Where are we going?" Gloria asked when, after having gotten her out of bed early the next morning, we were walking out to the plane.
"Today is sightseeing, by air. The American Southwest as you've never seen it," I answered. "We have reservations for today and tomorrow in Sedona, but it's getting there that is going to be fun."
We took a meandering route, mostly easterly in the morning, and then south to Sedona after lunch. Lake Mead followed by Zion National Park from the air; breakfast in Kanab before following along the mountains to Bryce Canyon National Park. We turned to Lake Powell and followed it back south, stopping for fuel and a light snack at Page, Arizona, before heading on our longest leg, south across the desolate badlands of Northern Arizona.
The barren landscape seemed practically uninhabited at first glance. An occasional scar in the landscape, a barely seen power line -- but without doubt it was one of the most desolate pieces of Arizona there was.
"Jimmy?"
"Yeah, babe?" I answered, glancing away from our flight path and the instruments for a moment to Gloria. Her hand reached out for me, I took mine and dropped it from the control wheel. She pulled it to her lap, just holding on.
"Did you like last night?
I wondered where this was going, but answered truthfully after a moment. "I did. A beautiful lady, a good dinner; a sexy show that turned us both on followed by a romp in the hay -- what wasn't there to like?"
"What about the night before -- with Mary and Steve?"
Uh-oh. I wasn't sure what I sensed, perhaps insecurity? I couldn't tell. "What about it?"
"Did you like it? Sharing me with Steve and Mary?"
Ahh - interesting choice of words, 'sharing.' The thoughts of potential jealousy or insecurity didn't seem to match her mood or her question. I didn't just throw out an answer however, thinking about the answer before I did. Although Mary and Steve had become, in just two short meetings, intimate friends -- that's all they were to me. Sex with them had been fun, mutual satisfaction without any repercussions as far as I'd been concerned, but still - knowing Gloria's conservative background, her mental, if not physical, abuse from a dominant husband - I was aware that nothing she asked was flippant or trite. "Yeah, I did. I loved seeing you enjoy yourself with Mary, and the two of us pleasuring her, and all of us pleasuring you..." I stopped short of saying anything about Steve fucking her. "What about you? Did you like it?"
"Uh-huh. I did." Her gaze went past me to the outside, but she didn't let go of my hand. "Even when we went back to the room, I wasn't completely sure. But when you came back from your shower, when it was just you and me and Mary -- I just
knew
I wanted to share you with her, for
you
to give her the pleasure you give me. And then sliding your cock into her, knowing I've felt the exact feeling that she was feeling, that I was
sharing
my pleasures with her, I guess that's when it really clicked in my mind that there really
is
a difference between sex and love. You've given me so much pleasure with no strings attached and suddenly I realized that it was a two way street. I hadn't
really
felt that way with Ronnie. until then. I hadn't given myself to Steve, or accepted his gifts to me, until then. And then you were fucking Mary and I was watching, and I wanted to cheer her on. I wanted to have her tell me how good it was having your cock in her, and I wanted to help -- I wanted us to make her cum. And right in the middle of it I felt from her that it wasn't just that Steve wanted to fuck me, but that
she
wanted to share Steve with me, for him to give to me exactly what you were doing for her. You know what I mean?"
"I think so." Ok, this was good.
"I'd had this little bit of doubt, feelings of cheating. Even though you've been having Janet and I knew about it, and I've been with Ronnie, still -- there was this feeling that somehow I owed you something. And it was in that moment that I realized that wasn't the case at all. It was more like we were weren't just taking, but we were sharing. Friends showed up and we invited them to share with us -- and we had plenty to go around."
"I was just sitting here thinking, if Mary and Steve invited me to go to visit them for a weekend, would I go? It wouldn't be any different than when you were watching while I was sucking Steve and she was going down on me, or when he was fucking me and she was kissing and playing with me -- except that you wouldn't be there. And I realized that just to go up and spend a weekend with them, without you, wasn't what I wanted, I'd want to take you with me. I want to share you with them, to let them experience how wonderful you've been to me. Remember when I talked about looking for my Prince Charming to sweep me off my feet and take me to his castle to live happily ever after?"
I did. "Yeah, barely. That first weekend, after I met you on the plane -- you'd said something about meeting your knight in shining armor? I think that was it."
"You let me know almost immediately you weren't my knight in shining armor -- but you really were. You didn't take me to your castle where we would live happily ever after, but you did help me out of my own dungeon, to find out I have my own castle that I can live in without having to depend on some jerk like my ex, and sharing myself with others isn't a bad thing."