Chapter 1

There were four of us: Danny, Brad, Bob and me, Gene. We met in college and were in the same fraternity. We all majored in electrical engineering and got jobs with the same company, Porter Mechanical Systems, in Indianapolis. It was a global company that contracted for the production of various parts used in making all kinds of big machinery.

We were like the four musketeers or something. We found houses in the same part of town. We were all married to girls who, if they hadn't already known each other in college too, met when they started dating one of us four. We also brought another thing with us from college: a love of poker.

We had played routinely while at school. They weren't high stakes games or anything. It was for the fellowship that we played, not the money. Five bucks would get you nickel, dime and quarter chips, and five bucks was about all anybody ever lost in a game. It gave us a chance to blow off steam during an evening of banter, wits and deception.

Over time we've settled on Saturday nights. It evolved from negotiations, actually. Friday nights belong to the wives, and they let us have Saturday nights for the games. So long as we are attentive to them the rest of the week they don't seem to mind. And none of us have kids, so it's not like we're avoiding our responsibilities. Sometimes the girls get together and have their own girls' night out too, though not as regularly as the guys do. Still, they're friends, like us guys are friends. I'm sure they talk about girl stuff, just like we talk about guy stuff.

To keep things fair we rotate hosts, so about once a month each of the wives has her home invaded for what can become a rather boisterous evening. We try not to impose too much and one of the rules is that we clean up after ourselves so the host wife doesn't have to.

On the other hand, the hostess is kind of expected, unofficially, of course, to stick around, keeping us supplied with drinks and goodies. And, if she wants to watch that's OK, though that's never happened. None of the wives have shown any interest in poker. Usually the hostess hangs out in her bedroom or watches TV when she's not taking care of us. It all seems to be pretty workable.

One night we were at Brad's house, and his wife had some previous engagement or something. In any case, she wasn't there and that left Brad to do all the things she would normally have done. But without female ears around it also gave us a chance to get all macho and raunchy. Guys like to tease each other and we were no exception. And Brad was an easy target that night.

"Hey, Brad, how come Lori didn't stick around tonight? I always enjoy watching those big boobs of hers bounce when she brings stuff out for us." That was Danny, who was a tit man.

"Yeah, and even better is watching her go back into the kitchen," said Bob, the ass man in the group. "I don't have to worry about her catching me looking, and boy does she have a nice ass."

Brad, of course, got flustered, which only made us go after him even more.

I put in my two cents worth. "I got a fantasy about her. Anybody want to hear it?"

Danny and Bob, of course, shouted "YES!" while Brad shouted "NO!"

"This is America," I said. "The majority rules. So there we are, on a boat dock on a lake somewhere, and Brad is out fishing and Lori is all lonely, so I suggest we go swimming and she says she doesn't have a suit and of course we end up skinny dipping and she gets some water down the wrong way. So I have to go help her, which means supporting her luscious naked body in the water and I do another kind of dipping."

The other two guys were laughing by now and Brad was red in the face, almost, but not quite pissed off.

"Two can play that game, Gene," he burst out, looking straight at me, "Let me tell you some of the dreams I've had about Julie." Julie, of course, is my wife.

Bob switched sides immediately. Guys are like that. "Oh, man. Julie is one stone fox, isn't she. She's got those legs that go ALL the way to the floor!" He knows I'm a leg man and was rubbing it in.

"You said it," Danny threw in, "I'd fucking love to feel them wrapped around me in bed some time."

Now it was my turn to get red faced. Those legs were for wrapping around ME, not them.

Of course now the barn door was open and the stories started pouring out. It turned out we all had fantasies about our buddies' wives, and in fact we had each fantasized at one time or another about all three of the other women.

When the torrent of sexual fantasies finally subsided, Bob leaned back in his chair, looked at all three of us, and said "That's some shit, man!" That about summed it up for all of us. We came to an unspoken consensus that it was time to drop the subject, and we went back to the game.

But it wasn't forgotten, at least not by me, and I'm sure the others were feeling the same sort of thing. I'd gotten a hell of a boner listening to people guess about nipple colors and whether one of them was shaved or not. It became clear I wasn't the only one, when Bob finally said, "I've got an idea."

Sure enough he did have an idea, which involved the next four poker nights, and since it included each of the wives one of those four nights, we couldn't complain about its fairness. Jealousy was another matter, but I figured three nights of sexy possibilities could make up for one night of jealousy. Apparently the other three guys came to the same conclusion.

Since it was Bob's idea, and his turn to host the next week anyway, he proposed that we could start the plan at his house. We then spent some time going over the details, but rather than explain all that to you, I'll just tell you what happened the next week. The only other thing I'll say at this point was that it was all just for fun. I mean we weren't serious about doing anything heavy. It was just four horn dogs tossing around this idea to have some grins.

Before the night arrived, Bob made a point of bitching to his wife about what Lori had done to us.

"Can you believe it, Chrissy, Lori took off for the evening and left us stranded. I know we play poker and you gals don't, but that doesn't mean we don't notice you. You guys are part of the setup, and I'm not just talking about bringing us drinks. We all like each other's wives too. It just wasn't the same without her being there."

Naturally Chrissy took the hint. Part of that was because she was flattered that all the other guys wanted her around. It turned out the other wives felt the same way, but we didn't know that then.

When we got to Bob's house she not only greeted us, but was ready with a generous supply of tortilla chips and the home made salsa that she's famous for. She also dressed pretty nice that night in a clinging sweater that showed off her breasts really well. We settled down and started playing, but during the third hand the phone rang, just as we had been expecting.

Chrissy took the call, then came out saying, "Bob, it's somebody named George, and he says it's urgent, and that he has to talk to you."

"It's always urgent with George," Bob grumbled, "I'll try to get rid of him. Sorry, guys."

We were impressed. He really put on a good act, like he didn't know the call would be coming. So, anyway, Bob went out to talk to "George", and came back in a couple of minutes looking totally shaken.

"This time it really is urgent," he reported. "We've got a hell of a disaster at the office, and I'm going to have to go in. But I hate to break up the game. What do you think, Chrissy, would it be OK if the guys stayed?"

"I don't think so," Danny said, "we don't want to bother Chrissy. It's bad enough we ask her to wait on us when you're here." He blinked as he realized that was treading on dangerous ground. "Besides, who'd protect her from us? She's a babe, you know."

Chrissy preened and then said, "It's OK, really. You guys are more than welcome to stay. Besides, if you leave, what'll I do with all the chips and salsa?"

We finally let her talk us into staying, as we had planned all along. Bob kissed Chrissy, and told her he knew he'd be gone for at least four hours, and not to wait up for him. She told him she understood, and it wasn't like this happened all the time.

As soon as he was out the door we settled down to play again, but we grumbled about having a problem.

"Chrissy, we were in the middle of a hand, and it was Bob's turn to bet. Can you sit in long enough to finish it for him?"

"Gee, I don't know much about poker, but I guess I could."

She picked up Bob's hand, studied it for a while, then frowned and said, "Would it be OK if I bet this?" pushing out a blue chip.

"Well," Danny said, "you need a nickel to call, and blue is a dime. So you just raised by five."

Brad was next around the table, but he shook his head. "Pot's too rich for me. I fold."

"Me, too," I said tossing my cards face down on the table.

"Not too rich for me," Danny proclaimed, "I'll match you and raise you another nickel," pushing out a blue chip of his own.

We all looked expectantly at Chrissy. "What am I supposed to do now?" she asked.

Brad explained her choices. "You can fold right now, and lose what you have put out, or you can match Danny's bet and then compare hands to see who has the better one, or you can match, and raise again, to see if Danny is willing to go even higher. But to tell you the truth," this in a stage whisper with his hand cupping his mouth so Danny couldn't read his lips, "I think he's bluffing."

"What should I do if he is?"

"Well, you definitely don't want to fold. Either put in a white chip to call his bet, or raise him. If you call and he has a better hand than you do, you lose. If you raise, and he gives up, you win even if he does have a better hand."

"OK, I'll raise. Here's five to match you, and five more to raise," pushing out two white chips.

Danny shook his head. "Brad's right, I was bluffing. I don't want to pour any more money into this crappy hand. I fold."

This was all exactly as we had planned it. The idea was to let Chrissy win the first hand, and hope we could keep her interested. Now all that was left was the hard part.

Brad grinned at her. "I don't know if you realize what you just did," he said, "that pot was worth at least three dollars. That's a big pot for our games. Congratulations."

"And," I threw in, "we'll promise not to tell Bob you won it, so the money's all yours."

"I'm kind of glad you don't like playing," Danny added helpfully, "I have a feeling that if you stayed in the game I'd lose my shirt." I blew beer through my nose. We were all hoping we'd lose our shirts that night ... literally.

"Though it is better playing with four," observed Brad.

We all nodded.

Brad went on. "How about it, Chrissy? Would you take pity on us and stay in the game for a while? The most you could lose is the five bucks your hubby put in, but you could win fifteen more. And it really is better with four playing."

Chrissy was looking at the pile of chips she had just raked in. Winning your first pot will do something to you, sometimes. It's a heck of a rush, even if it's just the equivalent of a bunch of pocket change.

Whatever her thoughts were, she finally looked up, smiled brightly, and said, "What the heck. Sure, I'll play."

It turned out she was a fast learner. Of course she didn't know the odds like we did, but it didn't take her long to get a good idea of the value of her hand, and to discover what would beat what. She even started getting the hang of bluffing, though we spotted a couple of mannerisms that tended to give her away. We intentionally let her win a few hands, but she won a couple on her own, too.

However, knowledge, experience, and collaboration will win out in the end, so in something under an hour the pile of chips in front of Chrissy was nearly gone. Meanwhile, I'd been quietly slipping threes out of the deck, and when I had all four of them, and the deal, I was ready for the next step. I slid the threes on the bottom of the deck, and that's where I dealt Chrissy's hand from. The guys gave me knowing grins, but she didn't notice.

You should have seen her eyes, though, when she picked up her hand. And the tremor in her voice as she forced the betting higher on the second round was something to remember. Brad dropped out quickly, but Danny and I kept going, until she finally pushed in her last three chips.

I called, but then Danny looked straight at her and said, "I'll see you and raise you five," pushing out an extra chip.

Chrissy's face fell. "I, don't have any more, but I really, really, can't drop out. What can I do?"

Brad came gallantly to her rescue. "Do you really think you have a winning hand?"

When she nodded he went on, "OK, I'll stake you, for the five and anything more you need, but if you win you have to pay me back at the end of the hand."

"Of course! Oh thank you, Brad!"

"But there's one more thing," he went on, "because if you lose, you'll be out of the game and I won't get my chips back at all. Now YOU may be sure you'll win, but I can't be sure you will. So there's a lot of risk in this for me, right?"

Chrissy nodded again. "Yes, Brad, I do. I'm really going to owe you for this."

He gave her a crooked smile. "Oh, don't worry about that, because I'm going to ask for some interest on this loan."