Helen's awareness grew slowly, tenderly, working upwards through layer after layer of unconsciousness. It was odd how she could be aware of her own mind as it came alive again. Upwards, like the first blade from a buried grass-seed. What had triggered germination? Her own snoring. Weird - she seldom snored.
Her consciousness wriggled about, finally burst forth, just a tip, to explore the upper, outer world. Her body was hypersensitive. She could feel how she was tangled with the sheets in a most peculiar and un-Helen-like way. Eyes still closed, she didn't need to move or look to explore her surroundings.
She was alone in her bed β there were none of the microseisms that signal another person's presence. Likewise alone in the house β houses always tell careful listeners if there's anyone else within.
Wet against her cheek? Damp spot on the pillowcase - she must have been drooling, too. She checked her body, mentally inventoried all orifices. Each sent back similar signals. Soreness? No, not quite soreness, and certainly no damage. Just the affectionate tenderness that comes from unusual use, extra intensity, extra stretching. Hip-joints likewise, a shade of internal "Whew! What the hell was THAT?"
Her mind sorted slowly, delicately through a jumble of memories, as yet unable to sequence them properly, although each was crystal-clear on its own. Mutt and Jeff? They'd come fully prepared, fully qualified (and HOW!), just as advertised.
A pink extension cord β where the hell had they gotten such a thing?
Sandwiches β oh my god yes! A whole new favorite dish!
The routine with the enema-bag.
And foam, shaving foam β plus generous amounts of the world's slipperiest lube.
The incredible Q-tip exercise!
What in the name of everything holy had come over her, anyhow? Rhetorical question β she knew it wasn't really complicated. A concatenation of events and frustrations and needs. Not to mention roaring unrequited simple lust.
Two weeks ago, she'd gone to dinner with her best friend, Phyllis. Among their little women's circle, Phyllis was the fully-acknowledged erotic wild card, thirty-something, stunningly pretty, never married, and a sexual adventuress par excellence. It took only the slightest little inducement to bring out the story of her latest adventure, regardless of what and with whom β and the stories always had the ring of utter veracity.
The mostly-staid (but longing to be otherwise) circle was fascinated by her tales of groups of various compositions β all-nighters with strangers, older and younger men, men in twos or threes or even four. Not much interested in other women, but always willing to have them participate if and when things leaned that way.
Phyllis's clear preference and specialty was trios of two men plus herself β and she had regaled them for over a year with stories of Mutt and Jeff β their height difference was striking, and she always gave her partners nicknames, never had slipped by dropping a real name into her stories.
The Mutt-Jeff-Phyllis arrangement was almost a regular thing now β it had started at the party where she'd met the pair. Late in the evening, attracted to them both, a bit tipsy, and thoroughly horny, she'd asked straight out, "Which of you two attractive gentlemen is going to keep me from being lonely all night?"
They had answered simultaneously "Me!" and she'd suggested the trio.
Two-male trios, she said, were always a dicey thing because of the potential for alpha-male testosterone problems, with competition getting in the way of pleasure, but this one had worked perfectly. Mutt and Jeff were straight hetero, had never met one another before that night, but formed an instant bond between themselves and with her, around the intense sex they all seemed to require. "No holds, and no holes, barred!" Phyllis told her audience. In great and glorious and mouth-watering, envy-making detail.
At their private dinner, after Phyllis's tale of her latest episode with another new lover β apparently quite a good one - Helen was envious, horny, and pissed at herself for her own conservatism. She vented a little to Phyllis over dessert, mostly at herself β it had been months since she'd had a decent sex partner, five years since her divorce from a rotten lover. Her fortieth birthday was less than two weeks away... that atop the frustration and rather frank Phyllis-envy didn't help her mood a bit.
Phyllis listened, commiserated, then abruptly stood up and took out her cell-phone. "Sit!" she commanded. Phyllis walked around the table, took several snapshots of Helen.
"What are you doing?" Helen asked, but Phyllis just grinned happily to herself and refused to say.
As they left the restaurant, Phyllis said "Look. I have an idea. A possible birthday present. Can you be home for absolutely certain tomorrow night at eight, to take a phone call? Promise me!"
Helen agreed, pumped for more information, but Phyllis just said "I'll call you tomorrow at the office to get you ready. Trust me."