CHAPTER ONE

 

 

 

From the summit you could see Lake Tahoe far below-the entire expanse of it glistening sleepily in the sun, its color changing from dark green to blue, then to a lighter shade of blue. Hills walled it in, just as they walled in the broad meadows to the south and the teardrops of other tiny lakes to the west and east. To the north, and about midway between the summit and Lake Tahoe, sprawled the big stone building of Freelag Lodge. Freelag Lodge was two stories high, nestled back in the firs and pines with its collection of carpeted rooms and discreet servants. During the season, it boasted a three-piece combo in its cocktail lounge, and the young couples who enthusiastically filled the resort danced closely entwined until it was time for bed. Bedtime was singularly early, for Freelag Lodge was renowned as a "honeymoon" hotel-whether you were married or not.

Most of the young men and women who eagerly sought reservations here during the summer months were married, if only that morning in Reno, but there were also the romantics who considered themselves enough in love to pay the exorbitant rates. There were also the older couples who were tired of the glitter of Reno and Tahoe and wished to "get away from it all" for a while, though that often included getting away from respective husbands and wives as well. But however it was sliced, and whoever with, Freelag Lodge was for passion, love, and lust.

If you wanted to escape from Freelag Lodge itself, there were the paths. The paths spread out behind the building like a spider's web net, meandering through the wind-bent trees and breeze-stirred shrubbery, winding up the silent, loamy hills to the summit. The summit and the private cottages. The cottages were set apart from one another by brakes of forest and bush and sun-dappled grass; small, redwood-paneled cabins which looked out over the Lodge and the lake through large picture windows, and were furnished right down to a small blaze burning in the field-stone fireplace when you first arrived. The clean tang of pine smoke sharpened the summer air coming from the lake, and seemed to revitalize the lovers who could pay sixty dollars a day for a place to fuck.

The path connecting the cottages ran along the edge of the summit, and on this warm June evening, it was young Sabrina Hartoni who was excited about the panoramic view spread out before her. She walked languidly alongside her husband of a few hours, her arm tightly pressed to his, unable to stifle the blissful grin on her fresh, roundly pert and freckled face. The new Mrs. Hartoni was tall and lithe with natural blonde hair and luminescent green eyes with tiny yellow flecks in the irises. She wore a clinging blue shift which hugged and caressed her slender, high-breasted figure, and accentuated the easy, natural sway of her tight-mooned buttocks. She was twenty, in love with a perfect man, and married to him. What more could a woman ask? The diamond of her newly acquired wedding ring sparkled magically in the crimson rays of the setting sun, as if mirroring the radiant happiness that threatened to burst her heart.

She snuggled her head against James Hartoni's bare shoulder, feeling the warmth of his tanned, masculine flesh. He was wearing a pair of tight green swimming trunks and a pair of thongs, as she was, and his bronzed, hard-muscled body glistened in the dimming light of the day. He had dark brown, almost black hair which he wore long and thick according to the current fashion, and despite the fact he was only two years older than his bride, James seemed somehow much older. Oh, not by wrinkles or lines of dissipation, for he was still very virile and youthful in appearance, but as Sabrina glanced up worshipfully at him, she thought he seemed so much more mature, so much more experienced in his manner and expression.

The young bride felt a small, reflexive shiver of fascination move briefly along her spine. Lord, but he was a handsome catch! She'd thought so when she'd first met him on a double date with her twin brother, Kal. It had been one of those "joke" blind dates, done for the lark and not because she'd expected anything to come of it-certainly not marriage! But James also was a twin, and her brother Kal was dating James's sister Jenna, so it sounded like a good laugh when Jenna had said James was coming to town and why not make it a four-some, a twin twosome! But when Sabrina had first laid eyes on James, she was no longer in the mood to laugh. He had a certain roguish allure which had immediately captivated her, which made her irrationally avert her gaze and blush girlishly. It was almost as if James mentally undressed her and left her naked and defenseless. Yes, and tonight, their wedding night, James would in fact undress her and lead her naked and defenseless into the secret mysteries of sex. It seemed almost miraculous to her that after all the months of James's amorous pressures, she'd remained true to her dreams of being pure and unspoiled for her husband; to still be a virgin.

Sabrina studied her new husband as they walked together along the graveled path. She watched the way he moved easily, with almost leonine fluidity, the strong muscles rippling along his thighs and chest, the hard bas-relief outline of his manhood straining the thin material of his swimming trunks. What would it look like? She'd never seen a man's penis before, not even her brother's, and the tantalizing thought of what James's would resemble burrowed like a hot, prickly sliver in her mind. Lord! Did a penis really get long and hard, the way some of her girlfriends told her it did? Even soft, the bulging contour of its manly shaft seemed to hold a strange, awesome fascination for the sheltered young girl, and for one quick moment she was filled with a weird desire to reach across and run her fingers down over the stimulating outline, and trace the curve of his cock as it nestled gently in the softness of his scrotum.

Then, abruptly shamed, Sabrina averted her gaze and stared mortified out over the summit. Self-deprecatingly, she thought: My God, what a way to be carrying on! James could never respect me if he knew I was harboring such indecent, sinful ideas! I'm so ashamed...!

The blonde-haired bride shuddered involuntarily as she resisted her erotic reveries and the dwelling fear of what this night would bring. She prayed subconsciously that James would understand her natural reticence and be gentle and patient as he initiated her into the new world of sex. Sex. There was a word which had never been mentioned in her parents' house, not once in all the years of her and her brother's upbringing. Sex was a subject that got your mouth washed out with soap, or worse. She and Kal were products of a Midwestern Baptist family, and neither one of them had had much of a chance to stray from God's way, dating very little and then only under the stern glare of Mr. & Mrs. Moore's parental guidance. There was church twice on Sunday with Kal in the choir, while most of their friends were running off to play. And the constant warnings on the evils of s-e-x! And the innate bestiality of human animals, both male and female. It almost seemed irreligious for her to have chosen James Hartoni for a husband, considering how much more worldly he was.

And when Kal had announced that he was planning to marry Jenna Hartoni, their parents had all but disowned him. It had been very difficult for her brother to withstand their parents' heated objections, for he'd been brought up as protected as his twin sister. Yet Sabrina couldn't help admiring her brother for fighting for the girl he loved, no matter what her shortcomings might be, and when it was obvious that Mr. & Mrs. Moore would have nothing to do with their son's wedding, Sabrina had happily agreed to go to Reno with Kal and Jenna and make it a double ceremony. The elopement had gone off without a hitch, and after a quicky vow-taking at noon, the two couples were now on their honeymoon.

Still, Sabrina couldn't help a slight twinge of concern for her brother's welfare. It was one thing for James to enter marriage slightly tarnished, for he was a man and premarital experience could be tolerated. But Jenna was, well, James's twin sister and was the sort of girl whom Sabrina's mother never discussed in public; Mrs. Moore being a decent woman with a civil tongue in her head. But her lips compressed in a thin white line, the flaring nostrils of her pinched nose, and the disapproving snap in her eyes-they all conveyed the mother's disgust quite eloquently. Not only was Jenna two years older than Kal, but she had once worked as a go-go dancer in Fresno! Sabrina had found the black-haired girl exceptionally open and blatant with her language, though Jenna had never said or done anything overtly obscene when in her company.

But she was disturbed by a comment she'd overheard while passing her mother's closed bedroom door one night, when unwittingly Mrs. Moore had said overly loud to the father: "That Jenna is a strumpet, Joshua. She's the devil's playmate!" Sabrina devoutly hoped that Jenna wasn't anything so indecent and impure, and that Kal was gaining a bride as clean in spirit and body as James was, but Sabrina had the sinking intuition that somewhere along the line, Jenna might have fallen to the temptations of the flesh, perhaps more than once! And that's what disturbed her, for with the same feminine instinct, she sensed that Jenna had not gained her carnal knowledge from Kal, but that Kal was a virgin too.

Sabrina quickly banished her straying thoughts as she and James made the final turn and entered the clearing of the next cottage. Yet while stepping daintily along the graveled trail, she couldn't stop that lingering curiosity as to whether Kal was as nervous and apprehensively eager for tonight as she...

The small clearing ended at the porch of the cottage, which was now shadowed in the twilight. But the clearing itself was still bathed in hot tangerine sunlight, and the redwood picnic table and chairs seemed to gleam as if waxed with burgundy polish.

Kal and Jenna were lounging in the chairs, slowly sipping at frosty glasses in their hands. On the table between them was a ceramic pitcher with trickles of condensation running down its rounded sides, indicating that whatever it held was nice and cold. When they saw Sabrina and James approaching, they both jumped up, waving and smiling.