The autumn morning light was shining through the blinds of our bedroom. Lying alongside me was my lovely wife of 22 years. I watched as she continued to sleep, her chest softly rising and falling. I gazed upon her with love and awe. I have always considered my self very lucky to have won such an incredibly beautiful and devoted woman, not to mention one so sexy. Leaning over, I softly kissed her on her forehead, watching as a smile lit up my wife's pretty face in a contented and sleepy way. 'Happy Birthday, darling,' I whispered. Opening her eyes, Jan's smile seemed to outshine the light now flooding into the room as she raised her head and kissed me. What more could any man want?
At 44 years of age, I considered my wife to be growing more beautiful by the day. It is often said that women do not reach their prime until they are in their forties. This definitely applied to my wife.
Jan has always said that she does not have time to go to the gym or to go out jogging but has instead managed to keep her sexy figure due to her constant activity. I have often joked that she must have been given an extra helping of energy and left some poor soul feeling tired all the time. This along with her good genes must surely have helped to keep my wife looking as sexy as ever.
Jan stands 5'6" tall with a petite to medium build, with a very pretty face that is framed with dark, shoulder length hair. Her beauty being complimented by her amazing 34C breasts and very shapely legs. I often caught men of all ages giving Jan a second look when we were out together. She was always oblivious to this which was just a part of my wife's wonderful charm.
Over breakfast that morning I had surprised my wife with a small jewellery case. Jan's face was a picture to watch as she opened her birthday present. Girlish delight lit up her face as she opened the box to find a beautifully crafted antique silver necklace with a translucent black Opal birthstone draped from it. Jan was delighted, she wasted no time in hugging me fiercely and drawing me into a very slow and sensuous kiss.
'Thank you,' she whispered, in a rather husky voice.
I was not quite finished. Disappearing and soon returning with my other surprise. Jan almost pounced on me when I held up a bag containing a set of sexy black lacy underwear. I joked that I wanted to get her a little something that we could both enjoy. Jan admired her new underwear as I imagined her wearing it.
I was running a little late now. I worked for a large national company and, at 52 years of age, had worked my way up to a senior management position responsible for purchase and distribution. I was quite happy in my job and it provided a handsome income that enabled my wife and I to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle with our two teenaged children.
Our son, Paul, was almost 21 years old and was taking a break from studies. We often did not see him until almost lunch time on some days. Our daughter Claire had not long turned 18 and had left to attend university over 200 miles away from home. This meant that we only got to see Claire when she was able to take a break from her studies and could make the long journey home. My wife and I were incredibly proud of our two children as any parents would be.
Let me take you back a couple of months to explain the reason for sharing this story with you.
We lived in a reasonably quiet neighbourhood and considered ourselves lucky to have wonderful neighbours. Unfortunately this changed somewhat when one of the houses on our estate was bought and leased out to a number of unruly, shall we say, 'misfits'. Heaven knows how they managed to pay the rent on the large property. Their ages appeared to range from early twenties to mid thirties.
They wasted no time in annoying their neighbours and alienating themselves from our small but close knit estate. It had become common to hear loud music blasting out from the windows late at night. Their garden had been allowed to grow unattended and was now starting to obscure the property. The place also seemed to attract people, often arriving on loud motorbikes, at all hours of the day and night.
And, although we had no evidence, we would not have been surprised if drugs were also involved. A petition was already underway and was to be sent to our local council in order to highlight the problems. It was our hope that they would enforce the law and have them removed from the property. Of course, Jan and I had signed the petition without any hesitation.
Things started to get worse when one afternoon, returning from a shopping trip, my wife and I were subjected to a stream of abuse from a group gathered outside the house. Prepared to ignore it, I continued to walk by only to find that Jan had stopped and had decided to challenge the group. As I started to walk back towards her, it was obvious that she was not prepared to take any foul behaviour from them.
Her voice was raised as she addressed the group in no uncertain terms. Jan was directing her anger at an unshaven man who appeared to be in his mid twenties. As I reached my wife's side, he just smirked at me and told me that I should take her home before she got herself into trouble. With that, Jan had raised her hand and was preparing to slap him. The unshaven man reacted swiftly, grabbing her arm and holding it firmly. Jan began to struggle and eventually managed to pull her arm away.
'Come on, lets go,' I said. The man laughed and told Jan that she had better do as she was told. My wife was furious as I led her down the path and back towards our home in the next road.
Although she did not say as much, I knew my wife was disappointed in me for not speaking up on her behalf that afternoon. I have never been very good at handling confrontations of that sort and always sought a peaceful solution. But, any upset or hurt feeling that Jan may have felt towards me had soon vanished as she told me how pleased she was that I was nothing at all like them.
It was October 16th, 2009. It was almost a week after Jan's birthday and it was a date that I was hardly ever likely to forget. I had hurriedly left for work with the scent of my wife on my jacket and the feel of her soft kiss on my face.
What Jan never knew was that I was only going into work for the morning. With the help of Paul, I had secretly arranged a surprise holiday in the sun for the both of us. We were long overdue a holiday I thought as I started humming to myself as I travelled into work.
The morning passed quickly and I was soon leaving some instructions as I pulled on my jacket and headed out of the office. Two wonderful weeks in the sun with my wife. Fantastic, I thought to myself. Half an hour later I was pulling into our driveway and hurried into the house. I called out to my wife, expecting her to appear with a look of surprise on her lovely face.
Instead, I heard Paul calling down from upstairs to say that she was not in. Paul appeared, looking rather embarrassed, telling me that she had marched around to confront the occupants of the 'house from hell' after a group of them had followed him home and tried to prevent him from walking up our drive.
'Why on earth didn't you stop her?' I asked.
'You know what mum is like,' he grunted.
I knew exactly what she could be like when she was riled. I was very much aware that we had to be at the airport in under two hours. Telling my son to wait in the house, I grabbed my coat and started to walk the short journey to find Jan.
I fully expected to find a full scale argument with my wife at the centre of it but instead the road seemed quiet for a change with no sign of any upset. Approaching the house, I made my way up the path towards the front door and knocked on the door. I waited, rather nervously, for a couple of minutes without any reply.
Then, sure that I could hear voices coming from the rear of the property, decided that I should go around to the back of the house. This is not a good idea I thought to myself as I carefully made my way around the side of the house. Stepping over a collection of beer cans and a few broken bottles. Yes, I could definitely hear a woman's voice.
I was soon rounding the edge of the wall at the rear where I found that the voices were coming through the open window of the rear lounge. I could now recognize Jan's raised voice as she confronted someone. After a few seconds it became clear that the male that my wife was arguing with was the same thug that she had attempted to slap during her previous confrontation.
I gingerly sidled my way up to the window and was able to observe what was going on without being seen. Always the sensible one, I wanted to assess the situation before I decided on what to do. The pair of them seemed to be alone in the large, untidy room. Jan was standing facing the man and demanding an apology for the earlier behaviour. He again laughed, which I knew would just make her anger worse.
'My husband is not here to stop me this time!' I heard her shout. Jan once again raised her hand to slap him. Only this time she was too quick and caught him a stinging blow to his cheek.
'Hey, not bad!' he said. 'You have a lot more fire in your belly than that pathetic, wimp of an husband of yours.'
I watched as he stood grinning at my wife. After a brief pause, despite herself, I clearly heard my wife give a little chuckle.
There was a noticeable change in the tone of the conversation. I watched as the man reached out towards my wife and carefully lift her new necklace away from her neck. He was complimenting her on her good taste to which Jan responded by telling him it was a birthday present.
'Hey, Happy Birthday!' he replied. My wife quickly explained that her birthday was in fact the week before. Shrugging, he asked, 'What would you like to drink?' Jan shook her head and promptly refused his offer.
'Nonsense, let us drink to your birthday,' he smirked.
My wife relented and asked him for 'just a small' vodka and orange. The man, who I now understood to be called Dave, soon returned with a couple of drinks and told Jan to sit down on the sofa. My wife obeyed and Dave promptly sat beside her, a little too close for comfort.