A Surprise Reunion (The Surprise Series Book 2) Page 3

  Melissa stood up and turned around, her back now to Richard, and she slowly lifted her skirt, her legs wide apart, giving him a vivid view of her ass and pussy. Could he see how swollen she was?

  She bent over the table, supporting herself with one hand, realizing the drapes were wide open, staring out into the yard, thinking someone might drive by, or walk by, not caring, maybe even wishing for it.

  She reached back with one hand and spread herself wide, offering herself to Richard, to the men in the restaurant.

  “I think I’d certainly want to be fucked at that point,” she said. She balanced herself on her shoulders, on the hard table, her other hand seeking out her pussy.

  “I can’t see what the other men are doing,” she said. “Can you tell me?”

  There was a hesitation, then she heard his whisper, “They’re waiting their turn.”

  “What?” She again feigned surprise. “You mean, they are all going to take me?”

  “Yes!”

  “I guess that would be okay with me—if it is okay with you. There’s plenty for everyone. I do think I need it. Now.”

  She was so vulnerable, her butt in the air, one hand spreading her ass and thighs wide open, an invitation.

  Would Richard take her?

  She was teasing him, but what she really wanted was for Richard to come to her, to change this fantasy into their reality.

  Melissa heard his breathing, but he didn’t approach.

  She waited. But she felt no hot breath on her neck, no hands pushing her down, holding her to the table.

  Richard only wanted to watch.

  Damn it. She was hoping for something more.

  If Richard wouldn’t give her what she wanted, she’d get it herself. Right now.

  She slipped two fingers inside herself, hard, pretending it was the man at the restaurant, the first one who had noticed her, who had unabashedly stared at her, wanting her. She had felt it. She knew it.

  And as Melissa shoved her fingers in and out she imagined it was that man who was fucking her, that her Richard had sat by, watching, that he wanted to be watching instead of taking her himself, that he was more excited by her being fucked by someone else than by doing it himself, and this made her angry and hurt and strangely excited, and she used her fingers to fuck herself, now really wishing she was there, feeling a strange cock inside her, feeling the other men’s hands on her, waiting to take their turn, to have their way with her, shoving their cocks in her mouth and her pussy, right in front of her husband.

  She heard a groan behind her, knowing without looking that Richard had made himself come, that she had made him come, telling him this story, painting this picture for him, his wife being fucked by a group of strangers.

  And her letting it happen.

  Chapter 4

  After that night, Melissa decided that Richard was right, something had to change. Yes, the fantasy had excited her. The fantasies, these and maybe others to come, the dirty talk, all of that would add a bit of spice to their relationship. It would help.

  But Melissa also knew that it wouldn’t last. She was willing to try it for a while, she might surprise even herself. She had never thought she would get excited about hearing her husband talk about her with another man, just as she had never thought she would get aroused about the kinds of things that Marcus had introduced her to.

  Now she fully accepted that there was more to it than just sex, that what she thought was missing in their marriage was not just more passionate sex, but something else. The sex was just the obvious, visible thing.

  All men were different, a combination of looks and personality and characteristics. Somehow, there needed to be some kind of mesh with the combination that made up each woman. It wasn’t enough to check off a few boxes; the combinations had to fit.

  If one piece was missing, the whole thing would be a little bit off, unbalanced, like a shopping cart with a spinning wheel. It worked, for the most part, but it never felt exactly right. And someday, it just might come undone.

  Richard had a lot that fit well with her. But the one thing he was missing, the one that was hard to put her finger on, was exactly what men like Vern and Marcus had. The extreme sense of self confidence, not necessarily in life—although Marcus had that—but with women. The aura of invincibility, combined with not seeming to care.

  Melissa knew that such a power was not necessarily good, and that in her rational, independently minded modern female mindset, she thought was degrading.

  That’s what her mind said.

  The question wasn’t whether she wanted it, or thought it was good.

  The question was whether she needed it.

  Two weeks went by, and nothing had been said about either the living room reenactment of the restaurant fantasy or the reunion. Melissa had resolved to give it some time, to see how this vamped up addition to their sex life would affect her mood, her attitude toward her marriage.

  But she knew she would have to make a decision about the reunion at some point soon. It was like timer ticking down on a bomb.

  The first explosion was a tiny one, the ping of her cell phone with a text. But like many small explosions, it had the potential to set off a larger conflagration.

  The text was from Julie. ‘Are you going to the reunion?’

  Just like that, there it was. Melissa texted back, ‘Are you?’

  Julie replied, ‘Of course. Let’s go, it will be fun. You can show off Richard.’

  The timer on the bomb had just sped up.

  After work that day Melissa kept herself busy, running errands, knowing she’d go crazy if she went home and waited for Richard. As it was, by the time she heard him pull up, she had done a half hour of hard spinning on the bike, taken a shower, had two glasses of wine, and had almost worn a hole in the floor pacing by the window.

  When Richard came in she barely let him empty his pockets before she blurted, “I’ve decided something.”

  Richard looked up sharply. He tensed, as if steeling himself for bad news. “The reunion?”

  “No. Maybe. Not that, yet. I have another idea. A crazy idea, but maybe not quite as crazy as me hooking up again with Marcus.”

  “Melissa, we need to find out, once and for all—”

  She cut him off. “Hear me out, okay? I’ve been thinking about this a lot. You said you wanted an alternative. I have one. Let’s sit down.”

  Richard nodded and followed her to the couch. Melissa waited for him to sit down, and then sat close to him, not quite touching, but close enough to eliminate any sense of formality.

  She felt his tenseness, not only because of what he might be wondering she might say, but by how she had practically ambushed him. She tried easing into it. “Remember a few weeks ago, how excited you got about my restaurant story?”

  “Of course I do. I—I’ve thought about it a lot. Not only the story of what happened, but about how you—embellished it. It was exciting.”

  Melissa smiled. “I thought so too. When you first brought up your—interest—in seeing me with another man, I was surprised. More than surprised, I was shocked. I told you then that it bothered me, that I couldn’t understand why that would excite you. But I was unfair. Just as you think I’m missing something, it would be unfair for me not to accept that you are too.”

  Richard shook his head. “It’s not that. I don’t feel I’m missing something. I’ll feel that we are missing something, because there is something I can’t give you. Something you need.”

  “I’m not sure I agree with that, but I want to talk more about what we might do to change things. Who knows? No matter what the reason, if we get to where we need to be—if you are confident that I have what I need to be happy, wouldn’t that solve our problem?”

  “Maybe. I’d have to see. I’d have to be sure.”

  Melissa put her hand on his knee, not provocatively, but just to connect physically. “There might never be a way to be sure,” she said softly. “But I have to admit, ever s
ince you brought all this up—and I’m sad and embarrassed to say this—I’ve been nagged by questions, I’ve been wondering about everything. You might think it is all about Marcus, and I won’t deny I’ve considered that, but the real thing for me is maybe not about him specifically but about us, about how we fit together. And about me, about whether I have some set of—needs—that our marriage just can’t meet.”

  “You mean that I can’t meet,” said Richard.

  “No.” Melissa was firm. “That’s not it, and if you keep saying that I’ll be angry. It’s not just you, or just me, it’s us.” She stared into his eyes. “Don’t you see? Everything has to fit.”

  Richard considered, holding her gaze. “I love you so much,” he said. “We could try to change, to save us, to make us better.”

  Melissa nodded. “Yes. But we already have changed. Things are different, especially sexually. This whole new you—us—has been a revelation. It’s been exciting. It’s one of the things I’ve felt might be missing. I’m not sure if it is the only thing, but it is certainly part of it. And things are better. Much better. Don’t you feel it?”

  Richard looked away. “I thought things were fine before, or at least I wanted them to be. But,” he turned to her, smiling. “This is pretty good too. It’s kind of fun, actually.”

  “Fun? Richard, I haven’t heard you describe anything as fun in years!” Melissa gave him a kiss on the check. She was relieved she had made it this far in the conversation. Now for the next topic. . .

  Richard beat her to it. “I’m wondering if it will be enough. Spicing up our sex life by talking about my—our—fantasies.”

  “Yes, I’ve thought about that too. We’ll find out. But if it isn’t enough, for either of us, then—we could take it to the next level.”

  “You mean, you’d sleep with someone?”

  Melissa shook her head. “I think that’s more than the next level. What I was thinking of was, what if I did some real teasing? Not to be mean, but just, I don’t know, seem available, like at the restaurant, and then tell you about it?”

  Richard cocked his head. “I don’t know. I’m sure it would be—stimulating. Hearing you talk about it.” He hesitated. “What would you do?”

  “I’m not sure exactly. I wouldn’t want to hurt some poor guy’s feeling, lead him on or anything.”

  “Women do that all the time.”

  “Not all women.”

  “I didn’t mean that. Are you telling me you never led a guy on? Before we were married?”

  “Not to purposefully let him think he was going to get something and then disappear. Flirting, sure, I did that, and maybe a little more sense of promise if I was interested in the guy.”

  “I don’t think that would be such a big deal,” said Richard. “I think even married people do that a little, they don’t mean anything by it, they wouldn’t go through with it.”

  “Well, we don’t do it. I mean I don’t. Do you?”

  He looked surprised. “What do you think?”

  Melissa laughed. She couldn’t imagine Richard seriously flirting. “No, I guess not. I know you used to, you did with me when we first met.”

  “I already know how I’d react if you did something like that now,” said Richard. “It’s what I thought you were doing at the pool party. You know that. I’m just not sure it would be enough— for you.”

  “What if you could see it happening?” Melissa asked tentatively. “And I knew you were there?”

  Richard’s eyebrow went up. “That would be for me. What would it do for you?”

  Melissa hesitated. This was the dangerous part of the conversation. She didn’t want to say anything that would imply he was powerless, or incapable of someday ultimately satisfying her. Carefully, she said, “It does add something different. Mostly because I know you would be aroused.”

  Richard considered. “How would we do something like that?”

  “I haven’t thought that far ahead, I wanted to talk to you about it. I wouldn’t want to do something around here, or with anyone I know. We might run into someone, and then it wouldn’t be fun, it would be embarrassing.”

  “I guess that rules out Vern.” Richard ended the sentence with just a bit of an inflection, a half question.

  An image flashed into Melissa’s mind, Vern practically forcing herself on her, Richard watching. Or maybe something even more stirring for Richard, Vern diffident, Melissa having to beg him to take her.

  She pulled her mind away. “Not Vern.” But she couldn’t get the image out of her head. Knowing right then, something, someday, would have to get resolved with Vern, even if was her being able to dismiss him, reject him totally in her own mind.

  Even just kissing Vern would be trouble, it could go too far. It would go too far, she knew it.

  “You’re right, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea for it to be someone we knew,” said Richard. “Or even to try to meet someone around here. What if someone saw us?”

  Melissa turned away. Richard was trying to help, but in some ways, he just didn’t get it. Doing something dangerous—the risk of getting caught, that was exactly the type of situation that turned her on.

  “We talked about going somewhere warm at the end of the winter,” said Richard, already thinking of this as a logistical problem, not a sexual one. “We could go somewhere far, Hawaii maybe, maybe go to a nice club. . .”

  “That might work.” Oh God, how was she to say this? Just admitting it was another straw in the basket, another confirmation that they had a real problem. And that Marcus was on her mind, a possible answer. At some point it would be too late, something she said or did would be the last straw, and then there would be no going back. As casually as she could, she said, “I’ll need to decide on the reunion before then.”

  “I see,” said Richard.

  And with those two words Melissa knew that Richard understood everything, that though nothing had happened with anyone else, that though she hadn’t even spoken to Marcus, there was now a new reality in their lives, the new reality of her doubt. The reality of Marcus.

  “At least I’d have to decide whether to RSVP,” she said hastily. “Of course, I could do that and just not show up. Even if I had to pay a deposit it would be a small price if I end up not going.”

  “Sure,” said Richard. “That makes sense.”

  But Melissa could tell that it had finally hit him, that this was not only something she was considering, but that was something she was leaning toward doing. Richard had sown the seed, but she had let it grow. “Maybe we could think of something sooner. . .”

  Richard brightened. “I have an idea. One of the other VP’s at work thinks we should try to break into the hospitality market with our product. The rest of us agree it’s kind of a low possibility, so no one has pursued it. He mentioned the other day that a good opportunity came up, a trade show down in New Orleans. But the VP can’t make the trip, he has a conflict. He asked if I’d go. I said I’d think about it, and I was going to say no. But it might be perfect. No one would know me there, or even much about our company.”

  “You’d want me to go with you?”

  “Not exactly. We’d go separately. That way no one would see us together. You could, you know, maybe meet someone at the hotel bar. Or something.”

  Melissa tried to think it through. “I get it, at least the idea. But Richard, we need to put some limits on this. I’m not going to fuck some stranger I meet at a bar.”

  “Who said anything about that?” said Richard. “I wasn’t thinking of it going that far.”

  But Melissa heard the change in his tone, the slight tremor in his voice. Now that she had mentioned it, that possibility was exactly what he was thinking about.

  And so help her, so was she.

  Chapter 5

  The next few weeks both dragged and flew by. It was the weirdest feeling. One minute, Melissa would be dreading the entire thought, her alone in a strange city, flirting with some stranger, leading him
on a little. It made her cringe.

  But another part of her, she had to admit, was excited by the prospect. Nothing would happen, it would be harmless, it would be fun. It would give her and Richard a new, secret thing to share. It would amp up their sex life.

  And she had to admit, ever since this all started, this talk about sex, about her needs, she felt a newfound freedom, an awareness of her own sexuality, what really drove it, an understanding of not only what she wanted but what she needed, and why.

  The temptation.

  The desire of other men.

  The risk.

  Melissa found herself slipping into daydreams of how it might play out, her meeting some hunk, letting him get a little close, absorbing the heat, and then going back to her hotel room to be with Richard, seeing what it did for him, for them.

  She knew she should feel guilty about maybe leading someone on, but Richard was right, a lot of women did that, a little flirting, she was sure that the average guy in a hotel bar got that a lot and thought nothing of it.

  And besides, Richard would be right there, if anything was misunderstood he’d just come to her rescue, hustle her away. That in itself would be a thrill.

  Richard seemed to have gotten over the initial shock of finally hearing her admit that she was thinking about the reunion, and he had thrown himself into making the plans for the trip. He enthusiastically explained how he had booked them on separate flights on the way to New Orleans, so no one attending the trade show might see them together on the flight. For the hotel, though, they would be in the same room.

  Melissa felt a sigh of relief when he told her that; he wasn’t actually expecting her to sleep with someone. Or was he secretly thinking she might go to a stranger’s room? She couldn’t imagine that. Well, she could, but she wouldn’t let it go that far, and Richard wouldn’t allow it, it would be too dangerous.

  She found herself wondering what to pack, what to wear. Business clothing, like what she usually wore to work? She dressed relatively conservatively, but she knew men still looked at her. A little more provocatively? Maybe. The only thing she ruled out was slutty. That was a look she couldn’t pull off, even if she had the clothes. She’d feel too self conscious.