I kissed my wife. My arms around her, hugging her body against mine. Nicole's heels brought her up to just an inch or two shorter than me. She smelled of Chanel. She tasted of champagne. Her blue eyes sparkled, reflecting the flickering firelight.
We'd been at the club for a Christmas Eve dinner. It was full, nobody wants to cook the night before Christmas. Chef Tony had put on a sumptuous tasting menu, lots of small plates with different specialties to tempt us; Nicole had insisted on drinking only champagne.
"There's only two ways to avoid a hangover. Don't drink or only drink champagne!" She exclaimed early in the evening to the cheers of our tablemates. My wife had been at her effervescent, flirty, entertaining best loved by our friends male and female; although certainly hungered over by the guys in the group.
It was late but evidently we'd still arrived back earlier than Kris had expected. As we entered the room we found him dozing, stretched out in the antique Queen Anne armchair, feet up on the matching foot stool. A glass of brandy sat, half-consumed, on the painted captain's chest alongside. The fireplace was lit, yellow and orange shadows bounced around the room. Nicole had assumed this was some surprise I had arranged.
"Oh you're such a sweetheart!" My wife turned and wrapped her arms around my neck. As we kissed I looked over Nicole's shoulder at Kris, under a mop of brown curly hair, his brown eyes were wide open, his mouth equally so, expressing his shock at seeing us there. He looked much trimmer and much younger than I had expected. Heck, I was pretty certain he was sporting some ripped abs under that white shirt.
"I, er...I should go." Kris muttered, starting to get up. I waved to him the universal sign of a flat hand indicating that he should stay seated.
"No, it's okay. Don't go." I told him. "I'm thinking we owe you a gift or two."
"But I have work to do." Kris's lack of movement contradicted his words.
Nicole looked at me, then at Kris, then again at me. "I'm confused."
"No need to be confused sweetheart." I told her as I raised a finger to her lips. "I think you're going to enjoy this."
Hands on Nicole's shoulders, I turned her to face Kris directly. Standing behind her I looked at our seated friend and asked him "So what do you think?"
"Your wife?" He replied, slightly uncertain where this was going. "She's gorgeous, but..."
I interrupted him "I know how hard you're working. You deserve a break. Just enjoy for a moment."
Nicole remained obediently quiet as I reached under her thick strawberry-blonde, shoulder length hair to find the clasp on the heavy triple string of pearls she was wearing. "Shhhh." I whispered in her ear as I undid the necklace and lifted my arms over her head. My game-for-anything wife of 25 years nodded, standing otherwise completely still.
I moved my hands around the collar of my wife's black velvet jacket to take hold of the lapel area and lift it upwards and backwards. The room was silent but for clinking of the jacket's decorative chain and pearls that edged the smooth material.
Looking at Kris he hadn't moved, his eyes fixed on Nicole. As I slid the jacket back and off to reveal my wife's bare shoulders he swallowed. Nicole fidgeted slightly, straightening her body more upright. She inhaled sharply suddenly feeling my fingers on the zipper of her white Calvin Klein knee-length dress, then gasped at the grinding vibration traveling along her spine as I tugged the slider downwards.
