Chapter 3: Renegotiation and Consummation

I ran in the morning, took a dip in the pool to cleanup and cool off, and then started working on the proposal for the Atlanta prospect. I thought the deal was all but done, but we needed the paperwork completed.

Shortly before lunch, Ginger came into my home office. “Can we go out to lunch? We have a couple of things to talk about.”

I agreed, and so I quickly jotted some noted into the Word document I’d been typing, and we headed out. We ended up almost to Anna Maria Island at a place called the Tide Tables. We got a table under an umbrella and ordered.

Ginger took the bull by both horns. “Do you think we should declare that we have an open marriage?”

I looked my wife straight in the eye, “Yes, that does seem like an appropriate question for the day. I guess when I think about the past couple of weeks, we’ve started sliding down a slippery slope. You’re right. It’s better that we address it beforehand. I guess my honest answer is ‘Yes’, but we probably need to set some rules or boundaries or something.”

Ginger looked relieved. “I was worried you’d say no. I am so turned on by those three people next door I am wet all day long every day. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about what we were doing in the hot tub and I ended up masturbating right next to you – and that was after we’d made love.”

I snickered, “You should have awoken me. I would have joined you, or we could have even made love again. Tell me what you’re feeling and what you want?”

Ginger blushed. She said in a near whisper, “I want to fuck Doug until I’m gushing his sperm out of my ears, and then do whatever I can to make love with Beth and Jo. How’s that for you staid, proper, measured, middle-age, and highly self-controlled wife.”

I grinned, “An honest appraisal, I can see. I feel the same way about Jo and Beth. They both turn me on. I can go further, maybe. I feel romantic about them. Protective. And, yes, I want to fuck their lights out. Both of them.”

“You’re not mad at me for wanting to have sex with another man?”

I shook my head and replied, “Are you mad at me for wanting to have sex with two other women?”

Gin said, “No, and I do, too.”

I said, “So, moving right along to rules and boundaries, should there be any?”

Gin said, “I didn’t think that far ahead about this discussion. Give me a minute.”

I sipped my beer and Gin her white wine. Having alcohol at lunch was a rarity for us. I figured this was a special occasion. We were in the process of renegotiating our marriage contract.

I commented, “In essence, we’re rewriting our marriage contract. We need to write down whatever we decide.”

Ginger grinned, “And we should both sign it showing that we agree and abide.”

Our plates of food arrived. We ate in relative silence as we both thought about things.

I raised one issue, “Should we limit ourselves to our three neighbors?”

Gin thought for a minute and said, “I think not. What if one of them brings another hot girl or guy into the mix, and we’re there with them. We’d want the freedom to join in. Beth said she had a really hot boyfriend somewhere.”

I asked, “Have you ever wanted to become intimate with any of your clients?”

“Oh, no. Not directly. There have been a couple of guys I met incidental to being there, but I never did anything. It would have been easy.”

“I think it’s easier for a woman to attract a guy, than the other way around. There have been some situations where I’ve been working, but like you I’ve kept them at bay.”

“So, the answer is that we open up everything.”

“I don’t want to lose you to some romantic attachment,” I told Ginger. I reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “I think any person is acceptable, but we should go out of our way to try to get them introduced to the other of us. Either that, or we see them together.”

“I don’t want to lose you either. So, we can become ‘romantic’, but not to the extent that our marriage gets threatened. I hope I can see that line in the sand when the time comes.”

“Yeah, me, too.” We were both trying to think what that ‘line’ would look like.

I asked, “Are there any sex acts or things that we should make off limits?”

Gin snickered. “I think not. Once we get involved who knows what will happen. You’ve had all of me every which way, so you got everything first – all three cherries. Maybe there are some novel sex toys out there we haven’t tried, but I can’t think of much else we might do that would be significantly different from the sex we’ve already done with each other.”

I asked, “What about sharing with each other what we do or have done?”

“Oh, and do we need to get permission ahead of time?”

I’d had this discussion with Gin years earlier. “Gin, I don’t own you. You are not my chattel. You don’t need permission. That implies ownership. As for me, I would love a blow-by-blow, suck-by-suck, and fuck-by-fuck communication from you about whatever you do. This is not because I would be angry or anything like that. Imagining you with Doug or another man or woman turns me on immensely. I want to bathe in the experience, almost like being there with you, even when it’s days later.”

“So, you don’t want to know ahead of time?”

“No, I do, but it’s not a requirement. I’d like to know, but only because it will have me thinking of you in all of the various possibilities that the day or evening will bring with whatever man it is. My brain will conger up all sorts of sex-laden situations with you doing outrageous things with him ... or her. Do it. Send me a text or even a photograph or video clip. Make me a cuckold or some kind of man you’re teasing to the limits.”

“That goes both ways. If you were to tell me you had a ‘hot date’ for dinner along with a picture of some beautiful woman, I’d flood my crotch thinking about you fucking the shit out of her as dessert. I’d want to hear all about it, too, plus I might like to lick her clean after you’re done.” Ginger giggled.

I chuckled and asked, “What about the element of time? How much time will you spend with this person? Would you go away and leave me for a weekend or week with him or her? What about a date night or overnight?”

Ginger thought about those as we ate. She said, “If we’re getting to where we’re making decisions to spend more time with someone else than each other, I think that’s very dangerous. I think the underlying motivation is more important. We spend a lot of time apart as it is, what with our crazy traveling and meeting up in places a thousand miles from home.

“On the other hand, I can think of a situation where some guy I’ve met suggests some kind of special weekend for some unique event. I might like to go, and yet there’s nothing dangerously romantic about it. I could imagine a trip to New York for some unique performance, just to create one scenario.”

I said, “We should maybe talk about what it is ahead of time. I wouldn’t object to evenings or overnights, those are arousing. As a steady diet, they become dangerous.”

Gin said, “Unless we’re in the situation together, I think we shouldn’t be apart for sexual endeavors alone more than one day or evening a week. More than that, something may be developing that’d be hard to put the brakes on.”

“On the other hand, if we run into a situation at one of our client sites where we can have beautiful sex every night, I’d say go for it.”

Gin nodded, “Okay. I like that and it’s more in keeping with reality.”

I commented, “I guess we also eliminated the locale in that discussion, at least by way of your scenario. We can be anywhere geographically.”

Gin said, “I agree. We can be anywhere geographically. Sleepovers are also fine if the other isn’t around. I’m thinking about what we’re each on the road and have met somebody special.”

“I agree.”

Gin said, “What about when we can be together?”

“If we can be together then I think it’s fine to put the emphasis of the night on the other people we aren’t normally with. I think I will like the idea of watching you having sex with someone else – male or female. I watched you kiss Doug and fondle his cock; my God that was arousing. I felt a jolt right to my cock.”

Gin said, “I’d love to have him fuck me right next to you fucking Jo or Beth. I’d have so many orgasms just from the visual stimulation. When you and each of the women were nude and hugging I flooded out sex juices.”

I teased, “Fucking side-by-side can be arranged.” After a pause I added, “If we have the option to remain together versus going off to separate rooms I’d like us to opt for staying together so we can watch each other. I’d really like the opportunity to watch you, although I might be preoccupied with my own partner.”

“I like that, too,” Gin said. She added, “When we are apart and we know something is going on, I also think we should have some kind of a rule that we check-in with each other every few hours. I think there are multiple benefits of that.”

“I like that. I don’t think we need to get up in the middle of the night to do it, but if you were on an overnight, I’d like a text maybe as you go to bed or whatever, and then when you get up.”

“Yeah, me, too.” Gin was thinking about other areas.

I added, “On a related point, if one of us isn’t around but is nearby, I think the other has permission to start up something and follow their bliss. Say I’m on my way home from some gig and you have another Jacuzzi experience. I’d say go ahead and turn it into a small orgy and get your brains fucked out even though my arrival is imminent. You don’t have to wait.”

“Good idea, you too,” Gin said.

I said, “One thing I want to emphasize is that at no time do we disrespect the other person. If someone asks about how we’re into this new lifestyle, we are doing it by mutual agreement. We are open, communicative, and honest about what’s going on. Everyone is respected just as they are now. There are no slurs or excuses or anything needed to justify behavior or what not.”

I went on, “If someone we are seeing starts to undermine or bad talk the other of us, I think that should be grounds for reexamining what you’re doing and also calling it the other’s attention. No badmouthing. We honor each other all the time and make sure our partners do, too.”

Gin said, “I agree. Neither of us should ‘slut shame’ the other, too. For instance, I don’t want to make love with Doug, and have that open a door where you can call me names or things I don’t want. I know we play talk some of that stuff, but maybe we should reconsider or at least be highly sensitive to any name-calling – like calling me a slut. Maybe it’s the setting and motivation it’s used in. I don’t mind it in the heat of passion, though.”

I said, “Maybe in the same vein, if one of us vetoes a person the other is interested in, I think that should stick, at least until we can have a calm, cool, and collected discussion about why the veto has been levied.”

“Oh, that’s good. One of us might be losing their objectivity and the other can see the whole picture and where the relationship might be headed. I like that.”

I commented, “I think we also want to be careful about who we’re engaging, especially if they’re married or in a relationship with someone else. We don’t want to become the ‘Other Woman’ or ‘Other Man’ in some deteriorating relationship. We need to honor the people we’re thinking of hooking up with just as we want them to honor our relationship and both of us.

Gin nodded, “I agree and I have one more thought. When either of the kids is home I think that we should hide our involvement with our neighbors and anybody else. I don’t want to be in a position where we have to explain our sex life and proclivities and open marriage to them.”

I nodded. “Well said. Even if they did find out, I think they should mind their own business. No problem with me on keeping it quiet. I think they’re pretty self-centered so wouldn’t notice anything that didn’t directly affect them in some way.”

We were thoughtful and finished up our lunch and drinks. We walked around the area a bit, playing tourists in an area only a couple of miles from our home. Once we were in the car on the way home, Gin asked, “What now?”

“Let’s write it up, re-read it, be sure we still like it, and show it to our new friends for their suggestions. They’ve been in this game longer. Doug kind of suggested that they’d written theirs down as well, so our request probably won’t be a surprise.”

That afternoon I finished my proposal and ran it by Ginger for her comments and editing. While she was doing that I typed up what I could remember from our lunch discussion. My memory is pretty good, so I thought I had a credible rendition.

She gave me back my client proposal and I gave her the two pages of bullet points that represented our Open Marriage Agreement. Leave it to two left-brain consultants to turn some freelance sex into bullet points. Gin had some good additions and edits, and then printed out the pages. We were ready to talk to our neighbors, but I suggested that we get more of a definitive expression of their desire to engage in sex with us before we took them for granted by asking for their input to our OMA.

At cocktail time, I poured us each a glass of wine; we put on bathing suits, and went outside for a late afternoon swim in the pool. We were just getting out of the pool when Jo came through the gap in the hedge separating our lot from theirs.

Jo gave us each short kisses and then she stood in front of me with her hands on her hips. She looked challenging. She said clearly, “Are you Wolf and SteveWallace?”

I tried to play dumb for a moment, not exactly knowing how much she knew. “Wolf? Steve Wallace?” I postured.

“Yes, Wolf – the writer of erotica on the Internet. You wrote a short story about your new neighbors and put it up two days ago, right after we had our sexy time with both of you in our hot tub. I expect I’ll see the same story under the name SteveWallace, too.”