Chapter 18

With a smile and a sigh, Jen rolled off Brock to lie beside him. The cool sheets on the bed felt good against her sweaty skin.

"Say what you want," she said. "But we were always really good at that."

"I think you're really good at that," Brock said, rolling over to kiss her again. "I just follow your lead."

Jen accepted his kiss for a moment but shifted backward before things got out of hand again.

"You know, you're not the only person I've done that with," she said. "I don't screw around but I've had other boyfriends."

"I know," Brock said.

"So I can tell you that it isn't just me," she said. "Even the first time we did it, it was really, really good. I worried that I had looked forward to it for so long that it wouldn't live up to my fantasies. Well, it did. And it has every time afterward – when I was with you."

This time it was Jen who initiated the kiss.

"Thank you for making my first time so special," Jen said sincerely. "I hear stories about groping in the back of a car and guys who last 10 seconds before shooting off. God, we must have gone at it for an hour."

"Uh, if you remember, you took care of the quick blast off a few minutes earlier," Brock pointed out. His cheeks pinked a bit but he was only slightly embarrassed.

"And I'll do it that way again in the morning before I saddle up for another ride," she replied with a wide smile. "While we're on the topic of first times, I have something else to ask you."

"OK," Brock said.

"Is there a possibility that Meredith will find her way back into your world?" she asked.

"No," Brock said firmly.

"Do you mind if I ask why not?" Jen queried. It was rare for her to be so polite so Brock answered.

"I have known since a few months after I pulled my head out of my ass that I could rely on you," he said. "If I had been smarter, I would have known that I could have always relied upon you. The same is true with Mel, Tara and Susan, too. In the past eight years there hasn't been a moment that I thought I couldn't call you if things were rough for me. Meredith, well, she has not changed one iota since she was 16. She still disappears whenever it looks like things aren't going to be all roses and bubbles."

"Brock, that's not fair," Jen said.

"Maybe not but it's true," he shot back.

"Not really," Jen told him, again resuming her spot on his shoulder. "Even if it is, you need to offer her the same courtesy you offered us so she can move forward."

"What courtesy is that," Brock asked.

"I gave you my cherry," Jen said. "Susan gave you her cherry. Tara gave you her cherry. You were the first lover for each of us. That's why we agreed to let Mel be your first lover. She wished she would have saved herself for you even more than we did. She knew firsthand how bad a first time could be. So Mel got you first, then Tara, then me and then Susan."

Brock was aware of the facts of the situation but he didn't realize it had been so calculated.

"So you planned all that out?" he asked. "You actually decided who was going to go out with me and what was going to happen? Jen, that's pretty fucked up."

"Yeah, it is," she admitted. "But we knew we all wanted to see if a relationship would work with you. It's the only way that was fair to all of us. So we shared within the bounds that we'd established together – just the way I know Meredith expected us to do when she was still around."

"I didn't agree with that either," Brock pointed out.

"I heard," Jen laughed. "In fact, I heard all about it from Meredith while we were out there."

"Wait, are you saying Merie is still a virgin?" he asked incredulous. Meredith Van Landingham was not only attractive but she was rich. Brock would have guessed she would have suitors lined up around the block.

"Merie is still cherry," Jen replied with another laugh. "But she would like to remedy that situation as soon as possible – with you. After all, she promised herself to you when she was just 15. It really wasn't her fault that those plans went awry."

"She sure doesn't act like she's interested in me," Brock said. "She just shows up when she wants to show up and then disappears."

"She's scared," Jen told him. "Look, the residual anger you had toward her really caught her off guard. She feels horribly guilty about the spiral you went into when she left. I think if you give her a chance you'll find she is still the sweet, quirky girl you fell in love with almost 10 years ago. Even if she isn't, she still isn't going to get on with her life until she gets a chance to see if things will work out with you and her."

"I think I know the new Merie better than you do," Brock said.

"No, you don't," Jen rejoined. "You see the woman who is still hung up on her high school boyfriend – the only male who has ever shown interest in Meredith, not her body or her money. She gets nervous whenever she's around you. You saw her when it was all of us. She was almost back to her old self."

"And then she disappeared like a ghost whenever you were not there to see her," Brock countered. "I haven't spoken more than 10 words to her since you folks departed."

"See previous answer," Jen said. "What she wants to do is trip and land on top of you. She needs to get past the sexual tension she feels whenever she's around you. She is so worried about saying or doing something that will make you send her away forever that she avoids you."

"She's good at that," Brock said with a trace of anger in his voice.

"She has no friends except for you and Randi," Jen said, "Which brings me to my next point. After you have deflowered Meredith, you need to let Randi sample the goods."

"No way!" Brock said. "She's a kid for Christ's sake."

"She's not a kid," Jen said. "She's 18 next month. By the way, I'll put a reminder on your phone so you know where to send her flowers for her birthday."

"Just because she's legally an adult doesn't make her one emotionally," Brock pointed out. "The age difference is too great for me to even consider it."

"Then she'll hound you to your dying day until you do," Jen said. "She grew up in Hollywood. She's been on TV since she was 13 years old. It is absolutely no big deal for an 18 year old to go out with a 24 year old. Hell, it's no big deal for an 18 year old to go out with a 54 year old. She's not a virgin. She hasn't been since she was 14. But, well, let's just say that sex has always been unfulfilling for her. She's never had a sexual partner she would have willingly chosen."

"She was raped?" Brock asked, incredulously.

"That's more a question for Mel than for me," Jen replied.

"What in the hell does that mean?" Brock shot back.

"It means that technically, I would say she was raped at least once," Jen said. "But I would also say that she's prostituted herself out far more times than that. But legally, I'm not certain."

"You make absolutely no sense to me," he said.

"No surprise there," Jen said with a smile, hoping beyond hope to get the scowl off Brock's face. "Her first time was with a 17-year-old. She was barely 14 at the time. She had to let him have sex with her in order to secure a part in some movie he was in. The only other times she's done it were in order to secure something for herself. It's a commodity to her, I think. So, in my mind at least, she was coerced the first time. That's rape. After that, she sold herself for whatever she wanted at the time."

"Jesus," Brock said, shaking his head. "I had no idea she was so ... so calculating."

"It wasn't until she found herself hanging out with you that she finally understood what she'd been doing," Jen pointed out. "Out there, sex is a commodity. The men with power expect it and the women trying to break in parcel it out to those who can help them. I guess you said something to Randi that really made her think about you differently. You told her half the world wants to kiss your ass so you expect the other half to follow suit. She realized that's what she'd been doing. She had been kissing people's asses by letting them have sex with her. They weren't interested in Randi Darby. There was something Randi Raver wanted from them so they made her pay with the only thing of hers they wanted."

"What a shitty situation," Brock groused. "Still, that's all the more reason for me not to take advantage of the situation."

Jen snorted.

"You could no more take advantage of Randi than you could take advantage of Merie – or take advantage of me," Jen said. "I honestly don't know how Merie and Randi will react if you turn them down. I mean, if you honestly don't want to be with either of them, no one will make you. But, Brock, I truly think this is something you'll need to do before you can settle down with Chastity or Emmy or whoever."

It was Brock's turn to break into laughter.

"Well, first off, Chastity and I are going to remain friends for the foreseeable future, that's all," he said.

"So it's Emmy then?" Jen asked. "Randi told me she was over to your house a bunch during the summer."

"Jen, between us, you stand a better chance with Emmy than I do," Brock said with raised eyebrows.

It took Jen a second to realize what Brock was referring to.

"Oh, damn, I guess that makes her more of a challenge them," she laughed. "Speaking of challenges ... are you ready to try to pin me to the sheets again? I mean, after all, this is our last fling but I was sort of counting on more than once."

Tara was waiting for Brock in the lobby of the downtown Chicago hotel where the team stayed during its trips to the city. She slipped over and gave Brock a very unchaste kiss, much to the amusement of the hardcore lotharios on the team. They had never pictured Brock Miller as a guy who might have a girl in every city. He seemed too serious, too straight laced. But it seems like he at least had one in Atlanta and one in Chicago.

They looked at Tara's backside with approval as she exited the elevator with Brock two floors below where the team was staying. Just before the door closed, she pulled Brock's hand from the small of her back downward until it rested on her butt.

Tara was a stunningly beautiful woman. Brock had no doubt that her looks would fit into Southern California effortlessly. But she was also a remarkably nice person. He worried that she would either be taken advantage of repeatedly or lose the portion of her personality that made her so enjoyable to be around.

And he did enjoy being around Tara Wyatt. Despite the rigorous exercise that Jen had put Brock through the night before, he found having his hand on Tara's flawless backside was stimulating his libido.

She pulled him into another kiss just outside her hotel room door.

"Jen said she wore you out last night," she said with a smile. "So I thought tonight we could relax. After all, I get you for three nights. Jen and Mel only have you for two."

"You people amaze me," Brock said. "I actually felt guilty about meeting you here after what went on with Jen."

"I heard all about it," Tara said. "By the way, I'm supposed to ask you what 'Going Around the World' is."

Brock blushed furiously.

"I'm serious," Tara continued. "Jen said you took her around the world but she wouldn't tell me what it was. She said if I wanted to know I had to ask you."

"Uh, you probably don't want to know," Brock said, shaking his head.

"I do," Tara asserted. "Look, if I have to, I'll look it up on the Internet. So why don't you just tell me. That way Google won't have a search for the phrase under my name."

"Uh," Brock began. "Well, it is when two people, uh, they have sex many ways in one night."

"Sounds like fun," Tara said, wiggling her eyebrows. "I think we should try it."

"There's more to it," Brock cut in. "Crap. OK, they have sex every way they can in one night."

"I'm for it!" Tara enthused. "You know I like sex. At least I hope you know I like sex. I certainly enjoy it many different ways."

"I know you do," Brock assured her. Tara tended to focus solely upon pleasing her partner, sometimes to the exclusion of her own satisfaction. Brock had figured out early on that one of Tara's greatest strengths was a fault in the sexual realm. She loved to gaze up at him with those big green eyes while she was performing oral sex. She seemed to derive her greatest pleasure from giving a blowjob and she would often spend 20 minutes with her head in his lap.

So in order to make sure that Tara got as much pleasure as she was giving, Brock would reciprocate, something that Tara didn't mind in the slightest. Still, her knowledge of sexual things was somewhat limited.

"Tara, I'm just going to say this and then be done with it," he said with a sigh. "When a couple goes 'Around the World' it means they do oral, vaginal and anal sex to completion in one night."

"Well, Jen always did like a good butt-fucking," Tara said with a shrug. She refused to let Brock see the surprise on her face when he told her the meaning of the phrase. Still, she couldn't miss the look of shock on his. "What, you don't think I know Jen takes it up the ass? Come on, Brock. We lived together for four years. I know she likes it that way sometimes and she knows I love to give you blowjobs. We both know that Mel likes to be on top and that Susan wants to be on the bottom so she can look at you while you're inside her. We have no secrets from each other. We promised no secrets when we all agreed to share you."

"Uh, yeah, you forgot to clue me in on that sharing thing," he pointed out. "I think that qualified as a secret."

Tara waved a dismissive hand.

"You don't count," she said with a laugh. "And we really didn't share. We all agreed that if one of us hooked you the others would back off. OK, so it might have been backing away muttering and cursing, but we would have backed off. That was our agreement up until we all got together in Los Angeles. I think that was the first time we all understood that only were we cheating ourselves, we were cheating you, too. You were in the same spot we were, waiting to see how things were going to go, afraid to make a move either way for fear of hurting someone."

"Uh, you forget I started to date Chastity," Brock replied.

"Because you knew it couldn't last, not with the schedules you both keep," Tara said. "I mean, you tried to make it work but I think you understood it couldn't really work."

"Well, I know it didn't work," he admitted.

"So we're all going to start fresh in Los Angeles," Tara said. "I admit that I was surprised to learn about Emmy, though."

"Jesus Christ, that's a secret!" Brock exclaimed.

"Then you shouldn't told one of us," Tara laughed. "Besides, the only people Jen told were the rest of us. You had to know it would get to the rest if you told one of us."

"I suppose," Brock agreed. "So you all decided that we would have one last roll in the hay and then go back to being friends."

"Family," Tara corrected. "I think we'll become closer than we've ever been because we'll all know that it's not going to happen. It got to the point where we started to wish it would happen to one of us just so we could move forward. It was watching you stuck in neutral that pushed us to this choice. We came into this knowing that at least three of us were going to be disappointed but we can't sit by and watch life pass you by because none of us is willing to make a solid run at you."

"You could just become my harem girls," Brock said with a laugh.

"We talked about it," Tara said seriously.

"You're kidding," Brock cut in.

"No, we talked about it but we knew it wouldn't work," Tara continued. "First off, none of us is really interested in girls. Oh, Susan and I have played around some but nothing serious. The way we decided worked to where we could date others while one of us dated you."

"Wait, I'll come back to that in a minute," Brock said. "But first, you and Susan have, uh, had sex?"

Tara smiled.

"Oh, yeah," she said. "In fact, I had sex with Susan before I had sex with you – and after I had sex with you, too. But it was just for physical relief. We both needed to get off and we tried it. It wasn't bad but it wasn't the same as with a guy. Why? Disappointed you didn't get to watch?"

Tara was smiling.

"Well, yeah," he admitted. "Geez, I, that would have been something to see."

"We almost invited you the last time we did it," Tara admitted. "I mean, not just to watch. But we figured if we teamed up on you it would give us an unfair advantage over Jen and Mel. So we just licked and fingered each other and left you sitting downstairs watching television."

"Damn," Brock muttered.

"Well," Tara said, "once we all get to L.A. and you tend to Meredith and Randi, perhaps I can convince Susan to reprise our little rendezvous. You know, since it will just be for fun. That is if you don't find a girlfriend right away – and if we don't find boyfriends right away. Otherwise, I guess we'll be having the show for our guys."

She smiled at the look on Brock's face.

"See what I mean about an unfair advantage," she said, slapping his arm lightly. "Still, if we're just consenting parties without emotional attachments, perhaps I can make a case. Oh! I have an idea."

"What?" Brock asked.

"Not for you to know until it's time," Tara said. "Now, you have a day game tomorrow at Wrigley but then you have night games Friday and Saturday."