Jessica checked the time on her Breitling wrist watch. It was just a few moments before her husband Nathan would come home with their daughters Emily and Katie. It was his turn to pick them from school – and Jessica's to fix dinner.

She sighed, taking a short break from her otherwise rather turbulent day. Were it a day like any other, she would have found fulfilling her share of chores relaxing, recreating even. This day, nonetheless, her daily routine seemed to cause her trouble. Or was it her mind that seemed unsuccessfully seeking to dredge up memories and fantasies long forgotten; memories of deepest desire for a forbidden passion? Her mind appeared to insist on digging out these banned feelings out of nowhere. They had once led her to the brink of betraying her loving and caring husband. Was it a secret anticipation?

She wondered where this tingling she felt in her loins originated from, for long had it been since the last time both her body and mind had been willing to indulge in the pleasures of carnal consumption; so long, even, that she had almost forgotten what this growing heat between her leg meant. Ever since she had given birth to her second child, the mother of two had lost her interest in sex.

She knew herself to benefit from the rare occasion of being married to a more than indulgent as well as understanding husband. Nathan understood how to hide his secret frustration from being denied the quenching of his ever unaltered lust and craving for his wife He was all too aware of the female hormonal changes that sooner or later come with repeated child birth, and the poor impression he would make on his spouse were he a man desperately begging for sex.

She could not deny having reached that one point in her life where she had achieved everything she had ever dreamed of: a healthy family, a freehold house and a financial backup abundant enough to provide a decent if not ample retirement provision. Yet, as it so often is with long-anticipated dreams coming true, once fulfilled, a great blankness had taken over her heart where there used to be eager foresight. To that came the undeniable effects of the physiological aging process that made her question her age and beauty in unhealthy ways. Despite Nathan's greatest efforts in making her believe in herself again – alas! – she had found her corner in the dark shadows of her midlife crisis.

Still, Jessica knew deep inside her – sensed the very feeling of it – a beast was to awake in given time. A beast once teased years before; a beast untamed and ferocious beyond the vows that bound husband and wife together in the tightest of bonds and were supposed to lead their way into happiness and bliss until death may part them.

Not yet aware of the nature of her torment, nor of the forsaken and unfulfilled fantasies it stirred, she discarded her thoughts as Nathan, Emily and Katie entered the family's abode.

Through the entire dinner, Jessica seemed strikingly silent. She usually was the more talkative member of the family, constantly asking her daughters to tell her about their latest achievements in school or about miscellaneous news as any mother would.

The obvious discomfort of his wife did not pass unnoticed with Nathan.

Not sure of how to broach the subject, he began speaking of his exciting news, hoping sharing his joy might lift her mood: “You'll never guess who I had lunch with today, hun.”

To Jessica's slow shaking of her head, he added: “With Michael. It's been ages since we've as much as talked to each other. Do you even remember him?”

What a question, she thought to herself. How could she possibly forget about the one man that had shaken the very fundamentals of her relationship with Nathan? That one almost-fling that had so challenged her fidelity towards her by that time soon-to-be husband surged from the depths of her memories, filling her mind without gap. She had barely heard Nathan pronounce that one fateful name when she saw herself lost in nostalgic memories that were not supposed to see the light of day ever again. Too great was the danger of losing herself in fantasies about resuming failed, yet unforgivable actions.

Little did any of the two loving spouses know what kind of ball had been set rolling by just the mere mentioning of Michael's forename.

Jessica lost herself in the memory of the accident that had so challenged her morals. It had been fifteen years since the incident that had brought her and Nathan's former roommate to question the nature of their friendly relationship.

*****

Back in those days, when Nathan and Michael shared a common home, Jessica was all but unaware of the mutual attraction Michael and herself shared and of the jeopardy that came with his mere presence; the danger to commit the ultimate act of treason on her husband to be. What a thrilling adventure she fantasized about! Yet, one day as Nathan was absent, she dared to take a shower in his bathroom and not to lock the door out of the secret wish his roommate might walk in on her.

She was not entirely surprised when the door handle was pushed down and the door flung open the exact moment she was ridding herself of her last garments. As Michael stepped into the bathroom, it was evident the inevitable would happen eventually. Not on that day, though, as neither of them was daring to overstep the thin boundaries between cuddling and petting – not to mention actual sex – during their elusive moment of weakness.

After their slip, they kept dropping unambiguous hints Nathan appeared too oblivious to grasp or even take note of: Jessica would flash her breasts or flaunt her sexy underwear to Michael and he would lick his fingers or play with his lower lip, nibble on it and lick it in response to her teasing.

*****

Fifteen years seemed rushing by as Jessica snapped back to reality and tried her best at not losing herself again in these dark reminiscences or the feelings that surged with them. These sensations merely fueled the extinguished fire of lust and salaciousness and set the ball rolling for her mind to be set on the fulfillment of these aged fantasies.

The frustration of a sexual desire left unquenched – no matter how old the memory of it – slowly started to consume her from deep within. Unnoticeably, it preyed on her inner peace and her matrimonial truth. She had reached an age where mothers, despite their lost interest in sex, begin to wonder if seducing complete strangers still is part of their repertoire of social interactions . This growing obsession only did its part in feeding the beast that grew in her head and aroused feelings thought forsaken in her belly. The idea of challenging herself to lure a man to devour her felt appealing and rejuvenating, and the more her mind tinkered with that thought , the more she was willing to give it a shot.

Once she was determined to give in to the hunger of this beast, she mustered all her courage to grab her cellphone. She carefully chose her words, re-read the text four times, worried the recipient might read her intentions between the lines too easily, chose a name from her contacts that had served as a filler for too long, and hesitantly pressed send.

She dreaded the answer, didn't know how he would react, hoped the message would get lost in the depths of virtual communication networks even. She winced as her phone vibrated and prompted the unread message alert not even five minutes later. She feared to read the response, regretted having texted Michael in the first place.

With her heart pounding up her throat she closed her eyes, pressed the read button, and opened her eyes again to read the message:

Wow, Jess!

It's been like forever. Lunch sounds fine for me. Bet there's a lot to catch up to, so count on a lengthy lunch break ;)

Michael

Her heart sank . This was getting real. Her plan was about to be actually put into action.

A few days later, the eagerly anticipated event came to happen, and she was sitting face to face with the very reason for her recent inner turmoil, the one person that had brought her to the edge of cheating on her boyfriend, and now husband, fifteen years priorly: Michael. She found it hard to focus on the moment and to keep her mind determined to execute her plan, for her thoughts kept regressing to a fateful event so far in the past although already having run and re-run through it thousands of times seemingly. She wore, in fact, a awkward, goony grin while discussing with him over their lunch.

After exchanging a few formalities between old friends, Michael chimed in before Jessica had gathered her thoughts on how or when to take the bull by the horns: “Okay, so now, joking and prevarications aside, what's the real reason you asked me to come for lunch?”

His question threw Jessica off her guard. She hadn't expected him to find out about her true intentions so easily, yet still she didn't dare to answer, as she hoped for the off-chance that Michael was just playing with her. The odds of that being the case were, note well, rather vanishingly slim considered the past the two of them shared . Or was he...?

Jessica soon found the little hope she was clinging to to fade when Michael broke the awkward silence and resumed his verbal teasing: “Nathan's probably told you everything already, so why would you want to see me without him?”

He seemingly paused again to let his words sink in and observe the effect they were slowly taking.

Jessica stopped chewing on the chunk of her medium rare rib-eye steak she had in her mouth and forced it down her throat, hoping it would take along the huge lump she had stuck in there on its way. Her eyes were widened in disbelief of Michael's words. She knew this was not Michael's way of handling people, however. She knew he too was intimidated by the all too obvious nature of their meeting and of the story the both of them shared, but seemed more determined than her to get it off his chest.

He once more, this time rather shakily nevertheless, raised his voice while Jessica was still struggling to sort out her thoughts: “You're not gonna tell me it's just for our friendship's sake, are you? I know you too well for that. It's rather for our... isn't it?”

Being cornered, Jessica stood up and tried to escape her distressing situation: “I should have known better than to ask you for lunch.”

“Okay, this is not how I hoped our meeting would turn. Look, Jess, It's been ages and we've never talked about the incident, and it's about time we did,” said Michael backing off before pausing and then continue speaking once his old friend had sat down again, “I know we shouldn't have done this, but it's helped me a lot, you know. I would've never gotten the wonderful wife I had. It made me more confident and helped me overcome my more than crippling social anxieties. We perhaps shouldn't have had our little accident, but that doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't right. It wasn't all that wrong after all.”

Jessica drew a deep breath as she realized the situation had not escalated into a fight, and spoke: “It is true. It helped you blooming and become more outgoing. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little proud of myself for having helped you. I was really happy for you when you found Christina. She was so understanding and in love with all your attributes.”

She paused, let another deep breath fill her lungs, balancing if Michael should hear her next confession, let alone if she was ready to share it with him, but she did so anyway: “I have to admit that – happy as I was for you to see you with Christina – I was a bit jealous of her, and a bit sad as well. Seeing you so in love with her showed me we'd probably never end what we started with our little incident. A part of me still wanted not just to have a lick at, but also to devour the forbidden fruit, I guess.”

Michael smiled warmly and replied: “You're not the only jealous one, you know. On your wedding day, I felt the same. You were with Nathan and I knew I couldn't stand a chance against him. Not after you'd be married to him anyway. You were his. That was before I met Christina. With her everything changed. We were a perfect couple, like made for each other. And that, again, was before she passed away two years ago.”

“I remember the funeral. You were in such a miserable shape I so desperately wanted to cheer you up, but couldn't find the words,” Jessica said, pausing to have a sip of her water, then resuming, “the only thing that my mind came up with was screwing your brains out to distract you from the cruel reality of your lost wife.”

Michael grinned boyishly in reaction to her words until it became a soft, yet melancholic smile that accompanied his words: “Oh you! And you used to call me silly? To be honest, though, I so wished to get laid that day. Not because I was single again, no, I just wanted to get my mind off Christina's death and all, just like you said. I just wanted you to come over and cheer me up a bit, but I knew this would never happen, for obvious reasons.”

A silence set in; a growingly uncomfortable silence. Both were discomforted by their respective confessions and intimidated by their interlocutor. Put at unease and not sure of how to evade the momentary awkwardness, their eyes sought for something to hold on to, but kept on meeting on their unsuccessful quest for an escape of this tense situation.

Although quiet throughout the second, endlessly long part of their lunch – considered the thick silence – a nonverbal communication was established between the two of them. It ran under the table and mainly involved legs touching in suggestive ways, not allowing any doubt about their ulterior motives, for their true intentions were as plain as day.

It was Jessica who broke the silence after they had payed their meals.

She spoke between her deep, laborious breaths: “I know this should require some more planning, but it is as good as set up already. I'll be free on Friday night next week. The kids will be at their grandparents' and I'll tell Nathan I'm having a ladies' night with Carol. She'll cover up for me. She owes me for the many times I covered up for her. We can go to the hotel she usually goes. Discreet place. I've been playing with that thought for a while now, you know? Having a fling. I just want to know if I'm still any good.”

Surprised at first, but starting to laugh soon after, Michael replied: “Wow, I didn't expect this to be so easy, really. I had no idea you had actual doubts in your female charms. Don't worry about your looks. You're still as pretty as you were back then, trust me. If you could see the way these youngsters look at you.”

His words made Jessica blush like she had not in over ten years. Michael knew how to awake the perky teenage girl she had locked eternities ago deep within her from her profound slumber.

Unexpectedly, other long forsaken sensations awoke with her younger self, for she felt the familiar warmth growing in her loins that came with thoughts of Michael and the memories of their mutual incident in particular.

Deliberately aware of the impact his actions had on the wife of his best friend, Michael pecked Jessica on her cheek so closely to the corners of her mouth that she was struggling the urge to tilt her face just enough to turn his shy but intentionally daring kiss into a sensual, hungry devouring of his lips.

*****

Jessica adjusted her dark turquoise evening gown in front of her full-length mirror. Pleased to find it still fitted her perfectly and hugged her curves in the most seductive way, she put on a quick show for herself. The unobtrusive pearl necklace she wore, a gift from Nathan for their tenth anniversary, had a silver pendant in the middle that hung directly over her revealing cleavage. Although not being overly obnoxious, the jewels allured suggestive looks and were not designed to be worn without showing decent décolleté. Yet the combination was far from being vulgar; it was more a proof of Nathan's taste in jewelry.

Luckily the latter was too busy reading his newspaper to notice his wife posing, for she would have had to reject his unaltered desire for her once again if he did, she thought. She knew he would not get suspicious from the way she dressed as she would always dare to teach the younger girls a better lesson in fashion on a night out with Carol.

The wife in the climax of her blooming midlife crisis winced in shock as her husband unexpectedly hugged her from behind and planted a kiss on her cheek before whispering into her ear: “ Look at you. Thirteen years of wedlock, two kids and you're still a knockout. If I didn't know any better I'd be suspecting you were cheating on me dressed up like that.”

With her voice a tad shaky from the abrupt revelation of her true intentions, yet trying to cover her tension with a playful voice, Jessica replied: “Oh silly you! I'm just going out with Carol. You know that.”

If only he knew with which underwear she was about to cross the boundaries of adultery – her most treasured fantasy – with her husband's best friend, she added in her thoughts.

Nathan laughed as she tried to playfully slap him. He caught her wrist in mid-air and pulled her close as if to dance with her. Surprised by the vigor of his pull, Jessica shrieked but let him spin her around and pull her close once again to kiss her.

“Too bad you're going out tonight,” he huskily whispered into her ear, his voice dripping with wanton lust from seeing the beauty of his ever-blooming wife, “I would have suggested something else for tonight, now that the kids are not around.”

He paused to feel the translucent hair on the skin of her neck push against his lips from the goosebumps his breath gave her, before resuming: “I would love to take you out for dinner tonight. To this Italian place near my office you've always wanted to go maybe. I heard their vitello tonnato and their brasato are out of this world and pair well with a Barolo Brunate. We'd have a glass of that favorite wine of yours too many. Hail a cab home, and see where this night might lead the two of us?”

Jessica did her best to refrain from bursting out in laughter, for Nathan's suggestion was closely similar to his wife's actual secret intentions. She needed to admit, nevertheless, his suggestion sounded very tempting and his obvious ulterior motives appeared to flick the switch this time. Unconsciously, she pressed her thighs together causing her black thong to dig into the slit between her labia and absorb the first droplets that testified from her rising urge to have her channel filled with what she knew only Nathan could give her.

Lost in her luscious thoughts, she ground her hips against Nathan's loins where she could feel growing the erection she so craved for, but was distracted from her actions before the both of them went any step further. It was the sudden familiar honk of the horn of Carol's car that brought them back to reality and – Jessica in particular – to her real intentions. Getting picked up by Carol belonged to the plan.

“Please, Nathan, you're ruining my dress. This evening was planned a while ago, I can't bail out now. She's waiting for me,” she said with a tone that failed to mask her desire to get laid by him then and there.

She bit her lower lip, and added: “I'll ask my parents when they're having the kids over the next time, okay? You know they love having them. We'll stick to your plan. It sounds lovely. Especially the part after the taxi ride.”

The flirtatious timbre in her voice and her playful grope on his manhood caught Nathan off guard. That was some prospect he hadn't had in a while. In spite of this, he decided fit to let his wife go, for he too had elaborated secret plans for this evening, which will, however, not be revealed at this moment.

Because of Jessica's inner tension, she was not particularly talkative during the car ride with Carol. The latter drove the car to a parking lot near her own place to hand the keys to Jessica and wish her good luck. As the more experienced in cheating of the two she reassured her obviously nervous and insecure friend with well-chosen words and gave her the best tricks in the off-case that Nathan ever got suspicious.

Jessica took the wheel and took a moment to calm down before driving to pick up Michael.

As she drove down his street, Michael was standing sidewalk, waiting for her as they had agreed. Jessica was expecting Michael to be well dressed, but never had she anticipated to find him wearing a suit that matched her select wardrobe so well. Every piece of clothing was chosen to underline the quality of his taste in fashion. The eye-catching white lilies in his hands were a perfect fit with his light gray jacket. Beneath it, he wore a crimson shirt that combined so well with her dark turquoise dress. Jessica even found his three-day beard he had grown just for this very occasion, seemingly, very attractive, despite her general disgust towards facial hair on any other occasion.

He sat on the passenger seat and greeted his old friend with a formal peck on the cheek. When handed the beautiful flowers, Jessica closed her eyes and deeply inhaled their scent.

“They're magnificent, Michael,” she commented on them, then added, “you remembered my favorite flowers. How thoughtful of you.”

Michael relieved her of the flowers again so she could drive to the Italian restaurant she had always wanted to try and Nathan had suggested just a while earlier that night.

They had a delicious dinner comprising reinterpretations of the entire palette of typical Italian dishes and hors d'oeuvres paired with an exquisitely chosen selection of wines that attested for the sommelier's knowledge about oenology as well as his palate. Their meal was accompanied by animated discussions and exchange of episodes of their respective lives. They laughed and cheered and let their legs touch implicatory ways, suggestive for their intentions on how the further course of this evening was to unfold.

Once arrived at the end of their dinner, they kindly asked the waiter if they were allowed to leave the car on the restaurant's parking lot over night, for their wine consumption had surpassed the point of legal driving. As the restaurant was a place renown for its high standards and etiquette, they even got offered to have a cab hailed for them, which they thankfully declined since the evening was too nice not to walk these few hundred yards to the hotel where they had decided to spend the night in.

A few steps before entering the hotel's lobby, Jessica turned around and stated: “It's only now that I'm standing here that I notice the hotel's vis-à-vis to Hubby's office. Look.”

She pointed to a distinct row of wide windows on said office building. A few lights scattered here and there over the façade suggested some people were having night shifts in their offices. Most of them – among which Nathan's office – were dark, however. She chuckled slightly from the foolish idea her husband might see her from his office, then discarded the thought since she remembered him to be home alone – or probably out grabbing a beer or two with a few old friends he didn't get to see very often anymore. If only he knew what she was up to.

Michael and Jessica got the affirmation from the receptionist that everything had been set and prepared for their arrival as they had ordered. The hotel Carol had recommended appeared to live up to its name. To their delight, the two soon-to-be unfaithful lovers found a room pleasantly scented with coconut and vanilla, an empty vase on the bedside table for the bouquet of lilies in Jessica's hand and a king-sized bed with crimson satin sheets and a selection of fruit-flavored condoms scattered over the pillow in the shape of a heart . The thin, white, tastefully ornate curtains were drawn to prevent voyeuristic eyes from spying on the act of adultery that was about to be committed, although they looked as if they were too far transparent to fulfill their duty.

Jessica showered first in order to be able to prepare what she had up her sleeve to turn her darkest fantasy to perfection while Michael took his turn under the hot water. The latter came out of the bathroom wrapped in the hotel's stylish bathrobe to find his best friend's wife lying on the bed, waiting for him in a lascivious pose that underlined her eager anticipation to cheat on her spouse. The black laced thong she had chosen to match with the thin bra that did only little to hide her erect nipples to the viewer's eyes made Michael's mouth water. What really took his breath, however, was the garter belt that was attached to her stockings and emphasized the curve of her hips all the more. With his heart pounding, he halted to drink in the sight of the luscious dish he was about to devour.

Jessica got up from the bed and slowly walked the few steps towards Michael who was standing in the doorway, mouth agape. Doing so, she made sure to generously sway her ample hips seductively to appeal to his most basic instincts. Delighted from seeing the tent his bathrobe formed right where she suspected his erect manhood to be, she slipped her hand inside the thick, heavy fabric of his sole garment and gave his scrotum a firm squeeze of sexual affection. Her touch released him from his paralysis of excitement. Not expecting such a brusque reaction, Jessica yelped as Michael tugged her to plant a first kiss on her lips. She let it happen, and soon their kiss turned into tongues dancing and bodies pressing against each other all the while she was stroking his cock.

Encouraged by his moans growing louder Jessica stroked Michael with a tighter grip until she surprisingly soon felt the first weak spasm in her narrow grip, the telltale sign of an impending male orgasm, and let go off his erection. Astonished from finding her beau to fail to show decent stamina, she decided this stemmed from his lack of sexual encounters since his wife had passed away. Should he indeed come to his climax prematurely, there was still hope he would recover while pleasing her in return and even benefit from a greater stamina in his second try, she thought.

She lowered herself to her knees and picked the strawberry flavored condom she had pinched to her hips with the waistband of her thong, and tore the foil open. She placed it on Michael's very tip, gently rolled it down an inch before taking his head between her lips to unwrap it down the length of his shaft.

Halfway through the process, Michael winced and asked Jessica not to move any further, or else he would blow his load right there. He told her to wait a moment, and to keep her lips locked to his cock until the moment passed. This disturbed her greatly since she had hoped for a proper fuck, but again assigned his apparent failure to prove endurance to his sexual inactivity over a longer time period.

Once the condom was completely rolled out, Michael let the bathrobe glide from his shoulders to expose his masculine body he still kept in exemplary shape. He lifted Jessica and gently lay her on the bed where she immediately spread her legs and slid her thong aside to show him her lewd wetness. Drenched for her lust for release of her long-restrained desire, ropes of clear vaginal lubricant hung between its source and her thong.

As Michael let his tongue trace the outlines of her swollen labia and eventually dipped it between her soaked folds, Jessica was painfully reminded of her aversion towards beards. The thick and hard stubble irritated her sensitive pink skin more than Michael's ministrations on her clitoris brought her pleasure; not that he was especially good at giving a woman oral pleasure anyway – quite the contrary so Jessica had to realize, for he kept missing her clitoris quite too clumsily for his touches to be deliberate teasing.

Hoping at least the actual sex might deliver the pleasure Jessica longed for, she convinced him to penetrate her despite his previous failure to prove reasonable endurance. Persuading him to insert his erect penis into her cost her a suspiciously big effort and elaborate salesmanship; to the point, even, she started asking herself if Michael was really enjoying bedding his best friend's wife.

The answers to her questions came with Michael's pelvic spasms accompanying his orgasm after merely half a dozen thrusts inside Jessica's pussy. Him screaming the name of his deceased wife into the otherwise silent room only added to Jessica's confusion and all her hopes to reanimate her lover's visibly sated lust crumbled the moment he curled up beside her and completely vanished as he started snoring.

Jessica swallowed as she felt a deep disappointment, not just the mere frustration of a sexually more than unfulfilling fling, grow in her heart. She had jeopardized her family and especially her relationship between her and her loving husband for an unsatisfying adventure and the fulfillment of a foolish fantasy after having denied him intimacy for seemingly selfish reasons. The sudden realization of the gravity of her mistake made a suffocatingly large lump grow in her throat and tears run down her cheeks as she started futilely crying for forgiveness.

The consequences of her actions ran a lot deeper than she was realizing in that moment. Little did she know her unsatisfactory fling with her husband's best friend had been witnessed from one particular office in the building vis-à-vis. Although thin and practically transparent, the drapes didn't transmit enough light to allow the dim glow of Nathan's cigarette to pass through them. He was standing at the window of his office, his eyes transfixed to the window of one specific room of the hotel on the opposite side of the street.

To be continued...