Chapter 2: Life

Life - A game we all lose eventually, but must be played to win.

The pale New Zealand wine lit up in the glasses, as nature's electrical system suddenly shorted. Great forked flashes struck conveniently exposed points amid a shattering cacophony of thunder, and the sky fell.

Huge drops of summer rain instantly painted the cobblestones around the hot tub, as Mary and Will lay back, glasses resting by their hands, bubbles bursting from the tub, almost covering their naked bodies. Almost.

The lightening reminded Mary of the first time Will had made love to her. Ten years had passed as fast as the lightening flashes, but some things seemed infinitely long ago, like that night. A marriage, jobs, two kids, mortgage, huge gobs of love, and no shortage of arguments had joined in a seemingly continuous string from then until now, and they were happy.

For the first time since their daughter was born, they were alone for an entire weekend. Will's boss had offered them his cabin in the mountains, and they had accepted almost pathetically, they were so in need of a break.

On their arrival, Will had immediately started the tub warming, and despite the ominous looking sky, they both wanted to soak in it this evening. Once they had unpacked what little they had brought with them, they removed their clothes, picked up the wine bottle and glasses, and headed out across the grass to the bubbling warmly lit cauldron, jumped in, and actually started to relax.

After a quiet while, sipping wine, and watching the fireworks around them, Mary looked over at Will, and put her glass down.

"Will, are you listening?"

"Mmmm..."

Shuffling over closer in the tub, she gently removed the glass from his hand and placed it carefully on the cobblestones. Then she turned around so she was facing her husband, knelt on the base of the tub, and kissed him hard on the lips, to get his attention. As his lips responded to the kiss, she gently forced his mouth open with her tongue, and explored the warmth inside. He tasted of wine and maleness, just as she knew he would. She also knew that this drove him nuts.

Whilst their tongues were getting reacquainted, she slowly ran her hands down his still slim sides, feeling his ribs, the softer skin of his waist, the solidity of his bony hips. As he lifted his arms to return the caress, she removed her lips from his.

"No Will. My turn, You just relax."

"How can I relax when you do that?"

"Just sit there and enjoy it. Promise me, and then I'll kiss you again."

"Alright wench. I promise. I never could turn down your kisses."

"I count on it. Now lean back there and close your eyes."

"I can't even look at you?"

"You won't need to. Promise."

"You're the boss."

"I know. No more talking either."

"No talking?"

"Shush." And she secured the last word, by returning her lips to his.

Roving again with her hands, she found his little man-nipples, warm, wet and hard under the bubbles. As she slowly ran around them with her thumbs, a sigh escaped his mouth, despite the obstructions still in place.

"No talking boy, or I stop!" she commanded, a giggle in her voice softening the stern words. "I mean it!"

Accepting his fate gracefully, Will said nothing more, but concentrated on kissing his beloved.

As her hands roamed freely in the warm water, she deliberately avoided the obvious hardness between his legs, and instead stroked his chest, stomach, legs, shoulders. Crouching between his knees like this, she had access to most of him. She even lifted him slightly, so that she could caress his butt, though she had to release his mouth to reach, and placed her lips on one of his nipples instead.

The sighs were much more audible now, and Mary could feel him relaxing under her manipulation. Switching her mouth to the other nipple, she slowly worked her way back down his body with her hands, starting from his shoulders, and moving past his erect nipples, his ticklish navel, down through the slowly thickening pubic hair, and took hold of his warm relaxed testicles. She knew he hated it if she squeezed them, so she gently rolled them around in her hands instead.

The sighs continued as she manipulated his groin with one hand, and reached under him a little, to lightly caress between his buttocks. She knew he wanted her to continue, because he lifted his butt slightly from the ledge in the tub to give her better access.

Finally she moved to his penis. As her fingertips flowed very lightly over the circumcised head, his sighs changed to moans, though he still didn't speak. Slowly she started to rub his cock up and down with her hand, just the way he had shown her he liked it. It felt harder and larger than usual, but perhaps that was a trick of the water.

Mary realised suddenly that the combination of the ledge in the tub, and the buoyancy of the water gave her the opportunity to try something else, and she removed her hand from his penis, and stood up on the floor.