Loving Husband/Loving Wife Ch. 09

"Oh Jack, my love, my husband. No other man could possibly be as sweet and tender as you."

*****

Jill never met her "competition." Her Shangrila was coming to an end. Anne became increasingly ensconced in Steve's life, and his gradual seperation from our triad increased. He was in a turmoil of how to explain it. He wondered if the two of us could meet on THE LADY JILL to have a private talk.

We met and talked in the galley, where we had negotiated the reason and rules of the invitation for his sharing my wife in sexual pleasures. His train of thought was a bit surprising.

"I'm in love, Jack. Head over heels in love with Anne. I'm going to marry her."

"My congratulations. I wish you all happiness."

"I want you to know how much you and Jill influence my state of mind."

That was a loaded statement, considering the cum stains he left on the sheets a few days earlier.

"The love you two share... I have never been exposed to anything like it before."

I thought of directions he might be heading, but had no real trusts in any of those thoughts. I took a plunge.

"Are you thinking... you and Anne... might consider something similar?"

"Far from it. No, I don't have that internal make up you have. I could not share Anne the way you have shared Jill with me. That is just a simple fact. What I'm trying to get at is... This is very complicated. I treasure Jill. I always have. I love her to some kind of degree. Nothing close to the love you two share. But a love and depthless respect for her none the less."

"I understand."

"And that love and respect grew from the gift of sexual pleasure you both gave to me. But there was something above and beyond the highly unconventional wife sharing. The strength of love you two had to make the sharing not only possible but a pure and joyous thing. Does this make any sense to you at all?"

"Yes, it does."

"So the love you and Jill have, separated from the sexual indulgence, is the kind of ideal I grasp and want for myself, with Anne. While I still have relative youth and time. That is what I mean by saying the influence of knowing you and Jill has a positive and guiding influence on me."

"Steve, my best chum, I want you to do something for me."

"What?"

"Meet privately with Jill, and tell her exactly what you have just told me."

*****

I didn't tell Jill about my chat with Steve on the boat. Two days later he called and asked her to visit him. She was tremendously excited, but her high intelligence and intuition kicked in gear.

"I wonder what he wants? Do you know?"

I shrugged, putting myself equally in the dark.

She made no elaborate preparations to visit her lover. When she left I said, "I don't think I will wait up tonight. Take as long as you like." I had in mind the possibility of Steve giving her a monumental, farewell fuck. "Stay all night if you want."

She gave me a searching look, her intelligence and intuition sniffing a mystery in the air, something she couldn't quite get a handle on.

I was still up when Jill returned three hours later. I looked at her with love and tender compassion.

"You forgot to tell me about meeting him on the boat." She said.

"I wanted you to hear it from the horses' mouth." I said.

"Well, our wonderful threesome is over."

"We had almost a year of it, but nothing lasts forever. Except our love."

"Yes. The Rockies may crumble, but our love is here to stay. Steve said so. About the love you and I have, apart from any sexual adventures, being a model of what he wants to build with Anne."

Tears bubbled in her eyes and ran down her cheeks. She snuffled and blew her nose, and had a little deprecatory laugh. "A female thing, Jack." She said as though her gush of tears needed explanation. "What he said had a powerful emotional impact on me. Like a poetic truth. You and I discussed that very thing many times, in many ways and words, but to hear my lover - oops! Ex-lover - say the same thing in his words, well..." She blew her nose again. And looked at me like I was a newly minted, precious thing.

*****

I gave my wife time and space to adjust to the loss of her lover, the man who had contributed erotic excitement and sexual pleasures to our marriage bed that can't really be fully described. She was an extraordinary woman in so many ways, but she was still a woman, with some common female hubris. Jealousy, needless to say. I became a therapist's couch, saying little, allowing her to work it all out. "I bet Anne is beautiful. I hope she is, for Steve's sake." ..... "Anne is eight years younger than me." ..... "I can't help missing him. You can understand that, can't you?" ..... "Well, as you said, nothing lasts forever. We did have a good run though, didn't we."

*****

Steve contacted me for a pow wow before his wedding. He would be delighted for Jill and I to attend. But... We both knew exactly what the BUT meant. His putting out the feeler to me was an exquisite courtesy to Jill, and demonstrated respect of her. I talked it over with Jill, and she said no. "It's like keeping our children ignorant. His new bride gains nothing by knowing we even exist. And it wouldn't exactly be a thrill for me to see her take her place as his lover til death do us part. No. When I went to his house that last time and he told me, I kissed him good bye. I knew it then and I know it now. It was really good bye. I have let him go."

"You are a wonderful woman, Jill, my loving wife." She embraced me with love. Her lips spoke love against mine. "Our agreement is still in place. Should you want to take advantage of it again."

"So it is. Should I want to. Should you want me to. Should our mutual needs for another man to take us both to that special place ever rekindle and grow hot. Until that happens, it if ever does, I only want you. My lover, my stud, my soul mate, my best friend, my kindred spirit, the center of my life, my husband."

The End