Chapter 80

In her suite, Linda lay on her bed, her pants and panties pulled down below her butt. Sighing, she aimed the remote toward the television as Jeff, Joyce and Caitlin gathered their equipment.

That was so sexy. All Dave will do is suck my nipples and play with my pussy a little through my clothes. I'll wait until we're married to have that big dick of his up me, but it's time he taught me some of the other things. I know that there has been a lot going on, but we need to set a date. It's way past time.

Pulling her things the rest of the way off her legs, she went to clean up and put on fresh panties. Dressed a little later, she went to help with lunch.

Caitlin didn't fire a single round after all, but if she thought of it, she didn't mention it. She, Joyce and Jeff kissed and hugged as they gathered their equipment. Walking toward the garage, both women had an arm around Jeff.

After storing their equipment and closing the garage door, Jeff picked Caitlin up and threw her over his shoulder.

"Jeff, put me down," she demanded kicking her feet and laughing.

He ignored her, hugged Joyce to him and walked toward the house. With his hand on Caitlin's ass to keep her on his shoulder, he found that he could sneak his thumb between her legs to caress her clit and pussy as they walked. Caitlin's squeals of indignation soon turned to quiet moans and gasps. When he put her on her feet near the kitchen, her face was flushed from more than the ride on his shoulder.

As they entered the kitchen where Diana and Laura were beginning preparations for lunch, Diana hugged her husband, then Joyce and Caitlin. "We watched you guys with the security system," Diana said while pulling her long hair back and tying it out of her way.

Caitlin slapped her hand over her mouth. "Oh my gosh. I mean, we knew that you didn't mind. It's just..."

"Sexy as it could be," Diana laughed.

"I'm so embarrassed," Caitlin whispered. "I never thought about the security system. Could you see... everything?"

Joyce just stood and grinned.

"Are you kidding?" Diana teased. "That's Frank Wainwright's system. We could see the come on your cheek and hear every word."

"Oh ... my ... gosh," Caitlin whispered. "I think I'm going to just die of embarrassment."

"Why?" Diana laughed. "You're shortly going to be part of a multiple marriage. Oh, occasionally our husband will pick us up and carry us into a room to make love to us in private, but with our connection between all of us, it makes little difference. Oh, the others won't feel it as intensely if he does that, but there is no such thing as doing it without all our sister-wives knowing — and feeling our lovemaking. If we're very close, or touching, it's almost as intense for the rest of us as it is for the one who is actually experiencing it."

Caitlin's face still blazed red. "Why aren't you embarrassed?" she asked, turning to Joyce.

Joyce just grinned at her. "The question is, why are you? We didn't make love to your dad separately. I don't remember your being overly embarrassed then."

"Yeah, but ... Oh, we practically grew up together."

Laura, who had been standing back just listening, stepped over and hugged Caitlin. "We'll soon be your sister-wives. Then after our man fucks you unconscious a time or two in that big bed with the rest of us, you will wonder why you were ever embarrassed."

During their conversation, Jeff had been making coffee, trying diligently to act like he wasn't paying any attention to their conversation.

Remembering that he had left his favorite mug in the living room, he had just decided to go and get it when Diana turned to him. "I got a call just a few minutes before you three came in. Patton (the criminal defense attorney) should be here in thirty minutes or so — assuming he doesn't get lost. He's bringing Fontaine (the Denver attorney that Jeff used before {civil litigation and business attorney}) with him, plus each of their assistants."

Jeff grinned down at her. "It takes two lawyers and their assistants to critique Joyce's letter that she took thirty minutes to write?"

Diana reached up and absently adjusted his polo shirt collar. "That shirt looks good on you," she quietly said, wanting to take up where Joyce and Caitlin left off. Mentally shaking herself, she brought her mind back to business. "I got the impression that they were more interested in seeing the retreat. Patton suggested that they stop at Kentucky Fried in Winter Park to bring lunch with them, but I thanked him and said that we already had it started. Maybe both of them want to check out how we live."

Jeff shrugged. "From the looks of Fontaine's office, he's a far cry from being a pauper. And if this other guy is the hotshot defense attorney that Fontaine says he is, well ... I guess there are worse things than having a couple of lawyers take personal interest in us, so long as they don't look too closely." After a moment, he continued, "I probably need to straighten my office a little. They're probably going to want access to a printer..."

"Laura and I have been thinking about that. Suppose we grill some steaks on the big deck. We can seat you, Joyce and the four legal people at one of the tables to the side. We'll make sure you have a table with plenty of extra room. The rest of us can eat together to give you privacy. You can just have a business lunch. I'm sure it will take Laura all of a minute to grant them access to a printer on our system. Heck, I'll just move one onto the deck to make it convenient when they decide to print something."

"Whatever," Jeff said, not too excited about doing anything extra for an attorney that he didn't even know. "Just make sure that the girls keep it cool while these people are around. I don't know Fontaine well enough to trust him yet, let alone this other guy or their people. Be sure to introduce Alesha to them. If they want to think that we're a sucker to take in 'lost souls, ' it probably wouldn't hurt to distract their thinking in that direction."

Diana smiled at his worry. "We were careful to introduce Laura as your assistant, and Helen as the girls' teacher when we talked to Fontaine before. We'll do the same for Patton. Just be sure to keep your pheromones reined in so their assistants don't start after you."

Seeing the look on Jeff's face, Diana continued, "In addition to what Fontaine said about the guy being good, Laura, Helen and I did a little research on Mr. Tyler Patton. He's been involved in several very big cases, and he's old money as well. He comes from a family of attorneys that go back generations. I suspect that he is a bit full of himself, judging from the tone of some of the articles, but the guy darn sure doesn't have to work for a living."

At Jeff's deepening frown, Diana went on, "Old money," she repeated. "Notice how Frank acts. He's old money, regardless of how much more he's added to his empire."

Jeff sighed. "Baby, I don't know why, but whatever you're telling me just went right over my head. Who cares if the guy is 'old money?' I don't give a crap how rich he is so long as he takes care of this thing with Joyce."

"Oh, I'm confident that our new wife-to-be will have her problems solved shortly," Diana said, winking at Joyce, "but my interest in Mr. Patton is for other reasons. I'll let you know after we've been around him for a while."

Jeff had long since figured out that what he didn't know about females would take volumes to write, and what he did know would take about a page — subject to frequent change.

"So you want me..."

"To fire up the big grill on the South deck. Do you want to grill the steaks?" she actually managed to ask with a straight face.

Jeff didn't bother to answer. Damned if he was going to screw up a great piece of meat when he had a house full of fantastic cooks who all seemed to work on the same wavelength.

He goosed Laura and took off for the deck before they came up with something else for him to do. Laura took three or four steps after Jeff, but by then he was already through the door and gone. Turning back to the others, she grinned, her nipples tenting the front of her top.

Patton, Fontaine and Jeff walked over to the side of the deck to look out over the grounds. The deck was constructed such that three sides were the building itself with the third side open. Even it could be closed off from the outside with a large sliding glass wall that closed with the press of a button. In the winter, a glass roof could be moved into place just as easily to keep out the cold and snow.

Patton casually leaned on the railing before looking down. Tensing up, he said, "I didn't realize that we were that high up. It must be thirty feet to the ground."

Jeff chuckled, as Fontaine leaned over a little to look down as well. "Yeah, most doors don't open at ground level, and all the decks are well off the ground. We have a few bears around, one that I got introduced to a little more intimately than I wanted," he laughed. "Plus with the volume of snow we have here in the winter, not to mention the drifts, well it just makes sense. Although I think the height here is more a matter of function than anything else. Of course my knowledge of the snow isn't personal — yet, but Frank tells us we're going to be in for a surprise," he finished, chuckling.

"I didn't notice any decks when we drove up," Fontaine said.

Jeff smiled at him. "The architect knew what he was doing, obviously. Generally, the decks are secluded and part of the architecture, and either can't be seen from ground level, or else are not very noticeable."

"Who built this ... you call it the retreat, don't you?"

"Frank Wainwright had it built. If you mean the builder himself, it was Henson Construction."

"Henson built this place? Small world," Patton laughed.

"Why? Do you know the guy?" Fontaine asked.

"Sure do. He built my lake house for me. I wanted a number of truly special things done. Instead of bidding the house, he talked me into going with total cost plus fifteen percent. It's a big place and I damn sure could have had it built cheaper, but he and that little wife of his delivered. It took a while to convince a couple of the people who I bought specialty items from that Henson wouldn't accept anything unless it was perfect — and I do mean perfect — but after that, things went smoothly. I've never had any regrets. I'd recommend his outfit any day."

Looking around him for a moment, Patton continued, "I'd like to see some of your, uh..."

"Home," Jeff supplied, grinning.

Patton chuckled, " ... home," he finished. "I'm sure if Henson built it, it is worth the tour."

"We'll have to do that after lunch," Jeff agreed. But you damn sure aren't going to see our suite, he silently added.

Fortunately, Fontaine kept the focus on Henson. "I know Henson from Denver. He's getting into redevelopment there and just starting to make the transition from managing everything himself to managing his bosses and making deals. Didn't you introduce him as your project manager, Jeff?"

"Yeah," Jeff agreed. His assistant is running Henson Construction now, or at least transitioning into it."

They continued light conversation until Diana called them to eat.

As Diana was seating the four legal people, she said, "Instead of having something more elaborate for lunch, we thought you might want to get down to business. Joyce has a copy of the recording. So we'll get out of your hair and finish up our food preparations."

After determining how each person wanted their steak cooked, she left Joyce, Jeff and the others at their table.

Joyce passed out a copy of her letter draft that she had written to her department. After everyone had read it, she played the recording. When it was over, there was silence for a while. Finally, Patton said, "That's ... very ... intense."

"And that's an understatement," Patton's assistant added.

"And this is a copy from the recorder at the Sheriff's dispatch office?" Patton asked.

"Yes. The Sheriff brought it to me. I know that's my voice on the tape, but I'm embarrassed to say that I sound a whole lot more tense than I remember being," Joyce replied. "And this is a transcript of the recording, also given to me by Sheriff Tate," she said, handing out copies.

"We all sound differently on a recording than we sound to ourselves. When we talk and hear our own voices, part of what we perceive is through bone conduction. The recorder doesn't pick that up, of course, so others, and the recorder, hear our voice slightly differently than we do," the attorney lectured.

"Oh, I know that. And I've heard my voice before, even recorded on the department radio, but every time I hear that recording..."

"That must have truly been horrible to face that maniac," Carolyn, Patton's assistant said.

"Oh, I'm just being a woman, I guess. I've heard some of the guys kidding about things they have gotten into that were just as bad. I mean really gross kidding. And the guy that was in the incident didn't seem to care. He just laughed with the rest of them. I heard one deputy kidding the other, saying something like, 'Ah, the only reason you didn't crap in your pants was you were too scared to think about it.'

"And the other one just laughed and said, 'Oh, I thought about it. I was just too locked up to be able to do it.'" Joyce cleared her throat, desperately afraid that her voice was going to crack. Sighing, she continued, "I don't know whether I'll ever be able to laugh about this or not, but right now, it surely doesn't seem like it," she finished, embarrassed.

Jeff reached over and took Joyce's hand for a moment. "I've seen guys freeze up in combat ... and pay for it with their lives. Anyone who hears that tape would have to agree that you acted in an exemplary manner. I think you're implying that there is fear in your voice on that tape. I disagree. I only heard determination. You were desperately trying to save Ms. Turcott's life, and you knew what that .44 would do to you if he fired."

Patton cleared his throat. "Mr. Matthews — not that I don't enjoy taking your money," he teased, "but are you people positive that the DA is going to pursue this? And Deputy Cramer, I certainly have some recommendations for your written account that you're required to give to your Sheriff and his investigators, but those recommendations are to help protect you from any future legal actions. Otherwise, the letter is well written and concise."

Jeff leaned back crossing his legs, obviously taking a moment to think. "Mr. Patton, Sheriff Tate has impressed me — very much. He isn't certain of this, but he says that this assistant DA was — excuse me ladies — a real asshole to him. Tate tried to get the DA to assign someone else to investigate the incident, but was blown off by the DA. You're here because of the Sheriff's concern."

"But it doesn't make sense," Fontaine broke in. "Deputy Cramer all but gave her life to save Ms. Turcott. She has a recording of the incident that is standard procedure for all radio traffic at the Sheriff's department. The DA is going to make an idiot out of himself if he tries to prosecute her..."

"Seems like there have been several DAs in the news lately who fit into that category, but who doggedly tried to prosecute innocent people, anyway," Jeff replied.