It was the night of our third anniversary. Carla and I came out of the theater, walking slowly to the car. I took her to a movie she had wanted to see. It was a sexy film about six college ‘kids’ in their senior year. There were four guys and two girls.

In celebration of their upcoming graduation, the parents of one of the guys had given him permission to invite his friends to a weekend at their house, set on a private island. Sex, drugs and booze were had by all. During the course of the weekend, the girls made the rounds of all four guys, sometimes two at a time.

Eventually, the girls got around to each other for a hot scene. There was a lot of nudity. Nobody wore much for the three days they were there and exhibition and voyeurism ran high. A couple of times even two of the guys had sex, though neither of them seemed gay (nor for that matter did the girls seem like lesbians).

As we reached our car, Carla waited for me to open the doors, then got in. The conversation fell to near silence, with only a few words sounding in the comfortable silence. She returned to talking about the actors. “The blonde was pretty hot,” Carla said. I grinned at her in the dimness.

“Sounds like you might be interested in standing in for the other girl, eh?” I joked.

“Well, getting laid that much in three days by those guys would wind me up for just about anything, even another woman,” she admitted. “How about you? You seemed pretty interested in the two guys sucking and apparently butt fucking.”

“I was pretty interested in all the sex,” I said. But I knew what had been in my mind. I’ve seen male/male porn online a few times. I’ve gone from avoiding it to being curious. I’ve wondered what it would feel like to have cock in my mouth, to swallow his cum. From my sex with Carla, I had a pretty good idea what a dick up my ass might feel like, though Carla assures me the real thing is better than her toys. She’d know, she’s felt mine up hers a few times. She never said if there had been other ‘visitors’ to her rectum. And I supposed that, as with women, the cum would taste pretty much like mine.

I glanced her way again. I made a decision to be at least as honest as she’d been a few minutes earlier. “Actually, the way the movie handled it, the guys’ sex together was done well, I thought.”

She reached for my hand and laughed. “Yeah, they did each other well, all right,” she joked.

“No, I mean the script and their acting made it seem balanced, you know? I mean there was no power difference, no humiliation. It was clear that they respected each other. In fact, all six of them showed respect for the others. It was a few days of fun and sex together. The bond between them all was clear.”

She thought a few seconds. “Yeah, the friendship seemed believable. I wonder if they get together off screen.”

“Could be, you never know. They at least were filmed having sex. That was real,” I said.

The film had been European and rated triple X in this country. They restricted it to age 21 and over. The sex was real. It was nearly porn, but there was a good story and a good script, so it didn’t fall into the porn category – at least for me. Then Carla asked me, “Have you ever been friends with another guy that you cared that much about?”

“Sure, I had several really close friends growing up. We never were physical that way, though. We hardly touched each other and I never felt like I ‘loved’ them.”

“So, I take that to mean that you never were physical with them.” I shook my head in wonder. We had discussed our past relationships years before and she knew I’d never gone with another guy. I reminded her of that.

“Yeah, but you might have resisted telling me back then.”

“I’ve always been honest with you, honey. It disappoints me that you thought that.”

“I’m sorry. It’s just that, watching you during those scenes, you looked more than interested.”

After touting my honesty, I could hardly hold back. I tried to explain my curiosity, but it was awkward. She didn’t say anything for a bit. I pulled into our driveway and we went inside. I dropped my keys on the hall table and went to our bathroom to pee.

Carla came in and washed her hands, glancing casually at my cock, spraying into the bowl. I finished and tucked it away. “I think I’m going to go to bed, honey,” she said as I left the room.

“Okay, I’ll be in in a few. I want to have a quick drink,” I said. In truth, my feelings were a little hurt. Her question and her explanation made me wonder if she was holding something back, just as she had suggested I had been doing. I didn’t feel too ‘anniversary-ish’ at the moment.

I went to the den and poured a brandy. Sitting at the desk, I booted up the computer to check my email. There was nothing earth shaking and I deleted most of the messages. I checked some other sites and played a couple of games. When I reached for the brandy, I found the glass empty. The taste lingered, but I didn’t remember polishing it off.

I poured another couple of inches and returned to the desk. As I surfed around, I thought about the two guys in the movie. They were either good actors, or they were really bisexual, maybe even in a relationship. I could see – and found myself actually feeling -- their affection for one another. If I ever decided to experience man on man sex, those feelings would need to be there. I had always felt that way with women, too.

I looked up the cast of the movie. The short biographs of the male actors said they were both married, but it indicated they had enjoyed relationships with men, too.

I went back to the game site and let my mind run as I played. My curiosity didn’t stem from being attracted to men. It was just the sexual behavior I wanted to experience. I had a few good friends, but I’d hesitate to approach them. They weren’t, like, best friends, not even one of them. We talked about sex, of course, as guys do, but we’ve never really discussed our personal sex lives.

A stranger was obviously out. I wasn’t about to put an ad out there asking for it. So I concluded that was it. I’d just have to keep wondering about it all. I powered down the computer and took my empty glass to the kitchen.

In the bedroom, Carla had fallen asleep. When I checked the time I was surprised to see it had been two hours since we got home. I slipped in next to my wife and felt the warmth she radiated. Sleep took me quickly.

The next morning we were getting ready for work when Carla said, “I hoped you would come to bed sooner. I tried to stay awake, but I couldn’t last. What kept you up so late?”

“Oh, I had a couple of brandies and got on the computer. I didn’t realize I’d been at it so long. Sorry.”

“Well, it’s just that it was our anniversary. We usually have sex those nights.”

“I really wasn’t feeling like it, honey. I’m sorry I left you horny. I’ll make it up to you.” I was running late and I had a damned commute through traffic between me and my job. “I have to go, Carla. I’ll see you tonight.” I gave her a kiss and I was out the door.

Nothing of any interest happened at work that day, and I drifted through the commute the same way I always do. Carla was already home so I parked in the driveway. In the kitchen Carla was mixing something in the blender. I kissed her neck. She turned around and gave me a serious kiss. I patted her ass and nodded toward the blender. She clicked it to silence.

“Hi, honey, I’m home,” I kidded her.

“Yeah, I thought it was probably you when you kissed my neck.”

“Well, who the hell else were you expecting?”

“Just you,” she smiled. We kissed again and I slipped my hands under her top. I stroked up and down.

“What’s the green stuff in the blender?”

“Margaritas!” Carla hammed.

“Wow! Okay! Is Mexican food for dinner?”

“No.” She poured two lime smelling drinks. “These were a sudden impulse. I guess I made last night kind of a bummer, Ken. I’m sorry. I thought a lot about what you were trying to tell me. When I turned it around – if same sex was something I was curious about – I am -- but I kind of got the idea. I thought about how it might feel to be with another woman, kissing, oral sex, maybe sharing toys. I looked around the office and tried to imagine being naked with one of the women.” She gave a laugh. “I have to say, I got kind of wet.” She was blushing.

“Good. Thanks for trying to understand. I love you, honey, and I’d never let something so silly come between us. I’m just curious, that’s all.”

“Well, if you ever do really want to try it, it’s okay with me. You’d have to promise you’d be careful, you know.”

I was more than surprised. I thanked her, but said it was just a curiosity. “I don’t have friends like that, though.”

“Well, do they know this about you?”

“Of course not.”

“Well, maybe you don’t know about them, either.” I had to admit she was right about that.

“But, still, I’m not that close to my friends to feel secure about talking to them about it.”

The subject was dropped then. We took our plates to the living room to watch TV while we ate. She took the empty plates out and put the leftovers away. Then she said she was going to take a bath.

The show ended and I turned the television off. I went to ‘help’ Carla with her bath. She was happy I did. I washed her back and under her arms, slipping my hands around to cup her palm sized breasts. She sighed and, turning sideways, leaned back, wetting my shirt and letting my hands slip lower. As my fingers had their effect, the sigh turned to a moan.

I let my hands make love to her body until she came, splashing water everywhere. I dried her off and tucked her into bed, sliding again in with her, only this time she was awake. We made love and played, then made love again. Then we slept.

The next morning was a repeat of the day before, except the atmosphere was back to normal. I gave her a real kiss goodbye and felt pretty good driving to work. I heard the echo of Carla’s words in my mind. She gave me permission to experiment with bisexuality. If only, I thought. But ... My question about Mexican food had stuck in Carla’s min d because she was making tacos for us. I kissed her and looked around, but there was no blender full of Margaritas. “We should have saved some drinks from last night,” I said.

“You can make some if you want. Or we could just stick to tequila,” she grinned. I kissed her again and reached into the cupboard for the bottle.

While dinner cooked, we had two shots with lime slices. The cards were always near the table, so we played some gin while we drank tequila. About halfway through the game, she stopped us for tacos. With my favorite hot sauce and lots of cheese, mine were delicious. Carla skipped the sauce and settled for mild salsa.

We ate and rinsed the dishes, both of us washing our hands. “I want to finish our game,” Carla said.

“Well, I want more booze,” I said. We played cards and had two more shots. I was feeling the tequila and she was slurring her words. When it took her three tries to shuffle, I said I’d had enough tequila.

“I’ve had enough damn cards!” she laughed and managed to get the deck into its box. We trundled off to bed. She watched me strip while doing the same herself. We crawled under the sheets and snuggled. After we made out a while, Carla smiled at me and said, “I thought more about you with another guy. I’m liking the idea more and more.”

“Oh yeah? I could easily get lost in a fantasy about you and another girl, too. All guys like lesbian action. I didn’t know women got turned on thinking about gay stuff.”

“Oh, it isn’t that broad a fantasy, at least for me. I think about you – specifically, you – sucking a cock, or tonguing an ass hole to get it ready for your very nice cock to plunder. In fact,” she slipped down to suck me into her hot mouth. She kept talking between sucks. “I picture you with a guy the same way the guys in the movie were. Caring about, and, well, loving each other.” I pulled her up to enter her, but she stopped me. Rolling to her side, she reached into the nightstand. She handed me the lube and just said, “Fuck my ass, please, Ken. It’s feeling lonely for you. She raised to her knees and showed me her ass and pussy.

I never turn that offer down, but before using the lube, I got up so my lips could reach her crotch. I lapped at her drooling pussy a while but she redirected me. I kissed and licked her ass. I pressed my tongue into her. She rocked into it when I pushed in. When she signaled her urgency by wiggling her hips, I applied the lube.

“Imagine you just licked his ass hole that way and now you’re greasing it up for your cock,” she said When I handed the tube back to her, she slid to the side and raised her legs high and far apart. “I want to watch your face,” she said. So I moved my stiff cock lower and pressed against her now slippery hole.

Gradually, we got the head past her ring. I stopped and let her adjust. She nodded and I pulled out and repeated my entrance. After four repetitions got her used to me there, I advanced slowly and back. A little more of me disappeared into her hot rectum each time, until I was all the way in. My hips pressed into her thighs and ass. We looked into each other’s eyes. We kissed. And she whispered to me.

“Now he’s watching you, eyes wide open as you slide into him. He groans, like I did just a few seconds ago. Your hands feel his hairy chest and you fondle each other’s nipples like this,” she said as she started to feel and rub at mine. I closed my eyes and listened as I made love to her ass. I pictured all too easily what she was describing.

“Then,” she said, “he pulls your head down and kisses you exactly like this.” She did it. She wiggled her tongue in my mouth and I shoved into her heat harder than I had been doing. I felt the guy’s lips on mine and felt his tongue. She pulled back and mentioned how I felt his bristly cheeks and chin. “He asks you to fuck him harder, and you grip his hard dick as a handle and you plunge into him over and over as he groans and pants. He says, ‘Yes, yes, yes... ‘ over and over.” I couldn’t take any more of the words and the pictures in my mind, so, with a groan, I spilled my semen into her ass.

She rolled us over and scooted up my chest to straddle my head. “Now lick it out,” she said. “Please? Ken, I’ve imagined this all day. Please eat my ass some more?”

I have learned to enjoy going down on her after we fuck. The taste of my cum mixed with her juices is wonderful. It’s hugely erotic for me. But sucking my cum from her ass was something I’d never considered. Yet she sounded like it meant a lot to her, so I pulled her hips forward and opened my mouth. I licked at everything that had just leaked out and then slid my tongue back into her hole as it retracted from its wide open state. I sucked and a glob of cum was my reward.

This time, there was no addition of her juice, though. I just kept going. Of course, she kept her story going, too. “Pretend that’s his cum you’re tasting. You just sucked him off and he came in your mouth. Oh! I hope you do this! And I hope you let me watch you. God! I’ll find a girl and you can watch us fuck if you let me watch you with a guy.”

I looked at her. She was serious. She rolled off me after I brought her off again. I couldn’t believe we were talking about these things. “Carla, you know none of this will really happen, for the same reasons I mentioned before. And, if you don’t want to experience sex with a woman, I don’t want you to do it just for me to watch.” She sighed and gave me a sad smile.

Then she cheered up some, saying, “Yeah, but it’s fun to pretend, isn’t it? And I really am curious about doing it with a woman.”

“Yeah, if that’s all you were doing. To be honest, the kissing part wasn’t something I’d thought about. The idea kinda turns me off.”

“Aw, but I think it would be sweet. Have you ever had sex with a girl without kissing?”

“Well, no, but it is totally different.”

Carla smiled and said, “Is it? You said you’d have to feel affection for the guy. A kiss is a wonderful way to show it.” She kissed me hard and I felt my dick twitch. I pictured two guys kissing but it seemed wrong (as if sex between men isn’t weird in the first place).

“That may be. But I’ve never seen two guys lock lips in public, the way I’ve seen girls and hetero couples do.”

“It’s probably because it is not widely accepted the way kissing a girl is. I mean, girls kiss in public all the time. Why should two guys who like or love each other be denied that simple pleasure? For that matter, just like everybody, why shouldn’t two guys, out on a ‘date’ do that, too? Heterosexuals do it all the time. I mean, holding hands, maybe, or a casual kiss. Why should anybody else care?”

“The rules were made by homophobic men thousands of years ago,” I told her. “Old ‘religious’ men, at that. That’s where a lot of the objections to homosexual behavior come from. People always trot out the ‘it’s a sin’ thing. They call up the Bible as a defense, because there really is no logical reason male/male and female/female relationships are wrong.”

We stopped talking, snuggled together, and fell asleep. I reran the images I’d imagined as she told her fantasy tale while I felt again how fucking her ass felt. I sighed and let sleep take me.

We didn’t mention it for some time. Our lives went on without too much difference than before we saw the film. We worked, we played and we enjoyed spending time with couiples friends once in a while. The seasons changed and summer rolled around. Clothes became lighter. Shorts appeared on many people.

Carla came home one day and mentioned that her company was throwing a barbecue in July. I asked her if it was compulsory. “Kind of, I guess. Walter seems to expect everybody to go. He’s springing for an open bar and everything from burgers and hot dogs to smoked ribs. He’s really going all out.” Walter is the owner of the company where she works. He’s a nice guy, and she says he treats everybody like they were all a big family. At the same time I thought he had little to no personality.

We went to the party. Carla introduced me to some people I hadn’t met at the last party they threw. After making the rounds a while, we got the chance to sit down and just watch the others. Carla gave me a commentary as her coworkers played their games. I got her a fresh drink and talked to one of the guys she had introduced me to while we waited. Walter should have hired more bar help.

Ned and I found a few subjects we both had an interest in. He mentioned his boat. “Sometimes it feels like I’m working just to maintain the thing. I should have bought something smaller, but the price was good when I bought it. After a while I realized the reason the guy had sold it for so much below its market value was the cost of upkeep.” He described it as a fourteen foot ‘money sponge’.

“I’ve heard boats described as holes in the water that soak up the bucks.” He laughed and he nodded.

“You and Carla should come see it. I practically live aboard in the summer.”

“I’d like that,” I said. We talked politics a little bit, but then he mentioned computer games. I told him how I lose track of time once I get online. The drinks came and I took ours back to the chairs where Carla waited. I mentioned that Ned had invited us to go see his boat some time.

“I think that’s his main hobby. He’s single and is always talking boats and boating the way other guys talk about their wives.”

“He plays a lot of computer games, too, he said.” She smiled.

“Maybe you found a friend. I know how hard it is for you to meet new people. You and Ned seem to have hit it off.”

“Yeah, he seems like a nice guy.” He was a little younger than we were, or he seemed to be.

We had some food and a last drink before we thanked Walter and made our escape. A week or two later, she came home and told me not to make any plans for the next weekend. “Ned’s invited us to go for a boat ride.”

“Cool,” I said. I hadn’t thought much about him or his boat. “Are we supposed to bring anything to contribute?”

“I offered to make us food – unless we get seasick. Except for ferry rides a few times, I’ve never gone on a boat that big,” she added.

“I don’t know. Fourteen feet isn’t all that big,” I replied. “But I’ve heard that smaller is sometimes worse.”

We have a big cooler with wheels in case we go camping (which we do maybe once or twice a summer), or take long road trips for drinks and snacks. It has wheels, so Carla doesn’t have to help carting it around. We stepped onto the dock with it packed full of steaks, beer, wine and a fresh bottle of tequila. Carla carried a bag with limes and a container of salt for the rims of the glasses.

The boat was named Shang-Ri-La. We found it, rocking in the gentle waves. There was no sign of Ned. I called his name but there was no reply. Then, he emerged from below deck, followed by a nicely preserved redhead in a bikini, who, giving him a quick kiss, came down the gangway toward us. She passed with a grin and a nod and was gone.

He cast off, despite it being late in the day, and we motored out of the marina. Past the jetty, he shut the engine down and directed us as his deck crew, which lines to pull tight or loosen. We sailed silently across the sea to an island, where he dropped the sails and he steered us under power into a deserted and very private beach where we dropped anchor.