"Sabrina!" He stuck a hand out. "Good to finally meet you in person. So are you all set to film?"
"I don't know, are we?"
"It looks like all of the members got your letter, so no one's been surprised to hear about the filming," he said. "Everyone who's checked in so far has signed one of your releases. You folks can pretty much wander at will."
In bemusement, Sabrina listened to him outline the weekend's activities. "You'll probably want to set up for the exotic dancing contest in the lounge. That's kind of the kick-off. The action in the rooms doesn't start until then. Right now, most of them are probably still out by the pool watching the games, having cocktails." He passed her the schedule and a map of the premises.
"Co-ed naked water polo?" Stef followed her through another door and into the pool area behind the hotel.
"Hey, don't knock it until you've tried it."
The pool area was cool and secluded, protected by stands of tall shrubs backed by pines. In case that didn't dissuade unwelcome visitors, there was a discreet fence woven among the plantings. She didn't doubt that they had the occasional problem with self-appointed guests. Of course, the hotel had other kinds of protection, she reflected, remembering the security guard patrolling the parking lot.
You sort of had to, when you held a voyeurism party every month.
The broad, textured concrete apron that surrounded the pool was covered with chaise lounges, more than a few of them draped with naked sunbathers.
"Boy, I sure hope they put on sunscreen," said Kev. "Not that I'm offering to help," he added hastily when Kelly shot him a look.
The water polo game was noisy, wet and enthusiastic. It was hard to figure out who was enjoying it more, the players or the audience staring at them. This was the interplay that she wanted to get, Sabrina thought, the whole dynamic between those who liked watching and those who liked being watched. Of course, by nine or ten o'clock that night, the stakes would be raised considerably. In the meantime…
"Let's get the equipment in here and start setting up some interviews," she said briskly.
* * *
Stef had never considered himself a jealous man, but there was something just a bit disconcerting about watching his lover interview a man whose cock was lying out there in full sight. Not that Sabrina had appeared to notice, of course, but it was hard for Stef to ignore it entirely, even if the guy was flaccid and holding hands with the woman next to him.
"So what draws you to these events, Bill?"
Bill rubbed at his blond goatee. "I like watching. I like being watched. It's a turn-on. I didn't want to come at first. I always thought it sounded hot, but actually doing it…" he shrugged. "It was Carolyn's idea to try it out."
"What do you do out in the real world?"
"I'm a business manager at an office supplies company. Carolyn, here, is an accountant."
Carolyn smiled up at the camera, her eyes hidden behind dark glasses. "It gives us a break from everyday life, you know? It's harmless. We're all here out of choice. It's not about swinging or unsafe sex. It's just a group of us that get together and do something we like."
It was funny, Stef thought. When he'd started working on the doc, he'd been convinced that most of the people they were covering were hopeless crackpots and that most of them believed in wacko alternative lifestyles that didn't make sense. Gradually, though, his thinking had changed. Again and again, they talked with people from normal, everyday life who had a different spin on things. He could see Bill playing on the local city league softball team, could imagine Carolyn driving as part of the local carpool. They weren't perverts; they weren't underground types living on the fringes. They were the type of people you'd have for neighbors.
He signaled for Kev to do a pan of the scene. Was it that he was getting a closer look at these people or had he simply changed? He'd always considered himself a different-strokes kind of guy, but somehow the strokes didn't seem all that far out there any more.
Sabrina finished up the interviews.
"Time for a break. Take thirty, everyone," Stef said.
Sabrina touched his arm. "I'm going to go in and check some paperwork with Walt."
Stef grabbed a drink and found himself a chair at the far side of the patio, overlooking the lake. He could see why people flocked to the inn, even when it wasn't having events like this one. The view alone was worth having. He heard a noise and turned to find Kelly at his elbow.
"Mind if I sit down?" she asked.
"Go ahead."
She slipped into the chair next to him and stretched out her legs. "Hell of a view they've got here."
"I suspect it's lost on this crowd. They're too busy looking at other stuff."
"Gotta get your money's worth, I suppose," she reflected.
"Everybody's got a motivation."
Kelly turned curious eyes on him. "So what's your motivation?"
"You mean, why am I doing this doc?"
"I mean, why do you do any doc?"
Stef thought about it while he took a drink. "I guess because I like holding a lens up for people to see the world, make them look at it in a different way than they usually do."
"Like this?"
"Yeah. I think Sabrina's had the right idea all along." Now he was thinking out loud as much as anything. "Show it to people in a way that lets them see what they have in common with these people, that lets them see what the participants like and value about it. Take them on a journey. That's what docs do, you know."
"When you're watching them or making them?"
"Both, really," he said simply. "Especially when you're making them. You're not the same person at the end that you were at the beginning. You can't look at a subject this closely and come away unchanged. It's a journey of discovery."
"And what have you discovered? Apart from the fact that you and Sabrina are still compatible in bed, I mean."
He shot her a hard look. "I'm going to tell myself that one was because you care about her."
"And I'm going to keep out of it because it looks like you're there for her now. I wanted to hate you when this all started up again, you know," she said, her voice not entirely steady. "You have no idea what she went through before."
"It wasn't easy on either of us, Kelly."
"Yeah, but guess what, you're not my friend. Anyway, Sabrina's happy now, and for that I'll forgive you."
"Even though you think she's out of her mind." He said it as statement of fact.
"I think she'd be smarter if she stayed to herself, yeah."
"And is that what you do? Play it safe, stay away from anything messy?"
"We're not talking about me," she said shortly.
"Maybe we should be."
"Maybe you should stick to journeys of discovery with your documentary subjects. Tell me what you've learned from watching all of these people."
"That it's okay to risk, okay to take chances." He looked at her appraisingly. "There's a tremendous amount of trust built into a lot of these relationships, precisely because of what they're into. I've got a lot of respect for that. Risk can be a good thing, in that sense." He looked at her more closely. "What?"
Kelly shook her head. "Nothing. What else?"
"No matter where you go, there you are."
She frowned. "What?"
"Different worlds aren't so different after all. We're all much closer to one another than we think." He stirred. "Speaking of things being closer than we think, our break is over. I need to start setting up for the next shoot." They rose and turned back to the hotel. "Do you still want to do that interview at some point?"
Kelly held up her minidictaphone. "With your permission, we already have."
* * *
Music pulsed through the air in the hotel's lounge, and on the catwalk of the stage, a woman wearing a red G-string flipped off her bra and threw it out into the cheering audience. She spun around the brass pole, then licked her finger and trailed it up her body, over her breast to the nipple. Hea
ven only knew who she was in real life, Stef reflected, scouting the room for a new camera angle before indicating a spot to Kev and Mike. That, he guessed, was part of the pleasure.
The stripping contest was down to the final few contestants. When the last round was over and the awards were given, that was when things were supposed to really heat up. Already, audience members were quietly slipping out the door.
Kev nudged Stef. "So you're down to your last chance. You can still sign up to compete. Let your johnson get a little fresh air."
"Why not you?"
"Naw." He settled his eye against the viewfinder of the camera. "I keep mine for private showings only. It's kind of shy. Not like this crowd."
No, shy would never be used to describe them. It was an odd mix, though, Stef noticed. Most of the audience had at least some clothing on, though many of the women wore outfits that would be considered indecent elsewhere. It was almost as though they understood that a pretense at clothing and modesty was more erotic than out-and-out nudity. Even the woman on stage had kept her G-string on until the very end of her dance.
He felt a touch on his shoulder and Sabrina was behind him. "Are you just about done here?" she said into his ear, taking the opportunity to give him a surreptitious kiss. "Kelly says they're already starting up in the rooms."
Kev turned to give Kelly a speculative look. "You been doing some recon?"
"Just wandering around," she said blandly.
"How about if Sabrina and I go do some recon," Stef suggested, ready to have her to himself for a while.
"Sure thing, chief," Kev said and he just kept filming.
* * *
Kelly barely noticed them leave as she stared at a couple in the back row making out with abandon. The woman had her hand in the guy's pants and was obviously handling him. "Looks like some people aren't waiting for the rooms."
"I guess they don't appreciate patience and finesse the way some of us do," Kev said, panning the camera to catch another woman on the catwalk, this time in a leopard-skin bikini and gold body paint.
"You, finesse?"
"I'm all about finesse, not to mention discretion. This filming naked women thing really isn't my bag." A corner of his mouth twitched.
"And here I figured you'd be thinking you'd died and gone to heaven—all this skin, all this sex."
The contestant on stage finished to a round of applause. Kev lowered the camera and looked at Kelly. For once, the dancing light of humor was gone from his eyes. "Random sex and random skin gets old, just like anything else. I'd rather find something real, with someone who thought I was worth breaking the rules for."
Kelly blinked and moistened her lips. "You know we can't get involved. I'm a journalist. You're one of my subjects."
"Rules, again?"
"They're generally there for a reason."
"Sometimes. And sometimes they're just bullshit to hide behind. You going to go on hiding, Kelly, or are you ready to take a risk?"
Tell me what you've learned, she heard herself asking Stef.
That it's okay to risk, to take chances.
She swallowed hard and watched the MC put a ribbon around the neck of the winner. "I'm ready for this documentary to be over."
* * *
Sabrina and Stef walked around the luminescent blue of the pool and toward the rooms that opened onto the patio. Each room ended in a wall of glass fitted with a slider, affording the occupants an unimpeded view of the pool area and the lake beyond. Now, however, the direction was reversed. The draperies that usually provided privacy had been drawn and the glow of lamps brought the focus inside.
The idea was not for those inside to see out, but for those outside to see in.
A knot of people had gathered around one of the rooms, standing inside the open sliding glass door or peering in from the outside. Dressed in royal blue, the bed was lit like a stage set. The scent of incense drifted out into the night air. And on the bed, Sabrina could see the gleam of naked bodies entwined.
It took her by surprise, the impact of the image. She had, on one or two memorable occasions, seen an adult film. It hadn't seemed sexy; instead, it appeared somehow vaguely foolish. The fake moans and groans, the slapping together of body parts in improbable positions—it had all just seemed silly.
What was in front of her, though, did not. These two people were obviously into what they were doing and, more obviously, they were into being watched while they were doing it.
Someone, she saw, had set up a video camera in the room so that the couple could see themselves on the television even as they were the center of attention. A little thrill of excitement shot through her. She turned to Stef—
And found him watching her. For an instant, the intensity in his gaze robbed her of words. Desire. It was in the taut, stripped-down lines of his face, in the tension coiled in his body. It vibrated through the air between them.
On the bed, the woman moaned as her partner used his hands and mouth to coax her toward orgasm. Her hips rose, her fingers clutched at his shoulders.
Sabrina swallowed. "We should set up a shot to get the bed and the television screen. It's really hot."
Stef swept her in close to him. "You're hot," he murmured.
The cries behind them rose. "We can't do this now," Sabrina said desperately. "I want you, but…"
He gave a growl of frustration and pulled her in for a deep, hard kiss. "I know. I'll wait," he said, releasing her. "Okay, how do you want to set it up? Are you sure you can get away with showing this?"
She moistened her lips. "Sure, as long as we don't show actual penetration. I don't want it to focus on the bed action, though. I want the people watching, and I want the video display."
"The video display?"
"Look at the couple on the bed. They're watching themselves making love while other people are watching them."
His hands were back on her, a warm temptation. "And you like that, don't you?"
"Yes, I do," Sabrina managed. She leaned back and gave him a long look. "I like it a lot."
Stef let out an unsteady breath. "Okay, let's get this damned thing filmed so we can get out of here."
* * *
The door opened and Sabrina and Stef half fell into their room, clutching and clawing at one another. It had seemed endless, but their work was done, their night just beginning. Sabrina threw down the things she carried; she thought Stef might have tossed his camera on the bed. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered except that they were free to touch, free to feel, free of worrying about anything except the madly spinning whirl of desire that had swept them up.
"If you'd gotten us rooms at the Chrysalis instead of here, I could have had you naked and coming by this time." Stef tugged her stretchy T-shirt off over her head and fastened his mouth back on hers. The tension and arousal of the past hours, tension they'd done their best to put aside, drummed insistently for release.
"Too much money," Sabrina panted, unzipping his pants. "Besides, I figured we'd need a break from the constant sex."
"Don't think you're getting one anytime soon," he growled, unclasping her bra and pulling it off of her shoulders.
Sabrina gasped at the feel of his tongue, the scrape of his teeth against her nipples. "That's all right. It'll help us get in touch with our subjects."
"I'll settle for getting in touch with you," he murmured, steering her back to the bed and laying her against it to strip off her thong. He nibbled at her knee and began to kiss his way up her thigh.
Sabrina reached out to grab a handful of the coverlet and hit the video camera instead. "Stef," she managed.
"Mmmm."
She felt the vibration of the sound against her skin and fought not to moan.
"Did you bring the video camera for what I think you did?"
"An experiment in getting closer to our subjects," he murmured. Then he went to work with his tongue and her hips rocked.
"Getting closer how?" she gasped.
"Don't interrupt me.
I'm busy," he said, and then she didn't have the presence of mind to interrupt him because the stroke of his tongue and the heat of his hands on her breasts bounded her world, binding her in tension and pressure and heat, compressing her down into a single spot until all the tension burst outward, shooting through her entire body until all she could do was gasp and shudder.
Stef kissed his way up her torso until he lay alongside her. "You seemed fascinated by the video setup at the Chrysalis. I was wondering just how fascinated."
"Very." Sabrina nipped at his lips and then leaned in for a long, mindless kiss. It was a chance to explore, a chance to be safe, a chance to go with him to the edge.
Stef rolled her over onto her back. "Fascinated by the idea of watching us make love? We can do it, you know. We can do it right now."
* * *
He'd guessed right, Stef realized, watching her eyes darken.
"Yes," she whispered. "Only I don't want to stop."
"It'll only take a minute, I promise."
He rose from the bed and picked up the camera and walked over to the lowboy dresser that held the television. He plugged the cable into the back, then picked up the video camera and squinted at it.
"You're so sexy when you get all techie," Sabrina murmured, coming over to kneel in front of him. She reached out to wrap her fingers around his cock. "I don't want you to lose interest while you're doing it, though," she whispered, and slid him into her mouth.
Heat, softness, slick friction. A measured caress that had him sucking in a breath. For a moment, he didn't want to focus, didn't want to concentrate on anything but the sweet, hot stroke that was slowly driving him mad. She gave a chuckle deep in her throat and the vibration of it threatened to send him over.
He'd watched the people in the rooms that night. He'd stared at the avid eyes of the voyeurs, poised on the edge of coming just from watching. He'd seen the sex-blurred eyes of the exhibitionists, closer to orgasm because they knew others could see what they were doing. Through it all, he'd thought only of Sabrina, wanted only her. Seeing all the naked limbs and smelling the rising scent of sex had only made him want her wrapped around him, somewhere quiet and private, just the two of them. Somewhere they could take one another to places they'd never been.
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