Ann: The Married Years Ch. 54

Matt saw Neil first, holding up his beer bottle in the distance to get his attention. Neil noticed and began navigating through the crowd toward him. As he got closer, Matt got a look at the condition of Neil's crotch. To be fair, it would have been near impossible not to have noticed.

Neil sat down next to him at a tall table so they could both see the television on the wall above the bar. Matt slid the cold bottle of Heineken he had at the ready in front of his friend.

His sly grin greeted Neil, and he said, "I'd ask how much you enjoyed fucking my girlfriend, but it looks like she didn't do a very good job for once."

"What are you talking about?" he replied before taking a casual drink.

"I can't remember ever walking away from Tina with a hard-on. Especially one as big as what you're lugging around. She must be slipping."

"You know, this is still odd for me to talk about with you."

"Relax. She and I are good. Better than good, actually. Our relationship is more solid than ever."

"Well, in that case, she's not slipping. I asked about another traveler's check, and..."

"Uh huh... and she had to admit we went a little crazy spending them on vacation last month, didn't she!" he laughed.

She actually hadn't. Neil simply asked if his eating her was going to cost her to use another one. But she only confirmed she didn't have to, because he was available as a 'banker' in the game.

That in and of itself wasn't necessarily a concern. She'd answered his question with a plausible explanation. Still, Neil couldn't help recalling how Tina insisted that he not tell Matt where she was. Because of that, a lot of alarms were going off in his head. Matt had just insisted that their relationship was great. The secrecy she requested seemed deceitful considering Matt was his best friend, outside of Ann.

Treading carefully, Neil said, "No. I asked her about them cause I ate her first. I figured she might have to have me sign another one."

"Well, fortunately for her, you were an available banker. She used our last traveler's check with you and Ann. We used eight of them on our vacation a month ago."

"Eight! Holy shit! Where'd you go?"

"Uh... a swinger resort in Arizona. It was pretty wild."

"So you're really not uncomfortable with what she and I just did?"

"We've got a great thing going. That said, I'm probably more comfortable with her fucking you than anyone else. I love you, buddy."

"That might be the weirdest thing you've ever said to me."

"That's because it's a one-way thing. She has sex with you and Ann. I don't."

"It seems unfair when you say it like that."

"Okay, first, I'm not interested in having sex with you," he laughed. "And as hot as Ann is, I'm not interested in her either. You and Tina have a history. One that predates her and I. Hell, I practically helped set the stage for you two to hook up in the first place. But Ann and I have a history together too. And even though I had a crush on her when I was like, ten years old, I'll always look at her as my big sister. That's never going to change no matter how incredibly sexy she is. So stop worrying about it being one-sided. You're only having sex with her now as part of a game she and I both benefit from. It's not like Tina's the only one having fun. I'm fucking other women. I'm not fucking Nancy anymore... she's kind of moved on. She has a boyfriend now. But I still fuck Eva all the time," he said of a fellow schoolteacher that had been included in their game for several years.

"Really?"

"Yeah. We talk about where we are as a couple with regard to the sex account at the beginning of each month. Tina calls it balancing the account. We decide whether to keep it open, suspend it, or if we need to close it. So far, we've always kept it open. That doesn't mean we use it every month, but I suppose it says something that we're still excited by it. That's why it's not strange for me that you were with her tonight."

"Okay, so what's this 'hall pass' she mentioned. Is that what I think it is?"

"Probably."

"Care to explain it?"

"Well, it's like this. The traveler's checks were a good way to kind of open up our relationship further. At this point, we've discovered that neither of us would be happy being totally monogamous. We're no different in that regard from you and Ann. We just have different limits than you do. But the problem with the checks, if you want to call it a problem, is that it still limits us. When we used them in Arizona, we were with other like-minded couples. And we were using them together, so it was fun, but kind of pointless. I mean, we were there to have sex with other people... together. Tina insisted we use them though, because we actually traveled. That made her happy, so I didn't complain."

"Okay, so how do they limit you?"

"We really only use them in the context of the sex account game, which means other than the resort, we pretty much always do it with the same people. The biggest difference that you're probably not aware of is that Penny and Garrett have expanded their roles. With you being out east... let's just say I was getting a lot more pussy than Tina was cock. She wasn't getting any to speak of. She wasn't complaining, but I saw the inequity of it."

"So, Tina's fucking Garrett?"

"And I've fucked Penny. That's one of the reasons I dropped Nancy. She was finding it difficult to find the time to be with me anyway, so it made it easier. But like I said, other than the trip we took, our extracurricular activity is with a very small group. That trip made us reevaluate our relationship and what we wanted."

"How?"

"It's an eight day package. You check in Saturday evening between five and seven. You check out the following Saturday at five. That probably sounds

convoluted, people arrive when others are leaving, but they have it down to a science. While we were there, we met a lot of great, fun people. I'll spare you the details, but it was exactly what you'd expect. For the most part, we'd just meet random couples on our own. We'd strike up a conversation by the pool, or at one of the restaurants. We met one couple when we were just taking a walk. We'd spend some time together socially, and if we clicked... we fucked. We never had a problem finding playmates, because the other couples were there to play too. It was all about finding a connection, and with Tina, that proved easy. But, we consciously avoided the big scenes. Neither of us were really interested in the orgy experience."

"No? I figured that was why you went."

"We went to find couples to swing with. As you can imagine, it's not easy in this town. Anyway, on Sunday morning we saw a flyer for this nightly mixer. The gist of it was for couples to go, and you split up. It's female led, so if a woman finds someone she wants to play with, she asks. But there are a few rules. One, everybody wears a mask that covers most of your face. Two, you're naked otherwise. Three, the men only have two opportunities to say they're not interested. If you deny a third woman, you and your partner have to leave, no questions asked... even if she's with someone already."

"Well how in the world is that enforced?"

"Ha! Well first, they brand you."

"What!? What does that mean?"

"For starters, they limit the event, and it's pretty well scrutinized by the staff. Only thirty couples a night can sign up, and you can only go once while you're there that week. They hold it in this big auditorium that's split in half by a huge curtain that runs from the floor to the ceiling. On the open side, that's where you mingle. It's like this crazy, erotic disco. Lots of strobe lights and colored spot lights that move around, with thumping music on a tight, cramped dancefloor to promote bumping and grinding. It's designed to make you horny. On the other side of the curtain there are thirty twelve by twelve cubicles set up, and each one has a platform with a king-sized mattress on it inside. They all have doors and a ceiling, but they're monitored with cameras for security."

"Sounds like they really take that part seriously."

"Definitely. The whole place is like that. The resort has on record that you've been recently tested for STDs before you can even go. When you first go in to the gym, you have to prove your identity with the wrist band you wear for the week. It's just a barcode they scan. You sign in, get naked, and then they put a couple of temporary tattoos on each of you. It's just a number. One on your left ass cheek, and another on your front right shoulder just below your collarbone. That's what you go by. Tina and I were pussy and cock seventeen."

"You've got to be joking," Neil laughed.

"Nope. Then, underneath the number on the men's shoulder, they put three temporary tattoo boxes. They give each woman a colored marker for a specific day of the week. When you're on the dance floor, if she asks you to fuck, and you agree, she puts her number in one of them and you go in the back. A security person signs the two of you into a room matching her number, and you go to town. "

"So if you say no..."

"She puts an 'X' in the square. There's not supposed to be any hard feelings, but I'm sure there are. Nonetheless, if you get that second 'X', your probably fucking the next woman no matter what... so it keeps you from being too picky."

"You have to fuck them?"

"No. But if you get a third strike, they track down your partner and you're asked to leave the event. Like I said, even if they're with someone. Can you imagine how that would go over."

"Yeah. Not good I would imagine."

"Uh huh. The kicker is, the women have tattoos that are only viewable with a black light. The men's are totally visible all the time at the party. Plus, the markers are permanent."

"Why is that?"

"Like I said, you can only go once during your eight days. It's a way for them to easily tell if you've already been or not."

"But you're wearing barcodes."

"There's more to it than that. Since we went that first night, I was marked all week. But, what we didn't know at the time was the tattoos they put on you act as sunblock. The men are supposed to take their team number off the next day, but you have to leave the boxes; again, so people know. So the only thing left is the boxes with colored numbers or X's inside them. But the women are told to keep their tattoos on. Same reason. It will show up if a woman wanted to try to go on their own. I guess they had a problem at one time with couples splitting up... one partner trying to go alone, with a different person. It's strictly for couples."

"So there were men from one couple and women from another trying to go together?"

"Yeah. You have to go with the person you came to the resort with. And people were switching bands."

"Oh, okay. I guess that makes sense."

"It does. But we didn't really understand that at first. And we were outside naked most of the day by the pool, and come to find out Tina was baking those numbers onto her skin. And I'm getting marked by the boxes... and whatever kind of marker they use does the same thing."

He pulled back the collar of his shirt, showing the front of his shoulder. There on his skin was a tan outline of three connected boxes, with the numbers seven, thirteen and twenty-two written in them.

"I'm surprised you didn't notice the numbers on Tina."

"Wait, she still has them?"

"Obviously. I still have mine," he pointed. "And she's taken it to the next level. She loves it. She actually talked about making one of them permanent as a memento. She keeps going back and forth about actually tattooing her ass or her shoulder. She can't decide. But she also wants to go back to the resort next year, so she's torn. For now she found a place in Fort Wayne that has the temporary tattoos, so she bought some and she puts them on when she uses the tanning bed."

"How the hell did I miss them while I was fucking her?"

"I haven't a clue. They're pretty damn noticeable. Mine are starting to fade. She's doing everything she can to make hers stand out more."

"Okay. But you still haven't told me about the hall pass."

"Right. So, the thing that was such a turn on after that night was, I was marked with three numbers on my shoulder. I fucked three different women, and Tina had no clue who they were. But I easily figured out which guys fucked her. They each had seventeen written on them with a green marker."

"And that bothered her?"

"It bothered some of the women; but not Tina. That's why she loved the tattoo giving her a suntan mark. The only issue was that the numbers on the women all look the same. So, there could be seven women marked with the same number by the end week. Anyway, I knew exactly who she was with. But other people could see a seventeen on a man in say, a red marker, and they might have thought Tina fucked them. Think about it; because we did it Sunday night and her tan mark was really showing by that next weekend, she was the logical candidate. I never found another woman with that number. There was nothing to tie Tina's number to a specific night like the guys and their colored markings. And like I said, we were out in the sun every moment we could be when we weren't fucking. By Friday, it looked like she fucked a ton of men. Not three. That's when she came up with the idea that she'd been branded as a slut."

"That doesn't surprise me. She would be the one to embrace it."

"Well, that night certainly reinforced it for her. I think the thing that stood out was that she was the one asking them to fuck her. So the more the week went on, the more it appeared like she'd asked dozens of men. To be honest, it was kind of hot for me, because doing that made her feel more like a slut. I think that was the point of how the event was set up."

"Do you mean for the week, or just the event itself?"

"Well Tina felt it all week long because of the temporary tattoo. But I'm talking more about the mixer itself. They set it up with the woman initiating the sex so the hottest girls didn't have guys lining up for them. You could only be with three people, and they wanted to do everything they could to make sure it was fun for everyone."

"Okay. I get all of that. But you still haven't explained this hall pass she was talking about. What does it have to do with the resort?"

"Okay, so imagine you've just had a night like that. Over the next couple of days, I was able to spot the men she'd fucked and point them out to her. But at the same time, she couldn't do that with me. There was no way for her to know for sure who I'd fucked. We were having a talk about it by the pool a couple of days later, and we were trying to figure out if it was hotter to know, or not know. The fact was, I knew. She didn't. We couldn't reverse it to see what the other might be feeling."

"I get that too. That's a debate you can't resolve."

"True. But Tina made a great point, and that was that I always knew who she was with, because of the context of the sex account game. It was designed so we couldn't keep secrets."

"So that's what you want... to keep secrets from each other?"

"No. But there is something about not knowing everything. Hell, I didn't get it until she started talking about me fucking thirteen, and it dawned on me that I'd never know any of their names. I didn't get to see their faces while we were together. They were rather anonymous. They were literally a number. But they were only a number to her. So, we talked about why that was hot to her, and she confessed that she loved that she didn't have any of the details. In fact, we both insisted beforehand that night that we would never talk about what we did with the other people we fucked. Only about how we felt about it."

"So what is it you're doing then?"

"Have you ever heard of a celebrity wish list?"

"A what?"

"I'll take that as a no. One of the girls that works for Tina... she and her husband both have a fantasy list of famous people they'd be allowed to sleep with if they ever met them. No permission needed; no questions asked afterward."

"Okay, I have heard of it. Didn't know what it was called."

"It's an intriguing concept, but based totally on just that; fantasy. Tina is never going to meet Brad Pitt, no matter how wet she gets thinking about him. The closest I'm ever going to get to meeting Jennifer Aniston is your wife, and I already told you why I'd never fuck her. That left us with looking for a way to actually have some serendipitous fun."

"So there's a list of people you know you can have sex with?"

"The opposite. There's actually no list at all. Basically, we each have two hall passes in a calendar year, with no carry overs. If we find someone we want to have sex with, we have to call each other and tell them we're going to use the pass that night."

"What... that's it? It just happens? There are no other rules?"

"Sure there are. The first one is, no denying the pass. We know our schedules. We know our obligations. So if we get the call, we already know we probably weren't going to be together that night anyway. I live thirty minutes away. So, if we get the call, no excuses; no trying to talk them out of it. Second, we don't get to ask who the person is, or anything about the night. Third, unless it's someone already within our circle of people we play with in our joint sex account, it's one-time thing. We can never repeat a hall pass with the same person outside that circle."

"I don't understand. You can use a hall pass with someone you're already having sex with?"

"Yeah. That was my provision. I'm not losing a pass at the end of the year just because I couldn't find myself in a situation to use it. Plus, there might be a time we're low on funds, or like tonight, out of traveler's checks," he winked.

"Oh. So you think she's with Anna?"

"I don't know. I'm not allowed to ask who, or where, or any details. I just get a call telling me she's using it, and another when she's done to let me know she's okay. Other than that, I'm in the dark. But considering Ann called her, and she used her last traveler's check with the two of you, it makes sense," he shrugged.

"Okay. That makes sense. But how do you know she's safe? And how do you know if either of you are breaking the rules? Is it just trust?"

"Of course it's trust. If there wasn't trust, we wouldn't be doing any of this. We do confide in Penny and Garrett, though. Especially since there's a chance they might be part of the use of a pass. If I wanted to fuck Penny as part of this, I have to ask Garrett. It is his wife after all. And Tina would ask Penny to be with Garrett. That said, Tina called Penny tonight to tell her who she's going to be with. If it's someone outside of our circle, she gets a name and address off a driver's license, and a location where she is. That's the safety precaution. I suppose it's also a way to prevent us from cheating, but I don't look at it like that. If we ever get to the point we'd start worrying about us cheating, it's time to stop or break up. And breaking up with Tina is the furthest thing from my mind right now. I trust her. Calling Penny is all about being safe. She's probably with Anna. But if she's not, I'm not worried about her turning whatever she's doing into an affair. Or a relationship. It's about the sex. Nothing more."

"Have you been doing this long?"

"Ha! No. Tonight's the first time. We just came up with this a couple weeks ago. We only have one pass to use this year, since it's November. We get two per year starting in January. Want another beer?" he asked casually as he got up to head to the bar.

"Yeah. You seem so calm about this, Matt. I have to tell you, I wouldn't be able to handle it."