... continuing from the previous chapters ...

Chapter 27

Road Trip - Idaho

My Army buddy, Craig Olson, welcomed me to his home in Coeur d'Alene with a big hug and much backslapping. I had contacted him weeks earlier about visiting and emailed him with updates about my travel and arrival dates. I called ahead from Montana to let him know I'd be arriving around seven in the evening after riding hard all day from Montana.

Craig helped me unload my motorcycle and move my things into his guest room. He had a town house in a nice area of town; later I'd learn that all the areas of town were nice. I scrubbed up, and we went out for dinner.

Like some of my other Army contemporaries, he mustered out about the same time I did. He'd had three tours of duty as a Green Beret. My last tour got cut short a few months due by to a knee injury. Over dinner, we caught up with a decade's worth of experiences since we'd last seen each other face-to-face. Craig had moved to Idaho, married, divorced, and worked in the offices of a mining company. He'd been single the past four years, and in high demand on the local social circuit - what there was of it, as he put it. He'd been an outdoorsman growing up, so the area was ideal for his hobbies.

Craig stood six feet four, and had a demeanor that commanded respect. That said, he had a 'Gentle Ben' air about him that had always appealed to women. In the Army, he'd acquired the nickname 'Boom' - he was our explosives expert, and that was one reason the mining company had hired him; he was exceptionally creative in using explosives and managed to do things with them few others could. Although he had an office job, he consulted to the field a lot as a sideline to his normal job.

I took a little longer to update Craig. Most of the ten years I'd been doing the same thing, year after year: computer systems development and web site design. He knew Karen has died, and commiserated with me. He also knew about my burgeoning music career and my motorcycle road trip. Craig looked impressed, as I told him about being a celebrity. I shifted and told him about one downside of being a celebrity - being stalked by the paparazzi. I told him briefly about Bart Kenesis, the Branson photos, being stalked, vandalized, and shot at, and giving the paparazzo the slip in Montana. Craig listened with concern.

After I told Craig the gist of the Kenesis story, he helped me by asking some insightful questions. I told him about Tama - the shaman, and her visions, and how she 'saw' Kenesis as a physical threat to me. I told him about hiring a private detective to research the man, and find out how to get under his skin if I had to. After I had finished, Craig affirmed he was sure I'd have further confrontations with Kenesis. The lone bullet that hit a wall near where I stood in Utah worried him a great deal. He said, "You can count on me if you need help with this snake. I'll go anywhere to back you up if you decide to go head to head with this guy."

I knew Craig was sincere, as would be George and a couple of dozen others who had been 'brothers' in the same Army Special Operations unit. We went through a lot together in strange lands, and we stopped many senseless killings and genocides, and saved the free world more than once. Most of us got too old to continue in that line of work, so we mustered out and wisely left the tougher missions to 'kids' a decade or more younger, more skilled, and in better shape than we were.

Craig thought for a minute and suggested an idea that would grow in my mind; "Jim, you might think of putting yourself back out there in public again so that Kenesis can get on your tail again. This time, however, I'll bring a few of the old unit along to set the guy straight - to get him out of your hair once and for all." I told him I would consider that seriously.

We called it a night after dinner. Craig had to work the following day, and I wanted to write some long emails and planned to make some telephone calls the next day. I missed Crystal and wanted to check in with her and make sure she was OK.

Just before he disappeared into his bedroom for the night, Craig got a humorous look on his face; he said, "By the way, tomorrow afternoon and evening I may have a little surprise for you." He turned and shut his door. I was left to wonder what kind of surprise he'd put together.

* * * * *

In the morning, I took a long run that took me to the City Park and Beach. I'd brought with me a small envelope of Karen's ashes. The beach was deserted, no doubt because of the freezing temperature. I allowed Karen's ashes to fly in a small dust cloud across the large lake. Even in the city, mountains surrounded the entire area and made the spot picturesque. Karen had liked mountains and small cities. If she'd lived, we probably might have moved to somewhere like this once we had children. Tears came to my eyes this time when I thought of her and the children we might have had together; I hadn't cried about her for several weeks. After the sadness passed, I sat at the edge of the water and meditated until sitting still in the cold became a distraction.

Back at Craig's home, I dashed off some emails, including one to Mils Cartwright, my private detective friend, giving her an update on Bart Kenesis and how we'd sent him in the wrong direction in Montana after we talked to her about what to do about the tracking device. I'd seen no sign of him since Livingston, Montana. I told Mils I'd telephone her after lunch.

Then, I called Crystal to update her on Bart Kenesis. I still worried deeply about having been shot at, and I'd have put money on the fact that the shot came from the perverted photographer. I told how I'd discovered the tracking device on the motorcycle, and how we'd sent the device one way while I went another. I warned her that since he no longer knew where I was, he might return to Nashville and start stalking her again.

Crystal and I talked about my impromptu visit to a Montana ranch in a snowstorm where I met Jillian and her three daughters. Crystal was one of five women who loved to hear about my sexual exploits, and obtained a lot of sexual gratification from thinking about them and egging me on. They were all as horny as I was. When I sent them lurid emails, I'd often get replies suggesting new things to try the 'next time' or asking for more details. In my calls to Lauren and Crystal, I elaborated on meeting three other motorcyclists in Wyoming, spending a few days in their lodge, and attending the Erotic Halloween Costume Party. I described the costumes, and lack thereof, in detail, described the open and permissive atmosphere as the night went on, and told of how creative Todd, Eve, Lil, and I had been about delivering sexual pleasure to one another as well as sharing ourselves at the party.

Anna now routinely received my explicit X-rated emails. I couldn't be sure, but I'd sent her enough of my erotic 'progress reports' that I was sure I would have received a rebuke from her if she wanted them to stop. The emails I did get from Anna never mentioned my exploits or my emails, only updated me on her life and for a few weeks some questions about selling our parent's home. From a statement here and there, it was clear that she'd read them; she just didn't comment on them. More likely, as emails about my sexual situations got more graphic, I assumed her silence was her tacit approval and that she wanted to hear exactly what I was doing. Thus, I became more graphic and detailed. Because of the Halloween party, this email might be over the top; well, except maybe for sharing with her my exploits in Oklahoma.

I had a growing desire to see Anna, and end my road trip. What I missed most of all was a sense of home. I'd given up the Cambridge apartment that Karen and I had lived in. After living in it a few months, I'd put my parent's home on the real estate market and the house sold a couple of months later. I didn't have a home except maybe for the tent on the back of my motorcycle. That was both good and bad - I liked having no burdens but was concerned about my lack of roots and permanency. I'd become a vagabond with no compelling idea on what I'd do after my trip ended. I'd started to think about that. The logical thing to do would be to follow the country music career and see where that took me. I'd had enough time on the road that traveling didn't hold the fascination for me that it once had. I was in my mid to late thirties, and it was time to decide what to do with the rest of my life - my new life.

* * * * *

I called Mils Cartwright, my detective friend in the early afternoon. She quickly told me about what she'd turned up in her research about Bart Kenesis: "He's fifty years old, alcoholic - been in and out of AA programs for decades, lives in a rundown apartment in East LA, and travels widely as a freelancer. He gets to fly for free - get this, his sister is a flight attendant for United and her nearest kin can go for free if there's room on the flight, so your paparazzo can scoot around the country pretty much at will. His sister lives in Chicago. He's got two brothers: one outside Atlanta, and the other in Virginia, outside DC. I'll email you the addresses."

"Is he close to his sibs?"

"Apparently. I'm told they let him come and mooch off them frequently. Oh, more about him: he never finished college, did a little over two years at U. of Illinois studying, of all things, art and photography. He's actually a good photographer - has won awards, but not recently probably because of the booze. He became a photo-journalist about fifteen years ago for the Chicago Tribune, but he got canned about seven years ago for letting his alcoholism interfere with his work. They let him be a freelancer, and helped him expand his contacts into Hollywood and Nashville celebs, so he's still got an 'in' with them."

"Do we know what scares him or motivates him?"

"Not really; money I suppose. He was married for about ten years, but is long divorced. He lives modestly. Trying to figure out his fears and hopes is harder to do ... but, I'm on it. Just remember, fear and greed are the basic motivators of men like this. You got him on the money angle, now try 'fear.'"

We chatted some more, and Mils promised to email all that she'd just told me about Kenesis. Mils liked to talk dirty, and she gave me a hard-on before I suggested we save her choice words for another time and place when we could do something about them. She agreed but seemed disappointed, so we ended the call.

The rest of the afternoon I worked on my journal on my laptop. I had many life situations and friendships I didn't want to forget. I thought at the end of my trip I might publish a book. I backed up my files on a secure CD, and mailed it to myself at my sister's home.

Craig arrived home at four-thirty. He hustled into the house, and told me my surprise had arrived, but that I had to play a little game before I got to fully enjoy my present. He had a lecherous grin on his face.

He had me sit in a dining room chair, and then he blindfolded me, making sure I could not see out of the double-wrapped scarf at all. He promised me I'd like my surprise, but he said I had to sit there and not use my hands or any part of my body unless he told me to. I heard the front door open again, and some whispering. I discerned the other person was female; however, I couldn't begin to guess her identity from the undertones.

I sensed Craig and the other person drawing near. A female tongue touched my neck and ran up the side of my face to the edge of the blindfold. The tongue then seductively darted into my ear in a highly seductive and erotic gesture, and then she kissed me. Whoever this was, she had my full attention.

Craig said, "Lean forward a little and stick your tongue out, and keep your hands at your sides - no hands! Even sit on them, so you're not tempted."

I did as instructed, and my tongue came in contact with a full-size, bare breast - in the first few seconds, I could sense the curve of her breast and recognize a generous helping of luscious flesh. I also felt a nipple that got increasingly excited as I licked and sucked on the one tit I'd been offered. I hummed and gently bit the nipple, I even heard a low moan from the female to whom the equipment belonged. I kept trying to guess who my 'surprise' might be, but all I could do based on size and texture was eliminate Crystal, Ellen, and Lauren, and I suppose a few others.

Craig prompted me, "Come, Jim, you know these breasts. I'll give you a hint - you discovered these beauties back a few states."

I started to go through each woman I'd been intimate with state-by-state going backwards by the women I'd encountered: Jillian, Jesse, Jean, Josie, Eve, Lil, Ann, Dorrie, the other women at the Halloween party, Tama, Tina, Ellen, Crystal, Heather ... maybe some of her friends or debutantes from Oklahoma? I'd think of a woman and try to remember what tasting her breasts had felt like. The problem was that using only my lips and tongue gave me limited information to work with, and, of course, there had been over seventy women since I'd started my road trip.!

Craig said, "OK, Jim, hold up one hand near your face and you'll get to feel our mystery woman." After a pause, he added, "Man, you sure know some hot women! This pretty woman is getting to me really fast." I could hear him panting. I could imagine a female friend half-naked in front of this ladies man, as she teased me blindfolded, she must have known she was also teasing Craig in the process. Something told me they hadn't met until a few minutes earlier.

I held a hand up, and a few seconds later a whole breast nestled into my palm and defied me to guess who the naked tit belonged to. I had to admit the heft and feel of the female breast felt delicious, and had started to give me an erection. I kneaded the mound and held the nipple between two of my fingers as I twisted and turned the nub like a radio dial. That move elicited another low moan.

The breast pushed back to my mouth, and I could knead the full mound with my one hand and attend to every facet of it with my lips and tongue. In a minute, my 'surprise' allowed me to fondle and kiss her other breast. Whoever it was had removed their shirt and bra. I felt certain the sexual temperature of the room was approaching the boiling point.

Craig was laughing amid some more whispering, but I couldn't identify the voice or even the accent from the whispers. He told me, "Jim, keep your hand out in front of you but a little lower; we'll let you feel something else."

I heard the rustling of clothes, and then felt a woman's hand guide my hand to her pussy. The pussy was naked beneath a woolen skirt of some kind. I was guessing that Craig couldn't see the details of what was going on, but then I heard Craig say, "Damn and fuck. This is one of the hottest things I've ever seen. Lady, you sure do understand foreplay."

I heard a little hum of acknowledgement from our female friend. I could imagine Craig and the girl smiling at each other as I rubbed the bare flesh.

In the spirit of the evening, I only moved my hand a small amount as I tried to guess my mystery friend. The area between her legs had been shaved; I sensed a slight stubble betraying a trim only a day or so before. Along her pubes, I felt a small tuft of hair; first I thought it was a shapeless mass of pubic hair, but as I traced the outline, I realized the outline formed a heart.

I ran my middle finger into her slit, finding a more than willing female. I commented, "Oh, you are so wet. You've evidently been thinking of sex for more than just a few minutes today. I know you're my kind of woman."

My female 'surprise' wiggled her hips, made a little moan to acknowledge my comment, and shifted to emphasize my finger's contact with her sex. I gently sank one knuckle and then another of my middle finger into the lady's moist vagina. I could hear her sharp intake of breath, but by her body language I could tell this was what she wanted.

A few feet away, Craig said, "You two are so fucking hot; I'm going to have to go take care of myself after you guess who this is."

I felt my unknown sex partner sway in Craig's direction, and pull him closer. I sensed the two of them were kissing, no doubt at my lover's behest. I could imagine whomever this was holding his shirt and pulling him in for a French kiss. I could imagine Craig's hands suddenly latching onto those magnificent breasts I'd been kissing a moment or two earlier.

Craig's voice whispered to her, "Babe, you are something special. When you're through with him I hope you stay around." I heard more kissing.

I brought my finger from the damp pussy to my nostrils and inhaled the aroma of pure, unadulterated, lustful sex. I knew this aroma. I tasted my finger, allowing the feminine musk to coat my tongue and reach my taste buds at the same time the aroma floated rich in my face. The next I knew, I felt my confederate unzip my jeans and unfasten my belt. With my help by boosting my ass off the chair, she pulled them off my hips and down to my knees. My briefs were the next to go. I felt two chilly hands fondle my penis and ball sack. Since I'd started on an erection, my unknown friend found a more than willing partner preparing for her latest tease.

My companion gave me a credible hand job, bringing my dick to full attention. I wondered if Craig were embarrassed by what had turned into an overtly sex-filled cocktail hour. I listened carefully as well as sensed the peripheral movements of the woman and Craig, knowing for certain that the two were making out and he was molesting her breasts. I wondered what else was going on that I couldn't see.

A pair of female lips wrapped themselves around my erect cock, and with her hands started a talented blowjob. Her tongue went wild when most of me got exposed to the air. She demonstrated her talent for deep throating my cock and that narrowed the field some.

Craig whispered in a hoarse tone, "Come on, Jimbo, guess who our friend is. Think, man, think!"

I went back further to the women I'd been with in the central part of the country: Midge, Connie, Mils, Shaye, Brite, Ashley, Sally, Gail, Lena, and Tori. I got back to Illinois and still didn't have any epiphany of recognition.

One of my partner's hands left my groin area and shifted to Craig's crotch if I weren't mistaken. Craig gasped, "Jim, you've got to guess this one. She's a winner."

I went back further in my travels: Tina, Pam, Daisy, Julia, Summer ...

"WAIT," I practically shouted. "I have a guess, but you have to promise if I get it wrong that you won't be mad or anything."

I blurted out, "Julia! You're Julia!"

In answer to my comment, my entire cock disappeared down the woman's throat, and I heard a little affirming sound from Julia.

* * * * *

I felt my fellatrix rise, and then we went into a French kiss that probably set the house on fire. As we parted, Julia's fingers came up to my face and peeled the blindfold from my head, tossing the cloth onto the coffee table.

Julia stood before me nude from the waist up. Her full breasts shimmied as she moved one hand back to my erection. She wore a short tan woolen skirt, which had been tucked in her belt. Her bare crotch was visible to me, and most likely to Craig. I saw her clothing on another nearby chair.

I glanced at Craig. Julia had unzipped his pants and had her other hand inside his pants, no doubt fondling his dick as well. Craig shot me a look that tried to communicate that he was just an innocent in what had happened. I noticed he had no intention of stopping her.

I'd met Julia in Michigan on Mackinac Island. She'd been my waitress, and an aspiring actress, and daughter of a wealthy socialite who had sent her off on her own so she'd get serious about life. While in Michigan, she was one of the women that I spent some intimate time, probably more with her than all the others there put together.
Julia was a beauty - stacked, mid-twenties with long lithe legs that I recalled I loved to have wrapped around me as we fucked. Her trademark consisted of large hoop earrings that gave her a really sexy look. The last time I'd seen her body, she'd handed me a Sharpie and had me write 'Jim' on her right breast, and 'Mellon' on her left breast just before I left the Michigan resort where she worked. We'd spent the prior night together.

Julia smiled and leaned in and kissed me again. As we pulled apart, she said, "Hi, Jim. Miss me?"

"Of course, but how'd you get here? How'd you find me? How do you know Craig?"

She laughed and looked at Craig. I could tell his cock had swollen significantly in his pants because of her pawing around inside them, and no doubt from the sight-picture of me getting a beautiful sloppy blowjob. She gestured, and Craig leaned in and kissed her.

She said, "I'd never met Craig, until a half-hour ago - but he's as sexy as you are. We talked a dozen times on the phone, keeping up with your travels as best we could." Julia moved forward, straddling my chair, and lowered her pussy down to my erection. I took the base of my cock and aimed it into the folds of her cunt, and then Julia dropped and I sank deep inside her. Both of us closed our eyes in appreciation of the ecstasy we felt in those seconds.

Talk about compartmentalization, as she started to move up and down on my shaft, she continued as though our fucking had nothing to do with the discussion. "Remember I worked for Pete Krakowski at his inn. He knew you from college, and so did Craig; Pete said you'd all been in ROTC together and lived in the same dorm. After you left the island, I kept pumping Pete for more information on you, who your friends had been, and where you might go next. I wanted to see you again. You were my best lay ever, plus I still hope you'll introduce me to some key people in Hollywood, particularly after I read that you might make a movie."

"The rumor magazines keep a good estimate of your journey on a day-to-day basis. When I could see you heading into Montana area near where I'd lived, I asked Pete whom you knew up here, and Craig's name came up. He put us in touch. I grew up only a few hours back down your route in Montana, so I drove up to connect with you." She looked down at where my cock slowly moved back and forth into her body, and added, "And connected we are!"

Julia unbuckled and dropped Craig's pants, pushing them off his hips to the floor. Now, as the two of us fucked, she leaned sideways and inhaled Craig's cock, sharing the same talents of fellatio that she'd demonstrated to me a few minutes earlier. I got harder than ever.

I turned to Craig, "What say, we take this threesome into your bedroom, or somewhere more comfortable and less exposed than your living room with people walking by outside the window?"

He agreed.

Julia rose from my dick, allowing the sticky wet shaft to air dry. Craig pulled up his pants and led our threesome into his bedroom. Once there, he stripped off his clothes. I helped Julia undress the rest of the way, a job that only took a few seconds since she'd been left with only a skirt on her hips. I was naked in another thirty seconds.

I gestured to Craig that he should move into position to fuck Julia; he did, and the pair coupled in seconds after she lay back on the bed. Now, I was the one getting the blowjob as he fucked her. Craig and I switched back and forth several times.

At one point, Julia said, "I've never been DP'd, but I'd sure like to try." She turned to Craig and asked, "Do you have any lube?"

He produced a tube of Astroglide, and we slathered up Julia's ass. She came over me cowgirl style, and we started fucking in a more traditional way - woman on top. I caressed Julia, as Craig came knocking on her backdoor. He was gentle, and didn't rush entry, so, Julia enjoyed the double penetration as we both sank deep into her body and all three of us started our gyrations of pleasure. Based on Julia's shrieks, I expected the neighbors might have thought some kind of rescue was needed at Craig's residence; however, no one showed up.

Craig didn't last long at that point. We'd turned Julia around, so she still had his prick up her ass, but she lay back against his chest. I knelt between their legs and reentered her vagina. We got a few minutes into that posture, and Craig blasted his cum into her chute with a steady stream of comments about how great this was.

We broke the threesome apart after his orgasm. I mounted Julia again, and resolved to deliver some pleasure to her before I came. With some attention to her clit by my hand, I helped Julia to two orgasms, before we agreed to crest together for her third and my first. I filled her pussy with my man-juice as that heavenly feeling swept over me; and she had those long, lithe legs wrapped around me at that instant.

* * * * *

The three of us went out for dinner after cleaning up from our sex play. Julia walked kind of bowlegged, but had a smile from ear to ear. She kept kissing the two of us rather passionately, a point not lost on a few of the other patrons in the restaurant. Craig was near speechless over Julia's 'Hello and Welcome' performance at his town house. He confessed he'd never had a threesome, and so the day had accomplished something on his 'Bucket List.' Whenever there was any reference to the hour or so we'd spent earlier, all he could do was shake his head in disbelief and say "Wow!"

Julia brought me up-to-date on her travels since Mackinac Island closed for the season two months earlier. She also got me talking about my side of some of the things she'd read about: the concert in Texas, and my shifting relationship with Crystal, including why she'd started dating one of the other country music stars that had a 'ladies man' reputation.

I explained that Crystal and I were still an item to each other, and that we'd probably spend more time together once my trip ended. I commented to Julia about not being exclusive, and how that let me see her and that let Crystal see other people.

Julia said, "Well, mother wanted me to remember her to you." She laughed aloud; "I guess I did that pretty well, huh? She told me to fuck your brains out. Did I do a good job?" She laughed.

I conceded that she was doing all right so far, but she had to work a little harder to achieve her mother's goal. Julia and Craig both looked pleased with the prospect of continued sex.

Julia went on about her mother, "Yes, mother prefers not to admit that she has a daughter my age. I arrived when she was only seventeen. I've got a couple of sibs a decade younger, but I was unplanned, and out of wedlock." She paused and said, "Anyway, she wanted me to put the arm on you to appear at one of her telethons to raise money. It's in a few weeks in Reno. She figures that might work into your travel schedule."

I asked her to tell me more. She gave me the condensed version of what she knew about the Children's Fund, rattled off a list of 'stars' that Daisy was attempting to line up, and emphasized that I needed to ask Crystal Lee to see whether she'd join me. She knew more details than I'd expected. As she talked I only half listened to the words, logging the important items, and letting the rest slide by. My mind went back about three months to when I'd met Daisy. I'd been impressed when she walked into the spa where I was giving massages to people who signed up. Daisy was my third appointment of the afternoon, and as I recalled I'd already had sex with my two previous clients.

Daisy was a frosted blonde that stood about five-foot-five, had a flawless complexion, and an enhanced chest that she wanted massaged. In fact, as I recalled, she wanted to be massaged 'all over' - emphasizing that I shouldn't miss any place, even those that might be considered inappropriate to touch in a normal massage.

The first few minutes of Daisy's massage were pretty typical: shoulder and neck, legs, feet, arms, and hands. Daisy took one of my hands and placed it on her tits; "Don't forget these!" I didn't after that. I took the warmed aromatic oils and deep rubbed then into her breasts and nipples, paying careful attention until I think I brought her to a small climax just from the attention I gave her breasts.

Daisy encouraged me to move to her nether region, so I took some of the oils and rubbed them into her pussy, individually massaging each of her engorged labial lips, and then doing both together. I recall I allowed a finger to occasionally slip into Daisy's cunt or brush into her slit. She smelled divine. When I shifted my attention to Daisy's clitoris, a well-defined nub of skin that appeared amid the puffy and wrinkled lips that surrounded her stimulus center, I thought Daisy would go into orbit. She didn't let me last long doing that. She had my cock in her hand in seconds, and in minutes had me buried in her sweet pussy. We went for a long time, partly because I'd already been fucked out, and partly because I really enjoyed being with Daisy. We pushed each other's buttons really well. I thought about the feelings ...

"Jim? Jim? Earth to Jim; are you in there?" Julia's hand waved up and down in front of my face. I snapped out of my reverie.

Julia asked, "What were you thinking about? You really drifted off there."

I chuckled; "Your mother, to tell the truth."

"I bet. She said you were a great lay. She was glad you and I connected too. She got a kick that you were fucking both mother and daughter and didn't know it. I bet you hadn't done that before."

"Well, actually I had ... I'd been in that situation in Louisiana. Maybe I'll tell you about it someday."

Julia poked me in the ribs.

Craig said, "Jim, you're my new idol, and I don't mean because you're a country music singer."

* * * * *

Julia and I slept together that night, but not before Julia expressed her gratitude to our host for his hospitality. The word 'slept' is a bit of misnomer too. We fucked and sexed each other for hours before exhaustion overtook our overexcited libidos.

Craig left the two of us alone while he went to work the next morning. We continued our two-person orgy around his town house. Julia was insatiable. I told her about Heather, the nymphomaniac. Julia liked the comparison and the label, and I could tell she had a new adjective to describe herself.

Things took a different turn in late morning when my cell phone rang. Caller ID showed me it was Crystal. "Hi Lover. I'm scared again, and I've got four security guys guarding the house and property now, and the local police put an extra patrol on my neighborhood."

"Why? What happened? Talk to me, please." My voice suddenly took on a concerned tone. Even Julia turned from the magazine she'd been reading while we were on 'break,' to see what was going on, as though watching me on my cell would reveal all to her; she looked sexy with her long legs curled up under her wearing only a man's shirt.

Crystal went on, "In the middle of the night, someone hurled a brick through my living room window - the big plate glass opposite the fireplace. There was a note attached to it: 'Tell your boyfriend I'm going to get even.' He scared me - I mean, I assume it's this Bart Kenesis character. We had just talked yesterday. He must have been racing back to Nashville and figuring out how to terrorize me while you were telling me about his shooting at you and following you."

"Look, you did the right thing by calling in the security forces. The other thing you could do is sneak out of there and go elsewhere - a safe house, or even fly out here, although if he figures out where I am that might not be a good idea."

We chatted about possibilities, and different ways she could improve her personal security. Julia turned on the sofa listening with rapt attention, her long legs and a flash sometimes of her pussy a distraction. Crystal liked the idea of leaving her home secretly but continuing the security guards there, so it looked as though she was still in residence. In the meanwhile, she'd take up residence with a couple of security personnel at one of the upscale hotels in downtown Nashville. I suggested she make sure they had plenty of security cameras, and that she have one of her security people look over the shoulders of the hotel security staff to ensure her safety.

Crystal changed subjects and asked whom I'd spent the previous night with, although I could tell she was still nervous from the breach of her home. I started to tell her about Julia, smiling at Julia as I did. Julia's mouth dropped open, particularly as I went into some detail about the sexual teasing I'd gotten the previous afternoon, and how it had turned into a beautiful and erotic time when both Craig and I pleased Julia. Crystal got into the change of subject and asked me some questions about Julia and what we did. Crystal asked to talk to Julia, so I had the two women chat to each other for a few minutes, obviously about my lovemaking prowess and the hope that Julia would come and join us 'to play' sometime soon.

Julia mentioned the Reno telethon to Crystal, and asked whether she'd want to participate. Crystal got excited and assured us that she'd try to clear the dates around that November weekend so she could fly out and join us, particularly if Julia would be 'available.'

Crystal said she had to run, at least from the landline she'd called me on. Her limo had arrived to take her to a lunch with Terry, and Jake Reynolds - a songwriter. I told her I loved her, to be careful, and to call me immediately if she felt threatened again. We ended the call.

Julia asked, "Who's the threat?"

I explained about Kenesis, starting from the very beginning when I saw him at the edge of the darkness taking pictures of a foursome we were engaged in on the back of boat in Branson right up to Crystal telling me about the brick through her window. As I ended, I told her about getting shot at in Utah, and then discovering I was being tracked, doing a diversion tactic with the tracking device he'd put on my motorcycle, and slipping out of his reach by racing to Coeur d'Alene. By my calculation, as soon as he figured out I'd slipped away from him, he must have gotten on a flight and gotten back to Nashville to intimidate Crystal.

After we'd discussed the man stalking me, Julia said, "I have another question." She suddenly looked discomposed, so I guessed her question had to do with sex. I nodded for her to continue. She said, "You were so open with Crystal about having sex with me ... fucking me, and with Craig. Does that bother her? What if she told you all the details about some liaison she had?"

I started my answer by saying, "She has. She's had a couple of dates with a popular singer in Nashville, and he really got her cranked up - horny. They had fun and fucked each other until they couldn't move; she gave me a stroke-by-stroke account the day after. We've talked about some other hookups she's had, and she's been with me for some group sex events." I paused, "I gather you're open with your mother about sexual encounters; didn't she tell you about her massage?"

"Yes."

"Well, it's not much different. She told you because she loves you and wanted to share with you because it was erotic."

"She encouraged me to have sex with you."

"I kind of figured that out later. She wanted something she thought was good to happen to you too. She wasn't jealous, only loving and caring. That's the way Crystal and I are. We want each other to feel the rush of a fabulous orgasm, and to share the experience with the other in some way. Neither of us is possessive; I think if I got possessive, I'd lose her."

Julia studied me for a minute; "You are fucking amazing. We can screw around, fuck all night and part of the next day, and I know you care about me, and I know you care deeply for Crystal, and I don't want to jeopardize that relationship for you."

I said, "If Crystal were here, we'd have a threesome. If Crystal and Craig were here, she would swap around too. There's no need to worry."

"And you trust her?"

"Whoa. That question opens up the option that she could do something that would make me judge her as untrustworthy. I love her, and she loves me. I can easily see her sharing her love with someone else, and we already know I do. I know we'd always be friends - close friends - if either of us wanted to drift in someone else's direction. I don't own her; she doesn't own me. I want her happiness. So, yes, I trust her, but I can't think of anything she could do to break that trust."

"Have you two talked about stuff like this?"

I answered, "Yes, often and we're consistent in our views. There are all sorts of relationship agreements and boundaries we could build for each other, particularly if we get insecure about the other having an outside relationship - you can sleep with someone else under these conditions; they can stay overnight on another set of conditions; or here's the frequency with which you could see someone else, what kind of sex acts that are acceptable or not, or what kind of protection you have to use - on and on. We've kicked all this stuff around. The best agreements, and the ones easiest to keep, are no agreements or boundaries; so we told each other to follow our bliss, particularly when it came to being with others. I know how we've felt about each other, and how we feel right now. If that changed this instant, I would always have those great memories to fall back on."

"But don't you think you two are soul mates?"

I chuckled; "Maybe and maybe not; the term soul mates connotes fate and uniqueness. I know there are hundreds of men who could make Crystal happy, just as I know there are an equal number of women that I could love deeply forever. I already do love some of them. Heck, you may be one of them. Society has this weird paradigm that we can only really love one other person at a time; I don't know where it came from, but it's a pretty restrictive rule."

Julia shrugged, "So people have affairs."

"Yes that, or they have serial polygamy - they marry, divorce, find a new spouse, marry, divorce, and so forth, doing it over and over again, often proclaiming how friendly and loving they are to their ex's. To my way of thinking, those approaches are more destructive of relationships than allowing polyamory - our ability to simultaneously love more than one person, with full benefits, of course."

"Could you love me and Crystal at the same time?"

"Darling, I already care a lot about you. You and I mesh well sexually, but there are many other areas in our relationship we haven't even begun to explore. I won't lead you on about how deeply I feel about you, but know that my door is open to a longer and deeper relationship with you. Let's see what happens over time." I smiled warmly at Julia.

Julia came over beside me on the sofa and kissed me deeply. She whispered, "Well, you stir all the right places inside me every minute of the day, so I'd like to become part of your close circle of friends and lovers. Let's see how this plays out."

Julia wore one of Craig's business shirts with one button done. I undid the button, and soon we were working at pleasuring each other again

* * * * *

Julia was sitting nude on a credenza just inside the front door when Craig got home. She pulled her legs up, spread them, and hooked her feet over the edge of the credenza top. Julia's breasts hung between her arms, which in turn held her knees. Julia's gorgeous pussy was on full display, the slightly swollen lips of her labia calling attention to a small dark hole that started her vagina. The result to anyone walking in the front door was a horny, desirable, and very available woman who wanted immediate fulfillment.
As Craig opened the door and took in the sight, he froze in position; the door open behind him.

Julia told him in a little girl whiney tone, "Jim's all tired out for the present, and I need some serious lovin' before dinner time. I wondered if you'd like to ... well, you know, help a needy girl out of her troublesome predicament."

Craig allowed the door to swing shut behind him. He stuttered, "Yes, oh, most definitely yes," as he shed his coat and dropped it on the floor.

Julia held her arms out to him, and he came to her and they kissed. I was doing more emails in the living room, and enjoying the blatant seduction taking place only a few feet away. I'd been at it all day with Julia, so I didn't think I was missing anything that I hadn't already enjoyed to the fullest.

Julia put her legs down temporarily, and started to strip Craig. He scrambled to keep up with her. She helped him shed his shirt and then helped push down his pants. She grabbed a hold of his penis, a shaft that lengthened and hardened by the second. After a few strokes with her hands, she pulled her legs back up and thrust her pussy forward while still atop the credenza. Craig sank his cock into her body, and the pair began a rather energetic fuck that resulted in the credenza pounding against the wall and alerting every other person in the row of townhouses what was happening. They didn't care.

The pair made noises appropriate to their exquisite fuck that I wished I'd recorded so we could have enjoyed the soundtrack later. Julia was moaning and voicing her pleasure, even calling out 'harder and faster' instructions when she wasn't using 'dirty talk' to further excite Craig and me. Craig told her how she felt, and replied with his own brand of dirty talk as they fucked. I didn't think to time them; however, five minutes would have been a long time, but in those five they covered what a normal couple might take twenty minutes to do. Craig exploded into Julia's pussy, and she climaxed simultaneously, her wail of pleasure ending the pounding the credenza made against the wall. Still connected to each other, Craig picked up Julia and duck walked over to the sofa, his stride limited by the pants around his ankles. The pair sank to the sofa and made out for a while. I could see they really liked each other - an understatement at best.

* * * * *

When Craig and Julia finally separated, they went down the hall to his bedroom to shower before dinner. The entire townhouse smelled of sex, but then Julia and I had made significant contributions to the way the place smelled all day long.

Craig came out of his bedroom a few minutes later. He looked at me and shook his head: "Man, you know some really great women. If you want to leave this one behind, it'd be all right with me."

I laughed and pointed out that it was up to Julia. I also warned him that she had aspirations about acting in Hollywood, so he might want to be sure what he was getting into before she disappeared on him.

We bantered for a couple of minutes, and then a light bulb went behind Craig's eyes: "Oh, I have something to show you; I almost forgot with that wonderful welcome home. I stopped for more wine on the way home, and thought you like to see what I found in the checkout aisle." He rummaged in his briefcase, and then tossed me two magazines, just as Julia emerged from the bedroom looking quite chic for northern Idaho. I could tell even from the distance between us that the magazines were supermarket tabloids. The Weekly Star and the Nation's Entertainment News landed in my lap.

On the cover of both rags was a photograph of me riding on a horse next to Jesse Emerson, the pretty horsewoman who rescued me and my motorcycle from a snowstorm in Montana. We were talking, and surrounded by snow-covered trees. I knew instantly when the picture had been taken; we were riding the fence line. Seconds after the long lens had captured our looking tenderly at each other, I'd spotted the black car that Bart Kenesis, freelance paparazzo photographer, had been using and with binoculars had even seen him in it.

The headlines on one magazine read "Cheating on Crystal?" and on the other "Crystal Lee's Competition?" The headlines, smaller print, and the short stories inside the editions traded on sensationalism and scandal, and lacked any knowledge of what had really been going on - fortunately. In the first, I was guilty of breaking Crystal's heart. In the other magazine, Crystal and the 'mystery woman' were fighting for my affection and I was torn in the middle, hiding my affair on one hand yet longing for a more permanent relationship with Crystal who, factually, had been consoling herself on a few dates with Kenny Wilson. I laughed aloud at the fabrications.

I picked up the cell phone and called Crystal. Fortunately, I got her on her cell just as she was heading out to dinner with Ellen. I read her the relevant parts of both magazines, and suggested that there might be other magazines and maybe video of the horseback ride. I thanked my lucky stars that Jesse and I hadn't done 'anything' outdoors, although we'd both surely had been inclined that way. Crystal rang off to call Terry, and get his counsel on how to respond when someone pushed a microphone in front of her and quoted these scandal sheets seeking validation.

Next, I called Jesse. Josie, the youngest of the daughters answered the phone, and we had a brief conversation. I think she was a little miffed that I needed to talk to her older sister, but I assured her than Jesse would explain all to her in good time. Jesse came on, and I explained about the paparazzi, scandal sheets, and that she and I were on the covers of two of them.

On the other end of the phone line, I heard a little, "Wow! Really? I'm on the cover of a magazine?"

I read Jesse the headlines and articles, and suggested she rehearse a set of benign statements she could make to the press that would deflate their sails, tell the truth, and, in a few days, give her back her privacy: statements like, "Yes, Mr. Mellon and I are friends, and my family and I enjoyed his visit at our ranch as well as the trail ride we took the morning of the photographs when we were checking the fences. The stories in the tabloids portray a nonexistent relationship; in fact, we talked at length about his relationship with Crystal. So, I'm afraid I can't corroborate even a single sentence of what was written in either the Weekly Star or the Nation's Entertainment News. From what I can see, the stories are trash, lies, and outrageous innuendo. You can verify this with Mr. Mellon or Miss Lee. No further comment is needed."

I asked for Jesse to keep in touch, at a minimum emailing or texting me the name and company of anyone who contacted her later and how aggressive they'd been in trying to get 'her story.' I explained that they'd offer some 'big bucks' to sell her exclusive story to them - fact or fiction, assuring her it would end up as mostly fiction. I could tell she found that idea revolting. I thanked her again for the days I spent with them, asking her to give my love to everyone.

As I'd been on the phone, Julia and Craig had been passing the magazines back and forth when I wasn't using one of them in my conversations.

"Wow," Julia said, "They really trashed you. Was this the doings of the photographer you told me about?"

"I'm certain of it, at least for the photograph. He may have also fed the editors some possible storylines, and they took it from there. I'm rapidly developing some thick skin about this kind of stuff. I never realized how badly the tabloids could do in someone."

* * * * *

The next day was Friday, and Julia and I hung around Craig's townhouse getting to know each other better. I doubt there was a square inch of her skin that I didn't massage, lick, and have sex with, and Julia could have made the same statement about me.

Craig made up for lost time when he got home on Friday afternoon. Julia told us she really loved having sex with two men. We discussed the ability of men and women to have multiple simultaneous partners in sex during one of our breaks. Julia rightfully pointed out that women were made to have sex with more than one man at a time. To summarize her comments, she said women have multiple orifices that enable them to pleasure at least three men, they can have orgasm after orgasm without a recovery time between, and they understand how to share themselves with others without getting their nose bent out of shape. Craig and I conceded the point.

Craig and I got some time to talk starting in the late morning on Saturday. The weather had changed to rain, so staying indoors proved to be a good idea. The two of us had worn Julia out, and she'd fallen asleep in the middle of his bed with a smile on her face. We caught up some more, visited old times, and renewed our commitment to always be there for each other. We also talked about some ideas to resolve the Kenesis problem. Based on timing and my travels, it looked like an ideal time to face Kenesis would be when Crystal and I would be in Reno with Julia's mother doing a telethon.

Sunday morning, I packed up my motorcycle with the help of Craig and Julia. Julia had decided to hang around a few more days with Craig, a decision that made Craig beam from ear to ear. I hoped he'd survive being alone with her for an entire day. He already planned to take Monday and Tuesday off work.

Julia gave me a long simmering kiss to say goodbye. I promised I'd keep in touch and that I'd do something about her wish to get her into films once I got to southern California. I also urged her to come to Reno when we'd be at the Children's Fund Telethon with her mother.

I rode out of Coeur d'Alene on back roads, keeping as close to the Spokane River as I could. The rain had left, leaving a crystal clear day. Crystal clear. I thought of Crystal a lot and wondered what our future together would be like.

To be continued

Chapter 28

Washington-Oregon

Time stopped. I watched in horror as a maroon sedan in front of me drifted onto the shoulder of the highway, suddenly and violently dug the right front tire into the soft dirt, and abruptly slewed the back end of the car around until the car was broadside to the road. I could see a blonde female inside frantically trying to regain control over the careening vehicle, but I knew it was too late. At seventy-five or eighty miles per hour, the car started to roll over onto the passenger side, and then the car flew through the air.

The woman disappeared, carried upward as the entire car left the ground after a quarter-turn in the roll. In that flash of time, I could see that the car's roof didn't even make contact with the ground as the car flipped over, angling off the road into a fallow field. After hitting the ground again and kicking up a shower of dirt, the car barely brushed the ground as the car completed its first complete rollover, and kept rolling.

On the car's second roll, the rear of the car dug into the potato field ensuring that the car would rotate again. This time the roof of the car slammed into the ground obliterating the passenger side roof of the vehicle. The right front tire tore away from the car and adopted its own strange trajectory up and away from the car. The windshield shattered into a thousand pieces of glass as if someone threw a shower of glistening raindrops into the air.

On the third and fourth rolls, the front of the car rose in the air in a complex twist, left the ground again, plunging back to earth on the nose as the wheels spun eerily without anything to touch other than air. In the fifth roll; the remaining kinetic energy dissipated as the car slid two hundred feet backwards on the crushed roof before rocking to a stop well off the roadway.

I pulled onto the shoulder opposite the vehicle, parked in a millisecond, and raced to see whether the driver had survived the horrendous crash. I shed my helmet as I ran, and tossed it aside. Other cars had stopped behind me, and other people were running to the disabled car. The three wheels on the car were still spinning when I reached the car. I could smell gasoline. I threw myself onto the ground and peered into the upside down car through the shattered driver's side window. An unconscious woman hung suspended in her seatbelt. Her head rested against the crushed in roof, but I saw no blood.

Instincts drilled into me as a Green Beret came back - training I'd had as a backup medic: assess for life, assess for injury, assess for extraction, assess for transport, and so forth. I wiggled partway into the car on my back so I could look up at the woman, thankful that I wore a thick leather jacket so the ragged glass edges didn't injure me. I found a pulse on the woman at her carotid artery. Only the seat belt held her body. Amazingly, the empty passenger compartment had taken the brunt of the various impacts as the car flipped; had anyone been there, they would be dead.

I ran my hands down the woman's arms; one caught in the seatbelt and the other limply hanging to the roof of the upside down car. I used both hands and carefully moved her head around feeling for a neck injury. I ran a hand down her spine, not an easy task given the angle of the vehicle and her seat. I felt ribs and chest, ignoring the intimacy that might have been implied. I felt thighs and lower legs as they angled out from under the shattered dashboard.

She seemed whole and unbroken, but I wrapped a jacket that was lying beside her head around her neck to immobilize it in case she had suffered neck injuries. I couldn't imagine how she could have escaped injury. I released the seatbelt with one hand and cushioned her drop with my own body. The smell of gasoline became stronger. I backed myself out of the car, maneuvering the woman with me. Another pair of hands tried to reach in to help pull her out.

As I got myself nearly clear of the car, I heard a 'wooft' from under the car's hood. Fire! I rolled onto my stomach, reached inside the car, and hooked my hands under the woman's armpits and pulled, making sure her head and body didn't drag across the jagged glass where the side window had broken. Other rescuers had vanished when the engine fire erupted. The heat from the fire singed one side of my face. A quick glance confirmed we were in grave danger. I doubted the gas tank had remained undamaged and the odor of gasoline still filled the air.

I looked for other help, but there was none nearby. Just as the blonde's body cleared the car, flames erupted inside the car, consuming the interior in seconds. Blinded from the acrid smoke, I picked up the woman's body and ran, tripping over the uneven ground but not falling.

Two men intercepted my path and helped me lay the woman on the ground on a blanket a safe distance from the vehicle that had rapidly become completely engulfed in flames. A thunderous 'whoompf' made us all duck momentarily; fire had breached the gasoline tank. An immense orange ball of flame rose skyward amid the existing plume of black smoke. The heat from the explosion touched everyone.

Voices yelled from a vehicle on the road that 911 had been called. I took off my chaps, rolled then up into a makeshift pillow, and put them behind the woman's head. I removed my leather jacket and wrapped her upper body under the fleece lining. I felt the blonde's pulse race as her body dealt with shock and the surges of adrenalin discharged into her system. I did another brief external examination, seeking broken bones, blood, bruises, and other signs of trauma. All I found was an enlarging lump on her head and a superficial scratch.

A gray-haired woman knelt by the head of my unconscious ward. She stroked the young woman's forehead as only a grandmother could. I had learned in my medical training that unconscious people, even people in a coma, can 'hear' what's going on around them. They processed these 'subliminal' messages, sometimes evaluating whether to die or live. I leaned in close and talked calmly to the pretty woman, assuring her that she was in good hands, in the arms of people that would protect her and take care of her, and who would let no further harm come to her. The grandmother-type also talked to her in positive words too. I explained to the unconscious girl that she was healthy and fit with no signs of serious injury.

I talked in low, soothing tones to her for five minutes before she stirred slightly, her body shuddering once as the first signs of consciousness reappeared. A gasp of relief went through the small crowd that had now gathered. I glanced up to see the highway lined for a great distance in either direction with stopped cars and trucks. Flames and acrid smoke still leapt skyward from her car. The woman's eyes flew open, and I saw at once the fear she felt. Grandmother and I both kept speaking words of calm. She gasped in a panicked voice, "What happened? Where ... Oh ... my car ... couldn't steer."

I said calmly, "You've had an accident, and I think you're all right - a little shaken up, but OK. You've got a bump on your head that probably put you 'out' for a few minutes. Help is on the way." I could see her trying to focus on my face as I talked. She tried to sit up, but I urged her to just lie still until her body had a chance to recover from the stress of the accident. I gently pushed her shoulders back to the blanket.

"How did I get out of the car?" she asked in a worried voice.

Grandmother spoke nodding in my direction, "This young man pulled you out of your car. You are lucky you found a hero like him. He saved your life."

The blonde digested that information.

I asked gently, "Is there someone close to you that we should call - that you'd like to have know about your accident and where you are?"

She shook her head slightly, and then spoke, "No. No one near here. No one now." After a long pause, she added, "I'm from Oregon. I was heading home from a bad experience."

"What's your name?"

"I'm Elizabeth Catriona, and everyone calls me Liz." I introduced myself to her as 'Jim' now that she was conscious. I got a polite smile from her.

In the distance I could hear the wailing of the emergency sirens heading in our direction, probably from Pasco. I held Liz's hand, and told her help was seconds away. In a pleading voice, she locked eyes with me and said in a near state of panic, "Please don't leave me. Stay with me - hold my hand - even when they take me to the hospital." This wasn't a question; it was a plea I couldn't turn down. When a pretty woman in trouble begs, I give in.

A fire truck pulled up opposite the burning car, still aflame with dark smoke pouring from the hulk. A large ambulance arrived nearby. Two EMTs rushed to Liz's side with their gear. On the highway, two highway patrol cars screamed onto the scene with sirens and lights flashing; one officer came to work the gathering crowd around us, and the other took control of the traffic.

One EMT examined Liz carefully, checking her neck, throat, eyes, nose, and ears. As he worked, I introduced myself and explained getting her from the car and my initial check of her health. The EMT asked who had wrapped Liz's neck and I told him that I had incase she had a neck injury. The EMT praised my work. He wired Liz up and did an EKG, transmitting the information to a nearby hospital. Eventually, they retrieved a gurney, and with my help put Liz in the ambulance. I retrieved my helmet, chaps, and jacket, when an EMT shouted from beside the ambulance: "Jim, can you come see us for a moment."

I jogged over to the flashing ambulance. Inside I could hear Liz screaming. The EMT shook his head, "She's hysterical because you're not in the van with her. Can you leave you car ... err, your motorcycle, and come with us to County Medical? Talk to her. Calm her down. She's hysterical."
I got in the large ambulance and told Liz I had to arrange transport for my bike, but that I'd be right back. She relaxed slightly. At the moment, most of what I owned was tied to the bike in some way. The EMT read my concern and said, "I'll have someone take your bike to the hospital." He hailed a man in a blue jumpsuit - a wrecking truck driver who'd arrived on the scene. We arranged for him to transport my Harley. He quickly lowered the ramp to his truck, and with the EMT's help, we rolled the Harley onto the flatbed and anchored it in place with multiple lines. I gave him my cell phone number and noted the name of his company.

I got in the ambulance, and sat next to Liz. She put her hand out and commanded in a sweet voice, "Jim, please hold my hand - hold my hand tight and please don't let go." She broke into tears for minute. I held onto her as I buckled into the jump seat. The ambulance started up with siren wailing and the wrecking truck behind us, until we pulled away at high speed. Liz closed her eyes on the way to the hospital, but opened them every minute or two to be sure I remained at her side. She had the prettiest blue eyes.

* * * * *

Liz got cleared out of the emergency room three hours later. I hadn't left her side, except to help unload my motorcycle from the wrecker, and for one moment to talk to an older ER doctor. He said, "Your girlfriend had quite a scare. Physically she's in amazing shape given the nature of the accident. Usually, when we get someone like this, they're in small pieces. Also, the shock symptoms are dissipating, but mentally, she'll be in shock a little longer. This explains her neediness and dependence on you. She needs some TLC, and someone who'll help keep her grounded in reality until her mind can process what happened, and until she knows that it's past, and that she came through it all right. One minute she'll think she's about to die in her car, and the next she'll feel safe. She needs you to help her through it. It might take a day or two, or maybe just overnight. Call me if it's any longer than that."

A receptionist at the hospital's front desk helped us arrange for a small suite at the Cedars Inn in Kennewick, just across the Columbia River from Pasco. She also arranged for a taxi. Liz didn't want me to leave her side. I negotiated that I would ride my motorcycle right behind the taxi all the way to the inn, and that she could see me and know that I hadn't left her. I worried a little about the dependence she showed, but once we got her situated in the taxi, she calmed enough for the taxi ride, although she watched me out the back window the whole trip.

I checked us in, and helped Liz get situated in the suite I'd rented. She immediately lay down on the bed, but watched me as I shuttled the gear from my motorcycle into the room, clearly worried that I wouldn't return from some exit to get my stuff. After one trip outside, I came back and found her holding onto my leather jacket like a security blanket. I went and smoothed her shoulder to show her I knew she was working over what had happened.

We talked for a bit, particularly about her belongings. She told me everything she'd had with her burned in the car fire, including her wallet. I asked whether she wanted me to go somewhere and get her a few belongings, but she panicked about my leaving her alone for more than a minute.

I called the front desk and after explaining the situation I arranged for a friend of the young desk clerk to make a shopping trip for Liz. A half-hour later a teenage girl about eighteen knocked on the door; she introduced herself as Marci. With Liz's help, I'd written out a shopping list for clothing and sizes - even colors, and cosmetics and feminine products. I suggested a large purse and suitcase too. Marci took the list and four hundred dollars I gave her.

Two hours later, Marci returned with a suitcase and eight large bags from Wal-Mart. She'd made good selections. Liz and Marci bonded, so well that I left them to the purchases and went into the other room to do emails. I'd no sooner sat down, than Liz appeared in the doorway biting her lower lip. In a little girl voice she asked, "Jim, could you sit in the other chair? If you sit there I can see you from in here." I changed seats, sympathetic about Liz' security needs.

Marci got Liz to laugh at some of the things she told her about teen life in Kennewick. She had a natural compassion for Liz' situation, particularly her loss of her car and everything she'd been traveling with. When Marci left, I paid her a hundred dollars for her time and effort, and she gave me a large smile and promised to help again if we needed her. I could tell it wasn't the money that motivated her, but her compassion and desire to help someone in need.

After a trip to the bathroom to change into her pajamas, Liz begged me to sit on the bed with her. Marci had bought Liz a semi-shear nightgown with a scoop neck. The nightie hung to Liz' thighs, but through the material I could make out the matching bikini panties and Liz' pretty body without using any imagination. As Liz moved about on the bed, her clothing increasingly revealed more and more about her pretty body.

I brought my laptop into the room and stretched out next to Liz to do emails and my journal as she napped. She liked that arrangement, I guess because she could remain in constant touch with someone after her harrowing experience. Several times, Liz jerked awake and looking around the room in an agitated way. I'd patted her shoulder or rubbed her back until she quieted down and went back to sleep. At one point, she wrapped her arms around me, a situation that made it impossible to use my laptop. I held her arms in place, hugged her, and just allowed myself to doze off as well.

* * * * *

Liz woke up hungry for dinner at nine-thirty that evening. We ordered in some Chinese food based on a recommendation from the inn's front desk. After the delivery, Liz and I sat at a table in the room and ate, and talked about her accident and introduced ourselves a little more completely. I tried to focus on the food and Liz' face, instead of the revealing clothing she wore. Eventually, I turned on the TV. She'd asked how I got her from the car, and I gave her an abbreviated version, not mentioning the hazards. She asked my background, and I'd told her I was a musician kicking around the country on the way to my sister's home in San Diego. Liz told me she worked in radio and TV in Portland,

The local news on KNDK-TV came on at ten o'clock, and to my surprise the accident, Liz, and I were the top news items. I hadn't even noticed a camera or reporter at the accident scene, but they had vivid pictures of the burning car, Liz, and me in the field as the EMT personnel administered to her, and a shot of the ambulance leaving the scene followed by my motorcycle on the back of the truck.

The announcer's voice over said, "Country singer Jim Mellon rescued a woman from her single car crash on the highway north of Pasco this afternoon. Jim braved the damaged car, a close fire, and the threat of exploding gasoline to pull the woman from the car. The woman has been identified as Liz Catriona, a television personality from Portland. Mellon is on a personal sojourn across the country on his motorcycle. The car exploded in an immense fireball only seconds after Mellon pulled Catriona from her car, picked her up, and ran with her to safety just before the car exploded in what could have been a deadly experience for both Mellon and Catriona. Units from Pasco Fire Station Eight and Washington Highway Patrol responded to the crash. Catriona was transported to County Medical, where amazingly she was found to be in good shape with only minor bruises. She has since been released. Links to several videos that show more details about the accident, the fire, and rescue have been posted on the KNDU website."

The TV shots continued to pan around the accident scene, mostly focusing on the burning car after we'd left the scene, and then the next news item came on. Liz stared at me in silence. I put my computer on the dinner table and in a minute I'd found the videos. The first was entitled 'Celebrity Jim Mellon Rescues TV Star From Burning Car.' The video ran a little over eight minutes, and must have been taken by someone with a cell phone that had been nearby the entire time I'd helped rescue Liz. The video started as I ran to Liz's upside down crushed car, and showed the narrow escape we both had from the fire and explosion. A second video showed the same scene from a different point of view; however, the camera angle revealed the fire as closer and more threatening to us. In both videos, I could be seen close-up once I'd started to ensure Liz hadn't been injured. The grandmotherly lady who had helped me also appeared in the video. In both videos, I'd been identified as 'Jim Mellon, a hero.'

Liz jabbed me in the chest with one finger partly in anger but she had tears in her eyes. Her voice croaked, "You almost died saving me. We were seconds from being engulfed in flames, and you stayed ... and saved me ... and you're some kind of famous person?" Liz's voice started to choke up and she cried. She hadn't realized until those videos how close to death she had come.

Slightly embarrassed by the news coverage, I shrugged. "Yes on all counts, and I told you I was a musician part of the time."

Despite her teary eyes, Liz rolled her eyes in an unforgiving manner. She kept touching me, not at all in an annoying way, but so that she could be 'in touch' as often and for as long as possible. Given her trauma and her emerging personality, I found her need sweet and not alarming.

"So, what do you sing?"

I offered, "I'll show you." I walked to my pile of luggage in a corner of the suite and got my small travel guitar. I walked back to the sofa and sat beside Liz, tuned the instrument, and then sang 'Texas Dawn' to her in a soft voice. As I got halfway through, she started singing along in a low tentative voice.

When I ended, she reflected, "So, you're that country singer. You sing with Crystal Lee."

I nodded and sang her two more songs, and then put the guitar aside. She watched with rapt attention, as though she'd set out to memorize every word I said or sang, and every move I made. We chatted a little about singing and my getting into the music business. Eventually, she yawned a couple of times, and I suggested she go to sleep. I explained that I'd take the couch in the adjacent room, so she could have the large bed.

Liz shook her head, "Oh, no. I want you right next to me. Please! And leave a light on in the other room - please don't make it dark!" She pulled me to the bed. She got in under the covers. I was allowed a trip to the bathroom before I lay down beside her atop the blanket in my running shorts. My chivalry seemed to be acceptable to her. She snuggled up against me and drifted asleep in a few minutes. I followed close behind. This had been a long and exciting day.

* * * * *

I had some wild dreams before I finally settled into a deep sleep. I replayed the car flipping over and over through the air, and then the fire. I thought about what would have happened if I hadn't been willing to get in the car and work to get Liz extracted, or if the gas tank had exploded fifteen seconds earlier. Finally, it seemed, I could put the accident I'd witnessed to rest so it didn't continue to haunt my dreams.

In its place, a sexual dream materialized. I could feel the warmth of a female body against me - a naked body. A bare breast and erect nipple went by my cheek - even stroked my cheek. The woman to whom they belonged fondled me, and then started to fellate me. I felt waves of pleasure coursing through my body as she worked on my cock. My dream woman knew what she was doing. The touching, stroking, sucking, tonguing were all so real ...

My eyes flickered open. I guessed the time to be around four or five in the morning. Liz moved beside me, her naked body so seductive in the light from the other room. Her energies were entirely focused on my erection. I whispered cautiously, "Liz, don't do that? I don't want you to do this as some kind of return payment for what happened yesterday."

Liz hummed a 'Yes' and a string of hums that defied translation, but made some kind of comment about the last part of my statement. She kept fellating me - a great blowjob actually.

I pulled Liz up to me, "Liz, come here. Let's talk." She threw her body on top of mine, making sure that my erection frequently rubbed against the exterior of her naked sex.

I started, "If you do this, I feel you're trying to repay a kindness. We've never even kissed."

Liz's face appeared in front of mine instantly, and a tender and loving kiss resulted. We kissed some more, our kisses rapidly becoming more passionate and wet. I couldn't recall having a first kiss with someone, as they lay nude against my body. What a nice way to start a relationship. Liz nibbled on my ear and ran her tongue inside; "I need a few orgasms to help me get over the accident. You're the person I elected - by unanimous vote - to provide this valuable service to me the rest of the night."

Liz lay on me and squeezed her legs together, trapping my erection against her labia. She thrust her hips a few times in simulated intercourse. She went on, "This is not repayment sex, although that idea did cross my mind. It's not sympathy sex; I've given and received that, and that's not good for either party. No, this is just man-woman, boy-girl, lusty, likeable, physical, erotic, enjoyable fucking that will make us both feel good. I want this. 'I' need this."

I remember thinking hours earlier, 'When a pretty woman in trouble begs, I give in.' We melded together perfectly and the sex was wonderful and went on a long time with many orgasms.

I lay awake in the morning as Liz's nude body slept peacefully with her head against my chest. The twitches and groans she'd emitted early in the night's sleep seemed to have given way to a more restful slumber, except for our middle-of-the-night sex. Although we had the curtains on the windows closed, I could hear rain beating against the side of the building and the glass. The morning was not good for travel; all good motorcycle riders should find a nice warm, sexy, and naked body to snuggle up with.

Liz stirred, and I let her rouse herself from her sleep. Her beautiful blue eyes opened and looked at me, studied me, and then I got a loving smile. I kissed her forehead and started to stroke her back to express my appreciation about her closeness. Liz purred and snuggled her naked body more closely to mine.

I said, "Last night, I had this beautiful dream. This gorgeous, young blonde woman about five-foot-five with blue eyes came onto my side of the bed, and she did ... well, sexual things to me."

Liz said in humorous mock surprise, "Oooouuh? Sexual things?"

I reached out and ran my fingers across the area immediately around her exposed breasts, feeling the curve and heft of her well-shaped bosom. My mind paused; 'bosom' is a word you don't hear too often these days. My mother and grandmother used to use that term. I liked it; it's softer and more gentile than 'tits,' or 'boobs.'

Liz said, "If you do that you'll get me all horny."

I said just before I kissed her, "I detect that you're horny already?"

After a silence, Liz acknowledged, "Yes, I discovered that last night too. Would you like to make love with me again? I'd really like you to."

"I'd be delighted."

* * * * *

Liz dressed in some of the clothes that Marci had bought, and we took a taxi to a nearby restaurant that served brunch. I noted that the weather had already started to clear from the morning shower. By way of starting our conversation over breakfast, Liz told me about her work. She had a three-hour weekday afternoon television talk show on Portland's KPLD-TV with a wide range of guests: dogs up for adoption, health care, women's issues, clothes, weather, insights into current scandals, a light touch of local politics, and even outdoor and recreation features - almost anything. At a young age, she had started up the media ladder, ultimately hoping for a permanent network job at a 'big' station in California. I thought she had the poise and assertiveness to accomplish her goal, although she admitted that Portland was a really pleasant place to live and that now she wasn't sure whether California was still her goal.

Liz lit up at one point when an idea occurred to her: "Jim, will you come to Portland with me and be on my show. It's about four hours that way," she pointed, "and I'd be forever grateful. You can stay with me ... and I promise to be the 'perfect' hostess and extend to you every 'courtesy' of the house." Her emphasis on a few words left no doubt about the sexual nature of my stay with her.

I'm a sucker for begging, I said with a smirk, "Yes, of course."

After ordering, I asked Liz, "OK, we know we're compatible on one front, but short of a few facts about you. Tell me about yourself other than your work; for instance, yesterday you said something about coming from a bad experience - is that anything you want to share?"

Liz squirmed a little, and I could tell the question made her uncomfortable. I wondered why I'd pushed into that personal area; I guess I could be nosey at times. She said, "I'm running away ... running away from an unfaithful husband who I caught fucking my best friend."

"Where were you going yesterday?"

"Actually, back home. John, my husband, is probably still at our vacation home near Mount Rainer with Ellie, my ex-best friend. I caught them in flagrante delicto; I ran away and started driving full of anger and didn't care what direction I went - at the time east seemed good. Eventually, I stopped overnight up by Moses Lake, and this morning decided to go home."

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that ... I didn't know ..."

Liz interrupted, "I was to drive up and meet John after I finished yesterday. I would have gotten up there about midnight, but I got a good replacement for my time slot at the TV station, had the entire afternoon free, so I started driving to our cabin for some unexpected R&R time about seven hours ahead of schedule. When I arrived, Ellie's car was at our cabin along with John's. I walked in and found them in bed fucking ... my husband and my best fucking friend from Portland!" Her voice had an angry edge.

"So you ran?"

"While they were still fucking - hot at it, a few seconds before they saw me, I walked right through the bedroom - right past the bed, took his car and house keys off the dresser, turned around and walked out. My girlfriend dashed from the bed to hide in the bathroom - what the fuck was she doing two hundred miles from home fucking my husband? My husband jerked on his underwear and started following me out of the cabin in his boxers, apologizing and blubbering 'I'm sorry'. I took Ellie's car keys too - they were next to her purse on the kitchen counter. I got in my car and started driving. Ugh! I got a motel room last night, but I didn't sleep much." I sympathized with her problem.

Liz nodded and launched into another rant, talking about how liberal she thought she was, even sexually, until she found the pair screwing. She said, "John and I had never been swingers or anything like that, but we shared our fantasies and some of those went in the direction of involving others. If either of us had wanted to do that, the other of us would have probably gone along, if nothing more than out of curiosity if we'd talked about it ahead of time." After pausing, she asked, "Have you ever been a swinger or done anything like that?"
I candidly told her, "Yes, I have; I've had the pleasure many times of making love to more than one woman at a time, if that's what you mean."

"What was it like? Weren't you ... overtaxed?" Her genuine curiosity showed as she leaned towards me over the table.

I laughed, "Yes, sometimes. It always proved enjoyable, loving, and full of care for everyone involved. I think that's the best way to have it work well, making sure everyone is on an even footing, no one is being taken advantage of, and that people care for each in addition to the sex."

"Wasn't it kind of ... raw?"

"No, although that probably depends on your point of view and how free-thinking you are. I've been in some creative situations with women and men, although I'm not gay and don't even lean in that direction. As consenting adults, you can mutually agree to almost anything."

Liz asked about whether I felt jealous and betrayed, admitting that seeing John with her friend had provoked that response, and that in turn had led to her 'flight' response.

I gave the short version of my jealousy philosophy. I told Liz, "We get so that we think jealousy and rage are the only responses to a situation like you encountered, but there are others."

"Like what?" I heard genuine curiosity in Liz's voice.

"What if you'd gone and kissed the two of them, and genuinely told them you were so glad they'd come up to the cabin and were sharing themselves with each other? What if you'd stripped off your clothes and joined in, sucking, licking, and fucking the two of them with all the lust you could summon? What if you'd waited for them to finish, so you didn't interrupt their pleasure, and then you all sat and talked about how they should have talked to you beforehand? You could probably come up with more options or scenarios."

"You think I should be more forgiving - to just forget about it?" Liz' tone of voice signaled to me that she had started to seriously think about less severe reactions than the ones she'd had the day before - divorce, murder, inflicting pain.

"I don't think you should forget about it. Not so long ago, I would have responded as you did. Now, I understand there are more options. I've found a sexual side of me that enjoys 'open' relationships; I appreciate that other people may do this too - with others. I'm serious about Crystal Lee, and we both think openly about our relationship even though we're in love. We each know we care for each other, and while we're apart we see others without fear or guilt. Responding with shock and anger just doesn't seem like the right thing to do with anyone you care about."

I changed tack suddenly, "What would your husband say if you told him about the night you've spent with me?"

Liz stammered, "I ... I didn't think ..."

"So, I'm a revenge fuck?" I was on the verge of laughing. She was so easy to tease.

"Oh, no. Well, yes, but ... I didn't mean ... you weren't ..."

"Liz. It's all right. I figured it out. This relationship thing is all about communications - open and honest communication. Now that you know I know the whole situation, and you know you have many more options than you first thought, you have to decide what to do next. I'm open to just about anything to help you through this crisis in your life." I held her hand.

Liz got silent for a long time as she thought about her options. We ate our food with only a few words spoken, and none about the accident, or her husband and friend. She asked me about Crystal some more, and somehow that led me to tell her about our Branson foursome, the photos, Bart Kenesis, being stalked and shot at, and my quandary about how to get rid of the man. I think Liz read between the lines that I probably had something to do with the disappearance of the photos. She wisely didn't ask.

* * * * *

As we left the restaurant, I spotted a local newspaper. Three photographs stood out across the front page: Liz, now identified as the moderator of The Daily Show on KPLD-TV; a photograph of the car upside and burning as firemen sprayed foam on the hulk; and a PR picture of me that I knew Sony Music had distributed. The headline read, 'Country Music Star Rescues TV Star After Deadly Car Crash.' I paid for the paper and took home a souvenir of the previous day. As I scanned the story, I saw that Reuters had picked up the story; that meant it would enjoy worldwide circulation, thus ensuring that Kenesis would find me again. The text mentioned my association with Liz from Portland, and the recently announced, but unpublicized, appearance I would be making in Reno the end of the month for the Children's Telethon.

Craig had encouraged me to reengage the enemy, and confront Kenesis once and for all. I could see that moment moving closer, and I wondered if I would survive ... or if he would survive the encounter. I shook my head, and put thoughts of Kenesis out of my head for at least another day.

After buying the paper, I called the taxi company for a cab to take us back to the inn, but then I had an idea. I asked Liz, "That was a Toyota you were driving, right?" She nodded. "Did you like it enough to replace it if you could, maybe with some better model?" She nodded again.

After our taxi arrived, I had the driver take us to the nearest Toyota dealer instead of back to the inn. During our ride, I asked Liz questions to narrow down the type of car she might like. Ninety minutes later, over Liz's protestations, I'd bought her a new Prius hybrid from the local dealer. Liz jumped around like a kid at Christmas, and promised to pay me back. She explained, "I make good money; I'd be embarrassed under other circumstances. With no ID, cash, checkbook, or anything, I am eternally grateful for your doing this."

We drove back to the inn in the new car in bright sunshine, and Liz pulled me upstairs and proceeded to express her gratitude for my generosity in sexual terms. She assured me she'd be doing the same thing whether or not I'd helped her get the car or whether we'd had the discussion over brunch; the car just made her need to express herself all that more compelling.

After our tryst, while Liz showered and packed, I jogged a few blocks from the inn to a park on the banks of the Columbia River. As I had done in each state I'd been through, I opened and allowed the wind to carry a bit of Karen's ashes into a pretty setting, in this case the majestic river. I'd loved Karen, and acknowledged how disconsolate her dying had made me.

In retrospect over the months since her death, I could see the trajectory of my own healing, not to forget her, but to remember the joys and experiences we shared together without remorse or crying. I closed my thoughts with happiness and gratitude, and jogged back to the inn. I'd explained to Liz the ritual I did in each state. As an empathetic person, she understood.

A check of the weather indicated good riding all the way to Portland. We loaded Liz's things and my gear into the back of her new car, I dressed in my leathers, and we left the inn for Portland.

At one of the rest stops, I called Terry and asked him about making a TV appearance on Liz's show. He enthused over the idea, and reminded me to tout my new album. I also called Crystal and had a brief chat about the accident, rescue, and Liz. Liz listened to my side of the call fascinated with the fact I shared so openly the details of our lovemaking and relationship.

* * * * *

At Liz's home, she found a hidden key so we could get into the house. After unloading, she said, "We'll go out for dinner; I need to talk again. On the drive here, I thought about all the things you've said about jealousy, and alternative responses to what I found John and Ellie doing at our cabin. You really jarred my thinking; I'm feeling like a new person and need to talk about it."

We freshened up. I put on some Dockers and a better shirt, and we went to an intimate Italian restaurant. We ordered our wine and dinner, and then leaned across the table. Liz started in a hushed voice, "When I found John and Ellie fucking, I went into shock. My reaction was betrayal, rage, hate, and revenge - yet I'd loved both of them for years until that instant. I never gave them a chance to explain, although John tried. I just bolted out of the place. They both called - many times, but I never listened to their messages I was so mad and my phone burned up in the car."

I nodded, encouraging her to talk through this ordeal in her life.

Liz reached across the table and patted my hand, "You're a man full of great wisdom. I was ready to divorce John and never speak to Ellie, but you taught me that there are many shades of gray, and many options for how to respond besides my 'worst case.' Now, I have other plans."

"Other plans?" I could tell by her voice that she'd softened on the pair. The vitriol that had been there this morning was gone, replaced with the hint of a smile.

"Yes. Much as I was shocked by what the two of them were doing, it was something I would have loved to have us do - if only we'd talked about it beforehand. Now, I'll listen to them, and I'm ready to forgive them; however, I'm not sure where we go from here."

"Do you trust them?" I figured that would be a core issue for her.

"Not right now; I think they were secretive, and in my book that turned out badly for all of us. If the two of them are willing to be open, we can try to rebuild that trust and our relationships."

"And, what about you? Are you willing to be open?"

"Yes. As you figured out when I told you about John and Ellie, you turned out to be a revenge fuck, but you're also an angel and a sage. I will share with them our relationship, unless you'd rather I do something else, ... but I also hope to share you with them - with Ellie." She had a gleam in her eye that signaled some kind of sexual sharing.

I laughed; "I hope they're ready for the new you."

I handed her my phone and when she hesitated, I urged, "Call John. See where he's at, and tell him to come home and that you want to talk to him. Oh, and have him bring Ellie too." Liz thought for a moment about my suggestion as we drank our wine. We were on the late side, and many of the other patrons who had been near us in the restaurant had left. Liz dialed the number and waited.

I could hear her side of the conversation. "John, this is Liz." "Yes, I'm all right; a bump and a scratch, that's all. I was lucky that Jim Mellon came along when he did ... we've been spending a lot of time together. He's going to be on my show on Wednesday. About the day before yesterday, is Ellie still up there?" "Have you unlocked you car yet?" "Oh" "Sorry, but I reacted with anger." "No, I actually do want you to come home - with Ellie. We three need to talk about the future - I think you'll find my thinking on that subject ... interesting." "Jim is still here - across the table from me; I took him to Salvucci's for dinner, and he encouraged me to call you."

By watching and listening to Liz, I could tell she was building up to telling John something major - probably about us. Sure enough, she dropped the bomb on him: "John, in my anger I did just what you did, and I am embarrassed by the way I reacted. Before I explained the situation to him, Jim and I were intimate. In the meantime, know that he's taught me a lot about relationships, different ways I could look at what happened between you and Ellie, and how I could respond rather than with hate and lawyers. I'm working through this, but we need to talk."

I wondered what John's reaction had been. I suspected it was tempered since he was the protagonist in the precipitating drama. I went on listening to Liz's side of the conversation. "No, I initially saw what you two did in black and white terms. I couldn't believe that you and Ellie were sneaking around and betraying me. Jim reminded me about shades of gray. I'd seen only one option with you - divorce, and one with Ellie - to never see her again. Up until that instant, I loved the two of you more than life itself; Jim brought me back to the point of love so that I now can see options and other possibilities. - that's where I am now, and that's where I want you and Ellie to be - and what I want us to talk about."

I wondered what directions John's questioning would take. After a short pause, Liz said, "I know he'd like to meet you too." After a pause, "Look if the locksmith won't get there until the morning, you won't get back here until tomorrow at dinner. Why don't you and Ellie spend the night together again - without any bitter recriminations from me?" "No, I really mean it." "We'll talk tomorrow night, however." "I probably will too." "Yes, he's super nice; you'll like him and so will Ellie." "We try to keep that part of things low key; he's not at all pretentious."

The waiter brought our meals. Liz winked at me and gestured for me to start without her. She wrapped up her call with John; "John, our dinners just came. You, Ellie, and I have lots of things to discuss about the past, present, and future; hold your list until we're together. Enjoy each other tonight. Drive safely. Don't do what I did. By the way, Jim bought me a new car - a Prius." "No, I'll pay him back; you'll like it." "Yes. I do love you too - and Ellie. See you at dinner tomorrow." She hit the 'End Call' button and handed the phone back to me.

I said, "Listening to one side of your call, I'd say things went well?"

"It did; he says he feel like shit and expected justifiable anger from me. When I mentioned you, I could tell I had just messed his head - plus I told him to sleep with Ellie again and told him I'd probably make love with you again. He's no doubt wondering what happened to the Old Liz." She pulled her chair back from the table, walked to my side, and kissed me. "Thank you. Now, hurry and eat. I want us to go home and make love again."

I called Crystal after we got back to Liz' home, and before we got into the evening's sexual tryst. She told me how the YouTube videos of me rescuing Liz had been on all the gossip TV shows; the longer one had amassed thirty-six million views in he past twenty-four hours. She told me that Ellen and Terry were at her house now, and she had what she called 'pornographic plans' for the rest of the evening with them. She made some lewd suggestions about how I should please Liz, and then we rang off. I loved the way my girlfriend thought.

* * * * *

In the morning, I went with Liz to her TV station for the afternoon show. I met her staff and followed her through a frantic and stress-filled day, right up until the start of the live show. After the show started, Liz did her opening monolog: talking about the accident, how so many people showed heroism and aid on her behalf, and the great treatment she'd received from everyone around Pasco, Washington. She then stood and came down off the stage towards me, talking about heroism above and beyond the call of duty as she did.

When Liz reached me, she gestured for me to rise, and Liz introduced me to the audience, who for the first time suddenly realized who I was. The place broke into pandemonium of cheers, shouting, and applause that went on for several minutes. Liz and I hugged.

As the acclaim died down, Liz thrust a hand mic into my face. She said, "Jim, publicly and personally, I want to thank you for rescuing me. You are my own hero."

I was supposed to say something. My mind went blank, and so I started to say the first thing that came into my head. "I think everyone of us has the same kind of courage and fearlessness in them that I tapped into when I saw your car flip over." I gestured to the studio audience, "There isn't a person here that couldn't have done what I did, and, after the fact, I am pleased that I rescued someone so pretty and as talented as you are."

Everyone in the audience laughed and applauded some more. Liz and I bussed a kiss, and I sat down. Liz went back to her chair, as she walked she talked; "Jim is our featured guest tomorrow, and we even have a surprise for him then. So, be sure and join us for tomorrow's show."

As Liz talked, I imagined Bart Kenesis walking through the concourse of the Portland International Airport, having just gotten off his flights from Nashville. He'd pause and be drawn to the TV monitors in the airport because of all the commotion the audience made over some guest, and then he'd see that I was the guest. He'd smile and snort to himself, that now he again had me in his sights. He could just slide in behind me again, and be on my trail.

* * * * *

We left the station after the show and got back to Liz's home at six o'clock. Two cars were in the driveway, Ellie and John's. We both took deep breaths and walked inside. John was a tall man with angular facial features that resembled photographs of pioneers I'd seen in history books. I'd learned from Liz that he was a partner in a law firm. Ellie was a pleasant looking woman about forty, who seemed so nervous I thought she'd jump out of her skin. As introductions were made, Ellie blushed about the impossible situation we were in. Liz hugged John and Ellie, patting them on the back in a soothing gesture. Their anxiety was palpable.

John turned to me before another word was spoken, "Jim, I don't know how thank you enough for saving Liz's life." He choked up a little. "I watched those YouTube videos over and over - so did Ellie - and we cried about what almost happened. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."

Liz took the initiative to orchestrate our meeting. "John, go get everyone a glass of wine. Jim likes a Chardonnay with ice." While John got the wine, Ellie fidgeted. Liz pulled four comfortable upholstered chairs into a circle in the living room. When her husband returned, we each took our glass and sat.

Liz turned to John and Ellie, who sat opposite her, and asked in a friendly tone, "Do I want to know how long what I saw up north had been going or how it happened"

John spoke clearly although his words sounded slightly rehearsed and definitely defensive, "There's some background, as you know, but I assure you what you saw was the first time we'd had sex or even seriously kissed. You know I'd thought about sex with Ellie for years. Heck, we'd both pretend she was in bed with us when we wanted to spice things up. We were pretty explicit, and that's been going on for a few years." After a pause, John asserted, "Ellie and I never meant to hurt you. If we thought at all, it wasn't past that moment of passion."

Ellie raised a hand slightly out of her lap asking permission to speak. "I had this fantasy of making love with John ... and you, but he was your husband and you are my best friend. I didn't want to do anything to hurt either of you, and nothing to damage your marriage. I love you two. I'm so sorry; it just happened - unplanned." She blushed again and tear ran down her cheek.

Liz absorbed those pieces of information and asked, "Ellie, why were you at our camp two hundred miles from home?"

Ellie and John grimaced. John said, "Your birthday was yesterday, and we wanted to fete our favorite person. Knowing how close you two are, I invited Ellie up to help us celebrate. There was no other agenda."

In tears, Ellie added, "I even brought up a birthday cake I baked. It's in the freezer at your camp now - untouched." I could tell she thought of the cake as some sort of peace offering.

Liz looked chagrined. "I didn't even think anything about it - my birthday, I mean."

John continued, "I'd been fantasizing about Ellie; she'd been fantasizing about me - us. When she arrived, we kissed ... and we kissed again ... and again ... and one thing led to another, and then there you were walking through the bedroom with my car keys - you'd walked right by us as we were ... making love."
Liz said in a brusque manner, "Now, just answer a couple of questions and we'll take this discussion in an interesting direction." Ellie and John nodded somewhat begrudgingly. "Do you love each other? Did you two make love after I left and last night?"

Both of them looked chagrined and avoided eye contact with her. Finally, Ellie's near inaudible voice said, "Yes, and it was beautiful." John nodded.

Liz glanced at me and said, "Jim and I did too - and I thought our fuck was beautiful too." She emphasized the 'f' word to needle her husband, then paused and let that sink in.

John winced. I had the feeling that for the first time, he felt the gut-wrenching feelings that Liz had felt when she found him in bed with Ellie. I felt uncomfortable being 'the other man.' John did look at me and then at Liz puzzled at where she intended to lead us in this discussion.

Liz reached over and took John's hand, "No, don't get jealous on me, after all you started all this." She kissed him. "Here's a 'Truth' with a capital 'T' - I love you, and I want us to be together and to be in love forever." Liz turned to Ellie and held her hand too, "And, you! You're still my best friend, although my nose did get out of joint about things. I don't want to lose you either. I love you too. However, it is essential that we be open, honest, and trust each other. Without that we will not be able to have a lasting relationship." Liz turned to me, "And, Jim, I'm still feeling highly affectionate and attracted to you - so don't you go away."

Liz said, "After my shock at finding you two fucking and my accident, I needed someone to comfort me, and at that moment you two weren't on my favorites' list, so Jim became that person because he gave of himself in a caring way. He's a compassionate person: he talked to me about upbeat things, rode with me in the ambulance, held my hand at the hospital, got us a good room when I'd been released, got me a car, and held me when I needed to be held. I'd been scared shitless about the accident and my marriage. He didn't hit on me once. He was a perfect gentleman."

She paused and added, "BUT, I came onto him, not because he rescued me - although that might have played a role, not because I'd found you fucking each other - although that too may have also played a role, and not because he's a popular singer, but because of his sensitive caring nature. We clicked. We connected. There was immediate chemistry, so I followed through and tried to fuck his brains out. I then discovered what a great lover he is too."

Liz stood, and walked into the center of our circle; we were all seated around her. "We are going to redesign our relationships, right here and right now. No one leaves until we have agreement, whatever that means. All right?"

I nodded automatically, and I think Ellie and John did too.

Liz continued, "This weekend you two unexpectedly created an 'open marriage' for us. We were close, and John and I had even talked about the sexual part of such a relationship in order to arouse each other, but we never talked about how to make it happen or the specifics of one. So, here goes ... I'll start with a principle about how we'll live, and then we discuss it. And Jim, you've been in some of these situations, so I'm hoping you'll be sure we cover all the bases."

After widespread nodding in agreement, Liz stated, "First principle, we can have sex with whomever we want provided that we talk about it ahead of time. The second principle is that any of us can make love any time we want to with anyone else in this circle - a 'free pass'." Liz made a gesture of a circle that included the four of us in the room.

Ellie looked surprised. John looked stunned at the implications of her statement. He glanced at Ellie to judge her reaction. Ellie said shyly, "I like those rules ... and I'm honored to be included in your circle." Then Ellie looked at me and said, "I'm attracted to Jim; I can feel his chemistry and I know what you felt. What if I want to sleep with him too?"

Liz grinned, "You have my blessing. He's very good, and you'll love him!" I laughed.

John said after reflecting, "I guess those rules are more than all right with me too. Are you sure?"

I posited, "What if one of you wants group sex, a threesome or foursome or moresome?"

Liz smiled and addressed both questions: John, yes, I'm sure. As for group sex, that's the best suggestion I've heard all day. Ellie, I put you on notice that I'm going to hit on you, and we are going to have some serious sapphic loving." Liz had just appealed to Ellie's prurient interests.

John's eyes got big as he took in his wife's last statement.

We looked at Ellie. She blushed, and said in a hushed but excited voice, "I'd love to try group sex ... I can't wait ... and I'd love to be with you Liz. I've dreamed about it."

The discussion of further principles got temporarily postponed as the four of us moved onto other, more sensual activities.

* * * * *

Liz led us to the master bedroom and the king-size bed. Liz asked me to 'orchestrate' the event so everyone got maximum benefit of each other. I could tell she wanted time with me and John. I slowly disrobed Liz and Ellie, carefully removing each piece of her clothing. I kissed and romanced each woman with lots of attention. When the girls were nude, they stripped me, and then did John. I found Ellie's erogenous zones by experimenting, while John made out with his wife. I had us change partners and repeat our kisses and strokes. I went down on Liz, suggesting that John mirror our ardor with Ellie. We then changed partners again.

Ellie enjoyed the first orgasm, and then a second, before Liz joined her. We switched a few times to everyone's pleasure. Eventually, Ellie said to me, "God, please fuck me. Put that cock deep inside me ... and cum in me too."

With those words, I started to slowly enter her body, rocking my hips to only advance my penetration of her quim a fraction of an inch or less on each forward thrust. Ellie came before I got totally embedded in her pussy. I reached between us and rubbed Ellie's clit. She came again just as I bottomed out in her cunt, emitting a long, low moan of pleasure.

John and Liz coupled, and he plowed into her cunt with great abandon. Ellie and I both heard the happy exchange of crude names and pleas between them. They talked about the two of us, and our erotic performance. I called for a switch, and I jerked my cock from Ellie's hole, almost with a champagne pop. John slowly withdrew from Liz. The two women lay side by side as John and I switched places. In unison, and to the tune of the simultaneous sighs and moans from both women, John and I slowly sank our rods into our new fuck partners.

I watched Liz watching her husband penetrate her best friend. I asked in a near whisper, "What do you think about that?"

Liz watched until John bottomed out in Ellie's cunt, and said to me, "That is positively the hottest thing I have ever seen. I can't believe how hot I am watching my husband fuck my best friend."

After five minutes, John came, bringing Ellie with him. I'd moved Liz to that place where the stimulation we shared kept triggering orgasms in her. After a few minutes in more or less the missionary position, I asked Liz if she wanted to switch or have me doggy her from behind.

Liz said in a husky voice, "Neither. I want Ellie to sit on my face." Ellie looked surprised at the request, but moved to comply with a grin. As I continued to fuck Liz, Ellie straddled Liz's head, and Liz began to eat out her best friend, no doubt searching for her husband's residual cum. Occasionally, as the women writhed and moved in front of me. I could see Liz's tongue flailing with great delight in her best friend's slit. I reached down and added a helping finger against Ellie's clit.

I had the women switch several times, rotating between my cock and each other's tongues. We went on for over half an hour, working up a sweat, and amusing John who lay spent beside us, but fondling his cock and often sharing in the kisses from the women.

Ellie came. Liz came. I came too, but only after assuring everyone else had reached some state of bliss far beyond normal lovemaking. I wanted both women to feel the edge of a spiritual sexual experience.

* * * * *

The next morning when I went outside to check on the motorcycle I'd parked beside Liz's home so she could put her new car in the garage. Someone had put a bullet through the front tire from side to side, the slug leaving a small crater in the adjacent concrete of the home's foundation. Kenesis had found me, and he had a gun. I stomped around the yard cursing as I thought about what to do now. I now felt that I had a flashing target painted on my back.

We were rushed to leave the home for Liz's office, so on the way I called a local Harley dealer, explained the problem and asked for them to pick up the bike, replace the tire - again, and return the bike. I gave him my credit card information too. The guy I talked to knew about my road trip and loved country music, so he was more than happy to help out. I also called Mils and explained that the threat I felt had ratcheted up a notch overnight. Liz gave me a worried look at the end of my calls.

My sitting in on the pre-show briefing intrigued Liz's aides. She'd never done this before, and so I was a big bonus for the show. Liz anointed me her 'Co-host For the Day.' An aide gave a set of questions for Liz to use when she interviewed me, and when I scanned the questions I found all within my sense of propriety: how I got started in music, what I thought of my newfound fame, what Crystal was like, and what music I'd done and expected to do in the future.

I'd also volunteered to sing two songs on her show: 'Texas Dawn' and 'The Wolf on Lone Wolf Mountain.' The first was a big hit, and the second had made the top ten. I got a 'chance before the show to rehearse each song once with the studio band, a group that had been augmented with a western guitar to complement my singing.

The show started with Liz coming out to gales of applause from the audience of about two hundred that sat in tiered rows in front of the stage. Liz announced me as her special Co-host for the Day, and I came out to a standing ovation. Liz and I kissed, and I decided to ham it up, so as we went to buss, I hugged her, and did a dip with her, giving her a serious kiss in the process. The audience went wild and 'ooued' and 'aaahed.'

Liz laughed, and after we sat down, she noted that she hadn't been kissed like that in quite a while. I recalled waking up with her that morning and sharing a similar kiss, except we didn't have any clothes on. A nude Ellie also received a similar kiss. We bantered back and forth, in part talking about Liz's accident, current events, and in part talking around some of the questions I'd been primed for. After a commercial break, I sang my first song with the studio band. Liz then started a dialog with me about relationships, explaining to her viewers that I'd been married, had lost my wife eight months earlier, and had 'just started dating' after rebuilding my life. I didn't correct her error about my dating.

Liz asked, "Jim, what do you see now that you're back on the dating circuit? What kind of relationship are you looking for?" The question was a natural now that I was a hunky, country western singer.

I thought for a moment then responded, "For me, there are two extremes in relationships, and many shades in between. In the first group, people hold rigid views about relationships, views they get from their culture, family, or religion. Sex is for procreation, and perhaps for a little satisfaction. Relationships are man-woman only, and must last a lifetime with unquestioned fidelity and no experimentation. These are often male dominated, lack true partnership, involve little flexibility in marital roles, and often exemplify jealousy and lack of trust in one another. They are static and unchanging, because change is feared by the partners."

As I talked I noted that a hush had come over the studio audience.

I went on, "At the other end of the spectrum, individuals are apt to find they can love and be loved by more than one person. They enjoy equality in their relationships, fluidity in roles, open and honest communication, trust, a strong sense of personal identity, and a world of near unlimited possibilities. They feel fortunate and creative. These relationships involve interesting combinations of people in loving relationships that often transcend a 'normal' 'man-woman and two-point-three children.' They transcend jealousy, and instead thrive on the happiness, joy, and bliss for their partners. This is the kind of relationship I seek."

Liz bore in; "What about sex in the second group?"

"For me, it's an integral part of any deep relationship, and to your question about my dating preferences, I want women that think more like the second group of people. I like smart, creative, talented, pretty women with a sense of humor and a tolerance for someone like me and my crazy views on the world."

Liz laughed and said, "Why that describes me perfectly." The audience roared with laughter. As the show went on, Liz got me in an apron cooking a fancy omelet for the cooking segment with a pretty chef from a nearby restaurant. Later, I had to do some stretching exercises with a yoga instructor. She had a sommelier on the show talking about wines made from grapes grown in Oregon, so we sampled some different vintages and commented on them.

In another show segment, Liz told the audience that we'd been talking before the show, and that I'd mentioned the interplay between sex and spirituality. She turned to me, "So, could you elaborate on how you see these two themes in your life, or in the lives of others?"

I answered, "Wow! A tall order, unless you have all day. I'll try. Great sex - sex beyond the normal 'let's get together' - can be a unity of mind, body, and spirit for the lovers. Sure, lust can be there too, but beneath the sweat and passion is this underlying trinity. It's best when the loving parties share this philosophy because it sets the stage for great lovemaking and it kicks the relationship to a much higher, more romantic, and more satisfying level. Sometimes, I know I'm the one with that philosophy, and I allow it to spread into my partner until I know they can feel it too. You take sex and love to this new level when you achieve this state of thinking. It allows a man to last indefinitely and control his orgasms in a way so he gives many more than he gets."

As I spoke I could see a slight smile on Liz's face. I imagined she was recalling one of our one or two hour lovemaking sessions. She asked, "You mean you can make love without stopping or ending the session after only a few minutes." Everyone in the audience leaned forward to hear my reply.

"Exactly. I think any man could learn to do this, and ... errr, deliver an unbelievable number of orgasms to his partner in the process before he has to finish."

With a laugh and look of amazement, Liz turned to the audience of mostly women, "Does Jim's philosophy and capability appeal to any of you out there?" The studio audience cheered, some women even standing and shouting out 'Call me!' and yelling out their phone numbers. The moment made the entire studio audience and staff laugh too.

After a commercial break, Liz said she had a surprise for me, but asked me to first sing 'Texas Dawn' for them. I'd borrowed a guitar from one of the band members, and I went to a smaller stage to the side of Liz's studio desk. I ignored a large video screen in a corner of the set, figuring it had been left in that position to lend an air of informality to the studio set.

As I sang the first couple of lines of the song, the screen lit up suddenly and Crystal appeared with her guitar in a TV studio back in Tennessee. She sang the next line of the song, and I had a grin on my face from ear to ear as we blended our voices together. We did the whole song with an extra chorus, and then ended to a big round of applause.

As the applause died down, Crystal smiled and said, "Hi Darling. I miss you."

I responded, "Hi Love. You are a delight and a sight for sore eyes. This is a surprise. I miss you too." We bantered a little. Liz came and joined me on stage to thank Crystal for being part of my surprise. As we ended the segment, I knew we had to say goodbye to Crystal. We'd talked after dinner the night before, and I knew she had a mall appearance that evening in Memphis.

Crystal's parting words were, "Now, you be extra nice to Liz and everyone there. See you in Reno." I hoped that Liz and I were the only ones that recognized the sexual innuendo of her comment, but given what had been written about us in the tabloids I doubted my assumption.

* * * * *

Liz and I arrived home just as the Harley dealer delivered my motorcycle from the repair of the tire and few other minor things. I parked it in Liz's garage overnight, hoping that Kenesis wouldn't vandalize her new Prius in the driveway. In the morning, the Prius was fine, but I still checked over my motorcycle so I knew for sure no one had tampered with it or put a tracking device on it. I'd started to evolve a plan about how to solve the situation with this man.

I left Portland very early after only few hours sleep thanks to Liz, Ellie and John. I left early so that Kenesis wouldn't have a chance to start following me, and took back roads south to Eugene and then east towards Boise.

At a magnificent gorge with a raging river cascading through it I stopped and meditated, letting the roaring sound of the water absorb my focus. After my time of silence, I took one of the last envelopes of Karen's ashes from my saddlebag and sprinkled the dust into the misty swirls rising from the deep water-carved canyon. Karen had loved waterfalls, and when we drove somewhere, she'd always have done her homework and knew where they were located near our route; we'd have to stop so she could see the cascade, even if she'd seen the same one a dozen times before. I missed Karen.

Chapter 29

Arizona

I took five days to travel from Liz's home outside Portland to Sedona, Arizona. The weather cooperated and I camped out two of those nights without terribly cold temperatures. When I'd left New Mexico, I'd promised Tama I'd meet her in Sedona. She'd explained to me about the vortices of Sedona, and how they imbue people with unusual strength, guidance, and protection - qualities I'd need for the rest of my life. Tama also had shamanic skills that she promised to unleash on me in Sedona, adding to the transformation she promised during my visit there.

I had several phone calls with Tama synchronizing our arrival times and hotel, and also getting Crystal to join us. Tama was over the moon that she'd get to meet Crystal and that we could share some intimate time together.

Crystal was excited at the prospect of the mystical experiences that Tama promised. Crystal also was excited about meeting 'my Indian lady friend' and she promised to make our time together interesting. I suspected that Crystal would be the one surprised by events in Sedona.

I asked Crystal if she'd ride the motorcycle with me from Sedona to Reno where we would be doing the Children's Fund Telethon. She came back laughing, "YES. I want to be with you on the ride to Reno providing you drive me through the Las Vegas strip at night on the motorcycle. I've never been to Vegas, and I've always wanted to see it at night with all the lights."

Crystal then said something that ultimately shocked me. "By the way, Terry knew we were going to talk, and he gave me a message for you." Terry was more than just our agent; he'd become a close and trusted friend.
"What's the message?" I asked casually.

"He said to tell you he hired a money manager for you. His name's Carl Hansen, and I use him too; he's saved me a lot in taxes and all. I think I've mentioned him in the past. He wants you to call him tomorrow. I'll text you his phone number so you'll have it."

"That's good. Do I really need one?" I had created a joint account with Terry for my professional funds, and had coupled it to my older personal checking and savings accounts."

Crystal persisted, "Terry thinks you need one now, before the end of the year so there's time to reduce your taxes and try to make things you want happen, for instance, donating some money to the upcoming Children's Fund Telethon. Terry suggests that you add Carl to your bank accounts, but you will need to authorize that to make it happen. Carl has had some good investment ideas for my money, so I am sure he can help you invest yours too."

"Why? What's the rush?"

"Well, the end of the year is coming, and you should do something to avoid some of the taxes you'd have to pay."

I asked, "How much is involved?" I couldn't see any big rush to save a couple of hundred dollars. I thought I might wait until I got to San Diego to honor Terry's request.

Crystal said, "Well, Terry told me today he just put another five million in your bank account."

After a very long silence, Crystal spoke in a confused tone, "Jim? Jim, are you still there?"

I spoke slowly, my brain barely in gear, "Five million what?" The number was so big, and it came at me so suddenly, I clutched.

"Dollars, Silly."

"And ... you ... said ... another five million?"

Crystal went 'tsk,' "Jim, I don't know how many deposits he's made into your account, but it's been at least two or three - maybe more. This is probably the largest, plus I think he only told me about this one because I got the almost the same amount for similar reasons - the royalties for the second and third quarters from our song Texas Dawn and a few other things."

"Why so much money?" I stammered out in a near panic. My heart had started to race. I felt like I'd won the lottery, but then realized that a mistake must have been made and someone would eventually want their money back. I said to Crystal before she could answer, "Crystal, there's got to be some mistake. Someone moved a decimal point or something."

Crystal adopted a tone as though she was being patient with a three-year old, "Darling, I've got to teach you the economics of the music industry. You are making money from all the plays on the radio of Texas Dawn plus the other songs you did, or we did together, plus there are your single and album sales - for instance on iTunes or Amazon; there were further proceeds from the three concerts - you do remember that you never got paid until now for the Dallas Cowboys halftime concert we did? Oh, and you get extra loot for that song you wrote that's still in the top ten, The Wolf on Lone Wolf Mountain. You sold the rights on that to Sony for a pretty penny."

I couldn't talk for a moment. I gradually squeaked out, "Do you know my bank account balance?" My knees were weak; I plopped down on the side of the bed.

Crystal said, "No, but based on what's been going on, it's probably over ten million dollars. Hey, you had two single hits in the top ten and three more in the top forty since your album came out - all this year, and your album has been a best seller since it came out. By the way Texas Dawn went double platinum last week. That's exceptional, especially for a beginner. This does pay well. Terry calls it the law of large numbers."

"What's that mean?" I muttered, still in disbelief about what Crystal was telling me.

"Well on each sale of your album on iTunes you make about a dollar, maybe more. The rest of that ten bucks goes to others, like Sony. The law of large numbers comes into play: if a million people download your album you just made a million dollars. Based on what I overheard Terry tell my sister, you've sold more than ten million albums on iTunes alone. I suspect Sony may even give you a bonus payment too, if they haven't already. Terry will have to tell you."

I fell backwards on the bed. I'd had good news before, however, this topped anything anyone had ever told me - ever.

I was speechless.

Crystal spoke, "Look talk to Carl, and get your hands around your finances. I'll text you his name and number so you can call him. He'll make some tax havens for some of your loot. I'm doing the same thing. As the saying goes, it's not evasion, it's avoidance ...but be sure to call him tomorrow. He's good and I trust him."

I numbly said, "OK." I guessed that my simple checking and savings accounts must be overflowing with money - most of it at very low interest rates. The bank must love me.

She went on, "I've got to go. Ellen is waiting for me to drive her downtown. We're meeting some girlfriends for dinner." After a pause, she added, "I've been thinking as we talked that I'll hire a jet to take me direct to Sedona, so I'll end up at the general aviation terminal there. I'll text you my arrival time. Given the distance, it'll probably be a four-hour trip."

I mumbled, "OK" again. Crystal laughed. She so enjoyed shaking me off my even keel.

We ended the call with words of love, and then I sat up and grabbed my laptop from my saddlebag. A few minutes later, I logged into my bank accounts for the first time in a couple of months; I seldom went there as I had no bills to pay now that I'd become a motorcycle-riding vagabond. I used my credit card a lot, but I'd set up for the monthly bill to be paid automatically from my over-funded checking account. Occasionally, I used an ATM to get some cash.

My jaw dropped open; I had nearly fourteen million dollars in my money market account. My original savings account remained untouched from when I last left it, except for some accrued interest - a measly ninety-thousand dollars, my share of the sale of my parent's home months earlier. My personal checking account showed a balance of about a hundred thousand dollars, most of that money from the Kentucky and Indiana concerts months earlier and an advance that Terry had given me for Texas Dawn. This was what I'd been living on as I meandered across the country.

I thought, 'Fourteen million dollars!" My brain nearly exploded with possibilities. I think I sat for an hour as the wheels spun in my head.

I called Anna next. I didn't want to tell her what I'd just learned. I wanted to surprise her in some way - to rock her world in a nice way. As we talked, and I caught up with how she was managing with my niece and nephew; I asked what bank carried her mortgage and what she used. I asked the question in the context of wanting to change my own banking accounts when I got to her house so I had something close by to her home. She didn't get suspicious at my inquiry. I also told Anna about the Children's Telethon in Reno the following week. I also told her Crystal was going to join me in Sedona. Anna and Crystal had not met, but I'd told each of them so much about the other; I think they both felt as though they'd been lifelong friends.

Anna asked about Lauren. I felt remiss since I hadn't called her in over a week. I said to Anna, "I haven't talked to her, but every few days you know I send her an email - like the ones I send you; she asked for them when we first got together back in May."

A long silence ensured, and I held my breath waiting for Anna to start hitting me over the head for sending her lurid descriptions of my sexual encounters during my road trip. I heard her take a deep breath, and she said in a low and shy voice, "Don't stop sending them to me. I like them too."

Anna's words electrified my mind almost like the discovery of my new wealth. She liked the sexy emails I'd been sending, and she wasn't mad at me. Her remark made the rest of our conversation go by in a blur. I didn't hear anything other than 'don't stop.'

Anna was a pretty woman, tall and willowy just like our mother had been. Anna had gone to college on the west coast, stayed out there, married shortly after graduation, popped out two children in her marriage, divorced, and created a circle of friends and a fulfilling job that helped a lot of people and that made her want to stay in San Diego.

Anna's words about the sexy emails, 'Don't stop ... I like them too,' rolled around in my head the rest of the evening - along with discovering my money. Wow, nothing like blowing a traditional brother-sister relationship out of the water. My mind started to do the jumps I'd fretted about, think about how much I wanted a physical relationship - a deep romantic relationship - with my sister.

* * * * *

The next morning, before I got on the road, I did an intense workout, running eight miles, doing a half hour of wind sprints up and down a hill near the motel, and then doing five rotations through every piece of exercise equipment in the motel gym. With my body then more aware, I sat and meditated for twenty minutes, trying to quiet the many thoughts racing through my mind. Eventually, I gave up. Between learning about the fourteen million dollars and my sister's words, my head was scrambled for the day.

I thought about the rabid photographer who had decided to stalk me, and if he couldn't find me, Crystal. As I headed south to Sedona, I stopped and called Craig in Idaho again. After finding out that Julia was still staying with him and that he was frequently 'fucked out,' I started talking about Kenesis and what we might do in Reno where I felt sure he'd pick me up again. I also discussed Mils' comments about using 'fear' to get to the man - some way to make him so scared he'd never come near us again. Craig had some good ideas, and I gave him Mils' phone number and suggested he call.

After we hung up, I called Mils' and left a message for her to expect a call from Craig. I told her she could share anything with him, and that we also needed some ideas from her. I shook my head and resolved to put Kenesis out of my head the whole time I was in Sedona. When I'd been on TV in Oregon, I'd purposely given some misleading information about my travel plans, avoiding mention of Sedona and instead emphasizing the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, and Las Vegas, plus emphasized being in Reno for the Children's Telethon, even mentioning which casino-hotel I thought I'd be staying at.

Then I called Carl Hansen, my new money manager. We talked for over an hour. As part of our conversation, I arranged for my sister's mortgage to be paid in full, and for one-million dollars to be transferred from my account to hers; I'd cover the gift taxes. I didn't plan to tell Anna about her newfound wealth. She would get a letter in a day or so informing her that her mortgage had been paid in full; when she got her bank statement, she'd find out about the other funds in her account. Carl also helped me set up '529' accounts for the college education of my nephew, niece, and my yet to be born son with Summer Ellis.

While I was eating lunch, Crystal texted me that she expected her plane to land about five o'clock at Sedona. I used some apps on my iPhone and figured out that I could spend about two additional hours of 'tourist' time before I would have to head to the airport to pick her up. Thus, I started to fill my cell with scenic pictures as I rolled south and took some excursions off my route to see some interesting geological formation or vista north of Sedona. Later, I'd upload them to my computer.

Along the part of U.S. 89 that was straight and flat, I thought of what this area had been like a hundred-and-fifty years earlier. I'd be riding my trusty horse instead of my bike across this part of Arizona. Perhaps this had been an old wagon trail or maybe even a buffalo trail.

* * * * *

I got to the Sedona airport a little early. I hung around the airport, but I did notice tourist signs for the 'Airport Vortex.' I'd learned from Tama that Sedona is home to four energy vortices that fill the area with strong and positive spiritual energy. The surrounding hills were magnificent, and I did feel a new inner strength.

At five-twenty an all-white, streamlined corporate jet overflew the airport at a low altitude and circled to land. The last rays of the sun glinted off the wings as the jet turned downwind. I rode my motorcycle to the airport parking area, and watched as the jet made the last wide sweeping turn onto the final approach from about eight miles out. Around me in the distance were the magnificent eroded rocks and mesas with their sandy reds fading as the sunlight disappeared.

I stopped outside a low fence next to Red Rock Aviation, and watched the sleek Grumman Gulfstream flair for its landing on runway three. Puffs of smoke rose from each tire as the jet touched down, and then the reverse thrusters brought the jet to a smooth stop near the far end of the runway. The jet turned and taxied back in my direction. I liked the jet; I wondered how much one cost. I realized that with all that money in my bank account, I might be able to buy a jet like this one. From bike to jet! I liked that thought.

The jet made me think of Kim Hume. I missed Kim, and had only traded emails with her for the past month or two. I must find a way to talk to her soon. She was a pilot and flew jets like the little number that Crystal had chartered. Maybe we could see each other soon. I knew Crystal wouldn't mind, particularly if I could get the two of them together. Maybe Ellen too.

After parking right in front of me, the stairway from the jet unfolded to the ground, and Crystal bounded down the stairs in her western boots, jeans, and a tight checkered shirt unbuttoned nearly all the way down to her navel. I'm sure she kept the flight crew amused. I liked that she had an exhibitionist streak in her. I'd never articulated that thought before, but it was accurate.

I hopped the low fence, and caught her as she flew into my arms with a flurry of kisses and a not so subtle grinding of her hips into mine. I got hard immediately.

"I've missed you so," she kept saying repeatedly. I agreed. We kept kissing each other, and instantly reconnected on many levels.

A dashing young man looking every bit the pilot with aviator sunglasses came down the stairway a few minutes later. He brought two small duffle bags and her jacket over to us. "Miss Lee, where would you like these?"

I volunteered, "Over here; they're going with us on the motorcycle."

Behind me near the fence, the Harley sat already piled high with my various bags and the travel guitar. I'd found time to practice almost every day, a must for my country music career. The pilot looked puzzled about where I'd put her two bags; however, he handed them over to me, bid Crystal goodbye, told her he hoped to be of service again in the future, and then strode off to check-in his aircraft with the airport manager and probably get refueled.

Crystal and I walked around the fence to my bike, and I strapped her bags on the front with my supply of bungee cords. I gave her a helmet to wear, and we motored downhill to our hotel - The Lodge at Sedona, an ultra-high end resort and spa designed to pamper their guests, at least that was what I'd been told a few days earlier when I read about the reservations for the three of us. The building and service didn't disappoint from the time we walked in the door.

As Crystal removed her helmet and shook out her long hair, I went to the front desk to check-in and was told that Tama had already arrived. I did the rest of the paperwork to make the Lodge happy, and then a young man working there appeared with a luggage cart. He seemed surprised when I led him outside to my overladen Harley. We unloaded everything onto his cart, I moved the motorcycle to a protected area, and then followed him up to our suite.

* * * * *

We found Tama in one corner of the living room soaking in a large whirlpool tub and spa surrounded by soapsuds. She waved hello and smiled warmly at us and at the bellhop who politely tried to ignore her obviously naked status, although Tama didn't seem bothered at all. I tipped him well after he unloaded his cart, and we shut the door behind him. Between Crystal and Tama his eyes were rolling around in his head.

When I turned back to Tama, she'd already gotten from the tub and wrapped a large towel around herself. She came up to us, "You must be Crystal. I've wanted to meet you for weeks, ever since Jim told me about you and the relationship you two have. I feel I've known you for a long time, and through Jim, I know we think alike."

The two women kissed on each cheek, and almost as an afterthought they kissed a little more slowly on the lips, almost as if each woman were testing the other to see how far she'd go. After they parted, Tama came into my arms and we kissed. Somehow my hands found her magnificent ass, and I held her and pushed our hips together. She gave me an extra nice smile and another hot kiss. Crystal looked on in amusement.

Tama turned away from us with a half smile and said, "I thought we'd go out for dinner. There's a great place for supper near here called Elote Café. The name sounds better in English than Spanish - it means corn cob, but the food is excellent, and there are no old corn cobs around." She gave her delightful laugh that helped us all relax as she and Crystal got to know each other.

Tama turned to get dressed. The towel around Tama got tossed on the bed revealing her spectacular nude body to Crystal and me. She had beautiful reddish-brown skin unmistakably Native American. Moreover, unlike many of her relatives, she was trim except for full and natural erect breasts that showed her excitement at our arrival.

Tama rummaged in a small suitcase, pulled out a dress, and slipped into a bright western motif dress without bothering with a bra or thong. Even in the remaining light coming in the window I could see the shape of her entire body and lush pubic hair through the thin fabric as if she were nude. This would be an exciting evening.

Almost as though she read my mind, Tama caught my eye, "Unless I'm backlit, nothing shows, so stop leering at me. We can play later, if Crystal doesn't mind." She winked at the two of us.

Quick as a flash, Crystal said, "Oh, Crystal doesn't mind a bit. Crystal wants to play too ... and if I may say so, you are truly beautiful ... very beautiful." I didn't think I'd be able to see Tama blush because of her dark skin, but I was wrong.

Crystal and I cleaned up a little; each of us refreshed after our travels. We left the Lodge and Tama drove us to the restaurant. The owner-cook recognized Tama immediately, and the two hugged in recognition, laughing about how long it had been since she'd been there.

We shared a deep conversation over dinner. After the 'small talk,' we talked about our concepts of spirituality and life purpose - not small topics, yet one that revealed much about ourselves to the others. When it came to those topics, I wondered how many people had actually self-analyzed what they believe in, and whether it made sense and was credible. Tama emphasized that this self-knowledge would be important to us over the next few days in Sedona.

After our long, leisurely dinner, we drove back to the Lodge at Sedona. Crystal announced that she wanted to try the whirlpool tub, and so she stripped her clothes away, and ran the tub water. A minute later, she slid into the warm water with a huge sigh.

As Crystal soaked, Tama and I sat nearby on the sofa making out and petting in between segments of conversation. I'd been stroking her breasts through the thin dress, enjoying the tactile sensation of her erect nipples on my hands. When Crystal got out of the tub, she wrapped a towel around herself. Tama stood to face Crystal with a coy smile.
Without further prelude, the two women kissed, lingering longer and longer on each subsequent kiss. In the process, Crystal's bath towel came undone, and slid down her body to the floor. Tama immediately took advantage of her nakedness, and started to pinch and massage one of Crystal's white breasts.

The kisses became French kisses with lots of tongue, the two sharing their new lust for each other equally it seemed. Crystal unbuttoned Tama's dress in record time, and soon Tama's dress slid down her body to the floor as well enabling the pair to fully explore with new passion.

I found the contrast between Tama's dark skin and Crystal's whiteness startling and arousing in so many ways. I made a note to suggest to Brite, my photographer friend, that she do some erotic photos of the two women. They were spectacular together. Tama's nipples were a chocolate brown to Crystal's pinker hues. Tama carried an untrimmed bush of dark pubic hair, and Crystal maintained a manicured landscape with only a small 'landing strip.' Both women had long hair below their shoulders: Tama's luxurious black so prevalent among the tribes, and Crystal glowing brunette tresses.

The women ground their hips into one another for a minute, before pulling apart slightly so they could reach each other's slit and start to excite the other even further. I moved off to the side, dimming a couple of the harsher lights in the room. If this is what two women I cherished wanted, I wanted to provide a suitable setting.

I heard Tama utter, "Sofa." She directed Crystal to the sofa and had her lie back, so she could bring her mouth to Crystal's pussy.

I stood in the dark shadows a few feet away, marveling at the beauty and the love before me. I watched as Crystal surrendered to Tama's tongue, fingers, and even her hand as she got fisted by her new lover. Crystal flooded the locale with girl juice, and then I could see her crest in both excitement and orgasmic pleasure. After about ten minutes, and several peak experiences, Crystal pleaded with Tama to stop and let her recover her senses. Tama leaned back away from the soggy pussy she'd created.

Crystal sat up, and kissed Tama. "Now it's your turn. I want to taste you in the worst way. I've been eagerly awaiting this for a long time, ever since Jim told me about you." Now, she became the aggressor, pushing Tama back and smoothing her body all over.

Crystal told Tama, "You have such beautiful breasts - and your skin is so lovely, and I love its color." But, any further words were withheld as she lowered her mouth to Tama's moist pussy with her tongue extended. First contact appeared to be Crystal's tongue directly on Tama's clitoris. Tama's whole body jerked and spasmed at the sexual touch. "My God," she whispered. Crystal's entire face disappeared as she munched into the mat of pubic hair; she brought a hand up and thrust three fingers into Tama's cunt, twisting and vibrating them to excite.

And excite Tama she did. Tama writhed and rolled from side to side beneath Crystal as she repeatedly had her small orgasms. Crystal looked up at me at one point, the area around her mouth and chin covered with saliva and pussy juice, gave me a smile of satisfaction, and dove back into Tama's quim.

As the sapphic pair met and pleasured themselves, I had stripped away my own clothing and remained in the shadows slowly stroking my shaft to granite hardness as I enjoyed the erotic show Tama and Crystal put on. After many minutes of pleasure, Crystal looked up at me and said in a sexy way, "It's about time we had a male cock in here," she pointed at Tama's pussy; "or in here," and she pointed at her own cunt.

I slid up behind Crystal, rubbed my shaft around her twat, and slowly entered her. I heard a long, low, satisfied sigh come from her as I started to pump into her. I reached around her with one hand, found a breast, and further excited her already erect nipples.

After a few minutes, Crystal rose from her kneeling position and pulled away from me; "It's time for you to fuck Tama too - I want to watch." She grabbed my shaft, briefly popped the entire rod into her mouth, and then led it - and me - to Tama's gapping hole.

Tama reached up with her arms and pulled me to her, her mouth alive with kisses and oral excitement on whatever body part I brought near her. She sucked on my middle finger at one point, as my cock pistoned in and out of her body. Crystal's head was right there next to our coupling, watching with lust and approval as I now brought pleasure to Tama.

I warned of my impending cum. Tama said, "Not in me. Crystal and you should share these love fluids."

Crystal lay back in an overstuffed chair next to the sofa we'd been using as our base. I sank my cock into her gorgeous vagina, rubbing her clit as I did. Two minutes later, I blasted my cum into Crystal just as she crested in her own orgasm. For a minute of pleasure, we froze in position as my body surged my ejaculate into her. The rest of our bodies were lost in the overwhelming feelings of pleasure.

After we parted, Tama carefully maneuvered in front of Crystal, encouraging her to pull her legs up. She went down on Crystal lapping at the semen so obviously flowing from her vagina. Crystal closed her eyes and entered another sphere of joy.

* * * * *

Tama held our hands as we walked along an open space on the way to the Cathedral Rock Vortex, the first she'd decided to take us to that morning. "Sedona is special, but no one is sure why. Special energy rises from Mother Earth here." She pointed at a juniper tree twisted axially along its upward growth. "Many trees near each vortex prove the presence of the vortices by their helical spirals of the trunk and branches. Many people with unusual sensitivity feel the particular power of the vortices, and can tell which parts of their own energy centers resonate with it."

"Do you feel them?" Crystal asked.

Tama paused and looked at us both, "Yes. My sensitivity to forces such as these is one of the reasons my tribe anointed me a shaman. Not only that, but I can share my sensitivity with others, bringing to them the same special benefits of the vortices that I receive." She smiled at us.

We walked along a small stream that drew near what Tama identified as Cathedral Rock. Tama stopped and had the three of us hold hands in a small circle. "Close your eyes. Feel in your inner most soul that your feminine powers for good are augmented. Your power to feel and exhibit compassion, kindness, patience, and love is growing to a level far greater than what you brought here. You can be as a mother to many others, particularly when you see the good consequences of the acts about to be performed."

As she talked, I could feel something inside me expanding with these positive emotions for good. I allowed myself to center and focus on these new feelings, even meditating as we stood. After a short time, I felt Tama let go of my hand.

I opened my eyes.

Tama spoke softly, "Jim, you are gifted. You allowed the energy of vortex to flow in your body without restriction. You were lost to it for over five minutes. I've never seen anyone do that other than other shamans. Maybe you have 'the gift.' Maybe you should be a shaman."

I told her, "I am honored by your comments, but the capabilities of a shaman are far beyond anything I can do or even think about. I felt the things you spoke of deeply. I felt ... profound." I turned and looked at Crystal; she smiled and nodded indicating that she too had been enriched by the experience.

Tama next drove us in her car to a place near the airport - a place I'd seen the day before. At the base of a small hill, she turned and led us upward past more twisted trees. The view of Sedona was magnificent.

"Please form our circle again," Tama said in a low voice. Some tourists were near us at this vortex. As they moved away, Tama spoke, "This vortex is about the masculine side of your spirit. You become more of a leader, take charge of your own life, are more self-confident, and cannot be intimidated. You know when and how to be decisive. You see the reality of things, as others often cannot. This vortex is not about ego, it is about being a caring father to all."

Again, I felt my body swept away into a meditation and simultaneously, I felt like a weak battery suddenly infused with a new charge. I could feel good things happening in my body and in my spirit.

When our circle broke from holding hands, Tama asked, "You did it again, didn't you?"

"Did what?"

"You went deep into the vortex. You absorbed every positive erg of spiritual energy this vortex had to give you."

Crystal said in a low voice, "Me too."

Tama nodded as though she already knew. She said, "I have brought many people to these places, but none have ... acquired the connection with the vortices the way you both have. You are both phenomenal. Crystal, this time I could feel you embrace all there was to have too."

The next stop on our tour took us to Boynton Canyon, and a knoll near the top. Before Tama could introduce things, Crystal spread her arms, and turned counterclockwise. She said, "I feel so together in this place."

Tama said softly, "You should. This vortex provides the balance in your life of the yin and yang, of the masculine and feminine powers you have. Your emotions come into balance, and because you have stood here, your relationships are strengthened, and you become the paragon of openness, honesty, intimacy, and commitment."

I felt the power of what she said flow through me. I opened my eyes and found myself looking at Crystal. She had become the one to couple deeply into this vortex.

After another short drive and hike, Tama took us to the Bell Rock Vortex. Before we got there she explained that this vortex amplified all the good parts that the other vortices had given us. The twisted trees again announced our presence in a strong force of Nature. Both Crystal and I could feel the power emanating up from Mother Earth.

As we walked back to the car I commented, "I can feel variations in this vortex as we walk. The further away from the place Tama had taken us, the less the intensity, but there are variations as we walk. The strength is not even."

Crystal agreed she could feel them too. We compared notes at one place we stopped, and both of us could tell without a doubt that we were at a lesser peak.

Tama smiled. "You both have found new skills. You can feel these variations everywhere on mother earth. You can always find a place of strong positive vibrations. Some people do it automatically; they're unconscious of their ability. Others consciously do it. You can do both now."

Tama said, "When you meet people, you will be able to tell the kind of energy they radiate. You can deflect it with strength or accept it with love. You will be able to transform and own it, or improve upon it and return it to the sender. These are important new skills you have. You will use them unconsciously, but they shall remain with you throughout this existence."

We got in the car and drove to a late lunch at a small restaurant off the beaten track. Tama greeted the young owners with hugs and kisses, and introduced us to the Native American man and woman who ran the place. We didn't order; the drinks and meal just arrived a few minutes later and was delicious. Tama explained that the meal was special preparation for the special ceremony she would conduct that evening with us and several others who were friends of the couple.

Over lunch, Tama talked about what we would do that night. I felt as though I were a student with a great and wise teacher who would take me places I couldn't find on my own, and teach me things I needed to know. Later, Crystal made the same observation to me.

The three of us returned to the lodge and enjoyed an intimate afternoon.

After we'd recovered and showered, I suggested we take a cocktail on the Lodge's large deck along side the nearby forest.

Tama spoke authoritatively, "No, please. No alcohol now. You will understand later. If anything, please drink water - lots of water."

* * * * *

The sun had set several hours earlier behind one of the mesas. With flashlights in hand, we left the car, and followed Tama up a long winding trail between rocks showing the various strata of a long forgotten seabed, yet here we were at nearly a mile in altitude. Tama had dressed at the Lodge in simple western attire, again without under garments. The air became chilly as we climbed higher; Crystal shivered and when I could, I walked with my arm around her for warmth as well as physical contact.

After trekking over a mile, we came to a large open space. Two Native American men tended a large fire pit lined with large rocks. I noted a four-wheel drive Jeep off to the side of the clearing. The two men wore no shirts, and from the visible physique of their abs, both were in great shape. They welcomed Tama with a formal and respectful greeting, yet she embraced and kissed each man.

Near the fire pit sat a domed man-made enclosure covered with tarps and animal skins: about seven feet high at its peak, and rounded off to the ground across its diameter of fifteen or twenty feet. This was a sweat lodge.

A third man came from inside the crude structure, throwing back an entry flap. He carried stones in two buckets and his toned body glistened in sweat. Dressed in native garb but shirtless, he set the buckets down and greeted Tama. He said, "We started two hours ago. The chamber is ready for entry as soon as the others arrive." He started to place the stones from the bucket back on the fire pit. He added to her, "They should be here by now."

Just then, eight other people came into the clearing from a different direction led by another Native American woman. As she drew closer in the fading light, I could see she was the wife of the couple that owned the restaurant where we had lunch. The others in their group were all Caucasian: four men and four women. Several were obviously couples.

Tama asked the men tending the fire, "Did you forget a clothes rack?"

One said, "Ah, coming right up." He grabbed some long sticks from a pile in the shadows, and with some twine soon had constructed two clothes trees, and strung another long pole between them. As he worked, the rest of us took turns introducing ourselves to each other and making small talk in low voices.

If any of the eight new arrivals recognized us, they didn't let us know. We were just Jim and Crystal, friends of Tama.

We stood around the fire, turning slowly to gather in some of the warmth against the desert cold. Tama smiled at us all. "The time is near brothers and sisters. Please prepare yourselves for entry into the lodge." With that, Tama carefully started to shed her clothing, hanging it across the clothes rack her helper had just erected. She kicked off her sandals as well. Finally, she stood in all her naked glory, the shadows of the fire dancing across her sculptured torso.

Two women and a man all asked nearly simultaneously, "You mean we have to strip to go in there?"

Tama, standing proudly nude beside the fire, said in a voice that now sounded more commanding responded, "Yes. Trust me, you won't want to be wearing any clothing in there. And, you will find your nakedness opens you to new avenues of thinking. Do not be shy in the face of the spirits, for they see you as you really are." One couldn't but gawk at how the amber reflections of the fire danced over the sexy contours of her body. I found myself fighting an erection, particularly as Crystal became nude as well.

Everyone stripped down. Two of the men and two of the women were fat. I felt sorry for the lack of attention they paid their physical bodies, but I thought of my pudginess only a year earlier. One couple was older than the others, maybe in their sixties. Both man and woman were trim and athletic, but their bodies were scarred with things life had done to them. I saw a healed bullet wound on his side.

"Bullet?" I asked.

"Viet Nam." He pointed at each of my obvious wounds.

I laughed and said, "Iraq, another place, and Alabama." I didn't elaborate. He nodded knowing not to pursue my oblique reference to something classified.

Tama stood at the entrance to the tent with a gourd full of smoking sage. The aroma of the burning herb made me feel clean and whole. Each of us stood before her as she walked around us, wafting the smoke from the sage across our naked bodies. "With this smoke, I cleanse the evil and dark thoughts you might have brought here today; they will not do you or anyone here harm now or in the future. With this smoke, I wash the apprehensions about this ceremony from your mind; there is nothing to fear here. With this smoke, I give you permission to find new strength and insight into yourself and your life."

After we had been cleansed, we entered the sweat lodge. As I transited past the flap that served as the door, a blast of hot air emerged and hit me in the face. Behind me, I heard Crystal gasp, and then each of the others as they neared the portal. Four candles lit the inside of the enclosure. We adopted a position and sat on the bare ground with our legs towards the pit of hot rocks in the center of the enclosure.

Before we entered, Tama had told the group not to sit next to their partners, lest we focus too much on the other person and not on ourselves. With the balance of the sexes, she also had us alternate sexes around the circle, much as one might do at a dinner party. Tama explained she wanted balance of the masculine and feminine forces around the circle we formed.

After we were settled, the tent flap closed, and Tama extinguished the candles one by one. The all-consuming heat penetrated our bodies as did the total darkness. I tried and couldn't tell any discernable difference between eyes open, or eyes closed. After a while, I thought I could see the glow of the hot rocks, but it was so subtle I thought I might be imagining the aura. The heat fought to consume my body. I felt myself dripping and oozing sweat from every pore. I heard a sizzle and could tell that Tama had thrown some water on the hot rocks to create steam that would augment our feeling the moist heat.

After what I guessed to be an hour, the flap of the tent was drawn back and the two men tending the fire came in with buckets and more hot rocks. Moving only by the light of the outside fire, they added new, hotter stones to the heat pit in the sweat lodge. Another cup or two of water were tossed on the rocks, and we could all see the instant transformation to steam before the tent flap closed and returned us to darkness. Some oblique light from the fire had at least penetrated the darkness, and a little fresh and cool air had rushed into the structure.

During the hour, I had returned in my thinking to each of the vortices, thinking about what each of the terms meant and would mean in my life: my feminine and masculine sides, balance in my life, and amplification of all that was good and whole.

A few minutes after the door had shut, Tama lit a candle. She stood near me, every detail of her femininity calling to my sex. I felt aroused even in the stifling heat. Tama lifted her arms to her side in an encompassing gesture to all in the circle, "I now talk to each of you as I introduce you to the stewards of the six ordinal powers around us. You may assume the cloak of their power as well in your openness to the Great One."

After a pause, she chanted, "Brothers and sisters, what you seek is not out there, it is in here; it is within you. If you seek health, this is where it is. If you seek wealth, it resides within. If you seek love, this is where you find it. If you seek power, you already hold it. All you seek, is within. All you seek you already have. You need only manifest from within not wait for what you want to appear from outside you." Each time, Tama pointed to herself. After a silence, she said, "All that happens in this lodge is yours and no one else's empowerment. We respect each other, and we respect the lodge. If you agree, say 'Aho.'"
Ten voices rose in a simultaneous chorus, "Aho."

Tama leaned down and moved the candle so it was near Crystal's outstretched legs and Tama faced to the east. "We turn now to the Eastern Spirits. These spirits tend our inspirations, our vision, and are fiercely protective. The eagle guards the east. The eagle imbues you with these attributes." She turned to each person sitting against the wall of the sweat lodge, her own body glistening with perspiration, and repeated the mantra until she'd done it ten times.

After she finished the round, she extinguished the candle and absolute darkness returned. I found myself soaring like an eagle, protective of everyone in the sweat lodge yet seeing deep into the future and far to the horizons ... yet absorbed with the heat. I knew from my Special Forces training that eventually, my mind would move beyond the focus on the heat: mind over matter.

After what seemed like an hour, the flap of the small domed lodge opened and four more hot boulders were brought in and added to those already in the central pit. A noticeable rise in temperature occurred instantly, particularly when water was splashed on the rocks.

While the flap had been open, Tama had lit her candle again, and moved it to another position. After the tent flap closed, she faced that direction and the man sitting there; "We embrace the Southern Spirits. These spirits make us clever, quick-minded, and they help us control our emotions, not to hide them, but to be aware of what we really think. The coyote guards the south, and he imbues you with these traits." She went around the circle again, saying the same thing to each person. I realized the repetition helped cement in each of our minds the mantras she spoke.

When darkness returned, I imagined myself the coyote, agile and cunning, sly and smart, loving and watchful, independent yet of the tribe, and the master of his mind, body, and spirit. I repeated her mantra again and again.

After a period of darkness, more rocks were added. This time, Tama moved the candle another ninety degrees so it was in the west and in front of a woman. Tama spoke, "The Western Spirits are energetic, strong, powerful, and determined. The bear guards the west, and holds these traits sacred for you." She repeated the mantra ten times; once for each of us. In the darkness that followed, I embraced the bear and the traits.

More darkness, more rocks, and a shift of the candle to the north took place within the circle. Tama chanted, "The Northern Spirits are grounding, protective, and hold our knowledge of life and death. We know, especially in the heat, that the body is weak but the mind is strong. The buffalo guards the north, and ensures your strength in mind, body, and spirit."

The next cycle, I felt nearly delirious from the heat. I briefly wondered about the others in the tent and worried about Crystal. In the dim light of the candle, she looked to be about the same place I was, but so did everyone else. Tama held the candle high, near a small opening in the top of the lodge. "The Spirit of the Sky we call Father Sky. He looks over us and assures our wisdom, our balance, our optimism, and strikes all fear from our bodies. Father Sky is protective, and when our physical being ends, he welcomes the smoke and ashes from our pyre into the universal heaven that is the true Oneness."

After a long period of sweltering darkness, I passed beyond the heat. Suddenly, I felt clear headed and alert, instead of lugged down from the heat. I became sensitive to every person in the sweat lodge including Tama as she moved about from time to time checking on each person. I transcended my physical body. I knew my body was there, sitting in the sweat lodge, but the real me was not part of it. I had an out-of-body experience.

After the last rocks were added to the pile, Tama lit four candles, one for each ordinal direction of the compass. She threw the candle she had been using atop the rocks, and it flashed into flames brighter than any of the other candles as the wax ignited over the stones. Tama spoke, "Mother Earth is our last spirit force, and the one that gives us strength, sustenance, nurturing, and love. We must love her back. Without Mother Earth none of the other spirits would exist, and Father Sky would have no mate and so he would disappear."

I realized that Nature was all there was - the infinite God Force, and I was a part of the God Force, and the God Force was me, just as a wave is part of the ocean. The Great One! I felt a complete unity of mind, body, and spirit with everyone in the lodge, and in the world. I cried. I sobbed in gratitude, in forgiveness, in love, and in compassion for all mankind. I somehow knew that others had joined me.

As the candles burned away and flickered out, darkness gradually returned. I felt as though the temperature in the sweat lodge had lowered, and realized that no one had brought in hot stones for quite some time. We sat, and my spiritual thoughts surged through my head - thoughts of universal unconditional love.

After a while, I felt Tama's hand touch my head and neck. I felt the gesture as loving, passionate, tender, and compassionate. She took my hands and put them in the hands of the women on either side of me, then moved on and repeated the gesture around the circle.

Tama's voice rang out loud and clear, "This is your Spirit Circle - your energy moves around the circle through your hands and your spiritual connections to each other. The moon and the sun await you to rejoin them in the new day. Your negative energies are dead. Your problems are trivial. Your love is amplified and expanded. Your life has changed. You will never be the same again. You are richer, wiser, healthier, and more secure than you have ever been."

After a pause, Tama said, "Our time together in this experience is at an end. Go in Peace. Go in Kindness. Go in Love. Aho. Aho. Aho." We spontaneously repeated the final words in unison.

The flap of the sweat lodge suddenly was pulled back from the outside, and we could see the first hint of dawn's light in Father Sky, enough to make our way outside. Tama's nude body stood in the doorway, majestic and like the goddess she was. No one moved to rise. Tama leaned down and helped the woman sitting nearest the door to rise. Tama stooped and picked up dirt from the ground, dipped a finger in it, and dabbed the desert dust on each of the woman's wet cheeks. The pair hugged, closely but not sexually for a long time, and then the woman stepped outside.

Tama repeated her assistance to the man on the other side of the door, also rubbing dirt into each of his cheeks; they also hugged, their sexual organs rubbing together, but with no lust, only the feeling of satisfaction at having gone through something great in life - the feeling of rebirth, a rebirth even more profound than the one that brought us into this world. Tama brought each of us to the doorway, one by one, with hugs, the dirt of Mother Earth on our cheeks, and the mingling of our sweat with hers as we exited. We'd survived. We'd become someone more than we were when we went in.

Outside, the air was sweet and cool. In the west, a gibbous moon lay bright and large on a midnight blue sky. In the east, the hues of the opening day brightened the sky. We were each reborn. One of the fire tenders offered to pour water over our heads and bodies from a drum of water. I accepted, as did most of the others. The splash was therapeutic and a reminder of how important water is to us. Somehow, our nudity meant little in those after-moments; no one cared and no one noticed and no one rushed to dress. We were all so much more than what we were five or six hours earlier.

After we had calmed down and regained control of our emotions, I went to where I'd left my clothing and dug inside my pants pocket until I found the small envelope. I reentered the sweat lodge, still stifling with the heat from the two-dozen rocks now piled in the center of the domed hut. I said a prayer, a prayer about rebirth, and about transitioning back to a spiritual world where one's nature is limitless and we have constant awareness of our connection with Source Energy. I opened the envelope of Karen's ashes, and sprinkled them atop the rocks that had provided our rebirth in this world.

Karen had been so happy and open in this world. I loved her; she'd been my companion and wife. She would have loved the sweat lodge, and I knew deep in my heart she would have loved Tama and Crystal. As her ashes settled into the glow of the rocks, I repeated the last words Tama spoke inside the lodge: 'Go in Peace. Go in Kindness. Go in Love. Aho. Aho. Aho.'

Crystal found me, her nude body still glistening with sweat. She had tears of joy running down her face and the dirt of Mother Earth on her cheeks. She came into my arms, and we cried and held each other tightly for a long time.

* * * * *

After the sweat lodge when we were back at the inn, Tama, Crystal, and I had made love again several times. The sexual experiences we shared were so enhanced I found them surreal. We did nothing unusual that we hadn't done our first night together, yet every act, every feeling, and every orgasm far surpassed in awareness and response anything any of us had ever felt. We were dealing with each other and with our connections on a different plane and in a heightened way.

The next morning, we parted from Tama with more tears, and pledged we would be in touch and see each other often. Crystal wanted to remain close to Tama, and to remember what we'd learned and experienced in Sedona. There were lessons still to be learned from the experiences we'd shared, lessons that would develop from within over the coming weeks.

The Harley hummed along the twisting roads as we followed the route Tama had laid out for us. This was her country, and the country of her people, so we followed her advice without reservation. As a result, we saw the Grand Canyon and other natural scenery in a way that few people do. We also made good time in traveling to Las Vegas.

During the trip when we stopped, we talked about the events of the past three days - the Sedona vortices, the sweat lodge, and Tama. We were both internalizing the experiences, as well as the good, but eerie feelings we had with Tama when she acted as our own personal shaman. The experiences at the vortices and in the sweat lodge gave us much to think about.

I pondered that if my strengths and my ability to overcome my weaknesses came from within, then how had I manifested the love that filled my life, the new sexuality I relished, and the new wealth that I'd discovered in the months before? Could I sustain these gifts? How could I use these forces for good in the world? Had I also counterbalanced these positive forces with the potential destructive forces that Kenesis embodied and symbolized? Could I get rid of him once and for all?

The further I got from Sedona, the more I knew that Reno was the place we'd end the Kenesis problem. At a rest stop, I made a call and confirmed our readiness to deal with Kenesis with Craig, my Army buddy from Idaho. He'd already made some arrangements, and just needed the 'Go' code. We were civilians now, but we had retained the 'Band of Brothers' friendships that had been so vital to our survival on our missions. I'd get a lot of help to deal with my problem, and later I'd be there when someone else from our old unit needed help.

Chapter 30

Nevada

Crystal and I lingered over dinner just so we could roll into Las Vegas after dark. We went up and down Las Vegas Boulevard, a.k.a. 'The Strip,' about a dozen times before Crystal announced she was satisfied for the evening. On our first couple of passes on the motorcycle, Crystal would give me an excited squeeze and point when she saw a casino or hotel she recognized from some movie, poster, or TV show. She also started to wave to everyone to see whether she could get them to wave back; most did although to them she was just a cute babe on the back of a motorcycle and not a celebrity. We stayed in Vegas for two nights, saw a couple of shows, and gambled away fifty dollars for the two of us - our limit.

We made Thanksgiving morning phone calls to Ellen and Crystal's parents, and then to Anna, Lauren, Summer, and Kim. I arranged to send flowers to many of the women I'd made love with on my road trip, particularly those I'd felt a deep attachment to when we were together, such as Betty Sue, Pat, and Tama. I added a note of thanks and gratitude for them being in my life when they were and the way they were. Each had transformed me in some way and made me a better person. I thought fondly of every one of them.

We traveled through the rest of Nevada on Thanksgiving Day ending in Reno. We encountered scenery considerably more interesting than the day before. We passed mountains, lakes, pretty little towns, and at our leisurely pace, rolled into Reno about four o'clock in the afternoon. We had reservations at Harrah's, and headed there.

According to several lengthy emails I'd had from a couple of coordinators of the Children's Fund Telethon, Crystal and I were to check-in with the planners at ten o'clock the next morning. We'd been assigned a rehearsal room, as well as a makeshift band that would work with the two of us for the time leading up to our appearances in the Telethon. Other celebs and special guests were also going to be around, and we were provided a list of them - Crystal dubbed it 'The A List.'

After Crystal and I had gotten into our hotel room, I called Mils Cartwright. To my surprise, she answered on the second ring despite the holiday evening. "Happy Thanksgiving, Mils."

"You too, lover. When are you going to come and visit? Connie and I miss you. Plus, I can really make it worth your while now; my leg cast is off and I only have to wear the velcro version most of the time. I can wrap my long lithe legs around your hot body and ... well, you get the idea. Oh, and thanks for the flowers. I love you too."

"Mils, you're making me hard, and that's not why I called. I'll see you soon, I promise."

"OK, what's up? Kenesis stuff?"

"Yeah. Crystal and I just rolled into Reno. We're at Harrah's, and I'd love to know if he's around here somewhere. Can you use your magic fingers on the computer, and see if you can locate him? I'm sure he's been here waiting for me to show up for the Children's Telethon this weekend."

"Darling, I would do anything for you. Of course. Let me do some work, and I'll get back to you. It may be tomorrow. I'll call you." Mils knew Bart Kenesis' habits of staying at low-end motel chains, so I could imagine she'd start there.

Crystal and I walked around the 'strip' in Reno a little, and then went to dinner. Just after dinner, my cellphone rang. When I answered, Mils said, "Your nemesis is in Reno at the Day's Inn - about a mile south of you. He was easy to find too; that chain has all their registrations online for someone with the right access password. He's in room two-fifty-five - second floor, outside entry, no other door. Craig outlined the plans to end this stalking. Good luck."

I thanked her, and we ended the call.

Crystal said, "He's here, isn't he?"

"Yes, about a mile that way," I pointed to the south.

"What now?"

My next call went to my friend Craig. I started our call with the words, "He's in Reno." Craig informed me that he'd be checking into the Silver Slipper the next day with a seven other guys who had been in our Special Ops Company a decade earlier. We had been and remained a close-knit team despite our infrequent contact with each other.

Craig was crisp, and in his 'mission ready' mind set. He asked, "Do you want to be involved - to go with us when we shut him down?"

I thought for a minute and answered, "Yes, but only as a bit player because I'm emotionally involved and I might blow it with my anger and only stir things up. I'll let you do the dirty work; I'd just like to watch." As an afterthought, I looked across the room at Crystal, and added to Craig, "If you've got room for a pretty woman on the team, Crystal would probably like to watch too, so long as it's safe."

Craig chuckled, "I'll have Julia with me. Her mother is running your Telethon show, and she wanted to see her. I'll get the women the right equipment. The more the merrier." We agreed to stay in touch, and that tomorrow, or the next night might be the optimum time for our raid. I wanted to do something as soon as possible just in case Kenesis had planned some embarrassing revelation during the telecast. Craig told me he still had some planning to do, and needed to muster some other guys as well. His last comment puzzled me since I thought he already had a tour de force.

* * * * *

Check-in for the Telethon went without a hitch. Daisy Wheaton saw us arrive in the hotel's convention center, and came up to the two of us. Before I could say anything, Daisy plastered herself against me with a kiss that melted my buttons. We kissed, and we almost had clothed intercourse right there in the lobby. A young girl checking us in as Telethon participants sat three feet from us with her jaw agape. Crystal stood nearby chuckling.

Daisy's welcome of Crystal was only slightly less enthusiastic. She promised us, "I can't wait to see the two of you ... in more intimate surroundings." There could be no mistaking the sexual innuendo to her comment.

Daisy took over our check-in process from the young woman who had now turned a lovely scarlet color and avoided eye contact. When we were through, Daisy led us away and into the main convention room. "This is where we'll be set up for the weekend Telethon." The room was huge, with about a hundred round tables, each seating eight people.

Daisy went on, "Over there in the far corner will be a bank of a hundred telephone volunteers. For you, the 'home ground' will be just to their left on the stage - the band is further to the left in the other corner. The stage is where you'll sing, and emcee the show for your time slots; however, you're free to roam about, talk to the volunteers, the people in the audience, the band, anything you can think of to keep the show interesting. In your package is a list of suggestions in this area. If you glanced at your package, Jim, you're the primary emcee on Friday from eight at night until midnight, and Crystal you have the same time slot on Saturday. We assume the two of you will join up with each other on your 'off' night, but there has to be one lead person who keeps the phones ringing. We're still trying to arrange for a couple of special guests to appear during your segment; they'll help pass the time and keep momentum up."

Crystal and I both nodded.

Daisy led us down a couple of hallways to a much smaller room. Eight men and women were in the room, and I recognized the melody to Flirty, Flirty Cowgirl being played by a couple of the players as we came into the room. The music stopped, and all eyes looked at us.

Crystal, Daisy, and I introduced ourselves to the five band members and three backup singers. Milt Wahlberg headed the band and played lead guitar. They were a nice group and had all worked together before in the Bay Area. He explained that three others would be joining them tomorrow, all band members. He also suggested that we rehearse four hours today, and then up to six hours the next day before we took a short rest break and went 'on air.'

Daisy left us there to begin our rehearsals and the blending of our musical abilities. She promised to be available to us any time! Her sexual availability made me remember that Daisy loved sex and talking dirty as she had lain beneath me as I massaged her nude body with my cock buried in her cunt. As I recall, she had been excessively orgasmic - if one can have those kinds of excesses in that area of your life.
Crystal gave me a funny look and a smirk, almost as if she could read my mind as I watched Daisy's beautiful ass disappear out the door of our rehearsal room. She said, "Daisy looks like fun. I look forward to getting to know her a lot better." She gave me a lecherous grin.

We worked hard with the band and singers the rest of the day. We went over the various numbers that we would do and worked on arrangements that would come across well to the large audience in the ballroom as well as the television audience. Not surprisingly, the band had music to every song we were known to have recorded and dozens of other country songs to boot. We started with our hits and standards - our most popular music that was best known. This is what the audience would be looking for during prime time, and what they'd be responding to when we made a plea for donations.

We quit about six o'clock, letting the band members go. We knew that as the result this short rehearsal, we had about six to eight songs ready for prime time. We'd do more the next day as well. For the two nights that Crystal and I hosted the Telethon, I figured we would need one major song every half hour; that's what had been suggested to us. Other time could be spent interviewing other celebs who would be delivered to us, and of course, innovatively pleading for money.

* * * * *

Craig and Julia joined us for dinner. He brought two large duffle bags, one for me and one for Crystal. They contained the clothing and gear we'd wear when we made our midnight raid on Kenesis. Craig wanted us to 'go in' at one-twenty in the morning. He explained that he had staged some things in some other time zones that would be relevant to Kenesis, and he wanted darkness throughout the operation in all time zones. He didn't go into detail, but I had a strong suspicion about what would be happening in the other time zones.

This was the first time Crystal and Julia had met, although they knew a lot about each other. When Crystal got introduced, she said, "You're the Julia of Michigan and Idaho fame? The insatiable nymphomaniac that fucks like a mink? I've been looking forward to seeing you ... all of you - for months." The last remark could be interpreted in many ways, but Craig and I knew it had to do with sex.

Julia laughed and expressed the desire to get to know Crystal better too. The pair hit it off immediately, even having their own side conversation as Craig and I talked.

Craig said, "Hey, did you know Julia and Daisy ..."

I interrupted with my own grin, "Are a mother-daughter team. Yes, I did. Maybe we can all 'get together' later." Now, my voice carried the overtones of sexual innuendo.

Craig said in a matter of fact way, "Julia does have a strong appetite for sex."

Crystal said unabashedly, "So do I."

Julia added with a chuckle, "So does my mother - Daisy."

Craig broke into a grin again and said with a lilt in his voice, "Well, now, this is shaping up to be a really great Telethon celebration."

Crystal closed down the discussion; "And, we have a 'Caesar-size bed' in our room, so we'll all fit on it simultaneously." Craig's jaw dropped, and he could tell that Crystal wasn't kidding.

Craig then broke into a big smile. He was primed and ready to go.

I said, "All right, what else?"

He said, "Well, a couple of things. First, we got a huge break at Kenesis' motel. I saw Gary an hour ago; he went into the Days Inn and chatted up the desk clerk. The guy used to be a Navy Seal in Nam. Gary explained that we had a small 'Special Ops' exercise tonight aimed at 'behavior modification.' The guy is on our side, and he assured Gary that the motel would be most cooperative to our efforts. He didn't even ask why we were doing our little raid. He just wanted to see justice done in a relatively peaceful way by and for fellow Ops men."

"That's great, but can he help us and not lose his job?"

"Well, he didn't think anything was a problem. He rented us room two-fifty-three, next door to Kenesis, and said he'd be sure adjacent rooms on either side of us or Kenesis or directly below him didn't get filled tonight, just in case things got a little noisy. Gary had to promise him that there would be no blood, and only some minor damage. I had Gary leave him a fifteen hundred in cash to say thanks and as a damage deposit. We do plan to be 'active' in his room. The Seal also said he'd be a little slow turning in any emergency or 911 requests from Kenesis' room. Everything has to go through the hotel switchboard." His grin got wider as he delivered the last of his first set of accomplishments, "Lastly, 'ta daaaaaaah,'" he showed us a passkey to Kenesis' room. He held up a small plastic access card. I gave him a high five across the table. Crystal leaned across the table and kissed him on the cheek. Julia looked at Craig with stars in her eyes and hugged her new boyfriend.

"Craig, you are amazing." Crystal nodded her head in agreement. "Thank you so much for helping us. I have been so worried what that man would do to get his revenge."

Craig explained that it was Gary's work, and I made a note to give Gary a big thank you for helping in the operation. I confirmed I'd pay him back any expenses such as paying the motel clerk; I'd told Craig to spend whatever it cost to end this stalking, and I'd pay for the operation.

* * * * *

I expressed my concern to Craig about disruption and embarrassment by Kenesis. Since I thought he'd been the source of the shot at me; I worried about bodily harm too.

Craig shot back, "Jim, don't worry. We've got two tails on Kenesis - men who know what they're doing. They got a photo of the guy and passed it around to the rest of the team. Two more guys will dog the ballroom area and keep him out. Hotel security swept the area earlier as a routine, and we used our own 'bomb dog' we borrowed from the local Air National Guard. Bart was up early and wandering around your hotel all morning, but he didn't do anything strange. After lunch, Kenesis went to the Eldorado to play the slots and blackjack all afternoon. He's still there, although he's had a long day and lost a couple of hundred, so we suspect he'll be in bed when our middle-of-the-night 'event' starts."

Craig added in a lower tone so Crystal and Julia wouldn't hear, "Kenesis had one surprise for us when we tossed his room, a .38 snub nose revolver - otherwise known as a Saturday Night Special. We neutered his weapon, just in case. He won't get to you, and we won't miss him if he tries to show up. A couple of our guys are armed too - nice and legal as your bodyguards."

I nodded and gave Craig a grateful smile. However, despite his reassurances, I still felt uneasy about what Kenesis would try to do. I'd be glad when our confrontation with Kenesis was over. The fact that he'd had a gun worried me further; he just might be unbalanced enough to want to shoot Crystal and me. The fact that someone from the team had rendered his weapon useless made me feel a lot better.

With part of my focus on Kenesis and what would happen later, appearing on the Telethon didn't seem to faze me. After we started in prime time, I relaxed in front of the camera, and became the perfect emcee, concerned about the charity drive, helping to drive the collections over the target of twenty-five million dollars, and being the consummate entertainer.

Because I started to relax, Crystal also relaxed and we put on a really good show for the evening. We took over from Joe Lee Tucker, the movie star, who had opened the Telethon at four o'clock. We were lucky too because another popular country music couple - Diane Hill and Len McCoy - had been in the audience, and during a break accepted our invitation to come on stage and sing with us. The foursome was the highlight of the evening.

Daisy Wheaton hovered around just off stage the entire evening attending to every little detail to ensure the show was a success. When the four of us sang, I thought she'd levitate in happiness. The big electronic tote board raced ahead a million dollars in the half hour the four of us talked and sang.

A few days earlier, when I'd found out I had a lot more money than I thought from the recordings, concerts, royalties, and albums I'd done, my new money manager suggested that I make some generous charitable donations. Thus, about nine o'clock on our first evening after a brief chat with Crystal to tell her what I wanted to do, I made a challenge to the viewing public: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is a great cause and we need your money to help the research into the diseases you heard about earlier. For the next hour, I will match - dollar for dollar up to a million dollars - the amount you donate to our cause." The phones started to ring.

Even though I intended to shoulder the entire burden of the challenge; however, Crystal was not to be left out. She stepped forward and said to the audience and the TV cameras, "Let me double that offer with up to another million dollars in matching funds to what Jim just offered. I'll keep the matching going from where Jim's offer leaves off to the next million-dollar level. Come on everyone, make those phones ring." Crystal gestured at bank of telephone volunteers on her left.

Every phone operator on our set was busy, and from what Daisy said, I knew the overflow was being handled by offsite operators. The cameras went back to the two of us as we kissed to cement the deal. We looked for excuses to kiss.

I urged the callers, "I hope when you're calling in, you are reaching deep in your pockets. If you were thinking of giving twenty - give fifty. If you were thinking of giving a hundred or two - give five hundred, or a thousand."

Now, the tote board started to flash, as the numbers took big jumps every minute. Before the hour was up, Crystal and I both made a show of writing personal checks for a million dollars each and handing them to Daisy. Daisy had tears of joy in her eyes. I had been reassured by our hostess earlier that the money that was being raised would be spent right away in some significant way to help kids around the world and not on administrative and processing fees.

At midnight, after only eight hours, the electronic tote board showed we had a good start towards the telethon's goal. As we came off stage, Daisy grabbed me to express her thanks; she flattened her body against mine, again grinding her cunt into my cock through our clothing. I rather liked the way she said thank you. I wondered why she hadn't done that on camera.

To my surprise, she repeated the process with Crystal. Having watched Crystal and my Native American friend Tama get it on; I knew that girl-on-girl excited Crystal. She responded with positive feedback, and Daisy looked more than pleased. She promised a fun-filled Sunday afternoon and evening after the Telethon ended.

As we handed off the Telethon to the next hosts - the famous tennis player Anya Chemerin and the actress-singer Scarlet Hanson, my tongue started to water. At least, I got to kiss each of them on TV as we passed over host duties to them. I felt sorry since they had the graveyard shift; the east coast and central zones were all but asleep, and donations for the night had visibly slowed since eleven o'clock.

* * * * *

Crystal and I raced upstairs to our room after our part of the Telethon ended to pick up our gear for the 'Kenesis Mission.' Officially, we were tired after a full day and needed to get to sleep. If anyone got asked, we headed off to bed. I texted Craig, and he replied, 'Mission on. Nighty night.' Kenesis had gone to bed. Craig knew we'd be on our way after hearing that news.

We slipped out of the hotel and walked to the Day's Inn. We strolled down the sidewalk carrying our bags and trying to look inconspicuous in case Kenesis happened to look out his motel room window.

We got to the walkway to the wing of the motel in which Kenesis was staying. As we neared room two-fifty-three, an old friend, Gary Flajnik, swung the door open so we could slip into the room quietly. I hadn't seen Gary in ten years, so we mugged a silent hello and thanks for his success with the manager of the motel. Many of the seven others I hadn't seen for a long time, so we also did our silent hellos as I went from man to man to thank them for their participation in this operation. I introduced Crystal to everyone with whispers, and she gave everyone a hug in thanks for their help. There were lots of smiles at Crystal. We then went silent and nearly dark. There were eleven of us: Craig and seven men from my old unit, Crystal, Julia, and me.

Crystal slipped into the bathroom to change. I knew she was enough of an exhibitionist that the thought of 'entertaining the troops' as she changed had crossed her mind. She took her bag, and came out five minutes later in camouflage gear - an Army Combat Uniform or ACU, from neck to ankles. She looked the part, except the uniform was too large; she'd had to roll up the pants and sleeves about a foot to fit her small frame. The jacket practically hung to her knees. Julia had the same 'small body in a large suit' look. A couple of us laughed at the women, but knew that when we'd finished with them, they'd look as fierce as the rest of us.

I'd changed into my ACU too. Rob Dentson, a guy we'd called 'Mustard' in the platoon, helped Crystal apply the shaded makeup of browns and greens to her face, neck, ears, and hands so that no white skin showed. Next, he helped her tuck her hair up under her Boonie hat, and added a camouflage scarf to cover the back of her neck so no one could see her long hair or its color. As the Crystal I loved disappeared, a rather fearsome individual emerged. She flashed me a smile, and her white teeth stood out in contrast to her dark and scary appearance. As well as I knew her, I had trouble identifying her with the makeup and the hidden hair. Julia got the same treatment, and then so did I.

Crystal strapped a fourteen-inch Bowie knife someone gave her in a sheath across her chest in a way where it could be easily seen and ready to draw for hand-to-hand combat. The wide belt for the knife and a bandoleer of fake ammo also hid the glaring evidence of Crystal's full breasts. Gary suggested the women leave about an inch of the blade showing so it would glint in the dim light we'd have in Kenesis' room. I armed myself in a similar way.

Everyone wore the ACU. A few wore camouflage ponchos, enlarged hoodies that gave them a bigger and meaner look than the others as their light capes swirled around them. In our waist holsters, we each carried a mockup of either a Heckler and Koch HK45C, a mean looking .45 caliber sidearm, or a Glock 19, a similar deadly handgun.

Carl Belanger, a CPA from Boulder, Colorado, passed out M16A4 Assault Rifles to everyone from a large cardboard box atop one of the beds. The weapon had been chosen by NATO as the core of their weaponry. Several 'weapons' had real bayonets; all the rifles had installed ammunition clips. All the weapons were heavy-duty plastic replicas of the real thing and weighed less than five pounds - mere toys.

Many of the men in the room had fake grenades hanging from their belts or bandoleers slung over their shoulders. Others wore bandoleers of ammo, other knives, smoke canisters, or stun grenades. Several wore communication devices, although when I got closer I could see that they all were 'toys.' In a dimly lit room, they would appear all too real.

We were overdressed for a Halloween party, but more important, we were a mean looking bunch. As I looked around the room, no one would be able to accurately describe any of us to a law enforcement agency. Crystal and Julia just looked like shorter commandoes.

We'd been silent and mimed much of our preparations. Craig had us sit in a rough circle on the beds and chairs, and he described in a whisper what we'd be doing in about ten minutes. He told us how we'd storm the room, the placement of each man around the bed, and briefly what he intended to say and do.

Carl the CPA drew a special assignment; his name had been 'Crazy' in the Army, because he took on assignments you had to be crazy - or have a death wish - to carry out. Gary, too, got an assignment. The two smiled at each other with glee; they would be good actors playing true to form.

Craig sat with his cellphone, and held it up to me when the first text message came in from Chicago. It read 'Chicago is windy tonight.' Almost immediately, another message lit up his device, 'Atlanta has rain. He waited patiently for another two minutes, just staring at his cellphone. At last, the third message he'd been expecting arrived, Virginia is for lovers.'

Craig held up his hand to indicate five minutes until our little raid started. I hadn't felt time move so slowly since I'd been inside a Somali city ruled by pirates that terrorized the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean off their coast. I'd been there to extract six American civilians that had been taken prisoner for ransom from their container ship, and to destroy some of the patrol boats the pirates used to prey on foreign ships. There were twelve of us. My wait that time was for a flotilla of the pirates' armed boats to explode in a nearby harbor in order to divert attention from our rescue. Our mission had been a success.

Craig motioned at two minutes, and then at one minute. We all lined up at the door. Crystal, Julia, and I were last.

* * * * *

Gary peered out the motel room door, saw nobody else in the area, slipped five feet next door and inserted the purloined entry card in Kenesis' lock. As Craig gave the signal to move forward, Gary pulled the card and we all heard the bolt unlock. Gary held the door for us as he provided 'cover;' we raced in at a run, weapons drawn. The eleven of us surrounded the bed and guarded the door in fewer than ten seconds from when the door opened.

Kenesis had been sleeping on his stomach. By the time he'd rolled over because of the noise we made, he had eleven M16A4's pointed at him and a single flashlight shining directly in his eyes. He went white with fear. We'd all been there as part of our training years earlier; we had to feel the fear we hoped to inject into others. I suspected Kenesis had urinated in his bed.

Craig probed Kenesis' generous belly with the real bayonet attached to his M16. Kenesis wore light pajamas; Craig used the point of the bayonet to pop a button off the shirt. Kenesis backpedaled up the bed until he was sitting tightly against the headboard with wide eyes. He emitted little whimpering sounds. I had been right. As Kenesis kicked the covers away to move away from the threat we posed, we could see the pool of urine on the bed.

Craig said in a rough voice, "Kenesis, do you know why we're here?"

A long wail came out of his mouth, "Nooooooooooooo!"

"We're here because you have been stalking two people. Right?"

Kenesis shook his head in agreement. At this point, he'd agree to nearly anything provided we left. He needed more of a jolt to cement in the idea he should stop.

Craig said, "You are going to stop doing that. In fact, you won't ever want to even be in the same city they're in. Right?"

His head agreed. Kenesis stared at the point of the bayonet about a foot in front of his face.

Craig said, "If you even hear they're in a city where you are, you'll leave, won't you?"

Just then, Crazy Carl leaned forward with his rifle so it was within a foot of Kenesis' head. In a voice tinged with lunacy he said, "Can I pop him off? I'd love to do it ... right now ... then we don't need all his empty promises ... all this talk will be useless. Come on, just one shot. No one will hear. I can end all this crap." He cackled in glee.

Craig held his hand up to Carl, "Now, just hold that idea for a minute or two - we might need you to do just that ... but not this instant."
Crazy Carl kept the gun aimed at Kenesis' head, but took a step back from the bed. Kenesis had started to recover from the initial shock of our entry. I knew he could be belligerent from the experience Crystal and I had with him in Texas at a press conference.

Craig picked up his line of questioning as Carl backed off; he said to Kenesis in a tough tone, "Do you know whom I'm talking about - who you were stalking? Why don't you remind us?"

In a more normal voice, Kenesis said, "Jim Mellon and Crystal Lee. They deserve it. They stole from me. I had a right to take those pictures. They were worth a lot of money."

Craig said in an angry tone, "I won't argue the point with you. Just know that tonight you WILL stop harassing them." He paused, but even in the shadows I could see Kenesis was unrepentant in that instant.

Craig spoke again, "Do you know what might happen if you decide to pursue them again for any reason?"

"No!"

Carl waved the bayonet right under Kenesis' nose, grazing his chin; "Do you think it would be bad?"

Kenesis snarled, "Yeah, I guess!"

Crazy Carl jumped forward again, "NOW? Can I shoot him now? See, he's not gonna stop stalking them; he's gonna hurt them." This time Carl cocked his gun, as though he were injecting a live round into the firing chamber. Somehow, an empty shell fell to the bed, supposedly expelled from the weapon. That got Kenesis' attention. His eyes got very large as he looked at the spent shell.

Craig held his hand up in front of Carl, who backed off again. In the darkness, I could see Crazy Carl's bright white teeth in a macabre grin. I felt he'd really shoot Kenesis if he had a real weapon. Craig poked Kenesis with the bayonet again. In a tough voice he said, "Don't you care what happens to your family - your sister and two brothers and their kids?"

"Yesssssss! How ... how do you know about them?" Kenesis' eyes flared at our knowledge of his family.

"Oh, we know all about you and your family. Why don't you call each of them right now? Start with your sister outside Chicago."

Kenesis looked puzzled and then very fearful as he began to understand there might be some implied threat to his family. Mils had found that this was a major chink in his armor - Kenesis spent a lot of time with his siblings and their kids even though he was single.

Gary had found Kenesis' cell phone on the dresser. He tossed the cell into the puddle of urine between Kenesis' legs. Kenesis jumped about a foot when the phone landed.

Kenesis picked up the phone, wiping it on the sheet, but then he resisted and said, "It's late."

Craig commanded, "CALL."

He hit a speed dial on his cell. The call was answered instantly at the other end of the line. I could imagine a shaky feminine voice answering, "Hello, is that you Bart. They said you'd call."

Craig said, "Ask what's happening there?"

Based on what Craig told us earlier, Kenesis' sister's bed would be similarly surrounded by another squad of Special Forces warriors.

We heard him exclaim, "I'm ... they are ... here too ... I'm in trouble - deep trouble, that's why. They might kill me." Several of us could hear the sobs of his sister on the other end of the line. Kenesis said, "What did I do? I was trying to get even with two bastard celebrities that stole from me."

Craig gave Kenesis a sharp poke with the bayonet that told him that he didn't like his attitude. Kenesis jerked and heard his sister cry out in fear. He said, " ... what did they tell you to tell me? ... Yes, damn it, I will stop ... I'll never do it again. Are you all right? They haven't hurt you or anyone, have they?"

Craig grabbed the phone from Kenesis, terminated the call, tossed the phone back to him, and commanded, "Kenesis, call your brother in Virginia."

Kenesis made a sound as he sucked in his breathe sharply at the rude command. He madly punched a few buttons on the cell. Again, the call was answered almost instantly.

I noted that Kenesis' attitude had changed. He'd softened knowing that his sister had become an instrument in his lesson.

Kenesis said in a shaky voice as he looked at Craig, "This is Bart." After a few seconds he went on, "They're around my bed too ... Of course, I'm scared ... They were at Patricia's home too ... It has to do with my work ... I'll tell you later ... if I ever see you again." His voice shook as he said the last couple of words in his cell phone.

Craig jabbed the bayonet in Kenesis' gut, and he jumped and looked worried. Kenesis continued talking to his brother. "They told you what? ... No ... I don't ever plan to see two certain celebrities again and I'll even leave town before they arrive if I can. I guess I got in over my head on this one ... Yes, I know I've done it before." We could guess that his brother had been told to relay the message to Kenesis that he was to stop stalking the people he'd been harassing. He said, "I won't ever stalk anybody."

Craig jabbed his flabby gut with the bayonet again and commanded, "Kenesis, hang up; call your brother Roland in Georgia."

Kenesis repeated the process, and got validation again that Special Forces troops had raided that brother's home as well, and struck fear into the rest of the family who had been herded into an unlocked bedroom closet 'for their protection.' He got the same message, to stop hounding the music stars he'd been following or else his family would get another visit and the next time people would likely 'get hurt.'

After the call ended, Gary snatched the cell phone from Kenesis and threw it hard against the wall behind Kenesis - the phone shattered into a hundred small pieces. Kenesis jumped as the remains of the phone rained down around him. Craig yelled into Kenesis' face, "WHAT DO YOU CONCLUDE FROM THESE PHONE CALLS"

The quivering voice spoke like a little child: "That you can hurt me ... or my family any time you want?" He made the statement as a question.

Craig said in a slightly moderated tone riddled with sarcasm, "And do you think we would?"

"Yesssssss." The voice quivered.

Crazy Carl leaned forward with his weapon raised again; he said to Craig, "Now? Now, Captain? Do we have to wait? I don't believe him. He's lying." Carl laughed maniacally.

Craig turned and studied Carl. In the dim light, one might have assumed he was weighing whether to let his underling have his pleasure. After a quarter-of-a-minute, Craig held up a hand covered in camouflage paint, "No, still not yet, ... but maybe in a minute."

Carl slowly slid backwards, and Craig started to turn his attention back to Kenesis. In the dim light, I could see the tracks of tears on Bart's pallid face. We were having an impact.

Before anyone else could speak, Gary leaped forward between two of the men and plunged a fourteen-inch Bowie knife into the mattress and bedding between Kenesis' outstretched feet. He screamed at Kenesis, "I WANT TO KILL YOU TOO. WE ALL DO!"

Kenesis jumped about a foot off the bed in fear, shrieked as though he'd been stabbed, and his tremors amplified. I heard the expulsion of body gas, a phenomenon that probably meant Kenesis had just shit himself. We'd become his inner most terrors.

Craig reached forward with his left hand and pulled Gary back; Gary pretended to have difficulty extracting the knife so he left it in the mattress. Gary stared into Kenesis' eyes with a malevolent look. Craig leaned in close to Kenesis' ear, held the bayonet to his neck, and said in an uncompromising tone, "If you ever stalk Lee, Mellon, or anyone else you 'think' you saw in some awkward situation, or if you try to publicize or tell anyone what you 'thought' you saw, any of these men, any of the men at your family's homes, or I will hunt you down like the animal you are. If we can't find you, we know exactly where your family live and they'll pay for your forgetfulness. Groups like ours eliminate threats in ways so they never reappear and no one even finds the remains. We silence threats so they never talk again, remove eyes so that people that saw something they shouldn't have never see again, or take ears that shouldn't have heard something. DON'T CROSS US." Craig slid his bayonet just in front of Kenesis' left ear and drew a drop of blood.

Even in the dim light, Kenesis slumped and paled.

Craig lowered the bayonet and inserted the blade inside Kenesis' pajama top again. He pulled and another button went flying into the darkness as the material ripped.

Craig looked out at our group, and then whispered to Kenesis so we could all hear, "Before we leave we want to have your assurances that you understand why we were here tonight - and in Georgia, Virginia, and Illinois. Why don't you tell us again what you're going to do and not going to do from this moment forward. Tell us what you promise all of us." The tough edge to Craig's voice left no room for argument.

Kenesis' eyes rolled up in his head, and he looked toward heaven for help, and he sobbed for mercy. Many of the men raised their M16's again and aimed them at various parts of Kenesis' body. Kenesis quickly cried out, "I'm going to forget about what I saw in Branson and I'm never going to follow or harass Crystal Lee or Jim Mellon again - ever ... or anybody they know ... her sister ... their agent."

"And?"

After a couple of sobs, Kenesis blurted out though his tears, "And, I will never be in the same city that they are."

"And?"

"And, I won't stalk them or try to take pictures of any of them ever again. I won't stalk anybody."

Craig said sarcastically, "Good boy," as though he was praising a bad pet that had finally stopped some bad behavior. He paused looked around in the shadows at the ten of us. He gestured to Gary who leaned forward and yanked the Bowie knife from the mattress with a terrible ripping sound. The cheap mattress was ruined - urine, shit, and a large knife hole. Kenesis shuddered and blocked his gut with his hands. The stench of shit had started to fill the room.

Craig's nostrils flared at the disgusting odor. He said to Kenesis, "When morning comes, you might want to think that our visit was just a dream. Just so you know this is real, here's a little memento of the past few moments - and a reminder of the promises you just made." Craig made a show of taking a bullet from his bandoleer. He tossed the single live 5.56 by 45 millimeter cartridge for the M16 on the bed in front of Kenesis. Kenesis flinched.

Craig commanded, "Pull the covers over your head and don't move for an hour - not a minute less; after that pack your bags and get the hell out of Reno. Go back to your home in East LA - see, we even know that's where you live." Immediately, Kenesis yanked the top sheet over his head and body. The sheet amplified the tremors that now riddled his body. I heard whimpering from under the sheet.

Craig added in menacing voice, "As you live out your life, know that one of us will always be near you from now on to be sure you stick to your promises. You'll never know who it is ... but know for sure that we will be watching you everyday. We have people ... everywhere!"

Craig turned from the bed and said roughly, "Men, back to our posts."

The sheet trembled, and we heard another sob from beneath the linen.

The eleven of us slid out the door of the motel room almost at a run, picked up the various bags and boxes that had held our gear that we'd left just inside the room next door, bolted down the outdoor stairway, and rapidly got into a large nondescript white van with no other markings on it. The license plate had been covered with an American flag. From door to departure, we were 'gone in sixty seconds' - just like the movie.

* * * * *

Crystal, the band, backup singers, and I rehearsed a few more numbers with the band and singers Saturday afternoon that we'd use during the Telethon that night.

We connected for an early dinner at an out of the way restaurant with the seven squad members, Craig, and Julia. Crystal and I were effusive with our thanks. We had a few laughs about what had happened, particularly how effective Crazy Carl and Gary had been. Most of all, we thanked Craig for organizing the whole midnight raid, and having the foresight to leverage what we'd learned about Kenesis' feelings for his siblings and their families by setting up parallel raid squads in three states. I reimbursed the men their travel and expenses too. We felt the night had accomplished what we hoped.

That evening, the Telethon tote board started to ratchet up at a more rapid rate as Crystal and I kicked off our second evening hosting the event. We did our best, and even had a couple of surprise guests, one of whom turned out to be Kenny Wilson, the country singer and stud that Crystal had hooked up with a few weeks earlier.

Crystal and Wilson did an impromptu duet together, and as I stood aside I could see some chemistry there. She'd told me weeks earlier that the two of them had sex in a fun night that she'd initiated to balance publicity about my relationship with Tama. If people only knew what went on behind the scenes.

I didn't feel competitive with Wilson for Crystal's affection. I'd been glad she found pleasure on their date. They did a great country jam that brought the audience in the ballroom to their feet with applause. The contributions poured in. Crystal and Wilson did some whispering after the duet as I made a plea for contributions and emphasized the '1-800' phone number. I wondered what was going on, and after they broke apart, Crystal led Wilson to a microphone and gestured me over.

Crystal spoke to everyone, "Ladies and gentlemen, last night Jim and I gave you all a two million dollar challenge that you responded to in a fantastic way. Well, tonight, Kenny Wilson has agreed to make the same challenge to our listeners and viewers. For the next hour, he will match dollar for dollar, up to a million dollars your contributions to the Children's Fund. So, make those telephones ring." She leaned over and kissed Wilson on the cheek; he mugged unbelievable surprise. He turned to me, and I shook his hand and gave him a knowing smile and a conspiratorial wink.

* * * * *

The Telethon ended Sunday at noon, a decision made by the network that would make more money by airing a couple of NFL games the rest of the day. Over fifty million dollars had been collected for the Children's Fund, over twice the target.

Daisy was ecstatic.

Daisy was also orgasmic. As soon as she could, she ended her work coordinating the event, turned it over to her staff, and joined her daughter Julia, Craig, Crystal, and me in our room. We'd waited for her to begin, and I had the honor of giving her the first orgasm of our afternoon and evening sex party. Our first round of sex flew by like a jet delivering a round of orgasms and generously spreading various body fluids among the participants. We rested, lounging around nude for a few minutes, and then began round two that proved more interesting.

Julia's pussy had been solidly planted on my face for about ten minutes. Her juices ran down my cheeks into my ears and down my neck. She tasted divine, her aroma was intoxicating, and I loved eating her almost as much as I loved the blowjob she'd been delivering to my steely cock for the same amount of time as we sixty-nined.

Beside me, Craig rammed his shaft in and out of Julia's mother.

Daisy moaned, but her sounds of joy were muffled because Crystal's pussy nestled atop Daisy's mouth so her tongue could lap and penetrate my lover's cunt. Crystal had been talking dirty to Craig and Daisy since we started, and we were all horny beyond description. I suspected we'd have a third, fourth, and more rounds too.

Crystal implored, "Craig, look at that big cock of yours sliding into that hairy pussy. You'd think something so small and pretty couldn't take something so big and wonderful. I want some of that too, but right now ... oh, fuck, Daisy you have the longest tongue of anyone I know. I think you can reach through my pussy all the way to the deepest part of my cunt to my G-spot. Oh, lick me more - harder - oh, fuck, I'm going to cum again."

Julia watched Crystal's orgasm, and then turned to me in a husky voice over her shoulder, "Come and fuck me."

We changed positions, and I put my cock deep into Julia's sopping wet quim before synchronizing my strokes with Craig who worked on Daisy two feet to my right. We both held the women's feet in the air, and matched each other stroke-for-stroke.

After a few minutes, Crystal said, "Julia, your turn to do me." She knee-walked around the top of the bed until she could straddle Julia's head, being careful not to pull on her long locks with her knees. She lowered her cunt into Julia's face.

Julia's tongue immediately went to work on Crystal's pussy. I watched as Crystal's eyes turned to little slits at the sapphic pleasure. Crystal's breasts vibrated in sync with my thrusts into Julia.

Daisy caught my eye and blew me a kiss. Her face was wet with female juices from Crystal. She reached over as Craig stroked into her body, took my hand, and brought my middle finger to her lips where she proceeded to perform fellatio on my digit. I swear I could feel more blood rush into my already-swollen cock.

Daisy also liked to talk dirty. She and Julia started to describe to each other the pleasures they were feeling from our two cocks, although Julia had to speak from below Crystal. "This cock is so long, and at the angle he's using, every time he pushes in, the side of that beast touches my clit. Oh, fuck, this is wonderful. I could swim in his cum; I'm so glad we didn't clean up from our earlier session. I love this bed and that all of us can fuck next to each other. Oh, fuck, I like watching and being watched."

Crystal leaned over and nudged Craig and Daisy, "Hey, can I have a turn?" Daisy sighed, and said, "Sure, if I can get Jim's cock in me for a while?"

Craig popped his cock from Daisy's pussy, leaving a visible dark hole before she moved her legs to roll into the position where Julia had been. Daisy knelt on the bed next to me, and we kissed hotly. She was fun to kiss because she could do little fancy and sensuous things inside my mouth with her tongue that I'd never had done before.

Daisy told me, "I want to be on top. I want you to suck on my breasts. I liked what you did before - in Michigan. I've never forgotten, Lover."

I held my cock rigid as Daisy sank down on it, rotating her body from side-to-side as she inched down my shaft. When I was fully inside her, she continued her little side-to-side rotations. I pulled her down to me so I could capture one of Daisy's full breasts in my mouth.

I must attract women with large areola, and Daisy was no exception, nor, for that matter, were Julia or Crystal. My mouth at its widest could just wrap around the dark portion of her breast. I'd then slide my lips around as I ground her breast into my mouth, and worked my tongue into her nipple. In seconds, I had each nipple standing at attention, a phenomenon that raised the tip of her tit about a half-inch from the flatter areola.

Daisy told me, "If you do that much longer, I'll cum just from your breast work."

I kept pumping my cock up into Daisy as my mouth continued its magic on her breasts. True to her word, Daisy climaxed about two minutes later, her girl juice flooding the area between us - again. She pleaded and loudly groaned her orgasm as she writhed her gorgeous body into mine.

I contend that orgasms are contagious. Next to me, I heard Craig announce to Crystal, "Oh, fuck. I'm about to fill your darlin' little pussy all full of my stuff."

Crystal panted a reply inviting the onslaught.

Just about the time his back arched and he made his final rough thrusts into Crystal, she peaked too - her eyes rolling around in passion as she emitted the little cooing sounds that I know signaled another climax rippling through her body like a major earthquake.
On the other side of me, Julia lay with her legs apart so I could watch her jilling off as she watched me fuck her mother. She had a long pink vibrator humming away inside her and a blissful look on her face. I realized for the first time how much I love watching a woman masturbate - her fingers sometimes a blur as they vibrate across her clitoris, and then there's the time when she pushes a finger or two into her vagina to further excite herself. Should she happen to have a fresh load of cum inside her, and start to pull that out, maybe to savor its taste that just adds mystique to the exhibitionism. Thus, Julia's performance became the tipping point for my own orgasm.

Watching Julia plus Craig, and Crystal, and feeling Daisy's pulsating pussy around my shaft, brought me to a climax. I didn't fight it; I went for the ride into my pleasure space and time. I blasted jet after jet of my semen up into Daisy's cunt.

"Oh, Jim, I can feel your hot cum. Oh, wow! That is so cool. You cum with a lot of power. It's all warm inside me." Daisy eased her body down on mine, her breasts flattening themselves out on my chest. We kissed passionately. I could feel her erect nipples there, and found the sensation highly arousing. As I looked around, I saw five happy people.

* * * * *

The 1988 Harley Davidson Heritage Softail hummed beneath me. Crystal and I had bid goodbye to Craig, Julia and Daisy first thing Monday morning after our Sunday afternoon and evening frolic. Crystal and I then had breakfast by ourselves, talking about what would happen after I reached California and spent time with my sister, although some of my plans were vague and uncertain. I wanted to focus my time and energies on my new music career and to do that I probably would need to return to Nashville where Crystal lived and worked, and to the center of the country music industry. After our breakfast, Crystal took a taxi to the airport.

I found relief that Bart Kenesis was no longer a threat to either Crystal or me. I believed that our intervention with him had been successful. Crystal and I could start our life together without forever looking over our shoulders and waiting for Kenesis to make some harassing move. Crystal worried about Kenesis or his family calling the police. My theory was that no one had been hurt, so a call by any of them to the police wouldn't produce any meaningful results: no one could be described, Crystal and I had an alibi - at Harrah's in bed together, and little else in the way of concrete evidence of any 'crime.' If anything, the stories would be seen as farfetched and incredulous.

I rode south out of Reno, and cut over to Lake Tahoe. The sun was low in the sky and the air crisp. Snow edged the roads. From the Nevada side of Tahoe, I could look across and see California. When I reached a scenic spot beside the lake, I stopped and took out my next to last envelope of Karen's ashes, and from a lakeside promontory let the chilly midday breeze carry them into the lake. I had been inconsolable when she'd died - thirty-two years old, with such promise. All these months later, I had found peace about her passing - her transition to something better as many would say.

In some ways, Karen's death hadn't been 'bad' for me - 'bad' is a value judgment we place on a situation, and we could be mistaken. If she had lived, we would have gone on to have children, and I am sure would have had happy and fulfilling lives. However, since she passed, my life had turned upside down, my values had shifted, and I'd thrown out a lot of rules and boundaries that had ceased to serve me. Things had surely become different - 'different' isn't a value judgment.

As I sat on the shore of the lake, I had a sense of awe and realization sweep over me. My old life had died right along with Karen. The old Jim Mellon had died. In place of the old, a new Jim Mellon had emerged: someone more comfortable with his sexuality, someone willing to reach out to others - even with love; someone more charitable and compassionate; someone more risk taking, someone willing to make large numbers of people feel better because of his talent, and a whole lot more. I liked this person much better than the person I had been.

Supposedly, we keep interacting with the same souls as we move from life to life, and we take on different roles to learn different life lessons. As I remounted the Harley, I wondered if Karen had become my angel, working on my behalf from other dimensions we are too limited to see. I said a prayer of love for my angel, and continued my ride around Lake Tahoe to the route that would take me into California.

I felt impatient to see Anna. I didn't know what my visit would bring, but I knew what I wanted to have happen. I wanted to make love to my sister. I wanted a relationship with her that transcended anything we'd had before - sibling, friend, and lover. I hoped Anna felt the same way.

Chapter 31

California

Karen's nude body knelt over mine, my erection only inches from her cunt and eager to sink deep into her body if only she'd lower her pussy onto my shaft. She dragged her excited tits across my chest and told me salacious things to arouse me to new sexual heights. "Can you imagine what it would be like to have Lauren with us. Imagine what we could do to her. Maybe she'd kneel in front of you, and you could plow into her hot pussy from behind as she ate your cum from my pussy. You'd be such a stud with the two of us. Maybe Lauren would sit on your face and let you eat her out as I rode your cock ... of she'd fuck you while you ate me out. Maybe you'd line the two of us up side by side on the bed and take turns driving you big hard cock into each of us, trying to make us cum and seeing which of us you happened to favor with your generous load of your white sticky fluids. Maybe Lauren and I would put on a sapphic show for you; the two of us getting in a sixty-nine as you beat your meat watching us lick each other to orgasm with our hot little fingers driving into each other's pussies trying to find each other's G-spot."

"You may not know this, but I wouldn't mind in the least eating your cum from her pussy - anybody's pussy. Oh, even better, how about we get Anna here. I think your sister is so hot. Imagine fucking your sister - kissing her passionately - while Lauren and I ate each other's pussies right next to you on this bed. After you splashed a gallon of cum into her, Lauren and I would eat your juice out of her cunt. Don't you think she'd like that? I bet we could bring her to orgasm after orgasm. You do it to your sister with your big dick, and we'd use our tongues. That would be so hot."

"You have this cock that I love so much. You could easily satisfy three hot women with this shaft, driving it into each of us ... fucking us ... loving us ... satisfying every urge we have. Why don't you put that big shaft of yours into my hot little cunt right now? Pretend I'm your sister. What would it be like making love to Anna? Maybe she'd kiss you like this ... and maybe her pussy would feel like this ... and maybe ... of, fuck. Oh, Jim ... OH, GOD!"

* * * * *

I woke from the dream in a cold sweat, but so unbelievably aroused that I had to masturbate. Karen had said all the things in the dream to me on one of our last times when we made love, and suddenly I could remember the words - the emotions - the passion - the ideas - the arousal. In the darkness surrounding my campsite I gave up my load to the night.

I rode my Harley motorcycle in the arid valley on the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevadas, admiring mile after mile of the towering mountain vistas. The weather was clear and chilly. When I stopped, I'd camp and practice my guitar, work on my journal, and write my emails to Lauren, Kim, Crystal, Ellen, and Anna detailing the sexual romps in Reno and Sedona. I sent a long email to Tama too, letting her know how things had worked out with Kenesis, and especially telling her how much I enjoyed our precious time together in Sedona. I'd stop in some small town, find a Wi-Fi hotspot and send the emails when I took a break.

As I got closer to San Diego, my thoughts increasingly turned to Anna. We'd had a special relationship as siblings. Sure we fought and teased, but we both knew there was a bond of love beneath that. In a way, it was deeper and more permanent than the love I felt for anyone else or that I'd even felt for Karen. I think from the time we learned about boy-girl relationships we wanted something more than just the sibling relationship fate had dealt us. Maybe it was only in my own mind that I thought there should be a romantic and sexual side to our relationship. I'd find someway to test the waters on that when I got to Anna's home.

I'd been a year ahead of Anna in school, and went into Army Special Forces out of college. I disappeared for almost eight years in the Army, and didn't see Anna except a few times in that period. I think we might have talked on the phone a few times, and I sent cards on special occasions. I missed her wedding; as I recall, I was secretly involved in a small war in Chad.

Anna's marriage lasted less than seven years. They had two children - a boy and a girl who were now around eleven and twelve. I'd only seen pictures of them, and sent them presents from strange places around the world. I'd been the missing and mysterious uncle in their lives - the uncle who traveled the globe and then the uncle who lived three thousand miles away.

Anna came east alone when our father died, and five years later when Karen and I got married. She returned a couple of years after that when our mother died, and then she came to say goodbye to Karen and help me get through Karen's death. She never brought her kids - too much hassle she said. She stayed a few weeks each visit, and later I guessed that on her early visits she was escaping from the crumbling relationship she was in. Anna described her ex as a good guy and an impeccable father, just a lousy husband. He still played an active role in the kids' lives.

On each of those visits, we spent hours talking, even sitting up all night a few times with two bottles of wine reconnecting with each other. Those nights were so intimate. I learned a lot about my sister that I didn't know. More than once, she'd curl up against me and we'd hold each other, more like boyfriend-girlfriend than siblings. Maybe we were each too shy to risk taking the first step to a deeper relationship.

Since Missouri, I had shared with Anna the same erotic details of my sexual adventures that I wrote to Lauren, Kim, Crystal, and Ellen. She hadn't asked; I just started to send the emails to her. Anna made no mention of the sexy parts of my emails when she'd email her news, yet I could tell she'd read them. I'd decided to take her silence on the subject as acceptance; however, only a week or so earlier, Anna had told me on a call to keep sending them to her - that she liked them. She'd been so explicit in her interest that I found myself pleasantly shocked, and I again felt that intimacy with her that I'd only fantasized about. Her interest also gave me hope of deepening our relationship sexually.

* * * * *

I'd traveled over 12,500 miles on the Harley on this road trip. I stood in Anna's driveway and for a moment admired the bike that had become a part of me in the seven months since I started. The bike wasn't as pristine as it had been after I'd rebuilt it from the ground up; for instance, the nasty scrapes down one side reminded me of the tornado in Kansas that I'd been lucky to survive.

I had resisted anthropomorphizing the machine by giving it a name or talking to it. Yet, as I turned to go to Anna's front door, I patted the bike, and said aloud, "Thank You." The bike had carried me from deep grief to acceptance, and from some degree of naiveté to sophistication, and from loneliness to love. What more could I ask?

Anna stood on her front step as I walked up to the house. I could never sneak up on anybody when I arrived on the Harley. She had a smile from ear to ear. She said, "You did it. I am so proud of you." With that, she held her arms open to me. I walked inside them, and we kissed. At first, it was the polite smooch that distant relatives give each other, but then, Anna pulled away from me, looked me in the eyes, and pulled my head to hers so we could kiss in a new, emotional, passionate, and enthusiastic manner. Sparks flew from the nails in my western boots. This was better than the kiss she'd left me with in Dillon about eight months earlier.

Anna held my hand as she led me around her house, babbling about how suddenly the place was paid for, and she knew it was my doing, and she had all this money, and why did I do that too. I allowed her to vent - she was ebullient and happy. She explained that my nephew and niece were with their father on a weeklong school trip to the Bay Area, and would return seven days hence. Anna also told me she'd taken the week off to be with me. I got a summary of their lives since I'd seen her last - two normal, healthy kids I'd finally get to meet. Anna hugged me a lot.

She knew it was my first time in San Diego, and she wanted me to see all the touristy things before I settled in for a while. I got a travel log as we walked back out to my Harley. Anna helped me carry my gear inside the house. I opted for a sofa bed she had in her basement playroom instead of displacing the kids from their beds. Anna seemed embarrassed that she couldn't offer me better accommodations. I made a note to offer her a larger home sometime soon.

I told her, "I want to be with you. I don't care about the bed; I've slept on lumpy ground out in the open many nights on this trip, so this is much better than any campground, especially since you're here."

Finally, Anna started to run out of steam, and the steady stream of talking slowed. She took a deep breath, and then offered me some wine. We each got a glass of Chardonnay over ice, and we went and sat in her small backyard. I could tell that Anna's initial nervousness and excitement about my arrival had finally worn off.

In a worried tone, she asked, "Jim, why'd you send me all that money ... and pay off the mortgage? Are you that flush with cash?" Anna was genuinely concerned that I'd overspent on her behalf.

"Yes, I have a healthy bank account - very healthy - several million. Before it evaporated, I wanted to do something for you and the kids. You can call it guilt money for not being around doing the duties of a good brother and uncle." Anna's jaw dropped.

"Well, I'm awed by your generosity, and you didn't ..."

"Nonsense, you're part of me - we're part of each other, the same blood. Anything I've got, I'm ready to share with you. The money is the easiest; but tell me what you want and it's yours."

Anna said in a furtive voice, "I may want more than you're prepared to give." I could tell my sister's statement had nothing to do with money.

I responded in an equally hushed voice, "I may surprise you." In just those two sentences, my heart started to beat more rapidly. We were at the precipice I'd dreamed about over and over.

We were both silent as we digested the tone and implications of those few words.

Anna finally shook her head as though to clear her head; she spoke more openly, "Will you take me to dinner ... on your motorcycle?"

"Certainly; what's your pleasure?"

"This'll sound strange, but I want to go to someplace where you'll be recognized - where people will make a fuss over you. I want to watch my 'new' brother in action."

Despite that tall order, I agreed, but warned her that I'd been many places where I'd not been recognized and thought I would be; I feared she'd be disappointed by the lack of people's reactions about my stardom.

I rummaged through some of the boxes I'd shipped to Anna from around the country, and found some of my clothes that were nicer than what I usually wore while riding the bike. I took a quick shower and changed into clean jeans, handsome western boots, a white peasant sport shirt, and a western cut men's jacket. I added some of the native jewelry I'd bought in Taos, and pocketed a silver and turquoise necklace to present to Anna over dinner.

Anna wore a pair of jeans that made me blink twice to be sure they weren't painted on her body. Her top somehow amplified her breasts, and positively presented cleavage a normal brother isn't supposed to notice. She wore a small vest that further emphasized her best features. My eyebrows went up, and I smiled. She said with a grin, "Exactly the kind of reaction I'd hoped for." She kissed my cheek, and I felt the kiss long afterwards.

I passed her a leather jacket and helmet, and I put my own on. A few minutes later we were on our way to a well-known waterfront restaurant west of the airport called the Blue Wave. The ride took about twenty minutes, and Anna hugged me close the whole ride, even rubbing my sides with her hands occasionally in a most affectionate manner.

We'd called for a reservation, and so we got a superb table with a view that looked out across a huge marina. I'd requested window seating with a couple of space heaters to keep my 'date' warm. To facilitate 'being recognized,' I just happened to mention that the Jim Mellon making the reservations was the same Jim Mellon that was a country music star. I figured I'd milk the system just this once. When we got to the restaurant, I found several unusual conveniences. The valet that parked cars had created a special 'motorcycle only' spot for me. He looked exceptionally pleased as he led me to the nearby spot. He promised to watch the bike and not let anyone touch it. I shook his hand, thanked him, and gave him a twenty.

As we got off the bike, a couple of camera flashes went off. Three members of the paparazzi were there. I took Anna over to them, and she shook their hands too. They asked a few polite questions, but seemed slightly disappointed to find out that the woman I was with was my sister. Not much news there. We did pose for some photos, and Anna got very excited over the whole activity.

I felt skittish talking to the paparazzi after weeks of being stalked and even shot at by Bart Kenesis. I felt certain he'd no longer bother me, but he had left an unpleasant after-taste I had to get over about the press. Terry reminded me frequently that a country music artists needs to get their name 'out there' to sell albums and generate interest in concerts and things like movies. He had a saying, 'There's no such thing as bad publicity.' Well, almost; we never let the Branson photos see the light of day to test that hypothesis.

Inside, we had the best table in the house, and the most solicitous service I'd had anywhere. Soon, a buzz seemed to go through the restaurant. I'd experienced it a few times before. I'd been recognized. Without looking, I pointed out the change in ambience to Anna, and she acknowledged the turning heads and hushed voices. Other diners at nearby tables started to 'eye' the two of us. I would politely engage their stares and nod back at them in a friendly way. I taught Anna how to do the same, and she got a chuckle out of mastering the technique so that she could get a smile from the person watching us.

One shy teenage girl approached the table just as we'd gotten our wine. She asked for my autograph, but I explained that I couldn't do that, or soon I'd have everyone in the place at our table. She seemed to understand and looked disappointed for a moment. At that point, I pulled an empty chair from the table and invited her to sit with us for a minute with a welcome that would look to others as though she might have been my niece. She sat, and we had a few minutes of nice conversation. We learned she was visiting from Denver with her parents, and had to fly back the next day. I invited some questions from her, and tried to lighten the mood with some laughs. Eventually, she thanked me profusely for talking to her, excused herself, and walked back to her parent's table standing a little taller. I'd noticed another teen I took to be an older sister taking a video of her with us, so she had some 'proof' positive of her interaction with us. I excused myself from Anna for a moment, walked over to the parent's table, shook everyone's hand, and told them what a nice daughter they had, and how I appreciated her friendship. The teen gave me a hug before I went back to the table with Anna with a big smile and a warm heart.
Anna glowed after I returned, "You made her whole day - her whole family's day. She'll remember sitting with you the rest of her life. They all will because you did something so special for them."

I shrugged and said, "Maybe she'll become famous and remember to be especially pleasant to a young teenager some time. Besides, she was a nice person; you could tell in the first thirty seconds. The whole family is nice."

Our conversation drifted a little, and then Anna said, "You've had a fabulous trip, and you've found a lot of love during your travels."

I told her, "Anna, when I started I hurt badly from Karen's death. Finding love again was the farthest thing from my mind. I didn't even think I was worthy of anyone else embracing me in their thinking that way. I felt beaten down. One by one, I found beautiful women who helped me see my worth as a human - as a lover - and even as a mate. At least five women deeply love me: Lauren, Kim, Crystal, Ellen, and Summer in her special way. I hope you feel the same way."

Anna grabbed ahold of my hand and squeezed it tightly, "Oh, Jim. You never have to question my love for you. It's deeper than you'll ever know - and I've always felt you were worthy of being loved, from my earliest memory about you."

She brought my hand to her mouth and kissed my palm and wrapped the kiss in my fingers. I glanced around the restaurant to see if anyone had caught our tender moment, but no one seemed to be staring at us at that instant.

Our appetizers arrived, and our direction of conversation changed. Anna and I talked about my road trip, and rehashed many of the phone calls I'd had with her about getting through my grief over losing Karen. She commiserated with me, and applauded the little ceremony I'd created where I left an envelope of her ashes in each state. On the other side of things, I got Anna talking about my nephew and niece, how her ex was behaving, and how her career was going.

After the starters had been bussed away, I reached in my pocket and pulled out a small bundle of light blue tissue paper - a Native American silver necklace made with an elaborate filigree and exquisite inset turquoise. I made a little fuss over laying it out on the table in front of Anna. Her eyes got big and verged on teary.

I told her, "I bought this for you in Santé Fe because I love you. I've always thought you were worthy of love too. Tama, the woman I told you about made it by hand. I thought this was her finest piece of art."

Anna choked up a bit. I stood, picked up the necklace, walked behind her, and put the necklace around Anna's neck fastening the clasp. I stood back and smiled, "You look stunning. Of course, you looked stunning before the necklace, but it completed the picture perfectly." Now, all eyes in the place were drawn to Anna's gorgeous cleavage because of the gorgeous jewelry. I kissed her forehead in a brotherly manner and sat down, although my instincts were to lavish far more impressive kisses on my sister. I think she wanted something more significant too.

After more thanks for the gift, Anna thought for a moment and said, "Tama is the one from the sweat lodge, right?"

I nodded.

"Crystal, Tama, and you made love together?" She already knew the answer, but I guess she wanted to hear me say it aloud.

"Yes, we shared ourselves with each other. It was erotic, tender, lusty, spiritual, and amazing. Tama is a full-blooded Native American, and she has such a wonderful and open disposition. She's also a shaman, and believes I have leanings in that direction too."

"I've heard the term, but what does it mean; what can she do?"

I explained, "She has innate skills that enable her to go to the boundary between this human realm and the spiritual world. She can feel and see things in both dimensions, see the future sometimes, and has a unique way of seeing the past because of that. She can also heal. In Sedona, she showed Crystal and me how we could sense ... well, let's just say spiritual things. Crystal and I are beginners compared to Tama's skills, and she doesn't think she's all that advanced. She's working on perfecting her new skills, particularly sensing someone's future."

"And, you made love to her?" Anna's rhetorical question sounded as if I'd done something sacrilegious to an angel.

"Many times."

"And Crystal?"

"Many times as well."

Anna went silent, and then our entrees arrived. We ate, talking about the food, commented about the lights in the marina and the mass of boats, and made notice of how some people were noticing us. Towards the end of that segment of the meal, Anna said, "Does it bother you that Crystal is bisexual - that she has sex with women?"

I responded naturally, "No, far from it. I like it. She's broadened my horizons about sex so much - along with others, as you probably know. Neither of us gets jealous about our relationships with others, even when they're occurring right in front of us. I wrote you one time about my new views on this. The more people you love, the more people show up in your life that love you back, and you can never have too much of that." As an afterthought, I asked, "Do you like having orgasms?"

Anna giggled, "What a question to ask your sister! Of course, I love them. What woman doesn't?"

"Well, I love watching two women make love and giving each other orgasms; I've learned from watching because they know things about their anatomy that most males don't. Kim also taught me what to study when I watched a couple making love - moves, techniques, erogenous zones, pressure points, romance, and the attentiveness. I've learned that instead of getting climaxes from a cock inserted in your vagina, which many women don't, you get them many other ways - fingers, tongue, pussy-to-pussy, or an erotic toy. How do you get yours? Boyfriend?" I had been curious about Anna's social life and hoped my blunt question would get answered.

Anna smirked and blushed. In a low voice, she whispered, "Vibrator. No boyfriend - no one even close to fulfilling that role. It's been that way for a while."

I pushed with a lewd grin, "Do you enjoy sex often, even alone?"

Her blush deepened; Anna whispered, "I'm embarrassed to admit I jill off almost daily, sometimes more frequently than that." She got embarrassed and threw a playful punch at my arm, "My God, why am I telling you this? My brother!"

I told her in a low voice, "You need a 'fuck buddy' ... of either sex." I laughed as I teased her. She shook a spoon at me in a challenging gesture, but nodded in agreement.

* * * * *

Once we were back at Anna's home, she pulled the draperies closed as I relaxed on the sofa per her instructions. Anna puttered around the kitchen and came back into the living room with two demi-glasses of liqueur; she set them on the coffee table. She flipped off all but one of the lights, and dialed in KSDS on the FM stereo. Some really mellow music came from the speakers: Slow Dancing by Johnny Rivers started playing. I think the song is one of the most romantic ballads ever sung, and I felt in that mood with Anna.

I stood and held out my arm to her in a gesture that indicated 'Let's dance.' Anna came into my arms. She snuggled into me, and I protectively enclosed her. We started swaying slowly, the pretext of dancing clearly an excuse for close contact by the two of us - really close.

I could smell Anna's natural aroma, a scent I'd known my entire life. Her hair against my cheek felt so soft, and the skin of her cheek on mine felt so right. My heart surged with feelings of love for Anna.

After the song had played and another slow number began, Anna looked into my face and whispered, "Kiss me."

I did. We did.

Our bodies still swayed, but our lips were locked together in a dance of love. Our tongues flitted into each other's mouths, probing and amplifying our kisses and the emotions we were turning loose.

After a couple of minutes of our French kissing, Anna pulled away and fanned her face with one hand. "You ... you're ... hot ... and ... you're turning me on." She seemed mildly embarrassed.

Anna turned to the coffee table and said, "I brought us some liqueur, to thank you for dinner, and to celebrate your arrival and the end of your road trip." She held up a small glass to me and held her glass in the other hand. "In one of your emails, you mentioned that you do something creative and sexy with liqueur. I thought maybe you could show me." She knew from the context I'd written in some emails that what I did was sexy and arousing. I saw her coy look at me.

I reached out to her and took both glasses. She looked puzzled. I set one back on the table, sipped from the one I kept - Benedictine and Brandy. I moved to kiss Anna again. Anna allowed the kiss, and when my tongue probed deep into her mouth she even opened further in invitation and to promote our mutual desire. At that instant, I jetted the liqueur from my mouth into hers in an erotic act. I felt Anna's body swoon into mine. The arm she had around my neck pulled me closer. She kissed back, her tongue rapidly probing into my own mouth, not so much to savor the rich liquid, as to express her passion. Her hips pushed into my groin, and I knew she could feel my swelling sex. She pushed harder and kissed even harder and more passionately.

"Again," she whispered when we came up for air.

I took another sip of the liqueur, and we kissed with renewed passion. The liquid kisses between us were like throwing gasoline on a fire, and the fire was the latent passion that had burned between the two of us for decades. In those kisses, I knew we'd set free an avalanche, and there could be no stopping where it would take us.

I briefly whispered, "Anna. Are you sure you want to go this direction?" If Anna had any reservations, I wanted her to voice them or act on them. I didn't want to take advantage of her in my own desire to make love to her. She kissed me back and in a hushed tone said, "I've never been surer of anything in the world. I've wanted to be with you ... forever."

We repeated the liquid kisses several more times, and then Anna unbuttoned my shirt and pushed it from my upper body. I tossed it on a chair. She kissed around my bare chest, even using her tongue on my nipples. She kissed the gunshot wound I'd gotten in Alabama, and my other scars - badges of honor she called them.

I placed my hands on the vest she still wore, and removed the outer garment. The buttons of her blouse opened easily, revealing more of her deep cleavage. We were staring into each other's eyes or kissing often as I undressed her. The blouse joined my shirt, and seconds later so did her bra. Anna's breasts were full and excited and the most wonderful things I'd ever seen. Our chests pressed together, skin on skin. While our kisses might be excused, I knew most people would consider this kiss and skin contact taboo. Our sexual contact excited me like few other things I'd done in my life.

Instead of lunging for a tit with my mouth or groping her with both hands, I picked up the demi-glass of liqueur we hadn't consumed. I held the glass above her extended breasts and let a few drops splash onto her chest and form a few rivulets that ran down the upper curve of her breasts to her nipples, and then dripped on her abdomen as she moved to catch them there.

I said with a touch of humor, "Oh, dear, I spilled some of my drink."

In the spirit of things, Anna smiled coyly and responded with mock concern, "Well, you'll just have to clean it up. Might I suggest you just use your tongue since it seems to be handy and nearby?"

I allowed my tongue to venture onto the forbidden landscape of her taut breasts. I lapped at the few drops, and when I reached the nipple of each breast, I sucked hard and bit gently. Anna moaned and cradled my head. She whispered over and over, "Don't stop. Don't ever, ever stop! Oh, God, Jim, I love you so. I have waited all my life for this to happen - for this night."

I made love to her breasts for quite a while, our bodies often swaying to the music of a torch song. Sometimes, we'd stand apart just enough so her erect nipples grazed my chest; sometimes, just enough so we could stare into each other's eyes, reading each other's hopes and desires for our future together perfectly. Time ceased to have any meaning or relevance; all that existed was the two of us, our love, and the passion we felt. We were connected on so many levels my heart soared. The arc of the next hours of our lives lay before us, visible and inevitable - so taboo, so wrong, and so right.

We undressed each other the rest of the way, slowly as though we were savoring each second of our 'new' time together. Even when we were nude, we resisted taking a fast sexual trip to bed and to orgasm. We danced some more. I can still recall the Placido Domingo and John Denver song Perhaps Love playing as we danced, kissed, and enjoyed the long-overdue tactile sensation of our naked bodies rubbing together, Anna's erect nipples stroking across my chest and my erection caught between the two of us. I had never felt so in love with anyone in my life.

Eventually, Anna led me to her bed. She lay down and looked up; I stood above her holding the small glass of liqueur I'd brought from the living room. She laughed as I drizzled a half-dozen more drops of the liquid into her pubic hair.

Anna said in a mock parental tone with a spreading smile on her lips, "Now, James, you've made a nasty mess again. I hope you intend to clean up your spills, right now."

I just nodded as I knelt at the foot of the bed and maneuvered Anna's legs over my shoulders. My tongue made contact directly on her clit. Anna's eyes closed, she moaned, and she climaxed instantly. She'd been primed for my touch for years. One of her hands just held my head still, neither pulling me to her cleft nor pushing me away. After thirty seconds, she relaxed again and even gave my head a little gesture to her dripping cunt - still sweet with the liqueur. I feasted on Anna's pussy, lapping up every drop of liqueur and then savoring her natural juices that flowed with love and excitement from her body. Anna responded by coaxing me to bring her to further orgasms. As I did, I learned about each of her erogenous zones, testing them individually before I thought I might try them in a concerted effort of pleasure.

Anna said in a husky voice, "You emailed me the many sexy adventures you had. I couldn't wait for the next one. When I'd see I had an email from you, I'd take my laptop and vibrator to bed with me, and then I'd read your erotic story. I wanted to be in every one of them, even the ones where the women made love. I wanted to be the woman you were fucking - that you were making love to that you watched with lust and love. I wanted to have you over me, beneath me, beside me, making love to me for hours - your cock deep inside me. Oh, God. I felt so decadent, but I knew what I wanted. I've known what I wanted since I was fourteen. I wanted you!"

She paused as I lapped wildly at her cunt, driving my tongue up inside her along with two fingers. Anna continued, "I have every one of your stories saved. I reread them all the time. The first one you sent me was from Branson - Crystal, Ellen, Terry, and you fucked yourselves silly that weekend. I know you got photographed, but that aside, I could just feel the joy of your cock ... or Terry's ... plunging into my cunt. Oh, I'd have wanted to please you soooooooo. I would have done Terry too. You don't know it, but I'm that kind of person."

Another orgasm ripped through Anna's body. "Jim, now. Come and make love to me now. Please, let's do it - after all these years. I can't wait a second longer. Fuck me. Make love to me, and never stop." Anna's hands pulled me from her lower body and urged me to come up on the bed - up atop her. She spread her legs and pulled me between them.

In the dim light from the hall, we could still see each other as I rubbed my rock hard erection against her slit. The area oozed with fluids from her body and my saliva. I rubbed for over two minutes, and all we did was smile at each other over what we were about to do. When the time seemed right, I allowed the mushroomed cap of my cock to catch in the deeper part of her slit, and then I thrust forward; sinking my shaft into her love burrow.

We coupled, and I thought I heard the angels sing. We made love for a long time. I used every skill Kim had taught me about Tantric sex and every technique I'd discovered in my travels since then to please my sister, coaxing Anna to more peaks as I crested and backed away. We changed positions, and talked about our favorite ways to make love. Anna kept cumming, and after an hour, I exploded into her body. A gallon of my semen surged into her as the paroxysm of infinite joy and spiritual bliss encompassed our bodies. We even cried in our joy and happiness over finally connecting after all these years of wanting something we felt we couldn't have - and finally we'd thrown caution to the wind and captured that bliss. We both felt this was what we'd come to life to do.

* * * * *

"I love you."

I awoke to those words and smiled in happiness. Anna's nude body lay beside me, and she held her chin up with one hand. She leaned in a kissed me.

I kissed back. "I love you too."

She asked with a touch of sarcasm, "Are you the kind that fuck and run?"

I pulled her to me, "Not in your case. From here on out, I'm always within reach - if not close, just call me, and I'll be here in your arms. I love you - really, really love you. Oh, God, Anna, why didn't we do this back when we were teens?"

"No regrets. Come and make love to me again."

Our morning tryst proved we were both as enthusiastic about making love the morning after, as we had been most of the night before.

As we enjoyed our afterglow, I cradled Anna in my arms. I could feel the nipples of her excited breasts against the side of my chest, and in turn remained excited myself. I kissed every square inch of skin I could find and told my sister how much I loved her with each kiss.

Anna said, "I thought I'd react so differently to incest, yet I'm as happy as can be. I don't think we've done anything wrong; in fact, I can't understand why all siblings don't do this."

I ventured with some humor, "Maybe they do."

Anna thought for a while, and said, "I was just thinking, you've had many incestuous experiences on your trip: Crystal and Ellen; Kim and June; oh, and Daisy and Julia; and the mother-daughter lawyers you shacked up with in Louisiana; Ann and Dorrie in Colorado; the sisters and mother in Montana ... what am I forgetting?" She sat up and crossed her legs Indian style and studied me. I found the view of her cunt irresistible so I stared. I didn't pick up the subtlety that she'd mentioned a couple of situations that I hadn't emailed to her.

I said, "Lauren; she joined Crystal, Ellen, and me in Indianapolis. She also had sex with Karen."

"Why do you suppose they all made love with you?"

I marveled at how sexy Anna looked as I responded, "Probably my pheromones ... and, Darling, you're leaking. Would you like me to clean that up for you - to lick you clean?"

Anna briefly looked horrified and then intrigued. She said, "You'd really do that?"

I nodded.

Anna said in a voice touched with awe, "My ex wouldn't even go down on me after I'd just taken a shower. What you proposed sounds really hot, and I'd like to see it happen, but not this time. I definitely want a rain check." She scrambled out of bed holding her crotch so she wouldn't drip and raced to the bathroom, shouting something about joining her in the shower.

Late-morning found us walking the grounds at the Coronado Bay Resort, otherwise known as The Del. The place opened in 1888, and is one of the top hotels in the world. We walked some of the corridors inside and marveled at the photographs of actors, actresses, kings, queens, presidents, rock stars, inventors, and a list of the famous over the past hundred plus years. We had brunch at the hotel's Sheerwater Restaurant on a terrace looking out across the bay to Point Loma and out at the Pacific Ocean.
Over our meal, I asked Anna, "Why'd you come out here to California, or maybe I should ask why'd you stay out here?"

Anna looked pensive, "Part of it was rebellion; I just wanted to get as far from Mom and Dad as I could. You'd left for College, and my last year in high school was impossible with them. You'd deflected a lot of Mom and Dad's attention when you were around; when you left, I got it all."

"How so?"

"You've felt it, and been influenced by it your adult life. Our parents were strictly by the book; not religious, but they may as well have been devout. Anything out of the ordinary, particularly if relationships or sex were involved and they'd come unglued and start laying down rules. Things were so restrictive and lacking in flexibility that I left."

"Were you ... err, promiscuous after you left?"

Anna chuckled at my unease, "Yes and no. I love sex, no thanks to Mom and Dad's influence, and despite their rules and strict morality when I turned seventeen I thought of it as a natural way for people to connect and relate. I lost my virginity at sixteen. In those days, the more I fucked the merrier. In college here on the west coast, I tried almost everything; what they say about California girls is true. Those years helped me set a few boundaries, but I don't have many, and I understand a lot about other people's boundaries. Now, I'm picky about whom I hookup with, so I have a lot of 'dry spells.' I'm glad we broke through a new frontier last night." She grinned at me, and reached to hold my hand.

I told her, "I'm glad that boundary came down too."

"So there's a new 'us' sitting here in love with each other - and I do love you. Should we have expectations about our relationship?

Anna said, "I have no expectations just a lot of hopes about us. I've always loved you, and now I love you more and in more interesting and sexy ways that I never want to have stop. I hope we can see each other more often, and it doesn't even have to be every month - just more frequently than a family wedding or funeral - like that movie. I hope we continue to enjoy the sexual closeness we just found, particularly as you travel the world entertaining. I love having sex with you. I want more of it - lots more, if you're willing. I hope you always feel loved by me, and I mean that from the deepest part of my soul."

Before I could say anything, Anna continued, "I don't have designs on you. I don't demand exclusivity; in fact, I know you also love Crystal, Ellen, Kim, and Lauren, and some others. I know you'll find still more women to love that you haven't even met. I hope there's a place for all of the people that love you in each other's lives." Anna thought for a few minutes and added in a serious tone, "I guess I'll need to be more bisexual to share in your joy, and to share in the love you have for these other women. Your emails sure made that part of things sound interesting."

Three hours had passed during our discussion over brunch. When we were through our meal and a bit talked out, Anna directed me about ten miles north to Torrey Pines State Reserve, the home of the world famous Black Beach. I could understand why Anna had wanted to bring two large beach towels. After parking, we meandered down some well-worn trails and steep paths to get to the beach.

The air had warmed, but was far from balmy. The cliffs behind us blocked the wind from the beach, and the sun had warmed the black sands. Anna led us to a spot appropriately distant from some other sun worshippers, and promptly stripped out of her clothing, her magnificent body coming into view as she piled her clothes in a corner of her large towel. I followed suit, acutely aware that I had an erection. As we stood naked together, Anna came into my arms and kissed me with renewed passion. We stood for several minutes and made out, an activity that aroused me in a unique way as we did it in public. I wondered how severe the penalties were for having sex on the nude beach.

Anna lay down, and I joined her. The sun did feel good on my skin. Anna observed, "You have such strong tan lines. I can tell you spent a lot of time riding in just a sleeveless shirt." She reached over and traced my tan lines and my muscles with her fingers. Her touch was loving and electric.

An older couple strolled by, their nudity taken for granted and nothing that invited voyeurism. A hundred feet behind them came two beautiful young co-eds as naked as jaybirds; I had to roll onto my stomach lest I embarrass myself.

Anna surprised me after they were out of earshot, "I'd fuck either one of them ... or both." I looked at her, and her eyes were following the girls as they continued their stroll away from us, their cute asses oscillating just the way they're supposed to when you're that age. After the temptation had passed, I rolled onto my back again.

I mumbled under my breath, "So would I." Anna laughed.

Anna stroked my abs after I lay back on the towel. "You are in great shape." She allowed her hand to droop so it just grazed my tumescent penis. I responded, but tried to ignore the taunt, as well as her seductive nude body in arm's reach.

I said, "I work at it - mind, body, and spirit." After I paused, I asked, "Do you meditate? This seems like an ideal place for it: being totally natural - no clothing, the sounds of the ocean and the birds, and the warmth of the sun even on a chilly day."

Anna nodded and sat up. She faced the water, crossed her legs in the lotus position, extended her arms to her knees, gazed out at the water, and slipped into a trance-like state. I repeated the process and joined her, soon oblivious to all but the sparkling water on the horizon, and for a while I wasn't even sure if we were on this planet or in this lifetime.

Later, we walked the beach, returned to our clothing, dressed, and went back to Anna's home. We ended the afternoon, with a long, leisurely love-making session.

* * * * *

As we dressed for dinner, Anna said in a kittenish manner, "By the way, did I tell you that I have a surprise or two for you this evening?"

In my most suspicious voice, I said, "Nooooo?"

Anna said, "Well, on our way to dinner, we have to run an errand."

The errand took us to San Diego International Airport. I felt totally puzzled as Anna pulled her car curbside in front of the United Airlines terminal. She only grinned at me in response to my questions about why we were there; but I guessed someone I knew was about to arrive. Ten minutes later, Lauren came through the doors. Anna and I hopped out and waved.

Lauren saw us, and ran, putting her arms around both of us and kissing us madly. I noticed a special familiarity between the two women, but knew they hadn't seen each other since Karen's funeral in February.

As Anna and Lauren hugged and talked briefly about Lauren's trip, I collected her two bags and put them in the truck of Anna's car.

Anna took us to the Club Lounge, one of the bars at the nearby Sheraton adjacent to the airport. Below us, a thousand boats of all sizes and shapes were moored at the Harbor Island Marina. The scene was spectacular.

As we sat there, waiting for the cocktails we ordered, my eyes suddenly bulged out of my head: Kim Hume walked towards our table with a smile on her face.

I almost caused a scene with my loud voice, "KIM!"

We were on each other a second later, a flurry of hugs and kisses and words about missing each other, and loving each other. I finally was able to ask her, "What are you doing here?"

Anna stood beside us, looking very proud of herself. She said, "I knew this was someone important to you, and I wanted Kim here to celebrate the new you and the end of your road trip. Your emails always talked so eloquently about Kim mentoring you that I knew this week would be incomplete without her."

I hugged both women to me. I was almost speechless. Lauren and Kim hit it off instantly, and I had the odd feeling they'd already talked or met. I had so many questions for Kim, and so much I needed to talk to her about. Second, only to Crystal, Kim had been the person that helped mold the 'new me.' I reflected back repeatedly on the days we spent in Wisconsin, and our conversations where she helped me with so many issues in my life.

After our drinks, Anna indicated that we should think about dinner. I settled the tab, collected Kim's luggage from the concierge, and loaded it into Anna's car. Kim had flown her own jet into Lindberg Field and gotten a ride from the general aviation terminal to the nearby hotel.

Anna took a couple of back roads leaving the hotel - roads that wove back into the main airport. As we drove past the arrival ramps, she pulled over and stopped again. I questioned Anna, but she just pointed. Crystal and Ellen walked to the car, each only carrying a purse, attaché case, and a small suitcase.

Again I was totally shocked. I looked at Anna and said in a pleased tone, "You set this all up? You devil." I kissed her hard. In the back seat, Lauren and Kim were laughing.

Anna laughed too, and in that instant I caught a glimpse of my rebellious teenage sister. She said, "I have some reasons, and you'll know all of them in a day or so. They've already stayed at the house a few nights. Most of their luggage is already there."

I probed, "Come on, share at least one of your plans with me."

Anna answered with a lilt in her voice, "Well, for one, the five of us wanted to celebrate the end of your road trip. What you did was amazing - just under eight months to visit forty-eight states. You did a lot of good as you went along. You are phenomenal."

I got out of the car to hug and kiss Crystal and Ellen. I'd said goodbye to Crystal only six days earlier in Reno; believing she was flying back to Nashville. After I hugged and firmly kissed her sister, Crystal explained that when she'd left me in Reno, she'd flown to see Anna. Ellen joined them the same day; and then yesterday before I had arrived, she and Ellen had flown to Los Angeles for some meetings at Sony Entertainment.

Anna made me drive and she got into the front passenger's seat. When we were all in the car, Lauren got a lecherous look and added to Anna's earlier statement. "Yes, we're here to celebrate the end of your road trip." She looked contrite, "I was right; you were wrong. You actually fucked your way across the entire country just the way I predicted. So, did you keep count the way I asked? How many pussies have you been in since you left Dillon?"

In a whisper I said, "Eighty."

Lauren and Anna did a high five across the front seat. Lauren turned back to me, "See I told you. I assume you learned a few things here and there, at least your emails indicated you did. I can't wait to fuck the 'new' you." She looked at Kim and added, "And you too. From what Jim wrote, I gather you had a lot to do with his 'education.'"

Kim laughed and nodded. She was new to these women, but they all knew from my emails and calls what an important role she'd played in my life.

I looked sheepish. Try as I might, I couldn't coax any further information from any of them. The more they talked the more obvious it became that the five had obviously collaborated by telephone and taken a vow of silence on certain topics. As we drove, Anna did assure me that no one else would be arriving for the week.

As we drove, from the backseat, Crystal asked me rather bluntly from the back seat, "Did you fuck her yet? Did you do Anna? Is she one of your 'eighty'?"

Before I could respond, Anna said to her, "Yes, I'm the last one, and he's as good as you said he'd be." Her openness indicated that the four new arrivals were obviously 'in' on our incestuous plans and behavior.

I added to divert the conversation slightly, "This is heaven. All my favorite people are within arm's reach."

Anna had me drive us to a restaurant called Bertrand at Mister A's. Located on the twelfth floor of a modern building downtown, the view to the Pacific and up and down the coast stole the show, even in the darkness of the evening.

We laughed, and the five of them teased me incessantly about little habits I had that each of them called out. Anna would ask the others some silly question, such as, "Does he always scratch his tummy after sex?" The other four would laugh uproariously as one or another gave an imitation of that 'fault' or introduce another. I have broad shoulders, and laughed right along with them.

The whole dinner was foreplay. No one announced anything; it was clear that sex was on everyone's mind, even Crystal whom I'd left only six days earlier was horny again, but she was always horny. Given our sex drives, you would think that we'd all rush through the meal, but we didn't. We savored every morsel of food, appreciated the wine, shared a dessert in a sexy way, and allowed the anticipation among us to grow.

* * * * *

I drove the car back to Anna's. I noticed how Lauren cuddled Crystal on one side of the backseat of the car, while Kim and Ellen snuggled together on the other side. Crystal lay back against Lauren and purred as one of Lauren's hand wormed its way inside Crystal's top to stroke her breasts. From the passenger seat, Anna noticed too, and she smiled at me as though I was in on some conspiracy among the six of us. Lauren, Crystal, and Ellen had developed a sexual relationship when we had an orgy in Crystal's tour bus in Indianapolis, but that left me puzzled about Kim and Ellen, and the looks of endearment Anna shared with the others.

Between the five women, there was never any doubt that we would all make love, and would all sleep together in some way. After travel bags were brought in, we started in the private and dimly lit living room with kisses all around, everyone for everyone else.

My sister surprised me with how forward she could be with Lauren, and then Crystal, Ellen, and Kim. The five women slowly removed the clothing from each other, occasionally paying attention to me. As nudity became the norm, Crystal nudged my sister to the sofa and had her sit so her pussy hung over the edge of the cushion. Crystal was on her immediately, her talented tongue sloshing around my sister's cunt. I got an instant erection just watching the pair.

Before I could determine what to do, Lauren had me sit next to Anna, and then she straddled me, steering my steel rod into her pussy. I've heard some men say about fucking women, 'They're all alike.' In my new and extensive experience, they are not at all alike any more than we all look alike. There are a billion subtle differences: their tightness, the feel of their interior muscles, the smoothness and texture of the walls, the juices, and the smells, how she writhes and moves during sex, the way her cunt flexes as you piston in and out, and her reactions to an orgasm. The men who say women are the same, have never taken the time to really savor the experience of intercourse with their partners.

I savored Lauren; it had been five months since we'd made love, and we both wanted each other. I whispered how much I loved her as we fucked, and she reciprocated. This was raw lust tempered with feelings of tenderness and passion for each other. I said, 'I love you' to her. I'd never said those words to her before. Tears came to her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. She stared into my eyes for a full minute and then kissed me with renewed passion. "Oh, God, Jim ... so loving ... so perfect. I love you too."

This was the union of two souls - mind, body, and spirit. Lauren knew for sure with those three words that I loved her and not some fantasy about my late wife that I wanted to live out with her because they'd been near lookalikes and act alikes. I looked deep into her eyes so she knew for sure how I felt about her. I had promised her that when I told her that I loved her that it would be her and not some vision of her sister I'd be trying to preserve. Lauren hugged me to her in a tender way to indicate that she understood every nuance of what had just transpired between us.

At one point, Anna pulled Lauren down to her and the pair French kissed for several moments while Crystal continued to lap at Anna's cunt. The pair moaned in their pleasure of being sexed so closely with others. Anna said to Lauren, "Do you love me too?"

Lauren kissed Anna passionately, and said, "Yes, and you know it."

Crystal came up and joined in the kissing, and I heard more sweet words of love being passed around; I joined in too. These were three women I loved.

I looked around to see where Kim and Ellen were. Kim sat in a dining room chair as Ellen knelt in front of her, aggressively eating out her new lover. Kim's eyes were closed, and she had a look of bliss on her face as she stroked Ellen's hair.

After Lauren enjoyed an earth-moving orgasm, I indicated I needed to change partners. I joined Ellen in front of Kim, and soon we were on Anna's bed with my cock buried deep inside Kim, as my sister straddled Kim's head to enjoy her masterful cunnilingus. Later, when Kim and I were alone making love, I whispered how much I loved her, and she repeated the inspiring words back to me. I felt so glad that she was here in my arms again.

Kim knew she was the woman who had broken through the hard shell I'd put up after Karen died. She'd been the first woman I said 'I love you' to. I knew she loved me as well and would always be my friend, mentor, and lover.

Ellen and I made love too, and for the first time I used those three magic words with her- 'I love you.' Ellen said she loved me too, yet she understood the strange dynamics of being in my sister's home with other women whom I also loved and who loved me. She'd shared me before, and we'd also had our alone time when we created our sustaining relationship. Yet, when I told Ellen I loved her, her eyes also got teary and I got a tight hug of severe gratitude; she said, "Oh, Jim. If you only knew how much I've wanted to hear those words from you." She kissed me hard.

Just before Ellen's orgasm, Crystal came and made love to her sister. The sweet interaction reminded me of the new relationship I'd forged with Anna, and that alone made me feel good. Later, the sisters changed places and I made love to Crystal.

An hour later, the six of us lay in Anna's large bed, tightly packed together, but relishing the skin-to-skin contact the limited real estate forced upon us, the excess ejaculation fluids from several of us, and the sweet aromas of satisfying sex. At least temporarily, we were sexually sated.

Anna floated six feet off the ground in her afterglow. I'd pummeled her with my cock for about twenty minutes as the others created pleasure for each other. I commented to Anna, "Given that you'd not met Crystal or Ellen or Kim and only saw Lauren at two funerals, you warmed up fast?" My statement was really a question.

Anna's languorous voice said, "Oh, I've been together with them before. I just didn't think we should tell you until now."

Brilliant conversationalist that I am, I said, "What?"

Anna laughed, "Lauren and I connected at family events when we first met nine years ago. We got together at your wedding, and then at mom's funeral, and even around Karen's funeral; this isn't the first time we've had sex. We've missed each other being a continent apart, but we've kept in touch across the miles."

Her revelation shocked me a little, not that the three had created a sexual relationship, but that I'd never known about it - never even sensed it. Somehow, I'd gotten the notion in my head that my sister was as chaste and rigid in her sexual mores as our parents had been and as I had been up until my trip started. Instead, I now knew that she practiced the principles of being what one writer called an 'ethical slut' who loved and had sex on her own terms and not based on someone else's rules.
Lauren gave me a silly little grin, "That was one of the things I wanted to tell you ... and the one last thing I needed to tell you about Karen. We agreed a few minutes ago that you should know."

I said, "I don't understand. What does Karen have to do with the two of you?"

Anna said softly, "She was with us - seven years ago, around the time you got married, and later around your mother's passing and service. We three made love - had a sexual relationship."

Lauren nodded at the truth of the statement.

"Please, tell me more." Now, I would hear the details of the last of the secrets that Lauren alluded to months earlier. Amazingly, I felt curiosity but not the gut-wrenching feelings I'd gotten when Lauren first disclosed some of Karen's secrets to me.

I caught Kim studying me, watching how I was responding. She smiled as she saw my muted reaction of curiosity. She had helped me work through the issues around Karen's secrets, and how to treat them as 'old news.'

Lauren said shyly, "Before your wedding to Karen, Anna and I met in the midst of all the preparations. We had an instant rapport, and somehow we immediately knew what the other wanted ... a more intimate and sexual relationship between each of us."

Anna said in a confessional tone, "We made some time alone for ourselves at our motel. I even moved my room so I could be next to Lauren's; we had a connecting door between the rooms. Lauren already was having a sapphic relationship with Karen, so she brought her along to our first trysts. We all got really close, really fast, knowing at the time that we'd be separating for different corners of the country. Jim, it was beautiful." Tears came to Anna's eyes.

I must have gasped. Kim, Ellen, and Crystal looked at me with interest.

Anna jumped in again, "When Mom passed away, and the family gathered for the memorial services and funeral, we decided to be together again as much as we could, so, if you recall, Lauren and I stayed with Karen and you at your apartment for another week."

Lauren said more casually, "You'd go off to work in the morning, and Karen, Anna, and I would make love all day."

I said in amazement, "And, Karen participated?"

Lauren and Anna spoke simultaneously and with the same word, "Passionately! She loved us, and we loved her." They both had tears in their eyes.

Anna spoke softly, "When Karen died, you lost a dear wife, Lauren lost her sister and lover, and I lost a lover. We cried for our losses too, and we've also worked at healing these past months. Some of the healing has been helped by your journey. We've lived vicariously through your journey and your transformation; by reading your emails, and watching you get through your loss, we got through ours. Although we couldn't go with you, we were with you in spirit. Having each other to hold onto across the miles helped too. We held our arms open to you too; however, you wanted to deal with your grief in your own way."

I said to Anna, "And you, Crystal, and Ellen?"

Anna smiled and said, "Crystal called me from Reno after you'd gotten rid of that photographer. I invited her to come down and be here when you arrived. The two of us cooked up that all the women you love the most should be here, so she got Ellen to come from Nashville. We spent a few days together before they had to go up to LA for meetings. We ... got very close to each other."

Crystal added, "Sony wanted to talk to me about doing a movie. They want you to do one too, although I think we might be in different films at first. Ellen sat in the meetings as your representative. No real decisions were made, but she has pages of notes from the brainstorming sessions we had about our taking major roles in various kinds of pictures. We talked a lot about more albums and singles too. There are great plans afoot. Sony loves both of us."

Ellen nodded in agreement, and added, "Our first night here, we started to talk about girl-on-girl encounters and incest since Crystal and I have had a long relationship, and one thing led to another, and so the three of us made love with each other. We now have 'feelings' for each other - a natural outgrowth of what we shared."

I turned to Kim, "And, how'd you get involved, a call from Crystal or Anna?"

Kim shook her head. "More than that; after we spent that long weekend in Milwaukee, I wanted to meet the object of your incestuous desire. I had a meeting out here in San Diego about two weeks later. You'd mentioned your sister's name, so it was easy to make contact. Anna and I also ended up spending a weekend together - talking - especially about the two of you establishing a sexual relationship, connecting with each other ... and then making love. That was about four months ago. We've kept in touch since, visiting again about a month ago, ... and also, as Ellen put it, 'have feelings for each other.'"

* * * * *

A heavy fog had settled over San Diego overnight, and dew sat heavily on the lawn. I sat on Anna's back deck meditating in what would have been the dawn. Anna, Lauren, Crystal, Ellen, and Kim were still in bed together, asleep, and delightfully naked with arms and legs entwined in romantic and sexy ways with each other.

As I ended my meditation, Kim came out the back door, closing it carefully so as not to wake the others inside. She was beautifully naked in the chilly air, and ignored the possibility that several of Anna's neighbors might see her. I held my arms up to her and she came and sat in my lap.

Kim cuddled into me and said, "You handled all those revelations last night with remarkable grace." I could tell she was waiting for me to say something about what Lauren and Anna had shared with me about my late wife Karen and them, as well as all the connections with Anna before yesterday.

I chuckled, "A year earlier, I would have come unglued. The three of them probably did the right thing by not telling me earlier." After thinking for another moment, I added, "You helped move me to a new place, along with Crystal, Ellen, and Lauren, and others. Now, I can smile and think how nice and erotic it must have been for them - for you. I'm feeling glad they had that time together, particularly Karen - that she found other people besides me, like Anna and her sister who loved her and shared their passion with her."

Behind us, we heard someone else emerge from the house. Anna came into sight, also nude. She said, "We all hurt when Karen died." Anna cuddled in beside me, and leaned against me. I wrapped an arm around her and Kim extended her naked legs across Anna's bare lap.

I said to Anna, "I didn't know; you never gave me a hint that you deeply felt her loss too."

Lauren stepped out on the patio, looked up at the foggy sky, waved a hand in the air to sample the temperature, and sniffed the air. She vocalized what the rest of us were probably thinking, "You guys are nuts. It's cold out here; come on inside."

We had a sexy breakfast - sexy in that few clothes were worn. Afterwards, we somehow drifted back to the bedroom and further sex play. We lounged around the bedroom appreciating each other's bodies, constantly smoothing and feeling, and enjoying being felt. We kissed a lot, seeking gratification but more important communicating the closeness and love we felt for each other. We had a contest about who had the prettiest pussy, but after viewing, tasting, and sniffing, we judiciously declared a five-way tie. I did win the best cock in the house contest.

When we'd ended our morning romp lying in two clusters on the bed, I held Anna and Kim, and Crystal held Ellen and Lauren.

Anna said, "I should probably share another little secret with you, and please don't get mad with the parties involved. After your foursome in Branson with Crystal, Ellen, and Terry, you started to send me your erotic emails. What you didn't know was that Lauren had shared your earliest emails with me, starting from when you two connected, when you went to Pennsylvania, and then when you met Kim, and beyond that right up to connecting with Crystal and Ellen, and then Branson. I got all the news about how you were screwing your way across the country." She gave me a teasing glance.

I just shook my head with a laugh. These were naughty and sexually enthusiastic women.

Lauren went and hugged Crystal; she said to me, "Even before I connected with you two in Indianapolis, I could tell you were madly in love with Crystal. You didn't know it, but it came through in you writing - how you talked about her, the words you used. Ellen too. I thought it was cool, and I passed my observations on to Anna."

Anna said, "So, as a good sister, I called the girlfriend - Crystal - and we started to talk ... a lot. Lauren and Ellen joined in our calls sometimes, and we'd get a good four-way hen party going on the phone. We talked about you and your sexual adventures a lot, as well as other stuff - about ourselves and girl stuff. Kim got added to our circle. We were concerned about you - how you were coping with your grief, how you were dealing with the rapid changes to your sexuality, and whether you were walling yourself off from ever having loving relationships again."

Kim said, "I wanted to be with you so badly after you left me in Florida ... and then you got shot, and had a few other adventures such as meeting Crystal and getting into country music. My schedule was crazy, but suddenly I saw we could get together in Milwaukee. I leapt at the opportunity, and we had that beautiful time together. More important, we got to talk about all the things going on in your life and the things bothering you. I think I helped you a lot, at least you said I did in your emails and phone calls. My heart was breaking that I couldn't just hold you constantly until all the bad stuff in your life stopped. I couldn't; you had to make the resolutions happen for yourself or inside yourself."

After a pause, Crystal added, "Ellen started to be more involved with all of us too, from right after Indianapolis. We agreed with Anna and Lauren to keep our contact a secret until we could be together here in California. There are so many connection points between all of us ... I mean besides you - interests, values, hobbies, and more." She rolled over next to me, one of her breasts coming to rest against the side of my chest and her erect nipple stimulating my thinking.

Anna said, "I got first-hand reports of what you two were doing, and Crystal is very good about providing details, sometimes better than you." A lustful grin came my way.

"Details?" I asked.

"The details were about your lovemaking prowess, your techniques, and your journey into your new body."

I said, "Wait, what do you mean 'my journey into my new body'?"

The five of them chuckled. Lauren spoke for them, "Jim, I've known you for almost ten years - from when you started to date my sister. Today, you are such a different person than you were then - than you were only nine months ago. You've changed your beliefs, opinions, perspective, and attitudes about most of what goes on around you, particularly in relationships, sex, and love."

Anna said, "Think of how far you've come since you started your trip: you developed a relationship with your sister-in-law, a woman you know enjoys wild sexual experiences. By your own count you've fucked eighty new partners since you left Dillon, most of whom would have been happy to have you around the rest of their lives. You found true love with Crystal, Ellen, Kim, Lauren, and probably Summer, and maybe others. You now have a loving and sexual relationship with your own sister - who, I might add, is very happy about that. You participated in straight sex, group sex, incest, exhibitionism, voyeurism, threesomes, foursomes, orgies, gangbangs, lesbian sex, deflowering sex, and probably various fetishes. You're open to try about anything in the sexual arena, at least once. A year ago, if it weren't sex in the bedroom in the missionary position you probably were shocked." Anna giggled.

I had to blush that she was pretty accurate in her assessment.

Lauren said, "Oh, and you've added all sorts of things to your foreplay techniques: dancing, cuddling, that thing you do with liqueur, oral sex, anal sex, your magic fingers, DP, and that kind of kinky stuff too. I can hardly wait for the full experience."

Anna changed direction, "Your personality changed too. You're not afraid to express your passion, yet you are so romantic - you turned me on so since you arrived, and I could tell it was your basic nature. You're more self-confident, more in tune with your emotions and needs. But you're also a nicer person and more empathetic; and you listen more - last night I thought you hung on every word any of us said. You think of others more. You have more of a sense of humor, and I can attest first hand that you are generous."

Ellen added, "I have to admit that besides all that, I'm a sucker for the physical package. You're sexy. You have a natural but casual sense of style that I just love. You're hunky and handsome, and you stay fit. You're making me a better person because of your exercise regime. I love you."

Crystal added, "You've changed your job, taken up a new career, and based on what I saw in Reno, you're rapidly becoming comfortable entertaining in front of a large audience including several million viewers. I knew at the start it was uncomfortable for you and that the crowds terrified you, but you still put yourself out there and tried - and you were good! You also have worked hard to get even better - practicing your guitar, writing new songs, and practicing the old ones."

Lauren said, "You also did some heroic things on your journey that proved you are aware of the needs of others, such as rescuing that farmer from his burning barn, saving those kids, stopping that rape - and even getting shot in Alabama. You rescued that detective in South Dakota, and kept that lovely farm girl safe during that tornado in Kansas. Lover, you are every woman's wildest dream - and here you are, recuperating from satisfying the five of us in every way possible." She leaned over and kissed me.

Crystal reminded me, "You've also gone through major spiritual transformations too. When you started your trip you didn't meditate, and now you are accomplished at it and doing it takes you to a different plane. You saw love as uni-dimensional, and now you see it as a spiritual union of people's minds, bodies, and spirits. The old you would never have done the Sedona vortices or the sweat lodge, and never would have gotten the deep spiritual experiences from them the way you did. Tama even said you have the roots of being a shaman inside you. What a powerful part of your transformation and rebirth.

Anna said, "We wanted to celebrate your rebirth, and this is another one of the reasons we're here."

Lauren added, "I know you about died when Karen did. Reflecting back on the past year, we think an old and worn out version of Jim Mellon did die when she did. He's gone. This isn't to diminish the grief you felt or the pain you felt, but out of that crucible of pain and anguish came this new you, and we all love it - we all love you." Lauren choked up a little as she talked, and then she came and hugged me with tears in her eyes.

Trying to lighten the tone of what had been said, Anna declared, "Tomorrow, when the sun is out and the weather is warmer, the six of us are going back to Black Beach for a special ceremony to celebrate all this." Kim, Lauren, and Crystal looked at each other, in a way that made me think that something else would happen at the beach besides my 'birthing day' celebration. My interest was peaked so I prepared myself to roll with the events as they unfolded.

* * * * *

Anna knew San Diego weather well. The next day the sun brightened the entire coast, and temperatures rose back into the upper sixties, a rare occurrence for December. In direct sun, it felt warmer than that. Anna commented that this time when we went to the beach we'd be better prepared for cooler temperatures than we experienced at the beach a few days earlier.

In late afternoon, the four of us walked one of the trails winding down to the Black Beach, each of us carrying part of our beach paraphernalia. The beach was sparsely populated again, so we had a lot of space to ourselves. Lauren and I erected a portable lean-to that captured the slanted rays of the winter sun, and helped to warm the occupants. Anna setup a small, portable propane heater that we put in the lean-to; it generated a flow of heat that seemed to stay inside the cabana that made up the sides of our shelter. Only then, did the six of us strip. Although we'd had a sexual day, our nudity still elicited a few lusty feelings while bringing us closer together.

Anna arranged us in a circle at the edge of the lean-to. She led us in a short meditation about life, death, and rebirth. We were silent for a few moments as we each centered on the moment and our presence in that time and space with each other.

Anna ended our reflection, and from a cooler Kim had carried down, she produced a small layer cake that had been pre-cut into six pieces. Lettering on the cake read, "Jim - Welcome to your New Life." She presented the cake to me in honor of my rebirth, and gave me a small scroll tied in a red ribbon - a certificate of rebirth signed by the five women I loved. I detected that it had been done after our discussion the day before because many positive attributes written in the text were the same ones talked about. Anna got six candles lit, one on each piece, and I blew them all out. She served, and we all started to eat our slices, and I expressed my appreciation that the women whom I loved had shown up for my new birthing day. I kissed each of them.

Lauren talked about how the road trip had been like a pregnancy and birth - my rebirth. Amid a bunch of orgasms and a lot of pain, I'd grown and changed a little every day. I'd eventually left the womb of my old life, picked the women in the circle as my earth mothers, and gestated to be reborn as the 'New Jim.' Anna, Crystal, Ellen, Kim, and Lauren came and tenderly kissed me and told me they loved me. Now, I was the one getting choked up.

When we'd each had a few bites, Anna extracted a more formal framed certificate from one of the backpacks. It was a fancy document with an embossed gold seal behind Plexiglas, also signed by the five of them that attested to my 'Successful and sexual 12,500 mile journey through the lower forty-eight states.' The background of the page showed a map with my route. The center of the certificate contained a photograph of me sitting on the fully loaded 1988 Harley Davidson Heritage Softail with the rim of the Grand Canyon in the background. Crystal had taken the picture only two weeks earlier. The sexy silhouettes of women's nude bodies resided in each corner and on the top of the certificate. I had to laugh in appreciation at the creative certificate as well as the whole 'ceremony.'

Lauren affirmed that my trip and the certificate were proof positive that I'd left a good chunk of the grief over losing Karen behind, and could now appreciate the moments Karen had to share with me - with all of us that knew her.

Lauren said a little more solemnly, "We have one last thing to do here, but it has to be done at the Ocean's edge by you." She led us to the water gesturing to a small pouch around her neck. I guessed what we were about to do.

The six of us stood in a circle holding hands, the cold water of the Pacific circling in eddies around our feet as we stood on the blackened sand. Lauren then pulled my last envelope of Karen's ashes from the pouch that hung around her neck. "Jim, we know you've spread Karen's ashes in every state along your journey ..." Her voice cracked, she sobbed once, and tears started to flow down her cheeks. Her mouth grimaced and she couldn't talk. She put her head down and shook her head to try to regain control.
Also teary, Anna spoke where Lauren left off; "We all loved Karen, ... and we hope you don't mind us being here when you spread the last of her ashes. I picked up your last envelope off the dresser this afternoon." Her voice had a plaintive tone.

I found myself choked up. I whispered and gasped, "No. No, I'm glad you're all here with me. Sometimes when I spread the ashes along my trip, I had someone else with me. Crystal was there often."

Crystal nodded and spoke, "I felt your involving me was such a privilege, and such a gesture of love to me ... and to Karen." Now, she choked up too, "I hope, as long as I live, I can be loved by you as much as you loved Karen." She squeezed my hand tightly in hers and tried to smile at me.

Ellen snuffled and nodded in agreement. Kim stood with tears in her eyes.

Anna sniffled and said, "Me too." She squeezed my other hand.

Lauren echoed, "Me too."

Crystal threw her arms around me, and I felt her tears on my chest. Anna, Kim, Ellen, and Lauren came into our hug as well. The six of us cried for a minute. Our tears blended together in the love we felt for Karen, and the love we felt for one another.

As we started to pull apart, I looked at Lauren; she looked so much like her sister had - beautiful and angelic. In that instant, I felt something different, a special presence that touched my soul. A gust of warm, loving air, where there had been none a second earlier, briefly swept over us. I looked around as though to see who was there, but what caught my eye were rays of the setting sun radiating warmth in all directions.

Lauren handed me the small envelope of ashes. A warm, light off-shore breeze, barely detectable, welcomed the last act of our grief. I took a step further into the Ocean, faced my naked body to the setting sun, and opened the envelope.

I held the last envelope high and let the breeze carry the last of Karen's ashes into the sea.

* * * * *

The six of us watched as the ashes disappeared into the ocean's waves. We stood there in silence until the sun had set on Black Beach, and the temperature began dropping rapidly. The six of us then hurried back to the cabana and scrambled to get dressed, fold up our beach gear, and hike back to the car. We had said our goodbyes to Karen and it was now time to let her rest in peace. It was now time that we got on with our lives, taking comfort in the fact we had an angel looking over our shoulders.

We found a nice restaurant on the coast highway right by another large marina. We had an animated conversation about each of our futures, paying attention to how and when we could all be together more often. For Crystal, Ellen, and me that was no problem because our lives would be entwined in Crystal and my music careers, and maybe some movies.

After dinner, we stood outside the restaurant waiting for the valet to bring our car to the entrance. I noticed Crystal had a mischievous smile on her face.

"What are you thinking, Honey?" I asked.

Crystal said with a smirk, "Why, Jim, it's been a month since you saved Liz from her car wreck, and you haven't saved anybody since, nor had some disaster befall you like that tornado."

I laughed, "So, you're thinking it's time for some new damsel in distress to need rescuing? Maybe now that the road trip has ended, all that kind of stuff has ended too. I sure hope it has."

Crystal laughed, "I doubt your fate has changed. Something will happen, just you watch. I can feel it - maybe just the way Tama can."

"Like what?"

"I haven't the foggiest idea, but something will happen soon - very soon; I'm sure of it." Crystal showed me her goose bumps on her arm - proof of her premonition. She rubbed her arm and gave me a look that portended exciting events in my future. I could even feel the vibrations.

The End of Road Trip

A follow-on novel entitled Crystal Clear has also been written and published on this website. It is published under the author's other pseudonym, Romantic1 - along with a number of other stories. Enjoy.