Barstow - Trouble in River City

"Tom? We really should get back to the office." Emily is concerned about appearances with their taking an extended lunch break at the company's VIP apartment. He may well be the CEO, but, still, people tend to notice comings and goings that are out of the ordinary.

"She's right," as DeeDee steps out of the bathroom having cleaned up from their menage. "We really have to be more careful with this. Tom? I know Alice has her suspicions about you and me, but Michelle has been giving us the evil eye lately whenever we go off-campus 'for lunch'.

Alice is Tom's executive assistant; Michelle is the company receptionist, stationed in the corporate managers' building. Michelle sees everybody passing through the front door, especially the top executives like Tom and DeeDee.

"I'm not too concerned, ladies. Rank has its privileges."

Emily is a little more blunt, "What's going to happen when one or the other, or someone we haven't thought of yet goes to one of the VPs with concerns that you are fucking employees, and worse, doing it on company property and company time?"

"Still not concerned. dePolitte knows, and is running cover for me."

Werner dePolitte is Executive VP and COO.

"What's he getting out of it? Or do you have something on him?"

"Yes and no. Werner and I came up through the ranks together. When we were young bucks on the assembly line, we had our fun times together. Em? We've never talked about this so you don't know, but I met Claire here. She was in QA. We'd meet for drinks after work, and Werner would join us. Sometimes he'd bring a date, sometimes he'd... well..."

"Go to your place, and you and he would double-team her."

"Uh huh."

"So that explains how you and Claire got interested in the lifestyle. Why not him?"

"When he started dating Ramona, he lost interest in our playing with Claire. Ramona was a conventional serial monogamist. Venturing out to her was 'cheating', and convinced Werner that they were going to have a 'normal' relationship. They're still together."

"And you and Claire started looking for a swinger group."

"Not really. Your Steven and Cyan had just moved into town. He had a contract doing network consulting in the early days for Amalgamated. I had been pulled off the line to help with his project, and we had occasion to go to lunch a few times, which then turned into dinners with the wives. Discussion eventually turned to their interesting take on sex and intimacy. Claire was all over that."

"So that dinner turned into a foursome."

"Yep. At our place."

"That's cool, Tom. Really cool. And the group grew from those roots."

"Yes. You and I need to get dressed and out of here. Dee? You go on ahead. We don't want the three of us showing up together. Good thing we took separate cars this time."

DeeDee responds, "Thanks. Three o'clock meeting still on?"

"Yes."

Emily notes, "I'll be quick in the shower. Why don't you go as soon as you're ready, Tom? Don't wait for me."

"Sounds like a plan."

=====

Danny is leaning on the top of Emily's cubicle partition, grinning in anticipation of giving her knowing grief about her too-long lunch.

"Doin' the big boss on company time, are we?"

"SHHH!" she quietly scolds. "(Yes. Me and Dee.)"

"(Thought so. You guys are going to get in trouble with that.)"

"(With whom? Report it to HR?)"

"(Good point.)"

DeeDee is the HR administrator.

"(Crowd at the house tomorrow night is light. You wanna join us?)"

"(Can't. Janet's having her bulls over. They're going to do their thing, but this time she's actually going to let me reclaim. But I have to wear a condom.)"

"(You know I think that's brutal.)"

"(It's our life. I thought you didn't judge.")

"(You're right. I shouldn't.) Anything going on?"

"E-mail just circulated you'll want to read. We're being asked to add several fields in three of the big databases. Talk to me before you do anything. Melissa may have to arbitrate and get back to Production about the request."

"You anticipate conflicts?"

"Yeah. At least from the way the request was written."

"Okay. Let me get to it."

"(Oh. You interested in doing anything for lunch on Monday?)"

"(Sure. I'll ask Dee if the apartment is clear.)"

"(Good deal.)"

=====

"In the car," Emily texts to Jackson. Her workday is over.

"In 5," he texts back.

Em fiddles with the radio and tires of the "blah blah blah" news in seconds, turns it off, and reclines her seat for a catnap.

Driver door opens and Jax takes his seat. "Sorry. Henderson had a couple of things to go over. And Steve just texted me. Take off your clothes. 'Everything!' he said."

Jax turns on the car and backs out of the space, and points them home.

Emily laughs and starts to strip. "What's the occasion?"

"Penance. He talked to Tom this afternoon. He also said, 'Nostalgia.' What's that about?"

"Oh, I get it. After we fucked for lunch, Tom was getting all wistful talking about how he and Claire and Steve and Cyan started their little lovers' group. Did you know that dePolitte was part of it?"

"No! Really?"

"Not in the group, but he and Werner would double-team Claire when he couldn't find a date for their nights out. When Werner hooked-up with his wife, he went monogamous. Steve and Cyan moved into town shortly after. Steve was consulting here, Tom and Claire became friends, and there you have it."

Em tosses her clothes onto the back seat.

"Good thing we have tinted glass," she muses.

"He said he'll have further instructions as we get close to home."

"Is he tracking us?"

"No. He just knows how long the drive takes."

About twenty minutes out, Jackson's phone alerts with a text. He hands it to Emily.

"It's Steve. 'Continue down Springfield. Turn right into the tire shop across from the coffee place. Park in the back. Text when you're there.'"

"He's up to something, no doubt."

About ten minutes later they pull into the business, which is now closed for the day. Jax finds a spot between two semi-trailers, and confirms their arrival to Steve.

"Okay, here's his latest. 'Let her out. She can wear shoes. You drive home. Clothes stay in the car. SHE MUST REMAIN NUDE!!!'"

"Ohgawd! It's still light out!"

Jackson relates the complaint.

Steve's reply, which Jax shows to Em, "Read it and weep, sweetie. 'TOUGH! She is to walk from Bando Junction to the back of the house. Gate will be unlocked. NOW!!!'"

"That's a quarter mile!" Emily protests.

"I know. I suggest you get going. He doesn't sound like he's going to back off on this."

"Shit! Okay. Here we go. I presume he has bail money."

"Don't worry too much. If you walk fast, it'll be about five minutes."

Em jumps out of the car and slams the door shut. Jackson quickly backs out and is out of sight in seconds. A naked Em runs through the open field to hide behind a privacy fence in back of one of the cul-de-sac houses. She catches her breath, thinking it through. Plenty of brush along the path of the former rail line, but she knows when she gets close to the house the houses on the other side do not have fences, with open sight lines to her path.

She briskly trots to the brushy area and relaxes into a slower walk as she takes advantage of the concealment. Stopping for a second, she feels a familiar sensation and reaches down to her valley in the sudden realization that she is really, really wet. With the touch she's surprised by the rush of a "big O", taking a really deep breath. A few tentative steps, and it happens again.

Emily is absolutely, totally and completely turned on by her nakedness where she absolutely, totally and completely should not be naked!

"Gawd fucking damn you, Stevie!" she mumbles to herself, now understanding her special lover knows her way more than she does.

Em is now near the end of the trail through the brush, assessing that it is about 500 feet to their back gate through the cleared field. So close, but so, so exposed.

Pausing at the opening to the field, she notices somebody roughly where their house is, a shirtless man peeking around the neighbor's fence where it juts out into the old railroad right-of-way. She smiles to herself in the realization that this has to be Steven.

"Fuck you, Stevie!" she mumbles to herself, almost laughing at what he is doing to her.

The figure slips behind the fence after having spotted her, reemerging with a tripod and camera with long lens, evidently to record her progress. She softly laughs and winds herself up, thinking out loud, "Here we go!"

She jogs out of the opening in the brush and keeps that pace toward Steve and that camera, with everything that should be jiggling, jiggling so wonderfully. Steve rushed to adjust the zoom as she gets closer, and closer, and then close enough to swat his butt hard as she rushes past and through their back gate opening. He laughs, collapses the tripod, and drags everything into the yard, locking the gate behind him.

He leans the camera into the fence as Emily does a quick about-face, leaps to grab the waistband of his shorts, yanks them down, and jumps up locking her arms around his neck and shoulders, lowering her pussy to meet his very erect penis. He laughs again.

"Oh, fuck you very much, Stevie-poo! You are evil, you are awful, you are so, so nasty... and I so love you! Ohgawd!"

She presses her torso into him, challenging his balance as they kiss.

=====

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! BANG BANG BANG!!!

"Sweetie, that's a cop," he gently tells his lover. "I gotta deal with this. You stay out of sight."

"I know. Be careful, lover."

"I will."

Steve retrieves his shorts from the patio, grabs a T-shirt thrown on the sofa, and screws-up the fortitude for the discussion he is about to have with the law enforcement officer standing on his front porch.

"Officer Humphreys. What can I do for you?" he greets.

"You know exactly why I'm here, Mr. Albertson. I need to talk with her."

"You may not. You know the rules as well as I do. Did you see her yourself? Do you have anything other than one anonymous complaint call? Somebody get video? A picture? Half a dozen witnesses coming forward who can identify her? Or, as I suspect, you have none of the above. Just like before."

"Mister Albertson! You are not a lawyer. Stop acting like you are. I must speak with that young woman!"

"I will repeat: no. You do not have probable cause, and I will not let you bully that young lady into a badgered false confession. If you honestly believe you have PC, then get Johnsbury to sign-off on an arrest warrant, and I'll pay Singleton to duke it out with the state's attorney. If you get that far, McWard is more than likely to reduce whatever you think you can come up with to a nuisance charge with a nickel-and-dime fine. I know how it works just as well as you do."

"You just think you know how it works. Get her up here to talk to me. Now!"

"Still no, Jeremy. You know me a lot better than this. If you really want to go to the mat, you or I can call Norton, or we can stand here and cool our jets waiting for one of Singleton's staff lawyers to show up. It'll be the same result."

"Goddammit, Steve! You guys finally screwed-up with your perverted sex shit, and it's time to bust heads."

"Today's not the day. Get that warrant and we'll dance. Okay?"

"This is not over with, not by any means."

"Suit yourself."

The officer slams his citation book shut and stomps off to his patrol car which was straddling the driveway so none of their cars could come or leave without driving on the lawn. Steve closes the door.

Steve sees Emily peeking around the corner from the hallway.

"Am I safe?" she asks.

"For the moment," Steve responds. "My fault, and I apologize. I forgot about those houses on Hawley that don't have back fences. Somebody must've caught a glimpse through a window. We'll not be doing that again."

"At least not during daylight hours."

"Yeah. That. And not in our neighborhood, sweetie."

"But it was so fuckin' hawt, Steven. You felt how wet I was."

"I know. But we were playing a little too close..."

Steve's cellphone rings.

"...to the edge."

He reaches to the dining room table where he left it. "Blocked number," he tells Emily. "Gotta be Norton."

He answers, "Albertson."

"Steve, this is Captain Norton. You guys really pissed-off Jeremy this time. He wants her ass in a sling."

"That's certainly the impression I got."

"So. What are we going to do about this?"

"Dial it back a few notches. I already told her that."

"Probably the best solution. The parties we can deal with, that's your prerogative, but playful or not, the nudity in public areas has to stop."

"Message received. What are you going to do about Jeremy? What's been happening lately is approaching stalking, or even a vendetta. Guests are starting to question his parking down the street on party nights."

"I can't disagree with that assessment. I'll let him know that you and I spoke and arrived at a resolution. However, what he says just happened didn't help your cause. I'll work on 'im a little. At any rate, keep your noses clean and hopefully he will cool down in a week or two."

"Thanks, Rich."

"Just be more careful, Steve. Be safe. You take care."

"You too."

Steve sets his phone down on a living room lamp table and steps to Emily to offer a reassuring hug.

"You'll be okay. Captain Norton pretty much put us on notice, though. We're going to have to tell our guests that the heat is on this time and they need to stay covered until they're inside. Which reminds me, is Denise coming tonight?"

"No. Nobody is, remember? Cy and Jax's date night. Besides, didn't Tom tell you she was with us for lunch? Both of us made sure she got her rocks off."

"He didn't mention it. Shame on him," Steve grins. "She have any news on a new place to get inappropriately naked?"

Emily chuckles. "She did. Another dive bar, this one in Cantrall. She says not nearly as grungy as Ronnie's hole-in-the-ground. Off of 29. You wouldn't know it was there unless you were looking for it."

"How did she find it?"

"Contact in the Springfield group."

"Oh?"

"They've apparently partied there."

"Definitely friendly territory, then. Nobody's going to get raped, I take it."

Emily confirms, "Not so far, as she tells it. Where are Jax and Cy?"

"Kroger. She snagged him the moment he drove up and they rushed out."

"He wasn't going to stay around for the results of our little dalliance?"

"I had a premonition they needed to not be here 'just in case'."

"And you were right. Yeah, Cyan tends to blurt things under pressure. Could have seen me leave in handcuffs."

"Bingo. Who's on for tonight? Ms. Social Director didn't give me the latest rundown before she and Jax left."

"Dunno. If you remember our discussion from this morning, the gang is figuring on tomorrow night. And you keep forgetting the other thing, Stevie!"

"What's that?"

"Their date night!"

"Oh gawd, that's right. I'm sorry. I'm a little distracted from the argument with Jeremy. Any hint where they're going?"

"Crowne Plaza, as usual."

"What do you want us to do? If nobody's coming over, if it wasn't for the dogs we'd be good to cat around ourselves."

"Now that sounds like a great idea! The big horny you gave me was interrupted. Call Anna!"

"How about you call Anna? I'm going to make another call."

"Ellie."

"How'd you guess?" he chuckles.

"Wait a minute. Phone is in the car with my clothes."

"It's in the garage plugged in. They took the Fugly."

"Okay. Let me do that."

Steve picks his phone up and taps Ellie's number from his favorites list.

"Stevie! What's up?" El answers. "We're not doing anything tonight, are we?"

"That's what I'm calling about. Jax and Cy will be in the city painting the town red. If we can get Anna to look after the dogs, I'm thinking about something similar with Emily. And you, if you're interested."

"Oh, gosh, Steven. Toby and me, or just me?"

"Just you, if that's okay. For what I'm thinking of doing, Toby won't be interested. It's another dive bar with, shall we say, potential."

"Well that certainly works out. Toby's meeting golf buddies at the club for drinks and dinner. I was going to be a third wheel. Now I have an excuse."

"So I'm an excuse now, am I?"

"Oh, Stevie!" she giggles. "You're never an excuse! You're a reason!"

Steve laughs back. "Okay. Meet us here. If Anna works out, we'll take off from the house. No need to meet in the middle, it's in Cantrall, in the opposite direction. And, of course, the overnight."

"Yeah. And I have an idea. I'll stay there through tomorrow night. You okay with that?"

"Gosh. More than okay. Oh. Em's back from retrieving her phone from their car. We had an adventure. We'll fill you in after you get here. She's giving me the thumbs-up, so Anna is on for watching the dogs. Wear something for playtime, girlie. You know the drill!"

Ellie laughs, "As always! See you in about an hour. We're going to have fun, I just feel it!"

"Bye, sweetheart! See you!"

She giggles again, and hangs up.

"So Ellie is coming over?" Emily inquires.

"Yes. Just her. I told her to wear play clothes."

"Where we going?"

"To check out that place in Cantrall."

She sighs, "Of course. You couldn't wait to try it."

"Why not?"

"So predictable. But it does sound like it has a lot of potential for us. Dee said the entrance and parking lot are screened by a big hedge. She and her dates were naked and fucking outside and nobody batted an eye."

"Dates?"

"Four-guy gangbang. Once guys are on her whitelist there seems to be no stopping her when she gets cranked-up."

"Really. Hmm. Do you think we might see her there tonight?"

"No telling."

"Ellie's on her way, as you heard. What'd Anna have to say?"

"She'll be over in a few minutes, by herself. Nothing going on, other than she and Phoebe are taking a break."

"Oh?"

"Nothing bad between them. Phoeb is having a rough patch with the transition and needs some alone time."

"Certainly understandable. Something to eat? I should've asked Ellie. Lemme text her."

Steve texts to El, "You have dinner yet?"

Almost immediate return, "No. Applebees?"

"Yes. Deb is working tonight"

"Invite her to the house"

"Good idea. CU"

Steve sets his phone back down.

"Sandy's place for dinner. Invite Deb for tonight after she's off."

"That's a great idea, Steven!"

"Yep. It'll be just the four of us."

"You know, if we took our time at the restaurant and didn't drink much, we could take her with us. How would you feel about trailing three pretty girls into a new place? We could wear our uniforms. Just our uniforms. Like I said, I'm not done with what you started."

"911 on speed-dial for the heart attacks, of course. You're as conniving and evil as I am, Em. I'd better text Ellie."

"Oh?"

"Uniforms."

Em chuckles. Steve picks-up his phone again, and taps to Ellie.

"Collar"

"YES!!!"

Steve laughs at the enthusiasm.

"She likes that idea."

"Uh huh."

"If we're going to leave from the restaurant I'd better let Debbie know."

He texts to Debbie, "Call when you get a chance."

Steve barely sets his phone down and it rings with Debbie's tone.

"Hi. That was quick. Have a proposition," he answers.

"Good timing. I was on break. Proposition? Oh?"

"Jax and Cy are in town to play. Em, Ellie and I are going to try a new dive DeeDee knows about."