Chapter 11: Was that bait?

“Would you show me the Circle?”

The question came from Jenny Harvest. From the tremor in her voice Dave figured she taken at least all-day to work up to the question.

“Of course,” Dave replied trying to sound casual and relaxed. “If you want, you can follow me home and then leave whenever you want. We do a cocktail hour in the early evening, and then I also invite you to join us for a communal dinner with most of the Circle members. JR has bartending duty tonight, so she’ll be there. She swapped off with Sharon who wanted to sit in on a class Tuesday evening at the university.”

Jenny nodded, “Thank you ... I’d like that ... yes.” She relaxed slightly.

Nikky yelled out from her office across the hall, “I’ll ride with you and show you the way and get you in the gate.” It was the first time that Dave clearly understood that Nikky could hear conversations in his office.

“Oh, there’s a gate,” Jenny said with a tone of awe. She was obviously surprised to discover the Circle was a gated community. “I didn’t see that in the material I read.”

Dave teased, “There’s so much more to the Circle than what you read?”

Dave pushed some papers on his desk aside. “This can all wait until Monday. Let’s head out now. I can give you the nickel tour before we have a glass of wine and some snacks.” He yelled across the office, “Come on, Nikky. The work week is over. It’s TGIF.”

Jenny rushed off to tidy up her desk, although she kept a neat ship at all times. She put the phones onto forward to the answering service and locked up a few things. “I’m ready.”

Nikky came out with a small attaché case. JR also appeared and the four strolled out to the parking lot. Dave caught Jenny studying JR’s very short skirt. Dave and Nikky had ridden in that morning with JR, so he got into her convertible, and off they went with a squeal of tires, zero to sixty in about four seconds. Nikky and Jenny got in Jenny’s car and followed along at more sedate pace and a relaxed distance behind.

As the two cars pulled in the gate, there was an exodus of pickup trucks from the property. The construction guys were through for the week on the rebuild of the Circle of homes and the additional structures. Dave was curious about the progress; he hadn’t looked for a couple of days.

Nikky had Jenny by the hand as she headed into Dave’s home. She yelled over, “I’m going to get some casual clothes for Jenny to wear tonight. We’ll meet you near the bar.” The two women went off into Dave’s house where Nikky kept a supply of clothes.

Dave wondered what clothes that Nikky owned would fit Jenny. Jenny was at least six-inches taller, and much more robust. She was a stunning woman, just as Nikky was, but just larger.

Dave checked the construction areas, ended up at his own home, changed into shorts and a t-shirt and some loafers. By the time he checked the mail and calls and went to the bar, Nikky and Jenny were already seated waiting for bar service.

Jenny smiled, “You have a beautiful house.”

Dave noted the casual outfit she been outfitted with – a bikini bottom and tie-dye t-shirt. Nikky explained, “Bridget told me I could borrow any of her clothes. Since she’s more Jenny’s size, we didn’t even bother with her trying any of my tiny wardrobe.”

Dave escorted Jenny around the patio area and interior rooms, pointing out the living space, large kitchen, media room, gym, day care facility, and sauna inside, and then the pools, gazebo, Jacuzzi, and grill area outside. He led her between a couple of homes and showed her the townhouse construction projects from a distance.

The pair walked partway down Circle Drive. Dave explained about how they’d moved five of the houses, in essence pulling half the Circle of homes apart and inserting eight new homes in the intervening space – four on either side of what would become the expanded core space.

Dave noted that the five homes that had been moved were looking more finished as of that week, with even some landscaping appearing around them again. He also noted that the extension of the road to curve around the new end of homes had been rough paved that week. He registered that the paving would help keep the dust down.

Jenny asked many intelligent questions about the homes, who lived in which ones, and so on as they walked. JR waved from her mobile home as she came out the door and headed towards the core patio. He noted that she was wearing her monokini and a highly revealing thin crop top. He also noted that Jenny noted the even more abbreviated clothing as well; her eyes nearly fell out of her head as she saw the senior executive.

Dave showed Jenny the townhouses and then grabbed a golf cart and drove her down Airport Road to the hangar and runway. Owen’s Gulfstream 650LR was in the hangar, so Dave took her inside the plane as he explained about the two sides of Owen’s business – the Foundation and then his own corporate and investment work.

“Who flies the other planes?” Jenny asked as Dave pointed out the two Cessna prop planes.

“There are about a dozen or more pilots in the Circle. Some are taking lessons, too. I’m one of them. It’s so convenient having our own airport only a short walk from where we live.”

“You fly?” The awe in Jenny’s voice was palpable.

“You could too,” Dave explained. “It’s easy, especially if you are willing to invest a little time studying weather and a few simple mechanical systems that help keep the plane doing what you want it to do.”

“I heard it was very expensive.”

“Jenny, if you want to learn to fly, the company will fund your lessons.”

“Really?”

“You’re having some kind of technical skills will be valuable to your job and make you more valuable to me and EneRG, so, yes. JR and I were talking yesterday about the possibility of a battery powered airplane, just like the Tesla, only it flies.”

The couple took the golf cart back to the main part of the Circle. As he parked, Dave held Jenny back in the cart for a moment. “Jenny, I just want to prepare you for meeting some of my neighbors and friends. You read about the place, but seeing it can still be a shock. There will be some partial nudity, and I don’t want that to shock you. You saw how JR had dressed seductively, well that may be tame compared to what you might see some of the other women wearing.”

Jenny absorbed the words and then loudly said with a touch of sarcasm, “OH! Okay, I guess. I’ll try not to scream too loud.” He smiled and they headed for the bar. She was laughing at his warning.

Since the weather was still warm for early November, a number of the women who’d been at the Circle in the afternoon had remained topless, only wearing the bottom portion of their swimsuits. Every direction one looked from the bar, there was some gorgeous tit flesh showing of various sizes and colors, especially depending on the extent of the suntans and the basic skin tone.

Dave saw Jenny take a deep breath and walk into the melee of people waiting for drinks. JR was tending bar and he got them each a glass of wine, Dave’s loaded with ice, as usual.

JR waved them over after an initial crush for drinks had passed. She was talking with Cricket, Alice, and Emily across the bar. She grinned, “I mentioned the CES event in Las Vegas in January and Alice and Emily told me about the last time you were there for the AVN Awards.” She grinned lasciviously.

Dave nodded but grimaced a little inside. He had become a little protective of Jenny and didn’t want her shocked at the news that most of people in the Circle had at one time or another participated in making an adult film. Alice and Emily had actually won two of the coveted awards for their films a couple of years earlier. Kat and Mike had also won awards.

Jenny shattered Dave’s hopes that she’d gloss over the reference to the awards without comment. She said, “What are the AVN Awards?”

Dave rolled his eyes. JR laughed, and Alice launched into an unexpurgated description of the Adult Video News awards and a few of the films she’d done to win the award that currently sat on their living room bookcase. Pool Sluts seemed to interest Jenny, and Alice was convinced that was what got her the award.

Dave watched Jenny’s eyes and face as Alice talked and Emily nodded, indicating that she’d done similar work. Jenny’s face twitched and twisted a lot during the revelations. At first, there was pure curiosity. As the term ‘adult video’ took root, the eyes narrowed slightly and the mouth dropped open, and then the eyes enlarged to the point of disbelief as Alice described her film when she’d been tag-teamed by two men on a pool chaise.

There was a very, very long silence after Alice finished her explanation. Cricket commented finally, “I think you just shocked Jenny.” She put a hand on Jenny’s arm, “It’s all right, Jenny. There’s no need to be embarrassed or shocked as far as we’re concerned. All of us have done something like that; it was barrels of fun.”

Dave also noted that JR had been paying careful attention to Alice’s descriptions and commentary.

Jenny’s head moved slowly up and down in random agreement. She took a sip of her wine and then changed her mind and gulped the entire glass down in two seconds. She immediately passed Dave the empty glass, and nodded at the empty glass for him to get her another. More liquid courage was called for if she was to last through dinner at the Circle.

Dave turned from Jenny, hoping he still had a secretary, and passed the glass across the bar to JR for a refill. JR winked at him.

As he turned back, he handed the full glass to Jenny. She smiled and said she’d be back in a minute. Alice, Emily, Jenny, Cricket started to walk away. JR broke off from her bar duty and joined them. They all headed towards his house. “What’s up?” he asked towards their backs.

Cricket told him over her shoulder, “Jenny wanted to see one of Alice’s films, and so we’re going to the media room in your home for a sample. We won’t be long – just a few minutes’ worth.”

Dave urged her, “Cricket, I like Jenny. A good secretary is hard to find. Don’t let her get so shocked and disgusted with us that she quits. Try to keep a lid on it. I think Alice is having fun delivering a little shock value. At this point, it’s probably better that I don’t go with you.”

Only when the dinner chimes rang fifty minutes later did the video-viewing group reappear: Jenny and Alice in the lead, with smiles he noted, with Cricket, JR, and Emily following. Dave smiled at the group and indicated the seats he’d saved for the group at one of the outdoor tables. The sun was no longer lighting the patio, but the evening temperatures were still near eighty.

Since the women had gone inside, more people had arrived on the patio, so nearly the whole Circle was present. Many of the women were topless, a few having just emerged from a relaxing nude swim in the pool.

Jenny took in the scene as she sat at one of the place settings. “What’s the protocol? Is dinner normally served?”

Cricket explained, “About a third of the time we get served, like tonight. The other nights are a buffet, usually along the wall over there. The kitchen is officially closed two nights a week, and people eat out, cook at home, or do a much smaller group dinner – often using the barbecue.”