Book Club

Author's Note:This is written for the Pink Orchid author's challenge; to write stories of female agency and women who make sense on their own terms.

While this is a stand-alone story, it is the 8th in my Book Club series referencing things which occurred in the others.

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Part One

Prologue - Allison

The last two hours were rather exciting, just raw sex with him pounding into me in every position. It was different and rough, but it didn't hurt. He was certainly big enough and energetic; I'll grant him that. So, I briefly entertained the idea of spending the night to do it again in the morning. But my date's overbearing comments just before falling asleep made the decision for me.

As he slept, I carefully crawled out of bed, retrieved my cellphone, and quietly entered the bathroom.'Out in 15,'I typed and pressed send. Now I had about fifteen or twenty minutes before I would be expected to send another text. Setting the phone on the sink countertop, I stepped into the shower.

Water cascaded over me, removing the musky smell of his sweat as my hands slid the washcloth over every inch of skin. Spreading myself open I aimed the handheld show spray up, reaching two fingers in to rinse everything away. I know I'm a little obsessed with taking care to clean and remove all traces of my evening fun. I do it even after sex at home as soon as practical to feel fresh and ready for more. When finally cleaned and dry, I felt like my old self, ready to face the world with the thorough fucking an hour earlier now just a pleasant memory.

Stepping out of the bathroom, my latest lover still appeared to be asleep, his thick member lying limp across his hip. It was bigger than most, and not as easily deflated.

Glancing at the bedroom clock, I saw it was after midnight. I could still be home by the time this hotel's nightclub closed, where I'd probably find my husband already asleep.

The towel fell to the floor as I picked up my cocktail dress, pulling it over my head and down, tucking the 'girls' into position in the front. Quickly stuffing my bra and panties into my large purse, I picked up my stiletto heels by the straps, holding them dangling in my left hand as I turned to the door. Then I heard him.

"Where are you going?" he asked, sounding a little annoyed.

I paused with one hand on the door handle and looked back at him, shaking my head. "I told you; it's time for me to head home to my husband."

"He'll probably call you a slut and kick your ass out," he said with that same arrogance which turned me off earlier. "And if he doesn't kick you out, you'll be thinking about how much you want this again!" as he pointed at his long, flaccid cock.

I chuckled a little before saying, "You're not that special, stud, just better than average. You're merely the latest piece to play our game."

"Game? Do you do this every weekend, slut?" he asked, his earlier sophisticated façade disappearing, now revealing his essential character, obnoxious and insulting. The type of man who thinks with a brain that could barely fill the head of his penis.

"Slut? I prefer my husband's term 'Vixen', but whatever," I replied with a shrug. "Our marriage is like a symphony that's still playing. This is an interlude, maybe just once every month or two, a simple dramatic pause in our longer composition. It's something we write into our music together."

"You're not making any sense," he said showing that my attempt to teach him a little culture was wasted.

"This vixen goes out when we're bored to satisfy my curiosity. And I like to see my stag going out with other women. You're all reminders that we have the best waiting for us at home."

"You'll be back for more," he said.

"Not with you," I said. "You're not my first fling and I haven't gone back to any of the others. It takes a special kind of stupid to let a minor blip like one of these evenings, just a few hours of fun to threaten the longer work of a marriage. Sorry, hun. You might be the best for some, but not for me."

I turned to open the hotel room door, thinking'Tonight, it would have been better if he wasn't such an arrogant ass. He was better than most, just not as good as my real love at home. ... I want it ALL, and I know I've still got it with the love I married. That's what these one-night stands are really about; making sure we still love each other more than anyone else!'

Quickly stepping out barefoot into the hallway, I closed the door on my latest temptation, leaving yet another one behind, ... and this time, possibly for the last time.

As the elevator doors closed, I pulled out my cellphone and typed,'Out, see you at home,'then pressed send. It's like having a girlfriend along to watch my drink in a bar or hiring a bodyguard when walking in a bad part of town. I may be confident, but I'm not stupid. I won't become a victim by ignoring the reality that a girl could vanish forever when going to a hotel room with a stranger.

Intro - Lori

"I've booked a week at a resort in Antigua for us to renew our vows," Allen said, answering the counselor's last question.

"Will your kids all be there?" she asked.

"No," my husband replied. "It will just be the two of us due to conflicts between their work schedules."

"If we can't have them all there," I added, "we've decided that we just won't invite any of them. Otherwise, we'd have to pick favorites to work around."

"As long as you both made the choice and agree," the counselor said, "that's what's important in a marriage," and she paused. "Now for the hard part," and I steeled myself for the uncomfortable feelings with what was coming next.

It's not that I'm a prude! I was just brought up differently. My parents NEVER talked about sex. Now my husband and I are in a marriage counseling session, where the counselor is expecting me to talk to my husband about it right in front of her!

I mean REALLY! When it comes to discussions of sex, some of our Book Club discussions can get rather risqué, and I'll join in by giving my opinions. But there are limits! There was one time when a book mentioned sex, and one of the ladies blurted out; "What kind of woman would ever swallow or do anal?"

Well, yeah, I've done both. Using my mouth to play with him turns me on too, with a feeling of control as I edge him until he begs me to finish the job. And when I learned of my husband's affair, I felt so humiliated that a week later I was in a room with Allison's friend, Tony. He offered to help me in any way I wanted. And I did that dirtiest deed for the first time ever with him as part of my revenge for my husband's cheating. It felt so naughty and exciting, it's now an occasional itch I ask Allen to scratch with me.

But what self-respecting woman admits to others that she sucks and swallows, or takes it in her back side?

After I sent Allen the cellphone videos of me and Tony, he was so angry that in our first counselling sessions he described what he saw in those movies. Although I have no secrets to hide here anymore, I still feel embarrassed discussing things like that in front of the counselor.

##

Our marriage blew up that Saturday morning after my fling. For over two months we slept in different rooms and barely spoke to each other outside of the counseling sessions. In those sessions, the counselor forced us to sit beside each other and listen quietly as the other described their feelings.

Allen had to listen as I vented my anger at his betrayal with his year-long affair. He wasn't allowed to interrupt as I explained how our neighbors were ostracizing me when spreading the rumors that my husband had a mistress!"

He got his turn to vent over how my one evening with another man would impact both of us. He claimed it wasn't about his manhood, but that if anyone found out, our warehouse workers and customers would disrespect him, slowing down at work or ending contracts in their macho world. But I knew otherwise. I knew my husband's macho image as a 'Real Man' couldn't take the insult of being called a cuckold!

Our first few weekly confrontations in counseling almost turned into shouting matches with raised voices over who betrayed who the most.

When my husband saw my cellphone videos of another man penetrating me, Allen worried his friends and workers would use that insulting label on him.

It's not that I planned to blackmail him by making those videos of Tony doing me. But Allen's affair robbed me of my respect in my social circles, and I no longer had any reputation to protect among MY friends. I wanted him to SEE the consequences of what he drove me to do. Then I merely explained how those videos could remain OUR little secret if he helped restore my dignity in the neighborhood! Otherwise, I had no reason to care who else might see me having fun with a guy from a bar. I gave my husband a choice.

My husband's "image" as the man-of-the-house was so important to him, he dumped his girlfriend, agreeing to never cheat on me again! And with his very public apology in front of my so-called "friends" at a neighborhood happy hour, I regained my self-respect and my place among our social circles.

Now that we're reconciling, I feel like a new woman, ready to learn, with a feeling of freedom to explore so much more!

Chapter One -- Book Club

There were a dozen of us sitting in Linda's living room this Saturday morning. We have the usual regulars like Sandra, Stacy, Allison, Wendy, Julie, and Lisa, along with a few others who only came every few months due to schedules conflicting with other family activities. Mothers have a tough time getting away like this for a few hours when we all had young kids to take to soccer games or other activities on the weekends. But for those of us whose kids had already grown into their teens, or were older and out of the house, we found these book club gatherings and other "Ladies Nights" for card games to fill the empty nest blues.

Most of us on this Saturday morning Book Club gathering were dressed in our casual "soccer mom" outfits, with some even coming from yoga class still wearing yoga tights. There were a few frumpier ones in baggy sweatpants or loose dresses to obscure the extra pounds.

My best friend, Allison, wore black leggings and a red sweater today, with her shoulder-length brown hair hanging loose, nothing special. Admittedly, neither of us were raving beauties who men drool over. We're more of the 'plain Janes' they easily ignore, unless we put the effort into make-up, hair styling, and the right clothes. Then she and I can really turn some heads. But the years of raising kids leave us with habits of dressing quickly and usually with minimal effort.

Today, my choice was skinny jeans, a relatively low-cut blue blouse, and running shoes, with my long, dirty blonde hair held back by an elastic band. As I said, something easily pulled on and nothing special.

Sandra, the one who organized most of these community events, chose to sit in the single overstuffed recliner in Linda's living room, with the rest of us sharing the couch or in smaller folding chairs. She always seemed to give the impression of a queen holding court. She was elegantly dressed in some new designer outfit, and no one could recall ever seeing her in the same one a second time.

Linda had the customary coffee and tea ready and laid out an assortment of breakfast pastries and fruit. And after we all settled down, we began by first giving our opinion of the book. When we'd run out of steam and the conversation dies down, the hostess would always have some standard questions to ask to keep it going.

Since Linda was hosting, she chose the book at last month's gathering, challenging us all to read it before today's discussion. We would often select something from a "Best Seller's" list, but it wasn't a requirement. She could select anything which caught her fancy. This time the story included one brief scene of the main characters watching porn and using sex toys during a make out session.

Sandra, the queen bitch of the neighborhood, the one who encouraged the rumors suggesting I knew and approved of my husband's cheating, quickly proclaimed: "Porn is disgusting! It's degrading for any woman to be used as a sexual object for men's pleasure!"

"That's a rather common opinion, Sandra," Linda declared, immediately bringing the 'queen' back to our commoner world. "But what about women who choose to dress provocatively or pose nude? What about women who LIKE rough sex, or those who want to be a sex star posting their own videos online? If the woman is making the choice, she's demonstrating her sexual agency. Would you act like a misogynist and call her a slut, because her choice is something YOU don't like?"

"There was a woman a few years ago," Julie interjected, "who ran for a political office. Someone found videos of her having sex with her husband that she posted online in an 'OnlyFans' account. Was she degrading herself for men's pleasure? Or was she exploiting men's weakness to pay her for those videos? Do we deprive her of her agency by calling her choices disgusting?"

"Well, yea-ah!" Lisa said. "Choosing to become a politician instead of a porn star shows an obvious lack of moral character," and we all laughed.

"I chose this book for our discussion," Linda said, bringing us back to the topic, "because it showed two women having fun, and that sex videos are not all for male dominant fantasies. There are many sexually explicit stories and videos which are artfully erotic that women can enjoy." Looking at the rest of us sitting in her living room, Linda asked "Who read the book or saw the movie"'Babysitting the Baumgartner's'"by"Selena Kitt"? Now that's women's erotica! The whole story was about a girl learning to enjoy sex."

"I read that!" Wendy admitted with a hint of excitement. "The story of the older couple seducing the nineteen-year-old babysitter had some hot scenes. And I think the husband was like a third wheel in it. It was mostly about the wife with the younger woman. But do men ever find it erotic watching two women having sex together?"

"My husband listened to some of the audio book with me," Linda said. "He was interested in the sex scenes, so he bought a copy of the movie. He particularly liked the scene of the wife shaving the young woman and using a toy on her. I just thought the male actor was poorly cast and he didn't look like a town doctor."

"I don't see why two women would do anything like that," Sandra said again passing her judgement.

"Don't be so rigid, Sandra," Julie replied. "I can see how some people get numb to sex in a long marriage. Sometimes they might look for something different to experience the newness of it. Honestly, how many of you are still making out with your husbands as often as you did when you first married?"

"None of us are having sex anymore," Sandra said. "After twenty or thirty years of marriage and menopause, there's nothing fun about it."

Allison piped in with "You can't speak for all of us, Sandra. I still have an energetic sex life with my husband. I agree that a guy would be degrading his wife if he makes a video of her and posts it online without her permission. But Eric and I watch videos obviously made using paid actors and actresses. They're putting on a show."

"You watch porn?" Sandra asked, sounding surprised.

"Not all erotic videos are bad," Allison answered. "And as far as two women together, it's like Julie said, some women might try it for a new excitement. Really, Sandra, if you're bored with sex with your husband, maybe you're secretly yearning for a good woman."

The giggles among the others made Sandra turn red. I knew Allison aimed that barb at her knowing Sandra wouldn't respond. Her husband must have told her we'd seen him with his sugar baby in a lingerie store, and Sandra didn't want to publicly admit that her husband was cheating on her.

Linda added "My husband has a Virtual Reality headset for some games he plays, and he once asked me to try watching a VR video. When I put on the goggles and started a file he downloaded for me, I saw a gorgeous, naked woman crawling toward me. The view was from a woman's POV with another woman playing with me."

Allison's eyes went up in surprise with an interesting look on her face, and I wondered what was on her mind. Then I realized I was biting my bottom lip as I looked at her with a feeling of butterflies in my stomach.

Allison was the one and only true friend who stood by me when the others revealed they knew my husband was cheating. She was there for me and introduced me to Tony, a great young lover for my revenge sex. Without her, I would have wallowed in despair alone, growing to hate my husband beyond repair. She's special to me. And except for our one passionate kiss in the lingerie store, I don't know how else to thank her for being ... What?

I didn't know what I was feeling in my stomach, just something different now whenever I look at her.

##

With the Book Club discussions winding down around noon, we all pitched in to help with some clean-up, then left to go home. Once outside Linda's house I stopped Allison as we were walking to our cars. We were both so busy lately, it had been weeks since I spent time with my best friend. With mine and Allen's marital problems, I didn't have as much time to socialize and relax. He was trying to make up for his lack of attention by spending more time in the evenings and weekends with me.

"Things are calming in my life now," I said when it was just the two of us near our cars. "I didn't plan to be here this morning. But Allen was called in to the warehouse at the last minute due to an accident at the loading dock. I'll buy lunch so we might catch up, if you can spare an hour," I suggested. I again had my bottom lip between my teeth anxiously awaiting her answer.

"Do you know how cute you look biting your lip that way?" Allison said with a smile. "You've been doing that every time I've seen you lately. I can meet you at the café in about ten minutes."

Chapter Two -- Lunch Date

We often rode together for the Book Clubs or card games when they were two or three miles from our houses. However, my last-minute decision this morning when Allen was called away had us driving separately.

We both found parking spaces beside the café after the very short drive from Linda's, and we walked in together. Ordering our coffees and sandwiches, we found a small table out of the way and sat together.

"How's counseling going?" Allison asked, quickly addressing the elephant in the room with my marital problem.

"Good," I said. "Allen seems sincere in regretting his affair, wanting us to try getting back to the way things were between us. We've booked a week at a Caribbean resort to renew our marriage vows."

"That sounds promising," she said. "So, you've both decided against divorce?"

"We've all heard horror stories from other divorcees of their tensions with the Ex at family gatherings," I reminded her. "Even Allen knows some divorced fathers who have lost contact with their kids. Birthday parties and holiday get togethers wouldn't be the same with our kids and grandkids if Allen and I split. So, we both want to get through it."

"Are you two back to your usual sex life like before?" Allison asked.

"Getting intimate like that after the hurt was the hardest part," I replied. "Our sex seems different now, but it's getting better."

"What about you?" I added. "Are you and Eric okay? When you introduced me to Tony, you said you two had some intimate time together. You called it yours and Eric's 'Intermission Game'. How often have you done that?"