"You would if I begged you," Natalie said as she drove a few of her toes into Richard's thigh at the base of his shorts. Richard gritted his teeth, he knew she was joking, but the sharp little gasp in her voice and fake look of shock was making him squirm. Her eyes wild, blue with flecks of brown, were buried as deep as the curls tousled about her face. Her lips formed an "O" and Richard shifted his eyes and then to get off the couch.
She moved quicker, bending to catch him lightly with her hand. Richard stopped cold.
"Nat," he tensed to move.
"Fine, I won't beg you," Nat said, withdrawing her hand and relaxing into a less flirty smile. It was the smile that held a warmth as if to say that he always belonged here with the Cooper's. Coop and Rich had been friends for the past few years after hanging out at an annual company party. Rich was invited over the next weekend and it was the first time he had seen that smile on Nat's face.
The flirting hadn't started until later. Once they had been comfortable enough to be around each other less than sober and later into the evenings, Nat would always start pestering Richard about his dating life. Cooper would laugh. The pestering would turn to flirting, pouty faces, little voices. Sometimes she would sway her hips while going inside and make sure they were watching - he was watching. Coop always kept the same smile. Rich had gotten used to just seeing it as part of Nat's charm.
He had been there when there first was born, and got to help the couple move into their first house. Rich had just always been there, as were Coop and Natalie for him over the years. There were game nights and hangouts at home while baby time took away most of the nights out they had enjoyed up to that point. Rich still spent many nights with them rather than out on the town and Natalie had loved him for it. That's when Rich knew what that smile on Nat's face really meant. He was family.
But the flirting had only increased, especially lately. Coop would be off in the shower or run to the store and Nat would ask him to stay behind. Sometimes Cooper would ask him to help Nat out when he would start to come along. Rich loved Nat, and it was weird to be trying to get away from her, but he loved her. Loved her. He buried it. Suppressed it. Told his mind to never even think about it. They were his friends and Coop was like his best friend. Nat was just screwing around like Nat always did but Rich was getting stirred up and losing the ability to not only love Nat, but want Nat.
Last weekend, Nat had been outside in a red sundress with little dots. It hugged her hips and flowed out above her knees. She had danced late into the moonlight, her hair swirled and the smile on her face painted him from across the lawn like a hot kiss. That night, when she had come back to him in his dreams, he had woken with a hand clutched to his hardness, soaked through his boxers. He tried to stop himself, but in the final moments before his body exploded in ecstasy in the dark, he had cried her name. The guilt had caused him to out-of-character cancel on them the next two times they invited him over.
Cooper had come over after the third time he had declined to ask if they had done something to offend him and to make sure Rich was ok. Rich thought about saying something, but made up an excuse and things resumed to normal in time. The flirting and his agony only continued to build.
But now he was sitting her so close to Natalie that he could smell the rose oil lotion on her legs. Her hand, though so light in touch, had branded him when she had put her skin to his. The room they were in was dark, but there was no way Rich could stop his body from boiling with need for her. His chest pounded. The sound of fabric moving filled the air as his cock extended in his shorts. It made him clench his eyes shut and just hope it sounded louder in his own head. Breathe you damn fool, he told himself.
Natalie regarded him for a moment before speaking, but kept her distance while she did, "Well instead of begging you, what if I just ask you?" Her voice was calm and direct. There was no edge or flirt to it, the eyes above her lips were serious.
"Ask me for what..." Richard's voice trailed of with some nervous gravel.
"I want you to touch me, if you want to. I want to touch you too," Nat's eyes flicked downward for a moment before she composed herself again.
"Nat, look..."
She stopped him. "Before you say anything, you need to know that Coop and I love you like family. I would never betray him or want to hurt him, and he would never betray or hurt me. He's alright if we play around. More than alright." She giggled to herself.
Richard had stopped breathing again. She could almost hear the million wheels turning in his head. Rich was a good man. He would never betray or hurt them either, which is why they loved him. It was why it was him. It was why she loved him too and how she felt the way he ached for her in secret. Rich was looked down across her thighs and up her middle until his eyes met hers. His breath came back ragged.
"Coop and I thought it would be best to start slow, so while he's in the shower I am all yours. When he comes back out, we stop. I will tell him about it, but I don't have to right away if that would be uncomfortable. Of course, if this isn't comfortable at all just tell me and it won't be mentioned again. We don't want to lose you."
