Through Thin Walls

With a smile, Ashley pushed me away toward Mal. "Now leave me with my big monster," she said, her hand stroking his chest. "Dante owes me a do-over."

Dante made a big show of clamping his mouth shut while holding up a finger of protest, and we laughed again as Mal pulled me off to her bedroom. With my last glance at Ashley, I realized Dante's hips were still between her thighs. I'd forgotten his softening dick was still buried in my wife, but the reminder wasn't painful. The way Ashley was looking at me, I could tell that she had forgotten, too.

* * * * * * *

Mal leaned against the bedroom door to close it and burst out laughing all over again. I'd never been able to resist her contagious laughter. Despite my worries, I couldn't help joining in now. We staggered over to the bed and collapsed.

"Did you see Dante's face when I called him 'Turbo'?" Mal said.

"I can't believe Ashley did that to him," I said. "Was that your idea?"

Mal shook her head, becoming thoughtful. "No, that was all Ashley. Brilliant, though."

"Yes, she is," I said.

Mal rolled toward me. The bare knee she raised reminded me that her pants remained in the front room. She'd had her pussy exposed this whole time, and I'd forgotten about it. Why was I not overcome with lust? We quietly stared at each other in the near dark.

"So do we skip the whole thing?" Mal said. "Or, just rip the band-aid off and get it over with?" She tried to make it sound flippant, like she didn't care either way, but it was forced. I knew her well enough to recognize the tension in her voice.

I had been wondering the same question. Still trying to accept the reality of what had happened between Ashley and Dante, I hadn't really believed this moment with Mal would actually arrive. I wasn't prepared. Or maybe I was counting on Mal to give us an out, to treat it like a joke and "skip" it.

Now, though, I understood. There were four wheels on this ride, and it would be foolish to think that Mal and I could stay safely on solid ground after Ashley and Dante had just plunged off the cliff. Ashley's delight with Dante still glowed in my heart, but her joy would vanish into worry and guilt if I didn't do this. I'd be letting her down. Worst of all, I finally realized that Mal wasn't entirely doing this for Dante. To some degree, Mal actually wanted... me.

I looked at Mal, and I saw her eighteen-year-old face from when I first met her superimposed over her current face, with all the years in between interleaved like a stack of transparencies that blurred everything into a single image representing the totality of this woman, my friend. I saw her strength, her loyalty, and even her well-hidden vulnerability. I didn't desire her, but I didn't want to let her down. It wasn't lust that overwhelmed me, that hampered my thinking, but rather a sudden resolve to show her how important she was to me.

Afraid of losing my nerve, I rushed into a kiss. At first it felt weird. Kissing Ashley felt like I was a pile of iron filings exposed to an electromagnet, every cell in my body attracted to her. Kissing Mal had none of that. Mal's lips felt different, her breath in my nose unfamiliar. I suppose I'd been afraid I would hate it, because I felt relieved that it was actually... fine. Not intoxicating, not passionate, but this was okay. I could do this.

I pulled back from the kiss and looked at her. "No ripping band-aids. I'd rather go slow," I said.

Mal nodded. She didn't look unhappy, so I kissed her again. I gently brought my tongue to her lips this time, and after a brief hesitation, hers joined mine.

At this point, I realized the problem with my rash actions. I was now kissing a woman, but my body wasn't responding as I expected. With Ashley, I'd have been rock hard by this point, delicious anticipation pumping through my veins as I kissed her. Instead, with Mal... well, I wasn't quite sure what I felt. I was disappointingly soft, but I was happy to find a warmth building in my chest as we kissed. I could only hope my dick would eventually catch up, but in the meantime I had to face a different challenge: I felt lost without raging lust to guide me.

I brought my hands to her cheeks, holding her face, and pulled away from the kiss. We looked into each other's eyes in the near darkness.

"This is weird," Mal said. I froze, thinking she wanted to stop, but then she added, "I kinda like it, though."

"You're right," I said. "It is pretty weird." Then I kissed her more forcefully and pushed my tongue into her mouth. I felt a laugh burst out of her nose and then her tongue entwined with mine.

We kissed slowly. I think we both needed some time to get used to this. I tried to remember what I did with Ashley. Actions that were automatic with her required thought with Mal.

I focused on how I was touching Mal, caressing her head, feeling her soft hair between my fingers. Still kissing, our tongues more comfortable with each other, I ran my hands down her back. Down, down, until my hands were on her bare bottom. I'd forgotten she left her pants in the other room. Our kiss broke apart in a laugh.

"Aren't you forward?" Mal said, and then pushed her lips back against mine.

I forced my hands to rove over her ample bottom for a moment--it seemed rude to recoil from it--but I wasn't ready to move that fast. The thought of Mal's pussy loomed like a shadow in my mind, too intimidating to face yet. I moved my hands up her body, toward safer territory, toward her breasts.

My hands cradled her face again as I kissed her. The taste of her lips was familiar now, and this gave me the courage to move my hands down her neck until they were over her heart, pounding encouragingly beneath my palm. The edges of my hands felt the swell of her breasts, and a forgotten memory surfaced.

Freshman year at university. Feeling wildly horny at being surrounded by so many beautiful women, recklessly objectifying them all in the way only an eighteen-year-old brain can. At first hardly noticing relatively plain-looking Mal amid the sea of hotties, but thanks to many shared classes spending a lot of time studying together anyway. An awkward attempt at asking her out that was kindly rejected, and the easy way our friendship developed after that obstacle was cleared. Hours huddled with Mal in a library study cubicle day after day, both of us overwhelmed by the class load but having fun working through it as a team. Part of me feeling proud that I'd already made such a good friend. Another part of me feeling ashamed that every night I'd have the most vivid and lurid dreams about Mal's breasts. Only later, when I met Ashley, did this immature obsession end.

It was wrong back then. But now... now I could use this. Remembered feelings of ancient fantasies made my heart beat faster as I pulled my hands down to caress the warm curves of her breasts. Mal sighed softly. She was enjoying this! A hint of hard nipples pushed through the padding in her bra.

Mal pulled away from the kiss, lifted her shirt up over her head, and then put my hands back on her breasts. I squeezed them gently while she unfastened her bra and then covered my hands with hers again. This last piece of underwear was all that prevented my friend from being completely naked with me, and our four hands were all that kept it on.

Time passed, but her grip stayed tight. I felt her heart beating fast, her breaths shallow and quivering with excitement. It felt strange to have such a powerful effect on this strong, usually confident woman. Maybe Mal hadn't been prepared for this, either. Maybe we had stumbled into territory too deep, too dangerous.

Leaning my forehead against hers, I whispered softly, "It's okay, Mal. You and me, we're okay no matter what. We don't need to do anything to prove that."

She took a deep breath, and I felt some of her tension ease as she exhaled, her warm breath now sweet in my nose. Her hands over mine relaxed their grip, and I started to pull my hands away. I didn't feel disappointment, getting so close to the breasts I had desired all those years ago. Instead, I felt proud that I had overcome my immature obsession.

"You're right," she whispered back. "We are okay, aren't we?"

I nodded. Mal took another deep breath, and then to my surprise, slowly dragged my hands down off her breasts, pulling the bra cups with them. It was too dark to see much, but I sensed their presence before me. Still moving slowly, she picked up my hands and pressed them over her warm skin, hard nipples under my palms.

Mal gasped, her breathing shallow and ragged again. After a moment, she seemed to regain her composure. "Ben!" she said in mock outrage. "What would your wife say if she saw this?"

I chuckled, thinking about everything we'd witnessed in the other room. "I'm pretty sure she was encouraging just this kind of scandalous behavior. Probably 'keep going, you chicken!'"

"Except," she said, "It would sound like 'Mmmf mmfmf, mmf mmmfmmf!' with Dante's cock in her mouth!"

Mal burst out laughing. For a split second, my brain snagged on this image, worry and jealousy bubbling up. First, indignation and a ridiculous impulse to defend Ashley. Then, a flash of envy that it might be true, that she might take Dante's dick in her mouth even though she'd never wanted mine. Somehow, Mal's laughter pushed this all away. So what if Ashley wanted to suck his dick? Everything just seemed... okay. I couldn't help laughing, too.

"All right, that's it!" I said, pushing her back on the bed. "You asked for it!"

"Oh, I'm so scared!" Mal said. "What's the big chicken going to do to me?"

"Something I've wanted to do since I first met you," I said, not meaning to confess that. Before I lost my nerve, I lowered my head and brought a nipple into my mouth.

My heart pounded as the taste of her thick, firm nipple summoned long forgotten fantasies. I felt transported back to my freshman dorm room, waking up in the middle of the night with imagined visions of Mal's breasts dancing in my brain. The reality of them was unreasonably delightful, and I just wanted to savor every detail. However, I knew Ashley took no special delight in nipple sucking, so Mal probably didn't either. Reluctantly, I pulled my lips off before she got bored.

"No, please," Mal gasped. "Don't stop."

I greedily moved my lips to her other nipple. I still wasn't getting hard, but it didn't seem to matter.

"Ohhhhh," Mal sighed. "Oh Ben, they're so sensitive right now."

My lips and tongue explored all around her nipple, every delightful wrinkle and bump, only pausing to switch sides when I sensed the neglected one calling to me. Mal left no room for doubt about how she felt, continually giving me encouraging sounds and exclamations as my gentle mouth worked.

"You really wanted to do this when we first met?" Mal asked.

I released a swollen nipple and caressed it with my thumb so I could talk.

"I'm sorry," I said. "You must have thought I was such an ass. You probably had to deal with all kinds of creeps staring at your chest."

"Well, yes, but they weren't all creeps. I never remember catching you staring back then, though. In fact, I..."

"What?" I said.

"Never mind, it's embarrassing," Mal said.

I laughed. "If you say so. I think we're a little beyond being embarrassed about anything here."

"Maybe you're right," she said, pulling my head back to her chest. I gratefully took a warm nipple into my mouth, and Mal drew a quivering breath. Knowing the effect I was having on her made me feel content to keep doing this all night.

"It was that first semester," Mal said, stroking my hair. "When I was such a mess." I froze at the memory. Mal's mother had recovered, but she had been dangerously ill. Gentle movements of encouragement from Mal made me resume softly caressing her nipple with my tongue.

"I probably wouldn't have passed any of my classes without your help," she continued. "You even helped organize my work for classes we didn't share." One of her hands moved down between her legs, and I heard the soft sounds of her finger stroking wet labia. Her nipple felt even more precious between my lips. "And at night... at night, when I was having trouble sleeping, I had the most vivid fantasies about you. Your mouth. Gentle, so gentle. On my hard... aching... nipples."

Mal brought her hand up from her pussy and grabbed the breast I was neglecting at the moment. I watched her knead it, and then she hesitantly brought it to my face. I switched nipples and realized she had painted it with her arousal.

Tasting her brought an involuntary moan from me, and I greedily drew her breast deeper into my mouth. She tasted so good. We spent quite some time like that as Mal alternated stroking her pussy and feeding me tastes. At first, I licked it off her nipples. Then she licked it off her own fingers, and I kissed her to taste it on her lips. My heart swelled with tenderness and affection. She loved herself. She loved her pussy. She loved sharing herself with me. In this moment, more than anything else, I felt trusted. With this simple gift of her trust, I sensed the last barrier between us melt away.

Mal was being so open with her feelings and reactions that it soon felt like, in a way, I could sense what her body needed. At first, I was purely reactive. Her neck would call out to be caressed, a knee to be stroked, a nipple to be kissed, each an urgent need. Gradually, I started to anticipate some needs before they became urgent, smoothly moving between them like in a dance. I was unskilled, but I had some of the moves right and some of them were even on the beat.

No big deal. The words from my weird dream ran through my head over and over. Mal had me sucking quite hard on her nipples now, one hand holding my head while the other sloshed loudly in her pussy. No big deal. No big deal. My dick wasn't completely soft, but it was far from hard. Why was I trying so hard to convince myself this was no big deal?

Mal's body jerked. She crushed my head against her chest, her heartbeat thundering in my ear. Despite what I'd been trying to convince myself, it was a big deal. Because I loved Mal. Not in the way I loved Ashley, and not in a way I ever would have guessed would lead to this moment. But I did care deeply for her. Her body pulsing beneath me burst through the door of my heart I'd tried to keep closed. With sudden clarity, I knew that Ashley didn't have her heart closed to Dante, and she wouldn't want mine closed to Mal.

I'd been holding back out of fear. Fear of finding out that my bond with Ashley might be based on something as crude as the mere physical sensations of my penis in her vagina. As soon as the thought was fully formed in my mind, it was obvious how ridiculous it was. The fear in my heart faded as I remembered Ashley's words. We love her. Show her.

Standing before Mal, I took my clothes off. Thinking of Ashley brought my cock to life. Finally hard, it hung in the air between us. Mal reached out her hands to me, and in the dark we stepped off the cliff together.

To this day, I still remember the first time entering Ashley. I had been incomplete before then, and inside her I was made whole. It was life-changing. It was momentous. Every time with Ashley since then carried echoes of that first. When she accepts me inside her, I feel healed, renewed, and uplifted.

Inside Mal, I found nothing transformative like that. What I did find was our friendship, our love for each other, at last fully realized. That was enough.

At first, neither of us moved. Just like when we first kissed, it took some time to get used to it. It was all so different from being with Ashley. I was amazed how calm and in control I was. Being inside Mal felt incredible, but there was none of the burning over-excitement I felt with Ashley. In fact, I doubted I'd end up cumming at all, and that was fine with me because I was so relieved that I'd finally gotten hard enough to do the deed. I'd felt... unbalanced after watching Ashley take another man inside her. Now I had "caught up," and I missed Ashley terribly. I wished she could see me.

Mal took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Excuse me, sir," Mal said in a silly "posh" voice. "I believe you have mistaken me for your wife."

I chuckled. "Didn't you hear?" I said. "She asked me to give you this."

"Oh!" she said. "Well, in that case, I must inquire whether she asked you to merely tickle me, or if she had something more vigorous in mind?"

I slowly pulled out a bit and then thrust back hard. The ragged gasp from Mal put a goofy grin on my face. She was loving this! She was loving the feeling of my cock reaching deep inside her. As I thrust faster, I finally appreciated how sexy she truly was. For years I'd avoided thinking of her that way, but that was ridiculous now. I could enjoy her big tits, her voluptuous ass, and her sweet pussy. Most of all, I could enjoy the satisfaction of making one of my favorite people--this amazing woman--feel really, really good.

Being with Mal was an absolute blast. She was constantly moving, shifting, or adjusting me exactly how she wanted. She was a master of phrasing things so that direct instructions felt like compliments. "Oh, that's so good. Now try going slower," or "I love your thick cock. I want to feel you push it in deeper," and so on. She knew I was having a good time no matter what we were doing, and confidently took charge of using me to feel as good as possible. There wasn't room for even a second of doubt because either she was giving an instruction-disguised-as-a-compliment or simply loudly moaning her pleasure.

It slowly dawned on me I was learning things about Mal that I'd been oblivious to with Ashley. Not being overwhelmed by lust enabled me to realize I was getting a glimpse into her heart. I wasn't doing too bad for a first-time visitor, even though I'd never see as deeply as Dante did. Once again, I longed for Ashley, to know her as she deserved to be known, to gaze into her boundless depths.

"So... fucking... good..." Mal whined in between thrusts, her eyes squeezed shut, seemingly lost in sensation. I felt like a superhero knowing I was doing this to her. I felt unstoppable.

Unstoppable, that is, until I heard Ashley moaning through the wall. I didn't know what Dante was doing to her, but I knew she liked it. Therefore, I liked it. Her cries escalated quickly, each higher pitch stripping away the impenetrable armor of my cock until my superpower was gone. Each thrust overwhelmed me.

Mal noticed the change in me, but she didn't say anything. She held my forehead to hers as we hovered on the brink of climax.

Ashley had sent me far beyond the point of no return, and there was nothing to do but lean into it. With all my passion for Ashley, I pushed one final time deep inside Mal. My whole body clenched powerfully. I heard Ashley's orgasm through the wall. In my mind, I saw the joy in her face. I'm sure Mal was thinking about Dante the same way. It was just the two of us in the room, but it felt like all four of us were together. My guts lurched, and it seemed like a lifetime of failure was expelled from me and purified in the pulsing, shuddering embrace of my dear friend's generous pussy.

Mal cradled me in her arms as we recovered, gently stroking the back of my head. For the first time in my life, post-orgasmic clarity didn't bring doubt, sadness, or disappointment in myself. I hadn't failed. Mal had trusted me, and I had come through for her. This satisfied glow of accomplishment far outshone the lovely physical sensations I had experienced. I soon fell asleep beside Mal, comfortable knowing Ashley was close by through the wall.

* * * * * * *

I awoke to the faint chirping of birds welcoming the dawn. The sky through the windows had brightened just enough to show a cool light. I had a moment of disorientation when I realized it wasn't Ashley beside me. Mal's face was nuzzled against my shoulder, her arm across my chest.