Cornelia Quick

The first chapter of “Lightning in a Bottle, Passion in the Stars” is available to all visitors; subsequent chapters will be available to free subscribers.

Becky and Judith had both been enthusiastic participants in Paul and Jeremy’s first orgone accumulator experiments, so it was only fair to invite them over for the inaugural run of their new, larger accumulator. This one was fashioned out of an old wardrobe, wrapped in wool and silk fabric and lined with sheets of steel and tin that Jeremy had fashioned from scores of discarded coffee and soup cans, carefully buffed with steel wool, hammered flat, and riveted together. A pair of copper tubes about four inches around protruded from the side, with strands of cloth-covered wire wrapped around them. It took him weeks to construct after they moved into their apartment just off the College of St. Anthony campus, to the point that Paul was worried the girls would forget all about them before it was finished.

“I don’t think you need to worry,” Jeremy had said with a laugh when Paul raised his concerns about the slow progress on the new accumulator and suggested that maybe they should pause work for a bout with one of the old ones. “We were hardly getting two or three Egely units on those little boxes, no matter how hard we fucked, so I’m pretty sure they weren’t staying for the orgone. I think they were staying for your cock.”

Paul had blushed at that; Jeremy was usually so deeply focused on his work — whether it was in the college lab running experiments with biological electricity, or in the apartment building a bigger, better accumulator — that it always shocked Paul when Jeremy was so blunt about sexual matters. He also felt a twinge of desire: when they were with Becky, things got intense and wild, and hands roamed freely, stroking hips and caressing buttocks; but alone, without Becky as a bridge for their passion, Paul and Jeremy never touched, and sometimes Paul felt a bottomless ache in his belly for Jeremy’s embrace.

The moment Jeremy had the accumulator assembled, he had invited Paul to climb into it. It had a little black stool inside the steel-and-tin chamber, and Paul sat on it with his knees tucked up almost to his chin in the cramped space. Jeremy closed the door, leaving Paul in total darkness.

“What do you feel?” Jeremy asked from outside the tiny chamber.

Paul closed his eyes despite the darkness, and reached out his hands to the edges of the confined space. His hands brushed the cool, ridged metal of the chamber’s lining, and he strained his ears for any extraordinary sounds. There were none.

“I feel a little claustrophobic,” Paul said.

“No tingles?”

“Not especially?”

“Damn it.” Jeremy yanked the door open, flooding the space with light; Paul blinked at the sudden brightness. “I jerked off by the intake pipe for half an hour. It should have registered something.”

Paul’s cock twitched at the thought of Jeremy stroking his foreskin up and down the hard shaft of his penis, the head shiny and slick, his stomach taut and breath fast and shallow. Twice now he had touched Jeremy’s penis — once when guiding it into Judith while she lay across an accumulator Jeremy had fashioned into an ottoman, and once while the four of them lay tangled in Paul’s bed, slick with sweat and sated from fucking.

“Maybe it needs more than one orgone source,” Paul suggested. “I mean, it’s pretty big …” And so are you, Paul thought, but didn’t say.

And so the plan for an inaugural run with Jeremy’s new orgone collector was hatched.

The girls arrived promptly at seven, giggling and blushing outside the apartment door. Paul ushered them in and took their coats while Jeremy mixed drinks. The rye whiskey for the Manhattans meant scaling back to peanut butter and jelly for a week on their stingy student wages, but both agreed that this night called for something fancier than the cheap vodka and beer they usually kept in the fridge.

“So this is your new contraption,” Becky said, walking around the accumulator with a lowball in her delicate hand. She was a tiny thing, with her blonde hair in curls on her shoulders and a wasp-like waist inside her black pencil skirt. But she was a wild thing, too, once that skirt came off, and Jeremy felt his cock thicken at the sight of her admiring his accumulator.

“My best one yet,” Jeremy said, pulling aside the wool and silk curtains draped over the wardrobe to reveal its wooden door. He tugged it open and pulled a chain dangling from the ceiling of the little chamber inside, turning on a bare, dim bulb. “It took me a week to prepare the metal skin for the walls. Would you like to step inside?”

Becky handed Jeremy her drink, and let him guide her onto the stool. She smoothed her skirt over her knees and looked around at the metal lining the walls, still showing the ridges of the cans it had once been, but buffed to a faintly reflective shine. Her knees almost touch the wall in front of the stool, and she had to tilt her head down to avoid brushing the bulb with her hair.

“So, we’re supposed to screw in this?” she asked. “There’s barely room for one, I don’t see how all four of us are going to get in it!”

“No, silly,” said Judith. She stood behind Jeremy with her hand on his shoulder and her lips close to his ear. Judith was taller than Becky, with straight black hair that hung just past her shoulders when she let it down, though she usually wore it tied back in a loose ponytail. “We screw outside, and the origami or whatever flows into the tube and fills up the box. Weren’t you paying attention when Jeremy explained it?”

“I must have been distracted,” Becky said with a grin. “It’s hard to hear when there’s a fine bit of man in your mouth.”

“You’re so cute when you’re so wrong,” Paul said, approaching Judith from behind. He put his arms around her waist and nuzzled against her neck, catching the hint of cinnamon and roses in her perfume — “Danger by Ciro,” she had told him last time she visited, while she lay curled in his arms after getting Jeremy’s Egely gauge to jump above three and a half with a toe-curling climax. “It’s orgone, not origami, and it gets collected by the silk and wool curtains.”

“So what’s the tube for, wise guy?” Judith asked, turning her head so he could kiss her. He ran his hands up under her fuzzy blue sweater, feeling her smooth belly tighten under his touch.

“All of you are wrong,” Jeremy said, turning to face Judith and join Paul in kissing the other side of her face. Judith sighed and wiggled between them. “The orgone is attracted to the organic materials wrapping the accumulator, and will be slowly absorbed into the space behind the metal sheeting. The pipes help to accelerate the process and make the orgone more dense — they’re my own innovation.”

“I like an innovative man,” Judith said, putting one arm around Jeremy’s neck and the other around Paul’s. “You both are so full of fascinating ideas, I could listen to you talk all evening; but maybe we should move the discussion along to generating some of that origami stuff?”

“Hey, give a gal a hand here!” Becky called from inside the accumulator. “This stool’s wobbly and I don’t want to twist an ankle before the fun gets going!”

Jeremy laughed and broke off his embrace with Judith. He bent down to lift Judith off the stool, and with one hand on her back and the other on her buttocks carried her to the bed that was set up next to the accumulator while she pulled his face down for a long, deep kiss.

Jeremy kept an eye on the Egely gauge while riding Becky; the little mark on its wheel-shaped face crept slowly up and slid back down, ratcheting slowly as he fucked her with long, steady strokes. He looked down at her face, contorted in beautiful ecstasy: her eyes were closed tightly, her mouth twisted in exquisite agony, her face flushed pink. She had her arms thrown above her head so they dangled over the edge of the bed, and her legs wrapped around his waist, her bare heels resting on his ass and drumming against him with each thrust.

Beside him, Paul lay flat on his back, head propped on a pillow, fondling Judith’s high, proud breasts while she rode his cock. She smiled down at him with a wicked grin, her black hair hanging into her eyes, palms pressed into his hips to give herself leverage to ride him high and hard. Her grunts and groans seemed to make the Egely gauge dance as it measured the tingling, prickling energy rising from their tangled passion.

Jeremy felt extremely grateful to Paul for bringing these two eager libertines into their lives — he was almost comically bad at chatting with girls, and he would have been entirely unable to make the progress he had made so far with the accumulator without their help. Paul had met Becky first, in the college refectory, when she was taking a late lunch and he was half-heartedly putting in the time wiping down tables and bussing dishes that kept his stipend coming each month. They had hit it off almost immediately, and she quickly made it clear that she wasn’t like most of co-eds on campus who were looking to turn a steady beau into a husband: Becky had left the farm, where she was one of a half dozen children, and come to the relatively large northern town of Wasconaway as much to find fun as a job. Falling in with a science student obsessed with the obscure theories of Wilhelm Reich and his roommate for strange experiments in sensuality was just the kind of thing she was looking to experience.

Judith had come along with Becky one evening, curious about who her friend was spending so much time with; this was when Jeremy and Paul were still living in the college halls, and Jeremy was still making do with accumulators made of coffee cans and tea towels that could hold barely one Egely unit of orgone, hardly enough to feel a tingle. She was a little shy at first, content to cuddle with Jeremy while Paul took Becky behind the wood and paper Japanese screen that they used to separate the beds from the rest of their small room, but she became gradually bolder by steps until she was as wanton and sensuous as Becky.

The tick-tick-tick of Egely gauge told him that someone was approaching climax. He appreciated the mechanical gauge for its objectivity and simplicity: reading the subtle hints and coy cues of a woman, even a woman as liberated as Becky or Judith, made him nervous and uncertain. With four people on the bed and the gauge’s needle ticking higher than normal, it was still a challenge to interpret the readings, but the general direction was clear: the orgone was striking the curtains and being excited by the copper and wire tubing, and orgasm was imminent for at least one of the participants in their studious orgy.

To Jeremy’s surprise, it was Judith who threw her head back and let out a mighty roar as a climax shook her body. Usually she was slower to reach the pinnacle, especially if she was riding: she liked to be in charge, and would typically hold back her own climax until she had fully vanquished her partner. Jeremy loved being defeated by her, relishing his surrender beneath Judith’s hips and her subsequent cry of victory.

When Judith had finished shaking, she collapsed onto Paul’s chest, her breasts pressed into him and her hair covering his face. Paul ran his hands up and down her back, which glistened with sweat in the dim light. Jeremy squinted at the gauge and let out a cry of his own when he saw the reading.

“Six!” he yelled. “Six on the Egely gauge! Good god, that’s the best reading we’ve ever seen.”

Judith turned her head and looked at Jeremy with an exhausted grin.

“I did good?” she asked.

“You did fucking amazing,” Jeremy said. He suddenly sat up, his cock springing free from Becky, and said, “Judith, get in the accumulator, now!”

“What?” she said. “No, I need a rest, I’m all worn out and sweaty …”

“Now!” Jeremy repeated. “I need someone inside while the rest of us try to push it past seven — I need you to report on your sensations.”

“My sensations,” Judith said with a sigh, “are that Paul has absolutely worn me out and I need another cocktail to rev me up.”

“I’ll get you all the cocktails you can drink if we can get the reading past seven,” Jeremy said, sliding off the bed and hurrying around to the other side so he could tug Judith off Paul. “But we need to hurry — please!“

With a groan, Judith rolled off Paul, letting his cock spring free. Paul laughed and stroked her leg.

“Better do what he says,” Paul said, “or he’ll be grumpy for the rest of the week. I can’t stand when he’s grumpy.”

“I’m going to be grumpy, too,” Judith muttered, turning so her feet rested on the floor. “Can’t a girl enjoy a little afterglow?”

“You’ll get an afterglow like you’ve only dreamed of inside the accumulator,” Jeremy said, helping Judtih stand. “But hurry, it’s already falling to five and a half!”

Judith leaned on Jeremy’s shoulder as he led her to the accumulator door, and he gave her a long, passionate kiss as he settled her onto the stool. Judith reached out to give his cock a quick and playful stroke, and then Jeremy closed the door and let the silk and wool curtains fall across it.

When he got back to the bed, Becky had already mounted Paul’s cock, face toward his feet, and was riding him with long, steady strokes. She smiled at him, brushing her blonde curls out of her eyes, and said, “I wasn’t done and neither was Paul.”

“Nor am I,” Jeremy said, kneeling between Paul’s feet and leaning in to give Becky a kiss. Her tongue snaked out of her mouth and explored his teeth and lips, and he wrapped his fingers in her thick, lustrous hair.

While Becky fucked herself up and down on Paul’s cock, Jeremy reached his hand between her legs and found her sensitive button, positioned over Paul’s shaft. He circled the sensitive protuberance with his fingers, sometimes slipping down a bit so they brushed Paul’s cock, and nuzzled her neck. Becky threw her arms around Jeremy’s neck, leaned her lithe little body into his, and let out a long, high-pitched wail. Her body trembled as she came, and Jeremy glanced at the Egely gauge without pausing the work of his fingers: it was well past six and a half and flirting with seven, shaking in its housing in time with Becky’s tremors.

Becky fell on her side, gasping for breath, leaving Paul’s cock exposed, pointing toward the ceiling and glistening with her nectar. Jeremy watched in horror as the gauge stopped shaking and started to ratchet back down, coming to rest at six and a half. With an annoyed groan, Jeremy wrapped his hand around Paul’s cock and began to stroke.

Paul let out a gasp, but Jeremy didn’t look down: his eyes were fixed on the Egely gauge. Its needle had paused its slow descent, and was ticking back up now. Paul’s cock twitched in his hand, and Jeremy grasped his testicles with his other hand and gently fondled them.

“You’re pretty good at that,” Becky said.

Jeremy looked away from the gauge, and saw Becky with an elbow on Paul’s chest, head resting on her palm, grinning at him through her sweaty curls. She licked her lips and slid along Paul’s torso so she could observe Jeremy’s hand on Paul’s shaft more closely.

“You’ve got a good grip,” Becky said, “and nice elbow motion. Do you two do this often? You can tell me, I’m not a prude, I think it’s … arousing … when men can be intimate together.”

“No,” Jeremy said, “this is the first time. But I’ve done this to myself plenty of times, I suppose the skills carry over.”

“They’re carrying over really nicely,” Becky said. “Don’t you think so, Paul?”

Paul answered with a sigh, lifting his hips off the bed. Becky giggled and swung a leg over Paul’s chest, then slid up his body so her pussy hovered above Paul’s face. Jeremy imagined that he must be breathing in the heady aroma of her musky arousal, the rich, warm scent of her orgasmic juices drying on her delicate flesh. His own cock twitched.

“You’ve got your hands full there,” Becky said as she settled her pussy onto Paul’s mouth. Paul reached up and wrapped his arms around her ass, pulling her tight and making Becky sigh as his tongue began to explore her folds. “Let me help you out.”

And before Jeremy could respond, she stretched her neck and pulled his cock into her warm, willing mouth. Jeremy gasped and pushed his hips forward, continuing to stroke Paul’s shaft and fondle his balls as Becky’s lips and tongue worked absolute magic around his cock.

The three of them fell into an easy, steady rhythm. Jeremy could hear Paul slurping as he devoured Becky’s pussy, and he imagined her juices running down his face. Becky moved back and forth above Paul, sucking Jeremy’s cock with gusto, her tongue circling the glans and licking the clear liquid that dribbled from the slit at the tip. And Jeremy pulled at Paul’s cock in long, steady strokes, his other hand holding his heavy testicles tight to his palm. Jeremy kept his eyes on the Egely gauge, and almost let out a gleeful shout when it cleared seven units and moved steadily toward eight.

Becky’s movements became erratic, her sucking chaotic. She moaned around Jeremy’s cock, making his shaft vibrate. Suddenly she let out a moan, falling forward and taking Jeremy’s cock deep into her throat while her hips spasmed above Paul’s face. Jeremy pushed his hips forward until Becky’s nose dug into his groin, and he let loose with a wild whoop as his seed exploded into her mouth. He wrapped both hands around Paul’s shaft and pulled until Paul roared into Becky’s pussy and let an explosive blast of semen erupt against Becky’s chest and dribble down Jeremy’s hand. As he fell back, Jeremy saw the Egely gauge shoot past eight and flirt with nine, by far the highest reading he had ever seen.

“Oh god oh god oh god!” came a roaring cry from inside the accumulator, loud despite being muffled behind the wooden door and under the wool and silk curtains.

Jeremy reluctantly pulled away from Becky and Paul; Becky collapsed against Paul and trembled. Jeremy hurried to the accumulator, threw back the current, and yanked the door open.

Judith toppled out of the little chamber and into Jeremy’s arm, trembling almost as hard as Becky. Her hair was disheveled, damp strands stuck to her cheeks and forehead, and her eyes were bright and wild.

“Oh god,” she repeated, throwing her arms around Jeremy’s neck and pulling him with her to the floor. He cradled her body against his, feeling her feverish warmth against his chest. “Oh god, Jeremy, that’s … that’s amazing …”

Jeremy offered to walk the girls back to their boarding house, but Becky waved him off.

“Mrs. Magillicuddy won’t even let a tomcat onto her porch, much less an actual man,” she said with a laugh as she ran her hands down the front of her skirt. “I don’t want her to brain you with one of her cast iron skillets; that head of yours is too valuable.”

She stood on her tiptoes to give him a peck on the cheek, and then turned to smooch Paul, adding a playful squeeze of his buttocks. Judith leaned against her, still a little dazed from her time in the accumulator, and waved goodbye with her fingertips as Becky led her to the door and out into the night.

“Almost nine,” Jeremy said, softly, half to himself. “We almost hit nine on the Egely gauge — that’s almost twice what we got on the little boxes.”

“It’s a big box,” Paul said. He hadn’t bothered to get dressed after the frolic on the bed, and his cock was still half hard. “And it definitely took some exertions to push the needle.”

“Judith said it was … hang on, let me find it.” Jeremy had a notebook in his hand, and had put his spectacles back on so he could peer through them at what he had written on the page. “She said, ‘I saw a million colors, colors that aren’t in this world, and I felt like my skin was being poked with thousands of tiny sharp needles. The needles poked faster and faster and faster and then I climaxed like I’ve never climaxed before.’ And that was at eight, almost nine! Imagine if we could push it past ten, what would that be like?”

“Probably amazing,” Paul said from the bed beside the accumulator. He was stretched out on the tangled sheets, arms behind his head and cock resting against his belly. “It was pretty amazing out here.”

“Oh, yeah?” said Jeremy. He crossed to the bed and sat down on the edge. “You liked that?”

“You know I did,” Paul said. “I … it was really …”

Jeremy slipped his briefs off and stretched out beside Paul, hip to hip. His cock glowed in the dim light, still shiny from Becky’s spit, and Paul reached out a hand to touch it, tentatively at first, then gradually more confidently when Jeremy didn’t pull away.

“I’ve made a lot of progress on the accumulator since we met Becky and Judith,” Jeremy said, looking up at the ceiling as Paul ran his fingers up and down the length of his shaft. “And I certainly wouldn’t have met them on my own.”

“So you value me for procuring ladies for your nefarious experiments?” Paul asked.

“Yes, of course,” said Jeremy, “but not just for that. You’ve helped me get materials, too, and listened to my ideas, and offered suggestions. Your questions have helped clarify my thinking …”

Jeremy’s thinking was not especially clear, however, when Paul’s fingers tightened around his shaft and slipped the foreskin from his glans. He groaned and reached for Paul’s cock, brushing his fingertips across Paul’s belly before he encountered the shaft and began a steady, deliberate stroke of his own.

“So I’m a helpful research assistant?” Paul said. “That’s my worth here?”

“No, no, not that at all,” Jeremy said. “You’re my best friend, my confidante, I couldn’t function without you. You … you make me whole …”

“That’s more like it,” Paul said, increasing the pace of his stroking of Jeremy’s cock. Jeremy responded in kind.

“But … eight and a half, almost nine? That’s amazing.”

“It is,” Paul said, turning onto his side and nuzzling against Jeremy’s neck. Jeremy turned his face toward Paul and their lips connected, tentatively at first and then passionately.

“Tell me what you like,” Paul whispered, pushing back the hair from Jeremy’s eyes.

“Hard,” Jeremy said. “Hard and insistent. I want to see the gauge get past six again today.”