Hearthstone Entertainment
42 Up and Down
ELAINE AND I had just gotten out of bed to make dinner for the casa when Courtney got home. I really liked having an hour or two with my cónyuge on a regular basis each week. We didn’t always make love, but we always had a special time of cuddling together and talking with just the two of us. I needed to do that with each of my cónyuge.
“You wouldn’t believe it! He’s a genius!”
“What’s up, Courtesan?” I asked. “Who is so brilliant?”
“Dr. Hanratty. It was all I could do to keep from crowing in class. He gave Wayne Enders the award and five hours credit for tripping the code.” She laughed. “He was spluttering and coughing and yelling about how he didn’t do it. Hanratty said they were following everyone’s progress and had a full record of what each person did. He said that no matter who rang the bell, he knew who got there first and what they had coded. Wayne was pale. It looked like he was going to throw up.”
She was dancing around and hugging me as she stripped off her clothes. Then she caught Elaine up to dance around and as soon as Jennifer was naked she had her in her arms. “Take me to bed, Jennie honey. You’re the only one who can make this day any better than it already is!” They scooped up their clothes and ran for the stairs.
Friday night was family time. I was vaguely aware that Danielle’s sisters picked her up and left, but they didn’t come into the house.
“So how is it all working?” I asked Maggie. “I’m pretty much out of the loop, now. You’ll have to tell me if there is anything else you need from me.” I had to head over to the studio early in order to meet with Maggie before I started on Young Cooking. We invited Lauren to sit in, but she had prep work to do with the triplets and her crew. We were expecting the audience and girlfriend to arrive in about twenty minutes.
“Heaven’s plane will arrive at ten-fifteen. She won’t be coming to the ranch before the game today. She and Amy have rented a car and are brazenly driving themselves from the airport straight to the stadium. She’s been invited to share a booster’s box,” she said. “She and Adam have been invited to an after-game dinner. It’s usually only seniors and prospects that get invited to these things, but famous people get to attend, too. Of course, it presents a problem because she and Adam have been invited to stay the night and she insisted that Amy be there, too. She isn’t particularly happy about sharing a bed with Adam for the night, but then she realized that he isn’t that happy about it, either. They’ll be coming to the ranch after brunch tomorrow.”
“I’m assuming she gets the master bedroom in the casa again. What’s the shooting schedule?”
“We’ll only be here the one night. The shooting will begin in Indianapolis on Monday afternoon. We’ll be there two days and will be staying at the Hilton Airport. She’ll fly out Wednesday night and we’ll have most of the pilot on tape. She’ll be back on the first and we’ll do any pickup scenes we need for the final editing that weekend.”
“We’re on-target for the presentation Thanksgiving week?” I asked.
“Ready as we’ll ever be.”
It was one of the best-smelling days in the kitchen that we’d ever had. Of course, Mary and the triplets had prepared pie crusts and pumpkin filling in advance because the pie I put in the oven would need nearly an hour of baking time. We’d pull out pies that were already cooked to serve the results. We were making enough pies for the whole clan. The same was true of the squash we were baking in the afternoon. As soon as we closed the afternoon show, the girls were putting more stuffed squash in the ovens to feed the casa tonight.
I stayed in the kitchen as we finished the prep work and got food ready for dinner. Since we’d started all the prep in the studio, we decided to eat there, too. April, Dawn, George, and Addison joined us for dinner. After we cleaned everything up, we trooped over to the house. We invited our seven guests to join us.
Of course, as soon as we were through the door, clothes started coming off. My hearthmates all ran upstairs to undress, but George, Dawn, Addison, and April stripped just inside the door. The triplets watched, but waited until I’d finished lighting a fire in the fireplace before they took a deep breath and stripped.
“Okay, Brian,” Rose said as she led the three in front of me. “This is the test. Don’t answer immediately. Take time to walk around them. We all have to know if you can really tell the difference. Frankly, I cannot see a difference among these absolutely perfect bodies. We’re not letting them talk at all until you choose which one is which. Can you do it?”
“I don’t know, Rose,” I said. I already knew which one was Danielle. “Do I win a prize if I guess correctly?”
“Triplet of your choice gets to sit in your lap,” Rose responded. There were cheers and hoots among my hearthmates.
“Just one of them?” I teased.
“At a time,” Rose amended.
“Well,” I completed my second circuit around the three girls. Lord! What a dream. “I’m thinking I should make another circuit to be sure I’ve seen everything.” I walked around to the far end behind the girls then stepped around in front of Danielle. I placed my finger under her chin and pulled her forward. Just before our lips met, I whispered, “Hello, Danielle.” That kiss wasn’t quite as brief as I intended. It was pretty damned nice. I let her go with a sigh. She stood there with a kind of dreamy look in her eye. I guess I did okay on that one.
The other two girls looked absolutely identical and I wasn’t positive. I’d identified some little mannerisms when we were working, but with them just standing there, it was harder to tell. Then the middle one shifted her eyes to look at her sister. I reached for her chin and pulled her forward.
“Hello, Dorothy.” I kissed her and quickly turned to Debbie. She launched herself forward and planted her lips on mine before I could say anything. “Deborah, you don’t give a guy much chance to guess.”
“Guess, schmess. You knew which of us was which as soon as Rose led us in here. Go sit down and cuddle Danielle. Her heart’s been aflutter all day,” Debbie said. “And thank you for using our proper names. That was sweet.”
I sat in front of the fire. Danielle sat in my lap. Deb and Dolly sat in front of us.
I went to sleep.
“Debbie, I like him. Can I keep him?” Danielle was still curled in my lap. Still very naked. I think I’d been drooling on her right tit.
“Baby sister, you know the answer to that. He’s not your toy. You have to give him back,” Debbie answered.
“Yeah. I know. Thank you for the loan, Rose. That was really nice. I’m satisfied.”
“I can tell,” Rose laughed softly. “You went to sleep almost as fast as he did. He never admits it, but these long production days at the end of the school week really tire him out. And don’t worry. As long as you don’t break him, you can come play again.”
Danielle started to unfold. I don’t know what possessed me because it had really been a platonic cuddle in front of the fire. When she straightened out, her light beige nipple brushed my cheek and I turned my head to kiss it softly.
“Oh! Um… I mean… thank you for the invitation, Rose.”
“All right, Brian. You don’t have to pretend to be asleep now. Kiss it properly and then get up to kiss our guests goodnight.”
“I really was asleep,” I said. “Until a minute ago.” Still, I kissed Danielle’s nipple again and gave it a little more attention. Finally, her sisters pulled her out of the chair and I stood to kiss each of them goodnight as soon as they got dressed. When they left, Rose took my hand and led me upstairs. “It was the pumpkin pie that did it,” I complained. “One bite and it put me right to sleep. Did I embarrass myself? Come all over her or something?”
“Brian, honey, look at yourself.” I glanced down where she was pointing at my flaccid dick. “You didn’t even get hard when you teased her nipple or when you kissed them all goodnight.”
“Now that’s embarrassing.”
“Think about it, darling. How do you feel about her? Everybody could see there was absolutely nothing between you and either of her sisters. Why? Do you want to add Danielle to our bedroom? We do like her,” Rose said.
“No.” I stopped and thought about that. Was that just an automatic response? “I feel very connected to Danielle,” I said at last. “But it’s not the same. I like to tease her, but even then, I don’t get turned on. Not sexually. I don’t get it, Rose. It’s like I feel almost nothing at all for Debbie and Dolly. But I feel very tender toward Danielle. Sort of protective. Almost like she’s…” Oh wow!
“Almost like she’s your little sister,” Rose finished. Yeah. Well, we all know what I did with my real sister.
“I guess so. It doesn’t make sense, though. She’s sexy and beautiful. She’s smart and funny. You know those are four things that draw me to all my hearthmates and lovers. I could get a hard-on for Debbie if she decided to curl up naked in my lap. But Danielle…” What is it about her? “I just can’t explain it. I don’t want her that way. But I want to hold her. I don’t want to make love to her… right now… but I like to tease her. I don’t particularly want to live with her, but I can’t wait to see her again. And I do want to have her out at the ranch. A lot. Maybe permanently. And her sisters if they want. Rose, they are identical triplets. The closest looking identicals I’ve ever seen. Their DNA is the same. Half the time their mother can’t tell them apart. But I can identify Danielle from across the room. No questions. I knew absolutely when you led them in front of me which one was Danielle. I had to wait for a clue between Dolly and Debbie. They all defer to Debbie. As soon as Dolly shifted her eyes that direction, I knew which was which.”
“Brian…”
“There should be no reason that I could tell them apart. It defies logic. I am not psychic. I don’t believe in that crap.”
“Brian!”
“Um… yes, Rose?”
“You’re connected. We don’t know how or why, but you brought home more clan members. You might not be as close to her sisters as to Danielle, but they belong here. And I wouldn’t be surprised if one day your connection grows into something else. But as of right now, we are considering Danielle your sister. And she has sisters, therefore, logic directs that those three are your sisters. Like Addison, they are part of the family. Now come to bed. You have another lover or two that is interested in something more than just being held by her big brother.”
There is something extraordinarily peaceful about making love with Angela. That seems like a strange word to use when describing sex. It was perfect for where I was Saturday night, though. And there was no question about whether I was turned on by my compañera. In spite of my giving her three orgasms with my fingers and tongue, Angela didn’t let me come. She did give me an instructional course on exactly how she liked her nipples to be played with. The areolae were large and covered a couple inches across her generous breast. The nipple was thick and stiff. Angela’s skin is dark like milk chocolate, but her nipples are more like dark chocolate. They were almost solid black. They weren’t as sensitive as, say, Rose’s. Angela wasn’t going to come from playing with her breasts. But she certainly enjoyed having them played with.
Even when she finally got me into a condom, we didn’t get frantic about our loving. She held me at her entrance, stroking all the way around, following her wishbone path with the tip of my cock as her breathing came deeper and deeper. When she let me enter her, she controlled the long, slow rate of descent into her pussy. This was accompanied by a whine that started deep in her throat and increased steadily in pitch and volume until I was locked against her pubic bone. Then, instead of thrusting in and out, it was more like grinding against each other as we kissed and explored each other’s mouth. I knew I was pressing and rubbing against her sensitive nub and when she came, she sucked in a huge lungful of air. I was prepared for a screech, but instead she pushed up to meet me and stiffened as the muscles in her pussy pulsed around my cock and she let out the breath in a drawn-out moan that seemed like it would never end. Somewhere in the middle of it, my own voice joined hers as I felt my cock erupt without any other movement.
I rolled us to our sides so I didn’t collapse on top of her, but we continued to hold each other tightly.
“I love you, Angela,” I whispered.
“Do you? Thank you,” she said. “I don’t know if I love you like that.” We were breathing heavily and still kissing as we came down from our orgasms. I began to soften and grabbed the condom to dispose of it. “I mean, of course I love you,” she giggled. “I didn’t mean to damage your ego. I love you like the head of my household. I love to make love with you. I love to be near you. I love the blanket of your protection that I feel over me, even with only the sky for clothes. But do I love you? I’m not sure what that means.”
“I think you described it pretty well.”
“Are our souls linked together? Do we communicate on a non-verbal level? Am I constantly thinking of you? Am I rushing home to be with you? Do I want to have your babies? Do I want anything more than what we just shared? My mother told me all about sex, but precious little about love.” She shook her head. “As much as I like making love with you, I find it so satisfying that I really don’t need it more than a couple of times a month. Usually right near when my period starts, so I think that is more a physical imperative than the result of profound love. Feeling what you just did to me will last until next time and I won’t even masturbate until then.”
“Really?”
“Oh, no. Not really. That physical imperative raises its head when everyone gets into the act and we are all participating with each other. I’m turned on by all the pheromones in the air when everyone is making love and even though, mentally, I’m not into girls, I have to admit that Jennifer really knows her way around a woman’s anatomy.”
“I think Jennifer knows her way around the anatomy of every woman in the clan,” I laughed.
“Maybe. She does like pussy.” Angela stretched luxuriously and I licked her taut nipple again. She shivered. “I’m contented here, Brian. I don’t know if that’s what love is, but I don’t really want anything else. Next year, I’m going to start the pre-med curriculum. My last year as an undergraduate and then med school. You can’t imagine how much pressure and stress there is and will be. When I think about it, I always think, ‘yes, but I’ll be able to come home.’ Here, Brian. I’ll be able to go weed the garden, fall into our big bed pussy pile, make love with my compañera, eat wonderful food, and be part of my family. Is that love? Is it because I love you? We can call it that if you want to, but don’t ask me to be your novia or cónyuge. I don’t want anything more than what I have.”
And all I wanted for the rest of the night was to hold her in my arms.
Love. What a strange word.
Jessica, Adam, and Amy got to the ranch about two o’clock in the afternoon, Sunday. Maggie and Jess were already there and Maggie was pacing impatiently. They’d gone through all the equipment, checked the battery packs, and loaded Jess’s van with everything they would need for shooting on location for three days.
“Hi, everybody,” Jessica said cheerily as they came into the house. “Sorry we are so late, but brunch went on forever.”
“It really wasn’t Jessica’s fault,” Adam jumped in. “Everyone wanted to have a picture with her. Some with both of us. I think Amy even got into a few. And the promotion of this week’s taping was really good.”
“Adam was a dear. We make a very nice couple. Maggie, do you mind if I take half an hour to freshen up before we meet? I know we’ve got a lot to do this afternoon, but I really need get out of these shoes,” Jessica said.
“Sure, Heaven. Always tell us whenever you need a break, water, food, or whatever. We want to keep you fit and healthy. We’re not here to drive you into the ground,” Maggie answered. Nice job. Jessica left and Adam carried her bag up to the Master bedroom. The only time I’d ever seen Jessica so perky and chipper—at least in the last few years—was when she was on Elaine’s show.
The light came on. I turned to Amy and she nodded.
“She’s acting,” she said. “Whatever you’re paying Adam, you need to double it. He actually dares to go into the same room with her in private.”
“What gives?” I asked. “She’s never been that way with us before. Certainly not with me.”
“She’s like that on every jobsite,” Amy said. “Don’t worry about it. It’s part of her reputation. She is always easy to work with and professional in every way. The pressure is incredible and she needs that half hour to decompress and scream at someone. Adam and I are used to it. He’s worked with her several times, and when he’s not there, I am. Eventually, she runs out of steam and apologizes to us. We just pick it up and get ready for the next time.”
“Crap! She doesn’t need to be that way here. We don’t want to add stress to her life.”
“Brian, you’re cute. You hired her. It’s her job. You won’t see a crack in that façade. Ever.”
So that’s what it meant to keep our relationship professional.
By four o’clock, the ranch was in chaos. That’s when Sarah arrived and our production meeting ended. Oberlin had a full week off for fall break and it was wonderful to have her on the ranch. I ran outside to greet her when I heard the diesel engine of her Mercedes sputter to a stop. Hannah was right beside me. It was the first time Sarah was back since school started and we both wrapped her in our arms and smothered her in kisses.
There was a squeal behind us and Jessica came pelting down the steps and Sarah practically threw her sister and me aside as she rushed to hug Jessica. They were joyful. There was no play-acting on either girl’s part. They were genuinely excited to see each other. It was so different than the forced pleasantry that she put on in our meeting. It was a greeting that I no longer merited.
Deep in my heart, I mourned.
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