Each night it was another chance to play the game. It was the only way to save her sanity -- and her marriage.
Inexperienced on the wedding night, she had never had the opportunity to make a basis for comparison, but she felt that in the broader range of human relationships, hers with her husband was less than ideal.
Feelings of resentment had crept in not long after they were married. Now, approaching their third year of marital... what would you call it? Bliss? Certainly not. Togetherness? Perhaps that was the best word for it. Even 'partnership' was a term that needed qualification, and she had run out of the energy to analyze her situation any longer.
So, as they approached their third year together as man and wife, she had recently come across a possible solution to their problem, although she wasn't sure how long she could continue to play the game without being caught -- or losing interest.
She looked back with grim realization that waiting for marriage perhaps had not been the best possible tack for her. Through her teens, she had envisioned the right moment, the right guy, heavenly bliss of otherworldly quality where emotions transcend the flesh -- and even in her fantasies she had included candles somewhere.
The wedding night ripped from her those fantasies and expectations with a harsh reality that still, after all this time, she felt difficult to come to terms with. It wasn't that he was vicious -- oh no, far from it. In fact he was the most gentle, the most kind and patient man during the first pains of penetration. He had entered her and she had gasped, attempting to accommodate the intrusion within her body. An unwelcome feeling, to be sure.
Her back arched and she held her breath, waiting for the unexpected waves of pain to decay into discomfort, and then blend into slow ripples of pleasure, just as her sister had coached her. Inside her body, she felt him pulse and flex, even though he did not move back and forth. Intuitively, she knew that his body was responding to hers as it adjusted to his presence.
His eyes closed momentarily, his breath caught in his throat but for a brief second, and then he opened his eyes again. With a small, wistful smile, and a look that resembled pity, he began to withdraw.
"No," she said, misunderstanding. "It will be okay. I just need time to adjust, to get used to it." Her eyes were open wide, she was afraid he might be thinking that he had hurt her too much and was withdrawing to relieve her discomfort.
"No, darling," he had said. "I... I'm finished."
Realization dawned on her slowly, mixed with acute disbelief. What? Finished? But she hadn't had a chance... didn't get used... where was the ripples of pleasure? Where was excitement of feeling him move inside of her? Where was the orgasm?
"The first time is always the worst," her sister had said. Those words echoed in her mind for the first time since they had entered the hotel room for their wedding night together. All at once the words took on new meaning, as she had originally thought they represented the pain of entry for the first time, the discomfort of having muscles and tissues touched as they've never been touched before, even the confusion of emotions as she took inside her body that which she had denied entrance all her life.
But this, this was something different. It was a different kind of "first time" than she had ever imagined. It was now that she realized that the fantasies she had been so bold to take command of her expectations had fixed solely on her experience, and never imagined what his would be like. She had been completely in the dark what he would do, what he would be experiencing himself.
He had sat up on the edge of the bed. He looked nervous and couldn't make eye contact. "I'm sorry," he said. "We've waited so long, and you felt so good. I wanted to be inside you for so long... I couldn't stop the..."
He never finished his sentence. He got up to go into the bathroom, and she heard the water turn on. Her mind was reeling, too stunned to say anything as he left the room. Too many questions were going through her mind. All of a sudden the experience felt anti-climactic. She nearly smiled at the play on words, but she wasn't in a laughing mood. She had built this night in her mind to be the reward for her waiting, and now she felt cheated of that reward.
She grabbed some tissues by the bed and began to check for blood. There was some, but not nearly as much as she had expected. For some strange reason a thought entered and left her head so quickly that she almost doubted that she even had it, and instantly regretted that she had: yet another expectation down the drain.
She grew angry instantly. I waited my whole life for this!?! her mind screamed. After all the teasing, the intimate kissing, the promise of something greater, she was ready to demand him to come back into the room and fix the fantasy that was now shattered, broken.
She got off the bed and went to the bathroom door and raised her fist to bang on the door. She lowered it as she heard him sob and sniffle over the sound of the running water. She softened a little. He was a good man, and her sister was surely right. Things were bound to get better.