Seduction Ch. 05: Nemesis

She turned to the counselor. Tears were streaming down her face as she took off her rings and handed them to me. "Mrs. Schmidt, let him go. He needs to move on. I've hurt him enough."

She sighed and nodded. I stood up, kissed Lori on the forehead, and walked out of the room.

It was about a month later that I got another nocturnal visit from Nemesis. She gave me a radiant smile and said, "I just wanted to thank you for doing such a good job as one of my agents. Punishing six people all at once! But I sense that you're unsatisfied. Why?"

Well, I certainly wasn't happy. In stories like this, the wronged husband wins the lottery, or pulls a super model from a burning car, or is snowed in at a cabin in the mountains with twin heiresses. I'm just plodding along, in no mood to do much of anything.

She laughed. "You haven't bought a lottery ticket, you've been walking to work through a park and never see much traffic, there's no snow in August and lastly, your life isn't a romance novel. Your mood is entirely up to you."

I had to laugh. It did seem rather silly. But I didn't feel everyone was properly punished. The rest of the wives were still with their husbands. I mean, they all cheated!

"Oh, they're all suffering.

"Remember, my specialty is punishing hubris. Hubris isn't just pride, you know. It's also egotism and arrogance. It's feeling that your desires are more important than anyone else's. All cheaters are guilty of hubris, to some extent. Clearly, Johnston was the primary offender here, and his punishment is the greatest. He lost his family, his job, his comfortable life and his paramours. He's on the run - not just from all the angry husbands, but also in fear of what his father-in-law's investigations may uncover.

"The wives are suffering too, even the three that are still living with their husbands. They're wracked with guilt and fear, and they know that, even if their husbands forgive them, the absolute trust that was in their marriage is gone forever. The husbands will always fear that their wives will cheat again, and the wives will always worry that this lack of trust will destroy their marriage. It well may. Your wife is suffering the most."

Stupid dream. A goddess would know if they were going to make it. And if Lori had really loved me, she wouldn't have fallen for that fucker! She would probably have cheated with someone else, even if HE hadn't seduced her.

Her laughter was like ethereal music. "Silly human! I AM all-seeing, but I can only see what is and what was. I can't see the future - it isn't, yet. And I can't see hypotheticals. After being among humans for thousands of years, I can predict what they will do fairly well, but they still manage to surprise me!

"Johnston certainly elicited feelings in her that were more intense than anything she had felt with you in a long time. She interpreted them as love, but she sees things differently now. I wouldn't know if it was love or not. Gods don't feel love the same way humans do - that's why Daddy is always fooling around so much. I tell you, though, when she realized that Johnston wasn't the soulmate that she had imagined he was, she suddenly saw what she had done, and was overwhelmed with grief over what she had lost. Not him, but you!"

Well, she should feel bad. I know if I took her back, she'll just cheat again.

"As I said, I can't see what-ifs. Well, I doubt I'll visit you again, but I thank you. You exceeded my expectations! Goodbye."

When I woke up, I thought back to the dream. It seemed so real! I'm glad she said Lori was suffering - the bitch deserved it. But I remembered she said that I had punished six people. Johnston and the four wives only made five. Can't goddesses count? Well, it was just a stupid dream anyway.

It's Saturday, so I just stayed in bed. I really don't feel like doing anything. I work, eat, exercise to exhaustion, then go to sleep. I don't feel like being with a woman - I can't be that good a lover if I couldn't even please my own wife! Hell, if I saw a supermodel in distress right now, I probably wouldn't even bother. She'd probably just betray me too. I can't imagine how those other husbands can be trying to work things out with their wives. Stupid cucks! That's not me. I have my pride.

"If you embark on a journey of revenge, first dig two graves." - Confucius.

I usually pause in the middle of my stories to let the reader think about where the story should go, although this is not a bad place to end. Still, there is always more story that could be written, and I offer it to your imagination as to where it might go from here. Most likely, Carl and Lori move on, but never attain the happiness they had with each other. But maybe Lori finds a man willing to overlook her past. She has learned from her mistakes and spends every day making him fall in love with her all over again, and they live happily ever after. Perhaps Carl rescues a supermodel (well, he gives her a lift when her car breaks down) and they fall in love. With her, he is able to overcome his insecurities about his lovemaking. But Carl can never get over his fear that she will cheat. It all comes to a head when she is picked to go to Bora Bora to model for a swimsuit calendar, and Carl can't stand the thought of her being so far away, almost naked, posing provocatively, showing off her body to so many men, and they fall apart.

Some of you who would like a happier ending. Well, so would I. But, really, can any man ever get over what Lori said and did? Hell, it would probably take divine intervention to get them back together! With that thought, I offer a little fantasy.

When my divorce came through, I took the day off from work and spent it in my apartment in a somber mood. That night, I had another weird dream. The wall in front of me became a white cloud, and through it stepped the most beautiful woman I could ever have imagined. Her blond hair cascaded in gentle waves to below her waist. Shining blue eyes were set in a perfect oval face. She wore a diaphanous gown that did nothing to obscure her ample breasts, narrow waist, broad hips and long, sculpted legs. Nemesis was been the most beautiful vision I had ever seen, but this woman put her to shame! Who could it be?

Her warm contralto voice was pure music. "Can't you guess? I'm Aphrodite, and I've come to soothe some of the hurt that Nemesis caused. Yes, you deserved your punishment, but it has gone on long enough. I'm here to bring you back to the world of love."

She waved her hand, my covers flew off and my pajamas disappeared. Her gown slowly turned to mist as she slid next to me. Oh, God, I wasn't even able to keep Lori satisfied, and I haven't had sex in months. How can I possibly please a goddess?

Her warm laughter filled the room. She gave me a slow sensuous kiss and said, "I AM love. No lover can ever fail to please me. I'll help. Come, pleasure me with your tongue."

I suddenly found myself between her legs and marveled at the perfect triangle of her pubic hair, covering her mons but leaving her lips bare. I inhaled her intoxicating scent. As I tasted her with my tongue, I felt a jolt go through me, and I was more turned on than I had ever been.

In real life, there is always a certain amount of awkwardness during sex. There are noises in the background and the bed may squeak. Every time you move, you are concerned that you may be putting too much weight on her or pinching something; things may not line up perfectly, or you're worried about finishing too soon. But making love to her was like two dancers moving in unison. We flowed together; our movements perfectly synchronized. My fingers seemed to be guided inside her, and I gently stroked her as my tongue found her clit. All her sensations echoed back to me and I lost myself in the ecstasy of pleasing this goddess. Suddenly she stiffened, and the most delicate nectar came gushing from her pussy. I lapped it up as she quivered in the aftermath of her orgasm.

I kissed up her body, feeling hard abs under her soft skin, then up to her exquisite breasts, so firm, soft and sensitive. As I kissed her lips, my steel-hard cock aligned perfectly with her pussy. I slid into her, and suddenly everything disappeared but the two of us. We floated in darkness, as she glowed with a golden light. All my senses were engaged; I marveled at the rapturous look on her beautiful face, the music of her moans, her intoxicating scent, the taste of her lips and especially the feel of her warm pussy as it enveloped my cock while I gently stroked in and out. Nothing else existed as she wrapped herself around me. I sped up as she moved with me, and I felt as if I was about to come - but I didn't. Instead, the sensation grew stronger and stronger until I heard her cry in ecstasy. Her pussy spasmed around me and I let go as I filled her, and I collapsed from the strength of my orgasm.

As I drifted into sleep, I heard her whisper, "That was wonderful, Carl. Now you have drunk of my essence, and I have accepted your seed. That is the greatest blessing I can bestow upon a mortal. You will never fail to please a woman in bed, and, if you make love to a woman whom you love and who loves you, you will both find the bliss you felt tonight. Then you will know she will be yours forever and you will be hers. As long as you are true to her and love her, she will never stray."

In the morning I marveled at the intensity of the dream. I was covered by my blanket, but I realized that I was naked. I was beginning to accept the reality of these weird dreams. Maybe I should test this.

Suzy was a bubbly, attractive 19-year-old woman who lived in my apartment building. I would run into her almost daily as we came home from work. She had been flirting with me, and I flirted back, a little, although I felt no real connection. I decided to see if she would come up to my room this evening.

Well, that went well. I lay there, gently petting her as she quivered. It had been easy to get her to come to my bed. From her reaction when we had sex, it was pretty spectacular for her. She came multiple times, each one a mind-blowing, gut-wrenching explosion. For me, it was good. I mean, I enjoyed it a lot, especially after my months-long drought. It was certainly a great boost to my ego. But it was not even as fulfilling as the sex I had had with Lori before she started getting distant. It wasn't only that I wore a condom - I just didn't feel any connection.

As she came back to herself, she jumped up to get dressed. Apparently, she had to get ready for her date who was picking her up at eight. I saw her to the door, and she gave me a smoldering kiss, and said, "Wow. That was the best sex I've ever had. For an older man, you really have it going! Maybe we can do it again sometime?"

I chuckled. I'm twenty-seven, which seemed ancient to her. "We'll see," I said. "Have fun on your date."

As I fixed supper, I thought back to what Aphrodite had said. I needed to get someone to love me. Clearly, I could give a woman great sex, but that wasn't enough. I realized that there was no one that I connected with. Too bad Lori had gone nuts - I had really felt close to her. I hadn't seen her in three months, and I no longer had to fight to keep from getting angry when I thought of her. I did miss the good times.

I wondered... She had claimed that she still loved me, but I wasn't sure about that. Hell, I wasn't even sure about my own feelings. But I realized that Aphrodite had given me a perfect way to find out. If we both experience that incredible bliss, I'll know that we're in love and I can be sure that she'll never stray. And if we don't, at least she'll get a taste of what she's going to be missing!

It was still early, so I gave her a call. She was surprised to hear from me, but she agreed to meet me for lunch Saturday at what used to be one of our favorite hangouts.

At first, lunch was awkward as hell, a combination of familiar and strange. We just talked about trivial things. I learned that all the wives had gone back to a regular eight-hour schedule at work, and that the investigation had found that Asshole hadn't done anything worse than to claim he had done work he had been too busy to do. The investigation had also shown that Lori hadn't even made a mistake on that manifest - he had fudged some numbers to make it look like she did, just so he could be her hero. She commented on the weight I had lost, and I told her about the gym and my walking to work. Eventually we were able to relax. After we finished eating, we walked to a park across the street and sat on a bench.

"So," she asked shyly, "have you been dating?"

"I've been a bit of a hermit, I'm afraid. That's why I've been hitting the gym so much. I did have one hookup with a bit of teenaged fluff. It was fun, but empty. How about you?"

"Nothing at all, for me. Honey, I still don't know why I lost sight of what we had, or how I fell for his bullshit, but I was his slut for six months. I promised myself that I would be celibate for a year, just to prove to myself that I'm not a slut anymore."

"How's that working out?"

"Actually, I don't miss the sex as much as the companionship. We were very good together once upon a time. I'd give anything to have something like that again."

"Yeah, I know what you mean."

She blushed. "I promised myself I'd refrain from sex for a year. But I also promised you that I would never deny you anything. I just want you to know that I will keep that promise, although I will never let you cheat with me if you're in another relationship. I'm through with cheating in any form. I also want you to know that I got rid of our bed. I kept nothing that reminded me of how I betrayed you. I bought a queen bed instead, like we had when we first got married. It reminds me of the good times. I realized that the king just drew us apart. I miss the touching we used to do throughout the night."

I took her hand. "I miss a lot of things, actually. I'm not sure if we have a future together. So, no promises and no strings, but would you show me your new bed?"

"Yes, honey," she said, with tears in her eyes. "Always, yes."

Epilog: Three months later on Mt. Olympus

"Are you eating pizza?"

"Oh, hi, Nemy. Yeah, I've developed a taste for it. Nectar and ambrosia are great, but sometimes I just want to kick back with beer and pizza."

"I saw you visited Carl. I thought he was one of my best agents."

"Oh, the way you got him to punish everybody including himself was classic. But I felt that he and Lori had been punished enough. Her sin was more naiveté than hubris, and Carl had never been all that arrogant before. I was glad to bring a little happiness into their world."

"I'll say! I thought her new bed was going to catch fire! You outdid yourself there!"

Aphrodite smiled. "Thank you, but I didn't really do much. I helped ease their fears and smooth out some of the awkwardness, but the heat was all theirs. I think all their arrogance is burned out of them. Did you mind?"

"No, I don't mind your help. There's so much hubris these days that I'm kept quite busy."

Aphrodite waved her hand and a scene appeared on the clouds beneath them. "Oh, look. He's proposing to her. Can't you feel her emotion from here?"

Nemesis smiled as they watched the touching scene unfold. "It's very sweet," she said, "but you promised him that she would never stray. She still has free will. You know we can't control that."

Aphrodite chuckled. "Okay, so I lied a little bit. But I really do understand human love, you know. Carl needed to get over his fear that all women will cheat on him, or he could never have found happiness with anyone. And I'm fairly sure that she has learned her lesson. Just look!" Lori was hugging Carl and sobbing uncontrollably.

"Well, I guess we'll see. Got any more pizza?"