"What do you think happened?" Devlin asked. "It was a wedding night." They were sitting in the corner of a restaurant in Chicago, just down the street from Commiskey Park. It was early May, and the Athletics were in town to play the White Sox. She'd accompanied the team so she could visit friends and check with the home office on some issues.

"We want the messy details, of course," Krissi said. "All of them."

"You mean a blow-by-blow description?"

Krissi and Amnita looked at each other, and burst out laughing. "Did you?" Amnita finally asked. "Blow him, that is."

"That's between him and me."

"So how did he taste?" Krissi asked. "Steve's is kind of flat, and only mildly salty." She frowned slightly, remembering. "He sort of tastes like the twins."

"I hate to break it to you, Krissi," Amnita said, "but most guys taste like the twins. Trust me on that, I know."

"Okay, bad choice of words," Krissi said. "Did you get to the ship, bolt the door, and not come out for three days? That's what everyone's betting."

"Everyone?"

"You're quite the subject of gossip in the lifestyle community," Amnita said. "Quite a few women are hoping you'll start attending parties again so they can get to know Evan."

"No, we're not going to be part of the lifestyle," Devlin said, "so they can keep their panties on. Evan's pitching doesn't give us the luxury of time like I used to have. And anyway, we're only in Chicago twice more this year."

"So what happened when you got to the ship?" Krissi asked. "The last anyone saw of you, you were leaving the reception with soaped windows and a string of cans attached to the bumper."

"Well, if you must know..." Devlin smiled as the other two leaned forward. "After a couple of miles we pulled over and removed the cans. The first thing we did when we got to Key West was drive through a car wash. That took care of the soaped windows. We checked in at the cruise terminal, stood in a couple of long lines as our passports and tickets were verified, and then boarded the ship. A steward showed us to our cabin, though I'm sure we could have found it on our own pretty quickly. When we got there we learned that our luggage hadn't arrived yet—"

"Not that you needed it," Krissi interrupted. "After all, you weren't going to be wearing much for the next few days."

"The steward who showed us to our cabin told us we had to read the boarding instructions, and that there'd be a lifeboat drill shortly after we left port."

"An hour's long enough," Krissi said.

"We weren't going to spend just an hour," Devlin said, "not the first time. Anyway, we had lifeboat drill; that's required by law. You get your life preserver on, and report to where your lifeboat is. They count you and check off your names, and then you can go back to your cabins. We did so, but before we could do anything, our luggage arrived."

"Let me guess," Krissi said. "You unpacked. When did you get to the good stuff?"

"We'd just started unpacking when there was a knock on the door. It seemed that somebody had let slip that this was our honeymoon, so the Captain had invited us to eat at his table. We were at sea, so that meant we had to dress formally." She eyed Krissi speculatively. "I wonder who could have told them?"

"I have my guesses," Amnita said as Krissi gazed at the ceiling. "Had you packed a formal dress?"

"Two," Devlin said. "The first was a long, dark green dress with empire top. It tied behind my neck, and came down to the top of my feet. It was backless, of course."

Amnita nodded. "With your bust, that would be pretty spectacular. What did Evan wear?"

"A tuxedo. I didn't even know he owned one, and I thought the one he'd worn at the wedding was rented. I asked him about it as we were going aft. He'd rented the one for the wedding, but he'd bought this when we made plans for the cruise.

"Anyway, the Captain greeted us, we met several older couples who'd signed up to sit at the Captain's table, and we had to endure several toasts. Dinner came and went—it was lamb in some sort of sauce, by the way—and endure a quiet grilling over dessert. People asked about the wedding: what did I wear, were there many people there, and things like. When we'd exhausted that subject they started in with what did we do, how did we meet, and things like that."

"You told them the truth, of course," Amnita said. "Knowing you, though, you must have been a little impatient."

Devlin laughed. "More than a little. This was not how I'd planned on spending the evening! I think I made my point when I talked about lingerie, and cupped my boobs for emphasis."

"Oh that is just not done," Amnita said. "I bet they were scandalized."

"The men were goggle-eyed, of course. The women were more blasé about it."

"How long does dinner last?" Amnita asked.

"There are two sittings, and somebody showed mercy; we had the early one. It lasted about an hour, plus some settling back with drinks to make polite talk. I shocked at least one older woman, and cracked another one up, and right after that we were politely ushered out."

Amnita glanced at Krissi, who seemed to be getting more and more impatient. "What did you say?"

"We're sitting there with glasses in our hands, and one of the women said I looked a little red in the face. Was I all right? I'd just come back from the Ladies Room, and this particular woman had made several veiled comments about my dress and bosom."

"So you got back at her?"

"In a way. By then the men were sitting apart, talking quietly, so I leaned over and told her I was so horny I'd spent the time in the Ladies Room masturbating."

Krissi's eyes bugged out. Amnita laughed. "And what did she say to that?"

"She didn't. After all, nice girls don't do that sort of thing. The other woman who was there said we should go back to our cabin so I didn't have to rely upon my fingers. I took the hint and rescued Evan from where he was being told how he should pitch. We made our excuses, and got back to our cabin as quickly as possible."

"And then what did you do?" Krissi asked.

"We made love."

"Sure, but what did you do?"

"We made love." Seeing the look on her friend's face, Devlin decided to relent a little. "All right, Miss Nosey, Evan undid the tie at my neck, and discovered that I wasn't wearing anything under my dress. I helped him undress, and things proceeded from there, starting with a lot of kissing."

"What time did you emerge?" Amnita asked.

"Late the next morning. The steward wanted to clean up the room, and goodness knows, the sheets needed changing."

Amnita put her hand on Krissi's wrist to keep her quiet. "When do they serve lunch, or breakfast, or whatever it is they do?"

"Breakfast sort of merges into lunch," Devlin said. "There's about an hour or so when they don't, but you can pretty much find food any time of the day if you want. We had lunch, took a stroll around the deck for the fresh air—you wouldn't believe how warm and balmy it was—and explored the ship a little, mostly to find where the restaurants were.

"One thing we made sure we checked out were the pools. There were three, and one of them was labeled 'No Kids'. That was mostly older couples. We found one that was to our liking, and took advantage of the whirlpool. Frankly, I needed it."

"You?" Krissi looked doubtful. "Miss Super Endurance?"

"Some muscles hadn't been used in several months," Devlin said. "They needed some relaxing. And Evan needed the rest."

Amnita chuckled. "I take it you weren't spending much time sleeping."

"Oh, we slept," Devlin said, "but it was a sleep of exhaustion."

"How was he? As a lover, I mean."

Devlin hesitated. "I really hadn't expected to go into any details."

"Posh," Amnita said. "We're your girlfriends. We expect some details. Guys won't discuss something like this, it might ruin their Macho Man image or something. But we're women, we can discuss things like this, as long as it stays among ourselves."

"Well, if you must know," Devlin said, "I have no complaints. Physically, he's not as big as Rick—"

"Nobody is," Amnita said. "Go on."

Devlin smiled. "And he's in shape. It isn't the 'heavily sculpted' look we saw with some of the guys who went to Emma's, but under all of those clothes he's lean and muscular. After the first day out he started going to the Fitness Center, usually before we ate lunch. They had several dance classes, and I got involved with one of those while he was on the machines..."

"What about technique?" Amnita asked.

"All of those girls he knew taught him something," Devlin said. "We progressed beyond the basics fairly quickly, if you know what I mean. But we also took time to just enjoy the cruise."