He looked at her and grinned his mischievous smile. The past few days had made her apprehensive of that smile. "I would like it if you showed me your boobs" he said.
She didn't feel anything about his request. It didn't turn her on, but it wasn't unreasonable. Here in their house. Alone in the kitchen.
She undid a few buttons of her blouse as he watched her hands. He expectantly stared at her as she pulled her bra straps down her shoulders slightly, and then smiled wider as she pulled back the cups.
She stood there for a little while in front of him with her nipples hardening in the cool air. She felt a little like empty eye candy, as he stood looking at her naked breasts. He didn't look her in the eye until he said "I would like it if you would let me kiss them."
She nodded slightly and looked at the ground. She had thought that seeing them was only going to be the beginning, and she was right. He stepped towards her and kissed her lips gently, but firmly. She kissed him back, keeping his lips to hers a little longer. She liked these sorts of kisses. Intimate and caring, between equals.
He pulled from the kiss, and then kissed down her neck. Sometimes this was sensual, but today it was just a brief visit before he returned to his main goal. He kissed in little pecks down to her nipple and paused. Her eyes had been closed since he had come for the first kiss. His pause made her nipple harden further, as did his breath against the sensitive flesh.
In a moment, his warm mouth was sucking on her nipple and some of her breast, making her unconsciously shift up on to her toes at the sensation. The slippery soft warmth of his tongue circled and massaged her nipple.
As he continued, she could begin to feel the edge of interest stirring. She wasn't turned on yet, but she was on the right path. She wondered how it would go this time. What he would make her do. She knew he would be thinking of something. Something that wasn't what she wanted. How did he want to use her today?
She sighed inwardly. Wondering how they'd gone so far from the path that she'd hoped for. He didn't notice her sigh.
The doorbell rang. She could see someone's outline through the frosted glass of the front door, reflected in the hall mirror. She suddenly felt quite exposed as he pulled away, leaving her wet nipple cooling in the air.
He smiled and said "I'll get it. You can leave those out if you like." He glanced over his shoulder with that same smile, as he headed to the hall.
She pulled her bra back into place and did up her blouse buttons as he opened the door. She quickly turned around so then the man at the door didn't see what she was doing in the mirror's reflection. "Come in" he said, making her double up her speed. She huffed at the buttons. They were too small and stiff for being done up quickly.
She settled for one lower than normal just as she heard footsteps in the kitchen behind her. She spun round and smiled in a friendly if slightly too enthusiastic way. She was conscious that her cheeks were a little flushed from the panicked buttoning.
"Hello!" she said brightly to her husband's friend. They'd been expecting him for dinner that evening, but not just at that moment. He smiled and said hello a little awkwardly. He was quite shy until he had some drinks in him, and then sometimes too brash. She wondered if she could encourage him towards the tipsy chatty middle ground that she actually quite liked. He wasn't exactly bad looking, especially-
Pop.
She felt the top button undo itself. The one that was already too low. It must have been half done in the rush. Both men's eyes immediately dropped to the extra cleavage on show. She took a breath, rallied, and quickly walked away from them towards the glasses cupboard.
"Would you like a drink?!" she offered, pink with embarrassment.
She took out three wine glasses and tried not to hear her husband's giggle behind her. The friend said, "Wow. Oh I... er... I mean sorry... er I... should... erm." He was floundering like a fish that'd suddenly found itself on a plate.
Just say yes and go into the next room. Or just shut up. Or just go. Anything! God.
She bent down to look in the bottom cupboard for a bottle of wine. Her tight work skirt restricting her movement a little.
"Honey," her husband managed, composing himself "I would like it if you would turn around and tell him what we were doing before he rang the bell."
She breathed out. She could hear them both leave an expectant silence. She knew what she was going to do. She straightened up. Turned around. Paused until the bright red friend locked eyes with her and took a breath.
This was not how it was meant to go.
When they had walked into that office two weeks ago, it wasn't for this. It wasn't for her to be his soulless toy. A tool for his dirty little fantasies.
They had walked into that office with a problem. It came in two parts: His sex drive was much higher than hers. This was the part that started the problem. The second part was the unhealthy spiral that they had trapped themselves in because of it. He had asked, demanded, negotiated, and finally begged for sex. The harder he tried, the more she put up her guard. The less interested she became in the alternately wheedling and sulking creep that had replaced her spouse.
When they did have sex it was fun, there was no denying it. But that didn't solve the problem. It only postponed it. The smug man with the satisfied smile faded back into the petulant teenager within a day or two.
The therapist's office had been simple and tidy. Nothing to distract them from him and each other. Their bickering and blame seemed to have faded in her memory. There was only the office and the therapist's voice.
"Yes. I think I understand now. A tightening circle of
demand
and
defence
. However, this is not a
battle
. Your goals do not
exclude
one another. For your relationship to work, your needs must
co-exist
. It is easy for me to say these things to you. It is hard to
