. 17

Author's note:

This is, in all its seven parts and their many chapters, one very,

very

long story. If long stories bother you, I suggest you read something else.

No part of this story is written so as to stand on its own. I strongly suggest that you start with

the beginning of Part 1

and read sequentially—giving up at any point you choose, of course.

All sexual activity portrayed anywhere in this story involves only people at least eighteen years old.

This entire story is posted only on literotica.com. Any other public posting without my permission in writing is a violation of my copyright.

Tuesday morning arrived around 4:45, with the sound of an alarm going off. I was disoriented for a minute, as Ellen quickly shut it off. After a very brief consultation, we didn't go off to the lavatory again at that point. It wasn't a quickie, but it still felt rushed. We kissed and fondled a little, I ate her pussy awhile, and came in. She came, I came. I was concerned about the time, robbing Ellen of attention to get to Jenny on time.

Ellen kissed me. "I know you're worrying that you somehow cheated me, because you want to be on time for Jenny. But honestly, until you get some things settled, Jenny has to come first for the few things you have left. I love you, if she doesn't want you I'll take you—except Sam and some other people have prior claims. And Brian has some claim on me—if he wants it enough. But you figure out where things are going to go with Jenny, first of all."

We went to the lavatory, and then shaved and got dressed. We held hands as we walked out to the monitor's desk. "Good morning again, Miss Milliken. Please check me out of room—" Oops. I hadn't checked the number any time we went in or out. Or paid enough attention to figure it out.

But she knew, even without Ellen's having to tell her. "Good morning, Morris and Chan. Chan, I know it's not news to you that he's almost always here at this time, with lots of different girls. Always the nice ones, and you're near the top of that list."

Jenny came hurrying up. She looked uncertainly at Ellen and me. Ellen laughed. "Jenny, if he runs with me one of us will have a really poor workout. I'll reclaim him from you a few minutes before the shower warning, OK? And thank you." She pulled me closer to Jenny, and said very quietly, "I told him that if you really don't want him, I want a chance at getting him, but also that I hope the two of you can work things out. I'm sorrier than I can say that you're having troubles. And I'll try to keep out of them beyond those three things."

Jenny nodded and took my hand, and we all went outside and stretched for a bit. When we started running, Ellen quickly outdistanced us.

"So how did it go?"

"Um. Am I supposed to tell you things like that?"

"Please. Not all the details. Maybe no details."

"Oh. It was amazingly wonderful.

"But that reminds me of one detail I owe to you, as a confession, and I'll have to go to Sam, too. She asked about you and me and why Sam hadn't told us she was my arrangement. She wasn't prying, the question was very general. But I answered in a lot more detail than I should have. I'm sorry. You know I don't approve of doing that, of my doing it, but I fall into it and only afterward realize I did it. I hope you'll forgive me, and without making me try to repeat what I said. I didn't mean to do it, I'm sorry, and I'll try to watch my tongue better in the future."

Jenny ran alongside me in silence for a bit. Then she reached over and gave me a momentary hug. "I know how that works. And I know you didn't mean to do it. And you may be the only person I know who ever really regrets having done that, later. Of course I forgive you."

After a while, I said, "When we first talked, on a Tuesday morning a lot like this, I basically laid out what I was willing to accept in a relationship. Or I did that that first night, and we discussed it as we ran in the morning. And we agreed on being friends, with sex ad lib when there was time. You weren't looking for serious romance, you said. But we agreed that the circumstances didn't allow anything permanent or exclusive—which was basically what I'd said the night before."

I could see that she was working on sticking something in, but I plowed ahead. "And when Barbara asked to be in on it, studying and sex both, you had to think hard, we both did. And you agreed, given what we had already decided. But you also said that if you started getting too little of my attention, you would complain and we might break up, studying and everything. And you said that would hurt, but you'd live with it. And I put in that I agreed.

"Well, for both of us, feelings didn't stay where they were. It got to be more serious romance. And you started more serious than I did, at that. I know how much I love you, and I'm sure you still love me more.

"On the whole, my view of what's reasonable and possible is what I said back then. I never expected my feelings to get involved with so many other girls. I didn't at all expect having sex, with girls I liked already or could like, to push me to feelings like that. You don't hear about that being a problem with guys, and certainly there are plenty for whom it doesn't seem to be a problem. But it is for me.

"And neither of us anticipated Sam. What she's meant to me, first of all, but what she's meant to both of us, and her feelings for me and for you, too. I remind you that, when you were hurting and distraught, for good reasons, she was there insisting that I comfort you and do what I could, and welcoming you into what was supposed to be, temporarily, an exclusive partnership. And right there, for good, my attention to you was cut down drastically. My feelings for you weren't exactly reduced, but I know it had to feel like it to you. But do remember that Sam urged me to cut the attention she got from me that week in half, and any she might have hoped for thereafter.

"And all these other girls are still pushing for my attention, and I want to give it to them.

"You plainly had doubts from the beginning about being able to accept the kind of situation. I understand how hard it is for you. It hurts, you've lost a big piece of what you wanted and thought you had. There is nothing whatsoever wrong with your feeling that way. Period. Squared and cubed.

"If you can't stand to keep having sex with me, under the circumstances, I'll regret it more than I can tell you. For the long run, what I want is something permanent and exclusive, too. And seeing you hurting is very painful for me, too. Not nearly as painful as yesterday, but still.

"But my side of it hasn't changed, except as I said that my feelings for so many girls are way beyond what I'd expected. If you can't stand sex with me on those terms, I understand why, and I'll have to accept that. Just as I'm asking you to accept so much competition for my attention and feelings. If you can't even stand studying and running together, on those terms, I really do understand. And I wish it were different. And I can't decide for you where your side of our relationship has to stop. You have to decide. I only ask that you do decide, and tell me. I'll honor your decision, as I'm asking—no, insisting—that you honor mine."

She was crying again, we both were.

She said, "For now at least, please, can we keep studying and running together? And Sam's fine, but no one else, and no one else for running? Please?

"You've been so good to me, all along. I was wrong yesterday. You've kept telling me I needed some other guys, and I understand, you want me to feel that they're giving me attention that you won't, that you feel you can't, and that we agreed I wouldn't demand of you. And there's some consolation if I'm with Jim or Brian, but it's not what I want and need. Brian's been spoken for, most of the time. Jim—what Jim really wants is something exclusive and permanent, which he knows isn't an option now. He wouldn't even suggest that, with you having a prior claim.

"And I won't, I can't, just fill the schedule with lots of guys. I probably could find them. But all these girls who want attention from you, they're not just looking for a good screw, they really love you, at least a little. Random guys I might find wouldn't approach it that way. Jim and Brian do, and maybe I could find another one or two. I don't know, if I asked Jim for what I want from you, he probably would agree to it all, and if he did I don't think he'd cheat. But I can't offer that, not to him.

"But yes, for now, I can't stand sex with you when it's just what's left after everyone else gets hers. Even if it's more than any of the others get. And it's hard, because I still want you, just as much.

"In fact, if I asked you to take me out in the higher grass out there and screw me, this minute, would you do it?"

"No. Absolutely not. Even if there were time. It would just make it harder for you to do what you've decided you have to. I've told you what my own limits are. You've said what you think you can put up with, in an ongoing way, and I'll do everything I can to support you in that. If you change your mind—within my limits—and tell me what limits you want to set, I'll support you in that. If it's sex whenever we feel like it and can fit it in, I'll love it, and I'll try to help you in every way I can—within my limits. You don't think that's a policy you can live with any longer, and I'll do everything I possibly can to help you. Including saying no if you're tempted to violate it. And that means resisting major temptation myself, of course."

We were out of time for running. The signal hadn't sounded yet, but it would very soon, and Ellen came up from behind us, slowed to match our pace, and took my arm. We ran a little farther, then walked the rest of the way to cool down.

Jenny's tears, and mine too, had run down a while earlier, lost now in sweat, but I knew we both were still close to crying.

She took me in her arms and kissed me, on the mouth but without passion—even though we both knew the passion was still there, on both sides. "I'll always love you, Phil, and I hope we can find something that works. I want to, and I know you do, maybe even more. Um. If you wind up my partner in gym, you do your absolute best to catch me, and I promise I'll really try to get away, but if you catch me you follow through. That's an exception I insist on. If you don't catch me, I'll do my part—trying to be gentle, but I know it's no fun. If I wind up forfeit again, somehow, you'll have to make your own mind up. I didn't enjoy it yesterday, at all, and that time you certainly wouldn't have helped, but you might, next time, if there is one."

We stepped back. Ellen took my hand, and we went inside. I checked in to her room with the monitor, and we collected clothes and things and went on to the shower. We found a place, and soaped each other quickly but thoroughly enough, both enjoying the sensuality of soapy hands on sensitive areas. We shared some rather wet kisses, and to my surprise Ellen giggled kind of a lot. I thought and hoped that was pure enjoyment and happiness.

I picked her up by the thighs and carried her the foot or two to put her back against the wall. She put her hands down to guide me in, and then got her arms around my neck again, her legs around me, helping her move, pulling me to her, or herself to me. She came almost at once, without much preliminary buildup, and then a couple of minutes later again. And she did let herself go somewhat with her vocalizing, still pretty quiet compared to a lot of girls. I came as she was in the throes of her orgasm. She was wonderful to me. I pulled out and carefully set her down, and she kissed me with verve. I noticed that Sam was finishing showering nearby, alone, and to my surprise Jenny was as well.

Once dressed, we hurried back to Ellen's room to collect our stuff for the day. We had enough time for a few more kisses. I told her, "Ellen, I heard what you said, more than once. But even if Jenny stays with the current policy, essentially no sex at all, um, if you were to take her place, the whole problem is that lately it's not all that big a place. Bigger than anyone else's, except Sam's, OK. But you once said you'd take all of me over all of Brian, but all of him over a little piece of me. I think I need to warn you that you might be as unsatisfied with Jenny's place as she has been. That piece is still pretty little."

She kissed me once more. "No decisions until the dust settles, no matter what. I'll keep what you said in mind. You keep what I said in mind."

We went to breakfast, and she sat by me, on the other side of me from Sam, where Jenny had always sat. Once again, I didn't spot Jenny anywhere. To my relief, most of the servers seemed to have given up on trying to reward me by fattening me up.

When we were all three done, and had cleared our share of the detritus, Ellen and Sam both kissed me goodbye at some length. Ellen told both of us, "Thank you, it was my most wonderful night lately, maybe at all. If we do it again, I'll try to let you sleep a little more." I was yawning at that very moment. "Please, ask me again sometime soon."

Jenny came and sat by me in history. Maybe we really were heading back toward normal, except for sex—which of course was a huge exception. But I had started with Jenny as friend, and losing that had hurt a lot more than losing sex with her had. And that would have been true even without Sam and Ellen and others. We both seemed to have it together today, at least to the point of answering questions and contributing, coherently and maybe correctly. We hadn't spoken to each other, except a cautious "Hi," in the brief break time before class started, which we both had spent in last-minute review, but that hadn't felt like rejection. To me, anyway.

In fact, at the end of the class, Mr. Henley asked us to stay a moment. When everyone else was out the door, he said to us quietly, "I'm very glad to have you two back among those present, mentally as well as physically. You know we try not to interfere with students' lives beyond our classes, but I'm glad you've at least declared a truce in whatever it was. I hope you survive the fallout. You're both among my favorite and best students, and it would be a great shame for you to crash and burn this late in the game. Or the war, I suppose—three military metaphors and one athletic one are a little much, aren't they? And I know your other teachers feel the same." This kind of thing was unheard of, and it looked like Jenny was as shocked as I was.

As we walked a little hurriedly to our next class, I said, "I owe you an answer, and I meant to give you one this morning, but we both talked about more important things." She shot me a look full of question marks. "There's no real mystery about how I've known when you've had a busy night, but you said it bothered you. There are probably some subliminal factors I'm not aware of, but sometimes, yesterday for example, you're way too sleepy-looking to have gotten the sleep you would have by yourself. And more obviously, you look tousled. I think that's mostly your hair, and I'm hard put to pin it down more, but that's my main cue. I suppose I may be smelling your perfume and sweat and semen or something, but if so I'm not at all aware of it. I didn't mean to be mysterious, ever."

Jenny looked at me, and then took my arm. "Thank you. It did bother me, it felt like you must have been spying on me or something. But I know you're that perceptive, at least some of the time. Phil, it's only been a day and a bit, and sometimes there were two or three days we didn't have sex, but I'm already missing you horribly. Tonight, if we can manage the time, please can we talk a little more, during study time?" By this time we'd reached the classroom, and we were kind of hanging outside.

I said slowly, "I'm missing you a little less, I think, so far. Time with Ellen had been postponed so long, and that kind of filled the void for a while. But I do love you and want you. Yes, talk tonight, and we'll make time somehow if we don't have it. But we need to go in now." And indeed the signal sounded as we were entering the room. There weren't two seats together, but someone got up and moved, someone not a close friend of mine, nor of Jenny's as far as I knew. I was touched by this gesture.

So the day went on. Jenny sat elsewhere at lunch, presumably with whoever was occupying her nights. My guess was Jim, and at some point I needed to ask her, but I was afraid right then of breaking her fragile return to friendship with me. I really thought she was still hurting pretty badly, and even appearing to be spying on her couldn't possibly help.

But Ellen sat by me again. I wondered what Brian was doing. And in fact I said, as quietly as I could, "Ellen, I love having you here. But I don't want to rip you and Brian up too. Should I be doing something to send you back to him?"

She said just as quietly, "We're taking a little vacation from each other. It's not quite the same as you and Jenny, but I don't think anything you could do would make any difference. Even if we stopped eating to screw on one of the tables and I really screamed when I came. I don't think I should talk about it to you now. Sam knows a little more, but I hope you won't ask her."

Afternoon classes also were better. One swallow does not a summer make, but to someone tired of winter it can bring a lot of hope.

Gym continued with swimming, mostly finishing the measuring, but ending with two very abbreviated games of water polo, players being selected by the instructors without explanation, the rest of the class simply watching. Fortunately, no one was injured. In the past injuries had sometimes occurred in almost every sport, but water polo had had more than its share. Injuries were usually minor, but always caused trouble. Neither Jenny nor I was chosen to play. Nor Sam, nor Ellen.

I showered and collected clothes and other gear, and as soon as it was legal I went to Sam's room. Sam and Jenny were there already, studying.

I sat down and put my stuff down. "Jenny, I apologize for bringing this up while you're here, it's rude of me, but I haven't had a chance to talk to Sam since Ellen and I left last night. And I kind of need to know. Sam, are we on tonight? I have nothing else planned, but I don't mean to take it for granted that you don't."

Sam said, "Actually, I made an arrangement for you again. This one's a little different and a little more complicated. I think we'd better talk alone, but it doesn't have to be yet." So I got busy on my classwork. We all worked as we had been, in many cases studying the same material, Jenny and I often doing the same assignments, but in any case offering comments and questions, occasionally asking for help.

About ten minutes before the ten-minute warning, Sam said, "Jenny, I guess he's my partner alone now, and we have some things to talk about. And except at breakfast and lunch and a class—well, and watching in the shower—the only time I've seen him today is whenever you two passed me running. I'm sorry, but we need you to leave so we can discuss things you don't want to hear about." Jenny kind of glared at her, but then seemed to think about it. She gathered her stuff, then gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She did the same for Sam. "That hurt a little, but you're absolutely right, I'd rather not know whom he'll be with tonight. And related topics. Thank you." She went out, closing the door gently.

Sam came and hugged me. "You'll be in your own room tonight. Tomorrow is one of Ginny Milliken's two days off per week, so that she doesn't need to be reporting for work by 4:00 AM. About an hour before curfew, she should be knocking at your door. If you don't answer, she will use her housekeeping master key to go in anyway. The rest is up to you two."