Arma Served Cold

Notes: All fictional characters engaged in sexual activities are at least 18 or older.

* This is not a masturbatory fantasy and contains very little sex. If that's what you're looking for, please move on to the next story.

* This is not necessarily a burn the bitch story, nor a cuckold story, if that's what you're into then please move on. This story reads more like a romance story.

* I write these stories in the hope they entertain you. I have five other pending works and even though I'm sure there are still errors present I needed to get one of my stories off my plate.

* If you find errors, please inform me through the contact tab in my bio, I will collect and correct anything that is brought up when I have time.

* Please leave comments good or bad, and give me a five star if you enjoyed it.

Thanks to Alwaysready64 for his help editing this because we all become blind to our own mistakes.

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Christmas 2017

"Uncle, Mikey! Uncle Mikey!" my nieces cried, bull rushing me before I could get my foot in the door.

They slammed into my right and left legs, latching on, squealing in excitement. I bent down to get to their level and pulled out their presents. It was Christmas time, and these were more like stocking stuffers. As a matter of fact, I gave my nieces "presents" every time I saw them. Sometimes they were Crackerjack Box trinkets and other times they were origami animals I made. They were always cheap but they loved getting presents. You'd think I was spoiling them and maybe I'd agree with you if I got them whatever they asked for. Instead it was understood that it was a token of my love for them, and showed that I was thinking of them. I know, because that's what they told me when I asked them if they knew why I always brought them presents - smart kids.

I held out their presents, but they knew that they had to kiss my cheek before they got anything. I didn't even have to ask them anymore, it was all automatic. As soon as they kissed me, they snatched their presents and ran off.

"You are always spoiling them..." my wife, Diane gushed, faking annoyance.

"How am I going to stay their favorite uncle otherwise?" I mocked.

After everyone said hi, and we did the rounds making small talk, I walked into the living room to hang out with the kids.

"Hey Mike, Merry Christmas," Beth, Diane's older sister greeted.

She was sitting on the couch, sipping on some eggnog with her husband Jake.

"Merry Christmas, Beth!" I returned, leaning down giving her an awkward sideways hug and kiss on the cheek. "Merry Christmas Jake," I said, shaking his hand. "What are you guys up to?"

"We are just about to watch 'A Christmas Story,'" she said. "Why don't you join us?"

"Love too, I'm just going to get Di, I'll be right back."

I walked back to where Diane was talking to her close friend Dave and his wife Nancy.

"Hey, babe. Sorry to interrupt, but they're gonna start your favorite movie."

"Why don't you guys start without me? I'll be there in a bit."

I found a spot on the couch with enough room for me and Diane right when the opening credits finished. Watching "A Christmas Story" was a family tradition. Not everyone in the family watched the movie every year, but me, Diane and the nieces always did. Everyone was gathered around the fire, my in-law's 90" 4K tv hanging above the mantle was streaming the movie over a wireless connection.

It was getting to my wife's favorite part where Ralphie is fantasizing about going blind from soap poisoning and she still hadn't shown. Looking around, she wasn't anywhere in sight. The kids were lying on the floor half watching the movie and half playing with their Angry Birds catapult I got them, shooting a toy angry bird at a stack of Legos trying to knock them down. Beth and Jake were cuddled up on the other side of the couch, fast asleep.

The living room was huge, decked out with two small Christmas trees on side tables behind the couch and one huge 20-footer off to the side of the fireplace. Marble side tables, opulent decorations littered the room tastefully. There was even a Picasso hanging on the wall. If not for the huge comfortable couch, the shag carpeting and the company I wouldn't feel comfortable here.

I appreciated all of the gadgets that made this room have "THX" quality sound and crystal-clear images. The sad thing was, this was probably the only time of year they'd use it. Mom and Dad both entertained themselves in their rooms, having TVs throughout the house. The living room was only used to entertain during family get togethers. I wasn't jealous, but I saw it as a waste of resources.

Most of the family were hanging out in various spots around the mansion, my mother-in-law was in the kitchen with a few female family members preparing a Christmas feast. With the open concept design I could see them from the living room. A few non-cooks were hanging out on barstools at the kitchen island talking to the cooks. Outside on the veranda most of the men were congregated, drinking beers, smoking cigars and talking about sports, cars, women etc. - guy stuff. I guess I should have been outside with them, but honestly, I got enough machismo at work. It was nice hanging out with the kids - not having any myself.

I wanted a big family and my wife and I had been trying for years with no luck. It was frustrating because we had ourselves tested and everything checked out, so I couldn't understand why she hadn't even had a missed period, much less gotten pregnancy. It wasn't for a lack of sex either, we had a wonderful sex life. I had sex with Diane at least once a day, somedays multiple times. I suspected that my wife might secretly be sabotaging it but it made no sense to me because she was the one to convince me to quit my job so I could be a stay at home dad and begged me for children.

She didn't have to beg hard, I wanted kids, but she DID come to me begging. She even tore up our pre-nuptials as an incentive for me to quit my job. I honestly didn't need her to do all of that, I never married her for her money anyway. After all, it was me that suggested a prenup in the first place but when she came to me, she already had all of the paperwork done and all I had to do was sign to cancel the prenup, so I trusted that her lawyer handled it from there.

I guess my hackles should have been raised, but I didn't care I had no intention of ever divorcing her. She was the wealthy one in the relationship. It was her money on the line not mine and if we did divorce, I would be fine walking away with nothing. After all, I came into the marriage with nothing but an education and a promising middle-class career in Software Development so in my mind I wouldn't be losing anything anyway.

Out of habit, I went looking for Diane to remind her that her favorite part was coming up, if only to prevent her from making us all rewind the movie later. I was trying to keep my distance from her for the most part, since we had a petty argument earlier. I wanted her to cool off, but being gone this long even after we fought was unusual. We had been fighting a lot this past year and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what was bothering her. She seemed to be picking fights with me, almost egging me on and I didn't understand why.

I was a loving husband and as far as I could tell I was satisfying her sexually. I was faithful and loyal and good to her family and her family seemed to love me. But something was bothering her and she was taking it out on me. I just chalked it up to her frustration of not getting pregnant yet, but my gut told me there was more to it than that. I guess I was just hoping that whatever was bothering her would just blow over, because she refused to talk to me about it.

I knew from past experiences, that if I didn't put in an effort to find her and drag her back to see the sentimental scene then she would get really demanding and take some of the fun out of the festivities. Don't get me wrong, she's not a total bitch or anything. She just tends to draw the line in the sand over small things and this was one of them. This was one of those battles I chose not to fight over.

For the most part, I was happy. I loved Christmas and ever since I got married, I was quickly assimilated into the fold of Diane's family since I didn't have any family of my own. The only family member I had left was an estranged older sister who took off when she was eighteen and I haven't seen or heard from her in a decade since. For all I knew she could be dead. I did my own search on the internet, looking for Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts and anything else I could think of. When that failed, I hired a PI to find her but so far nothing had turned up.

Diane's family accepted me as one of their own. But when I first met her parents, they were wary of me. I guess they feared I might be a gold digger. I got 'Mom' on my side right away and 'Dad' too once I signed a prenup. After that her father dropped his guard and warmed up to me, and we have gone on many hunting and fishing trips together since. Her mom Maurine became my mom since my mother died during my first year of college. Her father Ted became my dad, since I never knew my own father, (he ran off as soon as her heard mom was pregnant with me, I guess two children was the straw).

Mom seemed busy in the kitchen so I walked outside to see if Nancy was hanging out with the guys. She was always a daddy's girl, and if she couldn't be found anywhere the first thing anyone would ask is whether she was with Dad.

"Heyo, Mikeeey!" Burt, (Diane's cousin), hollered. He then went into his shadow boxing routine, and mocked getting knocked out by me.

A few of the guys laughed and Darnel (Diane's cousin Sarah's husband), asked "You fighting in the octagon, big guy?"

"I don't compete, I just teach and run the gym. I let the more fool hardy Chuckleheads do all the fighting," I said, and he looked a little disappointed.

"He used to compete in high school," Dad said proudly, to which Darnel brightened up.

"That was Jujitsu, Dad, not MMA. At most I spar from time to time, but I'm trying to avoid the cauliflower-eared look," I joked. "Hey, Dad, you seen Diane?"

"No, Son, she hasn't been out here all night."

I walked back in after saying my parting "talk to you laters" and approached Mom in the kitchen.

"Hey, Mom. Have you seen Diane?", I casually asked, trying to get a quick taste of some cookie dough she was mixing.

"No, Sweetie. Last I saw her, she was talking to Dave," she said, playfully slapping my hand away.

Dave was Diane's childhood friend growing up and he and his wife Nancy moved into his childhood home a couple of houses down from here once his parents moved to Florida.

"You'll spoil your appetite!" she beamed.

"I don't think that's possible, with your cooking... If you cooked more often, I'd be over here every day!" I teased.

"Here!" she said, handing me a roll. "Dinner is almost ready, then you can eat all you want."

I gave her a quick peck on the cheek, and continued my search.

"Her favorite part of the movie is coming up. You know how she gets when she misses it."

"Sorry, why don't you ask Nancy?" she asked, pointing over to Nancy talking to Gloria, (Diane's younger sister), huddled over in the foyer.

Gloria and Nancy were best friends since grade school. Since marrying Diane, Gloria and Nancy have become good friends with me too, actually I considered them my best friends. Hell, I spent more time with Gloria than Diane, people often mistook us for being married. Although I didn't spend as much time with Nancy, I grew very close to her over the years also. Nancy was the sweetest, most caring and giving person I ever met, with Gloria a close second. I was no wonder they were such good friends.

As I strolled over to Nancy and Gloria, I saw that they were talking in hushed tones. Gloria had a concerned look on her face and Nancy seemed to be unloading something. I didn't want to interrupt them but before I could turn away, they both looked up at me and waved me over. Once I was in range, they seemed to bring me into their confidence and made gestures as if I should be quiet. I leaned in and kissed both of them on the cheek.

"You ladies look serious. Is everything alright?"

Gloria was my favorite in-law besides mom. I would always joke that if Gloria had only gone to Stanford, I might've married her instead. We were like two peas in a pod, we just got each other. Even though I loved my wife, I loved Gloria also. I would never act on my love however, I respected Gloria too much to turn her into a cheater and I loved my wife too much to ever cheat on her, and I knew Gloria felt the same.

Diane, Gloria, Dave and Nancy grew up in the same neighborhood and Diane, Dave and Nancy were all part of a pack of friends. Some of the pack moved on to other parts of the country and no longer lived near the neighborhood. Since Gloria and Nancy were best friends, Gloria always seemed to be tagging along, which annoyed Diane to no end, (she complained to me about it many times).

Dave and Nancy were like family and came to a lot of our in-law's holiday parties. Diane and I had them over quite often when we would host game nights. We even took vacations together. It wasn't long into our marriage that it became expected that they would come with us on every vacation and we got so that we included them in our planning. It was mostly the four of us, but sometimes Gloria would come making it the five of us. For some reason Gloria never seemed to take a date with her which I always found strange.

"Keep it down, Mike," Gloria whispered. "Nancy thinks Dave is having an affair."

"Dave? Are you sure?" I asked sarcastically.

"Why do you say that?" Nancy asked, defensively.

"Well, it's just that Dave's not really... You know..." I said, trying not to be insulting but they didn't seem to follow my logic. "Come on, Nancy, you're a hottie... I'd say you're a nine to his six... He can't possibly do better than you. I know you love the guy, but you can do so much better. He'd be a fool to mess that up."

Nancy seemed to blush at that, and responded, "You might be right, Mike. But cheaters don't think they'll get caught, and sometimes it's the thrill of the elicit nature of the whole thing that they are after. Besides, Dave has money... Even though I know you don't care about money, (that's one of the things me and Gloria love about you), there are millions of gold diggers looking for a sugar daddy."

Suddenly the idea of finding Diane didn't seem very important and I didn't bother asking them about her.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Nan," I said, consoling. "What makes you think he's cheating on you? Do you have any evidence?" I asked, curiously.

"Not hard evidence. But you remember when I had that really bad Flu, a couple of months back?" she asked and I nodded. "We hadn't had sex that whole time, but one night I swear he smelled like 'pussy,'" she said distastefully, she didn't like using "vulgar" terms like "pussy", (at least to her they were vulgar and I respected that).

"I asked him about it and he just tried to blow it off by saying it must have been the fish he ate for lunch and he'd go take a shower to wash it off," she said, sadly.

"Really?" I asked, "He doesn't think you're that stupid. Does he?"

"Maybe he does. I don't know, but I hired a private investigator to look into it. If that bastard is cheating on me, we're through! I trusted him up 'til now but ever since then my feelers have been up. Now, everything he does seems suspicious."

I wasn't sure what to say really, so I just re-iterated my friendship, "You know, if you need ANYthing, I'll be there for you, right?" I asked, and she nodded and I pulled us three into a group hug. Gloria and I, let Nancy cry on our shoulders.

Once Nancy was able to recover, she mumbled that she needed to go over to her house and pick up some presents that she forgot.

"Give me the key, Nan," I demanded. "I can get them for you. You go to the bathroom and get cleaned up."

She gave me a grateful look and said, "Thanks, Mike," and she leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. "They should be in a bag in the foyer, right when you walk in."

"OK, I'll be right back," I said, exiting the front door.

I walked down the pathway to the security gate then down the block. The houses in Bel Air were mostly mansions, and, growing up poor, the people and lifestyles took a lot of getting used too. Even though Dave and Nancy's house was only two houses down, each estate was over a hundred yards in width, so it took a few minutes to get there.

Walking through the beautifully landscaped gardens with magnificently decorated Christmas lighting, garlands, ribbons and Christmas themed scenes, it was like walking through a dream. I sometimes walked with Diane hand in hand through the neighborhood just to experience its wonder.

I had been to their house many times, and knew their gate codes and even their alarm codes. As I went through the security door set in the front's wrought iron gate, I noticed that the second floor had a few lights on.

I thought to myself, "huh, they must have forgot to turn off the lights", which was weird to me because they have one of those remote whole house control units that let you turn off all of the lights with an app on their phone.

I was the one that installed it for them and I knew Dave used it religiously, so it put me on edge. I helped Dave install cameras in key points throughout the house and happened to remember his login to his camera system and checked to see if there were any intruders.

The cameras only showed the front entrance, the back door, the stairway and the top hallway, so even though I saw no signs of any intruders, it didn't mean they weren't in a room somewhere.

When I got to the front door, the porch lights were off and the bottom floor was dark. So, I turned on my flashlight from my phone and unlocked the front door. When I stepped inside, I didn't hear the warning beeping from the alarm console that reminds you to disable it. I went over to the keypad anyway and sure enough it was disabled.

It could have been nothing. They could have just forgot to set the alarm before they left, but with the lights on upstairs I figured I would go check out the house and make sure they weren't being robbed. I couldn't hear anything, and the app on my phone didn't indicate anything. The house was big and well insulated for sound so that meant nothing. I walked through the kitchen to the mudroom connected to the garage where Dave kept his golf clubs. I knew Dave had a gun in the house but it was in a gun safe upstairs so it wouldn't do me any good unless I could safely get to it.

I normally wouldn't need a weapon at all, I'm a huge guy, 6'3 230 lbs. of all muscle. I had to stay in shape to keep my clients respect. As the owner of a MMA studio I kept in shape by keeping my clients in shape. Although I gave up my main job, I still taught a few classes three days a week and did volunteer work from time to time. But, if there were robbers and they were armed, my ability to take them down would depend on how many there were and how well armed they were and where I could catch them by surprise. I could probably take down a man with a knife, maybe not two. Throw a gun into the mix and forget about it - all bets were off. I only intended to scout out the house and if I heard anything, I would call the cops and get out of there.

The house had tiled steps, so I took off my shoes to keep the potential intruders from hearing me climb up. I wound my way up their curved steps ascending out of the darkness below and into the brightly lit hallway above. The hallway went left and right to both sides of the house so I started off going right, knowing that was were Dave's office and safe was. I stepped silently using the balls of my feet to lessen the impact my I had on the floor. I carefully crept down the long hallway and looked through the glass doors of the study seeing no one. The room looked untouched which surprised me, if I were robbing this place, it would be the first place I went. It put me at ease, since it was looking more and more unlikely there were intruders.