The Retreat at Sharon's Ch. 03

Sunlight poured through the bedroom window by the time Max dragged himself out of bed the next morning. He pulled on some gym shorts and a tshirt and made his way downstairs. The previous night's activities flashed in Max's mind like a movie as he winced from the pain from his hangover. He hoped Sharon and Carla would bond but last night was far more than he could have hoped for.

As he walked into the living room, he could see Sharon and Carla were already up and laying out on the deck. The previous evening must have shed any inhibitions between the ladies as they were both at least partially nude. From his angle in the living room, he could see Carla's naked back laying propped up on a deck chair and angled into the sun which was still just to the Eastern side of the sky. She was reading a book propped up on her flat stomach. Sharon lay in a reclined deck chair next to Carla. Her head and face were obscured by a wide brimmed hat, there was no mistaking her thick tan breasts falling off her upper torso.

Max helped himself to cereal and coffee. His head was still swimming in tequila and whatever else he had poured down his throat last night but the caffeine combined with the sight of the lovely ladies perked him up a little. He grabbed the front page of the Sunday paper to prevent him from spending all morning staring at the women on the deck.

"Well look who's finally joined the living," he heard Sharon say a little while later. She walked down the steps that led from the back door into the house, a loose beach cover-up drowning out her curves.

"We were hoping some brave hero would come along and go to the store to get some things for us. Know anyone?" Sharon asked.

"I think I know someone. But he might expect a reward for his efforts," Carla chimed in as she followed Sharon down the steps from the deck into the living room. She was wearing a full length yellow tennis dress as a cover-up. The hemline cut-across her upper thighs. Just knowing that her beautiful pink folds hid just inches above the bottom of the dress made Max want to rush over and push it up and bury his face in their waves.

Instead, he winced a little again as his head throbbed and he realized a morning drive might help clear the pain.

"Just tell me what you need and where I'm going."

Sharon let Max drive her Audi SUV to run the errands she needed. Reviewing the list, he noticed some regular grocery store items but Sharon had also sent him to a local bath store for some candles and robes. Seemed like a strange request for a quick errand run.

He went by the grocery store first, thinking that the final stop for the candles would be quick. When he got to the bath store, he realized immediately this wasn't just some generic big box store. The shelves in the front of the small store were lined with organic oils and different varieties of coconut oil. He found the candle aisle but the very specific brand on Sharon's list was nowhere to be found.

"Can I help you find something?" Max turned to find a young racially ambiguous woman in square black rimmed glasses giving him a quizzical look. She clearly knew he was out of his element.

"I'm having trouble finding this brand of candle," Max said, pointing toward the item in the middle of Sharon's handwriting.

"Hang on, let me see that list. "You're not here for yourself are you?"

"How'd you know?"

"Well, Sharon's name is literally at the top of the stationary but I can recognize her, uh, style anywhere. I'm Mikela," she said, pointing to the name tag pinned to her blazer.

"Max."

"Come with me, Max."

Mikela walked toward a shelf full of knick knacks but what fascinated Max was when she reached under a shelf, flipped a hidden switch, and then pushed the shelf open into a larger room and waved him in ahead of her. Max looked down at Mikela and mouthed "Whoa" and then walked through the opening in the wall.

He surveyed the room around him. Several racks of women's underwear were bookended by mannequins modeling various sizes and styles of lingerie. He saw teddies for full figured women, push up bras for small breasted women, and corsets and chemises for everyone in between. As he stopped to stare, Mikela took the lead. He noticed that, under her black skirt she wore stockings with seams that ran down the back of her legs.

He wondered what new world he was entering by following Mikela. She walked to the back right corner of the room and pulled a key attached to a chain hiding under the neckline of her deep purple blouse and used it to unlock the door. As the walked through the door, a blast of air hit them from above.

"We don't stock the candles on your list out front," Mikela explained as they walked into a room with a distinct odor Max could spot anywhere. Down the middle of the room, grow lights hung from the ceiling while a large collection of marijuana plants grew in basins underneath.

"I bring the candles back from India with me when I visit. The Hindu monastery where they make doesn't want them to be sold commercially which is too bad because I'm sure each one is worth hundreds," she explained as she propped open a large box and produced two candles and carefully handed them to Max.

"I trust you won't rat out our little operation back here?"

"Cross my heart," Max said as he made the symbol across his chest.

"Now let's take care of that robe on your list," she explained as she led him back into the lingerie room.

"I guess Sharon doesn't have one for a man your size, yet." Max still thought this was odd, as though she didn't have a closet full of bathrobes in the guest closet.

"You'll probably want to take your shirt and shorts off, so you can make sure one of these fits correctly. Not too baggy, not so tight that it looks undersized, ok?" Max started to pull his shirt off, as suggested.

"Not here. In the fitting room," Mikela corrected him, as she pulled three crimson hooded robes off a rack. Max didn't realize there were rules of etiquette to shopping for robes while standing in a room full of lingerie.

"I'll hold onto those," Mikela offered as she traded him the robes for the candles.

Max had to admit to himself that this hadn't been quite as exciting as he hoped once he entered the back room but at least it gave him the impression that something exciting was waiting for him at home. When he found a robe that fit Mikela's specifications, he left the fitting room to find Mikela tapping away at her phone while she waited for him.

"Sorry, it's Sharon. It seems like she wants me to follow you back to her house for a little guided meditation."

Max shot her a confused look.

"Don't worry, I don't bite. Not unless you beg for it."

*****

Max parked in the garage when he got back to Sharon's house, allowing him to bring the groceries directly into the kitchen through the garage door. Mikela was right behind him, helping him carry in the groceries and bags of goodies she helped him find.

"I found this young man wandering around your store and told him he was too young for sex and drugs," Mikela joked in a sardonic tone as she entered the house.

"Mikela!" Sharon shouted, sauntering across the kitchen, still wearing the cover-up from earlier, and drew the younger woman into her breasts as she hugged her.

"And who is this?"

"This is my girlfriend, Carla."

"Pleasure to meet you, Carla," Mikela extended her hand up to the slightly taller woman.

"Pleasure is all mine," Carla smiled as she shook Mikela's hand.

"Max, run this bag up to the sitting room outside my room," Sharon requested.

Max hated to leave the room just as it looked like his girlfriend might make-out with this hot young Indian woman in the middle of the kitchen but he finished Sharon's errand in the hopes that greater rewards might await him.

When he returned downstairs, the three women were waiting for him on the Western end of the downstairs sitting room. Behind them a door led up to the pool side of the deck but Sharon led them through the side door that led through a small hallway into the glass-enclosed atrium.

"I thought this would be the right place for a little relaxation and real talk," Sharon said as she walked into the room and pressed a button on the wall that controlled the hvac system in the room. "Mikela, take it away."

"OK, so I'm not just some stoner who runs Sharon's store, I also lead meditation and yoga at Sharon's house when she hosts mini-retreats for friends. I take it from Sharon's text messages earlier that we're all ok with nudity?"

Carla let out a muted "Woo!" in response.

"OK, then, let's all get comfortable, because it's about to get really hot in here," Mikela said as she slipped her arms out of her blazer and then folded it. She turned and walked to the opposite corner of the room and set the blazer on the soft tile and then untucked her blouse from her skirt. Max heard Carla and Sharon slipping off their coverings next to him and he pulled off his running shoes and slid his shorts to the floor He hesitated slightly as he pulled his t shirt off over his head and caught a glimpse of Mikela unrolling the stockings that clung tightly to her legs. He felt a pair of hands drop his boxers to the floor and turned his head just in time to see Carla slap him on the ass.

"Hey! That's not what we're doing," Mikela turned around quickly to jokingly scold Carla. "Now if you'll excuse the six layers of clothes I decided to wear for some reason today, we'll start soon. Feel free to talk among yourselves." Max tried not to stare as Mikela slipped off her skirt and carefully placed it on the pile of clothes in the corner.

Surprisingly, under all that refined exterior, she wore white panties with a giant cartoon frog on the butt. She stripped off the panties and Max caught a quick glimpse of her cute muffin-top butt before she turned around, allowing the room to gaze upon her fully nude body. She had caramel colored skin, with tan lines that accented her small puffy breasts and formed a triangle around her bushy landing strip.

"OK, this is the chance for everybody to look at everybody. We're all naked and I hear most of us don't have anything someone else in this room hasn't seen before."

Max looked to his left and where he had a better angle at Sharon's heavy breasts than in the dark the other night. They fell down nearly to her stomach before arching upward. Her wide deep brown areolas surrounded her dimpled nippes. Max couldn't imagine a woman with such ample curves also being built so compactly. On his right, Carla's pale thin legs seemed to highlight the bare pink folds of her womanhood that naturally parted slightly. What she lacked in curves compared to the other woman, she made up for with her long legs and flat abs.

Max looked back to Mikela and realized she was giving him an odd look. Then, he looked down and realized he was standing at half mast. He instinctively whipped his hand down in front of his penis and tried to cup it back to a flaccid state. Carla put her hand to her mouth to hide her chuckle.

"That's ok," Mikela said as she walked toward the center of the group. "That happens. Just try to focus on breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth."

Max closed his eyes and imagined himself running on a treadmill at the gym, with everyone else in the room laughing at this shame. It quickly returned his half-chub to its natural state.

"And why don't we all do the same thing," he heard Mikela suggest. "Just a few deep breaths. Now open your eyes slowly, and let's sit on the floor."

Max did as he was told, trying to seem like he fit in with the women in the room. They all sat cross-legged in a small circle.

"Just try to soften your focus and stare out into the room ahead of you," Mikela instructed. "And we're just going to keep this soft gaze, not looking at anything in particular as we let our mind take inventory of our individual bodies. Check-in with the top of your head, then move down to your neck, letting out all of your tension there. Let your shoulders relax as you continue breathing. Let your belly go soft so you can fill it with warm relaxing air. Keep your posture upright but let that air fill out your lower back. Be aware of the feeling of your genitals underneath you. It doesn't have to be a pleasurable feeling but just try to sense the air moving around the folds of your outer labia or around your penis and testicles."

Max felt a little silly trying to get into the zen of the moment and forgetting the sexual nature of the organs Mikela described, but there was something freeing about letting everything hang loosely. He knew he was miles away from the hustle-and-bustle of his stock investments and the fund managers he dealt with during the workweek.

"And I know it's heating up in here, but try to ignore the heat and just enjoy the sweat as it forms and trickles down your body," Mikela continued. Max shot a glance to Carla and could see a bead of sweat working its way down from brow.

"Keep gazing forward," Mikela intoned, seemingly reminding Max to stay focused. "Let your focus expand now so it fills the air around you, pressing up against the weight of the humidity. Let it stretch farther until it makes contact with the consciousnesses around you and fills the rest of the room, allowing room for all of our consciousnesses to bubble up against each other. Now, bring your focus back in, letting go of the rest of the world and try to stay within yourself. Glance around the room at the other people so we can take inventory that we're all here together and so we can be thankful for the heat and he sweat and this experience together."

Max could feel sweat flowing from the pours in his face now and down his spine between his shoulder blades. Drips of sweat outlined Mikela's sunken-in belly button and slowed there before working their way down to the top of her dark curly pubic hair.

"The reason I asked Mikela to come over is to help us get focused because I know we had fun last night and I hope it was a... growing experience for both of you," Sharon said in a steady deep tone. "But, you need to know that I broke a couple of my own rules. We should have talked more before diving in because I don't want one fun experience to make this house feel awkward or embarrassing to either of you," she said, acknowledging the young lovers in the circle. "I also never ever ever have sex without protection. I let us all down on that one. Not that there's shame in contracting STIs but I make sure to get tested regularly and you all should, too," she firmly explained.

"It's ok, we go to the clinic a couple times a year. Got to keep this guy honest," Carla replied with a smile.

"Good," Sharon continued. "I have a confession to make. Like Mikela said, I've been hosting retreats for my friends here for years, going back to when Max's father was alive. We enjoy the outdoors, make peace with ourselves through a variety of activities, and we share ourselves with each other, physically and emotionally."

Max couldn't help his eyes grow big as he looked across at Mikela, avoiding eye contact with Sharon.

"If you all are ready to take your relationship and love making to a new level, you'd be welcome to come back and share that experience with us," Sharon said in an inviting tone of voice, "But I have to ask that you keep this secret between us. It's of the utmost importance to the people who share themselves with each other at these events," she concluded, speaking frankly.

"I think that sounds wonderful," Carla replied as Max whipped his head to look at her. "What about you, Max?"

"Yeah. I mean, I'm in. What do we do?"

"I'm going to ask you two to join me tonight in a little initiation, if you will. Do you think you can take a little boundary pushing without freaking out?"

"Hell, yeah!" Carla explained.

"And you, Max?" Mikela asked staring into his eyes.

"Of course. Will you be there?" Max shyly asked Mikela.

"Sorry, bud. Maybe another time," she let him down with a wink and a smile.

"Take the day to relax and recover," Sharon told Carla and Max. "I'm going to leave you a small package with instructions outside your door. Just be ready to go around 8?"

The group concluded their session and rose to recover their clothing while Sharon returned to the heating control panel and switched it to pump in some cool air. After eating lunch as a group, they said goodbye to Mikela and Carla went for a jog and explored the woods behind the house while Max spent the afternoon casually doing laps in the pool and hanging out on the deck, taking in the summer weather.

When Max returned to his room around 5, Sharon had left two boxes outside the guest room each with a name on it. Max grabbed his box and rummaged down through it past the robe folded on top as he entered the room. There were two notecards, so he opened the one with a giant "1" written on the front and found instructions:

"1. Lay off the heavy foods at dinner. Just eat what you need and drink plenty of water starting now.

2. Go in the bathroom and find one of the packages with new bulbs and nozzles. These are for douching in you-know-where. Hey - you wanted to try new things, right? Follow the instructions in the package carefully. There are bottles of mineral water for you to use in this box. Do this now because it'll take a while for everything to settle afterward.

3. Take a shower. There are fresh safety razors and shaving gel in the cabinet under the bathroom sink. Ditch that scraggly pubic hair and don't forget to clean your undercarriage.

4. Take a nap. You'll need it.

5. There's another note card. Read it after your nap. Carla's got her own instructions. They're...different."

Max stared at the card for a full minute after reading it. He could only guess why Sharon was telling him to cleanse his anus. While he'd never thought he'd be into pegging, he also knew he'd probably try just about anything if it meant he could share in something so amazing with Carla and Sharon again. He headed into the bathroom and, after forty five minutes of self cleansing, re-emerged feeling like a new man. He ate toast for dinner, just to be on the safe side. After eating, he did his best to sleep, pretending to be dead to the world while Carla entered the room with her own set of materials and instructions.

Pretending eventually turned to real sleep. When he woke up, it was almost eight and Carla was nowhere to be found. He thought he remembered the shower turning on but that was about it. He grabbed his box on the floor and found the card with a "2" written on the front.

"I trust you didn't skip ahead to see what comes next. It won't get easier from here. Strip down and put the robe on, hood up. Around 8:10 come to my room. Be ready to follow instructions. The safe word is 'Pumpkin'."

He was way ahead of her on the naked part, having wanted to let his skin air out after all the grooming earlier. He was almost turned on by the new smoothness of his own cleaning shaven penis shaft and testicles. Going completely without pubic hair was new to Max and it was kind of exhilarating. After admiring his handy-work in the mirror, he pulled on the robe. The silky material felt like a second skin as it slid across his back and shoulders. He tied it tightly around his waist and then pulled the hood over his head. For the remaining ten minutes, he sat on the edge of the bed, trying to breathe and empty his mind.

When the clock on the wall struck 8:10 pm, he walked out the door into the darkness of the house beyond, feeling like he was floating on air thanks to his nakedness beneath the robe. A small trail of lighting built into the floor led the way across the catwalk to the other wing of the top floor. He passed the other guest rooms on the right and left. The door to the next room was closed, so he knocked, worrying he'd showed up late and they'd shut him out of the evening activities. After a dramatic pause, the door slowly pulled open and Carla stood on the other side, fully robed like Max, her blonde hair hidden underneath her crimson hood.