Chapter 14

Devlin didn't know whether to scream or laugh. It was ludicrous, but it was humiliating at the same time. The light turned green and she turned onto the on-ramp and accelerated north onto the freeway. All things considered, it had been an afternoon she would just as soon forget, except that it made a funny story.

After she and Danny had had lunch she had gone over to the Athletic Club to load the things she'd need for her trip. Ordinarily she'd pack and spend the night at the Athletic Club so she could leave first thing in the morning, but with the invitation to Emma's party she had to pack today.

She had put the bulkiest things in her car and had taken a catalogue of new fabrics into the bathroom when somebody knocked on the door. "Just a minute," she called. She tossed the catalogue to one side and finished. She hoped it wasn't another potential customer, almost everything was down in the car.

It was the two men from the other day; Sergeant O'Connor wasn't with them. "Yes? May I help you?"

"I'm Sergeant Sheehan of the Bloomington Police Department," he said, showing her his badge. "This is Mr. Hunter of the Athletic Club staff. I'm following up a report of inappropriate and possibly illicit activity here, and Mr. Hunter has given me permission to inspect the premises. May we come in?"

"You're free to look," she said. Devlin stepped back and gestured at the room. "Excuse the mess, I'm in the middle of packing my things for a sales trip this weekend."

Sergeant Sheehan looked around, and surreptitiously checked the door to the other room. Mr. Hunter checked the bathroom, emerging with a slight shake of his head.

"We're sorry to disturb you," Sergeant Sheehan said after a look around the room. He nodded slightly at Mr. Hunter and they headed for the door.

"No problem, officer," she said, closing the door behind them. On a hunch she stepped back and waited, counting slowly. Before she got to 10 Sergeant Sheehan knocked on the door again.

She counted to three and opened the door. "Yes?"

Sergeant Sheehan glanced through the door for a moment, then offered her his card. "If you see something you think is inappropriate around here, would you call me, please?"

"No problem, Sergeant," she said.

This time she put her ear against the door - she'd seen a detective movie where they could tell someone was looking through the peephole because they could see the light through it. She heard the elevator bell chime. She risked a glance through the peephole, but couldn't see if they got on or not.

She wondered if she'd see them again. Did she and Danny make so much noise that people could hear them in the hall? The bed squeaked, maybe they should oil it or something. She made a note to mention that to Danny the next time she saw him.

She heard a knock on another door. She eased open the door and peered down the hall. Sergeant Sheehan and Mr. Hunter were talking to someone else. It made her mad. So she and Danny had sex, so what? Did that make her wrong or a bad person? Apparently so, at least in the eyes of somebody. That was one of the troubles with living in the Bible Belt, everyone liked to poke their noses into everyone else's business.

Later that afternoon, after the optometrist had removed her eye patch, she mentioned it to one of her professors after class, though she didn't go into too many details. "Is every good-looking girl suspected of being a hooker or something when she's off campus?" she'd asked.

"Sometimes I think that's the case," the woman replied. "Being hassled?"

"I do part-time sales of lingerie on the weekends," Devlin said. "I have a room at the Athletic Club so I can do presentations and sales in private. And the police have popped in unannounced a couple of times when I've been there."

The woman's eyes narrowed ever so slightly as she glanced at Devlin's chest. "Lingerie?"

"Bras," Devlin said, "bras for the hard to fit woman, like myself, or bras for women who've had medical problems. I sell a lot of them to women who've had a mastectomy."

The woman nodded, imperfectly hiding the relief on her face. "I could see where the average male mind, especially the average male cop, wouldn't understand that."

"Since I was 16 I've about gone nuts trying to find a decent fitting bra," Devlin said, waving her hand near her chest. "I've got a small back to go with my large bosom, and that's been a problem. I could almost never find a bra that fit me properly. And when I did, the straps would dig into my shoulders, or it would squeeze me so tight I couldn't breathe. But a couple of years ago I found this company that made specialty bras. I liked what they did for me so much I started selling them."

"Men can be over-weight and in their 80's and still think of themselves as stud-muffins," the woman said. "I wish we had the same attitude towards our appearance as men do."

"Yes, but they're more visually oriented than we are," Devlin said. "That's why we spend all this time trying to look good."

The woman finished filling her briefcase. "If I have some friends with problems like you've said, would you mind if I sent them your way?"

"Not at all," Devlin said, shaking her head. She fished a business card out of her purse. "I'll be glad to help them. No woman should suffer from a bad bra. The hospital can give you references, and my company is listed as a preferred provider by a Blue Cross on female issues like this."

Whatever lingering doubts the woman had, vanished. "You know, Devlin, one of my pet bugaboos has been the assumptions people make about a woman based on her appearance." As they walked down the hall she explained. "When you said you sold lingerie, my first thought was 'yeah, right'. What else are you selling?'" She glanced at Devlin's business card. "But I've heard of this company - my mother lost a breast to cancer two years ago and she has gotten her bras from this company. It all stems from men trying to control our wombs."

"So they know who the father of their children is?" Devlin asked. She'd heard that argument before on campus. She wasn't prepared to go quite that far, but she'd learned to give the appearance of believing what her professors told her, even on political matters.

The woman nodded. "If they have exclusive access to a woman's womb, then they know the child is theirs. That's the patriarchal culture at work."

"I wonder if it's any better anywhere else?" Devlin asked.

"Third World countries?" The woman shook her head with a snort. "Every American woman should travel in a Third World Country at least once while growing up. Then she'll understand how good we have it here. Europe or parts of the Pacific Islands? Those are better. The Pacific Islands are less patriarchal than a lot of the rest of the world. I understand it used to drive missionaries nuts - their world view was based on centuries of European style culture. Europe is heavily patriarchal in places, France, for instance, but in other places women have created their own society. And here in the US, ironically the Bible Belt has the biggest collection of puritans, and some of the most liberal people, all intermixed."

"I've noticed." Devlin stopped to wind her muffler around her neck. "I wish there was something we could do about this."

"It's frustrating, but I think it's so ingrained in our natures that we can't do that much about it. People can legislate all they want, but changing a culture is something that takes decades. Changing human nature is almost impossible, though don't tell the other faculty that I said that. Most of my colleagues think changing human nature is easy. Indoctrinate the kids at an early age, and it's done." She snorted. "They don't realize that that has never worked, not even in socialist countries with total control of the curriculum. You're still fighting what the kids see every day around them, and that's a losing proposition.

"In the meantime, I have some friends who might want to buy some lingerie from you."

That had been three hours before. Now, as her Chevy Nova slowly crept up to cruising speed, Devlin found her mood lifting. Sue was feeling better, and that made her happy. If the rest of the therapy worked it was possible Sue could be walking in a few months. It was nice when you saw something like that happen and know you had been a part of it.

What was she going to do tonight? That was still bothering her. If she had sex with someone, that was sort of like cheating on Jeff. A purist could argue that she and Jeff didn't really have anything, not any more, and a couple of the girls in the dorms had told her that to her face. Some days she was inclined to believe them, but on others...

It wasn't like she was cheating on Danny, that was sex, not love. Danny was the one who wasn't supposed to wander; before Sue had talked her into going to bed with him he had wandered, and it had almost broken up their marriage. She liked him, and she knew he liked her back. And while they cuddled after sex, it was because of a post-orgasmic glow, not the gentle, sweet time with Jeff.

She sighed. It might be easier to decide this if she and Jeff had actually gotten together for a little intimacy in the last month. She took her foot off the accelerator, slowing in surprise. It had been a month, actually five weeks, since she and Jeff had made love. She was surprised she hadn't noticed it before. It had been the night before their last Final; as he'd joked, how do you 'study' for a swimming Final? Instead they'd spent the night in bed, just the two of them with the rest of the world locked out.

It would be a damn sight easier to decide this if she had gotten with Danny more than once in the last three weeks. First she'd had her period, and then he'd gone off on a training course of some kind; he'd only come back because of Sue's operation. They'd had that one time in the Athletic Club, that was all. She hadn't had any intimacy with a guy in three weeks. No wonder she felt the way she did.

It'd been almost two years since she'd been to a sex party. Would it be like she remembered - uninhibited and wild? Could she let herself go the same way she used to? She remembered her first trip to Emma's. She had been so nervous that night.

Sue had broached the idea of going to a sex party, telling her how she and Danny had gone to them when they'd been younger. Sue had pictures from some of those parties. Devlin had been disconcerted to see so many naked people. But the casualness, the openness of the whole idea of people getting together to have sex just for the pleasure, those things had intrigued her, and she had casually mentioned it to Danny. They'd been lying in his bed one evening after dinner. Winter had been howling across the farmlands and whistling between the trees outside. They'd been lying on their sides, spoon fashion with his arm around her. He had brought home a swingers magazine, and they'd looked through it together. There were a few articles filled with pictures, the rest of the magazine was nothing but ads from couples. She was a little uncomfortable at first, the women in the articles were naked and she could see everything. The men were naked, too, some were hard, some weren't, but it was the pictures of the naked women that got her attention.

Later, when Danny had gone downstairs, she had looked at the pictures again. In one way seeing the pictures was a relief. You saw other girls naked in the showers, and you tried not to look, especially down there, not that there was ever much to see. But this magazine... everyone seemed to be naked, and they all looked just like she did. She got a mirror and looked between her legs, comparing what she saw with the pictures. She had hair down there, so did these women, most of them at least. Some had a lot of hair, others only had thin wisps. But underneath the hair they all looked the same. And they had boobs, too, some small, some as big as hers, some bigger. That was a relief. She didn't feel quite like a freak. These women seemed happy with their size. But could she appear in front of other people with nothing on? She thought about that. Well, why not? They'd see her, but she'd see them. That seemed fair. And judging by the pictures, everyone seemed comfortable being naked. Sabrina said you didn't notice it after a while, you didn't see people as naked, you saw the person instead. But Sabrina had been raised that way. Still, if everyone else was naked, Devlin thought she could be, too.

She began looking at the pictures of the men. She'd seen two guys naked, Butch and Danny. Butch was still growing, especially down there. But Danny was a full-grown man and was as large as he was going to get. And she liked guy's cocks, she liked how they could be hanging there limp, or all shrunk and tiny, and a few minutes later they were big and hard... These men were willing to do it, no questions asked. And she liked that the best of all. No long build-up, no hours spent flirting, it would be like with Danny. If you were interested, you got it on. She was definitely interested. The only question was whether they'd let a 15 year-old girl into their parties.

She'd mentioned that to Danny when he came back upstairs. "Do they have to know you're 15?" he'd asked when he finally understood she was serious.

"I suppose not. I won't tell them."

"And I won't, either," he said, spreading his hands. "See? It's real simple."

She hid her doubts from him. That first night she'd fretted all the way to the party. She'd reconciled herself to being naked, hopefully they'd have the lights turned down and it wouldn't be so obvious. But she was going to have sex with men she didn't know. She'd known Butch and Danny for years and years. And they were the only two she'd ever done it with. But tonight was going to be different. Guys she didn't even know were going to want to have sex with her.

Actually, that was kind of an interesting thought. They'd ask, and they'd expect her to say yes. She remembered an aunt warning her that guys wanted only one thing, and she was supposed to tell them no. Of course she'd said yes to two guys, and she liked what had happened. There was no better feeling in the world. Some of the kids in school wanted her to try dope and beer or other things, but she'd seen them drunk and acting stupid. And a good climax could make her feel great without a hangover.

By the time they got to the party she had nerved herself up to go through with it. Emma, the woman who ran the party, made her feel right at home.

"This is heaven for a woman," Emma had explained with a laugh. She had a small group of women sitting around her in the living room while her husband was talking to the guys in the dining room. Everyone was still dressed, though Devlin suspected that was going to change soon. "You're all new to the lifestyle, and I'm here to answer your questions.

"Guys look at all the available women here, and that gets them excited. The biggest problem is that they all give out too quickly. They don't see it from our point of view: if a guy poops out on us, and they all do sooner or later, don't they girls." The women laughed. "You can always find another one. If a gal can leave here without climaxing at least once, she must have stayed out in the car."

"Everybody climaxes?" Devlin asked. "I'd heard that a lot of women didn't."

"Nearly all of the women in the lifestyle climax," Emma said. "Some of us don't climax while screwing, but all of us can climax. You can, can't you?"

Devlin felt a blush creeping up her face. Emma talked about such things so freely. "Yes," she said, looking down. "And, yes, I... I can climax while doing it."

Emma had patted her on the knee. "You'll do fine, dear." She glanced around the group. "For all of you, this is your first time, so why don't you start out by sitting in the hot tub for a while. You're probably as nervous as can be right now. And the people in the hot tub can help you out."

That had been good advice. She spent nearly an hour in the hot tub. She'd seen a woman actually climax in the hot tub - the woman sat on one of the jets and adjusted it so it hit her right between her legs. Devlin couldn't help it, she stared, totally fascinated. She'd never seen a woman climax before. The woman's face had grown tight, her mouth had opened, and her eyes had lost their focus. And then she'd seemed to hunch forward ever so slightly and made a noise that sounded like an old-time steam engine going uphill. It went on for nearly a minute before she suddenly slumped back against the wall of the tub with a deep sigh. She stared off into the distance with a dreamy look on her face, and several minutes went by before she took a deep breath, shook her head slightly, and focused on the people around her.

After seeing that, and she had to admit it was a tremendous turn-on, she went with the first man who had asked her. She didn't know who he was or anything about him. But he quickly found his way around her body, touching her in places she didn't know were sensitive. She came on his fingers while he sucked her breasts and rubbed her little hot spot. After that it seemed natural to open her legs and give him what he wanted. And he surprised her, he lasted and lasted, longer than Danny did, long enough she climaxed underneath him before he finally spent himself, pulling out at the last second to spray his cum across her tummy. Then they'd done it again after he'd rested for a bit. He'd kissed and licked her sex beforehand, and put his thing in her hand, clearly expecting her to do something with it.

Danny had been encouraging her to try oral sex, and she'd finally gotten to the point of holding him in her mouth when he came. She'd tasted Butch's cum when he'd shot all over her breasts and tummy, and she knew what Danny tasted like. They tasted the same, but were slightly different, both were salty, and a little bland, not at all what she'd expected. But then, she hadn't really expected much, either. And she could taste the cum on this guy's thing, it was the other taste that bothered her. It was sort of tangy, and not really sharp. She felt better jacking him with her hand, she had a lot of experience doing that with both Danny and Butch.

She was fascinated when he came. Danny sort of welled up and some of it ran down the side of his thing while the rest would shoot out a couple of inches. Butch had actually jetted when he came, though she'd never held him straight up to see how high he'd shoot. He'd always been sort of parallel to the ground or the floor or her. But this guy actually shot his stuff into the air, maybe 6 or 7 inches. And each successive jet had been less, until it just sort of oozed out of him.

He complimented her, made her feel sexy and desirable, kissed her, and gone on his way. When she kissed him she tasted that tangy taste again, and knew where it came from. The last place his mouth had been before they kissed was between her legs. She knew she got wet, but she didn't realize there was any taste to it. That bothered her, but only at first. After a while she got used to it. And soon she tasted other women on the men she sucked.

That night, and for the next couple of parties, she tried oral sex in every way possible. Some guys were better at it than others. Every guy was different when he came. Some came in huge spurts, spraying huge white gobs across her breasts and face. Others had a watery cum that ran down her body or dripped out of her and down her legs. Some guys screwed up their faces when they came, others went rigid; some seemed to pass out, other would pause, catch their breath, and be ready to go again.

As Spring turned to Summer she knew she was getting a better education about sex than any she could ever get anywhere else. She kidded with her friends that the trouble with growing up was that they had to learn things on their own, nobody was there to tell them things they really wanted to know. But that wasn't so with these parties. Every time she had a question, there was someone there, a man or woman, who would not only answer the question, but demonstrate it for her. Take cramps, for instance.

She'd reluctantly gone one night when she had cramps. All she really wanted to do was go to bed and pull the covers over her head. But Danny had wanted to go, and so, feeling like a martyr, she went. While he was off sticking his thing in anyone he could, she put on her bikini bottom and spent the night in the hot tub. First of all, the warm water and the bubbles made her feel better. But when she'd mentioned cramps a couple of women told her to change her diet and exercise more. They were very specific about that, going into great detail about how her diet could change that for her. And one of them told how she still did the dance warm-ups she'd learned as a young girl. All of that exercise helped with the cramps. She almost never had them. That still didn't get rid of the cramps she had right then, but another woman went right to the point.

"Your blood is all congested in your female parts," the woman said. "If you want to feel better you have to get it moving."

"And just how do I do that?" she'd asked. "Right now I don't feel like running in place or doing any other kind of exercise."

"Have an orgasm," the woman said. "Sit on one of the water jets and get off. You'll feel strange, at first, but keep at it. A climax opens the veins and forces all of the blood down there to move. Trust me, you'll feel better."

Figuring she had nothing to lose, she tried that. The woman was right, she felt all strange when she sat on the water jet. And getting wound up like she did felt doubly weird. But it had worked, sort of. She'd climaxed a lot easier than she'd expected, and she had felt better afterwards, sort of, and in a weird way. And changing her diet, and exercising more, had helped, too. She had had cramps precisely once since that night.

Like anyone in a new place, there were things to learn. Swinging, or 'the lifestyle' as everyone called it, had its own rules of behavior. Emma explained it that first night when they were sitting around talking. "Someone I know published a list she called The Unwritten Rules," she said. She opened a drawer in the stand next to the couch and pulled out a sheet of paper. "Here's the list.

1. Douching before meating is desirable, but not necessary (women only!)

2. Plucking of unsightly hairs from nipples is desired (women... and Italian men)

3. Shaving of armpits and legs is desired (women only)

4. Shaving/trimming of facial hair is a must

5. Shaving/trimming of pubic hair is appreciated

6. Breaking wind is only allowed during orgasm

7. Perfume/cologne/body lotion should only be applied to body parts that won't be licked, sucked, nibbled, or kissed

8. Cleaning of genitalia between sex acts may be desired, but not necessary

9. Sweat should be wiped from body parts if dripping is encountered

10. If you aren't gonna eat what's in front of you, please get the fuck outta the way so someone else can

11. Grabbing, feeling, sucking, licking, kissing, and nibbling of any body parts (spouse or otherwise) is acceptable, whenever and wherever the urge strikes

12. In the event of snow, women are allowed time off from the sextivities to make naked snow-angels

13. When in doubt about any listed rules, see rule 30 below

14. For added thrills, sex may take place on any balcony or other semi-secluded public place that is accessible

15. Lighting is optional; full brilliance or dimmed. Candles are an acceptable substitute

16. Position and place of sex is determined by the parties involved. These may include, but are not limited to: floor, couch, recliner, stove, kitchen table, coffee table, bathtub, washing machine, clothes dryer, TV, bed, pool, Hot tub, car hood, sidewalk, garage, driveway, passenger compartment of any motor vehicle, balcony, front/back yard, putting greens, basement, pool table, attic, or motorcycle

17. Sex is not permitted where signs are posted prohibiting such activities

18. Sex with rodents, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and other small animals may not be tolerated

19. Spectating is permitted only during breaks in the action. Short glances during the sex act are permissible as long as you don't miss a stroke or ignore who you are with

20. The wearing of ties is not permitted... except when rope is unavailable

21. Substitution of sex partners is only allowed in case of a beer/food/cigarette run

22. If tampons are encountered during cunnilingus, it is acceptable for the man to extract the aforementioned obstacle with his teeth and discard it... at his discretion

23. "No" means "NO!"... even if you have to say it twice, and slap your partner

24. Background music adds to the ambiance (rap excluded)

25. Kissing your partner after cunnilingus/fellatio is a nice touch

26. Breaks may be taken at any time as deemed necessary, and should NOT be considered the end of the sextivities. The remaining participants may keep on humping, sucking, licking, kissing, nibbling, etc., etc., etc.

27. The use of toys is permitted, if agreed upon by all parties involved (the use of 220 volt power tools should be only by prior agreement and never in wet areas)

28. Blindfolds, ball-gags, earplugs, and restraints may be used to enhance erotic pleasures

29. Kitchen utensils may be substituted for store-bought toys

30. Kinky can be good

31. Visiting neighbors may be invited to participate in the festivities

69. A good swinging time is to be had by all!!

"The most important rule," Emma said, "is the simplest. "No!" means No. If you tell someone you aren't interested, they have to respect it. This whole lifestyle is based around freedom of choice and respecting that freedom. There are a few other things not on the list that I have to cover. Always respect closed doors - if a couple has closed the door behind them, they want privacy, so give it to them. How would you like it someone came barging in on you in your most intimate moment? Next, ask before trying something with someone. Just because you want to, does not mean they want to. There are certain things some people feel uncomfortable doing. Always be courteous to others; that may go without saying, but I'll say it anyway. And finally, some couples have rules they've agreed to between themselves; you must respect them.

"Most of these are commonsense, but you have to learn them. If you don't, I will ask you to leave, and you will never be invited back."

She brought her attention back to the highway. The wind had picked up and it was snowing again. The radio was talking about a couple of inches at least before morning, maybe more. That just meant she'd have to leave earlier than she'd planned. She'd listen to the radio in the morning, but her sales meeting was at 1:00 p.m. It was only about 130 miles on the freeway, so she shouldn't have too many problems. She saw her exit up ahead. She smiled at the memory of the last time she'd taken this exit. It had been 85º outside that day. Now it was 22º and the wind was blowing.

She'd wondered what to wear to Emma's. When she was in high school she would wear something revealing and sexy to the party. She still had those clothes, though she hadn't worn them in nearly two years. Instead, tonight, she was wearing jeans, boots, and a sweater over her blouse. Sexy was good, but she was going to be warm. She'd freeze her behind off if she drove up here in sexy clothes. She had her business clothes in a dress bag in the back seat, but that was for tomorrow. And she'd brought some food with her; potato salad - one of the unwritten rules at Emma's was to bring food or something for snacking.

The houses on the street looked the same, though two had been repainted a different color. Emma's house now had a low hedge, and the trim on the house had been repainted. The street had been repaved, the parking lot at the grange now had white lines and there were more cars parked there than she remembered. It looked like a full house.

Emma was wearing a conservative gray dress with a white collar and white lapels. "I'm glad you could make it," she said, greeting Devlin with a hug.

"It feels like the first time I came here," Devlin said. "But without one of the worries I had that night."

"You're not 15," Emma said, "you're 19 and legal."

"That's part of it. Older and wiser."

Emma glanced down at the potato salad. "Let's put that in the kitchen, then you can socialize."

"Did you bring that bra I called you about? Or should we stop by the store tomorrow and get it?"

"I brought it home with me," Emma said. "I brought two of them, and I'll put them in your purse. Did you remember to bring your blood test?"

"I got it this afternoon," Devlin said, handing over the documents.

Emma studied them, finally nodding. "Very well. You're current and you're healthy."

The food was laid out on the kitchen table in buffet style. Devlin fixed herself a quick dinner: a ham sandwich, potato salad, a bit of casserole, some iced tea, in minutes she felt like a new woman.