They hadn't exchanged numbers. Instead, they had parted ways after an awkward pause which prompted Mark to ask, "Have you not done this before?" She'd shaken her head no and felt her face flush bright red. Of course she'd run to the bathroom to cool her cheeks with a damp paper towel. And when she'd come back, he was gone.
Stacy cringed outwardly as she drove home. Nope. She had never asked a man to please date her even though she was married. If her mother knew she would have said, "Stacy, it just isn't done."
But it was done. Maybe over and done.
Except that he had paid for her coffee. When she'd come out of the bathroom to find him, the barista was calling her name and holding out a duplicate of the order she'd nursed while she staked Mark out, trying to approach him.
"How did it go?" Jacob asked that evening.
"I asked him out and he bought me coffee."
Jacob blinked. A slow smile spread across his face. "So what are you doing for your second date?"
"Ha!" The laugh was so sudden and short it shocked her. "I don't know. I didn't get his number. Things got a little . . . weird."
Jacob sat on the sofa and patted his lap. "Tell me everything," he said.
Stacy eased onto his lap knowing his motives were impure. Jacob was hyper-aroused by her fantasies. The first time she'd mentioned interest in another man, sex with Jacob ascended to a new level. He wanted to know every detail Stacy could imagine, and he wanted to fulfill her expectations as she set them. It felt naughty to her and she loved it.
"Well, let's see," she began, fiddling with the top button on his shirt.
Marriage and sex hadn't always been easy with Jacob. He was raised Catholic, taught to feel guilty for his sexual urges by well-meaning but overbearing parents more concerned with their son's potential to impregnate than his longterm sexual health. As for Stacy, there was nothing she could pinpoint that made her ashamed and afraid of sex other than society. Her upbringing had been body positive. Her parents told her she could be and do what she wanted even if they were somewhat conservative. And she always had.
Still, it had taken her a long time to make this move. The key had been Jacob taking the first steps into sex outside their marriage. She'd encouraged him, biting her nails the entire time. She didn't want to lose him, and they both agreed they could have kept their relationship closed and been happy. Simple. Happy. But what they wanted was passionate and joyful.
They took small steps, experimenting with pornography, then Snapchat and Tinder, then local meetups they discovered through a friend who was in an open marriage and loved it. They met others in open relationships, read all the books and began looking for potential matches. Mark caught Stacy's eye right around the time Athena approached Jacob at the bookshop.
It amazed Stacy how they'd been able to discard the stigmatizing sexual associations they brought into their marriage to get to this point of complete open honesty. That she was able to enjoy her husband's sexual exploits without feeling ashamed of her body was something she'd never imagined possible. That he would be able to return the favor by rising to the occasion of her lust for another man was unbelievable. Yet it happened again and again.
Stacy had barely shared her thoughts on whether Mark would be offended by her or want to ravage her in the bathroom before Jacob started grazing her nipples with his teeth. "I can't think when you do that," she said.
Jacob licked her nipple slowly. He already had her out of her pants and was rolling her panties over her hips. She shivered as he slipped a finger inside her. He smiled. "Tell me what you wanted from him in the bathroom."
Stacy stood up, pulling Jacob to his feet. She undid his belt buckle and tugged his pants down. His penis was hard and erect in her hands. She kissed Jacob, feeling the flood of moisture with desire. What she'd wanted was for Mark to be uncontrollably aroused, to pull her into the bathroom and kiss her into a state of undress, grinding against her until she slid to her knees and slipped her mouth around his hot, hard dick. But she didn't want to tell Jacob this. She wanted to show him.