“How was that for you?” Clive was smiling, but she could tell he was a little concerned.
“It was something I’ve fantasised about for a while, and it was better than I’d ever imagined.”
He kissed her on the lips. “You’re full of surprises.”
“I like Sandra. Do you think we’d be able to visit her for a few days?”
“Well, I can get away—can you?”
Sophie smiled. “I’m sure it won’t be a problem.”
* * * *
Sophie and Clive slept until late next morning. As they lay in bed chatting, they heard Sandra moaning from one of the other bedrooms.
Sophie smiled. “That woman is depraved.”
Clive laughed. “That’s rich, coming from someone who satisfied three men at once last night.”
“Hmm. Who do you think she’s having now—Marcus, Russell or both?”
Clive pushed Sophie onto her back and climbed on top, feeding his cock inside her as he did so. “I don’t know, but from the sounds she’s making, whoever it is seems to be doing it right.”
Sophie closed her eyes and moved with him, rocking her hips slowly to meet his lazy, deep thrusts. “Ah, that feels good.”
Clive leaned down and nibbled her ear. “I was worried I wouldn’t be enough for you on my own.”
She smiled but didn’t open her eyes. “No, you’re doing fine. Just keep feeding me that cock and we won’t need anybody else this time.”
Sandra’s voice reached a crescendo in the other room, then there was silence.
Clive moved a little faster, and Sophie started to sigh. When she came she clung to his shoulders and sobbed. Clive came inside her and she watched his eyes as she clenched and released him.
They lay silently for a short while, then showered together. Sophie bundled her dress and sexy underwear into her bag. She’d brought a pair of jeans and a sweater but forgotten to bring another pair of shoes, so she walked downstairs barefoot and found everyone in the kitchen. Marcus and Sandra were still in their robes, while Russell and Clive were fully dressed.
Clive made bacon rolls for everyone, and Sophie made tea for herself and more coffee for the others. After breakfast, Sophie reluctantly announced she needed to be going.
Sandra gave her a big hug. “Don’t forget about you two coming over for New Year. We’ll have a wonderful time.”
Sophie nodded. “I’ll try to be there. Thanks for…everything.”
Clive walked her to the door and she put her blue high-heeled shoes on. They kissed, and Sophie promised to phone him during the week.
* * * *
Jim was watching football on TV when Sophie arrived home. He looked up and muted the sound.
“Hiya.” Sophie stepped out of her shoes and came to kiss his cheek. “I’m going to have a cup of tea, do you want anything?”
“No thanks, I’m fine.”
Sophie noticed him avoiding her gaze. She walked into the kitchen and filled the kettle, wondering why he was being distant. Maybe he’d had an argument with his MILF. Never mind. She might give him something to cheer him up later. Leaning through to the living room, she raised her eyebrows. “Sure you don’t want a coffee?”
He shook his head.
She poured her tea and headed back into the living room.
“You forgot to mention G-J’s Christmas party.” Jim’s face was serious, his tone cold.
“What?”
“G-J’s having another party. I was wondering why you hadn’t told me about it.”
She sat on the other sofa opposite him and put her tea on the small table. She didn’t like the inference. “Why do you think I wouldn’t tell you about it?”
Jim shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe I cramp your style.”
“At the last party you made an error of judgment, but you didn’t cramp my style. I fucked the two guys I wanted to fuck.” She could play cold just as well as he could.
“So it was my behaviour at the last party that made you decide not to invite me to this one?”
“G-J mentioned he usually has a party before Christmas, but I’ve not had an invitation to it yet.”
Jim smiled grimly. “Maybe you were too busy last night to check your email.”
He must have had a big fall out with Naomi. “Jim, what’s wrong?”
“I’ve decided I don’t want to do it anymore.”
“Do what?”
“Swinging, watching, whatever it is we’re doing.”
Sophie frowned, a coldness in the pit of her stomach. She couldn’t return to her completely monogamous life. Not after everything she’d tried. She struggled to keep her voice even. “I don’t think that’s a decision you can make without us having a discussion about it.”
“Yes it is. It’s my life, so I get to decide if I want to fuck other women. I can also decide if I want to watch or hear about you fucking other men.”
“It’s my life too, so I get a say in what I do.”
He nodded, folded his arms. “I never said I get to decide what you do.”
She ran his words through her mind again, trying to make sense of them. “So you’re going to stop seeing other women, but you don’t want me to stop seeing other men. You just want me to stop telling you about it.”
“Yeah, that pretty well sums it up.”
Sophie bit her lip and stared at him. She raised her eyebrows, wondering whether to test his new resolve by letting him know about last night, but something about his manner prevented her from revealing things just yet. He looked odd. Preoccupied.
“Did something happen between you and Naomi?”
“Yeah, you could say that.”
So that’s it. “I’m sorry, I know you—”
“I fell in love with her.”
Sophie blinked, unsure she’d heard him right. “Sorry?”
“I said I’ve fallen in love with Naomi, and she’s the only woman I want to sleep with.”
Sophie snorted. “You can’t be serious.”
Jim’s eyes widened. “Of course I’m serious. This isn’t the sort of thing I’d make jokes about.”
“But she’s old.”
“She’s not ol—”
“She’s a lot older than you are.” The idea of Jim wanting to be with someone who was almost fifty was laughable.
“I don’t care about the age difference.”
“Well you fucking well should do! Jim, you’re being a dick.”
Jim shook his head and shrugged. “She’s about fifteen years younger than G-J, yet it was okay for you to sleep with him.”
“That was just sex. I don’t care about you fucking her. They’re just pieces of meat we use to get off, remember?”
He shook his head. “It’s not like that with Naomi. It never has been.”
“Oh, for crying out—”
“Sara was just a piece of meat I used to get off. And Sophie, nowadays that’s pretty much how I think of you.”
“What?” Tears pricked her eyes. There was a sadness in his expression which made her realise he was serious. “Jim, you don’t know what you’re saying.”
He looked at the floor, took a breath and then looked into her face. “I’m sorry, Soph.”
He didn’t want to be with her anymore. The coldness spread though her, but it was tinged with anger and frustration. “We have everything we want.”
“You have everything you want. You’re the one who wants all these adventures.”
“They’re not just for me. I do it for you, too.” There was a conviction in her voice that she hoped he’d hear.
“Do you, Soph? When you dressed like a slutty ballerina and let two strangers fuck you, was that really for me?”
She nodded.
“And the ladyboy, and the German guy in the film, and eleven-inch Earl? Were they all just for me, too?”
“Yes! How many times did we fuck as I described what I’d let the men do to me? How hard was your cock at the thought of all those men using your wife? It’
s what you’ve always wanted, since that first night with Joel. You get off on watching men use my body. Don’t try to deny it.”
He sighed. “It’s true, I did.”
“Did?” It wasn’t that long ago he’d taken her hard over the back of the sofa. She saw a flaw in his argument. A chink of light. “You said you ‘did’. Are you trying to tell me the thought of me with other men doesn’t turn you on anymore?”
“I’m saying I don’t care anymore.”
She leaned back on the sofa, wishing she was wearing a skirt so she could flash her legs. “So you’re not interested in any details of a woman coming on my face last night?”
He stared at her with an expression of bewilderment. “What?”
Sophie smiled, satisfied. “I made a very attractive Spanish lady come with my tongue, and she squirted in my face.”
“Sophie, why are you telling—?”
“And later I had three men at once, one in every hole. They all—”
“Stop!”
His yell made her jump and she stared, open-mouthed.
“Sophie, I don’t care what you did, and I don’t need to hear about it.” He stared at her like she was some kind of alien. “Or are you trying to tell me you did all that for me, too?”
She was stunned. “I did it for us.” Her voice was a whisper, and she knew how pathetic her reasoning was.
“You’ve never told me about what you do with Clive, so why would you start now?”
She looked at the floor. Last night had been what she’d wanted. She’d done it for herself, and they both knew it. Something told her she needed to make Jim see sense. “Jim, I’m sure you’re very fond of Naomi, but you have to think about it more seriously. When you’re forty she’ll be nearly sixty, and—”
“I know all that, Soph. I’ve thought about it, and it doesn’t change anything.”
“But you have other needs. You’re a voyeur, you like to watch. It turns you on. It’s something you need.”
Jim took a breath. “Naomi got her invitation to G-J’s party—or rather her ex did. They used to swing, and even though they’ve been divorced for years, they still attended swinging parties together.”
Sophie held her breath, wondering if Jim had watched Naomi fuck her ex; maybe that’s how it worked.
“Naomi told me that if I wanted, she’d let me watch her with somebody else at G-J’s party.”
Sophie smiled. So he’d found another woman to help him get his kicks.
“But when I thought about her offer, I was horrified.”
Sophie was puzzled. “What? Why?”
He licked his lips. “Because the idea of watching her makes me feel sick to the stomach.”
“You don’t like the idea of watching her have sex?”
“I don’t like the idea of her having sex with anyone else. I don’t want to share her.”
Sophie shook her head, confused. “You never get jealous.”
“I know, but I got really jealous at the thought of someone else touching Naomi.”
“That’s just because—”
“It’s because I care about her.”
“And you don’t care about me?” Sophie’s eyes watered.
“I don’t care about you the way I should do. I don’t care who you sleep with, or what you do with them.”
“Jim—”
“I’m sorry, Sophie. I know it was a joint decision when we started this swinging and sharing thing, but things have changed. You’ve changed, and so have I.”
The coldness she felt now made her heart race. She wanted to scream and shout and shake him until he saw sense. “Wow, she’s really done a job on you, hasn’t she?”
Jim sighed, as if resigned to the fact she needed to rant. “Naomi didn’t do—”
“Of course she did, it’s just that you’re too stupid to see it. I can hear her now, Oh Jim, you’re so young and virile, I’ve never had anyone as wonderful as you.”
“Sophie, she’s not—”
“Wake up! She’s an old woman with a good-looking young guy in her bed. She’ll say anything to try and save herself from being a lonely old spinster.”
“What? Can you hear yourself? Stop making this about her age. She’s never said any of the things you seem to think she says. She actually told me she was too old, that I couldn’t possibly want a future with a woman like her.”
Sophie stared. “Well then—”
“But I told her she was wrong. She’s the woman I want to spend my future with.”
“What about me?” Sophie heard the coldness in her voice; her rage was building.
He snorted. “I think we both know that you won’t be lonely.”
“Well, you’ve got that right. I’ll be fucking who I want, whenever I want.”
He shrugged. “You do that now, Soph.”
“Yeah, but now nobody’s off-limits. Maybe I’ll give Patrick a good time and see if his knee’s fully recovered.”
Jim smiled. “Yeah, good luck with that.”
“I’ll go to G-J’s party and won’t have to play nursemaid to you. Maybe I’ll let Billy fuck me up the arse like you did with Sara.”
He was visibly shocked. “Wha—?”
“Oh, I know all about you begging Sara for anal sex. Why do you think I made G-J do it to me rather than let you? Why would I want Sara’s cast-offs?” Seeing him falter, stunned, she twisted the knife. “And I did it again last night, except I had two other cocks in me at the same time. I was the fucking gangbang queen you told me I couldn’t be.”
“And did that make you happy?”
“It made me come.”
He shook his head. “Sophie, you must see that this is—”
“That this is what, Jim? I’ll tell you what it is. It’s none of your fucking business.”
“Soph—”
“Fuck off! Go back to your withered old bag and play happy couples. In the meantime, I have a few things lined up. I’ll be going to stay with some swinging friends in Spain for New Year. In the second week of January, I’m going to Gdansk with Anja for some girl-only fun. And G-J will have arranged another trip before long, so I don’t think I’ll be missing out by being single, do you?”
He glared at her, which made her feel better.
“Nothing to say to that, Jimmy?” She knew calling him Jimmy wound him up.
Jim stood and got his coat from the cupboard under the stairs. “You can do what you like with whoever you like—it’s your life.”
Sophie narrowed her eyes and watched her husband walk out of their home. She wanted to shout something hurtful, but nothing came to mind. She remained sitting on the sofa for a long time after he’d driven away. She was tired—too tired to think about what she was going to do. She lay back on the couch and closed her eyes.
When Sophie woke up, it was dark outside. The TV football match had finished and there was now a programme showing home-made videos of people doing stupid things. She wondered if there was a version of the show that allowed people to send in videos of their sex-lives. She was sure that would improve the viewer-ratings.
In the kitchen, Sophie chose a bottle of red wine and took it upstairs. As the bath was filling she poured herself a glass, then stripped naked. She looked at her reflection in the mirror and admired her firm, suntanned body. A smile spread across her face. She had a great body, a voyeuristic rich admirer and a sexual appetite that would satisfy him and herself. She saw no reason to worry too much about Jim’s decision to separate.
* * * *
Sophie dressed in a t-shirt and leggings and wandered downstairs. It was after seven in the evening, and she’d had nothing to eat since the bacon roll at Clive’s about eight hours earlier. She made herself some cheese on toast and sat on the sofa with her phone, wondering who she should call first. G-J and Clive would both be supportive, she was sure. So would Anja. Another option was Sara, but Sophie was beginning to see that Jim had a point about that woman’s motives.
Instead, she called so
meone she hadn’t had a chat with for too long. She found her sister’s number in her contacts and put the phone to her ear.
“Hello, stranger.” The voice was friendly and familiar.
“Hi Lisa. Sorry I missed you last weekend.”
“It’s okay. If I’d thought it through properly, I’d have called you earlier in the week to let you know I’d be passing.”
“Listen, I know that you know about … You know.” Sophie felt awkward.
“It’s none of my business. Tell Jim I’m sorry—I think I put him in a very uncomfortable position by demanding to know where you were. He seemed to think I was accusing him of murdering you and burying you under the patio.”
Sophie tried to laugh, but couldn’t quite manage it. “Well, he probably wishes he had.” A tear escaped from her brimming eyes.
“Sophie, is everything alright?”
“Not really.” Sophie wiped her face with the back of her hand, sniffed.
“Has something happened?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” Lisa sounded really concerned, putting on her professional voice. Having a counsellor for a sister had some advantages.
“Not really.”
“Okay, well you know where I am when you do.”
“Thanks, Lise.”
“So, what else is new? How’s work? What can we buy Mum and Dad for Christmas?”
Sophie laughed, grateful to have other thoughts to fill her mind. She opened another bottle of wine and the pair of them chatted for almost an hour. Sophie went to bed immediately after they’d ended the call and, thanks to all the cabernet sauvignon she’d drunk, was soon fast asleep.
* * * *
In the week running up to G-J’s party, Jim phoned to say he’d be calling at the house to pick up some things. Sophie saw his car pull up on the driveway and was surprised when he rang the doorbell.
She opened the door and stepped back to let him in. “Hi.”
“Hiya.”
“You could have used your key, you know.”
He shrugged, looking slightly embarrassed. “I wasn’t sure if you’d seen my car, and I didn’t want to just walk in unannounced in case…”
She raised her eyebrows. “In case I was ‘entertaining’ someone?”
Global Playground Page 33