We Heard My Wife’s Cousin on the Other Side of the Wall

I’ll admit these dates have never been my thing. The colored lights, the obligatory dinners, the noise of everyone pretending to love one another more than they do the rest of the year. That’s why, for some time now, Sofía and I have had a pact: whenever work allows it, in December we disappear together somewhere far from the hustle and bustle.

This year we could, so we did. With one exception: instead of going away alone, we ended up traveling with one of Sofía’s cousins and her husband.

Daniela and my wife practically grew up together. They went to the same school, slept in the same rooms for half their childhood, until Daniela moved to Belgium and met Étienne. They got married there and they’re still there, in an apartment in Brussels, without setting foot in Spain for three years because of work. Since they couldn’t come this December either, they invited us to go there instead.

Étienne works for a multinational and Daniela runs some cabins they own and rent out in a village an hour from the city. The plan was simple: two days in Brussels to get to know it, and another three in one of the cabins, one they kept reserved for their personal use.

We landed with the city frozen to the bone. Daniela was waiting for us on the other side of the terminal, hopping in place so she wouldn’t freeze. Physically, she looks so much like Sofía that anyone would take them for sisters, except Daniela is brunette, with shoulder-length curls framing a gorgeous face dominated by green eyes and a huge smile.

Her body has always been like my wife’s: just over five foot three, big breasts, a narrow waist, and hips only slightly slimmer. In three years she’d changed little, if anything she was thinner and even prettier. We hugged, kissed, and practically ran to the car to escape the cold.

***

The two days in Brussels passed quickly, between cobblestone streets, chocolate, and beers whose names I can’t remember. On the third day we loaded up the car and drove up toward the village where the cabin was.

When we arrived, our mouths fell open. It was a two-story stone house, surrounded by a snow-covered garden that looked like it had come straight off a postcard. The ground floor, completely open-plan, held the kitchen, a large room with a fireplace, and a full bathroom. Upstairs, three bedrooms, each with its own bathroom and walk-in closet.

Daniela showed us the room that would be ours: a four-poster bed with a wrought-iron headboard that I couldn’t help staring at for a couple of seconds too long.

—You’re thinking about tying me to that bed —Sofía whispered to me, reading my face.

—I wasn’t thinking about anything —I lied, earning myself a playful elbow.

We got comfortable and went down to the living room just as Étienne came through the door shaking snow off his shoulders. He took off his coat and came over with that easy smile of his. He’s an attractive guy, blond, short hair, about my height, athletic build, and a disarming friendliness. He poured us some wine while we waited for Daniela to come down, and we started chatting.

He told us he’d taken a few days off to make the most of our visit, so the four of us could spend time together. He said it looking at me, but his eyes kept drifting back to Sofía, to her cleavage, to her crossed legs. I wasn’t the only one who noticed.

When Daniela came down the stairs, the air suddenly turned colder, and not because of the snow outside. Étienne gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and they exchanged a couple of phrases in French, short, tense. Sofía and I looked at each other without saying anything. Something was going on between them, and it wasn’t recent.

To ease the tension, Étienne said he had to go down to the village to buy a couple of things. I offered to go with him, more to leave the cousins alone than for any other reason. We took over an hour, and when we came back Daniela’s expression had already softened. We found them in front of the fireplace, both with a blanket over their legs, speaking in low voices.

We ate early. The trip had left us exhausted, so we went up to bed earlier than usual.

***

Once in bed, with the bedside lamp still on, Sofía turned toward me.

—What’s wrong with those two? Are they mad at each other? —I asked.

—Daniela told me something —she said, lowering her voice—. Apparently Étienne is being relentless about the idea of having a threesome with another woman. He won’t stop pushing it and it drives her crazy.

—Don’t tell me. I didn’t have that image of him.

—There’s more. Last year they almost got divorced. She caught him texting another woman. She says nothing actually happened, but you know how that is.

—Fuck. And she’s still angry about it?

—Of course she is. Do you think that kind of thing gets forgotten overnight?

I turned off the light and we slipped under the duvet. The cabin’s heating ran through old ducts that ran along the walls, and through them, unintentionally, the voices from the next room started seeping in. I don’t speak French well, but I know enough to understand the essentials: Daniela was reproaching Étienne for spending the whole dinner staring at Sofía’s tits and ass, and he was defending himself under his breath, like someone who already knows the argument by heart.

Sofía fell asleep right away, with her back to me. I stayed awake a little longer, reading on my phone with the brightness turned all the way down, while idly running my hand over her naked body beneath the duvet. The voices next door faded until the whole house fell silent.

A silence that didn’t last.

***

At first they were scattered noises, hard to place. I listened carefully, holding my breath, and little by little I started to make out what they were: muffled moans, the unmistakable sound of an old bed, the occasional sharp slap against skin. Then a deep murmur, a growl. The argument had turned into something else on the other side of that wall.

I felt myself get hard without having done anything to stop it. Sofía was asleep beside me, breathing deeply, completely unaware of what was happening three meters from her head. My hand, resting on her hip, started moving on its own toward her ass, stroking it slowly, following the rhythm of the thuds coming through the wall.

I heard Daniela telling Étienne not to stop. Her voice was an exact match for my wife’s, and that stirred something in me that I’d rather not examine too closely. I was rock hard when I slid my hand between Sofía’s legs, brushed her already warm cunt, and settled against her back, hugging her from behind, one hand spread over one of her breasts.

I felt her nipple harden under my palm, still asleep. I pinched it gently and she, in her sleep, pressed herself closer to me, letting my cock wedge between her ass cheeks. It didn’t take long for her to wake up. She turned her head, her voice thick with sleep.

—Aren’t you sleeping?

—Shut up and listen —I whispered in her ear.

The moans next door had gotten louder and now they were audible with almost indecent clarity. I felt Sofía wake up all at once, her whole body tensing against mine as she understood what she was hearing.

—Fuck, my cousin —she murmured, half laughing, half astonished—. And she was furious with him too.

—One thing doesn’t cancel out the other —I replied.

My hand kept playing with her breast while the other disappeared between her thighs. I started searching for her clit with my fingertips, in slow circles, while she rocked her ass against me, rubbing herself shamelessly. She was wet. I felt her breathing deepen the moment I found the exact spot, that small swollen nub that reacted to every pass.

—You’re getting me so worked up —she gasped.

Her breathing grew ragged, her hips seeking me, my cock brushing the entrance to her cunt without going in, only teasing. The gasps from the next room mixed with hers, and for a moment it was impossible to tell who was moaning on either side of the wall. That confusion only heated us both up more.

I felt the first spasms in my fingers, that tightening that warns you she’s close. I picked up the pace, she ground her ass against me, and she let out a long moan, without any care at all, one they must have heard through the wall. She came all over my hand.

I didn’t get time to savor it. Sofía sat up, pushed at my shoulders so I’d lie on my back, and sat on top of me, taking my cock in one single thrust. She threw her head back and started riding me, slow at first, then hard.

I held her breasts, swaying right in front of my face, and brought my lips to her nipples, licking them, carefully biting them while she moved with her eyes closed and her mouth slightly open. She didn’t say a word. She only breathed and moaned, setting her own pace, no longer caring whether they could hear us or not.

At some point, on the other side of the wall, everything went silent. They were done. We weren’t.

We kept going a while longer, her on top, me gripping her hips to drive myself all the way in on every descent. When I felt I couldn’t hold out anymore, she couldn’t hold out either, and we came almost at the same time, her body collapsing onto my chest, panting against my neck.

We stayed like that for a long while, pressed together, without speaking, while our breathing settled back into place. Then Sofía got up and went to the bathroom.

Lying there in the dark, I heard someone leave the next room and go down the stairs without turning on the light, careful footsteps on the wood. I didn’t know whether it was Daniela or Étienne, and I didn’t want to know either.

When Sofía came back, she curled up against me and fell asleep almost instantly. I stayed awake a little longer, listening to the cabin creak, thinking those three days were going to be much longer than any of us four had planned. Then I fell asleep too, until the next morning.