Friday 30th March 2018

As I took in the words I’d just heard, I don’t know what I’d have done if Gemma hadn’t been there right by my side. To support me and help me work through what I’d just heard.

It’s one thing to suspect something. It’s totally another when you heard it said out loud, in unequivocal and plain English. I’d known that Jill had strong feelings for Chris from the many conversations we’d had over the previous months about their relationship, and how they were growing closer. We’d talked about this several times, just as we’d also talked about my growing closeness to Gemma.

But all along I’d avoided thinking about the ‘L’ word. Whether things had gone so far with Chris that Jill actually loved Chris. Whenever Jill and I had discussed things, we’d never used the ‘L’ word. Of course, sometimes I wondered. But generally, I was too frightened to dwell on it and too afraid to ask Jill the question outright.

But now there was no doubt. Jill had clearly told Chris that she loved him. And that also was afflicted by the giddy, excited and intense version of the same condition – she was ‘in love’ with him. And that she couldn’t imagine life without him. And this trilogy of things Jill had said terrified me.

Whereas before their growing closeness had aroused and excited me (paragliding with a safety chute), this was totally different. This was skydiving with only a handkerchief for a chute. As Jill’s words repeated again and again in my mind, it felt like I was teetering on the edge of a cliff. My arms desperately windmilling around to stop me from going over the edge. To stop me losing my wife in a stupid game that we should never have started.

As Jill’s words and what they might mean sank in, I felt like there was a huge pressure on my chest. It was like I couldn’t breathe. I looked across at Gemma and saw nothing but love and empathy in her eyes. I’d just heard my wife of twenty-three years tell another man that she loved him, that she was in love with him and that she couldn’t imagine life without him. In her own words, that he was now the second man in her life. Whereas before there had only been me, now there was also Chris. A man who she spent more than half her week with – either together romantically or at work.

No wonder I felt a crushing weight on my chest. I felt physically and mentally paralyzed. Like one of those animals in an abattoir, stunned by a huge voltage just before being sacrificed. That’s how I felt. Stunned and unable to think or move. Stunned by words that I may have suspected, but that now carried ten thousand times more voltage as they’d been said out loud. And said by Jill to Chris, at a time when she had no idea that I was listening.

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The immediate aftermath of those words led in two very different directions.

For Jill and Chris, it looked like a huge weight had been lifted. With Jill having confessed her feelings, they were soon locked in a passionate kiss that I could see would soon make way for love-making which promised to be more intimate and expressive than anything I’d ever seen between them before.

But for me, the afternoon developed very differently. Gemma took charge and gently dressed me and led me from the cottage in the way a carer would tend to a stunned and incapable geriatric. Rightly, she sensed that I needed some physical distance from Jill and Chris and what I’d heard. Not to mention also from what I’d have seen if I’d have stayed in the house.

Luckily the cottage was set in the grounds of a large house to which it had originally belonged, and we had the use of the grounds. Gemma led me down a series of wooded paths until we were well out of sight of the cottage. It was only then that she found an uprooted tree lying on its side that she decided we could sit on.

Gemma arranged us so we were both sitting astride the tree trunk so that she could look into my eyes as we had the conversation I knew she was about to start.

“Dave, baby. How are you feeling?”

I surprised myself by being able to talk. I think the walk and the distance Gemma had created had done their job.

“I feel shocked. Shocked, numb and totally stunned,” I told her.

Gemma held my hand and looked deep into my eyes, giving me a love and reassurance that I desperately needed at that moment. “I get that, Dave, baby. But the other thing you need to cling onto is what Jill said about how she feels about you before she told Chris how she feels about him. Do you remember, how she said that you’re the love of her life and that nothing with Chris will ever change that?”

I smile a queasy, weak smile back at Gemma. I did remember what Jill had said about how she loved me. But that didn’t change any of the sledgehammer blows she’d then delivered. Telling another, younger, better hung and more virile guy that she loved him. That she couldn’t imagine life without him. That she was in love with him. All feelings that he’d told Jill he shared.

And this was a guy whose presence spread throughout most parts of Jill’s work and private life. Together with him the best part of nine or ten hours every day at work. Together with him three evenings and nights a week. It was only the weekends and our two short date nights that I had my beloved all to myself.

Gemma must have seen the look of self-pity and fear, echoing again what she’d just said. “Remember, Jill said nothing about Chris is going to change how she feels about you. You’ll always be the love of her life. You and the kids.”

Whatever Gemma said, I was in a place where self-pity was likely to be my go-to reaction. Her mentioning of the kids just made me wonder if that was how Jill now saw me. The safe, kind father of her children. Not an exciting and virile man, the kind of man to be in love with and with whom she couldn’t imagine life without.

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Gemma and I stayed out there for easily a couple of hours talking. When Jill texted to see where I was, it was only Gemma who had the capability to reply. Sending a bland but not dishonest message that we had gone out for a walk, and that we’d be back later. Mentioning nothing about what we’d heard and therefore what we were really doing.

Slowly and patiently, Gemma managed to get me talking about my feelings and what I had and hadn’t believed before I’d heard those sledgehammer phrases Jill had told Chris.

I tried my best to avoid answering her, but Gemma gently forced me to admit that even before today deep down I suspected most of the things that Jill had told Chris today. She got me to see that although deep down I’d suspected them. I’d forced them to the back of my mind. As if my subconscious knew I was too weak to deal with these thoughts. With yet another part of my personality happy to conspire with my subconscious, so that the kinky enjoyment I got wouldn’t be stopped by the more sensible part of my brain.

Gemma was wise and persistent, getting my confused brain and heart to focus only on two simple truths. One, that Jill had told Chris that it was me, not him, who was the love of her life and that nothing would change that. And two, that nothing had actually changed in terms of Jill’s feelings for Chris. What had changed was that what I suspected was now something that I knew. Her feelings hadn’t changed – it was just that now I knew about them.

With these two simple but powerful messages gently repeated and drummed into me, Gemma slowly brought me back from the edge. From that place where I was struggling for breath, in freefall, fearing for the end of my love and marriage.

When Gemma was satisfied that I was back from the edge and in a safe enough place, she talked to me about the third thing. That when we went back to the cottage I needed to get some alone time to talk to Jill. I knew she was right. Having heard what I’d heard, I couldn’t let it fester. Not even for a few hours. But of course, it was the kind of conservation that I wasn’t looking forward to and that I would have liked to have avoided, given half a chance.

Gemma made me remain on our talking log while she walked a little distance away so that I could see her but I couldn’t hear what she was saying. She then made two calls, telling me when she returned that she’d spoken to Jill to explain what had happened and that she and I needed some space and privacy to talk. The second call was to Chris to tell him something similar so that he would make himself scarce for the next few hours.

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As I made that walk back to the cottage with Gemma, I felt like the guy walking to the hangman’s scaffold. Or the guy walking along death row to meet old sparky or get one of those lethal injections. There’s a fair chance that I might have bottled out if Gemma hadn’t been there to encourage and prompt me.

But Gemma stopped about twenty yards from the cottage and I walked the last yards alone, knowing that I’d find Jill alone in the bedroom that Gemma and I had chosen to share. (Gemma had suggested that using the other occupied bedroom or the pool area wouldn’t give our talk the best of starts.)

As I walked those few last steps, my legs didn’t seem to want to walk. It reminded me of the one time I was stupid enough to run a half-marathon, and for the last three miles, my legs were little more than useless stumps that didn’t want to move the rest of me.

The door to the bedroom was wide open, and I gingerly entered. Poking my head around the corner but not really knowing what to expect.

I couldn’t have hoped for things to go any better. Because the moment that Jill saw my head poking around the corner, she leaped up off the bed, hugged me like I was the last human on earth and burst into tears. As far as I could make out, her words a mixture of how sorry she was, how she loved me and always would and how I was the center of her life.

Jill’s physical actions and her sobbed and nearly comprehensible words were like a wonderfully soothing balm. And as the minutes passed I felt my confidence and optimism seeping back into my soul bit by bit. By the time that Jill had calmed down enough that we could have a proper conversation, I actually felt that I was likely the stronger and more in control of the two of us. It’s like all of my angst, fears and pain had been somehow transferred to Jill – who was beside herself at the pain and hurt she’d caused me.

I wasn’t happy that she felt like this, but I was glad that I was somehow feeling strong and confident myself. Because I knew that I’d need to be strong and confident for the conversation Jill and I needed to have.

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Jill and I sat cross-legged on the bed, facing each other and holding hands, and I sensed that I needed to be the one to start things.

“Jill, darling. We’ve got to be honest with each other about a number of things. Point one, we went into this thing together. There were plenty of times that you wanted to stop or slow things down, but oftentimes I’d push you forward. Not always, but we both share responsibility for how things have developed. Agreed?”

Jill had still been sniffling and crying a bit, but she blew her nose, dried her tears and managed a weak smile and a quiet ‘yes’ in response to my question.

Acknowledging her answer with a kiss and a smile, I continued. “And right back in December, I told you that it actually turned me on that you were close to Chris. So you can’t beat yourself up that over the last months you have carried on growing closer and closer to Chris. How could that be your fault, given what I’d told you before?

I saw color start to return to Jill’s cheeks as she took in my words. Not just hearing them, but also thinking about them and knowing that all that I was saying was true. I wasn’t just soft soaping her, I was telling her the facts as I saw them.

But I knew that these had been the easier bits. The bits that were easier for me to admit and for Jill to hear, as they made her feel better about herself. But what came next was the nub of the issue and the parts that we’d both find more difficult to face up and discuss.

Holding Jill’s hand tighter still, I kissed her again and looked deep into those damp hazel eyes. “Jill, honey. I need to hear you tell me now, right here and now, how you feel about Chris. I need you to tell me the things I heard you tell him earlier, and any other things that you want to get out on the table.”

I paused and then continued. “I know it will be hard for you to sit here with me and tell me these things to my face, honey. But just remember this, baby. You and me have overcome all kinds of difficulties and challenges over these last twenty-four years. Hell, we love each other with all our hearts and nothing’s going to change that. And we’ve raised three great kids with all the ups and downs that involves. So compared to all that, this is just a small bump in the road. Okay?”

“Okay,” my less frightened wife agreed, managing a three out of ten smile, this time.

On the spur of the moment, I decided to make a final gesture of love and generosity to make things easier for Jill. Knowing that if I said out loud the things I’d heard her say earlier, it would then make it easier for her to say the words to me herself.

Taking a deep breath I started. “Jill, from what you said earlier, I know that you love Chris. That after all your years with me as the only man in your life, you now have a second man in your life. Chris. And I know that you are in love with him, and that you couldn’t imagine life without him. But that I’m still the love of your life and that nothing with Chris will change that.”

I felt hugely better having got this over. It hadn’t been easy to say these things. But now it was Jill’s turn. She needed to come to the party and do her bit. “Jill, baby. I need to hear it from you now. I need you to sit here with me and be totally open and honest about how you feel about Chris. Back in December when we agreed for you to carry on seeing Chris, we promised each other we’d always have open and honest communication at the heart of everything.

I’d done everything I could, now it was Jill’s turn and she looked nervously at me, her normally happy face pale and anxious. And then she began, all of her thoughts and fears coming out in one long stream of consciousness.

“Dave, you know sometimes I get so confused and wish we’d never started this lifestyle. Things were so much simpler before. When it was just you and me. But now we’ve opened up our marriage to include other people… well… just look, things get so complicated so damned quickly.”

I sensed that Jill was just getting started, that this was just her preamble. Her cry for a simpler time before she got into the really meaty issues, her feelings for Chris and how it affected her and me.

She took both my hands between hers and squeezed hard, leaning in so our faces were even closer. “Dave, honey. No one’s ever going to replace you. You and me, that’s the life I chose to build all those years ago, and nothing’s ever going to change that. I love you and the kids more than you’ll ever know.”

I sensed there was a ‘but’ coming, and I wasn’t wrong. “But these last few months, I’ve grown really close to Chris. You know that. You and me have talked about how we’ve grown closer to Gemma and Chris many times. And you know Chris and I were pretty close to start with, as good friends working together all these years and then through all that stuff with Kate. But then being together on the road trip and becoming lovers for all that time. Well, you can imagine. We got really close. Developed feelings for each other. And then since then, together all the time at work. And spending all the time together during the week, three nights round at his place.”

Jill’s voice trailed off a little, and I knew we were at the bit that was the heart of it. The bit Jill found most difficult to discuss with me. “I’m so sorry, Dave, honey. But what you heard me tell Chris earlier is totally true. A big part of me wishes it wasn’t true, because things would be so much simpler. But what I said is true. I do love Chris, and he loves me.”

And there it was. Jill had finally found the courage and honesty to use the ‘L’ word when telling me how she felt about Chris. Repeating directly to my face what she’d told Chris just a few hours ago.

All of those conversations back home had skirted around the issue. I guess Jill had been scared to admit both to herself and to me that she now loved Chris. And I’d been too scared to find the courage to ask her, even though I suspected it.

But at least now that it was open and spoken of, Jill and I could start to deal with the consequence of her using the ‘L’ word to describe how she felt about Chris.

I was about to say something, when Jill held up a hand and continued. “Honey, I know it hurts you to hear it, but we have to get everything out. And it goes deeper, I told him that I’m in love with him.”

Maybe I should have left well alone, but I was the kid picking at the scab, even if it wasn’t good for me. I guessed it would be painful to hear, but I needed to hear it. So I dug and probed. “Honey, what do you mean ‘you’re in love with him’. How’s that different from just loving someone?”

No sooner than the words were out of my mouth then I wished I could swallow them back. As she heard my question, the look on Jill’s face told me her answer was going to be painful to hear. She paused awhile, choosing her words carefully.

“Loving someone, well that’s like the long-term condition. It’s what happens as love beds in for the long term. Being in love with someone, well that’s that heady feeling of exhilaration and infatuation when you first meet someone, realize how much you’re attracted to them and then it snowballs from there. With all of the excitement, infatuation and being unable to stop thinking about them.”

In all of her explanation, Jill had pointedly not mentioned Chris once. Being diplomatic enough to make it sound oh, so clinical and theoretical. Like some academic giving a lecture. But that stupid little boy in me continued to pick at the scab, picking away until the wound bled and really hurt.

“So, that’s the way you’re saying you feel about Chris,” playing Jill’s own words back to her, only with Chris added next to what she’d described. “You’re saying you can’t stop thinking about him. That you’re infatuated with Chris. That you feel exhilarated and excited whenever you’re together with him. That your feelings towards Chris are like this and are snowballing downhill.”

I don’t know what pushed me to say it so bluntly and directly. Not giving either Jill or myself anywhere to hide. Each little description I parroted back felt like a dagger through the heart, but I couldn’t stop myself. And it wasn’t just myself that I was hurting, because as she heard my words Jill started sobbing. At first just a few tears, but then a full-blown torrent. Bawling her eyes out, between sobs telling me how sorry she was, and that she never meant to fall in love with Chris like this.

All of my earlier good work was in tatters, as the two of us were soon bawling our eyes out like a pair of babies. We must have been like this for fifteen to twenty minutes until both us were all cried out. Maybe we both needed this, as some kind of cathartic purging for the different hurts and pains we were each feeling.

As we dried our tears and looked at each other, Jill was the first to speak. “I’m so sorry, darling. I never meant to fall in love with Chris. It kind of snuck up on me gradually. And I’m so sorry if it hurts you to know that, honey. But please know that whatever I may feel about him, you’re the love of my life and nothing to do with Chris is going to ever change that.”

For now, I was done picking at scabs. There was enough pain and blood without any more picking. So although Jill had talked about how she loved both me and Chris, her omission of not saying she was ‘in love’ with me was a gaping black hole hanging there in our discussions. But I didn’t want to call it out and discuss it. One scab too many.

Instead, because it was right, I apologized. “And Jill, honey, I’m sorry if I pushed you and us into some of these things. This whole thing with Chris, I have to take a big part of the blame.”

Jill didn’t gainsay me on this. Evidently, she did think that, like her, I needed to take some of the blame.

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Not long after this apology of mine, we’d gotten ourselves together enough to go out for a walk in the grounds of the big house. Gemma and Chris were nowhere to be seen, and Jill and I just ambled along various little tracks, hand-in-hand like young lovers. I think both relieved that we’d worked through the earlier tensions and problems.

Sometimes words just bubble out, a reflection of inner sub-conscious fears or thoughts. And that’s what happened about half-way through our stroll. Because without thinking it or planning it, I just found myself saying it. “Jill, promise me one thing. Promise me you’ll never leave me for Chris, or any other man.”

Jill immediately came to a stop and turned to look at me. I’d thought she might be angry, but her face showed nothing but love and understanding. She reached out to stroke my face. “I promise,” she said in a calm and serious voice. “I promise I’ll never leave you for Chris or any other guy.”

I looked deep into Jill’s eyes, and it might sound fanciful, but at that moment it felt like we were almost renewing our marriage vows, as so many couples do these days. It was almost as if Jill was saying that ‘I know we have a complicated marriage now, with other men sometimes involved, but I promise, honey, I’ll always come home to you.’ At least, that’s what it sounded like in my head as I looked into Jill’s beautiful and sincere face.

We carried on walking for a while. And although I’d not planned it, armed with Jill’s heartfelt promise that she’d never leave me for Chris or any other man, the world seemed a wildly different place. I felt liberated and confident to even joke with Jill about her infatuation with Chris. And we talked about her relationship with Chris in a way that was more open and honest than I think we’d ever managed before. As bit by bit, we both felt more comfortable to talk about all the different parts of what Jill felt for and about Chris.

About how she found his charisma and confidence almost magnetic and irresistible. About how she looked forward to every day at work, knowing they’d be together so much. Looking forward to all the little flirty moments and touches. Especially on the days when she’d spend the evening and night around at Chris’s place. Jill even confessed to something she’d never told me before – that she and Chris did indeed have a little secret cubby-hole deep in the bowels of the company HQ where they could go if they felt the need for a mid-day quickie.

I’d had mental pictures of Chris bending Jill over the desk and just taking her like that. But that was always just a cartoonesque fantasy. What she was describing sounded far more practical, and I wondered how many dozens of times they’d used it since they’d returned from their road trip.

As we carried on walking and talking, I think Jill was at her most frank and honest about the physical side of their relationship. She was at pains to preface what she said with how much she loved me and enjoyed our love-making. But then she went on to give me a pretty graphic description of the pleasure that the extra length and girth of Chris’s cock gave her so much extra pleasure. They’d often included this size thing in the teasing word games they sometimes played with me, but I think this was the fullest description Jill had yet shared with me about how she was loving Chris’s extra size. In fact, her descriptions were so detailed she even talked about how Chris’s erection also felt firmer and harder – something she put down to his younger age and the time he spent in the gym.

It might sound strange, but I enjoyed Jill sharing all of this with me. It felt good and reassuring that she was comfortable to share and not hide any aspect of their relationship. And of course, the growing masochist within me hadn’t gone away – he was lapping up all the details Jill was sharing.

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By the time we headed back, both Jill and I agreed that having weathered the storm, we felt that things were on a firmer footing than they’d been before today. Yes, it had been a stormy and difficult day. But things which might have jumped out from the undergrowth to bite us and hurt us were now out in the open. And this felt a huge step forward. I felt closer to Jill than I had at the start of the day. And armed with her promise that she’d never leave me, I kissed her and told her I didn’t see any reason why we shouldn’t resume the plans and sleeping arrangements that we set out to follow on our ten-day trip to the UK.

“Are you sure, honey?” she asked me, but I could see from her face what Jill wanted my answer to be. And I was happy to give her the answer she wanted, because feeling happier about things I wanted my strange pleasures as I’d originally planned them for the next ten days.

“Yes, I’m sure. I trust you, darling. And I know it’s what you want, and it’s what your strange husband wants as well, for reasons I can’t quite fathom.”

Jill laughed, stuck her tongue out and pulled a face at me.

This was the woman I’d fallen in love with all those years ago. The woman I expected to grow old with, with plenty of fun and games between now and then.

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When we got back to the cottage, there was no sign of Gemma or Chris, so we summoned them by text and told them all was now sorted out and okay. When Chris returned, I didn’t go overboard, but I did shake his hand and tell him that everything was fine and that I was okay with how Jill and he felt about each other. And that now that everything was out in the open, there was no need for either of them to walk around on eggshells to protect my feelings.

The girls decided to cook and Chris and I set off in pursuit of a few bottles of wine to help wash down the food. We decided to walk as the local shop wasn’t too far and we both fancied the fresh air. Chris took the opportunity to apologize, man-to-man, for how things had developed with Jill. Saying he’d never meant for things to develop like they had, but that he found Jill such a wonderful person that he’d failed to keep his own promises he’d made to himself at the start of their relationship. Apparently, he’d promised himself just to keep it fun and physical, as most of his workplace and other affairs had been. But the more time he spent with Jill, even though she was seven years his senior, he found himself falling for her in a big way.

Understandably, we had to halt the conversation while we were in the little shop buying six good bottles of wine. But as we walked back the conversation continued, with Chris asking me if I minded him asking about why I put up with and actually enjoyed the situation with Jill and him, and before that with Daryl and Rocco.

I think it was a sign of the changing situation and my own acceptance of my strange kink that I didn’t feel embarrassed talking to Chris about it. Before today I’m pretty sure I’d have been too embarrassed to talk to another guy about it. But the lows and highs of today had moved things on and made me more confident of the situation and also more accepting of my own voyeuristic desires.

I explained it to him as best I could. That I loved the idea of Jill getting as much pleasure as was possible as I loved her so much, and if this meant her being with other more handsome or better-hung guys, then I was fine with that provided I knew she’d always come home to me at the end of the day.

Chris gave me a look as if he sort of half-understood, and by now I was so relaxed about things that I pushed it a bit further so that he’d fully understand. Smiling at him I tried my best. “Look, Chris. I know that Jill loves me and always will. But I’m not blind or stupid. I’ve always known that she’s out of my league in terms of looks. And I know that guys like you might have bigger cocks or be more handsome or younger and more virile. I’m okay for her to have all of that, provided I don’t lose her.”

And then I nailed the last nail in and he finally got it. “Look, guys like watching sex, right. That’s how we’re hard-wired. Well, what could be hotter than watching your own wife with a hot guy, provided you’re not worried that you’re about to lose her. In a weird way, it like you’re very own personal porn show – with the added thrill that the pornstar’s the woman who you’re closest to.”

Chris grinned. It might not have been his thing. But at least he got it now.

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As the food and, more particularly, the wine went down, all four of us relaxed. It was as if all the day’s earlier dramas had never occurred. At first, after what had happened earlier, Chris was still a little standoffish with Jill. But as we opened the third bottle of wine and settled in for the evening, I came back from a toilet stop to see that Jill had moved across and was now sitting on Chris’s lap.

Just to leave them in no doubt as to my feelings, I jokingly teased them so they’d have no doubts that I meant what I’d said about being okay with them carrying on as before.

“Well, I wondered how long it would take Romeo and Juliet to resume their normal state of affairs,” I joked, raising my glass to prompt a toast. Four glasses raised. “Here’s to young love. Or not so young love.”

Jill and Chris looked at each other, and then across at me as we all laughed.

As the wine carried on flowing, Jill and Chris made themselves more and more comfortable. Chris’s hands disappearing under Jill’s sweater, while his other hand was often underneath her skirt as she continued to sit on her boyfriend’s lap. Not that I could throw stones, as Gemma was happily squirming around on my lap.

We decided to play cards, chatting away about all sorts of things as we played for small stakes. Gemma has always had a wicked sense of humor, one of the things I really like about her, and as we played she spoke to me as if Jill and Chris weren’t even in the room.

“Tell me, Dave, honey. What do you make to that young couple we saw earlier? Don’t you think they made such a handsome, attractive couple together? And, you know, I don’t know if I was imagining it, but they looked so in love. Do you remember what it felt like, to be so young and so in love?”

Jill blushed at Gemma’s wicked teasing. But Chris had returned to his normal confident and competitive mode. Slipping a second hand underneath Jill’s tight sweater, so his strong arms possessively enveloped her midriff. And looking across at Gemma with a grin and a challenge, he shot straight back. “Well, who wouldn’t be in love with a lady as wonderful as this lady. Beautiful, smart, kind, with a great sense of humor.”

We were all laughing now, enjoying the joke, but Chris had saved his punch line. “What’s not to like. And if that’s not enough for any guy, she’s also an amazing fuck.”

Three of the four of us burst out laughing. One of us was busy punching her beau in the ribs, but her face betrayed her, I could see Jill actually enjoyed the compliment.

When the laughter had died down, a serious look suddenly came over Chris’s face. He raised his glass and when all four glasses were charged, he led the toast. “To all four of us. To friendship and love.”

With the toast over, Chris carried on talking. Talking to all of us. “Look, I just want to say that I know that this has been a difficult day or all of us. But I’m really glad that things turned out good in the end. And I just wanted to say to you Dave, a big thank you for your friendship and your generosity in letting Jill and me have the kind of relationship we have. And I wanted to say in public, how much I love Jill. And how I am so lucky to have her in my life.”

From his face and tone of voice, I knew Chris genuinely meant everything that he’d just said. There was no intention to humiliate or cause trouble. Rather I took it as an attempt to get out in the open what had caused so much trouble earlier today. So that there’d be no awkwardness between any of us.

In a sense, Chris doing this didn’t surprise me. He was a confident guy, a natural leader who’s used to making bold gestures and telling people what he thinks and wants. But what happened next did surprise me. Because Jill turned her head which had been facing away from Chris, and gave him a full-throated kiss, before pulling her head and declaring in a voice we could all hear, “And I want to say publicly that while I love my husband, I also love this man here.” Planting a kiss on Chris’s lips, in case anyone was in any doubt as to who she meant.

There was silence for a moment, as Jill just continued to sit on Chris’s lap as the two of them gazed into each other’s eyes.

True to form, it was Gemma who broke the silence, looking at the lovebirds and quipping, “Come on you two, get a room.”

After the laughter died down, Chris whispered something in Jill’s ear. At first, she looked startled, but after thinking for a moment she nodded her head ever so slightly. Then she reached down to grip the bottom of her sweater and pulled it up over her head and off, revealing her full and naked breasts. I could have sworn she had a bra on earlier, but evidently she’d removed it earlier to give Chris free access to her boobs.

Chris’s hands lost no time in cupping and stimulating Jill’s big boobs, and their mouths were soon locked together in a passionate kiss as if no-one else in the room mattered to them apart from each other.

Then as suddenly as it all had started, it came to a halt as Chris stood up, picking Jill up as he rose. Carrying Jill in his arms he looked across at Gemma and me. “Things have moved forward in a big way today. Jill and me no longer have to hide how we feel about each other. And it seems a fitting way to cement this new openness if you two, Dave and Gemma, come through into our bedroom and join us to watch Jill and me make love. Make love properly for the first time, able to fully express ourselves and how we feel, without worrying about having to upset or hurt feelings.

Again, just like earlier, this was said in a way that I think was totally genuine. And it sounded totally logical and sensible as well. As all was now in the open, why shouldn’t Gemma and I join them to watch them make love? After all, everyone there knew this was a big thing for me. And after all that had happened today, it felt positively cathartic and therapeutic that the three people involved in this little love triangle should end the day making sure that everything was indeed truly out in the open and on display.

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Gemma and I followed a few steps behind Chris as he carried my very contended looking wife into the bedroom that they would share for the next ten days. There was little time lost in preliminaries, as Chris gently lay Jill on the big bed and took up position between her splayed thighs.

Seeing the way Jill looked up at Chris, there was definitely something different compared to all the other times I’d watched them make love. This time there was a naturalness and freedom about them, now finally able to fully express how they felt about each other. The true depth of their feelings for each other.

This much was clear to me from the look of utter contentment and fulfillment that appeared on Jill’s face as Chris sank all of his big cock deep into Jill’s pussy. And for the first time ever, as he hit bottom, Jill responded with a passionate kiss and the simple, almost whispered statement, “I love you, baby.”

“I love you, too, Jill.”

They didn’t bother to look over at me as they said this. They didn’t need to look at me either for approval or to make some kind of statement. They were saying it to each other, for the first time able to do this and finally free of the last safety catch in their love-making. Allowing the emotional side to finally expand to fully reflect their true feelings for each other.

I have to admit, as I watched them making love in such a loving and tender way, I wondered whether or not in the coming months Jill would be able to keep her promise to me. That she’d never leave me for Chris or any other guy like him.

Watching the two of them make love, I didn’t doubt the sincerity of Jill’s promise. I knew she loved me with all her heart and I knew she absolutely meant to keep that promise. But life is a funny thing. Emotions and sex are powerful forces in people’s hearts and minds. And many people who, at first are happy to have one or two spoons of sugar, are greedy for the whole bowl by the end of the meal.

(Thanks to cbears52 for his careful and rapid editing.)