Women approached her, asking questions and a couple of people asked to take pictures with her and she readily agreed. No one ever touched her in the busy thoroughfare.
Several times Charity looked over at Beck and eventually, she said, “Lucy’s feelings were so hurt, Beck. You’re going to have to understand.” Her words were spoken quietly. She almost sounded sympathetic.
A few minutes later, Rachel was finished. The artist had utilized the black leather collar that she’d been wearing in the artwork. The collar had a large silver ring that laid at the base of her throat and he’d used it as the anchor, drawing an intricate network of silver chains over her shoulders, her chest, breasts and down as far as her belly button. Her nipples were still clearly visible. It was then that Beck noticed her nipples were both pierced. Delicate silver hoops hung from them.
Beck blinked and shook his head, realizing what he’d been doing…staring at his friend’s wife’s breasts. No one seemed to be bothered, least of all Rachel or Eli. Her husband seemed pleased as he reached out to casually stroke her nipple, causing her to gasp with pleasure.
Beck was trying to formulate the question when Patrick did the work for him. He drew Justin aside. “I need to know something, Justin. What happens when we get together with you all in Divine?”
Justin frowned, obviously unsure how to respond.
“I’ve seen your wife’s breasts, man. When we get back to Divine, won’t it be going through your mind that I’ve seen her breasts?”
Justin grinned and said, “Are you gonna talk about having seen my wife’s breasts when we’re hanging out at the Dancing Pony?”
“Uh, no,” Patrick answered succinctly.
“Because only an asshole would mention it out of context, right?”
“Yeah.”
“By the same token, you guys are involved in a ménage, right?”
“Right?” Patrick asked, looking unsure where he was going with that train of thought.
“When we’re all together with our friends who are in ménages, are we talking about ménage sex, or asking you about how a threesome with your woman feels?”
“No.”
“You know that we’ve all pondered it but there’s no need for discussion, unless it’s in private for a good reason.”
“I see where you’re going with that now. Okay.”
Justin added, “But you do know that there are men you could go to, if you had problems or questions that you needed answers to, for the sake of your relationship with Lucy.”
“Sure.”
Justin shrugged and smiled. “Healthy boundaries are what it boils down to. Charity has an exhibitionistic tendency that I enjoy indulging at these events. Because we have healthy boundaries with our friends, who apparently also have kinky wives and girlfriends, we can allow them to let their hair down and be assured there aren’t going to be consequences or hurt feelings down the road.”
Beck asked, “What about if photos of Charity were to show up on the Internet.”
Justin nodded and shrugged. “They have. We’ve seen them. But we don’t broadcast to everyone that we come to this event every year and we don’t ever give our names out to anyone taking those pictures. Justine and Beau were raised with very open attitudes about nudity and sex, and they think it’s pretty cool that their mom has a positive body image.”
“It doesn’t affect your livelihoods?”
Justin shrugged. “I make a good living. Anyone who doesn’t accept that I have a right to a private life with my wife can fuck themselves.”
Beck nodded, his questions answered. He turned to look into the tent and, since she was tall for a woman, he caught a glimpse of Lucy inside.
Justin nudged him and pointed at the crowd. “I don’t know if you’ve been watching the crowd but this is how it usually is. They stay on their side of that partition. The people come and go, and the ones who stay to watch are usually men. They don’t distract the model or the artist. They just watch. Look at that young guy. He looks barely old enough to be here. He’s watching the other men and learning that it’s not acceptable to act like an asshole.”
“It doesn’t bother you that they had to be getting turned on while they were watching Charity get painted?”
Justin shook his head. “I get turned on looking at her. We’re all visually stimulated and I can’t fault them for that. Now if one of them starts jacking off in front of her, we’re gonna have a shitload of trouble, but no, I don’t care if they fantasize about her later. She limits the nudity to going topless and I draw the line at them touching her or propositioning her. In this gathering, doing that can get your ass pounded into the dirt. The organizers and the serious bikers don’t want shitheads like that at this function. This is a place where we can be ourselves.”