"I think about you when I masturbate."
I couldn't believe I had just uttered those words to the married woman sitting in the passenger seat of my car, but there they were, hanging in the tense silence between us. We had been arguing. Her husband had found a note I had written her after we had kissed for the first time. We had decided to overlook right and wrong, gave into our desires, and were now reaping the rewards. Neither of us knew what we wanted, really, besides wanting each other. Did she want a divorce? Did I want to be the cause of it? Those are things we really didn't think about that night of our first kiss. Those thoughts are what kept me quiet when she had said:
"I think about you when I have sex with my husband."
I had fantasized about that but never expected to hear it from her. I had imagined us together countless times. I imagined her in the throes of orgasm, usually with me, but sometimes imagined her giving herself pleasure while thinking about me. That was always a fantasy until this moment and now I didn't know what to do with it. Did she want to leave her husband for me? Was she really that unhappy in her marriage? Am I ready for whatever comes next? These thoughts were all bouncing around my head when I realized she was staring at me.
"You really have nothing to say to that?" She was angry, incredulous. In hindsight I realize how much she had just opened up to me and had every right to be mad. I was a single guy with relatively little to lose. Her marriage was in danger thanks to us. Those are the kinds of things you tend not to think about in the heat of passion, like that night a few months previous.
We had both been invited to mutual friends' beach house on the California coast for the weekend. As a group we had been there many times and it was there that our attraction had taken off. Months of furtive glances and flirtatious conversation eventually fueled full-fledged emotional and physical desire. Her husband was unable to make this particular trip and I think were both excited to have the opportunity to see how far we were willing to go. At dinner the first night, we sat next to each other. While talking to the other couples, I was thrilled when I felt her foot nudge mine. I nudged her back with my foot moments later she slowly slid her foot along my shin. It was electric. As her foot retreated, I slid my foot along the back of her calf and the smile she gave me made me light-headed. This was unknown territory for me, for us, and I wanted more. As it turns out, so did she.
That night after everyone had gone to bed, she came to my room. Sitting on the edge of my bed, we kissed a goodnight kiss. Technically. But we both knew it was more. It was testing the waters. She slipped quietly out of my room and closed the door. My mind was racing as I'm sure hers was. It was a chaste kiss, but it was a lingering kiss on the lips nonetheless, in the intimacy of a bedroom. We spent the next day doing everyday beach things, which of course including lying around half-dressed for the most part, so I had a hard time keeping my thoughts away from kissing. Her light blue bikini did not help. She had worn it in front of me before and it had worked its charms. I had fantasized more than about her in that bikini and now she was sitting in her beach chair reading her magazine and occasionally looking my way. Even though I was wearing sunglasses, I felt like she could tell I was leering at her. I'd smile but look away, feeling like a lech. Of course later I'd find out she was leering right back at me behind her own tinted glass, but that was later.
That night after everyone had gone to bed, I was getting ready to undress for bed when I heard the sound I had been hoping for. Light footsteps down the hallway and then a soft knock at the door.
"Come in," I whispered. It had to be her.
It was. I was sitting on the edge of the bed and she sat down next to me.
"I was thinking about our kiss last night-," she started but broke off. Her eyes were probing, inquisitive. And gorgeous. I probably couldn't have looked away if I had wanted to.
"I know, me too. It was chaste-." I broke off too. I didn't know what to say. Was she feeling guilty? Was I? Were we apologizing?
But then she leaned in to me and we kissed again. This time it was far from chaste. No more testing the waters. Our mouths opened and tongues entwined with a fervor that I think surprised us both. Months of pent-up desire erupted.
"Turn the light off," she said and I happily complied. We lowered ourselves to the bed and resumed. A happy "mmm" escaped from me and she immediately broke off the kiss with a quick "shh!" I had forgotten this wasn't a normal situation where it didn't really matter if anyone heard us. This mattered immensely. Perhaps turning the light off was less about the mood and more about feeling exposed. I didn't have time to think about it much because in no time we were right back to the kissing.
"Can I touch your chest?" she whispered.
"Yes... please."
Her hand moved from her side where she had been propping herself as she leaned over me. In doing so, her whole body was now pressed into mine as her hand ran over my chest.
"Can I touch your breasts?" I asked. I couldn't believe I had just asked that.
"They're small," she replied. I had expected a "maybe we shouldn't" or something to that effect. But a worry that I'd be disappointed? Maybe she didn't know just how enticing she was to me. How much I wanted every inch of her.
"They're beautiful," I said.
With that she opened space between us, removing her hand from my chest, and I began softly caressing her breasts through her t-shirt. She sighed into my mouth but then froze. I was suddenly aware that I could have gone too far. I pulled my hand away.
"I'm sorry," I sputtered.
"No, it's not... I- I almost just grabbed you," she said.
She had just had her hand all over my chest, so it was obvious what she was talking about. What was not so obvious at the time was whether that was an expression of fear of going too far or if she was asking for permission to touch me. In that moment I took it as the former.
"Maybe we shouldn't," I said, while badly wanting her hand on me more than anything. My body, my hormones, wanted to take it farther but there's my brain making my mouth say "maybe we shouldn't." I wanted her to know how much she turned me on and I wanted to touch her right back, but somehow the possibility (or probability) of orgasm seemed like too much of a line to cross despite all we had done so far. I took her hands in mine and we kissed again. After a while we stopped, happy and exhausted. She kissed me on the cheek and got up and left quietly.
A week later her husband found out and the reality of our betrayal set in and turned the desire to anxiety. We still met each other secretly, but instead of what amounted pretty much to dating, our liaisons were no longer full of flirtation but with tears and arguing. Secretive meetings in parking arguing about an uncertain future were the new norm for us.
"I think about you when I masturbate," I said. I didn't know what to expect but was excited to have told her this. It was certainly the truth. I masturbated often while thinking about her, especially after our night at the beach house. Even with the conflicting emotions brought on by the deception involved in our desire for one another, I still wanted her very badly. Now I understood that she felt similarly. The anger flaring in her eyes immediately melted away. I was surprised just how much her expression softened. Either she took my hesitance to respond to her admission as steeling myself for an embarrassing confession or maybe she just liked the idea of me having an orgasm while fantasizing about her. I hoped it was the latter.
But she wasn't finished with the whole being angry thing yet.
"So you've whacked off a couple times. I'm basically lying to my husband while he's fucking me!" She looked out the side window, refusing to meet my gaze.
"Well I don't have a girlfriend right nowβ" I started.
"Oh, wait, so it's my fault?!"
"That's not what I meant," I said.
"I know, I know. It just, well it seemed like jerking off a couple times wasn't really the same thing," she said, looking out the windshield now.
"Well, more than just a couple times," I said, trying to lighten things up a bit.
She didn't laugh, and now she was looking at me.
"How many times?"
"A lot." That was the truth.
She raised her eyebrows and gave me a look I couldn't quite place. Was she imagining me doing it? Could she tell from my face that I was actually getting excited talking like this with her? Did it gross her out? I knew the answer to that, though. She wasn't acting like it was repulsive. I could see she was trying to come up with a question.
"In bed?" she asked. I liked this a lot more than the anger.