Chapter 10

“Dan? Honey? Wake up. We’ve got a problem.”

I slowly opened my eyes. My wife was already up and dressed, and shaking me on the shoulder.

Mindy sighed sadly before saying, “It’s Michelle. She knows already about what you said last night. She overheard us talking.”

I sat up with alarm. “The whole thing?!”

“No. But enough. She’s been crying the night away. I tried to talk to her, but she screamed at me. I think you should see her. She’s a complete wreck. She’s cried until she’s out of tears. Now she won’t even come out of her room.”

I’d been expecting some sort of tears, but when Mindy said that Michelle screamed at her, that woke me all the way up. Michelle doesn’t scream when she’s angry. She’ll seethe and fret, but she doesn’t lash out like that. Clearly, Mindy was disturbed by how distraught our daughter was. Just looking at the concern in my wife’s face gave me the creeping shivers.

I said, “Uh-oh. Not good. Not good at all. What happened to her respecting our privacy? I thought she was downstairs.”

“She was, but that was hours earlier, remember? As for respecting privacy, we’re talking Michelle here. She was on her way to bed when she heard the sound of crying coming from our room and curiosity got the best of her. Don’t get mad at her about that, okay? She’s heartbroken enough as it is.”

“Okay. I’ll go talk to her. Just gimme a minute to get presentable.”

So I dressed up and went to talk to Michelle. We had a long talk, but it didn’t go over very well because I had to explain that we needed to stop all the sexual flirting.

Actually, I talked a lot, but I rarely got more than a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ out of her. She readily agreed to stop the teasing, but it obviously was a crushing blow. It was like asking her to strangle a puppy to death. About the only substantial thing she’d say was, “If that’s what you want, Daddy, I’ll do it.”

She stayed in her room the whole day, moping.

Meanwhile Mindy had to go to work, leaving me alone to deal with Michelle. Mindy’s butt was still quite sore, and in fact had to tell her coworkers she’d hurt herself and thus couldn’t sit down.

But, unfortunately, I wasn’t a good one to console Michelle. Every time she saw me, it seemed like another needle pierced her heart. She would break into a fresh set of tears, if she wasn’t in the middle of crying already. So I mostly left her in her room. It seemed to me there was a lot on Michelle’s mind, but she didn’t want to tell anyone what she was thinking.

I didn’t see Ruby at all. Mindy told me she called her and gave her the bad news. She called Cindy about it later, and it turned out Ruby was crying and moping all day, just like Michelle.

Mindy was a little on edge with all the goings on at home, and wanted to help out. She took the rest of the day off and was home by ten. She had been working so much overtime lately that nobody at her work could really complain.

She and I discussed the situation. We both agreed that we would just have to ride this out, and wait until Michelle got over her feelings for me. I felt like this was a painful thing in the short term, but a healthy thing in the long term. She had to rid herself of her unnatural feelings towards me, there was no other way.

But Mindy looked a bit nostalgic, and said, “You know, I understand your decision, but it’s still such a shame to have the teasing stop. Watching her tease you was such a turn-on that I’m going to miss it dearly. I promise I’ll never mention it again, but I have just one favor. Do you mind if I keep what happened these last few days in my mind and use the memories to fuel my fantasies from time to time? ‘Cos I’m sure those memories will keep my sexual fires burning hot for a long, long time, if I let them.”

“That’s okay by me. To be honest, I think I’ll do the same. I think those thoughts will arouse me for years to come. But it had to end. You know it did.”

“You’re right. In fact, I have another sexual secret to share with you.”

“Another? Uh-oh.”

“Come on. Let’s go to my office.”

Mindy had her own workspace on the first floor. The shelves were filled with legal books, but mostly it was a place for her to work on the computer when she had work to do at home.

Or so I thought. It turns out it served another purpose as well. She opened up her e-mail program on her computer and told me her secret.

“Honey, the truth is, I’ve been reading erotic stories on the Internet. I’ve been doing it for a while, actually. I hope you’re not too upset. It’s no reflection on you at all. It all started out as an accident. You see, you know how closely I guard my e-mail account so I don’t get spam, and then I use spam filters to guard whatever gets through. So I never got all that pornographic stuff, and if I do, I just delete it.”

She went on, “But one day, about two years ago, I got this one e-mail that seemed to be a personal e-mail. And it was. It was from a woman named ‘DL.’ I still don’t know who this person is, or what her full name is. But anyway, she was quite into erotic stories, and she liked to send really good ones that she’d discovered to a few of her female friends. Somehow, I got on her list. It was just a small group of about five housewives.”

She continued, “Curiosity got the best of me, and I started reading the stories as they came in every now and then. It was pretty harmless stuff, you know, like the romance novels women bring to read at the beach. Knights in armor, damsels in distress, hunky guys in half-torn shirts ... all that jazz. Like some of your books, actually, except the sex was more explicit and constant. It never came up when I talked to you, for some reason. I guess I thought you’d disapprove, but it seemed like such a harmless thing to me, like enjoying sex scenes in an R-rated movie.”

I nodded. Truthfully, I considered myself to be a very straight-laced guy, but even I had read some erotic stories and looked at erotic pictures on the Internet from time to time, especially during those rare times when Mindy was away for days at a time on work trips or vacation. And I hadn’t ever mentioned that to her, either, now that I thought about it.

She went on, “But then, over time, DL and her friends started to get bored of the same old stuff. They’d send messages back and forth about how much they liked the stories, and I was always CCed on everything. After a while, I started sending my thoughts too.”

I said, “But you didn’t know any of these women, right?”

There was a long pause until she finally said, “Right.” She seemed lost in her thoughts and memories.

Then she continued more freely, “But that was the beauty of it. Because I didn’t know them, I didn’t have to hold back. Even with a good friend like Cindy, I’m not going to share with her my more taboo fantasies. Anyway, when I’d come in here after dinner and check on my e-mail and what not, I’d read a story if there was a new one, and maybe exchange some banter with the other housewives in this group, if there was an interesting story to talk about. This would happen about twice a week. Sometimes, the stories would get me really excited and I’d rush upstairs and make passionate love to you. So I still thought this was just a harmless thing, a way to charge my sexual batteries to keep up with your non-stop passion.”

So far, this didn’t disturb me too much. Who was I to throw the first stone, when I’d read erotic stories during our marriage myself? But I felt the other shoe had yet to drop. I asked, “So what was it about the group getting bored?”

“Oh. Right. Over time, the stories generally got racier. More sexually explicit. Different kinds of stories. Incest stories. Lesbian sex scenes. Discipline stories. Spanking scenes. Anal domination. You know these things I’ve been telling you that excite me? All these things I want to try out? I’m afraid this is how many of those thoughts came into my head. I never knew I had a wild side until I started reading these stories.”

“What’s an ‘anal domination’ story?”

“Just stories with lots of anal sex. That’s why I’d keep asking you to try anal sex with me, because I’d read a total scorcher of a story where anal was the main focus of all the hottest scenes, and then I’d be raring to try it out for myself with you to see if I’d love it just as much as the women did in these stories.”

I asked, “What about the ‘domination?’”

She paused, and then added sheepishly, “I guess I kind of added the ‘domination’ part in my mind.”

Before I could respond to that, she continued, “For some reason, I really got into the incest stories most of all, especially stories where the husband has sex with his daughters. Or stories where the wife lets the husband sleep with other women, and everyone ends up loving it and having a great time. Let me tell you, some of those stories could scorch the paint off a frozen tank! Before long I was pestering DL to send our group more of both those types of stories, and she did. So I guess you could say the Internet corrupted me. My suggestion of inviting another woman into our bed and even the whole Christmas Party Incident, I think that all came about because of these stories. They got me excited by the idea of seeing you with another woman. The idea still turns me on greatly, to tell you the truth.”

“I see.” I frowned. I was starting to hate this mysterious DL already. “Were there stories in there about women turning into sluts, that kind of thing?”

Her face turned sour. “Oh, God no! You know, funnily enough, those kinds of stories never really came up. Maybe one or two, but pretty much our whole group voted those down. There were some wife swapping stories for a while, but after the Christmas Party Incident I complained about it so much they stopped sending those types to me. I only cared about the stories with one guy and one or more women. Usually more. So there was a fair amount of bisexual or lesbian activity going on in most of them.”

I struggled to understand all these revelations. “So wait. You’re telling me now you’re some kind of bisexual?!”

“Well, no. Not exactly. I’ve never touched another woman in a sexual way, and I wouldn’t want to. But I find the idea of two women making love to be ... arousing. Just as a fantasy thing only. Don’t you?”

“Well, yeah. I can’t help it.”

She laughed. “You don’t have to try to help it. I wonder if there’s a heterosexual guy out there who doesn’t find that arousing. Maybe it’s hard-wired in most people or something. I know watching two guys having sex with each other would do nothing for you, and it doesn’t do anything for me either. Weird, huh?”

“Yeah, but ... I’m still trying to wrap my head around this. You’re ... you’re basically bisexual!”

“No! I wouldn’t say that at all. It’s not like I walk down the street lusting after the women that go by, unless, you know, they’re REALLY hot. There are some women who are so sexy that if anyone of any gender claims they’re not aroused, they’re a liar. Like Michelle or Ruby.”

“Wait, so you’re aroused by your own daughter?!”

“NO! Because she is my daughter. Ditto with Ruby being so close. But if they were strangers on the street, sure, I’d get a little thrill.”

I nodded in understanding. They were that beautiful, after all.

She continued, “Now, if YOU were there, it would be different. I like the idea of making out with another woman if you’re watching and it gets you hot. It’s like the two women get so horny for their man that they can’t help love each other some too. Can’t you see the difference? It would be another way of pleasing my man. Without you there, forget it. No interest. I’m NOT really bisexual. Understand?”

I nodded, relieved.

“Now, can I continue?”

My heart was pounding hard and I was afraid to learn more. But I just said, “Yeah. Please.”

“These stories put all kinds of crazy ideas in my head. But that’s all over now. Right here as we speak, I want to show you that I’m deleting all this stuff. All the stories I’ve saved, all the correspondence, everything. It’s all going in the trash. You’ve met me half way by trying to get a little wild last night. I hope that will continue. I need to meet you half-way by tempering down my wild side. Especially all this incest stuff. The things I’ve thought about you and Michelle doing because of these stories - it would shock you!”

She continued, “To be honest, whenever I’d get a good new incest story, half the time I’d do a find-and-replace command to change the names of the story characters to Dan and Michelle before I read them. And Ruby if there were two daughters. Those were my favorites, stories with a dad and two daughters. I’m being totally honest here, so please don’t get mad, okay?”

I nodded. I was secretly shocked and disturbed.

“But that’s all over now. Anything incest-related especially I’m really going to try to wipe from my brain. I’m just going to keep my memories of a few wild days of Michelle’s teasing, and that’s it.”

While she was talking, she let me glance over the names of the files in her saved stories folder. Just checking out the titles was kind of mind-blowing. I never would have imagined my wife read stories with titles like “Daddy Loves His Daughters in a New Way” or “Mommy Needs Help Taking Care of Daddy’s Cock.”

I would have been more disturbed, except that seemed like small potatoes compared to some of the other recent revelations. Besides, I’d read some pretty racy erotic stories myself over the years, although I’d tried to avoid incest-themed ones.

She said, “I’ve saved a copy of the correspondence and everything on CD, which I’m going to give to you just in case you’re curious. I don’t want to keep even the slightest hint of a secret from you anymore. If I get a pimple on the underside of my toe, you’re going to hear about it, like it or not!”

She finished emptying the trash on her computer, and stood up.

I gave her a kiss. “Thanks, my sweet. I appreciate it. I know it must have been hard for you to confess all that. To be honest, sometimes I’ve read erotic stories on the Internet too.”

She asked with mock horror, “You?! Daniel Cooper?” She joked, “I demand you turn in your Eagle Scout badge, immediately and forthwith!”

“Yeah, but in my defense, I never was into the wild stuff, the incest stuff. Let’s go to bed and I’ll tell you all about it. I guess that’s something people usually do in secret, and it doesn’t seem that harmful to me. It’s just something to give me a little inspiration when you’re out of town or staying late at work. Maybe you don’t need to go cold turkey, if you know some good websites with the right kind of stories, but it sounds like you should get away from that little group for sure.”

“I will. I’m swearing off all the wildness you can’t relate to. Like, a spanking story, I’d still go for that now, but if you’re not into something, then I’m not into it either.”

One thing struck me. “Do you have any idea who this ‘DL’ is? Or any of the other people?”

“No clue. Everybody wanted to be anonymous about their personal lives. You know how it is with things like this - who would want to give out their real name and address? A couple of times someone called ‘DL’ just ‘D, ‘ so maybe that’s her first name. Dee, maybe. But from what I gathered, it was just a bunch of housewives who liked reading erotica. I don’t even know how the group got started or where anyone lives or how they were connected, because all we did was talk about the stories. Odds are they live far, far away from us. You know how the Internet is.”

I wondered about this. I believed my wife was being honest, and I was glad that she was opening up her secrets to me. But I found it hard to believe that she found herself on this list by pure accident. I vaguely recalled a similar thing happening to me a couple of years back where some person started sending me erotic stories too, again making it seem like I’d been accidentally put on a list of a small group of friends. But I kept treating the e-mails as spam and deleting them.

The only reason I remembered was because the person was so insistent before finally going away and the e-mails were oddly personal, and not like the usual spam at all. I thought it was some kind of strange scam, like all those weird Nigerian “please let me give you this $10 million I’m trying to get rid of” scams, but I couldn’t figure out the money angle.

That couldn’t have been coincidence. But why? Maybe someone has been trying to manipulate our sex lives? She said that these stories put ideas in her head that led to the Christmas Party Incident. There were wife swapping stories until she firmly complained, and most of them still had lesbian or bisexual elements after that.

Maybe some woman wants to sleep with Mindy? Some other housewife who tried the wife swapping technique to get the sexual door opened, and when that didn’t work, went straight for the lesbian approach! Throw in other types of stories to disguise the intent. That would make sense. But who? My wife is so beautiful and appealing in every way that a lot of people strongly desire her, even some people she barely knows. Heck, it could have even been Delilah Jensen! Delilah easily shortens to Dee!

I decided, I need to mull this over for a while before I mention anything. Mindy complains that I’ve been too paranoid about the whole infidelity issue, and she’s right. I do get carried away with suspicions from time to time. It’s just that fidelity is such an important issue to me. If Mindy ever cheated on me, I would ... I don’t know what I’d do. I can’t even mentally go there, it’s too painful!

Mindy and I hustled upstairs and had another great romp in the bed afterwards. The only snag was that she had to lie on her side the whole time because her butt was still so red and sore.

However, when the fucking was over, I tried to relax, but I couldn’t. For one thing, I worried about Michelle and Ruby. It broke my heart that they were crying and so sad. Then there was this erotic story mystery. Also, I could hardly believe it, but I began to have second thoughts about my new total ban on teasing. Partially, I was struck by the depth of Michelle’s mourning. Would it be so bad to bend a little bit and allow some light teasing? That wouldn’t be the end of the world, would it? It’s just that things had gotten completely out of hand and the wildness needed to be reined in.

But mainly I thought about the spanking session and the other sexual events of recent days. These experiences were all so intense that it was like my life had been black and white and suddenly burst into brilliant Technicolor. I felt so alive! I’d had sex so many countless times, but now it was like I was a virgin rediscovering sex all over again. It felt so good. It looks like I did have a wild sexual side, and I liked it. I spanked my wife and no bolt of lightning came down from heaven. I wanted more.

If I was wrong about the spanking and the name calling, maybe I was wrong about some other things too. Maybe Mindy has been right all along. Maybe the teasing with Shelle, Ruby, and possibly even their friends could be like a constant shock of electricity, keeping all of us sexually excited and on a higher sexual plane for years to come.

And to be truly honest with myself, I miss the teasing already. I miss the sight of Michelle and Ruby running around in the buff. God help me, but I love it. When it was being “forced” upon me, I could convince myself that I didn’t approve. But now the house seems a lot sadder and a lot emptier.

In the privacy of my own thoughts, I began to contemplate the true meaning of cowardice. I thought I’d been a coward before, fearing my daughter, fearing her friends, fearing her teasing. That was so unlike me. Normally, I’m a take charge kind of guy. But maybe the real cowardice lies in running from all that. Bravery would be to grab the tiger by the tail and hold on. I should ride the excitement of the teasing, and live life to the fullest!

It’s kind of like drugs. I’m generally against drugs. Too much drug use, and it’ll destroy you. But a little drug use - a cigarette, a glass of wine, even a toke of pot - that can add spice to your life, if you happen to have the taste for it, and you know when to stop. I’m not so square that I think all drugs are completely bad, it’s the way people use them recklessly and without any moderation that’s the biggest problem. Maybe it could be the same with flirtation with Michelle and Ruby, and it could be a great thing in moderation? Am I making a big mistake by shutting it down completely?

I looked in on Michelle later that morning and it was much the same. She hardly came out of her room. She wasn’t crying as much, but she was listless and sad. Clearly, it was going to take a long time to get over this.