Cherry Blossoms: A Losing His Wife Novel

by KT Morrison

  Nia being back in this ultra-male environment brought out all the bees. It brought out the female in her too. Not the kind, matronly female, but the engorged sex, vital, looking-to-mate female. It suited her. She shone with a light that he’d hated to think he might have dimmed keeping her locked up in their happy household. He watched her, ran his hand over the back of their baby Odele while she slept and he watched his wife flirt with half a dozen men. All of them, every one would sacrifice a lot to sleep with her. That’s how fucking hot she was. And the more he let her go, the more he let her explore this sexual viability the hotter she got. Nia in a bikini, shit, he thought, his eyes poring over that perfect female form—she was getting to him and he was her fucking husband. He could legitimately, right now, reach out, tweak that turquoise triangle to the side and clamp his mouth on one of her perfect tits, suck that nipple into his mouth and she would close her eyes and run her hands through his hair and moan and encourage him. What was she doing to these men she was flirting with? She probably had them aching. Everyone else here could only dream. Shit, well, Dino had her. And Rocco was going to. But these other guys? Ha ha, bite it.

  Yeah, Nia thrived in this stimulus while most girls would shrivel.

  Rocco said, “I’m not budging,” sitting low in his chair, big feet buried in the fine sand.

  Dino huffed, still looking at his bottle, said, “Some fuckin brother.”

  “It’s a steal already,” Rocco said.

  Dino was trying to buy a houseboat that Rocco was selling. Rocco didn’t use it anymore since he bought the cottage, Dino wanted it for his family.

  Dino mumbled, “I’ll still have to think about it.”

  “Just fuckin buy it already. Stop fuckin around,” Rocco growled and took a swig of beer. “How bout you, Geoff, how’s the book business? Fuckin all the girls talkin about seein you on TV.”

  “It’s all right,” Geoff said, glad Odie was sleeping through the language.

  “Nia said you got some book comin out soon.”

  Nia said, “Sequel to his big one. Comes out two months.”

  “Book about trains,” Dino grumbled into the water.

  “Yeah. Book of Choo,” Geoff said.

  “You wanna buy a houseboat?”

  Geoff laughed, knowing he was trying to rile his brother. He said, “I think we’re going to do something,” looked up to Rocco’s cottage, then smiled at Nia. She smiled too and she leaned to him and bumped her shoulder to his sweetly.

  “Ay, all right,” Rocco said, “Come up to Haliburton, I get to see Nia on the weekends too.” He looked to Nia and she rolled her eyes and it made him laugh deep and loud, throw his head back.

  Rocco said, “Dino, worried about a forty-thousand dollar houseboat, wishing he stuck with me and Dad stead of runnin off to be a firefighter. Maybe draw some fuckin choo-choo trains.”

  Dino set his bottle down on the footrest of the Jet-ski and he calmly gave Rocco two middle fingers, his face not really joking, then he rolled backwards off the machine and into the water, slipping in without much of a splash. Everyone laughed, looked to Rocco, saw his good humour, tinged though with a bit of disdain.

  They watched for Dino to surface and he did. Arcing slowly through the water, like a cresting dolphin, showing them all his ass, swim shorts completely pulled down. He got rave reviews, laughter and clapping from shore.

  Below his bare, muscular ass were, quite unexpectedly, his balls. Pressed between his thighs and thrusting out at them. Both of them very visible for one agonizingly long second. Both balls, one on top of the other, like a T. The one below, ovoid, running north-south, the other, sitting on top of it, running east-west. Biggest set of nuts Geoff had ever seen. He looked to his side and saw Nia’s profile as she watched Dino disappear into the water again. She’d seen that lewd revelation. She already knew it though, didn’t she? She was laughing now, she’d clapped her hands once in delight at his bare-assed rebuttal. Her mouth was open in a wide and pretty howl. He felt his heart crack. Dino had man’s balls. Big swollen Grade-A eggs that were double the size of his own two boy-sized marbles. Nia had fondled those things, had them in her mouth probably, they’d been emptied inside her hundreds of times. She knew all about what hung below Dino’s cock, but Geoff was just finding out for real and it was hurtful. One time, when they were married, those things had squirted their contents for his wife.

  He closed his eyes and felt his hands tremble on his daughter’s back.

  GEOFF

  Almost forty people sat at six long picnic tables, two sets of three pushed end to end. Covered in gingham tablecloths and lit by strings of small white Christmas lights laced through the branches of the trees above. There’d been cold pasta bowls with chunks of feta and big black olives, orzo with pesto and shrimp, and chicken Marbella, and mushroom carpaccio, other things too that he’d never got a chance to try. He couldn't keep himself out of this salad Maria had made with melon and prosciutto and pecorino. He hoped no one noticed how much he’d hogged.

  No wine for Geoff, he was on Odele-duty and he’d be driving home. Nia was taking it easy because she was with her boss and his family and Odie was with them, but he’d seen her take many a sip of red wine today.

  It was getting a little pinky-orange out now, the sun starting to set. Odie had a nap after swimming and Geoff had lay out on the lawn with her in the sun and, he was pretty sure, drifted off himself for at least a quarter hour. The day had been a lot better than expected. He’d had his nervous bouts, his little anxious twists, but the rest of it was fun. He didn’t like hearing the wives’ opinions of the woman he loved but it was sort of to be expected. It was a little shocking to have his wife’s ex-boyfriend’s incredibly large testicles shown to him. Shocking and hurtful and yet there it was again: arousing. Dino’s obvious sexual power was exciting to him and he found the thought of his wife with a man like that to be so fucking erotic. And then there was Rocco...intimidating at first but now, after a couple of beers in his own belly and probably a dozen in Rocco, he kind of liked him. He was all right with his wife fucking this guy. His size bothered him a little. His penis would be large, that was obvious. Nia had said she’d seen it through his pants and confirmed he was packing. That was exciting in an anxious fearful sort of way. He was really worried about the size of the rest of him. He was huge. His hands were enormous. Nia had mentioned them before. And not in a sexy playful way, more in a revelatory sort of Gosh, I can’t stop thinking about his hands kind of way. She didn’t talk about them to tease Geoff, she talked about them because she was thinking about them. His wife could have a real attraction to Rocco. He was coarse and rough but he had a charm. And ladies liked a man to make them feel safe. Rocco made Geoff feel safe. Like if he were in danger, if fucking ninjas dropped out of these trees and started throwing stars around he would run to Rocco for help without hesitation and he had a notion that if anyone could save them from ninjas he’d be their only hope. Rocco was MAN personified. Big, strong, capable. Big dick, deep voice. Unafraid. Those were attractive features to woman. He was handsome, Nia was gorgeous. They made a good couple.

  That was the lone wrinkle in this wonderfully (but hastily) woven tapestry that he and Nia had crafted. Their arrangement, their sexual experiment in liberty. Maybe he’d be more comfortable with a guy like the stripper. Some dumb hot body, big dick guy that would dart in for the night and then never be seen again. That would be more comfortable, wouldn't it? More comfortable than the ex-boyfriend’s brother who she works for who is also her type, has a big dick, is handsome, and who his wife believes will be able to deliver some much desired masculine roughness to her bored-with-Geoff pussy. But when he put it that way, Rocco was ten times more exciting than the stripper. Because he knew the tingle that he put between his lovely Nia’s long legs. That was what he wanted anyway, wasn’t it? Her happiness. So let Rocco make her happy, dum-dum, she’ll come home to you, you can brush her hair and kiss her cheek and watch TV and eat ice cream and raise your wonde
rful daughter together. And you can make love to her. Whenever you feel like it. Rocco can be her fuck-buddy, make her happy like the silver dildo he bought her makes her happy. He was indulging her a living breathing sex-toy that would give her all the things she missed, that made Geoff so hard thinking about—then she comes home to her family and Rocco goes home to his family. Dirty and messy and complicated, but frankly, somehow, hot as fuck.

  “Dad?” Odie’s gentle whisper next to him, below the boisterous table conversation.

  He turned to her sitting next to him, proud to be at an adult table. Her plate was cleared, she was glassy-eyed and full, hair wet and stringy, face flushed and happy.

  He got low to her and put his hand on her back, said, “Yeah, baby?”

  She whispered to him, “Can we get a cottage?”

  He chuckled, rubbed her back, said, “We’ll see…” Maybe they could. They could at least rent one for a week during the summer. It was a wonderful notion. But if Nia was going to be away working long hours during the season, they’d only have the weekends to use it. They could buy one, use it whenever they wanted. It would be an investment.

  Maria and Stacy and two other women were up and moving now, collecting plates, clearing the table.

  “Can I help?” Odie said to Maria as she got close. Maria gave her a warm smile and told her she could.

  Maria said, “Grab some plates…you can bring em up to the kitchen, help us get dessert…”

  Odie beamed, and Geoff reached out and poked his finger into her soft little-girl middle, said, “Odie loves dessert…”

  She turned, mad, chastised him, “Da-ad!” Gave him a mean seven-year-old face that made him laugh. Maria took her up to the kitchen, and Geoff watched her go. Maria was maybe not too fond of Nia but she was good with Odele. He wasn’t a hundred percent comfortable with her learning to clear plates for men and staying relegated to kitchen duty. In the Kane household, though, she learned she could do whatever she wanted.

  Nia’s back was turned to him and she had her elbows on the table, engaged with Doug and Rocco, work related convo. He put his hand on her back now too, in love with both his girls. Nia was wearing her bikini still, but he’d got her a wrap from the bag they’d brought and she had that over her shoulders. Her wet hair had been pulled back into a drying ponytail—tangled black, spilled over a narrow feminine shoulder, and he watched her profile as she talked with the boys. She was incredibly beautiful. He used to draw her. Draw her from memory when they were just friends. He’d drink her in when they were together, then, alone at night, schoolwork done, he’d practice rendering those shapes. She had a long graceful neck, a sharp beautiful swooping jaw, and her skull took an amazing angle past her ears; a crown in perfect balance, offsetting that delicately angled facial mid-depth. A perfect profile. She kept talking but her hand came up over her shoulder and he watched her long fingers search for his, her wedding ring winking in the setting sun. He moved to her, his fingers went under hers and she clenched him while she laughed and talked.

  Rocco rubbed his face with his big hands. He was pushed back from the table, sunk in his chair. The chair flexed and bent underneath him but managed to hold. He said, “I better bring up more wine. We’re going to do fireworks off the dock. You’ll stay for that? Odelle wants to see that, eh?”

  Nia said, “Yeah, of course, we don’t want to miss that. I came here for fireworks.”

  Geoff noted the emphasis on the phrase, coming up for fireworks. He knew her, the way she talked. That sounded flirtatious. Right in front of Doug. A little bold, Nia.

  She said, “Can I get a place to change? I want to put something warm on but I don’t want to put it over my swimsuit.”

  Rocco put an arm out and pointed to the sliding glass doors behind the barbecues, said, “Back there, where I showed you the wine cellar. Not as far as the cellar, in the hall before it. Bathroom there. There’s a shower too, you want to rinse off or whatever.”

  “Thanks,” she said, and she stood, bent and kissed Geoff and gathered her wrap around herself and he watched her walk towards the house. She turned and said, “You want me to grab the wine?”

  Rocco didn’t look back but he squinted as he was thinking, he said, “Ah, no, I got it…I know what I’m getting. Geoff, you wanna go with Doug out to the garage, start bringing down the fireworks…”

  “Okay,” Nia said, waving over her shoulder and continuing on.

  Geoff nodded and looked to Doug.

  Maria yelled down for Rocco from the upper deck, tinge of frustration in her voice.

  “Fuck,” he whispered. “What now?”

  Doug’s shoulders shook with a laugh as he looked down, smiling at the beer bottle in his hand.

  Rocco hefted his bulk out of the punished plastic chair and Doug said, “Where’s the fireworks?”

  “Side of the garage, the back one, right by the ATVs…Geoff, can you grab the wine?”

  “Sure…”

  “Yeah, it’s in a crate, there’s a bunch of crates by the door, right side when you go in. There’s a crate with a dozen bottles of different Primitivos…you can take em out to the fire pit. Go in the sliding doors, go right, Nia will show you where the cellar is…”

  “Okay,” he said, and he hefted his medium-sized bulk out of his chair, feeling heavy from three helpings of prosciutto salad. He walked up the grassy hill to the house, side-by-side with Rocco, a few feet apart, together but separate. He struggled with something funny to say, said nothing, then they parted wordlessly at the back of the house and Rocco headed up the wooden steps to the upper level of the deck. Geoff headed into the dim basement, turned right, went down a wide set of steps.

  Ahead on the left, an open cedar door, pine wedges still holding the unfinished framing square. Pale yellow light spilled out across the dark concrete in a sharp-edged rectangle. He made his way to it and stood in its light.

  His heart stopped and he gulped audibly. Nia’s back was to him, turned to a three-quarter profile. Her long black hair spilled in drying tangles across her bare tanned back. She was naked, standing there in bare feet and painted toes, a towel clutched in her hands. Her hip cocked toward him, one bare globe flexed, the other pert but lower, a tight seam below her buttock where it met her thigh. Her ass was paler where the sun hadn’t been lucky enough to kiss her. Her right breast was bared to him, her nipple hardened and brown. She was on her toes, flexing her calves. She was waiting to be seen, wanting to look her best.

  The first time he’d seen his Nia naked was the morning after they first made love. He woke with her in his arms and the first thought he’d had was Please, Lord, I will do anything for that to be more than a one night stand. He woke up that morning and knew he wanted to devote the rest of his life to the woman he held. She was his best friend, and now they’d been intimate. She’d sat up and stretched, her long arms twisting and writhing, her bare breasts swaying as she arched her back and groaned. She’d turned and smiled warmly, got out of bed, and he watched her as she crossed the room and his heart pumped a fiery happiness through him. She’d crossed the room, bare as she was born, and he’d watched her ass, watched it without shame for once. His breath had caught in his throat as he enjoyed the sensational gift life had just given him.

  She stood now before him, bare as she was born again, revealing herself to him but intending it for another man. His jaw dropped, literally dropped. The strength left his body at the ugly truth about what they were doing. He saw the incredible gift he was sharing. His knees buckled and he slumped against the cedar door frame.

  Her head was in narrow profile, her eyes turned down, her long eyelashes feathered and curled. Her eyes opened, her chin raised slightly, a coy woman just realizing she was being watched…her eyes turned to him, her shoulders opened, her ass flexed. She saw it was Geoff.

  She jumped, laughed, then her hand covered her bare breast. “Shit, Geoff…holy shit,” she said.

  “Nia…” he croaked.

  “Hi, baby,” sh
e said, her eyebrows up in the middle, knowing she’d been caught and feeling guilty.

  “Fuck, Nia,” he groaned, a fever washing across him, flu-like symptoms falling heavily on him, an aching weakness across his back and shoulders, a pervasive weight on his heart and lungs.

  “You caught me, Geoff, you caught me,” she said lightly, a weak submissive smile on her face.

  “Oh, Nia. This is…real…” he said and he stepped into the long cedar-panelled bathroom. He crossed to her and she put her hands out to hug him but he needed to sit down and he slipped past her and plopped heavily onto the closed wooden toilet seat.

  Her hand went through his hair, her thumb soothed his temple. “You caught me,” she said again.

  “N—”

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m…it hurt to see it…I’m dealing with it.” He took her wrist and lowered her hand so he could rest his cheek in her palm. She thumbed his beard now. He looked up at her bare body, her other hand clutching the towel across her breasts, suddenly demure.

  “Odele could have come down, Nia, one of his kids, shit, Maria…”

  She shrugged, her face sheepish, she said, “Or you…maybe I knew it was you.”

  “I don’t think you did.”

  She lowered her eyes. “No. I was expecting Rocco.”

  “You’re really going to do this?”

  “I am.”

  He clutched at his stomach. His eyes welled with tears.

  “You sure you’re okay?”

  He nodded. “I am. It’s…a lot…”

  She hugged his head to her belly and he kissed her skin there. He pushed the towel aside and he hugged her to him, pressed his cheek to her belly while his arms went around her hips and his hands held her flesh. He looked down. Looked at her bare waxed cleft mound. That thing that was his, hers…theirs. That intimate part of her that made her a woman. That twisted bit of flesh hidden in there, that stretched and parted, that swelled with ecstasy, that had yawned painfully wide and delivered Odie to him. That most private piece of her that also felt so good, put dirty thoughts in her head. His head too. He kissed her lower, sucked at the flesh of her mound.