Coercion

Chapter-1

I'm Nolan Rierson, a native North Carolinian, and as I reflect upon the extremely unusual circumstances that have led to the situation in which I now find myself, I am astonished that never in my wildest dreams could I have ever imagined how the lives of four people could be turned any more upside down than they now are. My wife of 5 years has just pleaded and begged me not to divorce her while, at the same time, insisting that she must spend the next month living with another man as his wife in EVERY way. And as crazy as that sounds, believe it or not, for coercive reasons, I'm actually considering it! Lest you think me some kind of willing cuckold, I assure you I am NOT. It is necessary to explain how the four of us arrived at this crossroad by going back in time to lay the foundation for what I have been imploringly asked to accede.

I dated a few girls to the movies off and on throughout my school years before college/university, however, I never got very far with the girls. My parents were heavily steeped in the Church, always admonishing me to live by the golden rule. Since I was neither a jock nor a genius, it was easy to remain on the outskirts of the social scene. I did ask Charlene Ball to the prom and she agreed, most likely because neither of us was in demand as popular students were. She didn't know how to dance; neither did I but I wanted to at least try it once. She refused me and remained at the table as I fast danced with another unattached girl on the dance floor. I'm sure I looked just as stupid as I felt but I endured it simply for the experience. Of course, Charlene was ticked off at me the rest of the evening for dancing with another girl. I was unconcerned and never asked her out again.

Lydia...

I had still never been in a serious relationship as I entered college. I majored in Business Administration at UNC-Charlotte while living at home to save money. My parents weren't wealthy by any means but had scrimped and saved enough to pay for my tuition, books, and fees as I attended our local State College. The cost was barely affordable to them but they assured me that I would graduate debt-free if I completed my degree within four years. Since I had a younger brother, Cole, I had to set an example for him, so I kept my nose to the grindstone.

It was early during my junior year as I was walking to class that I observed a vision of beauty, a goddess hurrying down an adjacent sidewalk wearing a backpack book bag, as did nearly everyone. In her haste, she jogged a few steps now and again to gain distance. She appeared oblivious when a book jostled loose from her backpack and landed on the grass as she scurried on her way. Remembering the golden rule, I called out to her but she was on a mission. I ran across and picked up the book. By the time I had it in my hands, she was entering the building. I ran quickly to catch her. As I opened the door, I saw her enter a classroom down the hall and rushed to return it to her. As gorgeous as she was, there was no way I'd ever forget her face.

The class hadn't started yet but everyone was jockeying for their seats. As I approached my dream girl, I nobly held the book out to her.

"Here," I said, almost out of breath with a big smile on my face. "You dropped this out in the yard. I thought you might need it."

She gave me a stunned look of disdain, which was unexpected. "Well, now I've seen it all. You steal a book from my book bag somehow, pretend to be a good guy, and return it to me as a gallant knight? Of all the dumbass ways to hit on me. What makes you think I'd ever go out with the likes of you?" She added crassly. Everyone in the vicinity was now eagerly watching the confrontation.

I was immediately reminded of the phrase, 'No good deed goes unpunished'. My responsive anger fueled my fiery reply, "Look, Miss High and Mighty. I realize that I'm undeserving to even be in your glorified presence but quite frankly, I don't care what you think of me. This is your book. I found it on the grass outside as you were running to class. If you don't want it, I'll just throw it in the trash along with my opinion of you."

She angrily snatched the book from my hand and saw her name written inside it. Before she could offer more sarcasm, another girl who had followed me into the classroom spoke to her.

"Lydia, he's telling the truth. I saw it all. Your bag popped open as you were running, and your book flew out of it onto the ground just as he said. I saw him pick it up and run after you to give it back but you didn't respond when he called out to you. Don't be such a rude bitch. Who crawled up your ass today?"

Lydia's mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. She had embarrassed herself greatly. No longer expecting her appreciation, I seethed, "Forget it," as I quickly fled the room and rushed to my class. I was a few minutes late, and angry at myself for trying to help someone blatantly unappreciative of my effort to be helpful.

Two weeks later the girl I'd previously believed to be a goddess suddenly and unexpectedly sat down opposite me in the cafeteria as I was taking in an afternoon snack before my next class. I now thought of her as an evil witch.

"You're a hard man to track down, Nolan Rierson," she began. "I'd almost given up on ever finding you."

Surprised to see her again, I defensively inquired, "To what do I owe the honor of 'Her Highness' generously gracing me with her magnificent presence?"

"I guess I deserve that. I was extremely rude to you when you returned my book, and I came to apologize for my outrageous behavior," she offered demurely.

"Apology accepted. Have a nice day," I quipped as I looked back at my study notes.

Frustrated, she reiterated, "Look, may I have a minute of your time? I promise if you send me on my way afterward, I'll never bother you again."

"Fair enough," I agreed. "What else do you want to say? I accepted your apology already."

"Yes. Yes, you have, and I thank you for that. I just wanted you to know why I was so rude to you that day. That's not who I am, or the kind of person I wish to be. You see, I had just caught my boyfriend cheating on me for the third time the night before. I was unduly angry at all men right then. You were trying to be a gentleman by kindly returning my book, and I bit your head off redirecting my anger at you. I was wrong to do that, and I'd like to make amends. It would be my privilege to treat you and your girlfriend to dinner this evening at the fast food establishment of your choice; my budget is limited," she humorously injected.

After hearing her reasonable and sincere explanation, my opinion of her shifted into a more hospitable category. "I can understand that. Infidelity is a deal breaker for me as well, except I would never wait until the third transgression. I'm a 'one-and-done' kind of guy. I don't have any time for cheaters. I'm sorry you had to go through that."

"Me too, thanks."

"I don't have a girlfriend at the moment but I'll let you buy me a roast beef sandwich later at Arby's if you're serious," I chuckled.

Her expression transitioned from concerned, to brightly lighting the entire room. "Of course I'm serious. I'll let you get back to studying. Meet you there at six?"

"Six, it is," I confirmed and gulped at my good fortune as she left. Every eye in the cafeteria, including mine, remained on her curvy form until she exited. It occurred to me that perhaps I had misjudged her. I was only too happy to spend whatever time she would allow me to later bask in her raving beauty. Needless to say, it was challenging to focus on my studies that afternoon.

She showed up in a short yellow sundress with red accents, very stylish. When we sat down to eat after ordering, I seemed to be the envy of every other guy in the place.

I began, "You seem to know my name. How did you find me?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. My bad. My name's Lydia, Lydia Reynolds. Jocelyn, the girl who put me in my place in front of you that day, said she'd seen you around a few times but she couldn't remember where. I desperately wanted to apologize to you. I'm a nice person once you get to know me. I do get hit on a lot and thought that's what you were doing. I'm so sorry. Anyway, after about a week, she remembered seeing you with a guy she's met before, Steve Bascom."

"Right," I rejoined. "He and I have several classes together and hang out from time to time."

"That's what he told me. Once Jocelyn recalled his name, I looked him up. I'd never forget your face but I didn't know your name. I found out he lives at home as you do, so I couldn't find him in a dorm on campus. The student directory led me to him and he told me where he thought I might find you this afternoon," she stated proudly.

"Well, in all honesty, I'm glad you went to all that trouble. It speaks well of your character to go to such lengths just to apologize for a rude remark," I responded.

Lydia turned nervous for a moment before admitting, "Thank you for saying that. You're very kind. That's all I had planned for this to be at first, a simple apology. But Steve was very talkative and he spent several minutes talking you up. To sum up the results of that conversation, I'm convinced that you're one of the very few good guys left. I've dated enough bad boys to last me a lifetime. It's about time I started looking closer at a man's heart and his character. I've overlooked that in the past and it's caused me a lot of heartaches. What I'm trying to say here, Nolan is that if you can spare the time, I'd like to go out with you so we can get to know each other better."

To call me shocked would be an understatement. The most drop-dead gorgeous woman I'd ever seen was asking me out on a date, and from appearances, not just one. I was simultaneously confused and elated. Why would this vision of beauty want to spend time dating a nobody like me?

Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, I instantly replied, "Sure, I'd love to." And that was the beginning of our whirlwind romance. We soon became inseparable. She was always invited to the best parties and I accompanied her as her plus one. I received more than a few puzzled looks from others when she introduced me as her boyfriend. As did I, everyone who met us knew she was way out of my league. Yet here we were, a couple in love. My parents thought I'd won the love lottery when they first met her. Lydia was one of those rare girls who were beautiful inside and out.

Lydia lived on campus and shared a dorm room with Jocelyn in a co-ed dorm, which meant that I could visit her there, of which we often took advantage. Every night that Jocelyn was out with her boyfriend or on a girls' night out, we released all of our urgent passions on her bed, to the point of exhaustion. She never allowed me to leave her room without a satisfied smile on her face. I would call our sexual chemistry and compatibility 100%. The queen happily bedded her royal stud.

One Saturday night, we attended a large frat party. We were chatting with several of her friends when Lydia suddenly tugged at me asking that we immediately leave the party and go to a movie instead. When I asked why she pointed to a very tall guy across the room who was being received with much fanfare.

I questioned, "So? That's six-feet-seven, Findlay Stevenson, our basketball team's best forward. Everybody knows him. I hear he's being scouted by the Charlotte Hornets for the NBA, probably the most popular guy on campus. Why do you care that he's here?"

She leaned over and gently whispered in my ear, "He's my ex-boyfriend, the one I caught cheating on me. I don't want to be around him with you. He can be a real asshole at times and I don't want to test his mood tonight. He's the jealous type and, for some reason, thinks he still owns me and also thinks he's God's gift to women. I want to avoid a confrontation. Let's get out of here, please?"

"Your ex-boyfriend is the sky king, Findlay Stevenson? I've heard he has an enormous souvenir panty collection. Now I understand. Sure, let's go." Oddly, we never ran into Findlay again, even though we attended all the popular events. Her many friends were becoming more accepting of me and included me in their conversations. If anyone ever acted haughty toward me, Lydia set them straight immediately, intolerant of a single condescending remark. I was her man and she made sure everyone knew it. She was a force-of-nature confidence booster.

For that, and a myriad of other reasons, I asked for her hand in marriage early in my senior year. She said yes without hesitation. Both sets of parents were thrilled, surprisingly hers, even more so. They deemed me to be a good fit for their daughter. We set the date for a June wedding following graduation, allowing nine months for the women to plan for the big day. Her parents lived in Spartanburg, South Carolina only seventy-five miles from Charlotte. She wanted to get married in her home Church there but agreed to live with me in a suburb of Charlotte where we'd planned to live and work. I was doing well in my studies despite her distracting me. Life was perfect.

A month later after an awesome night of passionate lovemaking, Lydia and I took a shower together and playfully cleaned each other up. She could take the most mundane thing in the world and make a super-sexy game of it. How I loved that girl.

As we were lying together on the bed afterward, she commenced, "Nolan, what do you think of Jocelyn? Do you think she's pretty?"

"I wouldn't say she's anywhere near your class of beauty, my love, but she's attractive in her own way I suppose. Why do you ask?"

"Have you ever imagined being with her, you know, making love with her?"

"Lydia, I swear. YOU are the only one I want to be with, no one else. I have never mentioned Jocelyn to you in that way. She's your roommate, nothing more. I have zero interest in her. I am going to marry YOU, and I never think of her when we're making love."

"No, silly," she defended. "I'm not worried about you leaving me for her. I'm not jealous about anything like that at all. It's just..."

"Just what, girl? Say it? What are you getting at then?" I queried.

"Okay, there's something I've been meaning to discuss with you for several days now. Could you please hold off on any questions or comments until AFTER I've finished explaining what's on my mind? Could you wait, please?"

"Sure baby. I'm all ears and my lips are locked. I won't say a word until you tell me everything that's on your mind."

"Thank you, sweetie. You're the best man for me in the whole wide world, and nothing's ever going to change that. Nothing. But Jocelyn and I have been talking a lot lately, and she thinks you're, well, she thinks you're hot, to put it bluntly. You have no idea how it makes me feel to hear her say that. I mean, sure, I know how hot and exciting you are but to have outside validation from someone like her to appreciate you in the same ways I do, I don't know, it just does something to me, makes me tingle all over. Other than you, she's my best friend and I value her opinion. And when she speaks so highly of you, saying she wants to make love to you to sample all of your wonderfulness, how could I ever become jealous of such a thing?"

Lydia continued, "We're going to be married in June and I can't wait for that to happen. I want to give you babies and live the dream life that we both imagine for ourselves, together, forever. Yet, there's a certain part of me that wonders why we shouldn't expand our horizons a little bit, you know, sow some wild oats before we officially tie the knot. Once we're married, there'll be no more chances for anything like that for either of us, and that's the way it should be. But I was just bouncing some ideas around with Jocelyn a while back, and thought, what would be so wrong with opening ourselves up as a couple, and doing a little experimenting before that door closes forever? I don't mean on any regular basis, you know, just now and then. Think about it, maybe Jocelyn could bring some new techniques and enhancements to your lovemaking that you could share with me in turn. And maybe I could learn a thing or two from someone else to help us up our game, to become the best possible passionate lovers we can be to each other. It doesn't have to be Jocelyn if you don't feel that way about her. You could practically have your pick of almost any girl on campus and spread your wings a bit. Doesn't it make perfect sense to try to do everything we can to enhance our future lives together as we walk together toward the path of holy matrimony? Okay, thank you for your patience. What do you think about my suggestion, sweetie?"

I sat there stunned. My mind was reeling. We'd just had what I was already imagining was the best sex of my entire life, and here she is suggesting it was not enough?

"Honey? Why aren't you saying anything? It's your turn to talk now. Go ahead, sweetie."

I couldn't believe my ears. I have no idea why she was suggesting this. I never expressed any desire to be with anyone but her. I needed more information, so I took a deep breath, exhaled, and tried to put together a coherent response.

"Lydia, honey, are you unsatisfied or unfulfilled in some way with our sex life? Am I not enough for you?"

"What? No, sweetie. You're looking at this all wrong. I'm completely satisfied with you in every way. It's not that anything is missing or insufficient in our relationship. That's not it at all. I was only thinking; what if there was something that either you or I could ADD to our love life, things that neither of us would be aware of but could still enhance our intimacy once we've both experienced it? Don't you see what I'm getting at?"

"Oh, I hear what you're saying loud and clear. But I do have a question or two. Is that alright?"

"Of course sweetheart, that's what we're doing right now, discussing this for both of our benefits. Ask me anything, anything at all."

"Okay, it seems that you and Jocelyn have already discussed this without me and both of you suggest her for me as my first sex partner. Did I get that right?"

"We did discuss it, yes, just two girls exploring different ideas and options and bouncing them off each other. We both thought that, since you know her so well and she's my bestie, well, it was just a suggestion. If you have someone else in mind, all you have to do is tell me."

"I see. That's not where I was going with my question. My question is this, if you two have already proposed that I should sexually experiment with Jocelyn, please tell me dear, who did you have in mind that YOU should sexually experiment with in your free-spirited trysts?"

A look of nervousness overtook her as she averted her eyes endeavoring to be coy about her response. "Oh, no one specific. I haven't given it a lot of thought, to be honest. I was mostly concerned about you being happy with whoever might be with you."

"Come on, now. You can't tell me that at least one man's name hasn't crossed your mind. Surely you have at least one name you can give me to allow me to have a complete perspective of what you're suggesting."

"Well, since you've put it that way, there might be one name that just popped into my head for possible consideration."

"And who would that be?"

"Well, whether you know it or not, Jocelyn has gone out a few times with Findlay recently."

"I see, when you say Findlay, do you mean Findlay Stevenson? Your ex-boyfriend? The one you caught cheating on you multiple times? The one you have avoided at all costs to preclude any confrontations? That Findlay Stevenson?"

She just quietly nodded.

"If you were avoiding him before, why do suddenly think he would now be your perfect sex partner?"

"Don't be silly, YOU'RE my perfect sex partner, sweetie. But there are a couple of reasons I might consider him. First and foremost is that since everyone knows you and I are engaged to be married, he no longer considers me his property. He has accepted that the better man won, you! So he's no threat to us in any way. Secondly, it's because of his cheating ways that make him a good candidate. He gets around to more than a few of the women on campus. So he has experienced many more potential opportunities to learn the best of the best techniques to please and satisfy a woman in every way. I could learn everything I could from him and bring back those things for you and me to try out, to discover if they may be techniques that could enhance our own sex life. Does that make sense?"