Almost?

Dinner was wonderful. They had lobster with drawn butter, a nice wild rice and vegetable side dish, a fresh fruit salad with a sweet sauce and a dry white wine. They finished with a sorbet and hot spiced tea. Everything was perfect, she ate with an appetite as good as the meal and Dan was the perfect companion. Conversation was witty and fun, he touched her hand often and occasionally just stared into her eyes as she said some intelligent thing or two. She felt almost like she was on her first date with the boy of her dreams in high school. It was all she had hoped for and more than she expected. If there was an undercurrent of unease and guilt, she was able to suppress it. She was going to do this and finish it once and for all. This had to happen!

After dinner, they walked to the lounge where they had a live band playing. It was only a little after 8:00 so the lounge was not yet crowded. They took a booth near the back, ordered drinks and sat together, Dan's hand holding hers on the table. He sat very close, their hips and thighs touching. She felt warm, she began to feel a moistness between her legs, and a small trickle of sweat rolled between her breasts. She knew she was becoming aroused just by sitting next to Dan. Her attraction to him was so intense. As if he recognized it, he put one hand on her thigh, the other still holding hers where it lay on the table. She continued to talk as he began to move his hand up and down her thigh. She was beginning to fidget and that only caused him to smile more broadly. She let him continue and finally, taking courage from him, she dropped her own hand down to cover the bulge in his pants. She felt the heat rise to her face but she held him as he moved his hand up to the dip between her legs. She closed her eyes as she felt his hand cup her mound through the dress and her panties. The pleasure was intense, more so because of where they were. She pulled her hand back after only a few seconds, but it was enough.

She opened her eyes and looked to see if they were being watched. So far no one was taking any notice, but this was too public. She said as much to Dan. Dan nodded, took the check, read it and threw several bills on the table. He stood, reached down to pull her up and said, "We should leave now." She followed him out of the lounge and into the lobby. He stopped, looked deep into her eyes and said, "Should I get us a room here at the hotel? Do you want that? I want you to know that I want it very much, but only if you are willing."

It only took her a second to decide. "No. Take me back to my car and then you can follow me home. I would rather be home." She had made up her mind that if she was going to do this, it would be in a place of her choosing. They would use the spare room. She would not desecrate her husband's bed with her infidelity but she would not lower herself to have a cheap fling in a motel room. Foolish pride, but pride nevertheless!

Dan led her to his car and they headed back to the office where her car waited. He said very little but did reach for her hand and hold it tightly as they drove. She wanted to say something but words wouldn't come. Dan pulled her hand to his lips each time they stopped for a light and once, pulled it down to his lap. She allowed him to place her hand over his erection and actually rubbed it a few minutes. But this wasn't right! Not in the front seat of a car for God's sake! She pulled back and kept her hands folded together in her lap the rest of the way. Dan glanced at her with a worried look on his face but she smiled reassuringly and he relaxed. They pulled in, she got into her car and they headed toward her home. It was now almost 9:30 and they still had the whole night ahead of them.

As she drove alone, she once again asked herself if this was what she wanted. It was, as her wet panties proved, and she smiled to herself as she remembered the feeling of his hands on her mound at the lounge. She also knew that he was well equipped as her brief encounter with his arousal proved. Yes, she wanted this and it seemed he was well equipped to provide for her. She was rubbing herself like a horny teenager as she pulled into her driveway, Dan close behind. She opened the garage door, pulled in and waited until he walked inside to lower the door. She went inside, turned on the lights in the kitchen and turned off all outside lights. She took off her coat, turned to find Dan standing there, watching her. She opened his jacket and helped him off with it. He threw it over the back of one of the chairs as she turned to lead him into the dark family room.

She stood in the room watching him as he looked at her with pure lust. She opened her arms to him and he put his arms around her waist, pulling her tightly against him. She felt his engorged cock press into her stomach and smiled to herself. This was going to be so wonderful. Her loneliness was about to end with a bang. A pun! God, she was losing her mind. She dropped her hand down between their bodies to rub him up and down. As she hoped, he returned the favor and before long, she was being blissfully brought to a climax right there, standing in the middle of her family room, fully clothed still, with a man she had known only a few months. As her body shook with pleasure, she felt alive again, much as she used to with Jeff, when they were younger and still so passionate. Maybe she needed Dan's youth to find her own passion again. Perhaps.

She wanted this to be special so rather than stay in the family room, she whispered to Dan to take her to the bedroom upstairs. He lifted her from her feet and carried her up the stairs and into the spare room, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face against his chest. He put her down and slowly began to undress her. He unbuttoned her blouse and pulled it open to reveal the pink bra she wore for this evening. She reached back to unclasp it and allowed her breasts to surge free. As he gazed on her naked breasts, she unbuttoned her skirt and let it fall to the floor, stepping out and retrieving both the skirt and blouse to lay them carefully on the chair by the bed. She now had on only her pink panties. He drank in her body, smiling in appreciation before pushing her down gently to sit on the edge of the bed as he stood there, smiling down at her. She leaned over and reached out to unbuckle his belt and unbutton his pants. She pulled down his zipper, letting his pants fall to his ankles. She reached inside his boxers and pulled him out, noting a drop of pre cum on the head of his already hard cock. She started to lean forward to take him in her mouth when she was startled by the ringing of her cell phone. It was in the small purse she had carried upstairs by the wrist band, now laying on the floor beside the bed.

The ringing startled Dan as well and she saw the flash of irritation on his face when she moved away. "Don't answer that. This is more important. Please, let it ring."

She knew it was Jeff. He was the only one who would call this late. Either Jeff, or God forbid, one of the boys with bad news. She had no choice but to answer it. " I have to take it. It could be my husband or one of my children at this hour. I have to. Just be quiet while I answer." She looked up at him, standing there in front of her, his pants already down around his ankles and his cock sticking up like a flag pole. Bad timing. She almost laughed at the incongruity of it all. "Come here.", she said. To make it better for him and to help him past this delay, she reached out to take his cock in her hand. She smiled at him as she slowly stroked it. He closed his eyes in pleasure.

She took out the phone and checked the caller ID. It was Jeff! God, at this hour? It had to be 3:30 in the morning where he was. What could be wrong? She flipped the phone open.

"Hello, Jeff? My God Jeff, what's wrong? What's happened?"

"Everything's wrong Marie. Every damn thing. I woke up here in this bed in this strange country and you're not here beside me. That's what's wrong. It's all wrong!"

She could hear the pain in his voice and it broke her heart. Her Jeff was hurting! He was alone and she wasn't there to help him! "Talk to me darling. Tell me what the problem is. Come on now, talk to me Jeff. I'm here. I'm right here, baby." Without thinking, she let go of Dan's cock and sat straighter on the edge of the bed. Jeff was her concern now. Dan faded into the background while she talked to her husband.

"I know we agreed Marie. We agreed that I would do the traveling and do what had to be done to get this merger over and win the promotion. I know we agreed, but I hate it! I hate being away from you and our home! I hate talking to you over the phone instead of laying together in bed, our heads and our bodies touching. I miss that every time I'm away from you. I hate this!"

Marie stood, pushed past a staring Dan, walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. She was talking as she moved quickly away, but she wanted to keep this conversation with her husband private. She wanted Dan to have no part of this.

Inside the bathroom with the door closed, she spoke softly to her husband. "I know baby. I miss you too. It's so hard being separated. But you'll be home tomorrow night. We'll be together then and the traveling will be almost over. So close, baby. So very close now. Just talk to me and we can get through it. Just talk to me. I'm listening. I'm right here." She continued to coo to him, trying to bring him down. She knew him in this mood. She knew what to do.

She waited to see if he was going to be OK. He was depressed, lonely, far from home. He had been so strong for so long, always being in a new place, a new hotel, a new country. And always alone at night, after the work day was done and all the others had gone home to their own beds. Jeff couldn't. He was alone, just as she was, only she was here, surrounded by the things she knew and loved. She had home, comfort, friends nearby, anything she needed at the touch of a button. Jeff had nothing of home with him! The epiphany hit her so hard, it left her breathless!

Suddenly, she thought of Dan, still standing there, just as she had left him, his pants down around his ankles, his cock slowly deflating, his face a mask of anger and frustration. The uncontrollable lust and excitement she experienced before at just the sight of him was completely gone. She looked at her reflection in the mirror, her breasts uncovered and sagging, her hair unkempt and her face still flushed with lust. All at once, she saw herself and this whole affair as disgusting! What had she been about to do? God, how stupid was she to almost do this terrible thing! She had to end this, end it now!

"Jeff, I'm here at home. I didn't go to my sister's tonight. Listen to me! I have your number. Let me go downstairs and call you on the land line. My cell is signaling low battery. I'm going to lose you and I want to talk some more, so please, baby, just hang up and I'll call you right back. OK? OK, honey? Can you wait for me to call you?"

Jeff replied so softly, it almost broke her heart. "Yes. Yes, I can do that. But don't wait too long Marie. I really need to talk to you now. It's bad tonight honey, very bad. I need you Marie. I really, really need you."

"I know Jeff. I know. Just hang up now and I'll call you in a few minutes. Hang up now baby. OK? OK Jeff?"

"OK", and the phone went dead. She stood there in the bathroom of her home and almost broke down in tears. She knew now that her husband's pain was the key to bringing her back to her marriage and the man she loved. His pain was all she needed to remember. God! So close! So close to throwing it all away. She stood up, opened the door and looked at Dan standing there smiling, thinking they were going to go back to where they left off. But his smile died as he saw the expression on her face.

"Dan, you have to leave now. This is a mistake, and I almost made it worse. But I'm OK now. I know what I was about to do was wrong and could have cost me everything I love in this world. I almost threw it all away for this, for you. I'm sorry, Dan, but this isn't ever going to happen. I love my husband and I can't do this to him. I understand what I have and what I could lose." She understood! She suddenly understood it so clearly! Thank God for Jeff's call!

But Dan was angry. "Damn it Marie. You can't do this to me. You get me here, promise me everything and then change your mind? Just because your dumb husband called? Just because he's a little lonely? Well, it's too fucking bad that he's not here now and I am! That's why you're here too: because he left you alone, without any loving! Remember? I could have had any of those dimwits at the office but I picked you. Now, let's get back to where we left off." With that, Dan reached out to push her back down on the bed. She twisted away from him but he continued to push her.

'Crack!' The sound was artificially loud in the closed room as she slapped him across the face with all the strength she had. She felt the sting on her palm as she made contact with his arrogant face. Her strength has enhanced by his words of contempt for her husband and what they shared. Stupid ass!

That seemed to make a difference. Dan blinked, moved back and put one hand to his face where she had struck him. He stared at her, the passion and the lust now gone, replaced by confusion and anger. Marie was frightened at the look but also determined to resist. She faced him with her chin up, her hands straight down at her sides and her tiny fists balled. He saw the look, hesitated a second and then gave in.

With an attempt at some dignity, he pulled up his pants, zipped up and buckled his belt. Once collected, he moved toward the door. He turned, looked once more at her and said, "Your loss, bitch. It could have been great, but you blew it. Too bad. I'll just have to find someone more willing to have some fun." He walked out as Marie grabbed a robe to cover herself. She followed Dan down the stairs and watched as he went out the front door. She locked it behind him, signed in relief, and went back to the kitchen to call Jeff.

She punched in the number, spoke briefly to the operator who connected her to Jeff's room. She wanted to talk to her husband. She wanted to tell him how much she loved him and how much she wanted him home with her. As the phone rang on the other end, she glanced around at the simple kitchen table and chairs that had seen them through two kids and almost fifteen years. She saw clearly the small crack along one edge where Bill had dropped his bowling ball during the time it was his ruling passion. It was such a beautiful crack. She wondered how she could have considered giving that up. She laughed at the incongruity of the thought, just as Jeff answered and when he asked her what she was laughing at, she just told him she loved him more than life itself. They talked well into the night before hanging up.

Jeff was home the next night as planned and Marie was awake and waiting for him. She was waiting at the door when the taxi let him off and she welcomed him back with open arms and a loving kiss. Jeff was back where he belonged and Marie was happy that she had stopped herself before destroying their marriage. Her close call was enough to remind her of all she had and what she treasured and why she loved her husband. She had done things she shouldn't have and the shame of that was strong enough to make her swear that she would never again be distracted by anything or anyone else. She vowed to herself that she would make it up to him. She swore to all she believed in that she would atone for her sins.

Jeff got the promotion, and he became the newest vice president of the newly formed corporation he had worked so hard to bring to life. As promised, his need to travel almost disappeared but from time to time, great opportunities came up for travel to exotic places with first class accommodations. After discussions with Jeff, she quit her job, and was able to be with him whenever and wherever he went. From that day forward, he never traveled alone again. She took her place beside him as it was meant to be.

As Marie packed her bag for a trip to Hawaii with Jeff, she thought back to that day almost three years ago and remembered how she had almost make a tragic mistake.

Almost.