by Denise Avery
“You know I’m just teasing, honey,” Sam said, opening the front door of the cabin for Claire, “You looked like an angel, even then. A dirty angel, but an angel nonetheless.”
“Would you have still picked me up if you knew that we were headed for this?” Claire asked, “You know... Domestic bliss and all that?”
“That’s the only thing that could have made me drive you home faster,” Sam said, “I was already gunning it because I was hoping to get you in the sack.”
“Shhh!” Claire hissed, looking around to see if any of their children were afoot. They always seemed to pop up just as Sam started putting the moves on Claire.
“Oh, relax,” Sam said, setting down the groceries, “I sent them down to the lake to go kayaking.”
“You did, did you?” Claire said, beginning to catch onto Sam’s meaning.
He smiled at her with that look in his eye that had only ever meant one thing, since the first time they’d met. He was ready to get it on. Claire felt the familiar flutter in her stomach as lust for her husband began to kick in. Sam had aged in that remarkable way that rugged men do. He’d become even more chiseled as the years had gone by, not a scrap of extra body fat to be found on him. His beard and temples were beginning to show signs of gray, but of course it made him look distinguished rather than old. Claire grinned, remembering how young they had both been when they met. Now, he was thirty-five and a father. Not old, by anyone’s standards, but mature enough to be completely comfortable in his body... And Claire’s.
Sam advanced toward Claire, backing her up until she was leaning back against the kitchen island. She pushed out her chest a bit, letting Sam take stock of her tits, which were as ample as ever. She may have birthed and breast fed three children, but Claire was still a knockout. Never having been skinny, her curves had rounded out even more since her youth. She was a buxom lady, that much was for certain, and had a new softness since becoming a mother. Sam worshiped her body even more after she’d gotten pregnant. The miracle of bearing a child was intoxicating for him, and as much as he’d always respected Claire’s body as something sacred, it was different once the kids had come along... But in the best of all possible ways!
Sam pressed himself against Claire, and she could feel that he was already hard as a rock. They’d never wasted any time being coy with each other. When they were ready to fuck, there was an urgency to their desire that couldn’t be contained, not even for a moment. Claire looked up into her husband’s hungry eyes and knew that it wasn’t dinner that he had in mind.
Claire leaned forward and kissed Sam deeply, slipping her tongue into his mouth. He wrapped his arms around her back and hoisted her up into the air, planting her firmly onto the island. Without removing any of her clothes, Sam stroked at her pussy. Through the thick denim, she could still feel his powerful fingers rubbing against her clit. The sensation of skin against fabric against skin always drove her insane, and she had to fight to keep from crying out. She ran her fingers through Sam’s thick brown hair as he rubbed her toward orgasm.
Quickly, he undid her jeans and his own. Before she could say a word, he slipping his fingers into her wet pussy, surprising her with the sudden burst of pleasure. She looked into Sam’s eyes as he stroked at her clit, kneading it, sending ripples of pleasure coursing through her body. She needed to have him inside of her. Needed him in a way that she always needed him. As she crept toward coming, she glanced quickly around to make sure there were no kids afoot.
Assured, she spread her legs wide for Sam and reached down for his bare cock. It was practically made of stone, straight and hard and ready. She happily slipped Sam’s dick into her pussy, which accepted him like an old friend. Her head fell back as he slid into her, filling her up all the way, just as he always did. At this angle, with her hips titled just the right way, she could feel Sam at the very back of her.
He thrust powerfully into her, making her gasp with the effort of accommodating such a large specimen. He fucked her urgently, but not hastily, making the most of every movement, every swing of his powerful hips. Claire grabbed at his back and shoulders, firm and strong from years of heaving lifting and life in the woods. He was a man who drew this strength from the land—who lived to use his hands, whether on fixing a motor vehicle or working his wife toward orgasm. He reached back down between them and kept working on her clit. The combination of penetration of full on assault of the little pleasure knob sent Claire over the edge.
She drew him once more into her pussy, bringing him in deeply as she came and came. Having released her, Sam came into her, pulling her tightly against him. She tightened her legs around him, bringing them as close as possible as they knocked against each other in the ecstasy of the moment. His cum flowed into her, filled her up, and she loved the sensation of it as much then as she had the first time they’d made love.
As the waves of pleasure rolled back out to sea, Claire hopped down from the counter a bit shakily. Sex was never dull with Sam, never once. They grinned at each other like teenagers as they redressed themselves. Sam grabbed playfully at Claire’s nipples while she reached down for his dick, which was not an easily intimidated organ. Just as they finished dressing, a door in the next cabin banged open, the sound of young voices flooded the house.
Sam and Claire exchanged relieved glances. Somehow, they had managed to carry on their sexual forays without having any of the kids walk in on them. God knows, with some of the freakier stuff they got into, it could have been potentially scarring for one of the little ones. How do you explain why mommy’s butt is plugged up to a six-year-old? Not exactly parent of the year material, right there. But Sam and Claire had been lucky so far.
A clattering stampede of footsteps barreled toward the main cabin and three rambunctious bundles of flannel and denim trampled into the room. Claire groaned as the mud from their boots splattered against the floor, their coats and hats flung unceremoniously from their bodies onto every available surface. Her kids were nothing if not consistently messy. Still, she couldn’t help but grin at their impeccable timing. A few moments earlier and they definitely would have gotten an eyeful of mom being fucked on the countertop where their school lunches were put together. Talk about scarred for life—she’d never heard the end of something like that.
“Hey Mom!” the kids chirped over each other. Claire grabbed the child closest to her and brought him into her chest. There was nothing in the world better than getting back inside from the world and wrapping her arms around her brilliant children. There were three, altogether. First was Charlie, who had just turned ten, then there was Julie, who was eight, and then of course there was Patrick, who was six. She closed Patrick into a bear hug and planted a big, sloppy kiss on his cheek. Patrick was still the baby of the family, and the one who tolerated this kind of affection the most.
“What are you guys doing back up here so soon?” Sam asked, winking at Claire, “I thought you’d be down by the lake until dinner time, at least!”
“We got hungry,” Charlie said, poking his head into the fridge. Charlie was growing like a tree, it seemed to Claire. He shot up every single day, and she had no doubt that he’d be as tall and broad as his father. Charlie was in every way the big brother of the family. He guarded his little siblings like a sheep dog and was always prepared to take on whatever domestic responsibilities were dished out to him. If there were dishes to be washed or yard work to be done, Charlie was on top of it.
Julie scurried to join Charlie in front of the open fridge, standing on her tip toes to get a better view. They were very close, the two oldest. Julie was very sharp, was very surely the brain of the family. She was uncoordinated and not nearly as physically strong as her brother, but Claire thought it was good that they each had their own “thing”.
“Mom, what’re we having for dinner?” Julie asked, eyeing an artichoke suspiciously.
“A little bit of everything,” Claire responded.
“Did you take some good pictures today?” ask
ed Charlie.
“There were a few good shots, I think. It’s so pretty out today.”
“Yeah!” said Patrick, wiggling out of Claire’s grip, “It was the prettiest day ever!”
Claire smiled down at her smallest son. That was his catchphrase, the prettiest day ever. Claire was continuously amazed at how rosy her son’s worldview was. Sure, he was still a little tyke, but his endless loving and optimism were something to behold, indeed.
“Why don’t you guys go clean up?” Sam suggested, herding the children toward their rooms. The scurried out in front of him, nipping at each others’ heels. The three made an interesting, well-rounded trio, that much was certain. With only two years separating each, they were about as close as could be. The cabin complex was not exactly close to many playmates, so the three kids ended up keeping each other company quite often. Their games wound and unfolded with beautiful chaotic glee, and Claire was so happy to see their imaginations developing along with their skills and talents.
Sam wrapped his arms around Claire’s waist and planted a kiss on her cheek. She squirmed around in his arms so that she was facing him and lay her lips against his. They stood together in the kitchen, embracing, and Claire could not believe how turned on she could get just from kissing her husband of ten years. She’d heard all her life about how the spark dies after you get married, but that certainly wasn’t the case with her and Sam. If anything, their love and passion had intensified with the years they’d spent together. She loved him more with every passing day.
As Sam went off to clean himself up for dinner, Claire began to prepare the produce she had gotten in town. Standing in the kitchen, peeling beets and turnips (the kids were wild about root vegetables), Claire took stock of her life at that moment. She was happily preparing dinner for her family, a job which was not expected of her but which she did with delight. Her kids were beautiful, energetic wonders, and her husband was the sexiest man in the world, at least in her mind. She really had done quite well for herself.
For the first time in a long while, she let her mind wander away from the present moment, away from the gorgeous cabin in the woods, away from her wonderful children and loving husband, from her career as a photographer and her success as an artist. She traced back through the years in her mind, back to when she was a young woman just starting out on her life’s journey. Back to just after she’d graduated from her urban university and was living on her own for the first time as an adult. It had been an absolutely terrifying time.
She’d graduated from college and immediately moved in with her ridiculous man-child of a college sweetheart. They’d shared a minuscule, dingy apartment together, which she was mostly paying for herself. To keep ramen on the table, she’d held down a job at a boutique children’s store and hated every minute of it. The customers she was forced to deal with represented her worst prejudices against not only parents but city-dwellers. And her boss was an absurd caricature of a shrieking, middle-aged harpy. Her best friend Savannah had worked there as well, seeing as she was between sugar daddies at the time, and that had been the only saving grace.
She couldn’t believe that her life had once been so unlike it was now! She had been so scared as that young post-grad, who had no idea what the world had in store for her. Every moment was riddled with anxiety, she couldn’t appreciate the beautiful things in life because she was so scared that the bottom was going to fall out any moment. Everyone was telling her to enjoy her twenties, because they were the best years of her life, and she just wanted to punch every one of those people in the face.
In hindsight, she could see how she let herself get swept off her feet when Parker arrived on the scene. There she was, muddling her way through life, broke as hell, in an unloving and silly relationship with a kid who didn’t have any more answers than she did. And to top it all off, she was living in New York City, that huge tangled web of dreams realized and deferred, where girls like Savannah had wild, sexy adventures that would make any self-respecting sailor blush just a little bit.
And into the wild mess of insecurities, hang-ups, and fears, Parker had sauntered. One fateful morning, while Claire was riding the subway into work, a tall, strapping man in a nice jacket had stood up for her against the advances of some catcalling groper. That day, he had stood for all that was good in the world, a bastion of order against the tides of change and chaos. Of course, Claire could see now that Parker was doing nothing more than was required of him by the notion of basic human decency, but that day he had seemed like a knight in shining armor.
Claire had fallen for Parker’s heroic shtick hook, line, and sinker. He charmed her instantly on the train that morning, his air of maturity and mystique were like ambrosia to her. She drank it all up. Even when she realized that Parker was actually her dragon lady of a boss’s husband, that he had a child with a trust fund and billions of dollars, it didn’t deter her. Well, perhaps it did for a second, but that second was negligible in the long run. Nothing could have stopped her from buying into what Parker was selling at the time.
He had arrived into her world at the exact moment when she was most susceptible to his particular brand of bullshit. Arrived on the scene just as she needed a leading man of his type. That day on the subway, she chose to let the scenario play out, because it was just that—playing. She’d been playing at being the kind of person to get wrapped up in someone like Parker, and the illicitness he had to offer. She just had no idea then how far she would actually let the act go on.
But with some prodding and a lot of ignorant bliss, she’d let Parker lead her down an insane road that was glamorous, dangerous, and more than a little sad. For god’s sake, he had hijacked her life right from beneath her! She woke up that morning as a struggling, typical college girl, but he wasn’t intent on letting her stay that way for long. No, instead he lured her in. Despite the fact that he was married—to her boss!—despite the fact that he had a kid, despite their difference in age... None of that mattered to Parker, who’d seen something he wanted.
Claire had been fooled into a tryst with Parker. Lured in on the promise of being special to him, the one person who could truly tame and understand him. She’d submitted to his sexual whims like the good little girl she wanted to remain. He was incredibly dominant, in a way that Claire had never before experienced. She fell in with his gender-specific, obvious ideals about domination and submission, without ever putting in her own two cents about what she wanted from sex, and what she needed from a relationship. She never once opened her mouth to her master, unless she was putting his dick inside of it.
Looking back, she couldn’t believe that she’d tricked herself into thinking that she was in love with Parker. She was having a fantastic time playing at being a cosmopolitan tramp, that was for sure. And the lavish gifts and lifestyle sure didn’t hurt. She had a fantastic time in Parker’s luxurious apartments and hotel rooms, liked eating his expensive food and drinking his expensive wine and booze. His decadent lifestyle was appealing, that was for sure, and it seemed at first that he’d give her a real shot of making something of herself, artistically.
What she didn’t consider then, and what it hurt to consider ten years later, was that there were other lives on the line, apart from her own, that were torn to pieces by her little charade. As much as Claire despised her boss, it wasn’t fair for her life to be torn apart because of some fantasy. Cheryl, Parker’s ex, must have been humiliated by being replaced by someone younger and sexier. And what about their son, Christopher? Claire had no idea where he was now. She hoped that he didn’t hate her too much for ruining it all.
Of course, the blame belonged with Parker as well. He was the sort of man whose pleasure was first and foremost in his mind. He didn’t care for a moment what the long-term impact of his attention would be on Claire. He didn’t mind that she was in over her head when it came to the roughness of their sex, the danger of it. To be fair, she’d enjoyed the sex, most of the time. Most of the time, it had been fantastic. Bu
t that wasn’t the point. The point was that her life had been steered away from her own needs.
It was an absolute miracle that she’d managed to come back from that edge. It was a gift from some god in heaven that, on their honeymoon, Claire had been able to see Parker for what he was. It was a miracle that she’s come to this conclusion in the middle of the Montana wilderness, escaped from Parker’s grasp, and stumbled directly into Sam’s arms. The last thing she’d expected after fleeing from Parker was to find exactly what she needed, exactly what she was looking for. But you don’t turn something like that down when it presents itself!
Claire said a little prayer of thanks every day for the fact that Sam was waiting for her that fateful day. Waiting to show her the beauty of a relationship wherein no one is the dominant or the submissive, where both partners are just in love, without any labels. Sam was the epitome of everything Claire had really wanted in a man. He made her feel safe without protecting her in a way that was condescending. He valued her ideas and contributed his own. He wanted the same kind of life that she did.
It turned out that the life they both wanted was rather simple. A house in the woods, a brood of wonderful children, tons of time spent together in marital bliss, and great sex. Such great sex. Sure, it certainly helped that they’d never have to worry about money for as long as they lived, but Claire considered that a tax that Parker should have to pay for derailing her life momentarily. God knows, she was better off for having gotten rid of him, but she did still wonder at times what that situation would have looked like, had she let it play out. Her guess was “not good, not good at all”.
How could anything compare to the happiness she had found in life? She was a wife, mother, and artist. She was discovering new things about herself every day and thrilled with the person she was becoming. In her quiet moments, she did say a little thank you to Parker for plucking her out of her shitty apartment and giving her a peek at the world. He wasn’t worth it in the long run, but she’d found something that was. In the unlikeliest of places, at the edge of the world, Claire had found her happiness.