This story is part of a continuation of my
Road Trip
series (see the end of 'Road Trip -- California' for a list of the chapters of that series, in order to be read). You need not read that series to enjoy this series. Although real places and celebrity names are used for realism, this story is fiction. Please 'read, enjoy, vote, and comment.'
Synopsis of This Story Up to This Point
: After a motorcycle road trip laced with grief, love, incest, and sex (read my Road Trip series), Jim, girlfriend country singer Crystal Lee and her sister Ellen, a love interest named Claire, and a nymphomaniac housekeeper Nadia lived together. Jim became a huge country music success, does his first movie (enjoying several orgies with Jill his leading lady), and becomes a hero several times to great media acclaim. The press discovered that Jim fathered a child in Ohio during his road trip; but with sexy Edie's help, Crystal and Jim manage the news so their reputations remain intact. Claire finally revealed her mysterious past, admitting to doing porn films and being an escort, at one point consorting with billionaire Joe Mansard and his daughter Beth; she left the 'adult' business and redirected her life. Crystal and Jim get Grammys. Jim got blackmailed; he hires private detective Margo to resolve the case, and in the process Margo and an innocent suspect Caroline became Mellon Girls. In Berlin, the CIA tasked Jim with a mission in Moscow; thus. He met a beautiful Russian woman, and after his success connected with a sexy CIA agent.
The entourage moved to Dublin, where Jim discovered a bomb in his concert stadium, and at great personal risk saved the day. His 'Mellon Girls' rewarded him appropriately. Back in Nashville, Jim and the gang listened to one of Nadia's sexy stories, and in Ohio Jim saw the birth of his second child. Later, Nadia brought a noteworthy sex toy into their midst. Jim's circle headed to LA to start a new movie. On a weekend concert tour, Jim met PJ -- a runner and songwriter the group welcomed. Urged by her circle, Claire reestablished contact with billionaire Joe Mansard and Beth; Jim joined the three of them for a long-weekend sex-filled vacation in the Galapagos Islands during which Claire received a marriage proposal. The group heads to the Lee's for Christmas, where Jim successfully seduces Crystal and Ellen's mother Kim, and Nadia scores with Don their Dad. Crystal and Jim skied and made love with Lauren, and play in her hot tub. PJ writes a hit. Crystal, Jim, and Claire head to Switzerland to film a movie where Jim does a dangerous but outstanding ski run. Friends Jed, Sam, Lea, and Janice join up with them for Jim's skills and instruction in lovemaking. Jim weathers a sexting scandal, and Crystal indulges in some unusually wild sex; Jim is disappointed when he finds she used ecstasy as an orgasmic aid.
Crystal Clear -- Ch. 30
Graduation blow out, more group sex, and Crystal implodes
Crystal and I came trotting back from our morning run and a twenty-minute period of meditation in the little clearing in the woods. We'd seen a deer as we sat motionless, but the deer just meandered away in no particular rush.
As we got near the house, I said to Crystal, "Would you marry me?"
Crystal whirled around in complete surprise. She tried to speak, sputtered, her mouth moved, but no words came out. Then, I figured out what she tried to say: "No." She shook her head, paused, and then explained. "Jim, you are loved by many women whom I love. I wouldn't do that to them the same way Claire wouldn't. I don't know what you have, but you have 'IT.' If I married you, it would make us traditional -- and I don't want traditional, and I know you don't either; nor does Ellen, Claire, PJ, Nadia, Edie, Summer, and I won't even start on the rest of the list of women enamored with your charms. We all like living in an open polyamorous relationship with you. I love that other women love you, on some days more than I do, to be realistic about it." She playfully punched my arm to take the edge off her words. As an afterthought, she added, "I do like the idea ... I just ... never thought it would happen ... that you'd ever want to, so, I didn't think about it as even a possibility."
I didn't doubt her love one bit. Since the first day we met, I knew we both felt we had an affinity and connection that transcended anything either one of us had even seen long-married couples display. Crystal's parents had even commented multiple times about how we seemed to be made for each other.
We slowed our walk, and Crystal who'd been leading the way, dropped back and grabbed ahold of my arm in a romantic gesture. She continued, "I know that PJ and Nadia will probably move on from us with their lives, and you and I and the others will mourn their departure. I'm not rushing them; I'm just being realistic. I think that Sean and Nadia each like being non-traditional, but they'll want a bigger bite of each other's time and attention. PJ is getting serious about Jake Randall. I think Dan's moving on; he took his best shot at her. I think something will happen there for each couple. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out."
Crystal hugged my arm to her full breasts and went back to her original line of thinking; "So, my 'No' isn't a message that I don't love you; it's because I love you AND I love all the others in our circle. I don't want any of us to be hurt by some false sense of exclusivity or possessiveness that might emerge with the label 'marriage.' We all need our freedom; we all need to have fun. I want us all to be able to support each other in mind, body, and spirit -- to reach out and extend their love to help any of us to grow and to be the best we can be. Just always know, I do love you so dearly, and I want us to be together always. I just know there'll be others around us, and I like that too. I just hope you'll keep me on your favorites list."
Crystal stopped and pulled me into her arms for a very passionate kiss. I kissed back. This was the most wonderful woman in the world. She'd so changed my life, and I loved her more than life itself.
As we walked inside, Nadia and PJ were sitting at the dining room table having their cereal. I gave each of them a kiss, and then sat down to eat. Crystal repeated the act of love with kisses for each of them.
Claire had slept the night through after her breakdown, waking only long enough to shed her clothes, go to the bathroom and crawl back in bed with Crystal and me. She came out wearing one of my t-shirts and not much else. She went around the table and kissed each of us, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she moved. She got to me last, and I cuddled her in my lap and let her nuzzle into my neck with her eyes closed and her red hair fanned out across my chest. She smelled like jasmine.
* * * * *
Nadia's graduation party in mid-May was a blowout. We had about three hundred people there, about half her friends from the nearby college and the rest a potpourri of other friends and neighbors. I noticed that Sean seldom left Nadia's side. He'd discovered the sweet young Russian a few years earlier as she was entering the school. He'd gotten a graduate degree at the same college mostly to stay near Nadia.