Cheating and Rivals Pt. 20-21

"I don't think you need to call him," Frank said.

"How would you know?" Jen scoffed. She looked at the parlor again. It looked more like an exclusive day spa than a tattoo parlor. "I'll call him," she said. Frank shrugged.

Jen took a few steps away from Frank and dialed home. She brushed her hair behind her ear and listened as the phone rang.

"Hey baby, how's it going?" Mike asked. Jen could hear the excitement in his voice.

"It's awesome," Jen said. "We're in Philly. We flew down on Frank's private plane."

"He has a private plane?"

"It's freaking awesome honey," Jen gushed.

"So you're in Philly," Mike said warily. "When will you be home?"

"Definitely tonight baby," Jen assured him. "But probably not until late. You don't have to wait up."

"I'll wait for you," Mike said.

"I'm just saying, I'll wake you up when I get home so you don't have to wait up," Jen offered.

"I'll wait for you," Mike said again.

"Oh okay," Jen said. He sounded a little hurt, but she knew that was normal. "How's our Anna?"

"She's good," Mike said perking up at the mention of their daughter. "I'm about to give her a bath. Then we'll read books until she falls asleep."

"Then what will you do baby?" Jen asked.

"Just hang," Mike said. "There's a Mets game. Maybe I'll get a movie on Apple TV."

"Don't drink too much honey," Jen said gently. She knew sometimes alcohol darkened Mike's mood, magnifying his feelings of jealousy, neglect and loneliness.

"I'm good," Mike assured her.

"So, um, I wanted to ask you something," Jen said hesitantly.

"What?"

"You know we talked about getting my belly button pierced? You said you were okay with it?" Jen said. "Frank knows an awesome place here for that."

"You want to get your belly pierced?" Mike said. "Now? For Frank?"

"Not for Frank baby," Jen assured her husband. "He's here, but I'm doing it for me. I've always wanted one. For you too honey. It'll be sexy."

"... okay," Mike said after some hesitation.

"So I can do it?" Jen asked excitedly.

"Yeah," Mike said. In the background he heard Frank say "Ask him about Johnson."

"What did Frank say?" Mike said.

"Um ... when Frank introduces me to his friends, he calls me Jenny Johnson," Jen said.

"He uses your maiden name?" Mike asked.

"Yeah, I mean ... yeah," Jen said.

Mike was silent for long moments. Frank doesn't call her by my name. He uses Jen's name from before we got married.

"Baby are you okay?" Jen asked after about 30 seconds of silence.

"Yeah, it's okay," Mike said. He was so excited his voice was barely audible.

"What honey?" Jen said.

"I said it's okay with me," Mike said.

Hearing Mike, Frank gave Jen an "I told you so" grin.

Again in the background, Mike heard Frank say "Ask him about your wedding rings."

"Not now Frank," Jen said in a chastising tone.

"What about your wedding rings?" Mike asked.

With a sigh, Jen said "Frank asked me to take off my rings, because he doesn't want his friends to know I'm married."

"You took off your rings?" Mike asked.

"We were in a club, he knew a lot of people there," Jen said. "I took them off but I was going to ask you tonight after getting home." Jen turned away from Frank and whispered "I have the Sophia ring on honey."

"I guess we've done this before," Mike said after a few moments of hesitation.

"Yeah," Jen said. "So it's okay?"

"Yeah, it's okay," Mike said.

"Are you okay baby?" Jen asked.

"I'm really hot right now," Mike admitted with a laugh. "Frank knows how to push my buttons. I don't know if he's doing it on purpose, but he is."

Still turned away from Frank, Jen whispered "He likes power games. Paige said he gets into your head."

"I understand what she's talking about," Mike said with another laugh.

"So you're okay?" Jen asked. "This excites you?"

"Yeah, big time," Mike admitted. "What about you?"

"Frank's freaking awesome," Jen gushed. "He's controlling. But earlier he did something to me. God ..." She giggled. "My knees are still shaking."

"What?" Mike asked.

"I'll tell you later," Jen whispered. "I should go."

"Okay honey," Mike said. "You're definitely coming home tonight right?"

"Absolutely baby," Jen said.

"I told you he wouldn't mind," Frank said when Jen hung up. He still had that smug "I told you so" smile on his face.

"Stop," Jen said with a laugh. "Come on," she said grabbing Frank's hand and leading him into the tattoo parlor.

Miranda, the owner and artist of Body Art, greeted them at the door. She clearly knew Frank, giving him a warm hug and kiss on the cheek.

Miranda looked like a gypsy with long black hair. She was tall and slim and looked to be in her early 40s. Miranda had tats running up her arms. She had piercings in her ears, belly button and nipples (the latter being obvious because Miranda was braless). Jen thought Miranda looked mysterious and beautiful!

"My girlfriend wants her belly pierced," Frank told Miranda.

"Ah ..." Miranda said giving Jen a look up and down. At that moment the phone rang. "I'll be right back."

"I'm your girlfriend?" Jen said with a teasing smile at Frank.

"You said I had no friends," Frank said.

Jen's smile disappeared and she looked alarmed. "I didn't mean –."

Frank smiled at Jen and squeezed her hand. "I'd like you to be my friend Jenny."

Jen stared at Frank, as if stunned by his show of vulnerability.

"Okay, we're ready," Miranda said as she returned.

Jen stared at Frank for a moment longer before turning to Miranda. "Will it hurt?" she asked.

"Only a second," Miranda assured her. "May I?" she said tugging Jen's crop top up to reveal her belly button. "How beautiful" she said putting her hand on Jen's flat tummy.

Miranda took a pen. She stretched Jen's skin and drew 2 dots. "Are you ready?" she said picking up a long needle.

"Um ..." Jen said looking scared at the needle.

"It'll hurt just a second Jen honey," Frank assured her. "A little pinch, then it's over." He took her hand for courage.

"... okay, go ahead then," Jen said. She squeezed her eyes shut. She squeezed Frank's hand too.

It took just a second. "There. All done pretty Jenny," Miranda announced with a smile. "Where is the ring?"

"Um ..." Jen said. She hadn't thought about that. She looked around the store. There were lots of rings for sale. She needed to pick one.

"Here you are," Frank said pulling a box from his pocket. He gave it to Jen.

"You bought this for me?" Jen said.

"Of course," Frank said smiling at her.

Jen's eyes went wide when she opened the box. The belly ring was a short curve of platinum. A small platinum ball was at one end. At the other end was a diamond.

"Oh my god Frank," Jen said awestruck. The diamond was huge, it had to be at least 4 carats. It sparkled even in the dim lights of the parlor.

Miranda took the belly ring from Jen. She expertly slipped the ring in Jen's new piercing.

"Clean your new piercing with rubbing alcohol, in the morning and at night," Miranda told Jen. "Don't change the ring for at least 3 months. It'll heal faster that way."

"Alright," Jen said, admiring her new belly ring in the mirror. The diamond looked perfectly white and clear and sparkled from every angle. She loved it! "God Frank thank you so much!" she gushed. Feeling giddy, she rose up on her tiptoes in the Mia flats and gave him a big hug and kiss.

They took a taxi back to Frank's brownstone. When they arrived a maid approaching Jen. "I'm Amelia ma'am," the 40-something maid said. "We dry cleaned your dress."

"Oh," Jen said taking the dress in the filmy plastic covering from Amelia. She was stunned. "Thank you Amelia. And please call me Jen."

"You're welcome ma'am," Amelia said, giving Jen a curtsy. She freaking curtsied!

"Come on," Frank said pulling Jen up the stairs to his bedroom. He barely noticed the exchange between Jen and Amelia. To him, servants served. There was nothing surprising or remarkable about that.

Frank and Jen were hot for each other. They frantically tore off their clothes. Frank was inflamed looking and touching Jen's new belly piercing. "This is so beautiful," he said gently touching and kissing her belly button. "So is this," he said running his finger down to Jen's pussy. Jen arched her back at his touch.

"So is this," Jen said wrapping her hand around Frank's cock. Moments later, Frank was fucking Jen hard.

After their sex, Jen fell asleep in Frank's arms. Around 2am she woke up. "Oh fuck I have to get home," she said. "Frank wake up."

Jen fell asleep again in Frank's arms on the short hop to the private airfield in Jersey. "I'm sorry we didn't have more time," Jen said as they arrived at the loft apartment. She cupped his cock. She meant, I'm sorry we didn't have time for more sex.

"That's alright, I can only go once a night," Frank said.

"But last time," Jen said surprised. Last time he fucked her twice.

"I've wanted you for years and that was our first time," Frank said with a chuckle, stroking Jen's breast. "I'm human and over 50. Once a night is my limit."

"Oh," Jen said.

"You sound disappointed," Frank said with a laugh.

"No I ..." Jen sputtered. It wasn't she was disappointed. She was just used to younger men (like Scott and Frankie) who could go all night long. Well, maybe she was kind of disappointed ...

"You're too obsessed with sex Jenny," Frank said grinning.

"Well, I mean, what else is there?" Jen joked with a laugh.

Frank laughed. "As you get older, you'll realize quality is better than quantity."

"Why can't I have a lot of awesome sex?" Jen joked.

Frank laughed. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. "Don't worry Jen honey, I'll be good to you," he promised.

Mike was asleep on the sofa when Jen entered the loft apartment. "Hey sleepyhead," she said kissing him awake.

"Did you do it?" Mike asked.

"Yeah," Jen said. She pulled up her top.

"Shit," Mike said looking at the huge rock in his wife's belly button. The diamond sparkled like stars in the moonlight. "Frank gave you this? Is it real?"

"It's Frank honey, of course it's real," Jen said with a giggle.

"He's rich, power, has a private plane," Mike said. "Frank's really something."

"Yeah, he's really something baby," Jen agreed. "He's freaking awesome."

"You like him a lot?" Mike asked.

"Yeah," Jen said.

"A lot?"

"Yeah, a lot," Jen said.

"Infatuated huh?" Mike said with a grin.

"I guess," Jen said. "It always feels like infatuation in the beginning."

"He calls you by your maiden name," Mike said. "Like I don't exist."

"He likes power games," Jen said rubbing Mike's arm. "It doesn't mean anything."

"He makes you take off your rings," Mike said.

"I put them back on," Jen said showing Mike his rings on her left hand.

"But it's like, he's not acknowledging we're married," Mike said.

"Of course we're married baby," Jen said kissing him.

"He makes you get a belly ring," Mike said.

"I got it for me, for us," Jen said. "Frank was just there."

"What did he do earlier?" Mike asked.

"Earlier?"

"You said your knees were still shaking," Mike reminder her.

"Oh yeah," Jen said with a giggle. Her eyes sparkled at the memory. "He played with my ass and made me cum."

"With his finger?"

"Yeah."

"Just his finger in your ass, and he made you cum?" Mike said astonished.

"Yeah, it felt freaking amazing," Jen gushed with delight.

"So Frank's a better lover than me."

"You'll always be my favorite baby," Jen assured him. She reached between their bodies and cupped his cock. He was so hard. "Did you play with yourself?"

"Once."

"Just once?"

"I didn't want to cum too much," Mike said. "I didn't want to get down."

"Are you upset now?"

"More hot than upset."

"Anna will be up soon," Jen said. Sunrise was only an hour or so away.

"I know you're tired, you can sleep in," Mike said.

Jen smiled gratefully at her husband. She was exhausted, she could use the sleep. "Wake me up at lunch. We'll go to the bistro."

"Okay."

"I'll take care of this first," she said. She took out Mike's cock and took off her jeans and panties.

"I won't last long," Mike warned.

"That's okay," Jen said. She straddled Mike's legs and guided him into her.

"You feel a little loose," Mike said.

"Frank's big," Jen said. "Especially thick."

"You like that," Mike said.

"Yeah," Jen agreed.

"You made him wear a condom?"

"Of course baby," Jen said wrapping her arms around Mike's neck.

"I'm cumming," Mike said looking into Jen's beautiful blue eyes.

"I love you Mike," Jen said. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him as he came.

A few minutes later they were spooning in bed. Mike had to get up with Anna soon but he wanted to hold his wife until she fell asleep.

"Are you upset honey1`?" Jen asked.

"Yeah," Mike said honestly. "Don't go out with Frank again for a while. We need to reconnect first."

"I won't," Jen said.

"I have to go to DC this week," Mike told her. "I don't want you to see him while I'm gone."

"I won't" Jen promised.

When Jen woke up the next morning she looked at the clock. It just passed noon. She heard Mike playing with Anna in the family room.

She still felt groggy from last night, but she got up and took a shower. Her new belly piercing was a little sore. After the shower, she washed it with rubbing alcohol. Then she got dressed.

Before putting on her top she looked at herself in the mirror, her eyes on her new belly ring. In daylight the diamond looked even more impressive. It was stunning, huge and sparkling. Truly stunning.

Jen wondered if she could keep such an extravagant gift. She really wanted it. She wished it was from Mike. But she knew he couldn't afford to buy her a gift like this, not anymore. But she was kind of dating Frank now. He was kind of her boyfriend. So wasn't it okay if she kept it?

Mike walked into the bathroom. He moved up behind Jen so their bodies touched. "Does it hurt?" he asked tenderly touching her belly ring.

"Just a little," Jen said. "It'll be better in a couple days."

As if reading her thoughts, he asked "Are you going to keep it?"

"Do you want me to give it back?" Jen asked.

"I'm your husband," Mike pointed out.

"But ... you want me to date him?" Jen asked.

"So you want to keep it?" Mike said.

"I mean ... it's up to you," Jen said.

Mike could tell Jen wanted to keep the diamond. It hurt that he could no longer afford to buy gifts like this for his wife. Not without tapping into Anna's college fund which was unthinkable.

It also hurt that another man gave her the gift. A man Jen was dating and fucking. And she wanted to keep it. As always though, Mike was conflicted about it. He was excited and hard.

"Yeah, I want you to see Frank," Mike said. "So you can keep it."

Jen was elated although she tried to hide her excitement. She turned around and hugged Mike. "It's just a belly ring," she said trying to make him feel better. "It's not like a ring on my finger."

"But you're already taking off your wedding rings for him," Mike said.

"Only when I'm with him," Jen said soothingly. "On dates," she corrected, since she still worked with Frank. When they were working she would still wear her rings of course. "So once a week maybe. Probably every other week. That's all."

"That's how it starts," Mike said, his cuckold insecurities flaring. "You always want to see your boyfriends more."

"I'm different now Mike," Jen assured her husband. She hugged him. "I've learned a lot about the game. Frank is new, that's all. He plays mind games and they're fun. But he's temporary just like all the others."

**************************

Mike had a packed schedule at the CATF headquarters. He was involved in a lot of projects. In fact, he was the lead on most. He was going to CATF in the DC suburbs regularly now because he needed face time with his teams to help them solve problems and keep the projects on schedule. Mike avoided the quantum computer project though, even though Abraham had asked him more than a few times for his input.

When he was at CATF, Mike stayed at the small connecting dormitory. He also ate his meals at the cafeteria. Washington DC was only a short Uber away but Mike didn't feel like sightseeing without Jen there.

Because of his loner personality combined with his mathematical brilliance, Mike developed an enigmatic, "man of mystery" reputation among the other scientists and engineers. He seemed to fit his "Phantom" codename.

One evening Mike sat alone at a table in the cafeteria, eating dinner while reading sports on his iPad. A few of the junior scientists and analysts sat at the next table. They were young, a couple years out of college, 10 years Mike's junior. Many were on his teams and he was their unofficial boss.

Mike was half listening to their conversation. They were playing some kind of scientific trivia game. The current question was, "What's the temperature of Mars on a summer day?"

"Mike?" one of the guys said. His name was Cal. "Are you into the Walking Dead? We're watching the pilot of Fear of the Walking Dead tonight."

"Tonight?" Mike said surprised. "I thought it's not on for a couple weeks."

"We hacked into AMC's servers," Cal said with a grin.

"We used your routines when you hacked into those ISIS computers," a girl said. Her name was Anne.

"Huh," Mike said. Well shit, he thought. Why didn't I think of that?

"Hey, ah, Mike," another guy said. His name was Jim. "You're welcome to watch with us."

"You should definitely watch with us," a girl said. Her name was Martha. Embarrassed by her too enthusiastic urging, she nonchalantly added "We're just hanging out."

"Yeah, okay, sure," Mike said. He actually didn't like being around people. Other than a small group of people (Jen, Anna, Sam, Claire, his parents), he dealt better with numbers and computers than humans. That's just the way he was. But getting an advance showing of the new Walking Dead spin off was too tempting.

Colonel Banks watched all of this from across the room. He'd been watching Mike closely lately. Mike was a valuable asset, but also a potential problem. It was his job to deal with it. Hearing their conversation made him laugh inside. The group of young scientists and analysts – they were the rising stars in CATF – they seemed awestruck with Mike, giving him hero worship treatment.

"Um, Mike?" Martha said nervously. "Were you really offered the Apple code master job?"

"Yeah, why did you turn it down?" Cal asked.

"Yeah, why CATF instead of Apple?" Jim said.

"You'd rather be working in industry?" Mike asked.

"My friends work in Silicon Valley, they make more money, get stock options," Martha said enviously.

"My friend's at Google, they get free smoothies and desk massages," Anne said. They all laughed but it was clear they were envious of their friends working in the private sector.

"I wanted to make a difference," Mike said. "What CATF's doing is more important than Apple, or Wall Street."

"But CATF arrested you for a year," Martha whispered. "Now you're working here?"

"Exposing Liberty, I think I did the right thing," Mike said. "Working here, I think I'm doing the right thing. Yeah, it's not much money, we don't get perks. But what we're doing here is more important. We're protecting our country."

Colonel Banks stared at Mike, shocked. It wasn't much of a speech. But the young scientists were hanging on his every word. That's how he really felt? This wasn't just a temporary gig until something better came along? He actually believed in what CATF was doing?

"By the way, the answer's 27 degrees," Mike told them.

"What?" Cal said.

"The temperature of Mars on a summer day," Mike said. "27 degrees."

"Um, Mike?" Anne said, looking at the trivia card. "That's not right. It's 80 degrees."