Part V

The next morning I lay in bed for some time, reflecting on my world as it was. My mind was trying to reconcile what I had been reading and what I had been experiencing with what I thought I already knew. There was definitely a disconnect between the two worlds.

When I gave up and headed to the kitchen, I saw a different woman standing by the stove. "Hi," I said.

She turned, smiled and said, "I'm Holly."

She was dressed, too bad, a tall, lithe, redhead and very pretty. "I'm Mike."

"I know that. Do you want breakfast?" she asked.

"Starving," I told her.

She clicked on the coffee machine as she said, "Tara must have worn you out." I could feel the blush when she said that. She looked but didn't comment. "Go sit down and I'll bring it in."

I went in and sat at the table. In a minute Holly brought in two plates with eggs, roasted potatoes and bacon with toast and coffee - a real hearty man breakfast.

I dug in and then told her, "This is good."

She smiled and then said, "I have a confession. Saeyong actually made most of this. You see, I'm just learning and I didn't want to scare you away the first day with my cooking."

"Believe me, you'd have trouble scaring me away. After my cooking I can eat anything," I told her.

During breakfast I kept looking at Holly. She was so beautiful I couldn't keep certain thoughts out of my mind. Does any man ever see a really beautiful young woman and not think about sex? I found myself getting hard. I was wearing an old set of shorts and soon the tent was obvious. Holly leaned over once to pass me something and she looked down.

She smiled, "I bet that's because you like breakfast. I didn't know bacon and eggs could do that."

"You know it's not breakfast. You are the most beautiful woman..." I said.

She lowered her eyes, "Thank you." Then she looked up at me, "Would you like to go into the bedroom?"

I nodded, "Yes."

She grabbed my hand and led me into the bedroom. I went into the bath to brush my teeth. When I came out she was undressing. Oh Lord, but she was beautiful. She turned and looked at me and then smiled.

I quickly skinned out of my shorts and shirt as she pushed off her panties. I held out my hand and moved on to the bed. She joined me on the bed. As we lay side by side, we kissed. But there was something else between us. I pulled back from the kiss and looked in her eyes. She looked uncomfortable. "What is it?"

She shook her head, "Nothing."

I kissed her again but there was no passion. "Nothing?"

Again, she shook her head.

"Is it because I'm forcing you?" I asked.

"Oh no. You're not forcing me. It's not like that." I waited. "It's just different."

"Different?" I asked. "Different than what?"

"Well, I've only really been with Jack," she said.

Confused I said, "But I thought all of girls had been... well, you know."

"Hookers?"

"Yeah," I responded.

She laughed. "We were but I wasn't much of a hooker. I mean sex worker." I'm sure I looked confused. "I better explain. I ran away from home when I was seventeen and came to San Francisco. I was going to get a job and crash with a bunch of girls and get a boyfriend and all that. That's when I found out that there aren't jobs for seventeen-year-old drop outs. I ran out of money and was really desperate. I stopped into a thrift shop and bought these ugly high heel boots and a short mini and went out on the street. I was scared to death but I needed the money. I was trying to walk in those boots when Jack came by. He turned and gave me two looks and said come with me. I didn't know if I was being picked up, arrested, or kidnapped. He took me to Denny's and bought us both dinner. He asked, 'What the hell are you doing?' I tried giving him an attitude but he just laughed. I started crying. He said, 'Just tell me the truth.' I did and he brought me home with him. The girls were so nice. I was here a week and kind of picked up the set up. So after a week, I guess everyone was sizing me up, Jack sat me down and explained the set up and asked if I wanted to become girl number four. The last girl left a couple months earlier which is why he was out strolling. It took me another week to decide but I said yes. I guess I'm the only hooker who never turned a trick."

"Jesus, that's some story," I said.

"Oh yeah. That second week, Tara seduced me. She's bi you know." I shook my head. Holly nodded and continued, "I'm not bi but it was nice. It's different with a woman. Anyway, Christine and Saeyong both came to bed with me in that week and so I was feeling like part of the family by then. So I accepted."

"You've made love to all three girls but you're not bi?" I asked.

She paused, looking like she was having a thought that had never occurred to her before, "I don't think so. It's different with them."

"But that doesn't explain why you are nervous," I told her.

"Jack was the first guy I made love with. Not sex. I had sex with a couple jerks in high school but Jack was the first guy to make love to me. So, really you're like my second guy," Holly explained.

"Oh," I said. "Does that mean you don't want to?"

"No," she said almost panicked. "I do. You're cute and Jack was kind of old. I liked him a lot but he was old."

I smiled, "You don't need to apologize. I think he knew he was old."

"So did you like Tara?" she asked.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Did you, like, do it behind?"

"Yes," I said.

"Did you like it?" she asked me.

"Yes, as a change of pace," I told her.

"Tara showed me how. Do you want to?" she asked.

"Maybe, but not today," I said. Holly looked relieved. There was something still not right and I didn't know what. "Why did you offer? I can tell it worried you."

"I don't want to get kicked out, so I want to make sure you're having a good time," she said.

"I can't kick you out," I told her.

"Jack always said we weren't tied down. We could leave anytime and he could ask us to leave anytime. We had a contract but it was... I forget the legalese, but either of us could break it anytime. I mean, Jack was always good about it. He said he'd never throw us out unless we stole from him or lied to him."

I got out of bed, "C'mon, let's call the girls." She looked worried. "No, nothing like that. I have to tell all of you some good news." Holly looked puzzled but came with me.

"Show me how to call the girls." Holly flipped a couple switches. "Calling all girls. Calling all girls. I need three lovely ladies in the bedroom immediately." I flipped off the switches. Holly was laughing.

In less than a minute all three were in the bedroom. Holly and I were sitting on the bed naked when they showed up. All of them were dressed. None of the girls seemed to notice we were naked. I hadn't thought about getting dressed. I realized that this was like the 'nest' in Stranger. You dressed or not dressed as the occasion warranted.

Christine asked, "Oh Lord and Master, we obey. So what's the deal?"

"What kind of contracts do you have?"

The three of them exchanged glances; I would have guessed worried glances. This was obviously a topic the four of them had talked over.

"Our contracts expired with Jack's passing. Ms. Sharp told us that Jack had not left us anything in his will," Christine told me, a hint of worry in her voice.