"Well then, good-looking, let's go out back and I'll give you a good scrubbing, how about that?" Hero sensed the warmth and affection in his new mistress' voice even if he was unsure what she meant and he wagged his behind and his short Doberman tail excitedly. "You're just incredible, Hero! I always heard that Dobermans were supposed to be fierce and mean. You don't seem at all like that to me, though I wouldn't want to tangle with you if you got mad!" She patted him affectionately and felt the hard muscular animal flesh ripple under her touch beneath his short dark fur; he pranced up and down like a Tennessee Walker, eagerly anticipating whatever it was that his wonderful new mistress planned for him. She led the way outside and he pranced along happily at her heels, through the kitchen door and out into the tiny yard behind the large house trailer. There was a fence around the area and here and there a few brave flowers were sprouting from the leached out Virginia soil. Next door was an almost identical back yard that wore a more lived-in look and on a folding chaise lounge was a tall slim brunette in a very skimpy pink bikini stretched out in the hot afternoon sun. Hero's keen eyesight enabled him to spot the woman immediately as he leaped from the trailer onto the earth outside and he froze expectantly at his mistress' side as the woman rose from her reclining position and hurried to the fence. He did not know the woman was Peggy's best friend, her neighbor, Dottie Mangum, and so he stood rigidly, poised to defend his new mistress if she gave the word.
"Peggy! When did you get the dog? He's so handsome!" She hurried around to the gate at the side of both their trailers and let herself in. Immediately Hero tensed and his lips came back to bare his sharp, pointed teeth and he growled menacingly. "Oh! Is he mean!" exclaimed the darker-haired woman as she began to back slowly toward the gate, her hand to her mouth in sudden anxiety. "He won't bite me, will he?"
Peggy crouched beside the threatening dog and stroked his head gently, slowly so as not to frighten him. "Just stay where you are, Dottie," she said from the corner of her mouth and then to the animal, "That's a good boy, it's okay. You just don't know Dottie yet and you deserve some praise for coming to my defense."
"What defense, already? I was just coming in to see him!"
Peggy waved her arm at her friend to quiet her. "He didn't know that, Dottie! He just thought you were going to hurt me, didn't you, handsome? Come on over now and I'll introduce you. Hero, this is my friend… she won't do me any harm and she is to be your friend too, understand?" She looked deeply into the huge animal's soulful black eyes and he really seemed to understand every word! It was incredible!
"Uh, hello, Hero… is that his name?" Dottie held out her hand timidly, and Hero sniffed it and gave it an affectionate lick. "You're amazing, big boy! Peggy, what a smart dog! Where'd you get him? Tell me all about it, okay?"
"All right, all right," replied Peggy. "But you'll have to help me give him a bath. I'll tell you all about it while we scrub him down, okay? He's got quite a history, this lovable boy!"
"Ooooh, certainly! I'll help you! What girl wouldn't want a chance to wash a big handsome devil like him!" Dottie giggled.
"Well, you just remember he's mine, Dottie Mangum," exclaimed the pert young blonde.
"And don't you forget it, either!"
CHAPTER TWO
Dottie hurried back home when she heard Eddie's car pull up in front of their house trailer, or mobile home as he liked to call it. She had stayed over at Peggy's too long and completely forgotten that it was nearing dinner time and her husband would be home. "Yoo-hoo, darling, here I am!" she called cutely, well aware that half the homecoming husbands on the street were feasting their eyes on the well-shaped curves so scarcely concealed under her pale pink bikini. "I'm over here, honey!"
Eddie Mangum wore a thin tight smile even at this hour, after a day at the office that had begun with a cup of coffee and two doughnuts at an all-night doughnut stand at seven this morning. His smile was the badge of his profession, and, like his comrades of the backslap, handshake and telephone call, he wore it proudly. Eddie – never Ed or Edward – was a PR man, a public relations account executive with Randolph and Phitts and was fast earning his star as number one man around the offices downtown. At thirty, he had his career mapped out for him and he did not mind particularly a couple of years purgatory here in Virginia if it would advance his standing. "Hello honey… good afternoon, Peggy!" His wife was at his side now and he caught a quick glance of old Cecil Wilkins across the street nearly falling out the door trying to get a better look at the good looking brunette inside that flimsy bikini. "C'mon, let's go inside and cool off. We don't want to give the local hayseeds too much of a free show, now, do we?"
Dottie laughed huskily and put an arm around her husband. "Those hillbillies? They wouldn't even know what to do if I dropped my bikini pants and waved them at them!"
Eddie pulled open the glass storm door and they went inside. "Don't kid yourself, Dottie. Some of these boys are pretty slick!"
"Slick! The only thing slick about them is the grease they put on their hair!"
"Oh, honey, you kill me, the way you talk! I know it's not exactly the greatest place in the world but you know it's only for a couple of more years and then we'll be moving to one of the bigger offices."
She shook her head. "I don't care, it's still the armpit of the world and I miss California! We don't have any real friends here and we don't ever get to… well, you know."
"Yeah, baby, I know. You don't get to swing here because the police would probably lynch us publicly if the word got out… if the neighbors didn't do it first."
He was right and she could not deny it. It was not easy to remember how they had become a part of that southern California "swingers" society but somehow it just happened. Maybe it was just a small party they went to at first, she thought, but it all seemed so long ago now that it was hard to be sure. They had never planned it, of course, but all of a sudden they were just in it. Small groups at first, then larger pool parties with all the girls running around topless and then the men jumping out of their bathing trunks and wow! All those big thick cocks swinging around and everybody fucking and sucking and God knows what! Oh Christ, it made her all wet and warm in her bikini bottoms just thinking about it! One night alone she had gone into the bedrooms with eight different men! Eight! And every single one of them had fucked her until she saw stars and she remembered she had screamed so loudly from sheer ecstasy that the hostess had to come in once and quiet her down so the neighbors wouldn't complain. Oh, California, those were the days!
"Wistful daydreaming again?"
"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry… yes, you're right. I'll be all right now. It just gets me down sometimes living here. Especially when I remember the good times back in California. I sure wish we could get something going here!"
"Well, stop wishing! You know that sort of thing is out of the question!" he said imperatively. Then he added, "However… if you do, be sure to include that sweet piece next door!"
Dottie laughed and reached for the hooks that held her bikini top together. "Still got the hots for Peggy Davis, huh? I don't understand… she's certainly nice enough, but she doesn't seem your type at all."