Chapter 6

Pat and Maggie were finished shopping at Blue Mountain Lake. Pat had been strangely quiet. It wasn't like her. She was usually chattering away. It wasn't sullenness or bad humor. She wasn't giving Maggie a cold shoulder; she was pleasant enough when spoken to. She seemed too preoccupied to share whatever was going on in her mind.

Maggie accredited it to their leaving for home the next day. Maybe she was mulling over what had gone on the day before as she accosted Fred while they were swimming. Pat was usually a bundle of energy. Maggie thought that she might have used it all up for a while.

"Let's have some lunch at the restaurant where we ate the other night," Maggie suggested. Pat nodded and soon they were seated at a table at a window overlooking the lake. They gazed out at the peaceful water, the sun shimmering off of it. Pat was still quiet. Her eyes hinted of thoughts that were as deep as the lake, itself.

Maggie took an unusual role of leading the conversation. "It's been a nice vacation. Things turned out pretty well."

Pat didn't look away from the view of the lake. "Oh, yes. It's been better than I had even hoped for. It's gone so fast! It seems that we just got here." She continued looking out the window. "I hope that you're still not mad about my little game with Fred yesterday afternoon," she added.

"I never was—just worried." Maggie replied. "We set it up together with all our play-acting, the bikinis and everything. It was just moving so fast. Things like that can get out of control."

"It was fun, though," Pat grinned, turning her head to face her friend. She seemed to feel relief at having been forgiven. "I wouldn't have gone all the way with it... at least not without permission." She said the last part as a joke and laughed, but the words hung in the air. Maggie laughed, too. She wondered if she was laughing at the idea or to be polite.

They ordered their food with a glass of wine and chatted about the events of the trip. They laughed over the episode with the store-bought catch of Smallmouth Bass and how they knew that Fred was ogling them as they boated around the lake that first day. It had all been great fun, and it opened the way to do more things together after they returned home.

They were nearly done with their sandwich plates. Pat was quiet again for a moment and then spoke again.

"Charlie and I watched you and Fred in the lake last night." Her voice was soft and low. She paused a moment to wait for a reaction from her friend. Maggie blushed, but otherwise sat motionless. "It was beautiful. It was one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen," Pat told her.

"We didn't know that you were watching us. It just happened," Maggie said. "We didn't think that anyone could see us."

"We were wondering why you hadn't come in and Charlie went to the doorway to make sure that everything was alright. I joined him when he didn't come back right away. I arrived as Fred was helping you out of your bra," Pat explained. "We should have gone back to bed, but we couldn't; it was mesmerizing."

"We went quite a few yards out in the lake. I'm sure that you couldn't see much after that," Maggie answered, hopefully.

"Actually, we did. The moon was bright and you two were silhouetted against the blackness of the water. The cabin is elevated on a little knoll, so it's like being in a stadium."

"I'm so embarrassed!"

"Don't be!" Pat said. "Like I said, it was beautiful. Don't tell me I've ruined it for you. I'll be sorry that I brought it up."

"Nothing could ruin it," Maggie confided. "It was unbelievable. Everything just came together the right way. It may never happen again." Maggie was no longer blushing. She refused to be embarrassed. "Just don't mention that you saw us to Fred."

Their waiter appeared to ask if they wanted dessert. Maggie hesitated. She was unused to a big meal in the middle of the day.

"Let's have some!" Pat insisted. "It's our last day. We'll have some ice cream. I'll have strawberry. She'll have chocolate," she said to the waiter.

Maggie hadn't forgotten the ice cream comparison Pat had made about Fred and Charlie.Pat noticed the furrows on her brow.

"It's in honor of the boys," Pat assuaged her. "We've put them through their paces this week. They deserve a salute."

"It was good for them," Maggie put in whimsically, sounding half-convinced.

The ice cream arrived in glass, fluted cups on little pedestals. There were spoons with small business ends and long handles.

Pat put a little of her strawberry ice cream on her spoon and raised it slowly to her lips. Rather than insert the spoon in her mouth the usual way, she sensuously pursed her lips to capture it, tenderly sucking the ice cream into her mouth. Then, she pushed the tip of her tongue between her lips to clean the remaining drops from the spoon.

"Mmmm, tastes good!" she purred. "It tastes like Charlie; sweet, thick and creamy. The taste just lingers. It's delicious."

Maggie watched Pat. She knew that the display was about more than ice cream. She thought back to their earlier discussion about them watching Fred and her make love in the water. She was sure that Pat was reminding her that Charlie was also skillful at pleasing a woman.

It was true. Maggie remembered her good days with Charlie and her delights in their bed. He was such patient and thoughtful lover. He had an innate sense of how the parts of a woman's body merged with her feelings, and he knew how to time the stroking of each to mix them just right.

Maggie's reverie was broken as Pat placed her hand gently on top of hers. She reached slowly across the table with the long-handled spoon. Pat sunk it into Maggie's dish and lifted a generous mouthful.

"I'd like to taste the chocolate," she declared in a husky whisper, quietly, forcefully, piercing Maggie's eyes with her own. She slowly brought the ice cream to her mouth, fellating it off the spoon as she had done to the strawberry ice cream moments ago.

Maggie's brow oozed tiny beads of perspiration, and she trembled involuntarily. Pat's sensuous fingers caressed the top of Maggie's hand. They were meant to calm her, but had the opposite effect.

"The chocolate is delicious," Pat purred. "A strong, robust flavor overpowering the palette; not lingering on the tongue, but creating the desire for more."

Maggie sat frozen, feeling Pat's fingers gently stroking her hand, unable to speak or react.

"They're both so good. It's hard to choose," Pat went on. "Why should we have to choose?" she asked. "Why can't we enjoy both flavors once in a while?"

Maggie was shaking again. Pat's allusion was surely plain. The libertine attitude of the past week fought to take her over. It was winning. She fought back; it was against all convention.

"Of course, I would normally choose strawberry," Pat interjected in a soothing voice. "Strawberry is my favorite. I just like a taste of chocolate once every now and then."

Maggie's breathing became faster and more shallow. A rumbling started in her belly and a dampness began invading her panties. It all appeared so naughty, and sensual, daring—and delicious. Husbands on loan; what was the harm if all agreed? It could be a secret shared intimately by the four of them. She was aware that they had flirted with the possibility ever since they spoke of it at Pat's house. Then, it was just an exciting fantasy. It was so risky, and Maggie wondered if it was right or wrong.

"Would you like to try some of my strawberry?" Pat asked seductively and continued stroking her hand. She parted her lips and her tongue traveled out of her mouth like a lush sponge to wet them.

Pat pushed the dish of strawberry ice cream a few inches closer to Maggie. Her mind's eye fixed on the melting dessert. It was like staring at Charlie—nude, hard—preparing to transport her body to his private corner of nirvana.

"Go ahead, try a taste," Pat whispered softly and nudged the dish a half inch closer.

Maggie looked at her free hand and realized the long-handled spoon was already in her fingers. The taste of her chocolate ice cream had just left her tongue; the memory was already beckoning her back. Surely she wouldn't abandon the chocolate. Could she put it off a while and just taste the sweet strawberry?

Maggie's hand slowly crept forward through the space that separated her from Pat. The energy of her trembling hand transferred down the long handle of the spoon, to the end of it, so that it fluttered like an aspen leaf in a gale. Slowly, she pushed the spoon forward, holding her breath, fighting through the gusts of her conscience screaming to pull her arm back.

With a final thrust, she dug the spoon into the pink, melting mass and scooped a dollop, returning it quickly to her mouth. She didn't want the chance to reconsider. She swallowed it and released her breath.

It was agreed.

She glanced up searchingly into Pat's knowing eyes. Maggie looked lost for a moment, then slowly her lips parted and her eyes widened. The two women broke into grins at one another, and in contemplation of the adventure in which they conspired.

"This is so evil!" Maggie whispered.

"It's not evil," Pat countered. "It's just naughty. At our age we've earned the right to be a little naughty. As long as everyone is agreed there's no harm to be done—no one to get pregnant, no one to be hurt. You'll see the men aroused like you've never seen them."

"Have you spoken to Charlie about it?" Maggie asked.

"No. That's the finesse that we'll need to bring this off. They have to think that it was their idea."

The two women went about eating their ice cream before it melted. From time to time they reached across the table to scoop a little of their partner's flavor and then share a secret look and laugh.

"I'm just thinking about what our husbands will think of us," Maggie said.