Chapter 4
Smiling serenely, moving gracefully, the all-but-naked Daisy came back down the stairs.
Able stared at her, his throat suddenly so dry he couldn't swallow. He wanted Daisy, he wanted her badly, but he wanted her alone. In their room and on their own bed. And he didn't want any more delay.
"Oh-ho!" Ben said as he got up from the sofa where he and Fern had been sprawling naked. "Daisy's not chicken!"
"Of course she's not," Edna said. "Come on, Daisy, take it off!"
She made a grab at Daisy's bit of blue cloth, but Daisy leaped nimbly aside. Then she put her left hand on her hip and put her right hand in her hair. Breasts held high she paced sexily about the room, and Chuck let out a wolf howl.
"Take it off, take it off!" Ben said, clapping his hands.
"I may and I may not," Daisy said, looking aloof but still smiling.
"Chicken! Chicken!" Fern called.
Able felt relieved. Daisy wasn't actually going to fall in with this nonsense about making love in front of the others. But somehow he had to break up this horse-play and get her up to the bedroom.
"That's right," Chuck said, "they're both chicken."
"I think that Ben and Fern are the only two who may have a right to say that," Daisy said, still strutting about. "They're the only two who've taken all their clothes off and have been loving each other."
"Then you and Able will maize love for us if Edna and I take the rest of our clothes off?"
Daisy smiled and gave an exaggerated shrug which made her naked breasts bob a good deal more than was necessary.
"We may," Daisy repeated, "and we may not."
"We'll just see!" Fern said.
Ben turned to Chuck. "All right, old buddy! Off with those swimming trunks!"
Chuck was already pulling them down. He was as aroused as Ben was, and neither of them tried to hide the fact
"Take 'em off, honey,': he said to Edna, grinning at her.
She hesitated, then, more slowly than her husband, slid her yellow pants down her legs, baring everything she had down to each last lovely curve. She was all blonde, Able observed.
He looked around. He and Daisy were the only people who had on any clothing at all. He saw four smiling, grinning people, two men and two women, completely stripped. Yet they looked as if they were wearing some strange kind of invisible swimming suits. Both Ben and Chuck, like Daisy and him, were quite brown except for the white skin about their hips. Edna was a creamy tan and Fern a kind of copper color, and they not only had small white areas below but lighter flesh on their breasts as well. And they looked just as excited as the men.
As excited as Able felt.
"Well?" Edna said.
"Don't you feel ridiculous with all those clothes on?" Ben asked.
"Take em off, take 'em off I" Fern and Chuck called out in unison.
Able thought that Daisy might laugh and make a fast dash up the stairs. He hoped that she would. He'd then make a dash after her, they'd lock the door, and then they'd have their pleasure all by themselves. He'd be the first to dash himself, dragging Daisy after him, but he had an awful feeling that she might insist on lingering behind. And then something really bad might happen.
Daisy grinned. She turned her back to the others, bent slightly, waving her bottom at them, and began pushing down the back of her blue bikini bottom. As her buttocks emerged, she turned with slithering movement to face the group again and let the bit of cloth fall to the floor.
The others applauded and whistled and yelled, "Bravo, bravo!" and even Able had to laugh.
Maybe, just maybe, they'd acutally go through with this silly idea.
After all, it was true that they were among friends. Nobody but the six of them would know. And if the others did the same thing....
"Take 'em off, Able!" Chuck yelled. But Able was already stepping out of his swimming trunks.
"Oo, isn't he nice!" Edna said. "Just look at him!"
"Just look at her!" Ben said.
"Hey!" Fern said with a laugh. "Somebody look at me!" Ben grinned and gave her a slap on the bottom.
"How about it now," Chuck said. "Are you two going to perform?"
"We may and we may not," Able answered, taking a leaf from Daisy's book. "It all depends."
"Depends on what?"
"Don't we get to watch too?"
"What do you want?" Ben asked. "Mirrors?"
"No, I want to watch you! You and Fern."
Daisy laughed at the sudden blank look on Ben's face.
Fern came to Ben's rescue. "After you, us. Then Chuck and Edna."
"This was your idea. You go first."
"You can't get out of it that way," Edna said. "You were challenged. Are you chicken or not?"
"Are you? How about you?"
"Don't argue with them, honey," he heard Daisy say close to his ear "We know who's chicken and who isn't."
"You two give us a show," Chuck said, "and then we'll do the same for you Of course if you don't want to take care of your own wife, Able, Edna tells me that she wouldn't mind my doing it as long as she could watch."
Fern laughed. "I feel the same way!"
Then the other four were whistling and applauding again as Daisy slid into Able's arms and fitted her warm mouth to his.
We're going to! Able thought, his heart thumping. We're actually going to do our loving right in front of these people!
In that instant the room fell completely silent. Able had never felt more excited in his entire life.
We're going to! he thought. We're going to!
They walked slowly toward the sofa, his arm around her back, she leaning against his side. On their way, they paused to kiss. His hand drifted over her buttocks, hers drifted over his front. They kissed again, their tongues touching, and he played with a rosy button on her breast.
He wondered just how drunk he and Daisy were, how drunk they all were. Like most men, he'd entertained some pretty crazy ideas in his time, but he'd never seriously considered doing anything like this, and he doubted that Daisy had either. We're going to! he thought again, but he kept a lingering thought, even a hope that at the last moment something would happen to stop them, that he or Daisy would back down or that the others would make them stop.
But glancing around, he saw that the others hardly looked in the mood to stop them. Their eyes flowed with anticipation. Ben and Chuck looked as strained with desire as ever, as strained as Able was. Fern was leaning against Ben's side and the two were quite openly fondling each other as they watched Able and Daisy. Chuck was standing behind Edna, his hands moving slowly over the front of her body from her breasts to her legs.
No, nobody was going to stop them. And Able didn't want to stop.
They reached the edge of the sofa. The silence seemed almost dense now. He could hear Daisy breathing. He seemed almost to hear the breathing and the beating hearts of the entire group.
Daisy, still against his side, turned toward him, her breasts coming against his chest. Her eyes, dimmed and narrowed, yet excited, were like those of a stranger. One of her hands found and stroked him while he caressed a globe and manipulated the taut nipple.
They kissed with lips that burned, lips that seemed twice their normal thickness. Her tongue came out and played openly over his mouth, and he slid his hand down her body to return her tantalizing strokes in kind.
She swayed her stomach up against him. They looked at their bodies and moved from side to side. Able felt as if he were in some kind of sensual trance.
He took Daisy's elbows and pushed gently. She moved back from him and her legs touched the sofa. He held onto her and lowered her slowly until she was sitting down, and then, just as slowly, she lay back.
He thought he could actually hear the four other naked people breath harder and try to swallow. The whole room seemed to be in the grip of a terrific tension.
He lifted one of Daisy's knees and put her bare foot on the sofa. He put his knee on the sofa beside her leg. She reached toward him and her fingers drifted over him like fire. He wanted to take her, he wanted her right away, but something made him hold back.
He leaned down over her and they kissed, their tongues playing. He caressed her breasts while her warm fingers curved on him and moved smoothly over him. He drifted his hand over her stomach. He stroked the inner surfaces of her legs, then petted her, making her completely ready.
Chuck groaned shudderingly as Able moved down over Daisy's body to press his mouth over one of her nipples. He worked the nipple with his tongue, kissed the other, then kissed the undersides of her breasts. He moved his mouth over her ribs and then down around her navel. As he moved on, she began to quake.
Then he was breathing against her, kissing her, touching her everywhere. He heard Fern make a sound something like a sob. He looked up at Daisy's face, and it was tense with desire.
"Take me," she whispered. "Take me!"
He rose up over her, moving into position.
Daisy's fingers found him again and she lifted herself toward him, presenting herself. She drew at him.
Still he held back.
"Take me!" Daisy whispered again.
"They're-they're not really-going to!" came Fern's shaky, amazed voice.
"Sure, they are!" Edna said.
"Come on, come on!" Daisy said, drawing at him.
And still he didn't move.
"Go ahead," Chuck said softly.
And suddenly Able was completely aware of what they were doing. A sobering coldness swept through his mind. He was here, about to take Daisy, and four people were standing about to watch them make love.
"Oh, give it to me!" Daisy gasped.
He tried to force himself toward her.
Then he realized that something was happening to him.
Panic surged through him. He told himself that he must have drunk too much. He thought that he must have been under the strain of arousal for too long. But most of all he felt the eyes that were on him, watching to see him perform.
His panic infected Daisy. She must have recognized the failing of his power, for her eyes widened and her hand worked to agitate him. "Take me, take me quick!"
He straightened his hips, thrusting toward her. She pulled him tightly to her "Take me!" Daisy said desperately. He tried.
He tried to want her.
He tried to revive his power, to take her.
He couldn't.