Love Me Tender - Please Pt. 01

"I'm exhausted. Maybe I'll go to bed early. I want to get into work early tomorrow morning to clean up some stuff I left undone."

"I thought you said you had it all finished," Ray said in an accusing tone.

"Well, not everything," she stuttered. "Anyway, I have to get up early. Why don't you come to bed too?"

"No, I said I have some stuff to do," he answered rather sharply.

Karen's eyes snapped up to his and a frown creased her forehead as she reacted to his tone of voice. Ray looked at her for a moment before opening the door to the basement.

"Good-night," he said and closed the door behind him.

Karen carried her empty cup and glass to the sink and rinsed it out before putting it in the dishwasher. Something was not quite right and she couldn't put her finger on it. Opening the refrigerator to put the butter inside, she picked up the bottle of wine and saw that it was almost empty. She didn't remember Ray opening the bottle and she had only had one drink. Why was it almost gone?

"He didn't go out to buy wine," she realized. "He was looking for me. Oh, my God. That was his white van that pulled into the parking lot while I was talking to Mike. He must have thought I was having a drink in that bar and not working. That's why he smelled my breath."

Karen went to the basement door and was about to open it and explain what happened but thought better of it because it would sound like she was making excuses and trying to cover something up. Rejecting the idea she decided to mention something about parking there when Ray came to bed. That would take care of it.

She tried to stay awake and wait for Ray but she finally fell asleep without talking to him.

The sound of the front door closing woke Karen the next morning. She didn't remember Ray coming to bed the night before. Looking at the clock she realized that she would have to get a move on if she was going to get to work early.

"Why didn't he wake me up?" she thought while she brushed her teeth and once again critically examined her nude body in front of the full-length mirror.

Karen spent another hectic day trying to figure everything out while answering the telephone and finding files for the agents. She hardly saw Mike and when he came back in at almost five o'clock she gave him a stack of messages that needed to be answered. It was not until she was ready to leave at five-thirty that she remembered that Tuesday was their couple's bowling night and she was going to be late.

Brian answered the phone and told her that his father had already left for the bowling lanes. Ray told Brian to tell her that he would get a sub and not to bother coming to bowl.

"Oh, shit! He must be really pissed at me," she thought as she almost ran to her car.

It was after six by the time she got home and it was too late to change and go bowling so she decided to just relax and watch some television. After checking on the kids, she changed into her nightgown and robe, and nuked a hot dog for dinner. She carried it and a bottle of wine and a glass to the family room and settled in to watch television.

The television was off and the house was dark when she woke up. The last thing she remembered doing was emptying the last of the wine into her glass.

"I must have fallen asleep," she said to the darkness. "I wonder if Ray is home?"

Peeking out of the front window she saw Ray's van in the driveway and felt her way to the stairway. Ray seemed to be sound asleep when she opened their bedroom door and after taking a pee, she crawled into bed and snuggled up to his warm back.

Ray was not asleep but he didn't move when she slid up behind him and put her arm around his chest. He felt her hair on his back and then her lips when she kissed him before placing her cheek against his warm skin.

"I love you," she whispered and fell asleep.

Ray was having trouble trying to sleep. For the second night in a row his mind raced with his agonizing thoughts as he tried to sort things out. Did he really see what he thought he saw or was he imagining things? He was ashamed of his suspicions and he was further ashamed of examining her panties for evidence of any betrayal. He didn't find anything but she must have seen what he was doing when she walked into the bedroom.

"God, I'm getting paranoid," he muttered and slowly dozed off into a fitful sleep.

Chapter 06

The Royals settled into a daily routine that seemed to satisfy everyone. Karen loved her job and she learned more about the real estate business every day. Now that she had her work routine down, her hours were stable and there were only a few times when she had to stay late.

Most of the late evenings were the result of the little impromptu parties someone was always organizing at work. Every once in a while, a couple of snack trays and a few bottles of wine would appear in the break room a little before five. If it was someone's birthday, a cake would be displayed and everyone knew that they could stay after the office closed for a little get together.

Another excuse was a big sale with its accompanying big commission that served as a catalyst for an evening out. Several of the agents, and whoever else could be spared, would leave at about 4:30 and save some tables at the sports bar and lounge a few doors away. The successful salesperson would foot the bar bill for a few hours to thank everyone for their help. Karen found that her fondness for wine, as well as her capacity, increased as time went by.

She especially enjoyed the parties at the lounge where she could order Margaritas, her new favorite drink. She never got any indication that Ray or the kids minded her staying late once in a while and she was always careful not to drink too much. She developed a habit of chewing breath mints after she left the parties. She only stayed for a little while and was usually home by six to either help fix a late dinner or to bring home some carryout she picked up on the way.

Nothing much ever happened at the get-togethers except that a lot of alcohol was consumed. Sometimes a friendly hug would turn into a long squeeze or a hand massaging an ass cheek. Karen tried to keep away from the more aggressive guys but every once in a while she would find herself trapped and would go along with the game.

She found that most of the women agents were single through divorce or had never been married. One or two were widows who moved back into the workforce after their husbands died. She found through the parties and the Chamber of Commerce get-togethers that all of the agents and brokers knew each other. They were at least outwardly friendly in spite of the intense competition inherent in their profession.

She was surprised at the turnover of agents in the office. They came and went when better offers from other brokers were available or when Jack or another agent brought a friend into the agency. There didn't seem to be any hard feelings about the practice but it made it harder for her since she had to learn each new agent's methods and habits.

She found that she was good at her job and she was regularly getting little presents of checks or event tickets for helping one agent or another get through a complicated sale. By March, those extra checks and the bonuses that Mike gave her for her work let her put a down payment on the first car that she bought all by herself with her own money.

Ray was upset when she took him down to the Cadillac dealer to pick up her new Escalade. She didn't tell him where they were going because she wanted him to be surprised. He was more than surprised when he found out what she had done.

He didn't say a word to her during the entire process of filling out the paperwork and when she told the saleswoman that only her name should be on the title, he left the office and waited outside for her.

She knew he was hurt and when she tried to explain the business benefits of having the car registered in her name he never gave her any indication that he even heard what she was saying. When she gave him the paperwork to put into the safe in his office he handed them back to her.

"It's yours, keep it wherever you want it. The stuff in the safe belongs to both of us."

He never mentioned the car again and he never drove it.

Ray still bowled in the couple's league and she was jealous for a while when a female bowler on the substitute list had agreed to bowl regularly with Ray. She accepted it because there was no way that she could get there before bowling started. The season was almost over and would not start up again until the fall so it wouldn't go on for too long. There was also a little tension in the house the first few weekends when she had to work on Saturday but her family quickly got used to doing more for themselves.

She detected a little sense of uneasiness between her and Ray. She didn't know if Ray was jealous of her or still angry because she went out and got a job without discussing it with him first. She knew he didn't want her to fail but she also felt that if she didn't do well he would not be upset.

He seemed to be always watching her. He called her at the office at odd times just to ask a question or tell her that he loved her. She was not used to his doing that during the day when she was not working. She sometimes felt that he didn't trust her and he was checking up on her.

Sometimes she had to run errands or take some paperwork to an agent at a listed house. If he happened to call at those times and found she was not there it apparently bothered him. Later, at dinner or while watching television, he would ask her about her day and he seemed to be interested in what she did.

He almost accused her of lying to him when she once forgot to include a trip to the county seat that took her out of the office when he called. She finally figured out what he was doing and she made sure to casually include the fact that she had to leave the office for a short time for business purposes whenever the subject came up.

What bothered her most was the decline in their intimacy in the bedroom. They still made love but not nearly as frequently as before she started working. Before her new job, morning lovemaking sessions were a regular part their relationship but now they were nonexistent.

Ray's class schedule at the Arts and Design College meant he didn't have to be there until eleven on most days. Before she started working, they could lay in bed to cuddle and make love for almost as long as they wanted. Now, she left earlier than he did and she was already out the door many mornings before he came awake. When they did make love there was no horseplay and fooling around, it was mostly just straight sex. She missed the laughing and the teasing that had been so much a part of their love life.

When she worked on a Saturday she had Monday off but that was Ray's day for his student counseling appointments and he always left early. Nowadays the only time they made morning love was on Sundays. Ray had stopped questioning her about her work but he patiently listened when she felt like talking about it. She told him stories about the various clients who tried to buy houses with no credit or sellers who tried to get the agents to hide a defect in their homes that they didn't want a buyer to know about.

He reluctantly agreed to accompany her to the Chamber of Commerce evening networking get-togethers once each month. She knew he didn't feel comfortable and he admitted that he felt out of place there. The other business people talked only about real estate or their own businesses and they were not interested in who he was or what he did.

He tried to join in the conversations but he couldn't keep up with all of the acronyms and abbreviations that they used. He finally gave up and he spent his time around the snack table. Eventually he gravitated to sitting with the other wives and husbands who were also dragged along by their spouses.

They had had a big fight after the second get together that they attended. Ray thought that everyone was a little too kissy-face and touchy-feely especially after a few glasses of booze. She told him that it was just a thing that they did and it did not mean anything. That evening, Ray watched as one of the male agents who used to work in her office spotted her and strode across the room to grab her and plant a big kiss on her lips.

Ray sulked in a corner the rest of the evening and on the way home in her new SUV he told her that he thought that she didn't do enough to resist the jerk's advances. Karen thought he was being a little too old-fashioned and he should accept the modern ways of doing business and to let his hair down a little.

"What? You don't think a forty-two year old college professor can let his hair down?" he fumed. "That's not the point. I'm not the problem here, you are. I don't like to see my wife enjoy being mauled by some jerk who never even went to college."

"He didn't maul me. He was glad to see me and he sure makes a lot of money for not having gone to college," she retorted. "A college education isn't everything you know. Don't look down on us just because we don't have a lot of fancy degrees like you have"

"Oh my God, I shouldn't have said that," she said to herself and glancing over at Ray, she cringed from the hurt that she knew she had caused him.

"So, now it's us, is it? You and them against me? What happened to you and me? Stop the car!" he shouted. "Stop the Goddamn car!"

Karen stared at him in fright and surprise. He never spoke to her in that tone of voice and she knew he was beyond angry. His face was red and his eyes almost bulging when she pulled over to the curb a few blocks from their home.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean it. Please don't be angry with me."

Her knuckles were white on the steering wheel as she tensed for his next outburst but it didn't come. He sat there staring out of the windshield and not saying a word.

"Honey? What's wrong? Why are you acting this way? You know I love you. If it bothers you that you think we are overly friendly with each other I'll stop it right now. Is that it? Please tell me what's wrong."

"Look," he almost whispered the word as he struggled to get it out through his strangling throat.

"I haven't been able to sleep or think straight ever since that night I saw you kissing Mike outside of that lounge on Fifth Street. I don't know what you are doing anymore and I am getting paranoid about it. Correction, I am paranoid about whom you are with and what you are doing. When I see you kissing another man and letting him run his hands all over your body I go wild. I feel you are trashing our marriage for the sake of a few dollars."

He turned and looked at her with tears running down his face.

"That's what's wrong! Goddamn it!"

"Kissed Mike? I never kissed Mike. What lounge?"

"The night right after you first started working there. I sat in my car and watched you kiss him right out in public in the parking lot. I was worried about you and when I couldn't get through to you on the telephone, I drove over there to make sure you were all right. I shouldn't have bothered. You were doing all right for yourself.

Here I was worried about you and you were screwing around with another man. You lied about staying late at work and went drinking with him. Was it a real date or did you just stop for a quick drink and some more of your harmless kissy-face?"

The last words came out in almost a scream. His voice had gone well beyond anger and she could hear the rage he was venting. The spittle was flying out of his mouth and she thought that he was going to have a stroke. Suddenly he sat up and wrenched at the door handle but the power locks were on and after several fumbling tries to unlock them he gave up and just sat there with his head in his hands.

Awareness dawned on Karen's face. A cold chill ran through her as she assimilated his charges. The long forgotten mental note she made to herself to tell Ray about the episode in the parking lot had caused him to reach this point of despair.

"Oh, my God, she thought. "It's my fault he's feeling this way. I should have told him."

Unbuckling her seat belt, Karen struggled to get over the center console and throw herself at him. Holding his face in her two hands she forced him to raise his head and look at her.

"No, no, no, sweetheart. Please, listen to me. That's not what happened. I was going to tell you about it but I forgot. I didn't kiss him. He was thanking me for my extra effort that day and the sound of a car's brakes made me turn my head so he kissed me on the lips and not on my cheek. I would never do anything like that to hurt you. I'm so sorry. Please, please believe me."

Tears were running down Karen's face and her words were coming out through her sobs. Throwing her arms around his neck she pulled him to her and wetted his cheek and his neck with her tears and her kisses.

Ray's voice was choked.

"I ... I thought you just met him when you applied for the job. When I asked you if you had known him before you hesitated and I thought you were making up a lie to cover yourself. I've been a wreck since then. I worry about what you are doing and I find myself checking up on you and doubting your word. I can't help it."

"OK, OK. Let's go home and we can talk about it. That woman standing in her yard watching us thinks we are about to have sex in front of her house."

Karen released Ray and scrambled back into the driver's seat. Managing a smile, he turned and waved at the lady staring at them as Karen pulled away.

Sex that night was the best that they had in a long time. The first time was make-up sex. It was almost punishing as they each strived to dissipate their respective anger and sorrow for their fight and the harsh words they had thrown at each other. The second time they made slow love with the purpose of pleasing each other.

Afterwards, they lay in bed with the sheets twisted about to let their sweaty bodies cool off in the air-conditioned bedroom. After a few minutes, they turned and began to peck and nibble at each other's lips. This is the kind of lovemaking that Karen wanted and missed. She thought she now knew why their intimacy had waned over the last weeks and she was glad that it was back.

Ray moved his kisses down her neck and her chest to her breasts. He leaned over her and licked and kissed the salty tasting moisture off of her skin.

"Thirsty?" she teased and pulled his face into her breast.

"You bet," he replied and grabbed her nipple with his lips. "I'm real thirsty. Got anything in there?"

"You're about 16 years too late for that," she laughed. "But keep trying, I like it."

He captured her nipple gently between his teeth and stretched it before sucking it into his mouth. She felt the pull all the way down to her toes as a fresh wave of arousal tingled throughout her body.

"Can we do it again or are you too tired old man?" she giggled.

Releasing her nipple he picked his head up and looked into her eyes.

"I'll show you what an old man can do!" he growled and continued his ministrations down over her belly until he reached her pubic hair.

"Don't! I'm all gooey and mushy down there. You just filled me up."

"I like you gooey and mushy so lie back and enjoy."

He bit at her hair and lightly pulled on it with his teeth. Somehow the little prick of pain from his hair pulling translated into a sensual act and she raised her pelvis and widened her thighs to entice him to go further. Scooting down on the bed until he was lying between her upraised knees, he pushed her legs up and began to kiss the backs of her knees before slowly moving towards his ultimate target. Relaxing, she let him manipulate her body to get easy access to all of her good places that he knew so well.