Oil of Roses Ch. 29

* * * * *

Late Monday morning when Margo woke up, she felt much better than she had when she'd stumbled into the suite and gone face down on the bed. Her wives had undressed her at some point during her sleep, but she'd certainly never noticed. She smiled to herself. They could have sold her pussy for five dollars a go to passing strangers and she wouldn't have noticed.

She stretched long and sinuously. After a trip to the bathroom, brushing her teeth and gargling with mouthwash she threw on a robe and stumbled out into the sitting room. She was greeted by the sight of Nicki, Kelly and Carol, reading the paper and relaxing. Then her eyes were drawn to the riot of color that covered the bar counter and the table.

"Let's look at this logically, Big Mama," Kelly said. "You leave. No one knows where you are. We get a voicemail telling us you're alright and you'll be back whenever. You come back dead tired, stinking, and then all these flowers and gifts start arriving for you."

"You should have told us if we were in financial trouble, Margo my love," Carol continued, "I would've gladly paid however much was necessary to keep you from having to become a high-end call girl."

"Turning to prostitution, no matter how good the reason... I'm not sure if you're really the kind of woman my brother needs to be marrying," Nicki finished.

Margo looked at each of the participants through bleary eyes as a smile slowly curled up the corners of her mouth. "Ladies, it's a measure of my deep and abiding love for each of you that I let you get away with that and live, before I've even had coffee or something to eat," she said as her stomach rumbled loudly enough to be heard by everyone. "Are any of you hungry?"

The chorus of assent was unanimous so she continued. "Carol, call up room service, get us some food on the way...order me eggs, sunny side up, bacon, toast, something potato-like and unless one of you is somewhat decent with that coffee-maker you bought, coffee... juice as well."

"I'll make the coffee," Kelly said. "We experimented yesterday and it seems I'm closest to achieving Harry's level of quality."

Margo bent down and hugged her. "That's fitting, somehow," she said, running her hand down Kelly's naked body. She stood up. "So," she said, looking at Carol and Kelly, "which of you gets bath girl duty after we eat and I see what all this floral madness is about?"

"Uh, that'd be me, actually," Nicki said.

"Margo looked at her in surprise, but then smiled and went on to look at the cards that were attached to the six large floral arrangements that were filling that corner of the room. Starting with the grandest, she was not at all surprised to read:

"Dr. Wohler,

As promised, everyone got their 'tokens'. As promised, you'll get yours.

Thank you for the life of my son,

The Fuckin' Douche Bag"

As she began to expect, three more of the arrangements bore cards from Izzy and his wife, Carl and Rob. What she hadn't expected were the flowers from Debbie and Wilma. She was confused until she read Wilma's note.

"Margo,

For some reason, the Boss' father felt called upon share his joy at his son's survival with us. When I asked him why we were getting twenty-five thousand apiece, he told me to thank you, so thank you. A lot... really... a whole lot... a paying-off-my-car-loan lot.

It's been a most confusing day and a half. Just thought I'd let you know, everyone seems to be doing okay. We had a minor scare with one of the kids vomiting blood but Rob figured it was probably an ulcer and started treating it like one. Sure enough, calmed right down...poor little girl, Tattie says her name is Svetlana. Barely fourteen and an ulcer... not really surprising though, considering the stress they've lived under. When you come back in, you should probably take a look at her, but the major reason I'm writing all this is to let you know there's no rush, everything's going well.

Gonna wrap this up and let the deliveryman get started, Tattie sends her love and says she'll be there soon,

Wilma"

Margo found herself almost liking the douche bag. And sure enough, there was a huge box of chocolates with a duplicate of the first note from him.

And a fruit basket with the same note, except for an addition.

"P.S. Don't eat the hard, black banana."

She examined the fruit basket more carefully and saw what he was referring to. An oblong black box, devoid of markings, hinged on the one side... she turned it over. Five words adorned it: 'The House of Harry Winston'.

With trembling hands she opened the box.

She found herself sitting on the floor, though she couldn't remember how she got there, with the other women rushing to her side.

There in the box, set in precious platinum, were over 180 flawless diamonds; marquise, round and pear-shaped, a classic wreath necklace that glittered like the stars come down to Earth.

The other women couldn't possibly have been more surprised by her reaction.

"THAT SLIMY, DOUBLE-CROSSING COCKSUCKER!"

* * * * *

"Well, there's absolutely no doubt that Big Vic likes you... and that he really appreciates the work everyone did keeping Nick alive," Carol said as she mopped up the last of her syrup with the last of her pancakes.

"Well I'm happy he's happy but I didn't want his thanks, don't want his thanks... I don't really want anything from the old man but for him to hurry up and die so God can see to his ultimate judgment."

"Uh, Big Mama, that would sound a lot more convincing if you weren't sitting there naked, except for a diamond necklace a certain old man sent you," Kelly observed, barely keeping the smile from her face.

Fire sparked in Margo's eyes for an instant and then she grinned. "Yeah... but... but they're... they're diamonds..." she wailed, pathetically.

"Oh no," Nicki said, "they're a great honkin' buttload of diamonds... let's not let it sound like we might be talkin' about two or three of 'em, no, there's beaucoup diamonds being discussed."

"True, true, all true," Margo said, hanging her head in faux shame, "we are talking an ass-mass of diamonds."

"Yeah, and it ain't no Cub-Scout-what-got-to-pack-two-wallets-to-look-like-he-got-an-ass ass-mass, we're talkin' a Patricia ass-mass," crowed Kelly. "We're talkin' that 'oh-I've-just-got-to-kiss-it-for-an-hour-or-two' kinda ass-mass."

"Girl does have a beautiful butt," Carol said, "nice and fleshy."

"Well, it looked good from what little I've seen of it," Nicki chimed in, "but I haven't really gotten a look at it in all its naked glory."

"Oh, you will," chuckled Margo. "Once she got a little comfortable with us, she really fell in love with our kind of parties. And from the way she responds to the room-full-of-sex-vibe, Karen has no room to complain about it, either. I'm thinkin' Karen would be the first to ask what was wrong if Patricia decided to stop dragging her to our little hedonistic get-togethers."

"You're right about that," Carol said. "I'm so glad they started coming, no pun intended. Well, if y'all're going to go do the shower thing, y'all better get going."

"You know, Nicki, I strongly suspect my wife Carol wants us out of the room, for some reason," Margo said, smiling.

"I think you might be right, sister-in-law... I suspect she has designs upon your wife Kelly."

Carol's hand reached over and grabbed a handful of Kelly's hair. "Not really plans with Kelly," she said, dragging the woman out of her chair and over to her, forcing her to her knees. "But Princess has requested some togetherness, haven't you sweetie?"

"Yes Mistress."

"So while you two are doing the shower thing, and probably enacting some terribly erotic bath girl scene from my beloved's twisted imagination, I'm going to be out here, dealing with this one," she said, stroking the side of Kelly's face.

"Alright, I leave you to your debauchery by heading off to mine. Fare well where ere ye fare!" And with that Margo and Nicki strolled arm in arm towards the bedroom and the bathroom beyond.

After the door closed, Carol looked down at her wife. "Do you need to talk before, during, after or all of the above?"

"During, I think Mistress," Kelly replied.

"Then go make the hide-a-bed ready and I'll join you there."

The door to the bedroom opened again. "Carol, love, forgot something. Here!" Carol reached up instinctively just in time to catch Margo's diamond necklace. "As far as I'm concerned, my loves, this belongs to all three of us. You wear them for awhile." And once again the door closed.

Before she could even get the clasp undone, Kelly was there, taking it from her hands, opening it and placing it around her neck, then securely refastening it.

"Thank you, Princess. Is the bed ready?"

"Yes Mistress... you look lovely in those diamonds."

"As will you, my pet, when it's your turn to wear them."

* * * * *

Margo stood in the shower, the hot water cascading off her in rivulets that caressed the curves of her body as they ran all the way to her feet.

"Mmmm, God... you have no idea how many times I dreamed of this, standing in that damn OR."

"I don't know... I've had some stories that required me to be on my feet, literally, for ten to fourteen hours at a time... I think I can understand somewhat. Raise your arms."

"Oh no, honey, I'll tend to my pits. I wouldn't want to knock you out. I think my deodorant gave out about four hours into surgery."

"Margo, love, I grew up in the same house with Harry. I hung around him and Eddy. Funk is nothing at all new to me. Goddamn, he used to come in from a night out and smell so bad I thought he was into bestiality with skunks."

Margo chuckled and raised her arms, bracing her hands against the tiled wall.

"Alright, but I warned you."

As Nicki ran the soapy scrub mitt up Margo's sides, gently scrubbing her armpits, she said, "Oh, you're not bad at all... and I'm going to make you all better." She continued to soap and scrub her sister-in-law's body, slowly and sensually. "Goddamn, Margo, this is all so strange! I come down for a visit, my brother tells me a story that sounds too good to be true about the fairy tale life he's leading, unbelievable tragedy strikes but even so, now I'm living somewhat the same fairy tale."

Margo parted her legs as Nicki discarded the mitt and began to soap between her thighs.

"Oh, I can understand why it would seem strange, Nicki... not too long ago I was married to a man I hated, I mixed sleeping pills and lots of alcohol pretty much daily... ummm, that feels good... and I was so repressed about my own sexuality that I could barely admit I had needs at all. Carol was living with an owner who abused her regularly, couldn't have respected her less if he tried, and she was, according to her, 'just passing the days until he killed me'. Kelly was living to work and working to go to school, no real plan for her future, just following her interests to see where they took her. She was too disinterested in anyone to pursue a sex life... which still amazes me, given the Kelly I've come to know and adore... wondering if there was something wrong with her inside because she felt this huge emptiness that nothing had ever been able to fill. Eddy was slowly killing himself, working non-stop and abusing his body with alcohol in extreme amounts, playing Russian roulette with his sex life and severely punishing himself for an accident that occurred when he was nine years old. Tamara was trapped in a no-escape situation and being slowly starved to death by, from all accounts, one of the most worthless pieces of shit to ever walk on two legs and call himself a man.

"If you keep doing that right there, this conversation is going to get cut short."

"I'm sorry. Put your foot up on the rim of the tub."

"Certainly, and don't be sorry, just save it for later. Karen was on her way to working herself to death, alone and as far as she knew, unloved, or at least unloved in the romantic sense. Patricia was pining for the woman she loved more than she'd ever loved anyone, but who she just couldn't live with, and from what she told me one night, actively looking for someone who could handle Karen's work-centric lifestyle so the woman she loved wouldn't be alone.

"And then there was your brother... who was just dead inside, and rotting... septic actually, so poisoned and so hurt that Carol and I believe it was truly impossible for him to see anything outside his pain. Karen's convinced it was just a matter of time before he conspired with the universe to die outside as well... oh yeah... the way you wash hair, you could always take up a second career in the beauty industry, Nicki... oh my God, that feels good... and Karen freely admits that when Carol called her that first morning she and Harry were together, she thought that was it, that was the phone call telling her Harry was dead. She felt it was that close.

"Ah, now that the rinse is through, do you need bathing?"

"No, got pretty much the same treatment I just gave you from Carol and Kelly earlier."

"Well then, let's dry off, shall we? Then go lie down and continue to talk... and whatever."

* * * * *

"Ah... ah... ah... alright Princess... that's enough... okay... that's fine... oh my... you do have a most talented tongue, my love."

"Thank you, Mistress."

"So what now, most beautiful one?"

"I think my need to serve has been sated for awhile... can we cuddle up and talk?"

"Of course, silly bitch, get up here."

As Kelly curled up in her arms, Carol began cleaning Kelly's face with her tongue.

"Uh, sweetheart," Kelly said, "what you're doing is definitely not conducive to talking."

"What is it conducive to?" Carol asked, smiling coquettishly.

"Me throwing you down and us stabbing each other in the hootchie with dildos till our arms fall off."

"Not that that doesn't sound tempting, but perhaps you're right, talking might be what's called for." Carol got up and brought back a warm, wet towel from the bar area and continued to wash Kelly's face. "Now, what did you want to talk about, my love?"

"Well, in all this proposal business, everybody's been focusing on how Harry and I feel about each other and it's no secret by now, not even to me, that I am in love with him and he's pretty much my best friend in the world as well."

"No reason he shouldn't be."

"I agree... but I needed to let Margo and you know how I felt about y'all. I've talked with Margo... I'm in love with the two of you too, just in different ways. I mean, with Harry it's sappy, romantic, oh-God-I-could-stare-into-his-eyes-forever love, as well as the friendship; with Margo it's trust. It's not that I distrust you or Harry, not in the least... it's just that I trust her more. There's nothing I wouldn't do for her... nothing that I can think of. And I've thought of some pretty severe shit, especially with what went down in the park."

Carol smiled. "I know the feeling... it's part of how I feel about Harry. I think it scares the crap out of him, to know that someone, anyone, would do whatever he told them to, no questions asked... and that evening in the park tested that real hard."

"I imagine so." The beautiful woman curled up and Carol put her arms around her. "With you, Carol, it's... it's hard to for me to say... you own me. While there are places I'd go and things I'd do for Margo that I might not for you, or might not without discussion or convincing, she doesn't own me. She can call for 'Princess' and I can resist. You I don't think I can... and I certainly know I don't want to. The night I showed up at y'all's door you took me, you claimed me," her voice faltered as tears began to run down her cheeks, "and you changed my life in ways neither of us could have dreamed of. I never knew what 'home' truly meant," she continued as her lover began to gently kiss away her tears, "until I started hanging with you wonderful people." Her cries became sobs, wrenching their way up from somewhere deep inside her, someplace where she'd hidden her loneliness and emptiness. "I'm yours... nothing held back... and I don't ever... want you to let me... go..."

"Shh, shh my darling... I promise you, I'll never let you go. We promise you, we'll never let you go. The only person who can take you away from us is you."

With a loud sniff Kelly sobbed, "Ain't happenin'... not now... not ever... I'm afraid y'all... are stuck with me."

"Oh damn," Carol said through her own tears, "now we're really in for it. You just remember, Kelly Culberson, anytime you start feeling the least little bit insecure, your ass belongs to me and I will never let you go."

"Thank you, Mistress, thank you so much. I love you so much. I also need to ask you a big favor. I need you to hold my hand while I do something that scares the hell out of me."

* * * * *

"So why did you volunteer for bath girl duty, Nicki?"

"You mean being naked with one of the three beautiful women in my brother's harem-"

Margo put her hand to Nicki's mouth. "Shh, we do not use the 'h' word. It makes Harry absolutely crazy. He goes off on a 'bad porn story' rant that while very entertaining to listen to, really is a reflection of his deep upset."

Nicki took her sister-in-law's hand and kissed it, her tongue wandering across the palm slowly.

"Alright, no use of the 'h' word... you mean being naked with one of my brother's beautiful wives-to-be isn't enough of a reason?"

Margo's hand stroked the soft and supple side of her future sister-in-law's breast. "Normally, perhaps... but I'm sensing another motive too."

"Well..."

* * * * *

Kelly's hand was in a death grip on Carol's and her wife suppressed the wince she felt trying to show on her face.

"Mama? Yeah, I know we just talked earlier today... I've got some things to tell you, and I want you to listen with an open mind, and know that I'm happier right now than I've ever been in my life... and when it's all over, I'm going to need you to find a way to help Dad understand... yes, I met someone special... and then I met two more special people..."

Carol's fingers were growing cold from the reduced blood flow but that was alright. She could endure this to help Kelly through this conversation.

Carol's other hand gently stroked the necklace of glittering stars that swam against the beautiful darkness of her wife's neck, light shining off the facets and casting tiny dancing reflections on her fingers.

* * * * *

"Nicki, darling... you're obviously having problems talking about whatever it is... would you like me to take a guess, see if we can't jumpstart the conversation that way?"

"Alright, but I don't think you're going to guess it."

"You want to make love with your brother."

The look of amazement on Nicki's face was priceless, and it was an image that would stay with Margo for the rest of her life.