Chapter 64

It was 1:15 and Sally wasn't here yet. She hadn't missed a minute of our special time together since the day we had started having it, so naturally, I was concerned. I wandered down through the house, looking for her in the various rooms as I passed them. I heard voices when I finally reached the main floor and I followed the sounds to the kitchen.

I immediately sensed that something important was going on, as Sally and Nicole were doing their alternate sentence thing. The third person at the table, a woman I didn't know, but who looked vaguely familiar, watched their performance with a bemused smile on her face. Their coordinated sentences were still disconcerting to me, even now. I don't know that they sensed how disorienting it was to other people. Or if they did, if they even cared.

Sally looked up at me when I entered the kitchen, then over at the clock. She realized what time it was, but she didn't seem too upset. I wasn't sure I liked that.

I grabbed a cup of coffee, topped up their cups with the pot and joined the ladies at the table. Nicole had sent me a sense over the link, blasted it actually, as she was still getting used to the 'volume control', that I was welcome to join. Sally's link asked me to stay as well.

As soon as I sat down, both my wives moved over to flank me. It wasn't defensive on their part, it was just the position they normally took, one on each side. What was curious was that, in their psychic mode, their actions were mirror images of each other, down to the position of their hands in their laps.

"Larry, this is Jerome's mother, Diane Turner." They used the synchronized talking to introduce the other woman at the table. But I didn't make the connection immediately.

Jerome?

"That's Simone's friend. You know him as 'JT'."

Ah-ha! Mama bear here to protect her cub. I sent a probing finger of my link out to this new person and was not surprised by the suspicious thoughts I found. What did surprise me was that her honest curiosity about us, the three of us, was even stronger than her suspicions. She had great faith in her boy, that he could handle himself. She was here to find out what kind of people would be influencing him. Particularly me.

"I'm pleased to meet you, Mrs. Turner. JT is a fine boy." God, did that sound as lame as it seemed?

Diane sat across from us, considering her first words to me. She had apparently been here a while, or at least long enough to have gotten the idea that our lifestyle and marital relationship were not normal.

"Are you Simone's father?" Her tone was accusatory, almost bitter. I let it pass.

"She calls me 'Papa, ' but I am not her father."

"Oh. What about the cheerleader?"

"Cheerle- ... Oh, you mean Janey? No, she is Sally's daughter, not mine. But she calls me 'Dad.'"

Diane had a look of disbelief on her face. "So. Are you at least married to one of these women? I don't see any rings." She glanced pointedly at our hands.

I saw a glance pass between Sally and Nicole, then watched as their hands stole silently under the hem of the shirts they were wearing. Together they lifted up the fabric to expose their piercings in their left nipples. Following their example, I unbuttoned my shirt and moved the left panel aside to show Diane my rings as well.

The tall black woman didn't get it right away, then she saw the letters they were wearing and the letters I was wearing.

"Shit!" slipped out before she stopped herself. She paused before she continued.

"I was worried about the kind of weird rich people that might be influencing Jerome up here. Now don't take it wrong, I don't mind you being rich, especially if you worked for it. Sally here assures me that you do, though I'll be damned if I can figure out when you've got the time..." She looked pointedly at Sally and Nicole, " ... or the energy."

She seemed to stop herself from continuing down that path. Smiling ruefully at us, she apologized, "I'm sorry I said that. It's just that, well, you," and she pointed her chin right at me, "represent everything that is wrong with the stereotypical black man." She raised her hands to prevent us from jumping all over that statement.

"You work hard, you stay home, you are raising not one, but two children and neither one of them are yours. You are not promiscuous, ignoring the fact that you have two wives. At least you're honest enough to marry them both, not leave them in the lurch." She gave an exasperated sigh. "Do you know how many of the single black mothers in this community alone would kill for a man like you?"

I assumed the question was rhetorical, so I didn't answer, but just in case I hadn't caught on, two very sharp sets of fingernails suddenly and simultaneously dug into both my legs, both sets dangerously close to the holy land. I nearly farted with the effort to not squeal like a stuck pig, and that started the two women to giggling as they sensed it over the link and then having to suppress the laughter. Served them right.

JT's mom continued as if she didn't notice, "I guess I really can't complain. My Jerome, JT's dad, was killed in action. And since Simone has been spending time with him, JT has come out of the shell he had built around him after his Dad died. I was so worried about him, he was so withdrawn, not doing well in school. I was worried about the gangs getting to him, now that he was missing a father figure.

"Simone changed all that. He has even started cleaning his room without me asking him. He is taking special care with his clothing and hygiene. Especially his hygiene. And his grades! He has never done so well in school. I mean, he was always the smartest kid in the class, but now? It's like she is challenging him to do his best."

She paused. I knew what was coming. I felt Sally and Nicole's grips tighten on my leg again, encouraging me to be quiet. Geez, give me some credit, will you?

"That's why I'm really here, I guess. I'm so happy for him but at the same time, now I'm even more scared than before. I guess I just needed to know where the girl was coming from, what kind of a family, if she could be counted on not to screw with his head and dump him." She looked at us, her relief evident. "You might be crazy and weird, but you're not cruel people. Somehow, I know I can trust you to do right by my boy."

Sally and Nicole's grips on my groin relaxed and I could feel the tension flowing out of them. They hadn't been sure of the outcome of this meeting and somehow, that made me feel a little better. They were mortal, after all.

Diane stayed a while longer, actually daring to examine Nicole's rings at close range after a bit. She told how her husband had been killed while stationed overseas. He had been a Major in a Special Forces unit. She had never been told how or where, only that it had been in action and that he had died serving his country. JT had taken his Dad's death hard but had never cried that she knew of. He just kept it bottled up inside.

She left with an invitation to come to our house for dinner the following week. It was going to be a special night, with JT and Simone hosting. She asked if that meant they would be cooking, as well. When Sally said it did, Diane just rolled her eyes and said, "I'll bet you $10 we have hotdogs and beans. That's all he knows how to fix."

I walked out to the basketball court to check the action a couple of days later. What I found was not exactly the action I expected. The ball was sitting in mid-court, and three couples were there as well, two on the baseline and one at the top of the key. While there was a lot of activity, none of them were actively looking for the basketball. I cleared my throat, and six teens separated guiltily, caught, thank God only figuratively, with their pants down.

I decided to establish some ground rules of my own. "JT, what's going on?" I asked him specifically, thus making him responsible.

"We, uh, she, uh..."

I stopped him right there and pulled him off to the side.

"First, JT, and as you get older you'll understand this better, but first, JT, never, ever blame the woman. It won't work."

He looked back at me with a solemn face, taking my statement as wisdom from the ages. God! This kid has got to lighten up!

I continued in a more serious vein but more in keeping with his attitude.

"JT, as a man, be a man. Take the responsibility, take charge. And right or wrong, take the blame. Understand?"

I raised my eyebrows at him, trying to get him to lighten up.

He nodded, still unsure.

"Now then, I'll ask you again, what's going on out here?"

He looked around, then over at Simone, who had wandered up to us.

He grinned, "We, uh, I was resting, sir!"

I laughed.

"Well, just don't rest too long, OK?"

The six of them grinned back, the message understood. From then on I kept the window to my office open whenever Simone had the kids over. I couldn't see the court from there, so I wasn't exactly spying on them. I kept it open so I could hear the 'boing-boing' of the basketball as it was occasionally dribbled between the rest periods. What can I say, hormones were raging.

Sally popped up to my office and informed me it was time to dress for dinner. I grumbled at her, as I was puzzling my way through a complex international financial transaction that nagged at me. Something was just too sweet with the deal and I wanted to make sure my clients wouldn't be left holding an empty bag if I recommended it to them. I could feel I was almost at the point of seeing the catch, and I wasn't ready to eat dinner.

"Now, Master!" came her voice again from the doorway. Something in her exasperated tone cut through the fog in my brain and I gave her my full attention. God, was I glad I did. Sally was wearing an outfit I hadn't seen before. I guess it could best be described as a formal loincloth. And a necklace, her jeweled collar. I idly wondered how she had gotten it out of the safe, but in a rare flash of brilliance for me, I determined it was best if I didn't know how she had figured out the combination to my safe. It would only frustrate me and right now I was once again totally besotted with her beauty.

She noticed me staring at her nakedness and she blushed, both from the joy my attentions still brought her and her frustration at having yet another delay in getting me dressed for dinner. She finally got me to our bedroom and into a similarly brief covering, now completely inadequate given the aroused state my cock was in. It looked more like a window awning with a single support than a loincloth and Sally and Nicole got a severe case of the giggles as they escorted me down to the dining room.

As we entered the rarely used formal dining room, I noticed that all the stops had been pulled out for the evening; candles, the good china, my family's silver service and the good linen napkins with the monogrammed silver rings. The large square table was set for 11 people. Sally and Nicole guided me to our places facing the door, bursting out in fits of laughter as it became obvious that the head of my prick was going to poke out above the level of the table. Unless something could be done, there would be 12 for dinner.

Nicole, I might add, was similarly attired, her loincloth as brief as Sally's. Her collar was also in place. She had added a pair of high heels to her outfit that lifted her butt nicely. With all the visual stimulation around me, there was no chance in Hell I was going to relax anytime soon. I thought Sally or Nicole would take the initiative and relieve the stress, so to speak but neither left her place at my side. The four of us waited for the other guests to join us.

I heard Janey's voice first. She was in 'polite' mode, I could tell. Not nervous, not scared, just on her best behavior. Whoever was with her, the guest was bound to be important. Then Marion's voice chimed in, again trying to reassure whoever was with them by her tone. She had practiced that tone on me all through our growing up and beyond and she did it well. I was curious about who was coming in with them when it suddenly hit me.

JT's Mom! Debby, or Dana, no. Diane. Suddenly panicked, I stared at my stubbornly erect member, trying to will it into submission. I guess you know that didn't work. As I heard them coming closer I got more desperate. I grabbed the linen napkin from in front of me and tried to yank the silver napkin ring off the damn napkin. Like a Chinese finger puzzle, the harder I pulled on it, the more it stuck, until it gave with a sadistic suddenness. The cloth I was hoping to cover myself with sailed out into the middle of the table, clearly out of my reach and too far away to get to without totally exposing myself to the group just now entering the dining room.

The silver ring, on the other hand, took another route to complete my humiliation. It flipped up into the air, glinting and gleaming in the soft candlelight. The flashes of light from the spinning ring managed to catch everyone's attention and six pairs of eyes watched the ring, in agonizingly slow motion, from my perspective, anyway, descend into my lap, landing squarely on the head of my cock, crowning my prick with a crown of softly gleaming silver.

We were all stunned by what had happened and were silent, staring at that damned napkin ring/crown. Sally and Nicole, again in unison, started shaking silently, their lovely tits jiggling enticingly. Watching those lovely orbs quaking was not helping my situation at all.

"You know, I've always wondered what to do with those damn rings after you take the napkin out. I never thought of doing that, but I'll bet my Jerome would have loved it."

Five pairs of eyes swiveled from staring at my cock to staring at this unruffled woman who had just defused a humiliating situation. Then we all laughed, wiping tears from our eyes. Nicole or Sally, I couldn't tell which one, surreptitiously lifted the ring from its awkward perch during the laughter and placed it on the table next to my place setting.

Marion, Janey and JT's Mom finished entering the room and sat at our left. Conversation was admittedly a bit less stilted and formal after that and I could tell I was going to take a lot of ribbing for a long time.

Simone slipped in and out of the room, serving wine and bringing in the salad and the soup. There was still no sign of the other guests or of JT, but Simone did not show any concern about the late arrivals. She also showed no sign of having heard the ruckus earlier. I admired her calm demeanor. She was growing up to be a confident and accomplished young lady.