And in case you haven't noticed the tags associated with this story: "Cuckold" is one of them.
"Ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking. We'll be touching down at Princess Juliana Airport in just about 11 minutes. It's currently a muggy 28 Celsius in St. Maarten, which is exactly what the forecast temperature is for the rest of the week..." Looking out her window Regina could see the island in the distance. She unconsciously gripped Joe's knee beside her, squeezing it as a shiver of excitement and, although she didn't want to admit it -- fear, ran down her back.
Even from here, she could see the tiny white sliver of concrete runway practically bisecting the island.
Damn that television show,
she thought. Just last month, when she'd been in New York on business, she'd done what she would normally never do, she turned on the television. Flipping through the channels, just to see if there was anything that intrigued her, she'd seen a picture of an airport. She didn't even know what the show was, or which airport it was, but she heard the words "St. Maarten," and paused. It was a documentary about "the 10 most dangerous airports in the world," and the picture on the screen just happened to be the airport that they were scheduled to fly into the following month - today. As she watched, she'd realized it was just that it was tricky from the visual perspective, landing right over the heads of tourists on the beach, and that the runway wasn't quite as long as what most modern runways were. Not knowing much about flying she'd figured that the airlines and pilots weren't going to normally do anything that might be dangerous to themselves and the television show was just trying to be sensational and make it sound bad. At least she hoped so. And now, here as they were about to turn on final, the thought of that television show popped into her brain one more time, and the fearful shiver of "what if" trickled through her conscience.
Forcing the thought of large 747's and Airbus's and tiny runways out of her mind, she smiled instead at the thought that had sent a thrill down her spine, of what she hoped and dreamed might happen. Sucking her lower lip between her teeth, she glanced sideways at Joe. Sensing her looking at him, he looked up from the book in his lap? "Almost there?" he questioned; ducking his head a little to look out the window just as the airliner began its turn to final.
"That's it, right there," she answered, her finger pointing to the tiny speck of land. "Do you see the runway?" she asked, the island disappearing from their sight as the bank steepened.
Joe just shook his head "no" in response, the inane tour guide voice of the captain finally coming to an end in the background. "Flight attendants, be seated for landing!"
The speck of land had disappeared, as it was now straight ahead of the airplane, and once again little could be seen except the blue of the ocean. In the distance a small boat was heading the opposite direction, the long V of the wake forming an arrowhead with the boat at the tip. Images of what she imagined the vacation would be like began flipping through her mind like slides in a slideshow. Broad sandy beaches with tall palm trees sweeping over the edge; sitting at a beachside bar, a drink with an umbrella in it in one hand, the same image this time at a resort swimming pool with a poolside bar where she was seated on the slightly submerged stool; an image of a crystal clear blue Lagoon, a couple with swim fins and snorkels swimming along hand-in-hand. In her mind she let that image linger; the swimsuits disappeared, replaced by the white of their naked bottoms. She imagined a small secluded cove, a small nook of sand and making love under the tropical sun.
She shook her head, clearing the naughty picture in her mind and glanced again at Joe, realizing there was no way
that
image included him. The faceless body of her daydream, the tanned muscular body with rivulets of water draining from it, was not the body of her husband. Although she loved her husband dearly and had for years, and although she knew he would do anything for her that was humanly possible, she knew
that
was never going to happen. As it always did when she thought back at times like this, the image of him collapsed unconscious on top of her, or rather unconscious
in
her, where he had passed out as they were making love, dominated her mind.
He had almost died. They had laughed together over the years since then about "what a great way to go" that would have been -- the ultimate orgasm. As it was, he hadn't died, she'd gotten over the embarrassment of having to tell the paramedics and doctors again and again
exactly
what he'd been doing when he collapsed, and he'd been diagnosed with a bundle block, a heart condition that prevented him from doing anything that might over exert himself, ever again.
At first she'd just been so relieved that he was alive. She had never told him but, every time they had laughed together about how she had "nearly fucked him to death," she thanked God that he hadn't died. She also had never told him that over the years that, more and more, she found herself wondering what life would have been like for her if he had died. Not wishing that he died, just wondering what would have happened if he
had
died. Not dying while they were actually