A Favor For My Friend
                              Chapter 3

Paula finally dragged herself out to the kitchen Saturday morning at
about eleven. What a night! Tom had taken her to heaven time after
time, and whenever he needed to recuperate Mark had filled in nicely.
They definitely both deserved the very best breakfast she could create.

After huge plates of waffles and eggs and sausage, the two guys finally
leaned back in their chairs.

"Damn, Mark," Tom sighed, "There is nothing in the world I could ever
do to repay you for all this. I still can't believe you let me share
Paula with you. And it turned out she was not only a great cook, but
also absolutely fantastic in bed."

He turned to Paula. "I'll never, ever, forget this night. And I'll
never be able to thank you enough for it."

Paula smiled. "You know what? Just think of all the passion and
pleasure you've had since last evening and then double it. I'll bet
that won't come close to what I've felt. I've got two men here that I
will never be able to thank enough."

She slipped out of her chair, leaned over Mark's face, and kissed him
passionately. "You, for being my loving and understanding husband."

She went on around the table to Tom and gave him and equally
passionate kiss. "You, for being the lover not one woman in a million
ever gets to have."

Then she turned back to Mark for an even longer kiss. "And you, for
putting up with something no husband should ever have to face. Some
way, some day, darling, I hope I can make it up to you."

"Don't worry, Tom," Mark mumbled. "It's been kinda weird, but I'll be
OK. And as for you, Paula, we've just had the hottest week of our
life, and there's no way I'm going to let you out of my clutches."

"Uh, look," Tom ventured, "I definitely wasn't expecting anything
more, but now I have to wonder. Are those kisses of yours a hint that
you'd like me to stay around a little longer?"

Paula turned back to him for another kiss, a quick one this time. "The
truth is, Tom, that right now I think what I really need is about
twenty hours of sleep."

He nodded. "I don't wonder. I intend to sleep most of the afternoon
myself. It's a good thing Ann doesn't get in until nearly 7:30
tonight."

"I take it," Paul concluded, "that the four of us won't be getting
together tonight like we usually do on Saturday."

"No, shit! I hadn't thought about that, but it's going to be damn
awkward whenever it does happen. Oh, God! What am I going to say to
Ann?"

"You're not the only one, Tom. After all, she and I have been best
friends. I guess, somehow, we're just going to have to pretend last
night never happened. I don't think she could handle it, do you?"

"I don't know," he moaned, his face in his hands. "I guess you're
right."

It was obvious to Paula that Tom was very conflicted about hiding the
truth from Ann. Paula herself was very conflicted about hiding HER
truth from Tom, and Mark. Her truth was that today she wanted Tom –
no, she NEEDED Tom – even more than she did last night.

Instead, she spent the day in bed in fevered half-awake dreams of her
lover. Then she spent the evening in bed with her husband, imagining
that he was really Tom, and egging him on to use every appendage in
his body from his tongue to his toe to try to satisfy her insatiable
pussy. But the truth was that they were both totally zonked. Pure raw
lust kept them going until about ten, then they were dead to the
world.

Sunday didn't start until noon, and even then they were pretty groggy.
So it wasn't until the middle of the afternoon that they started
fucking that day. Paula's body was still responding, but her heart
wasn't in it. A week ago she had been a good and faithful wife, not
enjoying sex much, but letting Mark have what he wanted when he wanted
it. God, what a change the last week had made. Now she was dying to
see Tom again. See him, hell! She needed to feel him; she needed to
have him; she needed his cock pounding into her. Please, at least let
him call, she thought. But she knew he wouldn't. He'd just been
unfaithful to the wife he loved, and with her best friend, no less.
No, Tom would be puppy-dog solicitous to his wife this weekend. So
Paula turned once again to her consolation prize.

                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Paula was not looking forward to Monday morning. In the week since she
had last seen her best friend she had fallen madly, uncontrollably,
into lust with Ann's husband. So it felt like a hundred butterflies in
her stomach when she heard the tap on her office door and the familiar
voice.

"Hi, Paula!"

"Oh, hi, Ann. Does it feel good to be back?"

"Well, yes, in a way, at least."

Paula perked up her ears immediately. That didn't sound like Ann. But
she decided to needle her a bit, and said, "Oh, ho, the detective bug
bites again! I told you once you got there you'd get buried in dumps,
and you'd love every minute of it."

"Oh, it wasn't that so much. Actually, I found out what the problem
was Wednesday afternoon, and came up with a way for them to bypass it
by Wednesday night. So they were up and running Thursday morning. It
was in SCIFETCH."

Paula groaned and shook her head. "I should have known," she said,
"that's always where the bugs are. Ann, we're definitely going to have
to rewrite that module some time soon. But knowing you," she grinned,
"I would have thought you would have been on the next plane home."

"Well, it was definitely a bypass, not a fix, just a change in their
database so they wouldn't hit our bug. And I knew it would be a
problem for them before long, so I tried to come up with a patch to
SCIFETCH. I did, too, and they ran with that on Friday. I figured I
should stick around in case something went wrong."

"But everything went smooth as glass, didn't it?" Paula asked with a
crooked smile, "so you flew home Friday night. No, wait, you didn't
fly home Friday night, so what happened?"

Ann blushed. "No, I didn't."

Then she looked furtively out at the rest of the office and closed
Paula's door. She paced the office a bit, then sat in the side chair.
She leaned conspiratorially toward Paula, and continued.

"See, there was this guy there named Bob, and he was working with me
all week, helping me run tests on their system, and kind of showing me
around. You know, like 'let me take you to the cafeteria', or 'time
for a break, I'll buy you a soda'. Stuff like that.

"Well, when I found what was causing the hang I described it to him,
and he explained what he had done in the database, and then we
understood. We worked really late Wednesday night changing the data
and checking it out, and decided to go live with it Thursday morning.
You should have seen how ... excited we got as the system came up to
full load and still hung together. And hearing the cheers from
everyone else there in the office was like nothing I've ever felt. I
mean, those guys had been down for more than a week. God, did I feel
like a hero!"

"Yeah, I know the feeling. It's a real high, isn't it? But you haven't
told me why you didn't get home Friday night."

"Hang on, I'm getting there. When we calmed down a bit Bob looked me
in the eye and said, 'Let's celebrate. I'm going to take you out on
the town tonight.' Well, I really wanted to, but I knew it would be
wrong. I mean, the guy's a real hunk, and he's single, and to tell the
truth I was quite attracted to him. So I begged off, and said I really
needed to work on fixing the problem in our code so they could put all
their data back in the database."

"Uh, huh, still being a good girl, weren't you? And then?"

"Like I said earlier, I did come up with a patch in the afternoon, and
when I told Bob he grinned from ear to ear and said 'All right! So we
can go out tonight, after all.' But I shook my head and said no, that
we should test it, and if possible go live with it on Friday.

"You should have seen his face fall at that, but he gulped and said
OK, and we worked late Thursday night testing out the patch — you know
how that module is, I thought I was never going to get it right. By
the time we finished, it was too late to do anything."

"Ohh, we've changed our tune, haven't we? 'You would have, but it was
too late.' What happened to 'it would be wrong'? Sounds to me like you
were driving the poor guy crazy."

"Shut up, or I'm not going to tell you. Naturally when we could see
that everything was working Friday morning we were as excited as the
day before, and we even," Ann covered her face with her hands and then
peeked through her fingers, "grabbed each other and were hugging like
crazy. Then Bob pulled away, looked me square in the eyes, and said,
'No excuses, now; tonight we're going to do the town.' Oh, Paula, you
can't believe how badly I wanted to do that, but I held my ground and
said, 'I do wish I could, Bob, but I'm flying home this afternoon.'

"At that he said 'No, you're not. I already called the airline and had
your tickets changed to tomorrow. Now all you have to do is call your
husband and tell him when you're coming in.'"

Paula burst out laughing. "Boy, did he ever have your number!"

"Can you imagine the gall of the guy? I stood there looking foolish
for a while. My mouth was probably hanging open, but I had no idea
what to say. I had just as much as told him that I wanted to go out
with him, and would except for my flight. Finally he said, 'That call,
remember?' and like a zombie I started dialing Tom's number.

"So now you know why I didn't come home Friday night," Ann finished.

Paula could tell there was more to the story that Ann wasn't telling.
So what did happen Friday night, anyway? Could it possibly be that
while Tom was keeping Paula herself at an ecstasy level she had never
dreamed of before, perhaps Tom's wife was off having a fling of her
own? Maybe there was a way out of this mess they were in after all.

"Well, I'm waiting," Paula drawled.

"Waiting for what?"

"For the rest of the story, naturally."

"I told you the whole story."

"No, you didn't. What happened Friday night?"

Ann's body went rigid, and her face as white as a sheet. "Paula! Are
you suggesting ..."

"Not suggesting anything, just wondering."

"Well forget it. It was nothing, and it's none of your business." Ann
grabbed the doorknob and was out in a flash, slamming the door behind
her.

'Sure, Ann,' Paula thought, 'you expect me to believe it was nothing?'

Paula gave Ann the rest of the morning to cool off, while concocting a
story of her own in one corner of her brain. Well, not concocting,
exactly, she realized when she became fully conscious of the story
just before lunch. More like taking a real story and putting it into a
soft focus.

                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After lunch Paula slipped into Ann's office, and said, "Listen, Ann,
I'm sorry I was teasing you so much this morning. I didn't mean
anything by it. Can we still be friends?"

Ann smiled a bit wanly, but said, "Sure, I guess so."

"Good, because I've really needed some girlfriend to confide in this
last week, and I'm dying to tell you what happened to me. Can I close
the door?"

She went ahead and did it without waiting for an answer.

"Look, I'm not going to go into names, but Mark invited a guy over for
dinner last Tuesday, and the truth is I couldn't keep my eyes off him.
And it was pretty obvious he was attracted to me as much as I was to
him. Nothing really happened between us that night except looks, but
by the time he left I was totally horny.

"Ann, I simply don't get horny like that. Sure, Mark and I have sex,
but it never does all that much for me. But this was something else. I
mean, it's like I practically raped Mark as soon as we were alone.
Have you ever felt like that?"

"Well, yah, occasionally," Ann replied, averting her eyes.

"Well, I was totally wild. I don't think I had climaxed for years,
except a few times when I was playing with myself, but that night Mark
made me come three times."

She looked over at Ann, who was staring wide eyed at her. "I hope I'm
not embarrassing you with this."

"No, Paula, you're not embarrassing me. Turning me on, yes, but
embarrassing? No."

"I warn you, there's more."

"Ohhh," Ann shuddered, "I want to hear it."

"Well, a little later in the week this same guy called me up at the
office, and said he wanted to talk, and could I join him for lunch.
Well, you know how you were saying about your Bob this morning? Well,
I was feeling the same way, but like you, I said no. So then he said
all right, but we were going to have a long talk on the phone, and he
gave me a specific time the next day.

"Ann, I swear, as the time approached the next day I was going totally
out of my mind. I finally closed and locked my door, and started
playing with myself sitting in my chair. Playing with myself! Can you
believe it? I actually came hard before he called, but it wasn't
enough, and I was still playing with myself when the phone rang.

Well, to make a long story short, he knew exactly what I had been
feeling when he was over for dinner, and he kept pushing me for what I
was doing just before he called, until I finally blurted it out. After
that ... well let's just say I sure found out what the term 'phone
sex' means."

"Oh, my god, Paula, I have never done anything like that!"

"Neither had I, but, honey, if he calls again it's not going to be the
only time."

Then a devilish thought made Paula say something she hadn't planned.

"Maybe you should call Bob up and be sure everything is, shall we say,
up and working."

By now Ann was squirming in her seat. "Paula, I swear, I'm going to
kill you if you keep that up."

"Don't knock it if you haven't tried it."

"Oh, god, Paula, you're driving me insane. I want him so bad!"

"I thought so. So what did happen Friday night?"

"No, please, don't ask me to tell you. I can't tell anyone. I've been
so bad, and I want so much to be bad again." By now Ann was rubbing
her crotch through her skirt.

"You can't possibly have been as bad as I was," Paula insisted. "I
talked Mark into inviting this guy over again, and after dinner we
were watching a movie, and I started rubbing against Mark and I got
him so hot he couldn't stand it anymore, and I said I needed to fuck
him, right there and right then, and he said we couldn't, because the
guy was there, and I said I didn't care, and he could watch us if he
wanted to and jack off."

"Oh, my god," Ann moaned, "and did you?" By now she had her skirt
pulled up, and was rubbing her panties.

"Yes, and that's not the half of it. I tore my panties off and lay on
the floor with my legs spread, and Mark landed on top of me with a
roar. It didn't take him long to come, let me tell you."

At that point Ann let out a yelp, and Paula looked at her. Her head
was thrown back, her eyes were closed and her mouth was open. Paula
followed her arm down to see that her hand was buried inside her
panties and jerking. The rest of her body, except for her hand, was
stiff as a board.

Paula decided a discreet pause might be called for. Ann held the rigid
pose for about thirty seconds; even her hand stopped moving. Finally
she let her air out with a loud whoosh. Her face flushed brightly and
she jerked her hand away from her crotch.

"Oh, God, I'm so embarrassed!"

"Why is that," Paula grinned. "It looked to me like you were having a
fantastic time."

"You have no idea," Ann moaned, "and you never will," she added.

"Oh, you think? Wait 'til you hear the rest of my story. Where was I?
Oh, yes, Mark landed on me with a roar, and came very quickly."

Ann moaned again, but Paula went on with her story.

"You're not going to believe this, but as soon as Mark's penis
shriveled up and popped out I said that was great, but I needed more,
and suddenly the other guy was standing over me with his penis
sticking out. Seeing his penis blew my mind and I lost track of what
was happening for a while, but Mark told me later he could see we were
dying to have each other, so Mark finally told him to go ahead. That
was the hottest sex of my entire life."

"No way," Ann gasped. "Mark would never let you do that. You're making
the whole thing up."

"I swear, it really happened. In fact it happened again and again. The
three of us ended up spending the night together, and it seemed like
they took turns with me all night long. I have no idea how many times
I came that night."

"Two guys? I can't imagine. Even spending the night with one new guy
can be unbelievable."

"Especially if he's a real hunk that you have been working with all
week?" Paula asked.

"Oh, YES!!" Ann replied.

A moment later she added, "Excuse me, I need to make a phone call
right now."

"Before a certain hunk goes home on the East coast, perhaps?"

"Yes, get the hell out of my office!"

                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Paula checked Ann's office a few times, but the door was always
closed. Finally at about five o'clock she couldn't stand it any
longer, and knocked on her door. After a pause Ann opened it and let
her in, closing the door behind her.

Paula knew the answer from the silly grin on Ann's face, but she asked
anyway, "So, how did it go?"

"Oh, god, Paula, I never knew it could be like that. I gave Bob my
number and told him to please, please, call me soon. And I'm already
dying to do it again."

"Too bad you can't follow up like I did," Paula grinned.

"Oh, lord, I think I'd die. But Tom would never let me get away with
anything like that."

"Don't be too sure. Remember you said the same thing about Mark. And
when the time came he was a very willing participant."

Ann shuddered, and shook her head, "I still find that part hard to
believe. And besides, don't you feel kind of guilty about it? I mean,
he shared you with that other guy, but you haven't had to share him
with anybody."

"I know," Paula nodded. "In fact I've been thinking about that, and
feeling like maybe I should do something to even things out. The
problem is, I'd want it to be someone I knew and trusted, the way he
knew and trusted the guy that spent the night with us.

"Ann, honey," Paula looked her square in the eyes, "there aren't many
people like that. In fact I can only think of one."

Ann's eyes opened wide, and her mouth dropped. "You mean ... me?"

"Yes, Ann, I mean you. But look, I know you've got a lot going
already, and I certainly don't want to force Mark onto you."

"Oh, my god, Paula," Ann was squirming again the way she had been
during Paula's story earlier in the day. "Oh, Paula, I ... oh, there's
no way I can say this, but I ... I find Mark ... very, very,
attractive. Oh, god, just the thought of it is driving me crazy."

By now she was shuddering again, and had to pause a bit before she
could go on.

"I'm going to tell you a secret I haven't even wanted to admit to
myself. ... I told you Bob was a real hunk. I didn't tell you that he
looks very much like Mark. Same height, same build, same eyes. They're
so much alike I think I've been sort of mixing them up in my mind. ...
This afternoon, during, you know, I'm not sure which one I was really
imagining that I was with.

"So, much as I want it, I don't think it's a good idea. Have a
passionate affair with my best friend's husband? I don't think so. I'm
just going to have to keep transferring all of my feelings for Mark
over to Bob, and I hope I haven't already ruined everything that you
and I have together by saying too much."

When Ann finally felt she could raise her eyes and look tentatively at
Paula she was shocked to see a Cheshire cat grin on her face.

"You're the program detective, Ann, try being a people detective for a
minute and just think about it. I told you we had my guy over for
dinner last week on Tuesday, and again on Friday. Can you really have
no idea what guy that might have been?"

Ann was dumbfounded. "No, it can't be! You wouldn't do that! Him I
might believe, but not you!"

"I didn't want to. I swear I didn't. I fought it as hard as I could,
but I finally couldn't resist it any longer. So, you see, Friday night
when you were having wild sex with Bob, maybe sort of imagining he was
my husband, I was having wild sex with your husband.

"In other words, Ann, not only do I owe my husband a chance to do what
he let me do, I also owe my best friend a chance to feel what I felt."

Both women were silent for a while, lost in their feelings. Finally
Paula asked, "Still think it's a bad idea?"

"Fuck no! What I think is that there is no way I am going to be able
to wait. How about if I call Tom and tell him I have some catching up
to do tonight," they both giggled at that, "and I'll be late getting
home. Then how about if we go see Mark, RIGHT NOW!"

======================================================================

This isn't really the end of the story, of course, but I'm going to
stop writing at this point and let you use your imagination for the
rest. How will Mark handle two very horny women at the same time?
After that, surely the four friends will get together before long, and
that should be ... interesting. But what will become of Ann's
cross-country affair? Might Geico perhaps have a future emergency with
R-Seize? Or will she transfer all that passion to her new lover? Bob
had already started tempering Ann's focus on security with his on
freedom. How far will she go down that path, and what might that mean
about future lovers?