Chris had never met my friends, although they had heard about him from me for a while. I decided to have all four of us meet for lunch one day at the nearby diner. He knew very well that a new girlfriend’s female friends would inevitably vet him in some way. Gina and Jenny sat opposite us in a booth. I detected a certain coolness from them. Is he still probationary in their eyes?

Jenny also was wearing her dark cap which, combined with her new haircut, gave her a “tough girl” image which contrasted with the sweetness I usually associated with her. Or maybe she was just losing some of her shyness, but then so was I.

Come on guys, smile a bit. You look like judges sitting there.

To break some of the tension, I suggested that we all go for a walk after lunch. About halfway up the block, we were at Louis’ Restaurant, which had a Godfather poster in the window.

I said, “You all must remember when they were filming a scene in there.” That was the one where Michael Corleone shot Sollozo and Captain McCluskey. Of course, since we all lived nearby, we had witnessed some of the production, which had taken several days. That was when I realized how long it takes to get movie scenes set up.

I told a story which the girls had heard, but Chris hadn’t.

One day a tall older man came out of the restaurant and walked up the street. I guessed from his clothes that he might be part of the cast. I followed him all the way over to the Bronx River, where he lay down in the grass and took a nap. Later, after the movie was released I saw photos of him and found out that he was Sterling Hayden, who had played McCluskey.

I said, mostly for Chris’s benefit, “Let’s go down there and I’ll show you where he was.”

Once we were on the river bank, Gina asked me, “Why didn’t you get his autograph?”

“What was I going to say? ‘I don’t know who you are, but would you please sign my notebook?’ ”

Jenny said, “Yeah, it might have been embarrassing to find out he was just a lighting guy or something.”

Gina said, “In all of this time, I’ve never had a meal there.”

Since the movie was rated R, I had never seen it. However, I knew something about what was in it, probably from reviews or interviews on TV. I quoted one of Sollozzo’s lines. “ ‘Try the veal, it’s the best in the city.’ ”

“Like how would he know? How many Italian restaurants are there in New York?”

Chris offered an opinion. “Maybe the producers gave them a little plug to get more cooperation from them.”

Gina just had to raise an objection. “But how would a moviegoer know where it is? The exteriors were all filmed at night. We only know it because we live in the neighborhood.”

I was already thinking, that would be a nice place to go with Chris soon. Except, I wouldn’t order the veal; I’d probably try the eggplant parmesan.

As we started back, Gina pulled me aside for a moment. “You told me about the zoo. Would I steer you wrong?” Then she winked at me. “Kid, you did good.”

******

That weekend, the three of us had a picnic in Van Cortlant Park. We found a place near the lake to spread out our blanket. It was an extremely hot day, and we were all wearing shorts. We got into talking about halter-tops, which none of us owned.

Gina said, “They might be comfortable if you’re sitting on a porch somewhere, but otherwise you’d get too much attention. Even I’m not that much of an exhibitionist.”

Jenny said, “Besides, none of us have the tits for it.”

“That might actually cut down on the attention.”

She described a girl named Nancy in one of her classes. She’d sit in the front wearing a halter and the sides of her breasts would be exposed. “That girl knew what she was doing. Every guy sitting behind her was going to jerk off that night thinking about her.”

I said, “Some of the girls too.”

“Yeah, you’ve got that right.”

“So you looked at her too?”

“Of course I did. And she has a boyfriend too. I wouldn't mind taking him on myself, although not at the same time as her!”

“Did you ever talk to either of them?”

“No, I doubt either one of them knows I even exist.”

I was pondering that there was more than one Gina. Or rather, she had different sides that she would present at different times. There was the ordinary high school student as she appeared to her classmates. She didn’t have the beauty or charm to make it to the A-list of popularity, but I think she was learning – as we all were – that such things didn’t matter.  That might cost us something in the immediate present, but we hoped that it would pay off in the longer run.

After we had finished eating, she revealed yet another aspect of herself. It was one she had hinted at before, but something was unsettling about that one.

She started with, “Remember that guy Richie who gives me those magazines?”

I had hoped, perhaps, that we wouldn’t hear about him again. But we heard about it anyway. He lived in her building and they would greet each other in the lobby and elevator. Then somehow he offered to show, or even give her, what he called “explicit” magazines. That had been about a month before she showed them to us.

As she described it, she was initially surprised by that of course. But she agreed to meet him in the park a couple of days later. “My caution was overcome by my curiosity, and I figured I’d be safe on a public bench.”

Jenny asked, “He didn’t try to talk dirty to you or touch you?”

“No, he was very low-key about it. He had about a half-dozen with him, and we looked through a couple of them. I was amazed because, as you saw, they weren’t just American girlie magazines, but depicted full sexual intercourse between men and women and between women.”

I had never heard of a man and woman viewing porn together, but I let her go on. “We were there about thirty minutes, and then he offered to let me borrow, or just take, a couple of them. I think you know what I did with them.”

I did, but I asked, “Since you’ve gone this far, why don’t you tell us?”

“One of them had those photos of that Air Force chick or whatever getting banged in an office. I know you’ve seen that one; there are about twenty pictures and at the end he comes on her breasts.”

Maybe Gina had mentioned this, but Jenny remembered it. “That’s what called the money shot.”

“Right, it’s for the benefit of male viewers who want to see, well they want to see the guy come even if that’s unlikely in real life. So that night I closed my door and turned a lamp on. I almost didn’t want to look but I did anyway.”

Jenny said, “Porn is very visual, that’s why it appeals more to men.”

“Yes, but not entirely. That thing appealed to me.”

I could see that she wasn’t bragging, but rather that she was uneasy talking about it. “I mean, those pictures of them having oral sex, and then her straddling him – well, I masturbated, twice, imagining being her. And yeah, it was very intense, believe me. I had always used my own imagination before, but that was different.”

It seemed like she had some further point in mind, and she did. “I was wondering if you two would like to borrow a couple too. I mean, I know we’ve all had good times looking at them together.”

That was very much like Gina, trying an “experiment” to push beyond a previous limit. I said, “I have to think about it. Meanwhile, let’s get this stuff together and go for a walk.”

There was a rail line through the park, a couple of miles west of the one through our neighborhood. We looked at the frame of a long-abandoned passenger station. The rails were still shiny, and we knew that a freight train would come through in the middle of the night. I teased Gina. “Why don’t you come over and flash one here too?”

She took it well. “I’m not coming over at three in the morning for that!”

As we walked north, it was obvious why it wasn’t used during the day. There were park-goers all over the unfenced right-of-way, including some fishing from the bridge over the lake.

We didn’t say much, but I already knew that I wanted some of those magazines for my own private use. God, how perverse am I becoming? 

****

Within a few days, both Jenny and I had called her and we agreed to get a few of her magazines. She met us outdoors, in the park, and she handed us our stuff in the proverbial brown paper bags.

She said to me, “I gave you the one with the Air Force girl. I know you liked that one so much.”

I didn’t remember specifying that. “It wasn’t particularly romantic.’

“You’re missing the point. Love and lust have always gone together.” 

Then, as I knew she would, she brought up more of the Richie story. They had met in February before I had met her, and they saw each other periodically. Then, about a week ago, he had another English magazine about “female domination.”  Basically, that meant women who would punish men or something similar. To top it off, he had asked Gina to dominate him.

Jenny said, “He should just hire a dominatrix and leave you alone.”

I had my own take on it, and I was quite blunt about it. “You should just screw this guy and get it over with already.”

“That’s not what I want! You see, I get quite aroused when imagining punishing him, or any man in fact.”

“I did say that you get sexually aroused by almost anything.”

Jenny said, “I have a hard time imagining you in black leather.”

“There are other ways to do it.”

Gina knew quite a bit about that, more than I had expected. There were guys who wanted to be in the hands of some powerful but attractive woman who must be obeyed. Thus the woman would play at being a teacher, boss, church lady, wife, or perhaps some relative like an aunt. All that was part of Richie’s kink.

I said, “It sounds like these guys have a Mommy problem.”

“Whatever. He knows about you two, and I suggested that you might like to witness this. That would be down in Club Mangano, of course.”

She was doing it again, setting up a situation and daring us to go through with it. I expressed my doubts by saying, “How do we know he’s not a criminal or something?”

“Obviously, we’d all meet in some public place first so you could evaluate him.” Then she looked at me. “Chloe, as I suggested, I think you’re secretly intrigued by all this.”

She was right, but I wasn’t going to admit to that. How did she know so much about me? I had never told my deepest thoughts to anybody.

“I don’t know. Maybe I will have to see him first before deciding.” As was usual, I had said “yes” indirectly.

“Fine, let me see how it goes.” Then we talked about other topics. 

I considered that Gina still had her pigtails when she had met him. Now she had her new, more adult hairstyle, and I speculated to myself about how Richie had perceived her.

When we got up to leave, she said, “So ladies, enjoy your magazines!”

****

That night, I closed my door and left a lamp on. Gina’s package was on the nightstand. I had a nightgown on but no underwear underneath it.

I was uneasy about looking at the porn; like my friends, I had always relied on my own imagination. Chloe, you’re so dirty. Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. I was racking up quite a list of sins by then.

Almost in anger, I grabbed the one that had the Air Force woman in it. I hadn’t seen those pictures in months, but at that moment I felt a thump in my cunt when I examined them again.

I had forgotten many of the details. Most of the pictures concentrated on her. She was in her late twenties, I guessed, and she was pretty but not gorgeous. Yet she had nice auburn hair and a ripe body. Great tits; I wish I had those. She also started out with wonderful underwear, including the black garter and straps I coveted. Plus, she had lacy red panties and a bra. I’ve got to get such stuff when I go shopping with Jenny.

So Gina was right; it all had an impact on me. Maybe the porn lady was just acting, but she seemed so avid for it. And her boyfriend had a substantial cock. She sucked on it, and he penetrated her in every possible way, front, back, and with her on top. It was amusing to see her red panties hanging from a nearby chair.

There were close-ups of her hand, with its red fingernails, handling his balls as he entered her. Man, he’s building up a load of cum to shoot into her. Of course, in the end, he fired onto her breasts; the money shot as Jenny had called it. That’s not what I would demand from him!

I quickly got my hairbrush out and intensely went at myself with that and my fingers. The magazine was propped up where I could see it. Then I rolled around on my bed until I had at least three orgasms, more than I had ever had before in one night. 

Then I lay there trembling. I was happy and disoriented at the same time. Would Chris condemn me if he knew what I was capable of? I quietly got up and went into the bathroom.

Who is this young-looking person in the mirror? I don’t even know how to apply make-up. Then I lifted my nightgown and saw my body in the full-length mirror on the door. It seemed that I was so slender, unlike the voluptuous girl in the magazine. There was a tan line where the bottom of my bathing suit had covered my behind. 

I was having trouble accepting the reality of the sexual energy within myself. 

****

The next evening, I quietly spoke to Gina on the phone. Yet I was agitated and I said, “That magazine; I’m losing control of myself. I’m being consumed by my own sexuality. Is this what it feels like to be a slut?”

“Relax, honey. Don’t use that word to describe yourself. I think you’re a very good person, you know that. And you’re so smart.”

I couldn’t seem to stop talking. “I was wondering if Chris would spurn me if he knew what I’m really like.” I had yet to tell anybody what I did with him, but at that time I did. “So far all we’ve done is some make-out sessions. That and a little, ah . . .”

“Light petting? That’s such an antique phrase.”

“Right, but now I want to have oral sex with him maybe. Except, there aren’t many photos of what men do to women.”

“There are a few, but it mostly caters to male tastes. They want their own dicks sucked, but God help them if they have to do anything for us! Let me amend that. If it’s lesbians, then they are all in for that. Anyway, there here are certainly some oral pictures of what women do to men.” She hesitated for a moment. “Frankly, that may be more relevant for you.”

I was already on to my next issue. “I’m imagining what it would be like to pose for those pictures. I want people to look at me and want me because I’m so hot. I’m turning into such a whore.”

“Please, stop running yourself down.”

“And I so want that great lingerie she has.”

“Well, I want it too! I know you’ve got white and black lacy underwear, but you don’t have red yet.” That was hitting a little too close to home. “I think I need to talk to you in person, soothe your nerves a bit.”

****

However, when she did call me in a couple of days, it was about her own concerns. She wanted me and Jenny to meet Richie. When I heard that this was supposed to happen in front of my building, I had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen. 

She explained more of her take on BDSM as an activity. For a lot of it, some “pretext” was necessary to play it as a game. Often it was a sexual misdeed, like masturbation or getting caught having sex with the wrong person in the wrong place. Stealing, bad grades, or poor work performance were other reasons. It was mostly fictional, of course, but it seemed to be necessary for some plausibility.

I asked, “So what is this Richie’s preference?”

“He didn’t tell me. I think he wants me to make up something for him.”

****

One afternoon, after we were back from work, Jenny and I were waiting on my block as they walked up to us. Richie was a tall, dark-haired guy and he was quite good-looking. During the preliminary greetings, he seemed well-spoken, not like the neighborhood “mooks” that Gina had complained about.

Gina herself was dressed in the one suit she owned, a gray one, and she had nylon stockings and dark shoes. I knew that her outfit was not a coincidence. After a couple of minutes, she pointed to my building. “So, let’s go down to our clubhouse already.”

I looked at Jenny and she just shrugged. I said, “Okay, let’s find out about this already.”

****

Down in the basement, the three of us sat in our usual places, with Gina in the center of the couch. Without being told to do it, Richie stood in front of us with his hands folded in front of him. I could see a slight look of contriteness on his face but it wasn’t excessive.

Gina had pulled her legs up onto the couch and she sat there for a few moments considering him. Then she went into her act, and I guessed she had at least partially prepared for it.

 “So, Richard, I think you know why you are here.”

“I suppose so, Ms. Pucci.”

A last-name basis; that was a good one.

“The fact is that you have been masturbating way too much, including about me.” Was that a problem for men? “Indeed, you have been objectifying all women, which is totally unacceptable.” Gina had a good beginning for her dominatrix gimmick, even if it made little sense.

“I know it’s wrong, but I can’t help myself.”

“That’s not true. You have to keep your hands off your cock, your eyes to yourself, and your mind out of the gutter.”  

“I’m sorry about all of that.”

“Those are just words. There have to be consequences, plus a reminder to behave in the future.” She reached into her bag and pulled out a substantial hairbrush. I wondered if it was the same one that she inserted into herself. For a moment, she sat there considering her implement. Then she said, “Let me make this clear. I may be a woman but don’t underestimate me. I can deliver quite a wallop when it comes to discipline.” There was something ritualistic about what she was saying. Also, she was just guessing about the impact of what she was capable of doing.

She went on, “So first I’m going to soundly spank your bottom with my hand. Then I’m going to finish you off with my hairbrush. Now Richard, keep in mind that in the end, this is all for your own good. You do understand that and accept it, I assume?”

That was obviously part of the ritual too. ”Yes, Ms. Pucci, I accept that is what has to be done.”

“Then come over here and I will get you ready for it.”

He stood in front of her and she unbuckled his jeans, lowering them below his knees. His underpants stayed in place, however.

“You know what to do. Get across my knees, but keep your feet on the floor. And I’m right-handed, as you should know.”

Did he already know that? It meant that he had to position himself with his head in the direction of where Jenny was sitting.

“This is going to be on the bare, of course.” She then yanked his drawers down. From the expression on her face, she was trying to enact her aggrieved role but underneath that, she was very pleased too. 

I had never seen a man’s bare buttocks in person before, and I was impressed. My breath caught in my throat. I glanced over at Jenny, and she was gawping at it too. Richie’s rear end was muscular and well-formed. Yes, ladies enjoy looking at a nicely-shaped rump too.

Gina gave something of herself away, although I wasn’t fully aware that she was enacting another BDSM trope too. She used her right hand to rub his behind and the backs of his thighs. He didn’t comment, but by his sounds and his movements, I could tell he liked it.

What’s going on with Gina? Are her panties getting damp? I knew mine were. Then she said, “Richard, are you prepared to take it now? I’m ready to give it.”

“Yes, Miss, please do.” So it’s Miss now?

She must have known what to do from those magazines, and she began to hit him, alternating between each butt cheek. Those were hard blows too. She didn’t merely tap him, but she raised her arm up high each time. Those weren’t too fast-paced, but they were steady.

I noted that she held him around his waist her left hand, pressing against his bare skin just below his shirt. The placement seemed to be deliberate.

Richie grunted each time he was spanked, but he didn't say much. Gina talked, however. “I can see I’m leaving pink handprints on you. But that’s just for starters. You’re going to be red when I’m done with you.”

At one point, she stopped and shook her right hand, which was reddening too. “This kind of stings me too. I should wear a glove next time; I think a leather one would be best.”

I couldn’t grasp when that next time would be. The present scene was certainly vivid enough. There was a strange but powerful sexuality between the two of them even if they were pretending it wasn’t there. 

Then we were all startled with Jenny suddenly jumped up. I had never seen her angry before, but at that point she was furious. “Let me get a crack at him too!!” She knelt in front of him and she was yelling, “You sexist asshole! I have to deal with jerks like you every day on the streets downtown.” 

Then she began her own whacking of him, and she wasn’t gentle about it. It was if her jocular dismissal of the issue days before on the library steps was hiding her real feelings.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Weinstein, you should know I don’t do that kind of thing.”

“I don’t care. You don’t know what it’s like to be harassed all the time like that.” Then she said, “Here, take your belt off; I’m really going to give it to you now.” She was already trying to remove it, but he reached to get it for her. Even Gina looked shocked, and she had stopped what she had been doing and just sat there.

Jenny began striking him with his own belt, and he yelped and squirmed with each stroke. She was leaving red stripes across his body. I said loudly, “Jenny, that’s enough already!”

Gina had recovered enough to say, “It’s okay, he hasn’t said tuna salad yet.” I remembered that was the “safe phrase,” the words which would overrule everything else a person said and which signaled that it was time to stop or at least recalibrate. To make sure, she said, “Richard, are you sure you don’t want some tuna salad now?”

“No, Ms. Pucci, I hate that stuff.”

Jenny, however, seemed to have had enough, because she stopped and sat on the couch to her friend’s left. She was breathing heavily. Gina got back into the next part of her game, and said, “I know it hurts Richard, but you’ve been a very bad boy and you can understand why she’s so mad.”

What nonsense!

“I don’t think I need to use the hairbrush right now. However, it is corner time. Stand up and put your hands on your head.”

He got up and faced somewhat to his left. For a moment, he reached back to rub his own backside, I assumed to soothe himself. Gina didn’t object, however. Then he got his hands up where he was supposed to, although he didn’t look at any of us.

Only a few minutes had passed since he went over Gina’s knees. I wasn’t that surprised to see that he had a huge erection sticking out. That was the point of all this, right? Yet a kind of thrill, a sudden warmth, went through me. Gina’s voice sounded strained as she said, “I felt that when you were on my lap, you know.”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Pucci, I couldn’t help that.”

“There’s a lot of things you can’t help. You’re just so naughty.” I think she enjoyed chiding him even though it didn’t sound very convincing. “I can see my disciplining of you didn’t work at all.” 

Yet she got up and stood next to him. Then she used one finger to gently rub around the tip of his glans. He obviously liked that, because he moaned something like “oh.”

Gina sat down again. “Since you think you’re such a stud, why don’t you shoot your best shot for us? I’ve got some hand cream in my bag to make it easier.”

That also couldn’t have been unexpected; they must have both known the general outline of what was going to happen. Also, it contradicted what she had been complaining about. In any case, is he really going to masturbate standing there right in front of us?

That was exactly what he did. He and Gina were putting on quite a show. Now we were getting a demonstration of a male jerk-off technique. He had a two-handed method. After lubing up, he held the base to tightly stretch the skin while his right hand stroked himself from top to bottom and back again.

He didn’t look at any of us, but Gina seemed quite happy. Maybe she had deceived us, and that wasn’t her first sexual experience involving him. I was just speculating, however. 

“So Richard, who are you thinking about? Not me, I hope!” 

He could still talk lucidly, although I guessed that wouldn’t last long. “A certain celebrity.”

Of course, Gina had to ask, “Really? Which one?”

“It’s Elizabeth Montgomery.”

I laughed at that. Poor Samantha, stuck with that dork of a husband who didn’t appreciate her. Richie should really think of Serena. That was Samantha’s dark-haired cousin (also played by Montgomery) who represented her sexually-aware alter ego.

Then the three of us were about to see something else that we had only known through photographs. A guy that age doesn’t take very long to come. I could tell from his hand movements when it was about to happen. Unlike the amount of noise I would make in an uninhibited situation, he merely made some sounds through his gritted teeth. 

His ejaculations were impressive, however. A small one came out first, and then he shot two long, thick streams. They landed somewhere among the furniture beyond us, but I could hear them pattering like raindrops back there.

The raw eroticism of that spectacle struck me. I heard myself say, “Oh my God.” What would it be like to have him spurt that into my mouth, or into my pussy? I looked at my friends, and they were mesmerized too. Jenny said, “Man, that is amazing.”

He kept stroking until his spasms were finished and then he sat down on the floor in front of the couch. He looked slightly perplexed, as if he had finally realized what he had just done. Gina put her hand on his shoulder, and her words were oddly tender. “That’s okay, Richard, you’ve been a very bad boy but I’m not a heartless person. I let you have the release that you needed. But believe me, I will have to spank you again soon if I think you need it.”

I suddenly stood up and said, “Gina, come with me. I’ve got to talk to you about something.”

She looked at Jenny. “Go ahead, I’ll be fine.”

We walked out into the hallway and I closed the door. Then we went several yards further away. She said, “Did you find all of that too much?”

I chose my words carefully. “What’s really bugging me is that you are exploiting his weaknesses for your own satisfaction.”

“That’s not true. It’s all completely consensual; he wanted it that way. And don’t try to tell me that you weren’t fascinated too. Excited, I should say.” She smiled. “I know I was.”

“I don’t know what to think anymore. We’re all acting so perversely.”

She hugged me. “I’m sorry, sweetie. I know you’re a good person and that you care about other people. Maybe I’m a bit too impulsive.” Then she continued, “But I admit, it’s definitely fun to be a fierce avenging goddess!”

“Look, I’ve got to go out for a walk and clear my head.” 

With that, I turned around and left the building. And I walked for a long way, following the bank of the river through the park. It was a very pleasant summer late afternoon, and there were a lot of people out enjoying the weather.

After a while, I crossed a wide street and went onto a concrete platform over the tracks, the same ones where Gina had pulled her flashing stunt about a mile to the south. There had been an abandoned station building for the Woodlawn stop there, but it had been torn down recently. I went to the railing and looked out for a few minutes. That whole scene back at my building had been a weird one that we had all participated in, although Gina had initiated it. I was trying to figure out what she ultimately wanted from her big-dicked associate. What emotions did dominatrices go through? 

Then a train being pulled by a diesel locomotive approached from the north. It was going to pass directly under where I was standing. I could see the engineer in his cab, and I waved to him. He waved back and tooted his horn a couple of times before his train passed beneath me.

I experienced a child-like sense of satisfaction out of getting that reaction from the train driver. That kind of innocence was gone forever, I knew, but I missed it anyway. Once you have crossed its borders, you can never go back again. 

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