Beth - a Glorious Epiphany

This is the first story that I've published.

Would appreciate any feedback, especially from female readers / writers on Beth's character as I have three more stories in development featuring her as the main protagonist. Thanks!

1.

New Year's Day.

The low morning sun shone through the bay window of the living room. Outside, all was perfectly still; the grass on the front lawn was gripped in a thick frost, the bare trees stood silhouetted against a bright blue sky, all the curtains on the windows up and down the street remained closed, preserving a profound sense of silence.

Jake wrapped his hands around a warm mug of tea and rolled his neck and shoulders to relieve the stiffness in his back. He was fit and healthy, a regular runner and weekend cyclist, but approaching 40, with a young family and a full-on career he was finding hangovers increasingly difficult to deal with.

While the rest of the world was buried in a post-party slumber, Jake had been woken early by the same recurring feeling that had interrupted his sleep on and off for months; an unshakeable idea in his head accompanied by an uncontrollable hardness in his crotch.

The idea had been planted there by his wife, Beth, during a session of unusually spicy sex. It was mid-summer and they'd been out with some friends, drunk way too much and returned home feeling careless and young again. Falling into bed, overcome with a hunger for each other, Beth whispered something fleetingly in Jake's ear. At first, he wasn't sure if he'd heard her right. But then she said it again.

Uninhibited by the several Margaritas she'd consumed that night, Beth continued to explore a fantasy she'd never previously spoken of. The ensuing sex was mind-blowingly good. So good that the next morning, they woke up and without saying a word to each other, fucked again.

"By the way" Beth said briskly as she got down from on top of him, "I don't really want a threesome. I was just saying that to be a bit dirty." Jake looked at her. "Fun though, wasn't it?" she added happily, swinging her toned legs off the bed and walking into the bathroom.

While the sex continued for a short while, the subject was never spoken of again. Soon enough, life took over: Beth became preoccupied with her job, the family, kids and the many mental to-do lists that kept their lives moving at lighting pace.

But for Jake, the fantasy she'd shared that night consumed him.

It locked itself into the front of his mind, crept into his thoughts and worst of all, as he closed his eyes to go to sleep at night it would totally overcome him, to the extent that he found himself in a constant state of arousal.

And so, to New Year's Day morning.

Jake had awoken to that same familiar ache. But in the bright light of a brand-new year, he made himself a resolution. Enough was enough, he thought. The only way to rid himself of this all-consuming idea was to make it into a reality. In making her fantasy come true, he would overcome its grip on him.

He got up and walked into the large open plan kitchen that spread across the back of their house. Flicking the switch of the kettle, he looked up through the skylight at the closed curtains of the master bedroom upstairs where his wife of ten years lay sleeping.

Yes, it was a massive risk, he thought: one wrong move could seriously jeopardise their marriage. But if he could pull it off, it might just be an experience they never forget.

2.

"Right, I'm off" Beth said crisply. "There are fish cakes in the fridge and salad that needs eating."

"Ok honey."

"Just make sure you check the sell-by date on the salad."

"Will do".

Beth was dressed in graphite leggings and a black retro adidas top that she wore with the collars up. Her blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail and her skin was glowing. She looked great.

"I've got my class and then I'll probably stay and have a glass of wine with Emma so won't be back until about 10pm."

January marked the start of a general wellness drive for both of them. Beth had committed to weekly core strengthening sessions with her friend Emma, a PT and yoga therapist who lived in a large red brick house in a nearby village where she had - or rather, an ex-husband had - converted one of the old farm buildings into a yoga studio.

Unlike Jake though, who liked to quit the booze, Beth couldn't abide the idea of Dry January. It was tough enough going back to normal after the Christmas holidays without denying herself the medicinal pleasure of an occasional glass of wine.

"Bye" she kissed him on the cheek.

"Bye".

The headlights lit up the front room as the car reversed off the drive then receded into the darkness leaving Jake alone to plan.

He'd spent many hours lying awake at night, plotting how to make this happen. One thing he was certain of, there was no way he could consult Beth beforehand: she would point blank dismiss him.

Instead, he would have to appeal to a different side of her.

There was a stage - before they met - during and after university, when Beth went pretty wild, travelled extensively, dabbled in drugs and had quite a few boyfriends. It peaked in the summer after graduation when she spent a month backpacking in Thailand and partied so hard that she got seriously ill and had to be flown home.

She never spoke much about those days - often saying to Jake that he'd rescued her from a life she felt was getting out of control - but when she did, her eyes burnt with a magical, mischievous light, the same light that flickered in her eyes the night she disclosed her fantasy.

If he could rekindle that light, he could reawaken a side of her character that he knew was in there but was somehow hidden from view.

It would take some serious choreography.

When.

Where.

How.

And the biggest one of all: Who.

That night, she'd whispered about having two men at the same time: Jake plus one extra. His job was to find the one extra.

There were two possible scenarios.

Scenario one, he could simply pay for it. Presumably there were male escorts who you could pay to perform this kind of service. But therein lies the problem: it's a service. You call somebody, a man is delivered to your room, you pay him by the hour to service your wife's desires. And then he's gone. No, he concluded, it had to be scenario two.

Scenario two consisted of finding a willing participant, someone Beth would be attracted to and would be prepared to go along with Jake's elaborate plan.

Unaccustomed to the virtual world of online dating and hook-up sites, Jake opened up his laptop and dived in.

3.

"I was up at six this morning catching up on bloody emails" Beth ranted, "then I get the kids up, get them dressed, give them breakfast, think about what clubs they're doing, get their schoolbags ready, take them to school and then drive to fucking work where I am flat out all day."

It had been a shitty day and Beth was having a rant in the kitchen.

"Most days, I'm the one that gets home on time because you're either in London or away travelling so I can't even stay late and catch up."

Jake had been away for two nights in Paris on a business trip and only got back late that evening, missing the kids' bedtime for a third time that week. In no position to argue he let her go on.

"My work is a nightmare at the moment" she continued, pacing up and down the kitchen, "the team are under-resourced, Kate's fucking useless so not only do I have to do my job, I have to check and double check everything she does otherwise a ball will get dropped."

This had become a recurring theme too. Returning to work after maternity leave, she'd been restructured into an adjacent role in a different part of the business, losing her team in the process. Whilst she was glad to still have a job, the new role massively neglected her experience and made her miserable. Most days she felt over-worked and under-appreciated.

Opening the fridge, she lifted out the bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from the door and poured herself a large glass. "Sorry, I don't mean to moan" she said apologetically, "this week has been full-the-fuck-on and I'm just feeling a little..." her words trailed off.

"Tired?" Jake offered tentatively.

"No" she replied emphatically, her indignation reignited "it's more than that. Tiredness I can deal with, I've been tired for years. It's more like..." she looked around the kitchen at all the paraphernalia of family life that surrounded her, "I just feel a bit lost" she admitted finally, "I feel like I give so much to my work and then I give so much to the kids that I don't have anything left for me."

It was something she'd been feeling for some time but hadn't been able to articulate: the change in her job, the loss of her team, the strain of two young children and the squeeze on her ever-diminishing time was challenging her identity to such an extent that she was losing sight of the person she once was.

Jake held out his arms and Beth folded into them. "Let's have a weekend away" he suggested calmly, quick to seize his opportunity. "We can leave the kids with my folks, head up to London, stay in a swanky hotel and just recharge."

Exasperated, Beth let out a big, defeated sigh. "That sounds amazing", she said. "I think I need it."

4.

Jake's heart was thumping as he left the Black Lion pub in West Hampstead. He pulled up the collars of his overcoat to guard against the bitter February wind that blew down West End Lane and headed back to the train station, the two pints of Guinness he'd nervously drunk over the last hour were being chased through his system by a double dose of adrenaline.

After weeks of searching, Jake had arranged three meetings with different men in various pubs dotted across London, each of whom, for different reasons, were catastrophically wrong.

First there was Mike, from Hendon, who boasted on his profile page of his enormous penis but whose small hands and limp handshake suggested otherwise. They barely got beyond hello. Then there was Andre, the artist who leant across the table and asked Jake if he could suck him off in the gents' toilet; clearly more interested in the M not the F in MMF. Finally, there was Erik from Norway, young, athletic and a good-looking boy but far too intimidating: Jake had visions of being cast to one side, relegated to a spectator, as Erik pillaged his wife like a marauding Viking.

Until finally, today, when Jake met someone vaguely normal. His name was Myles. He was in his late 20s, single, good looking and experienced in fulfilling the role that Jake was recruiting for.

Beth had dated black men before so Jake was confident she would like him physically. But it was his calmness and manner that Jake was really drawn to: it felt familiar and comfortable. And if Jake felt familiar and comfortable, he thought Beth would feel familiar and comfortable too.

So, in one hour flat, over two pints of Guinness in North London, his plan had been presented, discussed and agreed and the most critical piece of the puzzle was in place.

When he arrived home, the lights downstairs were off. Beth had gone to bed.

Undressing in the bathroom, Jake took off his trousers and looked at himself in the mirror. What was fast becoming a permanent erection was bulging in his briefs. He stroked its firm outline then gripped it hard in his hand to release the dull throbbing pain it was causing him.

In their bedroom, Beth was lying on her side with her back to him. In winter she often went to bed in pajamas but was so hot-blooded she'd invariably overheat and kick them off in the middle of the night. When he slipped in beside her, to his delight, she wasn't wearing anything.

He nestled in behind her tucking his stiff pole neatly between the two warm buns of her bottom. He hesitated, hoping for some small acknowledgement of his presence. A moment that felt like time had suspended was finally broken: the faintest movement, an almost imperceptible shift in her hips as she pushed gently back into him.

It was an invitation.

Gently, with just the tips of his fingers, he stroked her skin and squeezed the flesh of her cheeks; every squeeze caused him to throb a little harder; every throb incited another shift in her hips, allowing his fingers to creep further, up underneath the fold of her bum cheek and onwards towards the furry opening between her legs. One firm push and one finger was inside: wet and warm and slippery to the touch.

Half asleep but willing to succumb to his late-night needs, Beth let out a soft moan before arching her body forward. Little did she know what deviousness her husband had been plotting as he gently pulled her lips apart and pushed his full length into her.

In just a few long, hungry strokes he emptied himself inside.

5.

"Cheers!"

"Cheers!" she smiled as they clinked their champagne glasses together. Jake and Beth reclined either end of a cast iron roll-top bath set inside their expansive hotel room. Sunlight streamed in through the bay window illuminating the steam rising from the water.

Early that morning, they had dropped the children at Jake's parents' house. Old enough to buzz off the excitement of a weekend with their grandparents, the children happily disappeared upstairs to play. After a coffee and a brief chat, Jake and Beth took the train to Marylebone, checked into their hotel in Mayfair and embarked on a day of shopping in Covent Garden, Regents Street and Soho.

Reaching over to the ice bucket, Beth poured them both another glass. "This is so extravagant, I love it."

"Good". He replied. "You bloody need it."

Jake raised himself up out of the bath and stood up in front of her. "Aw, don't leave" Beth implored.

He grabbed a towel and started to pat himself dry. "You kick back and relax. I've got a couple of things to sort for this evening".

Looking up at him coyly, she lifted one of her feet out of the water and placed it between Jake's legs. "Don't go anywhere" she said rubbing her soapy foot up and down his penis, "stay here with me".

Jake smiled. After a couple of glasses of champagne, his wife was clearly a bit horny. Any other weekend, they would have spent the late afternoon making love in the enormous king-size bed. But this was no ordinary weekend.

"I've just got to make a couple of calls. I won't be long." Jake threw on the pair of jeans he'd been wearing that day and a fresh t-shirt and disappeared quickly out of the room.

Down the corridor, out of view, he paused for a moment clutching his phone. Everything so far was going beautifully to plan. The setting was perfect: a relaxing weekend away staying in a beautiful hotel. Beth was feeling chilled, happy (a little horny) and totally in love with him after being spoilt all day long. And the final ingredient: another man - a suitable man - was downstairs in the lobby awaiting a phone call from him. The moment of truth was getting agonisingly close.

Back in the room, Beth was sat at the dressing table in a thick toweling bath robe enjoying the ceremony of her bathing rituals, an indulgence she rarely had the time for anymore. A manicure, pedicure and general de-fuzz had been checked off earlier in the week, so she was already feeling pretty good. Now her body, nourished by the liberal scoops of cocoa butter she had generously applied in the bathroom, filled the air with the sweet smell of caramel while on her face, a thick layer of Lancôme hydrating creme was slowly melting into her pores.

Relaxed and altogether content, she began to blow dry her hair and thumb through a copy of Vogue. The glossy pages featured next season's collections; long heavy coats, chunky knitwear, enormous oversize scarfs in rich autumnal colours. There was a feature on Italian fabrics set in a vast countryside villa in Tuscany. The opulent interiors were layered with textures and patterns, the walls a patchwork of old master paintings in outrageously gilded frames. The model, bronzed skin, sharp cheekbones, crimson lips slightly parted, her dark hair chopped into a pixie, gazed out of huge, floor-to-ceiling windows at a blue sky punctuated by Cyprus trees.

Feeling wonderfully lightheaded from the champagne, she was so transported by the beautiful photography that she barely noticed Jake return.

He changed into a pair of dark blue jeans and slipped a black linen jacket over his grey t-shirt. A small scoop of hair gel scruffed up his hair and with a couple of sprays of cologne, he was done.

Leaning into the mirror on the dressing table, Beth applied a black volumizing mascara to her lashes and dark shadow to her lids which she offset with a ruby lipstick. In the reflection she could see Jake fidgeting in the armchair.

"Now who are you messaging?", she said a little exasperated.

"No one" he retorted quickly. "I mean, it's nothing. Just a mate."

She stepped out of her robe and slipped on her underwear - it was her favourite set, a black mid-rise thong with floral-embroidered lace and matching bra, scalloped at the front - then she zipped into her dress, a full-length silk charmeuse in dark ochre. A spritz-spritz of scent on her neck anointed her skin with the musky aroma of sandalwood and cinnamon.

Just then there was a knock on the door. "I'll get it", Jake said quickly, darting out of view.

Assuming he'd ordered room service - another bottle of champagne perhaps - Beth was surprised to see Jake reappear with another man beside him.

"Hello" said the man, nodding in Beth's direction.

"Um, hello", she replied politely.

The man was slightly taller than Jake. Younger too. He was dark skinned and well dressed in a light blue shirt and brown jacket. He was certainly not room service. So, who was he? Beth looked at Jake imploringly.

"Now, you need to hear me out" he started awkwardly, his voice slightly broken. "You said something to me a few months ago that's stuck in my head." Jake cleared his dry throat. "I honestly don't know if you've thought of it since. But I really have."

Beth looked at him, searching for something - anything - to make sense.

Turning to the man beside him, Jake continued slowly and deliberately. "This is Myles. He's someone I've met, someone I trust." These were words he'd prepared and practiced, for he didn't falter once. "And I've invited him tonight, not as a friend", he paused to take a breath, "but as a partner."

With that word, his wife's eyes widened.

"Obviously, this is your choice" he added quickly, anxious to fully set the scene before his wife could react, "you decide if you want to go ahead with this."

Beth was rooted to the spot aghast with surprise. But Jake had rehearsed this so many times in his head, he knew he had to keep going.

"So, here's the plan" he said, barreling onwards, "Myles is going downstairs to the bar. He'll be sat there all evening while we have dinner in the restaurant. You can choose any time to go over and talk to him. Or you can choose never to talk to him at all. Either way, it's your choice."

And with that, the man smiled, nodded his head and backed out of their hotel room closing the door graciously behind him.

"O. My. Fucking. God." Beth said slowly. "What the fuck are you doing? You are not seriously proposing...". Her words failed her as she looked at her husband in disbelief.

Jake felt a sudden panic take over him, he knew he had to keep talking or risk his proposal crashing and burning badly.

"I know it's crazy" he implored "but ever since that night I've thought about you with another man. And if you really want it, then I want it too."

"I'm speechless" she stammered, still trying to comprehend the situation, "I don't know what to say."

Jake took hold of her hands to steady her. "I want this for you" he said, "I want you to feel happy again, blow out all the stress and bullshit of work and just feel alive again..."