The Ceiling

This is a somewhat back-handed Romance that explores the complacency in the over-worked cliché "happily married". It starts from an unromantic, jaded perspective and takes a while to build any sense of romance. Sex is interspersed throughout and includes all openings so if anal ain't your thing, be forewarned. As always, this is a work of fiction and any coincidental similarity between the characters or circumstances in this story and some bit of someone's reality somewhere is unintentional and a purely random event in the cosmos. The characters in this story are over 18 and any sex is consensual between adults. As always, feedback is appreciated and voting lets me know where my work stands with you the reader. HP

Chapter 1 -- "Happily Married"

George Raithenby lay on his back staring at the silver ripples of reflected moonlight dancing on the ceiling. When the night was clear and the moon was full but not too high in the sky, the pale silver light reflected off the swimming pool, through the open window onto the bedroom ceiling. The dancing silver light usually had an eerie, yet somehow soothing quality but George was beyond the reach of the soothing bit of the shimmer at that moment.

It was a warm, sticky summer night. The clearing skies were taking their time lowering the humidity to less than tropical rain forest levels. The air conditioner was struggling to keep up and George was having trouble sleeping, again.

It wasn't just the muggy funk of the weather. He had been having real trouble sleeping on and off for a while now. His wife, Val, on the other hand was obliviously in dreamland on her side of the bed. She was making those little muttering, burbling, snoring noises that George found extremely annoying. Some nights, like tonight, when insomnia left him with nothing to do but listen to her for hours, it bordered on fingernails on a chalkboard. Val, however, was blissfully oblivious to the tempest raging in her partner's mind.

George was not a happy man. Val's sister was known to joke "we were happily married for a couple of years and now I'm just hanging around to piss him off". George often wondered if Val was also thinking the same thing.

"Happily married is such a cliché," he thought. "You start off happily married, then get comfortable and then some degree of discomfort sets in," was more accurate in his opinion.

George and Val were seen as a happy couple in public, they seemed to find their game faces for other people and put on a good show. In the privacy of their home, they each went separate ways; Val to the TV in the living room and George to his home office and the Internet. With their respective jobs, they ate supper together about half the time and basically coexisted in the same house. They went to bed at different times and rarely saw each other in any state of undress. Since they were hardly ever in the same mode at the same time, their sex life was essentially non-existent.

Not for a lack on interest on George's part, that was for sure. From George's research online he knew he was not alone in his opinion. They were like most "happily married" couples -- they had that age-old gender difference in sex drive.

Val found fulfillment and purpose in shopping with her friends, in those regular TV shows that just couldn't be missed, in regular and expensive redecorating of the house, in countless visits to the hair salon and all the other things that George's successful career had provided for her. But in his mind, she was focused on meaningless, frivolous and usually expensive and wasteful pursuits while forgetting the single most important thing; were it not for him, she wouldn't have the time or money for any of these "fulfillments".

Val seemed happy with sex every couple of months or less and was never the instigator. She had perfected the controlled give-in. In spite of never starting things, she controlled all of these rare encounters by her lack of interest in novelty. She was content with a passive round of legs spread, zero participation missionary-style most of the time. Once in a long while if she had been drinking a bit, she would sometimes take the top and dangle her plump nipples in his face.

George had eventually learned how to get her to cum by varying his pace and the angle of his strokes, something he had to figure out on his own because she wouldn't dare communicate her intimate secrets and feelings. He only realized she came the first time because she held her breath for long enough that he noticed and then involuntarily shuddered a bit, clenching her pussy muscles nicely around his cock. Val almost always went to sleep satisfied but never said anything about their sessions afterwards.

As far as George was concerned, the only real variety in his sex life came from switching hands once in a while. Surely at 49 he was too young to be celibate? This was the discomfort setting in part; it hadn't always been like that.

Chapter 2 -- Early Days

George couldn't help but almost smile as he recalled fondly when they first met. What pleasant memories they were, filled with the wonder of the joint discovery of pleasure.

He and Val had met in college. They had lived in the same dormitory. In those heady days in the '70's, the co-ed dorms were still separated into boys' and girls' sections. There were dividing doors between the sections because the parent generation just didn't get it and still required such moral standards but more often than not, they were propped open. The outside doors of the dorm were locked but the interior doors did nothing to prevent late night adventures in forbidden pleasure.

After a couple of dates to campus events, Val followed George back to his single room one night after the bars closed preferring his lack of a roommate to her ever-present roommate. The two found their inhibition shields were down just enough to take their relationship to the next level. They very quickly progressed to necking on George's bed. Both of them knew the principles of French kissing and quickly advanced to passionate tasting and teasing each other with their tongues. As the temperature of their ardor sky-rocketed, George made some tentative explorations of Val's curves. While their tongues danced, his fingers traced lightly up and down her side, caressing the side of her breast and the swell of her hip. Val's hunger grew and she sighed lightly into their kiss each time George slid his hand over the side of her bra cup.

At this point, Val was still a virgin. Not through any grand plan mind you, but just because that is what good girls did and she hadn't bothered to consider giving it up before this.

Man-about-campus George was the experienced one by comparison. He had lost his virginity the previous year to the dorm slut; an event he mostly preferred to forget. His experience with her was neither memorable nor really very enlightening. Both of them had been drinking and when she followed him back to his room, they had unceremoniously stripped, jumped into his bed and fucked. He had been so wound up, he had come after three strokes in her sloppy pussy. She had stroked him back to life and rolled on top of him to ride herself to an orgasm. Her large tits had been soft and pillowy, swaying in front of his face and he had eagerly slurped on her tiny nipples as she rode him. As she came, the clasping of her pussy muscles had barely given him enough sensation to finish off again. She had rolled off and left him snoring gently in his bed, the combined effects of the beer and post-coital bliss rendering him comatose for the night. In those pre-internet days, he had limited knowledge of the female anatomy and no clue how to please his partner. Finding the whole event mediocre, the dorm slut had declined a second tryst with a pleading and rather tipsy George a week later. He once again donned his shy and introverted personality around women and with it, a corresponding lack of "action" in the mattress department.

With all that experience backing him up, George tentatively and gradually moved his caresses further over Val's breast. She started to hold her breath to increase the pressure of George's hand to her still well covered nipple. George gradually got her hints and gave up the pretext of stroking her side and focused on caressing the fully clothed mammary gland. He was enjoying his apparent freedom, cupping her plump tit in his hand, gently hefting the soft flesh and experiencing the sensations as much as he could with her rather utilitarian undergarment in the way. As he ran his thumb over her nipple, in spite of the armor-plated support cup it hardened noticeably and he began to appreciate what would become one of his favorite features of her anatomy; her plump, prominent nipples.

George slipped his hand bravely under Val's sweater and ran the pad of his thumb over her bra-clad nipple. Val's breath caught in her throat each time his thumb rubbed over her nipple but otherwise she seemed content to passively absorb what he was doing while they continued to kiss. Emboldened by his good fortune, George slid his other hand down Val's smooth tummy and into the waistband of her jeans. She didn't react much but she didn't stop him either. After hesitating long enough to give her the chance to object, he fumbled for a while on his own and managed to pop the button and slide the zipper down. Sliding his hand over the utilitarian white underpants he felt her dense, untrimmed bush. The further south he went, the more moisture he encountered and he realized that Val's sex was really reacting a lot more actively than the rest of her let on.

The dorms were typically austere so the pair had been sitting on the only piece of furniture big enough for two -- his bed. As their passion flared, they gradually slid into a reclining position with Val on her back and George propped up on one elbow. He pushed his hand further into her jeans and crooked his finger into the damp valley in her panties. Val laid her head back and closed her eyes as he explored her sex with his untrained finger. With a sense of the basics, George rubbed his index finger back and forth over her now very wet panties, rubbing her inner lips and occasionally bumping her clit more by good luck than any semblance of skill.

Val's excitement grew rapidly in response to the assault on her sensitive clit and she began panting, her chest heaving as her hips reacted on their own to George's clumsy ministrations. As her pelvis ground upwards to meet his hand, she bumped her clit into his finger more accidentally at first but soon with a determined sense of purpose. George was a quick learner, sensing that the contact with that hard nub he felt under his finger was driving Val higher and higher. He crooked his finger and focused his attention on stroking the nub with greater accuracy. That did it, Val tipped over that delicious point of sensory overload as the fireworks went off behind her eyes and the warm glow spread rapidly outward from her center enveloping her.

She grabbed his wrist hard to still his hand against her sensitive mound as her hips jerked and twitched riding out the waves of pleasure that marked her very first orgasm that was not induced by her own hands. As her breathing returned to normal, Val opened her eyes and gave him the most feedback he ever got from her. "Wow, that was wonderful," she breathed shyly.

Suddenly realizing his hand was still clasped between her thighs, she pulled it out and quickly zipped her jeans, suddenly embarrassed at having been so intimate. George for his part didn't know what to do next and several moments of awkward silence passed between them with his hand resting on her hip. In the stark, post-orgasmic light, Val's embarrassment grew and she stammered "I-I sh-should be g-going now, it's g-g-getting late." George realizing a fleeting moment was about to run out the door, jumped to his feet.

"Can I call you tomorrow and maybe we can go to the library and study together?"

"Sure, that would be nice. Call me around seven."

With that, she was gone. As the door clicked shut behind her, George let out a massive sigh realizing his dick was harder than it had ever been and he was quickly heading for a bad case of blue balls. Getting out a well-thumbed men's magazine from the hiding place under his bed, he quickly coaxed an enormous load from his swollen balls, seeing spots he came so hard. After he cleaned up the mess, he crawled into bed to sleep off the beer and mull over the turn of events.

Chapter 3 The Making of a Relationship

The shy couple continued for the rest of the term studying together and occasionally passionately kissing in George's room. When he did get up the courage to try to touch Val intimately again, she gently but firmly rebuffed his advances but continued the hot, tongue-wrestling kisses that kept him perpetually hard and horny. Val always chose her departure time as his passion was peaking and clearly preferred the option of meeting in George's room so she could control how and when the evening ended.

As he watched the silvery light reflecting on the ceiling, George realized with a grim certainty that Val had always been in control of their physical relationship. Even before they became completely intimate, she had been running the show doling out her charms in measured amounts and always setting the limits of their physical relationship. He didn't know if it was a conscious decision on her part to keep him horny and thinking with his small head all the time. Planned or not, that is the way she had played it and George had been too devoid of conscious thought to reflect on his fate until much later in life.

At the end of the term, the dorm population was quickly thinning out as exams concluded and relieved students packed their worldly possessions to scatter across the countryside to their various summer jobs. Val and George both had a tough chemistry exam on the last day and decided to let off steam after the exam before parting company for the summer.

They both struggled with the exam to the bitter end and at the "Pencils down" command, sighed with relief. Whatever happened now, they were just so glad to get it over with. Many of their fellow chemistry students had the same idea and a parade from the exam led unwaveringly to the nearest watering hole. The drinks flowed easily and before too long George and Val were feeling a good buzz. Not wanting to get too far gone, Val wrapped her arm around George's waist and unsteadily maneuvered him for the door. He was happy to go along and their feet seemed to magically guide them back again to George's room.

As soon as the door was shut, George wrapped Val in a big hug and kissed her passionately. She responded with the hottest kiss ever and his dick was instantly like a steel bar, cramped and uncomfortable in his jeans. Val's hip pressed against the bulge in his pants and he tried to turn his hips to remove the contact. She had other ideas and began to lightly rub her hipbone against the bulge. George squirmed and jerked, embarrassed and trying in vain to avoid further arousal. Emboldened by his reaction and the beers, Val reached down and grabbed his erection through his jeans.

George froze mid-kiss. His dick jerked slightly in her hand and he stood like a statue, unsure of what to do next. He didn't need to worry, Val continued as the aggressor, putting her other hand behind his head and puling him deeper for a torrid kiss while she rubbed her palm hard against his manhood.

George fought the urge to thrust against her palm, willing himself to focus on passionately returning her kiss, groaning as her hand rubbed the rough fabric against his hard cock. He unwrapped the hug he had been giving her and went straight to caressing her breast, gently kneading the soft tissue and slipping his thumb back and forth over the plump nipple. Val increased her efforts on his cock and they both started to pant in anticipation of what was coming.

With his free hand shaking noticeably, George undid the buttons on Val's blouse one by one slowly revealing another of her plain white cross-her-heart utilitarian bras that were so popular in those days. Val paused in her ministrations to George's dick long enough to shrug the blouse off her arms and drop it on the floor. George reached round and fumbled with the hooks on her bra. With a stroke of luck rather than any innate skill, he released the last hook and Val shrugged the straps off her arms, leaving George with his first view of her naked breasts. To his eye, they were perfect. Full and round with just a hint of droop from their size. Suddenly exposed to room temperature and reflecting her growing arousal, her nipples quickly thickened into plump, rubbery nubs begging for his undivided attention. Bending slightly, he took one plump bud and then the other in his mouth, gently sucking and nipping, enjoying the rubbery texture. Val's heavy breathing switched to sighs of obvious pleasure.

With George bent the way he was, Val couldn't quite reach the front of his pants so she consoled herself with fumbling with the buttons on his shirt. When it was undone, he helped her by shrugging his shoulders and the garment pile on the floor grew deeper.

Straightening up and kissing his way back up her chest and across her collarbone, left Val her opening. Quickly undoing his jeans, with a quick tug they were down at his ankles leaving George in his tighty-whiteys. He was sporting a large damp spot at the summit of the tent in the Y fronts.

With an uncharacteristic boldness, George returned the favor, quickly undoing and dropping Val's jeans to reveal her plain and also very obviously damp white cotton panties.

Now that they were both mostly naked, George pulled Val close in a tight hug and passionately kissed her while reveling in the feel of her naked plump nipples spearing his chest. Val ground her pelvis up against his hard cock while they breathlessly kissed.

Backing them up gently towards his bed, George nudged and Val sat hurriedly when the backs of her knees hit the mattress. She didn't release her hug on him so George toppled over with her and they wound up more or less in a missionary position with George's hard dick pressed directly on her sopping wet pussy. Passionately kissing, they were both dry humping in uncoordinated jerks against the sensitive contact between them.

George started kissing and nibbling on Val's neck, working his way down again to her plump nipples. Val's eyes were closed and her head was rolling from side to side as she enjoyed the stimulation on her flushed nipples. George continued his trip south, vaguely following a sense of direction based on the lurid but improbable descriptions in the letters section of his favorite men's magazine.

When he reached the junction of her thighs, George pulled gently on her panties and Val unconsciously lifted her hips to help him remove the soaking garment. As he slid her panties down, George leaned in and kissed her soft curls basking in the smell of her arousal. Val sighed and hunched her hips up so George repeated the process kissing the folds at the point of the triangle of hair.

Val wantonly spread her legs wide open, giving George his first clear view of her puffy inner lips and the dewy dampness coating them with a sheen of pure lust. Diving in what he hoped was the right place, he drew his tongue up the dewy ridges of her lips and accidentally flicked right out at the top of the valley. Val jerked and grabbed George's head, thrusting his face fully into her pussy. With two small, quick thrusts of her hips against his tongue, she froze, her face contorted with the grimace of pleasure marking her first "petit mort" on George's tongue. Something that she wouldn't often let be repeated in the coming years. She held George's face mashed into her clit as she twitched with orgasmic aftershocks. As she gradually calmed down, she released her tight grip on George's head. Quickly drawing a breath, he watched in wonder as her pussy continued to twitch and squeeze, clear fluid flowing slowly down toward the crack of her ass.