Before It's Too Late

I sat for a long moment, exhausted, still cradling my mobile phone to my ear, listening to Jen's groans of pleasure subsiding and her breathing steadying.

"So, did you like me calling you at the office hon? Think I'd get a job on a sex line?"

"God Jen, you're incredible...and dangerous but I love you so much. What on earth got you so horny like that?"

"Oh, didn't I tell you? I had a call from Elaine yesterday. She and Mike are coming over for supper tomorrow."

I cleaned up and told my secretary that I wasn't feeling well and was going home and wouldn't be back until Monday. Hell, I figured they could get through Friday afternoon without me.

I called Jen and told her I was on my way and all she said was "That sounds fun".

It takes about twenty-five minutes from the city to our house and those were the longest twenty-five minutes I have ever experienced as I tried desperately not to speed or jump any red lights.

I left the car on the drive and let myself into the house, glancing into the sitting room and then the kitchen but there was no sign of Jen.

"Jen...Jen?" I called.

"I'm up here hon, in the bathroom."

I took the stairs two at a time. Jen was in the bathroom, the bath full of scented water with the jacuzzi jets just ticking over, keeping the water moving gently. She was sitting on a towel that she'd draped over the side of the bath, her pussy covered in shaving foam, and she was wielding my razor.

She lifted her face to be kissed.

"Hi hon, I'm glad that you're home early, you can help me with this. I thought I might have a tidy-up before tomorrow in case anything happens." She smiled broadly and held the razor out for me.

Jen had been shaving her pussy for quite a while now, leaving just a thin vertical strip above her vulva.

She called it 'her landing strip'; she'd read about it in a magazine, something about 'how to spice up your sex life' and it certainly did.

She'd showed me the article and asked me what I thought about it and of course I'd replied that it sounded like fun - very good fun - but she let the conversation go and I'd thought that was that until one evening in bed, a few days later, she'd said she wanted me to make her cum in my mouth and that's when I discovered how delightful and intimate her pussy felt without the usual tangle of pubic hair as I licked and sucked her to orgasm.

She waved the razor at me again.

"Hello, where are you? Thinking of something else perhaps? You'd better get those clothes off don't you think?"

I tore my suit and shirt off, throwing the discarded clothes in the direction of the bedroom, and soon I was naked, sporting only my now almost perpetual erection.

I turned Jen so that she was facing into the bath.

"Here, sit like this with your feet in the water." I commanded, climbing into the bath and sitting in front of her, my face almost level with her pussy. Jen obligingly spread her legs for me.

"Is that easier?" she said with a throaty chuckle.

I smacked her leg playfully.

"Yes it's easier but very distracting. Ok sit still, don't move." Gingerly I applied the razor to her and drew the first stroke. Oh the wonder of these new five-blade razors! In the path left by the razor was smooth glistening skin and without thinking I leant in and kissed it.

"Hey mister, you're supposed to be shaving me not licking me clean!"

I smiled up at her.

"Ok, razor first and then the licking!" I set to, stretching the skin on her mound to leave a clean edge to her landing strip.

"No, hon, all of it, I want to be completely shaved."

"Really? All of it?"

"Yes, all of it."

One stroke of the razor was all it took and then, gently pulling on her labia to make the shaving easier, I finished shaving her.

Jen squirmed and flinched each time my fingers touched her, partly from her very natural fear of being cut by the razor in such a sensitive place and partly just from being touched so very intimately.

It didn't take long for Jen's pussy to be completely smooth and I applied some moisturiser to her and then leant in to start the licking. She tasted so sweet and clean as I ran my tongue up and down the length of her slot. Jen had her hands on my shoulders to steady herself and soon she was making those little mewing sounds that I knew so well, each one a little louder as I dipped my tongue in and out of her and then flicked it across her clit before finally closing my lips around her bud, sucking gently and rhythmically.

"Oh yes hon, yes, cumming...cumming."

She pushed her mound into my face, grinding against me as the waves of her orgasm coursed through her belly. We stayed like that for a while, my mouth full of the sweetness of her juices until at last Jen pulled back from me.

"My god you are so good at that, you'd take some beating, but now it's your turn."

I must have looked aghast and Jen laughed when she saw the look on my face.

"No silly, not shaving, this." And with that she climbed into the bath and straddled me, taking my cock deep into her in one easy motion before rising again and then starting to ride me.

"I want you to fuck me good and hard so I never forget what you feel like. C'mon, fuck me." But in reality it was Jen fucking me as she rode me faster and harder until I felt my pressure starting to build and then I pulled her down hard onto me as I unloaded deep into her, my cum bathing her insides as Jen orgasmed again with me. We lay in the bath, shivering with the exertion despite the warm water.

At last we stirred, Jen turning to sit between my legs, leaning back against my chest.

"My god hon, we're good aren't we?"

I kissed the side of her neck and she gave a little shiver.

"Yes we're good...the best... but I'd like to know, wouldn't you?"

"Yes I'd like to know too. Perhaps we'll find out tomorrow."

Chapter Four

Rob's story.

"Hi Rob?"

The woman's voice on my phone was familiar but I couldn't place it in the context of my work.

"It's just that I'm a little concerned. Jen asked me to look after your girls for a couple of hours this morning but she hasn't come back and well, it's nearly four o'clock now and I was wondering if you knew where she was or when she'd be back? It's just that I have some errands to run."

Instantly I placed the voice. It was our babysitter Wendy, a widow who would baby sit for us from time to time. Panic and fear surged through me as my mind filled with images of car wrecks or any one of a dozen other imagined catastrophes that could have befallen Jen.

"Ah Wendy, ah... I don't ah... know...I'll... I'll be right over and collect the girls. Give me fifteen minutes."

Hurriedly grabbing my coat, I dashed out of my office for the car park calling over my shoulder as I left:

"Sorry guys, gotta go, family crisis... see you in the morning."

Wendy opened her front door to my knock.

"Is everything ok Rob? I mean is Jen ok?" Wendy asked, a concerned look on her face.

"Yeah sure Wendy she's fine, just running a little late. Thanks for having the kids. I'll let you get away on your errands."

Behind our own closed front door the panic set in again.

"Daddy, where's Mummy?" Our four-year old's question rammed the reality of the situation home to me.

Where was mummy?

Then I saw the note, propped against a vase on the kitchen table, a plain envelope with my name on the front.

My hands trembled as I opened it. Had she done something terrible - left for someone else or what? Or... Oh my god... could this be a suicide note? Where was she? Taking a couple of deep breaths, I opened the letter and began to read.

"Hi Rob, my man, my love,

I'm sorry that I don't have the courage to say these words to you face to face but although my need in this is overwhelming my resolve is fragile and I think wouldn't hold out if I had to tell you direct.

Rob honey, I'm living a lie. I'm being someone, playing the role of mother and wife, that isn't me. Do you remember me when we met - carefree, spontaneous, sexy and free?

Do you Rob... do you remember?

Or think of me yesterday or last week or last year - programmed like some automaton, distracted, tired, lack-lustre and oh-so-not sexy?

I want the old me back Rob, not just for me but for you so that I can love you in the way your lover should, so that I can mother our children in the way that their mother should, filling them with wonder and adventure, teaching them to be inquisitive and enquiring.

I'm going to be away for a while honey and I don't know how long that is but it will be until I can come back to you as the woman I was and the woman you fell in love with.

Take care of our girls. I love you all so very much.

Jen x"

My mother arrived to look after the house and the girls and at first I counted every day, waiting for a call or a letter. But after a couple of weeks, despair started to give way to anger. How could Jen do this? Had she no sense of responsibility? If she came back could things be the same again? In any case what could I do? She wasn't missing so the police wouldn't be interested and I wasn't going to chase her. I'd just have to wait until Jen decided to come home, that is if she ever did.

They say that you only truly know who your friends are when times are hard and instead of the sympathetic looks and words of concern at the school gates, little by little the other parents began to avoid me, at first standing apart and then, talking and glancing towards me as if I was some sort of pariah or perhaps they thought I'd murdered Jen and disposed of her body.

Who knew?

But a few parents and friends braved the social surf and openly showed their friendship and support and one of those was our neighbour, Mary.

Jen and I were pretty close with Mary and her husband Phil They'd moved into the house next door to ours a year or so ago and as you do, we'd made friends of them, chatting over the fence, helping each other out, sharing a beer over the BBQ and always accompanied by the kind of harmless flirting that grownups do when the kids are in bed and they can relax. Phil's work often took him away during the week so Mary and Jen spent quite a lot of time together and occasionally Mary would knock on the door just to say 'Hi'.

It's not fun being on your own all week and I guess she wanted the company or just someone to talk to.

On a few occasions she'd call round when Jen was out and it wasn't that she came on to me, it was just that she always stood a little closer and was a little more tactile than was socially normal or would have been expected.

Not that I minded. Mary is a very attractive woman and she always gave my ego a boost and I confess, if I hadn't been very happily married, Mary would have been the type of lady I'd have made a play for.

It was a Thursday evening at the school PTA meeting, nearly two months after Jen had left, when Mary made a point of seeking me out in front of the other parents, particularly in front of the other wives. She was telling them that even if they were shunning me, she wasn't and in her usual way she gave me a hug.

"How are you Rob, how're you coping?"

"OK I guess. I know I shouldn't have but I've run out of compassion and patience. I long for some normality, some company. Know what I mean?"

She was sympathetic and kind and she listened to me.

"Would you like me to fix you some supper later? My husband is away all week ... again. I could do with the company too." I readily agreed and called our babysitter.

It was gone eight o'clock by the time we were home from the school and while Mary rustled up some pasta, I opened a bottle of wine and then we sat across the kitchen table, Mary listening while I talked, me pouring my heart out and Mary doing what all good listeners do, just nodding from time to time, keeping eye contact to let me know she was paying attention and tossing in the occasional question like 'how did you feel about that?' and never an 'if I were you' or 'what you need to do is'.

And that's how we came to be sitting next to each other on her sofa sharing a second bottle of wine and a joint. At first it had been 'let's sit over there' and then, inevitably I suppose, we kissed, filling a brief silence as we looked at each other, eyes searching, knowing what we were going to do and then both of us trying to laugh it off as 'well we both deserved that' and then as the joint mixed with the wine kicked in I found myself looking at her, feeling the time crawling along and then rushing to catch up, seeing everything about her in minute detail and then losing her to a soft focus, her eyes alight with excitement and the pink tip of her tongue adding a sheen to her lips, knowing that we were going to make love and as I leaned in to kiss her again it was as if we were both falling, me towards her and her away so that I wasn't sure that my mouth would ever make contact with hers and then in a rush we were caught up together as if the air had been sucked out from the space between us and our mouths and bodies were slammed together in a tangle of lips and saliva, tongues wrestling with each other's, hands grasping and pulling, the firmness of her breasts and the way she arched her head back as I kissed her neck and my hand found the hardness of her nipples and then the achingly sensuous touch of her hand slipped inside the front of my chinos, finding my rigid penis and a sudden rush to silence and serenity as my hand found the silken skin beneath her skirt beyond the top of her holdups and the gasps and moans from her as I pressed my fingers hard against the wet fabric of her thong where it barely covered her vulva, feeling the shape of her.

And then the sudden return to reality and Mary's hand easing mine away from her and her disappointed 'I'm sorry Rob, it's that time of the month I'm afraid... know what I mean?'

And then the laughter, almost hysterical, unable to speak and me breathily,

"My God we almost did it there didn't we?" and a final squeeze of her hand on my cock and Mary saying

"We will though, soon. I'm not going to let you get off that easily."

And yet we never did and now, with hindsight, I'm glad we didn't for it was just two days after my encounter with Mary that Jen came home and without seeing her, I knew she was back.

Somehow, as I pulled onto the driveway, the house felt complete. Inside the front door my mother's bag stood ready for departure and she quietly relinquished her role to Jen. No words, no demands for an explanation, just a hug and a kiss and 'Thanks for having me to stay' and she was gone in the taxi that she'd ordered for herself.

Jen was quiet, a little sheepish at first but soon different and more self-assured. Gone were the home clothes that she'd left in; now she was in washed out jeans and a sweat shirt, liberated and liberating, painting a vision and a future for the kids, inspiring them as individuals instead of managing them as part of the household chores. The laundry got done when there was time, the housework was on a rota that got paid scant attention and Jen was the warm, self-assured sexy woman again that I had fallen in love with.

I never asked Jen about what had happened or why. It wasn't that I didn't want to know or was frightened of finding something out; it was just that I knew that Jen would tell me all that she needed to when she was ready.

Days passed into weeks, weeks into months and by the years' end we were moving house to a new town and a new job for me.

As I picked up the girls from the school gate for the last time Mary was there, smiling wistfully.

"Take care Rob. I shall always dream of what might have been between us. You are such a very lovely man."

And then she was gone but not completely, for her memory was often in my mind.

Sometimes when Jen and I made love, Mary's image would fill my mind and it would be her that I was making love to, always wondering what would have happened and yet, the not knowing kept that particular flame alive.

Chapter Five

Mike and Elaine come for supper

The Saturday morning passed in a daze of shopping for food and booze, tidying the house and grabbing a quick lunch on the go but even so the wait for the evening seemed interminable and in the end we had to rush to get the dinner ready.

Jen insisted that we change the sheets on our bed.

"Well, you never know." she said with a smile.

I was so horny that I tried to grab her but tantalisingly she said no, we'd have to wait to see what happened with Mike and Elaine.

I'd formed the impression that it was all set up, that Jen and Elaine had agreed everything but of course they couldn't do that. We didn't know for certain that Mike and Elaine would swap although we had a pretty strong suspicion that they wanted to.

I asked Jen about Elaine's phone call.

Elaine had called on the Wednesday.

"My god you sat on that phone call for two days? You didn't tell me until yesterday."

"Well I didn't exactly sit on it. I had a lot to think about, the menu and the wine and, well you know, lots to think about. Anyway, we were on the phone again yesterday for over an hour and afterwards I was...well distracted, you know like Yellow Pages 'Let your fingers do the walking'...having a little fun with my battery powered friend."

"You mean you were up here all that time before you called me?"

"Well yes. In any case, I don't suppose you were exactly employee of the month yesterday were you?"

I had to admit that my mind hadn't been entirely focussed on my work, if at all after Jen's phone call.

"Well there you are then. Anyway, Elaine called again and she sounded so excited that we're going to get together. I asked her if today was still ok and she said 'Yes of course. Mike is so excited. We've talked of nothing else since you were over here. You know we really do like you both so much and it will be lovely to get to know you very much better'. She is very effusive isn't she?"

I smiled at the memory of meeting Elaine in the mall.

"Yes she is but really sweet even so. But she didn't exactly say they wanted to swap or even anything close to it did she?"

"Listen hon, you know that you're always complaining that we girls say one thing but mean something entirely different? Well believe me, this was girl talk of the highest order and Elaine was saying that she and Mike are interested - very interested. She asked me what the dress code was and I told her very casual, just to slip something on that she'd feel very comfortable in or, in girl-speak, very comfortable out of. See what I mean?"

I had to smile again.

"You're incredible, you know that? And I love you so very, very much and that's man talk - direct, literal and to the point." I pulled her to me and kissed her. "But that didn't take up an hour. What on earth else were you talking about?"

"Oh just girl talk!" Jen winked at me. C'mon mister, there's jobs to do."

Jen had planned a finger supper, food that we could spread out on the coffee table and then we could just sprawl on the sofas or even sit on the floor with our backs against them.

Even though it was cold outside, Jen insisted that I BBQ some spicy wings and a few kebabs.

"But we could just grill them," I complained but Jen was insistent.

"No, you're going to BBQ them. Trust me, you'll see why."

So I checked the BBQ over and gave the gas bottle a shake. There had to be a good reason for this but I couldn't figure it out.

By five thirty we were all done and so we showered and I shaved; as Jen said with a chuckle: 'It would be a pity to have a stubbly chin, always very uncomfortable for a lady!'.

I washed Jen's back for her in the shower, and her front, running my hands over the fullness of her breasts until her nipples hardened. Her pussy felt so amazingly smooth after our session with the razor in the bath but try as I might she wouldn't let me slip my fingers into her, playfully slapping my hand away.