Chapter 2

December 5, 2011

Keri Ryan's ability to prioritize was one of her best attributes. She could look at a problem or a situation and figure out quickly its importance and then tackle it or move on to something with a higher priority. This made her business a success. But sometimes as two people's careers take off as with hers' and her husband David they find less and less time for each other. It just happens. So her ability to prioritize got skewed along the way.

In the past at least, her priorities centered on being the best wife and mother, but as her daughters got older and David became more successful, and as her business grew - the business she started from home to keep her occupied when her daughters entered high school, she shifted her priorities. Keri would deny it if she was accused of neglecting her husband or daughters. She took care of the household, supervised the staff, and made a heck of a lot of money. But it was undoubtedly true. Her former priorities were wife, lover, and best friend to David, mother of twin daughters, the household and then her catering business and everything else, to the new priority, where her business took over the top spot. Actually that wasn't quite correct – because as her long-suppressed narcissistic tendencies came to the fore her top priority became Keri.

So in this case her talent for prioritizing became her worst attribute because she had lost sight of what was most important to her and those she loved.

It was Monday mid-morning and Keri sat at her big wood desk in her home office, cosseted behind the heavy wooden sliding doors savoring the first bit of relaxation she had had since last week, and also enjoying the first sips of sweetened hot tea that had just been delivered by her housekeeper Maria. The holidays were her busiest season and she had already been on the phone constantly since just after six am. She was mildly agitated about the stupidity of her customers and their demands and the inefficiency of many of her suppliers. It was nothing new and it was like this every year. Sometimes she asked herself why she did it – they certainly didn't need the money. Thoughts of David and his resignation from the firm intruded. She wasn't ready to think about him yet. He wasn't a priority right now.

Even as maddening as it was for upscale caterers like Keri, she thrived in the atmosphere. She enjoyed spending outrageous amounts of other people's money on parties and receptions and also being able to rub shoulders with Chicago's elite. She had just turned from her laptop as she finished updating the spreadsheets on the upcoming social events that would keep her busy through the beginning of the New Year. Now it was time to examine another priority, the one where she was John Wiley's mistress, or one of his mistresses she thought ruefully. She frowned slightly. She was no longer John Wiley's mistress as of Friday night. After David's little stunt, and she considered his "heart condition" a stunt, she had been approached by John. He maneuvered her into an empty room and had the nerve to demand a quickie before he joined his wife upstairs in their hotel room. Keri had played the supportive spouse; trying to convince him she bought into David's "heart" story, and needed to be with him right now. She also knew that she would get no satisfaction from such a coupling and she rarely did these days. At first Keri had enjoyed the dalliance – and that was what she considered it, but then John became more demanding, treating her like a whore, using her simply for his pleasure and humiliating her with raw dominating sex he seemed to crave.

John was really a pig and why she entered into the affair with him in the first place was somewhat of a mystery. John was a smooth operator and a few months ago when David was working some particularly long hours John had become quite attentive. He had taken every opportunity to flatter her and they met for lunch a few times for the ostensible purpose of having Keri cater an upcoming party at John and Annabel's home. He had actually managed to maneuver her to their big house where he plied her with wine and skillfully seduced her. Of course Keri knew what she was doing and had been curious for some time what made John tick. He was a powerful man, powerfully built who seemed to be unable to take no for an answer. John typically got what he set out to get and Keri was someone he told her he had lusted after for some time. At first she actually enjoyed the unbridled sex. John insisted she wear the sexiest lingerie and he would rip it from her and plunge into her. She was glad he was significantly smaller than David, because she would never have been able to take David's length and thickness without a great deal of loving attention which caused her to be naturally lubricated. But of course David loved her and he was so solicitous and he made sure she was always well prepared for him. John basically used her as his whore. He would enter her quickly and take his pleasure. At first Keri climaxed quickly under his rough ministrations, enjoying being subjugated as he took her, often without having her undress at all - her sexy lingerie left in tatters

But soon Keri began to tire of the game and she longed for the more gentle build up and the longer climaxes given her by David. She took to applying generous amounts of KY before meeting John. On some level Keri also rationalized that the affair with John could advance David's career. She knew he wanted to be a senior partner – no deserved to be a senior partner and that John had the final say. And David had got his wish, although he had resigned in spite of the promotion and Keri's efforts. Why had he done that? She pushed those thoughts away.

Friday night as John persisted in his demands to have sex with her she had finally told him they were through and if he continued then she would go to Annabel. John had only looked at her, gauging her seriousness and perhaps because of David's resignation, seemed to accept her decision. Keri still didn't trust him but was relieved that the affair was over.

Thoughts of David and last Friday evening intruded. As they prepared for the party in their hotel suite, she had watched him as he got out of the shower and she had been shocked by his appearance. When had he become so buff and sexy? All their married life David had kept himself fit but he had a runner's body, long and lean. He had kept up his shoulders with daily laps in the pool too, but he had never looked like he did now. My God, she thought, when did that happen? He had added inches to his chest and arms and his waist had diminished and his stomach rippled with washboard abs. At forty-five he was sculpted and toned and wonderfully muscular. She also noted he had an overall tan. Keri tried to think about the last time she had seen him naked. It had to have been months ago. She tried to remember the last time he had initiated sex, or they had even spent any time together. She couldn't remember. What had happened?

The only explanation that came to her Friday evening was that David had some months ago begun an affair. He had buffed up and toned up for some young thing that had captured him. Even his semi-flaccid cock looked longer and thicker. It probably looked different next to his new proportions, but maybe he had been exercising that too – and she knew it was not with her.

Keri had admired his sculpted body as he dressed in his tuxedo. The tux was different too, a closer cut, more modern looking and youthful. Was he planning to trade her in along with his old tux? She would have to prove to him she was a sexy as any young woman he would dally with.

She teased him by rolling the sheer stockings up her legs and attaching them to a garter belt. She knew he loved her in those garments although for some reason she hadn't worn them – at least for him in quite a while. John had insisted of course – he said it made her body accessible to him at all times, and that was true. No pantyhose would get in the way or delay his pleasure.

That night Keri had made sure David had seen she was leaving off her panties and she winked at him thinking to get his attention with a promise of some hot sex after the party downstairs. He had given her an odd look as she did that. Was she so uninteresting to him now that he was going to refuse sex with her. Keri prided herself on spending a lot of time at the gym and at the pool and at the Yoga studio and in the fact she had maintained the same weight as the day they were married. She still turned heads – well hadn't she landed the most important member of the firm. That was a laugh. John was a notorious skirt chaser and supposedly would fuck anything in a dress and heels.

Those mid-Monday morning thoughts opened another door. Why had he not told her about his selection to be senior partner? Of course he knew days in advance. That was the way it was handled. But they had never kept secrets from one another. The selectee was sworn to secrecy and the big announcement was made at the party, but of course they could tell their wives. Making senior partner was a career dream for David, so why had he not told her? She imagined him telling his mistress just as John Wiley had told her when he was fucking her over his desk just upstairs from where her husband worked just days ago. She thought briefly again about their comparative sizes. John could take her from behind without causing discomfort. David's cock was longer and bumped against her cervix. He had to be careful and it was her least favorite position with him.

Where was David anyway? When he had left after his speech he had disappeared behind the curtains and had not reappeared. At the time Keri thought perhaps he didn't want to face the questions or perhaps the expressions of sadness and sympathy of his friends and colleagues and had gone to their hotel room. He wasn't there when she arrived, having been delayed by John's proposition and the expressions of sympathy from David's colleagues. If he did have a heart condition why had he not told her? He hadn't had he? She had been pretty preoccupied between work and her affair with John but she was sure she would have remembered. Images of his body intruded again as she sat at her desk. She gazed out at the snow covered Lake Forest landscape. She mused that a man who had worked that hard to get into that shape certainly did not have a heart condition. Could he?