The Surrogate Ch. 03

"I only hope this doesn't screw up their relationship."

Elizabeth nodded. She had the same hope, and the same worries.

****************************

As Michael came back out into the backyard, carrying four drinks on a tray, he watched Teri kicking the soccer ball with Amy and Will. Their level of skill was pretty comical; especially the little boy, who missed the ball or fell on his butt at least 50% of the time. Amy was not bad, however--her season on a kiddie soccer team had already given her a few skills--and Teri was smiling and patient as she retrieved each errant kick.

Michael had never been so happy in his life--he thought his heart might burst. The night before had been his sixth date with Teri, and it had ended with her spending the night in his bedroom, where they'd passionately made love for the first time.

Undressing her, then holding her in his arms was more exciting than anything Michael could remember--even his honeymoon with Joanna. And Teri gave herself to him with an eagerness that surprised and delighted him. The first time they did it she pushed her hips up at him and buried her tongue in his mouth with a kind of desperation, arousing him so much that he didn't last more than five minutes or so.

But he didn't care, because it had been so wild and because Teri was obviously so happy. As they relaxed afterwards she twined her body around his, kissing his cheek and his neck, making happy little murmurs.

Twenty minutes after that he'd gone to the kitchen and returned with cheese and crackers and two more glasses of wine. Twenty minutes after that, Teri was up on her knees, caressing and then sucking his dick until it pointed proudly up at the ceiling. And she then proceeded to climb on top of him and ride him energetically, almost frantically, until she came hard with a loud scream and he responded with his second intense orgasm of the night.

When they were finally calm and quiet again, snuggled up in bed drifting towards sleep, she said, "that was so wonderful, Michael--thank you."

Surprised and pleased he said, "Teri, my God, I should be thanking you. Tonight has been just fantastic!" He held her close, kissing the top of her head.

"I was so nervous tonight," she went on. "I mean, I really wanted to ... to do what we just did," she added, giggling. "But I was afraid you might think--"

She sat up suddenly, looking at him. "I can be, uh, kind of a freak in bed, when I get going, and I thought you might--"

"You mean it gets even wilder than this?" He laughed, pulling her down to him and kissing her over and over. "Teri, that was so exciting!"

"For me too, Michael. But ... but sometimes I know I can get a little carried away, you know, loud and everything. I didn't want to scare you off."

Quietly he said, "you are the most beautiful, the most exciting, the most ... everything woman I have ever known. And there's no way you're going to scare me off, not even with a shotgun."

He almost said, "because I love you," but bit his tongue. Not too soon, he thought--don't scare her away. Instead he said, "and I intend to prove it to you again, first thing in the morning--unless you'd rather have breakfast first."

"Breakfast first, then you for dessert," she said, smiling; and with that they went happily to sleep.

Now, watching her play with Amy and Will, he was even more certain about how he felt. The kids had taken to her from the moment he'd first introduced his "friend Teri" the previous weekend, when they'd gone to McDonalds for lunch. Now they were behaving as though they'd known her for years. From the moment they'd come down the street and into the house it was "where's Teri?" and "can we play with Teri?" and "Teri, would you come play soccer with us?"

He called out, "time for a break!" and they all ran over, shouting and laughing. They sat together and had their sodas, and then the two kids ran back to the yard and resumed kicking the ball around.

"They are adorable." Teri was smiling broadly, her face shining. Michael leaned forward and discreetly gave her a quick kiss, making sure the kids weren't watching you.

"They're crazy about you," he said, "you're just a natural with them."

"Oh, I've always loved kids. I did a ton of babysitting in high school, and even once in a while in college, for a professor's family. But sometimes kids can be real brats--yours are terrific, Michael."

He laughed and said, "oh, give them time--they can be brats too!"

A couple of hours later, after they'd walked the kids back to Joanna's house, Michael drove Teri home. Outside the door to her apartment building he took her hand and said, "thank you, Teri. This has been one of the best dates of my life."

She kissed him. "Me too. But I better get inside so my mother doesn't worry that I've been abducted by aliens. When I called her last night to say I was staying over with you, she didn't seem too surprised--just told me to have a good time! Still, I think she'll be glad to see me."

They talked for a minute about the coming week and made plans to get together, before parting with a couple more lingering kisses.

****************************

Agnes said, "do you think you were a little unfair to him, letting him have it like that over the phone?"

"Yes, I realized that afterwards," Joanna said. "But I was so upset! What was I to think? The kids come in the door and Amy starts going on about 'daddy's friend Teri' and how nice she was, how good she was at soccer, how much fun they all had.

"I told that you Michael and I had agreed to be real careful about who we introduced to the kids, not just expose them to whoever we might be dating. So after they were in bed I called him up and .... Well, I was angry."

"What did he say?" Agnes asked.

"He waited for me to calm down a little, and then he said, 'listen, Jo--I remember our deal. Teri is the only new person I've ever introduced to Will and Amy. She's not just a casual date, she's somebody special; and I expect to be seeing a lot more of her.'

"Well, THAT shut me down! I didn't really know what to say, so I just sort of said, 'well, okay' and got off the phone."

She looked unhappily at Agnes. "All this time, I've been sort of thinking--or hoping, anyway--that he was going through what I was going through. You know, dating some people but not really finding anyone interesting. And maybe beginning to wonder whether the person you used to be married to might be the right one after all. But now...." She stopped, gazing out the window.

"Now I guess I really have to face it, the fact that I might lose him." She stood up and paced around the room.

"That sounds idiotic, doesn't it? I mean, Michael divorced me, five months ago! But I guess I thought that as long as he hadn't found someone else ...." She stopped, not bothering to finish the sentence.

****************************

Michael was stunned. Literally frozen in his chair, unaware that his mouth was hanging open.

He'd been surprised, but not unpleasantly, when he came into Elizabeth's office and found Marina there as well. They said hello and hugged one another warmly. It had been several months since they'd stopped working together.

"Michael, Marina's here today because we need to talk to you about something."

"Okay, sure ..." he said, not particularly concerned.

Leaning forward, looking carefully at him, Elizabeth said, "you know that Marina has a younger sister; but you don't seem to know that that her sister is Teresa Giordano."

What ensued was a shocked, tense silence.

Finally, very slowly, Michael began to feel his brain working, however creakily. He said, "but ... Marina's last name is--"

"Sultis, yes," she said. "I kept my ex-husband's name, Michael. My maiden name is Giordano."

More silence. The women waited.

"Okay, then, so ... she ... oh, Jesus."

He suddenly looked hard at the two women. "Does Teri know? Did either of you--"

"No, Michael." Elizabeth smiled at him. "Absolutely not. We are both completely bound by confidentiality. Neither of us would ever breathe a word to her about your treatment, or even that we know you."

Reassured but still shaken, he nodded a little and sat back in his chair. They could see him processing it, a bit at a time.

When she thought he was ready Elizabeth said, "frankly, Michael, if you and Teri had just been casually dating it wouldn't be a big deal at all. We still would have told you, just to avoid an awkward surprise if you ever met Marina, but ..."

"But since things between you and Teri seem to be getting serious--"

"I was going to ask her to marry me," he said, and both women looked shocked.

"I know it's kind of soon, and I wasn't going to do it for a couple more months at least. I mean, I know I'm just seven months past a divorce, and I've only known Teri for three months or so. But I love her. I love her a lot, and I've seen how much she and the kids enjoy one another.

"She's beautiful and loving and sexy and she ..." He broke off. "Christ, this is one hell of a mess, isn't it?"

Marina stood up and said, "I'll let you guys have the rest of your session together. Michael, I'm so sorry about this. For what it's worth, I think you're great for Teri--I've never seen her happier. Don't give up on her, okay?"

She kissed him on the cheek. "If I get a vote, I'll be dancing at your wedding!" She smiled and left the room.

After some more time in silent thought, Michael said, "well--we ... I mean, Jesus, Elizabeth, what the hell do I do now?"

"Broadly speaking there are two possibilities, Michael--you can let her know, or not let her know. I see two potential difficulties if you tell Teri: first, that will mean revealing to her that you used to have a PE problem. She--"

"That wouldn't bother me a bit," he said, brushing it away with a gesture. He smiled and said, "I can report to you that I don't have a PE problem any more, so I don't mind Teri knowing that I used to have one. In fact, I've thought from time to time about mentioning it to her."

"Okay," Elizabeth said. "Well, the other difficulty is that Teri obviously might find it upsetting that her ... that the man in her life has had sex repeatedly with her older sister, even in a therapeutic rather than any sort of romantic context."

"That's the biggie," he agreed, nodding. "I have no idea how she'd react--whether she'd feel jealous or just creeped-out, or simply decide she couldn't possibly see me ever again."

He thought some more. "And if I don't tell her?"

"Then it would be your and Marina's secret--for the rest of your lives, if you and Teri actually got married.

"And there's no way Marina or I would ever reveal that secret, but you'd have to consider how comfortable you'd feel keeping it from the woman you love. Would that trouble you?

"Further, if she ever DID find out, however unlikely that is, would the fact that you hadn't told her upfront about it cause an even larger problem between you?"

They talked about it for the rest of the session, and scheduled an extra session the following day to discuss it some more. Michael kept coming back to, "well, what do you think I should do?" Elizabeth's response was, "how do you feel about it? What course of action seems the best to you?"

"Typical therapist!" he shot at her at one point, with a smile--to which she smiled back and stuck out her tongue at him.

****************************

They'd gone for a long walk around the reservoir, and were now sitting comfortably together on a park bench in the shade. It had been a wonderful date, beginning the previous evening with dinner and a little dancing, then a hot night of love-making in Michael's bed.

Every time they made love together he was more and more entranced by Teri's uninhibited eagerness, the happy intensity with which she shared her beautiful body with him. She was much more familiar with ass-play than he was, and had taught him to use his middle finger in her anus to heighten her pleasure as she was climaxing. The first time she returned the favor he nearly jumped out of the bed, but he had come to understand how arousing it could be.

That morning she'd sneaked into the kitchen early to make breakfast, then brought it back to the bedroom where they'd giggled as they fed each other scrambled eggs and bacon and toast with their fingers. Then it was time to make love again, followed by a long shower together, then their walk.

Michael bit his lip. He hated that he had to do this, but there was no way around it. He kissed her and said, "Teri, I need to talk to you about something. Something that might upset you."

"Okay, honey." She looked concerned but not upset. "You're not sick or anything, are you? Or the kids?"

"No no, nothing like that. Listen: I, uh, back when I was married I used to--well, I had a problem with premature ejaculation."

She laughed and hugged him. "Well, you don't have one anymore, baby, that's for sure!" She laughed again. "You turn me inside-out, Michael, and that's--"

"Teri, wait." He looked serious. "That's not ... what I mean to say is, the way I got rid of the problem was to work with a surrogate. A sexual surrogate."

"You mean you ... wait. No--no, wait, you didn't ..." She stood up suddenly and backed away from him a couple of steps, staring at him, her hand covering her mouth.

"You and ... my sister? Marina? You--you're having sex with my SISTER??"

"Teri, no, it's all over now, it ended months ago. But yes, I did ... she was the surrogate I worked with, and we ... had sex together.

"Please, honey, just sit down--let me tell you about it." Looking deeply shocked, Teri allowed him to guide her back down to the bench.

Michael told her: the therapy, working with both Elizabeth and Marina; the practice exercises; and the sex, beginning with masturbation and progressing to oral sex and actual intercourse. She listened numbly, without much expression.

"I'm very grateful to your sister, Teri," he concluded. "She helped me with something I'd been struggling with my whole life. But it was never anything romantic--it was therapist and patient. And it's been over for months. It stopped long before we--before I ever met you."

Teri sat, looking at nothing, while he watched her and worried. Nothing else I can do about it now, he thought. Finally she said, "Michael this is ... it's a lot to absorb, a lot to think about. I guess I'd like you to take me home please."

They drove in silence, and at her apartment building she said, "please--Michael, please give me some time with this, okay? I really care for you, but ...

"But I am just having a lot of trouble dealing with this right now." She squeezed his hand sadly and went inside, leaving him on the front step with a boatload full of worries.

****************************

Marina checked the peephole, then opened her door and there was Teri storming in and yelling, "how COULD you?" before breaking into tears and hugging her sister tightly.

Marina led her to the couch, said, "sit!" and went to get two cups of coffee. She made Teri drink some and waited for her to calm down a little.

"So Michael told you," she said finally. Teri nodded, and Marina said, "I figured he would. He really loves you, Ter--too much to be able to keep any secrets from you."

Teri didn't seem ready to speak, so Marina continued. "Listen, honey. Michael was my client and my friend. I helped him with a problem, the way a therapist does. We weren't lovers, we didn't have a romance.

"If I'd been his tennis instructor, or his massage therapist to rehabilitate an injury to his spine, this would be no big deal, right?" Teri nodded, looking morose.

"Okay, then. This was no different. I know society sees it differently, but it's not."

She waited, knowing her sister well enough to anticipate the outburst that was coming. One of the ways Teri processed things was emotionally--she yelled, she cried, and then (usually) she felt better.

Teri stared across the room gloomily. Then suddenly: "But you fucked him! You fucked him, or he fucked you, or ...

"And you--you probably sucked him off too, right? My Michael had his dick in your mouth and you swallowed his come? What am I supposed to do about that, Marina--how do I get that picture out of my head? My big sister slurping on my husband's dick? Or his tongue in your pussy, and you squirming around--"

"Husband?" Marina raised her eyebrows, and Teri blushed bright red.

"Oh, I didn't ... well, I guess--" She looked incredibly sheepish. "I mean, he hasn't asked me or anything, but I sort of figured ...."

"You figured he was going to be asking sometime soon, right?" Marina was grinning. Teri nodded without looking up.

"Do you love him?"

She nodded again. "I've never felt like this about anyone."

"Okay then," Marina said, thinking, We need to work this through. We need to get it all out, let her have her outburst of anger and jealousy or whatever it is.

She said, "Teri, I've never told you much about my work, I mean what I actually do with clients, so I'm going to tell you now. Not a word about me and Michael, because that's confidential, but about what I typically do in helping a man with a PE problem.

"And you're going to listen and ask whatever questions you want. And if you want to scream and yell, go ahead--I can handle it. I just want to say two things first.

"One is that neither you nor Michael were virgins when you met. He'd been married for a long time, and you certainly had boyfriends in the past, and your own interesting sex-life, right? So neither of you should be bothered by what happened before--it's past, it's over with.

"And second: I never kiss any of my clients on the lips, ever. I'm not their girlfriend, I'm their therapist. My relationship with them is friendly but professional.

"Now--are you ready to listen?"

The sisters talked for more than two hours. Marina told her all about her practice, and about the work she did with men. Teri heard every bit of it, from the masturbation exercises men did alone through mutual masturbation, oral sex, and intercourse in various positions.

Teri mostly just listened, though at one point she burst out, "My God, Marina, how can you do all that with different guys? Like it's a job or something, all in a day's work? Don't you feel like a whore?"

"No baby, I don't. I feel like a therapist who's helping men with problems that have tormented them with years--and I feel just great when I see them get better, when their confidence returns and they walk out of my office ready to take on the world. I feel like a doctor who's saved somebody's life!

"Plus," she added with a mischievous smile, "I like sex, and I get to have a lot of it. You'd probably like that part of my job too!"

She laughed and ducked as Teri grabbed a sofa pillow and began whacking her with it.

At the end of their conversation Marina got up and made some sandwiches, and the sisters sat and ate them in silence. Marina had been sure that their talk would ease Teri's mind, but she could see that her sister was still troubled.

"Honey, why is this still eating at you? You know he adores you, right? And that he'd never even seen you, back when he and I were working together?"

Teri nodded, then suddenly shouted, "I know, I KNOW all that, okay? I don't know why I'm still upset, I just AM!

"You can tell me that all those weeks of you rolling around on a bed with Michael shouldn't matter to me, but it does--it makes me crazy! And I don't have any idea what the hell to do about it!"

She jumped up and, grabbing her handbag, headed for the door. And before Marina had time to say, "Teri, remember how much he loves you," she was gone.

****************************

Michael didn't think it was possible to feel this way--this empty. He hadn't seen or spoken to Teri in three weeks. Several calls had gone unanswered, and then after about five days he'd come home to a short message on his machine.