Cute Girls

“Many thanks to Literotica author ‘englander1961′ for her help, editorial services, encouragement and a title much better than my original, which has elevated her to the status of House Goddess of Sexy Story Titles. Thanks to Sammi Scott, aka Titsy McYarn, the Cute at the Heart of the Abyss for her help and valuable critique. Thanks to Literotica author ‘KY ridgerunner’ for the stories that planted the idea in my head months ago. A belated and much overdue thanks to John Hasty for his peerless editing. Bounteous thanks to Kevin for his incredibly thorough critiquing and voluminous notes.

After you’ve read this, if you have any inclination at all to comment, please do so, either by email or on the comment board… The best way for me to grow and improve as an author is to hear from the people who read my work.

I welcome constructive critiques and non-abusive comments. I will answer, in at least a semi-prompt manner, any email that comes with an email address.

If you feel you must respond in a hateful or angry fashion, you may put your head down upon your desk and do so, quietly to yourself, for as long as you feel it necessary. This story may not be copied to other sites without my permission.

If you have not read the earlier installment(s) of this tale, it would probably help you to make sense of this one if you did so.”

* * * * *

There was clanking, metallic clanking.

“Be still, you’ll wake him up!” hissed Margo.

“Mmmmm, yes Madam,” Carol said softly.

Wet noises.

“Oh God, Little Cunt, that feels divine.” Margo moaned.

Harry opened one eye. He was facing the wrong direction. Nothing very interesting was happening on the bedroom wall. Damn it.

Feigning sleep he rolled over and waited for a moment. There was instant silence.

“Okay, he was just shifting, continue,” whispered Margo.

The wet sounds began again. Harry opened his right eye just a little.

Through the slit he saw Carol, stretched out on her back, chained, ankles and wrists, to bed posts. Margo was lying atop her, in what could be a sixty-nine position except that Margo was showing no interest in pleasuring her captive, only in continuing to grind her cunt into Carol’s mouth and face.

“Well, he’s awake now,” Margo said. “Harry, quit faking. Silly man, you can’t fool us.”

He opened his eyes fully and had a full body stretch.

“What gave me away?”

“Well, the turning over was mildly suspicious but the erection that followed it pretty much told the tale.”

“Damn my involuntary biological responses. Did our pet offend this morning or is this just for the fun of it?”

“Little bitch woke me up by tickling my tits. I came to enough to tell her to stop or she’d be punished but she kept on. So, punished it is. Although, as always, I’m not sure it’s really punishment… oh… my… as much as she’s enjoying it.”

“Well, I’m off to the bathroom and then I’ll gladly help you chastise our wayward girl.”

A muffled “oh damn” came from between Margo’s legs.

“Harry, it sounds like the prospect terrifies her,” Margo said with a lustful smile.

* * * * *

In the downstairs guest bedroom, Tamara was curled up on Eddy’s chest and shoulder while he happily nuzzled and sucked on her breasts. His large hands caressed her body as delicately as a faint breeze and she smiled both in pleasure and in the knowledge that she was blessed; so few people in the world would ever know what a gentle and loving man her Edward was.

Abruptly he stopped, brought her face to his, kissed her tenderly and then leaned back, looking at her.

“Theresa, I been thinkin’… I know we just moved in to our apartment and all, but what Patricia and Thunder Dyke are talkin’ about doin’… would you like us to buy a house, maybe someplace close to here, maybe in this neighborhood even?”

“Whither thou goest, my love, there go I.”

“I love you too, but that ain’t no answer. What do you want?”

“Edward, I have all that I could ever have dreamed of. For me to want anything more seems… ungrateful of me, I suppose. But in answer to your question, yes, it would be nice to be closer to our friends, for me to have someone to visit with, hang out with while you’re at work, once I’m through with my duties at home. It would be nice to have a home of our own, a place where maybe we could have a family some day.”

Eddy looked into her eyes, his own growing moist, his lips trembling ever so slightly.

“I thought you was too messed up inside for that to happen,” he said, the distress evident in his voice.

“Edward that was one doctor several years ago and all he said was that he thought it unlikely.”

“You mean all this unprotected lovin’ we been doin’, you could get pregnant?”

“Maybe, I’m not sure. It’s never something I’ve worried about. All my previous owners have used condoms and if the rabbit died tomorrow because of you and I… there’d be no happier woman in the world, if you wanted a child, that is. Do you want children or should we start using protection?”

The tears were rolling down Eddy’s face in a stream.

“No, I don’t want us to start using no gawddamn protection. We’re takin’ you to the doctor tomorrow or as soon as I can get you an appointment. I’ll ask Margo for a recommendation. If you can have children, there’s no one in the world I’d rather start a family with than you…” a sob tore through Eddy’s voice, “and if you… really can’t…”

“Then the world is full of children who need loving homes, Edward. And I can’t think of anyone who’d make a better father than you.”

“”That’s because she refuses to see you for what you are, Monster! That’s just what this world needs, a passel of innocent little children for you to hurt, Monster, just like you hurt Rachel. Oh, wouldn’t that be grand? She could have company. Why, if you tried really hard, you could probably fill a whole wing! The Eddy Janak Wing, wouldn’t that be great?”"

Tamara had no idea what had caused Edward to curl up in a fetal position and start to wail, softly to himself, but she dealt with it as she dealt with all his pain; the small, child-like woman played mother to the huge, fierce-looking man.

* * * * *

As Harry passed by their door on his way to the only functional downstairs bathroom, he heard Eddy’s cry of pain and the soft comforting sounds Tamara was making. It being Sunday, he felt it very appropriate to send a little prayer winging skyward to the Great Whatever thanking It for bringing Tamara into his best friend’s life.

* * * * *

“Have I told you how very proud I am of you?” Patricia asked her lover as she lay with her head in Karen’s lap after a delightful morning sixty-nine.

“Trish, you have an odd idea of pillow talk sometimes. No, you haven’t. Proud of me? Why? For actually being human before coffee this morning?”

“No, silly woman that I adore. When you asked me for a second chance and promised me things would be different… I agreed to try again but I really didn’t believe you’d pull it off. The only reason I said ‘yes’ was because I love you so much and you wanted that chance so bad. Well, that and I figured that when you failed, it might make it easier for you to understand and keep your next girlfriend.”

“You, Trish, are either the most altruistic or craziest person I’ve ever met.”

“A little of both,” Patricia said, rolling over and lying on her stomach next to Karen. “Rub my back?” As Karen began to do so, Patricia continued.

“You’ve kept your promise to me above and beyond the call and it’s been wonderful.”

“You’re sounding like it’s all in the past tense,” Karen said, a hint of nervousness in her voice.

“Oh no, no baby,” Patricia said, stroking Karen’s leg with her hand. “That’s just the way it came out, no, don’t worry. It’d take a couple of industrial strength crowbars and the Budweiser Clydesdales to pull me away from you.”

“Oh God, why’d you have to go and mention Buttwiper?” Karen asked disgustedly.

“Honey, I know, their beer sucks ass, but the horses sure are pretty.”

“Well yeah, there’s that. But back on subject… you’re proud of me… thank you for that. But really, you’re worth every bit of effort and a thousand times more. I’m just sorry it took me so long to act like it. I plan to spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”

“It’s okay, baby. It’s all working out and we’re going to get that happy ending… if you keep playing with my cunt like that, we’ll be getting some happy endings a lot sooner than expected.”

“Oh really, playing with it like this?”

“Oh, yeah, mmm, exactly like that…”

* * * * *

Kelly lay on her side watching her lover sleep.

Jessica’s face was so peaceful and calm, free from the worry that Kelly had seen on it all too often lately. She wasn’t blind, she knew that Jess had problems with her relationship with the others. She knew Jess wasn’t comfortable with her and Harry’s friendship in particular.

Kelly closed her eyes and tried to imagine life without Jessica.

It hurt, and it was dark, damned dark, in places. But she could deal with it. She could survive it.

Keeping her eyes closed, she imagined her life without Carol, without Margo.

Without Harry.

“Oh my sweet angel,” she murmured softly to her sleeping love, “don’t ever ask me to make that choice, no matter what you feel. You’re not going to like the choice I make.”

She opened her eyes and continued to gaze at her lover as she slept.

* * * * *

Harry got back to the bedroom to find Margo still riding their pet’s face, lying sprawled atop her, clutching her legs and biting down on Carol’s inner thigh as Carol writhed beneath her. Margo looked up as he came in.

“Glad you’re back… my love…” she said, panting with pleasure. “I think our fuck-slut… needs some attention… before she gets so wild… she accidentally hurts herself.”

“Well then, you wicked wife of mine, get out of my way,” Harry replied, beginning to adjust the chains so that Carol’s legs could be raised. “Trust me, the sight of you two has me so horny I’m putting my cock in the first hole I come to and right now, that’s your ‘purty’ mouth.”

Margo smiled seductively through her spasms of pleasure. “Maybe I’ll take my time… moving then… this little cunt can wait… awhile longer.”

A muffled cry of desperation came from between Margo’s legs.

“Yes, I’m sure she can,” Margo said, just before biting at Carol’s inner thigh again.

Harry climbed into bed on his knees and true to her word Margo had his cock in her mouth as soon as it came within range. With the constant distraction of Carol’s efforts, Margo’s efforts were haphazard and lacking in rhythm, but whatever deficits they suffered were more than made up for by her passion. She was licking and kissing his cock in a frenzy, slurping it in and out of her mouth so fast that he would’ve had problems following her with his eyes even if they weren’t starting to glaze over with pleasure.

Suddenly she throated him completely and he felt the spasms as she fought not to gag. Harry tried to pull away but Margo brought her teeth to bear on the base of his cock and he stopped. He wanted to relax and enjoy the experience but found little pleasure while worrying about Margo.

As if she sensed this she let his cock slide out of her mouth.

“Baby,” she said, “don’t worry… I’m driving and as long as I’m in control… you just sit back and enjoy… I’ll be fine.”

And with a quick lick she had all of him down her throat again. Harry grabbed on to Carol’s legs for support, leaned back slightly and tried his damndest to relax into the experience. As Margo alternated throating him and swirling her tongue and lips around the tip of his cock as she came up for air, Harry felt himself tipping over the edge.

“Sweetheart… I’m…”

Margo locked her lips around the head as Harry let go and Harry could hear her breathing rapidly through her nose as he emptied himself into her warm, welcoming mouth. His last spasm had barely ended before Margo let his cock slip out of her lips, carefully closing them behind it. She swung off of Carol’s face and lowered her lips to Carol’s, kissing her and letting Harry’s cum slide into her mouth while Carol swallowed and gulped.

Once she was finished she gazed down at their pet. “I’m sorry, Little Cunt, seems I took away your fun. You’ll just have to remain frustrated.”

“Madam, please… I’m begging you…”

“Or… you could try, very gently as I imagine he’s a bit sensitive, to get your Master hard again, if he were willing.”

“Please sir, please, let me try…”

Harry crawled up the bed and then positioned himself astride Carol’s head, slowly lowering his cock to her mouth. She strained upwards with her head, gratitude in her eyes, to capture it and she began to nurse on it as if it were a nipple, ever so gently, while Harry braced himself against the wall.

Harry’s cock was almost painfully sensitive as she began, but soon her soft and soothing suckling had him hard again. She had done an admirable job of restraining her desires and frustration, moving slowly, careful not to bring pain to Harry.

“Alright,” Margo said, obviously relishing her ringmaster role, “time to relieve the little fuck-slut’s tension. Slam her good and hard, my love. Bring Little Cunt off.”

Margo lay beside their pet as Harry moved between Carol’s legs and lifted them, putting the tip of his dick right at the entrance to her swollen and wet pussy. Once he was sure he was on target, he rammed it home, evoking a gasp of pleasure from her. He started in with a hard and fast rhythm, one that he hoped he wouldn’t have to maintain for too long. His body was feeling the after-effects of his exertions on the dance floor the night before.

As Harry pounded in and out, Margo raked her nails up and down Carol’s sides, bringing gasps of pleasure from the woman’s lips.

“Now, Little Cunt, are you going tease Madam by tickling her tits while she’s asleep again?” Margo asked, following the question with a bite on Carol’s nipple.

“Madam… if this is what happens… when I do that… you can bet the farm… I’ll do it again… every chance I get.”

Margo broke out in laughter. “God, I love you, sweet thing.” She moved up and began kissing Carol, stroking the sides of her face.

Harry felt a quivering in Carol’s cunt as her body began it’s dance of climax, a dance that quickly moved from one orgasm to another. Margo broke the kiss and held their beloved as short sharp moans of pleasure, almost like barks, escaped Carol’s lips.

Harry’s second orgasm of the morning was nowhere near as intense as his first, but it was still a beautiful thing. Hands and arms locked around his cherished pet’s legs, eyes closed, a smile on his lips, his movements shuddered to a halt as he spasmed, almost falling on top of her but for his tight grip on her.

Carol’s orgasmic shaking continued as Harry’s cock began to go limp inside of her and as he made to pull out her legs tried to hold him in place.

“No sir, please… stay.”

“As you wish, my love,” he replied, trying to find the strength to stay upright.

Finally the aftershocks and tiny orgasms ended and as he and Carol breathed in time with each other, Harry looked down at her. “Honey, can I please lay down now, I’m real tired?”

“Oh my God! I’m so sorry, yes sir, please, lay down here, let me hold you, oh shit, I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking, I apologize!”

As Harry blissfully lay down on her left side, throwing an arm and leg over her, he said, “No, really, it’s okay, you’re more than forgiven, I was happy to stay as long as it was helping you out, but it seems you’re through.”

“You’re right, I am… Madam, could I please be unchained? I want to cuddle this poor tired man of ours.”

“Certainly my dear.”

And soon they lying together, Margo snuggled up against Carol’s back as Carol cuddled with Harry. It was anybody’s guess who started to snore first.

* * * * *

“Edward, who is Rachel?”

“What? Where’d you hear that name?” Eddy asked, sitting bolt upright in bed.

“You were muttering it while you were crying, at least, I think that’s the name,” Tamara replied, reaching up to stroke his face. “If it’s something you don’t want to talk about, I’m sorry for bringing it up, I’m just trying to understand what happened and why you…”

“Freaked out?” Eddy finished. “I’ve wanted to talk to you about her for a long… well, since that first night, really, I just don’t know how. If you can hold on and please be patient with me for just another week, I’ll take you to meet her next Saturday and explain it all to you somehow.”

“Edward, I’ll be patient for as long as you need me to be patient. Don’t rush it, especially on my account. It’s your pain, I can want and wish to bear it for you, but I can’t really do so. You have to deal with it and you know I’ll help you in any way I can.”

He gathered the tiny woman into his arms and held her close as she kissed the tears from his face.

* * * * *

“Alright my lazy, naked housemates! Get the fuck out of bed before Eddy eats your breakfast! Next time I’m coming in with ice water and a cattle prod! Up and at ‘em, it’s a bright and shiny Sunday afternoon and there’s work to be done, food to be eaten and Harry had better make some decent coffee ’cause none of us can seem to do it right!”

“Why did we let Kelly move in again?” Harry grumbled from under Carol’s hair.

“Because we all love her so much,” Margo replied. “Well, that and she’s incredibly fun in bed.”

“I’m not feeling all that much affection for her right now,” Carol said, stretching. “Oh God, I’m gonna need a shower before Nicki gets here, I’m a tad whiff.”

“We all are, my darling,” Margo said. “Let’s throw on some robes and see who’s done what in your kitchen. HARRY! We’re not going to let you go back to sleep, coffee is required, this is not a bad dream.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek.

“Yeah, okay, I’m up,” Harry replied, sliding out of bed. “Lemme tend to the call of nature and I’ll get some coffee started, save some lives.”

* * * * *

“Damn, Jessica, you cook a mean mess o’ breakfast!” Eddy exclaimed, sitting back in his chair and sipping on his fourth cup of Harry’s coffee.

“You sure do,” Margo agreed. “Your mother teach you to cook?”

“Oh hell no,” Jessica replied with a grin. “Mother’s one of the world’s worst cooks. Burns water, bakes jello… the whole nine yards. I learned the basics after I’d had supper at enough friends’ houses to realize that some people actually ate food that wasn’t’ TV dinners or instant oatmeal and toast. Took Home Economics in high school, that helped some too.”

“Well, you do a fine breakie,” Karen said. “Now when do we start setting up all that stereo equipment?”

“I didn’t know the Dyke was helpin’,” Eddy said, looking at Harry.

“Eddy, you think Liz is gonna pass up a chance to string speaker wire and play with power tools?” said Patricia, smiling as she cleared the table.

* * * * *

“Okay, try it now!” Eddy hollered up the stairs.

“Alright,” came Carol’s reply.

A pause while everyone in the living room waited for sound to come pouring from the speakers.

Nothing.

“Gawddamn it,” Eddy grumbled, heading back upstairs, “you’d think he woulda had the common sense to keep the manuals to all this stuff.”

* * * * *

“Edward, is everything alright?” asked Tamara, barely able to restrain her smile.

“Goin’ to gawddamn RadioShack a-fuckin-gain, nobody told me before my last trip that they wanted to hook in Harry’s CD player, I’ve seen more gawddamn organization out of a cage full o’ shit-flingin’ monkey’s-” Eddy replied as he stomped out of the house to his truck.

* * * * *

“Alright, Carol, let’s try this again,” Karen said, yelling up the stairs.

The “Dies Irae” of Mozart’s “Requiem in D Minor” filled the room, surrounding them in beautiful sound. They stood, silent, throughout the movement. When it finished, silence returned to the house.

“Whoa, gawddamn that sounded good,” Eddy whispered. “Alright, switch it over to ‘Input B’ and we’ll try the CD deck down here,” he bellowed upstairs.

Ella Fitzgerald’s rendition of “Begin the Beguine” poured from the speakers.

Eddy slumped onto a pile of cushions. “Well kids, looks like we done it right. Somebody, somewhere, please tell me there’s a beer in this house?”

Carol came downstairs, hugged and kissed Karen, then Harry and finally Eddy.

“Thank you all for your hard work. It sounds wonderful, everything works… thank you so much.” She plopped down next to Eddy and hugged him again. “Especially you, Eddy, for the multiple trips to RadioShack… I know we were driving you crazy.”

“Oh, don’t let him fool you, sweetie,” Karen said. “That’s a short trip on a well-traveled road.”

“Love you too, Dyke-asaurus,” Eddy shot back, grinning.

“Well damn it, Neanderthal, we all know dinosaurs and man didn’t live at the same time so one of us is gonna have to die,” she replied, smiling evilly, “or at least, one of us is gonna have his ass whupped in a tickle fight.”

Carol barely managed to scramble out of the way before the clash of the titans began.

“Do you ever get the feeling the two of them are still in grade school?” Patricia asked Tamara.

“DON’T YOU DARE PUT YOUR HAND THERE, YOU REDNECK BABOON!”

“GET YOUR CUNT-STROKIN’ PAWS OFF MY NUTS, DYKE!”

“All the time, Patricia, all the time,” the tiny woman sighed.

* * * * *

Finally, after everything had settled down, and a little straightening up of the house had taken place with everyone pitching in, the household’s guests started making their goodbyes.

“If everything goes well and Nicki doesn’t disown me or shoot me, I’m thinking of having a get-together next Friday night. I’d love for y’all to be there,” Harry said, hugging Karen and Patricia goodbye. “See you at the office Tuesday, Sappho. Take care on the drive home.

“The same of course for you and Eddy, Tamara… besides, Eddy and Nicki actually got along fairly well towards the end of our high school years. I know she’d like to see him… if she doesn’t run screaming from the city as soon as I start filling her in on everything.”

“You know we’ll be there,” Eddy replied as he and his beloved made their good-byes. “And Margo, I owe you for the recommendation. I’ll let you know how that turns out.”

“I’ll be waiting to hear,” Margo replied, smiling.

As they drove away Harry hugged his wife. “What was that about?”

“Oh, Eddy wanted the name of an OB/GYN that I thought highly of for Tamara.”

“Interesting.”

“Interesting indeed. Now then, you need to hop in the shower, oh man of mine, and I and our beloved pet will be waiting for you when you get out.”

“Going to help me get all dirty again?” Harry asked with a leer.

“No, going to work on loosening up your back and neck. When I hugged you it felt like steel cords back there. I want you to try and relax a little before you go pick up Nicki.”

* * * * *

Nicole Grimes was high in the air over Louisiana; inbound for her home town and a long-needed reunion with her brother. She’d put the final touches on her last story and put it on her boss’s desk earlier that afternoon in a flurry of last minute work. “Southern Outlook” magazine would just have to live without her for awhile. Two badly needed weeks of vacation stretched before her. Time to mend some fences with her brother, time get to know the woman in his life, time to say a lot of things to Harry that she’d wanted to say for a long time.

* * * * *

When Harry got out of the shower and walked into the master bedroom his heart almost stopped at the sight before his eyes.

To almost anyone else, it would have been two pretty women in robes sitting on a huge bed, sipping their iced teas and talking.

To him it was the glorious miracles of his life made manifest, the radiant proof of the Divine, gathered into one spot all that his heart could desire.

“Carol, my love, have you had church today?”

“Uh, no, haven’t found a quiet moment.”

“We have a quiet moment now. Care to join us in a little silent communion with the Great Whatever, beloved wife?”

“Sounds like a lovely idea,” she said, smiling.

The three of them ended up, sitting cross-legged on the bed in a triangle. What the women thought or prayed or meditated upon Harry couldn’t begin to guess. But for himself, out of his heart poured thankfulness, gratitude, and a song of joy so strong it was wordless, just a great stream of emotion. He sat in a room, in a house, filled with love and loved ones, which had recently held even more of both. He opened his eyes for a moment to marvel at the two remarkable, precious, unique women who blessed his every breath with their love. He thought of his friends, of how special each of them was and how completely unworthy he felt of their slightest regard, yet they’d all become family with one another by choice. The tears rolled down his face in waves as he closed his eyes again and just let go, for a moment, of his worry and stress about Nicki’s visit and felt how good it would be to see her again, hold her in his arms and hug her, hear her voice, watch her face as she spoke.

At last, he felt calm, still, at peace. Nothing was so broken that it couldn’t be mended. Nothing was so dirty that it couldn’t be cleaned. Nothing was so lost that it couldn’t be found.

“Harry, are you okay honey?” asked Margo, her voice mirroring her concern.

“Yeah, yeah I am, baby. I’m fine,” he said, wiping his eyes on his towel. “Now, I believe you ladies were going to grace me with a massage?”

* * * * *

After Harry left to go to the airport, Margo and Carol did a last minute clean-up in Nicki’s old bedroom and then began the nervous fidgeting. The most obvious signs of fetishism and drug use were secreted away, but Margo couldn’t help but realize that the living room looked like a giant porn set.

Carol put on a stack of CD’s; calm, soothing, romantic music. She held out her hand to Margo.

“May I have this dance, Madam?”

Margo looked at her in wonder. “Why yes, yes you may.”

The two nervous women danced together through one song, then two, then three.

Kelly and Jess came downstairs.

“What are you two doing?” Kelly asked, incredulous.

“Dancing our nervousness away,” Margo replied. “And having a damn fine time doing so, too, although I’m still a little sore from last night. Come on, join in.”

So Kelly and Jessica, arm in arm, swirled around the floor in counterpoint to Margo and Carol, cheek to cheek.

* * * * *

Harry sat in a little airport bar by the security exit Nicki’d be leaving from, sipping an orange juice. He’d made it there early, as he’d planned, and once again he wondered to himself how he was going to explain his relationship with Carol to his sister. Margo was easy, fiancée, going to get married, both waiting for their divorces… but pets, pets weren’t really easy to explain… slaves were even harder.

Not that his sister was a prude by any stretch of the imagination, it was just that there were a long list of things he’d never really discussed with her… how open-minded she was about alternate family groups and definitions of marriage were among them.

He was pretty sure he was going to leave explaining Kelly’s place in their lives until another day.

* * * * *

“Big Mama, may I have the honor?” Kelly asked in between songs.

As Carol graciously stepped aside, Kelly snuggled in close to Margo, her head nestling between the tall woman’s breasts.

“Now see, Big Mama, that’s what I like about you, your body makes a girl feel right at home.”

Margo laughed. “Kelly, love, is there anything you don’t pump sexual vibes into?”

“Oh, lots of things… but damn few of them when I’m around beautiful people that I love. And make no mistake, Margo, I do love you. Carol, too. Jessica, of course. And how I feel about Harry, well, you’d have to be blind and stupid not to know that, and ain’t nobody here blind or stupid.”

“I love you too, Kelly. Very quickly you’ve become a member of this family of ours, a cherished member. And not just for the obvious reason that you’re one of most erotic women in existence.”

Kelly’s right hand dropped from Margo’s back to her ass, while Kelly’s left hand slid down Margo’s arm and cupped her breast.

“Only one of the most erotic women in existence? And here I was, shooting for the top slot.” The hand that had been caressing Margo’s breast slid up, behind her neck and to the back of her head, pulling her down to Kelly’s waiting lips.

After the kiss broke, Margo smiled at her. “Alright, you’re the second most erotic woman in existence… don’t try for the number one spot, it would make Carol very unhappy.”

Carol and Jessica danced closer. “That’s right, Princess,” Carol purred. “And we wouldn’t want your Mistress unhappy, would we?”

Kelly’s eyes dropped to the floor. “No, Mistress.” She looked up again, smiling as she and Margo returned to dancing. “I’ll live with the number two slot if she’s number one. But where does that leave you and my sexy angel, Jess?”

“That’s for someone else to judge,” Margo replied.

Carol said, “Oh, I’d put Margo in a solid fifth place, Jess is in the high twenties but climbing fast under your excellent tutelage.”

“Do I want to know who third and fourth are?” Kelly asked.

“No darling, but if you ever meet them, you’ll know why they place where they do, probably in the first fifteen minutes,” Carol answered. “I can’t stand either of them, but they’re undeniably creatures of pure unadulterated lust.”

Carol tapped Kelly on the shoulder as the song ended. “My turn.” As the two of them swayed away, Margo took Jess’ hand and slowly danced them towards the opposite end of the living room.

“So, how’re you doing, Jess?” she asked when they were as out of earshot as they could get.

“Just fine, everything’s great,” Jessica said, smiling up at Margo.

“Jessica, I saw your face when Kelly started feeling me up. Everything didn’t look fine or great. If you want to talk about it, you know where I am.”

“Thanks… I may take you up on that… some time real soon, probably. But I don’t think right now’s the time, not with Harry and Nicki probably on their way here.”

“Understandable and a good point,” Margo said, smiling at the young girl.

Margo’s phone began to ring. She left Jess in the living room and went to the bedroom to answer it. A few moments later she returned.

“Well, if you want it to be now, we have the time. Harry said he and Nicki will be stopping somewhere to talk before they come back here, so in case there’s any problem he can deal with it and get her a hotel room or whatever, not have it blow up here at home. He’ll call before he heads home.”

“Actually, I wouldn’t mind that talk right now at all,” Jess said, her distress evident in her voice.

“Kelly, Carol… Jess and I are going to go have a chat. Harry’s going to call before he comes home, sounds like he’s planning to have a long talk with Nicki before he brings her here. See y’all in a bit.”

* * * * *

Harry had finally come to a decision and it was one that alternately comforted him and terrified him.

He was going to tell Nicki everything. Starting from that night in the Pearl up to the present… get it all said and then see where the chips fell. If he was lucky she wouldn’t be too freaked and would still want to meet the family.

The speakers blared the announcement of her flight’s arrival. He swallowed the lump in his throat, washed it down with the last of his orange juice and stood up to wait nervously, shifting his feet constantly.

* * * * *

“Margo, it’s not that I don’t like y’all, I do. Y’all were there for me when all the shit went down with my mom and you’ve been nothing but good to me ever since. No matter what, you’re some of the nicest, most giving people I’ve ever known and I hope some day I can grow up and be as open and caring and loving as y’all are. But I worry about losing Kelly. I worry about it all the time. I worry about losing her to you guys. I mean, she’s told me repeatedly she’s not interested in being involved in your marriage-thing, but it seems pretty obvious to me that she wouldn’t mind that at all and she’s just in denial if she thinks any differently.”

“You may be right… I don’t know that you are, but I certainly don’t know that you aren’t,” Margo responded.

“And it’s like this group of you and your friends, it’s like you’re some kind of alternate family or tribe or something for her. You’re a social group and pretty much the only social group she wants to interact with regularly. I don’t know, sometimes I almost get a ‘cult’ feeling off of how she is about it and then I tell myself that I’m just being weird. And then I end up thinking maybe I’m in denial, too.”

“And how do you feel about her viewing us as her tribe?” Margo asked, calmly.

“It’s something she needs, and it’s something she finds here and I love her and I want what’s best for her. It’s just not something I understand.”

“And because you don’t understand it, it frightens you?”

“Yeah, yeah it does.”

* * * * *

When Harry first saw his sister, coming out of the exit, he would’ve sworn the intervening three and a half years hadn’t happened. She looked exactly as he remembered her from the rehearsal dinner before he’d said so many things he didn’t mean and she’d stormed out.

As tall as he himself, dark ash blonde hair, not too many overt curves, she’d always been on the slender side, claiming she was too busy to eat. She moved with confidence, but Harry couldn’t help but notice nervousness as well which he attributed to the long-awaited reunion. It was only when she got closer that he noticed the dark circles under her deep green eyes, the general tenseness of her pretty oval face, the tightness of her lips.

“Hey baby sister… Goddamn it’s good to see you,” he said as he moved forward to hug her.

Her response surprised him. Her face lit up and the tenseness seemed to melt away. “Big brother!” she cried as she threw herself into his arms. “Damn, Harry, I almost didn’t recognize you! You look so much happier than you did last time I saw you!”

“Well, I was angry and hurt the last time you saw me, and I apologize again for the things I said.”

“No, not then, I understand the way you looked then,” she said, releasing him and stepping back. “Earlier at the rehearsal dinner… you looked less than happy then as well. At least, you did to me.”

“Maybe you have the ability to see the future, sis. God knows I didn’t think I was unhappy, but I sure as hell ended up that way. Come on, let’s go grab your luggage.”

“Don’t need to. I only brought this carry-on. It’s got enough until I can go shopping. I have a lot of money saved up for my vacation and it’s been quite awhile since I took the time to shop for myself for anything other than work outfits. And should the absolutely unthinkable happen and I run low on funds, I think I can probably find a very successful big brother to hit up for a loan,” she added, smiling impishly.

“Yeah, you’re probably right there,” he replied, returning her smile. “Now let’s go. I’ve got a lot to tell you in a relatively short amount of time and I need to do it before I take you back to the house. I know this place though, serves a mean basket of fried mushrooms and has a friendly bartender named Ruben.”

* * * * *

“I’m not stupid, Margo, I know that if I force Kelly to make a decision, I’m going to lose. She loves me, I don’t doubt that, but she needs as well as loves all of you.”

“Then why are you worried? We don’t want to take her away from you, she doesn’t want to be taken away from you, you don’t want to lose her… see what I’m getting at? Her love for us doesn’t seem to be taking anything away from her love for you. Her ‘need’ for us doesn’t seem to be taking anything away from her ‘need’ for you. Or am I missing something?”

“No, you’re not missing anything. I just feel like… like I’m not enough… like she has to have these other relationships to feel fulfilled, and I thought the whole couple thing was that two people filled that need for each other.”

“Alright, that I can empathize with, at least somewhat. But for me it’s enough to know that Harry would, to use a grisly analogy, take a bullet for me just like he’d take a bullet for Carol. Torturing myself worrying about which one of us he’d choose to take a bullet for first if we both were getting shot at the same time in the same place is ludicrous… not that I don’t sometimes still do it. But then I tell myself, after about a half hour of that, to shut the hell up and quit being foolish. My life is so full of love and wonder that for me to dwell on imagined ‘what ifs’ is just me searching for things to be unhappy about.

“Jess, the decision to be happy, I recently learned, is up to each of us. I can sit here and dwell and worry and obsess on whether Harry loves Carol more than me, how rotten my marriage to Benjamin was, dig at the scars of my childhood… or I can realize that I’m loved by two extraordinary people, I’m surrounded by some of the most amazing, and loyal, friends a person could ever want… my life is golden. Sometimes I still have my insecurities, but then I talk about them with the people I love, or I talk to myself about them, and I realize that it’s my choice whether or not to let them rule my life. Generally, my life’s a lot more fun when I don’t let them rule it.

“I think, perhaps, that somewhere inside you, you need the same feeling of family that Kelly does, you’ve just taught yourself to ignore that need or for some reason you feel safer if you don’t acknowledge that it’s there. Now, if you think real hard on it and decide that I’m wrong, well, it won’t be the first time and I’ll be shocked if it’s the last.

“But if I’m right, and you do want that family or tribe or whatever, we’re here, and we’d love to be that for you. We’d love to have you as more than a close friend. We all think the world of you. We all love and care about you.

“So do me a favor, and think about it, and be brutally honest with yourself when you do.”

* * * * *

“Where you goin’, Jess?” Kelly asked as her lover headed upstairs.

“Got some pondering to do, don’t worry, I’ll be back down later. Just need to think about some things.”

Kelly looked at her, love shining in her eyes. “You need me you call; I’ll be up there in a flash.”

“I know.” And with that Jess finished the climb upstairs and they heard the room door close.