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  Then I feel the clunk of the glasses being set on the table at my thigh, and I look up to see that Hugh has returned triumphantly from his mission. He settles back into his chair, eyebrows raised, with a smirking, pointed stare at us. That’s when I suddenly get my hearing back. The noise level in the club drops as the DJ switches to a slow ballad—what we used to call a smooching song back at school. The crowd on the dance floor breaks up into couples clasping each other.

  Bryn sees the change. He points toward the dancers, his brows lifting in an invitation. When I nod, he leads the way. Of course, I could follow round his side of the table, but I choose to go via Hugh’s side, almost having to straddle his spread knees. It’s not the alcohol at work in me, I swear. I’ve been very careful. It’s the flattery of their double attention that’s buoying me up, making me reckless. Bending from the waist, I brush my lips against his cheek. Even I can’t tell if it’s a tease or an apology.

  Then I follow Bryn out onto the dance floor and slip into his embrace. Oh god, it’s been far too long since a bloke last held me. His warmth and his physicality—the pressure of his arms about my waist and back, the toasty aroma of his skin, the press of his hard torso against my soft breasts—they make me lightheaded. As I relax against him the room seems to spin away. I don’t register the music anymore, just the throb of the slow beat through his body and mine. I nestle my face against his shirt and rub my cheek on the cotton. His arms tighten a little, drawing me closer and I don’t resist. I love the feel of his long firm body and the way my own yields against it. I love the gentle nudge of his pelvis and his thighs against mine and the way my hips tip in instinctive response. He lifts a hand to the small of my back and begins to rub the muscles up my spine. I can feel locks opening inside me, doors being thrown wide, heat running from chamber to chamber like sunlight flooding into hidden rooms. It’s the turn of the year and my body is eagerly welcoming the new.

  He was right, what he told me. I don’t want to be alone tonight.

  The music track doesn’t last nearly long enough. I’m still familiarizing myself with the contours of his torso when the beat changes and I lift my head. But I’m pleased to find that the new song is just as slow and sensual. I’m happy to settle in for another few minutes in his arms.

  At that moment a hand falls lightly on my shoulder. “Excuse me.”

  It’s Hugh of course, teasingly formal as he draws me away to take his turn with me, like we’re participants at some old-time tea dance. I don’t need BSL to interpret the gesture that Bryn makes in response, but there’s no actual antagonism in his exasperation, thank god. He can see the humorous side even as his hands protest.

  “Hey,” I say, chiding them both. I take Hugh’s arms and wrap myself in them with my back to his chest, reaching out for Bryn again. There are grins of surprise and amusement, and I suppose we’re all a little self-conscious for a moment, but nobody else nearby seems to take any notice of me being clasped by both men. Swaying gently, I shut my eyes and let their twin embrace float me away into a warm, dark dream. The brush of two bodies, the pressure of their hands, the touch of Hugh’s lips in my hair as he inhales my scent…I feel like I’m melting softly between them, like chocolate. Oh, I think…I could do this all night.

  Memory, like a dropped bottle, shatters inside me. My eyes flash open as the song ends, and with an apologetic squeak I extricate myself from both their arms and hurry back to our table. Necking my orange juice I gather up my knapsack and coat from under the couch.

  “What’s wrong?” Hugh demands. They’re both hovering behind me, staring.

  “I’m really sorry! I’ve got to head back to the station or I’m going to miss the last train tonight. I’m really sorry—I just forgot.” I squeeze both their arms in turn. “I was having such a great time!”

  “We’ll walk you there,” Hugh says. He and Bryn are signalling frantically at each other as we leave the club, and I get the impression that there’s a heated discussion going on, but it’s all over my head and I shrug it off. Outside the air is crisp and smells faintly of gunpowder from the midnight fireworks. The streets are full of underdressed people making their way from club to club. The chill air bites at my legs too. I shed my patterned winter tights when we reached the bar and now there’s nothing but bare skin between the tops of my boots and the bottom of my short shirt. I figure I’ll manage.

  As I get myself sorted I realize I’ve got a few more minutes than I was counting on. My printout with the train time says ten past, not ten to. We all relax a bit then. Bryn holds his arm out and I link mine in his, pleased. We walk through the streets, taking turns down quieter roads to avoid the crushes outside more popular venues, and when we get to a pedestrian bridge over a canal I pause to look down into the water, charmed by the glints of reflected light.

  Hugh instantly takes the opportunity to light a fresh cigarette.

  Turning to put my back to the handrail, I look at Bryn with a faint smile. Wordlessly, like a man in a dream, he moves in to kiss me again, shielding me from the night air with his body. One hand slips under my open coat to clasp the small of my back and I arch into the lean of his torso, flowing against him. My thighs feel liquid, without resistance, and he feels more solid by the second. His mouth explores mine with a growing hunger. I’d like him to eat me up. He’s half hard already. When I moan into his mouth I know he feels the vibration by the immediate flex of his erection and the tensing shift of his muscles.

  A hand moves up to cup my breast and a thumb drifts over my right nipple, already stiff from the chill, flicking it softly and reveling in its fullness. Oh god, that touch sends electric messages chasing through every part of my body, lighting up my clit. I feel the tracks of my nerves flaring like strings of LEDs under my skin. I can’t help squirming against him and I don’t want to help it. I’m wildly turned on. I have been all evening. My pussy aches, wanting him to fill it, and the cold outside is more than balanced by the heat burning inside me.

  We part, gasping a little, and experiment with smaller, biting kisses. I wrap my arms about his neck and ruffle that mown turf at the back of his scalp, wondering how soft that velvet would feel between my thighs. Bryn stoops to nibble at my ear and kiss my neck and through his careful gentleness, I can feel his breath coming hard and shallow. The hand on my breast deserts its station to clasp my bum-cheek, squeezing me through my skirt.

  Stretching my throat for him, I tilt my head and let my gaze fall on Hugh. He’s leaning forward on the railing a few feet away, smoking his roll-up idly and watching us, his expression inscrutable. Lifting my right thigh around Bryn’s in an unambiguous invitation for him to nestle closer, I feel my skirt ride up, gifting Hugh with a new view. His attention zeroes in and his lips tighten. My eyelids droop and flutter as Bryn shifts his grip on my bottom, reaching round and down for the hem of my skirt, sliding it up to explore the full swell. My skin thrills to his big warm hand. He’s looking for the edge of my panties I realize, but it takes him a while to find that because I’m wearing a thong, a wispy, lacy little thing picked deliberately for our meeting, might-get-lucky knickers. When he tucks a thumb under the elasticized lace at my hip I gasp involuntarily, knowing he’s crossing a boundary.

  That’s when Bryn’s hand makes its irrevocable move to the front, under my rucked-up skirt, his fingertips delicate on the hidden fabric, tickling my pussy, teasing the barely-concealed nub of my clit, tugging the silky gusset aside. Hugh has forgotten to inhale and his cigarette trembles in his fingers. I’m past resistance now, if I ever was capable of it. I don’t care that we’re on a public footbridge and that there are people walking past every few minutes. I don’t care what a slut I must look. I just want Bryn to touch me more. I just want to welcome his fingers into my wet and I’m so grateful for their slick caress on my swollen clit that when it finally happens I whimper out loud.

  Bryn lifts his head from my throat and looks at me searchingly. Withdrawing his hands, he lifts them to sign. I grab his hips i
n frustration and pull his pelvis harder in to me, grinding my bereft mound against him.

  “He wants to know if you mind me watching,” Hugh asks, his voice all woolly and hoarse.

  I kiss Bryn softly, eagerly, and shake my head. “Not in the least.”

  Hands dance again. I want them to dance on my breasts, in my wet slot.

  “He wants to know if you’d like me to touch you too.”

  I swallow, my throat suddenly dry, my heart pounding. “I’d like that very much,” I whisper.

  Quietly, Hugh flicks his cigarette into the canal and moves in. Two bodies shield me from the casual glances of pedestrians—and that’s a good job, because what they’re doing to me could get us all arrested. Two bodies press against mine, warm and slightly clumsy in their eagerness. Two mouths, hot and hungry. I kiss them both in turn, tasting beer on Bryn and smoke on Hugh. I am wrapped around by their masculine scent and focus and strength. I’ve never done this before and it’s breathtaking. Hands glide over me and I’m so dizzy I can’t think whose are going where. Two on my breasts, unbuttoning my blouse, pulling down the stretchy cotton, stroking my exposed tits, pinching my nipples, kneading the swells of flesh. One between my thighs, fingers sliding inside me, thumb strumming my clit. One—ah, that’s Hugh,—reaching round behind my ass, competing with the other hand for access to my cunt, lubing itself in my juices and teasing a wicked digit into the tight pucker of my anus. God, those hands, irresistible and overwhelming. They hold me inside and out. My mind breaks into fragments only capable of sensation. I’m lifted, soaring, though my feet never leave the ground it’s like those hands are lofting me up into the sky. I’m their kite and their hand puppet and their toy.

  Fuck. Hugh’s going in my ass. In my ass, in public.

  It’s terrifying.

  It’s wonderful.

  In moments I’m coming all over their hands, writhing and clenching and gasping, my nails gouging their shoulders. I nearly collapse. They hold me safe as they draw me down from the skies, back into their arms. I’m giggling helplessly, I realize. God, how undignified. Both men nuzzle into me for a kiss. I snake my hands down to their groins and find two solid erections imprisoned there, straining against the cloth.

  “Outside pocket,” I gasp, finally capable of stringing words together. “My knapsack.”

  Hugh reaches over my shoulder and gropes about until he retrieves what I’m talking about, a box of condoms. He shows it to Bryn, who nods. I rub the twin ridges of their cocks, bruising my hands on the denim.

  I’m running wet, and not yet sated.

  So, like gentlemen, they offer me their arms and walk me, tucked between them, from the exposed bridge into the network of streets on the other side of the canal. In a few minutes they find a shadowed industrial doorway. Zips purr. My knapsack is flung on the floor. Hugh embraces me from behind and sets his back to the door. Bryn faces me. It’s just like when we danced together, except this time Hugh has his hands full of my tits and this time Bryn is pressing me back up against his friend’s torso and lifting me and holding my legs. And this time they’ve both got their cocks out and Bryn is sliding his into me, filling all my need. Hugh’s is rubbing up the crack of my ass, slapping hot against my cold cheeks, and I’m sandwiched between them and sobbing encouragement as Bryn fucks me and Hugh mauls my nipples. It’s incredibly uncomfortable and I come like a string of exploding firecrackers in celebration of the New Year.

  There’s nothing in the world like having two guys at once, no words to describe the sensation of being possessed, of being both more and less than myself, of being pure sex for them.

  The moment Bryn lets me down, Hugh pushes me forward against his friend, bending me from the hips and lifting my skirt to plant his cock deep in my hole. I crush my face against Bryn’s chest as I get shafted quick and hard, and when Hugh comes he swears like a Catholic. He clears his throat as we straighten ourselves up and Bryn wraps me in a hug.

  Hugh says, “I think you’ve missed your train, Ellie.”

  “Oh well,” I sigh beatifically, “worth it.”

  “Well...”

  I’m aware that he’s signing and that Bryn is nodding.

  “We’ve got a twin room at the hotel, if you like. We’ll have to smuggle you into the breakfast sitting, mind.”

  I grin at them both. “But if I go to your room you guys might take advantage of me. Over and over again.”

  Hugh twines his hand in my hair and kisses me roughly. “Oh yes,” he promises. “All fucking night.”

  Actually, none of us make it to breakfast. We’re so busy screwing that we don’t even leave the hotel room until sunset the next day.

  Back home and online again, I find Bryn is already there and waiting for me.

  Hello Ellie.

  Hi there. I add a smiley. “What are you up to?

  Just some scripting. How are you doing? Are you OK?

  Oh, more than OK.

  I want to tell you I had just the greatest time. What about you?

  It was wild, I type, unable to stop grinning. Unreal.

  As Good as it Gets

  E. C. Jarvis

  Jane had been on plenty of planes before, and this one seemed pretty par for the course. Some guy sitting and reading next to her, a kid or two yelling and a bunch of people trying to jam too much into their overhead compartments. Sometimes, the regularity of Jane’s life depressed her. She generally pretty much ignored the safety demonstration done by the flight attendants, but today Jane needed some distraction. She pulled out the little card with the crash positions. They always seemed so unreal to her. How could a person stay calm in that kind of a situation? Jane didn’t like the idea of staying calm and collected if her life was in danger. She would almost like the chance to freak out.

  She tried to stare at the card and forget all the people around her. Tried to just zone out. Maybe because she wasn’t really paying attention to the card, it took Jane a second to notice, but it seemed like the woman bent forward and cradling her knees was wearing a tank top. Very chesty, too. She rubbed her eyes and looked again. It still looked like she was staring at big tits, and on a second look, she noticed that the guy sitting next to this chesty woman on the card looked an awful lot like a young Jack Nicholson. And old Jack was peeking, which Jane supposed Nicholson would probably do.

  Jane started to look around, trying to see if anyone else was staring at the card. Nobody seemed to notice one way or the other, and Jane shivered a little. Even through her shiver, Jane could feel her temperature start to rise. Was she going crazy? Maybe this was a step off into the deep end. She used the card to fan herself a little. The dickhead sitting next to her sighed, but Jane decided not to bother looking at him. Instead, she kept looking around, and sure enough, there was a girl with short, black hair about three rows up from her that was tilting the card, looking at it with a little bit of a frown. Jane saw the girl start to look around, but when she met Jane’s eyes, the girl looked away.

  Jane realized she’d been staring, and she looked down at the card again, too. If the girl was looking around instead of showing it to someone, maybe she was on the plane alone, like Jane, looking for someone to talk to about this Nicholson card. This dirty little Nicholson card. Although the movie Wolf had been kind of shitty, Jane had enjoyed watching Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer together. Pfeiffer was a petite woman, like this dark-haired girl. The two of them had been something. “Woof,” she muttered to herself. The guy next to her looked up from his book, but he didn’t have the balls to look right at her. Jane bit her lip. She wished the plane would take off so she could sneak off to the bathroom. She looked back at the girl with the short black hair, but she was now talking to the guy next to her. A tall guy.

  Jane put the card away. This was a business trip, which made things even worse. The phrase, “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy,” went through her head. It’d been too long since Jane had a chance to really play. She closed her eyes and pressed back, which sh
e always liked to do during takeoffs. That feeling of being pulled or controlled. Jane loved it. She smiled.

  It only lasted a few seconds. The man next to her started rummaging for something and, of course, the kids were crying as their ears popped. Jane opened her eyes and leaned her head against the window. The ground was getting smaller and smaller. She felt the need for a little freedom, to get to the bathroom, the card with her. At least the fasten seat belt sign would be off soon. She looked back at the girl, and now she saw that she and the tall guy were both looking back at her. Jane put her hand to her mouth to keep from laughing. “A few good men,” she said quietly. The asshole next to her cleared his throat. She had a deep-rooted desire to administer shock treatment. In the book version of Cuckoo’s Nest, there was that little thing about Vaseline and the orderlies, too. Jane bit her lip and looked at the fasten seat belt sign. She needed to get to that bathroom.

  Jane traced her finger over the smooth curve of the armrest and thought about the power Nicholson showed in that chicken-salad scene. “Hold it between your legs.” The PA came on, and Jane checked the sign. Seat belts were no longer required. Jane grabbed the card and slid it down the back of her skirt, so that it would stay pressed against her and not fall. It was a little cool on the small of her back. She looked over to the black-haired girl and the tall man. They were already unbuckling. Jane took hers off as quickly as she could. “Excuse me,” she said, before she was even standing. The idiot next to her must’ve thought she was going to be sick. He looked a little pale himself. “Oh,” he said, “are you okay?”

  “Bathroom,” she said, and he pulled back so she could get out, his mouth twisting. Jane tried her best to keep from laughing. She imagined that it’d be the same look he’d give if he knew why she was really going. Jane saw the black-haired girl and the tall guy coming. She wondered if they’d all be able to fit into one bathroom. She made herself slow down as much as possible so that they could catch up to her. As they got close, she turned around. “Nicholson?” she asked. The black-haired girl giggled and turned back to the tall guy. His face was red, but he nodded. Jane went quicker, and they followed behind. She kept an eye out for flight attendants who might be nosy or passengers who were also looking around. She noticed some of them were looking at the cards, but none of them were in the aisle. Jane thought about what she was about to do and considered how many of the other passengers would’ve had it on their bucket list. She got really hot, thinking about going ahead with something that most of the rest of the passengers wouldn’t dare do, might not even think of.