The Needy Wives Club

Arlene was driving, wheeling her little red sports car like she always did, with the top down and her hair blowing behind her. My shorter cap of curls just sort of fluffed.

As we headed west of Denver I started to wonder just where we were going. Then she turned onto Lookout Mountain Road and I laughed.

"Joe's," I said.

Her little car is designed so that we could talk, even with the top down, without actually shouting.

"I wondered if you'd figure it out. Yes. The place went broke when they quit allowing 18-year-olds to drink 3.2 beer and it had been vacant for years when we first formed the Club. We picked it up for a song, got a private club license, spent about 10 backbreaking weekends cleaning and scrubbing and watching contractors do what we wanted and now we have the perfect getaway," she said.

I watched the countryside roll by and remembered coming up here as a college student, almost 30 years ago. It's a truly pretty drive and if things hadn't changed, the plate glass windows across the eastern side of the building would show a gorgeous panorama of Denver spread out below.

It was still light when we pulled into the parking lot which was bigger than I remembered. There looked to be 20 cars in the lot and the place looked closed.

We went to the main entrance door which was actually on the side of the building and when I went in I stopped to look around. The basic layout was the same but everything looked much nicer than when it was a college bar.

As usual, Arlene made a grand entrance.

"All right everybody, relax," she said in a voice that cut through the murmur of conversations, "I'm here."

As she intended, all eyes turned to us.

"Ladies of the Needy Wives Club, meet your newest recruit," she said grandly, indicating me as I tried to be inconspicuous. "Ladies, this is Judy, Judy, this is the ladies. Before I take you around," she stopped for a moment and turned to the women facing us and said, "What's our MOTTO!" the last ending with a ringing voice.

Without hesitation, the ladies replied in unison - -

WE AIN'T GETTIN' ENOUGH!

I couldn't help but laugh.

"Again," Arlene called out, "and Judy, I'd better hear YOU."

I joined in.

WE AIN'T GETTIN' ENOUGH!!

"Okay," she said, "come on dear." And she started leading me around the room, introducing every woman.

There was Laura, even bigger than Arlene, immense breasts on display, and a smile that just made you smile back.

LaVerne, soft, round, brunette, and cute hugged me by way of greeting.

MaryAnne, who laughed and said "Elsie," had the biggest breasts I have ever seen. I couldn't help but imagine them hanging to her waist.

And on around the room. Millie, a tiny beautiful elf of a woman. Edna, who looked like a church secretary with her hair in a pile on her head. Nancy, big and beautiful, auburn hair framing a beautiful face. Minnie, skinny and cute. And on around the room.

Finally, she stopped and looked at the clock on the wall.

"Nancy, open the bar, please. LaVerne, get the door. Let's get us some, ladies," she said and led me to a table at the corner of the room where we could watch.

I was amazed. It was like there had been a line at the door and as soon as it was opened about 20 men came in and it looked to me like not one of them was over 30. For another 10 minutes, they kept coming in until there were at least 50 men. A few more women filtered in too, each exchanging waves with Arlene and others.

I noticed Arlene looking at her watch and suddenly she stood and took me by the hand again, leading me up onto the small stage at the end of the room. It looked like they had a live band from time to time.

"LISTEN UP," she called, not using a microphone.

The general hubbub died down quickly and it looked to me like she had done this before.

"Guys, I bring you," and she pulled me forward to stand beside her, "a club VIRGIN."

And I felt myself blushing at the loud applause that suddenly filled the room.

"Now what am I offered for the privilege of introducing her to how things work here at the Needy Wives Club?" she said and I turned to her.

"You're auctioning me OFF?" I said, my voice rising with each word.

She grinned.

"Yep," she said calmly, "it's happened to every one of us."

"One hundred dollars," came a voice from the back of the crowd.

Arlene rolled her eyes theatrically.

"Ladies," she called, "what do we think about that?" and a virtual hail of peanuts peppered the bidder.

She was laughing.

"Yes, we spit on your hundred dollars. Another bid like that and someone gets escorted off of the premises. Now seriously!" she called.

"Two fifty" came a voice.

"Three hundred" came another.

I finally went for six hundred and fifty dollars.

"Okay people, you know how it works. Open bar for six hundred and fifty dollars," she called and then pointed dramatically at Laura who was manning the bar, "starting NOW!"

As she handed me off to the man who had bid on me she picked up the microphone and said, this time amplified enough to be heard over the general noise in the room "and now what I know you men have all been waiting for, my beautiful ass. Hit the music, Laura."

As I watched, absolutely captivated, the lights dimmed a little and the stage footlights came on and she retreated to the pole that I hadn't noticed in all of the confusion. She was amazing as a pole dancer. I couldn't look away as my "date" led me to one of the tables by the picture window.

He sat me at the table and then headed for the bar.

I was looking around, fascinated. It looked like any other "singles" bar except for the age differences and, well, the obviousness of everything. Over there a hugely overweight woman was practically molesting a much smaller man. And at one of the booths a woman was conversing, quite casually from all appearances, with a man standing beside the booth while another had his head in her lap and a nipple in his mouth. And the dancing was something from the senior prom with absolutely no space between couples as they danced.

The music tended to be slow, in the "torch song" vein. Arlene's music had started with Peggy Lee doing "Fever" and now Julie London's throaty voice was doing "Cry Me A River."

As I looked around my first thought was "orgy." But the more I took in that word didn't seem to fit. Digging deep into my college literature classes the word "bacchanal" floated to the surface and that seemed right.

And then my "date" was back with a tray. He sat the tray on the table and sat across from me at the little hubcap-sized table.

"First-timers get the 'inhibition killer' combo," he said, grinning a grin that I knew had to be well-practiced in the mirror.

"Oh?" I said, still off-balance.

"Yep," he said, flashing that grin, "two tequila shots and a tiny little toot."

He took my hand and licked the web between my thumb and index finger and then poured a little salt on it. Then he did the same to his hand. He picked up one of the four shot glasses on the tray and nodded for me to do the same. I looked at him for a few seconds and then followed suit.

He licked the salt, tossed back the tequila, and then bit into one of the lime slices that were sitting on the tray.

I took a deep breath and did the same.

"Hello Judith," he said, "I am Roger."

Again I looked at him a little crookedly.

"Why Judith?" I said, "Arlene just introduced me as Judy."

That grin again.

"You were set up. And one of the things Arlene told me was that you preferred Judith although I think I can change that," he said.

"Set up?" I said, making the question mark obvious with my intonation.

"Yes Judith, set up. Look at me," he said, indicating himself with his hands, "I'm a 28-year-old graduate student. How could I afford to blow six hundred fifty dollars even on someone as fetching as you?"

I giggled.

"Fetching?" I said.

And he laughed at that.

"Literature majors," he said, "but seriously. Arlene and I go back a long way. She has been telling me about your, well, your situation and she made me promise to be high bidder when she brought you up here. That open bar will come out of the club's coffers but y'all can afford it."

Before I could respond to that he took my hand again and did that salt thing and we did the second pair of tequila shots.

I could feel the alcohol already and the buzz was pleasant.

I could feel the tension in the room too. No, not "tension." I could feel the intensity in the room.

As I watched one of the men got onto his knees in front of that ridiculously skinny woman I had met earlier, Minnie the name came to me, and he undid the button and zipper of the slacks she wore and stripped her from the waist down. There was something amazingly erotic about seeing her there in her long-sleeved top, high-heeled shoes, and nothing else as he began openly kissing and licking between her legs.

Roger took my hand, pulling me back into the present.

"One more inhibition breaker he said," and held a tiny spoon to his nose and took a quick sniff of the white powder in it. Then he dipped the spoon into a small glass vial and offered it to me.

"ummmmmmmmmm," I said, looking skeptically at the spoon.

And just then Arlene was at the table dressed only in the tiniest thong I have ever seen. Her big boobs were swinging free and her nipples, small on her large areolas, were very hard.

"Go ahead honey," she said, it won't hurt but it'll damn sure take the edge off," and then she took the spoon, gave a little sniff, and handed it to Roger.

She smiled down at me and said "have fun Judy, the girls need to get busy," and she lifted her breasts in a waving way and turned around to the room.

He refilled the little spoon and offered it again.

And I accepted it. One quick sniff and I felt an immediate sensation of light-headedness and suddenly colors were brighter and sounds louder and scents more distinct.

Mostly, that itch in my belly was suddenly there and almost more than I could stand.

"Come on," he said, standing and offering his hand, "let's dance while you get past the rush."

I took his hand and walked a little unsteadily to the dance floor.

Elvis Presley was doing "Loving You" as we started dancing and that quickly switched to Roy Orbison doing "Crying."

And Jesus but it felt good to be in his arms. He was tall, a little over 6 feet, and that meant my cheek fit on his chest nicely. His hand holding mine was light, but the one on my back was firm and I liked the way his fingertips lightly played there. I liked it a lot.

As the second song was coming to an end he nuzzled my ear a little and breathed "that's enough for now sugar," and led me back to the table.

There was a big mug of beer on his side and a screwdriver on mine. When I looked around Arlene caught my eye, over the shoulder of the man she was dancing with, and winked broadly.

"This place," Roger started in what I imagined was his teacher's voice, "exists for one reason, pleasure. What happens at Joe's stays at Joes's to coin a phrase."

"You will notice," he went on, "that the women tend to be a little on the mature side and the men tend to be younger. That is very much by design. And before you ask, yes, the men almost all have 'mommy' issues." He chuckled. "Although in my case it's Aunt Ann issues."

"But look, this club is about the women. The men, and I include myself, consider ourselves lucky to be part of something this damn cool," he said. "Trust me, nobody talks out of school. Every one of us realizes just how easy it would be to lose this."

He seemed to have wound down a little so I asked "so what? The women come here to get laid?"

He laughed at that, a full throaty laugh.

"That's part of it of course. And as you can see, men outnumber women pretty dramatically so no woman should ever leave here unsatisfied. But that's only part of it. The men like women. We love women. We enjoy women. We like the sex, oh indeed we do. But we like the companionship too," he said and then stopped for a drink of his beer.

I started to say something but he held up a finger signaling me to wait. Which I did.

"Look Judith, look at me," he said and stood and did a slow turn. "I'm pretty easy on the eyes, I like to think I'm bright and articulate. Frankly, I'm a teaching assistant at DU, and trust me, I can have all of the giggly girls I want. The thing is," and here he reached across the table capturing my hands in his again, "I don't want them. I enjoy women, not girls. And you'll see that most of the men here do too."

The first rush of the alcohol and drugs had passed and I was concentrating on his, well, his "lecture," but I was still a bit drunk from the tequila.

"So," I started, feeling a little blush starting and hating it, "if I just wanted to get laid?"

He jumped to his feet and held out his hand.

"Say the word and I'll take you downstairs right now," he said, giving me a Groucho Marx eyebrow waggle.

I laughed and said, "sit down buster."

He grinned and sat.

"So," I started, kind of at a loss, "what do you expect of me?"

He laughed again.

"Judith, I have no expectations. I hope that we'll hit it off and enjoy each other," he said. "And yes," he went on when I started to say something, "that most definitely means I hope to have you naked before the sun rises." He finished with that grin again and I couldn't help but grin back.

I heard a yell and turned to see if someone had been hurt. Minnie had her head thrown back and was obviously in mid-orgasm while a half-dozen men cheered her on.

I looked away feeling that damn blush again.

"Not much modesty in this place," he said with a chuckle. "Have you ever pole danced?"

It took a second for my mind to catch up to the sudden change of subject.

"ummmmmmmmmmmmmm no," I said.

"You'll love it and you're in for a treat. Watch," he said.

And on stage, a woman was standing.

When the music started, Linda Rondstadt's version of "Blue Bayou," she started the most amazing striptease/pole dance. I started to say that I had ever seen but since the only one I had ever seen was Arlene earlier I really don't have much to which to compare it.

She was fat. No way around it. That classic dumpling. About five foot nothing and easily pushing 300 pounds. But she was graceful too. And the way she worked the clothes removal into her dance it was obvious she practiced a lot. She was absolutely acrobatic on the pole and so light on her feet that you forgot about her size. When the music finished she was stark naked and absolutely stunning.

"So," I said, surprised to find that my screwdriver was gone, "it's basically a sex club."

He slapped his forehead in mock exasperation which made me laugh.

"Be right back," he said and it seemed natural when he bent down to kiss me before heading to the bar for refills of my screwdriver and his beer.

I watched the woman on stage going through a second pole dance absolutely fascinated. You could see her sweating from where I sat, but she didn't seem tired and she was so graceful I wondered if my gymnastics training would help me do something like that.

He brought drinks and kissed me again before sitting back across from me.

"Judith," he said, leaning forward and holding my eyes with his, "I was thinking about it while I waited, and here's the thing. It is not a 'sex club' as you put it. Sex happens. A lot," and he chuckled at that, "but that's not primarily what happens. The best way I can think of to describe it is as a big group marriage."

He stopped to take a swallow and I did too.

"I mean," he went on, "there's sex and there's, as you see, a great deal of flaunting of sex. But there's love too."

He must have seen the skepticism in my face.

"Look, you might get a spanking, but it will be because you want and enjoy it. But if someone did something you didn't want, or if you just yelled 'HELP,' trust me, every man in this room," and he gestured to take in the entire place, "would be there as fast as they could and trust me, whoever was trying to do something you didn't want to be done would be in deep shit."

I laughed at that crudity.

"I'm serious Judith," he said. "We enjoy our bodies, obviously," and he pointed at the woman, I couldn't call her name up right then, on her knees with a dick in her mouth as two other men, naked, obviously waited their turn.

"But it's more than JUST sex," he said.

"Am I making myself clear?" he asked, holding my eyes again.

"It's a bit much to take in," I said.

"Oh, I know. Look," he said, "I love Arlene. Hell, I've been in love with her for years. If she ever decided to leave Ron and marry me I'd have her on the altar in a New York minute. But I also understand her and I'm not jealous when she's, well," and again she pointed to where a couple of men were, well, 'making out' with her, "like that. She's a big woman with big appetites and I accept. But I'm serious Judith, I'd marry her in a heartbeat and we'd still come to the Needy Wives Club."

I pondered that for a few minutes while watching the next pole dancer, this one, Becky I thought, was tall and sexy. Athletic looking but not nearly as good on the pole as the woman before her.

"You say 'group marriage,'" I said, pausing to formulate my thoughts. "What about kids, you know, pregnancy?"

He smiled at that.

"Not to be sexist about it," he said and there was that grin again, "but any woman who doesn't want to get pregnant can avoid it, and if she doesn't then I assume that she wanted it. As far as I know, and this is just what I see and hear, I've never looked into it, there has never been an unwanted pregnancy in this group and we've been here for a little over four years now."

"Unwanted?" I said.

"Yes, unwanted," he said, "actually, we've had a couple of pregnancies and those may be the most loved kids in Colorado."

Again I pondered for a while. And the thing is, it made sense to me in a weird sort of way. The other thing is, or was anyway, that I was so goddam horny that I could hardly think of anything but what was between my legs.

"ummmmm," I said and there was that damn blush again, "if we're going to consummate this marriage is there someplace, well, less public?"

He smiled. Not that practiced grin of his but a genuine smile.

"It's not a requirement Judith," he said, as serious as he had been all night.

"I know," I said, "but Roger, it's been so long and all of this," and it was my turn to make that sweeping gesture, "does get to a girl, you know?"

He stood and offered me his hand and then, without another word, led me past the bar and the bathrooms. On the way I heard Arlene's big voice call "you kids don't do anything I wouldn't do" and I felt the blush spread down my breasts. Roger just laughed softly and said, "I love that woman but she can be a bit much."

He opened a door into a well-lit stairway that went down. I was mildly surprised. I suppose I should have realized that there was a basement or something under the building but I hadn't thought of it.

At the bottom of the stairs, there was a hallway with a dozen doors off of it. I noticed as we walked along the hall that each door had a little sign on it, kind of like the bathroom on an airplane, and a few were showing red "occupied."

He walked past a few "unoccupied" and I asked where we were going. He told me that some of the "regulars" had "staked a claim" on one particular room and we were going to his.

When we entered it turned out to be a small apartment. He had a queen-sized bed against one wall, a television on one wall, a private bath, and a large rack stereo system with what looked to be hundreds of actual vinyl albums.

I sort of stared I guess and he chuckled.

"I'm one of the original members," he said, "and I'm pretty much the caretaker. There's always food in the kitchen and, of course, plenty to drink. I handle most of the maintenance and do some cleanup too. Free-rent is precious to a college student."