All in all, I was pretty pleased with the way that things had gone at the garden center. Despite my fantasies, I had not really expected that we would have the opportunity to have Katie just walking around topless for that long in a public place. Granted, it sort of fell into our usual "restricted access" public nudity, but I felt that we made some progress both by initially surprising the boys and then by really leaving it in their hands as to whom she was exposed. They could easily have brought back just about anybody that they wanted to have see her. Of course, Katie could just as easily have put her shirt back on and the show would have been over.

Although we both enjoyed our little adventure, our intentions had been to see if we could get away from our "restricted" exposure and see what some more "public" reactions would be. Really, a lot of this came out of Katie's "confession" of wanting to expose herself to Larry and Sharon and some of the questions that were raised when she subsequently did expose herself to Larry. The questions were not only of how far we could go, but how far we should allow ourselves to go.

All sorts of things go on behind closed doors and to think otherwise is just foolish. The question becomes a personal one of where to draw the lines? Not everyone is going to mark the same boundaries. For us, we were not looking to be swingers or anything like that. But what boundary do you make between that public life of ******, friends, neighbors, and business associates and that of "play" time? Is it necessary to separate things totally? As Katie asked, do you bare yourself to a complete stranger and then a few hours later sit down to dinner with your closest friends and talk about the weather, kids, and whether you are going to go with the honey mustard or raspberry walnut vinaigrette salad dressing? Obviously, you are not going to stand up in Sunday School and announce to your fellow parishioners that you took your wife to the barber and watched while he shaved her pussy and expect them to pat you on the back and tell you that they are glad to have such people in the congregation. If they do, that must be some church! But is there a middle ground? Or are you forced to lead a dual life if you are going to even consider doing such things in your life but still maintain some semblance of decorum in your everyday life?

There was no way that either one of us would involve Larry and Sharon if we knew that it was going to harm either our friendship with them or their relationship with each other. Yet I was slowly beginning to realize my naivete when it came to certain issues. I really had not given much thought to where things would ultimately lead once I started down the path of exposing Katie to Larry. I have to admit that my initial thoughts were just that he would be safe. I knew that he would not be unkind to her and knew that with his relationship with Sharon that he would not consider cheating on her. What I wasn't seeing was that by involving Larry I was de facto involving Sharon. And in involving Larry AND Sharon I was involving another couple and that changed the dynamic considerably.

The lessons that I ended up learning were of the differences in how men and women relate to the world around them. You can work next to a guy in the office for years or see him every week at the gym and never know that he is dying of cancer or his wife is leaving him or some other such earthshaking event. Two women sit down next to each other on a bench in the mall and within ten minutes are talking about their kids, sharing recipes, and giving ****** histories to each other. Ok, so I exaggerate, but women definitely have a need to share more about themselves. This is what Katie began to explain to me, that she needed an outlet for what we were doing. Sure, it meant something that we were sharing all of this together and it was bringing us closer, but I slowly saw that it went further than that.

Even if we only showed her to Larry and he kept that secret from Sharon, Katie needed someone to share her story with. The womenfolk try to make us feel guilty about what is talked about in the locker room or at the bar when it is just the guys, but let me clue you in on the fact that women share everything with their friends down to the details that would make a man blush. But these were realizations that I came to much later. Perhaps I should just stick to the story in the order of events as they happened. At this point, the only issue was that I began to realize that Katie needed a female confidant and the only question was whether we had a chance of successfully including Sharon and Larry into all of this or if we were doomed to hurt feelings and misunderstandings if we even tried.

So it may not have been the most straightforward or valid way to get answers, but what happened at the garden center was more than just a enjoyable episode for us. More than just that we had pushed the envelop a bit further with a few more people than before and in a bit more public place than before, but also that the guys had been able to treat Katie as a person even though she had her top off. And that gave us some small hope. It left us with the feeling that perhaps we were not totally out of line for thinking that we could expose Katie without it being a fully separate "sexual" life of ours.

Our initial failure with trying to have Katie's "play" accepted in public had been that we had dressed Katie up "slutty" and then were surprised when people reacted to her accordingly. I admit that I was being naive about things. I was basing my reaction on knowing Katie as a person first and then seeing her dressed in "hot" clothes. Anyone else, not knowing her as a person first, was forming their entire reaction to her based solely on how she was dressed.

The small white t-shirt and jeans looked wholesome enough at first glance. Coupled with Katie's natural demeanor, it came across as though she was ******* of the effect that her clothing was having on people. Even when she ended up topless at the garden center, she acted so naturally about it that the guys came to accept it as though it was not completely out of the ordinary. Don't get me wrong, I mean they obviously got off on her being topless but they were able to still see her as a person instead of just a pair of boobs. This is really what we were looking for all along.

So to continue with our success, we took an evening to go out shopping to try to come up with some more outfits that Katie could wear that would allow her to show off while maintaining some semblance of a wholesome look. The only thing to our disadvantage was that you can never seem to buy clothing for the current season. Just as the Christmas displays start going up before Halloween anymore, it seems like they have bikinis on display while there is still snow on the ground and winter coats when you could fry an egg on the sidewalk. The benefit to us was that the summer clothing that we could find was all clearance priced. The problem was that things were pretty well picked over and we really were not finding anything that seemed to work. Most of the stuff was pretty modest and it seemed that anything that was at all revealing was downright trashy, the dregs that nobody else would buy. Trash at half price is still trash.

So Katie ended up looking at things more with an eye towards what she would actually wear and was able to find some sundresses that she liked. She picked out a few and disappeared into the dressing room with her selection to try them on, coming out to model each one for me. One of them really appealed to her but she asked me if I could try to find it a size smaller. The size she had looked good on her but did seem just a bit bulky. While she went back in to try on the next dress, I looked around and did manage to find the dress in the next smaller size. I took it up to the dressing room and stood there for a few minutes while waiting for her to come back out. The dress had looked cute on her but with its ankle length, short sleeves, and modest neckline it wasn't anything racy. At this point I had resigned myself to the fact that we were not going to find anything "revealing" that evening and was just happy that the trip would not be a total waste if Katie found something "normal" to wear.

But standing there with the dress in my hand and absentmindedly looking at it, I realized that it was actually made up of two thin layers of fabric. Since the two layers were sewn together at the seams I could not get a real view through only the one layer of the outer fabric, but it seemed that it was translucent without being totally transparent. The wheels began to turn in my mind. The only problem was that Katie was currently considering the dress for "normal" wear and probably wouldn't take too kindly to having it clipped apart into something that she could only wear semi-indecently. I was just thinking that if the lining were cut out of it she could still possibly wear it with a slip if she wanted to stay decent when she came out of the dressing room. The dress that she was trying on looked nice, but did not have the same style to it as the one she tried on before, the one I was holding in my hand. She thanked me for finding the smaller size and disappeared back into the dressing room to try that one on. While I was waiting, I decided to make a quick search and was able to turn up exactly one more dress in that size. I guess that luck was with me. Looking at the pricetag, I decided that with the sale prices I was willing to pay for a duplicate to play with. I went back to wait at the dressing room, stashing the dress on a nearby rack where I could keep an eye on it without Katie questioning why I was holding it.

Katie came out of the dressing room and the smaller size definitely fit better on her. As it was, the dress actually looked pretty sexy on her as it was, in a wholesome sort of way. Yet I was already trying to judge how it would look with the lining cut out of it. From a purely legitimate standpoint, it was a nice dress and Katie looked good in it. The full length, sleeves, and modest neckline gave the dress a certain respectability. The sort of thing that I could see her wearing to a church picnic without any of the matriarchs raising a snit. But without a lining I could envision being able to see the silhouette of her body through the material and with the light cream color I wondered if you would be able to see a shadow of her aureolas and pubic hair through it. If we could strip the lining out of it I was pretty sure that it would do nicely, mixing respectability and indecency in just about the right balance.

Katie decided that this dress was the only one that she really liked, not knowing my evil intentions for its twin, and disappeared into the dressing room a final time to change back into her street clothes. When she came back out with the dress in her hand, I was standing there with its twin in my hand. At first she did not comprehend, thinking that it was the larger dress and told me that I could put it back on one of the racks. When I told her that this one was the same size as the one in her hand, I only confused her further and she told me that she only needed one. I replied that this one was for me and in the way her eyes lit up I knew that she had a brief mental picture of me wearing the dress, so I interjected that she would still be the one wearing it but that it would still be for me. She held the dress in her hand up a bit to look at it closer as she began to realize what I was saying.

She commented that the salesgirl was going to look at her a bit strange when she took two identical dresses up to the counter. I replied that I'd take the other one to a different register and buy it there and would even give her the money to buy hers since she was always so willing to indulge me. I fished a few bills out of my wallet and handed them to her. We went our separate ways and met up again several minutes later each with our own matching shopping bag. I told Katie that the salesgirl had even complemented me on my taste and had said that she was sure that my wife was going to love the dress. If she only knew my real intentions for it! We both had a laugh at that.

Altering the dress took some work and Katie ended up borrowing a sewing machine from her aunt to re-sew the seams after we had carefully cut the stitching apart to separate the lining. The work we put in just to have some fun! It did turn out nicely, though. Our seams were all smooth and you had to actually look closely at them to be able to tell that they were not original. Doing so was important because we both felt that if the dress looked "homemade" then it would be fairly obvious that any exposure was intentional. If the dress looked like it was bought off the rack, then perhaps Katie did not know how revealing it was?

When it was all finished, Katie put it on and wore it around the house and outside in the yard just to see how the dress looked and how much you were actually able to see under different lighting conditions. Some people would have you believe that a material that is totally opaque and decent suddenly turns completely transparent in sunlight or some other certain condition and you could see every detail of the person underneath. I'll admit that different lighting can make some difference, but I've never seen a dramatic difference that went from completely discreet to "every detail" under any normal conditions -- other than getting a fabric wet.

Under moderate lighting, the light cream color and minimal pattern of Katie's dress only kept her barely discreet. You could not see any detail, but if you looked you could see a bit of the shadow of her aureolas. The light color of her pubes combined with the fact that Katie kept them closely trimmed did not leave much to give a shadow down below, though. She'd have to wear a black thong to give people the impression that they were seeing her bush. Backlighting did a nice job of showing off the silhouette of her legs, but the light and the viewer would have to be positioned exactly for anyone to see the outline of her nether lips. Brighter lighting and especially fluorescent lighting did bring out the contrast of her aureolas through the material. It still was not to the point that you could really see any detail, but it was fairly obvious that she wasn't wearing anything else under the dress. The other benefit of removing the lining was that now there was only one thin layer of fabric covering her and it draped across her body in a more revealing way than the two layers had. Most noticeable was the way that Katie's nipples poked into the thin fabric. We actually switched back and forth between the altered dress and the original one a few times to see exactly what differences the lack of a lining made.

Katie did find an excellent way to show off when she stood over one of our landscape lights in the backyard after dusk. The dress lit up like one of those oriental paper lanterns, showing off her body quite clearly up to her waist. The waistline kept the light from traveling any further up her body under the dress, but if she leaned forward she could get the dress to fall away from her chest a bit and give some tantalizing illumination up to the underside of her breasts. So there was a way for the dress to become completely transparent and show her off in all her glory without resorting to rain or sprinklers!

For our first trip out with Katie's new dress, we ventured out to the local town park on a Saturday morning. We briefly discussed the odds of running into a neighbor or someone else that we knew, but decided that the odds of that happening were pretty low. Besides, the dress was not totally lewd and the whole point was to get people's reactions. We agreed that the dress was not indecent enough to warrant any really slanderous comments around the neighborhood if she was seen in it.

We parked the car and started out just walking around, holding hands and talking like any other couple in love. Katie was wearing her dress (obviously) with a pair of white Keds for a casual look. I was wearing my usual jeans along with a knit shirt. Katie gives me a certain amount of grief at times for always wearing long pants. As a kid, I was always getting into things and scraping up my knees. I ended up always wearing jeans to give me some protection and it's something that has always stuck with me. Even on the hottest days it is rare to find me in shorts. Completing our outfits, we were both wearing sunglasses so that we could check out other people's reactions a little easier without being completely obvious.

We strolled down along the treeline, skirting the open area with the ball fields, tennis courts, and basketball courts. We passed a few other couples and a number of families as we walked. We got the usual glances, but nobody really stared and we did not seem to get the hairy eyeball from anyone. Then again, we did not really come up face to face with anyone either, so perhaps nobody got a good enough look to be either intrigued or offended.

We bypassed the main playground area. There were maybe a half dozen younger kids there with a few parents. We figured that parents might be a little more protective of their children and take offense with Katie's outfit. Off to the side a ways were some swings that were being ignored by the kids, so we wandered over that way and Katie sat down on one of them and I got behind her to start pushing her gently.

It was probably only about five minutes before a little boy and girl separated from the other kids and came running over to us, full of questions. Where were our children? Why was I pushing "the mommy" on the swing? Where did we live?

A young couple quickly hurried over to "save" us from the inquisition and apologize to us. Katie laughed and reassured them that it was not a problem and said how cute they were. Introductions were made and Katie and Melissa were soon sitting on swings talking while Andrew and I ended up pushing the kids on the swings.

What was I saying about how women relate?

The women were sitting on their swings facing opposite to the kids so that they could they could face them and keep an eye on them. That left Andrew and me facing the women as well. As Katie and Melissa talked and we swung the kids, I was beginning to think that we had been too conservative with Katie's dress.

I figured that my fears were realized when I overheard Melissa complementing Katie on her dress and telling her how much she liked it. I was saved when she paused for a moment and then giggled, saying that she was sure that Andrew liked it too. I had not really noticed him looking, but apparently his wife had caught him.

Katie looked down at herself for a moment, gave a laugh, and told Melissa that she knew it was a bit revealing but that I had convinced her that it was not that noticeable.

Melissa laughed at that, saying that Andrew was the same way.

The kids were young enough that I did not notice that they were picking up on anything that was being said. I think that Andrew felt a bit guilty about being caught, because he didn't comment and seemed to do his best not to gawk at Katie anymore. Melissa had seemed to have a sense of humor about it, so I sort of thought that it was a shame that nothing more was said.

After awhile the kids decided that they wanted to play on the slide and the group of them left with hurried good-byes as the kids drug their parents off to the other side of the playground. Katie and I stayed at the swings for a bit as I resumed pushing her on her swing before we decided to move along.

We walked around the park a bit more, getting a few whistles from some guys playing basketball. Truthfully, I don't think that they got close enough to really see the full effect. Their loss. Not exactly the most exciting episode, but it let us know that it was conservative enough that we could get away with her wearing it in public while still being daring enough to provoke interest based on Melissa's comments.

Emboldened by our success, we continued on to lunch at a casual place in town that we both liked. The restaurant was a little more risky in that we were somewhat captive while we ate. Just a bit more difficult to get out of the situation if things started going downhill. It did not seem that we had anything to worry about, though. The waiter was very attentive and several male patrons around us kept stealing glances her way. Katie kept her cool, like nothing was out of the ordinary. But I could tell from her erect nipples that it was turning her on to be so barely covered in "actual" public as opposed to our usual "restricted access" public. After lunch, we spent a couple hours window shopping in town. Again, a number of guys were checking her out but other than some smiles and nods to either her or me there wasn't much in the way of overt reactions to her outfit. One salesgirl complemented her on the dress, adding under her breath when she thought I was not paying attention that she wished that she had the guts to wear something like that. All in all, I'd say that the day was a total success.

The only real problem that we were finding with the dress was that there was no casual way to take things to the next level. With the full length hem and the high neckline, it was not like she could lift the hem a bit to show more leg or unbutton a few more buttons to show off a little more cleavage. It went from what you could see through the dress to her either pulling the hem up past her waist or unzipping the dress at the back of her neck and slipping it down off her shoulders to expose her chest. There really wasn't any in between or casual way to flash a little more.

Although we both knew that these little episodes were no indication of how things would go, we took them as a positive sign that you could cross the line of "polite society" and get away with it to some extent. I had talked to Larry on the phone since the evening that Katie exposed herself to him, but the subject of what had happened did not come up. We had not had a chance to get together for a beer and this was more of a topic to be discussed in person than over the phone. Similarly, Katie and Sharon had talked a few times on the phone but had not had a chance to get together. So the four of us were due for a chance to get together for a night out.

Katie and I both knew that we were taking a chance by crossing this line and spent quite some time talking about whether we wanted to take that risk. Our final decision was that it wasn't something that we could continue to ignore but that at the same time we were not going to force the issue. We would let them know that the possibilities were open, but they would have to make their own decision to proceed.

Katie gave Sharon a call and set things up. It seemed to always work better that way. If Larry and I set something up it always seemed that the women ended up calling each other anyway to work out all the details that we had glossed over. Larry and me planning on getting together went something like this:

Me: "Have time for a beer?"

Larry: "Sure. 7:00?"

Me: "Sounds good. Pete's? Wings?"

Larry: "Yep. See you there."

Katie and Sharon's discussion included weather and time of day and how that affected what they would wear, coordinating what they would wear, what they were hungry for, three other places that they would like to go sometime, how the place we were going would affect what they wore, etc. I'd argue that their time spent planning often exceeded the actual time of the event itself.

After their conversation, Katie told me that Sharon and Larry seemed anxious for a chance to get out and said that they would be leaving the girls overnight with Sharon's mother. The girls always enjoyed their sleepovers at Grandma's, but it sounded like Sharon wanted to set things up so that they did not have any deadlines to be back home. I certainly took that as a good sign!

While waiting for the weekend to arrive, it seemed we spent some part of each evening discussing where and how things should go. At one point the question was even raised as to whether the dress was going too far but it was pretty quickly decided that we at least had to do that much so as to start the discussion about what possibilities were open. That would be the icebreaker, so to speak. Knowing Larry and Sharon, I had little doubt that he had told his wife everything about what had happened the evening that Katie came out of the shower.

Saturday finally arrived and we did our best to keep ourselves busy throughout the day -- doing chores around the house and taking care of the little issues of daily life. Late afternoon we decided that the house could keep for another day and turned our attentions to getting ready. We shared a shower and then I left Katie to shave her legs while I got out and shaved at the sink. We finished our toiletries and then dressed quickly. Katie did not have much to do in that department -- only slip into her dress and slip on a pair of shoes. She disappeared back into the bathroom to do her makeup while I finished up and then went out to the living room to page through a magazine while she finished.

When Katie came out, she looked fantastic. She is blessed with that simple, natural beauty that really needs very little accentuation. Truth be told, I cannot think of many times that Katie does not look fabulous. She cleans up well and turns heads in her business suits and skirts for work or in a gown for an evening out. But she can just as easily turn heads in jeans and a sweatshirt with her hair pulled back in a ponytail with no makeup while walking the dog or digging in the flowerbeds. She would say that I am taking it a bit far to say that even when under the weather she still is a sight to behold, but wrapped up in her terry robe, a bit pale, and her nose reddened from tissues only makes you want to take care of her. Me, if I'm sick, any sane person would want to keep their distance. Preferably a distance far enough that they don't even have to see me at all. But Katie still takes care of me in such a state.

I stood and gathered her into my arms for a quick kiss and to whisper in her ear how much I loved her. We gathered our things and left the house. I didn't ask if there were any ulterior motives, but Katie and Sharon had ended up deciding on the restaurant where Katie and I had begun this whole adventure. It was a nice place, but a bit further away so we did not end up there quite as often as we may have liked. With the distance, I was a bit surprised that the ladies did not arrange for us to car pool instead of meeting there. There was a nervous excitement during our drive. Our small talk was interspersed with quiet moments as each of us drifted into introspective thoughts about the possibilities of what was going to happen this evening. As I said, there was some part of nearly every day during the previous week that we spent talking about things. All the angles had been discussed and we both knew that this was what we wanted to do. However, we also both realized that our course of action was not without its risks.

We reached the restaurant before Larry and Sharon, so I suggested that we take a walk through the gardens. The evening sun was giving everything that heavy, warm feeling and the gardens were always beautiful. Unless we really got into them, we could keep the parking lot in sight and keep an eye out for Larry and Sharon's car. The evening air was warm, but not oppressive. I think that it was just what we needed to calm our nerves a little bit before the moment of truth was upon us. We spent our time looking at the different plantings for ideas for our own gardens.

I noticed a car pulling into the lot that looked like Larry's and a second look confirmed that it was the two of them. We headed over towards where they were parking at a leisurely pace and met up with them as they were getting out of the car. The usual greetings and hugs were exchanged, but I happened to notice Sharon taking a step back to size Katie up after giving her a hug as Katie turned to greet Larry. The sun kept you from seeing anything in great detail, but you could clearly tell that Katie had nothing on under the dress. Sharon did not make any comments and did not seem to be anything but her usual self, but her review of Katie was a bit more than casual.

We made our way to the entrance and checked in with the hostess. We were quickly seated at our table and conversation turned to our options for the evening's meal. The lighting was such that Katie's dress gave vague shadows of what lay beneath, enough to catch the attention of our waiter whose eyes seemed to drift to Katie when given the chance. I was not the only one to catch the waiter's object of attention. Sharon also noted the effect that Katie's dress had on him. I also noticed a couple other guys in our vicinity glancing Katie's way and I am sure that Sharon was noticing this as well.

Other than this, our dinner proceeded about the same as any other time the four of us got together. We talked about what was going on at our jobs, how Larry and Sharon's girls were doing, and various other news from daily life. The meal was good, as always, and after our desserts we paid our bill and walked out into the evening air. We were in a relaxed, jovial mood. I didn't just want to end the night there and since it was still early not to mention the fact that the kids were with the grandparents I knew that we would end up at one of our houses. Still, I didn't really feel like just climbing into our cars yet so I suggested that we take a stroll through the gardens. As evening settled in the paths were lit by small lights, so it makes for a pleasant, intimate little walk through the paths. The evening was beautiful and I could see a few other people wandering around through the gardens, so I wasn't expecting enough privacy to be able to replay our previous exploits. And in the dim lighting, Katie's dress did not reveal much.

We wandered back along one of the paths, just enjoying the evening and looking around at the plantings again. Can you tell that we are gardeners? As we walked, Katie and Sharon gravitated together ahead of Larry and me as the four of us split into "girl talk" and "guy talk" conversations. As we strolled along, there were landscape lights along the path at regular intervals that kept things illuminated enough to see where you were going, but not bright like a sidewalk or parking lot in a public space. I wasn't really thinking about Katie's dress, mainly because with the dim light there was not much to see. But as we came to a tee intersection in the paths with a light directly ahead of us at the intersection, I began to notice the shadows of Katie's legs through her dress as she walked closer to the light. As she and Sharon drew closer to the light, I was not the only one to take notice of the view as I heard something halfway between an intake of breath and a low whistle from Larry. We both just sort of stopped where we were standing to take in the view as Katie got closer to the light.

At the intersection, the ladies paused and turned around to see which way we wanted to go. It caught them slightly off guard to find that we were a few steps further back than they were expecting and that we were both just staring at them. They both looked at us, turned to look at each other, and then turned to look at us once again.

Almost in unison they both asked, "What's up with you guys?"

Larry seemed just a little guilty about being caught and did not say anything so I made a comment about enjoying the view.

Again, almost in unison, the ladies turned to look behind them. It was as good as any comedy routine. They looked back to us and then looked at each other. In the process of all this, they were facing each other, so Katie was sideways to us and the view was not nearly as good as it had been a moment earlier.

I knew Katie was just playing along what with her standing over the landscape light in our backyard before to show me the results. But I was surprised that Sharon had not caught on to what was going on. She was playing the perfect straight person in this little comedy routine. Looking at Katie, she finally took a step back and looked down at Katie's dress as she realized what the view really was. She took another step back towards us and Katie turned a bit towards her, allowing the shadows of her legs to be seen once again. Sharon continued to back up until she was standing with us, telling Katie that she was most certainly the view. Katie leaned forward to look down at her legs, pretending to catch on to what was going on. She moved backwards, closer to the light, and let her legs drift apart a bit. She looked back up at us and asked if that was any better. You could clearly see the silhouette of her legs rising up to where they joined but the angle of the light to her was wrong and you could not see much detail at the juncture of her legs.

Sharon gave a short laugh and said that you could just about see everything.

"Oh, if you want to see everything then I should go like this," Katie said.

She took a look around us to see if anyone was close. The plantings in the garden were not high enough to make the paths into a maze, but were high enough to give some privacy from one area to another. Confirming that nobody could really see what we were up to, she lifted the hem of her dress just enough that she could take another step backwards over the light and then let her dress fall back down. The landscape light was a bit higher than ours, coming up between her knees. But again her dress was lit up like a Chinese paper lantern. She had to spread her legs a bit more to straddle the lamp, which only did a better job of showing her charms. The light mostly went out to the sides from the lamp, it did not shine directly up towards her nether region. But her dress caught the light enough that everything up to her waist was plainly lit. We could all see neatly trimmed and shaven vulva with her full labia.

I was not sure what exact effect this was having on Larry and Sharon. They were mute in their observation of my wife. But I knew the effect she was having on me! Both the sight of her naked beneath her dress as well as the fact that she was exposing herself to two of our closest friends not to mention doing it in a fairly public space was definitely causing me to swell and harden.

Katie broke the silence by asking if this showed her more clearly.

Larry was able to find enough voice to say, "Ummm, yeah, pretty much so."

Sharon added, "Ahh, yep, pretty clearly. Might as well have nothing on at all."

Again she had stumbled into Katie's setup.

Katie got a slightly lopsided grin and I was sure her eyes were twinkling as she just said, "Ok."

Picking at the sides of her dress along her thighs, she started to slowly draw it up her legs. We were all silent as we watched the hem slowly rise up to expose her calves, her knees, and then more and more of her thighs. As the dress cleared the lamp, its light glared at us, actually making it a bit harder for us to see Katie as clearly for a moment. Still, it was entrancing to watch the hem slowly climb her legs and I wondered how far she would take this. Our eyes adjusted to the light, though, and we watched as the material uncovered the tops of her thighs and the juncture of her legs began to show again below the bunched up material.

The material continued to rise, fully showing her labia and had just started to rise up the trimmed patch of her pubes when Katie suddenly went "Whup!" and dropped the hem as she strode back over to us.

As the spell broke, I turned enough to see another couple coming around behind us. I doubted that they had seen anything and as they passed the four of us it was pretty much confirmed that they had missed the show as they only gave pleasant smiles, no sign of wondering what we had been up to a moment before.

As the couple passed further away, Sharon said under her breath that Katie was bad, causing Katie to give a little laugh.

She replied that she hoped she had not been too bad and asked for Sharon's forgiveness.

Sharon told her that it was not a problem.

The spell had been broken, though, and we moved on through the garden as we talked and looked at the landscaping. I was hoping that Katie would take the opportunity to expose herself again, but the chance did not present itself. What she had done was in the spirit of fun. If she had made another attempt I realized that it would seem forced, like telling the same joke over again after it had gotten a good laugh the first time.

We walked and talked amongst ourselves for another half hour before Katie suggested that we get going. When Sharon agreed, Katie immediately asked if they would have time to come back to our place for a drink or two. We had wine with our dinner, but not to excess, and the dinner and time in the gardens had been over the course of a couple hours. Larry and Sharon accepted our offer and we all headed to our cars.

Once we were in our car, Katie was beaming and asked how she did.

I told her that she was wonderful, that I was only disappointed that she had to stop when she did. I gave her a kiss and asked her how far she would have gone if the other couple had not come along when they did.

Her eyes twinkled as she asked me how far I wanted her to go.

I replied that she should have a pretty good idea by now that I wouldn't be terribly upset if she never had to wear clothes again, but that I wanted to know how far she would have felt comfortable going at that moment.

She gave me a smile and said that she was not exactly sure. The practical side of her had said that she was in a public place, so that part of her was saying that it would be best to not remove the dress totally. Pull it up to her armpits at the very most, but be ready to drop it back into place if anyone came (as she had done). She paused for a moment and then continued, saying that the truth of the matter was that she was flying on the moment at the time, just doing what seemed right. The thought had crossed her mind to pull the dress over her head and continue to walk through the gardens completely naked. When she first saw the other couple, this side of her had given her first thought of continuing to lift her dress and include them in the show. The practical side had argued to not make a scene and she had chickened out.

I asked her what she had planned for when we got home.

She responded that she was doing her best to not think about it, not plan anything, just play things as they came and see what felt right at the moment.

I agreed with her and trusted her judgment. Katie is definitely the more intuitive one of the two of us when it comes to dealing with people. Besides that, I also understood where she was coming from. Just as if making another attempt to expose herself in the gardens would have come across as forcing the issue, things just had to be played by the moment tonight. It could not be scripted. If things felt right for her, I had no doubt that Katie would take advantage of the situation.

Normally, it seems that the trip home never takes as long as the trip going to someplace. Perhaps because anticipating the arrival makes it seem like it is taking longer to reach the destination. So even though we were headed home, the anticipation seemed to draw things out. Despite what Katie had said about not thinking about what would happen, I know that I was thinking about it and I'm sure that some thoughts were finding their way into her head as well. We talked a bit and listened to the radio on the drive, but I think that we both breathed an internal sigh of relief when we pulled into our driveway. Both of us are generally patient people, but that is only when we are able to do something. Sitting around, not able to do anything, drives both of us crazy to varying degrees.

Larry and Sharon pulled in behind us and we let ourselves into the house. Katie and Sharon decided that they wanted amaretto sours, so I poured Larry a beer and mixed up two drinks for the ladies before pouring myself a beer as well. With our drinks in hand, we settled into the living room. Larry and Sharon took the loveseat while Katie and I took the armchairs.

The four of us chatted a bit and then once again it was Sharon that started things off again. At a pause in the conversation she asked Katie if she could ask her a question.

"Sure," was Katie's immediate response.

Sharon seemed a bit hesitant, but forged ahead. "I'm seeing something new this evening and I'm not exactly sure that I understand it." She paused, but Katie did not say anything, just waited for her to continue. The pause drew out a bit longer. Larry and I were just spectators for the moment. This was between the ladies. I'm not sure if Sharon expected an answer of some sort from Katie, but she had not really asked a question yet. Still, Katie's silence made it more difficult for Sharon to proceed.

Finally, she found her voice again. "Larry had told me about what happened... What happened when you had come out of the shower the last time he was over. I really did not think anything about it at the time. No, well, I would not have thought much about it if it had just been that he saw you by accident. But he told me everything. He told me that you took your robe off again and sat there totally naked and continued the conversation like nothing was out of the ordinary. He did explain that you asked if I would be offended and only took your robe off after he had said I would not have a problem. And we've all been friends for so long that I didn't really have a problem with it. You were just naked. It's not like anything happened and it's not like he hasn't seen other women naked -- I mean even after we've been married. So really I had not given it any more thought recently until tonight... And now you're practically showing yourself to anyone who will look. It just isn't like you. We've been so close all these years, friends, almost like sisters at times and tonight I'm not sure that I know who you are. And I'm just confused..." The words spilled out of her, picking up speed as she went along until she finally had them all out. Her shoulders sort of slouched as her voice trailed off at the end and she stared at Katie for a long moment before looking down at her drink in her hand.

Katie was up out of her chair in the blink of an eye and kneeling in front of Sharon, with her hand reaching to Sharon's where she held her drink in her lap, apologizing for any trouble that was caused by her actions. She said that she should have realized that it was not fair to leave Sharon out of the loop, to do these things without talking to Sharon about it first. That what had happened the evening with Larry was a simple accident that had turned playful. It had not been a big deal, but to continue tonight as she had done was a bit brazen.

As Katie continued to talk to her friend, Sharon finally looked up to meet Katie's eyes and when Katie's words paused she asked, "So, what is all of this about?"

Katie had moved from kneeling to sitting Indian style while she had talked to her friend, keeping her hand on Sharon's as she spoke. When Sharon asked this, she settled back and withdrew her hand to clasp her drink in both hands in her lap. She looked down at her hands for a moment and took a deep breath before she began again. She began by asking if Sharon remembered how we had been having troubles with our relationship and Sharon nodded.

I know that I bent Larry's ear often enough during those times. Not with all the sordid details, but when I needed to talk to someone he was there. I knew that Katie had similarly confided in Sharon. Neither one of us had really gone into detail about how we turned things around either, just that we had been doing better. Both of them had made occasional comments about how we did seem to be doing better and about their relief that things were working out for us. At times I had felt some guilty twinges that we never discussed with them any details of how we actually turned things around and Katie confirmed similar feelings as well. I think that was one of the many reasons that we found ourselves at this point.

Katie went on to say that she thanked both of them for their support of us as a couple and that she felt that their encouragement had a lot to do with us not just writing the relationship off and going our separate ways. But she admitted that we were both at pretty much of a loss as to what exactly we could do to turn things around. She proceeded to give a cleaned up synopsis of our very first adventure, leaving out the part about me fingering her to orgasm in front of two complete strangers but making it clear that I had undressed her in front of them and shown her to them. I could tell that Larry and Sharon were a bit surprised, but they seemed to accept that we had actually done it even if they could not fully digest the understanding of how or why it had happened.

Katie went on to tell how that "shock" was what it took to break down some barriers and actually get us to really start to talk to each other. She touched on her issues with not feeling particularly sexy and how I had patiently coaxed her to take her clothes off around the house and then to expose herself outside when nobody was around to slowly get more used to her body. She said that I had then encouraged her to expose herself to carefully selected people in controlled situations in an attempt to show her that there were other people that did find her attractive and sexy.

Larry and Sharon were both listening to her attentively, not making any comments. But at that Larry had to interject that he had always thought that Katie was a hot little number and Sharon quickly elbowed him in the ribs for his comment. He said, "Hey! Are you implying that Katie isn't attractive?"

Sharon replied that was not at all what she was implying, but that Larry should show some respect and listen to her story.

Larry mumbled that he thought he was showing her some respect which only earned him another poke in the ribs from Sharon. Katie giggled a bit as she continued her story.

Katie explained that at first she was just humoring me with the nudity and exposure and that the actual exposure to other people was pretty few and far between. However, she recognized that I was making the effort to open up and that she was enjoying how much better we seemed to be relating to each other. The nudity didn't mean anything to her, but she was willing to play along since it seemed to mean something to me and I seemed to be more considerate of her feelings in return. And after awhile she had to admit that she began to enjoy the freedom of being naked around the house as well as the feel of the sun and fresh air on her body when she was naked outside. But then she briefly told about exposing herself to the fishermen and the mattress salesman and how she began to realize the impact that she had on their day. Better than sending someone flowers or any other random gift to just make their day special! She began to look at it a bit differently after that, she explained. Not that she thought she was performing community service or anything so virtuous, but just that she began to see the bright point to their day that she was creating for these people when she exposed herself to them.

Sharon had a few questions at this point. First she asked how far Katie had gone.

Katie played a bit dumb and asked what she meant.

A bit embarrassed by what she had asked, Sharon backed up and asked how much Katie had exposed? Was it just a quick flash? Breasts? Butt? Full nudity?

Katie gave some more detail about the incident with the fishermen. About taking off all her clothes and walking down to the shore. Answering Sharon's further questions she told that it was maybe fifteen or twenty yards across the inlet, so they probably could not see every detail. That she had stood there for possibly five or ten minutes, just chatting like nothing was out of the ordinary.

Sharon pressed further, asking if that was how most of the exposures had been.

So Katie gave some more detail about the incident with George while we had been mattress shopping. About asking to test the bed out, about bringing our own sheets, and about changing into her nightgown. Again, she shied away from actually telling them that she had brought herself to orgasm in front of George. But she made it clear enough that he saw everything and saw it up close enough to leave few questions about her anatomy in his mind. She was quick to explain that he was the perfect gentleman about it all and that she came away from the experience with a certain fondness for him, not thinking of him as a dirty old man or anything.

I had known what Sharon intended with her earlier question about how far things had gone, obviously we all knew what she was asking. But Katie had wanted Sharon to actually ask it. I guess to have the courage to actually say the words.

As open as Katie had been about George, Sharon found the words to ask somewhat more directly. She asked if it had ever gotten, you know, sexual?

Katie's reply was yes and no. That no, it had never come to physical sex with another person and that she had no intention on having sex with strangers. She made it quite clear that she was committed to our relationship and had no use for casual sex. But that yes, it had been sexual in the sense that she did not ignore the sexuality of herself in her actions. It was not like a visit to the doctor's office (I wondered if she was going to tell that story!) where it was like you weren't supposed to be attractive to the other person or even thought of in a sexual way. The way that Katie explained herself seemed to put Sharon at ease.

I'm sure that Sharon did not feel that her next question was as difficult as the last, but I could tell that it took more fortitude for Katie to answer it. Sharon asked where all of that left us? Why Katie had chosen to take things further after accidentally exposing herself to Larry and then put on the whole show this evening.

Katie paused a bit before she started to explain once again. She began by saying that first off it was hard to keep all of this a secret from our closest friends. She could not count the times over the past year and a half that they had been together and she had wanted to share some story with Sharon or even just call her up out of the blue to tell her what had happened. If there was anyone that we could share this part of our lives with, it was her and Larry. And she said that she did just need someone to confide in. It was all so wild and wonderful that it was hard not to tell them, but that she had held back because she was not sure what they would think of her. What they would think of the both of us for doing this kind of thing. She told about our last dinner together and how she had commented afterwards to me on the drive home about how everyone talked about daily life as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened when in reality all of this was going on. She refrained from actually telling them about what had really happened just that day, about being shaved by a barber and all.

Larry and Sharon were both taking this pretty well for something that does not often come up in everyday conversation and there was no sense in taking things to the limits and really blowing their minds. Let them digest all of this in manageable pieces.

So Sharon wanted to know where things went from here.

That was really an open ended question if there ever was one. I don't know if she expected Katie to suggest that we all get naked and have an orgy of epic proportions right there on the living room floor or what.

Actually, Sharon did seem pretty relaxed about things since finding out that we had not gone completely overboard into casual sex or swinging and wife swapping or whatever other sinister possibilities had crossed her mind. But I was not sure if her relaxed attitude was because we had apparently drawn some lines that she agreed with or whether she had convinced herself that the lines that we had drawn left them safely on the other side.

Larry just seemed a bit amused by all that he was hearing and curious as to where things would lead. I have to admit that I would have been in about the same position in his place. I would have already seen my best friend's wife naked once, gotten a few flashes, and from what I had been hearing, it would be pretty evident that the chances of me seeing her again would be pretty good.

Katie paused again for a bit before she continued. She had to admit that she had no illusions that this was a simple matter. She said that due to our long standing friendship, she had to let them in on our secret. If for no other reason than that she would ultimately burst if she could not tell anyone but me. But that having shared it with them, it was not the sort of thing that you could share in the way that you just asked if someone wanted to go bowling with you. She hastened to add that she was not necessarily suggesting that we all go out flashing, although she would certainly enjoy it if they were willing. More that what she asked of them was merely understanding and at the very least if they would allow her to relate some of our experiences to them from time to time in the way that we always shared things with them. Her face grew solemn and she paused again. "And I certainly understand that these things do have certain boundaries. I'd never do or talk about anything in front of your girls. That just would not be right." Her face softened a bit and she looked from one to the other of them before asking, "But do you still accept me for who I am? You don't think that I'm completely out of my skull or anything, do you?"

It was Larry and Sharon's turn to pause for a bit. Katie continued to look to one and then the other of them and back again, waiting for their response.

Sharon finally turned to Larry for a moment before turning back to Katie and telling her that she did not feel that it changed anything between us. I could see Katie relax at those words. Sharon continued to say it was a bit unusual, but that we had been friends for so long and were so close we were almost ******. It wasn't like this was going to scare them off. She felt that she knew Katie and me well enough that she did not feel that there was anything malicious or hurtful about what we were doing now that she had a better understanding of what was going on. She said that she could not see herself having the courage to just expose herself like Katie had done (I was disappointed by that statement), but that she certainly would not mind living vicariously through Katie's actions every now and then. Turning to Larry, she asked if he disagreed at all.

Larry responded that there were no objections from him, considering that he was the one who had said that he had not minded seeing Katie naked accidentally and asked for a better look. That netted him another swat from Sharon and a laugh from Katie.

Katie leaned forward from where she was sitting and wrapped her arms around their legs, laying her head along Sharon's knee as she hugged them and told them she was so relieved that they were not upset with her.

Katie sat back and finished off her drink. I imagined that she was a bit thirsty after her extended speech. The rest of us had been sipping at our drinks while she talked, so we were nearing the bottoms of our own glasses.

As she finished off her own drink, Sharon asked if Katie really felt comfortable being naked around people. "I mean, you could just take everything off now and sit around just like we have been for the past hour?" she asked.

"Well, after everything we've discussed, I have to admit that I would feel a little self-conscious if I just stood up right now and took my dress off," was Katie's reply.

Sharon gave a laugh and commented that it seemed strange that Katie would be embarrassed in front of them in the privacy of our home when she seemed more than willing to show off out in public earlier, not to mention the stories that she had just told about showing off to total strangers.

Katie replied that it was not so much embarrassed, but that she would feel self conscious about baring her body after just baring her soul. Hard to explain, she said. With that she collected everyone's glasses, asking if people would like a refill, and headed for the kitchen.

In her absence, Sharon took a few moments to ask me some questions. How I felt about things? What my opinion was about Katie showing herself off to other men? Whether I got jealous?

I tried to answer openly and honestly. I said that the changes in Katie were remarkable and I only loved her more for the strength that she found in herself to do these things. That this had given her a lot of self confidence and that in turn really helped our relationship. I said that I supposed there were moments of jealousy, but that they were short lived because I had no fears that Katie would be going home with anyone but me. And that realization turned any jealousy into pride and thankfulness for having such a wonderful wife.

I should have seen it coming, but when Katie came back with the drinks she was as naked as the day she was born. Larry just got this grin on his face that I knew would take awhile to wipe off while Sharon just let out a brief "Oh, my!" as she first saw Katie but accepted her drink when Katie handed it to her.

Katie had said that she would have felt uncomfortable just standing up and taking off her dress in front of them. But it had almost been an invitation for her to do so. After handing everyone their drinks, she curled up in her armchair with her own drink. She made no attempt to cover herself, but sat with her knees to one side and her calves curled back against her thighs. With clothing, it would have looked completely natural and to tell the truth her nudity did not necessarily make it seem unnatural. She was neither making any special attempt to exhibit herself, nor was she making any effort to conceal herself. It is what I like best about her, that she can be completely naked and make it seem like it is the most natural thing.

I think that her disposition set them both at ease, because we all just found ourselves drifting back into normal conversation. What needed to be said had been said, the questions had been answered, and Katie's nudity finalized the discussion. She looked incredible. Her hair and makeup still perfect from the evening. Her pubes carefully trimmed. I did notice that her nipples were quite erect, showing that her nudity was at least having some effect on her. As our conversation ebbed and flowed, Katie gave no special consideration to her nudity. She did not attempt to cover her breasts with her arms as she sat. Although she did not sit for any length of time with her legs spread open, she repositioned herself several times as she sat to stay comfortable and made no attempt to cover her pussy when it was exposed. Everyone had ample opportunity to see her charms if she moved in such a way that it was exposed. Along with her erect nipples, the way that her nether lips parted told me that she was at least somewhat wet.

We all talked for quite some time. But the reality of Katie's nudity never came up in conversation. In a way, it was amazing at how easily Larry and Sharon just seemed to accept it all.

Finally, well past midnight Larry said that they had best be on their way.

It had become obvious that although everyone was comfortable with Katie's nudity it was not meant to be that it progressed any further that evening. Katie collected our glasses and headed to the kitchen with them and I think all three of us stopped just to watch her little butt wiggle along its way. When she returned, we all exchanged our usual hugs.

Katie went to hug Sharon first and I caught Sharon's slight hesitation before putting her arms around Katie. She put her hands at Katie's sides, low enough to miss her breasts. Then as Katie wrapped her arms around Sharon, she relaxed a bit and let her hands slide around Katie's back to hold her more fully.

Katie asked if anything was wrong and Sharon replied that it was the first time she had hugged a naked woman.

"Just wait until we are both naked!" was Katie's reply and they both laughed.

Katie drew away and tilting her head to Larry, asked Sharon if she minded. Sharon said no, of course not, so Katie plastered herself against Larry as he wrapped her in his arms.

After a moment's look, Sharon came into my arms as we exchanged our hugs.

"Guess you lose out a bit tonight," she said in my ear.

"Well, maybe next time," was my reply.

Looking over Sharon's shoulder, I saw Larry's hands drift a bit lower to caress Katie's butt as he held her.

We all separated and walked Larry and Sharon to the door. Katie hit the lightswitch, turning the interior lights off as I opened the door for them.

"Shouldn't get the neighbors worked up too much," she said as she walked with the rest of us out into the dark of the front porch.

Without the lights on in the house, she was pretty safe from any of the neighbors seeing anything. Still, it surprised me a bit that she was being so bold as to go out on our front porch totally naked.

As I shook Larry's hand, he said we'd have to get together again soon and Sharon agreed.

They walked out to their car and Larry opened Sharon's door for her and closed it once she was in. He walked around to his side and got in and started the car. As he backed out into the street, he flipped the headlights on and they washed across both of us.

Katie did not even flinch as we stood and waved good-bye to them. We were only in the light for a few seconds, but if any of the neighbors had been attracted by the sound of our voices and happened to look at their window to see what was going on, they would have been treated to quite a sight of Katie standing butt naked outside enthusiastically waving her good-byes!

As their car pulled out of sight, we turned and headed back indoors. It had been quite a night. I locked the door and followed Katie into the bedroom. She slid between the covers of the bed and I quickly removed my own clothes and followed her under the covers as well.

"So, where do you think all of this will take us?" I asked.

"We will just have to see," was her reply as she slipped into my arms.