Snapshots of Polyamory

Welcome to my now being reposted story, Snapshots of Polyamory. FF only allows you to choose up to two characters so I'm choosing Edward and Emmett as they have the bulk of the dialogue in this fic. It is also on Twilighted, with Edward, Bella, Emmett, and Rosalie listed as the characters.

Prologue

Emmett's right hand flattened against the shower wall, his left going up to wipe the water out of his eyes. I focused on the wedding band upon his left ring finger, the small diamond chip set into the gold caught the light as his fingers flexed. The muscles rippled in his forearm, exuding the silent power that was quintessentially Emmett.

He looked at me, and the fierce gaze of his blue eyes softened. His thumb brushed away one of my angry tears before he licked off the salty drop. Desire once again pooled in my stomach, my body responding to the raw sexuality he possessed.

"If you don't want me, like that; if you don't want me sexually, you need to tell me now. More lives than ours could be fucked up if you can't figure out what you want. When the four of us met, I saw you looking at me. What do you want?"

My eyes drifted to his face. From the dark curls which were almost black as water clung to them in crystal droplets, the hard set of his jaw with a hint of stubble on it, to the clearly delineated v of his hips, visible beneath the wet t shirt, he was sex personified. I was jealous that Rosalie, his wife, could enjoy looking at him every day, like this, minus the wet shirt. She has enough laundry with their three children to have him soaked each day.

"Emm, I..." I shook my head. "I... haven't thought about what I want."

His hand turned into a fist and then released. "Dammit, Edward, that is not an answer. You can tell me that you want me, or you don't. Hell, you can even tell me that you're scared. But don't you dare think I'm stupid enough to accept that you haven't thought about it. Your cock is fucking hard as hell, even while your mind tries to reconcile what is going on. I get that. I do. The first time Rosie and I were with another couple, I wasn't exactly sure what was happening to me."

His hand came up and rested on my bare shoulder. "Edward, I let things go a lot further than they should have then. I ruined what could have been with Kate and Garrett. Sleeping with him was wonderful, but I wasn't ready for it yet. If you tell me you aren't ready, that's fine. I can wait. It is just sex. What I feel for you, and for Bella, has nothing to do with you here," the backs of his fingers gently brushed against my cock before moving up to rest over my rapidly beating heart, "and everything do with right here."

Character info as of chapter one, since a lot of it won't be spelled out in the story:

Edward Masen, age 31, is a music instructor in Chicago. He teaches grades K-6.

Bella Masen, age 29, is a librarian at the same school. They met at work on her first day when he saved her from falling down a flight of stairs (four years ago). They've been married for two years.

Emmett McCarty, age 32, is a part-time physical therapist, who mostly works weekends, as he is a stay at home father. Married Rose ten years ago- right after she graduated college. They were high school sweethearts

Rosalie McCarty, age 31, is a full time auto body mechanic and owns her own shop.

Cara and Kailey McCarty are identical twins- age seven

Chase McCarty: age five

This story is short; I have all eight chapters written in their entirety and it is around twenty thousand words, total. You're not getting the full story, just snapshots of their lives together.

The characters in my story are not Christian. Yes, compared to SM's work, this is OOC. Such is life. While there will be some mild references to paganism as well as to gods and goddesses, it is not a central theme nor one that will be brought up often. I am using it solely from my own experiences to round out the story. If you are offended, I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is.

Polyamory is not the same thing as an open-marriage. It can be treated as such, but it is not always the case. There are many types of polyamorous relationships. The one I will be focusing upon is poly-fidelity between two married couples. Raven Kaldera's book on polyamory is an amazing resource and I whole-heartedly recommend it. My other poly story, The Tie That Binds, references rituals from it during Edward, Jasper, and Bella's wedding.

I highly recommend MsKathy's 'The Trip Home' as another real world example of a polyamorous relationship and how beautifully messy it can be.

This story is told solely in Edward's POV. As it is written in its entirety, I am looking back and seeing that the bulk of the relationship given "air time" is that between Emmett and Edward. I am not demeaning his relationship with Bella nor that with Rose. It just happened that way. Perhaps in time, I will add "Polyamory on the Cutting Room Floor"- a series of outtakes from alternate POV's. However, right now, I am swamped by trying to repost my older works, I really want to get on with other story lines, so it is not a promise.