by Jason Lenov
“No, don’t!” Carina whispered, pulling my hand out. She burst into giggles as she closed her legs. “We’re trying to keep it in there, remember?”
Suddenly aware of myself and the fact that I was human and modern and acting like a neanderthal, I felt a swell of embarrassment heat my cheeks.
But Carina leaned in and kissed me on the mouth, then held her legs up in the air for a while.
“What are you doing?”
“He told me to do this, remember? The doctor,” she explained, cheeks rosy, her mouth a pleasant smile.
“Oh,” I answered. “Right.”
We lay on the ground for a while longer, then, worried someone might come by, both laughed at the youthful sex we’d just had and scrambled up.
The rest of the walk was spent in comfortable silence, each of us lost in our thoughts.
Somehow, mine seemed more tumultuous than hers. Right before we emerged into the clearing where the cottage was, I stopped her, turned her to face me and took her by the hands.
“Okay,” I said, whatever jealousy or nervousness I’d felt soothed by our fuck. “What does all this mean?”
Carina shook her head and laughed and looked up at the sky. Then she leaned in and hugged me tightly, wrapping her arms around my waist.
I hugged her back. We stayed like that for a while, enjoying the warmth of each others bodies.
“It doesn’t have to mean anything,” Carina said, letting go and looking at me again. “I guess it was just something I wanted to get off my chest.”
I felt a certain disappointment at what seemed like a sudden about face. Even though we hadn’t talked for very long in the woods, in some way I felt like I’d invested a lot into this whole thing already.
I felt like I’d already committed something, already resolved to follow through, though I didn’t know yet to what extent. It almost felt like a waste to let all of that go.
“I know it doesn’t have to mean anything,” I said, working hard to mask any irritation that might have crept into my tone. “But do you want it to?”
It was less of a question than it was a conversational sleight of hand, really. Because in my mind it wasn’t so much about whether Carina wanted it to mean something.
It was about whether I did.
She sighed. She thought for a while longer. She looked into my eyes. Then she shook her head. “Things would probably just get weird.”
This sent the most potent anxiety yet rushing through me. The fact that she would even say that meant… oh God. It meant she might have already had a plan.
How could the idea that my wife might have had a plan to cheat on me, or at least explore the idea of accepting other men’s attention be exciting?
Fucked if I know.
But it turned me into a panting, pulsing mess of nerves and lust. My voice actually shook as I tried to speak. I think my hands were shaking, too. “W-what do you mean it would just get weird?” I asked, trying to cover my nervous excitement with a shaky laugh.
For a moment Carina’s eyebrows arched in sympathy. “Oh my gosh, Kevin you’re really nervous about this aren’t you?” She giggled, or laughed or something like that, I wasn’t sure which.
I was to busy trying not to piss my pants. “I’m just a little… yeah. I’m pretty nervous,” I admitted. What spurred the sudden need for honesty I don’t know.
In the same way it had right before I’d admitted my excitement at seeing her flirt with the guys, her back got straighter and she breathed in, swelling her chest. The smile that flirted with the corners of her mouth another piece of damning evidence.
Carina was getting turned on again.
Holy shit that turned me on. The more I felt control slipping from my fingers, the more I divulged about how I felt, the more the potential for Carina to hurt me grew.
You don’t just do that with someone you don’t trust.
“What if… “ she began quietly, then bit her lower lip. “What if I told you I was going to do it anyways?”
More anxiety flashed through me, leaving most of me cold except my palms. They were a burning, sweaty mess. “Do what?” I managed, though my throat was so tight it was miracle I got anything out.
Carina shrugged playfully. “I don’t know. What if that were up to me? Maybe I like the way Derek looks at me? What if you didn’t say anything next time he looked at me, or touched my arm?”
My eyes grew wide and my nostrils flared as I breathed in hard.
Carina’s breathing quickened with excitement as she watched my reaction. “What if the next time he touched me I touched him back?”
Holy fuck again. Twice as hard.
She had been thinking about it. She’d been having the same twisted, crazy thoughts that I had. Except not about me, about her fucking self for fuck’s sake! She’d been thinking of cheating on me with another fucking guy!
As I stared at her and tried to control my breathing while coming up with something to say, Carina cracked a smile.
“You’re turned on by this, aren’t you? You’ve been turned on this whole time. Have you been thinking about this since last night?” Her voice was eager, hungry for an answer.
What compelled me, I don’t know. I nodded and looked at the ground.
Carina stepped forward to hug me again. “Kevin,” she said, looking up at me. “It’s okay. I love you. It’s okay.” She wrapped her arms around me and held me tight, then pulled away again. “Do you want to try this?” she whispered. “We’ll pretend… we’ll say what happens at the cabin stays at the cabin. What do you think?”
I didn’t know what to think. I could barely piece a thought together I was so wound up. Somehow I managed to cobble together the words to share my biggest worry. “What if it gets out of hand? What if things go too far?”
Carina’s eyes darted back and forth, the wheels in her mind turning to find an answer. “We need a, what are those called? Safe word. That’s it. We need a safe word.”
Safe word?
We were going to be those people now?
“It’s got to be something… strange. Something we wouldn’t normally say. Something that would never slip out. Something crazy like… “
“Orangutan?” I offered.
Carina burst out laughing and covered her mouth. “I’m sorry!” she blurted. “I didn’t mean to laugh. But that’s silly. Everyone would laugh.”
Everyone? Everyone like who? What would we be doing when I said that word that would make everyone laugh?
“No, it’s got to be… “ Her eyes drifted off of me again and her gaze stretched back into the woods.
Somewhere overhead a bird cooed softly.
Carina’s eyes lit up. “Nightingale,” she whispered. “That’s it. Nightingale. What do you think?” she asked, her eyes searching mine.
“Nightingale,” I echoed. Saying it sent another rush of nerves and lust down my spine. “Okay. Fine. Nightingale.”
Carina’s smile widened. She squeezed my hands. “Okay. Nightingale.” She spun around and started skipping down the path towards the clearing and the cabin.
“Wait!”
She spun around smiling, her whole body energized.
“What are you going to do?” I said, the words leaving me in a single breath.
Carina raised one eye and shrugged. “I don’t know. Should we go find out?” She stretched out her hand.
I stumbled forward. Before I could reach her she’d spun around and began running towards the cottage.
My knees felt weak. I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs. My heart was slamming against my chest.
I’d never felt more alive.
Chapter 8
When I made it to the cottage Carina had disappeared inside.
The guys were all in the lake. Sam was pumping freestyle between the beach and the outcrop of rock.
Derek and James were sitting chest deep in the water, beers in hand.
I had managed to steady myself but the world still felt a litt
le crooked, like everything was at an angle. I knew I needed space and time to myself to try and sort all of this out. I ran up the steps and into the cabin and sank down onto the couch.
The bedroom door opened behind me and Carina stepped out. She was wearing the same bathing suit as before and carrying a fresh towel.
She skipped past me and then, right before the door, turned around and skipped back.
As she leaned over my eyes were naturally drawn to the line between her breasts.
Carina noticed, smiled, and kissed me again, putting her hand under my chin. “Yeah? You like that? You can have all you want tonight.” Then she leaned in closer still. “I can still feel your cum inside me, you know?”
My cum inside her.
The thought made all the tension I’d let go of, come back. “Carina,” I said, looking up into her eyes. “What if… I mean… “
How do you tell your wife you’re worried about another man filling her up? I decided to just blurt it out.
“You’re not on anything, remember? What if something happens. What if someone… “
Carina looked puzzled for a moment before the realization of what I was saying worked its way into her mind. She tilted her head and opened her mouth. “Kevin. I’m not going to do anything like that!” She burst into giggles before running out the door.
I heard her hoot as she ran down towards the lake. “Par-tay! Whoop-whoop!”
I guess I was relieved? Maybe? What was “anything like that” supposed to mean anyways? Did she know I’d been thinking about her actually fucking one of those guys?
The thought sent a bolt of ice into my stomach. After a few deep breaths I managed to calm myself. I started to talk myself down.
First things first.
We had a safe word. Nightingale. No matter what happened I could always just say it and all of this would stop. After thinking on that for a while I felt a hell of a lot better.
Second things second.
What did I think Carina was going to do? Just because she got a little turned on by some attention from a bunch of my friends didn’t mean she was automatically going to turn into a slut.
My whole body relaxed. I nearly laughed. Of course she wasn’t going to turn into a slut and start fucking them all! What the fuck was I thinking!
This was Carina I was talking about.
Carina, my pretty, slightly uptight wife.
Feeling like I could deal with whatever adventure was going to come up I took a deep breath, hauled myself up off the couch and went into the bedroom to get changed.
By the time I emerged and grabbed a towel and a beer, I was feeling a little silly for ever being worried by any of what had happened at all. I walked out onto the porch and started down towards the dock.
My cock jumped and my heart flopped as I laid eyes on Carina in the water.
Derek and James had grabbed a couple of floating mattresses and were about halfway to the outcrop, paddling lightly, beers in hand.
Sam had finished his laps and returned to where Carina was submerged chest-deep in the water. His broad and powerful shoulders, toned from his recent swim, seemed even larger as he loomed over her, smiling and joking around.
Carina was staring up at him behaving like a schoolgirl who’d finally got a chance to talk to the boy she’d been crushing on. She was all smiles and giggles and every once in a while she’d tilt her head and touch her neck and roll her eyes.
Pushing past the wall of anxiety that had me all tied up in knots, I forced myself to walk down to the water as casually as I could.
I shot Sam a quick smile.
He glanced at me and nodded, then said something to Carina that I couldn’t hear.
She turned her head to look at me, too, and just as she did, Sam slipped beneath the surface. A split second later Carina’s eyes popped open wide and her body started lifting out of the water. A moment after that she was screaming and laughing and sailing through the air.
She fell back into the water with a splash, was under for a second or two, then came up laughing and rubbing her eyes.
Sam cocked one eye and tilted his head as if to say, “Hey, check out what I just did to your wife!”
He wasn’t too bright, that guy.
Nevertheless, he was a big dude who had just swam between my wife’s legs, put her on his shoulders and launched her across the lake.
My mind began swarming with images of what he might do to her if they were somewhere else. In bed, for instance.
The vision of Sam spreading Carina’s legs with his tree trunk thighs sent a fierce shiver down my back.
The sound of Carina’s laugh made me look over at the two of them again.
She was back beside him again, laughing and teasing him, almost daring him to do it again, it seemed.
But instead of diving down under the water, Sam leaned forward and put his two massive paws on the water. With one giant sweep he sent a wall of water and foam surging right at Carina’s face.
Rubbing her eyes after the splash she burst into hysterical fits of laughter again. The two of them looked like they were college kids on spring break.
So of course I started to wonder, who the hell, then, was I?
We passed the day splashing around in the water, cooking a fish James had caught for lunch, then figuring out whether we wanted burgers or steaks for dinner all the while drinking far too much beer and a shot here and there for good measure.
By the time dinner rolled around we were all pretty good and wasted.
I was probably the most sober of the lot so was appointed head barbecuist. I started to build a fire as the others worked on getting the food ready to cook and plates to eat it on.
We couldn’t have asked for a better evening. The afternoon sun was low in the sky making the shadows long over the still lake. The sounds of the forest at night were just starting as the fire crackled to life.
The door to the cottage opened as I was staring into the flames and Derek stepped out onto the porch. He’d changed into a tight running shirt, one which outlined his dark, muscular frame.
I’d been good at not getting myself too worked up about what might happen between Carina and the guys for the whole day, but seeing Derek, my mind instantly started churning out possibilities.
He smiled when he saw me across the fire, walked down the steps and came up beside where I was standing. “What are you doing out here?” he asked. His mouth was a little lazy and the words came out in a slight slur.
“What does it look like?” I asked, pointing to the flames.
Derek smirked.
We stood there staring into the flames for a while. There was something very mesmerizing about a fire at dusk.
“You know they say that staring into fires made human brains grow?” I asked. “I read that somewhere, I forget where, though. It was something to do with… “
“Kev?” Derek asked as he put a hand on my shoulder.
Something about his tone made me tense up. I looked over to see him watching me, his mouth a straight line, eyes serious.
“What’s up?” I asked, smiling to try and lighten things up.
Derek looked away for a moment, like he couldn’t bring himself to say whatever it was he needed to say. “Bud, you gotta know something, man.”
My throat clenched even tighter and my stomach did a flop from how serious he was being. A sensation I was starting to get used to. “Dude, what?” I asked, unable to maintain my cheerful charade.
Derek opened his mouth to speak, looking almost pained by what he was about to say.
I looked over to the door of the cottage and somehow I knew even before he said anything. I knew something was going down.
“Um, Carina and… “ “Carina and?” I whispered. “Carina what?”
Derek studied me in the orange light. “Do you guys have some sort of arrangement or something?” he asked.
“Arrangement?”
Derek shook his head. “Kevin your wife is in there maki
ng out with Sam.”
Nothing I’d ever heard before and nothing I’ve heard since was as potent as that sentence. A shot of adrenaline blasted down my spine, then back up and seemed to explode at the base of my brain.
Carina was in the cottage making out with Sam.
I barely remember pushing Derek out of the way or staggering up the stairs, dumbfounded by what he’d said and what I was going to find when I opened the door.
My heart was pounding inside my chest, my palms sweaty as I opened the door and swung it open.
It was dark inside with only a single light on in the kitchen.
And there she was.
There was Carina, my beautiful wife, standing as close to another man as I’d ever seen her. Her head was tilted up, her hair falling across her shoulders and revealing the clean line of her soft neck.
Sam was towering over her. He was so tall he had to bend over a little to kiss her.
Their lips were pressed together and I could tell from how the muscles in their cheeks moved that they were playing with each others tongues.
The bottom dropped out of my stomach and it felt like the floor dropped out of the cottage beneath me. My mouth was hanging open and I had to reach out and touch the door frame to keep myself from falling over.
But through it all, through the roaring swells of confusion that were passing through me, I felt the undeniable and unrelenting column of lust at my center hardening my cock.
I don’t know how long I stood there watching them kiss. It might have been a minute. It might have been an hour. I was so completely absorbed in the sight of Carina being that intimate with another man that the whole world seemed to fade away.
When Sam finally pulled away from her they both opened their eyes and looked at each other the way young lovers might.
A wave of jealousy crashed over me and then Carina turned and we locked eyes. The corners of her mouth turned up slowly into a smile. The smile lit up her face and her eyes as she walked slowly towards me.
Sam stayed where he was, seeming frozen in place.
James was leaning against the counter sipping a beer and flipping through his phone.