Two nights before we were to meet with Adrian Benton, Nora asked me to sit with her on the couch and to look in her eyes while we further shared our feelings about meeting with him and what might happen--about the possibility, even the likelihood, he and Nora would have sex while we were there. Nora said to me, "James, you know I am eager to be with Adrian Benton, to agree to what he wants--a sexual relationship with me with your approval. I'm ready to take responsibility for whatever I do with him, James, but I need to feel certain about and confident in your feelings and I have to have your support. You have said you will support me in whatever I want, but have really considered what this actually might feel like from your perspective? Have you pictured in your mind what might happen between me and Adrian Benton and have you prepared emotionally for it? I need to be sure you have thought about this realistically.
"I am going to ask you questions, James, and I need you to answer honestly. Are you ready to accept I might have sex with Adrian Benton on Friday evening? Do you understand I am eager and enthusiastic about this and will show that eagerness with you there? How will you feel if we come home late Friday night and I tell you I am ready for more with him, more hot sex, more hot fucking? Can you accept that, James?
"What if on Friday night Adrian and I are seated together part from you and we begin to kiss and you see our passion is rising, growing hard for us to control? What if he reaches over and raises my skirt above my nakedness and begins to finger me while you watch us and you can see and hear how much I like it. And what if I quickly orgasm from his touches and you realize my orgasm with him has come much more quickly than when I am with you?
"James, what will you feel if you see my hand move down and begin to rub his cock through his pants and then unzip him and take it out so I can see it and begin to stroke it? You will be seeing me play with another man's cock, and maybe his balls, while you watch. Maybe I will look at you and smile and nod to let you know I am enjoying what I am doing for him and then I take his cock in my mouth and you can hear the sound of me sucking him. Are you really ready for that James? What if we go further, even this first time, just two nights from now? Are you ready to watch me spread my legs to let another man fuck me. Are you ready to hear me tell him I am ready, saying to him, 'I want you to fuck me Adrian!'
"Have you really thought about this James and can you say to me now and will you say to me on our way to his apartment you accept my doing those things with him, to take another man's cock into my wet pussy?
"If you are ready for all that, say it to me plainly now, James. Say to me, 'Nora, I want you to let Adrian fuck you, and I want to see you fucking him back.' Tell me you want to see me letting myself go, being as hot and horny with him as I have ever been with you. Because it may be that way Friday night. If you can't say it now James, shouldn't we call him now and tell him we are not ready for this?"
Of course, I had thought about and pictured everything Nora was describing. I wanted to say what she hoped I would say. And I wanted to be honest with her and with myself.
"Nora, I believe I can stand seeing and hearing you with Adrian in the ways you have described. I know you are ready for this and I have sensed it coming each time I have recalled you with Andrew, picturing you having sex with him, your first time with another man since remarried. Remember I witnessed your intense desire and your excitement when you first handled Andrew's huge cock and then later went from our bed to his bed for the night. I saw how you felt the next night when he took from behind as you leaned over the couch while I held your hands and kissed you. I saw the pleasure build on your face; I often wished I had stayed longer and had taken you again myself. I have masturbated thinking about you with Andrew --and imagining you with other men. Now those fantasies might be fulfilled for both of us."
"So yes, I am ready for this,Nora. I am excited you are hungry to give yourself to Adrian Benton on Friday night in his apartment. I can't imagine anything more erotic that watching him fuck you and to see your full unbridled response. I want to watch you suck his cock and then take his dick deep inside you and to ride him and do whatever feels good and right to you when the two of you are together. When we meet on Friday night I plan on saying out loud to both of you, 'Adrian, I want you to fuck my wife and I want to watch you do it and I want to witness her orgasms, more than one I hope. I believe this is what she needs and so it is what I need for her. And I expect to take pleasure from her pleasure.'
"Nora, I know this is mainly your decision; and you know it must be yours, not mine. We both know things need to change in our sexual relationship and this seems like an opportunity to move ahead. Probably better, all things considered, and safer that any alternative we might have imagined. But I can't deny it will be test and a risk for each of us and for our relationship as a married couple. I will do my best to pass this test.
Nora smiled and seemed as content with my response as she could be before the reality of Friday night.
On that Friday night in late February, I watched Nora dress for our first evening with Adrian Benton. She appeared calm and thoughtful. Watching her prepare herself for an evening out was an act I always enjoyed and this was a very special outing. Nora was a tasteful dresser, always stylish and often elegant, sometimes just on the edge of daring, but never over. This night, after her bath, she first put on a red garter belt and sheer black stockings but with no panties before adding a long black skirt with buttons down the front. And then, with no bra underneath, she put on a fine grey cashmere sweater, again with buttons from her neck to her waist. Her nipples were very apparent under that smooth sweater.
Later Nora told me she had planned to mention to me Adrian's phone call request about what he hoped she would wear. She said she decided it would make the evening more interesting for us all if she did not tell me. She made no comment on her choices and I did not inquire. I dressed in grey slacks, a white linen shirt and a black sweater, a conservative combination that I wore frequently and seemed to suit me.
At 8:00 Nora and I arrived at Adrian Benton's elegant 1898 residence in the Gold Coast area, a block from Lake Shore Drive. He was dressed very casually in slacks and sweater. At 51, Adrian Benton was a very distinguished looking man with a few touches of grey in his dark hair, vivid blue eyes, probably six feet tall, about 180, very trim, seemingly very fit. He seemed relaxed but, at the same time, very alive. Benton complimented Nora on how beautiful she looked and how much he liked her sweater and skirt. He showed us around the house, describing several of the photos and other art that he thought would be especially interesting to Nora. Over dinner of French onion soup, filet mignon with asparagus, and a bottle of a fine burgundy, we engaged in comfortable conversation about several art-related legal cases Benton was involved in, his upcoming travel plans to Japan and ours to Puerto Rico, and we exchanged opinions on several new shows at art galleries around town.
After dinner, Benton told us more about his own life than was in the career-oriented profile on the firm's web site. He said he was born and raised in a small Illinois town near Springfield. His father was a Methodist minister. Benton early on became an avid user of the town's decent library, particularly history, biography and American and British novels, especially of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In high school he was a leader in school government but never interested in athletics. He learned to draw and won a number of regional competitions for his portraits and outdoor scenes.
With his high grades and art leadership record he won a good scholarship at the University of Illinois where he majored in history, was again active in student government, and grew socially, including through friendships with men and women from Chicago and other cities whose experiences were more varied and sophisticated than his own. By taking a series of studio art classes, especially in photography, he encountered another very different group of students. As his skills improved he supplemented his scholarship through money earned from portraits, both paintings and photographs, of friends, faculty members and university staff, both male and female. He mentioned meaningful personal relationships he developed with the wives of some faculty and administrators. He told us he would show us photographs of some these if we came to know him better.
Benton then went to law school at Northwestern, finished fifth in his class, had internships at two large Chicago firms, and accepted a position at Belknap and Smithers. By age 48 he had become the senior partner. Just two years later, finding he was no longer enjoying the responsibility and long hours, he resigned his leadership role and became simply "of counsel" to the firm. He retained as clients several mid size non-profits and a few individuals who shared his strong interest in the arts. His earnings at the firm, especially during his ten years as an equity partner, along with sound investments, provided all the resources he would ever need.
He said he had married his second wife Janet, now 36, seven years ago, and that they have been very happy together, very compatible and supportive of one another. He told us again that they had an open marriage and were very comfortable in outside sexual relationships, some of which they shared.
Benton then served us each an after dinner cognac and asked Nora and I to sit together on one of two facing loveseats in a small room off the dining room. The lights were dimmed. Adrian sat down on the couch opposite us and began by saying, "Nora and James, I want you to describe to me as best you can your sexual life together, both as it has been and as it is now, and what you might want it to be."
I responded first, "Adrian, we have been talking about this since your proposal of a week ago. We feel we have had generally a very satisfying, at times exciting, sexual relationship since we met five years ago. Nora has been with another man only once and this was when I sent her to comfort a close friend of mine. We recognize though that during the past several years the level of excitement, and the satisfaction, may have slowed a bit, and we take this not to be surprising." I explained that we had begun to discuss how to capture a higher degree of sexual pleasure and adventure and to maintain it in the years ahead. I added, "In the past year or so we have begun to fantasize and role play more frequently about new sexual situations and relationships, especially Nora with other men, though we remain uncertain we would ever act to engage in them."
Nora looked at me, then at Adrian. "James and I have discussed where we are now as part of how we might respond to your request to be my lover and how we might later consider any of the broader experiences implied in your proposal. I have nothing at this point to add to James comments about our present sexual relationship. I agree with him. I am eager to learn more about your interests and more than willing to see where we might go together beginning with this evening."
Adrian said this sounded very promising to him, then asked us to describe our fantasies, especially those Nora has most enjoyed. "Could you do that for me Nora? To describe them in a way both James and I can hear you. I should say to both of you l have found many men and women when challenged enjoy talking about their fantasies once they get started. I do not find this surprising because I also have noticed people often are highly stimulated by voicing what they are thinking and wanting and feeling about sexual possibilities. Sometimes they need to be encouraged. We can explore that possibility later," he said, looking at Nora.
