Odalisque
Part II
Sixteen
MOM AND DAD—everybody, really—were great. Jack took the boys home with him that night after they’d each cuddled with Lexi and Melody for a while. They would have headed to his house the next day anyway. Mom and Wendy took over the kitchen and after we’d all had some pie and coffee, Sam and Bree went home. They hadn’t been more than a foot away from each other since we got the call. Before they left, Bree and Melody spent a long time hugging each other and then shared a very sweet kiss.
My folks had elected to use one of the downstairs bedrooms, giving Lexi the upstairs guest room. It appeared that Melody would be spending the night with her mom.
“Um… Tony?” Wendy asked. We were alone in the kitchen putting away the last of the clean dishes. “Could you take me home?”
“Wouldn’t you rather stay here tonight?” I asked.
“I’d be… alone,” she whispered.
“Not on your life, Tiger,” I said, pulling her to me. “If you want to sleep downstairs in the second bedroom, one of us will stay with you. If not, you can stay with Kate and Lissa and me.”
“Really? Would be okay with all… your parents… here?”
“Wendy, no one should have to be alone tonight. Everyone understands that.” For the first time since we got the news, Wendy smiled.
There were still tears on her cheeks, though.
At bedtime, the four of us settled into the big bed, but we were all restless. We whispered together, even though the bedroom was pretty soundproof. Believe me we’d tested it repeatedly.
Finally, Lissa got out of bed and pulled a nightie on. I looked at her curiously.
“Melody needs me,” she said simply. I nodded and she padded out the door and down the hall.
That left me in the interesting position of being in bed with Kate and Wendy. Not that we hadn’t shared the bed together before, but Lissa or Melody had always been with us. Kate slid over me to Lissa’s side and Wendy cuddled up next to me. As exhausted as we were, we couldn’t sleep and continued our whispered conversation. The contact of two other people against my body reminded me I was alive and that even when someone dies, we should celebrate living.
“I didn’t think that I would ever celebrate being alive,” Wendy said. “After the last time with Rafe, I thought I’d kill myself. But you brought me home when I had no home to go to. Thank you.”
Wendy kissed me. Of course, we’d had little kisses before. We hugged each other whenever we were together and no one in my family was reluctant to touch lips and even tongues with our friends. But Wendy seemed to pour her heart into the kiss this time. I don’t know why I knew this. Technically, a kiss is a kiss, even when the kisser and kissee are naked in bed. Maybe it was because my own emotions were so near the surface that her kiss affected me. I became aroused.
I felt Kate’s hand reach for my cock as her leg came over mine. She joined the kiss for a moment before whispering in my ear. “Make her feel loved, darling.”
I wasn’t sure what to do, but Kate was settling herself onto my erection, pushing in only a bit at a time, then lifting back up to increase her lubrication. Wendy continued her kissing and I let my left hand drift down her side to her hip. She lifted so that I could move my hand under her. I felt her left leg come over the joining of Kate’s and my legs, opening her center to my questing fingers. She moaned into my mouth as my fingers played in her damp folds and found her clit.
It was so familiar and yet so foreign. I’d been ridden to climax by one lover while fingering the other enough times that this felt natural. Yet it was strange because Kate and Wendy were not normally the ones I was with. I realized Kate was subtly controlling the situation, inviting Wendy to be loved, but protecting me from making love to her without the knowledge of Lissa and Melody.
We came, one at a time. It was no massive orgasm causing us to scream, but each of us had a quiet release, letting the tension and emotion of the day flow out of us. Kate, last of us to come by a fraction, didn’t get off me, but simply lay down on me, trying not to weigh my chest down too much, but not letting go of the grip her pussy had on my cock. Wendy settled into the crook of my arm after our kiss finally broke. I kissed Kate lightly and she purred into my ear.
We drifted off to sleep.
When I awoke, it was late. Wendy was no longer in bed, but Kate was still lying on top of me. Though no longer in her, my semi-hard cock rested against her sex. When she felt me stir, Kate began to rock against my tumescence, bringing me to fully hard in a few minutes. She pushed down and I entered her again.
“I wanted you in me all night,” she whispered.
“I’m sorry, Kitten. I must have slipped out while we were sleeping.”
“It’s okay. You’re back where you belong now.” She kissed me, a sleepy, relaxed kiss that went on and on as she rocked on my cock. It was so nice. I lay there, kissing and fondling her, but not thrusting at her. I felt her rise toward her summit and tip quietly over the edge with a blissful moan into my mouth. She didn’t stop her little up and down movements, nor her kisses and in a few minutes was rewarded with the fruit of her labor flooding into and then out of her pussy.
I sighed, feeling clean and purged.
Wendy came back into the room with three cups of coffee. She set them down on nightstand and then stripped off her T-shirt.
“I didn’t know who might be up,” she said by way of explanation as she handed coffee to Kate. Kate just sat up, still keeping me—at least a little of me—inside her. Flat on my back, I wasn’t going to be able to drink coffee, but I had to ask myself whether morning coffee would be better than the feeling of Kate clenching and unclenching her pussy on my cock. Stupid question.
Wendy took hold of my hand when she assessed the situation and proceeded to stuff all the pillows behind my back so I was sitting three-quarters upright. The added pressure this put on my bladder caused my cock to regain some of its uprightness as well and I saw Kate close her eyes and smile. I assumed it was me and not the coffee that made her smile, but I could be wrong. Wendy handed me my coffee and gave me a light kiss before she curled up with her coffee beside me.
“Thank you for last night,” she said. “Thank you so much.”
I wrapped my left arm around her, holding my coffee in my right hand. It was easy to reach her breast in this position and my hand rested comfortably there as I sipped my coffee.
“You look so cozy,” Lissa said as she and Melody came through the door. They both had coffee in their hands and set it down only long enough to strip out of their nighties. Then they crawled up around us as closely and carefully as they could without spilling anyone’s coffee.
“I’m sorry,” Wendy said nervously. “I’d have made you coffee if I’d known you were awake.”
“We weren’t. I saw you bring coffee in here just as I was coming out of the bathroom,” Melody said. “We decided to join you.”
“Look at you with four women in your bed, Tony,” Lissa giggled.
“We didn’t…”
“I didn’t…” Wendy and I both spoke at the same time but were cut off by lips sealed against ours—Lissa’s against mine and Melody’s against Wendy’s.
“No one’s sending you away, Wendy,” Kate said as the only person with a mouth occupied only by her coffee cup.
“Says the woman who has probably occupied that position all night long,” Melody laughed. It was good to hear her laugh, even though there was sadness in her eyes. I was so glad Lissa went to be with her last night.
“Mmmhmm,” Kate said. Her coffee cup was still held against her lips, but it was trembling there and I could feel the rhythmic clenching of her pussy speed up. I handed my cup to Lissa and brought my hand to Kate’s waist and up to her breast. I could feel the build toward yet another orgasm in my balls. Lissa set our cups aside and held Kate, feeling the vibrations in her body. I reflexively squeezed her breast and heard an answering moan from Wendy, having forgotten it was her breast I held in my other hand. Melody was lightly sucking on Wendy’s nipple. Then I felt it wash over me and as my cock pulsed, I saw Kate shaking on top of me, supported by Lissa’s arm around her—her coffee cup still trembling against her lips. After a few seconds in this position, she exhaled and then bent her head to sip her coffee again.
“I’ve decided I like cream with my morning coffee,” Kate sighed.
Those of us who smelled like morning sex went to use the shower while Lissa and Melody dressed and went to the kitchen to make breakfast. I shampooed each lady’s hair, taking extra time to massage Wendy’s head and tiger stripes. I noticed they were growing out and remembered that Melody had touched them up before my birthday party. That had been over two months ago. We needed to do something about that. The whole time I shampooed their hair, both girls had a hand on my cock. It was nice, but obvious that I wasn’t going to achieve anything above half-mast for a while.
Besides, as soon as I saw that sad look in Melody’s eyes when she laughed this morning, I knew there was a topic we hadn’t discussed yet.
Melody needed to go back to Boston.
“People need to grieve, son,” Dad said to me as we stood out on the deck with a cup of coffee later on. “The first thing that you need to understand is that you can’t make it better for Melody and Lexi.”
“But…”
“No. You can’t. What you can do is be there for them. But don’t change your behavior. Don’t ignore their grief, or your own, son, but don’t change how you relate to them. You are always kind and caring. Don’t think you have to turn the volume up on it. And don’t think you have to walk on eggshells around them while they grieve,” Dad said.
“It’s a lot of don’ts and not a lot of dos, Dad,” I said.
“Share it with them, son. Grieve with them. Remember with them. Laugh with them. Love them. All the things you would normally do.”
“Thanks, Dad. I just keep thinking…”
“You keep thinking, ‘What if it was my dad?’” he said. I looked at him and saw tears in his eyes, too. “One day it will be, son. No time soon, God willing. But it’s the natural order of things. Remember when the yellow dog died?”
“Buttercup?” I asked. He nodded. To Dad she was always the yellow dog. I don’t think he ever used her name. Even when he called her, he’d just yell “Dog!” She always came.
“The vet we took her to that put her to sleep pulled you aside, if I remember rightly.” I nodded.
“Yeah. He said that the reason parents give children pets was so they would learn how to say goodbye to someone they love,” I said.
“Of course, there are other reasons,” Dad said. “We gave you a pet as a companion, a watchdog, a lesson in responsibility, and as a friend. But what the vet said was true. You grew a lot that day.”
“I wore her collar to school for the next week,” I said.
“And her dog tags on a chain for weeks after that.”
“I still have them.”
“But you managed to say goodbye.”
Melody was in the bedroom and when I saw her, I knew she’d been crying again. The whole day had been interspersed with episodes as we talked about the normal things in life and about Harold. Lexi told stories about Harold giving Melody her first paint set when she was just two years old. There was paint everywhere. We all laughed about it.
This time, I walked past her and started water running in the spa.
“Are you taking a bath?” she asked.
“Mmmhmm. With you,” I said. I came to her and started gently undressing her.
“Tony, we have company.”
“Boy, don’t we ever. It’s exhausting being a host all the time, isn’t it? That’s why it’s a good thing we have four of us to split up the duties.”
“Really?” I unfastened her bra and used my thumbs to begin rubbing out the marks it made on her back. She moaned. “I guess it would be okay for a little while. But Mom…”
“Went with my Mom and Dad to pick up the boys and see the lighting of the tree at Macy’s.”
“She did? That means…”
“Oh good, you got the water started,” Lissa said as she came to join us. “Ooo. It looks like you got my Little One started, too.”
“I keep telling you, Mel. You don’t need that strappy thing to make your tits look nice,” Kate added as she helped me massage Melody.
“Says the woman who’s never worn a bra in her life,” Mel laughed.
“And look,” Kate said as she stripped off her shirt. “No marks.”
“You’ve got a point there,” Lissa said. “Two actually. Come and help rub the marks out of my back, too, Kitten.” Lissa stripped off her clothes and headed for the bath. I helped Melody out of her jeans and panties and she assisted me. She touched my cock.
“Darling, I don’t really feel like… really…”
“Shh. I don’t need to make love every time I see a naked woman,” I said. “Thank heavens.” She laughed and we joined Kate and Lissa.
We splashed around a little, making a mess of the bathroom. We ran the jets and everyone seemed to find a place that was soothing. Before the water got cool enough for us to get out, I decided I needed to bring up Melody’s travel.
“Well, I suppose you’re wondering why I called this meeting,” I said. Lissa had used that phrase in the tub a few weeks ago and we’d started saying it whenever we wanted to discuss a family matter. The tub was our preferred meeting place. “Not that there’s one in the tub, but we need to discuss the elephant in the room.”
“Tony!” Melody said. She looked daggers at me and I realized that might not have been the best phrase to use.
“It’s not that, sweetheart,” I said. I pulled at her and she floated over to sit between my legs as we faced Kate and Lissa. “Melody, honey, you need to go back to Boston with your mother.”
The tears began to flow from all of us and Melody turned in my arms to face me.
“I can’t. It’s three weeks till end of semester. I can’t leave yet.”
“Sure you can. At the very least, you could go out for a week, but I think we should talk to the Dean and see if you can leave term early.”
“What professor is going to allow that? I’ll either flunk or drop out.”
“One of the many things I learned last year is that our professors are human. When I wanted to paint the Rhapsody Suite, Lissa made me call Doc Henredon after ten at night and ask to get out of presenting my final project the next day so I could paint. Dean Peterson told me repeatedly that the faculty care about us and know who we are and every single one of them wished me well on switching to the double degree program,” I said. “Carolyn DeWitt is just as much your fan as Doc is mine. Let her see what she can do.”
“I… well…”
“Tony’s right, Little One,” Lissa said. “You need to call her.”
“Okay. I’ll talk to her Monday morning. It’s just. I wouldn’t, but my mom… needs me. And I need her.”
“And you need to call tonight,” Kate said.
“Tonight? But it’s the Friday after Thanksgiving. I can’t call a professor at this hour!”
“Call our friend Carolyn who came over and helped solve the bleaching problems and worked with us on fabric preparation.”
“Do you think I can?”
After our bath, we all sat on the bed while Melody made her call. Carolyn was very sympathetic and said that as far as she was concerned, Melody had passed her class and didn’t need to return to it this term. She also said she’d talk to the other professors and that Melody should be on a flight as soon as she could get one.
Tears again as Melody hung up and looked at her lovers. We closed in on her and held her in the middle of the three of us.
“I thought I’d have to drop out of school,” Melody sobbed. “I knew I had to go and I thought I’d never be able to come back.”
“Melody, sweetie,” Kate whispered. “I know a secret.”
“What?”
“If you didn’t come back, we’d all three come to get you.”
“You, too?”
“Me, too. I love you, Melody, and I know this is your home now. Your Mom needs you for a while to help her over a rough patch, but she’s not going to depend on you for long. She knows you belong here.”
“I was sure I’d have to drop out of school.”
“Not a chance,” Kate said. “If they threw a fit, the entire sophomore class would come to your aid and protest.”
“Why would the whole class help me?” Melody asked.
“Oh, well, that’s what the real secret is.”
“Hmm?” We all looked at Kate. This was news to me, too. We’d never had that much to do with the rest of our class. At least I hadn’t. I supposed Melody and Kate had a lot more friends than I did.
“You’re the class mascot,” Kate said. “You have a boyfriend who became famous overnight, remember?”
“Yeah. What does that have to do with me?”
“What did he paint?”
“Lissa and… my ass.”
“Every sophomore in every discipline has come to think of your ass as a good luck charm. They reach up and pat it when they walk by.”
“You’re kidding!” I said. They were touching the mural? I realized how ridiculous that sounded and pulled myself back. I could just imagine everyone passing reaching up to pat the picture of Melody’s ass. It was kind of funny. That message apparently got through to all of us at once. We broke out laughing.
“That is so… inappropriate,” Melody laughed.
“Better your ass than my boobs,” Lissa joined in.
“How did that get started?” I asked.
“Well… um… someone… um… might have… sort of… seen me do it,” Kate blushed. “I could never pass it without touching it. Your ass is the only part of the painting I can reach.”
“Keep an eye on it and let me know if I need to do any… uh… touchup work,” I laughed. “You know, Melody, the only reason they do it is because they can’t touch the real thing.” I squeezed her butt.
“You can, though,” she whispered. “If you want to.”
Melody rolled over across my lap and thrust her butt into the air. We all three patted and stroked it. I saw Melody reach around and put her hands on Kate’s butt, just petting her the way we were. It might have gone a little further, but we heard the parental units coming in through the garage.
“So, I’m going back with you on Sunday,” Melody told her mom. “If there’s a big problem, I might have to come back next weekend, but if they approve me taking an incomplete or finishing my courses as is, I’ll stay through till Christmas when we go to Saul and Deb’s house.”
“Oh, thank you, Melody,” her mom said. “I’m sure I’d have been okay, but the thought of going back alone and knowing everything was over was just overwhelming. I don’t want you to jeopardize your education. Harold wouldn’t want that.”
“It will be okay, Mom. My family told me so.”
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