Ginger

A few days later Bruce was enjoying a brief respite between seeing patients at his High Street dental surgery when his mobile phone rang, the screen indicating a number that he didn't recognize. "Bruce Morgan," he said, answering it.

"Bruce, it's Karen Claiborne," a familiar voice said, pausing for a moment to let that sink in before continuing. "I wanted to ring up to see how Yvonne is, how you and Yvonne are both doing really, after the other night?"

Bruce reassured her that they were both doing all right, not really knowing what else one was supposed to say in these situations, although he found Karen quite easy to talk to despite the odd nature of their conversation. They exchanged pleasantries for a few moments, and Karen provided him with her email address in addition to her various phone numbers, inviting him to contact her if he should ever have any concerns about things that she and Yvonne were engaged in or about how they affected Yvonne's relationship with him. She finished by explaining that she'd like to see Yvonne again, and asking whether that would be all right.

"Let me get this straight," he said. "You're asking my permission to ask my wife out on another date?"

She laughed a little. "I know how odd that must sound to you," she said.

"I really do appreciate how respectful you're being of me, and of my marriage," he continued. "It makes all of this much easier to deal with, and increases my confidence that we really are making the right choice for Yvonne, and for us. I'll mention it to Yvonne, but if she wants to see you again it's all right with me. Why don't you ring the house this evening, and you can ask her out yourself?"

That evening Bruce mentioned the phone call to Yvonne, who became as excited as a schoolgirl as a result. When Karen rang, later on that evening, Yvonne took the phone into the other room, as the two women chatted away for over an hour. A couple of days later Yvonne went out with Karen again, leaving Bruce's dinner in the oven to keep warm for him since she was already on the train into London by the time he arrived home from work. Bruce found sleeping alone not nearly as difficult the second time around, having greater confidence that his marriage wasn't about to end as a result of his wife's activities. As it was a weekday, Yvonne wasn't yet home by the time he left for work the next morning, but she was there when he got home that evening, and the two of them once again had wonderful reunion sex followed by a nice meal, all accompanied by Yvonne's retelling of her activities with Karen.

Over the next several months they all fell into a routine, where Yvonne would spend 2 nights during the week with Karen, and also one weekend a month, leaving on Friday afternoon and returning home on Sunday in time for dinner. Karen continued teaching Yvonne about various aspects of their kink, and Yvonne became much better at habitually following Karen's instructions. As the two of them continued exploring Yvonne's boundaries and defining the limits within which she was comfortable, Yvonne became more confident in her role as a submissive. Bruce was the one who first noticed this change in her, pointing out to her that she seemed more self-assured and less timid than she had been previously. When Yvonne wasn't with Karen, she and Bruce continued to live as an ordinary married couple would. They also continued their habit of having reunion sex whenever Yvonne returned to him from Karen, and although Bruce was no closer than he'd ever been to understanding why his wife desired what she did, if pressed he would have had to admit that both the quality and quantity of the sex they were enjoying and the communication between the two of them were all better as a result of their decision to half-open their marriage.

* * * * *

A few months later Bruce received another call on his mobile, recognizing Karen's number before he even answered it. After greetings and pleasantries were exchanged, she got to the point.

"I don't know how much Yvonne shares with you about some of the things I have her read, but do you know what collaring is?"

"A bit, yeah. As I understand it, the collar is a symbol of commitment between Domme and sub, and there's often some sort of ceremony that goes along with it. Is that about right?"

"That's more or less right. It's actually a rather serious commitment. The comparison that's often made is that the collaring ceremony between a Domme and her sub is akin to the marriage ceremony between husband and wife. In any case, I'd like to ask Yvonne to accept my collar - I think it's a step that she's ready to take - but I wanted to sound you out about it first, before mentioning anything to her."

"As this is the first I'm hearing about anything like this, I guess I don't really know. I think I'd need to know quite a bit more about it."

"That's actually a very reassuring response. It would be a very big commitment on her part. It would mean that she'd be making a commitment to me that would be equal in most respects to the commitment she already has to you as your wife. It would also mean that you and I would essentially be sharing her, even more so than we already are. This is definitely not something to be entered into lightly."

"My next proposal is going to sound a bit rude," she continued, "but I'd like to invite myself around to your house for dinner on some Sunday in the near future."

"Why's that then?"

"Primarily because I want you to take some time to think about Yvonne accepting my collar, and to research it if need be, and then I want to make myself available to you to answer any questions you might have about it. But beyond that, there's also a scene that I want to have her engage in, a bit of old guard domination known as a Master's Banquet, and I think that having her do so at her own house would be a nice touch."

"What would that entail, then?"

"It's what we call a scene, but not a play scene, meaning that although there are sexual overtones it wouldn't involve any actual sex. She'd be lightly dressed, but not naked. You and I would be seated at the table, and she would serve us, and kneel at my feet, which is also where she'll eat. She won't be allowed to speak to either of us during the meal, and there are a whole set of gestures and symbols that we'd use to tell her when and what to serve."

"To be perfectly honest with you," Karen continued, "one of the reasons I'd like to do this at your home is because I think it's going to make Yvonne a little uncomfortable being in submission to me in a place where the only role she's ever known is that of your wife. I think she sees things a bit more clearly when she's pushed outside of her comfort zone, and I definitely want her thinking with a clear head about whether or not she's ready to accept my collar."

In the end Bruce agreed to host the Master's Banquet, and said that he would need to think long and hard about the rest of it. Karen said that she would coordinate with Yvonne the next time they saw one another, and pick an appropriate Sunday that was convenient for everyone involved.