Here is the 7th Part, already! The first 'Four Plus One', is in the First Time category: start there or just go in where you like. Thanks for the feedback: it helps me with the story.
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It was meant to be a working bee. It started out as a working bee, but somehow... people got distracted.
The girls had each given themselves tasks to help get the house in order. Andrea was helping clear the overgrown front garden, Phoebe was cleaning the mouldy windows, Mel was stacking and sorting. Danny had borrowed a four-stroke mower and was making an unholy racket with it. He'd also got a mate to drop off a half-filled skip for the morning: anything they chucked in there was carted off for free, seeing as it was already paid for by the actual customer. Plans sprouted everywhere: more paint here, minor repairs there, vegie beds and fruit trees...
That was the idea, and it had started well. The morning was sunny but not too hot, someone's iPod was supplying the music, cold drinks ready, everyone was feeling great. The jobs started getting done. The skip was filling fast: Danny used as many tricks as he knew to pack the rubbish in and extend the space. He stood in the battered steel chest and towered above them like an Olympian, directing them to lift things that were much too heavy for them. Everyone was cheerful.
But short breaks became slightly longer. Odd little discoveries were examined closely. Quips and comments turned into chats, then proper conversations over cups of tea. The girls' cheerfulness helped them open up to each other.
So it was early afternoon when Danny stumped up to the kitchen door, exhausted.
"Well, that's the mowing done. I've also moved the firewood so it's tidy and stacked near the door. I've taken quite a bit of stuff out of the shed, and that's nearly filled the skip. And thanks for the help clearing the front, Andrea; I chucked the cuttings in the skip too. The yard's going to look really good one day."
It was quite a catalogue. As Danny stood in the doorway, arms up on each doorpost, the girls could see from the sweat and grime on him that he'd made a big effort. The girls were slightly abashed. The sun played on his strong shoulder and arm muscles. His head drooped slightly and he gave off the smell of sweat and hard, dirty work. The girls got a sense of him
Andrea stepped in. "Thanks a lot, Danny, you've worked like a galley slave. It must look like we've spent the morning chatting, but you'll see we've made some progress. Would you like a drink?"
"Thank you, that would be gracious of you."
Phoebe jumped up. "Let me get it for you."
Gracious. Danny's curious choice of words always cheered them. They relaxed and thanked him themselves.
"You've worked so hard, we should make it up to you somehow!" Mel managed to sound innocent and suggestive at the same time. "Can we clean you up? Andrea's a nurse, she's good at... lots of things." Andrea glared at Mel.
There was a flicker of gratitude on Danny's face, until he realised the joke. He protested that he'd be fine really, but the idea was now in the girls' heads. Phoebe was near the sink and soaked the tea-towel in hot water. Andrea took another and made it cold and wet. Together they wiped his face with the cool one and worked the grime off his arms with the warm one. Danny was truly grateful.
"We need this shirt off," said Andrea in an efficient, nursing tone. Danny half-helped as she pulled the tee over his head, revealing his solid chest and strong arms. "What have you done here?"
A red weal ran across the top of Danny's chest. Blood had seeped out of the lower end; there was dried blood and a smear of red against his skin. "Oh yeah, that was a stack of scrap metal. It sort of fell on me. I felt the scratch but never got around to checking it."
Andrea carefully wiped away the dried crust of blood and inspected the cut. It was clean, but needed some more treatment.
"I can clean it up and dress that wound, but I think you'll live, you big boy. I'll even kiss it better for you." She leant in and kissed the cut, then felt something startling.
She got a taste, a faint metallic ringing on her tongue, of his blood. She had often smelt blood in her nursing work, but almost never in her life tasted it. It sent a shudder of sensation through her. This hard man, with the hard muscles and gentle manners, was having a strange effect on her. Now this taste was sending her senses reeling. She ran her hands over his shoulders and felt the bunched muscles as he stood in the doorway. He stood with eyes closed, weary but enjoying the attention. She kissed the cut again, and again she got the tingling metallic taste on her lips.
She ducked under one arm and swung around behind Danny. He was taller than her, so she found herself just looking over his shoulder. She ran her hands over the muscles there, feeling them respond to the touch, then respond more as she kneaded into them. She felt the shoulders soften slightly. The metallic taste seemed to linger.
"Shall I go any further?" Phoebe woke her from her half-dream. She had wiped down his torso and paused at his waistline. Andrea was unsure, then surprised herself and everyone else by undoing his belt.
Phoebe eased the jeans down. They were not artfully stone-washed or 'distressed' pants, they were real work clothes, with scuffs and worn patches from Danny's years of driving and fixing trucks. Phoebe traced her hands over the downy hairs of his buttocks and across his strong thighs as she tugged down the pants. She pulled down his jocks to reveal his mass of dark curls and hanging penis. The attention of two lovely ladies had not managed to get past his weariness, it seemed. Phoebe hesitated, then reached out to touch.
