Chapter 33: Renee does Playboy - Ellen

The photographer and set that Renee was to use for Playboy were in Chicago, right near the Playboy mansion. Renee and Ellen were there three days, and most of that time from nine in the morning to six or seven at night, Renee told us she was either naked or wearing some frilly piece of lingerie that wasn’t too different from being naked.

Ellen told us she thought the photographer had taken around three to five thousand photographs! Matt thought that might be reasonable given the use of strobes and that many photographers take a ‘strip’ of three to five photos in a single instant to capture slightly different looks on a models face, including one with eyes open versus closed.

A month later, a photographer and journalist from Playboy showed up at the house to spend two days and take a large number of ‘informal’ shots of Renee interacting with us and doing things around the house. They’d made an appointment so it was no surprise. Their names were Dale and Heather.

They arrived at nine o’clock as scheduled on a Thursday morning. Ellen escorted them into the large home, and to say they were awed with the size of the place would be an understatement.

Renee declared Matt, her ‘official’ boyfriend as far as Playboy and the readers were concerned. She asked him, Jim, Zoey, and Marlene to hang around for a little while to see if they could help in some way. There were no expectations about what the ‘informal’ visit was supposed to produce.

Heather, the journalist, asked, “Renee, just what kind of place do you live in? Is this a condo or what?”

Renee looked surprised, “I thought you knew. I am part of an intentional family. We all live together.”

“I don’t understand; how’s that work?”

Renee started to answer as Ellen rolled her eyes, “We are a polyamorous family. I am a family member.”

“But you’re single right?”

“Well, yes, but I have all my friends who I’ve committed to.”

Heather looked at some notes, “Is Matt your boyfriend?”

“Yes, but so is Jim and the other men.”

Heather looked over the top of her large glasses at Renee. “You have more than one boyfriend?” She smiled as she thought of the many ways she could write some great copy about this situation to go with the photo spread.

Ellen eagerly volunteered, “Of course, she also has relations with the women. I assume you know Renee is bisexual ... like most supermodels.”

Heather paused in taking a note to think about that, “You have sex with your boyfriends I assume?”

Renee leveled, “With everyone in the house.”

“How many are in the house?”

“When everyone is home there are thirteen men and fifteen women.”

“The ... that’s ... twenty-eight people,” Heather stammered.

“Including me,” Renee smiled. She loved to surprise people this way, but hadn’t had the opportunity for a while.

Before Heather could recover Renee said, “In any other situation I’d be a slut for sleeping around with so many people, but here it’s just the natural way of our family. We all deeply love each other, and our physical relationships are just one way we celebrate that love.”

Heather recovered her composure and asked, “So, you’re swingers?” She looked around the circle of people sitting there.

Renee scrunched up her face at that remark. “Well, I have been to swinger parties, but this house is not like most swinger groups for several reasons: first, we live together; second, we love one another; and third, sex is more a confirmation of that love than a recreational sport.”

Heather pounced, “But you have been to swingers’ parties?”

“Yes, and they were fun and have a place in a society with liberal thinking participants.”

“Errr, this is kind of delicate but how often do you have sex ... enjoy sex? Swing?”

Renee laughed, “There are different questions there. I always enjoy sex, and when I’m at home I usually ‘make love’ several times a day. We only do swinger parties about four or five times a year.”

Heather looked in disbelief, “A day! You have sex several times a day?”

“Yes, of course. When I’m traveling I’m usually not with one of my lovers, so I ... well, you know, take care of things myself, sometimes with a satisfying toy of some kind.”

Heather turned to Ellen, “Do you ... participate in the same way?”

Ellen shook her head, “No, not right now. I’m a special situation that I’d prefer not to talk about in this topic area.”

Heather looked disappointed, but turned to Matt. “You’re her boyfriend. Can you keep up with her demands for so much sex?”

Matt smiled, “Usually, yes, or we invite someone else to join us. Much of the time I’m off with someone else, and so is she. Our paths typically cross only every few days or longer if she’s been traveling.”

“You don’t get jealous?”

“Why would I?”

“She’s a supermodel sleeping with someone else.”

“But she’s happy and being loved, why would I ever want to take that away from her by creating some sort of jealous tantrum.” Matt thought and went on, “Plus, I’m most likely loving and being loved by one of the other women in our circle.”

Heather looked at Marlene and Zoey, and asked to anyone, “Is everyone as pretty as you?”

Zoey blushed. Marlene said, “Yes, all of us in the house are beautiful in our own way.”

Heather made a side comment, “And all about the same age, I guess.”

Jim corrected her, “That’s not true. We have quite a bit of diversity in age, and several other dimensions too.”

Heather looked puzzled.

Jim explained that the ages of circle members were twenty-one to fifty-six, and The Circle included racial, religious, weight, ability, and beauty diversity for both men and women. We have several married couples in our circle as well, and a couple of grandmothers.”

Alice strolled through the living room holding Theodore and Marshall, one on each hip. She was heading for the kitchen with the pair.

Heather said, “Oh, there are children who live here too?”

Renee said, “Six. Those were two of the oldest. The youngest is only a few months old. Right now no one is pregnant, at least that we know of.”

Heather asked Renee, “Do you want children of your own, maybe with Matt, your boyfriend?”

Renee said, “Yes, I do. If and when I become pregnant we won’t be sure who the father is, the same as all the other babies here.”

After Heather looked totally puzzled and flummoxed, Jim explained about the decision the women in The Circle made about paternity and declaring a father.

Heather asked him, “But don’t you feel that none of the children are yours?”

Jim smiled, “No, I think that all of them are mine.”

Lynn came downstairs at the edge of the room carrying a baby. She waved, and even turned the baby and moved the baby’s arm in a little wave.

“Is that woman a babysitter or nanny?”

Matt jumped in, “She’s what we call a universal grandmother. She’s a grandmother to all the children, and she’s my real mother. She lives here most of the time and is one of our favorite people.”

Heather took the interview off in some other directions at that point, talking about Renee’s background, education, dietary preferences, ideas of an ideal date, favorite foreign cities, and on and one. As they talked Dale moved around the room taking photos of Renee from different angles, sometimes with everyone else in the shot, and sometimes not.

Renee was the centerfold in the December issue of Playboy – the Holiday Issue. She was gorgeous. Every picture was sophisticated and sexy. She had that girl next-door kind of look throughout the sixteen-page spread, and, of course, left little to the imagination about every nook and cranny of her body by the time any reader was through with browsing past the photos.

The magazine had tastefully described Renee’s living arrangements as a commune, group living situation, a new kind of condo situation, and a swinging crowd depending on the paragraph referring to her overall situation. Each reference made sure to imply a bacchanal, orgy, wild sex party, or series of intimate encounters without actually using those words. Heather no doubt authored the written words, and she’d done a credible job.

The Circle’s sensitivity to appearing or being mentioned in print had dissipated over time, in part due to the successful lawsuits around the bad experience with Dean Atkins and The Courier. This time, as the words were read, everyone chuckled, in most cases over how accurate they were, yet they were provocative, arousing, and carefully written in a veiled way at the same time.

Thus, the fallout began. The article mentioned that Renee lived in Dillonville and loved the ‘semi-rural’ way of life. Dillonville was a small community, and most of us were known around town after having lived and in some cases worked in the area for years. Thus, it was easy for anyone to figure out where Renee lived.

Unfortunately, the weather was still quite mild for the time of year, thus, it was not uncomfortable for fans to stand around hoping to get a glimpse of Renee – stand around, for instance, in the cul-de-sac leading to the house.

The first unexpected, surprise visitor arrived the day after Playboy hit the newsstands. He was about twenty-one and annoyingly over-bearing. He came to the front door and wanted a date with Renee. Alice explained that Renee didn’t date people she didn’t know, and that she was out of town on business, in any case. Annoying man #1 left, and another took his place an hour later with similar results.

Alice called the local security company, and two hours later there was an armed guard dressed like a Ninja warrior and armed with a semi-automatic weapon slung across his back and a handgun on his hip, guarding the end of our driveway. A large sign warned of guard dogs trained to attack anyone roaming the property. For a week there was a very mean looking German shepherd tethered to the bumper of the guard’s car; anytime anyone came near he became slightly unhappy.

The house had no more unexpected visitors.

The arrival home routine was a bit disrupted by the security guard who stopped every vehicle, checked photo IDs for address verification, before letting people through. That evening Bob arranged a series of ‘passwords’ with the guards, and passed them on to everyone in the house – a different word for each of the next ten days.

Returning home late at night from Chicago where they’d been present for the release of the Christmas issue and a few nights visit with Hugh at the mansion, Renee and Ellen were stopped at the gate by the security guard. Of course, they didn’t have any passwords yet, so it took some doing for them to get into the house.

At breakfast the next day, Renee apologized, “I’m so sorry that we didn’t pick up on how easy it would be to find me after the magazine came out. Alice told me what was happening that precipitated hiring the guards. Are they very busy?”

Jim said, “The numbers of visitors is going up right at the moment. The peak was on Saturday when there were about twenty would-be suitors turned away.”

Ellen lit up, “Oh, I have an idea. Let me send an email to our boss.” The boss was Rhonda, Renee’s agent.

A few minutes later, Ellen said, “Later today, we’ll receive an express delivery of a box of photographs of Renee. We’ll give them to the guard and he can pass them out to the people he’s turning away. If Renee will take some time she can autograph them. It’s a goodwill gesture, plus it helps build up Renee’s image as being friendly and approachable.”

The others liked that idea, and by five o’clock, the Ninja warrior at the gate also was giving out a photo of Renee in a beautiful bustier when someone unapproved came by. Other than Neil, The Circle’s cook, and a few others, everyone else was unapproved or a phone call to the house was needed to gain admission.

We did have another incident with a drone, but the Ninja took care of it. Someone, a fan of Renee’s no doubt, tried to fly a drone to the house to have a look around. Zoey was outside washing the windows on her car, and heard the motor on the drone. She called attention to it, and the Ninja came up the driveway at a run with his semiautomatic at port arms.