A Couple Pt. 03

Natalie said, "That's the greatest sex for engineering story I've ever heard. The guys at my lab would lose their minds."

Madelyn said, "They are married now, to really great partners. When we needed that room in London, we flew all four of them over for a week. It was more sex for engineering and we got both!"

Natalie looked curious. "Did the wives let them bed you?"

The two laughed again. "It was such fun. We took them to a fancy restaurant for dinner and then to a club for some dancing and more booze. When the taxi dumped us out at the apartment, no one was feeling any pain. I had arranged things so Madelyn was in with me and two were in the living room and two in the other bedroom. Nasty girls that we are, our door was open. There was a lot of messing around in the bathroom and then voices saying, "No, in here."

"We crawled down the hall and all four of them were doing it in Madelyn's bed. Girl-girl, guy-guy, then switching. We dropped our pj's, walked in, and asked if we could join the party."

Madelyn added, "It was the first time I had a big cock in me and two women kissing me and sucking my nipples. I think I screamed and came for five minutes."

Natalie said, "Are you trying to get Oscar all hot and bothered?"

The answer came right back, "Why not, he's got a great cock and knows how to use it better than they do."

Natalie sat in my lap and sucked on a finger. "These are predatory females. I'm not allowing you near them!"

Lisa said, "That is a great pose. When you are a couple of months further along, we are going to take nude portrait pictures.

She kissed me and asked, "Would you like that?"

"I would. I'm excited about this child I fathered without knowing what I was doing."

All three women laughed hard.

Lisa and Madelyn flew off to London to placate investors, saying that several guys with full identification would be coming by to install and activate the system.

In another week, we were summoned to the new data center at breakfast time. On a sixty inch screen on one wall were the smiling faces of Lisa and Madelyn, sipping wine and talking to the technician at our end. He was checking out remote control features.

Lisa said, "Everything is on fiber, not copper, and it is all encrypted, including this video session. It turns out that some of our London deep pockets bankers are jumping up and down about being able to have contact via us with startups in the Valley. Madelyn is coming tomorrow to organize a first session and see how it goes. Should she bring her London business clothes, or buy there?"

Natalie said, "Both. There are times when the Valley guys are terribly impressed by a little British accent, especially when a body like Madelyn's goes with it. Other times, it's jeans and tees and bean bags."

The tech was loving this line of chatter, gazing at Lisa's almost larger than life chest.

"Alan, your eyes are bugging out. Be careful or your girlfriend will beat you!"

"Yes, M'am. I mean, ok Lisa." He turned to us, "They don't let us be formal with them."

I looked around the room, where West End had just spent upwards of a million, and marveled at the new reality. London bankers were going to compete with Wall St. for California startup technology without ever leaving town.

With the great day approaching, there was a crisis about who was going to do the marrying. Neither Natalie nor I had seen the inside of a church since we were children. And we both wanted the ceremony on her patio next to the pool, with views to the Valley. Inge from the lab came to the rescue with a minister from her liberal nordic church.

On Saturday morning, we were in bed together. The baby was kicking and Natalie was a bundle of nerves. Lisa and Madelyn arrived, sweaty from a run, and announced that as bridesmaids, they were in charge of the bride, and I was to absent myself until the ceremony.

"How refreshingly old fashioned," I declared and left the room.

I was about to open a Skype video connection to Geneva on the giant screen in the West End data center when Lisa walked in.

"Take your sweaty clothes off, I want to show our excellent genes to the WHO Deputy Director."

"Oscar! You dirty MCP, you! Blasting my nakedness all over the Internet..."

I pulled her down into my lap and devoured the nicest parts of her front while she rubbed sweat on me.

We hugged tightly and she whispered, "This is it, you are losing your free living ways. You are going to be a father in a lot less than nine months from your wedding day!" She laughed hysterically.

"Have you asked Natalie whether all my roaming privileges are revoked?"

Her tongue traced my lips. "I have, actually. She said the sweetest thing. 'Lisa, I'm an only child and you are like a sister to me. You will always have privileges with him. Before it's too late, you must have a child like I am. Why don't you have your DNA tested to see if there is any reason he can't be a father to both of our kids?' "

Her head was tucked into me and shaking with little sobs. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that on your marriage day..."

My kiss was as soft and loving as I could make it. "Tell me more, soon. But not today." I turned her over and swatted the tough bottom. "Now get out of here, otherwise you are going to be showing your charms to my boss."

She scampered out and I opened the connection. "Oscar, this is an amazing treat. I've never had a high definition picture on the Internet."

"Alan, my rich sister is going to get richer selling this to the financiers in the City, who want a piece of the action here in the Valley. I was just calling to check in about New York."

"Natalie is going to have a baby. We are having great fun pretending it is a shotgun wedding. She is showing a lot and the baby is kicking. All our friends are laughing their heads off. The wedding is today."

"So we are revising her New York arrangements to part time, and not that until the baby is old enough to have a full time nanny here."

"Oscar, you don't want a commuter marriage based in New York. What an awful thought. Why don't you stay in my group, and we will make some adjustments to keep you there in California more of the time. With this kind of teleconference equipment, we can raise the level of communication of the whole organization."

"You and I work so well together, you don't have to offer twice. Natalie will be very happy. I will tell her it is a special wedding present from Alan."

The wedding was to be at five. There were valets down at the bottom of the hill to park cars when they started arriving at four. There was a decorated golf cart to haul people up the hill.

Inge and Madelyn and Lisa were the bridesmaids and closeted with Natalie and a hairdresser for the final touches. My wife to be had decided a nice dress in a pastel beige would be the color of the day. She warned me that it showed her belly and not to laugh when she came down the aisle of flowers that had been constructed for the ceremony. "This is our baby and I am proud of it!" she hissed in my ear as I was shoved out of the bedroom.

Since my friends and family were thousands of miles away, Inge had promoted her husband Rolf to stand up with me. We waited at the end of the aisle, with Rolf joshing me about falling after so many years of bachelorhood. "We all fall eventually. You have got yourself a wonderful wife."

The organist had his portable Yamaha off to one side, playing light tunes as everyone was seated.

True to her laboratory background, Natalie and her maids appeared precisely at five. I was struck down by her beauty, shaking in my shoes. The dress was exquisite, high waisted and low cut over her chest. With the rise of her belly pushing against the fabric, and her pregnant breasts showing themselves above the top of the dress, there was no doubt that a real woman was making her way to me. The brilliant smile said, "Oh, so you want to marry me today?"

I smiled back and tried to stand still, as I had been instructed. The music died away and she had my hand in hers. I thought of all the stories about paralyzed grooms at the altar and understood why.

All too soon, the minister was saying, "You may kiss the bride," and I was. Natalie's many friends from the lab clapped and cheered. Lisa and Madelyn poked me in the ribs and said, "You don't deserve her." Natalie held me close and said, "Yes, he does. He really does."

A string trio joined the organist and played for the reception. Caterers circulated with champagne and canapes. Some young couples approached and asked if they could swim when it got dark. Madelyn and Lisa thought this was a fine idea and took charge, with a lot of whispering about how much clothing would be needed in the pool.

The wine went to my head, and made me even more of a basket case than I already was. Natalie said, "Isn't it nice that we don't have to change and run away somewhere?"

I kissed her and asked how late it had to be for the bride with the belly to be naked in the pool.

She laughed and said, "Some of these people are not into public skinny dipping. Why don't Lisa and Madelyn circulate saying swimming is optional, starting at eight? The uptight folks will know to make their exit."

Instead of a receiving line, Natalie made sure to make the rounds, with a firm clasp of my hand, introducing me to those I had not met. Some remembered me from previous visits and whispered in my ear that they had wondered if I ever would propose. I kissed them back and said, "I finally came to my senses."

Lisa and Maddy arranged a long table for clothing, with a big stack of towels, and whatever terry robes they could find. Several other women disappeared with them, and promptly at eight a giggling group of naked women ran across the lawn and into the pool.

I sat in a chair with Natalie on my knees and watched. Our hands wandered on each other's bodies and she whispered what a nice party someone had thrown.

It wasn't long before I realized that the groom was going to be asleep if I didn't join the fun in the pool. "I need to wake up in the water, " I said. "Do you want me to wait for you, or help with the dress?"

"Yes, why don't you. The girls are having too much fun."

In our bedroom, I discovered that the bride had nothing except the dress on. "They put me up to it, the shameless ones. Said you would get all excited and perform better."

I told her I was not going out to the pool with an erection and we needed to calm down. She kissed me and suggested she could find icecubes for it.

This was too much and I grabbed her up over my shoulder, ran twenty yards to the pool and destroyed her expensive hairdo with a wild plunge to the bottom.

Strangely enough, the four of us slept together in the king size bed and no one had any sex. In the morning, Madelyn brought a tray with coffee, juice and special pastries.

The bride sat up in her own bed, looking radiant and pleased. The baby was kicking, and she pushed the sheet down so we could see. "I never realized there is absolutely nothing wrong with marrying a guy who has already made you pregnant. He is standing there, promising to take care of you and your baby. It is a wonderful feeling."

The other three of us rolled on the foot of the bed and said she was going to make us cry.

In the weeks that followed, the two girls and I became Natalie's support team. She objected at first, arguing we had work commitments that needed attention. We lay on the bed, where we spent a lot of time, and argued that everyone would be more effective if we did not have to worry about her mothering responsibilities all the time. There was even a schedule showing who had the "duty," and what doctor or other activity was happening.

One evening after dinner, when we were all there and having some ice cream on the bed, she asked, "Do we want to know the sex? The doctor took ultrasounds today and asked if he should tell me. I said I would ask at home."

The three of them looked at me. I licked Madelyn's toes, which made her screech, and said, "I have an idea. We will take four pieces of paper and secretly write our choice down and put them in a bowl. The mother will read them out. Yes means we are told. If there is a tie, it means we get to know."

In a few minutes, Natalie picked up the first folded paper. "Yes." Another. "Yes." Another. "Yes." The last one. "No."

We looked at her. "I'd rather not. It will be a birthing room surprise."

That was not the last of Natalie's vetoes. Lisa and Madelyn asked one evening about having a midwife and a home birth, saying it was very common in the UK.

The PhD in her said, "A female over forty has a significantly increased probability of difficult birth. We are not going to push the odds." The hospital was thirty minutes away.

The doctor said she was due in early February. She reminded us her birthday was February 10th, and wondered if her body would cooperate and give the child the same natal day.

One morning, after I had been away a week in Geneva and was feeling beat from too much airplane, she said she had talked to the doctor about edema and pre-eclampsia. "My aunt nearly died of it, and lost her baby. But it is not associated with older women's first pregnancy, and I have a handout about symptoms. I am encouraged to have lots of exercise and keep my weight gain under control."

"That's very scary. I don't know what to say."

"It is. I've stopped reading about pregnancy problems. It appears there is a ten percent chance something will happen to kill me or the baby. I know you don't like that number. Neither do I. But let's be positive, there is a ninety percent chance everything will go fine."

We hugged each other, lying there silently and hoping for the ninety percent.

While the belly and the baby got larger, a routine evolved around the Silicon Valley headquarters of West End Enterprises. The video wall in the data center was a real hit with investors on both sides of the Atlantic. One day, a very attractive young woman showed up and said, "Hello, I'm Wilma. West End has hired me to look after the scheduling of the video center and other chores. I'm a student in business school locally and can arrange my schedule to be here early in the morning when London is anxious to have sessions."

Ten minutes later, Lisa was on the phone, saying, "I forgot to tell you about Wilma." I said, "Hang on a moment," and walked down to the center. Wilma was finding her way around and looked at me quizzically. Holding my finger to my lips, I put the phone on speaker. "I've put you on speaker while I'm pruning. What is this about Wilma?"

"I talked to you about our need for someone to look after the video sessions. Well, I asked around in the Valley and they sent me to the placement people at Santa Clara business school and I found Wilma Smithers. She was born over here, but her folks emigrated. Her father is a senior engineering VP at one of the startups."

"What can you tell me about her? Anything I should know?"

"The first thing is that she is very attractive and you are to keep hands off!"

Wilma looked at me with wide eyes.

"The second thing is that she is fearsomely smart. Straight A smart. So talk to her about your work. She will like some of your stories about out of the way places."

"OK, some of them are a bit gory."

"The third thing is that she is a competitive swimmer and you should offer her the pool if that is ok with the great mother."

"Anything more?

"Yes. She might be interested in working for us when she graduates. Make her feel welcome. Give her a hug and a kiss, a chaste kiss, mind you. Make sure she meets Natalie right away."

"When are you back here?"

"Probably not for a fortnight. You won't believe the deal Maddy is cooking up now. Easy seven figures if we can pull it off."

"You have my permission to chase billions of pounds. I will be nice to Wilma and hold the fort. Natalie is bigger everyday."

Towards the end of the call, Wilma had sidled across the room and into my arms, complicating the end of the conversation.

She had a husky, seductive whisper. "Only chaste kisses? That doesn't sound right." Her tongue found mine and played. "And you are going to tell me stories, and introduce me to Natalie?"

My arms were around her, my fingers finding a remarkably hard, taut behind. "You must swim a lot."

"At least a mile a day. Take me to see Natalie." She put my hands under her bottom and wrapped her legs around my waist.

I climbed the stairs, expecting trouble, but she slipped to her feet and followed sedately as we went along the side of the house to the patio next to the pool. Natalie had her nose in a math journal and looked very serious, except for the fact that her belly was showing a nice bulge, and her body was tanned from all the poolside time she was putting in.

"Natalie hon, we have a guest."

Pushing the glasses up, she rose and turned. The two women stared at each other for a moment, and I said, "This is Wilma Smithers, she is going to be helping with the data center scheduling."

They shook hands and sat down. Natalie said, "As you can see, I am having a baby. I get to sit out here in the mornings and let it grow while I keep up with my lab work."

I took drink orders and disappeared. They were in nonstop conversation when I returned. Natalie said, "Wilma is going to take a quick swim in the altogether. You are not to stare."

She entered the water like a seal, and energetically pulled down a dozen laps before taking the sidelines. I went to the shallow end steps and held a big towel for her. The view as she walked into it was superb. I gathered her in my arms and took us back to the table. Natalie said, "Oscar! The poor woman has been here less than an hour and you are hitting on her?"

I smirked, "Surely a little TLC is excused for someone who might become a valued employee?"

Natalie rolled her eyes and said to Wilma, "Don't mind him, he really isn't trying to get into your nonexistent knickers. He just likes to flirt. Is it true you might go to fulltime?"

Wilma leaned over and asked if she could feel the belly bump. "Go ahead, he or she likes to kick. You might get a surprise."

"You don't know?"

I laughed and Natalie said, "I decided to make it a birthing room surprise. He is not happy."

I smiled and said, "There is the terrible burden of calling the infant an "it" for months and months..."

They laughed and Wilma said, "In answer to your question, I am feeling very welcome. The employee benefits are incredible. Would it be possible for me to have a cot somewhere so I could sleep here before an early morning?"

Natalie said, "We can do better than a cot," taking Wilma's hand and going off.

I was already in my trunks, so dropped the shirt and went for a swim myself. I had a lengthy report to finish in the afternoon, cooped up with the computer, and was stalling in the warm sun.

They came back and joined me in the water, rubbing bare skin on either side of me. "Oscar, I have signed up Wilma to be a part time nanny after the baby comes. Her mother is a nurse-midwife, and Wilma knows a lot about babies."

"Am I permitted to sun up here when the schedule is complete for the day?"

"Of course. Oscar and I tend to go about naked when the weather is like this, but I gather that is not a problem?"

"We came from England when I was thirteen. I couldn't believe the sunshine and all the bodies with no tan lines. I am completely converted to your lifestyle."

I was kneading Wilma's neck and shoulders. She made an approving noise and put her head down.

"If he gives you any trouble, you have my permission to attack him viciously. Is there a man in your life? They can be handy to have around."

"There was. He was handsome, athletic and a great lover. But he got more and more unhappy at dating someone who was a lot smarter than he was. We broke up about a month ago. Do you have any stray males around?"