Chapter 1

I awoke with a start that Sunday morning, not really sure what time of day it was (thankfully, I was off work on Sundays). I weirdly felt that wasn’t alone, even though my wife of three years had just gone back to visit my in-laws in Colorado for the summer. So far, despite a growing sense that I blundered into monogamy when I knew better, I had behaved myself, too. I had kept my vows, made largely to placate her. It wasn’t through fear of financial ruin, either, as both of us were teachers, so were not doing that greatly.

We weren’t financially hamstrung too much, but it did hurt our bottom line a little that Sandra had taken a trip to visit the folks instead of taking on a summer job as she had done in the past ... and as I did every summer as well. Generally speaking, the summer job paid better than either my salary or hers, and we were both tenured! I usually taught typewriting classes to young secretaries and my wife mostly taught summer swimming lessons. At any rate, this was my situation, and I was just glad that I had my summer job to help pay bills and allow for a few luxuries.

I was more than a little stunned when, in addition to the presence of someone else in my home, I smelled something ... familiar. It followed the scent to my dick, and I touched it, feeling what could only be the juices of a woman on my prick. That made it clear. I wasn’t just feeling things. This was tangible, olfactory evidence that I wasn’t alone in my house. Rising from my bed, in my haste forgetting to cover up (why was I naked in bed, either, as I usually didn’t bother with that unless Sandra and I got it on), I followed what appeared to be a path of clothes leading me to the kitchen.

There, to my utter and absolute shock, was my sister-in-law, Kelly. She was very naked and very beautiful, but she looked a bit hassled or tired, at least in terms of the dark circles under her eyes that shouldn’t belong to a newlywed bride of just twenty-three. She was naked as well, and I could smell cum on her, MY cum I realized with another jolt, proof positive that I had slipped from my vows and slept with not just another woman, but my wife’s sister! Furthermore, she was another man’s wife, so I had put horns on her husband, which was an additional rude awakening to me.

“Um ... Kelly?” I spoke aloud, causing her to turn her head.

“Not yet, please, Robert. I know that you’ll want an explanation for this, but not quite yet. It’s a fait accomplis, anyway, now, isn’t it? The dirty deed is done,” Kelly assured me, “Now, please, let me cook breakfast for my summer hubby.”

“Summer hubby? Or is that hobby?” I joked a little, to ease the tension, and it worked, making Kelly laugh softly at my jab.

“You’ll see,” Kelly told me, “I’m almost done, in fact. Sandra made me promise to rise and cook breakfast for you every day that I’m here, in addition to making sweet love to you. Not that it was hard to agree to either of those two things.”

“What about Jimmy, you know ... your actual husband? What does he think of all of this?” I was a bit shaken up by now, knowing that Sandra had connived with her sister to have a substitute wife planted in our bed and kitchen.

“We’ll get to that, baby,” Kelly promised me, “Please let me focus on this task for just another moment. I know that we women are supposed to be great multi-taskers, but even we have limits, and this topic is going to require more than enough focus to cause me to burn your breakfast, which would suck since I’m hungry, too.”

“Fair enough, dear. Wait, did I actually... ?” I stopped short, realizing that I had used an endearment toward my sister-in-law as freely and naturally as she had done toward me.

“It’s okay, honey. You’ll get used to it. I know that I could easily grow accustomed to such expressions of affection myself, at least with you, that is. I’ve always enjoyed hearing such terms frequently thrown around by a couple very much in love. You were never shy about that, were you two? It’s inspiring, honestly. Don’t let your first act of infidelity make you feel otherwise. You’re an amazing husband. Sandra’s always bragged on you, how great you are with her. By the way, she’s pregnant,” Kelly told me as she finally plated our morning meal.

“She’s ... pregnant? She hasn’t told me that,” I commented with shock.

“It’s my job to deliver the news, baby. You’ll understand very soon. Don’t worry, it’s definitely yours. Sandra hasn’t messed around on you. In fact, she has resisted the family tradition, very much so. Until now. Three years. That’s what she asked for, and that’s what she got. Three years, until she was ready to fall pregnant. Once she had your baby safely in her, then she could handpick her substitute and you could select yours,” Kelly only confused me further with that remark.

“Substitute? Wait, I thought that Sandra wanted me all to herself. She told me that repeatedly, got very jealous at times of other women, all that jazz. You mean that was only supposed to be temporary? I mean, she convinced me to marry her, swear off other women, everything, all for it to just be for three years? It doesn’t make sense!” I exclaimed with astonishment.

“Actually, if you recall, your vows never included the words, ‘forsaking all others,’ did they? Think back to your wedding. Did you ever once say those words, even in rehearsal?” Kelly reminded me, “Did I at my wedding to Jimmy? Did he?”

That jogged my memory, and sure enough, those words were a curious omission that occurred to me at the time. I put it down as implied and reminded myself that there were many variations of the traditional vows. I didn’t think anything further of it, but there were also jokes that were hard to explain in hindsight, which I just dismissed as mere bawdy humor. The one that stuck out most was when my father-in-law teased me about signing my life away, “for the next few years away.” That was a curious statement, as was my mother-in-law telling me, “I look forward to seeing more of you in the few years.”

As the light dawned on me, I saw Kelly’s face change and, “Yes, he’s catching up to us,” pop up on her face.

“So ... Jimmy’s on board with this, too?” I asked her, but she shook her head, “no,” as she bit into the bacon and I dug into my hashbrowns.

“Nope. He’s already kicked me out. That just made it more urgent that I become your surrogate wife. Sandra had already chosen me, but his actions made it essential. To think that I was gonna stay on the Pill, so as not to stick him with your baby. Now, it seems that my baby and hers will be sibling cousins, if you know what those are. You’re an incredibly smart man, so I don’t doubt it. I can’t wait until Thanksgiving, when I have a nice, big baby bump to show the family, courtesy of my sweet summer hubby,” Kelly exulted in spite of her marital woes.

“You don’t seem too unhappy with the demise of your marriage,” I observed, trying to distract myself from the news that my wife hadn’t quite been honest with me about her family’s ways.

“Not while I have my summer marriage, no. I’m gonna enjoy that and hope for the best after it. I don’t see any hope with Jimmy, though. Not after this. You’re taking this a lot better than he did. To think, he’d have gotten his own summer wife, too, and he would have had the final say in picking my summer husband. He could have simply selected someone else. Since he kicked me out, though, the choice was out of his hands.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong. I am ... hurt, and yes, I cried and had sleepless nights for the past month or so, hence the dark circles under my eyes, but in the end, I wanted to uphold the family tradition of summer marriage. It’s a wonderful thing and has either strengthened good marriages and made them better, or else exposed and destroyed bad ones. Our family has been doing it for about a century now, so it’s an entrenched family thing. Some husbands and wives react well to the news, some don’t. Some have divorced and filed for annulment, which others have learned prior to marriage and bolted.

“How it works is like this. Every summer, those who have been initiated arrange for every husband and wife in the family to select surrogate spouses for each other for the season. During that summer, that person is your spouse and the rules are whatever you and that temporary spouse agree to, not whatever rules you have decided with your regular mate. We swap for the entire summer, which as you notice has barely begun.

“Your wife, my sister, chose me for you. Now, my dear brother-in-law, you get to select her partner for the summer. You can always choose Jimmy, if he comes to his senses, but not this year. It’s too late for that. Maybe next year. There are our cousins, Rodney and Stanley. There’s our sister Francine, who is a lesbian, after all. Her partner, Samantha, already has a summer husband, Uncle Don, since she’s bi. And there’s our brother, Steve. Any of these acceptable to you? Sandra’s gonna want to know that, first, you forgive her for hiding this from you, and second, that you have selected her summer husband for her,” Kelly urged me, hoping that she could take my mostly calm and sensible mood as acceptance.

“Well, I can forgive her, but she best not keep secrets from me again. Tell her that. This smacks of manipulation a bit, especially not warning me that I’d be seduced in my sleep by her sister. Then again, waking up without morning wood for once was a nice surprise, and I do love the smell of your cooking ... and the sight of you naked. You’re definitely easy on the eyes. She and I will clearly need to work on our communication in the future.

“On the other hand, I get to pick her partner, just as she does mine? That’s fair. Very fair. And she has to abide by my decision, right? Until I pick one for her, she’s bound to my will. After that, it’s between her and the summer guy, is that right?” I clarified.

“Exactly. So, who’s the lucky guy?” Kelly wondered, “Bear in mind that if you pick Jimmy, he might not go for it, and then you’d have to pick all over again. He’s still got a chance to change his mind and opt in with the tradition, though.”

“Well, it’s not him. I understand him getting upset at having this dumped on him with short notice, but it’s a serious overreaction to just kick you out without at least a discussion and a chance to convince you, not even an ultimatum, not even making a threat first, in case you could be persuaded. Could you have been?” I wondered.

“Yes, of course! At least for this year, and then I could have had time to try to persuade him to go for it next summer. I wouldn’t have just handed him an ultimatum, agree to this or else. No, he just kicked me out over even proposing it and informing him of it, so I went ahead and did it. It’s not as if I’ve stepped out on him before, and he would have had his own summer wife, as I noted. Now, he’s in serious danger of missing out on that, too,” Kelly reassured me that she wasn’t a bully, as if there was a real chance of that ... hardly ... it just didn’t seem like her to be that forceful and aggressive.

“Well, not Jimmy, as I said. I don’t trust him not to kick Sandra out onto the street over some trifling offense or perceived insult. He’s clearly got a short fuse, that estranged husband of yours. I’d be afraid that he’d strike her, too. He hasn’t hit you, has he?” I demanded.

“No, not yet. I hope to keep it that way,” Kelly assured me, “he gets loud and angry, but never that violent ... not until today. By the way, Sandra never had monogamy in mind for you. Subconsciously, you must have realized that, which was part of her ability to entice you into marriage. We both knew that you were no one-woman man at heart. That’s part of your appeal to her, in fact. It was only a matter of time before you ended up bedding another woman, which made you perfect for her, along with your kindness, sweetness, strength, brains, etc.”

“And she was perfect for me, aside from what I thought as an intent to lock me into monogamy. She had the sexy ways, the beauty, yes, but also the wild streak, the brains, the wit, the humor, the playfulness, and the basic human decency and empathy that one would want in a lover,” I answered, “And the cooking.”

“And the cooking. Yes, so ... inquiring minds want to know? Who is it?” Kelly pressed me again.

“It must be in the family, right?” I sought clarity.

“Yes, one of the blood kindred or in-laws. Well, who, sweet lover?” Kelly played footsie with me now.

“Steve. I want her to boff her brother, and often, now that the issue of possible deformities is out of the way due to her pregnant condition, another thing that she should have mentioned to me. She got pregnant on purpose, didn’t she, to insure that she didn’t have another man’s baby!” I felt the realization hit me ... she had been all hot and heavy, too, no doubt inspired by her desire to get knocked up by me before another man could do it to her.

“That she did, and trust me, the family is going to take care of you, her, all of us. Who knows, maybe I can talk Sandra into letting me stay longer. It’s not entirely unprecedented, at least in cases where the summer wife got knocked up and didn’t have a permanent hubby anymore, that is. I have a job, too, even if this will put me on maternity leave eventually. No offense, but I make as much or more as you do in your teaching job, and that’s with 911 dispatch!” Kelly winked at me as she dialed Sandra’s cell number and hit the speaker on the home phone.

“Hello?” Sandra’s voice picked up rather nervously, seeing my landline number appear on her caller ID.

“Hey, sis, it’s me, Kelly,” my summer wife now told her sister.

“So ... did you and me ... you know. Get it on? Was he as good with you as he is with me?” Sandra asked in a very curious, even voyeuristic tone.

“Yes, we got it on, babe,” I spoke up.

“So ... you’re not alone, sis. Robert’s with you. And on speaker, no less! Hey, honey. I know that this is a bit much to take in, but you seem to be handling it better than Jimmy, at least. I suppose that I have some ... explaining to do. First, as you know by now, I copied my house key and let Kelly have a copy. We have some ... serious things to discuss when I return, I believe, regarding our future ... and Kelly’s, if you’re open to that.

“If it all seems a bit hasty and unilateral, it was done that way only because Kelly had no place to stay in a rush. I would have handled it differently if we had more time, dear. Sorry that I sprung this on you in this way, but at least you’re going for it, I assume, if you banged her?” Sandra seemed hopeful, due to the fact that I had screwed her sister, had taken the bait.

“Yes, baby, I’m going for it. I’m actually kind of relieved that I’m not trapped in monogamy after all. Nothing against you. You’re a wonderful wife and all that, but, well you know me. I’m not a one-woman man at heart. It was a big deal to agree to this and I wondered if I could actually do this. So this is a bit of a pleasant surprise, to say the least,” I committed to it.

“Yes, I know ... you denied your nature for me. Well, I told you that you had nothing to worry about, didn’t I? That’s why those critical words were omitted from the wedding vows. I just wanted to wait until we were ready to have a baby, to get used to married life, to use up all that new relationship energy and get comfortable with each other first. To know that I was yours and you were mine and that we were a team that could work together, not with one of us trying to push the other around all the time. That’s all. Now, do you believe me that there’s no cause for worry? And I am forgiven?” Sandra took a very sweet, reasonable, even pleading, tone now.