The Society

"What is it? How did you get involved?"

"You need to understand, pregnancy is difficult. And it can be a scary and sometimes intimidating process for some women. But for others, it's deeply sensual. It can mean a lot of different things to different women. The Society is a place for all of us to gather, be together...discuss and discover our needs and desires, our fears and hopes for our respective pregnancies. We exist in secret. We meet in the apartment of one of our Founding Mothers. When she passed, she gave her apartment to The Society in the hopes that we would continue to meet and grow and spread our message of beauty, femininity and empowerment. Women have come to us during their pregnancies, and others are brought to us through our members. I was brought in by a woman named Miranda. She's the longest-standing member. She's on her seventeenth pregnancy. Isn't that incredible?"

I nod, but don't say anything. Still letting what Staci is telling me sink in.

"I met Miranda at an Art Museum during my first pregnancy. At the time, I was feeling very anxious about being pregnant. See, what you don't know—what I don't reveal—is that I'm very, very turned on by pregnant women. I know it's the same for you."

"How could you tell?"

"Aside from the fact that you snuck in to one of our meetings?"

"Touché."

"Anyway, being pregnant for the first time was both exhilarating and scary for me. I got plenty of attention, and affection, from my husband, but I needed...more. So, one Saturday, I'd gone out to this museum, and that's when I saw Miranda. She was...breathtaking. Her belly was big and bulbous, stretching out this thin, white dress. And I was kind of mesmerized by her. She caught me. I was embarrassed, but she came over, I mean, I was also obviously pregnant too, but nowhere near as far along as she was, and we got to talking, and she told me about The Society. I was, needless to say, very intrigued. So she brought me with her to their next meeting. I was hooked. It's a wonderful atmosphere. I was moved by how quickly I was accepted by the women there."

"But...how does it work?"

"We have a hierarchy. A "Den Mother," if you will, who is chosen by members to be the leader of The Society. We call her the "Queen of Pregnancy." Right now, that's me," She says, proudly.

"So you're the leader?"

"For now. I was the Queen during my last pregnancy too. I surprised them by getting pregnant again so quickly," she laughs. "After that, we have three "Pregnancy Associates." They help me with recruiting new members, organizing meetings and generally making sure our members are always getting the support they need."

This was too much. The more she tells me, the more fascinated I become. "What happens when you're not pregnant anymore?" I ask.

"Well, that's of course a common issue we have, because naturally, we all have to give birth at some point. When a member gives birth, she simply becomes a "passive" member. She doesn't come to meetings anymore, but she is recorded in our Registry of Mothers. We make sure to keep in touch with them, and of course should they become pregnant again, they're welcomed back into our active community. When I give birth, of course I won't be the Queen of Pregnancy anymore, so The Society will elect a new Queen at the next meeting. Women voluntarily submit themselves for consideration."

"OK, ok. I understand. But why were you testing me?"

"Because you found out. I don't know how you found out, but you found out about The Society. Men have been taboo for The Society. We have always been only for women. And, as I've mentioned, we exist in secret. Even the people that live in our building don't know about us. We're neat, quiet and well-behaved, and we do not draw attention to ourselves. How did you find out? How did you get in?"

I gulp. This could get awkward very quickly. "I followed you," I said. "You were always on my subway going uptown. I was always curious as to what you were doing because you'd changed after work. And you looked so...alluring. Mysterious."

"Well," Staci says with a smile. "I do pride myself on my fashion sense, especially when I'm pregnant. You should know that from working with me. But why did you follow me?"

"It wasn't so much that I followed you, specifically," I said. "But I saw you were being followed. There is a blonde woman, she's tall and really sexy..."

"Her name is Jenna. She's one of our Associates. And she is very sexy. She truly loves being pregnant. When we decided to test you, she was very excited to, shall we say, use her talents for purposes of temptation."

"It worked, I have to admit. But I saw her, and often I saw her with another woman, very short, with curly dark hair who looks like she's about 15 months pregnant..."

"Kathleen. She's having twins. Gosh, I wish I had a belly as big as hers...I'd never keep my hands off it..."

Staci trails off, losing herself in thought.

"Sooo..." I say, as I continue to explain myself, "I see these two women always following you. I am curious, but don't want to be noticed myself, so I followed them. I watched from across the street. I saw you meet and kiss another woman as Kathleen and Jenna watched you. You wouldn't have noticed me—it was dark. I was hiding behind a tree. And I saw you put on these masks and go upstairs."

"That was Miranda. The reason I'm part of The Society."

"I see. She's certainly built for pregnancy."

"I think I'm built for pregnancy too," Staci says as she pushes her belly at me. Is she teasing me? Or is this still part of the test.

"Also true," I say.

"The night you snuck into our meeting. What did you see?"

"Well, since I knew where to go, I hid until I thought enough women had shown up. I was nervous because I didn't know what to expect. I hid in that hallway. I saw you and many other women surrounding this one woman. Her name was Juliana. You welcomed her to The Society and then everyone kissed her belly..."

"That's our induction ceremony."

"In another room, Jenna was giving someone else a massage. Then you caught me."

"Yes. I have to say I was kind of horrified that we'd been found out. Miranda was the one who caught you. She sent me after you. I have to admit, I was totally shocked to see that, of all people, it's you, the guy who sits across from me in the office."

"So you decided to test me?"

"Well, we needed to discuss how to handle this, because nobody knows what your intentions are. Have you come there thinking you're going to get easy sex? Because that is not what The Society is about. We are also not there to satisfy the needs of men. Most of us have husbands or lovers or partners for our own enjoyment. While some of us like to explore our own desires toward other women—myself included—not all of us do. We need to protect ourselves. So my first thought—that I'd sufficiently embarrassed you and we should forget about it and move on—was how I decided to handle it."

"And then?"

"At our next meeting, we had a group discussion about it. Not many of us saw you—just Miranda and myself, actually—And we were kind of surprised to find that most of our members weren't against having a male be part of The Society. Particularly if he was very into pregnant women. In fact, Jenna seemed most in favor of it—she felt that it could be beneficial for all of us, so long as they understood that they had to be respectful. It would be instructive for us, for our members to know what about pregnancy that men find so attractive. She suggested that we test you. Make ourselves as present to you as possible to see how you would react. I knew you were married. That was a good start. But we needed to see how you handled certain temptations. We have a lot of members, you see, and they are happy to help The Society. So we made a schedule. Dates, places, times for women to cross your path. If you cracked...if you made a false move, we'd know you were not the right man to welcome in. But you did not crack. Jenna seemed especially impressed by your level of self control—she reported back to me that she and Kathleen caught you on the street and laid it on especially thick."

"So, what does that mean?"

"I think it means you're saving yourself for the Queen," she says as she leans forward, pushing her belly out at me. "You think I couldn't tell? I see you most every day. I know, every time people come into our office and I let them feel my belly, you're aching inside. I think you get so hard over me, you can barely stand it."

Staci crept closer to me. I edge myself back against the side of the car. The urge to reach out and touch her is out of control.

"Three pregnancies, you've seen me through," she says, her voice dropping to a seductive, throaty whisper. "Each time, this belly gets bigger and tighter and rounder...And I loooove to show it off. You know that. But you've never touched me. No matter how often I let our office-mates rub my bump, you can't ask. You wouldn't dare cross that line—allow yourself to be so turned on at work—afraid I'd notice. Instead, you just stare at me. Admiring me from afar. Well...now's your chance."

Staci's belly is inches from me. I've been cornered. And my erection is massive.

"Go ahead. Touch me," she says. "You know you want to. Look at how big and pregnant I am. And I still have two months to go. I'm just going to get bigger..."

"You're still testing me, aren't you," I grunt.

"What do you think?" she purrs. "You could do whatever you want to me—nobody would ever know..."

"Now I know you're testing me," I say. "Why would you suddenly change now?"

She pushes herself even closer to me, leans her head towards mine. I can see her lips start to pucker. I shut my eyes.

"You're right," she says as she pulls back. "I was testing you. And you've passed the test. If you can handle the temptation of a heavily pregnant woman throwing herself at you, I think you have what it takes to be the first male member of The Society."

I exhale sharply. "Well, I'm glad I passed," I say. "But now what?"

"Now, you're going to come to our meeting and we'll induct you. Jenna, Miranda and I have been working on a proper plan to bring you in. So now, it is time."

We pull up in front of 116 West 73rd Street. We exit the car. I quickly check my phone to see if there's anything from Rachel, but there's not. I get a concerned look on my face.

"Everything OK?" Staci asks.

"My wife was out when I got home and left a strange message. I haven't heard from her since."

"I'm sure she is fine," Staci says as she leads me up the stairs. We arrive at the door. Staci hands me a mask. "When we come in, I am going to lead you into one of our meeting rooms. Jenna will tell you what's going to happen next. I'm going to prepare the rest of the members for your induction. OK?"

"OK."

Staci opens the door and quickly brings me to a small, dimly lit room. There's a window that faces the middle of the block, and it's dark out. There is a bed, two chairs and a desk. Staci shuts the door and leaves me sitting there.

The door opens after a few minutes and Jenna enters. She gives me a big smile. "Nice to meetcha, finally, Ryan!" she says. She has a bit of a southern twang in her voice. "I hear you're gonna be joining us. I think you'll be a great addition to The Society."

"Thanks," I say, still a little bit wary of everything that's going on.

"Nothing to be shy about here," she says. "We will all help each other here. It'll be good to have a man's perspective on pregnancy here. We only know each other."

"So what's going to happen?"

"Usually when we induct a woman, we ask them to tell us about their experiences being pregnant. They talk about what they hope to gain by being a part of The Society. Then, Staci reads them the pledge, and everyone kisses her belly. It'll be a bit different for you. You'll have to talk about what you bring to The Society and what makes you worthy of being the first male to be a part of it. Staci will read you the pledge, but we've had to modify it a bit. You don't have a belly, of course, so we're not going to kiss you. But one of our members—actually, she's new—has volunteered to let you seal your induction by kissing her belly."

"OK. It all sounds reasonable."

We sit for a few minutes. Jenna's very chatty and bubbly. She likes to talk about her pregnancy and how she always grows really big. And she's not joking--her belly is massive. She's wearing a light red dress with some floral patterns and her bump has completely blown out the middle of it. It sticks straight out, making her dress stretch almost incongruously. And she absolutely cannot keep her hands off herself. The entire time we sit there, she idly rubs circles around her belly, occasionally pausing and rubbing her hands up and down herself. It was, to say the least, hard not to stare at her. She's happily telling me about how much her baby moves around and kicks her—much to my titillation—when there's a knock on the door. Jenna slowly gets up, giving a slight "Umph!" as she stands, and answers. It's Miranda, her belly entering the room well ahead of the rest of her.

"We're ready," she says.

"OK!" Jenna says to me. "C'mon, Ryan!"

She takes my hand and leads me into the big common room, where there are no less than 15 women, all of them pregnant, sitting in a circle. There is piano music coming from...somewhere. I can't tell where. Staci stands in the middle of the room, in front of a chair. She gestures for me to sit and I do.

I look around the room. The eyes of these women feel as though they are cutting daggers into my soul. I'm more nervous than I appear.

"Ladies," Staci says, "Tonight, we enter uncharted territory in The Society. Before us, here, is Ryan. We have all reasons to believe that Ryan comes to us with good intentions. We have, for many years, resisted the presence of men in The Society for the obvious reason that they cannot experience pregnancy the way we do. But as we evolve as people, we must consider the future of The Society as we go forward. Many of you expressed that you would be comfortable with a male as a part of The Society as a means of advice, a guide, if you will, for us to look to as we wish to please our own partners. But with this comes inherent risk. It is not lost on us that having a male in The Society represents the potential of a threat, as it were, of unwanted attention. Unwanted advances. Ryan is married himself. Jenna, Miranda and I have gone through great lengths to test Ryan's loyalty and fortitude. Many of you were gracious enough to participate in this test of Ryan's will. Ryan is with us tonight because he has passed our test. We believe he can be trusted and we hope you will grow to trust him as well. So, we welcome you, Ryan."

Staci gestures to me to speak. I open my mouth. Nothing comes out at first. I'm still quite intimidated.

"Ahh..." I stammer, "Hi, ladies. I'm humbled and honored that you'd choose me to be here tonight. I look forward to helping you as much as I can, with whatever advice you need...I certainly hope you can offer me some advice in return, as Staci mentioned, I am married, my wife and I don't have any children as yet, but we've been trying, and hopefully we'll have success soon...Uhm...Staci, I'm sure, told you that I do have a sexual attraction for pregnant women...I do find them...you...very beautiful, but I do so with respect. Respect for each of you and the journey you are all taking and respect for my own marriage and my wife, who may join your ranks someday..."

I pause, and look up at Staci. She nods.

"Are you ready to take the pledge?" she says.

I nod.

"Will you uphold the standards of The Society?"

"I will."

"Please repeat after me. I, Ryan C., pledge to respect and honor the proud bumps of The Society throughout each of our members' pregnancies."

"I, Ryan C., pledge to respect and honor the proud bumps of The Society throughout each of our members' pregnancies."

"I will be supportive of all the Ladies of The Society."

"I will be supportive of all the Ladies of The Society."

"I will not bring feelings of shame or discomfort to any of the Ladies of The Society."

"I will not bring feelings of shame or discomfort to any of the Ladies of The Society."

"I will own my actions in the name of The Society."

"I will own my actions in the name of The Society."

"You are now part of The Society, Ryan," she says. "Please enjoy your time here, and enjoy all of us around you. Here, you are loved and respected."

Staci steps back and outside the circle. "Here, normally, you would kiss my belly to seal your entry. We are going to do something different. We have just inducted a new member to The Society. She has graciously offered her belly to you. Your induction into The Society will be confirmed when you kiss her belly."

I furrow my brow for a moment. This all seems a bit strange. Staci steps down the hallway and returns a brief moment later. Miranda follows her. They stand on either side of the doorway to the room. I see a woman in a white gown step into the light...

...It's Rachel.

"Surprise!" she says to me. "I'm pregnant!"

Shock, then a dumbfounded grin crosses my face.

"Is it true?" I say to Rachel as she steps in front of me.

She pulls a pregnancy test out of her gown. It says PREGNANT.

"I found out a couple of days ago, while you were at work," she says. "I'd been late...you know we've been having a lot of sex lately...and I went out to buy a test. Miranda saw me at the drug store and said she knew it was positive. I asked how she knew. She said I had a scent. Then she told me all about this...place...The Society and how they would help me, be a community for me throughout my pregnancy."

I look over at Miranda. She smiles and shrugs. She and Staci share a snicker.

"Somehow, in conversation, it came up that you were my husband, and so Miranda put me on the phone with Staci. She said that you were being tested by them and if you knew I was pregnant, it might ruin the test. So we agreed to keep it a secret and reveal everything to you tonight. That's why I wasn't there when you got home earlier. Tonight, I was inducted to The Society as well. Kiss my belly, love."

I'm still stunned...and overjoyed...as I circle my hand around her flat tummy before leaning forward and kissing it.

"Soon, it will be huge with our baby," she says. "Can you believe it?"

I stand and give Rachel a kiss. Everyone in the room claps for us, a few shedding tears. One by one, the women stand and come up to us, kissing Rachel's tummy and hugging both of us.

"Welcome, Ryan," Staci says to me. "We look forward to hearing about your experiences in the near future."

***

Things settle a bit back to normal in the coming weeks. Staci becomes a bit more chatty with me, usually asking me questions about Rachel and how she is doing, and how she and I are enjoying her pregnancy. Which we have been, a great deal.

Staci goes on maternity leave two months later, and gives birth to a healthy baby boy. Her belly grew to be especially large in those last weeks, far surpassing the size she reached in her previous two pregnancies. And it really got her feeling some kind of way. She told me she was feeling especially "Full of life" one day, and asked me if I could give a demonstration on how I touch my wife's growing bump at the next meeting. So, I did, first using Rachel as an example. Staci then stepped in and asked if I could demonstrate on her. I didn't think there was anything particularly special about it—merely rubbing gently but applying pressure with my fingertips, or with the lower palm of my hand—but I could tell Staci was getting quite turned on. I remained a gentleman, however, certainly with the many watchful eyes of The Society on me. That Monday, Staci said she'd spent most of the weekend masturbating thinking about that experience.