Chapter 25: Home Hunting

THE NEXT TWO DAYS with Elizabeth were bittersweet. She was wildly excited about her job. She was doing six shows a week and they’d told her she could work her time up to a full half hour. She was getting coaching from Danny Carlisle, his agent, and a couple of writers. And she was making $700 a week. But she also knew that when we packed up and left on Wednesday, she wouldn’t be going with us, and that hurt.

“Where are you going to live?” I asked.

“You’ll love this!” she said. “Remember Rose? Believe me, she remembers you and would like nothing better than a rematch in her bed. Her show is in the theatre next door to the lounge where I’m performing. They’re dark on Monday and Tuesday, so she came to see me this week. It turns out she has a spare bedroom in her apartment and offered to rent it to me. I say rent, because the company is paying for my expenses, so I can take advantage of staying with her and throw some extra cash her way, too. I’ve asked her to come and join us at the studio tomorrow.”

“That’s unbelievable. I’ll look forward to seeing her at the studio.”

It was a blast to have Rose with us in the studio and she got to blend in with the crew. We even managed to squeeze a posing session in for her and it was especially fun to get Rose naked again. We squeezed some other things, too. She stayed with us Monday, right through our Monday night festivity.

Chrystal had managed to get us an invitation to a rehearsal for Elvis Presley! The show wouldn’t open until Thursday and there were still three performances by Barbra Streisand in the showroom. So, we were shown to chairs that were set up at the end of a ballroom. We weren’t the only ones watching the rehearsal. I was pretty sure I recognized Rodney Dangerfield who had a few people with him and I thought that one guy might be Sammy Davis Junior. But all told, there were only fifty or sixty of us for this private performance by the King.

At one point, he came down off his little stage where the band and backup singers were. He walked right down to the bunch of us watching and started greeting and shaking hands with people. When he got to us, he hugged and kissed each of the girls, including taking Little Toni in his arms and making goo-goo eyes at her. All the girls had programs with them and he signed them. He turned to me.

“Are all these beautiful ladies with you?” he asked.

“Yes, sir. They are.”

“You sing? Play?”

“I’m a photographer,” I said, patting the Nikon at my side. He was really nice and put an arm around Beth and Pris and called the other girls in with him so I could take a picture of them with Elvis.

“And what do you ladies do?” he asked.

“We’re Nate’s girls,” Anna responded, hugging me. The other girls separated from Elvis and all gathered around me.

“Now that’s a rock star,” he laughed pointing at me. Then he went back to the stage and did another set.

Rose joined Elizabeth in my bed that night. It was good. Really good.

The next day, while we were dealing with our last model in the studio and getting things ready to move, Elizabeth moved to Rose’s apartment. Wednesday morning, she managed to join us at the studio as we loaded the trailer with all our equipment and props. Levi was there and pointed out everything we could take with us. There was one section of the warehouse that was all props and scenery owned by the theatre group, but everything else had been brought in by Levi and by us when we arrived. We loaded everything that would fit in the trailer behind the bus and boarded.

“I’ll see you in a few weeks, love,” I said as I held Elizabeth in my arms and kissed her one more time. “I hate leaving you here.”

“I hate not coming home with you. But Rose will be my chaperone and will help me if I have any problems. Mums and Papa are coming back down next week, so I won’t be completely alone. I love you. I’ll see you soon.” We kissed again and I boarded the bus. Rose and Beth got in a car and drove off to their apartment.

We were in St. George in time for an early dinner and then headed out for the long lonely trek across Utah. There was really nothing to stop at from there to Colorado and we all just crashed. I held Ronda in my arms until well after dark and we made love quietly in the back seat of the charter bus. She didn’t try to keep all my attention after that. I danced in the aisle with Little Toni until the tyke went to sleep, then I took her mother to the back and made love to her. And so it went for two days until we got back to Tenbrook about two in the afternoon on Friday.

Then we had to work. But it wasn’t as difficult as it might seem. Levi had said that the bulk of our props should go on to Chicago. He, Cassie, Leanne, and Theresa would take care of unloading in Chicago and having the studio there ready to go when we got there.

When I got off the bus, I almost ran over to the parsonage before I remembered that I didn’t live there any longer. Instead, I helped organize what we had in the studio. Patricia and Ronda headed to their homes. Little Toni had another set of grandparents who wanted time with her. I kissed Judy, Pris, and Debbie sincerely and thanked them for all their hard work before they took off for home. Then I took Anna’s hand and walked over to the hotel, where my room was undisturbed.

“Don’t you need to see your parents?” I asked as we kissed.

“Just like you do. Tomorrow morning. I just want a night alone with you. I want to feel all your attention on me. To feel your lips on mine and on my skin and my breasts and my legs. I want to feel your hardness sliding through my wet folds and inside me as we make love again and again. I want to become one with you,” she said.

“Anna...”

“Shh. I don’t mean to exclude any of the others. I mean tonight. I want all the attention of my man without all those other naked girls running around the suite or the studio, distracting you.”

“Let me love you and bring your dreams to life,” I whispered, as I took her clothes off and began covering every inch of her body with kisses.

We decided the new preacher in Tenbrook could survive another Sunday without our bright faces in a pew. Instead, Patricia, Toni, Ronda, Anna, and I loaded in the VW Sunday morning and drove down to Sage in time for Mom’s service. We stopped and picked up Julie and Brian on the way. I figured I should try to make some points with my sister as much as I could.

She was thrilled and the three, all teens, hugged and held each other for a long time. It was good. I promised Kat that I’d bring the two back on Wednesday for her birthday.

“I have a place where we can go to pose and sketch,” Kat whispered to her friends. “Come for as long as you can.”

“We’ll come for lunch and stay for dinner,” I said. “Then I’ll have to take them back to Tenbrook.”

Kat didn’t think that was anywhere near long enough, but she was only fourteen on this birthday. I could hardly leave her boyfriend overnight.

I had a little surprise for her, though. Her girlfriend would be sixteen in September. I’d brought back a costume for her. I had Judy come over to the studio to give me a hand so I wouldn’t be involved in dressing the young teen alone. Judy got her into shiny tights and a bejeweled leotard. These didn’t make it out of Las Vegas very often. Showgirl costumes were expensive. The ones we scrounged in our wardrobe closet were old and in pretty poor condition, but Judy had worked a few seamstress miracles on this one and it wouldn’t simply fall to pieces once Julie moved. When Julie came out of the dressing room, she looked stunning. I still had the crowning glory. We had a headdress. Dee had warned me on my first photoshoot in Vegas that headdresses could weight twenty to twenty-five pounds.

This was built around a football helmet. It wasn’t more than a couple feet high, but it was really striking and turned Julie into an Amazon queen. We got a pair of high heels on her and she looked like she’d just stepped off the stage. Then there was the problem of getting her down the back stairs to the VW. Judy took the high heels and the headdress and I carried Julie down the stairs and got her in the bus. Then I ran back up the stairs and got Kat’s horse to take to her.

We picked up Brian, who was dressed in the shirt I’d given him. It was shiny and red and unbuttoned practically to his waist. It was almost the same as Elvis had been wearing in his rehearsal. He got in the bus and turned to look at his sister in the back. He just stared open mouthed for a minute and then turned silently to face out the front windows. His mouth stayed open and he didn’t say a word all the way to Sage.

Of course, that all changed when Kat raced out of the house with her sketchbook and pencils and saw the two in the car. She started jabbering a mile a minute, exclaiming over Julie’s beautiful outfit, and pausing only to give me directions to a barn out in the country. This was not an abandoned farm. There were dogs running around and barking. I could see a tractor in the field not far away. A teen girl came running out of the house, yelled at the dogs, and hugged Kat.

Introductions were made and the new girl, Sally Ames, exclaimed over Julie’s costume. It turned out that she was also an artist and had set up her own little studio in the barn.

I handed Julie’s shoes and headdress to Brian and he was suitably impressed by how heavy it was. Then I carried Julie to the barn, following Sally and Kat. I set Julie down and got her shoes on her, then positioned the headdress. She was pretty stunning and nearly as tall as me in her high heels. I took a few pictures as they got set up, but once the artists had the models where they wanted them, I left and told Kat I’d pick everyone up at five.

My sister was pretty happy with her birthday present. But I wasn’t sure if the real present was Brian or Julie.

We were going to be gone for two weeks. When we’d set up this home-finding trip, we thought Beth would be with us. We planned to stay at her house for a few days while we looked for an apartment, and then go on to Canada to look at a piece of property the broker in Stratford had found. Then we’d all get back home for a week before we had to be back to school.

But Elizabeth wasn’t home. Nadia called and told me we were still welcome to stay with them a few days while we looked for an apartment. It seemed so strange to take my other three girlfriends to the fourth girlfriend’s house to sleep with them while the fourth was out of town. I talked to Elizabeth about it and she said it was fine.

“I want you to fuck each of those girls in my bed. That will be almost like we’re married.”

Okay, if she said so.

We left after church on Sunday and headed for the Marshes’ home. On the way, we picked up all the newspapers we could find and started reading the want ads. Toni had discovered that she liked to travel. We had a car seat for her and while I was out of town, Dad had seatbelts installed in both back rows. He also made sure the front seat belts that were already there, but were tucked under the seats, were out and ready to be used. He gave me a stern lecture about using the seatbelts and made sure that I understood he still considered it his right to take a willow switch to me if I needed it.

We all buckled up.

We got to Beth’s house in time for Sunday dinner, which was a late afternoon meal for the Marshes. I was just hoping for some ice cream and chocolate. But Jordan and Nadia were very happy to have us at the table and wanted a full debriefing on how our Las Vegas adventure had gone. I’d brought a few photos with me and he immediately placed an order for one of Marli’s photos. I had to tell him what I’d done and how the Executive Producer for this Photosensitive Productions paid an exorbitant amount for the picture if I promised not to produce another in that size.

“That is amazing,” Jordan said. “Well, I’m not prepared to pay that much. I’ve got millions—a few. He’s got billions. The numbers don’t even make sense. Let me describe it this way. If you have a million seconds, you have just a little less than twelve days. If you have a billion seconds, you’ve got almost thirty-two years. This is more than an order of magnitude. It’s a hundred orders of magnitude. I’d like to think your artwork is worth what he paid, but there is no way I would pay it.”

We were all just stunned. I still didn’t have a name to put with the shaggy man I saw in the hotel room. I had suspicions, but I didn’t want to even voice them. I was hoping I was finished with the whole movie business.

“Oh, aren’t you a cute little thing,” I heard in the hall. I looked around and saw Patricia was the only one not in the room with me and I headed straight for the hall. Patricia was small and Adele towered over her. Adele was stroking Patricia’s cheek with a finger.

“Adele!” I snapped, and she turned guiltily toward me. I shook a finger at her. “Hands off my girls. Am I clear?”

She stood straight and I thought she was going to argue. Whatever game Jordan and Nadia played with Adele, I wasn’t playing. She dropped her head.

“Yes, sir. I’m sorry, sir. Do you wish to punish me, sir?”

“No. You are not worth my time to punish. Tell your master.”

I saw a shudder go through her and assumed I’d guessed right. Nadia was Adele’s sub, but she was tolerated by Jordan only so long as he was in command.

“Yes, sir,” she whispered. She turned and went down the hall, directly to Jordan and Nadia’s bedroom.

Patricia threw herself into my arms.

“What was that?”

“That was a naughty pet who thought she could get away with something. We have an understanding. She won’t bother you again.” I picked up Patricia in my arms and carried her to Beth’s room where we were staying.

We had good luck apartment hunting. On Tuesday, after spending a day surveying the area, we found a place in Hyde Park, just six blocks north of the University of Chicago campus. For some reason, I was more comfortable with Beth and me catching the El north to the Loop than Ronda catching it in the Loop and riding south to the university. Ronda insisted that her experience in Boston had prepared her pretty well for living in Chicago, but for some reason I became hyper protective. Besides, Patricia and Anna would be coming in from Tenbrook and Rockford and I didn’t want them hunting for parking downtown.

We found a three-bedroom, two-bath apartment on the top floor of a six-story building. It was incredibly spacious and we could easily fix the sunroom up for Toni. I gulped at the $600 a month rental, but with Ronda, Elizabeth, and me splitting it, it was within our budget. Ronda said she’d been paying $300 for her half of a one-bedroom in Boston, so I guessed it wasn’t that bad. And Patricia and Anna insisted they were going to be here frequently enough that they should contribute to the rent, too.

We could take possession on September first, which, of course, was Labor Day and was the day before classes started at Columbia. Elizabeth didn’t start until the next week, and Ronda’s Fall Quarter didn’t start until the twenty-second of September. Her classes started late, but she didn’t have a mid-winter intensive like Elizabeth and I did.

“For a while, I plan to pick up Anna on Thursday after her classes and we’ll be here for dinner Thursday nights,” Patricia said. “We’ll really find out how well we get along living together.”

“We did pretty good in Las Vegas,” I said.

“Yes, but we had room service, child care, and maid service in Las Vegas,” Patricia continued.

“And six other naked girls running around,” Ronda laughed. “A couple of whom kind of liked it when a horny girl paused to pet them. Your mom was so cool about that. I half expected her to come out of her room in her birthday suit.”

“How did you miss it?” Anna asked. “Let me tell you, she made it obvious where Patricia gets her damned good looks!” Anna punctuated her statement by kissing Patricia and I thought it was a pretty solid kiss. Then she turned around and kissed Ronda just as emphatically.

“Wow!” Ronda said. “Spend as much time here as you can.”

“Well, I’m not quite at the point of wanting to um ... you know ... take Nate’s place, but I’m finding that kissing the two girls I love most in the world isn’t bad at all,” Anna said. Then she threw herself into my arms and kissed me as if trying to remind herself that she preferred a boy.

“Let’s go take a tour of the campus where Ronda will be,” I suggested. I carried Toni down to where I’d parked the bus and we got loaded in. There was still a week of summer session at the University so a good many students were wandering around campus. I say wandering because I had no more idea where they were going than I would have watching a bunch of ants scurry around.

“Well, congratulations,” Jordan said when we sat down with him and Nadia and Adele for dinner. “It seems you have leased an apartment.”

“We signed papers,” I said.

“Well, they called your references and it just so happened that this reference gave you a stellar recommendation. I have a feeling Nate Mayer did, as well,” Jordan laughed.

“Oh, I’m so relieved,” Patricia said. “I was afraid the baby might have woken you up last night. She was having a little upset tummy.”

“Never heard a thing,” Nadia said. “You should have heard Elizabeth when she was just a year old. Our cook would come running from the kitchen all the way to the third floor to make sure she was okay.”

We were just having a very nice family meal. As soon as we got to the house, I called Beth, but she’d already left for the lounge. I guess it took Rose a lot longer to get ready for her show than it took Starr. With luck, we’d make contact the next day, before we headed toward Canada.

“Word on the street is that a major collector paid a premium for a one-of-a-kind photo of yours,” Jordan said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if you started getting some additional requests. Anna, you might want to work out premium pricing that is, say, three or four times what your old price sheet says. Strike while the iron is hot.”

“Wow! I wonder how word got out,” I said. Jordan didn’t respond.

Wednesday evening, we checked into the Ambassador Holiday Inn in Windsor, Ontario. I’d called ahead for a top floor suite and the girls were all impressed with the service. Of course, they’d all been there before, but they did like our two-level suite.

We had talked to Harold in Stratford about getting us a place to stay for a week and he’d responded that he had a place for us starting Friday. So, we spent two nights in the Ambassador and had a lovely time just enjoying each other without worrying about anyone’s parents overhearing us. Some of the squeals that emanated from our bedroom might have alerted other residents.

I made it my mission to give each of my girlfriends as many orgasms as she could stand. By the time we checked out on Friday morning, my jaw was aching a little. I hadn’t given it such a rigorous workout since that guy popped me on the Fourth of July. I loved being between a girlfriend’s legs, feasting on her honey, and seeing one of my other girlfriends kissing her or even playing with and sucking on her nipples. I knew only Ronda truly craved the touch of another woman, but Patricia and Anna were definitely warming to it.