Chapter 20

All went well and good, until, that was, what had been inevitable finally happened: the press. I knew that it was coming and was only a matter of time before the Fourth Estate learned of me, and now they finally had. Sure enough, into the buffet came a trickle of reporters, sure to become a swarm in time. My days of relative obscurity were over. From this minute onward, I was a celebrity and I knew it. It wasn’t going to be any fifteen minutes, as Andy Warhol would say, not in my case, so I swallowed hard, ignored them as I finished my lunch, and didn’t turn to even the first reporter until he reached my booth at last. I grimaced and rose to face him, my expressions showing real displeasure now.

“Excuse me, the young lady and I are enjoying our lunch. To what do I owe this dubious pleasure of being disturbed in the middle of our date?” I narrowed my eyes on him, deliberately going for intimidation.

“Are you Jack Saunders, the guy who rented a banquet hall, started his own church, and made people do things at his command at various locations, businesses, government offices, etc.? I can see that the rumors of the naked female companion are true. What else is true of the gossip?” the man impudently demanded of me.

“Well, as with any gossip, some is true, some is not. I don’t know what all has been said about me. I am Jack Saunders, but my life is my own business. Moreover, you really should be careful approaching a man like me during a lunch date with my pet here. This is my private, personal, romantic time with my sweet pet here, sir. Now, what is your name? Sorry that our date has been cut short, sweetie. I’ll have to make it up to your some time, my dear pet,” I turned to Xiao now before downing more of my tea, while she simply stayed put and kept eating for now.

“David Core, sir,” the man stammered nervously in spite of his pushy exterior upon hearing my words, “I’m with the Examiner.”

“I know, Master. I trust you as always. Do I still get my matinee?” Xiao begged me.

“Of course. It’s just the lunch part that has been intruded upon, I’m afraid,” I glared at the reporter, who abruptly pissed his pants.

“Does it stink in here, or is it just me? Look, buddy. David, right? Look, David, I respect that you have a job to do, but you have disturbed a very special moment for both of us, especially Xiao here. Apologize to her, now!” I ordered the man, who turned to face Xiao and began stuttering out an apology, clearly terrified of me.

“And now to me,” I insisted.

“Yes, sir ... sorry, Mr. Saunders. I mean no disrespect here,” he told me.

“Reverend Saunders!” I spat out, demanding a correction.

“Yes, of course, Reverend Saunders!” David shivered visibly in my presence.

“Strip! Now!” I ordered Mr. Core, who was beet-red with embarrassment as he undressed in front of us and stood stark naked in public, just like Xiao (only uglier).

“Go wash up a bit and then return to your spot. You, the rest of you, what do you have to say for yourselves, disturbing a man’s lunch date with his pet? Well? You, what’s your name, missy?” I confronted an eager beaver newswoman with the Examiner’s rival, the Sentinel.

“Robin Walker, Sentinel, Reverend Saunders. Sir, that whole deal with David, wasn’t that a bit uncalled for? I know that you’re upset about us intruding on your love affair, but did you have to humiliate him that way? I mean, he was just doing his job, much like the rest of us, if perhaps a bit too aggressive about it. That’s always been David’s style, anyway,” the lady reporter tried to convince me while pretending not to ogle David’s naked but as he rushed to the men’s room.

“You’re in love with him!” I laughed, making Robin blush as she tried to avoid the issue, “Well, Ms. Walker of the Sentinel, not to worry. Loverboy will be just fine, no worse for wear for anything but a brief loss of some of his dignity. He just had to learn first not to mess with me when I require some privacy. Look, for this to work, this new relationship that is now forming, albeit rather abruptly, between you in the press and me, there have to be boundaries and they have to be clearly understood and respected. If I had to make an example of David Core of the Examiner to achieve that, so be it. Besides, he can’t very well walk around in stinky, pissy clothes, can he? That’s not very professional at all.”

“Yes, Reverend, I suppose that you’re right about him in urine-stained clothes. That just wouldn’t do. How did you know that I have feelings for David? I’ve never told anyone but Mom and my sister! I didn’t dare reveal those feelings, in case they were used against me. I guess that the cat’s out of the bag now, though. I’m a married woman, though, and this can’t go over well with my husband, coming out in public like this,” Robin visibly squirmed in front of me.

“Be honest, then. How do you feel about your husband? Do you love him still? Do you love David, for that matter, to the same extent? It sounds if you must love him a bit more than one would think, given that you just stood up for him. On the other hand, you also want to stay married, I think. Am I right or what?” I insisted upon the truth, turning the questioning on its head as the reporter was in the hot seat, not me.

“Um ... yes, I love Leon a lot, in fact. We’ve had our ups and downs, and quite frankly, I never expected to have feelings for another man, but here I am. I’ve never acted on them, never cheated on Leon, but I have been guilty of emotional infidelity, I suppose. As for David, well, I adore him. I respect him. I ache with desire for him. It’s ... something new and exciting, and yet I still have many feelings, many thoughts regarding Leon. What do I say, that I’m sorry that I fell in love with another man while married to him?

“I never stepped out, never broke my marriage vows physically, yet I strayed from them by experiencing emotions that I wasn’t permitted to feel. Is there any hope for my marriage and do you even care? You’re a minister! Tell me, do you give a damn about what could happen to my marriage now that you’ve spilled my secret?” Robin surprised me by breaking out into actual tears in front of me.

I reached for Robin and she came to me, my arms holding her close as I let her cry on my shoulder. She was a bit shocked that I would actually try to comfort her, especially given my confrontational attitude just a while back. She needed the solace, though, and as I looked up and saw David walking back toward us, I could feel his jealousy that reinforced that this was no one-sided romance, even if never consummated. I stopped hugging Robin and looked at everyone before taking Xiao’s hand to take her into my arms.

“This is Feng Xiao, everyone. My naked pet. She is mine. She is not to be disturbed, harmed, or otherwise messed with, do you understand? She belongs to me, and yes, I would take a bullet for her, that’s how strongly I feel for her. She will be with me on all occasions. She will not be harmed. She will not be harassed or bullied. She will not be asked any questions without my permission. If I give her a command, she obeys it, just like the rest of you, though I tend to want to spoil her rotten at times. We love each other very much, my pet and I. Ours is a loving, Dominant-submissive relationship with her as my naked pet, period.

“Yes, I am also a married man. Recently wed, in fact. I have an infant daughter, as it happens. My wife’s name is Jeanette Le Roux Saunders, but call her Jen. That’s what she likes to be called. She used to be my supervisor at work. Now she’s my submissive and loving wife, well aware of arrangements such as what I have with my pet here. I mean, how could she not be aware, right? We are polyamorous, even polygamous these days. I fully intend to take other legal wives once the ban on polygamy is lifted, and trust me, it will be, sooner than you think.

“As for you, Robin, and I am addressing this to your husband as well, and to David, the solution is simple. Take David as a second husband. Once polygamy is legalized, you can formalize the situation, but for now, move David into your home and your bed. Leon will accept this, and do you know why? Because I will tell him to accept it and I will reward him considerably for going along with it. This will be an open poly triad, meaning that all three of you will be free to sleep with and date other people, which is exactly what all three of you are going to do.

“Nevertheless, yes for the household itself for now, it will be you, Leon, and David in a menage a trois relationship. You will love and treat both men equally. You will let both men cum inside you, bareback, and you will let both men breed you, knock you up. It’s high time that you have children, don’t you think? If I tell you to let another person join you, all three of you will comply and allow it, but until then, the marriage bed will contain the three of you as regulars, with plenty of outsiders to enjoy your favors. By that I mean all three of you, of course.

“Yes, for the record, I have started my own church, the Church of the New Era, of which I am the Prophet and High Priest, the Hierophant, as it were. We reject traditional, Western morality, at least as influenced by Christianity. We do not accept the notions of monogamy, abstinence before marriage, heteronormativity, the gender binary, or any such rubbish. We reject existing age of consent laws. We propose that polyamory, polygamy, polygyny, polyandry, bisexuality, homosexuality, lesbianism, transgenderism, transvestism, prostitution, pornography, hot wives, stag/vixen lifestyles, swinging, swapping, anal and oral intercourse, orgies, BDSM, fetishes, kinks, incest, exhibitionism, voyeurism, watersports, and many other taboo activities, be not merely tolerated, but embraced and encouraged for those who enjoy them. As long as it isn’t rape or child abuse, I see no reason, we see no reason, to reject or condemn it.

“By the way, my wife actually proposed the name for the new church and I agreed quickly with it, for plenty of good reasons, but mostly because it simply made sense on its own merits. Oh, and one of the members of my new church is none other than Tanya Darling, a new candidate for the United States House of Representatives. I say that because while my name remains on the ballot, I want everyone listening to me here and now to vote for Tanya Darling for Congress. I am unofficially withdrawing from the race and I will vote for her for Congress from this district myself. She has my endorsement and full support, as a private citizen, of course, not as head of the Church of the New Era,” I winked as I skirted the non-profit political regulations.

“So, wait, I’m going to have two husbands? Do I get to make love to David right now and consummate my marriage to him, because I really want to do that if you permit me! I will then make it up to Leon with plenty of great sex as well. I am fertile right now and I badly want to bed both men, have their seed inside me at once, competing to impregnate me. He’s naked, so I’ll gladly get naked, too, just like him.

“Wait, my husband is at work, but is there a way that you can help him get off early, so he can come here and join David in making love to me? That way, they get equal time and an equal chance of seeding me, don’t they? I didn’t think of that possibility until I realized that you seem to be able to order anyone around, so why not Leon’s boss?” Robin pleaded with me, quite eager from the sound of it to get started on her plural marriage to her beloved men.