Chapter 3

I had to travel to Houston in the middle of the following week to see one of my company’s hot marketing leads about their private network’s security. To my surprise, our boss announced that Cameron Ryan, one of the women in my work group, would be accompanying me. I had seniority and was better at selling our kind of consulting work, but she had more know-how about VPN or private network security approaches and weaknesses that clients like that had. In theory, we were an unbeatable team.

Cameron was a sweet young professional woman with a computer science degree. She’d distinguished herself by designing several computer games that made some money before getting interested in hacking, code, and security issues in her graduate work. She was cute, attractive, and I felt a draw to her that I couldn’t explain. She was, to put it bluntly, ‘hot’.

We took the early morning flight, and were at the client’s offices just before noon. I was feeling a little better about life. My Sunday evening with Marcie, and some thought time since then had left me with a better frame of mind than I’d had the week before after KC’s ‘ultimatum’, although she hadn’t stated it that way. I hadn’t come up with any win-win solution, I just felt better about life in general.

As I’d dozed on the airplane trip, I thought a lot about KC. I wondered if she’d hear about my evening with Marcie, and how we’d really pleased each other. I missed KC more than anything, and I found myself pining away for her love and attention. I hadn’t seen her in over a week, and the pain at not seeing her really hurt deep. I resolved to fix that when I got back from the Houston trip.

I had let Don know that I’d be away two or three nights, telling him that if KC wanted to use the house or get more of her stuff out, she was free to do so without running into me. He promised he’d tell her.

I wanted to make some notes, as I had always done, to help clarify my thinking about KC, but with Cameron sitting next to me on the plane, I couldn’t do that. I tried to memorize a few salient points to my thinking, particularly about how I felt about missing KC. In this case, absence did make the heart grow fonder.

Cameron and I cruised through the afternoon with a room full of technology people, and at the end of the afternoon we were asked to be their consultants and to stay two more days and start work on this new job. This was good news, and we agreed immediately. The agreement with them had been our high hope for the trip, and we’d come prepared.

That night, Cameron and I had a small celebration at a steak house with a top-end steak and a couple of bottles of wine spread out over a few hours as we sat and talked about the project. Eventually, the conversation shifted and we started to talk about ourselves. One thing led to another, and soon I did a small data dump about KC and my breakup.

Cameron declared, “You haven’t broken up. You’re just taking a little vacation from each other, and from what you implied I guess you’re seeing others.”

She hitched herself closer to me in the booth we were sitting in, “When you think about seeing others, I hope you think of me.” Cameron looked at me expectantly.

Totally unexpectedly, Cameron leaned into me and kissed me on the lips. She had her eyes closed, and the kiss was a long, deep, soul-touching, romantic, mind-blowing kiss. I certainly wasn’t going to end it. The scene was positively electric. As she pulled away, I said with a touch of humor and teasing, “Wow! You really are a heavenly dream, because no human could possibly kiss the way that angel that just kissed me does.” As I intended, we both laughed over my schmaltzy compliment, but I reached over and pulled Cameron even closer to me, until we were snug against each other.

Cameron put her head on my shoulder. She said in a hushed tone, “Just for this trip, could you ... pretend I’m your girlfriend. I really need you to do this. I’ll explain later ... maybe back home. Just know that I like you a huge amount, and I want to be with you in every way you can imagine.” I almost did a double take at her last phrase. Was she telling me she wanted to have sex – to make love?

I kissed Cam’s forehead as my own way of answering.

After dinner, Cameron went to her room, and I’d even said goodnight, but a minute later I heard a knock on my door. When I opened it, she was there, and came into my room pulling her suitcase. She was a little shy, but clear about what she wanted – me. I wanted her, too. She was pretty, smart, and reminded me of KC in some ways. We didn’t talk much, but we kissed a lot as we moved around the room. I ran a warm bath in the deep tub in the bathroom, even adding bath salts that made the place smell like a florist shop.

Cameron appeared with a towel around her, as I stood nude beside the tub. She dropped the towel, and I enfolded her in my arms. We both moaned into the ensuing kisses.

We lay in the tub with Cam leaning back against me as I lightly toyed with her modest breasts, often bringing up some warm water to bathe them in. They weren’t large, but they were unusually sensitive, and according to her had a direct pipeline from her nipples to her clitoris. The object of the bath wasn’t to get clean, although that was a by-product; we were there as foreplay, and as teasing to each other and to ourselves before the main event of the evening.

Eventually, the water eventually cooled, and we got out. We dried each other with the large puffy towels the hotel provided. Cameron took my hand and led me to the large king-size bed. We pulled the covers back, and then our bodies locked together in passion, as we came together more or less like a lighted match and a swimming pool of gasoline.

I ate Cameron to a series of orgasms, each one seeming to take her farther from earth than the last one. She pulled me up over her body, and I pulled her legs over my hips. This positioned her opening right in front of my granite-hard shaft. I toyed with rubbing the head of my cock up and down her slit, until she was pleading with me to finally enter her.

When it appeared she least expected it, I speared into her body, sinking eight inches of my man meat into her in one fell swoop. To my delight, Cam had another orgasm and then started to rapidly pump her body against my cock so that she could capture the last inch or so that she knew she’d not had yet.

After that, I lowered myself into her waiting arms and she wrapped her legs around me, and we made love for hours. I have a vision of Cameron riding atop my body: sexuality, beauty, passion, physical excitement, and a huge dose of love. We did make love multiple times that night. Her labia were swollen with sexual excitement, and that led to even further forays both orally and with my cock deep into her body.

Cameron had never had a man eat his own cum from her pussy, and I recalled that Marcie had been the same way. Marcie and I used each other to mutual satisfaction that eventually included her husband in some ways. With Cameron, it was different. I had feelings for her – romantic feelings, and I could tell that she felt that way about me. We made love – had sex – four times before we slept, but we were loving the rest of the night, and through the next two days whenever we could be alone. Our next night we even had room service deliver dinner because we didn’t want to take the time away from the bedroom to go someplace to dine.

As we disembarked from the plane on Friday evening, Cameron steered me to a dimly lit cocktail lounge in the airport. After we’d ordered a glass of wine, I saw the tears on her cheeks. I wiped them away with my thumbs and kissed her. “Cam, what’s wrong?”

“I ... I love you ... but I can’t have you for many reasons. I am so appreciative and joyful of our time together, our nights together, our loving, our fucking, our passionate times together, but ... maybe...” she sobbed, “it’s over, at least for now. I’m not sure.” She came into my arms for a hug that hid her emotions from others near us.

I gave her a questioning glance between kissing her hair.

Cam explained, “I’m sorry if this hurts you in any way. I’ve been very selfish, but ... I needed you. Let me explain. First, you have to go back to KC. What she has asked for from you is not unreasonable in today’s world, and over time I’m sure the entire issue will disappear and be forgotten as anything other than a minor hiccup in your relationship. Please take my request to heart, and patch things up with her. If she wants another guy now and then, don’t make a stink about it; the same applies to you – and I hope you’ll think of me.

“As for me, tomorrow is a party at which a man named Peter who I also love will give me a diamond ring and ask me to be his partner for life. We’ve lived together for two years ... but ... and I love you, as well. Sometime soon, I will tell him a little of what happened between us this week, ... and I will ask him for his tolerance in seeing you again. He will grant it to me because he loves me, and I hope you will allow me to have a small corner of your life and your love from time to time.

“I’m not going to go into the parallels between our lives and situations right now, but I know you can see them just as I can. I’m not trying to corner you, or stalk you, or force anything onto your thinking. You have to sort that out for yourself. You can, however, see where I am coming from a little better. I am going to be KC to Peter, only worse. KC just wants to have a fuck-buddy now and then. I want to have you as a genuine, true blue, lover because I really love you.

“Matt, I do love you from deep within, and it wasn’t something that just occurred this week. I loved you before we went on this trip. I love and will continue to love to work with you, but I will not be clingy or embarrassing at work. In fact, after I leave this lounge, we go back to being professional buddies, except when by mutual agreement we decide it’s time to again share ourselves with one another – perhaps on other trips to Houston, or to see other clients. When we do travel together, my fiancé will know what might happen, and I might or might not tell him what to expect beforehand or what happened after the fact.”

Cameron took a gulp of her wine, finishing off the glass. She set it down and stood. “Please, let me leave before you come along afterwards. I’m about to break into uncontrollable sobbing, and I hate making scenes in public places. I think I can hold myself together until I get to my car.”

She stood, came to me, leaned down, and kissed me in way that made my lips burn. A moment later she was gone, hurrying away almost at a run pulling her roll-on suitcase, and I was the one left with tears in my eyes.

I got another glass of wine and brooded over the past three days, and then the times before with Marcie, Darlene, and KC. I replayed the fuck scene with KC, but also many scenes just the two of us had enjoyed in the months leading up to The Event that started me on this crazy and painful journey.

I tried to recite the events, even mumbling to myself, thinking the vocalization might give me more insight into them: going nude into the pool with Darlene and some guy; watching Marcie get fucked at the party as Doug watched her; having my own time with Marcie and her plea for repeat visits – all while she cuckolded her husband in some ways; and then the time with Cameron and the discovery only moments earlier that I was the ‘other man’ as she prepared to become engaged to what I knew must be a nice guy because she was such a gem. Then there was Don and Edie – Edie who wanted me to make love to her because she loved me, even though she was married to a wonderful man who idolized her, and he gave her complete sexual freedom, even to be with me, his best friend.

Everyone I seemed to know was working with their sexuality and inter-relationships in that regard. I would have to face up to KC again, but that didn’t seem nearly as daunting as it had been a week ago. Despite the dalliances with Marcie and Cameron, I missed KC more than anyone could imagine. I still dreamed about her, even when Cam’s warm and loving body had been cuddled against me. I had a hard time visualizing my life without KC being a dominant figure in it. My heart almost stopped whenever the thought of permanent separation from her appeared in my thoughts.

I still wasn’t sure I could abide by her desire to fuck some other guys once in a while, but I wanted her with me again. I hated not being with her. For a few moments, I wondered if I could ever tolerate her wishes. I was entertaining the thought without buying into it.

I thought about inviting her to live back in my house, but in a different bedroom. I worked through that scenario and then started to laugh. That was the most ridiculous thing I’d ever thought of. We had been the most physical couple anybody had ever known. Of course, we would fuck each other’s brains out at every opportunity, just as before. The only difference now would be the lingering thoughts we had about the decision I had to make. Maybe after we fucked, KC would go back to her room. We’d have to see, if she were willing.

Saturday morning, I walked down to Don and Edie’s house. I could see KC’s car parked in front of their house, so I knew she’d be there. I knocked and let myself in as we were accustomed to doing.

I was barely in the foyer when a ball of brunette human excitement collided with me, showering me with kisses. It wasn’t KC; it was Edie. “You’re back. We missed you. I’m so glad you’re here. Come. We’re all in the kitchen.” She dragged me through the house into the back and the kitchen area.

KC was standing there looking like death warmed over and panicked that I’d come to deliver some heinous message. The corners of her mouth twitched because she was glad to see me, but then I might be coming to tell her that we were really through. I smiled at her and tried to put her at ease with a loving look. I reached out and squeezed one of her shoulders affectionately, and KC shoulders started to pulse, and then she started to cry.

I knelt beside her and stroked her face, “Baby, don’t cry. I’m not here to say anything bad. I love you. Please don’t cry.”

KC sobbed, “But ... I miss you so much. I don’t want to be without you in my life.” She started sniveling and blotting at her face with her napkin. I noticed the cold and uneaten food in front of her. When I looked at her more critically, I realized that she had lost not just a little weight. Her face looked strained and almost gaunt.

“And I miss you, and that’s why I’m here. I was wondering if we could have kind of a truce of some kind. Would you be willing to move back to our...?

“OH, GOD, YES!” KC screamed as she launched herself into my arms. After an epic kiss, she just squeezed me until I thought I might pop. I felt her tears seeping into the fabric of my t-shirt. I couldn’t even see the look on her face because it was buried in my chest as she held onto the shirt and continued to cry.

Don and Edie looked on with very pleased expressions on their faces.

I finally could get a word in edgewise, “I don’t know about sleeping together yet, but I miss you, and I can’t stand to be away from you.”

KC almost pleaded, “Oh, yes. Anyway that you want it - want me. I just want to be with you. I’ll be very good. I promise. We can talk, and learn about each other. I’ll even go to counseling if you want ... I thought that might be a middle ground of some kind, or we can talk to others whose opinions we’d value. Whatever you want. Anything.” She was talking a mile a minute, but tears still flowed from her eyes. She was desperate and clutching at straws she’d discovered that might help solve our dilemma.

Edie said thoughtfully, “Matt, KC needs you. She’s a walking disaster. She hasn’t slept but a couple of hours each night for the past two weeks, and I keep having to wring out her bedding and air out her pillows because she’s cried so much into it. You can see her pillows drying in the sun in the backyard.”

I nodded. “I’m sort of in the same boat, a little better I guess, but not much.”

I suddenly realized I had a confession to make – two of them actually. I balked and then started, “KC, over the past couple of weeks, I ... errr...”

KC stopped me, “I know you spent time with Marcie, and I’m glad. While she’ll never leave Doug, she’s not a threat and you can see her any time you want. Really. I’m not jealous or anything. I think it was good that you saw her and made love with her.” She nodded enthusiastically, to impress me that I didn’t have anything to worry about.

I continued, “Well, when Cameron and I went to Houston, we kind of...”

KC jumped the gun again, “Oh, good. You got to be with her. I know from talking with her at your work party that she wanted to get closer to you. I thought that she’s been in love with you for a long time. I don’t care. It’s all good. You can be with her whenever you want. If you want to use the house, I’ll leave. Anything you want.” She sounded desperate to do whatever pleased me.

I announced, “She’s getting engaged today, but ... well she wants me to be the ‘other man’ in her relationship. I’m not sure about that.”

Edie chuckled from my right, “Hey, Stud. You’re the other man with Marcie and Doug, why not with Cameron and her boyfriend? I just wish you’d be my ‘other man,’ KC even says it’s fine with her.” She leaned over and nudged KC with her elbow.

KC smiled in a peculiar way and offered, “I would be more than fine if you and Edie made love, and wanted to keep doing it.”

I looked at Don. He rolled his eyes. I already knew his opinion – ‘Just make Edie happy’.