The Rock

Copyright ©2015 2021 by Elder Road LLC

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This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and highly improbable.

Cover art by Alenavlad ID 179938124 licensed from Shutterstock.com

Second Edition

ISBN 978-1-939275-34-9

Designed by Nathan Everett
ElderRoadBooks@outlook.com

Part I
A Red Thread

1
Clan

I FINALLY HUNG UP the phone with Hannah’s words echoing in my ears. “Now you understand what it means. It isn’t a choice. It changes us forever. We can never be innocent again. We’re different from other people, Brian. None of them truly understand what it means to do whatever is necessary. I’m still doing what is necessary. God bless you, Brian. I love you.”

I set the bread to rise and went to the horses. They were a little surprised to see me so early but they were happy to have hay and have me brush them. I wanted to disappear into their shiny coats. Just brush until there was nothing left of me.

Hannah knew. At least she believed that I killed Lester Hawkins. I’d confessed to her in my morning thoughts. She believed I understood what it really meant to do whatever is necessary. That’s what I’d done. It was vile. I was a monster and should turn myself in to the police.

Maybe that was the message she was giving me. The call was so brief. I didn’t even get a chance to say ‘happy birthday.’ Had I said, ‘I love you?’ She said it. It sounded so final.

My thoughts were so disjointed that I lost track of time and what I was doing. I found myself sitting on the hay bale in the aisle staring straight ahead when Sam slid the barn door open.

“Hey,” she said softly. “Did you already brush the girls?” I looked up at her wondering what she was doing here so early in the morning.

“Um…” I looked at the brush in my hands. “I think so. I don’t remember.” Sam sat beside me as if she was concerned about my health.

“How long have you been out here?” she asked.

“I don’t know. A little while. Since five, I guess.”

“Three hours?”

“Don’t be silly.”

“Brian, it’s after eight.”

“Fuck. Bread.” I stood up.

“Brian, what happened?” I stared at Samantha as she stood to face me. Of all people, she deserved to know.

“She called.”

“She heard and she called to be with us!”

“Yeah. I guess. It was brief. She said that she’s doing what’s necessary. And I love you. I know she meant it for all of us.” Sam gripped me in a hug with her face against my shoulder. I could feel her shake as she fought not to cry. All I could do was pet her long black hair. She finally pushed me away.

“You’d better go bake the bread. Jen and Court will be out soon. The three of us are going riding. Give me the brush. I’ll make sure they’re ready.” She pushed me to the door and went immediately into Rika’s stall. I understood. She needed time to soothe and be soothed

“Mom? Did you put the bread in the oven?”

“Yes, honeybunch. Was it Hannah who called?”

“Yes, Mom. I’m sorry I didn’t finish my job. I just thought I’d go brush the horses for a while and lost track of time.”

“I understand. When I got up and saw the bread overflowing its bowl, I figured it out. It should be fine. Everyone is stirring. Jennifer and Courtney are showering upstairs. Dad and Anna have been out and got coffee. I think Anna’s in the shower.” Mom paused. She was just washing some things up at the sink but she turned to look at me. “I won’t pry, Brian, but talk to me. About anything. This whole thing is a shock to us all and none of us expect you to endure the fresh wounds alone. I wasn’t here when you found out in May, but I’m here now and I love you, my son.”

I hugged her and we both cried.

“He should have suffered,” I said. “He should have cried for mercy. He should have had to relive her death a thousand times and know that was only the beginning.”

“And none of that would bring her back,” Mom whispered. “It’s over now, Brian. What is it that Whitney says to you? Be a rock. Let the waters of grief pass over you.”

The summer seemed to slow down. With the big catharsis of Friday, it seemed like we all stopped to take a breath. Sam and I didn’t get our date to talk Sunday, though we spent time in bed with Jennifer and Courtney. We all got naked and teased a lot, but we all shied away from that last step. I didn’t realize what was going on, but we were building an air of expectancy and the three girls were bonding like never before.

My bosses were concerned when I showed up for work at the station Monday morning. They offered everything from sympathy to congratulations. No one knew exactly how to take the news. I forged ahead, assisting Miss Polly. If I wasn’t a bright and cheerful boy off-set, they never knew it when I was on. Friday, Sora joined me and we all had fun creating homemade corndogs. Sora hung around Friday afternoon until I was finished and we went straight home and fucked for about two hours. It was the first sex that I’d engaged in since before the previous Friday’s newscast. She seemed to know that we both needed something other than gentle lovemaking and we threw ourselves at each other with such fierceness that I was afraid our genitals would be bruised.

“Take me!” she exclaimed as she posed on her hands and knees at the edge of the bed when I came out of the bathroom. We’d already had two rounds but seeing that little Asian butt wagging in the air and her moist slit on display brought me back to attention again. I grabbed a rubber and as soon as it was on I slammed into her hard. “Yes!” she screamed. “Fuck my little cunt!” Her hand was going a mile a minute on her own clit while I reamed her. That was what we were doing when Jennifer, Courtney, and Sam ran upstairs after their ride.

“Holy shit!” Jen exclaimed. I was reaching my climax and didn’t slow down just because my other girlfriends had entered the room. Sora screeched out an orgasm that pierced all our ears and I bellowed back my response. We collapsed forward on the bed with me sprawled on top of her. She nudged me to ease the weight on her back and I rolled off grabbing the rubber before it came loose. I stripped it off and dropped it in my wastebasket. Sora rolled as well and lay with her back leaning on my chest and one leg sprawled across mine. The girls hadn’t moved from the top of the stairs.

“Go ahead and look, ladies,” Sora said. “What you see is a really well-fucked pussy and a very satisfied woman.”

“That was… kinda scary,” Sam said.

“Honey, come here. All three of you,” Sora said. “You all know I’m not into girls, but I want a hug from my girlfriends and I know you all want a hug from our boyfriend. We need you.” That was all it took. All three surrounded us on the bed and we each got hugs and kisses from the other three.

“Is it always like that?” Sam asked. I hardly knew what to say. Sam sort of flinched away from me when I reached for her.

“No,” Sora answered. “Don’t be scared, Samantha. Brian was giving me exactly what I wanted—needed. That wasn’t making love. It was pure, raw fucking with no other purpose than to drown out all the emotional stress and misery we’ve been through this week. We both needed it, even though I had to sort of encourage Brian to let go. He’s been so strong for all of us this week, he needed to release something, too. And even though my pussy is going to be sore for a week, it was great. God, it was great.”

“Honey, please don’t be afraid of me,” I said. Sam moved into my arms and cuddled up to me. None of the three girls had removed their riding clothes but neither Sora nor I tried to cover ourselves up. “It was just a crazy release that we both needed. You know I’d never hurt any of you, don’t you?”

“It was hard not to feel our pussies tingling when you slammed into her,” Jen giggled. “That wasn’t gentle.”

“No. But it was still loving,” Sora said. “I’d never trust any other man to pound me like that. Three times.”

“Three times?” Courtney exclaimed. “Shit!”

“Yeah. You know what, though? Now I’m ready to just curl up and snuggle in the arms of my lover. I wouldn’t mind if you three snuggled with us if you want. It would make me feel even more loved.” Sora’s words were apparently all that was needed. Clothes started flying and before long all five of us were cuddled naked in bed. And before long, we were asleep.

That’s where Anna found us.

Saturday afternoon I was shooting baskets. Once the girls went out riding, I did my forms, concentrating on speed and accuracy. Whitney had shown me something before she left for UConn that I’d been working on almost every day. I’d managed to keep my hands hidden during the television filming. The only time the cameras were ever focused on my hands was when I was cooking on Fridays and I wore latex gloves for food prep. They hadn’t seemed to notice that I didn’t take them off when we were eating.

‘Why?’ you ask. Whitney had shown me two wooden support posts in the barn and had me start hitting them. It’s not as bad as you might think once callouses start to form. Those first two weeks were hell. Without Whitney there to beat on, I beat on the wooden posts. After I was finished with my workout and before I took a shower, I shot baskets. Yeah. Even with like thirteen or fourteen girlfriends, I was alone to shoot baskets on Saturday afternoon. There was no way I was going to make the varsity team this year unless I could nail every three-pointer and every foul shot I took. I’d never be first string even then.

There was a roar of engines and crunching of gravel. I turned to see two motorcycles spinning tires and throwing gravel as they came racing toward me down our driveway. Shit! Who the fuck wants me now? I dropped the ball and prepared to jump whatever way the motorcycles allowed me. Both riders were dressed in black leather with black helmets and face bubbles. It looked like they were racing down the drive toward me. Just before the cement pad in front of the garage they slammed on the brakes and did a 360 degree turn, ending up facing me. They killed the engines and got off the bikes. They walked around to the front of their bikes and gave each other a high five. What the fuck?

Then they took off their helmets. Nikki and Liz? Fuckin’ A!

“We’ve been practicing that all week!” Liz said as she approached me and gave me a friendly kiss. “Now that’s over can I have a real kiss?” she asked. I wrapped her in my arms and kissed her with unintended intensity. She’d scared me half to death. I thought Hell’s Angels had come to claim me.

“I’d like one of those,” Nikki said swaggering up to me. Oh yeah? Well, take this! I left Nikki breathless when Liz tapped us on the shoulder and suggested we break it up. “Shit!”

“Get in the shower and clean yourself up, boyfriend,” Liz said. “Put on long pants and a long-sleeved shirt. We’ve got a helmet for you. Today’s our day to ride.”

“What the fuck are you doing on motorcycles?”

“Are you kidding? I’ve been saving for two years for this beauty. I have eleven older brothers and sisters and when I told them all what I wanted for my birthday, they each gave me a hundred dollars. Nikki and I have been hanging out a lot this summer and when I told her what I was going to do, she decided to get one, too. Now go get clean and ready to ride,” Liz commanded.

I took a fast shower and then put on my heaviest jeans and shirt and my work boots. Fifteen minutes from when they arrived, I was hanging onto Liz’s waist as we raced up Cedar and out onto Highway 20. We headed north from there and hit the toll road where we collected our tickets. Liz and Nikki headed east and in an hour we were getting off at the last exit before Ohio. Crap! They were flying. I paid the toll for both bikes and they pulled to a stop at the foot of the exit.

“Nikki’s turn,” Liz said, nudging me off her bike. I got on behind Nikki.

“Bet I can do it faster!” Nikki yelled at Liz. We picked up tickets westbound and for the next hour I hugged myself against Nikki while she flattened out along the tank. Hell! It was almost eighty miles from point to point and not much more than two hours had passed when we exited (and I paid the toll) where we first entered the toll road. We slid to a stop in Nikki’s driveway.

“You guys are going to get a ticket!” I exclaimed.

“No cops saw us,” Liz said calmly.

“They don’t have to. The toll tickets are time stamped.” Nikki and Liz looked at each other and shrugged.

“Oops!”

“What has gotten into you two?” My heart was still racing and my butt was still vibrating from the thunder of their engines. The bikes weren’t all that big. Once I had a chance to actually look at them, I realized they were Hondas. For small bikes, they sure carried us fast as far as I was concerned.

“Aren’t they great? And I got a riding partner out of the deal, too!” Nikki said as I finally let go of her waist.

“Partners in crime! I’ve officially become an anarchist,” Liz said. They grabbed my arms and led me into the house and up to Nikki’s room.

“You know what that means?” Nikki asked. She started stripping off her leathers and Liz was right in sync. “You’ve got two girlfriends who need rose tattoos.”

“And if she’s anything like me, you’ve got two girlfriends with dripping pussies after holding that big engine between our thighs,” Liz joined.

“Well, yeah. That, too,” Nikki said. She was blushing, but still stripping. Both girls were naked and flopped on the bed.

“Come on, Brian. I give you explicit permission to use my body in any way that makes me come after you put a rose tattoo on my breast,” Liz said.

“Brian, please put a rose tattoo on my breast and lick me to an orgasm,” Nikki said. She’d learned about being explicit. “And please get naked and let us touch you.” I was a goner.

I’d never have guessed that Liz and Nikki would become bosom buddies but I guess in a perverse way it made sense. Finding them both on motorcycles made me smile. As long as they were safe. I wasn’t going to think about that anymore.

It took a couple minutes to all get naked, fondle and kiss a little, and get the henna mixed to the right consistency. Then both girls lay down on the bed face up. Nikki handed me the stencil and pointed at her left breast. With both girls lying on the bed, there wasn’t a lot of room to position myself beside them, so I nudged Nikki’s knees apart and crawled between them. Of course, that meant that at various times as I was painting the henna rose on her breast, I’d flop against her tummy or even against her hairy mound. Each time my cock touched her she tensed a little and caught her breath. I wasn’t trying to get my cock into her. She’d been explicit about what she wanted me to do. But I could see and smell that it was getting her excited just to have me that close. When I dripped a glob of pre-come on her belly, she moaned.

“May I have that?” Liz asked just before she wiped the little gob off Nikki’s belly and popped it in her mouth. I leaned over and kissed each of Nikki’s nipples and edged downward dragging my cock across her belly and her mound. I kissed my way down to the inside of her thighs and she started thrusting up toward me.

“Remember now, you have to lie still so you don’t mess up the henna, sweetheart,” I whispered.

“Nikki, is he going to lick you now?” Liz asked.

“I hope so,” she gasped. “You don’t mind, do you?”

“No. I’m just a little jealous. You won’t mind if he… you know… does more than lick me, will you?” Nikki’s head shook back and forth but the words were garbled as I fastened my mouth around her clit and began lashing it with my tongue. I think having a spectator moved Nikki up a notch and she started coming almost as soon as I started sucking. When her body quit shaking, I pushed at Liz and she flopped back next to Nikki. I grabbed a condom and rolled it on. Liz brought her knees up and spread her legs waiting for me. I positioned myself at her opening and began to slowly push in.

“Are you going to fuck her before you do her rose?” Nikki asked. Her eyes were glued to my cock parting Liz’s lips.

“No,” I answered. “I’m going to softly make love with her as I paint a rose on this beautiful little breast.” Liz moaned. “I love you, Liz,” I whispered.

“Mmmhmm. You feel so good. My pussy is really vibrating after that ride.”

“Yeah, my butt’s still tingling. Now hold still,” I said as I positioned the stencil on her breast and kissed her nipple. Liz kept her left hand above her head like Nikki had, but her right hand lightly stroked my side down to my hip.

“How am I going to move against you while you’re doing this?”

“Oh, you can’t. You have to lie still and just hug my cock in you. I can’t be humping while I’m painting.”

“You can’t? God, it feels so good!” I kept painting her breast, occasionally pulling back to look at what I had done which dragged my cock out and then back in. It was pretty much the same thing I’d done with Nikki except that I was actually in Liz. Nikki watched and moved closer to the edge of the bed.

“How are you doing, Nikki?” I asked softly.

“Um… I don’t know.”

“What are you feeling, honey?”

“Jealous. And scared. And a little mad.” I finished the tattoo and stroked Liz a little as I reached for Nikki.

“Kiss me, Nikki.”

“But you’re… in her.”

“And I’m not getting out,” I said, pulling back and pushing forward again. Liz brought a hand up to stroke my chest and play with my nipple. Nikki sat up with one leg off the bed and the other tucked under her as she leaned in to kiss me. Once our lips made contact, I pulled her to me and began playing with her breasts. Nikki got into the kiss pretty quickly.

“You taste like… me.”

“That’s because I had my face buried between your legs while Liz watched me eat you and you came all over me.” I moved my hand down across her belly and into the thatch that was still wet between her legs. Whatever she thought she was feeling, Nikki was still very turned on by watching Liz and me. I started playing with her clit and Nikki started humping my hand. Suddenly, Liz’s hips started to get into the action a little more. She still held her left hand over her head on the bed to keep the tattoo from smearing, but her right hand was pulling at my hip to set the pace for our loving.

It took a little longer. I reached out to pet Liz’s face and breasts while I continued to kiss Nikki. Liz pulled my fingers into her mouth. Pretty soon, Nikki started to rise to another orgasm and from the pace Liz was pushing I could tell she was getting close, too. It was all I could do to keep from going off immediately. Liz wrapped her heels behind my back and used them to pull me into her as far as she could. Nikki started to whine and pant, finally pulling away from my lips so she could throw her head back and scream out her orgasm. Liz’s pussy clamped down on my cock as she went off and that was all it took to send me over the edge. I pushed into her as far as I could get and shot into the condom. Nikki flopped back on the bed next to Liz with my fingers still trapped in her pussy. I leaned forward and kissed Liz long and hard. She clamped down on my cock so hard I thought I might lose the condom. I managed to free myself from both girls and stripped off the condom.

“How do you feel now, Nikki?” I asked softly. I kissed each of her nipples and she shuddered.

“Um… really good.”

“It’s hard to be jealous in the middle of an orgasm.”

“Or scared or mad. I don’t really want to kill you, Liz.”

“If you ever kill me, Nikki, I’ll haunt you for as long as I live.” We all started laughing.

“Can we talk for a while, Bri?” Liz asked as I got off her bike at home.

“Just talk? I have to get dinner started, baby. It’s crazy having six others in the house most of the time to cook for. Would you like to have dinner with us?”

“Thank you, yes. But I really want to talk if you can believe that. And your hair needs trimming. When you get dinner on, I’ll cut it for you. I have my things with me.”

“You planned this?” I laughed.

“Yeah. I guess I did. How long do we have until everyone gets here for dinner?”

“Well, there was a 4-H horsemanship show in Lakeville and everyone went there. They usually run until about five so I expect everyone home by six.”

“Maybe it would be easier to talk with your cock in my pussy.”

“How about if we go cuddle in the big chair? What’s on your mind, Red? You sound a little upset. Was it too much this afternoon?”

“Oh, no!” she hugged me. “It was fine. Once Nikki and I got past the point where we were threatening each other non-stop, we’ve become really good friends. Sharing that little bonding activity this afternoon was great. I’d never touch her, though. She knows that.”

“What is it, then?” I asked as she settled into my lap and buried her face against my chest.

“Don’t hate me, Brian,” she whimpered.

“Liz! Honey, I couldn’t hate you. I love you.”

“But even if I wanted to have sex with someone else?” Oh shit! “Oh shit! I wasn’t going to start like that. I haven’t. You’re the only boy I’ve been with and I’m not interested in girls. It’s just a hypothetical question.” She slammed her lips against mine and dragged my hand to her breast as she tried to crawl inside my mouth. She was panting and in near-panic.

“Honey. Honey!” I said. “Take it easy, love. We can talk about your hypothetical question without panicking.” Yeah, right. The rate my heart was hammering in my chest had nothing at all to do with the passion of that kiss and everything to do with what Liz had just suggested.

“I don’t want to hurt you.” Tears sprang from her eyes. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, sweetheart. Tell me all about it. Do you think… do you think you want to break up with me?”

“Nooo!” The moan was so despairing that it took me completely by surprise. I hugged her to me. “I want… I mean, I was asking about… uh… something like Brenda does—with both Carl and with you.”

Oh. Oh shit! This was a test. Not that Liz was testing me, but for me it was a test. I’d accepted that Brenda wanted to be lovers with both Carl and with me. And with Louise and maybe Rose. But Brenda was Carl’s girlfriend in my mind and he was the one doing the sharing. Liz was my girlfriend. Could I share her with someone else? Of all the girls in the group, Liz was the one I considered most likely to want that kind of relationship. She was a sexually driven girl and we’d already increased our frequency together to about the max that we could make it without infringing on any of the other girls’ time.

“Brian?”

“Shh. It’s okay. I just have to think about what you are saying so I don’t just pop off with something I don’t really mean. You really took me by surprise. I was… so afraid you wanted to break up with me and go be with someone else.”

“I never want to break up with you. I know we’re just seventeen, but we’ve been building this… this thing we have for six years. Think about it, Brian. We aren’t just friends. From the moment we all signed the agreement we became like a family. Maybe more like a clan. No boy could get into my panties now unless he got into the clan first. Like Louise and Nikki did. They joined the clan. Once they were part of the clan it was okay for them to be lovers with the members of the clan they chose. If I broke up with you and chose someone outside the clan, I’d have to leave the clan.” Like Hannah. That’s what she did.

“We don’t have many guys in this clan,” I said. “It kind of limits your options.”

“But we have the best guys,” she sighed. “That night before the Halloween party a couple years ago? I wasn’t ready for where my hormones were taking me and I had already established you as my man. But I’ve dreamt of Carl and the way he kissed me that night so many times it isn’t funny.”

“You want to have sex with Carl?” It made sense. After all, I was having sex with his girlfriend.

“Yeah, but not like right away. I was thinking more of Doug.” What!? Shit! I can’t keep track of these things. “I mean, one of the principles of the clan is that we are open and honest with each other. We all knew last summer that Brenda was going to be part of both your… um… family, I guess, and Carl’s. Damn it! We need words for these things. All the girls who considered themselves part of your family had to agree that Brenda could join in. The same thing happened when Rhiannon and Doreen said they wanted to be part of both your family and Doug’s. We all had to agree that we were willing to share you with them. And that got me thinking that when you are with Doreen and Rhiannon—and I think it will be both of them at the same time—that poor Doug would be on his own and maybe I could help take his mind off what the rest of his family was doing by becoming part of his family because I’d rather be with him without anyone else, you know?”

“We’re going to need a scorecard.”

“Probably one of those diagram thingies they use in math with the overlapping circles.”

“A Venn diagram?” Maybe that was a good idea.

“We want to have another bonfire,” Courtney said as she snuggled up to me in bed on Wednesday. She was the first one out of the bathroom and claimed spoons with me. Mmm. Snuggling up against Courtney’s bare backside and cupping her breasts in my hands was one of my favorite positions.

“Do we need another purging? A Camora?”

“What’s a Camora?” Jen asked as she cuddled up in front of Courtney. Sam tentatively approached the bed and crawled in behind me.

“You read Donaldson’s Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, didn’t you? It was the ritual the giants used to cleanse themselves of pain and grief in the fire.”

“Oh, yeah. It was kind of like that,” Courtney said. “I was thinking more like a witch’s bonfire that we could dance around. Just the family.”

“Us four and our parents?” I asked.

“No, Brian,” Sam said leaning her face against my back. “Your family. You and your core women. Us. And Liz, Rose, Sora, Nikki, Cassie. If they could get here, Elaine, Whitney, Sarah, and Hannah. Quiet! I won’t accept that she isn’t part of us. I won’t.” I kissed Courtney on the back of the neck and rolled toward Sam. She hugged me and raised her lips to kiss me—the most passionate kiss I’d had from her since she caught Sora and me together.

“We need a bonding ritual,” Jen explained. “We need to all know that we accept each other as equal partners in a family. Granted that not everyone in the core group is as committed as everyone else. You know what you told us. Sex is a promise. Some of your family have made that promise. Some of us are ready to make it. A few aren’t sure yet. That’s okay. They can still be part of the family until they decide. That was one of the rules. No pressure.”

“So, when do we want to have a bonfire? We should still clear it with the parents and probably tell them there will be a mass sleepover that night.”

“Before the end of the month. August is going to be crazy with the fair and getting ready for school,” Sam said.

“That leaves us this weekend or next.”

“Better do it next week so we have time to plan. I’ll talk to Mom,” Jen said.

2
Rose

“I WASN’T SCARED until I saw it.”

“I’m getting that a lot lately,” I sighed. Sam was cuddled in bed with me early Friday morning. I had to get up soon and head to work, picking up Cassie on the way. We were making another fair favorite on the show today: grilled corn on the cob. I’d served it every night this week at home and I was getting pretty good at it. But last night, Sam had asked if she could have a night alone in bed with me. She was getting a little nervous about showing Rika at the fair, but that wasn’t what she was worried about.

“You know, I never actually saw… a Jack in a Jill before. When we were with you with Whitney, I… didn’t look. I kissed you just imagining that it was me you were making love to. And we had so much emotional trauma that week. I couldn’t separate any of it. We’re supposed to be smart about all this, right? But I never imagined what it was really like.”

“Honey, you know Sora and I were… well, we were burning off steam more than making love. It isn’t always that… violent.”

“Yeah. But Nikki was just as scared when she saw you with Liz and that wasn’t violent either.”

“No. I kind of assumed that was just Nikki.”

“Huh-uh. It’s facing the reality that we are thinking of letting a man put himself inside us. Not just a man. You. That cock that we watched part those pussy lips is going to slide into me. It’s going to open my virgin pussy and pump inside me. All of a sudden, it’s scary.” I just held my silky lover beside me. She hadn’t been at all hesitant about letting me eat her virgin pussy. But she was suddenly a little slower about the idea of making love. “Do you mind that I’m taking more time than I thought I would?”

“Oh, Cutie. You know that isn’t the case. I never want to rush anyone. It seemed like… Well, once Whitney and I broke the ice there was a mad rush to lose virginity. I knew Liz would be on my doorstep the minute she turned seventeen. I was surprised when Sarah slept with me. Amazed when Sora claimed me. I never expected that. Then Brenda and my special time with Courtney. I felt a little like I was out of control. I’m glad to slow down some. But little love, don’t think that means I don’t want to make love with you. I love you, Samantha.”

“Oh, Brian. I love you, too. And I want to make love to you. It was just a shock to actually see you… in a girl’s vagina and coming with her. It was exciting and terrifying. I still want it, but I want to think about how to make it special for you and me. You will probably be the only boy who ever puts his penis in me. I’m not like Liz. Oh, I love to eat Jennifer and Courtney and you know how much I love Hannah. But I can’t imagine another boy with me—not even one of our clan members.”

“We’ll wait as long as you want, sweetheart. I love you. Nothing means more to me than your happiness.”

“Except the happiness of everyone in our family. I know you have to get up and go to work. Did you talk to her this morning?”

“Um… yeah.”

“Darling, we know you talk to her every morning. You’ve been doing it for years. I wish I had the connection that you have. Do you think she hears you?”

“It’s pretty dumb, isn’t it?”

“No, love. It’s faithful. She is a part of our family. We will always love her.”

Miss Polly: Everyone loves roasted or grilled corn on the cob at the fair, Brian. Shall we get these ears husked?

Me: I’ve got a different method, Miss Polly. I told my sister before she got married that there’s no such thing as fast food. If it’s worth eating, it’s worth taking the time to cook it right. You know, that’s what Bill Price discovered at the Tally Ho. Those prime ribs cook for nearly twelve hours and still come out rare. Cassie and I have prepared corn in different stages this morning and we already have some cooking on our Jenn-Air grill here in the kitchen. Of course, this week I’ve been cooking this every night on the charcoal grill, so we’re sure it works.

Miss P: Cassie, what are the stages that you are showing?

Cassie: First is corn with the outer dry husk peeled off. We don’t want things catching fire on the grill. Then we have corn soaking in water.

Me: Grandpa Frost always said that you need to have the water boiling when you pick the sweet corn or it’s not fresh. That has to do with the sugars in the corn decomposing quickly. But in a supermarket that is complicated further by the corn drying out quickly. We figure that soaking it about twenty minutes restores enough moisture for the grill.

Cassie: Of course, we’ve got corn cooking on the grill in two batches. I’ve been tending it through the show so we have a batch that is about ready to come off the grill and another that has been on the grill for twenty minutes.

Me: It takes about forty-five minutes on a medium low grill to cook the corn. And we keep the grill covered so it retains as much moisture as possible. See how the husks are charred? That’s why we soaked it first.

Miss P: But you didn’t remove any of the silk. My recipes all say that you should peel the husk back, remove the silk, and then tie the husk back in place.

Me: That’s really part of what makes the corn dry. Nature has already sealed the corn in a protective pouch. If we open the pouch and then try to reseal it, it just won’t be as tight and will dry out faster on the grill.

Miss P: Then how do you get the silk off?

Cassie: Brian has a very funny story about corn silk. Did you know that plants have…

Me: Cassie! We can’t say that on television. Let’s take one of these ears that are ready off the grill. Cassie, will you get the rest off the grill? They’ll keep cooking for another five minutes, but this is good for a start. Now here’s where you need a really good, sharp knife, like our Chicago Cutlery French knife. Grasp the corn at the top with your kitchen mitt—remember it’s hot—and then about half-an-inch from the stem, cut straight through the husk, corn, and cob. Now grasp the silky end firmly and shake the corn out of the husk. The silk all comes off with the husk and we have corn ready to butter.

Cassie wrapped an arm around me as we faced the camera for the sign-off. “Remember, girlfriend. No matter what, I still love you.” When I saw the tape, I discovered she winked.

“What’s our backup plan?” Brenda asked. It was Saturday afternoon and about fifteen of us were gathered on the floor of my bedroom filling out college application forms. “Mr. Jonas said that no matter what we wanted, we should all make three applications—one to our school of choice, one to our backup if all else fails, and one to our ‘reach’ school. Like you should apply to Harvard, Brian.”

“I’m not going to Harvard,” I said. “For now, I want to stay right here. So, I’d have to say that IU is my school of choice. I’m choosing Manchester College as my fallback. It’s a small school, not too far from home, and if you can pay, they’ll accept you. For me, my reach school is Notre Dame. It’s not that I think it’s that much harder to get into than IU, but I know we can study what we want to and not really leave home. It’s only five miles from here.”

“After IU, do we all need the same fallback and reach schools?”

“I don’t think so,” I answered Carl. “If we don’t all get into the same school, it seems like that will be a pretty clear indication that we aren’t going to the same place. You might as well pick something that really interests you.”

“Hey! IU interests me!”

“I know, buddy. But you’d probably be able to play ball at Manchester or UIndy… or any Division III school. Think about it, anyway.” Everybody was banking on IU. We were all pretty sure that Lionel would be going there. We weren’t sure what Sugar was planning on. She hadn’t expressed an interest in going to college. Josh hadn’t shown up today and I made a mental note to call him and get together soon. I knew he was still hurting and I didn’t want him to feel isolated. It was so hard. Hey, man. Sorry your girlfriend got raped and killed. Want to go shoot some hoops? Hell, maybe that’s what he needed.

“Is there a way to state in our essays that we are part of a group marriage and all want to go to the same school?” Rhiannon asked.

“That would be an interesting way to start an essay,” Samantha said. “What did you say in yours, Jennifer?”

“Sort of dazzled them with bullshit,” Jen answered. “I think they look mostly to see if you can actually write full sentences with proper punctuation and follow a theme or subject from one end to the other. I don’t think they read the content at all.”

“I’m glad I don’t have to write any of that stuff,” Liz said. “There’s a perfectly fine School of Cosmetology in Bloomington.”

“You’re going to beauty school?” Courtney asked. “That’s cool.”

“I’m going to become an esthetician. What I want to know is where we’re going to live,” Liz said. There was sudden and complete silence in the room as we looked at each other. Somehow, I’d just assumed that we’d live in school dormitories like Lamar and Renee had their first year. Elaine moved into an apartment with three other girls her second year in school. Jennifer and Courtney planned to share a dorm room this fall. Sora had said she was starting in the dorm but would pledge a sorority as soon as she could. But staying in a dorm didn’t help Liz or Sugar or Doreen or anyone planning to move with us but not actually enroll at IU. Shit!

“I love you,” I said to Whitney on the phone Sunday night. “I miss you so much.”

“Mmmhmm. It’s really different being away at camp this summer,” she said. “Last year, I didn’t know what I was missing. This year I keep thinking, ‘If I was home, I could be making love with Brian.’ It makes it a lot harder to be away.”

“No kidding.” We laughed a little.

“Brian, are we still… lovers?”

“Oh, Whitney! I will be your lover for as long as you will have me. Do you doubt that?”

“No. I never doubt you, Bri. But when we started, we made a couple of agreements. When you are with the others, are you using protection?”

“Yeah. Everyone recognizes the dangers of unprotected sex. Even though we are all exclusive within our group, it’s a big clan. No one wants to be accidentally exposed to something. You are the only girl my bare cock has been in.”

“Good. Now I’d like to make an exception to the rule,” Whitney said.

“Have you met someone, Whit?” I fought the tremble in my voice. Was Whitney telling me she wanted to have unprotected sex with someone else?

“Don’t be an idiot! I’m at camp with a bunch of girls and if I wanted a girl for a lover, I’ve got plenty of willing partners at home. They don’t do a thing for me and I’m really not interested in finding a guy. I’m talking about an exception for you.”

“But I don’t need an exception. Whitney, I’m fine with using condoms with Sora and Liz.”

“And Brenda and Courtney and Jennifer and Samantha. I know, Brian. But not with Rose.”

“Rose and I haven’t been intimate like that,” I defended myself.

“Brian, Rose loves you like nobody else in our group. She doesn’t mind playing with the girls when you are with them, but she has absolutely no interest in ever having any lover but you. You are going to be lovers soon.” I knew that. The only thing that had kept Rose and me apart was lack of opportunity. I’d written her another story this week about how we were stranded on a desert island and held each other as we made love. Pretty far-fetched, but I was running out of romantic ideas. “When you make love to Rose, don’t worry about being covered.”

“Well, I’m still concerned about birth control failure and health and everything, Whitney.”

“There’s always a danger but, Brian, Rose deserves all of you. You’ve built things between you with this expectation more than even you and I did. We all know that there’s something special there and I’ve polled the girlfriends. We’re all in agreement that even if we all have to use condoms, Rose doesn’t. Face it. The only reason we don’t use them is because I was first. We always assumed that as others were added, we’d use condoms, too. For now and the foreseeable future, Rose is the exception to the rule.”

“Why? We can use condoms, too.”

“They might not be available when the time is right,” Whitney said, cryptically. “Don’t let it be a barrier. Rose is protected.”

Tuesday night, I called all the guys. We agreed to a Wednesday game at the school as soon as I got home from work about four. We’d play for a couple hours and then I’d grill steaks for the guys at home. We had a blast. Josh was still limping a little and you could tell he wasn’t used to stretching up to make jumps and shots yet. I guess even after a broken rib heals there’s scar tissue that builds up around it that can be painful to stretch out. I sure hoped Josh would be back to a hundred percent by the time the season started.

“I am so out of shape!” he exclaimed as he puffed down the court. “I’ve got to talk to my therapist.”

“Um… How does a shrink help you get in shape?” Geoff asked. It wasn’t mean. I knew that Geoff was seeing a counsellor to help him deal with the stress and pressures that came with hiding his sexual orientation from everyone. Almost everyone. We talked frequently—maybe more than I talked with Doug, Carl, or Lionel. Sora, Rose, and Samantha were all on the inside now and were willing to cover with Geoff.

“Not my shrink, dummy! My physical therapist!” Josh actually laughed. Getting out and playing like this had really changed him in the couple hours we’d been together. “She stretches my muscles, gives me a ton of exercises to do, and massages the scar tissue every week. I’ve thought about that as a career. Maybe.”

“Ooh! Hot, sweaty boys!” Jennifer laughed as we came into the house.

“Do we like that?” Samantha asked. “They kind of smell.”

“There’s a stack of clean towels at each shower,” Courtney said. “Get in and get out. By the time you’re done the steaks will be on the grill.”

“You guys are cooking?” I said.

“No. We girls are cooking. Humor us. It’s not often that we get two-to-one treatment from the guys in our clan!”

Well, I wasn’t sure that having two of us guys for every girl was really a benefit for the girls. It seemed like it was just twice as much work for them. But we had great fun and a nice picnic.

“I think the girls finally got it right,” Anna said as she sat with Mom and Dad. “Maybe we should talk to Hayden about having his friends over.”

“Do you really think that even with two of us we could handle another one like our man?” Mom asked. Dad blushed.

“That would be wasteful, wouldn’t it?” Anna giggled. All the guys blushed. The girls just kept throwing steaks on our plates.

My Friday cooking demonstration with Brenda was another good time with great results. We made tater-twisters.

Miss Polly: You’ve got the deep fat fryer out today, Brian. What fair food are we making today?

Me: We’re doing a variety of deep fried potatoes today, Miss Polly. We have three different cuts of potatoes that we’ll be frying.

Miss P: These look complicated. How did you cut these?

Me: Brenda and I took a trip to the Kitchen Window this week and bought three little gadgets. The first is a French Fry Cutter. A lot of people peel their potatoes before they make French fries, but you’ll find that the majority of fair vendors just scrub the potato and slice it.

Miss P: What kind of potatoes are we using?

Brenda: Almost any potato will work, but for big long French fries, we’re using Idaho Russet potatoes.

Miss P: And now that you have it in strips, what are you doing?

Brenda: Water and hot oil don’t mix well, so we blot the potatoes on a clean dry towel before Brian puts them into the oil.

We had fun. We showed the gadgets. We made French fries, curly fries, and twisters. Twisters are like a continuously cut potato chip that can be a mile long with a big potato. The gadget we used to cut them was just a blade with a screw on it that wound down into the potato as it made a continual spiral slice. When we were done, we cleaned up. Brenda waited patiently for an hour after lunch as Harvey and Miss Polly and I discussed our plans for the fair. Harvey had come up with the brilliant idea of having me go out and interview a food vendor each day at the fair and then we could show the difference between the recipes I’d given for home fair food and what we actually got from the vendors.

When Brenda and I got home, the girls were still out on the horses, as usual. All three horses would be shown in Western Pleasure and Western Horsemanship at the fair. Mom and Dad were at work. Even Anna had picked up a part-time summer job at the local garden center. The girls were all working lunch shifts at The White Spot and then coming home to ride.

Brenda and I headed straight for the bedroom.

“I love you, Brian. I love Carl and Louise just as much as ever, but you do something to complete my love life. Maybe my fantasy.”

“I love you, too, Brenda. Tell me about your fantasy.”

“That you are my enchanted prince and while I love my family, I serve you with my body and heart as well. And you are so generous to us that you bring us pleasure beyond measure.”

“You know I’m not really an enchanted prince. Right?” Liz told me the story that Jessica used to convince the girls to be my protector back in fifth grade.

“We still play that you are. It’s my opportunity to get royally fucked!”

“How about being royally made love to?” I asked. I had Brenda naked and she was pushing my underwear down. She smashed her big tits against my chest and hungrily kissed me.

“See, that’s what I mean about you bringing us pleasure beyond measure. You care about me. You make love to me. Sometimes we get a little frantic about getting Tab A into Slot B, but even that is okay. Whether we’re with Carl and Louise or just the two of us, you show how much you care. Louise even said that she was relieved that you were able to touch her while we made love. And don’t try to tell me it wasn’t an inspiration to you to watch Carl’s cock slide into her. I felt the difference in my pussy.”

“That was really hot,” I admitted. “It’s cool that we can both make love to you and not be worried about being together.”

“Can you do that with Carl?”

“Um… I liked watching him fuck Louise, but it wasn’t Carl that turned me on. Are you telling me he’s gay-curious?”

“Oh hell, no! He liked watching you pumping into me, too, but he doesn’t want anywhere near your cock. That’s a bit of a problem.”

“For who? We feel the same way.”

“My fantasy,” Brenda sighed.

“You want Carl and me to be together?”

“Um… not with each other. I kinda want you both with me at the same time.” My cock twitched. I guess that was an answer. “With Louise.” That was more than a twitch. “I want to be… I think the term is… airtight. You and Carl with your cocks in my pussy and ass and Louise with her pussy in my mouth.” This time it was a flood from Brenda that let me know she was serious. We stopped talking and as we kissed, I plunged into her pussy. I reached around her bubble butt and slid a finger into her ass. Brenda screamed. I think I did, too.

It was just my girls with me Saturday afternoon. Mom and Dad went to Kokomo with Anna to take care of some household maintenance. They said they’d see me Sunday afternoon and Dad warned me not to let the fire get out of hand. We surveyed the fire pit together and he showed me his favorite ‘log cabin’ lay of the wood. We made a couple fire starters by pouring melted paraffin in a cup of sawdust. It would burn a lot longer than paper or even kindling. After the fire was started and going well, I could add larger and longer wood around the cabin.

I set the table for my guests. I would have Samantha, Jennifer, Courtney, Rose, Liz, Sora, Nikki, and Cassie at dinner tonight. Elaine was in New Jersey. Whitney was at UConn. Sarah and Hannah were in Evansville and one of them still refused to talk to any of us. Sarah tried to reassure us, but she sounded worried. I wanted a special meal that was elegant, but not too difficult to make or clean up. Before full nightfall, we would move outside and light the fire. Sam, Jennifer, and Courtney were giving me space as I prepared and I understood that all the girls in our clan were having a big meeting on Rose’s pontoon boat. My girls—Liz was right; we needed some words—were scheduled to arrive at six-thirty. Nine of us at the table. I used the china and silver. I wasn’t sure what would happen when I had to serve dinner to all twelve of my ladies. I wouldn’t be able to eat with them since we only had twelve place settings.

I looked critically at the setup and then went around and removed all the china. I’d leave the silver since it could go in the dishwasher, but there wouldn’t be crystal and china. I got out paper plates and plastic glasses. Easy cleanup, remember?

I started the risotto cooking a good while before I expected my guests. If you cook this slowly enough, the Arborio rice thickens and the constant adding of stock and stirring the wild mushrooms into it fills the house with an incredible aroma. I was also poaching chicken breasts in lemon pepper with crisp vegetables wrapped in parchment. I got that in the oven nearly an hour before the girls arrived. Once we were all seated and served, I lifted my water glass and they joined me. None of us were interested in drinking anything more substantial than the sparkling water.

“Here is to my incredible family. I love you,” I said. The girls all said some variation of ‘I love you’ and we settled in to eat with many exclamations of joy. Adding two slices of caprese salad to each plate made it a very colorful meal.

“Family,” Rose said. She smiled at me as though that one word would mean something more to me than what I’d said. I considered each of these ladies as my family. “That’s what the girlfriends all met about this afternoon. We want you to know, by the way, that after having been invited numerous times in the past, Lamar has agreed to sign our pledge.”

“That sounds a little after the fact. What does he gain by becoming a member now that he’s going to be a junior in college?”

“Well, that’s part of what our discussion was about this afternoon,” Rose continued. “The agreement isn’t really about dating each other anymore. We want to rewrite it to make us a family.”

“Specifically, a clan of households,” Jennifer added. “We need to describe how we relate to each other.”

“Liz and I were talking about that the other day,” I said.

“It has been so hard to just be girlfriends and boyfriends now that there are obviously differences in the level of… well, commitment or intimacy,” Rose said. “We needed to develop a language that we could use to say who we are.”

“I still like husband,” Sam said dreamily. “Yes, I know. We went over that. We did a lot of work today, Brian.”

“We’ve decided to call each household a casa,” Sora said. “I lobbied hard for a German phrase, but des haushalts didn’t pass the ‘romantic test.’ We chose mostly Spanish terms but there were a couple that we just went with English for.”

“Hey. There’s a reason they call Spanish a romance language,” Courtney quipped.

“So, everybody in the clan are like cousins,” I said nodding. “But everybody in a casa?”

“We here at the table are members of the same casa,” Sam supplied. “Also, Elaine and Whitney. We think—we hope that our casa includes Sarah and Hannah, but it may take a while to get them back with us. We aren’t giving up hope.”

“And distinct from just being cousins, those of us within a casa are hearthmates,” Courtney added. “It gives me such a warm feeling to look around this table and see my hearthmates.” Wow! That really hit me. I was a little choked up. I looked at Nikki and Cassie on my left.

“Are you two okay with this? The term feels like it implies a lot. We aren’t going to adopt anything that puts pressure on anyone. It’s not like we all have to live together and sleep together,” I said.

“You could put Sarah and Hannah in the same classification as the two of us,” Cassie said. “We’re included, but we’re not necessarily committed. We’re hearthmates but not ‘mates.’ We’re just girlfriends.”

“Oh.”

“Girlfriends or boyfriends. Courtney? There was another word for that, wasn’t there?” Rose asked.

“Compañera,” Courtney answered. “Like companions.”

“And we all believe that the best way to celebrate the creation of our casa is in front of a hearth—or better yet, a bonfire. Think up some clever words to say tonight, Brian. Our fire is going to create our casa,” Rose concluded.

“Oh!” Courtney said. She seemed to be our Spanish expert. “That would be a perfect name for our casa. La Casa del Fuego. The house of fire.”

Our fire was beautiful. It was a warm night in July without a cloud in the sky. Our fire pit is located behind the house and there really isn’t any direct view of it from any neighbor or from the road. I’d told Gramps, Mr. Barnes, and the Eberharts that we’d have a fire tonight so they didn’t become alarmed and call the fire department. Those were our nearest neighbors and most likely to see the glow. We got the fire lit about 8:30 and then horsed around making s’mores with Jennifer and Courtney’s favorite recipe: marshmallows and Thin Mints. I never got a chance to roast a marshmallow, but it seems like I ate a lot of them.

Rose brought a boom box and put her own tape of favorites on it. We didn’t have it turned up very loud because there were only nine of us and we were staying pretty close together. I had a can of bug-spray and we lit citronella candles all around our little space. We had a bunch of blankets on the ground and as it began to really get dark, we got up and danced to some of the songs. Rose danced close to me and whispered.

“Tell us, Brian. Tell us what it means to be Casa del Fuego. Tell us what it means to be hearthmates.” I nodded and the girls all gathered around on a couple blankets as and we were about as close together as we could get.

“I love you,” I started, but silenced them when they started to respond. “I love you all. And I love each one of you. Whether we are lovers or we plan to be lovers or we haven’t decided what we’ll be, I still love you. I love our cousins in our clan and there is something building between some of us that we don’t quite understand yet. But there is something special about being hearthmates that makes my heart jump. I felt it tonight when you told me the word. I’ve always tried to avoid comparisons like more or less or better or worse or anything like that. My love for each of you is unique and we have added a dimension to it tonight that is… It’s like not only giving you my heart, but giving you my soul. I look at each one of you. I hold the image of Whitney, Elaine, Sarah, and Hannah fresh in my mind. And I think, these are my hearthmates. Elaine helped me find words when we were together at Christmas in Indianapolis. I’ve never used them with anyone else, but now I know exactly what she meant and exactly how I feel. Casa del Fuego—my hearthmates—I give you my solemn pledge… my promise… We might not become or might not always be lovers. But I will always love you.”

A nice slow song came on Rose’s tape player and the next thing I knew Jennifer and Courtney were pressed up against me. Naked.

“Dance with us, lover,” Courtney said. “And get rid of those clothes.”

“Courtesan, some of the girls might not want to have us all getting naked.”

“We wouldn’t be naked in front of you if we hadn’t voted unanimously that it was okay,” Jen said. “You are the only holdout. Now are you going to dance naked with your intendeds or are we all just going to dance naked together and ignore you?”

“Novia,” Courtney said as I stripped off my clothes with their help. “That’s like Spanish for fiancée. We haven’t committed everything yet. But the time is coming.”

“And we will be, too,” Jen laughed. “I know it’s going to be crazy that week, Brian, but we were thinking that if we all stayed in the camper at the fair maybe you could make us truly yours. Your…”

“Cónyuge,” Courtney supplied. “It means something like ‘spouse’ or ‘conjugal partner.’ It means we’re with you intimately for the long haul.”

“Wow!” That was about all my mouth could get out around the two tongues that pushed to touch mine. I loved these girls. They were rubbing their bodies against mine in such a way as to make sure I was standing proud when the song ended and they moved to dance with our other hearthmates.

It was quickly apparent that I was going to get some intimate time with each of my hearthmates for at least a song as we danced. It seemed that everything on Rose’s tape was something that encouraged us to hold each other while we danced. Jen and Court slipped away and Sora came immediately into my arms. Man! She had been such a surprise. Even after Geoff came out to me and Sora said she wanted to be with me, I thought it was going to be just a fling. But she was part of the casa now and a hearthmate. Was she cónyuge? We hadn’t said anything about long-term plans and I didn’t understand the terms the girls were using yet.

“Brian, I know we haven’t really built the kind of relationship you have with most of the girls. I really like having sex with you but neither of us made a commitment to be with each other long-term. Would you like me to be with you like that for a… long time?”

“I was trying to figure out how that worked, Sora. Everything is so new. I’ll still make the same pledge to you—in fact I don’t think I could not make the pledge. Whether or not we are always lovers, I will always love you.”

“I’ll talk to the other girls. Maybe I can still be considered a novia or just a girlfriend, even though we make love. That would give us time to really get to know each other and decide if we want that kind of long-term commitment. Is that okay?”

“I have absolutely nothing against making love to my fiancée before the wedding,” I laughed. “Nothing at all.” That got me thinking, though. We were talking about long-term commitments to each other. One that included being hearthmates and having sex. Isn’t that what a marriage is? Sora gave me a deep kiss as the song ended and when she stepped away, Cassie was in front of me.

Naked.

She didn’t move immediately into my arms and that gave me a chance to look at her. My God! She’d done some filling out this spring and summer. Her breasts were full—not huge, but nice and round with hard little nipples that were pointing right at me. She’d always had skinny schoolgirl legs, but I could see that her butt, thighs, and calves had filled out as well. What a knock-out.

“Brian, I give you explicit permission to touch me in any way as we dance except to put your hand or… any other appendage between my legs. Will you dance with me as your compañera?”

“Wow, Cassie. I mean, yes. How did I miss how much you’ve changed this year? And what is compañera?”

“You mean that I’m wearing a B-cup bra now? Well, if I was wearing one,” she giggled as she pressed them into my chest. We shifted a bit to make sure my cock was sandwiched between us and not between her legs. “Compañera is a girlfriend. Just like I’ve always been. You haven’t asked me to marry you, so I’m not your novia. We haven’t made a long-term intimate commitment, so I’m not cónyuge. I’m just a girlfriend.”

“Yeah. But. Cass, whatever inspired you to get naked?”

“There are all kinds of nudists in the world and it doesn’t imply sexual conduct,” she answered.

“Oh.”

“That’s what I keep telling myself, knowing all along that I want to hold you naked in my arms and rub my pussy against your cock. Kiss me, Brian. With intent. Touch me like you want me to be your lover.”

I did. I kissed Cassie with all my heart while one hand caressed her tits and the other squeezed her bare ass. Five years ago. Damn! I’d kissed her with a little tongue and she ran away from me. She sure wasn’t running now. She looked up into my eyes while she continued to thrust against me. She was tall enough that I could feel her pussy slicking the base of my cock as she rubbed against me. We kept swaying to the music, but we weren’t paying any attention to the beat.

“It’s all changing, Brian. I don’t know if I’ll ever be closer to you than I am right now. I’m not following you to IU. I told you, Dad insists that I go to Bethel. I’m so free with my hearthmates, and I know I’m signing up for four more years of servitude. The thing is, it doesn’t seem so bad any more. I know that I’m a member of our casa. I know that I want to feel the things that I’m feeling as I rub my clit against your cock. I know what I’m doing. I love it. But I also still believe. I can’t throw away my religion. That might keep us apart. But right now. If you kiss me again. I think I’m going to come.”

I kissed Cassie and she practically climbed up on me on her tiptoes and slid all the way down to the base of my cock and whined deliciously into my mouth as I strummed her nipples and petted her bare bottom. I was close myself, but Cassie pushed away as her orgasm subsided.

“Even if we don’t become lovers, Brian, I will still always love you.”

We danced. I had intimate moments with each of my hearthmates. We exchanged endearments. Sam said she knew what she wanted now and we’d talk. That was good. Girls were beginning to gather up the blankets to go inside when I found Rose once again in my arms. I bent to kiss her and found her passion at a new height. As I straightened, she jumped and wrapped her legs around my waist and her arms around my neck. I grabbed her butt to hold her so neither of us would fall over.

“I love you, Brian,” she said as I held her up. “I love you with all my heart and soul. I’ve wanted you for so long, I don’t remember a time when you didn’t fill my longings. Do you love me, Brian?”

“Yes, Rose. I love you.”

“Do you want me?”

“You know how much I want you.”

“Then take me now, lover. Make me your cónyuge. Take me here in front of the flames. I will be the fire in your hearth and you will be my one true love.”

“In front of everyone, dear?”

“They’ve all gone in. The fire is ours.” I turned and just one blanket was left spread on the ground in front of the fire. Beside it was Rose’s boom box, our clothes, and a couple bottles of water. Everyone else was gone. I lifted Rose slightly and she reached between us to position my cock at her pussy. “Take me slowly, lover. I want to feel every bit of you entering me. I’m so close. Please love me.”

We kissed again as I slowly lowered Rose onto my cock. I understood my conversation with Whitney now. There were no condoms available even if we’d been inclined to use one. And the more I felt of Rose as she descended on me the more thankful I was that nothing was between us. It was so intense that I sank to my knees on the blanket. We were joined. We were one. It was nothing at all like any of my silly stories. Rose settled onto me and our lips sought out the essence of each other’s spirit. We didn’t bounce or thrust. But as we kissed, I felt my cock erupt and Rose began to cry out her orgasm. It was so intense that I was afraid I’d fall and crush her, so I lay her back on the blanket and she held me to her. I still hadn’t moved in and out but we’d both come so hard we could scarcely breathe. Yet Rose held me to her.

“I knew,” she whispered. “I knew it would be better than we ever imagined. Make love to me, darling. Make love to me all night long.”

I might not have made all night, but our blanket was damp with dew by the time we went in the house and curled up with each other in my bed. All my other girlfriends were spread out on the floor and at least pretended not to notice us as we made love again.

3
All’s Fair

I WOKE UP at four-thirty with a tear trickling from my eye. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, I love you still, Hannah. Rose kissed the tear and whispered, “I know, love.” She held me tightly and we went back to sleep. Did I say that out loud?

Seven naked girls served Rose and me breakfast in bed. We were surrounded by love. Each of our girlfriends stretched out beside us and kissed us. I took one last opportunity to fondle Cassie and hear her sigh before she gave way to Nikki. Nikki wanted my fingers in her pussy, but I whispered to her that this was my time with Rose. She pouted a little, but then gave a warm kiss to Rose. I wondered if she had poisoned her lips. You just never knew with Nikki.

“You know I’m not leaving you this week,” Rose said as she turned to kiss me. A couple of the girls were in the bathroom. Most had gotten dressed and cleaned up the kitchen and back yard. Sam, Jennifer, and Courtney were getting the horses ready for trail rides. Nikki and Liz came to the bed dressed in their leathers.

“It’s a gorgeous day,” Liz said. “Are you two sure you don’t want to come for a ride?”

“Liz, if it was you lying naked beside me and Sam came in and invited us to go out on horseback, what would you want to do?” I laughed. “And what do you think I’d want to do?”

“Well, when you put it that way, I guess there’s a lot of difference between hooking up on horseback at say zero-to-five miles an hour and hooking up on a motorcycle at zero-to-seventy. We might want to try it sometime, though.” Liz and Nikki laughed, kissed us both goodbye, and ran down the stairs. A few moments later I heard their bikes start up. Cassie and Sora came out of the bathroom in jeans and tennis shoes.

“We’re riding double with the girls over to my house,” Cassie said. “Sora’s going to spend the afternoon with me. Her car’s still here, so we might call you up to come and walk us through the dark spooky woods when we come back this evening.”

“You might have to hold our hands,” Sora said. “I’m scared of dark spooky woods.”

“Okay. Let me know. Of course, if Rose and I are busy, we might send the caballeros after you. How’s that? Can we have caballeros in our clan to indicate the horse people?” I got hit three times and then got a loving kiss from each of them. We were alone in bed at last. I didn’t know for sure when Mom, Dad, and Anna would be back, but I guessed they were enjoying their time without kids around as much as we were enjoying ours without parents. Rose rolled toward me.

“My cónyuge,” Rose murmured. “Was it worth the wait, Brian?”

“Rose, my love, how can you even ask? It was sweet torture, but worth every minute, every word, and every phone call.”

“And now we know that if we ever have to be apart for some reason, like business or travel with a different hearthmate, we can still have sex by long distance,” she laughed.

“How about now? Would you like me to tell you about how I’m going to make love to you, or would you like me to do it?”

Rose spent the night. The girls stayed in their room downstairs. Mom and Dad and Anna gave Rose a hug and just sighed when we went to bed. They didn’t check our sleepwear. Which was a good thing since we didn’t have any.

In the morning after Rose and I showered together, I went to work and was in a lot better mood than I’d been in the week before. We worked long and hard on the plans for fair week. We had our line-up of guests, including Bill and Crystal coming down for an interview during one of the morning broadcasts. I’d be taking a cameraman named Jess with me to interview the various food vendors. We’d worked on my segment several times since he was kind of a roving cameraman and was often called in on Saturdays to do our filming. When we looked at the exhibitors and vendors lists, we identified nine different booths that would be selling elephant ears. Sunday, I was going to have to acquire a sample from each vendor and decide which one would make the best interview candidate. In a way it would be an endorsement, so I wanted both a good elephant ear and nice people. In addition to that, I wanted to see the girls ride in their events. The Senior Western Pleasure class would be on Thursday and I was hoping to have my interview in the can and be able to get to the arena to see my girls.

When I got home from work, Rose was in the kitchen preparing dinner for the eight of us.

“What are you doing, sweetheart?” I asked as I gave her a kiss.

“You really aren’t the only one in the casa who can cook,” Rose laughed. “I thought it would help smooth the way for us sleeping together. I invited the other girls to be upstairs with us tonight, by the way.”

“Is that wise?”

“The truth is that I’m just a little sore. My pussy has had a lot of use in the past thirty-six hours. I love it, but I’m not really used to it. I just don’t want to let my lover out of my sight.”

We had dinner and all played a game in the family room before we got ready for bed. Everyone was pretty much on my schedule these days. I was always awake by four-thirty and had to leave for work by six-thirty. Dad left about the same time and Mom was gone by seven. The other women in the house didn’t have to leave until late morning for their jobs. Rose said she was running home for some fresh supplies—whatever that meant.

There was no pretense that Sam, Jen, and Court would sleep on the floor. They were all three naked and piled in with us. The hug Sam gave me in bed was almost a death-grip. She held me so tightly that I turned to her and found her sniffling against me.

“Are you okay, Cutie?”

“Do you still love me, Brian? I’m sorry. I’m not jealous, Rose. Honest. I just. You’re so beautiful and you’ve loved Brian for so long and I’m so scared that he won’t love me because we haven’t made love yet and I got scared and…” I kissed her. Rose reached across me to hug Sam closer to me and Courtney scampered around the bed to sandwich her between us.

“I love you, Samantha. I will always love you.”

“When I was with Hannah, I knew that you would love us both, but I feel so alone sometimes,” Sam sobbed.

“Hey, what are we? Chopped liver?” Courtney said, hugging Samantha.

“You and Jennifer are wonderful and I love you,” Sam said. “But I’m like a third wheel. You’ve loved each other forever and I’m just tagging along.” Jennifer scrambled over Rose to lie on top of Sam and me so we had her pinned from all sides and the top.

“Samantha! I would never let a third wheel lick my pussy!” Jennifer exclaimed. Well, that was information I didn’t have before. My cock sprang up against Samantha of its own accord. She felt it and rubbed against it. “I mean…” Jennifer backpedaled.

“Cat’s out of the bag now,” Courtney laughed.

“Sounds more like the pussy’s out,” Rose giggled against my back. She started rubbing against me, too. Jennifer squeaked and I realized that she had a boob right on top of Rose’s hand and just got her nipple tweaked.

“I thought I’d be like the first or second to make love to Brian, but then everything fell apart in May and there was Sarah and Liz. And then, where did Sora come from? And Brenda? And now Rose and next week is Jennifer and Courtney’s turn and by Labor Day Whitney will be back and Elaine wants you. The only ones who aren’t likely to make love to you before me are Cassie and Nicolette. And the way Cassie was humping you Saturday night, I’m not so sure about her.”

“I know what our novia Samantha needs,” Rose said. I wiggled around a bit so I was more on my back. Jennifer was still on top, but more on Sam and Courtney than on me. Rose cuddled against me. She still had a hand trapped between Sam and Jen.

“What does novia Samantha need?” I asked. Somehow, Rose had become the first among equals. I’d noticed it Saturday night and as soon as Samantha, Jen, and Courtney came home on Sunday.

“Novia Samantha needs a wedding.” We all caught our breath. A wedding?

“I can’t just marry Samantha!” I had a hundred reasons. I’d marry her if we weren’t all in this relationship together and if I wasn’t hung up on believing Hannah would one day come back to me and that I wouldn’t hurt any of my girlfriends like that, even with Hannah, and…

“Of course you can’t,” Rose continued. “Not in the traditional sense. But think about Saturday night, lover. I don’t think we realized what was going on exactly, but we had a wedding. And it was so beautiful. All our hearthmates were with us to celebrate becoming a family and every single one of them kissed me and wished me love and joy with you. We didn’t get married, but we sure had a wedding.”

“Can we?” Samantha whispered.

“I think it’s a great idea,” Jen said. “We’ve got our whole thing planned for at the fair. I don’t think we’ll have a ritual or ceremony, but we’re sure going to shack up. We’ve been planning this for too long to even think about delaying any longer. But think about it, Samantha. You could actually set a date, pick who you want to attend, wear something special, or anything you want, or nothing at all like Rose did. We, your hearthmates, would all be your bridesmaids. I’m getting wet thinking about it.”

“I can tell. Your pussy is on my leg. And you can keep sliding up and down like that, love,” Samantha giggled. “Brian? Could we have something like a wedding and then I would become your cónyuge? And you would take me to bed after our ceremony and deflower me and make love to me and I would be yours?” I clamped my mouth shut before I responded without thinking. There had been so many little rituals among our group. The whole establishment of the rules and now the casa. Were we putting more meaning on our relationships than they merited? Hell, we were all going to the same college. None of us considered what we had as temporary. We were in love. I really didn’t need Rose to pinch me before I answered.

“Samantha Maria Cortales, will you do me the honor of becoming my cónyuge? Will you set a date and help plan a ceremony that will let all our hearthmates know that you and I are joining together? I love you, Samantha. Please say yes.”

“Yes! Rose, I love you! Thank you! I’m so excited. I want to set a date. I love you, Brian. I should have said that first. I love you and I want you. Now I really feel like I’m your novia.”

If you want to kill the idea of having sex, start talking about having a wedding. It’s not that it’s not romantic or a turn-on, but it has a life of its own. It takes all the energy in the room to talk about it, plan it and fantasize about it. We talked for a couple of hours. Well, they talked and I listened. Occasionally, someone would say “Right, Brian?” and I’d mumble something appropriate. I was getting tired and I had to work in the morning. Even under a pile of naked girls, I finally succumbed and went to sleep.

I woke at my usual time and whispered “I love you” to Hannah. There was a slight stirring.

“Tell her for me, too,” Sam whispered. “She’ll hear it if you say it.” I hugged her and whispered it again.

Rose had shifted during the night. Jen was on my right and Sam on my left. Courtney was cuddled up against Sam. Rose was lying between my legs. As soon as she knew I was awake, she started moving. She had my morning hard-on trapped between her breasts and proceeded to stroke me until I splattered my seed against her, Samantha and Jennifer. Sam rubbed it into all three of us as Rose slid up my body for a good morning kiss.

“Go get ready for work, honey. I need to snuggle with my hearthmates.” I showered and dressed, kissed each of my four lovelies, and went downstairs to face the morning, including my parents and Anna.

“I don’t like you having to go to work so early in the morning,” Anna said. “What happened to fresh bread?”

“It’s too hot to turn on the oven, even at this hour of the morning,” Mom complained. “I can barely stand to be near the coffeepot.”

“Could you stand to be near me, darling?” Anna asked.

“Oh, I’d sweat to be near you,” Mom giggled.

“I’m thinking maybe air conditioning before next summer,” Dad said. “I’m also thinking I’ll have to steal Brian’s bread recipe before he leaves for college next year.”

“You really want to keep me around?” Anna whimpered.

I’d had a little—well a lot of—experience with kissing two girls at once. I’d never really watched it, though. By the time Dad was finished with Mom and Anna, I was ready to go back upstairs.

I was getting ready for the most stressful week of my life. I don’t mean stress like emotional tears. I mean stress like final exams. It was worse than preparing for my night of Chateaubriand at the Tally Ho. Half my time at the studio was being taken up with learning how to work with Jess in the field. Harvey sent us out to a local restaurant to do a report on their Polishfest. Fortunately, the owner was a funny guy who carried the interview. Then we went back to the studio and I learned about cutting and putting the whole three-hour experience into a five-minute clip that would air the next day. I got home at eight-thirty, too tired to eat. I took a shower and Rose joined me to make sure I was really—I mean really!—clean. I flopped into bed and didn’t know who slept with us until morning.

And Miss Polly started being a bitch. With Harvey training me to do remote interviews and get the tape cut for segments on the show, I’d let a bunch of things slip on Polly’s list. She wanted me on top of what I was supposed to be doing for her, fired, or given my own show, depending on her mood at the moment. I was becoming more and more sure that I didn’t want a career in television.

On Sunday, we went to the fair. I mean Jennifer, Courtney, Samantha, Rose, Sora, Liz, Nikki, Cassie, and me. For me, it was work. My hearthmates all helped, though. They helped me sample all eleven elephant ears, for example. I had to talk to the vendors, assess which I thought had the best fried dough, and which was the most personable for a television interview without letting them know that was what I was doing. Thank heavens there were nine of us and eleven elephant ears. Unfortunately, I couldn’t just send everyone to a different booth and get an ear. I had to actually talk to the vendor. Then the nine of us sampled the dough, rated it, and moved to the next vendor. We rated the quality of the food and the personality of the vendor.

Finally—after two hours—I went back to the top choice and talked to the vendor about doing an interview for the show. He didn’t believe me. Curse of being a teenager. Damn, I wished I had some portable video device I could use to show him I was serious. Fortunately, his wife and two daughters thought it was great. Whether they believed me or not, they wanted to be on television. We finally slated an interview that evening when Jess would show up and we’d actually film the segment. It had to be ready for broadcast on the Monday morning segment. In the meantime, we started on the other foods. There was no question in my mind as to the salt water taffy and Mike was happy to entertain us as he fed each of us bits of his specialty. We agreed to meet him at his booth at ten-thirty Monday morning before the midway really got rolling. And on it went.

All nine of us trooped into our house at ten Sunday night, went through the showers and teeth brushing, and flopped on the air mattresses to go to sleep.

Monday, live at the fair, went fine with the usual glitches of something not having made the setup truck to go to our broadcast booth. The station had half a dozen people in a constant string running back to the studio to get something. At least one thing they didn’t have to get was coffee for Miss Polly. As soon as she walked in, I handed her the cup and she scowled at me.

“Don’t tell me we didn’t bring the mugs,” she said as she looked at the Styrofoam container.

“Everything’s here and I have your regular coffee ready. This is something new I discovered yesterday. Try it.” She still scowled at me but took a tentative sip. Her eyes popped open.

“What is this? I can feel my thighs swelling with every sip. It must have a million calories!” She took another drink. “So yummy.”

“It’s a latte. I had one in Seattle when I went there last Christmas. The vendor says it’s a European import but they buy their beans from Peet’s Coffee. It’s been around Indy and Fort Wayne for a couple of years.”

“What’s in it?”

“The basic recipe is steamed whole milk and espresso. Espresso is a kind of coffee that is pressed through grounds at high heat and pressure. You only get a shot. This size latte has two shots and steamed milk. They added a squirt of vanilla flavoring and sprinkled nutmeg on top. Sorry I had to put a lid on it. It’s really pretty when they make it.”

“One. No more and no less. Brian, I want one of these every morning. I understand the Styrofoam cup at the fair, but please make them in a mug for me when we are back at the studio.”

“Make them?”

“Of course. You can’t go running out to some street vendor every morning. Find out how they make this espresso and steamed milk and get it set up in our kitchen. I assume you plan to interview the vendor this week.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good. What’s on our schedule today?”

We got right into the thick of things. In addition to the live show, Miss Polly was a very popular guest for various 4-H groups and would be a judge for the fashion show. I had to run out right after the show with Jess to film the interview with Mike and Adelaide Burns at the salt water taffy stand. At the pace I was going, Miss Polly’s assistant was going to need an assistant.

“By the way, Brian,” Miss Polly said as we were parting to go to our separate events. “That latte thing made up for a lot of faults. Good job.”

Well, hell! Was that a compliment?

The entourage arrived Tuesday morning. Of course, I didn’t see any of them until nearly five after I’d completed my work for the day and checked the editing for the segment on Peet’s Coffee. Jess and I were getting along well and he was doing most of the post-recording work. He’d been out of college two years and was determined to land a full-time job with a network eventually. Harvey and I had to go over everything when it was finished as well. It was pretty cool because the cute girl who made the shots—the barista, I was told—let me get behind the machine and showed me exactly how to make espresso. I wondered how big Miss Polly’s budget was for new kitchen equipment.

All of my hearthmates who were in town were helping at the fair. Sora’s family owned a travel trailer and she’d hauled it over so we had both the truck camper and the trailer. Nikki ordered pizza and had to go out to get it because they couldn’t deliver on the fairgrounds. She couldn’t do it on her motorcycle, so Rose took them in my car. Well, Elaine’s car. She’d given it to me for the summer but she’d be back in a couple of weeks to reclaim it and go to college. There was a growing number of people in the little campground on the west side of the fairgrounds. A few of the horse trailers had sleeping space in the front over a fifth wheel. That was some serious gear. There were a lot of trucks with various types of campers and a few trailers. It was a friendly group and a lot of them were grilling dinner so the smells were incredible. Behind us, the sounds of the midway and the occasional announcement of a new act in the grandstands are all that was heard. The girls put a ring of Tiki Torches around our site to keep the mosquitoes away. That’s what I thought, anyway.

“It’s the best we could do for a fire,” Rose explained. “We are hearthmates. Our compañera and our cónyuge and our novia. We are all of Casa del Fuego who are near enough but know that Whitney and Elaine send their love and blessing. We’re all just going to hang out here for a while like nothing whatsoever is happening… just in there.” She grinned and pointed at the camper. It was dark out and that was all the motive I needed to bid each of my hearthmates goodnight and conduct my two novia into the camper.

There’s something to be said for having been naked and sexually active with each other for nearly two years without going all the way. We were completely comfortable with each other as we undressed and we knew our bodies well enough to know what turned each other on and what didn’t. Still, there was a frisson of excitement as we prepared to cross the last boundary.

“Are we really going to do this, lovers?” I asked.

“Oh yes!” Jennifer squealed. “Look! We brought a whole new box of condoms!”

“That’s really optimistic of you to think that I might need twelve condoms,” I laughed.

“This is only night one of our honeymoon, lover. But we can always send out for more if we need them,” Courtney laughed as she melted into my arms for a long and heartfelt kiss. While I was busy with Courtney’s lips, Jennifer was kissing her all over her back. Soon, Courtney was moaning and I picked her up and placed her on the bed. Jennifer and I worked our way down her body with kisses, sucks, licks, and tweaks. Soon, the two of us were between Courtney’s wide-spread legs with our cheeks and tongues together as we jointly licked up Courtney’s wet slit and focused on her clit. Courtney rose rapidly and the squealing screech she emitted was sure to tell those camped outside that one of my lovers had her first orgasm of the night. Courtney collapsed back and rolled to the back of the bed as Jennifer and I crawled in.

“Court’s already had you anally,” Jennifer said. “I get to be the first vaginally. Come here, lover. I am so ready for you I almost came when Courtney did.” Jennifer laid back and opened her center to me. Courtney did the honors of sheathing me and positioning me for entrance. “Come to me. Come to me, my cónyuge. I am yours.” What an invitation. As I leaned forward to kiss Jennifer, I slowly sank into her hot, tight pussy until my pubic bone was rubbing against her clit. I’d imagined this since we were fourteen and Jennifer crawled into my sleeping bag at the dude ranch.

That was a preview of The Rock. To read the rest purchase the book.

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