Acts of Infidelity - Mel and Chris

This is not like my other Acts of Infidelity stories. Though not my intention, I expect its content will shock, upset and maybe even offend some readers but I'm telling it exactly as it was told to me.

Melanie contacted me three months ago and asked whether I would be prepared to something that might help save her marriage. Describing herself as a housewife in her forties, she has been married for twenty-five years and has two children, both currently at University.

A year before she wrote to me, Melanie had an affair with the husband of one of her closest friends. It lasted only a few months but as you will see, did not end well.

She and her husband Chris have spent the previous nine months trying to restore enough trust to hold their relationship together.

For reasons you will also see, this has been very difficult but despite numerous setbacks including a over a month living apart, they have persevered and are once again living under the same roof.

Although things can never be the way they were before she cheated, the two appear to be reaching a tolerable way of living together. Both accept some responsibility for what happened, but Melanie takes the lion's share. She was the one who actually slept with someone else and did so many times. As a result, she believes she bears the greater burden of guilt so must make the most strenuous efforts to heal the wound she opened.

The publishing of her story online at her husband's insistence is part of this process as well as being an aspect of the way they intend to live their lives from now on. I will let Melanie's story explain this.

Apart from being the public confession of her infidelity and a statement of her sincere regret, both of them believe that having all the sordid details published for the world to see will be cathartic for their relationship.

It might also play a role in the type of future that, thanks to their counsellor, is already helping them find a way forward.

The words are mine and I have embellished some of the sex scenes for publication, but every event happened - the story is hers. Some of the names have been changed but, at her husband's insistence, all the places are real and most importantly, Melanie's name is real.

What happens to Melanie in this story happened to a woman called Melanie in real life.

It is possible that someone they know will read this story and recognise her. This risk is one of the reasons why its publication is such a key part of their new domestic contract. It is a risk Melanie says she is prepared to take to save her marriage to the man she now understands she really loves.

If writing an erotic story can help save a marriage, I can hardly refuse, can I?

***

It's so easy to let things get out of hand. All it takes is self-pity, an unexpected opportunity and a little alcohol to ease the way and before you know it, you're in a place you never expected to be with a life in front of you that you never expected to have.

Let's get the most important part out right at the beginning.

I first cheated on my husband Chris last year, just before midnight on Saturday 8th July 2017. At that moment and for the first time since my marriage, another man's erect penis entered my vagina and I ceased to be a faithful wife.

Over the next few months that same erect penis penetrated my body in many places, many more times but for what little it's worth, I have only had one lover outside my marriage.

But of course, that is one too many.

Let's make it equally clear that I have no reason to believe that my husband has ever cheated on me, before or since that night. Nothing Chris has done justifies my taking a lover and putting our marriage and family so selfishly at risk. I did it on my own.

Like virginity, fidelity can only be lost once. Once my body had once been penetrated by another man, I could never again be the honest, faithful wife I was before.

Whatever happens between Chris and me now, both he and I will always know that I'm a cheat.

I did not intend to do it when I left home with my daughter earlier that evening for her school's Leavers' Ball but when, four hours later a new and unfamiliar cock entered me, I was a full and willing participant as I was for the entire sixteen weeks of passionate affair that followed.

Had it not ended the way it did, the affair might still be going on.

By way of confession, penance and in the hope of saving what remains of my marriage, I asked Jenny to turn my selfishness and lack of judgement into a story so that the world can see what kind of wife I am.

But most importantly, I hope my husband will read it and understand my deep and sincere regret. I hope he will be able to forgive me in his heart the way he says he does with his words.

***

I've always been known as Mel. It's short for Melanie but I've never been called that, apart from when I was being told off! As a girl I was something of a tomboy and the name Mel just seemed to fit me better so it has stuck with me all my life.

A year after the events of this story take place, I am forty-eight years old. That's quite a confession for a woman to make but I promised I'd be as honest as possible in the hope that seeing the truth published will be more cathartic for my husband Chris and me, and that truth will be more erotic than fiction for my readers.

Until these events took place, I had a really nice life; I just didn't realise how lucky I was until I came close to losing it. I'm still not sure things can ever be the same again.

I live in a large, expensive house in a fashionable suburb of a city in the English Midlands. I'm married to Chris who is actually a few years older than me, although thanks to his slim, athletic build and despite his greying hair, he does not look it. We have both been into fitness for years and for a long time belonged to a local health club, but with Chris being away so much, his membership was hardly good value for money and we let it lapse.

My husband has a senior position in, shall we say the petrochemicals industry.

Unfortunately this means he often has to go abroad, sometimes for a week, sometimes a month or more. At the time this story takes place, he was supervising a large construction project in a Middle Eastern country and was working there for three weeks out of every four.

The drawbacks of this lifestyle are obvious. Separation, loneliness and of course, frustration for both of us.

The rewards are equally obvious; he earns a great deal of money, most of it tax-free. More than enough for me not to have to work and to have a lifestyle most women would dream of.

When Chris was at home, we had a very active sex life indeed. Regular periods of absence made both the heart and the libido grow stronger so when we were in the same house together (and when privacy permitted) it was rare to go more than a day without making love.

Chris has a large cock and is a good, thoughtful lover though after so many years of marriage, neither of us could surprise the other in bed.

Until it all happened of course.

We have two good-looking children; let's call them Hannah and Katie. Both went to private school and are currently at University. When these events took place Katie, my younger child was still living at home so for years I had been unable to visit or stay with Chris when he was away, as some of the other company wives did.

Anyway, he was often sent to places that weren't safe for me to go.

Even before University, our children were fairly independent and went out with their friends a lot. I had plenty of time to spend as I would like -- usually at my part-time, voluntary job, seeing my friends, in the gym or, as the movie would have it, just being 'home alone'.

For the benefit of male readers (I know you want to know), I'd better tell you a bit about me physically.

I'm quite tall for a woman and am usually blonde, especially after I've been to the hairdresser. That's another confession for the list. I'm quite slim and visit the gym at least five times a week, preferring classes to simply running on treadmills or lifting weights.

I keep assuring myself I'm not an exercise addict; my figure is slim rather than skinny and I do have womanly curves, as the celebrity magazines put it. My boobs are and always have been quite small -- indeed until I had children I didn't need to wear a bra.

Sadly all that that has changed now.

Oh yes, as a result of a drunken evening on holiday in Bangkok with my husband ten few years ago, I also have a small tattoo of a butterfly on my lower belly, on the right-hand side, just below the panty line where my knickers or bikini bottoms usually cover it. Chris has the mirror image of it in a similar place on his left-hand side so when we make love in the missionary position, the two small butterflies press together to form one large butterfly.

Romantic isn't it? Well we thought so at the time.

Up to last year our marriage had been a happy one though Chris' latest promotion and the resulting increase in his absence from home were putting a strain on our relationship.

In the months before I first cheated, Chris had been away for all but a handful of weeks. His project had run into both geological and political difficulties which only someone as senior as him could hope to resolve. I had therefore been on my own for most of the year. I was not pleased about this.

I had been forced to go through Hannah's A-Level exams and the trauma of University entrance without his support two years ago and had just gone through the same with Katie. The other Mums were a big help but parents get very competitive when it comes to their children's achievements so there was a limit to the support I could expect from them.

There was also the bedroom problem. Chris and I had always enjoyed an active and adventurous sex life. Though by no means the twice-nightly rabbits we had been in our early years together, it was still rare for a week to pass when we did not make love at least a couple of times.

Over the years we had experimented with positions, role-playing and fantasies with some success. Katie had actually been conceived while I was fantasising about being fucked by one of our close friends, though not the one who eventually did have the honour of being my only real adulterous lover.

Our libidos were still quite high for a couple married as long as we had been so when Chris was away, sexual frustration could often be added to the list of issues being a single Mum involved. When it became really bad, I resorted to the small collection of toys that I kept along with Chris' favourite sexy lingerie in an old but firmly locked suitcase in the back of my walk-in closet.

They are still there!

I had to choose my moments of private stimulation carefully. The noise of a vibrator is very distinctive even if muffled, as I have heard many times coming from through the walls of my daughters' bedrooms over the years. As I also know well, the sounds of them being fucked by their boyfriends is even more distinctive. Thank God their father hasn't had the privilege of hearing that yet.

But back to my confession.

During therapy after it had all gone wrong, the relationship counsellor told Chris and me that nearly a third of all British women between twenty and thirty-five have cheated on their husbands or boyfriends at least once. Most of those infidelities are never discovered and the women go on to have normal relationships with their original husbands or partners.

I was a little late in joining them in the role of cheating wife. It remains to be seen whether I'm going to have a normal marriage ever again; the jury is still very much out on that. This story is part of the process Chris and I are going through to try and restore some trust.

The man I had my affair with is called Neil. I'd better tell you about him.

Every married woman has a Neil in their lives. I don't mean the man she is unfaithful with, I mean the man she feels she might like to be unfaithful with if she ever was but knows she never would. Female readers will know what I mean.

The Neil in every woman's life is often someone at work. With the perversity of women's minds, it is often either her Boss or someone significantly below her in the hierarchy such as a good-looking young courier or a creative artist.

If there are no good options at work, the role is often taken by the husband or partner of a close friend; someone she finds physically attractive and gets on with well. He is usually good-looking but is always charming.

In short, he's the man outside your marriage who makes you feel most special.

Perhaps he flirts with you a little in a light, harmless way but in doing so makes you feel more attractive than you have for years. Perhaps he compliments you on your choice of clothes or your hair from time to time, again probably without an ulterior motive but in a way that makes you feel like a real woman again after so many years of marriage.

There is usually nothing overt about it. He will seldom touch you; you secretly wish he would but know you would be frightened if he did. He will kiss you goodbye at the end of the evening in the perfectly normal way that good friends do but you get a small thrill from it anyway.

Most married woman have at least one man in her life that makes her feel this way. A man she looks forward to seeing but would never dream of meeting on her own. He features in her unspoken fantasies, she wonders what it would be like to kiss him properly, to walk down the beach at sunset holding his hand; to lie under him in bed.

Most married women are content to enjoy the illicit but fundamentally harmless thrill without taking it too far.

It appears I'm not like most married women.

Neil and I had known each other for upwards of ten years. Their oldest daughter Sophie is the same age as our youngest; Chris and I had been introduced to him and his wife Alison through mutual friends. Since then we had been to the same dinner parties and other social events many times. We seldom went out together as a group of four but we had seen enough of each other for me to develop the kind of crush on Neil that I've just described.

Physically imposing, Neil is tall and well-built, goes to the gym at least three times a week and competes in half marathons two or three times a year. He's successful at work too, lives in a large, expensive house and drives an SUV rather more impressive than my own.

I would have admired him from a distance just for these achievements, but what pushed him into the 'special' category was that, on the occasions I had sat next to him at the dinner table, he had paid me closer and more sincere attention than any of our other male friends ever had.

His flirting was light and only part of the attraction; what Neil did was ask questions and, unlike most men of my acquaintance, he listened to the answers. He actually showed genuine interest in the people he talked to.

As a middle aged married woman, I can tell you that a man like that is rare. An hour's conversation with him made me feel interesting and attractive in a way I hadn't felt in years, especially with an absent husband who was unable to pay me any kind of attention at all.

The summer in which all this happened was one in which Chris had been away on business more than usual. Being our youngest's last term at school, with the pressure of exams followed by end of term and leavers' parties both for the kids and for us their parents, my family and social life had been hectic.

Effectively a single Mum, I was by now well used to going to dinner parties without a partner and to other events on my own or with another couple. My friends were used to me being a 'third wheel' too. When it was possible, I would be paired around the table with any unaccompanied male who was also invited but never in the expectation that I was on the lookout for another part-time partner.

Indeed more often than not, the single male would be placed across the table from me with more familiar companions on my left and right. Neil was frequently put in the role of dinner-table-escort, a position he filled exceptionally well and which I looked forward to.

He was playing that role at the Leavers' Ball that my younger daughter's school was throwing for those students who had just finished their A-Level examinations and who would shortly be departing for the next stage in their young lives, be it University, work or travel.

As parents we envied their choices, often complaining that the option simply to go and see the world had not been open to us, despite our supposedly more privileged youth.

From Hannah's Ball two years previously, I knew what to expect that evening. The girls would be dressed immaculately in excessively short cocktail dresses with heels high enough to break an ankle. Their hair would have been expensively-coiffed into spectacular formations and there would be enough make-up in the room to camouflage an elephant.

They would be happy, they would be sad. They would laugh and cry; they would dance, they would talk.

I also knew that several of them would get spectacularly drunk and be sick.

From the goings-on at Hannah's Ball and the tearful conversations I had with her in the following days, I also knew that a small but significant number of virginities would be lost that night too. The painful first penetrations would mostly be between drunken students in bedrooms afterwards but a few would take place in the woodland that surrounded the hall in which the Ball was being held.

Indeed, as I was to discover myself, the venue seemed designed to provide a wealth of concealed spots in which such activities could take place.

Chris being away on one of his longer absences, I was attending the event only with my daughter. Her exams had finished only a few days ago and we were both exhausted; Katie with the pressure of study, me with the stress of having a highly-strung teenage girl constantly at my side.

Though well used to my husband's absences, this time I was more than usually resentful. Having already been the sole supporter of Hannah during her exams, Leavers' Ball and unplanned defloration, I did not want to have to bear the burden of Katie's final weeks on my own too.

I did not understand why Chris couldn't have arranged the trip for a time that allowed him to support his family at this difficult period.

During the uncharacteristic rows that immediately preceded his departure, I had even accused him of deliberately leaving me in sole charge of our high-maintenance daughter while he relaxed in the ex-pat bars. Deep down I knew this wasn't true but at the time my anger and resentment had made me a bitter woman.

As a result and equally uncharacteristically, I had denied my husband not only the hour of energetic, pre-departure sex which was normal in our marriage but had also kept him at a distance physically for the previous three weeks.

This sexual starvation was deliberate; intended to let him know how strongly I felt and how deep my resentment was. I know I succeeded in this, but the unintended consequence was that when his taxi to the airport rolled out of the driveway, I had put myself into a state of extreme sexual frustration at least as strong as his.

Not even the half hour I immediately spent in bed with my toys could do more than take the edge off my arousal.

Not knowing what was to come next in my life, I consider the next ten days to be some of the most stressful I had known up till then. Always an emotional girl, the pressures of Katie's last few A-Level exams with the consequences they had for her future meant she and I spent two evenings out of three in tears.

With no physical outlet for this stress thanks to my foolish, self-imposed, sex-free period, I cursed my husband's absence daily. As the sexless period entered its fifth week -- the longest I had spent without sex since Chris and I had got together all those years ago -- my physical exhaustion and sexual frustration had reached new heights.