15

Chapter 11 – Was that bait?

"Would you show me the Circle?"

The question came from Jenny Harvest. From the tremor in her voice Dave figured she taken at least all-day to work up to the question.

"Of course," Dave replied. "If you want, you can follow me home and then leave whenever you want. We do a cocktail hour in the early evening, and then I also invite you to join us for a communal dinner with most of the Circle members. JR has bartending duty tonight, so she'll be there. She swapped off with Sharon who wanted to sit in on a class Tuesday evening at the university."

Jenny nodded, "Thank you ... I'd like that ... yes."

Nikky yelled out from her office across the hall, "I'll ride with you and show you the way and get you in the gate."

"Oh, there's a gate," Jenny said with a tone of awe. She was obviously surprised to discover the Circle was a gated community. "I didn't see that in the material I read."

Dave teased, "There's so much more to the Circle than what you read?"

Dave pushed some papers on his desk aside. "This can all wait until Monday. Let's head out now. I can give you the nickel tour before we have a glass of wine and some snacks." He yelled across the office, "Come on, Nikky. The work week is over."

Jenny rushed off to tidy up her desk, although she kept a neat ship at all times. She put the phones onto forward to the answering service and locked up a few things. "I'm ready."

Nikky came out with a small attaché case. JR appeared and the four strolled out to the parking lot. Dave caught Jenny studying JR's very short skirt. Dave and Nikky had ridden in that morning with JR, so he got into her convertible, and off they went with a squeal of tires. Nikky and Jenny got in Jenny's car and followed along at more sedate pace and a relaxed distance behind.

As the two cars pulled in the gate, there was an exodus of pickup trucks from the property. The construction guys were through for the week on the rebuild of the Circle of homes and the additional structures. Dave was curious about the progress; he hadn't looked for a couple of days.

Nikky had Jenny by the hand as she headed into Dave's home. She yelled over, "I'm going to get some casual clothes for Jenny to wear tonight. We'll meet you near the bar." The two women went off into Dave's house where Nikky kept a supply of clothes.

Dave wondered what clothes that Nikky had would fit Jenny. Jenny was at least six-inches taller, and much more robust. She was a stunning woman, just as Nikky was, but just larger.

Dave checked the construction areas, ended up at his own home, changed into shorts and a t-shirt and some loafers. By the time he checked the mail and calls and went to the bar, Nikky and Jenny were already there.

Jenny smiled, "You have a beautiful house."

Dave noted the casual outfit she wore – a bikini bottom and tie-dye t-shirt. Nikky explained, "Bridget told me I could borrow any of her clothes. Since she's more Jenny's size, we didn't even bother with her trying any of my tiny wardrobe."

Dave escorted Jenny around the patio area and interior rooms, pointing out the living space, large kitchen, media room, gym, day care facility, and sauna inside, and then the pools, gazebo, Jacuzzi, and grill area outside. He led her between a couple of homes so she could see the construction from a distance.

The pair walked partway down Circle Drive. Dave explained about how they'd moved five of the houses, in essence pulling half the Circle of homes apart and inserting eight new homes in the intervening space – four on either side of what would become the expanded core space.

Dave noted that the five homes that had been moved were looking more finished as of that week, with even some landscaping appearing around them. He also noted that the extension of the road to curve around the new end of homes had been rough paved that week. He registered that the paving would help keep the dust down.

Jenny asked many intelligent questions about the homes, who lived in which ones, and so on as they walked. JR waved from her mobile home as she came out the door and headed towards the core patio. He noted that she was wearing her monokini and a highly revealing thin crop top. He also noted that Jenny noted the abbreviated clothing as well; her eyes nearly fell out of her head.

Dave showed Jenny the townhouses and then grabbed a golf cart and drove her down Airport Road to the hangar and runway. Owen's Gulfstream 650LR was in the hangar, so Dave took her inside the plane as he explained about the two sides of Owen's business – the Foundation and then his own corporate and investment work.

"Who flies the other planes?" Jenny asked as Dave pointed out the Cessnas.

"There are about a dozen or more pilots in the Circle. Some are taking lessons, too. I'm one of them. It's so convenient having our own airport only a short walk from where we live."

"You fly?" The awe in Jenny's voice was palpable.

"You could too," Dave explained. "It's easy, especially if you are willing to invest a little time studying weather and a few simple mechanical systems that help keep the plane doing what you want it to do."

"I heard it was very expensive."

"Jenny, if you want to learn to fly, the company will fund your lessons."

"Really?"

"You're having some kind of technical skills will be valuable to your job, so, yes. JR and I were talking yesterday about the possibility of a battery powered airplane, just like the Tesla, only it flies."

The couple took the golf cart back to the main part of the Circle. As he parked, Dave held Jenny back in the cart for a moment. "Jenny, I just want to prepare you for meeting some of my neighbors and friends. You read about the place, but seeing it can still be a shock. There will be some partial nudity, and I don't want that to shock you. You saw how JR had dressed seductively, well that may be tame compared to what you might see."

Jenny absorbed the words and then loudly said with a touch of sarcasm, "OH! Okay, I guess. I'll try not to scream too loud." He smiled and they headed for the bar. She was laughing.

Since the weather was still warm, even it being early November, a number of the women who'd been at the Circle in the afternoon had remained topless, only wearing the bottom portion of their swimsuits. Every direction one looked from the bar, there was some gorgeous tit flesh showing of various sizes and colors, especially depending on the extent of the suntans and the basic skin tone.

Dave saw Jenny take a deep breath and walk into the melee of people waiting for drinks. JR was tending bar and he got them each a glass of wine, Dave's loaded with ice, as usual.

JR waved them over after an initial crush for drinks had passed. She was talking with Cricket, Alice, and Emily across the bar. She grinned, "I mentioned the CES event in Las Vegas in January and Alice and Emily told me about the last time you were there for the AVN Awards." She grinned lasciviously.

Dave nodded but grimaced a little inside. He had become a little protective of Jenny and didn't want her shocked at the news that most of people in the Circle had at one time or another participated in making an adult film Alice and Emily had actually won two of the coveted awards for their films a couple of years earlier. Kat and Mike had also won awards.

Jenny shattered Dave's hopes that she'd gloss over the reference to the awards without comment. She said, "What are the AVN Awards?"

Dave rolled his eyes. JR laughed, and Alice launched into an unexpurgated description of the Adult Video News awards and a few of the films she'd done to win the award that currently sat on their living room bookcase.

Dave watched Jenny's eyes and face as Alice talked and Emily nodded, indicating that she'd done similar work. Jenny's face twitched and twisted a lot during the revelations. At first, there was pure curiosity. As the term 'adult video' took root, the eyes narrowed slightly and the mouth dropped open, and then the eyes enlarged to the point of disbelief as Alice described her last film when she'd been tag-teamed by two men.

There was a very, very long silence after Alice finished her explanation. Cricket commented finally, "I think you just shocked Jenny." She put a hand on Jenny's arm, "It's all right, Jenny. There's no need to be embarrassed or shocked as far as we're concerned. All of us have done something like that; it was barrels of fun."

Dave also noted that JR had been paying careful attention to Alice's descriptions and commentary.

Jenny's head moved slowly up and down in agreement. She took a sip of her wine and then changed her mind and gulped the entire glass down in two seconds. She immediately passed Dave the empty glass, and nodded at the empty glass for him to get another.

Dave turned from Jenny, hoping he still had a secretary, and passed the glass across the bar to JR for a refill. JR winked at him.

As he turned back, he handed the full glass to Jenny. She smiled and said she'd be back in a minute. Alice, Emily, Jenny, Cricket started to walk away. JR broke off from her bar duty and joined them. They all headed towards his house. "What's up?" he asked towards their backs.

Cricket told him over her shoulder, "Jenny wanted to see one of Alice's films, and so we're going to the media room in your home for a sample. We won't be long."

Dave urged her, "Cricket, I like Jenny. A good secretary is hard to find. Don't let her get so shocked and disgusted with us that she quits. Try to keep a lid on it. I think Alice is having fun delivering a little shock value. At this point, it's probably better that I don't go with you."

Only when the dinner chimes rang fifty minutes later did the video-viewing group reappear: Jenny and Alice in the lead, with smiles he noted, with Cricket, JR, and Emily following. Dave smiled at the group and indicated the seats he'd saved for the group at one of the outdoor tables. The sun had set but the evening temperatures were still near eighty.

Since the women had gone inside, more people had arrived on the patio, so nearly the whole Circle was present. Many of the women were topless, a few having just emerged from a relaxing swim in the pool.

Jenny took in the scene as she sat at one of the place settings. "What's the protocol? Is dinner normally served?"

Cricket explained, "About a third of the time we get served, like tonight. The other nights are a buffet along the wall over there. The kitchen is officially closed two nights a week, and people eat out, cook at home, or do a much smaller group dinner – often using the barbecue."

That evening Chef Bobbie had prepared seared Tataki salmon as a starter and crispy pork tenderloin as the entrée; the latter prepared with a boiled egg, crispy onions, baby Bok Choy, and jasmine rice. Dessert was homemade green tea ice cream.

As Bobbie stood with her kitchen crew and described the meal, Dave noted that Adam and Jill Timms were volunteering in the kitchen along with Pete, Abby, Erin, Emily, Rachel, Meggie, and Ron. He liked seeing the 'pledges' actively supporting the Circle service corps. Everyone applauded and then started eating.

Jenny's eyes got the size of saucers. She exclaimed, "My God, this is five-star cooking! This is the best meal I've ever had. This must be unusual."

Everybody around her shook their heads. "Nope. We eat this way often. She varies the cooking all over the place. She likes trying new recipes – for a hundred people, too. Moreover, it's nutritionally balanced and not excessively fattening."

Jenny was mostly quiet after that, and Dave thought his secretary was absorbing what was going on, watching the various people in the Circle, and doing some deep thinking about what she'd seen.

Towards the end of the meal Jenny turned towards Alice. In a near whisper she asked, "How'd you ever get the courage to do those films? Weren't you embarrassed?"

Alice smiled. "For the early ones, I needed to loosen up, and they were part of my internal process to change my life in many ways. By the time I did the first couple everybody in the film had seen me naked many times, and vice versa, and we'd all made love many times. Doing it on film turned out not to be a big deal."

"But you did a threesome," Jenny stated, as though that would make a difference.

Alice sucked some ice cream down off her upside down spoon, clearly enjoying the sensation on her tongue. "If you want I can show you my gangbang movie where I did a dozen guys. That was hot, too. Most people in the Circle, maybe all of us, enjoy threesomes. Often, like in the video I showed you, they are two women and a man; that's because of the imbalance we have in the male and female populations here in the Circle."

Jenny turned to Dave, "Alice told me you'd been in some films, too."

Dave nodded. "Yep, but realistically I'm not sure anybody would even notice me or any of the men compared to the beautiful women in the videos. Realistically, they're the focus of the film, and men are the audience the film is intended for."

"Alice also said that just about everybody in the Circle has done a video with Circle-X Productions."

Dave nodded again, "Yep. I can introduce you to Mike Holiday, the head of the company and Kat Marbury, his assistant. His wife, Clarisse has appeared in many films. We all have."

"Who hasn't done one?"

Dave looked across the table, "I don't think Nikky has, but then she's not an official Circle member yet. There may be a couple of others."

Nikky corrected him, "Dave, I have done a video for Mike. It was one of his 'Teens Do Older Men' videos, so Roy was my co-star. That was last Saturday afternoon."

Dave shrugged and pointed out Mike, Kat, Clarisse, and Roy to Jenny since they were all sitting within her sightline.

Emily giggled as befitted a sixty-plus year old woman. She said, "I prefer the 'younger guys do older women' videos myself. I'm slated to do one of those with two of the fraternity guys in a week or so."

Jenny's eyes hardly blinked as she took in everything, and thought about the open sexuality of the Circle.

As coffee carafes were put on the table with cups and saucers, Dave saw Ty head for the stereo system for the outdoor speakers. As the music came on the speakers some of the lights went off and others dimmed casting the patio in a more romantic light. A rising three-quarter moon was quite visible over a couple of the homes.

About a half-dozen couples started dancing, most very close and romantically. There was significant kissing going on, and then Dave noted that hands started to caress and tease breasts, or a woman's hand might dip low and excite a man.

Dave took Jenny's hand and led her to the dance area. They got only about thirty seconds of dancing in when he saw that things were accelerating here and there around the patio too fast for even a full song.

Dave spoke, "Jenny, I think this might a good time for you to wrap-up the evening." Jenny heard him and nodded, but her eyes were locked on Wes and Athena who were dancing together. She had her hand deep in his athletic shorts obviously holding and stimulating his cock as they exchanged a long passionate kiss. He had both his hands on her modest breasts, pinching the erect nipples, as their tongues dueled in mid-air between their bodies.

JR came up to the pair and reinforced his comment, "I agree. There's an openness about the Circle about this time of night that I think would shock you more than you already have been."

Jenny realized she was being dismissed, "Wha ... wha ... what happens? What do you mean openness? What's going to happen?"

Cricket had started to dance with Alec nearby. She smiled at the young woman as they paused next to her, "We make love to each other all over the patio. It's very intimate and romantic as well as shockingly exhibitionist, but for someone from outside our gates it might seem wanton and irresponsible. It's not, by the way."

Jenny stammered out a few random syllables and then quite intentionally buttoned up her mouth.

Dave said, "Let me see you out to your car and aim you towards the gates; they'll open automatically as you approach them."

Jenny found her small purse at their table and a bag with her work clothes in it and walked with Dave between a few of the homes, casting many backwards glances at the dancers and those sitting as couples or threesomes making out.

Jenny was genuinely grateful for the cocktails and dinner, and all she'd learned about how her 'boss' lived. Dave laughed and reminded her it was public knowledge.

Jenny said, "Well, it's given me a lot to think about." As they reached her car, she leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. She stroked his other cheek with one hand, smiled, got in her car, and was soon gone.

When Dave returned to the patio, JR intercepted him. "Dance with me, please?"

Dave smiled, "I'd be delighted."

JR teased, "Do you still have a secretary?"

"She didn't scream or say anything negative; she said she had a lot to think about. I guess I'll hear first thing on Monday morning." They made a few twists and turns and he added, "You look very hot tonight. The combination of the thin crop top and the monokini with the heels is really sexy. I like the under-boob look."

JR smiled, "Jenny thought so. She could barely take her eyes off of me when we first got on the patio before dinner."

Dave chuckled, "Neither could I or most of the other men."

"I'm getting kind of old to deserve that kind of admiration. I see the young blood you have around here." She gestured where Bridget and Athena were dancing nearby and nearly making love on the dance floor with their partners.

"Nonsense. You're one of the most gorgeous women on the planet. I have to slap myself to keep from just leering at you all the time."

"Would you make love to me?"

"I'd like that a lot. Yes, but don't let me monopolize your time. You should spread your talents around."

JR said, "Nikky told me that I should come back to the patio bar and find a new partner around ten or ten-thirty."

"That seems to work. Where would you like to go?"

"I still haven't experienced your huge bed. I was reminded of that fact when we were watching Alice getting fucked by some muscled stud in the first porn film that she showed us. That doesn't worry you or make you jealous?"

Dave replied, "The bed it shall be. Alice's professional work doesn't bother me at all; I enjoy it. As for the jealousy, I feel compersion. The situation is exactly what we talked about in Circle 101 class on Monday evening."

"What would you feel if I did that – made a pornographic film? It's not exactly befitting the Vice President of Ops and Marketing for EneRG is it?"

Dave backed away from her. "I'd feel compersion. I would hope you felt empowered and good about what happened. I'd hope you had lots of real orgasms that drove you wild. As for actually doing a film, why not? If discovery is a worry, you can see what Alice did to disguise herself and become Alice Angel. I wouldn't care one bit, and I'm sure Mark, Owen, or any of the others wouldn't care either."

"But ..."

Dave interrupted, "Don't let the values, mores, and knee-jerk reactions of the people outside our gates dominate your life. You were raised under those, I'm sure; we all were. What you're trying to do here is UNLEARN those things, or at least understand the options in a way that lets you pick and choose. You want your OWN set of those things, not blindly accept someone else's. Worse, you may even make up stories about what people would think about various things you'd like to do or think about without knowing for sure the actual case."

JR was quiet for a while as they hugged and danced. Finally, she said, "Thank you. I needed that. What you said is all about my sixty-day trial here in the Circle. I'm rebuilding myself, at least part of me – the part I haven't been very happy with for a couple of decades."