“They only keep the boat pond open this late on weekends.”
“Still,” he said, “it’s only two weeks away, and this will be hard to top.”
Anna took his hand in hers and kissed it right above the wedding ring. “I know you’ll come up with a great surprise. You always do.”
“No pressure,” Mark said, laughing.
Anna looked at him for a moment, then pointed over to one of the small, wooded islands that dotted the shimmering lake. “Let’s go over there.”
Behind the low trees of the island, they stopped the paddle boat and floated in place. Before Mark could say anything, Anna leaned across the low plastic hump that separated their seats in the boat and kissed him. His lips were warm and soft, and she felt herself melting against him when he put his hands on her face, the tips of his fingers pressing against her dark blonde hair.
It felt like their lips were meeting for the first time, their tongues touching like long-separated lovers, and she felt a delicious tingle flutter through her.
She finally pulled away from him, leaned back against the low bulwark behind her and reached for the top button of her white blouse. She undid it, then the next and the next, all the way down to her black cotton pants. Anna gently pulled the front of the blouse open.
The day had been stiflingly hot and, in order to keep cool, she’d decided not to wear a bra under her top. All through dinner, Anna found herself getting more and more turned on, knowing she was completely nude under the weave of her blouse, and delighting in the feel of the silky smooth material against the tips of her nipples. She spent so much time fantasizing about surprising Mark at the lake, and about what she wanted to do to him, that she had to restrain herself from sticking her foot up his pant leg at the table.
Mark grinned and twisted to see if any of the other boats were around. He could see some on the other side of the island, through the dark cluster of trees and shrubs, but they were far away.
“Do you think they’ll see us?” he whispered.
“Let them,” Anna said, stretching and lifting her arms above her head. “Let them look.” She let her hands fall to her chest, slowly working their way down to cup her small, pointed breasts. She could feel the skin of her nipples bunching together, becoming erect. She kept her eyes on Mark the whole time.
Anna let her hands continue their journey downward, sliding along her ribcage and grazing over the flat plain of her belly. Then she leaned forward and kissed him again.
“Let’s make them jealous,” Mark said.
Anna pushed him backward, and reached down into his lap. She took the tag of his zipper between her thumb and forefinger and pulled it down. The stark white of his cotton briefs bulged out of the fly. Putting her hands on Mark’s leg, she leaned down and ran her tongue over the jutting cloth of his underwear. The bulge began to grow, and she heard Mark utter that strange noise he always made, something between a gasp and a sigh. She could smell the meaty scent of his arousal as the tender flesh expanded and stiffened under her tongue.
Mark ran his fingers through her hair, and another tingle thrilled through her. She reached through the crowded fly of his pants, pulled his briefs down, and tasted his warm, salty skin against the insides of her cheeks and on her tongue.
From her position, she couldn’t look up at his face, or look into his eyes the way she liked to when she was going down on him. In her mind, she pictured his expression: eyes closed, neck tilted back, mouth hanging open.
In Mark’s mind, with his eyes closed, it wasn’t Anna using her mouth on him. It was Arianna, the boss’s secretary at work. She had light brown hair, dark eyes and a body to die for. Mark imagined them in the copy room at the back of the office.
Arianna was on her knees, her full, round tits bared through her open blouse, her back against the Xerox machine. Mark stood in front of her, his hands deep in her thick, long hair, his pants around his ankles, thrusting his cock into her mouth so hard that her head was tapping against the copier.
He began thrusting harder in the boat, too, his fingers tightening their grip in Anna’s hair, bucking his hips up off the plastic seat and driving deeper into her mouth. The climax pulled him apart inside, then snapped him back together. Mark, grunting, felt Anna try to pull away. Still gripping her hair, he held Anna’s head down in his lap.
The way he wanted to with Arianna.
There were only two people Mark considered himself close to at work: Geoff and Tony. Every day at two-thirty they would take a coffee break together in the small conference room near their desks. The ritual never varied: Geoff drank from the grey mug, and Tony from the marbled black one. Mark couldn’t stand using the same mug every day. Today it was blue.
“It’s getting bad,” Geoff said. “The way you look at her whenever she walks by.”
Mark swallowed and put his empty mug on the table. “Is it that obvious?”
Geoff and Tony both laughed.
“Everyone’s got the hots for Arianna,” Tony said.
“But you’re a married man,” Geoff added.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Mark said. “I think about sex constantly, and with all these other women. It’s like I need it all the time.”
“You’re a man,” Tony said. “We do need sex all the time.”
Mark shook his head. “It’s not just that. It’s like I’m wired differently from everyone else. All my life I had a problem with monogamy. I cheated on whoever I was with, because I couldn’t stand the idea of all those women out there that I couldn’t have. I don’t want to cheat on Anna. She’s great; she’s the best I’ve ever been with.”
“Yeah?” Tony’s eyebrow arched up.
“She’s always game. She’s up for anything, but she can barely keep up with me.”
“She’s your wife now,” Geoff said, frowning. “Cheating on your wife is a whole new ballgame.”
Mark took a deep breath. “I’m keeping it in my fantasies.”
“Good,” Geoff said. “There’s a price on your relationship with Anna, you know. You ever cheat on her, you better make sure the price is worth it. It better be something worth losing her for. Because you will lose her.”
Later, Tony asked Mark to come to his desk for a moment, there was something he wanted to show him. Tony sat in his chair and started flipping through his Rolodex.
“Geoff is full of shit,” Tony said. “Not everything is so black and white.”
“Geoff’s affair cost him his marriage,” Mark replied. “What he said makes sense.”
Tony shrugged. “Maybe. Ah, here it is!” He pulled a bright yellow business card out of the Rolodex and handed it to Mark:
WORLD’S LONGEST CONTINUING
ADULT CELEBRATION
The Aphrodite Club. Est. 1866. Safe. Private. Discreet.
Couples only. Must be over 21. Call for more information.
“What the hell is this?” Mark asked.
“You gotta check it out,” Tony said, leaning back in his chair and grinning. “It’s basically a high-class orgy. It’s amazing.”
“I don’t know,” Mark said, looking at the card again.
Tony leaned forward. “Listen, you’re a red-blooded American man. You have certain needs that the rules of monogamy won’t let you meet. So, this is the best of both worlds. You go there with your wife, you stay with your wife, but you’re surrounded by all these other beautiful, naked women that you can look at. It’s like a real-life porn movie. And believe me, Anna won’t be upset about all the other women. She’ll be turned on. You both will.”