Friend with Benefits

It was far harder going back through the wood in darkness but I eventually made it and arrived back at the house just before midnight. Entering quietly I found them sitting demurely at either end of the settee. I sought out Phil's eyes questioningly but he almost imperceptibly shook his head from side to side. During the rest of his holiday, I never directly asked my friend about his progress but depended on the same silent interrogation with my eyes, particularly when they had spent the day alone together, but always I received the same negative answer. I was constantly on the look out for other signs. There seemed to be many reasons for them to embrace and kiss, and I felt that sometimes he seemed to caress her while passing in a rather possessive way. These I took as encouraging signs that real intimacy between them was imminent. The most promising occurred while they were sitting side by side on the settee and Alice absentmindedly reached out her hand to start stroking his groin. Realising what she was doing, she jerked her hand away guiltily and I took this as being a subliminal sign of what she wanted to do.

In the airport departure lounge I had a private word with him before Alice claimed her final embrace. "No luck," he said before I could ask. "I think you can be pretty certain that Alice is not going to go with any other man." Even though feeling a degree of frustration that my grand plan had come to nothing, I had to agree that if she could resist Phil with unlimited opportunities for three months then she was unlikely to fall for any casual passing Romeo.

Just less than a month after his return to Africa, Alice discovered that she was pregnant and I was immediately terribly grateful that Phil had been unable to seduce her. My wife was going to become a mother and mothers were, by definition, far less likely to screw around than young fancy-free wives. All thoughts of her possible infidelity fled and I started wearing my 'father's head' long before the happy event, voluntarily forgoing actual sex for the last six months of the pregnancy and the first three afterwards. Our son Paul, born over a week late, was a good size and perfect. Perfect that is, except for a large port wine birth mark, shaped like an anvil, on the back of his head. It was a blemish so we investigated the possibility of having it removed. The surgeon that we consulted said that it was possible, was definitely expensive, would be painful and could effect normal hair growth. On the other hand, he pointed out that Paul's hair would grow to cover it completely and that he might go for the rest of his life without anyone realising that it was there. We left well alone and by our son's second birthday there was no trace of the mark to be seen.

We had missed a couple of expected letters from Phil but that sometimes happened when he was busy. He had started sending us video tapes of his activities, these often featuring his various girl friends in social situations. We had actually initiated the sending of videos to let him share in Paul as the child grew. When a letter came, my friend explained that he had been rather ill. He had succumbed to a tropical parasitic infection of the hair follicles and the treatment had included him losing every bit of hair from his body. The letter jokingly said that the video would let us see what a freak this had made him. The bald head was a shock but both Alice and I could not help laughing as he grimaced in close up to the camera missing both eyebrows and eyelashes. The video was shot mainly in a swimming bath so his bare chest and legs were also very noticeable. One of the later shots was taken from behind as he prepared to run and make a racing dive into the water. Grabbing the remote control, I rewound quickly to the start of the shot and then paused it in horror as I gazed at the anvil shaped birthmark on the back of his head.

Having regained my breath I turned and looked at Alice. "His sperms must be better at swimming than yours," she said calmly.

"I didn't know. I didn't know that you did it with him."

"Of course we did – it's what you wanted isn't it?"

I could not deny it. "How long. For how much of his holiday were you....?"

"Screwing? All the time - virtually from the start."

"When exactly?"

"From the afternoon you deliberately left us alone. The day you got that so called urgent call to go in to work. You couldn't have made it more obvious what we were expected to do if you had given us a manual on how to fuck. So we took you at your word. It started with a couple of hours on Phil's bed in the afternoon and when you did not come home we went back for seconds in the evening. After that we were at any time that you weren't around."

"Why didn't you tell me?" The whole thing hurt like hell but that was my only legitimate grumble."

"Phil wanted to; he said that he had made some kind of promise. I said 'No' because it would have spoiled the whole atmosphere. Can you imagine the expression on your face arriving home knowing what we had been doing all day."

I suddenly remembered something. "So that is why, during that time that you were sometimes too tired or had a headache?" Alice very rarely knocked me back when I wanted her.

"Yes. Most of the time I could hump Phil during the day and then look after you at night but occasionally we went a bit mad so that I finished up either stretched or sore and I couldn't risk you guessing the reason why."

"Well you certainly let yourself get seduced pretty damn quickly," I said bitterly.

"It was hardly being seduced – he had fucked me before."

"Before – when?" My mind was reeling facing revelation after revelation.

"When the four of us were living together. Remember you gave Aimee some driving lessons – that's when we got it together. I had just got round to realising that I was going to finish up marrying you and I wanted to check that I had not picked the wrong one that first day we all met."

"I thought that was decided by Phil picking Aimee."

"Don't be silly," she said.

"It took you three sessions with him before you decided that I was the right one then?"

"No, I decided after the first screw but I liked doing it with him and thought why not while I had the chance. To be honest – we didn't think that it was really driving lessons that Aimee was getting off you."

"But you decided to stick with me."

"Obviously. Phil was perfect lover material but you were far the better prospect for a husband and father. "

"Father! That is ironic after what I have just discovered."

"Just because his sperm was the one that managed to batter its way into one of my eggs does not make him a father. Phil will never be a father in the way that you are going to be. He is going to make an ideal uncle though. Be honest – do you love our son any less since you watched that video?"

I had to admit that this unwelcome knowledge did not really affect me at all – Paul was still my child. "Are we going to tell Phil?" For some reason, her answer to this was more important to me than the detail of biological parentage.

"I don't see why we should," Alice said. "It would only embarrass him."

Just over a week later Alice took me to the shops to buy a new bed. It was giant king size and seemed to be twice the size of our existing double bed. I thought that it was completely over the top but she seemed to have set her heart on it.

The next letter from Phil said that he was shortly taking another three month leave of absence and asked if he could once more depend on our hospitality whilst he was in England. The accompanying video showed that his hair was well on the way back to normal.

During the weeks prior to his arrival Alice and I never discussed the matter but I assumed that Phil would resume having sexual relations with my wife and more or less resigned myself to the fact. An aberrant part of my psyche actually welcomed the thought because the strain of a small child had tended to take some of the excitement out of going to bed. It seemed that Alice had been thinking further ahead than me for I was to discover the real reason for the king sized bed. Phil was hardly inside the house before she announced brightly, "As for sleeping arrangements - I thought that the three of us could bunk in together."

When the time came it happened without build up or ceremony. Alice simply got up and took her mug into the kitchen and it was well over a minute before Phil or I realised that she had gone up to bed and made move to follow. My wife was already in bed when we entered the bedroom, lying in the middle with the covers pulled up to her neck. Without even a glance towards my friend I stripped naked, as was my habit, and then slid into my side of the bed. I think Phil held back to let me get in bed first but when he did it was he that my wife rolled to face rather than me. Rather than cede the field the field completely to him, I enthusiastically fondled her buttocks as they kissed.

In theory it should have been a bit traumatic for the first time seeing my wife being fucked by another man but it wasn't. Thinking about this afterwards, I decided that one reason may be that I knew that they had enjoyed sex together many times before. Also I had seen Phil in action multiple times in the past when we had same room sex with our respective pick ups and even a couple of occasions when we had tag teamed one girl. This situation was really familiar territory with the only difference being that it was my wife being shared.

It was understandable that, after his long absence, Phil should get a lot of attention initially but I felt that he continued to get too great a slice of the cake. We fondled her together, like two surgeons working on either side of the same patient, (politely saying 'Excuse me' if our hands accidentally touched) but only ever had sex singly, with him invariably getting first bite of the cherry. Sometimes when Phil had taken time bringing his turn to a close, Alice would say to me, "I am a bit tired love, do you mind giving it a miss tonight." It was a bit galling then to wake up later in the middle of the night and find them at it again. These extra sessions after I was asleep seemed pretty regular, whether I had claimed my marital rights or not.

Once there occurred the only occasion that we could be said to have had sex with her simultaneously. I woke up to lying on my side with my face buried between her tits. Quite naturally I started sucking on a nipple, later to move up for some passionate kissing while squeezing her breasts with my hand. It was not all one way for she grabbed my prick and worked on it in a meaningful way. Gradually I realised that her body was moving quite independently of my activity so I felt round behind her to investigate the reason. I found that Phil was up her rectum and had been quietly and mechanically humping away all the time.

Discussing sexual preferences with Alice many years afterwards, she told me that Phil had rather a predilection for anal sex. I liked it that way generally only as part of a special sex session where Phil, it seemed, preferred her cunt for grandstand sex but liked the back way for a long leisurely screw. He also always did it lying on his side behind her instead on top as was my way.

Like lightening striking twice, within a month of my friend returning to the Dark Continent, Alice found that she was pregnant again. The big question was in both of our minds during the pregnancy so it was with great relief that we found no sign of an anvil on the new baby boy's head. For some reason I remained uneasy. The fact that my wife had fallen for two unplanned pregnancies was no surprise because she was notoriously cavalier with her birth pills, generally having four or five left over at the end of every month. However, it did seem improbable, that I should have managed to avoid impregnating her so successfully for so long but the luck had run out both times that she had been exposed to Phil. A secret test showed that, while I was not completely infertile, my sperm count was most abnormally low. Therefore it was virtually certain that Phil was the father of Stuart as well.

I could not keep this information from Alice but she received the news in pragmatic fashion. She pointed out how lucky I was then to have two fine sons and that I was little different from other similar men who were only able to achieve fatherhood through the aid of a sperm donor.

It may seem strange, almost unbelievable, but, except for the month prior to his expected return, Alice and I never discussed Phil's special relationship with her. In all respects we were the same as most couples bringing up a young family and even when receiving a communication from Africa; it might have been from any long term family friend.

His next announced visit provided shocks for me in two respects, the first being that he was returning this time after two years instead of three. He said that he was fed up with the Mugabe regime in what was now Zimbabwe, so had moved to South Africa; despite the high crime rate he thought it would be safer. His letter explained that from now on he would be working two-year contracts with six weeks accrued leave each time instead of three months. As the time drew near, I was looking forward almost as eagerly as Alice because, apart from the sex thing, I did enjoy seeing him and treasured the long evenings listening to his tales. Just before his arrival, the second shock came in my wife's bombshell when she said, "The sleeping arrangements did not work too well last time – I know that it made you a bit peevish. So it might be better if you moved into the spare room and let Phil sleep with me by himself – it is only for six weeks this time after all, not three months."

"How do you expect me to go for six weeks without any?" I pleaded.

"You went without for nine months when both of the boys were on the way – six weeks should be a doddle."

"You helped me out from time to time," I argued.

"I expect that I will be able to help you out again," Alice smiled and as far as she was concerned the matter was settled.

Despite her offer I still felt aggrieved. "Well for fucks sake make sure that you take all of your birth control pills. I don't want to find myself raising any more of Phil's bastards," I heard myself saying angrily.

My wife was stunned by the vehemence of my words. "You can't mean that," she said.

I did not mean it and I was ashamed of my outburst. "Forget what I said," I told her. "It's just that when he turns up I feel like second best."

She took my hand, kissed me, sat me down and said softly, "You can get that idea out of your head straight away. You are not second best, you're the best. I think that you are the best husband in the world and I love you – I don't love Phil. Let me try to explain. I like having sex with him, it's exiting and he makes me feel very wanton but it is not satisfying – I want more and more. The difference is that he fucks me but you make love and making love is best in the long run. After doing it once with you I am satisfied and can go to sleep contented – more contented than after any number of times with him. The thing is that I do like his exciting way of sex and having so little time with him, I want to get as much as I can."

Mollified I allowed myself to be reduced to the status of lodger. The good thing was that I did collect lodgers perks in that on those evenings that Phil went out alone I got a quick screw in my bedroom. On other occasions when there was less time, Alice was happy to give me an efficient blow-job. This sex did have an extra pleasure due to the piquancy of the situation.

In a less admirable way, I got pleasure out of spying on them together. Twice I made my way to the top of the hill overlooking the house equipped with my binoculars. They always had at least the initial sex with the light on and the bedroom curtains were never drawn so, with the large bed nicely framed in the window, I got a perfect view. Many other times I crept along and stood listening outside their bedroom door. I still do not know if these actions were sick or perfectly natural.

His next visit two years down the line seemed to come on us in a flash but this time I was better prepared. Rightly guessing that it would be a re-run of the same situation I persuaded Alice that I should have a TV in the spare bedroom to keep my mind off what they were doing. I had also invested in a far better video camera with a remote control facility. I positioned this concealed on top of the wardrobe, angled down and focussed on the huge bed with hidden cabling connecting it to the TV set in my room. I was restricted to the single angle but had a zoom lens facility with two settings. With this set up, I was able to lie in bed and watch them every night of the full six weeks. Even when the light was turned off I still got excellent sound. To my shame, I even taped some of the sessions for later viewing. I got an inordinate amount of perverse pleasure from this activity and it was only after Phil had left that it began to work on my conscience. Every way that I looked it, the conclusion was the same – I was definitely becoming sick in the head.

When the next bi-annual visit was imminent, the weight of guilt became too much and I decided that I could not expose myself to the same temptation again. There was also another factor to be considered. I told Alice that I could no longer be relegated to the guest room because the boys were now old enough to notice the irregularity of the situation. She said that the same point had occurred to her, which was why she and Phil were taking a two week holiday in Cyprus. This was to be their only time together and apart from that, normal family life would not be disrupted.

This became the pattern that was to be repeated half a dozen times in the future with them going either to Cyprus or a Greek island. The boys came to regard it as a normal part of life that their mother would go off on holiday with Uncle Phil every so often. The first time (or maybe twice), that Alice and Phil went off like that, I thought about them a lot while they were away but it was visions of them walking hand in hand along a beach as carefree lovers that tormented me rather than ones of them engaged in sex. Later I gave them no more thought than any family member away on holiday.

Another pattern that emerged was that they constantly reneged on the terms of the deal. Although I remained in possession of the marital bed, their sexual activity was not confined to the two weeks they were away together. With the kids out of the way, sitting watching television side by side during the evening, his hand was often inside her blouse and it was not uncommon for Alice to get his penis out and suck him off unconcerned whether I watched or concentrated on the television program. At other times, mainly during the day at weekends, they would blatantly announce that they were 'going for a lie down' leaving me to entertain the boys and Alice frequently left our bed for his but was always back by my side in the morning.

When I was in my late thirties, on one of Phil's visits there was a new development that upset me. Alice and he set off to a party thrown by someone he knew from Rhodesia and did not return until the following day. Alice happily told me that it had turned into a wife swapping party, not hiding the fact that they had joined in. I immediately declared that she was my wife and that nobody was entitled to swap her but me. Alice set me straight saying, "Nobody is entitled to swap me at all – I swap if I want to swap," but then she tried to make me feel better saying, "It's not worth getting in a twist over. It was just a collection of pricks and not very big pricks at that. I don't know why I bothered." Despite this, on his next visit they went to another similar party and again she claimed to be disappointed.