It's Not All About Her

A big thank you to blackrandi1958 for the invitation to her "When A Man Loves a Woman" writing event and for her editing talent.

Griff Watson sipped the last of his champagne from his flute and looked over at his beautiful wife, who was sitting in the chair next to him on the deck outside of their hotel room. It was a fantastic week on the big island of Hawaii for him and his bride of 25 years.

He wondered if any man could be so lucky. The trip to Hawaii was to celebrate their anniversary. Imagine being married for 25 years to this goddess and having two great children in college back on the mainland.

The woman looked over at her husband and caught him looking intently at her. It was a look she had seen a lot over the years. She had asked the question probably 1,000 times over the years, but asked it again, anyway, already knowing his answer. An answer that always pleased her.

"What? What are you thinking, Griff?" she asked.

"That I'm the luckiest son of a bitch on the planet. I've got a beautiful sexy wife, two great kids and I'm living the dream. I know I don't deserve this, but Lord, if this is a dream, I don't ever want to wake up," he asserted.

His wife got up out of her chair, leaned down and gave him a kiss that melted his heart... half innocence, half burning desire. God, he loved this woman.

"How about I refill our glasses, then we get dressed for our last dinner on the island?" she said to her husband.

"Great idea," he said as in his mind, he drifted back to the beginning...

She was absolutely beautiful, he thought, the first time he laid eyes on her: pale complexion with a smattering of small freckles across the bridge of her nose, bright, almost glowing green eyes, long red hair down to the middle of her back, 5-9, maybe 115 pounds, much of it in her chest and long, well-proportioned legs. She was with three other girls, all of whom were good-looking in their own right, but he was instantly smitten with her. She smiled in his general direction as the four made their way to the bar at the club just off the edge of campus. He needed to go introduce himself, but for the first time ever, he was tongue-tied; his brain no longer getting enough blood as it was all flowing much lower.

"Griff. Griff. Griff!" yelled Billy Mayfair, Griff's roommate and friend.

Griff snapped back into the real world and looked at his friend.

"What?" he snarled.

"That's four fine babes, bud. What say we go introduce ourselves? There's two for each of us," Billy said.

"Sounds about right, but what say that tonight I go for the redhead only and you take the other three somewhere?"

"Seriously? You'd give me three and just take the one? You feel good, bud?" Billy asked.

"Serious as a heart attack, dude. I'm pretty sure I was just looking at the future Mrs. Griffin Watson," Griff related.

The two young men made their way over to the four women, who were standing in a small circle. Griff visibly gulped, then introduced himself to the redhead.

"Two-fisted drinker?" asked the redhead as she looked at the beer in each of Griff's hands.

"I'm ambidextrous. Don't like to show favorites," Griff said.

The redhead smiled brightly, her eyes seeming to glow as she did. Griff watched transfixed. He could tell she was debating with herself whether to give him her real name or invent one.

"Reece. Reece Davidson. I'm a junior at U-Dub," she announced.

"I'm a junior there, too. How come I've never seen you on campus before? What's your major?" Griff queried.

"Actuarial science. I'm shooting to be one of those boring people who sits in a cubicle and figures mortality rates and stuff like that," she said.

Griff raised his eyebrows and nodded.

"That's probably why I've never seen you before. I spend my time over with the math geeks. I'm an accounting major. I thought I was going into a boring existence, but accounting seems like a party compared to ac sci."

"I'd slap you a good one, but in reality you're right," she said.

Just then Billy walked up to Griff and handed him his half-filled beer, making it three beers that Griff was holding in his hands, and went off to dance with one of the other three women. Reece looked at the beers and frowned. After a few more minutes of talking with the woman, Griff forgot which beers were his and which one was Billy's, so he began drinking and rotating the bottles. Reece rolled her eyes and started to head back to her friends.

"Shit," Griff said out loud to himself before finding a table and putting down all three bottles. He walked over to where Reece was now standing and tried to re-engage with the woman.

"Umm... would you go out on a date with me next Friday?" he asked.

The woman gave him a look that he interpreted as disgust, then shook her head.

"Nah. Not happening," she said.

Griff walked away silently.

Spring was just starting to blossom around campus three months later when a familiar face pulled up the chair opposite Griff's at an area Starbuck's. He looked up from the book he was reading to see Reece smiling back at him.

"Hello, stranger. Remember me?" she asked with an innocent smile on her face.

"How come you never called after we met a few months back?" she said sweetly. "You're the first guy never to call me after having the guts to chat me up in a bar."

"You turned me down flat when I asked you out. Why would I call you after you shot me down?" Griff questioned.

"That never stopped the others," she said. "You either got your feelings hurt or you lack balls."

Griff glared back at the woman.

"You really think a lot of yourself, don't you? Did you ever think that I didn't call you because I don't need to beg from someone who turned me down. Simple as that," he said.

Reece frowned. This was an attitude she had never experienced before. In her mind, the young man should have been hanging on her every word, happy for any morsel of attention she deigned to throw his way.

He drank his coffee and watched her confusion as it played out across her face and in those expressive green eyes. Life to this point had taught him that pretty girls knew they could almost always get their way simply by smiling at a man. He had gotten off that merry-go-round as a junior in high school when his first real teenage crush cheated on him with a senior. He emerged from that debacle a wiser man, he believed, and maybe a changed man forever.

The woman sat silently across from him, trying to read his face the way he was reading hers. She was failing miserably.

"All right, how about I say yes?" she asked.

"Yes to what?"

He knew what she was saying, but at this point he wanted to hear her say it out loud; let it be her decision. He would not ask her a second time.

"Yes, I will go out on a date with you," she said.

"Wise choice this time around. I like a woman who's got flexibility of thought," Griff said.

The pair became inseparable. They were well-matched intellectually as well as sexually. They both knew they were going to have good careers. In fact, they both got jobs in Chicago and moved in together. A year later they were married and both were moving up rapidly in their respective firms.

The two agreed to put off having children until Reece completed her actuarial exams. She had three of the nine done by the time she graduated and passed the remaining six within four years of graduation. Eighteen months later, she was promoted to assistant vice president and the sky seemed to be the limit.

With two big jobs and no children, the pair was free to come and go as they pleased, taking several nice vacations over the next few years, eating at expensive restaurants and hardly ever sitting at home on weekends. They lived in a tony suburb, had memberships at a local gym and became avid bicyclists.

Griff surprised his wife by taking her on a north to south tour of Italy for the couple's fifth anniversary. They started in Milan and ended on the Isle of Capri, taking in historical sites, art museums and beaches in their two weeks of traveling. Griff even took Reece to the Vatican. As a Lutheran he had no desire to go, but he knew that his Catholic wife would be thrilled with how thoughtful he was. She rewarded him handsomely that night in the bedroom as the two went "around the world" for the first time in their years together.

She also let her husband put sunscreen on all of her exposed skin when she laid out on a beach in Naples in a skimpy green bikini that was barely more than a thong.

"Hey, hey, hey!" she whispered at one point when his hand lingered too long on one of her ass cheeks as he gently rubbed in the lotion. "This is a public beach, and there are families all around us."

"I thought Europeans had more laid back attitudes about sex than Americans," he whispered back.

"That may be true, but I don't think that works on public beaches. Besides, I don't want you molesting me in front of those teenage boys lying just a few yards away. I don't want them learning sex education from me," she giggled.

Reece had no clue why the company CEO, John Brooks, wanted to meet with her for lunch one day about two years later. Reece spent the day before the meeting fretting that she was going to get fired, but Griff was more optimistic.

"You're doing great. Why would you think you're going to get the big sack?" Griff said over the dinner table. "In fact, I would think that this might be 'the talk.' You're a successful, smart woman in a man-dominated industry. If your board of directors is paying attention, having a woman among its top executive group would be a smart thing... in several ways."

From reading the company's online bios, Reece knew John Brooks was 60 years old, but she thought he looked more like 50 when he rose from his seat to greet her in the high-end restaurant the next day. She had seen him before at company events, but had never been introduced before, and had never seen him this close up. His dark brown hair had flecks of gray throughout, making him look distinguished to go along with handsome. His finely tailored suit also showed her he was very fit physically.

She wasn't sure why she flushed when he extended his hand. The room seemed to get a few degrees warmer as well, she thought.

The meal and discussion lasted two hours and included several glasses of expensive wine. The wine was very good and gave her a slight buzz, but if she would have had time to examine the situation carefully, she would have realized that her slight disorientation, if you will, wasn't all from the wine. She noted to herself several times the slight tingling in her lower stomach and the dampness forming in her panties. Several times she had to drag her brain back to the conversation with Brooks. She hoped he didn't notice that she was a little distracted.

Griff was right. This was "the talk." John told her the board of directors thought she had a bright future as a top executive and wanted to move her career on that track. Commensurate raises, bonuses and other perks would be forthcoming, but along with that would be increased responsibilities and stresses, he explained. He looked directly at Reece and gave what even she considered to be a smarmy grin. She never responded verbally, but gave a definite nod. She knew she was consenting to do whatever it would take to move forward professionally, even if it meant...

"I'm glad we understand each other," John said quietly.

As usual, Reece got home before her husband and started dinner, moving about almost as if in a daze. She was apprehensive, fearful and... absolutely turned on. She knew her arousal had nothing to do with her husband, but he was going to be the recipient of that when he walked in the door.

Dinner was about an hour late that night. Reece gave Griff just enough time to put his keys, phone and wallet down before wrapping him in a passionate embrace and covering her lips with his. After a minute of her tongue exploring his mouth, Griff lifted his wife and carried her upstairs, stopping long enough for Reece to shut the oven.

Reece literally tossed his wife on the bed. She bounced up and giggled while Griff dove onto the bed.

It wasn't entirely unusual for Reece to greet Griff at the door with amorous intentions, but it hadn't happened in the past year. Griff's hard dick was doing all the thinking at that moment, however, so he never gave his wife's intentions a second thought.

Griff had no problem smelling his wife's arousal as he quickly stripped off all their clothes, scattering them throughout the room. He growled and dove face forward into what he discovered was an incredibly wet pussy. Reece screamed and locked her thighs around her husband's head, bucking up fiercely into his face. Her first buck knocked his head back hard and brought tears to his eyes, but he managed to grab a gulp of air and licked and sucked her into a full, mind-numbing orgasm, her body shaking as if she'd been shocked.

Several seconds later, Griff realized he hadn't had a breath in some time, and started tapping furiously on her left hip, which was their signal that she needed to let him catch a breath. It took a bit for Reece to realize she was being tapped before she released the death grip on his head. Griff sucked in air like a drowning man reaching the water's surface.

By the time Griff crawled his way up his wife's body, his face was covered with her juices. He slid his hard dick into her hot, wet box and leaned down for a wet, sloppy kiss.

"Mmm... I taste good on your lips," she rasped.

When the two finally got downstairs and Reece began to re-do dinner, Griff sat at the table and asked her about her meeting with John Brooks. She quickly looked over at her husband to see if she could tell if he suspected anything, then realized she was probably being paranoid.

She told him the basics of her meeting, including the fact that she would probably be working longer hours and have to travel occasionally. She was gratified when Griff told her he understood and completely supported her... although he was concerned when she told him she wanted to delay having children for a few more years.

"I'm just now starting to move up. You can see that missing significant time for childbirth would put a brick on my moving up," she asserted.

Griff let out a heavy sigh. He really wanted children, they both did, but if she wanted to wait, he could put that dream on hold as well.

"I get it. I completely understand," he said with as much fake sincerity as he could muster. "I'm with you, Ree. I'm really proud of you. We still have plenty of time for kids."

Reece's face split with a huge smile. She gave out a sigh of relief.

"You... are an amazing man, hon," she said as her eyes filled with tears. She stopped what she was doing, went over to him and gave him a passionate kiss.

"You keep that up and dinner is going to be even later," he whispered.

John Brooks waited about four months before he began his pursuit of Reece in earnest. Although she felt some guilt about playing along, she had to admit to herself that John surely was a handsome, well-built, charming man. It wasn't like she was being hit on by a troll.

"No, definitely not a troll," was Reece's first thought when John rolled off her body after an hour-long episode underneath the Geneva Insurance Co. CEO.

Reece came four times from John's mouth, fingers and dick in the first of what she knew would be many encounters. As she lay on the bed panting and listening to John pant as well, she had to admit the man knew what he was doing. She hoped she pleased him as much as he did her.

"That was amazing, John," she said softly. "You are every bit as good as you've been telling me."

John chuckled. His immediate thought was to ask the younger woman if he was better than her husband, but from their previous conversations knew that any mention of her husband was off the table. Bragging on himself, though, was allowed.

"I told you I don't lie. In fact, I expect it to be better next time, now that I know my way around that hot body a little bit," he said.

"I look forward to that," she giggled.

Reece didn't even think of her husband at all during the encounter with John. It wasn't until she was cleaning up afterward that she first thought of Griff. She was surprised that she didn't feel all that guilty about what she had just done.

Griff was watching a Chicago Bulls game on the big screen in the family room when Reece walked into the house from the garage. She made sure to keep her actions as close to normal as possible, even though her insides were doing flip-flops. Would Griff be able to tell just by looking at her, she wondered? At least she knew she cleaned up enough that there was no telltale smells or physical signs, but she was also smart enough not to have fresh toothpaste on her breath or fresh perfume or soap smell on her body.

"I assume you grabbed something to eat at the office, but if not, there's a few slices of pizza and a breadstick left in the box in the kitchen," Griff called out.

Reece drifted into the room about 30 seconds later, munching on a piece of pizza and holding a plate with two slices on it. If he could smell anything on her, it would be pepperoni. She stopped chewing, swallowed and leaned down to give her husband a kiss.

"Missed you, babe. Glad you're home," he said.

Reece drifted off into the bedroom and came out in a T-shirt and sweatpants. She flopped down on the sofa next to her husband and finished her plate of pizza. Nothing seemed out of place, she thought.

The long private lunches with Brooks became an every week occurrence for Reece. A few late evenings also became common. She began to look forward to her next session with John. She knew part of the attraction was the illicit nature of what she was doing, but part of it was also due to the fact that John was every bit as good as her husband in bed. Between John and Griff, she felt very fulfilled sexually.

Reece was always very careful to straighten up before she went home.

Although she never initiated sex with her husband on the same day she had sex with her lover, those instances still came up occasionally, and not wanting to make Griff suspicious, Reece gave him unknowing sloppy seconds. She about peed herself with nerves the first time it happened, but she was also aroused beyond belief at the prospect of having sex with two different men within hours of each other.

Griff noticed how wet Reece was on that first time, but never gave it a second thought. For her part, Reece was relieved when she saw nothing but her fluids on Griff's dick while he was fucking her.

"Damn, you are one hot bitch, Ree!" Griff groaned at one point in the proceedings.

With the exception of not having children, Griff thought his life was just about perfect. He was making a six-figure salary and his wife was well above that. They had moved to a bigger, more expensive house, took great vacations and best of all, he had a beautiful wife whom he believed loved him as much as he loved her.

Griff wondered what the emergency was that made his friend Jim Talley call him during a workday. Jim never called during work hours, respecting both his own boss and Griff too much to interrupt work for personal calls. He wondered if something had happened to Jim's wife or parents as he picked up the call.

"Something up, Tal?" he answered as he addressed his friend by his nickname.

"Uh... umm... yeah, Griff," his friend said awkwardly. "You got a minute for me?"

"Always, bud. What's wrong? Somebody sick?" Griff replied.

"Nobody's sick, Griff, but yeah, something's wrong, I think," Tal said hesitantly.

"Come on, bud, you know you can tell me anything. Just take a breath and say it," Griff directed.