Lighting the Furnace

"Thanks for your help. Eric never showed me how to get the pilot light back on, and I didn't expect it to get so chilly this early in the fall." Ellie spoke to Cole's back as he squeezed into the furnace closet. She was huddled in a sweater and a down jacket in the basement.

"Glad to help. Eric's out of town?" his muffled voice called back.

"He'll be back Wednesday."

They'd lived in this house one winter before, and Ellie had never had to light the pilot. She didn't even realize the furnace had a pilot until she turned up the thermostat and nothing happened.

Jo and Cole lived across the street and she took a chance that one of them might be home. Jo and Cole were a bit of an odd couple: Cole wasn't much taller than Ellie, maybe 5'5" at most, but Jo was a statuesque redhead at 5'10" - and she often wore heels as well. Jo was Ellie's masseuse, and Cole worked sporadically in construction, and sometimes did odd jobs around the house for Eric and Ellie. So it was a good bet he could get it working again.

The furnace rumbled to life. "There she goes!" said Cole.

He popped his head out of the closet. His dusty brown hair covered one eye. "You want to see how to do it if it goes out again?" He grinned. He does have a nice smile, Ellie thought absently as she took his place in the closet. "Thank you so much. I'd be freezing my ass off tonight if I couldn't get that turned on."

"Wouldn't want that to happen! Just open the gas valve and put a lit match on the pilot. Do you see that little hole down there to the left?" he called from behind her.

"Where?"

He came up close behind her and pointed. "I still don't see it." She smelled his cologne mixed with a hint of sweat. She would have to ask him about that cologne, Eric should wear cologne like that.

Cole moved closer. He was crammed into the closet with her now, touching her back. She had been cold just a moment ago but now she was warm. She could feel the heat of the furnace in front of her and the heat from his body on her back. "There by the valve."

She saw it now, and at the same moment she felt him move just a little bit closer. It was almost imperceptible, maybe even her imagination, but she thought she could feel his pelvis brush against her ass, the same ass she'd just joked might freeze, only it was very warm now, and maybe just the merest outline of his rigid cock --

She blushed and said loudly "Oh yeah I see it now! Gosh it's warm in this closet." She turned as much as she could to avoid his groin touching her ass again but there wasn't much room and she elbowed him in the rib as she turned.

"Ow OK lemme just get out of the way! Sorry!"

"Oh I'm sorry too" she said, knowing she must be blushing. They stumbled out of the closet and she straightened her skirt. Cole seemed to be struggling to contain a smirk as he backed away. Why is he doing that? She thought, flustered. We're both married. She tried to fill the awkward pause.

"Thanks again. I just realized I, um... I have an appointment in a few minutes."

Cole's smirk kept creeping through as she rushed him upstairs to the front door. "All right. Any time."

"You and Jo should come over for dinner some time." Now why did I say that?

"That'd be nice. Bye now!"

As she shut the door, Ellie noticed that her nipples were uncomfortably hard under her bra. Don't be silly, she told herself. You're a married woman. She realized with a start that she would see Cole's wife Jo the next day. Hopefully this incident wouldn't come up. Nothing really happened. Just an awkward moment. But for some reason she kept replaying it in her mind anyway...

--

Ellie's body melted into the massage bed as Jo worked the knots from her back. It'd been much too long since she'd gotten a massage, and she was grateful that Jo finally cornered her into making an appointment.

"Ugh, you were right. I really needed this."

"Yeah you did. How much time you got? It's gonna take a while to get you loosened up!" Jo worked on the muscles between Ellie's shoulder blades. Even though her hands looked small and delicate, Jo's hands were incredibly strong. Ellie had started seeing Jo for massages soon after moving into the neighborhood. At first it was just as a favor for a neighbor, but she quickly found that Jo was the best masseuse she'd ever tried!

Ellie sighed, "I've got nothing planned until school pickup!"

Ellie began to get drowsy from the soothing music, the fragrant candles, and of course the fabulous kneading that Jo was performing on her back. She was drifting perilously close to falling asleep when she was jolted wide awake by Jo's teasing voice saying: "I heard you and Cole had a bit of a moment yesterday when he came by to help you with the furnace..."

Ellie tensed up and stammered "What did - oh! - no, I, we - he, nothing happened, it was just -"

Jo laughed. "Wow, relax! I'm gonna have to start all over again on these shoulder blades, it's like a million knots just tied themselves back up in there!" She went to apply more oil before resuming her kneading.

Ellie tried to relax again but found it much more difficult than before. "What did Cole say happened?"

Jo giggled. "He said you have a nice ass and he might have gotten closer to it than he intended."

"Oh!" said Ellie. She giggled involuntarily. "Yeah it was a little cramped in the furnace closet."

Jo seemed to feel bad for making Ellie uncomfortable. "I know nothing happened, I was just teasing you."

"Cole was just trying to show me how to light the pilot light. Eric was out at work already and -" Ellie stammered, but then realized that Jo seemed to be more amused than possessive. "I'm surprised he told you about that."

"Well, we have an... understanding. Our marriage is a little unusual."

There was an awkward silence. Jo continued working Ellie's back while Ellie tried to interpret what she just heard. "What do you mean?"

"Well..." she paused, seemingly more for effect than any real hesitation: "Cole and I have an open marriage."

Ellie's shock was palpable. "A - what? You - you sleep with other people?"

Jo laughed out loud. "Well, yeah!"

Ellie wasn't sure if she was the butt of a practical joke. She rolled over halfway to look at Jo. "Are you serious?" Jo and Cole hardly seemed like the type of couple who would be into that kind of thing... Though now that she thought of it - what did she expect that type of couple to look or act like? Would they really look any different from anyone else?

Jo laughed again. Her musical laugh was joyful, not teasing. "It's always a hoot seeing people's reactions when they find out."

Ellie's mind whirled with confusion and questions, trying to align her image of this PTA mom who drove her kids to school twice a week with her Hollywood stereotype of swingers attending drug-fueled key parties in the 70s. She had a million questions but all she could get out was "How?!"

Jo began to knead more forcefully now: "I promise I will tell you all about it but you need to promise me not to tense up again! It's like I'm back to square one!"

"OK, OK!" Ellie tried to relax as she tried to reconcile this new information. Eric had sometimes told her his fantasies about threesomes and swinging, but she never seriously entertained them - they were just hot topics for dirty talk occasionally. "How did he convince you to do that?" she asked incredulously.

"Well, actually it was my idea!" Ellie's mind reeled at this revelation. Jo continued: We had joked about it a bunch when we were younger. Then, you know - kids happened. I still enjoyed sex, but we got in a rut where it wasn't as much fun as when we were young and horny all the time. I decided I wanted to jumpstart things in the bedroom, try some new things, get some more confidence about what I liked and bring it back home."

Ellie was boggled - and impressed at Jo's boldness. "And Cole was OK with that?"

"Oh, he was pretty surprised at first! He couldn't understand why he wasn't enough for me, and got all suspicious I was seeing someone else. But once he calmed down I explained my thoughts. I explained it this way: If I want to go somewhere exotic on vacation, it doesn't mean my own home isn't good enough for me. In fact a vacation can make you appreciate your home even more! But it's still nice to get away every once in awhile."

"Huh. I never thought of it like that." Ellie reflected on her own sex life. Eric was a thoughtful lover, but they did end up in the same two or three sex positions nearly every time. They sometimes tried to spice things up with toys, but she began to imagine the exponential excitement of enjoying other partners as well...

"And after he gave it some thought, he wasn't too upset about the idea of having sex with other women!"

They both giggled this time. "Oh I bet!" said Ellie.

Jo continued: "It took us some time to work out the ground rules that work for us. I mean, you don't just jump into something like that without a lot of conversation. Being upfront and honest is the only way it works. At first there was a lot of stress; we would read all each other's text messages and stuff like that... but now we trust each other enough to not need to."

Ellie could see the appeal but had to ask the obvious: "Don't you get jealous?"

Jo agreed. "Sure, sometimes. But at the end of the day he's always at home and in my bed. We have complete honesty, we do lots of talking before and after we see other people. Trust is super important, and setting up rules that we both abide by. Though - the fact is, there's nothing like a little jealousy to get your sex drive really rolling."

This had never occurred to Ellie. "Really?"

"Oh gosh yes. After he's been out with a girlfriend I get soooo horny! I guess it's a little competitive streak."

They giggled together.

"How do you... find people?" Ellie asked.

"Sometimes on the internet. But really, plenty of people all around are in the lifestyle... People don't advertise it much but you joke around with some friends and you'd be surprised what you'll learn!"

Ellie tried to absorb that information. She pictured her other acquaintances and wondered if she really had other friends who did this. She began to mentally catalog the husbands of her girlfriends, imagining them naked, some between her legs... but when she imagined Eric with any of her girlfriends she began to feel queasy.

"I think I'd be way too worried Eric would fall for someone else," Ellie admitted.

"Well, that's an understandable fear," Jo acknowledged. "When we started out, I was a little afraid of that too. So we started off swinging with another couple. That way it's more like sex with your partner, but with some extra guest stars! Everybody knows they're going back to their own spouse at the end of the night. So there's less chance for feelings to get hurt."

Now Ellie imagined Jo and Eric making love... and the queasy feeling in her stomach shifted a bit into something more like butterflies. It wasn't entirely unpleasant to imagine. But imagining Cole seeing her naked, she said, "It sounds hot, but I'd be so embarrassed!"

Jo explained: "We started out just having sex in the same room with another couple, under the covers with our own spouses. Then things just came naturally. First just joking around flashing each other and showing off, and then touching and making out and so on. Once you get past the initial nervousness your libido takes over and it's just a big play-time for grown-ups! With orgasms."

Ellie couldn't help but laugh at that analogy. Jo was nearly finished with the massage and they mostly remained in silence for the rest of it. Finally Ellie felt Jo gently brush her fingers over her back as she always did at the end of each session. Jo spoke softly, so as not to disturb Ellie's blissful relaxation:

"All right dearie I have another client coming in soon. How do you feel?" Ellie was surprised to hear the conversation return to the normal everyday routine.

"A little shocked, mentally, but pretty good otherwise!"

As Jo left the room for Ellie to change, she turned back with a smile:

"Listen, you already know Cole finds you attractive, and I wouldn't mind getting to know Eric better... If you're ever interested in doing some exploring with us, just give me a call, OK?"

She shut the door before waiting for a response, and Ellie was left alone with her thoughts as she dressed. Her mind had already been spinning from this revelation about her friend, and now Jo's frank admission that she was attracted to Ellie's husband triggered a flash of instinctive jealousy.

But as she stepped back to examine her feelings she realized that under the jealousy was mostly anxiety, fear of the unknown. She had seen that Jo and Cole were devoted to each other as husband and wife, and now that she realized this devotion transcended their open sex life she began to wonder how it would feel to have a marriage like that.

Ellie was a naturally conservative person, but when she decided to stretch her boundaries she didn't often look back. She remembered her revulsion when Eric first told her how often he watched pornography. But once she watched it herself she saw the appeal right away, and they enjoyed watching together frequently now. It had been the same with sex toys: she had been reluctant to try a dildo once, but now she had a collection of her own. She tried to imagine stretching her sexual boundaries yet again: She knew that her marriage to Eric was built on much more than just sexual fidelity. Could it expand to encompass what Jo and Cole had? What would that be like?

Along with jealousy and introspection came a rush of adrenaline, a feeling of aliveness like she felt after a good workout or listening to music. And as she put on her panties she realized she was very wet between her legs.

She pulled her phone from her purse and texted Eric: Got a minute? I have some crazy stuff to tell you!

--

The days that followed were a whirlwind. Eric was even more shocked than Ellie had been about Jo and Cole's secret. He must have asked her five or six times if she was pulling his leg. But when she revealed her curiosity about experimenting with the two of them, his reaction was nothing like Cole's. In fact he agreed so quickly that Ellie began to have second thoughts about the whole thing, and suggested maybe they should think it through a bit more. But over time, she couldn't help it... every time she thought of Cole behind her in the furnace closet she began to feel warm all over. She found herself initiating sex with Eric almost every night that week. One or both of them would often lead a fantasy by talking about what they would do together with Jo and Cole. She texted Jo every day with more questions about their lifestyle, and Jo patiently replied without pushing.

After a few days of this, she found herself texting Jo that she and Eric were interested, if they still were. Jo replied enthusiastically, and suggested they all spend a night in a hotel downtown. They found a sitter to watch the kids for a sleepover, and before they knew it they were sitting on couches in the hotel bar for cocktails.

Jo sat next to Eric, and Ellie sat with Cole. One drink in, Ellie nearly jumped when Cole touched her leg. She didn't move it away, but didn't reciprocate either. It was nice, but still a bit weird. She watched Eric as he put his arm around Jo and kept checking her mental pulse to see how it felt to see her husband so physically comfortable with another woman. Jo smiled at her, and the jealousy she expected had still not arrived. Maybe she was getting herself worked up over nothing. Still, she took a big swig of her second drink to calm her nerves.

When the drinks were empty and the check was paid and a good long time had passed, there was really nothing left to do but to go upstairs. The conversation lulled, and Jo checked in with Ellie.

"You good, hon? We can just go home if you're not feeling into it any more. No shame in changing your mind - or just waiting a while longer."

Ellie nodded briskly. "I'm good. It's weird, but I'm good. I want to see what happens. I'm scared but also excited. Can we just take things slow?"

Jo patted her leg, "Oh sure! Just relax. We'll take our cues from you, ok? Everyone else good?" Eric and Cole - who both had obvious bulges in their pants throughout the evening - quickly assented. "Well then, no time like the present!" Jo exclaimed, and they made their way up in the elevator to the hotel room.

They'd opted for a room with two queens where they could split up to sleep. Jo informed her a king bed was much more fun, but agreed they should start with baby steps! Once in the room, Jo and Cole got comfortable on the far bed while Ellie and Eric took the near one. Ellie and Eric started slowly, making out and kissing, but Jo and Cole wasted no time getting off most of their clothes. Cole wore black silk boxers, and Jo had on a bright red matching pair of bra and panties. They were obviously used to this, as they had seemingly no inhibitions about getting half naked in front of their neighbors.

Ellie and Eric took a more gradual pace. She unbuttoned Eric's shirt while he felt her thigh beneath her dress. Watching Jo and Cole going at it was a terrible distraction to them: Ellie found herself coming up from her kisses every few seconds to see Jo and Cole getting hot and heavy. In minutes, Jo had pulled down Cole's boxers and was sucking on his cock, her ass raised high in the air while she bobbed up and down on his shaft. Ellie rubbed Eric's cock in his pants while they both turned their full attention to the other couple. Indeed, far from being inhibited, both Jo and Cole seemed to relish having a captive audience!

Cole's was only the second erect adult penis ellie had ever seen in the flesh, and she examined it with interest. It seemed about the same length as Eric's, but considerably thicker, and his balls looked much larger. Ellie couldn't help but stare, and Jo couldn't help but notice. Between licks and slurps, Jo said, "Do you want to come on over and help me out here?"

At first Ellie demurred, and turned back to kiss Eric some more. But then he whispered in her ear that he would really enjoy seeing his cock in her mouth. She felt a flush of heat throughout her body. Eric nodded with a big grin on his face. This WAS fun, wasn't it? Perhaps it was the alcohol, but she decided she had come here to try something new, so she took a deep breath and said, "OK, but Eric's going to help me out of my dress first." Eric happily unzipped her dress, revealing a black lace bra and thong panties. He sucked in air between his teeth when he saw what she was wearing. "Holy cow,are these new?" Ellie looked back at Eric with a sultry smile as she made her way to the other bed. "I bought them special for the occasion." She felt a bit self conscious at first about being so exposed, but when she saw the appreciative look on Cole's face as his eyes roamed her body, a wicked little grin spread across her face.

She crawled onto the bed on her hands and knees toward Jo and Cole, and began kissing Cole's leg as she made her way up towards his crotch. She stopped to explore those very large balls of his. She became aware of his smell. It was different from Eric's, not one she was used to, but just as enticing. More, perhaps, for being new. Jo popped her head off Cole's cock and said, "Your turn!" Ellie looked up and saw that her face was a bit flushed.

Eric had stripped down to his boxer-briefs, and was watching still from the other bed, rubbing the bulge in his boxer briefs while he watched. She beckoned for him to come closer. She tasted Cole's cock - tentatively at first, and then with more gusto. Although she could only get an inch past the head into her mouth, Cole moaned appreciatively. He wrapped a lock of her hair in each of his hands and drove her down harder onto him. She choked a bit on his girth, but his moans made it worthwhile... and she was getting very wet.