Poly . . . What? Book 4

Preface

This Book picks up where Book 3 left off. Most characters were introduced in earlier books but new ones do start to appear in this volume. If you start with this book, you’ll eventually catch on.

My stories, including this one, involve the establishment of highly sexual but loving groups and environments and the participation by more than just a few people, especially women in the protagonists life. So, be tolerant of the more than fifty people introduced in this multi-book novel (so far) and the sexual situations portrayed.

While all that eroticism unfolds, there are plots, subplots, and adventures that the characters are swept into. This is fiction, but based on experience, research, and fantasy. I don’t distinguish between them in my writing. There are many ‘usual’ tropes in erotic writing that appear. If you don’t like one, just wait for the next one to roll by.

Sexual situations in this novel are sometimes explicit and other times merely referenced in some way, such as in a conversation. Those explicit passages, although unmarked, can usually be skipped over by a reader bored with sexual things. I have had comments about my writing from fans that there is too much sex AND that there is not enough. What I end up writing is what strikes me at that moment. More often than not, the characters take the story away from me and do whatever they want to do.

Enjoy.

RW

Chapter 1 – Pre-Launch

No one had yet used the term ‘super star’ to refer to Erin, but I’d seen other superstars that were singers and in my humble opinion Erin was in that class. – and at that point I’d only heard her singing the karaoke and a few other songs. She was that good.

Erin had grabbed hold of me in the sports bar parking lot only an hour after she sang karaoke and the place went wild. She knew. We all knew. She pleaded with me with tears in her eyes, “Don’t leave me. I need you – only you – like I’ve never needed another person in my life.” I was not about to abandon a ‘wife’ facing the daunting pit of uncertainty that Erin did. Her singing had provoked one of those ‘Gotcha’ moments, which became a tornado consuming all of us that had been there when she sang.

After using Clara’s lawyer who understood rising stars and business agents, Roger Prentiss formally became her agent. For lack of a better title, I became Erin’s ‘manager’ and advisor, not that she had gone passive.

The immense problem facing Erin was obvious. She had the voice of a nightingale and could make millions singing her way into fame and fortune, AND she was a porn star with new videos coming on the market every week. Those two states might or might not be mutually exclusive. Would the second situation mean the first couldn’t take place?

I called the only person that I knew in PR – Maryann Winton in Dallas, who ran her own public relations company with a list of enviable and tough clients – mostly corporate. I described the problem as I saw it and sent her the videos of Erin singing at the sports bar that had hosted karaoke night. I described the reaction of the crowd at the restaurant. Those vids were all over the Internet, too.

Maryann and two people on her staff were on the flight to L.A. the next morning.

Roger Prentiss booked two days at a recording studio, hired a band, and had Erin lay down six songs – all covers, complete with impressive music and live video as she worked at the mic. Demo disks and DVDs were created in another day. Roger had sway. We each put in money to pay for everything.

The stress on Erin and the rest of us rose by the hour during the day. We knew there was a window to get her in front of the public and we wanted to capitalize on it. We were up early and worked late. As we started, about all I knew about the music industry was that I could buy an album or listen to the radio. I got a crash course over the next month. Roger was a gold mine of information.

Some of us took over Clara and Peter’s home as our base of operations. They invited us and we took advantage of it. Peter and Clara shared in the enthusiasm for promoting Erin. They gladly participated and helped with lots of good advice. The stress of each day was mitigated at night with wanton sex between everybody signing onto the ‘Erin Project’. Roger was with us every day, usually with a cellphone held to his ear.

I assembled the group after a late dinner after Erin had made her demo recordings. I wanted a mission statement for what we were doing. Peter gave the slogan that we all adopted: ‘Make Erin a Star’ – and do it rapidly, professionally, and with panache – without the luggage of any of her other activities dragging her down.

Roger ran through his contacts often checking with Erin and me. A few days later Erin had a three-year exclusive contract with Sony Records. They saw her potential, and enough of it to put $1 million up front. All of us, Roger included, were speechless. He said, “That kind of money means they are really serious about Erin and making her a star.”

We talked to a lawyer. Erin became an LLC for tax reasons. We signed up Martyn as her accountant to help manage the money, tax, and investment side of her life.

There was no doubt that Erin had one of the purest, more enjoyable, voices in the music industry. Any song she recorded would be a hit. No one anywhere questioned that. It was taken as fact. Her voice was flawless and had the tone and texture that was pleasing to every ear – the voice of an angel.

The gorilla in the corner, the big issue, was that Erin was also Sara Sweet – porn queen extraordinaire. At least six dozen websites on the Internet featured her videos that covered a wide range of sexual perversions: straight sex, blowjobs, cunnilingus (by me!), fisting, creampies, gangbangs, bukkake, light bondage, female-female, group, orgy, and more.

The Erin Team talked about the impact of her porn career on getting started in music, and then on running in parallel with her burgeoning music career. Would her actions and availability hurt record sales, concert attendance, or anything financial? One meeting consisted of over twenty people debating the issue in a Sony conference room.

API and one of their lawyers were invited. They wanted to keep churning out Sara Sweet videos and photos as if nothing had changed because Erin was making money from everything that she touched on that side of her life.

If Erin became a recording star, they’d sell that much more porn and be making money as though they had their own printing press. Based on those earlier contracts, Erin would get a cut of that action.

Maryann spent hours analyzing the situation, looking for parallels and precedents, and thinking of every avenue that could be used to spin the situation. Sony did the same thing. This was a first. There were others than had come close but who didn’t make it to the big time the way Erin would or could. Maryann was of the opinion that there was no such thing as bad publicity in this situation. It would sell more downloads, albums, tickets, merchandise, and anything else she could think of.

Sony eventually agreed but had many questions and concerns about image and persona.

While that went on, there was a concerted effort on the music side by the same people to determine the image that Erin should project to maximize everything good (and financially strong) and minimize everything bad and negative (fucking on film). The studio put her in various outfits and took a thousand photographs, and then used AI on them to change outfits, looks, facial makeup, hairstyles, and anything else they could think of. My guess is they had over 10,000 images to consider before they started narrowing.

Erin suffered through those adventures almost like a doll that people dressed in various clothes. She did demonstration recordings of one style or another – pop, rap, emo, jazz, punk, country, retro, Celtic, hip hop, dance, electronica, and more. Erin was good at most of them. She rejected the rap, emo, and punk categories after trying only one song in each genre.

The demonstration recordings gave way to full-scale recordings with a complete orchestra. Any free time that Erin had was spent memorizing song lyrics and music. On karaoke night Erin couldn’t read music. A month later she was discussing technical riffs, rests, key changes, and chord progressions with the musicians that accompanied her and she could read and follow music like she’d written the score.

Roger in concert with Sony brought in a choreographer to work with Erin on accompanying stage movements and dance routines. Erin picked up adding dance to some of the more upbeat songs like she was born to it. I was amazed.

After three weeks of dance exercise and working on simple routines, six other dancers joined the ensemble. The dance routines got more complex and Erin suddenly had to sing as she danced. Free moments were spent watching Madonna or Taylor Swift concert videos focusing on the production numbers with multiple dancers.

On a one-week break from the dance routines, Erin recorded eight tracks for a country album with a different band, and a couple of duets with two of the top country male singers – Blake and Wilson. The recordings went so rapidly because there weren’t the frequent do-overs that most singers required. Erin strived for perfection first time through, every time. She was that good.

Sony deployed a panel of ‘judges’ to listen during the recording sessions regarding the songs and need for tweaks or wholesale changes. There were few after the normal effort to gain familiarity with a song and the options for delivery.

Six weeks in, Erin, Maryann, and a guy named Gordon Chambers met daily to focus on Erin’s image and persona, and public face. This ‘porn issue’ was still front and center without resolution by that point. I sat in on the meetings.

After rephrasing the issue again, this time in cruder terms, we tried to decide on what would work. Gordon put it crudely, “Erin is a porn star that likes to fuck and suck in porno videos. She has the voice of an angel and can dance like a sexual lightning bolt, plus she’s got a body build for speed and sex.” He sat back to ponder the issue yet again.

I finally said after everyone seemed frustrated at the lack of a clear answer to the dilemma, “Why not just let Erin be Erin. Allow her to be herself as the situations arise that challenge anything sexual about her? Her image is what she is that day – at that moment.”

Maryann obviously liked that.

Gordon said, “But she’s got to portray some kind of consistent image to the public.”

Erin smiled as I said, “So, her consistent image is that of a sexy porn star that can sing and dance. Ask the wrong question, and she’s in your face?” I paused and reminded them, “This is the Erin that knows Krav Maga, wiped out three thugs that attacked her, and has handled some other sexual challenges when her full identity became known at work.” Erin knew I was thinking about the confrontation with Tim Sykes from a year earlier.

Erin turned to Gordon and challenged, “Try me.” She stood.

Gordon thought a moment, “Erin, recently a video of you in a compromising situation with eight men went on the Internet. No other singer has ever had that kind of bad press as they try to advance. Please comment?”

Erin grinned, “First off, doing that video was a lot of fun and produced many orgasms. Second, what makes you think that videos like that are ‘bad press’? I thought they were pretty good. You should have been there to participate.”

Gordon blushed and the rest of us roared with laughter.

He tried again, “Erin, many people find your videos offensive and gross. How do you respond?”

“If you feel that way about them, then don’t watch them. You don’t have to listen to my music or attend my concerts either. No one is forcing you, I hope.” Erin had crossed her arms in blocking gesture.

Gordon tried reversing the emphasis as though he were a member of the press, “Erin, your new recording is a big hit. Would you recommend that your fans also watch your adult videos?”

Erin gave a shrug “That’d be up to each person and would depend on what they were looking for – education, ideas, arousal, or something else. I’m not in the business to force any part of myself or lifestyle on anybody.”

Maryann snickered. “You’re good, Erin. Could you keep that up in a real news conference or with thirty reporters gathered around thrusting microphones at you and shouting questions?”

Erin shrugged, “Won’t know until I’ve done it. I could get rattled, but rehearsing like this helps me build confidence.”

The door to the conference room opened and two women came in with smiles. They were new parts of Team Erin – Cassie Owens and Vanessa Vega. Cassie said, “We have a test gig for you, next Friday in Dallas. Blake is giving a concert – it’s already sold out, and he’s rather happy that you’d be his opener. The original opener has been … reassigned.”

Blake was a male country singer whose first name was all that was needed when referring to him. Say that word and everyone in the country knew who you were talking about.

Erin asked for details.

Vanessa responded, “Concert starts at 7:00 p.m. at the American Airlines Center. You’d be the opener for the first twenty minutes – five songs with some dancing. Four if one of them is long. There’s time to rehearse the rest of this week and next. The concert is a sellout – 30,000 tickets.”

The two women looked skeptically at Erin expecting her to freak out.

Erin rubbed her hands together and said, “Oh, boy, trial under fire. Let’s do it.”

I was the only one that saw the small shudder of Erin’s body as the abject fear of appearing in front of that many people rose over her like a tsunami.

Chapter 2 – Opener

Everyone in the Circle or intentional family came to Dallas for the event.

For the first time in six weeks, I held my wife Ellie in my arms. We were in a guest suite at Jerry’s house just outside Dallas. The house was full of people in anticipation of seeing Erin be the opener for Blake –country-western singing star with three recordings in the top forty. Erin was the one that nobody knew, but Sony and Team Erin were intent on making her at least as big a star.

Snuggled against my other side were Amber and Lila. I’d made love with the three over the evening and basked in their love. Despite talking, sometimes multiple times a day over the past month, I’d been helping Erin in L.A. and the others were at home in Sarasota.

Erin had gone off with Jerry and Anna to his bedroom. My brother Jake and Olivia were next door to us, and Maryann was with them. The rest of the house was full of people from the Sarasota Circles – my polyamorous family. An overflow of people had been put up at Wade and Susan’s house only a short distance away. Everyone from the Dallas Circle had joined the overall group. Orgies took place at both homes although that wasn’t unexpected.

Erin, ‘her’ band, a bus load of Sony executives and staff, Roger Prentiss and spouse Heather Whitman, Peter Wraite and Clara Peters, a few others, and me were on a chartered plane from L.A. to Dallas earlier in the day. The L.A. Circle, such as it was, folded in nicely and sexually with everybody else in the two homes. Wade and Jerry had a few extra beds brought in to accommodate everybody in the two large homes.

Saturday was concert day. We’d start at nine a.m. at the American Airline Center for a dress rehearsal of Erin and band in the huge arena. Blake and his band and entourage would take over the arena for their dress rehearsal at eleven a.m. I’d met the man several times in L.A. and he was friendly and helpful to a fault.

The doors would open to ticket holders at five p.m., and the concert started at seven with Erin for a half-hour. Blake had been slated to go to nine-thirty, including a planned encore. We’d go to the AAC at five, too. We had a VIP area blocked off for our entire entourage and there’d be other premium ticket holders there, too.

I worried about a twenty-minute time slot after the full concert when Blake and Erin would field questions from the press in a special room deep under the main arena.

To ‘harden’ Erin for meeting the press, Maryann, Roger, and I had tried to think of every nasty question that could be asked of Erin regarding her ongoing career in pornography. Only in a few cases did we all stumble to come up with suitable answers. We didn’t do any of that on Saturday so that Erin could try to relax; she was a ball of anxiety.

Jerry’s chefs did a great job for our group for breakfast. Only a few of us were going to the rehearsal, so most stayed behind to enjoy the day.

The AAC was the home arena for the Dallas Mavericks and the Dallas Stars – basketball and ice hockey teams in the professional leagues. The place held about 30,000 in concert configuration.

I handed out passes to everybody on lanyards. There were two types: one got people into the arena and to our VIP seating area, and the other gave a few of us open access to everything – including all of the preparation rooms, such as the ‘green room’ where performers waited and prepared to go on.

The band had set up by nine for our rehearsal. Erin had a sparkly backless body suit with a deep ‘V’ cut into the front of the outfit, thus emphasizing her sexy breasts. She had on nylons that matched the body suit and an unobtrusive tiara. She had great legs and they looked even better in the spike heels she wore – CFMs, in my book.

On the technical side, she had earbuds that would let her hear her own voice over the noise of the band and crowd. She’d be close enough to the band to hear Her headset had a tiny built-in boom mic that was positioned right in front of her mouth. The batteries for the device were in a small case that clipped to a back strap of the sequined costume. The tech set up had been used in L.A. for the rehearsals for the past week so Erin was used to it.

With no one in the seats of the arena the sound bounced around like a ping-pong ball. Blake had warned us that we’d sound like hell in the rehearsals but would be great once people were there to soak up the reverberations.

That said, Erin’s songs were good. Even Blake stood there for the last half-hour listening to Erin do her final run through. He came up and gave her a hug afterward and told her she was a winner and assured her that she’d do a great job. He was exceptionally supportive and encouraging to her. He knew this was her first gig. Erin told me later that he asked whether she’d be willing to come back during his show and do the duet that they’d recorded about three weeks earlier. She agreed but looked worried.

Team Erin went back to Jerry’s for the rest of the day. Since the weather was warm, Erin just stripped off her costume and lay out in the sun. Ellie, Amber, and Lila sat with her – all naked. Others came and went.

I joined some of the group from Sarasota to catch up on things. In our chat circle, I had Penny and Karolann on one side of me and Olivia on the other. While I’d been away in L.A., Karolann had gotten so mature. We’d taken the teen with us that morning and she’d gotten to meet Blake – a point that made her the happiest teen in the country. Erin was a known, and I don’t think Karolann took in what an important event the night was for her friend. Penny gave me a wink. Karolann would find out soon enough and then know that she knew an increasing number of important people on a first name basis. Penny would explain about being a billionaire to her after they were back home, and how rare that was.

A luxury jitney came by the house at four-thirty and waited as the first group going to the AAC got their gear together and got onboard. The concert crew arrived at the AAC just after five o’clock just as the band arrived from their hotel. The men and women in the band immediately went to the stage to set up their instrument stations. The drums only needed minor adjustments from where they’d been left after the morning rehearsal.

Erin went with her six dancers to an open space as they walked through each of the five songs they’d do. The spirit was collegial and ‘let’s make this fun’. I found myself smiling as I stuck near Erin in case that she needed anything. Cassie from Sony was also hanging in with me.

Cassie asked, “Erin said you are her husband?”

I nodded. “Right.”

“But this morning at rehearsal, I stood next to a woman named Ellie who introduced herself as your wife?”

“She is – Erin’s wife, too.”

“Huh?”

“I’m ‘married’ to Amber and Lila, too – in our part of the larger polyamorous family. It’s complex.” I used my hands to make the quote gesture.

“How many people are in your family?” Her voice sounded incredulous.

“Pretty much all the people from Sarasota or Dallas that you’ll join in the VIP section we have reserved. You’ve met all my L.A. friends at various recording sessions or rehearsals – and they’re here, too. I love all of them.”

Cassie studied me but stopped asking questions. We watched the walk-through of the choreography. As we did, Heather Whitman came up and put her arms around me and kissed me on the lips. I held her close to her delight. We’d made sure that Peter, Clara, and Heather would comfortably avoid the general public crowd and stay out of sight with their special passes until it was time to watch the show and they could sneak into the VIP area.

I realized that Cassie hadn’t met Heather and so introduced the movie star to her. I felt as though I’d made a new friend after the intro. Cassie watched as the well-known personality stayed wrapped partway around me in an affectionate way. She’d already seen Clara all but rape me on one of the sound stages three days earlier in L.A.

Erin went off to mouth the lyrics to the songs one more time. She’d sung them so many time I felt sure the words flashed through her dreams in color and a bold face font. She was one to make sure she didn’t disappoint.

About six-thirty, I stuck my head up one of the tunnels to see what condition the arena was in. I guessed about two-thirds full, with a crowd waiting to find their seats. I waved over at the VIP section. Most of our group was seated. The bus had brought them to the AAC from Jerry’s home.

With five minutes to go, a proctor for the event came into the green room and told everybody it was time to get into position. Erin and I went to her mark on the floor of the exit tunnel nearest the stage. The band came in from another tunnel and took up their positions and got ready to play. A few did riffs on their guitars or keyboards. The audience was noisy but started to pay attention. The lights on the stage dimmed further. Lights across the stadium flashed several times indicating things were about to start.

Exactly at seven, the stentorian voice of the announcer boomed over the arena’s speaker system: “Ladies and gentlemen take your seats. The concert is starting.” After a pause, the loud voice came back over the arena dim, “With great pleasure, the American Airlines Center is pleased to announce our opening act. Please join me in welcoming ERIN to our stage!”

A spotlight hit Erin at the tunnel and she started to run to the stage – in her high heels – a distance of almost 200 feet. I prayed. The band started to play the open strains of her opening song – ‘Dallas Stars’. The audience – 30,000 people politely applauded – as Erin took her position. The dancers came on stage behind her.

Erin waved in all directions at the crowd. “HIYA DALLAS!” Her voice was electric, even over the band’s music. Then the intro bars came and she started to sing the opening lines of the song as the dancers came in behind her. ‘I’m just a country girl from Dallas …’.

I just about cried. Erin’s voice was yet again flawless, strong, and on perfect pitch. She moved in position with the dancers and continued to sing. Since the arena was circular, she had to favor every direction, even over the top of the band. That had been planned for. Everyone appreciated the shifts.

Above the stage the screens projected immense live feeds of Erin singing, various band members, and the overall stage. Mostly, they got Erin – even close-ups of her face as she sang and flung her blonde around behind her. She had such a winning smile.

The song ended and the planned short break was longer because of the ovation from the crowd. Erin went into her second song – ‘Texas Darling’ without a hitch. On this one she went and flirted with the lead guitarist – planned, of course. They looked all sort of ga-ga eyes at each, rubbed together a bit, and then she waltzed off to join the dancers on the other side of the stage.

The next songs went by quickly and flawlessly. The reception from the crowd was warm, eager, and got louder after each song. As the last song ended, Erin waved goodbye to everyone and went down the stage and to the stadium tunnel. The announcer for the arena came over the speakers, “That was E R I N – a great opener for our main event.”

The announcer paused, but a chant had started that was unexpected. It wasn’t from the VIP section either, although everyone there was standing in appreciation of Erin’s performance. ‘Erin … Erin … Erin …’. The crowd was insistent.

The chant shifted to, “More. More. MORE. MORE. ENCORE. ENCORE. ENCORE.” The crowd got louder and louder. Erin had run back into the exit tunnel where I stood. She was pretty well out of sight. I didn’t know what to do, and I’m sure she didn’t either. We traded looks as the chants continued.

I shrugged. I gave her one idea I had and she nodded. Erin came out of the tunnel a few feet and the spotlight picked her up immediately. She turned on her microphone. “THANK YOU, DALLAS. I LOVE YOU. MY GOOD FRIEND BLAKE IS WHO YOU REALLY WANT TO SEE. HE HAS A FABULOUS SHOW FOR YOU, AND IF YOU GIVE HIM A GOOD WELCOME, MAYBE I’LL COME AND JOIN HIM FOR A SONG.” She waved frantically to everyone, and went back into the tunnel, going deep so she was out of sight.

The crowd noise stopped the chants as Blake’s band started to play the intro to their opening number. I think Erin had scooped the announcer’s intro, but so what. As the lighting shifted to another part of the arena stage, Blake appeared and the crowd again went wild. Good, the handoff had gone smoothly.

I went back to the green room with Erin, Maryann, Cassie, and a few others. We were all smiles. Erin looked like she was pumped up on speed. She was jumping up and down in her heels. “I did it. I did it. I didn’t mess up.”

I hugged her, “You did a lot better than ‘didn’t mess up’. You were flawless – perfect – and those chants at the end were real. People want YOU. 30,000 people!”

We listened to Blake and watched his concert on the TVs in the green room. A planned intermission took started at his fifty-minute mark. Only seconds later, Blake’s lead guitarist burst into the green room. “Where Erin?”

She stood up and recognized the young man from the earlier dress rehearsal. “Mike?”

“Oh, good. Blake wants you to join him for the entire second half of his show?”

Erin squeaked, “What? That’s crazy. I don’t know his songs or … what would I do?”

“Can’t say, but he insisted. Sent me personally and said, ‘Don’t fail to bring her on stage with you.’ If you go, I’m sure he’ll talk to you about what you can do? The band is pretty flexible.”

Erin looked at me and I gestured, “Sounds like you’ve got a command performance with the King of Country.”

Erin freshened up quickly, reapplied some makeup with Ellie’s help, and then left with the guitar player. I followed. They went straight to the stage getting some cheers and callouts as she walked there. Blake joined her and I could see the two of them talking with a couple of the band members. Suddenly, I saw the unbelievable for any concert like this. Two men carried in an actual karaoke machine and set it up at the front edge of the stage – a large one. I wondered where they had commandeered that device on such short notice.

Erin shot me a look and shrugged. The audience was loud and curious. Many were shouting out encouragement to the two singers. A couple of minutes later, the arena announcer urged concert attendees to return to their seats. A few minutes after that, Blake’s band played a four-minute instrumental segment to quiet the crowd. Blake and Erin talked along with another young man who was going to operating the machine.

As the music ended, Blake stepped forward with a hand mic. “Ladies and gents. You wanted more of Erin, I think?” The crowd roared with approval. He held his hands up.

“Well, Erin doesn’t know all the songs in my set and I don’t know all the ones she has in her repertoire, so we borrowed a karaoke machine. We’ll use that for the words as we sing together. The band will kind of fake it, but hopefully we’ll make some good music for y’all. This will be a little rough, so please be tolerant.” He paused and then pointed at Erin, “My friends, here’s Erin back with us! ERIN!” The place went wild.

The band started up one of Blake’s big hits from two years earlier. I could see the man in the shadows with his computer attached to the K machine – the display flashing the words in large font for her to see. Erin stepped beside Blake and rang out the first line of the song Whiskey Lullaby – ‘She put him out, like the burnin’ end of a midnight cigarette …’

When they reached the chorus, Blake joined in and he handled the next verse as thought it was carefully planned. They came together in a wonderful duet back and forth throughout the song. Blake’s back-up singers faded in and out of the song, too. The piece was beautiful and a tearjerker. The applause at the end was thunderous as they took bows and gestured to each other and to the machine and the guy running it.

The rest of the concert went that way, back and forth. Blake turned every song into a duet with Erin. The audience brought the house down and insisted on two encores before everything ended.

Chapter 3 – Press Conference #1

What had been billed as an informal press conference with Erin and Blake after the concert with perhaps ten or twenty journalists, turned into a major event with over sixty journalists, TV cameras, and a podium with over a dozen microphones and recorders on it.

Erin shot me a panicked look. The best I could do was blow her a kiss. That act did make her smile and hold her heart for a second – an act that didn’t go unnoticed by most of the media people who no doubt wondered who I was since our eyes were locked together.

Roger, Ellie, Cassie, Maryann, and I were nearby, standing up front to give Erin more support. I noted that Blake had a couple of his own people there, too. He looked surprised at the turnout after the concert.

Blake quieted the crowd by holding up his hands and yelling, “QUIET!” When the volume got low, he pointed at one person with their hand up and said, “First question? If you talk over each other, we’ll end this meeting with y’all.” He sounded serious.

“P.J. Sampson, the Dallas Star. Why did the concert get completely turned around in the middle?”

Blake smiled, “I listened to Erin and her band open and watched the audience reaction to her. I did my bit for fifty minutes but knew that everyone wanted more of this young lady – and hopefully more of me, so I did what you saw. I sent out for the machine that could display the words to various songs on a large screen for us to sing, and that was the second half of my show and the encores, and you got both of us.” He turned to Erin.

Erin took a mic, “I was so surprised to be invited by Blake to participate the way he did. I’m new to the music business and know a few songs all the way through, but not like Blake. He saved me with that machine and a guy named Johnny that ran the device for us. I hope we did an alright job for everyone.”

Several yelled out, “It was great. You did fabulous.”

Blake pointed at a woman with her hand up. “Bett Carson, Austin Times. Erin, Where did you come from? How are you suddenly here singing half a show with Blake, not that you weren’t outstanding … but we’ve never heard of you before tonight when you were announced … anywhere. There’s not even a website about you.”

Erin smiled and took the mic again, “I’m as surprised being here as you are. About ten weeks ago my friends got me on a karaoke machine at a place in L.A. The restaurant liked my singing – a lot. I guess the right combination of friends and people in the music business were present, because here I am tonight for my first appearance in front of a live audience. I’m told there are lots of plans for me to make more music – songs, albums, concerts, merchandise, sponsorships … all of it.” She gave a smile and shrugged. Erin was so natural and so unassuming.

Blake and Erin had some questions about song choice and use of the karaoke machine … and then the bomb exploded in a question to Blake. “Dave West, Southern Gazette. Blake, how did you feel being on stage singing with a porn star like Sara Sweet, a.k.a. Erin?”

The shuffles, mumbles, and background noise in the room ceased instantly. All that could be heard was the sound of the air conditioners working overtime to cool the crowd. Everyone held their breath waiting for the answer.

I watched Blake carefully. He apparently hadn’t connected the two names before. Nonetheless, he took the microphone and thought for a second about how to respond. “Tonight I had the privilege to sing with a young woman that promises to be a major force in the music industry – and very rapidly, I’m sure. She sings with a voice and perfection that is hard to find elsewhere in the world … in nature. What she’s done prior to this event or what she does after is her business and not mine. I just want to hear her sing. I sincerely hope we get to sing together again and again over time.” He ended his remark with a wink at Erin.

Another reporter jumped in, “Chet Howard, Ft. Worth Times. Erin, is that true? Are you Sara Sweet – the po … adult entertainer?”

Erin took the mic and smiled, “Yes.” She treated the word as a complete answer as we’d discussed.

Blake looked for help from another reporter but didn’t get it. “Carly Torga, Oklahoma City News. Erin, what have you done that’s being referenced here? Some seem to know but I’m in the dark. Who is Sara Sweet?”

Erin responded, “The answer to that is easy to find with what you’ve heard and is irrelevant to tonight’s concert and the ad hoc performances that Blake, his band, our dancers and backup singers, and I participated in. Let’s go back to those topics.” She shut down questions in that area firmly. Thank God we’d talked about questions like these and how to handle them. Maryann knew her PR landscape.

Blake finally got a question for the band leader to answer. Keith stepped forward and gave a long and detailed answer that carried the press conference away from Erin and her porn career. He took the opportunity to name each of the band members and thank them for their flexibility during the second half of the show. Erin nodded and made small applause motions for each person.

Another question addressed what was next on Blake’s tour and another when Erin would appear next and where? There wasn’t an answer to that one, yet.

* * * * *

There were many ways to get back to Jerry’s house where a celebratory after-party had been planned. Many of us had skipped dinner, so the hors d’oeuvres were a welcome sight. Dee and Kim danced around playing hostess and helping the two staff they’d had prep for everyone in all the Circle groups to show up – nearly a hundred people.

I rode with Erin, Amber, Ellie, Lila, Cat, John, and Olivia in a stretch limo. I’d been in so many recently that the novelty had worn off. It had become one more way to get from A to B. The others weren’t so blasé about it.

Most of the others were already at the house partying when we arrived. We made sure that Erin went in the door first. She’d been expected and everyone that could broke into cheers, applause, and shouts about what a great job she’d done and how glad everyone was to know her. The moment was touching and everyone close to her couldn’t help but feel good about the praise she got.

Someone thrust a margarita into Erin’s hand – one of her favorites and got a kiss in return. People got Erin to say a few words about the concert. Mostly, she talked about how surprised she was when the King of Country, Blake, brought her back to sing with him for the entire second half of the concert. Her awe was still evident – about singing, about Blake, and about the adoration she got from the crowd.

We snacked and ate and talked and partied. Some people danced, even outside on the patio. More people arrived. I saw people from what I thought of as the Four Circles – the original one in Sarasota, the Senior Circle, the Dallas Circle, and more recently the L.A. Circle.

Peter Wraite, Clara Peters, and Heather Whitman were circulating in the group and people were ignoring their movie star status. The only thing close to recognition was the curiosity about how the ‘newlyweds’ thought about their Antarctica wedding.

I talked to Roger, Erin’s agent, about the next steps for her. Although I’d attended many of them, he’d been at all of the relevant meetings at Sony Music. He said, “I have one sure thing and one guess. An album is planned for digital release within the month. Erin will have to lay down some more tracks for that – more pop and contemporary R&B. My guess is that Sony will put out a Blake-Erin album based on tonight’s concert. They’re all recorded. Tonight was unique and the rest of the country will want to hear it when they learn what happened. The poor-quality vids are already on YouTube, but people want the good quality stuff.”

We continued to talk and gradually people headed off. A group that was staying at Wade’s house took the jitney to get to their beds. The bus would run on demand all night long.

People got romantic and the lights dimmed. This was a crowd that knew how to party in a highly sexual way, and that night was no exception. A lot of partial nudity occurred and that included Erin, who’d come home wearing the same outfit she’d had on stage – the glitzy, sequined body suit with sexy shoes and stockings. She’d decided the thong under everything was sufficient for the night. I heard her laughing with one group, “Hey, remember, I have my reputation as a slut to defend.”

Mandy watched Erin and followed her dress code, being the second person to be seen in CFM heels and a thong. Joel discovered her and the two started dancing, except more rubbing and feeling was going on than dancing.

I was surprised to see my mother dancing with Roger, except it wasn’t really dancing; it was foreplay for both of them. She looked kind of like Cory Chase, adult star, when she had her glasses on. Without them, as she was with Roger, she was a luscious MILF.

A few feet away, I was surprised again to see my father making out with Clara Peters. They had Nicky with them and were taking turns adding her into their tryst. Nicky had joined Erin; she only wore a nearly invisible thong, some black stockings, and her CFM shoes. Another sexpot.

I started to think about my own bedtime partner. Quite a few people were still milling around. A feminine hand found mine and turned me. “Can I request an overnight with you. Someone named Ellie, who I think you know, told me that I could ask you that question and probably expect a positive response.”

Cassie was the eager mid-twenties powerhouse working her way through Sony Music after graduating from UCLA. She had long brunette hair, a great figure, and a pleasing personality that enabled her to get things done.

“Cassie! I didn’t even know you were here. You’re considered a ‘muggle’ in this crowd. That means you aren’t … haven’t been … are not interested in the sexual part of a relationship with any of us.”

Cassie laughed, “Oh, but I am interested. I’m beyond interested; I’m committed. I think that I got the full story from Ellie and Amber about the Circles and the polyamorous nature of what everyone here is involved in – highly sexual polyamory. That has my name all over it.”

“And picking me?”

She pointed at Erin, who was a few feet away talking to Sven Rhodes and Hunter Peters from the L.A. Circle. The two men were each toying with one of Erin’s breasts, keeping the nipple in a white-hot state of excitement. Erin was taking turns kissing each of the men with lots of tongue.

Cassie said, “She told me that you are the best lover in the world and that you give a woman experiences when making love that no other man can achieve.”

I laughed, “She’s set expectations so high, no male could achieve them. Sorry, I’m just a guy that works out a lot. I am in better shape that maybe any other male here, but that’s part of my job … or it was until Erin started singing. I guess now I’m a gym rat and manager for an erstwhile wife that can sing like a nightingale.”

“My question still stands,” Cassie said. She moved in front of me, raised her face to mine, and planted a slow, simmering kiss on my lips. It was hot. The tongue arrived with the next kiss. She tasted good. I got her in my arms for more of that.

I honored Cassie’s request. We went to bed together but didn’t sleep right away. We had sex three times with lots of play in-between. She was further enamored with my fetish about cunnilingus. No man had ever spent a half-hour eating her pussy and toying with her vagina, thereby giving her multiple orgasms.

We fucked and then I went down on her again, this time with intent to exercise her G-spot in a way that brought a high quality of orgasm. That idea worked well. Cassie flushed with her girl juices, almost but not quite squirting.

We fucked again and I repeated my previous attention but this time worked my hand inside her. She did have a sensitive A-spot. Stroking that area while licking and sucking around her clitoris worked well on her. She took the rocket to the moon, spreading wider, moaning, and urging me to never stop.

As the stimuli got sorted out in her brain, she started to arch in order to make more decisive contact with my hand and fingers – an impossibility. Her body elevated on the bed right up to when her Big O arrived.

The orgasm was a rapid series of jitters and spasms, each more severe than the last, until the peak.

Cassie screamed, “MY GOD,” and passed out.

I cleaned us up and covered us with a sheet. Cassie awoke enough to assure me she was okay and perhaps the best she’d ever been in her lifetime, and we went to sleep.

In the middle of the night, I felt another woman snuggle up to me. Heather Whitman. We made love without saying a word and then slept. Cassie never woke up.

Chapter 4 – Stop the Presses

I arrived on the patio in athletic shorts with Cassie and Heather each wearing one of my t-shirts.

There were more than a few surprises. Erin appeared with … Blake. I never saw him last night after we left the arena. He was wearing a pair of blue jeans – barefoot and shirtless. Erin only wore the same thong she’d had on the night before. They were obviously an event – or had been.

I felt mildly shocked when my mother, Cat, showed up acting all lovey-dovey and romantic with Peter Wraite. They were still savoring the afterglow from some wake-up sex. Cat wore bikini bottoms. Peter some colorful boxers.

My brother appeared with only a towel around his waist and his arm around Vanessa Vega – the other half of the Sony Music team with Cassie, assigned to help Erin through the Dallas concert the night before. She had on a pair of his boxers and was topless. I thought of Van as a muggle until just then.

The jitney kept making trips between Wade and Susan’s large home and Jerry’s bringing more people to Jerry’s from where they’d slept for a continuation of the after-concert party that started the night before. Susan told me that their place had hosted an orgy in the living room until past two a.m.

Looking further, I could see that Clara Peters had stuck with my father overnight. If I read the signals right, they too had a morning opener. Roger had spent the night with my wife, if I read that coupling correctly. Amber seemed to have been part of that tryst.

Yep, we still the same horny bunch that I knew and loved.

The morning paper and Internet must have been a ‘Stop the Presses, News Scoop’ event overnight. The cover photo of the Sunday edition showed Erin front and center singing one of the duets as Blake happened to be a few feet behind her. The headline read, ‘Good Girl. Bad Girl?’ I rolled my eyes.

The article accurately summarized Erin a.k.a. Sara Sweet. “Last night, a young woman named Erin left the crowd at American Airline Center speechless and in awe with a stupendous demonstration of top rate pop and country singing – perhaps the best female performance to ever appear there. Best!

“Erin, that young woman, uses an alias for other work she has done in adult entertainment – Sara Sweet. Under that name she has dozens of racy, X-rated videos on the Internet, with more coming according to several sites. She is a highly popular adult entertainment star.

“Erin told the press in a post-concert interview that she recently discovered that she had some talent singing. That talent supplements what she has already displayed in her adult-only videos – a serious understatement.

“Will this new singer be able to overcome any stigma from her past choices about work effort? We look forward to seeing how this plays out. The public can be kind or cruel. What will they do in this case?

The article went on to repeat material handed out in a press kit and got more about the songs and the concert itself. The ratings for the concert were all the best. Side bars talked about Blake, his comments about his singing partner, and the overall concert.

By lunch time at Jerry’s, #SaraSweet was trending. The Internet in parts of the country shut down, especially in and near Texas. Social media picked up the slack. Molly was our window on the Internet as she sat on Jerry’s patio only wearing her bikini bottoms and jumping from site to site on her laptop to read the temperature of what was being said.

About two o’clock, Molly reported, “This isn’t precise, but I’d say the comments about Erin-Being-Sara are running about three-quarters in favor of her, and a quarter against. The pro comments often say that people can watch or not watch what Erin ‘does in her spare time’. Leave her alone. Free speech prevails. That kind of thing. Comments against cite the Bible, God’s will, a likely lightning strike from heaven that will send her to hell, being one of society’s scum, corrupting children and civilization, and so on.”

Erin asked, “Anything that I should do?”

Molly laughed, “Well, OnlyFans has had to shut down because of people stampeding to your pages. I would get an ‘Erin’ website up pretty quick. Keep the two sides of your ‘personality’ separate.”

Katelyn was listening and came alive. “I can have a website for you by midnight – at least one to start with.”

Cassie, who’d decided to hang out with us, said, “You managed to shut down discussion about the sexual side of your life last night with the press. The next time they won’t give up so easily. We’d all better plan ahead. For everyone else, when it becomes known that you know her, you might think whether you want to say anything beyond, ‘No Comment’.”

“Do they know your connection to Sarasota?” Cassie asked. I could see she was making connection of Erin to the rest of her life faster than we were.

Erin nodded, “Maybe.” She gestured at Ally and Colt who were sitting together. “A lot of the early videos show they were made by Touchstone Productions in Sarasota. I bet that Ally’s going to get some calls.”

Ally said from a few feet away in a fake but professional tone, “We don’t comment on the personal lives of our models, and we do not discuss our distribution channels. That’s about all there is except actually making and editing the videos.” Colt and Nicky, who worked closely with Ally made note of her answer.

I asked, “How will API handle calls to them?”

Ally said, “I’ll know in a few minutes.” She waved her cellphone in the air and moved away from the group to make some calls.

Erin said to me, “You appear in many of my videos. You might want to figure out what you want to say about that, and whether it’ll reflect in any way on Prime Fitness Centers.” She was right. We hadn’t moved beyond first order impacts of her exposure. Now we were getting to the second and third level implications of Erin’s exposure.

Dee said “I took steps on Friday to put Erin on indefinite leave without pay from AIGenZ. I’m sure that link will get exposed sometime. We’ll be saying the same thing as Ally. We don’t give out information about our employees – past or present. With the videos of the concert hitting the Internet today, I’m sure the rest of the company will know about Erin, her new career, and the connection. Maybe I’ll do a memo about preserving our colleague’s privacy and confidentiality from the media.”

Cassie encouraged that. She noted that Sony would be doing the same thing.

Ally’s reported back an hour later. “API has been inundated with calls about Sara Sweet. They’ve taken the same stance that I would about it. Yes, We processed her videos; no, we don’t talk about what we do with them or who we license them to. They plan to stick to that. They’ve had similar problems so are used to it.”

I got Kim, who ran Dallas Prime Fitness Centers, and Michael, who ran Sarasota centers together to talk about impacts and spin. Maryann joined us. She wasn’t concerned. I had started a list on my cellphone about PFC becoming collateral damage if the tide turned against Erin and anybody associated with her.

Maryann shook her head. “Route calls asking about Luke’s involvement to Kim or Michael. Your response is ‘No comment’. If they pry further, you can say that Luke ‘handles big picture stuff for PFC and is the board chairman – so way above your pay grade’. You don’t know what exactly happens at that level of things. In other words, put some distance between you as PFC, and Luke as the founder-head of the place who has moved up and out of day-to-day activities.”

I asked, “How will Ellie and Amber handle that with Occasions International? Lila, too.”

Maryann nodded, “That’s different because they’re married to you. On the relationship side, they should avoid contact with the press and say, ‘No Comment’. If OI gets dragged into it, their response is that they don’t keep tabs on the activities of the spouses of their employees, and it would be weird if they did. End it there.”

Maryann thought for a minute. “The other approach is to adopt the same ‘in your face’ attitude that Erin plans with the press or other challengers. Perhaps a response like, ‘Oh, you mean the sex? Yeah, that was fun.’ That’d stop them with something almost unprintable. Maybe use ‘fucking’ instead of the word ‘sex’.” She giggled. “The more explicit you are, the less they can print the responses unless they wear out the asterisk key on their computer keyboard.” She laughed.

Michael and Kim didn’t feel they’d have to cope with anything they couldn’t handle. I raised the issue about pickets. Both assured me that they couldn’t block entrances to businesses and tha