Candle in The Window

Siobhan's dilemma didn't exist in a vacuum. Although she tried to act normal around her husband, her predicament caused her to be moody; sometimes she was angry with Clay simply because he wasn't Lance.

Then there was the sex. She considered the sex she had with Lance to be the best of her life, and again, Clay wasn't Lance. Even though she had enjoyed sex with her husband in the past, she no longer wanted anything but what she considered to be the best. She merely tolerated sex with her husband, except on those rare occasions when she would close her eyes tightly and pretend Clay was indeed Lance. She would come very intensely in those situations, not realizing that Clay was cognizant that she wasn't thinking of him.

Clay discontinued the PI surveillance of his wife after two months found nothing, but he did have her followed on the next four out of town trips, again with nothing found. Knowing, but not knowing, was killing him, but he wouldn't be the one to break up the family, especially without evidence. He repeatedly tried to get Siobhan to open up with him, and she repeatedly told him there was nothing to tell.

The relationship between Clay and Siobhan improved slightly through the years as time tamed her memories with Lance. She eventually remembered all that Clay brought to the table as her husband and the father of her children. They were never going to be what they once were, but had gotten back to a comfortable friendship, a loving companionship as it were.

Seven years had passed since the bank's conference was last held in Seattle. Clay knew his wife had to travel, but wasn't keen as to where the conference was this year. He had a PI follow Siobhan at the conferences for several years after "something" happened, but had stopped the surveillance when the investigators determined she was not doing anything untoward.

Like usual, Siobhan left on a Wednesday and was scheduled to return on a Saturday. Unlike usual, this year she packed her blue dress, which had been sitting in a garment bag in the back of her closet for the last seven years.

Clay kissed his wife gently on the lips as he left her off at the TSA checkpoint. She watched him walk off, and when he was out of sight she took her phone out of her purse, reached in to a small pocket in her purse and pulled out an old, folded piece of paper.

"Yeah, I know it's been a long time, but you told me to call if I was ever in your neck of the woods again. I'm going to be here until Saturday, and if you've got some time..."

Lance Lewis looked a little more mature in the face, but was still a fine example of prime male beef, Siobhan thought when he pulled up in front of the hotel at which she was staying Thursday night. She could tell he was impressed by her, as well, as she approached his sports car in her mid-thigh length jean mini skirt, matching jean halter top showing perhaps a bit too much of her ample cleavage and heeled sandals.

He greeted her with a familiar soft peck on her lips, then held her car door and openly looked up her skirt as she settled in to the low-slung vehicle. He knew she was watching him as he looked up her skirt, and he gave her a wink as he closed the door and moved to the driver's side of the vehicle. She felt her pussy moisten as he looked up her skirt, and she knew that was just the first time that evening that she would enjoy that feeling.

Lance had absolutely no memory of this woman, but if he gave her his number, he knew that he had considered her a special fuck at one time, and that was more than good enough for him. He brazenly looked her up and down as he drove. He figured her for early 40s, although she could easily pass for early 30s in the outfit she was wearing. With her dark hair and blue eyes, she almost could have been his current wife's older sister.

Although Lance knew he would fuck any beautiful woman, he definitely had a type, and the woman riding next to him fit that to a "T." He smiled to himself that he had obviously chosen wisely when he gave this woman his number, something he had only done about a dozen times through the years.

Siobhan enjoyed being visually devoured by this young hunk. Her pussy lubricated more as she remembered how amazing the sex had been the last time they were together. She also quickly thought of the fact that Lance had been married twice and divorced once since that last meeting. She knew his current wife, an up-and-coming Hollywood starlet, was filming a movie in Thailand, so there were no worries about her finding out about the tryst.

She laughed inside that she was more concerned about Lance's wife than she was about her own husband.

Siobhan definitely dressed for her lover. She had bought the outfit specifically for this trip. There was no way she ever would have dressed like that in front of her family and friends. She looked down her body, seeing the swell of her breasts jiggling in the skimpy top, and the tight, toned legs stretched out in front of her.

"Where again do you live, Sybil?" Lance said innocently, trying to make conversation.

"Siobhan, not Sybil," she said before answering his question.

The pair ate a nice, light meal on the outskirts of the city before heading to Lance's for the evening's activities. Siobhan's panties were soaking wet by the time she got to Lance's.

"Oh, my, somebody's ready for tonight," he said as he removed the soaked thong and tossed it.

The pair had what Siobhan considered amazing sex twice that evening before Lance drove her back to her hotel. The game plan was for her to attend the Friday session of the conference, then go back to Lance's until she had to go back to the airport Saturday afternoon.

Heads turned to look when Lance pulled his car to the front of the hotel. Both he and Siobhan were pleased that Seattle wasn't a paparazzi center like Los Angeles. Siobhan also felt a jolt of pride that she was with the Hollywood hunk.

She again watched him look up her skirt as he helped her out of the car. He again grinned unashamedly.

"G'night, Sybil. See you tomorrow," he said quietly.

"Siobhan," she said barely above a whisper.

Heads turned again when Siobhan stepped out of the hotel in her blue dress the next evening, but this time they were looking at her, not Lance. She knew she looked fantastic in the skintight dress.

She hadn't worn this dress since her last trip to Seattle. After her last trip, she considered it to be "Lance's dress." She had it dry-cleaned and stored it in the back of her closet. Clay had asked her to wear it several times over the last seven years, but she always denied that request with some sort of excuse.

"Wow, Sybil, you look amazing," Lance enthused as he helped her into his car, this time his new Lexus.

"Siobhan. Thank you very much, kind sir," she said.

This time Lance took her straight to his house, where he had a sumptuous meal catered in. The pair ate, drank and enjoyed each other's company for several hours before heading up to Lance's bed once again. Siobhan was every bit as ready to go as she was the night before.

As he had done the previous night, Lance took the woman hard twice. He once again marveled at her enthusiasm and physicality.

"Damn, you are a helluva fuck, Shana!" he cried out at one point.

Siobhan grimaced when he again mistook her name, but with her ankles over Lance's shoulders and him pounding her powerfully, she was a little too tied up to again correct him.

"Ungh. Ungh. Ungh. Ungh," was all she could squeak out.

The pair slept spooned together during the night. Siobhan woke up before the younger man, feeling a little stiff and sore in all the right places. She lifted her head up to his lips and planted a soft kiss on them. Halfway through the kiss, he started to return the intimacy. He smiled as they broke apart.

Just like seven years ago, Siobhan initiated a tender lovemaking session on that Saturday morning.

"Man, this guy is a god among mortals," Siobhan thought as she responded back to Lance's movements with her legs wrapped around his ass.

She squealed his name as she came for the second time that morning.

The pair showered together after finishing. Lance made them a small breakfast.

They made small talk as they ate, laughed and occasionally kissed.

"I'd love for you to come back again, Sha..." Lance got out before she interrupted.

"Siobhan," she said with a slightly annoyed tone. "Siobhan."

"Can I be totally honest with you, babe?" he asked, looking at her with his most sincere expression.

She nodded with a mouth full of food.

"It's been a while... Siobhan," he said, emphasizing her name. "I didn't really remember you. But if I gave you my number, I knew you were special to me. I've only given my number to about a dozen women.

"And I was right. You are a special woman."

Siobhan looked blankly at the younger man as her brain processed what he said. It's not every day you get called a slut and a moron by your lover, she thought.

Siobhan was quiet for the rest of the meal and the ride to the airport. Lance picked up the vocal slack for the two of them by telling the woman about the movie his wife was filming. Siobhan zoned out and really wasn't listening until she realized that Lance had taken her left hand and placed it on the growing bulge in his jeans. She knew what that meant and started rubbing the bulge, almost working on autopilot. About a minute later, he placed his hand behind her head and started to pull it to his crotch. She knew what that meant, too, but for the first time since she got to Seattle, she had no desire to please Lance. Still, she knew what the Hollywood hunk expected from his slut, and proceeded to deliver on what he expected. She planned to pull off before he came, however, but just as she felt him get a little harder, he pushed her head down harder, impaling her mouth on his cock, and filled her mouth to capacity. She swallowed it all, reluctantly.

He at least had the decency to kiss Siobhan on the lips, tasting some of his own saltiness, when they got to the airport.

"You are one hell of a woman... babe," he said.

She gave him a fake smile, not caring if he was smart enough to pick up on it.

The ride home from Seattle was completely different from the one Siobhan took seven years ago. Then she was coming off the most amazing sex of her lifetime. Now she was coming off perhaps the most humiliating experience of that same time period. Being called a great piece of ass was still being called just a piece of ass. How did she not see that? It's called thinking with your vagina, she admitted to herself.

Siobhan had always prided herself on being smart. For one of the few times in her life, she was now second-guessing herself. Was Lance really that amazing in bed seven years ago, or was she giving him credit for her being so aroused that she thought it was the best ever. What if she had ever been that aroused for her husband before any of their best pairings?

That thought about Clay was one of the few times Siobhan had thought of him since they said good-bye Wednesday morning. For one of the few times in the last seven years, Siobhan felt remorse for what she had done... both the past few days and seven years ago.

As usual, Clay was waiting for Siobhan at the airport. He noticed immediately she looked unsettled, almost like she had been crying. When she finally got to him, she crushed him in a hug, hanging on to him for a long time. Something had changed again, Clay sensed.

The two didn't have sex that night, nor the next. Siobhan walked around like she was in a daze. Only the kids were able to get a normal response out of her.

Monday night after the children were put down for the night, Siobhan settled in up against Clay on the sofa. As the pair sat there watching TV, she gradually started molding her body to his, something that hadn't happened in a seriously long time. By the time the evening was over, she was laying halfway over him, rubbing his erection tenderly through his jeans. Clay wasn't exactly sure what was happening, but he wasn't about to complain.

The pair adjourned to their bedroom, and much to Clay's astonishment, made love like they hadn't in seven years. Siobhan was completely engaged and seemed to relish everything. Clay was nonplussed, to say the least. He looked into her face several times during the excitement, and at no point were her eyes closed tight.

Clay woke wrapped around his wife, feeling as good as he had in years, and, at the same time, as confused as he had been in years.

As the next weeks unfolded, Clay noted it was as if a switch had been flipped in his wife and she was back to the woman she was prior to that something happening seven years ago... except there was no explanation, no apology. It felt to Clay like she was trying to ignore what had taken place for all those years. If anything, he felt his wife was trying to fuck her way back to the way it used to be, except she failed to notice that sometime in those last seven years the light had gone out of Clay's eyes... the candle in the window had been extinguished.

The two made love five more times in the next two weeks, but still no explanation was forthcoming from Siobhan. She could tell her husband enjoyed the increased and higher quality sex tremendously, but she could tell that they were no closer emotionally. Her fear that Clay's keen sense of morality was going to dash her plans was playing out.

The family had enjoyed a picnic in the park and an afternoon at the local zoo before enjoying chili dogs at an A&W. They then went to the latest installment of the dinosaur movies before calling it a day. Everybody was in a great mood.

After the kids went to bed, Siobhan uncorked a bottle of Clay's favorite red wine and the two sat drinking and watching TV for a while before taking the wine and the glasses into the bedroom. Clay was happily participating, but Siobhan kept watching his eyes, waiting for the light to come back on... the light she hadn't seen in several years. Clay was watching her watching him.

Siobhan took a final gulp of her wine, then took a first gulp of Clay's hard cock. She stayed attached by mouth for several minutes before pushing her husband onto his back and climbing up on him cowgirl, his favorite position because she knew her husband loved to watch her large breasts bounce wildly.

Siobhan came twice before Clay had a massive orgasm of his own. His wife climbed off him when his cock softened and slipped out of her pussy. She laid half on top of him, feeling pretty good with herself, until she looked into his eyes.

"Can't you just let it go, Clay?" she asked softly.

"No, babe, I can't. I will never be able to trust you again."

"Where do we go from here then?" she asked.

"Can you live with 75 percent of perfect?" he responded.

She grimaced, looking puzzled.

Two weeks after the couple's second child got married 13 years later, Clay and Siobhan were sitting in their family room drinking a glass of wine and reminiscing.

"It wasn't perhaps the way I wanted it to be, but we kept the family together," Clay said.

He got up from his chair and went upstairs to bed.

The doctors had no answers for Siobhan as to why Clay died in his sleep that night. He was gone an hour later when Siobhan went to join him in bed. The doctors said his heart just stopped from natural causes at 56 years old. An autopsy and a bunch of tests came back without answers.

"I know you died from a broken heart, hon," Siobhan said as she sat at the foot of the grave that had been dug a month before. "I'm sorry I could never tell you about my affair. You would have broken up the family immediately... and I knew that wasn't what you would have wanted.

"You were a good man and I was a coward. I'm sorry, Clay."