Whatever way you look at it, December and its holiday season is always a loaded time of year. Different cultures celebrate differently, and even within cultures, individuals focus on varying aspects of the spectacle. For Megan and me, multiple complementary factors meant it was especially loaded. First, we'd moved away from our families to live in California together, so in some senses, we were all each other had. Second, as two secular people, we felt no attachment to any religious trappings and were able to invent our own rituals and traditions. Third, as an interracial couple - her black and me white - we'd grown up with radically different end-of-year experiences in our childhood. But, and possibly most impactful of all - was the fact that my girlfriend's birthday fell on December 24th. Growing up with religious parents, Megan's birthday had gotten lost in the shuffle as often as not, meaning now, in her new life as an adult out on her own, she was keen on having December 24th receive its own fanfare.
Which is why I was especially intrigued to receive an out of the blue text from a good friend on a mid-December Saturday morning. My phone lit up while I was reading a book next to Megan as she played video games on our Nintendo Switch.
"Hey Liam - hope you and Megan have been well since Carnival! Leigh and I have a wedding in your area the morning after Christmas, so we'll be in town all week. We'd love to meet up if you two are available."
I sat still, my mind racing. I glanced from object to object in the room, a strange reflex we all express while rapidly thinking through something exciting. Kevin and Leigh were our two good friends from Houston Texas that we'd met in Barbados for Carnival this past August, just a few months back. Megan and I vacationed in Barbados for a week and a half and met a married couple a few years older than us, immediately becoming close friends. And, when I say "close friends", I mean it quite literally, as our unit's plunge pool ended up fueling nightly debauchery with them that I could have once scarcely imagined I would ever enjoy first-hand. Kevin and Leigh were also Black - though, technically, Leigh was half-Japanese and half-Black - and were really,
really
good looking people.
If they were coming to California, I absolutely wanted to see them again - even if just to hang out with Kevin once more. We really bonded in Barbados and both lamented the distance between Texas and California which complicated any efforts to nurture our budding friendship. But beyond that, Megan and Leigh had also become good friends. Hell, even the cross relationships had blossomed - I missed Leigh, and I knew Megan would love to see Kevin again. I pondered a surprise birthday party involving Kevin and Leigh plus just the right local friends to foster a frisky atmosphere.
I turned my head toward Megan's side of the couch and attempted to ask casually, "Do you have any specific wishes for your birthday this year?"
Megan didn't look away from the TV as she answered, "I dunno - something special."
That was a non-answer, since I knew she wanted that every year. But, as I thought about it more, maybe it wasn't a non-answer, because it meant she wasn't thinking about anything in particular, like a trip, which might put us out of town while Kevin and Leigh were around for this wedding.
I checked my calendar - Christmas was on a Friday this year, which made sense for their wedding the day after. This also meant Megan's birthday would fall on a Thursday - though that part never mattered because Christmas Eve and Christmas always overrode their days of the week.
"I think I have something in mind for you, but it'll be a surprise."
Megan paused her game and looked at me sweetly. "Aww - thank you!" she said with a warm smile. She loved surprises and always felt seen whenever she knew one was coming. Did she want the surprises spoiled? Of course not. But did she like to know they existed? Definitely yes.
I returned her grin, for the thousandth time overcome by her company. You see, Megan was quite the sight and had snapped more necks in her day that any of us truly realized. She was about average height, standing about 5'4" (1.63m), but was stacked, as the kids said. Megan exercised every day which shaped a physique that could turn gay men straight or straight women gay. Her legs were toned and lean, with calves and thighs that activated a man's salivary glands. Her ass was, to put it mildly, huge, but all muscle. I joked that you could bounce a quarter off it, which wasn't actually that much of an exaggeration. Her tummy was tight enough to allow her strong ab muscles to vaguely poke through - a grand prize for all the miles she ran and weights she lifted. And somehow, despite all this, her breasts were still immaculate C-cups that defied gravity well enough to make Elphaba proud.
But all of that paled in comparison to her smile. Megan looked like a Disney princess, with her enormous, twinkling eyes, broad African nose, and big full lips that curled upward when she smiled to reveal pearly white teeth. Megan was hit-on, cat-called, asked if she modeled, or otherwise flattered almost every time we left the house. It was so predictable and regular - even with me right there! - that you could basically set your watch by it.
"Of course - only the best for my baby," I said, prompting her to lean in for a kiss. Her lips were soft and pillowy - a contrast to the bite of her lip gloss. I longed to feel and taste her tongue, but she was leaning back after only a peck. She wore very little on this lazy Saturday morning - just a cut-off t-shirt that covered down to her nipples but left her underboob and tummy free, and a simple brown thong that was nude-colored for her skin tone. California was experiencing a December heat wave, meaning we didn't have to seal the house shut and crank up the thermostat to be warm and comfortable. And because of this, and the sight of her toned body jiggling ever so slightly, my brain launched a rather conspicuous campaign to reallocate significant blood flow toward a different interest.
"Stardew Valley turning you on?" Megan asked while glancing at me out of the corner of her eye a minute later.
"Either the game or the person playing it - I can't tell," I answered.
"Oh really?" she asked, pausing the game once more and sliding over to sit on my lap, facing me with the game's pause screen behind her. I stared at the edges of her bulging ass cheeks, round and plump in this position, and the chocolate skin of her tits that arced upward before disappearing underneath her cutoff white t-shirt. I looked down at her tiny thong, just enough to cover her bits, and drooled a little.
"Yeah - one of the two of you," I continued. I sat my book down to rid myself of its distraction. "It's either all those grainy pixels, or, maybe it's these." I held her breasts in my hands, kneading their soft flesh in rolling waves under my fingers.
"Or maybe it's this?" Megan proposed, leaning backward and running a hand over her still-covered pussy.
"Could be that," I strained to say. My words were breathy and hot.
She leaned forward again and put her lips directly on my ear. In the quietest voice human vocal cords could muster, she whispered, "And what if it was that? What would that mean you're thinking about?"
I gulped, my spit suddenly thick and extra slimy. "It would mean I'm thinking about taking these off to get a better look," I said while snapping her thong's waistband back against her skin.
"Then why don't you?" she prompted.
"Actually, I have an idea," I said, and she perked up, her eyes wide with excitement and anticipation. "Remember when we had that competition the first night in Barbados to see who was in control?"
"Oooohh!!!" Megan said while visibly shivering in excitement. A second later she added, "I remember when you thought you'd be able to do more air squats than me.
'twas hubris led you there!"
"Yeah yeah - enough gloating. I never got you back for that night. Are you ready to follow my every instruction?"
Megan squirmed again and I noticed that her dark brown thong was becoming noticeably...
darker
. "Yes, except - it wouldn't feel the same if you didn't earn it. We need to have another challenge. Another bet."
I considered a few possible options before finding what I thought was a good idea. We were both extremely into fitness, as evidenced by our air squats competition last time, so I said, "How about push-ups? Can I do more with you lying on my back than you can do normally?"
"What?!" Megan exclaimed. "Are you serious? You think you can do more push-ups
with me on your back
than I can do outright?"
I nodded. Megan was a high caliber athlete and was still in outstanding shape, but most of her strength was in her lower body. I could do fifty good-form push-ups in one set, which probably meant I could do ten to twenty with her on my back, an estimate I strategically did not share.
"Okay, you're on! You want to go first or second?" she asked. Her expression was once again hotly defiant. If she did win this bet, I had no doubt she would use her sexual control over me to its greatest possible advantage.
"I'll go first with you on my back, then you can go. I want you to realize your doom during
your
