Chapter 21

"So that was the end?" Sherri asked.

I sheepishly shrugged. "Yeah. We went back to the motel and spent the rest of the evening in each other's arms. We had sex in the morning and dallied as long as we could. Our original plan was to go visit the Canyon again, but in the end, we didn't make it. Spending the time together was more important."

Sherri gave a knowing smile and nodded. "So what happened when you dropped Tina off at her parents'?"

"We spent a long time saying goodbye." I sighed with the memories. "While we hugged, she fought back tears and they got a little contagious." I looked at Sherri, who still smiled benevolently at me. "We only pulled apart when her dad came out onto the porch, crossing his arms. I drove back to Tucson and continued getting ready to move."

"Did you two talk about what was going to happen to your relationship?"

I shook my head. Then I let out a long, slow sigh. I stared out into space, not really focusing or thinking. It was a better question than I wanted to admit.

"That's probably the thing I regret the most," I finally said. "I was too afraid of hurting her to actually say 'We're breaking up' or 'I assume we'll both date other people now.'" I started to tremble a little. "Instead, I let myself believe that she already understood that, or she wouldn't have been crying."

Sherri reached over and took my hand. Her touch steadied me.

"So did you? Date other people?"

I shook my head. "That summer, I was too busy settling into this apartment, and getting used to the new job and the new city. I barely had time to do anything else." I looked up at Sherri and realized my breathing was returning to normal. "I did talk to Sharon regularly, still, and Tina and I wrote letters, but mostly I was just really working hard."

Sherri tilted her head. "So were you thinking about Tina? Or thinking about dating someone new?"

I snorted. "I wasn't thinking about women at all. Except as ... you know, part of my fantasies."

Sherri looked skeptical, almost frowning at me in disbelief.

"It's not like I did anything about it," I said. "I wasn't even sending stories to Sharon, since I didn't know if my new employer monitored my usenet access or not. I didn't even have a chance to do anything about my fantasies until Allen's bachelor party..."

Sherri raised her eyebrows.

"I suppose I should tell you about it..."

The heat blasted me the moment I stepped off the plane in Las Cruces. True, it was a dry heat, unlike the swamp I was adapting to in DC, but it still made me long for permanent personal air conditioning. More surprising, it triggered thoughts of Tucson, which skittered through my mind at odd moments. Things like the décor and the views out the window looked almost familiar, though I'd never seen them before.

My disorientation continued as I approached the rental car counter. I'd never had enough money to rent a car before. Of course, I'd also never had the need. But I knew no one in Las Cruces other than Allen and Jenna and it would have been silly to have them schlep me around.

I chuckled. It wasn't like they hadn't already done a lot for me. Allen had arranged my hotel room and taken care of the tuxes. A local friend of his had planned the bachelor party. All I had to do was show up and, eventually, stand up with Allen.

That, too, felt surreal. I'd watched him on the prowl too much to imagine him saying "I do" forever. Then again, considering how he'd been with both Sharon and Jenna, maybe it wasn't so strange. Despite how hard he'd partied, and despite how hard he'd chased the ladies when he was single, he'd been devoutly monogamous once he was in a relationship.

He still liked to have fun, though. I remembered our conversation in Hooters, now a year and a half ago, when he'd talked about dating.

Which meant we'd probably have fun at the bachelor party later that night. I wondered just how far it would go...

I paused and looked at Sherri. "Have you ever worked a bachelor party?"

She grimaced. "A couple. When I first started escorting. I don't like them and I won't do them anymore."

"Why not?"

She sighed. "They get out of hand too easily. There's too many guys, and they're inevitably drunk. And they're egging each other on to do things they really shouldn't do."

"Yeah." I nodded, remembering. "I've heard of weddings that got called off because of what happened at the bachelor party."

"Exactly," she said with a firm nod. "And sometimes it's the other guests that break their marriage vows."

"But wait a second," I said, "don't you have married clients?"

Sherri pulled back. "Yes," she said, guarded.

"So what makes a party different?"

"Well, for one, there are witnesses."

I snorted.

"For two, a lot of these guys wouldn't do it if they weren't drunk and being egged on. With a single client, I can talk to him first, and find out if having sex with me is really what he wants."

"Why wouldn't he?" I asked, my eyes drifting down to her still bare breasts. I could still taste her juices on my lip.

"Because what he really wants is something else. Someone to listen, without nagging him. Someone he doesn't have to try to impress or please. Who will let him be the center of attention for once. There are a lot of reasons."

"So, do you still sleep with them?"

Sherri just looked at me for a moment, her tongue slightly parting her lips, as if savoring the words that were about to come out.

"If I think it will serve both him and his wife, yes."

I paused, and ran that sentence back through my brain. "Serve?"

"Yes."

"You're going to have to explain."

"I will," she said, "but not now. I'm going to have to go soon, and you should tell me about Allen's bachelor party first."

"You're going to have to go?"

Sherri smiled, and gave a small nod. "I do have other commitments."

I sighed. "But we'll be able to get together again?"

She nodded. "We'll discuss it after you tell me about the bachelor party."

"Okay."

I had no trouble finding the hotel. After checking in and calling Allen, I met him at his place so we could go pick up the tuxes. My pants were too long when I tried them on—apparently they'd gotten a number written down wrong when I'd phoned my measurements in. They said they'd fix it quickly, but that left Allen and me hanging out with nothing to do. After I while, I turned to him.

"So," I said, "what's the plan for tonight?"

"Andy's rented a suite at the hotel you're staying at. We're going to drink beer and play poker until the strippers arrive."

"Strippers? Plural?"

Allen grinned. "Yeah. They're supposed to do a lesbian show, too."

I raised my eyebrows. "And this is legal?"

"I'm not stupid enough to ask. It's Andy's problem if it's not."

"It's yours if it gets us busted."

Allen chuckled and shook his head. "Who's gonna bust us?"

"Granted," I said. "No one's going to talk."

"Not that it really matters," he said. "I already told Jenna what was going to happen."

I raised an eyebrow and looked him a question.

Allen shrugged. "Better than getting in trouble later."

I had to agree with that, but before I could comment, the sales clerk returned with my newly hemmed pants.

Afterward, we headed back to Allen and Jenna's. We hung out there with me trying to be as unobtrusive as possible, as Jenna and her mom fussed over last minute details and arrangements. Finally, Andy called and said we should come over to the hotel.

Andy greeted us at the door to the suite and promptly shoved a can of beer into each of our hands. "All right!" he called. With his dark, shoulder-length hair sticking in all directions, he looked like he'd either just gotten up or already been partying.

"Easy, bud," Allen said. "Plenty of time to party tonight." He still opened the beer and took a swig. I just hung onto mine until I found a corner where I could discreetly leave it. I knew I should have brought some wine, for me, even if none of the other guys wanted any.

We hung out and talked while we waited for the other guys to arrive. Andy was a few years younger than us, and had met Allen through a mountain biking group. Single, he made a lot of jokes about Allen taking on the 'ball and chain, ' to which Allen just rolled his eyes. Andy also appeared to be a strip club aficionado and told a couple of stories of picking strippers up for "private after-hours shows, if you know what I mean."

Yeah, I thought. We know what you mean. You're going nudge nudge, wink wink. Without the subtlety of nudge nudge, wink wink.

Fortunately, the other guys arrived before Andy'd finished his second beer. There were about ten of us in all when we headed out for dinner.

Once we'd returned, Andy and a couple of the guys set up a card table in the main room of the suite. The beer started flowing again, but there were Cokes as well, so I didn't have to keep holding a beer can. Once the table was ready, the poker chips and cards magically appeared.

We played for low stakes; nickel, dime, quarter, with a maximum two dollar raise. The dealer called the game, and way too many of the guys kept declaring variants like Baseball or Indian Poker. We weren't playing poker so much as throwing money and cards around the table.

Then, around ten, we heard a hard knock on the door.

Andy checked his watch and grinned, wide-eyed. "Our entertainment has arrived," he announced.

A couple of the guys clapped and Allen smiled. Andy bounded for the door, while the rest of us picked up the cards and chips. Moments later, two women, a brunette and a blonde cloaked in shapeless coats, walked in, waved quickly to us, and then disappeared into the suite's bedroom.

"Let's get this place cleared while they get ready," Andy said.

We moved the table to one side and arranged the chairs in a circle, turning the center of the main room into an informal stage. After slipping briefly into the bedroom for a consultation, Andy returned with a cassette tape which he slid into a boom box he'd produced from somewhere. Meanwhile, the rest of us found chairs and perches for our drinks around the perimeter. The door opened an inch and a hand poked out, the index finger pointing at Andy. He pushed the play button on the tape deck.

Alice in Chain's Man in the Box throbbed from the speakers. As the bass guitar ground through its riffs, the bedroom door opened the rest of the way. The brunette, and then the blonde, strode out, wearing bikinis and heels.

They strutted around the circle, stopping for just a second in front of every guy to either turn, undulate, or shake their tits at him. Given how big those breasts were, I was sure the girls had no qualms about silicone. They also had no qualms about makeup, with their eyes almost rimmed in black with thick eyeliner and their lips painted deep, deep candy red.

When they'd completed the circuit, the girls moved to the middle of the circle, where they struck poses, turned, and struck poses again. It was too stationary and off the music's rhythm to call dancing. The brunette looked a question at Andy, who pointed at Allen. She tapped the blonde on the shoulder and they turned to face the groom.

"I'm Fawn," the brunette said, "and this is Giselle. And we're going to rock your world!"

A bunch of the guys cheered, and then the girls strutted over to Allen, stopping a foot in front of him.

"C'mon, big boy," Fawn said.

Allen rolled his eyes, but didn't resist when the girls pulled him to his feet and brought him to the center of the room. They started undulating and moving side to side, slowly shifting around him as he stood still. After repeated encouragement, he started moving as well, though much closer to the beat. Then Giselle stepped in front of him, turned around, and ground back into him. Allen didn't have a chance to resist her ass pushing into his crotch, because Fawn stepped up behind him and ground her own crotch into his ass. They'd formed a three person conga line of dirty dancing.

Then Fawn reached down and grabbed Allen's arms, raising his hands up and in front of their line. Giselle took over from Fawn and grabbed Allen's hands, pulling them to her breasts. She then held them there, not letting him pull away.

"Oh, Baby," she growled, as she used Allen's hands to fondle herself.

The girls released Allen for just long enough to turn around and do the same trick, forcing him to fondle Fawn's tits. Allen just rolled his eyes. When they released him, he tried to slide back to his chair.

"Not so quick, big boy," Fawn commanded. She pointed to the floor. "Kneel."

The other guys started laughing and, nervously, I joined in. Allen dropped to his knees, which put his head just below Fawn's breasts. She swayed back and forth in front of him, shaking them as if they were a martini needing mixing. Meanwhile, Giselle slipped behind her and unhooked her top. Fawn shrugged her shoulders, letting the bikini bra slide off and drop to the floor. She continued to shake her tits at Allen, pushing them closer to his face and then pulling back.

Giselle mimed drinking from a can to Andy, who pointed at Allen's beer. She retrieved it and stood to Fawn's side as the music shifted to Motley Crue's Girls, Girls, Girls. It was more pounding heavy metal at a volume too loud to ignore but not loud enough to lose myself in.

"Ready for some nipple beer?" Giselle asked Allen.

He smiled. "Sure."

Fawn thrust out her chest and Giselle tilted the beer can above one of Fawn's breasts.

"Open your mouth," Giselle told Allen, who complied. Then she slowly poured the beer out. It ran in a small rivulet down across Fawn's nipple, and then dropped into Allen's mouth a few inches below. She stopped pouring long enough to let him swallow.

"I think you need more," Fawn declared, taking the bottle from Giselle. Fawn held the bottle over her other nipple, and, when Allen was ready, started a second stream running across her flesh and then past his lips.

Giselle whipped off her top, revealing very large areolae. Maybe they were real, I mused. She took the beer bottle back.

"Might as well do them all," she said, nudging Fawn aside.

Allen snorted and opened his mouth.

While Giselle was administering Allen's next two nipple beers, making sure he got an ample stream from each breast, Fawn turned to the rest of us.

"Five bucks for anyone else," she said.

Guys started reaching for their wallets. After a minute, I realized I was the only one who wasn't, and fumbled for my own cash.

Giselle released Allen to his chair and then the two girls worked the room, having each guy kneel down to receive his shot. When Fawn got to me, I was surprised at how close her nipple really was to my lips—almost within reach, really. I leaned in an inch and she pulled back an inch, grinning. I sat back, and she moved closer. Apparently three inches was the designated nipple beer distance. I swallowed my mouthful of beer quickly, barely tasting it.

After they'd finished their rounds, the girls started dancing in front of Allen again. They posed and postured and turned, shaking their boobs and their asses in his face. Giselle broke away to put their wads of cash in her bag while Fawn picked up Allen's beer can again.

"You know what comes after nipple beer?" she asked, sliding the can across her areolae, the cold making the nipple harden.

Allen shook his head.

Giselle stood beyond Fawn and grabbed the strings of Fawn's bikini bottom. "Bush Beer!" With the roar of the room as accompaniment, she yanked it down, exposing Fawn completely to us all.

I leaned to the side for a better look, while Fawn pulled Allen into the center of the room once again and Giselle stripped off her own g-string. Both had shaved their pubes into the ubiquitous racing stripe, but not recently, as the stubble still showed. That didn't stop them from straddling Allen's head, once they'd pushed him to his back on the floor, holding their pussies about a foot away from his face.

I was fascinated. I was disgusted. No woman had ever been so aggressive with me, and here were two at the same time. Yet these two... it was too brazen, too crass.

That didn't stop the other guys from laughing and joking and getting more and more into it. The music switched to Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar on Me and Andy started passing out new beers to the guys who'd drained theirs. He also dashed to the bathroom and returned with a towel. I followed his sight to Allen, whose face was now covered with beer. Fawn hadn't poured just a trickle onto her mound, but let loose a small river.

Giselle turned to the rest of us. "Ten dollars!"

Most of the guys started reaching for their wallets again. Allen finished toweling off and returned to his chair. He shot me a sheepish look and then leaned back. Andy pressed another beer into his hand before Giselle pulled Andy to the floor and straddled him for a bush beer.

When the last of the interested guys had returned to his feet and accepted the towel now being passed around, Fawn retrieved a gym bag from the bedroom. She stood next to Giselle, who swayed not quite on the beat, and looked at Allen.

"I believe you wanted a lesbian show," she said loudly.

Allen snorted, smiled, and nodded.

Fawn reached into the bag. "Well, why don't we start with this!"

She held up a floppy, two-headed dildo. Andy and two other guys cheered and started clapping. The girls dropped to the floor, spread their legs facing each other, and put the toy between them. As Giselle began lining one head up with her slit, Fawn gestured to Allen and then the rest of us.

"C'mon," she said, "get closer so you can see better."

Oh gawd. On the one hand, I really wanted to see this. The stories I'd read had my imagination on fire. On the other hand, it was already far less than I'd ever expected. Curiosity got the better of me, though, and I joined the other guys in a standing circle around the girls.

Each of them used a little lube from a bottle that appeared from the gym bag, and then inserted the dildo between her lower lips. Loudly calling "ooh!" and "ahh!", they edged forward until the dildo had disappeared completely within their pussies. When their mounds touched, Fawn grabbed Giselle by the scruff of her neck, pulled her forward, and stuck her tongue in the blonde's mouth.