Cheating for a Promotion

My name is Kevin Branson. My wife, Lois Aimsley, and I have been married for five years, together for eight, and we are opposites in almost every way. Day and night, fire and ice--pick a metaphor, it probably fits. We even have different last names because my wife refused to take my name when we got married.

Lois is a bright, articulate, outgoing extrovert who usually can talk her way out of any situation. She is extremely smart, driven, self-confident, and knows she is extremely good looking and has the body of a lingerie mode33l. She has long straight blonde hair that falls to her shoulders, framing her high cheek bones, light blue eyes, and mega-watt smile. She was a cheerleader, homecoming queen, and uber-popular all through her private high school and Ivy League college years. While Lois has many wonderful qualities, she can also be selfish, overly ambitious, and always believes that she is the smartest person in any room.

I am the dark one in our marriage. I have dark brown hair, a dark Mediterranean complexion, and dark brown eyes. I stand about 6 foot 3 inches tall, weigh 200 pounds, and have the toned body of a swimmer (because I was drawn to solitary sports). I have been called good looking by my former girlfriends, but I recognize that in terms of looks, Lois is definitely out of my league. I tend to be quiet, introverted and a loner. On the surface, I realize that I appear to be soft-spoken, easy-going, and even a little shy. Underneath, I am confident, I stick to my principles, and I hate liars and cheaters. I know that I can also brood, be stubborn, lose my temper quickly, and hold grudges. Despite all of that, women still seem to be drawn to me, even those as beautiful as Lois.

Even our families and upbringing were polar opposites. Lois was the only child of wealthy parents who came from old Southern money. She grew up attending private schools and vacationing in St. Moritz and the south of France. Her father was caught cheating and was divorced and gone long before I met Lois.

Because of that, Lois was raised by two strong but completely different female role models: her mother, Evelyn Aimsley, and Evelyn's twin sister, Maxine Aimsley. Evelyn is the quintessential Southern belle. Maxine was, for many years a free love hippy, earth mother type, but since her divorce has become a radical feminist. Evelyn and Maxine have always been close -closer than any sisters I know--and have lived together ever since their divorces.

Lois somehow turned out differently from both Evelyn and Maxine. Lois describes herself as a driven corporate executive. Her role models are now mostly men in leadership roles, but Lois still calls Evelyn and Maxine her "two moms."

In contrast, my upbringing was ordinary in every way. I grew up in a big family with two working parents in a small Midwestern town. Unlike Lois, I worked in factories and other blue-collar jobs all through high school and college until I started my own engineering consulting firm after grad school.

Lois and I met in college, and I guess opposites really do attract. She was a popular sorority party girl, and I was a loner grinding through an engineering degree. The first time I saw her, I knew she was the one. When we finally met at one of her sorority's charitable events, it took a little while for her to warm up to me, but we eventually connected, even though we approached life differently. Even though we ran in completely different social circles, to the surprise of everyone who knew the two of us, we stayed together through college, got engaged, and then married, even though the only thing we seemed to have in common was our love for each other.

Being the worrier that I am, I sometimes thought that our differences were really a sign of deep-seated incompatibility that Lois and I hid from each other and ourselves by selective blindness. Other times, I thought that our differences made me try harder to be a better person.

After five years of marriage, Lois worked in sales management at a small pharmaceutical research company. Her boss, the chairman of the board and son of the company's founder, is named Jock Hanson. I think Jock is a pompous jerk, but Lois admires him -- another one of our differences.

Lois is extremely dedicated to her career. She frequently travels out of town for business with her boss and wants more than anything to be the youngest CEO in her industry. I was not as ambitious, though I still ran my own engineering consulting firm and made enough money that Lois did not need to work. She chose to. I wanted to start a family, but Lois wanted to focus on her career. More ways we were opposites, I guess.

Chapter 2: Lois Announces Her Decision.

I knew Lois and I were different, but I did not realize how different we were until one night, two weeks before Lois was to travel out-of-state to attend a corporate retreat with her boss. I thought I knew her, but I did not realize how far she would go to get what she wanted. On this night, Lois gave me her full attention, pulling out every trick and putting a lot of extra effort into trying to please me in our bedroom.

Lois straddled me, slowly rolling her hips on my cock with the effortless, confident grace that she had, when she nodded to herself and leaned down and whispered in my ear, "Honey, do you remember how we met?"

"Sure, I do," I replied, caught off guard. "It was at your sorority's charity auction where I won a date with you. The first time I saw you, I knew you were the one."

"Yeah, you spent $1500 to buy my box lunch. You paid, like, ten times what any other lunch cost, didn't you?" Lois smiled proudly at me, her perfectly sized tits--not huge but totally mesmerizing me as she swayed back and forth above me. She pressed her hands on my chest with the control that usually made everything fade away.

"That's how popular you were -- and how badly I wanted to go out with you." I said, trying to focus on her words despite the slow, rhythmic rolling of her hips.

"I was the sorority president pursuing my MBA and you were this engineering nerd. But we hit it off, even though we were so different, didn't we?" Lois moaned, her voice catching slightly, as the warm press of her thighs tightened around my waist, her movements becoming more insistent.

"Yeah, that was a great first date." I sighed. "I was really impressed by your smarts, humor, and drive--and, honestly, by how hot you were."

"And I thought you were super-cute." Lois said with a soft laugh. "You were so respectful. You looked into my eyes, not just at my tits. You really listened to me. And you weren't intimidated by my looks like most of the guys I went out with.

"Yeah, you were so impressed, you made me wait two more months before you let me take you back to my apartment." I laughed, reaching up to caress the perfect shape, softness, and weight of Lois' gently swaying breasts, surprised by the tender moment we were sharing. It was so different from how Lois usually made love. This night she was not rushing into sex, was not insisting on her pleasure above all else.

"Hey, I knew you were different from all the other guys I dated. I just wanted to be sure. But when you finally got me back to your place, you really rocked my world." Lois softly sighed, leaning her soft, firm tits into my hands, knowing the effect they would have on me.

"That was a great night. I really had fun trying to keep up with you." I smiled at the memory, feeling the shift in her intensity as she began to bounce more urgently on my cock, snapping me right back into the moment.

"After that, we became exclusive and had lots of sex, didn't we? We surprised everyone we knew by staying together through undergrad and grad schools, didn't we?" Lois looked at me, her smile turning knowing, as if she knew the power she had over me at that moment, caused by the increasing urgency of her hips smacking wetly on mine.

"I remember it being a little more complicated than that, babe. As I recall, you were reluctant to commit. I think you said, 'Why change things when we were having fun,' wasn't that what you said?"

"Yes, but I came around, didn't I?" Lois said peering down at me over her beautiful mounds. "I promised you that I would never lie to you and would never sneak around behind your back. And I've kept that promise, haven't I?" She nodded encouragingly at me.

"As far as I know, babe." I reluctantly agreed as bad feelings started to              rise up inside me.

"I have kept that promise and I always will." Lois smiled again with the quiet confidence I was used to. "We got married and you promised to love, honor, and cherish me, didn't you?"

"I did make that promise, but you refused to put 'obey' in our wedding vows." I said, trying to keep up with her words while stroking my hands from the warm slopes of her breasts to the curves of her hips.

"I did refuse. After all, my aunt Maxine helped raise me and 'obey' did not sit well with me or my radical feminist aunt." Lois asserted as she increased the intensity of her hip movements. "Ever since we got hitched, we've had five wonderful years of marriage, haven't we? And you know that I want to have kids someday, but I just need to focus on my career for the next couple of years, right?"

"That's right, babe, but can we concentrate on the task at hand?" I panted, starting to lose myself as the head of my cock rubbed against the tight warm walls of her pussy pounding down on me.

Lois went on with her questions, talking over me as she sometimes did, as if she was not trying to fuck me into oblivion. My pleasure became overwhelming.

"And you've always supported my career, haven't you? You know I want to be the youngest CEO in the history of the company, right? If I decided that I needed to do something in the future, something that might be bad, to further my career, you'd support that too, wouldn't you? You'd forgive me for doing something you didn't like to get ahead at my job, right?

"Uhmm, sure. I guess I'd support you." I agreed, distracted by the feel of her wet warmth enveloping me over and over.

With a wavering cry that echoed throughout our bedroom, Lois' orgasm seemed to crash over her, leaving her completely undone. Her whole body tightened, shudders running through her as she clutched at my chest. When she finally looked down at me, there was a triumphant, breathless smile on her face -- as if something powerful had just broken loose inside her.

As Lois' release subsided, my own climax roared through me so powerfully that I could barely breathe. She clung to me, her breath hot against my shoulder, her whole body trembling as she collapsed on top of me, slick with sweat and struggling to catch her breath. For a moment, as the tremors faded through both of us, it felt like we were no longer opposites, but rather a single heartbeat.

When at last the moment ebbed, Lois was curled up under my arm, pressing her nipples against my side. Her head rested on my shoulder, her hair fanned around her like a soft golden halo. She seemed lost in thought, as if trying to hold onto the fading warmth between us, her fingers tracing slow, absent‑minded patterns across my chest. I could feel her mind working while she mapped out whatever she was about to say.

At last, she looked up at me with clear eyes and that confident, familiar smile, and in a low, intimate murmur said, "Honey, I need to tell you something."

Something about the way she said it immediately put me on edge. I raised my head from the pillow to look at her more clearly. She was watching me closely, her eyes searching mine, as if trying to read my reaction before she even revealed what she had to tell me.

"Is what you are going to tell me going to make me more happy or less happy?" I asked. a slow, uneasy pressure building in my chest.

She looked away and didn't answer right away. She then turned her eyes on mine, studying me carefully, as if trying to predict how I'd take whatever she was about to say, but determined to say it anyway.

Finally, she answered -- and she didn't try to soften it. "Less happy," she said. "Definitely less happy."

"So let me make sure I understand what's about to happen here," I said, with a tightness in my throat. "You are going to tell me something that will definitely make me less happy. Not ask me something. Not discuss something. No, you're going to TELL me something that I'm not going to like, right after you finished bouncing around so energetically on me. Looking back, it feels like you staged your whole performance just to cushion whatever you're about to say. Do I have that right so far, Lois?"

"Yeah, mostly," she said focusing on her fingers still stroking my chest. Then she looked up at me with those unreadable blue eyes. "But you're wrong about the rest of tonight. That wasn't a performance. I LOVE fucking you. It's one thing I've never had to fake. That part has always been real. I've never lied to you and I'm not going to start now. And I need you to believe that before I say the rest,"

"Stop fucking around, Lois, and just spit it out. Tell me whatever it is you want to say." I snapped, the words coming out harshly. "I can already tell that I am going to hate it."

"Ok. Ok," she said taking a deep breath. "You know I've got that two-week corporate retreat coming up?"

"Yes," I sighed. "You've only mentioned it a few hundred times."

"And you know that I am up for that big promotion, right? If I get the promotion, I'll be the CEO and will run the company, right? I'll be the youngest CEO in the pharmaceutical industry, won't I? And you know that my boss, Jock Hanson, is going to decide who will get that promotion?" She said building up steam.

"Yes. You haven't shut up about it for over a month now. Get to the point, Lois."

She took a long, steadying breath and let it out slowly. Then she pushed herself upright, purposely putting her perfectly shaped breasts on display to distract me. She was trying to compose herself before delivering something she knew would hurt. Her expression tightened -- the look of someone about to rip off a bandage she knew would take skin with it.

And then she said it.

"I've decided that at the retreat... if I think I need to, I'm going to sleep with Jock Hanson to secure the promotion."

There it was. That was what she had to tell me. After five years of marriage - After what I honestly thought had been a fairy tale romance, the woman I loved and trusted more than anyone in the world had just told me that she was willing to betray that trust and fuck her boss, just to get a promotion.

The seconds seemed to tick by for an eternity as I stared at her, trying to get my emotions under control and figure out what to say to this woman who had just pierced my heart.

"Well, aren't you going to say anything?" She asked softly, grimacing and biting her lower lip.

I took my own deep breath, suddenly feeling as if I was drowning in a tide of emotions that I could not escape. And then, as clearly and calmly as I could manage, I said "NO."

"No?" she said looking at me in confusion. "Do you mean, no, you're not going to say anything... or, no, you're...?"

"Listen to me!" I spoke to her sharply, my voice cracking under the weight of everything crashing through me. I was desperately trying to contain the fury and disbelief boiling up inside me. "No means no. It means I refuse to accept what you're telling me. No means I cannot -- and will not --agree with your decision to fuck some other man, especially when it involves you whoring yourself out with your douche-bag boss for a promotion. And no especially means I will not sit back and pretend this is something I can live with. Now, do you understand what the word NO means?"

Lois looked at me in shock. I had never spoken to her like that. How could she possibly think that this was okay?

"But...but you just promised that you'd support me and forgive me if I did something -questionable--for my career." Lois asserted, trying to re-take control of the conversation..

"What did you expect me to say while we were fucking? You knew I wasn't giving you a Hall Pass to go fuck some other guy."

I watched Lois change in real time -- the shock faded, her spine straightened, her expression hardened. I saw the defensiveness, the anger, and the decision to go on the offensive.

When she spoke again, her tone was completely different. Calm. Patronizing. As if she were explaining something so obvious to her that she couldn't believe I didn't grasp it.

She said, "You don't get to veto my decisions, Kevin. I am not asking you for permission. This is not up for discussion. I told you that I will never lie to you and that is why I am telling you now. I will decide what I need to do to get that promotion, not you. It is as simple as that. It is my body, my career, and my decision."

She stared back at me defiantly. I was shaking in anger, but I knew Lois -- swearing, yelling, or begging wouldn't change her mind. So, I forced myself to ask the only questions that mattered.

"Are you really willing to cross that line and sleep with your boss for a promotion?" I asked, my voice tight, "knowing it will hurt me, maybe destroy our love, our marriage, and everything we planned for the future? You will end us. Is your promotion worth it?"

Lois immediately got out of bed and stood over me with her hands on her hips. "Stop being so dramatic, Kevin." She said with a steely eye. "I haven't decided anything yet."

"Really, Lois? You stop playing games. Stop pretending." My entire body was shaking with anger. "You've already made up your mind, and you know it."

I leaned toward her, forcing the words out through clenched teeth, tapping her chest with my forefinger. "Answer my question. Is that promotion worth risking our marriage? If you do this, we are finished."

"Kevin," she said softly, reaching toward me as if she could smooth this over with a touch. I recoiled, unable to grasp the wall that had risen between us.

When she spoke again, it was in that tone she used whenever she was sure she was going to win an argument -- calm, confident, dismissive. "We are not getting divorced. This will not be the end of us. You're overreacting. I get it. You feel threatened. This has nothing to do with us. It is just sex. "

As Lois kept talking, I became more despondent. I felt myself withdrawing, more defensive, and absolutely unable to comprehend that this was happening. "Lois, it is bad enough that you are willing to sleep with another man, but the fact you would even consider sleeping with your boss for a promotion is almost worse - its horrifying. Who are you and what have you done with my wife?"

Lois said, "I'm still the same person I've always been."

"Are you sure?" I replied. "I feel like I don't know you anymore."

Lois again began explaining what was obvious to her. "You know that I've been working for this promotion for five years. Now I'm doing what I must do for my future - our future. You should be supporting me."

Lois kept talking at me, not to me -- her tone flat, certain, as if she were explaining a simple fact I was too emotional to grasp.