Awakening

Janice heard his footsteps before the telltale shadow in the hallway signaled his approach. She unconsciously tugged at the covers to pull them up to her neck, placing her book on her chest to hold the covers in place. She peered over the top of the book to see if he would enter the bedroom.

Eric came through the door but never made eye contact with his wife. As he began to undress, Janice marked her place in the book and turned to place it on the bedside table. She lay on her side, her back facing the nearly naked man.

Eric flicked off the light and crawled under the covers. Janice knew the next fifteen minutes would determine whether he'd do it or not. She clenched her eyes shut as if that would keep him away. Her knees were pulled up nearly to her stomach.

At first they lay together in the darkness without movement. Then Janice felt him rolling, followed by a touch of his hand on her hip. This wasn't always a foreshadowing of what would come next, but her heart sank at the possibility.

She wore her normal lightweight nightshirt with panties underneath. Eric's hand pulled up the nightshirt until he felt her bare skin. Then his hand slid down onto her stomach. Janice wondered if he could sense her muscles tightening. This was how he always started. Always.

When Eric began to raise his hand toward her breasts, she wanted to speak. She wanted to stop him. But she couldn't form the words; she couldn't make herself say it. Still, the words screamed inside her.

There would be nothing said. There was never anything said.

Eric found her breast. He squeezed it, played with the nipple and compressed the tit against his wife's chest. She never moved; never made a sound. As he continued to play with the breast, Eric pushed his body against Janice's. She felt his cock touch her ass. He wore boxers, but the hardness of the cock was obvious.

She could stop this, but what were the consequences? Eighteen years of marriage hung in the balance, Janice believed. She knew him. If she made him stop there would be anger, blame and confrontation. Maybe not tonight, but tomorrow and the next day. There'd be yelling and accusations.

Janice didn't know this from experience. She had never stopped him. But she knew.

Eric pulled up her nightshirt underneath the covers. It rested above her breasts now. He pulled the covers down until her shoulders were bare and then her chest. He put his hand on her exposed breast and pulled a little harder, at the same time beginning to roll onto her.

Janice sighed and rolled onto her back.

His mouth instantly covered the tip of the breast closest to him. He licked the nipple and then took more of her into his mouth. He pushed up the nightshirt until it was completely out of the way, nearly around Janice's neck.

She got no satisfaction from his actions. In her books the women moaned and writhed on the bed when men played with their breasts. Janice felt nothing inside.

Eric's hand slid inside her panties. He would play with her clit for a minute, then he'd put a finger inside her vagina. Janice would be slightly wet, an involuntary reaction that she would appreciate in another couple minutes.

He was on top of her, taking off her panties. She allowed it to happen. She bent her legs in whatever direction was necessary for it to happen. And then she waited as he took off his boxers.

Janice could only barely make out the details of his body in the darkness. Nothing about him was discernable in great detail. He was simply a shape; another being in the same room as her.

Eric lowered himself onto his wife, rubbing his erect cock over her pussy. She spread her legs for him, willing to do anything to speed up the process. Tension took control of her body, brought on by the distinct possibility that this would hurt. It didn't always, but in recent months her body didn't consistently provide the lubrication it used to.

Janice felt the tip of Eric's cock at the entrance to her vagina. She held her breath. Eric pushed and Janice's tiny hole began to spread. She shifted until finding the most comfortable angle.

He was inside her. It was a relatively painless night and she was grateful. Now all she had to do was wait patiently.

###

Janice Woodruff was a forty one year old mother of two. Her kids were her life. She liked her job as a sales rep, but it didn't consume her. She always made time for the kids' after-school activities and summertime programs. All the while, she tried to avoid the label of soccer mom. She had her own hobbies, like golf, which she fit into her schedule as regularly as possible.

Men weren't waiting in line for a chance to have an affair with her. But that was more because of her actions than her looks. Despite her cute face and sensuously curved body, she never flirted with the soccer dads or her golfing partners. Her clothing was conservative and rarely revealing.

It was very possible that Janice Woodruff was about to dissolve into oblivion if something didn't change. This fact was not lost on the intelligent, self-aware woman herself. In the year following her fortieth birthday she had considered her place in life and especially her relationship with her husband. She knew it was likely he didn't notice any change in her. In fact, it would have shocked her if he had.

Eric seemed to be in a world of his own, with Janice simply a fixture. Whether she came or went didn't seem to matter. Of course, some of this was her own fault. But she was not into rocking the boat.

###

On a warm summer day, Janice found herself sitting in the clubhouse having lunch after a round of golf with her best friend Lisa.

"You played great today," Lisa said between bites of her grilled cheese sandwich. "Were you taking your frustrations out on the golf ball?"

"What frustrations?" Janice asked.

Lisa laughed. "That's right. You get sex three times a week. You're the least frustrated person I know."

Janice looked at her friend to see if she was kidding. "Don't remind me."

"I swear, Jan. You're the only woman I know who complains about too much sex."

"It's not the amount of sex," Janice confided. "It's the sex."

"There's no such thing as bad sex," Lisa said.

"You haven't been with Eric."

This time they both laughed, having held this same conversation many times in the recent past. Janice was able to tell Lisa almost everything, knowing it would be kept confidential and be treated with the concern it deserved.

"No, I haven't. Are you offering him to me?" Lisa said playfully.

"I wouldn't do that to my best friend."

Lisa was about to change the subject when she noticed Janice watching somebody on the other side of the room. She glanced over and saw the woman her friend was inspecting. It was Mary Pickens, a new member of the women's league, and perhaps the most attractive. Mary wasn't pretty like a model, just perfectly built with perfect hair and a perfect face. She was about their same age but clearly hadn't aged the same.

"That's Mary. Have you met her?" Lisa asked.

Janice turned as if caught doing something she wasn't supposed to be doing. "Ah, no. Have you?"

"Yeah. We golfed together last week. She's really good."

"I could have guessed." Janice's sarcastic tone made Lisa smile.

Mary at least dressed like a good golfer with her wrinkle-free skirt and sleeveless top. Her tan was not a golfer's tan. Janice guessed this was a stay-at-home trophy wife.

"Want to meet her?" Lisa offered.

"You make it sound like you're setting us up," Janice said, poking her fork at what was left of her salad.

"I didn't think you were into women. I just wondered if you wanted to get to know her."

"I'm not. And sure, I always like to meet the new members," Janice said, her eyes still locked in on the tall beauty.

They waited for Mary to get her food and begin to look for a table. When they were certain she was alone, Lisa raised her arm in the air.

"Mary," she yelled out. When the woman saw them, Lisa waved for her to join them.

"Hey, Lisa. Nice to see you again," Mary said when she got to the table.

"Want to join us?" Lisa asked.

"Sure." Mary placed her plate of cold cuts, cheese and fruit on the table, then sat down.

"Mary, this is my friend Janice."

The women shook hands. Up close, Mary was even more striking. She had a mature loveliness that showed no signs of artificial help. She had just enough flaws—minor ones at that—to indicate everything about her was natural.

"Hi, Janice. I'm glad you're here. Lisa talked about you last week and said we needed to meet," Mary said with a smile.

"I won't even ask what she said about me. Don't believe most of it."

"She said you were a very good golfer."

"Funny. She said the same thing about you," Janice said. "My scores lately certainly don't show it."

"It's a tough course. We need to all play a round together so you can give me your local knowledge," Mary suggested.

"We will," Lisa said.

During the remainder of the conversation, Janice learned that Mary was married to the owner of a small, but growing, company. So Janice's initial impression of a trophy wife was partly correct. Mary did, however, also work as a self-employed interior designer. They had no children and loved to travel, thus the superb tan.

Janice eventually came to the conclusion that Mary was that rare combination of brains, wit and looks. If only she was a guy, Janice thought to herself.

They agreed to get together in the near future. It was the type of promise that never got fulfilled, except that Lisa said she would arrange it. Janice had learned in the past that when Lisa made a promise, it was kept.

Sure enough, a week and a half later the three of them were teeing off together on an overcast, threatening day. Janice was never real good at spontaneously making friends. She normally had to know somebody, and trust them, for a long time before considering them a friend and talking to them much. But Mary was so easy to get along with, and so energetic, that Janice immediately felt comfortable around her.

On the fourteenth hole, the heavens opened up and it began to pour. They were about as far from the clubhouse as you could get on the course and didn't want to risk riding back in their golf carts in the lightning.

"Over there," Mary said, pointing to a shelter on the edge of the woods. "Let's go!"

They were under cover in less than a minute. Mary, apparently always prepared for everything, pulled a dry towel out of her bag and the three women huddled in the small, but dry, space next to a pop machine. Mary offered the towel to her friends, who dried off quickly and handed the towel back to its owner.

Janice watched as Mary ran the towel over her tan arms and legs. "Don't look," the woman said, turning her back to Janice and Lisa.

They couldn't help but see, in the confined space, that she was using the towel to dry herself off under her shirt. When she was done, Mary fluffed her hair and tucked her shirt back into her shorts.

"Much better," she said. "Let's hope we're not here long."

"At least we can drink," Lisa said, leaning on the pop machine.

"Any wine in there?" Mary asked.

"It's bring your own," Janice said.

Just then a huge bolt of lightning struck nearby and all three women jumped. Instinctively, they huddled a little closer for the rest of the brief storm. Janice felt strangely at ease amid her girlfriends. It troubled her, however, when she wondered to herself why she never felt that way at home.

During the course of the long day, Mary agreed to provide Janice with a 'no obligation free consultation' whenever Janice had time to invite her over. Of everything that happened that day, Mary's offer was the best. Janice had been unhappy with the overall appearance of her house for a couple years, but never thought she could afford to have an expert come in and do something about it. Now the opportunity was there, and Janice jumped at it.

Janice called Mary the next day and they agreed to meet the following week on a day Janice knew she could get off. Eric argued, of course, that it would be too expensive or they would end up with some 'wild, exotic design' that neither of them liked. Janice assured him they were not committed to hiring Mary, but deep down Janice really wanted it to happen. Hopefully, the cost wouldn't be exorbitant.

On the day of the appointment, Janice had the house looking immaculate, or at least as close to it as she could get with two kids. She was oddly anxious about having Mary over; despite the time they had spent together. It was one thing being in a social setting like the golf course and quite another to be alone with her. Janice knew how to handle her insecurities at work, but not so well at home.

Mary arrived right on time. She carried several bundles of samples and Janice helped her get everything onto the dining room table. Janice smiled to herself at the expensive outfit Mary wore, including a beautiful silk blouse that clung perfectly to her body. 'Always the professional,' Janice thought to herself. 'Wonder if she's ever laid back?'

"Whew," Mary exclaimed when the last item was on the table. "This job can be a workout."

"I bet," Janice said. "How about something to drink?"

"No, thanks. I'm fine. Are you ready to get started?"

Janice was a little disappointed they wouldn't have time to talk a little, but since Mary was donating her time, she didn't want to push it. "OK. Tell me what you need?"

"Let's take a tour first."

Janice guided Mary through every room in the house, but assured the designer that if Janice wanted to make any changes, it would primarily be to the downstairs, which contained the major living areas of the house. It took close to half an hour for the two of them to see everything, talk about color and wall coverings, and make their way back to the dining room.

Mary opened up the design materials she had brought and showed Janice as many options as she thought were appropriate for Janice's conservative taste…and price range. Janice told her she'd think about it, discuss it with Eric, and get back to her.

Finally, after an hour and a half, the women decided to sit in the family room and talk about anything not related to house remodeling. The conversation centered around the one thing they had in common—golfing.

"I really enjoy being around all the people at the club," Mary said.

"With all the people you meet doing your designing and all the people you must meet through your husband, I wouldn't think you needed many more friends," Janice said.

"My life's not quite as exciting as you make it sound." Mary paused and looked down at the floor for a second. "It can get lonely."

"Really?" Janice said with surprise in her voice.

There was an awkward silence before Mary continued. "Oh, don't get me wrong. I love what I do, but all the girls at the golf course make me feel so…welcome."

"They're a good group," Janice said. "I bet a lot of them would love to have you work on their houses."

"I didn't join just to drum up business. I wanted to make friends, like you. Sometimes…," Mary began to say, "Sometimes I feel like I'm isolated."

Janice didn't like the direction the discussion was taking, but she didn't want to seem callous, either. "Isolated?"

Mary fidgeted with the collar of her blouse. "Oh, it's nothing, really. It's just, well, my husband is gone so much and without kids…"

"Well, I'm always here if you need somebody," Janice said, afraid she sounded too much like a soap opera character. She honestly didn't know what else to say, as counseling was not her strong point.

"Thanks," Mary said. "I don't mean to sound negative. I'm very lucky to have what I have. Some things you just can't buy."

Janice certainly understood THAT. Also, she felt comforted by the fact that Mary—somebody she had been viewing as having no apparent faults—wasn't that much different than herself. But it was too early to tell the extent of the woman's unhappiness.

"That's true. Money can't reduce the feeling of isolation and loneliness," Janice said.

Mary gave her friend a knowing glance of appreciation.

"Listen," Janice said cheerfully to change the tone. "Do you want to have lunch one day next week? Nothing fancy. We don't have to talk about decorating or anything. Just a social visit."

Mary beamed. "I'd love to. At my place, OK?"

"Sure. Oh, and one other thing." Janice paused with a serious look on her face. "Wear something casual. You're way too formal."

Mary laughed. "Well, OK. I'll try."

###

Both women actually looked forward to the lunch meeting. Mary really liked Janice's down-to-earth style. So many women she met through her husband's job or her own interior design work were artificial and phony. Janice never seemed to be putting on a show of any type. It was very refreshing.

Janice always had a facilitating side to her that sought out people in need. Mary certainly didn't need help financially, but her inner sadness was starting to show the more the women were together. Even on the golf course, Mary occasionally said something to Janice and Lisa that implied a need for…something. Janice wanted to find out what it was.

Even though Janice had never been to Mary's house, she had no doubt it was huge and beautiful inside. She was right. From the moment Mary opened the door to let her in until they were standing in the ornate kitchen, Janice did nothing but turn her head in every direction, trying to take it all in.

"Wow. You did a great job with this," Janice said. "I love it."

"Thanks. It's never a good idea to be an interior designer and live in a shack."

It seemed to Janice that Mary was in an exceptionally good mood. She hoped her idea of the informal get together was going to be a good one. And she noticed Mary's attire, as well.

"So, you CAN be casual," Janice said, motioning towards Mary's t-shirt and denim shorts.

"Just for you," Mary said.

"You look great."

"Thanks. Let's go sit out on the porch," Mary suggested, leading the way through a large sliding glass door.

They settled into lounge chairs under an awning that extended out from the house. Now that they were in the daylight it became apparent to Janice that Mary didn't have a bra on under her light t-shirt. 'She really took my casual remark to heart,' Janice thought. 'Good for her.'

Janice convinced herself she'd go braless too if she had Mary's body. With her legs stretched out and the outline of her firm breasts evident under the shirt, Mary was very striking. Her short hair was styled in such a way that it looked natural whether it was windblown or if every hair was in place.

The women chatted and laughed for an hour before Mary asked if it was time to eat. Janice gladly helped get everything ready and they ate on the porch. It was the best time either of them had had in ages.

When they were done, the cleanup of paper plates and cups began. Mary followed Janice back into the house. Once the trash was put away, Mary said, "Thanks for making this such a fun day, Janice."

Janice was facing her friend in the kitchen. "Thanks for inviting me over."

"I don't feel so lonely when you're here. You don't know how good that feels," Mary said.

"I might," Janice said, looking into Mary's bright blue eyes.

Mary stepped forward. Their bodies touched and Janice unconsciously leaned back until her ass hit the countertop. Mary put her hand on the side of Janice's face and Janice made no effort to remove it.

Then Mary lightly kissed Janice on the lips. It only lasted a second or two.

"Have you ever kissed a woman before?" Mary asked to break the silence.

"No."

"Me neither," Mary said.

"Do it again," Janice requested.