Chapter 4

There were a few guys playing drums out by the Man, with a dazzling didgeridoo player. A few dozen people were standing and listening, but no one was dancing. After a few minutes of tapping her toes, Tanya sprang into motion, her long skirt billowing in the wind as she shook her hips and twirled. I joined in, but after a moment, I started feeling painfully self-conscious. No one else was following us. The little crowd had all turned their eyes our way-or rather Tanya's. A wild, carefree desert spirit spun and leapt among us, while a clay footed mortal stumbled after her.

A few minutes later I stopped dancing and joined the ring of spectators around Tanya's gyrations. For a moment I felt even more ridiculous for giving up so suddenly. Tanya winked at me as she danced on for a little while longer. Then she stopped, came over, and put her arm around my waist. "Let's go find another circle," she said.

We walked across the hard flat playa surface towards a large bonfire, clothes whipping about in the intensifying gusts. Steady bass throbbing noises came from distant raves over in the city. As we approached the fire, the sound of drumming intensified until it drowned out the other music. Dozens of dancers swayed and shook to the beat of a dozen or so energetic drummers, a flutist, and a defiant-looking soprano saxophonist.

With little hesitation, we put our backpacks out of the way, yet in sight, and joined the throng. It felt good here. Tanya was beautiful and graceful. Other dancers were beautiful and graceful, too. Two naked tattooed guys took running leaps over the crackling fire. A slender woman in nothing but combat boots and a stocking cap swayed ecstatically by the fire. Off to the side, a guy with long wavy hair was doing tricks with a Diablo top until a gust of wind sent it rolling out into the surrounding darkness, and him running after it, laughing.

I felt strong and graceful as I danced and leapt, weaving through the crowd. Then Tanya was dancing near me, smiling that warm and enormous smile of hers. She had thrown off her sweater and tights and wore only a skirt tied around her waist, exposing a length of shining dark thigh. Her breasts shook and rolled as she danced, the dark nipples tight in the chilly night air.

I smiled back, and she danced closer, moving through the crowd like it wasn't there. We moved together and danced close, watching each other's faces. I put my hands on the bare skin of her waist and we swiveled our hips in time, the flesh chilled on the side away from the fire, hot on the side facing it.

I turned away and felt her hands on my shoulders. I felt her firm nipples brush against my back as she swayed close. "I-" think they like me. I bit off the remark at the last possible moment. Tanya might not mind how much Amanda had told me, but there was no sense taking chances.

I turned around again, pulled off my shirt, and threw it over onto my backpack. I put my arms around her waist, and she ran her palms slowly over my stomach up over my chest to twine her arms around my neck. Her breasts pressed against me, her face close, close close, both of us still swaying to the drumbeat.

The rhythm changed and she sprang away, dancing and twirling again with irrepressible energy, spiraling around me with teasing touches. The drumming came to a frantic climax and stopped raggedly. The audience and the dancers applauded the drummers, and the crowd milled, some people wandering off, dancers putting layers back on.

In the grip of a Sure Thing, I took Tanya's hand, and pulled her to our backpacks. I took mine, handed her hers, and ran from the fire. A little ways from the crowd, I stopped and turned to face her. A fat drop of water struck my shoulder. I kissed her, and she twined against me, flickering her tongue against mine.

A few more drops struck me. "It's starting to-" Tanya began. "Oh..." I had run my lips along her jaw line, and as I licked at where the tendon meets her jaw she trailed off. I could hear the spattering of rain on the playa surface around us. "Vinnie, it's really starting to-"

"Shit. Yeah, I know," I grumbled. "Well, want to go to the cafe?"

"Sure."

Center Camp Cafe was a crowded refugee camp packed with people looking for shelter. We lucked out. A couch emptied as we walked by and we jumped onto it eagerly, raising a cloud of playa dust. Tanya rested her head on my shoulder and we watched the milling crowd of people in companionable silence. Eventually my arm started falling asleep, and I shifted uncomfortably. Tanya sat up and gazed at me with a self-possessed smile. I leaned in to kiss her.

Suddenly Amanda's voice came from behind us. "Hey guys, what's up?" she said brightly. She vaulted onto the sofa and slipped her arm around Tanya's waist. "I know the guys who are coming on next," indicating the stage where someone was fiddling with a pair of small amplifiers. "They're really good."

Someone at the bar called out a drink order. "Oh, that's mine," said Amanda. "Vinnie, could you possibly get that for me?"

The perfect withering retort was on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't quite put it into words. Dark little storm clouds darted around my head as I got up and made my way to the bar and collected Amanda's coffee.

The band was actually pretty good, and once I stopped glowering I enjoyed the conversation as Tanya skillfully drew the two of us out about our previous Burningman adventures.

In the small hours of the morning, the three of us made our way back to our camp, slipping in the thick mud that now covered the ground and shivering in the damp and icy wind that still gusted even after the rain had passed. When we got back, the wind had pulled half the stakes of Tanya's tent out of the ground and it was flopped on its side. It didn't look like the remaining stakes would last long either.

"Shit!" Tanya exclaimed, when she saw it. "What'm I gonna do now?"

"You can stay in my tent tonight," Amanda offered. "There's plenty of room."

"Your tent?" I said.

"Yeah, well Tanya needs somewhere to stay! You don't mind sleeping in yours tonight, do you?"

Tanya interjected, "Vinnie doesn't have to move all his stuff-I can stay in the empty one, right?"

"Sure," I said uncertainly. "I'll have to clear out some bags first. We were using it for storage."

"Well, I could just crash with you guys, if there's room." Tanya said.

There was a pause as we absorbed this idea. Then we both said "Sure!" at once.

"I'll go get my sleeping bag.

I paused for a moment, then took the plunge: "It's a pretty small tent. You might want to just share ours."

"You don't mind?"

"Of course not."

Thanks!" She gave me a brief hug. "I'll go get ready for bed."

"Get some water jugs out of your car and put them in your tent," I advised her. "That'll keep it from blowing away in the night."

After I'd brushed my teeth, I crawled inside the tent, cracked a glowstick, and hung it from the roof. Amanda and Tanya squirmed in after me. It was still pleasantly warm inside from the day's heat. The noisy billowing of the storm cover lent an aura of drama to our dimly-lit little shelter.

Tanya had changed into a red tee-shirt and boxers. I usually sleep nude, but that didn't seem appropriate. I grabbed a pair of boxers from the clothes at the foot of the tent, and pulled them on before unwrapping my sarong. Then I pulled on a relatively clean tee-shirt and slipped into my half of the zipped-together bags. Amanda had stripped down to panties, thrown her clothes into the pile at the foot, and slipped in as well.

By unspoken consensus, Tanya was in the middle. She crawled in between us, her body brushing against me repeatedly as she wriggled into the bag. "Mmm. Slumber party," she said, smiling broadly.

Amanda put her bare pale arms around Tanya's shoulders. "Good night kiss?" she asked.

Tanya smiled and scooted over. The two women's lips brushed briefly. There was a pause. Then Amanda took Tanya's head in her hands and kissed more lingeringly. "Mmmm, nice," Tanya purred. Their bodies melted together for a third, open-mouthed kiss.

I stared without self-consciousness, rapt yet agonized by the sight, my heart pounding wildly.

Now Tanya turned on her other side, and smiled warmly at me. "Vinnie?" she said.

"Yeah?" I was certain I was about to be turned out to the gear tent after all.

"Give me a kiss."

Giddy, I leaned in, and Tanya's sweet little body, the heat of her skin radiating through her light cotton nightclothes, wrapped around me, and her soft thick lips pressed against mine. I may have actually whimpered in pleasure. I held her tightly in my arms and kissed her for a long, electric instant. I ran my mouth down over the soft skin of her neck, tasting playa dust mixed with the day's sweat, and it was unspeakably sweet. She sighed and arched her body against me. After a moment, she disengaged, and kissed me lightly on the lips again. "Goodnight," she said, and turned away from me.

Tanya pressed her firm ass against me and felt my painfully hard prick. She grinned over her shoulder and winked. Then she indicated to Amanda that she was to turn the same way, and soon we were all tightly spooned together. My face against her somewhat prickly dreads, I slid one hand under her shirt to stroke her bare belly, then upward to cup the exquisite softness of one breast.

She took my wrist and guided my hand back down to the skin of her waist. "Sleep now," she said gently. And, to my surprise, after a few minutes, I did.

I dreamed, if it can be called dreaming, of joyous, amorphous, infantile sensuality. This gave way to dreams of anonymous nuzzling and kissing-sex lifted above all anxiety, all tension. I stroked a soft substantial female breast, rubbed my hard cock against a soft ass, twined my legs with shapely warm other legs. As usual, what finally woke me was heat. The light inside the tent was diffuse but bright. I pushed the sleeping bag down around my waist and looked around.

Tanya was gone without a trace. Amanda, still sleeping, ground her panty-clad ass against my morning hard-on. I could faintly hear a muffled techno beat in the distance.

I put a hand on her hip, and pressed against her more firmly. She murmured her approval. I slid a hand over her soft tummy, under the elastic of her panties, to the light stubble of her shaved mound. I cupped her vulva, and rotated my hand on the damp flesh. Amanda squirmed appreciatively. With some difficulty, I got her panties down off her hips, then pulled them off altogether. I nudged at her upper leg, and she half-turned onto her side, bringing her knee up, and granting me access to the damp folds of her pussy. I stroked her for a while, one hand massaging her shoulders, while the other dipped into the mouth of her vagina and slid over her stiff clit.

I turned away and rummaged among the stuff on the side of the tent. "You stopped," she complained. I quickly opened the condom packet I'd found, and rolled it on. I straddled one of her legs and brought the head of my prick to the mouth of her cunt. She arched her ass up in invitation.