An Ending and a Beginning

She was short of breath when she said, "Are you doing what I think you're doing?"

"I hope so." I was sliding my fingers along her lips. They were warm and wet. I wanted to put my lips on hers.

"Oh God, you don't have to do that for me." She was having a hard time catching her breath. She didn't want me to stop. "Bill said no man ever wants to do that."

"Bill is an idiot." I was laughing when I said it and letting the scent of her skin fill my nostrils. She was intoxicating. "I want to taste you. I want your scent in my lungs and your taste on my tongue." I was kissing her mound and inching my lips lower.

"Ooohhh my God!"

I took my fingers off her lips to unbutton her pajama bottoms. I slipped my hands under her bottom and slowly slid her pajamas down her legs and off as I kissed her legs down to her toes.

As I kissed my way up the inside of her legs, she spread her legs just a bit inviting me to her. I could see her taking deep rhythmic breaths as her stomach rose and fell. As I kissed her inner thighs they parted. My hands slipped under her bottom. I squeezed and she thrust her hips toward me. I kissed my way across her mound and along her lips, running my tongue in her softness. She was intoxicating and with every kiss she would shiver. She groaned and rotated her hips to present herself. I kissed her with all the passion I had. I breathed her in. I drank her in. I wanted her. It did not take long and moments later she screamed and her lips began to kiss me back. I could feel her spasms and redoubled my efforts to keep them going as long as I could. She made no attempt to muffle her joy until eventually she settled back into the mattress. I slowed my affections and when she seemed fully relaxed I began to kiss my way up along her torso.

As I reached her mouth she kissed me long and deeply. Now it was my turn and I pulled back, "I thought women didn't like to taste themselves on a man's lips?"

"Oh, hunny, if you can do it so can I!"

I felt such happiness I could only look at her eyes and admire this woman in my bed.

She reached down and felt my renewed erection. "I want this now. No regrets. I promise. I want you."

With that I kissed her lovingly and gently inserted myself into her.

She moaned softly. "It's been six years. Go gently. I may need to adjust."

"It's been eight years. I fear you won't have much time to adjust." God I love that giggle!

I guess I wasn't being completely true. It had been just 20 minutes, but before that it had been eight years. I didn't set any records, but she didn't need me to. She put her legs around my waist and her hands on either side of my face. She looked at me lovingly. "Come in me? I want you to come inside me."

"I will! I want this with you!" I wanted this more than anything else in the world. We did not disappoint each other.

We held each other and talked for an hour; and when we awoke early in the morning we failed to disappoint each other again.

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If going to the food store yesterday was public, and for me it was perhaps the most normal thing I'd done in weeks, driving to work together and walking across campus was very public. We discussed it in advance. We would avoid holding hands just on general principle and as a matter of decorum, but we were not going to lie to anyone if asked. Not lying included not protecting our spouses. We worried too much. No one noticed, or if they did they didn't say anything. We both had a great day at work. We both got inquiries from friends who wanted to know why we were in such a great mood. It's hard not to smile sometimes.

The second night at home was much like the first. Annie and I fixed dinner together. We prepared pasta this night with a side of vegetables. We sat and talked. I was enjoying every minute with this woman. She was my age and soon to be a grandmother. Annie had the wisdom and patience that comes with years, but despite that she had a youthful joy that lifted my spirits with just her smile.

That's not to say she didn't have a little of that same mean streak that I had. "Isn't it about time for round two of coitus interruptus?" She almost made me giggle. We logged into the web site and watched our spouses betray us yet again. It was getting to the point that I almost didn't care about the sex, but the trash talk was really pissing me off! Bill was bad enough, but now Cheryl was starting to talk trash about me. What did I do to deserve that? Annie talked me down by laughing at their remarks. "I happen to know from my own very personal experience that you have nothing to worry about in that department." How can a man be upset after hearing that?

We made our calls, dodged their calls, and finally let them connect when we decided it was time for us to go to bed. Go to bed... I like the sound of that. After we turned off the computer we sat and looked at each other for a surprisingly long time. I finally asked, "Are you ok about last night? Do you have any regrets?"

"I do have one regret." She hesitated, but I saw the twinkle in her eyes. "Why didn't we go to bed earlier?" God I love that giggle.

I kissed her as tenderly as I knew how. "We can correct that mistake tonight. I could even take a shower before bed. I hear women like a man who doesn't stink too much." There's that giggle again.

"Sorry, but once I get you undressed I'm not planning on letting go until morning."

The truth is I was just a little nervous about getting into bed too quickly. I thought a little play time might make us both more comfortable on our second night together. "Maybe we could shower together? I'll scrub your back if you scrub mine."

"Then we can wash the choice parts?" She was smiling.

Maybe she wasn't as nervous as I was. "Then we can wash the choice parts."

The water was warm and the shower felt delightful. I was holding her from behind, holding her close and kissing her neck as I gently washed her breasts when I slipped my other hand across her stomach. I felt her tense up and pull her stomach in. "What are you doing?" I tried to sing the words.

"I don't want you to know."

"Know what?" I was trying not to laugh.

"My tummy's soft. It's not flat anymore."

"So?"

"So, it's not flat anymore. Flat is fashionable. Flat is sexy."

"Women should be soft and curvy, a little roundness in your tummy is sexy."

"No, it's not. It's old and it will only get older."

I whispered in her ear, "Let your stomach go."

"No."

"Let it go."

"No!"

"Let it go." I said gently. "I want to feel your soft, round tummy."

She slowly and tentatively let her stomach muscles relax. I heard her exhale and felt her body relax as she did it. She had the sexiest little round stomach. "I really can't wait to kiss your tummy when we get to bed." That earned me a kiss I'll never forget.

It turned out that our first night was not a fluke. We were nervous getting into the shower and I loved every minute of it with her. We were very nervous getting into bed. I had spent three decades with a wife who always seemed disappointed with me in one way or another. I wasn't prepared for this woman. She seemed genuinely pleased with me. We hugged and we kissed, we touched and we caressed, we fondled and we made love until we fell asleep in bliss.

I was falling in love with another man's wife. After watching hours of infidelity, I was certainly falling out of love with my own.

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Work Tuesday was like any other day, except that I smiled a lot and my friends continued to comment on my good mood. Our evening together began by preparing dinner. That took far longer than it should because of all the playful kissing and teasing. You really can't cook and kiss at the same time. At one point we considered just making a meal of salad, but in the end we did manage to prepare tenderloins and sat down to a long, engaging meal of steak and conversation. We did spend a few minutes discussing what we would do when the cheaters returned, but that made both of us nervous. There were too many uncertainties and complications hanging over our heads. Mostly, we talked about us, our lives, our work, and our friends. We had a wonderful evening.

We did play our little game with the cheaters, but we turned off the phones early and went to bed. If Sunday night was a surprising revelation and Monday night was a nervous exploration, Tuesday night was an uninhibited celebration. Any performance anxiety was gone and we both knew that we could please the other. Where before, we had shared ourselves with each other, on this night we gave ourselves with abandon.

There is one thing we did that night that we had not done before and I don't mind telling you about it. After the phone calls were done, I put some soft jazz on the stereo and we danced. I am not a good dancer and Annie giggled almost the entire time. I told myself she was giggling with me and not at me, and I do honestly believe it is true. At least, I spared her toes and she danced down the hallway to our bedroom.

That's another thing. On Sunday night she came to my bed. On Monday night I took her to my bed. On Tuesday night we went together to our bed. It was now our bed and I was thinking that it needed to remain our bed now and into the future.

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Wednesday night our game of coitus interruptus came to fruition. The cheaters seemed to quarrel in little ways as their evening drew to a close. They tried to call us preemptively, but we were somehow unavailable. Bill started the romantic phase of the evening by calling me "dickless" and my wife told him to knock it off. "Whatever else he may or may not be, he is a good man and deserves our respect!"

"If you respect him so much, what are you doing here with me?"

Bad move, Bill. Cheryl doesn't respond well when her back is to the wall. She doesn't like it when it's her fault. I didn't know if it was because of us messing with them or their own selves, but I actually started feeling just a twinge of guilt about our little game. It didn't keep us from playing one more time.

I called Cheryl when the time was right. She looked at her phone, yelled for Bill to get off of her, rolled out of bed and answered the phone. Her actions startled me and to my surprise I was filled with regret. I felt unkind and undeserving of the happiness I was feeling with Annie. I spoke with all the kindness and love I could muster. I asked about her day and wished her a happy night. I meant it. I didn't like the way I was feeling or what I had done. I ignored the fact that she lied to me throughout the entire phone call.

In an effort to make it up to her, I texted her later that night and said I was going to dinner with friends Thursday and probably couldn't call her. I wished her a good night and told her I would see her when she got home.

Annie and I talked into the night. We agreed that we should have handled this whole thing better, confronted them with love, shown patience, and stood up for ourselves. We were both so beaten down that we needed each other to find our own worth before we could face the destructive force of their deception. Now that we had our confidence back, we needed to make amends with the cheaters. We needed to reclaim the high road.

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Thursday was a big step for us. We went out to dinner in town and then an evening concert. I had tickets for months, but I guess in her excitement Cheryl forgot. Cheryl had forgotten a lot of things, but that was in the past now. We knew we might be seen by people who knew one or both of us and we were. Friends of mine and friends of hers all caught us having dinner together, so we invited them to join us. Whatever else happened, we were through hiding anything. To put their minds at ease, we simply told them the truth. We asked them not to call our spouses and told them we were ready for their return tomorrow. Once they heard the story they seemed genuinely happy for us. It turned out to be a delightful evening.

When we got home that night Annie did something that caught my attention. It was just a little thing, but she did it just as naturally as if she'd been doing it for years. She dropped her purse in a chair by the door, slipped off her shoes, gave me a kiss, and said, "It's been a great night. Thank you. I'm going to bed." And with that she walked to the stairs. At the foot of the stairs she turned, looked at me, and said, "Are you coming?" She didn't have to ask me twice.

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We awoke Friday morning having already decided how we would handle their return. I had made a personal decision to stop calling them "The Cheaters". It was getting old and I'd burned off a lot of my anger toward them. We decided we would first make them uncomfortable just to see if they had any guilt at all and then we would give them a gift.

Annie and I went to work in separate cars, and I left for home in time to get to the food store to buy dinner. Cheryl was home when I arrived. She had unpacked her clothes into her hamper in the closet in my bedroom where she kept most of her clothes and she was behaving as if nothing had happened. I asked about her sister as I put the food away and she lied as she does so very well. She never asked about my dinner out the night before. Then I did something I've never done in thirty-two years of marriage. I told her at the last minute that I'd invited friends over for dinner. She got upset, said she wasn't prepared, she was tired from dealing with her sister, etc.; and I told her to relax and that I had it all under control. I'd been practicing that week. I was preparing my new specialty of the house -- tenderloin, potatoes, and asparagus with hollandaise sauce. She looked at me like I was delusional. "All you need to do is relax, bathe or change if you want, and enjoy the evening."

"Who are they? Have I ever met them? I can't believe you'd spring this on me at the last minute."

"Relax! Really, it's all under control. I work with her, but I've never met him. She's nice. I think you'll like them and if you don't that's ok, too. It's all good."

Cheryl headed off to get changed, but she was not happy. When she came back downstairs she seemed to have a better attitude. I had set out some nibbles and drinks on the counter. The potatoes were baking. The asparagus would go under the broiler later. I was more worried about the sauce than anything else. I'd have to prepare it while we all talked and I didn't want to miss a word or a look.

Annie had done much the same. She welcomed Bill home, gave him a hug, and told him, "Sorry to spring this on you, but I agreed we'd join a colleague for dinner. He's really a pretty good cook and I think you'll like them both."

"I just got home from working out of state all week and now I have to entertain some geek from the university?"

"He's not a geek. He's really a very regular guy with a good sense of humor. Plus, I hear his wife is someone that you might actually enjoy meeting. So, shower and change, but it's very informal. He's a very low-key guy. Khakis and a golf shirt will be fine. And smile! You'll have fun!"

If Cheryl and Bill thought they were unhappy now, it was only going to get worse. I don't know if Bill recognized the house or had ever been here before. I didn't want to know. I'm betting he might have recognized Cheryl's car in the driveway. Annie said he stiffened up as they pulled into the drive. He was apparently none too happy walking up to the door when Annie rang the bell.

"Cheryl, that's them now! I'm fixing the salad. Could you get the door and welcome our guests?" I knew she'd put on her company face and I wish I could have seen her look when she opened the door. Annie said she went from smiles to horror as if her face were melting while she just stood there looking at Bill. I walked up behind her. "Annie, good to see you again! You must be Bill. I'm Jake and this is my wife, Cheryl. Good to meet you. Annie has told me so much about you! Come on in and get comfortable. I was just getting a few things ready for the evening." I turned back to the kitchen, but Annie told me later that they followed me like they were walking the last mile to their execution. I shouldn't have enjoyed it so much, but I did plan to do something nice for them before the night was over.

"We've got wine and beer, iced tea if you prefer, and there's some nibbles on the counter to hold you over. What can I get for you?" And so the game began.

It seemed like Annie and I carried the conversation for a long time with nervous glances back and forth between the other two. They really weren't hiding it very well, but in time they began to relax a little. I guess they figured that we didn't know. Cheryl kept her guard up, but Bill began to get overconfident. We sat around the table and I asked Bill about his work. He does home remodeling -- everything from replacing a back door to renovating a bathroom. I was sincerely interested in some of what he did for a living. Any homeowner would be. I started to think I could almost like this guy if he didn't keep insulting me every time he banged my wife.

"Some of you must be getting hungry. I'll get the salad and then if Cheryl will make sure everyone is taken care of I'll start the tenderloins. I really have to apologize to all of you. I'm no good at cooking meat other than in a stew, but I've practiced this twice this week and I'm hoping it works out."

"I'm sure it'll be great, Jakey!" Ok, I wasn't liking Bill so much now, but I did say he began to get overconfident. Nobody ever called me "Jakey" in my life. I just had to smile in response. There is an old proverb that says, "When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." He really was digging the hole deeper with every passing comment. I guess he didn't know how deep a hole he was in.

"Well, I'll do my best not to poison anyone. I do want to apologize in advance for the asparagus; or, is it too early in the night for pee jokes?"

Thank God for Annie. I do love that giggle!

I got some serious complements on the dinner. Everyone seemed to like all of it and I was feeling a tremendous sense of accomplishment. "I have to tell you that I considered trying to make a cheesecake, but reality set in and I knew it was an impossibility. Cheryl makes a great cheesecake, but you don't want me trying anything like that. So, I bought one pre-sliced. It's one of Cheryl's favorites -- a caramel cheesecake and since I didn't make it I can tell you it's pretty darn good!"

"Oh, did you get that down at Havelin's?" Now Annie was playing ignorant. She knew darn well where I got it because we got ourselves several slices there earlier in the week.

"I did! Have you had it?"

"Oh, boy, now I do wish I'd left more room for desert. Why don't I help you with the coffee while these two get to know each other a little better?" OK, now she was laying it on a little thick and I was finding it next to impossible to keep a straight face. "Where do you keep the coffee?" She knew full well where I kept the coffee, the grinder, the pot, the whole works. We worked together in the kitchen like we were well-practiced because we were. No collisions. No confusion. If the other two had been paying attention to us, they would have grown suspicious. Instead, they were busy pretending to have a conversation for the first time. It was really getting hard to keep a straight face.

Everyone loved dessert and Bill was continuing to get too relaxed. Even Cheryl was seeming more comfortable with the situation. It was time. Annie and I had talked about this and we had decided that we were going to take a direct approach, drop the hammer, listen patiently, and end their lies. Then we were going to give them a gift they weren't expecting. Perhaps they wouldn't think of it as a gift, but we did.