Joanna: Mia Cara

Thank you to those who helped me with this piece. In no particular order - LM, janey, and IC. Any errors or bits you don't like are entirely down to me.

THE LIGHT DANCED through the diamonds embedded in her engagement and eternity rings while she fiddled with the thin silver chain that decorated her slender neck. Eduard noticed the dull lustre of her wedding ring, the dowdy sister, but which held far more significance than its showy siblings and his temper flared hot and mercury quick – a legacy of his Roman heritage – at the sight of the band on the third finger of her left hand.

"You're what?" He barked.

"I'm ... I'm so sorry, Eduard, I ..." Joanna fingered the chain again.

"An affair? You're having an

affair?"

He gaped at his wife, an expression she would have found amusing under different circumstances.

Eduard continued to stare as Joanna moved to her dressing table and picked up a packet of cigarettes. Her hands trembled as she shook one from the pack and put the filtered end between her lips. She lifted the lighter, silver, expensive, and until recently, forgotten. Joanna had given up the habit ten years before, eventually bowing to her husband's glowering disapproval every time she lit up. She inhaled deeply, her eyes closed and then blew a thin stream of blue smoke towards the bedroom ceiling. Then she turned to face him, the cigarette burning between her fingers as she held it in her elegant style.

"Yes, Eduard. An affair. I can't keep it from you. I can't bear the burden of it. I can't sleep for worrying. The guilt ..."

"Who is it? Who is he?" Eduard took two paces towards his wife. She flinched as he shouted: "I'll kill the bastard. I'll shoot the fucker myself." He advanced another step. Joanna retreated. Eduard's expression darkened his already swarthy complexion and his black fringe fell across his eyes while he paced back and forth, muttering and swearing and calling foul curses in Italian upon the head of whoever it was fucking his wife -

His

wife! "Who is it?" He yelled as he lurched towards Joanna suddenly, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Whose cock are you sucking?"

Joanna stared at her husband. His eyes searched her face with an intensity she found frightening. She'd known he'd be angry, she knew his temperament after twenty years with him but she had a rush of fear that she'd underestimated his Mediterranean passion.

"It isn't a man," she said quietly.

"Then ...?"

"It isn't a man, Eduard. I'm not fucking a man." Joanna twisted free of her husband's slackened grip and moved slowly away, leaving him standing in her bedroom as still as a statue. Joanna walked along the wide hall, past Eduard's bedroom and on towards the staircase. She descended, one hand on the wooden banister, and then walked into the room they called the library. There were no shelves of books in that room, it was more a reception room, a place to meet and greet guests and Eduard's clients. It was furnished in expensive chic, a testament to Eduard's success in business, but it was the bar that interested Joanna at that moment. She poured vodka to an indecent level into a heavy tumbler and took a sip. The woman waited, smoking and sipping the harsh liquid until her cigarette was almost burned down and the level of vodka fallen by half.

A female figure appeared in the doorway. "Shall I have dinner ready at the usual time, Miss?"

Preoccupied, Joanna answered, "Yes please, Emily."

"As you wish, Ma'am." The woman left Joanna to her reverie.

Eduard entered suddenly in a gale of foul temper. "Are you going to tell me who it is? And why now, why tell me now, tonight? Carla will be here in a few minutes." He ran his fingers through his thick hair in a nervous gesture. "This is too much to take in. Jesus, Jo ..."

Joanna drained her glass and refilled it immediately. She gestured to Eduard with the bottle, "Drink?"

"I'll pour my own." Eduard walked to his wife and reached for a bottle of Southern Comfort. He dropped ice into a tumbler and then poured. "So come on," he insisted, "tell me who she is." He sat on the leather two-seater and patted the cushion next to him. "Get rid of that disgusting thing" – he gestured to her cigarette – "and come and sit down. Talk to me; I'm trying to understand."

Joanna crushed the lipstick-ringed butt into an ash tray. She joined her husband on the couch and settled her dress around her legs. Joanna and Eduard were dressed for dinner, their sister-in-law was due in quarter of an hour; her husband, Eduard's brother Ronaldo, was away in Italy, and Carla was a regular guest in their home.

"Why aren't you still ranting and raving?" Joanna asked. "You were about ready to throttle me upstairs a moment ago. You were swearing and threatening death and damnation. What's changed? And don't give me any clap-trap about trying to understand, Eduard, it's because it's a woman isn't it?" Her tone softened and she placed a hand on his thigh, her right hand, the one without a wedding band. "I'm sorry," she murmured, "I don't know how it happened ... how it all began, but I had to tell you, Eduard." She paused and bit her lower lip. "I still love you, darling, I do, truly, what I'm doing with her ... It's just sex. It's exciting and dangerous and so very wrong – which makes the whole thing so arousing." Joanna squirmed as though the thought of the lewd acts she'd been party to were stirring her again.

"It

is different,"

Eduard said. "A woman, with you, I ... I don't know why, but ... but it isn't as threatening as a man. A man fucking you is an

affair

, and for that I would kill, but this ... This with a woman ...? That isn't an affair." He turned his dark eyes to his wife and continued. "It's still a betrayal though, Joanna. You've broken your vows ... And I don't really know how I feel. It's a shock, a hell of a shock. I need some time to think it all over." Chastened, Joanna demurred and averted her eyes. "I need some time to digest what you've told me ...You still haven't told me who it is," Eduard persisted.

"Oh, Eduard, Joanna sighed. Haven't you guessed?" She took a gulp of vodka and stared intently at her husband as though willing him to guess the identity of her lover.

"I know her?"

"Jesus, Eduard! It's Carla. How many women do I know; how many do we both know, us, as a couple? It's Carla who's fucking me ... And I'm fucking her. God but she's so damn exciting."

Eduard stared at his wife unable to comprehend the enormity of her revelation.

The doorbell rang, faint but audible down the long hall and Joanna's eyes widened at the realisation of who was at the door. She rushed to the front of the house, waving the bemused Emily away with an upturned hand.

The dark-haired woman with the deep décolletage, her full breasts nearly spilling from her evening dress, smiled at Joanna when the door opened. "Good evening, darling," she drawled in voice as dark and rich as her appearance.. "You look positively edible tonight." Carla's eyes roamed like a predator's over her lover's body, her expression hungry. She reached out to Joanna and leaned in to kiss her on each cheek. "And I want to eat your cunt," she whispered.

"He knows," Joanna said. "I told him. He knows about us."

"You told him? How interesting. How did he take it?" Carla's reaction surprised Joanna. She expected a different response – anger, fright, surprise, anything but this cool acceptance. Carla moved into the hall. She smiled when her brother-in-law appeared, silhouetted in the door frame of the library. "Good evening, Eduard." The man stood for a long time and said nothing. He gazed at his brother's wife as though seeing her for the first time; weighing her up; assessing her and perhaps reappraising. "Are you shocked, Eduard?" She gave a low chuckle. "Of course you are, I can see it in your face." Carla took Joanna's hand and together the two women approached the silent Eduard.

Eduard glanced towards the kitchen where Emily was busy preparing dinner. "Get in here," he ordered through his clenched jaw. He turned and preceded the two women into the library. "Close the door." Joanna, suddenly meek in the face of these two opposing armies quickly obeyed. Eduard confronted Carla, turning to face her and moving close in an effort to intimidate.

"Don't be so melodramatic, Eduard. I'm used to your brother remember. Your bullying tactic won't work with me."

There was a long pause. "You arrogant fucking bitch," Eduard hissed, keeping his voice low, ever conscious of Emily at work in another part of the house. "You think this is just a joke? That you can ... That ... You think you can seduce my wife—" He picked up the tumbler from the bar top and took a deep swallow "—And I know it had to be you who engineered the sordid little games, Carla." Eduard turned and gestured towards Joanna. "My beautiful wife—"

"Of course it was me, Eduard. You're such a controlling bastard Joanna wouldn't dream of being unfaithful to you, but I managed to tempt her out of her delicate lingerie. I had to Eduard. I had to experience her. Like you said, she's so beautiful. I couldn't resist her mouth; her breasts, her sweet cunt—" Carla used the word with the deliberate intent of shocking Eduard and she was rewarded by his expression as his mouth fell open at her lewd description.

"You ..." he spluttered but was cut off as Carla continued.

"—I've longed to get your wife between the sheets, Eduard." The woman's eyes narrowed as a crafty look crossed her face; Carla couldn't resist the opportunity to goad Eduard. "She was very reluctant at first. You can be assured that I was the first to tempt your wife from her marriage vows, but I won her in the end ... and once she succumbed—" Carla paused and pursed her lips towards Joanna in a silent kissing gesture "—well, you know what she's like in bed. Quite the animal isn't she?"

Joanna stood immobile, her face scarlet as she listened to Carla's description of her seduction. She waited for the explosion as Eduard's temper came to the boil, but, to her amazement, he didn't utter a word. Her husband, for the first time in their years together, was lost for words. He seemed powerless to find a retort, to put down Carla's relentless narrative. There was a knock at the door and Joanna gave a start of surprise; all eyes turned to the sound. "Dinner," Emily called through the partition.

Eduard walked to the door and opened it. "Thank you, Emily," he said. Then, turning to his wife and their guest, and with a remarkable change in demeanour, he added: "Shall we?" If Emily noticed Joanna's discomfiture she gave no outward sign. The woman, after nodding to Eduard, turned and made her way to the dining room where her labours were laid out on the table. "Thank you, Emily," Eduard repeated and smiled. "I think we can manage ourselves from here." Then added in apparent afterthought, "I know, why don't you take an early night. What do you say— ladies," he turned and bowed his head to Carla and Joanna in turn "—shall we look after ourselves for a change? Let Emily get home?"

Carla smirked and turned her face from the bemused Emily. This was beyond the normal course of an evening in this household. Eduard was usually so particular and difficult. A fair employer, but an employer with high standards – standards he demanded were maintained.

"Yes, of course," Joanna blurted and then gave a high, brittle laugh. Grimacing at her own obvious nervousness she hurried on, anxious for the woman to be gone. "Excellent suggestion, Eduard. Of course we can take care of ourselves." Joanna looked across to Carla, her expression imploring, but the dark-haired woman appeared to be amused and in no hurry to come to Joanna's rescue. Instead she picked up her wine glass and sipped delicately as she regarded Joanna over the rim of the glass, her eyes sparkling with mischief.

Emily, to Joanna's relief, eventually left. The three people regarded each other over the vast table, the food untouched and forgotten.

"So—" Carla was the first to speak "—now what, Eduard?" She reached down for her purse and, ignoring Eduard's curled lip, took a packet of cigarettes out and offered it to Joanna. She offered her lighter and lit Joanna's cigarette before lighting her own and inhaling deeply. She watched for Eduard's reaction, the glint of amusement never leaving her eye.

Eduard stared at her with an expression of cold hatred. "Is this a game to you, Carla?" There was no reply. "Well ... Is it?"

"It's fun, Eduard," Carla responded after blowing a jet of smoke at the ceiling."We're just having fun. For God's sake, we're two healthy women; we're still young—" Carla gestured a hand towards Joanna before sweeping her fingers across her own deep cleavage "—and we're both gorgeous specimens; fine physical forms. Are we not, brother-in-law?" she mocked finally. "I lusted after your wife. I pursued her and I got her." Carla sucked vehemently at her cigarette, the first sign of real feeling she'd displayed so far. She regarded her brother-in-law through the smoke. "It's not really about the sex, is it, Eduard," She asked in a sly tone. "It's about the control. That's what it is." She laughed – a rich sound from deep in her throat. "You can't stand the thought of anyone taking what you regard as yours. I know you, Eduard. I know your brother ... and he's far, far worse than you." Carla took one final, extended drag on her cigarette and then, in a gesture calculated to irritate Eduard, she carelessly dropped the butt into the soup tureen.

Eduard glanced at his silent spouse as she sat along the table a short distance from his right hand. She smoked in nervous puffs as she watched the scene develop in front of her; the situation entirely beyond her control. "Have you nothing to say?" He saw, on the periphery of his vision, Carla rise from her seat. "Joanna ...?" He continued but his wife's attention was now focused on Carla as she moved behind the seated woman.

Carla leaned low and, with her eyes fixed firmly upon Eduard's, she lifted Joanna's chin and tilted the blonde woman's head so they were facing each other. "Kiss me," Carla whispered, "Kiss me, mia cara."

Eduard gazed at his wife and sister-in-law as, tentatively at first, Joanna pursed her lips for the kiss. Carla moaned into her lover's mouth and kissed with increasing fervour before eventually pushing her tongue deep into Joanna's mouth. Joanna moaned now too as the lust ignited. Her tongue rolled against Carla's in a slick, serpentine dance. The couple continued to kiss as Carla reached for the hem of Joanna's décolletage, and, in one easy movement, pulled the neckline of Joanna's evening gown down and rolled her full, round breasts into view.

"Joanna ..." Eduard began but was interrupted by Carla's low voice.

"Look at her Eduard. Look at your wife's gorgeous breasts. Look at how they hang there, perfect, so succulent, so positively glorious." She smiled that sly smile again and cupped Joanna's globes in the palms of her hands. Her thumbs moved over the nipples and caused the flesh there to tighten. She hefted Joanna's tits and offered them to Eduard. "Come over here, Eduard. Don't just sit there with your mouth hanging open. Come and suck your wife's tits." Carla tuned back to Joanna and, after taking Joanna's forgotten cigarette from her fingers and dropping it into the soup tureen, kissed her again.

Eduard stared at the scene nonplussed. If he'd been questioned during the cold light of day he would have stated definitely that if such a scene were to transpire that he'd take swift action to put a stop to it. The idea, in logical thought, was ludicrous. That he'd sit and allow another person to bare his wife's breasts at his table – in his presence – and to watch them kiss ... No, Eduard would have been adamant that this could not be a true event, but ...

"I'm going to take her upstairs, Eduard. We're going to her bedroom and I'm going to have her lick me. And once she's licked me to orgasm I'm going to kiss her so I can taste myself on her tongue, and then I'm going to dip my tongue into

her

dripping honeypot – and you know she's a juicy bitch, don't you, Eduard? You know how sweet she tastes."

Eduard, to his surprise, found his cock stiff at Carla's portrayal of future events. He wanted to watch his wife and his beautiful sister-in-law. He wanted to join them. He resisted the sudden urgency to touch his cock, but he could feel the first seepage of his arousal leaking from the single eye. He realised then that Carla could do as she pleased. His voice, when he spoke, was a near croak: "Take her upstairs."

Joanna blinked at her husband's words. She experienced a thrill of excitement when she eventually grasped his meaning. She looked at Eduard for a moment and then turned her attention to Carla. Then, after a final glance at her husband, she stood, and, with her breasts swinging, gripped Carla's proffered hand and was led out of the dining room.

Eduard reached for the glass of red wine at his hand. He drank the entire volume in one draught. Then, deliberately controlling his speed, he went to the library and poured another generous measure of Southern Comfort. He sipped in meditative silence for a few minutes and then, with the glass in hand, and anticipation squirming in his guts, he mounted the stairs.

The scene, when he arrived, caused a second frisson of arousal and he felt his penis thicken and grow again. Eduard noticed briefly the cold press of his earlier leakage inside his trousers, but soon forgot the minor discomfort as he watched his wife busy between Carla's thighs. Carla's eyes shone with lust and trouble even in the soft light given off by Joanna's bedside lamp. The woman's thighs, lean and smooth, were spread wide, her evening dress was carelessly rucked around her waist, and her breasts exposed in a similar fashion to her lover's. Carla smiled when Eduard appeared in the doorway. She was gently squeezing one large breast with one hand while the fingers of the other were entangled in Joanna's blonde hair.

"Your husband's here," she whispered and flicked a red-tipped finger across her nipple. "He's come to watch you get fucked," she added in a voice close to a purr. "What do you think, Eduard, did you know I had such big tits? Have you ever thought about what it would be like to fuck me?" The urge to masturbate was overpowering. Eduard considered relenting, just relinquishing all control and unzipping his flies and reaching for his cock. There was something holding him back even now. From her supine position Carla still managed to reach forward and grasp a handful of Joanna's evening gown. She pulled at the material and the hem of the garment slid over the woman's thighs and buttocks until the peach of her derriere was revealed. "Your wife has a gorgeous backside, Eduard—" Then in an aside to Joanna "—Oh, yes, darling, finger my hole too. Lick me and finger my hole." Carla gave Eduard a lewd, theatrical wink. "You know," she continued, "for a novice Joanna has a fantastic technique. I think she's going to make me come very quickly ..." Carla groaned and closed her eyes. She took hold of Joanna's hair and forced her mound against the woman's face.

Finally relenting to the overwhelming urges brought about by the wanton display, Eduard unzipped his trousers and lifted the length of his cock from inside. He walked to the side of the bed and saw, for the first time, Joanna's face in profile as she slurped and sucked at Carla's body. The sight of his sister-in-law's shaven mound and sodden labia invoked a groan from Eduard; Joanna paused for a moment to regard him.

"Eduard," she whispered. "Eduard, I'm so ... I'm so ... Fuck ... This is so wrong, Eduard, but ... I can't help myself." Joanna reached for her husband's erection. She waggled her fingers in a sign for him to come closer. "I want you to fuck me, Eduard," she murmured and, as her hand closed around his girth, Joanna turned to lick her lover's sex once again.