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Call Girl Cheerleaders - Part 3
By Richard Bissell (address defunct)

***

A guy falls into a relationship-for-money with a high 
school cheerleader that soon grows into a group thing 
that then flowers into a romantic relationship between 
him and the girls. (M/f+teens, bi, mast, oral, anal, 
orgy, prost)

***

Author Notes: Adults only, no prudes. If you don't like 
sex stories containing teenagers engaging in weird 
perversions, or you can't separate truth from fiction, 
get lost. The author does not advocate or condone 
anything that goes on in this story. 

This story is mine. You can repost it or archive it 
only if 1) you don't change it, 2) my name and this 
disclaimer remain attached, and 3) you aren't making 
money off it. That includes posting it on some slime-
ball banner farm web site. Yes, that means you! 


CHAPTER THIRTY
--------------

Whatever Giselle's parents were thinking, neither of 
them showed up at the house again. Giselle settled in 
as well as could be expected, and my concerns about 
worsening Hayley's mood proved unfounded. She didn't 
improve, mind you--but neither did she get any worse. 

I did my best to make sure she knew we all cared about 
her, and I kept telling myself that it would simply 
take time. She might have been on the cusp of womanhood 
(sixteen was older nowadays than it had been when I was 
her age), but she had undergone a couple of major 
upheavals, and it was unrealistic not to expect her to 
be affected. 

Marianne fell happily into her role as the "mama-san" 
of the household, taking over some of Elizabeth's 
responsibilities toward Hayley and working to keep 
everything running smoothly. Giselle, for her part, 
carried her end of the load. Recognizing that it was 
important for her self-esteem, I accepted the twenty-
five bucks a week she insisted on giving me out of her 
salary from working at a nearby pharmacy. It might have 
been lunch money for me, but it meant something to her, 
so I took it. 

A couple of weeks later, Hayley asked me to come to a 
pep rally at their school to watch her cheer. The 
school's basketball team had just made the playoffs, 
and both squads would be there. So Friday morning, I 
took a couple of hours off and drove over to their 
school. 

I wasn't sure what to expect, but when I got to the 
gym, I saw a small group of parents sitting at one end 
of the bleachers. I found a seat near the top. Luckily, 
Giselle's father didn't appear to be there. 

The J.V. squad came out first, and Hayley led them in a 
series of cheers, doing their best to rev up the 
students. I noticed her smiling at me a few times, and 
when they were done, she gave me a little wave. 

Marianne and the varsity girls came out next, and as 
she was leading the squad in a cheer, I had a sudden 
flashback to my own high school days. Sitting on a 
bleacher much like this one, forlornly watching Beth 
Dunbar dance and prance around our gym. Knowing that my 
feelings for her were pathetic and pathetically 
unrequited, but unable to control them. I didn't know 
what to call it now--irony, poetic justice, or 
coincidence--but here I sat having both her daughters 
madly in love with me and eagerly climbing into my bed. 

I wondered, not for the first time, if I should ever 
tell Marianne the whole truth. I wanted to, simply 
because I didn't like keeping secrets from her, but I 
had no idea how she would react. A sister-sister trio 
appeared to be no big deal to her. Mother-daughter 
would probably be something else, even if I had never 
so much as laid a finger on Beth Dunbar, on her shiny 
Marcia Brady hair and her overloaded sweaters. I had 
*wanted* to, that and so much more, and that might be 
the important element to Marianne. 

I came out of my retrospection to realize that someone 
nearby was glaring at me. It took me a moment or two to 
recognize him: Randy, Marianne's ex-boyfriend, who sat 
a few rows down. He maintained the glare for another 
second or two, then looked away. 

When the pep rally finally broke up, Marianne gave me a 
wink and ran off with the other cheerleaders. She and 
Hayley knew better than to approach me in front of 
everyone -- we had discussed the importance of 
discretion -- so I wasn't disappointed with their 
limited attentions. I filed out of the gym with the 
parents and student and went back to work. 

I had a very demanding job, and I normally ate lunch at 
my desk, even on days when I hadn't spent two hours out 
of the office on personal business. I was buried in a 
pile of SEC disclosures and due diligence reports 
around twelve-fifteen when my intercom buzzed. 

"Yeah?" 

"Steve, there's a Tiffany Michaels here to see you." 

Whoa, I thought. Some kind of emergency? 

"Send her back." 

Tiffany appeared in my office about a minute later. She 
wore jeans and a spandex cowl-neck T-shirt, but more 
importantly she also wore a sly grin that eased my 
concern, whatever she was doing here in the middle of 
the day. She closed the door behind her. 

"Hi, Steve." 

"Tiff. Dare I ask what you're doing here this time of 
day?" 

"I'm here on orders from your girlfriend." 

My jaw dropped slightly. 

"Oh." 

"I asked her to give me something really wild and 
daring to do. A slave thing, you know? So she told me 
to come here and give you a bj. And I have to carry 
your cum back to school in my mouth and show it to her 
afterwards." 

I gulped. 

"I'm pretty busy here." 

She stepped around my desk and pushed her way between 
my thighs. 

"I'll be quick." 

Not waiting for anything else, she dropped to her knees 
and unzipped my slacks. I glanced at the door, then at 
the windows to my office. I had a big corner suite with 
floor-to-ceiling windows, but thankfully the outside 
was heavily polarized. My real concern was someone 
walking in on this. 

Tiffany found my dick and sucked it into her mouth. I 
was completely limp at first, still half in shock, but 
she went to work getting me up. I leaned back in my 
chair and put my hands on her head. As I began to 
erect, she worked on me more purposefully, long smooth 
strokes to the back of her throat, holding it there 
until she started to gag, then dragging her teeth over 
the underside as she withdrew. Up and down she went 
like that for several minutes. She held the base of my 
erection with one hand and played with my balls with 
the other. 

As she felt me growing close, she began doing a little 
dance and flutter over the head with her tongue, 
spinning it around, then plunging back down as far as 
she could go. I groaned, my hands turning to fists in 
her hair. She withdrew a little, holding just the head 
between her lips and tongue, and began sucking and 
bobbing rapidly. This eager lingual massage soon had me 
on the brink. I gasped, convulsing in my chair, and 
spurted off into her mouth. She sucked it up as it 
came, pumping out the last bits with her fist. 

She leaned back, smiling, and returned my deflating 
dick to my pants. She zipped me up and stood. 

"Thanks," I gasped. She smiled as best she could with a 
mouthful of semen, gave me a little wave, and left. 

I had caught my breath after a few minutes and tried to 
get back to work. At two-fifty, my intercom buzzed 
again. 

"Marianne," the receptionist said. She knew about our 
relationship, just not how young my girlfriend really 
was. I picked up the phone. 

"Hey." 

"Did you like your little present?" 

I laughed softly. 

"You could say that." 

"She was jonesing for me really hard this morning, you 
know, doing her slave flirting thing. She wanted me to 
give her something daring to do. So I thought of you." 

"Did she really go all the way back to school with, 
um..." 

She giggled. 

"Yep. I told her to come back with a mouthful of cum or 
it didn't count. I don't know how she managed to do it, 
but she did. That was her lunch today. That and a Diet 
Coke. She didn't get back in time for anything else." 

"Jesus." 

"She had fun. She really gets off on this stuff." 

"I've noticed." 

"I'll let you go. I've got to get to class. I love 
you." 

"You too, Kitten." 

I got home that night to find the three girls making 
dinner. I kissed each one in turn and got myself a beer 
from the fridge. Marianne looked up from the salad she 
was making. 

"Babe? You know that our Spring Break is in a week, 
don't you?" 

"You're going up to see your mother. There's no 
discussion about that." 

"I know, but you're coming with us, right?" 

"You need some quality time with your mom. I don't want 
to get in the way of that." 

She and Hayley looked at me entreatingly. 

"Babe, you know she lives in the dorm," Marianne went 
on. "We can't stay with her. We have to get a hotel 
room anyway. Can't you just come with us, just to be 
there? You won't have to do anything." 

"Clear it with your mom first. And don't lean on her 
about it." 

"I already did. She doesn't mind. She wants to see you 
too. I called up there and found us a room near the 
campus." 

"I can stay here and housesit," Giselle said. "I won't, 
like, throw a party or anything." 

"Okay. I guess that will work." 

Marianne and Hayley both smiled. 

"Thanks." 

After dinner, I called the hotel Marianne had found and 
got a suite with enough room for all three of us. I 
also called Elizabeth to touch base, and she assured me 
that she didn't mind having me up there. I wondered how 
she had gotten to this apparent friendliness from 
initially wanting to castrate me. It occurred to me 
that it might be some form of rationalization, since 
having me in her daughters' lives allowed her to free 
herself from hers and pursue a long-suppressed desire. 
Then again, she might just like me after all. 

That Friday, I returned home to find Marianne, Hayley, 
and Tiffany lounging around the den watching 
television. 

"Where's Giselle?" 

"She and Ashley went out," Marianne said. "What do you 
feel like doing?" 

"I'm a little punchy. I'd rather just hang out at home 
tonight." 

"That's cool," Hayley said. "We couldn't decide what to 
do either." 

"Wanna order a pizza?" Marianne asked. 

"Sure. Go for it." 

I went upstairs to change clothes, and when I returned, 
Marianne and Hayley hadn't moved, but Tiffany was on 
the floor in front of the TV set, poking through the 
adult videos. She looked up when I came in, face tinged 
ever so slightly with embarrassment. 

"Porno night?" I asked. 

"Could we?" 

"I'm down with it," Marianne said. "Pick something 
out." 

I squatted down next to Tiffany and rooted through the 
collection. Given her predilections, I had an idea 
about what might be good tonight. Buried in the back, 
as I hadn't watched it in years, was Andrew Blake's 
"House of Dreams," a random, artsy exploration of BDSM. 

I put in the tape and sat down on the couch between 
Marianne and Hayley. Marianne pulled me back to lie 
against her chest, and Hayley lay back against me. 
Tiffany took the chair across the room as the tape 
started. 

The movie was framed as long dream sequence, with the 
main female character moving from one kinky encounter 
to the next, fantasizing about being both a Domme and a 
sub. Marianne and Hayley found it amusing, Hayley more 
than Marianne, but Tiffany was positively transfixed. I 
nudged Marianne about a third of the way through. She 
smiled and hugged me. 

"Knew it," she said softly. 

The pizza arrived while the movie was still going, and 
we ate as we watched the rest of it. It finally ended 
just before nine. 

Marianne sat up behind me and stretched. She turned 
slowly toward Tiffany and leered. 

"Did you like that, slave?" 

Tiffany glanced over at us, and though she was already 
very turned on, I could see the aroused flush on her 
chest deepening. 

"Yes." 

"Go get into uniform. I need you tonight." 

Tiffany practically jumped off the chair and went for 
her purse. She carried it into the downstairs bathroom 
and shut the door. Hayley watched her leave and then 
looked back at us, eyes wide with fascination. 

"What is she doing?" 

"You'll see. Do you want her?" 

Hayley quivered very slightly. 

"You mean--" 

"Do you want her to fuck you? Eat you out? Something 
like that? She will if I tell her to." 

Hayley gulped. 

"Um. Sure." 

"Get up. Stand over there." 

Hayley got off the couch and stood in the center of the 
room. Tiffany emerged a few moments later, having 
stripped completely naked. She wore nothing but the 
nipple clips, her clit leash, and a deeply aroused 
flush. 

She came up to the couch, but Marianne waved her off. 

"Give your leash to Hayley." 

She did. 

"Now undress her." 

Tiffany helped Hayley out of her clothes, and Hayley 
was soon as naked as she was. She grinned at us 
nervously, then turned to Tiffany. 

"Eat me." 

Tiffany dropped to her knees in front of her. Hayley 
spread her legs a few inches, and Tiffany reached up to 
take Hayley's butt in her hands. 

Marianne and I lay together, watching Tiffany's tongue 
working busily in Hayley's blonde pussy. Hayley was 
soon groping at Tiffany's head and moaning, rocking her 
hips back and forth. Tiffany was short enough that she 
had to tip her head back to get her tongue in position, 
and that gave us a perfect view of what she was doing. 

We watched for a few minutes as Hayley grew closer and 
closer to orgasm. The scent of arousal, Hayley's and 
Tiffany's, was thick in the air, as thick as Hayley's 
ragged breathing. Marianne squirmed under me, and I sat 
up. She wriggled out of her top, then her jeans, and 
got to her feet. 

Hayley cried out, legs buckling, holding Tiffany's face 
tightly against her sex. She shook in orgasm for as 
long as she could stand it before staggering backwards 
and collapsing into the armchair behind her. Tiffany 
smiled, wiping her mouth quickly, and looked toward 
Marianne. 

"My turn. Come here." 

Tiffany turned around and crawled up in front of 
Marianne. Marianne stepped forward over her mouth, and 
Tiffany was soon back to work. 

I stood and removed my clothes, watching Marianne 
groping at her breasts, hanging her head back and 
gasping at what Tiffany was doing. I glanced at Hayley, 
who was resting in the armchair, watching them 
languidly. 

Tiffany's tongue was blur against Marianne's clit and 
labia, and she brought her to orgasm in a only a minute 
or two. Marianne struggled to remain standing, gripping 
Tiffany's hair in her hands, refusing to let her stop. 
Finally she jerked away, lost her balance, and dropped 
unsteadily to the floor. 

"Shit. Shit." 

Tiffany glanced at me, grinning at what she had done 
and waiting to see what I wanted. I had a feeling that 
Marianne had some kind of script in mind, so I stayed 
where I was. I could see between Tiffany's thighs from 
where I stood, and she looked so wet and turned on that 
she was probably dripping onto the carpet. 

Hayley slid to the floor and crawled up next to 
Tiffany, sitting back on her ankles as Tiffany was 
doing. She ran her fingers through Tiffany's hair a few 
times, then leaned forward to kiss her. Tiffany let 
her, not moving, but returning the kiss. Hayley leaned 
further forward, pushing Tiffany onto her back, and 
crawled above her. 

She broke the kiss after a few more seconds, and slid 
down to suckle at Tiffany's pierced nipples. Tiffany 
moaned softly and put her arms over Hayley. 

Marianne rose up on her knees and slithered over in 
front of me. 

"Having fun?" 

"Always." 

She took my erection in one hand and pulled it to her 
mouth. She sucked on me rapidly, tormenting me 
mercilessly with that damned stud in her tongue. She 
looked up at me the entire time, watching my reaction 
to what she was doing. I had to grit my teeth and 
tighten the muscles in my legs to keep from losing my 
balance. 

Behind her, Hayley had descended between Tiffany's 
thighs, and was now doing her best to return the favor. 
Her tongue fluttered slowly but steadily over Tiffany's 
bald sex, flicking at the stud, pushing it back and 
forth. Tiffany was writhing on her back, pinching and 
pulling on the studs in her nipples. 

Marianne suddenly withdrew. 

"Go fuck her." 

"Who?" 

"Hayley. Right now." 

She pushed me toward her sister and then crawled over 
toward Tiffany. As I positioned myself behind Hayley 
and slipped between her firm thighs, Marianne threw her 
leg over Tiffany's head and squatted down on her mouth. 

Thus I got to watch this daisy chain in front of me as 
I thrust into Hayley, Hayley eating Tiffany, Tiffany 
eating Marianne while still punishing her nipples with 
her fingers. Marianne was facing me, and her eyes bored 
into mine, trying to join with me through the bodies 
between us. Hayley was soon bucking back at me, and 
Tiffany began to thrash between the two blondes. She 
shrieked and came hard, but only broke her rhythm 
eating Marianne for a few seconds. I felt Hayley's 
fingers brushing my balls as she played with herself. 

Marianne suddenly leaned forward over Tiffany, pushing 
her head down next to Hayley's. The two girls were now 
eating Tiffany in unison, two tongues thrashing at her 
clit from different directions. It only lasted a few 
more seconds though, before Marianne reared back again, 
gripping her big breasts, and came all over Tiffany's 
face. 

That was too much for me, and I cried out myself, 
pounding Hayley's butt from behind. I shuddered, 
spurting off inside her, just as I felt her coming 
around me. I pushed her forward onto Tiffany as I 
coasted down, and Marianne leaned forward to kiss me. 
She frenched me deeply for a few seconds before 
giggling. 

"That was fun." 

I could only grunt at her. I pulled out of Hayley and 
rolled over onto my back. Marianne flopped down next to 
me. I watched as Tiffany pulled Hayley up to her mouth 
and lapped up the cum that was oozing down her thighs. 
When she had it all, she dug her tongue into Hayley, 
seeking the rest of it. Hayley giggled, shivering over 
her. 

Marianne leaned over to whisper to me, smiling. 

"Tiff is under standing orders not to let your cum go 
to waste. If you don't come in her mouth, she's 
supposed to clean it up from wherever you did." 

I laughed softly, watching her work. When she was done, 
Hayley flopped over and lay across my chest. Tiffany 
got up and went to get a bottle of water from the 
refrigerator, which we then passed around. The 
satisfied grin on Tiffany's face told me more or less 
what I needed to know, that whatever she was getting 
out of this weird relationship with Marianne, she was 
clearly enjoying herself. 

Marianne stood up and stretched. 

"Let's go upstairs." 

The rest of us got up and followed her up to the master 
suite. I lay down on the bed watching them, and Hayley 
sat next to me. Tiffany stood in the center of the room 
awaiting instructions. Marianne seemed to have 
something in mind, so I stayed where I was. 

She motioned to Tiffany, who dropped to her knees and 
closed with my girlfriend. Marianne reached down to 
caress Tiffany's head as she began eating her again. A 
little tremor ran through Marianne's body, but she 
remained where she was, smiling at me. 

Suddenly she stepped back. 

"Go get on the bed, on your hands and knees next to 
Steve." 

Tiffany complied at once, climbing onto the mattress 
and kneeling on all fours. Marianne came around the 
side and lay down, reversing herself next to Tiffany. 
Getting the point, Tiffany crawled above her so they 
were in a sixty-nine position. The two of them 
immediately began eating each other. 

I glanced at Hayley, who was just grinning in 
amusement, then back at Tiffany. I lay on my side to 
watch her eating Marianne. She pulled her hair around 
to clear my view and positioned herself so I could see. 
Her tongue spun and fluttered around Marianne's clit, 
and she used a free finger to fuck her gently. I 
couldn't see what Marianne was doing, but she had her 
hands up on Tiffany's butt, holding her closely. 

A minute or two of this show was enough to restore my 
erection. I pulled on Marianne's legs, trying to get 
the two girls diagonal on the bed. Marianne seemed to 
know what I had in mind, and she squirmed over a few 
feet. Tiffany moved with her. I crawled up between 
Marianne's legs, and Tiffany took my cock and guided it 
into Marianne. I twisted myself to the side to allow 
Tiffany room to continue what she was doing. Marianne 
let out a groan from between Tiffany's thighs as I 
slipped into her. 

I had forgotten about Hayley until she jumped off the 
bed, giggling, and ran into the dressing area. I had no 
idea what she was up to, and I was too distracted from 
the feel of Marianne around me (not to mention the 
sight of Tiffany licking busily away at the pussy I was 
fucking) to think much about it. 

About a minute later, Hayley reappeared, and I let out 
a laugh. She was wearing the strap-on dildo, and she 
climbed onto the bed at the opposite end. I heard 
Marianne laughing, but she helped Hayley slip the dildo 
into Tiffany. 

Now I was fucking Marianne, Hayley was fucking Tiffany, 
and Tiffany and Marianne were frantically eating each 
other. I grabbed Marianne's buttocks, lifting her up as 
I thrust at her, and Hayley vigorously pumped Tiffany's 
ass, making her head bump against my abdomen. Watching 
this perverse scene in front of me was too much, and I 
rapidly lost myself in the sights and sensations. 

Marianne began thrashing in orgasm not long into it, 
and Tiffany joined her moments later. I looked up at 
Hayley, whose face was fogged in arousal. She seemed on 
the brink of orgasm herself, and a second later I saw 
why. Marianne had one hand up between Hayley's legs, 
obviously fingering her as she fucked Tiffany. Hayley 
and I stared at each other as we neared our release, 
and when she cried out, pounding Tiffany's buttocks, I 
groaned out loud and poured myself into her sister. 

One by one, we fell away from this mass coupling. 
Tiffany moved up the bed, crawling around between 
Marianne's thighs to lap up the cum that oozed out of 
her. Marianne lay motionless on her back as Tiffany 
licked and probed at her sex, holding one hand on 
Tiffany's head. But when my cum had all disappeared 
into Tiffany's mouth and she slowed her attentions and 
tried to withdraw, Marianne stopped her. Getting the 
point, Tiffany went instantly back to work. Marianne 
whimpered, pulling her closer, and after a minute or 
two of rapid tongue-lashing, she lifted off the bed one 
last time in orgasm. 

We rested for a few minutes, laughing over what Hayley 
had done with the strap-on. The girls eventually got 
dressed, and I went in to kiss Hayley good night while 
Marianne showed Tiffany out. 

"That was a lot of fun," she said. 

"You doing better? Not so sad anymore?" 

She nodded slightly. 

"I still miss my mom." 

"We're going up to see her next week. You'll have all 
the time with her you want." 

"I know. Thanks for coming with us." 

"How are things at school? Giselle mentioned a while 
back that you're getting some teasing because of our 
living arrangements." 

She looked away from, shrugging. 

"It's no big. I can deal with it." 

"You know I'm around whenever you need me." 

"Yeah. Thanks." 

I kissed her and went back into the master bedroom. 
Marianne was lying in bed with a conflicted look on her 
face. 

"Something up?" 

She didn't look at me right away. Then she rolled on 
her side to face me. 

"I'm having an 'X-Files' moment. But I should have 
expected this." 

"Something bad?" 

"That depends on your perspective. It's... a 
complication more than a problem. It's kind of neat in 
a way. But it's still a complication." 

"Enough. Spill it." 

She sighed. 

"Tiffany... just now, on the way out... she told me she 
loved me." 

Now I got it. 

"Oh." 

"Right. Not friend-love, you understand. Love-love. 'I 
want to jump your bones for the next fifty years'-kind 
of love." 

"She meant it?" 

"I saw it in her eyes. She meant it. I guess this 
little mistress- slave thing we have going has really 
gotten to her. I think I've pushed some serious buttons 
inside her with it." 

"How did it happen? What did you tell her?" 

"We were just at the front door, and I was going, 'I'll 
call you tomorrow' or something, and she took my hand 
and squeezed it. Then she looks at me all puppy-dog 
eyed and says, 'I love you.' I was in shock at first. 
She knew she had caught me by surprise, so I don't 
think she was hurt by that. But what *could* I tell 
her? Of course I told her I loved her too." 

"Do you?" 

She rolled on her back and exhaled in frustration. 

"God. As if I don't already have to divide my emotions 
between you and Hayley and Giselle. I certainly love 
her in a best-friend, I've-known- you-since-grade-
school kind of way. Beyond that... I don't know. This 
routine we've gotten into is a lot of fun, and I enjoy 
being with her. God knows I don't want to hurt her. But 
love... that's a whole different story. I've never been 
in love with a girl. How do I even know if I am?" 

"I don't know if it's significantly different than 
loving someone of the opposite sex. Not that I have any 
experience at it myself." 

"But you know what love is, right?" 

"Love, to me, is a willingness to take direct action to 
place someone else's happiness above your own. To make 
real sacrifices for their sake. It's not just a bundle 
of feelings." 

She smiled. 

"That's how I know you love me and Hayley." She laughed 
softly. "And I guess that works for Tiffany loving me. 
I don't know. I need to think about this." 

"But it doesn't bother you?" 

"No. Why should it? Like I said, it's kind of neat. I 
just need to decide what I'm feeling." 

I hugged her. 

"Okay. Sleep on it." 

She stayed in my arms, and I turned out the light a few 
minutes later. 


CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE 
------------------

Spring Break began a week later. After school that 
Friday, we left Giselle in charge of the house and 
drove up the coast to Santa Cruz. This was Spring Break 
week for U.C. as well, and the roads were clogged with 
students fleeing both the campus near our house and the 
one in Santa Cruz. I had gotten us a room in a resort 
in the hills above the city, overlooking Monterey Bay. 

We checked in just before seven and called Elizabeth 
from the room. She was going to meet us for dinner in 
the main building, and the girls spent the next half-
hour or so getting ready. I could tell from their 
excited chatter and concern over their look for the 
evening that they were really looking forward to this, 
and I had to stifle a sensation of guilt. But was I 
really keeping them away from Elizabeth? This crazy 
living arrangement of ours was her damned idea. 

When we reached the lobby, Elizabeth was already there 
waiting for us. The girls ran to her with a squeal, and 
the three of them hugged each other tightly. I came up 
more slowly behind them, not wanting to intrude. They 
hugged and kissed and clucked over each other for about 
ten or fifteen seconds before finally letting go. 
Elizabeth put out her hand. I extended mine, and she 
squeezed it. 

"How are you, Steve?" 

"Good. You?" 

"Wonderful. It's so good to see you guys." 

Hayley and Marianne each took one of her hands, and we 
walked toward the restaurant. I had made reservations, 
and we were soon seated at a corner table overlooking 
the bay. 

For most of the dinner, the women were engrossed in 
each other, and I stayed out of it. Marianne was 
clearly happy to see her mother, but it was Hayley who 
displayed the most dramatic change, beaming and 
giggling and laughing about everything they talked 
about. I thought again about my suggestion to Marianne. 
About moving up here. Marianne wasn't the one who 
really needed this; it was Hayley who was simply too 
young to be separated from her mother. Marianne was on 
the verge of going to college herself, and absent my 
involvement, would probably have moved out fairly soon 
anyway. 

It would be a big step. I had understated the effect 
that moving would have on my job. I would, most likely, 
have to leave the firm I was with, or at the very least 
change my relationship with them. I was not quite 
wealthy enough yet to retire, not the way I wanted to. 
And the nice real estate in this area was not cheap. 
But--I kept coming back to the feeling that I owed it 
to Marianne and Hayley. God knew they had given enough 
of themselves to me. 

We stayed at the restaurant very late and then wandered 
aimlessly around the hotel grounds. Only when Elizabeth 
insisted that she was exhausted and needed to sleep did 
the girls agree to let her go home. We made plans to 
get together the next morning and then went up to the 
room. 

I had, at Marianne and Hayley's request, gotten a 
single king bed. They flopped onto the mattress 
together and continued discussing their mother and what 
they wanted to do this week while I got undressed. 

For the next few days, the girls visited with Elizabeth 
while I explored Santa Cruz on my own. Marianne 
initially wanted me to come along with them, but she 
didn't need much convincing that they deserved some 
time alone. 

While they were with their mother, I was checking out 
the local real estate. I quickly discovered that what I 
really wanted was simply out of my price range right 
now. I had always had this dream of retiring to a ranch 
somewhere along the coastline, where I could sit on the 
porch and watch the sun set over the ocean, and, just 
maybe, watch my future wife and children riding a horse 
around the yard. That was still a ways off, and if I 
wanted to move up here, it wasn't going to happen now. 
The hard part was that if I left my job to move to 
Santa Cruz, I might never get to the point of being 
able to afford that ranch. 

What had I told Marianne? Love was a willingness to 
take direct action to place someone else's happiness 
above your own. How much did I really love the two of 
them? Enough to give up that dream? 

As much as I tried to fight it, I knew the answer was 
yes. 

Thursday afternoon, I was taking a nap in the sun on 
the patio outside our room when I was awoken by the 
feel of someone's lips pressing against my own. I 
opened my eyes to see Marianne standing over me, 
kissing me. 

"Hi." 

"Hey. You guys get back already?" 

She smiled. 

"No. Mom and Hayley wanted to go shopping down by the 
boardwalk. I told them was too tired, which is true. 
But I also wanted a little time alone with you." 

She sat in my lap and leaned against me. I put my arms 
around her. 

"What have you been doing all this time while we've 
been out with Mom?" she asked a minute later. 

"It's a secret." 

She giggled. 

"I love secrets. Tell me." 

"You can't tell Hayley. Not yet, not until I'm sure 
this can happen." 

"What is it?" 

"I've been pricing the local real estate." 

She sat up, amazement spreading across her face. 

"Really?" 

"Really. But there is a problem. I wasn't entirely 
truthful with you about my job. If we move up here, 
I'll probably have to leave. At the very least, I'm not 
going to be making the same amount of money I am now." 

Her forehead creased slightly. 

"Would it be that much less?" 

"It depends on a few things I would have to work out 
with them. But we're talking about anything from a 25% 
cut in pay to being completely unemployed. I could, 
conceivably, transfer to the San Francisco office and 
commute from down here, in which case my job wouldn't 
much change. But that would be tough on all of us." 

"That's a long way." 

"Some people do it. But it is." 

She sighed and looked past me toward the ocean. 

"I'd be seeing more of Mom and less of you." 

"Right. Possibly a lot less." 

"What would happen if you quit? Or found something to 
do for less money?" 

"We would still be comfortable. But there's another 
issue." 

I explained about my retirement idea, and what I wanted 
to do with the ranch. Her eyes took on a wistful glow. 

"That would be pretty neat. I'd love to live in a place 
like that. I know Hayley would too. We would have 
horses and animals and stuff like that?" 

"That's the idea." 

She didn't say anything for a few moments. 

"I don't want you to give up that dream for our sakes." 

"I don't want you to give up your mother for my sake." 

She curled back up on my chest and took my hand between 
hers. She kissed it softly. 

"We don't have to decide now, do we?" 

"I guess not." 

We lay together for a few minutes before she began 
kissing my neck. I rolled over, holding her beside me, 
and kissed her nose. 

"They'll probably be back soon," she said. "So if you 
wanna..." 

I grinned. 

"I wanna." 

She giggled, and I kissed her again. We were much too 
exposed on this patio, so after a few minutes, I picked 
her up and carried her inside to the bed. We wriggled 
out of our clothes in a few minutes, kissing and 
fondling each other. I played with her big breasts 
until I had her nipples standing out like little 
pebbles. She took my erection in her hand and stroked 
it softly as I explored her body. 

She sat up suddenly beside me and bent down to take me 
in her mouth. She bobbed slowly, working her tongue and 
its stud against me. Her breasts hung down as she bent 
over me, and I reached under her to tweak her nipples. 
When I reached further in, finding her moistening 
blonde mound, she giggled around my cock and withdrew. 

"I love you so much." 

"I love you too, Kitten." 

I rolled her on her back and kissed my way down her 
body, suckling each nipple once, greeting the kitten 
tattoo at her bikini line, then finally settling 
between her thighs. She let me lick at her for only a 
minute or two before pulling at my arms, wanting me on 
her and in her. I obliged. 

I sank slowly into her wetness as she wrapped her legs 
around my butt. I kissed her deeply as I filled her, 
making her whimper through her nose. 

Having her mother around had changed the mood for our 
first few days in Santa Cruz, and we had not made love 
in almost a week. So this was simple, take-out sex. I 
could hold off only until I felt her back arching under 
me, felt the tremors of her sex around my erection. I 
drove into her as far as I could go, spurting deeply 
inside her belly. 

She sighed contentedly as I lay on top of her. 

"Mmm. I missed you." 

"I missed you, too." 

She looked up at me, smiling. 

"I will live wherever I have to, as long as I have 
you." 

"I think that's my line." 

She laughed softly. 

"We'll work it out. Somehow." 

We cleaned up and got dressed none too soon, for Hayley 
and Elizabeth arrived soon afterward. I saw Elizabeth's 
nose wrinkling when she walked in the room, and I 
watched the corners of her mouth crease slightly in 
amusement as she glanced at the bed (which was still 
made, but now rather rumpled). We exchanged a look, but 
that was all. 

The next day, we all went down to Monterey to the 
Monterey Bay Aquarium. The Aquarium was housed in an 
old cannery building, and the local environmentalists 
liked to showcase the place as a successful transition 
from industry to eco-tourism. We spent an hour or two 
walking around and looking at the exhibits before going 
out back to watch the staff feeding the sea lions when 
the tide came in. 

I stayed near the back with Elizabeth as the girls 
pressed in with the other spectators to watch. I 
quietly explained my idea about moving up here, but she 
was shaking her head before I even finished. 

"No, Steve. I can't let you do this. Buying them cars 
is one thing. Even that is far more than you ever 
needed to be doing for them. But I cannot let you quit 
your job and sell your house just for them." 

"You can see how they are. They really miss you. Hayley 
especially." 

"I know that. But there are things in life you simply 
have to deal with. I knew this was going to be a 
sacrifice. So did they. I would not have done it had 
they rejected the idea." 

"Marianne wants to go to school up here. What do we do 
then?" 

"I don't know. I have nowhere to put them. I am living, 
very frugally, off a part-time job and my half of the 
proceeds from our house. I cannot afford even a two-
bedroom apartment, not the kind of place the girls 
would tolerate living in." 

I thought of offering to help, except that I knew she 
would never accept it and that even making the offer 
would offend her. 

"You know them pretty well now. Do you think they would 
be happy going from your house to sharing a bedroom in 
a ratty little apartment outside campus?" 

That much was obvious. 

"No." 

"I need for them to stay with you, at least for now. 
They may not realize it, but it's for their own good." 

"We could move to San Francisco. Or somewhere closer 
where I wouldn't disrupt my job." 

She shook her head again. 

"No. I'm sorry." 

I sighed. 

"Okay." 

She rubbed my shoulder and then leaned in to kiss my 
cheek. Despite everything that was going on at that 
moment, a million things that were more important, the 
seventeen-year-old Steve in the bowels of my mind 
turned a cartwheel. ("Beth Dunbar kissed me! She 
finally kissed me!") But I did my best to ignore him. 

"It means a lot to me that you'd make the offer. But I 
can't let you do it." 

I nodded, watching Marianne and Hayley squealing and 
laughing as they were splashed by one of the sea lions. 
Maybe some of this happiness would come back with them. 
Maybe. 

That night, after eating dinner with Elizabeth in the 
hotel restaurant, the three of us were lying in bed 
watching television. Hayley lay beside me, head on my 
chest, while Marianne painted her toenails. 

"When are we going back?" Hayley asked. 

"Sunday morning. You guys have got homework to do." 

"I wish we could stay." 

Marianne glanced at me. 

"Me too," I said. "But your mother needs to be able to 
concentrate on school." 

Hayley didn't catch, or wasn't watching, the concerned 
look in Marianne's eyes. I shook my head at her slowly, 
and she looked back toward the television a second 
later. 

"We can come up again this summer, right?" 

"Definitely." 

Hayley was quiet for a few moments. 

"Do you think we could ever move up here?" 

Marianne's head shot back around. 

"It would be tough, Little Kit. I don't know what I 
would do about my job." 

"You've got a lot of money already, don't you?" 

"I do. But not enough to retire on." 

Marianne finally spoke up. 

"It would be really hard to make it work, short stuff. 
And Mom needs her space right now." 

Hayley whimpered, frowning, and I tried to hug her. But 
she pulled away from me and rolled over to her side of 
the bed, curling up and staring away from us. I glanced 
at Marianne, who rubbed my leg sympathetically. 

The phone rang about ten minutes later. I reached over 
toward the nightstand and picked it up. 

"Hello?" 

"Steve? It's Giselle." 

"Hi. What's up?" 

"Have you been checking your messages today?" 

"The voice mail? No." 

"Well there are about six messages from some guy from 
your work. I think his name was Jake. He was really 
excited about something." 

"Whoa. What did he say?" 

I heard her rustling around the phone. 

"I tried to write this down, but I don't know if I got 
it right. It was about something like Nesterm or 
Nestern." 

My heart skipped a beat. 

"NexTerm?" 

"Yeah, that was it." 

"Oh, God." 

"What's wrong? Is it bad?" 

"Uh, don't worry about it. I need to go call him back. 
Thanks." 

"No problem. Bye." 

I hung up and jumped for my Palm V organizer. I didn't 
know Jake's home number off the top of my head, but I 
found it soon enough. When I went back, I noticed 
Marianne staring at me strangely. 

"What was that?" 

"I need to make a phone call." 

It would have taken too long to explain. This was 
either very good--or very, very bad. 

Jake answered on the third ring. 

"Hey, Jake, it's Steve. What's going on?" 

He laughed. 

"Oh, man, did you hear?" 

"No. I'm on vacation. I haven't been in touch." 

"It's about your little project, the one you told me 
about and I stupidly neglected to buy in on." 

"What happened?" 

"Cisco is buying them out, man. They made the offer 
this morning." 

"Oh, Jesus." 

"'Oh, Jesus' is right. You know what the damn offer 
was? Forty!" 

Oh, my God. My million-dollar investment had just 
turned into four overnight. 

"You think they'll get it?" 

"No way in hell. It's shot up twenty points already. It 
closed at thirty-three and three-eighths this 
afternoon." 

"Holy shit." 

He laughed. 

"I should have listened to you, man." 

"I guess so." 

"If you don't mind my asking, how much have you got?" 

"Uh, about a hundred thousand." 

"Damn. That should be some nice pocket change. Be 
enough to pay off your mortgage, I bet." 

I realized what he was thinking. 

"Uh, Jake, I was talking shares, not dollars." 

Silence. Then-- 

"Are telling me you have a hundred fucking thousand 
shares of NexTerm?" 

"Thereabouts." 

He laughed in disbelief. 

"Jesus *Christ,* man! What were you thinking?" 

"I don't know." 

"Well, you hit the fucking lottery, Steve. You just hit 
the fucking lottery." 


CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO 
------------------

"What was all that about?" Marianne asked when I 
finally hung up the phone. 

I shook my head as if it wasn't anything important. It 
was way too soon to tell them about this. 

"Some problem at work. I'll deal with it when we get 
back." 

Saturday was our last full day there, and I could see 
Hayley falling back into her depression as the day went 
on. I tried to comfort her, but she wasn't in the mood 
for it and avoided me. We spent much of the day walking 
around the Santa Cruz boardwalk and then had dinner 
back at the hotel. 

Not wanting to risk generating unrealistic 
expectations, I managed to avoid spilling the secret 
about NexTerm. But if Hayley was in a funk about having 
to go home, I was in a lather of anticipation about 
what would happen on Monday when the market opened. 

Sunday morning we got up early and packed in silence. 
Hayley spoke to me only once, when the "express 
checkout" statement appeared under our door. She picked 
it up and walked over to me with it. 

"What is this?" 

"The bill. So we can just sign off on it and go." 

Elizabeth showed up to see us off, and the girls cried 
and hugged her repeatedly before we finally left around 
ten. Hayley went straight to her room when we got home 
and stayed there until dinnertime. Marianne spent the 
rest of the day working on accumulated homework while I 
tried to digest the development with NexTerm. 

Cisco was unlikely to get them for forty or anything 
close to it. For a buyout like this, the NexTerm board 
of directors would most likely insist on a price higher 
than it had ever traded at, which meant at least 63. 
The problem was that that might be more than Cisco 
wanted to spend. 

I got up early Monday morning to check the market 
activity in New York. NexTerm was already up to 35 1/4 
and trading heavily. I could bail out now and make a 
tidy profit of about two-and-a-half million, although 
the capital gains taxes would take a chunk of that. I 
wanted more, though. 

I sat there staring at my computer screen, watching the 
prices scroll along the bottom. Cisco was up too; the 
analysts seemed to like the acquisition idea. If I held 
on, and the deal went through, it would probably 
involve some kind of stock swap, and I would end up 
with a pile of Cisco in exchange, which was a pretty 
nice thing to have these days. I had a bunch of it 
already. 

"What are you doing?" 

I turned around to see Marianne behind me in her 
nightshirt, blonde hair sticking in every direction, 
rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. 

"I just needed to check something before I went to 
work." 

She turned around, still half-asleep, and went back to 
the bedroom. I got up a minute later and began getting 
dressed for work. 

I came home that afternoon to find Marianne and Tiffany 
lying out by the pool. Both of them were topless. 
Marianne had on a bright yellow thong, and Tiffany sat 
next to her in patterned bottoms, rubbing suntan oil 
over Marianne's chest. 

"Guys." 

"Hi, Steve." 

I kissed Marianne hello, and she looked up at me with 
amusement in her eyes. 

"I decided that it's time to start working on my tan 
again. Tiffany came over to help." 

"Don't get burned." 

"I have Tiff to rub sunburn lotion on me if it 
happens." 

They exchanged a look, and I knew then that what 
Marianne had told me about a few weeks before was true. 
A slight linger in the glance, something secret passing 
between them, a little curve to Tiffany's lips. Then 
Tiffany looked up at me, eyes bright and full of life. 
The studs in her nipples glinted in the sun. 

"Do you want me to get you anything, Steve?" 

"A beer wouldn't hurt. I need to go change." 

She hopped off her chair and preceded me into the 
house. When I came back down to the pool, there was a 
Sam Adams waiting for me on the table beside Marianne. 
I lay down in the chair across from Tiffany as she 
finished oiling up my girlfriend. 

"You guys should be hearing about college soon, right?" 

Marianne nodded. 

"Any day now." 

"Marianne and I applied to some of the same places," 
Tiffany said. 

"I think we've settled on UCSC as the first choice?" I 
asked. 

"Yeah," Marianne said. "However we work it out." 

"Wouldn't it be cool if we both got in together?" 

She glanced at Tiffany, smiling. 

"That would be pretty cool. I wonder if they have a sex 
slave sorority we could join." 

They both laughed, but when the laughter subsided, they 
noticed me watching them. Tiffany's face darkened 
slightly. 

"Um, Steve, look. I'm not trying to muscle in on your 
thing with Marianne. She told me that you're number one 
with her, and I can accept that." 

I exhaled slowly. 

"Okay." 

"I don't want to break you up. I know she loves you and 
that you make her happy. I'm not trying to take her 
away from you." 

Marianne took her hand and then mine. 

"We had room in our lives for Giselle. Don't we have 
room for Tiffany, too?" 

I laughed softly. 

"She'd have to sleep on the couch. I think we've run 
out of bedrooms." 

"I didn't mean like it that. I meant--" 

"I know. But I think so. If it's what you want, we can 
make it work." 

"It is." 

"Thanks." 

Tiffany came over and hugged me. 

"Thanks, Steve." 

Tiffany stayed for dinner, and with graduation two 
months away, she and Marianne appeared to be in no mood 
to bother with their homework, what little they had. 

"I feel like doing something weird tonight," Marianne 
said after the dishes were done. 

"Like what?" 

She grinned slyly. 

"Do you remember that first afternoon I came over here, 
when you mentioned something about a strip bar?" 

"Oh. Yeah. Why?" 

"Could we go?" 

"We?" 

"You, me, and Tiffany. It's eighteen and over, right?" 

"Well, not the topless bars, but the nude bars, yeah, 
since they can't serve alcohol. You really want to do 
this?" 

"I think it would be cool. Me and Tiff could get 
dressed up and all these guys would be drooling over 
us." 

My stomach did a flip-flop. 

"I don't want you spontaneously tearing your clothes 
off. Never mind that we'd get thrown out, I'm not 
interested in exposing you in a place like that." 

She smiled again. 

"Not me. Tiffany. I'll dress classy, but I'm going to 
dress her in full slut mode, on her leash. It will just 
be a tease. We won't do anything stupid." 

"Does she know about this?" 

"We talked about it. She's hot for it." 

"Monday is going to be a slow night." 

"I know. That's cool. That way we won't be totally 
outnumbered." 

I chuckled. 

"Okay. Let's do it then. This sounds like fun." 

Marianne found Tiffany, and I went up to Hayley's room 
to tell her we were going out. She was a little shocked 
at the idea, but displayed no disappointment at being 
left out. She claimed to have too much homework to do 
anyway. 

I found Marianne and Tiffany in the master suite. 
Marianne was down to bra-and-panties, and Tiffany was 
nude. They were poking through Marianne's clothes and 
deciding what to wear. 

"What is this place like?" Tiffany asked. "I've never 
even been near something like this." 

"Picture twenty men staring catatonically at some 
bleached blonde with breast implants and no pubic hair 
as she dances around exposing herself. That's about all 
it is. It's far less exciting than you might think. 
Half the time it's as erotic as watching a pelvic 
exam." 

"You mean the guys aren't hooting and hollering and all 
that?" 

"Never seen it. I don't know what it is about those 
places, but I've never seen anyone really go crazy. 
They just sit there and stare at the girls." 

"Wow." 

"Have you been to a lot of them?" Marianne asked. 

"Now and then, when I got lonely and horny. But it's a 
bad habit. I probably went about once or twice a year 
before I met you." 

"The girls just dance around on the stage?" 

"That and they'll do private dances for another fifty 
bucks. You go in the back with them and they'll writhe 
around with you on a couch." 

"That's not illegal?" Tiffany asked. 

"I think it is some places. Not everywhere. The idea is 
that they can touch you, but you can't touch them. In 
reality, a lot of mutual touching goes on. It all 
depends on how comfortable the girls are about it." 

Marianne was pensive a moment. 

"Do you think they'd do a private dance with us?" 

"With a girl? I bet some of them would. They certainly 
have no problem doing two-girl private dances." 

Tiffany giggled. 

"You did that?" 

I tried not to blush. 

"On occasion." 

"What do they do?" 

"Depends on the girls. Some of them will just simulate 
having sex, others will really get into it." 

"Seriously? They'll eat each other out right in front 
of you?" 

"Sometimes." 

They giggled nervously at each other before returning 
to the clothes. They fiddled around in the closet for 
another few minutes before settling on Tiffany's 
outfit. Marianne began with black stockings and a 
garter belt, then a black leather microskirt that 
stopped right at the stocking tops. If Tiffany stood 
perfectly still, the stockings were not really visible, 
but if she moved at all--let alone sat down-- they 
immediately came out from under the leather. 

Tiffany grew more and more excited as Marianne dressed 
her, and I watched her chest flushing and her nipples 
growing hard around their silver studs. 

Marianne examined her for a moment longer before 
reaching into the closet. She extracted a green silk 
blouse, which she had Tiffany put on and tie up under 
her breasts. The fabric was thin and clingy enough to 
make Tiffany's nipples and her piercings blatantly 
obvious. Marianne fastened one button so that Tiffany 
was not completely falling out of it. 

"What do you think?" 

"Nipple clips." 

"You think so?" 

"Why not?" 

Marianne found the nipple clips and reached into the 
blouse to attach them. Now Tiffany had a silver chain 
suspended across her cleavage. 

"Perfect," Marianne said. "What about me?" 

I thought for a moment. 

"What about those white stretch pants you have? And 
that leather top with the tassels?" 

"Mmm. Good idea." 

She stripped off her bra and replaced her panties with 
a tiny little thong. Once back in her closet, she 
donned this pair of stretch pants I had seen her wear a 
few times. The fabric was some cotton-lycra blend, 
tight enough to define the crack of her butt, and they 
were low- cut enough that her kitten tat was visible 
just below her bikini line. 

The top was a sort of tan leather corset/vest that 
laced up across her breasts, pushing them up and 
together. It reached down only to about the bottom of 
her rib cage, but dozens of little leather tassels hung 
across the front. It was a good Domme look without 
being completely out there about it. The two of them 
finished up with their hair and make-up, and we left. 

This strip bar was in the seedier section of town, well 
away from the tourist and retirement areas near the 
beach. It wasn't far from the University, and I knew 
(from prior experience) that they got a lot of traffic 
from the students. 

I stopped on the way to get a big wad of cash, but we 
got there just after nine. The bouncer gave Marianne 
and Tiffany (and her clit leash) only a mild glance as 
I paid the cover. 

Tension lined the faces of both girls as we stepped 
into the club, however much they were trying to act 
nonchalant. The lights were low except around the pit, 
and loud, thumping dance music overlaid everything. 
Only about ten or fifteen men were inside, nothing like 
the crowds they got on the weekends. Up on the stage, a 
thin brunette with painfully huge breasts (they looked 
about to burst from the implants) danced around the 
pole. She braced her leg on the rail and used one hand 
to pull apart her labia for a man at the edge. He 
stared at her blankly. 

Out in the club, a half dozen of the girls moved 
around, dressed in slinky outfits, soliciting private 
dances. A few of them noticed us, smiled, and went back 
to work. 

One by one, the men in the club noticed Marianne and 
Tiffany. I saw no discernible reactions in their faces, 
but several of them stared openly, especially at the 
silver chain running from Marianne's hand up under 
Tiffany's skirt. 

A waitress appeared and guided us to a table near the 
pit. There was a two-drink minimum here, and I ordered 
two bottles of mineral water and four Diet Cokes. 

The girls sat rigidly beside me, eyes fixed on the 
stage. 

"Is anyone staring at us?" Marianne asked quietly. 

"A few. But don't forget you're not naked. You aren't 
the reason they're here." 

In truth, by this point, most of the men were looking 
back toward the pit. We still got idle glances and 
occasional stares, but that was all. 

"No one is going to bother you," I said. "At worst, 
they'll just keeping watching us." 

Gradually, the two of them began to relax and look 
around. Tiffany got into it faster than Marianne did, 
but soon they were bobbing their heads to the music and 
watching the girls on the stage. I watched the dancers 
circulating in the club, and though most of them looked 
in our direction from time to time, none of them came 
over. 

The girls would dance down to their thongs for one 
song, then naked for another. After each song, you were 
supposed to tip them a buck or two, and I gave Marianne 
and Tiffany a roll of ones for tips. I wasn't sure if 
this was turning them on at all, but they seemed to be 
having fun, whispering comments to each other or 
giggling when the dancers got close or bent over to 
expose themselves to us. 

"You know, you're right," Marianne said after we had 
been there about ten minutes. 

"About what?" 

"The guys here. They're like, all stoned or something. 
I can't believe this." 

"I told you." 

I looked back up at the girl in the pit. She was a cute 
blonde--maybe twenty or so--with a trim, athletic body 
(and no implants, which I liked). The gold ring through 
her clit twinkled in the blinking lights above. 

She was working her way around the pit, giving each 
patron a good look at her, and when she got to us, she 
smiled broadly--a fairly genuine smile, which told me 
she had probably been doing this for a while. She 
crawled up to the rail in front of Tiffany, leaning out 
of the pit, and stuck her tits in Tiffany's face. 
Tiffany watched her, wide-eyed, but didn't move. 

The girl glanced down at us, and I saw her eyes 
widening at Tiffany's clit leash. Then she rolled over, 
spreading her legs almost ninety degrees apart in front 
of Marianne. She stared directly at my girlfriend--who 
was watching raptly--and fingered herself for a few 
seconds. Then she rolled over again, stuck her butt in 
my face briefly, and moved on to the next patron. 

When her dance was over, we all tipped her. She smiled 
and thanked us, then went into the back. 

We were watching another dancer about five minutes 
later when the blonde girl reappeared at our side, 
dressed in a long, sheer gown. She leaned in between 
us, smiling. 

"Hi. I'm Kathy." 

"Steve. This is Marianne and Tiffany." 

"You guys having fun?" 

I noticed a stud in her tongue as she spoke. 

"So far. This is their first time in a place like 
this." 

She laughed. 

"So what do you think? Pretty wild, huh?" 

Marianne giggled nervously, but Tiffany answered. 

"I like it." 

"Would you guys care for a private dance?" 

The girls glanced at each other. 

"With us?" Marianne asked. 

"Any of you." 

"What about all of us?" 

She smiled. 

"It's one at a time. But if the other two of you wanted 
to watch, that would be okay." She looked at me. "Have 
you been here before?" 

"Yes. I know the rules." 

"Okay. Who's it going to be?" 

"Tiffany," Marianne said. 

Kathy smiled at her. 

"Cool. I like all those piercings you've got. I'm 
guessing that leash is attached to one?" 

Tiffany smiled nervously. 

"Yeah. Thanks." 

Kathy reached for the leash, and Marianne handed it to 
her with a grin. She led us to the back, where a 
curtain concealed the private dance cubicles. We stood 
in a clump waiting for the current song to end. Kathy 
examined the leash for a moment, then gave it a playful 
tug, making Tiffany giggle. 

For the first time, I saw looks of real interest from 
some of the men, and I knew they were wondering just 
what we were about to do. Frankly, I was wondering that 
myself. 

When the song ended, Kathy pulled the curtain aside and 
led us into the back, still holding Tiffany's leash. 
The cubicle we ended up in was about eight feet by ten 
feet, with a cheap vinyl sofa taking up most of the 
space. On the opposite wall was a mirror. I peeled two 
hundred- dollar bills off the roll in my pocket and 
handed them to Kathy, who smiled. 

"Four dances?" 

"Take your time." 

She guided Tiffany to the couch and had her sit down. 
Marianne and I stood back to watch, and she took my 
hand. Kathy pulled off the sheer gown she wore, and 
climbed onto the couch to straddle Tiffany's legs. She 
was saying something to her, and though I couldn't 
quite hear it over the music, I knew the gist of it: 
Relax, let me do everything. 

Tiffany leaned back on the couch, still tense, but 
excited, as Kathy began to writhe against her. She 
kissed her tenderly, moving her hands over Tiffany's 
breasts. She spent the first few minutes just rubbing 
herself against the other girl or bracing her leg on 
the back of the couch to display her shaved pussy. 

As the first song began to end, Kathy slid to the floor 
in front of her, and reached up to untie the knot in 
Tiffany's blouse. She undid the one button and spread 
the blouse open. Marianne's hand squeezed mine tightly. 

Kathy extended her tongue, exposing the stud, and 
wiggled it over Tiffany's left nipple, clicking their 
studs together. Then she sucked nipple and stud into 
her mouth. She looked back at us, smiling around 
Tiffany's tit, then withdrew. She performed the same 
operation on Tiffany's other breast. 

Tiffany was breathing heavily now, eyes closed, arms 
spread out on the back of the couch. Kathy continued to 
suck on her nipples or play with her breasts for about 
a minute. Then she withdrew, and reached down to spread 
Tiffany's legs. Marianne squeezed my hand again, and I 
was getting some serious butterflies in my stomach by 
this point. 

Kathy spread Tiffany's thighs widely apart, and pushed 
up her skirt. When she saw that Tiffany had nothing on 
underneath, she looked back at us, pretending to be 
surprised. She turned back to Tiffany, who was panting 
in agitation now, and reached out to tweak her clit 
stud. She removed the leash, and then, very slowly, 
bent forward, watching our reaction the entire time. 

She couldn't really be about to do this, I thought. 
Even if I had seen a lot of the girls here eating each 
other out. Tiffany was a customer. That should have 
made a difference, right? 

But she did it anyway. 

Extending her tongue into a point, she began to lick 
Tiffany's clit very lightly. Tiffany let out a soft cry 
at the first contact. Kathy wiggled Tiffany's clit 
stud, pressing her tongue stud against it. She gave it 
a long, slow, lick, then began eating her more 
deliberately. 

I realized, from Kathy's cool manner, that this was 
just a show to her. I had no doubt that she didn't 
intend to get Tiffany off--except that she hadn't 
reckoned with Tiffany's state of excitement. Less than 
thirty seconds into this, Tiffany convulsed, let out a 
squeak, and shuddered in orgasm. I saw a tiny spark of 
surprise in Kathy's eyes, but she was good--she didn't 
stop. She pretended to be into this, and did her best 
to finish Tiffany off. Then she withdrew, climbing up 
to kiss the other girl. 

The second song had just ended, and Kathy stood, 
smiling at us. She extended her hand to Marianne, who 
gasped slightly. She glanced at me, and I nodded. 

Kathy led Marianne to the couch, where Tiffany was 
still recovering. Tiffany slid to one end but stayed 
there. Marianne was still in a state of shock at what 
she had seen, and Kathy caressed her face and hair, 
trying to calm her down. She kissed Marianne softly, 
then took Marianne's hands. She held them against her 
breasts, and though she let Marianne feel her, she kept 
her hold on her wrists. 

Then she began moving against Marianne, rubbing her 
naked body against my girlfriend. Marianne's head had 
fallen back, and her breathing was rapid and heavy. 
Kathy caressed her breasts a few times, squeezing them. 

Toward the end of the third song, as she had done with 
Tiffany, she began to unlace Marianne's top. Marianne 
was shivering nervously by now, and when Kathy took one 
of Marianne's big breasts in her mouth, she let out a 
little cry and put her arms around Kathy's shoulders. 

By now, my cock was so hard I thought it might explode. 
But there was nothing I could do. 

Kathy suckled Marianne's breasts for nearly a minute, 
and I wondered if she was going to pull Marianne's 
pants off and eat her like she had done with Tiffany. 
But she apparently had something else in mind. 

I noticed, probably well after it happened, that one of 
Kathy's hands was now between Marianne's legs, rubbing 
her firmly through the fabric of her pants. She 
continued to suck on Marianne's nipples and caress her 
with her other hand. 

Maybe this sort of thing went on a lot with the male 
customers (I recalled that on prior visits, some of the 
girls had tried to give me vague handjobs through my 
pants). Maybe getting Tiffany off had set a precedent. 
Maybe Kathy was just getting into this. But she 
definitely appeared to be trying to bring Marianne to 
orgasm. 

It didn't take a lot of work. Marianne was soon humping 
her hips up at Kathy's hand, and Kathy responded by 
rubbing faster. She looked over at me, licking her lips 
lasciviously as her hand moved rapidly between my 
girlfriend's legs. Finally, Marianne began to shudder 
and her legs began to shake, and a second later, she 
came in Kathy's arms. 

Kathy had somehow timed this perfectly. As Marianne 
coasted down, the last song came to an end. She 
withdrew from Marianne and stood. 

"Would you like another one? Maybe for you?" 

I looked down at the two drained girls on the couch. 
Marianne wiped the sweat from her forehead and tried to 
catch her breath. Though Kathy was certainly very 
pretty, what I really wanted to do was take Marianne 
and Tiffany home and fuck the daylights out of both of 
them. 

"I think we're good. Thanks." 

She smiled and helped the girls to their feet, pulled 
her dress back on, then led us out. She gave each of us 
a peck on the lips. 

"Thanks. Have a nice night." 

The two girls clung to my arms. 

"What now?" Marianne asked. 

"Home. I'm so hard it hurts." 

She giggled, and we went straight out to the car. As 
soon as we were on the road, Marianne reached into my 
lap to fondle my aching erection. 

"Poor baby. Having to watch all that with no one to 
help you. I bet I know what you need." 

As Tiffany watched, wide-eyed, from the back seat, 
Marianne bent over into my lap and began freeing my 
penis. As soon as it was exposed, it disappeared into 
her mouth. I grunted, gasping. I had been too turned on 
for too long to stand very much of this, and Marianne 
was not trying to hold me off at all. She bobbed 
rapidly, massaging the stud in her tongue against the 
head, doing all the little things she knew I liked. 

I had to pull off the road. I cried out, grabbing at 
her hair as she sucked on my cock like she wanted to 
take it off. The cum boiled in my groin, and then it 
was erupting out of me like Mount St. Helens, one 
painful spurt after another. Marianne continued sucking 
at me until it was all out, until I could finally stand 
to have her stop. 

She leaned back, swallowing, and smiled as I melted 
into my seat. 

"Better now?" 

I nodded weakly. 

"Uh-huh." 

She giggled. 

"Take us home." 

As it happened, the three of us were too drained by 
that adventure to do much of anything when we got back, 
and Tiffany went home about an hour later. Marianne and 
I went to bed. 

The next day, NexTerm was up to forty-one, and Cisco 
and the board of directors were reported to be in 
negotiations. I spent most of the day trying to work 
without checking the NASDAQ quote marquee on my 
computer screen every ten seconds. 

At three o'clock, my intercom buzzed. It was Jake. 

"Steve, you got your TV on?" 

I had a television in my office because I often needed 
to check CNN or Financial News during the day. 

"No." 

"Get it on, CNN, now." 

I found the remote buried under a pile of crap in the 
corner of my desk. I switched on the set. 

"--had no immediate reaction to the offer. A Cisco 
spokesman complained that IBM was coming in, quote, 
'Much too late on this deal,' and that their 
interference might prevent the entire transaction from 
closing." 

"What?" I asked Jake. "What the hell is IBM doing?" 

He laughed through the intercom. 

"They made an offer of fifty-four for NexTerm. Cisco is 
having a cow." 

A bidding war. Dear God Almighty. 

"Fifty-four? Did I hear that right?" 

"Yes. Check your ticker." 

I glanced at my screen. A few seconds later, 5,000 
shares of NexTerm rolled past at 49 3/8. 

"Jesus." 


CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE 
--------------------

Somehow I got through the rest of the day without 
losing my mind. NexTerm closed at 56 5/8. Marianne and 
Hayley were out by the pool when I got home, but I gave 
them scarcely a glance as I ran up to my office. I 
logged into my company network and prepared a sell 
order for the next morning. 

I sat there with my finger on the mouse, trying to make 
myself send it in. But I couldn't do it. The deal could 
still fall apart, leaving me with nothing. But if it 
went through, it would happen at a lot higher than 
fifty-six. I could be losing a million bucks or more 
with one click of the mouse. 

After a few minutes, I canceled the order and shut off 
my computer. Marianne appeared in the doorway, wearing 
nothing but her yellow thong. Her perfect breasts were 
already tinted a pale pink with sunburn. 

"Is something wrong?" 

"Not exactly." 

"You know, you've been acting really, really weird ever 
since we got back from Santa Cruz." 

"I know. I'm sorry." 

"So what is it?" 

"I can't tell you now. Right now, it's nothing. I don't 
want to get your hopes up." 

Her eyebrows creased. 

"Is it bad?" 

"No. It's potentially very good, but it hasn't happened 
yet." 

"But you can't tell me about it?" 

"I'd rather wait until it's solidified more." 

She pursed her lips. 

"Okay." 

I reached for her. 

"Come here." 

She climbed into my lap, straddling me and putting her 
arms around my neck. I played with her breasts for a 
couple of seconds. 

"You're getting a little burned here." 

"I burn, then I tan. I don't want any tan lines this 
year." 

I slipped a finger under the waistband of her thong. 

"What about this, then?" 

"I can live with that. But I don't want lines around my 
back and shoulders. That way I can wear those slinky 
dresses you like." 

I kissed her, then pulled a breast up to my mouth, 
tasting suntan oil. 

"How's your sister doing?" 

"Still depressed. But maybe a little better." 

"And you?" 

"I'm happy. It was nice to see Mom, but I understand 
how it has to be." 

I kissed her other breast, making her squirm. A little 
giggle escaped her lips. I reached under her with one 
hand, pressing a finger against the bottom of her 
thong, where her labia bulged against the fabric. 

"Mmm. I like that." 

"I know." 

I hooked my thumb under the elastic, pulling it aside. 
A prickly nest of blonde pubes was soon in my hand. My 
middle finger slid slowly inside her. She inhaled 
sharply, pressing her forehead tightly against mine. 

"Where is Hayley?" I managed. 

"Still down by the pool," she gasped. 

I undid my slacks with my free hand, and Marianne 
reached for my erection as soon as it was exposed. She 
pulled it into place and settled down onto me as I held 
her thong to the side. We both groaned as I sank into 
her, and then she was kissing me passionately. 

She rode me eagerly, rolling her hips back and forth, 
making the chair rock against my desk. I pulled her 
breasts to my mouth, sucking on one, then the other. 
She held my head close to her chest, moaning. Her 
movements sped, and little whimpers were soon flowing 
out her nostrils. I held her tight butt in my hands, 
trying to help her (since she had me pinned down quite 
securely), and within a minute or two she was 
shuddering in my arms. She bit at my shoulder as her 
climax peaked. Then she let out a long breath, relaxing 
against me. 

"You didn't come," she said after a few moments. 

"No." 

She held my shoulders, leaning back. 

"On the floor." 

I half-stood, still connected, and picked her up. We 
lay on the floor, and I began driving rapidly into her 
as she bit at my ear and whispered random perversions. 
I let out a groan and erupted inside her very quickly. 
I lay on top of her as she stroked my back. 

"Steve?" 

"Hmm?" 

"This summer... once school is out... could Tiffany 
move in with us?" 

I lifted up to look at her. 

"How? Where is she going to sleep?" 

She glanced timidly around my office but said nothing. 
I sighed. 

"Oh." 

"There's room in the bedroom for your desk and your 
computer, isn't there? We could put it in the sitting 
area by the window." 

"Giselle *and* Tiffany?" 

"Would it be a problem?" 

"Was this your idea or hers?" 

"Ours. We were just talking about it." 

She stared up at me with her pretty blue eyes. 

"Steve, I've realized that I do love her. I really 
would like to have her living with us." 

"This isn't a change in our relationship?" 

"No. Tiffany understands that. She'd just be another 
kitten for our cathouse." 

I laughed weakly. 

"Oh, God." 

I reflected that if this NexTerm thing went through, 
the circumstances were going to be very different 
anyway. 

"Okay. I'll give it some thought." 

She hugged me tightly. 

"Thanks." 

NexTerm opened at 58 the next morning and continued 
climbing. At noon, Cisco came back with a counteroffer 
of 65, which was three points more than NexTerm had 
ever traded at. We were in serious deal territory now, 
and I suspected that it would close one way or another-
-if it was going to--very soon. 

It did. 

Cisco, IBM, and NexTerm apparently stayed up through 
the night fighting it out, and early the next morning, 
when I turned on CNN, I found myself watching an 
impromptu press conference outside the NexTerm offices 
in Sunnyvale. Cisco had prevailed. The deal had closed 
at 85, all of it to be paid for with Cisco stock. A 
high price maybe, but from one perspective it was 
nothing but paper anyway. Cisco certainly had enough 
market value to swallow a company like NexTerm without 
burping. 

I didn't really come back to earth until I realized I 
was sitting out by the pool in my boxer shorts, and 
Marianne was standing in front of me trying to get my 
attention. 

"Steve? *What* is going on? You are going to tell me 
now!" 

I looked up at her dizzily. 

"Sit down." 

She did. I tried to explain as best I could. Her face 
got very pale as she listened to me. 

"So what does this mean?" 

"It means... that in a few days, I am going to get 
almost nine million dollars in Cisco stock transferred 
into my account. Stock that is probably going to 
increase rapidly in value in the future." 

Her eyes swelled. 

"Nine million dollars?" 

"Yes. It means I can retire. We can buy the ranch and 
the horses and everything. We can move to Santa Cruz 
and do everything we talked about." 

Her jaw was shaking violently now, and a tear ran down 
her cheek. She gasped for breath against her agitation. 

"We can?" 

"Yes, Kitten, we can." 

She let out a joyful squeal and threw her arms around 
my neck, hugging me so tightly that pain shot down my 
back. A moment later, she pried herself free from my 
arms and jumped up, taking my hand. 

"We have to tell Hayley." 

She dragged me upstairs in a half-run, and we burst 
into Hayley's room. She had just emerged from the 
shower and wore nothing but a towel. She jumped back in 
surprise. 

"Hey!" 

Marianne ignored her look of outrage and grabbed her 
arm. The story rushed out in a flood, and Hayley's eyes 
grew to the size of dinner plates. 

"We could move?" she said softly when Marianne finally 
stopped to catch her breath. 

"Yes!" Marianne said. 

"To a ranch?" 

"Yes!" 

"It's what I'm thinking of," I said. 

"Could... could we get a horse?" 

"A half-dozen of them if you want. That's the idea." 

She began to cry. 

"We could move." 

"We'll be near Mom," Marianne said. "I'll go to school 
there, if, please God I get in, and Steve will retire. 
Everything will be perfect." 

Hayley hugged her, sobbing in joy, then hugged me. I 
saw something out of the corner of my eye and realized 
Giselle was standing in the doorway. 

"What's going on?" 

Marianne excitedly explained what had happened. 
Giselle's face dropped slightly, and she looked at me. 

"You guys are going to move?" 

"But you can come with us," Marianne said. "We'll get a 
really big house and you and Tiffany and Mom and all of 
us can live together." 

I laughed, holding up my hands. 

"Whoa. Wait. Let's not run too far ahead of ourselves 
here." 

"But Steve, she's living with us now anyway. You said 
Tiffany could move in. What difference would it make if 
we're here or in Santa Cruz?" 

She had a point. 

"At the very least, I don't know what your mother will 
want to do." 

"But could she?" 

"I guess so. I really don't know if she'll be 
comfortable doing it, though." 

Hayley squeezed my hand tightly. 

"But if she does, can she, please?" 

I laughed. 

"Okay. Yes." 

She squealed, hugging me tightly. I just shook my head 
in amazement. 

April flew by in a blur. My NexTerm stock converted to 
Cisco, which shot up another five points after the 
deal. I was now worth just over thirteen million 
dollars. I called an estate realtor in Monterey and 
asked him to begin looking for potential ranches for us 
to buy. I gave notice at work, telling my boss I would 
retire in June. 

Elizabeth went into shock at the news, but after I 
explained my reasoning and that I had planned this for 
a long time, she broke down and cried. She said she had 
to think about moving in with us, but that it was a 
possibility. 

Marianne got into UCSC, provoking a hysterical phone 
call to her mother. Tiffany got in a week later. 
Giselle had planned to go to the Cal State campus 
nearby, but she began looking into the possibility of 
going to school up north. Ashley had already applied to 
Stanford (the Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, as it 
happened, was a friend of mine from B-school, so I 
wrote her a nice letter of recommendation), and if she 
got in, she would not be very far away. 

Hayley simply bounced giddily around the house, forever 
about to burst with happiness. She called her mother 
frequently to gush over what had happened and had 
already picked out a name for her horse. 

The prom came and went, and the girls mutually agreed 
to simply blow it off, not wanting to create a scene by 
bringing me. Blowing it off created something of a stir 
anyway, but not as much as my showing up at the dance 
would have. 

The first weekend in May, we drove back up to Santa 
Cruz to see the properties the realtor had found for 
us. I had told him $4-5 million, 40+ acres, horse-
ready, with at least seven bedrooms, views optional but 
preferred. With that sort of price tag, we got the red 
carpet treatment from the moment we arrived. Elizabeth 
met us at his office, where we found a limo waiting for 
us. 

The first place we went was, well... nice. Nothing 
special, but nice. The house was big but worn-out and 
needed work, and the land was pretty but just didn't 
turn me on enough. The second place was simply too 
small. Also nice, but just too small. 

After lunch (which the realtor paid for), we looked at 
another property near the beach, which was the most 
disappointing of all. It had good views of the ocean, 
but they were disrupted by all the commercial 
development along the water. Not something I wanted to 
spend my retirement looking at. 

We set out for the last place just after three o'clock, 
driving out of Santa Cruz and into the hills. All of us 
were feeling a little down after three straight 
disappointments, and I detected an edge of panic in the 
realtor's voice, as he sensed his six-figure commission 
slipping away. But he seemed excited about this last 
possibility or was at least trying to act that way. 

We finally turned off Highway 17 onto a little back 
road that ran through several stands of coastal 
redwoods. A mile down the road, we stopped in front of 
a tall stone gate, where a bearded, heavyset man in 
overalls waited for us, standing beside a mud-
splattered pick-up truck. 

"That's the caretaker." 

He leaned out of the limo window and talked briefly to 
the man, who then went back to his truck and opened the 
gate. 

"This place belongs to an old California family," the 
realtor went on. "The matriarch apparently just passed 
away. They're having to sell it because of the estate 
taxes and because her kids couldn't agree on what to do 
with it." 

I nodded vaguely, as he had been telling us stories 
like this all day. We followed the road up through the 
redwoods, and when the trees finally thinned out, we 
got a good look at the property. 

"Oh, wow," Hayley said. 

Elizabeth leaned against the window, sighing. 

"Oh, my." 

What else to say? It was love at first sight. 

The property was a good fifty acres, and we couldn't 
see all of it right away. The road ran through a broad 
meadow, wooden ranch fences on both sides. The land 
looked almost virgin -- uncultivated, unmolested, 
unspoiled. Up ahead was the ranch house, a sprawling 
two-story building that looked like something out of 
"Bonanza." Behind it was the horse barn and what looked 
like a guesthouse, and around the other side was a six-
car garage. Beyond the house, the land rolled downhill 
into another stand of virgin redwoods, and the Pacific 
Ocean glittered off in the distance. The view at sunset 
had to be breathtaking, and it was awe-inspiring even 
now. 

"There's a creek that runs through this place, 
apparently," the realtor said. "There's supposed to be 
a nice waterfall toward the back of the property." 

The girls bounced around in the limo, trying to take it 
all in at once. We pulled up in front of the house, and 
they burst out of the side door. Hayley ran up to the 
fence and climbed up on the lower rung. 

"Look at all this! This is huge!" 

Marianne half-ran, half-jumped around the side of the 
house to look at the barn. 

"Where are the horses?" 

"There aren't any here now," the realtor said. "The 
family has pretty much moved everything out. But I 
think the barn has space for eight or ten of them." 

Hayley ran up beside us, and the two girls ran across 
the yard to look into the barn. The realtor turned to 
Elizabeth and me. He seemed to have assumed that we 
were married, and, not wanting to have to explain 
things that were none of his business, I hadn't tried 
to change his mind. 

"Shall we go inside?" 

It was everything I had fantasized about -- not the 
trendy "ranch-style" furnishings that were in vogue 
these days but real antique furniture and decor, and 
all of it very well-maintained despite its age. The 
front door led into a broad two-story foyer with a 
staircase leading up to the second floor. To the left 
was the huge main room with a vast stone fireplace and 
windows looking out on the pasture. Three elk heads 
hung on the walls. To the other side was the dining 
room with another fireplace and enough room to feed 
twenty people at once. 

The main room led into a library and study with floor 
to ceiling built- in bookcases on every wall. To my 
surprise, quite a few books were still on the shelves. 

"Is the family going to move this stuff out?" 

He shook his head. 

"What you see is what you get. Apparently they don't 
want a lot of this. My understanding is that they've 
already removed what they want. As you can probably 
imagine, most of this furniture wouldn't really work 
anywhere else." 

"It's beautiful," Elizabeth said. 

He nodded in his solicitous realtor fashion. 

"Isn't it?" 

Beyond the library was a hallway leading to the rear 
wing, where we found three large bedrooms with more of 
the same. In the back of the house, behind the library 
and kitchen, was another sitting room with windows 
facing the barn and the back porch, which led to a 
swimming pool, the guest house beyond that, and looked 
out onto the trees and the ocean. 

My one concern with this place was the kitchen, which I 
feared might be something out of the 1940's, but my 
fears proved unfounded. It had been remodeled within 
the last few years, and did not look to me to need any 
more work. It already had enough modern equipment to 
feed an army and a nice little breakfast nook that 
looked onto the meadow outside. 

Hayley and Marianne came running across the backyard 
and burst into the rear den a moment later. I could see 
bits of hay all over their clothes. 

"You should see the barn," Marianne gushed, "it's so 
neat. It's got all this old farm stuff all over the 
place." 

"And it has a loft and like ten stalls for the horses," 
Hayley said. "We climbed up there and looked out. You 
can see like forever." 

Elizabeth and I exchanged a glance, which the realtor 
caught and probably thought he understood. 

The upstairs was just as nice, and the master suite was 
simply beyond description. It had a large sitting area 
between the bed and the bathroom, and its own 
wraparound deck above the rear porch. The view from the 
deck was worth the purchase price alone. Marianne 
hugged me as she looked out across the property. 

"Is this it?" 

"I think this is it." 

We looked at the rest of the property (it did indeed 
have a pretty creek and waterfall back in the trees, 
and we found yet another building--the caretaker's 
cottage--around behind the barn), but we were more or 
less sold on it already. The sun had begun to set by 
the time we were ready to leave, and we stood on the 
rear porch watching it go down. 

"Should I tell the owners you're prepared to make an 
offer?" the realtor asked. 

I nodded. 

"Yeah. Let's do it." 

We went out to celebrate that night, and the girls 
chattered non-stop about all the things they wanted to 
do. Hayley pestered Elizabeth about living with us 
until I patted her arm to get her to calm down. 

"Let's take one thing at a time." 

"It's a beautiful place, honey," Elizabeth said, "but 
there's a lot I need to think about." 

I got Elizabeth alone after dinner after the girls 
decided they wanted to take an evening swim in the 
hotel pool. We walked around the grounds looking down 
at the lights of Santa Cruz. 

"You don't have to decide about this tonight or even 
this month. But you really are welcome to move in with 
us." 

She sighed. 

"I would like to. But I keep feeling like there may not 
be room for me in this thing you have going on with 
Marianne and her friends." 

"It's up to you. I'm fine either way. But you know the 
girls would like to have you." 

"It's just that I only know how to live with them as 
their mother. Not as part of this household you're 
putting together." 

"Marianne is really the one putting it together. 
Somehow I woke up one morning to discover that half her 
friends were moving in with us." 

She smiled and touched my arm. 

"I know. I'm not passing judgment on you. I have a 
rather unconventional lifestyle myself right now." 

We walked another minute in silence when I had an idea. 

"You know... if you wanted... you could live in the 
guest house. 
Make it your own place instead of having just a room in 
ours." 

She stopped short, and I watched her jaw dropping 
slowly as she digested this proposal. She didn't say 
anything for a few moments. 

"I could do that." 

"Would that be enough of a boundary?" 

"Yes. But still very close to Marianne and Hayley." 

"You're welcome to it. Even with Tiffany and Giselle 
living with us, we're still going to have four spare 
bedrooms in the main house." 

"I think... I think I would like to do that." 

"Then it's done." 

She smiled broadly. 

"Thank you." 

We unveiled the idea to Marianne and Hayley when we 
returned to the room, provoking a lot of shrieking and 
excitement. I went over to the realtor's office the 
next morning and filled out my formal offer for the 
property. He called back that night with a counteroffer 
from the owner's agent, which I told him I wanted to 
sleep on. 

We said good bye to Elizabeth and went home that night, 
since the girls had school the next morning. I called 
the realtor from work with another offer, and he called 
back after lunch to tell me it had been accepted. He 
Fed Ex'd the sales agreement to me the next morning, 
and we closed the deal at $4,250,000. I liquidated the 
funds out of my investment account and sent it to the 
escrow company. After capital gains taxes, moving 
costs, new furniture, and various and sundry other 
minor expenses (not to mention the horses and a certain 
sports car I was now thinking of buying), I would have 
just under eight million to retire on, most of it in 
Cisco stock. 

Enough to live a pretty good life. 

And, just maybe, raise a family on. 


CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR 
-------------------

Graduation arrived in June, and Elizabeth came down 
from Santa Cruz. With Giselle now living in the 
guestroom, Elizabeth got a hotel room nearby. We had 
closed escrow on the ranch a few weeks before, and she 
had already moved into the guesthouse. She and I had 
been coordinating the cleaning and furnishings with a 
decorator I had hired (and whom I had scouring flea 
markets and swap meets all over Northern California to 
find antiques to match what was already in the house).

The only significant change I was making was rewiring 
the phone lines with a multi-terminal DSL connection 
and adding recessed wiring and speakers for a house-
wide stereo and entertainment system. 

The school held graduation on the football field, and 
Elizabeth, Hayley, and I took our seats in the 
bleachers with the other parents and family. The 
graduates wore bright blue gowns, and when they filed 
in, the girls waved to us on the way to their seats. 

My eyes glazed over through most of the speeches, but 
we cheered wildly when Marianne finally got her 
diploma. She waved at us again as Elizabeth shot off 
about ten pictures in a row. 

Finally it was over. Marianne ran excitedly around the 
field posing for pictures with us, her friends, and 
other random students. I met Tiffany's parents, who 
didn't seem particularly fazed about her moving in with 
us. I expected she hadn't filled them in on a lot of 
the details. I watched for Giselle's father but didn't 
see him. 

We went out to lunch, and Marianne then went out for 
the afternoon with her friends while the other three of 
us went home. Elizabeth and I spent a few hours going 
over the details for the house while Hayley listened or 
watched television. 

"What are we going to do about the horses?" she asked 
around four- thirty. 

"I don't know, Little Kit. I haven't had time to give 
it much thought. I'm sure there are some ranches up 
there we can look at once we're there." 

"Well, see, I was thinking. I heard about this service 
that rescues horses that are going to be destroyed. You 
know, like old racehorses or ones that can't work 
anymore. I thought that would be better than buying new 
ones. So those horses could retire like you're doing 
instead of being killed. It's not like we're going to 
do anything but ride them around, right?" 

I exchanged a glance with Elizabeth, who was smiling. 

"I think that's a great idea. Find out what you can, 
and I'll give them a call." 

Hayley hugged me quickly. 

"Thanks." 

With graduation and school behind us, we began the 
laborious process of moving up to the ranch. Although 
there was no point in rearranging my office now, 
Tiffany moved in anyway, sleeping on the couch for the 
few days it would take us to pack up and leave. The 
girls had their rooms packed up fairly quickly, and we 
spent the remaining time sifting through twenty years 
of bachelor junk and deciding what to take and what to 
trash. 

I threw out more than I might have expected, as I 
realized that I wanted to replace a lot of it. Most of 
the china, glasses, and silverware, old mismatched sets 
I had had for ten years or more, went to charity, as 
did most of the sheets and towels. I finally threw out 
my old college beer bottle collection. The neon 
Budweiser sign I had been saving for years stayed--I 
wanted to hang that in the barn. 

The further back we got, the more time we spent 
reviewing memorabilia from my college days, laughing 
over pictures of me with long hair, wearing this Black 
Sabbath T-shirt I had to be surgically removed from one 
summer, or posing with my friends and a few bongs at 
some party. 

"I can't wait for college," Giselle said wistfully at 
one point. 

"Me too," Marianne said. "It's going to be so cool." 

"It's not all parties," I said. "I did have to study 
and go to class now and then." 

They giggled, but I could tell they didn't believe me. 
They would learn soon enough. 

By the third day of packing, we were down to the odds 
and ends, most of which we threw out. That afternoon, I 
finally called a halt to the operation. 

"I think we're done here. What's left is trash. Go 
relax; we've got a big day tomorrow." 

The girls high-fived each other, and all of them, 
except Marianne, went out to the pool. With shrieks and 
laughter, they all jumped in wearing their clothes. I 
got a beer from the refrigerator and leaned against the 
counter to rest. 

Marianne followed me in, hopping up onto the counter 
under the window. 

"I can't believe this is really going to happen. 
Tomorrow night, we're going to be sleeping at the 
ranch." 

"Yep." 

"Are you excited?" 

"Definitely. I've waited a long time for this." 

"You've earned it. Hayley and I are getting you a 
housewarming present, but it's a surprise." 

I chuckled. 

"Thanks. I can't wait." 

"I hope you like it. I think it's really cute." 

"I'm sure I will." 

I took a swig of beer. 

"There's something I want to do today, and I'd like you 
to come along." 

"What is it?" 

"Another surprise. It's basically a present to myself." 

"Ooo. Now?" 

"I want to get cleaned up first. This isn't something I 
can do in this state." 

"Okay. I'll jump in the shower really quick too." 

We went upstairs, showered, and dressed. When I was 
done, I looked out the window to see that Hayley, 
Tiffany, Ashley, and Giselle had stripped out of their 
clothes and now cavorted nakedly around the backyard. I 
wavered for a moment, thinking about going down to join 
them, but I knew I had to do this today or wait at 
least another week. 

Marianne emerged from the dressing area in a white 
cotton blouse, knotted at her waist, and a denim skirt. 

"Is this okay?" 

"Wonderful." 

We descended to the pool, where I explained that we 
were going out for a few hours. 

"You guys behave, okay?" 

That remark engendered a lot of giggles and glances. 

"Have fun, whatever it is you're doing," Giselle said. 

Marianne followed me out to the garage, and we got into 
my Mercedes. 

"Are you going to tell me what this is now?" 

"I'm buying a new car to go with the new ranch." 

Her face lit up. 

"Oh, cool! What?" 

"You'll see." 

She giggled and bounced around in her seat as I drove 
down toward the beach. When I pulled into my 
destination, a very upscale and exclusive European 
dealership, she let out an excited squeal. 

"I knew it! What are you going to get?" 

"Something I've wanted since I was your age." 

We pulled into a parking space, and Marianne hopped out 
of the car. This was primarily a Jaguar dealership, but 
they also carried several other lines of European 
sports cars. Marianne's eyes bulged as she looked 
around at the Porsches, Ferraris, and (a few) 
Lamborghinis lining the lot, and to honest, my heart 
was beating faster in my chest the longer we were 
there. 

I was only interested in the Italians, and that was 
where we headed. A salesman came out to speak to us a 
few minutes after we were there. 

"Can I help you with anything?" 

"I have an appointment. Steven Chandler." 

"Certainly. Just a moment." 

He went inside, and about a minute later, the salesman 
I had talked to a few days before emerged from the 
showroom. Since this place sold cars costing upwards of 
$250,000, they didn't like to deal with people right 
off the street, and they were certainly not about to 
let someone test drive any these frightfully expensive 
exotics without checking them out thoroughly 
beforehand. 

The salesman shook my hand and smiled warmly, but 
professionally, at Marianne. 

"Mr. Chandler, good afternoon. I'm Bill Jabobs. We 
spoke on the phone the other day." 

"This is Marianne." 

"Nice to meet you," she said. 

"And you. I believe you wanted to look at the 355 and 
the Diablo?" 

"Right." 

With Marianne following us, he took us to the 
Lamborghinis. They had only two, and though they were 
extremely sexy cars, something about them just didn't 
grab me. 

After looking over the two cars for a few minutes, I 
glanced at Marianne. She seemed excited, but not 
precisely thrilled. 

"This is a little over the top, maybe," I said. 

She nodded. 

"It's not really you." 

"Let's look at the others," I said to Jacobs. 

He nodded and led us across the lot to a row of 
Ferraris. He gave us a little spiel about the car, then 
let us climb inside one. Marianne got into the 
passenger seat, so flushed with excitement that I 
thought she might burst. 

I moved around to get comfortable, inhaling the scent 
of the leather. Oh, boy. I was actually going to do 
this. I took the steering wheel in my hands and gripped 
it tightly. 

Jacobs handed me the keys. 

"Start her up." 

I did. A deep, throaty rumble ran through the car. I 
pressed on the gas a few times, and the engine whined 
as it revved up. 

"This is quite a car," he said. 

I nodded. Marianne giggled, wanting to say something 
but unable to get anything coherent out. 

"Could we look at the others? I'm not sure about this 
color scheme." 

"Sure." 

I shut off the engine, and we climbed out. They had 
five 355s on the lot, two of them convertibles. One of 
the Spyders was cherry red, the other one shameless, 
in-your-face, banana yellow. I stopped next to the 
yellow one, and Marianne beamed. 

"Kind of the same color as mine." 

I nodded, swallowing hard. Jacobs went inside and 
returned with the keys. 

Marianne took a few deep breaths once we were inside 
it. 

"This is your car and your thing, but... it would be 
really, really neat if you got a convertible." 

Jacobs showed me how to put the top down, and I 
stretched out in the seat. Goddamn it, but this was a 
great car. 

"Can we take it for a spin?" 

"Sure." 

I started it up and backed carefully out of the space. 
Giving myself a *lot* of spare room, I pulled out into 
traffic. The shifter took some getting used to, since 
it was mounted in a very narrow gate, but I soon had 
the car up to speed. Marianne put her arms above her 
head, letting her hair fly loose in the breeze. 

"Woo!" 

The Ferrari handled differently from anything I had 
ever driven before, seeming to cling to the road and 
transmit every bump and seam in the pavement through 
the steering wheel. The slightest pressure on the 
accelerator sent the engine howling into the upper 
reaches of the tachometer. 

"How is it?" 

"Incredible." 

She squealed, gripping my arm tightly. 

"This is the hottest thing I have ever been in. You 
have to get this. 
Please." 

"I think I'm going to." 

She shook with excitement, laughing and squealing at 
the same time. The traffic cleared up ahead of us, and 
I used the opening to swing around and return to the 
dealership. By the time we got back, I was basically 
sold. 

Jacobs was waiting patiently. 

"How was it?" 

"Great. I, uh... I think we're going to do it." 

"Wonderful. Congratulations." 

He shook my hand, and Marianne let out another squeal, 
hugging me tightly. We went inside to close the deal. 
Though it took some time to work out the details, 
particularly trading in my Mercedes, about ninety 
minutes later I walked out as the proud owner of a new 
Ferrari 355 Spyder convertible. 

We climbed back into the car, Marianne still giggling 
in excitement. 

"I can't believe this," she gushed. "I cannot believe 
this. I've never even sat in a Ferrari before, let 
alone known anyone who owned one." 

"I can't believe it either." 

"Do you... um... think I could ever drive it?" 

I laughed giddily. 

"I don't know. We'll see." 

She leaned across the middle and hugged me again. I 
started the car and drove off the lot. 

I didn't want to go home right away. I took the car 
down to the Pacific Coast Highway and opened up it, 
racing north out of town. Marianne beamed at me as we 
drove along. The sun was starting set in front of us, 
and I thought that if there was a better place to be at 
that moment, I didn't know where it was. Owning a car 
like this should be enough. Driving it around with a 
girl like Marianne in the passenger seat was just too 
much--"gilding the lily" was a phrase that popped into 
my mind. 

The engine was loud when we were up to highway speeds, 
but it was the sweetest sound I had ever heard. 
Everyone we passed craned their heads around to get a 
good look at the car, slowing down or speeding up to 
come along side. Marianne laughed at this and stood up 
in her seat, grabbing the windshield to steady herself. 
Her hair streamed out behind her. 

"Be careful." 

She laughed. 

"I love you!" 

"I love you, too." 

I pulled her back into the car and pressed down on the 
gas. Good God-- this thing had so much power to spare 
that it was almost obscene. I had never experienced 
this much top-end acceleration. I downshifted, and the 
Ferrari leapt forward like a gazelle, roaring past a 
hundred in about two seconds. Thank God the road was 
straight, because I almost lost control of the car with 
that little maneuver. I eased off the gas, shifting up, 
and I could hear the engine popping as it slowed down. 

Marianne laughed, looking behind us at the cars we had 
raced past. 

"This thing is really fast." 

"No kidding." 

Not wanting to get a ticket or crack the thing up half 
an hour after buying it, I dropped back to a more 
sedate speed. The sun was just about to hit the water 
off to the west, and I realized we were passing through 
the state park north of town. I swung off at the next 
exit. 

"Where are we going?" 

"I feel like parking and watching the sunset." 

She smiled at me and rubbed my thigh. I drove into the 
park, and within a few minutes I found a spot 
overlooking the beach. I could still feel the 
vibrations of the engine running through me even after 
I parked and shut off the car. Marianne reached over 
and took my hand. 

"The next sunset we watch will be from the back porch." 

"Yep." 

"I keep thinking that something awful has to happen. 
It's not fair to be this happy." 

"You've gone through a lot. You deserve it." 

She leaned over and laid her head on my shoulder. I put 
my arm around her and held her as we watched the sun 
sinking beneath the horizon. 

"Babe?" 

"Hmm?" 

"Do you ever think about the future? Us, I mean." 

"All the time." 

She nuzzled me. 

"What do you think?" 

"I want you in my life. I don't want to lay a lot of 
expectations on you, though. You're still young, and 
you have your whole life ahead of you." 

"I was just thinking. I read something once about how 
guys who aren't married at forty probably never will." 

My stomach twitched. 

"I want to get married someday," I said. "I do. I would 
have done it, I just never met the right girl." 

"You've dated a lot, though, right? So you pretty much 
know what you want now." 

"She's sitting right beside me." 

She made a contented little noise and pressed herself 
against me. 

"But what if you had met me when you were eighteen? If 
you felt the same thing, but you hadn't had all this 
experience. How would you know what you wanted to do?" 

She was talking about herself, obviously, but I went 
along with her scenario. 

"It's a tough question. Perspective is worth a lot. I 
guess I'm a lot more secure in how I feel for you 
because of it. But I would have loved you just as much 
as eighteen. I'm just not sure what you would have 
thought of me." 

She laughed softly. 

"We would have hooked up somehow. I know that." 

She sighed. 

"One moment I'm sure I want to spend the rest of my 
life with you. Then I get scared because I feel so 
young for such a commitment. And then I feel guilty for 
thinking things like that when I love you so much." 

I hugged her. 

"It's normal. I'm not asking you for a life-long 
commitment tonight. We can do that when, and only when, 
you feel ready for it." 

She was quiet for a few moments. 

"Thanks." 

I squeezed her again. 

"Anytime." 

We drove home about ten minutes later, and Marianne ran 
in the house to tell the other girls about the Ferrari. 
We found them largely dressed, whatever they had been 
up to while we were gone, and they ran back out to the 
driveway, shrieking and gasping over the car. I 
promised to take them all for rides when we got up to 
Santa Cruz. 

Since all the food was packed up or thrown out, we 
ordered a couple of pizzas for dinner. Ashley spent the 
night with Giselle in her room, and Tiffany slept on 
the couch. Marianne and I finally went to bed after 
eleven. When I climbed under the sheets, I discovered 
that she was naked. She cuddled with me, pressing her 
body against mine. 

"I though you'd be tired," I said. 

"I am. But it's our last night in this house." 

We snuggled together, warm under the covers. We fondled 
each other for a few minutes, just enjoying our mutual 
nudity. Marianne giggled when I reached between her 
legs. She was already quite wet. I rolled her on her 
back, sliding under the blanket. I took a breast in my 
mouth as my fingers played between her thighs. Another 
squirt of moisture emerged onto my hand, and I began 
masturbating her slowly. She moaned, then pushed my 
head off her breasts, down her abdomen. 

I resisted at first, kissing my way down, licking the 
kitten at her hip. She pulled my head between her 
thighs and pushed her wet sex up at my mouth. 

I sucked her clit between my lips, making her convulse, 
then slipped my tongue into her. I tried to make love 
to her with it, pushing it in deeply and wiggling it 
around, tasting her sweet fluids. Then I pulled it out, 
sliding it up against her clit. I repeated the action, 
tongue deeply into her, then up between her labia. She 
whimpered, clawing at my shoulders, as I fell into a 
rhythm. Her hips rolled under me, moving with me, and 
her breathing was now rough and ragged. 

A few minutes of this were all it took before I felt 
the tremors beginning her abdomen. Her stomach muscles 
twitched once, twice, then her hands clamped down on 
mine. Her back arched, and a low feline whine escaped 
her lips as she shuddered under my attentions. As it 
peaked, she pushed me away with a soft cry. I kissed 
her sex one last time and slid up beside her. 

She hugged me briefly before disappearing under the 
covers to return the favor. I felt her bobbing slowly 
over me, working her lips against the head and her 
tongue stud against the underside. One hand held the 
base of my cock, the other gently pulled on my balls. 
She rolled her head around to increase the friction as 
she bobbed over me, and I had to reach down to hold her 
head. 

She would have taken me all the way had I wanted to, 
but I needed to be inside her. I pulled her off, and 
she straddled me immediately, sitting back to swallow 
me into her belly. She pulled her knees up to my side 
and lowered herself down to kiss me, smiling. 

"Hi." 

"Hey, Kitten." 

She squeezed me slowly, rhythmically, but didn't 
otherwise move. 

"You meant what you said tonight?" 

"All of it. But what do you mean?" 

"That you do want to get married some day?" 

"As long as it's to you. But remember what I said. No 
pressure. Nothing until you're ready." 

She looked down at me, eyes as full of love as they 
could ever be. 

"If I could... I would stay like this forever. This is 
all I ever need. You and me, together." 

"Me too, Kitten." 

"I love you so much." 

"I love you too." 

We made love slowly for another hour, then slept. 

The moving truck arrived at seven a.m., and I did my 
best to direct traffic. Marianne went down the hill to 
Starbucks to get some coffee for everyone, and the 
other girls did what they could to help. 

We were about halfway done, and I was in the kitchen 
checking the cabinets for anything we missed when I 
heard Hayley shouting from the front of the house. 

"What?! No! Let go of me!" 

I dropped what I was doing and ran out to see what was 
going on. The reality of it was clear immediately--
there was really no arguing with the image that was 
burning into the back of my brain--but it took a few 
moments for it to really register. 

An unpleasant-looking woman I didn't recognize was 
standing in the foyer trying to take Hayley's arm. 
Hayley was having none of it, trying to back away. 
Standing with the woman were a pair of police officers. 
Marianne was trying to get to Hayley, but the woman was 
holding her off. 

The woman saw me and pointed. 

"That's him." 

The two officers approached me. 

"Are you Steven Chandler?" one of them asked. 

"Yes. What is this about?" 

"I have a warrant for your arrest. Violation of Penal 
Code section 261.5." 

"What the hell is that?" 

"Unlawful sexual contact with a minor. Statutory rape, 
in other words." 


CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE 
-------------------

The officers handcuffed me and took me out to their 
cruiser as Hayley and Marianne went into hysterics. I 
was in shock until I looked back toward the house and 
saw the officers and the woman physically dragging 
Hayley, gone completely berserk, out the front door. 

I had never been a particularly emotional person--I was 
never the sort of guy who wore his heart on his sleeve. 
All my life, I tended bottle up my emotions, only 
letting them out with people I really trusted. 

Marianne was one of them. Hayley was another. And when 
I saw the two officers struggling with her and finally 
shoving her down onto the front lawn to handcuff her, I 
lost it. Some primal protective impulse, something 
rising out of the brain stem, took control of my body. 
I thrashed around in my seat. I rolled on my back and 
kicked at the side window. I screamed at them--I didn't 
even know what I was saying, if I was even doing 
anything other than howl in powerless outrage. 

Outside the car, Marianne had jumped on one officer's 
back, trying to get him off Hayley. He reared back, 
throwing her onto the ground. The other officer had 
succeeded in handcuffing Hayley, and he dragged her to 
her feet and over to the woman's car. She looked toward 
me in desperation, eyes pleading for help, and had I 
been physically able to burst out of the squad car 
after her, I would have. 

The other officer was threatening Marianne, who lay on 
the ground holding her arm in pain. He shook his finger 
at her angrily, and only now did he notice what was 
going on in their cruiser. 

He stalked up to the window I was still kicking at. 

"Knock that shit off, goddamnit!" 

I heard sirens approaching, and another squad car came 
screeching up to the house a minute later. Marianne was 
still lying on the lawn crying, and Giselle and Tiffany 
had come out of the house to help her. The two officers 
stood warily in the driveway watching them as two more 
burst out of the backup unit that had just arrived. 

By now, the neighbors had emerged from their houses to 
watch. The woman, whoever she was, stood by her car, 
and I stared at her murderously. She met my gaze only 
once, giving me a look of disdain before turning away. 
The situation had calmed down now with both Hayley and 
me locked up, and the four officers milled around 
discussing what to do. I waited for them to arrest 
Marianne for attacking one of them, but they seemed 
content with a stern lecture. Finally they began 
packing up to leave. 

Marianne struggled to her feet and came up to the 
police car, still crying, and pressed her face against 
the window. 

"Call your mother!" I yelled. "Call your mother, okay?" 

She continued sobbing against the window, incoherent 
with grief, until we pulled away from the house. 

They took me downtown, booked me, then let me call 
Brian. They stuck me in a holding cell, where I sat for 
several hours with some other unsavory characters. Just 
after three o'clock, the deputies abruptly let me out 
of the cell, telling me that I was being released. I 
found Brian waiting for me when they returned my 
possessions. 

"Man, I tell you, I've seen some lame cases in my day, 
but this one takes the cake." 

"What did you find out? What's going on?" 

"You've been released, for now. The D.A. is still 
trying to decide whether to file charges." 

"Seriously?" 

"Seriously. But let me ask you something. Do you know a 
kid named Randy Donahue?" 

I groaned. 

"Oh, shit. Yes. He's Marianne's ex-boyfriend." 

"Well, he is alleging that you confessed to having sex 
with Hayley, to him." 

"What?!" 

"That's what the ADA I talked to said. Apparently he 
went to the Family and Child Services office downtown 
and reported it earlier this week. They assigned that 
uptight bitch who grabbed Hayley--I talked to her too, 
and Jesus, I feel sorry for that woman's husband, if 
she's got one--and she sent the SWAT team over to your 
house." 

I followed Brian to his car as he explained all this. 

"Do you know what they did with Hayley?" 

"No. They won't tell me. DFCS has her, and I don't know 
what they're going to do with her. I called your house 
and talked to Marianne, who is still a mess. She said 
their mother is on her way down, but I get the distinct 
impression that DFCS isn't going to just release Hayley 
to her." 

"What do you mean?" 

"That woman seems to have a major bug up her butt about 
your living arrangements. All she told me was that she 
wanted talk to Mrs. Mulcahey." 

I got into his car, and we drove back toward my house. 

"What's going to happen now?" 

"I'm not sure. Normally, the ADA would have gone to the 
grand jury to get an indictment by now. She's 
apparently still weighing her options, which is why 
they let you go. They have to charge you within 48 
hours or turn you loose, and I guess she needs more 
time than that. But this is going to be ugly however it 
comes out." 

I sighed. 

"It's ugly already." 

When we pulled up, Marianne came running out of the 
house and jumped into my arms, sobbing. I held her 
tightly, trying not to think too hard about everything 
crashing down around our heads. 

The move, obviously, was suspended, although the movers 
finished loading their truck and left. It was that or 
have them unload everything, and I saw no point in 
that. I was probably in denial, but I couldn't bring 
myself to make that decision. Marianne, Giselle, and I 
went to a hotel, and Tiffany went home. 

Elizabeth arrived at seven, and despite an hour on the 
phone, was unable to get a straight answer out of 
anyone about where Hayley was. The woman on the case 
refused to tell Elizabeth anything until she talked to 
her the next day. Elizabeth and Marianne then cried in 
each others' arms for twenty minutes. 

I half expected Elizabeth to blame me for this (and it 
was my fault, right?) but instead she seemed to be 
blaming herself. She went with Brian the next morning 
to talk to the woman at DFCS, and they returned two 
hours later without Hayley. Elizabeth went to her room 
to cry without saying a word, and I sat down with 
Brian. 

He shook his head slowly. 

"When this all over, I'm going to buy that woman a new 
broom, because she's wearing out the one she's got very 
fast." 

"What happened?" 

"They won't tell us a thing about Hayley except that 
she's being held somewhere in protective custody. Can 
you believe that shit? Protective custody from her own 
damn mother." 

"They think she's in on this." 

"Essentially. They don't like the fact that she was 
letting Hayley and Marianne live with you." 

"What do they know?" 

"They know shit. All they've got is that kid, but 
unfortunately, that's enough to grab Hayley 
temporarily. My guess is that they may hold on to her 
until the trial." 

"Can they do that?" Marianne asked. 

"Yes. They can. Once they get an indictment, they have 
good cause to keep her away from the rest of you. 
They'll have to let me interview her before the trial, 
but they don't have to let anyone else see her unless 
they feel like it." 

I closed my eyes and swallowed hard. Hayley was being 
punished the worst here, and she was supposedly the 
victim. 

"So what do we do?" 

"We wait. I need to talk to the ADA. Assuming they file 
charges, I suspect they'll be amenable to some kind of 
deal, if that's what you're willing to do." 

Marianne jumped in before I could respond. 

"No! No deals! Steve didn't do anything wrong. Randy is 
just doing this to get back at him, and me, for dumping 
him." 

Brian looked at me, and I nodded slowly. He sighed. 

"Okay. No deals. But you realize that if you get 
convicted, you are looking at some serious jail time 
here? Because of the large age difference." 

"Yes. I know." 

Brian went back to his office, and the four of us sat 
numbly around our rooms. Nobody seemed inclined to talk 
about what had happened. 

Brian called me the next morning to tell me he had met 
with the ADA on the case. She was apparently a woman he 
had faced before. 

"She's a pro," he said, "but that's good. She'll play 
it straight, which some other ADA's I've worked with 
might not have. We could have done a lot worse." 

Nothing much happened for several days, during which I 
had to have the movers put my stuff in storage, since 
none of us could go up to Santa Cruz to let them into 
the new house. Four days after my arrest, Brian called 
the hotel and asked us to come down to his office for a 
meeting. Marianne, Elizabeth, and I showed up at one, 
and he showed us into his conference room. 

"Okay. We have had a very odd development here. You 
recall what I said about the ADA going to the grand 
jury to get an indictment?" 

"Yes." 

"Well, she's not going to do that. She has, instead, 
asked for a preliminary hearing." 

"What's the difference?" Elizabeth asked. 

"A lot." He looked down at his legal pad and tapped his 
pencil a few times. "To back up a little, in any 
criminal case, the ADA has to get a ruling that there 
is probable cause for a trial before they can go any 
further. That's essentially what an indictment is, and 
there are two ways of getting it. The first, and most 
common, is going to the grand jury, where the ADA can 
put together whatever case she likes, present whatever 
evidence she wants, without our participation. We have 
no right to be present or to introduce evidence, and 
though you are not required to testify, if you chose to 
do so, you have no right to have an attorney present." 

"That's so unfair," Marianne said. 

Brian nodded, grinning. 

"Speaking as a defense attorney, I'll agree with you. 
But that is how it's been for several hundred years. 
The idea is that since your guilt is not in question, 
only the issue of probable cause, you don't need as 
many protections." 

"But she's not doing that?" I asked. 

"No. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, she would, but 
this time she's not. It's two ways of skinning the same 
cat, but a preliminary hearing is a completely 
different animal. It's conducted more like a mini-
trial. The rules of evidence and procedure are still 
significantly relaxed, but we will get to cross-examine 
her witnesses and present our own exculpatory evidence, 
and the ruling will be made by a judge instead of a 
bunch of naive housewives and retirees who'll believe 
anything the ADA tells them. It's a much fairer 
proceeding, which is why ADA's hate them. Since 
California brought the grand jury back a few years ago, 
the preliminary hearing has almost become extinct." 

"So why is she doing it?" 

He paused again. 

"This is only speculation, mind you, but I get the 
distinct impression that she is not wild about this 
case. We may be dealing with a matter of internal 
county politics. You have to understand that the DA's 
office and the DFCS usually work very closely together, 
not just on molestation cases but custody issues, child 
support, and a whole raft of other things. We've come a 
long way from the witch-hunt mentality of the 80's and 
early 90's, but that much hasn't changed. The ADA is 
not going to piss them off if she can avoid it. So 
rather than just declining to prosecute a lame case, 
which this is, she'll do the hearing. That way, if the 
judge says no deal, she can blame him instead of taking 
any responsibility for dropping the case." 

My head began to buzz. I answered him more intensely 
than I meant to. 

"So you think this is all just a sham?" 

He shook his head. 

"No. That is not what I'm saying. She will do her job 
and do her best to get an indictment, and if she gets 
it, she will put you on trial. I am just saying that I 
sense she won't be too heartbroken if she loses." 

"What makes you think she doesn't like the case?" 
Marianne asked. 

"Statutory rape tends to be very simple, because there 
is usually one issue and one issue only. Did Steve have 
sex with a minor? Everything else, consent, intent, who 
thought what about whom, all of that is irrelevant. 
That Hayley is under 18 isn't in dispute, so all the 
ADA has to do is prove he slept with her. Right now, 
all she has is Randy. Because I know, and I will bet 
you any amount of money, that Hayley is not 
cooperating. 

"The ADA has to have talked to her by now, and it's 
obvious as hell that Hayley won't tell them what they 
want to hear. If she had, we would not be sitting here. 
That would be the whole case, and the ADA would have 
already gone to the grand jury. The fact that we are 
doing this hearing tells me that she hasn't got much 
else to go on. That, and the fact that they won't let 
us at her." 

I realized what he was saying. 

"They're leaning on her to get her to cooperate," I 
said angrily. "She's the *victim,* and they're leaning 
on *her* to confess." 

He nodded slowly. 

"It's been known to happen. Oh, I'm sure they've 
rationalized it by telling themselves that she's in 
denial and that they're trying to help her escape from 
the spell you have her under, but my distinct feeling 
is that they are doing just that." 

Elizabeth let out a sob and began crying into her 
hands. 

"Oh, my God! My baby!" 

Marianne tried to comfort her, and Elizabeth leaned 
over to cry on her shoulder. I had to take a few 
moments to collect myself. 

"So what do we do now?" 

"I'm going to get to work on preparing for the hearing. 
You won't have to testify, and I strongly advise you 
not to even consider it, but Marianne and Elizabeth 
will almost certainly be subpoenaed. Probably Tiffany 
and Giselle also. They'll put Randy on the stand and 
Hayley too, though my guess is that they'll save her 
for last. Partly because she's the main witness, but 
also because it will give them the maximum amount of 
time to get her to crack." 

"Jesus." 

He nodded. 

"This ground zero of our justice system, Steve. No one 
ever said it was pretty." 

The hearing took place a few days later. Brian had 
prepped us all thoroughly, and I had talked with the 
girls myself in private. I pointed out that Brian 
thought only that I was sleeping with Marianne and knew 
nothing about anything else that had gone on. Since all 
of them would have to commit perjury to get us out of 
this, that fact could not change. If Brian knew the 
whole truth, he would have no choice but to withdraw 
from the case, since he could not ethically allow the 
girls to get up on the stand and perjure themselves. 

I dressed in my best suit, having to dig it out of 
storage, and I went with Brian into the courthouse and 
up to the courtroom. The others would have to wait in 
the hallway to be called as witnesses. 

The ADA was a pretty blonde woman of about thirty-five. 
Her shoulder length hair was pinned back with a silver 
clip, and she wore a trim navy suit. Beside her, at the 
prosecutor's table, was the woman from DFCS. We 
exchanged steely glares when I entered the room and 
thereafter ignored each other. 

The ADA got up first and gave a short opening statement 
about what she intended to do and what evidence she 
had. Brian followed by pointing out that the whole case 
rested on hearsay testimony from someone with an axe to 
grind. 

A few days before, I had had what I thought was a 
revelation about Randy's testimony, namely that, as 
Brian was now explaining, everything he said was 
hearsay. Brian calmly informed me that that didn't much 
help us, for a couple of reasons. First, hearsay was 
admissible in a preliminary hearing, and second, even 
if it weren't, his testimony fit into an exception 
known as admissions against interest -- the idea being 
that I wouldn't have made such a statement to Randy 
were it not the truth. I tried to point out that that 
said nothing about whether Randy was making the whole 
thing up, but Brian explained that the question of 
Randy's veracity was an issue for the jury, not the 
judge. After that, I just gave up and let him do his 
job. 

As Brian had predicted, Randy was the first witness. He 
gave me a barely concealed glance of triumph when he 
took the stand. 

The ADA began with a few foundational issues, then 
turned to the case. 

"How do you know Mr. Chandler?" 

"He's dating my ex-girlfriend." 

"Who is your ex-girlfriend?" 

"Marianne Mulcahey. Hayley's sister." 

"When did you first meet Mr. Chandler?" 

"I don't recall the exact date. It was some time last 
September." 

"And what was the occasion?" 

"I was angry about Marianne dumping me. I went over to 
tell him to stay away from her." 

Brian glanced at me, and I nodded. He had told me that 
the ADA would almost certainly explore Randy's 
motivations before we could do it, as a means of 
defusing any impeachment of his testimony. 

"You were angry with Mr. Chandler?" 

"Yes." 

"Did you go his house again?" 

"Yes." 

"When?" 

"About a month or two later." 

"And what was the occasion?" 

"Pretty much the same thing. I was upset at losing 
Marianne. I went there to yell at him." 

"Was there another time you went to Mr. Chandler's 
house?" 

"Yes. Back in March." 

The hairs on my neck rose. Randy had not been back to 
my house since that drunken incident last fall. I took 
Brian's pen and wrote "B.S." on his legal pad. 

"Why were you there?" 

"I had heard some things about what was going on. That 
Marianne and Hayley had moved in with them. I was 
worried about them." 

The ADA's face tightened slightly, and I could tell she 
didn't quite believe that. But she went on. I noticed 
that Randy was now carefully avoiding my gaze. 

"What occurred when you arrived at the house?" 

"Mr. Chandler answered the door." 

"Was anyone else there?" 

"Yes. I saw Hayley standing behind him." 

"Did you see anything unusual about her?" 

"Yes. She appeared to be wearing nothing but her 
panties and a short T- shirt. Like she had just gotten 
out of bed." 

Brian jerked back in his seat. 

"Objection. The witness has no personal knowledge of 
that fact. That is pure speculation." 

"We're in a preliminary hearing here, your Honor," the 
ADA said. 

The judge nodded to Brian. 

"The point is made, counsel. Proceed." 

She turned back to Randy. 

"Did Mr. Chandler say anything to you?" 

"Yes. I told him what I thought of him, that he was 
just using the girls, and he laughed at me. He said 
'Yeah, I use them every damn night.'" 

"Those were his exact words?" 

"Yes." 

"And what did you take that to mean?" 

"That he was having sex with both Marianne and Hayley." 

"Did Hayley have any reaction to that statement?" 

"No. She didn't act like it was anything unusual." 

Brian spoke up again. 

"Objection. We're back into the speculation again, your 
Honor." 

The ADA just turned back to Randy. 

"How did she react, if at all? Specifically." 

"She didn't react. She just stood there smiling at me 
like she--" He stopped, glancing at Brian. "She seemed 
to think it was all funny." 

The ADA stepped back. 

"I have nothing further." 

She sat down, and Brian got to his feet. 

"Randy, you don't like Mr. Chandler, do you?" 

"No." 

"You're mad at him because he took Marianne away from 
you, aren't you?" 

"Yes." 

"You would like to see him in jail, wouldn't you?" 

"Yes." 

"You were intoxicated on at least one of these 
occasions when you showed up at Mr. Chandler's house, 
weren't you?" 

He glanced at the ADA, whose face darkened. She 
apparently wasn't aware of that fact. Randy gulped. 

"Yes I was." 

"And you aren't old enough to drink, are you?" 

"Um. No." 

Brian paused and glanced down at his legal pad. 

"I want to talk about the alleged conversation you had 
with Mr. Chandler in March. Do you recall the date on 
which it occurred?" 

"Yes. It was March 28th." 

Several sets of eyebrows went up around the courtroom. 

"You recall that specifically?" 

"Yes. Because it was right before I went on vacation." 

"What time of day was it?" 

"Nighttime. Maybe eight o'clock." 

Brian glanced at me, then the ADA, then back at his 
pad. He sat down. 

"That's all I have." 

The ADA stood up again. 

"Randy, were you intoxicated when you visited Mr. 
Chandler's house on March 28?" 

"No, I wasn't." 

She gave us a triumphant glance and sat down. I looked 
at Brian, who rolled his eyes in defeat. So much for 
that point. 

The next witness was the woman from DFCS. She gave me a 
steely, disdainful glare when she climbed into the 
witness seat. The ADA spent a few minutes going over 
who she was and what she did before getting to the main 
issues. 

"Can you describe your first meeting with Randy 
Donahue?" 

"He showed up on the afternoon of June 12th, telling 
the receptionist that he had to speak with a social 
worker about something important. They sent him into my 
office." 

"How would you describe his manner?" 

"He was nervous. This clearly something that had been 
eating at him for a long time." 

I gritted my teeth. No shit, I wanted to say. 

"And what did Randy tell you?" 

"He told me about Mr. Chandler, and that his ex-
girlfriend and her sister were living with him. He said 
that Mr. Chandler had confessed to having sex with both 
of them." 

"And what did you do in response to this?" 

"I explored the issue with him for about an hour. 
However disgusting I found Mr. Chandler's relationship 
with Marianne, I told him we could not do anything 
about that, but that any contact between Mr. Chandler 
and Hayley was illegal. The more he told me, the 
angrier I got, especially when he explained about their 
mother having left the girls with Mr. Chandler. I 
realized this was a situation we had to act on 
immediately, for Hayley's sake." 

"And what action did you take?" 

"I contacted the Sheriff's Department and discussed the 
case with them. We went out there the next day. They 
arrested Mr. Chandler, and I removed Hayley from the 
household." 

"You've had an opportunity to examine Hayley, have you 
not?" 

"Yes. She's clearly traumatized by her experience with 
Mr. Chandler. It's going to take a very long time for 
her to recover from this." 

"What do you base this opinion on?" 

"She's still in denial about what she experienced. 
She's been very hostile and uncooperative." 

"Is such behavior unusual?" 

"Not at all. Quite often in such situations, especially 
when the victim has been living with her abuser, she 
will initially deny everything in an attempt to protect 
him." 

"But you are confident that Mr. Chandler was having 
sexual intercourse with Hayley?" 

"There is no doubt in my mind about that fact." 

The ADA smiled at us. 

"I have nothing else." 

Brian stood up as she sat down. 

"Ms. Marcus, you were not entirely accurate when you 
described your 'removal' of Hayley from Mr. Chandler's 
presence, were you?" 

She sniffed. 

"I don't know what you mean." 

"In fact, she was so uncooperative that the police had 
to throw her down on the ground and handcuff her, 
didn't they?" 

"As I said, she is very traumatized by Mr. Chandler's 
treatment of her. Such behavior is not uncommon. He has 
such a hold over her that I was not surprised by what 
happened." 

"But that is indeed what occurred?" 

"Yes." 

"She even spat in your face during this incident, 
didn't she?" 

The woman squirmed slightly. 

"Yes." 

"Is it in fact possible that Hayley has not been 
abused, and that she was just trying to defend herself 
from being dragged away from her family and friends?" 

"Not from my assessment of this case." 

"But it's possible?" 

"I suppose anything is possible. But it's extremely 
unlikely." 

"Hayley has denied having any sexual contact with Mr. 
Chandler, hasn't she?" 

"As I said, she's in denial. That will change." 

"You're certain of that?" 

"Yes." 

"Based on what?" 

"My experience in previous cases." 

Brian fidgeted with his legal pad, then sat down. 

The ADA then called Marianne. She stepped into the 
courtroom, and per Brian's instructions, avoided 
greeting me or looking at me too hard. She wore a 
demure white dress and little or no makeup. 

"How do you know Mr. Chandler?" 

"We've been dating for about a year. I'm living with 
him now." 

"Have you had sexual intercourse with him?" 

She quivered for a moment. 

"Yes." 

"How many times?" 

She looked up at the judge. 

"Do I have to answer that?" 

The judge nodded. 

"Um. I don't know. I haven't been counting." 

"More than 10 times?" 

"Yes." 

"More than 20?" 

"Your Honor, I have trouble seeing the relevance of 
this," Brian said. 

"So do I," he responded. "Let's move along, Ms. 
Haywood." 

"When was the first time?" 

"October 22." 

"Last year? You remember the date?" 

"Yes. Because it was three days after my eighteenth 
birthday." 

Out of the corner of my eye, I looked over at Brian 
very carefully. He had gone stock still, and I knew 
why. Marianne had just perjured herself, and he knew 
it. 

Haywood fidgeted with her legal pad for a few seconds. 

"Do you recall when Mr. Chandler first met your sister 
Hayley?" 

"Yes. I brought her over one afternoon to use the 
pool." 

"You brought her over frequently after that?" 

"Yes." 

"How many times?" 

"A few times a week maybe." 

"Did the three of you ever go out together in the 
evenings?" 

"Yes." 

"On dates?" 

"For dinner. I don't know if you could call it dates." 

She flipped through her pad for a second. 

"Mr. Chandler bought your sister a new car, did he 
not?" 

"Yes." 

"He bought you one as well, didn't he?" 

"For our birthdays." 

"Just out of friendship?" 

Marianne gulped, glancing at me. 

"More than that." 

"Your sister is in love with Mr. Chandler, isn't she?" 

Brian spoke up. 

"Your Honor, that's pretty darned ambiguous. There are 
a lot of different types of love." 

"I'm going to explore this fully," Haywood said. 

"Proceed, then," the judge said. 

She looked back to Marianne, who inhaled slowly. 

"Yes she is." 

"And, just to be clear, we're talking about romantic 
love, aren't we?" 

"She loves him in a lot of ways. He's done a lot for 
us." 

"And to you, yes?" 

Brian jumped out of his chair. 

"Your *Honor*." 

The judge glared down at the ADA. 

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that, Ms. Haywood." 

She didn't appear fazed, and continued. 

"Hayley began living with you at some point, didn't 
she?" 

"Yes. When our mother moved away. But she had her own 
room. It wasn't like you're implying." 

"But would you say that her feelings for him deepened 
once she was living with him?" 

Marianne took a slow breath. 

"Yes." 

"Did you ever hear her say, 'I love you' to Mr. 
Chandler?" 

Marianne gulped. 

"Yes." 

"On more than one occasion?" 

"Yes." 

Haywood looked at my table triumphantly. 

"I have nothing further." 

Brian stood up. 

"I really have only one question, Marianne. To your 
knowledge, did Mr. Chandler ever have sexual 
intercourse with your sister Hayley?" 

"No, he did not." 

Brian sat down, and Haywood stood back up. 

"Were there ever occasions when Hayley and Mr. Chandler 
were alone together?" 

Marianne glanced at me, worry etched all over her face. 
But she couldn't deny a question like that without 
destroying her credibility, not since Haywood had 
established that Hayley was living with us. 

"Yes." 

"So they could have had sex without your knowledge?" 

I watched her eyes filling with tears, and I nodded. 
Haywood had boxed her in very neatly. 

"Yes," she said very quietly. 

"That's all I have." 

Marianne left the courtroom crying quietly, and I 
looked over at Brian. He simply scratched methodically 
at his legal pad with his chin in his hand. 

This was not going well. 


CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX 
------------------

When Marianne was gone, Haywood called Giselle to the 
stand. 

"How do you know Hayley?" 

"I'm friends with her sister. She was also on the J.V. 
cheerleading squad last year." 

"And you were on the varsity?" 

"Yes." 

"How did you meet Mr. Chandler?" 

"I came over to his house one night with Marianne." 

"Were there ever occasions when you were at his house 
that Hayley was also present?" 

"Yes." 

"How would you characterize their relationship?" 

"They're very close, especially since her father went 
to jail. She had a crush on him at first. I think she 
really loves him now. But it looks more to me like 
she's adopted him as a surrogate father." 

Haywood didn't seem to like that response, so she moved 
on to something else. 

"Mr. Chandler has a thing for young girls, doesn't he?" 

Brian spoke up instantly. 

"Your Honor, can we dispense with the innuendo here and 
stick to the facts?" 

"I'm going to establish this," Haywood said. 

"Do so," the judge said. 

She turned back to Giselle, who fidgeted for a moment. 

"I don't know what you mean." 

"Are you aware that he is having sex with Marianne?" 

"Yes." 

"You are living with him right now, aren't you?" 

"I was renting a room from him." 

"For how much?" 

"Twenty-five a week. It's all I can afford." 

"What prompted you to move in with him?" 

"I got into a fight with my folks. I wanted out. 
Marianne and Steve had an extra room, and she offered 
to let me stay there." 

Haywood paused a moment or two to collect her thoughts. 

"On more than one occasion, Mr. Chandler has hosted 
parties for your cheerleading squad, hasn't he?" 

Giselle squirmed for a moment. 

"Yes." 

"Did anything sexual ever occur at these parties?" 

Giselle gasped slightly, and her breathing accelerated. 
Haywood sensed it instantly, and closed in for the 
kill. 

"Giselle, I'll remind you that you are under oath 
here." 

"Okay," Giselle squeaked. 

"Did anything sexual ever occur at these parties?" 

Giselle looked at me in terror, and I nodded. I 
couldn't stand to see her trapped like this. 

"Yes." 

"Such as?" 

Giselle gasped for breath a few times. 

"Um." 

"Go on." 

"I -- a couple of times -- I had sex with Marianne. And 
with two other girls on the squad." 

Haywood's eyes widened. 

"You had sex with *Marianne*?" 

"Yes." 

"In front of Mr. Chandler?" 

"Yes." 

She glanced at me in shock, then looked back at 
Giselle. But that brief break gave Giselle just enough 
time to regain her wits. 

"Did you ever have sex with Mr. Chandler?" 

"No." 

"Did he have sex with any of the other girls?" 

"No." 

"He just had you put on a show for him?" 

"It wasn't that cheap. We all liked him." 

The ADA laughed weakly. 

"Apparently so." 

She paused for a second or two, looking at her pad. 

"Was Hayley ever present at these parties?" 

"No." 

"Never?" 

"Never." 

Haywood fumed for a second, seeming to sense that she 
had somehow missed an opportunity here. 

"I think that's all I have." 

Brian stood up. 

"To your knowledge, did Mr. Chandler ever have sex with 
Hayley?" 

"No, he did not." 

Giselle stepped down, and Haywood called Tiffany to the 
stand. She gave her foundation only the bare minimum 
before pouncing on Giselle's accidental confession. 

"Have you ever had sex with Marianne Mulcahey?" 

Tiffany gasped, and her eyes swelled in shock. 

"Uh." She glanced at us, thrown completely off-balance. 
"How--" 

"Just answer the question. And remember that you are 
under oath here." 

Tiffany gulped. 

"Yes." 

"In front of Mr. Chandler?" 

"Yes." 

"Have you ever had sex with Mr. Chandler?" 

Still too flustered to think straight, she answered. 

"Yes." 

"On what occasions?" 

"I don't remember." 

Haywood's eyebrows went up. 

"You don't remember?" 

"I mean, I don't--there were a lot--" 

"There were a lot of occasions?" 

Trapped now, Tiffany could only blather forth what she 
knew. My teeth went on edge, seeing the entire case 
collapsing. 

"Uh. Yeah." 

"When was the first time?" 

"Uh. Last year." 

"Was Marianne aware of this?" 

"Yes. It was her idea." 

Haywood again glanced at me in disbelief. 

"It was *her* idea for you to have sex with her 
boyfriend?" 

"Yeah, I mean, we've kind of got this thing were she 
tells me what to do, and I do it." 

"And she tells you to have sex with Mr. Chandler?" 

I put my face in my hands, unable to watch any more of 
this. 

"Yes." 

Haywood had to pause a moment to compose herself. 

"Have you ever had sex with Hayley Mulcahey?" 

Everything in the world seemed to pause on a precipice. 
If Tiffany answered this truthfully, the rest of it 
would probably come spilling out as well. But the 
mention of Hayley's name seemed to strike something 
inside of Tiffany, and she regained a modicum of poise. 

"No." 

"No?" 

"No." 

Haywood clearly didn't know whether to believe this. 

"Was Hayley ever present when you had sex with 
Marianne?" 

"No." 

Haywood's hands clenched, then relaxed. She took a deep 
breath. 

"Tiffany, how old are you?" 

"Eighteen." 

"When was your eighteenth birthday?" 

"Last December." 

"Was this before or after--" 

"Before. Before I had sex with Steve." 

Haywood paused again, frustrated. She rubbed her 
forehead for a moment. 

"How would you characterize Mr. Chandler's relationship 
with Hayley?" 

"They're really close. He's kind of become her father 
since her dad got busted. But that's all it is, as far 
as I know." 

Haywood exhaled slowly. She stared at her legal pad for 
a few moments. 

"I have nothing else." 

Brian remained seated. 

"I don't have anything." 

"Is this a good time to break for lunch?" the judge 
asked. 

Haywood nodded. 

"I have only one more witness, but her testimony will 
take a while." 

The judge nodded. No need to ask who it was. 

"We're adjoined until one-fifteen." 

Brian and I walked slowly out of the courtroom. 
Marianne and the others were waiting. She hugged me 
tightly, trying not to cry. Giselle looked like she 
wanted to melt into the floor rather than face me, and 
Tiffany didn't look much happier. Elizabeth stood at 
the back of the group next to Ashley, a haggard 
expression on her face. The seven of us went downstairs 
to the cafeteria. 

When we were in the elevator, I glanced at Brian, who 
did not look pleased. 

"You might have mentioned some of this to me," he said 
coldly. 

"I didn't think it was relevant. Hayley wasn't 
involved." 

"It does not fucking help us." He fumed for a second or 
two. "Is there anything else I should know about?" 

"Not that I can think of." 

He didn't appear to believe me, but then, I was lying 
anyway. 

We ate lunch in silence while Brian planned for that 
afternoon. I tried to think back over that morning for 
any straws to grasp at. Randy was lying, but that 
hardly seemed to matter anymore. And we couldn't prove 
it. Could we? 

Something clicked in my head, something he had said. I 
didn't know what to do with it, though, or even if it 
meant anything. I couldn't remember the details I 
needed. So much of it seemed to be just my word against 
his, and I could not testify under these circumstances 
now, not with what had come out that morning. Haywood 
would eviscerate me. 

What I needed was just one hard piece of physical 
evidence that would establish Randy's prevarication. 
And a moment later, I had an idea. 

I cornered Marianne outside cafeteria and explained 
what wanted to do. 

"Do you think it will help?" 

"I don't know. I have to look at it to see. But I need 
you to go home and get it, pronto." 

She nodded. 

"Okay. I'll get back as soon as I can." 

I gave her the keys to my Jeep, and she ran for the 
parking lot. 

The rest of us went back up to the courtroom and 
reassembled. The bailiff let us back in at one-fifteen, 
and the judge returned a few minutes later. Haywood 
stood to resume her case. 

"The People call Hayley Mulcahey." 

I hadn't seen her in the hallway, and I wondered where 
they were keeping her. A second later, I had my answer. 
She came in from the side door, the one they used for 
incarcerated defendants, with the woman from DFCS at 
her side. 

I almost didn't recognize her. 

Hayley, despite being sixteen, often acted younger, 
frequently playing the younger sister act to the hilt 
and not trying to be particularly mature. When she was 
happy, it came out as playfulness; when she was upset, 
it came out as pique. 

Neither was in evidence today. She looked -- I 
struggled for the right description -- hardened. That 
was a good word, but it didn't encapsulate the entire 
change in her. She had been hurt, deeply. The innocence 
was gone. The bright mirth I always saw in her eyes had 
been replaced by a cold fury. She looked a lot older 
than sixteen. 

I wanted to leap out of my chair and strangle the woman 
beside her. 

Hayley took the stand, and to my surprise, she didn't 
look at me. As I watched her glaring at Haywood, daring 
her to say something, I realized why. The other girls 
had often looked at me for moral support. Hayley didn't 
appear to need any. She was here to do battle, on her 
own terms, but I couldn't help but tremble at the sight 
of this. What chance did she stand against an 
experienced prosecutor? 

Haywood stood beside her. 

"Please state your full name for the record." 

"Hayley Ruth Mulcahey." 

"What is your birthdate?" 

"March 3rd, 1983." 

She spoke with a cold, methodical precision that sent 
chills down my spine. 

"So you're sixteen?" 

"Yes." 

"Are you acquainted with Steven Chandler?" 

"Yes." 

"When did you first meet him?" 

"It was last fall. I don't recall the date." 

"What was the occasion?" 

"Marianne brought me over to his house. We went 
swimming in Steve's pool." 

"Did you visit his house on other occasions?" 

"Yes, I did." 

"Were you aware at the time that Marianne was having 
sex with Steve?" 

"Yes. They started sleeping together after she turned 
eighteen." 

Haywood's jaw tightened. Miss number one. 

"And how did you become aware of this?" 

"Marianne told me." 

"The two of you discussed her sex life?" 

"Yes. Quite often." 

Every answer was quick, sharp, and without hesitation. 
I looked at Brian, who was watching this intently. 

"Did she ever discuss with you that she was having sex 
with her friends on the cheerleading squad?" 

"Yes." 

"You were aware that Marianne was having lesbian sex 
with these other girls, Tiffany, Giselle, and Ashley?" 

"Yes." 

Haywood paused, smiling. 

"Did she ever tell you that Steve had had sex with 
Tiffany?" 

"Yes. We talked about everything they were doing." 

I shivered in my seat and looked at Brian. He just 
shook his head slowly and picked up his pen. "This is 
going nowhere," he wrote. "She hasn't laid a glove on 
her yet." 

"So you were aware of these orgies that were going on 
at Steve's house, even after you moved in?" 

Brian sat up. 

"Objection. That's a compound question." 

The judge nodded at the ADA. 

"Break it up, Ms. Haywood." 

Haywood paused a moment, then turned back to Hayley. 

"You were aware of these orgies?" 

"Yes." 

"After you moved in?" 

Hayley glared up at her. 

"Nothing happened after I moved in." 

"Nothing happened? They came to a halt after that?" 

"Nothing happened while I was in the house. If it 
happened when I was out, I don't know." 

Haywood turned away from her, staring at her legal pad, 
then spun around. 

"Hayley, are you in love with Steve?" 

She answered immediately. 

"Yes, I am." 

Haywood smiled. 

"What are we talking about here? Puppy love, friend 
love, I'd-like-to- marry-you-love? 

"I love him in a lot of ways. I had a big crush on him 
in the beginning. He wasn't like other grown-ups I 
knew. He treated me like a person. He talked to me like 
he thought I had a brain. He didn't patronize me. I 
know he cares about me, and believe me that's something 
considering the life I've had to live. My own father 
cares a lot less about me than Steve does. 

"When my father went to jail, Steve was the only one 
who was really there to support me. He was there, every 
day, when I needed a shoulder to cry on or someone to 
talk to. He's even been paying for the therapist I've 
been seeing. Marianne cares, but she has her own issues 
to deal with. Even my mother had to get out of town. 
So, yes I love him. I might have killed myself by now 
without him." 

Haywood had to pause a few moments to absorb this, and 
frankly, so did I. 

"But are you saying that you... I mean, would you... 
this is romantic love we're talking about here?" 

"Your Honor, she's answered the question," Brian said. 
"This is just badgering at this point." 

Hayley didn't wait for a ruling. 

"Yes it is. But I know that Marianne comes first with 
him. I would never try to disrupt that." 

Haywood paused again, and this time she stared at her 
legal pad for a good ten seconds. 

"Hayley, are you a virgin?" 

"No, I am not." 

"And who have you had sex with?" 

Hayley took a deep breath, glanced nervously around the 
courtroom, and answered. 

"Randy Donahue." 


CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN 
--------------------

After Hayley's revelation, everyone--and I mean 
everyone--in the courtroom gasped, including the judge. 
Haywood did a double take. 

"I'm sorry?" 

"Randy Donahue. I have had sex with Randy Donahue." 

Brian nudged me, and I saw that he had written "WTF??" 
on his legal pad in big letters. I shrugged. I had no 
clue either. 

Haywood was unable to compose herself for a few 
moments. 

"You have had sex with Randy Donahue?" 

"Yes, I have. On several occasions." 

Had I not known any better (and I did, right?) I would 
have sworn she was telling the truth. Her delivery had 
the same calm, careful tone that she had established 
from the beginning. 

Haywood should have dropped this line of questioning 
immediately. But, whether out of shock or curiosity, 
she was unable to leave bad enough alone. 

"What were the occasions?" 

"After Marianne broke up with him, he began coming 
after me. I think he just wanted what he thought was 
the next best thing. I was flattered at first. He was a 
senior on the football team and I was a just a 
sophomore cheerleader. He got more serious about it 
this spring. He talked me into sleeping with him in 
February, a couple of times. But by then I was sick of 
him, and I could see why Marianne dumped him. So I told 
him off, that I didn't want to see him again. He didn't 
take it very well." 

"What do you mean?" 

"He got really upset. He threatened me. He said he was 
going to make me and Marianne sorry that we had dumped 
him. And I guess he has." 

Haywood tried to catch her breath, looking wearily 
around the courtroom and pursing her lips. She closed 
her eyes slowly. 

"I don't think I have anything else." 

Brian stood up. 

"Your Honor, since this is the most important witness, 
I'd like to take a few minutes to prepare." 

"Very well. We'll take a ten-minute recess." 

Hayley remained where she was. I tried to catch her 
eyes, but she simply sat there, head down, staring at 
her hands. Brian sat next to me flipping through his 
notes. I got up after a few minutes and went out to 
look for Marianne. There was no sign of her. 

Elizabeth, Tiffany, and Giselle were all waiting. I 
tried to fill them in on what happened. 

"How is she doing?" Elizabeth asked. 

"Good. But I can tell this has been very hard on her. I 
don't want to think about what she's been going 
through." 

I stood nervously in the hallway as the minutes ticked 
past. No Marianne. Finally the bailiff stuck his head 
out the door. 

"They're getting ready to go again." 

I sighed, turning toward the courtroom. Then I heard 
rapid footsteps in the hallway outside. I turned to see 
Marianne running up to me with a few folded sheets of 
paper in her hands. She shoved them at me. 

"Are we okay?" 

"I think so." 

I kissed her quickly and went inside. Brian was 
waiting, and I showed him what I had. He looked it over 
briefly, nodding. 

Then he stood, and Hayley looked toward him. 

"Hayley, I'm sorry about all this. I really have only a 
couple of questions." 

"Okay." 

"Have you ever had sexual intercourse with Steven 
Chandler?" 

"No." 

"Do you recall where you were on the evening of March 
28?" 

"Um. No." 

"I'm going to show you something that may help." 

He unfolded the papers and handed them to her. She 
looked them over for a few seconds, and for the first 
time that afternoon, I saw signs of life filling her 
eyes. 

"Do you recognize that document that I have just handed 
to you?" 

"Yes!" 

"Have you seen that before?" 

"Yes!" 

"Can you identify it for me?" 

"Yes! It's the bill from when we were in Santa Cruz 
over Spring Break. I saw it when they shoved it under 
our door." 

"And having reviewed that document, is your 
recollection refreshed as to where you were on the 
evening of March 28?" 

"Yes! We were in Santa Cruz visiting my Mom!" 

"Would you look at the first line of the statement, 
where it lists the date and time of check-in? Can you 
read that for me?" 

"Yes. It says March 28, 7:03 p.m." 

"And on March 28, at 7:03 p.m., you, Marianne, and 
Steve Chandler were in Santa Cruz checking in to the 
Chaminade Resort?" 

"Yes!" 

"So you could not have been here, at Steve's house, as 
Mr. Donahue has alleged?" 

"No!" 

Haywood got to her feet. 

"Brian, could I see that?" 

He turned to her, but before he could hand it to her, 
the judge motioned to him. Brian handed the statement 
across the judge's bench. The judge reviewed it for a 
few seconds before handing it back. Brian gave it to 
Haywood, and she sat on the edge of her table looking 
it over. The woman from DFCS got to her feet and leaned 
over Haywood's shoulder. 

Finally Haywood handed the bill back to Brian. 

"Are you entering this into evidence, counsel?" the 
judge asked. 

"Yes, your Honor." 

Brian turned back to Hayley. 

"Just so we're clear, has Randy Donahue ever been to 
Mr. Chandler's house while you were present?" 

"Yes. But the only time I'm aware of was last fall. He 
was drunk and just came over to yell at Marianne and 
Steve." 

"And never since then." 

"No." 

Brian turned to Haywood. 

"That's all I have." 

Hayley stepped down, a nervous smile on her face. I 
gave her a subtle wink as she left the courtroom with 
the woman from DFCS. 

When she was gone, Haywood stood up slowly. 

"Your Honor, the People rest." 

The judge nodded, looking to Brian. 

"Counsel, do you need another break?" 

"No, your Honor, we're ready to go. The defense calls 
Elizabeth Mulcahey." 

The bailiff retrieved Elizabeth from the hallway. She 
took the stand, and Brian began his examination. 

"How are you related to Hayley?" 

"She's my daughter." 

"How are you acquainted with Mr. Chandler?" 

"Until a few months ago, I and my soon-to-be-ex-husband 
lived several doors down from him. I knew him from high 
school, but we hadn't met again recently until Marianne 
told me she was dating him." 

"And how did that come about?" 

"She stayed out all night one night and did not come 
back until the next morning. When we asked where she 
had been, she told us the whole story." 

"Including the fact that she was having sex with Mr. 
Chandler?" 

"Yes. Although she insisted that they had not begun 
sleeping together until she turned eighteen." 

"And you believed her?" 

"Yes." 

"What was your reaction to this revelation?" 

"I was extremely upset. Mr. Chandler is older than I 
am, by a few months. I found their relationship, at 
least at first, shocking and unacceptable." 

"But your opinion changed?" 

"Yes, it did. As I got to know Mr. Chandler better, and 
as I began to see just how deep their feelings were for 
each other, my opposition faded. I realized that he was 
actually better for her than any of the boys she had 
been dating. Steve respected her as a person, which is 
not something I could say about any of her prior 
boyfriends." 

"Such as Randy Donahue?" 

"Such as Randy." 

"And you feel this way despite the age difference 
between Steve and Marianne?" 

"Yes. I had always thought Marianne would be better off 
with someone older. She has never had much of a 
relationship with her father. Steve has given her the 
support and guidance she never got from my husband." 

"Let's talk about him for a moment. You are getting a 
divorce, are you not?" 

"Yes, I am." 

"Why?" 

"Among other things, because he is in prison for 
statutory rape. He was unfaithful many times in the 
past, but his arrest was the last straw. I decided that 
I, and the girls, deserved more." 

"Where are you living now?" 

"Santa Cruz. I'm attending the University of California 
there." 

"What did you do with your daughters when you moved 
away?" 

"I let them move in with Steve." 

"Why?" 

"Because I did not want to take them out of school and 
uproot them simply because I needed a change in my 
life. Because I trusted Steve, and I knew they were 
both very close to him. Because I knew he could take 
care of them and give them the guidance I could not." 

"You didn't see anything unusual in leaving your two 
teenage daughters with a man you had known only a few 
months?" 

"I knew it was unusual, but such was my trust in Steve 
and my belief that they would be safe and happy with 
him that I was not worried. He has lived up to that 
trust and more." 

"You didn't see anything wrong with having Hayley 
living with Marianne's boyfriend?" 

"I thought she was mature enough to understand the 
realities of it. As I said, I knew she liked Steve. I 
was not worried about her." 

"You care about Hayley's welfare and emotional health?" 

"More than anything in the world." 

"And you would not have left Hayley with Steve if were 
you worried about her getting hurt?" 

"Never." 

"And, being in the process of divorcing a man who had 
been caught in flagrante delicto with a girl of 
Hayley's age, would you have then turned around and 
allowed Hayley to live with someone who possessed the 
moral failings that your husband is in prison for?" 

"Never in a million years." 

"To your knowledge, has Hayley ever had sexual 
intercourse with Steven Chandler?" 

"To my knowledge, no." 

Brian turned to Haywood and smiled. 

"Your witness." 

Haywood stood up slowly and regarded her legal pad for 
a moment. 

"You have been inside Mr. Chandler's house on only a 
few occasions, correct?" 

"That's correct." 

"So would it be fair to say that a lot could be going 
on there that you aren't aware of?" 

"Unless both my daughters have been lying to me, no." 

"Meaning what?" 

"Meaning that I speak to them on a regular basis, and 
they tell me what is going on in their lives." 

"But you admit that they might be lying about what has 
been going on?" 

"I think I know when my daughters are lying to me." 

Haywood fidgeted for a moment or two and flipped 
through her notes. 

"Are you aware that your daughter Marianne is a 
lesbian?" 

"She is not a lesbian. She's quite clearly bisexual, 
and yes I am aware of that." 

Haywood blinked a few times in surprise. 

"You are." 

"Yes, I am. I am a lesbian myself. Marianne and I have 
discussed that issue quite a few times." 

Haywood's jaw dropped even further, and she looked down 
at her notes. 

"You... I thought you were married." 

"I was. It's part of why I'm getting a divorce." 

"Does Hayley know?" 

"Yes, she does." 

"Do you discuss Hayley's sex life as well?" 

"As far as I know, she doesn't have one." 

"Were you aware of her relationship with Randy?" 

Elizabeth shifted in her seat, glancing briefly at me. 

"No, I was not." 

"Does Hayley..." Haywood paused again and studied her 
notes for a few seconds. "Strike that. Mrs. Mulcahey, I 
just want to get clear on one thing. You saw nothing 
wrong with allowing your two teenage daughters to live 
with a forty-one-year-old man you hardly knew? One who 
was already sleeping with Marianne and engaging in 
these bouts of group sex? Nothing wrong with that at 
all?" 

Before Elizabeth could answer, Brian spoke up. 

"Your Honor, Mrs. Mulcahey's parenting decisions are 
not at issue here. I don't see how her judgment or lack 
thereof is at all probative of whether Mr. Chandler had 
sex with Hayley." 

The judge looked down at Haywood expectantly. 

"Your Honor, I think much of what we just heard 
constitutes character evidence," she responded. "I 
think the defense has opened the door to such a 
question." 

The judge glanced at his notes for a second and then 
looked up. 

"I'll allow it. But let's try to stay on track here, 
people." 

Haywood turned back to Elizabeth, who squirmed in her 
seat. 

"I think I've explained my rationale sufficiently." 

The ADA was pensive for a few moments, then sat down. 

"I don't think I have anything else." 

"Redirect?" the judge ask Brian. 

"No, your Honor." 

Elizabeth stepped down, and Brian stood up again. 

"Your Honor, the defense rests." 

The judge turned back to Haywood, who stood up as well. 

"Could we take a break? I don't know yet whether I need 
to call any rebuttal witnesses." 

The judge nodded. 

"Very well. We'll come back in fifteen minutes." 

Brian and I regrouped with the others in the hallway, 
and we spent a few minutes updating them. 

"So how do you think we're doing?" I finally asked. 

He shrugged. 

"Hard to tell. All depends on how uptight the judge is, 
and how much the idea of you romping with a bunch of 
cheerleaders offends him. He may be inclined to think 
that there is some fire underneath all this smoke. But 
if he sticks to the cold facts we've brought out, we 
should win." 

"I didn't see a lot of logic in Haywood's examination 
toward the end." 

"Remember what I said about her being a pro? She's one 
of those few prosecutors who takes her responsibility 
toward the truth--not just getting a conviction--
seriously. I think she really does want to know what 
went on, at this point. Otherwise she would have left 
Elizabeth alone. There really wasn't much she could 
have done to help her case." 

"But she was trying to make Elizabeth look bad." 

He grinned. 

"She's still a prosecutor. I don't think she could 
quite resist asking that question." 

We milled around in the hallway until the bailiff 
called us back in. 
Haywood rose when we were all in her seats. 

"Your Honor, the People have nothing further to 
present." 

The judge nodded. 

"Are we prepared for closing arguments?" 

Brian stood up. 

"Yes, your Honor." 

"Proceed then." 

Brian spent about ten minutes going over our case, 
pointing out that every witness who would have had 
personal knowledge of my supposed relationship with 
Hayley had denied its existence, and that Randy's 
testimony had been thoroughly impeached. When he was 
done, Haywood began her pitch, trying to point out that 
all of our witnesses had motives to protect me, and 
that the one disinterested witness, the woman from 
DFCS, had conclusively opined in favor of my guilt. 
Then she sat down, and the judge pushed some papers 
around on his bench for a few moments. 

"All right," he said finally. "We're in recess until 
tomorrow morning, when I should have my decision." 

It was close to five o'clock by this point, so I took 
all of them out to dinner. The girls peppered Brian 
with random questions while we ate. 

"I hope Hayley is doing all right," I said to 
Elizabeth. 

She sighed. 

"How did she seem?" 

"She did great, but I can tell she's under a lot of 
stress. I just hate what this is doing to her. I don't 
know if I'm ever going to forgive myself for letting 
this happen." 

She put her hand over mine. 

"Don't shoulder all the blame. There's plenty to go 
around." 

"But we should have seen this coming. Giselle warned me 
a few months ago that the kids at school had been 
talking about Hayley's apparent lack of a social life. 
That she wasn't dating anyone." 

"Steve, you can't let your lives revolve around other 
people's gossip. I don't know what you could have 
done." 

I looked at her for a few seconds, and she managed a 
smile. 

"You know," I said, "I got a chill down my spine when 
Brian asked about your ex-husband, about his 'moral 
failings.' I hadn't really thought about that, but it 
seems that there are fewer differences between Charles 
and me than I would like to think." 

Elizabeth sighed. 

"And you think I was lying about what I said? About 
trusting my daughters with you?" 

"Were you?" 

"Not a bit. My God, Steve, you don't know Charles at 
all, or you would never say anything like that. What 
made Charles's affairs so disgusting was that I knew he 
didn't respect those girls. He was just using them, 
like kleenex. He didn't care about them at all. He just 
went from one to another, charming off one pair of 
panties and then moving on to the next. If I really 
thought there was even an ounce of Charles in you, I 
would have turned you in myself a long time ago. It's 
precisely because I know you love and respect and care 
about Marianne and Hayley that I'm on your side here." 

She squeezed my hand, and I nodded. 

"Thanks." 

"You have to stay out of jail, okay?" 

I laughed softly. 

"I'm doing my best." 

We went back to the hotel after that and dispersed to 
our rooms. Marianne lay quietly in bed beside me, 
holding my hand as we watched television. 

"We're going to lose tomorrow, aren't we?" 

I rolled over to face her. 

"Keep your hopes up. It hasn't happened yet." 

She sniffled. 

"Everything was going so well. I was so happy. I've 
never been happier in all my life than I was these past 
few months." She took a ragged breath and began sob. "I 
just knew it couldn't last. I just knew it!" 

I took her into my arms, hugging her tightly as she 
cried against my shoulder. 

"Come on, Kitten. Hang in there. We'll get through this 
somehow." 

I held her until her tears finally dried up about ten 
minutes later. She remained tightly against me, face 
hot and damp against my neck. 

Eventually I reached behind me to turn out the lights. 
Marianne kept her grip on me as I fell asleep. I awoke 
rather soon afterward, realizing that she was caressing 
me. Then she kissed my neck gently. 

"Feeling any better?" 

She shook her head. 

"Make love to me." 

I returned the kiss and slowly undressed her. When we 
were naked together, she snuggled against me, rubbing 
her naked body against mine. I felt her sex hot and 
damp against my thigh. She took my erection in her hand 
and stroked it slowly as we kissed. I played with her 
full breasts for a few minutes until I had her nipples 
hard against my palms. 

Marianne rolled slowly on her back, pulling me on top 
of her. I crawled between her thighs and slipped into 
her gently. 

"I love you," I said. 

She pulled my face down and kissed me passionately. I 
began to move in her, and her body rolled with my 
thrusts. When I lifted up on my arms, she drew herself 
up with me, making a fulcrum of her pubis, pressing 
herself tightly against me. She wrapped her arms around 
my shoulders and clung to me, moaning, as we rocked 
back and forth. 

"Whatever happens," she gasped, "I'm yours, forever. 
I'll wait. If you go to jail, I'll wait for you. 
Nothing will ever keep us apart." 

I fastened my mouth to hers, sucking on her tongue. She 
pulled her legs up and wrapped them around my butt. She 
whimpered as I drove rapidly into her, biting at my 
shoulder. When she began to shudder against me, spiking 
her hips back at mine, I let loose. I drove mercilessly 
into her spasming sex, groaning out loud, and as her 
climax peaked around me, I crossed the threshold to 
orgasm and spurted deeply inside her. 

We were resting quietly together when I heard a knock 
on the adjoining door. 

"It's Giselle," a quiet voice said. 

"Come in," Marianne said. 

The door opened, and Giselle came in the room, wearing 
her pajamas. She shut it behind her and came over to 
us. Marianne sat up, still naked, and pushed her hair 
back over her head. 

"What's up?" 

An embarrassed look shot over Giselle's face. 

"I, um, I heard you guys. And I realized I was feeling 
really lonely and scared." 

Marianne pulled back the covers. 

"You can sleep with us if you want. There's room." 

"Thanks." 

Giselle lay down between us, facing me, and Marianne 
spooned with her. I put my arm over both of them. 

"Is Mom awake?" Marianne asked. 

"I don't think so. If she heard you, I couldn't tell." 

I caressed Giselle's face tenderly in the darkness. 

"I hope Hayley is okay," she said. 

"Me too." 

"If they hurt her," Marianne said, "I'm going to make 
them pay for it." 

"She's tough," I said. "I was really impressed with her 
today." 

The three of us snuggled together under the covers and 
fell asleep a while later. 

I didn't sleep very well, and I woke at dawn. I rose 
carefully from beside Marianne and Giselle, leaving 
them balled up together like a pair of girls ten years 
younger. I pulled on my boxers and went out to the 
balcony, looking across the city toward the ocean. 
Today might be the end of this disaster or just the 
beginning. Either my life would get quickly back on 
track, or it would be permanently derailed. I couldn't 
even think about being convicted of statutory rape--
just being on trial would be bad enough. 

I kept thinking back to that afternoon by the pool, 
when Marianne had first mentioned her sister, wanting 
to know if I was interested in meeting her. What would 
have happened had I said no? What would my life be like 
now? 

Nowhere near as fulfilling, I realized. However 
horrible this experience had been, I knew--I felt this 
in the depths of my soul--that I was better off for 
having known Hayley. I wanted to think she was better 
off for having known me, but that was harder to be sure 
of. 

A lot could still happen to her. That was what really 
hurt -- not that I might one day be labeled a sex 
offender -- but that Hayley would be put through months 
or years of horror because of what we had shared. They 
might even put her in foster care rather than release 
her to Elizabeth. Her punishment would be worse than 
mine. Not for the first time did I curse the hypocrisy 
of this system she was caught up in. 

I heard the glass door slide open, and Marianne emerged 
from the room. 

"Are you okay?" she asked. 

"I've been better." 

She came up behind me and hugged me. 

"Everything will be all right. I just know it. I dreamt 
that the judge let you go. We were all together and 
happy at the ranch." 

"Dreams don't always come true." 

"Mine do. When I dream them like I did this morning. I 
just get these feelings sometimes." 

"What other things have you felt?" 

"I dreamt that Mom and Dad would get a divorce. When we 
were first going out, I dreamt that I would move in 
with you. There were some other things, but they 
haven't happened yet." 

"Like what?" 

She didn't answer me right away. 

"I dreamt that I would have a baby with you." 

I turned around to face her. 

"You did?" 

"Yes. But it also felt like it was a long way off. So I 
don't think it will happen any time soon." 

"This isn't the best time for it." 

She hugged me. 

"I know." 

We returned to the courthouse that morning. Brian and I 
took our places at the defense table, and the others 
sat in the gallery behind us. At the other sat Haywood 
and the woman from DFCS. 

We stood when the judge arrived, and I tried to read 
the look on his face. I didn't like what I saw. He 
cleared his throat and began. 

"This was not an easy decision to make. I must say that 
none of what I heard yesterday struck me in the least 
bit admirable or pleasant. I have two teenage daughters 
myself, and I cannot imagine a setting I would less 
prefer to have them placed in than Mr. Chandler's 
household." 

He looked down at me sternly. 

"Sir, I do not ordinarily make these sorts of 
pronouncements from this bench, but I must say that I 
find your choice of lifestyle abhorrent in the extreme. 
A man of your age and station should not be cavorting 
with girls young enough to his daughters. One alone 
would be bad enough; that you have somehow drawn five 
of them into your orbit simply astounds me." 

Now he looked back toward the gallery at Elizabeth. 

"Madam, everything I have just said applies equally to 
you. What possessed you to leave your daughters behind 
with Mr. Chandler is utterly beyond my conception. It 
was an abdication of your parental responsibilities the 
likes of which I have only rarely seen in my career as 
a judge. 

"The fact that you may not see anything wrong with Mr. 
Chandler's behavior does not absolve you of 
responsibility for their moral education. I recognize 
that you had a limited amount of control over 
Marianne's life choices, but you were under no such 
restrictions with Hayley. What example you thought you 
were setting for her, I cannot for the life of me 
imagine." 

He paused and took a deep breath. 

"Be that as it may. However much it pains me to say 
this, I have found insufficient evidence to bind Mr. 
Chandler over for trial." 

I heard gasps and soft cries of relief behind me, and 
Brian reached over to shake my shoulder as I sat there 
in shock. 

"As Mr. Chandler's counsel ably pointed out, none of 
what I heard yesterday is sufficiently probative of the 
existence of a sexual relationship between his client 
and Hayley Mulcahey. Even taken in the light most 
favorable to the prosecution, I cannot allow this 
matter to proceed solely on the obviously shaky 
testimony of Randy Donahue. The weight of evidence 
militates against any such holding." 

I managed to glance across the aisle at the other 
table. Haywood sat there rubbing her forehead. The 
other woman glared up at the judge murderously. I felt 
a smile creasing my lips and forced it away. 

Brian stood. 

"Yes, counsel?" 

"In light of this ruling, I would like to petition the 
court for an immediate order releasing Hayley to her 
mother." 

The woman from DFCS tried to speak up, but Haywood cut 
her off. The two women began arguing quietly, though I 
could not quite understand what they were saying. 
Everyone in the courtroom watched the scene unfolding 
at the prosecutor's table. 

Finally, the woman from DFCS smacked her hands on the 
table and dropped back into her seat. She crossed her 
arms and looked away from Haywood. 

The ADA stood up, straightening her back slowly. 

"The People have no objection to that, your Honor." 

The judge nodded. 

"So ordered. Where is she?" 

"She's at the county children's home." 

"Very well. She is to be released to her mother 
immediately." 

I was in a daze for a long time afterward as Brian 
shook my hand and the woman all hugged me and 
celebrated. We eventually made our way back to our 
respective cars and drove across town to the children's 
home. Although it took about half an hour to get things 
processed, Hayley finally burst through one of the rear 
doors into the lobby. 

When she saw us, she uncorked a squeal that was 
probably heard in Hawaii. She ran toward us, and we all 
came together in a group hug. She cried in her mother's 
arms, then mine. She hugged me so tightly I had trouble 
breathing. 

"Is it over?" she sobbed. 

"Yes, baby. It's over." 


CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT 
--------------------

The horses were what did it. 

Never mind the Ferrari, the house, the ranch itself, 
all the girls moving in--what really did it for me was 
the horses. When the last two arrived from the rescue 
service, when we had all six happily browsing in the 
pasture, and I could look over the tack and harness in 
the barn with the knowledge that all this was mine, 
that was when it really hit me: I was rich, I was 
retired, and I was more fortunate than I ever had any 
right to expect. 

We had had the housewarming party a few days before 
that, a simple affair with just the seven of us. Ashley 
was staying with us for the summer, though she planned 
to move into the dorms at Stanford when school started 
in the fall. Elizabeth whipped up a meal in our vast 
new kitchen, and we sat around the back patio eating 
and talking about all the things that had happened. 

When the meal was over, Marianne and Hayley brought out 
their present, something enormous--a good ten feet 
long, whatever it was--wrapped in butcher paper. They 
set it in front of me as the others cleared a spot on 
the table. 

"I really hope you like this," Marianne said. "We spent 
a lot of time designing it." 

The rest of them seemed to know the secret, so I tore 
off the wrapping. It took me a few moments to figure 
out what it really was. 

"We thought you could hang it over the gate, down by 
the road," Hayley said. 

It was a big wrought iron sign, about twelve feet long, 
spelling out "The Kitten Ranch" in foot-high letters. 
Welded to the bottom, inside a big circle, was a 
wrought iron cat face. 

I very was touched. I had never even thought about 
something like this, but it was simply too appropriate. 

"It's cute. It's really, really cute. Thanks." 

I hugged both them, making them giggle. The caretaker 
and I hung the thing over the gate the next day, and 
whatever thoughts he might have had about it, he kept 
to himself. I had agreed to keep him on to help out 
around the ranch, and I didn't think he was about to 
risk offending his new employers, especially since I 
had replaced his battered Chevy pickup with a new Dodge 
Ram 2500. 

When we had arrived up here after the end of the 
hearing, Hayley and I had gone out to the horse rescue 
service to pick out the ones we wanted. I was so 
impressed with their operation that I wrote them a 
check for a $10,000 donation over and above the costs 
for the horses. With two of their people helping us, 
Hayley and I picked six horses they thought would be 
best for us. Her favorite proved to be a chestnut 
quarter horse mare, a retired rodeo horse, which she 
named Belle. 

I took her out to lunch at a little deli down the 
street afterwards. A few people gave the Ferrari a 
glance or two, but this was a gentrified area with a 
lot of big ranches, and such things were not that 
uncommon. The waitress took us to a table out on the 
front patio, and we sat together under a stand of 
eucalyptus trees. 

"That was pretty neat," I said. 

She nodded, though she didn't meet my gaze. 

"It feels good to be able to help those horses," she 
said. "I can't wait to ride them." 

"It should be fun." 

She nodded again, still staring blankly out across the 
road. Though she had been animated that morning, I 
could tell that it was going to take some time for her 
to get over her horrible experience with the DFCS. I 
reached out and rubbed her shoulder. 

"Just try to think about the future, Little Kit. The 
past is the past. We have a lot to be happy about now." 

"I know." 

"I'm really proud of you. You did good." 

"I wish I hadn't had to lie at the hearing. Why do they 
have to make what we have, seem so awful and dirty?" 

"I don't know. Life isn't always fair." 

"I wish I could have just told the truth." 

"I know. But sometimes the truth isn't always the best, 
however bad that may sound. There are times, few and 
far in between though they may be, that lying is the 
better course. Don't forget that Randy was lying, too. 
And that woman, though she was right about what we were 
doing, she was all wrong about what really mattered." 

She nodded again, and I went on. 

"If you had to make something up, you did about as well 
as anyone could have. Telling them you had slept with 
Randy was a brilliant idea." 

She looked down, and her face turned slightly grey. Her 
eyes closed, and her lips tightened. 

Chilled suddenly, I reached out and put my hand on her 
shoulder. 

"Baby? What's wrong?" 

She took a deep breath. 

"It wasn't... it wasn't just an idea." 

My jaw dropped, and now she looked up at me. 

"I didn't sleep with him. But there's something you 
don't know about." 

"What?" 

"I wasn't lying about him coming after me. He did, 
especially this spring. The lie was that I didn't want 
anything to do with him. I knew too much about him from 
Marianne, never mind what I had with you. That was the 
reason I ran and hid that night when he showed up 
drunk. 
Because I was afraid of what he might do if he found 
both of us there." 

She paused to catch her breath. 

"One afternoon... back in April... after cheerleading 
practice... he cornered me by the bleachers. He grabbed 
my arm and pulled me under them. He was calling me and 
Marianne all kinds of names. He pushed me to the ground 
and tried to get on top of me." 

My heart was pounding my chest by now. 

"I think... I think he would have raped me if I hadn't 
been able to get free. I kneed him in the balls when he 
tried to force my legs open. I just got up and ran." 

I took her and hugged her tightly. 

"Oh, my God. Baby, why couldn't you tell me?" 

She sniffed. 

"Because I knew you would have gone straight out after 
him and killed him. And I didn't want to get you in 
trouble." 

She was right, of course. I would have done exactly 
that. 

"He didn't really hurt me. I was just a little bruised. 
I was more scared than anything. But after that, there 
was always something really scary in his eyes whenever 
I saw him. I knew he was going to do something. So when 
this happened, I knew why. Blaming it on him the way I 
did was the only thing I could think of." 

I hugged her again. 

"And you did great. And whatever happens, I will never 
let anyone hurt you like that again." 

To my surprise, she pushed herself from my grip. 

"No. Steve, I want you to listen for a second. If there 
is anything I have learned from what happened last 
month, it's that I have to be able to take care of 
myself. I can't keep relying on other people to do it 
for me. I love you more than anything, and I know you 
care about me, but... please don't take this the wrong 
way... you have to stop treating me like I'm your 
daughter. You don't treat Marianne like that." 

I couldn't answer her right away. I exhaled slowly. 

"You're right. I don't." 

"I don't want to be your daughter. I want to be your 
lover. The two are not compatible. If this thing we 
have at the ranch is going to work, you need to 
understand that." 

"Okay. I think I do. I'll try to remember that." 

She leaned over and hugged me. 

"Thanks." 

And so, that day the last two horses arrived, Hayley 
saddled up Belle and I saddled up the Arabian, and the 
two of us went for a ride around the ranch. We rode all 
the way around the perimeter fence, through the trees, 
finally stopping at the waterfall in back. We 
dismounted and let the horses bend down to the creek to 
drink. 

Hayley was wearing jodhpurs and riding boots with a 
loose white blouse, and I couldn't help admiring her 
tight little butt as she stroked Belle's flank. 

She saw me watching her and smiled. 

"You like these pants?" 

"They look good on you." 

"But they'd look better off?" 

I smiled. Whatever she had lost in innocence, she had 
gained in directness. She was more like Marianne now 
than ever. 

"Come here." 

She walked over to me and put her arms around my waist. 
I reached down and stroked her butt over the tight 
fabric. Her blue eye twinkled as she looked up at me. 

"Do you think the horses would mind if we had a little 
fun?" she asked. 

"I doubt they'd pay attention." 

This was the first time we had been together since my 
arrest. I hadn't wanted to push anything on her, 
wanting to wait until she was ready. And now she was, 
but in a way I hadn't expected. 

We fell down together onto the moss beside the creek, 
kissing and fondling each other. She rolled me on my 
back and straddled me in those tight jodhpurs, reaching 
up to unbutton her blouse. I ran my hands up her torso 
and opened her bra, taking her big breasts in my hands. 
She held my arms close to her body, sighing. 

Then she bent forward to kiss me, rubbing herself 
against my erection. I gripped her butt tightly in my 
hands as she unbuttoned my shirt and then my jeans. She 
kissed her way down my chest, and when she reached my 
boxers, she looked up at me, smiling. 

"I'm going to get my tongue pierced. I know you like 
that stud Marianne has." 

"Don't do it just for me, Little Kit." 

"Why not? I love you, and you've done so much for me. I 
want to do something for you." 

I smiled. 

"Okay." 

She slid my boxers down and took me into her mouth. I 
let her bob slowly over me, massaging me with her lips 
and tongue, until I couldn't stand it any longer. I 
pulled her back up, kissing her deeply and reaching for 
her pants. She helped me get them off and then fell 
over onto her back. 

She was dripping wet already, and I was inside her with 
a single thrust. She grunted as I bottomed out, 
gripping my back, then bit at my earlobe. 

"No one else has ever fucked me," she moaned. "And no 
one else ever will." 

I groaned, driving into her as she began writhing under 
me like a cat -- or a kitten, I reflected. It was quick 
and hard and dirty (and not only because we were doing 
it on the bare earth). Hayley moved her legs back and 
forth against me, rolling her hips with each thrust. 
She bit at my shoulder, moaning again. 

"Tell me you love me." 

"I love you," I gasped. "I love you. I love you." 

"I'm not your daughter. Your daughter couldn't do this 
to you." 

With a heave, she rolled the two of us over and 
straddled me. I gripped her buttocks in my hands as she 
pounded herself down on my erection. I held her close, 
kissing her breasts as they bounced above me. Hayley 
let out a shriek, startling the horses, and her hands 
clawed at my arms. A second later, she began to 
shudder, coming like freight train, and the sight and 
feel and smell of it were too much for me. I arched my 
back, driving myself up, and erupted into her. 

We lay together quietly on the creek bank afterwards, 
and she nuzzled my neck. 

"Mmm. That was great." 

"It was pretty good." 

She sat up a little. 

"I wasn't watching the horses. Were they okay?" 

"They got a little spooked when you came. But they seem 
all right." 

She grinned evilly. 

"Couldn't help it. Came too hard." 

"I noticed." 

She hugged me again. A few minutes later, we got 
dressed and completed our ride. 

Life was good. I had no concerns beyond the state of 
the ranch. When I felt like it, I would log in to my 
brokerage and play around with my investments. I still 
had a mountain of Cisco stock, but I planned to 
diversify eventually, slowly enough that the capital 
gains taxes wouldn't hit me all at once. 

Elizabeth remade the guesthouse into her house, and she 
spent most of her time out there studying, though she 
usually joined us for dinner. Marianne and Hayley were 
in and out of there all day, and it seemed like we had 
set up enough of a boundary for all of us to be 
comfortable. 

With nothing else to distract them, Tiffany and 
Marianne went hard into their mistress-slave routine. 
One afternoon, after we had been at the ranch about 
three weeks, I looked out of the window of the library 
to see Marianne riding her horse around the pasture, 
with Tiffany running beside her on some kind of leash--
stark naked. 

Thank God it was the caretaker's day off. I went out 
front and walked across the driveway to the front 
pasture. Marianne had her horse in a trot as Tiffany 
ran alongside, though they were simply going in 
circles. I leaned against the fence at the edge of the 
field to watch. Marianne saw me after a few seconds and 
rode over. 

I realized as they approached that Tiffany had on 
something much more elaborate than a dog leash. It 
looked like a miniature bridle, sized for a human 
being. She had a bit between her teeth, and to that 
were attached the reins that Marianne held in her hand. 
The bridle even had a leather cap with a long black 
feathered plume coming out the top. Tiffany's wrists 
were buckled securely to a belt at her waist, and she 
wore tall black leather boots on her feet. A black 
dildo with a long horsetail protruded from between her 
buttocks, and from her nipples and clitoris hung little 
silver bells that tinkled as they approached. 

Marianne gave me an evil grin. 

"What do you think? Do you like my new pony?" 

She held Tiffany's reins in the same hand she used to 
control her horse, and in the other was a long buggy 
whip. I could see a crisscross of red welts all over 
Tiffany's butt. 

"My God. Where did you get all that?" 

"From this bondage store down by Boardwalk. Isn't it 
cool?" 

Tiffany grinned at me around her bridle, and I could 
see now that her sex and inner thighs were glistening 
wet in arousal. She was almost dripping onto the 
ground. 

"Go get your horse," Marianne said. "Let's take her for 
a ride." 

Laughing to myself, I went back to the barn. The two of 
them were waiting when I returned on the Arabian. We 
rode slowly around the property as Tiffany trotted 
between us. The horsetail in her butt twitched back and 
forth as she hopped along. Every now and then, Marianne 
would snap her buggy whip at Tiffany's behind, making 
her jump and prance. 

"I'm afraid to ask where you got the idea for this," I 
said. 

"Tiff and I were web-surfing the other night, and we 
found this site run by a woman who's really into 
submission. She had a whole section on ponygirl 
bondage. Tiff almost had an orgasm just looking at it. 
So I called around to see if there was any place nearby 
that sold this stuff. We went out and bought it this 
morning." 

"Looks like she's enjoying herself." 

Marianne giggled, then whipped Tiffany again. Tiffany 
made a horse noise and shook the plume on her head. 

"Yep." 

We concluded the ride about twenty minutes later and 
returned the horses to the barn. Tiffany remained in 
her ponygirl gear, and Marianne led her into the house 
and up to the master suite. 

"Help me get all this off her." 

We undressed her carefully. In the confined air of our 
bedroom, the smell of Tiffany's arousal was 
overpowering. Her entire pubic area and her inner 
thighs halfway down her knees were wet and sticky. She 
stood unsteadily between us, eyes fogged in excitement. 
Marianne led her to the bed and laid her on her back. 
Then she knelt between Tiffany's thighs and began 
licking her gently. 

Tiffany came in an instant. 

She cried out, convulsing, and grabbed at Marianne's 
head with both hands. Her entire body lifted up off the 
bed in release, shuddering as if she were having a 
stroke. Marianne held tightly onto her buttocks, 
continuing pleasure her. Tiffany shook and thrashed 
around in orgasm for at least ten seconds, until 
finally, in a spastic series of convulsions, the 
sensations peaked and she collapsed back onto the bed. 

Marianne withdrew, wiping her mouth, and grinned at me. 

"Do you want her? I don't think she'd even notice right 
now." 

"I'm all right." 

"No. I want you to fuck her. Come on, I'll help." 

She dropped to her knees and opened my pants. I was 
already halfway erect from watching all this, and 
Marianne rapidly had me at full attention with her 
mouth. Then she stood and led me to the bed, where 
Tiffany lay half-dead from that massive orgasm. Still 
mostly clothed, I crawled between her legs and slipped 
into her sopping wet pussy. 

She moved as I entered her, reaching for me weakly. 
Beside us, Marianne was rapidly stripping out of her 
riding clothes, and as soon as she was naked, she 
climbed onto the bed and squatted over Tiffany's mouth. 
Tiffany licked up at her as best she could as I fucked 
her. 

Tiffany was so wet that I had to thrust at her roughly 
to get any friction, but she didn't seem to mind. She 
humped herself at me as she ate Marianne, reaching up 
to caress Marianne's buttocks. Her tongue probed and 
fluttered against Marianne's sex, and Marianne rolled 
her hips over Tiffany's mouth. 

A minute or two into this, Marianne reversed herself to 
face me. She took my face in her hands, and we kissed 
deeply for a few seconds. Then she braced herself 
against me and put her head on my shoulder. When she 
came a few minutes later, she bit at my neck, 
whimpering softly. The feel of her coming in my arms 
was enough to push me over the edge, and I came into 
Tiffany like a fire hose. 

When I withdrew and fell to the side, Marianne lay 
forward over Tiffany. She bent down, extending her 
tongue to catch my cum as it ran out. She slurped it up 
and then reversed herself, kissing Tiffany and spitting 
my cum into her mouth. Tiffany giggled but took it. 
Marianne saw my look of amusement and leaned back, 
still straddling her friend. 

"Those are the rules," she said grinning. "I told you. 
All cum in this house ends up with her." 

"Protein and vitamins," Tiffany said. 

I laughed weakly. 

"Right." 

Life at the Kitten Ranch was proving to be a lot of 
fun. 

I got dressed and went back down to the library while 
the two girls went to take a shower. I had been 
reviewing the books the previous owners had left 
behind, finding a great many interesting works, some of 
them at least a hundred years old. Why they hadn't 
wanted them was beyond me, but I wasn't complaining. 

I had been down there about half an hour, reading in 
the easy chair by the window, when I heard someone 
yelling in the back bedroom wing, which was just down 
the hall from the library. Ashley and Giselle's rooms 
were back there, and I recognized their voices, though 
I couldn't quite make out what they were saying. But 
whatever it was, they were both upset about something. 

I heard a door slam a few seconds later, and Giselle 
stalked past out in the hallway. She caught my gaze and 
stopped short, then stepped into the library, shutting 
the door hard behind her. She let out a frustrated 
growl and put her face in her hands. 

"Something wrong?" 

"Nothing. Everything. Fuck." 

"Anything you want to talk about?" 

She whimpered through her fingers and then came over 
toward me. She sat on the ottoman in front of my chair 
and put her face back in her hands. 

I glanced toward the door, listening for Ashley, but 
heard nothing. I put my book down on the table beside 
me and leaned forward, rubbing Giselle's shoulder. 

"You okay?" 

"No." 

I waited for her to fill me in, if indeed she was going 
to. Finally, she let out a sigh and leaned back. 

"I was afraid of this. I just knew this was going to 
happen." 

"What's wrong?" 

"Ashley is having problems with our little commune 
arrangement here. She's getting really possessive on 
me, you know? She wants me to stop doing anything with 
anyone but her, and I told her I wasn't going to." 

"Ah. I see." 

"Right. You know that she's only here because I am, 
right?" 

"I don't know. I hadn't much thought about that, to be 
honest." 

"She is. She's been trying to talk me into getting a 
place together near Stanford so we can still be 
together once school starts. I told her, 'Why the hell 
would I want to move out of this great house into a 
little apartment?' and she got all upset." 

"That was the fight just now?" 

"That and more. She wants me to commit to being a 
lesbian, permanently, with her, now, and I just can't 
do that. I'm only eighteen. I can't make a commitment 
like that yet." 

"You shouldn't have to." 

"And I told her that, and she said that meant I didn't 
really love her. She said I'd do it if I did. What am I 
supposed to say to that?" 

"Do you?" 

"Love her? I think so. But..." She sighed again. "Maybe 
she's right. I don't love her enough to give up 
everything else. Except that I don't know if I could 
love *anyone* enough to do that right now. I'm still, 
you know, growing as a person and all, and I need some 
space for that." 

"I don't think that's too much to ask her to 
understand." 

She turned to me and hugged me tightly. She took a 
ragged breath. 

"Marianne... is *so* fucking lucky. You are about ten 
times more understanding than any guy I have ever met. 
I mean, I know what you want from her, for the future, 
and you could be laying all kinds of crap on her and 
pressuring her to do stuff and messing with her head, 
but you aren't. You just let her make her own decisions 
in her own time." She sniffed. "That's all I want from 
Ashley, and she won't give it to me." 

I rubbed her back. 

"I'm sorry." 

She took another breath and leaned back, wiping her 
eyes. 

"Thanks. I better go back and talk to her." 

I rubbed her arm. 

"Anytime." 

She gave me a quick peck on the cheek and left. 
Whatever was going on after that, I didn't hear any 
more fights. 

After dinner that night, I went out on the master 
bedroom deck and lay in the big rope hammock I had 
strung between the wall and one of the posts. I thought 
about what Giselle had said. I *did* want certain 
things from Marianne eventually, and I *could* have 
been more direct about it. But was I being too direct 
already? 

I wanted to marry her someday, but I wanted her to do 
it because she wanted to spend the rest of her life 
with me, not because she wasn't sure what she wanted 
and thought I just knew what was best for her. I 
thought I had been trying to give her enough space, but 
also I knew that my desires were not invisible. We had 
said as much to each other. She knew I wanted to marry 
her. What if she just gave in one day because she was 
worried about disappointing me? I simply couldn't get a 
grip on it. 

I heard someone inside the house, and a moment later, 
she was leaning out of the door. 

"Babe? What are you doing?" 

"Thinking." 

"What about?" 

"Things." 

"Good things?" 

"Yes." 

She walked up to me, smiling tenderly. 

"I know that look in your eye. You're thinking about a 
big rock on my finger and half a dozen kids running 
around." 

I laughed softly. 

"I'm sorry. I can't help it." 

She climbed into the hammock and sat in my lap, 
straddling me and laying her hands on my shoulders. Her 
blue eyes swelled with emotion as she looked at me. 

"Baby, I've been thinking about this. Very hard. And as 
much as it hurts to say this, I don't think I can marry 
you. I'm sorry." 


CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE 
-------------------

I think my heart must have stopped for a few seconds. 
Marianne's expression suddenly melted, and she hugged 
me tightly. 

"I'm sorry. That came out all wrong. It's not that I 
don't want to marry you. It's that I don't see how I 
can." 

I gasped for breath. 

"Kitten, this isn't something we have to do now or even 
within the next five years. I've told you repeatedly, 
this is a decision for the future. You don't have to 
make up your mind tonight." 

She leaned back, caressing my face rapidly. 

"No. That's not what it's about. If it were just us, 
I'd marry you this instant. But it's not." 

She paused for a second or two, eyes watering. 

"Baby, if we get married... what happens to Hayley?" 

"Well... she... I mean, what has to happen? Nothing has 
to. She'll still be here." 

"But we'll be cutting her out. Maybe not physically, 
but emotionally. It would be erecting this barrier that 
she wasn't allowed over. I just can't do that to her. 
Not now. Not when she loves you like she does." 

"I keep telling you, we don't have to do this now. It's 
for the future. Who knows what things are going be like 
five years from now?" 

She sat back on my knees, face darkening. She stared 
hard at me for several seconds. 

"She's right. You still don't really believe she loves 
you. You still think she's going to grow out of this." 

I groaned in frustration. 

"Kitten, you were sixteen not so long ago. You know 
what it's like." 

"Yes. I do," she said angrily, "and that is not what 
she's going through. This isn't a case of puppy love." 

She slid out of the hammock suddenly and backed up, 
glaring at me. 

"God! After everything she went through to keep your 
ass out of jail, you still don't get it!" 

I stood up, reaching for, but she pulled her arm away. 

"Get away from me. I can't believe this shit!" 

She shot another glare at me, then ran out of the room, 
sobbing. I stood there, dying on the inside, for 
another few seconds before going after her. But she was 
gone, wherever she had run off to. 

I returned to the room, falling heavily back onto the 
bed. What hurt the most at that moment was the 
knowledge that Marianne was right. I did honestly 
believe that Hayley believed she loved me, but in the 
back of my mind, I couldn't shake the feeling that she 
was going to come out of it at some point, whether 
suddenly or gradually. It all came down to that 
patronizing refrain, "She's only sixteen." But Marianne 
was only eighteen, and I had no such doubts about her. 
Did two years make that much difference? 

She had a valid point about what Hayley had done for me 
-- a very, very valid point. Love was a willingness to 
make real sacrifices for the person you loved -- that 
was what I had said to Marianne a few months before. 
Well, Hayley had probably made more profound sacrifices 
for my sake than I had ever made for hers. 

All I had done was throw a lot of money around. She had 
endured two weeks in the clutches of the DFCS, locked 
away from everyone who cared about her, and had still 
retained enough presence of mind to concoct a story to 
get my ass out of the sling. All for no other reason 
than that she couldn't bear to see me go to jail 
because of what we had shared. 

It would have been understatement to say I felt like a 
six-foot-tall pile of shit at that moment. 

I sat up slowly. I didn't know where Marianne had gone 
off to, but I could hear Hayley listening to her stereo 
in her room at the end of the hall. 

I walked slowly down there, listening to the bubble-gum 
pop music echoing up and down the hallway -- one of 
those cookie-cutter boy bands I could never keep 
straight. When I reached her room, I found her lying on 
her stomach in bed, wearing just T-shirt and panties, 
reading a magazine. One calf was up in the air and her 
foot twitched to the beat of the song. 

The image was totally Marianne; it was just the way she 
used to lounge around my house when we were first 
dating. Hayley was now, I realized, not that much 
younger than Marianne had been the day she showed up at 
my door pretending to sell magazines. 

"Hey." 

She looked up. 

"Hi. What's up?" 

I had worried about her hearing my fight with Marianne, 
but obviously our voices hadn't risen above the level 
of her music. 

I walked to the end of the bed, squatting down to the 
level of her beautiful face. She looked at me 
curiously. 

"What?" 

"I don't think I ever thanked you for saving my butt." 

She smiled. 

"It wasn't all that much." 

"It was. You went through something no one should have 
to endure, and it only just dawned on me that you were 
doing it all for me." 

Her eyes shone, and her smiled broadened. 

"Because I love you." 

"I know. I maybe didn't know that for sure at one 
point, but I know it now, Little Kit. No one has ever 
done something like that for me before, put their ass 
so completely on the line for me. I know the DFCS was 
really leaning on you. You could have saved yourself 
and told them what they wanted to hear, but you 
didn't." 

"I could never have done that. I would have saved 
myself and lost you. What would that have gotten me?" 

I smiled. 

"Martyr status. Maybe not much else." 

"Fuck martyr status. I don't want to be a victim. I 
just want to be me. Why is it legal for me to sleep 
with Randy but illegal for me to sleep with you? How 
can I be mentally capable of making the decision to 
sleep with someone who's seventeen, but not capable of 
deciding to sleep with someone who's forty-one?" 

"I don't know. I don't make the rules." 

"Well, the rules suck." 

I laughed. 

"I won't argue with you there. I just want you to know 
I appreciate what you did." 

She smiled. 

"You're welcome." 

I leaned in and kissed her nose. 

"Where's Marianne?" she asked. 

"I'm not sure." 

"Could I sleep with you guys tonight?" 

"I'll ask her. But I think so." 

"Thanks." 

I got up and went looking for her sister. After twenty 
minutes of searching, I finally found her sitting in 
the back of one of the spare stalls in the barn. She 
looked up at me when I came in, eyes red. 

"I'm sorry," I said. "You were right. I'm an ass." 

She smiled weakly. 

"Hayley really loves you." 

"I know that. Maybe I didn't quite get it until 
tonight, but I do now." 

I sat down next to her, putting my arm around her, and 
she leaned against me. 

"I don't like being mad at you." 

"I deserved it this time." I exhaled slowly. "I talked 
to Hayley, and I officially thanked her for saving my 
butt." 

Marianne laughed softly. 

"You know," I went on, "the two of you are almost like 
two sides of the same coin. She gets more like you 
every day." 

"Mom says that, too. She said she's starting to have 
trouble telling us apart." 

I hugged her. 

"Anyway. About what we were talking about before I made 
an idiot out of myself." 

She nodded. 

"Getting married. I meant what I said. I can't cut 
Hayley out of our lives like that." 

"I can't marry both of you. Not legally, anyway." 

One of the horses snorted and pawed at the floor of its 
stall. 
Marianne glanced over, then back at me. 

"I can't marry Tiffany, even though I know she'd do it. 
That doesn't mean we can't have some kind of 
commitment." 

"It's not marriage." 

"Aren't there ways you can do everything else but? 
Legally, I mean. 
As far as the property rights and insurance rights and 
all that go?" 

"Yeah. There are." 

"And we could have some kind of unofficial ceremony, 
with the three of us. I've heard of people doing that." 

"I supposed we could." 

"I want to bring Hayley *into* our lives. Not cut her 
out." 

"You're talking about some kind of polygamous 
household." 

"Well, isn't that what we have now?" 

"Not something quite that official. And you're 
forgetting that Hayley can't legally enter any kind of 
contract, marital or not, until she's eighteen." 

"But when she was eighteen?" 

I sat back a bit from her and looked down into her 
eyes. 

"Are you really serious about this?" 

"I'm just thinking. For the future. To plan it out 
somehow. Is that wrong?" 

"No. I guess not." 

She hugged me. 

"I don't want to freak you out. I know this is all a 
long way off. But I can't take you away from Hayley 
like that. Not after what she went through for you. And 
for me too, when you think about it. I could have lost 
you too." 

"Okay. Something to think about, I guess." 

We got up and walked back to the house, holding hands. 
When we got to the bedroom, I stopped and kissed her 
forehead. 

"Hayley wants to spend the night in here." 

She nodded. 

"I'll go get her." 

Marianne went down the hall, and the two of them 
returned a few moments later as I was brushing my 
teeth. Marianne shut the door behind them, and then 
came up behind Hayley and hugged her. Hayley giggled, 
hugging Marianne's arms in return. 

"What?" 

"I love you, short stuff." 

A surprised look shot through Hayley's eyes for a 
moment, then she smiled. 

"I love you too." 

Marianne rested her chin on Hayley's shoulder, not 
letting her go, and looked at me. 

"And we both love that hunk over there." 

Hayley giggled again. 

"Yep." 

They helped each other out of their clothes and climbed 
into bed, waiting for me. I rinsed out the toothpaste, 
turned out the lights, and joined them. 

We began just by snuggling and cuddling with each 
other. I kissed each of them in turn, fondling Hayley 
with my left hand, Marianne with my right, and 
comparing the two as I lay on my back. They giggled as 
I played with them, trying to both kiss me at once, 
then sliding up further to smother me with their big 
tits. I reached down, taking a neatly trimmed blonde 
pussy in each hand. I explored gently, finding them 
both wet already. I slipped my middle fingers into 
them. They felt, as near as I could tell, identical. 

Marianne withdrew from my face and slipped under the 
covers. Hayley joined her a second later. Then they 
were both kissing and sucking on my erection, and only 
the stud in Marianne's tongue allowed me to tell them 
apart--and if Hayley was serious about her offer, I 
would soon not even have that. 

I lay still, holding their heads, and just wallowed in 
the sensations of having two mouths slurping and 
sucking my cock. They passed it back and forth, bobbing 
slowly for about five seconds each, then ran their 
tongues up and down opposite sides of me. I could hear 
them giggling to each other under the sheets as they 
worked. 

Eventually I couldn't take it any longer, and I pulled 
them up. They came out from under the covers and kissed 
me in turn. 

"Did you like that?" Marianne asked. 

"Too much." 

"You know what would be really neat?" Hayley asked. 
"Even if it's also kind of weird." 

"What?" 

"If you had two dicks. One for each of us." 

Marianne shrieked with laughter and shoved her 
playfully. 

"I think that's probably not going to happen," I said. 

"I know. But it would still be neat." 

Marianne suddenly froze, gripping my arm. 

"No. Wait. He could. Not two real ones, but what about 
the strap-on?" 

Hayley gasped. 

"Yeah! Would that work?" 

"Let's see." 

Marianne leapt out of bed and ran for the dresser 
across the room. She dug into the bottom drawer where 
we kept our collection of toys. 

"I'm not so sure about this," I said. 

"Just try it," she said. 

She made me get out of bed, and the two of them pulled 
the dildo into place. At first, it ended up directly 
over my dick, but Marianne fiddled with the straps for 
about a minute until she had it hanging low enough. It 
felt awkward, but it might just work. 

"So how do we do this?" Hayley asked. 

"I don't know. Maybe us on top." 

I lay back on the bed, and the two of them climbed 
above me. Marianne got in front, backing down onto my 
erection, and Hayley got behind her, trying to position 
herself over the dildo. Despite twenty seconds of 
squirming, they couldn't quite do it. 

"I don't think this is working," Marianne said. 

She slid off of me, to my profound disappointment. 

"The angle is all wrong. How else could we do it?" 
Hayley asked. 

"If I was on top?" I asked. 

"How?" Hayley asked. 

"Maybe..." Marianne mused for a moment. "If you lay on 
your back, and I got over you." 

Something uncertain passed over Hayley's face for a 
second. 

"If you lay on top of me?" 

"That's about the only I can see it working. Let's at 
least try it." 

Hayley lay down flat, and Marianne straddled her, 
getting her pussy lined up with Hayley's, then lowered 
herself down. I got behind her, trying to find the 
right angle to enter them both. Several hands were 
between us trying to help. Marianne had to push herself 
completely down, pressing herself against her sister, 
before we were all lined up. 

Then I pushed into her, and I felt the dildo sliding 
into Hayley. Both of them moaned softly. 

"Oh, God," Hayley said. 

"It's working," Marianne gasped. 

I withdrew, then thrust in again. At first, it felt 
only little different from simply making love to 
Marianne from behind, the only difference being the 
pressure of the dildo against my balls. But as the 
girls began to move with me, and each other, the 
sensations began to intensify. 

Marianne lay flat against Hayley, head on her shoulder, 
as I made love to them. Hayley's arms came up around 
her sister, hugging her. I bent forward to kiss her, 
and Marianne turned her head to join the kiss. Both of 
them were moaning and whimpering under me, Marianne 
pushing back against my cock, Hayley lifting her hips 
up at me and her sister. 

We soon developed a slow rhythm, and I realized that 
they were rubbing their pussies together as I moved in 
and out of them. I could feel them grinding against 
each other, and I wasn't even sure they knew what they 
were doing. With the angle I had to maintain, it was 
all I could do just to get inside them. I couldn't 
generate any friction against their clits, so they were 
apparently taking care of that themselves. 

The three of us were soon moving faster, rocking back 
and forth, gasping with the exertion. Marianne began to 
rock back at me rapidly, grinding down hard against her 
sister. She arched her back and let out a soft cry. A 
deep shudder ran through her body, and then suddenly 
Hayley was coming too, lifting herself off the bed 
under us, groping at my body and Marianne's. I felt the 
two of them shaking under me, and drove rapidly into 
them. I grunted, convulsed, then spurted off helplessly 
inside Marianne. 

I withdrew as soon as I could and rolled off to lie 
beside them. But Marianne stayed where she was, and I 
could see her still slowly rubbing herself against 
Hayley. Then she sat up, pushing her hair back over her 
head. I couldn't quite tell in the darkness, but she 
looked a little uncomfortable, whatever the reason. 

Hayley rolled onto my shoulder. 

"That was cool." 

"Yeah." 

Marianne crawled up on top of me, folding her arms over 
my chest and resting her chin on top of them. 

"How was it for you?" 

"Very weird. But fun." 

"That thing takes some getting used to." 

"I guess so." 

She helped me get it off, then lay beside me, opposite 
her sister. We held each other quietly for a little 
while before Marianne began writhing against me again. 
She soon disappeared under the sheets and set about 
restoring my erection. Hayley lay on my chest, nuzzling 
my neck as I felt her sister slowly sucking on my cock, 
massaging me with the stud in her tongue. 

I pulled Hayley up further to kiss her, and for a few 
minutes we necked and played with each other while 
Marianne continued blowing me. Soon she had produced an 
excellent hard-on and sat up, pulling back the sheets. 

She nudged Hayley. 

"Your turn." 

Making one of her little contented noises, Hayley 
slithered over me, planting her knees on either side of 
my waist, and backed up onto my cock. I felt Marianne 
reaching between us to guide me in. 

Hayley sat back, letting herself settle down entirely 
onto me. I put my hands on her thighs and thrust 
upwards. 

"Mmm," she said. "That's a lot better than a rubber 
one." 

Marianne came up behind her, hugging Hayley as she 
moved slowly up and down. She smiled at me over her 
sister's shoulder, and slid her hands up Hayley's 
torso, cupping her full breasts in her hands. 

Hayley dug herself down at me as Marianne began 
tweaking her nipples, and giggled softly.

"Harder." 

I watched Marianne pinching Hayley's nipples more 
deliberately, and Hayley twitched above me, moaning. I 
rolled my hips with her movements, thrusting up into 
her as far as I could get. She rocked slowly back and 
forth. 

We all knew each other's rhythms very well by now, and 
we soon had Hayley nearing her release. She humped 
herself at me rapidly as Marianne continued rolling her 
nipples between her fingers. I held myself up against 
her, keeping the angle as sharp as possible, and a few 
moments later, Hayley let out a squeak and shuddered in 
orgasm. Then she threw herself forward across my chest. 

I caressed her back slowly as she caught her breath. 
Marianne lay down beside us. Hayley continued to thrust 
slowly at me for a few seconds, then lifted up to rub 
noses with me, Eskimo style. 

"I love you." 

"You too, Little Kit." 

"You didn't come?" 

"Not yet. It's okay." 

She reached under me to hold my shoulders, and then 
rolled to her side, pulling me on top of her. We rolled 
over right next to Marianne, who snuggled against us. 

I rose off Hayley's body and began moving slowly in 
her. She was so wet and warm by now that I could just 
close my eyes and luxuriate in the feel of her. She 
stroked my waist slowly, moving her hips with my 
thrusts and laying her legs over mine. I looked down at 
her, and at Marianne lying beside her. Marianne's hand 
came up and began caressing Hayley's breasts as she had 
been doing. Hayley reached out, putting her arm around 
Marianne, and Marianne slid closer, laying her head 
across Hayley's chest under me. 

I closed my eyes again, just enjoying being inside this 
girl I loved so much. I wasn't very close to coming 
yet, and I could concentrate on being with her. When I 
looked down again a minute later, it took me a moment 
or two to realize what I was seeing. 

Marianne had hardly moved, but she was now sucking 
lightly on Hayley's right nipple, flicking her tongue 
back and forth. Hayley lay quietly under us, still 
holding Marianne with one arm. Marianne wasn't looking 
at me, and she lifted her head up a little to change 
the angle. Then she sucked Hayley's nipple completely 
into her mouth. 

Hayley whimpered, pushing her hips up at me, and I sped 
my thrusts. She rolled her body with me, groping at me 
with her other arm. Hayley let out another little cry, 
and I could feel the pre-orgasmic quivers beginning in 
her belly. I groaned, thrusting faster as I watched the 
scene before me. Marianne was now tweaking the nipple 
she wasn't sucking, and Hayley was still holding her 
closely. 

As I felt the cum starting to boil in my groin, as I 
could feel the tremors of incipient orgasm at the base 
of my cock, Hayley spiked up at me with a sharp cry, 
clawing at my arm. Her wet, heated sex squeezed my 
erection rhythmically, shuddering, and I cried out, 
stabbing the last bit of myself into her. The cum shot 
out of me in an almost painful stream, as if I were 
discharging bolts of lighting. I shook in orgasm for 
nearly five seconds before collapsing onto Hayley's 
quivering body. Marianne withdrew enough to let me lay 
flat on her sister, but embraced us both tightly. 

I withdrew only far enough to lie between them. The 
three of us held each other and fell asleep. 

I awoke with the sun the next morning. I stretched, 
bumping into a body beside me. I snuggled with it, 
taking a full breast in my hand. She responded by 
pressing herself against me, and I realized as I came 
more fully awake that it was Hayley. 

"Mmm," she mumbled. "Sleepy." 

I turned my head. The remainder of the bed was empty. I 
listened for the shower, but heard nothing. 

I sat up and scratched my head. Hayley rolled over, 
burying herself under the sheets. I was still too out 
of it to want to get up, so I lay back beside her and 
spooned with her. She pushed back against me and bumped 
into my morning erection. Matters progressed naturally 
from there, and a few sweaty, if enjoyable minutes 
later, she was lying across my chest trying to catch 
her breath. 

"Doing it in the morning is fun." 

"Yep." 

"Where's Marianne?" 

"I don't know. I guess she got up early." 

"Last night was really great. I know we have to make 
room for each other... but I'd like to spend the night 
with you guys more often." 

"Talk to her about it. I have no objections." 

She giggled. 

"I bet you don't." 

Hayley got up to take a shower, and I pulled on some 
jeans and a T- shirt. I found Giselle in the kitchen 
making some coffee. 

"Hey." 

"Hi." 

"You seen Marianne?" 

"No. I just got up." 

I looked out the back window, seeing nothing. A peek 
out the front window produced no clues either. I found 
my shoes and went for a walk. 

The caretaker was cleaning out the stables, and I stuck 
my head into the barn to see if he knew anything. He 
was a grizzled, good-natured fellow in his mid-fifties. 

"Hey Tony, have you seen Marianne?" 

"Saw her taking a walk back into the woods about ten 
minutes ago. Back by the creek. Looked upset about 
something." 

I got the impression that he knew more than he was 
saying, but I didn't push it. Feeling puzzled, but 
increasingly curious, I walked across the back pasture 
toward the rear of the ranch. 

I found her sitting on a rock beside the waterfall. She 
had her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms 
wrapped around them. She looked over when I approached 
but didn't move. 

I sat on the rock beside her. 

"Hi," she said weakly. 

"Something you want to talk about?" 

She looked back at the water. 

"I realized something last night. Something that really 
scares me, because I'm not sure where it's coming 
from." 

"What is it? What's wrong?" 

She took a deep breath. 

"I have the hots for my sister. I don't know why, but I 
do." 


CHAPTER FORTY 
-------------

I wasn't sure what to say to this revelation, so I let 
her go on. 

"You've probably noticed, huh?" 

"Yeah. Not just last night." 

"No. Not just last night. Last night was when I finally 
admitted it to myself." 

I squared myself on my rock and took her hand. 

"What exactly are you feeling? Let's be clear here." 

She took a slow breath. 

"I love her more than anything. Well, I don't mean more 
than you, but as much. And in a different way." 

"It's all right. Go on." 

"Hayley and I have always been really close. We've 
never really fought that much. I know it was because 
our folks were always caught up in their own problems. 
We needed each other too much to let any stupid 
rivalries get in the way. She's always looked up to me, 
and I've always tried to look after her, because Mom 
wasn't always doing it. I know I like to talk about 
Tiffany and Giselle being my best friends, but the 
truth is, Hayley really is. She understands me better 
than anyone else. We've shared so many of the same 
things." 

"All of which is perfectly normal." 

She nodded. 

"I know. So when I started seeing you, and she started 
coming over too, it didn't bother me to share her with 
you, because we had shared so much already. But..." She 
sighed. "I don't know if I can put this into words 
effectively. It's just that... the first time she and I 
slept with you, together, something clicked inside me. 
It was like I had known her all this time, and then I 
suddenly saw something completely new in her. Like I 
realized that she was more than just my sister. She was 
a person, a girl, a very pretty one, with her own needs 
and sexuality. You have to understand that I had never 
thought about that at all before that first afternoon." 

"Okay." 

"And, with the other girls, when I really realized that 
I was bisexual, I also realized that I was attracted to 
her too, not just as my sister but as a person. I 
didn't know what to do about it. I guess I just 
suppressed it, telling myself that we were just having 
fun, you know. That it didn't mean anything to touch 
her when the three of us were making love. That she was 
my sister, that I loved her, and that there wasn't 
anything wrong with wanting to make her feel good." 

"I don't know that there is, necessarily, considering 
everything else that we've been doing." 

"Let me finish." 

"Okay." 

"But that night that Tiffany came over and did her 
slave bit for the three of us, when Hayley came out of 
the back wearing that dildo... when she started fucking 
Tiffany right above me... you don't know how much I 
wanted to push Tiffany aside and--" She paused, not 
quite able to say the words she meant. "--and make love 
to her. But I just couldn't. Because I knew the rest of 
you would have freaked." 

She paused a moment to catch her breath. 

"Afterward, I told myself that it was a momentary 
impulse, that I had just gotten all caught up in the 
sex. I didn't think about it at all until last night." 

"When we brought out the dildo again." 

"Right. And making love with the two of you, having you 
inside me while I was pressed against her, while you 
were making love to her too, was the most incredible 
thing I have ever experienced. I don't know what it 
was. I came so hard, and so deep, and it felt so right 
and so--" 

Her voice caught in her throat, and I put my arm around 
her. She leaned against me, sniffling and wiping her 
eyes. 

"I just loved the two of you *so* much that I felt like 
I was going to explode. I wanted to cry afterwards. I 
couldn't let go of her. And when you were making love 
to her later on, I just had to get as close to the two 
of you as I could. I didn't even think about... about 
what I was doing to her. I just did it." 

I pulled her closer to me, hugging her, and she took 
another ragged breath. 

"It's all right. Nothing is wrong." 

"You don't think I'm a nut case because of this?" 

"No." 

"But Hayley must." 

"I don't think so. She didn't act weird at all this 
morning. We even made love when we woke up. She told me 
how much she enjoyed last night and how she wished we 
could do it more often." 

Marianne sniffled. 

"She did?" 

"Yes." 

"She didn't seem grossed out?" 

"Not as far as I could tell." 

"Really?" 

"Really." 

She withdrew from me a few inches and looked up. Her 
eyes were red and damp, and I brushed the tears from 
her cheeks. 

"I love you," I said. "I love her. Whatever it is we do 
together cannot be wrong." 

"It's not like I could get her pregnant." 

"No." 

"No is going to end up deformed from this." 

"No." 

She leaned against my chest. 

"I'm sorry." 

I laughed softly. 

"For what?" 

"For dumping all of this on you at once." 

"You haven't said anything to her about this yet?" 

"How could I?" 

"I don't know." 

"Could--" I felt her swallow hard against me. "Could 
you?" 

I looked down into her eyes. 

"Could I ask her about it, you mean?" 

"Yes. I have to know what she's feeling, but I just 
can't ask her myself. Not to her face." 

"I can try. That's all I can promise." 

She squeezed me tightly. 

"Thanks." 

A few uneventful days went by. Although I thought 
frequently about Marianne's revelation (which, to be 
perfectly honest, was not much of a revelation--as I 
told her, I had seen this coming, at least in the back 
of my mind), I did nothing about it yet. I wasn't sure 
how to approach Hayley about this, and I didn't want to 
create a crisis where none yet existed. 

Meanwhile, the Giselle-Ashley situation was rapidly 
deteriorating. The rest of us did our best to stay out 
of it, but I was growing weary of hearing them shouting 
at each other from the rear wing of the house. I kept 
telling myself that I couldn't have a cathouse without 
a few catfights, but I would then feel juvenile and 
chauvinistic for thinking something that male. 

A week after my encounter with Giselle, Ashley 
presented herself in my study. I didn't notice the 
suitcases in the foyer behind her for a couple of 
seconds. She was trying to be resolute, but the redness 
of her eyes betrayed her mood. 

"Hey." 

"Hi. Um, I'm here to tell you that I'm moving out. 
You're a great guy and this is a great place, but I 
just can't live here anymore." 

I sighed. 

"I'm sorry." 

"I was hoping Giselle would come with me, but she 
won't. So I'm going back home for the rest of the 
summer." 

"It's all right. No one's trying to keep you here if 
you want to leave. I wish we could have made it work, 
but I understand." 

"Thanks. I, um, I need to ask you a big favor." 

"Anything. Shoot." 

"I have no car and no money, and basically no way of 
getting back. I was hoping I could bum a few bucks for 
a bus ticket. I'll pay you back when I can." 

I got up out of my chair and went to my desk. 

"Absolutely. And forget about paying it back. You 
wouldn't be here except for me." 

"Are you sure?" 

"Yes. Don't worry about it." 

I dug around in my desk for a few minutes and gave her 
all the cash I had, which was about two hundred 
dollars. 

"That should be enough." 

"Thanks." 

She gave me a brief hug, and I noticed that a taxi had 
already pulled up in front of the house. I took one of 
her bags and followed her out. 

"You'll be missed. I'm sorry we couldn't make it work." 

She nodded weakly. 

"Me too." 

She climbed into the cab and left. When they drove out 
of sight, I went to back to Giselle's room. She lay on 
her bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. 

"Is she gone?" 

"Yeah. I gave her some money for the bus. She left a 
couple of minutes ago. I'm sorry." 

"I'll live. It's not the first break-up I've gone 
through." 

"If you need anything..." 

She nodded. I patted her shoulder and went toward the 
back of the house to see what the others were doing. 

I found Elizabeth in the kitchen making some 
sandwiches. She wore a trim red bikini, and when I 
looked out the back window, I could see that she had 
been sunbathing with her daughters. Marianne, Hayley, 
and Tiffany were out by the pool, each wearing nothing 
but a thong. Elizabeth's outfit was more modest, but 
she still had quite a body on her, and she wasn't too 
shy about displaying it. 

If I narrowed my eyes a little and let the image before 
me blur, the years melted away, and she became the 
seventeen-year-old cheerleader I had once lusted after. 
But thinking like that sent a wave of guilt washing 
over me, so I stopped. Dear God, was I never going to 
shed the shackles of that long-ago experience? 

"Hey." 

She turned around. 

"Hi. Is Ashley gone?" 

"Yeah. You knew?" 

"She came out back to say goodbye to the girls." 

I looked out the window again, seeing that the three of 
them did not appear very happy. They were talking about 
something, most likely the departure. 

"She and Giselle just couldn't make it work," I said. 

Elizabeth nodded. 

"I understand, but from one perspective, I'm a little 
jealous of them. I wish I had had the freedom to go 
through what they're going through now when I was their 
age. My life might have been a lot different. I don't 
think they realize just how fortunate they are." 

"No. But try telling them that." 

She laughed softly. 

"I won't waste my breath." 

I thought for a moment about what she had said. 

"You wouldn't have gotten married, would you?" 

"I doubt it. Which of course means I wouldn't have had 
Marianne and Hayley. So I think about them whenever I 
get like this, and then I don't feel bad." 

I looked back out to the pool, wondering if she knew 
what was going on between her daughters. 

"I notice you're not quite as brave as they are." 

She laughed. 

"Well, gravity has not yet struck the three of them the 
way it has me. So I suppose they'd best enjoy it while 
they can. But frankly, I'm more concerned about not 
exposing myself to the caretaker." 

I grinned. 

"He's harmless. I almost feel like calling him Uncle 
Tony." 

"He is. But that doesn't mean I want to show him my 
breasts." 

I laughed. Elizabeth finished the sandwiches and piled 
them on a plate. 

"Why don't you come outside, and we can all have 
lunch?" 

I followed her out, and we sat around the pool for a 
while. Giselle emerged from the house and commiserated 
with the girls for about twenty minutes. The pool phone 
rang in the midst of this, and I grabbed it before it 
had a chance to interrupt them. 

"Hello?" 

"Hey, Steve, it's Brian." 

"Hey. What's up?" 

"How are you guys settling in? Everything going all 
right?" 

"Great. How about you?" 

"Busy, which is why I haven't called since you left. 
But something came up that I thought you should know 
about." 

"What?" 

"You know what happened with Randy after the hearing, 
right?" 

The last I had heard, Haywood was so pissed at the way 
things had turned out that she was looking into 
prosecuting Randy for perjury. I wanted to put all that 
behind us, so I had ignored it as best I could. 

I lowered my voice before answering him. 

"Are they going to need any of us to testify?" 

"Well, no, which is actually why I'm calling. You see, 
Randy has apparently jumped bail. He disappeared right 
after his arraignment. Haywood called me about it so I 
could let you know." 

"Oh, shit." 

"Right. No one seems to know what he's up to, but you 
might want to watch your backs for the near future." 

"Damn. I guess so." 

When I got off the phone with him a few minutes after 
that, I could tell the girls hadn't been paying 
attention. I didn't want to worry them for now, so I 
kept my mouth shut. I dozed off in the sun listening to 
them, and when I woke up an hour later, only Hayley was 
still there with me. 

She lay on her stomach reading a magazine, and I spent 
a few moments admiring her trim physique, from her 
tanned toned legs, to her tight little butt, to the 
long blonde hair splayed all over her smooth back. She 
wasn't a kid anymore, that was for damn sure, no matter 
what her driver's license might say. 

She saw me looking over and smiled, pulling her hair 
around the far side of her head. 

"Have a nice nap?" 

"Yeah. Where is everyone?" 

"Mom went back to the guest house. Marianne and Tiff 
went shopping, I think. Giselle is inside. I think she 
just needs to be alone right now." 

"Yeah." 

"Do you want to do anything?" 

"I think I'm going to stay right here. A clear sky and 
a pretty girl to admire is all a man can ask out of 
life." 

Her smile broadened, and something deeper came into her 
eyes. 

"Do you want to know one of the reasons I love you?" 

"Go for it." 

"You make me feel special. When you look at me like 
that, I know I'm the most important thing in the world 
to you." 

"You are." 

"I know. Me and Marianne." 

She sat up, reaching back to gather up her hair. Then 
she stretched her arms up straight, cracking her 
knuckles above her head. What the action did to her 
bare breasts, to the rest of her, could not be put into 
words, so I didn't try. 

"I was thinking," she said. 

"What about?" 

"Could we get a dog? Maybe a couple of them?" 

"Horses aren't enough?" 

"I just thought it would be neat. I've never had a 
dog." 

"I suppose we could." 

"From the animal shelter, right? Not some designer 
dog." 

"Of course." 

"Could we go now?" 

I laughed. 

"Some of the others might want to help pick them out." 

"I asked. They didn't seem to care. So can we?" 

"I guess so. Go get dressed, and we can go." 

She went inside, returning a few minutes later in denim 
shorts and a spaghetti-strap T-shirt. While she was 
dressing, I was looking in the phone book to find the 
nearest shelter. When she reappeared, we went out to 
the garage and climbed into the Ferrari. 

The shelter was not too far away, and I imagined that 
it had to be a long way out of town to avoid complaints 
about barking animals. We drove back down the highway 
faster than we needed to, and I savored the way the 
Ferrari hugged the curves and burned up the few 
straight-aways. 

I noticed Hayley watching me in amusement as I down-
shifted coming out of a bend in the road. 

"You really love this car, don't you?" 

"Yeah." 

She laughed. 

"You're like a little kid whenever you get in it. It's 
so funny." 

We reached the shelter in about fifteen minutes, and 
Hayley hopped out to look at the dogs. They had at 
least fifty, and most of them were barking their lungs 
out at each other. 

"What kind of dog are you thinking of?" 

"I don't know," she said. "I guess I'll know when I see 
it." 

We walked around for a few minutes. Some dogs ran right 
up to the gate of their pen to greet us. Others barked 
at us, and still others hid, cowering in the back. 
Hayley's face grew more concerned the longer we were 
there. 

"This is so sad. I wish we could take all of them." 

Then she stopped at the cage of a little smooth-coated 
brown dog that stood nervously in the center of its 
pen. She crouched down, poking her fingers through the 
chain links, making kissing noises. 

The dog whined and took a few steps toward her. Then a 
few more, then it was at the gate licking her hand. I 
looked at the card on the cage, which described it as a 
dachshund-terrier mix, about two years old. 

"Isn't he cute?" 

"She." 

"It's a girl?" 

"Yeah." 

She continued trying to play with it through the fence, 
and the dog now had its paws up on the gate trying to 
get to her. 

I found one of the shelter officials and had her open 
the gate so we could get a better look. Hayley picked 
up the dog, hugging it and laughing as it frantically 
licked her face. 

"What do you think?" I asked. 

"I want to get her." 

"Dog number one?" 

"Can we get two?" 

"Yeah." 

"You should try to get one about the same size," the 
woman said. "I think I know another one that might be 
good." 

She led us to the other end of the cages, where we 
found a shaggy blondish mutt that resembled a dust mop 
more than anything else. It immediately jumped up 
against the cage door to greet us, wagging its tail 
furiously. 

Hayley handed me the other dog and crouched down to 
examine the new one. The woman opened the cage door, 
and the dog jumped into Hayley's arms. She laughed, 
trying to hold it off. 

"This one is also a female," the woman said, "so you 
should get fewer pack structure problems than with 
multiple males." 

"I love her," Hayley said. "She's so fluffy." 

She picked it up. 

"Can we see how they are together?" 

"Sure." 

The woman led us out of the cage area to a grassy dog 
run in the back. Hayley and I set the dogs down. They 
immediately began sniffing each other's butts, then ran 
around the grass together biting at each other's ears. 

"They seem all right," Hayley said. 

"Got any names in mind?" 

She smiled at me. 

"Two girls. How about Britney and Christina?" 

The shelter woman and I laughed hard for several 
seconds. 

"A blonde and a brunette," the woman said. "Works for 
me." 

It took about twenty minutes to process the adoption, 
and I bought some various dog supplies from their pet 
store in the front. Hayley got both dogs on leashes and 
walked them around outside while I filled out the forms 
and wrote a check for the fee. She came back inside 
just as we were finishing up. 

"Thanks so much," she said. 

"Thank you. I told your dad all about what you need to 
do as far as shots and vet stuff go, so you're all 
set." 

Hayley and I exchanged a nervous look, then she forced 
a smile onto her face. 

"Thanks. Bye." 

We piled into the car, and the dogs climbed into 
Hayley's lap, sticking their heads into the breeze as 
we drove away. She stared out at the road for a few 
seconds before turning to me and putting her hand on my 
thigh. 

"Did that hurt?" she asked. 

"A little." 

"Don't let it get to you. She knows nothing about us at 
all. What does it matter what she thinks?" 

"Nothing, I guess." 

"I could have said something about it, but what would 
that have accomplished besides making us all feel 
awkward? It's none of her damn business. I bet she has 
her own secrets. Maybe she has some personal reasons 
for wanting to work in a dog pound that we don't know 
about." 

I laughed so hard that the dogs turned around to see 
what the commotion was. 

"Ugh. Don't make me think things like that." 

She giggled and leaned over to hug me. 

"Get my point, though?" 

"Yes. Yes." 

We turned the dogs loose in the back pasture when we 
got home, and they ran excitedly around, jumping 
through the grass and sniffing everything in range. 
Hayley and I sat on the fence watching them. 

"They look so happy. It must have been so awful in 
those cages." 

I nodded. 

"Little Kit, I need to ask you about something. 
Marianne asked me to do this because she can't do it 
herself." 

She looked at me, eyebrows creasing. 

"Something bad?" 

"Something serious. Bad depends on your perspective, I 
guess." 

"What is it?" 

I had spent a week trying to think of the best way to 
present this, and I still wasn't sure how to do it. 

"She's concerned about some of the things that have 
gone on when the three of us make love. Between the two 
of you. Things that, from one perspective, may have 
crossed a certain line." 

Her face wilted, and her jaw began to vibrate. 

"She's upset about it?" 

"No. Quite the contrary. Well, she is, but not because 
she feels bad about it. She's concerned about what 
you're thinking." 

"I don't understand." 

"Okay. Let me try this from another tack. You know what 
I'm referring to, right?" 

"Yes." 

"Marianne loves you very much. More than anything in 
the world. More than me, I think, which I have no 
problem with, because it's a different type of love. I 
think she wants to express that love in ways that she's 
not sure you're comfortable with." 

Her eyes went unfocused for a second. 

"She wants to do it with me." 

"I don't know about that, exactly, but--" 

"Well, what have we been doing? We've... we've done a 
lot. She's not comfortable with it?" 

"She is. She's concerned that you aren't." 

"I love her; I love you. Why wouldn't I be?" 

The matter-of-factness of that reply took me aback for 
a second. I chose my words very carefully. 

"Some people... might find it unusual." 

"Some people would find what you and I have unusual. 
Like that woman at the pound. If one of us was a guy, 
yeah, I could see some major problems, but we're not. I 
thought incest was just male-female, not girl-girl." 

I thought about that for a moment. 

"I think it still is." 

"Well, fuck it. It's illegal for you and me to make 
love. How is this any worse?" 

"I don't know." 

"I mean, I'm not saying I want to run in there and jump 
her bones, but I don't have any problems with what 
we've been doing. It's been great, hasn't it? What we 
all have is really special." 

"It is." 

"So don't go putting unnecessary labels on it." 

"I'm not. Marianne is the one who's worried about you." 

"Okay. Well, I'll go talk to her then." 

I put my arm around her and hugged her. She leaned 
against me, returning the hug. 

"So what if we're a little perverted? A little healthy 
perversion is good for you." 

I laughed. 

"No argument there." 

"Do you want me to pretend to be your daughter 
sometime? Would that turn you on?" 

I laughed again, then told her about Marianne's retort 
to one of my ex- classmates at the reunion the previous 
fall. She laughed so hard she almost fell off the 
fence. 

"Would you like that?" 

"I think it might exceed my tolerance for weirdness." 

"I'll do it if you want." 

"Don't worry about it." 

She pretended to pout, then hopped off the fence. 

"Let's go find Marianne." 

We gathered up the dogs and brought them inside the 
backyard fence, where they couldn't go running off into 
the woods. I was concerned about Marianne being busy 
with Tiffany, but Tiffany proved to be parked in front 
of the television in the den, watching MTV. 

When we reached the master suite, we found Marianne in 
her closet, putting away a couple of new outfits. When 
she saw who it was, her face creased in concern, but 
Hayley didn't say anything. She just sat on the end of 
the bed, bouncing a little on the mattress, smiling at 
us. 

I went to Marianne and hugged her. 

"False alarm, it looks like," I said quietly. "She's 
fine." 

She glanced at her sister, then back to me. 

"She's fine?" 

I nodded. Marianne pulled away from me slowly and 
returned to the bedroom. She didn't seem to know what 
to make of the grin on Hayley's face. 

"Uh... so." 

"So," Hayley said. 

Marianne looked back at me again, not sure what to do. 
Hayley broke the tension after a moment or two. 

"Wanna fuck?" 

Marianne burst into nervous laughter, then went to her 
sister. They hugged each other, giggling. 

I joined them on the bed, and the three of us rolled 
around, laughing and pulling each other's clothes off. 
They both went after my cock as soon as it was exposed, 
and I completed the disrobing by pulling off their 
panties in turn as they sucked on me. Marianne lost her 
balance trying to help me get her drawers past her 
knees and fell back on her butt, laughing again. 

Hayley withdrew from my cock, stroking it and watching 
her sister. Marianne met her gaze, and then crawled 
slowly across my body, pushing Hayley onto her back 
beside me. I took Hayley in my arms as Marianne bent to 
kiss her breasts. Hayley's eyes rolled back to look at 
me, and I kissed her. She reached up to hold my head as 
we frenched deeply. 

When we broke the kiss, I looked down to see Marianne 
suckling Hayley's full breasts. I sat up beside her and 
caressed her gently, reaching under her to fondle her 
tits. Hayley slid back further on the bed, and Marianne 
followed her. I knelt behind Marianne, feeling up 
between her legs, finding her wetness, then slipping 
gently into her. 

She pushed back at me, and I moved slowly in and out of 
her tight butt, watching the two of them. Hayley's eyes 
were closed, and she held Marianne's head. Marianne 
brought her right hand in between Hayley's legs, and 
began caressing her sex gently. Hayley let out a little 
noise and arched her back. 

Marianne began sliding down further, and realizing what 
was coming, I withdrew and lay down beside Hayley. She 
tensed up as Marianne descended between her thighs and 
reached for me. I held her closely, hugging her head, 
and when her hand bumped against my erection, still 
slick with Marianne's fluids, she wrapped her fist 
around it and began stroking. 

Marianne looked up at me, eyes nervous but filled with 
love. She glanced at Hayley, who was rigid in 
anticipation. Then she lowered her head and began to 
make love to her sister. 

Hayley gasped at the first contact, and her hand 
gripped my cock tightly. I watched Marianne licking her 
slowly, moving her tongue in easy circles around 
Hayley's clitoris. Hayley's breath came in rapid gulps, 
and her chest was rising and falling so fast that her 
breasts quivered. I bent to kiss her, and she embraced 
me tightly. I took a firm breast in my hand and 
caressed it. 

All of us were too excited for this to last very long. 
Hayley's gasps for breath soon turned into impassioned 
cries, and she groped at me next to her. Then she was 
shuddering in orgasm, biting at my shoulder and 
thrashing around under her sister's attentions. 
Marianne kept it up well after Hayley's orgasm peaked 
and subsided, but finally crawled up to kiss us. The 
two girls embraced and held each other closely. 

Hayley came back to life in a few moments, and pushed 
Marianne on her back. When she began kissing Marianne's 
breasts, she pulled me down with her, wanting my help. 
I complied, taking the breast she wasn't engaged with 
into my mouth. After a minute or two of this, she 
descended further, still holding my arm tightly. I went 
with her, and she pulled my head down next to hers as 
we settled between Marianne's thighs. 

Laying our heads opposite one another, we began licking 
Marianne together, one tongue on either side. She 
stayed snuggled close to me, holding my hand, as she 
ate her sister. Marianne put her hands on both our 
heads, writhing on the bed in sweet agony. Hayley and I 
were kissing each other as much as we were licking 
Marianne, and the emotions of this encounter seemed to 
be overwhelming her. She needed me beside her, holding 
her, however much I knew she wanted this. So I did. 

When Marianne finally came, she came with a shriek, 
clawing at my hair and Hayley's. Her hips bucked at us, 
and when it peaked, she had to push us away. Hayley 
curled against me, pressing her face against my neck. 

"Are you okay?" 

She nodded rapidly. 

"I love you." 

We rejoined Marianne at the top of the bed, and the 
three of us held each other for a few minutes. Marianne 
retrieved the strap-on from the dresser, and she and 
Hayley helped me into it. We replayed the three- way 
encounter of the other night, except today Hayley was 
on top and I was inside her as I made love to both of 
them. This time they held each other without 
reservation, kissing and fondling and rubbing 
themselves together. I lost myself in the two of them, 
holding them as closely as I could. The three of us 
came as one, shuddering and gasping as my seed finally 
passed into Hayley. 

We lay quietly together afterward, Hayley on one side 
of me, Marianne on the other, heads on my shoulders, 
holding hands, faces pressed tightly against my neck. 
Through the window, I watched the sun going down over 
the ocean, still fifteen or twenty degrees above the 
horizon, but beginning to color the sky. The rose and 
gold hues of sunset played across the clouds and the 
glass of the window, sending amber beams of light 
through the bedroom. 

I watched a few motes of dust dancing in the light, 
then looked back at the beautiful girls beside me. I 
hugged them, one last time, as we drifted, warm in the 
sun and our mutual love, into contented sleep. 


CHAPTER FORTY-ONE 
-----------------

The Fourth of July came and went. We had a barbecue 
around the pool and went down to the Boardwalk to watch 
the fireworks afterward. My forty-second birthday was a 
week after that, and the four girls combined to give me 
a present I would not soon forget. I celebrated myself 
by buying a green four-door Hummer to replace the Grand 
Cherokee. I briefly considered trading in the Jeep, 
then realized that we could use another car around the 
ranch, so I just gave the keys to the girls. 

Hayley spent about one night out of every three with 
Marianne and me, and what went on, if you weren't 
inclined to label it, was something special to all of 
us. We didn't talk about it anymore, since there no 
longer seemed to be anything that needed saying. 

Britney and Christina proved to be an instant hit 
around the ranch, much as their namesakes were in the 
music business. Though at night they slept in Hayley's 
room, in a big dog bed together, they were very much a 
part of the family. The other girls often played with 
them, and Britney took to sleeping on the ottoman in 
the library when I was in there reading or working. The 
horses adjusted to their presence quickly enough, and 
the dogs often came along when we went out riding. 

Giselle recovered from her break-up with Ashley after a 
few weeks. I often saw her hanging out with Hayley, and 
the two of them took to riding their horses together in 
the afternoons. 

As the summer stretched on, I found myself becoming 
more and more inclined to take an active hand in 
managing the ranch, and I was soon getting up early in 
the mornings to help Tony take care of things. He was a 
good-natured guy and did his best to show me what I 
needed to know, though he liked to joke about my 
finally learning the meaning of real work after a 
career of pushing paper around on my desk. After 
spending a few weeks nursing a collection of blisters, 
I wasn't going to argue with him.

One morning in July, we were cleaning the stables when 
Hayley came out, wanting to take Belle for a ride. We 
helped her saddle up, and I stood in the doorway of the 
barn watching her ride off. 

"That's got to be the sweetest girl I've ever met," 
Tony said, "and I've met quite a few." 

"Yeah." 

"You're a pretty lucky guy, you know that?" 

My head spun around in surprise, but he just laughed. 

"You think I haven't figured out what you've got going 
on here? With that sign you've got over the front 
gate?" He laughed again. "I may be getting old, but I'm 
not stupid." 

"Uh." 

"It's not a problem. I'm not a man to judge other 
people's lifestyles. I can tell all these girls are 
crazy about you, and that's about all that matters to 
me." 

"Okay." 

He leaned against his pitchfork, propping his arms up 
on the end of the handle. 

"I lived in a place like this for a few years, a 
commune of sorts, after I came back from Vietnam. I 
wasn't ready to rejoin conventional society. Wasn't for 
a long time." 

"You were in Vietnam?" 

He nodded. 

"Not something I enjoy talking about, but I was. One 
thing I learned was that you have to appreciate what 
you have when you have it, because you won't have it 
forever. Friends and family especially. If this is what 
you and those girls want out of your lives, then you 
should take it. You shouldn't let anyone else stop you 
from enjoying something special, even if it might be 
pretty unorthodox." 

It took me a moment or two to answer him. 

"Thanks." 

He shrugged. 

"Don't mention it. Just be happy." 

That afternoon, I went walking with Britney through the 
redwoods around the perimeter of the property. She 
would run ahead of me, then back, then ahead again, 
stopping to sniff one thing or another as she ran 
around, or pausing to stick her nose into a gopher 
hole. The gophers had thus far been too smart for her 
to catch, but she hadn't stopped trying. 

We reached the spot where the creek ran under the fence 
onto the next property, and Britney ran up to the water 
to take a drink. We walked up the creek bank toward the 
waterfall, and I began to hear giggles and female 
conversation through the trees. 

I stopped when we got in sight of the waterfall. The 
sight that greeted my eyes was more of a surprise than 
it should have been. Up ahead, Hayley and Giselle were 
lying on a blanket beside the water, making love. Their 
limbs were intertwined, arms entangled with thighs as 
they moved slowly against each other, oblivious to 
everything around them. 

So this, I thought, was where they were riding to every 
afternoon, and maybe why Giselle seemed to have gotten 
over Ashley so quickly. I didn't mind. Marianne had 
Tiffany, and it looked like Hayley now had Giselle. The 
symmetry of it was pretty darned neat when you gave it 
some thought. 

Britney tried to run up to them, but I grabbed her 
collar in time to stop her. This wasn't something I 
wanted to interrupt, and even watching seemed improper. 
I picked up the dog and carried her back into the 
trees, leaving the girls to each other. 

When Britney and I got back to the house, I found 
Marianne and Tiffany sunbathing by the pool. Two pairs 
of oily pink nipples pointed toward the sun. I changed 
into my swim shorts and dove into the pool to cool off. 
When I swam up to the edge, Marianne had come up to her 
elbows to watch me. 

"Where did you go?" 

"Just took the dog for a walk." 

She looked around the pasture behind us. 

"It's a nice day." 

"It's hot," Tiffany said. 

"Have you noticed that Hayley and Giselle are spending 
a lot of time together lately?" 

The two of them looked at each other in disbelief and 
then burst out laughing. 

"You've only just figured this out?" Marianne asked. 

"I guess I haven't been paying attention." 

They laughed again, and Marianne grinned at me. 

"I ran into Giselle coming out of Hayley's bedroom one 
morning about two weeks ago," she said. "I pretty much 
knew after that. So yeah, they're an item now." 

"Like you two." 

Another exchange of sly looks, then another laugh. 

We stayed around the pool for a while. Hayley and 
Giselle returned not long afterward and joined us, and-
-now that I knew what was going on--I could see 
definite signs of attraction between the two of them. 
Little giggles, shared looks, sparks in their eyes, 
although helping each other with the suntan lotion was 
a pretty big tip-off too. 

I felt like grilling some steaks for dinner. While I 
was working in the kitchen, Hayley came inside and gave 
me a hug from behind. She was still in poolside attire, 
which meant nothing but string bikini bottoms, and I 
could feel her naked breasts through the fabric of my 
shirt. 

"Hey." 

She giggled. 

"Marianne said you only just figured out what Giselle 
and I have been up to." 

"I saw you by the waterfall this afternoon, by 
accident. Britney and I were taking a walk." 

"We've been going out there a lot." 

"I noticed. Just didn't make the connection until 
today." 

"You're okay with it?" 

"Yes. This is the Kitten Ranch. Goes with the 
territory, I think." 

"I still love you just as much." 

"I know. Don't sweat it." 

She lifted up on her tiptoes and kissed me. 

"Thanks." 

After dinner, I sat out by the pool smoking a cigar. It 
was a bad habit I had been indulging more often now 
that I had the leisure time to do it, though the girls 
unanimously refused to let me smoke them inside. 

I heard one of the French doors open, and I turned to 
see Elizabeth coming out of the house. She took the 
chair next to me and leaned back, looking up at the 
stars. 

"Nice night." 

"Yep." 

She reached for the cigar, and, a little surprised, I 
passed it to her. She took a small drag and passed it 
back. 

"I wouldn't have pegged you as a cigar smoker," I said. 

"My uncle smoked them. I've always liked the smell." 

I offered her the snifter of Hennessey XO I was 
drinking, and she took a sip. 

"How's summer school?" 

"Going well. I should get my degree next spring." 

"Still thinking of law school?" 

"I'm taking the LSAT in October." 

"Good luck." 

"Thanks. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you." 

I laughed softly. 

"Don't give me the credit. You're the one doing the 
work." 

"But I couldn't be doing the work without your help 
with the girls." 

"I don't mind it." 

We were quiet for a few minutes, passing the cigar back 
and forth. 

"You know," she said after a while, "we've never much 
talked about high school. We just had that one shocking 
revelation at lunch that day. Since then, we've kind of 
ignored the issue." 

My heart beat faster, and I had to steady myself for a 
moment. 

"Water under the bridge," I lied. 

"You think?" 

"It all happened a long time ago." 

She smiled at me. 

"I won't pretend that I thought about you much in the 
intervening years, if at all. But I've thought about it 
a lot this year." 

"What have you thought?" 

"How come you never got married?" 

"Never met the right girl. Came close a couple of 
times, but it just didn't happen." 

She looked into my eyes for a few seconds, then glanced 
down at the cement. 

"Then you meet my daughter, and less than a year later, 
the two of you are already talking marriage. You must 
know that that makes me wonder about a few things." 

I swallowed hard. 

"It's not because I really want to marry you." 

"I know that. I know it's Marianne you love. But you 
understand what I'm saying?" 

I did, but it still took me a few seconds to say so. 

"Yeah." 

She sat up, taking a deep breath. 

"Could you come out to the house for a second?" 

"What for?" 

She smiled. 

"Don't panic. I just want to show you something." 

"Okay." 

She stood, and I followed her out across the backyard. 
The guesthouse was fairly modest, probably about 1500 
square feet, one-story, and just two bedrooms, a den, 
and a kitchen. It was furnished in the same ranch style 
as the main house, though Elizabeth had put her own 
spin on it, giving it somewhat more of a Southwestern 
flavor. She had hung several Navajo blankets and sand 
paintings on the walls and (with my blessing) replaced 
the carpet with sandstone tile throughout the house. 

She let me in and stepped toward the bedroom. 

"Have a seat. I'll be right back." 

I sat on the couch, wondering what was going on. I got 
my answer in about five minutes. 

Deja vu was far too weak a description for what I felt 
when Elizabeth finally walked out of the back. I felt 
as if someone had slugged me in the stomach, knocking 
me clear back to 1974. In a split-second, I went from 
forty-two to seventeen, and believe me, it was not a 
pleasant experience. 

She smiled at me warmly. 

"I don't know what surprised me more, that I actually 
found this thing when I moved up here or that it 
actually still fits." 

I gasped for breath, unable to answer her. It did fit, 
by the way. 
Her All Saints cheerleading outfit, I mean. 

The polyester was a little faded, and the creases from 
twenty-five years of storage would probably never come 
out, but Elizabeth Mulcahey was gone. Before me stood 
Beth Dunbar. She had even ironed her hair the way she 
always had in high school. 

She took a few steps toward me. 

"Are you all right?" 

I gulped. 

"Are you?" 

She laughed softly. 

"You think I've lost my mind, don't you?" 

"I don't know." 

She smiled at me wearily for a few seconds. 

"Steve, I'm not stupid. I see the way you look at me 
now and then, however much I try to stay out of the 
way. I can still see some of the same things in your 
eyes that I saw twenty-five years ago, and I don't want 
that. I don't want to be in bed with you, in your head, 
when you're with Marianne. Both of you deserve more 
than that. I don't want to be your adolescent obsession 
anymore. You need to get this out of your system, and I 
don't see any other way to do it. You need to see that 
there isn't as much here for you as you might think." 

I realized what she was really saying. 

"You're talking about..." But I couldn't say it. 

She nodded. 

"Yes. Just for tonight, but yes." 

"I thought you had... come out, I mean. As a lesbian." 

"I have. But you know I've had sex with men. It's not a 
repulsive experience for me; it's just not how I want 
to live my life. If you're worried about that, don't 
be. I'm sure I'll enjoy it. And I'm offering this out 
of more than just frustration. I really have been 
trying to articulate my gratitude to you for a long 
time, but I've just not been able to do it in a way 
that would do justice to all you've done for me and the 
girls. I'm not good enough with words. 

"I just want you to think of where we would be without 
you. I might be on welfare right now. Marianne would 
have no chance of going to college. God knows what 
Hayley would have done. Instead we all have a bright 
future ahead of us, and it's largely due to you." 

"You don't have to do this." 

"I know. And believe me, I don't mean what I just said 
as a cliche, man saves woman, woman pays him back with 
sex. I think that really demeans everyone involved. You 
and I are not teenagers anymore. We know, I think, that 
one little roll in the hay isn't worth all that much in 
the great scheme of things." 

"No." 

"I'm making this offer because I know it does mean 
something to you, because I think you do need it on 
some level. Maybe I still feel a little guilty about 
what happened between us all those years ago. I know 
you wanted this back then." 

I managed a weak laugh. 

"More than you could ever imagine." 

"So... what do you say?" 

I closed my eyes. Seventeen-year-old Steve had passed 
out with shock, but I could still feel the tidal pull 
of what I had gone through back then. Dear God, how 
many times had I masturbated thinking about this 
moment, even years afterward when I was in college? For 
so many years, Beth Dunbar had occupied that Holiest of 
Holies in my fantasies, the unattainable goddess. And 
here she finally was, ready to surrender to me. 

I let out a long, tired sigh. 

"I'm sorry. You don't know what this means to me. I 
just can't do it to Marianne. Or to Hayley." 

I wasn't sure what her reaction would be, but when I 
finally mustered up the courage to open my eyes, 
Elizabeth was smiling. 

"No, Steve. You need to do it *because* of them. I 
think you know that, but you can't admit it to yourself 
because it would mean you've been holding on to 
something else all this time you've been with them." 

"It would kill them if they knew." 

"And they never will. No one ever will. I'll take it to 
my grave. I could never hurt them like that." 

She stepped up to me slowly and reached for my hand. It 
rose of its own accord, and she helped me to my feet. I 
followed her, dazed, back to the bedroom, where she had 
already turned down the bed. I was shaking by the time 
we reached it, and she put her hand on my cheek. She 
caressed me tenderly, reaching up to play with the hair 
behind my ear. Then she leaned in, pressing her lips 
against mine, and I was finally kissing her after all 
those years of wanting. 

I don't mean to make it sound as if I suddenly became 
seventeen again. I didn't have the body or the 
exuberance that I did in those days, but neither did 
she. She undressed me slowly, running her fingers 
though my chest hair. I couldn't bring myself to touch 
her breasts, even over the polyester of her uniform, 
for several minutes, but when I did, she felt much like 
her daughters. 

She removed my pants, leaving me naked, and dropped 
slowly to her knees. She took me into her mouth. I 
gasped at the feel of it, looking down in stunned 
amazement as she sucked on me gently. A giggle rose in 
my throat, though I managed to suppress it. Beth Dunbar 
is sucking my cock, I thought. How many times had I 
fantasized about this? 

Except--she wasn't as good as Marianne, or even Hayley, 
though it was still enjoyable. I couldn't put a finger 
on why, but there it was. 

I held her head in my hands as she bobbed up and down 
slowly. I tried to picture myself at seventeen, 
experiencing this back then, but it didn't quite work. 
Another face kept forcing itself into my mind. 

Elizabeth stopped and rose to her feet. She took the 
hem of her top in her hands and smiled. 

"On or off?" 

"On." 

She laughed softly. 

"Good. I'm not sure you'd enjoy seeing me topless, not 
after Marianne." 

"I'm sure you're just as beautiful." 

"Maybe. Just not as firm." 

She pulled me to the bed and lay back, spreading her 
legs. I lay beside her, running a hand up her thigh. 
She was being uncharitable to herself--she was still in 
good shape, never mind her age. I reached the hem of 
her skirt, discovering that she had nothing under it. 

Her pubic hair was shaved, and she smiled when my 
eyebrows rose. 

"It's a lesbian thing too. I've been doing it for 
years. And I'm not as blonde down there as I used to 
be, so I prefer it this way." 

She reached for me, and I moved between her thighs. She 
guided me into her, and though she was somewhat dry at 
first, she lubricated quickly. I bottomed out, moaning 
softly as she laid her hands on my waist. 

"Don't worry about me," she said. "This is for you." 

I began to move in her slowly, looking down at the 
forty-one-year-old cheerleader under me. I thought of 
Beth Dunbar, and all the years I had dreamed of this 
moment, all the times I had masturbated wanting her. I 
kept trying to tell myself that this was living up to 
the fantasies, but the lie of that was so bald-faced 
that I started laughing. 

Elizabeth laughed with me. 

"What's funny?" 

"I'm thinking of Carl Prendergast." 

He had been her boyfriend in high school, a linebacker 
on the football team. She laughed again, and it felt 
good around me. 

"Do you know what happened to him?" she asked. 

"No." 

"He went to work for his father's company for about six 
months after graduation, then joined the Marines. He 
didn't even make it through Boot Camp. The last time I 
saw him, and my God, this must have been twenty years 
ago, he was stocking at that hardware store on Canal 
Street." 

We laughed again together, and I leaned back away from 
her. 

"Take that thing off. This is silly." 

"Are you sure?" 

"Yes." 

I withdrew from her for a moment, and she sat up, 
pulling the uniform over her head. Her big breasts 
rolled around on her chest, and if they were no longer 
as hard and firm as her daughters' were, they were 
still quite beautiful. 

We recoupled, and I lay against her naked body. She 
slid her arms around my back, and we began moving 
again. She remained largely still under me, only 
rolling her hips slowly with my thrusts. But her 
breathing began to accelerate, and she hugged me close 
at one moment. As I grew closer to orgasm, she moved 
faster, trying to meet me halfway each time. I knew she 
wanted me to be selfish, but I couldn't stop myself 
from trying to carry her along. Her nails dug into my 
lower back, and a little whimper escaped her lips. 

I grunted, driving faster, and she responded instantly, 
humping herself against me. Finally, I let out a groan, 
losing control at last, but when I began to convulse in 
orgasm, I felt her shuddering under me, squeezing my 
back tightly. My cum raced out of me in sweetly painful 
spurts. Her hands opened and closed rapidly at the 
small of my back, and I felt the tremors of her climax 
around my erection. 

As I drifted down from my release, Elizabeth exhaled 
slowly, relaxing under me. I rolled off of her, staring 
blankly up at the ceiling. I felt--empty was the word, 
not empty of emotion, but of something else I had 
carried around for a long time. 

"Thank you." 

Elizabeth laughed softly. 

"Thank you." She reached for my hand and squeezed it. 
"It's been about three years since I made love with a 
man. Charles and I stopped sleeping together several 
years before we got divorced. I don't know that 
anything would be enough to make me go back to men, 
but... that was nicer than anything I had with him for 
a long time." 

The smell of my semen in the air suddenly made me think 
of something else. 

"I feel like a teenager in more ways than one. I didn't 
to ask if you--" 

"I have my diaphragm in. It hasn't gotten much use 
lately, but I still had it. I didn't expect you to 
think of that. I knew you would be in too much shock. 
It's all right." 

"Okay." 

She rolled over and kissed me tenderly on the cheek. 

"Go to bed. I'm going to burn that uniform when you're 
gone. I have no use for it anymore." 

I laughed. 

"Good." 

I walked back to the main house in a daze. When I 
reached the gate into the backyard, a dark form emerged 
from a corner of the patio, moving toward me. The patio 
light was off, and I couldn't tell who it was as he 
approached, but I could tell immediately that something 
was very wrong, for this person was extending their arm 
toward me, and in his hand was a gun. 

"Freeze, man. Don't fucking move." 

Then he stepped into the light streaming out from the 
den, and I finally recognized him. 

"Randy." 

He laughed. 

"Yeah, man. You're fucked now, you got that? Your ass 
is mine." 


CHAPTER FORTY-TWO 
-----------------

Randy and I stared at each other for a few seconds. The 
look of desperation in his eyes frightened me a lot 
more than his gun. 

For a moment, I considered trying to wrestle him for 
it, to stop him before he got into the house and did 
something I didn't want to think about. But if I liked 
to think I was in good shape for forty-one, I wasn't 
eighteen anymore either. Randy was about my height, but 
he had a good twenty pounds of linebacker muscle on me. 
Plus the gun. And I could tell from the way he glared 
at me that he was just itching for an excuse to use it. 

He waved it toward the house. 

"Get in there. Go." 

I obeyed reluctantly, not taking my eyes off him. When 
we reached the doors to the den, I saw Tiffany and 
Giselle watching some movie on the big-screen TV. They 
looked over when I came in, and a second later they 
both shrieked in surprise. Tiffany jumped to her feet, 
putting her hands over her mouth. 

"Shut up!" Randy growled. He pointed the gun back at 
me. "Get over there. Stand with them." 

I backed away from him, and both girls huddled behind 
me, clutching my arms in terror. Randy glanced around, 
obviously looking for Marianne and Hayley. 

"Where are the rest of them? I know they're in here. 
I've been watching." 

"Upstairs," Tiffany squeaked. 

"Go get them." 

Tiffany let out a quiet cry of fright and didn't move. 

"I'll go," I said. 

"No. You keep your fucking ass right there. She's 
going. And if she does anything funny, I'll blow your 
brains out, you got that? Both of you." 

I pried Tiffany's hand from my arm. 

"Just go. It will be all right." 

She whimpered, backing away from us. Randy shook the 
gun at her. 

"Go!" 

She scampered out of the room toward the stairs. 

"Randy," I said as levelly as I could, "whatever you 
have in mind here, this isn't a solution." 

"Shut up! I'm not here to listen to your shit. You're 
here to listen to me." 

"All right. Say what you want to say, then." 

"I will. When you're all down here." 

I fought to still my pounding heart, wondering whether 
he knew about Elizabeth and Tony. He wasn't acting like 
he did, or at least he wasn't acting as if he were 
worried about them. But we were too far away from the 
other houses for them to hear anything, unless Randy 
started shooting--by which point it would probably be 
too late. 

Tony generally went to bed early, and I had a feeling 
that Elizabeth had gone to bed herself after what we 
had just done. She had no reason to come to the main 
house tonight. Which meant we were probably stuck. 

There were no weapons in the house beyond kitchen 
knives. I had never been much for guns -- and this 
experience was not altering my aversion to them -- but 
I wondered now if maybe there was something to all that 
"home defense" propaganda the NRA liked to trumpet. Too 
late now, in any case. 

I heard the other girls coming down the stairs, 
Marianne saying something like "what the hell is going 
on?" and then they came down the hallway into the den. 

Marianne saw Randy first and let out a shriek of 
horror. Hayley looked as if she had just been 
introduced to Satan himself. All three of them ran 
behind me. 

"Okay," I said. "We're here. Say what you have to say." 

His face twisted into a mask of pure hatred, and he 
pointed the gun directly at my face. 

"Just shut the fuck up! Stop acting like you're so much 
better than me!" 

My knees weakened, and it took me a moment to regain 
control of myself. The girls whimpered, and the hands 
on my arm tightened. 

"I'm not saying that, Randy." 

"So you've got a shitload of money. That doesn't make 
you better than me!" 

"No, it doesn't." 

"You bought your way out of jail. You and all of them 
got up there in court and lied your fucking asses off. 
Now I'm the one they're after." 

"You were lying too, Randy," Marianne said. 

"Not about what really mattered! He's been fucking all 
of you! I know it! He belongs in jail, not me!" 

"The judge said he was innocent." 

"Because you fucking lied! I care more about your 
sister than you do." 

Hayley suddenly pushed her way past me. 

"Oh, fuck you! Fuck you! You try to rape me, and then 
you tell me you care about me? Fuck you!" 

Randy's resolve wavered for a moment. I grabbed 
Hayley's arm, trying to pull her back, but she 
struggled against my grip. 

"I wasn't going to rape you," Randy muttered. 

"Oh, right! What the fuck were you going to do, then?" 

I finally succeeded in pulling Hayley back, but I 
hadn't been paying attention to Marianne, who had now 
stepped up beside me. 

"You tried to rape my sister?" she snarled. 

Randy stepped back a foot or two. 

"It wasn't like that." 

She looked at Hayley, who was still panting against her 
agitation. 

"He did. Back in April. I didn't tell anyone because I 
was afraid of what would happen." 

Marianne stepped toward Randy, all fear replaced by 
loathing. I grabbed her arm to stop her, but she jerked 
her wrist out of my hand. Now Randy swung the gun 
around at her. 

"Get back. Stay where you are." 

Marianne stopped, still glaring at him. 

"You'd better shoot me then, because otherwise you're 
dead." 

I grabbed at her arm again, and this time I was able to 
pull her back to us. 

"Randy, you're only making things worse here. If you 
leave, I promise I will not call the police." 

"Oh, fuck that!" Marianne yelled. "He's going down! Not 
after what he did to Hayley." 

Randy's agitation had reached epic proportions now, and 
he swung the gun back and forth over us. 

"Shut up! All of you, shut up!" 

"Randy, please try to calm down," I said. "Tell me what 
you want here. We can still get out of this without 
anyone getting hurt." 

His breath whistled through his nostrils for a few 
seconds, and he leveled the gun at me. 

"You don't even know what you did to me, do you? You 
took away the only girl I ever loved just so you could 
have someone to fuck!" 

Marianne scoffed at him. 

"Oh, God! Not this shit again!" 

I inhaled slowly. 

"Randy, I want to tell you something, a little story." 

"No! I'm not listening to you." 

"It might help you understand." 

He breathed hard for a moment or two but said nothing. 

"When I was your age, I fell in love with a beautiful 
cheerleader like Marianne. I was nuts about her. I 
thought everything in my life would be perfect if only 
I had her. But I never even got as far as you did. I 
never even got to date her. She toyed with my emotions 
for a couple of months before getting the football team 
to beat me up. And you know what I did? Nothing. I 
hated her for a while, but eventually I put it behind 
me. I let it go. I went on with my life. I didn't hold 
onto what had happened until I destroyed myself." 

I paused to catch my breath. 

"Randy, you still have a chance to do that. You can 
leave, now, and nothing will happen." 

He stared hard at me for a few seconds, and for a 
moment I thought I had gotten through to him. Then the 
rage flew back into his face, and he shook the gun at 
me. 

"No! I don't fucking care what you did! You don't 
understand a fucking thing!" 

He glanced around the room in agitation and continued. 

"You're going to give me all your money. Whatever you 
have to do, sign it over, write me a check or whatever. 
I want all your money, then I want you to get out. I'm 
taking all this. It's mine now." 

Marianne laughed in disbelief. 

"You're fucking nuts." 

"Randy, I don't know what you want me to do here. Most 
of my money is tied up in the stock market. I can't 
just sign it over to you." 

"Yes, you can! You can go online or something, to 
e*trade. You can do it now." 

"It's ten-thirty at night. All the markets are closed. 
Nothing will happen until tomorrow morning." 

"So write me a check then. Sign some kind of paper that 
says everything is mine." 

"And then what? Something like that, signed under 
duress, would not be valid. As soon as I left, I could 
call the police." 

"No, you won't. 'Cause I'll kill all of them if you 
do." 

"You have to sleep some time, Randy," Marianne said. 
"You can't watch all four of us twenty-four/seven." 

"Shut up! Just do it! I don't care what you say! Just 
do it!" 

"How about this? I can write you a check for twenty 
thousand dollars. That's about all I have liquid right 
now. It would be good. But you have to let the girls go 
first." 

"No! I'm giving the fucking orders here! I want 
everything." 

He waved his gun around the den and the kitchen. 

"Go to your office. Get some paper and a pen. Now! If 
you do anything funny like call the police, I'll start 
shooting." 

I pried myself free from the girls and walked up the 
hall to my office. I pulled a few sheets of paper out 
of the printer and returned to the den. Randy gestured 
toward the coffee table with the gun. 

"Now sit down and write what I tell you to write." 

I sat at the couch and set the paper in front of me. 

"'I, Steve Chandler,'" he began, "'hereby give 
everything I own to Randy Donahue. All my money, my 
house, and my cars.'" 

I started to write, and Marianne squeaked in concern. 

"Steve, no! Don't do it!" 

"It's not going to be enforceable," I said. 

"Yes it fucking will!" Randy shouted. "Just do it!" 

I wrote what he said to write, then looked up at him 
again. 

"'Everything I own now belongs to him because of all 
the bad stuff I've done to him. I'm not doing this 
under duress and this is enforceable.'" 

I wrote it all down dutifully. 

"Now sign it." 

I did, and he rushed over and picked it up, laughing 
giddily. 

"There. Now get out. This is my house now!" 

"Sorry, kid, it's not." 

All of us jumped in surprise. I spun around, looking 
behind me. There, in the back doorway, stood Tony, 
pointing a hunting rifle directly at Randy's head. None 
of us had seen him or even heard him come in. 

"I'm going to count to three," he said calmly, "and 
when I do, that gun is going to hit the floor. The only 
option you have is whether your brains hit the wall 
behind you in the process." 

Randy was frozen to his spot on the floor, unmoving. 
But his face began to twist in grief. 

"No! You drop it! Drop it or I'll shoot them!" 

"One." 

Randy panted in agitation, starting to cry. 

"Two." 

"Go ahead and shoot me," he bawled. "I've got nothing 
to live for now. I lost my scholarship because they all 
lied in court. The only girl I ever loved hates my guts 
now. I don't fucking care!" 

Tony took a slow breath. 

"You think you've got it bad because some girl dumped 
you? Because you might be facing a perjury charge that, 
at worst, will get you probation? Because you might 
have to pay for your college education?" 

He laughed weakly. 

"Son, you want bad, try wiping your best friend's 
brains off your face because your squad walked into a 
VC ambush. Try living with that for thirty years. Try 
visiting a monument that does nothing but tell you how 
many of your friends died for nothing. A monument 
that's just a pretty slab of granite to most people." 

He shook his head. 

"You're pathetic. You're not even worth wasting a 
bullet on." 

Randy began to sob, and the gun slipped unnoticed from 
his fingers, clattering to the floor. Tony motioned to 
me, and I stepped up carefully toward it. Randy ignored 
me as I picked it up. 

"Marianne, go call 911," Tony said. "Tell them we have 
the situation under control, but they need to get out 
here pronto." 

Marianne darted toward the kitchen and grabbed the 
phone. She dialed the numbers rapidly and then gushed 
into the receiver when the operator answered. 

Randy dropped to the floor, sitting cross-legged and 
putting his face into his hands, sobbing 
uncontrollably. The other three girls backed away from 
him and came over to me. I hugged all of them tightly. 
Marianne returned to us, then tried to hug Tony. He let 
her, though he kept his gaze on Randy. 

"Thank you," she sobbed. 

"How did you know?" I asked. "Did you see something?" 

"Nope. I was out cold, asleep, but I woke up realizing 
something was wrong. Just a feeling I got. So I grabbed 
my gun and came up here to see what was going on." 

I blinked in disbelief. 

"You must be psychic." 

He laughed softly. 

"Some other time. I'll explain it." 

We heard sirens approaching, and I sent Marianne to the 
front door to let the police into the house. They came 
rushing into the den a few moments later. Tony set his 
gun down and let them take over. 

The officers rapidly handcuffed Randy and took him 
outside. The rest of us sat on the couch to try to 
catch our breath. Then Marianne suddenly shot to her 
feet, looking out the back window. 

"Oh, my God! Mom!" 

I turned to see Elizabeth coming across the backyard in 
her robe. Marianne ran to let her inside, and we 
quickly filled her in on what had happened. 

Another car with a pair of detectives arrived a bit 
later, and they spent about half an hour questioning us 
and inspecting the house. The information about Randy's 
attempted rape of Hayley drew almost as much interest 
as his home invasion. Hayley at first insisted she 
didn't want to press charges, but Marianne and 
Elizabeth talked her out of it. It would mean another 
round in court, but after tonight, the girls were 
adamant about getting Randy out of their lives for 
good. 

First thing the next morning, I called a local alarm 
company about installing a security system. I didn't 
know what other threats we might be facing with Randy 
in jail, but I was not about to take any more chances. 
I considered buying a gun, but decided against it. It 
wouldn't have much helped that night away, since Randy 
had surprised all of us. 

Things did not go back to normal right away. Everyone 
was jumpy for quite a while, especially at night. No 
one wanted to sleep alone at first, and a fair amount 
of "musical beds" went on for a week or two. 

One afternoon, about two weeks later, I came down to 
the den and saw Marianne sitting out by the pool, 
dressed in street clothes but sitting on one of the 
lounge chairs with her knees pulled up to her chest. 

I opened the back door and went out sit next to her. 

"How you doing, Kitten?" 

She turned slowly to look at me. 

"Baby, tell me something." 

"Anything." 

"That story you told Randy that night, about the 
cheerleader. Was that true?" 

My stomach churned for a moment in shock. 

"Yes." 

"Who was she?" 

I lost my breath for a second, struggling for something 
to tell her. But I couldn't make myself lie -- and 
something I saw in her eyes told me she suspected the 
truth anyway. 

"Your mother." 

Her eyes closed slowly, and her head turned back toward 
the pool. 

"I thought so. It didn't occur to me until this 
morning. Mom told me a story like that once, how she 
had done something like that. It was when I was first 
starting cheerleading, and she was trying to, I guess, 
convince me not to be a bitch about it. I had 
completely forgotten about it until a few days ago." 

She took a ragged breath. 

"But I knew you guys must have known each other back 
then. I knew last Christmas, when we were helping Mom 
move out. I found a box of her high school junk in the 
attic, her old cheerleading uniform and her yearbooks. 
And I realized that the name and the colors and the 
logo were same as what I had seen that night at the 
reunion you took me too. And I found your picture in 
the yearbook." 

With God as my witness, I had no idea what to say to 
her. 

"I wondered if you two even knew about it, if you just 
hadn't recognized each other. I almost mentioned it. 
But then I realized that if you did know, you must have 
had some reason for not telling me, me and Hayley. And 
now I think I know what it was." 

"Yes," I gasped. 

She looked back at me now, and she stared as hard at me 
as I had ever seen her do. 

"Did you know who my mom was when we first met?" 

"No. I didn't. I didn't realize it until after you told 
her about us. We finally recognized each other when I 
went to lunch with her that day, when we made peace 
over you and Hayley. I told her that story as a means 
of explaining part of why I was attracted to you." 

As soon as that last sentence was out of my mouth, I 
wanted to snatch it away, to kill it, to do anything to 
get it back. But it was too late. 

Marianne's face began to melt, and her eyes filled with 
tears. Then she began to sob in front of me. She put 
her hands in her face and shrunk in on herself. 

I tried to put my arms around her, but she pushed me 
away. She sat there sobbing quietly, rocking back and 
forth, as I struggled for some way to undo this 
blunder. But somehow, everything I thought of seemed 
pathetically inadequate. 

Finally she lifted her head, gasping for breath. 

"Go away. Just go away. I need to be alone right now." 

"I'm sorry." 

She turned away from me, and I trudged wearily up to 
the master bedroom. I lay on the bed wondering what I 
had just done. 

When I gathered the courage to go out on the deck a 
while later and look for her, she was gone. I went 
downstairs, looking for the other girls. Giselle was 
watching television; Tiffany was listening to music in 
her room. But I couldn't find Hayley. 

In a panic, I went outside looking for her. I found her 
in the barn brushing down Belle. 

"Hi." 

"Hey. Have you seen Marianne?" 

"I saw her walking around the pasture a while ago. Why? 
Is something wrong?" 

"No. I was just curious." 

I walked around the back of the property, around toward 
the waterfall, thinking she might be hiding there 
again. But I found nothing. 

I considered whether to tell Elizabeth about this, 
though I wasn't sure what that would accomplish. I had 
a feeling that Marianne was just as upset at her right 
now, or least close to it. So after fidgeting around 
the backyard for a few minutes, I went back inside. 

I lay in bed for a long time staring at the ceiling. If 
Marianne left, the rest of them would probably go with 
her. They would have no reason to stay. I would be 
alone at the Kittenless Ranch with nothing but my 
money. Fitting, I thought, since it had been 
instrumental in bringing a lot of this about. 

"Did you find Marianne?" 

I looked over to see Hayley standing in the doorway in 
her riding clothes. The thought of losing her sent a 
stab through my gut. 

"No." 

"I haven't see her. She might have gone out somewhere." 

"I don't know." 

She came over and flopped onto the bed beside me. 

"What's up? You don't look so good." 

"I'm feeling a little under the weather." 

For a moment, I almost told her everything. She 
deserved to know, from one perspective--but I couldn't 
make myself do it, couldn't make her as upset as 
Marianne was. Her forehead creased as she looked at me. 

"What?" 

"Nothing. I love you." 

She smiled. 

"I love you too." 

It was ironic, I thought, that what had happened with 
Beth Dunbar was causing all this trouble. Because as I 
looked up at Hayley, I realized that for the first time 
in twenty-five years, Beth Dunbar was gone from my 
mind. In her place was this beautiful girl, her and her 
sister. 

She sat back on her feet. 

"I'll let you get some rest. I hope you feel better." 

"Thanks." 

I don't know how much longer I lay there spacing out, 
trying to deny that anything had happened. I didn't 
come back to earth until I heard the knocking on the 
bedroom door. 

I looked up. Tony was standing there, looking 
concerned. I was less surprised at his concern than the 
fact that he was up here at all, since he almost never 
came in the house. 

"Hey." 

"I, um, I've been talking to Marianne. She wants you to 
come out to the cottage." 

My head spun for a moment. Of all the people I expected 
her to go to, Tony would not have topped the list. 

I sat up. 

"What did she say?" 

He shrugged. 

"Enough. Come on." 

I followed him downstairs and out to the back pasture. 
His cottage was about thirty yards behind the barn, and 
I saw Marianne sitting in a chair around the side, 
where he had some patio furniture set up. 

He stopped as we reached the barn and patted me on the 
shoulder. 

"Go on. I'll stay here. I've got some stuff to do 
anyway." 

I approached slowly, too emotionally drained at this 
point to feel nervous, even if I was. Marianne looked 
up, eyes red and puffy, without saying anything, and I 
took one of the chairs in front of her. 

"Hi," she said wearily. 

I managed a weak smile. 

"I'm not sure what to tell you." 

She nodded. 

"There isn't anything to say, really. I've been talking 
with Tony. I guess he's helped me a little with that 
perspective we've talked about." 

"Okay." 

"It just freaked me out, you know, to know you once 
wanted to boink my mother. How did you expect me to 
react to that?" 

"It was a long time ago." 

"I know. And what Tony explained to me, I guess, is 
that everyone is a bundle of experiences, that all 
sorts of things can mold the person you are, lots of 
things you have no control over. And that I can't blame 
you for something that happened before I was even 
born." 

She paused. 

"But what I have to know... is that you are here for 
me. Not because you wanted something from Mom and 
couldn't get it." 

"What do you think?" 

"Part of me hates even thinking about it. And I 
remember that you didn't exactly jump at the idea of 
having her move in with us. And that you guys have been 
totally normal the whole time we've been up here. So I 
guess I do know that, sort of. I just need to hear you 
say it." 

I leaned forward, taking her face in my hands. I 
brushed the hair back from her forehead and stared into 
her eyes. I wasn't going to say this just to say it. I 
had to know I meant it, that it was the truth. So I 
gave myself a moment to reflect on it, to dig deep down 
to the bowels of those adolescent memories. And when I 
reached for it, tried to grasp that lead weight that 
had lain in the pit of my mind for so many years, all I 
caught was mist. And that was when I knew -- whatever 
the unmentionable reasons for it were -- that it was 
finally over. 

"I am here for you. Not your mother. I don't love her, 
and I never did. No more than Randy ever loved you. It 
was nothing but a teenage infatuation. I didn't really 
know her back then. The Beth Dunbar I thought I loved 
didn't really exist. I know that now. Whatever was 
there is gone." 

She smiled tenderly at me for a second or two, then 
hugged me, climbing into my lap and holding me tightly. 
We held each other for a long time, rocking back and 
forth. I opened my eyes and looked over her shoulder, 
seeing Tony waiting by the barn. He gave me a thumbs-up 
and turned back to his work. 

"Why did you come to Tony?" 

She released her grip on my neck and looked down at me. 

"Well, I couldn't talk to Mom about it, could I? I 
didn't want to dump it on Hayley. And I don't think 
Tiffany and Giselle could deal with something like 
this. But I'm glad I did. He really seems to understand 
things. It's like he could look into my heart and show 
me the stuff I needed to really think about." 

"I'm glad. Come on. Let's go back to the house." 

We went up to the master bedroom and lay down together. 
I was so drained by what had happened that I dozed off 
with her beside me. When I woke up, it was almost seven 
o'clock. Across the room, I saw Marianne sitting in 
front of her computer with Hayley beside her. 

"What are you doing?" 

They turned around, smiling at me. 

"I just posted the last chapter of our story," Marianne 
said. "I think it's done now, don't you?" 

I got off the bed and hugged them both from behind. 

"All depends on your perspective. Come here." 

We crawled into bed, and I took them both in my arms. 
They laid their heads on my chest, one on either side, 
smiling at me and each other. 

"I love you. Both of you." 

I kissed them. Then I made love to them. Afterward, we 
went out to the deck and lay in the hammock together 
watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean. We had 
come a long way to get here, but we had oh so much 
further yet to go. College. Marriage one day, or maybe 
just some joint domestic partnership, however we worked 
it out. Kids, perhaps. So many possibilities. 

All that was for the future, though. For now, we had 
each other. 

And that was enough. 


EPILOGUE 
--------

Brian straightened my tie and shook his head. 

"I still can't believe you're doing this." 

"Me neither." 

I could see the guests waiting in the back pasture, 
more of them than I might have once expected given what 
we were about to do. Most of them were friends of 
Elizabeth's or the girls, including a few friends of 
Hayley's from her high school. Not too many friends of 
mine, which hadn't surprised me; this was just too 
unorthodox an undertaking for the stock traders and 
investment bankers I knew. But a few of them had come 
up anyway and wished us well. 

"For what it's worth, though, I think you're doing the 
right thing." 

"Thanks." 

"I can't say I know anyone else who got married by 
their gardener." 

I laughed. 

"He's a lot more than that." 

I had discovered, not long after the home invasion and 
the Beth Dunbar issue, that in addition to being an 
able caretaker and ex-Green Beret, Tony was also a 
Wiccan priest, having gravitated to it during his 
tenure in the commune. He suggested the form of this 
ceremony when we began discussing it, and the girls had 
wholeheartedly embraced the idea. 

A few seconds later, he came through the back door into 
the den. 

"I think we're ready to go." 

"You've got everything you need?" 

He laughed and slapped my shoulder. 

"Yes. Relax." 

The three of us stepped out into the back yard, Tony in 
front, Brian and me a step behind. Brian and I wore 
simple summer suits, while Tony wore an embroidered 
white robe and carried a woven bag over his shoulder. I 
carried only a bottle of red wine from a local winery. 

We paused at the gate to the back pasture and turned 
back toward the house. One by one, the women emerged 
from the door to the rear wing. 

Elizabeth appeared first, followed by Marianne, Hayley, 
Giselle, and Tiffany. All of them wore plain white 
cotton dresses, with garlands of flowers in their hair 
and shawls over their shoulders. Each of the younger 
women carried one fourth of a loaf of bread they had 
baked together. 

Tiffany had wanted to do this nude, but we had talked 
her out of it-- that would simply have been too much, 
though the idea had intrigued me. The only unusual 
element of her attire was a long gold chain that ran 
from under her dress to Marianne's hand. The two of 
them were joined together in that fashion instead of 
holding hands as Hayley and Giselle did. 

I looked to the guests for any reactions to Tiffany's 
unusual accessory, and I saw a few eyebrows going up. 
Only a few, though--this was Santa Cruz, after all, and 
most of the guests knew Marianne and Tiffany well 
enough to know what that chain was attached to, and 
what it meant. 

I looked back at the procession of prospective brides, 
looking from one woman to the next, drinking in the 
radiant happiness that every one of them was exuding. 
Marianne cried ever so subtly; Hayley seemed as nervous 
as she was happy. Giselle and Tiffany just smiled at 
me. 

With Tony leading the way, we crossed the back pasture 
through the thirty or forty guests, who fell in behind 
us. He led us back through trees and up to the pool at 
the base of the waterfall. I had suggested using the 
backyard, but he insisted that this was a better spot 
"spiritually," since it allowed us to bring together 
all four basic elements: air, earth, water, and fire. 
The girls were smitten with the whole idea of this 
ceremony, so whatever he wanted to do, they went 
happily along with. 

Tony stopped in front of a large boulder at the edge of 
the pool and began his preparations. The guest circled 
around the pond as best they could. Tiffany's parents 
were here along with her younger sister (they had 
proved to be far more open-minded than I might have 
expected), but Giselle's were not. Her brother Phillip 
*was* here, however, having gone through a similar 
confrontation and break from their father over both 
Giselle's lifestyle and his non-future in football. 

Tony drew several small fetish items from his bag and 
arranged them carefully on top of the boulder. Next 
came a silver incense burner, which he filled with 
incense and lit a moment later. Then he drew a short 
wood-handled broom from his bag and set it beside the 
rock. The last items were a silver goblet, a long woven 
cord, and the rings we would be using for the ceremony. 
He set those on top of the boulder as well. 

He motioned to Elizabeth. She stepped forward, and when 
she stood in front of him, Tony touched her forehead 
and spoke aloud, his rich baritone carrying through the 
trees. 

"Awake, Dear Lady Divine. Let your mind and awareness 
be with us through this vessel, your daughter." He 
touched her eyelids and went on, "May you see as your 
daughter sees and may all be pleasing in your sight." 
Then her lips: "May you speak as your daughter speaks 
and may your words be full of wisdom for us all." And 
her chest: "May your heart fill with joy and love as 
your daughter's heart beats with joy and love." 
Finally, he took both her hands and said, "May you 
bestow Blessings on all you touch through these, your 
daughter's hands." 

When we told Elizabeth what we wanted to do, she had 
spent some time discussing it with Tony. One thing he 
had mentioned to her was that, in recognition of the 
duality of nature, the ceremony was often performed by 
both a priest and a priestess. He then suggested that 
she assume that role, and she had happily agreed. The 
two of them had been working together on the form of 
the wedding for the last month. 

Elizabeth took the broom from beside the rock and began 
ceremoniously sweeping the air around Tony's altar. 
When she was done, he produced a fistful of salt from 
his bag and poured it in a thin line on the ground, 
creating a circle about twelve feet across. Elizabeth 
followed behind him, setting four candles around the 
circle, one for each cardinal direction. When all four 
candles were lit, she stood and faced the five of us. 

"You who have come to this sacred place this day for 
joining one to another, approach." 

With Giselle in the lead, we walked completely around 
the circle. She held Hayley's hand; Hayley held mine; I 
held Marianne's, and she held Tiffany's. When we had 
completed the circuit, we stopped again in front of 
Elizabeth and Tony. 

Elizabeth spoke first. 

"You stand on the threshold of a great decision, one 
not to be made lightly or frivolously. Are you certain 
this is what you wish to do?" 

Then Tony spoke. 

"You are about to take a step that will mark and bind 
you to each other forever--not just physically and 
emotionally, and not just for the heat of the moment. 
It will tie your very souls and spirits together. Are 
you certain this is what you wish to do?" 

"I am," I said, and each of the four girls answered in 
turn. 

"Shed the robes of your past," Elizabeth responded, 
"and enter of your own free will." 

The girls all dropped their shawls to the ground, and I 
removed my coat, tie, and Italian wing-tips, handing 
them all to Brian. The others had initially objected to 
my wanting to do this wearing a suit, but Tony had 
explained that it actually fit this part of the 
ceremony. In recognition of our commitment, this step 
symbolized the abandonment of our old roles, which in 
my case was quite accurate. I had left the conventional 
world behind in more ways than one. 

With two girls on either side of me, holding hands, we 
stepped into the circle. I handed the wine to Tony, and 
Elizabeth took the four pieces of bread from the girls. 
Tony poured the wine into the silver goblet as 
Elizabeth set the bread around it. 

When we first began seriously discussing the 
possibility of a five-way union, one of the biggest 
issues we had to resolve was that of the rings. 
Although we meant for everyone to be equal, the 
emotional reality of it was that I was marrying 
Marianne and Hayley, and they were marrying Tiffany, 
and Giselle, respectively. That meant we had to design 
the rings to respect that arrangement. After a few days 
of random ideas, it was Hayley who came up with the 
solution. I had come to see that she had the deepest 
creatively sentimental streak of anyone I had ever met, 
and her idea was about as close to perfect as I could 
have conceived. 

What we had done was have a jeweler near the University 
custom-design ten interlocking rings. Each of us 
designed two rings, one for each person we were 
marrying. I would give mine to Marianne and Hayley, and 
they would give theirs to me, and to Tiffany and 
Giselle. The twist was that the two rings I would give 
to them interlocked with the ones they got from the 
other two girls. Tiffany and Giselle would likewise 
exchange rings to close the circle. 

Tony took each of the rings and passed it through the 
smoke of the incense and the flame of the candle, 
dipped it into the wine and then the dish of salt, and 
then handed it to Elizabeth. When he was done, she 
passed two of the rings to me. 

Taking the first, I turned to Marianne. I took her left 
hand and slipped the ring on her ring finger. She 
looked up at me, trying not to cry. 

"I give you this ring as a sign of my love, as a sign 
of my respect, as a sign of your place in my heart and 
my home." 

I turned to Hayley, taking her hand and slipping the 
other ring on her finger as the tears ran down her 
cheek. 

"I give you this ring as a sign of my love, as a sign 
of my respect, as a sign of your place in my heart and 
my home." 

Elizabeth handed the next pair to Marianne. She turned 
to me first, taking my hand and slipping the ring on my 
finger. 

"I give you this ring as a sign of my love, as a sign 
of our bond, in hopes for the future and in recognition 
of all that we share." 

She turned to Tiffany and repeated the vow. Hayley was 
next, and she forced her ring onto my finger. It 
slipped neatly together with the one already there, 
forming one ring with Marianne's. The two rings were a 
pair of golden cats with sapphire eyes (kittens to the 
girls, though I had prevailed upon the jeweler to make 
them look more like panthers, not wanting the result to 
be too feminine), seeming to leap over one another, 
tails entwined. 

Hayley took a deep breath and began her vows in a 
nervous, quavering voice. 

"I give you this ring as a sign of my love, the first 
love I have known, in thanks for--" Her voice broke at 
this point, making guests laugh softly in sympathy. She 
took another breath and finished the vow. "In thanks 
everything you have done for me and given me, and in 
hopes I can be worthy of my place at your side." 

Then she turned to Giselle, slipping her other ring on 
Giselle's finger. 

"I give you this ring as a sign of my love, the first 
love I have known, in thanks for everything you have 
taught me and shown me, and in hopes I can be worthy of 
my place at your side." 

Elizabeth handed the next pair to Tiffany, who turned 
first to Marianne. 

"I give you this ring as a sign of my love, as a sign 
of everything we have shared, as a sign of your bond to 
my soul." 

The ring Tiffany gave to Marianne had a tiny clip on 
the underside, and when she had slipped it onto 
Marianne's finger, she took the gold leash and attached 
it to the ring. Then she turned to Giselle. 

"I give you this ring as a sign of our love, as a sign 
of everything we share, as a sign of our bond in this 
family." 

Finally it was Giselle's turn, and she slipped her ring 
on Hayley's finger. 

"I give you this ring as a sign of my love, as a sign 
of everything we have shared, rejoicing in my place at 
your side and our fellowship in this family." 

The last ring was for Tiffany, and Giselle placed it on 
her finger as she spoke the final vow. 

"I give you this ring as a sign of our love, as a sign 
of everything we have shared, rejoicing in our 
fellowship in this family." 

We joined hands and turned back to Tony and Elizabeth. 
She took the braided cord from the altar and stepped 
forward. The cord was nearly fifteen feet long, with 
seven separate colored cords (one for each of us, plus 
Tony and Elizabeth) braided together. Only about nine 
feet was actually braided, and each cord continued for 
another five feet after the braid ended. 

As Elizabeth held the braided portion, Tony took the 
green cord and very loosely tied my hands together. 
Then he took the blue cord, Marianne's, and tied her 
hands in the same fashion. He tied the red cord around 
Hayley's hands, the yellow around Tiffany's, and the 
brown around Giselle's. Two cords remained, silver for 
Tony and white for Elizabeth. 

Tony held the braided portion near the end as Elizabeth 
tied a slipknot into it. 

"I tie the knot of Love," she said. She tied another 
saying, "I tie the knot of Trust." She followed that 
with Sharing, Understanding, Respect, and Devotion. She 
passed the last knot through the last loop and pulled 
them all tight. 

Still holding the end of the cord, Elizabeth and Tony 
held it towards the East, and the five of us turned 
with them as Tony spoke. 

"We present to you, O Creatures of the Air, Steve and 
Marianne and Hayley and Tiffany and Giselle, who have 
handfasted and pledged themselves to each other as 
Partners in Family." 

We repeated the presentation in each cardinal direction 
until we were again facing the altar. Elizabeth removed 
the cord from each of our hands without untying it and 
coiled it slowly. Then she presented it to us, handing 
it to Marianne in recognition of her place at the head 
of the household. 

"Take this and keep it safe. It is a reminder of your 
promises and commitments to each other. Remember also 
that you are each bound only so long as you wish to be. 
If your single cord is untied, you are no longer bound 
to the rest." 

Marianne took it reverently, glancing at the rest of us 
and trying to smile through her tears. 

Now Tony took the wine and bread from the altar. He 
broke a piece from the loaf and passed it to me with 
the wine. 

"As you have chosen to be Partners, so will you provide 
for, share with and nourish each other in the future." 

I dipped the bread in the wine and held it to 
Marianne's lips. She took it and chewed slowly. I 
handed the goblet to her as Tony handed her another 
chunk of bread. She fed it to me, and one by one we 
repeated the ritual with the others until all of us had 
exchanged bread and wine. 

Elizabeth now picked up the broom again and laid it on 
the ground along the back of the circle. This was a 
symbol, Tony had explained, of many things: fertility, 
a sweeping clean (thus a fresh start), and domestic 
bliss. Holding hands, the five of us stepped up to it 
and jumped over in unison. Elizabeth and Tony followed, 
and the seven of us embraced as the guests applauded. 

Still holding hands, we led everyone back to the 
pasture and into the backyard, where the caterers had 
set up the reception. Everything spun together after 
that, so many handshakes and hugs and congratulations. 
I had to down a quick glass of scotch to calm my 
nerves, and that seemed to help. 

Once everyone had gone through the receiving line, 
Brian gathered us up. 

"Ready to do the paperwork?" 

I laughed nervously, glancing around at the girls. 

"Yeah. Let's do it." 

We followed him into the house, with Tony and Elizabeth 
coming up the rear. On the big table in the dining room 
were the domestic partnership papers Brian had drawn 
up, a joint will, powers of attorney, and the property 
agreement that would simulate a legal marriage. 

"This will be quite a bit less mystical and 
sentimental," he said grinning, "but in certain ways 
it's just as important and symbolic." 

He sat down and passed the documents around, indicating 
where we had to sign. I gave Hayley a one-armed hug as 
Marianne was putting her signature in the various 
blocks. 

"Still sure you want to do this? You know there's no 
rush." 

Hayley smiled. 

"I've waited two-and-a-half years. I don't want to wait 
any longer. 
This is as good a time as any." 

"Enjoying your birthday so far?" 

Another grin, and deep in her pretty blue eyes, I saw 
something else I couldn't quite identify. 

"Yep. This is the best birthday I've ever had." 

Although the rest of us were willing to wait until 
later in the spring, Hayley had insisted on doing this 
the moment she was legally capable, which was the day 
of her eighteenth birthday--and that was today. When 
Marianne was done, she sat down and signed everything. 

"That's it," Brian said when everyone had signed. "The 
five of you may not be legally married, but you've 
gotten as close as you can now. Congratulations." 

I hugged Marianne and Hayley tightly, then Giselle and 
Tiffany. We filed back out to the yard and rejoined the 
reception. 

As I mingled with the guests, I reflected on everything 
that had happened over the last two years. Marianne and 
Tiffany were in their sophomore years at UCSC and doing 
well. Giselle had applied for a transfer from Cal State 
and been accepted, and she would start her junior year 
with the other two girls this fall. 

Marianne had ditched the cheerleader lifestyle 
altogether, however much she still looked like one, and 
she and Tiffany had made a lot of friends among the 
more free-spirited students around campus, many of whom 
were here tonight. They hadn't yet found the "sex-slave 
sorority" they had joked about, but I suspected they 
might someday start one of their own. 

Hayley was about to graduate from high school, and she 
had her pick of several colleges already. UCSC seemed 
to be the first choice, and though we weren't leaning 
on her, we all pretty much expected her to follow both 
her sister and her mother, who now was completing her 
first year in law school at UC Hastings in San 
Francisco. 

Elizabeth had moved out of the guesthouse to be closer 
to school, but she still came back down here on the 
weekends. She had just found a job for the summer, 
clerking for a friend of Brian's who lived up here. She 
had recently begun expressing an interest in doing 
child advocacy, which surprised none of us. 

As for me, I was happily enjoying my retirement, 
working around the ranch or playing with my stocks. We 
hadn't yet begun shopping for any baby clothes, but I 
had lately been hoping--secretly--that I might have to 
soon. It was a hope I kept to myself, though. I knew 
the girls had enough on their minds right now. 

The caterers began serving the dinner at six, and when 
they had poured the champagne, I stood up and got 
everyone's attention. 

"I don't want to impose on your good mood by giving a 
long speech, but there are a few things I want to say. 
I think that most people would be happy to have found 
one person to spend their life with; to have found four 
people is more than I can really express effectively. 
That these four wonderful young women are willing to 
tether themselves to this old fart makes me feel pretty 
darned special." 

Everyone laughed, and Marianne, who was sitting next to 
me, playfully slapped my arm in mock indignation. 

"Seriously though, we all have to recognize how lucky 
we've been to find each other. It takes a lot of love 
and understanding to make this work, and that we've 
survived two years so well gives me a lot of hope for 
the future. We have lot to look forward to, both 
collectively and individually, and I'm proud of what 
these women have chosen to do with their lives. Thank 
you all for joining us, and I'm thrilled to have the 
opportunity to share this with you." 

I raised my glass in a toast and everyone cheered. When 
the applause died down, Marianne stood up. She rubbed 
my shoulder briefly and began her speech. 

"There's not much I can add to that except that I want 
you all to know that I am not marrying an old fart." 
The guests exploded in laughter, and she continued. 
"Steve and I, and the rest of us, are a lot closer in 
age than you might think, at least in the things that 
are really important. I like to think that we help him 
maintain his perspective, and he's supported and guided 
us more than I can ever express. Most of you know that 
today is Hayley's birthday, but what you don't know is 
that she's really turning twenty-five, not eighteen. 
She's certainly stopped letting me treat her like a 
younger sister." 

More laughter. 

"I also want to thank my mom, for being so 
understanding and supportive these past few years. 
We've all had to go through a lot, and I know she loves 
us more than anything." 

Elizabeth beamed at us from the end of the table. 
Marianne paused and put her hand on Tiffany's shoulder. 

"Finally, I want to say something about the other 
person I'm marrying today, my best friend Tiffany. As 
Steve said, it's a lot to find even one person you want 
to spend your life with. To have found both him and 
Tiffany makes me feel really, really fortunate. Though 
we play a lot of games with each other, we've never 
lost sight of what's really important." 

She bent down, and they hugged each other quickly. Then 
she raised her glass. 

"So, thanks to all of you for coming today. It means a 
lot to all of us." 

Everyone applauded again, and Hayley reached over for 
the mike. She stood up and took a deep breath. 

"Well, this has been a hell of a birthday, I have to 
say that." Laughter rolled across the yard, and she 
continued. "I know I may be pretty young to be doing 
this, but I don't feel insecure about it at all. The 
love I have for Steve and Marianne and Giselle and 
Tiffany is so strong that I know this is what I'm meant 
to be doing with my life. As Steve and Marianne both 
said, I feel so happy and grateful to have found these 
people to spend my life with. I'm really looking 
forward to our future together, and I know we have 
many, many happy years ahead." 

She paused, taking a nervous breath, and everyone 
laughed. 

"Um. I don't know what else to say except thanks for 
everything. I love you all." 

Giselle and Tiffany both got up after that, and then 
Elizabeth, Tony, and Brian all made toasts. The dinner 
went on under the stars for several hours afterward, 
and if this still felt a bit surreal to me, everyone 
was definitely having a great time. We danced after 
cutting the cake, and when I had danced with all four 
girls, I found Elizabeth and pulled her onto the floor. 

"Congratulations." 

"Thanks." 

"You do remember my request about this?" 

"About not being my mother-in-law? Yes." 

She smiled. 

"Thanks." 

"Legally, you're not anyway. So don't worry about it." 

"I'm not. I'm just teasing. Even if I have to say that 
I never quite pictured my daughters' weddings like 
this." 

"I imagine not." 

She smiled again. 

"You think I'm referring to your arrangement with all 
four of them, but that's not all I mean." 

"What else do you mean?" 

"I meant that at one time, I was afraid they would make 
the mistake I did, marrying someone because of who he 
was and because everyone else thought it was a good 
idea, not because they really loved the men they were 
marrying." 

"You mean like you and Charles?" 

"Right. You know about all that. When I saw the sort of 
boys Marianne was dating, I could see her heading down 
the same path. Falling into the whole cheerleader 
stereotype. Randy was the worst, all the more so 
because I knew she didn't really care much about him." 

"Then I came along." 

She laughed softly. 

"Yes. And as shocked as I was at first, what changed my 
mind was seeing the difference in her, and Hayley. I 
could see that they really loved you. And I decided 
that I couldn't bring myself to stand in the way of 
their happiness, however unorthodox it might be." 

I leaned forward and kissed her forehead. 

"Thanks." 

"Any time." 

When the dancing began to wind down, I found Marianne 
by the bar, talking to some friends of hers from 
college. She saw me approaching and gave me a big hug. 

"How are you doing, Mrs. Chandler?" 

"Just great, Mr. Chandler." 

I got another drink, and we walked across the yard to 
where the band was playing. She sat on the wall and I 
leaned back against her. She put her arms around my 
neck and set her chin on my shoulder. 

"Do you feel any different?" she asked. 

"I think it will take a while to sink in." 

She giggled. 

"What I've been doing is thinking of the things we can 
do now, that would have been more difficult before." 

"Like what?" 

"Well," She lowered her voice. "It's probably safe to 
knock me up now." 

I half-turned in her arms to face her. We had talked 
about this, sort of, off and on for two years. She knew 
I wanted kids, but I had always been clear that it 
wouldn't happen until she was ready. 

"You think so?" 

She pretended to shrug it off. 

"Why not?" 

"I think the gods of Depo-Provera might have something 
to say about that." 

She grinned and licked her lips lasciviously. 

"I let it run out a month ago. I might even be pregnant 
right now." 

I gasped. "You didn't." 

"I did." 

She hugged me tightly. 

"I'm teasing you a little," she whispered into my ear. 
"I don't think I'm pregnant yet. But if you want it, 
I'm ready." 

I took a deep breath, trying to steady my nerves. 

"You're sure about this?" 

A serious look came into her eyes. 

"Steve, think about something. Even with all we've done 
today, we're not legally married. I could reverse all 
this, the legal stuff anyway, with a few hours in a law 
office if I really wanted to. But if we have a child 
together, I'll be bonded to you forever, bonded more 
securely than any piece of paper could ever do. I want 
that bond. I want to make a baby with you." 

I pulled her to me and kissed her nose. 

"Okay. We'll talk about it. We should probably bounce 
it off Hayley first too." 

Something passed across her eyes, and her jaw suddenly 
tightened as if she were trying to hide it. 

"What?" 

Her hand squeezed my arm tightly, and her eyes closed. 

"Nothing. I didn't say anything. Please, Steve, she'll 
kill me. I didn't say anything, okay?" 

"What? What's wrong?" 

"Nothing. Just... you might want to have a chat with 
her tonight about this issue." 

My heart stuttered, and my brain went momentarily 
blank. 

"Why?" 

"Just do it." 

She pushed me away from her, and I turned back toward 
the reception, looking for Hayley. I saw her across the 
yard talking with Giselle and some of their friends. 

I went to her, and she gave me a quick peck on the 
lips. 

"Hi." 

"Little Kit. How you doing?" 

She held up her hand and wiggled her ring at me. 

"Married." 

"I can see that." 

I kissed her again. 

"I've been getting the feeling all day that there's 
something you want to tell me." 

I saw it again -- whatever it was I had seen that 
afternoon -- in her eyes immediately. Her expression 
softened, and she took my hand. 

"Not out here. Come inside." 

She led me into the house and through it, finally 
taking me out the front porch. Then she took my hands 
and looked up at me. Her eyes started to water, and her 
throat seemed to tighten. 

"Baby, what is it?" 

She took a deep breath. 

"You're going to be a daddy." 

My legs weakened suddenly and I had to sit down on the 
railing. She sniffed and squeezed my hands tightly. 

"It wasn't deliberate. I think I messed up my pills 
last month. But I'm pregnant." 

"You're sure?" I gasped. 

"Unless four different tests are wrong. I think it was 
that afternoon a couple of weeks ago, when I dragged 
you into my room after school." 

"Oh, my God." 

I hugged her for about ten seconds before letting her 
go. She beamed up at me. 

"Are you in shock?" 

"Completely. Who else knows?" 

"Just Marianne. I told her because I didn't know what 
to do." 

"When?" 

"Last week. I wanted to wait until today to tell you. I 
didn't want it to interfere with the wedding." 

"What about college?" 

"I can take a semester off if I have to. It's no big 
deal." 

I hugged her again. 

"And Marianne wants to get pregnant now too." 

She giggled. 

"Uh-huh. I think she was a little pissed I beat her to 
it. But like I said, I didn't mean to." 

"You're okay with it?" 

"Absolutely. I can't wait." 

"You should go tell your mother." 

"Come with me. Let's tell her together." 

Laughing, we returned to the house. Elizabeth was in 
the kitchen. She broke down crying when we told her. 

Eventually things began to wind down. The limo arrived 
to take us to the airport, where we would be boarding a 
flight to New Zealand (the result of several collective 
discussions). The girls changed out of their wedding 
dresses and into their travel attire while I waited on 
the front porch with Brian and Tony. 

"Don't let them kill you tonight," Brian said, 
laughing. 

"I'll do my best." 

"Good luck," Tony said shaking my hand. "I know you 
like to joke about my being psychic, but I have a good 
feeling about this. I've yet to preside over a failed 
marriage, and I don't want start with you guys." 

"Thanks." 

The girls finally emerged, and we went out to the limo 
as the guests threw bird seed at us (Hayley had 
insisted we not use rice because she had heard it was 
dangerous for the birds). Elizabeth came with them and 
gave me a final hug beside the car. 

"You take care of my girls, you hear?" 

"I will." 

Then we were riding away from the ranch, up toward San 
Francisco airport. There was a bottle of champagne in 
the limo, which I opened and passed around. Hayley 
demurred, being pregnant now, but the other girls all 
took some. Marianne snuggled against me as the other 
three chattered and giggled about Hayley's revelation 
tonight. 

"Are you happy?" she asked me. 

"Life could be a hell of a lot worse." 

"I'm coming home from our honeymoon pregnant, whatever 
I have to do." 

I laughed. 

"The timing might not be right." 

"It should be. And I asked Tony for a little blessing 
to help. I told him about that dream I had a long time 
ago. Remember? He said that meant it would happen." 

"You're not upset that Hayley got there first?" 

"Maybe a little part of me is sad about it. But I'm 
really happy for her. Don't worry. I meant to do this 
even before she told me." 

"This kid will have one dad and four mothers." 

She looked around the limo at the other girls, smiling. 

"You can't have too much love." 

"No," I said hugging her, "you can't." 

THE END 

Richard Bissell 
August 25-November 23, 1999 

* * * 

AFTERWORD 
---------

This story began as little more than a lark. One day 
back in August, I read this short stroke piece about a 
guy who gets a blow job at a cheerleader car wash. 
Liking the idea and thinking there might be some 
unexploited potential in it, I sat down and wrote the 
first couple of chapters. Marianne quickly proved to be 
one of those characters who take on lives of their own, 
and things took off rapidly from there. 

But when I got to about Chapter 7 or 8, Marianne began 
insisting on being more than a cute piece of ass. She 
was giving Steve a lot, and I thought she deserved 
something significant in return. Good sex between 
people who like each other tends to lead to things more 
serious, and that seemed to be a natural development 
for Marianne and Steve. And once I started thinking 
about the realities of their relationship, the shackles 
of plot and plausibility that I had not expected to 
have to deal with suddenly appeared on my writing hand. 

This proved to be a much deeper story than I ever 
anticipated. For that, I have a lot of people to thank. 
The deepening Marianne-Hayley relationship, the 
Tiffany/BDSM thread, Steve's high school reunion, the 
body-piercing, the strap-on dildo, the trip to the 
strip bar, Hayley's run-in with Randy, the wedding at 
the end--all of these elements were ideas sent in by 
readers, though of course I put my own spin on them. 

A lot of things I never intended to include, 
particularly the final encounter with Elizabeth, found 
their way into the story because so many people kept 
asking for them. The original draft ended at Chapter 
24, after Steve's confrontation with Elizabeth, but too 
many ideas kept coming in for me to let it end there. 
There are a lot of people I'd like to thank personally 
here except that doing so might be an invasion of their 
privacy. So I have to hope they know who they are. 
Special thanks go to Rey del Sexo for providing CGC 
with a permanent home. 

Quite a few readers remarked on the change in theme as 
the story progressed, how the title no longer seems 
very apt after the first 10- 15 chapters. On the 
surface, they might have a point, but I really think 
the subtext inherent in the title--the relationship 
between sex and money and how that plays into the power 
issues between older men and younger women--is there 
from beginning to end. 

I had a lot of fun writing "Call Girl Cheerleaders," 
and I hope you had a lot of fun reading it. Part of me 
would like to keep doing this forever, but that's 
really beyond my capabilities. What began as a simple 
self-indulgence has turned into a 155,000-word novel, 
and I wanted to make it a coherent story instead of 
letting it turn into an endless soap opera. And I 
figured Steve deserved some rest. 

Will there ever be a sequel? There's room for it, but 
it would be a 
very different story, and it's not something I'm eager 
to tackle any 
time soon. Don't badger me about it, and it will happen 
sooner. <g> 

Thanks again to everyone who wrote in--it wouldn't have 
happened otherwise! 

* * * 


AFTER-AFTERWORDS
----------------

A few people were curious about the vote for the poll I 
took in Chapter 10. Since it no longer matters, here it 
is: 

Incest: Y 21, N 6 
Tiff/BDSM: Y 10, N 11 
Bringing in other men: Y 3, N 16 


A few other people asked if I used an outline to keep 
track of all the narrative threads, which I did, so 
here it is too: 

CHAPTER SUMMARY (* = written, ^ = posted) 

^Ch. 1: Meeting Marianne 
^Ch. 2: Marianne again 
^Ch. 3: Tiffany 
^Ch. 4: Marianne (anal) 
^Ch. 5: Marianne (set-up for Ashley and Giselle) 
^Ch. 6: Marianne and Ashley 
^Ch. 7: Marianne and Giselle 
^Ch. 8: Marianne poolside (set-up for Hayley) 
^Ch. 9: Marianne and Hayley 
^Ch. 10: Marianne (romantic) 
^Ch. 11: Marianne and Hayley II (set-up for football 
game) ^Ch. 12: Football game, bottomless cheerleading, 
orgy ^Ch. 13: Marianne (set-up for birthday and Hayley) 
^Ch. 14: Marianne and Hayley III (anal, semi-ff) 
^Ch. 15: Marianne's birthday (lingerie, tattoo, sex in 
new car) 
^Ch. 16: Marianne and Hayley IV (at the game) 
^Ch. 17: Orgy II 
^Ch. 18: Hayley gets tattooed 
^Ch. 19: Tiffany wants back in, light bdsm (set up for 
reunion) 
^Ch. 20: High School Reunion (set-up for confrontation) 
^Ch. 21: Confrontation with parents (no sex) 
^Ch. 22: Hayley, Marianne (set-up for blackmail) 
^Ch. 23: Blackmail/Meeting with Elizabeth 
^Ch. 24: Marianne and Hayley V (at the beach) 
^Ch. 25: Marianne and Hayley VI (strap-on) 
^Ch. 26: Father arrested, mother leaves 
^Ch. 27: Moving in together, tongue piercing/Tiffany 
^Ch. 28: Hayley's birthday; Marianne and Giselle 
(strap-on) 
^Ch. 29: Giselle moves in, Hayley loves Steve 
^Ch. 30: Tiffany loves Marianne 
^Ch. 31: Spring Break in Santa Cruz 
^Ch. 32: Strip joint, stock deal 
^Ch. 33: Steve "hits the lottery," buys ranch 
^Ch. 34: Tiffany moves in, Steve arrested 
^Ch. 35: Hayley's hearing, Day 1 
^Ch. 36: Hayley's hearing, Day 2 
^Ch. 37: Hayley's hearing, Day 3 
^Ch. 38: Move to Santa Cruz, begin incest thread 
^Ch. 39: Marianne wants Hayley 
^Ch. 40: Ashley moves out, final incest scene 
^Ch. 41: Hayley and Giselle, Elizabeth 
^Ch. 42: Final confrontation with Randy 
*Epilogue: the Wedding 

* * * 

I've gotten more mail about CGC than I could ever 
expected, but just for the hell of it, here we go one 
last time: 

If you liked this story, don't be a choad and just move 
on to the next thread. Drop me a note and let me know, 
especially if you want to see more of it. 

(Oh--one last little thing: In case you didn't know but 
were too shy to ask me like 50 other people did, 
"choad" is a slang term for "penis" popular in some 
parts of the U.S. So "don't be a choad" is synonymous 
with "don't be a dick." <g>) 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
This story was written as an adult fantasy. The author
does not condone the described behavior in real life.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Kristen's collection - Directory 48