Chapter 19

Mark woke up first. The girls had spread out, taking up most of the bed. Kayla had wrapped herself up in the blankets, pulling them mostly off of him, and Kristen was draped over her, using her breasts as a pillow with her lower body sprawled across Mark's hips. Between the two of them, they'd nearly shoved him off the super-sized bed and he woke up with one leg hanging off.

For a moment, he lay there, just enjoying the feeling of the two girls against him. But, of course, the leg that wasn't off the bed was totally asleep, along with his inner shoulder and arm. And his bladder was protesting strongly against the position of Kristen's knee. He sighed and started to carefully work his way free from the tangled limbs, noting as he did so that Kristen was still glowing quite brightly. The glow was easily visible, even with the morning sunlight coming through the curtain.

He decided to take a quick shower while he was up, and they were still sleeping by the time he got back, having taken advantage of his absence to sprawl over the entire bed. He sat in the chair by the bed, watching them, mostly enjoying the view but with a faintly worried expression on his face. They slept totally bonelessly, just sprawled in a snuggly pile. Kristen's hair trailed across Kayla's body and fell off the far side of the bed. One of Kayla's hands was buried it in, holding securely.

Kayla was the next to wake. She didn't open her eyes, though, just groped around blindly on the bedside table until Mark walked over and placed her glasses in her fumbling hand. She stuck them on her face and yawned, then opened sleepy grey eyes, assessing her position while he stood there, looking worried.

"I'm stuck, looks like," she grumbled quietly, but she was softly stroking Kristen's hair as she did so. She looked up at him curiously. "S'wrong? You're not feeling guilty or some such shit, are you?"

"No." He managed a weak little smile. "Not at all. Except... " He took a deep breath, then said, "For someone who's thinks she's not beautiful, you did a really good job of getting me so turned on last night that I forgot to ask a very big question."

"Huh?" she said, then her eyes widened in sudden comprehension. "Oh, shit."

Mark turned pale. "Please, please, please tell me you aren't answering the question with a 'no'," he begged.

"Um. I intended to use a condom. I have some."

He sank to the floor, face deathly white. "Oh my gods. Oh gods. Oh gods," he moaned.

"Don't panic, lemme count real quick." She mumbled for a minute. "Okay ... by my calculations, should be safe by o good week. And I'm pretty regular, so we'll know in another week anyway." He just stared at her, looking utterly terrified.

"Course, it's been a hell of a difficult month," she added thoughtfully. "Stressful."

Mark looked at her oddly ... something was a bit off. "You don't seem that worried," he said.

Her lips twitched, and he raised an eyebrow.

She lost her struggle to maintain a straight face entirely, bursting out in a giggle. "I'm sorry, Mark. I couldn't resist."

He pursed his lips. "You're on the pill, aren't you?"

"For the past couple of years." She grinned at him. "I have endometriosis, to, that's why, so I'm not particularly fertile to begin with. It's just ... your face. Sorry."

He stood up. "You. Are. Getting. A. Spanking."

"Shhhhh... " she said, eyes sparkling, "You'll wake Kristen up."

"Fine," he said. "You get a delay of sentence until she wakes up, you little vixen, but then..."

She giggled again. "Kris won't let you."

He raised an eyebrow. "No, she won't let me tie you up. She never said anything about spankings."

"Betcha five bucks?" she asked, face smug.

He started to answer, then stopped. "Have you already talked to her about this?"

"Not specifically, but she knew I was on the pill."

"I meant the spanking thing," he said.

"Oh, that. No, I haven't, but... " Her face sobered. "Seriously, Mark, after what she told us, I don't think she'd react too well. I honestly wouldn't mind, myself, but... " She shrugged.

"She might not," he agreed, "But ... I'm not going to tiptoe around it, either. You seem to be a little kinky, and I'd like her to be able to accept that, even if it's not something she's interested in herself. And you never know -- it might be the tying up thing in specific."

"Could be," she said, "And I don't plan on hiding things from her. But I'm also not going to make her confront things that might hurt her on the very first day after her wedding, either."

He smiled and reached out to caress her cheek. "I'm just teasing you, Kayla. Not that I'm not going to threaten to spank you, but I don't actually intend to do it." He paused. "Well, unless she decides you deserve it for doing that to me." He grinned. "I've actually got something far, far worse than a spanking in mind for you."

She looked suspicious. "Oh?"

He just smiled mysteriously.

"C'mon," she insisted, "You owe me. I wore a damned dress to your wedding."

He nodded. "And you looked damned beautiful in it, to, by the way, in case I was too out of it to say so."

She shrugged. "Dresses are historically men's way of hobbling women so they can't run away. But Kris wanted me to wear one, and since she couldn't have the wedding dress and flowers and everything, the least I could do was wear a skirt." She stroked Kristen's hair lovingly.

"You were beautiful in it," he said softly. "I assume that, given the events last night, she had a ... talk with you, yesterday?"

"We talked, yes," she said quietly.

"I'm not trying to pry, but ... what exactly did she tell you?" he asked. "If you are comfortable talking about it, that is."

"She didn't tell me she loved me, if that's what your after. I don't think she can. But she gave me hope."

He nodded. "She and I had a long talk about things Friday night." He hesitated, waiting to see if they'd talked about that.

"She mentioned that. It seemed to have helped her," Kayla said.

Mark looked relieved. "Good. I thought it did, but ... I wasn't a hundred percent sure she wasn't trying to show me what she thought I wanted to see. I didn't think so, but ... she might do that."

"Yeah." Kayla nodded. "She might."

"I try to make sure she knows that I want to know the truth about how she feels, but ... I figure it's got to be hard to believe that, given everything." He paused uncomfortably, then asked, "How are you going to feel if she just wants to be friends who have sex?"

"That would be more than I had before, Mark."

He nodded. "True, I just... " He sighed, looking at Kristen, then at Kayla. "I want us all to be happy, you know? And 'all' includes you."

She smiled. "I know. But you have no idea how easy that is in my case."

"Oh?" he asked, with a raised eyebrow.

She shrugged. "It just doesn't take much. I didn't ever expect to have anything with her. I never expected to even see her happy."

He reached out, stroking her cheek gently. "That's enough for you, isn't it?" he asked softly. "You'd still be happy if you were stuck on the sidelines, watching, as long as she was happy."

She nodded solemnly. "That's what I've always wanted."

Mark leaned over, kissing her gently on the lips. "Thank you for loving her."

She returned the kiss, then smiled up at him. "I do love her. But, um ... if I don't get out from under her, they're gonna charge us extra for cleaning this mattress."

He grinned. "My, you are kinky!"

"Oh, hush. Help me get outta here without waking our baby up, huh?"

He helped her gently move Kristen to the side, and she squirmed out from under her and darted for the bathroom.

Kristen sighed in her sleep and rolled over onto her stomach in the middle of the bed. She showed no signs of waking, even when Mark slid into bed beside her.

Kayla also took advantage of being up to take a shower; a nice, long, hot shower. When she came back, toweling her hair dry, she asked, "Still asleep?"

He nodded. "Yeah." He patted his lap, "Come snuggle?" She blushed, but crawled onto the bed.

"Why the blush?" he asked.

She shrugged uncomfortably. "Still not used to wandering around naked with other naked people."

Mark wrapped his arms around her, holding her on his lap. "Well, I hope you have the chance to get used to it." He kissed her gently. "What exactly did she say that gave you hope? Or is that something you aren't comfortable talking about?"

"I ... it was more her attitude. She made it feel plain that she did want me here. I wasn't sure she wasn't just ... y'know. But now I am."