Lisa caught sight of John returning with the woman in the red dress. She would have preferred more time, but based upon the way the woman hung on John, Lisa guessed things were still going well.

She was also making better time with Tom than she had expected. Somehow, Lisa had pictured a night of flirting over drinks, the four of them egging each other on to an even longer night of swapping partners back and forth.

What had actually happened was that Tom got turned on and jealous all at once and now he couldn’t keep his hands off Lisa. Not that she wanted him to keep his hands off her, she just wanted him to slow down so they could maximize the enjoyment. Hell, a month ago Lisa had never even had a one night stand and now here she was with John picking up a strange couple in a bar.

Tom glared at John and the woman as they approached, pulling Lisa more closely against him. John put up a good front, trying not to look intimidated by that stare, but Lisa knew him well enough to see the truth. Tom concerned John. John might be fit, but Tom could no doubt break him in half if he decided to.

John had his arm around the woman’s waist. “Lisa, let me introduce you to Kara,” he said, shouting to be heard over the din.

“This is Tom,” Lisa shouted back, keeping her arm about the marine.

“You are one lucky guy!” John announced, clearly trying to put himself on better footing with Tom. “Kara is beautiful, hot, and hooked on you!”

At least Tom wasn’t hitting John yet, although based upon his stony expression he might be ready to start. “We set our sights high,” Lisa added. “You two are the hottest couple in this place and quite frankly we want to get in both of your pants.”

Lisa expected things to fall apart at any moment. She had heard that a lot of swingers danced at the Fox Club, but she had no experience with it herself. Either they wanted to or they didn’t. She had put their cards on the table.

John let go of Kara and leaned toward Tom, risking a black eye or a broken nose. “It’s a guilt-free opportunity,” John said. “If you want to play, we both get to fuck two beautiful women, and if we’re really lucky, we get to watch them go down on each other. If you don’t want to play, Lisa and I buy you both a drink and go on our way.”

Tom eyed John very seriously for another moment, then his stony visage cracked and a slight smile turned his lips. “Excuse us for a moment,” he said as he let go of Lisa, stepped past John, and took Kara into his arms.

“What do you think, baby?” Lisa heard him ask before John turned her around to face him.

Behind John, staring straight at Lisa was Robert L. Hollister. It had to be him. She’d seen his photograph on his company web page when she prepared her bid for his software systems upgrade. There was the same salt and pepper hair, the same broken nose, the same distinguished aura of a successful multi-millionaire in his mid-sixties. The elegant woman beside him watched them just as intently as the businessman.

Lisa started to bring the couple to John’s attention when a tap on her shoulder distracted her. She turned around and found both Tom and Kara smiling at them – nervously smiling, it was true, but still happy with the idea of swinging with them.

Tom offered John his strong right hand. “I didn’t like the way you started things, but what the hell, we’ll give it a try.”

While John shook Tom’s hand, Lisa spoke to Kara. “We’ve never tried this before,” she lied, carefully forgetting the fiasco earlier in the evening, “but when we saw the two of you we knew we had to try.”

“What do we do next?” Kara asked.

“First we need to get someplace we don’t have to shout,” Lisa answered.

Behind her, Bob Hollister and the woman were still watching her. It made Lisa feel slightly nervous, but it also added to the evening’s excitement. Did he know who she was?

“Your place or ours?” Tom asked.