NOTE: This is an adult story. If you are not a legal adult in your jurisdiction, please do not continue. If frank depictions of human sexuality offend you, please do not continue. Otherwise, please enjoy.
Pam and her friends had gathered once again in her living room. Students at Smallville College, they had embarked on a sexual journey that was beginning to worry them.
They had all grown up in conservative homes. Sex, when discussed, had usually been in the context of "don't." Abstinence, monogamy and, someday, children, were permissible topics. Masturbation, orgasm and pleasure were never mentioned - at least, never positively.
And yet, these four women and two men had joined together, examined each other's bodies, visited a nudist resort and, in front of each other, had masturbated individually and jointly in the last several weeks. If you had asked any of them if they ever imagined they'd be gathered together like this, having had the experiences they'd had, the answers would have ranged from a gasp of shock through a simple no and on to "only in my most exotic fantasies."
Jenny was speaking. "I'm not sure what we've been doing is right. Sure, it's fun, and it is bringing us closer together, but I know my parents would be really upset to hear about what I've been doing. I mean, isn't sex supposed to be reserved for marriage, or at least for two people really in love and planning to get married? That's what I was always told."
"But what about your cousin Clare's family?" asked Alan. "Aren't they nudists? And didn't your cousin take you to a resort to see naked men when you turned eighteen? Didn't they have a different point of view?"
"Well, yeah, kind of," replied Jenny. "But even though they are nudists they're pretty conservative about sex. I mean, I asked Clare about it that day, and she told me that nudism wasn't about sex. She said that her parents aren't as conservative as mine - they let her date and all that in high school - but they'd been pretty distinct about not having sex. Her mother had caught her masturbating once, and Clare said all she said was 'that wasn't something a lady did' and gave her a look. So I'm still not sure about all of this."
"Ok," said Pam. "I understand what you're saying. I was raised pretty much that way too. And what we're doing isn't the kind of thing my folks would approve of either. But I think we are learning something, and I do think we respect each other and care for each other."
"You could get intellectual about it," said Mitsy. "I mean, think about it like this. We're given certain gifts in life, and one of those gifts is your body and another is the pleasure that certain parts of your body provides. And another one is the capacity to care and love for other people. So, with all that in mind, and keeping in mind that you're supposed to use the gifts you're given wisely, aren't we doing that?"
"You mean fooling around is the moral thing to be doing?" asked Alan, a bit sarcastically.
"No," replied Mitsy. "Fooling around is not particularly moral. But sharing our gifts with each other, in a respectful, caring, loving relationship may well be."
"But can six people have that kind of a relationship all together? I mean, only some religions allow polygamy or polyamory." Jenny was perplexed.
"Well," chipped in Amy, "I don't know if we can limit this to religion. I mean, we all go to church and stuff, and the kind of religions we were raised in frown on this kind of thing, but are we doing something that's all that wrong? We're not doing it to rebel against our faiths or our families or anything. And since we're a group, don't you think we're more likely to think things out a bit more?"
"But is just thinking it out and being careful and all that enough?" asked Jenny. "I mean, yeah, with six of us someone is going to ask a question if we start doing something really stupid. But are we just fooling ourselves? Are we just giving into pleasure and not keeping sex sacred?"
"Should sex be sacred?" asked Larry quietly.
"Well, in some ways, yeah," said Pam. "I think it can be the ultimate union of two people, at least physically."
"Is it just limited to two people? Hasn't what we've done created unity among us?" Amy challenged the group. Of them, she'd probably been raised the most liberally, at least in some ways. Her parents just didn't talk about sex. They left her some books and her mom had said to ask if she had any questions. At least she'd told her about menstruation and everything when she came home from school after the hygiene film. She'd tried to date in high school, without a lot of success, but she had hung out with a group of guys and girls. Anyway, she had cousins, too. And her cousins' family lived in a real, live commune, right out of the sixties. Her parents had sent her to visit a couple of times. When she asked her dad about it he said that it was important to be exposed to different points of view. Anyway, those had been pretty memorable visits.
Amy's cousins were twins - Brad and Melanie. They showed her around the commune and she helped them do their chores and stuff. But at night the older kids in the commune would get together and go swimming and stuff. And they skinny-dipped when they went swimming. But what they said about their parents was what got Amy's attention. Apparently they all considered themselves one big family, and it wasn't unusual for different parents to sleep together or for even a bunch of them to get together for an orgy. Of course, the kids weren't allowed to go to the orgies, but as they got older their parents told them about their beliefs and about how they felt sharing their bodies was a way of keeping their community together. The older kids were told all about birth control and about commitment and the parents were pretty strict about sex and about how it was better to wait until you were more of an adult.
Melanie had even told Amy about how she and Brad played doctor when they were little, and how one night they had watched each other masturbate. But they thought it was a little weird, being brother and sister and all, so even though it had been fun and really interesting, they'd never done it again.
"Maybe," Amy said after telling her friends about them, "we're like that group."
"I don't think so," said Jenny. "I mean, they're established and all, and adults. We're still in school. And we've only been at this a few weeks. What physical and emotional intimacy we have is still pretty much at an early stage. And I'm not so sure we should go further."
"I don't think you're telling us what's really bothering you," said Amy.
"What do you mean?" replied Jenny.
"I think there's something behind all this. I think you're perfectly capable, at least intellectually, of dealing with the idea of us becoming some kind of polyamorous group, or at least a group of people who share some physical intimacy. I think something else is bothering you."
"Well, yeah, there is," admitted Jenny, quietly. She was ducking her head, blushing and looking at the floor. Her straight brown hair was falling around her face, hiding it from the others.
"Tell us," demanded Pam.
"Well," Jenny stammered, "it's how I'm reacting."
"What do you mean?" asked Mitsy.
"Well, I mean, it's my body. I mean, how it was last time. What I was doing."
"I think you were enjoying yourself," said Amy.
"It was more than that. I mean, I couldn't get enough. I've never been like that. I was sore the next day. I mean, I was jamming my fingers inside me, and..." Jenny blushed bright red. She had looked up and seen Alan hanging on her every word.
