by Dacia Quinn
“Danny’s hot, and she’s ... well, let’s just say she’s ready to go. Frequently.”
“At least I know you’re finally getting something regularly.”
It’s the use of the word “finally” that digs. “It’s not like that. We’re not dating.”
“Really? So you’re not .. you know.”
“Well, maybe a little. But we’re not dating. We’re friends.”
“With benefits?”
I cringe. “God, I hate when people say that.”
“So, yes.” I roll my eyes, and Gail barks a laugh.
“You don’t have to worry about her going after Danny.”
“She’s full-on gay, then?”
“No, she’s just not that kind of girl. She reminds me of Danny sometimes. I think she must have been a sweet little Catholic girl at one point. She’s pretty reserved most of the time, but once she lets loose, look out.”
“Sounds like you’re having a lot of fun.”
“The book takes up most of my time.”
“Almost done, then?”
“Pfft. Doesn’t seem like it.”
“Thane’s giving you a hard time?”
“The shitty thing is that he’s making the book better,” I say. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever said it out loud, let alone admitted it to anyone else. It actually feels good to free myself of it. “And yes, it’s almost done. Another month, and then it’ll be off to the powers that be.”
“How long ‘til we can buy it?”
“Awhile. But I’ll give you a copy when it’s done.”
Danny and Theresa saunter over through the small crowd of hot-dog munching suburbanites in short-sleeved polos and sun-dresses. Next to Danny’s tall, lean bulk, Theresa resembles a pixy. The neighbor kids are all playing in the pool, splashing about. It’s entirely too close to a church-social vibe for my tastes, even if the people are all pleasant in their mundane ways. None of them have brought up strap-ons with me. Strangely enough, I’m both pleased and a bit disappointed by this. I crave more adult topics of discussion.
“Theresa was just telling me how much she’s liking your new book,” Danny says. “I’m jealous that I can’t read it yet.”
“Well, it’s not finished. And how did you get a copy?” I ask, turning to Theresa.
“Karen let me see the first couple hundred pages.”
“Anything hot and taboo in there?” Gail asks.
“Mmm, a few things.” Theresa is making eyes at Gail, and I have a hard time not smirking. Gail stammers a moment, and her face blooms red. “What, Sara hasn’t let you read it?”
“No, she’s a miser when it comes to pages. She didn’t let me read Thirty Hour Day until two days before it came out! She made me practically beg for it.”
“That sounds familiar,” Theresa says, raising an eyebrow at me.
Danny snorts at this, nearly spilling his drink.
“Come on, Sara! Didn’t you tell them about the orgy?”
I narrow my eyes at her and tilt my head. Unless someone’s added a chapter I don’t know about, there’s no orgy in my book.
“An orgy? I thought you’d go for something a bit more tame this time around,” Gail says.
I did, actually. There’s sex, but it’s not nearly as explicit. Except the lesbian scene I wrote for my protagonist, not-so-loosely based on Theresa and my first encounter. And for the first time I’m realizing that Theresa has probably now read that scene, and knows exactly where the sexual choreography came from. I give her a look, accompanied by a blush. I perceive that this is her way of getting revenge on me for it.
“I decided to double down,” I lie. What the hell, I might as well see it through. “It’s pretty crazy. Girls with girls, men with men. I think there’s even a donkey.”
Danny shakes his head. “Stop. Even I can tell she’s just giving you a hard time."
“You’re no fun.”
“He looks like fun to me,” Theresa says.
“I thought you said I didn’t have to worry about her,” Gail laughs.
“Maybe I was wrong.”
The sun goes down, the kids get out of the pool, and people eat. They chat about school and church and sports and fundraisers. Danny and Gail seem only marginally less bored than I am, but at least these are their friends. Or neighborhood acquaintances, at least. Eight o’clock comes, and they’re all itching for bed, and begin to leave. Soon it’s just the four of us sitting around the pool.
“I could lend you a suit,” Gail says.
“Nah, it’d be too small.”
“You could skinny dip,” Theresa suggests.
“Yeah, Sara,” Gail tweaks. “Why not?”
“You’re crazy,” is all I can manage to say.
“What about you, Theresa? Want to borrow a suit?”
“No, I don’t need one,” she says. She stands up and drops her dress. She’s wearing nothing underneath. In a graceful, slow motion, she dives head-first into the pool.
“Alrighty, then,” Gail says, her eyes a bit wide. Danny is too busy gawking in the direction of the pool to be able to form a coherent sentence.
“You were talking about fantasies?” I’m smirking wildly. “Looks like Danny just got one of his.”
“We talked about having a threesome,” Gail says, quietly. “You know, just playing around with the idea. After you mentioned it, I kinda thought maybe he’d like to, you know, talk about it while we were in bed. He seemed to take to the idea well enough.”
“He’s a guy,” I say, shrugging.
“Yeah, well. He seemed to like the idea of watching me with another woman.”
“And?”
“The more we talked about it, the hotter it sounded.” She turned to put herself between us and Danny. “I’m just not sure about sharing him with anyone. I’m not jealous or anything, it’s just, you know ... he’s mine.”
I cover a laugh with a tight-lipped smile. “Then just let him watch. If you’re worried about it. It’d be like live porn.”
“It’s a little more than that!”
“For you. He’d be alright with you being with a woman?”
“I think so. Not with another guy, though. Not that I want to.”
“I think the lady doth protest too much.” She gives me the evil eye, so I back off. “You’ve told him about ... you and me?”
“I tell him everything.”
“He wasn’t pissed off about it?”
“No, it just made him as hard as a rock,” she giggles. “And so he says, afterward, ‘You know, she’s really hot.’ ”
I gawk at her. “You mean, me?”
“Yeah. You should have seen him. It was like he was revealing this dark secret.”
“I’m not hot.”
“Sure. Whatever. Maybe it’s the red hair. Anyway, I hope you don’t mind. We kinda ... fantasized together about it. About you with us.”
It’s dark outside, and in the low light I hope she can’t see my reaction. “No, I don’t mind. I’ve fantasized about the same thing.”
“You and Danny?”
“The three of us. He’s got a nice body, what can I say?” I shift in my seat. “I never thought it would ever happen. I mean, it’s Danny.”
“Now it’s you protesting too much.”
“I love you both, you know that. I’m not going to suggest anything that would cause trouble.”
Her face becomes suddenly serious. “So, you’d be open to the idea?”
I give her a hard look and try and decide if she’s being serious or just prodding. Everything I know about her is saying that she can’t possibly be thinking about it, but our conversation so far hasn’t exactly been whimsical. Theresa’s in the pool naked, and Gail hasn’t made a fuss.
“You know what? Sure. I’d be open to it.”
Gail growls. The indecision is plain on her face.
“How about this: you guys watch us. We watch you. Just dip a toe in the pool a bit first, and see where things go.”
<
br /> “You’ve done this before.”
I laugh. “Absolutely not.”
“You’re crazy, you know that?” she says.
“I think we both are.”
* * *
THERESA ISN"T THE SLIGHTEST BIT self-conscious—and why should she be? Her body is smooth and tight and gorgeous, as opposed to my more generous curves. She’s toweled herself mostly dry, but her skin still retains that slight bit of dampness that catches the tips of my fingers as I brush them down her arms. Gail and Danny sit across from us, close together. Gail’s hand is on his thigh, and I can’t help but notice the substantial bulge in his pants. Gail’s expression is suspended between lust and discomfort. I had warned Theresa that this whole situation was somewhat out-on-a-ledge for all of us, but it didn’t bother her at all. I wonder where her confidence comes from.
I lay back, and Theresa straddles me, her fingers unbuttoning my shirt, then opening it. I’ve been naked in front of Gail countless times, but for some reason this time I’m more self-conscious. Maybe it’s the young, naked women on top of me. I remember that first time Gail and I ever masturbated together, and it’s like that—only heightened. Then it was just a matter of being a bit too self-critical of my body (and I looked better then than I do now), but now it’s a confusing melange of self-consciousness and pleasure. And then I recognize the familiarity of it—it’s like when I’m standing there as someone reads my book. It’s letting someone into a part of your life normally kept private. It’s a knife’s edge of eagerness and anxiety.
Theresa laughs at me. A giggle, really. I give her a questioning look.
“You’re thinking again,” she says. She turns to Gail. “Does she always do this?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“It’s so cute!” she says, and leans in for a kiss. I can feel the tips of her nipples against my skin, and I moan into the kiss. She bites my lip playfully, and I can feel her smile. Her hips move against me subtly, and I instinctively reach up to them and pull her tight against me. The friction pulls my shorts deliciously tight against my mound.
I hear rustling, and when I look over Gail has taken off her shirt. Danny’s attention now seems conflicted—he can’t decide which woman should get his attention. To his credit, he seems more taken with Gail’s bra-clad breasts at the moment than with either Theresa or me. Gail’s hand now strokes him through his jeans, and the bulge in his pants gets even larger.
Theresa kisses down my neck, stopping at its nape to explore with her tongue. My fingertips explore the soft skin of her sides, tracing up her back and then back down to the swell of her ass.
“Take off your bra,” she says.
I manage to scoot up while reaching back to unhook my bra. Theresa strips it off me quickly, then takes my nipple into her mouth, sucking at it greedily.
My body shudders in response and my head rolling back as a groan escapes from the depths of me. My hands find her breasts, brushing her pierced nipples with my fingertips until they’re hard and sensitive. Every inch of my body feels delicate as tissue-paper, each touch of Theresa’s body sends quivers through the entire length of me. I’m lost for awhile in a tangle of sensations: the cool touch of her hands, the warmth of the damp meeting of her legs, the soft tickle of her hair against me as her lips find every secret niche of my body.
Gail and Danny kiss, and his hands have now freed her breasts from their confines. I watch, remembering my own fantasies of the three of us, and thinking that my fantasies have never been as hot as this moment, with the two of them kissing so passionately. Danny lifts her up, seemingly without effort, and she stands in front of him. I see a flutter of hands, then her pants drop to the ground, giving Theresa and me a fine view of her gorgeous ass.
Theresa has come up for a moment of air, and sighs gently at the sight.
“Wow,” she says.
“Hey, now!” I complain playfully.
She grins and with a light push on my hip, tells me to flip over. This is new for us, so I oblige out of curiosity. She pulls me up on my knees, and gently spreads my legs open. Her hand is between them, her fingers splayed over my pussy, her thumb just inside me pressed against my clit. Her tongue slips up from my swollen lips and clit to press teasingly against my ass. I shiver, then press myself against her harder.
“Oh god,” I say, my eyes closed as I enjoy the sensation.
Gail kneels, and Danny’s face is a mask of bliss as the light bobbing of her head tells me all I need to know about what she’s doing. She moves to the side so she can see Theresa and me. I’ve seen that look on her face before, when we’ve watched porn together, and I know that she’s deep in her own arousal. I get a nice view of Danny’s cock, now, and realize that if anything Gail has been conservative in her description—he’s long and thick, glistening now after Gail’s attention. She strokes him slowly with one hand. Her other hand has pushed aside her panties and is busy between her own legs.
I free a hand and gesture for them to come closer. After a moment’s hesitation, Gail gets up and takes Danny’s hand to lead him closer to Theresa and me.
I’m feeling exposed and open to the world as they approach, and I can feel their eyes on me and Theresa.
Theresa continues to lap steadily at my pussy and ass, each stroke of her tongue and fingers inching me closer and closer to orgasm. I can feel my legs begin to weaken as I get closer, and reluctantly pull away from her. It’s her turn to lay back now, and as she stretches out, Danny stretches out next to her.
I open Theresa’s legs, caressing her thighs with my fingertips and kissing gently from her knees upward. She squirms delightedly beneath me, her breathing heavy and punctuated my little gasps when my tongue or fingers find a sensitive spot.
Gail has slipped Danny back into her mouth, taking as much of the full length of him past her lips as she can, but her eyes are on me as I encircle Theresa’s clit with my lips.
“How are you going to come?” Gail asks, between long strokes of his cock with her mouth.
“Don’t worry,” I say. “You’ll see.”
Gail climbs atop Danny, angling his cock toward her hot, wet opening, rubbing the tip of it against her in circles. She’s close, I can tell, but she’s holding off—waiting for me. Beneath me, Theresa thrusts her hips against my mouth and fingers. We’re both ready for more. I straddle her, pressing my pussy against hers. I slip a hand between us, slipping three fingers deep inside her.
Theresa cries out, her hands gripping my thighs, digging her nails into me. I begin rocking my hips against my own hand and sliding my fingers slowly in and out of her.
Danny can’t hold out too much longer. He reaches down to Gail’s hips and pulls her tight against him. She falls forward, hands on his chest. She lowers herself down farther, and he lavishes kisses on her breasts.
“Fuck me hard,” he says. Gail responds immediately, grinding her hips harder and faster against him, her breath responding in kind. I can’t help it—I do the same, matching her rhythm without thinking about it. Theresa raises her arms above her head, pushing against the wall behind her and spreading her legs wider for leverage.
Danny comes first, arching his back, his voice a series of guttural moans as Gail rides him hard. She leans back, and is suddenly coming herself.
“Uh, uh! Oh god, I’m coming!” she cries.
It’s enough to send Theresa and me over the edge. For a moment, it’s a chorus of moans and screams of pleasure as the four of us fall into a pool of ecstasy. Theresa’s eyes lock onto Gail’s body as it clenches and tenses in orgasm. Mine on Gail as she pumps her hips against Danny. And Danny and Gail’s eyes on each other as they shudder together on the cool floor.
We collapse together, a pile of bodies. The unspoken rule was to keep separate, but in the aftermath no one seems to care. I’m wrapped up in arms and legs, not knowing whose is which. And I’m exhausted. Every muscle twinges with aches that had, just a few moments earlier, been masked in a flood of endorphins. I think I would
be happy to stay like that forever. Well, maybe just a few hours.
I feel a hand on my leg, then realize it’s two—Gail and Danny. When they realize it’s mine, they freeze a moment in anxiety. I reach out a hand, slap Danny’s ass and growl.
“Like you said,” Gail grins. “I'm crazy.”
“We all are,” Theresa says.
Danny, wisely, offers only a smile.
[EPILOGUE] ENDS
“WELL?”
“Well, what?”
“You’ve had the last chapters now for a week. You’re gonna keep me waiting?”
“You care what I think?”
“It’s part of my contract that I listen to what you think.”
“I’d have to look it up,” Thane says with a wry smile. “In my experience, most writers listen, but don’t hear.”
“And you’ve been waiting all this time for some sign that I’m hearing?”
“No, you appeared to be hearing fight from the beginning. It just took awhile for you to accept it.”
“So, now you want me to admit that you’ve been right all along? Like one of Barton’s books?”
“I haven’t been right,” he says. “I never told you what to do, or how to fix the problems I perceived. I just pointed them out. If I’d told you what to do about them, I definitely wouldn’t have solved the puzzle for you the way you did on your own.”
“I’m sure you’re disappointed.”
“I’m not,” he says. “I’m not a writer. I’m a reader. We know when something’s wrong, but we rarely have any answers on how to fix what we see. I made suggestions. In your stubbornness you took none of them. Your results speak for themselves.”
“What can I say? Someone tells me not to do something, and I do it harder. And don’t you tell me that I just sounded like Nara.”
“Furthest thing from my mind,” he says, with a smile that says the opposite.
“So...”
He sighs and shakes his head. “I liked it. Loved it. Karen did as well. There’s still a long process ahead, but everyone is quite happy. But I must ask—are you?”
“Am I what? Happy?”
“Yes. Is the question that strange to you?”