Chapter 34

"Okay, that's the easy part," Jean announced. Teela was reclining on her elbows at the side of the bed, her feet on the floor. Beside her was a towel and a washcloth. Jean was wiping shaving foam from her razor onto the towel, which contained ample evidence that Teela's hair was not naturally black, but rather a rich, dark brown. The pair had messed around a bit, trying to get a diamond pattern shaven into the unusually dense but relatively straight fur on Teela's mons -- the classical five-sided, flat-top diamond shape used in jewelry store signs, not the simpler parallelogram oriented on a point. "Raise your legs and let's see what's going on down below."

The pair had been shaving and trimming for fifteen minutes; Teela was totally at ease as she pulled her legs up and placed her feet parallel to the edge of the bed, opening her vaginal area fully to the older woman. Jean took a look at the result and pursed her lips; the thin, dark wisps that lay flat along Teela's labia were soft and straight and, aside from where the tips met in a line along her pursed lower lips, would not interfere with the fit of the thong bottom of the suit. They WOULD, however, be an incitement to riot if Rick got to see them; they made Teela's little pussy absolutely beautiful! "I'm just going to trim this where it all meets, instead of shaving it; the effect is, well, striking -- and it will be covered adequately," Jean announced.

"Okay..." Teela agreed nervously, "If you're sure..."

"I am." Jean snipped at the tips, clearing them from Teela's nether lips, leaving just the area where her almost vestigial inner lips extended between the pursed outer ones bare, trimming right at the point where the straight strands extended beyond the mound and crossed above it -- then she collected a mirror to show the young woman the result, "See?"

"Won't that show?" Teela asked.

"Normally, no. The fabric will cover it. But if you intend on bending over right in Rick's face..." Jean grinned. The thong's fabric patch would likely drop away a bit, leaving Teela exposed in that position. "Well, let's just say that I won't be responsible..." She ran her finger along Teela's perineum. "This area is clear, and the way those little wisps lay like that, looking combed -- well, it's quite fetching! Sometimes, you just can't improve on Mother Nature..."

"Okay," Teela grinned back, eyes alight. Jean was something else; the way the older woman had taken to her was just amazing...

"All right, then. A little witch hazel and we're all set," Jean announced, wiping Teela's mons with the washrag. She picked up the bottle from the floor and poured a little in her hand, applying it in a no-nonsense fashion to Teela's mons to finish things up. "All done!"

"Cool!" Teela had been pretty furry, up top, and they'd trimmed things as much -- if not more -- than defining it with the razor. Now her fur patch was short and sleek, and -- most important -- small enough to remain hidden under the tiny wisp of fabric that was the main body of the suit bottom.

Jean helped Teela fit the top's tiny triangles over her breasts (well, the tips, anyway) and tie off the sides of the bottoms and pronounced the fitting complete, "There! Gawd! You're positively dangerous!" She eyed the younger woman speculatively. "Do you want me out there?"

Teela eyed herself in the mirror while she chose her answer. Jean was wonderful -- like a sister -- but she was Rick's MOTHER! Teela felt that she and Rick had moved beyond their rough beginnings and something new was about to happen -- something that might at least approach sex! What imperatives would watching them neck bring out in Jean? Who would she want to protect? Her? Rick? Both of them?

Meanwhile, there was this outfit ... Daring on Jean, the bikini was an incitement to riot on Teela. The tiny triangles up top covered Jean's protruding nipples and enough flesh to be a sop at decency -- just barely; on Teela, whose pointed cones were at least a half a cup size up from Jean's, they were almost pasties -- and soft, firm, conical flesh was exposed all around the perimeters of the cups. Below, things were similar for both of them; thin slightly bowed legs descending from kitten hips, punctuated by knobby knees -- and tight, round asses that looked like a pair of softballs bisected by the thong's vertical strap. Teela was just slightly smaller -- not enough to grant anything serious in the way of additional coverage -- especially since both women had a decided gap at the juncture of their legs, even standing with their feet together. Neither of them had a belly -- well, Jean was showing a bit of thickening that she suspected was the result of her birth control pills, since it had come on recently...

Teel took a shot at her feelings, "I really think..."

"What does he do to you?" Jean asked.

"It's like there are two of him," Teela confided. "One is full of fun -- and no matter how wild I get, he just deflects it -- usually back at me. The other one is a guy I can have a serious conversation with -- and believe that he's being totally honest with me."

"How does he make you feel?"

"Defenseless -- which is scary -- and welcome," Teela mused. "We're approaching something; I can't generate a decent attack -- and I don't really want to. I want HIM to defend me."

"What if he doesn't understand?"

"I don't know..."

"I told him that this isn't a game -- and that he can hurt you, badly," Jean confided. "He seems to understand. But in relationships, there are no guarantees..." She sighed. "I don't want to see you laid to waste. Protect yourself. This may be where you learn that you have potential mates out there -- but Rick isn't the one..."

"Do you want me to stop?" Teela asked. "Run?"

"No, I want it to be all right -- for both of you. But I fear for you, in particular," Jean replied.

"Thanks." Teela reached out and grasped the older woman's forearm, and stared into her eyes. "I really don't think there is anything else to do but try..." Jean nodded, and Teela headed out the door toward where Rick could be heard pacing the kitchen and grumbling.

"Well, it's about ... HOLY SHIT!" Rick exclaimed. His eyes popped, his mouth flew open ... And Teela went radiant from the reception, which only turned things up. "You're gorgeous!"

"Keepa you hands off, Bucko!" Teela grinned. "Lookie, but no touchie!"

"Just jail me and get it over with!" Rick howled. "How on Earth am I supposed to do THAT?"

"Well..." Teela smiled over her shoulder as she headed on through the back door, employing an overly exaggerated swivel-hipped stride, "Maybe dunking yourself in the pool will keep your dork from shredding your swim trunks..."

"Why, you... !" Rick took off chasing her at a run, and Teela, laughing, kicked up her heels, headed for the pool.

Jean watched this from the bedroom door, smiling faintly. Teela still had the weapons left that all women wield...

Lon and Sally had been in and out of the pool two or three times; Lon, of course, was an accomplished swimmer -- but Sally did quite well, too. "Why haven't you gone out for swim team?" Lon asked, while they dangled their legs in the water, side by side.

"I'm too big," Sally replied. "Specifically, THESE are too big." She indicated her breasts.

"Oh." Lon didn't know where to go from there; they were marvelous, as far as he was concerned, but did they have a purpose he could point to? No. Nothing he could say would get his point across without sounding crass...

Sally moved on. "I heard something -- second, or maybe third hand. I think it was supposed to be helpful, but it raises a lot of questions..."

"Oh?" Lon blinked. "What?"

"Teela said that Rick told her that you weren't just trying to use me for sex because it wasn't necessary; she said that he said that you already had a steady supply of no-strings sex, so that wasn't an issue..." She turned to face him. "Is that true?"

Lon blanched. "He said that?"

"Is it true?"

Lon shoved his hair back from his face. "I suppose you want to know all about it..."

"Yes. I deserve to, don't I?" Sally asked.

"Do you? You're putting me between a rock and a hard place here," Lon replied. "You don't trust me, and you don't believe me when I tell you how I feel about you -- but you want me to drop a dime on other people. Is that fair?"

"Well..."

"If I rat out somebody else, does that make me trustworthy?"

"Well, no..."

"Exactly. I need commitments from you before I can do something like that," Lon insisted.

"What kind of commitments?" Sally asked carefully.

"Well, maybe I should ask YOU some questions -- do you like sex? Here I am, trying to get into a relationship with you and I don't know if you like sex..." Lon pressed.

"I really don't know..." Sally replied, dazed.

"You don't know? Does that mean you've done it and can't decide, or you haven't done it?" Lon demanded, on a roll.

"I haven't done it."

"No shit?"

"No."

"Well, what about masturbating -- you do THAT, don't you?"

"Lon!"

"C'mon! Everybody does!"

"Okay, well, yes..."

"How often?"

"LON!"

"Well?

"Come on! This is PERSONAL!"

"You bet it is! If I tell you what you want to know, it'll be personal for more people than just me!"

"What do you want from me?" Sally whined.

"I want you to trust me!" Lon replied. "Have I done ANYTHING that would lead you to believe I'm jerking your chain?"

"No..."

"Come here!" Lon reached out and drew her in. Sally thought about fighting it, but that really didn't square with her basic feelings on the matter. Lon's strong arm around her shoulder felt GOOD! "So why do you mistrust me?"

"Everybody says I should?" Sally supplied tentatively.

"But what do YOU think?"

"Well, I'm fine until you say something silly like I'm beautiful..."

"WHAT?" Sally was going to continue with, ' ... and you ruin your credibility, ' but she found herself flat on her back on the tiles with Lon hovering above her, pinning her shoulders. "That's SILLY? That's God's honest truth!" Lon roared.

Sally eyed Lon in amazement. How could anyone with that look on his face be lying? "But nobody else..."

"Fuck 'em! Fuck 'em ALL!" Lon ranted. "If they don't see what I see, who gives a shit?"

"Calm down! You're scaring me!" Sally wailed.

"Well, WHAT does it TAKE?" Lon whined. "Do you REALLY think you're ugly?"

"Well, maybe not ugly..."

"What's going on out here?" Candace yelled from the patio door. "Lon, get up off her! Honey, are you all right?"

Lon went to hands and knees and Sally came up on her elbows. "Mama. Sally thinks she's ugly!" Lon growled, outraged, "and she won't believe anything nice I say about her!"

Candace blinked and turned her attention to Sally. "Honey, when he told me about you, I expected God knows what -- but there's nothing wrong with you that I can see..." She spread her hands. "I was pleasantly surprised!"

"But I'm big..." Sally protested.

"We come in all shapes and sizes, Hon -- and for yours, you sure fill a bikini..." Candace shrugged. "Besides, it seems to be a drawing card with Lon..."

"Surely, you're not..." Sally began. Was Lon's mother backing him up for some nefarious reason?

Candace showed her teeth. "Honey, if I didn't think you might be okay for Lon, I'd be doing everything I could think of to see you walking home, watering the sidewalk with great big tears -- but, hey, it looks like he might have his head on straight, so..." She shrugged. "Different things set off different guys; I'm an acquired taste for some, and totally uninteresting to others -- and a different group will chase me, drooling, on sight! Why should you be any different? There are gonna be guys out there that lust after you, Honey -- it's a statistical certainty. Given that, if a boy DOES tell you he thinks you're hot, why not believe him?"

"Well, what if he's lying?"

Candace cocked her head. "There are a lot of fish in the sea, Hon -- why would any guy go to a lot of work to get into the panties of a girl he considered to be disgusting?" She shook her head disparagingly. "A woman might play a trick like that, but men are WAY too simple..."

"Simple?" Lon glared.

"As in direct, Hon -- not as in stupid." Candace shifted her attention back to Sally. "Boys are more direct than we are -- and less patient in getting results. You guys have been out once and you've been HERE, looking like THAT -- has he groped you?"

"No."

"Well, then." She shrugged, turned away indifferently. "There is such a thing as being overly paranoid." She disappeared into the house.

Sally flopped back on the tiles. "So why haven't you?"

"Why haven't I what?"

"Groped me?"

Lon rolled his eyes. "Aside from the fact that it would confirm your worst suspicions and probably end any chance of us having a relationship? Gee, I dunno..." He grimaced, shaking his head.

"So you want to..."

"DUH!"

Sally's mouth quirked. "Daily."

"Huh?"

"I masturbate every day, just about -- generally more than once." She smiled lazily. "Lately, there's been one certain boy in my fantasies..."

"FUCK!" Control went out the window. The next thing Lon knew, they were kissing; he was cradling Sally's head, sliding his tongue through her lips, and she was rubbing his flanks with both hands -- not exactly fighting things...

Not EVEN was more like it! She knew what she'd triggered when she saw that wild look in his eyes -- and the results? Wonderful! THIS was something she'd waited for a LONG time!

The spent the next fifteen minutes kissing and hugging -- but she could FEEL him fighting with himself, keeping it clean...

Enough was enough! Pushing on his shoulders, she gasped, "Okay! NOW I need to know!"

"Huh? Oh!" He rolled off her and sat up. "It's complicated."

"Uh huh." She wasn't arguing -- she was prepared to accept the statement.

"Mama started it, dating young guys. I got to thinking..."

"You're sleeping with your mother?" Sally exclaimed, shocked.

"No, no! Pipe down!" He slid forward and dropped his legs into the water again, then took her hand and pulled her up beside him. "I did some research," he announced, dipping his finger into the water, then drawing a vertical and a horizontal line on the tile with his wet finger. "Girls mature sexually around twelve, on average, but their interest in sex and their ability to have it and enjoy it slopes up gradually. Lots of girls just aren't that interested when they're teenagers -- or not right away, anyway. But it builds to a peak at about twice our age..." He drew another line -- one that swept up to a peak immediately, then tended downward slowly from there. "This is guys. We're horny from the minute the equipment works, and basically, the only thing that slows us down is age! Now, what does that mean?"

Sally considered the graph that was slowly melting from the tile from the sun's heat. "Um, young guys are best handled by older women?"

"Bingo!"

"Soooo..." Sally had no more dots to connect.

"Guys our age don't meet older women -- and when we do, it's not exactly in a dating situation, usually. But we know women who are here," he marked the female peak area with his finger, "and don't have husbands -- and whom we've met socially -- and who have obviously HAD sex..."

Sally frowned. "Who?"

"Coincidentally, this is just about twice our ages..." Lon pointed at the mark. "I have friends whose mothers aren't married or anything. They have seventeen-year-old sons, so sex isn't anything new -- but they aren't getting any. I know THEM, socially, because I know their sons ... The last ingredient is to get help and support from my friends, instead of having them interfere -- which is easy, since they're horny, too..."

"You're having sex with somebody's mother?" Sally was aghast.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Lon shrugged. "Arguably, it still is. Generally, it's a no-strings situation -- the people who need it the most get their ashes hauled ... We get experience -- from a woman who HAS experience..."

"What do you need a girlfriend for?" Sally asked.

"I can't date -- we can't get emotionally involved ... There are things that aren't dealt with. Guys my age fall in love, too, you know. This other thing isn't a relationship -- it's just mutual relief." 'Well, except for Toby and Jean, ' Lon thought -- but THAT was best swept under the rug, for now. The general case was complicated enough... "Love, romance, sharing, being with someone -- those aren't really part of the picture. It's more like swinging, or wife-swapping -- except nobody has a wife."