HELLO THERE!! Welcome to another chapter. I wonder what's going on with Bem. Poor guy. He can't seem to catch a break. Maybe this chapter will change that, or maybe not. We'll have to see. I hope you enjoy this installment! Drop me a line if you want. I'd be happy to hear from you.
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Crown Vic to a Parallel World: From Whence I Came The second installment of the ongoing adventures of Church Philips
18
An Escape to the Mall
I touched my watch through the fabric of my pants, then forced my hand away from the taboo relic of my shame and let the arm rest on the table. My other hand went to the bracelet on my wrist and alternately gripped and played with it. I felt off, almost like someone was watching me. Maybe everyone was. The house was starting to feel like a pressure cooker with a stuck relief valve, like it was going to boil out under the lid or maybe burst.
There were eight people in a four-bedroom split-level, each with their own trauma that had been brought to a head by our arrival five days before. I needed to get out, to escape for a while, but I didn't have anywhere I needed to go. Our appointment with the financial gurus wasn't until the next day and I couldn't think of anything else to do.
Andy came to the rescue. He rushed into the dining room, talking excitedly as he approached. "Uncle Church, the formal wear store just called. Your suits are ready."
I could have kissed him. I got Shawn and Bem and Andy together and set off for the mall. When we got there, Andy practically ran us through the main gallery on the way to the outfitter. He was stoked to see us in his selections. When we arrived, he made a quick inspection of the garments, handed a blue suit to me and a grey one to Shawn, and shoved us into the dressing rooms.
I took my time getting dressed. A suit was a complicated thing and not something I wore often enough to be adept at putting it on. I assembled the layers of clothing, from my underwear out, and struggled to knot the tie. I had tied the thing three times and was starting on the fourth when I heard signs that Shawn had finished before me.
Andy's voice came loudly through the slatted door of my fitting room. He was gushing over Shawn's outfit and how he looked in it. Andy used terms like accentuate,' highlight,' and `accent.' I didn't know what the hell he was talking about, but he sounded excited.
I finished the fourth attempt at tying my tie and checked the result. I deemed the knot acceptable and took a minute to look at myself in the mirror. I shook a worried head at what I saw. The alterations of my suit were all wrong. I assumed something had gotten lost between Andy's direction and the store fitter's notes. I took a breath and exited my dressing room. I hoped that Andy wouldn't be too disappointed with the way my suit fit.
The first thing I saw when I stepped out was Shawn, and Shawn became all that I saw. All my worries I'd had about Andy's disappointment over the fit of my suit evaporated. They were replaced by deep admiration for the way my husband looked in his suit. Shawn looked amazing in an athletic cut, two-button, charcoal grey suit. Andy had paired the suit with a white shirt and a steel-blue tie. He also added accessories in the form of a gold stud tie-tack and chain, matching pocket square, and a steel-blue-faced, leather strap, gold watch that Shawn wore on his right wrist.
The way Shawn looked in his suit, it took my breath away. The charcoal of the suit made Shawn's fair skin glow and the blue of his tie brought out the color of his eyes. The cut of the garments matched the shape of Shawn's body and showed off all the characteristics of his form that I loved.
Andy distracted me from my admiration of my husband by dashing away from Shawn to fuss over me. He tried to spin me like a DJ would scratch a record so he could see how the suit fit. When he realized that my greater weight and slower reflexes made me harder to spin than Shawn, he switched to moving around me instead of trying to get me to move. Andy still managed to make me dizzy with his constant motion, orbiting me like a planet while he inspected my outfit and how I wore it.
I felt self-conscious in a navy-blue suit, light-grey shirt, and a burnished-gold tie. My accessories were similar to Shawn's and consisted of a pearl tie tack, matching pocket square, and a gold watch similar to Shawn's. My whole outfit seemed molded to my body. The pants felt tight, the inseam was high, and they hugged my ass and thighs. The jacket clung to my shoulders and tapered sharply to my waist and my shirt was just as bad. "It's too tight." I observed to Andy and tried to keep my observation from sounding like a petulant complaint.
"It's perfect." Andy corrected me. He dragged me in front of a mirrored column to explain my suit to me. "This is a power suit. You should look powerful in it, like the fabric can barely hold back your manliness. Look at Shawn." He nodded toward my husband who had come to stand next to me and inspect himself in the mirror. "See how the jacket matches his `V' shape. What about the pants? You get the impression of his muscular legs and the roundness of...uh...you know." Andy rolled his hand in the air to mimic the shape of Shawn's perfect ass. "Men will look at the two of you and feel less manly than you. That's what these suits are for."
Andy went on. He moved between Shawn and I so he could compare us. "I also picked the suits to work together. Uncle Church, your blue and grey compliments Shawn's blue and grey, but your gold tie highlights your tan skin and brings out the gold flecks in your eyes."
"My what?" I asked. I leaned close to the mirror and looked at my own eyes. The brown iris had little gold streaks in it that radiated from the black pupil. "Well, fuck me." I muttered. "I have gold flecks in my eyes."
"A-Hem." Andy cleared his throat like his grandfather would have and startled me out of my eye admiration. "As I was saying, Shawn's suit does the same for his coloring. His tie is a more obvious reference to the color of his eyes because his eyes are a solid color. I picked the white shirt as not to distract from the tie."
I agreed with everything Andy had said about Shawn's suit, but I was still dubious about my own. "I don't know." I turned and posed in an attempt at observing all the angles of the suit and my body in the mirrored column. "Bem," I called to my friend who was watching from a nearby bench, "what do you think?"
"You're killing me." Bem complained. "I didn't think it was possible for you to be hotter with clothes on than naked, but that suit does everything Andy says it does. It actually makes you look bigger, imposing. I'm torn between being genuinely intimidated and wanting to tear your clothes off."
I was stunned by what Bem said. I looked to Shawn for his thoughts and was caught off guard by a sharp spike of lust. Shawn clenched his left hand and closed his right palm over the fist. "He's right. You look...uh...wow." Shawn muttered as his eyes tried to look anywhere but at me.
"You picked a winner, Andy!" I praised. "And do me a favor, would you?"
Andy smirked as he anticipated what I was about to ask him. "Don't repeat what Bem just said in front of Dad?"
"You catch on quick." I complimented the boy. I faced the mirror again to look at myself. I caught Bem's reflection as he looked at me with greedy lust on his face. His almost-leer gave me an idea. "Hey, Andy, can you set Bem up with one of these? Pick something out, the works, from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet."
Andy pounced on Bem and dragged him from the bench. Bem objected. He refused to be led away. "What am I gonna do with a suit?" He whined.
I pulled Bem away from Andy, physically turned him to face Shawn, and leaned close to whisper in his ear. "Look at Shawn, look at all the clothes he's wearing and how good they make him look. How much fun would it be to strip him, agonizingly slowly, kissing every inch of skin you expose, until all he has left is that stunning blue tie? Now imagine you two doing that to me, or us doing that to you."
Bem's objections melted away, replaced with enthusiasm and inspiration. "I need a suit, Andy. The more complicated the better, one with a vest, and buttons...lot of buttons." The two adolescents ran off to shop and left Shawn and I alone.
"What did you say to him?" Shawn asked. "I felt your lust increase and he went from refusal to excitement in a split second."
"This is Bem we're talking about so..." I trailed off with a shrug.
Shawn nodded his understanding. "So, you said something sexual about wearing a suit. I'm not sure what the one has to do with the other but I'm looking forward to finding out."
I grinned at Shawn's reserved enthusiasm and diverted my attention to the mirror again. "Did you know I had gold flecks in my eyes?" I asked my husband as I scrutinized myself.
"Of course I did." Shawn answered and came to look in the mirror with me.
"Huh." I said to myself more than to him. "I guess I never noticed."
I turned from the mirror, tired of my own reflection, to treat myself to another look at Shawn. He hit me with an up from under look that he knew would drive me crazy. "Andy did a great job. You look amazing."
Lust sparked and crackled across our link. Shawn was hot for me. I wanted to scoop him into my arms and devour him. Since it wasn't the time or the place, I did the only thing I could do. "I need to change!" I blurted and retreated to the dressing room. Andy was right about the suits. It never took much for Shawn to get my motor running, but dressed that way, with all his masculine assets on full display, all he had to do was glance in my direction and I was ready to go.
As I changed, my mind wandered. I thought about the Bem I'd seen that morning and the one that Andy had just dragged away. I wracked my brain in an attempt to reconcile the two individuals. One Bem was the silly version that I was used to, while the other was cold and calculating. Which is the real Bem,' I wondered, or are both of them him?'
Shawn picked up my emotions and managed to accurately guess where they were coming from. "You're worried about him." He called through the paper-thin dressing room partitions.
"Yeah, and so are you."
"What can we do about it?"
I thought for a minute before I answered. "For now, nothing. He has to come to us. If we push him to share his secret, he could get resentful. I'd hate to risk our friendship over this morning's mistake."
"Is that what we're calling it, a mistake?" Shawn asked as we exited the dressing rooms at the same time.
I nodded to him. "I don't condone what Bem did to Zeke, but Bem is family and Zeke is a lying, embezzling, little worm who slapped my sister. If Bem asked me nice, I'd let him kick the shit out of Zeke again just on general principles."
We gave our suits and accessories back to the clerk and stood near the watch counter to continue our discussion. I leaned close to Shawn so the clerk wouldn't overhear what we said. "I think Bem needs some stress relief. Earth is hard on him. Is he healthy enough to blow off some steam?"
Shawn surprised me when he agreed without being persuaded. "We probably should wear him out a little. Let's do it. Whatever stamina he's missing, your magic will fill in the gaps."
"Good, we need to be careful somehow though. Joe said we made the floor creak last night, like for several hours."
The color drained from Shawn's face then returned all at once as a deep flush. "He heard us?"
"He didn't hear us exactly. He was simply aware of a powerful and repeated motion occurring somewhere in the house."
"I'll say it was powerful, you animal." Shawn bumped his shoulder into mine and grinned at the memory. "You were `on' last night. What was different?"
"I LOVE it when you take charge." I whispered directly into his ear.
"Is that all it takes for a performance like that? We'll have to stop and thank old Misses Barrett. Let's go for a run tomorrow morning and bring her a pair of sweaty t-shirts for her creepy collection." Shawn suggested through a laugh.
"Hey, you two." Bem shouted through the store. "Stop flirting and come see what Andy picked out for me."
We followed the voice and found Bem and Andy at the back of the store where Bem was posing on a riser in front of a tri-fold mirror. He was dressed in a black suit; slim fit, two-button jacket with a high matching vest. The suit had an attractive sheen while the vest was a matte finish. Andy had paired this with a cobalt-blue shirt, and a gold bow tie with a matching pocket square. The ensemble was literally capped off with a black pork-pie hat with a blue band. The hat was rakishly tilted forward on Bem's straw-colored head. The suit set off his coloring perfectly and made him shine. The hat added the something extra that Bem brings to any situation.
"Andy, that's perfect." I enthused. "He looks like a million."
Bem smiled condescendingly from his perch and did a little turn to show off.
Andy watched him turn. He spoke to me but kept his eyes on Bem. "Once it tailored it will be perfect. The fitter is coming back with the forms, but I already made notes on where it needs to be adjusted. I also want to see a little more linen at the cuffs."
The way Andy had managed to outfit the three of us so well, and his incredible ability to deal with accessories and even tailoring, focused my attention on the boy and his obvious talent. I thought about how impressive it was that this fifteen-year-old had managed to clothe three grown men, each with starkly different body types. Even more impressive was that he'd done it with what seemed to be an instinctual knowledge of modern male fashion. He also sounded super professional when he said things like `linen at the cuffs.'
"You ever think of doing this for a living?" I asked the boy. "You know, designing things...clothes I mean?"
"Only in every dream I have." Andy sighed a hopeful sigh.
I filed that thought away for later and watched the way Andy worked with the fitter to make Bem's suit an extension of his body rather than just something he was wearing. Andy and the fitter used pins and clips to cinch in the suit where material needed to be taken away to make the suit fit Bem properly. As they worked, the suit began to form itself to Bem's body. The closer the suit got to being fitted to Bem, the more attracted to him I became.
I looked at the compact body that I planned to make love to later and I thought of all the ways I'd made love to it...to him...to Bem. The memories weren't just visual; they were experiential. Each image that flashed in my brain came with flavors, scents, and sensations of my friend. All of them were special to me. Each and every single one was a cherished memory of a relationship...a friendship that was so much more.
My relationship with Bem was really a love affair that had the full endorsement and participation of my husband. It was a love affair that threatened no one. It was a love affair that added to my relationship with my husband, an affair that made me love and respect Shawn even more. My love for my friend, and my friend's love for me, and our mutual love of Shawn...it was an uneven triangle. It was a deliberately uneven triangle with the consent of everyone involved. It was unique, and it was ours, and I loved it.
I hadn't realized how special our relationship was until Shawn and I met up with Bem for the first time in his capacity as road manager for Divided Light. Shawn and I had been on our honeymoon tour for nine months and we hadn't seen Bem in any of that time. We'd spoken once or twice on the phone, but the discussions had been bland. Bem wasn't much for talk, not on the phone anyway, so I'd lost touch with him for more than half a year.
I hadn't even realized that we were going to be in the same place until Shawn and I landed in the sprawling metropolis of Ventito. I was looking for a restroom in the airport when I noticed a poster proclaiming the `newest music sensation, DIVIDED LIGHT!' The poster was on a digital advertising sign, but was text only, with no photos of the band or its members. The only information it had was the venue location and a date. The date was that night. It was already late in the afternoon, so I knew we had to hurry. I found the bathroom, then ran back and dragged Shawn in front of the sign. "We have to see them!" I insisted.
Shawn agreed and made some calls. The calls he made set things in motion and the VIP treatment for us started right away. Bem sent the Solum version of a limo to the airport for us. It took us to our hotel, waited while we settled in and got ready, then took us to the venue. When we arrived at the massive amphitheater, carved out of a disused limestone quarry, we were taken right to the staff entrance and treated like kings. We had full access, backstage, the band's private rooms, everything.
Bem greeted us like we were the prodigal couple. He hugged us both. Actually, he leapt into my arms, wrapped his legs around my middle, and forced his tongue into my mouth. He kissed me like he wanted to suck me inside out and kept at it until Shawn made him stop. Bem's face was flushed red from excitement when he pulled his tongue from my mouth. "Tell me we're gonna fuck." He begged. "Sure," I agreed, "but maybe later would be better."
Bem laughed and climbed off my body. "Later it is."
Bem threw himself into the role of gracious host and made sure we wanted for nothing. Shawn and I watched the show, caught up with Neb and Calidi, met the newest band members, and had a great time. After the show, Shawn and Bem and I climbed into the limo to go to the hotel.
Bem sat on my lap facing me and plundered my mouth some more. He kissed me for a long time, then laid his head on my chest like it belonged there. He rested his head against me with his face toward Shawn. "I missed you guys...like a ton. It's so good to see you. I'm excited about romping, but...it's so good to see you both."
I wrapped Bem in my arms and let my magic flow around his body, under his clothes. I had it envelope him without restraining or stimulating him. I held my friend like my magic was a set of compression clothes. Bem nuzzled into my chest and sighed. "Feels great, Big Guy."
I kissed the top of Bem's head and whispered to him. "I missed you to. I'm so happy to be here with you."
I let Bem stay against my body the whole way to the hotel, and even carried him to the room like a sleeping infant. Once inside the suite, we began the longest marathon of lovemaking the three of us ever had. We made love and fucked in every position and combination our imaginations could devise and my magic would support. We were still going at it when the sun came up. It was epic.
The aftermath of that meet-up with Bem, was the start of the Bem special feature' idea. Shawn and I talked about how much fun we'd had with Bem and how much we realized we missed him. We decided to make certain that we saw him at least twice a year, preferably more often, and that each time we saw him, we'd be sure to have a new way to blow his mind, a Bem special feature.' Once that decision was made, Shawn and I started brainstorming ideas.
The earliest special features were simple. The very next time that we saw Bem, Shawn and I presented ourselves to him as his obedient sex slaves. Bem was thrilled by our idea and played his `master' role to the hilt. The next time we saw him, we swapped roles and demanded Bem submit himself to Shawn and me, to serve as our toy for the evening. Bem threw himself into that role, and I suspect he had more fun as our plaything than he had as our master. After those sessions, Shawn and I had to get more creative. We didn't want to repeat special features unless we changed them enough to be unique experiences.
Not every idea was a huge success. I'd had the idea that it would be fun to be blindfolded, for all three of us to be blindfolded and to just `root around' during our session. That lasted until Bem slipped and accidentally shoved one of his bony knees into my balls. Shawn healed my smashed testicles, and we ditched the blindfolds.
After that escapade, Shawn and I started to try each idea between ourselves before we tried it on Bem. Almost all our ideas that came after that breakthrough were well-received. I think it meant even more to Bem that Shawn and I made the effort, that we experimented with his pleasure in mind.
The most successful special features were the ones that involved sensory experiences. One that all of us really enjoyed was when Shawn and I showed up with a box full of all kinds of different types of gloves. We had everything from scratchy canvas to heavy rubber, thin latex, silk, satin, velvet, corduroy, microfiber, any and every type of glove we could think of and in sizes to fit all of us. We made a rule that no one could touch anyone else unless they were wearing gloves. Then we spent hours touching and teasing and exploring with all the different gloves. It was super erotic and a ton of fun.
Shawn and I looked forward to those sessions and tried to customize our travel schedule to maximize the time we got to spend with our friend. We always wanted to be able to see a Divided Light show, but we also aimed to meet up at the beginning of the band's regularly scheduled rest periods. That way we could spend at least a few days with Bem during each visit, instead of just a one-night stand. Our relationship deepened during that time. Bem got closer to both me and Shawn and we drew closer to him. Bem taught us things, things about sex and things about life. He was double my age and four times Shawn's. The man had wisdom to share, and he shared it, but he did it without ever being pedantic.
With Bem's help, I learned about sex, I learned about my husband, and I learned about myself. I also had one hell of a hot time exploring every inch of Bem's hairy, sinewy body. There wasn't any part of him that I didn't have committed to memory according to look, touch, taste, and smell and according to the noises he made when I teased that part of him. I couldn't wait to explore that body again, to breathe his scent and experience his flavor, to feel his heat and his heartbeat, to physically love my friend.
I was in the middle of a vague fantasy when Bem poked my side with a bony finger. The action caused me to startle and jerked me from my daydream. "Big Guy." Bem said to my stunned face. "Penny for your thoughts."
I stared down at him. Bem was back in his street clothes. I guessed I'd been daydreaming for a while and hadn't noticed the rest of the fitting that he'd gone through, or the fact that he'd finished and gotten changed. I shook my head, both to clear the fantasy from it and to respond to Bem's request for my thoughts. "It's a secret." I teased.
"I can make you tell me." Bem threatened through a wicked grin.
I leaned down and put my face right in Bem's. I spoke softly so no one else would hear. "You can make me scream, but you can't make me talk."
I let the tantalizing statement hang in the air, stood up as quickly as I could, and moved away from my friend. I felt his eyes on me as I strode away. I'm gonna give him anything he wants later.' I promised myself. Anything at all.'
After we got done in the formal outfitter's store, we spent a few hours fooling around in the mall. It was Shawn's second time inside one and Bem's first, and they both wanted to explore. Andy was also a typical teenager in that he enjoyed the mall and all the sights it had to offer. I noticed my nephew practicing his new `down low' skills of checking out eye candy. I thought he was doing well with the glance, lock on, look away technique until I caught him covertly snapping pictures on his phone. I thought the photos were a little creepy but didn't call him out on it. I figured I'd talk to him later.
I was initially worried that a crowded mall would intimidate Bem. He'd done well on South Street, but that was outdoors. I was concerned that a lot of people in an enclosed space would overwhelm my friend's fragile senses. My worries were unfounded though. Luckily, it was Monday and the little crowd that was there, was relatively quiet. The mall we toured was a far cry from the weekend mall crowds that I remembered from living on Earth. I still kept one eye on Andy, to make sure his wandering eye and camera lens didn't get him in trouble, and the other on Bem to make sure he wasn't getting frazzled.
Even as I watched out for my nephew and my friend, I couldn't stop myself from thinking about that morning. If I hadn't seen Zeke's mangled body earlier, I wouldn't have believed Bem capable of that level of violence. The way he interacted with Andy, he was fun and silly and gentle. As I watched him in the relaxed setting of the shopping mall, I couldn't find the same man who stood in Zeke's kitchen, washing blood off his hands, and giving orders like he was dead inside.
Shawn felt my concerned confusion. He sent the adolescents into a pet store where he figured they'd be busy for a while and directed me into a small, service corridor off the main gallery. "You can't reconcile the two images, can you?" He asked when we were safely out of the flow of foot traffic.
I turned to face the main gallery and leaned my shoulder against the frosted glass wall of the youth apparel store that bordered the corridor. I wanted to keep an eye out for Andy and Bem as not to get caught mid-conversation. "No, I can't believe they're the same man. We know he can be serious, but the violence was unexpected. Which one is the real one?"
Shawn shifted the bag that held his suit from hand to hand, a sure sign he was uncomfortable and one I would recognize even if I couldn't feel his emotions. "It's strange how well both skins seem to fit him. When he looked at us with those dead eyes, I would have sworn he was incapable of kindness." Shawn shuddered at the memory.
"I know, but we know that isn't the case. He's actually one of the most thoughtful people I've ever met. How can both personalities live inside one mind? Could he be mentally ill, split personalities or something?"
Shawn didn't think so. "If he was, what did he mean this morning when he said getting carried away was unprofessional? No, something else is going on. I wonder if it has something to do with whatever made him turn into a hedonist when he was with Divided Light. Either that or...I wonder, do you think it has something to do with being special forces? We never did find out what he did before he came to work with us."
I shook my head and shrugged as a gesture of `I have no idea.' "Whatever it is, it's bothering him. When I asked about it in the car on the way to Joe's, he begged me not to force the issue." "That's interesting. So, he's actively hiding it."
"Seems so," I surmised. "What do we do?"
Shawn shrugged. He seemed to resign himself to the idea there wasn't much we could do. "We'll do what you said. We have to give him the space he needs to work it out. He'll either decide to tell us or he won't. We need to accept him as a whole person and not just the fun, horny guy we love to have around. We know he's more than that, and that he's done things he'd probably rather we didn't know about. We owe him our support. Our curiosity is our problem."
I agreed. The conversation didn't seem like it could go any farther and I had a passing worry about how long we'd been talking. "We should get back." I suggested and scanned the foot traffic that was passing just beyond our secluded spot. "I don't want him to know we're worried about him. That might make things worse."
As I said it, I caught sight of Andy and Bem. They were on the opposite side of the gallery, their heads swiveled around as they looked for us. I wanted to be out of the side hallway before they saw us, as I had no reason to give for needing to have a private word with Shawn. We didn't have time to get back into the main gallery in any way that they wouldn't know where we'd come from. They'd see us in seconds.
On impulse, I grabbed Shawn and kissed him greedily. He didn't know why I did it, but he didn't object. Bem's shrill whistle echoed off the terrazzo floors and glass walls and announced when Andy and he had seen us. We broke apart as Andy and Bem came to join us out of the flow of traffic. Bem wore a huge, leering smile and teased us. "You guys didn't get enough of that last night?" He baited me. "You must not be doing it right if you're still not satisfied."
Andy goggled. He looked at each of us, then his gaze settled on Shawn with a hunger in his eyes that made me uncomfortable. "You guys were...last night...right on the other side of the wall? Really?"
"No!" I barked out a lie. "We wouldn't do that in your father's house. Bem is just teasing. Right Bem?" I scowled at my friend. "We still have some good manners."
"Absolutely." Bem wiped his grin away and sold his half of the lie as hard as he could. "I was just teasing."
"Uh huh." Andy nodded while mischief twinkled in his hazel eyes. "You guys pretend that's the truth, and I'll pretend to believe you."
"I'm sorry." Bem bit his lip and looked away. "I keep messing up. I didn't mean to."
I tried to make light of the embarrassment I felt. "Don't worry about it. Andy will simply add that to the list of things he won't repeat in front of his father. Right, Andy?"
"Sure. I wouldn't get you in trouble, Bem." Andy was quick with his own reassurance.
"Thanks." Bem said but he still looked unhappy.
Oh hell.' I thought. Poor Bem. We'll have to work extra hard to make him feel good later. He's had a rough time today.' I glanced around until I found a wall clock that said it was getting late. "Time to go home everyone." I announced. "It's getting close to dinner time, and we need to help cook."