Chapter 3: Broadening our Interaction

“Arnold, you know that my living arrangements have been temporary. Do you think we’re compatible enough to work out things for longer?”

“It’s a little scary for me, but a great idea. On the other hand, I’m immensely happy. All sorts of bad memories are being banished.” I raised my voice. “You hear that, memory foam mattress?”

“Dear, it’s hardly a prenup, but I’m fine on getting agreements on paper.”

She moved in. Both of us wanted to be clear in our communications, so she shared an experience that might be good, or of concern. “I have a cousin, Annette, who had been forced away, or maybe left, the community. She moved to San Francisco. We talked on the phone a bit. To some extent, she was a role model.

“As far as I can tell, Annette needed a certain amount of sexual variety.

“What if that’s true for me? You’ve heard of open marriage and the like, where purely sexual diversion doesn’t threaten the primary relationship. Oh, sexual partners can be friends.”

“Love, I’ve thought about that myself. A variant is polyamory, where there are more established relationships to meet various needs. To be honest, it’s harder for me to get partners than it is for you, although ironically, women are more eager now that they see me partnered with you.”

“Arnold, unless someone was trying to break me up, I’ve never been an especially jealous person. Something I’ve been reading about, though, fascinates me. It’s called compersion.”

“I’ve also read about it. The polyamory folks call it the opposite of jealousy. It’s joyfully taking pleasure in the sexual pleasure of one’s partner, without any sense of humiliation as in the cuckold image.”

“Let me make a bold suggestion. Let’s go to some strip clubs, first what I understand to be fairly tame ones in DC, and then maybe another city. I’m bi enough to find women interesting, so we can share being naughty in our observations, and then getting lap dances or something more.

“There might be some girls at the health club that work in that sort of club.”

Workout

When I met Lynda, I had been going to a gym, meaning a hard-core exercise facility rather than a “health club”, for general fitness, not building a perfect body. They also had a mixed martial arts program aimed at street issues, not competition.

Lynda had never been especially athletic, other than some horseback riding. To be honest, she was on the clumsy side. She tentatively joined me in workouts and found getting strong to be a wonderful experience. We were both gourmets who enjoyed both home cooking and the Washington dining scene, but we ate a healthy diet and were both in great shape.

She started to get interested in competition, specifically the bikini division of women’s bodybuilding. We agreed that she could get some coaching, if her trainer would give me occasional advice. Tony, the trainer, suggested we move from the gym to a very well-equipped health club very near his office. It would be better for his schedule, and he assured us that it had enough or more equipment than where we were. If there was something lacking, he’d pressure it to be installed.

This club had a nice mixture of serious athletes as well as the expected “gym bunnies”. I didn’t think of myself as a hard-core bodybuilder, but I definitely got attention from some of the flirtatious gym bunnies, who seemed to lift as much makeup as iron. Lynda started in sweats and little makeup but decided she could still work out while looking as good as any bunny. She moved from sweats to colorful, figure-flattering leotards and tights.

At some point, she wanted to work out six days a week, which was nowhere in my scope. She developed exercise-induced asthma, which meant that she wasn’t going to be able to get to the competition level. Still, we went through a useful exercise of finding compromises.

Part of that was realizing that she liked being eye-catching, and I liked watching her be watched, as well as being with flirted with myself.

She remains in excellent condition, at 5’7” and 140, womanly but with no excess fat. Her hips are full, and her thighs are powerful. Her bust is small, but noticeable in the right outfits. Her breasts are full but not huge, with shapely separation from her chest wall -- a C cup usually. A tiny waist makes them look bigger.

Lynda has experimented with various looks. What we like best reminds us of Liza Minnelli in Cabaret, or perhaps slightly of Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies when she was seducing Arnold Schwarzenegger. Today, we might think of her legs as like those of Katy Perry.

Interact with her long and experience a first-rate mind as well as musical and artistic talent. Arts education were one of her passions, but she knew the first requisite was getting elected. I was educating her in national security policy.

In her bodybuilding days, she discovered an advanced tanning system that didn’t coarsen her skin or increase cancer risk, so she stayed moderately tanned.

Not long after we met, we were walking in the Georgetown district of Washington, DC, in an area with some very nice clubs and shops. A woman came out of an exotic and erotic clothing store, the Dream Dresser, in what I suppose I should call a catsuit with high-heeled boots. Brakes screeched, with at least one fender-bender, because her appearance literally stopped traffic. Lynda turned to me, cheerfully making the vow, “Certainly not all the time, but every so often, I’d like to be exhibitionistic like that, with a look that burns out male and lesbian brains. What do you think?”

Lynda is a beautiful woman, but sometimes, one has to look closely to appreciate her fully. One has to get closer to be stunned by her face; she doesn’t have long blonde hair to toss but doesn’t need it. She isn’t the dream of breast fetishist, but a good look makes one want to bury one’s face there. I thought of her pushing limits as did that woman, and, as I felt myself growing hard, “I love it. Not only do I enjoy watching you, I’ve realized I enjoy watching you be watched. The way you just described it protects me from jealousy.

“I don’t want to make you work too hard on presentation at home, but I love the idea of your looking even wilder there.” I realized that I was starting to blush. “Give me a little time to share some kind of fantasy images I have for you, in places where it’s safe to be as wild as you can.” As I was saying that, my voice was rising and the last part was squeaked out -- some teenage flashbacks, maybe?

“Oh -- and looking at where she came onto the street, we need to plan a trip to Dream Dresser! I have a slight fantasy of doing it with another lovely woman, or a couple. That’s kind of a place where you can come out of the dressing room to have your friends’ feedback, and there aren’t many limits. No one is likely to freak out if you give a crotch shot.”

“I like that thought, Arnold”

At home

I did my consulting and research from home, with a large workroom and library. There was space to bring in a second desk and high-powered workstation. By this time, we had leased an additional apartment and joined it to ours.

“Lynda, I should tell you more about my work and my related volunteer policy wonk stuff. You also are going to see what might seem to be suspicious in the additional rooms. It’s not, and I’ll make sure that you’re satisfied it isn’t.

“There are some areas of my work that involve trust and secrecy. Rather early in life, I had some insights that turned out to be useful to the national intelligence program. The first glimmerings emerged when I was in high school. My mother was an Army Reserve officer who mentioned a bit to some regulars she knew, who came calling.

“It’s unusual for people in high school to get a security clearance of a high level. There have been some exceptions for people who get internships at intelligence agencies, but that’s more common in college. The great majority of those are people whom the recruiters think have real promise, and whom they want to start teaching early. Only a tiny fraction, while young, make original contributions.

“I was one of those people. I can tell you a bit, more the results of my work and deals that I was made over it. They had to make sure I wasn’t an early Soviet recruit, so I had what they call a full-scope background investigation at age 19. I assume you know some general things about military security -- there are some minimal levels, most things are classified SECRET, much less TOP SECRET (TS). While they say there’s nothing higher than TS, there really are. They get called things like Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) or codeword. Short of the President, Secretary of Defense, or a few others, no one has access to everything -- and Presidents may rightfully observe they are better off without the details.

“I really can’t share many details. The security people, at some point, may ask more to be shared, so you could recognize a threat. They’re also going to want to ask to investigate you some, which we can discuss. I have some leverage.

“The key insights I made are in a very obscure area of intelligence technology called Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT). A better known area is Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), where they extract information from signals deliberately sent by the other side. These signals can be communications between humans (COMINT), with which codebreaking is associated, or between electronic devices (ELINT) such as radars.