My wife Linda and I have always played the lottery. We never expected to win, but we would often spend time talking about what we would do with the winnings. When it finally happened, it caught us by surprise and the shock lasted for several days. We held the only winning ticket to a $342 million jackpot. After taxes and taking the lump sum we cleared just over $150 million. Even today, we still can't believe it.
We knew that winning the lottery would change our lives, but if you'd told us then what the years following the win would have brought, we never would have believed you. We now had the money to do whatever we wanted. What would you do? How would you change?
I'm Kurt and my wife is Linda. When we won the lottery, we'd been married for 24 great years and had two kids who were both in college. We were becoming accustomed to being empty nesters at 50 and 48 respectively. The freedom to go out whenever we wanted, to sleep in and walk around our own house without clothes were all part of our new life without kids around. They'd been out of the house for about a year when we won the lottery. Of course the first thing we did, after running around the house like idiots yelling we won, was to call our boys. They came home that weekend to help us celebrate. By that time, we'd already hired a lawyer and several financial advisors to help us get a plan in place before claiming the prize. We were able to accept the award through a foundation we set up so that we could remain anonymous. We all agreed that we did not want the notoriety and problems that come along with that.
We didn't make any drastic changes in our lifestyle, at least initially. The boys went back to their respective colleges, albeit with new cars to replace the junkers we gave them when they went off. The only other splurge during that first month was a shopping trip to the mall for Linda and some new golf clubs I'd been eyeing for me.
What people don't understand is that this kind of instant money changes you. You start thinking about it all the time. You get worried about losing it or it running out. After another month, I "retired" from my job. The guys down at the office assumed I was just going to a competitor or something and didn't accept that I was retiring. Of course, they didn't know about the money.
It was then that Linda and I decided to take the trip of a lifetime...the one we'd always dreamed of. We had so much fun planning and couldn't wait to go. Linda was always a beautiful woman. She has dirty blond hair, a beautiful face and a great figure on her 5' 5'' frame. Even though we were in good shape, we both started working out more and we were both starting to look like the 50 year old models in the Cialis commercials.
Our trip was to begin with a week in Paris, followed by a week in Barcelona and then a 3 week mediterranean cruise to include Italy and Greece. We booked the most expensive cruise line and the biggest suite they had. The Cruise had the added advantage of being an adults only trip. We were giddy in anticipation and our sex life, which had always been good, had never been better. In fact, the fantasies we would share with each other in bed started to incorporate the idea that we could now afford anything we wanted. One of my favorite ones was to tell her I was going to take her to a luxury spa in Paris where she would be pampered, including a massage by four handsome French men who would please her in any and every way possible. This one always brought her to an extreme orgasm. And I have to admit the thought of watching her being pleased in this way was an extreme turn on for me too.
We'd often talked about our fantasies when making love, but recently, with the addition of the life changing money, it was almost as if we both knew that things were going to change. Many of our dreams and some of our fantasies were bound to come true. We didn't actually discuss this, but it seemed to be an understanding we both shared.
PARIS
We arrived in Paris from our overnight out of JFK at around 10 in the morning local time. We'd both slept comfortably in first class with the aid of a few glasses of wine and some sleeping
meds. The new first class accommodations didn't hurt either. Our private driver was waiting for us at baggage claim and he took us to the beautiful Hotel Barriere Le Fouquet's near the Arc de Triomphe. Our travel agent had seen to everything and our suite was spectacular. After checking in we arranged for a lunch at a street side cafe near the hotel. We were finally able to unwind with a glass of wine and a delicious food.
We'd talked about our itinerary before coming over, but now that we were here, we could tweak it and decide on the things we really wanted to do. I had been to Paris when I was in my early 20s, but Linda had not been before so we certainly wanted to hit the major tourist spots and she was particularly excited about the Louvre.
After finishing off a bottle of wine we walked for a mile or so until we came upon a rather large park. It must have been 75 degrees out during this sunny early May day and the park was rather busy. We sat down on a bench and enjoyed people watching.
We saw a man about my age, maybe a little older with a very attractive young lady. "His mistress?" I asked. She hit my arm and said, "I think its his daughter. But I know where you mind is."
We watched them for a while and they found a place on the grass and lounged back, looking at the sky. It wasn't long before he was leaning over her kissing her and whispering in her ear. "Clearly not his daughter...at least I hope not," I mused. We both laughed and we continued to watch them.
"Why are the French so much freer about sexuality," Linda pondered. "We tend to be such prudes in America it seems."
"Hmm, do you think we should be a bit more open in America?"