Technical Sex

It was at breakfast that Julianne dropped the bomb. Or lit the fire, depending on how you looked at it. Kevin wasn't sure how to look at it.

They had been dating for almost a year. Dating exclusively--though exactly what that meant after her little shocker was a nice conundrum for him to turn over and over in his mind that week and after. They had had several conversations about making things more permanent, and as most of those conversations had ended with Kevin and Julianne naked in bed, the relationship seemed to be proceeding nicely.

What Julianne said this particular morning was not completely without context, however; something they had been discussing a lot lately was their erotic life, and how to improve it. Not that it was bad, no, but it was not the conflagration that either of them hoped for. Kevin knew some, or maybe a lot, of that was his doing. Or not-doing. She didn't seem to blame him, though, and the truth was that neither of them was very sure how to get to what seemed like a mutually understood destination.

Now she looked at him steadily over her coffee cup, signaling that the breakfast-time banter about work and other trivia was at an end.

"Kevin, I need to ask you something. It's awkward, but important." She sipped coffee. "Actually, I need to give you some background first, and then ask you. So...the whole Lucy thing."

He brightened. "Ahh, the Lucy thing! OK, I like where this is going," he said, encouragement in his eyes.

The "whole Lucy thing" was the recently-disclosed story of Julianne's colleague and their mutual friend Lucy, married to another mutual friend. Prior to their marriage, Lucy had had some kind of epiphany that had apparently heated up her romantic life with then-fiance Rob dramatically. It had seemed to be connected to some erotic literature she had found. Kevin and Julianne had shared some pillow talk about whether or not Lucy and Rob's formula might work for them.

"Well, hang on, buckaroo. Because I did not tell you the whole story."

She paused, then continued.

"So, she gave him those stories, the ones she had spent a year finding, the ones that contained passages that really turned her on. Seems straightforward enough, right? Well, now, as someone distinctly un-sexy says, you're going to find out the rest of the story. Because you and I, it turns out, were missing a rather crucial part of the, ah, formula.

"When Lucy found all those stories, see, she wasn't actually just naturally reading erotica and then circling the parts she liked. As it turns out, that was all a sham to cover for what had really happened." She looked at him intently, sipped some more, continued. "And what had really happened was that she had

done

all of those things, every last one of them. And she had done them all over a space of couple of

days

. It took her months to find stories that basically matched what she had done, stories that covered all of the delicious ground she wanted Rob to explore with her 'till death do them part."

Kevin considered this. "So, she used the stories as a way to kind of indirectly communicate what she had done with--with an old boyfriend? I guess that's actually pretty clever...I don't suppose Rob wanted her to tell him all about what had happened between her and the Romeos of her past."

Julianne gave him a devilish grin, but her eyes held something darker.

"Yeah, I suppose that would be pretty clever. But Kevin, the couple of days where she did all those things? That was while she was dating Rob."

Kevin, taken aback, let out a long, low whistle. Considered this revelation a moment before speaking.

"Yowza. You're saying she cheated on him." He ate some lox, looked at Julianne with genuine concern in his eyes while the words hung there. "Jesus, are they OK? Are they splitting up?"

"She hasn't told Rob. She told me. And the reason she told me is what I'm getting at here today. So....this is about Jaap."

Here was a twist that pretzeled the first twist. Jaap was a lighting guy that Julianne and Lucy had worked with the previous year, and a couple of times before that. Julianne and Lucy worked for a catering company and they saw Jaap sometimes on location shoots. He and Lucy had done what reportedly was some scorching flirting on a couple of these shoots, though until this moment Kevin didn't realize it had gone further. But Lucy was not the only woman enjoying Jaap's attentions. Julianne had confessed one night (with another of her patented devilish grins) that she, herself, had done some flirting with him. Kevin hadn't known what to make of that at first, but oddly, the fact that Julianne had brashly come right out and admitted it--and, more to the point, had reassured him that she would never act on it in any way remotely serious or physical--had actually let him not only make peace with it, but even get a bit of a vicarious sexy thrill from it. He felt a little weird about that, but couldn't deny that it turned him on.

"OK, what about him," Kevin asked. "Oh, well, yeah, of course. So they--"

"--they sure did," Julianne said, continuing the story. "Like bunnies, apparently. Not cute innocent ones, either. Lucy didn't have any romantic feelings toward him at all, but she decided one night that she was going to see where the flirtation led, and it led straight to a motel room, and some pretty heavy fireworks. So, the word on ol' Jaap is that, while he is not anyone she wanted to have in her life in a permanent way at all, he is...quite exquisitely talented in one particular area. Besides lighting. So, she had this fling with him, it ended when the shooting was over, he moved on--and

she

had a lot of newfound carnal knowledge that she wanted to share with Rob. But of course she wasn't about to tell him. So she hit upon the idea of pretending to become interested in erotic literature, and she searched around for stories that pretty much matched what she and Jaap had done. She gave them to Rob, who was none the wiser but apparently much the hotter for it, and things have been pretty darn swell for them since."

Kevin thought he knew now where this was going.

"I get it." He grinned at her. "So you wanted to ask me if we could get some sexy stories too? Sure, yeah, that's a great idea." Then another thought occurred to him. "Or did she give you hers?"

Julianne gave him a long gaze before answering. Set down her coffee cup. Brushed back her hair.

"Not exactly, sweetheart. What I wanted to ask you is...shit, this is not easy!"

His heart rate jumped. She bit her lip; looked down. Looked back up.

"Kevin, Jaap is on the shoot next week. I'm going to come right out and say it. What I am asking you, Kevin, is for your permission for me to have an erotic experience with someone else."

* * *

A very long silence between them. Eyes down, up, down again. He was completely stunned. Lost his breath. Actually felt that he was going to pass out for a few moments.

"Uh...Julianne, I..." He stopped. He could not find any words. He could not believe what he had just heard. Of course there was no possible way he would agree. Even if it meant the end of their relationship. He couldn't allow something like that.

She took his hand.

"Baby, there's no way to make it sound like anything other than a relationship-ender, I realize that. But if we are going to get married, we do need to heat things up, and neither of us has figured out how to do that yet. I know this is going to sound crazy to you, but I see this almost like going to a...personal trainer, or a technician of some kind. I mean, it seems he has some...techniques...that have really, really

helped

Lucy and Rob. Now, I absolutely don't agree with the way Lucy did this. It's scandalous and...actually frankly pretty hot to talk about it, really! But she full-on cheated on him, and that's not right. You know that I haven't done that to you, right?"

He laughed bitter scorn, pulled back his hand. "What the fuck does

that

mean now, Julianne?" His eyes flashed angrily. But, disturbingly, he also was aware that he was intensely, almost shockingly, turned on. He wondered if she could tell. This was deeply confusing. She gave him some time before going on.

"But the difference is, I'm asking, I'm not just going out and doing. We have to do something, and hearing Lucy talk about her sex with him kind of convinced me that this would make a difference for me...for us. And this is not an ultimatum, baby, but we really do need to get things into overdrive or else maybe..." She looked down, then up at him again. "Maybe think about moving on."

Kevin sat in silence. She held his eyes steadily with her own eyes, maybe the most beautiful he had ever seen. He did not want to imagine a future without Julianne. A second ago he had mentally resolved that he couldn't allow this ourtrageous proposition, even if it meant losing her. Now, staring at the woman he loved, he wasn't so sure. He was still in shock, but the cause of his shock slowly changed, changed completely. He was shocked because he knew now, with an odd clarity that cut directly through the storm of emotions, that he was going to tell her yes.

* * *

He spent that night at her house, and the following three. The fourth day was the day Julianne had arranged for her "date" with the famous, or maybe infamous, lighting man. Over those three nights (which Kevin thought grimly might be the last of their relationship), they didn't sleep much; the sex they had was some of the best either of them could remember. Kevin was far from comfortable with what he had agreed to, sometimes wanted to rescind his acceptance, almost did a couple of times. But there was also unquestionably a naughty thrill in the scheme, for both of them, and it leavened and fired their sex.

On the appointed morning, when Julianne came out of the shower, she fixed him with one of her signature grins. With her bobbed brown hair, cobalt blue eyes, and lips that seemed never to be without a fresh coat of crimson (even now, right out of the shower!) she looked like a sultry cigarette ad from some bygone era. Maybe the thirties. Kevin grinned back at her, and suddenly a sense of relief flooded through him.

"Hey, babe, I believe I know what that grin means," he said.

She arched her eyebrows.

"I believe you do," she said. "It means that I am going to go out tonight and get laid. And you, though you won't be there this one time, are going to be the beneficiary of this lay for many, many years."

He deflated; this was not what he had expected. After the last three nights, he had suddenly felt sure that the foxy grin meant she had decided to call the whole dangerous adventure off. After all, hadn't they rocked the house these last few nights? Yet, once again, along with the surprise and anxiety, he found himself turned on. He said nothing.

Much less surprisingly, Julianne herself was practically dripping. She had been aboveboard (more or less) with Kevin, he had agreed to her plan, and she was glad for that; but she had not disclosed everything she had in mind.

They parted that morning with a kiss. A nice kiss, but a little nervous. On both their parts.

* * *

Julianne had told Kevin that she would be "going out" with Jaap after the final shooting was done that day. This was actually a lie; the final shooting had finished the previous day. She had, in fact, arranged to spend the whole day with her lighting man. She had decided this on the basis of the escalating flirtation between them that had driven her much further to distraction than she had expected. She had, further, determined that if this was going to be her last fling before marriage, and if it was going to be instructional--which she really did believe and intend for it to be--then she was going to need more than a couple of hours after a long workday. Making the arrangement was simplicity itself; Jaap had nowhere in particular he had to be for the next two weeks, and assignations with location personnel were nothing new to him. They were a side benefit of the job that he enjoyed immensely.

Lucy dropped Julianne off shortly after nine in the morning at the hotel she had booked. It was a mission-style building, and the rooms all had windowed doors that gave on a central courtyard with a fountain. Long, luxurious vines twined out of earthenware pots and along the walls inside the room, giving a sense of the outdoors while still inside. It was a great environment for what Julianne and Jaap had in mind. The plants suggested fecundity, vitality. The twining vines suggested bodies deliciously entangled.

Jaap showed up shortly after she did. Complimented her on the red dress and black stiletto heels she had put on for him. Took her hand and led her toward the bed. Julianne giggled, a little nervous.

"Not much for preliminaries, are you," she teased.

"Yeah, there's preliminaries. Don't worry, Jules, I got you covered."

Julianne had been clear from the beginning that she was not interested in anything but flirtation (or, now, sex, but only pure, technical sex) with Jaap. The way he talked grated on her. With his first name she had assumed, before their first gig together a few years back, that he would have a European accent of some kind, and the sophistication that always seemed to go with such accents. But it turned out he had grown up in LA and talked like any Bob or Mike. Actually, less articulately than a lot of Bobs and Mikes.

He had brought a gym bag, which she had not noticed at first, so nervous and distracted was she about the day's events. Now he opened the bag and took out a bottle of massage oil. She saw some kind of gauzy cloth in the bag, too, and some other things that were not quite visible enough to identify.

"Lie down, Jules." (She hated that nickname, but, as she had no desire to build any kind of actual affection with Jaap, she didn't say anything.) She lay down on the bed and wiggled her toes to let the stilettos drop off her feet onto the tile floor.

"We have to get a little comfortable, so we'll do some massages. I'll do you, you'll do me. Want me to go first?"

'Go first' was a bit ambiguous--did that mean be the masseur or the client?--but she decided that this was not a bad way to start. In fact, maybe a very nice way. With any luck, there wouldn't be much conversation, and a massage could be done with surprisingly little intimacy. Professionals, of course, did it all the time.

"Sure, you can go first, that sounds nice," she said. She felt awkward enough that her earlier flirtation wasn't coming out like she expected it to. She needed to relax.

"Jules. I'll need to get inside that dress to massage you. You're a real looker in it, but I don't think you'll be bad out of it, either."

She sat up, smiled demurely at him. "Unzip me?"

He did, and she stepped into the bathroom and closed the door. She emerged a moment later wrapped in a towel, and lay down on the bed.

And thus, they began.

* * *

Kevin, at work.

Not calling (no reason to; he didn't suspect what Julianne was doing all day, and she never answered her phone on shooting days, which he thought this was, anyway). He found it all but impossible to concentrate on his work--which should have been exactly the balm he needed for his frayed nerves.

And he knew it wouldn't be any better tonight...tonight, when he knew that his beautiful Julianne would be undressing with another man, touching him, kissing him, making love to him. And quite possibly enjoying it more than she ever had with him.

* * *

PART II

He expected her in late, but not this late. He had asked her to come back to his place after her "date," and she had agreed. When he finally heard her open the door, he didn't need to look at the clock to know it was after three; he'd been marking the hours with a sleepless mix of jealousy, dread, arousal, and curiosity.

So it had happened...it had definitely happened. He listened to her getting ready. Her shoes clunking to the floor in the hall. Teeth being brushed, face-washing sounds. All the time he knew that her mind was swirling with images of what she'd just done. Did she feel ecstatic? Remorseful? Some of each? If it had been incredible, would she stay with him? He firmly believed that one instance of magical sex could change someone's feelings about the partner, permanently. He wondered if that had happened with her feelings about Jaap.

When she came in, he didn't bother to pretend to be asleep. He turned on the light, because he wanted to see her face.

He could tell. Man, could he tell. Could read it on her as plainly as words. She had a flush in her cheeks that was visible even in the dim light of the bedside lamp; there was something in her eyes, too. This was a well-fucked woman, no question about it. She looked at him a long time, then smiled a sweet, tired smile.

"Baby," she said.

"Hi," he said, suddenly as much at a loss for words as he had been when she first raised the idea those days ago.

She sat down on the bed and covered his hand with hers.

"So, well, I guess I should ask how it was," Kevin ventured.

She put a finger to his lips. "We'll talk about it tomorrow. It's Saturday. We have all day." They looked at each other for a while. "It's going to be fine. It's all going to be just fine."

He wasn't sure what to make of that, but he turned off the light and lay back onto the pillow. He wanted to hold her, but also didn't want to.

She took his hand again in the dark.

"It was nice." She paused, a beat. Two. "It was really nice."

* * *

Later, much later, arousal overcame jealousy, and he turned toward Julianne in the darkness and the silence. He reached around her, tentatively touched her breast. She sighed and snuggled back against him, spoonlike. Small movements became bigger movements, and soon he slipped inside her and they fucked a quiet, langourous fuck, in spoon position all the while.

After that, he slept.

* * *

In the morning, he noticed her nails. Her fingernails were a candy-apple red. A damned sexy color--and distinctly

not

the pearly pink she had had on yesterday morning.

"A special color for your date?"

"Yep. I had them done after work."

This was a lie.

[It was after the second time, or maybe the third...she was snoozing, feeling a little delirious and a lot spent. She awakened to a touch on her hand, and it was Jaap, and he had a bottle of nail polish in his hand and the little brush. She giggled, spoke. --What are you doing? --Shh, baby, I though we should, you know, give you a little something to remember this by. Not that she was going to forget this. He was lying on his side, naked. She could feel his cock stirring against her leg, and it gave her a pleasant adrenaline kick. She closed her eyes and let him hold her hand delicately in his while he re-decorated her nails.]

"Looks nice. That's a change for you."

The double entendre hung between them.

"Kevin, let's finish breakfast and then go right to bed. It'll be easier to discuss what we have to discuss when we're both...you know...hot and ready."

He was hot and ready now, but he supposed one had to eat.

She sat across from him when the toast was ready, and they ate in a silence that was companionable enough, but pregnant too. He looked up at her when he felt her bare toes slide up his calf; gave her a hesitant smile.

[Her toes. She never would have guessed they held any erotic potential for her. It was later in the afternoon. Several fucks later than the nail-painting. Now she was lying on her back with the gauzy material she had seen in Jaap's gym bag draped across her eyes and spread out on the bed. It was a blindfold by the honor system, and doubly effective. Since the slightest gesture would brush it off (and simply opening her eyes would allow her to see through it), she remained blindfolded only as long as she willed it. He took her foot in his hand and massaged it. When he brushed his lips over her toes, her lips parted and her breath caught. Just slightly, but he heard. When he took a toe into his mouth and sucked ever so gently on it, she moaned. With his free hand, he placed a sex toy in her hand. --Do yourself with this, now. --Really? She giggled. --Yes, and make sure you do it exactly the way you like it. --Mmm, she said. He continued with her toes while she got used to the toy...