"Hi."
"Oh – hi, hello." Val stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Doug, one hand on the doorknob, the other hand still on the key which was inserted into the lock. The door stood half open. "How are things?"
Doug smiled, shrugging. "Okay, I guess."
There was an awkwardness that had grown between them, and Val wondered whether it would still be there later. She wondered if it would ever really be again the way it used to be. Maybe it would, but…
"Have you been home long?" she asked.
"All morning. Your flight just get in?"
"Un-huh. I just got out of a cab a few seconds ago. My luggage is outside, on the lawn." She looked at Doug as if she were seeing him for the first time. "The cab cost eleven dollars from Kennedy to here."
"Wow, how come so much?"
"Traffic."
Doug nodded. "Let me give you a hand."
"Thanks. I've only got the three suitcases. And a shopping bag full of souvenirs."
"Souvenirs?"
Val shrugged, embarrassed. "You know me."
Doug smiled. "Come on. I'll help you carry the stuff in."
Together they walked back outside. On the front lawn, next to the walk, Val's three suitcases were neatly arranged, and they'd been left by the departed cab driver. There were two shopping bags of souvenirs.
"Two?" Doug asked.
"You know me."
,Somehow Doug managed to carry all three suitcases in, while Val carried the two shopping bags, and opened the door. They carried it all into the living room.
"Would you like a drink?" Doug asked.
"Are you having one?"
Doug pointed. "I was already having one when I heard you coming in. My second today."
"Okay, sure. Thanks."
"The usual?" Doug moved toward the bar.
"No, uh, I think I'll have a Vodka-n-Seven. With a twist of lemon."
Doug stopped and looked at her. "That's new, isn't it? I don't remember you ever liking that before."
"I guess I've acquired a taste for it. If it isn't too much trouble, I mean."
"No, that's okay. No trouble." He moved toward the bar, grateful to have something to do. "You look – good."
"Thank you. So do you."
"You look – I don't know? Different."
That intrigued Val. "In what way?"
"I don't know. You look very good, tanned and all."
"I went to the beach everyday." For a moment her voice was animated. "Not like when we – oh. How else do I seem different?"
Doug carried the drink and handed it to Val.
"I don't know," he answered, sitting at the far end of the sofa across from her. He took a deep sip from his glass of Scotch. "Just different somehow."
"I feel different."
"So do I."
"I think I know what you mean"
A silence settled upon their conversation, and for the next few minutes they sat together on the sofa, sipping their drinks, trying to think of something to say. Taking quick, furtive peeks at each other, looking for some kind of clue or indication of change, they avoided making eye contact. They only looked at each other in secret, when the other was staring off into space, or gazing down into his drink, or making a production of drinking it. The room was filled with the sounds of sipped liquid.
"Say, would you, uh…" Doug shook his head.
"What?"
He shook his head again. "Nothing."
"What were you going to say?"
"It was nothing. I was just -" Doug's face turned bright scarlet, and he shrugged his shoulders. He took a deep sip from his drink, the ice cubes clinking loudly together. "Forget it. It was dumb."
"Please."
"Oh… all right." Doug drained his glass. "But it's dumb."
"What were you going to say?"
"I was just wondering if, maybe, you'd feel like" – he rattled the ice cubes back and forth in his glass – "having a truce?"
"A truce?"
"You know – I mean, not just for everything. Just a small truce. A truce for just today." He shook his head with self-contempt. "I told you this was stupid."
"It's not."
Doug looked up, surprised. "It's not?"
Val shrugged. "It seems – reasonable. Just till me a little more about what you mean."
"Well, I was thinking that maybe we could have a truce just for – you know. Sex."
The word thrilled Val. "Oh!"
Doug's face was contorted in pain. "I mean, it's been two weeks, Val. Maybe we should just do this truce for purely physical reasons – you know, for fucking. As a way of getting each other off just for physical considerations. Sex for the sake of sex. It doesn't have to have anything to do with our – differences"
"I see." Val thought about it for a moment more. "Neither one of us would be conceding anything, then. Is that what you mean?"
"Right… right. Yes. I'm not saying I'm wrong, and you're not saying you're wrong. And if we go to bed, it doesn't mean that everything is somehow better between us. We'd be doing it strictly for physical reasons – for the physical pleasure it would give the both of us. Because we were horny, that's all."
"As if we were two strangers who found themselves sexually attracted to each other," Val added.
"Exactly."
Staring at her drink, watching the way the piece of lemon floated among the ice cubes, Val thought for a long while. She took a small sip, not really enjoying the drink, the ice cube tapping against her teeth.
"All right. I supposed it would be okay."
Doug looked surprised. "You mean it?"
"Sure. Why not?" Wasn't she just as curious as he. to find out how their separation had changed them, she wanted to say. Wasn't she just as interested in finding out what her husband had learned from all the other women he'd been with? She said: "I'd be willing to try."
I wonder how many men she fucked with, Doug thought. Did they have big cocks? Bigger than his? Did she suck them off, take their sperm in her mouth? He wondered if any had fucked her up the ass? He hoped not; and yet, deep down inside, in a very private corner of his personality, he hoped someone had. He found the thought incredibly erotic. Just thinking about it gave him a hard-on.
"When do you want to?"
Val shrugged, pretending to be indifferent.
"Whenever. I don't care." Her panties were wet and oozy. "Now would be just as okay as tomorrow."
"Do you want to do it today? Now?"
"Do you?"
"I don't care." Doug shrugged. "Yeah, why not. Today is fine with me. So's right now."
"Can I finish my drink first?"
"Sure. Go ahead."
Val took another sip. "I'm really not very thirsty. Maybe I'll finish it later. I'll probably need it more then."
"You're ready, then?"
Val smiled. "I guess so."
"Might as well go to the bedroom, then."
"Might as well."
"Then, let's go."
They got up and walked into the bedroom. Without another word, Doug turned down the bed, and began to undress. Val said she had to pee, and Doug nodded in acknowledgement. She went into the bathroom, and he stripped off his pants and underwear. His cock was very hard, very hot, and he squeezed it, masturbating himself a stroke or two. Naked, he slipped into bed. Sunlight screamed into the room through the slats of the Venetian blinds. The sheets were very cool and erotic, making his flesh tingle. A few moments later, Val came out of the bathroom, wearing only her bathrobe. Without a word, she slipped out of it, and also stark naked, she climbed into bed next to her husband.
"This feels weird," she confessed, shaking her head.
"Doesn't it."
Doug pulled Val to him, her firm naked tits crushing against his chest. He kissed her mouth softly, and was surprised and delighted when he felt her tongue slip between his lips. He cupped her breast into his hand, his fingers digging into the fleshy orb, her nipple hard and throbbing against his palm. They kissed long and passionately, excited by familiarity, and the effortless grace with which they could anticipate each other's desires.
Doug slipped his kissing down from her lips, to her ear and neck, slithering his tongue in and out, nipping at her flesh playfully with his teeth, leaving a trail of wetness which made her body tingle. While Val moaned softly, appreciatively, at the way his fingers were crushing her breasts, rubbing the nipples, flitting them back and forth until they were swollen with desire, her fingers were wrapped around his cock, and she was pulling his rigid flesh up and down, turning him. on with her skillful manipulations. She squeezed into his, cock, the way she knew he liked it, and she ran her other hand down his back, pushing a fingertip against his anus.
Doug sucked her nipples into his mouth, then ran his hand down Val's belly, until he was cupping her wet, hot pussy. Lapping her nipples, sucking them up between his teeth, his middle finger rammed in and out of Val's tightly pressing cunt hole. At the same time, Val was fingering him, her index finger buried down to the second joint in his rectum. Massaging the tender walls of his rectum, she pumped his cock rapidly, making Doug moan and cry out in excitement.
Moving continually downward, Doug's lapping, rippling tongue slithered between Val's cunt lips, stroking her clit slowly up and down. Pulling the lips open with his fingers, turning his body around so that he was between her thighs, he began to lick her more rapidly, more insistently. Val arched up to match his licking with the tight grinding of her pussy against his tongue; and Doug stroked his middle finger into her liquified quim While he rubbed her throbbing clit with his tongue, he finger-fucked her, until she was moaning uncontrollably, and spilling her orgasm all over his lips. Then he began fucking her with his tongue, and Val came again, even better than before.
Groping for him in her pleasure, she made Doug change positions on the bed, putting his cock up near her face, without his once moving his tongue out of her orgasming pussy. She sucked his cock into her mouth, deep-throating him on every stroke, coating his, hot, throbbing shaft with her saliva. Wetting her middle finger in her mouth while she sucked his cock, she pushed the lubricated finger back into his asshole. She found his prostate, and began to flit it back and forth, sucking hard on his cock. Doug came in her mouth, spilling out spurt after spurt of come, and she drank it all down. She kept on sucking him, until his cock grew hard and rigid again, even when he was making her come from the constant tickle of his tongue against her clit.
When they were both capable, they fucked, deeply and hard, with lone shuddering strokes which filled and emptied Val's grinding pussy. She wrapped both legs around his middle. and Doug fucked straight down into her cunt, hammering her with the staccato rippling of his hips. In and out his cock rammed, pushing through the tightening ring of her cunt hole, feeling the wet, gripping slide of her hairy pussy lips as they caressed his drilling shaft. He made Val come again, from deep, hard fucking, battering her body with the rekindled thickness of his prick.
Then he turned her around while she was still coming, and he fucked her from behind. Propping her up on all fours, Doug spread the lips of her cunt with his fingers, and then he slipped his cock into her again. He humped himself in and out, fucking her rapidly, her cunt oozing around his cock. Reaching around her hip, he touched her cunt, rubbing his fingers over her clit. While he fucked her, he masturbated her pussy, touching his cock with his fingers when he pushed all the way into her leaking quim.
They both came again, their bodies grinding against each other, literally merging into one. They collapsed onto the bed, their totally exhausted bodies glistening. in the bright daylight sunshine.
"That was certainly better than the last time," Doug said, his arm thrown around Val, holding her sweaty body against him.
Val laughed, breathless. "Wasn't it, though."
Then Doug laughed. "Maybe we ought to do this more often."
"What do you mean?"
"Take a two week break from each other. That was really fantastic. I feel so – satisfied."
"I know what you mean. I'm wiped out, just wiped out. I'd forgotten how good you really are."
"Thank you. I can say the same about you, too. That was an incredible orgasm. The whole thing, fucking and everything, it was just so great. So incredible."
Val smiled sexily. "The pleasure was mine."
Doug grinned back. "Not all of it."
For a moment or two they were both happy, and they rubbed their naked bodies against each other because it made them feel so good. They found themselves wondering why it couldn't always be that good.
"So," Val said, asking the question which was in both their thoughts, "how was your vacation?"
"Oh – fine, fine. How was yours?"
"It was – good. Very good."
"So was mine."
"Did you – uh – meet anyone?"
Doug shrugged. "Sort of. But I thought we weren't going to -"
"You're right," Val agreed. "I shouldn't have asked. I'm sorry. No questions asked means – no questions asked."
"I'll tell you – if you really want to know."
"No." Val shook her head. "I don't think I want to. Do you? Want to know about me, I mean?"
"No."
Val shrugged. "I can understand that."
"But you had a good time, though?"
"Oh, yes. Very good. Did you?"
"I had a fabulous time."
"So did I."
"Did you do any – um – thinking?"
"Uh-huh. A lot."
"What about?"
"About us, and our marriage, and whether we should stay married or not. I spent a lot of my time thinking."
Doug squeezed Val's hand. "I missed you, Val."
Val sighed. "I missed you, too."
"I love you, Valerie."
"And I love you, Doug." She shook her head. "But that doesn't help us any. We knew that before we separated. What we have to decide is – are we going to stay married."
"Are we?"
"It depends."
"What on?"
"A lot of things. You, me -"
"I want to stay married to you. I always have, Val."
"I know. But there are other considerations."
"Freedom?"
"That's one of them. But it's not the only one. I had my freedom – and you had yours. I really thought that was what I wanted. Freedom. Oh, it was good for awhile, but… I don't know. Maybe freedom isn't enough."
Doug seemed thoughtful. "I know what you mean."
"What we need is both the structure of marriage, with all its responsibilities and benefits, and the freedom of being individuals – the freedom to be ourselves. That's what we need: structure and freedom."
"Sounds great. How do we find it?"
"I don't know. Maybe it doesn't exist. I don't have any of the answers I thought I would have." She stopped and thought for a moment. "Of course, there is one way. You suggested it yourself. Maybe it will work, and then, maybe it won't."
"I suggested it?" Doug asked.
"Before, when you suggested we should do this more often. Take separate vacations."
Doug shook his head. "I don't understand.
"Separate vacations," Val repeated. "Maybe we should take separate vacations… every year. Maybe we need a little freedom – a little separate, special time for ourselves, to be ourselves – whoever we may be. Maybe we need to take a little break from being married once in a while. A week or two alone to get back in touch with our feelings"
"You mean, we'll be married all year, and then, when the summer comes – we'll go our own way? Separate vacations. No questions asked."
"Sure. Why not?"
"Do you think it will work?" Doug asked.
"It might, if we try. If we try and make it, work. I'm willing to try. I want it to work."
"So do I. Very, very much."
"I hope it works."
"That's all we've got, you know."
"What?"
"Hope. That's all anybody ever has."
Val wrapped her arms tightly around Doug's chest, squeezing him with all her strength. She closed her eyes and rubbed her face up and down, smelling his sweat, feeling the soft dark hairs of his chest rubbing against her cheek.
"Doug, would you kiss me again?" she asked. "I think I want to make love again."
Doug kissed her, kissing her softly and tenderly, and he and Val made love again. And it was better than before. It was better than it had ever been in all their lives. They took that for a sign, and it gave them hope. Maybe it would work. Maybe.