Joey became over time Ellen's regular lover, boyfriend, boy-toy. I'm not quite sure how he became such a regular presence in our lives, but their trysts became more frequent. Ellen managed it all beautifully for the most part, and positively glowed with delight at having both two men devoted to her. That was the most interesting change, as she laid down the law to Joey after his third visit. She told him that she would continue to see and sleep with him on a regular basis but only if he was sexually monogamous with her. She confessed to having feelings for him but the deciding issue was her health, and mine. Ellen knew from my account of his activities that Joey was something of a ladies' man and given that their sex had been bareback from the start, she wanted some assurance that he was going to be less generous with his cock moving forward.
Joey traveled a good bit with his work and told Ellen that as such it was difficult for him to find a girlfriend who would tolerate his frequent absences. So the arrangement she proposed was actually more than fine with him. I mean, what's not to like? He had the chance to plow Ellen on a fairly steady basis without her demanding more from him emotionally or otherwise than he could provide. So, he readily agreed.
At first I was rather glad that she had decided to have just the one outside lover. Joey was a known quantity and seemingly had no problems with my presence during their lovemaking sessions. I suppose I viewed him simply as a fuck-stick for Ellen and knew that she thoroughly enjoyed what he had to offer physically and sexually. And I appreciated that he knew when to leave, as he had made himself scarce the first few times with Ellen after he had busted his nut inside of her. While I felt more than a bit intimated by his endowment, youthful stamina, and virility, Ellen continued to reassure me that I was the man that she loved. And our sex life continued to be quite good; well, it was good for me at least.
We talked through the issue of Joey in depth and came to a fair understanding of this shift in our relationship. Ellen did caution me that if Joey became her steady lover, I had to be certain that I could handle his ongoing presence in her life and in her bed. Her episodic involvement with lovers prior to this had been of the one-off variety for the most part and fairly infrequent. While she made it clear that she did not nor ever could love him as she did me, she was a woman and was bound to have feelings for him. Basically, it was time for me to put up or shut up, because once I acquiesced to this new arrangement, she would be in charge of the relationship with Joey, not me.
She gave me several days to think it over. And I thought long and hard about what I might be getting into. Yes, I was captivated and intensely enjoyed watching Joey with Ellen. And, yes, I felt reasonably secure in her frequently expressed love for me. I suppose that in the best of all possible worlds, I would have retained the measure of control I had enjoyed previously in saying yea or nay to her having other lovers. And I did wonder if she would keep her options open to bringing other men to her bed. We had a long talk on the phone the following day after I had spent 24 hours digesting the ramifications of having Joey in her life on a more or less regular basis.
"You said that you had feelings for Joey," I said. "Do you love him?"
"Of course not," she replied quickly. "But I do enjoy being with him very much. This is not a romantic relationship, John, nor a dating one. But I do like him a lot. I mean, I can't and won't be seen out with him as I am with you. He knows that. I'm a mom and all of my friends and my son know you as my boyfriend. I won't risk having to do deal with wagging tongues if I'm seen with Joey. OK?"
"Yeah, okay, that makes sense." And it did make perfect sense. Ellen, despite her sluttish ways, was outwardly a conservative, respectable woman. She had long experience in managing lovers and knew better than I did how to bring this off.
"Joey knows never to park in front of my house or bother me when my son is with me. Trust me, he knows the rules and accepts them." Ellen giggled, "I think he'd actually agree to anything I demanded so long as he can continue to have me."
I had to laugh as well, as much from relief at knowing that she could in fact bring off having two lovers as from giving up any sense of managing their connection. It was all in Ellen's capable hands now.
"Besides," she cooed, "I think I rather like having two men devoted to me -- and faithful as well. Now, that's really something!"
"You're the goddess, babe."
"I really am, aren't I," she giggled. "Oh," she said, "Joey does want some alone time with me -- and I think I need a bit of that too with him. I promise not to let that interfere with our shared time, so is that okay with you?"
"I know you'll manage it fine, so, yeah, I can handle that. Just promise to tell me when you are with him and what you do...sexually. I mean, you know how I am about that stuff."
"I promise!" she replied quickly. "And there will still be times when the three of us are together. I told him that too was part of the arrangement."
I was relieved to hear that, as I had wondered. It all seemed to be so perfect. I was happy but more importantly, Ellen was happy. Well, she was more than happy, she was thrilled. She gets all bubbly when she's delighted and I could tell from the tone of her voice that she was excited about what was in store.
And I decided to just quit fretting over it. I was aware of a none too subtle shift in power, but here again, I was also rather relieved at not having to fuss with the arrangements any longer. But, there was no getting over the simple fact that I had surrendered a measure of power in my relationship with Ellen. And power is something that a man and a woman have to negotiate. And I had a vague notion about cuckoldry and wondered if I was going down that slippery slope. But I kept that somewhat distressing thought to myself, knowing that Ellen wouldn't quite get the notion. Her sexuality was too joyful and natural to understand an issue so convoluted. And I thought perhaps I ought to talk with Joey, but scratched that notion. He was not in any way the sort of man with whom I could share my feelings. Okay, so Joey was now to be her regular lover and I determined to let it go at that -- and just see how this played out over the next few weeks.
Ellen's son was more or less splitting his time between her and his father, which gave us more time together. The change was welcome. We got along well, but he was an adolescent and had more on his mind than his mother's boyfriend. Ellen was a good mother and the reality was that while she attended to her needs quite well, her son was her first priority. I knew and accepted that. I knew that she had always been disappointed that she did not have a larger family. The issue had been with her ex-husband and his initially less than enthusiastic embracing of fatherhood and its demands. He had proven over time to be a committed, if somewhat less than ideal father, but he did try and Ellen was satisfied that what he lacked in skill, he made up for in other areas. She never mentioned that she was both approaching the final few hours of her biological clock nor that I had neither the desire nor the juice to provide her with another child. Still, I did wonder if this issue would rear its head at some point in my relationship with her.
We both had a lot going on the following week, what with work and other commitments, and I was glad that we had a date for dinner on Wednesday when her son was scheduled to be with his father through the weekend. We always enjoyed these extended times when we could enjoy each other's company. Having more or less ceded control of Joey's role in her life and our life, and as she had not mentioned his name at all for the past few days, I had more or less put him out of my mind. We had talked of other things for the past few days and for that I was grateful. I assumed that Ellen would tell me when they were to be together and left it at that.
I showered after work and with a bit more than usual attention to my appearance, and then drove to pick my girl for a special dinner date. And when I knocked on the door, she answered and she had dressed perfectly. I was never more in love, or lust, with her standing before me, smiling and so full of joy. Ellen had opted for a simple, black dress, which fit her like a glove. It was not over-the-top in any sense but simple and showed that she required no special effort to look amazing. The shape of her full, perfect breasts was perfectly accentuated, even though her cleavage was well hidden. Ellen was always conscious that her thighs were full and athletically muscled, so rarely did she wear her skirts short, but her calves were trim and lovely. Damn, I'm trying to describe feminine beauty but words are inadequate. Think of physical female perfection, and you're there.
She kissed me and was ready in an instant as we drove to restaurant for a romantic dinner. And it was romantic. It's as if Joey didn't exist -- nothing existed except the two of us. We lingered over coffee after dinner and I was totally charmed that she was both my girl and my treasured companion at a magical dinner. The valet brought us our car and with old world elegance, I held her hand as she took her seat, checking out her legs of course as she sat down. I knew better than to try to assure her that what she saw as her physical 'downside' was in fact intensely attractive to me. Ellen's thighs were a marvel. She had been a track and field athlete, both in high school and college, and she still sported legs that could choke the air out of an NFL lineman. She thought them unfeminine but I thought them incredibly attractive -- no, more than that -- to me, they were her best feature. Well, okay, her breasts were world class and natural, but still, I love a woman with an athletic physique!
We were on our way back to her home, aglow with love and both of us expecting a nice, sweaty consummation of the evening, when her phone rang. I thought nothing of it at the moment but when she said, "Hi, sweetie," my heart sank. It damn sure wasn't her ex with an update on her son. It was Joey. She had a brief, animated, and flirtatious chat with him. I gathered that he had come back in town for a day before heading out to the west coast the next morning. Ellen glowed as she talked to him, glancing at me once and sending a kiss my way as she chatted with her lover. I was pissed, but what could I do but smile.
"Yes. okay," she chirped. And then a pause, "How nice. Sure. See ya in an hour or so. Muwah!"
Ellen put her hand on my thigh and leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. "Joey's got an evening off. I thought he would be out of pocket until next week. So, I invited him over. Won't this be fun!?"
"Uh, yeah," I answered, my thoughts and emotions mixed. Okay, so there went my romantic evening alone with my girlfriend.
Ellen was instinctive as usual. "Hey, our evening has been so wonderful. Do you not want this? I thought it would excite you. Honest. Oh, bother, have I messed up?"
