Surprise in St. Tropez

"I couldn't think about anything else. Yes, I am looking forward to tonight. Very much so. Do you want to tell about your day with him?"

"Well, as you know, he said 'Yes' and he's taking me out to dinner... You made the reservations?"

"Yes"

"He bought me this outfit that you are going to love. But, I really have to get ready. Can I tell you later?"

Sarah's big brown eyes looked up at him and his heart surged with love, the little girl plea in them irresistible. She kissed him quickly and slipped from his arms and headed for the bathroom... Andrew found himself left to pour himself a drink alone and stand watching the day wind down from his balcony, just as he had a good part of the day.

Forty-five minutes later, Sarah emerged and took his breath away. Her long, dark hair freshly waved and her eyes boldly and seductively shadowed, her slender body was encased in a tight, sleeveless black dress. The fabric opaque but thin and clinging to every curve and feature of her body like it was painted on. Its hem was draped to a point down to the top of her calf to the left, the thigh cut dangerously high on the right and the neckline plunged deeply to the center of her abdomen, exposing the swells of her breasts. The only thing keeping her covered was the tightness of the fabric that left her lovely nipples in clear relief.

It was stunning but clearly said she was wearing nothing beneath it. Her calves looked sculpted, perched atop black, high-heeled, open-toed shoes that strapped around her ankles. About her neck two strings of pearls hung down to her cleavage and she wore a matching bracelet of pearls around her wrist. Her perfume filled the room something new a bit earthy and sexy.

"You look absolutely amazing. Has he seen you in this yet?" Sarah smirked knowing what her husband was understanding.

"I had to try it on for him before he bought it." She answered, stepping into his arms. "Yup! Had to take off all my clothes to try it on... but he only saw me in the dress... don't worry."

"New perfume too?"

"Do you like it? It's called 'Obsession'. He thought it was appropriate."

"I agree and you look incredible! Martin is obviously a man of impeccable taste." Andrew was all too aware of how completely another man had already taken possession of his wife in what he had dressed her in and the scent he'd anointed her in... of his choosing, his scent on his possession.

"Thank you, He is truthfully."

"Especially in women." Sarah smiled, flattered taking his hands.

"I'd kiss you for that but it would mess-up my lipstick. There's something we need to talk about... condoms."

"I thought of that and I picked them up this afternoon with the rest of the list you gave me."

"Well... that's the thing... he wants to take me bareback..." Andrew's stomach twisted, "... it's what I want too..." she said.

The twisting in his gut wound into a jealous possessive serpent that climbed his spine. Her beautiful dark eyes probed his deeply, silently affirming the sincerity of her desire and Andrew starting to feel himself quivering nervous, conflicted arousal as he thought about it.

"You know it is like having sex with everyone he has for the last 15 years..." Andrew said reminding her of what everyone already knew.

"He and I talked about that. He's had a few women but all of them were monogamous type things or at least very exclusive relationships."

"What does that mean?

"I wouldn't be his first married woman." And that made Andrew's stomach twist a bit more.

"I don't know, it's a big risk to bring into our lives."

"Andrew, I'll go with whatever you decide, but like I said, besides you there is no one I would trust more with me than him. I believe that he's been careful. Being extremely careful about that is very much in keeping with the man I knew him to be. I'm comfortable that it would be safe. It's what I wanted 15 years ago. It's what I want now. Please, think about it. But I have to go. He'll be waiting for me downstairs. See you at the restaurant later? Eat something. It could be a long night." She smirked and leaving lipstick on his cheek where she kissed him and an intoxicating trail of her perfume the door clicked shut behind her.

8

The garden at The Strand is dominated by a large gnarled tree, its trunk wrapped in white mini lights and the patio beneath hemmed by a precisely trimmed hedge. White-clothed tables were lit in candlelight, the glassware sparkling and the waiters attentive. Andrew sat at the bar nursing another scotch as he gazed out the window at the stunning couple seated under the protective arms of the ancient tree. The beautiful woman laughed and her companion joined her. Her beauty was captivating and Andrew's heart pounded.

"Beautiful, no?" the bartender said as he idly dried a glass and joined Andrew in admiring her. "A shame such a woman is beyond the reach of men such as us."

His words twisted in Andrew's gut because in that moment it was true, his wife was another's. She'd turned heads as she'd entered, her tight, black dress with its draped hem, the high cut at the thigh and high heels made her gorgeous legs look like they went on forever. Her cleavage bared, the pearls dipping between her breasts looking bright against her tan skin and the shape and points of her breasts in plain relief beneath the smooth fabric. There was hardly a head that didn't turn, man or woman, to see the stunningly beautiful woman strolling with a sensual sway to her table with her handsome older date behind her. But, it was her eyes, seductively painted with arrow tipped mascara and eyelids sparkling, seductively shadowed in dark purple to blue, her dark painted lips, the cut of her tastefully highlighted cheeks; it was these that made her enthralling.

The handsome man with her was clearly older than she, greying at the temples but perfectly coiffed, his beard salt and peppered and little longer than a four day shadow. His sport coat and slacks tailored to perfection and his shirt crisp, starched and open at the collar. He was a younger version of 'the world's most interesting man'. He carried himself with a George Clooney kind of suave, holding her chair as she seated herself. He bathed her in all of his attention and she clearly found it flattering.

"Money can buy beauty to overcome age, n'est pas?" the barkeep posed but Andrew didn't respond, knowing a different truth.

Their exquisitely prepared and presented meal for which the restaurant was famous lingered and the Pouilly Fuisse they shared slowly vanished, their dinner protracted.

"Did you talk with Andrew about what we discussed this afternoon?" Martin asked.

"I did. He understands your hope that he would become part of the room rather than a presence between us. He said he'd try. You know I can't ignore him. I will be with you but you understand this is something I am sharing with him too."

"I understand. I trust you won't be offended that all I'll know tonight is you. I will in all likelihood do everything in my power to forget that he's in the room with us."

Sarah smiled. "I would hope for and expect nothing less than to be the center of your attention."

"The other requests I had?"

"Andrew won't be a distraction. He understands. I asked him to stay dressed as part of my game with him so you needn't worry about him spoiling the mood. He knows that between us we're living out something we both regretted not doing years ago. He's OK with that and doesn't want to take that away from me. I love him for wanting this for me. And, you're lucky he does." Sarah's eyes smirked over her glass as she took another sip of her wine.

"I'm certainly a lucky man and you are beautiful" Martin smiled, lifting his glass in toast.

Finally, the wine gone, Andrew saw the gentleman wave for the check. Having paid, he held her chair and led his stunning companion to the bar.

"Andrew! What a surprise, how good to see you!" Sarah chimed, happily playing out the charade of a friend complete with the peck on the cheek.

The bartender's eye brows lifted. "J'ai comprend." he said softly to Andrew sympathetically, all of it twisting in Andrew's gut like he was the friend pining after the beauty he couldn't have.

The Bartender took their order as Sarah's eyes probed her husband's, sparkling with the fun she was having and looking for how he was doing with all this. He nodded slightly, not at all sure he was doing OK but relieved to finally have her near him again.

"Andrew this is Martin, Martin..."

'Don't say friend, don't say friend!' Andrew's brain painfully panicked,

"...this is my love, Andrew."

"A pleasure." Martin said extending his hand, "Your wife is incredible and more alluring now than ever. You're a lucky man." He said, with a mischievous sparkle in his eye, pretty certain of the pang that might stir in Andrew. "May I trust my date with you for a moment?" he smiled, excusing himself for the restrooms.

Sarah's hand found Andrew's beneath the bar.

"Are you still Ok with this? I'm having fun but if it's too much to take, if you're having second thoughts I'll understand."

"You are gorgeous, I love you... I want you... but the two of you look incredible together... your pleasure in being with him is beautiful on you and it turns me on... so, yes I'm jealous and exquisitely turned on so the sooner we finish these drinks and get back to the hotel the better."

"My thoughts exactly.' She smiled brightly. "If I could kiss you I would but here comes my date." she smirked. Martin's hand slid with a disturbing naturalness about her waist and she turned to him and spoke softly.

"Very well." Martin smiled and he paid for the drinks that they left sitting on the bar.

8

The hall so quiet they could hear crush of the plush carpet beneath their feet Sarah led the way towards the room, the two men loving the way woman's behind swayed as she walked in heels as they followed. The chirp of the door seemed impossibly loud as Andrew opened it, holding the door as Sarah led Martin in.

The lights were low as Andrew had left them. Unlit candles set about the room awaited like cold sentries waiting for someone to wake them. The white sheets and carefully arranged pillows of the broad king sized bed glowed, the top sheet and blankets drawn back and neatly folded on the floor at the foot, a stage set and waiting, three hearts racing all of them acutely aware of which two it was prepared for.

"Will you gentlemen excuse me a moment." Sarah asked, her eyes meeting her husband's and her hand dragging across his chest as she headed for the bathroom. There was a conversation that needed to happen and while she was the topic it wasn't for her to hear.

"Just please return dressed just as you are." Martin said politely.

"Your wish is my command." she smirked, looking back over her shoulder and vanished.

The two men stood a bit awkwardly in the silence.

"Very nice room, nicely arranged. The candles will be nice." Martin said breaking the ice. "If I may, Sarah, your wife, is lovely, and her company a delight. I have to thank you for letting me spend the day with her, for the dinner... and especially for this. I commend you for your strength in being able to let this happen. I trust there are still no second thoughts? If you have any now that we're here, I think you should say so and I'll leave before she comes out, as painful as that might be."

Andrew paused, considering what he had to say and then began with a slow earnestness, "I love my wife... desperately. She is precious to me. I am enthralled by who she is and her beauty captivates me... Her pleasure... intoxicates me. Even... if that means it comes to her by another man. No, there are no second thoughts. But, we, I, don't let this happen casually. We've fantasized about it for a while. You, her choice of you, allows this to happen. She trusts you with herself. So I will, too. This is about Sarah's pleasure, us sharing that. While I expect you to enjoy my wife and her sexual favors, I expect your intent is her pleasure. I expect her to be first in this and that you will treat her as someone precious. She's said she was that to you."

"She was. She is and I can promise I will absolutely treat her that way. When Sarah made this offer, we did discuss how this might go and I made a request she agreed to. I trust you're in agreement as well?"

"Why don't you confirm that?"

"I mean no offense in this. What Sarah agreed to and I trust she discussed with you, is that she, YOUR wife... is mine for the night, that being until I leave in the morning unless Sarah bids me leave sooner. As Sarah is mine, I reserve the right to invite you to participate in pleasing MY companion if she and I so choose but other than that your pleasure for the night is to enjoy watching. Are we in agreement?"

Martin's words twisted in Andrew's gut, plucking at strings of possessive jealousy inside him like a pizzicato and yet still winding his arousal.

"And my terms for this understanding are..." Andrew responded with a composure he held on to tightly, "My wife is on loan to you for the night. It's one night and it will only be repeated should we both so choose. I don't expect contact after tonight unless we initiate it."

"Agreed."

"She says you respect her, she trusts you with her. Should there be any faltering in that respect, I reserve the right to end it."

"I wouldn't expect anything otherwise. But you should have no worry in that regard. But also I will say I've come to understand how much she loves you. I also can promise to respect you in this as well."

Andrew extended his hand fighting the trembling he felt. "Enjoy her, bring her pleasure."

"I certainly will. Thank-you." Martin replied with a cock of his head and the words hung in the silence between them like a closed book. Andrew could feel himself shaking.

"Shall we light the candles then?" Martin offered. Andrew pulled up some music off his phone and sent to the expensive Bluetooth speakers he'd set at Sarah's suggestion. Andrew popped the bottle of champagne he'd left chilling and poured three glasses as Martin opened the patio doors and the warm soft breeze made the candles flicker.

In the bathroom, Sarah leaned over the counter trying to calm herself. Her heart was racing and she couldn't remember ever being so excited and nervous at the same time. She was trembling. She was soooo ready for this. At the same time, guilt churned in her stomach. She so loved Andrew but right now all she could think of, what commanded her sexual need, was wanting Martin.

'But Andrew's eyes told you... he said it... he wanted this too... you could see the arousal smoldering within him...' that desire and hunger that so lit her on fire... 'He's OK with this, he wants you to. Let it go... believe him...' her eyes whispered to the woman in the mirror. 'and then there's Martin; those eyes lighting everything he did 15 years ago and more... today so perfect... tonight so perfect.'

She could feel it, her whole body acutely alive, aching to be held, her skin tingling so needing Martin's touch...

'Forgive me Andrew, it is Martin I need.'

She could feel it, her pussy was so wet she swore her own juices would run down her thighs. She heard the champagne pop and she jumped. It was the signal the conversation was over. Heart pounding, she stood up, fluffed her hair and spread the 'V' of her neckline a little more dangerously, her nipples now relentlessly excited points beneath the sheer fabric.

'Here we go' the whispered to herself and she went out.

She smiled demurely under the two men's smoldering gazes.

"How pretty," she smiled pleased with the candlelight. Andrew handed her a glass and she stepped into his familiar embrace, her perfume intoxicating him, winding him, the scent another man's territorial mark on her.

"I love you" she said softly and kissed him, the kiss lingering in its promise her tongue reaching for his in desire.

Andrew felt the soft smooth skin of her lower back as he enfolded her in his arms a shiver tearing through him, so aware of the other man watching them, who in a few moments would be savoring the same beauty beneath his hands, who would know the flattery of his wife's sparkling brown eyes staring into his own.

"I can feel you trembling." She smiled. "I'm not sure who is more excited you or me. I'll bet me. I am so ready to do this. My pussy is absolutely molten. I so want to do this for you."

Andrew let out a soft tense breath, her dark shadowed eyes bright and smiling with the tease. She held up her glass and clinked it with his. They drank together and then sucked the champagne from each other's lips. She looked deep into his eyes once more, searching one last time for the doubt she didn't find. Instead she felt the love and desire in his embrace... and intense arousal coursing through him and expressed so clearly in the brutally hard erection that pressed against her belly.

"Until the morning my love." She smiled, giving him one last tender kiss on the lips she slipped from his arms like a ship from its moorings. Gazing back over her shoulder, she walked over and into Martin's embrace. Andrew's heart twisted, still tasting her lips as he watched those same lips find Martin's, kissing him with an unabashed and seductive enthusiasm.

Martin tenderly held her face and kissed her as if to inhale her very soul from her lips and she swooned under the sincerity of his desire that seemed to only have aged like a fine wine.

She watched her hands as she carefully unbuttoned his shirt, pulling it from his slacks and once undone she undid the cufflinks at his wrists like she was unshackling him. She wore an expression like a girl unwrapping a package as she handed Andrew the cufflinks before she pressed the starched fabric back off his shoulders. With a thoughtful enjoyment she watched her hands trace through the hair of his chest, feeling the cut of his pecs letting her desire simmer. She pressed herself against his chest, her head tipping back and her mouth opening like a young bird's. Her sweet tongue beckoned and Martin's lips met them lightly, their tongues spinning in playful banter as his hand slid up her side and his other clutched her perfect behind. They both watched as his hand cupped her breast, Sarah's silent gasp tearing through Andrew like an electrical charge as her mouth opened and pulled Martin into the kiss that made too clear her enthusiastic desire for him.

"This looks incredible on you but I think it is time to release the beauty it contains." Martin said softly turning Sarah to face her husband.

Andrew suddenly became intensely aware of the music pulsing in time with his heartbeat in a steady beckoning, the song something between a pornographic soundtrack and a Gregorian chant, almost sacramental, expectant, distinctly sexual... in that moment 'Enigma' became sex music for Sarah and Andrew.

Reverently, Martin unzipped the short zipper at the base of her spine and standing close behind her, watched over her shoulder as he slid the straps of her dress off her shoulders and slowly down her arms. Sarah's seductively shadowed eyes held her husband's as her delectable breasts emerged from behind the parting fabric, their sloping tops glowing in the candlelight rising into the upturned nipples, her areolae roughly textured, contracted in their arousal, rising into stiff erect points, the succulent round lower swells declaring their nubile resilience and painted in soft shadow. The golden light anointed her smooth skin, light and shadow across her trim figure caressing the landscape of her body like the long first light of sunrise as the dress slowly descended. Demurely, she stepped out of it and Sarah stood there naked save for her pearls and heels. Arousal and jealousy churning in Andrew's chest, Martin handed Andrew the dress with a smile and Sarah her glass.