Chapter 9
All Play and No Work
The evening after her sister and brother-in-law left to return to their home, Nancy felt a need to sit down with Paul to discuss the dramatic and surprising events of the previous two days. She told Paul of how she had been drawn in to not-so-secretly watch her sister and brother-in-law have sex and finally admitted to him that she did feel a thrill of excitement in doing so. In response to his gentle questioning, she told him about Ann making James describe how he wanted to have sex with her and then blurted out that the whole time she watched James having sex with her sister, she imagined he was taking her instead.
Nancy immediately fell silent after that latest revelation, but instead of getting mad or upset with her, Paul explained that he felt very secure in their relationship and equally secure about the relationship between Ann and James. "I've known the two of them for quite a while and while Ann is cute, she's not you. And the last thing I'm worried about is James trying to steal you away from me. As long as I've known them, they've always been very much in love with each other and not allowed sex outside of their marriage to come between them. They've actually managed to make it a supportive part of their marriage instead of something destructive, which is rare accomplishment."
"It's not just that. The whole time, it seemed like they were trying to embarrass me over my feelings about sex."
"No," Paul answered calmly. "They just wanted to try and break down some of your inhibitions give you a fair chance at considering new experiences. Instead of wanting to embarrass you, they wanted to give you the chance to experience very personal things in a very private way without forcing you. And I think they were right. Let's face it, you have been a lot more accepting of some of the situations that have come up since then, including being less hung up about nudity and less hesitant about being sexually active around them."
As she reflected on her actions and feelings during the previous months, Nancy recognized that everything Paul said made sense. In the months following Ann and James' first visit, the two couples had found more time to spend together and in the process, Nancy became exposed to a lifestyle she had never imagined. She had never been involved with a man outside of her monogamous first marriage and when she first met Paul, she still had never even fantasized about having sex with anyone other than her mate. Paul quickly ignited the sexual feelings she'd suppressed for so many years and it wasn't long into their relationship that she began to actively embrace her sexuality and rejoice in having sex with him.
As her self-confidence and curiosity grew, she had become more accepting in trying new experiences, but her sister coaxed her over a threshold that Nancy never would have thought about crossing. During a trip that she and Paul made to visit Ann and James, she ended up having sex with her brother-in-law. Afterwards, she felt guilty and ashamed, not because she didn't physically enjoy mounting James, but because of the expected consequences to her relationship with Paul. Her guilt was short-lived however, by the loving warmth of his reaction (and her sister's) to her unexpected extramarital encounter.
Nancy eventually realized that Paul was letting her know that he believed they had a strong enough relationship to allow her to explore sex outside of their relationship if that was something she wanted to try. Even so, she didn't feel any inclination to seek out other men and remained very satisfied with Paul in her life.
The first time she and Paul left town to visit Ann and James, they had all been sitting around that evening enjoying some wine and drinks when the conversation and atmosphere became more sexually charged. Ann brought out a laptop computer with a board game installed on it. It was similar to Monopoly, she explained, but with an "adult" theme that could be tailored to the individual preferences of each of the players. Nancy was already feeling the effects of her wine as she snuggled up against Paul on the love seat and she easily agreed to give the game a try.
Ann programmed the profiles for each player into the game, based on their expressed preferences. As each players turn, they pressed a key on the computer to "roll the dice" and their marker was moved around the board the appropriate number of spaces. Just like Monopoly, some of the squares represented properties that could be purchased as long as the player had sufficient funds in their account, or if the property was already owned by another player, the person would have to "pay rent". Other squares required the payer to pay a fine or "draw a card" from the virtual deck of interaction cards. As Ann explained, these interactions were controlled primarily by the preferences listed under each players profile and by the overall level of the game which steadily increased as players went around the board.
Payment of fines or rent could be made using either virtual cash in the player's game account, or if the person didn't have enough money or didn't want to spend any of his or her funds, payment could be given in terms of performing some sort of act randomly selected by the computer. As the game began, everyone tried to buy up all the property they could, but it didn't take long before their funds began running low. After several cycles around the board, they began landing on property owned by another player more frequently or landing on squares requiring them to "draw" a random interaction card.
