Chapter 17 -- Awkward
Alice was unembarrassed. She said to Joan Coswell, "Well, if you want to talk about sex that covers a pretty broad spectrum of things. Are you interested in technique, lifestyle, emotions, relationships, variations, types, location, physiology, kinkiness, toys, shows, clubs, or what?"
Joan whispered, "All of it -- making love, and what you think about it."
Alice threw her head back and laughed. The reaction made Joan blush even more. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but we could be here for days if we talked that much about MY favorite subject. Don't be embarrassed; for us, sex is very normal and something we openly talk about, usually in an unrestrained way.
"Let me reiterate a few things that were said at the party that are more about my philosophy, which is also the philosophy of the circle of friends that I live with. First, in our Circle -- basically the cohousing compound and our friends and neighbors -- we believe you can love more than one person, and we include all the parts of love and interaction in each relationship, including but not limited to sex." Alice went on and itemized some of the major tenets about Circle life: non-monogamy, non-exclusivity, couples-only versus multiple partners, safe sex, jealousy-compersion, non-possessiveness, non-ownership, choice, tolerance, forgiveness, spirituality versus adherence to a religious doctrine, mind-body-spirit connection, soul mates -- not, boundaries fixed and flexible, equality, age paradigm, and more.
Joan leaned forward and sat enraptured by every word Alice said, simply nodding to encourage her to keep talking and smiling as each piece of some puzzle seemed to snap into place for her. Occasionally, in a low tone, Joan would mutter, "Yes!" Alice's salad sat untouched, but for that matter so did Joan's.
Alice finally ran out of steam, and sat back. "Well, it wasn't all about sex, but in a way it was. We should eat. I think we need to get back to work."
"Oh, I get it," Joan said. "I know what you mean. I listened hard. I wished I'd had a recording of what you said, but it's too late now. Maybe next time. As for work, this was much more important to me."
Alice chuckled, "I could do it all again, but another day. You have more questions, I can tell."
Joan thought about how to pose a further and rather blunt question. She finally just blurted it out, "You have sex with multiple men and other women; you pretty much told me that the night of your big party. What's that like? How do you feel?"
Alice smiled after wolfing down a bite of lunch; "Wonderful. Guilt free. Loved. Loving. Lusted after. Horny. Sated. Compelled. Happy." She thought a moment and then gave a specific example, "Saturday night we had several guests staying with us. They were women, and mainly wanted Dave, but we had some of the other men in the Circle come by the house, too. I made love with four other men over the course of the night, and so did most of the other women. I also made love or got loved by a few of the other women. I felt all of those emotions with every person."
"Were you alone having sex?"
"Mostly we were together in our bedroom in the large bed I showed you. Sometimes the women were side-by-side as the men serviced us. We like that, it's fun, and we get a lot of arousal from doing it plus we can lean to our sides and kiss or touch one another. Later, some of us went for a nude swim and then there were with others on the pool patio on chaises as we made love with."
"Do you ever get tired of it? The sex?"
"NO!" Alice said firmly and grinned. "I can't get enough of it. I'd do it all day long but for the men need to rest, and we do need to work and do a few other things to live reasonably in spite of our large polyamorous marriage between everybody. You have to recognize that I'm compensating for having been raised in a highly puritanical way where sex was NEVER discussed, it was a bad part of life, and we were intentionally shielded from it."
"How'd you ever get to where you are now from that upbringing?"
Alice told her the story about catching her best friend fucking a guy in his car in the company parking lot, and then went on to talk about the challenges Dori had given Dave and her, to get them moving to a more rational posture about sex and life.
Alice added, "As we got comfortable about sex with each other, Dave and I also got comfortable about love and romance with others outside our marriage -- neighbors who we loved, and then came to love in a physical way. It was a natural progression. We didn't just wake up one day, and 'poof' we were sexual beings. We phased into it."
"What would you do if you knew what you wanted your life to be like, including highly sexual, but you were afraid to talk to your husband about it?"
Alice finally realized the whole point of the luncheon. She realized the reason Joan had become almost angry and peevish at the party after learning about the freewheeling relationships between everybody in the Circle. She sat speechless for a few moments, obviously thinking of how to answer the question.
Alice finally posed, "Are you sure he would rebuff your discussion?"
Joan thought, "I'm not sure, but we have been like you and never talked about it. We started hot and heavy when we got married but all that quickly cooled to what we have today. Some days I wonder whether Brian is having an affair, but then I have ways to confirm that he's just at work all the time with his head down doing his job."
"You could get a referee to help the discussion get started in the right way for you," Alice offered.
"Would you do it? Maybe with your husband? We could have you for dinner. We could kind of have the discussion you just told me about the Circle. I know Brian knows some of it, because he said he did the night of your party."
Alice balked, "Errr, Dave reports to Brian. I'm not sure that would be a good idea. Surely, you could find someone else that's a mutual friend for you and Brian."
Joan shook her head, "I like them, but none of them think the way you and Dave do. What I want is what you have and what you do. It's taken me years to figure that out, and days since I saw your arrangement to understand that it is EXACTLY what I want. I just hope it might be what WE want -- Brian and me. He's an engineer, like Dave, and can be pretty straight and pedantic."
* * * * *
The scene resembled one of the Circle's smaller gatherings; only it was in a warehouse set designed to look like a luxurious living room. The furniture was what Mike called 'Ten Footers,' meaning it looked good so long as you didn't get closer than ten feet to parts of it that were torn, stained, or damaged. He'd picked up most of it at estate sales, consignment shops, or junk stores for a fraction of what it cost when new.
On one of the long white sofas in front of a faux marble fireplace with majestic artwork over it, Julie lay nestled between Emily's legs lapping, munching, and sucking away on the very used pussy of the older woman. Emily had been made up to look like a mature redhead with a tarty look to her eyes and face. She'd had sex with three men all afternoon, experiencing orgasm after climax after cum, each more intense than the last and driving her to heights of pleasure she had not known before with so many partners. She loved the group sex. The fact that several others were filming her while she did it was just icing on the cake. She loved being an exhibitionist.
"Ooooooh fuck," Emily moaned as another orgasm rolled through her body from Julie's ministrations. Emily had been sucking on Dave stupendous cock, that was mostly flaccid, but had that freshly used look to it. Emily had discovered that she loved to suck on men's cocks, too; the more the merrier. This was new to her. For years, she'd rebuffed every attempt Derek, her husband had made to get her to 'just try it' for him.
