Loosening Up: Cohousing

by Robert Wolf

©Copyright 2025 Robert Wolf

Chapter 1 - Hatching of an Idea

By summer, there were four women living with Dave in the Prentiss home: Alice, his wife, of course, Julie - her sister, Pam - Dave and Alice’s first lover, and Heather - their second lover. Little Matthew, Heather’s four-year-old son, also raced around the small home but was exceptionally well-behaved and easily occupied with his toys, TV, and electronics. He was growing like a weed. Since Heather’s mother lived only a few miles away, the tot frequently went on overnights at grandmother’s, to his delight. Heather knew her mother spoiled Matthew, as any good grandmother should, but she took advantage of her desire to mother her grandson and often let him stay there overnight.

Most nights, Owen visited the house unless he was traveling. He was there so much that he’d left even more clothing, shaving gear, and a toothbrush in one of the guest rooms ‘just in case’ he stayed over, which he usually did because he liked his ‘new family’ as he called it. Alice teased that his multi-million-dollar condo was going to waste.

With the two men, four women, and a four-year-old living in the house, it was crowded. Owen often tried to lure one or two of the women out with him, for instance to dinner or even to his condominium bachelor pad. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your viewpoint, he was unsuccessful most of the time. Everyone wanted to be together and be open for a swap, and even Owen really didn’t want to be separated from the others especially when the possibility of group sex reared its head, which it also usually did.

Alice had worried at first about Owen’s presence. Worried that he was obsessed with her. Their week in Paris and Rome had been exceptionally romantic and special, and had Alice not had her marriage and other commitments she would have married Owen in an instant. She’d even admitted that to Dave a month or so after they’d returned, but by then the new state of their commitment was in place.

Dave had nearly worried himself sick the week Alice had gone to Europe with Owen. He was afraid of losing the love of his life to the billionaire, torn over the sex they were having belying his old beliefs about monogamy and exclusivity versus his new mindset, and anxious about the future of their marriage.

Christie and Heather had held him together, reinforced the new paradigm of an open and loving relationship, and then when she returned Alice recommitted to him in a major way that he trusted. They were open in their feelings about what had happened, and in how they would react and feel about things and their relationships in the future. Moreover, Dave grasped onto the new positions he’d moved to in his loosening up process: polyamory, no possessiveness or ownership, compersion, and an open marriage and relationship with multiple women. Dave quickly recovered.

Alice’s admission also led to her own repositioning in her new ‘loosened’ state of life. She talked with Owen about their relationship and how they both needed to leave the inculcated meme for exclusivity on the side of some road, and never return to it. Owen wanted to possess Alice, and that wasn’t in the cards. Alice explained that she deeply loved Dave and had no intention of upsetting that primary relationship. She also didn’t want to be ‘possessed’. However, she also loved him and had the ability to love him in every way as well as Dave and some other men, if only he’d also see that exclusivity wasn’t necessary in their new setting.

Alice also loved Dev, Ty, and Sean, and their wives, along with Pam, Heather, Christie, and more recently Roy, Mike, and Clarisse. She wanted Owen to also love the others and if exclusivity was the paradigm for a relationship that he needed, then he should act on that and find someone he found happiness with.

Owen slowly changed, becoming more intimate with the other women, and building deeper friendships with the men. In this case, the term intimate wasn’t limited to sex; it meant the deep understanding and camaraderie that goes with a relationship build on many different levels. Gradually, Alice felt that his focus broadened until it encompassed the entire group of lovers.

Because of the pairing of the married couples, Owen started to gravitate to the single women, and there always was a good bond with them, as well as fabulous sex. Of course, at the Saturday evening parties the field was open.

Dev and Alice noticed another phenomena by summer. Dev talked about it over dinner one Saturday, “Whenever one of the men or women in our circle are alone because their spouse is traveling, they’re staying overnight with one of the others, and enjoying the comforts and excitement of loving sex from whomever they stay with.”

Wendy laughed and added, “I think it has moved beyond that, although that still continues. The requirement for one spouse to be out of town has disappeared. When any of us want to visit someone else, they do. Further, sometimes those visits are couples with couples.” She laughed, “Just last night Dev and I visited and swapped with Sean and Kat. I also happen to know that Dori spent last night in Dave and Alice’s bed with heavenly results.”

Dori chimed in, “It was heavenly, only there were some other women around that also paid attention to me. I lost count.”

Owen also found himself being invited midweek to join the Winters, Connors, or Marburys. Pam or Heather occasionally went off with Owen for an overnight, even to his condo. After several months of observing his behavior, Alice relaxed her restrictions and also went off with the handsome man once in a while. By then, Dave never seemed bothered by the occurrence.

Owen got restless as the summer approached. Every second he didn’t have to be at work or at some far corner of the world he was immersed in the activities of the Circle - the term the group adopted for their polyamorous intentional family. He took on various chores at each house, becoming a real handyman in the process, and even babysitting for Matthew on occasion to what turned out to be his delight with the youngster.

On the last Saturday in May, the holiday weekend, Owen showed up for the group dinner and ‘other activities’ with a large roll of blueprints under his arm. As dinner ended, Owen stood at the end of one picnic table and tapped his glass to get everyone’s attention.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I love you one and all. I have a proposal to put before you that I hope you will consider seriously because I believe that the feelings that I have for each of you are shared by one and all for each other. Sure we have our rough corners, but we seem to have found a way to be with each other, a lot of the time, without those becoming too sharp or disruptive. I have come to believe, based on listening to you all talk, that you all want more of each other all the time.”

There was a buzz of agreement around the two tables.

“What I am proposing is that all of us relocate to a common space that connects and bonds us, that gives each of us more living and loving space, and that reinforces the love and relationships we have built. Some of you women are considering children, and this would also be an opportunity to provide the space for those additions as well.

“In some contexts, this might be called ‘cohousing,’ and I’m content to use that word. One way to think about it would be if all of our homes were physically connected to each other, and we shared a single large kitchen, and spaces for media, living, playing with kids, dining, laundry, socializing, and so on, including our group lovemaking when we want to all be together in that activity as we have been on our Fridays and Saturdays.

There was silence. Owen searched the faces looking for strong support or rabid disagreement, including someone calling him a nut for even considering the idea. Instead, he only saw faces looking for more information - curiosity.

Owen went on, “I had a friend of mine who’s an architect sketch out some ideas that could accommodate all of us, leave space for a few more to join us, and yet be the kind of space that would allow us all to be together round the clock.”

He unrolled the plans and put a weight on each corner to hold down the rolled paper. Everyone immediately clustered around as Owen pointed to the large plan. “This is just one arrangement. It’s actually a neighborhood outside of Washington, D.C., but you can get the drift of what I’m thinking about. See how all the homes connect to one another with covered walkways and then to a common indoor and outdoor space. If we did this here, I’d recommend more common space for us where we’d dine and socialize together. Of course, we’d also have our private space as well.” He pointed to various areas on the blueprint.

Dave and Ty started in on some details. “How would this work financially? Who would own what? Where would the land be? How long would it take to build? And more.

Owen answered some and pushed others off as a group decision by the founders. He obviously didn’t see himself as the czar of the proposed community, but he had done some homework about cohousing and knew more about the possibilities in each area than anyone else in the group.

After an initial flurry of conversation and many questions, there was a long silence.

Owen remained standing. “So, am I nuts or might this have some appeal to you all?”

After more silence, “Alice stood and went to Owen. She pulled him into an embrace and kissed him, tenderly at first, but then with increasing passion. After a minute, she pulled away and said, “I think it’s a wonderful idea.”

Dave chimed in, “Count us in.” He checked in with Julie, Pam, and Heather, and added, “All of us.”

After that there was a chorus of similar comments. Everyone in the group liked the idea, and no one had so many reservations that they didn’t want to be part of the resulting community.

Ty said, “So, what now? We all put our homes on the market?”

Owen laughed, “No, not yet. I asked my architect friend that very question. He recommended that he talk to each of you, individually and as couples or groups where that’s the situation, and then he’d piece together a strawman set of plans or options. He’d be after your space requirements, what you’d want to see as common areas and what not, and so on. I briefly explained about our loving relationships with him, and he understands that I think, so don’t be shy about commenting on ALL aspects of our lives with him. His name is Jack Anders. I’ll have him get in touch with you on Monday.”

“Where would this be?” Kat asked.

“I own large parcels of land all over the county. The nearest one is that six-hundred-acre parcel between the city bypass and Main Street Extension. I’d pledge that to this project for just what I bought it for seven years ago. Let’s not worry the financial part of this for now.”

Sean said, “Owen, don’t think of this as something you have to fund out of your own pocket, even with discounts and giveaways. I know you could, and that it’d be pocket change to you, but we want our skin in this game in equal measure. I want to emphasize ‘in equal measure’. So this becomes a commonly funded effort by each of us. Where I guess it’ll get different financially is the square footage that we each want for our own family units, versus what we buy into communally.”

Owen nodded. “I’m fine with that. There’s some vocabulary I’m learning that may help. There will be ‘common elements’ that are entirely shared and jointly funded, there are ‘limited common elements’ that you use as though it was your own but which are still public space - maybe walkways to your home, for instance, and then there are ‘private elements’ such as the interior of your own home or part of this. I think we’d all want to agree on some kind of common look to the overall development and agree to preserve that look across the community.”

Kat asked, “What about the Prentiss’s and how they’ve already outgrown their home by how they’re living all together?”

Owen shrugged, “We’ll see. My guess is that they’d have more private element square footage as Sean suggested,” he teased, “probably including an oversize bedroom and their oversize custom bed. Jack will be the specialist on that front. I’m sure he’ll have ideas.”

Dori chimed in, “We’ll need space for guests to sleep over, too.”

Mike said, “You’d better have several different media rooms. I could see all the guys in one watching some sporting event, and the women in another all watching Bachelorette, or something.” Everyone laughed.

Sean said, “I’d like a workshop.”

Dave said, “We’ll need a nursery and space for a live-in nanny. I foresee a lot of babies in the future of this group. Look at our ages and dispositions; we love kids.”

Dev teased, “Can we make it so I don’t have to mow the yard every weekend?”

Christie asked, “Could I get a stripper pole to practice and exercise on?”

Wendy teased, “We will need some space where each of us can get off on their own. There might be too much togetherness on some days.”

Ty got a diabolical grin, “We need space for our orgies; maybe a huge room with wall-to-wall mattresses.”

Heather tossed in, “I’ll like a study room some place.”

Pam added, “I want a small conference room, especially one that I could teleconference from and the backdrop would look super professional and not like a bedroom or living room”

Owen held his hands up. “Write all those thoughts down so you don’t forget them. We’ll get going this next week. I’ll call Jack on Monday.”

“How long?” Dave asked.

Owen shrugged. “For a project like this, I have some leverage with some of the local contractors. I could see us moving in by next summer.”

“LET’S DO IT!” a couple in the circle yelled. Everyone applauded.

---

Jack Anders was an architect in his early-fifties, salt and pepper hair that included a small pony tail, six feet, thin, ruddy complexion, and the kind of guy who wore a pocket protector in his shirt with an array of colored pens and pencils in it, along with a small calibrated ruler. Despite his nerdy appearance, he exuded confidence and competence. Besides being a successful expert in architecture, he was also exceptionally knowledgeable about cohousing. He was relaxed, even laid back, one of the friendliest people you’d ever want to meet, and several of the women even commented on his sex appeal. Jack was thin and fit, loved blue jeans or shorts, and had an aversion to socks.

Anders started his process with a group meeting with everyone in the Prentiss’ living room; everyone attended. In his opening remarks he talked about the pros and cons of cohousing, building on a broad definition of the term: an intentional community of private homes or spaces clustered around or near a shared space.

Jack said, “There’s no requirement for what has to be in the shared space or private. Sometimes, there’s some space for shared meals and prep, living, laundry, and perhaps media. In a group with children, playrooms and outdoor play space, even a pool, is typically part of the common space depending on the climate. Often, the community is intergenerational with the population from infants, possibly, on up to octogenarians. The diversity is one of the attractions of a project.

“There’s also no requirement in the number of people that make up a cohousing project or their ages. Basically, the space makes it easier to socialize and be with your neighbors. Many groups start small and allow for growth”

Jack looked around the room at the group reconvened and added with a slight smirk, “Owen said you were all close friends. I got some very specific comments from him that hinted at your group closeness.” He chuckled.

There were a few snickers. Dori teased, “Very close, even intimate you might say.”

Dave said, “Jack, did Owen explain our relationships?”

“Errr, not completely. I tried to read in the white space.”

“All the adults in this room are physically intimate together. While we have our marriages and primary relationships, we also find pleasure and love with each other, as well. We have become a large and intentional polyamorous family over the past year or two.”

“Oh!” Jack said, as his voice rose an octave in that one syllable. He let the words sink in. After a thoughtful pause, he asked, “How did you form this group?”

Dave explained about the affinity they found in one another a couple of years earlier. “The hugs and kisses got more intense, but things really started to escalate when Dori gave my wife some challenges to help the two of us loosen up, especially sexually. We were both pretty up tight in that regard. The challenges that started over a year ago were fun, and forced Alice and then me to reevaluate what we held as important. We moved or tossed away almost every boundary we had. Eventually, so did the others in this group. We found we truly enjoyed loving each other, not only in a general way or platonic way but also physically.”

Dave continued, “At that point there were only eight of us. Pam was a consultant to my company, and the two of us found the same resonance I had with the others. She visited us several times, and Alice felt the same way, so Pam became kind of my second wife. She integrated into the larger group just the way we did.

“Owen and Alice found each other through dancing at a club and tattoos he gave her. Alice met Christie dancing at the Club Ecstasy, and through her Mike when she did an adult video. Clarisse is Mike’s fiancée, but she loves all of us. Oh yes, Heather, danced at the club, too, before returning to college. Julie, Alice’s sister, moved in with us a few months ago from up north.”

Jack asked neutrally, “And, I suppose she’s sexually integrated into your group.”

Dave smiled, “She is.” The others nodded.

Jack spoke but sounded serious, “Well, my wife, Grace and I would like to apply for membership in your Circle. You need someone older in your community … people who are open minded about your lifestyle … and who might like to participate.” He smiled, but most could tell he was genuinely interested.

Dori said, “You mean older than Ty and me? We’ve been the seniors here since we’re in our forties.”

Jack allowed, “I’m almost fifty-four and Grace is fifty, but I think she looks like she’s in her twenties. My request is real, although I’d need to talk to Grace. I’m sure she’d be more than just interested in the concept. She and I have wanted something like this most of our lives. I’ll talk to one of you later, for right now let’s get back to cohousing and the meeting.”

Jack again ran through the pros of cohousing: community, intentional family, multi-dimensional social life, in our case improved physical access to each other, ability to share seldom used tools or other items, money savings, and so on.

On the con side, he talked about the need to shift one’s view about privacy, possessions, need for open and honest communications, hurt feelings, processes everyone can agree on for annexing or evicting other people or families, cost sharing and equity management, job sharing and rotation, and more.

Jack said, “There’s also some issues you all need to think about in how and on what basis you want to manage the resulting complex of homes and the common areas. Typically, people own and pay a fee on their own unit proportional to the square footage, and then on that basis share in the costs associated with the common and limited common areas. What’ll be the philosophy about upkeep, maintenance, and improvements? There’s also the issue if someone wants to leave and sell, and who replaces them; do you put any restrictions on either move or eligibility? Of course, there’s always the issue about what would happen if one of you got in financial difficulty and how that would be handled.”

Dave instantly said, “The rest of us would pick up the load.” Everyone’s head nodded. He noted that the cohousing concept was starting to have a three musketeers’ flavor to it. He liked that: one for all, and all for one.

Jack said, “I’ll be interviewing each of you and then your family unit. Owen said that you Dave have the largest unit with four of you.”

Dave chuckled, “Six if you count Alice’s sister who has moved in, and four-year-old Matthew.”

Matthew was squirming around in Pam’s lap.

Jack teased the child, “Is that your mommy’s lap?” He thought it was.

Matthew said firmly, “No, this is Mommy Three’s lap. I have four mommies. That’s my Mommy or Mom One,” he pointed to Heather. “Mom Two is there,” he pointed to Alice, and Julie Mom is Mom Four.” He pointed at Julie. “I can count to forty; wanna hear me.”

Jack smiled at the tot. “Well, I think you have lots of other mom’s, too.” He glanced around the circle in the living room, “and a whole bunch of daddies.”

Matthew grinned and pointed, “I call them my aunts and uncles. Daddy Dave gives the best bucking bronco rides. He’s my Dad, but not my father.” He frowned and looked at Heather, “Did I say that right, Mom.”

“Yes, Honey. You said it just right,” she said as the others laughed at her son.

In the momentary quiet lull, Matthew said, “Why aren’t all the other girls my mom’s, too?”

Jack winked in sympathy at Heather. He obviously had many more questions, but maybe he’d find out more during his interview.

Jack left and the group stayed around and kicked around some of the items that had been discussed. Wendy seemed a little concerned about giving up some of her privacy, as did Ty, of all people. Several in the group raised the issue of too much togetherness.

Clarisse declared that she wanted to take Matthew for a walk and help him get ready for bed, hinting that she was not in a playful mood because of her monthly. To her surprise, Ty joined her.

There was some rearrangement of people in the Circle, so new couples and a couple of threesomes formed. Alice went off to the master bedroom with Sean and Wendy. Dev and Dori took over one of the guest rooms, and Sean, Heather, and Christie took the other. Kat and Dave opted to stay in the living room to be an anchor for those that might return from their walk, and then they’d join in the fun.

In the days that followed, Jack sat with each person and family interested in the cohousing proposal Owen had suggested. He’d started with Owen, and then worked his way through Alice, Pam, Julie, Heather, Dave, Dev, Wendy, Sean, Kat, Ty, Dori, Mike, Clarisse, Roy, and Christie. He even spent a few minutes with Matthew. Where there were couples or clusters of people, he also met with that grouping to see whether there was a different dynamic that produced different ideas for the living space.

---

Jason Riggs, Esquire, was the attorney Jack Anders recommended because he was the nearest expert on cohousing and condominium laws in the state. Jack explained, “Other lawyers go to him for information, consultation, and a deeper understanding of the law in this area - even from out of state. He’s probably the best there is.”

Jason came into the conference room and was surprised to find a large eclectic group of people there: Dave, Dev, Ty, Alice, Pam, and Julie. After introductions were made, Jason took control of the meeting; “Jack Anders told me that you want to move quickly on setting up cohousing for about fifteen of you in various combinations.” Heads nodded. “Well, I’m your guy. I can keep you out of trouble with the state, and pretty much keep you out of trouble with each other down the road. As some people say, I’ve seen the movie. The agreements we do will ultimately be like a prenup to some of you.”

Dave explained the various arrangements and demographics of the group. He bluntly commented on the intimacy the group’s members shared, but Jason didn’t blink. Dave figured he’d heard that news from Jack.

Jason went to a large white board in the posh conference room. He said, “There are four kinds of documents you need to get this started: articles of incorporation, a declaration, bylaws, and any rules or regulations. All of you will agree to adhere to all of these documents if you plan to be in this community.

“The incorporation papers get you started as a not-for-profit corporate entity, establishes the board, and the general procedure for managing the company that will hold and manage the common areas of your cohousing project.

“The declaration is long and detailed, complete with initial blueprints of the complex. It talks about the kind of properties within the complex, the priorities, who can do what to what, easements, right of access, who owns what, who is responsible for what, what to do when something breaks, use of liens, financing, fines, discusses sales or lease of units, approvals of same, restrictions - for instance, no commercial business may be conducted from the property, and provides a legal description of each part of the complex.

“The bylaws go into detail about the board, voting, critical meetings - such as an annual members’ meeting, borrowing money, establishing fees and budgets, emergency powers, bonds, insurance, and a few other items.

“Last, are the rules and regulations that impinge on the property and the owners? This is more of what you can and can’t do, what the board can and will do about it if you violate anything, and how routine business will be conducted.”

Dave said, “It sounds like a mountain of paper and legalese.”

Jason responded, “It is. I’m going to give you a strawman and be available to walk you through every phrase in it. State law requires much of it. If you get it right it’ll save you headaches later. By the way, Jack knows much of this, mostly from hanging around with me in meetings. We’ve been through this with a couple of other projects together, but nothing this ambitious or this homogeneous.”

“How long to put it all together and what does it cost?”

“I can give you a strawman. Owen Bennett told me he’d process the real estate transactions through this office, so we’ll lump the costs in with that, so they’ll get distributed equitably across all your members. In this case, unless you get really fancy, it’ll run about $20,000 total. The real estate side of this will be another $6,000 based on what Owen told us. Those will get apportioned someway on your side.”

“Gulp!” Dave said in an aside to the others.

Jason said softly, “You’d be paying six figures at any other law firm in the state.”

Ty chuckled, “Bring on the boiler plate.”

Jason reached into a couple of file folders he’d brought to the meeting and extracted a one-and-a-half-inch thick wad of paper printed in somewhat small type on both sides and a CD. He slid both across the table to Ty. “This has a first cut at everything I just talked to you about. From your standpoint, most of it is boilerplate, but it does comply with all state regs - as of today. We need to figure out what’s different for you, so I need some of you to go through this with a microscope, flag out questions, edits, or revisions, and then tell us what’s missing. You can copy the file on the CD to anyone’s computer to spread out the burden. The paper stack is so that you get a feel for what it looks like on paper and for some it’s easier to read that way. Flag your edits, changes, questions, and so forth.”

“This’ll take weeks, right?”

Jason smiled and teased, “I thought you wanted to move quickly on this. Let’s meet a week from today to finalize this. In the meanwhile, you should put a board of directors together to act for everyone else in regard to these documents and to assume the initial leadership role of the project.”

On their way home, the group talked about the new board. That evening, everyone gathered to hear the summary of what had happened with Jason Riggs. They also put a board together, or at least the start of one.

Dave said, “We need at least one outsider that knows what they’re doing. Riggs would be our attorney in this, but we need someone on the board that knows some of this and when we should be consulting the legal team.”

Alice said, “Jack Anders would be logical. He even said he wanted to be part of our complex.”

Dave nodded, “Good idea. Anybody else have a nominee?”

Pam spoke up, “I think he’d be ideal. He’ll know the buildings we’re putting together inside and out, and he interacts with the city and county all the time on building rules and regs. He can help us stay in compliance.”

Dave said, “I also think that Ty would be a great president of the board. He understands business, meetings, the financial side of this, and how to keep a team of people heading in roughly the same direction.”

The others in the Circle quickly joined in and over his protestations he was elected unanimously.

Dave became vice president, Wendy the secretary, and Julie the treasurer. An empty board position was created with the hopes that Jack Anders would take the post. Dori took on the landscaping and beautification committee, Christie and Alice the social committee, and Pam and Dev took on maintenance and operations despite there being nothing to maintain or operate. Dev knew construction and repair, so that was also a logical assignment looking ahead to when the building materialized.

Chapter 2 - Barely Legal

Ty and Dave made copies of the disk that Jason Riggs had given them, and then parsed up the work of microscopically reviewing the million words that made up the foundation documents for the cohousing project. The group met again on Friday night, not to socialize, but to discuss their reviews of the several hundred pages of boring administrative text.

Christie and Alice had taken on the sections in the various documents dealing with membership, induction, expulsion, and such. When their turn came, she started, “We agree with what Jason wrote regarding membership. A ‘voting member’ is an individual housing unit; there’s one vote per unit. This also applies to condominium law.”

Ty asked, “That short changes some of the people sitting here. What about Pam, Heather, and Julie, for instance. They live with you, but don’t get a vote?”

Alice said, “I talked to them specifically. They are content to let Dave or me represent them in whatever voting would take place.”

Dev said, “That seems unfair since there are five adults in your unit, but only two in our unit or Sean or Ty’s unit, and only one in Christie, Roy, and Owen’s units.”

Pam spoke up, “We’re glad that suffrage is alive and well. We couldn’t think of any other way to do this. Anyone living in any unit can work on committees and have input that way, and we’re as free as anybody to speak up at monthly meetings.”

Ty said, “I’ve noted this point. Let’s talk to Jason about it. We should at least leave the door open in the documents to make a change about this feature. I can see we’ll have members that are property holders and members that aren’t. What else do you have?”

Alice said, “In Jason’s documents if you buy a unit, you automatically become a member. We wanted more control. The board should recommend to the general membership each new member, as well as their spouse, partner, or any other person living with them over legal age. We would want to check them out and vet them, if not require that a majority of us know them well before they buy in or even live here for any length of time even as a guest. We could see down the road that others may want to join us, and felt this would be a way to control it. We felt that a three-quarters vote should be required of the membership. We also wanted some kind of probation period, but were unclear about how to tie this into their purchase of their unit; there were personal financial implications.”

Dave asked, “Is this because of the fact that we expect everybody in our membership to be in open sexual relations with us?”

Alice and Christie nodded. Christie said, “We were thinking we should get past the NRE or New Relationship Energy stage in a relationship before full membership was granted. By then, everyone’s warts will show and we can make a better decision.”

“Do you really think we’d vote someone down a year after admitting them?”

Christie and Alice nodded. Christie said, “I can’t tell you how many guys I’ve met that turned out to be bad news a few months after I thought they were the best thing since sliced bread. That could go both ways or even with a couple. We could get lied to about a criminal past, drug use, alcoholism, and all sorts of things. What would happen if we got a fundamentalist in our midst that decided to go undercover and convert all of us? I dread the thought.”

Sean said, “If it takes three-quarters of us to vote someone in, it should take the same to vote someone out.”

Alice smiled, “We agreed, and that’s what we wrote into our draft for Jason to consider. There’s more, too.”

“More?” several of those sitting said.

Alice said, “We want to be safe. So far, we’ve been a closed group, and unless I’m mistaken none of us have strayed outside our Circle … and, yes, I know Dave and I did early on by getting with Pam, Mike, Christie, Heather, etcetera, but we’re all very stable now - and clean. Even Dori and Ty haven’t been with their other swinging friends for over a year. We need to protect ourselves in some way.

“To do that, we ask that everyone in the Circle sign a pledge to either use a condom or abstain from sex with the rest of us after any assignation, and then wait for an STD test to be completed. The same applies to males or females. If we find this rule has been violated, we recommend an automatic six-month suspension of membership and require a relocation to other quarters during the suspension.”

“That’s severe,” Sean said.

“We wanted it to be. If you screw around, especially possibly passing on an STD to some of us, there should be hell to pay.”

Sean argued, “But if your outside partner just had a clean STD test before you have sex with them, shouldn’t that negate the need for this restriction?”

Christie and Alice looked at each other and briefly conferred. Alice then spoke, “I think you’re right. We’ll note that, and as with all this stuff talk to Jason about it.”

Most of the heads nodded; even Sean’s.

Several people digested that, including Dori and Ty. Dori said, “What would happen if Ty and I wanted to play with our other swinger friends?”

Alice smirked, “Decisions. Decisions. We’re fine with that, just when you do that, we expect you to honor and respect the rest of us with a clean test timed appropriately to your other sexual relations. I suspect your other friends have similar requirements.”

Dori nodded, “They do, in fact. We will honor that. Do we need to give advanced notice so no one thinks we’re sneaking around behind everybody else’s back?”

Alice looked at Christie. They obviously hadn’t considered this.

Christie said, “That’s a good idea. To keep it low key, why not just let the president or VP of our group know. We’ll add that clause to our rules section but make it a suggestion rather than a requirement. We should allow for spur of the moment hook-ups. On the other hand, we should be trusting each other. Let’s not make this too complex.”

There were a few more comments about the cohousing project and membership documents. There was one suggestion that most of the people liked, and that involved the use of an outside arbitrator to resolve unresolvable disputes between members. An escalation process regarding a problem was also discussed.

At the end of the meeting, Ty laughed and said, “One more thing.” Steve Jobs had made the expression famous just before introducing some of innovations that transformed society, such as the iPhone and iPad.

“What?” Dave said.

Ty teased, “We need a name for our homestead. The ‘Cohousing Project’ that we seem to use just doesn’t seem to do our future home justice.”

Alice said, “We’re referring to ourselves as the Circle. Why not use that?”

There was silence in the room as heads nodded.

Ty asked, “Any other nominations?” After a long silence, he said, “All in favor, say ‘aye.’”

A loud chorus rang out with the positive vote.

“Opposed, say ‘nay.’”

The room was silent.

“The Circle is officially and legally born tonight. We’ll make it official in all our documents, as well.”

---

Owen, Ty, and Dave met with Jack Anders at his home office on Saturday morning. He had a couple of different designs for the Circle Cohousing Project on his computer and hoped to have them ready to show to everyone the middle of the following week. The men listened to Jack and asked many questions about the various designs.

Ty eventually asked the sharp-witted man, “We have another subject to discuss with you; well, maybe a couple.”

Jack looked puzzled.

“We would like you to serve on our initial board of directors, and maybe continue on the board for some period of time after our first year. There are many logical reasons for this: you’re an outsider and thus have more objectivity than any of us might, you will know the buildings inside and out, you are connected to many local contractors and the city, and you are an all-around nice man. We like you, and want you on our side or under our tent flap, or however that is said.”

Jack was taken aback by the request. Finally, he said, “I am honored and yes, I accept.” He paused, there were obviously other questions he wanted to ask but felt as though he couldn’t in that instant.

Ty read the situation. “Of course, we would like to have ‘members’ on the board. We could make an exception, but several of us heard you say one time that you were interested in living in such a project.”

Jack nodded. “My wife and I are interested. I did talk to Grace about it.” He paused and added, “She is very excited about the prospect, especially after I described all of you and your apparent behavior. She wanted me to be sure we’re not imposing on you all too badly.”

Ty said, “We know you are aware of the intimacy between each of us. Am I to interpret your interest as a desire to participate in that aspect of our community?”

Jack smiled slightly, “You are.” After a pause he went on, “Many years ago, Grace and I and another couple were … involved … on a frequent and intimate basis with one another. We loved them and they loved us, and we learned a lot from the seven-year experience. Unfortunately, it ended when they had to move to the west coast. We’ve seen each other a few times since, but … it just isn’t the same. We have longed to repeat that experience with others even in a larger group such as the Circle, but the opportunity has never arisen - until now.

“We’d like to try to recapture those feelings and again experience the shower of love that we felt back then. After I’d met and talked to all of you, I knew you were the kind of people we would want to build that kind of relationship with. I know we’re older than the rest of you. We hope you’d see that as an asset. We would be honored to be considered by your clan - by the Circle.”

“What does Grace do?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. She’s an RN at the main Hospital in obstetrics. She’s been there twenty years. Before obstetrics she was a trauma room nurse. She’s also a licensed midwife. We’ve been married twenty-six years, by the way.”

Ty said, “Can the two of you join us for dinner tonight. We gather about five-thirty for drinks and hors d’oeuvres, have some kind of dinner - often outside if the weather is nice, like today, and that lends itself to barbecuing, and then we sit around talk, and gradually work into some intimate time with each other. You would be welcome to stay or go at any stage; no harm, no foul, especially since this would be Grace’s first interaction with any of us.”

Jack said, “I accept, but just let me check with Grace. She gets off at four, so this will work with the shift she’s on this month.” Jack grabbed his cell phone and fired off a text. He got a near instantaneous reply, ‘YES. Looking forward 2 it. What do I wear?’

The men laughed. Dave said, “These are very casual gatherings. Most of the women dress on the hot and sexy side, even slutty if they’re in the mood. Near nudity is common. The men wear mostly athletic shorts and t-shirts. We’re at my house tonight and I have the pool fired up, so most likely we’ll skinny dip after dinner. People may wear swimwear, but that will get dispensed with after dinner unless you guys hang around and object in some way. That activity provides a nice segue to the group lovemaking that happens later in the evening.”

Jack said, “We’ll be there, appropriately dressed, and play the rest by ear.” He grinned.

A few hours later after most of the friends and neighbors were in the back yard or the kitchen helping Alice and Pam with the side dishes, Dave heard the doorbell ring. He hurried to the door, with a pretty good guess as to the arrivals.

Dave opened the door. “Welcome. Welcome. Come on in.”

Jack immediately began introductions, “Grace and Rach, this is Dave Prentiss; and Dave this is my wife Grace and our daughter Rachel.” A smaller version of Grace suddenly appeared from behind the couple.

Daughter!?! Jack had never mentioned he had a daughter. The look of surprise on his face must have been telling.

Jack said, “Oh, damn. I did it again. Dave, I’m sorry I guess I didn’t mention that Rachel is an integral part of our family. I assumed you knew we had a couple of kids. Our son is older; he lives outside of Austin and works in high tech while he’s getting his doctorate degree in engineering. Rachel is a senior in high school.”

Dave adopted his ‘Hale fellow, well met’ demeanor and brought the three guests into the house. He commented, “After this, when you visit, you don’t knock; you just come in.” He looked at Grace and Rachel, “That applies to all of you. If it’s likely a cookout night or during the day, you might come around either side of the house to our patio.”

Dave assessed the three. Jack was in men’s shorts and a Dave Matthews’ Band t-shirt. He also carried a twelve-pack of beer. He was six feet tall, but wiry, and one might expect him to be high strung based on his looks, but he seemed very laid back. His hair was starting on salt and pepper with his trademark ponytail.

Grace reflected her name. She moved with a certain dignity he rarely saw in people. She was beautiful, modestly endowed, and dressed in flats, shorts, and a scoop neck top with snazzy flowers on it. She wore a couple of necklaces. She also carried a large bowl of homemade potato salad sprinkled with paprika.

Rachel looked young to be a senior in high school. She had her mother’s good looks and stature, appeared to be a little bustier, had gorgeous long legs that terminated in a pair of shorts that hugged her butt and made Dave’s mouth water. She wore a decorator t-shirt. Rachel carried a traditional lettuce salad in a large bowl to contribute to the meal.

Dave secretly scolded himself for being interested in someone so young that she was probably jailbait. He wondered how to play the after-dinner part of the evening where Rachel was concerned.

Out on the patio, more introductions were made. Alice took the salads and put them on the buffet table out of the sunlight.

To Dave’s surprise, Jack, Grace, and Rachel each found themselves in different groups of people. Wendy, Kat, and Clarisse had captured Jack. Grace was laughing at something Ty had said as Owen, Dev, and Sean looked on. Rachel was talking to Heather, Christie, Pam, and Alice. Dave strolled over and got Grace’s drink order. He returned a moment later with a glass of white wine for her.

Grace was talking about her work as an RN. She’d assisted in the delivery of triplets that morning, and the event had given her a glow. Dave allowed as how this group was going to have to start hatching babies one of these days, since the biological clocks on many of the women were due to start ticking very soon if they weren’t already.

Grace asked, “How will that work within the framework of open marriages you have in this Circle? Jack said I should call you all The Circle.”

She looked with curiosity at each of the men, but no one lunged forward with an answer. Dave took the initiative; “We’ve informally adopted one child, Matthew; he’s off with his grandmother for the night. He belongs to Heather. More directly to your question, no one has come up to the starting line yet. Do you have ideas?”

Grace smiled, “Only from personal experience and as an outside observer. My guess just from hearing about and observing the domestic nature of a few of the wives in this group is that they’ll want children. I think some of the single women will, too, if not all of them. Children are the manifestation of love between a man and a woman. You all love one another, ergo children.

“One issue will be whether you men or the women will care about paternity. If you don’t, your get-togethers as I understand them can continue as they have. If you do, then until conception there’ll have to be some use of condoms or other inhibitory behavior. In the former case, the child becomes a love child of The Circle and the family and parents becomes secondary. In the latter, the family is paramount, and The Circle is secondary.”

Dave said, “We’ve never talked about that. Our wives might have a little to say about that.” He rolled his eyes, and the others laughed. He turned to Grace, “What would you do?”

Grace stepped back somewhat unprepared for the question. “Oh! Errr! Uhmmm. If I had to choose today, I think I’d opt for The Circle. This is your larger, extended, and intentional family. I’d want my child to grow up feeling he or she had a wealth of support from the many mothers and dads around him. Jack and I are quite liberal.

“I’d even foster that by having the child stay with different couples or combinations of people as he or she grew up.” She glanced over where Jack was talking and added, “I’m pretty sure my husband would say the same thing.”

“How was Rachel raised?”

Grace laughed, “A better question might be ‘How IS Rachel being raised?’ She’s a work in progress. She’s smart as anything - straight ‘A’ smart, and popular in school beyond comprehension. She is a bit of a jock, too; cross-country, field hockey, and karate.”

“How old is she? My guess is fifteen.”

“She just turned eighteen last week. She’s older than most of her cohorts because we started her late in the school system. I am Rachel’s mother, but we’re not entirely sure about her paternity. We were in love with another couple. Each couple had two children while we were intimate together, and none of us worried about birth control or paternity. I think John, the man of the other couple, is Rachel’s biological father. For that matter, we think Jack is the father of Ben, one of their sons. We didn’t and don’t care, although we’ve lost touch with the couple. Rachel knows, and someday, she says, she wants to do a DNA test to clear things up, if for no other reason than to have accurate medical and genealogical histories of her lineage.

“Jack and I helped Rachel achieve emancipation two years ago. We wanted her to feel she was not compelled to be with us - that we were a choice she made, but that we had her best interests at heart. She was highly rebellious before then, and overnight with her court adjudicated freedom she changed into a young woman with an entirely different personality. She chooses to live with us and abide by the same house rules that we do. Of course, there were some economic reasons for her choice.” She laughed.

“House rules?”

“Oh, things like letting people know where you’re going, when you’ll be back, calling if you’re late, doing chores, expressing affection, and lots more. We’ve had lots of talks about civility.”

“You and Jack certainly align with my thinking,” Dave said.

“And mine,” Dev chimed in. Sean and Ty echoed his remark.

Dev said, “We’ve verged on having talks about our personal values in this group, but never had an explicit talk about child rearing. Instead, we have occasional snippets, like with you just now that reveal how we think. We are remarkably aligned. I think it’s because of that we all want to live together. Because of that, we found each other and fell in love with each other. Also, to your earlier point, Wendy and I do want children, and right off the top I want a healthy and happy child; I wouldn’t be too concerned about whether I’d be the real parent.”

Sean said, “I’m on the line. I’ll talk to Kat about it. Overall, I do agree that we share the important values together. I would think that extends to child rearing, as well.”

Ty laughed, “Dori and I decided to stay as a couple. We love children, but look forward to their going home by the end of the day. We have lots of nieces and nephews on both sides, just none too nearby geographically.”

Dave broke off to fire up the gas grill and start cooking the chicken and burgers. The group had done these cookouts so often that a real science had developed about how much food to prepare so that little was wasted and everyone was well fed.

Grace sat next to Dave at one of the picnic tables on his pool deck during dinner. As the last things were cleared away, she said, “I’m looking forward to our after-dinner swim.”

Dave said, “We want you to be comfortable and enjoy yourself. If nudity upsets you, please just let me know and we’ll tone down the skinny-dips in favor of bathing suits.”

Grace teased, “Oh no. I was told it was skinny-dipping, and that’s what I’m looking forward to doing. If my old body is too wrinkly for you, you may want to put on blinders.”

Dave leaned over and planted a kiss on Grace’s cheek. “You are sweet, and none of us will need blinders.”

Suddenly, Dave had a thought, “Oh, shit! What about Rachel?”

Grace smirked, “She’s expecting to skinny-dip, too.”

“But … but … she’s so young. She looks like jailbait in this state.”

Grace laughed, “Even at sixteen it would be without emancipation,” Grace said definitively. “One of my hopes is that someone in this group of caring people will take her under his wing and help get her started with sex the right way.”

“The right way?”

“If I say ‘your’ way, would you get it?”

“My value set - or the other men’s - is that we care deeply about our partners, if we aren’t already in love with them, we hold that option out as a real possibility. If we feel someone is being taken advantage of, everything stops. If there’s fear or angst or other negative emotions, what we’re doing stops. Is Rachel a virgin?”

Grace chuckled, “Does she have a hymen? No. Long gone from all of her sports, I guess. Has a male ever penetrated her? No. We’ve taught her that virginity is a state of mind not a physical phenomenon. What she has is a precious gift for someone - the opportunity to be her first lover. She should choose carefully. That’s part of what she’s doing here tonight.”

“Huh?”

“Rachel is assessing whether any of you gentlemen are worthy enough to be her first.”

“But she’s around all these boys her own age, and unless I miss my guess all of them - girls and boys - have raging hormones screaming for them to have sex?”

“And she finds none of the boys she knows worthy. If you ask her, you’ll get a whole diatribe lecture about young high school men and what assholes they are. She’s done that assessment. She decided she wanted someone older, more caring, less conceited, experienced, that would cuddle her after the event.”

Sean, Ty, Owen, and Dev all pointed at Dave. There was some laughter as he blushed.

Grace looked puzzled. “What does that mean?”

Dev explained, “Dave likes to cuddle the women he makes love to better than any of the rest of us. He sets the bar very high. Our wives tell us we have to measure up to what Dave does for them. We try and the rest of the men in the Circle have dramatically improved. He knows just the right moves to make and words to say. All the women love him. Heck, why do you suppose he has four of them happily living with him as his wives.”

Ty added, “Plus, he is the master of a technique that gives women the most powerful orgasm they’ve ever had or ever will have.”

Grace chuckled, “I think Mr. Prentiss and I need to have a private liaison after our swim a little later. I think I should also make sure Rachel gets to know him better.”

“You don’t think having him ‘do’ mother and daughter would be too kinky?” Ty teased.

“Hell no; not if what you just said is true.” Grace smiled.

“Oh, it is. Talk to the other women.” Even as Ty praised Dave’s prowess in the sexual department, his friend blushed a crimson color. Dave felt the flush, and realized that old habits die-hard. Perhaps he still had some loosening up to do. The suggestion that he was some kind of sexual stud had embarrassed him. Despite having four women living with him, he hadn’t let any of his prowess go to his head.

Dave protested, “These guys are teasing. I’m just a normal guy with a high sex drive.”

Grace chuckled. “I take your friend’s comments in high regard. They appeared quite serious about what they said.”

Just as Ty, Dev, Owen, and Sean drifted away, Rachel came up and joined them. Dave had exchanged a few words with her upon her arrival, but this gave them an opportunity to talk in greater depth.

“I hear you’re one amazing student in every way, and model-quality beautiful, to boot. How’d you end up as such a nice person?” Dave teased.

Rachel smiled and even blushed slightly, “I guess I had the right place in line and then picked the right parents.” She hugged her mother who stood beside her. “She passed on her good looks to me.”

Grace brushed off the comment with a roll of her eyes.

Dave nodded. “I guess you did.”

Rachel continued, “I’ve been reading some spiritual books. One of them talks about soul groups. Well, the opening premise is that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. We have different experiences and play different roles with the other souls in our group. So, in this existence, I am Grace and Jack’s daughter. In some other play, I may be Grace’s influential grandmother or Jack’s sister or brother. In any case, we create situations for our human selves that help us learn and grow. There’s a school of thought that also says those lives are all happening simultaneously, but I find it easier to think of them serially.”

“That’s deep. Do you have any idea what you’re here to learn about? What is your life mission?”

“Not entirely,” Rachel said. “I’m sure it has to do with my interactions with other people, especially people I love and am close with - my soul mates. It’s through those interactions that our growth and evolution find traction on our spiritual path.”

“Do you know who the people are in your soul group?”

“Not yet, but … and please don’t go all weird on me … I think that many if not all of the people here tonight are in that category, along with my parents. I feel a special resonance I’ve not felt before. Being here feels like suddenly stepping out of the mundane and boring, into an exciting and unpredictable life where every surprise is one of the best things that could happen to you. I just feel like I know everybody here and that there’s this aura of love about everybody and everything.”

“We are honored.” Dave gestured to the others at the party and bowed to her.

Chapter 3 - Initiation

Rachel’s tone rose in excitement, “My dad told me about your plan for cohousing. I think that will be such a cool community. I know he asked to belong, and I certainly want to make my own interest known. I’d love to live in that setting. I know I’m young, but I will find ways to contribute.”

Dave teased, “Well, I’m sure you’ll pass the test. The written part is all day next Saturday.”

“TEST?!?” Rachel almost screamed. “What do you mean test?” What test? What’s on it? Where do I take it? What …”

Grace was laughing, and that signaled Rachel to ease off. Rachel swatted Dave’s arm. “Rat! I believed you for a moment.”

Dave pulled Rachel to him and hugged her with a chuckle. She hugged back. “We are making this all up as we go along. The true test is in everyone’s head. You should be testing us, too. Do you really want to associate with all of us? Can you see yourself loving everyone you see?”

Grace nodded, “I know enough to believe strongly that the answer for me to those questions are yes and yes.”

Rachel studied her mother. “I already feel special here … a resonance with everybody, even the people I haven’t had a chance to talk with yet. It’s as though we communicated a billion words in just a glance or greeting.”

Dave said, “Oh, there may be more than that. Do you know what an aura is?”

“It’s like a halo but all around some people, isn’t it?”

“Exactly, except there’s evidence that one surrounds each of us. You emanate your aura and it extends out from you a large distance. Some people think that may be a few feet. Others believe they can feel another’s aura across the country. In any case, when we meet somebody new, our auras interact on a very subtle basis. It’s more than your billion words. It’s every nuance of our values, principles, goals, feelings, and emotions. That communication reveals our deepest soul to each other. One book I read described it as the complete movie about our life that plays for the other person in a fraction of a second, so they know everything about us they could possibly want to know.”

“I like that concept. I’ve been playing with my ‘wheel of life’ and seeing how other people align with mine. The parts are spiritual - my beliefs, values, ethics, and things of that ilk; then there’s my social life - my social network, friends, support network, and healthy relationships; next is my environment - my physical surrounds both actual and preferred; my financial and wealth situation including how I work and create; my intellectual side - how I exercise my brain and engage in creative activities; my emotional side - for instance, my stress level; and last is my physical side - staying fit, but also taking care of my body and its needs.”

Dave said, “You should score yourself zero to ten, say, on each of those life areas to see where you need to put some energy to improve things. You can evaluate possible life changes by seeing how they impact each area, too.”

Rachel nodded enthusiastically, “I did that. I did that. I took the cohousing situation and what I knew about your group before we arrived and examined how it would impact me - good and bad. Not much bad, I might add. The good is superb. I can hardly wait. I hope you’ll accept me. I accept you just on the few conversations I’ve had.”

Grace said, “Easy, Rachel. This is the first time you’ve met everybody.”

“Mom, I just know this is right.”

“Errr, there are some aspects you might not be clear about.” Dave wanted to be sure that Rachel was fully cognizant about the extracurricular activities in the Circle.

“You mean the sex? Hey, I’m a teenager. Do you know I have more raging sex hormones per cubic centimeter than everybody else at this party put together?”

Dave laughed and said, “I’m not so sure about that. One common element of everybody here is that they have very active libidos and very high sex drives. We’ll match you, hormone for hormone.”

Grace laughed, “Not only that, but David, here, is apparently some kind of sex god if you happen to be one of his sex partners.”

“Really!” Rachel crooned with a large grin. “Will you teach me?”

Dave looked at Grace, “Errr, this is awkward.”

“Oh, go ahead. She’s cute, sexy even, horny, and emancipated, ergo legal, at least in this state.”

“But you’re her mother,” Dave pleaded.

“And I want some time with you, too. But Rachel should get preferential treatment. She needs to be with a man of your … spiritual nature, stature, skills, and sexual nature. I think it’s a match made in heaven.”

“But I’m friends with Jack … and now you. Errr, I’m married, too. I have four other women that live with me.”

Rachel said, “Oh, dad talked about you. In your family you have your wife, your wife’s sister, and two other women you love, one of whom is a student only a few years older than I am.”

Dave nodded, “Yes, but …”

Grace leaned in and kissed Dave, a slow, simmering kiss that soon involved her tongue snaking into his mouth and soon dueling with his as the coupling intensified. When they parted, they were both out of breath. “Jack is fine with anything that happens. He’s hoping you’d take Rachel under your wing, so to speak.”

Rachel grinned broadly at the man. “I know the basics - in theory. I need the lab work to complete the course.”

Rachel leaned into Dave’s other side and kissed him. She whispered, “Please make love to me. I choose you.”

Although a little rushed, Dave got the message; this teen wanted to have sex with him right here, right now, with no argument. In one way, he felt like he’d just won the lottery.

Dave took her hand and led her into the house, taking her down the hallway to the master bedroom. He glanced back as they left the patio to see a satisfied look on Grace’s face, and also got a wink from his wife.

In the bedroom, he sat Rachel down on the bed. “Why do you want to have sex with a married man - and one you just met an hour or two ago for the first time - and one that’s about fourteen years older than you?”

“I don’t … or I do. It doesn’t matter. Mom said you had an open marriage. I want to have sex with you and I don’t care about ages. Mom indicated you were the man that she picked. I sensed that, too; right from when we first met. Our auras communicated. Our wheels aligned and everything else. You want sex with me, I know; and I want to have sex with you - although it will be my first time with a man. I’m kind of not a virgin; I mean I don’t have a hymen. I guess that left for the west coast a long time ago in all my sports. I’ve kind of messed around with a couple of boys, but I’ve never passed third base - well, maybe short stop. I also have a pet dildo.”

“But you barely know me.”

“I know enough about you to know that I want you. I can’t think of a nicer way to start to know someone either. I know something else already, and that is that I want to get to know you a lot better in every possible way. I’m already manifesting romantic feelings about you. I choose you. Please also choose me.”

“What if you’re wrong? What if I’m an ogre, out for all the young pussy I can get, especially virgin cunts I can penetrate for the first time and ruin for all of time? What if I’m into sadistic activities and I reach under the bed and get my cane out to beat you? What if I don’t give a rat’s ass about you; I just take you and use you as my cum bucket?”

“I’m not wrong, and you’re none of those things. I asked your wives about you.”

“You what? My wives?”

Rachel answered in a nonchalant tone as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened, “Alice, Julie, Pam, and Heather. They said you’d be perfect for my initiation into adulthood on the sexual side of things. Alice especially said you’d be especially gentle, but that you would then show me something that I’d never forget.” Her face spread into the widest grin I’d ever seen on a teenager. “I can hardly wait.”

Dave rolled his eyes. His wife - wives! - were pimping him out to young virgins. “But you just met them less than an hour ago?”

“I did, but I came to this party with the expectation that someone here would be the right person to be my first lover. After I met them, I asked them whom the best person in your Circle was to do that. They each told me about you.”

“Oh.”

“Can we kiss now?” Rachel asked tentatively. She hitched closer to Dave on the bed.

He bent down slowly, taking her pretty face between his two hands. Both closed their eyes as their lips met. An ocean of emotion swelled between the two. The kiss was so tender and communicated such caring. As they parted, Dave ran his tongue around Rachel’s lips several times. Both were panting.

“Wow.” Rachel’s eyes blinked open. “I really liked that. A lot. That was my first real kiss. I’ve been kissed before, but … you’re a man. Those other kisses were from boys. They were nice, but your kiss was … spectacular. Truly epic. I’m never going to forget tonight and you as long as I live.”

Dave said in a soft voice, “Nor will I ever forget you. I expect you know that you’re beautiful.” He sat beside her on the bed and pulled her into his arms and then onto his lap. More kisses transpired that brought their tongues into play, and then their hands doing illicit things to one another.

At one point when they were apart, Dave asked, “What happened on third base - or short stop?”

Rachel chuckled, “I guess you’d say heavy petting. I got my tits sucked on, but we were still mostly dressed. My bra was pulled up. We each touched each other through our clothes, but we stopped there. We did expose our genitals and fondled each other. Third base would be like oral sex on each other, and a home run is intercourse.”

Dave nodded, “And you’re sure - really sure - that you want to hit a home run tonight? I mean we can stop right now, halfway to second base?”

Rachel reached beside her with each hand and pulled her blouse from her shorts. In one smooth move, she pulled the thin garment off her body and revealed her entire upper body. She was nude from the waist up, and given the brevity of her shorts, there wasn’t much left to reveal.

Rachel said, “You’re the first man to ever see this much of me since I was about ten.”

Dave leaned in and kissed her, “I’m honored. Thank you for your trust and faith in me. I hope I don’t disappoint. I’m still not sure we’re on the same page. I don’t want you to get hurt or have regrets tomorrow or someday afterwards.”

Rachel pulled Dave’s right hand to her breast. “You are not to worry. The only regret I’ll have tomorrow is if you don’t make love to me. I want this. I am not going to get hurt. You are going to amaze me. You are going to fill me with your semen, and, by the way, I am on the patch. And I will never have regrets about this. I will only have the happiest of memories about tonight with you. I choose you for this memorable moment in my life.”

Dave intentionally fumbled around trying to loosen Rachel’s belt on her abbreviated shorts. She finally stood in an abrupt way and stripped off her shorts, and then shed the thong she’d been barely wearing. The t-shirt she’d worn flew off, too. When she was through, she did a pirouette in front of him on tiptoe.

“God, Rachel, you are so hot you make the sun look like the North Pole. You are a sin just by being there in front of me. You are making me lust after you.”

Rachel cupped Dave’s face in a kiss as she bent over in front of him. “Good. Exactly the reaction I was praying for.” She moved to fumble with his athletic shorts, only she had intention and drive, so it didn’t take much for her to pull them apart, and then insist that he hitch himself up so she could dispose of them. He was soon nude as well.”

“I’m going to give you a blowjob now,” Rachel announced with authority. “My first. You may comment and instruct, please. I have no idea what I’m doing except for having seen it in porn flicks and once when Mom did Dad, and I was peeking.”

Rachel sucked in Dave’s tumescent cock into her mouth, at this stage capturing about half. The move created a flow of vitality to the weapon, and soon it filled, hardened, and unfolded to its full magnificence.” She groaned in pleasure at what she was doing, and stroked his shaft with both hands.

After a couple of minutes, Rachel pulled away, “Holy shit. You’re huge. I mean … HUGE. Alice didn’t comment about that, only that you were the most satisfying man she’d ever fucked.”

“I’m glad my wife likes my anatomy and enjoys sex with me.”

“I just had that in my mouth. I can’t … geeze ... can girls really take all of that?”

“Alice and couple of the other women can. Try if you want. Just learn to control the gag reflex. If you can’t it won’t upset me in the least. I suspect most women can’t do it.”

The teen lunged on his cock, filling her mouth and then her throat with his tube steak. She did gag, but obviously pushed her body time and again, until she could push her nose again his pubes. He could feel her throat gagging on his cock.

Dave said, “You don’t need lessons. You should give lessons … and if you keep that up, your hope to have me deflower you tonight will diminish slightly.”

Rachel pulled off of the gigantic hardness in her hands. “Can’t have that now. I want you in a more important place. I want to feel you ejaculate inside me, so you have to tell me just before you cum.”

“Oh, you’ll know. I think you want to be on top of me. You’ll have more control and be able to adjust what we’re doing to maximize your pleasure.”

“But I want to maximize your pleasure, too. This is about both of us, not just about me.”

“No, tonight it’s about you. Another night it can be about those with you.”

“Alice said she’d been with all of the other men in the room except for my Dad. You let her do that?”

“I don’t ‘let’ her do anything. She’s not my possession that I own and control - nor are you. She is her own person. I feel aroused and good when she’s with one or two of the other men. I know they love her. She is my supreme love, in any case.”

“She’s gorgeous. So’s Wendy. Everyone here.”

“They were both blessed with good looks, but you know that there’s more to a person than their looks.”

Rachel chuckled, “But they start off with a slight advantage.”

“Come over me. Straddle my hips.” He lay back.

“How am I ever going to take all of you inside me?”

“Just take as much as you want. If you feel pain, something’s wrong. Stop.”

Dave lay back on the bed, pulled Rachel over him, and they made out for a couple of minutes. The more they kissed, the hotter and more worked up they each got. Gradually, she pulled her legs up until she was straddled above his hips. She held his granite cock in her hands, fondling her lover, and gaining courage for what she planned to do.

She rose up as high as she could, and rubbed the pinkish-purple hued head of Dave’s manhood against her wet slit as she watched his eyes. She was almost dripping in anticipation. Dave reached down and helped her position his rigid shaft at the opening to her vagina. The head caught and held in the opening, the glans slipping inside her slightly.

Rachel’s eyes grew to the size of saucers. She froze in that position for a moment, with his cock right at the doorstep to her entry. Dave said nothing. This was her moment and her decision.

Two seconds later, Rachel slithered her wet vagina down his cock, making miniscule up and large down motions as she moved to facilitate the penetration of her body. A loud female moan of satisfaction and male accomplishment echoed around the room. “Oh, God. If I knew it would feel this good, I would have started this when I turned twelve.”

After bottoming out with near complete penetration of his giant shaft inside her, Rachel made tentative moves up and down as though she were testing the water. Everything she did felt so fabulous. She rose and let her body extract from the shaft until only the head again resided inside her, and then she writhed her body down again on the man she’d chosen for this honorific task. She moaned in ecstasy again.

The oscillations then started as Rachel discovered that motion enhanced the experience of penetration.

“How long can you go?” Rachel asked.

“As long as you want,” Dave replied. He grinned at her, “I have pretty good control on some days.”

“Really? The girls at school who’ve had sex say the boys don’t last a minute.”

“Boys. Pfffft. As men get older many learn to control their response and attune it to their partner.”

“What’s the longest fuck you’ve ever had?”

“A couple of hours. If we did that, I think you’d be very sore tomorrow.”

“I choose nineteen minutes, for no particular reason. Maybe we could do it again later.”

The couple moved about and made love in several different positions after that. Dave carefully took on the role of mentor and instructor to the teen, showing her some traditional sex positions. Rachel declared she liked the cowgirl and missionary the best because he could feel her breasts and they could kiss one another.

At exactly nineteen minutes after they started, Dave brought Rachel to a shuddering climax as he jettisoned his own pleasure inside her. They kissed and stroked each other as they came down from their highs.

Rachel was ecstatic. “That was positively the best nineteen minutes of my life. I didn’t feel any pain either. And kissing you during and after was like nothing I’d ever experienced. You are fabulous. And the orgasm was a billion times better than when I bring myself off. You are such a great lover. Thank you.”

“I thank you, Rachel. You gave your gift to me and I want you to know that I appreciate the treasure. I do not think lightly of what we did.”

Rachel grinned as she felt his fullness start to slide from her sodden pussy. “I want you to have me again and again. I also want to do it all again as soon as you can.”