Love Me Tender - Please Pt. 01

The long forgotten taste came back to him from his teen years. Back then, some of the results of his masturbatory fantasies would sometimes intentionally find their way onto his tongue. She played with him and they passed his spending back and forth between them.

As if on signal, they each swallowed what was in their own mouth and Karen slumped down alongside of him.

"I am totally beat and I have to get up early tomorrow," she said.

"How come?"

"I joined a gym and tomorrow is my first day. I'll get up at six and make it to the gym by six-thirty. We have an hour before we have to get showered and dressed for work."

Ray was agitated at her revelation and he pushed himself up to face her in the darkness.

"How come I didn't know anything about this?"

"How could you," she replied. "We haven't spoken in almost a week. Remember?"

"Why did you join a gym?"

"I'm losing weight, even if you haven't noticed, and I want to tone up some. That's why!"

She was a little annoyed at the sound of his accusatory tone but she held her temper.

"I noticed," he said defensively. "Who's we?"

"Three of the girls at work. We're getting in shape for bikini season," she giggled.

"You don't own a bikini," he responded. "You've always said you didn't have the body for one."

"Well, I'm going to get the body for one," she snapped. "Watch me!"

"I didn't mean to start another fight," he snapped back. "I'm sorry. I'm just surprised, that's all."

"Well don't be," she said and turning over, she pulled the damp sheet up over her shoulders.

"Don't you want to move back to our king size bed?"

"No, I'm comfortable here. I'm used to this mattress. You can move if you want."

"How did we go from making 'almost love' to fighting again? What's wrong with us?"

"Nothing's wrong with me. Take a look at yourself. Now I'm going to go to sleep."

Ray sagged back onto the bed and tried to figure his wife out. She was different, a new woman, and he didn't know how to figure her out. He mulled over the events of the last few weeks and caught glimpses of the gradual change in her personality, her looks, and especially her attitude.

"Maybe she's having an affair?" he asked himself.

He ran down the list of clues that he remembered from reading the pop psych sites on the net. None of them totally fit their relationship but there were little bits and pieces of some that caused him to take note. Tonight's sex for example, there were several new things that she surprised him with in the last few minutes. That "mommy" thing she came out with and that swapping his cum were at the top of the list. Why she wouldn't let him penetrate her was also troublesome.

"Did she already have a lover inside of her today?"

That was one of the signs he remembered reading.

"She is looking good," he thought. "Maybe that's why she's reacting this way. Maybe other people are complimenting her and I'm not. I'll start tomorrow. First thing."

Ray never heard the alarm go off and did not know that Karen had already left when he slowly awakened the next morning. He reached over in a room barely illuminated by the early dawn but all he felt was an empty bed. Getting up he listened at the door to make sure that Brian and Melody had already left for school before collecting his clothes and padding naked to the master bedroom.

Dropping his clothes in the hamper he picked up a piece of paper from the bathroom counter. It was a short note with a piece of scotch tape from where it had probably been stuck to the bedroom door.

"I'm glad you guys made up but how about taking it to your own bedroom so I can get some sleep. Love, Melody. P.S. I think Brian heard you too."

Chapter 11

Karen felt tired but exhilarated after her first real gym workout. Trey, the trainer, was a good-looking, black hunk. He always asked for her permission to touch her so he could get her into the proper positions but once he got her permission he didn't hesitate to put his hands on her as he moved her body around.

She was mildly amused that she didn't feel any of her lingering childhood Southern Belle prejudices come out where he was concerned. She saw him as a man with a great body. Except for her fascination with the shade of his skin, racial issues didn't enter into it. Karen tried to concentrate on her workout but every time she felt his hands on her body she tensed up.

Trey could feel her hesitation and he repeatedly told her to relax and breathe. Whenever he touched her she noted the contrast between his black hands and arms and her white flesh. She watched as he did the same thing to the other people in the gym. She started to relax and not take it personally as she got more into the exercises.

The sweat poured off of her body and she thought back to her lovemaking with Ray. Makeup sex was good and she liked to let go and be a little rough at times. It surprised her when she came on Ray's leg. It had been a long time since they had done anything like that. It took her back to some of their groping days when they managed to get each other off without taking off their clothes. Many of Ray's pants' legs were often soaked with her lube after their dates. They used to joke about buying two pairs of pants of the same kind so he could change and no one would notice the wet spots.

Her sharing of his cum with him came out of the blue. She had not planned it but when she found herself with a mouthful of his semen it just happened. At first, it seemed so nasty when it came to her but she found that she liked the nastiness part of it. Shocking him made her feel more in control.

He seemed to accept it after his initial hesitation and she figured that she would offer to do it again some time. She hoped he was OK with not actually having penetrated her but she did her best to make him happy.

"I don't know where that 'mommy' thing came from," she thought between reps with the bench press bar. "All of this excitement of a new life must have my hormones working overtime."

They didn't have time for their planned hot tub or a sauna after their workout but they managed to get showered and make it to work on time. The girls had left their cars at the office and they all went to the gym in Adele's car. On the ride back to the office, they acted like a bunch of high school girls. Their conversation centered around their comments about Mr. Muscles, as they decided to call Trey, and comparing notes on how his thing showed under his tight shorts.

"My ex's foot wasn't that big no less his cock," Marty giggled. "I'll bet I could give him an exercise he wouldn't forget."

Karen was used to a little sexual innuendo at the office, but this was more blatant. At first, she was a little embarrassed but as the conversation and laughter continued in the same vein, she joined the discussion. She added that she liked the way he smelled when he leaned over her to adjust the weights on the machine.

"A little bit of sweat and a lot of man," she gushed. "I wanted to bite his nipple."

"Karen, you're a happily married white woman. You shouldn't talk that way," they kidded her.

"You can't tell color in the dark," she responded and immediately blushed at her words and added silently. "Where did that come from?"

The kidding continued and Karen was the butt of most of the jokes for the rest of the morning at the office. Someone put a paper cutout blindfold on her desk with a note saying, "Use this and you won't have to wait until it's dark."

There was an envelope sitting on Karen's computer keyboard when she returned from lunch. In it was an invitation to Mike and Donna's annual Cinco de Mayo party on Saturday, May 5 at their home. A map and an RSVP telephone number were enclosed. A little note in a woman's handwriting and signed with the flowing initial "D" indicated that those who wanted to come should call her directly. She warned that if they left a message with Mike, he would forget to tell her.

After checking around the office, she found that everyone had already marked their calendars since this was a great party every year. Those with husbands or wives or significant others were bringing them to the party. Adele confided in her that there were always a few domestic arguments and she knew of one divorce over the conduct of some of the guests.

"You know what an endless supply of Margaritas can do to you," she laughed. "We have a little informal bet on whether Donna or one of the younger girls from one of the other offices will wear the skimpiest bathing suit. Want to join? It's only a dollar."

"Bathing suit? Why would anyone bring a bathing suit to their party?"

"Because they have the greatest pool you've ever seen. It actually is half-inside and half-outside of their house. And, get this, there are two caves where you can swim under a waterfall to get into with the person of your choice."

"Oh c'mon, Adele. Are you kidding me? I don't know if I want to go to anything like that. I'm having enough trouble with Ray now. He thinks all we do is party around here as it is."

"Unless you have a really good excuse it's not wise to skip one of the four big parties that Mike and Donna throw each year, Cinco de Mayo, Independence Day, Labor Day, and New Year's Eve. Mark them on your calendar if you want to stay employed. They don't bother with some of the older employees who skip the parties but they encourage anyone whose marriage can stand it to attend."

"You're kidding, right?"

"Let's just say that it will be uncomfortable for anyone that doesn't attend and pay homage to their money."

"Mike's not like that. He's really nice."

"Careful there and be careful of Donna. Mike may be the owner but she is the Director. He does what she tells him to do whether he knows it or not."

"How can she do that?"

"Rumor has it that she holds something really serious over him. There have been some educated guesses but nothing that anyone can prove. I've been here a long time and the longer you stay the more you will figure out what goes on around here."

"Wow! I had no idea."

"I've got an appointment with a client, see you later or tomorrow. Bye."

When Karen got home she marked the date on the family calendar hanging on the refrigerator door but never mentioned it to Ray.

The next few weeks went by quickly for Karen. She was constantly tired but she kept her mind on her goals both at school and at work. The schoolwork was no problem for her but she found she had to study every spare moment. She took to reading the course books while on the treadmill or on the bicycle at the gym. The other girls made fun of her but she ignored them. She was determined she was going to ace the class and nothing was going to get in her way.

The rides to and from the gym were filled with laughter and girl talk. Most of it concerned sex, the lack of it, too much of it, or how bad or good it was. She could only believe half of what they talked about. For her part, she was careful not to share anything that would make her friends think that there were any problems in her marriage.

Karen found that the girl talk was something that had been missing from her life. She had dedicated herself to being a wife and mother and had forgotten that she was also a woman. Her suppression of that most important aspect of her being was becoming more apparent each day in her new life.

Even though she and Ray were at odds these days she knew she still loved him and that they would eventually work out their problems. She admitted to herself that she was still finding out who she was as opposed to what she was and she was enjoying her renaissance. Her new body and her new social and work interactions were thrilling to her. She hadn't realized how much sexual tension there was in the workplace until she started attending the little get-togethers after work.

Her big regret was that she could not share her newly discovered sexuality with Ray. Until they came to some kind of an arrangement and he allowed himself to recognize the new person she was becoming she didn't want that particular emotion to get in the way. It wasn't that she didn't like sex with Ray, because she missed it more than she admitted to herself. Her problem was that she could not let herself go without fearing that she would trigger some adverse reaction and more accusations from him.

Twice she had gotten so worked up over Trey's attention that she had almost attacked Ray when they went to bed. She spent the rest of the night with him both times but she still stayed in the guest room every other night. She had convinced herself that it was so she did not disturb him with her early wake up times. Deep down she knew the real reason was that she was punishing him for her perceived lack of support from him.

Karen had become fixated on Trey's well-defined body and shaved head. There were several occasions when she had managed to palm his smooth head while he was helping her with her weights. There was something about its shiny smoothness that excited her. She touched it on the pretext of using it as a rest for her hand when she changed positions and relished the feeling of her hand slipping in his sweat.

There were times when she carried the arousal all day and when she seduced Ray on those nights it was Trey she thought about. She found herself visualizing Trey's bald head next to hers as Ray lay between her legs and made love to her. Another time she seduced Ray by entering the master bedroom that she now referred to as "his bedroom" and waited for him to come out of the bathroom. Pulling the towel off of his body, she pushed him back on the bed and knelt on the floor while straddling his leg.

It did not take very many strokes for him to come to full arousal. It was only when she held his erection in her hands and rubbed her thumb over its head that she realized it was very much like rubbing her hand over Trey's head. That set off an explosion in her body that left her whimpering with her mouth around Ray's cock.

She was still feeling the aftershocks of her climax when she climbed on top of him and skewered herself on him. They had sex twice that night and the second time she tried to moderate her guilt at her transference of Trey for Ray by focusing on bringing him to the point of climax several times before taking him over the edge.

Trey continued to be the fountain of her fantasies and she looked forward to the intenseness of her arousal during her morning gym workouts. She realized that, as she lost weight and toned up, Trey was paying more attention to her than he was to the other girls in the morning workouts. The girls noticed the same thing and they were not easy on her.

"I saw Trey dripping a little sweat on you today. Is that why the crotch of your workout tights was wet?" Diane teased her on the way back to the office from a morning session. "You'd better stop wearing light blue tights so no one can tell when you get wet."

Karen had found out early on that defending herself was not an option since it only attracted more teasing from the others so she learned to attack with humor.

"You're just jealous because he gets harder when he's working with me than with you," she replied.

"Yeah, sure! You wish," several answered back in unison.

Diane continued, "Remember, he's got eyes for the younger chicks and you're looking younger every day."

"If that was supposed to be a burn you missed out," Karen laughed. "If he gets close enough I'm thinking of licking the front of his shorts."

"I'd pay money to see that," she replied. "In fact, I'd pay a lot to have a photo of it to show to your husband. I'll bet he would love to see that one. A southern belle licking a black man's cock."

"Easy there, honey," Adele cautioned. "Let's not let the kidding get too far out of hand. OK?"

Karen's ears burned and she felt she had to say something to prove that she could handle it without Adele's help.

"I'm not sure he would even care," she laughed. "Trey's cock has been closer to me than his has for some time now."

There was a little gasp in the van and then a moment of silence as embarrassment overtook the five of them at once. After an awkward few seconds, the chatter started up again with everybody talking at once. Karen noticed that nothing more was said about Trey or Ray during the remainder of the drive to the office.

It was the last week of April and she was looking forward to the end of her classes in another two weeks. She knew she was on top of the course and her instructor let her know that he didn't think there would be any problem with her acing the test.

After dinner, she sat down in the den to do her homework while Ray cleaned up the kitchen. She was exhausted from lack of sleep. She had even considered missing that morning's gym workout, but when she woke up early she decided to go ahead with it.

The kids were not home since Brian's coach was taking them out for ice cream after their baseball practice and Melody was out with her girlfriends. When Ray came in from the garage, he found Karen sound asleep in his den recliner with one of her Real Estate course books lying on the floor next to the chair.

The tenseness between them had eased somewhat and her asking for, actually demanding, sex twice in the last few weeks was a pleasant change. Lately, their sex was different. She was mostly the aggressor and both times she had cum well before he did. When he thought back he realized that both nights were on the same days that she had a gym workout.

He thought that she might have even had two orgasms the last time they made love. He almost couldn't call it "making love" anymore but she stayed in bed with him on each of the two nights. The rest of the time she continued to sleep in the guest room so, according to her, she could study late and get up early for her gym workouts. They did not kid around anymore and their lives were moving on separate paths.

Now that school was out, Ray was at loose ends most of the day. In order to stay busy, he had started to do some practice bowling during the morning hours. He joined the Thursday night mixed summer league and he also started subbing with another mixed league on Tuesday nights since Karen was in class those nights.

He didn't disturb her but he left her alone and sat and watched her sleep. She had changed into a pair of satin sleep shorts and a matching satin, sleeveless top. He loved the way she looked when she slept. She usually had a peaceful look on her face and every once in a while she would wrinkle up her nose and screw her mouth sideways. He always thought of her as a vulnerable young girl at these times.

She seemed to be tense tonight and a look of stress rather than peace was apparent. Her brow was furrowed and her lips were thin, tight lines. He could see the obvious loss of weight in her face. It no longer had a little bit of roundness about it and she now looked almost the way she did when they first got married.

"She's working too hard. This gym thing and the two nights at class are wearing her out. I'll talk to her tomorrow."

Karen stirred in her sleep when Ray gently touched the side of her face. Her eyes slowly opened and she stared up at him for a moment without recognition until she focused her eyes. He leaned down and kissed her cheek.

"Oh, I must have fallen asleep. What time is it?"

"It's only nine o'clock. You look exhausted. Why don't you come up to bed? You can sleep a little later tomorrow."

"OK, I'll be up in a minute. Where are the kids?"

"Brian should be home any minute and our 18 going on 30 daughter will get here whenever she wants. Our ten o'clock curfew is no longer on her schedule."

"She's a big girl now. We just have to adjust."

Karen got up and stretched. Ray admired her legs and the way her nipples poked out through the satin top. He felt his cock stir and begin to harden in anticipation of what might happen up in their bedroom.