A Magnificent Bastard Pt. 03

"I don't have to say."

"You are a bastard."

"But you liked it either way, didn't you? You like the idea of attention."

"When it's the right kind, yeah. When it's from people that I like."

"So was it like this last year? With everyone being in each other's laps and nobody having boundaries?"

"A little bit? It started off quiet. Just a bunch of friends seeing each other again. Then after the first day of skiing, we all got in the hot tub, and well, seven hot people in bathing suits has a way of driving up sexual tension. Sofia and Ian, as you've learned are two super big flirts, and well one thing led to another and they started kissing. Then Mal decided to make out with Julie. Alan came on to me but I held him back and said, I wasn't sure what Josh would think. That was like this magic word that killed whatever spell was coming over us. But it looks like the magic didn't go away. It just went quiet for a while.

"You should know," Rachel continued, "Sofia and Mal are poly. She introduced him to the idea when they were dating, as she was in an open relationship then. And I remember she told me about it when I met her. I think it's all been in our heads ever since."

"So ... this open relationship that we agreed to a few months ago ..."

"Yes ...?"

"I realize that you never did anything with Reggie, but ..."

"would you mind if something happened here?"

"I have to admit, this is different. I'm the newcomer here. Not the incumbent."

"Hah, see? It's not always just about you setting me up now is it?"

"No, I don't mind if you hooked up with someone here. Sounds like there's a bunch of history that's building to this, and you're going to be wondering about what-if until you get this out of the way."

Rachel turned and looked at me for a significant moment and just, "thank you for understanding that. Thank you for being cool about this. You can fool around too, if you want."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm well aware. We'll see what happens this weekend."

"Do you want something we can say to each other if one of us is uncomfortable?"

"Can we just say, 'I'm not comfortable?'"

Rachel turned her head and looked at me with an amused smile, kissed me on the cheek, and just said, "I like it when you're direct."

Then she got up to clean herself. I savored the sight of her ass swaying towards the bathroom, but then felt a wave of fatigue wash over me. I was almost passed out when I felt the bed shift as Rachel got back in. Then there was her warm skin against mine and her nose nuzzling in to my neck.

"Jake?"

"Yes?"

She just kissed my jaw and whispered, "thank you for making a silly girl's dreams come true."

"You're not silly. And you're not a girl."

"Good night, Jake."

The following morning, I woke with a stiff piece of morning wood, pressed firmly against Rachel's warm thigh, and as I stirred, I heard her yawn then turn to face me up. She just smiled and said, "morning, you."

"Morning," I said. I reached down to cup her buttcheek and Rachel just smiled and then wrapped one leg around my thigh so she could press her pussy against my cock, letting me feel the wetness of her lips as she ground up against me. Then she pulled away and just said, "later, Mr. Relentless. You are being really tempting, but we should get going. I am 100% sure Ian's going to take any delay as an excuse to just bust in on us and hassle us for being late."

"Tease."

"Horndog."

Once we got dressed, we followed the smells of bacon over to the kitchen, which was part of the same open floor plan space as the living and dining room. Megan and Alan were sitting on stools by the breakfast bar, nursing mugs of steaming coffee, while Ian and Julie were cooking up breakfast. Ian was at the stove, frying up industrial portions of bacon on a griddle, while Julie was cutting her way through a cantaloupe to assemble a fruit salad. She smiled at us as we walked up.

"Morning, campers! Coffee's all brewed and there's some toast and bagels that are ready. Ian and I will have some stuff out soon."

We joined Megan and Alan at the breakfast bar, and soon Mal and Sofia joined us and we got down to the business of sharing in Ian and Julie's tasty breakfast then figuring out our plans for the day. Since the cabin was slopeside to the ski resort, we could just walk out our back door and ski down to the ticket office to buy our lift passes. Mal had opened up a map and was pointing out the expert black areas from the green sections that were more geared towards novices.

"I am all about hitting those blacks before the crowds get here," Rachel said, "fresh virgin powder in the early morning is the best thing. How about you, Jake?"

"I'm feeling a bit rusty, and need some warmup. Maybe I'll hit a short green to remind myself about how everything works, then tackle blues and blacks after that."

Sofia nodded and just said, "I was thinking about the same. I'm not quite as good as Mal or Rachel are, so we can probably keep each other company on the easy lift for the first few runs."

"Yeah," Alan said, "we're all pretty casual about who pairs off with who. It's nice to have company, but everyone's got their own ideas of what they're up for."

"So, I think we're all ready?" Mal stood and started reaching for his shades. "Let's aim to meet at the base lodge around 11:30 for lunch and to check in on each other. And we all have each other's contacts and can get in touch if we need to."

We all nodded and headed out to get our gear together and enjoy the day.

Sofia, Megan, and I all managed to grab a chairlift together, which I suspected was not an accident. We didn't say much as we boarded and the lift got on its way, but as we ascended I just broke the ice and asked, "so, Sofia, how did you and Mal meet?"

"Oh, I was a PhD student doing cancer research at MIT, and Mal was working at this firm doing commercial development on one of our open source radiology projects. They came to Boston for one of our lab's quarterly hackathons and he and I just hit it off. Immediate chemistry, you know, kaboom! But I wasn't sure if I would be serious about it right away. It was cross country, like you guys, and I was also seeing two other partners at the same time, one who was also Argentinian. Mal knew that going in. I told him. And he accepted that it was part of the package. He had never done poly before, but he was willing to learn. So we dated long distance for about a year, and then I had to knuckle down to finish my dissertation. Mal and I had a talk and we decided we needed to cool things off until I defended. Then, if I could get a job out here, I would break off my two relationships in Boston and we'd move in together, but if I stayed in the Northeast or went somewhere else, then that was that.

"Anyway, as may you know, dissertations are stressful, and I was an idiot for turning down relationships while focusing on the work. Fortunately, Mal saw through that and was good enough to fly out a couple of times to help me with some 'stress relief.' That won serious points in my book."

Megan giggled next to me and said, "you basically tapped him for cross country booty calls."

"Not proud. Not proud. But short long story: I defended, then I got hired by a biotech company with a lab out here and negotiated a transfer to this coast, and it's been happily ever after."

I smiled and said, "I love how you just dropped the poly thing like it's no big deal."

"It doesn't have to be. It doesn't make you uncomfortable does it?"

"No. I don't know if Rachel told you but we're experimenting with having an open relationship ourselves."

"Have you ever done one before?"

"Not really. I've had casual relationships before where it was more about making up our minds about letting things be more serious, but this is different."

"Yup. The thing to remember is," at this Sofia put her gloved hand on my shoulder, "it's more complicated, but the good things about a healthy monogamous relationship -- trust, communication, mutual respect -- are also, or perhaps even more, important in an open one. It's not for everybody, but better you try it and find out for yourself now before saying it's not for you. At least that's how I sold it to Mal first."

"So ... are you guys ... swingers? With Julie and Ian?"

Sofia put her hand to her mouth a little bashfully and semi-shrugged. "Let's say we're working that out. Ian's into it, but I think Julie's still warming to the notion, and she's probably a tiny bit intimidated by Mal. And whatever we do, we want it to be equal with everyone."

Next to me, Megan rolled her eyes and added, "Ian's had a bit of hero worship of Mal for a long time, and I'm afraid that it's given Julie the wrong impression. She's a sweetheart, but I think she cares about Mal's opinion a little too much."

"Well, Mal's pretty intense."

"Yeah, but let me let you in on a secret. He just wants to be sure that everyone's having a good time. It always just comes across as scarier than it is because Mal has Resting Boss Face. Like, even as a freshman, he always looked so serious, and it was always like, 'I Want You To Have Fun. Have Fun Now. That's An Order.'"

"How about you and Alan?" I asked, "are you guys open too?"

"Oh, we're a little different. Neither of us needs or wants to have another relationship at the moment. We just don't have the time. But something like this, for a weekend? That's totally our speed. But, yeah, we're ok with sleeping around and trading partners off."

"Is that how Rachel introduced you to Alan?"

"Well, not exactly. Alan and Rachel were in a couple of classes together, and he asked her out in the summer of our junior year. They went on a couple of dates, but the sparks didn't happen. But I thought he was cute, and I asked Rachel if she would mind if I gave him a shot, and she was down with it. Frankly I think she was relieved that I was sparing her the awkwardness of dumping him."

"It sounds like this wasn't the first time that you've traded?"

"Well, Rachel and I worked out a system before where if we both wanted to go for a guy, we'd make a decision about who got dibs. It was part of figuring out what we both liked. I mean, I think you may have find out that Rachel likes guys who take charge, and, Alan ... well, he likes it when someone else takes charge too. Worked out well for all of us in the end."

Sofia touched my shoulder again, "ay, my friends, we're coming up to the run. Get ready."

The skiing was great and the day was splendid. One virtue of getting out early and ahead of the crowds was that it made us feel like we had the entire mountain to ourselves. For as big as the mountain was, it was easy to cross paths with someone in our group at different points. Sometimes I'd do a run with Megan and Alan. Other times it was Julie and Sofia. Then after lunch I felt ready to graduate from blues to a black and took lifts with Rachel, Ian, and Mal. The learning curve on blacks were pretty steep, and I had a couple of moments of losing control and falling, but by then it was getting into mid afternoon, and we had been skiing for six solid hours.

I was on one run with Ian, trading off leading each other, and I saw him do this jump with a big enough 'woo-hoo!' that I thought I'd take the jump too, but I hit it at a wrong angle and found myself spinning awkwardly in the air before crashing ignominously on my hip. Ian gamely slowed himself down and let me catch up before asking if I was ok.

"Yeah," I said, "I think I'm just getting tired."

"That's cool, dude. I was thinking of packing it in soon myself. The warmth of the hearth beckons mightily. Besides, someone's gotta warm up the hot tub before everyone else arrives."

"And airing those bottles of red and chilling the bottles of white takes time."

"You get me. Come on, I think if we pull a bunch of hard rights at the next few junctions we can get on a trail that take us back to the cabin."

True enough, Ian led us both back to a run that got us into a side trail that fed down to the slopeside cabins, and we were pretty much able to ski right to the backyard.

"The hot tub's a bit cantankerous," he said, " but I remember how to work it from last year. Here help me pull the cover off."

Together we worked on prepping the hot tub, and I sat watched as Ian twiddled the knobs on heating it. Without looking at me he just said, "I have to say, Rachel looks really happy with you, and I hope you're having a good time with us, Jake."

"oh, you guys are great. This has been an awesome day."

"Good, and well, as you probably saw, we're ... umm ... pretty close to each other."

"I did notice that. Yeah."

"Cool."

"Ian, you can use words, you know."

He just laughed sheepishly and said, "I haven't done something like this before."

"Neither have I. But it's cool. We're cool. Whatever happens this weekend, I think we'll have a good time. You're all good friends. I'm not getting in the way of any of that. I'm just happy to be a part of this."

"Excellent, well, that looks like Julie and Rachel coming down the way."

Sure enough, our two partners poled themselves into the back yard. Julie just greeted us by raising her hands in the air and 'wooing' while Rachel quietly glided beside her.

"Hello, gentlemen!" she enthused, "Getting ahead on hot tub duty already! Good job!"

Where Rachel and Megan were tall, thin, and possessed of a certain wispy allure, and where Sofia flaunted her Japanese/Argentine otherness like a badge of pride, Julie had an unassuming girl-next-door cuteness about her. Blonde haired, blue eyed, shortest of all of us, knockout smile -- she was adorable in every way. Once Julie had stepped out of her skis, and pulled off her ski boots, she bounced up to us on the deck and five-foot nothing of her launched herself into Ian's arms and six foot frame. Meanwhile Rachel just walked up to me, shaking her ponytail out of her helmet, and eyes glittering as she lifted her goggles.

"Hey" she smiled as she leaned in to kiss me.

"Missed you."

"So," Ian said, interrupting us, "by my math, it's probably another ten minutes before the tub's fully warm. Should be enough time for us to change into swimsuits and getting into some hardcore relaxation."

Soon enough, all four of us converged again in the hot tub, and just let out each of our individual groans as the warm water soaked our aches away. As always, Rachel looked good in a bikini, having re-developed a nice set of abs from her acrobatics workouts, and as she slipped in the tub Ian didn't make much of an effort in hiding her efforts to check her out. Julie was no slouch either, showing off an hourglass figure and a really fine set of teardrop shaped breasts that looked even larger on her smaller frame, and the thin fabric of her suit did not do much to hide a pair of prominent nipples that had hardened considerably in the winter air.

"Jesus, Julie," Rachel exclaimed, "get in the tub. You look really cold."

"Oh, these? Yeah. I like to call them my joysticks, because it's like those twin control sticks on video game controllers. And also for obvs, of course."

I opened up a bottle of white that we ceremoniously poured into four glasses then shoved into a nearby snowbank to keep chilled as we lay back and relaxed in the warm water. We compared notes on the highlights of our day and swapped stories on vacations past and adventures to come. The wine gave us a pleasant buzz and soon Rachel and Ian were sharing other stories of going to school together. From time to time, I could feel Julie's foot brush mine under the water, and I'd sometimes return the favor.

"There was this one time," Ian said, "in the summer before junior year, just after Megan and Rachel moved in. It was a super hot week and we decided to just play hooky from our jobs and go camping up near this mountain lake."

"Oh, yeah," Rachel said dreamily, "it was a perfect escape. Cool mountain air. Nobody else on the trails. Thought we had it all to ourselves. You had someone else along with us on the hike, right? Was her name ... Chelsea?"

"Oh, yeah, she and I were dating at the time, but it didn't last past that summer, and she didn't make it up to the trip with us. I forget why. Anyway, we get to this campsite next to a gorgeous pristine lake, and it's hot as balls, so of course, I want to just get naked and jump in, but Mal's all, 'we don't want to give the ladies the wrong impression' so I just turn to look at Rachel and went, 'well, Rachel was telling me on the trail that she was dying for a bath but didn't feel like she wanted to make the wrong impression either. I'm just putting them at ease.' "

Rachel laughed and took over, "For the record: no, I never said anything to Ian. He was just making shit up, but he had a point. Besides it was fucking hot, and I remember being super eager to take my sports bra off."

"So I just looked at Rachel and said, 'No excuses, now. I dare you to jump in. If you do, I'll do it too.' ""

"... and that was when I realized that I couldn't say 'no' to a dare from Ian. Especially if he was going to do the dare too. So, yeah, I took off my clothes in front of these two guys that I just barely met, and went for it. Then Ian went in, and that got Megan to jump in, and afterwards Mal just felt awkward being the only not naked person in the party, so he eventually joined us. It was a really nice swim."

"Besides," Ian said, "it felt like a good way to break the ice. I mean, we could've just let the sexual tension build and build over the course of the summer, but might as well just get naked now and get it out of the way."

"I don't know if I'd characterize it that way," Rachel replied, "Ian had Chelsea. I was seeing someone else at the time. Megan had just got dumped after her sophomore year boyfriend transferred to Yale. Hooking up with these two neighbors was the furthest thing from any of our my minds at the time."

"yeah, but you know how guys are. Give us the prospect of spending a summer with two hot women wearing nothing but tanktops and cutoffs, and we're going to get all distracted imagining what else lies underneath. We did each other a service getting that question answered so early."

"If you say so. I'll admit that it was a good way to just get comfortable with each other. The fact that you and Mal were just cool with it and didn't try anything with us afterwards helped a lot."

There was a bit of quiet, as we all probably tried imagining the scene of Ian, Mal, Megan, and Rachel frolicking naked in a mountain lake. Then Ian turned to Rachel and asked, "hey, Rach, was it true that the person you were seeing was that English prof, Mr. Spencer?"

Rachel giggled, "hey, Ian, is it true that you and Megan hooked up that one time after graduation?"

"Hey, don't change the subject!"

"Hey, don't bring up pointless flings that didn't go anywhere!"

Ian tipped his half-empty glass towards her, "yeah, Megan and I got together. To be fair, it was her idea. You know, Megan. When she wants something. She just goes and gets it. To be fair, it was actually before graduation, not after. We had that one party before exams, remember? The pressure valve party? Just cutting loose before knuckling down. Past 2 am. Things were winding down. I was still smoking back then and just came back in from a cigarette break. Megan ran into me in the back stairway before I got back into the party proper, and just grabbed my hand and led me upstairs to her room. I think she was just drunk and horny, and I was convenient. We just went at it for the rest of the night, and then she had me up again after graduation happened and when you were away visiting your folks for the summer, but the next couple of times that I suggested it, she turned me down and I got the hint."

"Oh, Ian ... I'm sorry. That sounds kind of shitty."