Talking It Up With Jill Ch. 04 Pt. 02

"No thanks."

"Okay then," Jill smiled. "Lunch is in the fridge whenever you guys are ready for it. Oh, we might do a little shopping later? So, if we don't see when we get back, catch you later then?"

"Sounds good, babe. If you're picking out bikinis, I like French cut."

"We're picking out potato sacks," Jill countered.

"Are all men like him, Cedric?" Marie asked.

"Pretty much," he replied as he adjusted his hat.

"Just the married ones stuck with the old ball and chain," I chuckled. "I told Cedric all about that."

"M'ohh!" Marie groaned, making a face at me.

"Hey, thanks for lunch Jill," I said, taking her hand and leaning over the wheelbarrow for a kiss.

"Yeah, uh, thank you Mrs. Holden," Cedric said.

"I think 'Jill' is fine now. And your welcome, Cedric. I'm happy to do it," she smiled.

The girls headed back toward the house. I was strapping on my tool belt and noticed Cedric was still watching them. In the moment it took me to get it on I looked to Cedric a couple times. He finally noticed and his expression immediately tensed up. I just tried to look nonchalant about it as I tightened my belt. Cedric blinked at me a couple times, then smiled sort of sheepishly, briefly turning to look Jill's way as she exited the yard, and then back at me.

"Sorry...uh, don't mean to be disrespecting or nothin'. Just...one fine woman. You're a lucky guy."

"Can't argue with that," I said.

"Not mad? I mean, most guys at in school..."

"N'ah...I don't mind," I replied.

"Well...I guess. I mean...you don't mind men looking at your wife?"

"I'm no chump," I said, "but it'd be kinda unrealistic of me to expect everyone else on the planet to ignore Jill, don't you think?"

"I guess so. Just... in school? You don't be looking at another dude's girl. Even girls don't do that...looking at other girl's boyfriends. Or crap goes down, you know?"

"I hear what you're saying, Cedric. But when you're married there's a sense of security, you know? You get married because you're both into each other and no one else, for good."

"I hear you," he said.

"You actually take a little bit of pride when someone's looking at your woman. I kinda like it. When we're out, or anytime really... and I see other guys checking out Jill? And that's really all it is? I like it. I say myself, look all you want man. I know who she's goin' home with."

"Ha, there you go," Cedric chuckled.

We worked for a while longer then decided to break for an early lunch.

"Hey, I'm gonna go get a beer and I'll meet you on the patio."

"Okay," he replied, taking off his tool belt and wiping his hands.

I walked back to the house thinking it a bizarre conversation we'd had earlier, but then not. Bizarre because of the subject matter, but not, because for the second time I'd caught Cedric ogling Jill. The first happened under such awkward circumstances it was understandable that any mention of it had been swept under the rug. But this time, after having become acquainted and worked together, it not only had to be addressed, but it felt more natural to do so. I had begun feeling more and more at ease with my clandestine actions earlier.

I quickly began to doubt my newfound sense of ease when later, after Jill and Marie got back from shopping, Cedric asked Jill outright if she'd found what she was looking for. We'd been sitting on the patio discussing what to do with some of the extra materials it appeared we might have left over when she and Marie came out to greet us from the kitchen.

"I'm sorry?" Jill said, taking a seat at the table between he and I. Marie sat down across from us, listening.

"Swimsuits," Cedric replied. "Going shopping for swimsuits, right?"

Marie cracked a smile.

"Oooh! Looks like someone has a fan..."

"Stop," Jill said, swatting a hand Marie's way. "I think you've been hanging around this one too long," she told him, thumbing in my direction.

The four of us sat for a while longer, mostly talking about the fence and the rest of the summer. After Marie and Cedric left I was getting cleaned up while Jill went back out to the patio with a book. I'd seen her from the bathroom window. Heading out through the kitchen, I noticed the swimwear catalog again and thought about Cedric's question to her earlier, and also how Marie had kidded her about having a fan.

I brought the catalog outside with me and sat next to Jill who lay prone, reading. She looked up.

"Hey."

"Hey," I smiled.

"So I'm curious." she said.

"Yeah? About what?"

"What did you mean earlier when you said to Cedric that you 'told him all about that'? To what Marie said. What, being married?"

"Oh, uh...earlier we-"

"Do you mind me asking? I'm sorry."

"Heck no. I uh, was telling him the virtues of being married, you know, to someone you've known for a long time, as opposed to when you're young and dating."

"Oh. In what context?" she asked, turning on her side and propping up on her elbow.

"Context? You mean, what made me talk about that?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, I think we were just talking about what a lucky guy I am..."

"C'mon..."

"No, seriously. We were. It came up you know, 'cause he said something along those lines, I think about you making us lunch and all. Oh, and...and you'll like this. He said you were a fine woman."

"He did not," Jill said, staring at me.

"Yeah, as you and Marie walked away."

"...uh'huh,..." she chuckled, turning to look straight ahead."Yeah, and then the conversation turned toward- oh wait, lemme backtrack... I agreed, of course."

"Of course," Jill said flatly, making me laugh.

"I did. I thoroughly agreed."

"Oh I believe you," Jill said, shaking her head up and down exaggeratedly. "That's the problem! I'm sure I don't wanna know how much you agreed."

"C'mon... I did, but you know what I mean."

"Okay, okay. Sorry. You were saying?"

"I was saying that, I agreeeeeed..." Jill slapped my arm, "and, the conversation turned toward, you know, me being comfortable in our marriage, basically with you being such a 'fine woman'."

"Hmph. Comfortable how, if you don't mind my asking?" she said, grinning.

"Ha...is this comical?" I asked. Jill slowly shook her head as she stared at me, still grinning. "Well I explained basically that...I have no worries, when it comes to other guys looking at you. Because, at the end of the day...you're going home with me."

Jill's expression lightened.

"Aww... Really? That's what you said?"

"Mm hm."

"And what did he say?"

"He thought that was pretty cool."

"Well, then... I guess, that was nice of him."

Jill stared off for a moment longer, then reached over and rubbed my leg before turning back to her book. I opened the swimwear catalog and began perusing through it. It was either the noise of the pages or my grunts of approval, but I got Jill's attention.

"Enjoying yourself?" she asked, looking up at me.

"Immensely," I said, flipping through.

"See anything you like?"

"Only when I look at you," I said, still looking.

"You sure? Your face looks pretty glued to that."

I finally looked down at her and smiled, then swatted her rear with the catalog.

"That's better," she said.

"I was wondering, though."

"Oh?" she asked.

"Which one of these you ordered."

"Mm, well I haven't actually ordered one yet, but I do have one picked out. Can I see?" she asked, tilting her head back so as to see from under her hat. I held the page open for Jill, then went to turn it. "No, I think it's on that-. Yep... Mmm, that one," she said, pointing out a red bikini.

"Mmmm. Nice."

"You like that?"

"I do," I said, turning to smile down at her.

"It's not French cut."

"Oh I like 'em all on you," I said, looking at the other pictures. "That the only one?"

"Does someone want me to get something else?"

"Mm, someone."

She laughed.

"Show me."

I picked out two small traditional bikinis and a one-piece bikini, holding the page open for Jill to see as I pointed to them and grumbled.

"Mm, those two are kinda cute, but...Lord, that one's a little racy looking for swimwear," she said, referring to the one-piece. I raised my eyebrows and nodded. "Uh!" Jill huffed with a grin. "Such a perv. Besides, do I really need another bikini?" I started making puppy dog sounds. "All right all right. How about this: you choose. Surprise me."

"I can order them?"

Jill nodded and went back to her book.

"Excellent," I said, stretching my arms up with a yawn.

"I'm not gonna be surprised am I?" she deadpanned without looking up.

"Uaaagh!" I yawned. "I'm so comfortable in my marriage."

Jill nonchalantly reached over and slapped my stomach, startling me.

"You don't seem comfortable," she giggled to herself as she turned a page.

I bided my time, then poured ice water on her back just as I was getting up.

"Surprise!" I said as she cringed. I jumped up to avoid her flying book.

"You bum," she said, trying not to laugh when she caught the towel I threw her. I handed her book to her and she pulled me down with it for a kiss, which actually turned into a nice long one before she let me go.

Jill wanted to stay out for a while longer so I went in to get dinner set up. As I was preparing it a somewhat reckless idea began forming in my mind. I opened up Jill's phone and found the swimwear merchant online as well as the catalog. I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to send Cedric a picture of the bikinis from Jill's phone as if in a message from her, asking for his opinion, much as Nicole had. My mind raced and I felt my breathing increase as I formulated how to go about doing so.

After checking on Jill, I quickly downloaded pictures of the three bikinis: two traditional that were yellow and black, and an orange one-piece bikini that tied in back, and also behind the neck and at both hips, and consisted mostly of a see-through narrow strip of fishnet down the front. Then I pulled up Cedric's name from her list of contacts and brought up a new message.

In the subject heading I typed: "Just curious," which suddenly made me really horny. Then, in the text box: "Which color?" I uploaded the images of the bikinis. Then I stared at the phone screen for what felt like forever.

I asked myself seriously, what am I doing? Or rather, why? What happened at the cabin was a fluke, as Jill said. I agree. But the fluke was more the set of circumstances that allowed for what eventually happened. I still ushered things along. Once I sensed...once I sensed and realized the men were...wanting...of Jill, I helped "let" things happen. I reached down and squeezed the head of my cock through my swimsuit.

I took a deep breath and thought. This was only sending him a picture of a swimsuit, I reasoned. Hardly helping let anything happen.

But still, Cedric found Jill so exciting to look at, so arousing, that he jerked off looking at her...groaning about her ass. There was the suggestive banter the other day with the girls. And Jill and I got into such a hot and bothered session of dirty talking foreplay involving her affect on black men. And...and I thought, if she somehow found out what I'd sent and asked why, I thought I could just say...oh I don't know what I thought I'd say. I could say that I thought of it like I did my suggestion...my all but spoken request that she wear that anklet. At worst I would have to come clean that I was just teasing or something and she'd be bullshit for a little bit, saying I was going too far. I imagined Cedric seeing this text, what he might think upon reading my wife basically asking him to picture her in each bikini and tell her which one turns him on the most to think of her wearing.

I hit the send button.

Now it was too late. I rubbed my cock some more as I looked around the room. I quickly deleted the sent message. I also deleted any trace of having pulled up the swimwear catalog online. After double-checking all that, I put the phone down where it'd been and got back to work in the kitchen.

It was a tribute to how much I overreact...or as Jill put it, "overthink everything," when later, over dinner, she so nonchalantly brought up having received a text from Cedric, likely meant for me, she figured.

"Here," she said, handing me her phone as she chomped on her food and chased it down with a gulp of iced tea.

I stared at the screen, at first trying to wrap my head around what she was talking about.

"Orange," Jill said, cleaning her teeth with her tongue before taking another swig of tea as she looked at me.

"Huh?" I said.

"I dunno. I figured he was responding to you about the fence or something. What, are you two thinking about painting it or something? I thought it was pretreated and we were just gonna leave it as is."

"Uh, yeah...as far as I know."

"Good, 'cause...orange? Blech!" Jill said, making a face.

It suddenly dawned on me that I'd totally overlooked considering how I might be privy to Cedric's response, if he gave one, without Jill seeing it first, and worse, what to say if he'd replied with copy of the message I'd sent, which thankfully he didn't, and was thankfully likely too lazy to do.

"Oh uh, this might be about the nails we were using? For the air gun? Sometimes they're color coated, the plastic they use to hold them together. It's a purpose indicator sorta thing," I said, handing the phone back to her.

Jesus I'm good, I thought.

"Mmm. Hey this casserole is still really tasty, for leftovers," Jill said, squinting her eyes with a grin as she chewed another mouthful.

"It is," I said, digging into my plate. "I'm glad you made as much as you did because I really like it."

Jill stopped chewing and looked at me. Then smiled. "Thank you," she said slowly. "So yeah, okay. Do you need to respond to this?" she asked. "Or can I delete it."

I suddenly remembered Cedric's earlier unread response to Jill and was curious if she'd deleted it.

"Can I see that again real quick?" I asked.

Jill handed the phone back to me. I could see she'd opened his previous message so I clicked it open.

"If you want i'll bring over another mix. You groove it old school!" it said.

"Mm... So yeah, I told him, you know..." Jill said, shaking her head and waving her fork "'cause of the way Nicole was acting?...I just sort of apologized for that. I thought I should."

"Oh," I said, "No I didn't mean to go through all these, I just thought maybe if I checked the message before, it might tell me for sure what he meant by "orange" is all."

I handed the phone back.

"M'eh," she said, taking another bite of food. "Did..." she said over a mouthful, "did you see his response? I thought it was cute."

"H'uh...yeah," I chuckled. "So tell me, Old School, 'cause I'm curious...Is all you really wanna do just zooma zoom zoom zoom...and a poom poom? Seems awfully selfish to want both."

"Ha!" Jill laughed and held up her glass, shaking it in her seat like the other day.

We had fun with the song while cleaning up and doing the dishes. We have a dishwasher, but every now and then it was fun to do them manually together. I hoped Jill couldn't tell my mind was preoccupied.

I thought of what Cedric had said to her in his text, about bringing over more music. It wasn't really worded as a question. I didn't get the sense from Jill that she was going to actually reply. I sent him a text saying we'd see him Monday morning, unless something came up. I couldn't help telling him Jill was looking forward to hearing his other music mix. After I sent it, I realized the multiple implications of having done so, from his perspective. If Cedric knows I know about that text, he might then infer I know of the one Jill supposedly sent him about the bikinis, and think I was cool with it, or didn't think much of it. Either way, if it had any affect on him it would be one that made him more at ease when he was over. His reply moments later was simply, 'Cool'.

Before going to bed I stole away to my office and ordered Jill's red bikini and the orange one-piece bikini Cedric had picked out.

The following day, a Sunday, I received a text from Cedric asking if we wouldn't mind if he took the next several days off. With the fence nearing completion and his last summer at home half over, I replied that he take his time and to just let me know at least a day in advance when he thought he might be back.

The bikini's I ordered for Jill came the next day. We sat at the kitchen table as she opened the packaging they came in. Upon seeing them I was glad I paid for the express delivery. The red one she ordered was cute, but the orange one-piece, a design Jill had never worn before, looked sexy. The fact that Cedric had picked it out made it even more exciting to consider her wearing it. She held it up to examine after removing it from the packaging, running her fingers through the front laces and then looking at me.

I couldn't hold my smile in, slowly looking around before meeting her gaze.

"What?" I said, knowing damn well what.

Jill shifted her lower jaw from side to side as she stared back at me.

"Okay," she said simply.

"You able to work from home this week?" I asked.

"Mostly," she said, rolling up the packaging material.

"Good. Me too. So we can get some of the other stuff done in the yard and...do some swimming."

"Okay," she said again the same way, and tossed the balled up packaging at me sideways over hand as she glared at me.

I burst out laughing.

"It's gonna look good," I said, smiling as I stood.

Jill just glared at me, her tongue poking out her cheek as she got up.

"Up for a workout?" I said, still smiling.

"Think you can keep up?" she replied.

"Mm, I don't know about this time," I grinned. "You're lookin' awfully motivated at the moment."

"You're gonna be sorry, is all I can say," she said. "Cause if you can't? That thing will never see the light of day."

As it turned out I did keep up, leaving Jill completely smoked like last time. But to smooth things over a little I made sure we both had a giant glass of tap water on hand throughout. And for good measure I didn't bring up the bikini.

Over the next few days the weather was nothing but dry and sunny. We spent each morning getting in our exercise, checking in with the office, and doing at least a few hours yard work, then lazed about by the pool all afternoon. I was even able to do some solo work on the fence. I didn't finish it, but what I did complete made it appear finished to anyone just looking at it.

One night, after Jill and I had gone upstairs for the evening, I lay across the end of the bed as Jill was straddled me, scratching my back and rubbing my shoulders. We had candles and soft music in the background. All Jill's doing. It was pretty nice and I didn't question it. She'd been acting coy all day though. It wasn't so much things she was saying or doing, but more the looks I was getting.

For instance, I was making trips from the back of the yard to the garage, cleaning up the clutter from the mess Cedric and I made and putting away tools and whatnot we no longer needed for the remainder of our work, and on a couple of occasions Jill, working in the garden, would flash me these subdued but playful looks as I walked by. I'd see them coming from across the yard as I stepped out of the garage. I just figured she was being flirty in the midst of so much "us" time. It was cute, but curious.

I thought about the past several days as I lay there, and of the time we were spending outdoors together. I thought of how it'd been the first several days in a row without Cedric since he'd started coming over. And I thought about the swimsuit he had picked out.

"So, I was wondering," I said as Jill ran her palms up the middle of my back, "How come you haven't worn that orange bikini yet? Just don't like it?"