us, when Amanda turned to me, reached down, and cupped my balls through my trousers, and whispered in my ear,

"I'm so fucking horny. Have a shower and wait on your big double bed for me. I want you bone hard and naked. Don't even think about touching yourself. I'm going to fuck your brains out."

Half an hour later I had showered, shaved, brushed my teeth (for the second time that day), and lay naked and waiting on my back on my bed. I figured Amanda wanted to give me some time to anticipate the fucking she planned for us both, and she was right, as I lay there imagining all the things we would soon be doing to each other. A further fifteen minutes passed, and I started to think Amanda had changed her mind or my parents had unexpectantly arrived home. But then I knew that wasn't possible. I had spoken to them early that morning and they were 700 miles away in Edmonton.

Then the door opened, and Amanda walked into the room followed by Marrika!

Each one of them was wearing a freshly laundered long nightgown and they had washed and dried their hair and applied make up. Each one of them looked beautiful. Amanda had her cordless wand in her right hand and Marrika held a penis shaped black dildo in hers.

"Your girlfriends."

It was Amanda who had spoken, and as she did so she smiled.

"And we are not North American girls" added Marrika.

Marrika crossed the room and stood next to the bed looking down at my penis which was now fully erect.

"Oh my. Is that for me?"

She stepped away and stood where I could see her and pulled her nightdress over her head. Underneath she was naked. Her nipples were erect and for the first time I saw that she was unshaved. Below her flat belly her milky white triangular sex was accentuated by her tan marks and the dark brown skin of her torso and thighs. She was broad waisted with large firm buttocks, and as she slowly turned to show them to me, her pale anal cleft between them and the thin white bikini strap line at her waist accentuated their form and roundness.

"You like?"

"Oh Yes" I croaked.

She lay beside me, and I smelt the fragrant smell of lavender perfume.

"First you watch. No touching. There'll be plenty of time for that."

She reached down between her thighs and started to touch herself before she switched her dildo on. As it softly buzzed she turned to me.

"That first night in Salem as you were noisily fucking Amanda I used this dildo on myself. As she came so did I."

I looked down and watched her slide the toy slowly between her legs and then press the vibrating shaft firmly against her clitoris. And then I felt her grasp my penis in her fist and very slowly start to rub me.

As Marrika slid my foreskin back and forth the dildo did its job and she started to gently moan. Her moaning became louder, and she began to move the dildo in small circles.

In my passion I had become distracted, but I now became aware of Amanda. She was sprawling, now naked, on the armchair in the corner of the room with her legs splayed wide over each of the arms, and she was busy with her vibrator as she watched open eyed.

Marrikas' pleasure grew and she became noisier and noisier. Both of her hands were busy, but as she approached orgasm she frantically moved the dildo in and out with one and gripped me tightly but motionless with the other. As her eyes grew wide and her mouth opened wide in a long sigh of release her legs stretched out in front of her and her thigh muscles trembled, and she came in a long shuddering climax.

And as she did, so did Amanda. Her orgasm was noisier and as was normal for her was followed by a long fit of giggles.

Marrika gazed into my eyes, then turned and knelt and I felt her take my penis in her mouth. I watched her head bob up and down as she fellated me. I do not know whether it was her technique or the sight of her beautiful, tanned buttocks but my prick felt harder than I could remember and I ached to enter her beautiful body.

I did not have to wait long as she turned to face me, straddled me, and started to ride. As I reached up and held her breasts in my outstretched arms she looked down on me and gently smiled. She kept up a steady rhythm as we approached our respective climaxes and then as I was reaching the point of no return she disengaged and sat astride my face facing onto and holding the headboard. Following a brief moment of disappointment I felt another body sit astride me and Amanda took me inside her moist vagina and started to ride me. As Amanda rode I licked Marrikas' bud and felt it hardening under my tongue.

With a pair of well-muscled thighs clamped tight around my head I was now unable to hear my groans, or any sounds of passion that the girls might be making. Nonetheless their pleasure was clear and as Marrika ground her perineum against my face and her thighs tightened Amanda rode faster and faster, driving herself in a frenzy, hard onto me.

Then as Marrikas thighs clamped around me she bucked in ecstasy, and her slit became wet with a white creamy ejaculate. Her orgasm was long and protracted and for maybe ten seconds her thighs trembled and her cunt lips rhythmically contracted and relaxed. In those moments I felt Amandas' vaginal muscles start to rhythmically grip me as she too took her cum, and I came too and pumped my semen deep inside her.

4

Much later, because it was Marrikas' last night in Vancouver, we went by taxi to The Old Spaghetti Factory in Gastown for dinner and we all drank a little too much wine. It was late when we arrived home and each one of us went to bed in our separate rooms.

Something woke me in the night, and I looked across at the fluorescent dial of my alarm clock which glowed green in the darkness. It was three am. Then the bed sheets drew back, and a soft naked female body slipped into bed beside me, and I smelt lavender.

Marrika put two fingers to my lips and whispered.

Shhhh. We don't want to wake her.

She turned and held me tight, pressing herself against me and passionately kissed me on the lips. We kissed long and hard and I felt myself stiffening against her.

She spoke softly and urgently.

Yesterday afternoon we had wonderful sex but what I want now is for you to make soft and gentle love to me. As if this is our last hour alive and then we will die. I'm flying home to Finland tomorrow and want something for myself to remember you by.

Then, in the dark we kissed again. Those first kisses were passionate and deeply intimate and although I didn't know it, with them, we had crossed a line. Our love making was unhurried and as she lay beneath me I moved slowly in and out of her. I could hear her breathing quicken and then I sensed that she had moved her head to the side and was pressing her mouth to the pillow, I felt her knuckles against my perineum as she fingered her clitoris and I moved faster until her legs extended under me her pelvis bucked and I half heard her moan, stifled by the thick pillow.

I was close, and withdrew, and then I felt her dainty hand take my engorged penis and quickly stroke the cum out of me as I lay silently beside her.

Much later she lay in my arms in the half light. The sun was starting to rise.

"I suppose I should feel guilty" she said.

"But I've sat in a car and travelled the length of North American and back with a man whom I really like and fancy so much and I have tried so hard not to show it. Yesterday Amanda gave me carte blanche to have you and I leapt at the chance. I'm only human. Much as I enjoyed the threesome it was my first, and I'll probably never experience one again. It's not my style. I'm not gay and have only slept with a few men I really liked and up until now it's always been him and me. And I wanted so much to experience that with you."