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Second eBook Edition

ISBN 978-1-939275-06-6

Part I

One

“Hi, Mom. We just got home.— It was great!— We sold tons. And Tony and Lissa won!”

There was a long pause as Melody listened. Lexi apparently had a lot to say. Lissa and Kate moved our luggage to the bedroom, but I thought it was best that someone stay beside Melody in case she needed a little moral support.

“Do you need me to come home? I could withdraw from classes, but this is the last week I can do it. I’m sure they’d understand.— You’re sure?”

I was worried about what we’d do if Melody left to help her mother take care of her father. Of course, we’d support her. At least there were four of us now and I wouldn’t be left alone if Lissa went to help her. How can you go from such a high in the morning to such a crash in the afternoon?

“He told you that?— Well, what is your opinion?— I don’t know yet. We’re going to talk to a lawyer.— I love you, too, Mom. Keep me up-to-date, okay? I don’t want to… you know… not be there.— ’Bye.” The call was over.

Melody looked up at me. She hadn’t even sat down for the call, but had been pacing around the living room. She threw her phone on the sofa and pushed me over to my chair. As soon as I was settled, she crawled into my lap, buried her face in my neck and began to cry. It was quiet. Sometimes I think the angry, heartrending sobs of a broken heart are easier to deal with than the shaking child in my lap whose eyes would simply not stop weeping. I just held her and hugged her and let her cry, my own tears dampening her hair.

I’ve never had anyone close to me die—never prepared for it to happen. I wondered if maybe Harold’s original idea of not telling anyone was better. Would we be all out of tears when the time finally came to say goodbye?

The call kind of put a damper on things. We cuddled. We ate some dinner. We talked about everything that had occurred during the week, including Kate’s little escapade with the Tiger’s paw.

“I hope it was okay,” Kate said looking at us with a worried expression on her face. “We were both so… and Lissa looked so hot on the court… and that other woman kissed you all; it was on camera.”

“It’s okay,” we all said in one way or another. “We all love Wendy, too. We might not be ready to have sex with her, but as long as you weren’t exercising any undue influence on her, we’re okay.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” Kate said. “But it was just—”

“Kate, don’t say it,” I spoke. I might have said it more sharply than I meant to, but I couldn’t let her go on with that thought. “It’s never just sex. No matter what we intend, it’s always more.”

“I wasn’t going to say that!” Kate objected. “It was just that we’re friends. I care for her and she cares for me. We lived together for most of August. I could see that she was hurting then, but I couldn’t touch her. For lots of reasons. But it seemed so right to share that intimacy with each other. Then, when we were more relaxed, I took her home.”

“She didn’t spend the night?” Lissa asked.

“No. She needed to be back for class on Monday morning,” Kate answered.

“She didn’t drive over?” Melody asked.

“Um… you guys, you have to respect what Wendy wants and not jump up to rescue her. She needs to do this on her own. She sold her car to pay for tuition.”

“Oh no! She loved that little car,” Melody squeaked.

“She wants to pull her life together and she has a plan to do it,” Kate said.

“You saw where she lives then? Is she safe?”

“Um… she’ll have to tell you about where she lives. She made me promise not to say anything to you. But she’s confident that it’s the right move for her.”

We all tumbled into bed and there was a lot of rolling over each other as we settled in for good night kisses and cuddles. Before anyone could get too frisky, though, we were drifting off to sleep one by one.

I awoke in a familiar position. I opened my eyes and discovered we were all four spooned together. Kate was cuddled behind me. I was behind Lissa, and Lissa was behind Melody. It was the center contact that I was noticing. I shifted forward slightly and the tip of my cock touched Lissa’s warm opening. She turned her head to kiss me.

“Tony, honey,” she whispered. “I’m a little sore from yesterday. We were kind of rough in the bathroom during the turbulence.”

“I’m sorry, sweetie,” I said, kissing her again. “This isn’t a morning requirement, you know.”

“Usually it’s me doing the demanding,” she continued to whisper.

“Did you do it on the plane?” Kate whispered in my ear.

“Yes,” I answered. “It isn’t the most comfortable place in the world.”

“I’m not sore,” she said. Lissa raised her left leg releasing my cock from her grip.

“Go ahead, darling,” she whispered. “I’m going to see if I can get my Little One to come before she wakes up.”

“Too late,” Melody moaned. “But I’ll pretend to be asleep.”

I rolled toward Kate and kissed her luxuriously.

“Were you suggesting something, Kitten?”

“Me? Only that I didn’t make love to any of my lovers yesterday and I’m feeling a little left out,” she giggled and then kissed me again.

Waking up early isn’t difficult for me, but it’s always hard. I took my time and reacquainted myself with Kate and every inch of her beautiful body. I was kissing my way back up her legs when she reached for me and drew me up to her face.

“I love when you do that,” she said dreamily, “but I want to look in your eyes and kiss your lips.” She had one hand on my cock, rubbing it up and down her slit to get it good and wet. When she positioned me at her opening and held me there, I slowly moved forward.

“Oh,” she sighed. “Still so full. I love this feeling.”

She let me sink fully into her and clamped her legs around me to keep me from moving. I kissed her lips. We stayed that way for an eternity—me buried inside her with just our lips touching. I opened my eyes and met her hazel depths as she stared at me. She smiled and my entire world shrank to the connection between us. Gradually she loosened her grip on my hips and let me slip back and then in again slowly. She guided me to the speed she wanted. Each time I sank to full depth, she captured my lips and held me there, caressing me with her tongue.

We moved in orbit around each other. Connected. She pulled my lips back to her mouth and let my tongue between her teeth where we played together.

My orgasm surprised me. It seemed to surprise Kate as well. We both gasped through our kiss. We pulled away from each other far enough to let our eyes focus and felt another powerful surge through both our bodies. Just as we both cried out a wordless syllable, we heard the muffled gasp of our forgotten partners next to us. Her smile was reflected on my face as we turned to see Melody and Lissa clenched together with their eyes fixed on the two of us.

After the initial shock, I saw a tear trickle from Melody’s eye. I nearly panicked, but before I could say anything, Melody spoke.

“That was so beautiful,” she whispered. Then she turned her face back to Lissa and they were once again lost in a kiss. It seemed like a reasonable action, so I returned to Kate’s luscious lips.

“Oh, fuck,” I moaned. “I only have forty minutes to make it to class.” I reluctantly rolled off of Kate and she rolled out of bed with me.

“You get your shower,” she said softly. “I’ll make coffee and get you something to eat.” Then she glanced at Melody and Lissa looking up at us. “You stay there,” she said. “I’ll bring yours after I get our boy off to school.”

I showered quickly and true to her word, Kate had coffee and peanut butter toast ready for me as soon as I reached the kitchen. She walked me to the garage and just before I got into the car she gave me another searing kiss.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “I love you.”

“I love you, Kate,” I said as I kissed every part of her face I could reach and let my hands caress her bare breasts again.

“Um… Maybe you should get back inside before I open the garage door,” I said. “I will always remember you just like you are right now,” I smiled. “Go take care of our lovers, darling.” Kate scampered back into the house and I raised the garage door and left for class.

Two

“The overview of the human body is complete,” Dr. Dennis lectured. “We’ve covered the basic systems: skeletal, skin and fascia, muscular, cardiovascular, lymphatic, and nervous. Next, we delve deeply into regional anatomy to see how these systems work together. You will have the opportunity to share your knowledge with your classmates on projects that will be team based. Choose your team carefully. Grading will reflect the poorest member’s effort.”

Bree grabbed my arm and pulled me over to where Justin and Amanda were huddled together on the side of the room. Everyone in the class had their eyes on the two, but Bree was not about to be beaten to them. Justin Chen and Amanda Fortier were premed students and were considered the most brilliant members of the class. They’d gravitated toward each other the first week of class and created their own unapproachable clique, considering themselves above everyone else. SCU didn’t turn out that many premeds, but they were considered the highest quality. I didn’t like the two all that much.

“We want you to be our teammates,” Bree said as we approached. I swear Amanda’s lip curled in a sneer.

“So does everyone else,” she said. “Why should we pick you?” Yeah. I didn’t like her at all. Justin just stood there looking at us.

“We did the picking,” Bree said. “You are the two people in this class least likely to drag our grades down.”

“Your grades?” Amanda began. “I just got a 98 on the systems exam and you think I could bring your grade down?”

“Same grade I got,” Bree shot back. “Tony aced it.” That shut Amanda up. You could almost hear her teeth clack together.

“Maybe you should find someone better than me for your fourth,” Justin said quietly. “I only scored a 96.”

“We’ll carry you,” Bree said. “After all, we all owe it to each other to help the less fortunate.”

I lost it. Sometimes Bree’s natural cattiness just comes out at the right time. When I started laughing, Justin did, too, and finally Amanda cracked a smile.

“Don’t you ever say anything?” she asked me.

“I live with three women and have this one as a lab partner,” I answered. Well, that was stretching it a little as Kate didn’t really live with us, but as far as I was concerned she was part of my family.

“Okay. Bree and I will do the talking. You guys do the lifting.”

“Are you premed?” Justin asked me as we left the classroom. “I thought I knew all of us.”

“No. I’m an artist,” I said.

“And why do you know so much about anatomy?” Amanda asked.

“I paint figures. I had to study anatomy.”

“Figures?”

“He paints nudes,” Bree supplied. I swear Amanda blushed. “How about you?”

“I don’t paint nudes,” Amanda sighed. “When my pediatrician died, I swore I’d find a cure for breast cancer.”

“How about you, Justin?” I asked.

“Nothing so dramatic,” he said. “I just want to be a surgeon. Probably specialize in the nervous system.” I looked at him.

“You mean you’re going to be a brain surgeon?” I asked.

“Hey, it’s not rocket science,” he quipped. We laughed and I had to wonder how often he’d used that line.

“Focal points,” Doc Henredon said as we looked at the complex arrangement of objects and people on our podium. He hadn’t allowed us to draw anything yet. “You aren’t going to draw this composition,” he continued. “What I want you to do is study it. Think about it. What path does your eye take as you contemplate this scene? Close your eyes and re-open them. Where are they drawn? From your initial point of entry into the composition, where do your eyes move most naturally? Up? Down? Left? Right? What is the next point on which they focus?”

I let my eyes wander around the composition randomly for a minute and then closed them again. I’ve always been attracted to the human form and love to paint figures and there were three nudes in this composition. But when I opened my eyes they were riveted on the blank space. I hadn’t even noticed it the first time I looked at the scene, but I suddenly realized that everything in the scene was held in relationship to that negative space. It was like the scuff on the front wall of court two at the club—an anchor for my mental image of the court. With my new awareness of the starting point, I let my eyes follow the path from focal point to focal point.

Fuck! Doc is a fuckin’ genius. This was no random assortment of objects and people. It was a planned composition in which the eye was led in a way that brought order out of chaos.

“Now draw the path,” Doc said. “Don’t draw the scene. Draw the focal path. Great art is not simply painting accurately. It is about the artist’s control of the viewer. How well can he or she communicate with a viewer that is years—maybe centuries—removed from the artist?”

“That was intense,” I said, wrapping my arm around Kate’s waist as we went to meet Melody after class.

“I couldn’t believe the path you drew,” Kate responded. “It looked exactly like Doc’s. I got the starting point, but I didn’t move more than a few inches from it.”

“That’s the way you look at things, though,” I said. “Doc followed your path like he was seeing the whole composition for the first time.”

“Hi darlings,” Melody called out. “You look beat!”

“It was an intense 2D class,” I said. “Eye-opening. I’m exhausted.”

“Me, too,” Kate said.

“I hope you’re not too tired, sweetie,” Melody said, looking at Kate.

“Are you going to do that again?” Kate asked.

“Do what?” I chimed in.

“They were mean to me yesterday,” Kate pouted. “I made them both come and they just teased me.”

“I promise more than teasing tonight,” Melody said. She hugged Kate and pulled her into a kiss. “I have something new to show you that I learned in Minneapolis. I promise you’ll like it,” she whispered.

“Now?”

“No. Now we have to go over to the studio and pack outfits for shipment. Amy says we’ve got twenty more orders to fulfill.”

“Do we have that many?”

“Just. Fortunately, the second half of our order from Singapore is due this week. Amy changed our site to ‘ships this week’ instead of ‘ships in 24 hours.’ We should have stock again by Saturday. Then we’ve got to decide a time to treat more fabric and figure out if we’re switching to US manufacturing.”

“Amy, Sandra, Wendy, and I spent most of Saturday ironing. At least all we have to do is pack them for that cute UPS guy,” Kate said.

“Whoa! Who is this that has caught your eye?” I exclaimed. First Wendy and now a UPS guy? What was up with Kate?

“Relax, lover,” Kate giggled. I noticed Melody’s eyes were popped wide open, too. “Just because I let a tiger pet your kitten’s pussy doesn’t mean I’m interested in a gorilla.” She kissed me. I mean—kissed me.

“You’ve really got a thing for zoos, don’t you,” Melody laughed. Kate got a faraway look in her eye. “Kate?”

“That gives me an idea,” she said.

I met Lissa and the team at the club after I’d had a light dinner with Rio to go over the week’s Critical Reading assignments. I noticed Rio sat very close to me as we ate dinner and went over the notes and seemed to take every opportunity to lean across me to point something out or to brush against me. I can recognize flirting. I just didn’t know what to do with it, so I pretended it wasn’t happening. Man, what a coward!

I left the cafeteria to go to the club and Whitney intercepted me.

“Hi. Can I walk with you?” she asked.

“Sure! haven’t seen you since I got back. How’s it been?”

“Frustrating.”

“Oh yeah.”

“I worked out at the club every day. That nice trainer, John, got me court time. I think that Friday he was afraid I’d jump his bones. You guys were awesome, but we all got really horny,” she said.

“Nobody here had to participate in that. It was something we were doing to help us pump up our game,” I said. “Really, you’re free to… um… well, you know,” I said.

“Masturbate?” Whitney declared. Hearing that word spoken by a woman with a deep Louisiana accent gave me an instant boner. Whitney knew exactly what she was doing, too. She threw her gym bag over one shoulder and grabbed my arm with her other hand, dragging me close to her as we walked. Yep, more flirting.

“Do you think I could be a real racquetball player? Like Lissa?” she asked.

“Well, maybe,” I said. “The real test will be how you respond to breaking a fingernail.” We laughed and she held out her immaculately manicured nails.

“I watched you at dinner this evening. Rio wasn’t very subtle, but you didn’t respond,” Whitney said. “I don’t intend to not be noticed. So I’m just telling you right now, I’m going to flirt with your girlfriend.”

What? With Whitney hanging onto my arm and walking in step with me, I’d already gotten the message that she was flirting. But with… Lissa?

“Um… which one,” I asked lamely.

“Cute. Listen, Tony,” she said and turned me toward her, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk. “I hear how people talk. Don’t panic. I don’t mean about you. I mean I listen to how people talk. It’s why I want to be a linguist. I know when there are sexual messages in what people say and when there are big red letters that say stay away. I’m studying two different languages this term and I’ve already mastered two others. Plus English. The way you and Lissa respond to people—I can hear the challenge. And I like it. But Bree and Rio are going about it all wrong. You go along with your girlfriends. You don’t manage the show. I think it would be fun to have a roll with you. I haven’t found any other northern boys that do it for me. But the real prize isn’t your cock; it’s the three pussies that pound it on a regular basis.”

I just stared at her and she smiled an almost predatory expression. She pulled my arm around her waist and started walking toward the gym again.

“I wouldn’t reject a pass you make, if you are so inspired,” she laughed. “But you are about to watch the world’s champion tease turn at least one of your girlfriends into a puddle.”

This time I laughed. Oh, she thinks she’s the world’s champion tease. We’ll see about that.

I felt a lot more comfortable now.

“Do you know how hot she is?” Lissa asked as we ate our late dinner after practice. “Of course you do. You’ve got, like, radar tuned to find the hottest girls on campus, don’t you?”

“I have the hottest girl sitting next to me,” I laughed. “Besides, she’s kind of skinny, don’t you think?”

I hadn’t decided yet how to handle this. Whitney had no idea that we had been teased by Kate until we nearly exploded. And though it was common knowledge that we’d been abstinent, only Kate knew that we’d incorporated teasing into our training routine for setting ourselves on edge before a match. She just thought that she could entice us with her brand of teasing and have some fun. I had no objections to fun. I just wasn’t sure if I should warn Lissa, Melody, and Kate in advance.

“Oh, if I’d had her when she was five years younger—even three—I could have turned her into the hottest young model on the runway. She’s too old now,” Lissa said. “But still, I could improve her game.”

“Speaking of which, how was her game?” I asked.

“What? Oh! Racquetball.”

“Yes, that is what you were supposed to be practicing,” I laughed. Lissa threw a pillow at me.

“We worked very hard. She’s really fit. She has potential.”

“For what?”

“I’m her coach, Tony. A coach can’t become involved with a student.” She held my eyes for almost a second before we laughed.

“You know she’s flirting with you, don’t you?” I asked.

“Well, yes… I didn’t realize it at first, until we headed for the locker room.”

“Oh, do tell me what happened.”

“She waited for me. I mean… she didn’t undress or shower until she knew I was where I could see. I wasn’t paying attention at first, which I’m sure irritated her a little. Just when I looked up, she peeled off her sports bra. She didn’t wait. As soon as she knew she had my attention she went right into wiggling out of her shorts and panties.”

“Is she… uh…?”

“… shaved? No. Tightly trimmed. Waxed low and shaped above.”

“Ah. So you noticed.”

“She made it difficult not to. As soon as she was naked, she walked across the locker room dragging her towel in one hand and then she left the shower curtain open.”

“And you?”

“I didn’t. Leave my curtain open. I needed a little privacy.”

“I bet she knew, though.”

“Wait a minute,” Lissa said as she looked at me intently. “You knew, too. What’s she up to?”

“Mmm. She thinks she’s the world’s champion tease,” I said.

“Oh, does she?” Lissa barked. “Maybe we shouldn’t let that challenge be known to certain other members of the family.” We laughed. “Speaking of which… Is our Little One not coming home tonight?”

“She said something to Kate about having learned something in Minneapolis that she wanted to show her. I don’t know what.”

“Ohh,” Lissa moaned. “Yes, you do know.”

“I do?”

“Picture two very horny girls with their legs locked together and their little clits rubbing against each other.” I groaned. That image of Melody and Allison locked together was seared into my visual cortex.

“I might need to fuck you tonight,” I whispered.

“Finish your homework so we can play.”

“I’ve only got one more thing to do. Undress, please.”

“What?”

“It’s an art exercise. I want to find out if I can really see it.”

“I’m sure you’ll explain eventually,” Lissa sighed. She let her sweats fall to the ground and lay on the sofa with her book. “Anything special?”

I shifted her position slightly so she was lying partially on her left side, propped up with pillows so she could comfortably read. I moved the lamp slightly so she could see the page. I pulled her left knee out slightly and her right foot straight down so her left ankle was under her right knee. I pulled the coffee table closer to her and ran to the kitchen to get a wine glass. What the heck. I poured her a glass from the bottle in the fridge. I put a Cleo Laine CD on and set the glass near her hand.

“Mmm. Bonbons?” Lissa asked.

“Behave. They’re just props,” I said.

I went to my big chair and propped my sketchbook in front of me as I looked at Lissa. This might be harder than I thought. I found it more and more difficult these days to detach myself when Lissa posed for me. I saw her, my lover, instead of the planes of light and shadow that I wanted to capture in the sketch. She’s so incredibly beautiful. I can’t find a single flaw and my sketches are less perfect than she is.

I closed my eyes and listened to the music wash over me.

“I believe the lies of handsome men…”

I opened my eyes and there it was. The focal point was nowhere near where I expected. I’m always drawn to Lissa’s breasts, eyes, pussy. But it was obvious. She’d let her left hand drop toward the glass—not quite reaching for it. The hollow space between her thumb and forefinger caught my eye. From the tip of her thumb, the line plunged toward her and in an ellipsis swept back out toward the glass. Reflected in the crystal was the lamp, pulling my eye upward, flinching back from the light and bouncing down to the shadow the book in her hand cast across her right hip. It was amazing. I sketched the path of the movement and as I reached her hip, I was pulled to the center by her breathing. It wasn’t the rise and fall of her breasts that drew my attention, but rather the swell and contraction of her abdomen and the way the cleft of her navel pulled me back down the center line of her body.

The lack of hair on her mons meant there was no artificial shadow to stop the eye. While the line was supported by the cleft of her pussy, it didn’t pause there, but shot down the underside of her right leg. And there, under the perfectly painted toes of my lover was the endpoint—a stack of unopened mail that we’d carelessly tossed on the end of the sofa thinking we’d deal with it later.

My first sketch wasn’t of Lissa. It was only the focal path as Doc had shown us earlier in the day. The second sketch was only the stopping points along the path. I’d done this before, but never understood what was happening as I sketched or painted. I was so excited that I had to move straight to the third sketch.

“If a picture paints a thousand words, then why can’t I paint you?”

This time it was the little side journeys that the eye takes when it repeats the path. The position of Lissa’s eyes as she read followed the path of the lamplight. The line from the navel went both down and upward, spreading to encompass the lower curve or her breasts. From my angle, her legs were foreshortened, putting the stack of mail in the extreme foreground, but almost out of focus—a denial of the real world in favor of the fantasy of her novel.

“All my sadness, all my joy, came from loving a thieving boy.”

I realized I was seeing my world in a new way. And now that I’d put it on paper, I faded back into the reality of seeing my beloved, lying on the sofa, sexy as hell.

And her eyes were no longer on the book, but on me.

Three

I parted her lips with my tongue and was flooded with the spicy flavor. She moaned as I dipped again, drawing the flavors with me as I swirled my tongue around her clit. Each touch, each breath was answered by her gasps and the ripples in her toned muscles.

I don’t make love to Lissa; I worship her. She is my goddess. Anything I can do to bring her pleasure, to make her life better, to show my love, I will do. I worship her on the coarse canvas. I worship her on the Egyptian cotton. I worship her beneath the shower and even on the hardwood. My reward and satisfaction are her smile and the sudden gasp and flood of juices on my tongue as she comes.

“Oh, my love!” she said. “You make me feel so wonderful. I want you beside me. Come to me, darling.”

She held out her arms to me and I found deep passionate kisses.

“Oh, I love you, Tony.” She started shivering and I pulled the blanket up around us, but I realized it was not shivers. Lissa was crying.

“Lissa, darling,” I cooed as I rocked her in my arms. “My goddess. Come back to me.”

“Oh, Tony. I felt so… I don’t even have a word! I was overflowing with love. You take me places I never dreamed of. How is it possible? How do we fill each other completely and still as much for our lovers?”

“You, my love, are Aphrodite,” I breathed in her ear. “Wherever you go, your beauty inspires love; your love inspires beauty.”

“Oh, but I’m not, darling. I’m no goddess. I’m a middle aged mom with three unbelievable lovers and a couple of others who want in my panties. What kind of woman am I?” she complained.

“You? Middle aged? May the heavens hasten old-age.”

“I see it in the mirror,” she continued. “I was trained to look for these things. I see circles under my eyes, crow’s feet, smile lines. They come slowly. One day you’ll open your eyes and I’ll be old and you’ll wonder where the beauty went. Look at Melody and Kate. They could be misshapen and still be young and beautiful. Perfect skin. High firm tits. Mine are starting to sag. And Kate has never worn a bra!”

“Lissa,” I said and silenced her with a kiss, which she hungrily drank from my lips. “You never need to compare yourself with any of our lovers. We’re seven years apart, darling. I’ll be bald and potbellied before anyone can tell you’ve aged. They’ll be accusing me of having a bunch of trophy wives who are eternally young while I get old.”

“I want so much to believe you.”

“Lissa, look at me,” I said, turning her face toward me. “Some men could look at nothing but your tits unless you showed them your cunt.” I used harsh words that I seldom used. I was serious. “Even if you did, that’s all they’d see. In fifty years, they’d look at you and think how sad that your tits were sagging. They’re idiots. I’m not. Your beauty comes from inside you. Maybe that’s a cliché, but your beauty is in how you treat your sons and how they love you. It’s in how you care for me and for Melody and for Kate. It’s in your strength on the racquetball court competing, or teaching, or facing down an opponent. Your beauty is in the way you love us and manage so many things that we don’t have either the time or skill to do.”

I had her attention. Her eyes were fixed on mine and were wide open. A tiny tear escaped and ran down her cheek to her ear. I chuckled as I dried it with my finger.

“You are beautiful, Lissa. There’s no doubt about that. Point to any part of your body at all and I’ll worship it in any way you like. And I promise that will be true next year, in ten years, in fifty years. Because it’s you that’s beautiful, Lissa; not just your body. And I love you.”

The kiss we shared was tender and long. I kissed away all the tears from her face. I kissed down her chin. I kissed her nose and her forehead. I stroked her hair. I felt her hands on my arms and my back. I held her and rocked her and whispered, “I love you,” to her over and over again. And finally, we fell asleep in each other’s arms.

I woke up flat on my back and Lissa was just sliding onto my hard cock. She was watching for the first sign that I’d gone from dreaming to realizing it was real. Lissa seemed to want to do all the work, but I couldn’t help little twitches from my hips rising to meet her. She varied her strokes for depth, sometimes pausing to shift side to side or to rotate her hips. She kept up a long, agonizingly slow rhythm.

She arched her back, thrusting her breasts forward and by lifting my head slightly I was able to capture her nipple between my lips. It was long and hard and, judging from the noises she was making, very sensitive. I stroked her perfect breast with my palm. I caressed her hip and waist. It was a long build. Lissa was powerfully aroused, but seemed intent on my fulfillment, holding my eyes with hers even as her breathing became shallower and shorter.

“Lissa, I’m…” I tried to get the words out but she just nodded her head and caught the left edge of her lower lip between her teeth.

The first blast from my cock seemed to almost shock her as her body jolted upright. She sank fully down on me as I continued to shoot into her and her abs contracted with every spurt. The whispered, “Ohh,” that issued from her was drawn out as long as I continued my orgasm. It took so much out of me that I felt my body sinking into the bed, exhausted. Lissa slowly collapsed on top of me. We lay there drifting and hugging until I had to struggle up to go to class.

“Shower, darling,” Lissa said. “I’ll make coffee.”

It was the second morning in a row that a beautiful naked woman kissed me at my car door and then scampered back inside as the garage door began to rise. Only Lissa stayed in the open door of the house until I backed out of the garage and the door came down again.

I didn’t go home Wednesday night. I kissed Lissa at the gym after our practice and headed for the studio. I knew what I needed to paint. In fact, the image came at me so fast that I had to stay at the canvas. I sketched in two portraits in a smaller size than the big canvases I’d been working on lately. These were only sixteen by twenty inches. I worked hard to make sure they were identical. The flow started the same—in fact there was only one difference. From the fingers to the glass to the lamp, across the eyes to the book casting its shadow next to the navel that drew the eye along the long line to the stack of unopened mail beneath her foot. But with one change in the second drawing, the whole painting took on a different meaning and impact. From the fingers to the glass to the lamp, down to the eyes. At that point the eye was arrested. Everything else was secondary. Instead of continuing to follow down to the book, the eyes looked out at the artist.

I painted them side by side. Every stroke was duplicated from one canvas to the other. The only difference was the position of the eyes. They were a pair. But something still bugged me about them.

By the time Friday came around, I was exhausted. I studied anatomy with Bree, Amanda, and Justin for an hour every day after class. Coach Fredericks started me on more PK conditioning. He was right—the more of it I did, the more I wanted to do. I studied lit with Rio before practice on Wednesday and before dinner on Thursday. I was hyper focused on Doc’s 2D class as we continued the exploration of eye movement and focal points. And I played racquetball with the team Thursday night—complete with Whitney’s outrageous flirting—and with Lissa on Friday afternoon.

At night I painted. I couldn’t pull an all-nighter every night, but I was getting by on less sleep than I could ever remember having.

Clarice was thrilled with the progress I’d made. She loved the pair and was already coming up with ideas on how to frame or display them. She also liked both of the paintings I did of the Singhs. She puzzled a long time about the last painting I showed her.

“I told you not to show me paintings you wouldn’t sell,” she said.

“You don’t like it?”

“I love it. I can’t imagine you would part with it.” I looked at the image on my screen. Yes. It was lovely. Maybe my best work ever. I’d done it with no sketch or rendering and no model. But it was obvious. Lissa as an old woman. And even more beautiful than she is today. It was the piece I wanted to show the world.

When Bree told me to stretch out on the massage table, I was out cold. I finally woke up to her prodding me gently.

“Hey. Tony. You need to wake up now. They’re closing the facility. You need to get dressed.”

“Oh god, Bree,” I groaned. “What did you do to me?”

“It’s what I couldn’t do to you. I couldn’t wake you up. Not even to roll over. I just kept working on your back and then when it was obvious you weren’t going to wake up as soon as it was over, I just let you sleep,” she said nudging me off the table.

“Wait! Closing the facility? What time is it?”

“It’s almost seven.”

“The family!”

“Don’t panic, baby. I called them. I told them I’d bring you home as soon as you woke up. Go get a shower and get dressed. I’m hungry.”

“Thanks for inviting me in to dinner. I wasn’t looking forward to a TV dinner again tonight and I was starving. This was really good,” Bree said as we finished our late dinner. The boys had arrived and were sad that I wasn’t there when they got home, but I read them a story and they went off to bed before I sat down with Bree to eat. Melody, Kate, and Lissa were sitting with us, but they’d eaten with the boys.

“This is one of Melody’s specials,” I said, savoring the tuna noodle casserole. “And one of my favorites.”

“Too bad you weren’t here to eat it when it came out of the oven,” Melody said.

“That’s one of the great things about this meal,” I plunged on, not heeding the warning tone. “It’s just as good when you reheat it.”

“It is good,” Bree sighed. “Thank you, Melody.”

“Asleep, huh? Are you sure you two weren’t just fooling around someplace?” Melody asked. I was stunned. Where did that come from? Lissa had thanked Bree for calling and warning them I was asleep.

Bree stood up and headed for the back door.

“Mel, could I talk to you alone, please?” She stormed out the door. Melody followed and it looked like she was ready for a fight.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Melody just can’t forgive Bree, or completely trust her,” Kate sighed. “It will just take time.”

“I hope it doesn’t eat at her,” Lissa said. “I interact with Bree quite a bit now and she is always respectful of our relationship.”

I looked out the French doors and could see the two girls facing off. Neither one was happy.

“Since this concerns me, I think I’d better go out there,” I said.

“I wouldn’t if I were you,” Lissa said. “You’re likely to get your head handed to you on a platter.”

“Ah yes, Salome. Anything you desire up to half my kingdom,” I said melodramatically. “Really. I’m stupid, but I’m not a coward.” Okay. I lied about that. I steeled myself and went forward to open the door.

“I learned my lesson,” Bree almost shouted. “I will never make a move on Tony without your approval and participation.”

“How can I trust you?” Melody shot back.

There was no answer. Bree took one step forward, grabbed Melody on either side of the head and kissed her.

I saw Melody reach back and thought she was going to punch Bree, but instead her hands came forward and pulled Bree into a tight embrace. The kiss deepened. I stepped back and closed the door quietly.

“I have reading to do for lit class,” I said to Kate and Lissa as I passed by. “I’ll be in my chair if I’m needed. For anything.”

I woke up sometime in the middle of the night. I don’t think I’d read a whole page before I went to sleep in my recliner. There was a pleasant, soft, and comfortable weight in my lap. I pushed myself back a little and wrapped my arms around Melody.

“Love you,” she said through her sleep.

“I love you, Meddy,” I whispered. I pulled the light blanket she’d brought with her up around us.

“I’m sorry, Tony,” she said into my neck.

“No need to be. Looks like you worked it out.”

“But I’m sorry to you, not just to Bree. I made it sound like I don’t trust you. I do. I’m sorry I let my jealousy take control. I do trust you, Tony. I do and I love you.”

“I know, precious,” I said. “It’s okay. Snuggle up. Let’s spend the rest of the night out here together, shall we?”

She kissed my neck and hugged herself to me tightly.

Four

Saturday started early for me when the boys came running in with books and caught Melody and me kissing softly.

“Tony? Meddy? Read?” Drew said cautiously.

“Sure we will, buddy,” I said. “Can you crawl up here with Melody?”

One Little Monster book and one Berenstain Bears book later we decided it was time to make coffee. It was half past seven when Melody told to me to take coffee to Lissa and Kate.

Seeing Lissa and Kate cuddled together never fails to amaze me. They are so beautiful together. The contrasts and similarities are incredible, but the uninhibited and unrestrained love they show each other brings a tear to my eye.

“Darlings,” I whispered as I put a hand on each of my lovers. “I have coffee. It’s time to wake up.”

“Do we have class?” Kate whimpered.

“No. It’s Saturday,” I said.

“Why do we have to get up then,” she asked. Good question.

“Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, Tony and I make love,” Lissa said.

“Me too,” Kate smiled. Oh yeah!

“But he’s up already,” Lissa continued.

“I’m not,” Kate said.

That was all it took. I figured the coffee would be cold and forgotten by the time I got out of the shower.

“I’m home!” I shouted as I walked in from the garage after Pilates class.

“Food in the kitchen,” Melody answered.

I walked into the kitchen and found a plate of sandwiches and a bowl of soup waiting for me. This October day had turned wet and cold and the steaming bowl of soup was a welcome sight.

“Mmm. This looks good,” I said as I sat at the breakfast bar. I scooped a spoonful of soup toward my mouth and froze as Melody stood from behind the stove. She had one of our big chef aprons on.

And nothing else.

The front bib was drawn in so her nipples peaked out on either side of it. While I watched, she untied the apron strings and hung it on a peg. I just stared.

“Don’t tell me I made you lose your appetite,” Melody frowned.

“No. Quite the opposite,” I said. “It just changed slightly.”

“Well, eat your soup while it’s hot, then make me hot and soupy.”

“This is a little unusual for a Saturday afternoon, isn’t it?” I asked. “Where’s the rest of the family.” I ate, but I never took my eyes off of Melody and she made no attempt to cover herself up.

“Errands. They’ll probably be gone a while. I know you sometimes have difficulty sleeping during the day and you have the night shift at Tent City tonight. So I thought I’d try to help you relax and go to sleep for a nice nap this afternoon,” she said.

Something strange was happening, but I finished my soup and sandwich and put the dishes in the dishwasher while Melody watched. She’d stayed on the other side of the breakfast bar from me and we hadn’t even kissed yet since I got home. Now that I was finished eating, though, she came into my arms and I wrapped up her gloriously naked body as we kissed.

“Come into the bedroom,” she whispered.

The drapes were pulled and candles provided the only light in the room. The bedding was pulled back and a towel spread in the middle of the bed. Melody undressed me and told me to lie on my back.

“We’ll see if I can put you to sleep with a massage.”

“Um… Melody,” I said, “you my going to sleep yesterday had nothing to do with the massage don’t you? I was out before Bree ever started.”

“Yeah. We talked about it,” she said. “I was being a jerk. I’m sorry, Tony. But Bree only did your back and so you missed out on half your massage. I’m just finishing things up for her.”

“Bree doesn’t get naked when she does a massage.”

“I have my own methods and there is nothing professional about them at all, lover,” Melody said as she touched my lips with her own. Her breasts dragged across my chest as she moved toward me.

She rose on her knees and squeezed massage oil out of the bottle all over her own chest, smoothing it out with her hands.

Melody is a surprise to me, every time I see her naked. My head jumps back to that first time with her. We were both virgins. We were modeling for each other for our final life drawing projects. We both undressed at the same time and then decided painting could wait for a while. To this moment, I remember the awe we both felt when we pressed ourselves together and my cock entered her willing pussy.

If for no other reason, Melody was burned into my heart.

She moved over me, straddling my thighs, and scooted down until she was sitting on my ankles. Then leaned forward, lying on my legs with my cock conveniently at her mouth. She gave it a little lick and then began pulling herself forward, the massage oil smoothing the way for her to glide up until she reached my mouth with her lips and kissed me. When I started to wrap my arms around her, she pushed them back to the bed.

“I’m the masseuse here,” she laughed. “You just lie back and enjoy.”

With that she began her descent, sliding down my body just as she had slid up. When she reached my ankles again, she rubbed her cheeks against my cock, getting the oil all over them. Then she began a long slow ascent again.

“You’re going to have sex with Bree,” she announced as she reached my face again. This time she rubbed the oil from her cheeks onto mine.

“Melody, you know I’m not going to do that. I know how you feel.”

“Yes. I’ve been a jerk about it. And I’m probably not done being a jerk about it.” She began her descent, once again preventing me from sliding into her, but letting her slit part around my cock so that her clit dragged as she moved downward. She shuddered.

“You don’t like her,” I said. “That’s all the reason I need to never be involved with her. You can trust me, Mel. I love you.”

“No, that’s not enough reason. I’m so sorry I suggested that last night. I was really at my peak of jerkness. You are the most loyal and loving man I have ever met and the women you’ve been with other than us, we pushed you toward. Tony, you’ve never given any of us a reason to doubt how much you love us. But one day I’m going to piss you off. Really bad. It’s the way relationships work. You’ve already pissed me off a couple of times. I don’t know how I’ve been lucky enough to keep from getting to you. But when that time comes, I don’t want it to be easy for you to get back at me by fucking Bree. It would kill me.”

She started forward again and I closed my eyes to feel every inch of her slight body against me. I remembered how I fantasized about Melody long before I knew she was interested—in fact, convinced that she could never be interested in me.

“That’s why, when the time comes, I’ll be there with you,” she said.

“The time?”

“The time to fuck Bree. I’m going to get her ready. Then we are going to get you ready. You are going to be right on the edge of coming down my throat, but you’ll know that if you do, you won’t be able to fuck her,” Melody said. “Just when you can’t stand it anymore, I’ll push Bree onto her back and plant my pussy in her face. She’ll be licking me while I suck you right to the point of no return. Then she’ll feel you plunge into her and she’ll moan against my clit. You know how I love that, don’t you, Tony?”

Melody had reached my face again and I was totally wrapped up in the fantasy she was weaving. I didn’t for a minute believe we’d ever be in that situation, but Melody can spin a pretty fine tale when she puts her mind to it. This time when she started back down, she didn’t lift her hips. My cock caught for a second against her labia and then slid smoothly inside her, causing us both to moan.

“You’ll be so keyed up when you plunge your big cock into her little cunt that you’ll come on the first stroke. That’s it,” she said as she ground to a halt, our joining stopping her downward process. “One stroke, come, and pull out. Oh, she will cry out when your cock comes sucking out of her cunt. I’ll love that. Right against my clitty. And I’ll bend my head and suck your come out of her. Only when she makes me come will I raise my head enough to tongue her clit to orgasm.”

“Mel, that’s cruel,” I gasped. She had lifted until only the tip of my cock was still in her pussy and she held there. I don’t know if I was talking about her story or what she was doing to me.

“Yes. But that’s when she’ll know. She’ll know that no matter when or where she fucks you, I own her orgasm. She won’t come without my permission. She won’t have your come without my permission. I’m not going to make a slave of her, Tony. I don’t want a slave. I just want her to know that when you put your cock back into her pussy and fuck her to a climax, it’s because I’m letting her come,” Melody said as she slid down my cock painfully slowly. “No matter how hard you fuck her cunt after that, she won’t dare come unless I’ve said it’s okay. It’s the only way it will ever… ever… ev-ER…” Melody pushed up away from my body and slammed down on me. I felt her pussy clamp down around my cock as she cried out her orgasm. I responded by shooting deep inside her as she milked me. “…happen,” she whispered.

Melody collapsed on me. After a minute she rubbed her body around on my chest without letting me get soft enough to slip out.

“Mmm. I like massaging you, darling. It might not do your muscles any good, but, oh god, it feels nice.”

Amazingly, Melody’s continued massage eventually put me to sleep. I woke up about five hours later stuck to her.

“Thank you for my fantasy, Tony,” she whispered when I tried to shift away so I could go piss. She rolled back and looked at me. “Let’s take a shower and you can do some studying while I make dinner.

When we got out of the shower, Lissa, Kate, and the boys were home and there was a gentle buzz of family activity going on in the kitchen and the boys’ room. It was peaceful and didn’t prevent me from getting into my reading. I felt good about my class. I was reading my lit first because I figured I’d have time to read anatomy on the job and it would be less likely to put me to sleep. I had to keep notes and draw figures which would keep me entertained most of the night.

The lit assignment was an eye opener. I figured we’d be analyzing some great works of literature and critiquing them, but the first term class focused on reading critically. Professor Strait had given us two newspaper articles to read about the same subject. Both articles were journalistic and you couldn’t tell the writer had a bias for one side of the issue. You’d think that with all the politics, there would be a lot of fodder for contrasting two opinionated articles with each other, but this wasn’t even a political article. It had to do with reporting a fire that had killed four people in an apartment building. It was terrible. There were two follow up articles from each source as well.

From everything I could tell, both were straight forward objective journalism, but the two articles left completely different impressions of what happened and what was uncovered after the tragedy. Our analysis had to include what facts were reported identically in both papers and what facts were reported in only one or the other paper. I’d meet Rio Sunday afternoon to compare our notes.

While I read and listened to the sounds of my family in the house, Kate brought me a glass of water and curled up in my lap. She didn’t try to kiss or interrupt my study. She just sat there with me as I read, cuddled up so quietly I thought she’d gone to sleep. I finished drinking the water, realizing that I was really thirsty, and Kate took the glass from my hand. She kissed my cheek softly and then left. It was so sweet.

About half an hour later, Lissa brought me a little tray of veggie sticks and dip as an appetizer. She, too, curled up in my lap and just cuddled there quietly while I continued to read and make notes and snack. A few minutes later, she took the empty dish and went back to the kitchen after kissing me on the cheek. Before long, Melody called everyone to the table for dinner. Melody and I sat between Drew and Damon with Kate and Lissa opposite tonight. I looked at the bread and chili we were about to eat and suddenly felt very thankful.

“Before we eat,” I said, “I’d just like to say how much I love each and every person sitting at this table. I am so happy!”

“We love you, Tony,” Lissa said as Melody kissed my cheek.

A light rain was falling when I got to Tent City at a quarter till ten. It was all quiet and I reported to the support tent. Andy Parsons had the shift before mine. Most of the daytime shifts were just four to six hours, but since I could only work once a week with my crazy schedule, I took the eight hour Saturday night shift. It did pain me a bit to leave Lissa, Melody, and Kate getting ready for bed while I came to sit in the cold all night. I had a good coat and hat on with a scarf and there was a small space heater in the tent that would keep the chill off as long as I didn’t move more than a couple feet away from it. I studied anatomy for a couple of hours, sketching out the various systems.

Eventually, I found my mind wandering. I sketched things other than human anatomy. Maybe I should say that I sketched human anatomy that we weren’t actively studying in class. I was caught up by the memory of the sheen of oil on Melody this afternoon as she was giving me a body to body massage. The oil changed the highlights on her skin in the candlelight. As much as I tried to capture it, I wasn’t doing it very well, though I was getting a kick out of drawing Melody’s naked body over and over again.

I glanced up and saw the opening opposite my tent that led into Tent City. The opening was about six feet wide with a thin tarp stretched on eight-foot-tall fence posts around the perimeter. It didn’t really provide much in the way of privacy, but the tents inside all backed up to the tarp, so it was really a double barrier. The only place there was a view into the city was through the entrance, and that wasn’t much of a view. The October weather had turned cold and rainy already, so people who went into the city pretty much went directly to a tent and hunkered down trying to stay warm. Blue plastic tarps were suspended over the tents to provide an extra measure of waterproofing.

From my perspective, I could see a portion of the main walkway down the middle of camp. I’d helped move the wooden pallets into place and lay out the city, so I knew what I was looking at. The first tent was a food room, the next was medical supplies. Opposite these two, a tent with the evening’s security person on duty faced the opening. Once every fifteen minutes, a resident wearing a yellow reflective vest would walk out of the entry gap and make a circuit of the perimeter. Security was their job. My job was to phone emergency help and let the residents into the athletic pavilion if there was severe weather.

I could also see the gas heat lamp that was positioned next to the security tent. It had been donated by a local restaurant that had abandoned its plan for a sidewalk café. It gave off a red warmth over a few feet that was in stark contrast to the dull yellows and greens of the camping tents. I was looking through a window into a different world and I began sketching. My light wasn’t good enough to add color to the sketch and I didn’t dare take a picture because it could be seen as invading the privacy of the residents. So I studied it and memorized it as best I could as I sketched just what I could see through the opening.

I did a sketch in which the gap in the tarp that made the entrance was only a few inches wide on my field of view. Everything was dark, yes. But it seemed that I could make out ghostly shadows against the privacy tarp that faded to the wet darkness of the night surrounding it.

I guess I eventually nodded off to sleep because the next thing I knew, Eric was shaking my shoulder and calling my name. I came awake slowly. It was still dark.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“Ten till six,” Eric responded. “I’ll always try to be here a few minutes before the shift ends.”

“I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

“You aren’t expected to stay awake all night, as long as you are here and can respond. It’s more like being on call,” Eric explained. “I take it there were no emergencies.”

“No. All quiet on the Western Front,” I joked.

“You just sit here for eight hours on Sunday, now?” I asked.

“Oh no. I get the exciting part. I open the pavilion at six thirty so folks can go in and use the showers and facilities until ten. Then I lock up again and leave when my relief gets here at noon.”

“Well, I’m glad they get to go in and use the facilities,” I said.

“Three times a week. You get any studying done last night?”

“Yeah. Worked on my anat course and then did some sketches.”

He looked over my shoulder at the last sketch I’d done.

“Hey. I like that. It seems like such a small place in a large universe. If we ever get a dry day, you should go up to the roof and sketch from there. You’ll get a better feel for how the place is laid out.”

“I can get there?”

“Sure. Let me know when you want to do it and I’ll show you the way. You should go home and get some real sleep now,” Eric said.

I agreed and left.

Five

“I’m glad you are up,” Kate said. They got back from the Aquarium at one o’clock and the boys were bouncing off the walls. Lissa and I had awakened at noon got up to have our coffee. I wasn’t feeling too bad, but I knew that after my three o’clock study session with Rio, I’d probably be bushed. At least, I would have company in a nice warm bed tonight. I had a little pang of sorrow for the folks who would continue to spend every night alone in a tent.

“Come here, Kitten,” I said, standing up from the table. I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her soundly. “I love you.”

“Ooo. You gave me goosebumps. Look at my arm!” Indeed, blowing in her ear as I whispered to her had raised little bumps all down her arm. “Just stay here and… No. Go into the living room and I’ll be right back!” She was off to the garage.

“What was that about?” I asked as Melody flowed into my arms.

“I don’t know, but she’s been giddy all day,” Melody said.

“In fact, it started yesterday, but you two were otherwise engaged,” Lissa answered. “What on earth is she up to?” We moved into the living room and sat down to wait.

“Damon? Drew?” Kate called. “Come help me, please.” The rest of us waited with odd expressions on our faces.

At last, Kate and the boys tugged and lugged a large box into the living room. It was nearly three feet wide and cube-shaped. They dragged the thing over to me at my chair.

“This came Friday for you,” Kate said. “Well, it came to me to give to you. I got a letter, too. It’s a birthday present from my family for us.”

“What on earth did they send us?” I asked, looking at the label. It was addressed to Kate with a message under the address label that said, “Do not open. Read the letter.”

“Okay,” Kate said. She was out of breath from dragging the thing in. “According to the letter, I have to go out of the room while you open the present. You have to follow the instructions inside and then I’ll come back out. Okay?” I nodded dumbly and Kate ran to the bedroom.

I looked at Melody, Lissa, and the boys and shrugged my shoulders.

“Well, should we find out what’s in here?” I asked. The boys were beside themselves with excitement. Lissa and Melody nodded. I tore into the packing material. On the top inside the box was a big sheet of paper that that said DON’T HIT IT YET! Underneath was an envelope that said OPEN ME FIRST!

“What is it?” Melody asked. Drew and Damon had their heads almost all the way inside the box.

“It’s a drum,” I answered. This wasn’t a little drum. It was almost as big as the one the guys were beating the night we were at Kate’s parents. Tucked down beside it were two big mallets. “Here’s what the letter says. ‘Tony, Happy birthday! Sorry this is late, but it takes time to build one this size. I know you are going to say you don’t know how to play it, but Kate says you pay a lot of attention to music. So here is what you do. Set it on the wooden blocks that are at the bottom of the box. Then think of your favorite song. You don’t have to sing it, just think the melody. When you’ve got it in your mind, just tap out the words on the drum head with the mallets. It’s like Professor Hill’s Think Method. Only you won’t reproduce the melody, you’ll have a great rhythm going instead. Once you start, don’t stop. The second part of the present only comes when you’ve got the rhythm going.’ Wow!” I said.

We pulled the drum the rest of the way out of the box and found the blocks to set it on.

“Oh, I see,” Melody said. “The blocks will let the sound out the bottom. Otherwise it would be muffled against the carpet!”

“Smart!” I said. “But what song?”

“Something you know, obviously,” Lissa said.

“I’ve got an idea.” I reached for my music player and headset. I scrolled through my music list and let the song run once in the headset.

“What is it?” Lissa asked.

“It’s not important. I’m going to lay in a drum track that was never in the piece and you don’t need to know what the music is. You just need to hear the rhythm. Damn! This is fun! Ready?”

Everyone nodded. Melody and Lissa each had one of the boys in her lap. I started the music through my earphones and hit the drum with the mallet. Man! It made a big sound. The whole house seemed to shake. The boys put their hands over their ears in shock. I moderated exactly how hard I hit the drum.

I’d followed the tempo for only about thirty seconds when I heard a chime from nearby. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see Kate entering the room to my beat, clinking together finger cymbals. I almost dropped the mallet. God, she’s gorgeous. Especially when she’s dressed in a gypsy outfit like I saw at her home. As I continued to play the rhythm, she began to dance around the living room. With Kate’s movement and the cymbals, I didn’t need the music in my ears to keep the cadence and rhythm going. I shook my headset off and just kept drumming. I was blown away by how easy it was once I had a tempo and rhythm firmly in mind. Mostly, Kate was following my lead, but then she’d claim the lead with the cymbals and her dance and I’d just follow along. Melody and Lissa were rocking back and forth to the rhythm and the boys started clapping their hands. Kate faced the four of them on the sofa and beckoned to them with her hands. Soon all three women and the two boys were dancing in a circle. Melody and Lissa quickly started to follow Kate’s moves. The boys were just shaking their booties to the music and seemed lost in their own world.

While Kate led the dancing, I kept up the rhythm. We shifted subtly from one pattern to another, and I just matched what she was doing to a song in my head. It was wild; it was carefree. Our whole family was dancing. We kept it up for about fifteen minutes when I began to lose the rhythm. No matter how enthusiastic you are, you have to build up some endurance. The girls collapsed onto each other on the floor and the boys spun themselves silly and fell on top. We were all laughing like crazy.

“That was so fun!” Melody said. “I didn’t know you could dance!”

“We never told you that part of the story,” I said, “but you saw the picture I drew of Kate and her mom dancing.”

“I thought they just posed that!” Lissa laughed. “Oh, Kate, darling, you are wonderful!”

“Back home we dance almost every weekend,” Kate said. “It’s one of the things I’ve missed. But it’s not the same without the big drums. Grandpa Ken said he was going to make sure that Tony knew the secret to making me dance.”

“Now that I know it, you’ll never get any rest!” I said.

“You are going to be sore,” Lissa said. “I bet drumming will improve your forehand in the game.”

“Oh man! Just what I need is another style to toss in to the mix.”

“You know, it’s not dumb, though,” Kate said. “You saw what it was like with three men beating the drum. The rhythms are incredible. I’ll bet you and Lissa would make a great pair. And I know there’s a smaller box still in my room with at least one more pair of mallets.”

“You didn’t bring them over?” I asked.

“Well, the instructions in my letter were pretty explicit. Grandpa said that we could learn the rhythm of life together by playing together, but we’d learn just as much when I danced to your playing. Oh, I’m so happy he sent you a drum!”

“I’m not very good at it, but I’ll get better. I promise.”

My study session with Rio went all right, though we had completely different opinions about what was fact and what was opinion. How do you find out what is real and what is bias.

I was happy to get home, but sad to find Kate had already returned to her dorm. There was a point where I wanted to drop the mallets and let my fingers strum the tune on her body earlier. The boys, of course, were enthralled with having a big drum in the house, but we decided that the mallets would live on the mantel and not on the drum. I showed them how they could play it with their hands, and joined them as we drummed a little before bedtime.

“I haven’t decided yet if I like this Grandpa Ken because he brought sensual dance into our home, or to hate him because he brought a drum into a home with a six- and an eight-year-old boy,” Lissa laughed.

That may was the last thing I heard before I crashed into deep sleep.

Doc Henredon’s class on Tuesday was torturous. It wasn’t the project so much as the anxiety I was feeling over asking him his opinion of my newest work. Of all the people at PCAD, I’d learned the most from Doc. I guess I had a little hero worship. Lissa pressed me to bring the two new drawings to him. Kate stayed with me after class.

“Okay. Let’s see it,” he said abruptly as the class filed out. There was a legitimate reason for me to want to show him this. I wasn’t just looking for praise. I was wondering about how the pattern from focal point to focal point shifted with such a simple thing as the eyes and how to draw the attention back from the artist to the stack of unopened mail.

He looked at the two paintings intently. I hadn’t asked him a question yet. I just wanted his opinion first. Kate reached over and took my hand to stop me from fidgeting.

“This,” Doc said, pointing to the stack of mail. “You need to get back to this.”

“Yes!” I exclaimed. He looked up. “Sorry,” I continued. “That’s what I thought needed to happen, but I can’t figure out how to get there.”

“It’s tricky,” he said. “You’ve done a good job with these, by the way. I’m not denigrating what you’ve accomplished. This one follows a classic pattern and the eye is immediately caught by the first focal point and passed from point to point smoothly until you see the insouciance of the model in her deliberate ignoring of the unopened mail. Now this second piece requires more subtlety. You are passing the focus to the viewer and there needs to be a way to move it back into the picture. You can handle this any way you see fit, but I would suggest a slight change in the expression on your model’s face.”

“How would that affect the pattern?” I asked. “I really want the model to look up in the second painting.”

“Yes, but the expression is one of pleasure and love. You follow the line and there she is, looking at you with love. No one wants to leave that point. You bring them to a halt. If it were a solo piece, it would be fine. Warm feelings wash over the viewer. But as a companion piece, you don’t want viewers to stop here. You want them to search further. Harden the expression as if the model had just heard some criticism, and the viewer will throw himself back into the painting to find the cause of the censure. Then your previous pattern is picked up and we are led inexorably to the pile of mail. Do you see?”

“Wow!” Kate and I exclaimed together.

“Yes, I see,” I said. “I couldn’t figure out how to throw the viewer back into the painting, but that would work.”

“Try it in some sketches before you paint, Tony,” Doc advised. “Not because you can’t paint the expression and achieve that, but because you should test the knowledge to see if that is what you want to do. You might prefer to leave the painting with her looking lovingly at you and sell them separately, or simply hide one until far in the future.”

It was too late to meet Melody for coffee, but Kate and I went out for a light dinner before I headed for practice. I was a little confused when Kate took my portfolio and art supplies from me.

“I’ll just keep these until you finish practice,” she said. “They’ll be in my room with me if you want them back.” She grinned and I watched her head to her dorm as I turned toward the club.

Six

Our Tuesday night team practice started out as an exercise in chaos and frustration. Whitney was at her peak as a tease and she was fawning all over Lissa. She was wearing tight shorts and a t-shirt that was barely legal in the club. She made sure she was in Lissa’s line of sight at all times and frequently touched her when they talked. Lissa set her up to train with Tonya and hoped working against a woman even taller and more powerful than she was would cool her down.

Bree sidled up next to me as I watched our men’s pair working.

“Enjoying the show?”

“These guys? You know I don’t swing that way.”

“I meant the next court. That bitch is bleeding pheromones.”

“Oh yeah. Whitney,” I said dismissively. “She thinks she’s a big tease, but she’s really just being annoying.”

“She thinks the best way to get to you is through Lissa,” Bree said. “If you don’t do something, she’ll disrupt the team, and there are only six of us, and I don’t count.”

“You could play.”

“It would interfere with my laundry duties. Besides, I’m nowhere big enough to play against you guys. Look at them. All five-ten or more. I’m a shrimp.”

“Portia is only two inches taller than you, and a couple of years older. You could do it,” I suggested.

“I’ll scrimmage, but you won’t get me in a competition,” Bree said. “I think I’ll get a bucket of cold water and see if I can cool her down.”

“Don’t go overboard,” I laughed. “I think Lissa’s got an idea.”

“Okay, everyone,” Lissa called after we’d had a ten-minute break. We all gathered around to listen to our coach. “There’s two competitions coming up and we’ve got permission to play if you are all in. The first one is in three weeks up in Bellingham. Second one is a pre-holiday event in Mountlake Terrace. These are local tournaments with a wide variety of talent playing. There aren’t any official college club meets in Washington, even though there are some other college clubs that want to play. We’ll hold our own invitational next year.”

“Are we ready for competition?” Tonya asked.

“Not really,” Lissa answered. “But at the same time, you need a taste of it so that you know what to look forward to. Remember, when we get to the intercollegiate championships next spring, there are several levels of play. You don’t have to be competing at an elite level to be in the tournament. And I’ve got a secret ingredient that will help you.”

That was news to me.

“What’s that, Lissa?” I asked.

“You all have seen how well Brent and Franklin are doing as a doubles team. I think I’d like to try Tonya and Whitney out as a doubles team as well. We might even field two mixed doubles teams so you get a chance to play in several matches. That keeps you out of the spotlight as individuals in the first couple of competitions, but gives you good practice on the court,” Lissa said. “I want you to think of this as a little team building. So far you’ve all played against each other. You are going to start playing with each other. And we’re going to start with a demonstration. Tony and I are going to volley. When you are playing against each other, you try to prevent your opponent from hitting the ball. But when you play with each other, you want them to return it. If you know where to place the ball so your partner can return it, then you can place the ball so your opponent can’t return it. Clear as mud?”

“Um… yeah,” Brent said. “Sometimes Frank and I just try to see how long we can keep a rally going.”

“Exactly,” Lissa said. “That’s what Tony and I are going to do in this demo. We’ll start slowly, but you have to consider the person on court with you to be your dance partner. Some of you saw what we did in Minneapolis. We not only danced together, our opponents danced with us. So watch us as we rally for a few minutes, and then we’ll let you play. Ready, Tony?”

“Sure,” I said. I knew what we were going to be doing on the court. Whitney thought she could tease. When Lissa and I were done, Whitney would have a hard time keeping her hands out of her panties. If she was wearing any.

It worked like a charm. Lissa and I just smiled at each other and let all the day’s cares and worries slip away. Then we started to dance.

We began with a couple of easy lobs to each other. We didn’t even bother to enter the service area, just started the ball flying. We kept it slow and easy while we adjusted to each other, just letting the ball connect us. We didn’t really need any music to set the pace. In a minute we were back in the zone we’d found in Minneapolis. And like all zones, time started to disappear. All there was were the two of us and where the ball would be.

At one point, I returned a volley and found myself planted right behind Lissa. We touched and held ourselves together as she returned the ball with a backhand, straight to my forehand. It went back to her backhand and she spun around so that I was in front and returned the ball with my backhand. She kept her turn going until we were both facing the wall again and she met the ball with a forehand into the left corner so that my forehand was called into action again. I flattened myself on the floor as Lissa stepped over me to take the next return.

I was sure no one could tell how well in synch we were with each other. People who watch racquetball just see the serves and missed returns. But what they were really seeing with Lissa and me were two people making love on the racquetball court.

Don’t ask me how we ever got to this point. Someplace, racquetball became like sex to us. We met each other’s thrusts. We rolled over each other without hesitation—without breaking the rhythm. We went through foreplay, even sneaking a kiss. We built the tempo, reading each other’s wants and needs—knowing where to stimulate our partner for just the right response. We slid against each other and touched softly when we passed. Our fingers touched as we switched places.

And the pace increased.

Soon—or not so soon; who was keeping track?—we were pummeling the ball back and forth to each other. It was a constant rhythm of floor-racquet-wall-floor-racquet-wall. When we were both near our peak, we changed the rhythm up slightly. Racquet-wall-racquet-wall. Sometimes we were playing high on the wall and sometimes low. But the speed continued to increase. I had no idea how long we could keep it going at this rate, but I knew that we would both explode at the same time. Lissa solved the problem.

“Now!” she screamed as she sent the ball high on the end wall so that it would hit the back wall before the floor. She dropped her racquet on the floor and I fell into her arms in a deep kiss, still flicking the ball forward as it passed me and dropped to the floor.

Lissa and I sank to our knees in the middle of the court, still locked in a kiss, panting and coming down as if we had just had an orgasm.

“I love you, baby.”

We looked at our five teammates. Bree was sitting behind the others and I could see a tear on her cheek. Everyone else looked at us in stunned silence. Lissa took a deep breath. She was our coach.

“We have four doubles teams here,” she said. “One men’s, one women’s, and two mixed. We don’t know who is going to click on the mixed side, so let’s start with Whitney and Franklin on court one and Tonya and Brent on court two. Now get this. You need to court each other first. Expect some fumbling around. Maybe even an offense. Get through it. You can do it. Now go.”

They entered the courts and started hitting the ball back and forth to each other while Lissa and I got a drink. When I turned around, Bree was standing next to us. She took each of our hands in hers and looked up at us.

“I’m so proud of you… and so jealous,” she whispered.

“You can always play, Bree,” I said.

“That’s not what I’m jealous of,” she answered. “Don’t worry. I’ll get through it. I can do it.”

“You tormented your team!” Kate exclaimed after I’d finished telling her about practice. I’d showered and soaked and showered again before I went to her dorm room. I’d also had a couple liters of water to drink.

“Well, not exactly the team,” I said. “We were targeting Whitney. I almost think it was harder on Bree, though. Brent, Franklin, and Tonya just took it in stride like they understood what was going on. When I left, though, Lissa said Whitney was still in the shower.”

“She’s going to be fun when we finally have sex with her.”

“What? I’m not planning to have sex with Whitney. I’m happy right where I am. She’s just decided that she’s the biggest tease in the world and we had to show her what teasing was all about. After all, we learned from an expert,” I laughed.

“That’s why I brought you here tonight,” Kate said. We were lying naked on her bed—a tight fit—and Kate had been softly massaging my arm and chest muscles. She knelt beside me and I lifted a hand to caress the breasts that I loved so much. She pushed it back down.

“You brought me here to tease me?” I asked, pouting.

“Sort of. Have you read the book?”

“It’s been crazy. I’m only two chapters in. I think Lissa has read it cover to cover, though.” When I visited Kate’s home in Oregon over Labor Day, she’d given me two books. One was about Tantric sex.

“I’ll keep that in mind next time I’m with her. But tonight, I want to take care of you. You don’t have to do a thing. You must do nothing.”

“I don’t know how to do nothing,” I said.

“Just lie still. Don’t twitch or thrust. Don’t touch. Hands behind your head. Relax completely.”

I tried to do exactly what she was saying, but as her hands moved down to my growing prick, my hips bumped forward automatically.

She pulled her hands away.

“If you want me to touch you, you have to be still,” she said. I moaned. “Do you want me to touch you, Tony? Do you want me to run my fingers up the side of your penis? Do you want me to hold your testicles in my hands?”

“Yes. Oh yes,” I gasped as she demonstrated. “And I want to touch your beautiful breasts and taste your pussy,” I continued.

“That’s what you have to work on not doing,” she said. “You have to focus all your attention on what I’m doing.”

“I’m all yours, Kitten.”

“You are beautiful, did you know that?” she asked. I don’t think I’d been called beautiful before. “So symmetrical, but not perfectly so. Like the little bend here.” She traced a line on my cock and I almost jumped. It took all my will to lie still. “What do you call your penis?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Well, the book always says penis, but that seems so clinical. What do you call it?”

“I guess cock or dick,” I answered.

“Cock. I can’t call it dick,” Kate laughed. “I’d keep thinking of that guy in our fundamentals class, Dick Strange. Then I’d think, ‘oh, it’s a strange dick.’ I’d never be able to make love to it.”

“Then by all means, call it a cock.”

“Cock. Tony’s cock. I love you, Tony’s cock. Lie still,” she commanded. My hips had started to move forward and I could feel myself getting near the edge. “You have to stay absolutely still or I’ll stop.”

“Kitten, I’m so close.” I felt the come bubbling up and my balls jerk, then a moment of pain as Kate pinched down at the base of my cock and I could feel the fluids forced back into my prostate. “Shit!”

“I’d like to paint you, cock,” Kate continued as if nothing had happened. “I’d start at this little slit on top and work my way down the underside so I could show the heart is here. You can even feel its beat.”

I could feel the beat, now, as well. My cock was throbbing beneath her sometimes gentle, sometimes forceful ministrations. If I got too close, she would pinch it off, keeping me so on edge I was ready to weep. At the same time, I was becoming detached in a way. My body was relaxing and my entire consciousness was sinking into my cock.

“I wish I could paint you just as you are entering my… Tony? What do you call my vagina?”

“Um… I guess I call it your pussy. I suppose I could call it Kate’s kitty, but I kind of like calling you my Kitten and sometimes even Kit.”

“Mmm. Pussy. That’s what Melody says. Do you know what Lissa says when it’s just us? She always talks about her pussy, just like you do to Melody and me, but when I was exploring her with my tongue last week, she suddenly yelled, ‘lick my little cunny!’ Isn’t that funny?”

“I’ve heard Lissa yell that, but she’s the only one I know that uses the term. Oh, Kitten, I’m lost to your touch. You’re making me feel things I’ve never felt. I just want to pour my heart out to you. I love you, Kate.” I was really almost crying. I could feel my eyes getting watery. I was so near the breaking point, I was holding myself rigid then forcing myself to relax and not move a muscle as she played with my cock.

“Are you truly ready, Tony?” Kate whispered. “Are you ready to show me how much I’ve done to you?”

“I’m ready, Kitten. I’m so ready.”

She let go of my cock and crawled up beside me.

“What?”

“Okay, lover,” she whispered in my ear. Her hand was on my chest as I lay on my back, her lips against my cheek.

“When you’re truly ready, let it come. I’m right here with you. Show me you are really ready.”

She lifted her head slightly so I could turn to look into her eyes. I was lost. I stared into her hazel eyes, so dark, but not quite brown. So on fire. I let her have me. I fell into her gaze and just as I was near to oblivion, my cock started spurting. Neither of us was touching it. I was lying perfectly still, yet the first jet from the tip arced up between our faces to land on the pillow. She turned her head slightly and caught the second spurt on her chin and lips. There was a third, a fourth, and a fifth jet that each fell a little shorter. Then my cock continued to pulse and dribble for minutes afterward. I was fucking the empty air. With nothing touching me, no movement of my hips, I had just had one of the most powerful orgasms of my life.

There was a soft squeal from across the room. I turned my head to see Kate’s roommate, Amber, arching her back on her bed with her hand buried in her panties, which was all she was wearing.

“How long has she been there?” I whispered.

“The whole time,” Kate said. “She was in the bathroom when we got into bed. From that point, you just didn’t notice anything.”

“You just displayed me to your roommate.”

“I just wasn’t cognizant of her, any more than you were,” Kate said.

My god! My girlfriend was more adventurous, more erotic, more unafraid, than anyone I’d ever met.

“That was so hot,” whispered Amber. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Thank you. Thank you both.” She turned her back to us and in a moment we could hear her breath even out into sleep.

I turned back to Kate to find her licking my come off her face and fingers. She had her own eyes closed and the flush she had on her chest told me she was experiencing her own sexual high, though maybe not an orgasm. When her breathing returned to normal, she kissed me and then snuggled down next to me. The last thought I had as I lay on my back, just fading into sleep, was that my cock was still hard.

Seven

“Yes, I’ve got the details, Daddy,” Melody was saying on the phone when I found her at home. Lissa and I had no more than walked in the door after practice when Kate grabbed Lissa’s hand and dragged her off to the bedroom. What’s that all about?

“Okay,” Melody continued. “You can’t invest in the partnership. That’s our domestic relationship and it just wouldn’t work. But Ice Queen Sportswear is a corporation.— No, not an S Corporation. We were advised against that.— Yeah, I think he’s a very good lawyer and he works well with our accountant.— So here’s what he says. The corporation will acquire 100 shares of common stock from the partnership. That’s one percent of what is outstanding. At that point, you can buy the hundred shares at the ask price of $3,000 per share. That’s what you wanted to invest, right? $300,000?” There was a long pause as Melody listened to her father. I took the opportunity to kiss her cheek and she held my hand. “Daddy, Tony is here. Let me put you on speaker.”

“Hi, Tony,” he said once Melody had touched the button.

“Hello, Mr. Anderson,” I answered automatically.

“Really, Tony. I’m over that. Please call me Harold.”

“Sure, Harold. Sorry I forgot.”

“Couldn’t common stock in the corporation be negotiated or sold?”

“Not technically. In any case in which a corporation is privately held, there are inherent restrictions or the corporation becomes public and is saddled with all kinds of SEC restrictions. That’s why we can’t just sell you stock of our own. The corporation has to issue it.”

That was a preview of Model Student 5: Odalisque. To read the rest purchase the book.

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