When talk turned to feeling like newbies at an event like this, Ryan and Vince bonded. “The one guy asked my permission to kiss her,” said Ryan.
“Yeah, that seems to be a thing,” Vince allowed.
Kendra nodded. “I don’t think it’s as sexist as it might seem. It’s a bit of deference learned from monogamy.” When the sentence quieted the conversation, she added, “I’m a sex therapist.”
Ryan laughed. “Are you studying this from within? Like Jane Goodall?”
She laughed. “Actually, our first bit of exploration was checking out a bar meet-up that one of my colleagues mentioned. And maybe, sorta, at the beginning, I might have been taking mental notes.”
“And tonight?” asked Jennifer.
“Totally off book.” Kendra winked at her. “But, what I recognized is that, in a lot of parts of this swinger subculture, so much learned behavior trails over from monogamy. The reason guys ask the guys first to kiss the girls is because they’d get socked in the nose, in the real world,” she punctuated the phrase with air quotes, “if they asked the woman first. I don’t think any of them believe the men hold the keys, they’re just… maybe gun shy.”
“I’ve certainly been guilty of the same,” said Vince. “And believe me, I hold no illusions about the consent pecking order.”
“So,” said Ryan. “How do you two, uh, do this?”
“We were actually talking about that at the bar tonight,” Vince replied, then looked to Kendra. Jennifer read the gesture as a question, Vince asking his wife where they should take this conversation.
It made Jennifer feel good, that she and Ryan had chosen a great and thoughtful couple to go off with. Maybe, if things were right, they could have some fun with these too, instead of just fucking someone random to prove they weren’t riding the Shepards’ coattails anymore.
Kendra nodded and took the reins. “Well, we’ll immediately admit that we run a lot more in swing theory than swing practice. But if you’re asking us what we might like to do tonight… we’re soft swap, so oral is fine, but penetrative sex is only for partners. How about you?”
Feeling suddenly saucy, Jennifer leaned toward them and put her hand on Vince’s knee. “Are you asking what we want to do with you tonight?”
Kendra smiled. “I think that’s implied.”
“We do full swap with sex, but are happy to stick with whatever the comfort level of the room is.” Ryan smiled.
Vince pointed back and forth between them. “Straight, bi?”
“Straight,” said Ryan.
Jennifer realized she hadn’t ever considered her orientation. “Huh,” she said.
Kendra slid closer to her, perhaps sensing the questioning nature. “What would you have considered yourself pre-swinging?”
“Straight,” said Jennifer.
“Yet now you’re—”
“Not,” said Jennifer.
“Works for me,” said Kendra with a smile. “Vince is straight, too, like so many men in this lifestyle.” She leaned in, “Though I have my questions about some of that. But that’s a story for another time. And I’m not straight shaming, I assure you.”
Ryan just nodded.
“Myself, I’d say, probably bi-flexible?” She seemed to consider it again in the moment, to be sure. “I like to think I’m evolving on the issue, and really, I want to emphasize here that we’ve been with a grand total of three couples in around ten months…”
“We’ve been with one,” said Jennifer, suddenly self-conscious.
“Okay, so we’re all still exploring!” proclaimed Kendra. “Striking out to see what we like and don’t. Why cut ourselves off from anything? But do I crave it? Not really.”
“I do,” said Jennifer, feeling that pang of loss, the vision of Paige.
“Well, if you’re interested in me,” said Kendra, then turned to Ryan, “because it’d be the very height of hubris to assume such things,” then back to Jennifer, “I’m certainly on board to go a round or two. With both of you.”
All four of them smiled wide, looking back and forth. As the pause grew ever more pregnant, they realized that, much like with the nudity, they were all waiting for someone else to sew this thing up right.
“It appears the motion carries,” said Ryan. “Shall we look for a room? Or see how this plays out right here?”
Again, the back and forth looks. Kendra and Vince nodded to each other. Jennifer could see their communication; they were much better at the silent talk than she’d ever been.
“Can I sit here?” asked Kendra, pointing to the seat between Ryan and Jennifer.
They nodded. As Vince moved next to Jennifer, he tapped the button on the side of the tub, turning the jets back on. She realized she hadn’t noticed they’d stop, but the impressive roar suggested it had been quite a while ago, and the four of them had become used to the quiet.
He put his arm around Jennifer and kissed up her shoulder to her neck. She shivered from both the air and his warm breath. She reached her hand out to Kendra’s leg and put it above the knee. When Kendra took her hand, she felt validated. When her hand was pulled up Kendra’s thigh, and she felt the light caress of that patch of black curly hair, the pulse of lust thrummed within her.
The kissing on both sides grew in intensity, with the girls moving back and forth between the guys and each other. Jennifer made a mental note that the kisses with Kendra, while passionate and lovely, seemed a touch more perfunctory. This must be the bi-flexible part coming into play.
Before the jets needed to be renewed again, fingers and hands worked for their lives, all four of them both giving and receiving the accelerating delights of hands-on sexual pleasure. Kendra arched her back with the first orgasm of the encounter. Soon after, Ryan joined her, standing up and ejaculating over the side, into the grass.
“Sorry,” he said as he sat back down.
Kendra shook her head and moved closer to him, kissing. “I’m sure our lovely hosts will appreciate that you didn’t come in the water.”
Vince, in between deep breaths, added, “I’m told it messes with the filter. Semen, I mean. It—”
He stopped as Jennifer’s orgasm began to roll and she grabbed Vince’s wrist, holding his hand stationary, riding the wave until it broke on the shore.
“And you seem ready to go again,” said Kendra, as she took Ryan’s stiffening cock in her hand.
Jennifer’s stroking intensified and she looked into Vince’s face as he closed his eyes. She wrapped her hands around his thighs and lifted him out of the buoyant water, taking a long look at his impressive cock before opening her mouth.
She tapped the button to restart the jets after he finished.
35
Wearing plush turquoise robes, Ryan and Jennifer returned to the basement bar. The robes had come from hooks near the door out to the hot tub, offered up by a sign bearing the words, “Go forth in comfort, help yourselves.”
Like the hot tub, the bar had been abandoned in favor of other pursuits. With new confidence, Ryan ignored the alcohol at hand, moving instead behind the bar to explore what was available. Thrilled to discover the makings of the pineapple upside-down cake martini, Jennifer’s favorite drink, he whipped up two of them before returning to the civilian side.
He smiled at his wife in the mirror across the bar. Her wet hair clung to her face, now mostly devoid of makeup. She looked beautiful, but more importantly, she looked happy. “Reinvigorated?”
She gave him an emphatic nod.
“Me too,” he said.
They toasted with the drinks. “To new friends,” she said.
“To new friends,” he returned with a giddy laugh.
After their hot tub tryst, their new friends Vince and Kendra — the de Martolos, they’d learned – had discovered that the hour had gotten late, crossing eleven.