This is the seventh in a series of stories about a middle-aged couple trying to adjust to changes in their life brought on by events beyond their control.
Hi. My name is Sharon. My husband of more than twenty years, Rich, and I are in our early forties living in a small town in California's Central Valley.
We recently become empty nesters with our children now working at their own careers on the East Coast. Rich who previously traveled five days a week for work has now retired following a very lucrative buyout of his company. These changes brought us a great deal of free time and more money than we ever expected. Oh sure we go to the gym more and Rich is improving his golf game, just like anyone else in our circumstances, but the big changes have been in our sex life. Like many couples our age, our robust sex life of our early twenties declined over the years until it was approaching nonexistent. Raising three children and pursuing a career will do that.
Even before Rich quit traveling we started simply: voyeuristically watching the neighbor through a hole in the fence as he masturbated in his back yard (just me); bit of mutual telephone masturbation and sexting (I started it but Rich joined in enthusiastically); then a bit of extramarital sex, me with an old girlfriend and Rich with a woman he met on a business trip to Idaho; finally a weekend of sex training we took from a preacher in Idaho recommended to us by a neighbor. Wow was that an education. Who knew being the center piece of a gang bang could be such fun.
Most recently we had been party to an extended foursome with my sister Christine and her French husband Herve. It started as a
menage et trois
with Christine. She had been having marital difficulties with Herve but when they had made up he joined our little group. They have since gone back to Paris.
The day after Christine and Herve left for Paris Rich and I were sitting on the back porch of our home enjoying an afternoon glass of white wine. Raising his glass in a toast Rich said, "Well that was interesting. Here's to your kinky sister Christine..."
"And to her pervy husband Herve," I added.
"And to Herve also. They were fun, even if it was a bit incestuous."
"Don't get technical Rich," I said. "You said yourself Christine was a great lay, and Herve... my god that man was creative. Not as well-endowed as you Rich, but still very creative with what he has to work with."
"As I said, they were fun," Rich responded.
"So are you off soon to see your slut friend in Oregon?" I asked, referring to a woman from Idaho who was periodically meeting Rich in some little town on the Oregon coast for a tryst. I knew her name but I had taken to referring to her as Rich's 'slut friend' and he didn't seem to object. I wasn't jealous; just a bit of needling.
"Not for a while," he said. "Lisa has some family issues in Idaho that will be keeping her busy for a while."
I laughed. "Given the incestuous nature of her family they could keep any woman busy."
He laughed. "Don't forget, they all got the same training from the Rev that we did, but more of it."
"That could turn anyone into a perv," I said. "No wonder you find her so entertaining."
"Not to worry dear. There is no chance I will fall in love with Lisa... but she is a great fuck."
I laughed. "That's what she says about you also." Lisa and I talked by phone regularly; about Rich and about other people in her life and mine.
We sat sipping our wine in silence enjoying the warm California sun. "But really Rich, what's next for us?"
"Don't worry," he responded. "There's a world of horny, perverse people out there and untold surprises in Pandora's Box that we haven't seen yet. Something new will turn up." Pandora's Box was a term Rich and I used to refer to the wide world of sexual practices that we had been learning of since we began trying to rekindle our sex lives. There was always some nasty sexual practice to learn about. Who knew that people did such things?
I laughed. And as it turned out he was right.
**
The next chapter in our late sexual education began, as with the prior chapter, with a phone call from my sister Christine. However this one did not open with Christine in tears telling me of a ruined marriage. Instead she wanted to ask if a couple she and Herve knew could drop by for a visit. "I think you will like them," she said in her phony French accent. "They are very kinky."
Sure why not, I thought. Our expanded sex life was due for another revelation from Pandora's Box. She went on to explain that the couple who would be visiting would be Tim and Linda Frost. She and Herve had known them a few years ago when he was some sort of military attaché in the US Embassy in Paris. Now it seemed that he was retiring after serving twenty years in the military and they were thinking of moving away from their long-time home in the Washington DC area to California, where the Colonel had grown up and she had gone to college.
"He's a Colonel?" I asked.
"No, no," Christine laughed. That's just a nickname we had for him. I don't know what rank he has. We only saw him at our parties and he never seemed to be in uniform."
"Parties?" I asked.
Christine laughed. "Of course our parties. Herve and I used to host a party every few months for a group of friends who liked to meet and you know, have a good time. You should come to Paris and join us for one."
I knew exactly what she meant. She and Herve were part of a group of swingers when they lived in Paris. Their marriage was not terribly good, but their sex life was great once you included their parties.
"So they were part of your swingers group?" I asked.
"Swingers?" she asked. "We weren't swingers. We were just friends who liked to get together for a good time."
"Okay, okay," I said, not wanting to haggle over semantics with my sister. "But the Frosts, they were a part of your group."
"Oh
mon ouis
. They were a lot of fun. Very kinky."
"And you told them they would like us so they should visit while they are in California?"
"
Absolutment.
"
Sure what the hell, I thought. "When will they be here?"
"I think perhaps tomorrow. Yes tomorrow. They are in San Francisco right now."
Then Christine, being Christine, said something obscene in French to someone offline followed by, "Oh I have to go Sharon this Gendarme insists I move my car." Then she clicked the phone off.
About half an hour later Rich returned from the market with a bag or two of groceries. "Guess what," I said. "There are a pair of perverts coming to visit us. Christine sent them."
"What? When?" he asked.
"Tomorrow."
"How interesting. Any particular perversion they specialize in?"
"Christine didn't say. She got in an argument with a cop about double parking."
"I see." Nothing ever seemed to rattle Rich.
*
It was late in the afternoon several days later when a late model Range Rover pulled up in front of our home (Time was a fluid construct for Christine with no real difference between tomorrow and several days). Rich, who was upstairs yelled down to me, "Sharon, the perverts are here."
I shushed him, "Rich we don't know that. You know how unreliable Christine is. She probably made half her story up." Or left half of it out, I thought.
He laughed at me.
I had received a phone call from Mrs. Frost shortly after Christine's call which more or less repeated what Christine had told me, less the part about them being kinky and the sex parties in Paris. Oh and there was no mention of a Colonel. She sounded like a gracious and interesting person and I invited them to visit us suggesting that they stay in one of our excess bedrooms and join us for dinner when they arrived.
Tom and Linda proved to be a delightful couple. Both were tall and good looking, appearing to be about the same age as Rich and me (early forties). They were dressed conservatively, each wearing slacks and an open collared shirt. Tom's loafers had a spit shine that could light a room in the dark. Linda wore low heels. Tom was about as tall as Rich, but leaner. Linda was similar to my height but also leaner. She did not appear to have as large breasts as I did, but even in her conservative clothing it was obvious she was far from flat chested. His dark hair was thick, but neatly trimmed with just a touch of grey showing at the temples. Hers was a thick honey blonde cut and curled to just a bit below her collar bone. Her makeup was not obvious but still effectively designed to call attention to her eyes which were a sexy grey. Tom's eyes were dark brown; the kind a woman could lose herself in I thought as he walked in. Each of them had the ability to turn on a magnetic smile that lit up the room as they introduced themselves. Their greetings were a conservative handshake, warm and firm but not overly long. In total they were a very handsome couple that would attract attention anywhere and did so without anything about them that made it look like they were trying.
Over dinner we learned that Tom had grown up in North Dakota and attended West Point followed by a twenty-year career as Army officer. Linda had grown up in the East, studied English at Stanford, and was now a regularly published author. Tom was a bit vague about what he had done in the Army, although it sounded like most of his career was spent in the Pentagon or in embassies in various parts of the world. Later we would learn that he had been a military intelligence officer, but no detail on just what that entailed. Linda was even vaguer about what kind of books she wrote referring to them as Romance novels. Tom snickered and said he thought "50 shades of Grey," was more of a Romance than some of Linda's books. "Pretty kinky stuff, Linda," he said grinning at her.
Linda smiled and said, "Well it pays better than being a spook."
Tom laughed and said, "More interesting too. I mostly read long reports and attended embassy parties."
"Yeah mostly," she responded.
