Winging It

My wife doesn't 'do' subtleties very well which accounts for her two most endearing characteristics: she always says what's on her mind and because of that she can be highly unpredictable. Like now. She is cuddling into me as she always does after sex, with one leg over my hip, her arm across my chest and her face tucked into my neck. "I was thinking of you having sex with another woman."

When Janice prefaces a statement with 'I was thinking' what she really means is, 'I have decided' — I knew this after 24 years of marriage. When I turned to look at her, spilling her leg from me, she continued, "It occurred to me a few weeks ago and I've thought a lot about it ever since — I was thinking of mentioning it on the phone (I'd been away on business) but decided maybe a face-to-face would be better." Then she looked up at me and when she asked, "What do you think of our sex life?" I knew she wasn't changing the subject.

We've had this conversation before, many times, but never after such a shocking lead-in, which I chose for the moment to ignore, "Why don't you ever ask me about our sex life BEFORE we have sex?"

"I think we're in a rut, Frank."

"Our rutting has become ho-hum?" I tried to make light of something I knew had been true for awhile.

"We've only got a few years left to enjoy it. I think we both have a lot of untapped potential in us that we should be trying to get out ... while we still can."

"Is this more about you, than me?" I sensed it was.

"It's about both of us, Frank, it's about our partnership. I've thought this through and I think you should, too and to help you I've done a little of the heavy lifting." By 'heavy lifting' she explained that she had done some research, found a local adult on-line bulletin board, put an ad on it and had received several replies.

"What did you put in the ad?" I was trying to pretend to be a little blase about all this but really I was shocked, the idea of having sex with another woman was hardly a foreign thought, but my wife actually recommending it was.

She laughed, "'Loving middle age couple is interested in sharing a few intimate hours a month with another loving middle age couple. The operative word here is loving. No piercings, no tattoos and no taboos. Send your expectations to ...'"

"What have you got against tats?" I didn't want her to see my shock, I don't know why, maybe because she seemed so, I don't know, maybe 'cool' about it, certainly blasé. Also, there was the slight matter of this not being about me having sex with another woman but us having sex with another couple, a whole different thing.

"I wanted to try to weed out the undesirables. At first, I excluded the fat and the ugly but then realized that if we liked them what would it matter. Besides, to exclude the fat and the ugly would leave a pretty small chance of finding anyone. But, as for the tattoos, I've never liked them and I don't like piercings, either. Anyone in our age group who has them ...," she shrugged.

While she was talking I was trying to process why she would have done all this without consulting me. I knew that because I was away so much it wasn't unusual for Janet to take the initiative in our domestic life and once she had done all the work she would usually just bring me in at the decision-making stage. But most of the time I was at least aware of her contemplations, this whole things was news to me, "God, are you sure about this, honey, I mean, have you really thought it through?"

She took my penis, which was wet with her juices and now fully erect again, "It could be fun, Frank, it could be exciting and it could take us to places we've never been to before, so, ya, sure I'm serious about this and ya, I've really thought it through, from a thousand different angles. It makes sense for us: we're still relatively young and alive and virile, it's way too early to let sex peter out on us, so, ya, I've thought about it a lot. What do you think?"

I know my penis had already given me away and I was thankful Janet didn't mentioned it, "You want me to have sex with another woman?"

"Yes, I've envisioned it, it really turns me on," she seemed impossibly matter-of-fact.

"And you'd have sex with another man."

"Only if you want me to."

"Do you want to?" I was looking down on her but could only see the top of her head — which seemed to me to be holding an entire trove of alarming, if exciting, thoughts.

"Only if it would turn you on."

"Does the thought of sex with another guy turn you on?"

"Ya, it really does because you'd be watching me and you'd be loving it."

Janet has always been highly-sexed and in bed always willing to give a lot more than she got, so for me we've always had a terrific sex life, but I've known for a year or more, ever since our last kid moved out, that we'd hit a bit of a brick wall. And I knew she thought so, too. "So you're entirely serious about this?"

She looked up at me and smiled with reassurance, "As I said, we've got a few replies. I 'interviewed' a woman yesterday, so, ya, I guess I'm entirely serious about it."

Janet is impatient, always has been. When things in her world start moving they tend to move very quickly, so it didn't surprise me that once she had dreamed up the idea, she would start work immediately on making it happen. "And?"

"As I said in the ad, what I wanted was a couple more or less like us. We love each other, we aren't threatened by anything, we've had a great time in bed in the past and we'd like to take it a little further while we can. That's what I told Sandra and that's what Sandra wants, too."

"Sandra?"

"She and her husband, Bill — he's a corporate pooh-bah, they're very up-scale, are about our age and they have more or less our mindset on this. Sandra said she was thinking of putting in an advertisement on the same bulletin board but didn't have the courage but when she saw ours she emailed right away. All the other responses we got seemed a little 'off' for one reason or another and a few were just down-right offensive, but Sandra and Bill sounded like they want exactly what we want, that's why I agreed to meet with her."

"And what is that, exactly?" I could see she didn't understand me, "What exactly do WE want?"

"To hang out with them for a few hours a month in a safe environment and see where it can go. Do I know where that's going to be? No. Do you? No. Do they? No, but I want to find out, they want to find out, so the question is, do you?"

"If I said no?"

"Than that will be the end of it, forever. I don't need this, Frank, we don't need this, I just think it might be exciting and, in a way, enriching, I mean by now we've pretty much plumbed the depths of each other but I know there's a lot more in you and I know there's a lot more in me, too, we just need a little external stimulation to get it out. The Jansen's want to provide that stimulation and they want us to provide the same for them. Sounds perfect to me."

"But they might not be, perfect that is, they could be ... almost anything."

"No, that's true so what we've decided, pending, of course, your right of veto and Bill's, is that we'd meet at their place on Friday night for dinner and we'd take it to the next stage, sort of talk about it, see if we're compatible and go from there. I don't expect a great orgy when we walk into their house and nor does Sandra. This is about sex, ya, but we both agree that we have to get into each other's minds before we get into each other's bodies."

"I'll think about it." My initial reaction was a perfect blend of fear and excitement, with a slight tip to the excitement.

Janet was quiet for a moment then she climbed onto me and placed me in her. "She's good looking, Frank, dark, nice body, good mind, sense of humour — fun. When we were having sex a few minutes ago I saw you on her, you were enjoying her, I liked it, I loved watching you two together."

I could tell she wasn't kidding, then I flashed on an image of her under some guy I didn't know and, well, I'm ashamed to admit I asked, "What does her husband ... Bill, look like?"

"I don't know, Sandra says he's handsome and in pretty good shape."

"And you'd like me to like watching you have sex with him?"

She stopped her slow grinding on me and looked down, the stiff nipples on her large breasts just touching my chest, "Look, Frank, what I want is this. I want you to have fun, I want you to find some way to pull out all your sexual energy. If being with them helps, great, if having sex with Sandra helps, great, if the four of us having sex together helps, great, if ... whatever helps, great, let's try it. If it doesn't work, at least we tried and we can laugh about it later." She began grinding again, really slowly, "Look, Frank, I think I want this, yes, but, as I said, I don't need it, but I actually think you do, you don't have many escapes from work, this could be a good one, but I'm not forcing it on you — just think about it." There is no greater pleasure in my life than having my wife looking down on me while she slowly fucks me ... sure we've done it a million times and it's true, we don't always cum any more, but the intimacy has always been exquisite. "And we don't have to do it this Friday either, we were just thinking that we should strike while the iron is hot, I mean, this is going to take a little guts."

And it took a little guts to ask what was foremost on my mind, "Can you imagine having sex with her ... Sandra?"

She didn't give anything away when she said, "We didn't talk about that."

"You didn't answer my question."

She smiled, pulled off me and put my fingers in her pussy which was absolutely soaking and it seldom is any more. With that I had pretty much done all my thinking on the subject.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Clearly the Jansens were doing well. The massive oak door we were standing in front of wouldn't have been out of place on a castle, and then it opened.

If first impressions matter, Sandra Jansen was going to be a whole lot of fun. She isn't beautiful by any stretch but she is, to use a wonderful old term, 'fetching' and she has a smile that is at once sexy and coy, as if she's 'in' on an in joke or, more specifically, the little smile on her lips told me that knew what we wanted and she couldn't wait to give it to us, then that smile was pressed against my wife's cheek and a moment after that, against mine and we followed her through the magnificent foyer into a living room that was lit up so brightly it could have been a movie set.

Bill Jansen was standing by the fireplace and to his left a curiously attractive young woman was sitting in a chair. Her name, we soon learned, is Gloria, she is their daughter-in-law, wife of their son whom 'we never talk about.'

And we didn't talk about much else, either. While Bill and I deferred to our wives, who did little more then flit about some conventional small talk, Bill poured the drinks and I worked on coining a maxim: if four is swinging, what is five? The best I could come up with was 'winging it' but I didn't pretend it was any good, I wasn't exactly concentrating.

Mercifully, given the stilted small talk, the dinner call occurred sooner than later and we headed into the adjoining dining room which, suitably for the house, was so huge that we occupied just the northeast quadrant of the enormous table, with Janet and I securely together and opposite Sandra and Gloria, with Bill anchoring the end.

Sandra knew she had some explaining to do and the moment after she served the food she obliged. Gloria has been living with them for over two years and, I gather, Gloria and Sandra have become pretty close friends because Sandra seemed to have recruited Gloria's help in every step of the process of forming this encounter, from the Jensen's initial thoughts of swinging, to finding the bulletin board, to writing the email to Janet, I mean, she seemed more a personal planner than a daughter-in-law. "I hope you don't mind," Sandra concluded, as if this was enough.

But it wasn't and Janet said so, "When we talked, I thought we agreed that Frank and I would come here tonight and see where this could go."

"Yes," Sandra's smile was even a little more pronounced, even a little more knowing.

My wife could always get to the point, "Well, it's nice to meet you, Gloria, but your presence here, under the circumstances, makes this get together a little ... ah, limiting, doesn't it?"

Sandra was about to say something but Gloria was quicker, "I asked to be here, Janet, I want to be with you to see where this will go."

Huh? "I don't understand," I said, and I didn't.

For almost the first time since we got there, Bill spoke; he started with a laugh, "We're the gladiators, she's the spectators."

"Are there lions?" I didn't have any idea what the guy was talking about: gladiators, spectators?

"Look," said Gloria, with no trace of humour, "I'll leave if you want me to, of course, but I think what you guys are planning is really exciting and I'd like to be in on it."

"But how 'in on it?'" said Janet, reasonably. "I mean, as a spectator ... or as a gladiator."

"As a spectator ... and maybe later as a participant ... if you want."

Maybe it was because Gloria was being so vague but I had to repeat myself, "I still don't get it." I sounded like a school boy, I know, but I didn't.

Sandra tried to explain, "Gloria is training to be a nurse, she has normal sexual desires, she hasn't the interest in going out much, she sees this as an opportunity ..."

Gloria interjected, "And ever since Sandra mentioned the possibilities to me, I've been thinking non-stop about it and I'd just love it if you'd let me stay, just to watch if nothing more."

"Look," I was kind of holding in my anger, it seemed to me they weren't being entirely forthcoming, "this isn't a very good start. When we got here I didn't expect you two to give us your inner-most thoughts but we don't want half-truths from you, either. What's this actually about?"

Sandra took a quickly look at her husband and was about to respond when Bill said, "Gloria has been watching Sandra and I have sex for the past year or so. She usually masturbates while we're doing it. She wants more. We don't, but you might, that's up to you but we're entirely comfortable with her now so at the very least we'd like it if you would allow Gloria to stay, I know it's kinky, but so is the rest of it."

"You want this?" I said this to Gloria, not understanding how she actually could.

"Yes, I really do."

I turned to Janet, I think I wanted her to help me make more sense of this but she had made her mind up, too, "Sure, she can stay."

I was more confused by all this than surprised so when I turned back to Bill I asked, "So what other surprises do you have for us."

He laughed at this, if nothing else the guy was in a good mood, "No, you're right, we should have been more open and honest from the get-go but that's it, that's the last one. Gloria sometimes comes into our room and masturbates while we're having sex but that's as far as it goes." He seemed to get a little more reflective now, "maybe it was as a result of that that we've thought we'd like to try this swinging thing but we've never done anything like this before. Actually, we've never been anything other than totally vanilla ... until Gloria, of course."

"Why do you like watching them having sex," as I've said, Janet usually gets to the point.

"It's not so much that I like watching them, it's that I like them watching me masturbate." If you can be matter-of-fact saying something like this, Gloria was.

"And it helps us," said Sandra, then she added somewhat needlessly, "Gloria is a beautiful woman."

Gloria looks Dutch to me, she is very tall, I guessed, almost 6 feet, very thin, with very long arms and legs, and a serious, attractive face highlighted by a pair of grey eyes that could bore right into you and they never flinched, like now when Gloria asked me if we'd ever done anything like this before and, if not, why now.

I guess I hesitated a little too long because Janet answered, giving a brief overview of our sex life but when she ended she asked Gloria directly, "Do you want to have sex with my husband, is that what this is about, ultimately?"

"Ultimately? I'd like to watch you all have sex, and I'd like you to watch me, too, but to answer your question more directly, ultimately? Yes, I'd probably like to have sex with Frank but with you, too, together."

Janet didn't blanch at this, "Here in front of your in-laws?"

She shrugged, "Or not, it's up to you."

Janet pressed her now, trying to find out precisely what she was thinking, "So if we asked you to come home with us tonight, you would?"

The grey eyes were boring into Janet, "I'd ask Sandy and Bill first, of course, this is yours and their thing, I'm just the spectator here but if it was OK with them, then yes, I would."

Janet tried to sum it up: "So this is about you having sex with a middle age couple."

When she shook her head, Gloria's grey eyes didn't leave Janet's, "No, it's about two middle age couples having fun while experimenting with sex with each other, that's why you are here, but if you let me, I'd just be along for the ride."

"To masturbate." I'm glad Janet was pushing her because I sure as hell wasn't getting it.

"Yes, unless you asked me to join in." Then she hastened to add, "I know I can't with Sandy and Bill but maybe with you two."

I had been following the conversation as carefully as I've followed any conversation I'd ever heard but it still didn't seem clear to me and that was frustrating, so I had to get it out. "Look, would somebody just articulate the exact expectations here." I looked directly at Sandra, "Do you want to watch Gloria have sex with me and my wife. Is that what this is about?

Sandra's little smile was gone, "No, it's about Bill and I having sex with Janet and you."

"What about Gloria?" I pressed.

"She watches. If she wants to join in with you two and you want her to, then fine, we're OK with that but she's our son's wife and we're going to leave it at that."

I still thought there was a lot left unsaid so I upped the ante, "I've always had a fantasy of seeing my wife with another woman. What would happen if I said here and now that I want to take Gloria home with us for that purpose."

Sandra's smile hadn't returned, "I'd be jealous."

"Jealous?" I didn't expect this.

"Of course," said Sandra, looking straight into my eyes, "I'd prefer that if your wife wants to have sex with a woman ... that I be that woman."

I'd thought about that, of course, but I'd never expected it to happen and I never expected Janet to get out of her chair and walk around the table to stand behind Sandra's chair, and I've never expected my wife to lean forward, put her arms around Sandra's neck and say, "I'd like that too, Sandra."

Sandra didn't hesitate, she stood up, took Janet by the hand and walked her into the living room and when they sat on the couch Sandra turned into Janet and put her lips on Janet's mouth, "It begins," she almost whispered, "and I couldn't be more excited."

I know Sandra said this to Janet because when they went into the living room the rest of us followed and we sat in chairs that seemed almost strategically arranged for the occasion. It was riveting, perhaps because it was so slow, neither of them seemed in any hurry or at all concerned that there were three pairs of eyes on them.

We had been watching for a few minutes — I think we were all more fascinated, even a little shocked more than anything, then the silence was broken, "You two look fantastic together." It was Bill and when I looked over at him I was startled to see him undoing his pants, I mean, I had felt like doing that the moment their lips touched but it never occurred to me that I could and then I looked over at Gloria. She was looking at them with that grey-eyed stare of hers and her hand was creeping under her skirt.