Chapter 4

TESSA

A week later Tessa was wondering about recent events. Why was Danny taking so many pictures of her lately? Was he putting them on the internet? And why was Margie, after having refused to pose for so long, now posing with a frequency that alarmed Tessa.

Margie had confided to Tessa that Vince had her doing poses Tessa refused to do for Danny. I have let him video me doing things, she thought and recalled several times how he had arranged the camera on a tripod to video them in bed; and the time he persuaded her to masturbate for him in the bathroom. She had only done it after he himself had masturbated while she videoed him in similar fashion, but other than watching the videos later that night, she hadn't seen them again.

It occurred to her that the two men might be putting both their photos on the internet, and the thought horrified her.

Her first thought was to call Margie for her opinion. But she thought better of it and decided instead to sit down at their computer and look into Danny's hitherto secret files.

What she found stunned her. There were dozens of nude pictures of Margie! True, there was also hundreds of her, but Margie?

The obvious conclusion was that they were trading pictures of their spouses.

Danny! Vince has Margie calling out Danny's name when she's blindfolded and handcuffed! Had Danny been trying to manipulate her when he'd asked about more variation in their lovemaking? Aloud she exclaimed, "What the hell are they up too?" She reached for the telephone, intending to call Margie with the news, but stopped as the answer came to her.

They want us to swap husbands!

As the thought unfolded she plopped down in a chair and stared straight ahead. That's it! They really want to swap us ... like baseball cards!"

Tessa sat there for several minutes then got up and made herself a stiff drink. She began pacing the floor, taking the occasional sip from the glass she held in her hand.

Why?

Because they're men and men are pigs.

Does Margie know? Probably not, but she must have some suspicion that something's not right. Should I call her now, or wait until I know more? Should I confront Danny?

She stopped pacing and finished her drink. She rinsed the glass out and put it back in the cabinet where it belonged. Then she went back to the computer and searched further, but found nothing that incriminated Danny and Vince of anything else.

My marriage is more important to me than anything else; she told herself, and then realized she had to pick her son, Win up from school. She went to the bathroom and gargled to rinse away any tell tale odor of alcohol. God forbid I get pulled over as a drunk driver, she thought, and then asked herself if she was capable of driving safely. Of course I am; it was only one drink.

A second later it occurred to her that the drink was one thing, but the sudden knowledge of discovering what her husband was up to might prove distracting when added to a car full of kids yammering and clamoring all the way home.

She picked up the phone and called Margie.

"Marge, hi, it's me. Yeah, I know I know, I've come down with a migraine, or if it isn't a migraine it will do until one comes along. Look I don't think I can drive. Can you fill in for me today? I promise I'll make it up next week when it's your turn.

"You will? Great. I love you. Yeah, I know; that too. See you when you drop Win off. Thanks a bunch."

Now when can I tell Margie? Not today. I'll deal with Danny first.

Tessa & Danny

When confronted with the irrefutable evidence that he was sending Tessa's nude pictures to Vince and vice-versa, Danny put his face in his hands and confessed.

"Yeah, it's true."

"Why?"

"I don't know ... I mean, I do know, but I don't know if I can put it into words."

"Try."

"Well ... first off," he swallowed searching for the right words to save his marriage. "First, you have to understand that I do love you. Only you."

"And you prove it by putting me on the internet for the world to see? How thoughtful a way of showing your love!"

"Tessa, you're not giving me a chance..."

"A chance for what ... to think up an excuse for these despicable actions?"

"Have ... have you told Margie?"

"Margie's not part of this marriage. I want to hear your reasons."

"I don't know that I have specific reasons. Let me tell you how it came to this."

"All right, tell me."

"You have to understand that guys..."

"Are you going to tell me that men are pigs?"

"No! Well, maybe I am. It was at the company outing last spring when I first found myself attracted to Margie.

"A bit more detail, please," Tessa said the scorn for Danny evident in her tone.

"Um ... I realized I was checking out her ass. Suddenly I was overcome with lust. I wanted her. I coveted her. I realized I was married to you and possessing Margie was out of the question. And that would have been that, except that apparently Vince formed the same ideas about you that same day."

"What!"

"He told me ... this was weeks later, mind you, he said you apparently let him look down your top. Let him have a good long look before covering up."

Tessa suddenly recalled the incident he was referring too, and felt herself grow red in embarrassment. Please, God, don't let it have been me that helped them reach this point.

Danny continued, bent on clearing the air between them. "Some days later we were at the camera club..."

"My God, you didn't put any pictures of me up on that screen, did you?"

"No, no! I wouldn't do that, but one guy did, and on the way home, Vince bought the subject up, you know, putting up a picture of his wife like that."

"Never happen," I told Vince, speaking for myself.

"It never crossed your mind, Danny?"

"No, never," he said defensively.

"What about Vince?"

"I remember he said Margie would never even pose for him."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and he asked me if you'd ever ... you know, posed for me."

"So you told him, huh?"

"Yeah ... I guess I did. But I told him I'd never let anyone see them."

"Tell him anything else about me?"

"Um, yeah ... I mentioned that you were sort of an exhibitionist."

"You what?"

"Um, well I told him that story you told me about letting the guys see your tits at the beach that time."

"Did you," she said almost freezing him with the frost in her voice.

"Look. He won't say a word to anyone."

"You seem very confident about this," Tessa said, obviously not believing him.

"I ... I am," he said, looking miserable and very uncomfortable."

"Tell me, Danny, how did he get Margie to pose for him? I know her, she wouldn't do it, she's too prudish."

"I'm not sure what he did. I know he ... they were into bondage ... you know handcuffs and stuff. I think he took some while she was blindfolded."

"Cut the crap, Danny. I've seen the pictures. For Christ sake, she's holding herself wide open for the camera in some of the pictures he sent over."

"I don't know. You'll ... you'll have to ask Margie."

"Don't worry, I will."

Danny shuddered at the thought, but at the moment he was concentrating on saving his marriage.

"Which pictures did you send him?"

"There's more," he said deciding to tell all before it came back and bit him on the ass even more.

"There's more?" Tessa waited him out.

"The night you two went to the movies."

"What about it?"

"We traded videos."

"You son-of-a-bitch! Which ones?"

"Only one of you, Tess, only the one."

"Which one? She said coldly.

"Where ... where you masturbated for me."

"You bastard! And Margie ... which ones of her?"

"The one he showed me had her handcuffed. He ... he was screwing her and she was calling out my name."

"Anything you're leaving out?"

"Um, later on he had her suck ... um, she did oral for him."

"Call your name out again? No, not with him in her mouth, I guess."

Waving her arm at him, Tessa groaned, "Get out of my sight, Danny. You disgust me."

"Tessa, I..."

"Get out. Sleep on the god damn couch! Get a blanket from the closet and get out of the bedroom."

"Are you going to tell Margie?"

"Of course I am. Don't you dare call him. Don't you dare. She needs to hear this from me. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, I understand."

Margie took it better than Tessa thought she would. The two women met at Tessa's the following morning after getting the kids off to school. Margie had driven the kids to school and stopped by Tessa's afterward.

"You can't imagine what our husband's are, or I should say, have been up too."

"And you're going to tell me," Margie said, "but not until I've had a cup of coffee."

"Help yourself, Marge, I made fresh for us, but somehow I don't feel like any at the moment."

Margie poured herself a cup, added milk and sat down next to Tessa. "Okay, what's the story, Tessa?"

"Put the cup down, first." Margie's jaw dropped and for the first time she realized something of import was about to be brought to her attention.

"Our beloved husbands," Tessa began, "want us, meaning you and me, to swap with them."

Margie's brow furrowed in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Tessa's lips closed and then with a smacking sound opened again. "I'll make it simple. Vince wants to fuck me and Danny wants to fuck you. Swapping ... understand?"

"What the hell..."

"I had been wondering why Danny was taking so many pictures of me lately, you know. And you entered the picture."

"How did I enter the picture?"

"You told me Vince was taking pictures of you after all that time in refusing to do it."

"Yes, but..."

"Shush! I have more, much more."

"Oh!"

"At first I thought my Danny was putting my pics on the net. But I kept coming back to you. Suddenly you were posing almost as much as I had ... err, was."

"But I can explain..."

"Quiet, please, Marge, you yourself told me the kinds of poses you were now letting Vince take of you. I wouldn't let Danny take them ... that kind anyway, of me. But I have let him video me ... doing the nasty among other things."

"I didn't know you'd let him video you doing..."

Tessa over rode Margie, saying, "So I went to the computer, Danny's computer and searched for a while and found..."

Instead of continuing, Tessa pulled Margie by the hand until they'd reached Danny's office and his PC.

"This..." Tessa said and opened the file containing the pictures that their husband's had been funneling back and forth.

"My God..." Margie gasped, "That's me!"

"I'm in there too, Margie, scroll down a few. And she was ... in all her glory.

"Ready for more, Marge?"

"Holy shit! He ... he..."

"Oh yeah, he did and more."

"More?" her stunned friend said, unbelievingly.

"Videos. Videos of each of us."

"Vince ... wouldn't, couldn't do that," she protested, but it was obvious she didn't believe a word she was saying.

"The very night we went to the movies they sat in your house and traded videos of us. You can figure out which one he may have used. I made several, but Danny swears he only brought one of me masturbating for him and his fucking camera. I think Vince had one of you handcuffed to the bed. Of course I haven't seen it..."

"That's the only one. He had me stand against the window, and then put me down on the bed."

"Stop, I don't want to hear or see the video, Margie. The question is what do we do about it?"

Margie started to shake, and instinctively, Tessa put her arm around her shoulder and drew her close. A minute passed. They found themselves looking into each other's eyes. Suddenly the air was thick with anticipation, Tessa leaned toward Margie, but instead of kissing her lips, kissed her ear lobe and then her neck and felt Margie melt into her.