They warned me they always hunt as a pair.

"Share their girl friends, Nary said, turning her nose up. "I think it's awful. Go out with one of them and the other one cuts in sooner or later and then you find he knows everything about you."

Kirstie chuckled. "Saves an awful lot of time though," she added reminiscently. I looked from one to the other. "What did you say their names were?"

"Ray Doyle and Bodie. Just Bodie," Mary grinned. "If you want to get him really pissed off with you, call him Willie."

Ruth Pettifer strolled over and put her oar in. "Or Bill or Andy or Phil...'

"Why any of them?" I asked plaintively, not understanding a word of all this.

"They're all his names," Nary explained. "He just hates all of them. Everyone calls him Bodie."

"I see. And what are these two male chauvinist pigs like?"

Kirstie looked almost shocked at the term. "Beautiful!"

"Beautiful?" I laughed, I couldn't help it. It sounded totally ludicrous.

"Beeyootiful." Ruth agreed, screwing her face up.

"Well, Bodie is," Mary said slowly. "Ray's ugly."

There was a positive chorus from all round the room. Opinion it seemed was sharply divided on the topic of Ray Doyle's looks. I decided to reserve judgement for myself - about both of them.

I hadn't long to wait. One look when they arrived in Records was enough to tell me who they were - one so good looking, classically so almost, only the oddity of the eyebrows lending the face an idiosyncratic reality, the other... well, who can describe Ray Doyle without going over the top? Taken feature by feature each bit of him is superb, add then all together and you come up with a total contradiction: one minute he's really ugly, the next like same sort of creature out of a fantasy with only one thing certain about him - you can't take your eyes off him.

And is he ever conscious of it! Or maybe not. never really know. He poses as if there's always a camera handy recording his every move and yet at the same time he seems completely unselfconscious of the effect he's having.

I never have really understood Ray.

Bodie's easier, once you penetrate that hard-man exterior Bodie's a softie, a cute little boy who needs a mother -- he'd hate to hear you say it and would reject the idea uproariously but it's true.

And he's got his security too, only no one would ever believe me if I told them.

The oddest solution - but it works.

It was Bodie who approached me first, his manner absolutely perfect - devil that he is. He knew I'd have been told all sorts of things about him, been given all kinds of warnings and I hope I give a good enough impression of self-sufficiency (Lord knows I work hard enough at it) for anyone to see I'm no pushover; not one to swoon simply because a man deigns to pay some attention to me.

There's more than a touch of arrogance about Bodie, a certain swagger to the walk and curl of the lip, but he'd dropped all of that when he approached me. For one thing it wasn't a standard offer of dinner with its cosy implication of 'and afterwards back at my place' - he'd actually taken the trouble to discover I'm a tennis fanatic (not that difficult really, it usually dawns on people within the first ten minutes of making my acquaintance) and had got tickets for the men's doubles tournament at the Albert Hall. God knows how, they were like gold dust for semi-finals day.

For another he wore a most disarming air of diffidence when he asked me to go with him, and no, I didn't precisely forget that all C15 agents have to be good actors but somehow, even knowing that, it didn't make the way he looked and sounded any less natural.

And he got me to agree to provide a picnic meal!

Small wonder he's one of Cowley's top men. He uses his charm to perfect effect.

It was a good day and I enjoyed every minute of it, particularly when I found that he's really knowledgeable about tennis and plays from time to time. From the little grin he gave me I rather gathered it depended on how keen the current girl-friend was.

My biggest surprise of the day was the fact that although he accepted the offer of coffee with alacrity, he didn't automatically assume that a bed for the night went along with the offer.

A perfect gentleman. What a surprise.

Even more perfect in that he made it quite obvious it wasn't because he didn't fancy me so I didn't feel at all piqued as I let him out because I knew that just one little signal on my part would make him turn back and stay with me, but the lure of future promise for some reason looked much more attractive than instant gratification.

I still don't know how he did that and I've gone over and over that day in my mind.

We had a couple more dates and it wasn't until the last of those that we finally went to bed together.

Wow!

And he was such good company: we found we had the same mildly black sense of humour too, which made things even better. There's nothing more deadening than being asked what you mean when you've made a joke. Bodie was on the ball every time.

A week to the day after I'd first gone out with Bodie, Ray asked me out with him.

He's nowhere near as subtle as Bodie and he exudes sexuality as naturally as breathing. I'll bet he was a right horror as a kid and had all the female teachers falling over them selves to make allowances for the little beast. I've heard my mum talk about kids like that she's taught in Primary Schools all her life and what she doesn't know about the young isn't worth hearing.

I fell for it.

Right away too. Even while I knew it was the way he behaved with 80% of the female population and that he was probably equally ruthless about dropping them when he'd had enough.

It's funny, thinking about it all. In abstract those two sum up just about everything In the male animal that irritates the hell out of me but at the time I didn't care. I still don't, either. They've become jolly good friends of mine now and with all their faults I'm very, very fond of them both.

I went out with Ray: I'd be an awful fool not to, I reasoned. It seemed fairly obvious they'd already talked about me so I couldn't be accused of doing anything behind Bodie's back. Besides, there was something about the pair of them that fascinated me and I couldn't quite, pin it down.

Ray's not a bit like Bodie. They're both old fashioned in some ways although neither of them make you feel you're no good because you're a woman, but Bodie can be a terrific prude in public, which is rather funny when you think what he can be like in private, while Ray hasn't an ounce of shame most of the time. He seems a lot more open, less inclined to be reserved about himself than Bodie, but equally he seems a lot tougher at times. I wouldn't like to cross either of them though. They're a very determined pair.

But Ray was just as much of a gentleman on our first date and I was definitely puzzled by now because I knew he fancied me as well, and I wondered why he was holding back like Bodie had when he must have been told I was no shrinking violet.

But I wasn't going to throw myself at his head although to be honest, I'd been thinking along those lines ever since my first date with Bodie - only for some reason I didn't then and by this time I was really eaten up with curiosity as to what they were up to.

We did make it on our second date and he was just as devastating as Bodie, considerate and a great technique. A couple of time he started to say something about Bodie and then stopped himself, looking at me out of the corner of his eye. I wondered why at the time.

Sometimes you can be so bloody dim.

But then, while I'd heard all about the permissive society I'd never met up with it. It always intrigued me, only when I looked round my circle of friends and tried to' picture them actually involved in any of these things - then at that point the whole thing became totally ludicrous.

So when they both dated me together, inviting me to a slap-up meal at Ray's flat I accepted, thinking it might be fun and never expecting the bombshell they were going to throw at me along with the benedictine. - - "A threesome?" - -

My lips felt numb and my mouth had gone quite dry. I stared first at Bodie and then at Ray and decided I hadn't heard what I'd thought I'd heard.

They exchanged a quick, flicking look, so fast I couldn't read it and then Ray said, "Only if you're quite sure about it of course."

"You mean.., the two of you..."

"Yeah." Bodie's smile was devastating at the best of times, now he'd really pulled out all the stops.

"Both at once?"

"That was the general idea," Ray agreed.

They'd trapped me on the sofa, sitting one each side of me but they weren't crowding me just yet and I didn't feel particularly threatened and (if I'm honest) I was more than intrigued by the idea.

Singly they'd been fantastic: together... I was already turned on.

So was Ray. I could see it in the set of his mouth, the slight heaviness of his eyelids. I looked at Bodie and found his gaze just slipping from his partner to me and his smile grew even more blinding as our eyes met.

I defy any female creature of any age to meet that smile full on and stay completely unaffected.

"Well..." I said weakly.



We talked for quite a lot longer but I'm sure my eventual capitulation had been fairly obvious right from the start and that they were just giving me time to be absolutely sure I knew what I was doing.

Bodie cracked a few perfectly awful jokes and we fell about laughing not so much that what he said was really funny but because we were all three fairly tense even though it was a pleasant tension.

It's odd, but it wasn't until much later I realised this was a first time for them as well. - -

Eventually, just as I was beginning to-think we'd all chicken out after all, Ray said, "Come on, then, come here, my beautiful," pulled me into his arms and began kissing me down my cheek and neck.

I was already high on adrenalin and went into a wilted flower act in his arms just from those simple touches and seeing Bodie's eyes fixed on us in a hungry gaze turned me on so much I could hardly believe the effect it had on me.

In a little while, Bodie said, "My turn, Ray. don't be greedy," and made a move towards me.

Ray relinquished me readily enough but kept a hold of one arm, kissing up the inside of it and into the crook of my elbow while Bodie concentrated on my face and neck. - - -

Can you imagine it? Two expert mouths working over you! Four hands! If I'd ever thought one of them on his own had twice as many hands as he should, both of them together seemed to multiply the total geometrically.

It's small wonder I don't really remember getting my clothes off, though I do remember lying half on, half off the sofa watching those two removing their trousers as a kind of double act. I doubt if I'll ever forget it. Poetry in motion, it was.

They're very, different shapes. Ray's skinny and a lot more hairy than Bodie, but Bodie isn't fat. When you see him stripped you can see it's all muscle without having those bulging biceps that are so off-putting. He's gorgeous to look at and so is Ray.

We held a sort of mutual admiration meeting for a while, just looking at each other and then Bodie tipped his head towards the staircase and said, "Ray's got the biggest bloody bed you've ever seen..."

I led the way up closely followed by Ray with Bodie hard on his heels, and judging by the sudden squeak from behind me, I wasn't the only one who got goosed on the way up. I know we were all giggling by the tine we flopped out onto that incredible bed.

Bodie was right: short of the Great Bed of Ware in the V&A it was the biggest I'd ever seen.

I don't think anyone would ever describe me as diffident or shy at the best of times and with those two so completely at ease together as they are there were no moments of awkwardness even at first. They worked on me simultaneously, pinning me to the bed and sending me spinning sky high with pleasure and I just lay-:back and I happily forgot all those little precepts-about ladylike behaviour I'd had dinned into me in childhood.

I have the instincts of a whore, I discovered; I enjoyed behaving like a wanton. Particularly when I got such blatant encouragement.

And they were fantastic!

Looking back on it, the whole thing could have been a recipe for disaster, with anyone else it might well have degenerated into something I'd be ashamed of, but it never did. I can't explain it, I don't even try, I only know that it was right and beautiful and that I've never been tempted to repeat it in case the memory of perfection gets spoiled.

I've never told anyone either, can't bear the thought of prurient little minds peeking at what was so absolutely right for all three of us that night.

Pure physical description won't explain it; I could spend hours going into the mechanics and no one would be any the wiser about what really happened to all three of us that night.

They're both very uninhibited about love-making, neither of them being the kind of bloke who goes in just for the missionary position or the slam-bam, thank you ma'am kind of technique and I simply floated on a haze of sexual pleasure letting them do just as they wanted with my body. They explored every bit of me with painstaking thoroughness and whenever I had a hand free I was stroking and rubbing at bits of them as well.

It was easy to tell them apart-even by feel, Ray being so skinny and so much hairier. Bodie's the one with the ticklish bits though: it was fun seeing him lying back and squirming helplessly while Ray and I worked over him...

It was in the middle of that I first realised that Ray knew just where to tickle his partner for maximum effect -- and I'm so dim that even then I didn't begin to put two and two together for quite a while; I just happily followed his lead and helped him reduce Bodie to a wriggling, hysterical bundle. Lovely!

But I wonder what the neighbours thought?

I'm glad I was too busy to think of that at the time.

In the end I couldn't bear not to any more and I went down on Bodie, finding him just as good to taste as he was to feel. Ray stopped tickling him just in time or I'd have stood a good chance of being knocked out by a passing knee and I got down to it in earnest for a minute or two, but I didn't want him to go over the edge too quickly so after a while I paused for breath and lifted my head.

Bodie was holding Ray's hand. Very tightly. I could see white patches defining each knuckle.

Ray was sitting very close, obviously watching us, and as I looked up our eyes met and he smiled.

Mmm. I'd sell my body for that smile.

He quirked an eyebrow. "My turn?"

I grinned. "If you like."

My heart was racing like a two-stroke engine as I shifted over so that I could still hold onto Bodie while I nibbled at Ray.

After that we seemed to go into overdrive and I almost lost track of the various portions of male anatomy that vied for my attention until at last I was soaring into orgasm with Ray's arms around me, his hands and mouth on my breasts, and Bodie inside me.

He came a few moments after I did and we both regained coherency around the same time. He lifted his head off my shoulder and smiled, blindingly, tenderly, full of repletion and love.

I'd sell my soul for that smile.

Only it wasn't for me. - -

Perhaps I ought to have felt angry, rejected, used even, but I didn't.

I only felt a sort of awed wonder at seeing such naked love so tenderly revealed. I couldn't be angry with that much happiness, could only be glad I'd played some part in creating it.

I don't know what made me do it; I didn't think about it at all, I just reached up and back and got hold of Ray and pulled and tugged at him until he moved where he could get at Bodie.

And then I cuddled both of them while they kissed, wriggling until I could wrap my legs around Ray so he could get into me.

He came almost at once with a long, luxurious, sobbing moan that sent shivers all over my body.

"You're beautiful," I told them both, and I was crying.

Typically, it was Ray who got back to near-normality first, sitting up and eyeing me with a sort of defensive glare as if he expected me to start bawling them out.

I chuckled damply and wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, then pulled him back down on the other side of the bed from Bodie who was lying there with his head on my waist and the soppiest look on his face.

"You're lovers," I said, as matter of factly as I could.

"Yeah." Bodie's grin grew even more fatuous as he looked over at Ray. "Told you we couldn't fool this one."

Ray was looking a bit blank. "You don't mind?"

Surprisingly, I didn't. They were so right together they just melted me.

"No. Why didn't you tell me?"

"It's not something we advertise," Ray said ruefully. "Besides, we haven't exactly, got used to it ourselves yet. Came as a bit of a shock."

Well I'd already worked out they weren't precisely stereotype gays, what I didn't understand was why - if they were really in love with each other and it stuck out a mile that they were - they'd wanted to include me at all and I said so.

Bodie chuckled and stretched. "You explain that one, sunshine. You're the one with the golden tongue." - -

Ray shrugged and looked part defensive, part sheepish and wholly adorable.

"Whole thing took us by surprise," he said slowly. "Not the way either of us ever thought we'd swing." He paused. "Well - we've always had a lot of girl-friends, both of us..." Another pause.

"So now you want to share girls as well as everything else." I suggested.

"Yeah." His voice was a little bleak, a little shamefaced, and I melted all over again.

"Well, I'm here," I said cheerfully. "Let's have a coffee or something and then we can all share some more."

So we did.

We had a fantastic night and once they saw that I genuinely didn't mind they made love to each other as much as they did to me: I've never seen so much helpless love as those two gave each other and it utterly bowled me over. I know people just wouldn't understand if I said I felt privileged to be a part of it and know that I was helping to make their relationship work for then: it's why I've never tried to talk about this to anyone or explain it. I just know that I was a help to them both and that made me very happy.

Ridiculous! The whole thing. I ought to have hated them, felt used and insulted, shrieking my rage to the world and slinging mud in their faces.

But it wasn't like that.

They needed me - needed to show themselves and each other that they hadn't automatically acquired limp wrists and a lisp along with each other.

I'm glad I was there for them when they wanted me.

They've had other girls since then, I know, but I don't think they've often had another threesome - and the girls are getting rarer and rarer as the years go by, too Sometimes Ray will act sort of nostalgic and eye me wistfully when I'm round there but Bodie always heads him off before he can make any sort of open suggestion.

I think Bodie knows I fell in love with both of them, that I never could choose between the two of them - and he trusts me not to try.

In any case, they're complete in themselves and I'd only be kidding myself if I thought they were more than just fond of me. They treat me as a sort of combination big sister and girlfriend, even sometimes like a mother and I lap it all up. And Bodie takes me to watch tennis and buys me fattening food while Ray takes me dancing to counteract the effect... I'll bet he pretends I'm Bodie when we're dancing though... We all learned a lot about ourselves that night, enough to know we mustn't go back however much we're tempted to. We made friends and that matters. I hope we'll always stay friends.

-- THE END --