Starting Over: Nerites
Copyright© 2025 by Quantum Mechanic
Chapter 11: Reconciliation and dissolution...
Science Fiction Sex Story: Chapter 11: Reconciliation and dissolution... - Cheyenne is a plains world dedicated to production of livestock for sale to other human-occupied planets. Jean has a great job there, but he's offered a better job on a watery planet, and an opportunity to develop his own homestead. In order to take the new job, he has to uproot and transplant his young family. It's not easy going, and once there, the troubles have just begun.
Caution: This Science Fiction Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa Romantic Heterosexual Fiction Science Fiction Cheating Massage Oral Sex Pregnancy Slow
Once again, Jean found himself astride his jet ski and approaching his island home. As he got closer, he slowed down and, with some trepidation, made the turn to follow the shoreline around to his dock, anxious about what he might find there.
Surely, they wouldn’t attempt to carry on right under my nose... but he couldn’t be too sure.
Beth, at least, should expect him back this morning, but she might believe that he would be at the office today.
Oh, well, here we go...
He was gratified to see the family airboat securely tied off at his dock, and better yet, there was no sign of Hardy.
Good. One bite at a time...
Beth had heard him coming, and was waiting on the dock, so he tossed her a line. She’d become quite proficient at securing watercraft, so by the time he stepped from the jet ski to the dock, she was finished, and standing, arms outstretched for him.
In view of the circumstances, his immediate reaction might have been incredulity, but the memory of the morning’s session with Josephine made it possible to suspend his anger and jealousy, at least for the moment.
There might be differences in detail, he ruminated, but I suppose that, all things considered, Beth and Hardy haven’t really done anything together that Jo and I haven’t done now...
Would it hurt more, or less, if I knew for certain that they were really in love with each other? I don’t know ... knowing that Beth went to someone else for sex alone would be infuriating ... but knowing that she was really in love with another man might be more threatening ... in either case it doesn’t speak well of me as a husband...
On the other hand, for years, she withheld her affection from me, or at least her passion, until after she had taken a lover and gotten pregnant ... that makes it hard to believe she really cares about me now ... am I somehow to blame for that?
Still, despite all that, I love her ... and as Jo pointedly mentioned, she is willing to give up her lover’s baby in order to save our marriage ... That’s a huge sacrifice ... although it may not be a totally selfless gesture, it strongly suggests the possibility that, even now, she might really love me too...
Oh well, time to eat the elephant...
He took her into his arms and though his wounds still ached, he held her and kissed her tenderly.
Hardy was angry, and Beth was unhappy ... again.
Jean had been able to arrange with his supervisor to spend several weeks catching up on office work. Up to now, a number of different PDA teams had been soliciting his input and participation, but the demands of fieldwork had taken precedence. His sudden availability was greeted with great enthusiasm.
It pleased Beth that Jean was able to spend more time at home, but it drastically reduced the time available for Hardy and Beth to spend together, and Hardy wasn’t taking it well. She had become extremely nervous about the possibility of their affair being discovered, and had refused to see him, even during the day when Jean was supposed to be at work.
Hardy was impatient. After being deprived of her attention for many days, his desire to be with her had long overcome any fear of discovery, and he couldn’t fathom her lack of reciprocity. In a fit of pique, he totally disregarded her wishes, and showed up on her doorstep soon after Jean had left for work. Fortunately, the children were still at school.
“What am I supposed to do?” she demanded, “Tell him I’m tired of having him here at night? That he should volunteer to go back out in the field? Wouldn’t that be sort of obvious?”
“Of course not,” he snapped back, “but it’s silly that we can’t see each other during the day, when he’s at work!”
“You know that his office is less than an hour from here, and he could decide to come home at any time.” she said. “What if we didn’t hear him coming? Even if we did, you couldn’t get away from here quickly enough to avoid being seen! How would we explain it, if he found you here? How would I explain it, if he saw you leaving?”
“We could work it out, baby!” he pleaded. “He knows that I’ve always visited with you during the day...”
“Yes, but you also used to spend time with him, doing ‘guy things’,” she retorted. “You used to be his best friend. Now you don’t even show up here, unless he’s away. Don’t you think that looks just a little suspicious?”
“How’s it going to look suspicious, if he’s not here to see it?”
“Because I have to tell him when you come around,” she spat.
“Why, for God’s sake,” he demanded. “That’s just asking for trouble...”
“Because,” she interrupted, “If I don’t tell him, and for any reason he hears it from someone else, it’ll look like I’m hiding it. Any idiot could figure out why, and Jean is no dummy!”
“But baby, your nearest neighbor is too far away to notice,” he cajoled, “and the chances of that happening are next to nothing!”
“Next to nothing is still not zero!” she exploded, “And it scares the hell out of me to think about what might happen. I’m not going to risk losing my husband and my children! I need you to understand that. I need for you to leave now, and I need for you to stay away until I can feel safe about your being here!”
Hardy was silent for a moment, as for the first time he comprehended the magnitude of her commitment to her family. He looked at her, sadly, and said:
“I guess I’d always hoped ... with the baby coming ... that we might somehow be together ... I guess there’s no chance...”
“None!” she replied, emphatically.
“All right then,” he went on, “Speaking of children, what about ours?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, what about our baby? You know, the physical embodiment and result of the love we’ve shared? It still sits in your womb. Have you decided how to deal with that?”
“I made that decision the day I discovered I was pregnant,” she responded. “I told you, it’s not a baby until it’s born. I still plan to terminate this pregnancy. I’m just waiting for the right time to broach the subject to Jean.”
Hardy’s distress showed on his face, and in the sagging of his shoulders.
“You know I love you, and I would marry you,” he said, after a moment, “and I’d care for and support you and our baby.”
She acknowledged it with a nod.
“You also know how I feel about the abortion.”
She nodded again.
He drew a deep breath, and exhaled it in sigh.
“As much as I love you, Beth, I don’t think I can accept that kind of outcome. If you insist on an abortion, I’m afraid it’ll be over between us.” He looked down and fell silent.
Beth was torn between anger and sympathy, love and hurt, dozens of diametrically opposed emotions. Finally, her eyes brimming with tears, she turned away from him, and said:
“Then it’s over. Please leave.”
Hardy started toward her, but she heard him and raised her hand.
“No!” she said. “Leave now!”
He did.
When Jean wasn’t in the field, he usually found Beth waiting on the dock for him, at the end of his workday commute. She wasn’t there, this time, and it worried him. He handled docking by himself, and went into the house, where he found the girls were playing quietly in the salon area. There was a large pot of soup simmering on the stove, but no Beth.
He kept looking and found her asleep, in the master stateroom, and he woke her gently, rubbing her back and talking quietly. When she opened her eyes and looked at him, he could see that she’d been crying, probably all afternoon.
“What’s the matter, honey,” he asked softly.
“It’s this pregnancy,” she wailed, “It’s messing up everything!”
“Oh honey,” he cajoled, “It can’t be that bad! We’ve had babies before...”
“You just don’t know!” she cried. She almost began to explain how he couldn’t possibly know, but caught herself.
He climbed onto the bed with her, held and cuddled her, rubbing her back. After a short while, she rolled onto her back, and he began lightly rubbing her belly, which was just beginning to show her condition.
“Don’t do that!” she snapped. “I don’t want anyone thinking of this foetus as a person!”
“Too late, babe,” he replied calmly. “I already do.”
“You can’t!” she cried, “I don’t want this baby!”
Jean had to think for a while before responding.
“Beth, you know how I feel about abortion,” he began cautiously, “but we both know that it’s your decision, and I won’t fight you on this any more. In any case, no matter what you’ve decided, no matter how I feel about what you might do, I still love you and want you.”
It must have been the right thing to say, because she rolled back into his arms and clung to him tightly, while she softly wept.
They both must have fallen asleep, because suddenly the bedroom was filled with small voices, crying “Mommy” and “Daddy” and “I’m hungry”. Beth felt somewhat better, so she and Jean disentangled themselves, and chuckling, rose to meet the challenge of hungry children.
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