Janet's tale of her afternoon with Tim gave me much food for thought – and fantasy – in the ensuing days, and weeks. Despite my excitement at recalling what had happened between them in the bedroom, my mind kept returning to the scene, afterwards, in the kitchen, when Tim had slid Janet's dressing-gown off and felt her tits in front of the uncurtained window. I imagined her hands clasped round his erection while he tried to talk her into removing her panties.
It was a recurring theme in our pillow talk from then on – not surprisingly – and it was obvious to me that she had been on the point of taking them off when Tim blew it by bringing up the possibility – in Janet's eyes, anyway, of wife-swapping. When we relived the scene in bed, Janet admitted that she had been on fire, again, and fully prepared to let Tim pull her panties off, until he had mentioned me getting a feel of his wife's tits, in exchange.
Sometimes, we even pretended she had gone through with it, and that she had ended up with her back to the kitchen sink, legs spread, with Tim on his knees, tonguing her to orgasm as his hands reached up and squeezed her breasts …..
What I never mentioned to Janet was the very deep recess in my mind which harboured the image of Tim rising from his knees and sliding the head of his cock, and not just his tongue, into her. When I thought of this, she was always taken by surprise by his action, and gasped – "No, Tim – you mustn't – please – " but, by then, it was too late and, holding her thighs apart with his knees, he would thrust his hot cock deep into her and, after two or three strokes, with Janet still protesting, would climax with a shuddering moan, shooting his come up her hot quivering passage.
It was only at moments of high passion in our own lovemaking that I allowed this thought to take over. I knew, in reality, I would be devastated if she had let any cock other than my own invade her most secret places.
Of course, I knew she had not been a virgin when we met and, although she was gradually revealing some of the more intimate details of her pre-marital experiences, I still shrank from asking her to describe occasions when she and a previous boyfriend had 'gone all the way'. I was never quite sure why, although, if the truth be told, I was probably, like most men, a bit reluctant to hear how good another man was in that department – especially if there was a suggestion that he might be better endowed than me! Be that as it may, while I enjoyed descriptions of early breast-fondling in the back row of the cinema, and even hands slipping up her skirt and inside her panties, I always fought shy of details of the final act.
In any case, there was no doubt that it was what had happened after our marriage, with its added ingredient of the 'forbidden', that turned me on the most.
In the November following the New Year which changed our lives, I was filling up the car with petrol and, for an extra pound, bought a 'Poppy' window-sticker, for the Armistice Day commemoration. I stuck on my front window, and thought no more about it, but, when I picked Janet up from her office, she noticed it immediately.
"Oh," she said. "Are they doing these instead of buttonholes, now?"
"No," I said. "They're still selling the flowers, as well."
"Oh, good," she replied. "I'd hate to see them die out!"
I looked at her, in some surprise. I never thought she cared much, one way or the other, about Armistice Day. We never went to any of the church services, or anything.
"I didn't think you paid much attention to it," I commented.
"Ah, well," she replied, mysteriously. "You don't know everything about me, yet."
I looked at her, sharply. I could have sworn there was a sexual undertone to this conversation, but I couldn't imagine what it could be.
"So, tell me," I demanded, feeling the first stirrings of excitement. "What is it – about you and poppies?"
But she shook her head.
"Maybe later," was all she would say, and I had to be content with that.
I was busy that evening, writing up the minutes of a meeting of the football club committee. Janet watched a bit of television and then had a bath. When I heard the bathwater running, I pricked up my ears. Janet is often very relaxed – and receptive – after a long soak, and my mind returned to our earlier conversation. There was definitely an undercurrent there – I was sure I had spotted a trace of the "Birmingham" look in her expression when she was talking about poppies.
I got up and went to the wardrobe in our bedroom. Sure enough, there was a poppy from a previous year still lodged, a little sad and dog-eared, in the lapel of one of my jackets. I straightened it out as best I could, and laid it on Janet's pillow …..
Janet emerged from the bathroom, glowing and flushed, already dressed for bed, about an hour later. As we had a bedtime drink, I enjoyed the occasional glimpse of her long, bare thigh, as her dressing-gown slipped away, from time to time, from her lap. I amused – and aroused - myself by trying to work out whether she was wearing panties under her short nightdress. Janet knew what I was up to. She enjoyed teasing me in this way, and was pretty good at it. It was a silent game, in the sense that we spoke about other things, while both our minds were concentrated on the 'one thing'!
We cleared up for the night, and went through to the bedroom. I was getting undressed, and Janet had just slipped off her dressing-gown, when she noticed my little 'offering' on the pillow. She gave a low laugh and, picking it up, held it between her teeth like a flamenco dancer. She raised her arms above her head and, clicking her fingers, executed a Latin dance round the bed. It wasn't the greatest dance I'd ever seen, but it did reveal that the only covering beneath her nightdress was the gorgeous dark V at the base of her stomach, and I turned away to conceal my growing erection …..
But you can't hide these things from Janet and, the minute I slipped in under the duvet, beside her, her fingers snaked out and closed round my cock.
"Mmmmm," she said, the poppy still clasped between her teeth. I put my hand on her stomach and slid it down into the damp undergrowth. She murmured contentedly and I leaned over and, with my teeth, removed the poppy from between her lips. Disposing of it, I kissed her. Her response was fierce, her lips mashing against mine, her tongue darting into my mouth.
"Put the light out, Pete," she murmured as she broke off the kiss. My balls tightened. She always had to have the lights off when we talked about her 'exploits'. I reached up and flicked the switch. The moon shining through the curtains showed her face, in shadow, and I kissed her mouth again, gently, as my fingers trailed through her pubic bush. I felt her clitoris – it was prominent, but not erect – yet.
"So," I breathed. "Poppies!"
"Yes," she whispered, suddenly a little shy. "Pete – you're sure about this, aren't you? I know we've talked about – a few things – but this is, well, something new."
"New?" I said. "You mean – recently?"
"No," she answered. "No – something I haven't told you about before. No, it was quite a long time ago – not long after …. the Spanish time."
My mouth was dry, as usual. I felt between her legs. She was very wet.
"Of course it's OK, Jan," I said, reassuringly. "You should know that, by now."
I kissed her again.
"Well," Janet started, hesitantly, "until that Spanish holiday, there hadn't been anything, at all. In fact, until then, I really thought that sex, from now on, would only be with you and I was quite smug about it. I told myself I was glad I had sown my wild oats before I settled down and that I wouldn't need any extra-marital stimulation, but the thrill of that twenty minutes with Jaime was so.. different. With the best will in the world, our married sex life couldn't provide that kind of novelty and excitement! I realised I still wanted that kind of stimulation, but I vowed, after Jaime, not to let it happen again. And I kept that up for exactly three months."
"And then what happened," I asked, breathlessly, wondering which of my old friends of those days had been the beneficiary of Janet's fall from grace.