Best Friends Help

That night, Lily could barely sleep. Her mind kept replaying the evening's events in her head: their conversation at dinner that they couldn't continue this path; the touch and gaze that made a lie of everything he'd said; the feel of his fingers and lips on her. It set her brain aflame and her body to quivering. Long after midnight, she pleasured herself at the thought of it, just so she could relax enough to sleep.

Her last thought before comforting darkness overtook her was only that she wanted more. She knew that more than ever now.

Lily's sleep was dreamless and complete. She snapped awake to a weight on her body and the sound of birds through a cracked basement window. Natalie sat on the edge of the bed, snapping a picture with her phone.

"Quit it." Lily pressed a palm to the camera aperture.

"Don't even worry about it, you look beautiful," Natalie said with a grin. Her blonde hair was tied in a ponytail, catching the sunlight and throwing it back in luminous golden parabolas. "So, tell me how it went last night. I want to know everything."

Lily grinned and pulled the covers over her mouth and nose. Natalie gasped in mock astonishment and pulled them back down again.

"Slut! He came down here, didn't he? Tell me!"

"He did," Lily confirmed. "We talked a little. He said just what you predicted. About how we can't do this, about how it was wrong, and all that."

"And then what did he do?"

"He kissed me," Lily said, smiling at the memory of it. It made her heart quicken a little to think of it. Her own dad. "And then... he used his fingers on me."

"Oh," Natalie said, raising her eyebrows. "So he's going a little slow, then."

"It was really nice." Lily bit her lip and squirmed a little.

Natalie smirked, brushing Lily's hair back. "You lucky girl. You'll be unsurprised to learn he did everything by the book. He came in my room and tried to fuck me, just like I thought he would. I turned him down - sweetly, of course. But I could see the frustration on his face."

"So he'd rather have you than me?" Lily asked, only half teasing. She remembered the sounds she'd heard eavesdropping over the phone, her father bending Natalie over his desk and fucking her hard. She wanted that for herself, more than she cared to admit.

"No, he'd definitely rather have you," Natalie said. "You're just a lot more complicated. Lots of guilt and confusing feelings. That's why we have to make it truly unbearable for him."

Lily pushed her glasses up on her nose. "Natalie, can I ask what happened in your life to make you so truly fucked up?"

Natalie snorted laughter. "Sure. I might even tell you someday. If you're lucky. Oh! I forgot to tell you the best part."

"Okay, tell me the best part." Lily propped herself up on her elbows.

"When your dad went downstairs, I went snooping on his laptop, just in case he hadn't password-protected it... which he hadn't."

Lily's jaw dropped. "Nat, what the fuck! That's-"

"Invading his privacy blah blah," Natalie said, rolling her eyes and making a face. "Whatever. I just wanted to find out one thing, which I totally did. Daddy daughter porn all over his search history. Like, really specific searches and bookmarks."

Lily put a hand to her mouth. "What? Like what?"

Natalie turned away and gazed at her phone. "Oh, I can't tell you, that would be wrong, apparently."

"Tell me!" Lily punched her friend lightly in the side.

With a grin, Natalie got up and danced out of range of further blows. "I won't. You'll just have to invade his privacy yourself if you want to find out. But there's no two ways about it - he's interested. He has ideas, Lily. And he wants to make them real."

Lily put her hands in her lap, glaring at Natalie in frustration that was half real. "All right... so what do we do next?"

"He's at work today, right?"

"I think so."

Natalie locked her phone and shoved it in her pocket. "Then that's easy. You get dressed."

# Twenty minutes later, Natalie stood in front of Lily with arms crossed, nodding in approval. "Perfect."

"Seriously?" Lily stood in her bedroom dressed in a pink sports bra that zipped in the front and black mid-calf leggings, pink running shoes on her feet. The outfit revealed most of her body from her hips to just under her breasts. Her long hair was tied back with a pink scrunchie. "There is no way I'm going out running dressed like this."

"No need," Natalie said, reaching out to unzip the sports bra halfway, revealing the inner curves of Lily's breasts. "What you're going to do is send your dad a selfie saying you're going for a run, so he can see this outfit."

"God," Lily said.

"Trust me, he's going to love it. He'll be thinking about it all day. Shit, he'll probably cut his day short and come home early. Trust me, I have a whole strategy and this is guaranteed."

With a sigh, Lily picked up her phone. She spent a few minutes searching for the perfect angle that flattered her face, chest, and stomach, then took a few so she could pick the best one. When she was satisfied, she showed it to Natalie.

"Perfect," her friend said. "Send it."

Lily typed in a simple text message:

[going for a run dad!]

...and sent the photo. Her heart was racing again. She felt effervescent, powerful.

"Now what?" she asked.

Natalie retrieved a small spray bottle from Lily's dresser. "Now we spray you down so you look all sweaty and we send that to him in about an hour."

"Oh, shit," Lily laughed.

"Unless you really want to go for a run..."

"Fuck no."

"Okay then. If you really want to get ambitious, we can do the post-shower selfie afterward. But that might be overkill. We should wait and see how he reacts to this first one."

"You're so depraved," Lily said with a tiny smile.

"Again, says the girl who got a facial from her dad."

"Whatever." Lily checked her phone. "He hasn't answered yet."

Natalie plucked the device from Lily's hand. "Don't drive yourself crazy checking every five seconds. Let's go binge-watch something."

Lily sighed. "Fine."

#

They moved downstairs and cued up a show on the smart TV. Natalie kept the phone out of Lily's reach, despite Lily's frequent pleas. Lily found herself unable to concentrate on the show. Her thoughts slowly grew more frantic. He had to have seen it by now. Did he disapprove? Was he angry? Had he changed his mind between last night and this morning? Had this all gone too far? Did-

Her phone bleeped. Lily sprang for it, but Natalie, who had kept it by her left hand, calmly reached down and picked it up. She glanced at the text message on the screen.

"Give me," Lily insisted.

Natalie said nothing, but handed the phone over with a smirk. Lily unlocked her phone and read.

[nice sweetheart! be careful. I love you]

Lily bit her lip as she read it - once, twice, three times. "This is good, right?"

"Hell yes it is. A girl's dad does not respond to her half-naked selfie with 'nice' unless something is seriously unique about their relationship. He has saved that to his camera roll for later, believe me."

Lily laughed. "So should we do the whole sweaty selfie thing, then?"

Natalie nodded, her expression enthusiastic. "Oh, we absolutely should."

# They waited an hour, as Natalie had suggested, then spritzed Lily's chest, arms and stomach down with water from the bottle.

"It's a little sticky," Lily observed.

"I put a little baby oil in it," Natalie said. "A photography trick. Helps it look like real sweat."

They moved to the bathroom, where Lily posed in front of the shower. Natalie interrupted to unzip Lily's sports bra even further, then gave her a silent thumbs-up.

"Grin like you're really exhilarated," Natalie instructed.

Lily nodded and found the perfect angle again - showing off as much flesh as she could - then sent another text.

[back safe from my run! love you xoxo]

"Perfect," Natalie said. "He's going to adore that."

"I think I really am going to shower, photo or not," Lily said. "This stuff is sticking to me."

"Mind if I watch?" Natalie asked with a leer that seemed .

Lily pushed her gently toward the door. "Get the hell out."

She turned on the water, doffed her workout clothes, and jumped into the shower. She made it as quick as possible, soaping herself up and then rinsing off. Halfway through, she heard her phone go off, and hastened to finish up. Naked and dripping, she stepped out again and scrambled for her phone, feeling foolish and anxious at her own eagerness, but still hoping it was a reply from him.

It was.

[looking good! love you too beautiful]

She giggled under her breath. "Dad, you perv. So inappropriate."

Lily put her phone down, fetched a towel, and dried herself off. When she was finished, she wrapped herself in the soft white towel and looked at herself in the mirror for a moment. Her wet hair fell down around her shoulders, the towel dipping in the center from the weight of the knot. Experimentally, she pulled it a little lower to reveal a bit more flesh.

She wondered if she dared. Was it being a bit too transparent? Too eager? Would teasing him like this get her in trouble? Would it be the kind of trouble she'd like?

"Fuck it," she whispered to herself, and activated the camera again. She took a photo of herself: glossy flesh, damp hair and all, the towel as low as she could manage without it falling off. She appended it to a simple message.

[hurry home <3]

Lily grinned as she sent it off.

# After Lily changed into a short black skirt and crop tank, she went downstairs to find Natalie in front of the TV again.

"Did you send the shower selfie?" Natalie asked as Lily flopped on the couch beside her.

"Totally did."

"Whore," Natalie remarked, deadpan. "He's going to love it. Either he'll have to take a break from work to go into the bathroom, or he'll be so wound up by the time he comes home, he'll be up that skirt in seconds."

Lily grinned. That's why I wore it, she wanted to say, but she kept that to herself for now. That, and the fact she wasn't wearing any underwear.

Hopefully, if she was lucky, her dad would find out later. The very thought of it made her heart beat faster. She couldn't wait.

They watched TV for awhile in silence. As Natalie cued up the next Netflix episode with the Roku remote, Lily finally asked the question that had been on her mind since the day before.

"Nat?"

"Mm-hmm?"

"For real, what's your story? You hinted yesterday that you'd tell me. It seems like you have... experience with this stuff. Unless I'm way off base, and if I am, say so. But..."

Natalie paused the show. She sat quiet for a long moment, staring at the screen.

"You really want to know?"

"Of course."

"You're not going to judge me?"

"Well, I won't know until you tell me, but given the events of the past couple days, probably not."

Natalie sighed and turned ninety degrees on the couch to face Lily. She crossed her legs underneath her.

"It's kind of a long story overall," she said. "But I'll start, and we'll go from there. Okay?"

Lily nodded, intrigued. "Sure."

"Okay," Natalie said, and began her story.

#

So what you need to know, first of all, is I was fucking my dad's friend. His name was Brian and he was the same age as my dad. They'd grown up together and had been best friends since they were kids.

Last year, a year after my parents split up, my dad was wrecked. He and my mom hadn't been good for a long time, but he still missed her. Trying to date other women wasn't going well for him. He'd tried, but none of them seemed to measure up. He kept comparing them to her, and sooner or later it would blow up and end.

I'd turned eighteen and was still living at home, trying to find a job and applying to schools. I wanted to stay with him because Mom had issues I didn't want to deal with - alcohol and pills and stuff.

So he was spending a lot of time with Brian. They had the money to spend a lot of time hanging out and doing guy shit - going hang-gliding and rock climbing and trying to keep themselves young or whatever. And for the most part, it worked - you've seen my dad, he's a good-looking guy, in good shape.

And yes, I had a crush on Brian. I had since I was in high school. I never thought I'd do anything about it. I certainly never thought he would.

But after the divorce, when I was still living at home, things started to change. Sometimes I would catch my dad looking at me... not in a pervy way, but these long glances that weren't entirely fatherly. He'd look away as soon as I noticed, and he never crossed any boundaries with me or anything. But I found I didn't exactly hate the way he looked at me.

So I started doing things, just to see what would happen. I started wearing the shorter skirts, the skimpier tops, the booty shorts, to see if he'd say anything. It got to be summer, and I started wearing less and less around the house. I wanted to test him, to see if he'd tell me to put some clothes on or stop acting like a slut or tell me to "know my value" or something. He never said any of that stuff. I'd post the photos on my Instagram. He never said anything about that. He wasn't indifferent, he just never shamed me about the way I dressed.

Which made me wonder if he liked seeing me that way. It seemed kind of impossible to me at the time, to be honest. He was my dad. I mean, I'd had fantasies about him, and always felt ashamed about it... you know, afterward... but I didn't think he shared them. But I started doing things like leaning into him at the breakfast table, or brushing past him in the hall, or letting him look down my shirt while I was picking up around the house.

It started getting addictive. I just kept getting bolder and bolder. The boundaries kept getting pushed. I wanted to see how far I could take it. I stopped getting fully dressed before I came out of the shower and would just come out in a towel, or in my underwear. Once, I came out wearing nothing at all, and I know he saw me going to my room. I waited for him to say something. He never did.

But he never made a move either. I started to doubt myself. Maybe I was reading too much into it, I thought. Maybe he was just really permissive and laid back, and I was just being stupid. But either way, I didn't stop.

And that's how I started sleeping with Brian. I guess because he was Dad's friend, because they were the same age and kind of looked alike. I needed, wanted some kind of release. I'd seen him looking at me, too, but Brian was a lot less complex.

He was pretty easy, really. I borrowed Dad's car to go "shopping" and drove over to Brian's place instead. I knocked on his door and our eyes met. Inside five minutes he had me on my knees and his cock in my mouth. I fucking loved it. It was so goddamn easy. Uncomplicated.

It went on like this for a few months, and it was always the same. We'd fuck for hours, he'd come like a freight train. When it was over, he'd be racked with guilt. He'd say we had to stop. I was his best friend's daughter, my dad would kill him, stuff like that. And then before I even finished driving home, he'd be texting me, asking me for nudes. A couple days later, we'd be back at it again.

A couple months in, we started roleplaying. I asked him to do some daddy-daughter play with me. He was hesitant at first, but when he got into it, he really got into it. We'd act out all sorts of scenarios. If I'm being honest, I kind of started using him as a stand-in for my actual dad. It took me awhile to admit that to myself, but when I did, well... I started calling Brian a lot more often.

So then one night, he texts me and says we have to talk. This was after he and my dad had been gone for a week on some ski retreat or something, so I was feeling pretty anxious. I go over to his apartment, thinking he's just going to bend me over the couch the second I get through the door - but it's not like that. He sits me down and looks all serious. I'm thinking, shit - he's going to break up with me.

Instead, he tells me he had a conversation with my dad one night. They'd both gotten a little drunk and Brian had started talking about this girl he was seeing - a girl half his age who was into kinky shit and calling him "daddy" and all this. He keeps my name out of it, of course. But Brian basically tells my dad everything, right down to the details.

And then Brian tells me that my dad, who's had a few, says he wants to confess something. He says for the past few months, his daughter has been parading around the house half-naked and rubbing up against him and doing all these other things, and God help him, he wants to fuck her brains out, and the guilt is really killing him. And he wonders if she feels the same way, but doesn't dare say or do anything. And he asks Brian if that makes him a terrible person and a terrible father.

Brian says he doesn't know. He finishes his story and says to me, "Natalie, your dad wants to fuck you." Very seriously, like instead of "fuck" he'd said "murder." And part of me is scared shitless, my heart up in my throat, and the other part of me is so hopeful I can barely stand it.

And without thinking about it, I ask "are you sure?" with this hopeful tone in my voice, and Brian goes kind of pale and looks shocked as it all clicks together for him. I'm expecting him to lay into me, call me names, tell me what an awful degenerate I am - but he doesn't say any of that. He tells me I should think carefully before I do anything, and that something like this could be really dangerous... but I can see it in his eyes. He's kind of okay with it. He's not jealous, he's not threatened, he's just... okay with it. He's a little hurt when he figures out what I was up to with him, but he deals with it.

So I leave. All the way home, and all that night, I'm kind of losing my mind. I keep wondering if Brian lied to me, or if my dad lied to him. I keep second-guessing myself. How can any of this possibly be real? Do we really feel this way about each other? I try to think of what I'm going to say, how I'm going to bring it up. In my head, it all goes wrong, over and over.

I finally decide I'll figure it out in the morning. So I fall asleep. When I wake up the next day, I still haven't figured it out. I don't know what the fuck I'm going to say. I don't feel like I have the words. It's so intense, I'm just aching all over. And part of me just gives up inside. So I put on my robe and I go out to the kitchen.

He's sitting there in his tee shirt and shorts, having breakfast. It's that perfect time of the morning when the light is bright and beautiful, and it's that quiet before the world fully wakes up, and everything is just sort of perfect. He's sitting there with his toast and coffee and I just think he's the most handsome man I've ever seen. He's my dad, you know? And I love him.

He smiles at me, and he just stares at me and doesn't say anything. I know my robe's not that long, and I haven't cinched it all that tight. And, the thing is, I'm not wearing anything under it, either. But he doesn't know that.

I still can't think of anything to say. So I walk over and kiss him. A little peck on the cheek at first, but then a real kiss. And I swear to God it's like a movie kiss. My hands are on his cheeks, and he touches my hips, and I'm instantly the most turned on I've ever been.

We finally part, and he whispers my name. And... I don't know how to describe it. There's this plea in there, like he wants me to stop, but he doesn't. And he wants both those things more than anything. So I start to chicken out a little, and I pull away, and he grabs me by the front of my robe.

It comes open, and he sees I've got nothing on underneath, and right at that moment, I know there's no going back for either of us. And so I just shrug it off and let it drop to the floor, and just like that, I'm naked in front of him.