When she took me she denied a part of herself. The part that craved adventure and danger. She chose the security of my arms at the sake of her own satisfaction.
We sought a change in our lives, breaking out of our routine and embracing something different for once. We thought two weeks away over Christmas would be enough. It wasn’t.
Because my wife needed adventure and excitement. She needed the edge of danger that I could never offer her, but he could.
That stranger in the bar, dark and handsome and intense. Looking at her and approaching her. Ignoring me and our bonds and our vows. Demanding everything from her, a price she willingly paid.
All while I watched.
Excerpt
It was of no surprise to me when Jessica told me we were leaving. It made perfect sense when I trailed along behind them and we walked through darkened alleys that were far more dangerous than anyplace we had been all night. When we walked into a building that was rundown and into an apartment that obviously belonged to him.
He had nice things, a good television and furniture. He had these things because he had taken these things from others, just like he was about to take from me.
I excused myself to the bathroom but I don’t think they even noticed me. They were standing close to each other when I left them, so close that I know that I should have said something but couldn’t bring myself to do it.
I knew what was happening, I was in the bathroom to splash water on my face and steel myself about what was to come. I know it was an inevitability, something long delayed but sure from the moment she agreed to be with me.
Jessica would never be satisfied with a man like me. She would always need more than I could offer her and I knew it. I could never be enough for her and if I tried to hold onto her she would only slip through my grasp.
Like trying to hold sand.
But I didn’t mind because the truth was that I wanted this as much as she did. I needed it as much as she did. This was what I wanted from her, what I fell in love with. What both of us fell in love with.
The look I gave when I found her in the arms of another man.
I had a part to play tonight, a script that was ethereal and unwritten and yet obvious and sure. I knew what I had to do and I knew that I had to go do it.
So when I walked back into that room and caught them I spoke the words I needed to say.
When I walked in and saw her in his arms and saw their lips pressed together I stopped dead and made my protest.
“What’s happening here?” I asked, uncertainty in my voice and a quaver that could have been taken for fear but was actually the thrill of excitement.
Excitement at the sight of his strong arms wrapped around her. At the sight of her half-naked form as he had already removed her dress. His bare chest pressed against her as I saw her black lingerie in the chill of the soft light of the room. She cast a look at me over her shoulder, a smolder in her eyes as she registered his attention and leaned into him in front of me.
“Don’t interrupt us,” he said, his words a firm order. His voice didn’t raise and he didn’t look my way, he didn’t look away from the beautiful woman in front of him.
“Yes baby,” she pleaded, “Please.”
Neither of them waited for an answer from me. They accepted my response as obvious because it was, and I watched frozen as he kissed her again.