A Tangled Web

It was all for naught. Derek said he had a 'bad day at work', was silent for most of the meal, and fell asleep on the couch fifteen minutes after finishing his desert. Margo left him there, went out to the porch, and cried silently while she listened to Marybeth and Billy make love.

———————

"Have you talked to Christie lately," Margo asked Joan. They were sitting beside Joan's pool, sipping gin and tonics.

"No. But I saw Matt yesterday," Joan said with a little smirk.

"Oh my God, are we all terrorizing that poor child?" Margo said.

"In the first place, he's not a child. And what do you mean "we"?" Joan said. "Don't tell me you're eyeing that too?"

"Hey, there's no crime in looking," Margo said, twirling her drink on the glass table. "Men don't seem to have any qualms about looking, why should we?"

"That's right honey, fill your eyes with that man meat. Matt sure doesn't seem to mind."

"So what do you think about it all?" Margo asked. "Have you ever really seriously considered it?"

"Matt? No, he's too young for me honey," Joan said. "Good fantasy material though."

"No, not Matt, just...you know...having a fling," Margo said.

"I've known a few women who have. It does make you think. Yeah, I mean, it's crossed my mind. You?"

"Yeah. Just lately. I'm surprised by it. The feelings I mean," Margo said.

"Well, you're not alone honey, if that makes you feel any better," Joan said. "I've known women who just get it out of their system, and then get back to normal at home. Men have been doing that for centuries. Wives used to be taught to look the other way."

"Yeah. I mean it's not really that easy though, is it?" Margo said.

"You mean taking the plunge? I don't know, doesn't seem that hard to me. I bet there's a whole lot more of it going on than either of us realize. I bet there's four or five affairs just in our little church alone."

"You think?" Margo said, looking surprised. "I don't think I'm the type for a real affair though."

"Yeah, that gets complicated. Friends with benefits, that's what we need," Joan laughed.

"We could put ads in the church newsletter. Married white female seeks friend with benefits," Margo laughed. "Must be discrete and have a big one."

"Ha!" Joan laughed. "Perfect! Think of the shockwaves when that landed in everybody's mailbox!"

"Wow," Margo said quietly, twirling her glass again. She looked serious as she watched her fingers work, the tall glass spinning smoothly in a puddle of condensation. Joan looked at her old friend silently, wondering where Margo's mind was.

———————

"Hi Bob. Looks like we're both stag today," Margo said as she walked to her car in the church parking lot after the Sunday service.

"Hi Margo. Yeah, Winnie's on a wine tasting weekend with an old college friend," Bob said. "It's the most excitement she's had in years. She asked me to bring you the cake pan that she borrowed, but it completely slipped my mind. Can I drop it by later?"

"Oh, I forgot all about that. Why don't I just get it now, it'll save you the trip. You're just two blocks away."

Margo followed Bob home, pulling up in front of the little Cape Cod style house. They walked in through the garage.

"What's this, a new a project of yours?" she asked as she eyed a small camping trailer up on jacks with the wheels off.

"Yeah, I had one out West," Bob said. "You don't see many of these little teardrops here so when I saw this one I bought it. Needed a little work, but it's just about ready."

Margo stuck her head in the little door and felt the mattress, which took up the whole floor of the tiny trailer.

"Plenty of room to sleep," Bob said, "and the cooking area's out here." He lifted the rear tailgate revealing a counter, some cupboards, a small sink and a built-in cooler.

"I love it!" Margo said. "So cute! I've never seen anything like it."

"They have quite a following on the West Coast and in the desert. Do you and Derek do any camping?"

"No, Derek wouldn't like it much I'm afraid. I haven't been since I was a teenager. I used to love it."

If Margo were single, Bob thought, but he quickly put the thought out of his mind.

"Let me get you that pan," he said.

He walked in through the kitchen door and Margo followed him up the three steps, admiring his nice ass in his church slacks. Then she saw the back garden out the window.

"Wow! Winnie's been busy!. Or is it you?"

"We both work at it," Bob said. "I took horticulture as a minor in college. Winnie had a good head-start on it when I came back, but yeah, we've spent a lot of time out there since my return. Come on out, I'll show you around," he said as he opened a sliding door.

They stepped out onto a cobblestone patio, past two padded lounge chairs nearly surrounded by Clematis vines laden with huge flowers. A path under a wrought iron archway guided the two of them past a mix of flowers and vegetables groaning under the weight of their fruit and blossoms.

"It's like a fairy land!" Margo said. "And the smell of those flowers! Bob, it's just beautiful!"

"I'm glad you like it," he said, suddenly struck by Margo's sensuality.

She bent to smell a flower and her cotton church dress pulled tight over her lovely ass, the material thin enough to show Bob a perfect outline of the small panties underneath. Yoga with Joan had kept Margo in marvelous shape, and Bob's heart-rate increased at the sight.

"That's Pin Cushion Flower, Scabiosa Fama White," Bob said.

"Vana White?"

"Ha!" Bob laughed. "No, Fama White. She's beautiful though, someone should name a flower after her. You too for that matter."

"Why Bob, what a sweet thing to say. Remind me why we never got together when we were kids?"

"Three years age difference. That's a big deal when you're young."

"I remember you, shooting baskets in your driveway. You were cute."

"Winnie's pool party. Boy, do I remember that! The pool at my own house, crawling with girls in bikinis! Best day of my young life!" Bob laughed. "And you, you were a year older than Winnie's other friends. Wow, did you ever fill out that bikini! I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about that day, uh, inappropriately, many times. It still pops in my head when I see you. Probably because you still look every bit as good."

"Why Bob Stein! You've made me blush," Margo said, fanning her neck with her hand. "It's warm isn't it?"

"Can I offer you a lemonade?" Bob asked.

"That sounds delicious. Lemonade in a flower garden after church. What could be more summery than that?"

Bob went in and squeezed two fresh lemons, mixing the juice with powdered sugar in a pitcher. He added water from the refrigerator and poured it over ice cubes in two tall glasses, hand blown orange and green ones from Winnie's collection.

"Thanks Bob," Margo said as Bob handed her a glass. She had taken up residence on one of the lounge chairs, her body reclined languidly in the warm shade of a big patio umbrella.

"It's just amazing how much privacy you have here," Margo said. "You'd never know there were any neighbors. Do you sunbath in the nude out here?"

Margo knew a line was being crossed to pure flirtation, and her heart skipped a beat at the excitement of it.

"With Winnie?" Bob laughed. "No, that would really get the neighborhood talking, wouldn't it?"

"It would!" Margo laughed. "Our neighborhood could use a little excitement."

"It could at that," Bob said with a twinkle in his eye. "So what's on your schedule this summer? Anything interesting planned?"

"No," Margo said. "Derek's not...can you keep a secret Bob? Derek's become a tiresome bore. If he had seen that camper of yours with a 'for sale' sign on it he wouldn't of even glanced at it. He doesn't pay attention to anything other than his work these days. Not even..."

Margo's voice trailed off wistfully and her gaze drifted out to a hummingbird, it's long beak going deep inside a tube-like pink flower, looking for the nectar inside. Bob followed her gaze and saw it too.

"I've often wondered if the flowers enjoy that, giving up their sweet nectar to something that needs it, something that appreciates it. It's beautiful, isn't it, how the most basic, fundamental parts of life can be so seductively beautiful, and taste so sweet."

Margo looked at Bob. She knew they were on the same wavelength, but what to do about it? If he were closer she would kiss him, but getting off her chair to move to his would be too deliberate. The first move, if it happened, needed to be more subtle, quick and without thought.

"Have you a girlfriend Bob?" Margo asked. "I'm guessing no, because the girls would all be talking about it."

"Would they now!" Bob said, looking surprised. "Does my quiet life provoke interest?"

"Sure!" Margo said. "Handsome single men are always a hot topic. You don't have to answer. I usually don't ask questions like that."

"No, that's all right. No girlfriend. It's not an easy thing to do when you live with your sister. But that's a poor excuse. All the attractive ones seem to be married. That's a poor excuse too, but it's unfortunately true, at least among my circle of friends. I don't know. I guess I should get out and hit the bars or something, but I feel like I'm too old for that."

"Oh you're not! In terms of attractiveness you're about the most eligible bachelor around here. You'd have no trouble in a pick-up bar, I'm sure of that. And younger women love guys that are a little older. I can picture you with a twenty-year-old on your arm."

"Well that's intriguing," Bob said, "but I really prefer women that are, slightly older than me. Always have I guess. It goes back to my teen years. An older sister's friends can really mold you a certain way, when puberty hits."

"I can see how those pool parties would be quite the thing for a boy your age."

"You have no idea. And I'm not kidding when I say you were the pinnacle. The absolute high-point of my pubescent lust."

"And your fully grown man lust? How does that go?"

"There are times," Bob said, barely able to breath, "when it rages."

"Bob, you're a quiet man," Margo said, looking deep into his eyes, her heart beating fast. "If you were to get involved with a woman from the neighborhood, like one of those new 'friends with benefits' arrangements, you'd be able to keep it private, not talk about it to anyone, right? You seem like a very trustworthy man."

"Margo, if we're talking about what I think we're talking about...and I really hope we are, you can trust me implicitly."

"You wouldn't think less of me Bob?"

"Ha! Are you kidding? You're my dream Margo. How can a person think less of a dream?"

Bob sat and waited. He didn't want to move in on her. Let her make the move, he thought, if she's ready. She was.

There, in the noonday sun, surrounded by flowers rich with bloom and hummingbirds probing for sweet nectar, Margo licked her own nectar off Bob's half-hard cock after he'd fucked her and she'd fucked him. He took her doggie-style first, a dream come true after half a lifetime fantasizing about her ass, and then she rode him like a wild, uninhibited outdoors girl, both of them completely naked, Bob flat on his back on the lounge as a flock of starlings landed in the tall Black Cherry tree, the din of a thousand chirps drowning out Margo's moans.

Bob's cock came back to life as she licked him clean, and Margo smiled.

"Again?" she asked, her eyes registering her happy surprise at the turn of events.

"Are you kidding?" Bob asked. "As long as you're here it'll be again, and again, and again..."

"Ohhhh," Margo moaned as she felt his hand slide down her back, his fingers slithering through the slippery crack of her ass.

"You're the sexiest woman alive," Bob said.

Margo got on her hands and knees on the lounge to give his fingers better access, and took his hardening cock as deep as she could in her mouth. She'd never felt a hand on her that way when she had a cock in her mouth, and it sent shudders through her. When Bob was good and hard he moved behind her, kissing the beads of sweat off the small of her back. The kisses moved through her ass cheeks and landed on her little pucker hole and the smooth skin separating it from her own flower, a lovely petaled pussy glistening with dew. Bob's tongue expertly massaged all Margo's tender parts, bringing her to the brink again, and then over the top for the third time that Sunday, her body taking over with a life all it's own, a life she didn't even know existed. Margo's thighs tightened and trembled, and then as her whole body spasmed they shook. Bob held her up as it happened, not wanting to loose contact with his tongue, not wanting the sweet taste of her cum to go away. Her muscles lost control and he lowered her down, limp, flat on the lounge, moaning.

Her ass was to beautiful to resist, and his cock was steel shaft hard. Only one thing to do. He spread her legs a bit and moved on top of her. Margo couldn't quite believe it when she felt him enter. She raised her ass a bit to help and Bob's long cock slipped into her pussy.

"Oh God," Bob said quietly as he began to fuck her. "I must be dreaming. Please don't wake me up."

Bob kissed Margo's upper back and shoulders as he fucked her. Another orgasm rose up in her from the remnants of the last one, and this one was a doozy. Every thrust seemed to fuel it, and Margo floated away on the feeling, a never ending orgasm that lifted her up with the birds, soaring under the mid-day sun.

———————

Guilt. The crushing flip side of mind expanding orgasms. Newton's Third law says for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Sir Isaac probably didn't have orgasms and guilt on his mind when he came up with that idea, but he was only forty-three at the time, so maybe he did. All Margo knew was the guilt was intense, and all she could do was hope it would pass. She'd been very clear to Bob that what they'd done wasn't the start of an affair. Friends with benefits was different in her mind, more casual. Occasional dalliances that would satisfy their lust without screwing up their lives. That was how she envisioned it anyway. Bob was okay with it. He was just happy to have her, even if it was just once in a while. Margo would be okay with it too once the guilt subsided. She was sure she would. Then she ran into Hector.

"How's the sexiest girl in Trentburg," Hector said, surprising her from behind with his embracing arms, just as he had done two weeks before.

"Hector!" Margo cooed. "Do all women melt when they hear that voice of yours, or is it just me."

"Just you my love," Hector said, his Puerto Rican accent dripping with honey again. He kissed her on the neck, released her from his embrace, and took her hand in his. "Please tell me you spoke to Derek and I can have you once a month. Think of it Margo, just you and me, hours of nothing else."

If Margo didn't know Hector as well she would have thought he was a mind reader, but it was just Hector being Hector. A Latin lover at heart, and a big heart at that.

"Hours, huh?" Margo said, and then she fanned herself. "Is it hot in here, or is it just you."

"Ha ha, sweet Margo!" Hector laughed. "If I didn't know better I'd say I had finally broke down your defenses."

"Not broken, but crumbling," Margo said with a smirk.

Hector could sense something different, and the smirk was a different one, not Margo's usual.

"Where do you live anyway?" Margo asked.

"Just a few blocks from here. The Fray Building, apartment six," Hector said, still unsure of what was happening.

"Are you on your way home? I need to talk to you about something," she said.

"Yes. It's a bachelor pad, not very clean at the moment."

"Yeah, that's fine," Margo said.

The conversation had been a bit of a blur to her, almost as if someone else was speaking, using her voice. Was she really going to Hector's apartment? She guessed she wouldn't know until she got in her car. One thing she knew was Hector's kiss on the neck had given her chills and felt like he had injected something into her blood. Mainline. The hard drug of lust.

Hector's apartment was a bit messy, so her discarded clothes looked right at home on his floor. None of that mattered a bit though when she saw how delicious her pale skin looked against Hector's light mocha brown. His cock was a darker brown ochre color, a shade as rich as the fertile earth itself. It was a fat one that filled her differently than any she'd felt, getting her off in a wildly primal way that thrilled her. Latin lovers. She'd heard about them, but wow, nothing prepares you for reality. Margo had never screamed during sex, but that day with Hector she let loose. Not quite 'call the cops there's a murder' screaming, but close, and it added to the animalistic vibe of the proceedings.

"Hectooor! You're gonna ruin meeee! Oh my Godddd!" she screamed as he pummeled her from behind, one of her shapely legs on the floor, the other up on the bed. Bob was good, but this, she thought, this was fucking!

The position she was in was new, with one leg up like that. It spread her open in a deeply sexual way, and it thrilled her. Hector had arranged her like that. He was a 'take charge' lover, a gently dominant man, moulding Margo's body just as he wanted it, talking her through every move as he went.

"Put your leg up," he had said, and he took firm hold of it and placed it just so, the palm of his hand gently massaging her open sexuality.

"Let me spread your pussy," he had said. "Oh yes, so beautiful. You want me to fuck your beautiful pussy?"

His dominance and the way he talked and the free and easy noises he made — it was the most intoxicating lovemaking session Margo had ever experienced. She loved being molded. She loved being taken.

Hector knew how to make a woman orgasm, yes, but he also had the skill to build those orgasms into more, to take a woman to the brink of insanity. At one point she was flat on her back with her knees up near her shoulders, a position made possible by the untold hours of yoga she had done. Hector had positioned her that way, praising her flexibility and the stunning femininity on display before moving his mouth in on her already well-fucked pussy, wide open and glistening. Soon his cock was drilling her, down-firing thrusts into her folded in half body, guttural screams emanating from the depths of her. Hector could barely contain himself, his vocalizations riding on short, choppy breaths, his fat cock burning as hot as the sun. They both came hard, nearly fused together forever by the searing heat.

It went on like that for hours. Neither one wanting to stop, knowing that what was happening was as good as it gets, and not knowing if it would ever happen again. Margo stumbled out of the Fray Building into the late afternoon sunlight, and drove home in a daze.

A long, hot shower transitioned her from blissful to guilt-ridden, but not before she'd explored every inch of herself, her hands and eyes seeing and feeling her body as never before. In just a weeks time she'd gone from feeling sexless to sexy. Way beyond that actually. As the hot water cascaded over her she felt like pure sex, as if a warm, primal energy had taken over every fiber of her being.

———————

Reverend Blake stood at the pulpit, his voice bellowing out over his flock. The Sunday sermon was on the spirituality of togetherness, the warmth of human kindness, the need for the warm touch of friendship.

Bob and his sister Winnie sat together a few rows in front of Margo. She was next to Derek, back in church after feeling under the weather the week before. Marybeth and Billy were there too, looking like young lovers with Marybeth's head on Billy's shoulder, and Christie and Rob were off to the side.

After the service the congregation filed out past the Reverend, down the steps to the lawn where some volunteers had set up folding chairs in the shade and coffee and donuts on a folding table.