Chapter 41 - Mix and Match
In a society where the primary purpose of sex is to have children, it seems that monogamy rules. This may be necessary when one considers that right now in our society children are often home for 18 or more years before flying the coop. Monogamy seems to provide stability for this long-term task of rearing children to adulthood in a continuous nurturing environment. The price that monogamous people pay for their stable home is a marriage that often grows stale and lifeless.
Because Ted and Carol could not have children, they did not feel so bound by this constraint. While Ted and Carol would not have liked the idea that they "used" other people, the fact is that they brought other people into their sexual relationship for the purpose of keeping their relationship vibrant and fresh. It brought variety into their marriage that they otherwise would not have experienced.
I would imagine the majority of monogamous people who would look at Ted and Carol's marriage would not approve of what they did. But Ted and Carol did not have children. So if they miscalculated by bringing others into their marriage, it might destroy their marriage but there would be no children suffering from their mistake. Those people who are monogamous and properly so for the sake of their children and their family probably do not understand why anyone would want to put their marriage at risk just for the sake of variety. There was more than just variety.
There were several appeals. Pornography was something that they enjoyed. It provided visual sexual stimulation. There seems to be evidence that strong emotions attached to any stimulation greatly enhances the effect of the stimulation. So when watching pornography which features people with which one has no emotional connection, there is some stimulation going on. But if the pornography one is watching has the additional element of featuring one's husband or wife, with whom there is a great emotional attraction, the stimulation is greatly increased by the emotions that accompany it.
Then, in Ted and Carol's case, there was the emotion of jealousy. Jealousy is a rather strong emotion. Neither Ted nor Carol would try to kid anyone that when they saw their spouse receiving and giving sexual pleasure with someone else that there was no jealousy. There was. They kept it in check, and when their spouse returned to them the emotion connected with the jealousy was transferred to the reunion with their spouse and the great relief they felt when their spouse was safely back in their arms. Pillow talk about their infidelity allowed them to relive that emotional relief.
There was fear. It's related to jealousy but not the same thing. Again, in their choice of partners they tried to control for fear, but there was never a guarantee that either Ted or Carol was immune to ever being seduced out of their marriage by someone whose skills at seduction or intent to seduce they had seriously underestimated.
And then there was the variety. No two cocks are exactly the same, or vaginas. Nor are a person's style of foreplay, or their movements during intercourse or their favorite positions or how they spend the time after climax with their partner.
All these things combined fueled the life of their marriage. Sometimes they even experimented within these extramarital partners with whom they played. Some times Ted and Rose would double date with Carol and Jason. There was a fair amount of controlled jealousy there. It upped the ante by more than they thought it would when Jason asked Rose to dance with him for the first time. There was a time that Jason fucked Dorothy while Karl fucked Carol. That really heated up the night.
One of the hottest nights was when Jean and her Fuck Buddy, Ralph went on a double date with Carol and Jason, except that they exchanged partners in the middle of the night. Before the end of the night Ralph had fucked Carol in the playroom in front of Jean and Jason, and Jason had fucked Jean in front of Carol and Ralph. This spurred some rather intense feelings that led to really hot sex when Jason reclaimed Carol and Ralph reclaimed Jean. And during this time Ted and Claude were watching what was going on, so that when Ralph and Jason left there was an even more intense coupling as Ted took back Carol and Claude took back Jean, both of them in their respective marital beds.
These extra marital events were more the exception than the rule. Ted likened it to going to a concert - Carol thought it was more like going to an amusement park. In any case it was great fun when you did it, but you wouldn't want to do it all the time. Over the next few years a few more young guys were brought in to join with Ted in fucking Carol until she was all fucked out. But besides
Jean and Claude, Connie and Terry, Jason, Rose, and Karl and Dorothy, and a few of the men Carol had taught how to fuck, no one else was needed in this circle of intimate friends.