The next morning, Maxine awoke me with breakfast in bed. Juice, coffee, and toast. I was still dressed as a woman, and she said that when I finish breakfast, I should get out of the clothing. She sat next to me with her head on my shoulder. "I hope you're not too angry with me for last night."
But I was. I was furious. She had terrorized me so completely, I don't remember ever being so scared. While I feared telling her, I had to.
"You scared me very much last night, Maxine. And I don't know what to do about it. If I complain about anything, I just get punished more. And then you ask me if you hope I'm not too angry. Of course I'm angry, but I'm also scared of you." I looked away, and I felt her staring at me as I ate.
She finally spoke in a very soothing voice. "Dr. Gruen explained that you probably would be very resentful. But she said that while it works for you to turn your anger INWARD, it doesn't work for me to, and that the balance we need is for me to be more expressive with my anger and feel that I have some control over what happens to me. If you want to have a good sex life, I have to feel unthreatened. Look, honey, I'm still learning about it myself. But we agreed to put ourselves in Dr. Gruen's capable hands, right?"
"But even when we were doing s&m, I'd never been as abused as much as this week. I feel like a wet dish rag."
"Sweetheart, we're seeing Dr. Gruen tomorrow night again. Why don't we discuss this all with her. And I start work this Sunday, so I'll feel better about myself."
She took a piece of my toast, and fed it to me, then reached over and used a napkin to smooth out some of the makeup I still had on my face. She then looked at me and let out a short laugh. "You look so ridiculous all tarted up like that." I felt about three inches tall.
There was mercifully no sensitivity exercise that night, and we just watched a video tape on tv, lay down, and went to sleep. "I love you very much," Maxine said just before we fell asleep, but then she did something strange. As she was settling in, she wrapped her long, thin fingers around my cock cage, and cradled it in her hand. This strange hand immediatly brought my cock to erection, and hurt me. But she didn't let go, and we fell asleep like that.
The next night, we both arrived at Dr. Gruen's office at 7:00 p.m. for our session. We went in, and instead of chatting for a while, Dr. Gruen told us that she wanted to give us a full hour, and couldn't go longer because her group session was starting at 8:00 sharp. "It consists mostly of couples like you," Dr. Gruen said. "I'd like you to stay and sit in for tonight. Perhaps you'd like to join."
We sat right down, and both Dr. Gruen and Maxine lit up cigarettes.
"So, Franklyn.," Dr. Gruen said through a cloud of her cigarette smoke. "We are tonight mostly concerned with your reactions to the exercises. Let's start with the first one. Why do you think I had you beg Maxine to sleep in your room again?" Dr. Gruen stared at me waiting for an answer.
I just looked at her, and then to Maxine, who was puzzled that I wasn't answering.
After a moment. "The answer is obvious, Franklyn. Because she had to feel you really wanted to. As I mentioned, we have to make Maxine feel secure if you want a good sexual relationship, right? And how better will she know how much you care for her than if you beg to do something as disgusting as suck on her dirty big toe while you do so. It was just a symbolic way of showing your love and devotion. From what Maxine told me, you performed very well."
Performed. Like a trained dog! She took a drag on the cigarette, and let it swirl out her mouth and nostrils. "The Question exercise had a different purpose." She turned to Maxine. "Why don't you play the tape?" Maxine brought the tiny tape recorder out of her pocketbook, set it on the desk, and flipped it on. Maxine was playing the tape she had made of her Question Session with me, which I didn't realize she would do. But this would at least show how she had coersed me into some of the answers.
After each important question, Dr. Gruen stopped the tape, and discussed. "Franklyn, you are a mass of contradictions. First, you say that you love and trust Maxine here, and then you say that she hurt you by making love to other men. Why are you so confused. How can you trust someone, and accuse them of that. Besides, Maxine explained that she was in a situation where she had no choice." Dr. Gruen stared at me. "In fact, you should be thankful that she had enough insight to gracefully get out of the situation without your help."
We listened some more to my being forced to reply that Maxine was a good lover, and that while I resented the cock cage, it was kept on me because I wanted to develop a more harmonious sexual relationship with Maxine. "And you even admit that it is your own fault that you can't respond when the cage comes off." Dr. Gruen shook her head.
When it came to my being forced to respond that I developed the obsession myself for the smell of her anus, Dr. Gruen stopped the recorder. "Franklyn," she stared at me. "Our therapy will not work if you continue to lie. How can we help the marriage if you are not honest." Dr. Gruen was so blatantly taking Maxine's side, that I couldn't win. She was ignoring the screams for mercy on the tape that meant that Maxine was torturing me to get the responses she wanted. We kept listening, and Dr. Gruen stopped the tape again. "But, I applaud you for your response about Maxine going to work in the health club Richie owns. You also exercised trust in the question about Maxine making love to another man if her best judgement called for it. That's an important point, especially considering where Maxine will be working." I looked at Maxine, whose face had no expression.
"It also shows progress that you will from now on graciously accept her gifts. Frankly, I found it incredible to believe that any real man would object to his wife learning how to perform oral sex like a professional, and then sharing this pleasure with her husband. I'm surprised at you." I couldn't believe it. Maxine was looking at me with a hurt expression.
Maxine then popped in the tape from the next night. After listening to it, she said. "A lot of questions about your wife with other men also popped up the next night when you asked the questions. So much suspicion, Franklyn." Dr. Gruen laughed lightly, and so did Maxine. "Franklyn, this is really your only chance to save your marriage, if you love Maxine."
"I do, but she was very cruel to me this week." I pleaded.
"Any crueler than you were in spurning her sexually when she unlocked your cage?"
I had no argument.