There was a nice little jewelry store in Montrose, but Jake wanted to go up to Grand Junction – or even into Denver, over five hours away – to shop a wider selection for “the perfect ring for the perfect girl”, as he put it. We settled on starting with Grand Junction, although making excuses to get away without Teri was a trick. In the end, we decided on a fake fishing trip, something she had little interest in doing. I doubt we fooled her, but Jake was sure we had, and the surprise element was very important to him.

We looked at several stores, at what seemed like hundreds of wedding and engagement ring sets, some very nice ones starting at a few hundred dollars all the way up to ‘the sky’s the limit’ price range. We were totally lost, out of our element; we’d have been more at home shopping for sexy lingerie or women’s sex toys, which should tell you just how baffled we were.

Still, the salespeople were helpful, and we plowed bravely ahead. Jake had a thousand to spend, although he said he could push it to $1500 for the right ring. As luck would have it, he found one he loved at our third stop, but it was too expensive; still, after perusing what the fourth store had to offer, we headed back over there.

“I really, really love that one ring. It’s perfect for her, but it’s so damn expensive.”

“It was beautiful, that’s for sure. Over a carat and a half, the guy said, and that bigger middle stone and the tiny sapphires were very cool.”

“But it’s 2,500 bucks. I don’t have that kind of money.”

“Nah, it was only $2,499.”

He glanced at me from behind the wheel. “Asshole.”

I laughed. “You’re right though, and that didn’t even include the tax.”

“Fuck. What am I going to do? After that one, everything else looks like crap.”

I thought long and hard for a moment. “Jake, I have a thousand you can have – not with me, of course, but you can probably do an installment thing with $1500 down.”

“You’d loan me a grand?”

“Loan… give. It doesn’t matter. You can have it if you really want to get her that ring.”

“You’d really do that?”

“Of course; it’s only money.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re my bud.” He waited, knowing there was more to be said; we know each other that well. I finally caved. “Okay, and because such a beautiful woman should have a beautiful ring. Look, it’s the one you want her to have, so it’s the one I want her to have too. Together we can make it happen. That’s really all there is to it.” That wasn’t even close to all there was to it, but it was all I was going to say to him.

He shook his head. “You’re somethin’ else, I ever tell you that?”

I nodded. “In a way, yeah; you’ve called me a lot of different things over the years.”

He laughed. “True. I take them all back – well, except the good ones. Thanks, bud, you’ll never know how much this means to me.”

“Well, you know. My best friends only get married once. I hope, anyway.”

“Yeah, me too… Me too.”

In the end, we laid out for them what he had to spend, and the store came down to a price that would allow him to buy the set for a little under $2500 total, including the tax. That made us wonder if we’d been naïve and should have aimed for a better bargain, but he had his rings, which was the important thing, so we headed for home.

He wanted to take her out to dinner that evening and surprise her, and while he was excited and eager, he was surprisingly nervous about the possibility of being turned down. I knew the chances of that were between slim and none, heavy on the none, and I told him that.

“Dude, she’s not going to turn you down; there’s a better chance a giant meteor will hit the earth and kill us all than there is of her saying no.”

“Might be easier.”

“Speak for yourself, okay? Look, Teri’s not…”

He cut me off. “She’s amazing; she could marry anyone she wanted! Somebody way better than me; more money, smarter, better looking…” he paused, glancing over at me as he drove.

I nodded. “Well, I can’t argue with that. Especially the ‘smarter’ part.”

“Thanks a lot!” He laughed, shaking his head. “Man, I can’t believe how nervous I am. This is crazy; we’ve known and loved each other long enough that I shouldn’t feel like this, but it’s intense.”

“It’s a big step.”

“Yeah.” He paused. “Are you coming with us, to be my wingman?”

I stared at him. “Are you nuts? This is one of those things where you have to fly solo, I’m afraid.”

“Teri will wonder why you’re not there. She’ll be suspicious.”

“Well, make something up. Tell her I have a headache, or a toothache or something. You could tell her I have a pain in the ass, but you’ll be with her, so she’ll know that’s not true.”

“You’re such a jerk.” He was smiling as he said it. “Seriously though, thanks for coming with me, and for the money.”

“De nada, bud.”

“No, it’s not nothing, Heath. You’ve always been there.”

“You too.”

We rode in comfortable silence for quite a while, but my mind was churning over the changes, the fact that they’d be engaged by this same time tomorrow, sick at heart knowing that she was lost to me forever. I questioned whether I should have been honest with her, tried to take her from him, the same questions I’d asked myself a thousand times.

It always came back to someone getting badly hurt, and the only one I had the right to hurt was myself. Still, if I was making the right decision, why did I feel such agony in my soul?

I think Jake knew where my thoughts were. He looked at me for a moment, then quietly said, “You know this doesn’t change anything, right?”

“C’mon, Jake; it changes everything.”

“It doesn’t have to.”

“Of course it does. We’re not just all friends anymore. You’ll be engaged to be married, she’ll be your fiancée, and you hers. Before you know it, she’ll be your wife.”

He looked pensive. “My wife… fuck, that sounds weird.”

“It does, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah. But probably not ‘til next summer, maybe right after we graduate.”

“That long, huh?”

He shrugged. “There’s no rush, and we’ll probably have to make a lot of plans and shit. We already live together, so it doesn’t change that.”

They’d gotten a place together, half a duplex in Fort Collins, before their junior year. I’d moved out of the dorm too but shared a small rented home in Laramie with three other guys. I usually went to their place on weekends after that.

We were coming back into town by then, and when he dropped me off at home, he said, “Wish me luck.”

“You know I do, but you won’t need it.”

“Thanks.”

Then he did something weird; he stuck out his hand. With all the time we spent together, with everything we’d seen, done, and said and all the body contact we’d had, whether in sports or in bed with Teri, for some reason we virtually never shook hands.

I took it, and we squeezed each other’s hands firmly as we looked deep into each other’s eyes. I could see he wanted to say something, and I did too, but in the end, we left it unsaid and just nodded; we both knew.

His voice husky, he said, “I’ll call you later and let you know.”

“You’d better.”

He drove away and I went to my room – the room I’d grown up in, the room where he and I had spent so much time together playing video games, building models, going through sports cards, discussing girls, and doing all the other things boys do – and turned on some classic rock music, and for the first time in years, I cried.

~~~~~~~~~

It turned out that in the short term, he was right; nothing changed. In fact, even in the immediate term things stayed the same. Rather than calling me, later that evening, after I'd gotten control of my emotions, they came by and picked me up, insisting that I go celebrate with them. He’d asked her over a nice dinner, and, naturally, she’d accepted; I’d been certain of that ahead of time.

I sincerely congratulated them, and oohed and ahhed over Teri’s engagement ring, telling her it was beautiful, and she was gorgeous, or maybe the other way around, and I kissed her hand. She beamed happily, and I was genuinely happy for her, and for him, despite everything.

When he went down the hall to take a leak, Teri came into my arms for a hug. She’d changed into very tight jeans and a t-shirt after dinner, no bra, and I could feel her breasts soft and warm against my chest. Stepping back, she looked up at me, then reached out and touched my face. “He told me what you did, with my ring.”

“I wish he hadn’t done that.”

“No, I’m glad he did. Thank you. You’re an amazing guy.”

“He’d have done the same for me.”

She nodded. “I know; that’s part of what makes both of you so amazing.” She kissed me then, long and deep and with a passion that rocked me to my boots - if I’d been wearing boots. She pushed her tongue into my mouth, and I met it, and she pressed her body to mine in a way that I never wanted to end; I could feel her nipples hard against me, and when Jake came back in we were still locked in that kiss.

“Hey, no starting the celebration without me!” He walked up beside us and squeezed her ass and mine at the same time.

We broke the kiss, but she made no move to separate from me before she said to him, “Let’s go dancing!”

There was only one place around that had dancing on a Saturday night, and it was kind of a rough bar a few miles out in the county, but he and I had both turned twenty-one a while back, and Teri had just recently, so we went there. It was crowded, and noisy, and there were cowboys and cowgirls and Mexicans and tough-looking guys and college kids like us, and in a small town like Montrose, inevitably a lot of people we knew.

Teri was the first to recognize the cop on the door, and she laughed. “Hey, isn’t that Officer Ricky, from the lake?”

It was in fact! We’d seen him around, of course, but this was our first face-to-face with him since he’d nearly caught us skinny dipping and having sex. When Teri bounced up to him, he grinned broadly. “Miss Denton, boys; good to see you again.”

She laughed. “I can’t believe you still remember my name!”

He looked her up and down, still grinning. “I’m not likely to ever forget you, miss.”

She blushed prettily, remembering how she’d flashed her tits at him, but then held up her hand to show him her ring. “Call me Teri – and look! Brand new just today.”

“Well, congratulations! And call me Rick. Who’s the lucky guy?” When Jake proudly stepped forward and put his arm around her Rick congratulated him too but gave me a questioning look. I shrugged and tried to look happy for them. He nodded. “Well, I’m relieved; I was afraid you were going to say both, and then I’d have to bust you for polygamy.”

Teri laughed. “I could handle both.”

He laughed. “As I recall you told me that once before, and I still believe you. Hey, you kids be careful in there. Not a lot of bad dudes here tonight, but it can get rough very quickly.”

It was crowded, but we made it to the bar for three beers and then to the dance floor. I hung on the perimeter while Teri and Jake danced, as seemed appropriate for them to celebrate, but she soon grabbed my hand and pulled me onto the floor with them. It was jammed enough that it was hard to tell who was dancing with who, but we got a few odd looks, presumably because of two guys dancing with one woman and mostly directed at Teri from other women, some of whom were dancing together. Apparently hogging two eligible guys is bad form.

We hung out and danced, either together or taking turns with Teri and nursing our beers, as none of us are big drinkers. We saw a few people we knew, among whom they passed the word of their engagement and received appropriate congratulations. I couldn’t help but notice that some of them glanced my way, but I probably only imagined the pity in the looks.

At one point, as I was returning from the bathroom, I saw Jake in a heated discussion with some guy in jeans and dirty flannel. Teri was behind Jake, looking over his shoulder, and I saw Jake’s fists clenched at his sides, not a good sign. I walked up beside her and watched the guy’s eyes take me in. “What’s going on?”

I could hear the tension in my friend’s voice as he replied, “This clown wanted to cut in, and when Teri said no thanks, he decided to push it.”

I looked at him. He was about Jake’s height, but not nearly as big, and clearly drunk. “You got your answer. You should probably move along.”

He looked at me, bleary-eyed. “Uh, tha fuck’re you?”

His words were badly slurred, confirming his condition. He was drunk, but not too drunk to take in the fact that both of us were much larger than him, and thanks to three years in a football programs at major universities with first-class weight rooms, great trainers, and literally thousands of hours of practices and workouts were both rock solid and physically imposing.

Jake weighed around 250 by then and was thick in all the major muscle groups and broad across the shoulders; at his height and that weight, he was a brick wall. I weighed around 235, but was considerably taller than him though not as solid, but also broad-shouldered and imposing. I towered over the drunk and moved forward into his space to make sure he noticed.

“I’m a friend of theirs, and you’re an asshole.”

“Yeah, well your friend’s a coward… wouldn’t fight me.”

Of course not; bar fights are a good way to get kicked off a team and lose a scholarship, but I wasn’t going to reason with a drunken fool. “Because he would have killed you and he doesn’t want to get involved in all that paperwork. Now just walk away.”

He took one more look at us, spit out something unintelligible, and walked away, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I wasn’t worried about the drunk, just about fighting in public. Jake was still bristling. “You should have let me take him out.”

“He’s a drunk, and you don’t need the hassle.”

“He picked the fight.”

“Yeah, because he was drunk; if he’d been sober, one look at you and he’d have backed down.”

“He backed down from you quick enough.”

“No, he backed down from us. He was drunk enough to try to take on one of us, but not quite drunk enough to think he could take both. You and me, together as always, right?”

He took a deep, calming breath. “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks.” I could see he was still pissed.

“Just settle down, okay? Remember, you’re celebrating.”

He sighed, then smiled when he looked at Teri. “Right again. Let’s get the fuck out of here.” That seemed like a great idea, and Teri was more than willing by then, rattled by the near fight. We said goodbye to a few friends and hit the door, only to be confronted by the drunken asshole in the parking lot, this time accompanied by two friends.

About the time I noticed that one of them, a black-haired, greasy-looking guy with a heavily pockmarked face, was carrying a tire iron, a fourth thug joined them. Minus the weapon, I still wouldn’t have been too concerned, and I know Jake wouldn’t either; they were not a physically imposing group, but if one was armed others might be too, and that raised the stakes.

Jake pushed Teri behind him, and he and I moved a step apart to provide some space to move. The drunk snarled, “Fuckers aren’t so tough now, are ya?”

Teri said, “Just stop! We’re not looking for trouble.”

One of the other thugs replied, “Well we are – and once we get these two dickheads out of the way, we’ll show you how to have a good time.”

That was enough for Jake, and he moved with his typical quick-twitch burst, for which they were wholly unprepared. He caught the guy that had threatened Teri with a massive blow to the solar plexus, all 250 pounds behind it, and he went down hard, curled up in a ball and gasping for air. Another tried to jump him from the side, but he too went down when my elbow caught him across the cheekbone and ear, rocking his head back brutally.

I heard Teri yell and looked around just in time to see the guy with the tire iron leap toward Jake. I was a step too far away, and he wasn’t going to get his body turned in time to avoid the blow. Everything seemed to go into slow motion as Jake threw up his arm to take the blow, and then suddenly, as the dirtbag completed his backswing and began to lower the boom on Jake, he twisted and went down screaming and Officer Talbot was standing over him, holding a steel baton in his right hand.

The guy with the tire iron had dropped it as he went down and was clutching the backs of his thighs where Rick had viciously whipped the baton across his legs, still moaning in pain. Rick raised the steel wand and pointed it at the only one who remained standing, who happened to be the drunk that had started the whole thing inside. “You – on the ground, asshole. Facedown, hands behind your back.”

Just like that, it was over as quickly as it had begun, and he sent Teri to get a couple more pairs of Flexi Cuffs from his cruiser, collapsing his baton and putting it back on his belt as the drunk got down. We stood by as he roughly went through their pockets, turning up a switchblade and a grooved chunk of metal that he explained was to be used as brass knuckles. It looked rough, brutal, and well-used.

Jake paled as he looked at the knife. “I’m sure glad you showed up.”

He looked at us appraisingly. “You were doing pretty good on your own, but these things would’ve come out if they were losing. It’s not my first run-in with these guys.”

“What are you going to do with them?”

He looked up from where he was bent over, cuffing the greasy guy that had brought the tire iron. “Let ‘em go.”

Teri, still holding the two sets of Flexi Cuffs she’d collected, said, “Let them go? But…”

He cut her off. “It’s a lot of work to write it up, and they’d be out in a couple hours. They really got the worst of the fight, didn’t they?”

Jake laughed. “Yeah, for sure. But still…”

“Do you want to testify in court, face their attorneys?” We didn’t. Rick shook his head as he finished cuffing the last two. “Oh, don’t worry. They get to walk home from here, minus their belongings, car keys, belts, and shoes, with their hands cuffed behind them. They’ll be much too tired and footsore for any more trouble tonight. Now if you’ll get their shoes, I’ll collect belts. Anyone can cut those cuffs off them once they reach civilization.”

Once we’d done that, he pulled them to their feet, one by one, the guy Jake had punched and the guy he’d baton-whipped still favoring their injuries. The guy I’d hit in the head was about as unsteady on his feet as the drunk when he sent them off across the parking lot with instructions to keep going and to stop by the station in the morning to collect their things.

Jake yelled after them, “Hey, girls - next time remember to stretch before you ovulate!”, getting a laugh from the onlookers.

We watched them shuffle off across the parking lot, the first steps of the four-plus mile trip back into town, each struggling to hold up their pants with their hands cuffed behind them. One failed, and when his pants collapsed around his ankles he was left in an incongruously small and conspicuously red pair of bikini underwear – possibly women’s! When his friends ignored his calls for help and just kept on shuffling along, he eventually gave up, stepped out of his pants and continued on, his bony ass barely contained in the tight red nylon. The crowd that had gathered howled and jeered.

Rick looked around. “Okay, folks, the entertainment is over. Everyone back inside.” When it began to break up, he turned to us. “I assume you three are leaving?”

I nodded. “We were when they jumped us.”

He blew out a pent up breath, the first sign that he’d been at all tense during the confrontation. “Good. Try to stay out of trouble, okay?”

Teri stepped forward and touched his shoulder. “We will, but first I need your address.”

He frowned. “Teri, cops don’t usually advertise where they live.”

“It’s so we can send you a wedding invitation, for you and your wife.”

“Oh.” Then he grinned broadly. “Oh, well in that case, no problem!”

He pulled out his note pad and jotted it down for her, and as he tore out the page and handed it over, she stretched up and kissed him on the cheek, accompanying it with one of her patented full-body hugs. He was blushing when she released him, but he was also grinning like the cat that ate the canary.

We said our goodbyes and headed out, soon passing the handcuffed losers. Another had lost his grip on his pants along the way, but at least he’d had the good fortune to have chosen striped boxers. Teri looked back at them as we went by, and then started giggling. “Those red panties have lace on the front!”

I don’t know if she was serious or not, but we all howled; release of tension, no doubt, but Teri still had more that needed release. “Let’s get a motel room!”

Jake turned and stared at her, taking his eyes off the road. “Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously – we can’t go to any of our houses, our parents are there, and I’m horny!”

Jake and I both laughed. She was practically vibrating with nervous energy, an adrenaline overdose from the close call at the bar; as it does in some people, in Teri it seemed to come out in the form of intense post-stress arousal.

I poked his shoulder from behind.”Tell me you don’t intend to turn down that offer.”

“Hell no, of course not! Where should we go?”

Teri replied, “I don’t care, just get there fast – and I’m buying.”

We chose the Frontier Inn, a small local place that was known as a no-tell motel, undoubtedly the scene of many an illicit tryst. It was tucked back off the main street and the owner had wisely put a tall wood fence around the parking area so guests’ cars couldn’t be seen from the road. It wasn’t fancy, but it wasn’t a fleabag; it was old and dated, but it was always clean, and it was reasonable.

Teri was not only going to pick up the room charge, she practically leaped out of the car to go into the small office to request it and pay the bill! We both stared at her tight, perfect ass in those snug jeans, enjoying the way the left and right rear pockets rose and fell in perfect counterpoint rhythm, her hips swaying enticingly as she walked.

I nudged him. “I sense that your fiancée wants to get laid.” It felt weird to say that word – fiancée - out loud, and it stung a little.

He laughed ruefully. “Yeah, seems she wants a PTSF.” I figured out pretty quick he meant a ‘post-traumatic stress fuck’ and laughed. He went on, “Hell of a way to celebrate getting engaged, huh?”

“Would you rather I wasn’t here?”

He twisted in his seat to look at me, hesitating a beat too long before he said, “No, I’m glad you’re here; as horny as she is, it’s probably going to take both of us to satisfy her.”

“I could leave.” I didn’t want to but knew I should.

“No. No, Teri wants you here, and I want you here and now it’s too late anyway.” He was right; Teri was on her way back to the car, big brass key in hand, and both of us were now staring at her erect nipples, peaked prominently beneath her thin t-shirt, a feature I’m sure the desk clerk had enjoyed. Her breasts jiggled just slightly with her stride, and I knew that any thoughts of walking away from her now were just a pipe dream. My cock was straining against my pants in anticipation.

When she hit the sidewalk she turned and pointed, and Jake put the car in gear and followed her to the room. We’d never done the motel bit before, so just the fact of walking into the generic motel room with its slightly musty smell, big king-size bed and common accouterments and knowing we were there for one purpose only seemed to turn the arousal up another notch.

The door had no sooner closed behind us when Teri stripped her t-shirt over her head and dropped to her knees in front of us. Much tugging at belts and zippers ensued, but she quickly had our pants around our knees and erect cocks out in the open, where she proceeded to lick and suck at them until we were both throbbingly hard and glistening with her saliva.

She pulled us closer, forcing us to turn until we were nearly facing each other so that she could rub our cocks together as she sucked at us, trying to get both in her mouth at once. Jake stared down at her, enjoying the sensations of her tongue and the feel of my cock against his, and he watched raptly as she toyed with my foreskin, sliding it back and then forward again over my swollen glans with her fingers and tongue.

His hip was against my upper thigh, and when I felt his hand move to my ass and begin to stroke and squeeze it, moving ever lower as he did, I wasn’t surprised. I’d come to enjoy his touch and knew he enjoyed touching me, so I never made a fuss about it.

When his fingers began to explore the under-curve of my ass, however, as well as teasing my tight pucker and the back of my ballsack, I said, “Jake…”

“What?”

“You gotta stop.”

“I thought you liked that.”

“You know I do, but there are a lot of very wired nerve endings in that region.”

“Well, yeah; that’s why it feels good, right?”

“Yeah, but you’re going to make me come.”

“So go ahead and come; there’s no crying over spilled semen.” At one point or another – or maybe several – we’d all come very quickly during the course of our relationship, premature ejaculation for me or Jake but usually simply the first of a long string of orgasms for Teri. It happens when you’re too excited and aroused ahead of time or spend too long on foreplay, and none of us were much embarrassed by it anymore. We were young, so recovery was quick.

I laughed. “No, but I don’t think that’s what she has in mind.” I looked down into Teri’s eyes, which were staring up at us, smoky with lust, following every word as she tongued the heads of our cocks. “Do you want us to come all over your face and tits?”

She backed away enough to speak. “No, much as I love it when you guys do that, I want you both inside of me; I need to feel you come deep in me tonight. Please?”

Jake grinned, but he did quit teasing my ass. “You know you never have to say please for that, right?”

“I was just being polite. Is it okay to suck you some more, or is one of you preparing for launch?”

I laughed at her terminology. “I’m good as long as nobody diddles my ass – how about you, bud?”

“I’m good for a little more. You gotta love a woman that loves sucking cock, don’cha?”

She smiled, nuzzling us as her tongue explored the tips of our cocks. “I really do love sucking cock.”

I groaned at the sensation of her tongue probing my opening. “I bet your panties are soaked.”

She freed her tongue from me, much to my chagrin. “No, they’re perfectly dry. Of course, they’re also at home in my dresser.”

That took us both a moment, during which she again tried to get both of us in her mouth, but when it dawned, Jake swore. “Fuck - you’re commando? All evening?”

She laughed at our sudden interest; whatever it is about a woman doing everyday things sans-panties that so affects men’s minds, she was well aware of the phenomenon. “All evening, even under my short little dress at dinner. I may have inadvertently flashed the valet.”

He groaned, “Fuck, and I never even knew!”

“I kept waiting for you to check, but you never did. It was almost like you were nervous about something.”

She was playfully jabbing him over his case of nerves related to popping the question, and he laughed. “Yeah, maybe just a little. Okay, up here, you wench. No more playing around; we need you out of those jeans pronto!”

Once we’d pulled her to her feet, we teamed up on getting her skin-tight jeans peeled off her. They were well-worn and supple and thin enough in a few places to be almost transparent, and while her panties might have been safe at home in a drawer, her jeans had done a fine job of absorbing her arousal. They were very wet in the crotch, something we could now easily see with them around her calves, and the heady scent of her desire and readiness fogged our minds

We each touched and fondled her, paying plenty of attention to her hard nipples but both fascinated with how tremendously wet and hot she was! Whether it was a result of sucking us or the after-effects of the tense situation outside the bar, something had left her steaming hot and ready!

I was running my fingers softly over her dripping and swollen sex while Jake had two of his deep inside of her, enjoying the way her body produced its perfect lubrication in proportion to her extreme arousal – in this case, enough to run down our fingers. At that point, of course, we were all equally aroused, Jake and I throbbingly hard and lubricating a good bit ourselves, and the remainder of our clothes came off quickly.

She wanted him in her ass and me in her pussy, and while we usually performed that act with her sitting astride me and Jake behind her, this time she wanted Jake on the bed where she could ride him reverse-cowgirl style with me above her. She was probably wet enough that we could have made do without additional lube, but as they were getting positioned I retrieved the tiny complimentary bottle of lotion from the bathroom.

I’d made a decision on something, and as I returned to the bed I squirted a healthy amount of it into my hand and, without hesitating, reached down and began to slather it on Jake’s cock. It caught him completely off guard.

“Hey!”

“What?”

“What are you doing?”

“What does it feel like I’m doing?”

“Well, yeah, I know – but you don’t do that.”

“Does it feel good?” I was stroking him, twisting my hand as I did.

“Yeah, it feels great, but…”

“Then consider it an engagement present, okay?” I was mildly surprised to discover that I was enjoying the way he felt in my hand.

Teri was watching as I fondled him, giving his cock and balls a liberal coating of lube. “Would you guys like a moment? I mean, I can do a little DIY stuff while I watch if you want.”

I laughed. “Never mind – and you’re next, by the way.” I released Jake and moved my lotion-covered fingers to her ass, sliding them in her crack until my fingertip found her tiny rosebud, and when I stroked it, she moaned. When I pressed my finger into it, she raised her ass from Jake’s stomach and pushed back and I slid into her tight ring.

“Ohh, god, that feels so good!”

I nodded, enjoying the sensation of her ass squeezing tight on my finger. “It does, doesn’t it?” I pushed in deep, the length of my finger, and she gasped and thrust herself onto me. I wiggled my finger inside of her as I slowly withdrew, and she gasped again as I slid free and then again as I replenished the supply of lotion and worked two fingers into her, making her ready for Jake’s cock.

She tensed, clamping onto my fingers. “God, Heath… you’re going to make me come!”

“No I’m not; Jake is.”

This time, when I slid my fingers out of her, I grabbed Jake’s cock and guided it into her ass. He met resistance at first, but the lotion and her eagerness soon overcame that, and when the head of his cock finally stretched and then penetrated her tight anus, he slid easily into her the rest of the way, and she came.

I kept my fingers on him as he slid in, and when he was fully involved I lowered them and began to gently fondle his balls. He moaned softly, the sensation of her tightness on him and me touching him, something I knew he’d wanted, apparently very enjoyable. I watched him buck his hips as he drove his cock in and out of her, enjoying a moment of pure voyeurism. Then, probably before he was ready for me to, I let go of him and rubbed some of the remaining lotion from my hand off onto my leg and then used that thumb to rub circles on Teri’s jutting clit as I moved between their legs and positioned myself.

She came again with my touch, and as I entered her and drove my cock deep into her welcoming slick heat she came yet again. I could feel Jake’s hardness moving inside of her through the thin tissues that separated her pussy from her rectum, and I could feel the base of his cock bump my balls every time he thrust up and into her.

We focused on fucking then, the sheer animalistic joy of it, the sounds, scents, and sensations of our bodies moving together in a well-practiced rhythm. The position we were in was a little different, but the act wasn’t; we’d done similar enough things many times, enough that we were all very at ease with each other’s bodies and knew how to give each other pleasure – and the signs when an orgasm was imminent.

Teri had several, Jake and I coordinating our thrusting and touching to give her as much pleasure as possible, and, as usually happens, when either of us comes the other is triggered by the sensations and comes soon after. This time it was him, although that’s not always the case, and when I felt his cock go rigid and begin to flex and strain against my own, aware of each spurt of cum that went through it and into her ass, I fell into the abyss and came too.

The sensation of both of us filling her, our cocks pumping and spasming inside of her, pushed Teri to one final orgasm as well, hers starting later and running on after me and Jake were done, but when it slowly drew to a close we all just sort of held our places, breathing heavily, as always a little in awe of the intensity of the act. Then, as also always happens, the endorphins start to drain and the lethargy sets in.

We had to unstack, and with me at the top, I was first to move. I slid slowly out of her beautiful, gloriously used pussy, still mostly hard, and when I did a substantial flow of glistening white cum followed, running down onto Jake’s cock and balls. That was new – I’m usually on the bottom, and since very little ever escapes when Jake pulls out of her ass I generally only get what runs out when she lifts off of me.

I found the sight fascinating and incredibly erotic, a perfect, well-fucked pussy, loose and open, with cum dripping back out. I’m not sure why, and I think it was mostly because it was Teri and I loved her, but it created a lasting image; the fact that it was running down onto Jake didn’t detract at all, and he didn’t seem the least bothered by it even though it began to run down around his balls and into his ass crack.

I reached down and did a little fingerpainting, touching both her and him and feeling the slipperiness of our fluids on their skin. Still hyper-sensitive from their recent climaxes, they soon begged me to stop. When I did, Teri slowly lifted off him, allowing his shrunken cock to slip free. We all sort of collapsed together on the bed, drained of energy, a jumble of hot, sweaty naked bodies, Teri for the most part in the middle but our arms and legs an entangled mass. In mere moments, Jake was snoring.

I laughed softly. “Unbelievable.”

Teri also laughed quietly as she snuggled against me, her head on my shoulder. “I know, right? He’s amazing.”

“That’s one word for it. So, did that take care of your post-stress hornies?”

“Completely. You?”

I took her hand and placed it on my deflated cock. “What do you think?”

She wrapped her fingers around me and tugged gently. “Seems so – very limp, but still very nice.” I watched her fondle me, but the sight of her diamonds glistening on her finger as she stroked my cock was a sobering thing, an unwelcome reminder.

I didn’t mention it. “Thanks, and that feels good, so don’t be surprised if you awaken the sleeping beast – and no, I don’t mean Jake.”

She grinned up at me. “I’m counting on it; we have the room for the whole night, after all.”

“Do you suppose a lot of couples celebrate their engagement this way?”

She laughed. “I’d be surprised if they did – but they don’t know what they’re missing. It’s a great way to celebrate.”

We lay quietly for a while, her gently stroking my cock and me touching her body, tracing small lines on her skin and rubbing my fingers across her nipples. I dipped my fingers into her cum-slick pussy, pausing to stroke her clit and then painting her nipples before licking it off, and then she said, “Are you okay with this?”

“Being in bed with you and Jake? Yeah, it’s great.”

“No, I mean with our engagement. We’re going to be married.”

I didn’t answer for a long time, and when I did, I said, “It’s not like we didn’t all know this was coming, right?’

“That doesn’t answer my question.” The tension level had risen noticeably, but we continued to touch and fondle, enjoying the quiet intimacy and the feel of the other’s body.

I sighed, not wanting to ruin the moment, but answered her as honestly as I could, the way I felt. “Then yes, Teri, I guess I’m okay with it. What other choice do I have?”

“It doesn’t change anything.”

“That’s what he said too, but of course it does. Like I told him, it changes everything.” While Jake had been in denial about that, Teri was not; she knew it would change things enormously.

“I’m sorry.”

“No. Don’t be. This is right for you guys, and despite anything else, I’m really happy for you. I’ll figure things out, I’m sure.”

“You will. You’ll find a woman that will love you like crazy. You’re a great guy, Heath.”

“Thanks, babe.” I didn’t tell her that it wasn’t an issue of finding a woman that would love me; I figured the odds of that weren’t too awful. The issue was finding a woman that I could love in the way that I loved her.

If I was always comparing any woman I was with to her, I had the sense that they would always be found wanting, falling short of my ideal. It was unfair, and it was stupid, but I knew it would happen, and I couldn’t even begin to comprehend the futility of any woman tying herself to me in that situation. I wouldn't let them, simply because it would be so utterly unfair to do so.

There was much more to be said, but we let it drop there. She turned and spooned her bottom into me and before too long I was rock hard and I slipped into her. She thrust back against me, taking me deep, and the copious quantity of cum already in her, coupled with her own ongoing arousal, let me move easily in and out of her velvet tunnel.

It doesn’t seem to matter how badly emotions are jumbled, how badly you hurt inside, or how painful words can be, fucking always feels good and makes the world go away, even if only temporarily.

Jake soon awoke and joined in, reversing field and wriggling under the covers head-first to where he could lick and touch us. Teri put her leg back over my hip to open herself to him and I felt his lips and tongue working eagerly over our joined parts. One thing I have to give him, he never shies away from going down on us, no matter how messy it might be – just the opposite, in fact, as his oral actions soon had him hard and throbbing.

With it right there in front of us, Teri reached out and began to stroke him, and I figured in for a penny, in for a pound, so I fondled his balls. We’d all become very accustomed to his fake nut, his bionic ball, and although it felt a little different and didn’t draw up alongside his shaft when he came, the way his left one still did, it looked very normal otherwise.

She took him into her mouth and came a couple of times under our combined attentions, and before too long Jake did too, and I watched as he eagerly spurted all over Teri, the first couple into her open mouth and on her lips and chin before she re-aimed him onto her breasts. That was enough to set me off and I again pumped my load deep inside of her, my favorite place in all the world to come.

She turned her head and kissed me as I came; I knew it was partly an ongoing challenge to see if I’d kiss her with his cum in her mouth and on her face, and, as always, I did. I’d gotten over any squeamishness about it long ago, and I was never going to pass up an opportunity to kiss the woman I loved.

~~~~~~~~~
 

The rest of the night went on like that, as did our senior year once we were back at school. As usual, we didn’t get many opportunities to be together in the fall semester, during football season, especially now that we were both starters on our teams, but we got some and they were always amazing. Over Christmas and in the spring semester, however, we found a lot of time to be together, and I almost began to believe that their engagement and pending wedding really wouldn’t change anything.

They were excited and making plans, of course, and Teri met her mom and dad in Denver a couple of times to shop and make other arrangements. Jake went along once, but the other time he and I hung out all day Saturday and did guy stuff, like in the old days. It was good but bittersweet; even then I could feel things slipping away.

I’ll never know, but maybe their marriage wouldn’t have changed our three-way relationship much if I’d left things alone and played within the rules. I didn’t, of course, and driven by a growing sense of desperation and melancholy as the end of our college years – and their wedding day – grew closer, I fucked up.

~~~~~~~~~

About a month or so before graduation, well before finals had begun and eight weeks before their wedding, I’d planned to drive down to Fort Collins for the weekend, as I usually did. My classes ended before noon on Fridays that semester, and as I was getting my stuff together to head out, my cell phone rang; it was Teri, so I answered.

“Hey babe, what’s up?”

“Hey. Did I catch you before you left?”

“Just heading out the door, actually.”

“Oh, good; I was trying to save you a drive. Jake’s uncle got really sick and they airlifted him to a hospital in Denver, so he’s down there with his family.”

“His Uncle Harley?”

“Yeah. I'm not sure yet what’s going on or how he’s doing, but Jake could be in Denver all weekend.”

“Bummer, Harley’s a cool guy. I hope he’s okay.” I thought for a moment. “I could come down anyway, we could just hang out; I got nothin’ going on here. I’ll buy you dinner.”

“I guess, if you want. I’m just kind of cleaning up the place so that we can get our deposit back when we move out in a few weeks, so nothing exciting here either.”

So that’s what I did. I’d like to believe that I had no ulterior motive, that I really was concerned about Jake and his uncle and was going to hang out with Teri so we could keep each other company and I could fill in for Jake on the clean-up chores. It may even be true, but it doesn’t matter now. I drove the seventy-five miles from my place to their duplex in a mental fog, my mind churning.

When I got there, she was vacuuming the carpet, and she put me to work scrubbing down the fronts of the kitchen cabinets. She was wearing a tight cropped t-shirt, no bra, and a pair of those tiny stretch terry shorts that you see on young girls, usually with something classy like ‘Juicy’ emblazoned across the ass, and nothing else.

Teri looked juicy enough that she didn’t need the additional advertising, so her shorts were just plain pale yellow, and skin-tight, and rather than advertising how juicy she might be, they advertised the fact that she had nothing on beneath them. She had her hair pinned up, and she looked sweaty and had a smudge of dirt from her left cheekbone back to her ear, and I thought she’d never looked hotter or sexier in her life. Of course, I seemed to think that no matter what she was wearing or how she looked, so she never had any problem clearing the bar.

I was good, though, making small talk and minding my manners and being the good friend and trusted buddy that Jake knew me to be. I was also aching with arousal, and I wanted her so badly I could taste it. We took a time-out for something cold to drink, and while I sat at the table drinking my Coke, she began to wash up the few breakfast dishes that were in the sink.

We were still chatting, her back to me; about Jake, about our upcoming graduations, about the wedding, but I wasn’t really hearing any of it. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Her pinned-up hair exposed her graceful neck, and the smoothly curving lines of her body, changing with her small movements at the sink, were mesmerizing.

The proud shoulders and tapering lines of her torso, the perfect curve of her bare lower back and the light sheen of sweat in the valley over her spine, the skin-tight tiny shorts over her flawless ass and those long, muscular but finely tapering legs, all combined into a special, perfect woman… it was too much. The blood roaring in my ears all but drowned out her words, and I had to force myself to stay in my seat.

She was barefoot, which somehow made her seem smaller, more vulnerable, and so much sexier. She was saying something about their rehearsal dinner, and when she raised her right foot to run it up the back of her left calf, as though scratching an itch, I noticed that the sole of her foot was dirty. I don’t know why, but that seemed to break my resolve and I rose silently to my feet and crossed to her and put my hands on her hips. She didn’t jump, didn’t tense; it was as if she’d been expecting me.

“Heath, what are you doing?”

“I don’t know. You just looked so damn cute standing here that I wanted to be with you.”

“Careful, or I’ll put you to work drying dishes.”

“I could do that.” I didn’t. Instead, I slid my right hand around to her bare stomach and laid it flat against her, spanning the space between her hip bones and feeling her warmth and her firm abs.

“What’s the plan here?”

“There’s no plan.” With my hand on her stomach, I pulled her back against me while my other slid around her front and up under her shirt to cup her breast.

“You know we can’t do this, right?”

“Yeah, I know.” My voice sounded husky to me, and I bent my head forward to breathe in her scent, nuzzling her hair as the healthy scent of a woman mingled with the faint traces of her floral shampoo flooded my nostrils. I felt her nipple slowly harden against my fingertips.

“So why are you here?” She was still perfectly relaxed, completely at ease in my arms as I gently squeezed her breast and held her against me. I wasn’t; I was tense, being torn in two, wanting something so badly and knowing I couldn’t have it.

“I… I don’t know. I was just drawn to you, like some kind of magnetic attraction.”

She laughed softly and pushed back against me. “I suppose that’s possible; it does feel like you have a steel bar in your pants.”

I laughed. “Yeah, sorry about that. It has a mind of its own.”

“Don’t be sorry. I’ve always enjoyed that, the way you get so hard. You have a great cock, but you know I don’t get to enjoy it when Jake isn’t around.”

“I know.”

“So what are we doing?”

“I don’t know. I guess maybe I just wanted to hold you for a minute if that’s okay.”

“Oh. Sure, that’s okay.” She sounded slightly confused but agreeable. Of course, I didn’t just hold her. I slid my right hand, the one that had been lying flat on her tummy, down and inside the elastic waist of her shorts and on down to cup her mound, slowly working my middle finger into her cleft. She was hot and wet, and her clit was hard, and her legs parted almost imperceptibly.

She moaned softly. “Heath…”

“I should stop.”

“Yes…”

But she ground her ass against my erection and I didn’t stop. Instead, I softly stroked her clit, and her slippery, puffy lips, and moved my finger back to her opening, where she was lubricating madly and then back to her clit. I stroked it and toyed with it, my other hand busy at her breast, squeezing and rolling her nipple between my thumb and forefinger or bumping the pads of my fingertips across it and feeling its firm, rubbery resistance.

“Heath, god! We can’t do this.”

I replied, “Sometimes it’s like you have no idea how beautiful you are.”

She came, just a small, sudden orgasm, but it left her gasping. When she caught her breath she said, “I’m not beautiful; I’m hot and dirty and sweaty, and I probably don’t smell very good.”

“You’re gorgeous and amazing, and you smell incredible.”

“You have to stop.”

“I know.” But she writhed in my arms, humping her ass against my cock as I continued to touch her, and when I didn’t quit she turned around in my arms, forcing my hands from her body as she came around to face me. She remained in my arms, but now my hands were cupping her ass; there are precious few finer places where hands can be.

She looked up at me. “Why are you doing this? Why now, with our wedding so close?”

I looked down at her, my heart aching with how much I loved her, and with full awareness that what I was doing was so wrong. “I don’t know. It’s just…”

“What?’

“It’s just that I’ve imagined for so long what it would be like to have you all to myself, even for a little while. To be alone with you.”

She pushed back and leaned away from me so that she could more easily look up at me. Her eyes moved over my face for a long time, studying me, occasionally looking so deeply into my own that it felt like she was examining my soul. When she pulled away from me, freeing herself from my arms, I felt awful; I knew I’d screwed up, knew she was going to tell me to get out.

She didn’t, though; instead, she studied my eyes for several more seconds, then reached out and took my hand, and without saying a word she led me into their bedroom.

~~~~~~~~~

We undressed each other. It took only moments for me to get her out of her little shorts and T-shirt, longer for her, now gloriously naked, to undo my belt and pants, untie my shoes and pull them off, and deal with all the other clothing I had on. I remember thinking that I had on seven items to her two, counting each shoe and sock independently and that it seemed to take forever for her to get me equally naked. Weird, the shit that sticks in your head.

Both now naked, she wrapped her hand around my rampant cock and led me the last few feet to the bed. She sat on the edge of the bed and leaned forward to kiss the tip of my cock, her tongue flicking up the glistening droplet of clear pre-cum that was there, then she took the head of my cock into her mouth and sucked, just for a few seconds.

When she let me slip free she straightened, reached up and unpinned her hair and shook it out, then lay back on the pillow, that glorious mass of wavy, brown-blonde hair surrounding her head like a halo. Again she took my hand and pulled me close, and I bent over her and kissed her. I kissed her lips, and her face, her closed eyelids and her neck and shoulders and down her chest to her breasts. Her nipples were hard as I sucked them, and I could taste the salt of her honest, hard-earned sweat on her skin.

Panting now, my mind afire, I kissed my way down her flat tummy and to her mound, where I tongued the front part of her cleft and nuzzled her with my nose. When she thrust her hips up to meet my tongue I moved on, kissing my way down one long leg and up the other. As often happens with Teri, I somehow stumbled across the invisible magic button, which, when kissed just right, causes her legs to draw up and open wide, and when they did I moved between and kissed her wet sex.

I ran my tongue through her hot folds, separating and opening her, and when she tangled her fingers in my hair and held me to her as she thrust upward, grinding her pussy to my lips, I crushed her clit with my tongue, then sucked on it, and she came again. The scent of her arousal was nirvana, her taste ambrosia, and I was finally, after all this time, making love to her, and when she came again, a thunderous orgasm with my tongue in her and her sounds in my ears I felt a euphoria I’d never known and my eyes stung with tears.

As her orgasm waned I moved up and entered her smoothly, one long glide into heaven, and her legs came up and wrapped around me and she thrust her body up hard, demanding all of me, and she called out my name as she came yet again.