Fifth Anniversary Honeymoon Cruise Ch. 05

"Remember way back when I told you no matter how cold you were at the start, if any man managed to get you wet enough to get into you, you would get hot and have an orgasm? Well you proved that I was right, at least the part about getting into you! I also said that your ass would get hot if it happened! I would have loved to have given you a very hard spanking when it did happen! However, I saw something else too, or, more accurately, I didn't hear something else! Not once in the entire week did I hear you give that shriek, or whatever you call it, that hurt my ears when you had an orgasm!"

"Oh my god, Mark, I remember that! Looking back on it, I would have welcomed that spanking. You are right about how I reacted. I'll admit that I enjoyed the sex, but only in a physical way. Whatever it is that sets me off and gives me the orgasm that you always did was missing with Henry. It felt good and I would even have a small climax, but no more than if I were masturbating. Damn it, how could I have been so stupid as to go with him? You warned me, you threatened me, you actually begged me and I was so wrapped up in Henry and my career that I turned you off. Well, I've paid for it!"

"Yes, you were blinded by Henry Johnstone and your desire to move up and we both paid a price. Now, before we go any further I want to return to you something you never should have lost" Reaching for her bare left hand, he carefully slid first her wedding band and then her engagement ring onto her third finger. Julie looked at her hand and burst into tears.

"Oh, Mark, thank you so much! I've missed those rings every single day! Every time I looked at my hand! I love those rings more than anything I've ever had and even if they don't signify what they once did, I'll wear them with love and pride. Thank you! This is such a wonderful surprise!"

"Well, honey, that is only part of the surprise!" He leaned over to an end table and picked up some papers and handed them to her.

She didn't look at the papers at as she hesitantly, "Honey? You called me honey!" She dropped her eyes to the papers and saw the words "Dissolution of Marriage" and was completely confused. She looked up at him questioningly.

"Those are the divorce forms you signed after leaving the ship. I never filed them. We were never divorced! I'm not your ex-husband and you are still my wife and I love you with all my heart!"

Julie sat there for a full thirty seconds, staring uncomprehendingly as Mark as his words slowly sank into her stunned mind. She heard the words, but their meaning was just too much to take in. Suddenly, her face was wreathed in an unbelieving smile as she launched herself at him. Her arms went around him as she buried her face in his chest. "My god, Mark, do you mean it? I don't believe it!" She finally rose up and started kissing him with abandon, kisses he returned with vigor. It was a good ten minutes until they settled down and were ready to talk.

"Mark, darling, I think that this is the best thing that could happen to me - has ever happened to me! All I hoped for was friendship and I wasn't even sure of that! Why did you do this? Why didn't you file the papers after you saw what happened on the cruise?"

"Well, as I said earlier, when I got on the ship I wanted to get explicit evidence to use, or threaten to use, in a divorce. Also, I wanted to disrupt things. I had no doubt that divorce was the way to go. I had no idea whether your relationship with Johnstone was a love affair, but it seemed likely since you blew away our cruise to go with him. I knew that your career was a part of it but it seemed so obvious that you could have gotten out of the conference cruise if you really wanted to.

"However, I very quickly saw that there was no love affair. I was amazed to see you so subordinate or, maybe better, submissive. I don't know what the word would be, but if he said something you agreed with it. If he told you to do something, you did it. He wasn't really ordering you around, but the result was the same. From the first night right through the cruise I could tell that you had sex with him but you never were really into it. You never initiated sex but you always complied. As I would have expected, once you were into it you enjoyed it, but when it was over, you had absolutely no interest in afterplay - which always has been a really big thing for you. Obviously you were not with him for the sex.

"That was good because, believe me, I was very unhappy with that sex. However, for me the physical intimacy was far less important than the emotional ties. I don't think that I could have gotten past a true love affair.

"The real turn around for me was when you talked about me with him. You didn't know that I was listening so your defense of me and your expressions of love for me had to be genuine. My real problem was the lack of respect you showed me, particularly that night you cancelled our cruise. Your comments to Henry showed both love and respect which was far more important than physical acts.

"However, while you didn't love him and you did love me, you were still there on a cruise that was killing our marriage. I knew about your compulsion to succeed in you work but I had no idea as to how much that drive controlled you. It literally was a case of putting career over me and our marriage. Henry had seduced you, but it appeared that you were vulnerable only because of your career objectives. I don't think that you ever sat down and cynically decided to go with him on the cruise for that reason, but it certainly played a major role.

"That was the problem when we returned. My lawyer had the papers ready and you signed them. I knew that I wanted for us to be together again - depending on which Julie went back to work. I knew that Johnstone was finished at the bank and that you would likely replace him. Would you be that driven person ready to do anything to move up the corporate ladder or would your career be important but kept in perspective? Would the queen bitch reappear? Would that arrogant, self-centered woman who blew off our fifth anniversary honeymoon cruise return? If yes, I was gone. I needed to know, so I waited.

"Fortunately, everything I heard was that you were doing an excellent job and, more importantly, there was absolutely no sign of that single-minded, excessive ambition reappearing. At that, my optimism grew. Then, to my real surprise - no, my shock - I heard that you had resigned after being assured that you would be promoted to vice president. Then I found out about the Wharton School and your part time job, I knew that the Julie I loved was really back. So, here we are.

"Oh Mark, this is so unexpected and so wonderful that I just can't absorb it all. My god, it changes my whole world. It's doing it in a wonderful way but my mind just doesn't work. I'm so happy that I...I...I just don't know what!"

"Well, one good thing! You can tell your 'wannabe lawyers' that you got your money - you're worth many millions. You no longer need to worry about grants, etc. to attend the Wharton School!"

"I hadn't even thought of the money! It's going to take a while to absorb that!"

"In addition, you don't have to envy this place - it's your home now. It was designed to have all the things that you wanted in a house!"

"Good lord, Mark, what have I ever done to deserve all of this? I ruined everything and you've given it back to me. I've got to be the luckiest woman in the world and you the most wonderful husband. While I thought that I had destroyed everything between us, you were planning a home for us!"

"Well, you've done some very good things. You broke the thrall that Johnstone had over you, proved that you loved me, broke that obsession with climbing the corporate ladder and replaced it with a worthwhile goal. Most important, you're going to be a loyal and faithful wife and bury the past!

"Now, there is one more thing to show you. Come into the bedroom which we are going to use shortly." He walked Julie over to the door of one of the walk-in closets which he hadn't shown her before. "The closet I opened before is mine, here is yours."

Julie looked inside and cried out, "Mark, those are all my beautiful clothes we had bought for out fifth anniversary honeymoon cruise! Thank heavens you kept them and that you prevented me from wearing them with Henry! You're wonderful!"

"Yes, you have those and we'll have to find more since I've booked an owners suite on The Harmony of the Seas for our sixth anniversary honeymoon cruise on this August 23!" Fortunately they were already in the bedroom so that Julie could show her appreciation and her love for her new-old husband! That melodic scream that "almost broke his eardrums" resounded throughout their new condo several times that night and would do so many, many times in the future!