I should have said 'No,' right from the start. I should have said 'No,' a dozen times along the way. I've always been a sucker for a pretty woman with a sweet voice, and I said 'Yes.' One too many times I said 'Yes,' and all along it was leading to me standing with my knees shaking and my pulse racing and the cold sweat of fear threatening to break on my brow.

Certainly, I was safe for the moment, as long as she didn't see me, as long as she didn't make the connection. I watched her from across the room, dreading to see her face. It was bad enough thinking about the things she might believe about me. It was bad enough knowing the things she had done. And yet the least of my fears were coming true.

She was hideous.

Twice, she almost turned enough for me to see her face. Her nose was grotesquely long, and her jaw seemed to hang. The alabaster tones of her skin were marred with streaks as red as blood. The thought of kissing her made my stomach churn.

I had said 'Yes,' one too many times.

"Is that Julie?" a sweet voice asked from behind me, and I nearly jumped out of my skin. I turned quickly. The pretty woman I saw was nearly laughing at me. Unlike nearly everyone else around us, she was dressed in bright colors. "Wow, aren't you jumpy!" she laughed.

Getting control of myself, I said, "I'm pretty sure that's Julie over there." The woman I pointed at was dressed as Death, with the perfect shadow of a skull done in makeup on her face, a long black cloak, and of course, a large reaping blade.

The woman before me looked surprised. "Oh, I think you're right," she gasped. Turning back to the first woman, she said, "Then that must be Gretchen. Have you seen her up close? Her makeup is amazing, and I totally didn't recognize her."

The alleged Gretchen turned towards us as she talked with her friends, and I was able to breathe a sigh of double relief. First of all, I had to agree that it was Gretchen. Second, her makeup clearly marked her as a ghoul, so she wasn't the woman I was looking for. Her long, straight, dark hair had tricked me-- I was looking for Morticia Addams.

===

It had all started with a phone call. I shouldn't have answered.

When my wife and I had been actively swinging, she became close friends with several of the women we met. She had become very close with our friend Kay, and had even signed on to be a replacement god-mother to Kay's youngest daughter. When Kay called my cell phone, I had no choice but to answer.

She tried to start out with a cheerful tone, but she heard in my tone that I wasn't up for that. She shifted into apologies. She was sad that she hadn't called sooner, and sorry she hadn't tried harder to be there for me. I'd had this conversation too many times. I reminded her that she had a husband and a family. I reminded her that my grief needed isolation, not smothering. She sighed, and we let it go.

She finally got to the point of her call. There was a necklace that my wife had promised to give to Kay's daughter when she turned eighteen. With all that had happened, with the funeral and all, we had missed that birthday. Kay was hoping that I still had the necklace, and that I would still let her daughter have it. She was hoping I would deliver it. People were gathered for her daughter's nineteenth birthday, and she was hoping I would deliver the necklace right away.

I'm a sucker for a pretty woman with a sweet voice. I said, 'Yes.'

That next hour had been every bit as bad as I feared it would be. People still give me that look. It's a horrible thing to endure. It's okay to see their sympathy, their recognition of my loss and their own. But then the suspicion starts to pinch their eyes as they try to decide just how true the rumors are. That's the part I can't take-- knowing that people who used to be my friends might believe a single one of the rumors.

I smiled, gave Kay's daughter the necklace, and then fled as quickly as I could. I wasn't quick enough.

Our friend Mary caught me on the way to my car. She demanded a hug, and then gave me a kiss that wouldn't have gone over well in front of the vanilla people at the party.

"So how are you really doing?" she asked with a sympathetic smile. When I didn't answer fast enough, she added, "John, you need to get out more. Do you know what you need? You need to come to our Halloween party."

I should have said 'No.' "Your parties are for couples and single women only," I reminded her. "I no longer qualify."

She gave me a confident smile. She knew she had me. "I have the perfect date for you, so you have to come. She'll be dressed as Morticia, and I want you to be Frankenstein's monster. You have to make me a promise, though. Promise you won't leave until you kiss her."

I should have said 'No.'

===

The woman beside me started to giggle. I turned to look, and she was laughing at me.

"Tell me Mary didn't set this up," she laughed. "You and I are the only ones not dressed as monsters, and we're practically dressed as a couple!"

It took me a moment, and then I smiled with her. I had planned on being incognito as I checked out my blind date, but I still intended to make Mary happy by wearing the Frankenstein costume. I wasn't going to put on the mask or the platform boots until I had spied on my date. I was wearing some football style shoulder pads under an over-sized black t-shirt to give myself some bulk.

The woman in front of me was wearing a bright yellow shirt with black stripes. She had whistle on a lanyard around her neck, and in the back pocket of her skin-tight shorts, she had a set of yellow, red and black paddles. The front of her shirt was ripped down the middle, showing flesh most of the way to her navel. Her lacy black bra nicely displayed her breasts.

Our sports didn't match, but it was sure looked like I was a ball player and she was a sexy referee. Everyone else at the party was dressed as monsters. I had to laugh with her.

Although it was obvious, it took me until that moment to realize that absolutely everyone else at the party had dressed as monsters. I quickly scanned the crowd, looking to see if the monsters would save me from the fear that still existed just out of sight.

Mary had planned well, and there was no salvation in sight. I had hoped to see another Frankenstein, but I was going to be the only one there. I still had to meet the dreaded Morticia.

===

I was already worried about my blind date when my phone rang. I had just opened the package from Mary that contained the elaborate costume she wanted me to wear, and I wasn't sure that I was willing to wear it to the blind date, even if it was awesome.

I saw it was Brent calling, and I struggled to decide if I should answer or not. He is a well known trouble maker, and anything he had to say would bother me. I shouldn't have answered.

"Hey brother, how ya doin'," he called out. He wasn't my brother, and his over-blown chumminess always annoyed me. I had a pretty good idea why he had called, and his tone all but confirmed my suspicion.

"Brent. It's been a while," I answered. "What's up?"

"Hey, my friend, I heard Mary has set you up on a date," he boasted. "I just wanted to make sure you knew who Morticia is, just so you don't get caught off guard."

"I'm sure Mary knows what she's doing," I answered. There was no way I was going to take his bait.

"It's Holly Berry, the woman who sounds famous," he said incredulously. "Mary has to be crazy to put you two together!".

"I know I can trust Mary," I said solidly, and then I all but hung up on him.

I didn't trust Mary at all.

My lack of trust was well placed. It didn't take long to go outside our group of swinger friends and find a friend of a friend who knew Holly's story.

For more than a year, I had been enduring horrible rumors being spread about me. This woman, Holly, had actually done worse things than I had been accused of, and she had gotten away with it.

The rumors around me were the product of pointless gossip. It was bad enough for me that my wife had died quickly. She had waited too long to see a doctor when she had an extended bout of not feeling well, but it was already too late. It seemed like a matter of days that she went from not feeling well, to being unable to catch her breath, to dying of lung cancer. She had never smoked a day in her life, and there were no answers to the questions I was too devastated to ask.

The first rumor was that I had somehow poisoned her. My critics felt that was the only explanation for her quick death.

Then came the rumors about my obvious motive. It was just happenstance that I had changed jobs a couple of months before her illness and death. My new job had pretty good benefits, but life insurance wasn't one of them. I found a pretty good deal on life insurance for me. It was even cheaper if I gave my wife equal coverage. My critics never cared about those facts. They only cared that I had bought really good life insurance for my wife just months before she died.

The things that the woman, Holly, had done were far worse. And she got away with them.

Her husband was a truck driver. He died in a wreck when the brakes on his truck failed while driving through the mountains.

She was a highly skilled amateur mechanic, and it would have been easy for her to sabotage the brakes in an undetectable way.

Somehow, she managed to scam the bank, and her mortgage was paid off early.

She may not have managed that as cleanly as she would have liked. The manager of her small town bank mysteriously committed suicide. For some reason, he intentionally destroyed a bunch of records first, and even the feds were having a hard time figuring out what happened. He lived only two miles from that woman. It was obvious there was a connection, but she was never implicated.

I had to trust Mary, but the worry ate at me every day leading up to the party.

===

The pretty referee gave me a worried look.

"Are you okay?" she asked. She was all smiles again as she said, "I don't know that I've ever met a man who was as nervous about monsters as you are."

Suddenly, she took a deep breath to lift and display her breasts, and she stepped in close to smile up at me as she placed her hand on my chest.

"When I get nervous, I tend to laugh and talk too much," she confided with a big smile. She forced herself not to laugh as she added, "I don't know if you can tell, but I'm feeling a bit nervous myself. I don't suppose you'd be willing to help me out, would you?"

She was too pretty, and her voice was too sweet. "What can I do to help?" I gallantly asked.

She glanced at my name tag.

"Well, Tom, if Carol won't mind..." she started. It took me a moment to realize she meant me and my wife.  Our name tags had our spouse's name written under our own.

"She won't mind at all," I promised.

She almost frowned.

"Tom, has Carol ever asked you to take one for the team?" she wondered.

It's amazing how such a simple question can create so many waves of emotions. At first, I almost smiled, because the fictitious Carol had never asked for anything. Sadly, my wife had pushed the limits on our rules a couple of times in asking me to play with someone I wasn't attracted to. I had to carefully school my face to keep the darkness of loss from showing, and then I had to fight not to frown as I wondered for the thousandth time how unattractive Morticia/Holly was.

I glanced at the woman's name tag as I struggled to answer.

"Well, Kathy, I guess she has," I managed. "And if you're that worried about something Mark has asked you to do, maybe I should have a talk with him."

She glanced at her own name tag before she answered.

"I see that you do understand," she said. She almost frowned. "Maybe if Mark were here, I wouldn't be in this mess." Out of nowhere, the winning smile returned on her face. "You promised to help me with my problem," she reminded me. "Let me tell you how you're going to help me."

"I sort of lost a bet, you see," she said in a conspiratorial tone. At the same time, her hand on my chest slid up and her thumb caressed my neck. Between her flaunted breasts and her casual touch, I was surprised to feel myself getting aroused.

"I don't really have to 'take one for the team' to make good on my debt," she said in a breathy voice, "but I'm too horny for my own good, and as long as the guy isn't a complete slug, if he makes a pass at me, I'd probably do anything."

I wasn't able to speak as she leaned in to press her nose against my neck. She took in my scent as her nose slid up my jaw. Her eyes were closed when she finally pulled away. Her lips were barely not touching mine. She smiled as her eyes slowly opened.

"You'll help me out, won't you?" she teased. "We don't have much time, because I have to meet him soon, but if you escorted me into that room over there, we could have a quick little tryst to help me take the edge off. If you help me take with that, I can go meet him, settle the debt, and then we could pick up where we left off."

I was going to be late for the rendezvous that Mary had arranged, but this woman was beautiful, her voice was sweet, and there was no chance I would tell her 'No.'

===

When things are rough, you learn who your friends are. I wish I had friends who could say 'No.'

The friend who had the friend that knew all about Holly dropped a bombshell in my lap. Rather than leave me oblivious, he called me up to let me know that Holly was asking about me. I managed not to say mean things about the snooping bitch, but I asked him what he had said.

He was very vague about his answers. He said that he had heard what his friend had told me about Holly, and he felt it was only fair that she should get truthful answers about me. He wouldn't tell me what the questions had been, and he wouldn't tell me which truth he had given in return. Some friend he was.

I could only imagine that Holly knew every rumor about me. I spent the next two days being angry that she knew, and then being hopeful that she had been told the truth. I nearly called Mary a dozen times to cancel.

In the end, I had three great fears, and I knew I would have to face them, or die. First, there were the rumors about me. I needed to let her hear the truth. Second, there were the things she had done. There had to be a good reason she did them, or else Mary wouldn't have pushed to introduce us.

The last fear was the stupidest one of all. As near as I could tell, Holly must have looked hideous. It's not that I think I'm good looking or that I deserve someone who is good looking. I just know that I could never spend time with someone who wasn't at least a little bit attractive. I'll admit that it's a shallow view-point, but I am who I am.

She had to be hideous. She is the first person I have ever potentially known that had absolutely no pictures online. I found a grainy team picture from her high school yearbook, but that was it. A million years ago, she had short red hair. Only someone who was tragically ugly would work so hard to not be in pictures.

I suppose there was one other option. I had gotten tired of people recognizing me and pointing their fingers, so I had pretty well scrubbed my face from all social media. From the description I had heard of her actions, she seemed more likely to revel in the attention, so I doubted she had done that. I could only imagine how ugly she really was.

I fretted myself sick, and I almost called Mary a dozen times. I really wish I could learn to say 'No'.

===

Kathy pulled me along into a small side-room. When my wife and I had attended swinger parties at this house in the past, we had always laughed at people who found the need to meet in that room. It was a long narrow utility room with the laundry at the back. People seemed to enjoy quick trysts using the sturdy table.

With an eager smile, she said, "Quick and dirty, stud, make me cum!"

She used one hand on my neck to pull me into an aggressive kiss while her other hand caught mine and pushed it into the front of her shorts. I have no idea how she managed it, but they were already unbuttoned. Our momentum trapped her body between mine and the table, and I was able to return her kiss, curl my fingers inside her, and still get a hand inside her shirt to squeeze her breast.

We both gasped, her in pleasure, me in surprise. I couldn't believe how wet she already was. She moaned in need as her insides flooded my hand with more heat. I tried to get my other hand into her bra, but it was too tight, so I pinched her nipple instead. My lower hand felt how quickly she was racing towards an orgasm.

She used her hand behind my neck to cling to me as she continued to aggressively kiss me. Her other hand made a skillful tug to open the front of my pants, and then she pushed it inside to grab my hardness. We both groaned in need as she stroked my length.

Suddenly she pushed me away. "Shit, shit, shit," she gasped, and I started to wonder what I had done wrong. Her eyes were smoldering as she demanded, "Please! Inside! I need you!"

Without waiting for an answer, she quickly turned and pushed her shorts down passed her knees. As she kicked them away, she bent over the table and arched her ass up to display her need.

My pants hit the floor at almost the same time her shorts did. I wasted no time as I pressed forward and speared into her. My hands race up her back, under her shirt, to push her shoulders down. They paused for a fraction of a second to unhook her bra. As I started thrusting into her, both hands slid under her body to catch her breasts. We both were grunting our need as I arched down to kiss her neck and shoulders.

She pushed her head up off the table and tried to turn to kiss me, and then she scared the crap out of me when she gasped, "Stop, stop, stop."

I'm sure my eyes were wide with worry when I pushed away from her. She turned quickly, but then she almost laughed at my fear as she gently reached out for me.

"Kiss me," she softly ordered. "Fill me," she demanded.

Something had palpably changed between us as I lifted her ass onto the table and pressed my cock back inside her. There was dangerously more passion than lust in her eyes as she pulled me into an intensely gentle kiss. She used her inside muscles to milk my cock as I slowly stroked into her. As slowly as we were moving, I could feel that she was racing towards an orgasm as quickly as I was.

She broke the kiss and pushed my face to her breast. The moment my teeth and lips caught her nipple, her orgasm exploded, and mine followed right on its heels. She let our bodies press and pulse together several times before she pulled me back up to kiss me again. We held each other as our orgasms ran their course.

Sooner than I was ready for, she pushed back with an abashed smile.

"Can I cause trouble?" she teased softly.

I gently caressed her face. "You are trouble personified," I answered. She smiled, and then her eyes flared.

"Then there's one more thing I need to know first," she teased, and then she nearly laughed at my puzzled look.

Without waiting for an answer, she almost roughly pushed me away. We both gasped because my cock we still half-hard inside of her, and we both felt an electric shock of pleasure as I popped out. She gave me the naughtiest smile ever as she continued to push me away, and then she slid off the table and dropped to her knees in front of me.

Suddenly, I couldn't breathe as she sucked my cock into her mouth. She moaned in pleasure as she milked our flavors from my flesh. She didn't stop until she was sure all the flavors had been licked clean. The emotional lust was even brighter in her eyes as she swallowed, and then stood up to kiss me.

"And...?" I teased, begging to know what her tease had been about.

"And... We better get dressed," she laughed. She gave me another quick kiss and then pushed away to reach for her discarded shorts. "I don't want this to end just yet, but I know I can't lust someone unless I like their flavor," she explained, "and if I say out loud what I was thinking, we're probably done. And then I also made a promise that I should go take care of, and if I keep my mouth shut, maybe we can go find a bed so I can show you what real lust is."

I still had no idea what she was thinking, but I was torn. I, too, had made a promise, and I was willing to face Mary's wrath to stay with this woman. On the other hand, there is a rule in swinging that I felt I was very close to breaking.

Something had happened when she had turned around and begged me to fill her. Maybe it was the look in her eyes. Maybe it was the way we had kissed. Maybe it was the year of loss and loneliness that I was ready to be done with.

I was ready to fall in love with this woman. When it comes to swinging, thoughts like that lead down a short path to heartache and insanity. Somehow, I needed to back away. Any other action would be a mistake.

We gave each other a lustful once-over look to make sure our clothes were put back together. I should have just nodded. I should have just let her walk away.

"You still have that smile," I teased. Her smile grew, even as she blushed.

She stepped close to me, and I swear her hand was trembling as she brushed it against my chest.

"Your wife is going to ban us from ever meeting again," she decided. Her smile turned serious as she asked, "Do you believe in love at first fuck?"

I was shocked speechless. Those are exactly the kinds of words that will bring a swinging experience crashing to a halt. Her husband would kill me. I started to think, 'My wife would...', but my brain locked up. I was speechless.

And then a sweet female voice made it worse.

Mary popped her head into the room and said, "Oh, there you two are!" Her smile turned to a scowl, and she said, "John, where is the rest of your Frankenstein, and Holly, that doesn't look like Morticia at all!" The scowl was gone as quickly as it had appeared, and with a big smile she added, "You two both promised a kiss, but I really hope you get to know each other as well. I'll be back to check up on you later."

Just like that, she was gone.

As I turned to Holly, my heart stopped. Every fear I'd had came blasting into my mind, and one look at her face was enough for me to see them all coming true.

Her face was contorted to a hideous mask of fear and disbelief. The words, "You can't possibly be..." were coming out of her mouth, and my brain accelerated into overdrive.

It was all there, in her eyes. The two-time murdering, money pandering succubus was judging me, and my new-found love for her didn't matter. I could see in her eyes that she saw me as a wife-poisoning, insurance fraud taking bastard. She had even lied about her name, just so she could spy on me to see if the rumors were founded in truth. Every last one of my fears had come true.

"... believe all those rumors!" she finished, and my mind went blank and froze.

Time froze. A fleeting thought flashed by, but I couldn't catch it. We stared at each other. I still couldn't think.

"What?" I finally managed to blurt out.

She stared at me. Her head twitched from side to side in quick negation. She almost said something, but stopped. "My husband," she managed to say.

"What?" I repeated, because I still couldn't jump-start my brain.

She blinked at me twice, and her eyes narrowed. "Only a fool would think I had anything to do with his death," she stated. "He was driving a company vehicle. They would never have let an unlicensed mechanic work on it." She gave me a hard look.

I still couldn't think, but I heard words coming out of my mouth. "Only a fool would believe that a highly respected doctor would mistake any sort of poisoning for lung cancer."

Her eyes widened in surprise. I think mine did too.  Her look quickly changed to sadness.  "I don't suppose you'll ever forgive me for believing those lies, will you," she stated.

I gave her a hopeful look. "Consider it done," I offered. "Will you forgive me for believing the lies about you?"

"Unconditionally," she answered with a hopeful smile. She bit her lips for a moment and tried to put a serious mask on. "Hello, John, my name is Holly," she offered. "Mary asked me to get to know you, and then to kiss you if I liked what I saw. Now that we've gotten to know each other, I think I'd like that kiss."

She was a beautiful woman with a sweet voice. I didn't have to say 'Yes'. I reached out to caress her cheek and neck, and then let my lips answer for me.

When the kiss ended, she followed up with a hug, nestling her chin in against my chest. It felt like her eyes were closed, although I am certain that mine were. It felt too good just to hold her.

She took a deep breath before she pushed away, and her words made me start to worry that I was misreading her feelings for me.

"So," she said, "I promised Mary I wouldn't leave until after I had kissed you. I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to leave now."

"I was hoping..." I started to say, but the words caught in my throat. She gave me an encouraging look, and I was able to say, "I was hoping you would stay, and that we would have some fun."

She smiled.

"There were a lot of things in swinging that I enjoyed doing with my husband, and I think I'm going to enjoy doing them with you," she admitted. Her smile became coy. "Perhaps there's a different reason that I'm feeling impulsive, but right now I'm believing in love at first forgiveness. I'm leaving, and the only thing I need to know is whether we're going to your place or mine."

There was only one acceptable answer. "Yes."