The Little Death

But to the guy on the street, the average TV denizen, complicated social constructs are, well, complicated. So to polite society, they were a model couple and model citizens.

He was a cardiologist. She was a morning TV news anchor on the number one morning news program in the market.

Their private life was just that: private. In fact, it was very private and only a handful of carefully chosen people knew of their marriage arrangement and their sexual proclivities.

Two years ago Harris met Melissa on a flight from Chicago to Kansas City.

It was an unusual first meeting.

Melissa knew Harris from the television and had a huge fantasy crush on her.

On a tour through the first class cabin, after making polite chitchat with Harris, Melissa got really brazen.

She hit on Harris - with all the subtly of a fart in a phone booth.

But then she was just out of the Marines. Subtly wasn't in her pilot's lexicon. Her call sign when she was flying close air support was "Blunt Instrument," "Blunt" for short. If Marine 1st Lieutenant Melissa Brant couldn't kill you with her Harrier attack jet she could hold her own in any bar fight anywhere in the Fleet and pummel any attacker like a blunt instrument.

She leaned close to Harris and half whispered, "You know, Ms. Craig, I'm a huge fan of yours and I'm also a lesbian and quite often when I'm up getting ready for work I'll lay back in my bed and watch you and masturbate.

"Care to have a drink a little later after we land?"

And Melissa stood up to wait for the response.

The smile on Harris' face froze, as she looked up at the tall, lean, beautiful pilot with skin the color of warm, milk chocolate.

There was a very awkward silence then, a nervous laugh, "Ahhh, you know Captain Brant..."

"First Officer Brant. You can call me First Officer Brant, ma'am." Melissa interrupted, seemingly deadly serious, like her title wasvery important.

"Sorry. You know..." Harris giggled a bit, "you know, uh,First Officer Brant, uh, no one's ever said that to me before. Though I guess people frig themselves and beat off all the time fantasying about people on the TV."

"And, uh, you just hit on me, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I think I did."

Melissa had an earnest/mischievous/foolish, half embarrassed smile on her face that showed she wasn't completely insane and in that instant - though Melissa wouldn't know it for six months - Harris Craig fell madly, deeply in love. She knew she'd found the third for her and her husband's three-way marriage.

Harris was simply that way. She lived in the moment.

"Okay, well," Harris looked down to her lap, pulled some imaginary lint off her skirt and cleared her throat, "uh, I have to be on air in the morning so I've got to get home as soon as we touch down but I've got tomorrow night free. Drinks, maybe dinner?"

Before Melissa could respond - it was her turn to be shocked - Harris motioned her to bend down so she could whisper something, Harris' mouth mere inches from Melissa's ear, "We could talk about your masturbatory technique."

"Maybe I could give you some tips or...I'd give you my panties, the ones I wear to our date! I'll sign them for you.

"I bet you pull a nipple while you're frigging yourself and you have big, beautiful areolas.

"And you can also tell me whether that undoubtedly beautiful black pussy of yours is shaven smooth or big and bushy or something in between."

Melissa stood up, a confused expression on her face. Harris was still smiling the smile she had when Melissa had made her "proposition."

Melissa broke into a smile and then a nervous laugh.

"Ah. Ah-hah-hah! You know, I'm sorry. It's been a long day. I wasso out of line talking to you like that. You're getting me back, aren't you? Having a little fun? Okay, I deserved that."

"No, really. I meant it. Tomorrow night? Here's my card. My cell number is on the back. Call me tomorrow. Please."

Melissa took the card and looked at it in disbelief.

"And the part about uh, techniques and stuff, that was a put on, right? Just a little joshing around with the nasty, tactlessly stupid first officer?"

"Only if you aren't a lesbian and aren't interested in having me. Uh, but I don't give it up until about the third date, uh, except, I'll usually let you cop a feel under my shirt and panties sooner - and," Harris hesitated but watched Melissa's face intently, "only if my husband approves."

Melissa looked disappointed.

"I uh, I'm not into swingers. But thanks anyway. Maybe the panties though - you know, as a souvenir?"

Melissa smiled, tried to recover gracefully from this situation she'd impulsively gotten herself into.

Harris reached for Melissa's hand to keep her from leaving, "Oh, we're not swingers but you're going to have to invest some time in me to find out what's up. I don't think you'll be sorry."

Melissa kept the date and "officially" joined the couple six months later.

Bruce, Harris and Melissa were a "Vee" in the parlance of polyamory. Harris was the "pivot point" at the bottom of the "V". Bruce had legal standing as Harris' husband and was at the end of one of the arms of the "V". Melissa was on the end of the other arm of the "V".

Bruce and Melissa had their primary emotional and sexual relationship with Harris though Harris could see the relationship slowly flowering between Bruce and Melissa. Maybe this would turn into a "triad," a true three-way relationship.

Harris had been the pivot point for their second poly "marriage" and now she was serving as the pivot for a second time. (Their first Vee lasted 8 years and Bruce was the pivot.)

So Bruce and Melissa were intimate with Harris but except for a few times, never with each other though they all shared the same bed oversized bed when Melissa was in town.

Melissa, 4 years Harris' junior, had what might be best described as a fierce love for Harris although they shared an easy-going, vanilla lesbian sex life.

She was funny and brazen and "out there." And Harris loved her dearly.

Bruce, 12 years Harris' senior, also had a fierce love for Harris though he was less public about it. He and Harris were very "cool" and easy-going - except in bed where the rule was always rough and almost always on the edge.

There was little the couple hadn't at least tried sexually.

Neither were into scat though Harris craved a golden shower now and again and Bruce was only to happy to oblige.

And it was mutually agreed that Bruce did not have the figure to cross dress in a sexually appealing way.

When Angelina Jolie was married to Billy Bob Thornton, Harris experimented with knife play and cutting her body and assaulting Bruce sufficiently to draw and suck at his blood.

Once, she even had Bruce stage a mock crucifixion.

After being urinated on, flogged, tortured with chains, nipple and labia clamps and candle wax and repeatedly raped and sodomized by Bruce over an 8 hour period she was then hung tied to a Roman Tau cross.

She was "impaled" cunt and ass on an improvised dildo made from cow and goat horns. That was her "seat" as she hung on the cross for 12 hours.

It took her a week to recover. But she said she'd do it all over again - in a few years.

The thing she liked best now was, in her words, "getting really, really fucked up and having Bruce be really, really rough and choking me into unconsciousness."

Though the fake crucifixion was physically daunting and psychologically battering, compression of the carotid arteries in the neck is one of the most risky acts in playing on the edge.

Without any warning, the one being choked in this manner can suffer cardiac arrest that is difficult to revive - even if the paramedics are standing at the bedside when it happens.

It was this aspect of Bruce and Harris's sex life that completely freaked out the younger Melissa.

Melissa was a hopeless romantic at heart.

When they would make love in the afternoons, Harris would almost always fall asleep lying on Melissa's breast, an arm across Melissa's chest, her hand on Melissa's shoulder and her head snuggled into the hollow of Melissa's arm.

Melissa would simply lie there and watch her lover sleep, marveling at the contrast between Harris' white skin and short ash blond hair against her warm chocolate skin tone and listening to the rhythm of her soft breathing.

Deadheading from O'Hare to KC in the jump seat of a Southwest 737, Harris was the only thing on her mind.

~~~~~~~~~~

Harris' surgery turned out to be more extensive than originally planned. They had to open both her ankle and knee to repair torn ligaments and provide some internal stability. She had pins in her ankle and a mid-thigh to foot fiberglass cast/brace. Still, Bruce got to take her home that night - heavily medicated.

Melissa got home around 11 that night and found Harris in bed, propped up and surrounded by pillows. Bruce was asleep in a chair beside her.

All three of them had a rough night as Harris began having muscle spasms from her back to her ankle. The pain med she was sent home on wasn't enough. Harris slept fitfully, if at all, because of the pain. Bruce and Melissa took turns holding her, trying to ease the pain.

The next morning the surgeon upped the strength of the painkiller and added diazepam for both the muscle spasms and Harris' anxiety and frustration of being stuck in bed except to hobble on crutches (with help) to the bathroom.

Things improved slowly.

~~~~~~~~~~

Harris awakened Melissa around 2 AM on the third night home.

"Psssst. Lissa, Lissa, wake up." Harris gently nudged Melissa.

"Hmmmm? Wha- What is it, baby?"

"I have to pee."

"Okay, okay," Melissa mumbled sleepily.

Melissa gingerly crawled over Harris and off the bed. She got Harris her crutches and helped her up and to the bathroom.

Melissa stood in front of Harris at the toilet and wrapped her arms under Harris' to help her lower herself down onto the toilet.

"Oh, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!" Harris hissed between clenched teeth as the muscles tightened up and went into spasm.

"I'll check the clock. Should be time for something for pain. Sit tight."

"Oh, SHIT! God DAMN IT! You're funny, you know. I'll be right here when you get back. Do me a favor and HURRY your black ass up."

Melissa came back with two oxycodone's, two hydrocodone's and a 10 mg diazepam with a glass of water.

Harris was almost in tears from the pain, hissing obscenities between clenched teeth and trying to shift her weight on the toilet seat to find some relief from the spasms.

"Which ones?" Melissa held the pills out in her palm.

"I'll take them all."

"Uh, honey...this is a lot of narcotics. Last thing I want to do is help Bruce drag your cute ass and that cast to the ER because you've overdosed."

"Really, Lissa, let me have them all...I've done more than this before - uh, recreationally."

"Well, okay," Melissa had never seen Harris do recreational drugs though sometimes before they made love Harris would take a pill and chase it with two fingers of brandy and be very mellow as they lay together.

She handed Harris the pills and the water. Harris gulped them down followed by the water, which she drank so fast that some ran down her chin and onto her t-shirt.

"You want to try going back to bed or sit here until the meds kick in?"

"Uh...Owwww! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" Harris hissed again, yelling the last 'fuck.'

"I think...I think I'll stay...here if that's okay with you."

Harris gingerly leaned back against the toilet tank, her face covered in sweat and her t-shirt rapidly soaking with sweat as well as the spilled water.

Melissa ran a washcloth under cold water, wrung it out and gently wiped Harris' face.

"Oh, God, that feels good." And with that Harris broke down and sobbed.

Melissa was gently shushing her; gently she moved her body as close to Harris as she could. She cradled Harris' head against her belly, kissed the top of her head and patted the washcloth down her face, throat and top of her chest. Whispering gentle encouragement to her.

Time past.

Melissa got a couple of pillows from the bed and put one under Harris' ankle and one behind her back. She turned out the main light and they sat in the darkness: Melissa, knees to her chest, on the vanity and Harris on the toilet.

"Lissa?" Harris' voice was quiet, sleepy. The drugs were kicking in.

"Yeah. Ready to go back to bed?"

"Almost. Stand by me; hold my head like you did a while ago. Please."

"Sure."

Melissa gently took Harris' head as Harris leaned toward her. Harris nuzzled Melissa's belly through Melissa's nightshirt.

"Things will get better soon, lover. You just need to hang...Harris? Harris? What are you doing?"

Harris was caressing Melissa's thigh, about to reach her shaven sex.

"Endorphins," Harris whispered. "Shhhh."

At the last moment Harris' hand took a detour. Her fingers had played lightly at the hollow of her leg just next to her sex and then traced the curve of her ass around.

"Take off you shirt Melissa." Harris' voice was still sotto voce, her other hand now caressing Melissa's belly through her nightshirt.

Melissa obeyed; gently pulling the shirt out from under Harris' head that still rested on her belly.

Harris turned her face and ever so lightly kissed her lover's belly in that delicate area between the belly button and the top of the mons.

"Hmmmm," Harris trailed her fingers near the spot where she kissed. "That's nice."

Melissa took a sharp breath in at Harris' touch. "Oh, yeah...my sentiments exactly."

Harris trailed her fingers over Melissa's mound, tentatively pushed at the hood of Melissa's clit while placing another soft kiss on her belly, Harris' other hand still caressing Melissa's ass.

"Damn! You know I just want..." Melissa was stopped in her sentence as Harris' finger moved into Melissa's slit.

"...ah...ah...I just want to point out a couple of things here. JESUS CHRIST!..." Harris leaned back to put her hands on the vanity for leverage and involuntarily rocked her hips against Harris' probing finger.

"Hold it! Hold on, baby! Stop!" Melissa stood and flipped on the nightlight.

Harris withdrew her hands and looked up, smiling, the effect of the drugs visible in her eyes.

"Yes?"

"I just want to point out that, 'A', I think the endorphin thing is supposed to work when YOU'RE receiving the pleasure and 'B', don't be starting something you can't finish, because severe pain or not, you can't rev me up and then leave me hanging.

"I'll have to go fuck Bruce and have you forgotten I'm a lesbian?"

Harris chuckled, took Melissa by the hips and looked up, "Okay. Look, feeling you, touching you in the dark, smelling you like this - " Harris paused, laughed softly, mimicked a child's playground taunting voice, "You've been playing with yourself today, haven't you, lover? I cansmell it."

Melissa laughed, "Busted."

"Anyway, Lissa, I am soooo wet right now.

"The drugs are feeling very, very nice and pleasuring you is making the endorphins pump away like crazy. I can feel them too.

"And, don't worry, I'll finish what I start. Promise.

"Now, turn the light out and stand beside me like you were."

Harris snuggled her head back against the flat of Melissa's belly, fingers going to Melissa's hip and ass.

Fingers trailed down from the Melissa's hip through the hollow separating Melissa's belly and sex from her thigh while the fingers caressing her ass moved to her slit and slid upwards toward her clit.

Melissa loudly sucked in her breath as she felt the pleasure run both directions - up and down her body.

Harris' probing finger slid down to the mouth of Melissa's cunt and together with another finger, entered and went right to Melissa's G-spot and proceeded to rub lightly.

The other hand went back to her hip and Harris' lips and tongue were lightly placing kisses all over Melissa's belly.

Harris put her forehead against Melissa's belly and smiled in the darkness, waiting.

Melissa was making short yelps, taking in short, sharp breaths and Harris could feel Melissa's vaginal muscles starting to contract around her fingers.

Harris knew exactly where to pull Melissa's trigger.

"Now I'm ready to go back to bed."

Melissa did not respond at first, lost in the pleasure, then, "Uh...give me a minute, white she- devil."

Harris still had her fingers deeply in Melissa's cunt. "Want me to rub some more?" she teased.

"No, no." Melissa's voice was high and breathy, "I'm just fine. Just hold still for a minute."

"Okay."

Melissa blew out a long, slow breath and lifted herself off Harris' fingers. Harris put them in her mouth and sucked noisily.

"Well, I guess we're feeling better?"

"Hmmmmm, as long as I am immobile. I'm a little worried about getting back to bed. It's gonna hurt."

"That's alright. I'll return the favor when we get you back to bed."

~~~~~~~~~~

6 Months Later...

"Caress my hips, baby, just a little bit," Melissa hissed quietly.

Harris looked up at Melissa, trailed the fingers of both hands down from Melissa's breasts and nipples where she'd been playing to Melissa's hips.

Melissa rode up on the strapon dildo she was impaled on, came back down, rocking her hips to feel its full length inside her, and rubbed slowly against Harris' naked mons.

"Mmmmmmmmmmmm...I am so close."

"Lissa...look at me...I want to watch your eyes."

Melissa obeyed. Her eyes were only half open and defocused, a slight smile twitched on her face.

Melissa took several small, sharp breaths and then blew them out slowly. Her body froze in its position momentarily and then she sunk her full weight onto the dildo and Harris' hips.

She closed her eyes and absentmindedly played with a hard, distended nipple.

The ripples of her orgasm were slowly radiating through her belly.

Harris smiled, caressed Melissa's belly. "It looks like that felt good."

Melissa gave a short laugh, "Mmmm, yes indeed. Very..." She sucked a breath in and froze again then blew out the breath as she enjoyed an aftershock, "Very nice."

"Come here."

Harris pulled Melissa down on top of her so that they were breast-to-breast and belly-to-belly. They kissed, long and slow.

Shortly, Melissa sat back up, Harris leaning up, trying to follow Melissa's breasts, kissing as she went. When Melissa was fully upright Harris dropped back to the bed with a plaintive whine.

Melissa smiled.

"Give me a sec, Harris, I'll be back down. I want to snuggle. You know, it's usually you on top and then you get to fall asleep on my tit."

"You've found out my secret pleasure."

"Uh-huh," Melissa smiled down at her lover as she slowly lifted herself off the dildo, the dildo making a wet slithering noise as it came out, and dropped down beside Harris' body. She slid up against her so she was above Harris' head but her breasts were right at Harris' mouth level.

Melissa cradled Harris' head against her breasts and pressed her mons into Harris' hip using her thigh as leverage; her knee and calf bending up to cover Harris' mons and up into her belly.

They didn't speak. This was unusual for them after their usual slow and gentle lovemaking.

Harris was occupied gently suckling Melissa's large areolas and stiff nipples. She stopped occasionally to lightly lick sweat from between Melissa's breasts.

Melissa pressed her cheek down on Harris' head, her arms loosely around Harris' neck and was slowly and gently rubbing against Harris' hip. Occasionally she would move her knee and calf and give Harris a little rub.

Without warning Harris powered Melissa onto her back and lay on top of her, the top of her thigh firmly planted against Melissa's sex.