I didn’t become a nanny because I loved kids. I wasn’t one of those girls who started babysitting when I was ten and fell in love with children and decided to spend the rest of my life playing Mary Poppins. I became a nanny because I hated school, anything involving retail, and working in fast food. Being a nanny required that I know how to cook and how to do CPR. Basically, I needed to know how to keep kids alive.

Sometimes I thought a monkey could do my job.

Not that I advertised that fact during interviews.

I’d been a nanny for five years and had gone through three families, when I finally found the perfect job. Thank God I found the Baumgartners. Or they found me. I was crazy about the Baumgartners. They were my favorite people in the world. And their kids were great, which is something I couldn’t say about the three families I’d played nanny to before them.

Although they had their moments.

“Henry did it!” Janie, who was eleven, blond and blue-eyed like her mother, stomped into the kitchen where I was making their after school snack-“ants on a log.” They were just celery sticks spread with peanut butter, raisins dotted on top, and looked more like turds on sticks to me, but whatever.

“Henry did what?” I licked peanut butter off the knife and slid it into the sink. Henry, almost ten, was always doing something to annoy his older sister.

“Look!” Janie held her ponytail up to me, showing me a wad of gum so big I couldn’t imagine how anyone even got it in their mouth in the first place.

“Great.” I sighed, putting the ants and logs on a plate in the middle of the kitchen table. There was no point yelling for Henry. He was likely out back, hiding in the tree house his father had built, which is always where he “hid” whenever he’d done something he knew he might get in trouble for.

So I was standing in the middle of the kitchen with a sobbing Janie, Googling “how to get gum out of hair” on my iPhone, when the house phone rang. Of course, the cordless wasn’t on its base where it should have been. I ran through the house, stopping every few moments when it rang again, trying to pinpoint the sound. I finally found it buried between the couch cushions, where I also found a wad of yellow Silly Putty with a penny stuck into it.

“Hello?” I asked, out of breath, trying to get Silly Putty off my fingers in long strings.

“Gretchen, can you stay late tonight?” Mrs. B. sounded just as out of breath as I was. “I have another couple showings and Doc’s at that conference in New York.”

“Sure.” I was always amenable to more time-and of course, more money. Besides, Mrs. B wasn’t as picky as a lot of families I’d worked for. She didn’t mind if I made a frozen pizza for dinner or let the kids watch TV. As long as homework was done and no one was on fire, life was good.

“Is Janie okay?”

I’m sure she heard her howling in the background.

“She got gum in her hair.”

“Ugh. Ice,” Mrs. B said. “Put ice on it. It will get cold and you can chip most of it out.”

“Thanks.” I headed for the freezer, grabbing a glass and dispensing ice into it.

“And you can order a pizza if you want. There’s twenty bucks in the tin. You’ve got to be sick of cooking frozen ones.”

“Okay.” It cracked me up how Mrs. B vacillated between wanting to feed them healthy things like celery and peanut butter and then gave up and ordered pizza.

“I should be back by nine or ten,” she said. “Is that okay?”

“Sure.” I sat a tearful Janie down at the kitchen table, pressing the ice against the glob of gum. She frowned at me, but at least she’d stopped howling. “We’ll see you then.”

“All right, thanks, Gretchen. You’re a life saver.” She hung up.

“Your mom says ice works.” I held my other hand under the ice to catch the drips. “But… if it doesn’t work… are you okay with me cutting it out?”

“What?” Janie’s eyes went wide. “Cut my hair?”

“I think you’d be cute with short hair.” I was trying to set it up, ease her into the idea, because I had a feeling this much gum plus that much hair was going to spell a trip to the hair salon tomorrow with her mother. I was just the nanny, not the Miracle Worker.

“You think?” Janie sniffed, fingering the end of her ponytail, now wet from the melting ice.

“Janie, where’s my goddamned iPod?” Henry stormed into the house, slamming the French patio doors behind him. “What did you do with it?”

“Bite me!” Janie snapped. “Look what you did to my hair!”

“Both of you, watch your mouths.” I sighed, pulling the ice away to find the gum was, indeed, hardening. “Janie, did you take his iPod?”

“Maybe.” She crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at him. “But he took my eyeliner and won’t give it back!”

It was strange to me how, one minute, they could be playing and the best of friends, and the next minute, they were at each other’s throats.

“Well, if the iPod doesn’t appear in the next five minutes, I’m going to let you figure out your gum problem.” I carried the ice over to the sink, tossing it in. “And if Janie’s eyeliner doesn’t appear in the next five minutes, Henry, there won’t be any pizza for dinner or watching a movie afterward. You can do your homework, eat peanut butter and jelly for dinner and go to bed by eight.”

I turned around and leaned against the sink, arms crossed over my chest, and looked between the two of them. I wasn’t above bribery, it was true. It probably wasn’t the best parenting technique in the world, but I wasn’t their parent. I was the nanny.

“Your iPod is under the treehouse,” Janie grumbled. “I buried it at the base of the tree.”

“Here.” Henry reached into his pocket, handing over the eyeliner. I didn’t even ask why he took it. Janie wasn’t even supposed to have it, but I didn’t mention that either. Then he was out the door to find his iPod.

“Okay,” I said to Janie. “Let’s see what we can do with your hair.”

It took me almost an hour to get all of it out, and it was still sticky to the touch, even after we’d washed and conditioned it six times. Janie thanked me and went to her room to try to brush out the stickiness while I sat at the kitchen table, eating the untouched ants on a log while I ordered a pizza.

Then I called Ronnie to tell her I was going to be late.

“Don’t watch Mad Men without me,” I warned, crunching celery.

“I won’t,” she promised. “I don’t feel well anyway. I think I’ll just go to bed early.”

I frowned. “You don’t sound sick.”

“Stomach thing,” she said. “Maybe my period coming. I dunno.”

“Awww. Fill a hot water bottle.” I licked peanut butter off my fingers. “I’ll come home and rub your belly. I’ll kiss it and make it all better, I promise.”

“I gotta go,” Ronnie said. “My other line’s ringing.”

I sighed. “See you tonight.”

Mrs. B had been asking me to stay late a lot and while I liked the extra cash, I didn’t like spending so much time away from Ronnie. We were best friends and even better lovers. And that, well-it had just kind of happened. I’d been with girls before, but I wasn’t a lesbian. I liked men too much for that. The way Ronnie and I had come together was kind of just meant to be. At first, it was just incredible sex and a lot of fun. Now, it was easy, comfortable, and I loved her dearly.

The pizza came and I paid for it, setting us up in the family room in front of the giant 80-inch screen TV with Surround Sound. Janie was freshly scrubbed in PJs when she came down the stairs. Henry, however, was dirtier than ever from playing out in the treehouse. I made him wash his hands before sitting down at the coffee table to eat. We didn’t even bother with plates. We just sat on the floor and ate out of the box.

The kids were involved in the movie and after I ate a piece or two of pizza, I curled up on the couch. I couldn’t stop thinking about Ronnie. Poor thing. I decided to stop on my way home to pick up some Midol and chocolate. Her favorite, Toblerone. That would brighten her spirits. She’d sounded so distracted, like she didn’t even want to pick up the phone.

“Can we watch another one?” Janie begged. “We did our homework and I’m already showered!”

“As long as you promise to shower right after, Henry,” I warned, cleaning up the pizza boxes, stowing the leftovers in the fridge.

“Scouts honor!” He gave me the Boy Scout salute and I laughed.

I was tidying up the kitchen when Mrs. B came in. I glanced at the clock, surprised. It wasn’t even seven yet.

“You’re early,” I remarked, hanging the dish cloth over the kitchen faucet.

“The second couple cancelled.” Mrs. B tossed a briefcase on the table and sat down in one of the chairs, kicking off her heels. She put her feet up on the table, wiggling her painted red toes in her pantyhose. She had long, tanned legs. “Everything go okay?”

“Got most of the gum out of Janie’s hair,” I reported. “Homework’s done, Janie’s showered. We ate pizza. The leftovers are in the fridge. They’re watching Once Upon a Time and Henry promised to shower when it’s over. “

“Thanks for staying.” She unbuttoned her suit jacket and shrugged it off. Mrs. B wore gorgeous clothes. Sometimes I went through her closet and a couple times I’d tried on a few of her dresses. They were just a little big on me. We were about the same height, but Mrs. B had a more voluptuous figure.

“Not a problem.” I opened the fridge, taking out two pieces of pizza I’d put in a separate Ziploc bag. “Do you mind if I take some pizza home to Ronnie?

“Not at all.” Mrs. B swung her feet off the table to the floor. “How is she?”

“Good.” I nodded, putting the pizza with my purse on the table. “We’re good.”

“I’m glad.” She gave me a tired smile, flipping through the mail on the table, separating out the junk. “Oh, I wanted to ask you. We have friends coming in early August. They’re flying in from Venice. Do you think you could sleep over, camp out with the kids?”

“Sure,” I agreed, watching her open one of the envelopes.

“Oh my God.” She pressed her fingers to her lips, eyes scanning the page.

“What, is something wrong?”

“No… something good!” She brightened, the letter shaking in her hands. “Something very, very good.”

“What is it?” I sat down at the table across from her.

“We’ve been approved as a foster family!” She whispered this, glancing toward the family room where the kids were still so involved with the show they had no idea their mother was even home yet.

“That’s… wow.” I sat back, shocked. Henry and Janie were hitting those tween years and I’d heard the Baumgartners talking about what they were going to do when the kids went off the college, so the idea of them taking in foster kids surprised me. “Amazing. I didn’t even know you applied!”

“I didn’t want to say much, get anyone’s hope’s up.” She nodded toward the family room, her eyes bright. “They’re desperate for a little brother or sister.”

“So you’re going to adopt?” I asked, even more shocked now. Taking in foster kids was one thing-the Baumgartners were very generous and it made sense they would want to give back in some way. But adopting another child? That was a huge commitment. And not even just for them, but for me too.

Mrs. B. nodded enthusiastically. “I hope so.”

“A baby?” Of course, I knew what she was going to say.

“Well who doesn’t love babies?” She smiled, folding up the letter and sliding it back into the envelope.

“Well, congratulations,” I said, pasting on a smile. “That’s wonderful.”

“Thanks.”

I got up to write my hours on a sheet of paper Mrs. B kept on the fridge and there must have been a break between episodes because the kids came bounding into the kitchen.

“Mom!” Janie and Henry rushed in to hug her as I put on my Keds and grabbed the pizza and my purse off the table.

“I’ll see you guys tomorrow after school,” I called, heading out the door.

I stopped at Walgreens on the way home to pick up Midol-I knew we were out, I’d taken the last of it-a Toblerone for Ronnie and a Reese’s for me. I didn’t like missing out on the money, but I was glad to be going home early today. I’d get home in plenty of time for Mad Men. We’d even have time to soak in the tub together. Then I could spend an hour licking Ronnie’s sweet little pussy and see how many orgasms I could give her before our show started.

Just thinking about it made my mouth water and my own pussy clench with need.

I pulled my Saturn up to our apartment complex, cutting the engine and glancing up at our apartment. The living room was dark, but the light was on in our room. Ronnie was probably napping. I’d wake her up like Sleeping Beauty, with a hot, sloppy wet kiss under the covers. I smiled, grabbing my Walgreens bag and my purse. I checked the mail-the box was empty, so Ronnie must have gotten it already-and climbed the stairs to our apartment.

The door was locked-I got on Ronnie constantly about keeping it locked, even when we were home. We lived in a nice complex, but there had been a break-in at the storage center, so you never knew who might decide to try doors and commit a crime of opportunity. I unlocked it, going into the darkened living room, shutting the door quietly behind me. I didn’t want to wake her before I got the chance to really wake her.

I left the Walgreens bag on the kitchen table. There was a night light in the hallway and I followed its warmth toward our room. Our door was closed almost all the way, but there was a thin crack of light showing. I smiled, slipping up to the gap, peeking through in hopes of finding my sleeping beauty.

“Ohhh my fucking God, Vince, your cock is so good!”

I stopped, too stunned to move, hearing Ronnie’s voice, knowing that deep, guttural moan all too well. I could only see the edge of the bed, but I could hear it now, the low creak of bedsprings.

“That’s it, baby, take my cock. Oh fuck! Yeah! Squeeze it like that!” A man’s voice, no doubt about it.

“You like that?” Ronnie asked, teasing. “That tight… wet… hot… pussy… you like that wrapped around your big cock like that?”

“Ahhh yeah,” he panted. “You’re so fucking tight. God.”

I stood at the doorway, feeling a hot constriction in my chest. This couldn’t be happening. Ronnie was sleeping with a man-in our bed? I mean, we’d never really said we were going to be exclusive. We never talked about it. Things just sort of happened, and kept happening, until Ronnie and I got a one-bedroom apartment together and we agreed to split the rent.

And I knew she liked guys. She knew I liked guys too. In fact, we talked about guys, we fantasized about them in bed, we’d even talking about bringing a guy into our bedroom, although we’d never actually done it. And God knows, we both like to play with phallic sex toys. We owned lots of dildos, even a few strap-ons. Ronnie loved to be fucked, especially from behind. Hell, I loved to be fucked too. It was no secret. It wasn’t like we were going to get gay married and live happily ever after or anything. I knew that.

But she was fucking a man. In our bed. That just seemed like a terrible betrayal, even given the fluid nature of our relationship.

“I want you to pound me,” Ronnie begged him. “Will you fuck me from behind? Fuck me good and hard?”

I heard him groan in response, heard the bed springs squeaking as they moved and shifted on the bed. I saw the expanse of Ronnie’s back, the wings of her tawny shoulder blades as she pressed her cheek to the mattress. They had shifted over on our queen-sized bed, in my line of sight now. I couldn’t see him, or, at least, not much of him. But I could see his cock.

And Jesus holy jumped up Christ, what a cock it was!

I’d never seen one so big, at least not outside of porn. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was actually a full foot long. He slapped it against Ronnie’s perfect, rounded ass as she wiggled back toward him and sighed.

“Put it in slow,” she warned, eyes scrunched closed, nose wrinkled as he started sliding inside her from behind. She gave a low moan, biting her lip as he moved in deeper. My God, it just went on and on. He thrust forward, hands on her hips, sliding inch by inch into her sweet little pink pussy. I knew how tight she was, but I knew how much she could take too. I’d had two fingers in there, and had stretched her once to accommodate my whole fist. She loved being pushed like that.

“Oh fuck, Vince, your cock is so goooood!” Ronnie moaned and arched her back, her little breasts brushing the covers. Her nipples were hard and my mouth watered. I wanted to suck them. I was horrified by my own response. My pussy ached and throbbed as I watched my girlfriend-and what else could I call the girl I had regularly sex with but my girlfriend? — get fucked by a man.

God help me, I wanted to join them.

What was wrong with me?

“Okay?” he asked, checking in with her. He wasn’t all the way in, but almost. He could get deeper at that angle, I knew. Ronnie loved it deep.

“Yes!” she gasped. “Oh do it, baby. Fuck me!”

I took a step back from the door as they started to really go at it. Ronnie moaned and arched and begged him for more, while Vince pounded her from behind. And I watched. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the scene, in spite of the horrible twist in my stomach. I was so turned on it was shameful.

I watched Ronnie slide a hand between her own legs, petting his heavy, swinging balls before starting to rub her little clit. Good girl, I thought, licking my lips. I could almost taste her. I knew exactly what it was like to have that pussy mashed against my face, her clit sucked into my mouth, my tongue working that sensitive nub back and forth until she came. Sometimes I could get her to squirt, if I fucked her with a toy or used my fingers deep inside.

“Ohhhh God! Yes! Yes!” Ronnie moaned, her hand working furiously between her thighs. She was so beautiful it hurt, her dark hair spread out all over the bed, back arched, pale ass up high, taking that giant cock again and again. Her ass was pale, her limbs tanned. She had a sexy tan line from her bikini that I loved to trace with my tongue. I bit my lip to keep from moaning, sliding a hand over the crotch of my jeans. My pussy ached, even while my heart was hurting. How was that possible?

“Oh! Oh! Make me come!” Ronnie’s voice rose to that sweet little wail she made when she was close. So close. “Ohhhh fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Coming! Ohhhh!”

I’d seen and heard her come a thousand times, but I’d never been so enthralled with her pleasure as I was now. Her body shuddered and twitched, face tensing, eyes closed tight, and then releasing. Her brow unknitted, hands unfurling, toes uncurling. Her little wail turned to soft kitten cries.

But Vince wasn’t done yet.

“I want to come in your mouth,” he said. “Come on, suck it. Taste yourself on my cock.”

I told myself to walk away, to just walk away. I could take my car and just drive for an hour. Decide what in the hell I wanted to do about this-if anything. Or I could bust into the room. That was also an option, I supposed. Fling open the door, be all angry and confrontational.

But what good would that do?

Besides, Ronnie was sucking him now, and it was impossible not to watch. He laid back on my pillow, holding his monster member in his fist as she worked her mouth up and down. We both loved sucking cock. Ronnie loved coming with a life-like dildo in her mouth, a strap-on in her pussy and my finger slipped into her ass. She’d even said once how much she missed cum. Tasting it, swallowing it, playing with it. That’s when we’d talked about finding some guy and fucking his lucky brains out, but we’d never acted on it.

Now I watched, fascinated, as she gave lucky Vince a blowjob. I knew who Vince was, of course. She’d talked about Vince. She met him at the gym. Ronnie worked out five times a week-she was far more vigilant than me about that-and had started paying extra for a personal trainer at the fitness center. Apparently, it came with fringe benefits.

I wondered how long she’d been seeing him. I couldn’t remember the first time she’d started talking about him. Was it a month ago? Two? How long had they been fucking? A while, if this little session was any indication, because they were more than comfortable with each other. Vince clearly knew she loved to be eaten and that she was multiply orgasmic, because he pulled her over his face and buried it between her legs.

“Oh baby, yeah, eat that pussy!” Ronnie took a break from sucking his cock to gasp out the words. I could see the way her eyes closed in pleasure, how the bulbous head of his monster porn cock turned almost purple in her fist. “Oh fuck, put your fingers in. Yeah, like that! Now finger me! Hard!”

I smiled. I couldn’t help it. I’d taught her that-how to be vocal, how to tell me what she wanted, how she wanted it. She’d learned well.

“Oh pump it, baby!” Vince groaned. “I want you to swallow my whole fucking load!”

Ronnie followed his instructions eagerly, pumping his cock in her fist while covering the head with her mouth. I stood there, my hand rubbing my own sopping pussy through my jeans, watching my girlfriend suck off some guy I didn’t know she was sleeping with, and I was actually disappointed I wasn’t going to see that enormous cock shoot.

What kind of masochist was I?

“Ahhh! Argggghh! I’m gonna… ohhh fuuuuck!”

Vince bucked his hips up on the bed, shoving his cock deep into Ronnie’s throat, making her gag on it. She gurgled and drooled all over it, saliva dripping down his scrotum toward the bed, her eyes widening as he unloaded into her mouth. She couldn’t swallow it all. She choked on it, eyes watering, his cum overflowing her lips, sliding down the shaft toward her clenched fist.

“Oh baby, please!” Ronnie gasped, pulling off his cock, her face full of his cum. “Don’t stop! Lick me! Make me come tooooo!”

She wailed and ground her pussy against his face, sitting up, hands on his chest, her little breasts bouncing as she rocked and rolled her hips. Her nipples were hard, hair falling in her face, obscuring her expression, but I’d memorized it. I knew just what she looked like when she was coming.

“Ohhhhhhh!” Ronnie’s body tensed, her thighs trembling as she climaxed all over his face. Vince, to his credit, didn’t stop. In fact, he wrapped his arms around her hips to keep her there, his tongue working between the smooth, shaved lips of her pussy.

God, I could almost taste her. I wanted her. So much it hurt.

“Oh. My. God.” Ronnie rolled off him onto her side of the bed, out of my line of site. I could see Vince, his erection slowly ebbing. He was a grower, not a shower. You’d never know it was going to be so impressive if you saw it soft, I mused.

“I’m so glad you let me come over.” Vince rolled toward her and now both of them were out of my line of sight.

I shrank back, leaning against the wall, trying to catch my breath, trying to think.

“Well, God, it was your fault,” Ronnie teased. “You kept getting me so hot on the phone.”

“You succumbed to my evil plan.”

“I did. You’re an evil, evil man. A horrible influence on me.”

“So when does your roommate get home?”

Roommate? Is that what she’d told him? That really hurt. Somehow, that hurt more than watching the two of them having sex. How did she explain only having one bedroom? Only one bed?

“Soon,” Ronnie said. “You should go.”

“You’ll be at the gym tomorrow?”

“Of course.”

“Veronica, I have to ask you something.”

Veronica? He called her by her full name? The only other person I knew who did that was Mrs. B. Everyone else called her Ronnie.

“Okay.”

“Would you move in with me?”

Ronnie gasped. “What?”

“I’m just… I’m tired of sneaking around. Hiding from your roommate-and mine. If we lived together, we could do this all the time. Any time we wanted.”

“That’s true,” Ronnie replied, sounding thoughtful.

“Is that a no?”

“It’s just that… Gretchen…” Ronnie saying my name. Talking about me with someone else. It was breaking my heart. At least she was still thinking of me. At least she was still considering me. That was something-wasn’t it?

“She could find another roommate.”

Okay, it was true, I could find another roommate.

But I couldn’t find another Ronnie.

“Let me think about it.”

I crept down the hall, picking up my keys and purse from the kitchen table, and left, locking the door behind me. I got in my car and drove. I didn’t pay any attention to where I was going. I couldn’t stop thinking about what had just happened. What I’d seen. What I’d heard. What was I going to do?

In the end. I found myself parked outside the Baumgartners. I’d just sort of let muscle memory drive me to their house. They lived in a rich subdivision, at the very back, in one of the oldest houses. It was a huge house with three garages. There was quite a bit of yard out back and a big empty field behind that. The Baumgartners did well for themselves. Mrs. B was into real estate and Doc was, well, a doctor. Hence the nickname. Their neighbors were lawyers and corporate executives and other doctors and their houses were just as big.

I sat with my chin on my steering wheel, thinking about how I’d met Ronnie and the Baumgartners. I’d been hired as a nanny by Maureen and James Holmes. Their kids were both brats but they paid well and went on a lot of vacations. They took me to Key West for Christmas break that year, where Maureen had run into Carrie Baumgartner, an old college roommate. The Baumgartners had brought Ronnie along to watch Janie and Henry.

I smiled, remembering the first time Ronnie and I had been together. She told me a story that night I wasn’t sure I should believe-a story about sleeping with the Baumgartners. Doc and Mrs. B had seduced her, she said, and she was sleeping with them both, separately and together. The thought of Doc, tall, rugged, dark-haired, sexy Doc Baumgartner, and Mrs. B, so full and luscious and tanned, with her long blonde hair and full breasts, sleeping with nubile little Ronnie, just turned nineteen at the time, took my breath away. I wasn’t sure I believed her at first, but the story she told was so enticing, so sexy, and turned me on so much, Ronnie and I ended up masturbating together for the first time that night.

And it all turned out to be true. Every single, glorious detail.

The Baumgartners had shared their beautiful, young babysitter during that vacation, and I often wondered if that relationship would have continued-if they hadn’t hired me. All because crazy fundamentally religious Maureen Holmes found condoms in my purse and fired me. I think the Baumgartners felt sorry for me, and Mrs. B decided she needed more regular help, after school and on the weekends, and Doc said they could afford it, and before I knew it, I had a new job. And they didn’t call Ronnie to babysit anymore.

But fate had intervened. At least, that’s what I always thought when I met Ronnie in the mall, Henry and Janie in tow, and we’d struck up a conversation. Reconnected. And things… just happened. And kept happening. Until here we were, me and Ronnie, best friends and lovers. I was still working for the Baumgartners and Ronnie was going to school and we didn’t talk about what had happened between them on that trip to Key West. In fact, Ronnie didn’t even ask about the Baumgartners anymore.

If it weren’t for the Baumgartners, I never would have met Ronnie, I realized. And it was the Baumgartners who gave me the solution to my sudden dilemma. Ronnie had slept with the Baumgartners and had said she loved it. I knew she loved men and she loved women. We both had that particular proclivity. So why in the world couldn’t we share?

Yes, I’d been jealous while I watched her having sex with Vince, it was true. But I wasn’t jealous because I wanted her all to myself. I was jealous just because I wanted her. I wanted her too. It was that simple. I wouldn’t have minded being in the middle of her and Vince, I wouldn’t have minded that at all. In fact, the thought made me incredibly wet.

So the simple solution to my problem was just telling Ronnie I knew-and telling her I didn’t mind, because, really, I didn’t. As long as I could be part of her relationship with this guy, why would I mind? And Vince… what guy on the planet would say no to a threesome, I reasoned. It was a foolproof plan. I smiled, starting the car, the weight on my chest lifted. I couldn’t wait to tell Ronnie. It was the perfect solution.

“Gretchen?” Doc knocked on the door.

“Just a minute!” I sniffed, wiping at my eyes with a Kleenex and blowing my nose. I flushed, pretending I was actually peeing, and looked at my face in the mirror as I washed my hands. My eyes were red-rimmed, my face puffy from crying. I looked awful, which made a whole lot of sense, because I felt awful.

“Are you feeling okay?” he asked softly. “The fireworks are starting soon. The kids want you to do sparklers with them.”

“I’m coming!” I patted my cold, wet hands against my cheeks, wiping my face on a hand towel before pulling open the door.

“Hey.” Doc cocked his head, his eyes far too perceptive as they searched my face. “Listen, if you don’t feel well…”

“No, I’m okay.” I assured him, trying on a smile, hoping it looked convincing. “The kids are out back still?”

I could hear the sounds of the party going on, music and laughter. The Baumgartners were hosting their annual Fourth of July party in their backyard. They had the perfect vantage point for the fireworks, over the field behind the house. The Clinton River ran back there and that’s where they let off the fireworks, in the city park across the river. There was a gazebo by the water they rented out for weddings and a small playground for the kids.

Down by the river, people lined both sides of the grass with blankets. But over here, separated by fields and trees, we could still see the fireworks display and we didn’t have to deal with any of the drunken crowds. Not that everyone wasn’t drunk here anyway. I could smell the booze on Doc’s breath. I wasn’t drinking, of course. I was on nanny duty.

“Sure you’re all right?” he asked, still blocking my way. He clearly wasn’t going to let me go until I’d reassured him again. But I didn’t want to reassure him. I could barely reassure myself.

“Ronnie broke up with me.” I just said it, no first thought, let alone a second one. I blinked, just as surprised as he was at my words.

“Oh, Gretchen.” Doc put a heavy hand on my shoulder, squeezing gently. “I’m sorry. I didn’t even know… I mean, I knew you were roommates…”

“Right. Roommates.” I spat the word. That’s what she’d told Vince I was. Just her roommate.

I still couldn’t believe she was gone. She’d moved all her stuff out last week while I sat at the kitchen table and watched Vince carry her boxes. I still couldn’t believe she’d rejected my perfect plan. Because it had been so perfect. So very perfect. There had only been one flaw in my logic. It had never occurred to me that Ronnie wouldn’t want to share.

And that meant she had to choose.

And she had chosen Vince.

I burst into tears again, remembering the look on her face when she gave me back her key. Like we were just roommates. I’d managed to keep it together until she left, until she pulled away in Vince’s Ford F-150, all of her worldly possessions strapped down in back. And then I’d lost it. And I’d been losing it ever since. Just like this.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized to Doc, shaking my head, trying to get it together again. Just telling someone else had made it even more real. I’d been sleeping on the couch all week because I couldn’t sleep in my own bed. Our bed. The bed I’d watched her have sex with Vince in.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay.” Doc put his arms around me, and that little bit of comfort destroyed any chance of me regaining my composure. I collapsed, sobbing, really, really sobbing, like I had that first night, curled up in a fetal position on the sofa, crying all night long.

Doc pulled me into another room-their bedroom-sitting on the edge of the bed with me, an arm around my shoulder as I sobbed against his chest. He didn’t shush me, he just let me cry, his arms encircling me tightly until, slowly, my tears ended with long, hitching breaths.

“Want to talk about it?” Doc asked softly.

I shook my head, looking down at my hands, but I did. I talked anyway. I told Doc about my relationship with Ronnie. About seeing her with Vince. About my perfect solution and its imperfect dissolution. Because Ronnie didn’t want to share. Instead, she decided to choose. And she chose someone else.

“Why didn’t she choose me?” I asked softly, my breath still hitching in my chest. “What’s wrong with me?”

“There’s nothing wrong with you, sweetheart,” he assured me. “Nothing, Gretchen, I promise you.”

“Then why?” I wailed.

“I don’t know.” He sighed, his arm tightening around my shoulder. I felt his lips brush the top of my forehead, soft, tender. “Some people are just too afraid of who they really are to embrace a bigger life.”

A bigger life. I liked the sound of that.

“Did you love Ronnie?” I sniffed, lifting my head to meet his eyes. I had never told them that I knew, but he saw it in my eyes.

“Yes.” He nodded slowly, answering me honestly. “We both did. Carrie and I. Ronnie is easy to love.”

“I know.” My lower lip quivered. “I loved her too.”

“But she’s so young,” he reminded me, giving my shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

“So am I.” I was only twenty-six. Ronnie was five years younger than me.

“She’s young in a different way,” Doc countered. “Ronnie is naive.”

“Not anymore.” I snorted.

“Just because she’s more sexually experienced doesn’t make her any less naive,” Doc said. “Do you know what I think? I think Ronnie will find someone. Maybe this guy. Maybe the next. Or the one after that. And she’ll settle down and she’ll have kids. And she’ll start to realize that her life isn’t quite complete. There’s something missing. Someone.”

I sniffed. “It’ll be too late.”

“For you and her, probably. But Gretchen, you already know who you are. You know what you want. You’re already ten steps ahead of her. And by the time Ronnie realizes who she is, time will be her enemy.”

“How do you know all this?” I lifted my head to meet his eyes. They were brown, dark and deep and kind.

“Experience.” He smiled.

“Thanks,” I whispered. It was hard being alone in the world, and knowing that the Baumgartners were open-minded and loving and really cared-it meant a lot.

“Any time.” He stood, holding a hand out to me. “I think those are the fireworks. Or else Carrie’s finally decided to kill the children.”

“We better get out there.” I laughed, letting him help me off the bed.

I excused myself to wash my face in the bathroom, hearing the boom of fireworks again. I glanced out the window to see the pink sparkle just fading in the sky. I wondered if Doc would tell Mrs. B everything, and realized, of course he would. They were married. I had told Ronnie everything and we weren’t even officially a couple. Even if it had felt like we were.

Downstairs, I joined the festivities. Parents sat in lawn chairs with bottles of beer or wine coolers while kids ran around in the grass with sparklers, making patterns and writing their names in the air. I saw Doc sitting next to Mrs. B, their heads bent, talking together.

“Gretchen, come do sparklers!” Henry appeared at my elbow, grabbing my hand and dragging me through the crowded backyard. I wasn’t the only nanny present-Kim Lowe was another nanny in charge of sparklers. She was sitting in a lawn chair, lighting them and handing them out to the kids, who took off running.

“Hi.” She smiled at me, nodding to the empty chair beside her. Kim was a tiny, pretty oriental girl with the smallest hands and feet I’d ever seen on a grown adult.

I sat in the lawn chair and helped her light sparklers as the crowd ooohed and ahhhed over the big fireworks overhead. I just kept thinking that Ronnie was supposed to be here. Mrs. B had asked me to invite her, and although Ronnie had hesitated when I asked, she said she’d come. And now she was gone. She was probably somewhere over on that riverbank, sharing a blanket with Vince and his monster cock.

“Gretchen, look!” Henry grinned, writing obscenities with his sparkler, misspelling “fuck” as “fok.”

“Henry,” I warned and he rolled his eyes, going back to making figure-eights.

“Come sit with me on the blanket, Gretchen.” Janie came over, no sparkler in hand. “Sparklers are for babies. Let’s watch the big fireworks.”

So I followed Janie over to the blanket and Henry soon joined us on the ground, all piled up in a heap as more and more kids joined in, abandoning sparklers in favor of the big pyrotechnics show going on in the sky. It was a beautiful display, and the finale at the end made everyone cheer and clap.

Then the neighbors gathered their kids and started saying their goodbyes. I steered two overtired kids toward the house, smiling at Doc and Mrs. B as I passed.

“I’ll get them to bed,” I called. They were playing host and hostess, wishing everyone a good night.

Once the kids were in their pajamas and had brushed their teeth, I tucked them in. Janie was sleeping almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. I kissed her forehead and pulled up her blanket, leaving the door slightly cracked on my way out. Henry was awake but sleepy, his eyes half-closed when I came in to shut out the light. I smiled, seeing an old squirt bottle of “monster spray”-a trick I used back when he was afraid there were monsters under his bed or in his closet-sitting on his dresser. He didn’t ask for it anymore, but it was still there anyway, just in case.

“No more profanity, Henry,” I warned, brushing his dark hair from his eyes. He was a little mini-Doc in a lot of ways. “Got it?”

“What’s profanity?”

“Swearing.”

“Oh.” He grinned sheepishly. “Okay. Sorry.”

“Goodnight, Henry.”

“Goodnight.”

I shut out the light, leaving his door cracked too. Mrs. B insisted, just in case they called out in the middle of the night, because the Baumgartners’ bedroom was all the way upstairs. I made my way down the hallway, through the big, open kitchen, into the family room. I looked through the French doors onto the patio, seeing the crowd had dispersed. Doc and Mrs. B were sitting in lawn chairs, talking. I went outside, starting to pick up empty cans and bottles, holding the recycling bin against my hip as I went.

“Gretchen,” Mrs. B called, waving me over. “Leave it. Come here.”

“I’m just cleaning up.” I squatted to pick up two wine coolers leaning against the leg of one of the lawn chairs.

“Don’t worry about it tonight,” Doc said, waving me over too.

“We’ll get it in the morning,” Mrs. B assured me. “Come on, have a seat. We want to talk to you.”

I put the recycling bin on one of the chairs, walking slowly over to where they were sitting. They looked serious, too serious, and I was suddenly nervous.

“Am I getting fired?”

“No!” Doc. laughed. “Of course not!”

“Doc told me about you and Ronnie.” Mrs. B reached out, taking my hand. Hers was soft, tender, as she pulled me toward the third chair. “I’m so sorry.”

“Thanks.” I sank into the lawn chair across from the two of them.

“We’ve been talking,” Doc said, leaning forward, elbows on his knees, fingers tented. “And we’d like to you to stay.”

“Oh.” I looked around at the mess all over the lawn, empty bottles and cans, junk food wrappers, used sparklers and fireworks wrappers. “Well, thanks. I appreciate it. I can stay the night and help you clean up in the morning.”

“No, Gretchen.” Mrs. B smiled, shaking her head, leaning forward again to take my hand in hers. “We want you to stay. Here. Full-time.”

“You mean, as a live-in?” I looked between the two of them, back and forth, not quite believing what I was hearing.

“Yes,” Doc insisted with a reassuring smile. “We want you to live here. We’ll give you the guest room upstairs.”

“Are you sure?” I looked down at Mrs. B’s hand in mine.

“We were already going to ask.” Mrs. B covered my hand with her other one. “You know we’ve been approved as a foster family and they’ll probably place a baby with us soon.”

A baby. I saw a lot of sleepless nights in my future. But I didn’t really mind. The Baumgartners paid very well already, and I was only with them part-time. A full-time position would be even better. And I wouldn’t have to worry about getting another roommate, and I wasn’t ready for that. Not yet.

“What do you say?” Doc prompted.

“Yes.” I smiled, squeezing Mrs. B’s hand in mine. “Absolutely. I’d love to.”

“I’m so glad.” Mrs. B sat back, looking relieved. “You’re already a part of a family. Now you’ll just be living with us too. It’s perfect!”

The perfect solution.

“You can stay in the guest room tonight.” Doc stood, yawning and stretching. “We’ll get your stuff this weekend.”

“Thanks.” I stood too, looking between them. “Really, you guys… thanks. You’ve saved me so many times.”

Well, twice. But who was counting?

“And you’ve saved us,” Mrs. B reassured me, standing and putting an arm around her husband’s waist. “You’re so good with Janie and Henry.”

“They’re good kids.” I knew that was true even more after tonight, having hung out with a bunch of other kids who weren’t anywhere near as well behaved. “Well, I guess I’ll go turn in. I’ll get up early so we can clean up this mess.”

“Goodnight, Gretchen.” Doc called as I headed toward the house.

“Goodnight.” I closed the French doors behind me, looking around the enormous family room with its cathedral ceilings, giant TV, brick fireplace. This was home now? It was hard to imagine.

I went upstairs, used the bathroom, undressed down to my t-shirt and underwear, and got into the big guest room bed. I turned out the lamp and snuggled under the covers, thinking about Ronnie, about the Baumgartners. About my life up until now and my life going forward. Was this it? Was I going to be a nanny forever? I wasn’t averse to the idea-and I was relatively good at it. And I did love the Baumgartners.

It wasn’t such a bad gig, really. At least until I found someone I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Until I wanted to start my own family, if I ever did. There was a part of me that longed for it, that one special someone. I had it, briefly, with Ronnie. I’d glimpsed what it could be like, when I looked at the Baumgartners. I just wasn’t so sure it was something I was ever going to find. My luck, so far, hadn’t been so great in that department.

I heard the Baumgartners come upstairs and get ready for bed. I’d left my door open a crack, just out of habit. I could hear them talking through the wall, but it was just voices, no real intelligible words. It reminded me of how I used to listen to my parents talking at night, the comforting sound of their voices lulling me to sleep. It had been a long time since I’d had a family, a real family. My parents had been gone for almost ten years. A car accident. My father had been drunk, driving them home from a party, and had killed not only himself and my mother, but another woman, and had paralyzed her six year old daughter. And of course, left her motherless too.

I’d spent the last two years of high school with my aunt, a very fundamentally religious woman who had introduced me to plenty of families with kids who needed caring for. That’s where’d I got all my babysitting experience, which translated into great references for my resume once I started applying for nanny jobs.

Which had led me, step by step, right here. Somehow, this job being a full time nanny for the Baumgartners seemed meant to be. I felt more comfortable here in the Baumgartners’ guest bed than I’d felt in a long time. I listened to the ticking of the big grandfather clock down in the foyer, the ambient hum of the house, a place I spent so much time but had never called home before.

“Well, I know, but… shhh, I’ll be back in a minute.” The door next to mine opened, Mrs. B’s voice and a slant of light spilling out onto the opposite wall. I saw her shadow pass, heading down the hall. Then I heard the bathroom door close. I listened to the sound of laughter and Jon Stewart monologing on the television in their room.

“Gretchen?” Mrs. B whispered from my doorway. “Are you sleeping?”

I kept my eyes closed, held still. Pretended to be sleeping.

“Hey, babe, can you grab me a glass of water?” Doc called.

I listened as Mrs. B went to the bathroom. I heard the sink running.

“So when are Dani and her boys coming?” Doc asked as Mrs. B returned with his glass of water.

“August.” Mrs. B snorted. “Dani and her boys?”

“Well, what do you want me to call them?” Doc asked. “Her husbands?”

“That would be more accurate.”

“She really sleeps with both of them?”

“Doc, she slept with both of us.”

I perked up, eyes wide, staring at the ceiling. Who was this Dani with two husbands who had slept with the Baumgartners?

“I remember,” Doc replied, sounding sly. “Think she’ll do it again?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well not sleeping with her husbands,” Doc insisted. “And neither are you.”

“But you’re fine with another woman?” Mrs. B laughed.

“And so are you,” he reminded her. I heard her giggle. “You miss it.”

“You know me too well.” Mrs. B’s voice turned to honey.

“We need to find another woman for you,” Doc murmured. His voice was softer now and I hear Mrs. B’s low moan.

“That’s like searching for a unicorn.” Mrs. B laughed. “Isn’t that what they say?”

“We found Dani,” he said. “And we found Ronnie.”

“And look what happened.” Mrs. B sounded sad. “Ronnie wouldn’t even return my calls.”

So they had tried to contact her. Ronnie never said. I had wondered, but she didn’t talk to me about the Baumgartners, not anymore.

“But Dani stayed in contact,” Doc countered.

“Yeah, and she went a whole other direction.”

Doc snorted. “I’ll say.”

“So we have no real proof a woman exists who would be happy to be just our lover.”

“I’m sure she exists,” Doc replied.

“Like unicorns? Or dragons? Or narwals?”

“Carrie, narwals are real.”

“Really?”

Doc laughed. “Yes, really.”

“Besides, we just got approved as a foster family,” Mrs. B reminded him. “Can you imagine what they’d say if they knew we had a female lover?”

“Who says we have to tell them?”

“Doc, the kids…”

“We’re discreet. We’ve kept it from them so far.”

It was true, Henry and Janie had no idea their parents had slept with their former babysitter. And whoever this Dani was, I was sure they had no idea their parents had more than a friendship with her. Of course, they were young. Relatively innocent still. Things would change over time. Then Mrs. B spoke and it was like she had been reading my thoughts.

“Yes, but Janie and Henry are getting older. They’re understanding more and more. And kids always know more than you think they do.”

Doc didn’t speak for a few minutes. I sat up in bed, listening, leaning in, wondering what was happening. Had they gone to sleep? Then Doc spoke.

“There’s really nothing wrong with it, you know.”

Mrs. B hesitated, and then said, “I know.”

“Do you?”

“Yes. I mean, I know that in my heart.” She sighed. “But the rest of the world doesn’t seem to share our views. And we live in the real world.”

“You can’t change who you are,” Doc said softly. “I’d be an awfully selfish man if I insisted you deny your love for women too.”

“What if I wanted to love two men?” Mrs. B asked. “Like Dani?”

“Then I guess we’d have to talk about that,” he replied readily enough. “I mean it, Carrie. You can’t change who you are. You love who you love. Like I told Gretchen tonight.”

“That poor girl.” Mrs. B sighed again. “I feel awful for her. Ronnie just left?”

“She said she found someone else, but she’s really just running away,” Doc told her. “Like she ran away from us. But she’s like you, Carrie. She’ll realize it, some day.”

“I’m glad I have you,” Mrs. B was smiling. I could hear it in her voice. “I’m a very lucky woman.”

“Yes, you are.”

“Oh shut up.” She laughed.

“Make me.”

“Come here and I will.”

“Mmm I like the sound of that.”

Then there weren’t any words for a while. At first I wished they’d shut the door after all, but I couldn’t help listening. I heard her moans and his groans and the wet sound of them kissing each other and the more I listened, the more turned on I was. I was ashamed of my response, just like I had been when I was listening to Ronnie and Vince, but I couldn’t help it. My pussy ached as I listened to him licking hers.

“Oh God, Doc…” Mrs. B moaned. “Did I ever tell you how good you are at that?”

“A few times.” I could hear his grin. “But I never get tired of hearing it.”

“Ohhhh God, yes. Lick it, baby.”

Oh fuck. My pussy throbbed. I was sopping wet, listening to the sounds of them having sex. I cupped my hand over my mound, through my panties, rubbing my swollen vulva. Listening to them was so wrong. And it made me so hot.

“Here. Lick my fingers,” Doc offered.

I bit my lip to keep from moaning out loud, sliding my fingers under the elastic leg of my panties and slipping my fingers through my wet slit.

“Don’t you miss that taste?” Doc asked.

She moaned. “Yes. God yes.”

I lifted my fingers to my lips, rubbing my juices over them like gloss, tasting myself. God, I loved the taste of pussy. And for some reason, it thrilled me to know that Mrs. B did too. Ronnie said she’d learned to love the taste of a woman from being with Mrs. B. She’d been a gentle instructor, leading her easily down the path to corruption.

I’d learned to keep those thoughts to myself, given how many people around me disapproved of my feelings. If my aunt or my previous employer knew what I was doing or even just thinking, half the time, I would have been out a lot sooner than I was.

“You know how much I love watching you lick a woman until she comes,” Doc growled.

Oh my God, I was so wet. I whimpered, sliding my hand between my legs. I was thinking about all the toys I had at home, but tonight all I had were my fingers. I thought about Ronnie’s tongue on my clit as I rubbed my fingers around and around. I thought about Doc’s face, buried between Mrs. B’s wide open tanned thighs. I thought about burying my own face there, too, fighting him for her wetness.

“I love it when you make her all wet for me,” Doc said. “When you suck her pretty little nipples and make them hard.”

Mine were hard. Little pink points under my t-shirt. I rubbed them through it with my other hand, doing circles with my palm. Ronnie knew how much I loved that. She used to leave my bra on, teasing me for hours, teasing me through it, with her tongue, sometimes just with a fingernail, driving me crazy.

“You want her tongue here, baby? Right on your hard little clit?”

“Oh fuck yes.” Mrs. B moaned loudly. “Right there, baby. Right. Fucking. There.”

Yes, right there. Oh there. I licked my lips, wishing it was my tongue on Mrs. B’s clit. What did she taste like? Was she smooth, still? Ronnie told me that she waxed everything down there. I shaved. Ronnie liked me soft and bare.

“You want her to lick your asshole? Like this?”

Oh. My. God.

“Oh Doc!”

My ass clenched at his words and a low cry escaped my lips. I couldn’t help it. My fingers circled my clit faster, the skin around my nipples growing tighter, pursing.

“I want her to lick it,” Doc growled. “I want her to make it nice and wet so I can fuck it.”

I quivered in my bed, straining to hear them, wishing I could see. Oh my God, I wanted to watch them. I wanted to see him part her thighs with those big hands of his and spread her cheeks so his tongue could probe her asshole. Oh I missed anal. Ronnie had tried it with the Baumgartners, she’d told me, but she wasn’t that interested in it with me.

“You want me to fuck your ass, baby?”

Mrs. B just moaned with pleasure. She was lost, going, gone. I could tell she was close to climax. I was too. I circled my clit faster, faster. Was he going to fuck her ass? Did they do that a lot? The thought sent hot sparks between my legs.

“Oh Doc! Ohhh! Put your finger in my ass!” Mrs. B pleaded. “Yeahhhh! Finger my ass while you lick me! Make me come like that!”

There were no more words from Doc. He was clearly too busy for any more dirty talk. There was only the exquisite sound of her orgasm, the rising moans and final near-scream and then the soft pant of her breath in the aftermath. I stopped rubbing my clit-I had to, or I was going to come, and I didn’t want to yet. Not quite yet.

“Fuck, baby, you come so good.” Doc sighed happily. I actually heard him smacking his lips, still tasting her. My mouth was watering. “Mmmmm you’re delicious.”

“You make me come so hard like that,” she gasped.

“Now I’m gonna make you come with my cock buried in your cunt.”

I trembled at his words. Oh what I wouldn’t give…

My fingers slipped low, sliding into my wetness, shoving in deep. Yes, oh yes. I wanted a cock too. I wanted to be fucked. Like Doc was about to fuck his wife.

“Remember how much I loved watching you lick her while I fucked you?” Doc asked, giving a low grunt. Mrs. B cried out and I imagined it, that first moment of entry. She would be wet, very wet, from his mouth. He would slide right in. Was he on top? Was he behind her? I imagined him taking her from behind, imagined her rounded ass in the air, taking the heat of his cock.

And I imagined her mouth between my legs. Licking my clit. Showing her with my fingers. Right here, right here. Oh god, her tongue, the sweet press of her tongue, the movement of her body while Doc fucked her from behind. And looking up to meet his eyes, watching the pleasure on his face.

“Ohh God, fuck me, Doc!” she moaned.

“Are you picturing it?” he urged. “Her wet cunt spread open for you? Lick it for me, baby. Make her come. Make her come all over your face!”

I was picturing it. I was picturing it and coming. My whole body tensed, shuddering, and then I heard Doc groan, long and loud, crying out with his own release. We were both coming together. My pussy spasmed around my fingers, my clit throbbing under my hand, and I heard her moaning too, crying out.

“Oh fuck, I love your cock in me! Doc, I’m coming! Oh I’m coming for you!”

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t breathe. I laid and stared up at the ceiling, panting hard, not quite believing what I’d just done. Had I really just masturbated while listening to my employers having sex?

I closed my eyes when I heard Mrs. B get up. She went to the bathroom and I turned to my side, yanking the covers up my chin, hiding. She stopped at my door, still cracked, and pulled it closed. I took a deep breath, my thighs still trembling from my orgasm, my belly tight. Had she heard me? Did she suspect?

I told myself I wouldn’t do it again, even if I wanted to. I couldn’t afford to lose this job. I’d have to try to be a lot more professional from now on.

“Just one more S’more?” Janie begged, her mouth already rimmed with chocolate.

“One more.” I held up one finger, wagging it at her, but she was already loading her stick with another marshmallow.

“You’re gonna get fat.” Henry stuck out his tongue at his sister when she gave him the finger.

“Don’t let your parents catch you doing that, Janie,” I warned, glancing toward the house at the sound of laughter. The Baumgartners and their guests were in the house. “And Henry, your sister isn’t fat.”

“I didn’t say she was fat,” Henry licked marshmallow off his fingers. “I said she was going to get fat. Especially if she keeps eating S’mores like that.”

“I’m not fat and I eat S’mores,” I said.

“Gretchen, can I please go get my iPod?” Henry asked for the three millionth time.

I rolled my eyes. “Henry, I told you, we can’t interrupt.”

“It will only take me a second.”

“No.”

“It’s in my room. I’ll run in and out, real quick.”

“Henry, I said no.” I started packing up the marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers, putting them into their respective packages.

“Fine.” He grabbed another marshmallow before I could close the bag. “But what if we have to use the bathroom?”

“I told you.” I put the food into the basket and closed it up. ”If you have to go, I’ll take you in the back and you can use the one in the basement.”

“It’s creepy down there.” Janie shivered, pulling the hood on her hoodie up.

I rolled my eyes again. Was she kidding? The Baumgartners had a huge finished basement with a giant TV, a fireplace, a pool table, several old stand up video games and a full bathroom, including a shower.

“That’s not creepy,” I countered. “You should have seen the basement in my grandma’s house when I was little. It had dirt floors. And just one light bulb that hung down from the ceiling in the middle of the basement.”

“That is creepy!” Janie gaped at me. Henry’s eyes were wide.

“And the only bathroom in the whole house was in the basement,” I added.

“No way!” Janie gasped.

“Will you tell us ghost stories later?” Henry asked, always flirting with his love-hate relationship with all things scary.

“Maybe.” There was no way, of course. They’d be up all night long. And if I had to sleep out in the yard, I intended to actually sleep. I had my own tent with an air mattress in it.

“Can’t I please go get my iPod?” Henry begged. He batted his eyelashes at me when I glared at him, giving me a big, fake grin. “ Pleeeeeease? ”

I relented, a little.

“I’ll tell you what-I’ll go get it when everyone’s asleep.” I glanced up at the house again. They were sitting in the family room with the French doors open, but the screen door closed, letting the night air in. Their voices and occasional bursts laughter floated down to us, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying.

“Oh come on!” Henry made a face. “That’s going to be, like, forever.”

“They’re not as young as they think they are.” I winked at him. “I bet it’s all over by midnight.”

“Besides, Henry, we’ve got the DVD player,” Janie reminded him. “And I’ve got the whole set of Lord of the Rings.”

“Oh all right,” he grumbled. “Are you done eating? Can we watch yet?”

“Gretchen, do you want to watch?” Janie asked, digging the portable DVD player out of her bag and starting to crawl into the tent.

“Sure, let me just put out the fire.” It was one of those fire pits you could buy at Costco or Sam’s Club. Doc had set it up for us and had loaded it with wood around dusk, lighting it for us. We’d roasted hotdogs while the adults inside ate steak. Not that I cared. Hot dogs and S’mores were fine by me and the kids definitely preferred them.

I walked up the hill toward the house, carrying the empty pitcher that had contained lemonade when the night began. Now I used the faucet out back to fill it with water. I heard Mrs. B laughing, a bright, infectious sound. I hesitated at the back of the house, listening. I could hear them talking, the two women.

I’d met Danielle and her “husbands” the day before, when they had taken the Baumgartners out to dinner-although they only introduced Mason, the big guy with the sandy crew cut, as her actual husband. The other one, Nico, a dark haired, dark eyed Italian with an accent to die for, was introduced as their friend. But I knew the truth. I would have known it, even if I hadn’t overheard Mrs. B and Doc talking about their relationship. I could tell, the way they talked to each other, the familiar way they touched each other. I suppose I might have dismissed it as just a European over-friendliness if I hadn’t known. But I did know. They were all lovers.

Tonight, though, it was just Danielle-they called her Dani-who had shown up for dinner with Doc and Mrs. B. The Baumgartners had been anticipating this visit for a month and of course, I knew why. I’d heard them talking about Dani, their former lover, and I knew they both hoped to rekindle things with her-if just for the night. I wondered if Dani’s “husbands” knew about their plan, but I wasn’t in any position to ask.

“Oh my God, Dani, those two men!” Mrs. B exclaimed. “I mean, I knew Mason was a good-looking guy. But Nico too? You are one lucky woman.”

Dani gave a throaty laugh. “Tell me about it.”

“What’s it like, having two men at your beck and call?”

“Well, I don’t know if they’re at my beck and call…” Dani replied. “But having two men? It’s pretty fantastic.”

“I just bet it is.” Mrs. B sighed dreamily. “Don’t tell Doc I asked you. He doesn’t lean that way, but if he thought I wanted it, I think he just might give it a try. For me.”

I moved a little closer, changing the angle of my view. I could see them now as well as hear them, but I was pretty sure they couldn’t see my out in the darkness.

“Mason didn’t lean that way either. At least, I didn’t know he did.” Dani chuckled. “But Mason and Nico are… well, they spend plenty of time together.”

“Where are they tonight?” Mrs. B asked.

“Oh, Mason wanted to take Nico to a Detroit Tigers game. Nico is fascinated with baseball. It’s a boys’ night out.”

“Sounds like fun.” Mrs. B took a sip of her wine. “Doc should be back any time. I thought I’d bought two bottles of wine. I’ve been so busy lately, sometimes I think I’d forget my head if it wasn’t attached.”

“You all seem to be doing well,” Dani said. “Your children have gotten so big! They’re beautiful. So well-behaved.”

“Thank you. We’re good,” Mrs. B agreed. “We miss you, of course.”

There was something in her tone they both seemed to understand. Something passed between them with just a smile.

“What about Gretchen?” Dani asked.

“Gretchen?”

“Yes, your nanny. You aren’t…?” Dani shrugged. “I mean, the way she looks at you, I thought…”

“Oh my God, no,” Mrs. B exclaimed. “She’s so young. We tried a younger woman a while ago. It didn’t work out so well. Gretchen is just the nanny.”

Just the nanny. Like just the roommate.

I swallowed hard, gripping the pitcher hard in my fist.

“Did I tell you, we were approved as foster parents last month?” Mrs. B asked, changing the subject. “We’re hoping to adopt a baby.”

“Really?” Dani sounded genuinely surprised.

“Well you know, I had a lot of trouble conceiving Janie.” Mrs. B’s voice broke. She cleared her throat. “And after Henry was born, they had to take my uterus.”

“I know,” Dani responded softly.

“Haven’t you thought of having kids?” Mrs. B asked. “I mean… another…?”

“I’ve thought about it, but… I don’t know. I guess I just don’t want any more heartache.”

“There’s no guarantee it will happen again.” Mrs. B touched her friend’s arm.

“And no guarantee it won’t.” Dani sipped her wine. “Are you sure you want to go the foster care route? Wouldn’t regular adoption be safer?”

“Safer?” Mrs. B wrinkled her nose. “What do you mean?”

“Well, foster children sometimes go back to their parents, don’t they?”

“It’s true. We close lose a placement.” Mrs. B frowned. “It does happen. But adoption is much, much more expensive. And fostering… even if I had to give a child back, at least they had a home here with us for a little while.”

“I just know it’s not for me.” Dani sighed. “I know the pain of losing a child. I couldn’t… I just couldn’t. Not again.”

Their conversation was interrupted by Doc returning with the wine.

“Hey girls, are you up to no good?” He put the bottle down on the coffee table in front of them. I could see him through the screen and took a step back, hoping he really couldn’t see me.

“There he is,” Mrs. B said warmly. “What did you bring us?”

“Are you two trying to get me drunk?” Dani laughed.

“If we did, would you let us take advantage of you?” Doc grinned.

“Probably,” Dani replied coyly.

I walked back down the hill with the water pitcher and poured it over the fire, listening to it hiss as it went out. Janie and Henry were in the tent watching Lord of the Rings, the screen zipped up against the onslaught of mosquitos. I didn’t join them. Instead, I went into my own tent, curling up on my comfortable air mattress and zipping my mosquito netting closed. I just wanted a half an hour to myself. Between the Baumgartners’ guests and the Baumgartners’ kids, I’d been in “entertainment” mode for two days.

I stretched out and looked through the “moon roof” of my tent-really, it was the Baumgartners’ tent-up at the stars. I thought of Ronnie and wondered, if we were still “together,” if she would have taken advantage of tonight to be with Vince. I wondered if Dani’s two men, her husband and her lover, knew that she was going to spend the night in the Baumgartners’ bed.

Not that any of it was my business. Ronnie’s life wasn’t a part of mine anymore. I’d called her a few times, but she hadn’t returned my calls. And the Baumgartners-well, they had their right to privacy. If they both wanted to sleep with another woman, they were adults. Lots of people had open marriages. It didn’t bother me. I wasn’t one to judge.

What bothered me was how shocked Mrs. B had been when Dani hinted that the Baumgartners might be sleeping with me. Why had she denied it so vehemently? I mean, what she said was true-they weren’t sleeping with me. They’d never even hinted at wanting to. Which was another thing that kind of bothered me. I mean, not in a real way. It wasn’t a big deal. But they had seduced Ronnie, hadn’t they?

What was wrong with me?

I guess that’s what I was really thinking about as I looked up at the stars, just before I fell asleep. At least, that’s the last thing I remembered thinking about before Henry crawled into my tent. I heard the mosquito net zipper and grabbed the flashlight, shining it on him, relieved. I figured it was only one of the kids, but a momentary fear of an ax-wielding serial killer had flitted through my brain.

“What’s up?” I asked, directing the light to the tent wall and out of his eyes.

“Janie fell asleep.” He made a face. “She’s snoring and drooling all over her pillow. It’s gross.”

“Oh no, you’re not sleeping in here.” I shook my head. “Don’t even think about it.”

“No, I just want my iPod,” he reminded me. “So I can put on my earphones and listen to music.”

I sighed, digging my phone out of my shorts pocket and checking the time. It was almost one in the morning. Surely the Baumgartners’ guest had gone back to her hotel room? She wouldn’t stay over until morning, of course. The Baumgartners were too careful for that. They didn’t even have a guest room anymore, since I’d moved in.

“Okay,” I agreed. “You stay here. I’ll be right back. Do not come up to the house for any reason, you understand me?”

“Got it.” He gave me the Boy Scout salute again.

I crawled out of the tent. The grass was damp on my bare feet as I made my way to the house. The French doors were closed now, but they weren’t locked. I peeked inside, listening, but didn’t hear anything.

If my luck held out, I could get down the hall to Henry’s room and back out without anyone knowing I’d ever been in the house. I went through the family room, into the kitchen. There were dishes still on the sink, including several wine glasses and two empty bottles of wine. I tiptoed past the stairs, down the hall toward the kids’ bedrooms. Henry’s was on the left, past the bathroom. I found his iPod and headphones next to his bed and grabbed it, putting it in my pocket before heading back down the hall again.

I was passing the stairs, heading toward the kitchen, when I heard them.

I should have kept going. In fact, I told myself that very thing. Keep going. Henry’s waiting. Don’t do this. But I did it anyway. I couldn’t seem to help myself. I turned and climbed up the carpeted stairs, avoiding the creaky fourth one. I’d lived there long enough now to know about the house’s little quirks.

What do you think you’re doing?

My brain was going wild, telling me to turn back, that I was risking my job and my future. I knew this was just plain crazy. But I peeked around the corner, seeing the Baumgartners’ door part way open. And I could hear them, even from here. I could hear their moans. The clear and unmistakable sound of sex.

“Oh God, Dani, yes!” That was Mrs. B. “Lick it! Yes! Yes!”

I needed to go. The kids were outside by themselves. I had more visions of an ax-wielding serial killer fly through my brain. But now I had other visions too-spurred by auditory cues. Doc groaning. Mrs. B moaning. Dani crying out. I bit my lip, squeezing my legs together like I had to pee-trying to hold back my own desire. Trying to fight against it.

But it was no use.

I crawled on my hands and knees down the hall on the thick carpet, trying to keep my heart from hammering right out of my chest. I’d spent some time talking with the “adults” before they went to dinner the night before, and I had to admit, while Mason was a big, strong, strapping man and Nico just exuded sex from every pore, it was Dani I couldn’t take my eyes off of. She was a tall woman, with long, dark hair, big dark eyes, and the longest legs I’d ever seen. Stunning was the word for Dani. She took your breath away when she walked into a room.

That’s what compelled me. At least that’s what I told myself as I crept down the hallway, listening to them having sex. I’d heard Doc and Mrs. B having sex since that first night but I’d been a good girl. I just rolled over and went back to sleep. But I had to admit I was curious. I just wanted one glimpse. Mrs. B in the flesh. Doc’s cock-she praised it often enough during sex, I just wanted to see for myself. And Dani. Perfect Dani. They’d been talking about her for weeks and now I understood why.

Was I jealous? Maybe a little. But I was more than a little curious. I had to see. So I kept going forward, risking everything, knowing if I got caught, it was all over. The door was ajar, but not open. I stopped just outside of the slant of light, sitting back on my heels, knees open, holding my breath. They were still going at it. And now, I could see what they were doing.

It was just like my fantasy, like Doc’s, the one he’d detailed to Mrs. B that night. Dani had her ass up in the air-a beautiful ass, slim legs, a long torso, back arched-and her face buried between Mrs. B’s spread, tanned thighs. Doc was behind Dani, fully erect, but he hadn’t entered her. Not yet. His fingers moved up and down her slit. She was shaved. I could see that much.

Okay, you’ve seen, now go!

But I didn’t go. I couldn’t tear my gaze from the scene in front of me, all that glorious skin, the sound and scent of their pleasure. I could even smell their sex and it made my panties even wetter. I leaned over a little, trying to see beyond Dani’s dark head. I wanted to see all of Mrs. B-although everything I could see was mouthwatering. Her breasts were heavy, nipples fat and dark, her skin all-over tanned. Her mouth was open, head back, eyes closed.

I realized they were too busy to notice me, or anything else, for that matter.

“Put it in her, baby,” Mrs. B whispered, focusing long enough to meet Doc’s eyes over Dani’s head. “Do you want his cock, Dani?”

I was looking at Doc’s cock and I couldn’t imagine Dani would say no. It wasn’t Mr. Monster Porn size, but it was quite respectable. And the man it was attached to was quite fine.

“Mmmm hmmmm.” Dani just murmured her assent. She was too busy between Mrs. B’s thighs to do much more. But she did wiggle her ass back at him, pushing his fingers in even deeper.

Doc slid his fingers out, putting them in his mouth to lick them off. She looked delicious. Her pussy lips were fat and swollen and I wanted to part them with my tongue. Apparently, Doc had the same urge, because he parted her cheeks with his hands and buried his face between Dani’s thighs. I heard her moan against Mrs. B’s pussy when he did that.

“Mmm does she taste good?” Mrs. B asked her husband, eyes bright. Her hands moved underneath the other woman, kneading her breasts.

“Come find out for yourself.” Doc stopped long enough to say.

Mrs. B grabbed a handful of Dani’s hair, slowly pulling her back. The women’s’ eyes locked and then they moved in to kiss, mouths slanting. I saw the flash of their pink tongues, breasts pressed together, limbs twining. Doc watched too, hand wrapped around his cock, stroking lightly as he watched his wife and another woman kissing on his bed.

And I watched too. I couldn’t stop. My mouth went dry and my pussy got wet as Mrs. B pushed Dani onto her back on the bed. I couldn’t have had a better view because Mrs. B stayed slightly to the side so her husband could see her spread Dani’s lips with thumb and forefinger. She teased the brunette’s clit with her long, red fingernail, making her gasp.

“Such a pretty pussy.” Mrs. B slapped her vulva and Dani cried out, eyes widening.

“Spit on it,” Doc urged. “Spit on that little clit.”

Mrs. B did as he asked, and we all watched the saliva slide down her slit.

“Now suck it,” he instructed.

Mrs. B dove in and I couldn’t see Dani’s pussy anymore. Her mouth covered it, blonde head in the way. But I saw Dani’s eyes close, her head roll back, a long, low moan escaping her parted lips.

“That’s it.” Doc’s hand pumped a little faster on his cock. “Suck it, baby. Suck it like a tiny little cock.”

“Oh Carrie, yes!” Dani lost her hands in Mrs. B’s long blond hair, grinding her hips up to meet her mouth.

Mrs. B’s hands crept up to cup the brunette’s breasts, thumbing her nipples. Doc knelt up behind his wife, whose ass wagged in the air. I couldn’t see Dani’s pussy anymore, but I could see hers. I had no idea how she did it, but her pussy was tanned too, a fat, swollen, tanned little mound of flesh, making the insides look even more pink and Doc spread them with this fingers.

“I’m gonna fuck that pussy.” Doc worked his fingers in, twisting, plunging.

She moaned against Dani’s pussy when her husband slapped his cock against her ass. He left a trail of pre-cum across her skin. Then he slipped his cock through her slit for a minute, up and down, making the head wet, before grabbing her hips and shoving into her.

I bit my lip to keep from crying out, but Mrs. B did. She moaned and shook her head from side to side like a dog with a bone, her mouth still fastened to Dani’s pussy.

“Oh yes! Yes!” Dani rocked her hips up, spreading her legs wider, her own hands covering Mrs. B’s, kneading her breasts. “Oh fuck make me come in your mouth! All over your face!”

Doc drove Mrs. B forward into Dani’s flesh, each thrust taking them all a little bit higher. And I couldn’t help myself. I spread my own legs and slid a hand under the elastic band of my shorts. The crotch of my panties was soaked. I rubbed my hand over them, feeling the swollen heat of my pussy lips, watching Doc fuck his wife.

And Dani climax. She shuddered and cried out, hips bucking up, forcing Mrs. B to grab her and hold on tight. Doc slowed, watching her orgasm, and I circled my clit with my fingers, the sensation spreading from my pussy down my thighs, up through my belly, hardening my nipples. I watched Doc slowly withdraw his erection. He glistened with his wife’s juices, the sound of his hand moving making a slick noise as he sat back on his heels, watching the two women kiss.

Mrs. B took Dani in her arms, letting the brunette taste herself, their tongues snaking out, twining, meshing, bodies pressed together. I imagined being in between the two of them and my pussy spasmed at the thought, clamping down on nothing. God I wanted to be fucked. Apparently, Dani did too. She rolled out from under Mrs. B and got up on her hands and knees, looking over her shoulder at Doc.

“Please,” she begged, shoulders to the bed, hands spreading her ass wide for him. “Fuck me. Do it, Doc. I want your cock.”

He groaned and complied, positioning himself behind her, grabbing her hips and sliding in deep, cock still wet from his wife’s pussy juices. He didn’t hesitate. His fingers dug into her ass as he pounded her against the mattress, driving her hips down until they were flat against the bed, Dani fisting the comforter at first and then bracing herself, palms flat against the headboard, to keep from sliding any further.

Next to them, Mrs. B was putting on a show. Of course she didn’t know it. But she was putting on a show for me. She played with her pussy, eyes half closed as she watched her husband fuck another woman. There was no hint of anger or jealousy in those eyes-just pure lust. Her fingers circled her clit, just like mine did, her other hand running up that long, tanned torso to the heavy mounds of her breasts. Her nipples were hard. I could see that from where I was sitting on the floor, my hand shoved deep into my shorts.

“You love watching, don’t you?” Doc reached over, slapping Mrs. B’s tanned thigh, spreading her wider so he could see.

Yes, I do love watching.

But he wasn’t talking to me, he was talking to his wife. She bit her lip and nodded, meeting his eyes as she circled her clit, faster and faster. Dani ground her hips up against Doc’s cock, a gesture of don’t forget me, and he groaned, rolling his own hips and slamming her into the mattress.

“Oh fuck her hard, Doc,” Mrs. B gasped. “Give her that big hard dick! She loves it. Don’t you, Dani?”

“Mmmm yes!” Dani arched, meeting him, thrust for thrust. “Harder! Oh fuck! Pound my pussy! Do it!”

I tried not to make any sound as I rubbed my own clit even faster, watching Mrs. B play with herself and Doc fuck Dani so hard the whole bed shook and the headboard banged against the wall. I’d heard that sound plenty of times in the middle of the night but now I was seeing exactly what they looked like when they fucked that way.

“Don’t come yet,” Mrs.. B begged her husband, her fingers plunging in and out of her sopping wet pussy. “I want your cock. Please, baby. Fuck me too.”

Oh me too, meeee tooo. My pussy begged for it and I slipped two fingers inside, hoping to ease the ache, keeping my thumb against my clit, rubbing, rubbing. My hips moved all on their own, watching Doc fuck Dani, wishing I was the one pinned to the bed, taking that hard dick. My nipples were so hard in my bra they hurt.

“Get over here.” Doc gripped his wife’s thigh, his eyes dark as he watched her fucking herself with her fingers. “Get on top of her.”

Mrs. B rolled to her hands and knees and her husband grabbed her hair, pulling her closer, closer, then slid his cock out of Dani’s pussy. I heard it come out of her. It made a wet, sucking sound. Dani cried out at the loss, but Doc was shoving his hard dick into his wife’s open mouth. She gagged and took it, eyes watering, looking up and meeting his gaze. Dani glanced back, watching, her face full of lust and longing. I knew just how she felt, except I wouldn’t be on the receiving end of that cock. Only in my dreams.

“Get on top of her,” he said again, shifting his hips back, taking his cock away from his wife. She went after it with her mouth, hungry, eager, but he held her back by her hair, directing her onto Dani. He slapped Mrs. B’s ass as she climbed on top of her friend, easing her way down, so they were both on their bellies, Mrs. B on top of Dani. I knew where he was going with this but I watched, incredulous, as he slid into his wife’s wet pussy first-the one on top.

Mrs. B slipped her arms under Dani’s shoulders, moving her hair out of the way so they could kiss. Dani turned her head, mouth seeking her friend’s, tongue licking her lips. Doc grabbed his wife’s hips, slamming into her, making both women moan at the motion. Dani’s hand was underneath, her fingers moving on her clit as Doc fucked Mrs. B and the two women kissed.

Then Doc reached under and grabbed Dani’s hips, pulling them up so he could plunge his cock into her instead. Dani cried out, breaking the kiss, as Doc fucked her. Mrs. B’s fingers were playing with her own clit from underneath too, both women moaning and writhing on the bed, on each other, under Doc’s onslaught. First one. Then the other. Back and forth. Up and down. They were all so sweaty, panting, like animals. It made me heady with longing.

And so was I. I could barely keep myself upright, my hips thrusting forward as I fingered myself, imagining it. What if I was on top of Mrs. B? What if he had three pussies to fuck? I whimpered, trying to keep myself quiet, but it was hard. So hard.

“Oh I’m gonna come!” Mrs. B cried. Her husband’s cock was buried balls deep and he stayed there, grinding, until she screamed, calling his name, shuddering all over.

“Fuck! Oh! Fuck! Me too!” Dani gasped from beneath her, both women cheek to cheek.

Doc heard and withdrew his cock from his wife’s spasming cunt, thrusting into Dani’s, making her scream too. She climaxed, rearing up so that Mrs. B was forced to roll off onto her back on the bed, still gasping and breathless from her own orgasm.

“Jesus Christ.” Doc huffed, withdrawing slowly from Dani’s pussy, his whole crotch soaked. He was dripping sweat, his body, almost as tanned as his wife’s, glistening in the lamp light as he collapsed onto his back on the bed between his wife and Dani. His cock was still rock hard, standing straight up, and I wanted to crawl up onto the bed and take it into my mouth.

After all, both of the other two women were still recovering from their orgasms and Doc was in need of relief. I could almost taste his cum at the back of my throat. God, I wanted it. I desperately wanted it. My pussy throbbed and I strummed my aching clit, feeling my own climax coming. Soon. So very close.

But then the two women, like they had the same thought at the same time, situated themselves on either side of Doc and proceeded to kiss each other over the head of his cock. I licked my lips, brushing my nipples through my t-shirt and furiously rubbing at my clit as I watched them take turns, first Dani, then Mrs. B, sucking his cock.

“Who wants it?” Doc asked with a low growl. “Who wants my cum?”

“Me!” The both said it at the same time and he groaned, pulling Mrs. B off his cock and stroking it hard and fast, hips bucking up, the first spray hitting her cheek. Dani went right in, her tongue licking it from Mrs. B’s face as the second shot rose up like a geyser, right between them, both women fighting to cover the head of his cock, shoving his hand off, their fists encircling him, pumping, looking for more.

I moaned. I couldn’t help it. My pussy was on fire, spasming, my orgasm ripping through me, my pussy making squelching noises as I fucked myself. I ached to taste that cum in my throat, imagining all of our tongues fighting for it, licking it off each other’s faces. My pussy clenched around my fingers and I wished it was a hard cock buried deep, filling me again and again. Then I collapsed onto the carpet in the slant of light coming from the bedroom door, shaking so hard I didn’t think I could ever move on my own again.

“Such good girls,” I heard Doc murmur. “God we’ve missed you, Dani.”

I slid my hand out of my panties, lifting my fingers to my mouth to suck them. I found myself wishing it was Mrs. B’s pussy I was tasting. I wanted to know what those fat lips felt like in my mouth, her clit hard against my tongue. I could smell the heat of my own pussy mixing with the scent of their sex. God, I loved the smell of cum.

“Did you hear something?” Mrs. B asked.

My eyes flew open and I realized I could see them. Just their feet and legs-they were all in a huddle on the bed-but if they sat up, they could see me, practically passed out in the hallway, still panting from getting myself off while I watched them have sex.

I was in so much trouble.

“The kids?” Doc asked, still sounding out of breath.

“Maybe.”

I heard them shifting on the bed and sat up, glancing around. There was only one place to go. I crawled quickly into my room-thank God the door was open and the light was off-hiding behind the door. I heard someone walking down the hall.

“Gretchen?” Mrs. B called.

I closed my eyes tight, willing my heart to stop in my chest, because I was sure she could hear it beating. I held my breath, waiting to be discovered.

“Do you see them?” Doc called.

“The fire’s out. There’s no light in the tents. I think they’re sleeping,” Mrs. B called. She was in the bathroom, looking into the backyard. I heard the toilet flush, the sink running.

“Oh I need a shower,” I heard Dani say as Mrs. B went back into the bedroom.

“Mm let’s go get clean,” Doc said. “Then we can do it again and get all dirty.”

I cowered behind the bedroom door, waiting for them all to go down the hall to the bathroom. I waited until I heard the bathroom door close and the shower go on. I waited longer, counting to a hundred-Mississippi. Twice. Then I heard the sound of moaning from the bathroom and I knew the coast was really clear. They were busy again.

My pussy twinged as I hesitated outside of the bathroom door, imagining what was going on in there, but I didn’t linger long. I crept back down the stairs and outside, shutting the patio doors behind me. There was dew on the grass already and I ran through it in my bare feet in the moonlight, shivering. I peeked inside my tent, seeing Henry asleep, snoring just as loudly as he’d complained Janie did. I smiled, zipping the mosquito netting back up and checking on Janie. She was snoring too.

I climbed inside her tent, forgoing my air mattress for the night. I would tell Henry he’d been asleep when I brought out his iPod and I just decided to climb in with Janie. And no one would ever know that I’d just watched their parents have sex and masturbated until I came so hard I could barely see. No one would ever know that I’d watched them have sex with another woman and I’d wished the whole time it was me.

“So when are we getting the baby?” I flipped through the racks, watching Mrs. B hold dresses up in front of herself.

“Next week.” Mrs. B met my eyes in the mirror.

Every time anyone mentioned the baby, her eyes got all dewy and shiny. They’d called last week, letting the Baumgartners know they had a baby they wanted to place with them, but it would be a few weeks, because the baby was still in the hospital. I’d gleaned most of the details from overheard conversations. The baby was a girl, three months old. She’d been taken away from her parents before, as a newborn, but she’d been returned. Now she’d been taken away for a second time, which Mrs. B said was a good sign that they wouldn’t give her back again. That meant they would probably be able to adopt her permanently.

Mrs. B was over the moon. They’d already prepared a nursery, converting Doc’s office, the room down the hall from mine. It had come together quickly, thanks to hiring a painter, a muralist and an interior decorator. Now the room was Pepto-Bismol pink with white stripes and walking into it made me a little dizzy. There was a mural on one wall of a cherry blossom branch. And Mrs. B couldn’t stop buying little girl clothes. The closet was already full of dresses.

I thought they were getting a little ahead of themselves, counting chickens before they hatched and all that-but on the other hand, I didn’t blame them. This poor little girl had been through so much already in her little life, she could use parents like the Baumgartners. I didn’t like to think about the things I’d overheard-being born drug addicted couldn’t be easy for anyone. Then came the bruises, the contusions, the burns and abrasions. And then, finally, the ultimate neglect. Leaving her in a hot car while Mom shopped at Wal-Mart.

She probably wouldn’t be alive if some Good Samaritan hadn’t broken the car window to get her out before calling the cops. I’d seen the story on the news and had been horrified. It was hard to believe we were getting that baby. The Baumgartners would be her savior. She would grow up with them, a part of their family, and they would love her and take care of her and give her more than most children in the world ever received from their parents.

“Hey, Gretchen, let’s go to Gymboree.” Mrs. B had abandoned her dresses-four of them in all. She was terrible at making up her mind.

“Again?” I smiled, putting the dress in my hand back on the rack.

“Come on.” Mrs. B seemed to be in a really big hurry all of a sudden, abandoning her pursuit of the perfect dress and grabbing my elbow, steering me toward the front of the store.

“Okay, okay,” I said, laughing. “Let’s go buy some more pink stuff.”

We’d almost gotten to the front of the store when I saw the reason for her haste. Ronnie was standing at one of the racks, looking through bathing suits. And Vince was standing beside her, looking all buff in a black tank top and jeans. The man’s arms were huge. He dwarfed Ronnie, who laughed when he bent to whisper something in her ear.

I stopped, shaking Mrs. B’s arm off my elbow, watching them talk and flirt and giggle. Ronnie was smiling. Beaming, really. She looked incredibly happy. I knew I should be happy for her, but something thick and bitter crept into my throat, constricting it. I knew it was jealousy, and I had no right to be jealous. We were over. It was over.

“Come on, Gretchen,” Mrs. B murmured, taking my elbow again, gently this time. “Let’s go.”

I knew she wanted to get me out of there before Ronnie saw me. Maybe she thought I was going to make a scene, but that wasn’t my thing. I was more than happy to slip out unnoticed. After all, that’s what I’d done when I discovered Ronnie having sex with Vince in our bed. If I could do it then, I could certainly do it now. I started to leave, following Mrs. B.

That’s when Ronnie looked up and saw me. And I froze.

It was a moment, just a brief, fleeting thing. Our eyes locked. She recognized me, her gaze moving to Mrs. B by my side and then back again. Her smile faded and the suit she was holding dropped to the floor. Then Vince noticed her noticing me. I had a moment of insanity, when I wanted to run over and do something. I didn’t know what. Shake her. Kiss her. Something.

But I didn’t. Instead, I turned and walked toward the exit, Mrs. B following me now.

“Are you okay?” Mrs. B asked as we left Macy’s and headed toward Gymboree at the other end of the mall.

“Fine,” I lied, walking faster. My stomach was in knots. Of course, she knew I was lying.

“Hey, let’s go get some lunch.” Mrs. B caught up, grabbing my hand in hers, squeezing. “How about P.F. Changs? Let’s go eat the Great Wall of Chocolate.”

“Whatever you want to do.” I swallowed past the lump in my throat.

The kids were at camp this week and Mrs. B had decided to take the week off too so we could have a “real vacation” she said. Doc was still working, of course, but we’d gone to dinner last night, the three of us, which was a lot of fun. And today Mrs. B said she wanted to have a girls’ day out. She wanted us to buy some sexy dresses to go to a new nightclub tonight that had just opened.

“Don’t let her ruin things,” Mrs. B pleaded. “You’re going to move on. You’ll find someone else. I promise you.”

I nodded, trying on a smile. I knew she was right. Probably right. I mean, I’d get over Ronnie. We weren’t even really, officially, anything at all. So why was I holding on to what we’d had? I knew I needed to let go. Maybe Mrs. B was right. Maybe I just needed to move on. Find someone else. Maybe several someones.

“Okay, let’s go shopping.” I squeezed her hand, seeing her smile reach her eyes at my sudden enthusiasm. “I need to find the sexiest dress on the planet for tonight.”

“That’s the spirit.” Mrs. B laughed and we headed into the mall.

I’d never seen a cuter baby in my life, and I thought I was a pretty good authority on the subject. When you spent most of your teen years babysitting and then decided to become a nanny, you see a lot babies. I’d seen them from newborn on up, and this sweet little four month old girl was the cutest I had ever seen.

“How’s my little bug?” I cooed, situating her in the umbrella stroller and buckling her in. She was literally my bug tonight, in her red and black spotted ladybug costume, giving me a toothless smile and kicking her little black Mary Jane’s in excitement.

“You have Holly?” Mrs. B called down the stairs. She was up there putting the finishing touches on Janie and Henry’s costumes.

“She’s in her stroller!” I called up.

“What a darling.” Doc was late. He came into the kitchen still wearing his white coat. At least he didn’t have a stethoscope hanging around his neck. He dropped a Walgreens bag loaded with candy onto the middle of the kitchen table.

“Isn’t she?” I squeezed Holly’s chubby little cheek and she wiggled all over like a puppy.

“I meant you.” Doc slipped off his white coat, along with his leather jacket-two things that seemed at a strange juxtaposition to me. His gaze, the way he looked at me, made me feel warm all over, my toes curling in my own Mary Jane’s.

“Oh.” I blushed. I actually blushed. God, this man had an effect on me. “You like it? Mrs. B helped me pick it out.”

“I bet she did.” His gaze swept from my toes to my nose, our eyes meeting at last. And when they did, something inside me melted into a little puddle. Maybe that was why I was so suddenly wet.

“Well she’s dressed up as Little Bo Peep. She came up with the fairy tale theme,” I explained. I knew I was talking just to stave of my apparent nerves. Where did those come from?

“Except for our little ladybug here. She just couldn’t resist and she said this costume would keep her warmer. Are you getting dressed up?”

“Oh no, I’m staying home to pass out candy.” He picked up the bags, carrying them to the kitchen counter and opening a cupboard, searching. “And I’m the official photographer of course. Speaking of which, I have to go get my camera.”

“Are you looking for something to put the candy in?”

I interrupted his search-he was looking in the wrong cupboard-bending over and turning the carousel cupboard. I grabbed the biggest Tupperware bowl I could find, turning around to present it to him, and saw a dazed look in his eyes, a half smile on his face, and realized I’d just bent over in my short little black Red Riding Hood skirt. My cape was too short to cover my ass, even standing up. Thankfully, I was wearing black tights underneath.

“Careful,” he said, his voice low, eyes growing dark. “Don’t tempt the wolf.”

I knew I shouldn’t but I did it anyway, turning back to the cupboard, murmuring, “I think we have a bigger bowl,” as I bent again, further this time, my skirt hiking high up on my ass. I heard the hiss of his breath, feeling the blood rushing to my head. God help me, I was imagining him grabbing my hips, yanking up my skirt, ripping my tights, and taking me, bent over in the kitchen, while his wife was upstairs.

“Guess not,” I said, brushing my hair out of my face as I righted myself, and there he was, right behind me, hips pressing me against the edge of the counter so I had to place my palms flat on the surface to keep my balance. His cock was like steel, an iron bar against the ass I’d just been teasing him with.

“Wolves are very dangerous, you know.” He placed his palms on the counter beside mine.

“You don’t think Little Red can handle herself?” I glanced over my shoulder, meeting his dark gaze. What was happening? Some part of me thrilled at it. Another part of me balked. It was the wrongest thing in the world to be doing this, imperceptibly grinding my hips back against his erection, but it felt so right.

“Is Doc home yet?” Mrs. B called down the stairs. “Did I hear his car?”

“I’m home!” he called and I felt the shift in his hips, the way he rubbed his cock up and down, into the crack of my ass through my skirt. “I’ll be up in a minute.”

He grabbed my hips, holding me to him, hard, hard, and I gasped. Then he let go, walking away without another word.

I took a deep breath, going back over to the counter, opening bags of candy while Doc stopped at the stroller, looking down at the baby.

“Hey, pumpkin.” He squatted down, squeezing Holly’s foot, making her squirm and smile. “Gonna take lots of pictures of you, little one. Your first Halloween.”

“Isn’t she sweet?” Mrs. B came sweeping down the stairs, looking adorable in her Little Bo Peep costume. Her skirt was short too, ruffled pink and white. She bent to pinch Holly’s cheek. It was hard not to. “My precious.”

Mrs. B couldn’t resist. She clicked the snap on the belt, lifting the baby out of her stroller.

“I just got her buckled in,” I protested, pouring Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups into the bowl.

“Oh she can be rebuckled.” Mrs. B snuggled the baby, showering kisses on her little face, leaving lipstick marks I’d have to wipe off before we took pictures.

“Look at you!” Doc exclaimed as Henry tromped down the stairs in his boots, his face painted, thanks to his mother, like a cat-Puss in Boots. Janie behind him, wore a long satin dress, the right half pink, the left half blue. She was going as Sleeping Beauty. “And my little princess. You look beautiful.”

Doc kissed his daughter’s cheek as she came into the kitchen before he headed up the stairs.

“Where are you going?” Mrs. B called.

“To get my camera.” He was already halfway up.

“You gonna be warm enough in that?” Mrs. B asked, eyeing my skirt. “Guess we should have thought of that when we ordered these, huh?”

Your husband has been keeping me more than warm enough, I thought, but didn’t say it. I still wondered about that night I’d brought Christian home. Had he really been watching us?

“All that walking, I’ll be fine.” I assured her, pouring Kit Kats into the bowl.

“Can’t we go by ourselves?” Henry begged for the ten millionth time. I rolled my eyes, opening a Kit Kat and breaking off a wafer, putting it in my mouth while he and his mother argued and Puss stamped his boot.

“Henry, I told you, no! You’re not old enough yet.” Mrs. B bounced the baby on her hip. “Besides, who’s going to carry Holly’s bucket?”

Henry scoffed. “We have to trick or treat for her?”

“Well she can’t do it by herself,” his mother replied.

“She’s not going to eat any candy.” Janie, whose ingenious pink and blue dress idea had come straight from the Disney movie, was brushing her long, blond hair, which we thankfully didn’t have to cut after our summer gum wad incident. “Why do we have to get any for her?”

“Because I said so,” Mrs. B said, removing one of her blond ringlets from the baby’s chubby fist.

“You guys are just going to eat it later,” Henry grumbled, picking up his white glow-in-the-dark ghost bucket from the table.

“Well, it’s either that or we raid your candy,” I called over my shoulder, still chewing my Kit Kat.

“Good point.” He held out his hand to his mother. “Give me her bucket.”

His mother smirked, handing over the glow-in-the-dark Frankenstein bucket. Janie’s was a pumpkin.

Of course, we weren’t ready to go out trick or treating quite yet. First Doc had to take pictures of everyone in front of the fireplace, all of us smiling and saying, “Cheese!” or, if Henry and Janie were complaining about how long it was taking and refusing to smile, maybe “Smelly socks!” or “Cheesy underpants!”

“So you’re the family photographer?” I asked Doc as Mrs. B strapped the baby into her stroller once again while Janie and Henry fought over who got to carry Holly’s bucket. The once reviled task was now being coveted. “That’s a nice camera.”

I had to admit, I was jealous. My own was ten years old and I still used film. Actual film.

“Thanks.” His camera was digital and he was flipping through the pictures he’d taken, leaning in to show me. “I’ve always been an amateur photographer. Used to take pictures at weddings when I was in college for extra spending money.”

“I sell mine on stock photo sites.”

“Really?” He raised his eyebrows. “What do you photograph?”

“Whatever sells.” I shrugged. “Nature photos, stills of objects. You’d be surprised what people want to blog about.”

“Is there any money in it?”

“Not much. A little. Extra spending money, like you said.”

“I like photographing people.” He cocked his head at me. “You would make a beautiful subject.”

“Thanks.” Damn, I was blushing again. That made a slow, sexy smile spread across his face.

“Want to pose for me some time?”

“Sure,” I agreed, feeling my blush deepen. He’d never said a word about naked photography, yet both of us seemed to know exactly what he meant.

“You ready, Gretchen?” Mrs. B called, pushing Holly in her stroller toward the front door.

“Duty calls.” I turned and walked away, feeling his gaze follow me. I made sure I added a little swing to my hips.

Mrs. B pushed the baby’s stroller through the neighborhood while Henry and Janie ran from house to house, gathering candy, taking turns at every stop to fill Holly’s bucket too. There were a great many spoils to be had in their subdivision-some of the houses even gave out full sized Snickers bars! When I was a kid, we were grateful to get Dum-Dum suckers and Smarties.

By the time we’d circled back around to our block, the buckets were overflowing and Holly was slumped over in her stroller, fast asleep. The porch light was out as we approached the house.

“We ran out of candy, can you believe it?” Doc called as we pushed through the front door, Henry and Janie in the lead, wanting to tell their father all about the scarecrow who came to life and scared the pants off them. It was just a guy in a costume sitting in a lawn chair, waiting to scare passersby, but it was all Henry and Janie could talk about.

“There were so many kids,” Mrs. B exclaimed. “I swear their parents drive them into our sub because they know we give out such good candy.”

“I’m going to go put these on my laptop.” Doc got up from the sofa where he’d been watching Law and Order and picked up his camera from the coffee table.

“Remember, you can’t post any pictures of Holly on Facebook anything!” Mrs. B called as he headed through the kitchen.

“I won’t,” he assured her. “I took some non-identifying ones. I can share those, can’t I?”

“Just not her face,” Mrs. B insisted. It wasn’t just her being paranoid. The foster care system made that a requirement. No identifying pictures were allowed to be shared of foster kids by their foster families. Not that I blamed them. Holly had been rather infamous in our little community, after what she’d been through. It was better that no one knew we had her.

Henry and Janie sat in the middle of the family room, costumes askew, Janie sorting her candy into types in her usual OCD fashion. Henry entered serious negotiations with her to trade all his licorice for chocolate, a feat I figured nearly impossible.

“She’s going to be hungry when she wakes up.” Mrs. B took the baby, putting her on the sofa and getting her out of her costume while I went to make up her bottle.

“I’ll do it.” Mrs. B smiled when I brought the bottle out. She took it from me and put it to the baby’s lips. Holly sucked greedily.

“I’ll go clean up dinner.” We hadn’t had much time after eating the Sloppy Joe’s Mrs. B had made before we all had to change into our costumes.

I was loading dishes in the dishwasher when Doc came in. He opened the fridge and pulled out a beer. He popped the top off, tossing it onto the counter. I gave him a look, sweeping the top into my hand and putting it in the garbage under the sink. He came closer, watching as I bent over to put the last plate in the dishwasher.

“Damn, little Red Riding Hood, you make me feel like a wolf.”

I turned, finding him dangerously close. I could smell the alcohol on his breath and wondered just how many of those he’d had. Of course, he’d been here, all alone, with nothing to do but watch TV, drink beer and hand out candy.

“You’re looking rather wolfish,” I replied, glancing at the stubble on his cheeks. He’d clearly forgotten to shave that morning.

“All the better to tickle you with.” He grinned, grabbing my hips and rubbing his cheek against mine, making me squirm and laugh. I wondered if they could hear us in the family room. One of the kids could walk in at any minute-although I doubted it. They were likely too engrossed in candy negotiations.

I tried to push him away, my hands against his chest, but he didn’t budge. Doc was a big man and could take what he wanted, if he wanted to. The thought was blackly exciting. His hands remained on my hips, moving over the short skirt I was wearing.

“You’re so sexy in this damned costume,” he murmured, his denim clad thigh sliding between mine.

“I didn’t meant to tempt you, Mr. Wolf.” I cocked my head, giving him a smirk that told him that the opposite was true.

“Oh, I think you did.”

“Your wife picked it,” I reminded him.

“I know.” His hands moved down to my ass, squeezing. There was no pretense anymore about this being an accidental meeting. “Think she meant to tempt the wolf?”

“Do you?” I raised my eyebrows.

“You know I was watching, don’t you?” He leaned in to whisper this into my ear, his big hands gripping my ass, holding me to him.

“Yes,” I whispered back, my nipples hardening instantly at his words.

“Did you come hard?” He pulled my skirt up in back, hands roaming over my tights, making me gasp.

“I… I needed it so bad that night.” I whimpered. I needed to right now. Between his teasing grind against the counter before we left, and now this, I was ready to explode.

“I know.” The knowing in his voice undid me. My hands, which I’d previously kept at my side, went to his waist, feeling the solid heat of his muscles underneath that button-down dress shirt. “What were you thinking about when you came?”

“I… don’t remember,” I stammered when his hand reached around the front of my tights, cupping my mound through them, under my skirt.

“Liar.” He pulled back to look at me. His eyes were darker than I’d ever seen them. Dark with lust. “Don’t lie to me or Mr. Wolf will eat you all up.”

Was that supposed to be a threat? It just made me wetter.

“You.” I whispered. I was the desperately hungry one. “Both of you.”

“Fuck, that’s hot.” His fingers massaged me through my tights. My pussy lips were so swollen and fat. Everything down there was squishy. “I wish I could have seen you with the light on. Is your pussy shaved?”

I nodded. “But Mrs. B said I should let a little grow back. At the top.”

“Blonde?” His eyes brightened.

“Yes.” I bit my lip. “Like my hair.”

He groaned, palm grinding my pussy, his cock like a foot-long pipe against my thigh.

“And these gorgeous tits.” His other hand had found something to do, cupping my breast through my blouse. My hard nipple grew even harder, as if it could pop right out for his waiting fingers. “My God, Gretchen, do you know what you do to me? You turn me into a fucking animal.”

“I was just carrying my basket through the woods on the way to Grandma’s house, Mr. Wolf,” I teased, rocking my hips. He could get me off like this. Just like this. A fire burned through me at the thought. He could make me come in his arms while his wife and kids were just a room away and no one would ever know.

“You’re so damned tempting.” He smiled, watching my face as I looked at him through half-closed eyes while he rocked my pussy toward orgasm.

“Gretchen?” Mrs. B called from the family room. “Can you bring me Holly’s diaper bag?”

The sound of her voice made him take a step back. I straightened my skirt, my blouse, still trying to catch my breath. The diaper bag was on the kitchen table and I headed for it on shaky legs.

“Wait.” Doc caught my arm, whispering. “Gretchen, I’m sorry. I’m… drunk. Forgive me?”

“I… um…” He had to know there was nothing to forgive. He wasn’t taking advantage of me. My God, I wanted it as much as he did.

“Don’t tell Carrie.” He left, disappearing back up the stairs.

I made it through the rest of the night on autopilot, cleaning up after dinner, tucking two sugar-hyped now-crashing kids into bed, rocking the baby to sleep, saying goodnight to the Baumgartners as they sat on the sofa watching The Office, laughing together.

But that night, I heard them having sex. I listened to the animal growl and thrust of him, the headboard banging against the wall over and over, and I wondered if he was thinking about me when he came.

Because I was. I came three times, panting and tangled in my covers, thinking about him.

I slathered Holly with SPF-50, rubbing the white lotion into her chubby, pale baby folds of flesh, making her smile and wiggle on the bed. Then I put a pink bathing suit with white polka dots over her swim diaper-a tight fit-and tied a pink sun hat on her head. She kicked her legs when I put her on my hip, heading down the stairs.

The Baumgartners were already on the beach sunning themselves, Doc sitting at the table with a paperback, some James Patterson novel, shading his eyes and watching Janie and Henry building sandcastles. Mrs. B was on a blanket in the smallest black bikini ever made. There was likely a picture of it under “butt floss” in the urban dictionary. And she was slathered up too, but not with sunscreen. Her copper-colored skin glistened with oil.

“There are my girls.” Mrs. B glanced up as I came out, closing the sliding door behind me. The heat hit me like a wall after the coolness of the AC.

“Nice suit,” Doc commented on mine and I glanced at him, seeing his little smile, those dark eyes, sent a jolt of excitement shooting through me.

“Thanks.” I glanced down at my white bikini, which covered more than Mrs. B’s for sure, but it was still quite scant. “Your wife picked it out.”

“I’d wear even less if I had your body,” Mrs. B replied, defending her choice as I joined her on the blanket. I put Holly on it between us on her tummy along with a teething ring I’d grabbed from the freezer. She’d been fussy lately, cutting her bottom two teeth at once.

“I wouldn’t object to anyone wearing any less.” Doc put his book down, grinning, squinting out at the shoreline. Janie and Henry were chasing each other, splashing, laughing. “Wanna take the baby for a swim with me, Gretchen?”

“Sure.” I picked up Holly, standing and propping her on my hip. “Wanna come Mrs. B?”

“When are you going to start calling me Carrie?” she sighed, shading her eyes and looking up at me. She kept reminding me and I kept forgetting. It was mostly habit, but I think some part of my brain refused to make that jump. If I started thinking of her as Carrie, that would be too familiar. And clearly, she wanted to keep her distance. Thinking of her as “Mrs. B” helped me keep that distance too.

“Sorry,” I apologized.

“Coming in, babe?” he asked her, standing beside me so he could nudge her with his toe.

“Maybe later.” She put her head back down, closing her eyes. “Gonna get a little more sun.”

Not that she needed it. Her body was all over bronze, her color deepening over just the few days we’d been there. I’d burned the first day, even with sunblock, and that had deepened into the beginnings of a tan. Now I was wearing the baby’s “ultra water resistant” SPF-50, rather than go all lobster.

“Come on.” Doc walked with me to the edge of the water, Janie and Henry leaping up and down and running at him as soon as we hit the water’s edge.

“Daddy! Daddy! Throw me!” Janie begged, diving into the water and bobbing back up five feet from the shore.

“No, me!” Henry followed her and they dove and bobbed in the water like seals.

“You’re getting pretty big for this,” Doc warned, but he did it anyway, diving in and surfacing beside them in the water. Janie squealed when he lifted her in his arms, tossing her as far as he could. She held her nose, going under, and then resurfaced, laughing. They would do this over and over, at least until Doc’s arms got tired.

I waded in the water, marveling at how warm it was, even in December. It was only a week until Christmas. Hard to believe. It had come up so fast. I’d been living with the Baumgartners for six months. That made me think of Ronnie-just being here made me think of her. The place we’d met. The first place we’d had sex. But I shoved those thoughts away, sinking into the clear blue water to my waist.

Holly squealed in surprise when the water touched her skin, crying at first. I held her out in front of me, floating her along, letting her get used to the temperature change. Her eyes went from wet to wide, then to laughing. Her arms waved, her hands slapping the water’s surface, splashing, the droplets hitting her face surprising her once more.

“Okay, enough, enough,” Doc protested, throwing Henry one last time. He was getting big, almost bigger than Janie, even though he was younger. He was going to be a big boy.

The kids begged for more but they finally gave up, swimming and splashing together for a while until they got bored and went back to building their sand village on the shore. Doc came over and joined me and the baby.

“Just think, another few years, and I’ll be throwing you, lil pumpkin.” He lifted Holly from my arms, laughing as she squealed and waved her arms while he sailed her through the water, making motor boat sounds. Watching them together made me smile.

Then the baby got fussy and no amount of playing would quiet her.

“She’s hungry,” I said, holding my arms out for her. “She wants lunch.”

“Me too,” Doc agreed enthusiastically. “Time for a sandwich.”

We all trooped back into the house. Doc made sandwiches and Mrs. B made lemonade and I made the baby a bottle, and we all sat around the kitchen table eating. Mrs. B insisted on feeding the baby, so she ate one handed and had to stop to burp Holly. Janie and Henry burst out laughing when an air bubble escaped the baby’s mouth so loudly it sounded like a full grown man belching.

“Mom, my head hurts,” Janie complained, rubbing her eyes.

“Too much sun,” her mother said, nodding. “Why don’t you and Henry go upstairs and take a rest?”

“I’m not tired,” Henry said, his mouth full of sandwich.

“Well at least stay out of the sun for a while,” Mrs. B said, looking at Janie’s flushed cheeks. “Play X-Box or something.”

“Okay!” Henry brightened. I smirked. Any day his parents suggested staying inside and playing video games was clearly a good day, as far as he was concerned.

“Well someone needs a nap.” Mrs. B yawned and kissed the top of the baby’s head. Holly’s head nodded, her eyelids heavy.

“You or her?” Doc teased.

“Both.” Mrs. B laughed. “I’m gonna put her down and do just that.”

“I was going to give Gretchen her early Christmas present,” Doc said, leaning back in his chair and looking at his wife as she rose with the baby. “You okay with that?”

“Sure.” Mrs. B smiled over at me.

“I’ve got something for you, Gretchen.” Doc stood, clearing plates as Henry and Janie raced each other to the X-Box in the living room.

“Oh yeah?”

I knew, whatever it was, it wasn’t what I really wanted. Like Ronnie had assumed, I wasn’t ever going to get that. The Baumgartners didn’t think I was girlfriend material. It seemed like I was going to be just the nanny, just the roommate, just the doormat, for the rest of my life.

“Go on outside, I’ll meet you there.”

“Outside?” I raised my eyebrows. “Should I change?”

I was still in my wet bikini.

“No.” His gaze dropped down to my cleavage, then lower, to my belly, hovering on the small, white triangle of fabric between my legs. “Go on.”

I went past Henry and Janie, who were stretched out on their stomachs on the carpet playing Super Mario, going through the sliding door to wait on the patio. I sat in one of the chairs, watching the light play on the water as the waves rolled in. It was a beautiful day, the sky a bright, azure blue, hardly a cloud in it. I understood why the Baumgartners loved coming here so much. The place was paradise.

Doc came out the back door. He was still wearing his swimming trunks, dark blue, almost black when wet. They had a tantalizing white stripe at the waist that drew my eye, under which a dark line of hair ran down from his navel and disappeared. I glanced up, past those still sharply defined abs of his, noticing he had his camera around his neck and a camera bag slung over his shoulder.

I raised my eyebrows, curious, but he just held out his hand and told me to come with him. Of course, I followed. We walked through the sand, not talking, all the way down to the water’s edge, where the sand was wet, packed tight, easier to navigate. He took me down the beach, further than I’d been before, taking me past a field of tall grass. There was a little cul-de-sac here and that’s where we stopped. I could see the house still, but it was distant, small.

“So, this isn’t exactly your Christmas present.” He lifted his camera, pointing it at me. I cocked my head, half-smiling, and the shutter clicked. “I’m sure we’ll get you something new. But I wanted to pass this on to you because I just got myself a new one.”

“This…” I stared, my brow knitting, as the shutter clicked again. “You don’t mean… your camera?”

“Yep.” He smiled warmly, snapping again, catching my expression of surprise. “It’s all yours. I thought I’d take some time to show you how to use it. And take some pictures of you, if you still wanted to model for me.”

“Oh wow.” I blinked at the camera in his hands, too shocked to say much more. He was really giving it to me? We’d talked more about photography since that Halloween night when we discovered we had that hobby in common. I had showed him my old analog camera that still used such an archaic technology as film. “Really? You mean it?”

“Of course I mean it.” He laughed, taking the camera strap from around his neck and putting it around mine. It hung, a heavy piece of machinery, between my breasts. “Wanna learn?”

“Hell yes!” I exclaimed, laughing and suddenly throwing my arms around his neck. “Oh, Doc, thank you so much!”

“You’re welcome, sweetheart.” He held me close and I heard him take a long, deep breath, like he was breathing me in.

I couldn’t learn fast enough. He showed me all the settings, how to adjust the white balance, how to use the bounce flash, how to change the lenses. He had several macro lenses and two telephoto ones in the camera bag. I experimented with the macro lenses, fascinated. I had one for my analog camera and I used it all the time, but with the digital technology, I could see immediately how things turned out. It was amazing.

“I just took a picture of a blade of grass!” I exclaimed, showing Doc as we stretched out on our bellies in the sand. “Look at that! Look how close!”

“Isn’t it awesome?” He grinned at me. “You wouldn’t believe how close I can get with those lenses. I’ve taken some amazing pictures.”

“Would you show me?”

“Sure.” He nodded. “I have some on my laptop back at the house. But… well, some of them aren’t exactly G-Rated.”

“R-Rated?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. He shook his head slowly, eyes darkening. “NC-17?” He shook his head again. “Ohhh. X-Rated. Up close and personal?”

“Very.” He nodded slowly, the look in his eyes making my pussy and ass clench in my bikini bottoms. “I like taking pictures of the female anatomy.”

“Particularly female?” I swallowed, knowing just what he was talking about. And he knew I knew.

“That does happen to be my particular interest.” His gaze dipped to my cleavage. “So, about that modeling you said you would do for me…”

“You want to take pictures of me naked?” I licked my lips, the thought of it so titillating it made me lose my vision at the edges, so all I saw was him.

“That’s up to you.” He held his hand out for the camera. “We can start with you in your suit.”

“Okay.” I handed over the camera, rolling to my side. I was covered in sand. “How do you want me?”

His gaze moved over my body and I swear I could almost feel it, as if his eyes were his hands roaming over my breasts, down my sandy stomach, to the white triangle between my legs.

“Don’t ask me that unless you actually want me to tell you.” His voice was hoarse as he watched me sit, spreading my thighs and planting my feet apart in the sand

“How do you want me?” I asked, leaning my elbows on my knees, knowing the view I was giving him was incredibly tantalizing. At least, I hoped so. He was already snapping pictures.

“God, stop tempting me.” He groaned from behind the camera. “Just sit there.”

I grinned at his words. Then I did a few swimsuit model poses that made him smile and me giggle. He continued to snap away.

“You’re really beautiful, Gretchen.” He dropped the camera for a moment to look at me leaning back on my elbows, knees up, feet in the sand.

“Does Mrs. B know you’re doing this?” I asked, glancing toward the house. We were in that little cul-de-sac of grass, hidden down here, away from any roaming eyes.

“Teaching you how to use the camera?” He smirked.

“Taking pictures of me.” I drew a circle in the sand with my toe, biting my lip.

“Yes.” He picked the camera back up as I sat.

“Nude ones?” I undid the strap on my bikini, letting my top fall away, my breasts free. I heard him gasp.

“Yes,” he murmured, back behind the camera again, snapping pictures.

“She doesn’t mind?” I reached behind, hearing the shutter as I took off my top altogether. I arched my back a little, pointing my nipples skyward. Doc was taking so many pictures it made me dizzy.

“As long as I don’t touch you…” he said from behind the camera.

“Oh?” I stood in the sand, topless, looking across the beach, wondering if anyone could see us. The timeshare was private and I couldn’t see any other people. The house was far in the distance. “Is that the rule? You can look but you can’t touch.”

I turned around and slid my white bikini bottoms down, showing him my ass. I heard the click of the shutter, the sharp intake of his breath. Then I turned around and he groaned like he was in pain. The camera was forgotten for a moment. He was eye level with my pussy and he looked at me with his naked eye, no camera lens in the way. Then he started snapping away again, watching me sink down into the sand and open my legs for him.

He changed lenses part way through and I knew he was taking up close photos. I held still and let him circle me, hearing his breath quicken.

“Fuck, Gretchen.” He swallowed, and I looked at him crouched between my legs, taking pictures of my pussy. “You have the sweetest pussy. Look at that little bit of blonde hair on top. God… open it for me. Spread it.”

I did, using my fingers to part my lips. He took more pictures, moaning the whole time like he was being tortured.

“So you can’t touch me,” I mused, watching him maneuver between my thighs. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t. Does it?”

He swallowed. “No.”

I circled my clit with my finger, shivering. I was so fucking hot. The heat of the sun was making me sweat but my pussy was on fire. I had to come. And I wanted him to watch me. Doc had forgotten the camera. He knelt between my legs, focused on my fingers moving back and forth, around and around. My nipples were so hard and I wished he could suck them. I could see his cock tenting his suit and it made my mouth water.

“You can’t touch me?” I asked the question, pleading. He shook his head, his expression pained. “Well… can you touch yourself?”

He sighed, shaking his head.

“Technically speaking… probably shouldn’t.” He glanced at the house, then back at me, moaning when my fingers slipped into my pussy. “But fuck it.”

He yanked his boxers down and grabbed his cock in his fist. The sight of it made me gasp, the way he handled himself, so rough, pumping it fast as he watched me touch myself.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he murmured, his breath coming faster.

“Oh Doc, I want your cock,” I moaned, pushing my hips up, offering my pussy. “You can put it anywhere you want. Anywhere.”

He groaned, shaking his head. “Just keep doing that. Finger yourself. Jesus, girl. That’s so fucking hot.”

“Oh but I want you,” I pleaded. My clit throbbed, my pussy clenching, wanting to be filled.

“I want you too,” he panted, jerking his cock faster, balls swinging. God, I wanted to taste him, lick all that saltiness from his scrotum, let him fuck my throat. It was driving me crazy, having him so close, but not having him.

“Oh Doc, please, please, fuck me.” I begged him. “Just…put your cock in me when you come. Please. Just… oh… fuck… please!”

“Ahhhh God, Gretchen, I want you so fucking bad.” He gave a low, frustrated groan, looking at my pussy like a drowning man.

“Just rub it up and down my slit,” I whimpered. “Just once. Just… oh… please…”

He growled and thrust closer, but his cock didn’t touch my pussy. I rubbed my clit faster, a brutal assault, my thighs quivering with need. I felt my orgasm coming, something thick and coiled in my belly, waiting to spring. Doc stopped to lick his palm, making his cock wet, and I knew he was imagining what it would feel like to fuck my wet little pussy instead of his own fist.

“I’m gonna come,” I panted, meeting his eyes, a halo around his head from the sun. “Oh Doc, I’m going to come for you.”

“Yes!” he cried, pumping his cock so fast his hand was a blur. “Oh Gretchen, come for me, sweetheart. Make yourself come for me!”

“Only if you come first.” My fingers slowed, oh God, it was so hard to stop, so hard to hold it back. I clenched my ass as if I could keep my orgasm in. I was so very close. “Come with me, Doc. I want your cum. Give me that. Come all over my pussy!”

He gave a low, pained groan, thrusting once, twice, three times into his tightly closed fist, his cock erupting with hot, white jets of cum. The first stream overshot my pussy. It overshot my stomach and my tits. His cum sprayed my cheek, splashing my lips, and I gasped, reaching my tongue out and tasting him.

Doc moaned again, another flood of cum exploding from the head of his cock, this one not quite as strong. He left another ropey white stream over my belly, and the last, glorious burst was right against my pulsing little clit. Just the heat and pressure of it made me come-I didn’t even need my fingers, although I used them, rubbing his cum into my pussy, my hips lunging upward, my pussy squeezing down violently against nothing, again and again, aching with the empty throb.

He sat back on his heels, dazed, panting, as I cleaned myself off. I scooped up every bit of his cum, licking my fingers and hands clean while he watched, looking like a starving man chained just out of reach at a banquet.

When we were dressed again-which we did in silence-and sitting in the sand, facing the waves rolling in on the beach, I finally decided to just ask. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I had to know. Ronnie had planted a seed of doubt in my head that had been growing weed-like in my brain, as much as I tried to ignore it.

“Doc, I want you so much.” My voice was soft as I used a stick to trace patterns in the sand. “You and her too. Why can’t it be me?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, although I was sure he knew. He had to know.

“Why can’t I be like…” I swallowed. “Like Ronnie. Like Dani.”

He sighed but didn’t say anything. He just looked out at the water.

“It couldn’t be more perfect,” I insisted. “I mean, I live with you!”

“That’s part of the problem,” he said finally.

“What do you mean?”

“Gretchen, it’s not about you.” He looked over at me, shaking his head. “It’s really not. You’re young and beautiful and desirable. Very, very desirable. And we love you. We do. Very much. You’re like a part of the family-”

“But!” I interrupted, snapping at him, although I didn’t mean to. “I can hear the ‘but’ already. But what? But I’m not good enough to be your lover?”

“No.” He reached over to touch my shoulder. Just that made my knees turn to water. “That’s not it…”

“Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

I walked on my wobbly knees down the beach. I didn’t go in the direction of the house. I went the other way instead, looking at the sun on the water, poking at the sand, picking up seashells, trying to lose myself in the journey, let it carry me away. By the time I got back to the house, dark skies had rolled in and it was beginning to rain.

The house was quiet. Janie and Henry were playing Go Fish, of all things, with an old deck of cards at the kitchen table. Mrs. B was napping on the sofa with the baby sleeping in the crook of her arm, the TV on but muted.

Upstairs, I stripped out of my suit in the bathroom to take a long, hot, stinging shower. Then I went across the hall to my room. I quickly towel dried my hair and put on a pair of pajama bottoms and a white tank top. It wasn’t even dinner time, but I didn’t feel like going back out again. Besides, the sound of thunder rolling outside told me it was still raining, so we’d likely be stuck inside for a while.

Then Doc called to me from the room next door-the room he shared with Mrs. B.

“Come here.” He crooked his finger at me from where he was sitting on the bed with his laptop when I peeked my head inside the door.

I went, like a petulant child.

“I’m sorry.” He reached a hand out, stroking my wet hair, looking at the droplets of water beading on my skin. “It’s complicated. I wish it wasn’t.”

I just nodded, not saying anything.

“I thought you’d like to see.” Doc patted the bed beside him.

I hesitated for a moment, climbing up and sitting next to him, leaning back on the propped up pillows. I gasped when I saw what filled the screen.

My own pussy. My clit, to be exact, the hood pulled back slightly, the pink skin around it wrinkled, convoluted. The picture was so clear and sharp it was stunning. You could see every little grain of sand sticking to my skin.

“Look.” Doc pointed, touching my clit-on the screen-and I felt it throb between my legs. Oh my God, I could have sworn he was stroking my clit, just like he was doing to the image in front of us. “So fucking lickable.”

That made me whimper and squeeze my thighs together. I leaned my head against his arm as he flipped through each image. We both looked at them, silent. I went from wearing my bikini to nude, the photos zooming in closer and closer. There was a shot of my nipple, pink and pursed, that Doc paused at. He made a low noise in his throat before moving on.

“I just want you to know,” he said, when he minimized the last photo. “It’s taking every ounce of self-restraint I have not to take you. Right here, right now.”

“What’s that?” I pointed at the screen, looking for a distraction. There were thumbnails at the bottom, and they weren’t pictures he’d taken on the beach.

“Oh, those are some of the other pictures I’ve taken.” He clicked on another folder, flipping through some of the other photos. Some were of Mrs. B-I recognized her body, although I’m sure he didn’t think I could, since I wasn’t ever supposed to have seen her naked. There were other women too. I even recognized Dani and Mrs. B together, although I couldn’t see their faces.

“What about that one? She looks…” I reached over, clicking the laptop mouse, bringing the picture full screen before he could stop me.

I gasped out loud, covering my mouth with both hands.

“You weren’t supposed to see that.” He closed it quickly. Not just the photo, but the laptop too.

“Doc!” I exclaimed. “That was Mrs. Holmes!”

He winced, nodding.

I wasn’t supposed to know that the other woman I’d seen in the photograph was Mrs. B either.

“She was so young!” I whispered, staring at him.

“It was in college,” he said. “That’s… that’s where we met her.”

“You… and Maureen Holmes…” I was incredulous. “And Mrs. B?”

“Yes,” he admitted, setting his laptop aside on the nightstand, turning to me to take my hands.

“But not me,” I whispered, looking down at my hands in his, lifting my gaze, meeting his eyes. “Not me.”

“Gretchen!” he called.

But I couldn’t listen. I went into my room and shut the door, ignoring his knock.

I curled up, pulling the covers up to my nose, wondering what in the world was wrong with me. Because, clearly, it was something. The Baumgartners said they loved me, but it wasn’t really true. They wanted me-I felt it, I knew I wasn’t crazy-but they wouldn’t act on it. I didn’t understand. They’d been with-my God, who hadn’t they been with? Dani, Ronnie, even Maureen Holmes, who was the most fundamentally Christian, straight-laced woman I’d ever known. She obviously hadn’t been on the straight and narrow in college.

Doc said it wasn’t about me, but it was. It had to be.

When I heard the baby crying and Mrs. B called me, I got up and went downstairs, because it was my job. I took Holly and made her a bottle, curling up on the couch and feeding her while Mrs. B ordered a pizza. We were supposed to barbeque steaks and hamburgers on the grill, but it was still storming.

Janie and Henry decided on The Princess Bride, a family favorite, and we put that into the DVD player and watched it while we ate pizza in the living room. Mrs. B wanted the baby, so I handed her over, cleaning up paper plates, putting the leftover pizza in the fridge. I did all of that on autopilot, just going through the motions. Doc stopped me in the kitchen when I was cleaning up, trying to explain, but I couldn’t listen. It hurt too much.

It was still raining when bedtime rolled around. I got the kids into pajamas, their teeth brushed, tucking them in at the end of the hall. The baby slept in a Pack’n Play in my room and she was already out, sucking on her fist in her sleep. I heard Mrs. B call my name as I headed down the hall to my room.

“Everyone tucked in?” she asked.

“Safe and sound.” I stuck my head in, seeing them sitting up in bed, watching TV. “I’m going to turn in.”

“Goodnight, Gretchen.”

I went straight to bed. I just wanted to close my eyes and disappear. Maybe when I woke up, this week would be over. Outside, rain pelted against the side of the house. As bright and gorgeous as the day had been, tonight was just as turbulent and dark. All of my hopes, even my expectations, about what would happen with the Baumgartners, had blown away with the wind.

I heard Doc and Mrs. B talking, their voices low. If I had to listen to them have sex tonight, I was going to kill myself. I thought about going downstairs to sleep on the sofa, as I listened in on their conversation. I had forgotten to shut my door and theirs was slightly open, as usual.

“She feels like it’s her fault.” That was Doc.

“Oh Doc, no,” Mrs. B protested. “Did you tell her?”

“What do you want me to say? ‘I’m sorry, Gretchen, we love you but we can’t be with you because Carrie’s afraid we’ll lose the baby?’”

I blinked, frowning at the wall.

“I know you think I’m being stupid.” Mrs. B sighed.

“Not stupid.” Doc chuckled. “A little overly cautious, maybe.”

“Once she’s ours, Doc, I won’t worry so much,” she pleaded with him. “I just don’t want anything to go wrong. If I lose this baby…”

“We’re not going to lose Holly.” He sounded resolute.

“But… we could.”

“Carrie, anything could happen.” He sighed. “I could walk outside and get struck by lightning.”

Thunder crashed, followed by a flash of lightning, as if to prove his point. They were quiet for a while, the sound of the television filling the gap. They were watching Seinfeld.

“I feel awful,” Mrs. B said.

“So does she.”

“Oh Doc. What are we going to do?”

“I love you,” he told her. “I’ll do whatever you want.”

“You know what I want,” she cried.

“Yes,” he replied softly. “I want Gretchen too.”

I felt my heart swell at this revelation. Was it really true? They did love me? They did want me? It was just Mrs. B’s fear of some social worker coming along and taking the baby because they found out the Baumgartners were polyamorous that was keeping them from acting on it? Not that I blamed her, really. The social worker who had been assigned to the Baumgartners was a very straight-laced sort. She reminded me, in many ways, of a young Maureen Holmes. And the requirements and background checks and home visits had been extensive and rigorous.

Mrs. B was right-if we were all lovers and anyone did find out, they would take Holly back. I closed my eyes, feeling tears stinging my eyes. I couldn’t risk them losing the baby. I would never do that. I wasn’t going to jeopardize Holly’s future for my own selfish pleasure. So once again, the thing I wanted most, I couldn’t have.

“We can’t, Doc,” Mrs. B said, and I nodded in agreement, feeling tears slipping down onto my pillow.

“Yes we can.” Doc’s words didn’t change my mind-and I knew they wouldn’t change hers either. But what he said next made me doubt. “What we can’t do is live our whole lives afraid of something that may or may not happen. What kind of life is that?”

“I don’t know,” she said with a sigh. “I wish I knew what to do.”

She said she didn’t know, but she did. I knew too. Even if Doc wanted something different-even if we all did-there were more important things.

That’s what I told myself as I buried my face in my pillow and cried myself to sleep.

I don’t know why I was surprised when we ran into Maureen Holmes at Dairy Queen. They vacationed in Key West every year around Christmas. What should have surprised me was the fact that it had taken so long for the Baumgartners to run into her the first time. Still, when we ended up in line together, it was more than a little awkward, for so many reasons, not the least of which was the fact she’d fired me, and the Baumgartners had turned right around and hired me.

And, of course, there was also the fact that now I knew what Maureen Holmes looked like without her clothes on.

Awkward.

Especially since Doc and Mrs. B and the baby stayed in the car while I took Janie and Henry up to the window to get ice cream. I decided to just pretend I didn’t see them, but that didn’t work for long because Janie recognized Rebecca Holmes and struck up a conversation with her, and Henry then started talking to Rebecca’s brother, Isaac, and Mrs. Holmes had to notice me then. It took her a minute. Not to place me, I don’t think-she recognized me when she looked at me-but to make some sort of sense of why I was paying for the Baumgarter kids’ ice cream. Thankfully, the Baumgartners saw what was going on and got out of the car, bringing the baby with them.

“Maureen!” Mrs. B smiled brightly, Holly on her hip as she approached. “How are you?”

“Hello.” Maureen gave her a smile back, although it wasn’t quite as bright. “I assume you’re at the time-share?”

Doc hung back, watching, not saying anything. He just nodded to Mrs. Holmes and half-smiled, although it didn’t reach his eyes. The kids were already gathered in a little group, the girls talking about boys, and the boys talking about sports. Janie and Henry loved Key West, but the older they got, the less they got along, and they really missing having friends around. And I missed it for them, because I had to break up and redirect the constant bickering or we’d all go insane.

“Yes, same old place.” Mrs. B laughed, bouncing the baby. The sun was in Holly’s eyes-she must have taken her hat off in the car-and she was fussy. “Are you, James and the kids here for long?”

“Just a few weeks.” Maureen tucked her short hair behind her ear, glancing over at the kids. They’d gravitated to one of the picnic tables, girls on one side, boys on the other, chatting between licks of ice cream. “You know, our church does a vacation kids camp here every year.”

“Oh that’s right.” Mrs. B used her hand to shade the baby’s eyes, but Holly was now fussy and didn’t want to be soothed.

“Here, I’ll take her, so you can talk.” I held my arms out for the baby and Mrs. B handed her over.

“So, Gretchen is working for you now?” Maureen Holmes gave me a cool glance as I carried the baby, putting her up over my shoulder-a position she loved, because she could see everything-as I walked toward the picnic tables to join the kids.

“What does a nosey pepper do?” Henry asked.

The kids all looked at him, then at each other, their ice cream cones in various states of melting in the hot, Florida sun.

“Gets jalapeno business!” Henry exclaimed and everyone cracked up.

I smiled, rolling my eyes, glancing back at the Baumgartners and Mrs. Holmes. I couldn’t help looking at her differently since I’d now seen her naked. Granted, those photos had been taken years ago, but still. I couldn’t believe that girl and this woman were the same person. The Mrs. Holmes I knew thought sex was exclusively for procreation and that anything else was a sin. I think their religious ideas mostly came from her husband, who seemed even more into it than Mrs. Holmes. At least she slipped up once in a while and took the Lord’s name in vain or let profanity slip, but I’d never even heard James Holmes say “goshdarn” let alone “goddamn.”

I couldn’t imagine restricting myself to the level that the Holmes’ had. Not only could they not have sex unless they were making babies-and Mrs. Holmes couldn’t have any more kids, had had a hysterectomy due to a cancer scare years ago-I couldn’t figure out what they said to each other when they were having sex? How did you fuck without saying, “Oh God!” at least once? I don’t know, maybe it was okay to say it in the middle of sex, if you were praising Him? I didn’t think the Holmes’ even had sex anymore, since Mrs. Holmes’ operation. I’d never heard them, in the entire time I’d lived with them.

Mostly, I felt sorry for the kids. Isaac and Rebecca were spoiled rotten brats, but it wasn’t their fault. They had to live with Maureen and James Holmes. I thought they would have been better off adopted out somewhere rather than have to live under that kind of repression. They were going to grow up to either be just like their parents and raise repressed kids just like them, or they were going to go absolutely wild once they got out of the house. I was betting in the latter. In fact, I once told Ronnie I thought Becca Holmes would end up pregnant before she was out of her teens. Probably sooner rather than later.

“I’ll ask my mom if we can go!” Janie said excitedly, already hopping up off the picnic table. I hadn’t been paying attention to what they were talking about, but I put a hand on her shoulder, sitting her back down.

“Ask your mom what?”

“Becca said there’s a huge fair, today and tomorrow! They have face painting and a bouncy house and rides and everything!”

I glanced up to see the “adults” were still talking, but they were moving closer to us, walking toward the picnic table.

“Can we go, Gretchen?” Henry asked. “Please? Pretty please? Ask Mom for us! She’ll listen to you.”

“I’m not sure if you really want to go to this fair,” I said, frowning.

I knew exactly what they were talking about. The Holmes’ church-which wasn’t really a church at all, more of an offshoot of a regular church that had gone all cult-sponsored a trip every year to Key West for the kids. There was a week-long camp where they played games, sang songs, swam with dolphins, memorized Bible verses, and prayed a lot, and in the end, they had a big celebration where they hired clowns and had fair rides and all sorts of things kids love.

The kids earned “points” all week long to “spend” at this fair. One of the ways to get the most points was to bring non-religious friends with you to camp, or even to the fair at the end. They believed that teaching children their beliefs from a very young age was the best way to convert them to the “ways of Christ.” I’d heard it enough when I lived with the Holmes’-had pretended to be “saved” myself, so I wouldn’t have to listen to Mrs. Holmes proselytizing all the time. They’d only hired me because they’d known my aunt and thought I was already part of their religion. My aunt had died-complications of Lupus-the year before I got the job, so they had no idea I was lying through my teeth.

“I know the kids would just love it!” Maureen smiled at Janie and Henry, standing behind her own daughter, petting her dark head. “I can have them back tomorrow.”

“We can go?” Janie was bouncing in her seat.

“Please, Mom!” Henry was already begging. “Please! Please!”

Mrs. B looked at Doc. He shrugged, an “it’s up to you” sort of gesture.

“I guess I don’t see why not…” Mrs. B hesitated, glancing at me.

I shrugged too.

It wouldn’t kill Janie and Henry to be around the Holmes’ for a day or two. You didn’t get converted in a day. And if I knew those two, they’d come home with all sorts of rancor at the idea of anyone trying to convince them to do or believe anything. I didn’t like Maureen Holmes, and she didn’t like me-not anymore, not since she’d found condoms in my purse and fired me for assuming I was having premarital sex, which I was, but that wasn’t the point-but I didn’t think she was evil or anything. Just sadly misguided and slightly delusional, like most fundamentally religious folks.

“Great, I can pick them up in an hour.” Maureen glanced at her watch. “Same old place?”

“Yep, same old place.” Carrie smiled. “It was good to see you, Maureen.”

The kids couldn’t sit still the entire ride home. They couldn’t talk about anything but the fair and playing with the Holmes’ kids. I helped Mrs. B pack an overnight bag for each of them.

“Gretchen, are you okay with them going?” she asked as we carried the bags downstairs, putting them on the kitchen table.

The kids were out back, working on their sand village. They build one every year, and it got more and more elaborate. This year, there was a castle with a moat.

“I know they didn’t treat you very well.” She went to the refrigerator to get a wine cooler. “But she is an old friend.”

“It’s fine, Mrs. B.”

“Will you please start calling me Carrie?” She brought two wine coolers over to the table, handing me one.

“Sorry,” I apologize for forgetting-again-about her request. “Um, I shouldn’t be drinking this, should I?”

“One wine cooler won’t hurt you.” She winked, clinking her glass with mine. “We’ll be without kids for the night. Well, almost. And Holly’s finally started sleeping through.”

I took a swig from the bottle, loving the fruity burn down my throat.

“We were really close once, you know,” she told me.

I nodded. I knew just how close they’d been.

“What happened?” I asked.

“She was engaged to James at the time. The man she’s married to now. For a while, I thought they might break up. That she might… I don’t know, break free of that life?”

“Yeah.” I remembered when my aunt had joined the church, how gradual the slide was into crazy, until before you knew it, the person you once knew didn’t exist anymore.

“I don’t mean to be judgmental.” Mrs. B drank her wine cooler, looking out the back sliding door at the water. “If she was happy, I’d think it was wonderful for her. I have nothing against religion or spirituality. But… does she look happy to you?”

“Oh, I know she isn’t.” I shook my head. “She’s a very angry, bitter person.”

“That just makes me sad.” Mrs. B sighed. “Do you think they’ll be okay with her?”

“Oh, they’ll be fine.” I waved her concern away. “There will be some sort of pressure to convert, there always is. At every gathering, there’s a preacher who does a call up to the pulpit for the unsaved to accept Jesus into their hearts and all that. But Janie and Henry are old enough to know their own minds. And thankfully, they’ve had your influence. They’ll be fine. And they’ll have a blast at the fair. It is a lot of fun.”

“It broke my heart, the way they treated you.” Mrs. B frowned. “I can’t even imagine, firing a girl in her twenties for suspecting she was sexually active? What did they think, you were going to be a nun?”

“No premarital sex allowed.” I tipped my wine cooler up, taking another drink. “No non-procreational sex actually.”

“Really?” She hesitated, licking the top edge of her wine cooler bottle, her tongue a soft, velvet pink. The sight of it made my ass clench. If there was a God, I was going to hell for what I was thinking about her.

“I don’t think they have sex at all anymore.”

She gaped at me. “I can’t even imagine…”

“I can’t either.” I snorted. “You know, Mrs. B…”

She raised her eyebrows, tipping her bottle at me, and I remembered.

“Carrie…” I corrected myself. “You and Doc have been so good to me. I can’t even thank you enough for everything you’ve done.”

“You don’t have to thank us, Gretchen.” She reached over, touching my hand, taking it in hers. “The kids love you. We love you. You’re part of our family, you know.”

“Thanks. That means a lot. I love you guys too.” My God, if she only knew how much. “It just… it really hit home, after seeing her again. I could still be there, in that house, living with that. It wasn’t easy.”

“I know, you haven’t had it easy.” Mrs. B squeezed my hand. “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t feel sorry for myself.” I shrugged. “I count my blessings, and I’m glad I’m here with you. I just want you to know that I won’t… I won’t do anything to jeopardize this. It’s important to me. With the Holmes’ it was just a job. This is more than just a job to me.”

“Gretchen, you’re more than just a nanny to us,” she assured me, leaning closer. Her cleavage was showing, her blouse undone three delicious buttons. “And there will be a time, soon, when we can be… more than just friends. More than just family.”

I felt her knee touch mine under the table and shivered. We both knew what she meant.

“I hope so.” I swallowed, daring to say it. Daring to say her name and mean it. “I love you, Carrie.”

“Oh sweetheart, I love you too.” She smiled, lifting my hand and kissing my palm, closing it around her kiss. “More than you know.”

Mrs. Holmes picked up the kids, as promised, about an hour later. They were literally bouncing off the walls by that time. Henry was actually careening like a pinball around the house and he bolted for the door when he heard the knock.

“I didn’t feed them,” Mrs. B said, handing her the overnight bags. “I hope that’s okay?”

“Oh they’ll get plenty,” Maureen assured her. “Corn dogs and elephant ears and all that deep fried awful fair food. They’re not allergic to anything, are they?”

I saw her new nanny, corralling Rebecca and Isaac as they ran around in the yard at the front of the house. She was very plain, brown hair pulled back in ponytail, dark eyes, wearing a long sleeved blouse and long cotton skirt, even in this heat.

“Nope, no allergies,” Mrs. B said. “Go crazy. Do we need to send them with any money?”

“Oh no, guests are free! They’re all set. We’ll see you tomorrow.” Maureen started down the stairs, and then turned back. “And are you sure you don’t want me to take that sweet little baby off your hands? I’m sure you could use the break!”

“No, that’s okay,” Mrs. B smiled. “But thanks for the offer.”

“All right, see you tomorrow.” Maureen waggled her fingers as she made her way down the steps. She was dressed casual, for the fair, in khaki shorts and a white button-down blouse, but she still looked professional, as always.

Mrs. B closed the door behind them, leaning against it meeting my eyes. I was standing in the entryway to the kitchen and she reached for my hand.

“Come with me,” she said.

“Where are we going?” I asked as she pulled me through the kitchen, into the living room and unlocked the back sliding door.

“Doc’s upstairs with the baby.” Mrs. B unbuttoned her blouse, her gaze sweeping me as we stood in the hot sand. “We’re going swimming.”

I watched, stunned, as she took off her blouse, standing there in her bra and shorts. Then, the bra came off too. Her heavy breasts swayed as she unbuttoned her shorts.

“Go on.” She nodded at me. “Take yours off too.”

I pulled off my t-shirt, watching her slide her shorts and panties off together, down those long, tanned thighs, staring at the bare slit between them.

“Come on!” She was already running toward the water, her round ass jiggling, tits bouncing-she was like a reverse Venus, running back into the foamy surf instead of being born out of it.

I stripped down to nothing-I didn’t even hesitate-leaving my clothes with hers in the sand. She was already in up to mid-thigh, but she waited for me. Her eyes brightened as I approached, her gaze moving down to my breasts, then further, down to my pussy.

“Doc told me about that sweet little tuft of hair.” She gave a happy sigh. “But he didn’t do it justice. You are stunning, Gretchen.”

“So are you.”

“Kids are gone, let’s go skinny dipping.”

She grinned and took my hand, pulling me in to the warm surf. We rolled through the waves together, hand in hand, until we got further out. She was like a sleek, brown seal diving into the water and coming up, blond hair slicked back, eyes dark and full of hunger. I knew what was happening, and part of me said we shouldn’t, but when she pulled me into her arms and kissed me for the first time, I was lost. I dissolved, her mouth so soft, so sweet, it was almost painful. My heart couldn’t take it. I breathed in the scent of sand and salt and oil as our tongues meshed, her arms going around me, hands roaming over my back, in my hair. The heat of her pussy against mine, even in the water, was incredible.

“Mrs. B… Carrie… we shouldn’t…” I gasped when we parted. “I heard what you said to Doc, about Holly. I don’t want to do anything that would jeopardize that.”

“I think we can all keep a secret.” She nuzzled my neck. “It’s just for a little while. Maybe a year, until the adoption is final. And we’ll always have to be discreet, of course…”

“Did you talk to Doc about this?” I pulled back to look at her.

“Yes.” She smiled. “Now come here.”

She slipped a hand behind my head, pulling my lips to hers, our mouths slanting, tongues hot and probing. We kissed each other until I could barely stand it, until my pussy throbbed and my nipples tingled and then she was pulling me out of the water, leading me back ashore. She spread a blanket in the sand and kissed me down onto it, pulling me close so we were belly to belly. The sun was high and hot but the breeze was cool on our water-beaded skin. Our breasts touched, nipples kissing, legs entwined.

“Oh God, Gretchen, I’ve wanted to do this for so long.” Her lips traced the line of my collarbone and the hand at my waist slipped up over my ribs to cup my breast, her thumb grazing my hard nipple, making me moan.

“Me too,” I whispered, unable to resist, dipping my head low to bury my face in her breasts.

I pressed them together with my hands, licking the water off her skin, tasting her nipples, dark, fat coins, the skin around them dimpled. Carrie bit her lip, head thrown back, hand in my wet hair, keeping me stuck fast, but I didn’t care. I could have suffocated and drowned in her cleavage and I would have died happy. My pussy beat a rhythm between my legs, faster and faster, matching the thud of my heart.

“Give me that beautiful pussy,” she urged, cupping her hand over my mound, making me moan and rock against her. “Let me taste you.”

I let her roll me to my back, so hot for her I could barely stand it. I spread my thighs, watching her tongue snake up one, then the other, as she settled herself on the blanket between my legs. She rubbed her nose against the little bit of blond hair I’d left at the top of my cleft, breathing me in. My pussy was still beaded with water and her mouth was on fire when it covered my clit.

“Oh God, Mrs…” I stopped when her head came up and I laughed. “Sorry, Carrie… I have to get used to… Oh! Oh! Yes!”

Her tongue lapped my pussy, up and down, her soft moans making me shiver as she grabbed my hips in her hands, red painted nails digging into my ass. She held me tight, mouth secured over my pussy, eyes never leaving mine. The sound of the waves, a sweet, steady rhythm, accompanied the hot sound of her fingers, slowly sliding in and out of my wetness, moving faster, faster, as I got closer to orgasm.

“You’re going to make me come,” I whimpered, my hands in her wet hair, my clit pulsing against the velvet press of her tongue. “Oh please make me come.”

“Mmmm!” She licked me even faster, tongue like a little whirlwind, a pleasure tornado, and I cried out, my hips rising up to meet her.

“Oh now!” I cried out, an earthquake rocking me, shaking my limbs, quaking me to my core. I came and came, twisting and writhing on the blanket in the sand.

“Oh sweetheart.” Carrie kissed my thighs, my vulva, making me whimper and cover my mound with my hand. “More?”

She nudged my hand aside with her nose, licking up and down my now sopping slit.

“I want you.” I reached for her and she came to me, kissing me fully on the mouth, letting me taste myself on her tongue. I sucked at it, eager for more. I loved the taste of my own pussy, but I wanted to taste her.

“Sit on my face,” I urged. “Please.”

She smiled against my lips, slowly sitting up on me, straddling first my crotch, rubbing her mound against mine, our eyes locked. Then she worked her way up, over my belly, kneeling up until she was poised over my face, giving me a full view of her, heavy breasts and completely shaved pussy. She was all long, tawny limbs, velvet skin, with a soft, pink center. I parted her lips with my fingers, my mouth watering at the sight of her beautiful pussy, like spongy, wet coral.

“Ohhhhh Gretchen!” She moaned when I ran a finger up and down her slit.

I could smell her musk, feel the heat of her pussy on my face, her body radiating like a furnace. I took her full hips in my hands, slowly pulling her toward me, and she followed, lowering her pussy onto my face. The taste and smell of her was heady, my tongue tracing the hot maze of her cunt, searching for her clit. She cried out when I found it and I watched her cup those gorgeous, weighty breasts in her hands, pulling and twisting her nipples.

“Fuck me,” she urged, rocking her hips. “Put your fingers in.”

I stroked her slit, sweetly slick and yielding. She ground her hips onto my fingers, rubbing her pussy against my face in easy circles, eyes half closed, mouth half open, face awash with pleasure. Everything about her was carnal and my own pussy ached, wanting more and more of her. I couldn’t get enough. I fingered her, following the rhythm of her hips, the rock and roll of her body, stroking in and out, faster, faster, listening to the surge of her breath, the rise of her moans.

“Oh faster, baby,” she begged, tugging her nipples, shimmying back and forth against my tongue. “Lick it faster! I’m gonna come! All over your face! Ohhhhh!”

Her climax was magnificent. I grabbed her hips and held her to me as Carrie threw her head back and howled, like a wolf at the moon, only her orb was the sun high above. She was a bronze goddess coming all over my face, drowning me in ambrosia and I fastened my mouth to her and sucked it out like the sweetest syrup. She was sticky and hot and I swallowed her, my tongue searching for more.

“Oh God.” She panted, hands moving slowly down her ribs to her hips, covering my hands with hers. “That was fucking amazing.”

“More?” I nuzzled her slit with my nose, making her gasp and shift back, looking down and meeting my eyes.

“You want more?” She ran a thumb over my juiced-up lips.

“Yes!” I nodded, eager.

“My husband has a beautiful cock.” She smiled. “And he’s very, very good with it.”

“Don’t tease me.” I moaned, licking at her thumb, her fingers moving over my lips.

“I’m not.” Her gaze shifted from me to the house and back again. “Look.”

I squinted, turning my head, looking back. At first I couldn’t see anything because of the sun’s glare on the sliding door, but then I caught a glimpse of movement. Doc was standing there, completely nude, holding his hard dick in his hand. He was watching us, slowly pumping his gorgeous cock.

“Doc…” I whispered.

He opened the sliding door, coming out and closing it behind him. I stared up, feeling my belly burn at the sight of him, at the way he looked down at me, at his wife.

“Hey, handsome.” Mrs. B licked her lips. “Did you enjoy the show?”

“Immensely.” His cock was fisted in his hand. “Can’t you tell?”

“Baby sleeping?” she asked.

“We’re all alone.” He put the baby monitor on the table. “Ready for some company?”

“Yes!” I cried, so enthusiastically they both laughed.

I was dreaming. I was going to wake up any minute, alone in my own bed. I’d wake up climaxing, dreaming about being a Baumgartner sandwich. Except it felt so real. Doc walked over to us, me flat on my back on the blanket in the sand, Carrie still straddling my chest, her thighs like tawny velvet rubbing against my breasts. He walked over with his cock clutched in his fist and fed it to his wife.

My pussy ached but I couldn’t do anything but watch as Carrie wrapped her lips around the head and sucked. My mouth was watering for that big hard dick. I could almost taste him. Oh to have him in my mouth now, with the taste of his wife still caught in my throat. I reached a hand up and I could just reach his balls, swinging freely as he began to fuck her mouth.

Carrie moaned as he started moving, in and out, fucking deeper into her throat. I fondled his balls, rolling them in my hand, hearing him groan, his gaze moving over me, his wife, taking in the sights. With my other hand, I cupped Carrie’s breast-so heavy and brown, her fat nipple hard under my fingers. Doc watched me knead his wife’s breast, thumb her nipple, making her cry out around his length.

“Don’t you want to share?” he murmured, his hand in his wife’s hair.

She gasped as she came off his cock, a bit of saliva lingering, stretched between her lower lip and the head.

“It would be my pleasure.” Carrie smiled down at me as she climbed off and then Doc was on the blanket with us, stretched out onto his back.

Carrie headed straight between his thighs, but Doc gathered a hand full of my hair as I sat, pulling me to him and capturing my mouth. I whimpered, kissing him back, his lips full and soft, his tongue exploring the soft recesses, the insides of my cheeks, scraping across my teeth. It was a long, hot, deep kiss, one that made my toes curl and my nipples instantly harden.

“I’ve been waiting to do that for so long,” he whispered when we parted and my heart leapt. God, I loved this man. I looked down at Carrie, nuzzling his cock and watching us. There was no anger, no jealousy in her eyes. She wanted it as much as I did-as we did. We all did. And oh my God, I loved her too.

I slid down to join Carrie, and Doc watched as I kissed her. I could still taste his mouth on mine and I leaned in, sharing it with her. She kissed me back, her mouth even softer and fuller than her husband’s and she tasted sweeter, light and airy, like bottled sunshine. She sighed when we parted, her eyes opening to meet mine, and then she smiled, tilting Doc’s cock toward me as an offering.

“Here.” She rubbed the head against my lips, back and forth, and I snaked my tongue out to lick it. His cock was leaking pre-cum. It dribbled down the shaft and I caught it halfway down his length with the tip of my tongue, tracing the path all the way back up to the source.

“Suck the tip,” she urged, pressing my head down and I encircled him with my mouth, letting Carrie guide me. I ran my tongue around the ridge, glancing up at Doc, seeing him on his elbows, watching and listening to everything we were doing.

“Play with his balls,’ she instructed, sliding my hand underneath and helping me cup them. She rolled them in her hand, her fingers over mine, while I continued to work the hot circle of my mouth around and around the head of his cock.

“Oh baby,” he moaned, a hand in her hair, another in mine. “Good girls. Show her how I like it. Tell her what to do.”

“Now more.” Carrie pressed my head down, making me swallow about half his length. “Just there-up and down. Like that. Good. Now faster.”

Following her instructions made me wetter than I even thought possible. My pussy juices were dribbling from my hole, down my slit, wetting the blanket underneath me. It made me grind my hips against the sand, aching for a cock to fill my pussy, my ass, oh God, I wanted a cock to fill my every orifice.

Doc gave a long, low moan, pulling my head back and leaning in to kiss me again, with the taste of his cock in my mouth. I gasped for breath, panting, hearing the sloppy sound of Carrie sucking her husband’s cock, taking up where I left off.

“Help my wife suck my cock,” he whispered against my mouth when we parted. I nodded, eagerly lowering myself back down to join Carrie.

Carrie came up on his length, her tongue rolling around the head before she offering it to me again. I could taste her, him, as I licked the tip. She watched me with half-lidded eyes, licking her lips, then she eased in and kissed me, this time with Doc’s cock between us. His fat, spongy head, leaking pre-cum, lubricated our kiss, making our lips sticky. We kissed like that for a long time, slurping our way up and down, meeting at the top for a full, deep kiss before heading back down again.

“He likes his balls licked,” Carrie murmured. She was cradling them in her hand and she offered them to me. He was shaved there, nice and smooth, and I ran my tongue along the seam of his scrotum, slowly taking first one, then the other testicle into my mouth, gently sucking, one at a time. Carrie tugged him while I did that, her hand with her red-painted nails flying up and down his cock.

“Fuck, wait!” Doc groaned, wrapping his big fist around hers, squeezing hard. He bit his lip, eyes squeezed shut, and a thick glob of pre-cum dripped down the head. I couldn’t resist-I leaned in to lick it off, that hot, peppery taste burning my tongue and throat.

“I think it’s time for my girls to get some attention.”

He grabbed my hair, and hers, and pulled us both up to him. I knelt over one of his thighs, Carrie the other, and we kissed, tongues together, all three of us. Doc turned, sucking at my lips, then caught his wife’s mouth, kissing her, his hands roaming, one cupping Carrie’s breast, the other mine.

“On the blanket.” He moved back so we could stretch out. Carrie kissed me down to the blanket, her soft hands moving over my ribs, down to my hips, pulling them to her so we were belly to belly. I was lost in her mouth, her touch, the tickle of her drying hair against my nose.

“How do you want us?” Carrie asked her husband as she broke our kiss.

I didn’t care how he wanted me. He could fold me into a pretzel and fuck my every orifice, as long as this never, ever ended. I wanted it forever. I wanted to keep both of them, my own little secret. Doc sat back on his heels, gazing at the two of us with dark, lust-filled eyes, considering. So many choices!

“On your backs.” He finally decided.

Carrie rolled, and I did too, both of us with our legs spread in anticipation, thighs and hips touching. Carrie slipped her hand into mine, lifting it to her mouth, kissing my palm, sucking my index finger between her lips. That made me moan, especially when Doc moved between my legs, his cock straight up in my line of vision.

But he didn’t put it in me right away like I thought he would.

Instead, he leaned in, hands on either side of me, easing his weight on me as we kissed. I wrapped my arms around his neck, letting my hands run through his hair as he tongue-fucked me. I felt his erection against my belly, trapped between us, and wanted it. I desperately wanted it. But I had to wait as Doc kissed his way down my throat, sending goose flesh down my arms, making my nipples pucker in response.

“My God, Gretchen.” He sighed happily, cupping my breasts in his hands, pressing them together, just like I had with his wife’s, and burying his face between them. “So fucking beautiful, baby.”

“Isn’t she?” Carrie wiggled closer, nuzzling my ear, her breath hot. “Have you looked at her little pussy up close? It’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen-or tasted.”

She licked the outer shell of my ear as Doc sucked my nipples. When he licked them, it was like he was licking my clit, arcs of fire shooting down to my core. I moaned and squirmed underneath him. My pussy was blazing with heat, sodden and impatient. I needed him. I needed to come. My orgasm was trapped deep in my belly, looking for a way out.

“Fuck, I have to taste you, baby.” Doc moved between my legs. One minute there, the weight of him delightful, the next gone, his big hands parting my thighs, his gaze moving over my flesh like laser beams, leaving fiery heat in his wake. “Oh Gretchen, you have the sweetest cunt.”

I moaned and pressed my hips up as he explored me, first with his eyes, then his fingers, parting my swollen lips, peering into the abyss of my cunt with the eyes of a man who wanted to drown. And then, finally, his tongue. The searing wet press of his mouth, covering my smooth lips, the white-blond tuft of pubic hair lightly brushing the end of his nose. The sensation was incredible, his mouth skilled, his fingers too, as they slipped into the velvet clutch of my pussy, curling deep inside.

“Ohhhh Doc!” I rolled and twisted, like I wanted to get away, but I didn’t. I wanted more, more, more! I shivered as Carrie knelt up beside me, grabbing my knees and pulling them back, giving him better access to my slit. He moaned against my flesh when she did that, unable to resist, sucking my clit deep before sliding his tongue down, down, around his probing fingers, licking my taint, and then, my ass.

“Oh! God!” I squealed, squirming, but Carrie held me still as he made his tongue hard, probing my tightly puckered hole, his fingers curling delightfully deep inside. And then Carrie dipped her head and joined her husband, sucking at my clit while he licked my ass and fingered my pussy. I arched and prayed for mercy, oh God, for some sort of relief.

And then it came. Doc knelt up between my legs and Carrie aimed and guided him, keeping my knees pulled back as he entered me. Fuck, Oh fuck. I was filled, completely filled by him. He let out a breath as he hit bottom, his eyes on mine. I ran my hand down his belly, hard, ridged, tanned, then touched the place where he entered me, the place where heaven began and ended.

“Fuck me,” I urged. “Oh please, fuck me!”

He grabbed my knees, pushing them back, spreading me like I was a wishbone and he was making a desperate wish. Carrie kept her head down on my belly, her ass in the air, watching her husband fuck me, right up close. Her mouth covered my clit, sucking and licking, making me cry out and clutch at her hips.

She took my hint and before I knew it, Carrie was straddling my face and I was parting her fat, tanned pussy lips with my eager tongue. God, she tasted good. Better than good. She tasted like paradise, sweet bliss, honey in my mouth. I swallowed her juices, trying to focus on her clit as her husband fucked me into oblivion.

I couldn’t hold on, I couldn’t let go, I couldn’t do anything but take it, again and again, deep and hard and spread wide for him. I heard him grunting with every thrust, a deep growl rising in the back of his throat. Carrie worked my clit, mashing it between her lips and her tongue. I’d never been fucked and licked at the same time-at least, not by a real cock, and Doc’s was very, very real, fleshy and filling me with the deepest of thrusts.

“Oh make me come!” I cried out to the clear blue sky, my hips rising up to meet him, belly undulating, working toward my climax. “Ohhhh Doc! Carrie! Ohhhh please! Please make me come!”

I wrapped my arms around Carrie’s round hips and ass, rubbing my face in her pussy, drowning as I climaxed, burying my scream in her cunt. My pussy closed around Doc’s dick like a silk trap, mauling his prick with wet heat. I felt Carrie shuddering on top of me, her tits mashed against my belly, her mouth still sucking my throbbing clit while her husband pounded my cunt.

“Ooooohhhh baby!” Doc groaned as the first spew of his cum gushed from the end of his dick as he pulled out, making me wail at the loss of him. A white hot spray washed over my pussy and Carrie was there, lapping it up, making me squirm on the blanket.

“Ahhhh fuck! Fuck!” There was more. Splashing my pussy, Carrie’s face. She rolled off me to get a better angle, coming at my pussy and Doc’s cock from the side, licking us both clean. She sucked her husband’s dick into her mouth, cupping his balls, squeezing gently, as if she could milk some more fiery liquid from his depths.

“Oh. God.” I shuddered, watching as Carrie knelt up and kissed him. He slid a hand behind her neck, his tongue snaking into her mouth, tasting himself.

And then she was kissing me, letting me taste too, stretched out beside me on the blanket. Doc stretched out on the other side, making me the sweet, creamy center in the middle of the perfect Baumgartner sandwich I’d always dreamed of. I don’t think I could have been happier. I stared up at the sky, the sun kissing my nipples, sticky cum drying on my pussy, as Carrie snuggled me, and Doc did too.

“You okay?” Doc’s hand moved in my hair, turning my face to him.

“Beyond.” I nodded and he kissed me, soft and sweet, breathing in my scent.

“You know we love you, right?” Carrie murmured, her hand trailing down my throat. “Oh Gretchen, you’re so beautiful. So sweet.”

“What about…” I turned my face to look at her. “I mean… is this okay? Is this safe?”

“We’ll be okay.” Carrie’s fingers stroked my shoulder. “I was scared of losing Holly, but I was afraid of losing you too. We want you, Gretchen. We love you. I didn’t want you ever to believe otherwise.”

“I thought…” Something caught in my throat. “I thought maybe it was me. That you didn’t want me or…”

“Oh sweetheart.” Carrie pressed her forehead to mine. “No, no, no. My God, we’ve been talking about doing this for over a year. We wanted to, but then you were with Veronica, and I didn’t want to ruin that for you. And when it didn’t work out with her, well… we wanted to give you some time. I wasn’t sure what you wanted…”

“I always wanted you. Always.”

I knew it was true. From the first time Ronnie told me about being with the Baumgartners, I’d been utterly fascinated with their sexual appetites. And then, after they rescued me from the Holmes’, after I’d worked for them, lived with them, I’d gone from someone who liked them from the outside, to someone who loved them on the inside. Being with the Baumgartners, being a part of them, had been something I’d secretly hoped for all along. But I was never one for getting my hopes up. They were too often dashed.

“And then we got Holly.” Carrie sighed. “And things got more complicated. I just got scared. But Doc’s right. You can’t live your whole life afraid something bad is going to happen. You have to go after what you want, because no one else will do it for you.”

“And you wanted me?” I asked, barely a whisper, hardly daring to hope.

“Desperately.” She touched her lips to my trembling ones. “I think Maureen taking the kids today was some sort of divine intervention-the universe wanted us together.”

I smiled at the irony. If Maureen Holmes knew that her action had facilitated this meeting, she would have been horrified. And that made me smile more.

“I didn’t know, not for sure,” I confessed. “Because… well… people leave me. Or they reject me. That’s just what they do. I… I’ve lost everything and everyone I ever cared about.

“I promise you, no matter what happens, we’re not leaving you,” Carrie assured me. “If you want to go, the door is open, but if you want to stay… you’re ours. Forever.”

“Really?” I felt a lump in my throat as Doc sat up on his elbow on my other side. He leaned in too, so we were all together, our breath mingling.

“Ours,” he agreed, turning to kiss my cheek. “We love you, baby.”

“I love you too.” I said the words to both of them, and meant it. I hadn’t loved too many people in my life, but I loved the Baumgartners. I was absolutely crazy about them and I knew I would do anything for them.

I felt like a kitten, belly up and purring in the sun, warm and surrounded by softness. Carrie was on one side, Doc on other, their legs thrown over mine, a hand covering my breast, his and hers. They had both drifted off but I couldn’t, probably out of habit, because my ear was tuned to the baby monitor on the patio table, listening for Holly. I could hear her breathing-that’s how good the monitor was-and she was still sound asleep. But I was too vigilant to fall asleep myself.

Thank God. Otherwise I wouldn’t have heard Maureen Holmes’ sharp intake of breath when she came around the corner and saw us. I tilted my head back at the sound and saw her standing at the edge of the house, just coming around the side. She stared with wide, shocked eyes, jaw dropped, a strange image to see from my angle, upside down.

Then she turned and stumbled off.

I bolted, panicked. I had to stop her. Explain. Something.

“Where are you going?” Doc muttered when I shimmied out from under their arms like a snake, grabbing a towel from the back of one of the chairs, wrapping it around myself.

“I’ll be right back.” I stage-whispered, not wanting to wake Carrie, who had slept through my escape. “I think I heard the baby.”

“I didn’t hear anything.”

“I’m just gonna go check on her.” I grabbed the monitor-just in case-and opened the sliding back door.

I ran through the house and out onto the front porch. Maureen Holmes was just getting into her Lexus. I noticed there was no one in the car.

“Wait!” I cried, panting from my sprint, grabbing her arm. “It isn’t what you think!”

“I forgot to get these signed.” Her face was white, voice strained, as she held up a clutch of papers in her fist. “For camp… I just…”

“Listen, what you saw…” I swallowed, trying to think of a way to erase it from her brain, to find the right words.

“Oh, I know what I saw.” She shook me off, that clouded look lifting, eyes brimming with anger. “What kind of sick perverts are you? I’m reporting you to the authorities!”

“The authorities?” I clutched my towel tighter around me, glad there wasn’t another house or neighbor here for a mile or more. “What we’re doing isn’t illegal, Mrs. Holmes.”

“It’s immoral and that’s bad enough.” She balled up the papers in her fist and tossed them into the car. “Those poor children. You expose them to this filth?”

“They’re innocent. They don’t know anything,” I insisted, racking my brain for something, anything, that would stop this woman from ruining my life-ruining all our lives. “Do your children know you had a threesome with the Baumgartners?”

That stopped her. Her face, which had drained completely of blood, now filled with it.

“That was long before I had children, young lady!” She actually shook her finger at me, lecturing. Then her tone changed to self-righteous. “That was before I’d fully accepted Christ into my heart.”

“You had a fiance,” I reminded her, playing my next card. “And you married him and had his children. Does he know what you did with the Baumgartners?”

“I’m leaving,” she whispered, but I grabbed her arm again to keep her from getting into the car, hoping to appeal to her younger self, the one that had to still be in there, the one who had existed before all the crazed, fundamental cult-like religion warped her perception.

“I know you loved them,” I said. “And I know they loved you. Do you really want to ruin their lives because you can’t tolerate some else’s way of life? Are you that much of a hypocrite?”

I saw something flicker in her eyes, some memory, some feeling. That’s when it occurred to me that maybe she wasn’t so much angry as she was… hurt. Jealous? Was it possible?

“This is sick and twisted.” Maureen shook my hand off her arm for a second time, getting into her car, but I stood in the way of the door. “And it needs to be stopped.”

“Well then I’m sure your husband would be interested in the sick and twisted things you were doing with the Baumgartners.” It was nearly my last card to play. I was desperate.

“He won’t believe you.” She looked at me like I was a bug she wanted to squash, trying to shut her door, but I was literally in the way.

“He’ll believe me when I show him pictures,” I said softly, bending down so I knew she heard me, holding my towel close.

“Doc said…” She turned her head to me, eyes dazed, confused. “He said he’d never…”

“He didn’t.” I shook my head. We were close enough I could smell the coffee on her breath, a Starbucks cup sitting in the cup holder. “I found them. But I will show them to your husband if you say a word to anyone about this. Anyone. Do you understand me?”

“I…” She swallowed, hands gripping the steering wheel, looking straight ahead now through the windshield, looking for all the world like she wished she’d never come today, had never seen us, and that was good. That was exactly what I was hoping for.

“Do. You. Understand. Me?” I emphasized each word.

“Yes.” She snapped her head toward me. That wasn’t just anger in her eyes anymore. That was hate. She hated me for making her look back, making her face those two parts of herself, the two parts she swore would never meet. “Now get out of my way.”

I stepped back, shutting her door for her, and she started the car. I watched from the porch as she drove away, hearing Holly beginning to stir. I’d almost forgotten I had the baby monitor in my hand. I went inside, closing the front door behind me and locking it, as if I could lock her out, as if that one act could keep her from doing what I feared most. Had she believed me? I hoped so. Because I wasn’t kidding. If she decided to hurt me or the Baumgartners, I would do everything in my power to hurt her back. In my world, there was no God looking over us from on high-and life was too short to wait for karma.

The Baumgartners hired a babysitter and took me to a bar called “Captain Tony’s.”

We drank a lot and danced together, the three of us moving as one, arms draped around each other, mouths often slanting, hers, mine, his. No one cared. This was Key West-everyone was wild and gender was unbelievably fluid.

A guy approached, asked me to dance. He was cute-dark hair, scruff on his chin, blue eyes-and Carrie waved me onto the dance floor with him. I didn’t want to leave the two of them, it felt a little like cheating, but he was a good dancer and had me smiling and laughing by the end of the song.

He bought me a drink at the bar and we talked a while, but I kept looking over at the Baumgartners and finally, I excused myself to go back and join them.

“You can bring him home if you want.” Carrie leaned in to whisper this into my ear. She was looking at him, still sitting alone at the bar. I did kind of feel a little bad, leaving him like that. He seemed like a nice enough guy. “Or you can go home with him. What’s his name?”

“David.” I smiled. “That’s not against the rules?”

“Gretchen, you’re free.” Carrie laughed, throwing her arms wide. “You can do what you want. Or who you want. Boys, girls. In between. Life is too short to limit yourself.”

“But before, Doc said he couldn’t touch me…” I glanced over at him, sipping his beer and keeping an eye on the television. Some game was on, but I didn’t even know what sport was being played, let alone who was playing it. I remembered that little photography session on the beach, when he said he could look but not touch.

“That was before we decided to be with you.” She nudged me playfully under the table with her knee. “Now that we have, well… anything goes. You can be with me, with him. You can bring home anyone you want.”

I’d never felt so free and so contained at the same time.

We spent the night drinking, dancing, until we were all hot and sweaty and desperately hungry for each other. We took a cab back to the timeshare, relieving the babysitter. It was strange, letting someone else do my job so I could go out with the Baumgartners.

We all stopped in to check on the baby in my room. She was sleeping peacefully and, as we crept into the big bed together, we reminded each other to be quiet. We didn’t want to wake her. Of course, we all forgot, at various times during the night, but thankfully, she slept through until morning.

And in the end, I had no regrets. I didn’t go home with David, because I didn’t want him. I didn’t want anyone else.

I went home with the Baumgartners, because the Baumgartners were my home.

The Baumgartners had generously given me my own laptop for Christmas, but the photo software I had installed wasn’t anywhere near as good as the computer in Doc’s office. He had Photoshop on that machine and his own laptop, but I didn’t want to ask them to spend another gazillion dollars to put it on mine too, so I just used the computer in the office.

It was hard walking into that room. Holly’s bedroom. I thought of it that way still, even though it had been months since she slept here. The walls were now taupe, the mural painted over, the ceiling an off-white that was almost gray, and Doc’s office furniture had been moved back in. It was an office again, and all traces of the baby had been erased. Carrie and I had packed up all her sweet, little pink baby things and boxed them. The social worker promised she would give them to Holly’s grandmother. The baby furniture, purchased new, had gone to Goodwill.

I sat at Doc’s desk, turning on the computer. Poor Holly. The judge had ruled, just like Doc said he would, to award permanent custody of the baby to her paternal grandmother in Manti, Utah. I liked to think that maybe she was going to have a great life out there, that her grandmother would love her and care for her because they shared the same blood. But if being blood related made people kinder to each other, Holly never would have come to us in the first place.

“Gretchen?” Carrie called from downstairs. “Are you coming?”

“In a minute!” I plugged my camera in, waiting for the pictures to load, smiling as Janie and Henry’s smiling mugs popped up, one after another.

Their mother’s birthday had been a grand occasion so far, between dinner out and a beautiful cake Doc had picked up from the local bakery. Sometimes I thought we should stop celebrating birthdays once we started to feel old, because no one liked them much anymore, except those who still were young. Carrie’s birthday had been far more fun for Janie and Henry so far than it had been for her. Not that she minded, I don’t think. She’d agreed to celebrate for them, because they wanted it, not because she did.

I loaded the photos onto the computer and then cleared the camera, making room for more photos. We still had to eat cake and Carrie had to open her gifts. I had to get pictures of that.

Downstairs, Janie and Henry were fighting over which of them would get the biggest frosted red rose on Carrie’s birthday cake. There was no age on it, just “Happy Birthday, Mom.” We’d talked about this upcoming birthday and Carrie said she was dreading it.

“Why?” I’d asked.

“Because it’s just one more year on the planet. And now every year, I’ll be thinking, I wonder what she looks like now? I wonder what she did this year?”

I just hugged her. There was nothing more to say.

The Baumgartners had requested they be notified about Holly once a year-just a picture, an update, something-but the grandmother had refused. They never even met the grandmother so couldn’t appeal to her compassion or consideration. A lawyer handled all the court appearances and paperwork, and when the judge decided and we had to give Holly back, a social worker came to the house to get her, later taking her on her first plane ride to Utah.

“Oh Doc, do we have to do candles?” Carrie complained.

“But if you don’t blow out the candles, you don’t get a birthday wish,” Henry said, aghast, as if giving up your birthday wish was akin to death.

“Oh all right.” She smiled indulgently, ruffling Henry’s dark hair.

“Let me do it!” Henry grabbed the candles-a number three and a number two-from his father, putting them on the cake.

“Oh, hey, look at that, I’m twenty-three.” Carrie grinned, turning the cake to show me. “I’m younger than you, Gretchen.”

“You got them backwards, big guy.” Doc laughed.

“Oops.” Henry flushed, pulling them out and reversing them.

“Get the lights, Janie,” her father said.

We all sang the “Happy Birthday” song, warbly and off-key, but Carrie’s eyes were shining with love as she looked around at all of us. She was happier than I’d seen her in a long time, and I was glad Doc had insisted we make a big deal of this day.

“Make a wish!” Henry insisted.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and blew out the candles.

“Okay, who wants cake?” She picked up the knife.

“I want that rose!” Henry pointed at the biggest, fattest one and the argument began anew. In the end, she split it right down the middle, which satisfied neither child because compromise was just two people agreeing to something neither of them wanted.

We ate cake and ice cream-Neapolitan, because Doc loved strawberry, the kids’ chocolate and Carrie vanilla. And me, I loved all three flavors mixed together in the bowl, all creamy and melty in my mouth.

“Presents! Presents!” Henry insisted, dragging his mother into the family room where they were piled up on the table. All of them were from Doc, even the ones he took the kids to the mall to choose, because of course he’d paid for them. There was just one from me and it wasn’t on the table. She opened them all-new slippers, Bath and Bodyworks lotion, a brand new juicer and more toys for the kitchen like a rice cooker and a food chopper. She’d taken to cooking big, gourmet meals, since she’d reduced her hours to part-time at the real estate office.

All the presents were opened when Doc pulled another out of his pocket, handing it to her.

“Oh Doc, you shouldn’t have!” Carrie exclaimed, lifting the necklace he’d bought her out of its box. “This is beautiful!”

“There are three birthstones.” He showed her. “One for Janie, one for Henry, one for Holly.”

“Thank you.” She looked up at him with shining eyes.

He took the necklace from her hands, going around the back of the sofa to put it around her neck. Janie and Henry flanked her, watching their father with big eyes.

“Because she’ll always be part of our family,” Doc murmured, kissing her cheek as he let the necklace dangle between her breasts. “Never forgotten.”

Carrie put her hand over his, on her shoulder, for just a moment, squeezing.

“I have something for you.” I stood, reaching for her hand, and she took it, looking at me curiously as I led her toward the stairs.

“Where are we going?” she asked, following me.

The kids and Doc were just behind her. Upstairs, the hallway was lined with framed photographs Doc had taken of the kids over the years. Carrie had gone a little overboard with the amount of pictures she had framed and put on the wall, and I teased her about “the gallery” but she claimed she always had such a hard time deciding which picture she liked best, so she just framed them all.

“Can you find it?” I smiled, squeezing her hand. “It’s like Where’s Waldo… only it’s Where’s Holly?”

“Oh Gretchen.” She saw it almost right away. Doc had hung it for me before we left for dinner, making room halfway down the hall, between the bathroom and the office. I’d had to keep Carrie downstairs so she wouldn’t see him, which wasn’t easy because she kept asking what “all that damned pounding was going on up there.”

It was a photograph of Holly and Carrie on the beach. Mrs. B was holding her looking back at the camera, and Holly was over her shoulder, smiling in her little suit and sun hat. It was the perfect lighting, the perfect moment. I’d had it printed and had purchased a beautiful, ornate wire frame that spelled out the word “Mother” at the top and “Daughter” at the bottom.

“Thank you.” Carrie put her arms around me, tears in her eyes, which made me tear up too.

I whispered Doc’s words into her ear, “Because she’ll always be part of our family.”

She nodded, wiping her eyes with the back of her hands.

“Okay, can we make popcorn and watch the movie now?” Henry asked, grabbing his mother’s hand and pulling her back toward the stairs.

Carrie snuggled on the couch with the kids while Doc and I went into the kitchen to make popcorn. Doc was the popcorn maker-he did it in a pan on the stove, the old fashioned way with oil-while I melted butter and got out bowls and popcorn seasoning. Everyone liked something different-white cheddar for Henry, cinnamon sugar for Janie, sour cream and onion for me and Carrie, and Doc was a purist. He loved it with just butter and salt. Doc and I had it down to a science. We moved through the kitchen like we were doing ballet, everything orchestrated.

“That was a beautiful gift, Gretchen.” Doc moved in behind me with the hot pan, shaking fluffy white popcorn into each bowl.

“I was nervous. But I’m glad she liked it.” I started pouring butter in as each bowl was filled. “So you’re really sure you’re not going to try again?”

“No.” He shook his head, taking the now empty pan over to the sink. “Too much heartache, like Carrie said. I don’t think we’ll be fostering any more babies.”

“How can someone come into your life, spend such a short time, but you end up loving and missing them so much when they’re gone.?”

“Love is like that.” He moved in behind me again, this time putting his hands on my hips, his lips on my neck. “We get attached.”

“Mmm.” I leaned back against him, smiling. “Are you still planning to give her the other gift tonight?”

“I think so.” His lips on my throat sent goose flesh down my arms. “She’s in a great mood. It’s good timing.”

“I can’t wait.”

The previews had ended and the movie had just started when Doc carried popcorn bowls into the family room on a tray. I had a pitcher of Mrs. B’s homemade lemonade and four glasses. We snuggled on the big sectional couch, Mrs. B in the corner, the kids on either side of her, Doc on one end, next to Henry, me on the other, next to Janie. When the movie was over, it was bed time, although the kids protested. No one wanted the night to end-it had been one of the best we’d had in a long, long time.

“Will you tuck us in, Mom?” Janie pleaded, coming into the kitchen as we cleaned up our popcorn mess.

“Sure.” Carrie kissed the top of her daughter’s head before sending her down the hall to brush her teeth. I went upstairs to my room and I heard the kids pounding up to say goodnight to their father, something they did every night. They rushed by in their PJs, but the Baumgartners’ bedroom door was locked.

“Dad?” They pounded on the door.

“Just a minute!” he called.

He opened his bedroom door and came out to hug and kiss them goodnight. I watched from my perch on the bed as they passed, waving goodnight to me, before he sent them down to their room. Then he crooked his finger at me. I went to him and he opened the bedroom door, leading me inside.

“Wow.” I stared up at the eyebolts in the ceiling. He’d installed those days ago, hoping Carrie wouldn’t notice and, so far, she hadn’t. Now there were two sex swings hanging from them. “Fun!”

“I can’t wait to find out.” He grinned. “Wanna climb in?”

“Now, before she sees them?”

“Yes.” He nodded. “I want you to be part of the gift.”

I smiled, pulling my t-shirt off over my head. I loved the way his eyes lit up when I did that. Doc had me strip down to nothing and then he lifted me into the harness. It was all a collection of straps that went together somehow. Thankfully, he knew what he was doing, because before I knew it, I was strapped in, right at the perfect height for him to fuck me. He could swing me around and I could hold the straps and lean back.

“This is pretty amazing,” I said, wrapping my legs around him-he was still fully clothed-digging my heels into his back as he leaned in to kiss me. His cock sure liked them because he was hard as a rock. I wiggled into the saddle of his hips, rubbing my pussy against the crotch of his pants.

“I hear her coming up the stairs.” He broke our kiss, eyes bright. “Don’t move.”

“Like I could?” I laughed. My thighs were strapped into the swing and I was hanging so far off the ground, my feet didn’t touch.

Doc opened the bedroom door, going out in the hall and closing it behind him. I heard them talking but didn’t hear what they were saying. I looked up at the ceiling, worried the straps and hooks might not hold, even with the T-bar and the springs, but I trusted Doc’s building skills. He’d built the treehouse in the backyard, after all. It seemed secure. I was tempted to actually swing on it, like a little kid, but I didn’t.

“Doc, what surprise?” Carrie laughed as he opened the door and he led her in, his hand covering her eyes. He closed and locked the door behind her, pushing her forward a few steps, judging the distance, looking at me hanging from the ceiling.

“Ready?” He slipped his other arm around her waist, his hand sliding up, not quite cupping her breast.

“Ready for what?” She laughed again.

He uncovered her eyes and she gaped, eyes widening as she looked at me hanging from the ceiling. I stretched out my legs, wiggling my toes, and leaned back, which made my legs spread open like an offering.

“You like your present?” I asked.

Carrie groaned, already unbuttoning her blouse as she came toward me. Her gaze traced the ropes to the ceiling, seeing the second swing hanging loose. She grinned over her shoulder at Doc as she wiggled out of her jeans.

“Is that one for me?”

“Well it ain’t for me.” He laughed.

“Oh look at you.” Carrie grabbed my thighs twirling me around to face her, making me squeal and laugh. “You’re good enough to eat.”

“I hope so.”

And that’s just what she did, lowering her face to my pussy and licking my slit. I moaned and spread wider, arching in the straps. Being in the swing was like free-falling, a little scary and a lot exhilarating. The way he had me hooked up, I could lean back, let the straps around my arms and thighs support me, my head hanging free, while they did anything they wanted.

“Oh yes!” I cried when Carrie sucked my clit between her lips. She spread my legs wider, bending over to eat my pussy like she was a naughty child licking her plate clean at the table after dinner. I held onto the straps, watching as Doc undressed. Carrie was still wearing her bra and panties, tits swaying as licked me.

“Doc!” she gasped when he grabbed her from behind, grinding his cock against her ass, still encased in pink panties.

“I want you in the other one.”

“Can’t I make her come first? Carrie complained, licking her lips.

“I’m all for that idea,” I said, nodding eagerly.

“Nope, not yet.” Doc chuckled, smacking his wife’s ass, making her yelp.

He made her strip, just like he had me, and he lifted her into the harness, adjusting the straps the same way he had mine, until we were both hanging at the same height.

“Don’t you dare leave us,” Carrie warned him

“I don’t think any man in his right mind would leave this room right now, even if it was on fire.” He took a step back, cock in his fist, to admire his handiwork.

We were almost touching, hip to hip, and I reached out, grabbing one of Carrie’s straps, so I could swing her toward me.

“Oh, I like this.” Carrie laughed as our legs entwined, our arms too, both of us completely suspended.

She was soft and supple in my arms, her breasts full, pressed against mine as we kissed. She tasted like me and I sucked at her tongue, wishing I’d been able to eat her too while she was in the swing, but I knew they weren’t going anywhere. We had time.

“Oh God,” Doc murmured, watching as we squirmed closer in our harnesses.

I managed to get my leg over Carrie’s, leaning back so our pussies touched, wrapping my legs around her, my bare heels against her ass. Then I rolled my hips, making little circles, our slick vulvas rubbing together, parting as they grew more and more swollen, until our clits were kissing.

“I’ve got an idea.” Doc went to Carrie’s underwear drawer, digging out one of our newer acquisitions-a double headed dildo.

“Ohhhh yeah!” Carrie panted. “Do it, baby. Put it in!”

Doc parted us, making my clit ache for more stimulation, but then he was sliding the life-like dildo in-my pussy first, and then his wife’s. It was big, very big, and it felt like it might split me apart. I reached for Carrie and she grabbed my hands, both of us looking down at the cock buried in each of us. Then I had an idea.

“Help me, Doc,” I panted. I wanted to be fucked and there was only one way I could see to do it in the harness with this toy. He did what I asked, so Carrie’s feet were pressed flat against mine, our thighs spread wide, the dildo between us. This way, we could both decide how deep, how fast, we wanted to go, while each of us hung onto the straps.

“Oh God!” I cried, fucking myself nice and slow, pushing with my legs, my feet against Carrie’s.

I couldn’t see her, not like this with my head back, but I could feel her. We caught onto each other’s rhythms quickly enough, the dildo fucking both of us at once. I glanced over to see Doc leaning against the bed, just watching the show, his cock in his hand as he slowly stroked it. Knowing he got off on this excited me and I moved faster, making Carrie move faster too. I wanted to come like this, but I needed more, deeper, harder. Carrie cried out when I started moving my hips in circles, forcing the dildo to turn deep in my pussy, and hers. I started grinding my ass, feeling Carrie’s slapping against mine as we fucked.

“Don’t stop!” she panted. “Oh Gretchen, fuck me, baby! Don’t stop! Don’t stop!”

“So close!” I moaned and rocked, fucking myself deep and hard with the toy, feeling my climax hovering. I was teetering on the edge.

“I’m gonna come! Ohhhhh!” Carrie arched and shoved her ass against mine, pushing the dildo all the way in, and that did it. I was coming too, my body exploding like fireworks, shuddering in my straps. We both completely lost it, letting go, falling free. The dildo slipped out of me first, then her, plopping to the floor, and then I was swinging, turning in slow, lazy circles until I was dizzy.

Doc grabbed my straps and hers, stopping us both.

“Well, I don’t know if you like it,” Doc said, grinning at his wife. “But I love your birthday present. “

“Mmm I love it.” Carrie wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, pulling him in close. I watched them kiss, saw her hand reach down to grab and stroke him against her wet pussy. “Now fuck me.”

He groaned and slid into her. It was the perfect angle. I bit my lip, watching him fuck her deep and hard, all the pent-up lust he’d been feeling coming through in his motions. I grabbed onto one of Carrie’s straps, wanting to be closer. She moaned and leaned over to kiss me, our tongues meshing as Doc rocked her in the swing.

“Meee tooo,” I protested, fingering myself as I watched.

Doc groaned, sliding out of Carrie and shifting over to me. I spread for him, biting my lip as he slipped his cock, still slick from his wife’s juices, deep into my cunt. He grabbed onto my hips, pumping hard from underneath, like he was trying to fuck me toward the ceiling. I moaned and rocked back against him as best I could-I couldn’t get a lot of leverage in the swing.

“Oh God, I want your mouth,” Carrie moaned into my mine as we kissed.

“I can arrange that.” Doc pulled out, making me whimper, and then he was adjusting my straps. I squealed as he lifted and turned me-he could throw me around like a doll if he wanted to-until I was suspending face down, parallel to the floor and the ceiling, at the perfect height to lick his wife’s pussy.

I grabbed her hips before the swing could turn around, burying my face, hearing her moan. She rocked up to meet me, leaning back in her own swing, head going back. Her pussy was wet from our dildo fuck and Doc’s pounding, and I licked her up and down, tasting her completely before focusing on her clit like she wanted me to.

“Oh!” I stopped for a moment, glancing over my shoulder, feeling Doc moving behind me, between my thighs. “What are you doing?”

“Do you want me to tell you?” He spread my thighs wider. “Or do you want me to surprise you?”

“Surprise me.” I grinned, going back to eating Carrie’s wet cunt. She was sopping, my fingers sliding easily up inside. I had to keep one hand on her ass to keep her from spinning away.

“Oh! Doc!” I looked over my shoulder again, eyes wide, as a cold glob plopped onto my spread ass. “What-?”

But I knew. He was already lubed up and now he was rubbing K-Y into my asshole.

“Hold still now,” he said and I snorted. I couldn’t very well go anywhere. But he didn’t put his cock in my ass, not at first. The first thing he did was slide something into my pussy-and it wasn’t his cock. I didn’t know what it was until he turned it on and I jumped, my mouth coming off Carrie’s clit once again.

“Ohhhhh God!” I moaned as he shoved the Rabbit vibrator in deep and turned it up full blast. Inside, the beads rotated and the dildo turned, while the rabbit part of the vibrator hummed on the outside, tickling my aching clit. He knew I tended to come hard with this one-and fast.

“Ready for your surprise?” Doc caressed my ass, hips pushed up against me to keep the vibrator in.

“Yes!” I bit my lip, feeling Carrie’s hand in my hair as he pressed the head of his cock against the pucker of my ass. “Ohhhh Doc! Ohhhh!”

“Good girl,” Carrie whispered, her eyes full of lust as she watched her husband ease his way into the hot, tight channel of my ass. “You can take it.”

I nodded, crying out as he pressed past that first ring of muscle, the head slipping in, opening me wide. That was the hardest part. Doc adjusted, holding my hips steady as he pushed deeper in, making me moan loud and long. Carrie licked her lips, watching with half-lidded eyes, looking from me to her husband, meeting his eyes over my head.

“Ohhh Doc, yes!” I arched, trying to meet him, the vibrator humming against my clit, his cock buried all the way in my ass now. “Fuck my ass!”

He groaned at my assent, driving in, keeping his hips pressed to mine so the vibrator buried in my cunt could do its work too. Carrie grabbed a hand full of my hair and mashed my mouth against her pussy, moaning when I fastened my lips over her clit and lashed it with my tongue. It was a race to see who would come first. My pussy was filled to capacity, my asshole stretched wide, taking Doc’s pounding cock. Carrie shuddered and bucked in her swing, her thighs spread wide, taut, as I sucked and licked her toward climax.

But it was Doc who beat us all. He couldn’t hold out.

“Ahhhh I can feel that fucking thing vibrating in your pussy,” he moaned, gripping me hard and driving into me. “Ohhh it’s so fucking good! Baby! Ahhhhhh!”

He exploded inside of my ass, a geyser, a volcano of white hot molten lava. I cried out against Carrie’s pussy, but she had my mouth pressed tight to her clit, riding my face, and Carrie came in second, shuddering all over with her climax, straining in her straps. I was last, my orgasm catching up to me all at once, quaking through me, my clit and pussy throbbing with wave after wave of pure pleasure. I thought, for a moment, I might black out completely and I closed my eyes and hung on for dear life.

I don’t know if it was minutes or hours before we were all in the Baumgartners’ big bed, me tucked down between them under the covers. Doc had taken the harnesses and swings down from the ceiling and they were packed away in a box under the bed to be pulled out at some later date, when we wanted to mix things up again. So many options, so many possibilities. They were endless-thank God. Because I couldn’t ever imagine being “done” with this. The thought wasn’t feasible.

“What did you wish for?” I asked Carrie as Doc turned off the light.

“If I tell you, it won’t come true.” She kissed the top of my head. We were quiet and then she whispered, “I couldn’t wish for anything better than what I have right now.”

I felt Doc’s hand move over her hip, his arm resting across mine, all of us together in one big bed. I would go back to my own, by morning. We got up long before the kids. So far, it had all worked out pretty well. I closed my eyes, breathing in the scent of our sex that lingered in the room. I loved the smell of us, the taste of us-I loved us.

I wondered what Ronnie would say, if she knew I was with the Baumgartners now. And finally, I understood. I knew why Ronnie had left, why she had chosen Vince. I’d been too afraid of getting attached to really commit to what we had. I had spent my whole life afraid, trying to keep my distance. I’d taken care of other people’s children, but I never thought of them as my own. I had been with men and women, but had never let anyone get too close.

It had taken living with the Baumgartners, growing far too attached, to them, to their children, to teach me how to really let go, how to be free, how to love. I was still afraid-the fear of loss was there, whether I tried to pretend it was gone or not-but I was doing it anyway. We’d all learned what it meant to love and lose someone. I didn’t think any of us would ever forget Holly, even though she’d only been with us for such a short time.

And I hoped, somewhere deep in her psyche, Holly would remember us too, remember how much we’d loved her. And I think she’d loved us too, from that deep, soulful part of her that had existed before and would exist long after she came into the world. I didn’t believe in an all-knowing, all-seeing Daddy-God in the sky, like Maureen Holmes did-but I did believe in love. Love went on, endless, before and after everything.

And I loved the Baumgartners. They made it easy, and slowly, finally, I was beginning to understand what it was like to have a home, to be part of a real family.

“Do you think you’ll ever get sick of me?” I whispered.

“Not a chance.” Carrie petted my hair in the dark. “Why, are you sick of us?”

“Never.”

I sighed happily, snuggled down between them, knowing it was true. We belonged to each other now, fully and completely, without reserve. I wasn’t ever going to tire of this.

I was crazy about the Baumgartners.