Though Ben and Geoff had not been able to overhear Sofie and Marcie talking from the living room, even when Geoff had stopped the background music of the shuffling CDs, Ben had heard the occasional shriek of laughter coming from the kitchen and had guessed what they might still be talking about. He felt his suspicion confirmed as he followed Geoff into the kitchen and heard Marcie concluding, “So I helped him to write it all down, and that’s hardly normal, is it? But it was great fun, a real turn-on for both of us.”

Ben immediately guessed that Marcie had been telling Sophie about the erotic story of his first time with Ashley that he’d typed up on her laptop - which she’d teased out of him, testing his imagination as much as his memory with her persistent encouragement and patient editing. They had both enjoyed writing it, Ben knew, but he hoped Marcie hadn’t shared too many of the specific details with Sofie. He guessed that Marcie had used their writing as an example of how their shared expression of sexuality was evolving into something that may not be typical, but was still irrefutably healthy and positive. He guessed that she may still be finding ways to reassure Sophie that her own hidden feelings about sexual expression were just fine, but he also knew that he didn’t need to pry.

They’d caught Marcie leaning on the kitchen counter, holding a mug of tea in one hand, close enough for Sofie to rest a hand on her arm. When she noticed Ben and Geoff looming in the corridor, she immediately changed the subject by going straight on to say, “Oh, hello you two. Is the film ready? We got drawn into our little chat about little things. But Ben’s very excited about the new films coming out. Is yours too?”

Sofie giggled as she turned to face them, still pawing at Marcie as she said, “Yes, he likes to watch all the action. But I hope you two do not listen when Marcie talks to me about the private little things.”

Ben could tell that Geoff was about to protest that they’d not been earwigging when Marcie struck out in another language, “Wir können deutsch sprechen?”

Sofie laughed lightly as she immediately responded, “Ou la française? C’est la langue de l’amour.”

Marcie leaned forwards conspiratorially, gripping Sofie’s arm, as she confidently went on, “‘La langue’, pas ‘le langage’? Comme ç’est dans la bouche, pour l’amour? Vraiment c’est le meilleur!”

Sofie shrieked with laughter at this, putting her hand over Marcie’s, as Ben looked at Geoff to see his own blank incomprehension mirrored on his friend’s face. “It’s like they’ve turned into a pair of twelve year olds,” Geoff sighed.

That prompted another quick exchange between Marcie and Sofie that was unintelligible to Ben, though he picked out the words “écolières” and “uniforme”, which seemed to cause more puerile laughter.

“She carries on like this with our neighbour too, Shona, the young mother,” Ben admitted with resignation, “Not in French, and not so freely, maybe, but still all private jokes, at my expense, I think. It’s like she has a naughty imp, bursting with cheeky ideas, which she can’t let out when she’s at work, all professional in the library, so she saves it for her girlfriends.”

“I guess you and I will just have to resign ourselves to putting up with a lot more of that, going forwards,” Geoff said with an apologetic smile, going to the cupboard to get the bottle of malt whisky out. Ben found himself agreeing, happily imagining the long future of their friendship whilst they all learnt the healthy humour between married couples that he hoped they’d find with maturity.

Ben offered the whisky to Marcie and Shona, but they said they might stick to Glayva if they wanted to sip something sweet while watching the film after they’d had their hot drinks, still giggling together at the thought. Ben placidly thanked them for making his tea too as he took it, then they all made their way through to the living room with all their mugs, bottles and glasses, leaving the dishwasher that Marcie and Sofie had evidently filled purring away behind them. They settled down onto the twin sofas, setting their drinks on the little tables that were arranged for just that purpose, as Geoff started the film. Ben noticed how they all fell into the same pattern, the girls cuddling up to the boys, each tucking themselves under an outstretched arm, resting their heads against their lovers’ shoulders, Marcie’s hand on Ben’s thigh, Sofie’s on Geoff’s chest.

Ben sipped his tea in contentment as the film began. When Trinity sprung in the first martial arts routine to fight off the police squad that had surrounded her, Marcie commented, “There she goes, Ben’s dream woman, an angel of death and destruction wrapped in glossy black PVC.”

Sofie chuckled from the other sofa, “It is Geoff’s dream too, but I cannot do the gymnastics!” Her remark made Marcie laugh, but Ben thought it best to remain silent and keep his peace rather than mount some hopeless defence against Marcie’s accusation or, even worse, admit he’d visualised Sofie dressed in PVC. Marcie and Sofie kept making occasional comments along the same lines, jealously admiring Carrie Anne Moss, but Ben noticed how Sofie was cuddling up closer to Geoff as they did so. She’d tucked her feet up on the sofa under her knees, which were resting across Geoff’s parted thighs, and she’d wrapped both arms around him, leaning her head against his chest while they both faced the television.

Marcie had perhaps noticed this too and wanted to imitate her, as she quietly released Ben to lean forwards and begin unlacing her boots. Ben surreptitiously followed her example, slipping out of his trainers and socks. By the time Neo was reaching the exotic club in the film, Marcie had curled herself around Ben too, tangling their legs together, whilst Ben buried his nose in her soft cloud of hair, luxuriantly inhaling the warm fragrances of her shampoo, her perfume and her warm skin. He was aware that there had been some fidgeting and shuffling about on the other sofa, but he’d not really cared to look too closely at what Geoff and Sofie were getting up to now.

“Would you fancy a night out there, Sofie?” Marcie called across from her nest against Ben’s chest and neck. He guessed she was only joking as she also asked, “Are there any clubs like that in Newcastle we could all go to?”

“It looks to be fun,” Sofie confirmed, “I think maybe I have some clothes that would let me fit in there. Can Geoff and Ben promise that their hands would stay just on us though? I do not know a club like it really, but maybe they already know them from nights before we are their lovers?”

Ben heard Geoff murmur a sluggish denial, though Ben decided to keep quiet once again, knowing that Marcie already knew of the things he got up to in his past, with Phoebe especially, even if they’d not deliberately sought out the clubs’ fetish nights back then. He did glance over towards Geoff though, and was a little surprised to see that his shirt was unbuttoned to let Sofie’s hand play across his hairy chest. Though he couldn’t really see, he thought the front of Sofie’s blouse may have been parted too, as Geoff’s own hand was concealed under its loose folds. Again he felt himself give a mental shrug at this as he reached to take a sip of his whisky, now that he’d drained the last of his tea. He wondered if the open shirt was a portent for further intimacy that Sofie and Geoff might be working themselves towards, but he resolved to not be at all worried if he and Marcie ended up as witnesses to something more between the other betrothed couple.

Yet Marcie must have noticed their friends’ loosened clothing too, for as they went on watching the film, she spontaneously began unbuttoning his shirt as well, her bangles making a subtle clinking noise as she moved. He cuddled up to her more firmly as she did this, taking a luxuriantly deep breath when she slipped her hand against his bare skin to trigger a pleasant tingle that ran through his body. He nuzzled up against her, kissing her neck behind her ear, his lips brushing her soft skin against the hard edge of the arm of her glasses as he inhaled her complex scent. He’d spontaneously raised his own hand to caress the base of her neck too, his fingertips drifting over her collarbones and the thick chain of her long necklace.

He’d barely noticed that the film had reached the dramatic moment when Neo wakes up in his tank in the future world of the machines. Sofie spoke up to give the scene commentary though, saying dreamily, “This is good for Neo now, I think. He feels healthier, to be all flushed away, even if it is a big surprise. He can start getting better now, with a strong new girlfriend helping him.”

Ben wondered if Sofie had meant her words to be deliberately relevant to his situation as well, but as he’d heard her say them, he realised how strongly he agreed. He looked up and turned towards her to say, “Aye, you’re right. He’s much better off, with Trinity to look after him.”

As he glanced over though, he realised that she and Geoff were already moving things along quickly themselves. There was no mistaking that Sofie’s blouse was parted and wide open now, as it had fallen away to one side, revealing the bare skin of her chest and stomach. Ben could not see her breast though, as Geoff’s head was bowed low across her, almost certainly so that he could bring his lips to Sofie’s hidden nipple, Ben inferred. Meanwhile Geoff had twisted around, and with his knees still parted wide, Ben could clearly see that Sofie’s hand was wrapped firmly around his bulging groin. A part of Ben was glad that his friend still had his trousers on, but he guessed that if he looked their way again later, he may risk seeing a lot more than he really wanted to. It seemed inevitable that Sofie would open Geoff’s flies next, to touch and stimulate his penis directly. Though Ben still did not mind them taking things further in his and Marcie’s presence, he didn’t feel any desire to watch them make that transition from an affectionate cuddle to genuine sexual intimacy.

Though Ben guessed that Marcie must be wise to what Geoff and Sofie were doing, she gave no overt sign of it as she contributed her own observation, “It is good for Neo. He has his eyes truly open now. He can see the outer world as it really is, but Morpheus’s crew can still see the constructed inner world of the Matrix too, can’t they? They see it all with understanding, without illusion, able to discern what’s important.”

As Ben reflected on Marcie’s words, he recognised that perhaps she was obliquely referring to what was going on at that moment in the living room too. Sofie had spoken openly about her possible exhibitionism at the table, and now she seemed to be going through with it in her actions with Geoff. Ben watched the film for a moment as the dialogue flowed between the Nebuchadnezzar’s crew, and he once again reflected on what he honestly thought about that. He was breathing slowly and steadily as he felt Marcie’s fingertips play across his chest, fiddling around the Maltese pendant, whilst his own big rough hand brushed the silky skin of her shoulders, neck and upper chest. He was aware that he was already slightly aroused, more than being merely comfortably relaxed, and he realised with a sudden honest insight that this was at least partly because of Sofie’s eager expression of active sexual contact, almost within arm’s reach.

He wondered if Marcie felt the same way, if she felt she was not merely a tolerant witness to their friends’ love, but was also becoming distinctly turned on by a sense of shared intimacy. He wasn’t sure if he could ask her out loud, but he did deliberately curl around her once more, cradling her head in one hand as he bowed his own head forwards, finding her lips with his. They kissed, slowly and tenderly at first, their hands still caressing each other’s chests. Marcie was massaging Ben’s pectoral muscles, rubbing her palms over his vestigial nipples, brushing her lingering fingertips down his abdomen, and by doing all this, steadily strengthening his arousal. Ben’s own fingers were drifting from the skin of her shoulders and clavicles to the edge of her dress, feeling for the soft rise of her breasts beneath the pleated drawstring that was tied in the bow at the slight gap over her cleavage.

As his fingertips traced the mound of her breast, the loose cotton slipping a little over the firm satin of her strapless bra beneath, Marcie raised her lips to his ear and whispered, “Hmm, is my shawl still here? Drape it over me please, if you want to undo the zip and slip my bra off. And why don’t you take your shirt right off too, if you’re comfortable with that?”

Ben eagerly murmured his assent as he sat upright and pulled his shirt down over his arms to begin with. He was still twisted around to face Marcie, but he was aware of a lot of shuffling and fidgeting noises from Geoff and Sofie on the other sofa just behind him. He could also hear some heavy breathing, as well as the occasional expressive sigh or quiet moan, from both of them it seemed. He very deliberately did not turn around, and though he guessed Marcie had a better view, he did not need to know if she was watching their progress, and he did not ask her for any details.

Marcie giggled a little he arranged the shawl carefully across her bare shoulders, getting his own knees up onto the sofa now. And then they kissed again, honestly and eagerly, mouths ajar and jaws working as their tongues slipped messily around each other, noisily forcing their breath through their noses in their growing hunger for each other. As they kissed, Marcie gripped Ben’s head firmly with both hands, her bangles softly chiming by his ears, her nails digging into his scalp as her fingers tangled in his hair. His hands were exploring her torso, palms outstretched across the fabric of her dress, stroking the full cushions of her breasts, then the sides of her ribcage, and eventually reaching behind her back to locate the zip on her dress.

Their kiss broke apart as he got a firm grip on the zip’s pull tab and braced his hands against her back. Marcie stared up at Ben, breathing heavily, her sparkling deep brown eyes wide beneath her glasses, her cheeks flushed, holding his own stare as he paused. Seeming to read the uncertain hesitancy in his mind, she raised her chin a fraction as if beckoning him closer, and whispered, “It’s okay. You can go on.”

Moving his hands slowly to be as quiet as he could, though for no explicable reason, he pulled the zip down, then tugged at Marcie’s dress, dragging the fabric down as she quickly wriggled her arms out of the sleeves, unbuttoning the cuffs to get them over her bangles. The loose cloth ended up bunched around her waist, below the edge of the shawl. And through that white shawl’s open weave, Ben could clearly see the peachy satin band of Marcie’s bra, depressing the soft skin of her breasts where it fitted against her a little too tightly. Without hesitating, Ben found the unseen edge of its fastening, somewhere near her spine, and gripped it firmly to undo its hooks.

Marcie seemed to give a quiet sigh of relief as he did this, smiling up at him with encouragement as he gently pulled the satin band away, still trying to do all this as subtly as he could. He could see her breasts under the shawl now, in the shadowy light of the room’s lamps and the forgotten flickering images on the television screen. As ever, he was struck by their full femininity, by their alluringly deep and wide curves, now marked by the impression of her tight bra, and by the fascinating textured detail of her stretched oval areolae. Ben thought these seemed an even darker pink as he spied them under the shawl, their hue contrasting dramatically with the white threads of lacey crochet that were preserving some of Marcie’s modesty. Moving one hand reverentially around her chest whilst remaining braced against the other, Ben brushed his finger across her skin beneath the shawl, touching the soft warmth of her breast, then toying her softly proud nipple with his fingertips.

She gave a long luxuriant sigh as he did this, then seemed to beckon him with her parted lips once again. As he brought his mouth to hers, his hand still stretched across her breast, he heard Geoff’s slightly befuddled voice behind him. He was obviously speaking just to Sofie as he asked, “Are Ben and Marcie getting it on too?”

By this Ben guessed his friend was deliberately keeping himself turned away from the potentially embarrassing scene of his friends in intimate congress, just as he was. Sofie’s reply was more ambiguous, as she said, “I think they are.”

“That’s okay then,” Geoff answered with satisfied conviction, continuing with a slightly slurred tone, “We can carry on then, if you want to, sweetie pie?”

“Yes! I’m ready. I want you, my honey bear,” Sofie replied with might have been a seductive whisper, yet the words still carried clearly. Ben guessed by this exchange that his friends may be getting ready to move on to the final act of their affectionate intimacy. It seemed likely to him that they were about to have full-on sex in his and Marcie’s company, so close that the four of them could almost touch each other. Ben felt as if things had been moving towards this moment for a while, but now that it was here, he wondered what it meant for him and Marcie.

They had stopped kissing, but they still held each other close, Ben’s bare chest pressed against Marcie’s, touching the soft warmth of her breasts through the shawl’s open lacey weave. Both of them were breathing heavily as they looked into each other’s eyes, listening as they heard an undercurrent of subtle noises beneath the film’s rolling dialogue. He recognised the unwatched scene that was playing out by the characters’ familiar lines about agents and oracles, but he knew those subtle noises coming from his friends on the sofa behind him too. There were the heavy male groans from Geoff, as well as the panted gasps in a higher register from Sofie, and also some soft rhythmic plashes, wet slaps and squelching slurps, which must have had their origins at the very centre of the action, in Sofie’s vagina.

He realised he didn’t need to think too hard about what was going on behind him, nor how that meant that in some sense all four of them were suddenly becoming a lot closer right now. Instead he once again recognised that he could just set his worries aside and listen inwardly to his own instinctual impulses. Despite the slight fug of the alcohol, he was sharply aware of his own thrilling arousal, and he was eager to share that pleasure with Marcie. As he lowered his lips to her face once more, delicately kissing her warm forehead, her thick eyebrows at the edge of her glasses, her dappled cheeks, her proud nose and chin, and her delicate ear in its nest of fly-away hair, he slipped his hand under the skirts of her dress. With his fingers outstretched, he ran his palm over her knee and across the inner line of her thigh’s smooth skin. He felt her muscles tense as Marcie wriggled to part her legs beneath him while he quested ever higher, until his fingertips brushed the hairs that covered the humid warmth of her vulva.

In excited surprise, he paused the kisses that he was softly planting along her jawline behind her ear. Then Marcie whispered in his ear over the rhythmic sounds of movement that were now becoming louder behind him, “I took them off earlier, in the loo.”

Ben felt his heart beat a little faster as he realised Marcie’s enthusiasm for his sensual contact, inhaling her perfume’s earthy and woody fragrance deeply as he put his mouth to hers once again. Then, as her mouth slowly softened and they set to passionately exploring each other’s lips and tongues once more, he began gently massaging the long plump cushions of her outer labia.

She sighed as he stroked her, her warm breath filling his mouth, though her voice was much quieter than the increasing urgent panting and vocalisations that were coming from their friends. Ben concentrated on Marcie though, feeling his own arousal steady and firm as she cradled his head and jaw in her hands. As his mouth slowly worked towards a deeper and hungrier kiss, his fingers steadily stroked and kneaded her vulva.

Ben had been aware almost as soon as he’d touched her that Marcie’s vagina was already oozing its own delicious lubrication. The crease between her furry labia was wet, and Ben thought he could feel beads of moisture on her stiff pubic hairs. As he brushed his middle finger over what he guessed to be the mouth of her vagina, tentatively exploring the creases of her inner labia as he caressed her, he found a rich well of slippery warmth there. Before he knew it, he had two fingers hooked deep inside Marcie’s vagina, and he was urgently stroking her, striving to stimulate her g-spot while his hand cupped her whole vulva between her parted thighs, his thumb vigorously massaging the area around her clitoris.

Marcie was panting with small quick breaths now, their kiss forgotten as Ben’s lips brushed the skin of her cheeks and chin around her wide open mouth. He felt the warmth of her exhalations tickling across his skin like the brushes of soft feathers, but he became aware that his hand’s rhythm was actually being set by the rhythm of the bumping furniture and increasingly loud gasps and cries that were coming from behind him. These obviously reached their natural conclusion as Ben suddenly heard a heavy and heartfelt grunt that was almost a bellow coming from Geoff, which was instantly met with a high cry of almost desperate longing in Sofie’s voice. Both sounds were repeated with a steadily descending tempo, each breath and groan from Geoff seeming to lengthen and deepen in his exhausted relief, whilst Sofie’s high cries of wild incoherent enthusiasm seemed to soften and become drawn out into delicious ecstasy.

Ben’s hand was still massaging Marcie’s vulva, with his fingers slipping back and forth deep within her warm and muscular vagina, whilst her chest heaved with heavily panted breaths, but now their eyes met and she whispered, “It’s okay, you can ease off now. I can take over, and we can drop the pace. It’s not so urgent. We were never going to keep up,” she finished with a tiny giggle.

Ben gently withdrew his hand and let Marcie shuffle around, whilst he thrust his legs out again. They ended up with Marcie slumped down on the sofa, her feet on the floor and her knees wide, her hands tucked casually under the folds of her dress’s skirts, seemingly in gentle motion. Her eyes seemed to wander from Ben to the film that was still rolling on, playing out the dramatic scene of the gunboat helicopter hanging outside the skyscraper now. Ben himself had one arm around Marcie’s shoulder, resting with his hip against hers as he turned towards her. He was acutely aware of the urgent pressure in his swollen penis, but he wasn’t quite sure what to do about it. He settled on just undoing his belt and unbuttoning the flies on his jeans to relieve some of the uncomfortable tension, then he slipped his hand under Marcie’s shawl once more to hold her breast in his fingers. With them still damp from her most intimately feminine place, his fingertips were slippery against her raised nipple.

He enjoyed the sensation of her soft warm breast cupped in his hand as he teased her thickly erect nipple between his finger and thumb. She sighed as her hands kept fidgeting away in her lap, then Ben leaned down over her to once again plant small delicate kisses across her face. Breathing in deeply and slowly through his nose, he smelt again the fragrance of her perfume, as well as her shampoo and her soapy skin. But now he was aware of a deeper musky smell too, and thought of her vaginal juices on his fingertips, as well as hers too now he guessed as she steadily masturbated herself beneath him.

Then he had a slightly queasy thought that the powerful aroma of feminine arousal might not just be coming from Marcie’s vulva, but from Sofie’s too. Again, he felt a confused uncertainty in his mind about that, about whether he should feel embarrassed for Sofie, or guilty of Geoff’s potential jealousy, or ashamed of his own awareness. Yet he knew his body’s reaction was clear and unambiguous. The intimate musk and the thought that it may be arising from two women at once was giving his arousal a powerful extra surge. His erection was woodenly rigid under his boxer shorts, and it felt as if even the slightest brushing touch against it would give sufficient stimulation to release his pent-up orgasm.

He knew he could do nothing about that now though, so he held Marcie tight, pulling her to him with his arm around her shoulder even as his other hand gripped her breast, and he buried his face into her hair, forcing himself to breathe deeply and slowly. Suddenly he heard her exclaim in a whisper, “Qaddisa Marija, that’s it!” and then she jerked convulsively in his arms, making quick gasps and tiny high-pitched moans as she obviously struggled to keep as quiet as possible. She’d frozen into a rigid tension at the moment of her surprisingly subtle orgasm, but then she seemed to melt into a relaxed pool of jelly in Ben’s arms, as if all the pressure and stress that had been building with her had been suddenly flushed from her whole body.

Still holding her, though not quite as tightly, he tenderly kissed her forehead, her cheek and her ear once again, before whispering as quietly as he could, “Nice work, my witchy queen, my goddess, my fiancé! I love you Marcie. We are blessed.”

Marcie quickly whipped one hand out from under her dress, then slipped it immediately under her shawl, clamping it over Ben’s hand at her breast and twining her warm wet fingers with his. She twisted her head towards him to smear a carelessly placed kiss against the edge of his lips before whispering to him, “Thank you, my mighty lion! We’re good, aren’t we, with good friends.”

Ben heard this as a statement rather than a question, and felt he didn’t need to respond. He was still a little wary of speaking aloud in their normal way, cautious of wandering into their rambling playful mythic pillow-talk nonsense in front of Geoff and Sofie. Yet he was very gratified when he felt Marcie’s hand release his and wander off across his torso, fumbling over his ribs and flat stomach before finally reaching beneath his bellybutton to push its way under the waistband of his boxer shorts. Her fingertips roughly brushed the weeping head of his heavily engorged penis, then she traced her fingers down its thick hard length to grasp him firmly near its base.

Ben sighed, louder than he’d meant to, but all seemed quiet from the direction of Geoff and Sofie now. He felt a powerful feeling of carnal gratification in Marcie’s grip, as if his enduring arousal now had a purpose through her physical contact. Yet he also felt a kind of frustration at the awkward irritation of his own creased boxer shorts and heavy jeans as they trapped and rubbed his sensitive penis. He had a visceral desire to take the rest of his clothes off, to give himself a broader feeling of liberating sexual expression as well as to free his tangled erection specifically, but a part of him was still inhibited by the close presence of his friends.

Anxious thoughts about his immodest shame and their potential offence kept popping into his mind, though these seemed absurd given how far they’d already come this evening. They had all clearly reached a common understanding that there was nothing shameful in honestly demonstrating their loving sexuality for their partners, and it followed that this might include the exposure of his aroused manhood. They’d also agreed that it was just fine for close trusted friends to witness the other couple’s intimate union, and that was fundamentally what he’d like to move on to with Marcie right now. He was glad when Marcie gave him the opportunity to cut through his dilemma by suggesting what clearly seemed the obvious course of action to her, whispering, “Are you going to take them off to get him out?”

“Aye, yes, let’s,” he whispered in eager assent. Then without hesitating, with Marcie’s fingers still tangled in his pubic hair, he pulled his arms in and began to wriggle out of his jeans and underwear, exposing his long stiff penis long before he managed to push his tangled clothes over his ankles and feet. He sighed with contentment as he finally freed himself and relaxed into a slumped reclining position on the sofa, shuffling alongside Marcie so that he once again had one arm around her shoulder, whilst his free hand clasped hers, now wrapped firmly around the base of his shaft. As he’d reclined with his back against the sofa’s rough throw, she ended up lying on her side, pressing her body to his, from her thighs and hips to her belly and shoulders. Her shawl and unzipped dress were in some disarray, but despite her body still being relatively well covered, Ben was close enough to clearly see the curves of her heavy breasts and the shadows of her stretched areolae.

Even though Marcie was lying on one arm in this position, she’d now managed to get both her hands to his groin. Yet Ben was a little surprised that she didn’t seem to be in any hurry to masturbate him, instead just pushing one palm flat to his pelvis, wrapping her fingers under his scrotum, while she gripped the very base of his shaft between her finger and thumb, with Ben’s hand shadowing her position as it rested over hers. As Ben looked down his own body, it seemed as if she were deliberately making his penis, his Roddie, stand up as straight and tall as she possibly could. His turgid veins were clear as they snaked along its bowed length, whilst his swollen glans, which had pushed itself out of his foreskin a while back, was glossy in shades of vivid crimson and livid purple, smeared with the natural lubrication that he had leaked.

As she held him, Marcie raised her voice over the background noise of the dramatic action on the television, where lovers at the brink of death were in each other’s arms, to ask, “Est-ce que c’est bon?”

Ben recognised her quick and clipped question as French, but though she spoke clearly, it was still unintelligible to him. He realised it was not for his ears though, as Sofie’s voice promptly answered, “C’est si bon. Tout va bien, ma chère copine.”

Sofie’s phrase triggered a memory of a wild dance track which seemed strangely appropriate to Ben, and he thought of mentioning the artist’s name, BPM System, as it popped into his head. Without thinking, he turned toward Sofie, but instantly felt a wave of embarrassment that struck him dumb as he saw how his friends had ended up.

They were both naked, and Sofie was slumped down on their sofa on her back as he was, but Geoff was lying across her, one leg stuck out and one tangled underneath him, as if he’d collapsed across his lover to drift into an intoxicated slumber. He had his back to Ben, revealing no more than his furry bare buttocks, with his torso covering Sofie’s chest and breasts. His dozing head was resting in her shoulder, his heavy silvery chain hanging loose around his neck, whilst her right arm was draped lazily across his long bare back. But with Sofie’s legs in the position that they were, with one foot flat to the floor whilst the other hung over the arm of sofa, Ben could not help but see the long crease of her almost hairless vulva stretched wide between her parted thighs. Her flushed and tumid inner labia were clear even from the briefest glance, their vividly pink fleshy folds parted to reveal a slimy drool of milky fluid leaking from the mouth of her vagina. Sofie’s left hand was spread flat against her inner thigh, and Ben could see that she’d stretched out her third finger, the very one with her new engagement ring on, to press its tip against the point where her clitoris must surely be.

He realised he’d not only caught her graphically exposed, but also in the act of masturbating, perhaps quietly working towards an orgasm of her own that she’d failed to achieve during the frantic coition which Ben had heard her share with Geoff. Though his gaze had instinctively gone straight to this shockingly appealing sight, he instantly raised his attention to Sofie’s own heavy-lidded eyes. It was then that he realised she was looking directly at his upright penis, and he suddenly understood that Marcie had in some way been deliberately showing him off to her friend, even as she was being kind and sensitive towards his own sensual urges. He felt his embarrassment evaporate, recognising now that he and Sofie, perhaps more so than Geoff and Marcie, were both thoroughly at ease with their explicit exhibitionism. His anxious feelings were replaced by a sense of easy relaxation and a surprising feeling of pride, though he was still unsure of the meaning of what had passed between the two women in their rapid exchange.

His uncertainty was partly dispelled when Sofie raised her eyes to meet his, perhaps as she became aware of his gaze. She raised her eyebrows in a lazy greeting as a broad smile spread across her calm face, clearly unashamed of her own nudity and expressive pose, just as Ben had guessed. Then Ben assumed she translated her last remark for his benefit as she said gently, “All is good.”

Ben wasn’t sure if she was saying that she didn’t mind that he’d seen her masturbating, or if she was commenting on his own display of his vigorous masculine arousal. Then he thought her remark was more likely a general acceptance and approval for everything that the two couples were sharing in their intimacy this evening, or an even wider expression of her happiness. Perhaps she felt that they were all now moving forwards in their lives together, as they prepared to turn their sympathetic and sincere love into lifelong bonds. Or perhaps she’d meant something of all these, Ben thought, just as he did when he quietly replied in a low voice, “Aye, it is.”

He turned back to Marcie, cuddling her body close to his, seeing once again the profound femininity of her classical curves, as her warm skin tone with its scattered constellations of dark spots seemed to smoulder in the low light. He buried his face in her soft hair, against the line of her strong jaw beneath her intellectual glasses, then he filled his lungs with her fragrant essence in a long, deep and easy breath. As he released this in a deeply contented sigh, stretching out to the tips of his toes, he felt a delicious tingle of sensual pleasure run right through the length of his body, all whilst Marcie still calmly held his rigidly solid penis upright, letting him luxuriate in the eager anticipation of his own orgasm.

Nuzzling up to her ear, Ben whispered, “You know I’m close, but I could stop now, before I make a mess, if you think it best. Or do you want to go further? If you let me enter you, we could consummate our engagement, here and now.” He felt a fluttery anxiety about what he was proposing, yet he was eagerly hopeful that Marcie would want to move on to what seemed like the inevitable conclusion of their passionate act of primal organic affection. He wanted to make love to her, to make that complete fulfilment of his most fundamental desires by easing his penis into her vagina and achieving his orgasm deep within her once again, and he felt as if Geoff and Sofie had given them permission to do just that by their example. But he was not at all sure what Marcie would say.

She didn’t hesitate in her answer though as she whispered, tickling him with her hair as she lifted her mouth to his ear, “Oh yes, Ben! I don’t want us to stop. I don’t want this to end. I don’t want any of it to end! My wet arousal, my hungry ache to be filled by you, glowing deep within my womb, crying out for my womanhood, my cwm, to take your magically potent rod, to feel you come inside me again. But more than that, I want so much for it all to carry on forever. I mean it’s our whole love, our new life together, our fused beings, the mingled red blood of our beating hearts that fills our arousal when we touch. It’s our wide open souls, interpenetrating the divinity of all life, bound together in that primal fire and clear air now! I’d die without it. It can’t ever stop.”

“It won’t,” Ben reassured her quietly, humbled by her heartfelt and expressive passion, even as she eased her hands away from his penis to quickly wriggle out of her tangled dress. She left him to hold his rigidly upright member on his own whilst he explained, “You’re wearing my ring now. That’s proof we’re in it for good. My heart, and my stiff little man, they’re yours, to take wherever you go, to use whenever you want.”

“The ring is just the outward sign though,” Marcie said in her whisper as her smiling face hung before his, pressing the warm bare skin of her thighs to his now, letting him feel the ticklish hair of her bush against his hip too. She stroked his belly and touched his face with her still greasy fingertips, filling Ben’s flared nostrils with her intoxicating fragrance, as her bangles softly jingled together and she went on, “It how other people know I’m yours and you’re mine. But you and I were already sure of that, weren’t we? Maybe even back when we first came together, when we kissed on the sofa after I read aloud for you, or even before that when we held hands in the hospital. But now we can make another outward sign of our love for other people, for our kind friends, can’t we? They can see it happening, honestly and with eyes wide open, not accidentally or furtively, like in the dunes or that first time in the kitchen. It would be a consummation, you’re right, a rite of passage as we make our commitment public. That means I’m serious when I say I want you to carry on. I really do want us to go all the way, right now. So let’s do it, let’s fuck in front of our friends! Let them see how we are two become one. They can testify that our love is real then, that it will go on and on, with each easy breath, complete and fulfilled. We won’t stop now, we’ll fuck right here, and we’ll go on fucking and loving and breathing until we die in each other’s arms, far far away in our unknown future!”

“That’s the truth,” Ben agreed in eager anticipation, even as Marcie began rising onto her knees above him - ready to mount him, ready to be penetrated once again, ready to make love. He inhaled calmly before admitting, “I love you Marcie. We won’t stop. I’ll keep breathing, for you.”