Natural Endurance

Week eight and Steve's celebrating. Some regional coaching award that comes with a plaque and a handshake from the athletics director. Been drinking since five and it's now nearly eleven. Megan's doing that thing wives do where they laugh at the same stories they've heard forty times while mentally calculating how drunk he is and whether she can get him upstairs to bed.

I'm on my third root beer because someone has to stay completely sober and apparently that's me.

"Dan, buddy, you know what your problem is?" Steve's got his arm round my shoulders. Breath like a distillery. "You think too much. Just gotta trust the process, man. Trust. The. Process."

He's said this seventeen times tonight. Americans love a catchphrase.

Megan catches my eye across the room. That look that says help me get him to bed before he starts crying about his dad.

Between us we get him upstairs. He's doing that drunk thing where he's trying to prove he's not drunk by walking very carefully, which just makes it more obvious.

"Guest room," Megan says. "I'm not hauling him all the way to ours."

We get him onto the bed in my room. Sits there. Tries to take his shoes off. Gives up.

"Love you, babe." Looking at Megan with unfocused sincerity. "You know that right?"

"I know, honey." She's unlacing his shoes. Voice neutral.

Twenty years of this and she's still here taking his shoes off while he tells her she's the best. I'm standing in the doorway watching and thinking about how he'd feel if he knew what his best wife does when he's not looking.

She gets him horizontal. He's asleep before his head hits the pillow. Proper gone. Snoring immediately.

We stand there looking at him for a second. Then she turns to me and I recognise the shift in her face. Been good all day. Done being good now.

"Katie's out. Won't be back until late. He's unconscious. He drank a bottle of bourbon. He's not waking up for anything."

She walks past me into the hallway. Down to the master bedroom. Doesn't look back. Just assumes I'm following. Which I am, obviously. Because I lack impulse control and she's walking ahead of me with her hips moving in that way that says she's already decided what's happening next.

Closes the door behind us. Not quite shut. Just pushed mostly closed.

She turns to face me and that's when I notice properly. She's wearing what Americans call pantyhose under her dress. Tights, we'd say. Sheer nude ones. The kind you can see skin through but not quite. There's this faint shine to them in the lamplight.

"Sit down Dan."

I sit on the edge of the bed. She stands between my legs and I can see the reinforced toe, the way the nylon catches the light on her calves.

"You're staring."

"Yeah."

She lifts her dress over her head. Just the tights and a bra underneath. The waistband sits at her hips and I can see the control top section, darker than the rest.

"You like them?"

Never really thought about women's tights before. Just something they wear. But seeing Megan standing there, the way the nylon smooths everything, the slight sheen, the way I can almost see her skin but not quite.

"Fuck yes. I do."

She kneels between my legs. Hands already at my shorts.

"Megan, he's in the next room."

"I know where he is." Pulls my shorts down. My cock's already half-hard because apparently my survival instinct is completely broken. "That's what makes it good."

She takes me in her hand. Strokes slowly. The other hand slides up her own thigh and the sound of nylon against nylon is doing something to my brain.

"You're bonkers."

"You're not stopping me."

She takes me in her mouth and fuck, she's so good at this. Six weeks and she knows exactly what I like. How much pressure. When to use her tongue. When to just suck.

I'm watching her head move, one hand resting on her thigh, feeling the warmth of her through the fabric. Thinking about Steve unconscious one room over. About how wrong this is. The thought makes me harder.

She pulls off. "Stop thinking."

"Can't help it."

"Try." Takes me deeper this time. I feel the back of her throat.

My hand goes to her hair. Not pushing. Just holding. The other hand slides down to where she's already torn them open at the gusset. I can feel how wet she is.

She looks up at me with my cock in her mouth and there's this question in her eyes I don't know how to answer.

That's when the door opens wider.

Katie's standing there in gym clothes. Hair pulled back. Face flushed from exercise or from what she's seeing, hard to tell which.

I freeze completely. Megan feels it, pulls off and follows my eyeline.

Nobody moves for maybe five seconds. Steve's snoring is audible through the walls.

Katie steps inside. Closes the door properly this time. The click sounds loud.

"Jesus mom! How long has this been going on?" Her voice is level, almost conversational.

Megan sits back on her heels but doesn't let go of me. "Oh sweetie...Um, six weeks. Since the day he got here. I'm sorry."

"Right." Katie's just staring at where her mother's hand is. "He's had me too, actually."

Silence.

"You what?"

"The forest trail run. His second day here." Katie's looking at me now. "Then the rest stop on the way to Asheville last week. You didn't tell her?"

"Er, you didn't tell me to."

"Fair point Dan."

Megan's still processing. "My daughter. You've been screwing my daughter?"

Screwing. Very American.

"Jesus Dan. Is there anyone in this family you haven't screwed?"

"Yeah, I haven't screwed Steve."

Megan laughs. Properly laughs, surprised into it, and some of the tension breaks. Then she's looking at her daughter. Twenty-four years of shared history with the same man.

The silence stretches. Steve's still snoring. Katie's still standing by the door. Megan's still on her knees. I'm still sitting here with my cock out like this is somehow normal.

"Hey, so your useless dad's passed out drunk."

"Yeah I know, I can hear him snoring from here."

Katie moves closer, sits on the bed beside me. Not touching yet. "So what now? Do we fight? Do I leave? Do we pretend this never happened?"

"Or." Megan's voice is different now, lower. "Or we stop pretending. Stop acting like we're not both doing the exact same thing for the exact same reason."

"Which is?"

"Your father hasn't really seen me in about five years." The stroking starts again, slow, her eyes on Katie's face. "I'm guessing he's not much better with you."

Katie sits properly. Close enough I can feel the warmth of her. "He still calls me baby girl. I'm twenty-four with a Master's degree."

"You know, he really doesn't know how to see women as actual people. Just roles." Megan's matter-of-fact about it. "Wife. Daughter. Things that reflect well on him."

"But Dan sees us?"

"Dan sees everybody." Megan looks up at me. "Don't you."

I'm sitting there with my cock out between two American women discussing family dynamics like this is normal.

"Um. Yeah totally?"

Katie reaches out, runs her finger down my chest. Light touch. Then lower, to where her mother's hand is. "We should probably be quiet though. Don't wanna wake Daddy."

Half-joking. They look at each other again. Some decision being made that I'm only tangentially involved in.

Megan pulls my shorts the rest of the way off. Katie stands up and I watch her strip. Sports bra. Leggings. Then she's reaching into her gym bag.

Pulls out pantyhose. Sheer ones like her mom's.

"I always bring spare pairs." Looking at her mum. "Never know when you'll need them."

She puts them on while we watch. Slides them up her legs slowly. The nylon catches and smooths. By the time she's got them on properly my cock is twitching.

Mother and daughter. Both in pantyhose. Twenty years between them. Both here because the same man can't see them properly.

Katie sits back on the bed. Megan's hand goes to her daughter's thigh. The sound of palm against nylon.

"You wanna see what he does to me?"

Katie takes my hand, places it on her leg. Warm through the sheer fabric.

"Yeah. Show me."

So I run my hand up her thigh slowly while Megan does the same on the other side. The friction makes Katie shift, breath catching. We're both just stroking over the nylon, watching her face, and she's getting more and more wound up.

"God, you can just--" Katie's not finishing sentences. "Just rip them, I don't--"

I look at Megan. She nods.

I hook my fingers in the waistband at Katie's hip. Pull. The tearing sound seems loud in the quiet room. Katie gasps. Megan tears the other side at the same time and then they're just shredding them, both of them laughing, and Katie's exposed with destroyed grey pantyhose hanging off her in strips.

Katie leans in and kisses me, her hand joining her mother's on my cock.

"God." Just breathing it.

Megan's mouth is on me again and Katie's watching, hand sliding between her own legs, and I'm thinking I'm absolutely going to die here. Not metaphorically. Actually die. My heart's going to give out or Steve's going to wake up and kill me or both.

They're taking turns now. Katie tries something, pulls back. "Like that?"

"Mm-hmm. But slower, he--" Megan demonstrates and Katie's learning and I'm watching this happen while running my hands over both of them and thinking this is properly mental.

"Oh shit, he just--" Katie laughs. Nervous. "We're really doing this."

"Seems like."

"This is so fucked up."

"Yep." Megan's hand wraps round my cock. "But you're not leaving."

"Nope."

I climb onto the bed between them. Both mostly naked. Both looking at me like I'm supposed to know what happens next and I absolutely don't. This wasn't covered in sex ed.

Megan lies back. Spreads her legs. Katie's right there watching. I push inside Megan and she gasps. Katie's got her hand between her legs. Eyes locked on where we're joined.

"Oh fuck." Megan's not giving directions anymore. Just reacting.

The bed's creaking. We're trying to be quiet but it's impossible. Katie moves closer, her hand sliding between us, touching where I'm sliding into her mother. Her finger brushes my cock and we both gasp.

"Mom, I can't believe--" Watching. "Jesus."

Megan's coming, whole body going rigid, and Katie's watching like she's learning something important.

When Megan stops shaking I pull out. Katie's already on her back, pushing what's left of the grey pantyhose down her legs.

"Me. I want--just--"

I'm inside her before I can think. She's different. Grips differently. I'm making the comparison automatically.

Megan's behind me now. Pressed against my back. Her hand wrapping round to guide my cock deeper into her daughter.

"Go slow, she needs--"

"Mom, oh my god, don't talk, just--"

I'm pushing into Katie while her mother holds my hips and my brain's just completely empty.

"That's it. You feel how--" Megan stops talking. Starts moving with me instead. Grinding against my arse in rhythm. Using me as the connection between them.

Katie's hands are on her own tits. Megan's reaching round me to rub Katie's clit and we're all moving together and nobody's being articulate anymore.

"Gonna make her--I can tell, she gets--"

And Katie is getting louder. These gasps getting higher and faster and I'm trying not to finish but it's impossible.

"Where do you want it?" Barely managing to speak.

"Inside. I wanna feel you--just--"

"Katie, you can't--"

"Pill, Mom. I'm on the pill. Jesus."

"Do it," Megan says in my ear. "I wanna--after--"

That does it. Katie comes first, clenching round me, and then I'm spunking inside her while her mother watches and holds me.

After, we're all just lying there breathing hard. Then Megan's moving down between Katie's legs and I realise what she's about to do.

"What are you--oh fuck, Mom--"

I'm watching Megan lick my come out of her daughter. Cleaning her. Tasting both of us. Katie's got her hand in her mother's hair, making these small sounds.

When Megan comes back up she kisses Katie properly. Open mouths. Sharing.

Then they both look at me.

Steve's still snoring down the hall.

"We're so fucked," Katie says. Starts laughing. Can't stop.

We all join in. Laughing like maniacs in the bed where he'll sleep tomorrow when they pour him out of the guest room.

We lie there after in the quiet. Window cracked. Summer air moving through.

"We should probably talk about this," Katie says.

"Tomorrow." Megan's voice is rough. "Let's just have tonight."

"You gonna leave him?" Katie asks it quiet. "For real this time?"

"Yeah. After summer. After Dan goes home. It's got nothing to do with either of you. It's just time."

Katie nods against my chest. "About damn time."

We fall asleep like that. When I wake up at four it's starting to get light. Katie's gone. Megan's still there. Curled against me.

I slide out carefully. Down the hall. Past the guest room where Steve's still snoring in my bed. To Katie's room where I fall asleep on top of the covers.

Eight weeks in America. Just shagged a mother and daughter together in the husband's bed while he slept down the hall. Discovered I've got a thing for ripping women's tights off them.

My dad always said I lacked impulse control. Proving him spectacularly right in North Carolina at twenty-two.

Either going to leave here the happiest man alive or in several pieces.

Probably both.