New to this town and the neighbourhood, Ben and Susan are invited to a party that, to their surprise, turns out to be a key party - a swinger's night. But is it a surprise for Susan?
Susan's Story (as she tells it)
I suppose on reflection I should have let my husband in on the suspicions I had about this party tonight. The three women who were the welcome wagon last Wednesday didn't really say too much, but dropped a couple of hints. One said, "If you like to flirt a bit, keep your husband on his toes, these parties are a great opportunity," and another added, "Yes, you can put it out there - all the way - have some naughty fun without having to make any dangerous commitments."
That wasn't much to go on, but having only just met me, they might have been too embarrassed to come right out and say 'You'll be expected to take another man home at the end of the night.' It wouldn't have come as such a surprise tonight if they had at least been that honest.
Then, although I had pleaded with Ben to stay close to me when we arrived, I found after an hour and a couple of glasses of wine that I had loosened up enough to wander around on my own and meet people without using my husband as a prop. I actually found out about the keys and the whole story of these nights in only the second conversation on my own. Of course, I never let onto the other guests who told me that I hadn't known. I just pumped them to give me a bit more information.
So if I'd had any reservations about having to go off for sex with another man at the end of the night, or even to let Ben have another woman, I could have rushed off to find him at about 9.15 and said, 'Let's get out of here quickly, we're out of our depth here.' But I didn't! Moving to this new town seemed like some new adventure in our lives. For 21 years, we had been a sedate perfectly normal married couple with kids.
I had no idea if Ben had ever had an affair or even any one-night stands with other women. The way his work was, he could always have said 'I have to work late tonight honey,' and I would have been none the wiser. At least if he had, he was very discreet and never gave any clues away. But I actually suspect that he never has, he's always seemed to be a one-woman man.
I only knew about me and how bored I had become when Ben and I decided we were financially stable and that I didn't need to work any more. That was about a year ago. With no kids living at home either, I looked for outside interests and I'm sure he still has no idea, but I had what I'd call a dalliance with another man. I'm not even going to tell you - the reader - about it just yet. Let's just say that my urging Ben to take this new job in another city so far away was somewhat influenced by my wanting to find a way to get away from where we lived, to break the cycle that had formed by my sexual indiscretions.
So at 9.15 in the evening in the middle of this party, now armed with the information that Ben and I were in the midst of a key party - almost a swingers party, I made a marriage-threatening decision not to alert my husband to what would confront us in the next hour or two. I felt like I was embarking on a dangerous new fun-park ride and I was ready to buckle up, even though I had no idea how Ben would react.
When I was invited by Glenda to make the first draw and I saw this handsome guy Brad step forward, I figured that I had done well with the plunge of my hand into the bowl to pull out a male stranger's set of keys. I was so nervous, being the centre of attention in the middle of the room with all these strangers watching after Glenda's introduction of me as a newbie, and trying to peep across at Ben to see what his reaction was.
I pushed my foot down on the accelerator of Brad's BMW and the car pulled away from the kerb smoothly. We looked to be the first to leave thanks to ducking out the front door while Alan was still waffling on about the rules of the night. Damn the rules, I had decided to be adventurous in our new home town and this was as good a start as any. I was in the company of a very handsome man, possibly a few years younger than me and as an almost monogamous woman of over 20 years, I was eager to learn what I could about illicit sex in the suburbs.
I had buckled my seat belt but Brad didn't bother. He was half-turned toward me in his seat and as I began to negotiate the short 3 minute journey to his house, I felt his hand on my knee. Wasting no time, it slipped under my dress and began to creep up along one inner thigh. His light touch felt nice, I might even call it a caress because his fingertips were so tender as they traced over the sensitive skin of my inner upper thigh.
"Be careful how far that hand goes, I don't want to have an accident in your car."
"How far would you like it to go?"
"Well later I want it to go all the way, but for now I'd rather you didn't touch me much higher or I might be tempted to close my eyes and the car could go anywhere."
"Does it feel that good that you might close your eyes?"
"Oh yes!" I mouthed softly but slowly and expressively and dared to turn my head to look at him in the semi-dark of the car interior.
Brad pointed out his house and I swung his car onto the driveway. He reached across and pushed a button and the garage door began to rise. "Do you want me to put it away inside?"
"Yeah, you do that sweetheart, then we'll go into my house and I'll put something much better away inside you."
I laughed appropriately at his dirty humour, if not a little nervously. I was not as new to being in this situation with another man as Ben might think I was, but it was still a rare occurrence for me. I knew so little about this man who was about to put his penis inside me.
We got out of the car and Brad pointed me in the direction of a door that obviously led into the house. "Press that button on the key ring to close the garage door," he directed. I did and it began to descend, making it even darker as I reached for the door knob and opened the interior door to his house.