I had the odd fantasy of sharing the wide bed with an extra person, male or female whatever Elaine would prefer. However the nearest we came to a thre...some was when the large dog at the end of the duvet stretched its long legs, or lay on top of us, feeling deprived of attention, or was jealous of the attention I was paying to its mistress. I had been practicing my tantric meditation and breathing from Mantak Chias book on cultivating male sexual energy, gradually extending my time and rhythm. ‘What for … Who … Why? Just why. It seems so excessive.’ ‘I agree. It is excessive.’ He said. ‘But that’s what my hotels offer, they offer a very excessive experience for some very excessive guests, so I need my girls to be prepared. The best part is; I don’t only receive biofeedback, I can also send parameters of operation, for instance if I wanted to help you feel less nervous and insecure right now, I’d...’ He bent over his phone and tapped his fingers around. ‘There, how does that feel?’. Mr Standfast sipped his wine, invoked his absent God, and held on to his heart. I saw my competitor. I looked carefully: I am what they call a good noticer. And I saw many things. I saw a beautiful young woman, fine-boned and delicate. I saw her vulnerability. And I saw something else. Call it grace, call it dignity, or even humility. Many years ago, I had seen an old Aikido master demonstrate his moves, swifter and more agile than many of the young men studying under him. I had always. It's probably true that where there are people in the throes of passion, there are pheromones that are released. It's probably a throwback to a time when we were still more closely related to our animal ancestors and needed such olfactory signals to indicate that we were ready to mate.Right now, I sense that scent in the darkened room where I and eleven other people are in various stages of passion. The large living room is lit by candles burning in discrete corners where their luminescence.