"I'm home, honey," Jen sang out happily from the foyer after the front door closed.
Mark looked up from his book, and looked up, as his wife walked into the kitchen. Her body, glistened with perspiration, her pink high waist booty shorts and matching strappy sports bra contrasting nicely with her shiny, well-tanned skin, a towel in one hand, and her water bottle in the other.
She looked as beautiful as the first time Mark had laid eyes on her their freshman year in college. That had been nearly twenty years, and two kids before. She was blessed with straight dark hair that reached almost to her waist when not pulled into a ponytail, big brown eyes, curves in all the right places, quads and an ass to die for, and natural breasts firm and large enough that people would often wonder whether they were implants. A dedication to the gym that bordered on fanatical kept her in perfect physical shape.
She was grinning from ear to ear. "Guess what I just learned? You won't guess in a million years what Lisa told me."
"What?"
"Try and guess!"
Mark knew better. When his wife put him up to a test like this, it meant he would never guess, and more importantly, it meant she was dying to tell him.
Getting no feedback from her husband, Jen gave up: "okay, I'll tell you, but you mustn't tell anybody. It's a secret."
"I promise," Mark answered, feigning interest.
"Lisa is not the prude you think."
"Okay. How so?" wondering if there was more to this.
"Well, it turns out, it just so happens, that Lisa fucks other guys, and Tim is okay with it!"
"How do you mean?" Mark was no longer just pretending to be interested.
"That's right, my dearest, Lisa is what is called a Hotwife."
"I don't understand. She is hot, and she is a wife, what do you mean?"
"A Hotwife, silly, is a woman who fucks guys with her husband's blessing." And to clarify her point: "and Lisa is a Hotwife."
"Oh. And who are these guys?"
"Friends."
"And Lisa just told you all this?"
"Yes, at the gym. Said she'd been wanting to tell me for some time, but didn't know how I'd take it."
"And what does Tim say about all this?"
"This is the fun part: le loves it!"
Mark looked confused.
"And what did you say to her?"
"I told her I thought it was awesome."
"Awesome?" Mark was a little taken aback.
"Yes, awesome. Just think about it, honey. How strong and healthy their marriage is, that they are open to new things that both can enjoy!" Jen was obviously parroting Lisa.
"You sound quite convinced," Mark observed.
"Yes, I think it's super cool that they can do that!" Jen retorted excitedly.
Mark looked away, trying to make sense of what he had just heard.
"I just thought it was cool that some couples can do something like that and be perfectly happy. I didn't mean anything by it. I'm sorry if I upset you. I just thought it showed the strength of their marriage."
"Actually, to me, it sounds like it turned you on."
Jen thought about this for a moment: "Maybe a little, you're right."
Slowly, choosing his words carefully, Mark responded: "I thought our marriage was strong. I thought we were good. I thought our sex life was good, even great, I thought."
"It is. it is. I'm not saying anything to the contrary," Jen anxiously searched for the right words to defuse the crisis her comments seemed to be provoking.
"I thought you would think it sexy, actually," Jen added, foolishly thinking this would make the situation better. Lisa's confession had aroused her so much that it didn't even occur to her that Mark might not be similarly excited.
Daniel, Mark and Jen's younger son, walked into the kitchen. "Good morning," he announced. "If you're talking about sex, I'll just leave."
"No, honey, we're not. Come in and have your breakfast," Jen told her son. Daniel was a freshman at NYU, and although he had a dorm room there, occasionally he would spend the night in his parents' brownstone in the Upper East Side.
"I need to take off," Mark announced and got up from the breakfast table. He kissed his wife on the lips, patted his son on the head, grabbed his briefcase, and walked out.
Jen sighed a sigh of relief. Mark was not happy with the Hotwifing thing, but at least he was not angry.
Evening proceeded without incident. Jen did not bring up the subject of Lisa, or the hotwifing thing, and neither did Mark. Fortunately, or unfortunately, a couple of good friends had been invited to the brownstone for dinner, and having stayed quite late, Mark and Jen were left with little time to talk and definitely no time for sex.
Next morning, when Mark and Jen were having breakfast, Jen was going over her schedule for the day. A real estate agent, she had a couple of apartments to show potential buyers and she had to plan carefully since they were at opposite ends of the city. Mark was just quietly thoughtful while he finished his coffee.
"Did you have anyone in mind?" Mark suddenly asked out of the blue.
"I'm sorry, hun, did you say something?" Jen responded absent-mindedly without looking up from the subway, train, and ferry schedules for greater New York City displayed on her iPad.
"Did you have anybody particular in mind?" Mark repeated the question. "What you said the other day?"
"About fucking somebody else, you mean?" Jen hesitated to ask, afraid of touching a raw nerve.
"Yes, were you thinking of anybody specific when you said that?"
"Uh, no." Jen did not expect this question, and it showed. "It was just a crazy idea that Lisa put in my head. Don't worry about it, honey. You know I love you, and I am perfectly aware that we have a great sex life. I didn't mean to suggest otherwise." Jen tried to once again assuage her husband's fears.
"No," Mark insisted, "I've been thinking. Maybe it's not so crazy."
Jen felt a tinge of excitement in her loins, and yes, a little fear in her stomach.
Should she go for it, reiterate her interest, or go the safe route and brush it off once more as just a crazy idea, as she had just said?
"Would you be into it?" Jen treaded lightly.
"Maybe, yes, with the right person," Mark almost whispered; he also feeling the mix of excitement and fear. "Maybe we could think about it, and see where it goes."
Jen felt herself getting moist between her legs. Treading very lightly, she ventured: "who would it be, though?"
"It would have to be somebody safe, that's for sure," Mark offered. He had been thinking.
"Yes, definitely," agreed Jen, realizing for the first time that hooking up with the wrong person could cause all sorts of problems.
"That's what I meant with 'did you have anybody specific in mind'? Somebody from your gym, for instance?"
Jen thought quickly, and aware that choosing some stud from her gym might not sit well with her husband, had a stroke of insight: "I think you should get to choose."
"Me? But it has to be somebody you think is hot."
Jen suddenly laughed, relieved of how well this was going, as the anxiety that she had felt at the beginning of this conversation slowly gave way to excited anticipation. "You pick somebody that you think I'd like and I'll tell you whether I like him." And then after a moment: "But it has to be somebody that you approve of."
Mark's mind began to race, as the idea of sharing his wife of twenty years with another man suddenly appeared as something that could actually become a real thing. He felt excitement and fear, his stomach, full with his breakfast, fluttering with nerves.
This was too much for Mark. Feelings and thoughts raced through his mind, and he needed to take a breather. Anxious to end the conversation for now, he declared: "lets think about it for a couple of days."
Jen understood. It would be better to move slowly. The amount of tension this conversation had produced in both of them was more than either could handle. Who was the more nervous of the two, Mark and Jen wondered quietly.
"Yes, let's think about it," Jen agreed.
It was getting late. Jen, almost in a panic, suddenly got up. "I'm gonna miss my train." She gave her husband a quick kiss on the lips and ran off, her heels clicking on the wooden floor of their brownstone.
Mark had not wanted to get up from the table until after Jen left. He chuckled to himself at the silliness of it. For the first time in his life, he had felt embarrassed to let his wife see him with an erection. He drank another cup of coffee while his erection subsided, and then left to catch the train to Lower Manhattan. He was not due to show up at his office till later, so he had plenty of time.
Mark tried to brush away thoughts of his and Jen's conversation earlier so he could concentrate on work, but found it almost impossible.
When he arrived home after work, he found Jen waiting for him. She was clad in a black lingerie set, and black pumps. I want to fuck you, she managed to say in a husky voice that betrayed her arousal.
What followed was one of the hottest fucks they had ever had.
"Did you like it, honey?" Jen inquired, both soaked with perspiration, as they lay in each other's arms afterwards.
"I loved it, my love, this was the best sex I've had in a long time." Mark responded.
"It's always good with you," Mark was quick to add, "but this was even better. You were like an animal!"
"You were wonderful too," Jen responded. "You were so hard, I couldn't believe how hard you were, even the second time."
Her confidence so boosted; Jen dared ask the crucial question: "have you given any thought to who we should ask?"
"Uh, yes, a little." He had actually been thinking about it all day.
"Well?" Jen wanted to know.
"Mind you, this in only a suggestion. We'll do whatever you say. It's your decision." Mark was perfectly aware that he could reject candidates, but only Jen could accept them.
"Okay," Jen sounded unsure.
On the one hand, of course it had to be her decision; she was the one who would have to fuck the guy, but on the other hand, she didn't want all the responsibility to fall on her. She worried that she could choose the wrong guy, a man who for some reason would hurt Mark's confidence, or make him jealous, and do serious damage to her marriage.
Picking the right man would indeed be a difficult needle to thread. He would have to be one who excited her, who somehow pleased Mark, and yet not be threating. Did such a man even exist?
Jen was, after all, completely in love with Mark, and felt their life was about as close to perfect as one could hope. Going outside the marriage for sex had just been some crazy idea, brought to her attention only because of Lisa, but now it had taken on a life of its own.
Jen waited, a little impatiently, Mark could tell.
"What do you think of Peter?"
"Peter Baldoni?"
"Yes."
"Okay, he is hot, that's for sure, and he's very nice."
Mark added: "we either have to decide for a total stranger, or somebody we know, and I think it would be safer if it is somebody we know."
Jen thought about this for a minute. "I think you're right, a stranger does have its appeal, but somebody we know and can trust does too. I think you're right," she repeated with conviction, "it should definitely be somebody we know."
"I'm sure we can trust Peter. I've known him since he was a kid. My sister used to baby-sit him, for goodness' sake. He's a total standup guy for sure. And he does like you, I know that for a fact. If you like him, I can ask him."
