by KT Morrison
“Well, I did...enjoy hearing that Kiley would...”
“Share your darkest thoughts with me too, Mitch, please,” she said. She watched him struggle with the response. C'mon and say it, she thought.
“I like Kiley and I...I like that you said she was interested in me.” That was it, Mitch.
“What do you like about Kiley?” She was being good-natured, getting him to talk.
“I don't know Kate—she's very pretty,” he said. Obviously, she thought. But isn't there a dark side to you Mitch, a dirty, filthy, fuck-Kiley-up-the-ass side? Kate was desperate to hear it. Could she be the only one?
“Well, do you want to have nice pleasant sex with her? Shake her hand afterwards?”
“Kate...”
“Mitch, tell me what's in your heart,” she said.
“Kate, I'm into it, I just...I don't know...”
“Well, Mitch, I love you, and I want you to go for it. I want you to know when you are with her you can't hurt me. There's nothing you can do wrong. I love you and I want you to know I trust you. And I want you to trust me.”
“Well, we’ll have to see what happens.”
4
A Foursome
Mitch and Kate spent the morning just milling about the suite. They hadn’t gone out even though it was a beautiful sunny morning out there. They’d both skipped their breakfast, probably too nervous to eat but Kate said they should go out for a brunch when they got there. That was fine with Mitch, he felt like anything he might eat right now would want to come back up or it would sit like a ball in his nerve-tightened stomach. He was finding it hard to breathe.
“What time is it?” Kate said. She was so restless.
“It’s twenty past ten.” He kept his eyes on his iPad, only wanted to think about the news for a while. He hadn’t wanted his mind wandering. She picked up her phone and swiped through it. After a while she said, Seems like their plane was on time, and put it back down on the side table. He watched her draw her knees up and put her arms around them. She looked so nervous. Watching her was making him more anxious so he got up and walked around, trying to make himself busy. Kate went out to the patio and looked over the railing. The parking was underground or out front so she wasn’t going to see them coming. There was a soft knock on the door, played out in a little tune. His heart was gripped.
He went to the door, rested his hands on the handle, then opened it. Kiley was there, more beautiful than ever, her face frozen in some bashful sort of smile, looking up at him eyes glistening waiting for Mitch to say something. She held her arms out for him to hug her and he did. Pulled her close to him, hips held away, and patted at her back. He nodded at the unshaved stranger over her shoulder and he nodded back with a smile. Handsome sort of fellow in a black polo shirt buttoned right up.
Kiley watched her best friend in all her life run to her from the patio and through the living area. She still did this quick little skipping hop just like she did when they grew up in the Council. Kate ran to her and put her arms around her, nothing was said. Kiley hugged her hard. She felt her eyes tear up. “Oh God, Kate it’s so good to see you love,” she said. Her throat was tight, hard to talk. She held her close and rocked her. Kate pushed her back, looked at her, her eyes wet with tears too. Kate couldn’t speak either but she was trying to. Kiley pressed her knuckles into her own cheek and stared back at her, her lips trembling. Kate just shook her head, face scrunched up, and put her arms back around her and they felt each other shaking with laughter.
“Hey mate, how are you?” Mitch said, and shook the other guy’s hand.
“Ah, shit, everyone. I’m sorry, Omar.” She turned, said, “This is Mitch, and this is Kate,” putting her hands on each of them as she said it. “And this is Omar.” Omar shook their hands and smiled, said it was nice to meet them.
“Oh, you’re French then,” Mitch said.
“Oui,” he said, “but my English is very good. My mother was American, living in Paris.”
“That where you’re from?”
“No,” he said, “I grew up in Marseille but now I live in Frontignan. Just outside there.”
“You do any bull-fighting there?” Mitch knew his cities.
“No,” he laughed. “I never have.”
“They fight bulls there?” Kate asked him.
“Yes, but I leave that to the locals, I think. I like animals,” he joked. They all laughed and that was good.
Mitch and Kate walked them in. Kiley had waved off the butler, felt weird about him coming up with them. They wheeled their bags behind them and Mitch and Kate gave them a tour around the suite. The place was truly out of this world. Nothing like she’d seen before. The tall ceilings, and the view that looked out over the brilliant blue of the Caribbean. She looked at her smiling friend. So happy for her, how far she’d come. The two of them had great times together but there had also been a hardness to their childhood.
Mitch and Kate showed them to their big, beautiful bedroom with the stunning view, and they dropped off their bags. Omar followed Mitch into the private bath.
Kiley touched Kate’s forearm with a finger, said, “This is crazy you know.”
“Yeah, shit, you’re not getting cold feet are you?”
She told her that she wasn’t. She was good to go. She actually was pretty interested in the idea. Not her first foursome, mind. But this setting, this circumstance? She did worry about seeing her friend in a new way. And naked—sexually naked. That was a pretty freaky thought. She pushed the image away, we’ll deal with that when we come to it.
She was worried for Kate. For her relationship with Mitch. Mitch was a real surprise. Buttoned up, borderline stuffed shirt. How had she convinced him to do this?
She watched Kate, happily chatting with Omar now by the window, Mitch had his arm over her shoulder. She was one lucky girl. Look around, Kate she thought. Look at all you’ve got.
Mitch doted on her, he’d always done that. She’d always thought Mitch was completed by Kate. He seemed like the kind of guy who would fall to pieces if he’d lost her somehow. What had become of these two? They seemed far different than the last time she saw them.
She’d been there for Kate when she’d lost the baby but felt enormously guilty that she’d been so far away in the aftermath. Couldn’t be helped, she’d relocated for work and the travel was too much. She kind of knew though that there was more to it. That maybe in some way the inconvenience came too conveniently. That was a lot, during that time. That was a sad, dreadful patch. She was always there for a call or a text, but being truly there was difficult and it wasn’t really, honestly, due to travel. Kate and Mitch went through the wringer, had tried again and again, then came the tests, the in vitro. God, the money they spent. But mostly how hard it must have been for them. It was beyond Kiley’s ability to help. What could she have said to her?
“Did you want to unpack, freshen up? Or we could get a bite.”
“Yeah, we’ll unpack later. We could maybe do with a wash up though, give us a minute.” Omar agreed, and they closed the door.
So this was the guy. Not what she expected. She’d thought a lot of what was going to come through the door. Why hadn’t she asked Kiley for a picture of his face? Well, whatever, she thought, this was good. She did like what she saw. He had strong dark features, a hard jaw and a sharp nose, black stubble but his hair was a close-cropped sandy brown. And were his eyes navy? He was more handsome than she’d considered. Of course, what did she expect from Kiley? Kiley was a stunner. She hoped it wasn’t all too much for Mitch.
Their golf cart zipped along the path through the resort with an electric whine. It came with the suite, and Mitch was up front behind the little wheel. She looked at Omar’s profile as he talked to Mitch from the passenger side. He had a nice smile.
“It’s so good to see you, Kate. I can’t believe we’re here,” Kiley said, and put her hand on her forearm. Kate put her hand over it and kissed Kiley’s bare shoulder.
“
I love you, pet,” she said. She’d missed her so much. They were in constant contact through texts but it had been a year and a half since she’d spent time with her best friend. They’d been quite inseparable since they were both kids. Kiley had been with her through some of the toughest breaks growing up, had seen her at her worst. She thought of Mitch as Kiley’s male counterpart. They were the only two people left in her life that she felt she could trust.
Back in the suite Kate had said they should just order in some room service. It had been excellent last night. Mitch kind of waffled and said they should go out. He didn’t want to spend the whole day in the room. He booked them a place on the patio so they could sit outside. She hoped that’s what it was, not that he’d felt uncomfortable with Kiley and Omar thrust into their living space. That would sort of be like Mitch, too.
Mitch put the golf cart in with a bunch of other carts off to the edge of the parking. They walked along the narrow, wooden boardwalk that took them to the bleached wood pillars and tall glass front of the restaurant. It was such a beautiful day. Blue sky with just the faint white splotches of clouds, a slight breeze.
Kiley and Kate followed along behind Mitch and Omar. Omar wasn’t too tall, not short though. He had a muscular build, but slim. He looked good in his linen pants and sneakers. He dressed all right. She liked it. Of course that could be all Kiley, she really knew her way around a man’s wardrobe.
The hostess walked them across the stone floor of the busy restaurant, under the rattan ceiling fans and the tall indoor palms, out to the warmth of the sunlight on the patio. She sat them at the edge by the railing, looking out over a small garden, the Caribbean Sea just beyond.
Talking with Omar was easy enough but Mitch couldn’t help looking him over, assessing this guy. He had to force himself to pay attention, to stay in the conversation. He looked at the tanned, healthy, olive skin of his forearms, his big muscular hands, surprisingly clean nails for a mechanic. His fingers were thick but somehow elegant, watching as they twirled the silverware while they waited for the food to come. It was just some sort of primal response. Assessing this rival’s health, his mating ability. But if it were truly primal, why wouldn’t he put a stop to this? Sink his canines into his scruffy neck. Emerge the victor?
“Oh, really?” Kate said, “Mitch loves race cars.”
Easy, he thought, I’m not a ten-year-old. “Yeah, well, a bit. I’ve been to LeMans twice.”
“Huh, yes, that is where I will be one day, maybe.” Omar said. Omar had been telling him how he was a Formula 3 mechanic. A number one mechanic on an F3 team.
“How long have you been doing that?”
“Since forever in one way or another. F3 now for a few years. We have a good team, and I run a shop there too.” He talked a lot with his big hands. Shrugging for emphasis.
5
Kissing Rays
Mitch figured Captain Rod had everything figured out. A Brit living in Grand Cayman, tanned and healthy, long hair thick and greasy from the ocean. Just taking tourists out every day, weather permitting, on his catamaran. Wasn’t cheap either. But those bigger tours were packed with a lot of what his Dad would have called riffraff, and who knows how safe they were. The wind whipped at his hair as they sailed out to some special spot described with a wink by the first mate Izzy, a tall, lean black kid dressed only in shorts, his long hair braided with colourful beads. Rod said they were guaranteed to swim with stingrays, maybe even a dolphin, mid-morning Bourbon on his breath.
“How much longer do you think?” Kate said, behind sunglasses, hair pulled back in a ponytail. She rubbed his back and looked out over the waves with him.
“I think it’s just up there,” he said pointing at a line on the horizon where there were some other boats bunched up along a sandy little cove. Well, looks like they were going to be with the riffraff after all.
Kate jerked her thumb over her shoulder and he saw Omar looking a bit green, leaning into Kiley. Kiley had her arm around him, hair tossing around wildly. Just like Kate she was wearing a big, colourful, over-sized T-shirt that came down to her knees, string of a bikini top visible at her shoulder in the big wide neck of it. No make-up, but she was hot as hell. Sharp jawline, thin neck, long legs tucked up underneath her on a cushioned seat at the back of the catamaran. Omar might be better off up at the front here but that was up to him.
He put his arm around Kate’s waist as Rod slid the catamaran in between these other big Tour boats, looked at her excited face. There were rays there.
Izzy shrugged to Kate as an apology, they didn’t know other people would be here. But Kate didn’t care anyway, she smiled it off and looked to see where Omar was. Mitch was talking to Rod, Rod explaining how to handle a stingray, what to look for, the rules (which Mitch always liked to be aware of), and he was standing there motioning out over the water, Mitch taking it all in.
She saw Omar and Kiley just behind, vaguely listening to the captain, and she went and stood with them.
“They’re not dangerous are they?” Kiley said to Kate, leaning over to her.
Kate caught Omar’s eye, laughed, said, No we'll be all right, and she took her T-shirt off over her head. She held a while, her head still wrapped up in her tee, hoping he would get a good look at her body in her too-small bikini.
She threw her shirt back with the cooler and watched Omar as he did the same, looked at her then slowly pulled his shirt off and threw it aside, smiling the whole time. He was lean and strong and his skin was beautiful. She looked away, worried about being caught, saw Rod help Mitch down into the water.
Kiley slipped in with Mitch, then Omar, standing next to them in the waist deep clear water. Izzy helped Kate, holding her hand and she felt Omar behind her, his hands on her hips, helping her into the water. The feeling of his hands on her skin felt so wrong, Mitch right there. It really made her shiver, gave her a very unexpected little ache between her hips. And this was just the start, she thought. Imagine how it will feel when she lets him go even farther.
This whole thing was Kate’s concoction. This trip, this little experiment. Mitch couldn’t have conceived this sort of thing, or put it together. How would one have the ability to make this sort of thing happen? He guessed it wasn’t that crazy, he knew other people had done it. But still, good for her.
It put his stomach in knots at the anticipation of the love of his life being touched by another man. But it did mean that he would be with Kiley. And that Kiley had already agreed to be with him. The truth was that, he had to face it, he was looking forward to this. To being with Kiley, really. Not the kind to cheat, and he knew he loved Kate completely. He also knew that Kate felt the same. Nothing Kiley did could change how he felt for his wife.
Omar’s big hand made an impression into Kate’s soft skin and he felt the emotion that produced, held it and examined how it raised his heart rate, how he felt the anger. Something about all this was strangely exciting.
Omar had his shirt off, standing side by side with Kate as she talked to him. Big shoulders, muscular, but not overly so. Very trim, strong, veins that stood out like cords along his arms. He was hairy, but not long wispy hair, Jesus, did he use a clipper on his body hair?
Rod pointed out three stingrays, coming in, leaving the other groups. He said they’re always curious, know that people will feed them. They were under the boat, then glided out into the light right amongst them.
“Oh, look at them, do you see them?” Kate said, her voice high and excited, bending over.
“We all see them, Kate,” he said, meaning her tits. Jesus, you can’t wear a bikini top with a chest like that and bend over in public, Kate. He looked at Omar and he wasn’t looking at any stingrays.
Mad at first, watching this guy get a good look down at his wife’s perfect breasts. But he felt something else too. Something he hadn’t anticipated. It kind of turned him on. Get a good look, Omar. A wave of arousal came over him out of nowhere.
“It's seven years good luck if y
ou kiss a stingray,” Izzy said from the boat. Omar got down lower in the water and a larger one came up behind him. It started nibbling at the skin on his back. He lifted himself up a bit, called Kate, and she was able to get down and kiss the stingray on its bright underside.
Mitch looked down at Kiley’s ass, perfectly round and upright, petite, her tiny, striped bottoms curling over the cheeks and disappearing down between her legs. Soon, he thought, soon, probably tonight, he could put his hands on her and lift and squeeze that crazy little ass. And she was okay with it. Kate said she wanted it.
Kiley bobbed, excited, as a stingray approached and he watched her open-mouth smile, her super-model profile. He stared at her, just pored over her flawless, smooth skin. Looked at her for the first time with intimate eyes. He’d never let himself see her like this. How far were they going to take this swap thing? What were the rules? If she looked over did he have to pretend he was looking at a stingray? Could he let her know he was looking at her? That he wanted her. He felt weird about that, but at the same time had to tug the front of his shorts and make a bit of an adjustment. Could she catch him looking? It was funny, but it still didn't feel right even though everyone here knew what was going to happen. Still not proper.
Kiley bent over and stroked the top of the passing ray, no rolls or folds in her middle. “Mitch,” she said, motioning at the ray, “don’t miss your chance.” So he bent down and held his hand out and let it pass as he felt the rough skin of its back pass under his palm.
Omar had his hand across Kate’s back as they watched another ray pass right below them. And there was that feeling again. Did he get it now? He didn’t think of Omar any more. Just of Kate. Of her wanting something and getting it. Getting pleasure. If he pictured her face as he saw it when it was twisted in passion, when she pulled his head into her pussy, driving it in, and he would look up and see her going crazy. Yeah, if he thought of that he got it. He could watch that.