Chapter 2

"Is there one of the husbands who is the leader?" Julia asked.

"My husband, Will," Val answered, and the others agreed.

"Would you all give me permission to call Will and tell him that I am working with you. It would help me a lot if I could get a sense of what the men are feeling and thinking."

"Oh, please, do that!" Val said quickly. The others added their encouragement.

Fortunately, Will was able to free himself when his secretary told him that the call was from a doctor and it was in regard to his wife. Julia had assured the secretary that it was no emergency.

"Mr. Crozier, this is Dr. Julia Waxman. I am a psychiatrist and I have your wife and her two friends in my office. I have their permission to tell you that."

"I would say that they are seeing a shrink several months too late," Will said sharply.

"I could not disagree with that, Mr. Crozier. It would help me a lot if you could take the time to answer some questions for me."

"I don't mean to sound uncooperative, Dr. Waxman, but I have to refuse. The three of us husbands have agreed not to do anything unilaterally regarding our wives."

"That is rather unusual. Can I ask you why?"

"Not unless we can conference in Bud and Trent," Will told her.

"Will you stay available while I see if I can get the others in on this?"

"That will be fine," Will replied.

When Julia told the women what she was going to try to do, they were ecstatic. "Can we listen in?" Cece asked.

"No, I'm afraid I can't do that," Julia replied.

"But we're paying for it?" Val objected.

"Then I'll just tell Mr. Crozier to forget the whole thing and we'll do the best we can without their input," Julia said. Any talk of listening in was dropped.

Julia made the calls herself while her assistant got some food for the women. By then, they felt a bit more like eating. It took fifteen minutes to get everyone on the call. Julia was in a small room away from her main consultation office.

"First of all, Gentlemen, I would like to ask you to put off the demands you have made for this evening. It has really stressed your wives."

"No, we will not delay," Will said emphatically.

"Why are you so determined to do it tonight?"

"Because it has really stressed the wives," Will replayed Julia's own words.

"Oh. Punishment," she said softly. "Are you aware of what that could do to your marriages?"

That was more than Bud could take. "Dr. Waxman, aren't you aware of what they just did to our marriages? Our marriages, as we knew them, are dead. My preference was to just divorce her ass and be done with it. After a lot of talking, I think this way is best."

Bud was rolling and the other two were willing to let him carry the ball. "We all know what a disaster divorce is for the husband and we don't think we should have to suffer that because of their fucking around. Besides, there are many things about our wives that make us want to keep them - actually, everything but that one thing.

"We have decided to try to maintain our families, for the sake of the kids, and to preserve what we have worked so hard for. But it will have to be a totally different relationship than what we have had?"

"Why does it have to be so different, Mr. VerBeek?"

"They tried to emasculate us, that's why! If I just ignored and forgave what Cece did, I could not look myself in the mirror and call myself a man. As a shrink, you must understand that."

"I am breaking confidentiality, but I will tell you that I just spent most of an hour explaining that to the women," Julia said.

"Did they get it?"

"I'd better not comment on that without their permission."

"Let me tell you what I saw my wife doing." Bud recounted how he had found Cece. Will and Trent then told what they had seen.

"Dr. Waxman," Trent said with a quiver in his voice, "I couldn't pass the entrance requirements to that party."

Julia had to pause a moment after hearing the emotion from Trent. "So, you are determined to go ahead with your little orgy tonight, with or without your wives?"

"Dr. Waxman," Will said, "We believe we have only two choices. Either we divorce them or we continue in our marriages as equals - sexual equals. I know I cannot live as a faithful cuckold. I admit that I do love Val - deeply." His voice cracked after that and it was a few seconds before he could continue.

"It will be a while before I can imagine myself having sex with Val. If I can't come to the bed feeling like her sexual equal, it will never happen. So you see, the choice is divorce or catching up sexually."

"Mr. VerBeek, Mr. O'Connel, do you feel the same way?"

"I wish I could have said it as well," Trent answered. "I think I have the most to get over. What she was doing, and that bastard's... his size. I don't know if I can ever do it with Sandy again. It's going to take a lot of other sex to give me the confidence I'll need."

"Dr. Waxman, Cece is the only woman I have ever had sex with. Can you imagine how it felt to see her there?"

"I can only imagine it clinically, intellectually, Mr. VerBeek. I do have experience, though, with the effect something like that can have on a man.

"I don't want to sound like I am beating on you men. I realize that you are the innocent victims in all of this. I have to ask once more, will you delay tonight's event? Don't you think you might feel differently about the whole situation in a few days?"

"Believe it or not, Dr. Waxman, I have three women ready to come to my house tonight if the wives refuse," Bud said. "Two of them are married, and none of them can cause me any problem at work. They are all interested in some recreational sex with nice guys. That's the kind of thing I have been turning down for Cece's sake all of these years. This is one case where I am going ahead regardless of what Will and Trent want to do."

"I'm sticking with Bud," Will said quickly. "I can't count the opportunities I have passed on, either."

"I'm not the stud the other guys are, but I am going to start acting like one," Trent said. "Tonight is on."

"One last question and I'll let you go," Julia said. "Would you prefer that the wives be the ones tonight, or not."

"I would prefer that they be the ones tonight," Will said. "I admit that it is punitive. "Even if they do it with us, we will still seek out other women for a while." Trent and Bud agreed with Will.

"I have to tell you that I am saddened by your decisions, even though I can understand why you have made them. I do thank you very much for your time and for your candor."

When Julia returned to the women, they looked like expectant children on Christmas morning. Somehow, though, they saw through Julia's best attempt at a professional poker face and knew that she did not have the news they had hoped for.

"The good news," Julia started in, "is that your husbands are very much against divorcing you."

Three faces brightened at that, but Cece said "That means there is also bad news, doesn't it?"

"Well, I don't know if you will consider it bad news or good news," Julia told them. "They will only continue your marriages as sexual equals."

"What... what does that mean?" Val asked in a fearful tone of voice.

"It means that they need to have the same kind of sexual experiences you have had," Julia said.

Cece actually screamed out "No! No! He can't mean that! Oh, nooooooo!"

"Let me quote on of the men as exactly as I can," Julia said, trying to keep her voice free of any emotion. "He said 'I cannot live as a faithful cuckold. I admit that I do love my wife - deeply. It will be a while before I can imagine myself having sex with her. If I can't come to the bed feeling like her sexual equal, it will never happen.

"Another of the men said that he had three women ready to join them tonight if you three refuse. You should know that even if you do decide to join them, that will not keep them from actively seeking encounters with other women."

At that point, the three women could only produce tears for several minutes.

"Why can't they just get over it and get back to the way things were?" It was Cece asking.

"OK. Suppose you were driving with the kids and you made a mistake - you ran a red light. There is an accident and one of the kids is maimed or killed. Would anything ever be the same again?"

"But that's not the same thing!"

"No, but in a way it is. You made a mistake and the consequences are irreversible."

"Whatever happened to forgive and forget? Isn't that what love is supposed to do?"

"All right, tell me if you would be changed by these scenes. The three of you are looking through gaps in the fence surrounding a pool. There are about a dozen naked people there, and two couples are having intercourse almost in front of your eyes." The collective gasp told Julia that they recognized the scene from the night of the discovery. They all stiffened in morbid anticipation of what they would hear.

"Val, suppose you saw Will standing beside the pool chatting casually with a man and a woman. As they talked and drank, Will pulled the woman over to the edge of the pool. He got in in front of the woman and started eating her out. Because of the activity around the pool, you know that if you stay around long enough, you will see Will have sex with one or more of the women. Or perhaps he has already done it enough so he has had his fill."

"Sandy, suppose you saw Trent sitting naked on a lounge chair with an extremely voluptuous naked woman on his lap, obviously impaled on his erection." Sandy let out a shriek and fell into uncontrollable sobs.

"Cece, suppose you and Val went to the lower level patio door and peeked in. You saw Bud sitting watching a porno flick, naked. A naked woman had her head in his lap. She fondled his erection while he played with her nipple."

It took quite a while for the sobs and sniffles to decrease enough for conversation. "Now, how long do you all think it would take to forget those scenes? And would you ever feel just the same about your husband again? What would you do to him afterward?"

"I know it seems like I am piling on, but I am allowed to relate one more very telling comment. One of the husbands said he did not think he could pass the entrance requirements for that club."

"I... don't understand," Cece said.

"Sure you do," Sandy said softly. "He was talking about size."

"But it really doesn't matter!" Cece almost yelled.

"Wasn't that one of the reasons you went there - to experience bigger erections inside you?" Julia demanded. Cece's jaw dropped and she just stared at Julia through cascading tears.

"If you manage to keep your marriages together, you are going to face a major problem. Your husbands will forever worry that they will be unable to please you. I know of cases where the husband was never able to get an erection again with his wife."

"But... but he must know he's pleased me all these years!" Sandy moaned.

"He may have thought that, until he found you out looking for someone better."

"But that's not what I was doing!"

"But that is exactly what he thinks."

Julia took a drink of water to force a little break. Then she pushed on.

"I have about run out of the time I can give you today. There is still the big decision that you came in here with. Are you going to have sex with each other's husbands tonight, or are you going to refuse and let them bring in some other women?"

"What do you think we should do?" Val asked.

"In a case like this where all of the choices are in some way wrong, I cannot give you an opinion. Let me point out what I see as some, uh, considerations with each choice.

"If you choose to participate tonight, you would be establishing that you want to be closely involved with your husbands, in everything that they do. It would send a signal that you understand what you have caused and that you want to do everything possible to erase the scars.

"On the negative side, if you start exchanging partners on a regular basis, it could create bad feelings that could prevent any return to the closeness your three families once enjoyed.

"Even if you join in, it will not stop your husbands from having additional sex partners.

"If you choose not to participate, it will separate the relationship with your husband from all other sexual activities either of you may have. It will tend to isolate your marital sex as special, even somewhat sacred.

"Unfortunately, refusal to participate will isolate a part of each of your lives from your spouse."

"So, how does any of that help us decide?" Val asked, almost in tears.

"I didn't promise that it would. Tell me, Val. Do you want to have sex with Bud and Trent? Do you want Will to have sex with Sandy and Cece?"

"I don't ever want to have sex with anyone but Will for the rest of my life!" Val said amidst tears.

"So you don't think you will be going to any more parties?"

"My God! How can you even ask that?"

"Remember, from what I know, there is no way you could have done it at all. I can't guess what your feelings for the future might be. When you know that Will is going to parties of his own, will you be able to resist?

"I have to send you away, now, and take my next patient. I know that I have not solved your problem. I believe I have given you some valuable insights into your situation, though. I would very much like to meet with you again to find out your sexual histories and how you got into those parties."

None of the women could think of anything to say on the ride home. It was only when they were once again in Val's kitchen with the door closed that Cece asked "Well, what are we going to do?"

Val knew that she had to take leadership. "Here's what I think. They are going to fuck other women whether they fuck us or not. If we decide not to join them tonight, it doesn't mean we can't change our minds later. I just need to think about this some more. I need to see how Will reacts. I say we pass for tonight."

"Bud said I should call him if we weren't going to do it," Cece said. "He said by noon, but we can't help that. I'll call him now." The others' agreement with Val was implicit.

All three of the men had agreed to leave work early to listen to what had hopefully been recorded in Val's kitchen. Will had the toughest task. He had to retrieve the recorder from their kitchen and meet the others in the parking lot of a nearby mall.

Will thought about how he could sneak in, get the recorder, then leave without being discovered. As he neared his neighborhood, he laughed out loud at himself. He did not need to sneak. He was not the guilty party in this mess.

Predictably, Val saw him come into the house. "Will! I didn't know you would be home early."

"I guess there was no way you could know, was there?"

"But you could have called."

"I thought we were past telling each other where we were going and what we were doing."

"Will! Don't..." Her rebuke died when she saw the look on his face and she hurried off to the bedroom. That could not have worked out better for him. It took mere seconds to grab the little recorder and leave.

As they all listened to the mostly legible talk that the women had recorded, there were initial expressions of anger when the women seemed to downplay the seriousness of what they had done, then expressed their certainty that the men would not follow up on their threat to hold their own sex parties.

When Val referred to Cece having so many men, Bud almost exploded and Will shut off the tape until he calmed down.

The phone in Val's kitchen was at the farthest point from the table under which the recorder was taped, but they were able to get the gist of Cece's side of the conversation.

Will stopped the tape and said "I wish I could have heard what went on in that session. Dr. Waxman's call caught me by surprise."

"You handled it just right, though," Bud assured Will.

"From now on, we won't miss anything," Trent said resolutely. "There's a place about ten miles away that sells all sorts of spy and surveillance stuff. I may be late for supper, but what's the address of that house for tonight?"

"Wait. Let's see if there is anything after the meeting with the shrink."

Cece tried her best to act normal and not let on what she was really feeling. Just after dinner, though, she couldn't hold back. "Bud, don't do this. Please! Don't do it to us."

"I never got a chance to ask you not to do it, did I?" he retorted. "Did you think about us?" There was nothing more she could say, and she knew it.

"Oh, by the way, we won't be using our place. I wanted it here because we thought you women would be joining us. We're going to the house of one of the other women. We will use our house next time, but we'll give you more warning." Bud used all of his acting ability to say that without emotion. Cece could only nod.

As soon as the men left, the women got together. "Do you think they're really going to do it?" Sandy asked. "I mean, they could be just going off to a bar, or something."

"Well, Bud said they would use our pool soon, so I guess we'll know then," Cece said.

Trent did make it home in time to shower and ride to the party with the others. He was extremely nervous, as they all were, but talking about his purchases helped a lot.

"I got four sets - mic/transmitters and receiver/recorders," he told them. "One is for your kitchen, Will. The others are for if they go to that shrink again. We don't know which car they'll take, and the receiver will be in the car. It can receive from up to a thousand feet. The hardest part will be getting the transmitters into the wives' purses. They are very small, but you know how they switch purses all the time."

"If there are multiple mics and just one receiver, won't things get garbled?" Will asked.

"Nope. Multiple channels on the receivers."

"Wish I'd have put it under the table already," Will said.

"Isn't the old one there again? We'll still hear enough," Trent said.

Being the 'expert' was probably the only thing holding him together as they approached the unbelievable event.

The men were not faking. They went to the house of a thirty-something divorcee named Teri. She was a little beyond voluptuous, but certainly not repulsively fat. She met the men at the door naked, pulling Bud to her for a passionate kiss. "I have looked forward to this so much," she told him. "Before I meet your friends, come on in where the other women are waiting."

The sight of not two, but three more naked women stunned the men and they were barely able to go through the introductions.

Estelle, or Essie, was in her early fifties. She was tall and slender, but with a sexy grace. Whether her blonde hair had help or not, it looked like the right color on her. Her pubic hair matched the hair on her head exactly. A lovely all-over tan bespoke comfort with her clothes off. Essie had been married almost thirty years.

Essie's friend, Carmen, was a divorcee about her age, but short and rather round. Carmen had amazingly smooth and lustrous dusky skin, long raven hair, and eye's so dark the centers seemed almost one color. While beyond the usual image of sexy, there was an air about her that came through instantly.