by Jewel Geffen
Scott came back through the door of his home, his head spinning.
What in the world was he doing? He could hardly keep it straight in his mind anymore. He wasn't sure whose side he was really on, what he was hoping to accomplish, or why. All he knew was that he couldn't stop. He was plunging headlong into this, headless of destination and urged on by some primal desire which he couldn't fully identify.
He stepped inside and discovered that his knees were shaking. He staggered, stumbling a little and fighting for his balance, feeling like he'd just had the wind knocked out of him.
Get a grip, Scott. Hold it together.
The meeting with Bernard had spun him so bad that he hardly knew which way was up anymore. The most confusing thing was that he wasn't sure anymore if he'd been lying or not when he told Bernard that he wanted his wife to have sex with a black man.
Had he gone crazy? Lost his mind, somehow? It was just nuts. He'd driven around all afternoon, right till dusk, just lost in his thoughts, trying to get his head together. Obviously, he hadn't been entirely successful.
He picked himself up, tugging at his necktie as he stumbled into the living room.
Scott stopped dead in his tracks and stared.
James was reclined on the couch, his skin dark in the evening twilight. The flickering light of the television set reflected in his glasses. Julie was asleep with her head in his lap, her copper-red hair pooled and her face still and peaceful. Her hand was in James' hand, her pale fingers interlaced with his.
Scott walked slowly into the room.
James glanced at him, but made no move to disentangle himself from Scott's wife. He touched a finger to his lips instead. “She's asleep,” he said quietly.
“I can see that,” Scott said, and slumped down into the rocking chair across from the couch.
“Where were you? We were worried.”
“Just... getting my thoughts together.”
“You should have called,” James said, a bit sternly, “she was afraid Bernard had killed you.”
“And you?”
“I figured you could handle yourself. But yes, I was also concerned. How did it go?”
“We've got ourselves an in, I think. He didn't seem too suspicious of me, at least not more than can be expected. There's just one catch.”
“Oh? And what's that?”
Just then, Julie stirred. Her eyes opened slowly, and she blinked as she raised her head slightly. “Scotty?”
“I'm here, hon.”
She pulled away a strand of hair that had fallen across her lips and rubbed her eyes. “Jesus Christ, Scott... what happened? Why didn't you call me? I was worried about you...”
“I'm sorry,” he said, his hands clasped together in front of him, “I just... had to work out a few things in my mind.”
“Well, find a pay phone first, next time, would you sweetie? This is all scary enough without you going radio silent like that. We're concerned about you.”
“We.”
“That's right...” she said, rubbing at her eyes as she sat up. Her hand was on James' thigh as she rose to a sitting position. “James and I. We were both worried.”
Scott leaned forward. “I'm going to ask you a question, Julie, and I need a straight answer. I'm not upset, and I'm not going to judge you no matter how you answer. As far as I'm concerned, it won't change anything between us no matter what you say. But I need to know for real, okay?”
She looked a good deal more awake now. She nodded slowly. “Okay...” her voice was small and worried.
“What's the relationship between you two?” Scott looked at James, then at Julie. “Just how close are you? And where's it going?”
Julie blushed and her eyes darted away, and that told Scott pretty much everything he needed to know. “There's no relationship, Scott, nothing's going anywhere...”
He came down off the chair, sitting on his knees in front of her. He reached out to take both of her hands in his own and he gazed up at her. “I think we both know that isn't entirely true, sweetheart. I appreciate you trying to be loyal to me, but the time for that is past. We have to talk about what's really going on.”
“Alright...” she said, still guarded, still not meeting his eyes, “we can talk...”
“Are you attracted to James?”
She bit her lower lip. Hard. A very slight nod; it might have been imperceptible if not for the way it shook her hair.
“And James, you're attracted to Julie?”
The professor leaned back, his arms stretching out across the back of the couch. “She's a beautiful woman, and extremely charming. I'd have to be a fool not to want her.”
“Alright. So we've established that. You both like one another. I can handle that. How much?”
“What are you really asking, Scott?” she murmured.
He gave her hands a squeeze that he hoped was reassuring and disarming, and he took a deep breath. “I'm asking if you want to have sex with one another.”
Her head snapped up, her green eyes going wide. “Scott, I...”
“Julie. It's fine. I accept it. I'm the one who put you in this position, I know that. Just tell me.”
“I... it doesn't change how I feel about you, Scott...”
He lifted himself up a little bit and kissed her softly on the forehead. “And it doesn't change how I feel about you, darling. But I need to know.”
“I... I think I do...” she said, and glanced at the man beside her.
His hand came around behind her and gave her shoulder a squeeze.
Scott felt strangely calm inside. His heart wasn't beating fast, he wasn't breaking out in a sweat, he wasn't feeling the rising panic. It felt... strangely safe, almost natural. Maybe... he could handle this. He was reaching a sort of Zen-like state.
“I do,” she said again, and cleared her throat. “I want to have sex with James. I mean... if he wants to... and if it's... okay with you, Scotty...”
Scott grinned. “Okay. Okay, so now we're all on the same page. No more secrets, no more hiding things to protect one another's feelings. We have to be straight with one another, because – and I'm not going to lie to either of you – we're might just be in real danger here. We three, we're the only ones that we know we can trust. We might be the only ones who can have the others' backs, and we have to be on the level.”
“What are you talking about, Scott?” she asked, “What's going on?”
Scott sat back and let out a deep breath. “I've got an invitation to a party of Patrick Bernard's. An exclusive gathering on his yacht with only a few others. If he likes what he sees, we might just have found our way into his inner circle.”
James adjusted his glasses. “And just what is it that he's hoping to see?”
“That's the catch I mentioned,” Scott said slowly. “He... he's expecting to see you two have sex. In front of him, in front of everybody. In front of me. He wants to know that we're... serious about things.”
“Oh my God...” Julie whispered, her face frightfully pale in the evening darkness.
“I know,” Scott said, “it's a lot. A hell of a lot. I don't like doing it, Julie, and I'm not going to ask you to. It's your call if you want to. You say no, and we'll throw away the whole thing.”
“This is... this is our only chance to help James though? There's no other way?”
Scott shrugged. “I'm sure there's something else we could try, but... Right now I don't see another way.”
She took a deep breath, and she looked at James. “Then I'll do it.”
Scott felt his heart in his throat. What was this feeling? Relief? Sorrow? Excitement? Some strange combination of all three?
She nodded, and she said it again. “I'll do it. If it helps you get to the bottom of this, Scott, if it helps James... I'll do it. At least... I'll try.”
James reached out and touched her face, his black hand caressing the side of her cheek. “Thank you,” he murmured, and her eyes went liquid with desire.
Sc
ott felt himself stirring just at the sight of it.
“Okay then,” he said, “we're committed. The way I see it, there's something we need to do first, though.”
They both turned and looked at him. “What's that?” Julie asked quietly.
“It's going to be a high pressure environment on that boat,” he said, “we can't be walking into it blind. We need to know what we're getting into beforehand.”
“What does that mean?” she asked, her voice a little breathless.
Scott figured she probably had already guessed what he was about to say. “It means,” he said, “that you two should have sex beforehand. And I should watch. We all need to be ready, need to be prepared. Only way we can know if we'll be able to pull it off is to give it a try.”
Chapter Fifteen
Julie Chapel stared at her husband, unable to believe what she was hearing.
He couldn't have just said that, could he? Surely Scott hadn't just suggested that she and James... have sex? Right here and now while he watched? He couldn't have meant that, could he?
“You're not...” she said, and trailed off. “You don't... You can't...”
Scott grinned tightly, reaching up the scratch the stubble on his cheek. He looked tired, but alert and entirely earnest. “I am, I do, and I can,” he said. “If this is going to happen, then it's going to happen. Better that it happens here instead of there.”
“You want us to have sex?”
“Yeah,” he said, and sat back down in the rocking chair. “I do. Just... go ahead. Don't worry about me, sweetie. I can handle it. Just pretend I'm not here.” He folded his hands together, squeezing them tightly to stop them from shaking. He probably thought she didn't notice that, but she knew her husband too well to be fooled.
She couldn't quite tell what was causing the shaking though. It looked... but of course it couldn't be, could it? It looked like he was trying to contain his excitement. Surely that was just in her head.
She looked at James, and he looked back, his deep dark eyes looking intensely back into her own. All at once she felt trapped in his gaze, drawn in and drowning in it. He reached out and touched her bare arm, and the sensation of his fingers on her skin was electric. He gave her a little squeeze.
“It's alright, Julie. We can do... anything you like.”
“We can?” she asked, her voice catching in her throat. This was all too fast, too much, too intense. She could hardly believe it was really happening. How could it be happening? This wasn't her life.
She didn't do this kind of thing, she wasn't one of those daring girls who seemed to move so effortlessly through the world, chasing after and seizing their own pleasure.
She had always been one of the people who found contentment in acceptance. Who was willing to give up their wild dreams and passions and settled into something comfortable. She'd so long convinced herself that she didn't need anything more than that, it had almost become unthinkable.
And here she was, facing it down, right here and now, being told to reach out and seize it. She could have it, she could experience those forbidden things which had for so long been banished to the haze of dreams unacknowledged.
“I... I need to wash up,” she said, drawing away from him. “I just... I'll just be a moment in the restroom.”
“Of course,” he said, “take your time.”
“T-thank you,” she murmured, her voice shaking violently. How could her heart beat this fast, how could her body contain such a sensation? Such a wild trembling...
He caught her hand as she rose and pulled him back down towards himself, and he brushed his lips gently against her own, then let her go again. She rose, and lifted her hand to her mouth, touching it where he had touched her.
She glanced over at Scott. He just nodded.
And she knew.
Julie swallowed. “Just a moment,” she said, and she stepped into the next room.
The moment the door was closed she let out a gasp and bent down, gripping the sides of the sink. Her whole body was lit up with desire, with need. She wanted that man, she wanted him inside of her, wanted his cock, wanted sex.
She loved Scott, loved him more dearly than she could put into words, and she loved him right now more fiercely than ever. She would always love him. But she wanted James. She wanted him very badly indeed.
That didn't make her a bad person, did it? She looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. She didn't think she was. All her life she had denied herself sexually, resisted her impulses.
It wasn't ladylike, wasn't her place, wasn't the done thing.
Now that she was here, faced with this choice... she wasn't going to be held back. It was time to allow herself to be... herself. She splashed some water on her face and wiped it off. It was like a baptism of sorts, in a way. When she rose and lifted her dry face, she felt as if she'd been reborn, made anew.
She could do this.
She wanted to do this. And nothing was going to stop her. She looked herself over with a whole new eye. Her body was ripe and sexual, yearning for the touch of a man, keen for love. She touched her breasts, felt the firm nipples pressing through the material of her bra.
There was a powerful and strange stirring sensation below, a building and unstoppable desire. She put her hand down there between her thighs, letting it rest over top of her jeans. Too much material in the way. She unzipped her pants and peeled them down, and she placed her hand on her mound, covered now only by the lace of her panties.
She wanted him right there, wanted his cock to open her, spread the folds of her womanhood and plumb her secret depths. She wanted to spread her legs and take him into her hidden warmth, her sweet place.
She loved the expression on a man's face when he first put himself inside her. That flicker of guileless ecstasy, of pure satisfaction and delight. A look that told her everything. That she had taken away the world outside, that she had enveloped him utterly, not only that part of his body but his entire being.
His very soul.
It was such a feeling, being opened, being entered. Feeling herself filled, stretched, made whole. To keep him safe and close and wrapped in pure bliss... it was her highest satisfaction.
She reached down to pull up her jeans, then paused. Why? Why put them back on? Let them see her for who she was, let them look at her body and feel an awareness of her physical being.
She unbuttoned her blouse, opening it in the front to show off the line of her cleavage. She ached for James' eyes upon her, wanted nothing more than to make him hard. She wanted his cock to desire her, wanted him to need her body.
She slipped her socks off and went back out to them. This was it. The moment she had waited for.
The moment she would take him inside of her.
Chapter Sixteen
Scott and James looked at one another across the room.
“Are you sure you're comfortable with this, Mr. Chapel?” he asked, his voice low and gentle.
The muted television was still playing, an image of the wilds of the African Savanna reflected in the Professor's glasses. Scott stared, momentarily entranced, as a huge lion bounded across the plains, finally leaping and catching a racing gazelle in its huge fore-paws. It bit down hard on the deer's neck, dragging it forcefully to the earth.
“Yeah, I... I'm going to be alright,” he said. He felt somehow far off, as if he were somewhere else. Like he was floating over it all, serene and untouched. Only an observer, freed from all worry or fear.
“Trust me,” he said, “I've done this a lot of times, Mr. Chapel. It's going to be fine.”
“I know, I know...”
“There's nothing to be afraid of. Just think of it as... a gift... A gift for her. Not as if anything is being taken from you. It isn't. I'm not interested in taking anything from you.”
Scott nodded. “I've just... never had a partner before.”
James smiled. “Are you talking about in bed, or on an investigation?”
Scott laughed. “Both.
Neither. I guess... guess it's gonna be a new experience all around.”
He heard movement, and he turned. Julie stood in the doorway, half undressed, half uncertain, hesitating there. Her pale legs seemed to glow in the evening light. Her lacy black panties, her bra, her blouse hanging loose and unbuttoned on her shoulders...
His heart started to beat faster. As he watched her come into the room, the feeling of distance faded. He was here now, entirely present. He was here, and he was about to watch his wife get fucked by another man.
She went to James, her eyes fixed upon him, looking up through her lashes.
“Do you want me to undress?” she said, and she sounded... It was Julie, her voice, her inflection, but there was something different about her. Something new.
James Cain leaned back on the sofa, his arms spread wide. He smiled, then nodded. “Undress,” his deep voice was smooth and steady.
She stood in the middle of the room, and she let her blouse slip down. It fell to the floor with a noiseless flutter. Then she reached back and unhooked her bra. For a moment she held it up, her hands pressing the lace cups to her breasts, then, biting down on her lip, she pulled it away.
Her full pale breasts were suddenly on full display, the ripe swells and curves shown for James and Scott alike, though they were – at that moment – intended for the other man alone. She brushed her fingertips over the perky pink nipples. “Do you like them?” she asked softly, a touch nervously.
James smiled, a calm and disarming smile. “They're beautiful,” he said. “Absolutely beautiful. Bring them to me.”
She swallowed audibly and came across the room.
He patted his lap. “Sit.”
She sat on his lap, and he reached up to feel her. His large and powerful hands caressed her breasts, cupping them, feeling them, tracing the curves of them. He pinched gently at her nipples, tweaking them slightly at first, then beginning to tug on them with slow steady motions.
She moaned, shuddered, and slipped off her panties.
Scott went breathless for a moment as he watched her lacy black panties fall around her ankles. His wife was completely naked now, naked in the arms of another man.
