Swinging Isn’t For Me

Alison made a sharp turn into the kitchen and I followed. It was clear Alison was nervous and I walked up beside her. We heard others come into the house with Liz telling them to go into the living room, so she could introduce a new couple.

I leaned down so my mouth was close to Alison's ear and whispered, "What does she mean a 'new couple'. I hope you have told her we are only here out of your curiosity and we have no intention of joining."

Alison looked at me, and made an effort to avoid eye contact. "I told Liz we were only coming to see, and that you were very unhappy about the party and were fully against any participation. But, she said we would be so taken with the power, lust and sexy women in the room, that you would be throwing your keys in the bowl as soon as it is presented to you," she stated matter of factly.

My response was a short snort, followed by my standard flippant response of, "Fat chance."

The living room door closed, and we could hear Liz talking to the group, but could not hear what she said. Five minutes later, Liz and Tom came into the kitchen and Liz announced, "Are you ready for your grand entrance?" Liz held out her hand to Alison, which Alison took. Liz then turned and half pulled Alison behind her. I followed, with Tom behind me.

As we walked into the living room, Liz said, "Please meet Alison and John. They are here for the first time to see how we work; make them feel at home."

I looked around the room. Including us, Liz and Tom, there were fourteen couples. I knew at least four of the couples. At least one spouse for three of the couples worked in the same practice as me, and the fourth couple both went to the same gym as Alison and me. I also recognised a prominent politician from our state Senate, and the woman sitting on his knee was not his wife.

The room stank of cheating. I found it neither pleasant nor sexual. The men were all dressed in tuxes, just like the one Alison had picked out for me. I knew this must be the dress code for men. The women were all dressed in revealing clothes which were way too young for them. My immediate thought was 'mutton dressed as lamb.' I wanted to get out and breathe some fresh air, but I knew this wasn't going to happen, as Liz was already guiding Alison around the room introducing her to the other couples.

Tom brought me a vodka and coke, but I said, "No thanks, can I just have an orange juice, I don't want to drink tonight."

Tom looked at me. "A few drinks will help you party, are you sure?"

I just said, "Totally."

He went back and brought me an orange juice, then walked over to Alison and handed her a martini. I was sure it was a 'home-measures' drink and made a mental note to watch how many she drank; she could end up very drunk if I was not careful, and in college, that was never a good thing. The other thing I noticed was all the women touched Alison on the arm when they were introduced, and all the men stood up and embraced her in a way that was overtly sexual. This was definitely a hard press.

At that, one of the women, who I knew from work named Cherry, came up to me, gave me a kiss on the lips. "Hi John, nice to see you here. I hope you have a great time. Let me introduce you to the clan."

With that, Cherry put her arm through mine and walked me around the room, introducing me to everyone. Again, each woman stood up and gave me a long kiss, often pushing themselves against me. All the men shook hands.

My level of discomfort grew with each passing moment. None of it felt genuine. Even Liz and Tom, who felt like real friends last night, made me feel like Bambi being circled by a pride of lions. They were here to eat, and Alison and I were the main course.

Liz left Alison with Jennifer, who she knew from the gym, and left the room. Less than a minute later, she returned with the fish bowl and set it on a table, which was placed in the centre of the room. Then, she announced in a loud voice, "Ladies, fish out your partner's car keys and prepare to deposit them in the bowl."

Everyone stood up, and the women reached into their partner's pockets and then turned to the centre of the room, holding up the keys. Liz walked over to Alison, who was standing a little dumbfounded, took her by the hand, and walked her over to me. Liz then went to Tom, who was standing close to me, and took the keys out of his pocket and held them up like the other women.

Liz looked at Alison and cajoled her, "Go on, Alison. Start that engine by fishing out those keys!"

I felt Alison tense, then she replied, "No, we are only here as observers tonight. John is not ready for this and I know now, neither am I."

You could see the disappointment on Liz's face, but she said, "OK ladies, start your engines." With that, she walked over to the fish bowl and dropped Tom's keys in. Every other woman, except Alison, followed suit.

I squeezed Alison's hand and looked down at her. She gave me a weak smile, but held on firmly to me. For the first time since we had that chat at lunchtime, my stomach did not have a knot in it.

Alison and I stayed for another hour. We held onto each other's hand, as the other couples swapped partners and played. Many of the women had lost their dresses, and most of the men had either no trousers on, or nothing at all.

It was Alison that went up to Liz, and said, "I am certain this is not for us, thanks for letting us watch, but we will leave now."

We slipped out the door quietly and returned home. The journey was in total silence and as we entered the house, Alison ran up the stairs. She returned fifteen minutes later, wearing her robe.

She asked, "What do you want to drink? I think we both need one."

"A whiskey and water for me please, I need to waken my throat up after all that smoke."

Alison handed me a drink, then made herself a vodka and orange. As she sat, the robe opened and she was wearing nothing underneath. She looked into my eyes and calmly stated, "I looked into that room tonight, and felt nothing exciting or sexual about it. Exclusivity is the only answer for you and me. I really needed to see it to understand your thoughts. It was vital I did and I never want to see that again."

I smiled, then pulled Alison into me as tightly as I could. I made very sure the robe opened so I had full access to caress her breasts and very enlarged nipples.

We fucked very hard that night. Both of us had a lot of tension and what we did was stress relief.

We both woke up around the same time the next morning. I asked Alison if she wanted breakfast, but she replied, "No, we need to talk about last night and I want to do it here, in bed. I now understand why you didn't like sharing and why our relationship is stronger with only us in it."

She was lying on my chest and I suspected she could feel the knots in the muscles relax as she said that.

She continued, "I am sorry I made you go through that, but I needed to see. What I saw was a sleazy group of people, who really didn't want to be married, and I knew the only thing I really want is to be married to you. The room did not smell of power or lust, it smelt of corruption and infidelity. You were right, I doubt we will be able to go out with Tom and Liz again because I will never be able to consider them a loving couple. I want to grow old with you and I only need you."

We lay in total silence for over an hour, just holding each other close. We didn't need to make love, we didn't need to talk, and we didn't need to kiss. We both were thinking the same thing. We had dodged a bullet and our love and marriage would be stronger for we never wanted to try that again.

Shortly after that night, a new couple moved into the house beside us. They were a year or so older than us, and were also childless. This appeared to be through choice, but we didn't mind. We quickly made friends and they introduced us to others of our own age.

As for Liz and Tom, their party scene exploded about two months later. The problem started with an investigative piece in our local newspaper. The piece was about a local senator who went to swingers parties with various women from his staff. The article named all those at the parties. Liz and Tom were named as the couple who had set up the whole club.

The backlash went on for weeks, with the senator eventually resigning. The exposure put a lot of families under pressure. I saw Cherry at work and she looked terrible. Her two children had found out about the article and had virtually disowned their parents. It was also clear that Jennifer and her husband's marriage was on its last legs and the article had finished it off. The last time I saw Jennifer at the gym, she was leaving with the contents of her locker in a bag. She told me the divorce would be amicable, but she was moving back to her home state.

As for Liz and Tom, their house went up for sale and they vanished from the area. No one knew where they went and, it's sad to say, no one seemed to care.

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