BUSINESS TRIP

PART 7

He got into the room, tossed off his shorts and shoes, hung up the work clothes, sat on the pot, and then sprawled on the bed as he dialed Jane. Damn, he was standing up again. What was the matter with him?

“Hi, you’re late calling.”

“Went straight to the restaurant.”

“Back to the Bayou?”

“No just the hotel. Damn Bayou place is too noisy and expensive for my taste.”

“So no new adventures?”

“Not really. How about you? Did you see Mary at the lake?”

“I saw her. The kids were swimming so we just swam and talked for a while.”

“Well I did have one adventure, I guess.” That he was going to admit. “I went over to the lake on my own. It was cloudy so Ann decided to stay at the hotel. When I got back to my rock there was a couple on it f*****g. A male couple.”

“Really? And you found that interesting? Brad, I’ve been with you to nude beaches a few times and you have never shown a trace of interest in the guys.”

“Yeah I know, and these two were not all that attractive. But I was really fascinated by how much the guy getting f****d was enjoying it.” How was he going to phrase that, without admitting what he had done with Ann, or rather what she had done to him?

“Well if you want to know what it feels like I could do that to you.”

“You could? You own a strap on?”

“Not yet, but I could by the time you get home. What size do you want?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Same size as I am, I guess.”

“I’m not going to go over six inches to start with. What?”

“I’m just startled is all. Pleased, but startled.”

“I had a long talk with Mary this afternoon, while we were swimming. A more intimate talk, if you know what I mean. Brad, darling, you know I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“I know that, really I do, but I know you’re going crazy with the midlife stuff. Me too.”

“You?”

“Well does that surprise you? We’re almost exactly the same age, honey. We’ve been married exactly the same amount of time. Both of us are doing stuff we never thought we’d be doing. If you had told me before we slipped on the rings that I’d be a housewife with two kids and a station wagon I would have run out of the church screaming. Know what I mean?”

“s**t happens. You’re a wonderful mother.”

“Yes and I love them. I wouldn’t give that up for anything, believe me. But now your career is taking off, you’re spewing out the music on top of that. And here I am stuck at home while you’re running around being brilliant. And God knows you can probably have any girl you want. If anything you’re built better than when we got married. You didn’t have those big shoulders then. Brad, I’ve got to tell you I look at you, I look at me, and I wonder how the hell am I going to hold on to you?”

“I love you. Really I do. You want me to give this up?”

“I know you can’t do that. Hundreds of people depend on you. Maybe, maybe promise me that when this is over, if it ever is, you’ll travel less? A lot less? You can’t go on forever like this. We can’t go on much longer.”

“I try to be home every other week. Every weekend at least.”

“Yeah and you know what that makes me feel like? Your p********e laundress. Sooner or later you’ll figure out a more convenient source of clean clothes and a quick f**k and it will all be over. Mary was telling me that was what happened to her. She was telling me that maybe it was better to bend not break. That she wishes she had done that. She said that the understanding we had when we got married might not be what we need now.”

“Remember the couple that moved in to apartment next us when the ballerinas moved out?”

“God, how can I forget? That time they invited us over for coffee and they were both in their underwear? No, I take it back, she didn’t even have a bra on, just a tee shirt. Yeah, I know. I was disgusted. But now … Look Brad, you more or less told me it was okay if I kept doing it with her. As long as it doesn’t interfere with us?”

“Yep.”

“Well I’m going to do that. Well, what if you were invited to come along?”

“And watch?”

“Maybe not just watch. Like in those flicks.”

“I guess I could do that, if you wanted me to.”

“What if it was the other way around? If it was her boyfriend and the two of us?”

“That would bother me.”

“What if you were there? Okay, here’s the deal. Mary and her boyfriend like to do other couples. She said they’ve had their eye on us for a while. She’s saying why not get together and do everything? Not just a swap. Two girls on a guy. Two guys on a girl. Girl on girl. Guy on guy. And I told her there’s no way you would be interested, particularly the guy on guy part. But now I’m thinking...”

“Thinking what?”

“Why don’t we try it out ourselves and then you decide if you would like to try it with an actual guy.”

“You’d like that?”

“Wouldn’t you like to see me do it with Mary?”

“What about with Ann?”

“With Ann? I’d bite off that little w***e’s c**t. Are you f*****g her yet?”

“What if I said yes?”

“I’d be worried. You two have been in love for a long time now. No, don’t deny it. That morning she showed up at our door and whisked you away in her little white sports car … it tore my heart out. I was so jealous. I thought you weren’t coming back. I’d be worried, but I’d say fine, get it over with. Have you?”

“No.”

“Well go ahead and f**k the b***h and get it out of your system. Tell you what, you can do it on the road but not at home.”

“Okay dear, I’ll keep that in mind. Not much chance of it happening anyway. Ann is very sore.”

“Sore? Sore where?”

“Where do you think? Front and back.”

“From you?”

“Not from me. Do know who Sam Minton is?”

“Of course I know who Sam Minton is. You don’t? You are such a snob with the classical music. He’s about the biggest thing there is in country western. About half the top songs are written by him and a lot of the artists are part of his company.”

“Well the guy she let f**k her up the ass at the Bayou last night was Sam Minton. And today she came back to the hotel instead of going to the lake so she could hook up with him for an orgy around the penthouse pool. And Thursday she’s going to do a p**n shoot.”

“Ann is? Really? I mean I always thought she was a really nice girl.”

“Well she’s letting out her inner slut this week. I think she’s having her own midlife crisis. She’s under pressure to finally get married, settle down and have kids. You know that morning she came to the door and saw you in your bathrobe? I’ll bet that’s eating at her.”

“Oh. Brad, honey, promise me this. Whatever you do on the road, don’t bring it home with you? I don’t like the idea she’s sleeping around so much. Be safe, promise me that?”

“Use a rubber?”

“I packed some for you. I always do, in case we ever have this conversation.”

There was a knock at the side door, Ann poking her head in to see if he was ready, then smirking a bit at his state of undress and arousal. She tip toed over and knelt between his bare legs dangling off the side of the bed. He watched with some bemusement as his c**k vanished behind her lips.

“I should get going, want to play the piano before it gets too late. Love you.”

“Love you. Remember what I said.”

“What was that all about?” Ann came up for air long enough to ask that question.

“A lot. The bottom line is that I need to use a rubber when I f**k you.” When, not if.

That was enough to make her sit up next to him. “Okay, I’ve got some with me.”

“Later. I’m not ready yet.”

“You look ready.”

“Later.” He got off the bed, rummaged through his suitcase looking for a pair of jockey shorts. And regular shorts, longer than the little jogging ones. And the rubbers. Oh yes, under the flap. Had they been there all along and he had never noticed them? He remembered how his freshman roommate had given him a rubber to keep in his wallet. Just in case. But it had been a long time since he’d used one.

“So what was that what about Ann?”

“Jane seems to be off on her own little slutfest.”

“Jane is? I always thought she was a really nice person.”

“She said the same thing about you. She was doing it yesterday with our friend Mary, and she was sort of asking permission to do it some more.”

“Which you gave her?”

“What the hell was I supposed to do? One thing I am not is a hypocrite. So then she was saying would I like to come along and watch? And I said what about with Ann.”

“Oh. What did she say to that?”

“She said she’d bite your c**t off.”

“She doesn’t like me?”

“She does like you. She thinks very highly of you. She knows how valuable you’ve been over the years. But she’s sure that we’re in love. She’s afraid you’re going to steal me away from her.”

“And are we?”

“Are we what?”

“In love?”

“The Greeks had a lot of names of love. Philia; yeah I’ve loved you that way for a long time.”

“Like a daughter. Like a sister. What about Jane?”

“We were really good friends, for a year or so, before we started dating. It was hard to go from that to the other kind of love; to Eros.”

“Oh.” That was not the answer Ann had expected.

“We had actually proposed to each other, worked our way to the point we had decided to get married, before we said we loved each other.”

“Oh. Well what about me? Do you love me the Eros way?”

That provoked a sigh. “We’ve done some erotic things, and I’ve enjoyed them. I want to do more of them.”

“And then go back to being good friends?”

“Maybe.”

“You think we can do that?”

“If you could get this guy Evan to pay more attention to you. Or move on to someone else.”

“Or turn into a super slut?”

“Like Debbie? s*x on a stick. That’s her nickname. She was married. Do you know that? Her husband was determined they were going to start a family, and she said no way and left him.”

“Really, how do you know all this?”

“Oh, she came into my office one evening ready to add another notch to her belt.”

“None of the guys at work interest me that much. Except you. But I never really thought of you as sexy. More like a big brother, or a father even.”

“Philia. So what pushed you over to Eros?”

“What makes you think I love you that way?”

“The fact that you’re asking these questions? Believe me, if you’re just messing around for the hell of it that’s okay too.”

“Maybe that’s all it is. I don’t know. God, I never should have started this conversation. Let’s go downstairs so you can play the f*****g piano.”

Brad grabbed his little traveling book and they went downstairs. It was amazing what you could do with a PC Junior and a ProPrinter and a magical little program that let you type in the music in text format and print it out as a score.

They went back into the lobby. The piano setup here was not as nice as in the Atlanta hotel, where all the rooms were off balconies of a central atrium, with the grand piano at the center, the focus of everything. It probably took a lot of nerve to sit at that piano and give little impromptu concerts, a lot of nerve or a lot of drinks at the happy hour. But Brad did it on a regular basis, so much so that when he came down they opened up the piano for him, turned off the elevator music, and brought him a beer, on the house. Here the piano was in a much more obscure position, and no one paid much attention to him. But it was something to do to fill a lonely evening.

“Here’s one you haven’t heard yet.” Brad started to play. It took about five minutes of total concentration. Dark keys for this one, five flats to seven flats, mostly on the black keys.

“Ooh, sounds like Grand Canyon Suite meets Afternoon of a Faun.”

“That’s the idea. I call it Texas Mermaids.”

“Nice. Is there more to it?”

“It’s actually the last part of a sonata. You’ve had dessert first.”

“Life is short, have dessert first. Can you play the rest?”

“Hopefully.” He played the first movement.

“Oh, so expressive. It’s definitely telling a story. What though?”

“No idea. Not like a song where you have words to tell you what it’s about.”

He played the middle movement, very short. “That’s it.”

“Interesting. Not at all like your earlier ones. Could you play the one that’s so romantic?”

“Sure. This one definitely has a story. Two lovers, the lower voice sleeping, the higher one awakening. Then they both are awake and the upper voice is leading the lower, one beat ahead in the same melody as they spiral upwards.”

“Neat. Can I look at the music while you play it?”

“Sure.”

And she did that, leaning on the bench behind him, hands along each of his thighs, breathing onto his bare neck, then kissing it as the music ended. “I want you to make love to me. Right now. Right here.”

“No rubber.”

“No rubber? God. Okay, let’s go upstairs then.”

They walked to the elevator arm in arm, hip to hip, not caring who saw, ignoring the smirk of the waiter now tending bar. They walked that way into his room. She kissed him, pushing him on his back onto the bed, thrusting her tongue into his mouth. He wasn’t used to this. He’d been in one steady relationship or another since early in college. Twenty years of marriage and while the s*x might be regular, fits of unbridled passion were not that common. “Hold on,” he managed to get that out once his mouth was empty. “What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to make love to me.”

“Could you be more specific?”

“God. Men.” She sat up, stripped off her few articles of clothing. “What do you want to do?”

“I was thinking what you did last night? With the dildo?”

“That’s not very romantic. Okay, here’s the deal. I’m going to go get the strap-on and put it on. You are going to put on the stupid rubber. Then you are going to do what you did for me last night, except this time you are going to finish it off properly. Then I’ll take care of you.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

They lay down on the bed side by side and he kissed her this time, then began to work on her breasts. But she was impatient, pulling the hand that was teasing down her spine, pulling it between her cheeks, pressing one of his fingers within her. She came for a long time, it seemed. When it died down a bit he rolled her away from him, kisses running down her spine, on her cheeks, between her cheeks. Then where his finger had been. She was salty, bitter. Not fighting the intrusion of his tongue, spreading her cheeks to help him, then going into spasm again as he pushed it into her. Then he was sliding up her back, turning onto her belly, his hands on her shoulders, his mouth kissing her neck, his c**k sliding where his tongue had prepared the way. God, she was hot and tight, even with the rubber on it felt wonderful. They made love that way for a while, so gently, and then he started to f**k her really hard, slamming all the way into her, bone against bone. Until he came, seeming to come forever, but no great surge at the end. He didn’t have much left.

“Okay, my turn.” He was in a daze, almost passing out from the rush of endorphins, as she rolled him off of her, then pushing him onto his belly. Now it was her kisses working their way down his spine, her tongue probing. She’d done this before? So it seemed. No hesitation as she probed him with a powerful, almost rasplike tongue. Then with the dildo. There was no hint of gentleness, just f*****g him as hard as she could. Nothing to stop her. Harder and harder. He could feel it building, way back behind his balls. His flesh glowing, tingling, into an o****m that stretched from the base of his neck all the way to his balls. He was floating in a pool of pleasure. Drowning in it. And he could not ejaculate. There was no way to stop it, to say that it was at an end. And then, out of nowhere, he felt it building, rushing out of him.

“Okay, that’s enough.”

“You know, if a guy is doing it, he’s going to stop when he’s ready, not when you are.” She started to f**k him again, even harder. “What do you think of that?”

“It’s strange.”

“Now you know how we feel. Want to clean it off?” Ann was reverting to her college days, training the pledges. “Our pledges didn’t have a choice. If they couldn’t get it down their throats, they were out.”

“You must have lost a lot of girls that way.”

“Hey, if you wanted to be a cheerleader you had to be a sister. If you wanted to be a sister, you had to get past being a pledge.”

“And then do the same thing to the new pledges?”

“That’s about the size of it.”

“Did your boyfriend know you were doing all this nasty stuff?”

“No. He would have thought I was a slut. It’s always been pure vanilla with him.”

“Well, maybe you need to show him more of your nasty side.”

“How can I do that? After all these years?”

“Do you ever watch tapes? Tell him you’d like to try that.”

“Yeah, maybe. Maybe that would work. Can I stay here tonight?”

Brad gave a deep sigh. “Okay, why not?”

“Okay. I’m going to go clean up. Leave the door open.”

“Okay.”

“And put on a rubber before you get in bed.”

“Why?”

“If you give me a back rub.” She went over to the alarm clock, set it for six thirty.

“Why so early?” Brad realized that was a silly question. Well it was barely ten now, too early to go to sleep even with the time change. Still, he was tired. Long day at work, long swim at the lake, all the s*x. His bowels felt as if they had been scoured, sore and tingly. His c**k was sore from going up Ann’s butt with so little lubrication, just what his tongue had provided. Not as bad as that first time with Nan, when she’d shown up at his hotel room just before Christmas break, after weeks of coming to see him at his desk in the first year grad student office, presumably for help with Calculus, but it had been clear for a while that there was more than that going on. With Jane’s desk right there, her watching it all unfold, although at that point what did it matter? She’d even teased him about it. At some point he must have told Nan the story about how he had wound up living in this SRO, and she had tracked him down. He had wound up in the wrong hole somehow, and she’d been so determined that she’d gone with it. And he had gone home for Christmas break with a member swollen to twice its normal size, red and raw. God only knows what it had done to her butt, but she had never complained about it. It was a long time after that she had commented how shocked she had been. But shocked or not, they had stayed together. For a while.

What? There was no way he could be hard again. Down boy. Save it for whatever schemes Ann had for the night. Okay, shave before bed like he did at home. As he had started to do with Nan. Put on the rubber? How the hell was that supposed to work? What if he had to pee? Was it going to stay on once that rogue erection died down?

He came out of the bathroom to find Ann already curled up on her side in the bed. No nightgown. Nan had taken to wearing a nightgown, trying to make their relationship seem more and more domestic. And of course it had always been a nightgown with Jane. Sometimes pajamas. Okay she had said something about a back rub, although judging by the little snores it was too late. Well, give it a try. He snuggled turned off the lights, leaving the bathroom door open as a night light, snuggled in beside her, and drew up the sheet to cover them. Not much need for a blanket. He liked to keep the room warm enough that just the sheet was enough.

Okay, start to rub and she stirred a little. What the hell was she expecting with the rubber? He lifted the sheet off of him, off of her butt so that he could see her bare cheeks, his sheathed prick half erect between them. Then not so flacid, the dayglo orange of the rubber in contrast to her smooth tanned skin. He loved doing this with Jane, she not so much so. As soon as the tip hit the puckered flesh, she would stir and roll onto her back. It was going to be the same with Ann, he was sure of it. No need to rush things, then. He poked in enough that he didn’t need a hand to keep from falling out of place, adjusted his pillow, drew the sheet back over them, and resumed his rub. Sleepy, he was so sleepy, dimly aware that she was squirming a bit. Okay, time to end it and go to sleep. But when he poked, he slid right in. Okay, there was no way he was going to come. Just relax and enjoy her warmth. He could feel sleep taking over his body. He lay there with his mind still awake, but his body unable to move. What would Jane think, if she saw them like this? Nothing good. But did he want to leave Jane? Not really. Ann was pretty. Jane was prettier. Ann was bright. Jane was brighter, at the same level he was, floating above the rest of humanity. So why the hell was he doing this? Well hadn’t Jane told him to f**k the b***h? But had she really meant it? Probably not. And what about Mary? A good friend, but not one he found at all attractive. And the boyfriend? Oh well, he owed it to Jane. He’d just close his eyes, hold his nose. At least with the guy he didn’t need to worry about getting it up. What was that Chinese saying? When r**e is inevitable?

His last thought was that he should gently disengage, turn over on the other side. But he never made it.