ear, Jonothan mused: Perhaps, Mrs. Paynter… Cheryl will come to the lodge again… in the spring… for the fishing… Then, I would not be fainthearted! It is possible! I know now that she is… possible! He had seen the signs. Perhaps it was in her eyes!
Another of the items Jim Harding had inherited was berthed at Newport. He sat in the main cabin interviewing a prospective client.
'Your ad said you'd be cruising to Baja for three weeks… with, ah… congenial people?' The man was all too aware of Charlotte sitting across from him, her legs crossed prettily, an expanse of soft voluptuous thigh highly visible to him, while above, the top of her dress barely covered her breasts. Damn! I don't think she's wearing a brassiere… and if I could see up her leg just a little higher I'd bet she doesn't have any pants on either!
'That's right!' Jim told him then followed it with a question. 'You're married, of course…?'
'Oh, yes, yes, of course! My wife is very much interested in a cruise of this sort!' the young doctor hastened to explain.
'Then, why don't you bring her to our home tonight! We'd like to meet her. We never book a couple until we've talked to both of them!'
Jim wrote down his address and handed it to the young man, who stowed it in his jacket pocket and rose to leave.
'Why do you insist on that, Mr. Harding…?'
'Jim! Just call me, Jim, Doctor… and my wife's name is Charlotte… and the reason we do it is to make sure that all of the people on the cruise are… congenial. After all, three weeks is a long time to spend together on a sailing yacht!'
'Yes, I suppose it is…'
'And, everyone really gets to know everyone else… quite well!' Charlotte added.
'Intimately!' Jim said.
'Intimately…?'
'Very intimately!' Charlotte repeated. She rose and walked to the companionway. 'Shall we expect you and your wife then at about nine?'
Young Doctor Conway was sure of it then. He thought he had gotten a glimpse of jet-black pubic hair, as she had risen from her seat.
'Yes, of course,' His eyes followed her as she disappeared forward and went into her cabin.
'She's a beautiful woman, isn't she, Doctor?'
'Yes, she is!' he gulped. 'Will she be going along on the cruise, too?'
'Of course!' Jim said amiably. 'She goes everywhere I go!'
The young doctor started to put it all together, in his mind, an inkling of what it was all about, the emphasis on congeniality… intimacy, Charlotte's provocative dress and walk, fitting together like a puzzle. Why the whole damned cruise could be one great big swinging party!
He came right to the point. 'Does the congeniality… and intimacy, you and your wife just mentioned, include sex?'
'Yes. Swinging sex!'
'I thought so!' Doctor Conway said. 'I've always wanted to try it… but Anne, my wife, is against it!'
'Maybe we can change her mind tonight?' Jim suggested with a lewd smile.
'Tonight?'
'Sure, why not?'
Doctor Conway straightened his shoulders and said with determination, 'Why not!' He was already trying to envision what it would be like with Charlotte.
Gene Barber was proud. He had already lost twenty-five pounds. Soon after they had returned from the hunting trip to Montana, he had enrolled in a gym specializing in taking off excess poundage. Nancy was proud of him, too. He was more like the man she had married a year ago, and needless to say, she no longer entertained the idea of divorcing him. I'd be crazy to leave him, now! Gene's really turned into an expert lover!
Remembering the last couple they had had over for dinner, she felt a glow of pride in the expert way, Gene had led them into the idea of swinging. He was really dedicated to it, and his glib lawyer's tongue stood him in good stead, as he had led them by stages to a mutual admission that they had always been interested… but…
'You know how it is… we've just never bothered…'
'Well, you'll never know unless you try it at least once!'
Actually, Nancy was getting to the point where she hated to share Gene with another woman. He turns me on so much now… and does all the things I like so well, I almost feel jealous of him at times!
She toyed with an idea she wanted to talk over with her husband. Maybe we don't need to swing any more! Maybe all we needed was some understanding… some knowledge… and now, that our marriage is stronger, perhaps we should drop out of the swinging group we're in!
Tonight, after dinner, she'd bring it up, to see what he thought about it. She couldn't help but hope that he would agree.
And lately, she had been thinking about something else… something very dear to her. Nancy Barber wanted to have a baby! I'll tell him about that… too!
Cheryl worried until her next menses appeared. She was sure that another pregnancy would be a catastrophe; besides she already had two lovely children, and more and more she was acutely aware of the cost of living spiral. She made an appointment at a psychological clinic.
After her second session, she came home bubbling with a solution her counselor had suggested. She told Frank about it that night after they were in bed.
'Doctor Taylor suggested something we hadn't thought about, darling…'
'Yeah? What's that…?' He was running his fingers teasingly down toward her pubic mound.
'A vasectomy!'
'You mean cut on me…?' He didn't like the idea at all.
'It's a hundred percent sure, darling… and it'll ease my mind!'
'Well, I don't like the idea! I want to keep my manhood!'
'All they do is cut a little tube that carries the sperm… and the doctor says that it can be done in the office!'
'If it's so damned good… why don't you ask him if he'd have it done!'
'The doctor's a 'she', darling… and she told me that her husband has already had it. Now there's no worry, at all!'
'Well, I'm not going to let anybody cut on me!' he growled.
'There's something else…'
'Oh…?'
'I invited Janice… Doctor Taylor, and her husband for dinner tomorrow night…'
'Why in hell did you do that?'
'So they could talk to you!' she explained. 'I knew that you'd never consent to go down to her office.'
'God! I can't imagine a more miserable evening, talking to some old biddy about something as personal as that!'
'But she's not an old biddy! She's about thirty, blonde, pretty face, and a fabulous figure! I think you'll like her, too…!'
'Then… you two have got something going…?'
'It was kind of accidental.'
'What happened?' Frank was interested now.
'I mentioned what happened at the lodge, and…'
'And, what…?'
'She understood all about it… about the swinging thing… and pretty soon, the first thing I knew, she was making a pass at me!'
'I'll be damned! What did you do?'
'I invited her and her husband to come to dinner! I sort of figured that was the best thing to do!'
'And I think you're right darling!' he approved. 'Tell me more about Doctor Taylor. Did you say her name was Janice? What're her measurements?' His finger was rubbing tantalizingly up and down the short, throbbing length of
