by Rainey Daye
“That’s not what I meant,” he said.
Maggie looked over her shoulder at him and raised her brow in question. “I meant some naked pictures like the ones Jess took last night,” he clarified. “You seemed to enjoy it.”
“Well, of course I enjoyed it, silly.” Maggie grinned. “It was very hot and erotic. Of course, he’s going to have to erase them from the memory card, but it sure was fun at the time.”
“Well, new experiences can be titillating,” Alex replied carefully. “Easy to get carried away,” he added.
Maggie laughed and turned back to her dishes. After a moment, Alex stood up wearily and headed for the swinging door. “Oh, Alex?” she called.
“Yeah?” Alex said, pausing with his hand flush to the door, preparatory to pushing it open.
“If it’s with you and Jess, then I’m willing to do just about anything erotic. Including making a sex tape together if you guys wanted to. Just thought you should know,” she said without turning around, but the blush that was suffusing her body was evident in the tone of her voice.
* * * *
Alex froze in place, awed by her offer, humbled by her trust, and mightily turned on. And then he scowled as he wondered just who prior to them had also made Maggie feel so brazen. He barely stopped himself from going over to her, gripping her shoulders, and shaking the name of the unknown photographer out of her. Instead, he mumbled, “I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks, Mags,” and left the room, leaving Maggie to groan into her soapy hands with embarrassment.
* * * *
That weekend the guys got out the ladder and began stringing lights on the outside of their home after they tested each strand to make sure they were working. They strung red and white lights around the columns to make them resemble giant candy canes, they hung icicle lights from the eaves, and they even climbed out onto the roof from the attic windows in order to outline the peaks and angles of the roof with colored blinking lights.
With the extra light strands, they choose a couple of trees in the front yard and wrapped their trunks and bare branches with solid color lights of white, red, blue, and green. They choose the smallest blue spruce in the yard and strung it with outdoor lights to resemble a Christmas tree, Maggie having no problem with decorating it since they weren’t chopping it down first.
While the men worked on the house lights, Maggie lined the driveway with oversized candy cane decorations, hung two over-large holiday wreaths on the double front doors, put smaller ones up on the first floor windows, and even set up an outdoor nativity scene.
When the men had moved out onto the roof, Maggie announced that she couldn’t watch and went inside to decorate the foyer and living room. Jess and Alex entered the house to find an evergreen garland winding up their staircase, a small nativity scene on the circular table in the foyer, and mistletoe above the front door, the living room arch, the dining room entrance, and the base of the stairs. The mantel was covered with a holiday runner and three stockings with their names on them were hanging from the fireplace. Holiday throw pillows and spreads were on the living room furniture, and electric candles were on all the downstairs window ledges. What amazed them the most were the large, sparkly, white foam snowflakes that Maggie had purchased along with their tree. Using clear push pins and fishing line, she had hung them from the living room ceiling.
They ensconced themselves on the couch, sipping hot toddies and remarking on how it was finally feeling like Christmas in their home. When the sun went down, they shrugged into their coats, flipped on the outside lights, and then determinedly walked to the edge of the driveway before turning around to view what they had wrought.
Maggie burst into tears when she beheld the marvel that was their home, and she hugged both men effusively, thanking them for making this holiday so special for her. She raised the camera from around her neck and began snapping the “after” pictures to add to the pictures she had taken of them putting up the lights earlier in the day.
After dinner that evening, Alex followed Maggie into the office when she said she was going to download the pictures and put together a holiday album for her parents. While she worked, he asked her numerous questions like how often she erased the memory card, where her pictures were stored, how she accessed them, and many more. If Maggie thought this odd, she just shrugged it off as another of his peculiarities of late as she answered as best she could.
Finally, Alex went to the door, scanned the hallway, and then closed the door, leaving the two of them alone in the office. “I need to show you something, Maggie,” he began, sounding nervous and uneasy.
Maggie would have tried to lighten the mood by making a quip about having already seen “it,” but his behavior warned her that he was about to unburden himself, possibly about whatever had been bothering him for the past few days, so she wisely kept quiet.
Alex opened and shut his mouth several times, clearly trying to say the right thing, but in the end he simply pulled a vase off one of the bookshelves, turning it upside down and dumping out a key into his outstretched hand. He replaced the vase and then walked behind the desk where Maggie sat. She scooted back in the chair, and Alex unlocked the top desk drawer, pulling out a manila envelope.
He stared at the envelope for a long moment, and then by way of explanation he said softly, “I found out that this is the reason that Troy is in town,” before he handed her the envelope.
Maggie frowned down at it, her elation at solving the Troy mystery warring with worry over Alex’s somber behavior. She finally opened it up and dumped the contents on the desk.
What confronted her were a couple of dozen photos of her in various states of undress, along with a computer disk. Her eyes widened as she brushed her hand over the photographs. “Troy had these?” she whispered.
“Yeah,” Alex whispered back.
“No other copies?”
“No. I even have the disk he printed these from.”
“Where’d he get the disk?”
“Off your mom’s home computer,” Alex replied, his voice breaking.
Maggie’s head whipped up at his disclosure. “My mom’s computer?” she asked, aghast. “How…”
“Apparently, sometime in late August, before Troy was supposed to head back to college, your mom was having some computer trouble. Don’t know if she went to him or if he simply volunteered to take a look or what, but he went to your parents’ house and started doing what he could do to clean up her files, defrag it, simple things like that.” Alex sighed and sat heavily down in one of the office chairs in front of the desk, running his fingers agitatedly through his hair. “He came across a really large file that he couldn’t access but which he suspected might be causing some of her computer hiccups, so he downloaded the file to disk and then opened the file via the disk.”
“And he found these?” Maggie asked.
“It seems that the file was full of pictures from your camera, all scrambled up. Troy was about halfway through looking at the pictures when he found those naked ones of you,” Alex revealed.
“They were on my mom’s computer,” Maggie said, sounding sick.
“Yeah,” Alex sighed. “He deleted the file from your mom’s computer and pocketed the disk.”
“He’s been walking around with naked pictures of me all this time?” Maggie cried, outraged. “And how long have you known about this?” she demanded.
“About four days now,” Alex confessed.
“Don’t tell me you broke into his room again?”
“Didn’t have to,” Alex said.
“Huh?”
“Troy seemed upset when I followed him back to his motel a couple nights ago. Took a chance, knocked on his door. He invited me in and confided why he’s in town,” Alex said with an apparently nonchalant shrug.
“And what is his reason? To get back together with me now that he has nude pictures of me to jack off to?” Maggie asked, starting to get hysterical with anger.
“No!” Alex said, trying to
calm her down. “He’s trying to protect you.”
“Protect me?” Maggie cried, her voice raising an octave in pitch. “From what?”
“From whoever took these pictures to begin with,” Alex said.
Maggie blinked in stupefaction. “You don’t know?” she whispered.
“Know what?” Alex asked, confused.
“You haven’t shared this information with Jess?”
Alex snorted. “Are you kidding? Jess has already been itching to pound on Troy. You really think we should give him another target to pound on? I’m trying to keep Jess sane here, to keep him from seriously maiming someone.”
“While you slowly go over the edge,” Maggie murmured, looking back down at the pictures. “And these are it?”
“These are Troy’s copies,” Alex answered. “He says he deleted the JPEG file they came from off your mom’s computer. I still don’t know how they got there, but since the other pictures in the file were all taken with your camera, I’m betting it’s safe to guess that those were taken by it, too.”
“And that’s why you were asking me about the memory card and how often I wipe it and stuff,” Maggie murmured. “So, what is Troy attempting to do?”
Alex sighed. “He’s determined to protect you from your own bad decisions.”
“Excuse me?” Maggie asked, arching her brow.
Alex grimaced. “Troy said that the Maggie he knew would never pose for pictures like this, so he thinks someone corrupted you.”
Maggie snorted as she shot him a look rife with meaning.
“Yeah, yeah, Jess and I have truly warped your small-town sensibilities.”
“Maybe, but you couldn’t have seduced me unless I wanted to be seduced,” Maggie pointed out.
“Yeah, well, Troy is convinced that there is some lothario out there who is either going to sell these pictures, want you to pose for him again, or try to get you back into his bed.”
“Huh?”
“Look at the pictures carefully, sweetheart,” Alex sighed. “You can clearly see a man’s hand touching you in a couple of them. And I’ve made you come often enough to know what you look like when you orgasm. These pictures were taken while you were having sex,” Alex pointed out.
Maggie looked more closely at the pictures, blushing as she perused them in detail. Finally she set the pictures down on the desk, stood up, and strode to the door.
Alex didn’t move from where he was sitting, determined to give Maggie as much time alone as she needed to process this embarrassing situation. But when Maggie opened the door, she surprised the crap out of him by yelling down the hallway, “Jesse! Get your ass in here, now!”
“Maggie!” Alex exclaimed, jumping to his feet. “Didn’t you hear what I said? Jess is going to go ballistic.” But Maggie waved him off, standing in the open doorway with her arms crossed and tapping her foot while she impatiently waited for Jess to answer her bellowed summons.
Jesse came pelting down the hallway, looking both confused and concerned. When he reached the door, Maggie turned on her heel and walked back to the desk, trusting that Jess would follow, which he did, shooting Alex a What the hell? look when he saw that Alex was there.
Maggie reached down and snatched up a photo from the desk, waving it in Jesse’s face. “Do you know what this is?” she demanded of him.
“Well, if you stop waving it around and let me see, then maybe I’ll be able to tell you,” Jess said, trying to be reasonable.
“This is the reason Troy’s in town,” she growled at him as she shoved the photo into his hand.
Jess took the picture as Alex stepped closer, prepared to wrestle him to the ground if necessary. But Jess simply looked at the photo in confusion. “I don’t get it,” he finally said.
Alex gaped at him in disbelief, wondering why Jess was being so dense.
“I got those photos from Troy,” Alex found himself saying. And now he was rewarded with all the blood draining from Jesse’s face as he spun around and stared at Alex.
“You what? How did he get them?”
“You tell me, Jess,” Maggie bit out.
“It wasn’t me, I swear it, honey. I’ve never printed any pictures off the disk I made.”
“And where’s the disk?” Maggie asked while Alex looked on in confusion.
“It’s upstairs in my closet,” Jess said. “I’ve only pulled it out a couple of times. It’s never left the house.”
“Could Troy have broken in and found it?” Maggie asked him.
“It’s well hidden, sweetheart. I didn’t want Alex to find it, so I doubt Troy could have found it without me realizing that my closet had been searched.”
“You said you deleted the pictures from the computer,” Maggie said.
“I did,” Jess said. “You were there when I downloaded them, remember?”
“Wait a minute!” Alex cut in. “What the fuck is going on?”
Maggie and Jesse grew quiet as they looked at each other almost guiltily. “He’s seen them?” Jess asked and swore under his breath when Maggie nodded.
“Uh, Alex, sit down, I can explain,” Jess began.
“I hope someone explains,” Alex grated, “because I’m not liking where my thoughts are taking me.”
“Then you probably aren’t going to like the explanation,” Jess muttered.
Alex sat back down in the office chair and eyed his two lovers, who were standing shoulder to shoulder in front of him, looking for all the world like truant children. Maggie was looking to the side, away from both of them while Jess actually scuffed his heel on the carpet as he assembled his thoughts.
“I took these pictures of Maggie back in July when I went to visit her,” Jess confessed. “Maggie didn’t even realize I was snapping pictures at first. And I hadn’t planned on snapping any, but she looked so hot and erotic and like a wet dream lying on that blanket in the meadow by the lake the day before I left. And she had brought her camera along, and the damn thing was just lying there, and I wasn’t going to get to see her again for a month. I was just playing at first, catching candid poses without her knowing it, but I guess I got carried away with taking pictures as things got more intense with us.”
“And how did they end up on her mom’s computer?” Alex grated, part of him pissed at Jess inadvertently allowing such pictures to fall into Troy’s hands, but a more selfish part of him upset and jealous that Jess was the one who got to snap such beautifully erotic pictures of Maggie, that Jess was the one who was obviously arousing her in the photos, that Jess had initiated this new type of foreplay with Maggie. But mostly he was upset because he was feeling insanely jealous, and in a relationship like theirs, jealousy could not play a part.
“Well,” Jess was explaining. “Maggie was going to delete them, but you know how small the screen on her camera is. I talked her into downloading them to her mom’s computer so we could see them larger first. And they were so fucking hot that I begged her to let me download them to disk so I could keep them for my own personal pleasure.”
“And you didn’t erase them from her mom’s computer?” Alex asked, incredulous at Jesse’s stupidity.
Jess glared at his tone of voice. “Of course I deleted them. I’m not a dumbass, Alex. Maggie was there. She saw me delete the file, and we also deleted them from the memory card on her camera. And then I kissed her good-bye and headed for the airport.”
Alex looked at Maggie, and she nodded her confirmation. “I double-checked, of course,” Maggie told him. “I’ve never let anyone take such pictures of me before and wanted Jess to erase them, but he promised me that he wouldn’t even tell you about them, so I let him keep the disk.”
“Why didn’t you want him to tell me about them?” Alex asked, hurt.
“Because of our ‘don’t kiss and tell’ policy,” Maggie answered. “And because if you found out that I was willing to pose for nude pictures for Jess…”
“You weren’t willing,” Jess interrupted her. “You didn’t even know w
hat I was doing at first. And then I distracted you every time you heard the shutter click.”
“Yeah, but toward the end, I knew what you were doing,” Maggie pointed out.
“But by that time I had you so crazed that your high school marching band could have entered the clearing and you wouldn’t have cared.”
Maggie opened her mouth to rebut, but then she conceded he had a point with a shrug.
“But you told me the other night, after we put up the tree…” Alex said, petering out in confusion.
“Well, the other night was fun and fantastic with both of you under the tree. And I realized that it makes me wet having pictures taken while we’re having sex. Which is why I told you I’d even be willing to make a sex tape.”
“You would?” Jess exclaimed. “That’s great! We can—”
“Jess!” Alex barked, cutting him off. “Do you really think Maggie would be willing to allow us to record her after finding out that Troy accidentally stumbled across the private pictures you took of her?”
“How’d he get those pictures, anyhow?” Jess wanted to know, and Alex explained what he had learned from Troy.
“You didn’t tell us that you actually spoke to him,” Jess accused him.
“Because I didn’t know how to tell Maggie that some naked pictures of her might be floating around in cyberspace,” Alex snarled. “And I was trying to keep you from getting bent out of shape about the pictures.”
“Okay, you were protecting us. But seriously, stop trying to protect us. I know I screwed all this up with the photos to begin with, but you wouldn’t have known that if you hadn’t finally told Maggie what you had found out. You would be going just as bugshit at Troy is, trying to figure out who took them. Admit it.”
“I was already going bugshit. I figured they had to have been taken sometime in the early fall last year, shortly after Maggie broke up with Troy.” He explained his reasoning when they gave him questioning looks.
“Spent a lot of time studying the photos, huh?” Jess asked knowingly.
Alex shot him a dirty look and then breathed a sigh of relief when it didn’t appear that Maggie had caught Jess’s innuendo.
