Loosening Up - Younger Crowd - Book 7

by Robert Wolf

©Copyright 2018 Robert Wolf

Chapter 1 - Cookies and Cream

“Oh, God. I love this.” The frizzy blonde panted as she rode the two cocks in her body. She held a third in her left hand and occasionally sucked on the shaft when she broadened out her concentration.

“I never thought you’d want to be DPed,” Alan gasped to his girlfriend as his cock plunged back and forth into the gorgeous woman.

“Cookie, you’re a fabulous asset. I hope you like us all enough to end up joining the Circle.” Dave spoke sincerely, always eager to have new blood in the Circle, particularly a young woman as pretty, smart, innovative, and as horny as Cookie seemed to be.

A third male voice crooned, “I hope we all get to join the Circle if this is the result. Cookie, I’m also falling in love with you.” Barry watched as she again sucked his cock into her mouth and ran her tongue around the mushroom cap.

“Cum … MING AGAIN!” Cookie announced in a near scream as she increased the speed with which she was slamming back onto the two cocks in her nether region - one in her pussy and one in her ass. She held Barry’s cock near her mouth as she yelled, and then lunged back on the man meat, swallowing until her nose met his pubes.

“Me, too.” Those words came from all three men almost in unison.

Seconds later, the dominoes started to tumble. Cookie went first with her head thrown back and a huge moan and then a gasp for air. The spasms across her lower body induced Dave and Alan into their own orgasms, filling her insides with heavy doses of cock cream. She got in a final suck on Barry’s cock, and he exploded just as she withdrew his cock from her mouth. The ropes of his cum splattered across her lower face and then her neck and breasts. No doubt that his response wasn’t powerful and prolific.

Cookie moaned as she slumped into Dave’s arms as they rolled sideways on the large bed. “I’ve never felt this fulfilled before. I WILL be doing this again and again.” Her fingers wandered down to where she’d already started to leak cum from her lower orifices. Alan and Barry lay on her other side.

A feminine voice from the bedroom doorway asked, “Is this a private party?”

Dave chuckled and said, “No. Your cleanup skills are desperately needed. We’ve each been with Cookie, and then she decided she wanted to be made airtight.”

Julie hustled into the bedroom, taking a few seconds to suck clean the three cocks slowly deflating after the orgasms in or on Cookie Carson. Only then, did she spread her nearly naked body out between Cookie’s legs and begin to lap at the white fluids surrounding and leaking from her vagina and ass. Cookie watched down her body in fascination at what Julie was doing despite not being a party to the acts that left her dripping.

Cricket appeared at the door. She didn’t ask, she just joined the group, kissing Cookie and then lapping at the white cream plastered across the co-ed’s face and chest. She occasionally sucked on one of Cookie’s hot nipples eliciting more moans of sexual excitement.

Dave explained to Cookie as Cricket sucked on her left tit, “Julie and Cricket are two of my wives, and they love to do this. Humor them. They’ll be through as soon as they give you several orgasms on their talented tongues.”

Cookie moaned and then pulled Cricket up slightly so they could again kiss just as she crested into another orgasm, this time on Julie’s tongue and fingers. She mumbled, “Humor them? I hope they never stop.”

A half-hour later, most of the group from the bedroom joined the others around a couple of tables on the patio that had been pushed together. Julie led Cookie into the pool for a refreshing dip, then the two women got out and joined the others to drip dry in the nude. Dinner dishes had been cleared and the children were long gone. Most of the people on the patio were naked, and many of those were coming from lovemaking sessions. The Circle was enjoying a typical Sunday night.

Cookie accepted a water bottle from Cricket as she sat down with a lusty sigh. “You’re winning me over to this lifestyle. I think you had me at ‘Hello’. Hell, I don’t ever want to leave this place. I’ve had more orgasms tonight than the entire rest of my life all added together.”

Cricket laughed, “You sure weren’t a hard sell.”

“I didn’t realize there were the options until you talked about them. I’d been brainwashed to think that monogamy was the only model for relationships; that love could only take place between two people; and that I had to be jealous if my boyfriend or husband had sex with somebody else. That whole paradigm is now upside down. This all feels more comfortable than the ‘normal’ way. This seems like the only ‘right’ way to me.

“After Alan had told me that he’d fucked five of you, I was on the verge of reacting very badly. Cricket, thank you for catching me before I did that and explaining so much about the alternatives to me. I’m glad you were one of the five women he was with.”

Cricket leaned in a kissed the pretty blonde. “We all went through the same stages you’re finding as we warmed up to the Circle and new ways of doing things and of thinking.”

Dave noted that they’d only scratched the surface in terms of explaining the Circle to Cookie. After learning about Alan’s weekend with the girls starting at the toga party, she seemed overly eager to share herself, if not out of curiosity then out of pure revenge. Dave excused his physical behavior with the pretty co-ed on a number of counts, the primary one being her infatuation with the Circle and what little she’d already learned. He reminded himself that others already in the Circle had less firm starts in the activities than Cookie.

Dave commented to Cookie, “You spoke of the ‘normal way’. If you talk to your contemporaries about our way of living - our lifestyle, if you will - you will find yourself on the outs with them. They’ll shun you for all sorts of reasons. We are too far from ‘normal’.”

Cookie sat back but argued, “But this is so cool. You’re all sexually safe. My hormones are raging, and I get to humor them with a relationship with any man I like in your Circle. I get to continue to develop my relationship with Alan, and yet he gets to also develop beautiful relationships with other women in the same way. This is a huge win-win.

“Learning that love expands to meet whatever my needs are to give it away changes my life in a major way. No longer is love limited to only two people. My time may be limited, but my love is not. That’s a superb concept - so transformational.

“And then there’s the whole attitude about jealousy. In the apartment complex I live in almost every woman has broken up with a guy because he looked crossways at some other female or even did something physical with her. Alan topped all of them on that score by fucking five of you. On that basis, I’d be alone now because I would have kicked Alan to the curb for what happened at the fraternity toga party. When I wasn’t crying, I’d probably also be pissed at all of the males of the species and not date for a long time. No good there!

“Instead, I learned about compersion - feeling good about his interactions, even sexual and romantic ones, with other women. Further, in this case, I got to meet them all - Candy, Christie, Cricket, Nikky, and Bridget. They’re all going to be great friends. I find I love them and they love me. I’m grateful to each of them for the time they took with me over dinner. We’re going to become great friends. I’m so glad Alan paved the way for intimate relationships with them. I can ride his coattails into deeper relationships with them … and now you and other men and women here.”

Cricket said, “We get … romantic with each other. Sexual. Frequently.”

Cookie grinned, “I’d never touched or been touched by another woman until you and Julie made love to my pussy about an hour ago, and then you both started to kiss me and lick me. God, the two of you gave me four orgasms with your tongues and fingers. I’m still floating on what happened tonight. I couldn’t believe it as it happened, and reflecting back I realize I need to return the favor to both of you and I want to engage other women in the same way. It was so naughty, but sooooo wonderful.”

Cricket said to no one in particular, “Maybe we should give classes about the Circle. Just a few hours’ worth about how it got started, the philosophy, and how all that background manifests in how we behave and think on a daily basis.”

Cookie eagerly said, “I’ll sign up for that right now. I think that’s a great idea.”

A new female voice said from behind Dave, “You could count me in, too. I love that idea. Ann Carlos leaned around the man and gave him a warm and tender kiss that lingered on for more than a minute. Her nude breasts were then on the back of his neck.

As Ann rose again, Juan appeared and shook Dave’s hand. He chuckled, “My wife needs some time with you. You were all she could talk about on the drive over here.”

Another female voice spoke also from behind Dave, “Well, she has to share. I want time with him, too.” Jessica Thomas moved in front of Dave and wiggled into his lap so she could kiss him. She also placed one of his hands on her buff ass, and the other inside her open blouse so he was cupping a breast. She was braless and only wearing a miniscule G-string. Dave was naked.

Ann and Jess quickly tossed their blouses aside and shimmied out of their shorts, leaving them in thongs that weakly passed as monokinis.

Jess asked after another kiss, “What are we signing up for?” She looked around.

Cricket explained, “I had just speculated that the Circle should hold some kind of class about how it started, the philosophy behind it, and how we live. I have nothing beyond that fundamental idea. I guess we could layout the content that should be covered if someone wanted to take responsibility.

“Tan is handling the work details right now. I’ll talk to her about putting together a team to help make up a curriculum and get some faculty for it. Dave, you would be a key member of the faculty.”

He smiled, “I hereby volunteer to help put something like that together. We’re really getting institutionalized. My question is who would attend?”

Ann spoke, “Carlos and I will.”

“Chris and I will,” Jessica stated.

Cookie raised her hand. “I will and I’m sure that Alan will. Given how they said they’re feeling about things here I’m sure that Alan, Barry, Cord, Wes, and Elton would also attend.”

Ann said, “Adam and Jill Timms would likely be interested, too, I’m sure. So there’s a dozen students and potential members for your first class. I bet some of the current members, the newer ones, would probably attend as well. Maybe some of the fraternity men have other female friends they’d like to involve the way Cookie came to us.”

* * * * *

Adam Timms sat down on the bench seat at the dinner table opposite Dave. “Mind if I join you? I have a request, but don’t know where to direct my question.”

Dave smiled as Adam sat. He turned and Jill sat next to him, giving him a warm kiss and a hug after she’d set her dinner plate down.

Adam said, “I would like to use you airport for some training for some of my students. Who’s the person to ask?”

Dave thought a moment, “I guess the Circle Board - that’d be Ty, who’s president, me as the VP, Julie, Alice, Jack, and Wendy. Alice and I are pilots, so might be more sympathetic to your request. Say more about it.”

Adam said, “It’d be only for advanced training for small jets. The runway is six thousand feet or so in length and only about forty feet wide. That doesn’t allow a lot of margin for error, especially if there are crosswinds. As I get someone new qualifying in corporate jets, I want them to be able to handle something as short and narrow as what you have.”

Alice looked past Dave at Adam and spoke, “I guess we’re used to it, but you’re right. After our little airport every other airport we go into seems spacious and very forgiving of minor errors in heading, approach speed, and so on. With our little airport we have to be very precise, especially in our flight planning.”

Adam said, “I want them challenged not only on landing but also takeoff on density altitude days. Of course, we’d keep a large margin of safety in all of this. Also, I don’t see there being many operations, maybe just approaches and go-arounds.”

Alice nodded. She and Pam were the only two in the Circle besides Ken Toomey who flew for Atlantic Airlines that were jet qualified, and then only on Cessna Citations and more recently on Owen’s Gulfstream 650LR. She said, “We have had a couple of ‘No Takeoff’ days over the summer, certainly in the afternoons when its hazy, hot, and humid. The runway would have been too short.”

Adam said, “I doubt there’d be more than ten operations a month, but I do feel I should ask somebody.”

Dave said, “I’ll bring it up at next Wednesday evening’s meeting. I doubt they’ll be a problem. We do worry about inflicting too much noise on the neighbors downhill from us, meaning below and parallel to the runway.”

Alice said, “We minimize the use of reverse thrust for braking, but that puts extra wear and tear on the brakes, and we compensate for that by precision landing points, which leaves us lots of space to roll out and brake without too much noise.”

Adam said, “Thanks. I’ll remember that. Let me know.”

* * * * *

Cookie asked, “Everything around the patio and core is so neat and pristine. How do you keep it that way? I just learned that this place is almost seven years old, and yet it looks brand new.”

Alice smiled, “Money and elbow grease. When something starts to look worn, we replace it. When something looks dirty, we clean it. You know about the work details or member jobs, right?”

Cookie shook her head, “No. What do you mean?”

“Each member of the Circle puts in about ten hours a week on some job that helps the area and all our members in some way. Tan is managing the work assignments for this half of the year. That’s her contribution and she’ll turn it over to someone on January first if there’s a volunteer; she said she’d keep doing it otherwise.”

“I want to sign up for a work detail. I’m willing to work, providing I can fit it around my academic class schedule.”

“Not usually a problem. The others taking classes do that without a problem: Candy, Bridget, and Christie. You take a job, usually joining a work team, and divvy up the responsibilities with them.”

“Jobs such as?”

Alice counted them off on her fingers, “Meal preparation, meal service, meal cleanup, bar service and cleanup, waitressing or waitering, dishwashing, shopping, keeping the patio and gazebo clean and neat, and light landscaping or gardening, pool maintenance, core living room and gym cleaning, sauna and Jacuzzi maintenance, heavier landscaping beyond what our contractors do, Circle event planning, party prep, golf cart cleaning and maintenance, hangar cleaning if you’re one of the pilots in the Circle, cleaning of the public areas in the townhouses, and then there are the financial, HR, and board support teams, and a couple of other standing committees.”

“I’ll talk to Tan. I can see how I could help out on many of those work teams.”

“You get to know some of the people on the teams better too, because you’re working with them on something worthwhile and valuable to everybody else. Nobody works alone and it promotes friendships and relationship intimacy.”

“Everything here is so inviting. I’m already changing my career plans and thinking in terms of jobs located near the city so I can commute. I’d love to live here after graduation.”

“Well, that’s controversial to some degree. We’re getting ready to build a third townhouse, but before we even put a shovel in the ground for it, we already need a fourth. Many of our members would like a house like we have here in the Circle of homes.” She gestured around at the Circle of homes surrounding the core building, patio, and pool.

Cookie picked up a piece of paper and folded it a couple of times. “What you need to do is open up the Circle. Like this.” She drew a circle over the fold and blocked out the ten homes on it as well as the core buildings and pool with half on one part of the fold and half on the other.

Cooke then started listing off her idea. “I’d physically move four or five of the homes and open up one end of the circle of homes.” She pulled the paper apart and smoothed it out and then filled in the gap between the two semicircles. “I’d then enlarge the core building and patio into the newly available space, and build more homes along the sides until you want close off everything. You’d have a race track instead of a circle.

Cookie’s diagram took on the shape of a racetrack: semicircles at each end with parallel straights on either side connecting the semicircles. As she redrew the ‘circle’ it ended with eighteen instead of ten homes enclosing the oblong core.

Cookie continued to spout ideas as she sketched, “The way I drew it you could add eight new homes, but if you shrink or stretch out the straight sides of the racetrack you could add six, eight, ten, or twelve more single-family homes easily. You have the land. You’d need to tinker with lots of stuff like utilities and deeds, but from what I understand that’s all doable if people are interested in enlarging the core and number of homes surrounding it.”

Alice studied her new friend. “Cookie, what are you majoring in at school?”

Cookie smiled, “Architecture and urban planning.”

Alice had her phone out to call Jack Anders, the Circle member and architect who’d initially designed the Circle and the townhouses. Fortunately, Jack was working in his home office. He joined the two women minutes later.

* * * * *

The Wednesday evening Circle Board Meeting was well attended by the members. A half-dozen guests also attended; those ‘pledging’ the Circle - a term borrowed from fraternity and sorority life at the university.

The minutes from the previous month and financial statement for the month and so far in the year had been forwarded to members a few days before. Those items were dealt with quickly and with little comment.

What had piqued the interest in most of the attendees were several proposals that had come up in only the last week.

First, was a request from ‘friend’ Adam Timms to use the runway for training flights. There was discussion, Owen who kind of owned the airfield spoke in support of the training, and the motion was accepted without much debate or concern. The group requested that such flights take place before six o’clock at night and after eight in the morning, and use noise abatement procedures.

The second item concerned the expansion of ‘units’ for Circle members living on ‘campus’. The final city and country permits had just been received for the third townhouse, to be built along the airport road. Jack Anders reported that the crews would start on the construction within the next two weeks. Units should be ready for occupancy around nine months later.

Jack then introduced Cookie Carson, architecture student at the university, to everyone. Many already knew her. He applauded an idea she had, but was curious whether anybody else was interested in assuming the burden of a home on the Circle rather than a townhouse unit, particularly those in townhouses that wanted additional space. Several people raised their hands, including the Stickler’s and Simons.

Jack had Cookie describe her idea about picking up and moving some of the homes and instead of a large circle of homes there’d be more of a racetrack of homes around a much larger core. After Cookie had described her idea there was a long silence.

Cookie was not used to speaking in front of groups, and her presentation had revealed her nervousness. Worse, there was little visual or auditory feedback from the audience in terms of positive feedback supporting what she talked about. There wasn’t any negative feedback either - just silence. For the most part, everyone stared at her or her two charts as she talked. The silence at the end was deafening to her. She started to choke up and her eyes got glassy with tears. She suddenly believed she’d said all the wrong things and made everyone mad at her concept and hence her. This was not a good way to try to start a friendship with the Circle. Her stomach knotted and she thought she’d barf, but that would be more embarrassing. She held it all in with sheer determination and forced a smile.

Dave stood and started to applaud. Wendy and Alice joined him. Joan, Christie, Owen, and several others joined in, and pretty soon the entire room stood clapping in support of Cookie’s idea and what she proposed. Cookie plopped down in her chair and buried her face in her hands; this was such a relief. Her initial reactions had been wrong. Some of them liked the idea. No, ALL of the Circle members in the meeting liked the idea. She thought, ‘Oh, thank God.’ She glanced up at the group through teary eyes and tried to grin, but all that came up was a trembling smile and wet eyes.

Ty reclaimed control of the meeting. Jack put his hand on Cookie’s shoulder as he made a few comments about the devil being in the details. There were considerations about the cost and feasibility of moving homes, city permits, lot sizes, population density versus zoning rules, lots of legal work, and much more.

Robyn Riggs spoke briefly, informing the group that the legal work might appear complex but would not be overly complex if all current owners and lessees supported the re-platting of the land and relocation of the homes, which she was sure they did.

Someone raised concerns about the temporary housing for displaced residents, but that didn’t seem as large a concern to those potentially involved. Cookie, who’d recovered slightly, observed that the smaller houses along one end of the circle of homes were those easiest to pick up and re-site.

A quick straw vote of those in attendance resulted in near unanimous support for further exploring of the enlargement option. Cookie got specified as a supporting and paid architect’s helper to Jack in the study arrangement. She blushed up something beautifully pink. This was her first professional job.

Ty regrouped the meeting for a new topic and several in the group, including Cookie again, talked about the idea of a curriculum and class for potential Circle members to address the history, philosophy, and lifestyle of the group. By then, the idea of a companion discussion group or rap session had been added. There was no dissention, and only great ideas tossed into the mix about content.

A committee was formed to create and implement the study group, and Tan took on staffing that group. Dave volunteered to be one of the committee members as well as faculty staff. Ultimately, Joan took on leading the creation and implementation effort. Kat also volunteered for the committee, giving Dave a wink in the process.

As the meeting broke up, Alice and Julie both whispered in Dave’s ear. Cricket gave him a wink as she walked out of the core living room holding hands with Heather. Pam also gave him a smile indicating that she was in on the small cabal as well.

Dave maneuvered over to Cookie and waited while the young woman fielded some questions about her two charts and the idea to radically change the design of the core buildings and the surrounding homes. She already had a long list of ideas regarding modifications to the core.

When Cookie became free, Dave helped her fold up her papers and charts and escorted her towards his home. She gave him a questioning look, but accepted going with him. She’d been there two times before with pleasurable results both times. She hoped this was again one of those times. In his living room, a couple of the other women were already there, but Dave stopped and took Cookie in his arms and again kissed her with great passion. He winked at two of his wives.

When they separated, Cookie was panting. “Wow! I guess I did all right in the meeting?”

“Very all right,” he assured her. “Now, come with me unless you really have to run away.”

Dave led the college senior upstairs and into his large bedroom. A few seconds later, they were naked and making out on the super-large bed.

Cookie breathed and mumbled into the room rather than specifically to Dave, “Oh God, this is the greatest group of people I’ve ever met.”

Dave encouraged Cookie to make love in the missionary position. After he’d penetrated her and she was flowing with juices and rhythm, Alice came into the room and slithered up on the bed. She lay beside Cookie and started to kiss the younger woman with passion and lust and love.

Alice told her, “I need you to make love to my pussy with your mouth and tongue.” Alice pulled away and mounted Cookie’s head, lowering her wet cunt onto the willing mouth. Cookie was eager to use her imagination and learn new skills as she went to work. She wanted Alice to orgasm into her mouth, and she also wanted to cum on Dave’s cock as he continued to pump into her body. She was aware that Alice and Dave were kissing as they had her between then.

Cookie felt Dave pull away from her, only to have another mouth, tongue, and feminine fingers start on her pussy. Cookie was not a large woman, but she could tell the woman near her groin was smaller than she was. The lapping led to three fingers in her vagina, and then four, and then she felt the woman’s entire fist enter her body. That alone produced a small orgasm.

The attention to her G-spot yielded a powerful orgasm that left her breathless. The fingers reached deeper inside, but they seemed to know exactly where to go. Her body jerked when one area deep inside was touched. She wanted more … and more … and more.

The pleasure ramped up as though a rocket had been strapped to her libido and her body’s sexual senses. The focus became SEX and the rising feel of a colossal orgasm that threatened to rip her apart. She knew but wanted the pleasure. She arched and pushed into the hand, begging for that last little bit of stimulation to push her over the edge of the orgasmic cliff.

When that peak arrived, she heard a scream in the distance, yet realized the sound came from her own mouth. It sounded so far away to her. Cookie crested as though riding a tremendous tsunami up the side of some smoldering volcano. The explosion came as the night behind her eyes exploded in a billion supernovae, and then Cookie’s world went dark except for the emotional feelings of pleasure and love. She’d been swallowed by a dark hole of lust and love and orgasmic bliss.

Cookie was being kissed by two women and a man when she awoke: Alice, Cricket, and Dave. Her body was alive with pleasure, unlike any time in her past. This was the most aroused she’d ever felt.

Cookie whispered to the three, “I love you from deep in my heart. I want my life to be embedded with yours and yours with mine. I understand life and our relationships like never before. Please, someone make love to me.”

Dave took over again and made love to Cookie, whispering his own words of appreciation and love to her. They eventually climaxed together, and then Cricket made love to Cookie’s nether region again, cleaning up the area as she too talked to the sapphic love she felt for Cookie.

Later, Dave helped Cookie dress and went to escort her to his car to drive her back to her apartment on the edge of the university campus. Cookie was a little shaky and trembly but in the nicest of ways. She claimed she could still feel the remnants of the orgasm.

As the pair came out into the hallway, a very naked Bridget emerged from her bedroom followed by Alan - Cookie’s boyfriend, more or less. They paused and looked at each other. Each had that ‘well-fucked’ look about them. Bridget had cum dripping down her legs, and for that matter Cookie did, too.

Alan smiled, “You heading back to campus? I can drop you. You look a little spaced out.”

Cookie looked at Dave and as he nodded, she said, “Yes. That’d save Dave a trip. Thank you. Maybe we should talk on the way, too. Things have really changed since we started dating. I love you more than before, but … there are a few complications.”

Alan nodded and glanced at Bridget. “I’ll say.” He did lean over and kiss Cookie lightly on the lips and then they went off together.

Bridget smiled at Dave and held out her hand. He took it and let her lead him back to her bedroom.

Chapter 2 - Circle 101

Nikky was flying around the office wearing a cellphone headset and talking to someone while she arranged notes and papers on Dave’s desk. He waved at her and blew her a kiss. She held up a finger urging him to stand still for a moment as she ended the call.

As Dave heard her end the call, she tore the headset from her head and came into his arms for her morning kiss and hug. “I love you.”

“And I love you, Nikky Thomas. What are you going to do with me today?”

“I’m going to have you meet with JR and Connie for fifteen minutes before the three of you meet the science editor from the New York Times, who will interview you about the Lithium-Thorium battery in the car Connie drove round-trip from here to Baltimore and back with only one overnight charge. He’ll be with you for up to ninety minutes including a photo op with the car.

“Nat is going to join you to also talk about the Aluminum Ion battery he’s been working on that looks even more promising for automotive applications. In the pre-meeting, he’ll tell you about the testing of one of those batteries in a couple of ultralight aircraft. I’m learning to fly one of them and am going to fly home from here in one with an instructor and land at the Circle airport tonight.

“After that, Morse Jacobs is coming to talk about the progress on the factory in the back of this parcel of land. Basically, he thinks you can get it online in six months - equipment and all, but don’t tell him I stole his thunder. The size is limited but everyone will be able to start thinking about manufacturing rather than development. I think he has some other news about the Apple order.”

Dave looked surprised, “That’s great.”

“JR has some contract and sales news, too. We’re seriously over-subscribed right now. We need more manufacturing capacity - MUCH more.”

Dave nodded, “EneRG needs a shitload of money and a lot of leverage to obtain staff and contractors to build manufacturing plants around the country.”

Nikky smiled, “Do you want me to solve the problem?”

Dave looked suspiciously at his aide. “You can do that?”

“I believe so,” Nikky said. “Do you want me to tell you how?”

“No. I do believe in delegating. Just don’t get in over your head and don’t give away too much of the company to anybody.” He shooed her out of his office and picked up the pile of phone messages and mail on his desk.

JR, Nathan, and Connie came in a few minutes later. They briefly talked about how to handle the interview with the reporter from the Times, and then Nikky escorted the man into Dave’s modest office - Horace Whittaker. Introductions were made, and then Dave set the stage for the anecdotal test that EneRG had run with a modified electric car.

Connie talked about how she drove the vehicle up to Baltimore before staying overnight, plugging the car into a regular house outlet, and then driving two more days back to Sarasota, Florida, without any further recharge. The roundtrip was just over two-thousand miles. At that point, any other electric car would have needed at least seven to ten recharge stops that would have taken much longer to do and possibly extended the trip by days.

Whittaker quizzed Connie about her driving habits and speed. She confessed to having a ‘lead foot’ and consistently driving around ten miles per hour over the limit unless traffic limited her progress. JR commented that higher speeds usually meant that batteries were depleted at a more rapid rate, a point that further distinguished the feat.

JR also mentioned that Connie had driven most of the way with the lights on, even during the day, the AC cranked up, and the radio blaring away with local music stations along the route. She mentioned there was also another female and child in the car and that Erin had written a short piece for the local paper on the trip. JR provided him a copy of that article and offered to introduce Erin to Whittaker. He demurred but did take her contact information.

Whittaker got into the properties of the battery at this point, and Dave was on less solid ground there. He deferred to Nat who fielded most of the engineering questions, and talked about the Lithium-Thalium or LTBs that had been put in the car, their weight compared to traditional auto batteries - they were lighter, and then got into the energy density that they could store, and a bit about their charging potential.

Whittaker declared in an awed tone, “These are revolutionary! Why aren’t more people writing about these and knocking down your door?”

Dave shrugged, “They haven’t hit a commercial product yet. I can tell you that very soon they will, and it will be a major marketing point and differentiating feature from others in the market space when it hits.”

Whittaker said, “Cellphones?”

Dave just smiled by way of an answer.

“How soon?”

“Maybe six months. The decision isn’t ours at this point,” JR stated.

“I’d appreciate a call as soon as that’s headed for market. I’ll do a follow-up piece to this one. I can assure you that you’ll get great coverage from what I plan to write. There’s no downside to any of this, as I see it.”

JR chucked, “There’s more coming. I recommend that you plan a trip back here in about six months. We’ll probably have some more ‘show ‘n tell’ for you by then. I’ll also try to get a release from our large customer to talk about their product launch if it hasn’t happened yet.”

Whittaker left and Connie waved goodbye to head back to her workstation in the marketing department.

Dave commented, “Having Connie make that trip was well worth it. You had your finger on the pulse of the nation when you thought that one up.”

JR hummed, “Production capacity, please.”

“Nikky is working at it as we speak and I’m meeting with the young man that’s worrying about making stuff out back in a few minutes. We’re trying to do the equivalent of going from the launch of our first rocket a few hundred feet in the air as Goddard did directly to a moon shot without any intervening steps. I hope we don’t screw this one up.”

JR stood as Dave did. They both headed for the door, but JR put her hand out and stopped him. He came a little closer to her than he expected. He turned to her, and she turned in front of him and kissed him.

The second kiss was much better since he was more attuned to her.

As they parted, he said, “I figure you’ll tell me what that’s about when the time comes?”

JR just gave him an enigmatic smile and walked ahead of him out of the conference room attached to Dave’s office. He could have sworn that there was significantly more wiggle in her posterior region than he’d ever seen.

* * * * *

The course and rap sessions about the history, philosophy, and behavior of the Circle got the shorthand description ‘Circle 101’ as its title because so many of those attending would be college students or recent alums that had courses with similar numerations.

Joan had volunteered to head the effort to pull the class together assisted by Kat and Dave. The first meeting in Joan’s living room one evening rapidly devolved into a beautiful lovemaking session with lots of orgasms. The second and subsequent meetings were more productive.

The small group outlined a curriculum. Joan showed it to a few others at dinner one night and got some further suggestions that were incorporated. One suggestion involved collecting photographs from the early days of the Circle and the founding members as they loosened up.

Dave volunteered to give the first session provided that the others on the committee helped. They agreed to start class on a Wednesday evening after dinner in the core living room.

Dave assembled a few PowerPoint slides and added a raft of photographs from what they laughingly referred to as the ‘old days’. The photos took up most of the slides, but there were a few with talking points on them.

While that was going on, the Circle again accepted an invitation to travel north for a Halloween party at The Meadows in six weeks’ time, so the Circle could join Mark Worthington’s clan for some fun, games, dancing, meals, and partying for a long night.

The first class of Circle 101 had twenty-two ‘students’ in attendance. The couples attending included Chris and Jessica Thomas - Nikky’s parents; Juan and Ann Carlos - Bill Lewis’s ex-wife and her new husband; Adam and Jill Timms - the jet instructor that Alice and Pam used so they could fly Mark’s Citation up to Maine for a week; and then a group of singles: Cookie Carson, Nikky Thomas, Joyce Myers, Gene Volker - Taylor’s brother and lover; and then four of the five fraternity men that some of the girls had seduced at the recent toga party: Alan Lauer, Cord Jenkins, Barry Sykes, and Wes Madden. Elton Cleats would have attended but he had an evening class in his major that night. Some of the existing but newer Circle members also asked to sit in: Athena, Bill, Taylor, Alec, Carolyn, Wolf, Ross, and Gabe.

The room had been arranged classroom style with the seats and portable tables facing a wall with a large projection screen on it. Dave had set up the computer projector just before dinner. Everyone filed in and took seats, looking at him expectantly as they sat. There were mutual smiles all around the room.

Just before he was about to begin, Alice escorted JR - Jean Randolf - from Dave’s work into the room. Dave was surprised and went over to her. He asked, “Are you sure you’re in the right place?”

JR nodded. “Yes. I’ve had some long talks with Nikky and then Alice. I’m here to learn at this point. Other things might happen later - maybe.”

Dave shrugged and went back to his table with the projector. He put the first slide up. It was a panoramic view of the cul de sac where he used to live. His house and Dori’s home were in the view. The next shot was of the parking lot at Knightsbridge Manufacturing where Alice had caught Dori fucking one of the salesmen as she went into work one day. Dave told the short story.

Dave started, “About nine years ago Alice and I lived a couple of doors down from Dori and Ty in this neighborhood. Dori and Alice worked together at Knightsbridge Manufacturing and were best friends, Ty was a manager for BOA, and I worked at Florida Power and Light.”

He shifted to the next slide, which showed four couples posing on someone’s patio. “Besides the four of us that I just mentioned, we were also very close friends with Sean and Kat, and Dev and Wendy. The eight of us met at least once a week to socialize and party.

“By today’s standards, our parties were initially staid, prim, proper, and probably boring. Nonetheless, we had great affection for each other and loved to be together. What I’m about to tell you is my perspective on what happened back then that led to the creation of the Circle. I urge you to talk to some of the others to obtain their perspectives.

“In my work for the power company, we used outside consultants for some of our work. Pam Hodge and I started to work together, she became a frequent guest since she was traveling here from Minnesota on her own, and over time we fell in love with each other.

“Simultaneously, Dori apparently got fed up with how stuck-in-a-rut and how prim and proper Alice and I were. We were disgustingly regimented, including about our sex lives. There was no spontaneity, and what we did do adhered to some rules we never spoke about or chose, but just unfolded unconsciously over time.

“After being discovered getting her morning fuck in the company parking lot, Dori revealed much about her life to Alice, and embarked on a campaign to get her - and through her me - to loosen up. Those words - ‘Loosening Up’ - became a hallmark phrase for us, and ultimately led to our turning our deep affection for Pam into a loving physical relationship.

“Many of the ‘Loosening Up’ challenges that Dori gave Alice led us in the direction of sex with others we loved. Our weekends with our friends became increasingly physical, and over several months even became intimate. I led the way in our family mainly because I was unsure how I’d react to seeing or even knowing about Alice making love with another man.

“At Alice’s urging - and spurred on by Dori - I became sexually intimate with Pam and then the other women in our social group. We were often together, as a group, at someone’s home, and usually outside around a pool. Eventually, I felt I was ready and urged Alice to engage in sex, and she did that first time with Dev.

“I can remember every detail of watching her that first night as she engaged in extramarital sex with him, and then Sean and Ty. I was making love to Dori for the first time that night. All the bad things that I’d been fearing would happen evaporated and left us with good feelings and love for everyone concerned.

“To some people, all we’d started to do was become swingers. We all felt there was so much more to it because of the genuine love we felt for each other. Personally, I got to the point where I could have been married to any of the other women, although I wouldn’t have wanted to lose Alice - and by that point Pam.”

Joyce raised her hand slightly and Dave called on her. She asked, “How did you know that it was love and not just lust?”

Dave nodded, “Good question. Alice and I had this discussion way back when to be sure we were headed in the right direction as far as we were concerned. The big test for me was whether I wanted to spend quality time with the other person excluding sex as a consideration. I did. I think we each wanted to be able to crawl around inside the other person’s head because they were so fascinating. I cared deeply for what the others were feeling - emotionally. We were all urging each other to be better people, to take risks in our careers that we were less likely to take without some emotional support, and we wanted to be each other’s support network.

“By contrast, yes, we loved having sex with each other, even worked through some fantasies with each other. I loved to cuddle and remain with the women I made love with, but if you’re only in lust you want to move along to the next subject, so to speak.”

Joyce nodded, “Thank you.”

Dave went on, “In the course of our interactions with each other, many of which were sexual, we each learned that we could love more than one other person in deep and meaningful ways; all while we maintained the loving relationship that we’d forged with our spouse. We had a few discussions about whether there was some ‘maximum number’ but what we were finding was that the more we loved the more we had available to give.

“In the course of our first year together as a group, we were constantly focused on sex, but we were also learning more and more about ourselves and what became the philosophical underpinnings of the Circle. We’ll be talking about each of those in depth, but briefly they include being non-monogamous, non-exclusive, egalitarian, exhibitionists, voyeurs, social, polyamorous, not pretentious, non-egoists, genuine, authentic, compersive or not jealous, protective, willing to do service on behalf of the whole, non-paternal, spiritual-but-not-religious, and for the women being bisexual. More to come on each of those in our rap sessions, and I’m sure I’m missing a few more.”

Dave went on the describe the physical formation of the group, how Owen got involved thanks to a challenge from Dori for Alice to dance at the strip club, get a tattoo, and then take the gut-wrenching trip Alice took to Paris with Owen, as he coupled with Christie and Heather, resulting in the latter becoming his third ‘wife’.

He described Owen’s subsequent raw idea of living together in some kind of cohousing situation, Jack Anders getting involved along with his wife and daughter, Julie’s arrival after a major upset with her evangelical and highly controlling parents, and then Mike and Clarisse’s annexation to the Circle along with Circle-X Productions.

He revealed by use of a few short and enticing video clips how various members of the newly formed Circle had done porn films as well as stripped in the Club Ecstasy, usually under Christie’s tutelage.

Dave often shared the emotional turmoil he’d felt as he loosened up more and more, suffered through Alice’s Paris trip, eventually adopting a highly libertine mindset about people. He talked about how he and most of the others felt about the burden of government involvement in people’s private lives, their sex lives, and how they have infringed on individual rights, especially those of women.

Dave spoke with a rising sense of pride about how the group had decided not to hide what they were doing from others, but also not to proselytize or advertise what they were up to. He cited several instances where people in the Circle or the group itself had been ‘outed’ in the media. He passed around the two scrapbooks with news clippings of those events. He specifically mentioned Christie, Alice, Emily, Mike, and most recently Scarlett Johansson, as individuals that had been written about in mass media. He promised to talk about their reactions and what had happened in a later class.

Dave then talked about the cohousing development and then the addition of the townhouses. As he recounted the physical development of the buildings, he also talked about the additions of each person into the Circle, and then the growth due to the birth of various children. The latter included a side note on how the behavior of the Circle members had changed as the children got older or when Matthew or Rose were around.

Dave talked about the Circle hiring Bobbie Wyatt, the chef, and then Maddy Granger, the childcare specialist, as the group grew and matured. That led to a discussion about the leverage the group had with the financial resources they collected.

JR asked, “Owen Bennett is almost a charter member, but wouldn’t his resources swamp everybody else put together?”

Dave nodded. “Yes, and several members also work for him or with him. Our early discussions with Owen were that we wanted to carry our own weight financially. He wasn’t to intervene or override. He has stepped in on a few rare occasions and done some very nice things for some of us, but always after we’ve gone for help and always with an eye towards repayment.. A couple of women in the Circle have been able to attend college on a scholarship arranged through the Bennett Foundation. Those include Christie and Candy - right now, and up until about two years ago, Heather. They’re to pay it forward.

“Scarlett Johansson is no pauper, as you might have read in the press. Although she built a large house on Perimeter Road, she also maintains a low or normal financial presence like the rest of us. She has helped out several people in the Circle through judicious introductions, but never forced anything beyond that. Cricket and Ashley Steerman have her to thank for the introductions that helped launch their careers.

“Through Owen, we’ve met several other movie stars, and also Mark Worthington who has assembled a somewhat similar group of people up north. We have been invited to his weekend home and retreat up there called The Meadows for a gala Halloween party.

“Mark and Owen lured me away from the utility with an entrepreneurial opportunity I’m now involved with called EneRG. We’ve got our fingers on the batteries of the future, and we think they’ll revolutionize a lot of how we live, work, and play. I’m the CEO of the start-up that Mark has got underway as a separate entity from his other holdings.”

Adam Timms asked about membership criteria.

Dave shrugged, “We have nothing written down because the process seems to be subjective and two-way. There’s enough known about us in public now that people who aren’t interested stay away. A few are curious, and maybe that’s why some of you are here. And then there are those who feel they are interested and want a real close look.” Dave glanced at JR.

“I mentioned the major tenets and principles that we’ve adopted. There are always discussions ongoing about some of those. We’ll have those in this class over the next few weeks. If you’re still interested in the Circle and membership, then what seems to be important is hanging around and getting known and getting to know your potential mates.

“It’s important to us that nothing be forced, even within someone’s own mind. We don’t want someone marginal about belonging, have them become a member, and then have them discover they have some fundamental disconnects with our philosophy or with some of the members.”

Adam asked, “Are there points we should be looking at to see how we feel about things?”

Dave thought for a moment, “Well, there’s the sex, including the openness about it. If you’re squeamish about performing on camera, it would argue you shouldn’t get too involved with Mike and Circle-X, although that might not be a showstopper.”

He thought some more, “If you were feeling either excluded by part of the group, or found yourself shunning certain people in the group, I’d be worried about fitting in overall. We’re large enough now that it might take a while to sort out those feelings. We would hope you’d address them before having us move you to membership.”

“Ultimately, the decision will probably be yours because you’ll yourself better than any of us will. Do you like it here? Do you like the people, facilities, and way of life? If, after hanging around for a while, you keep saying ‘Yes’ to those questions, you should let one or two of know, if we don’t already. If you have some reservations, I suggest you become a casual friend, but not seek membership.”

Jill spoke, “You should add ‘diverse’ on your list of traits then. Just from our short interactions here, we can see the diversity in ages, races, and ethnic background.”

Dave nodded, “Good point. Again, we’re not trying to force anything on anybody, but we have gotten diverse because we mutually liked each other and wanted the people that seemed different for some reason closer to our daily lives.”

Jessica said, “I’d put ‘tolerance’ as one of the key traits as well. There are multiple instances of incest in the Circle, for instance, yet everyone is very tolerant about it if they care at all. That’s just one example.”

Chris asked, “You mentioned that the women are bisexual, but that implies that the men aren’t. Could you comment?”

Dave nodded, “With apologies to the gay community, most of the men in the Circle just think the cultural conditioning we’ve had precludes those interactions as a general rule. I love my buddies in the Circle, but I’m not inspired to engage sexually with them unless we happen to be trying to please the same woman. We have touched each other and a few other things, but there always is a woman or women around and involved.” He shrugged and held his hands up. “It is what it is.”

Dave made some notes and then spoke, “We’ve had an underlying philosophy we’ll talk more about, but briefly stated it is ‘Consenting adults can do whatever they like about sex’. There’s a wide range of discussion about that one sentence. What do we mean by consent, adult, whatever, and sex?” He chuckled, “We’ll talk more about it.

“One of the points you’ll see as we get into this is how all the aspects of the Circle are interconnected to each other. You mentioned our diversity, but you can’t have that without tolerance, and if you’re tolerant you don’t get upset with incest, and if you’re incestuous you’re obviously sharing your love in special ways beyond the way most in society do. If you have high ego needs, you’ll want to be possessive of the women you have at your disposal - to own them. No one here owns or controls anybody else; it goes against our grain. I could go on.

“What this means is that as we get deeper into the details starting next week there will increasingly be some repetition as we make some of those linkages. I ask your indulgence. For instance, it’s hard to talk about egalitarianism without talking about being non-possessive and non-exclusive. We’ll revisit many of the Circle’s traits when we talk about our concept of fidelity and love. I mentioned our sense of service to the Circle, so think about where that comes from given the list of other traits and points of philosophy.”

“I’ll see you all next Wednesday evening, I hope. For those of you who are not already plugged into Circle events, I also invite you for cocktails and dinner ahead of the class. Please RSVP so we have a headcount for Bobbie.” Dave waved as many in the room headed out of the room.

Cookie and JR both came up to Dave afterwards. Dave wondered what drove JR’s attendance, but he resolved to let her come to him rather than press the issue with her. He already knew that Cookie wanted to belong to the Circle.

Cookie came close to Dave and gave him a kiss. She whispered somewhat loudly, “Thank you. That was wonderful. I understand so much about the Circle now, and about you. I love you.” He gave her a squeeze and she glanced at JR and then headed out.

JR turned to watch Cookie depart. She turned to Dave and smiled, “Kind of young, isn’t she?”

Dave shrugged and said, “In the spirit of openness and trust, I have made LOVE with all the female members of the Circle. The age range is from eighteen to sixty-eight. I am forty-two, so about in the middle of that range. I regret nothing other than my lack of time to devote to every one of the people I love.”

JR nodded, “May I attend again. I know you weren’t expecting me. You looked almost horrified when I arrived.”

“Of course, you may come, and I wasn’t horrified as much as surprised. I had you pegged as being pretty strait-laced and all business. I will be glad to answer any questions you have, too. I trust you’re fine with a shift in our relationship away from pure business.”

“I wouldn’t be here otherwise. I’m hoping for more of a shift, if you must know. I’m collecting data but I’m pretty sure about where I want the journey to go.”

“You might tell me some time,” Dave hinted with a smirk.

JR moved inside his personal space. She said, “I thought I did.” She leaned in and kissed him on the lips for the second time in only a few days.

Chapter 3 - S. L. U. T.

Alice found Cookie crying inside the gazebo. She went and cosseted the young college senior, putting her arms around the girl and pulling her to her half-nude body. Cookie only wore her bikini bottoms, too. Something was very wrong in her life to incite the crying jag.

“What’s wrong baby,” Alice asked as she rocked back and forth.

“Alan called me a slut,” she got out between sobs. “I ran away. We were on the front porch of the Phi Theta Rho house. I drove out here because I knew he’d think I was still on campus. I swam in the pool, but then got all teary.”

Alice smiled, “But I love you. I don’t think you’re that kind of slut. I think you’re MY kind of slut. You’re so nice and you have to adjust your thinking to what I sometimes call ‘Circle Thought’. Don’t you want to hear what that is?”

Cookie choked out, “Yeah, please.”

Alice pulled her into a hug again. “Slut. S. L. U. T. S is for sexuality. You are a woman who knows she is a sexual and attractive being. You know how to enjoy your body by sharing it with others you love and enjoy having others make love to you. How many others and who they are is up to you and no one else’s opinion matters. There is no judgment in the Circle about not enough or too many. Hell, some of us have done gangbangs just for fun to enjoy our lovers and friends and fucked a dozen guys or more in one evening session. I’ve done that. I even did it on film for one of my porn videos.”

Cookie looked up at Alice and sniffed, “Really?”

Alice nodded and went on, “L in the word slut is for loving. You are a loving person. You’ve already expressed your love for others in the Circle and we all know you’re extending that love to others as you get to know them. We can feel your caring, your empathy, and your compassion and desire to help each person achieve and surpass their potential. We want that for you too. We love you.

“U is for understanding. You are not content to drift and let the world slowly unfold in front of you. You want to know right NOW, how it works and how to make it better. You conceived of and are now taking the Circle 101 course, and Dave told me you were the most attentive person in the room. You suggested a revolutionary plan that will change the Circle and our homes in many ways; that’s great. You quest after understanding. Further, you want to understand the people you are developing relationships with. You know you need that understanding to be able to love them in the way that they’ll appreciate most.

“Lastly, T is for tolerance. You know that no one is perfect, but you are learning to cut them the slack they need to develop individually and achieve their potential. You are forgiving. You have a sense of grace towards others.

“Put them all together and they spell ‘SLUT’. I’m glad I’m one, and you should be, too. Don’t get too upset by people calling you names, especially if they’re using judgment criteria outside the gates of the Circle.”

Cookie sniffed, “I guess I’m not being very tolerant of what Alan said, am I? I didn’t even give him a chance to explain. His comment came out of no place.”

Alice kissed Cookie’s temple. “You might want to give him a chance to explain. He’s also very interested in the Circle and professes to have many of the prerequisite attitudes and points of appreciation that we do. Why don’t you ask him?”

Cookie straightened up and took a large but shuddery breath. “Thank you, I will.”

Alice pulled her out, “Come and let me get you a drink. I suggest wine, but I don’t want to get you loopy before you drive or talk to Alan.”

“Wine is good. I don’t drink to excess. Been there; done that; have the bad memory and stained clothing to prove it. Did it at my first fraternity party when I was a freshman. I thought death would have been a better alternative to how I ended up the next morning.”

Alice walked Cookie out to the bar, went behind the unit, and retrieved an already open bottle of Chardonnay from the bar refrigerator. She poured them both drinks. Alice got Cookie talking about some of her courses and about attending graduate school at the university.

Cookie told her about learning some of the architectural software products in one course, and how she could even use her laptop and do all the homework rather than have a large computer screen the way seasoned architects did. She also talked about how Jack Anders had taken her as a fledgling architect under his wing, and had declared himself to be her mentor and sponsor, an important aspect of her career as she moved forward since she needed real experience to ultimately get her license.

After about an hour at the bar, a couple of others arrived, including Christie, freshly back from a Friday afternoon study group session.

Close behind the new arrivals came Alan looking morose and on the verge of tears. Alice noticed Cookie stiffen. She said to her, “Seek to understand, be tolerant, and remain loving.” Cookie nodded.

Alan came up, “Honey, I’m so sorry … I didn’t mean for what I said to impact you like that. I never got my full statement out. It was something I learned here.”

Cookie said, “I didn’t like being called a slut that way. I applied the usual standard used around campus to what you were calling me.”

Alan shook his head, “That’s not what I was meaning.” He gestured to Christie who was sitting two chairs over. “I learned a different meaning for the term. I was trying to remember all the parts when you bolted from the porch. I was so shocked I froze. When I ran after you, you were long gone. I went to your apartment, but you weren’t there. I thought maybe you’d come here.”

Christie came closer to the group.

Cookie said, “And what did you intend to say?”

“I wanted to say that hanging around the Circle would turn you into a slut; someone sensitive about their sexuality, someone who’s loving, a person that seeks to understand before reacting; and someone that is tolerant of others and the situations that unfold.”

Christie immediately spoke, “We did talk about that a couple of weeks ago. It was right before Alan wanted to get you involved in the Circle.”

Cookie broke out sobbing again, “I’m such a poor excuse for a slut!” She wailed, and Alice hugged her again, except with a smile. This drama was just a case of bad communications.

Alan was fierce in his apologies, saying repeatedly that he was not applying the campus standard of the term and that he loved her. “I want the best for you. Please forgive me. I couldn’t remember all the definitions until after you ran away and I was looking for you. I have so much I want to talk to you about, especially after we heard all the stuff in the Circle 101 class. I wanted to form a study group about it all and have you be part of it, if you have time.”

Cookie sniffed. “I’ve badly misjudged you. I need work. I want to be the girlfriend you would hope for.”

“Oh, Baby; you are so far beyond my greatest fantasy for a girlfriend that I can’t even describe how great you are except to use those terms. Words are inadequate. That’s where I was going with what I was trying to say to you. I love you. I really love you. I’m so happy you’re also interested in Circle membership. I hope you’ll forgive me and work with me and the others from campus to eventually become members. We’ll certainly help you.”

Cookie sniffed again, “I will. I do. I want to be in your study group, please. I didn’t handle this well, and I need to learn how to do that. It’s just that I’ve never been in love or been having a lot of sex or a whole lot of other things. Now, all that is suddenly happening fast and furiously.” She held her arms up to Alan, and he immediately moved between them and hugged Cookie and kissed her.

Alice gave a gesture to Christie, and the two shifted away from the couple, leaving them alone to that section of the bar.

* * * * *

Dave was uncertain what to expect the following morning when he went into work. Nikky had not stayed over at the Circle the night before, and she greeted him with a warm hug and kiss to start the day. She had set up about ten meetings for the day with most of them aimed at rapidly expanding the manufacturing capability.

Nikky said, “I did manage to get you some money that’ll help you expand faster.”

“Huh? Whoa! What’d you do?”

“I talked to Mark Worthington with an idea I had, and then chatted up Wendy Hayden, Senior VP, Investment Analytics Division, Bank of America. She committed five-hundred big bucks to help spur development. It’s a loan. For that, BOA wants to manage the IPO when it comes, and Mark was happy about that tradeoff. They also gain a guaranteed two percent stake in the whole shebang plus what they buy beyond that at the IPO, but all that’s variable depending on how much of their money we actually use.”

“How the hell do you know Wendy Hayden?”

Nikky laughed, “I met her last year at the Worthington New Year’s Party. She’s going to be at this year’s Halloween party, too, and asked that you specifically talk to her again. You two have met, although you didn’t interact all that much.”

“Interact?”

“Fuck!”

“Oh, but we did. Five hundred big bucks? Thousand?”

“No, are you kidding. I got her up to half-a-billion dollars. It went into our coffers last night. We got a letter of credit, with the actually pages being FedExed overnight. I forged your name to the signature card. JR’s on it, too, as I am.”

“You forged my name?” Dave balked.

“Yeah, I practiced. I can do an exact replica of your signature any time. I can do my mother’s and father’s too, although I never really took advantage of that capability.”

“Jeeze. OK, let’s get the meetings underway. I feel the urge to spend somebody else’s money.”

As Dave went into his conference room there were eight people there, including JR. She winked at him, but maintained utmost professionalism otherwise. She’d brought in some friends from Phoenix who had done a rapid build of an Intel plant a few years earlier.

By the end of the day, Dave felt he had committed a large chunk of the half-billion from BOA, but he also had four new plants underway with ‘Rush! Rush! Rush!’ being the order of the day.

A secondary result was that Dave would be flying to consummate real estate deals in Phoenix, St. Paul, Wheeling, and Portland. He still had a hundred million or so to use for a plant somewhere in China.

As they were debriefing the last meeting, JR summarized the actions regarding the real estate transactions. “We’ll fly out on Sunday night to the Arizona. I’ll go with you. I’ve already made arrangements with Nikky, so all you have to do is show-up at your Circle Airport with your luggage at five o’clock in the morning. We get into Phoenix about eight o’clock their time zone.”

“Did Nikky handle the hotel?”

“Yes. Just so you aren’t shocked too much, you and I are sharing a room.”

Dave croaked, “Sharing a room?” His voice rose an octave.

JR grinned and kissed him as she passed by, “Actually, we’re sharing a bed.”

Dave walked back to his office with his head in a slight turmoil. Nikky was at her desk with her headset on, talking to someone about the available labor pool in Wheeling. The other person must have been some kind of economist the way she was talking. He listened at her door for thirty seconds and then went into his office.

Nikky came in a few minutes later. “All okay?” she asked.

“Yes. Better than OK, actually. You have me sharing a bed with JR?”

Nikky gave a broad grin. “You two will be so sweet together. I hope you fuck each other’s brains out. She’s rather taken with you, and I know what you think about her. You were made for each other.”

“You’re not jealous?”

“Nope. I want this for you. So will your wives. I did do a sanity check with Cricket and Pam. Who knows, you might find me in your bed, too.”

“Thank you. They told you that this is an insane idea, right?”

“No, they laughed and told me to make it happen.”

“You and JR cooked this up?”

“I am your executive assistant. It is my job to make all aspects of your life function smoothly, to knock down barriers to EneRG achieving its goals, and to create a happy and harmonious workplace. I take my duties seriously and diligently.” She grinned, knowing she’d just spouted a small mountain of bullshit.

“Nikky Thomas, you are incorrigible. You’d better be in my bed tonight. I have plans for us.”

“Oh, goody.”

* * * * *

Mark’s jet was in the air for four hours and forty-five minutes, and at $2,500 per hour, that made the flight cost about $11,875. The trip from the Circle Airport to Phoenix went fast, and they landed in what seemed to be late morning in the mountain time zone. The charges would go against the EneRG balance sheet, and Dave was thinking about which account they’d show up on as they set down at Sky Harbor Airport and taxied to the General Aviation Jet Center to park for the duration of their visit.

Dave, Nikky, and JR had dozed on the flight, and then Nikky had started emailing and texting for the last ninety minutes, ensuring that the details for the next couple of meetings were as they should be.

The one-thirty p.m. meeting at the Fairmont Princess Hotel in

Scottsdale started on time after a leisurely lunch and went the rest of the day.

JR ran the meeting, aided by Nikky. First, the real estate broker for the four-hundred-acre parcel talked about where the development of the property stood. Utilities were already installed and land leveled from the shacks and rubble that had existed there for decades.

The City had conceded to a tax deal provided five hundred low and medium wage jobs were created by the manufacturing facility and city limits on size and height were maintained. Further, there could be no smokestacks or polluting manufacturing on the site. Clean production, they called it. The local lawyer assured Dave all was good.

The facility was near Interstates 10, 17, and Route 101, so heavy goods could be trucked in and out easily and over already established truck routes.

A City Commissioner showed up to confirm the deal, and papers were signed. The signing also produced a permit to build, previously blessed by the City Council. Work could start immediately. That was an idea Nikky had that would save months of haggling over plans and such.

For the permit to commence, the one commissioner had to approve the building plans. That led to a video conference call with Jack Anders and Cookie Carson regarding the building design.

Dave already had some plans on his computer, but the artist renditions hadn’t been completed the day before, so they sent the sketches and motifs to him electronically. He showed them to the commissioner.

The building would be a large ‘L’ shape with the angles each approaching five-hundred feet in length. The building would be a pleasant western looking motif that would blend with much of the other architecture of homes and commercial structures in the area.

At four o’clock, Jake Rigby of Rigby Construction came in and joined the group from EneRG. He’d been sent the plans and sketches created over the past several days.

Dave gestured to the man to make his pitch. Jake smiled, “Six months and twenty million seven-hundred-fifty thousand. That’s the basic building, slab construction, minimal interior facilities as you indicated, basically just under a hundred-thirty thousand square feet. Everything else like AC and such is extra.

“When can you start?”

“If I have an upfront payment, tomorrow.”

Dave pulled out a new checkbook on the Bank of America special account that Nikky had given him. He wrote a check for two million dollars. We’ll have monthly checkpoints. Nikky will see to the final contract. We’ll be sure all the extras are in writing; that’ll protect you and me. Start tomorrow. The paperwork can follow. If for any reason we cancel, we’ll pay you for work to that point plus a ten percent penalty on that amount.”

Rigby nodded, “Done. I’ll need to get City permits.”

JR slid the signed permits for the site to Rigby, whose eyebrows nearly rotated off of his head. “You already have approval? Shit, this must be important.”

Dave nodded, “It’s one of the things that’s going to change the way society functions on a day-to-day basis and for the better.”

“What is it besides a manufacturing plant?”

“We’re going to make the best, most efficient, longest lasting batteries in the world. You’ll first see them in your iPhone, then in your car, and then in appliance after appliance. You can’t even imagine how different things will be in ten years based on this.”

“I get a hint of what’s in store just from your few words,” Rigby said.

JR asked, “You don’t have a branch of your business near Portland, Oregon, do you?”

“No, but I can recommend Mount Hood Construction. It’s run by a man named Denny Brown. I can give him a call if you want.”

JR smiled, “We’re seeing him tomorrow afternoon for somewhat the same deal and the same general building.”

Rigby nodded. “You lead time on manufacturing equipment can be pretty long for what you might need. I assume you have that underway?”

JR said, “We do.”

Nikky said, “China. We worked a deal with them. We’ll have the equipment ready to install when the factories are ready. We may come to you regarding access and installation while things are under construction.”

Dave made a mental note to ask Nikky what the deal was. This was the first time he’d heard such definitive words about the equipment. The item was going to be moving to the top of his agenda as soon as this trip finished, but suddenly he wanted to know more.

Rigby left with warm handshakes all around, including some good words from Sarasota over the video link. Rigby was not an unknown; Jack had vetted the man and his company over the past two weeks and gotten nothing but sterling recommendations.

Over dinner, Dave turned to Nikky. “Care to tell me what the ‘deal’ is with China?”

“Oh, JR and I contacted Foxconn. They make the iPhone for Apple, but the batteries come from South Korea and Samsung makes them. We contacted them and they already knew we were getting the contract for the next generation of cellphones. Consequently, they sold us some of their equipment and we contracted with them to make more of it, since they made their own instead of outsourcing it.”

JR said, “The initial deal is for a million thin packs for the new flexible phones. The order alone will fill the two west coast plants and leave some in China for our plant over there. Those three locations will handle the thin packs of the new battery. The bulk packs we’ll make in the east, and we do need equipment. We thought we’d pick up some of the excess or surplus from Duracell and Energizer after we see a dip in their sales. We might even buy one or two of their plants. In the meanwhile we will have some equipment to work with from Asia and Europe.”

Nikky jumped in, “Thallium is a hazmat, so we’ll need some special handling with the stuff as it enters the manufacturing process. We’ve taken that into account.”

“Keep me more informed about stuff like this. These things are on our critical path, and that was worrying me a great deal.”

“It still should,” JR said. “We still don’t have enough capacity.

Nikky said, “The next issue on that critical path is labor. We’ll need round-the-clock three or four shift operations in Phoenix and Portland, and then at the two eastern sites. We’re going to suddenly need about twenty thousand workers almost overnight.”

Dave smirked, “And your plan?”

Nikky grinned, “Delegate?” Seriously, though, we picked those sites due to the available labor force, tax structure, property prices, and willingness of the cities and states to do tax deals. But from this point on to get the labor lined up is an HR job.”

Dave nodded, “Partially right. We need plant managers chosen now to oversee the construction and to work with HR to line up the first teams of employees.”

JR asked, “Do you have people in mind?”

“No, do you?”

“No. Let’s put that on our management team agenda for when we get back home. I think we need to seriously beef-up our HR organization. At least a few of us know some good head-hunters.”

JR commented, “You’re so calm about all of this.”

Dave shrugged, “I can’t see flying around flailing my arms to no avail. If I’m calm, I’ll be more likely to think rationally about what’s going on.”

Dave yawned. “This has been a busy day. I think I’m going to turn in.”

Nikky said somewhat openly, “Do you want company?”

Dave was surprised at how open Nikky had been about providing overnight female companionship to him, although most people knew they were both in the Circle, and they knew that intimacy was part of the Circle culture. He cast a sidelong glance at JR as he turned to his aide. “Yes, I’d like that.”

JR smiled. “I hope that invitation extends to me.”

Dave studied his vice president of marketing. “Last I knew you were supposed to be sleeping next to me, but are you sure you want it to include that level of familiarity?” He was part teasing and part serious.

“Very sure,” JR said with a lilt in her voice.

Nikky whispered to Dave, “It’s cool with me. I love JR. We get along famously. I think we both want this. We both think the other is sexy and she hasn’t been in a relationship of any kind for two years.”

Dave stood from the table where they’d been lingering after their late dinner. “Then let’s go. I happen to have a very big bed in my room.”

Nikky grinned, “That wasn’t by accident.”

Chapter 4 - JR

JR became ‘JR’ shortly after entering high school. Born Jean Randolph, she was one of a dozen other students with the first name Jean in the new school, but the only one whose last name started with the letter ‘R’. She went out for cheerleading, and there were already three ‘Jeans’ on the squad. Being the most junior, she was told her name was henceforth changed to ‘JR’. She thanked the Lord for them not giving her some other inane nickname. She excelled at cheerleading.

She thought ‘JR’ had a more mature sound to it, and a more important sound, too. Many of the dignitaries and celebrities she learned about in school were known by their initials, plus on Dallas there were the ‘Who Shot JR?’ episodes. She also learned about presidents (e.g., FDR, LBJ), and for a while aspired to that post until the reality that old white men ruled that roost became evident to her.

JR’s parents readily adapted to the new moniker. Her mother was Jane, and the two were forever being confused when someone called for one of them and slurred the name. ‘JR’ took hold in only a month.

JR was close to her parents and grew up seeking their praise and accepting their instructions. Her rebellion as a teenager didn’t take place until her last year or so of high school. One result was that she decided to leave home to attend college, going over a thousand miles south to the University of Texas.

JR discovered ‘boys’ in high school, although she considered herself a late bloomer. The part of her that bloomed late included her upper torso. She’d been almost flat-chested until her sophomore year, and then her growth hormones kicked in with a vengeance. JR went from barely an A-cup to a D-cup in nine months. Some of her cheerleading cohorts teased her about getting a boob job, but she rightly insisted it was all Mother Nature.

The change also made her curvier in other parts of her body as well. Suddenly, she had a shapely ass, and her legs got more definition. Her hips developed a natural sway and rhythm to them as she walked. Her face took on a sultrier look, especially her alluring eyes and lips. Her stringy hair suddenly developed a luster to its honey blonde color. JR became what one boyfriend called ‘sex on a stick’. She was one helluva cheerleader.

JR had considered herself unappealing up to the point that Mother Nature remedied the situation. She had a few friends that were male, but no real boyfriends the way the other girls on the cheerleader squad did.

During her first two years on the cheerleading squad, she learned a great deal about what the other girls were doing with their boyfriends. She also learned a new vocabulary that her parents never taught: blowjobs, handjobs and jerking off a guy, ass play, being eaten, cumming, orgasms, G-spots, tit fucking, and just plain ordinary fucking and variations on that theme.

When two of the girls on the squad had to quit school because of pregnancies, she also learned more about birth control than her mother had told her. She learned about how to manage boys from her friends, too; keeping them interested without needing to be the class slut.

JR had a string of boyfriends after that. She played the field and didn’t give up anything sexual too easily. By the time JR left for college, she’d shed her virginity and learned how to be an accomplished lover that knew how to consistently achieve an orgasm when fucking. Despite the tendency for girls to fall in love, she also continued to avoid that level of commitment with her dates, including some of the ‘steadies’ she went with during her four years. She had goals to fulfill. She was a career girl. She HAD to get that college degree.

JR studied business management not only as a profession, but as a passion. She finished on time and got a grunt job in Austin working in the marketing department of a medium-size software firm for an older man that took her on as a ‘project’.

A part of his project involved seduction, and three months after her employ she started to routinely find herself in a bed with the married man. She didn’t understand the role of the ‘other woman’ completely, only that she was one. He instructed her in how to behave in the office and how to let herself go wild when she was with him in a sexual way.

JR enjoyed the sex a great deal, even more than the boyfriends she’d had in high school and college. She was always ready to spread her legs for her boss, and learned that if she made him happy, he was prone to give her plum assignments that let her stretch her wings and discover that she had a natural knack for marketing tech products.

JR also learned she wasn’t the only ongoing office ‘project’. Apparently, many of the other older men in the company had taken on ‘projects’ the same way her head of marketing lover had with her.

JR fell in love. This was not the thing to do in an affair with a married man. One of the other girls in the office advised her of her folly. JR ended the affair after she realized how she had been frittering away some prime time in her life when she should have been developing more of a lasting relationship for herself, instead of being a toy bimbo for the exec.

The exec handled the situation well, gave her a great assignment, and hired another ‘project’ to work on and mentor. JR felt a little jealous, but rolled with the change. After all, she was the one that called the shot.

On the rebound, JR fell in love again with Matt Henson. Matt was a software engineer with the company and had been cognizant of and forgiving of her relationship with the head of marketing. JR dedicated herself to her rebound lover, later accepting his engagement ring and figuring that eventually she’d buy into the concept of marriage, kids, house, dog, and gerbil. They moved in together and started playing ‘married couple’ together. The sex was out of this world for her. Moreover, she could focus on her career.

Matt Henson presented well, and passed the simple tests that JR’s parents put before him. He said the right words, but after two years of living together JR started to doubt that there would ever be an actual wedding. Despite being engaged, Matt couldn’t be counted on to make a real commitment and set a firm wedding date.

The last nail in the coffin of her relationship with Henson came when she realized that he’d taken on a new ‘project’: a fresh-out female engineering grad named Drew that rated high on the cute scale. She followed the pair when they went to lunch after her suspicions went on alert, only the casual lunch between Matt and Drew turned out to be ninety minutes sequestered at Drew’s apartment.

By the end of that afternoon, JR had removed all of her belongings from the apartment she shared with Matt. She left the engagement ring on the counter in the kitchen without a note and temporarily moved into a nearby local motel. The next morning she appeared briefly, gave her notice at work, collected her final paycheck, and was gone.

Matt tried to call her repeatedly, but she never responded. She’d heard the term ‘ghosting’, and that was what she did. She never saw or spoke to Matt again. By the end of that week, she’d arranged for her possessions to be shipped to her mother’s home and gotten on a plane for Chicago.

JR hibernated for a month in the home she grew up in as she got her head on straight. She used that time to think about the trajectory she wanted for the rest of her life. She decided a husband or any other intimate person was unwanted in her new plan. She’d tried that path twice to no avail. JR gave up on men. Her career and business accomplishments wherever she worked would become her focus. She realized she needed some additional skills to accomplish what she wanted to do.

Over the spring JR made applications to several graduate schools and to several sources for scholarships and financial aid in the marketing arena. She ended up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, at UNC in a two-year program leading to an MBA with a marketing focus. Further, thanks to a couple of scholarships, a job on campus, a summer intern program, tutoring income, and some work-study programs she found, she would graduate debt-free providing she ‘lived poor’.

Worthington Industries interviewed at the school, looking for a wide-spectrum of students interested in working for the conglomerate at various locations across the country. WI was the brainchild mega-corporation of billionaire Mark Worthington.

JR got offered a lucrative job in St. Louis, and took to the job with unbridled enthusiasm and her newly minted MBA. The culture of the business was nothing like the one in Austin where she’d worked. For one, there was no hanky-panky that she could tell of in the business. Her career was genuinely mentored without any extra requirements of an outside sexual relationship.

JR shined in her new job like a bright star on a dark night. Not only did she find innovative ways to get the subsidiary’s product in the news, she also created a half-dozen co-marketing and co-manufacturing alliances that propelled the consumer products business to the forefront of its segment.

Someone from HQ got wind of her accomplishments. She was plucked out of her subsidiary and put into another business division that was struggling on many fronts. In six months, under her leadership and personal efforts, the business had started to turn around.

JR got notice that HQ wanted her in Denver where another business was in trouble. She provided the leadership and enthusiasm that turned that company around within a year despite a recalcitrant CEO that later got replaced.

JR repeated her feat with several other rescues and then got to meet the man himself - Mark Worthington. Mark was well-known by that time as a liberal and visionary thinker, having multiple partners that he lived with who all knew about each other. JR went into the meeting alert for some sexual innuendo, but there was none. Mark told her how much she was appreciated, kicked her remuneration up another hundred thousand dollars, and asked what kind of a post would turn her on.

JR had thought about that, even while she was knocking everyone’s socks off. She told Mark, “I’d love to get in on the ground floor of some tech product - a product that will change how society functions, like the iPhone or iPod did. I’d love to get an equity position in that business, and feel like I was at the bleeding edge of being genuinely entrepreneurial. Sink or swim.”

Mark asked, “Have you ever thought of living in Florida - along the west coast?”

JR grinned, “No, but I’m ready to go.”

That afternoon, Mark introduced JR to Dave Prentiss. Dave was an easy-going guy from Sarasota that was just leaving a public utility after distinguishing himself there to takeover and run a new business that would be based around a battery technology one of the scientists in one of Mark’s labs had discovered almost by trial and error.

“Can you two work together?” Mark asked.

Dave shrugged, “I see no problem. The decision is JR’s. We will have a long road to make this happen, but it’s the chance of a lifetime. This is not a six-month turnaround. We are going to need someone that’s not just smart but brilliant, doesn’t just work hard but is a dynamo and leader, doesn’t just have ideas but is willing to steal and spring board off the ideas of others and make them our own, and isn’t just a workaholic but also a fun-loving person. I don’t want the traditional siloes that a business has. I want someone that can fill every position in the company, if need be, and shift from one to another instantly as we launch this thing. IF JR can be that person, let’s get to work.” He turned to JR.

JR nodded, “I’m in - all in. I’ve been all of those things except fun-loving in my recent jobs for Mark. I need something that lights my fire and that I consider fun. That’s where all those superlatives will start to come through from me. I confess to being pretty serious about my work, but I’d love to ‘loosen up’ in the rest of my life.”

Dave held out his hand, “Welcome to EneRG and to Sarasota.” He thrust one of his business cards into her hands. The ink was barely dry on the newly minted card. Dave’s own enthusiasm about the company and the underlying technology was contagious. JR could hardly wait to get to work. She liked Dave and could see why he’d been chosen for the post.

A few weeks later, JR sat in her modest office in a leased building on the outskirts of Sarasota, Florida. Her mouth was hanging open.

Dave Prentiss’s executive assistant, Nikky Thomas, had loaned her a scrapbook containing articles about a group of people Dave lived with called the Circle. Dave, the CEO of EneRG and her boss and business partner, was featured in many of the articles because he’d given a press conference after many speculating and degrading articles about the Circle. He’d defused the situation much as she would have, but in the process revealed the inner-workings of the group to the public. The sexual nature of the group was forefront in some of the articles.

JR thought for a while that the Circle was some kind of religious cult, but that turned out not to be the case. The reality was that it was a group of men and women that thought alike about their life and their relationships. They were very open and unassuming, and further they did not proselytize yet they kept growing.

JR started to see Nikky routinely, sometimes for lunch, and got an increasing number of questions answered about the Circle and about Dave. Nikky was hoping to become a full-fledged member in the near future, but in essence already belonged.

JR had developed a jaundiced view of men and while she occasionally went out with a man, there was never to be any long-lasting relationship with one. The experience with her married boss and then Matt Henson had taken their toll on her.

JR said to Nikky one day as she returned the scrapbook, “The Circle sounds too good to be true. If I were a guy, I’d set up something like this so I had all the pussy I wanted. It sounds kind of misogynistic.”

Nikky became defensive, “Not at all. It’s the most egalitarian place I’ve ever seen. Most aspects of the Circle, including the sex are guided much more by the women than the men. If anything, the Circle is tilted towards keeping the women happy. You know, ‘Happy wife, happy life’.” She laughed.

JR chewed on that information, and more after grilling Nikky about the Circle’s lifestyle and activities. Moreover, she studied Dave. He didn’t objectify women, and if anything went out of his way to mentor those in the company including her. The company was a meritocracy in a very balanced way.

To make things even more appealing for JR, Dave constantly asked her opinion about things and valued them. He sought her advice often, and when they agreed things surged forward. That alone was worth the entire job change to her. He also often told her to take action on her ideas.

Nikky told JR over lunch one day about a somewhat unstructured course that Dave and a couple of the women in the Circle were putting together to provide in-depth information about the Circle, how it was formed, and what the underlying philosophies were of the people that belonged. Nikky invited JR to attend the first few classes with her.

* * * * *

“Is last night going to screw up our working relationship? I know this is not the best time to be asking that question since that train already left the station.” Dave sounded genuinely concerned.

JR thought a moment, “I don’t think so. I compartmentalize well. Don’t you? In any case, I don’t think WE have a problem. I mean you’re already married and apparently have the freedom to do what we did, so no harm, no foul.”

Dave replied, “You know I have six wives and yes I have freedom to explore. I do compartmentalize well, but I’ve had a lot more experience in on-the-job relationships than I think you do.”

“With love affairs in the office? Pray tell, who with? Were they other Circle members or somebody else?”

Dave nodded, “Most were from when I worked at Florida Power and Light: Pam - consultant to the company became my second wife, then there’s Nancy - who was a direct report and then mothered a child with me, Sheri - who reported to Nancy, Emily in a way, Donna, Joan indirectly after the fact so to speak, and Abby in a way, and most recently Nikky, and now you.”

JR looked surprised. “Nine? You get around. Any problems? Clarify Emily, Joan, and Abby, please.”

“No problems. Emily is Derek Wilson’s wife, and he was my boss’s boss when we started. Joan was in a charade of a relationship with her husband, my boss for four years. He ended going to prison because he tried to kill her in a subtle way; only well after that did we start a sexual relationship and did she have my child. Abby was Derek’s mistress, but we got involved when the two of them also got interested in the Circle the same way Emily did.”

“Did you compartmentalize each relationship?”

“I don’t think so. I didn’t want to in those cases. If I were to do that, I’d block giving out the love I feel for each woman during our time together. That didn’t seem right. We didn’t flout the relationship at work, but wouldn’t have lied if someone asked. No one did, but several others knew in some way what was going on.

“As the Circle grew, everybody in it more or less knew everybody else and also what was going on around their annexation into the Circle. Besides a few people at work that thought they knew what was going on, life just went on with little effort at subterfuge.”

“What will we do now?” JR asked in a neutral tone.

Dave smiled and then leaned over and kissed the pretty executive. “I like you a lot, and probably love you. We made love last night in a hotel two-thousand miles from home and repeated that fun this morning. We’ll keep it in bounds in the office. IF you want more to happen, and I hope you do, you send up signals and you are also welcome anytime at the Circle. We take ‘consent’ very seriously. You are in control of what will happen.”

“What about Nikky? She’s your executive assistant.”

Nikky laughed, “I love and adore Dave and you, JR. Did I surprise you last night? I figured you’d say something if I trespassed on some boundary you had.”

JR smiled, “Yes, I was very surprised. I have always respected you. You’ve accomplished so much for your age, and you also did that thing that resulted in capturing those kidnappers. Wow! You blow me away.”

JR paused and added, “AND, I’ve never engaged in sexual conduct with a member of the same sex until last night. Yes, you surprised me in that regard in a big way. In a bigger way, I surprised myself.”

“How was that?” Nikky asked in a more serious tone.

“I’ll get a little specific, because they’re the things I did that surprised me the most. First, you went down on my pussy and made me orgasm. I would have never expected to orgasm from another female, especially the first time, but you were very convincing and knew what you were doing.

“Second, you made me taste my own juices. I always thought that’d be gross, but when you did it you showed me how much you were enjoying what I tasted like, and then gave me the opportunity at first by kissing you after your face was full of my sex fluids, and then by fingering me and having me taste them after you did.