Unneeded

At the end of chapter 1, I confessed I was divided in mind about how the tale should end, and asked for comments. Quite a few suggested I leave it as it was, finished in one episode, and I admit to being tempted. But the implication that there would be an ending seemed an obligation. Some said, "take your time," others said, "don't make us wait." The theme suggestions were all over the map, but one captured my imagination. It started, "Please don't have the therapist be some man hating moron..." As you'll see below, that's the one I took to heart.

==============

The marriage counselor looked up from the notes she'd been taking. "So, you'd like my professional opinion about your situation. Do you mind if I develop it through Socratic questions, Mrs. Anderson?" she asked.

"Not if that helps. Call me Lisa."

"Thank you. And I'm Karen if you will. So, Lisa. Why do you want to stay married?"

"What!?"

"The statutes in this State and the judges in this jurisdiction bend over backwards to accommodate long term stay-at-home mothers. You'd get the kids, the house, half the other assets and most of your husband's paycheck for years. Why don't you just put your dilemma behind you in divorce court?"

"What kind of marriage counselor starts by suggesting divorce?" Lisa demanded shrilly.

"These questions are intended to focus

your

thinking, not to reveal

my

thinking. With that in mind, let's take it from the top. Why not just serve your husband Lars with papers?"

"Because I

love

my husband! Haven't I made that clear?"

Karen made an elaborate show of paging back through her notes, as if scanning them for evidence. When she reached the end of the pages, she caught Lisa's eyes with her own and slowly shook her head "no."

Lisa's outrage deflated visibly. "I love my husband. He's my mate, not my meal ticket. I never want to be parted from him," she said, subdued.

"You've given me a lot more disclosure than you've given him lately. If

I

couldn't work that out from what I've heard, isn't there some chance

he's

in doubt?"

"I guess he might well be," Lisa murmured, chastened.

"Does he love you?"

"I never doubted it until this crazy time. Even now, wouldn't it be hard for him to continue to be giving, month after month, if he felt

no

love?"

"What have you done that's unforgivable?"

When the question registered with Lisa, multiple emotions flashed across her face, terror prime among them. Then she noticed Karen's composed face. Slowly, the correct answer dawned on her. "Nothing."

"Clarify, please."

"I took the kid's side in the matter of the promotion. I withheld sex for three weeks. I spent family money on a wild goose chase. These are serious faults, but they're faults the Lars I married could forgive."

"What has your husband done that's unforgivable?"

"Nothing. He seems to be training himself to do without me, and that makes me sad. But if there

was

anything to forgive, I'd do it in a heartbeat."

"If a husband and wife still love each other, and neither has done anything unforgivable, prospects are favorable. Why

didn't

you start with a couple's session with me?"

"The reason I didn't do that yet is that when a wife drags her husband to a marriage counselor, the default assumption is

she

has complaints. His mental narrative could be, 'I'm giving everything and taking nothing, and she

still

has complaints! What does a guy have to do these days?' I wanted to hear your take before I risked that."

"What are some of the ways you used to give to him that he's avoiding?"

"With all modesty, I am a

great

cook; he's got to be missing his favorite recipes. I made sure we had a good social life, and he hasn't made full use of that like he used to. I always strive to choose things

he'd

like, even if they're not

my

favorite." Lisa smiled wanly. "I haven't dragged him to a 'chick flick' in years."

"What are the ways he kept giving to the family so that you didn't diagnose this earlier?"

"All kinds of ways. We went to family events together, we had good date nights, he rubbed my tired feet while listening to me talk, and brought home flowers from time to time. Lots of little stuff, too."

"How cognizant do you suppose he was, doing all this?"

"Beg pardon?"

"To what extent was he following a conscious plan, and to what extent was he following subconscious desires?"

"Um...There had to be some planning. Partially cognizant, I guess you'd say."

"Why did he bother to hide his intention to be less mutually dependent? Wouldn't a more open approach have prompted you to make changes? What advantage does he gain from stealth?"

"To make me hurt more when he walked out?" Sheila's doubt was manifest on her face.

"Doesn't that sound like a lot of work for little benefit?"

Sheila suddenly got Karen's point. "To have an abort switch! To be able to pull the plug on his plan if he changed his mind so that I'd never know."

"What does that make you think you should strive for?"

"My best result will be to get him to decide to use that abort switch."

"You said you considered a 'slow and steady' approach. What are the potential disadvantages with that?"

Lisa thought about it for a bit. "If we hit some shock, my fragile position might totally shatter, even if up until that moment he hadn't wanted to

actually

leave me."

"What are the disadvantages of a 'provoke jealousy' strategy?"

Karen's 'Socratic method' was challenging, but Lisa conceded mentally that it was working. Once again she pondered at length, and Karen waited patiently. "My goal is to make him comfortable taking marital rewards from me as he used to. Showing him evidence that I could easily shift my rewards to someone else would only make him more fearful of depending on an unreliable source," she finally reasoned.

"What are the disadvantages of a 'sexual domination' strategy?"

"It could fail disastrously."

"Think back to the matter of the promotion and put yourself in his shoes. What were his emotions when he conceded your point?"

"Disappointment."

"Mostly disappointment, but also some..."

Lisa's eyes narrowed briefly in thought. After a beat she answered. "Humiliation."

"A teaspoon of humiliation caused him to give up on a twenty year habit of mutual dependence with you. What would happen if you tried to force feed him a bowlful of it?"

"Ka-boom." Lisa pantomimed an explosion with her fingertips. "You've blown up all the ideas I came in here with. Thank you for that. What

do

I do then?"

"What are your assets in this situation?"

"His past is all bound up with me: our friends, our home, our many memories of good years together."

"True. Does his 'don't stop giving' strategy provide a loophole you can use?"

Lisa frowned in thought, then a slow smile crept across her face. "If I ask for something reasonable, he has to give it or risk the revealing of his ruse."

"How can you use that to rebuild your marriage?"

"I could ask for something that also requires him to take something reciprocally."

"In the interest of generating some momentum in your favor, is there anything he's always wanted from you that you've never given?"

Lisa turned bright scarlet. "He...we..." She paused to gain composure. Karen waited with the patience she seemed to have in abundance. Finally Lisa restarted. "I give him oral sex, but I've never let him go all the way. I just couldn't bring myself to do it, and he gave up asking years ago."

"Does he give you oral sex?"

"Oh, yes. He's good at it. It's my favorite part."

"Does he get your vaginal lubrication on his face when he does it?"

Lisa looked embarrassed and guilty. "Of course he does."

"Do you withhold because of the squeamish factor, or is there something more?"

"Just squeamish, I guess."

"Suppose it were possible to reduce your inhibitions in this area. Would you do it?"

"Yes," Lisa admitted, wondering where this was going.

"Very well. Would you lie down on that couch please?"

Lisa gulped audibly. Karen was going to do something about that oh-so-intimate subject right here and now? Lisa was hesitant, but Karen seemed to understand her better than Lisa understood herself. She got up from the chair and settled down on the couch as bidden.

***

When Lars entered his house after work the following Friday evening, he was set to say, "Honey, I'm home!" But the sound of two voices in full-bellied laughter from the dining room cut him off. He remained silent when his wife's voice emerged from the mirth. It had traces of shock, embarrassment, and delight within it. "No...you didn't do

that

! You

did

!"

"We sure did, at least once a month."

That other voice was full of pride as well as delight. Lars was sure he'd heard it before. He cudgeled his memory and identified it: that somewhat older widow from down the block...Millie! That was the name.

"Yes, we were quite the hot couple. I miss him every day," Millie reminisced.

"I wonder if Lars would play like that? I've been a real crab this last month; maybe that 'hot housewife from the audience' game you told me about would make it up to him. I know

I

want to try it."

"Well, it always put a smile on my husband's face for days. It couldn't hurt to ask Lars."

"Can I freshen your coffee?"

"No, I should go. I have a date!" Millie finished brightly.

"Oh! That's good."

"It's been a year. It's time I was out in the world again − meet some nice man."

Lars heard chairs pushing back. He opened the front door and this time did say, "Honey! I'm home."

Lisa and Millie emerged from the dining room. Lisa stepped forwards and kissed her husband. "Welcome home, Dear."

Millie moved towards the door. "I should be going." She paused and looked Lars up and down. "You might be in for an 'interesting evening,'" she noted archly. Then she went out.

Back inside, Lars played dumb. "What did she mean by that?"

"The stories she was just telling me about the sex games she and her husband used to play! My face went red over and over!" A smile full of mischief brightened her face. "Drop that briefcase," she demanded. "Let's not waste this moment when the kids are all out for the evening." She grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the entrance to the dining room.

As she pulled him along she clarified, "Your role in this game is 'Morpheo the Magnificent,' stage hypnotist. I was in your show last evening and you desired me so much that you didn't remove the obedience trigger. That trigger is...what?"

Lisa could see that Lars was a bit off-balance by the rush of events. "Uhh...'blue moon?'"

"That's good. You're so smitten that you've thrown ethics to the wind. You just

have

to have that housewife from the audience. What's my fantasy name?"

"Uhh...I suppose, Judy?" It had been Karen's suggestion to move with unseemly haste at this moment, and that intuition seemed to be correct.

"I'm Judy, then. You've traced me to a restaurant and intend to have your way with me. Give me ten seconds, then make your entrance." She scurried around the corner and Lars heard a few hasty preparations being made. He was dazed by all this, but he had to admit, he

was

curious. After ten seconds, he entered as bidden.

Lisa was sitting at the table, nibbling at a cookie in the fastidious way one uses at a restaurant but not at home. She took a sip of coffee. She pretended not to notice him.

Apparently the first line was his. "Good evening, Judy," Lars said.

Lisa looked exaggeratedly closely, as if she didn't recognize him for a few seconds. Then she let her face assume a visage of desire and apprehension mixed. "Morpheo!"

Lars sat down at the table without being asked. He supposed that he was supposed to play this role dominantly. "It's nice to see you again, Judy. Did you enjoy being in my show?"

"Yes. It was fun, being able to let my hair down in front of everybody. It was even a little...umm," she cast her eyes down demurely, "hot."

"You were a good subject, the kind that only comes around once in a

blue moon

."

Lisa let emotion slide from her face. Her head rose and adopted a level, neutral posture. She was more channeling movies and TV shows, rather than her recent actual experience. "Yes, master?" she murmured.

Lars continued to make it up as he went along. "Do you live nearby?"

"Yes, master."

"Take me there."

"Yes, master." She led Lars sedately up the stairs and to their bedroom. "I live here," she revealed. Then she waited for Lars to make the next move, standing with eyes ahead.

"Since I put on a show for you, it's only fair you put on one for me," Lars said, getting into the game in spite of any reservations he might have had if allowed to think matters through. "Since you're a strip tease artist, undress artistically for me."

Lisa was glad Lars had decided to go that way. She'd known most of this would be

ad lib

, but she was a fair dancer for a housewife. She elected to cha-cha to music playing only in her own head as she unbuttoned her blouse heartbreakingly slowly. Lars sat down on a recliner to watch the show he'd commanded. Lisa teased unmercifully, playfully reaching behind her back to unsnap her bra six times before finally deigning to do it. Even then, she didn't let the cups fall from her breasts − not yet anyway! She swayed and danced, and did take her arms out of the straps. She hinted at revealing her curves many times, and when she actually did it, without a "tell" preceding it, Lars' breath caught in this throat. Lisa smiled knowingly.

Her middle-aged breasts and nipples had swelled and diminished three times to feed her babies, so they didn't have the resilience of youth. But experienced breasts have a charm of their own, and Lisa shifted from the cha-cha to the sidestep to set her bosom into swaying motion. She pulled the zipper on her skirt down a single inch, then pulled her hands back to her breasts. She pinched her nipples and rolled them between finger and thumb. Only after feeling herself up thoroughly did she vouchsafe Lars a second inch of her zipper.

Lisa reached up under the hem of the very skirt with which Lars was being teased. She let her face suggest that her questing hand had found something remarkable. She retracted fingertips glistening with lubrication, which she used to paint her nipples, stiffening them visibly. She gifted him with another inch of her zipper, but that wasn't quite enough to allow the garment to fall.

She shifted her dance steps again into a hula. The movement of her swaying hips tugged at that infernal zipper, disengaging tooth by tooth, slowly. Without warning, the critical level was reached and the skirt fell to her feet. Only powder blue satin panties kept her show from being complete.

Lisa pantomimed slow dancing with an invisible lover. Her arms seemed to be around unseen shoulders, but she ground her

mons

against the empty air where the phantom's cock would surely have been. Finally, she peeled those panties from around her hips, inch by inch, folding the edge over again and again until their lost their grip on her hips and fell around her ankles. For a dramatic ending, she kneeled down before her husband, eyes downcast, submissive.

Will he or nil he, Lars was fully engaged in the scene. "Tell me what you are, Judy."

"I am your sex slave, master," Lisa whispered, her eyes still submissively averted.

"You may undress me, slave." Lars stood up before her.

"Thank you master," Lisa efficiently undressed her husband. He seated himself again.

"Are you aroused, my slave?"

"Unbearably, master," Lisa whimpered, not entirely pretending.

"You have my permission to masturbate."

"Thank you, master!" Lisa lay back on the carpet, spread her legs wide, and drew her knees up to offer Lars the clearest view. Her left hand pistoned in and out of her vagina, her right hand whipped her sweet spot frantically to and fro. She noticed through slitted eyes that Lars was stroking himself slowly while watching her with rapt eyes. "Don't go too far, honey," she begged in the silence of her mind. "That has to be

my

job!"

Mercifully quickly, Lisa got her cookies and let her hands slide bonelessly to the carpet in token of it. Lars took note of it. "Are you sated, Judy?"

"Oh, yes!" Lisa's smile was beatific.

"Suck my cock, slave."

Silently, Lisa exulted. This was what she'd hoped for, what this scene was really intended to provoke: her husband

asking

for oral sex. Lars was about to get a surprise, Lisa thought. In a vocalization so faint it really only sounded within her own head, Lisa intoned, "Pink kiwifruit." That triggered the only

real

hypnosis occurring on that occasion. Karen's skillfully placed suggestions began to unwind from her subconscious.

{When you speak the words, 'pink kiwifruit,' aloud, no matter how faintly, you'll be filled with the desire to bring pleasure to your husband orally. First you'll feel your mouth open, forming the cutest little pink 'O'. For a few seconds, it will be an irresistible reflex. You'll feel your mouth to be achingly empty.}

Lars smiled to see his wife approach on her knees with her eyes full of lechery. Her mouth was open as if lust crazed. She paused for a moment and gazed on his member with naked desire, her lips parted like a sex doll's. Then she pounced, hungrily.

{Feel the vital warmth of it in your mouth. The pulse of his heartbeat within his erection vibrates rhythmically against your tongue. Your femininity, your desirability...that's what made him hard. Glory in it.}

Lars watched in fascination as Lisa's head bobbed up and down. She'd never seemed so engaged before. His view of what she was doing was particularly erotic; the scene was softened and slightly hidden by her long hair as her stroking head caused the tresses to whirl and dance. Her right hand's gentle grip moved along with her mouth and reinforced its effect. Her left hand cradled his balls lovingly.

{It's almost as if your mouth has become a second vagina. What does your mouth-pussy want? What all pussies want: to be filled up with their mate's seed. Lars is your mate. You

want

his cum. Your mouth-pussy can make him surrender it; cocks weren't designed to say no to pussies.}

This was the best sex Lars had ever had! His wife was using her lips, her tongue, and her hands in perfect harmony and with a wild abandon he'd never seen. His passion raced higher and higher. It was with a stab of emotional pain he murmured, "I'm close, hon," their time-worn warning that it was time for her to stop. He'd never been more reluctant to say it.

{Let all the love you feel fill you up. Be the best lover in the world for your man. Bind his love to you by the pleasure he feels and the attention you lavish on him.}

Lars was trembling like a leaf. "Hon, I'm close!" he said louder. But Lisa wasn't going to stop. Lars' eyes opened wide in realization of that, then slammed shut as the moment of inevitability seized him.

{When he reaches the peak and your start to feel his hot, thick cum in your mouth, your engagement will be total. There's no way you'll be able separate from him until his climax has run it's course. You couldn't bear that. Flick his sensitive rim with your tongue, pump with your hand, and let him fill you up. Taste the proof of your skill. Take all of it. You're filled with pride and happiness at your accomplishment.}

His climax seemed to go on and on! Lisa kept up all she was doing so as to make Lars' experience all it could be, pumping and licking. When it was finally over, she knew to shift to slower, milking strokes to complete his experience.