I, Blake Burton, was way too cloistered growing up. I lived in a rural area, was home schooled by parents who I now realize were religious zealots, had virtually no contact with people my age -- especially females -- and never participated in any athletics. While I did do work it was not the type that would make one "farm strong," therefore even though I was a pretty big guy (six foot three inches tall, 210 pounds) I didn't have any self-confidence in my physical abilities or, because of my upbringing, mental ones. At least the home schooling was enough to allow me to pass the State's literacy test so that I got a High School diploma.
The death of my parents when I was nineteen actually turned out to be a good thing for my development. I went to live with an aunt, uncle, and seventeen year old male cousin, Jimmy, in a big city and for the first time was exposed to people my own age. Even though I was shy and had trouble interacting with them, at least it was a start.
I attended junior college to get an associates' degree in business while working on the weekends as a go-fer for Anna, a forty six year old female producer at a local TV station. I was too shy to date, but at least I got exposed to some females. Although a number of them told me that I was "real cute" I didn't have the social skills to follow up on those declarations.
I got my associates' degree in business administration when I was twenty one, and quit the TV station and started working full-time for a tech company. At that point in my life I had had maybe two actual dates, although at least I was becoming more comfortable around females my age.
About three months after I started my new job Anna called me. She had always been pleasant to me, even if demanding. "Say Blake," she said after a short time catching up, "there's a new reality show that the national station that we're associated with is interviewing for. It's called 'Matrimony Mingle.' The producers first use a computer to match people, and then a group of five or six guys and five or six matched girls are put together and they let it go from there. Initially they see if the computer-matched people respond to each other; secondly, the first couple to agree to get married gets their wedding paid for by the sponsors. Are you interested?"
I thought for a second; I was probably going to be way out of my element, but why not give it a try? I guess that I could get badly embarrassed, but I had no relatives except my aunt, uncle, and cousin -- and they would still like me -- and few friends, so embarrassment was no big deal.
"Sure," I replied. "When's the first interview?"
"Well first you have to fill out an application and have your photo taken; then we'll go from there," Anna chuckled. I'm not sure that she thought that I had any realistic possibility of making it, but wanted to be nice to me and get interest in applications for the show.
After I filled out an application and gave it to Anna, I didn't think much about it for a few months. In the meantime, however, at the urging of my cousin Jimmy (who was a workout fiend and a black belt in judo) I had done something that was beneficial -- I joined a health club, and with a part-time personal trainer, Merilee, started working out. I felt good, and I started to develop some muscle where I had just been "blah" before.
"You have a body that can really benefit from workouts -- you'll have a six-pack in no time," Merilee told me after a couple of weeks, although I didn't really believe her. I thought that she was just trying to build up my confidence.
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Of course because I forgot about the "Matrimony Mingle" application, I actually got called for an interview. Since I thought that meant that they probably had few applicants so almost everyone got interviewed, I didn't feel any pressure or think that that meant that I had a decent chance.
Anna was helpful in taking me to her "hairdresser" and paying for me to get my hair cut in a new style that I had to agree afterward really made me look better. Anna also gave me some helpful pointers for the interview.
The interview was with three women and two men. One of the guys was a jerk, one of the women said nothing, and the other three were pleasant and had interesting questions. It was clear from the interview that they were looking for various types of people -- and that physical appearance was important. I got clued into the latter when I was asked to take off my shirt. At that point my upper body looked pretty good, so I wasn't shy about it.
To make a long story short, I got a second interview, and then was picked for the show. It would film for only two weeks, and by then I had two weeks' vacation saved up so I didn't even have to ask for some special treatment from my boss. I didn't tell anyone at work about it in case it turned out to be a disaster. At least I was going to get paid, and expenses, for my appearance.
I was anxious when I arrived for filming. To me it seemed that the five other guys were way more sophisticated than I was -- although probably not better looking to the average female especially since I had really ramped up my workouts in anticipation of the event -- and the women appeared to be out of my league.
One aspect of the show that I didn't expect -- maybe no guys would have agreed to go on the show if they had known about it -- was that the women's parents would be involved somehow in the selection and results.
Only one of the six women was a shrew and she didn't like me any better than I liked her. The other five women had many desirable qualities, but the one that I focused on was a woman of Italian heritage whose name was Gina Giordano. Despite her youth, she had a high profile job; she hosted a radio show that included both music and interviews.
While I can't say that I felt "comfortable" around Gina, because I thought that she was out of my league, I really was attracted to her.
After nine days of filming all the contestants had to blind guess the couples that the computer had matched. I was the only one to get all six correct, and to my joy Gina and I picked each other besides. However, the results posed a real problem for the producers. No other computer matched couples picked each other, in fact two guys and two women picked no one.
While everyone else besides me apparently knew that "reality TV" wasn't in fact truly reality, I was surprised when the producers did a do-over and we ended up with two other computer-matched couples "in the finals."
The "finals" meant involving the females' parents. That was the start of a downturn in my city life. While Gina's mother Viola was very good-looking (she looked like an older version of Gina with at most five pounds of "non-essential" weight, and even bigger tits), both she and Gina's father Guido were controlling assholes. Of course given my naivety that is my assessment now -- at the time I didn't quite know what to make of them.
Guido started out our first meeting by saying something like "If you two were to get married and ran into any problems you would be smart enough, Blake, wouldn't you, to come to Viola and me, who have over twenty years of marriage, to talk about it and resolve any issues?"
I stupidly said "yes" to that and almost anything else that they wanted me to. Only on the last day of filming did I start to have apprehension, and I would have liked to bail. However, the producers really, really pressured me into proposing to Gina, even giving me a ring, and Gina herself put on a rush by passionately kissing me and massaging my virgin cock and balls through my pants.
I was presented with a pre-nup by Guido that he said was a formal part of the marriage ritual, just like getting a marriage license, and I stupidly signed it without reading it.
To make a long story short, the producers paid for the wedding between Gina and me which included over 90% people she knew and less than 10% people that I knew, and even paid for a week long honeymoon in Bermuda.
Since I was a virgin, the honeymoon was "interesting," although far from ideal.
It was far from ideal because we did whatever Gina wanted -- I essentially had no say -- and during my first attempt at love-making every night except the last one I came much too quickly and was chastised for it by Gina -- although not in a mean way.
I did notice, however, that Gina's eyes really opened wide every time that she saw my cock, for reasons that I didn't understand until later. I also was able to perform a second, and sometimes even a third, time each night, and virgin that I was, ejaculating into Gina's pussy while she came too was the best feeling of my life up to that point.
Gina also started teaching me oral -- on her. I didn't mind it, especially since she seemed to really get off by it. She never showed any inclination to suck my cock, and I was too shy to ask her to despite what my cousin told me about blowjobs being "the bomb;" but she did seem to like stroking it and playing with my testicles.
When we got back from the honeymoon we seemed to spend a lot of time with Gina's parents, and they reveled in giving me unsolicited advice and tasks to perform. Never having had a normal family, I thought that this was just the way that things were. Despite my milquetoast manner, one thing that did irritate me was that Viola and/or Guido just walked into our house anytime that they felt like it -- Gina had given them a key so even if the door was locked they just barged right in. When I complained to Gina about it she assured me that it was normal.
Since the sex with Gina -- which she "doled out" three times a week -- was my best experience ever, I was blissfully ignorant of the bleakness of my situation for several months. I did notice that work and the gym -- where I worked out regularly and was making good progress -- were my refuge from other facets of life. In fact, except for sex with Gina, I was starting to realize that aside from work and the gym the rest of my life was far from ideal; maybe even shitty.
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As is common for reality TV shows, it was several months after filming before the edited episodes of Marriage Mingle started playing on TV. Gina, Viola, Guido, Gina's brother Vince, and me, along with other members of Gina's extended family, usually watched the episodes together at Gina's parents' house. However, at the time of the second episode involving the parents, Gina and Viola sent me off on some stupid task. "We'll DVR the episode for you darling," were Gina's last words sending me off, followed by a whisper "And you're sure to get lucky tonight."
For some reason for one of the only times in my life up to that point my "bullshit sensor" started tingling. Instead of going on the errand, I went home (to the house that Gina owned and we shared, me footing most of the bills) and watched the episode there. I found out why they wanted me out.
In the most significant part of the episode Viola and Guido were blatantly explaining to Gina that she should marry me because I was good looking and would make a good impression on her friends and co-workers, but was so easy to control that she'd have a tranquil life with me acting basically as her "servant with benefits." "You can get that milquetoast to do anything you want, and Guido and I can run roughshod over him too," was perhaps the most classic line, uttered by Viola with a sneering smile.
That night I had a come-to-Jesus meeting with myself. I vowed that I would not be taken advantage of again. However, I had to play my cards right, and not have an immediate complete reversal.
Within a month of my revelation two things happened that portended things in the future.
