Playing the Game

We got invited to an old friend's house for a winter weekend. My husband and I drove to the city from our country residence each with our own little weekend-sized duffle bags. Drew and Karly's apartment overlooked the city and had stellar views from every direction. The four of us have always enjoyed sitting around their living room, having drinks, eating amazing meals while watching the sun go down and the city lights go on. It's particularly beautiful when it snows.

Drew met us at the door, and shook my husband Ryan's hand, then he embraced me quickly. Though it had been only six months since I'd seen him, Drew looked older, more tired. He looked bent at his shoulders like he was concealing his six-foot frame. He wore head-to-toe black. Black socks, black jeans, black long-sleeve t-shirt. His once full brown hair was thinning at the forehead. And for the first time I felt that my group of friends was really getting closer to 40 than we were 30, and I wondered where the hell the time had gone.

Drew called up the stairs to Karly as we put down our bags and took off our coats. And, in a flash, Karly bounded around the corner as elegant as ever. Her thick, curly raven hair was at her shoulders. The ends of it brushed against the top of her breasts that were pushed up into a dark lacy, purple shirt. She also wore black jeans but sported clean, bare feet with a fresh pedicure.

I stood in the doorway staring at how the two of them matched in all of their perfect urban-ness.

Ryan and I looked suburban. Both of us were in our blue Gap denim. I'd managed to put on a t-shirt without any logos or writing on them, which was my achievement for the day, while Ryan wore his usual computer geek t-shirt hidden underneath a dark fleece full of his favorite cat's hair.

I slid off my tennis shoes and heard someone in the living room sneeze. As I looked around the corner, I was greeted by another old friend from when we lived in the city -- Ben.

"Ben!" I exclaimed rushing toward him to give hugs and a kiss. He was full of smiles at me and he nodded a hello to Ryan behind me. "Where's Emily?" I asked.

"On travel for work this week, I'm afraid," he answered. "Drew and Karly were nice enough to invite me over for dinner with you guys."

An hour later we were all feeling quite full from dinner. Drew outdid himself with the food, while Karly and Ryan poured cocktail after cocktail. We were getting more loud and more boisterous as the evening wore on. The January temperatures were well below freezing, so venturing out into the cold was extraordinarily unappealing. After he poured us some coffee, Drew went to fetch us dessert. I offered to set a fire in their fireplace but it was proving ot be difficult.

"You know it's just a gas one right?" Ben laughed as he saw me struggling.

"It's the flue, jackass. It won't open." I'd had four martinis and my brain power was not what it normally is.

"Here, let me help," he offered. Ben kneeled on the floor beside me and poked his head into the fireplace to check out the flue mechanism. As he sat there, I leaned in next to him to see if he really saw anything different than I did.

"I swear you just pull the lever," I said.

He reached his hand up to touch it, and I pulled myself out of the cold fireplace noticing his smell. I'm not sure how to define it. It wasn't cologne or deodorant or aftershave. It wasn't body odor, at least in the sweaty sense. It was Ben. Warm, comforting, confident -- Ben. He, too, was aging before my eyes. He had obvious crow's feet around his eyes from years of laughter. His hair was graying at the temples and a small beer belly was protruding over his belt from years spent behind a computer eating crap at work. It was not unlike the bellies of any of us in the room. We'd all kind of surrendered our youthful physical attractiveness to a steady but overwhelming career that ensured a sedentary lifestyle by requiring us to work long hours and have long commutes for financial prosperity.

"Meredith, he's got it. Come sit with me," Ryan called.

I smiled at Ben and went over to sit with my husband on the sofa. Karly ran in and poured another martini into my glass from the shaker before leaving again and helping Drew carry out the cheesecake.

We all ate our dessert silently after our initial declarations of appreciation for Drew's cooking skills.

"Maybe we should play a game," Karly asked. "Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, something."

"Let me go see what I have," Drew offered. He wandered down the hall and came back with a small, black square box.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Truth or Dare," Drew answered taking off the top. "Karly and I have only played it with each other but I think it would be more fun as a larger group. The way it works is that someone starts and chooses someone to ask them a Truth or Dare question from one of these boxes. You get to pick who asks you the question, but we go around the room clockwise and each get a turn. The board has 25 spaces. You get 1 point for each successful truth -- and successful is determined by the group -- and 2 points for each successful dare. First one to 25 wins.

"Sounds easy enough," Ben answered.

"Great, then I'll start. Karly, ask me a truth."

Karly leaned forward and drew a truth card from one of the two boxes. "Have you ever been caught by your mother masturbating?"

"Consciously, I have no memory of that and if it happened, I'm glad I don't remember or had the ability to block it."

"Move ahead one," she answered laughing at his honesty.

Ryan looked up, "Ben, ask me a truth question."

Ben picked a card from the box, "How long has it been since you've had sex?"

Ryan looked at me, like I was going to help him figure out the answer. It had been a long, long time. I'm not sure how the interest started waning, but it did — for both of us. We had been in a rut.

"She can't help you," Karly said.

"A few weeks I guess," Ryan said breaking my eye contact.

Everyone in the room looked at me. I blushed. "I guess if weeks is the same as months, he's telling the truth."

"Beep," Drew squeaked. "Survey says?" Ben and Karly shook their heads and Ryan's game piece stayed where it was.

"Karly, give me a dare," I asked. I am a terrible liar and the truth is that if the questions were personal enough to ask about our sex life, they could ask me all kinds of other questions I wasn't ready to answer.

"Pick the most unattractive part of your body and show it to the person to your left for 10 seconds."

"No!" I said. The boys all giggled. "I'm not stripping!"

"It just says body part, it could be your feet," Drew pointed out.

"But it's not," I answered. I was kind of slurring my words and a third of the way through my fifth martini at this point.

I could feel Ben's eyes burn into the side of my head as I stared at our hosts. Then I leaned over and whispered into my husband's ear.

"Is it okay with you, if I show him my least favorite part of my body?" I asked. Ryan looked at me and nodded before he kissed me on the cheek. "Do I have to do this with you guys watching?" I asked again.

"No, it doesn't say you have to," Karly pointed out.

Ben sat in the large leather chair with his legs crossed and a beer in his left hand. I took his right hand in mine. "Come with me, please." I lead him into the kitchen and stood before him.

"I don't know what you're going to show me, but you don't have to... I can just tell them that you did it," he offered.

"Hey, I'm cool with that. I'm pretty sure there's nothing underneath these clothes that anyone wants to see any more," I said as I turned to walk back to the group. Ben grabbed my arm before I could get through the swinging doors.

"There's not an inch of you I wouldn't want to see," he said quietly as he held my elbow.

My eyebrows furrowed at his response in confusion. "What?"

He pulled me closer to him. I could smell his smell again. It was the seductive aroma of self-confidence. "You heard me," he whispered. "Show me."

I lifted my t-shirt over my head and stood in my bra in the kitchen. Slowly I peeled down the straps and pulled them away from me so he could look at my breasts. Karly was large breasted. Her breasts were gorgeous, round and perky. She wore pretty bras all the time and showed them off under gorgeous, stylish clothes.

I felt my breasts were medium and droopy. I looked more like the cover girl on a National Geographic who has had a dozen children than something anyone would ever want to look at.

I counted to 10 under my breath and stared at the sink while he looked at me. When I got to 10, I pulled the straps back into place and put my shirt on. I tried to escape the room back to my drink to let the liquor make me feel less self-conscious, but before I could get out of the room, Ben had his hands on my shoulders and was pulling me closer to him.

"You're beautiful," he said.

"Don't lie," I said. "It's not nice."

"I'm not lying. It was all I could do not to touch them," he said before he let me go.

I went back to the couch and Ben sat in his chair.

"Was it ugly?" Ryan asked.

"Only to her," Ben said smiling at him.

"Ben, it's your turn," Karly indicated.

"Dare, please Karly," he said.

Karly pulled out a Dare card, when she turned it over it said, "Challenge."

"The person who pulls the card must perform a dare specified by the person whose turn it is. If he/she accomplishes the task, they go 1 space, while the person whose turn it is, still gets the two points. However, if the party fails to complete the Dare, the original party misses his/her next turn.

Ben looked around the room and then took a sip. He whispered in Karly's ear what he wanted her to do. She giggled some and kept looking at me. She whispered into Drew's ear the way I had whispered to Ryan several minutes ago. He nodded his approval at her and she approached me.

I fidgeted in my chair as she lowered herself to her knees between my legs. "Have you ever kissed a girl?" she asked softly. My eyes opened big and I looked at Ben and then at Ryan. Ben was leaning back in his chair staring at my face. He was watching me process emotions. It was very voyeuristic. Ryan was leaning back on the couch with his eyes squinting like he couldn't blink or he might miss something. Drew wore a devious smile on his face.

"No," I answered.

"Would you like to?"

I sighed. She was so pretty kneeling there. She looked enthused, yet patient. So I leaned forward and pressed my lips to her. She moaned a little at the contact, and I found myself continuing to kiss her. Her tongue slid into my mouth ever so slowly. Her lips were amazingly soft. After a few seconds, Drew cleared his throat. "I think that'll fulfill the Dare," he said.

I opened my eyes and looked at Ryan. His mouth was slightly open. It wasn't a look of horror or disbelief. He was turned on. Drew and Ben wore similar traits of excitement.

"This is a much better game with more people. Meredith, read me a truth," Karly requested.

I plucked the next card from the box. "Name your top three erogenous zones," I said.

"That's easy. Lips, ears and clit."

Drew nodded confirming the three. Karly leaned forward and moved her space on the board. "Ryan, read me a Dare."

Ryan looked at the card once, shook his head and then took a gulp of his drink. "Drew, run around outside naked for 15 seconds."

"Um, it's cold out there, and we're on the 30th floor."

"We could change it a little," Ryan offered. You could run around the apartment."

No one protested, so Drew stood up behind his chair and pulled off his shirt. Karly giggled madly as she watched Drew smile sheepishly as he pulled down his pants. He even removed his socks.

"He so doesn't like to lose," Karly said as Drew took off toward the kitchen, around the dining room, toward the bedrooms and back to the living room. He made two passes striding like a proud animal showing off with his soft penis bobbing around before he came back and put his pants back on.

"Meredith, sweetie. Read me a truth," Ryan requested. It was clear the alcohol was making us all a lot more horny.

"What turns you on the most?" I asked.

"Your blowjobs."

I turned red, but the group giggled and stared at me.

"Seriously. She has this thing she does with her tongue that when we first started dating, I thought was bizarre. But every time she does it now, it makes me cum like mad."

"Why has it been months since you've had sex, then?" Karly asked with her eyebrow cocked.

Ryan looked at his shoes and shrugged. "I have no idea. I guess we just get busy."

"Drew, read me a Dare," I asked.

Drew took the card, read it and smirked.

"Suck the person to your right's index finger -- suggestively."

I picked up Ryan's hand. I slowly kissed his wrist, the base of his hand and then kissed up his finger. His hands were large, meaty really. I slid my lips over his finger and pushed it to the back of my throat. Slowly, I pulled it out and suckled on the tip before I pushed it back down. I repeated the movement a few times, then kissed the tip of his finger and placed his hand back on his knee.

Drew and Karly clapped. Ben placed his empty beer on the table and pushed the box of truth cards toward me.

I read it slowly. "Who in the room are you most attracted to and why?"

Instead of quickly giving a name, Ben sat back in his chair and thought about it. "Well, Drew, clearly after your run around the house, we all know what your assets are. And they're intriguing, but then again, if Karly and Ryan look as good naked as they do dressed..."

"Your answer?" I said figuring my display of "Breasts in decline" in the kitchen had eliminated me completely.

"You."

"Excuse me?"

"As much as everyone else in the room is lovely in their own way. I am most attracted to you."

"Why?" I asked reproachfully.

"Because you are the only one in the room who has no idea how beautiful you are."

I blushed profusely. I stared at the floor because everyone was staring at me. Karly reached forward and picked a card out of the dare box and handed it to Drew.

"Play 7 minutes in Heaven with the player of your choice. We don't have a closet big enough to fit two people right now, but you can use my office."

Karly grabbed Drew's hand and led her husband down the hall. They shut the door and Ben started the timer on his watch.

"I think I'm going to use the restroom," Ryan said.

"You trust leaving her in a room alone with me?" Ben asked laughing.

"No, I trust her."

Ryan went down the hall and I sat on the couch staring at my black and white striped sock-covered feet that rested on the coffee table.

"Did I make you uncomfortable?" Ben asked quietly.

"Yes," I said blushing again.

"Is it a good uncomfortable or a bad uncomfortable?"

"I'm not sure," I replied.

"You know where this game is going, don't you?" Ben asked.

"Yeah, I probably do."

"Do you think Karly and Drew had it in their minds before they invited us all over?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Do you think Ryan knew before you got here?" he continued.

I thought about it. He did wear his favorite underwear, and he spent more time in front of the mirror grooming. Hell, he even used mouthwash and flossed his teeth. Fuck, he did know.

I looked at Ben and asked, "Did you know?"

"Yes."

"So everyone knew but me?"

Ben didn't say anything.

"Ben, where's Emily?" I asked wondering if his wife disapproved.

He looked sad for a moment and then said, "She moved out two months ago. She met someone else."

"Ben, I'm—"

"I'm getting another beer, would you like me to make you another martini?" he said cutting off my apologies.

"No, I think I've had enough liquor. Water maybe?"

Ryan returned. "Did I miss anything?" he asked bending over to kiss me quickly.

I shook my head no, as I watched Ben walk out of the room.

"Are you okay with the game, so far?" Ryan asked interested.

"Are you okay with it?" I asked.

"It is probably going to get more physical, but if you want to stop, just tell me. We can just retire to the guest room for the night."

"And I'll be in there alone with you, then?"

Ryan smiled slyly.

"I guess this is considered spicing up our sex life?" I said. He didn't answer.

Ben brought me my ice water. He also brought out a plate of cheese and crackers. I picked up a cracker and chewed nervously as Ben's watch beeped. He went down the hall and knocked. "Time's up."

Drew came out first. His hair was ruffled and out of place. His cheeks were red. Karly followed. Her shirt was untucked but she looked radiant. Happy.

Drew picked up a dare card and handed it to Ben to read.

"Stand naked in front of the group for 30 seconds."

"Why the hell do I get all the naked ones?" he asked standing up and ripping off his shirt.

"Cause you're the pretty one," Ben answered.

Drew pulled down his pants and lowered his briefs. His penis was still standing at attention from his 7 minutes with Karly in the closet.

Ryan immediately drew a dare card and handed it to me. "Massage the bare buttocks to the person to your right."

Drew rolled his eyes -- still standing between his chair and the couch naked.

"Nothing like killing two birds with one stone," Karly laughed, leaning back into her chair.

Ryan stood up and walked behind Drew.

"Just so you know, I've never touched another man's bare ass," Ryan said. "So if I suck at it, I'm sorry."

"He usually provides pretty clear direction," Karly answered smiling as Ryan placed his hands over Drew's butt cheeks and began to squeeze and massage them.

"You been working out?" Ryan asked Drew joking.

"A little bit," Drew laughed back.

I laughed out loud at their exchange. They both looked extraordinarily uncomfortable.

"That's what we like to see, two men comfortable with their sexuality," Ben said mocking the exchange.

When they were done, Drew pulled his clothes back on. He left his jeans unbuttoned and unzipped to relieve the pressure of his hard on.

I pulled another dare card and handed it to Karly.

"Get permission from someone in the room and kiss something besides their lips."

I looked around at each of them. Ryan smiled at me. I swear Drew's pants moved as he thought of the idea of me possibly kissing his penis. Karly and Ben just sat in anticipation.

I chose safety.

I stood up and walked around the coffee table to Karly. "Karly, may I please kiss one of your breasts?"

She handed Drew the card and pulled her lacy shirt down along with the cups of her bra exposing her supple breasts to the room. They were exactly how breasts were supposed to be: soft, even, perky. I lowered myself to my knees and placed my lips to her left nipple. I kissed it with tongue taking the nipple into my mouth, moving it around. Karly began to play with her right breast as I stimulated the other. Her breathing slowed, and she put her other hand on the back of my neck.

I sat up and smiled at her. She put her shirt and bra back together and leaned forward and gave me a small kiss on my lips. "Thank you," she said.

I nodded and returned to my seat on the couch. Ben reached forward and chose a dare card and handed it to Karly.

"Using nothing but words, turn on another person of the same sex."

"Drew, did you like watching Meredith pleasuring your wife? Did you like how gently she lowered herself to her knees to be sexually submissive. Did you enjoy seeing how your wife responded affectionately to the touch of another woman? Did you suddenly wish while she was on her knees Meredith would lean over and kiss your dick the way she made love with her lips to Karly's breast? Or did you just want to push Meredith onto the table and fuck her with all of us watching?