by K D Grace
The limo turned off the main road into the countryside, still climbing until it was practically consumed by the hills. At last the driver approached elaborately crafted wrought-iron gates the height of a two-storey building. They opened automatically and the limo moved down a long road that twisted and turned and continued to ascend until the vista opened onto a villa built against the breast of the hill. It was flanked by sculptures that could have passed, in their detail, for Bernini’s work except that these sculptures were beyond romantic, beyond the romp of fawns or even beyond satyrs showing off their packages. The sculptures were intentionally erotic, beautifully so. They were mostly based on stories from mythology, but no proverbial bedroom doors were closed and nothing was left to the imagination. As Liza was ushered out of the limo and into the villa by a man the size of a small Italian car, she noticed that the frieze above the door sported a much more graphic version of the stylized Martelli logo: Ares and Aphrodite in that magical moment just before penetration, his very substantial cock and her very exposed pussy poised at the ready. Liza smelled the spike of her own scent at the erotic views, but her escort seemed completely unaffected by them – no doubt jaded from seeing them every day. Inside, he led her up a long, curving staircase, which divided halfway with both staircases then continued upward curving in opposite directions. He took her to the left.
From the time she entered the villa, Liza could smell Paulo’s lightning storm scent, and it grew stronger as she ascended the stairs in growing anticipation. At the top, in front of a closed door Coraline Martelli waited with a leather-bound notebook and a pen in her hand. She spoke quietly to Jim Dryer, who stood with his head slightly bowed, the look on his face deep concentration. Though Paulo’s scent was strong, he wasn’t with them.
‘There you are, Liza,’ Ms Martelli said. ‘We’re ready for you.’ She nodded to Jim, who held three sealed zip-lock bags. ‘These are the T-shirts from another experiment the lab’s conducting. Our volunteers have slept in them for the past three nights. Could you tell us what you smell?’
Jim handed Liza the first one, which was labeled A. She opened it cautiously and sniffed, then blinked to keep her eyes from watering. ‘You also asked them not to bathe for those three days?’ The two shot each other a quick look, and Jim nodded. ‘Believe me, that wasn’t necessary.’ She took a shallow breath through her mouth for self-preservation. ‘This belongs to a man and from the smell he’s pretty aroused. Clearly he eats in bed, ’cause garlic! Wow! And anchovies.’ She handed the bag back, holding it with her fingertips.
Without comment, Jim offered her another bag and this time she sniffed more cautiously. ‘Another man, not quite as pungent, but also very aroused.’ She noticed Coraline Martelli was scribbling in the leather notebook.
Jim handed her the final zip-lock.
‘A woman, ovulating, also very horny. What’s this all about?’
Another look passed between them then Jim spoke. ‘We’ve been doing a lot of testing and experimenting with pheromones, as you will have read in Paulo’s proposal. But to take our theories to the next level is … well, it’s risky.’
‘It’s innovative,’ Coraline corrected.
Liza felt butterflies take flight in her stomach. The smell of other people’s arousal was something she had gotten used to and had learned to block out, especially when she could tell such a great deal about people’s sex lives from their scent. When she’d had a flat mate, she always knew when she brought home her boyfriend. She knew, even with the substantial wall that separated her room from her flat mates, when the foreplay began, when orgasms happened for both of them, and she could tell when Ellen was faking it, which happened often and was part of the reason for their break-up. Liza could also smell the comedown and could tell when the two drifted off to sleep. Ellen was a good flat mate and the sex was always quiet, but Liza’s nose never missed anything. It still embarrassed her to recall how many times she’d lain awake in her own bed, inhaling the scent of sex coming from next door, imagining where Dan was touching Ellen, sensing the moment of penetration; fantasizing about how he touched her, what position they were in; masturbating and secretly blending her own scent of arousal with theirs. Sadly, back then that had been as close to real sex as her nose would allow her.
‘What exactly does this experiment involve?’ she asked, as the acidic tang of her own nervousness spiked with a nettle sting.
‘Oh, don’t worry, darling,’ Coraline said. ‘Your job is simply to tell us what you smell and make observations. The room is equipped with a recording device so that you won’t be distracted by having to write anything down. Paulo will be with you. Jim will be watching from the two-way mirror next door, and me, well I don’t want to know until it’s finished. That’ll keep me unbiased as well.’
The idea of a two-way mirror ratcheted up the scent of nerves even higher. But it was knowing that Paulo would be with her that changed the game plan. Didn’t they realise that his scent was the scent she smelled above all else? She supposed she should remind them of that, but she didn’t.
Jim’s BlackBerry buzzed a text. ‘All right.’ He stuffed it back into his pocket and smiled at Liza. ‘Time to dance. Paulo’s waiting.’ He nodded to the door then turned and went into the room up the hall. Coraline watched her expectantly, as she turned the door handle with sweating fingers, took one deep breath, and stepped inside.
Liza found herself in a small entryway not unlike that of a hotel room. As always her sense of smell entered the room first; it was heavy with fragrant arousal. Immediately she recognized the scents of three other people present. But they paled to insignificance compared to Paulo’s, and she wondered how she would ever be able to block the delicious smell of him enough that she could focus on the other three. Once the scents were sorted, she could hear the wind rush of heavy breathing along with the wet sounds of kissing. For a sharp instant her own scent peaked with jealousy. The thought of Paulo with someone else made her chest tight, which was ridiculous. She’d only been with him twice. She was nothing to him. Still the sting of finding a man in the arms of another woman was a repeat performance she wasn’t keen on witnessing. She took a shaky breath to steady herself and, it was in that breath, she became aware that only three of the four scents were blending. Paulo’s scent was not in the mix. It was somehow separate. That intriguing fact gave her the courage to move forward.
Though Paulo had been distractedly listening for Liza to enter the room, he kept an eye on what was happening in the bed. After all, this was exactly what he’d hoped for, exactly what he’d never dreamed Coraline would give her OK for until Liza Calendar and her magnificent nose came into the picture. Unfortunately there was baggage that came with her nose, and that was the fact that he wanted her in the worst way. Even if she didn’t run away outraged at the first sight of the three on the bed and what they were doing, having her here with him observing what was about to happen wasn’t likely to do anything to subdue his lust. It was her little gasp of surprise that got Paulo’s attention from where he leaned against the wall at the foot of a large bed on which the three people writhing and shifting had progressed to a partial state of undress. She inhaled deeply, breathing in the situation on the bed. Then she sniffed again, and her eyes locked on his, which was rather amazing considering that Pietro had his lips wrapped around one of Livinia’s heavy gum-drop nipples, his tightly trimmed beard swishing against the pinkening pale skin of her ample breasts. David knelt beside her head, his white-blond hair falling over his face as he watched her nimble fingers working on his fly. And yet, Liza Calendar watched Paulo.
‘I’m sorry she didn’t warn you,’ he blurted. ‘I wanted to but she said it was better this way – Coraline.’
She sniffed again, and this time he knew as well as he knew his own name that it was his scent she took in. Then she turned her gaze back to the action on the bed. ‘These were the certain types of “experiments” you were talking about,’ she made quotation marks in the air with her fing
ers, speaking in a whisper as though she feared her voice might interrupt the ménage on the bed. This time it was Paulo’s turn to sniff. It had never been difficult for him to recognize the smell of sex, nor the smell of obvious arousal, but with her focus on the action and her standing so close to him, it was her scent he wanted. And for a moment he wished like hell he could smell her the way she had just smelled him. Still it was there, the subtle heat of her. It was there like it had been on the plane. And for a second his stomach knotted and he resisted the urge to pull her into his arms and take her against the wall. He wanted her attention off what was happening on the bed and focused completely on him, and what he could do for her. His pulse beat a rapid tattoo against his throat, as she shot a raised-eyebrowed look over her shoulder at him. Had he been caught in the act? He wondered if she could smell his thoughts. But she turned her attention back to the action. ‘It’s a good idea,’ she said, watching as Livinia freed David’s cock, which bounced only once before she worried it into her mouth. Pietro had shoved up Livinia’s short skirt and there was a sudden wave of seashore heat in the room that even Paulo could smell. He reminded himself that until Liza Calendar came along, his was the definitive nose at Martelli Fragrance. ‘It’s an excellent idea, in fact,’ she continued. ‘Exactly what I was thinking when I read your proposal, although I’m not sure I would have begun with this combination.’
Paulo felt the tension leave his shoulders so quickly that his knees nearly gave, and the accompanying sigh of relief, well, he hoped she would mistake that for his efforts to smell what she smelled. ‘You’re OK with this then?’
‘Of course I’m OK with it.’ To his surprise, she began pacing around the bed sniffing, then pausing and closing her eyes, then repeating the process. ‘The scents of sex are the perfect building blocks for fragrances that will do what perfumes were intended to do from the beginning – enhance desirability. That’s really just a euphemism for arousal if you look at it from a biological point of view. It’s a mammal thing, isn’t it?’ She moved still closer to the bed, sniffing as she went, and he followed.
She leaned in until her nose was only centimeters away from where David’s cock shoved in and out of Livinia’s tight mouth. There she inhaled with her lips slightly parted. David’s eyelids fluttered and he moaned and shoved his jeans down until his bare ass was exposed to Liza’s view. Pietro, with his eyes locked on Liza, licked his way down Livinia’s belly, sniffed her splayed pussy, then began to lap it with the flat of his tongue, but his focus was clearly on Liza.
‘Can you smell that?’ Liza asked, without turning to Paulo. She sniffed again. ‘My presence makes a difference in the equation.’
‘Of course,’ David managed without losing his rhythm. ‘It’s at least as much of a turn-on to be sniffed as it is to be watched.’ The other two, with their mouths full, nodded and mmphed their agreement.
She turned to Paulo. ‘These three have done this before, haven’t they?’
Paulo nodded. ‘They have, yes.’
‘What are they, porn stars?’
All three of them laughed, Livinia nearly chocking on David’s cock.
‘No,’ Paulo said. ‘They’re not porn stars, and I’m not at liberty to say more at the moment.’
She backed to the foot of the bed and paced, watching the three in action. ‘If it’s a performance it’ll smell like a performance, and it smells like a performance to me.’
‘Jesus,’ Paulo said, running his hand through his hair. ‘What? Do you hang out on porn sets?’
‘I don’t have to hang out on porn sets to know when something is an act. The honesty, the edginess, the forbidden thrill of something is a scent unto itself. When the lion takes over the pride in the Serengeti and gets to fuck all the lionesses, the element of performance is that he gets to shag the ladies because he won the pride, and the way he won the pride is what makes him the one the ladies fuck.’ She nodded to the bed, where the three had stopped what they were doing to listen to her. ‘This is a strip club, this is a porn rerun,’ she said, waving a hand at the bed. ‘This is cheap cologne, not Martelli Fragrance. It just doesn’t smell right, though I get what you’re trying to do.’
‘What would you suggest?’ Paulo said, coming to her side and looking down at the three now sitting thoughtfully and half naked on the mattress.
Liza paced again, still sniffing and studying the three lovers. The she stopped and shoved her hands on her hips. ‘She’s not the main course in this scent fest.’ She pointed to Livinia. ‘She’s the intruder invited in to play.’
The three on the bed looked at each other, then back at her.
‘Were you going for a sandwich?’ she snapped her fingers as though trying to find a word. ‘Double penetration.’
They nodded.
‘That’s not how you picture it in your heads though, is it? It’s not what would really turn you on.’
Livinia spoke up. ‘It’s what we thought wouldn’t shock you too badly, and Paulo agreed.’
Paulo was surprised at Liza’s guttural laugh. ‘How about you don’t worry about shocking me? How about you concentrate on shocking each other?’
Paulo’s cock jerked in his trousers in a sudden surge of lust, and his respect for this woman skyrocketed as the light bulbs went on in the heads of the three on the bed. They shifted until they all three were lying down with Livinia in the middle. The two men began at the top of her head kissing and caressing, moving her hair away from her ears and stroking and licking down her sensitive nape in unison, almost as though one were the mirror image of the other. At her mouth, they both lingered, not taking turns, but jostling and shoving to try and take her at the same time. She reached out pulling them both to her and, as she did so, their hands snaked down her armpits and found their way to her anxious breasts in kneading, cupping strokes.
‘There,’ Liza breathed. Paulo could hear her pulse in her whisper. ‘Can you smell it? Can you smell the shift?’ He sniffed and sniffed again. He wasn’t sure that he could, but there was no denying something in the room had driven the lust up to sizzling. As he watched the two men pinch Livinia’s nipples to hard peaks, watched her grinding and shifting her ass into the mattress, he became aware of the heat of Liza’s body so close to his. The men kissed and licked down Livinia’s throat and collarbones and onto her breasts with such precision that is was almost like they’d read each other’s minds. Paulo felt that shift in the heaviness of his sac, made even heavier by the knowledge that, in the midst of it all, Liza smelled him too.
‘Can … Can I touch them?’ she asked.
‘Of course.’ If he could smell his own emotions, he wondered if there would be a tiny nip of jealousy in the air.
For a second, she stood at the side of the bed studying the situation and sniffing. Her eyes went from one man to the other, then she crawled onto the mattress. What happened next left Paulo breathless and fully, even painfully erect. With a sigh of frustration, she kicked off her pumps, hiked her pencil skirt up until she could spread her legs, and there was a collective gasp of surprise as she straddled Livinia. ‘Don’t stop what you’re doing,’ she ordered.
Paulo had never dreamed her to be the kind of person who would just hop right into the action, certainly not if all that he’d been told by her was true, so what the hell was going on?
As she wriggled her way up over Livi in an awkward knee walk, the men making room for her as she went, she paused just above her rib cage, and as the men laved sloppy kisses over her Livi’s breasts, Liza laid an open palm on the bare shoulder of each man and began to deliberately knead and massage in circular motions up toward their necks. They both moaned and shivered beneath her touch, and it was the little intuitive gasp from Livi that telegraphed what was to come. Paulo’s heart hammered, and his cock felt like it would shove its way through his trousers. Surely she wouldn’t. Surely she wasn’t bold enough. He held his breath as Liza’s hands paused to stroke each man’s hair, then snaked down and around to each man’s
throat beneath their chins, lifting and shifting and making it just uncomfortable enough until she had forced the first touch of nose to nose then breath to breath. Lust did the rest as both men fairly shot to their knees, their mouths locking on each other in a deep, probing tongue kiss with the luscious sound of heavy breathing and wet against wet. Both men sighed, and Livi whimpered. Then she reached to fist their cocks and stroked them in unison. Liza inhaled a heavy gasp.
‘There, that’s better, that smells like unbridled lust, that smells like the place where the rule-breaking happens and it all gets good.’ Her last word ended in a sharp breath as the two kissing men enveloped her in arms that slid over her bottom and up under her skirt. Their mouths came to lave and lick each side of her neck as, in unison, their hands found her breasts. She managed a little yelp of surprise as one of Livi’s hands worked its way between her spread legs.
It was than that Paulo catapulted into action. He wrapped an arm around Liza’s waist and pulled her bodily off the bed and, though he hadn’t intended to do it, he caught her mouth, an open O of surprise, as she turned her head over her shoulder at his sudden invasion. Then she swallowed his breath as her tongue darted in and out against his and her arms came up over her head and around his neck. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was aware that the three on the bed had picked up where they left off, a little more frantically, a little more urgently. Or maybe it was his own urgency he felt. Eating at her mouth as though his life depended on it, the arm around her waist pulled her backward against his belly, and his splayed hand moved up to cup her breasts. She squirmed against him and gasped, and though her feet touched the floor, her legs didn’t engage. Still holding her against him, he pulled her onto his lap and onto the overstuffed chair near the bed, and they both began speaking breathlessly into each other’s mouth. ‘We can’t do this, we’re being watched,’ he managed just as she spoke.