“Good choice,” he said, and opened the bottle and poured three fingers into old fashioned glasses for each of us. “I don’t actually drink much hard liquor but I’ve had this before and it’s good stuff.” We clinked glasses and sipped. The burn of good strong Bourbon and the sweet taste of caramel filled my palate and warmed my throat.
“I could have gone for a rare Bordeaux,” I said. “You can’t have that many bottles stashed in two Danbys.”
His eyes twinkled. “I have a wine cellar,” he said.
“Of course you do,” I said. “I give.”
We walked onto the patio and met the rest of Thomas’ harem. His mother stood to greet us. She had two great things going for her: she was perhaps the most classically beautiful woman I’d ever met in person, and she didn’t look anywhere near old enough to be Thomas’ mother.
I said, “Hi ladies. You know Jay, of course. This is my niece Dawn.”
Thomas’ mother hugged Dawn and whispered in her ear. Dawn told me later that she said, “I’m happy for you Dear, and I know what it’s like to have to hide your love. You don’t have to hide it here. You’re with friends now.”
“And this is Mary Beth,” I said. “My lesbian girlfriend.”
She looked at me and rolled her eyes. “Hey,” I said. “It never gets old.”
Nela said, “‘Lesbian girlfriend?'”
“This is Nela, my girlfriend and my personal trainer,” Thomas said. The lovely blonde woman rose to greet us and I thought Mary Beth was going to keel over. Nela was dressed in a tiny little skirt and blouse ensemble. The front of the blouse was satin mesh and her large breasts were fully on display. Mary Beth stared at them, a fact not lost on Nela.
She was looking directly into Mary Beth’s eyes when she said, “I went more for ‘sexy’ than ‘elegant.'”
“Good job,” Mary Beth said.
“You’re going to have to explain the ‘lesbian girlfriend’ thing, you know,” Nela said.
So she did. Nela stopped her at the point where I had taken Mary Beth from behind while she was going down on Dawn. She looked at me.
“So as far as you knew she was only into women and you took her anyway?”
Wow, that didn’t sound good. In fact, it sounded kind of like rape. I thought back to that day almost a year ago.
“I really didn’t think it through. Mary Beth was my best friend. We’d been intimate in every way but sex for almost two years. I loved her. We had just started our first session of three-way sex. I was seeing her nude for the first time and she was incredibly beautiful. She had just gone down on me and now her ass was up in the air right in front of me. I kind of couldn’t help myself. I didn’t think it through at all.”
Mary Beth touched my hand. “I’m so glad you didn’t, Johnny.” She told Nela about how she had developed physical cravings for me that she couldn’t understand and couldn’t bring herself to act on, and how she’d hoped that I would make some kind of move.
“I think everybody is bisexual,” Nela said. “At least to some degree. I certainly am. Men seem to be contractually obligated to deny it and some women deny it too but that’s just stupid. You have to take your pleasure and find your love where you can.”
“The thing is, I still think of myself as a lesbian,” Mary Beth said. “I’m only into women. I just also really love fucking Johnny. I can’t figure it out.”
“Some days I’m a lesbian,” Nela said. “Some days I’m straight. Some days I go back and forth any number of times. Depends on who I’m with. And how I feel. You don’t have to figure anything out. What the hell does it matter? Do you love him?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Does he love you?”
“God yes,” I said.
“Does he make you feel good?”
Mary Beth looked down and grinned. “You have no idea,” she said.
“I think I do,” said Nela, looking at Thomas.
Jay wrapped her arms around me from behind and said, “Johnny is the same kind of lover that Thomas is. Totally focused on pleasing his partner. But also very animalistic about reaching his own pleasure, which again pleases his partner.”
“Yup, that sounds like Tommy,” said Tina as she joined us on the patio. Her little black dress was even shorter and tighter than Jay’s. Given how it looked on her more voluptuous body, uncontaminated by underwear, it was likely she would have been arrested on sight in at least thirty states.
Thomas made introductions. “Tina is my sister but she’s also my soul mate,” he said. “I loved her and lusted after her and didn’t find out until a year ago that she felt the same way about me.” He went on to explain how chance had brought first Juana and Esmeralda into his house, then Nela, then his mother, and finally Tina.
“Golly,” I said. “Just these few?”
Nela said, “Well, there are a couple of neighbor ladies that come by every now and then. They were with Thomas first but now we all pretty much attack them when they’re here. That’s about it.”
“Esmeralda’s friend Julie,” Tina said.
“Oh, of course,” said Nela. “She hasn’t been over in some time.”
“The tailor,” Natalie said.
“Oh, yeah,” said Nela, laughing. “Thomas got a hard-on when she was measuring him and one thing led to another.”
“The pizza delivery girl last week,” Tina said.
“Oh God,” said Natalie, laughing. “We dared Thomas to answer the door naked. Again, one thing sort of led to another.”
“This is bizarre,” Dawn said.
They all stared at her.
“Oh, not your behavior,” Dawn said quickly. “I just never expected to find another group of people with a relationship so much like ours. The incest. Multiple women revolving around one man.”
“Revolving?” I said.
“You know what I mean. Anyway, we all have sex with the man but also with each other. We bring other women into the relationship but not other men.”
“Well, Nela and I occasionally see other men on the side,” Natalie said.
“I haven’t,” Nela said. “Only other women.”
“And I have to admit that I’ve dated a few men but haven’t had sex with them,” Natalie said. “My physical needs are more than satisfied right here, which makes it easier to wait until I’ve found the right guy.”
“Anyway, in both ‘families’ the guy gets to have sex with the women we invite in and we’re not jealous,” Dawn said. “Instead, it’s…”
“Hot,” said Tina.
“Yup,” said Mary Beth.
“What if Dawn wanted to have sex with another man?” Nela said. “Say, for instance, with Thomas. Would you be jealous, Johnny?”
“Great choice,” I said. “He’s younger than me, taller than me, better looking than me, richer than me…”
“You’re very good looking,” Tina said. “And quite tall enough for me.”
I looked at Thomas for a reaction. This afternoon he had shown every sign of being quite jealous. Tonight though, he simply shrugged.
“We talked about it this afternoon,” he said. “Tina is very much attracted to you. When we first got together I told Tina that I didn’t think I could stand her being with another man. But we’ve been together for a year now and she’s been faithful to me. Meanwhile I’ve been having sex with Mom, Nela, Juana, and others and she doesn’t care as long as I stay with her. She’s convinced me that having sex with another man wouldn’t make her want to leave me.” He paused. “It helps that I like you,” he said.
“You still haven’t answered my question, Johnny,” said Nela.
I thought about it. I pictured Dawn with Thomas and thought about how it made me feel. “Yes,” I said. “I’d be jealous. Dawn has let me have sex with a number of other women and I recognize the irony but yes, I’d feel jealous. On the other hand, if she really wanted to I wouldn’t try to stop her. I love her and all I want is for her to be happy. I would just pray that at the end of it she’d want to stay with me.”
“If it did happen I would still want to stay with you forever, Johnny,” Dawn said. I hugged her, then turned to Mary Beth. “And I feel exactly the same way about you, Sweetie,” I said, and hugged her too.