You have thirty days to sleep with twenty people before the changesbecome permanent." I didn't know what to think. I laughed."You're kidding, right? I...mean, you know how ridiculous that sounds?" Do you think I'm kidding about it?" Now I could tell she wasn't. Shehardly ever lost her temper like this. "You think I'm pleased that myhusband sleeps with some bitch and now the only way my life can get backto normal is if he sleeps with twenty more people? Yes, it's what Ialways wanted!" Why did you. My folks had enough on their plates to really worry about me and what I did with my time. As long as my grades didn’t slip and my teachers put in a good word for me during the PTA meetings, they didn’t have any reason to worry. My close encounters with my neighbors continued during the coming few months. Though sporadic, we were becoming a real close family. Somewhere in the back of their minds they must realize that I was too young to go/take all the way and yet if it felt so good, It couldn’t. Not that their sex life before was bad, but this was another level. He didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but the lack of any apparent reason for the uptick puzzled him.Mike had never conceptualized it, but inside him, there was a wall. A wall of love. The stones in the wall were strong, but what was even more essential—the mortar that held them together—was trust.Behind the wall lurked demons. Barbarians. They had tribes: jealousy, suspicion, fear, insecurity. They'd harried him. Once they understood that A’d have none of it, they behaved as gentlemen soon enough… All men are dugs, boot with a wee bit of training and some gentle persuasion, most can become guid an’ loyal dugs.”Kate threw out a long, almost seductive look, her eyes once again penetrated through me, then they looked me up and down again; this time with boldness that begged me to notice;“Ah prefer dugs of the four-legged type, loyalty is then guaranteed. Old Shamus is.