Archive-name: 3plus/marble.txt
Archive-author: Sharon Pauma (1991)
Archive-title: Marble Mountains, The


     What is it that makes some men so implacably contrary?  The more
you need something, the more they thwart you.  The more you want
them, the farther they withdraw.  And all the while they lavish their
time and attention on things of no consequence but to their own
obsessions.  I know the pat answer from psychology.  But when you
live it, the pat answer does not resonate.  Their behavior seems
diabolical and you long for escape.

     Paul drove our station wagon north on 101 all through the foggy
night.  Bill and Barbara expected us at the trailhead in the
California Marble Mountain Wilderness in the morning.  Paul did most
of the driving because he didn't trust me to drive in the fog.

     He did trust me to do almost all preparations for our nine day
backpacking trip, though.  The company, he said, needed yet another
draft of his proposal to spin off some divisions.

     Bill and Barbara, whom we hadn't seen in four years, wanted us
to arrive the night before so we could get reacquainted, rest a 
little, and go through our gear together.  Thanks to some very 
determined driving by Paul, we did get to the trailhead by 7:30 in
the morning.

     When Paul and I moved away from Barbara four years ago, Bill was
only one among several of Barbara's boyfriends.  They got married a
year later.  I was very curious about the man who finally landed the
infamous man-killer.

     They were in good spirits, packs ready to go, dressed for the
heat in their Patagonia hiking shorts.  Barbara had what looked like
a new t-shirt from Ipanema.  I couldn't tell what Bill's was.

     Paul and I still had some sorting to do to distribute the pack
weight.  Paul's mood - bad even before we left town - was not
improved by the drive.  Since he would carry the tent, he decided I
was to carry all the food for nine days for the two of us.  there
wasn't much choice.  I knew any food I gave him to carry he would
just leave behind.  The rationality of irrationality.

     Small-boned Barbara was somewhat dwarfed by her brand new high
tech silver pack with a frame extension that went over her hips and
took the weight off her slender shoulders.  Bill had a scruffy
ancient pack, with years' worth of attachments he had apparently sewn
on himself.  Unlike Paul, he was clearly carrying most of the weight
for them.

     Barbara spread a tarp on the ground by our car to help me sort
our gear, while Paul fussed with his clothes in the back of the
wagon.

     She got down on all fours to help me make piles.  Even in that
position she looked natural and poised.  Her red hair fell in light
curls over a fine broad face with high cheekbones.  And her legs
would be the envy of a woman ten years younger - slender with subtle,
well-shaped muscles.

     "Shar, I've looked forward to this trip more than anything else
in years," she said.  "Oh, this sun shower you brought - we have one,
so you probably won't need it.  It only takes a half hour for the
water to get hot in this weather."

     "OK.  Too much weight."  I paused.  "I've missed you too, Barb. 
A lot.  I didn't realize how much until I saw you."

     Bill noticed that our tent wasn't well packed and offered to 
repack it for us.  I helped him pull it out of its bag.  I had never
seen Bill in shorts before.  He certainly wasn't a looker like
Barbara or Paul, but there was something very pleasing - even
reassuring - about his body and the way he carried himself.  He
seemed completely comfortable with himself and was quite
inconspicuously nice-looking.  His dark eyes were intriguing.

     I watched Bill take the tent over to a clear area and spread it
out, then turned to Barbara.  Under my breath I said, "I hope Paul
gets with the program."

     On cue, Paul noticed that I had packed only one pair of wool
socks for him and seethed.

     "Can't I trust you to do one simple thing?  Now what am I going
to do?"

     "Sorry, honey," I said, "I looked for the others, but forgot to
ask you."

     "That doesn't solve the problem, does it?"

     I didn't respond, but went over to help Bill fold our tent.  He
smiled warmly, and I could see that he was very happy I could come on
the trip.  He got a little confused folding the tent, because he was
admiring my legs as I moved around pulling the tent out and laying
out the folds.  I did the high jump in college, and still like the
exercise of climbing stairs for hours, so my legs are well-developed,
with long ripply muscles.

     "What's the plan for the trip, Bill," I asked.

     "We'll go up to the notch - about four hours - then take off
cross country over a ridge to my hidden lake.  Pretty tough with the
packs, especially through a rocky patch.  But it's only us and the
bears there.  We can explore from the lake."

     "Is it isolated enough for us to go native?"

     "I always do."

     Paul called me back before we finished, "C'mere.  What's this?"

     "Dried papaya.  You can at least carry the snacks."

     "It's yours.  I won't eat it.  If you want it, you carry it. 
I'm going to take a leak."

     Paul - still handsome and lean-legged with a blond surfer look -
was anything but a surfer.  He seemed to hate exercise now that he no 
longer played sports - he stopped in law school in fact, and worked
without let up.  How I wished that his beautiful body would be warmer
and more intimate!

     Barbara came over to help me finish packing.  When I knew her
ten years ago in college, I yearned to have her physical grace.  I
was the athlete, but she had the moves.   When I had told her so, she
stammered that no, I was the magnetic, beautiful one.  She said she
wished she had my strong, fast legs and broad shoulders to do the
show-stopping athletic things her slender, shapely legs and small
shoulders could not.  Funny - we each wanted to be in the other's
body.

     After an hour, we were ready.  Paul locked the car and threw his
pack on his back.  "Let's go!"

     Barbara looked at me sympathetically, "Well, Sharon, we'll
soften him up."

     I could only roll my eyes.  "Bill doesn't seem to need
softening."  She grinned broadly and started up the trail.

     Bill gestured for me go ahead of him.  I didn't mind, since I 
knew he would be admiring my legs, and I needed some appreciation
after getting the brush-off from Paul for a week.

     I was surprised three years ago when Barbara married such a
seemingly ordinary guy, since she had gone through quite a few of the
big men on campus at Stanford, then fast-track doctors, corporate
lawyers, industrial heirs, Stanford professors, and others I lost
track of.  

     I thought at the time that she must have wanted to be married to
a scientist, since she was a good molecular biologist.  Bill was some
sort of physicist at Berkeley on a special fellowship so he didn't
have to teach.  Barbara said something about strings, or
superstrings.

     Me?  I'm just a programmer.  Or rather, a Senior Software
Systems Engineer, at NASA.

     Paul was hiking fast.  He should with that light pack!  Bill
began humming some Balkanish songs, while I looked for butterflies. 
And compared Barbara's beauty ahead of me to theirs.  With her fluid
motion she was moving up the trail quickly, without seeming effort.

     Miles went by as my attention flitted back and forth among the
butterflies, daddy longlegs, strange mushrooms, and Barbara's
hypnotic legs.

     Barbara was slight, but she was surprisingly strong, as I had
discovered during some roughhousing in college.  I put on a spurt and
caught up with her.

     I wondered if she was still happy with just one man.  She had
never let any man date her exclusively.

     "Hi.  So is Bill it for you?"

     "Ummm."  She glanced at my face.  "What do you mean?"  She
looked around to see that Bill was out of earshot.  Paul was well
ahead.

     "Well, I mean you were never with just one man before.  Does
that change with marriage?  I was pretty much one guy at a time, so
marriage isn't such a big change for me."
     
     "Who's happy all the time?" She paused for a moment. "Remember
Kevin?"

     "Sure," I said, "he was the jealous one."

     "Possessive, not jealous.  Once, he almost got me to get rid of
the others.  We kept in touch even after I met Bill.  About a year
ago Bill was totally absorbed in a research problem, always logged
into the supercomputer center, and I was ravenous, so I gave Kevin a
call."

     "Oh, oh.  Did Bill find out?"

     "I told him.  He said it was OK.  He knows he can't be all
things to me all the time.  And I can't to him.  Anyway, Kevin liked
it so much..."

     "Didn't he always!"

     "...that he just moved in.  I got so bad with two men under one
roof that I was pestering Bill more than before."

     "Even with Kevin there?"

     "Uh huh.  But it was too good to last.  Kevin got possessive
again."

     "And not Bill?"

     "How could he?  He was getting more of me than he did before."

     "Men don't need too much excuse to get possessive."

     "Bill's bigger than that.  You'll see when you get to know him. 
Anyway, Kevin couldn't stand it and moved out after six months.  Too
bad.  Couldn't share, silly boy."

     It was a hot day, and Barbara's t-shirt was starting to stick to
her lovely breasts, so that I could see her nipples.  I took a peek
when I could.

     "You were happy?  It wasn't just sex?"

     "Oh yes, happy.  "

     "And now?"

     She smiled. "Bill's about perfect, as far as I'm concerned."

     "Don't advertise your man.  Paul can do his own advertising, I
don't care.  I could use a spare."

     "Ooohh.  Slam."

     "So how did you work it?  Two men, I mean."

     "We tried a schedule, but I was too horny for that."  Barbara
blushed slightly.  "No schedule for me."

     "Like, did the other have to take a walk, or what?"

     "For a while, I thought I ought to be considerate and screw only
when the other one was gone.  But that was too complicated, and it
was unnecessary anyway.  So we just did it impromptu.  When we could,
I liked it all of us together, the threesome.  I hadn't done that
before.  There's nothing else like it.  Men taste different, feel
different, and move different.  You just bounce from one to the
other, getting higher and higher."

     "Mmmm?  Give me a blow by blow sometime...  so to speak."

     "I will.  I will."

     The sound of boots behind had been getting louder.  I looked
around and saw Bill closing.

     "You two are slowing up.  Must be interesting."

     Barbara started to respond, but instead looked for Paul.  "Our
fierce leader seems to be slowing, too.  Isn't this the notch?"

     Bill said, "Yes.  The end of the dusty trail for us.  And it's
time for lunch.  We need energy for the cross-country.  Whoa, Paul! 
Let's eat here where we have the view."

     Paul came stomping back without expression.  I told him, "We're
going to be together for a week.  You can't be a grump."

     He pretended to smile and sat down with his lunch.  I sat down
beside him and began to eat.  An orange-black butterfly landed on my
foot.  "Look!" I shouted.

     "Monarch," Paul clipped.

     Barbara looked over "No, Paul, that's a Viceroy.  See the black
band on the wings?"  Bill concurred.

     Paul jumped to his feet.  "OK.  That's it.  I didn't want to
come on this trip with a bunch of know-it-alls.  And now I'm not
going to.  Goodbye."  And he hoisted his pack and headed down the
trail.

     I sat there in shock.  Bill yelled, "Stop.  We need you."  But
Paul was already out of sight around the bend.

     Bill said we shouldn't try to follow him, and I agreed.  I
didn't want to be with him any more than they did.  Paul had the car
keys and the money, so he could do what he wanted.

     "We'll wait for an hour, then head for the lake.  If he doesn't
come back, Barbara and I can share our supplies with you.  Nice you
have the food.  We have a three person tent.  A bit tight, but we'll
be OK."

     As the hour passed, I felt better and better about Paul's
tantrum.  In fact I was feeling downright giddy.  Bill was so
comforting.  Not a trace of condescension in that man.  He put his
arm around me and Barbara sat with me.  We talked about old times,
how beautiful it was up here in the mountains, anything.  Nothing
could be better than a week with these two happy, funny friends.

     Before we knew it over an hour had passed.  Bill showed us both
where the route to his lake went.  He gave me his whistle in case I
ever got out of sight.  I lifted my bare but dirty right leg up
against his belly, and he playfully grabbed it.  "With these logs, I
should be able to follow you anywhere."

     He laughed and was slow to let go.  I would have fallen if
Barbara hadn't grabbed my waist, also laughing.  I began to giggle,
fell down, and took them with me.

     The trip to the lake was much harder than it looked, especially
with packs.  We made it only as it was getting dark.  Bill rapidly
put up the tent behind a huge boulder while Barbara and I went to the
lake to get water to brush our teeth and wash up.  We all had a quick
snack, strung up the food away from the bears, and were in bed in a
few minutes.

     The tent was a long tubular affair that I hadn't seen before,
like an old quonset hut.  With all the packs at the foot end, there
was plenty of room for three people to stretch out abreast.  We laid
out our sleeping pads and bags.  I stripped down to my panties and t-
shirt and lay down on top of my sleeping bag, because the tent was
still so warm.  I took the right side since I always slept that way
with Paul, and went right to sleep.

     I was having a dream of slipping naked through a warm forest in
which men and women came out from behind the trees as I was passing
and caressed me on the legs, ass, belly, and breasts.  Very turned
on, I woke up to a rustling noise seeming to come from outside of the
tent.  It was very bright, like daylight.

     I sat up part way.  "What's that?" I whispered.

     There was a muffled giggle and the rustling stopped.  I turned
to look for Barbara and Bill, but only Bill was lying beside me,
naked.  He looked like a guilty little boy.

     Barbara was crouched down by the packs between Bill's legs,
holding his large erection by her face, looking up at me with a big
smile.  I just stared.  By what I now realized to be moonlight,
Bill's cock looked huge.  Then I saw it start to go soft in Barbara's
hand.

     Quickly she said, "Don't ruin this, Shar.  Kiss him."  She
wiggled his softening cock.  "Fix this thing."

     I turned to Bill, not quite knowing what to do.  He looked at me
half in confusion, half in anticipation.  I started to roll over
toward him.  "Hurry!" Barbara urged.

     I put my right hand on his cheek and rolled it toward me as I
leaned over him on one elbow and lowered my lips to his.  He kissed
back tentatively at first, then put his arm around my back under my
t-shirt and pulled me firmly to him.  This was a man who knew how to
kiss!  A warm feeling spread through my already tingling belly and
cunt.

     Some pleased sounds came from below.  I broke off and looked
down at Barbara, who was kissing an erection returned to its original
glory.  She began sucking the head and nibbling around it as Bill
pulled me back toward him.  He grabbed my t-shirt with both hands and
pulled it off.  I pressed against him and lowered my tender nipples
to his face.

     I've always been proud of my breasts.  They didn't shrivel up
when I was in track, like some others did.  If a man wanted my heart,
he had to pay proper attention to my breasts as well as my mind!

     Bill was already writhing from the excruciating pleasure Barbara
was giving him, but he knew a lively pair of breasts when he saw it. 
He began gently kissing around one nipple while brushing the other
with his fingertips.  I moaned, put my hand on his side and pressed
my cunt up against him, hard, and began to rub.

     In moments Bill began nibbling one nipple while rubbing the
other between his fingertips.  He knew I wasn't going to be a slow
one.  It took my breath away, and I began to gasp.

     Barbara raised up from her enthusiastic efforts at doing I don't
know what all to Bill's big ice cream cone.  While still holding it
in a grip of death, she put a hand under my panties and began to tug
them down.  I wriggled to help her and in seconds they were off.

     I threw a leg over Bill's to get it between my thighs.  He
pulled it up tight against my cunt.  I got up on all fours with his
raised thigh against my cunt, my nipple in his mouth (only tall girls
can do this!), as Barbara rubbed his cock against my thigh and
stroked my ass with a light feathery touch.

     This was too much for me.  I thrust my cunt quick and hard
against Bill's thigh once, twice, three times.  Everything went hazy
and I could hear my voice from far away in a little high-pitched
scream that just went up and up until I couldn't stand it anymore. 
There were shuddering moans and I remember biting Bill on the
shoulder.

     I lay on my side by Bill, my arms folded over my breasts, and
Barbara stretched out on top of him cradled between his legs, with
her arm around me, pulling me close.  I kissed Bill's chest in long,
slow kisses as I felt the peace come over me.

     Barbara had Bill's still engorged cock pressed against her cunt
and she began to move against it, her breath catching as she got it
right up against her clit.  I snuggled closer, not wanting to be left
out.  Barbara stroked my hair as she pressed up and down against
Bill's hard cock.  She got a far-away look in her eye.

     I began to stroke her ass with the same delicate touch she had
given me.  She pulled my head toward her, leaned over and gave me I
think the longest, deepest kisses I have ever gotten.  She devoured
me.  I reached in between her legs, found Bill's cock, and pressed it
harder against her cunt.

     She groaned and writhed and pressed her face into Bill's chest. 
Bill was raking her back with his fingernails and digging his fingers
into her buttocks and pressing her to him.  She raised up slightly
and began to move rapidly against Bill's cock.  Her perfect breasts
hung down and rippled with her vibrations.  Her breath was coming
fast.

     While I held Bill's cock in place with two fingers, and moved my
palm back and forth gently over Barb's buns, I moved my other arm
under his head and kissed him with the same deep kisses Barbara had
given me.  He clearly loved being devoured, too, for his breath
became ragged and he groaned and clutched at Barbara and me.

     Barbara started to nibble his ear, but gave up, whimpered, and
began vibrating very rapidly.  Noises I never had heard from her
emerged from somewhere deep in her chest.  Not a groan, not a scream,
not a shout.  Whatever it was, it came rolling out of her over and
over as she quivered and slowly stroked her cunt up and down Bill's
cock as I held it against her.
     
     Then she fell against Bill and was perfectly still, utterly
relaxed.  "I can't move," she murmured.  In moments she was asleep. 
Bill let her slip off to the other side of him and covered her with
the flap of her sleeping bag.

     Having pleased his women, he was now set on pleasing himself. 
He pushed me back onto my bag and buried his face in my breasts,
belly, and cunt.  He crouched over me, his thighs pressing my flanks
while he scooped my head and shoulders into his arms and kissed every
square inch he could reach.

     "Sharon, I don't know how this could happen so fast, but I think
I love you."

     "Oh, no, not a line after this beautiful loving," I thought.  I
looked hard at his face.  Perhaps I saw traces of love there.

     He was rubbing his wonderful hard cock against my belly and
chest.  I suddenly needed it, and reached for it to bring it to my
mouth so I could give it the same love and attention Barbara gave it
earlier.

     But he pulled it away, moved down, and placed its shining head
against my cunt, pressing it gently against me.  I reached down to
hold it, wiggled slightly and he was in.  I pulled him to me, burying
him in my hungry cunt all the way.

     He stopped right there, holding perfectly still.  I began
massaging his cock with my vagina, grabbing the base and rippling up
to the head, as if I were milking a goat on my uncle's farm.  I
wasn't a trained athlete for nothing.  I held his face in front of me
so I could watch his expression while I did this.  He was feeling it
as deeply as I was.

     This boy was a real lover.  Most men won't sit still for this
sort of thing for very long.  But he held back and let it work its
magic on him.  And on me.  Soon I was clearly having an orgasm, but
not the wrenching kind that leaves you drained.  It emanated from my
cunt (or clit - I couldn't tell which) like a warm subsonic buzz
making my whole body hum, or like a low-level electric shock.  I
shuddered, closed my eyes and visualized the fire racing around my
nerves.

     Bill began to move inside me, which caused the fire to race
faster, but steady, steady.  His cock seemed to fill me, to fill more
than my cunt.  His cock expanded to fill my whole body.  I was his
cock and his cock was me.  We were on the same endless wheel of fire.

     He moved up and stroked the length of his cock hard against my
clit.  I spasmed uncontrollably again and again, and still it would
not quit.

     After a time he put my legs over his broad, strong shoulders and
moved deeply inside me.  I could feel him at the gates.  My cunt was
seizing him again and again, as he held and held, moving only
slightly.

     Then I began to sob.  I don't know why.  Perhaps the body wasn't
built to stand so much pleasure for so long.

     He began long, slow, powerful, deep strokes.  Now at last I
could concentrate on him.  He groaned, then growled.  I saw movement
out of the corner of my eye.  Barbara was up on one elbow watching
us.  Bill was unaware.  He was unaware of anything except the cunt-
thrusting urgency in his loins.

     There was a slight hesitation.  He grabbed my shoulders and
started to truly batter me.  I thought I was strong, but at this
moment he was more than strong, he was overwhelming.  He began to
scream, a high scream, them a low scream, then he twisted around as
if in a death agony, his head flung back, and gurgled.  Then he
seized me with more strength than I thought possible, as I grasped
him firmly with my powerful legs to protect myself, and he just
seemed to go over the edge thrusting into me like Secretariat and
howling strange noises.  This seemed to go on forever, then suddenly
it was over.  He collapsed, completely winded, his cock still hard
inside me.  In a minute he rolled off between me and Barbara.

     Barbara edged over and together we warmed him as his breath
returned to normal, and held him between us.  She covered us all with
a sleeping bag.  We held hands on his belly.  As I drifted off to
sleep, I could not imagine what might happen the rest of the week. 
This instant, I was truly happy.

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