Chapter 93

Later, after using the equipment on Tina, Jeff met Frank in the hallway. "So how long are you two going to put off your trip?"

Instead of answering, Frank motioned toward the kitchen. "I think better with a cup of coffee in my hand. I guess the same goes for talking. Let's get a cup and let me run some things by you."

Some couple of minutes later, they were sitting at the big kitchen table, coffee and a chunk of the big wedding cake in front of them.

Frank cut each of them a piece out of the chunk. Taking a bite, he said, "This is the best cake I think I've ever tasted."

Jeff chuckled. "You say that every time you eat one of Diana's cakes."

"Well, hell. It's always true," Wainwright joked.

The men ate cake and sipped their coffee in silence for a time, finally, "I need to ask you some things," Wainwright said.

"Shoot. I don't have any secrets from you. You know that."

Frank sat staring at the wall for a moment, then turning to Jeff, "About this thing with Tina, Margaret is pushing me to go ahead and marry the girl. Shit, Jeff, I just met her..."

Jeff's laughter drowned out Frank's comment. "Do you honestly think you're going to get sympathy from me?" After a moment he continued with, "Seems like I just said that a while back. Anyway, look around you, my friend, I have nine wives, and my Queen sent me, sent me now, to go and bring her mother to our bed last night. Not to mention that Kayla is now one of my mates, as you know."

"Yeah, but Jeff, that's you. We're talking about me — an old man. Hell, I'm almost fifty, for crying out loud. Fifty."

"Yeah, and your face looks forty or less, and you have the body of a very athletic twenty-five year old. You could look any age you want, and we both know it. You chose to look a little older because of your business. And ... how many times did you make love to your bride last night, hmmm? Just like I found out, and Fred found out, you can go as long as you need to, and your women can touch you while you're making love to one of them, and the ones touching you will get just as much out of it as the woman you're making love to. Arlene says that she even has the same aftereffects."

"Aftereffects?"

"Yeah, sore, stretched feeling, she claims."

"That's..."

"Yeah. About what I thought, too," Jeff said.

Frank hesitated and Jeff continued. "If you're actually asking me if you can take care of two women..."

But Frank was shaking his head. "No. I'm really not worried much about that. Since Little One did her thing, if Margaret wants me again, my dick just gets back up again. If I need it, it's there, and I seem to never run out of come. But this is so quick, and Margaret is so sure."

Jeff broke in with, "Do you love Tina?"

"That's just it. I do love her. It happened just like that," he said, snapping his fingers. "Margaret said Tina was the one, and told me to kiss her. It was almost like a spark as she got in my personal space — just like with Margaret. It just isn't ... natural. How can I fall in love that quickly? How can Tina?"

"You've always been an Alpha; now you're an enhanced Alpha — nearer to being what you were intended to be, I guess. Little One doesn't seem to find it unusual for an Alpha or a Prime to fall in love almost instantly, or his mates with him. She sends me mental images that I don't understand every time I try to talk to her about the subject. All I know is I love my women. The first ones came along gradually — well kind of, but I'm beginning to give up to it now."

"So why haven't you married Kayla and the girls, then?"

Jeff took another bite of cake, then washed it down with a sip of coffee, thinking. Finally, he sighed, "Good point. It still seems strange to me to fall in love so quickly, too, I guess. But you're right; I do love them. Maybe I just know it's logical that I take care of the girls. And Kayla, she's ... a warrior. They put her in, or she put herself in, the wrong profession. I'm sure she's a good anthropologist, but she takes naturally to battle. She has battle reflexes ... and battle instincts. I guess the General figured her out and sent her to be my security. Last level, as I think he put it. He seemed proud of sending her to take care of the girls. But he knew what would happen. The son-of-a-bitch didn't earn the rank by being stupid," he said with a grin. "He suckered me all the way. But suckered or not, I came out of it with a fine mate."

"And when are you going to marry her?"

"Soon. I'll leave that to my Queen. She'll tell me when. Only fight the battles you can win, my friend. Only the ones you can win."

The men pushed back from the table. "I can't believe we ate that whole big piece," Wainwright said.

"Ah, they knew we would. That's the reason they left it here on the table," Jeff commented. As if on cue, Margaret, Tina and Diana walked in. Margaret plopped down in Frank's lap, while Tina sat next to them. Diana slid a chair next to her husband and sat, taking his hand.

"Selina still with Helen?" Frank asked.

"Yeah," Margaret answered. "They seem enthused with each other — and that's an understatement."

"So you guys have decided to wait a few days before leaving on your honeymoon? I'll be glad to watch out for Selina, if you change your mind about leaving." Tina said.

The newlyweds looked at each other, then Margaret reached over and grabbed Tina's hand. "No. It's more than Selina. But we have definitely decided to wait a few days," Margaret said.

Frank cleared his throat. "We ... the three of us, need to get to know each other a little better before Margaret and I leave for a week."

"What about Bill? How many trips is his group going to be making to get all your guests home?" Jeff asked.

"They're taking one group back today, then laying over in Saint Louis and coming back in the morning. We have chartered planes lined up for the rest of the guests. Heck, a lot of them are home already, I guess."

The kitchen door burst open. Jeff's younger wives, Kayla, and the new girls trooped in. "Okaaay," Arlene laughed out. "Nobody here but us chickens. Time to have some fun. No use letting all those snowmobiles that Frank has bought us go to waste. What about a ride around the long trail, huh, Husband?" she said, plopping down in Jeff's lap and kissing him hard on the mouth.

"You forgot about Selina," Jeff said when Arlene finally took her mouth from his. "She's too small to be riding around a rough trail on a snowmobile."

Arlene laughed. "Don't bet on that, but she and Helen seem to be attached at the hip right now. I just talked to Helen and she said she wasn't interested in going. The two of them headed back to our classroom after lunch. They'll probably be there a while."

Nat, Nicki and Whitney crowded around and Arlene soon relinquished her seat as the three took their turn to kiss Jeff.

Diana stood, laughing. "Enough, Girls. The man won't be able to stand in polite company if you keep that up?"

"What polite company," Laura chuckled as she mussed Frank's hair while standing behind him.

Soon, dressed in snowmobile outfits, the clan met in the back. As Jeff started to get on one of the snowmobiles, expecting Diana to ride with him, Arlene grabbed his hand. "Ride with me. I'm driving. You've only been around the trail once. There are some great places to get airborne if your speed is just right."

"Oh, shit," Jeff muttered under his breath, remembering Arlene's trip down the driveway on the snowboard.

Kayla grabbed Tina before she could feel left out. "Come on. You ride with me. Let the newlyweds slug along behind."

Arlene barely managed to get her machine started and moving before Kayla and Tina managed theirs. Jeff grabbed hold as Arlene opened the throttle and held it there.

A few minutes later: She drives an Escalade like a tottering old lady, but she has one speed on a snowmobile — wide open. Then, I'm going to die, Jeff thought as Arlene went over the first hump, the engine suddenly screaming as the track spun free.

"Matthews' residence. Ann speaking."

"Hey, Baby. How're things on the hill?"

"Oh hi, Fred. Things are great on the 'hill, '" she giggled. "Boy, you sound good. Got a good tan yet?"

Fred chuckled. "Yep, and a little of it is all over."

"Can I put you on speaker? Everyone is in the living room."

"Sure. I'm putting you on speaker here, too, so we can all talk."

After greetings from everyone, "So where are you guys?" Jeff asked.

There was a tittering of female laughter, then Fred said, "Well..."

"We're not far from a nude beach at Playalinda Beach, Florida," Carla said.

"Where in the heck is that?" Jeff asked, laughing.

"It's a beach on the Cape Canaveral National Seashore property," Jessica supplied, giggling. "We had a ball there today."

"Well, we did most of the time," Fred laughed.

"What?" Brenda broke in laughing. "I had a great time — all the time."

All Fred's women laughed.

"Okay, tell us all," Diana said.

Fred started with, "Well, you know there always has to be one. We had been playing in the water..."

"All of you nude?" Arlene broke in.

"Yeah," Fred continued. "Well, we had a couple of boards out in the water. There wasn't enough surf to do anything, and none of us could ride a board very well, anyway. So we were just paddling around and having a good time with the small waves. Brenda and Carla were thirsty, so they decided to go back up on the beach to get a soft drink out of our cooler..."

"Oh, shit," Jeff said. "You didn't kill anybody did you?"

Fred's chuckle came over the phone. "No. He only has a broken nose — I got there in time to save his life. This idiot wanted to play grab ass with Brenda. She told him to back off when he ... felt her up. I guess he figured he could get a good feel of her breasts, then be gone before I could get through the water to the beach, then get to him. Either that, or he was just plain stupid. Anyway..."

Audrey broke in with, "Brenda snap kicked him in the nose. Boy, did he bleed. We borrowed a kid's sand bucket and poured sea water on him to bring him to. He was a bit groggy when he left, but he was very anxious to leave."

"He was stretched out on the ground with his nose rearranged by the time I managed to get out of the water," Fred said, chuckling.

"I didn't kick him hard," Brenda objected. "I pulled the kick. I didn't want to risk driving cartilage into his brain."

"I'll bet his version didn't mention anything about her pulling the kick," Jessica laughed.

"Well, anyway," Carla said, "That got us all ... excited. We had to cut the beach time short and go back to the RV for a little ... well you know."

At the retreat, the new girls' faces were red, but they were giggling like crazy while holding their hands over their mouths.

"What was really funny," Jessica said, "was Fred yelling to Brenda, 'Don't kill him, Baby. Don't kill him, Baby, ' as he was trying to get to shore. People were looking at him like he was crazy, but when Brenda kicked the asshole and the blood splattered everywhere, they all seemed to have someplace they needed to go — in a hurry."

"Boy, I wish I could have seen that," Jeff said when the laughter died down.

Jessica spoke up, "Well ... now that you mention it, this cute guy had videoed it, and he was..."

"Overjoyed," Fred offered.

Jessica laughed, "'Overjoyed' to offer me a copy of the video. He thought he was going to get lucky," she giggled. "Anyway, I let him have one of my flash drives, and he copied the video to it, so you'll get to see it when we get back. Or better yet, I'll e-mail you the file."