This is part one of a six-part story, although it's more accurate to say that it is one long story that I have arbitrarily divided up into six parts. The story is complete, and all the parts will be posted in quick succession. This first part provides some scene-setting. Parts 1 and 2 will establish that all characters are over the age of 18.
I have posted this in the Erotic Couplings section because it is a category which doesn't create any particular expectations. I did come close to putting it in the Group Sex category, but the group sex scenes aren't really the heart of the story. The category that I was most tempted to put this into is Romance, because that's what it is. However, I was worried that the primary readers of the Romance section expect the stories to be monogamous, whereas this story is basically about polyamory/polygamy. I certainly surprised myself that I wrote a polygamy story. I started it so long ago that I can't quite remember where I got the idea from (apart from the obvious reference to the Big Love television show).
In terms of the story tags, you will see that I have used the 'Polygamy' tag, but I made the decision to avoid the 'Harem' tag. I have read a number of stories that I would define as harem stories, and the common theme is the alpha male protagonist. The male in harem stories is usually a very exceptional man, handsome, hung, and rich, and at some stage he will beat up some other guy to rescue someone in his harem. My story is nothing like that. If anything, this story is about intelligent women making decisions for themselves, to look after themselves and each other to ensure their needs are met.
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It was my 29th birthday, and for the first time in five years of marriage my wife Helen was out of town on my birthday. She wasn't even in New Zealand. Helen is a zoology lecturer at the University of Auckland, a position she got as soon as she finished her PhD there, and she was currently in Brisbane at a conference. She was doing research into a particular colony of seabirds -- the species isn't important to specify, other than repeating what Helen always says that, although they aren't as awesome as albatrosses, they are a lot better than seagulls. She was doing this research in partnership with a colleague, a PhD student named Katerina. They had both gone to the conference together and one of their goals was to meet with a particular professor and his research team.
Because Helen was away, I felt obliged to accept an invitation to dine with my parents. Thankfully I had an excuse to leave early -- Helen had made a time to make a video call to me. I wasn't about to tell my parents that I could easily have received her call at their house. I hurried home to our empty apartment, poured a glass of whiskey, and sat down in front of my computer to await Helen's call.
When Helen's call came, I was presented with a view of her sitting on the edge of a hotel bed wearing a black cocktail dress. She was doing her hair with a curling wand, tidying up the natural waves in her chestnut hair. I couldn't see Katerina, but I could hear the shower running. Because of the time difference between Auckland and Brisbane, I knew that they were getting ready to go out to dinner. As soon as Helen saw me, all thoughts of wishing me Happy Birthday seemed to go right out of her mind as she started excitedly telling me about her day.
"Oh Finn, I had such an exciting meeting with Professor O'Driscoll. He told me that he's been in contact with an amateur ornithologist on some island in American Samoa. He's so happy with what she's doing that he's started paying her as a research assistant. The exciting bit for us is that she's seen some of our tags. I think this might be the migratory roosting point that we've been missing. He's setting up a lunch tomorrow so we can talk with her. If we play our cards right, we may be able to get her to help with our research and have Professor O'Driscoll pay for it!"
Helen continued to talk with considerable animation about how the potential fieldwork in Samoa might assist their research, so I sat patiently to listen to her. I loved how excited she got about her work, all the more so because I otherwise found it as boring as anything. In the background behind Helen, I saw the bathroom door open. Katerina emerged from a cloud of steam wrapped only in a towel. "Hey Finn," she called with a grin. "Happy birthday!"
"Oh shit!" said Helen. "I'm sorry, darling. Here I am rabbiting on about my work and forgetting to wish you happy birthday. I haven't bought your present yet either, but I'm going to have time to visit the duty-free shop on my way home."
"It's alright," I said. "At least Kat remembered."
Helen looked across the room to where Kat was standing outside my line of vision. "Not only did she remember," said Helen with a cheeky grin, "but she's now got her tits out in your honour. It's a pity that I'm a woman and therefore so hopeless with technology, so I don't know how to turn the camera around to show you."
"I'm not bothered," I said with a forced neutral expression, "but it would be nice to get a better view of your hotel room. It looks like it might be bigger than our apartment."
"Oh no, it's tiny," deadpanned Helen. "There's only room for one bed. Kat and I are having to top and tail, if you know what I mean."
"Do you mean like Bryan Adams had to do, back in the summer of 69?" I said.
I could hear Kat giggling in the background. "You're so mean, teasing him like that," I heard her say to Helen.
"If you think that was mean, maybe I should make it up to him with an early birthday present." I was about to point out that any present I got now wouldn't actually be early, but I didn't get any words out before I realised what this impromptu present was. Helen had quickly pulled the straps of her dress and bra off her shoulders and pulled her arms back through. Within seconds her boobs were on display right in front of me.
"Oh my goodness, get a room you two," I heard Kat laugh.
"I'm afraid there's no time for that," said Helen. "It's time for us to go. I'll call you at the same time tomorrow. Love you!"
Suddenly the call was ended before I had a chance to reply. Her teasing had certainly had its effect, the little minx. I added another splash of whiskey to my glass and dragged myself out of my chair and down the hall to the bathroom to turn on the shower. I figured that if I still had an erection by the time the water had heated up, I would reward myself with some tension relief before going to bed. It was still sticking out painfully when I stood under the water, so I started to take care of myself. I tried to use only the mental image of my wife's breasts as my inspiration, but I kept finding my mind drifting back to the image of Katerina wearing only a towel. Then I started to picture the two of them sharing a bed in the manner Helen had hinted at in her teasing. I felt a momentary pang of guilt as soon as I erupted, but I quickly pushed it out of my mind. Surely a bit of erotic fantasy was allowed on your birthday.