Odalisque
Part III
Thirty
JACK DROVE US TO THE AIRPORT, but Lexi came along so she could say goodbye to everyone. It was a tearful parting for the girls and me when we said goodbye to Mom, Dad, Allie and Beth at the homestead. Jack decided to trade the van for a smaller car for the rest of the weekend. On the way to the airport, my phone rang. I hadn’t had a call or text all week since everyone who knew this number was with me in Nebraska.
“Tony! Where are you?”
“On my way to the airport,” I answered. It was Clarice.
“Running away or on your way home?”
“Coming home, I hope. What’s up, Clarice?”
“You weren’t supposed to send the brochure mockup to anyone. Didn’t I make that clear?” she asked.
“We didn’t talk about that, but I didn’t send it to anyone.” I glanced around the car. It seemed like there was a lot of squirming going on.
“Is Kate with you?”
“Yes.”
“Put it on speaker then. We need to talk.”
I did as she commanded and suddenly the whole car focused on my phone call.
“Kids, Tony’s picture of Tent City made its way to a committee. Maybe two or three. There is nothing like a disaster to mobilize a city. Even though the problem has been around for decades and Tent City for nearly ten years, now the city wants to acquire land for a permanent encampment that could house as many as 500 homeless people. You have become the focal point. Not only did you save the lives of nearly a hundred people, you painted what their lives look like,” Clarice said.
“But I don’t get it,” I said. “I didn’t share the brochure with anyone. How did they get the picture?”
I looked around the car and in the sudden silence I heard a whimper from Bree. I looked at her and tears were running down her cheeks.
“I’m sorry. God! That’s all I ever say. I didn’t know that’s what they wanted it for. Eric asked if I’d seen it and could get a picture for him. We had a long chat on Monday. The brochure was open on your computer and I just copied the picture and sent it to him.”
“Didn’t you learn your lesson in Tempe?” I snapped.
“Please don’t tell me I fucked up again,” Bree cried. She was sobbing in earnest now and Melody shot me nasty look. Medusa would have lost a stare down. Damn it! This wasn’t good for any of us.
“Clarice, has there actually been any damage by releasing the picture? I mean, are we liable for something?” I asked.
“Everybody, relax!” Clarice practically shouted over me. “There’s no harm done. I needed to find out if you had made any commitments to the memorial committee or the city or the college. It affects how I go about negotiating your commission.”
“What commission?” Now I was really confused, but I reached over the seat in front of me and laid my hand on Bree’s shoulder giving her a gentle squeeze. She grabbed my hand desperately and held it to her face. I wiped away the tears while Clarice filled us in.
“A number of students who were involved in the establishment and organization of SCU hosting Tent City came back early from their holiday break. They organized quickly and went to the Board of Regents with a proposal to create a memorial to the lives lost on their campus and use it to raise money to acquire land for a permanent encampment. The memorial they proposed was a Tony Ames mural of this picture painted on the wall of the athletic pavilion. When the regents asked for more information, Eric—I met him at your birthday party—called me and asked me how they could acquire your services.”
“The athletic pavilion? That wall is huge, Clarice. It would take me a year to paint it,” I said.
“I’ll help,” Kate said from behind me.
“Me too,” Melody said. “We could put together a team. Any art major at PCAD would volunteer to work on a project with you.”
I turned in my seat to ask Kate what she really thought, but as soon as I did, I came face to face with Wendy. The expression on her face was the closest thing to worshipful that I’d ever seen. There was really no question about whether I’d paint this mural if that’s what they wanted. I looked over at Kate and she smiled that incredible smile of hers that lit up my life. Lissa on the other side of Damon from me just nodded.
“I think we can do it, Clarice,” I said.
“They still have a huge number of obstacles to overcome and I’ll need to figure out how to price your services on a piece like that.”
“You price it as a donation,” I said.
“Tony? Melody?” Sam caught our attention as we were finding our seats on the plane. “I’m wondering if you could switch places. I’d like to talk to Tony about the schedule. I’ve got some pressure from the club about when we practice.”
“Oh. Okay,” Melody said, looking at Bree who was sitting in the row her father was stopped at. “We’ll switch back when you get your business taken care of.” She moved to sit beside Bree.
“What’s with the club, Coach?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he said. “It seems my daughter has gotten into other people’s business, again,” he said. “I want it clear that I’m not happy with it. She needs to apologize to you and make up for the problem.”
“No, Sam,” I said. I seldom used his first name, but he’d made it clear we were talking family and not athletics. “Bree acted in good faith as a friend. The real issue is what you’re going to do.”
“That’s not really an issue,” Sam began.
“Yes, it is. Are you going to let us paint the athletic pavilion? You weren’t strongly in favor of having the encampment there according to what I heard in the meetings. You’re the athletic director. Technically, the building is part of your department. If you object, the Board will listen to you. So, are you going to object or are you going to let us paint your building?” I asked.
“It’s not really my decision,” Sam said. “The University is a big place with a lot of committees.”
“Don’t hedge on me, Sam. The question is about you and your position. If Eric and the rest of the student social responsibility committee have already been in front of the Board of Regents, between the holidays, there’s enough momentum to carry it through the committees. You’re really the only one who could block it effectively and if someone else on campus doesn’t want it to happen, they’ll talk to you. So, it’s really a question of whether you’ll back us. What do you say?”
He sighed and looked over where Bree was leaning against Melody.
“For her,” he said quietly. “I’ll back it for her.”
It was good to be home. Stepping into the house, I realized we hadn’t decorated for the holidays. After Nebraska, the house looked sort of bare. That didn’t slow the boys down. They were crazed. There was no food in the house, so a shopping expedition was organized. Laundry was organized. Childcare was organized. By six we had food on the table. By eight the boys were in bed, though unlikely to settle down for another half an hour. At least the time-change was in our favor.
I sat in the living room with four tired women and we all had a glass of white wine to sip. Kate’s family would arrive sometime tomorrow afternoon. I needed to meet with Clarice and thought it would be a good idea for Kate to come, too. Melody and Lissa had to check on the new shipment of fabric and decide when they were going to organize the dying process. And Wendy…
“Excuse me?” Wendy said softly. She was sitting on the arm of the chair with me where I’d read stories to the boys.
“What is it, Tiger?” I asked.
“Um… may I still rent a room here?” Everyone smiled at that.
“Of course you can, sweetie,” Lissa said. “We need to fix things up for you. Do you know which room you’d like?”
“Uh… just… if I take a room downstairs, can I still come up here? I don’t always want to be alone,” she said.
“Tiger, if you’d rather, you can have the guestroom up here,” I said. “You don’t have to be downstairs. We suggested that because up here you’d have to share a bathroom with the boys.”
“Downstairs is okay if I can…” She took a deep breath. “Can I still be…” She was really struggling. I didn’t know what she was trying to say. Kate snuggled up with us. She petted Wendy’s left cheek.
“You want to know if you can still be part of the family?” Kate asked. Wendy nodded.
“Of course you can!” Melody said. We all hugged.
“In fact,” I said. “For tonight, I think we should see if we’ll all five fit in the big bed. I’ve gotten kind of used to having a lot of women in my bed.” That earned me a friendly punch in the arm, but there was also general agreement.
Pretty much everything Wendy owned was either destroyed or damaged in the fire. We were all relieved to find out that after her last experience with Rafe, she’d opened a bank account and deposited her tips and paychecks daily. But she was going to need that money. There was some talk of restitution, but Wendy was pretty sure her father didn’t have enough money for Tent City to sue him. The city had made some emergency funds available to help residents acquire new tents and the essentials for their camp. The camp was reforming at Haller Lake where they were supposed to go on Saturday when they left SCU. Many of the residents were temporarily housed in a dormitory on campus and were returning to the camp, but it was smaller than it had been. Some simply wandered away, no longer believing they were safe.
Kate had shopped for Wendy before we left for Nebraska, so in addition to the clothes Kate shared out of her own closet, Wendy had new, decent underwear. They were similar builds, though Wendy was still pretty thin.
I’d already decided that I was taking Wendy shopping tomorrow. She needed some school clothes and some things to just kick back in. She and Kate had raided the studio a few weeks ago to grab two of my paint smocks to wear as nightshirts. And they were pretty cute.
“Wendy,” I said. “Are you feeling any pain in your right arm now? I noticed you didn’t really put salve on it before we left this morning.” I hadn’t put salve on my face, either, though I might continue to use the aloe Mom provided at night. It itched a little, but the redness was fading and was hardly noticeable.
“No. The only place I’m still using it is my face and scalp. Most of my face is like yours now. Just the top part and my temple,” she said. She pulled off her tiger scarf and turned her head to show me. Kate leaned over me and kissed her.
“How about a hot tub, then? We’ve managed five in it before.”
“Sounds good to me,” Lissa said. “Let’s not make it quite as hot as usual and not use the jets. We do have to listen for the boys.”
“The heat sounds good,” Wendy said. “If my arm is too sensitive to it, I can always lift it out of the water.”
We were finally able to relax. We sat in the tub with the hot water almost up to our chins. Wendy was on my right and Kate was on her right. Melody was snuggled against me on my left and Lissa was between Kate and Melody.
“Say, Mel? Do you think you could bleach Wendy’s pubic hair into tiger stripes?” I asked. She looked up at me like I’d just grown another head. Wendy started giggling.
“It’s the only fur I have left,” she laughed. Oh, that sounded good. I was still afraid to leave Wendy alone because she was overwhelmed by guilt when she thought of her father setting the fire.
“Um… well… I guess I could,” Melody speculated. “I’d have fun playing around trying!”
Wendy giggled and leaned across me. Melody met her half way and kissed her softly.
“There’s one thing about tonight, though, Wendy,” Lissa said. “I hope you are okay with cuddling up to Tony. Melody and I are planning to make a Kate sandwich.”
“Mmm yum,” Wendy said. “Do you mind if I have a Tony snack?”
“Sweetie, you and Tony can do whatever you decide to do,” Kate said. “You don’t order him around and he doesn’t order you. Got it?”
“It’s hard for me, Kate,” Wendy said. “I’m working on it.”
“I’m sure it will be hard for you if that’s what you want,” Melody laughed. Her hand dipped between my legs and stroked from the balls up, where she met Wendy’s hand, already in progress.
We didn’t have sex.
Well, there was no penetration. Not vaginal, anal, or oral. We slid into bed and occupied a very small edge while we watched Melody and Lissa devour Kate. We had too little time in Nebraska to simply let ourselves go and all three had been waiting for these few minutes.
Wendy lay partially on top of me, humping subtly on my right thigh. As a result, she was also rubbing my hardening cock. I kissed her head and squeezed her butt.
“Am I ugly?” she asked. The girls were making far too much noise to hear our whispered conversation.
“Not a bit,” I answered. “You have a beautiful head.”
“Really?”
“Really. You should consider keeping it shaved. It looks good.”
“You’re teasing.”
“Maybe a little. But there is nothing ugly about you, Tiger. You know what? I still remember the first time I went to Carmine’s with Lissa, Melody, Jack, and Lexi. They were all out dancing and this incredibly cute waitress came to clear the table. She kept leaning over, right in front of me,” I said. “It was almost as if she wanted me to peek down her blouse. Well, I did. I still remember the red bra she was wearing. It was all frilly.”
“Burned now,” Wendy sighed.
“Yeah, but there are other bras if you decide you want to wear one. You know when I saw that tiger girl next? She was right here in this house and stark naked,” I said, remembering our first posing party. “I thought right then, ‘Carmine’s is going to become my favorite restaurant.’ And it is.” We talked and kissed, and I let my left hand glide down across her breasts so I could softly rub her nipples. She moved her hand to my cock and began stroking me, almost as if afraid she’d break it.
“I thought, ‘That boy is the odd one out, poor guy. Maybe I should flirt a little.’ So, I just bent over and flashed him,” Wendy said. “I had no idea I’d end up in his bed, or in his pictures.”
She pressed her pussy into my thigh and rocked back and forth as she stroked my cock. When we saw Kate come, Wendy’s grip tightened and I pinched her nipples a little harder. We settled down for a minute, just keeping each other interested as we watched the women beside us. I could feel the wet, slick trail she was leaving on my thigh as she worked herself back and forth. I’d pumped out enough precome that her hand was also sliding freely.
Lissa was next. Kate was between her legs as Melody sucked Lissa’s nipples. Lissa’s leg came up so hard and fast that I thought she was going to kick us. Melody was on top of Kate in an instant with their faces buried in each other’s pussy. It seemed like they were in a race to make the other come. Kate won as Melody yelped into Kate’s pussy, driving Kate to a second orgasm.
“Will you kiss me, Tony?” Wendy asked.
“Anytime you want, Tiger,” I said, matching actions to words. While we kissed, Wendy’s rhythms on my leg and her hand on my cock picked up speed and we were only a minute later than the girls when we came, her juices soaking my leg and my flood coating her stomach. Without wiping it off, Wendy rolled further onto me and simply rubbed her body on the fluids, smoothing them over the two of us. It had been a long day and we drifted off into sleep, sticking to each other.
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