All characters in sexual situations are 18 or older. Thanks for reading!
Penelope woke to an empty bed the next morning. Before her sorrow at her husband's early day could mount, she noticed something. His side of the bed wasn't quite empty. Her heart pounded as she took in the details of a small velvet box with a red ribbon. It was right on her husband's pillow. "A gift from my beloved!" She squealed. Wearing her nightdress, she sat up in bed and carefully placed the box on her lap.
He knows that I miss him when he's at work. He wants me to be happy.
The anticipation filled her with such joy that she delayed opening it. "You knew this would be a hard day for me, and you brightened it," she said to the empty room. She was a good wife, and she was suffused with gratitude. Everything was as it should be. She couldn't have wiped the smile off her face if she'd tried.
"Okay, I'll open it." She untied the ribbon carefully with bare fingers and opened the lid. "Oh!" Her hands went to her face. Tucked perfectly in velvet inside the box was a platinum band exactly like her lost wedding ring and a small note. With a trembling hand, she lifted the note and read:
The world may not know what you lost. But I will return to you whatever I can, starting with your ring. Keep it under your glove, close to your skin, a symbol of my once and forever devotion to my beautiful wife. Felix.
Such was the thing with wedding rings. A woman wore hers under her glove, so only her husband would see it after the wedding. It was a symbol of their shared secrets, she supposed. She picked it up and studied the well-crafted loop. It bore none of the small marks and scratches that her old one had. So, he hadn't found her old ring, but had reproduced something better than the original. It was a lovely symbol of their marriage. She slid it onto her finger and gazed at it from all angles. And it was beautiful. She couldn't wait to press it to the skin of her husband's penis that night after the party.
Oh, drat. The party.
She wasn't looking forward to hosting that evening. But she would do her very best. Felix certainly deserved it.
She stood, stretched, and checked the time. She had slept in again. She couldn't show the ring to anyone, but she could
talk
about it. She smiled at the thought of sharing her joy as she walked into the bathroom, disrobed, and stepped into the shower.
I will tell Winnie and... whom else?
Her smile faded as she scrubbed her body clean from the dried detritus of sex left by the night before.
Victoria? We're not close enough for that.
She tried to think of other friends. Surely, there must be a woman she was close with.
A good wife and mother is a devoted and caring friend.
Then why was this particular cupboard so empty?
A thought dawned on her, and she stopped scrubbing her body. She had not cultivated a thriving garden of relationships. Her own parents were passed. She had no siblings. She had had friends, but they often had the life span of cut flowers. A quick energetic blossom, and then a withering quicker still. She pressed her lips into a thin line and scrubbed her legs hard. That would change. Starting that night, she would build a splendid network of friends.
Suddenly, the dinner party was looking less like a chore and more like an opportunity.
~~
"Good morning, Mom." Theodore walked into the dining room where his mother and Winifred were hanging decorations.
"Well, good morning, Teddy." Penelope stopped what she was doing, smoothed out her pinafore, and smiled brightly. A thrill ran down her spine. Her son had greeted her of his own will. "You look very handsome today. Doesn't he look handsome, Winnie?"
Winifred continued working, but gave them her mechanical smile. "He does indeed, Penny."
Penelope nodded her agreement, thought about offering Theodore a hug, but decided they weren't ready yet. "What can a do for you, lambkin?"
"You can stop calling me 'lambkin.'" He frowned at her and slouched against the wall.
"But... that's what I called you when you were little." Penelope rubbed her gloves together with anxiety.
"Am I little?" A storm moved over his countenance.
"No... you're big." The image of his massive, mushroomed penis burst into her mind. "You're nineteen, a man grown." Penelope took a deep breath and tried to dismiss the butterflies in her stomach, her clammy palms, and her thrumming vagina. "May I still call you that sometimes?"
"Um..." Theodore rubbed the back of his neck. "Sure." He nodded but his brow remained furrowed. "I was wondering, can I use the sensorium with Victoria?"
"Oh... I don't know." Penelope put her hand to her chest. She badly wanted to give her son this. Would he use it to hump his girlfriend? That image flashed before her, and she blinked it away. She was going to need to relieve herself in the bathroom very soon. She rubbed her thighs together and scrubbed the glove on her left hand with her right, as if she was burnishing her remade ring. "What does your father say?"
"Felix says no." Winifred had stopped working. Her robotic face was impassive, her hands were on her hips. "He made that clear, Teddy."
"So... my mother can meet with my girlfriend in there, but I can't?" Theodore moved off the wall, his posture erect. "Is that fair, Mom?"
"I didn't mean..." Penelope's mind turned over the soothing mantras that so often came to mind.
A good mother is giving. A good mother is caring. A good mother does what's best for her son.
"You're my parent, too. You can overrule Dad." Theodore glanced at Winifred's passive, disapproving glare.
"I'm... sorry. If your father thinks it's best not to, then..." Penelope blinked back tears. Why was being a mother so hard?
"I'll pay for Victoria to rent a sensorium out of my allowance." Theodore's hands balled into fists.
"I'm sorry..."
A mother is strong. So, why do I keep apologizing?
Penelope tried to gather herself. She was horribly distraught at denying her son, but also impossibly horny at the same time. It was enough to make her go mad.
"Don't talk to Victoria again." Theodore pointed a finger at his mother and turned for the door. "And you may not call me lambkin. Not ever," he said without turning back.
The waterworks burst forth when he was gone. Penelope found herself sobbing and clutching to Winifred. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." She blubbered.
"You have to understand that Teddy is very lonely." Winifred's voice was soft and gentle. "He's taking a gap year, but his girlfriend and friends have all left town. He doesn't mean to be cross with us. He's feeling alone."
"That... makes... two... of us," Penelope said between great, shaking sobs.
~~
After she dried her tears, Penelope went to the kitchen. She rummaged through the refrigerator until she found a carrot that was about the same girth and width as her husband's wonderful tool. She then hid it under her bodice and retired to her bedroom.
If she was going to get through the rest of the day, some of the pressure on her libido would have to be relieved. She could only be pulled in so many emotional directions at once. Trembling with anticipation, she locked the door and quickly undressed. She put a towel on the bed and positioned herself on her back on top of it. In all her years of self-exploration, she had never been driven to try a dildo, vegetable or otherwise. She didn't know if her husband was right that it was because she was forty-two and in her sexual prime, or maybe it was because of her trauma. Whatever it was, she found herself with her legs spread, greedily thrusting a carrot into her vagina.
"Ohhhhhhhh... Felix... I can almost feel you... with me. I wish we were... uuuugghhhhh... never apart." With the hand not devoted to frigging herself, she pushed her breast up to her chin and grasped her nipple in her teeth, just the way her husband loved it. Sparks shot through her nerves as she rolled her nipple with her tongue.
The first orgasm was easily attained by dreaming of Felix. But as she worked her way to a second, her mind wandered like it had before. She found herself climaxing to the heart connection she was building with Winifred. And then, a third, splendid orgasm was spurred by the thought of sharing her life with new friends. The fourth release was the most powerful, and she couldn't help that it was to the image of giving her loving son his heart's desire and watching him mate with his pretty girlfriend in the sensorium.
After she was sated, she stayed on the bed. Under her was a puddle of sweat and excitement. Her chest heaved as she sought penance for thinking untoward thoughts again. "I'll tell Felix everything... after... the party. He'll... know... what... to do," she panted.
~~
The Nisha family worked through their final preparations before guests were set to arrive. Even Theodore was present and accounted for, sweeping an already clean floor.
"Mr. and Mrs. Gelling are still scheduled to arrive tonight?" Penelope worried her dark bottom lip with her even, bright teeth.
"Don't you fret, she's not so bad. The Gellings are decent neighbors. We've always invited them to these parties. Should I stop now?" Felix chuckled and patted his wife on the rump.
Theodore watched his parents out of the corner of his eye.
"I... I don't fit well with your friends." Penelope helped Winifred count champagne flutes, although the AI needed no help at all.
