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Chapter 15
There were quite a number of people at this ritual. Lughnasad was the
time when the bread made of the season's first grain was shared. Sally had, of
course, made a lot of bread. Ken doubted that it was actually made with the
season's first grain, but it was the thought that counted.
In addition to the current Circle members, Gary and Bill, Ellen, Kim and
Sandy had also shown up. Joan happily joined in with her two lovers. And when
Ken drew down the Goddess, everyone's breath caught as She responded.
It was amazing, Ken mused later, how She could do that, yet those who
presumably didn't know She was a Goddess didn't wonder how She could just
appear. Ken was sure She did something to keep people from focusing on that,
but when he asked Her, Her response was less than helpful.
"People will see what they expect to see," She later replied. "If they
*know* that someone cannot just appear, then they will find a way to rationalize
that appearance. Most of the time."
After the actual ritual was over, She indicated that Ken should step to
the center of the Circle. He was a bit surprised, although he shouldn't have
been. As a rule, Lea did not induct new members. Annette and Genie were called
to the middle by Ken.
"Annette," he said, "you have said that you want to join with us, to
become a Priestess of the Circle. Is this still your wish?"
Annette started to kneel, but Ken's eyes narrowed and he shook his head.
Somewhat at a loss, Annette looked at him, then raised her head.
"Yes, Ken. I come to you, the High Priest, and ask to be allowed to
serve Lea."
That startled Ken. There really were no formal words to bring someone
to the Circle. Well, up until this point, anyway. He suspected that Annette
had just changed that. Well, then: 'once begun, best done' and all that.
"Genie, you have said that you want to join with us, to become a Priestess
of the Circle. Is this still your wish?"
"Yes, Ken. I come to you, Lea's High Priest, and ask to be allowed to
serve Her."
Inside, Ken felt something. He realized that it was the same something
he'd felt every time someone officially joined the Circle. It reconfirmed what
he already knew: they belonged with the Circle.
Behind Genie and Annette, the Circle had gathered. Ken had a thought.
"Bill, Gary, please come to me," he said.
Despite the fact that both men were startled, they walked toward Ken.
They weren't even sure they wanted to, but they did anyway.
"These two women are ready to become Priestess of the Circle. Will you
give your blessing to this?"
Neither of them were ready for this. Nor, in fact, was anyone else; Ken
had thought of it on the spur of the moment, but realized that it was absolutely
the correct thing to do.
Gary nodded, and said, "Of course."
Bill just nodded, at which Ken smiled and said, "Then I ask the Circle
to greet our new members."
Tears, kisses and hugs abounded. Joan was grabbed and pulled in by Eric
and Sally, and Tina and Arianwen pulled in Kim and Ellen.
Once things had started to die down a bit, Gary looked around and
realized that this might not be the time for what he'd had planned. Suddenly,
he found himself looking into a pair of beautiful, deep-green eyes. It was Lea,
and he found that he was just as paralyzed now as he had been the last time he'd
seen Her.
"Now," She said, "is the perfect time." She cocked Her head and smiled,
"Just think of how you will face the wrath of Sally, who has cooked a feast, if
you do not follow through."
To his surprise, Gary laughed out loud. It completely broke the tension
that had been inside him. Ken had noted the interplay between Lea and Gary and
called for everyone's attention.
"There is," he said after people had quieted down a bit, "one more thing
to do before we finish the ritual." He looked at Gary.
Gary walked to his slave. Since no one was clothed, keeping the box
hidden, even as small as it was, had not been easy. As he looked at Annette,
her breath caught, and she began to kneel.
"Not this time, Love," he said catching her hand and keeping her on her
feet.
He held out the small box to her. It was just as beautifully carved as
the one for Ken had been. Actually, it was even more beautiful and somehow,
just the quick glance he had of it, somehow reminded him intensely of Annette.
He couldn't say how, exactly, but just as the other box made him think of the
Garden, this one made him think of Annette.
Annette gasped when she saw the box. She knew how rare it was for Gary
to carve something like this, and it was astonishingly beautiful. She cradled
it in her hand, tears starting in her eyes. Gary gently cupped her hand, then
opened the box. Inside lay a single ring, also of carved wood. Ironwood, as it
turned out.
"Will you be my wife?" asked Gary.
Annette was silent for a moment, then she looked at him. "Yes," she
replied, then put her arms around his waist and hugged him tightly, pressing her
cheek against his skin.
Naturally fresh hugs and kisses sprang up as everyone congratulated
them. Gary, however, shortly held his hand up and asked for quiet.
"Annette," he said as she stepped slightly away from him, "we can have a
big party and a big ceremony later, if you'd like. But when I asked if you
would marry me, I didn't mean later. I meant now."
Her eyes got big and she threw her arms around his neck, kissing him and
saying "yes" over and over again.
And so, Ken performed his first wedding ceremony. He knew they had the
approval of the Goddess and the words of the blessing flowed from him. Since
he'd known this was coming, he'd spent some time looking up various ceremonies,
and even Lea had had some things to add. It was a beautiful ceremony and Gary
and Annette were very happy.
+++++
Everyone was still asleep the next morning when Ken quietly headed off
to class. Well, 'still asleep' didn't really tell the whole story since, as far
as he knew, most people had only just gotten to sleep. He, himself, had only
dozed for about fifteen minutes before showering and heading out; as a result,
he was not feeling quite up to snuff during class. The only ones to notice were
Nikki and Sensei, although only the former said anything about it.
"Hard night, last night?" she smirked, with the emphasis on 'hard'.
"You might say that," he grinned.
+++++
It had indeed been a 'hard' night. After Gary and Annette had pledged
to each other, there came a feast. That was really the only word for it. Sally
had outdone herself, and when Annette saw the wedding cake she was just awed.
"I can't possibly cut that!" she wailed happily.
"You damn well better," replied Sally. "It's supposed to taste as good
as it looks!"
If anything, it tasted even better. Considering that they were
celebrating not only Annette's marriage and Genie and Bill's engagement, but the
addition of two new Priestesses to the Circle, the most surprising thing about
the evening, was that it was almost midnight before the play started. Tina got
the ball rolling, so to speak.
"So Master Gary," she said into one of the few lulls in the
conversation, "now that you're married to her, does this mean that I can't use
your slave?"
Gary looked up at her and smiled. "You know, I was just thinking about
that," he said standing up and holding out his hand.
Everyone assumed that he was going to lead Annette upstairs for some
private time.
"Considering that she's now a Priestess, I think it would be appropriate
to put my slave through her paces," he grinned.
It was obvious a second later what he'd really been thinking about,
because in one hand, he held cuffs and a strap. He spun Annette around and
cuffed her hands behind her, then spun her back and slid a hand between her
legs. She gasped and pushed against his hand. He held up his hand and it was
easy to see how wet it was.
"Looks like she's ready to start her new duties. Of course, since I'm
married to her, I claim first rights. But I think it would be very appropriate
to see how many orgasms my lovely wife can have," he said.
Annette's eyes glowed with love and not a little lust, as Gary pulled
her upstairs to the play room. Everyone followed and it wasn't long before Gary
had his wife bent over the horse, legs spread wide, with his cock deep inside
her. She moaned her approval, then moaned more loudly as he brought the strap
down on her exposed ass. He spent a good twenty minutes inside her, and she had
at least two climaxes during that time. Her ass was also quite red by the time
he was finished with the strap.
Tina and Ari were right there when he finished.
"Master Gary," asked Arianwen, "may we play with Annette?"
"Be my guest," he responded pulling out.
Tina was quickly between Annette's legs sucking Gary's cum from her wet
tunnel. Ari spread her red cheeks and slid her tongue across, then into
Annette's rosebud. Gary walked around to the front of his wife and she eagerly
accepted his cock in her mouth. About that time, Genie decided that she wanted
Bill so she grabbed his hand and started pulling him toward the doorway. Other
people, inspired by Gary and Annette, and started making use of the various
surfaces and toys in the play room.
Genie was more than a bit surprised when she pulled on Bill's hand and
felt resistance.
"You're not going to let Annette have all the fun are you?" he asked,
pointing to the woman who was now deep-throating Eric, while Tina and Ari licked
and sucked between her legs. Her husband was liberally using the strap on her
thighs, breasts and back and it was clear she was loving every minute of it.
"I guess not," she smiled.
It wasn't long before Genie found herself in a very odd position. She
was on her hands and knees with Ellen using a wide strap-on on her pussy.
Genie's fiance was vigorously fucking her asshole while slapping her ass cheeks.
Ellen was gently twisting and tugging Genie's nipples. However, Kim, was
kneeling over her Mistress' face and while Ellen ate her slave's delicious
pussy, Genie was busy tongue fucking her asshole.
Ken was indulging in a bit of suspension play with Jane, something he
was becoming quite skilled at. Her breasts were actually taking most of her
weight, even though there were ropes around her upper body. Each leg was tied
to ensure her cunt was open and available. He was using a fat single-tail to
decorate her body with heavy red welts. Her breasts, tight and full with blood,
were excellent targets, since the whip caused especially painful stripes. Her
pussy, so nice and open, was also an excellent target, which he made sure was
not neglected.
When he finished fucking Jane, Sally was more than happy to indulge
herself in some pussy eating, since her husband was currently occupied with
Annette. Sandy came over, her eyes gleaming with lust, Jane had the feeling she
was really in for it. Jane didn't know why, exactly, but she managed to bring
out something in Sandy that was very sadistic. Gee, she thought as Sandy began
working a barely lubed fist into her ass, what a shame.
"Your wife told me you like this," said Sandy, pushing harder than was
strictly necessary.
Jane grunted in response, the pain in her asshole complimenting the
harsh tug of her clit ring, currently between Sally's teeth.
"I can't believe how tight your hole is," continued Sandy. "What with
Ken plowing that telephone pole of his in your back door, and the fisting Ari
says you like so much, I'd think you'd be a little more loose."
"No Mistress," panted Jane, "I'm sorry Mistress."
Sandy landed a hard slap on Jane's already welted ass. "You will be,
slut," she said, pushing past her wrist into Jane's back tunnel.
She managed to get just a little more in before she pulled out, then
roughly pushed in again, forcing another grunt of pain from Jane.
Ken noticed that Joan was seated in a comfortable chair, but was alone.
She was still in her dress, but it was hiked up around her waist and she was
lightly rubbing herself through her panties. He was about to go over there,
when Tina beat him to it. Shrugging to himself, he turned toward Genie, who
currently had one hole that wasn't being used.
Joan had leaned back in the chair she was in, listening to, and getting
off on, the sights and sounds around her. She was wearing only her dress and
her panties, and her bare legs were comfortably over the well positioned arms of
the chair. She'd been holding off from cuming and was riding that edge when
something warm and wet engulfed her big toe. Joan opened her eyes in surprise
and came.
"Hi Joan," said Tina, popping the wet toe out of her mouth. She used
her fingers to rub Joan's insole. "I thought maybe I could return the message
you gave me a while ago. Perhaps with interest?"
Joan looked down at the beautiful teen. Thoughts of how old the girl
was fled from her mind as her pussy started turning into a swamp. Tina leaned
forward, licking and lightly biting Joan's thighs, working her way to the
growing damp spot on the silk covering Joan's pussy.
"Mmm, you smell so good," purred Tina. "May I?"
Joan, held in thrall by her lust for the girl, nodded. Rather than move
the silk away, Tina pulled Joan to the mat near the chair, managing to strip her
of her dress as she did so. She began her message of the older woman, but it
was certainly not a relaxing message. Her fingers trailed over the older
woman's body, not tickling, just arousing, and were often followed by her
tongue. She moved around and knelt near Joan's head, her firm breasts just over
Joan's mouth. Joan noticed that like Annette, Tina did not shave under her
arms, and under each one there was a damp patch of fine, dark gold hair.
She breathed in Tina's scent as the teen leaned forward to lick each of
her hard nipples. Things got a little fuzzy for Joan after that. She knew she
reached a number of orgasms, and remembered eagerly sucking Tina's pussy and
bringing the teen off. She remembered that, at one point, Tina had fingers in
both her pussy and asshole and that had brought her to a shattering climax. She
even remembered, or thought she remembered, Tina sitting on her face and playing
with her breasts, while someone else ate her own pussy. The embarrassing, and
very exciting part of that memory, was that she was sure she'd peed in, or on,
who ever was eating her pussy. Somehow, that had brought her to a huge climax
that left her seeing spots in front of her eyes.
Tina held her and stroked her as she recovered, then managed to convince
the exhausted woman that she needed to greet the two new Priestess. Somehow,
Joan found the energy to do just that. She vaguely remembered having, and maybe
even giving, a number of orgasms, but she was almost asleep on her feet by that
time.
All in all, Ken thought that the evening had been stellar. Gary had
never left Annette alone, no matter who else was with her, and Bill had done the
same with Genie. The only way the two men had gotten to enjoy the other new
Priestess, was when they'd gotten both the women together. By that time,
Annette's skin was covered with welts and a variety of fluids. All the men had
had them both, and each one had dumped a load in Genie's ass. She was a very
happy woman. Even Ellen had fucked her, hard, in the ass with the strap on and
Genie had loved every minute of it. Yes, it had been a very long day for Ken.
+++++
"Is widdle Kenny all worn out?" Nikki teased.
"Oh, I've got more than enough to handle you, little girl," he shot back
with a smile.
She slid into sultry siren mode, something that might have looked
comical since she was wearing a gea. Somehow, though, she managed to pull off
the look very well.
"Hmmm, now that sounds like a plan. You can take care of me any time
you'd like," she said in a husky voice.
"Oh," quipped Ken in a low voice. "I wonder how your Master would like
that."
"If you'd share one of those hot women you always seem to have with you,
I'm sure he'd agree," she said with a wicked smile. "I think the delicate,
little redhead is delicious."
'Delicate' was not how he'd describe Ari, but he had to admit she looked
the part.
"Yup," he responded, "she'd probably like that a lot. Don't know how
well you'd survive, but you'd go with a smile on your face."
"Yum," she said, licking her lips.
They laughed and headed out to the mat. The truth was that Ken would
have been more than happy to have a little play time with Nikki. But he was a
bit nervous about involving Sensei in any of this. Nikki, he was sure, had
serious Circle potential. But Sensei was just as unreadable now as he had been
the day Ken met him. Not only that, be he kept forgetting to ask Lea about the
man, which was damned odd.
+++++
When Ken returned to the house, everyone in the Circle was awake and
about. The other folks were still sleeping. Ken was thoroughly kissed by Genie
when he walked into the kitchen, which almost lead to her being had right on the
kitchen table. She didn't blink an eye at his threat, despite all the activity
the night before. Ken wondered just how far the Circle's capacity for sex was
going to go. Jane, who was there also, was no longer sporting any of the welts
from last night. She caught his look and batted her eyes at him.
"I wanted to provide Master with a new canvas to work with," she said.
By mid-afternoon, everyone had started drifting downstairs, some more
bleary-eyed then others. Joan seemed to be moving very slowly, but perked up
after two cups of coffee and a huge brunch that she felt very guilty eating.
The light massage that Tina was giving her shoulders didn't hurt her
disposition, either.
Although Tina recognized that Joan was somewhat submissive, she had also
realized last night that it would not have been a good idea to play up her own
dominant side. Eric or Ken, perhaps even Ellen, could dom Joan, but not Tina.
It was an interesting revelation that she wanted to think about. Just now,
however, feeling the woman's muscles relax under her hands was a sensuous
pleasure she reveled in.
A number of people had been invited to a late afternoon barbecue. That
was the good news. The bad news was that everyone forgot what that meant --
specifically, that none of the women were wearing a thing. Something that Sally
immediately realized when the bell rang and she answered the door for Eric's
parents.
"Hi," smiled Davyn, right as he noticed two things.
One: His daughter-in-law was completely naked.
Two: She was very, very attractive, and his cock was rapidly coming to
the same conclusion.
Helen's eyes widened as she looked at her nude daughter-in-law, but even
before Sally had registered what was wrong, her quick wits sprang to the fore.
"Well," Helen said with a smile, "I hadn't realized I'd be so
overdressed."
At that point, Sally turned white and scrambled behind the door.
"Shit!" she exclaimed. "Oh Goddess, I'm so sorry... I didn't mean, I
mean I forgot..."
Helen peeked around the door at Sally. "Sweetie, there's nothing for
you to be ashamed of. Really."
"Ain't that the truth," said Davyn, who was reacting to the presence of
a Priestess.
Eric, dressed only in a thin pair of running shorts, dashed around the
corner, reacting to Sally's distress.
"Mom! Dad! Is everything alright? Where's Sally?" he panted.
His mother smirked as Davyn pointed to the door, which Sally was still
behind. "Behind the door. I guess we caught her coming from the shower or
something."
Realizing what had happened, Eric was faced with several realizations.
The first of which was that none of the other women in the house were dressed.
The second of which was that his father had been quite affected by Sally's show.
The last, and most surprising, was that his mother had been also. He could
appreciate that his parents were good looking, but feeling their sexual desire
was more than a bit disconcerting. It was only later that he realized that it
mattered not at all to him that both of them were lusting after his wife.
Ken, having sensed that something was going on, had also headed toward
the front hall. He was fresh from the shower, but, like Eric, was wearing
shorts. While the sight did nothing for Davyn, Helen, who had not reacted at
all to her son, more than made up for it with Ken's entrance.
Both of them noted Ken's casual attitude about Sally's nakedness when he
mentioned that it would be nice if she took care of the clothing issue. Sally
was too flustered to understand that he wanted her to warn the other women, but
Eric wasn't and went with her for that purpose. However, Sandy, who had not
realized that others had arrived, picked that moment to come into the entrance
hall to get to the the grand staircase, just as Sally fled and Ken invited
Eric's parents in.
While she turned a bright red, she handled the situation with more
grace.
"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't realize that people were arriving already,"
she said. Then, with a huge smile at both of Eric's parents, she quickly went
upstairs.
Ken hoped fervently that Eric had gotten the message to the rest of the
women. As he was leading the Solbergs to the large pool -- by the long route --
he heard Helen whisper to Davyn, "If you don't take me somewhere, anywhere, in
the next ten minutes and fuck my brains out, I'm going to explode." She was
sure that Ken hadn't heard. In truth, he didn't know if he'd heard the comment,
or read it from her thoughts because she was projecting so strongly. But he
didn't need words to know that Davyn would be more than happy to keep his wife
from exploding.
Several hours later, while food was being cooked and distributed, Davyn
wandered up to Ken, who was manning the grill. Everyone who was coming was now
at the party. Karen, Tina and Ari were playing in the pool. For some reason
the game of keep-away contained a lot of grab-ass and eventually had Ari losing
her bottoms. Lots of squealing going on there. Lenny and David were deep in
conversation with Joan and Ellen. Neither failed to notice that Kim had decided
to kneel beside Ellen. And David had no trouble noticing the small woman's very
large and well-displayed breasts, which her bikini did almost nothing to hide.
Lenny, of course, couldn't care less, but Ken had noticed his eyes on Eric quite
often. Him too, actually.
"So, how's my car coming?" asked Ken.
"Pretty good," replied Davyn. "There are a few things that I wanted to
try out. They've been well tested, but not put on a standard car. You think
you'd be game?"
"I guess that depends on what those 'things' were," replied Ken.
Davyn shrugged. "If you got time tomorrow, I can show you then."
"Sounds good to me."
"So," asked Davyn, "I notice that the women here seem to be pretty
casual about what they wear."
Davyn and Helen, since they'd come early, had decided that they wanted
to go for a walk on the grounds. Ken had nodded and told them to make
themselves comfortable, even pointing out that if they stopped at the pool house
first, they'd find chairs to sit on, or a blanket, if they wanted to sit under a
tree or something.
The 'or something' had turned out to be Helen throwing herself at Davyn
in the pool house. They had fucked like mad, Davyn surprising himself with an
almost complete loss of control. Helen hadn't been satisfied, her one intense
orgasm nowhere near sating her, and they had grabbed a blanket and headed out.
They had only made it past a slight hill that kept them out of sight of
the house, before Davyn had spread out the blanket and turned to see his naked
wife looking at him. She had smiled and slunk onto the blanket as Davyn almost
broke his neck getting out of his pants, and they had coupled like people who
hadn't had sex in years. In fact, Davyn hadn't felt like this since he was a
teenager.
Ken was able to read Davyn well enough to know the man wasn't upset. On
the contrary, to his immense surprise, he was amazingly horny for a guy who'd
come twice in the last few hours.
Ken shrugged and said, "They don't like doing the laundry."
Davyn's eyes widened, and Ken continued, "Somehow, none of us guys
thought to complain about it."
"I bet," said Davyn dryly.
"Seriously, Davyn, I'm really sorry if you were offended. We are kind
of casual about clothing around here, though."
"Trust me, it's no problem. Eric is one hell of a lucky guy, that's for
sure." Then his eyes narrowed. "You starting one of those communes here or
something?"
"Or something," replied Ken.
"I see," said the other man.
That's when Ken started to wonder just what the hell Eric was going to
tell Davyn about Joan. Which was about the time when Davyn's eyes fell on his
wife, Sally, Eric, Joan and Christine. Sally stood, took Christine from Joan,
kissed Joan, then headed inside to change the baby.
It was such a natural action for her that she didn't really notice it.
While the kiss had been too quick to involve any tongue, it was clear that it
was a lover's kiss. Ken could feel the lust start to rise in Helen as easily as
he could feel Davyn's eyes boring into the side of his head.
"Why," drawled the man, "do I get the feeling that there's more going on
here than I thought?"
Hoping without hope to derail the man, Ken looked at him. "I don't
suppose that you'd be able to give me some idea what you want to do to my car?"
The attempt was totally lame and completely transparent. Ken suspected
that, even if it hadn't been, Davyn wouldn't have been distracted. He just
looked at Ken, who could tell that while he wasn't angry, he was a bit
concerned.
"Davyn, I don't interfere in how people pursue a relationship here. If
you want to know more about Eric and Sally's choices, you'll have to ask them."
he said.
"Yup. I might at that," said the man. "I'm sure whatever he has to say
will be *most* entertaining."
They talked for a few more minutes. Ken knew that Davyn wasn't upset,
exactly. He was starting to worry about his son and daughter-in-law, though.
Eventually, he excused himself and went to find Eric.
David wandered over to Ken a bit later in the day. Ken already knew
that the news wouldn't be good. Naturally, David didn't know that.
"Hey, Ken, how's it going?" he asked.
"Good," said Ken. "It's a nice day, there's good food, beautiful
women... what's not to like?"
"Yeah," replied the man. Obviously, he was unhappy about something.
"Look, we don't have to talk about it now, but I do have some information for
you on that incident with the cops."
"From the tone of your voice," said Ken, taking a drink of his iced-tea,
"I'll assume that the news is not good."
David sighed, "You're right. Look, I don't know who they have in their
pocket, but I did find out a few things. The first is, they really are going to
drop any mention of what happened from the records."
"Okay, that's good. It's what Johnsten said they'd do. What's the bad
news."
"We can't touch 'em. Or rather, I can't and still keep my job."
"I see," said Ken.
"Look, I can't tell you how pissed-off I am about this. But it was made
very clear to me at work that, if we pursue this, I'd have to find work
somewhere else. Like in another city. The fact that I'm gay is known, and
although most people don't make a thing of it, it was hinted that, considering
the political climate -- which isn't getting any better, by the way -- the firm
might find me too controversial to employ. If that were the only thing, then
I'd say fuck it and go after them anyway.
"But it was clear that Lenny would be at risk, as well. I don't know
who they have in their pocket, but it's someone with a lot of pull." David
paused, and looked at Ken. "I did a little digging after it was hinted that I
should drop the case. I've found three other lawyers in the last eight years or
so who wanted to try similar cases. The first two decided not to drop the case,
but not only did it never get to court, they were both disbarred. The third
one, after finding that out, decided to drop his case. Maybe in the future, if
I can dig some information up, I'll be able to do something, but now would not
be the time."
Ken nodded. "I understand, David. Don't sweat it. Until we know who's
pulling what strings, it would be stupid to go rushing in."
David nodded in relief. He hadn't told Ken the rest of his findings and
didn't intend to. Of course, he had no way of knowing that Ken could easily
read the thoughts that he was projecting so strongly.
The first two lawyers had, indeed, been disbarred. They had also
disappeared less than a month after that had happened, and they were presumed
dead. The third lawyer had left, not only the practice, but the state, and was
now somewhere in Montana. David didn't know what had scared them so much, but
he was determined to find out.
Ken decided that he would have to find a way to keep David from
nosing around. The last thing he wanted was for his friends to get hurt because
of him.
That was a problem for another day, though, and he turned his attention to
the pool and the fact that Ari, Tina and Karen had ganged up on Gary and were
trying to dunk him. While they didn't appear to be getting anywhere, Gary was
certainly having a lot of fun. Tina squealed in outrage as he somehow ended up
with her bikini top in his hand. Ken hoped that Gary would understand when he
explained why they had to drop the case.
But that, too, was a problem for another day.
End chapter 15
