"Excuse me. I can't help it. Besides, you know two members must initiate any and all women wanting to join. And you know you won't let any other man put a hand on her, so why not a female? Me."
"Hold on." Annette held up a hand. "Who said anything about initiating? Nick told me all about that little rule y'all have about initiation. I'm just not down with that."
"Don't worry, baby. My rules can be broken. If you're to be initiated, the only one who will do the initiating is me," Jordan said.
"Oh no. No fair. Rules are the rules," Tara said. "If you want preferential treatment, you need to hash that out with the old guards of Heat Ryderz."
"Well, Tara, did you have to follow them?" Annette asked. She couldn't help but being nosey.
"Hell, yeah!"
"Well, who did you … you know?"
"Who did I what?" Tara asked.
Oh, no, don't tell me she fucked Jordan. "Are you gonna make me say it?"
"Yeah, baby doll … I am."
"Who did you fuck?"
"Of course, you know my main man is Mike. Mike and I have a relationship, no matter what you see me doing. Right, Mike?"
"Right, baby. I feel the same way Jordan feels. After the initiation, no one else touches my pussy unless I have a say in it," Mike said, kissing Tara on the neck.
"You don't get to pick the other member you fuck. They pick you. After that initiation, that's when your loyalty is tested. There are several things we look for when we decide if you're going to be loyal to the group no matter what happens. Once a Heat Ryder, always a Heat Ryder. There is no getting out. It's like ride or die. You gotta be down for the count. Once you're in, we love you like blood."
Tara was still not answering my question. Annette wanted to know which one of these other guys she slept with to get in. "It doesn't make sense to me for you to share … partners. If you have sex with someone, you and that person should be serious about one another and why would you sacrifice that by agreeing to sleep with another member?"
"It's not like that. Sex is sex. And with Heat Ryderz, it doesn't have to be sex at all. Mike and I are different. We had an open relationship from the start."
"Open relationship? What does that mean?"
"Didn't Jordan tell you?"
"That you were a lesbian?" Everyone burst out laughing when Annette said it. "What? Aren't you?"
"No, I'm not a lesbian. Some people say that I'm bi-sexual, but I just like to bring action to the bedroom. But, don't get it twisted, I need my dick on the regular."
"And I'm not complaining, either," Mike said.
"I can understand that," Annette said, "So Mike, and who else initiated you?"
"Troy."
"Troy?" Jordan's brother. Annette was kind of relieved that she didn't say Jordan. "You had sex with Troy?"
"Yeah, that was years ago. I actually met Mike through Troy. Troy's like a brother to me now. Actually everyone here is family to me."
"How can you live with that? How can you live with it knowing that she and Troy … "
"Annette, baby, Tara and I are different. Our relationship was open from the start. And like we said, sex is not the only way that you can be initiated. To me and Tara, sex is about communication and bonding. To Heat Ryderz, it's basically the same. It's how we bond."
"What's the other?"
"Learn to ride solo and become a Heat Ryder by default. However, all members must agree. Most of the time that is the case with the guys, not girls," Jordan answered for her. "That's why it's easier for girls to join by sex because they never learn to ride solo."
"Or, you can kiss me and you'll be there, baby. I know that you and Jordan have already done the nasty, so you're halfway there. Plus, he's been teaching you to ride solo from the get go. You're closer than you know. Do you want in or not?"
Annette was surprised that Jordan's crew had thought that she and Jordan were having sex. Annette knew that the attraction between them gave away the fact that they had the hots for each other, but Tara's assumption was wrong. She wasn't halfway there … she wasn't there at all. Annette liked her new friends so much. They were so carefree, so fun to be around, and so full of life.
"Do you guys want me in your crew?"
"You're already in our crew. We're just waiting for you to accept." Travis said.
Annette looked at Jordan. "Did you talk about this with them already?"
"No, they want you in just like I do. In fact, they asked me to initiate you."
"And now that Jordan's done his part … it's up to you … " Mike said.
Annette looked at Jordan again, who was just as dumbfounded as her. Did Jordan tell them that he had slept with her? He couldn't have. If she went through with the first part of her initiation tonight, then she could always take Jordan up on his offer some other time. "Do you want me to?"
"I want you to. Of course, this is clearly your decision, not anyone else's." Jordan nodded, and then he leaned forward and tilted his head down to hers. "No one has to know about us. We control what we do, when we do it. No one else," he whispered in her ear, so no one else could hear. Then, in a louder voice to everyone, he said, "Besides, I want to see you kiss Tara this one time, so she can stop fantasizing about it. This is the one time and one time only anyone of you muthafuckas will kiss my girl again."
His girl? It sounded like music to her ears. Did he really mean it?
"So, lucky Tara," Nick said, and the girl beside him nudged him. "What?" Nick looked at the girl. "I don't know what you're looking at me like that for? I told you I wasn't a one girl kinda man." The girl looked embarrassed, but she shut her mouth, nonetheless.
"Dude. You stupid," TJ said, knocking Nick up on the side of his head for embarrassing his date.
"What? It's not like I'm gonna lie," Nick went on.
Everyone ignored Nick's rudeness and looked back at me. "Well?" Travis said, placing his arms on the back of the Jacuzzi. "Can we see the show now or what?"
"I don't know … "
"Oh, come on. Don't back out now," Nick said.
"I've never been put on the spot like this."
"You can pretend that I'm Jordan, if you want. I know I don't have a big dick like his, but my tongue is wicked." Tara said walking closer to Annette from her side of the Jacuzzi.
Everyone chuckled at Tara's sense of humor. Tara reached out and grabbed Annette's arm and pulled her to the center of the pool. Suddenly, Annette felt exposed. She wanted to know what it was like to kiss a girl, but she knew that Tara would always be there to remind her of that kiss. Once a Heat Ryder, always a Heat Ryder.
"Once I do this, you guys will never forget … " Annette said, shaking her head.
"It's not like that. So what if you kiss Tara one time? We know that you and Jordan are together. One thing we do here is have fun within safe limits, but we know our boundaries," TJ said. "That's how we stay so tight. We keep our business the crew."
Annette thought about it some more and the more she thought about it standing in the middle of that Jacuzzi, the more she wanted to and the more embarrassed she felt about it. There were other ways to be initiated, they said it. She was only weeks away from having her motorcycle license and riding solo. She would just do it that way. And with that, she let go of Tara's hands and backed up toward Jordan, who grabbed her waist for support. She felt safe against his hard chest again.
"I want to, but it would be more challenging to become a member by default," Annette said.
"Ah, man," TJ exclaimed.
Annette sat in Jordan's lap. "I was really tempted to kiss you Tara because I was curious, but I don't want to become a member that way."
"Okay, fine. Well, let's make this off the record. You can become a member by default, if that's how you want it. I just want to kiss you." Tara was smiling with a devilish grin. The girl was cute, but she was bold. She had no shame, either. Tara moved closer to her and Jordan. Annette tried to back up, but there was no more room behind Jordan and his back was already pressed up against the wall and her back was already pressed up against his chest. Suddenly, Tara was between her legs and her hands were on top of Jordan's hands where he held her by the waist. When Tara's lips touched hers, they felt soft, like velvet. She couldn't believe that she was letting this happen. Annette's hands went to Tara's waist to pull her in closer and Tara's tongue played like fingers on a keyboard with hers. The kiss was all tongue and lip action. It was different from kissing a guy because everything was slow and delicate. Tara was slick because she had managed to snatch her up and away from Jordan by the straps of her bikini bottom, pulling her in closer so their hips and breasts touched. Everything about Tara's body was so soft, just like hers.