Chapter 17: Relative Decisions

Dave’s cell phone rang just as the Circle was finishing dinner. The call came from Aaron, his brother. “Hi, Big Brother.”

“Bro, what’s up?”

“Well, Shelby and I have the last week of February free and were wondering whether we could come and visit and take over your guest room or a room or two in that other house on your Circle? The weather has been sucky up here with no relief is in sight. We can both take some vacation time that week, so coming south seemed in the cards. If it’s inconvenient, just say so; we can get a room nearby and hopefully see you and your friends occasionally.”

After a silence, Dave said, “Is this a guise of some sort because the two of you have been loosening up and you want to test your wings?”

Aaron said, “Damn, you always were insightful. Shelby said you’d know what we were up to as soon as I asked.”

Dave laughed, “Come on down. We’re starting to think with a ‘more the merrier’ mindset. I’ll explain when I see you. Just email me your ETA and such once you nail down the flights from Ohio. Do you need me to pick you up or are you going to rent a car? There’s always a car or two around here you could use for day trips.”

“Our plan was to hang around with you guys and not wander too far off the plantation, so we won’t need a car. If we were to go to the beach one day, maybe we could borrow one from somebody.”

“See you in two weeks.”

Aaron and Shelby Prentiss arrived about noon on Saturday. The first thing Dave noticed, other than that they were carrying their heavy winter coats, was that Shel had dressed in revealing clothes. The clothes were upscale and nice, but revealing and unlike anything he’d ever seen her in since he’d known her. The wrap around blouse, amplified her cleavage and the probable fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra since he could see the tips of her nipples and dark areolas through the silky material as well as a lot of chest exposure when she turned this way or that. Her skirt was short enough to make any red-blooded American male start to drool and pray that she might bend over and reveal everything. The heels she wore verged on CFM shoes, but were just shy of being a sure thing in that direction. She looked sexy and pert.

Dave helped Aaron retrieve their luggage off the airport carousel, loaded everything in the car, and then they drove to the Circle enclave, allowing the transponder to open the gate as they neared the entrance. There was a relatively large reception committee for the couple as they came into the Prentiss home. Alice led the entourage to welcome them, followed by Julie, Pam, Heather, Nancy – who they’d never met, Mike, Roy, and Owen.

The hugs were more than that, by design. Dave had tipped off the rest of the Circle that the couple had come to test their progress in loosening up. Each hug, whether from a man or woman, became a full-frontal body rub and grind with the opposite sex. The associated kisses were sensual and invited the use of tongue to extend the kiss into a soul kiss. At first, the couple didn’t understand what was happening but once they realized, they got excited and returned the welcomes with great enthusiasm.

Alice pulled them into the dining area of the home where a lunch buffet had been laid out with sandwiches, salads, and other hors d’oeuvres. People sat around in the living room and chatted once they’d gotten their plate. The raging snowstorm about to hit Ohio only a thousand miles away was one topic.

Dave, Nancy, and Roy sat on the sofa, using the coffee table for their plates. Nancy elbowed Dave and nodded at Shelby, who was sitting opposite them in a modern chair talking to Owen next to her. She was flashing her bare pussy to the three of them. Dave tried to discern whether the ongoing flash was intentional or not. He finally decided it was.

Dave spoke across the room to her, “Shel, with the weather so nice, some, if not all of the women, will be nude after lunch. If you want to get a jump on things you could start now.” He gestured to her legs. “You don’t need to pretend to flash us.”

Shel laughed, “Ah, you caught me. I wanted to tease you, but you guys have loosened up so much that the sight of a new pussy doesn’t even excite you.”

Roy jumped into the conversation, “I wouldn’t go so far as to say THAT. I’m pretty excited with the view, and I’d like to get to know you A LOT better in so many ways.”

Shelby spread her legs wide for a few seconds just for Roy and then slammed them shut with a slap of her thighs. Others in the room aware of the interchange laughed.

Nancy teased her, but in a serious tone, “Are you trying to get laid this afternoon? There’s a sign-up sheet, you know?” She gestured towards the core buildings.

Shelby said in disbelief, “REALLY? You have to sign up to have sex with each other?”

This time the whole room broke into riotous laughed at Shel’s expense. She blushed up a nice shade of pink. She threw a grape at Nancy, who had fallen backwards on the sofa between the two men with tears in her eyes she was laughing so hard because her teasing had been taken so seriously.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. The remark just seemed to go with the moment,” Nancy gasped out. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you that much.”

Aaron said as he chuckled, “Well, you got my attention to, except I’d been wise enough to keep my mouth shut as I pondered where the sign-up page was.”

Nancy got up and went to Shelby. “I’m really sorry. I was trying to be funny, but...”

The two women hugged, “You’re forgiven. You did get me big time. I guess I haven’t loosened up as much as I thought, huh?”

Nancy teased, “So, what’s your answer to my question?”

“We’ve done lots of things to loosen up, but I haven’t had sex – even oral sex – with anybody other than Aaron. I don’t know how much we’re ready to do, but we think being in your environ that we might get some courage. Just this interchange and the laughter about all this helps us change and see our new future.”

Dave commented as he stood, “Don’t push yourselves to do something you’ll regret later. Think about how you’ll feel AFTER the act instead of pondering whether you should or shouldn’t BEFORE the act. If you decide you want to go in that direction, you can go as far as you want with any of us. We’ll understand if either of you shut things down prematurely.”

Aaron spoke, “We met another couple just like us just before Christmas, and we’ve tried a few daring things with them: making out and petting mostly; everything shy of oral sex or more. We really have had fun. We’ve made love to our spouses in front of each other, too; that was very exciting for us. We’re ready to go further with them. They urged us to have a lot of fun and expand our horizons this week.”

Shelby was blushing, “I liked being naked with the other man, but we only did it for a few minutes. He rubbed his cock against my slit, but didn’t penetrate. We kind of faux fucked until he came on my fuzz. Aaron did that with his pretty wife, as well. I’m sure that the next time we get together we’ll do everything there is to do with them. We told them a little about the Circle and that we might swap with somebody while we’re here.”

Dave whispered to Aaron, “Test results?”

Aaron whispered back, “In my suitcase. We’re clean. What would you expect from a couple that have only been with each other for five years and nobody else for twenty-eight?”

The food was whisked back into the kitchen and put away. Alice then stood at the door that led to the core and carefully did a seductive striptease. Julie joined her; the two sisters displaying just how sisterly they were. Nancy was next, followed by Pam and Heather. Owen and Roy shed their clothing as well, making sure that Shelby could see them, but not in a gross display of male anatomy.

Aaron turned to his wife, “Shelby, it’s time to loosen up again. Come on.”

Dave playfully said, “There won’t be sex outside unless you initiate it. We’re all saving ourselves for after dinner. Besides we all wore each other out last night.”

Aaron teased, “What’s that mean you came twice?”

Dave shook his head, “No, five times actually. I’ll tell you my regime of exercise, vitamins, supplements, hormones, and prescription drugs if you want to work up to something in that range. I also use some Tantric techniques of mind and body control. There’s no reason to limit yourself.”

Aaron looked skeptical.

Owen said, “I’ve been studying Tantric sex, as well. One thing I’ve recently learned is how to have a dry orgasm. If you don’t ejaculate, you can come much more frequently, even several times an hour. There’s almost no refractory period.”

Aaron cursed, “Shit. I’ve been hanging out with the wrong people.”

Everyone walked into the core and then out to the pool. Dave noticed that both northerners were pale white and blushing. He wondered whether they were as ready for something sexual as they professed.

Dave made a point to sit next to Aaron at one of the tables. Some of the girls came and went in the other chairs there. He asked his brother, “Well, you were here at Thanksgiving and we talked for a long-time near Christmas and then a month ago; have you loosened up or are you still a work in process?”

Aaron said, “Work in process, definitely.”

“Did you talk out various scenarios that either of you might experience once you carry things forward further?”

“Kind of,” Aaron said. “You and Shel really got my attention at Thanksgiving when she came and told me that the two of you had made love. I pulled a panic. I wouldn’t do that again; I really think I’m used to the idea.”

“What about how she’d feel if she watched you fucking Alice or Pam or how about our hot, little stripper friend – Christie?”

“Shelby tells me she’d be aroused, but since we’ve never done I and only come close with our friends up north, that’s really speculation. How did you decide both for yourself, and then around Alice doing it?”

Dave responded, “Like you, apparently, we’d been doing a series of risqué things, often that involved other people. At the time there were two classes of people: those in the Circle – our friends and neighbors, and by then we felt safe with them, and the second class were people outside of that who we liked and were probable lovers, and that included Alice’s boss Roy who we weren’t sure of at the time, Owen, and a few others.

“Mostly, Alice would do something like dress provocatively, and then give some guys a long look at her tits by ‘accident,’ if you know what I mean. She’d come home and we’d talk about it and how we felt. Every time she did something, we both wanted to do more, more, more.

“I went away on a trip and Alice went with Dori to a club where she flashed her pussy at some guys. Owen was one of them. They danced, and then made out and that led to mutual masturbation in the back hallway of the club they were at. Dori filmed it, and they sent the video clip to me. I encouraged her to do more, and the next night, really by accident, she ran into Owen again when she went to get her tattoos. This time they really went at it, with oral sex involved. She was covered in cum, too. I got a few photographs by email. I masturbated all night long because I thought they were so friggin’ hot. I wasn’t even sure at that point that they hadn’t fucked.

“When I came home from my trip, she showed me more movies and photos and we talked about what had happened and in particular how we felt. We were both so aroused we could barely eat. We wanted to fuck all the time.

Aaron was nodding at everything Dave was saying. His arousal at the stories was also hard to hide.

“So, my advice is collect lots of information. Don’t rush the next steps, and certainly don’t skip steps. Take time at each step to talk to one another, especially about feelings. Sure you’ll feel aroused, but what else is there. What are the darker emotions that you’re feeling?

“If you need to, try doing that step again. Watch each other, especially at first. Talk about variations on what happened? What was said that was good or bad, both between the two of you and between one of you and whomever you were with? If Shelby is having oral sex with somebody in a ‘69’ listen to what they say to each other. Does she tell him he’s the best lover she’s ever had? How do you react to that? What if you tell some woman you’re eating out that she tastes better than anything you’ve ever eaten? How does Shel react? Talk. Talk. Talk.”

Aaron asked, “What do you think we should do tonight? I assume you’ll have your usual Circle party.”

“We were planning on it. You two could skip it. You could come and watch – wearing clothes or not. You could stick with each other, even fuck each other in public and see how it feels, although you’ve done that with your friends. You could take some next steps and see how they feel. If you want, Alice or I can help you there. I’m sure you thought about this.”

“We did. We thought we’d go all the way, but being here has given me pause as well as made me want to go full-steam ahead. I’m second guessing myself and our decision.”

Dave said, “Then take baby steps. Even tonight, try something, then go and talk about it. IF you’re in agreement to proceed, try something else, talk, test, discuss, and repeat. The area I think your discussions have been deficient has been in describing different scenarios to each other, like the ones I gave you a moment ago. One of the things that was initially difficult for me to hear were the superlatives about how great one of Alice’s lovemaking sessions had been, or how in love she was with somebody. What all got said in the heat of passionate sex.”

“There are so many options,” Aaron stated. “How could we ever discuss them all? Just so you know, we’ve talked about many of them.”

“You can’t, but be sure you cover the important ones. You’re collecting data about yourselves and your emotions, and then weighing that data in terms of your own feelings, how you thought about, think about, and want to think about your marriage, and so on.”

“I guess so. I suppose we could always back up.”

Dave shook his head. “When you have a decision to make like this one, you can’t always back up, just like you can’t ‘un-see’ something you watched. I watched Alice fuck Dev, the second man she’d ever had sex with in her life other than me. I can’t backup from that. I was damned near a basket case at the time, even though I was cock deep in Dori at the time.

“Each decision you make comes with a risk. You’d like to have enough information available so that you minimize the risk. Some are decisions between good and bad, and those are easy to make. The harder ones are between two potential good things or two potentially bad things. Then you seek to either maximize your future, or minimize the bad that might happen. The less information you have available the more likely you are to make a wrong decision.”

“Do you think we’re foolish contemplating an open marriage?”

Dave replied, “I’m definitely the wrong guy to be asking that question. I have four wives and am happier than I’ve ever been. Moreover, there are a slew of other women that I also get to make love with and that love me. My answer is probably obvious because I would hope you experience the same happiness and joy in life that I do. The only question on the table from my point of view, were I in your shoes, would be how to get from here to there.”