When I turn around, Beth is watching me with a strange expression, like someone learning the secret to a long-befuddling magic trick. She lowers her voice conspiratorially. “You know, Dustin’s never seen this bikini. I was going to surprise him.”
Hearing this supercharges my arousal. It’s trivial, but we now share a secret. We’re in it together against Dustin. That the secret is about how I’m getting something that was intended for him only makes it that much hotter.
She also seems to realize that she’s traversed a small but meaningful boundary, and she looks scared and delighted at once. She is gorgeous and I want to take her now, here on the living room floor. But I know I must be patient.
I open the sliding door and guide her into the backyard, my fingers grazing the the straps of her bathing suit top and the silky skin of her back. It’s the first time I’ve touched her. Another boundary crossed. How many more can we get to?
The hot tub feels exquisite in the nippy night air. Beth moans as her legs slide into the roiling cauldron and the jets start to do their magic. Aside from my arousal, I have to agree with her wordless sentiment: It really does feel fucking great. I definitely do not use this thing enough.
We’re sitting on opposite sides, everything completely above board and platonic, when Dustin slides the door open to bring us our wine. Beth leans over the edge of the tub to fetch the glasses, and we clink cheers.
“Thanks honey,” she tells him, turning away.
“You’re welcome,” he mutters, shifting his weight awkwardly. Then, as if he’s just made up his mind, he straightens up and looks me in the eye. “I think I’d like to take a dip after all.”
“I’m sorry you didn’t pack a bathing suit, my friend” I say, shaking my head sympathetically, as if that is the only reason he’s still out in the cold, when we all know it isn’t. I wonder who will break this charade first.
Dustin’s jealousy is apparent as he watches us luxuriate in the swirling steam. “I have a pair of gym shorts I could wear. I don’t mind.”
“I’ll tell you what. You want to come in, just strip down to your birthday suit and hop in. Doesn’t bother me. It’s nothing any of us haven’t seen before.”
I feel Beth’s foot move against my own under the dark water. She brushes past tentatively, then returns and stays put, rubbing her sole against my toes. I try not to react visibly, but my cock starts to harden below the bubbles. She likes it when I toy with him. Amazing.
He stands awkwardly, weighing my offer, but before he can say anything Beth cuts in. “Dustin, we all know you don’t want to do that. Go inside and finish dinner.”
“This is bullshit,” he whines. “This is supposed to be our weekend together!” He’s finally broken through his daze, ready to stand up for himself. But that opportunity has come and gone. He’s had all night to do it. Hell, he’s had seven years to avoid ending up here, at this moment.
He opens his mouth to protest again, but I cut him off. “Dustin, shut up. You’re embarrassing yourself. Go inside. Make dinner. We’ll be in soon.”
Beth’s foot travels farther up my leg, toeing the bottom of my bathing suit. The sensation brings me to almost full erection. She’s only a few inches away. Goosebumps break out over my exposed shoulders and arms. She takes a long sip of wine.
Dustin sputters a few incoherent syllables, then gives in. I can see his shoulders slouch in the shadowy light. He trudges back into the house. The glass door slides closed, and I turn off the hot tub’s jets. All is silent and still in the dark backyard.
Beth and I lock eyes. Her foot falls from my lap. Neither of us have verbally acknowledged the electricity between us, but that only builds the tension. There are a million things that I want to say but my throbbing erection clouds my mind. The silence grows, threatening to become something malignant until Beth breaks it.
“I recognized you from the Starbucks line. When you came to talk to us on the bench, I mean. I remembered you.”
“I remembered you, too. I noticed you immediately. That’s why I started eavesdropping on your conversation. That’s not like me, but after what I saw in the bathroom …”
Her eyes dart to the house, checking that the door is still closed. “Dustin is the only man I’ve ever been with.” The tips of her hair dip below the water’s surface as her shoulders droop.
“It’s not your fault, Beth. It’s just who he is. But it’s not enough for you. That was clear to me the second I saw you.”
“He told me,” she begins slowly, choosing her words carefully, “about what he saw in the bathroom.” A pause. “Is it true?”
I had already overheard Dustin’s mumbled account of the bathroom incident, but I needed to hear her say it. My cock was in control now, my insides a writhing mass of hungry fire. “What did he say he saw?”
“That you were … bigger. A lot bigger.”
Instead of answering, I beckon her toward me. She slides across the hot tub, coming within range of one of my outstretched arms. My heart is beating high and fast. She leans back against my arm, and I wrap my hand around her shoulder and pull her in close to me. It feels right.
She puts her hand on my thigh and looks up at me. Her eyes are wide and full of longing. I want her more than I’ve wanted anything before in my life. She opens her mouth and needs to swallow twice before the words come out.
“Can I …?”
“Yes.”
Her hand moves up my leg. I feel her fingertips graze the taut fabric of my bathing suit as she approaches my groin. It almost tickles. Then she finds my hardness, which has forced its way down one thigh. Her fingers wrap around me.
“Oh my god.”
Her first touch is timid. Her hand moves slowly up and down my shrouded length, testing its limits. She holds it tightly where it’s thickest near the base; her fingers barely make it around what she can grip over my bathing suit. It feels incredible to have her touch me, explore me like this. I flex against her hand, sending jolts of pleasure down my arms and legs.
“Oh my god,” she says again, and gulps. Her breath has quickened. “Alan, I didn’t even know it could be like this.”
She adds another hand. Even then, she still can’t hold all of me at once. She works one hand between my legs, feeling for my balls. I’ve never been this aroused. My cock feels swollen with latent power, and my instincts tell me to rip off Beth’s suit, bend her over the edge of the hot tub and plunge inside her.
Instead I say: “Let’s go into the house.”
She looks up at me in surprise. Her hands pull away. My cock screams at me.
“Inside? But Dustin … I’ve never … I don’t know if I actually can … cheat.” The word hangs in the air like poisonous vapor.
“Neither have I. But I know when something feels right and something feels wrong. This feels right. Righter than I knew something could feel. I know you feel it, too.”
She stares back at me, waging an internal war. Finally, she says quietly, almost whispering: “You’re right. I do.”
“There’s no need for secrets here. It might be a little tough at first, but I think you’ll be surprised at how Dustin will react in the end.”