I know that you've been lonely, you could have used someone to talk to, but that's just one chapter, and honey your story ain't through

Marley and Nick didn’t know what to make of their situation for a second. They’d spent so much time working together to clear the escape room, and had expected that when they were finally done, they’d be sent back to the hotel.

I guess it makes sense not to send us back… Dakota did say we’d be here for the whole night, after all, Nick admitted to himself. And it’s not like we were going to sleep while solving all those puzzles. Of course there’d be a place like this to put us. I didn’t expect it to be a mountain cabin, though, that caught me completely by surprise.

Not that he was complaining.

So wait, we’re going to spend the rest of the night together here? In a log cabin!? Marley couldn’t believe it. But I thought we would be going back to the hotel! Although… Dakota has been pushing us to be intimate this whole time. Once we finished solving all those puzzles, it would make sense to put us somewhere like this, to be… together.

Not that she was complaining.

They glanced at each other, neither quite sure what to say.

Then Marley shivered.

“God, it’s so cold…” She wrapped her arms around her body to try and keep herself warm. “This is really not the right climate to be dressed like this, huh?” She tried to laugh it off with a joke, but to call herself “dressed” was a bit of an exaggeration. She was wearing a bra that struggled to contain her enormous breasts, and tight pants that had been completely soaked through and would likely freeze if she set foot outside.

“Yeah, this is… probably not the best place to put you after the stuff we went through,” Nick admitted, struggling not to look at Marley’s boobs. The cold air had caused her nipples to harden, and even though it was difficult to see through her bra, it wasn’t impossible.

He turned and looked around the cabin. “Luckily, there’s a fireplace over there,” he said, pointing at the crackling embers in the corner. The flames had all but died out, leaving the air in the cabin to be a little too chilly.

Marley grabbed a blanket off the couch and wrapped it around herself. It was hand-knit, and a little scratchy, but it was better than being cold. At the same time, Nick grabbed a log and gently placed it in the fireplace; the fire was so fragile he was afraid that tossing it on might smother what few flames there were.

He prodded the log with a poker, stirring up the fire until it swallowed the dry wood. Marley watched him with a soft smile on her face as the hearth roared back to life, and soon a blazing inferno burned before them as the flames engulfed the log.

Nick set the poker down and returned to Marley’s side. Color had returned to her cheeks as she felt herself warmed up; but she still needed to solve the problem of her wet clothes. So while she used the blanket as cover, she stripped out of her pants and her panties, and kicked off her shoes for good measure.

Now, she was naked under the scratchy blanket except for her bra. Her face began to heat up as she considered the possibilities that entailed, especially when she thought about how far they had gotten in the escape room before they’d been **** to stop.

She felt her body getting even hotter.

Marley shifted a little and shrugged the blanket off her shoulders. Now that the fire was going, she didn’t need as much coverage; she pooled it around her waist to cover herself, while bearing her chest and upper back to the warming cabin air.

“How’s that?” Nick sat on the couch behind her. “Are you feeling a little better?”

She turned back at him and beamed. “A lot better,” she confirmed, scurrying a little closer to the fire. “Thank you for that. It really means a lot to me.”

“I’m just glad you’re feeling okay,” Nick replied. “Walking around in just a bra up top can’t have been that pleasant.”

She giggled. “Well… certain parts of it were,” she replied, sneaking a glance at his crotch. To her disappointment, he wasn’t hard anymore.

Wait, disappointment? No, she wasn’t disappointed! It’s not like she was expecting something! She had just been curious, that’s all! Curious and concerned about Nick’s erection and whether or not he’d finally been able to deal with it!

…Well, not deal with it.

He didn’t have a chance to deal with it, she thought, turning and looking back at the fire to mask the reason why her face was so hot. We’ve been together the whole time… and he was **** to blue ball himself and not cum, so that we could clear the escape room.

Maybe it was Marley’s sexual frustration talking, but she was overflowing with sympathy for Nick and his current state.

A shiver rolled down her back and her chest bounced slightly. Maybe it was a little colder than she thought it would be…

But before she could grab her blanket and pull it back up, she felt a soft set of hands glide over her shoulder blades.

“Oh!” A gasping moan escaped Marley’s lips as she felt Nick’s hands against her skin. “Nick! Your hands are so cold!”

“Sorry,” Nick apologized from behind her. “I didn’t really have a chance to warm them up. Do you want me to stop?”

“Mmmm… no…” Marley bit her lip and shook her head. It felt amazing to have him touching her like this, and as cold as his hands may have been, they were filling her up very warmly inside.

“Good,” Nick murmured. “I’ve been told that I give very good massages.”

“Oooh, is that right?” Marley cracked a sly smile. “And here I thought you were trying to cop a feel, mister.”

“What? No way!” Nick protested. “I just thought that after you worked so hard in that escape room, you deserved a chance to relax and enjoy yourself, that’s all!”

He pressed down on her back and she felt her body arching to meet his touch. He was getting her in all the right places, and even though certain points felt a little painful, it was the good kind of pain that made Marley want more.

“Ooh… you’re the one who deserves to enjoy yourself, though…” Marley groaned, biting her lip. After all, he didn’t even get to have an orgasm! It just wasn’t fair. And he was still taking care of her like this anyway?

No wonder all the girls love him so much, when he does stuff like this! She thought, definitely not feeling a whiff of jealousy at the fact that the other girls in Nick’s harem could receive massages like this whenever they wanted.

This is really not helping me get over him, either.

She bit her lip, trying to keep the emotions boiling in her chest from surfacing. She’d already made her decision, after all. There wasn’t a point in pursuing Nick, in any meaning of the word. While, yes, she had very strong feelings for him… so what?

The other girls needed him so much more than she did. Was it really fair to monopolize any more of his time? Just because he gave such wonderful massages? And was so caring… and thoughtful… he saw her in ways no one else ever did! To Nick, she wasn’t just “Carly’s sister” she was Marley, her own person, and no enough people recognized that.

“Nick…” she whispered, squirming a little as she realized that her pussy was starting to dampen again.

“Yeah?” Nick asked.

“Do you really think I’d make a good florist?”

Nick blinked. That wasn’t where he expected this conversation to go.

“Uh… yeah, I do.”

“Because I like taking care of flowers?” She pressed.

“Yeah, that’s part of it,” he agreed, moving lower on her back. “But it’s not just that. I told you, remember? You like taking care of people, too. Can’t you just imagine yourself tending to flowers all day, and then someone comes in, looking to buy a bouquet for his wife or something like that, so you help him pick out the perfect arrangement to make her day? That sounds so much like you, Marley, I’m not even kidding.”

A small smile crept up Marley’s lips.

“I like the sound of that, too,” she admitted with a nod. “You’re not wrong… but you seem to have a pretty ‘flowery’ view of what being a florist would be like.”

“Am I wrong?” Nick asked. “I’m just going off of what I’ve seen in movies. I’ve never actually bought flowers for anyone before.”

“I don’t know either,” Marley admitted, and they both laughed. “I’ve never considered it as a job prospect before. But… then again… I haven’t really considered what being a botanist would be like, either.”

Marley had never really made those decisions before. All those things, they were implanted into her memory by a transformation. She was really only a couple weeks old. So she’d never seriously considered her future, because until a month ago she didn’t really have one.

It was a tricky thing. And even though those memories were real, it was moments like this that reminded her they were implanted. A whole life that she’d never lived, and yet, she had lived it, at the same time.

It made her contemplative. It made her want to move forward and really think about what she wanted to do with her life, after she got back to the real world.

And who she wanted to share that life with.

“You always take such good care of me, Nick,” Marley whispered, hugging her legs to her chest. “Even though I’m not part of your harem, you still treat me so well.”

“You’re important to me,” Nick replied, easing up on her back a little and moving up to her shoulders. “Why wouldn’t I take care of you?”

What a nothing answer. It didn’t explain a damn thing!

Stupid Nick. It just made him seem even more sweet! Didn’t they already agree together that this wouldn’t work!?

“…We really messed up earlier, huh?” She mumbled.

“Huh?” Nick stopped moving and stared at the back of her head. “What do you mean?”

She craned her head back to look up at him from the floor.

“When… when we did all that stuff,” she stammered, her cheeks flushing. “On the table. When you and I… well…”

“…Oh.” Nick turned red himself and averted his eyes. “Well, I mean, that was just… we had to do that, right? For the escape room.”

Marley frowned. She sat up straight and turned back to the fire. “…Right. For the escape room. That was the only reason you did it.”

Nick winced. A stab of misery shot through him. That was the last thing he wanted, to bother her like that!

“No, Marley, that’s not what I meant!” He protested.

“No, no, I get it!” She raised her voice and shook her head. “You touched me down there for the escape room, right, not for any other reason!”

He knew she didn’t believe that. She was digging into him because… he’d said such a shitty thing to her.

And he deserved to be called out for it.

“Marley… you’re right,” he admitted, hanging his head in shame. “That was shitty of me. I’m sorry. I didn’t do that just because of the escape room, I know.”

“I know you didn’t,” Marley muttered. “We did a lot of stuff that we didn’t need to do, no way would I buy that.”

Nick’s face flushed as he remembered everything they’d gone through together. Everything they’d done together. And he’d really tried to downplay it…

“Sorry, I just… I was trying to make you feel better,” he apologized. “Because you seemed to regret what happened.”

“Of course I regret it,” Marley mumbled. “It should never have happened. You and I… it’s just not going to work. And we both KNOW that, Nick. We know it…”

He could feel her trembling through his hands.

“Why not?” He asked, tightening his grip on her shoulders and digging his thumbs into her back. She jumped, maybe because of the massage, maybe because of what he’d said.

“Wh-why not?!” She shook her head frantically. “B-because… because we can’t, that’s why! We talked about this!”

“Did we?” Nick didn’t consider that a real, meaningful conversation. Not when it had been set up my Dakota and Nola the way it had been.

“Yes! We did!” Marley tried to sound definitive- make it out to be like that was the end of the conversation.

But her voice wavered, because her heart wasn’t in it.

As much as she knew that they shouldn’t… she didn’t WANT to know that. She didn’t want to believe that.

She wanted to believe in him, even if it was wrong.

“Marley… I know you’re feeling uncertain about your feelings, and that this isn’t the right thing,” Nick said quietly. But even as he remembered her words from the game show, he also remembered the passion and desire in her eyes in that next room. He remembered how hungry she was to be with him, and how much she wanted him to take her and…

Shit! Nick realized that the more he kept thinking about it, the harder he was getting down there. That was a problem. The last thing the two of them needed right now was to bring an erection into the situation.

But he’d fought back his desires once already, and his penis, reinvigorated after going so long without attention, stubbornly refused to calm down.

He took a deep breath, and exhaled. Marley felt his breath on the back of her neck and shivered as she felt it tingle.

“Nick… it’s not about my feelings,” she said quietly. “It’s not about being uncertain. There’s a right thing to do, and a wrong thing to do, and we both know that.”

“Why?” Nick pressed. “Why does it have to be wrong?” Even as he said that, he knew that he was being insensitive. After all, he felt the same hesitation that Marley did. Whenever he thought about what it would mean to be with her, he couldn’t help but consider the other women in his life, and the fact that it would mean less time with them.

“Because… because you have a wife!” Marley protested.

Silence fell over the room as the crackle of the roaring fire filled the air.

The absurdity of that statement nearly made both of them burst out laughing.

“Marley, this show-”

“I know!” She groaned, her face reddening. “It just slipped out, okay!? I know that the whole point of this stupid show is for you to have a harem; just because you’re with Mary that doesn’t mean you won’t get together with a lot of other girls! But… it can’t be me. Just let me go, okay? Please, just let me go… I’m not bound to you, Nick. Let me be free… please.”

He could hear the desperation in her voice. Whether that was what she wanted or not, what was he going to do? Put up a fight? Argue with her? Tell her that she didn’t have a choice, that she HAD to be his woman, whether she wanted to be or not?

It’s obvious what she really wants… but she won’t let herself have it, Nick thought, realizing where Marley’s heart truly lay for the first time. She might want to be with me… but she can’t bring herself to do it because of the others.

Even now, Marley was still thinking about what was best for other people.

If Nick applied a little pressure, like he was doing on her back right now, then she would probably fold. He suspected that deep down inside, she wanted to be convinced. She wanted him to tell her that she was wrong, and that the two of them COULD be happy together if they just put their concerns behind them and tried.

He wanted to tell her that too. But he wasn’t the kind of guy to **** something like this, even if he knew she wanted it.

And Marley didn’t even know that for sure.

It’s not fair! She screamed at herself, trying to fight back her tears. Why does it have to be like this?

She could see it now through her misty eyes. She and Nick, meeting on the street somewhere. He was single, without any of the women in his harem, and she was on her own as well. Neither one of them had any obligations to anyone else.

They could just be honest with each other. They could love each other the way they were meant to, without anyone getting in the way.

Such a perfect fantasy. It was right there in front of her. She just had to be willing to reach out and take it. Even now… if she just pushed aside her consideration for Nick’s other women and did what she wanted to do, then…

“…You’re right, Marley,” Nick admitted, lowering his hands from her back. “You’re right. I need to let you go. I can’t keep treating you like this. Treasuring you… it’s not fair. You’re important to me, and you always will be. But if we keep interacting like this… if we keep putting that pressure on each other… it’s only going to make it harder for you to find happiness. And I don’t want that. So… let’s just stop this, okay? Just… be free.”

Marley’s back felt so cold. Even though Nick had given her what she asked for…

He hadn’t given her what she wanted.

Tears rolled down her cheeks as the finality of his words slammed into her like a pile of bricks.

“NO!” She leapt to her feet and rounded on him, ignoring her nakedness. She jumped into his lap and pushed him against the back of the couch with a wild gleam in her teary eyes.

“M-Marley!?” Nick stammered in confusion.

“No! No, I don’t want that! I don’t!” She wailed as the emotions she’d been forcing down and bottling up came bubbling to the surface. “I want you, Nick! That’s all! I just… I just want you! I don’t CARE if it’s not fair to the others! You being with them, but… but me sitting on the sidelines, watching you be happy, knowing that I can’t have that… it’s not fair to me!”

Marley had put everyone’s needs above her own for too damn long. She mashed her lips against his and drank in that wonderful kiss as she snaked her arms around his back, digging her nails into his shirt and she started grinding her soaking cunny against his lap.

Screw fairness. Screw what was “right”.

The others weren’t here. She didn’t owe them a damn thing right now!

Marley could finally be herself and pursue what she wanted. And if the others didn’t like it, well…

They’d have to get over it. She threw off her shackles, and just like that, she was done sacrificing her happiness for the sake of her friends.

She wanted to be free.