This is the third section of a six-part story, so you are advised to start at part 1. Because it was written as one story, rather than written in episodes or chapters, I have made no attempt at recapping previous parts or reintroducing characters at the beginning of later sections.
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I woke the following morning to Helen climbing over me to get to the bathroom. I heard her turn the shower on, which wasn't surprising. Despite the fact she had showered before bed, what we had done during and after that shower hadn't left her particularly clean. I looked over at Kat lying on the far side of the bed, and I saw her looking back at me groggily. "Hey," I said, and she replied in kind. We were both feeling self-conscious about the events of the previous evening, and the fact that we were both naked under the thin sheet.
I had woken up with an erection, and the sight of Helen returning from the bathroom naked didn't change that. She put on panties and bra before turning to face the bed. She reached one hand out to grip the sheet. "Come on, you two. There's no point being shy now. It's breakfast time -- I'm surprised that nobody has knocked on our door yet. I'm going to pull down the sheet and you two can get dressed like you're an old married couple."
Helen pulled down the sheet and Kat's breasts soon came into view, followed closely by her pussy and my erection. Kat climbed out of bed and walked into the bathroom, and I couldn't help watching the view of her backside as she went. Helen smiled at my erection. "Down boy!" she said. "Save that for me tonight." Kat soon came out of the bathroom and I went in to use the toilet. By the time we were all dressed, none of our hosts had come to knock on our door, so we all trooped through to the kitchen.
We found Annie and Ted just starting to cook breakfast, so we started to help. Annie apologised unnecessarily for the fact they were running late. "I don't know where John and Hilda are," she said. She turned to Ted. "Did you go and knock on their door?"
"I didn't knock," replied Ted. "I could hear them from the hallway."
Annie looked concerned. "Were they fighting?"
Ted smirked. "No - just the opposite."
"Sex? Again? I could hear them last night as well," said Annie. Her expression looked disapproving, although she seemed to be making an effort to look neutral. I was reminded of the TV show Big Love, when sometimes one of the wives would accuse another wife of wearing out their mutual husband.
Eventually John and Hilda appeared. John took a moment to kiss and cuddle Annie and Ted before sitting down at the table with us. As usual, they discussed their plans for the day. I got the sense that this was an important ritual for them, a way of reconnecting with each other at the start of each day. Ted and Hilda had made plans to go into town for the morning. Both had made plans to visit family and do some shopping. John asked me to help him with a project in one of his sheds. He had a diesel generator that he was bolting onto a small trailer. We worked on this for a couple of hours before returning to the kitchen for coffee. Then the five of us decided to get changed and hit the beach.
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I got to the beach first with Helen and Kat, and I lay down on my towel with the women on either side of me. When John and Annie joined us, John lay down next to Helen and Annie lay down beside him. As we enjoyed soaking up the sun, John decided to check with us that we were okay.
"I'm sorry if any of you were upset or offended by anything that happened yesterday. I'm not sure what's got into Hilda, she's not usually so, um, forward. I know I said that we are relaxed about what we wear when it's just us here, but I was surprised that she remained topless after Finn got home. When you think about it, I don't think any man but me has ever seen much of her body since she was a child, let alone see her topless. And then later she basically forced Katerina to go topless after the swimming race. I don't know if she had already checked that you wouldn't be offended, but if she didn't, I hope we can make things okay between us."
As John was speaking, Annie had rolled over onto her side to face the rest of us. She had propped herself up on her elbow and she had her free arm draped across John's chest. Kat soon adopted a similar position beside me, with her arm across my chest. I could feel one cup of her bikini top press against my ribs. She said, "I don't think you need to worry about us. I don't think any of us were offended. In fact, I almost took my top off earlier when Helen did, but I guess I was a bit more worried about offending you guys or making you uncomfortable."
"John, do you mind if I say something?" I asked. "That's twice that you've sought to excuse or apologise for Hilda, but you don't seem at all worried about Ted's behaviour."
John looked thoughtful. "You're right. I guess I do think about my younger wives differently. I suppose I've always thought of Ted as being free-spirited and very worldly. She always seemed likely to follow her sister overseas until she decided to settle here with me and Annie. She has certainly broadened our minds, hasn't she Annie? But Hilda was never like that, or at least I didn't think so. I guess I still think of her as the innocent kid who only came here to look at the birds. But now I'm not sure who she is."
"Do you guys have any advice?" asked Annie. "Did you go through any similar tensions when you added an extra wife to your relationship?"
"In a lot of ways, our situations are really different," said Helen. "In our society, Kat and I have a lot of freedom to choose who we're in a relationship with, whereas you guys are a lot more stuck with each other. When Kat joined Finn and me, I have to admit that for a long time I thought of it as temporary. It was an exciting adventure, but I figured it would eventually run its course. And the other two may not realise it, but I think they thought that way too. You see, both Finn and Kat put a lot of time and effort into making sure that I was okay, which was great. They didn't want to see me upset. But that also meant that they tried not to be affectionate in front of me. Of course, Finn and Kat would sometimes go on dates just the two of them, usually when I had something else on, but whenever the three of us went out, we always pretended to the world that Kat was just a good friend. But the problem was that they felt they needed to behave that way at home."
"I realised one day," continued Helen, "that there was no reason why our relationship with Kat shouldn't be permanent. Then I started to think about how things were from her perspective, and I realised that she didn't get to enjoy the same benefits as I got. Sure, Finn spent plenty of nights in her bedroom, and he would kiss her when he got home from work, but he would never feel her up on the couch in front of the TV, or give her sexy lingerie on her birthday. I realised she was missing out."
It felt really weird to hear my wife talk so freely about our completely fictitious polygamist marriage, and I suspected that part of her was enjoying this. Of course, I knew she was saying all these things for Hilda's benefit. I had been part of one conversation between Helen and Hilda, and they had probably had a few more since then. Nevertheless, I was enjoying the fantasy too, so when I saw an opening to contribute, I went for it.
"It's true," I said. "I was trying to avoid being openly sexual with Kat in front of Helen. I didn't want to risk upsetting her."
