Loosening Up Bk. 02 Ch. 21-24

Chapter 21 – Fixations

The board and a handful of other Circle members sat around in the living room of the core building on Monday afternoon; the day was a holiday so most of the Circle were home. Holly, who was not present, had just been confirmed as an affiliate member. Julie had briefed her beforehand on the roles, responsibilities, timing, and benefits of membership. Holly had already handed over her check for $500, as well as a separate check as her rent on a portion of the tenth house on the Circle that Julie had computed as a reasonable rent given the other things pending regarding that house. Those payments were a bit presumptuous, but turned out to be valid assumptions.

Aaron and Shelby were also accepted as members. Julie and Dave had also talked to them about what else was entailed besides the visible things they'd seen as they visited. Both of them were enthused about moving to Florida to the Circle, and Aaron was especially eager to begin his new job. They'd already started to arrange for their belongings to be moved and their house sold, and Aaron had immediately given a couple of months notice to his CPA firm, hanging in with them until the end of tax season.

On Tuesday, Dave drove up to Orlando in the morning to visit InDrex, the company making an app for self-driving cars. He'd read up on the state of the art on the cars, at least what was in the public press. Everything at the company seemed right on the verge of moving ahead, but everyone there was having problems of some kind.

Bjorn Andersen was the CEO of InDrex, as well as the brains of the operation. The idea for the app had been his, and he'd been the power in the negotiations with Toyota and Google. He was working on a few others.

Andersen was a young powerhouse in his early-thirties who admitted to only sleeping four hours a day. His own money and a healthy chunk from Holly's venture capital firm in Chicago backed the company. The VC firm had taken an ownership stake in the firm in exchange for a position on the board and twenty million dollars. Everyone involved hoped to see an IPO in a year or two, about the time the first commercial sales of driverless cars of some kind took to the roads.

Dave got a briefing on the company, its loose management structure, the product and possible variations, status of the end apps, and the state of talks with the various manufacturers expected to offer driverless cars in the North American market. Dave talked with Bjorn for a few moments at the end of the briefing about the board's schedule and duties, and then left to make the long drive home at the end of the day.

When he got home he found dinner had long ago ended, but Holly had saved him a plate. She rushed around the kitchen at home to warm up the dinner for him.

"HOLLY!" Dave finally said in a loud voice that resonated around the empty house.

She stopped and looked surprised at him. "What? Did I do something wrong?"

"No, BUT you do not need to act like a submissive little wife. I am a big boy, and can get my own dinner. I am very grateful for you saving me a plate. The chicken looks delicious, especially with the vegetables that you selected for me, but I do NOT expect to be waited on."

"But ... I love you. I want to do things for you."

Dave held up a finger and then quickly walked into the core to the library shelves. He ignored the sexual activities already underway, and returned to his home and Holly. He handed her the book he'd taken off the library shelves.

"Holly, this was a well-known book about twenty years ago, but I only discovered it about two years ago in a used bookstore. It's by Gary Chapman, and is entitledvThe Five Love Languages. You should read it because you presumed that when you did something subservient for me – a service, that I would see that as an act of love. I won't say more, other than to hint that my love language that I do get that message of love from is not personal service. See if you can figure out the others. We'll talk about it when you've finished, and this is not a command that you read it. You can probably find various summaries online if you don't want to read the complete volume."

Holly took the book and thumbed through the pages while Dave ate.

Dave said, "You should be out with the others in the core. I saw that some erotic things had started out there when I raced in and got the book."

"I know, but I wanted to be here when you got home."

"Have you made love with anybody today, men or women?" Dave asked.

"No."

"Yesterday?"

"Only you."

"Holly, you worry me. I don't want you to fixate on me. I know you have a fantasy about being my mate and us living together, but the reality is that I live in a house here that's full of people who love each other – including me, and a whole Circle full of others who also love me and whom I love – including you. They're all in the core or on the patio right now. I don't fixate on any one of them, except Alice because we have a long history together, including the steps that led us to today during which we loosened up."

"How can I un-fixate?" Holly sounded disappointed.

"Talk to Owen and Alice. They were both fixated on each other a year-and-a-half ago, and they unstuck to preserve something larger than themselves that today we call the Circle and my marriage. Ask them what they did, or if they did anything." Dave briefly outlined what had happened when Alice went to Paris and Rome with Owen during their loosening up process, and how she almost jumped ship to live with Owen the rest of her life.

"What do you want to do now?" Holly asked, sounding unsure of herself.

"Let's go out to the core and mix in with the others. I promised Kat some time loving her because for some reason we haven't been together in a long time."

Dave quickly shed his business clothes and donned some exercise shorts, but he knew they'd likely be gone in a few minutes. He joined Holly back in the living room; she was naked. They walked through the corridor leading to the core and the patio.

Kat seemed to have just finished making love with Roy. The two of them were curled up together quietly watching some of the other couples and threesomes that had formed and were still fucking or making love in some way.

Dave walked up to the pair. "Am I still on your dance card for tonight?" he asked Kat.

"Oh, yes. I'm so glad you're back. I'm a bit messy from Roy. Let me wash off in the pool and showers."

Holly quickly knelt in front of Kat. "NO! You won't be messy for long, if you're willing to let me clean you, and I hope it'll be more pleasurable than the pool and shower."

Kat agreed, spread her legs, and the two men watched as Holly swooped in with her tongue wagging and dove into Kat's sodden cunt. A few slurping sounds were heard, and then Kat groaned as pleasure overtook her and then an orgasm swept her small frame. She gripped one of Roy's legs as the climax hit her.

A little later, Holly pulled away and said, "There! I think that's about as clean as I can get it without resorting to some serious suction with a vacuum cleaner."

"I'm fine!" Kat stated sharply; trembling at the thought Holly just planted in her head.

Dave held his hand, and Kat rose into his arms and they kissed. When they broke the kiss, Dave looked and Holly had all of Roy's cock in her mouth as she massaged his scrotum and made happy humming noises. Roy was getting harder by the instant, so Dave guessed that he and Holly would couple very soon.

Kat and Dave took an adjacent empty double chaise as they kissed and whispered sweet love words to each other. Dave always found Kat pleasing. She was a pint-sized pixie in some ways, but had breasts that belonged on a larger, well-endowed woman. The combination made her a sexual delight for Dave, and then there was her personality that just sparkled for him every time they were near each other.

As Dave entered her body with his long cock, Kat sighed in pleasure. "God, I will never get tired of making love with you. I wish you'd find me more often for this. I guess you're expanding your harem, with Holly and Shelby."

Dave shook his head. "I'm trying to getthemto diversify and not focus so much on me. Oh, I love the ego stroking that their declarations of love and sex do for me, but I do them a disservice by letting them think they can form some kind of exclusive relationship with me."

"So, what are you doing?"

"Besides making love to you?" he teased. "I just came from a 'reality check' with Holly, where I reminded her about the value set of the Circle and cohousing – non-monogamy, non-exclusivity, diversity, sharing, expansion, and growth. I'm hoping when she moves in with Aaron and Shelby that they'll deflect some of her energy that's focused on me."

"Alice doesn't mind?"

"No. Matter of fact I referred Holly to Alice and Owen since they were super-focused on each other after their European trip. I think one more minute together and she would have moved in with him for the rest of time. They backed down from that week of obsession, so I thought they could tell Holly how they coped with it."

Kat kissed him hard and had a small orgasm, "They're still pretty thick. I think he's still her lover of choice besides you."

"At least they pretend well, if there's anything more than what we all see," Dave admitted. "Maybe I should be worried, but I'm content to let Alice manage her own life. I make myself available to her, and she's usually there doing the same for me. We're close and intimate in all the right ways. The nights she hasn't been next to me in bed are rare. That says something about both of us and our marriage, I think."

"Oh ... God ... again ... fuck," Kat crooned as another, more intense orgasm appeared on the heels of the one a minute earlier. "How do you do that? Is that because you're so large inside me?"

Dave shrugged, "Maybe. I think the head of my cock gets near you're A-spot, but my initial strokes rub your G-spot, and I like using my fingers on your clit while we're fucking."

"Whatever you're doing, it's working miracles on me. God, I'm on another planet."

A few minutes later, Dave allowed his own climax as he felt Kat working up to another 'Big One'. She was on top of him when she came and fell into his arms. They made out for a while as he softened inside her.

Dave noted that Roy and Holly were making love on the chaise beside them. They were moving in slow motion.

After a long quiet time and cuddling, Dave asked Kat, "How're things going with Mike and your new job?"

Kat sighed, "Oh, just magnificently. I'm feeling so self-actualized working for him. I get to help in so many ways: makeup, helping the girls get comfortable with the situation, filming, editing, and now I'm helping Mike with the website and marketing of selected videos."

"And your own videos?" Dave teased.

Kat said, "Ssssssh. You're not supposed to know. I've done about one a week with Mike and sometimes Clarisse. I'm becoming quite the porn star according to him. Sean knows what's going on, but no one else. I'll show everybody one of these days, but for now we're just having fun fucking, sucking, and filming our games. I have about a half-dozen up on Mike's website."

"So, the job has benefits?"

"I get Mike to fuck me at least twice a day. When we got into a routine, Mike decided that I should do more videos. He met with Sean and me to go through that decision making. It was pretty easy on my part."

"You in love with Mike?"

"Yes, but I also love Sean ... and you ... and the other men. I love the Circle. This is the most fabulous situation in the world. Look around at all of us. We're hornier than a Rome traffic jam. Everybody fucks everybody else – and we love all of them. The girls play nice together. The guys are great friends. We all have great jobs. This is heaven."

Dave's second and last lovemaking session of the night was with Shelby who had found him, sucked Kat clean the same way Holly had, sucked on Dave until he was hard, and then mounted him with Kat returned to his arms. Aaron had become enraptured with eighteen-year-old Rachel, and the two of them were all but putting on a Fuck Show for the rest of the Circle as they used the massage table to great advantage.

Shelby said, "I'm sad that we'll be leaving tomorrow. Now that I know we're moving, we have a big list of things to do to get the house ready to put on the market, and everything."

"I know you'll be back. Moreover, you and Aaron have that couple you've been playing with. You have to get together with them and tell them what your week here has been like. Just remember the Circle's rules."

"Oh, I know. We had the same rules, but they're even more important now. Aaron thinks we'll come back next month for a long weekend. He'll be up to his ears in taxes for his company's clients, but a month or so after that we move here permanently ... and then you can fuck me, morning, noon, and night."

Dave laughed. "It shouldn't be just me. I just told Holly this, namely that you can't fixate on me." He repeated some of the explanation he gave the second new affiliate member about being inclusive with all of the Circle members.

"Also, to emphasize a point, I strongly recommend that you keep Aaron happy and not go all super-slut on him and push him away because you've discovered sex and a whole bunch of new affectionate boyfriends who want to fuck your brains out. You two love each other, and need to keep reconfirming that in many different ways."

Shelby kissed him. "I am going off the deep end, aren't I? Please keep reminding me. This life – the Circle and you – are like new toys and I've kind of stopped playing with the old ones. I need reminding. I suspect that Aaron does, too. He's gotten more pussy this past week than our entire life prior to last Saturday added together, or nearly so. He was virgin until the two of us did the deed; this is the first extra-marital pussy he's ever had and he admitted he finds great joy in the variety. So do I. He's excited about the new lifestyle we've been accepted into, and the potential for the rest of our life in the Circle. I hope we come to our senses about each other after we move in the Circle."

"I'm sure you will, and I will keep reminding you about your prior commitments, even if you've renegotiated the contract. Your time up north will be a good time to reconnect."

"The contract?"

"Your marriage contract. About three months ago, you reopened the negotiations you'd completed five years ago when you got married. You'd originally signed up for a life-long, loving, monogamous, and exclusive relationship with each other, at least those were the high points. Now, you've redefined all that. You can love other people as well as each other, and you needn't limit your sexual relations."

"We're unfaithful to each other?"

"Are you? Alice and I went through this about two years ago. You're faithful to the relationship, as you've negotiated the terms. Alice and I are the same way. We changed the terms, and are now faithful to them."

"So, you didn't feel guilty when you went to that seminar and fucked seven other women during the week?"

"Slightly. That was in the scope of our new agreement – our open marriage. I did feel a little guilt, and even mentioned what was going on to Alice during a phone call from Arizona back here. She laughed and told me to go for it. Of course, I also knew she was fucking Owen and sleeping in his bed at least part of the time, along with some of the other men."

"Revenge fucks?"

"At first, I thought that when I had sex with some of the other women, but I got over that feeling. That would have meant I was jealous and angry, and needed to take out my aggression in some way. I didn't feel those emotions."

"Do you miss the exclusivity and monogamy?"

"Truthfully, yes. Sometimes, I get overwhelmed with the old feelings, emotions, and rules that I was inculcated with growing up. But then, Pam or Julie or Heather or one of the other women will come and kiss me, and tell me that they love me, and all that old stuff evaporates away. That life and attendant emotions is truly behind me, except for those brief flashbacks. I could never go back; I'd miss this life too much."

"Thank you," Shelby said with a kiss. "I understand even better about the Circle, you, Alice, and everybody here."

"We do all think pretty much alike. We've had discussions like this over the many weeks we've all been together."

Holly moved into the tenth house over the next month. She went back to Chicago, packed up her apartment, and a week later, the rest of her possessions arrived. She took pictures of everything before having them shipped, and talked to Aaron and Shelby by phone and email about each of the large items and whether it would have a place in their new home.

Officially, Holly and the Prentiss' decided that she would be classified as renting a room from them. Before they'd left at the end of February, they'd walked through the house and decided on how to blend what they had with all the other furniture that Owen had been requested to leave with the house, and what the various rooms would be used for.

Holly was on the same emotional high from becoming an affiliate Circle member that Aaron and Shelby were at becoming full members. Like Shelby, she was focused on Dave – Aaron's brother, but both were following his edict that they needed to diversify with the other men in the Circle.

Shelby came back at the end of March to begin working her new territory of Florida and Georgia, visiting doctors to promote Celude products, the Canadian pharmaceutical company she worked for.

She was as stoked up to have sex with Dave and the other men as she had been when she headed up north with Aaron. She had also done her homework about the 'right' doctors in the various counties that surrounded us that she wanted to visit.

Apparently, there was a protocol about how to visit the doctors and actually get face time with them. Just before or just after lunch were the more coveted times, as there was a possibility the doctor would talk to you while they wolfed down a sandwich they either brought from home or had one of their staff get them. Becoming on the good side of the receptionist was mandatory. Asking for the lunch appointment AND volunteering to pick-up the lunch order accomplished all the tasks, and got results.

Shelby also had a kit of giveaways, samples, brochures, and even books that all gave favorable ratings to Celude products – always they were written by some impartial author and often that was another doctor that waxed eloquent about how effective this or that pharmacological drug had been. Thus, she lugged a sample case with her everywhere she went. Some time each evening was spent replenishing her sample case with stock she had shipped to her from Montreal.

She'd also update the PowerPoint presentations on her MacBook and iPad if she got as far as show 'n tell. She had presentations that got the message across in one minute, two minutes, five minutes, and a long one at ten minutes.

Although, Shelly started to stay in the tenth house on the Circle, she usually slept with one of the other families or men in the Circle. "I'm trying to show you how non-exclusive and how 'not fixated on you' I am," she told Dave. She laughed as Dave gave her a sly grin over his reading glasses.

Shelby also shared some interesting and sexy experiences they'd had with the other couple they'd been experimenting with in their hometown – Sasha and Martin. She showed some of the Circle pictures of the couple sitting in their living room; both were partially nude and looking clean cut and cute. Martin was a large and muscular man, handsome to a fault, not unlike Dev and Dave. Sasha appeared to be a blonde knockout.