The song ended abruptly, as so many early recordings did, and then there was just the hiss of the needle in the groove and Ellen's eyes locked on mine.
Eric got up and turned off the stereo and turntable, put the record back in its sleeve and came back and sat beside Ellen.
No one spoke. I didn't know what to say. The feelings of loneliness and hunger evoked from Johnson's voice and guitar were too much with me, and I hardly noticed when Eric put his arm around Ellen in a husbandly gesture. He sat like that for a while, then leaned over and took her in a deep, passionate kiss-not the kind of kiss you see in public.
I sat there in shock, trying not to stare at them. Ellen didn't seem to take part, but she made no special attempt to get away either. Her hand rested lightly on Eric's shoulder, her head was back, and in the silence of the record's ending, it was almost like I could hear their tongues against each other. It was a terribly awkward feeling.
Eric broke the kiss and pressed his lips to her throat while his hand went to her knee and began to slide up her leg. Ellen made no move to stop him.
"I think I'd better get going, then," I said.
"No, stay," Eric replied. "We're all friends here, and we're celebrating, right? This isn't anything you haven't seen before, is it? An old cocksman like you?"
I cleared my throat nervously. "Still, two's company and three's a crowd…"
"Stay!" He barked the word out impatiently, then caught himself and grinned at me. "Please."
I wasn't used to being ordered around, but he caught me by surprise. Besides, the sorry truth was that watching him with Ellen was arousing in a perverse and morbid kind of way. It hurt, but it was exciting too, and I was curious as to just what was going on.
He kissed her again, and then his head slid down so that he was kissing her neck. His hand went to her breast, and he began openly caressing it, crushing the fabric in his hand right before my eyes. I felt the vicarious sensation from when I had held that very same breast, and still Ellen sat there, one hand lazily on his shoulder, the other on the sofa at her side. She was looking straight at me again, peering over Eric's shoulder, as if to see how I was taking it.
"She's beautiful, isn't she?" Eric said. "Perfect body too. Want to see?"
"Eric…" Ellen objected, but he wasn't listening. The little black dress she wore had no buttons. It wrapped around her and was held closed by a black sash, and despite her protest she sat there unmoving as Eric untied it and pulled the top open, exposing her naked breasts. She wasn't wearing a bra.
"Listen, I've really got to go," I said.
Eric looked over his shoulder at me. "That would be such a shame, Jimmy. I thought this was going to be a celebration, a special night."
He turned back to her and started kissing her tits. "She's crazy about you, you know," he said. Ellen closed her eyes, whether in pleasure or embarrassment, I couldn't tell. "I could see it from the start, and I'm not especially good at reading people, so you must know it too. We're all partners now. I thought we might make a night of it."
"Okay, that's enough." I stood up but he didn't stop.
He reached his head down and caught one of her nipples between his lips and sucked on it, doing it nice and slow so I got a good view, then let it slip from his mouth.
"Just the other day she called out your name while we were fucking, didn't you, darling?
I caught her on it. I told her if she wanted to pretend I was you, that was fine with me.
Anything that would bring a little enthusiasm back to our lovemaking was okay with me."
He looked up at me. "That's when I first thought of us having a three-way. Don't you think that's a good idea? That way we each get what we want. And this little celebration is the perfect opportunity."
I knew I should leave, but I didn't. I stood there, knowing I was being had, knowing I was being used in some sort of game, but powerless to leave. Eric lowered his mouth to her nipple again and Ellen arched in pleasure, a little hiss escaping her lips. I might have left then, but when I looked at her she was gazing back at me over his shoulder, and the look in her eye said I was the one she wanted. Eric might be kissing and fondling her, but Ellen's eyes said she wanted me to be doing it. She patted the seat next to her, showing where she wanted me to sit.
That look from her just shocked me so much that I sat right back down in my chair. I knew what Eric was doing now. He might not know what happened between Ellen and me, but he knew about our feelings for each other, and he was going to use 28
them in this perfect, three-way deal. He'd give me Ellen in return for the record; at the same time he'd shame me with my desire for another man's wife. He'd prove to Ellen that she was a slut, and prove to me she wasn't worth loving, all under the guise of an innocent little sexual threesome.
And what made it all so galling was that he was right. The more he caressed and fondled her, the more aroused I got. Her eyes never left my face, even as she arched her back and rolled her breasts against his sucking mouth, or opened her legs to let his hand inside. She was into it. She was getting aroused, showing me what she had to offer, how she could be good for me. I couldn't believe how much I wanted her.
The record was forgotten. That hell bound train had left the station, abandoning us three behind, and Eric caught Ellen in a deep and passionate kiss, his hand working under her short dress as her legs first parted, then closed hard on his hand, and even though he was kissing her, her eyes were on me, begging me to join them.
She broke the kiss and looked away, just as Eric got his hands under her knees and pressed her legs up against her chest, so that I got a perfect view of her swollen pussy pressed between her thighs, barely shaded by her transparent panties. Her eyes blazed, knowing I had seen, and it was as if after all these months of being together and our session in the backroom, she now at last wanted to show me all of herself, show me what she really wanted from me. I've seen my share of female genitals, but the sight of Ellen's pussy bulging against her sheer panties with Eric leaning over her struck me with terrific erotic force, more than even her sheer nakedness could have. Under her clothes she was naked for me, and she was waiting-had been waiting all this time.
He kept her legs pushed up against her breasts and her sex exposed as he kissed his way down her body, sliding down till he was kneeling on the floor. Ellen twisted her body as he sank down on her, finally throwing one bare leg over his back and grabbing his hair. She knew full well where he was going and what he was going to do, and she was eager for him to get on with it. Her dress was short, and Eric pushed it up over her stomach with both hands as he grabbed her ass and raised it off the sofa.
The panties I had just glimpsed before were now fully on display as Ellen raised her hips and opened her thighs for Eric's mouth.
I sat there, horrified and aroused. It was all a show for my benefit. I knew that, and if I had any doubts I only had to look at Ellen, slumped back against the couch with the top of her dress open and her breasts exposed. Her face had taken on a lewd and wanton look, and her eyes were smoldering as she stared straight at me. She let me see all the lust and desire in her face as Eric pulled the crotch of her panties to the side and began to eat her and she responded by lifting her hips in a slow, obscene rhythm.
I suppose I should have been horrified seeing the woman I loved treated this way. I suppose I should have listened to my pride and stormed out, insulted. But that wasn't my reaction at all. The sight of Ellen in such a state of lust, being pleasured by another man, inflamed me.