Mother in-Law's Christmas Gift

Part 2 of a slow-burn development of a husband connecting with his mother in-law on multiple levels. Based on a true story, this series blurs the line between what did happen and what I only wich could have.

Thank you for the feedback on Part 1 - I've taken it into consideration for this and future installments.

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I followed Katie through the door, out of the house and to her SUV. Katie had put on her long winter jacket and boots. Between the record -13F temps and the 6 inches of snow, a coat and boots were a necessity. As we approached the SUV, I could see it was already running - Katie must have hit the remote start.

"Brrrr! Hop in and warm up really quick." Katie said through chattering teeth.

I opened the passenger door, hopped in and immediately started warming my hands between my legs. Katie hit the heated seats.

"Oh, poor thing. I didnt realize you weren't wearing gloves!" Katie removed her gloves and put her hands on top of mine, between my legs, at the center of my thighs.

After a few short minutes of warming, Katie said: "OK, so your present!"

She reached behind her seat and pulled out a small gift bag. She handed it to me with a big grin and, through a slight chatter, "go ahead, open it!"

I reached inside the bag and pulled out a bottle of Blanton's whiskey.

"Katie, my god. You really shouldn't have. I love the gift, but this whiskey isn't cheap!" I exclaimed.

"Stop, you deserve it. I know how much you love whiskey and wanted to get you something special to show how much I appreciate your help and support. You do a lot for me, even just little things like fixing the lights or grabbibg things from hard to reach places." Katie said sincerely. "And besides, who said it's all just for you?!"

We both let out a good laugh.

"Pop it open, let's take a shot!" Katie nearly shouted with enthusiasm.

I've never seen Katie so willing to drink and have fun. Though her mood tonight was certainly different, it still seemed healthy... so I was happy to join in the fun.

I peeled back the wax, popped the cork and handed the jockey cork cap to Katie. She chucked at the idea of so much time being spent on a decorative cork, rather than just the product inside. I handed Katie the bottle.

"Ladies first!" I said with a grin.

"You mean old ladies first." Katie retorted.

"Katie, not to be a buzzkill, but you've called yourself old multiple times tonight. What's the matter? Are you serious, or just joking?" I asked, genuinely concerned.

Katie took another swig, then her third, before handing the bottle back. I took a large swig, partially in solidarity partially because I truly do enjoy whiskey.

"Promise not to tell Rachael, Ok?" Katie said. Her seriousness cut deep.

"I promise" I said in a solemn tone.

"Mike, well." Katie's eyes started to well up. "It's not like the asshole hasn't done this before. He has, almost 15 years ago! A fucking blonde secretary at his last job."

My jaw dropped, I couldn't believe what Katie was beginning to tell me.

"A fucking blonde secretary. How cliche. How fucking pathetic that he cheated on me with a blonde fucking secretary." Katie belted out with a cry, she was starting to lose her composure.

Katie reached for the bottle of whiskey. I handed it to her, but asked she take it a bit slow and not drink to her emotion.

"Last time, it was just a fling. They had been sharing pictures and sexting. The dumbass left his phone open on the messages when he passed out drunk. But that is as far as it went. I gave him hell and it took us almost two years to get back to normal." You could really hear the resent building in Katie's voice.

"Two fucking years of working through our issues. You know what his problem was? He claimed he wasn't getting enough excitement out of our sex life. He tried to blame me, as if his fat drunken ass didn't ignore me until he wanted to stick his dick inside of me." Katie's crying turned to slight rage.

"That's pathetic, I'm so sorry Katie." I said earnestly.

"No, what's pathetic is that I gave him what he wanted. Push up bras because my tits were small. Lingerie no matter how uncomfortable. Sex two, three times a week with him doing absolutely nothing to even turn me on. My god, I even let him start fucking me in the ass. And it sucked for over a year before I began to enjoy it." Katie was venting her frustration, and I did my best to just listen, no matter how much the details made my imigation try to spiral.

Katie calmed slightly and looked me in the eyes with a look of near dispair.

"This time? Well, this time is different." Katie's head hung, voice softened and anger turned to sorrow. "This time, it's a thirty-five year old slut from sales. Tall, skinny... you guessed it... Blonde who is young enough to be his damn child."

"Wow, Katie I don't..." I cut short as Katie began to talk again.

"She is only fucking him to try and get a regional position. He has no clue I know... jackass left his phone open again. I found an empty condom wrapper and a written address, clearly in someone else's handwriting in the idiot's jeans when washing clothes." Katie was defeated.

"I don't know what to do." Katie looked up at me, tears in the corner of her eyes.

I offered what help I could, what I had experienced myself.

"Katie, I know how much you're hurting right now..." Katie cut me off.

"How? There's no way Rachael cheated on you." Katie said in almost a monotone voice.

"Katie, if you promise not to let what I'm about to share leave the car conversation leave this car, I'll tell you how I understand." I said in a dead-straight tone.

"I promise." Katie replied.

"About three years ago, Rachael and my relationship became strained. She clearly wasn't happy and I didn't know why. Anytime I showed her love, I was smothering her. When I spent time alone, I was ignoring her. I either listened too much or not enough. Hell, even our sex life changed." I was a bit worried I started to overshare.

"How?" Katie asked. You two seemed so happy, and had such great chemistry and are both attractive."

"I honestly don't know. At first, I thought Rachael was taking out her frustration with me during sex. She was asking for quite a bit of rough play, to the point it didn't feel like play. And wouldn't stick around after sex." I said bluntly and honestly. "After a few weeks of this, I became both worried and suspicious and hacked into her phone... she isn't all too tech savvy... I found she had joined some online dating site for sub play and read countless messages of ger being a sub, sharing photos, speaking the unspeakable..."

Katie's mouth hung open and her face showed genuine concern and sadness for me.

"I read one message chain and it nearly made me sick to my stomach. She seemed to enjoy being called a 'slut' and willfully said this other guy 'owned' her and her pussy. Funny thing is, around that time, Rachael started exploring anal and insisted even when I knew it was hurting her." I said, with my prior emotions rising back to the surface.

"My god, was she secretely cucking you?" Katie gasped.

"Yea, pretty much... in a way. I found other messages, insisting that Rachael have me fuck her rough, in specific positions, pretending all the while it was this guy fucking her, not me. The worst part, I knew who the asshole was." I said theough almost gritted teeth.

"Who? Who was it?!" Katie said in shock and demand.

"An old boyfriend, one she pretended to never have sexual relations with. One who still seemed pretty involved, even after Rachael and I were officially exclusive. Adam." I said.

"That pervert?! Do you know how many times that little prick hit on me in the open when he was dating my daughter?" Katie was digging up old feeling of annoyance. "Well joke is on him, and her. That little prick literally has a little prick. One day, I caught him and Rachael running to the bathroom after fucking, clearly thinking I wasn't home yet." Katie laughed. "He couldn't have been more than five inches long."

Katie laughed with a shit-eating grin and a bit of disgust.

"So then, not to be rude but how did you resolve it? How are you still making it work?" Katie asked, sadness returning.

"Honestly? Rachael promised to stop and instead role play and explore with me, no matter how self-conscious. She also made me promise to have a one-night-stand with another woman to call it even." I said honestly.

"Did you? Did you go through with it?" Katie asked.

"No. To be honest, I don't like blind lust. I need to be attracted to someone's personality and have some level of love towards them to even consider sex. And I just didn't have that with anyone except Rachael." I replied honestly, feeling a bit defeated. "Rachael doesn't know, she thinks I went theough with it."

"Well, if it worked for you both, then I'm honestly glad. You're a great son in-law John, I'm glad you're a part of my life." Katie said in the most sincere of tone. "Mike on the other hand, he doesn't get a second chance."

Katie laughed, but I could tell she was still bothered heavily.

"For now," Katie continued, "I'll let him have his fun. I may even try to find some of my own. Then someday, after I've moved on, Mike'll wake up in an empty bed. I'll happily be on my own and his blonde bimbo will be in a regional role with no use for him." Katie said with her head tilted down and a fake smile. She was beginning to come to terms with reality.

Katie handed me back the bottle of whiskey, now barely 3/4 full.

"Sorry, looks like I did a number on your gift." Katie apologized.

"No worries, the real gift is bonding with you" I replied.

Katie leaned over and gave me a bear hug.

"I love you, John" Katie said.

"I love you too." I replied back, surprising myself a little bit.

At that moment, I realized that I had genuine feelings of love for Katie. Honestly, I was pretty confused. Just an hour earlier, I was sneaking glances at her ass and admiring only her visual image. Now, I'm connecting with her on a deep level and saying "I love you." But what kind of love was it? Familial or something... else?

"Wellll...," Katie exhaled heavily. "Since Mike clearly isn't getting his gift from me, I might as well give it to you."

Katie reached around the seat once more, this time pulling out a wrapped rectangular give with a bow on top.

"You have been staring at my ass all day - you might like it." Katie said theough a smirk, winking as she handed me the present.

I paused, confused, excited and well... mostly confused. A slight rush went to my head. "She knew the whole time..." I thought to myself.

I tore back the wrapping paper. It was a book; a leather book with a beautiful binding.

I removed the rest of the paper and flipped the book over, orienting to the front cover.

"Go ahead, open it up." Katie said with a straight face.

I opened up the cover, inside was nice cotton paper and a note which read "With love, now and always." I glanced up and could see a tear well in Katie's eye. She quickly wiped it away.

"Go ahead, turn the page." Katie said, almost excitedly.

I turned the page and froze. I literally could not believe my eyes. On the page in front of me was Katie. The very same Katie sitting next to me, laying across the spread, breasts down and ass up. Completely. Nude. It was a beautiful boudoir spread of a beautiful woman. I gulped as I took in the image, unsure if I was looking too long. Was my reaction ok? Was it to little? The very woman laid bare on the spread before me was sitting right. next. to. me.

Katie let out a quiet chuckle. She clearly could tell I was enjoying the image.

The image had a beautiful soft glow and subtle blue tone. Clearly taken on film with a 1980s style. Gosh, she must have been in her early twenties in this photo. She was skinny, even more petite than Rachael. I couldn't tell quite how large her breasts were as they were facing a blue fur rug, but her ass looked every bit as round. Her hair was down and she had the trademark 1980s pencil-thin eyebrows. Her sides had an hourglass shape and you could see the slightest glimpse of he ribs and hips. Her stomach was completely flat, the image clearly having been taken before Rachael was born. She was petite, young and full of life.

"So, how do you like your gift?" Katie asked with an almost nervous look.

"I... I love it. You looked so incredible. You still do... I mean, just different, you know?" I was blabbering like a fucking idiot.

"Well, that's good to know." Katie took the book from my hands and turned it around. Quickly flipping to a later page. "I have one more for you to look at, but then save the reat of the book for another night." Katie said as she returned the book.

Laid out before me on another spread was a near-duplicate image of Katie, only it was this Katie. The one sitting before me, nearly thirty years later. She looked drop-dead incredible! Katie was laying in the same pose spread across the pages, this time on a white fur rug. The rug wasn't the only difference - Katie's newfound curves made the foreshortening of the photograph look almost photoshopped. Her breasts spilled out between her and the floor, contained only between her elbows and arms which were supporting her head. Her sides still had a dramatic hourglas figure, this time with a much larger, much rounder ass looming behind. Her left leg was bent at the knee, showing off her toned legs which actually looked better than thirty years ago.

In this image, however there were two key differences: Katie's expression had changed. Her hair was up and while her face showed less nervousness, it lacked the confidence of her earlier photo. I would suspect the reason is the second difference... her tummy showed remnants of the former baby pouch and a rather large scar from the c-section.

Katie looked up at me, biting her lip slightly, clearly trying to read my reaction.

"Katie, you are so incredibly beautiful... In both images." I hoped that didn't come across as a "save," I truly meant it.

"Really? I look so old in this image, and look at my stomach." Katie was starting to deflate.

"No way Katie! Sure, you could have been on the cover of Playboy in you mid twenties... not many women could. But you still look every bit as incredible today." I made the next comment carefully and sternly. "I would choose the woman in the second spread over the first any day. She is sexy, confident and experienced. She has incredible curves, yet isn't overweight. And don't get me started on her legs!"

I could see the expression change in Katie's face, her shoulders straighten slightly.

"And honestly, aside from the scar you'd never know she had a kid. What other mother in her early-forties even can honestly say their stomach isn't plagued by a bit of cellulite or stretchmarks? And the woman on this spread, she has neither. So what her stomach isn't perfectly flat." I somehow felt the confidence to blurt it out, how I've begun to look at Katie tonight. Was it the whiskey, or the woman in front of me giving me the confidence?

"Do you really feel that way? No... stop trying to make me feel better." Katie said.

"Katie, I know you've caught me checking you out. And I also know that you've shown off a bit for me... even earlier this afternoon." I recognized Katie's bluff and called her out.

Katie exhaled with a slight laugh, her breath visible from the still-cold air and backlit from the streetlight.

"If you still don't believe me, how about I look through the rest of the book and you can call bullshit if you think my reactions are fake." I shifted my tone, feeling a bit flirty.

Katie quickly shut the book. "No, save it for later."

Katie looked down and away, silent for a few moments.

"You know what, I think I know what will make us both feel a bit better." Katie proposed, her voice lifting a bit in tone. "You never cashed in on your extra-marital fuck, and I'd like to be the first to strike in my own relationship woes. What do you say, want to share one last gift between the two of us?"

I truly could not believe what I had just heard. Up until the photo album, it was playful flirting nothing this serious. Sharing the album could be written off on whiskey and feeling low... but this? This seemed a bit more serious.

"I... I don't know what to say." I didn't. Do I say 'yes?' Would this solve my lingering feelings or cause more problems? Would this actually help Katie or hurt her.

Katie sat forward and removed her jacket. She looked at me quickly to gauge my reaction before reaching for the buttons on her sweater. I was leaving and my eyes were locked on her chest, effectively giving Katie permission for whatever was about to follow.

To be continued...