Ex-Rats

So there I stood, maybe a hundred feet from where my best friend was finding out when he was going to die, and thinking thoughts of the night I spent with his wife. Oh yeah, I'm one hell of a great buddy.

My shameful reverie was interrupted by Kerri tapping me gently on the arm. "You're back in bed with Shauna, aren't you?" she asked with a tiny smile.

"Not yet," I answered her honestly. "I'm thinking that whole thing wasn't my proudest moment. I can't believe you've known for all this time and you never said anything about it."

"Frankly, Jimmy, I knew it was bound to happen from the moment we got aboard your boat." She let out a little laugh while I thought how familiar that sounded. "But," she continued, "I wouldn't have wanted either of you to make a habit of it. A one-time shot's okay, both of you deserved it. More than one night, though, then you and I . . . and Shauna . . . might've had a problem; so be advised." My wife leaned in to kiss me on the lips, taking some of the sting out.

"D'ya think Marty knows?" I asked quietly.

"To be honest, I don't have a clue," Kerri replied with tender eyes. "But if he does, then Shauna told him, and if she did, she did it in a way that he's accepted, as I have."

"So you knew, like, the minute we picked you up that morning?"

"Actually, I didn't know until Shauna and I hugged when we took her back to get her car. It was just a little too long and intense to be a 'love ya, see ya later' hug."

"So a simple hug gave it away?"

"Frankly, Jimmy, I'm surprised you both waited as long as you did."

"And you've never had any inclination to, like, return the favor with Marty?"

Kerri laughed out loud. "Are you kidding? I've wanted to give Marty a go since we all first met up. I just wanted you even more, especially after we'd done it that first time. Remember? We nearly crashed the boat."

I smiled just a little at the memory. Kerri braced against the helm, my cock pounding incessantly into that juiced-up crack, her pink labia alternately folding and unfolding around the engorged member as I rammed my rod, piston-like, in and almost out, back in, almost out.

I recalled watching the head of my cock occasionally peek out from that honeyed tunnel, only to be driven, to my immense satisfaction, back in; drawn again, the entire seven-and-a-half inches, all the way out to the tip of the helmet, the lower rim glistening and throbbing. Then back in its entire ecstatic length.

The wheel, which braced Kerri's sweet ass, and which I gripped with unheeding, white-knuckled intensity, was slewing erratically to port with the in-thrust, to starboard when I withdrew, back again to port when I entered, back to starboard when I pulled back. Neither of us knew or cared. And besides, in my inspired, if seldom-utilized practicality, and under extreme duress, I'd long since brought the throttles to idle and just let the damned boat drift. God only knows how we didn't get run over by something.

Kerri, meanwhile, moaned and gasped. Her tongue continued to slither sensuously around her lips, then around mine; her breasts shuddered enticingly, her rigid nipples slashed my own. It was an uneven joust of feminine and masculine hardness. My golden-hued goddess thrust her well-defined and rigid nipples toward my willing chest as I pounded my pelvic steel into that oh-so-delectable slit.

Just before our mutual orgasm, we each, as if following some erotic script, glanced to Shauna and Marty right next to us. Shauna, still on her knees, massaged Marty's considerable shaft with a singular passion, occasionally running her tongue up and down the ridged nerve-line, now red and pulsing, that climbed the underside of Marty's uncircumcised penis. His foreskin was, by now, quite unable to hood the massively re-engorged and pulsing helmet.

Suddenly, I tumbled my load into Kerri's bucking mound, accompanied by our intermingled shouts.

Man, I was in river-rat heaven.

"I know you're feeling ashamed and guilty," Kerri said then, shattering my daydream, though not the one she assumed, "but please don't. If Shauna really wants to live with us after Marty's gone, we'll deal with that when the time comes."

Had it been Kerri and Marty who'd been unfaithful, I asked myself then, do I love Kerri enough to have forgiven her, to have stayed with her, as she'd done with me? Would Shauna have stayed with Marty?

I looked at my wife, remembered our first day together, how unbelievably proud and happy I'd been when I realized that she shared the intense, if inexplicably delayed feelings that I had for her. And, in my dotage, I realized quite honestly that, yeah, I'd forgive her a one shot deal with my old shipmate. Matter of fact, I began to feel that we all, Shauna, Kerri and I, owed him one.

We returned to the waiting area and I nodded toward the examining rooms. "Wonder what's going on in there," I said in a blatant effort to change the subject.

"They're going over treatment options, what to expect from chemo, his diet, their lifestyle changes. This isn't going to be easy for them." Kerri sighed, accepting the change as she sank wearily into the only chair available. "I feel so goddamned helpless."

I might mention, here, that throughout our wait, all eyes in the reception area had followed both Kerri and Shauna since we'd come in. Men were undoubtedly imagining the wonders of each body next to theirs, women wondering how they'd gone so wrong.

Only one guy out of the two or three shifts of folks we'd waited among through these past two hours had so much as attempted to speak with any of us. He'd been a younger dude, maybe late 20's, and he'd been staring at Kerri and Shauna since he'd entered the clinic.

He'd been with an older gentleman, could've been his dad, and barely acknowledged the fact that the older man who'd accompanied him had been seen within minutes. I could see the guy trying to figure out how the pair of beautiful older women that he'd suddenly encountered had snuck under his radar, Butte being kind of a small city and all.

He'd abruptly risen from his seat opposite Kerri, and without preamble, interrupting Kerri's detailed explanation to Shauna of how she and Marty might break the news of his illness to their children and grandchildren, asked if either she or her friend knew of a place close by where he could get a cup of coffee.

The two girls were, of course, well aware that coffee was the last thing on his mind. Nevertheless, Kerri gave the guy her most sultry look and he all but melted to the floor. I could see his hopes rising, as well as his dick.

"Let me ask you something," she said and paused, gave this dude her favorite sloe-eyed, come-hither stare. The guy was all but drooling, expecting to bask, if even for a moment or two, in the attentions of two enchanting mature women. "Is everyone in this armpit of the universe as much of an asshole as you are?"

The guy, scarlet with humiliation, backed away. I saw his self-esteem running down the tubes and sort of pitied him. He looked like he was going to say something but didn't, simply turned and headed for a seat as far from the two ladies as possible.

I'd had a notion to go over to the guy, explain that one of Kerri's best friends was doomed, that she was just a little touchier than usual.

But I didn't; my ordinary sympathies themselves subordinated to the realization that my old buddy was essentially a dead man.

I sat back, recalled once again, with mingled shame and pleasure, that night with Shauna. I finally couldn't control my feelings or my lust for her and we eventually ended up on the couch in front of the wood stove. My cock was immense, my libido unchained, and Shauna just too hot to be left unfulfilled.

She put her hands to each side of my face, leaned in, offered those full lips to me, and after about a tenth of a second further searching my soul, I responded in kind and our tongues began a sensuous dance.

Shauna eased my hand to her breast and I felt her nipple, full and erect, undaunted by the tight top and the supportive sports bra.

I started kneading her boob and she responded, arching her back to push that delectable orb with its impressively hard nipple, against my busy hand. She began a soft moan that consummated my undoing.

We shifted in choreographed lust (and, I would hope, mutual attraction . . . dare I say love?) to nestle crotch to crotch, beginning a subtle and rhythmic pulse, slowly against, then away, against, then away.

With a lusty groan, she abruptly lifted her top, belly to neck, and thrust those tits, encumbered only by the supportive sports bra, toward my face.

Still kissing, with indecent swapping of spit and pleasure, this woman I'd craved for so long, I suavely pushed her bra up to join the top bunched at her neck and, at beholding those erect nipples, each protruding nearly an inch from her delicate pink aureoles, left that probing tongue for the closest tit.

Wrapping my lips around her rigid nub, I began to lustily suck and lick this woman's bounteous boob. Her moans became louder, her pumping more insistent. She put a hand to my bulging fly and started massaging the energized penis there. I had thoughts, then, of a premature ejaculation, but with admittedly immense self-control, managed to forestall this once-encountered embarrassment.

As Shauna began to lower the zipper of my increasingly tight jeans, I switched boobs to begin my ministrations anew. Her nipples were almost a glowing red, even the aureoles puffed and darkening. God, it was an erotic sight.

With admirable efficiency, yet with understandable and eloquent forcefulness, Shauna unleashed my throbbing member from boxer-briefs and jeans, slipped a thumb into her mouth, then wrapped her entire hand about my pulsing shaft. Standing it to its full height, she began to caress the nerve just below the helmet with her wet and wild digit.

I, meanwhile, continued to suckle those perfect breasts, each roughened just a bit at the tip of the nipple, yet each pliant and tasty, her tasty milk tingling the edges of my tongue.

Shauna abruptly dropped my cock, pulled away from me, grasped the waistband of her leotards and in one slick motion had both pants and panties down to her delicate ankles and free of her petite toes. She quickly moved to take my manhood into her voracious mouth.

I grunted at the ecstasy of her engulfing lips, allowed her free reign with my pulsing cock.

After a few tentative voyages into and out of her slavering lips, she took my entire length inside her spittle-laden cheeks. I don't know how she'd managed the entire thing without gagging, but, then, I'd seen her take all of Marty that day years before so I wasn't about to question her.

"I'd better get inside you," I gasped after a few more total immersions in her deep and willing throat. "Otherwise you're gonna get a mouthful of cum."

Moving with amazing alacrity, again like a well-rehearsed team, we were in position for my enraged member to enter that incredibly wet and receptive pussy. Thus, in one potent thrust, enter I did.

My God, she felt so good.

In a few rapid pumps, I came into that so-comfortable tunnel, loading it up with my spunk, to the point that when I withdrew, dripping and still throbbing, the juices ebbed and flowed with her spastic, uncontrollable shudders.

She arced her pelvis up and back a few times, remaining engulfed in orgasmic pleasure, then she grabbed my hand to use in heedless masturbation of her protuberant clit.

This caused even more dramatic pulsations throughout her entire body as she left my fingers to perform their task unguided and threw both arms around me trying with more or less success to force herself back onto my declining manhood.

Jesus, she was one hell of a horny woman.

We dozed that way for some minutes, my cock comfortably if somewhat tenuously ensconced in that pillowy pussy, until I could feel myself becoming aroused once again.

We'd savored each other not once, not twice, but three times before I happened to glance at the clock over the kitchen stove, said I had to get going if I was to pick Kerri up on time.

I remember her auburn hair fanned across the arm of the couch, those sated Irish-green eyes, those impeccable breasts, hips, pussy, legs. I also recall my almost overwhelming sense of love for her . . . and my soul-chilling guilt at what we'd just done to Kerri and Marty. I wasn't sure how I'd face either again, wondered how I'd live without Kerri, without her love. Though we swore each other to secrecy, I had a feeling the whole thing would erupt eventually.

Seems I needn't have worried. But I did feel obligated.

Back in the waiting room, I couldn't help but notice Kerri smiling that inscrutable smile, as if she were sharing my recollections.

Shauna and Marty walked out of the examining area together ten minutes later, and proceeded to inform us that they were famished, told us they'd let us know what was going on over lunch.

Marty directed us to a deli a few blocks from the clinic, where we ordered sandwiches and beers. As we ate, Marty again only picking, Shauna presented Kerri and me with the facts. The gist of it was that Marty did indeed have lung cancer, was to undergo exploratory surgery in a week, assuming no other complications arose, and would begin chemo and radiation therapy a few weeks after recovering from surgery.

"It seems the biggest concern," Shauna said as we finished lunch and walked out of the cafe, "is how Marty's going to handle the treatments with the three strokes he's had."

"Shit, woman," Marty replied. "They were just these teeny-ass strokes. Hardly felt 'em. Weren't even worth going to the hospital for if you hadn't of packed me into the Cruiser and up and hauled me over there." He nodded toward Shauna, who frowned, but let him rant.

"Marty," Kerri said then, "a stroke isn't something to fool around with, no matter how teeny you think it might be. Of course Shauna did the right thing getting you to the hospital. Remember, we worked triage in 'Nam; any head problems automatically went to the front of the line, no matter how superficial they looked."

"Oh hell, Kerri," Marty responded. "We all know my head's hard as a rock, best place for me to get a problem." He laughed a bit, which turned into a bout of coughing.

I winced at the obvious pain he was in with each cough. "This lung thing," he went on finally, "now that'll be a little bit of a hassle"

"It's a whole lot more than a hassle, you decrepit bastard," Shauna said grabbing his hand and swinging it gently as we walked back to the Land Cruiser. "And you will do just what Doc Neibler says you're gonna do; the operation, chemo, radiation, the whole nine yards."

"Any more word on the prognosis," I asked.

"Doc said it ain't good," Marty replied tightly. "But he says they're inventin' new stuff all the time, all over the world. Things're a hell of a lot better 'n they were even five years ago. Bottom line; maybe two, three years; maybe more, maybe less. Fuck it, let's get home, have a couple snorts. Jimbo, you look worse'n I feel; a few hits of that Southern Comfort skunk pee'll have you feelin' right. And by God, a fist full of Grandad'll have me downright dancin' in the yard." He grimaced a bit. "I'm gonna need a pretty good buzz on to figure out what to tell Di and Megs."

Kerri put an arm around his waist. "Better not get too sloshed, Marty. It's not going to be easy."

The three of us began to get a little misty-eyed, and I pondered how we'd see Marty and Shauna through this whole thing. I also wondered, as an honorable man, how we could get Marty a night in bed with Kerri . . . and if he could handle it.

Oh Lord, it absolutely sucks getting old.

*

Next, I end up feeling like a complete fool . . . and learn just how much I'm loved.