The next morning I woke up before Angela and took the opportunity to watch her while she slept. She was dreaming, her eyes visibly moving under her closed lids. The play of emotions across her face, from the slightly furrowed brows of a frown, then a wrinkled nose, and finally a soft smile kept me totally entranced. Angela’s face was the metaphorical open book, and in her case, an easy to read book with big, colorful illustrations.

When she moved and the comforter slid down, tantalizingly exposing the top of her pale pink right nipple and the two little tiny bits of gold there, it was almost too much. I wanted to kiss her, touch her, make love to her, but that wouldn’t have been right. Not the whole consent issue- I wasn’t worried about that, but rather waking her from whatever dream she was having. She needed her sleep, and as much as I wanted to wake her with a kiss, I let her dream on undisturbed instead.

I must have watched her sleep for nearly an hour before she woke up. To my mind, this was not time wasted- no, I could hardly think of a better way to spend an early Saturday morning than watching one of the women I loved resting peacefully.

Of course, I’d watched Emmy sleeping a number of times, so the difference between the two was striking in that regard. When Emmy slept, she was almost perfectly motionless, hardly moving at all the entire night. Angela, in contrast, shifted around a fair bit, moving from her side, to her back, the other side, and so on. When Emmy dreamed, too, the movement of her eyes was visible, but no change of expression on her face ever happened. Her features were as still and composed as a mask, unlike Angela’s, which were highly mobile while she dreamed.

When Angela did waken, she looked up at me and jolted in surprise. “Coño!” she yelped. “How long have you been watching me?”

“I love to watch you sleep,” I said, leaning down for a kiss. “I could watch you all night. You’re so beautiful.”

“What time it is?” Angela asked, glancing at her watch. I’d noticed that she wore that pink Cartier watch whenever she could, only taking it off for her workouts and when she bathed.

“It’s still early,” I reassured her.

“Then come here and wake me up properly,” Angela demanded, lifting the covers so I could slide right next to her.

I slid into her waiting arms and gave her another kiss, but longer and deeper this time. “Good morning, beautiful,” I said when we parted.

“Now that is the right way to wake a girl up,” Angela sighed.

“What’s the plan for today?” I asked after another kiss.

“We go driving with your friends in the morning, have lunch with them instead of leaving early. After that we come home and relax until your university friends get here. I’m going to make dinner, and then, after they go, we go out dancing.”

“All that sounds good for me, but not a lot of fun for you,” I said. “I thought this was going to be your weekend?”

“I like riding along when you drive, so that will be fun. I like your car friends- well, at least Stephen and Teddy Bear. That loud Chinese guy, he’s at least funny,” Angela said. “And I like cooking sometimes, and I haven’t had a chance to make you a real home-cooked Colombian meal. Back home, it would be lunch, but here in the US we eat our big meal at dinner, so...” Angela said, in between little kisses. “And dancing- we haven’t been dancing, you and me. I love to dance, and so we’ll go out.”

“I’m not a very good dancer,” I warned. “Really, you should go dancing with Emmy. She’s amazing.”

“I did, in New York,” Angela said. “We went out with Jen and Lee and Mia. Emmy is a great dancer! It was a lot of fun.”

“Well, I can’t promise to be as much fun as Emmy on the dance floor,” I said, wishing I’d been there to see the two dance together.

“It will be great,” Angela replied. “But we can’t stay out too late. We have to get up early Sunday morning.”

“What’s happening on Sunday?” I asked, kissing Angela’s neck.

“We’re getting up early,” she replied, moaning with pleasure. “That is all I will tell you.”

“We should get moving fairly soon,” I said as I kissed my way down Angela’s collarbone. “We can’t stay here in bed too long.”

“Just long enough?” Angela said, hopefully, arching her back.

“Maybe not even quite long enough,” I said, giving her one last, long kiss on the top of her right boob. “Not quite long enough at all,” I said, ruefully, sitting up. I did give her a quick little squeeze between the legs, pleased to discover that Angela was just as turned on as I was.

“You are so mean!” Angela exclaimed, frustrated. I just sat back and gave her a big smile.

“Ange, baby,” I said. “Wear a short skirt when we go driving.”

Angela’s eyes opened wide as a smile spread across her pretty face. “I can do that,” she promised. She threw the covers off and just lay there for a moment, letting me take in her perfect, and perfectly naked body. God, she was glorious. Unable to stop myself, I bent over and gave her one last kiss right on her belly button, getting a moan of pleasure in return.

“Maybe we don’t go driving this morning,” Angela said, hopeful.

“Oh, no, we do,” I replied. “But maybe we skip lunch with the guys.”

True to her word, Angela wore a sexy short skirt along with a cross-wrap halter top, looking sexy as hell. Her whole outfit screamed, ‘I’m a model and I make this look good. You would never be able to wear this.’

“Is this good?” Angela asked.

“It’s better than good,” I said, swallowing. “Ange, you are thermonuclear hot.”

“Thanks!” she said, her smile bright. “Now let’s go and drive way too fast!”

Down in the parking garage, Angela pointed at the Aston. “Let’s take that one,” she said. “I picked this top because it matches the color.”

Laughing, I said, “Good a reason as any,” as I opened the passenger door for her.

I climbed in and fired up the big V-12 motor, careful not to set off any car alarms. I’d done that a few times by accident when we first moved in, and didn’t want to get yelled at again by the parking security guard.

I quickly discovered the problem with the choice of the Aston- it was an old-school three-pedal manual, so I had to keep taking my hand off Angela’s smooth, firm thigh as I drove. Very annoying. As good as the brushed aluminum (aluminium? After all, the car was English) shifter felt in my hand, Angela’s warm, soft skin was more appealing.

Strangely enough, Jimmy’s red Ferrari wasn’t at the meeting spot. When I asked Teddy Bear, he said the car was in the shop for something and Jimmy wasn’t going to make it.

“Hi, Angela,” he said when she climbed out of the Aston Martin.

“Hi, Teddy!” she replied, her smile bright enough to guide aircraft. “Is Stephen coming today?”

“Uh, yeah,” Teddy said, a bit dumbstruck. “He texted me to say he was on his way.”

While they were chatting I wandered over to check out Stein’s McLaren.

“Hey, Leah,” he said.

“Good morning,” I replied. “Is that exhaust new?”

“Heh. Good eye,” he said, looking under the back of the car. “Just had it put on last week, but haven’t gotten a chance to get it tuned yet. I think the car’s running a little rich.”

“Said the millionaire,” I joked, getting a chuckle.

“You know Jimmy has been calling her,” he said, tilting his chin over at Angela, “your side piece.”

“Jimmy,” I said with a shrug, as if it explained everything. Which it did, to Stein’s satisfaction.

“I gotta say, it’s one hell of a fucking flex, showing her around like that when everybody knows you’re married to Emmy Lascaux. Most dudes never even come close to any chicks as hot as either one of ‘em, and you’ve got two,” he said. No judgement in his voice, just a bit of admiration at the way I rolled.

“What can I say?” I said with a shrug. “Chicks dig scars,” I said, pointing at my cheek.

“You know, it’s funny,” Stein said, sipping his gas station coffee. “Sometimes you give off a real girl-next-door vibe, all wholesome and shit. Other times, I’d swear Jimmy is right when he says you’re a serial killer.”

“Why not both?” I said with a shrug.

“Why not?” Stein agreed with a laugh.

Stephen and Geoff had pulled in to the parking lot while we were talking, so we walked over to where the group was chatting. It was Teddy Bear’s turn to lead, which meant we’d most likely get out and hit Angeles Crest, maybe Angeles Forest Road, too, and maybe Big T or some of those. I was happy with that, because I did feel a tiny bit guilty about hauling ass up and down the roads in Malibu all the time. Getting out in the back country meant we could stretch our legs a bit, while not terrorizing the housewives in their Audi Q7s.

Sure enough, Little T was our first fun road of the day, followed by Sand Canyon, then Soledad to Angeles Forest.

Since Teddy Bear was leading out our speeds weren’t too elevated, but still fast enough to be fun, especially if I kicked the back end loose in the turns every now and then. Angela seemed to be enjoying it, smiling and whooping with delight when I’d light up the tires and got the car sideways.

Taking a break at the Chevron in Canyon Country, Teddy Bear asked Angela what it was like to ride in my car.

“It’s so much fun!” she said, her eyes wide. “I love it!”

“Well, if you ever need to calm down off that adrenaline rush, you’re welcome to ride with me any time,” he said, making a charming but clumsy play, completely unaware that Angela actually was my lover.

“Thanks!” she said. “I’ve always liked Corvettes.”

When it came time to get rolling again, Angela was sitting right beside me in my car, though, so poor Teddy Bear struck out.

“He is sweet,” Angela said as we pulled onto the road. “But clueless.”

I laughed at that, giving Angela a quick squeeze on her bare thigh. I’d managed to sneak my hand up between her legs a few times while we were driving, giving her a quick little rub with the edge of my pinky, but that was the extent of it. Somehow in my mind I’d worked up a fantasy of me fully fingering Angela while driving with my car guy pals, but it didn’t actually work out that way at all. Well, that was O.K. as far as I was concerned. We were going to head back home, where she’d hinted that she planned to have her way with me. I could wait.

We skipped lunch with the boys, as Angela had suggested, but it turned out she had other plans than just jumping in bed.

“We’re going down to the pool,” she announced when we got back to the condo. “We’ll get lunch down there, maybe spend a couple of hours, that’s all. Then we’ll come back up here and get ready for your friends.”

“You’re the boss,” I agreed.

Although Angela liked to lay out in the sun, her skin was really pretty pale because she was religious about sunblock. I was only too happy to help her apply it everywhere, making certain it was rubbed into her skin evenly. For my part, I smeared a little bit of SPF 15 on my face and shoulders and that was it. I’d never had a problem tanning easily, and wasn’t concerned about my suit leaving tan lines.

Of course, there was a whole lot more to my racer-back two-piece than there was to Angela’s very, very small hot pink bikini, too…

Angela wore a halfway transparent oversized shirt cover-up and a cute straw hat on the way to the pool, while I had on a much less fashionable pair of shorts and T shirt. Of course she drew the looks as we found ourselves a table with an umbrella and ordered lunch. Angela knew it, too, and seemed to bask in the attention.

Once we’d finished our salads, we found a couple of lounge chairs and ditched our cover-ups. Of course, if Angela had people eying her before, it was nothing compared to the looks she was getting in her three-little-postage-stamps-connected-by-strings that called itself a bikini. I might as well have been invisible, relaxing in the next chair over.

I wouldn’t say the pool was crowded, but there might have been twenty people there that day. Our building’s residents were mostly middle-aged, but there were a few younger people there at the pool, including one family with kids. Their boy, maybe twelve years old, just couldn’t take his eyes off Angela at all, despite his mom’s hissed instructions to stop staring.

Angela wasn’t bothered at all by this- in fact, I’m pretty sure it was the whole point.

After a while I got too hot from the sun, so I rinsed off in the pool-side shower and dove in the deep end. Now, I was never all that great a diver, but Stephanie had taught me how to do a nice pike without a diving board, so that had become my go-to when plunging into a pool that was deep enough for that kind of dive. I knew it looked impressive, especially with the elevation I could gain from my vertical leap and the length of my legs, and who doesn’t love to show off a bit?

Swimming a few laps, I spotted Angela sitting on the edge of the pool. When she saw that I’d noticed her, she waved me over. Clinging to the concrete coping, I asked, “What’s up?”

“That dive you did- that was amazing!” Angela exclaimed. “You jumped so high! How can you even do that?”

“Genetics and training,” I replied. “You’ve seen my workouts.”

“Yeah, I have, but seeing you jump up and down on a box is nothing like that!” she said, then slipped into the pool next to me. “I want to watch you do it again, but from up close.”

We swam to the deep end and I climbed out while Angela held onto the side of the pool. I glanced down to make sure she was watching, then turned my back to the pool. Smiling at Angela’s gasp of surprise, I took my bounce and leapt as high as I could into a reverse pike. It wasn’t perfect, but when I surfaced Angela was thrilled beyond belief.

“God, Leah! That was amazing! I didn’t know you could do that!” she said, then let go of the wall and grabbed onto me as I treaded water. She wrapped her arms around me and gave me a big kiss as we sunk below the surface.

Laughing and coughing as we emerged again, Angela continued on about how amazing it was when a voice said, “Um, excuse me.”

I looked up to see the pool attendant standing there.

“I’m sorry, but there’s no diving,” he said. “I understand that you obviously know what you’re doing, but it’s against the rules for a good reason.”

“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t know.”

“That’s O.K.,” the guy said. “Now you do.”

Angela had a ‘Busted!’ guilty look on her face, which made me laugh. I leaned in for another kiss, fully conscious of the fact that we were definitely the center of attention for everybody there at the pool.

I followed Angela to the broad, shallow step along one side, delaying my exit long enough so that her butt was right at my eye level for a few precious moments.

“Let’s get a cabana,” she suggested, and it sounded very good to me.

I found the attendant and signed for one of the cabanas, most of which were available. Clearly paying attention and reading between the lines, he set us up with the cabana on the far right, farthest away from where most of the pool users were clustered.

After toweling off a bit, Angela lay on the daybed on her tummy, arching her back just enough to present me with a perfect view of her amazing backside.

I sat next to her and stroked her back.

“You know everyone is expecting us to pull the curtains shut and get busy,” I said, running my fingertips along her spine.

“Then we should do just that,” Angela purred swinging her raised feet back and forth.

“Ange,” I said softly. “Are you marking your territory? Is that what’s going on today?” It had occurred to me that Stein had had it backwards that morning. It wasn’t me doing the flexing- it was Angela.

Thinking about my question for a moment, Angela said, “I want everyone to know that you’re mine. You’re the one I want to be with. You, the most amazing, bravest, most-”

“Yeah, I get it,” I said, pinching her butt. Glancing around and seeing that it would be difficult, if not impossible for anyone to get a good view of us, I slid my index finger down along the string that constituted the back of Angela’s bikini bottom. Angela obligingly adjusted her legs a bit to give my hand room, which I was happy to take advantage of. I left her suit where it was and kept my fingers outside, just gently stroked the lycra that held her lady bits.

“Maybe we need to close the curtains now,” Angela groaned.

“No, sorry, babe,” I replied, removing my hand and giving her a gentle spank. “I’m not having sex here in public.”

“You are cruel,” Angela complained.

Later, back in the condo, We made out for a little bit in the shower, but not really enough to satisfy either of us. “Just think of it as foreplay,” I said.

“I think we’re past that,” Angela said, looking frustrated. “It’s at least seven-play by now.”

Angela dressed down after the shower. Instead of her more typical sexy outfits, she wore an old pair of jeans that weren’t stretchy, ripped, or cut off in any way, and a Stanford T shirt she swiped from my dresser.

I didn’t mind her grabbing my old T shirts like that- in fact, I liked seeing them on her. Again, territory marking, in an adorable way.

I was busy finishing up whatever last-minute details I could on our class project when Li arrived.

“Leah, this place is uh-may-zing!” Li said, emphasizing the ‘may’ part. “So this is how the other half lives?” she asked, handing me a bottle of wine. “I got that from Costco,” she explained. “The sign said it was good- I know nothing about wine.”

Laughing, I said, “I’m sure it’s fine. Costco wouldn’t lie about a thing like that.”

I indicated the table, where I had my laptop set up. Li got the hint and pulled hers out of her backpack and set it up opposite mine. I gave her the WiFi password and soon we had the two computers set up to collaborate.

Angela came into the living room, so I introduced the two. “Angela Castro, this is Li Quon. Li, this is Angela, my girlfriend.”

“Nice to meet you,” Angela said, smiling prettily.

“Nice to meet you, too,” Li said.

Angela went back to the kitchen and Li and I sat down. “Um, Leah, I kinda hate to ask, but how old is she?”

Laughing, I said, “I know, right? Sometimes she looks like she’s fifteen, and right now, wearing my T shirt, which is way too big for her, it really makes her look young. But she’s actually four years older than me, if you can believe it.”

“I’d never have guessed,” Li said, wondering. “She’s really pretty.”

“Yeah, she is. Really sweet, too.”

Thinking for a moment, Li gave me a puzzled look. “Didn’t you say you flew to New York to see your wife?”

“That’s right,” I said, enjoying seeing the cogs turn in Li’s mind.

“Does, um, your wife know about your girlfriend?”

“She should, since they were in bed together when I got to the house there in New York,” I said, doing my best to keep a straight face.

“Wait, what? This is gonna need some explaining.”

“Angela is both our girlfriend. She’s the third part of our relationship.”

“You guys have some sort of poly thing going?” Li asked, her mind boggled.

“Well, it’s just the three of us, it’s not like it’s an open relationship or anything like that,” I said. "So I guess technically poly, but I don’t think any of us think of it that way.”

“Wow…” Li breathed. “So, like, right now your wife is in New York, and you two are here, right? And your wife is O.K. with that?”

“Sure,” I said. “Angela was with her in New York for a few weeks before I went back there, and she came back to LA with me. She’s going back to New York to be with Emmy on Tuesday again,” I said with a shrug. “The only part that’s awkward is the fact that Emmy and her band are recording in New York right now and I have work and school here. Angela has been trying to split her time to try to keep us both company, you know?”

“And she just flies back and forth in your private jet?” Li asked, still trying to wrap her brain around the whole thing.

“Seriously, I don’t have a private jet,” I said, rolling my eyes. “But if I did, then yes, that’s how she would fly. If I did, which I don’t.”

Just then Myles knocked on the door. Angela let him in, and he joined Li and me at the table.

“Who was that?” Myles asked, tilting his head in the direction of the kitchen.

“That’s Leah’s concubine,” Li said with a twinkle in her eye.

“What?” Myles asked, sure he hadn’t heard right.

“That’s my girlfriend, Angela,” I said. “And yes, she’s my wife’s girlfriend, too. We have an, um, atypical relationship.”

“I guess,” he said, looking unimpressed.