Emma

XLIII

At last the day of Josephine and Charlotte’s wedding came along. A day Charlotte had been dreading but looking forward to so much. At last she could put a seal on the love she felt towards her lover. At last she would be able to say to the world that Josephine was the one for her, and that it was her intention to stay with her until death did them part. She was equally worried about her pregnancy, now so obvious and such an added burden to her otherwise slim frame. But although biologically the unborn child couldn’t have been Josephine’s, she felt that it was spiritually. The baby for which they had both worked so hard, and which was almost certainly conceived while Josephine was there in the mass of male and female flesh of their lovemaking.

Josephine was happy. She dearly loved Charlotte and could imagine no better lover and companion. But not everyone was as happy as Charlotte and Josephine. Charlotte’s parents were horrified. They refused to even acknowledge their wedding invitation, something which brought Charlotte to tears of rage and disappointment. How could they care so little for their daughter and her happiness? They even refused to meet Josephine, and neither of the girls had the courage to visit them uninvited. Their refusal to go was for reasons which brought back to Charlotte bitter memories of their reaction when she announced to them, first that she was gay and second that she was a naturist. They believed that same sex marriages were nothing more than a mockery, that Charlotte’s pregnancy revealed her to be merely a slut who really shouldn’t cast a shadow on their threshold, and that Josephine herself was almost certainly the cause of their darling daughter’s depravity. The fact that it was to be a naturist wedding was scarcely likely to have added to their enthusiasm to witness her nuptials.

Josephine’s parents, on the other hand, were much more understanding. Although they had no enthusiasm for their daughter’s chosen career and failed to comprehend what it might be that their darling daughter saw in another woman, they took the effort to meet Charlotte whose nudity at first disturbed them, but to which they gradually got accustomed. It was just another life-style choice they reasoned, and not one that actually caused anyone any harm. They had great misgivings about going to a naturist wedding. They were not naturists, and indeed found the whole thing faintly ridiculous. They were pleased to see that nudity was optional and was certainly not expected of them. They were assured that great efforts would be made to ensure that textiles such as they were not going to feel excluded.

It was also reassuring that it wasn’t their daughter who was pregnant, and that, in respect to their own feelings, Josephine was not going to be naked herself. In fact, she went into the business of choosing a wedding dress with an enthusiasm which Charlotte, who was of course excluded from so doing, found quite curious. She and Susan visited countless shops which sold matrimonial wear before selecting a relatively modest, faintly golden wedding dress which they felt suited her. Charlotte restricted herself to just a veil and a garter. Any more than that and it just wouldn’t be right!

She was filled with trepidation as she waited in the church foyer for her fiancée to arrive. She felt horribly conscious of her prominent stomach. Just as much as she felt that marriage was the right thing when a baby was involved, so too did she feel that gravidity was not really the appropriate condition for such a solemn occasion. She stood with Emma who had the role of would give her away to Josephine and who was naturally not at all self-conscious about her nakedness.

Not that they were the only naked people there. The choir was similarly nude, as of course was the minister, who wore only the dog-collar which symbolised his office. Also many, but not most, of their guests were naked. There was Maisie excitedly chatting by Emma’s side, who was as comfortable as Emma in her nakedness. There was Susan’s large-breasted lover, Rosemary, who was nervously sat next to Amna and her bizarrely tattooed friend. Rosemary was naked and very much aware of the attention her enormous breasts attracted, whether she crossed her arms over her breasts or under them. Amna and Fluff were also naked, although both of them had chosen to wear large hats which had the advantage in Fluff’s case of obscuring her vulgar facial tattoo. Much as Charlotte enjoyed men’s penises, and had enjoyed more than a few on her hen-night several nights ago, she felt that erect penises were not really appropriate in a church; even a naturist one. Next to the two girls were Salim and Fatima covered by their chadors. There was Enid, also naked, sitting by the clothed figures of Edward and Hyacinth. And several naked figures from work. And also the stunningly well-dressed, if slightly haughty figure of Tanya, a woman who Emma had insisted on inviting, and who Charlotte knew was playing a bigger role in her best friend’s life. There was also Harriet who’d hurried back from an engagement in Ottawa to be there with her lover.

And then, finally, and sending Charlotte’s heart into a frenzy of activity, arrived Josephine escorted by the naked figure of Susan. Although Josephine’s dress felt slightly out of place in a naturist church, Charlotte had to admit that it did suit her very well. As always, Josephine displayed excellent restraint and taste in her choice. Susan handed Josephine over to Charlotte, who, as she took her lover’s hand in hers, was aware of how much she was also nervous and sweating from the excitement and anticipation of this the day which would seal their love forever.

The two of them hadn’t made love together since their hen-night, which had been a full orgy to which they’d invited all their friends and a number of willing men (one of which was more than likely the real father of their child). Charlotte enjoyed all the fucking, though she doubted it was as much appreciated by her unborn child whose first kicks she’d felt during a particularly frenetic session with three, or was it four, lovers. And she kept her eyes on her dear Josephine who also enjoyed her own heterosexual coupling under Emma’s faintly disapproving eye. Since that day, as tradition demanded, she’d not seen Josephine and had only spoken to her, and then at length, over the phone. Charlotte invited Emma to stay in the flat which had once been Emma’s as well and came to enjoy several nights of passion with the woman who would always remain her best friend, even though one, she was now resigned to admitting, who could never displace Josephine in her affections. Her lover had been staying with Susan, and she was sure that the two of them had also enjoyed many hours of lovemaking together, almost certainly together with Susan’s bizarrely proportioned girlfriend.

The wedding was a suitably solemn affair treated with appropriate respect by the minister who, in Charlotte’s and Josephine’s earlier conversations, had shown rather more concern for the girls’ souls than for the rightness or otherwise of same sex weddings and Charlotte’s pregnancy. Both girls promised to come to the church more often and to read the Bible. Charlotte was very nervous and still quite unhappy that her parents weren’t there to lend their assent. It was with some difficulty that Josephine squeezed the ring onto Charlotte’s finger which had slightly swollen in her anxiety. But it was soon in place, the solemn vows made and the registry signed.

And then onto the reception which Susan and Emma had organised. There were the speeches, the food and a selection of jazz and dance music laid on by some of Emma’s colleagues from Harlot TV. Josephine’s father had decided after all his doubts and after a great deal of encouragement from her daughter to give a brief speech in which he wished the couple well. He hinted only obliquely that this had not really been the sort of marriage he’d expected for his bisexual daughter. Other speeches came from friends and colleagues, including Emma whose speech was the most professionally delivered and the most heartfelt. Soon both Charlotte and Josephine were slightly tipsy from all the champagne and very full from the delightful spread that Susan had organised and paid for. Susan had opted not to give a speech, and Charlotte was quite concerned at one stage to see her burst into tears and lean on Rosemary for comfort and consolation.

Then, the two girls were whisked off to the hotel where they were to stay for the next few days. It wasn’t very far away, as Charlotte was concerned about how travel, particularly air travel, would affect her pregnancy. As they left, Charlotte kissed her friends and Josephine’s parents goodbye, glad that despite the lack of approval from her own parents that her marriage was at least given credence by some people in what she considered to be her new family. Was she Josephine’s wife or her husband? she wondered as the taxi drove them through the city streets. Even the question of surnames had caused some debate in her mind: solved ultimately by them each adopting the other’s surname in addition to their own.

The honeymoon suite was on the top floor of the plush hotel with a view over the city parks and relatively quiet despite the heavy traffic outside thanks to the very high quality double glazing. Charlotte sank backwards onto the large heart-shaped bed, her swollen stomach protruding high above and the weight of her gravidity exhausting her.

“At last!” she said to Josephine. “Alone together!”

Josephine smiled as she removed her clothes and stood naked in front of Charlotte at the end of the bed. Her nipples were raised in anticipation and the sheen of her skin betrayed her excitement. “I’ve enjoyed this day so much!” she sobbed. “I never thought I would. But all the love I felt from everyone and from you… Oh Charlotte! What have I done to deserve a lover, a partner, a soulmate as beautiful, clever and oh! so loving as you?”

She pulled herself onto the bed and crawled towards Charlotte. She placed her hands on Charlotte’s large stomach, admiring her lover’s breasts which were swollen as they prepared themselves for lactation, the nipples larger and fuller than ever before, and the mounted welcomingness of her vagina! She moved her head down between Charlotte’s legs, her hair tracing itself delicately over her lover’s thighs and the base of her swelling stomach. A menage à trois of sorts, she mused, thinking of the hidden third presence inside Charlotte who very occasionally and just as unpredictably announced its presence, but had been remarkably quiet on this, so special day.

Her tongue probed Charlotte’s vulva which her lover had taken to shaving again in preparation, she said, for her forthcoming childbirth. It was so beautiful to run her tongue over such smooth skin which emphasised the beauty of her lover’s vagina which despite its very many penetrations had not unfolded itself into a mass of protruding folds like an overripe fig. The clitoris tasted so sweet. The inner lips smelt so strong and overpowering. A rich odour which excited Josephine as she rubbed her own clitoris with one hand, while the fingers of the other probed lovingly in the tighter grip of Charlotte’s anus. She gasped with reciprocal pleasure as she brought her lover to one of her so reliable orgasms as they wallowed together on the mass of the bed.

“Oh I love you so much!” declared Josephine. “And you’re mine! All mine!” And then she smiled wickedly at her lover. “But not completely…”

Charlotte looked slightly alarmed. “What do you mean? Is there someone else?”

“Tonight yes,” Josephine announced, sharply clapping her hands.

And then on cue three naked men who Josephine had invited emerged from the bathroom where they’d been hiding. They all sported firm and proud erections which they had been stimulating while watching Josephine prepare her lover. Charlotte smiled with delight.

“Oh Josephine!” she cried with gratitude. “You needn’t have! We no longer have to share our love with anyone else.”

“There is a love I can never give fully,” Josephine admitted, as the men crawled onto the bed and surrounded her gravid lover. Their tongues and hands tenderly stroked her stomach, breasts and thighs, expressing their appreciation with small grunts and the slightest panting of excitement. Josephine crawled up towards her life partner’s face and kissed her full in the mouth, as the men prepared to service her.

And so it was a wedding night to remember, and heard down the long hotel corridor as Charlotte’s cries of ecstasy rang out. The men were gentle, as they had to be regarding Charlotte’s state, but nonetheless didn’t neglect their duties towards satisfying the wedded couple from the back and the front. A mass of naked groping flesh: one fifth black and one fifth brown. One stood up and fucked Charlotte while Josephine was fucked by another, her tongue still twisted around Charlotte’s own, deep in her lover’s mouth. The fifth took Josephine from behind, awkwardly balancing himself on the edge of the bed, holding onto the girls for stability.

The night was long and passionate, sweaty and smelly, and only Charlotte’s advanced state of pregnancy prevented it going on forever, though had the appetite for more impassioned lovemaking while the subject of her wedlock dozed on the sheet beside her, a broad and satisfied grin on her face.

Finally, Josephine was satisfied, and she silently signalled that the men should leave, despite the persistent erection one of them still had. They quietly gathered their clothes, while Josephine stretched out next to her lover. As the door closed behind the men, she tenderly kissed Charlotte on the forehead, gently pushing aside the damp hair which clung to her flesh. She examined her lover’s peaceful expression. The eyes were closed, and her breathing was steady and even. Her stomach gently rose and fell with each breath: holding within a secret treasure which Josephine had sworn to love; knowing that Charlotte viewed it as the greatest gift she could give her lover. It may have none of her genes, Josephine mused, but it would have all of her love.

She leaned over to turn off the lights in the room, and lay in the darkened room illuminated only by the stars from behind the curtain. She contemplated the contours of her lover’s body, and felt a swelling of impassioned love let itself loose from her own chest, quickening her heart and making her feel ever so slightly weak. She’d never known love like this before. And, indeed, she’d once felt that such romantic feelings were forever denied her, despite all the sex and passion. But they were there now, and filled her with a deep and satisfying glow, which she was certain lit her up as keenly as the warmth of a coal fire.